them out of the Puddle where they did ly like Beasts without sense of danger or shame and it quickens these rotten Trees for the producing of better Fruit. The first Life being opposite to Condemnation and Eternal Punishment belongs properly to the Blood that hath satisfied divine Justice and so removed Punishment and the second which is opposite to stupid and senseless both falling into sin and lying in it relates properly to the Water that after Propitiation and Pardon washes and sanctifies the sinner These two Lives are the two first Effluxes which proceeded out of Jesus Christ when his Body was pierced and both are inseparable as the Blood and the water were which flowed together out of his side Let none who finds himself clean from the filth and spots of his sin be afraid of Punishment for them I have found a Ransom for him Job 33.24 for the water came not without the Blood But let every one that hath a mind to be safe from Punishment which is taken off by the Blood seek for farther security in the purifying of himself from all the uncleanness of sin which the Water is to wash away for the Blood came not without water Christ came not by Blood alone but by water and Blood 1 Joh. 5.6 9. Over and above these two Lives whereof one consists in Pardon and removal of Punishment the other in Sanctification and enlivens us from dead works so as not thenceforward to deserve it as before there remains besides a third Life which consists in an absolute Redemtion from Death and other miseries This life as to the sure Title and Right is together with the two other purchased by the same Sacrifice but as to the real use and possession it is reserved for us in Heaven and there hid with Christ in God Coloss 3.3 Until it be revealed we appear as if we were dead these two Jewels lying in and being wrapped about with the dark Veils of human Mortality till that Christ becoming unto us actual Redemtion as well as actual Justice and actual Sanctification this third life succeeds to break the Cloud 10. Now the blessed Savior being by his Sacrifice the Author and giver of these three Lives shews himself by this Sacrament to be the preserver of them also and to this purpose sets up a Table by his Altar where he engages most solemnly to feed and nourish our Souls with the constant supply of his Mercies to the very day of eternal Salvation as really as he gives and we receive these Elements of Bread and Wine which are the usual meanes of sustaining mortal Bodies until the end of this short Life My Father worketh hitherto and I work with him Ioh. 95.17 God the father rested indeed upon the seventh day from the work of Creating and God the Son at the same day from the work of Suffering but neither of them will rest till the day of Redemtion from the work of preserving both what the Creation hath produced and what the Passion hath saved In the first Creation here is a Man and a Woman made of the Flesh and as it were of the very wounds of her Husband and there you find a Tree planted to maintain both their life and strength In the Deliverance of Egypt here is a People saved by the Sacrifice of the Passeover and lest so many rescued out of Egypt should faint and starve in the Desert there you see an Angel leading them the way with his Light keeping them cool under the Shadow of his Cloud and feeding them through all their journny with a miraculous sort of Meat Jesus is both in the Original and progress of Salvation the Truth foreshewed by these Figures When he dyed upon the Cross there he fullfilled that which had bin shadowed forth both by the Sleep and wound of Adam and by the killing of paschal Lambs And when he feeds from Heaven with a continual Effusion of Blessing those souls and lives which he hath bin pleased to redeem by the effusion of his own Blood He is the Truth both of the Tree and of the Angel which were appointed the one to maintain Man and the other to keep Israel 11. Christ relates to these four Figures as the Body which fulfils them and the Holy Communion relates to them on the other side as an Antitype that is as one Image may relate to another all to express the same object Upon the breaking the one and powring out the other of these consecrated Elements you see what Christ hath suffered as upon the wound of Adam and the death of the Passeover Abel Enoc and Israel might partly see what he should suffer And upon the nourishing nature of this Bread you see that which others have seen in the Tree of life and in the Angel raining down Manna what He would give But this is the advantage of the Holy Communion above all the ancient Figures Adam with his open Side and all Sacrifices with their Blood did foretel only Christs Passion and the Tree of life with all its fruit and the Angel with all his Food did foretel only his preserving Grace whereas this Sacrament alone represents both his Passion and Preserving and besides these another great Mystery by their mutual dependency What wee take and eat is made of a Substance cut bruised and put to the fire that shews my Saviors Passion and it was used in that manner that it may afford me wholesom food that shewes the Benefit which both he gives and I receive out of this dreadful Passion The Angels enjoy such an immortality and wear such Crowns as cost God nothing but the pain he took to give them ours are more precious and costly then so Our inheritance in Heaven is not less then Akeldamah a Possession bought with Christs Blood In this Sacrament here is Death represented there Life the Life is mine the Death my Saviors and ô blessed Jesus this my Life comes out of thy Death and the Salvation which I hope for is purchased with all the pain and Agonies which Thou didst suffer 12. Here Melchisedek and Aaron wait upon Jesus Christ at this Table as Moses and Elias did on the Mount These two great Priests stand to soreshew what Christ alone is to perform For there is Aaron the Priest with Blood and here Melchisedek with Bread There Aaron breaks sheds and destroies here Melchisedek feeds and blesses Nay both are one in Jesus Christ First Christ appears to Sacrifice upon the Cross as Aaron did at his Altar with Flesh and Blood and as in Melchisedeks case and figure with his own Flesh and his own Blood Then as Aaron did use to enter once every year into the Sanctuary Christ once for all is ascended into Heaven thence to bless us Act. 3.26 And this blessing is the strength the Food and Refreshment which Melchisedek brought in a figure that with the help of these good Things both Abraham and his Followers that is all sincere Christians may
of Blessing which wee bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ 1. Cor. 10.16 For whether the word which wee render Communion be taken in an active sense as 't is often for Communication the holy Eucharist is a Means of communicating the Blood of Christ or tho we take it but in a neuter and intransitive sense yet the holy Eucharist will be still a Mystery wherein one way or other true Christians shall find not a Commemoration or Representation only but a Communion also with the Blood so represented and remembred 5. The reall Efficacy which the Holy Communion hath to convey Grace and Blessing on the true Christian Receiver is evidently demonstrated by the opposite Efficacy it hath to convey a Curse and Destruction on the Profane Whosoever sayes S. Paul eats of this Bread unworthily eats damnation to himself Now certainly this would be as much to think unworthily as to eat unworthily of this holy Bread to think it might be really pernicious when it is abused but not really blissful and saving in its right use and that this Bread which we eat of should be an effectual Communion to procure death but meerly Sacramental only to shew and not to procure Salvation S. Paul sets out the Character of the unworthy Communicant by not discerning the Lords Body and thereby declares him guilty of the very Body and Blood of Christ That is to say that whosoever offers to abuse this Sacrament plunges himself into their Crime who have abused Christ himself and that that Villain goes hand in hand with Judas with Pilate with both Jews and Romans who murthered Him What therefore can be thought of those good Souls who approach to this Sacrament with faith humility and a trembling Reverence but that they will return home as much Justified and full of grace after their Devout as the other shall full loaded with Damnation after their impious usage and that God will be as merciful in reckoning those among the Righteous Mary Joseph Nicodemus as He is Just against these when upon this account he shuts up their Souls with the Sinners that in very deed crucified him And God forbid that the Body of Christ who came to save not destroy should not diffuse as much of its Savor of life for the life and Salvation of Devout Souls as it doth of its Savor of Death for the Death of the Impious 2 Cor. 2.16 6. The manner of this real Communication and Conveyance is the great unfathomable Mystery which the Holy Fathers have ever admired and which therefore we neither need nor do take upon us to explain The Shepherds think themselves happy with the Message brought to them by an Angel This day is born to you a Savior Luke 2.11 tho they know nothing of the way of his most miraculous Birth and the honest Israelites ought not to receive Manna less thankfully as they do not less effectually tho they know neither of what matter nor by what means the Heavens the Air or the Clouds can thus every morning shed about their Tents this strange Meat I must not wonder if the waies of the Lord be unknown to me in his Miracles since they are so very often in his most ordinary works And if David tho a Prophet cannot think upon that natural virtue which makes Bones and Veins every day out of that feed that is apparently nothing like to all these parts of Mans body but he cries out I have bin strangely and wonderfully made Ps 139.13 Who am I to pretend to a clear understanding of that hidden and incomprehensible wisdom wherewith God is pleased to make out of Water or Wine or Bread in themselves weak Elements strong and supernatural Organs for Mens Souls and salvation 7. It is true indeed that Bread Wine and Water can without much ado come up so high as to become a Sacrament to signify since the Act of signifying depends meerly on Institution Yet this Institution such as may make a Sacrament must needs proceed both from a Divine and an almighty Origine Divine I say to give a Sacred Character and Almighty withal to justify and maintain it For example after the Flood no man or Angel had authority to make of the Rainbow a Mystery that should signify the worlds preservation from Drowning and if either Men or Angels had taken on them that Liberty none of them had the power to make it true that is to make it a standing infallible Evidence that the world shall never perish by water So in the Church neither Apostles nor Bishops have any more Right to confer either upon the water of Baptism or upon the Bread and Wine of the Holy Communion a Sacramental or representative Office then they have power to make good their Representation by conferring the Blessings promised by it And it is specially to this purpose that most of the Expressions and Epiphonemas of the holy Doctors are to be understood when they stand somtimes amazed at the infinit Power of God either in the Institution or the use of these Mysteries God alone being able to raise water or Blood or any Thing else to the Order of Sacraments But to raise them a step higher that is to the Dignity of standing for true Means and Instruments which may convey on us those Graces which by their proper institution they represent there is the Finger of God indeed and there is a fitter matter for Mens admiration then Mens knowledg 8. Here then I come to Gods Altar with a full perswasion that these words This is my Body promise me more then a figure that this holy Banquet is not a Representation made of outward shews without substance and that it is not so dangerous a Mystery but that the Religious use of it may convey to me at the least as many and as great Blessings as the profane abuse of it may throw on the Abuser Plagues and Curses But how these Mysteries become in my behalf the supernatural Instruments of such Blessings it is enough for me to admire One thing I know as said the blind man after he had received his sight S. Joh. 9.25 he laid Clay upon mine Eyes and behold I see He hath blessed and given me this Bread and my Soul received Comfort I verily believe that Clay hath nothing in it self that could have wrought such a Miracle as Israel never saw the like And I know as much of this Bread that it is not such a Jewel as may contain in its substance or impart from it self to others Grace Holiness and Salvation which is the juice and the substance of Christs Body Only I am perfectly satisfied that 't is the constant way of God to produce his greatest Works at the presence tho not by the virtue of the most useless Instruments At the very stroke of a Rod He parted once in two the red Sea At the blowing some Trumpets He tumbled down massy strong walls At some few washings in Jordan he
Center both of his Happiness and his Duty and that ties the very knot which in a manner joins Man with God It was upon this account that the Devil who bore ever an equal hatred both to what is Holy to God and to all what is conducible to the Salvation of Man hath from the very beginning bin busie with this Sacrament and hath ever since given the Church more trouble about the Body of Jesus Christ then ever the Angel suffered about the Body of Moses Jude 9. For the Body of Christ as the Holy Fathers distinguish it being of two sorts to wit the Natural which is in Heaven and the Sacramental which is blessed and given at the holy Table the primitive Heretics whom the Spirit of Antichrist set up and animated against the Church spent all their strength and their venim at the very time and in the face of the Apostles in order to destroy the first which is the Human Nature of Christ and to reduce it to a Phantosm and God knows whether the second that is the Sacramental receives at this day any better entertainment from two contrary Parties who make it either a false God or an emty Ceremony Of all these opposite Enemies the first who assaulted his Flesh could in this impiety be but poor vain undertakers this glorious Body being highly exalted above their reach but the second are on this account more dangerous because the blessed Communion which makes up this other Body may daily fall into the hands of either an Idolatrous or a profane Abuser Therefore it very much concerns them whosoever have either any Piety towards God or any care of their own Souls to menage their Devotions with such precaution and judgment that this venerable Sacrament may be kept safe from the attemts of superstition and profaneness SECTION II. Concerning the Sacrament as it is a Memorial of the Sufferings and Death of Christ 1. THe blessed Communion was chiefly instituted by the Son of God for a Sacrament in the Church But when it is received by the Christian People if this receiving of theirs be right it must needs be attended with the addition of such other Performances as will make it also a Sacrifice As it is a Sacrament this great Mystery shews three Faces looking directly towards three Times and offering to all worthy Receivers three sorts of incomparable Blessings that of Representing the true Efficacy of Christs Sufferings which are past whereof it is a Memorial that of exhibiting the first Fruits of these Sufferings in real and present Graces whereof it is a moral Conveyance and Communication and that of assuring Men of all other Graces and Glories to come whereof it is an infallible Pledg 2. As this Sacrament looks back it is an authentic Memorial which our Savior hath left in his Church of what He was pleased to suffer for Her For tho these Sufferings of His were both so dreadful and Holy as to make the Heavens mourn the Earth quake and all men tremble yet because great Objects how terrible and magnificent soever they be whilst they last are not less then the smallest things apt to be forgotten when they are gon and so there was small likelyhood that the Passion of Jesus Christ which was not seen upon the Cross above the space of some few hours could be well preserved in the memory of men throughout all ages therefore our Saviour was pleased at his last Supper to ordain this Sacrament as a holy Memorial Representation and Image of what He was about to suffer for that short time to save his dear Church for ever So that when Christian Posterity which had not seen the Crucifixion of their Savior like the young Israelites that had not seen the killing of the first Passover should come to ask after the signification of those things this Bread this Wine the Breaking of the one the powring out of the other and the Participation of both this sacred Mystery might expose to faithful Beholders as a present and constant Object both the Martyrdom and the Sacrifice of this crucified Savior giving up his Flesh shedding his Blood and pouring out his very Soul for the expiation of their Sins 3. Therefore as in the Feasts of the Passover the late Jews could say This is the Lamb these are the Herbs and this is the Bread of affliction which our Fathers did eat in Egypt because their latter Feasts did so effectually represent the former that the People who did partake of those had ground enough both to act and to speak as if they had bin present at this So at our holy Communion which succeeds the Passover and is undoubtedly no less a blessed and powerful Sacrament to set before our eyes Christ our Passover who is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Our Saviour says St. Augustin doubted not to say This is my Body when he gave to his Disciples the Figure of his Body Because especially besides the Commemoration this Sacrament duly given and faithfully received makes the Thing which it represents as really present for our use and as really powerful in order to our Salvation as if the Thing it self were newly done or in doing Eating this Bread and drinking of this Cup you set forth the death of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11.26 4. For certainly not to mistake the meaning of Christ nor to injure his Mystery whensoever with the primitive Church we call it a Memorial or a Figure great care must be taken lest we confound these Venerable Representations which God himself hath set up in his Church and for his Church with those emty Figures and Marks which either some old Tradition or some private phansie may by chance have put in our way Men of ordinary Understanding do not regard with the same eye the Armes and Images of Princes which public Autority hath set up in a public eminent Place and which a Painter to please his phansie hath fixt in a private Room Without all doubt a wise Traveller would be much more moved at the sight of the Salt Pillar if it did stand yet where it did which God had set up purposely where Lots wife lookt towards Sodom then at some Prints of her Feet if they were to be seen yet when she turned some other way And if we credit the History that Cross which the first Christian Emperor is reported once to have seen in the Air which undoubtedly the hand of God or an Angel had made appear with some Design could not but cause a greater respect then that ordinary Sign of the Cross which Christians have used on common occasions Add what no body can deny that all Sorts of Signs and Monuments become more or less Venerable according to the greater or lesser worth of the Objects which they are made to represent It had bin hard for Abraham or for any devout Patriarck not to feel some motions of Reverence and holy Fear when they did chance to pass again by Mamre or by Morijah
Church in the most sutable manner to work in men a deep impression Therefore as God himself in order to satisfy Moses more fully that his People should not perish nor so much as diminish under the Thraldom of Egypt shewed him a Bush continuing still whole and entire in the midst of a great Fire and in order they might be more firmly perswaded that tho they were in a wilderness they were under Gods protection he made them go all the way under a Cloud that when soever there should happen any staggering in their Belief both Moses and the People might strengthen it Moses by remembring the Bush and the People by minding the Cloud to the same purpose hath Christ ordained some Visible Signes in his Church to compleat her common Faith and to assure this truth to every one who comes to him that he shall be cleansed of his sins as certainly as it is certain he sees some water which is the ordinary means for washing and that he shall be kept up and fed with a supply of all necessary Blessings as certainly and really as it is real and certain he tasts and takes in this Bread and Wine which are the ordinary means for preserving our life and strength 4. Besides because the Sacraments are designed not only to perswade us more strongly of the truth and Being of the Things but also to acquaint us more familiarly and sensibly with their Condition and nature these Sacraments must have in their natural constitution some known Qualities that make them fit for this Sacramental office Such hath the Water for example which was so deservedly chosen for the use of holy Baptism because of the proper virtue it hath of washing the things that are fowl of reviving and refreshing them that are dry and of making fruitful the Barren Hereupon S. Austin saies plainly that unless the holy Sacraments had some such agreement with the Holy Things which they are set up to represent they could not be Sacraments at all Epist 23. ad Bonif. 5. So the blessed Communion is made of two such Elements as can forthwith expose to the sight and sense of all men the true ground of its Sacramental and significative Function This function is twofold the first to represent Christs Sufferings and the second to represent the Blessing and the Benefit which we receive from these Sufferings The first I say to represent Christs Sufferings This Bread and Wine could neither sustain nor refresh me had not their intrinsecal Substance lost its first condition and estate that is if the one had never fallen under the Sickle the threshing the Milstone the Fire and the other under the Hook the Trampling and the Press of bandmen Nor doth the Son of God save me but by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 2.7 emtying himself in a manner for a while of his first glory in Heaven and by losing that second life which he had taken in Bethlehem This Blessed Savior is not a Savior by the strength of all the Miracles which He did about Judea nor by any thing that He could suffer as long as He would keep himself alive when he was made fast to his Cross As the best Harvest is not yet Bread as long as it stands in the Field nor is the best Corn Bread likewise as long as 't is kept whole in the Floor both Corn and Harvest being no more then antecedent Matter for mans Food Jesus living in Galilee Jesus teaching about the Temple Jesus commanding Storms and Waves when he did walk upon the Sea if he had proceeded no further could not have bin the Bread of life it must be Jesus suffering Jesus crucified Jesus dying the grinding Mill and the burning Fire have of this Corn made me this Bread and nothing less then Cross Wounds Death my Lord my God! could of thy dearest Son make my Savior 6. I say secondly this Eucharistical Bread is instituted to represent the Fruit and Benefit which we receive both at the Holy Table and upon all other occasions from Christs Sufferings to wit Maintenance and Improvement of life As without Bread and Wine or somthing answerable to it the strongest Bodies soon decay so without the virtue of the Body and Blood of Christ the best and holiest Souls must infallibly starve and perish The Body of the Lord as it was offered up to God in Sacrifice is the Truth represented by the Passover and as represented to us at the Holy Communion is the Truth and Accomplishment typified by the Manna The one is as it were the Seed and the Original Principle whence we are born and the other as the Bread wherewith we live That is to say as Bread and Wine do not produce but keep up that animal Life which another Cause hath produced so doth our Lord Jesus by a necessary and continual supply of strength and Grace represented by Bread and Wine sustain improve and set sorward that Spiritual Life and new Being which He hath procured us by his Cross 7. For Jesus the second Adams being seiz'd as He hung on the Cross with that deep sleep which God daused to fall upon him gave this new Being to his Church out of that side which at his Passion was opened and the Blood and Water which then gushed out of his Wounds are the true Principles of life by reason of which his spouse the Church may be called Eve that is true and everlasting Liver Before she had this new original out of her Saviors Passion her Husbands sleep she by her old Extraction was a very Daughter of Death and a Mother of such Children as could pretend to no better Inheritance then Curse and Wrath. Ephes 2.2 By the course of Nature our Life is but a sad Progress from Birth to Death and by the course of Gods Justice a sadder Motion such as is that of condemned Persons from Prison to the Place of their Execution But whilst we were daily passing on to that most dreadful Punishment the Son of God lookt on us and took our Condemnation upon himself and under it dyed in our steed Thus by the Death and satisfaction of this Victim Justice gave way to my Release God the Father forgave my Sin and God the Son procured my Life This Grace is the first Purchace of Christs Blood the first Irradiation of Gods mercy and the first Breath of spiritual Life in our Nostrils 8. But alas how soon would this first life vanish away were it not presently followed and supported by a second How soon would the removal of the former be frustrated by the commission of other Sins And since I am no sooner born in sin then dead in it how hard would it be without more help in this corrupted condition to keep dead Lazarus from Rottenness Therefore the Body and Blood of Christ once Sacrificed on the Cross to help this first procures a second Life that preserves whomsoever it saves out of this stupid death in sin it helps
pass away and the power which the other hath to take and enjoy what is given him Now Christ and his Estate his Happiness and his Glory his Eternity and his Heaven are not Things that may be moved more easily then the Mountains or the Earth and therefore not to be disposed of in any other real manner then great immoveable Estates are Therefore the Kingdom of Israel was once conferred upon David with some drops of that Sacred Oil which Samuel poured on his head 1 Sam. 16.13 The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is in full value and Heaven with all its fulness is in sure Title instated on true Christians by those small portions which they receive at the Blessed Communion the Minister of Christ having as to this effect as much power from his Master for what he acts as any Prophet or any Angel ever had for what they did 9. Hence it appears what crime it is not to discern the Lords Body It is to do worse then Esau did who sold his Birthright for a trifle it is to value at the same rate the Anointing of a Prophet and the composition of a Perfumer it is to take the Lords Body for a despicable Morsel of Bread In a word 't is to perform the action of a Beast that devours but the gross and earthy Matter of this Sacrament and have nothing of a Christian or rational creature who elevates his Soul to that Body which by Christs institution it represents and to the Price of that Body which it promises For since the proper essence of Sacred signs or Sacraments consists not in what they are in their nature but in what they signify by divine institution hence it happens infallibly that when the Sacraments are abused the injury must needs light not upon them in their own natural Being Bread Wine and Water which upon this account are not at all considerable but upon the Holy mysteries the Body and Blood of Christ himself who is the main object of their formal Being that is their Signification And therefore the Apostle speaks most exactly when he saies that whosoever eats of this Bread unworthily doth not discern or doth not sanctify but uses as a common and profane thing the very Body of Jesus Christ 11. In this profane want of Discerning 't is hard to say whether the Sin or the Punishment be the greater For the sin is abominable since not the Bread but Christ himself suffers the wrong the Bread being not here concerned at all nor more abused by the Villain that abuses the Sacrament then is the Earth the water or any other common matter of human Bodies by the Murtherer that kills a Man or then are Brass and Marble by the Rebels who pull down their Princes Statues or then Parchment Paper and Ink by that unnatural Son who tears and tramples upon the Deeds and the last will of his Father Only there is this difference that in these last Instances the Outrage proceeds but from the Earth the Brass the Marble the Paper and other such common Matter to the Man King or Fathers persons who should have bin considered and who alone suffer the wrong whereas in abusing the blessed Sacraments the sin flys a great deal higher namely to the very Face of Jesus Christ for whose Body and Blood they stand So that as the Holy Communion is not exposed in the Church under the notion of Bread and Wine the faithful Communicants do appear there to receive Christ and the faithless to abuse Him 11. But if this Attemt is impious the Punishment that attends it is most dreadful It is a very sad mischance when Dogs or Apes tear like lose paper all to fitters the Titles and assurances of a good Estate and who would not pitty that wretch who in his mad Passion had thrown into the sea the very Keyes which were given him to Justify the Propriety of vast Treasures in such Houses as these keyes might open Blind Villains you cannot discern either among these Papers the Original Deeds of your Estate or among all these Instruments the keyes that might both assure and give you admittance to immense Riches Whensoever you eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup thus unworthily unhappy men you do not discern the Pledges of your Salvation nay most Impious as you are you neither discern nor will honor the Body and Blood of your Savior which would bring salvation to you At once both impious and unhappy men you despise and cast away from you both the Salvation and the Savior 12. Lord Jesu who hast ordained this Mystery for a Communion of thy Body for a Means of advancement and proficiency in Holiness and for an infallible Pledg of Eternal Salvation which thou hast purchased by thy Body and which thou preparest thy People to receive by this Proficiency in Holiness now Lord in mercy look on me help my unbelief increase my Faith and order the Soul of thy Servant who is to take these Holy Things Then since thou thy self originally givest them tho not immediatly but by the ministry of thy Disciples * Joh. 4.1 2. In giving them bless them also and bless them whilst I receive them that they may be efficacious to settle me in the Communion of thy Sufferings which they exhibit and shew forth to feed me with that living Bread which they present and to sanctify me for that eternal Happiness which they promise O Lord thou knowest my simpleness my Growning is not hid from thee look on a poor Sinner at thy Table as thou didst on him who hung by thy Cross O Lord my God remember me now when thou art come into thy Kingdom * Luke 23.42 Amen 13. Eternal Priest who art gon up on high there to receive Gifts for men fill my Heart I beseech thee with blessings out of thy holy Seat as now thou fillest my Mouth with the Holy Things of thy Church and so dispose me by thy Grace to eat both spiritually and really the Flesh of that Sacrifice which thou didst offer without the Gate and which this Sacrament sets before me here in thy Courts that thence I may be admitted into that Holyest Sanctuary which thy Sacrifice hath opened and which this Sacrament invites me to This is the Bread which the Lord hath prepared for his Children and which he sends me now by the hand of one of his Angels O that in the strength of this Meat I may walk as Elijah did my fourty daies or as Israel my fourty years and come at last to that Holy Mountain where without the help of any Bread or the Ministry of any Angels I shall see my God face to face Eternal and blessed and blessing Spirit of God bless me now and help me to drink so worthily of this fruit of the Vine that I may drink it new in the Kingdom of my Father Amen SECTION VI. Of the Holy Eucharist as it implies a Sacrifice And first of the Commememorative
pour out all our Grief our Prayers and our Praises before the Lord in so happy a conjuncture The primitive Christians did it so who did as seldom meet to preach or pray without a Communion as did the old Israelites to worship without a Sacrifice On solemn daies especially or upon great Exigencies they ever used this help of Sacramental Oblation as the most powerful Means the Church had to strengthen their Supplications to open the Gates of Heaven and to force in a manner God and his Christ to have compassion on them The People of Israel for the better performance of Prayer and Devotion went up to the Tabernacle and the Temple because besides other Motives both these were Figures of that Body which was to be sacrificed Wherefore Christ calls his Body this Temple Joh. 2.19 and the first Christians went up to their Churches there to meet with these Mysteries which do represent him both as already sacrificed and yet as in some sort offering and giving up himself Those in worshipping ever turned their Eyes their Hearts their hopes towards that Altar and Sacrifice whence the High Priest was to carry the Blood into the Sanctuary and these looking toward the Cross and their crucified Savior there through his Sufferings hope for a way towards Heaven being encouraged to this hope by the very Memorial which they both take to themselves and shew to God of these Sufferings Lastly Jesus our Eternal Priest being from the Cross where he suffered without the Gate gon up into the true Sanctuary which is Heaven there above doth continually present both his Body in true reality and us as Aaron did the twelve Tribes of Israel in a Memorial Exod. 28.29 and on the other side we beneath in the Church present to God his Body and Blood in a Memorial that under this shadow of his Cross and image of his Sacrifice we may present our selves before him in very deed and reality 5. O Lord who seest nothing in me that is truely mine but Dust and Ashes and which is worse sinful flesh and Blood look upon what I have of thee some small Remnant of thine Image some small beginnings of thy Grace and some light sparks of thy Spirit But because all these are defective supply them O Lord with thy mercy and with the Sacrifice of thy Son Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name and thine Anointed give the praise Turn thine Eyes O Merciful Father to the satisfaction and Intercession of thy Son who now sits at thy Right Hand to the Seals of thy Covenant which lye before thee upon this Table and to all the wants and distresses which also thou seest in my heart O Father glorify thy Son whom thou hast sent into this World O Son bless thou this Sacrament which thou hast ordained for thy Church and send with it some influence of that Spirit whom thou hast promised to all Flesh that by the help of these Mercies the World the Church our Flesh and Souls may glorify thee now and ever Father Son and Holy Spirit Amen SECTION VII Concerning the Sacrifice of our own Persons 1. IT is either the Error or the incogitancy of too many Christians which makes them somtimes beleive and oftener live as if under the Gospel there were no other Sacrifice but that of Christ upon the Cross It is very true indeed there is no other nor can there be any other sufficient and proper for this end of satisfiing Gods Justice and expiating our sins I have troden the Winepress alone and of the People there was none with me I looked and there was none to help Esay 63.3.5 In this respect tho the whole Church should in a Body offer up her self as a burnt Sacrifice to God yet could she not contribute more towards the bearing up or bearing away the wrath to come then all those Innocent souls who stood neer Jesus Christ when he gave up the Ghost did towards the darkning of the Sun or the shaking of the whole Earth But that which is not so much as useful much less necessary to this Eternal Sacrifice which alone could redeem Mankind is indispensably both necessary and useful that we may have a share in this Redemtion So that if the Sacrifice of our selves which we ought to offer up to God cannot procure Salvation it is absolutely necessary to receive it 2. As the old Law never introduced Aaron officiating before the Lord without the whole People of Israel represented both by the twelve stones on his Ephod and the two other on his shoulders Exod. 28.12.30 The Gospel most commonly describes Jesus Christ and his Church not only as two Parties that do nothing the one without the other but somtimes also as one Person alone as particularly 1. Cor. 12.12 Christ acts officiates and suffers for his Body in that manner that doth become the Head and the Church imitates and follows all the motions and sufferings of this heavenly and holy Head in such a manner as is possible to its weak Members 3. The main if not the whole Divinity of S. Paul as well in point of faith as of Christian life runs upon this Conformity both of actions and sufferings And that of S. Iohn likewise upon this same Communion The truth is Our Savior had neither Birth nor Death nor Resurrection here on Earth but such as we ought to conform us to as he hath neither Ascention nor Throne nor Everlasting life nor Glory but such as we may also have in Heaven common with him 4. This Conformity or likeness to Christ which as the Hebrewes use to spake is the foundation and Pillar that is the grand Principle of the whole Christian institution relates more directly to our duty about his Sufferings and then to our happiness about his Exaltation And the Communion which is the other great fundamental that S. Iohn hath still in his Mouth points more at this and presupposes that And both make up a full Comment upon the words which our Savior so often commanded his Disciples to follow him thereby signifiing both the Labor and the success of this most Important Journy for without doubt we shall follow him into Heaven if we will follow him here on Earth and we shall have Communion with him in his Glory if we will keep Conformity with him here in his Sufferings 5. These three expressions to Follow to be like or have Conformity and to have Communion which are the most essential Clauses in the charter and charge of christianity are not to be limited to the imitation of Christs Moralls only as when he bids us be Holy as he is Holy c. but they oblige all his Disciples to follow and imitate him likewise as much as in them lies throughout all the other parts of his life and the very functions of his Offices For we must be regenerated in his Birth dye on his Cross be buried in his Grave bear his shame in his Tribulations in
that is his Church For we that are many saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.17 are one Bread To this purpose the holy Martyr Ignatius Epist Rom. being ready to be offered up by Martyrdom said he was the wheat of God which was to be ground by Beasts teeth Soon after the Church added Oyl and Frankincense to Bread and Wine to make up the whole Meat Offering which consisted of these four Things The truth is all what we can offer upon our own account is but such an Oblation as this Meat and Drink offering of Moses was that cannot be presented but by the virtue and merits of Jesus Christ who supports it and that can never ascend up to Heaven but along with the sacred smoke of that great Burnt Sacrifice which is to carry it up thither For on the one side our own persons our works or any thing else that may be ours are by themselves but weak unsubstantial kinds of Offerings which cannot be presented unto God otherwise but as these Additional Oblations which from themselves fall to the ground unless a more solid Sacrifice do sustain them And on the other side this solid and fundamental Sacrifice upholds saves and sanctifies but those persons and things that according to the Law of Moses his Meat Offerings are thrown into this his fire are hallowed upon his Altar and are together with him consecrated to God by him 11. For this cause it is that as soon as the Prophet had preached the coming of this Everlasting Sacrifice and the propitiation and happiness which it would spread over all the world he foretels at the same time that the Apostles and their successors whom he designs by expressions proper to that Oeconomy under which he did live should bring the Nations from all parts of the Earth as an Offering unto the Lord. Esay 66. And to the same purpose St. Paul himself speaks of his Evangelical Office as of a Sacrificing Priesthood and of the Gentiles whom he did convert to Christ as of so many Sacrifices which he presented to the Lord. I exercise saies he in the Gospel a holy Sacerdotal Priesthood for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both that the Oblation of the Gentiles may be acceptable being sanctified by the holy spirit Rom. 15.16 Hence proceeds that Method which he observes most constantly never to preach the Faith in Jesus Christ without inviting presently the Beleivers to Offer up unto God either their Bodies and Souls as Rom. 12. or their works of holiness of Praise of Charity c. as every where else And these are the Spiritual Offerings which every true Christian must join to cast upon the fundamental Sacrifice of Christ Jesus 12. We know indeed that the universal Assembly of Christians could never meet at the same time or place either to follow Christ in a Body when he went to offer himself for them or to fall upon their faces and prostrate themselves to the ground when he bowed his head under their Sins Providence that scatters men up and down throughout all places and times of the world permitting no possibility of such a general meeting But the Sacrifice of Christ tho it was confined to few hours and to a small parcel of Ground as to the Suffering yet being everlasting infinit and still the same as as to the sufficiency and virtue of it coextends it self most perfectly to all both times and places when and where those scattered members will ever come to Offer up themselves to God with their head And besides this the second part of his Sacerdotal Office which consists in interceding continuing still in the very Act till the worlds end They that could not embrace his Cross and join with him at that same time that he Offer'd himself may do it every day and humble themselves like poor victims loaden with sins and miseries at the same time that now he continues still actually interceding So in all Places at all times and upon any emergencies whensoever the Beleivers will present themselves unto God both with and by his Son Jesus they may still receive the favor of acceptation and that real efflux of saving Odor from Christ which was represented by that typical holiness which the additional Oblation did receive from the principal Sacrifice when it was adjoined to it Whereas it is most certain that all the Merit and blood of Christ shall no more save Men that will not draw neer and join themselves to conformity and Communion of his Death then the continual and other burning Sacrifices were ever able to consecrate that meat that Wine that Oyl and that Frankincense which were not brought nor burned upon the the same Altar with them 13. Now tho all men be called to this conformity and Communion in the Sufferings of Christ from the time of those sufferings until there be no times at all and altho the daies of our present life have all the priviledg which these seven feast daies once had when every one might gird his loins eat his unleavened bread and kill his own Bullock as the Priest did Sacrifice the Paschal Lamb which Bullock was superadded to the Paschal Lamb that both might better suffice for the 7 Festival daies besides its other ritual and figurative importance as a Sacrifice it is certain nevertheless that there are two more special and extraordinary daies wherein Christians are invited by more urgent and proper Circumstances to present their Souls and Bodies by way of Second Offering upon the Sacrifice of their Savior The first is past and that was when the Savior offered himself to death when Heaven and Earth Temple and Graves shook at the blow that killed him when pious Souls either stood immoveable as the blessed Virgin hard by his Cross or in a manner crucified themselves beating their breasts as the Daughters of Jerusalem and when every Disciple might by the very conjuncture of all the things he saw be moved to say as Thomas let us go and let us dy with him Joh. 11.16 The other time most favorable and proper next to that of his real Passion is that of the holy Communion which as it hath bin * Gelas Cyzic part 2. cap. 31. explained is a Sacramental Passion where tho the Body be broken and the blood shed but by way of representative Mystery yet both are as effectually and as truly offered for our own use if we go to it worthily as when that holy and divine Lamb did offer himself the first time 14. Therefore whensoever Christians approach to this dreadful Mystery and to the Lamb of God lying and sacrificed as some say that the holy Nicene Council speaks upon the holy Table it concerns their main interest in point of Salvation as well as in other duties to take a special care not to lame and deprive the grand Sacrifice of its own due Attendance But to behave themselves in that manner that as both the principal and additional Sacrifices were consumed by the
same fire and went up towards Heaven in the same flame So Jesus Christ and all his Members may jointly appear before God this in a Sacramental Mystery these with their real Bodies and Souls offering themselves at the same time in the same place and by the same Oblation So that whosoever are attending on this sacrifice since they do it in remembrance of their Savior once really dead and every day Sacramentally dying for them do this in remembrance of me they do it in such a manner 1. as may become faithful Disciples who are resolved to dy both for and with their Master 2. as true and sincere Members that cannot outlive their own head and 3. as truly penitent sinners who dare not look for any share in the Glory and Redemtion and session at the right or left hand of their Savior unless after their way they undergo the same Baptism unless they will drink the same Cup and unless they enter really into the Communion of that Sacrifice and those Sufferings which their Master their head and their Savior hath passed through and which this very Sacrament engages them to 15. Now this Communion doth require first a Conformity of Actions that may in some sort correspond to all what Christ hath done as Priest Secondly another Conformity of mortifications and passions that may likewise answer to whatsoever he hath Suffered as a voluntary Victim As Priest for in this occasion all Christians after the example of their Savior become Priests since they offer themselves to God to follow all the steps and take upon them all the preparations the Course of life and the like dispositions of mind which were seen in this Blessed Melchisedeck when he presented himself to God To this effect the faithful Worshipper presenting that Soul and Body which God fitted him with at his coming into this world will lay them down at the Altar Lo I come if this Soul and Body may be useful to any thing here they are both to do thy will O God * Heb. 10.5.7 And hereafter if it please thee to use that power which thou hast as Creator over Dust and Ashes over weak flesh and Blood over a brittle vessel of Clay over the work of thine own hands Lo here they are to suffer also thy good pleasure I do now protest to my God that if he please to afflict me either with pain or dishonor I will humble my self under it and be obedient unto death even unto the death of the Cross †Phil. 2.8 Whatsoever may happen to me either from the Jews or Gentiles from my Neighbors or from strangers since it is my God that emploies them tho they neither know nor think it so unless at the same time God help me to some lawful means of securing my self against their wrongs I will not hereafter open my mouth before the Lord who doth strike me except only to sing the Psalm after I have eaten some bitter Herbs that belong to this Passover and to bless the Lord who gave them me and intreat him for the wicked who perhaps hath maliciously gathered them Hereafter no man can take away any thing from me no life no honor no Estate since I am ready of my self to lay them down assoon as I can perceive that God requires them at my hands Nevertheless O Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me yet if I must drink it thy will be don What kind soever of Suffering hereafter may trouble my Flesh or what kind soever of Agonies may perhaps worse trouble my Spirit following the example of this high Priest in the midst of his bitterest pains O Father into thy hand b Luke 23.46 I will ever remit my life and the dearest concernments that attend it And if thou be pleased that either I live yet a while or not I will with my Savior bow down my head c Joh. 19.30 Joh. 19.46 I will adore thee under my burthen and humble my self under thy hand I will give up all what thou wilt be pleased to ask Goods Joys c. until at last I surrender and give up the Ghost a Luke 22.42 Matth. 26.42 16. To this first part of our Conformity with Christ as Priest must be referred whatsoever we read he did from his last Passover to his Passion as far as we can imitate it as when he washed the feet of his Disciples when he prayed for his Murderers when he received with a mild reply the rashness of him that struck him commiting all the rest to God when he took that charitable care of gently restoring the Ear to an insolent fellow named Malchus when his dismallest Agonies never kept him from comforting a Penitent this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23.43 nor from instructing Good pious Souls ye Doughters of Jerusalem weep not c. nor from interceding for his cruellest Enemies Father forgive them for they know not what they do nor from taking care for his Relations woman behold thy son c. Ioh. 19.26 Hereupon the success of these both Active and Passive dispositions must needs be this that God looking first to Abel and finding him endued with that spirit of humility of Charity of meekness and of patience which was also in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 he certainely will be pleased to look also upon his Sacrifice Genes 4.4 17. Besides this first Conformity of holy Dispositions and as it were Sacerdotal Ornaments between Jesus and his Disciples considered as they are Priests there must needs be also a conformity of Death and Passion between them being considered as Sacrifices The first Conformity which regards Personal and Priestly Endowments is never so exact nor so full as to adorn inferior Priests with all the proper Attire of Aaron his Golden Plate his embroidered Ephod or his Miter or his Breast Plate yet it is never so defective but that he and they may without indecency notwithstanding the inequality of their Garments officiate at one Altar The second Conformity which regards the Sacrifice is yet much shorter then the first being between things not only unequal in degrees of perfection but different in their nature For really the Sacrifice of a living Creature as the Lamb was could not differ so much in nature from dead and inanimate Offerings such as the Meal the Oil and the Wine were which as secondary Sacrifices were added to the first as the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ differs from what poor Christians either are in their nature or can offer up to God in Sacrifice For of these two Sacrifices as to their proper conditions The one is Divine allmighty and all Holy and the other is human infirm and sinful And as to their several ends The one is made to procure and work Expiation and the other only to get some capacity to receive it The first and prime Sacrifice imparts to the second its Righteousness and the second is thrown upon the first as a burthen
only to charge it with all its sins Nevertheless as under the Law the Lamb and the Oblation added to it did join in one Sacrifice because both were offered upon one Altar and consumed by one fire so under the Gospel Christ and his People are accounted for one Oblation when both in their own proper way are consecrated by the same Cross and are in some manner alike obedient to death For we have bin planted together in the likeness of his death knowing this that our Old Man is dead c. Rom. 6.5 6. 18. By this likeness or conformity of Sufferings Christ is dead once to satisfie the rigor of the Law and so must Christians destroy their sins and mortifie themselves that they may observe hereafter the Righteousness of the Gospel Christ during that terrible storm that made him weep and cry aloud Matt. 27.46.50 Luk. 23.46 Heb. 5.7 did suffer such a heavy punishment as might satisfy Gods Justice And his Mystical Body must every day both undertake and suffer such fatherly Corrections as may overmaster their own sins In a word the Holy Savior was willing to be crucified because this dismal execution was indispensably necessary to turn away the wrath to come and his true members must be willing to crucifie themselves with him because this Discipline is as indispensably necessary to destroy in them by degrees that inward corruption which would bring back again this wrath 19. O Father of Mercies I beseech thee both by the merits of thy Son who now intercedes in Heaven awd by that bloody Sacrifice which he hath offered on the Cross whereof thou seest the Sacrament upon This Table this Day be pleased to receive me into the Communion of his Sufferings and hereafter into the Communion of his Glory Cast not away from thee in displeasure the Elevation of these hands which I will fasten to his Cross so far as they may not offend and which I do now stretch before thee with a true desire that hereafter they may serve thee neither despise the Sacrifice of a poor Soul which also his Cross hath wounded with the sense of her misery and by this wound laies it open both to pour out her own prayers and to gasp after thy mercies O God and Father bestow on me such a measure of that Spirit through which thy Son offered himself * Heb. 9.14 as may sanctifie for ever the Body and Soul which now I offer and may likewise help me to perform the service which I do promise A Spirit of Contrition that I may sufficiently detest those sins which did deliver my God to death then a spirit of Holiness that I may never be temted to them any more then a crucified man can be temted O let this crucified Body which I present to thee for such never be untied from his Cross either to fall to those viclences that have peirced my Saviors hands or to fly up to those vanities that have crowned his head with Thorns or to follow unjust pleasures that have filled his dear Soul with greif that have filled his Entrails with Gall. Arm and Rod of the Lord who in thine Anger didst revenge all these sins upon my Savior in thy mercy correct and destroy them also in me So my God accept of a heart that sheds now before thee its Tears as a poor Victim does its blood and that raises up unto thee all its desires its thoughts its zeal as a Burnt offering doth its flames Finally since my Sacrifice can be neither holy nor accepted being alone Accept of it O Father as it is an Oblation supported by that Sacrifice which alone is able to please thee Receive it clothed with the Righteousness of thy Son and made acceptable with that holy Perfume that rises from of his Altar And grant that He who sanctifies and they who are by him sanctified may be joined in one Passion and may enjoy hereafter with thee the same Glory Our Father which art in Heaven c. SECTION VIII Concerning the Oblation of our Goods and Alms or the Sacrifice of Justice 1. IT is an express and often repeated Law of God by Moses and no where repeated by Christ that no worshipper shall presume to appear before him with emty hands Sincere Christians must have them full at the receiving of the holy Communion with four distinct sorts of Sacrifices 1. The Sacramental and commemorative Sacrifice of Christ 2. The real and Actual Sacrifice of themselves 3. The free will Offering of their Goods 4. The Peace Offering of their Praises 2. The first as representing the Sacrifice offered on the Cross is the ground of the three others especially of the second which must no more be separated from it then Parts are from the Whole or the Body from its Head These two are so close coupled together that St. Austin * Aug. apud Fulg. de Bapt. Aethiop c. ult more then once by the Body of Christ in the holy Communion understands Christs mystical Body which is the Church And St. Cyprian * St. Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 3. saies expressly that Christ and his People are contained and united together in the Holy Cup that being represented by the Wine this represented by the Water so that Christ is not there without his People nor the People without their Savior 3. The Third and fourth which are the Sacrifices of our Goods and of our Praises are appendages following after the second that is the Sacrifice of our own selves by as natural a consequence as the fruits and leaves follow the Tree and as what we have or what we can must needs come after what we are All the world know how that blemisht and lame Sacrifices were abominable under the Law and certainly Bodies without heads souls without their faculties and Persons without their proper Duties are not better under the Gospel Such mutilated Sacrifices cannot suit with that of Christ which was perfectly whole and entire Therefore as when we once offer our selves to God our Souls and Bodies become attending Sacrifices on the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ so must by the same equity all our Goods and Services by way of seconddary Oblations attend the Sacrifice of our Persons And as the Lamb in the daily Sacrifice was never offered without its Meat Oblation nor this meat Oblation without its incense its Wine its Oil So the Eternal Son and Lamb of God who was pleased to offer himself for me must neither be offered without me nor whensoever I offer up my self both by him and with him must I appear as a dry and unsavory Meat offering without juice without sweet smell without all the holy dispositions of readiness and joy to obey and please my God in all good works whereof the Incense the Wine and the Oil were under the Law sacred Emblemes In a word whensoever we offer our selves we offer by the self same Act all that we have all that we can and so consequently we do engage for