Bloud which in this ar commemorated By the Rest we serv God By this we honor the Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus to whose Mediating suffering person this service is adaequately Proper All our founders as they have provided us Maintenance so have they such Statutes as they thoght most conductive to the enjoyment of their bounty and the service of God's Church And som of them have left us particular ones for commemoration of their own Persons Those we own our selves obliged to Obey but these to Embrace and ar ready to pronounce That man Unworthy the Benefit who should contemn the Person in such commemorative Statutes of the Benefactor This is the Sole Law of the later kind In the rest he speaketh as a Master a Shepherd a Lawgiver instructeth us in our duty to God our Neighbour and our Selvs Every one pointeth some Other way This Only pointeth to his Own body and saith Do this for My sake Do it in remembrance of Me of My Body My Bloud My Death The Death which I was willing to suffer for your sakes you cannot sure think unworthy to be remembered for Mine WHATEVER influence this may have upon Others one would think it could not fail to reach Those who 's whole Religion is employed in amoros passions toward our Lords Person no way so much or so distinctly concerned as in This duty To cloath our selves with His righteousness to lay hold upon him by Faith to be married to him by assurance to say None but Christ None but Christ He is Mine and I am His c. These and the like amorevolezzas cannot sit but with an ill grace upon such as neglect This office which himself hath appointed as the Onely one whereby we celebrate our Love to his Person as a Man and after the manner of Men Visibly and Solenly III. 2. THIS Sacrament hath not onely the Superscription of our Lord but the Image too Absalon built himself a Pillar for the same reason as our Lord instituted This Sacrament That wore Absalons Name but not his Likeness Lots wife became a Pillar of Salt i. e. an everlasting monument of Gods judgments We may for oght I know innocently believ as many do that she was turned to a Statu of Salt which in som sens might be called her Body thogh it reteined nothing of it but the Dimensions But This Sacrament is more than either Monument or Image It representeth not only his Body but his Soul not only his Death but his Benefits nor doth it onely Represent but Exhibit them All. Suppose we now it wer no more but a lifeless Statu Erected for no other end but merely to commemorate his Person The lowest Consequence of this lowest Supposition must be This that all the Honor or Contemt we shew it must pass on and reach his Person Bicause the Persons of the Caesars wer sacred therefor wer their Statues so too not onely Secure from violence but Securities to such as fled to them from it and on the contrary those who maliced the Persons shewed it to the Images either by casting dirt upon them or if they could by casting them down to the dirt Whoever prophaneth this Sacrament as the Corinthians did defileth our Lords Statu with dirt whoever wilfully neglecteth it giveth it a pull toward casting it to the ground To forget a Commemorative or Hide a Representative is no better than casting down a Statu who 's whole worth consisteth in it's Visibility Nor can it ever be more considerable than now that the affront to the Person riseth in equality with the Liveliness of the Statu and the Care and Cost imployed in setting it up When ever we see a piece exactly artificial we conclude both the skill and care of the Artist suitably great A great Artist gave This for the reason of his industry in Painting I paint said he for Eternity This is to shew fotrh our Lords death till he com and he was careful it's Perfection should be suitabl to it's Office and Duration What is it dear Soul what is it that thou wouldest contemplate in thy beloved His Passion Behold how the Bread is broken and the Wine poured out His Benefits Behold Bread that strengthens and Wine that chears the heart Wouldest thou melt in compassion Behold he suffereth for thee Wouldest thou be ravished with Joy and Thankfulness Behold he Feasts thee ctc. So Many and so Contrary motions and aspects All so lively represented proclame the Author to have imployed as great Care as Art and as great Affection as either in making a Piece so many ways Perfect IV. BESIDE these Intrinsecal endearments ariseing from the Beauty and Design of the Law it self we may observ our Lords care to honour it with the most advantageos Circumstances Our Apostl is very careful to mind us that it was the same night in which he was betrayed and good reason had he so to remark this Season since our Lord himself expressed a wonderful Esteem for it With a Desire said he have I desired to eat This Passover with you before I suffer And why such longing for This above All other Passovers Even bicause it came just before he suffered 1. It was the last night of his life And 2. The night wherein he was betrayed and foreknew he should be so and consequently as it was the Last so the Bitterest of his life 1. It was the Last Other Passovers Prefigured his death This both Prefigured and Accompanied it Had he do'n This in any Other Passover he must both more Incongruosly have commanded his Apostls to commemorate what was future and unknown and less Powerfully have recommended what was yet Distant and perhaps the intervening time would have Blotted the command out of their Memory before the meaning were Printed upon their Understandings which apprehended nothing of his intended death 'till That last night But now his Death being in a manner Present Give That Life to the Law which it Took from the Author For the words of dying persons Live longest and Reign most powerfully in the survivors affections Potent bicause they cary with them all the Powers of departing life and Venerabl bicause attended with all the Horrors of approaching death as coming not only From the Soul but With it too They contract into a point all the rays of dear affection in the Speaker and most powerfully enflame it in the Hearer A Truth more sensibly felt by such as have received the Last requests of departing friends than can be expressed in Any but such Dying Language I doubt whether All Augustus's living caresses expressed so much Love to his Livia or stamped so Deep and Lasting impression upon her Memory as did his dying complement Livia conjugii nostri memor vive vale What Expressions and Incentives of dear Affections did those few syllabls at Such a Season contein He thereby told her that he was now to leav Empire Life and Her But it was in
Cup and gave thanks saith St. Luke But of This Cup because it concerned not the Lords Supper St. Paul taketh no notice When they have done eating he distributeth a little of the wine saith the Rabbi Our Lord took the Cup when he had supped saith St. Paul After supper saith St. Luke saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 THIS signal cup THIS closing cup c. Could we have Expected yea could we have Desired greater resemblance Are not the Mater the Actions the Seasons All circumstances the same And do not All these agree as exactly with the Apostl's Argument and All its Clauses as with our Lords Institution The very first sight discovereth such Resemblance as manifestly declareth Relation and rhe more exactly we vieu the more shall we discover nor would we doubt the One were the proper issue of the Other did not the Parentage appear too Mean and too long Concealed V. WHAT must the adorable Sacrament of the Altar which hath so long exercised the highest devotions of devoutest Souls must this inestimable Sacrament fall to so low a meanness as to own a poor ordinary Feasting-cup for its Original And must all the Admirable Mysteries which contemplative Souls have so Long and so Much venerated must they All dwindle into a mere Representative of That death which the Evangelists have as plainly set forth by Words as This can do by Figures And shall we believe that so many good and learned Men who have so carefully studied it should be so much deceived and the Christian world at last after almost 1700 years be obliged to we know not whom for information To such erronios purpose may Those declame who use to judge of the truth of the Sun-dial by their Watches and I shall answer them by a story Codrus or some such brave Prince the night before he sacrificed his life for his people delivered into the hands of his chief Officers a Cabinet telling them he therein bequeathed them his very heart and requiring them publicly to produce it in every Assembly as a lasting Monument of his death It contained his directions for its use legible enough throgh its Christal covering but much more if opened with its annexed key They receved it with all due reverence and while the memory of their so deserving King was yet fresh they constantly obeyed his command But after some ages as their love cooled toward his Person so did their regard to his Legacy Which the Officers lamenting and endeavoring not only to restore it to its due reverence but to advance it higher told the people That however incredible it might seem they must believe what their dying Lord told them viz. That in this Cabinet he left them his very heart which therefore they must adore as his Royal Person And lest by opening it any one might therein find the Kings plain directions they laid aside the key and then omitted the use of the Cabinet it self except only upon extraordinary seasons pretending that too frequent use sullied it When many considering and considerable Persons complained that they were brought the back way to the same contemt as former ages were condemned for a certain Officer of a midle rank knowing the Kings directions could not otherwise be legible sought about till he had found the forgotten key and upon tryal finding it exactly to answer every ward brought it into public vieu pleading that such a concurs of lock and key in so many wards could not be fortuit and seeing Some key must necessarily be had they who refused This must be obliged to produce a Better And because the metal was objected against as base brass or iron no way suitable to the richness of the Cabinet and the Jewels therein contained he fell to scouring it from that rust wherewith Time and Neglect if not Design 〈◊〉 covered it and finding it pure Gold turned that Objection Against its worthiness into an Evidence For is And thinking that All cavils must be abundantly answered by a duble ocular Demonstration he turned it round in the lock shewing that all its parts were as well suited to all the wards thereof as its matter was to the worth of the Cabinet it self What success this had with the people my Author doth not inform me but this proceeding seemeth so genuine that I shall follow it First I shall shew that the Jewish Tradition was fit for the honor of a Sacrament Secondly That it exactly answereth our Lords Institution And thirdly That it serveth every syllable of the Apostl's Dissertation CHAP. IV. I. No more dishonor to This than to the other Sacrament to be derived from a Jewish Tradition This Tradition more worthy than That II. In what sens our Lords Table is an Altar Were our behavior at Table more pious the Sacrament need not be ashamed of such a relation III. Our Lords form of consecration derived from the Jewish Forms both Festival and Sacrificial THAT it is a dishonor to This Sacrament to ow its original to a Jewish Tradition can ill be objected by those who make no such scruple against Baptism which yet deriveth its Institution from the same Author and its Extraction from the same Family That had lost its Key almost as long as This for an Age hath not past over us since it was found among the same Jewish rubbidge yet are we not ashamed to expound those Evangelical allegories Regeneration New birth New creature Old man and New man c. by the Jewish Rituals which speak them more than Allegorical effects of Baptism upon Proselytes NOR is This Sacrament barely Equal but much Superior to That both by Natural and Positive Law For the Jewish Baptism was a mere naked Ceremony Significant indeed of the purity required in the person which received it but neither Derived from it nor Effective of it But This Festival solennity did not only Represent but really Exercise and Improve and 't was its self the issue of true Piety Their affectation of Ceremonies might for ought appeareth in Scripture be all the reason which moved Them to Baptise their Proselytes but to bless God for his Benefits is a worship acceptable to God above all burnt-offerings and sacrifice though instituted by himself as appeareth in the 50th Psalm where he rejecteth Those and approveth This saying He that offereth me praise he honoreth me And if even under the Law much more under the Gospel must such a Service be acceptable which carrieth in its countenance such fair Characters of the Divine Nature And as it hath more of Gods Image so hath it of his Superscription more Authority from Positive as well as more Dignity from Natural Law That Gods people should Baptise their Proselytes the Law of Moses took no care but that they should acknowledge his Bounty in feeding them it made special provision For Lev. 17.3 we find it thus written What man soever there be of the house of Israel that killeth an ox or lamb or goat in the camp or that
Her Power to preserv him in a great part of All Three especially That which of All was dearest to him He had Long made her heart his Throne and Now desired to have it for his Monument he therefor prayed both the Gods and Her to take care of That life wherein was preserved the remains of his Own To this purpose but infinitely more obligingly spake our dying Lord not in the language of a faint but quiet sickness but in the Agonies of a tormented Soul not in a few Complemental words suddenly offering themselvs to Augustus's mind and perhaps as suddenly flitting out of Livia's certainly dying with her but upon a premeditated Design to settle a lasting Monument whose firm durablness should Fix the fugitive impression and by constant returns perpetually Renew it so to keep his Bloud from Drying up and his Death from Dying His Last Command oght to be as powerful to work Obedience in his Disciples as wer his last Cryes to work Faith in the Centurion since These shewed no less the Strength of his Love than Those did the Vigor of Life at the very point of Death 2. But much more when we further consider that as it was the Last so was it the most Dreadful night This Passover had not onely the same bitter herbs with others but much bitterer Gall. He had the Devil for his guest and he that dipped with him in the dish was about to Betray him And he had his merciless enemies for his attendants waiting with swords and staves to take and destroy him This was That dreadful night wherin his Soul oppressed with horrors complained That it was exceeding heavy even to the death The same dismal night wherin the stabbing agonies of his tormented mind made every pore of his body a wound bleeding great grumos drops and those so plentifully as to run down to the ground The same terribl night wherin the dreadful prospect of his approaching sufferings so confounded his faculties that with dubled and trebled importunities he prayed to have That Cup taken from him for drinking whereof he came into the World The same amazing night wherin he was so near sinking that he needed an assisting Angel to support him under his burthen Even in That most hideos night did his care of This Institution so prevail over All Those Horrors which prevailed over his faculties as to bring him to a truce and he seemed almost to forget what night it was To Forget No but what was incomparably more to Long for it to Desire it With a Desire i. e. with a vehement desire with such a desire as outvoiced all the cries of his terrifying and tormenting passions Could we possibly understand the load that made him complain That his Soul was exceeding heavy even unto death and how much his Longings for This very season outweighed so great a load then possibly may we adjust the esteem he had for This his Dear Institution V. BUT if on the other side we compare the Affection wherewith We Receive it shall I say with that wherewith we find our Lord Recommended it we shall find Solomons words most perversly verified As in water face answereth to face so doth the heart of man to man For as the Reflex is directly Opposite to the Incident answering the Right side with the Left so doth our Obedience shall I say or our Performance no but our Neglect answer our Lords Care He chose the Last night of his Life for the Institution and many answer This by chusing the Last of theirs for the Performance as if appointed to shew forth not His Death but Their own When they have receved the Sentence of death in themselvs and ar immediatly to receve That of God Then first do they think fit to receve the Body and Blood of Christ as a kind of Charm somwhat better than the Sign of the Cross to fright the Devil from seising his own When the Physician hath declared or other Indications make it apparent that there is no hope of returning to Those sins which Therefor only they repent of bicaus they ar Past when the Will is sealed wherin they bequeath That soul to God whereof they had so long given the Devil possession Then in commutation for a whole life spent in contemt of This and All other holy exercises the Minister is sent for som good words spoken Absolution granted and Sealed with This Sacrament And now what uncharitabl Infidel can doubt but that the man is Pardoned in vertu of the One and receved into Eternal joys in that of the Other since our Lord himself promised that Whosoever Eateth his flesh and Drinketh his bloud hath Eternal life or how can This Bread and Wine possibly be imagined ar Any time fuller of Vertu than when so lately receved that the digestive faculty of the stomach hath not at all impaired it BUT others do not Thus put it off to the very Last Many own it if not a Duty yet an acceptabl act of Devotion Laudably thogh perhaps not Necessarily to be performed in the mids of life Yet even Those thogh not in the Same in Another wretched sens make it their Last Care When All other Interests and Inclinations ar served Then perhaps shall This have it's turn But if any thing els crave it however Slight or Trifling it be This Holy Office must yield it Precedence Pretences so Slender that a hundred twisted together shall not be sufficient to draw one from a Gossiping or any other Meeting shall singl be abl to draw him from the Lords Table With Solomons yawning Sluggard he cryes there is a Lion in the way a Lion in the streets when indeed he fears no danger But to his Lust or Ease I had business says one But pray Sir what was That Business Was it greater than what our Lord had in That last horrid Night wherein he forced all his dreadful crouds of griefs and fears to give way to This Care Was it so Importunate that it could not be Neglected or so Urgent that it could not be Delayed or so Suden that it could not be Prevented Didst thou use all indevors to Keep or Dispatch it out of the way Did it Surprise thee just in the nick when thou wert going to the Church and upon the very spot Disable thee from performing thy then fixed resolution Didst thou Wrestle against it with thy utmost Strength and yield to it no otherwise than as to an Invincibl Necessity If so thou art so far excusabl For Necessity hath This only of good nature that it Defends those most who have most Resisted it But if thou hast either Wilfully Draw'n this pretended hindrance upon thy self or Carelesly Suffered it to surprise thee or Tamely Yielded to it or be'n any way Defective in striving against it look how many grains the Hindrance falleth short of Insuperabl and thy Endevors of Perfect so many doth thy Excuse of Justifiable BUT the business which is too Slight may be otherwise Innocent
consider it better This is a sacrificial Fest but not a Sacrifice And between these two the Distance is so wide that it looks like Opposition such as is between Giving and Receving Guilt and Pardon Fear and Joy All postures are inverted In the act of Sacrificeing the Votary appeared as a Guilty supplicant confessing himself worthy of Death and praying that the vicarios bloud of his beast might be accepted and his Own delivered But in the subsequent Fest he was treated as a Guest and Friend of his now Reconciled and Propitios God In the One he appeared as a Malefactor dreading Punishment from his offended Judge In the Other as a Son enjoying Communion with his Loving Father In the One he Offered a Ransom in the Other he Receved a Treat Since therefor this Institution answers the Later and shuns the Former it oght to be honored with a suitable Name Since here is No Offering but All Receving No Costs but All Advantages No Bloud but That of the Grape and That not now to be Shed but only Drank no beasts slain but those Wild Lusts which prey upon our Souls nothing of Pain to the Body or Cost to the Purs but all joy and thankfulness to the Soul it is so far from deserving the name of a Sacrifice that we seem to injure it by stiling it Sacrificial I KNOW not what so great sympathy there is between Love and Suffering that many voluntarily run upon This to express That Som merely to shew forth their Love to their Lord have waited on him with swords hanging at belts made of their Own skins purposely so flayed from their flesh as to fit that office yet still so hanging to it at either end as to renew the pain every step Others with arrows voluntarily stuck into and still sticking in their flesh c. When the ponderos Idol is pomposly carried upon its Scaffold roling on a multitude of heavy wheels the devout Indians oftentimes cast themselvs in the way there to be crushed to death by their beloved God That many offered their Sont and Daghters to Devils the Scripture both witnesseth and condemneth That the Turks oftentimes pull out their eyes in devotion to Mahomet Travellers inform us What the Papists do upon Ash-wednesday and That which they notwithstanding call Good-Friday is sufficiently know'n Had our Lotd enjoyned Som or All this in answer to his suffering would we not oght we not have don ' it Had he required us to lay down our lives for him what had this be'n but to pay what we could of a debt At other times he said Go and sell all thou hast and give it to the poor and take up thy Cross and follow me Pull out thy right ey cut off thy right hand But now that he saith only Do this Eat This Drink this what a vast weight of contempt must That be which shall outweigh not only the Authority but the Love of our Lord favoring us with a Commandment so sweetly obligeing Did He on his Cross drink Gall and Vineger made infinitely more Bitter by my sins and shall not I at his Tabl drink Wine made infinitely Sweeter by his blessing Did he Eat the Bread of Affliction for My sake and shall not I eat the Bread of Life for His sake and mine Own Did He Suffer death and shall not I Enjoy by Commemorating it Could any thing Easier or Cheaper less troublsom or costly have be'n enjoined such was his kindness that he would have commanded That and if we refuse This which is the Least it appears we will do Nothing for Him For Him Yea for our Selvs This is not a Work but a Fest which if it be but Insipid though not Bitter is to be despised II. 2. THIS therefor is considerable as the Second kindness of this Institution It is as Pleasant as Easie and if we would speak properly we must not call it a Command but an Invitation For it is a Fest yea it is the Banquet when men had Eaten the Fat and Drunken the Sweet and their hearts were merry Then came This Supper as the Desert furnished with the Fruits of the Spirit infinitely delicios And thogh the abuses thereof made it in few ages seem necessary to change This proper Season yet is not the blessed and beatifik rite thereby impoverished Its delights were ushered with sensual mirth rather for State than Need For it 's own Spiritual pleasures ar abundantly abl to fill all our great appetites without borrowing any thing of the sensual For the more distinct discovery of this topik we will rise by three steps 1. Spiritual pleasures are greater than Sensual 2. The Pleasures of the Christian Religion greater than those of any Other Religion 3. The Pleasures of This Office greater than those of any Other Office of Christian worship 1. That Spiritual pleasures are greater than Sensual Plutarch hath sufficiently demonstrated in That best of his treatises whose title professeth to prove That upon the Principles of Epicurus it is impossibl for a man to live happily Among other instances of the excellency of the pleasures of the Mind above those of the Body he thus speaketh to our present purpose concerning Sacrificial Fests Princes and Kings keep good open houses and a full Court for all comers and make publik Fests But Those which are made in Sacrifices and Solemnities of the Gods amids perfumes and incenses where men seem to touch and convers most intimately with them with all Honor and with all Reverence such Honors such Fests I say give a joy more rare and a delight more singular wherein He hath no part that hath not faith nor confidence in the Divine providence For it is not the quantity of Wine that is drunk nor the Cookery of good viands that ar eaten there which give the joy in such Fests but the assurance and persuasion that God is Present Propitios and Favorabl and that he accepteth the honor and service there do'n him That the Atheist cannot tast these delights the Apostl hath given the Reason The Natural man understandeth not the things of God neither can he know them becaus they are spiritually discerned His Faculty is defective The Viands want not sweetness but His Palate is vitiated He is in the gall of bitterness and therefor hath no part nor lot in This mater And it is no less certain that to such Palates the very Supper of the Lamb in heaven would be no less Unsavory For how can the Vision of God be beatifical to Him that Hateth him What delight can He find in the fellowship of the blessed in Heaven who finds none in Those who resemble them upon earth What Musik in heavenly Hallelujahs to Him who finds none in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs Can a Plowman find pleasur in a Mathematical demonstration or a Lion in sweet grass or a Fish in cleer Air The fruits of the Spirit saith the Apostl ar Lov Joy Peace c. Love must lead
his Divine we enjoy not only his Representative but his very Body and Blood In Sacrificeing said Plutarch we convers intimately with the Gods These things saith St. John we write unto you that your joy may be full that you may have fellowship with Us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ St. John probably in those words compareth Our God and Lord with Those in whose fellowship Plutarch placed his greatest joy We may make another comparison between the Fellowships themselvs yea between the several kinds of fellowships that a Christian may have with his Lord. Several kinds of fellowships No There is no other kind of visibl fellowship but This one Other kinds of Worship there are but no other Communion Whether we com to God with our Praises or our Prayers whether we com to Hear him or to call upon him we keep an awful Distance We Approach his Throne but do not Sit down in it It is boldly said by Plutarch In Sacrificcing Fests we even touch the Gods a Christian goeth Higher We do not Touch only but Eat we receve our Lord not Only in our Arms but our very Bowels We Fest not only With him but Upon him He mingleth Souls with us and is no more Two but One Spirit We Fest upon his Flesh and Bloud which himself saith ar Meat indeed and Drink indeed and St. John addeth Here is Fellowship indeed and what more Need or Can be added to make our Joy Full If therefor there be any joy in the spirit any comfort of love what ever the Voice of David could Sing or his heart conceve whatever the Light of the Sun or the Sweetness of Wine or the joys of festing can faintly shadow ar Here in the highest perfection earth is capabl to enjoy as much above the pleasures of Sens as the Firmament is Brighter than Earth or Sea and as much above other exercises even of Devotion as the Stars ar Brighter then the interstellary Firmament whose light while they Out-shine they Increas Upon which later account alone we heard Symnachus give the Sea preeminence over the Land as mother of Salt the Universal Sawce exalting the Gust of All meats But V. 2. SALT doth not so much improve the Gust of meats as doth This Sacrament the Power and consequent Pleasur of other Religios Offices 1. How the power of Preaching is thereby advanced we shall find another occasion to consider to which therefor we adjourn it and proceed to other Religios exercises 2. An Oath when duly used is One kind of Worship of That God when we thereby Invoke an end of All strife and all suspicions among mankind And its Obligations at generally supposed more Indissolubl when bound with This Sacrament or taken at the Altar The Kings of France and Spain and All Christendom with them agreed in This that the Pyrenaean Treaty could not be more Inviolably confirmed than by This Bond. And if it have not proved Security sufficient it is no exception against it's force but a proof of the invinciblness of That Falshood that will as litl be Slave to the most formidabl Oath as to a Word 3. HOW great pleasur there is in PRAYER we should better understand if we were better acquainted with it The Stoiks believed our Pleasur to consist in Freedom from Pain It is plain that Bodily Pleasur doth so and the Satisfaction is pleasant in exact Proportion with the Appetite which is thereby satisfied It is som Ease to a wounded spirit if it can but Bleed out it's troubles into the bosom of a Faithful friend but much more if That friend be as able as willing to help God is indeed of himself more willing to hear than We to pray for such blessings as conduce to our True Happiness but in Som Other kinds of Requests which thogh they com not up to the highest dignity we think worth asking he is Moved by Prayer and so much the more when it is Improved by the Manner and Season of the address Hester the more effectually to prevail with her great Ahasuerus endeared her petition with a Fest and This we com now from finding the Sens of mankind in that universal rite of Festing upon the Sacrifice Indeed God is to be laid hold on by either hand Fasting or Festing upon occasions respectively suitable exalt the power of Prayer the one that we may move Commiseration the other that we may obtain Bounty by the One we kill the Beast by the Other we hold communion with God If therefor Hannah found her grieved mind so much eased by having unburthened it in prayer improved by the holiness of the place we must have so much more title to the joys of Hope by doing it in this exercise as his Table is holier than was Shiloh And if Themistocles prevailed with Admetus by presenting him his litl Son how much greater confidence may We have when we obsecrate by the body and bloud of Christ For the young Prince was a perfect stranger to Themistocles came in his way and thence into his arms by mere accident without any thoght of becoming his Mediator but our Lord came and dwelt among us and was made sin for us and when we obsecrate by the mystery of his Incarnation by his Cross and Passion by his precios Death and Burial offering them to his Father not only by Words but Actions such Dramatical Actions as in a manner Repete them This do'n by his Own institution must needs add unspeakabl force to thc Petition so presented Again Admetus's child was wholely passive joined not the least token of consent with Themistocles's act for his Body was offered without any concurrence of his Mind But This Supper is of our Lord 's own providing We therein offer not only his Body and Bloud but his Love and his Soul Himself taght us this singular art of wrestling with his Father and having promised that he would grant whatever two or three should agree to ask in his Name taght us further to invigorate our confidence by adding his Body and Bloud HENCE it is that in the Primitive Church the Prayers ever were attended with This Sacrament as we found them described by Justin Martyr and Optatus upbraiding the Donatists for breaking down the altars of Churches told them that thereby they did what they could to hinder the Churches prayers for illac ad aures dei ascendere solebat populi oratio Hence is it that in the Communion Service we again pray for the same blessings we had prayed for in the first for the Church Vniversal the Kings Majesty the whole Nation c. Nor need we any other than our adversaries testimony The Papists in ordinary cases think ordinary masses sufficient but in their greatest extremities have recours to This as a more powerful mediator than any their Ora pro nobis's I instance in the case of the Duke of Montmorancy whom when the incensed King could by no intercession be
in theit Own Houses This was the Sore and to This must the Plaster be fitted Why must the Plaster be so much larger than the Sore Why must we examin our selvs concerning such Actions or Worthiness whose knowledge hath no Aspect upon this Performance but only Opposit and Malignant Such an Examination as shall excommunicat if not the Whole certainly the Greatest part of mankind He that shall most carefully perform his examination first in That manner which the Apostl prescribeth by Discerning the infinite Distance of dignity between the Lords table and his Own and then in That Manner that our Worthy Author prescribeth between our Lords Body and his Own Soul tho he be the Best of his age yea the best our Lord only excepted that ever was will most clearly discover not only that he is Now Unworthy but that he must despere Ever to be Otherwise Since then the Best Examination of the Best Person will carry him not only Beyond but Contrary to the Apostl's Design Since it will put such an Inconsistency between the Two Precepts that Let a man examin himself will inferr Let him Not Eat and since the Apostl doth not in any kind Intimate that our Worthiness but plainly Declare that our Differencing This from Common bread and wine is to be subject of our Examination IV. HIS Meaning in the words now under vieu can be no More nor Other than This Let a man examin himself whether he well Understand and Consider what he is about to Do Whether he put the due Estimate upon what he is about to Receve Whether he put as great Difference between the Lords supper and a Common fest as there is between the vertues of a litl Common Bread and Wine and those of the Body and Bloud of Christ Whether he go to gratify his sensual appetite with Eating and Drinking or to comply with his governors or neighbors in communicating with them or to fest his soul with Thankfulness and Love toward his crucified Savior with Joy and Delight in Communion with him and such other acts of devotion as so Holy an office requireth Let a man well examin himself concerning this and So let him Eat with appetites suitabl This I say is all that the Apostl's Design can Permit or his Words Declare him to mean by Let a man examin himself He requireth us to look Forward not Backward upon what we ar Going to do in the Church not upon what we Have already do'n there or elswhere upon the Difference between This and Other Bread not upon That between Our Own and Other mens souls Yet to prevent misconstructions I add this Proviso That I neither pretend to disparage the most Severe self-examination as it takes account of our Past actions and Present state of soul For I dare swear with Pythagoras that it is the high-way to divine life Nor to deny that our approch to This holy supper is the Most Proper season for This most Excellent exercise For he that best performeth the One will undoubtedly best perform the Other All that I deny is this That the Apostl in This place setteth up Examining our selvs against Obeying our Lord so as to Forbid any one to Eat if upon examination he find himself Unworthy And I further add thohg I have no such need that if it wer Doubtful yea if it wer highly Probabl If he had so worded his precept that in a Plausibl appearance it might signify som such intention yet is not a Probabl Sound of any One expression worthy to be ballanced against so Express a command of our Lord and so industrious an Endeavor of the same Apostl to urge it as we have found in the Context For it is Good Law and Good Reason that no Law can be repeled but by Express terms and therefor I still insist upon my demand Where is that Express DO NOT which may Countermand our Lords DO THIS CHAP. IV. Answereth Reason Objecting Allegories I. A Transition from Scriptur to Reason and by the way notice taken of Allegories of a midl Nature between both II. The Allegory of Covenant and Seal answered and retorted III. The Allegory of Member likewise answered IV. The Allegory of Sons and Enemies V. A General answer to all objections of this kind I. I HAVE now do'n what I proposed as Necessary and all that I conceve Possibl for a full discovery of the Apostl's meaning in That unhappy discours which as it is the Only Comment we have upon our Lords Institution so hath shared it's sufferings somtimes Mutilated somtimes Racked somtimes Rob'd of it's due sens somtimes Laden with more than it can bear and by all ways Tormented that it may say somthing in Justification of That Omission which he designed to Prevent or Condemn I have given so regular and exact account of every Word and every Aspect of words that as I am sure no man ever Hath so I may boldly believ no man ever Will match it with any other I have acted Both parts Opponent and Respondent On That side I have traced the Process of his Argument Viewed every Design and every Medium and every Claus as it servs either in the One or the Other Office On This side I have reduced the Inferences from Contradicting to Serving the Positions they depend on I have shewen that as the Former half which conteineth Positions hath be'n so Robbed of it's due that it cannot make good the charge in the Universality wherein it is laid down So hath the Later half be'n Rack't that it may speak more than either the words can bear or the Apostl's designe suffer That he cannot intend to Forbid Every person that findeth himself Unworthy or to make Self-examination an Hinderance to the Performance which it is to Serv. And I may boldly say that in the Former half there is not a word which doth not Help in the Later half there is not any that Hinders the obligation of Constancy in Every unexcommunicate person obliged by Every word disobliged by None If therefor we will appeal to Scripture and take the regular way to Understand it we ar upon as Secure ground as any Rules can make us Yet shall we quit This place of Advantage and descend to the Plain field allowing Reason to plead what it can to the contrary But before we can reach the Plain we ar encountered with a Midl sort of Evidences shall I call them or Colors laid upon Scripture ground precarios Allegories improved to a pretence of Reason These since they ar mere Colors no better Subjected than in Allegories must for That very reason be Insufficient to Convince us of Any thing but This that Those who make use of Such arguments want Better II. SOMETIMES we ar told that This Sacrament is the Seal of the New Covenant and we ought not to see Gods Seal to a Blank c. In this Plea ther ar two terms by explication whereof we ar to understand its force 1. Covenant 2.
This Sacrament When the Word hath prepared the Heart by the Ear when the Understanding is Informed and the Affections somewhat Moved with the recital of What our Lord suffered And Why Then doth the Sacrament complete the service by shewing to our very Eyes the Wounds not of his Garments but his Flesh and Those not as long since made but as now in making Represents his Sacred bloud not as dried up by time but as Now even Now streaming from his Heart It so Commemorates his passion as to Repete it and in the most inflaming manner presents to our Souls all those incentives against sin which our Lords death our Lords Present death can furnish He that considers how the little sens of Religion yet left in the world is derived from the Frequency of Preaching will find too great reason to bewail the invaluabl loss it suffers by want of so helpful an Attendant For if That maimed as it is do in Som however Littl mesure prevail by it's Singl and Deserted strength how much more might we hope from their united Forces if Jonathan secunded his Armor bearer To say that we might Then sing of them as the daghters of Israel did of their victorios Princes Preaching hath saved it's Thousands and the Sacrament it 's Ten thousands would be but a cold Eulogy We have no reason to doubt that as there is more than Ten to One difference in their Powers so would there be in their Successes Unless we will needs doubt of our Lords ordinary blessing upon his so beloved ordinance which we have far more reason to believe he would assist with the Spirit not only of a David but a Samson as being a Nazarite appropriat to himself Therfor THIRDLY I shall say but this litle to such a scruple That as it would look almost like a Miracle if an Honest Constant Communicant should miss a blessing so we may be sure that if there needed a Miraculos Power to bless such an one it would not be wanting For it is incredibl that he who promised that when ever two or three ar gathered together in his name there he will be in the mids of them should not be most Especially and most Graciosly present with those who meet not in his Name only but at his Table upon his Own kind invitation to fest not With him only but Upon him Of this I say no more bicaus Those whom I dispute with ar so far from denying our Lords especial Presence that they make it the Reason for Their Absence who most need it but how much they thereby honor our Lord and his Supper let what I have above said declare for I hasten to my third position VII 3. MY THIRD Position is that the Converting Power of the Sacrament is better Exercised and it's Honor more Advanced by Frequent than by Seldom Celebrations The question is concerning the Greater or Less probability of the Conversion of a Sinner whom we must suppose arrived to neither of the Opposit perfections neither Worthy on the One side nor Atheistical on the Other but in a Midl state sensibl of his duty both to our Lord and his Church Willing or rather Submitting to do what he shall be convinced to be required of him but Wavering between his Obedience to our Lords Command which seemeth to require Frequency at least and the Apostls indulgence backed with appearance of Reason which recommendeth Aw and Distance as necessary to preserv that Reverence which it is supposed will best advance both the Honor of the Sacrament and Benefit of the Recever For such an one may plead that if I ow any person Twenty shillings and pay him One Guinny I do better than if I paid him Twenty silver shillings So if One Solen Address be more worth then Twenty of the Constant it will be better to com One time for Twenty With such Solennity then Twenty times for One Without it And consequently our Lord will accept of That as more perfect obedience than This. At present we dispute not that in This Institution the Number of pieces is the very Essence of the Obligation but admit the supposed liberty of paying One Golden performance in lieu of Many Less valuabl and upon This Supposition require that the Pretence may be made good viz. That the One for Twenty may be Such as shall recompence by the greater Valu the defect in Number This One Solen address must have not only a plainer Stamp as every new Coin may have but purer Metal not only more Outward Solennity but more Inward Devotion For if a man bow the knee never so Solenly and give the title of King never so Formally yet if in So doing he put no better then a Dry Hollow Light Reeden Scepter into our Lords hand he acteth more like a persecuting Jew than a Loyal Disciple And in the present inquiry Those who ar to make the Address ar supposed to ly in a state of Enmity and Need of Conversion for concerning the Godly there is no doubt but the oftener the better What ever Outward deference such enemies bring if it have nothing of the power of Godliness it doth not honor our Lord with his Own Sceptre For the Sceptre of his Kingdom is a right Sceptre a love of Righteosness and hatred of iniquity What ever wanteth This wanteth That Divine life without which the most Solen worship is no better than a gay Pageant who 's Forced motions pass for Solen merely bicaus Unwieldy the Absence of inward life giving the Ly to them all That we may the better Compare them it will be requisite we bring to vieu both the Rivals And first let us bring forth that Shew wherewith our Lord is to be better Served and Pleased than with literal Obedience WHEN the Unwelcom season is now at hand which Indispensibly exacteth the painful task the Unwilling votary if he can deserv That name finding No way to escape it forceth himself to look Sadly upon his still Beloved sins Confineth himself for som tedios days to the Lothed conversation of that Troublsom stranger his Conscience wherewith he Communeth in such Awkward manner as plainly betrayeth his Unacquaintedness with it's language not to be supplied by the vainly courted assistance of those good Books which at such times only he taketh the Penance to read and after the appointed days languished away in this heartless Exercise which he calleth Preparation he receveth I say not the Lords Supper but the holy Symbols with great Solennity we grant but with as little Benefit or Relish as Appetite and goeth home with This only comfort that the Tedios work is do'n and the Stately Lifeless machin may be laid aside till the Revolution of another Solennity call it forth to stalk abroad again with the same Troubl to the same Little purpose Let our adversaries now deal freely can they suppose such Pageantry acceptabl to God can such Counters as have somthing of the due Image and Superscription but
nothing of the due Metal not only pass for Current in the Kingdom of God but bear a greater Valu than such pieces as com out of his own Royal Mint can God be pleased with such performances as please not the Votary himself can he be so much Better pleased with them that One of them shall be reputed payment for Multiplied omissions of Duty Or which is more pertinent to our present enquiry can such an exercise destroy the kingdom of the Devil in the unwilling Soul c. I grant Somthing hath be'n do'n toward it The man hath be'n put in mind of his need of Christs bloud and the Love that first Spilt it and now Offered it and This hath somwhat awakened the sens of the Obligation he hath to Lov and Serv him which cannot but make som impression upon his mind which for som time and in som mesure may check his lusts and quicken his care All this I hope and for This very reason complain that the good sparks should dy away which by Repetition of the same exercise might be blowen up to such a vigoros Flame as might wholly Destroy those lusts which ar now a littl Disordered but not Subdued For the Litl that this hath do'n is a sufficient evidence how much More might be do'n if so hopeful an exercise were duly Prosecuted with such Constancy as we have found required by our Lord and comes now to be considered by Reason in counterballance to its rival Solennity and this we do by steps 1. Multiplied repetitions one time or other will probably hit the mark He who is missed by Many a Sermon and Many a Communion may happily be struck to the heart by the Next There was a time when One Sermon converted Thousands but miracles ar ceased and now Many perhaps Thousands of Sermons ar necessary to convert One Yet can we not charge God as wanting to Necessary means since the Miraculos efficacy is supplied by the Moral power of multiplied Repetition Too many of those who Separate These ordinances in their Practice do them the right to Join them in their Discourses pleading the same color of reason against frequency in Preachings and Communions and those who do Not but will have These rare for reverence sake and Those frequent for their effects sake need no other evidence of the Weakness of their Objection against Frequence in the Communion than it s too great Strength whereby it will cast down what they would keep up so that they ar reduced to This choice either that Preaching must be Less frequent for fear of the Objection or the Objection renegued lest Preaching should be rob'd of Frequency for preservation of Reverence And as the Objection is equally Deficient so is Frequency equally Useful to Both. Who knoweth but That Sermon or That Communion which he is forsaking may be the critical One which is to convert him When an Affliction hath bruised or a Blessing melted the heart When the man hath Lost a friend or Escaped a danger when a Neighbors unexpected death hath warned him of his Own frailty or a good Angel hath unaccountably stirred the pool and he is by som secret disposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set in due order and almost perswaded to be a Christian then the Sermon or Communion coming upon him in his soreness prevaileth by nicking the critical Opportunity We know not the secret walks of Gods providence nor the advantages of Som seasons above Others by influences imperceptibl that therefor we may not miss the Proper but Vnknowen one it will concern Every man to say of Every one This is the day of the Lord This is That singular hour wherein I am to receve That flesh and bloud of Christ which must save me He that truly considers the valu of Salvation and his own need of it will not think much to ly in the way that Jesus of Nazareth Passeth by or rather wherein he Cometh on purpose to heal and save 2. Repetition both Preserveth the otherwise decaying Power of former acts and addeth new of its own The sturdiest oak is felled by Many of those stroaks whereof every particular one was inconsiderabl but if they com at such distance that the scratch rather than wound which the first made be healed up before it be secunded the tree may be a litl moved but not at all weakened If a man be but Litl yet if he be At all affected if he do but consider What he Doth or Oght to do if he think on the Death of Christ and it's Reason if he indevor to commemorate it in due manner or but consider that he oght so to do These Acts of Consideration and Reflection however weakly performed contribute their litl proportion toward the great work as every stroke of the oar doth to a long voyage but will soon be caried away by the contrary stream if it be not quickly renewed For as in Bodies so in Souls there is continual Deperdition and there needeth continual Reparation The Symbols do as truly represent Our Need as their Principals Vertu This Flesh is meat indeed and This bloud is drink indeed as in their Cherishing and Strengthening Vertu so in the Constancy wherewith they ar to be receved and Those who ar so easily satisfied with far Distant Communions seems to Betray the Weakness of their spiritual Life by That of their Appetite 3. Repetition will improve the power of Every Singl Act by making the Agent more expert No Tutor like Exercise It teaches us to do those things both Easily and Perfectly which to the inexpert appear not only Difficult but Impossibl And upon this account is Frequency so far from a hinderance that it is of all moral means most Proper to bring us to Worthiness That Self-examination which all Christians confess necessary before we com to the Lords table is by the best Philosophers prescribed before we go to sleep and Seneca incorageth his Lucilius to the practice upon This consideration that Exercise will make it as Easy yea as Pleasant as Profitabl For the same reason it is adviseable that we stablish several Periods the end of every Week for the past Week of every Moneth for the past Moneth of every Year for the past Year and every eve of the Communion for the Interval from the Last which Intervals were they left to our discretion we oght to shorten as much as possibl even for This very Reason that by Frequence we may learn to examin our selvs still Better so that if we have no other Obligation nor no other Design but to com as Worthily we must com as Frequently as Possibl So in the Result Worthiness must not be Opposed to Frequency as it's Rival but Proposed as it 's Encoragement For whether we ey the Honor of the Sacrament in the Abstract or the Vertu of it in Reference to the Salvation of mankind They ar Both promoted more by the Constancy of our Approaches than by the Awfulness of our
but what love shall prescribe and the Performance drest up in such frightful manner as is more apt to produce Dread than Love what other fruit can reasonably be hoped for than what we see that the generality should rather exercise their Aw by Shunning than their Lov by Frequenting it This was to som degree prevented by the Rubrikes of our Church 'till they wer deposed from their Authority by a sort of men who making distance from Rome their mesure of truth must by That rule have restored the Constancy which to banish was the proper act of Popery But Antipodes while they stand in greatest Opposition dwell in the same Latitude and so do these men with the Church of Rome in som of her worst Doctrines For as they also call it the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom to advance the Ecclesiastical Power above the Temporal so do they endeavor to make this Sacrament an instrument to subject the People to the Minister When they hoped to ' stablish their Discipline how briskly did they summon the People to the Communion How insolently did they depose them All even such as were every way better than themselvs to the state of Catechumens not admitting them to the Lords Table 'till they had undergo'n Their examination But when they found that they could not prevail ether with the People voluntarily to submit themselvs or with the Governors to compel them to it How quickly did they take pet How sullenly did they cast away the Sacrament as Useless to Any good purpose since it was So to their Own My banishment from the University cast me into a corner where the Dispute was publikly managed by word and writing from the Pulpit and from the Press whether the Lord's Supper wer to be celebrated in an unpresbyterated Church and the Negative so generally prevailed throghout the Land that during their whole reign in som places the very Table it self and in most others the Use of it was quite cast out of the Church When the Church of England was about to be restored and their Representatives wer desired to make their Proposals that they might ether hide or justify so great a neglect they moved to be freed from That Rubrike which obligeth the peopl to communicate at least three times in every year And to This day they make it a distinct cause of separation so that som who join with us in other offices dare not do it in This And their greatest Champion thogh he have his proper Congregation bosteth that he hath not ' ministered it these eighteen years with no less Non-conformity to his own pretences than to the stablished government 1. One pretence is that nothing must be do'n in the Publik worship of God without express warrant in his word Then certainly much less must any thing be omitted which his Command hath made necessary For the general Precept for Decency may virtually contein such Particulars as our Governors shall judge Decent but nothing less than a Particular and Express warrant can free us from a Particular Institution not only Expresly enjoyned but several ways Inculcated 2. Another pretence is that our Church is not rightly constituted according to the mind of Christ And we have discovered by the Nature of the thing by the language of the Apostls and by the unanimos consent of all the Christian world that the Sacraments ar indispensibl marks of a Christian Church which since his Congregation wants by his own principless he must abandon it 3. A Third great pretence is that We have too much Popery in our Worship And we have found that robbing the Publik worship of This Sacrament is the very Soul and Body of Popery but with This difference that the Popish Doctors intended to make it bleed away somthing of Constancy and Non-conformists bleed it to death WE see whence our neglect of the Sacrament took it's first Birth and whence it's Nourishment Popery gave it the one and Schism the other Yet how many among our selvs cherish it that renounce both Parent and Nurse Glad of the liberty which right or wrong they enjoyed during our confusions and loth to return to the troubl they suffered from such a curb to their dear lusts and ease They find that divines require no less for a worthy Communion than for a saving Repentance Repentance they press as absolutely Necessary but the Communion they think not so Who then can be so sottish as to delay his Repentance without giving the Sacrament as long a day Every mans Reason must needs concurr with his Sloth to persuade him that if it be a damnable Sin to com Unworthy but None to Forbear then must it needs be his wisest cours to avoid a task dubly prejudical first to his Ease and then to his Salvation When our Lord commanded us to pluck out our eys and cut off our hands he enforced it with a Reason as cogent as the Command could be rigid For it is better to enter into life with One ey foot or hand than to be cast into Hell-fire with two But so to state this duty as to say If you will do This you must quit your beloved lusts but if you will not do it you miss som benefits but incurr no danger how few such a declaration will persuade rather to renounce their lusts and ease than This Duty shall I call it no but Burthen Reason might have taght our ancestors to Conjectur and Experience compelleth us to bewail Experience which many call the fools mistress bicause those who apprehend not other evidence cannot avoid This Experience which is many times the Severest and alway the Best instructor doth so plainly and sadly reprove us that however excusable Other ages may have be'n who thoght themselvs secure from the ill consequences our Own and Future times cannot be so if we be not convinced by them We somtimes see men encumber their lands when they intend to grace them with Fair but Fruitless bildings and then sell houses land and all to pay the so contracted debt But we never see any so fond of such bildings as to sell the Land for their preservation if by pulling them down they can pay the debt with the materials Let us be as wise in our generation our ' forefathers thoght as such bilders usually do that the Sacrament could well bear and be improved by the cost they put it to that it would be more advanced both in honor and power than prejudiced by abatement of constancy but never thoght of staking its very Being against any hopes whatever That they thoght secured by the Laws of the Church and the unfailing practice of it's very worst members who for shame of their neighbors or fear of their governors durst not neglect it at any of the appointed seasons But now that the late Schism hath out-mischiefed all their fears it is not to be doubted but those very writers who heretofore discoraged the performance by their rigors wer they now