onely in holy Scriptures but even in prophane Writers also to call the instrumentall Elements by the name of that Covenant of which they are onely the Sacrifices seales and visible confirmations because of that relation and neere resemblance that is betweene them The second End or Effect of this Sacrament which in order of Nature immediately followeth the former is to obsignate and to encrease the mysticall union of the Church unto Christ their Head for as the same operation which infuseth the reasonable soule which is the first act or principle of life naturall doth also unite it unto the body to the making up of one man so the same Sacrament which doth exhibite Christ unto us who is the first act and originall of life divine doth also unite us together unto the making up of one Church In naturall nourishment the vitall heate being stronger than the resistance of the meat doth macerate concoct and convert that into the substance of the Body but in this spirituall nourishment the vitall Spirit of Christ having a heate invincible by the coldnesse of Nature doth turne us into the same image and quality with it selfe working a fellowship of affections and confederacy of wills and as the body doth from the union of the soule unto it receive strength beauty motion and the like active qualities so also Christ being united unto us by these holy mysteries doth comfort refresh strengthen rule and direct us in all our waies Wee all in the vertue of that Covenant made by God unto the faithfull and to their seed in the first instant of our being doe belong unto Christ that bought us after in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of Baptisme we are farther admitted and united to him our right unto Christ before was generall from the benefit of the common Covenant but in this Sacrament of Baptisme my right is made personall and I now lay claime unto Christ not onely in the right of his common Promise but by the efficacy of this particular Washing which sealeth and ratifieth the Covenant unto mee Thus is our first union unto Christ wrought by the grace of the Covenant effectively and by the grace of Baptisme where it may bee had Instrumentally the one giving unto Christ the other obsignating and exhibiting that right by a farther admission of us into his Body But now wee must conceive that as there is a union unto Christ so there must as in naturall bodies be after that union a growing up till wee come to our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the measure of the fulnesse of Christ. This growth being an effect of the vitall faculty is more or lesse perfected in us as that is either more or lesse stifled or cherished for as in the soule and body so in Christ and the Church We are not to conceive the union without any latitude but capable of augmentation and liable to sundry diminutions according as are the severall meanes which for either purpose wee apply unto our selves The union of the soule and body though not dissolved is yet by every the least distemper slackned by some violent diseases almost rended asunder so that the body hath sometimes more sometimes lesse hold-fast of the soule so heere wee are in the Covenant and in Baptisme united unto Christ but wee must not forget that in men there is by Nature a roote of bitternesse whence issue those fruites of the flesh a spawne and wombe of actuall corruptions where sinne is daily conceived and brought forth a mare mortuum a lake of death whence continually arise all manner of noysome and infectious lusts by meanes of which our Union to Christ though not dissolved is yet daily weakened and stands in need of continuall confirmation for every sinne doth more or lesse smother and stoppe the principle of life in us so that it cannot worke our growth which we must rise unto with so free and interrupted a course as otherwise it might The Principle of life in a Christian is the very same from whence Christ himselfe according to his created Graces receiveth life and that is the Spirit of Christ a quickning Spirit and a strengthening Spirit Now as that great sinne which is incompatible with faith doth bidde defiance to the good Spirit of God and therefore is more especially called The sinne against the holy Ghost so every sinne doth in its owne manner and measure quench the Spirit that it cannot quicken and grieve the Spirit that it cannot strengthen us in that perfection of degrees as it might otherwise and thus is our union unto Christ daily loosened and slackened by the distempers of sinne for the reestablishing whereof God hath appointed these sacred Mysteries as effectuall instruments where they meet with a qualified subject to produce a more firme and close union of the Soule to Christ and to strengthen our Faith which is the joynt and sinew by which that union is preserved to cure those i wounds and purge those iniquities whose property it is to separate betwixt Christ and us to make us submit our services to knit our wils to conforme our affections and to incorporate our persons into him that so by constant though slow proceedings we might be changed from glory to glory and attaine unto the measure of Christ there where our Faith can no way bee impaired our bodies and soules subject to no decay and by consequence stand in no need of any such viaticums as wee heere use to strengthen us in a journey so much both above the Perfection and against the corruption of our present Nature CHAP. XIV Of three other Ends of the holy Sacrament the fellowship or union of the faithfull the obsignation of the Covenant of Grace and the abrogation of the Passeover NOW as the same nourishment which preserveth the Union betweene the Soule and Body or head and members doth in like manner preserve the Union betweene the members themselves even so this Sacrament is as it were the sinew of the Church whereby the faithfull being all animated by the same Spirit that makes them one with Christ are knit together in a bond of Peace conspiring all in a unity of thoughts and desires having the same common Enemies to withstand the same common Prince to obey the same common rule to direct them the same common way to passe the same common Faith to vindicate and therefore the same mutuall engagements to further and advance the good of each other so that the next immediate effect of this Sacrament is to confirme the Union of all the members of the Church each to other in a Communion of Saints whereby their prayers are the more strengthened and their adversaries the more resisted for as in naturall things Union strengtheneth motions naturall and weakeneth violent so in the Church Union strengtheneth all spirituall motions whether upward as meditations and prayers to God or downeward as
as unto men floating upon the Sea or unto distempered braines the land and house though immoveable seeme to reele and totter or as unto weake eyes every thing seemes double so the promises of God however built on a sure foundation his Counsell and Fore-knowledge yet unto men prepossest with their owne private distempers doe they seeme unstable and fraile unto a weake eye of faith Gods Covenant to bee if I may so speake double to have a tongue and a tongue a promise and a promise that is a various and uncertaine promise And for this cause notwithstanding diffident and distrustfull men doe indeed deserve what they suspect and are worthy to suffer what they unworthily doe feare doth God yet in compassion towards our fraitly condescend to confirme his promises by an Oath to engage the truth of his own essence for performance to seale the Patent which he hath given with his own blood and to exhibite that seale unto us so often as with faith wee approach unto the Communion of these holy mysteries And who can sufficiently admire the riches of this mercy which makes the very weakenesses and imperfections of his Church occasions of redoubling his promises unto it Secondly in that this Sacrament is the instrumentall cause of confirming our faith from this possibility yea facility of obtaining we must conclude the necessity of using so great a benefit wherein wee procure the strengthning of our graces the calmeing of our consciences and the experience of Gods favour in the naturall body there being a continuall activity and conflict betweene the heate and the moisture of the body and by that meanes a wasting depassion and decay of nature it is kept in a perpetuall necessity of succouring it selfe by food so in the spirituall man there being in this present estate an unreconcileable enmity betweene the spirit and the flesh there is in either part a propension towards such outward food whereby each in its distresses may be releeved The flesh pursues all such objects as may content and cherish the desires thereof which the Apostle calleth the provisions of lust The Spirit of the contrary side strengthens it selfe by those divine helps which the wisedome of God had appointed to conferre grace and to settle the heart in a firme perswasion of its owne peace And amongst these instruments this holy Sacrament is one of the principall which is indeed nothing else but a visible oath wherein Christ giveth us a tast of his benefits and engageth his owne sacred body for the accomplishing of them which supporteth our tottering faith and reduceth the soule unto a more setled tranquility Fifthly In that in this one all other Types were abrogated and nullified wee learne to admire and glorifie the love of God who hath set us at liberty from the thraldome of Ceremonies from the costlinesse and difficulty of his Service with which his owne chosen people were held in bondage under the Pedagogie and governement of Schoole-masters the ceremoniall and judiciall Law as so many notes of distinctions charactristicall differences or wall of separation betweene Iew and Gentile untill the comming of the Messias which was the time of the reformation of all things wherein the Gentiles were by his death to bee ingrafted into the same stocke and made partakers of the same juyce and fatnesse the shadowes to bee removed the ordinances to bee canceld the Law to bee abolished for The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth by Iesus Christ Grace in opposition to the Curse of the Morall Law Truth in opposition to the figures and resemblances of the Ceremoniall Law The Iewes in Gods service were bound unto one place and unto one forme no Temple or ministration of Sacrifices without Ierusalem nor without expresse prescription no use of Creatures without difference of common and uncleane wheras unto us all places are lawfull and pure all things lawfull and pure every Country a Canaan and every City a Ierusalem and every Oratory a Temple It is not an ordinance but a Prayer which sanctifieth and maketh good unto our use every creature of God But yet though we under the Gospell are thus set at liberty from all manner ordinances which are not of intrinsecall eternall and unvariable necessity yet may this liberty in regard of the nature of things indifferent bee made a necessity in respect of the use of them We may not thinke that our liberty is a licentious and unbounded liberty as if CHRIST had been the Author of confusion to leave every man in the externall carriages of his worship unto the conduct of his private fancy This were to have our liberty for a cloake of naughtines and as an occasion to the flesh but we must alwayes limite it by those generall and morall rules of piety loyalty charity and sobriety Use all things we may indifferently without subjection or bondage unto the thing but not without subjection unto GOD and superiors Use them we may but with temperatnes and moderation use them we may but with respect to Gods glory use them we may but with submission to authority use them we may but with avoyding of scandall Christian liberty consisteth in the inward freedome of the conscience whose onely bond is a necessity of Doctrine not in outward conformity or observances onely whose bond is a necessity of obedience and subordination unto higher powers which obeying though wee become thereby subject unto some humane or Ecclesiasticall ordinances the conscience yet remaines uncurbed and at liberty Secondly we have hereby a great encouragement to serve our God in spirit and in truth being delivered from all those burdensome accessions which unto the inward worship were added in the legall observances In spirit in opposition unto the Carnall in truth in opposition unto the Typicall ceremonies The services of the Iewes were celebrated in the bloud and smoake of unreasonable creatures but ours in the Gospell must be a spirituall a reasonable service of him for as in the Word of God the letter profiteth nothing it is the spirit that quickneth so in the worship of God likewise the Knee the Lip the Eye the Hand alone profiteth not at all it is the spirit that worshippeth It is not a macerated body but a contrite soule which he respecteth if there be palenes in the face but bloud in the heart if whitenes in the Eye but blacknes in the soule if a drooping countenance but an unbended conscience if a knee bowing downe in the Temple of God and thoughts rising up against the grace of God the head like a Bul-rush and the heart like an Adamant in a word if there bee but a bodily and unquickned service a schisme in the same worshipper betweene his outward and his inward man he that is not a God of the dead but of the living hee that accompteth in the leviticall Law carcases as
beauty of his graces and so constraine and perswade me to be obedient unto it These are those good premises out of which I may infallibly conclude that I have had the beginnings the seeds of Faith shed a abroad in my heart which will certainly be further quickned by that holy spirit who is the next and principall producer of it The operations of this holy spirit being as numberlesse as all the holy actions of the Faithfull cannot therefore all possibly be set downe I shall touch at some few which are of principall and obvious observation First of all the spirit is a spirit of liberty and a spirit of prayer It takes away the bondage and feare wherein we naturally are for feare makes us runne from God as from a punishing and revenging Iudge never any man in danger fledde thither for succour whence the danger issued feare is so farre from this that it betrayeth and suspecteth those very assistances which reason offereth and it enableth us to have accesse and recourse unto God himselfe whom our sins had provoked and in our prayers like Aron and Hurr it supporteth our hands that they doe not faint nor fall It raiseth the soule unto divine and unutterable petitions and it melteth the heart into sights and groanes that cannot be expressed Secondly the holy Ghost is compared unto a witnesse whose proper worke it is to reveale and affirme some truth which is called in question There is in a mans bosome by reason of that enmity and rebellion betwixt the flesh and the spirit and by meanes of Satans suggestions sundry dialogues and conflicts wherein Satan questioneth the title wee pretend to salvation In this case the Spirit of a man as one cannot choose but do when his whole estate is made ambiguous staggereth droopeth and is much distressed till at last the Spirit of God by the light of the Word the Testimonie of Conscience and the sensible motions of inward grace layeth open our title and helpeth us to reade the evidence of it and thus recomposeth our troubled thoughts Thirdly the Spirit of God is compared to a Seale the worke of a Seale is first to make a siampe and impression in some other matter secondly by that means to difference and distinguish it from all other things And so the Spirit of God doth fashion the hearts of his people unto a conformity with Christ framing in it holy impressions and renewing the decayed Image of God therein and thereby separateth them from sinners maketh them of a distinct common-wealth under a distinct governement that whereas before they were subject to the same Prince Lawes and desires with the world being now called out they are new men and have another character upon them Secondly a Seale doth obsignate and ratifie some Covenant Grant or conveyance to the person unto whom it belongeth It is used amongst men for confirming their mutuall trust in each other And so certainely doth the Spirit of God pre-affect the soule with an evident taste of that glory which in the Day of Redemption shall be actually conferd upon it and therefore it is called an hansell earnest and first fruit of life Fourthly the Spirit of God is compared to an oyntment now the properties of oyntments are first to supple to asswage tumors in the body and so doth the Spirit of God mollifie the hardnesse of mans heart and worke it to a sensible tendernes and quicke apprehension of every sinne Secondly oyntments doe open and penetrate those places unto which they are applied and so the Unction which the faithfull have teacheth them all things and openeth their eyes to see the wonders of Gods Law and the beauty of his graces In vaine are all outward sounds or Sermons unlesse this Spirit be within to teach us Thirdly oyntments doe refresh and lighten nature because as they make way for the emission of all noxious humours so likewise for the free passage and translation of all vitall spirits which doe enliven and comfort And so the Spirit of God is a Spirit of consolation and a spirit of life hee is the comforter of his Church Lastly oyntments in the Leviticall Law and in the state of the Iewes were for consecration and sequestration of things unto some holy use As Christ is said to bee annoynted by his Father unto the oeconomy of that great worke the redemption of the world and thus doth the holy-Ghost annoint us to be a Royall Priest-hood a holy Nation a people set at liberty Fifthly and lastly I finde the holy Ghost compared unto fire whose properties are first to bee of a very active and working nature which stands never still but is ever doing something and so the Spirit of God and his graces are all operative in the hearts of the faithfull they set all where they come on worke Secondly the nature and proper motion of fire is to ascend other motions whatever it hath arise from some outward and accidentall restraint limiting the nature of it and so the Spirit of God ever raiseth up the affections from earth fastneth the eye of Faith upon Eternity ravisheth the soule with a servent longing to bee with the Lord and to bee admitted unto the fruition of those pretious joyes which heere it suspireth after as soone as ever men have chosen Christ to bee their Head then presently ascendunt de Terra they goe up out of the Land Hos. 1. 11. and have their conversation above where Christ is Thirdly fire doth inflame and transforme every thing that is combustible into the nature of it selfe and so the Spirit of God filleth the soule with a divine fervour and zeale which purgeth away the corruptions and drosse of the flesh with the spirit of judgment and with the Spirit of burning Fourthly fire hath a purifying and cleansing property to draw away all noxious or infectious vapors out of the Ayre to separate all soyle and drosse from mettalls and the like and so doth the Spirit of God clense the heart and in heavenly sighes and repentant teares cause to expire all those steemes of corruptions those noysome and infectious lusts which fight against the soule Fifthly fire hath a penetrating and insinuating quallity whereby it creepeth into all the pores of a combustible body and in like manner the holy Spirit of God doth penetrate the heart though full of insensible and inscrutible windings doth search the reines doth pry into the closest nookes and inmost corners of the soule there discovering and working out those secret corruptions which did deceive and defile us Lastly fire doth illighten and by that meanes communicates the comforts of it selfe unto others and so the Spirit being a Spirit of truth doth illuminate the understanding and doth dispose it likewise to discover its light unto others who stand in need of it for this is the nature of Gods grace that when Christ hath manifested himselfe to the soule of one
grace it doth the quality of that work whereby we reach unto our desired Good doth alter likewise Now fourthly wee must farther observe that between our working which is the motion towards our Good and our fruition or resting in it there is a distance or succession of time so that while we are in our estate of working we doe not enjoy God by any full reall presence or possession but only by a right of a Covenant and Promise which makes the Apostle say that in this life we live by faith and not by sight Now Promises or Covenants require to have annexed unto them Evidence and certaintie so farre as may secure the party that relyes upon them which in humane â—ontracts is done by giving our words and setting to our seales for confirmation And now lastly in as much as that Dutie on condition whereof God maketh this Promise of himselfe unto us is the work of the whole man the Evidence and Confirmation of the Promise is by God made unto the whole man likewise and to each facultie of man which it pleaseth him in mercy the rather to doe because of that dependance of our soules on the inferiour and subordinate powers and of that necessary connexion which there is betweene the inward reason and the outward senses God then presupposing ever the performance of conditions on our part doth secure hâ—s Church and give evidence for the discharge of his covenant and promise first to the soule alone by the testimony of his Spirit which is both the seale and the witnesse of Gods Covenant and secondly both to the soule and to the senses by that double bond his word written or preached and his seale visibly exhibited to the eye and taste but especially unto the taste in which objects are more really and with lesse fallibilitie united to the faculty in which there appeareth a more exquisite fruition of delight in these good things which are pleasing and lastly in which the mysticall union of the Church to its head unto the making up of one body is more naturally exprest And these seales annexed unto the word or patent of Gods Promise have been ever proposd unto the Church in all its estates and are nothing else but that which we call a Sacrament So that as the testimony of the Spirit is an invisible seale and earnest to the soule so is the Sacrament a visible seale and earnest to the sense both after a severall manner ratifying and confirming the infallible expectation of that future Reward which as well the senses as the soule shall in Gods presence really enjoy after they have fulfilled the service which God requireth CHAP. II. Sacraments are earnests and shaddowes of our expected glory made unto the senses THE Promises and word of grace with the Sacraments are all but as so many sealed Deeds to make over unto all successions of the Church so long as they continue legitimate children and observe the Lawes on their part required an infallible claime and title unto that Good which is not yet revealed unto that inheritance which is as yet laid up unto that life which is hid with God and was never yet fully opened or let shine upon the earth Even in Paradise there was a Sacrament a tree of life inded it was but there was but one whereas Adam was to eat of all the fruits in the Garden He was there but to taste sometimes of life it was not to bee his perpetuall and only food We read of a Tree of life in the beginning of the Bible and of a tree of life in the end too that was in Adams Paradise on earth this in Saint Iohns Paradise in heaven But that did beare but the first fruits of life the earnest of an after fulnesse This bare life in abundance for it bare twelve manner of fruits and that every moneth which shewes both the compleatnesse and eternity of that glory which wee expect And as the Tree of Paradise was but a Sacrament of life in heaven so Paradise it selfe was but a Sacrament of heaven Certainly Adam was placed amongst the dark and shady trees of the Garden that he might in an Embleme acknowledge that he was as yet but in the shadow of life the substance whereof he was elsewhere to receive Even when the Church was pure it was not perfect it had an age of infancy when it had a state of innocence Glory was not communicated unto Adam himselfe without the vaile of a Sacrament the light of God did not shine on Paradise with a spreading and immediate ray even there it was mixed with shadowes and represented only in a Sacramentall reflex not in its owne direct and proper brightnesse The Israelites in the wildernesse had light indeed but it was in a cloud and they had the presence of God in the Ark but it was under severall coverings and they had the light of God shining on the face of Moses but it was under the vaile and Moses himselfe did see God but it was in a cloud so uncapable is the Church while encompassed with a body of sinne to see the lustre of that glory which is expected Certainly as the Sonne of God did admirably humble himselfe in his hypostaticall union unto a visible flesh so doth he still with equall wonder and lowlinesse humble himselfe in a Sacramentall union unto visible Elements Strange it is that that mercy which is so wonderfull that the Angels desire to look into it so unconceiveable as that it hath not entred into the thought of man of such height and lenghth and breadth and depth as passeth knowledge should yet be made the object of our lowest faculties That that which is hid from the wise and prudent in mans little world his mind and spirit should bee revealed unto the babes his senses It were almost a contradiction in any thing save Gods mercy to bee so deep as that no thought can fadome it and yet so obvious that each eye may see it Handle mee and see for a spirituall substance hath not flesh was sometimes the argument of Christ and yet handle and see take and eat for a spirituall grace is conveyed by flesh is the Sacrament of Christ. So humble is his mercy that since we cannot raise our understandings to the comprehension of divine mysteries he will bring downe and submit those mysteries to the apprehension of our senses Hereafter our bodies shall be over-clothed with a spirituall glory by a reall union unto Christ in his kingdome mean time that spirituall glory which wee grone after is here over-clothed with weak and visible elements by a Sacramentall union at his Table Then shall sense be exalted and made a fit subject of glory here is glory humbled and made a fit object of sense Then shall wee see as wee are seen face to face here wee see but as in glasse darkly in the glasse of the creature in the glasse of the word
interrogation to the Conscience that so the major and minor being contriv'd the light of reason in the soule may make up a practicall syllogisme and so conclude either its fitnesse or indisposition towards these holy mysteries First for the causes of faith not to meddle with that extraordinary cause I meane miracles the ordinary are the word of God and the Spirit of God the Word as the Seed the Spirit as the formative and seminall virtue making it active and effectuall for the Letter profiteth nothing it is the Spirit which quickneth What the formality of that particular action is whereby the Word and Spirit doe implant this heavenly branch of faith in the soule Faith it selfe having in its nature severall distinct degrees some intellectuall of assent some fiduciall of relyance and confidence some of abnegation renouncing and flying out of our selves as insufficient for the contriuance of our owne salvation and so in congruity of reason requiring in the causes producing them severall manners of causalities as I take it not necessary so neither am I able to determine I shall therefore touch upon some pâ—incipall properties of either all which if they concurre not unto the originall production doe certainely to the raduation and establishing of that divine virtue and therefore may justly come within the compasse of those premises from the evidences of which assumed and applied the Conscience is to conclude the truth of its faith in Christ. And first for the word to let passe those properties which are onely the inherent attributes and not any transient operations thereof as its sufficiency perspicuity majesty selfe-Authority and the like let us touch upon those which it carrieth along with it into the Conscience and I shall observe but two Its Light and its Power Even as the Sunne where ever it goes doth still carry with it that brightnesse whereby it discovereth and that Influence whereby it quickneth inferiour bodies First for the Word the properties thereof are first to make manifest and to discover the hidden things of darknesse for whatsoever doth make manifest is light The heart of man naturally is a labyrinth of darknesse his workes workes of darknesse his Prince a Prince of darkenesse whose projects are full of darknesse they are depths devices craftinesse methods The Word of God alone is that light which maketh manifest the secrets of the heart that glasse wherein wee may see both our selves and all the devices of Satan against us discovered And secondly by this act of manifesting doth light distinguish one thing from another In the darke we make no difference of faire or foule of right or wrong waies but all are alike unto us and so while wee continue in the blindnes of our naturall estate wee are not able to perceive the distinction betweene Divine and naturall objects but the Word of God like a touchstone discovereth the differences of truth and falshood good and evill and like fire seperateth the pretious from the vile Secondly light is quickning and a comforting thing The glory of the Saints is an inheritance of light and they are children of light who shall shine as the Sunne in the Firament whereas darknes is both the Title and the Portion of the wicked The times of darknes men make to be the times of their sleeping which is an Image of Death t is in the light onely that men worke And so the Word of GOD is a comforting Word It was Davids delight his hony-Combe And it is a quickning Word too for it is the Word of Life Lastly light doth assist direct and guide us in our waies and so doth the Word of GOD it is a Lanterne to our feete and a light unto our pathes Secondly for the power of the Word it is two fold even as all power is a governing power in respect of that which is under it and a subduing power in respect of that which is against it First the Word hath a governing power in respect of those which are subject to it for which cause it is every where called a Law and a royall that is a commanding Soveraigne Law It beares Dominion in the soule conforming each faculty to it selfe directeth the righteous furnisheth unto good workes raiseth the drooping bindeth the broken comforteth the afflicted reclaimeth the straggling Secondly it subdueth all emnity and opposition discomfiteth Satan beateth downe the strong holdes of sinne t is a Sword to cut off a weapon to subdue a Hammer to breake in peeces whatsoever thought riseth up against it Now then let a mans conscience make but these few demands unto it selfe Hath the light and power of Gods Word discovered it selfe unto mee Have the Scriptures made me knowne unto my selfe have they unlocked those crooked windings of my perverse heart have they manifested unto my soule not onely those sinnes which the light of reason could have discerved but even those privy corruptions which I could not otherwise have knowne have they acquainted me with the devices of Satan wherewith he lieth in waite to deceive have they taught me to distinguish betweene truth and appearances betweene goodnes and shaddowes to finde out the better part the one necessary thing and to adhere unto it am I sensible of the sweetnes and benefits of his holy Word doth it refresh my soule and revive me unto every good worke Is it unto my soule like the hony Combe like pleasant pastures like springs of water like d the Tree of life doe I take it along with me wheresoever I goe to preserve me from stumbling and straggling in this valley of darknes and shaddow of death Againe doe I feele the power of it like a Royall commanding Law bearing rule in my soule Am I willing to submit and resigne my selfe unto the obedience of it doe I not against the cleere and convincing evidence thereof entertaine in my bosome any the least rebellious thought Doe I spare noe Agag noe ruling sinne withdraw noe wedge or babilonish Garment noe gainefull sin make a league with noe Gibeonite noe pretending sinne But doe I suffer it like Ioshua to destroy every Cananite even the sinne which for sweetnes I roled under my tongue doth it batter the Towers of Ierico breake downe the Bul-warkes of the flesh lead into captivity the corruptions of nature mortifie and crucifie the old man in me doth it minister comforts unto me in all the ebbs and droopings of my spirit even above the confluence of all earthly happines and against the combination of all outward discontents and doe I set up a resolution thus alwayes to submit my selfe unto the Regiment thereof In one word doth it convince me of sin in my selfe and so humble me to repent of it of Righteousnes in CHRIST and so raise me to beleeve in it of his spirituall judgment in governing the soules of true beleevers by the power of love and
man it setteth him on worke to manifest Christ unto others as Andrew to Simon Iohn 1. 41. and the Woman of Samaria to the men of the City Ioh. 4. 29. and Mary Magdalen to the Disciples Ioh. 20. 17. It is like Oyntment poured forth which cannot be concealed Proverb 27. 16. Wee cannot saith the Apostle but speake the things which we have heard and seene Acts 4. 20. And they who feared the Lord in the Prophet spake often to one another Mal. 3. 16. These propositions being thus set downe let the conscience assume them to it selfe in such demands as these Doe I finde in my selfe a Freedome from that spirit of feare and bondage which maketh a man like Adam to fly from the presence of GOD in his Word doe I finde my selfe able with affiance and firme hope to fly unto God as unto an Alter of refuge in time of trouble and to call upon his Name and this not onely with an outward battology and lipp-labour but by the spirit to cry Abba Father doth the testimony of Gods Spirit settle and compose such doubtings in me as usually arise out of the Warre betweene Flesh and Faith doe I finde a change and transformation in me from the vanity of my old conversation unto the Image of Christ and of that originall Justice wherein I was created doe I finde my selfe distinguished and taken out from the World by Heavenly mindednes and raised affections by renouncing the delights abandoning the corruptions suppresing the motions of secular and carnall thoughts solacing my soule not with perishable and unconstant contentments but with that blessed hope of a City made without hands immortall undefiled and that fadeth not away doe I finde in my heart an habituall tendernes and aptnes to bleed and relent at the danger of any sinne though mainly crossing my carnall delights and whatever plots and contrivances I might lay for furthering mine owne secular ends if by indirectnes sinfull engagements and unwarrantable courses I could advance them doe I finde my selfe in reading or hearing Gods Word inwardly wrought upon to admire the Wisdome assent unto the truth acknowledge the holines and submit my selfe unto the obedience of it doe I in my ordinary and best composed thoughts preferre the tranquility of a good conscience and the comforts of Gods Spirit before all out-side and glittering happines notwithstanding any discouragements that may bee incident to a concionable conversation Lastly are the graces of God operative and stirring in my soule Is my conversation more heavenly my zeale more fervent my corruptions more discovered each faculty in its severall Sphere more transformed into the same Image with Christ Iesus Are all these things in me or in defect of any doe the desires and longings of my soule after them appeare to be sincere and unfeigned by my daily imploying all my strength and improving each advantage to further my proficiencie in them Then I have an evident and infallible token that having thus farre partaked of the spirit of Life and by consequence of Faith whereby our soules are fastned unto Christ I may with comfort approach unto this holy Table wherein that life which I have received may be further nourished and confirmed to me The second medium formerly proposed for the tryall of Faith was the nature and essence of it To finde out the formall nature of Faith we must first consider that all Faith is not a saving Faith For there is a Faith that worketh a trembling as in the Divels and there is a Faith which worketh life and peace as in those that are justified Faith in generall is an assent of the reasonable soule unto revealed truths Now every medium or in ducement to an assent is drawne eyther from the light which the obejct it selfe proposeth to the faculty and this the blessed Apostle contradistinguisheth from faith by the name of light or else it is drawne from the authority and Authenticalnes of a narrator upon whose report while we relie without any evidence of the thing it selfe the assent which we produce is an assent of faith or credence The Samaritans did first assent unto the miracles of CHRIST by the report of the woman and this was faith but afterwards they assented because themselves had heard him speake and this was sight Now both those assents have annexed unto them either evidence and infallibility or onely probability admitting degrees of feare and suspition That faith is a certaine assent and Certitudine rei in regard of the object even above the evidence of demonstrative conclusions is on all hands confest because howsoever qantum ad certitudinem mentis in regard of our weakenes and distrust wee are often subject to stagger yet in the thing it selfe it dependeth upon the infallibility of Gods owne Word which hath said it and by consequence is neerer unto him who is the Fountaine of all truth and therefore doth more share in the properties of truth which are certainty and infallibility then any thing proved by meere naturall reasons and the assent produced by it is differenced from suspition hesitancie or dubitation in the opinion of Schoole-men themselves Now then in as much as we are bound to yeild an evident assent unto the Articles of our christian Faith both intellectuall in regard of the truth and fiduciall in regard of the goodnes of them respectively to our owne benefit and salvation Necessary it is that the understanding be convinced of those two things First that GOD is of infallible Authority and cannot lie nor deceive which thing is a principle unto which the light of nature doth willingly assent And secondly that this Authority which in Faith I thus relie upon is indeede and infallibly Gods owne Authority The meanes whereby I come to know that may be eyther extroardinary as revelation such as was made to prophets concerning future events or else ordinary and common to all the Faithfull For discovery of them we must againe rightly distinguish the double Act of Faith First that Act whereby wee assent unto the generall truth of the object in it selfe secondly that Act whereby we rest perswaded of the goodnes thereof unto us in particular with respect unto both with these doth a double question arise First touching the meanes whereby a beleever comes to know that the testimony and authority within the promises and truths of Scripture hee relieth upon are certainly and infallibly Gods owne Authority Which question is all one with that how a Christian man may infallibly be assured ita ut non possit subesse falsum that the holy Scriptures are the very dictates of Almighty God For the resolution whereof in a very few words wee must first agree that as noe created understanding could ever have invented the mystery of the Gospell it being the counsell of Gods owne bosome and containing such manifold wisdomes as the Angels are astonished at So it being dictated and revealed by Almighty God such is the deepnes
there the heart be also that we groan after the revelation of the sonnes of God when the vayl of our mortallity shall be rent the mud-wall of the flesh made spirituall and transparant the shadows and resemblances of the Sacraments abolished the glasse of the creature removed the riddle of our salvation unfolded the vapours of corruption dispelled the patience of our expectation rewarded and from the power of the spirit within and the presence of Christ without shall be diffused on the whole man a double lustre of exceeding abundant glory The hope and assurance of this is it which in those holy mysteries of Christs Supper we receive which if received without dependance and relation on that glory which they foreshadow and on that body which withall the merits of it they obsignate doth no more good than the seal of a king without any grant or patent whereunto it should be joyned in which there is no profit beyond the bare wax and much danger in triflin with so sacred a thing CHAP. IIII. Whence Sacraments derive their value and being namely from the Author that instituted them BUt why are not the instruments more glorious where the effects are so admirable whence is it that there should lie so much power in the narrow roome of so small and common elements It had been worth the creating of a new creature to be made the pledge of a new covenant the first fruits are of the same nature with their crop and earnest useth to be paid in coine of the same quality with the whole after-summe If then Sacraments are the earnests of our glory why are not the faithfull instead of eating a morsell of bread taken up with S t Paul into the third heavens why are they not in stead of drinking a sip of wine transformed with their Saviour and have with Steven a vision of him at the right hand of the father how discursive is foolish pride when it would prescribe unto God vaine man who undertakest to instruct thy maker in stead of praysing him to censure his benefits when thou shouldst enjoy them wilt thou not receive salvation without thine owne counsell or art thou so foolish as to conceive nothing precious without pompe and to judge of the things conveighed by the value and quality of the instrument that conveighs it tell me then why it is that water a vulgar element is held in a Cisterne of lead and thy wine a more costly liquor but in a vessell of wood Tell me the reason why that wax which in the shop haply was not priz'd at a penny should by cleaving unto a small parcell of parchment be valuable unto a million of money Tell me why should that clay which while it lay under foot was vile and dishonourable dirt when it was applyed by Christ unto the eye of a blind man be advanc'd unto the condition of a precious and supernaturall salve Is not even in works of Art the skill of the workman more eminent in the narrowest and unfittest Subjects Are not the Iliads of Homer more admirable in a Nutshell than in a volume doe not Limmers set the highest value on their smallest draughts and is there not matter of admiration and astonishment in the meanest and most vulgar objects And what madnesse is it then by those reasons to undervalue faith which are the arguments to confirme it as if the power of an Agent were not there greatest where the subject on which hee worketh doth conferre least as if the weaknesse of the element did not adde unto the wonder of the Sacrament If it were an argument of Christs miraculous power to feed five thousand with so few loaves why should not the miracle of his Sacrament be equall which feeds the whole Church with so slender elements certainly they who any way dis esteeme the seeming meanesse and emptinesse of the Sacrament entertaining but low and vulgar conceits thereof stumble at that same stone of foolishnesse by which the Gentiles fell from their salvation But wilt thou needs know both the reason why we use no other Sacraments and why these carry with them so much vertue one answer resolves both It is the Majestie of the same King that coynes his mony and that values it he that frames a private mint or imposeth another rate is in both equally a traitor in the former by stealing the Kings authority in the other by altering iâ— the same Author did both institute the Sacrament and value it from the same power did it receive the necessity of its being and the efficacie of its working In covenants or conveyances the articles and instruments may be haply drawne by some Lawyer but the confirmation of them by hand and seale are ordinarily performed by the men themselves who are interessed in them A Secretary may write the letter but his Lord will himselfe subscribe and seale it Thus the pattent of Gods covenant hath been drawn out for the benefit of Gods Church by many selected and inspired instruments unto whom God did dictate so much of his will by divine suggestion as his pleasure was to acquaint and edifie his Church withall But when hee comes to confirme this his gift by hand and seale behold then an immediate presence of his owne then comes Gods owne finger that is in the phrase of Scripture his spirit to write as a witnesse in the soule and then doth God stretch out his owne hand and reach unto us that Supper which is the seale to obsignate unto the senses the infallible truth of those covenants and our evident interest in those benefits which were before proclaimed in the pattent of his word The Apostle delivered nothing as it were by a second hand to the Corinthians but what hee had formerly received from the Lord. Divine things are unto us deposited we must first be receivers before deliverers CHAP. V. Inferences of practice from the Author of this Sacrament HEre then we see first both the absurdity and the wickednesse of a wil-worship when the same man who is to performe the obedience shall dare to appoint the lawes implying a peremptory purpose of no farther observance than may consist with the allowance of his own judgement Whereas true obedience must be grounded on the majesty of that power that commands not on the judgement of the subject or benefit of the precept impos'd divine laws require obedience not so much from the quality of the things commanded though they be ever holy and good as from the authority of him that institutes them We are all the servants of God and servants are but living instruments whose property it is to be governed by the will of those in whose possession they are Wil-worship and services of superstition well they may flatter God they do not please him He that requires us to denie our selves in his service doth therein teach us that his commands stand ratherin feare than in
Elements are so necessary and beneficiall to that life of man with what appetite we should approach these holy mysteries even with hungry and thirsty soules longing for the sweetnesse of Christ crucified Wheresoever God hath bestowed a vitall being hee hath also afforded nourishment to sustaine it and an inclination and attractive faculty in the subject towards its nourishment Even the new-borne Babe by the impression of nature is moved to use the breasts before he knowes them Now we which were dead in sinnes hath Christ quickned and hath infused into us a vitall principle even that faith by which the just do live which being instilled into us Christ beginneth to be formed in the soule and the whole man to be made conformable unto him Then are the parts organced and fitted for their severall workes there is an eye with Stephen to see Christ an eare with Mary to heare him a mouth with Peter to confesse him a hand with Thomas to touch him an arme with Simeon to imbrace him feet with his Disciples to follow him a heart to entertaine him and bowels of affection to love him All the members are weapons of righteousnesse and thus is the new man the new creature perfected Now hee that left not himselfe amongst the Heathen without a witnesse but filled even their hearts with food and gladnesse hath not certainly left his owne chosen without nourishment such as may preserve them in that estate which he hath thus framed them unto As therefore new Infants are fed with the same nourishment and substance of which they consist so the same Christ crucified is as the cause and matter of our new birth so the food which sustaineth and preserveth us in it unto whose body and blood there must needs be as proportionable an appetite in a new Christian as there is unto Milke in a new Infant it being more nourishable then Milke and faith more vitall to desire it then nature And all this so much the rather because he himselfe did begin unto us in a more bitter Cup. Did he on his Crosse drink Gall and Vinegar for me and that also made infinitely more biâ—ter by my sinnes and shalâ— not I at his Table drink Wine for my selfe made infinitely sweeter with the blood which it conveighs Did hee drink a Cup of bitternesse and wrath and shal not I drink the Cup of blessing Did he eat the bread of affliction and shall not I eat the bread of life Did he suffer his Passion and shall not I enjoy it Did he stretch out his hands on the Crosse and shall mine be withered and shrunken towards his Table Certainly it is a presumption that he is not only sick but desperate who refuseth that nourishment which is both food to strengthen and Physick to recover him Secondly the benefit of Christ being so obvious as the commons and so sufficient as the properties of these Elements declare we see how little we should be dismaid at any either inward weaknesses and bruses of minde or outward dangers and assaults of enemies having so powerfull a remedy so neere unto us how little we ought to trust in any thing within our selves whose sufficiency and nourishment is from without There is no created substance in the world but receives perfection from some other things how much more must Man who hath lost his owne native integrity go out of himselfe to procure a better estate which in vaine he might have done for ever had not God first if I may so speak gone out of himselfe humbling the Divine Nature unto a personall union with the humane And now having such an Immanuel as is with us not only by assuming us unto himselfe in his incarnation but by communicating himselfe to us in these sacred Mysteries whatsoever weaknesses dismayes us his body is bread to strengthen us whatsoever waves or tempests rise against us his wounds are holes to hide and shelter us what though sinne be poyson have we not here the bread of Christ for an Antidote What though it be red as Skarlet is not his blood of a deeper colour What though the Darts of Satan continually wound us is not the issue of his wounds the balme for ours Let me be fed all my dayes with bread of affliction and water of affliction I have another bread another Cup to sweeten both Let Satan tempt mee to despaire of life I have in these visible and common Elements the Author of life made the food of life unto me let who will perswade me to trust a little in my owne righteousnesse to spie out some gaspings and faint reliques of life in my selfe I receive in these signes an all-sufficient Saviour and I will seeke for nothing in my selfe when I have so much in him Lastly we see here both from the example of Christ who is the patterne of unity and from the Sacrament of Christ which is the Symboll of unity what a conspiracy of affections ought to be in us both betweene our owne and towards our fellow-members Thinke not that thou hast worthily received these holy mysteries till thou finde the image of that unity which is in them conveighed by them into thy soule As the breaking of the bread is the Sacrament of Christs Passion so the aggregation of many graines into one masse should be a Sacrament of the Churches unity What is the reason that the bread and the Church should be both called in the Scripture by the same name The bread is the body of Christ and the Church is the body of Christ too Is it not because as the bread is one Loafe out of diverse cornes so the Church is one body out of diverse Beleevers that the representative this the mysticall body of the same Christ. Even as the Word and the Spirit and the faithfull are in the Scripture all called by the same name of seed because of that assimulating vertue whereby the one received doth transforme the other into the similitude and nature of it selfe If the beames of the Sunne though divided and distinct from one another have yet a unity in the same nature of light because all pertake of one native and originall splendor if the limbes of a Tree though all severall and spreading different wayes yet have a unity in the same fruits because all are incorporated into one stock or root if the streames of a River though running diverse wayes doe yet all agree in a unity of sweetnesse and cleerenesse because all issuing from the same pure Fountaine why then should not the Church of Christ though of severall and divided qualities and conditions agree in a unity of truth and love Christ being the Sunne whence they all receive their light the Vine into which they are all ingrafted and the Fountain that is opened unto them all for transgressions and for sins CHAP. IX Of the Analogy and
manifest his glory or more gratiously imprint his Image so also in the union of Christ unto us we may observe something generall whereby he is united to the whole mankind and something speciall whereby he is united unto his Church and that after a double manner either common unto the whole visible assemblie of the Christians or peculiar and proper unto that invisible company who are the immediate members of his misticall body First then all man kind may be said to be in Christ in as much as in the mistery of his incarnation hee tooke on him the selfe same nature which maketh us to be men and wherby hee is as properly man as any of us subject to the same infermities liable and naked to the same dangers temptations moved by the same Passion obedient to the same lawes with us with this only difference that all this was in him sinlesse and voluntary in us sinfull and necessary Secondly besides this there is a farther union of Christ unto all the Professors of his truth in knowledge and explicite faith which is by a farther operation infusing into them the light of truth and some generall graces that which make them serviceable for his Church even as the root of a tree will sometimes so farre enliven the branches as shall suffice unto the bringing forth of leaves though it supply not juyce enough for solid fruit for whatsoever graces the outwad professors of Christianity do receive they have it all derived on them from Christ who is the dispencer of his Fathers bounty and who inlightneth every man that commeth into the World Thirdly there is a more speciall and neere union of Christ to the faithfull set forth by the resemblances of building ingrasture members marriage and other the like similitudes in the Scriptures whereby Christ is made unto us the Originall and well-spring of all spirituall life and motion of all fulnesse and fructification Even as in naturall generation the soule is no sooner infus'd and united but presently there is sense and vegetation derived on the body so in spirituall new birth as soone as Christ is formed in us as the Apostle speakes then presently are we quickned by him and all the operations of a spirituall life sense of sin vegetation and growth in faith understanding and knowledge of the mysterie of godlinesse taste and relish of eternall life begin to shew themselves in us We are in Christ by grace even as by nature we were in Adam Now as from Adam there is a perpetuall transfusion of Originall sin on all his posterity because we were all then not only represented by his person but contained in his loynes so from Christ who on the Crosse did represent the Church of God and in whom we are is there by a most speciall influence transfus'd on the Church some measure of those graces those vitall motions that incorruption purity and holinesse which was given to him without measure that he alone might be the Author and Originall of eternall salvation the consecrated Prince of glory to the Church from which consecration of Christ and sanctification of the Church the Apostle inferres a union betweene Christ and the Church for he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one And all this both union or association with Christ and communion in those heavenly graces which by spirituall influence from him are shed forth upon all his members is brought to passe by this meanes originally because Christ and we do both partake of one and the selfe-same spirit which spirit conveighs to the faithfull whatsoever in Christ is communicable unto them For as the members naturall of man are all conserv'd in the integrity and unity of one body by that reasonable soule which animates enlivens and actuates them by one simple and undivided information without which they would presently fall asunder and moulder into dust even so the members of Christ are all firmely united unto him and from him receive all vitall motions by meanes of that common Spirit which in Christ above measure in us according unto the dispensation of Gods good will worketh one and the selfe-same life and grace so that by it we are all as really compacted into one mysticall body as if we had all but one common soule And this is that which we beleeve touching our fellowship with the Sonne as S. Iohn cals it the cleere and ample apprehension whereof is left unto that place where both our union and likenesse to him and our knowledge of him shall be made perfect Sixtly we eat and drink the Sacrament of Christs Passion that thereby we may expresse that more closse and sensible pleasure which the faithfull enjoy in receiving of him For there is not any one sense whose pleasure is more constant and expresse than this of Tasting the reasons whereof are manifest For first it followes by the consequence of opposites that that faculty when fully satisfied must needs be sensible of the greatest pleasure whose penury defect brings the extreamest anguish on nature For the evill of any thing being nothing else but an obliquity and aberration from that proper good to which it is oppos'd It must needs follow that the greater the extent and degrees of an evill are the more large must the measure of that good be in the distance from which that evill consisteth Now it is manifest that the evill of no senses is so oppressive and terrible unto nature as are those which violate the taste and touch which later is ever annexed to the former no ugly spectacles for the eyes no howles or shrikings for the eare no stench or infection of aire for the smell so distastefull through all which the anguish of a famine would not make a man adventure to purchase any food though affected even with noisome qualities Secondly the pleasure which nature takes in any good thing is caused by the union thereof to the faculty by meanes whereof it is enjoyed so that the greater the union is the more necessarily is the pleasure of the thing united Now there is not any faculty whose object is more closely united unto it than this of Tasting in Seeing or Hearing or Smelling there may be a farre distance betweene us and the things that do so affect us but no tasting without an immediate application of the object to the faculty Other objects satisfie though without me but meats never content nor benefit till they be taken in Even so is it with Christ and the faithfull many things there are which affect them with pleasure but they are without and at a distance onely Christ it is who by being and dwelling in them deligheth them Lastly we eat and drink the Sacrament of Christ crucified that therein we may learne to admire the wisdome of Gods mercy who by the same manner of actions doth restore us to life
doe eat and drink the Lord himselfe And therefore the Church hath both at first and since most devoutly imitated our blessed Saviour in consecrating both these mysteries and their owne soules by thanksgiving and prayer before ever they received the elements from the hands of the Deacons that so that same pure Wine that immaculate Blood might be put into pure and untainted vessels even into sanctified and holy hearts lest otherwise the wine should be spilt and the vessells perish And indeed the Sacrament is ignorantly and fruitlessely received if we doe not therin devote consecrate and set apart our selves unto Gods service for what is a Sacrament but a visible oath wherin wee doe in consideration of Christs mercies unto us vow eternall alleigeance and service unto him against all those powers and lusts which warre against the soule and to make our members weapons of righteousnesse unto him Secondly as Christ brake the bread before he gave it so must our hearts before they be offered up to God for a reasonable sacrifice be humbled and bruised with the apprehension of their owne demerits for a Broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise shall wee have adamantine and unbended soules under the weight of those sins which brake the very Rock of our salvation and made the dead stones of the Temple to rend in sunder Was his body broken to let out his blood and shall not our soules be broken to let it in Was the Head wounded and shall the Ulcers and Impostumes remaine unlanced Would not God in the Law accept of any but pushed and dissected and burned sacrifices was his Temple built of none but cut and hewed stones and shall we think to have no Sword of the Spirit divide us no Hammer of the Word break us none of our drosse and stubble burned up none of our flesh beaten downe none of our old man crucified and cut off from us and yet be still living sacrifices and living stones in his Temple Whence did David call on God but out of the pit and the deepe waters when his bones were broken could not rejoyce Certainly we come unto God either as unto a Physitian or as to a Judge wee must needs bring soules either full of sores to be cured or full of sins to be condemned Againe in that this Rock of ours was broken we know whither to flie in case of tempest and oppression even unto the holes of the Rock for succor To disclaime our owne sufficiency to disavow any confidence in our owne strength to flie from Church treasures and supererrogations and to lay hold on him in whom were the treasures the fulnes of all grace of which fulnesse we all receive to forsake the private Lampes of the wisest Virgins the Saints and Angels which have not light enough to shine into anothers house and to have recourse only unto the Sonne of righteousnesse the light not of a House but of the World who inlightneth every man that commeth into it Think when thou seest these Elements broken that even then thou applyest thy lips unto his bleeding wounds and doest from thence suck salvation That even then with Thomas thy hand is in his side from whence thou mayest pluck out those words of life My God my God that even then thou seest in each wound a mouth open and in that mouth the blood as a visible prayer to intercede with God the Father for thee and to solicite him with stronger cries for salvation than did Abels for revenge Let not any sins though never so bloody so numberlesse deterre thee from this pretious Fountaine If it be the glory of Christs blood to wash away sinne then is it his greatest glory to wash away the greatest sins Thy sinne indeed is the object of Gods hate but the misery which sinne brings upon thee is the object of his pitty O when a poore distressed soule that for many yeares together hath securely weltered in a sinck of numberlesse and noisome lusts and hath even beene environed with a Hell of wickednesse shall at last having received a wound from the sword of Gods Spirit an eye to see and a heart to feele and tremble at the terrors of â—ods judgements shall then I say flie out of himselfe smite upon his thigâ— cast away his rags crouch and crawle unto the throne of grace solicite Gods mercy with strong cries for one drop of that blood which is never cast away when powred into sinfull and sorrowfull soules how think we will the bowels of Christ turne within him How will he hasten to meet such an humbled soule to embrace him in those armes which were stretched on the Crosse for him and to open unto him that inexhausted Fountaine which even delighteth to mix it â—elfe with the teares of sinners Certainly if it were possible for any one of Christs wounds to be more pretious than the rest even that should be opened wide and powred out into the soule of such a penitent Yea if it might possibly be that the sins of all the World could be even throng'd into the conscience of one man and the whole guilt of them made proper and personall unto him yet if such a man could bee brought to sue for grace in the mediation of Christs broken body there would thence issue balme enough to cure blood enough to wash and to drowne them all Only let not us sin because grace abounds let not us make work for the blood of Christ and go about by crimson and presumptuous sins as it were to pose Gods mercy The blood of Christ if spilt and trampled under foot will certainly cry so much lowder than Abels for vengeance by how much it is the more pretious It may be as well upon us as in us As the vertue and benefit of Christs blood is in those that imbrace it unto life and happinesse so is the guilt of it upon those that despise it unto wretchednesse and condemnation Thirdly in that Christ gave and delivered these mysteries unto the Church we likewise must learne not to ingrosse our selves or our owne gifts but freely to dedicate them all unto the honour of that God and benefit of that Church unto which he gave both himselfe and them Even nature hath made men to stand in need of each other and therefore hath imprinted in them a naturall inclination unto fellowship and society in one common City by Christ we are all made of one City of one houshold yea of one Church of one Temple He hath made us members of one body animated by one and the same Spirit stones of one entire building united on one and the same foundation branches of one undivided stock quickned by one and the same root and therefore requires from us all a mutuall support succour sustentation and nourishment of each
yet never properly to bee called the Body of Christ till Taken and Eaten by meanes of which Actions if they bee Actions of Faith that holy Bread and Wine doe as really convey whole Christ with the vitall influences that proceed from him unto the Soule as the hand doth them unto the mouth or the mouth unto the stomacke Otherwise if Christ were really and corporally present with the consecrated Elements severed from the act of faithfull Receiving the wicked should as easily receive him with their teeth as the faithfull in their Soule which to affirme is both absurd and impious Now Christs Presence in this holy Sacrament being a thing of so important consequence and the consideration thereof being very proper to this first end of the Sacrament the exhibiting of Christ for to exhibite a thing is nothing else but to present it or to make it present unto the party to whom it is exhibited It will not be impertinent to make some short digression for setting downe the manner and clearing the trueth of Christs Reall Presence the understanding whereof will depend upon the distinguishing of the severall manners in which Christ may bee said to bee present First then Christ being an infinite Person hath in the vertue of his Godhead an infinite and unlimited Presence whereby hee so filleth all places as that hee is not contained or circumscribed in them which immensity of his making him intimately present with all the Creatures is that whereby they are quickened supported and conserved by him for by him all things consist and hee upholdeth them all by the Word of his power and in him they live and move and have their being But this is not that Presence which in the Sacrament wee affirme because that presupposeth a Presence of Christ in and according to that nature wherein he was the Redeemer of the World which was his humane nature Yet in as much as this his humane nature subsisteth not but in and with the infinitenesse of the second Person there is therefore in the second place by the Lutherans framed another imaginary Presence of Christs humane Body after once the Divinity was pleased to derive glory in fulnesse on it which giveth it a participated ubiquity unto it too by meanes whereof Christ is corporally in or under the Sacrament all Elements But this opinion as it is no way agreeable with the truth of the humane nature of Christ so is it greatly injurious to his Divinity for first though Christs humane nature was in regard of its Production extraordinary and in regard of the sacred union which it had with the Divinity admirable and in regard of communication of glory from the Godhead and of the unction of the Holy Ghost farre above all other names that are named in heaven or earth yet in its nature did it ever retaine the essentiall and primiâ—ive properties of a created substance which is to bee in all manner of perfections finite and so by consequence in place too for glory destroies not nature but exalts it nor exalts it to any farther degrees of Perfection than are compatible to the finitenesse of a Creature who is like unto us in regard of all naturall and essentiall properties but these men give unto Christs Body farre more than his owne divine nature doth for hee glorifies it onely to bee the Head that is the most excellent and first-borne of every Creature but they glorifie it so farre as to make it share in the essentiall properties of the divine nature for as that substance unto whom the intrinsecall unseparated and essentiall properties of a man belong is a man necessarily man being nothing else but a substance so qualified so that being unto which the divine attributes doe belong in that degree of infinitenesse as they doe to the divine Person it selfe must needs bee God and immensity wee know is a proper attribute of the Divinity implying infinitenesse which is Gods owne Prerogative neither can the distinction of ubiquity communicated and originall or essentiall salve the consequence for God is by himselfe so differenced from all the Creatures as that it is not possible any attribute of his should bee participated by any Creature in that manner of infinitenesse as it is in him nay it implies an inevitable contradiction that in a finite nature there should bee roome enough for an infinite attribute We confesse that in as much as the humane nature in Christ is inseparably taken into the subsistence of the omnipresent Sonne of God It is therefore a truth to say That the Sonne of God though filling all places is not yet in any of them separated or asunder from the humane nature may by the vertue of the communication of the properties it is true likewise to say that the Man Christ is in all Places though not in or according to his humane nature But now from the union of the Manhood to the Godhead to argue a coextention or joynt-presence therewith is an inconsequent argument as may appeare in other things The Soule hath a kinde of immensity in her little world being in each part thereof whole and entire and yet it followes not because the Soule is united to the Body that therefore the Body must needs partake of this Omnipresence of the Soule else should the whole body be in the little finger because the Soule unto which it is united is wholly there Againe there is an unseparable union betweene the Sunne and the beame so that it is infallibly true to say the Sunne is no where severed from the beame yet wee know they both occupy a distinct place againe Misleâ—oe is so united to the substance of the Tree out of which it groweth that though of a different nature it subsisteth not but in and by the subsistence of the Tree and yet it hath not that amplitude of place which the Tree hath Letting goe then this opinion there is a third Presence of Christ which is a carnall Physicall locall Presence which wee affirme his humane nature to have onely in Heaven The Papists attribute it to the Sacrament because Christ hath said This is my Body and in matters of fundamentall consequence hee useth no figurative or darke speeches to this wee say that it is a carnall Doctrine and a mistake like that of Nicodemus and of Origen from the Spirit to the letter And for the difficulty it is none to men that have more than onely a carnall eare to heare it for what difficulty is it to say that then the King gives a man an Office when hee hath sealed him such a Paâ—ent in the right whereof that Office belongeth and is conveyed unto him And if Christ bee thus locally in the Sacrament and eaten with the mouth and so conveyed into the stomacke I then demand what becomes of him when and after hee is thus received into the stomacke If hee retire from the accidents out of a man then first accidents shall be left without any substance
sympathy and good workes towards our weake Brethren and it hindereth all violent motions the strength of sinne the darts of Satan the provocations of the World the Judgements of God or whatever evill may bee by the flesh either committed or deserved And this Union of the faithfull is both in the Elements and appellations and in the ancient ceremonies and in the very act of eating and drinking most significantly represented First for the Elements they are such as though naturally their parts were separated in severall graines and grapes yet are they by the art of man moulded together and made up into one artificiall body consisting of divers homogeneous parts men by Nature are disjoynted not more in being than in affections and desires each from other every one being his owne end and not any way affected with that tendernesse of Communion or bowels of love which in Christ wee recover but now Christ hath redeemed us from this estate of enmity and drawing us all to the pursuite of one common end and thereunto enabling us by one uniforme rule his holy Word and by one vitall Principle his holy Spirit wee are by the meanes of this holy Sacrament after the same manner reunited into one spirituall Body as the Elements though originally severall are into one artificiall masse And for the same reason as I conceive was the holy Passeover in the Law commanded to bee one whole Lambe and eaten in one Family and not to have one bone of it broken to signifie that there should bee all unity and no Schisme or rupture in the Church which is Christs Body Secondly for the appellations of this Sacrament it is commonly called The Lords Supper which word though with us it import nothing but an ordinary course and time of eating yet in other Language it expresseth that which the other appellation retaines Communion or fellowship and lastly it was called by the Ancients Synaxis a collection gathering together or assembling of the faithfull namely into that unity which Christ by his merits purchased by his prayer obtained and by his Spirit wrought in them so great hath ever beene the Wisedome of Gods Spirit and of his Church which is ruled by it to impose on divine institutions such names as might expresse their vertue and our duty as Adams Sacrament was called the Tree of Life the Iewes Sacraments the Covenant and the Passeover and with the Christians Baptisme is called Regeneration and the Lords Supper Communion that by the names we might bee put in minde of the power of the things themselves Thirdly for the Ceremonies and Customes annexed unto this Sacrament in the Primitive times notwithstanding for superstitious abuses some of them have beene abolished yet in their owne originall use they did signifie this uniting and knitting quality which the Sacraments have in it whereby the faithfull are made one with Christ by faith and amongst themselves by love And first they had a custome of mixing Water with the Wine as there came Water and Blood out of Christs side which however it might have a naturall reason because of the heate of the country and custome of those Southerne parts where the use was to correct the heate of Wine with Water yet was it by the Christians usâ—d not without a mysticall and allegoricall sense to expresse the mixture whereof this Sacrament is an effectuall instrument of all the People who have faith to receive it with Christs Blood Water being by the Holy Ghost himselfe interpreted for People and Nations Secondly at the receiving of this holy Sacrament their custome was to kisse one another with an holy kisse or a kisse of love as a testification of mutuall dearenesse it proceeding from the exiliency of the spirits and readinesse of Nature to meet and unite it selfe unto the thingâ— beloved for love is nothing else but a delightfull affection arising from an attractive power in the goodnesse of some excellent Object unto which it endeavoureth to cleave and to unite it selfe and therefore it was an argument of hellish hypocrisie in Iudas and an imitation of his father the Divell who transformeth himselfe into an Angell of Light for the enlargement of his kingdome to use this holy symbole of love for the instrument of a hatred so much the more devilish than any by how much the object of it was the more divine Thirdly after the celebration of the divine Mysteries the Christians to testifie their mutuall love to each other did eate in common together which Feasts from that which they did signifie as the use of God and his Church is to proportion names and things were called love-feasts to testifie unto the very Heathen how dearely they were knit together Fourthly after receiving of these holy mysteries there were extraordinary oblations and collections for refreshing Christs poore members who either for his Name or under his hand did suffer with patience the calamities of this present life expecting the glory which should be revealed unto them those did they make the Treasures of the Church their bowels the hordes and repositaries of their piety and such as were orphanes or widowes or aged or sicke or in bonds condemned to Mine-pits or to the Islands or desolate places or darke Dungeons the usuall punishments in those times with all these were they not ashamed in this holy worke to acknowledge a unity of condition a fellowship and equality in the spirituall Privileges of the same Head a mutuall relation of fellow-members in the same common Body unto which if any had greater right than other they certainly were the men who were conformed unto their Head in suffering and did goe to their Kingdome through the same path of blood which he had before besprinckled for them Lastly it was the custome in any solemne testimoniall of Peace to receive and exhibite this holy Sacrament as the seale and earnest of that union which the parties whom it did concerne had betweene themselves Such hath ever beene the care of the holy Church in all the customes and ceremoniall accessions whether of decency or charity which have beene by it appointed in this holy Sacrament that by them and in them all the concinnation of the Body of Christ the fellowship sympathy and unity of his members might be both signified and professed that as wee have all but one Sacrament which is the Food of life so wee should have but one Soule which is the Spirit of life and from thence but one heart and one minde thinking and loving and pursuing all the same things through the same way by the same rule to the same end And for this reason amongst others I take it it is that our Church doth require in the Receiving of these Mysteries a uniformity in all her Members even in matters that are of themselves indifferent that in the Sacrament of unity there might not appeare any breach or
Schisme but that as at all times so much more then wee should all thinke and speake and doe the same things least the manner should oppose the substance of the celebration Lastly if we consider the very act of eating and drinking even therein is expressed the fellowship and the union of the faithfull to each other for even by Nature are men directed to expresse their affections or reconcilements to others in feasts and invitations where even publique Enemies have condescended to termes of fairenesse and plausibility for which cause it is noted for one of the Acts of Tyrants whereby to dissociate the mindes of their Subjects and so to breake them when they are asunder whom all together they could not bend to interdict invitations and mutuall hospitalities whereby the body politicke is as well preserved as the naturall and the love of men as much nourished as their bodies And therefore where Ioseph did love most there was the messe doubled and the nationall hatred betweene the Iewes and Aegyptians springing from the diversity of Religions whose worke it is to knit and fasten the affections of men was no way better expressed than by their mutuall abominating the tables of each other So that in all these circumstances we find how the union of the faithfull unto each other is in this holy Sacrament both signified and confirmed whereby however they may in regard of temporall relations stand at great distance even as great as is betweene the Palace and the Prison yet in Christ they are all fellow-members of the same common Body and fellow-heires of the same common Kingdome and spirituall stones of the same common Church which is a name of unity and Peace They have one Father who deriveth on them an equall Nobility one Lord who equally governeth them one spirit who equally quickneth them one Baptisme which equally regenerateth them one faith which equally warrants their inheritance to them and lastly one sinew and bond of love which equally interesteth them in the joyes and griefes of each other so that as in all other so principally in this divine friendship of Christs Church there is an equality and uniformity be the outward distances how great soever Another principall End or Effect of this holy Supper is to signifie and obsignate unto the Soule of each Beleever his personall claime and title unto the new Covenant of Grace We are in a state of corruption sinne though it have received by Christ a wound of which it cannot recover yet as beasts commonly in the pangs of death use most violently to struggle and often to fasten their teeth more eagerly and fiercely where they light so sinne here that body of death that besieging encompassing evill that Cananite that lieth in our members being continually heartened by our arch enemy Satan however subdued by Israel doth yet never cease to goad and pricke us in the eyes that we might not looke up to our future Possession is ever raising up steemes of corruption to intercept the lustre of that glory which wee expect is ever suggesting unto the Beleever matter of diffidence and anxiety that his hopes hitherto have beene ungrounded his Faith presumptuous his claime to Christ deceitfull his propriety uncertaine if not quite desperate till at last the faithfull Soule lies gasping and panting for breath under the buffets of this messenger of Satan And for this cause it hath pleased our good God who hath promised never to faile nor forsake us that wee might not be swallowed up with griefe to renew often our right and exhibite with his owne hands for what is done by his Officers is by him done that sacred Body with the efficacy of it unto us that wee might fore-enjoy the promised Inheritance and put not into our chests or coffers which may haply by casualities miscarry but into our very bowels into our substance and soule the pledges of our Salvation that wee might at this spirituall Altar see Christ as it were crucified before our eyes clinge unto his Crosse and graspe it in our armes sucke in his Blood and with it salvation put in our hands with Thomas not out of diâ—â—idence but out of faith into his side and fasten our tongues in his sacred wounds that being all over dyed with his Bloud wee may use boldnesse and approach to the Throne of Grace lifting up unto heaven in faith and confidence of acceptance those eyes and hands which have seene and handled him opening wide that mouth which hath received him and crying aloud with that tongue which having tasted the Bread of Life hath from thence both strength and arguments for prayer to move God for mercy this then is a singular benefit of this Sacrament the often repetition and celebration whereof is as it were the renewing or rather the confirming with more and more seales our Patent of life that by so many things in the smallest whereof it is impossible for God to lye wee might have strong consolation who have our refuge to lay hold on him who in these holy Mysteries is set before us for the Sacrament is not onely a Signe to represent but a Seale to exhibite that which it represents In the Signe wee see in the seale wee receive him In the Signe wee have the image in the seale the benefit of Christs Body for the nature of a Signe is to discover and represent that which in it selfe is obscure or absent as words are called signes and symboles of our invisible thoughts but the property of a Seale is to ratifie and â—o establish that which might otherwise bee uneffectuall for which cause some have called the Sacrament by the name of a Ring which men use in sealing those writings unto which they annexe their trust and credit And as the Sacrament is a Signe and Seale from God to us representing and exhibiting his benefits so should it bee a signe and seale from us to God a signe to separate us from sinners a seale to oblige us to all performances of faith and thankfulnesse on our part required Another End and Effect of this holy Sacrament was to abrogate the Passeover and testifie the alteration of those former Types which were not the commemorations but the predictions of Christs Passion and for this cause our blessed Saviour did celebrate both those Suppers at the same time but the new Supper after the other and in the evening whereby was figured the fulnesse of time that thereby the presence of the substance might evacuate the shadow even as the Sunne doth with his lustre take away all those lesser and substituted lights which were used for no other purpose but to supply the defect which there was of him The Passeover however in the nature of a sacrifice it did prefigure Christ yet in the nature of a Solemnity and annuall commemoration it did
Prince of darkenes Nature is in all her operations uniforme and constant unto her selfe one Tree cannot naturally bring forth Grapes and Figgs out of the same Fountaine cannot issue bitter water and sweete the selfe same vitall faculty of feeling which is in one member of the body is in all because all are animated with that soule which doth not confine it selfe unto any one The Church of God is a Tree planted by the same hand a Garden watred from the same Fountaine a body quickned by the same Spirit the members of it are all brethren begotten by one Father of mercy generated by one Seede of the Word delivered g from one wombe of ignorance fed with one bread of Life employd in one Heavenly calling brought up in one House-hold of the Church travellers in one way of grace heires to one Kingdome of glory and when they agree in so many unities should they then admit any fraction or disunion in their minds from Adam unto the last man that shall tread on the Earth is the Church of GOD but one continued and perfected body and therefore we finde that as in the body the head is affected with the grievances of the feete though there be a great distance of place betweene them so the holymen of God have mourned and been exceedingly touched with the afflictions of the Church even in after Ages though betweene them did interveane a great distance of time Certainly then if the Church of God lie in distresse and we stretch our selves on beds of Juory if she mourne in sack-cloath and we riot in soft rayment if the wild Bore of the Forrest breake in upon her and we send not out one prayer to drive him away if there bee cleanenesse of teeth in the poore and our teeth grinde them still if their bowells be empty of food and ours still empty of compassion if the wrath of God bee enflamed against his people and our zeale remaine still as frozen our charity as cold our affections as benum'd our compassion as stupid as it ever was In aword if Sion lye in the dust and wee hang not up our Harpes nor pray for her peace as wee can conclude nothing but that we are unnaturall members so can wee expect nothing but the curse of Meroz who went not out to helpe the Lord. Fourthly in that this Sacrament is Gods Instrument to ratifie and make sure our claime unto his Covenant we learne First therein to admire and adore the unspeakeable love of God who is pleased not onely to make but to confirme his promises unto the Church As God so his truth whether of judgments or promises are all in themselves immutable and infallible in their event yet notwithstanding as the Sunne though in it selfe of a most uniforme light and magnitude yet by reason of the great distance and of the variety of mists and vapours through which the raies are diffus'd it often seemeth in both properties to varie so the promises of God however in themselves of a fixed and unmoveable certainty yet passing through the various tempers of our minds one while serene and cleere another while by the steeme of passions and temptations of Satan foggie and distemperd doe appeare under an inconstant shape And for this cause as the Sunne doth it selfe dispell those vapours w ch did hinder the right percâ—â—tion of it so the grace of God together with and by the holy Sacrament communicated doth rectifie the minde and compose those diffident affections w ch did before intercept the efficacie and evidence thereof God made a Covenant with our fathers and not accounting that enough hee confirmed it by an oath that by 2. immutable things wherein it was impossible for God to ly they might have strong consolation who have had refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before them The strength wee see of the consolation depends upon the stability of the covenant And is Gods covenant made more firme by an oath than by a promise The truth of God is as his nature without variablenesse or shadow of changing and can it then bee made more immutable Certainly as to infinitenes in regard of extension so unto immutabillity in regard of firmenes can there not bee any accession of degrees or parts All immutability being noâ—thing else but an exclusion of whatsoever might possibly occur to make the thing variable and uncertaine So then the Oath of God doth no more adde to the certainty of his word then doe mens oathes and protestations to the truth of what they affirme but because wee consist of an earthly and dull temper therefore God when he speakes unto us doth ingeminate his compellations O Earth Earth Earth heare the word of the Lord. So weake is our sight so diffident our nature as that it seemes to want the evidence of what it sees peradventure God may repent him of his promise as he did sometime of his Creature Why should not the Covenant of grace bee as mutable as was that of gwords God promised to establish Sion for ever and yet Sion the City of the great God is fallen was not Shilo beloved and did not God forsake it had Comah beene as the signet of his hand had hee not yet beene cast away was not Ierusalem a Vine of Gods planting and hath not the wild Boare long since rooted it up was not Israel the naturall Olive that did partake of the fat and sweetnesse of the roote and is yea cut off and wrath come upon it to the uttermost Though God be most immutable may he not yet alter his promise did the abrogation of Ceremonies prove any way a change in him who was as well the erector as the dissolver of them Though the Sunne be fastned to his owne Spheare yet may hee bee moved by another Orbe What if Gods promise barely considered proceed from his Antecedent and simple will of benevolence towards the Creature but the stability and certainty of his promise in the event depend on a second resolution of his consequent will which presupposeth the good use of mine owne liberty may not I then abuse my free will and so frustrate unto my selfe the benefit of Gods promise Is not my will mutable though Gods bee not may not I sinke and fall though the place on which I stand be firme may not I let goe my hold though the thing which I handle bee it selfe fast what if all this while I have beene in a Dreame mistaking mine owne private fancies and misperswasions for the dictates of Gods Spirit mistaking Satan who useth to transforme himselfe for an Angell of light God hath promised it is true but hath hee promised unto mee did hee ever say unto mee Simon Simon or Saul Saul Or Samuel Samuel Or if hee did must he needs performe his promise to me who am not able to fulfill my conditions unto him Thus
with the love of his death without this thou maist be guilty of his body thou canst not be a partaker of it guilty thou art because thou didst reach out thy hand with a purpose to receive Christ into a polluted soule though he withdrew himselfe from thee Even as Mutius Sevola was guilty of Porsena's bloud though it was not him but another whom the Dagger wounded because the error of the hand cannot remove the malice of the heart CHAP. XVIII Of the subject who may with benefit receive the holy Sacrament with the necessary qualifications thereunto of the necessity of due preparation WE have hitherto handled the Sacrament it selfe wee are now breifly to consider the subject whom it concerneth in whom we will observe such qualifications as may fit and predispose him for the comfortable receiving and proper interest in these holy mysteries Sacraments since the time that Satan hath had a Kingdome in the World have been ever notes and Characters whereby to distinguish the Church of God from the Ethnick and unbeleeving part of men so that they being not common unto all mankinde some subject unto whom the right and propriety of them belongeth must bee found out GOD at the first created man upright framed him after his owne Image and endowed him with gifts of nature able to preserve him entire in that estate wherein he was created And because it was repugnant to the essentiall freedome wherein he was made to necessitate him by any outward constraint unto an immutable estate of integrity he therefore so framed him that it might be within the free liberty of his owne will to cleave to him or to decline from him Man being thus framed abused this native freedome and committed sinne and thereby in the very same instant became really and properly dead For as he was dead iudicially in regard of a temporall and eternall death both which were now already pronounced though not executed on him so was he dead actually and really in regard of that spirituall death which consisteth in a separation of the soule from God and in an absolute immobility unto Divine operations But mans sinne did not nullifie Gods power He that made him a glorious creature when he was nothing could as easily renew and rectifie him when he fell away Being dead true it is that active concurrence unto his owne restitution he could have none but yet still the same passive obedience and capacity which was in the red Clay of which Adams body was fashioned unto that divine Image which God breathed into it the same had man being now fallen unto the restitution of those heavenly benefits and habituall graces which then hee lost save that in the clay there was onely a passive obedience but in man fallen there is an active rebellion crossing resistance and withstanding of Gods good worke in him More certainely than this hee cannot have because howsoever in regard of naturall and reasonable operations hee bee more selfe-moving than clay yet in regard of spirituall graces hee is full as dead Even as a man though more excellent then a beast is yet as truely and equally not an Angell as a beast is So then thus farre wee see all mankinde doe agree in an equallity of Creation in a universallity of descrtion in a capacity of restitution God made the world that therein hee might commuicate his goodnesse unto the creature and unto every creature in that proportion as the nature of it is capable of And man being one of the most excellent creatures is amongst the rest capable of these two principall attributes holinesse and happinesse which two God out of his most secret Counsell and eternall mercy conferreth on whom he had chosen and made accepted in Christ the beloved shutting the rest either out of the compasse as Heathen or at least out of the inward priviledges and benefits of that Covenant which hee hath established with mankind as hypocrites and licentious Christians Now as in the first Creation of man God did into the unformed lumpe of clay infuse by his power the breath of life and so made man so in the regeneration of a Christian doth hee in the naturall man who is dead in sinne breathe a principle of spirituall life the first Act as it were and the originall of all supernaturall motions whereby hee is constituted in the first being of a member of Christ. And this first Act is faith the soule of a Christian that whereby we live in Christ so that till wee have faith wee are dead and out of him And as faith is the principle next under the Holy-Ghost of all spirituall life here so is Baptisme the Sacrament of that life which accompanied and raised by the Spirit of grace is unto the Church though not the cause yet the meanes in and by which this grace is conveyed unto the soule Now as Adam after once life was infus'd into him was presently to preserve it by the eating of the fruites in the Garden where God had placed him because of that continuall depashion of his radicall moysture by vitaâ—l heat which made Nature to stand in need of succours and supplies from outward nourishment so after man is once regenerated and made alive hee is to preserve that faith which quickneth him by such food as is provided by God for that purpose it being otherwise of it selfe subject to continuall languishings and decayes And this life is thus continued and preserved amongst other meanes by the grace of this holy Eucharist which conveyes unto us that true food of life the body and bloud of Christ crucified So then in as much as the Sacrament of Christs supper is not the Sacrament of regeneration but of sustentation and nourishment and in as much as no dead thing is capable of being nourished augmentation being a vegetative and vitall act and lastly in as much as the principle of this spirituall life is faith and the Sacrament of it Baptisme It followeth evidently that no man is a subject quallified for the holy communion of Christs body who hath not beene before partaker of faith and Baptisme In Heaven where all things shall bee perfected and renewed our soules shall be in as little neede of this Sacrament as our bodies of nourishment But this being a state of imperfection subject to decayes and still capable of further augmentation wee are therefore by these holy mysteries to preserve the life which by faith and Baptisme wee have received without which life as the Sacrament doth conferre and confirme nothing so doe we receive nothing neither but the bare elements Christ is now in Heaven no eye sharpe enough to see him no arme long enough to reach him but onely faith The Sacrament is but the seale of a Covenant and Covenants essentially include conditions and the condition on our part is faith no faith no Covenant no Covenant no Seale no Seale no Sacrament Christ and Beliall will not lodge together
shew forth such an Heavenly light of holinesse puritie majesty authority efficacy mercy wisedome comfort perfection in one word such an unsearchable Treasurie of internall mysteries as that now the soule is as fully able by the native light of the Scriptures to distinguish their Divine originall and authenticalnesse from any other meere humane writings as the eye is to observe the difference betweene a beame of the Sunne and a blaze of a Candle The second question is how the Soule comes to bee setled in this perswasion that the goodnesse of these truths founded on the Authority of God doe particularly belong unto it Whereunto I answere in one word That this ariseth from a two-fold Testimonie grounded upon a preceding worke of Gods Spirit For first the Spirit of God putteth his feare into the hearts of his servants and purgeth their consciences by applying the bloud of Christ unto them from dead workes wish affections strongly and very sensibly altering the constitution of the minde must needs notably manifest themselves unto the soule when by any reflex act shee shall set her selfe to looke inward upon her owne operations This being thus wrought by the grace of God thereupon there ensueth a twofold Testimonie The first of a mans owne spirit as wee see in the examples of Iob David Hezekiah Nehemiah Saul and others namely That hee desireth to feare Gods name to keepe a conscience void of offence to walke in all integrity towards God and men from which and the like personall qualifications arise joy in the holy-Ghost peace of conscience and experience of sweetnes in the fellowship with the Father and his Sonne Secondly the Testimony of the holy Spirit bearing witnes to the sincerity of those affections and to the evidence and truth of those perswasions which himselfe by his grace stirred up So then first the Spirit of God writeth the Law in the heart upon obedience whereunto ariseth the Testimony of a mans owne spirit And then he writeth the promises in the heart and by them ratifieth and confirmeth a mans hops and joyes unto him I understand not all this which hath been spoken generally of all assents unto objects Divine which I take it in regard of their evidence firmnes and stability doe much differ according unto the divers tempers of those hearts in which they reside but principally unto the cheife of those assents which are proper unto saving Faith For assent as I said in generall is common unto Divils with men and therefore to make up the creature of true Faith There is required some differencing property whereby it may be constituted in the entire essence of saving Faith In each sense we may observe that unto the generall faculty whereby it is able to perceive objects proportioned to it there is annexed ever another property whereby according to the severall nature of the objects proposed it is apt to delight or be ill affected with it for example our eare apprehendeth all sounds in common but according as is the Harmony or discord of the sound it is apt to take pleasure or offence at it Our taste reacheth unto whatsoever is the object of it but yet some things there are which grievously offend the Palate others which as much delight it and so it is in Divine assents Some things in some subjects bring along with them tremblings horrors fearefull expectations aversation of minde unwilling to admit or be pursued with the evidence of Divine truths as it is in Divils and despayring sinners Other assents on the contrary doe beget serenity of minde a sweete complacency delight adherence and comfort Into the hearts of some men doth the Truth of GOD shine like Lightning with a penetrating and amasing brightnes in others like the Sunne with comfortable and refreshing Beames For understanding whereof wee are to observe that in matters practicall and Divine and so in all others though not in an equall measure the truth of them is ever mutually embraced and as it were insolded in their goodnes for as truth doth not delight the understanding unlesse it be a good truth that is such as unto the understanding beares a relation of convenience whence arise diversities in mens studies because all men are not alike affected with all kindes of truth so good doth noe way affect the will unlesse it be a true and reall good Otherwise it proves but like the banquet of a dreaming man which leaves him as hungry and empty as when he lay downe Goodnes then added unto truth doth together with the assent generate a kinde of rest and delight in the heart on which it shineth Now goodnes Morall or Divine hath a double relation A relation unto that originall in dependency on and propinquitie whereunto it consilleth and a relation unto that faculty or subject wherein it resideth and whereunto it is proposed Good in the former sense is that which beares in it a proportion unto the Fountaine of good for every thing is in it selfe so farre good as it resembles that originall which is the author and patterne of it and that is GOD. In the second sense that is good which beares a conveniency and fitnes to the minde which entertaines it good I meane not alwayes in nature but in apprehension All Divine truths are in themselves essentially good but yet they worke not alwaies delight and comforts in the minds of men untill proportioned and fitted unto the faculty that receives them As the Sunne is it in it selfe equally light the water in a Fountaine of it selfe equally sweete but according unto the severall Temper of the eye which perceiveth the one and of the vessell through which the other passeth they may prove to be offensive and distastfull But now further when the faculty is thus fitted to receive a good it is not the generality of that good which pleaseth neyther but the particular propriety and interest thereunto Wealth and honor as it is in it selfe good so is it likewise in the apprehension of most men yet we see men are apt to be griev'd at it in others and to looke on it with an evill eye nothing makes them to delight in it but possession and propriety unto it I speake here onely of such Divine good things as are by God appointed to make happy his creature namely our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ his Obedience Satisfaction Resurrection Ascension Intercession Glory and whatever elce it is of which he hath been unto his Church the Author Purchaser conveyer and Foundation Now unto these as unto other good things there is a double right belonging by free donation from him unto the Church a right of propriety unto the thing and a right of possession in the thing This latter is that which here in Earth the Church suspireth and longeth after that other onely it is which here we have and that confirmed unto us by a double Title The first as the Land of Cannan was confirmed unto the Israelits by
assent must arise an approbation and love of those objects whence doth issue such sweetnesse A second effect is affiance and hope confidently for the present relying on the goodnesse and for the future waiting on the power of God which shall to the full in time performe what hee hath in his Word promised when once the minde of a man is wrought so to assent unto divine promises made in Christ as to acknowledge an interest and propriety unto them and that to bee at last actually performed not by a man who is subject both to unfaithfulnesse in perseverance and to disability in performance of his promises for every man is a lyar either by imposture ready to deceive or by impotencie likely to disappoint the expectations of those who rely upon him but by Almighty God who the better to confirme our faith in him hath both by his Word and Oath engaged his fidelity and is altogether omnipotent to doe what hee hath purposed Impossible it is but from such an assent grounded on the veracity and on the All-sufficiency of God there should result in the minde of a faithfull man a confident dependance on such promises renouncing in the meane time all selfe-dependance as in it selfe utterly impotent and resolving in the midst of Temptations to relie on him to hold fast his mercy and the profession of his Faith without wavering having an eye to the recompence of reward and being assured that he who hath promised will certainely bring it to passe A third effect of Faith is ioy and peace of Conscience for being iustified by faith we have peace with God The minde is by faith and the impression of sweetnesse in Gods Promises composed unto a setled calmenesse and serenity I doe not meane a dead peace an immobility and sleepinesse of Conscience like the rest of a dreaming prisoner but such a peace as a man may by a syllogisme of the practicke judgment upon right examination of his owne interest in Christ safely inferre unto himselfe The wicked often hath an appearance of peace as well as the faithfull but here is the difference Betweene a wicked mans sinne and him there is a Doore shut which will surely one day open for it is but either a doore of Error or the doore of Death for sinne lieth at the doore ready to flye at his throate as soone as it shall finde either his eyes open to see it or his life to let it in upon the soule but betweene a faithfull man and his sinne there is a Corner-stone a Wall of fire through which Satan himselfe cannot breake even the merits of Christ Iesus Briefly the peace which comes from Faith hath these two properties in it tranquility and serenity too otherwise it is but like the calmenesse of the dead Sea whose unmoveablenesse is not Nature but a Curse The last effect which I shall now name of Faith is that generall effect of fructification purifying the heart and disposing it unto holinesse and new obedience which is to bee framed after Gods Law Faith unites us unto Christ being thus united we are quickned by one and the same Spirit having one spirit and soule we must needs agree in the same operations and those operations must necessarily beare conformity unto the same rule and that rule is the Law under which Christ himselfe was for our sakes made So that the rule to examine this effect of Faith by should bee the whole compasse of Gods Law which to enter into were to redouble all this labour past for thy Law saith David is exceeding wide Briefly therefore in all our obedience observe these few rules First The obligatory power which is in the Law depends upon the one and sole authority of the Law-giver who is God He that breakes but one Commandement venturs to violate that authority which by the same Ordination made one equally obligatory with the rest And therefore our obedience must not bee partiall but universall unto the whole Law in as much as it proceeds from that Faith which without indulgence or dispensation yeeldeth assent unto the whole compasse of Divine Truth Secondly as is God so is his Law a spirituall and a perfect Law and therefore requires a universality of the subject as well as of the obedience I meane besides that perfect integrity of Nature which in regard of present inherence is irrecoverably lost in Adam and supplied onely by the imputed righteousnesse and integrity of Christ an inward spirituall sincere obedience of the heart from thence spreading like lines from a Centre unto the whole Circumference of our Nature unto our Words Actions Gestures unto all our parts without crooked mercenary and reserv'd respects wherein men often in stead of the Lord make their ends or their feares their God Lastly remember that in every Law all homogeneall matters to the maine duty which is commanded every sprigge or seed or originall or degree thereof is included as all the severall branches of a Tree are fastned to one and the same stocke And by these rules are wee to examine the truth of our obedience But heere before I draw downe these premises to an Assumption I will but name one caution which is this That Faith as it may bee either habituall or Actuall so it is the cause of these holy actions either habitually by framing and disposing the heart unto them or actually when it is it selfe as it ought ever to bee sound and operative But sometimes Faith so great is the corruption of our nature admits of a decay and languor wherein it lies as it were like fire under ashes raked up and stifled under our corruptions Againe in some there is a weaker in some a stronger Faith according unto which difference there must be a difference in the measure and magnitude of the effects But yet it is infallibly true that all or most of those holy fruits doe in some seasons or other bud forth of that stocke which is quickned by Faith though sometimes in some men lesse discernable by reason of corruptions interposed For it usually thus falleth out that our graces are but like the Army of Gedeon a small handfull whereas our corruptions are like the Midianits which lay on the ground as Grashoppers innumerable But yet in these God crowneth his owne meanest gists with victory and successe So then these things being thus proposed let the conscience without connivence examine it selfe by such interrogatories as these Doe I finde my selfe live by the Faith of the Sonne of GOD who gave himselfe for me Doe I delight in his Word more then my appoynted food never adulterating it with the Leaven or Dreggs of hereticall fancies or dead workes Doth the word of Truth transforme me to the Image of it selfe Crucifying all those corruptions which harboured in me Doe I finde my selfe to grow in all graces universally and uniformely towards God and man not thinking to recompence some defects which my nature drives me unto with