Rem terrenam Câ—lestem we come now to the Communion or their coming into one to make up the Sacrament though the one part be on earth the other in heaven and look how high the heaven is from the earth yet they may meet they must meet else there will be no Sacrament at all Nulla virtus Sacramento saith Cyprian they must be in Common or there will be no Communion and then the Text will not be true which saith The Cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the Communion of the Bloud of Christ The Bread which we break is it not the Communiâ—n of the Body of Christ Communion is ever cum unione when two or more meet in one 2 The Coâ—â—â—en there is a Communion It is divers wayes either by nature which is Physicall as when soul and body are united into one person there is Communion between them by reason of thaâ— union Secondly by miracle which is Metaphysicall as when two Natures God and man were united into one Christ There is also Communion between them by virtue of that Union neither of these is this heer for it is no substantiall no Hypostaticall Vâ—ion and yet the Fathers have used both these to illustrate this Communâ—on Thirdly by locall coberence as when many stones are in one heap Fourthly by actuall inexistence as where accidences as colours c. are in one ubject none of these yet for the body and bloud of Christ may not be thought to be Locally Actually any where but in Heaven The Heavens must contain him till his second and last coming There is yet another way Fiftly Intellectually Sacramentally which consists in meer relation which is the nature of Communion Sacramentall Union is that Communion we speak off and it consists in a Mysticall and Mutuall relation between the signes and the things signed Sacramentum est rei Sacrae signum is Saint Austins definition and allowed and approved by all when the signe comes to signifie the sacred thing it comes to be a Sacrament and this coming is the Communion We look to two things 1. The cause of it 2. The effects First Divine institution is the cause The Rain-bow it is generally 1 The cause agreed upon was before the floud yet was not any signe of the promise of God of not destroying the world with a deluge till after the floud it was in nube to be seen there but not signum in nube till God first appointed it his signe to Noâ—h The Wine in the Cup the Bread on the Table were in use before blessed in their creation for temporall food but not in any use to a spirituall life till blessed again at their institution they were not signes of any sacred things till God appointed them his signes to his Apostles and as words which come to the ears are signa rerum of those things which the minde means to expresse if aptly appointed and do conveigh the very things to the understanding of the Auditor if he be quick you would wonder at it to see how soon at a word speaking a thing of never so great distance can come to his knowledge so these earthly things which are signa rei sacrae which come unto the eyes and the other senses being aptly appointed by the first institutor do conveigh unto the faith of the worthy receiver the very things themselves and though they were before at never so much distance they come to be present to our faith as other things expressed by words are to our reason and sence To make signes of such belongs only unto him which can give the things and his body and bloud none can give but himself none can make a signe to be a means to conveigh it to be apledge to confirm it but he the Elements are empty and non significant Accedat verbum ad Elementum saith Austin his word his work that comes and it becomes a Sacrament the signe is made effectually to signifie the sacred thing and that making a signe is the cause of the Relation of the Communion first Secondly being so made by the virtue of the Divine Institution 2 The effects the effects of Sacramentall Communion follow The signes themselves have a Communication of the Proprieties of the things signes Communicatio Idiomatum is the chief effect As by the Hypostaticall Union of the two natures in Christ the humane nature is invested into the Divine the manhood being assumed is allowed to carry away the properties of the Godhead in the person of Christ And thence comes it that the Son of God is called the Son of man and the Lord of life was crucified and slain The Mother of God the Bloud of God are usuall speeches with the Fathers so in this Sacramentall Union by virtue of that Communion in the words of institution the Bread is called the Body of Christ the Wine his Bloud When we give the Bread we say The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ c. the Cup we say The Bloud of our Lord Jesus Christ The Bread though it be res terrena is called Panis vitae the food of Angles the Bread which came down from Heaven The food of the soul Panem Dominum S Cyprian calls it and not only Panem Domini and all this per Metonymiam signi because of the Communion it hath with the things signed with the Body of Christ Neither is this Communion only nominall but also reall the very substance of Christs Body and Bloud is by it communicated to worthy receivers they are verily and indeed taken and received of the faithfull saith our Church Not in the signes essentially but by the signes effectually for we must hold us to this that the Union is not Physicall nor Metaphysicall not Essentiall nor Locall but Intellectuall and Sacramentall and yet reall and not only nominall Ask what the Bread and Wine is I answer the Body and Bloud of Christ Ask me how or which way I answer Sacramentally because they are the Communion of the Body and Bloud of Christ and not that properly neither for a substance cannot be a Relation but by a Metonymy of the effect because they make us partakers of the Body and Bloud of Christ they are called the Communion of his Body and Bloud And being Communis substantiae they are also Communio efficaciae they make us partakers of the merit of Christs Body and Bloud those things ever bring their worth and dignity with them remission of sins redemption sanctification salvation all graces come along with Christ in quo est omnis gratia Habent omnia qui habent deum habentem omnia St August And as there is Communion with them so there is communition from them we may not amisse take the word Communio a Communiendo that is to be reckoned among the benefits we receive so our Church reckons it the strengthening of our souls Vis semper fortior in Vnione nothing can prevail against earth when heaven
it was for us for our sakes he was content to be broken we did sit our sins all of us had an hand in breaking him and in sign of that it is stiâ—l The Bread which we break But the chief cause of our breaking of it is that which Saint Chrysostome gives patitur frangi ut omnes impleat every one could not take a little if Christ did not suffer himself to be made so little and to shew he gave his body to be crucified for all he appoints his signe to be broken for all This Ceremony and no other he appointed for this signe we may not so well away with that of the Papists which use round Wafers and give to every one one no breaking at all nor yet so properly allow of that of ours in some places cutting and mangling of the Bread and not any signe of breaking Christ was known at first in the miracle of five Loaves and there was breaking of Bread after the Resurrection he was made known unto the Disciples by breaking of bread The Apostles practice in the Primitive Church was breaking of Bread and in the Sacrament he makes it his Ceremony He brake the bread all Authority all Antiquity makes especially for this Ceremony and being it self of such use it behoves us to make much of it too and so much to be spoken of it and of the first part of the Sacrament The outward signe We be come now to the second part of the Sacrament Res caelestis 1 part The inward Grace The inward and spirituall grace which answers to the signes in number yet is in nature but one Vnus Christus in quo omnis gratia saith Bernard yet Christ gave both His body to be crucified and his bloud to be shed his body to be meat indeed his bloud to be drink indeed and in the Sacrament he instituted signes of both The Cup which we blesse the Bread which we break they are both as yet to be considered severally till we come to the Communion to their coming into one the joyning of them both together As yet we take the Text in parts the second part is now to be taken notice of and in that according to the order of the Apostle 1 The Bloud of Christ Some take it Metaphorically for the soul 1 The bloud of Christ so in the Law Sanguis est anima Christ indeed gave himself and he did consist of soul and body both he had not took upon hiâ— our nature else if he had not had a perfect humane soul neither had he redeemed any soul at all if he had not had a soul himself Tolle animam Christi Praesta quid Deus redemit saith Tertullian to Marcion And in his soul he suffered more then in his body the fears the sorrows the wounds of it are past any mans expression witnesse his heavy complaining Anima mea tristis est his strong crying Pater si possibile est his bloudy sweating his fear his whole Agony none but he could ever feel such wounds the guilt of a world of sin the sence of the wrath of God none but his soul could carry such sorrows Something it is meet should be to remember them as well as those of his body the soul cannot be resembled by any thing the bloud carries the neerest resemblance Sanguis est anima or at least in loco animae we may allow of that If not that then take it literally his naturall bloud the very substance of it that which he gave so liberally to be shed upon the Crosse the Bloud of the Paschall Lamb the bloud of all the Jewish sacrifices were but Commonstratives of that that is not now to be had not to be shown again Christ suffered once for all his offering of himself was but once substantially to be made and made by himself his flesh and bloud are now glorified with his Godhead and become impatible Care sanguis usurpà runt regnum Dei in Christo saith Tertullian only we remember that and the Wine in the Cup is the nearest resemblance of it not Commonstrative as the Type but Commemorative of the Truth of his Bloud That We may adde to it the Bloud of Christ Metonimically the merit of his Bloud that which he effected by shedding of his Bloud the remission of sins our reconcilement and peace with God our Righteousnesse Sanctification Redemption 1 Cor. 1. 30. All these through his Bloud through Faith in his Bloud His Bloud which speaketh better things then the Bloud of Abel this cryed for vengeance his was Sanguis clamans too but it spake Father forgive them it cryed for mercy and reconcilement The benefit is specially intended by the Bloud the purging of sin and purchasing of peace this is chiefly to be remembred and we do this when we say the Bloud of Christ For it is not the substance of his Bloud that cleanseth it comes not to all it comes not at all but the merit of it by the efficacy and vertue of it this was the end of our shewing it and this is the summe of what may be said of the first The Bloud of Christ The next is the Body of Christ we consider that also two wayes 2 The Body and both of them are intensive in my Text First Substantiam Corporis Secondly Efficaciam meritum both are to be remembred in this part First The Body the substance of it The same Body which was crucified Corpus quod pro vobis traditum est are the words of the institution The Syrian interpreter renders it Pagra which saith Beza is properly Corpus mortuum it is to shew his death and it cannot be shewed plainer then by such a word which signifies his dead Body That we must shew the Bread which is broken is his signe Corporis quod frangitur which is broken for you 1 Cor. 11. 24. And when we shew that we shew his wâ—unds and stripes his beating and brusing and bearing all that he did suffer on his body the Commemoration is to be of his passion Secondly we remember the merit of his passion that for which he gave his Body to be crucified the purchase for which he paid such a price the remission of sins they were all laid upon his Body Davids sin upon Davids son Dominus transtulit peccata tua are the words of Nathan to him not abstulit but transtulit from thee upon him and not only his but ours he bare our sins faith Isaiah 53. He bare them on his Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. we were sold to sin to death our body to the grave our soul to hell To corruption to torment he gave himself for us both body and soul ut redimeret saith Saint Paul Tit. 2. 14. Remission Redemption are the main effects of his passion we cannot remember his death but we must remember the desert and merit of it So I have done with the parts severally the outward signe the inward grace
Leaven of Faith and Charity They soon fall of having not the right Leaven into many pieces being not united by the cement of the Spirit into one Body sowing is all they are fit for and to that imployment the enemy of the Church puts them the whole field is every where over-sown with them These are many but not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those many the Apostle speaks of for those being many are one bread and one body But besides all these there are many of whom this Text may be said which are Materialls of one building sheep of one sold branches of one Vine grains of one bread members of one body Which though they be dispersed on the Mountains are of one flock belong to one shepherd and know and understand his call though they be as divided members here one and that a little one on this Page and over leaf another yet being cast up make but one sum are reckoned to one head though they ly scattered like the dryed bones in Ezekiels vision yet they shall come bone to bone and the sinews and the flesh and the skin shall come unto them and their breath that they may live and shall be made up into one body though they be but as an handfull in comparison of others in the world yet like the gleanning of Ephraim they are better then the whole Vintage of Aâ—iezer A little flock a remnant and other such terms the holy Ghost calls them by when he opposeth them against the numerous multitudes of others yet they are many enough stones for the building enough members for the body God will not let any part be lacking and there must be many members to one body and here they are many in the Text. And that which is above all nos illi multi we for our parts and whosoever else which is of the Sacramentall Communion which is Calicis and of the spirituall which is Capitis it needs not be disputed in what places we are while we are parts whether the ear or the eye or the hand or the foot whether of the honourable or lesse honourable while we be members the administrations and functions are divers but they all serve the necessities of the body The whole Church is the Body of Christ and we for our parts members of it 1 Corinth 12. 27. We may sure say the Text We that are many are one Body But then that we may say it right and it concerns us much we must know what it is to be one body what tyes and bonds belong to this union how necessary it is to be of it what danger there is in being out of it And this discourse will take up the second part of my Text The Relatum in which all the Correlates meet into one We being many are one Body There are divers wayes for many to come into one First Naturall so the soul and the body are made one Secondly Conjugall so man and wise Thirdly Politicall so all the Inhabitants within one City or house are made one Fourthly Morall so friends are made one Fifthly Hypostaticall so Christ and our nature were made one Sixthly Sacramentall so the signe and the thing signed are made one Lastly Mysticall so all the faithfull like so many members are made one being many are one Body I am not to say any thing of any one of them but the last our Mysticall making one one Body in Christ And this the Scriptures and Fathers have sought divers wayes to illustrate by other Allegories one building the Materialls many one flock the sheep many one tree the branches many and many such yet it is but one The last of these I must insist upon We being many are one Body Yet there are three sorts of Bodies especially considerable First the Body Naturall Secondly the Body Politicall Thirdly the Body Mysticall The two first of these we cannot be no man will imagine it in a literall sense one Body or in a civill sense one Body the Church of Christ cannot be one so which consists of many naturall bodies it self and is in many remote places never likely to come into one civill Polity The Body Mysticall is only to be considered And that is but Metaphoricall so called by a similitude taken from the naturall body otherwise it is not properly a body which is made up of many bodies But so the holy Ghost is sain to speak improperly to condiscend to our capacity to shew us what the Body of Christ is his Church by that we know already what the body of man is Visibilibus rapere ad invisibilia saith Gregory That is his way That way we take and consider four things belonging to a body naturall and under that similitude observeable in the Mysticall 1. A sufficiency of parts 2. The Union of them into one 3. Their Symmetry and Agreement 4. Their Offices and Administrations I begin with the first A sufficiency of parts No body can be without them trina dimensio belongs to every body at least but a perfect body such as the naturall body of man is or the Mysticall Body of Christ is cousists of many parts All the body is not one member Multa membra unum corpus It belongs to the Philosopher and when he hath done to the Physition to take an exact survey of all the parts which do belong to a body it is enough for us that there are parts enough God in framing of the naturall body would not suffer any redundancy or dâ—fiâ—iency we may not but think the same of the Mysticall In thy Book saith David unto him are all my members written he keeps a Book of all the members of his body the Church as well by him they are numbred and to him only known we may not deny the Body of Christ to be perfect which hath a full enumeration of parts But yet the parts are not come together to make it perfect God hath a day Book Liber vitae bujus wherein lye some scattered mâ—mbers not yet recollected they are not yet summed up till God comes to his verbum abbreviatum yet they are to be reokoned in the accompts In nature the generation of the form is in an instant but the parts stay their time of production and when they are all come the body is not perfect till it have the degrees the state of this life is but the womb of the body of Christ there is a still repairing of the Saints and an edification of the Body till we all meet together unto a perfect man Here as in the Mount the Materialls are all cut out and squared for that great building no noise of any instrument shall be heard hereafter but such stones as will serve shall be laid upon the pile the rest put away with the rubbish God only knows how many and which they be will serve we take all that are any way prepared to belong to it wheresoever the Axe of the Gospel and the Hammer of the Law
have come till the great builder shall have reprobated them There shall no stone be lacking to this building no member to this Body though they lye scaâ—terred yet there will be a Collection Boâ—â— to his bone though they be wounded yet there is a repairing not one of them shall be lost the hair and nail and such excrements may well be let fall and perish but no part shall be missing A sufficiency of parts there will be Thaâ— is the first But yet they make not a body unlesse they come together the dryed bones till they were new set and the Nerves and flesh and skin came upon them could not be said a body tiâ—l the Union of the parts in one come there is no Communion many members there be but by that and that is the next they come to be one body In the naturall body there are Nerves and strings and ligaments and irteries by which all the parts are firmly united Such there are in the Mysticall by which the body is knit and coupled together in every joynt Ephes 4. 16. 1. Spirit us saâ—ictus est nexus he is the prime principall bond The Tendon by which all the parts are knit and coupled The Body to the head by him and the members to the body he is the sap which runs from the root into all the branches that aâ—me dyes and withers and soon falls off which hath not him He is the Leaven by which the whole lump is compacted and grows into one loaf nothing keeps soul and body together but he all would soon fall off like ears of Corn if not by him bound up into one sheaf he is the cement of the whole building there is nothing else to hinde too the Materialls if they bâ— laid loose they cannot last long no Union can be firm without the spirit And to this quasi ad Tendonem all the Nerves and other joyntures tend here they meet they are many as in the naturall body 2. Religâ—on is a main tye it is a religando like Gordions knot it will not be untyed it may well be forc't There is a story how true I know not yet of no mean Author how four strong horses in an whole houres space were not able to strain the joynts of one man in his severall quarters and not then till the executioner with his sword hackt them in peeces it is in nothing so true as in this tye of Religion Non dissolvi possunt quos vera religio conjunxit it only makes true Yoak-followes which like the two Kine as Saint Bernard sweetly compares them bare the Arke of God to Bethshemesh 1 Sam. 6. though their Calves were left behinde them and kept one path and went up lowing together Neither Policy nor Villany can make so firm brethren as Religion Fratrum gratia is no where kept so sure as between these Quos Deus Conjunxit is said of marriage knot Let no man put asunder let them not but if they will do it and it hath been done who shall let them from it And it is likeliest done where both the parties are not of one Religion or if they professe one yet they are not what they professe both but of these which by it are made one quis separabit Like Saul and Jonathan they are lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death not divided neither indeed can they be divided see but what strings they are tyed together with 1. One Faith quisquis fidem se tenere credit unitatem teneat saith St Cyprian He falls from that which falls out of this Faith is imitatis Monimentum Munimentum Therefore the Ancients hold that the Apostles Creed Summa fidei was made for that purpose ut esset unanimitatis indicium that all professors might there meet in one though dispersed never so much in place The Doctrine of Christian Religion is but one one Faith materially The giâ—t of Faith by which we have Faith in the Faith to speak with Athanasius Creed though it be numerically Diverse yet is in all but one one Faith formally one Faith there is union by that 2. One Hope Heaven and our eternall inheritance we all hope for one mark the prize of our high calling we all contend to in the world men take divers wayes because they pitch upon divers ends he saith unto gold thou art my hope another to his honour but they that hope all for one thing like a ship under sail where there be many passengers steer their course unto one and the same Port Can they think to meet there and go every one their own wayes heer As if we had many heads as one said of the Christian Armies Quid absurdius quà m nos in terris dissidere qui fruituri sumus omnes eadem felicitate in coelis By one hope there comes more strength to this Union 3. But the Bond of perfection is love Coloss 3. 14. and that is also one it is called Christs garment Faith and Hope never go apparreld in any other and that was non de parte consutilis sed per totum textilis saith Cyprian without any seam not to be ript nor rent but delivered whole If we have that on and we being Christians would not be thought without it it will not be too little for us to put on sufficit mihi tihi tuniâ—â— Christi saith Bernard it will cover us and withall a multitude of sins of offences of breaches which must else make us fall off on all sides And indeed the cause of all our rents is the want of having that on and it is not such charity which we commonly reckon of such which hath but a thread between it and emnity or so little difference as that they might not be distinguished asunder Christs Garment is not like Jeroboams wherein were made twelve rents at once Integra vestis accipitur the souldier to whose lot it fell took it whole men of that calling seldomest of any have it yet then it was had to shew that it may be had by men of any condition â—â— of that and being had whole it will serve to cover the whole body the ear from hearing the eyes from spying the lips from speaking the hands from practising any thing that may tend to the breach of Union to differences and discention now a threefold cord is not easily broken one Faith one Hope one Love make the bond of perfection make the Union firm But besides these three are other which are as Nerves and Sinews to unite all the parts The Apostle reckons them up in Ephes 4. 4. One Baptisme The Font is the wombe of our new birth sumus fratres As Abraham said to Lot It was strange to Rebecca to have striving in her womb but there was some reason for that two nations and two manner of people were in her bowels But they are all of one people whom the womb of the Church bears if they be right bred Indeed it is not