see that none could stay out the Prayers but they must be at least by-standers at the Communion Or if any thoght to avoid them Both they were not thereby excused as appears in the case of the Alexandrians for when many of them after reading of the Gospel went away John surnamed the Alms-giver then Patriarch followed them out of the Church sharply reproving them telling them He came to administer the Eucharist to them and never giving over his importunity till he brought them back to the Holy Table Even those who were go'n out of the Church as resolved not to Communicate and therefor certainly both Unprepared and Unworthy did he promiscuously even compel And This zele of so Eminent a Prelate might I vouch as my second Topik since he cannot be denied the title of a Father of the Church But I urge not This however Venerable Authority further than as Expositor of the true meaning of the now mentioned Canon since by the shifts the People made to avoid the Letter by not staying out Prayers and the importunity the good Prelate used to recal them both to Prayers and Communion we may best Avoid any Evasions that our Modern Teachers may use who in Reverence to the Sacrament fright the vulgar from it and Justify my self in my professed endeavor to compel them to it And from the first Testimony thus cleared I com to II. 2. ANcient FATHERS among whom Justin Martyr shineth with great lustre He florished in the midl of the Second Century and is so Clear and so Particular that his words may serv as well to Describe as to Prove the Practice of Those days consonant to the Apostls This excellent Father having before described the other Sacrament and to its Description added what the Church constantly did to its Celebration That of the Lords Supper proceeding afterward to giv a Several account of This he thus reporteth its Constant Revolution And That day which is caled Sunday there is a meeting of all that dwell in Town and Country and the Reader having do'n his office the President makes an Oration wherein he exhorteth the people to imitate such goodly things Then we all rise and pray and as I have said at the end of prayers Bread Wine and Water are brought forth and the Prefect again poureth out with all his might Prayers and Praises and the people answereth aloud Amen And there is a distribution and communication made of those things over which thanks have be'n given to every one that is present but to the absent it is sent by the Deacons But those that are wealthy and willing contribute what they see good c. These words do so exactly suit the Practice of the Church to her above-recited Censure that I know not what Light can be Added or what Evasion Pretended if we consider how expresly they declare 1. That this was Every Sundays exercise And that it was not confined to the Sunday appeareth by what he had said before in the description of the Other Sacrament whereof he made This a certain attendant without declaring that it was do'n only upon Sundays 2. Every Christian was thoght obliged to Communicate every Sunday at least bicause the Church-officers were appointed to cary the Holy Supper even to the Absent 3. They mingled Water with the Wine This we may very reasonably believ to have be'n do'n in Conformity to the Jewish Tradition which forbiddeth the Cup of blessing to be otherwise celebrated For so the Misna in Berachoth endeth the 7th Chap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They bless not for the Wine until Water be put to it This Action they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mingling of the Cup as they do the other the Breaking of the Bread 3. The third sort of testimony promised was an HISTORIAN I might plead performance of That promise by the now recited words of Justin reporting Mater of Fact But that you may see this was no short lived practice I shall further offer you the testimony of a profess'd Historian that wrote about the midl of the fifth Century Socrates in lib. 5. cap. 21. describing the differences between several Churches in their Rites thus speaketh concerning the Subject now in question Althogh All Churches All the world over in every week on the Sabbath day celebrate the Communion yet the Alexandrians and Romans upon an ancient Tradition refuse so to do But the Egyptians which dwell near Alexandria and in Thebais celebrate also the Communion on the Sabbath but receve it not after the manner of other Christians for after they have Fested and filled themselves with sundry meats in the Evening making the Offering they Communicate in the Mysteries Behold here a Testimony as full and as clear as can be expected from an Historian yea from a Witness for he nether speaketh by hear-say nor transcribeth other mens Writings of former ages but reporteth what himself certainly knew of the Universal practice of the whole Christian World at the time of his Writing And for our better satisfaction let us consider 1. That He should say the Sabbath was the day of Celebration whereas Justin Martyr puts it upon the Sunday can make no objection The analogy between them having given the One the name of the Other in our own days 2. Whereas the Egyptians Fested first and Communicated in the Evening after they had Fested themselves this may well be taken for a continuation of the Primitive practice in their Fests of Charity banished at That time out of other Churches bicause of rhe abuses they suffered from the Intemperance of the Peopl 3. Concerning the singularity of the Roman Church 1. It is not hard to reconcile Socrates with St. Hierom who saith That in His days there remained plain foot-steps of daily Communions in That Church which also continueth true in Our days without any contradiction to our Historian She hath still evident Foot-steps of more than Daily Communions yet no Face of so much as Weekly It seems that even in Socrates's days they had put it in Maskerade 2. We see what right That Church hath to ingross the title of Catholik It is one contradiction to confine so large a Word to any One part of the World and it is a Greater to confine it to That part which was singular as differing from All besides the Alexandrian Church 3. We find what pretence that Church hath to equal her Traditions with the Scripture since Universality is essential to a Tradition and here she pretendeth One unknown to the whole Christian World But most pertinently to our present purpose 4. We see whence we are to derive the neglect of Weekly Communions When the Roman Church got the Power to impose her own Singularities upon All other the Ambition to usurp the title of Catholik as if she were not only the Head but the Whole and the Confidence to set up her Inventions as authentik Traditions then must the Universal Practice of All the Christian World be
thereof Prayer is required even of those who by their actions shew themselvs not to be the Sons of God and therefor when they pray may not properly say Our Father This is no less a Sacrament than Baptism and more a worship of Christ than either Hearing or Praying Yea All other Offices put together do not so much advance his Personal honor as this One. And is it not strange that when All the rest ar required This alone should be Prohibited and That upon no other reason but what is common to All And being put home will no less rob Christ of All honor than his Members of all Priviledges V. THIS therefore is our General answer to All Objections of This kind Many ar called but few chosen Outward Offices belong to the Called Inward benefits to the Chosen The Former ar both ways condemned whether they neglect to joyn with the Church of Christ in open Profession or by the unsuitablness of their Lives giv the Ly to That Profession And This differeth no otherwise from Other Offices but in This That our Saviors Person is more honored by it and if it require so much the greater care in the Manner so doth it also in the Thing if we must be so much the more careful How we Do it so must we be That do not Omit it And this is sufficient not only to Answer but make Examples of all those Allegorical Objections which indeed I should hardly have taken such notice of did they not serv as Illustrations of our duty For to no other purpose do our adversaries produce them These ar but their Velites their main strength follows CHAP. V. Reason as the case now standeth forbids to hazard the very being of the Sacrament for advancement of Reverence I. A Descent from Scripture to Reason The case now different from what it was formerly II. 1. Bicause the very Being of the Sacrament is hazarded III. Every step from Constancy an approche to That danger At first the Prohibition lay onely against singl persons not qualities and against Persons by sentence of the Bishop IV. From sins grosly scandalos a pass made to All sins The moderation of the Church of England V. Motives to bring tepid persons to the Sacrament not potent VI. A comparison of such Doctrines as endanger the Being with such practices as profane the Sacrament 1. Somthing is better than Nothing More hope of reformation A Protest against encorageing irreverence Three good ends laid down which the Sacrament is fit to promote but disabled by disuse WHATEVER we have hitherto seen either of Scripture or Reason thereupon bilt hath be'n so short of worthy to be ballanced against our Lords Command his Apostl's Explication or his Churches Tradition that I cannot think it credibl any one hath thereby be'n induced to entertene a thoght prejudicial to them But rather that Pios persons finding the Sacrament to have lost much of it's honor and it's power by so Constant exercise conceving it might be both more Serviceabl to Godliness and more Esteemed it Self if it had more Aw with less Frequence and encoraged by the exampl of Former Ages who for the like reasons had made great alterations took Those Examples for their Guides and Those good Intentions for their Mesures and wer more industrios to interpret the Scriptures by such good Ends than to conform their Doctrines to the Scriptures now grown obscure and hardly intelligibl by loss of That Key which alone was capable to unlock them It is therefor now made a point of Discretion and that I may pay our Lord the Honor due to his Wisdom as well as the Obedience due to his Command I must from the undeniabl authority of Scripture proceed to consider what Reason will determin I must therefor now suppose what I have all this while be'n disproving that the Indulged sens of the disputed words is the True one that they give an ampl Commission to govern our Obedience I was wont to say I now say Performance by our Discretion I must further grant what I wish I could deny that we cannot be sure to preserv our Reverence to the Institution without quitting not only rigid Constancy but Tolerabl Frequency and upon These disadvantages com to this humbl question Whether the case standing as now it doth it will more conduce to the Service of the Sacrament and it's Author to receve it seldom if at all than Constantly or Frequently I say the case standing as now it doth For I think I can never too often profess that I exalt not my self against those Venerable persons whether of the last or former ages who wer they now living would doubtless change their answer to the question with the changed state of the Subject II. AND FIRST I take it for very considerabl that the difference between the State of the question Now and Heretofore is the same as Caesar declared between the battail of Munda and Other battails In Others he fought for Honor in That for Life And questionless Those who thinking it Secure from total Desertion thoght fit to Hazard somewhar of Frequency would not have Exposed the very Being of so great a Duty if they had imagined it in danger It is the singular unhappiness of This onely Office that it is laid aside upon pretence it cannot defend it self There is the same danger in Hearing or Praying as in Receiving Unworthily That is by the Apostl declared a Savor of death unto death and This by the Wise man is stiled an Abomination Yet is That still preached and This still practised Be they never so ill used by their Enemies they ar not therefor deserted by their Friends bicaus unprosperos If it be pleaded that the Sacrament is not Laid aside as Vseless but Lock't up as Precios I answer that I very well remember when to Secure a person signified to Imprison him and in This case whatever the Intention be the Effect is the same Action is the very Being of the Sacrament from which if it be lock't up it is lost both to it's self and all other purposes which By it and not Without it it is Appointed and Fit to promote Our Lord stamped it with his own Image and superscription not that it might be lock't up as a Medal but Used as Money whose Office and Honor it is so to represent the King as to answer all the needs and conveniences of the Possessor He therefor most honoreth ir who so employeth it as may best answer our Lords good Ends not he that locketh it up as the Miser doth his Gold We must therefor consider there is an Extreme on That side also if Prodigality be a vice So and perhaps more than So is Covetosness Suppose there be Danger that the more we Vse the more we Spend it there is another that the more we forbear the less we enjoy it And in This the Prodigal is justified above the Covetos that thogh he spend his money he doth not destroy
swallowed up and our Lord's Institution be lost in a private Tradition and an unintelligibl Mass but in the Beginning it was not so 5. The result of all is That the Doctrine of liberty from obligation to constancy in the Lords Supper is Popery most properly so caled both in the Mater and the Derivation in the Mater as differing from the Church Universal in the Derivation as proceeding from no pretence of Scripture at first thogh it be otherwise now but from Tradition of their own making contrary to Tradition worthily so caled and Scripture carefully examined Whoever therefor desireth a Thorogh Reformation from Popery and Popish Superstitions let him not spend his zele about litl Ceremonies and Circumstances but imploy it in service of the most Sacred and most properly Christian office which needs be rescued from utter abolition by the Practices of Rome never more grosly superstitious than in This Subject III. 4. THE Fourth sort of Testimony is That of ENEMIES Those that appear such to the Constancy we assert may be reduced to one of these three Glasses viz. 1. Protestants 2. Papists 3. Junior Fathers Among PROTESTANTS and Abov all others I therefor apply my self to the excellent person above praised bicause I know no other that hath asserted any thing so distinctly as to be capabl of an answer This admirable Person finding the Evidence of the best Antiquity That of the Apostl's and Primitive Fathers undeniable endeavoreth ro Evade what he findeth necessary to Confess 1. Concerning the Former we have heard him say True it is the Apostls did indefinitely admit all the faithful to the Holy Communion but they were persons wholely enflamed with those Holy Fire which Jesus Christ sent from Heaven to make them burning and shining Lights c. And then he spends a whole Page in such a Character as one might think intended for the Apostls themselves did not the question necessarily cast it upon the Faithful and then too one might think that word must be taken in its most rigid sens for the Elect. But was there a Judas among the twelve chosen by our Lord himself and not One unworthy among the thousands of Disciples whom the Apostls indefinitely admitted St. Jude describeth not Such Saints sure where among other black characters he brandeth them with This that they are spots in their fests of charity and as litl doth he blame the officers of the Church for admitting them St. Paul too I take it doth not describe Saintly conversation in those Church meetings for whose debaucheries he reproveth not the Pastors for Admitting such Persons but the Peopl for Committing such Leudness yea and So reproveth them as not to Excommunicate them for their domestik riots but to require them however unworthy in their persons to come but in a manner more worthy Had the Scriptures be'n silent we must have be'n very tame if without any evidence we had believed that All Christians in that better then Golden age deserved so great an Eulogy but after such contrary Evidence we have nothing better to do than to pity such an excellent Person so enslaved and hardly used by an Opinion that putteth him to seek but alloweth him no shifts from such insupportabl Evidence Another Confession with it s annexed Evasion concerns the Ancient Fathers in these words St. Hierom and St. Augustin tells us That even until their days the custom of receving every day remained in the Churches of Rome and Spain And all the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion But just as Physitians exhort men to eat the best and heartiest meats not the sickly and faint but the strong men and the healthy All the ancient Fathers exhort to a frequent Communion This is more than can well stand with his own positions which discorage the generality from it yet falls as much short of truth as Frequent doth of Constant for we shall presently meet som of them exhorting not only to Frequent but Daily Communions Yea so certainly did the Primitive Christians make This not only their Constant but their Principal exercise in All their meetings that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which primarily signifieth no more than a Meeting became the diverbial word for the Lords Supper in exact conformity to St. Luke's stile who saith They meet to break bread and the footsteps of the phrase remain as plain yet as much corrupted as do those of the Office among the Romanists who express their Church-meetings by Going to Mass As certainly therefor as the Papists make the Mass the Principal exercise of their Publik worship so certainly did the Primitive Christians make the Lords Supper the principal of Theirs the very phrase confirming their express testimony of this truth They exhort men he confesseth but evades the consequence by adding they do it Just as Physicians c. whereas it is undeniable that They exhorted as the Apostls admitted All Indefinitely and until we are shewen that they excepted any besides Catechumens and Excommunicates we must not clip their indefinite Exhortations with unwarrantable Limitations derived from no other reason but their serviceableness to our Hypothesis IV. ANOTHER Class of Adversaries ar the Papists who yet no less manifestly Preserv than Contradict the Primitive Practice For That very Church which obligeth not the Peopl to receve but at Easter only That very Church in whose magnified Synod at Trent a Caveat was entered not to derive even That anniversary obligation from our Lords but the Churches command That very Church to This very day so Prescribeth as to Out-do the constancy of the Primitive Som may think it too much that I have from the Acts of the holy Apostles taken the Lords Supper for the reason of the Disciples meetings the first day of the week But none sure can doubt that with the Papist to go to Church signifieth the same as to go to Mass but to go to Hear Mass is such an errand as the first ages never went upon While they admit the people only to hear or see Their Hoc est corpus meum is an egregiosly and Both words of St. Paul may be applyed to such a Mass To the people belongs This is not to eat the Lords Supper To the Priest As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you shew forth the Lords death And both the One and the Other forsake their Duty and their Patern while they pretend to stick to them Thus the ruins of a beautiful Structure may at once evidence its amplitude and confess their own rubbidge no way answerable to the beauty it formerly served We need not therefor be ashamed of this kind of proof as if we too much honored the Church of Rome in owning her Practice for an evidence of the Primitive We take it not as the Testimony of the Honorable but as a Confession of the Guilty when we make use of their Own words as an evidence against the Speakers practice When we say every Mass ought to
above the Laity in their own The Former by exalting this their proper tradition above the joint practice of all other Churches and the Later by putting the People at distance from the Altar and consequently from the Priest who must needs appear more worthy of reverence by the privilege he had to Partake the Sacrament while the People must only Adore it II. I QUESTION whether All their Doctrines put together I am sure not any One singl hath so much of Popery both Form and Matter as our modern way of robbing the Lords Supper of due constancy 1. This is the Soul and Life of Popery To Equal Tradition with Scripture and engross to themselvs the power of declaring what is Tradition This is the Pope's tripl Crown by this he dominereth over the Conscience and Understanding of the whole Christian world And This Particular Tradition is the first-born of That invention and the most valiant of the whole race None like it in Boldness for it first durst openly affront the whole world none like it in Atchievments for it hath triumphed not only over the Church Universal but over the Apostl himself 1. With the Church Universal she hath hereby dealt as her Nero did with her Predecessor-city Among all his pranks none like That of firing the City and then enenlarging his House upon the ruines If a City be to the whole World as a singl House is to a whole City then to make a Private Tradition devour the Universal Tradition of the whole World was another kind of Neronian fire and the title of Roman Catholik an exact tally of Roma domus fiet c. 2. With the Apostl she hath dealt if possibl more rudely turned his own artillery upon himself baffled him with his own weapon For He that he might convince the Corinthians that our Lord required constancy pleadeth a private Tradition I have saith he receved of the Lord what I delivered to you The Church of Rome employeth the very same evidence Trueth only excepted in direct opposition to This very Tradition of the Apostl receved and practised by all the Churches of Christ for having no other pretence to rob the Lords Supper of This constancy I have saith she receved it by tradition that it is not to be celebrated every Sunday The Corinthians could not oppose any thing to the Apostl's testimony concerning His tradition without giving him the ly nor was there any other way for Other Churches to avoid This of the Church of Rome And who durst be so rude to the capital Church of the Empire If All the Christian World have so venerated that Imperial Church as to sacrifice to her authority their own eyes who but a race of impudent Heretiks will question her veracity after so many ages of possession And if in such a Question as This the whole Catholik Church yielded to her authority with what fore-head can any other Church much more any private Person oppose her in any Other For if after such a concession This same Church shall pretend a Tradition that it is the duty of every other Church to yield themselvs up to her conduct by implicit Faith and blind Obedience what is this more than is already granted He that hath given up his eyes so as not to discover the brightest evidence must contradict himself if he believ them in any less manifest For it is to deny his own concession viz. that the Church of Rome is to be believed against all contrary evidences whenever she shall declare tradition This therefor as it was the First and Greatest essay so it is the most Prosperos that that the Church of Rome ever made or can make of an unlimited power over the Word of God and the Understandings of Mankind 2. This is the most Material Articl the Greatest limb of Popery Both sides agree to make this Sacrament the adaequate Test whereby to distinguish a Romanist from such as they call Heretik and This was the first step whereby it mounted to the controverted adoration When once it was obteined that Other offices of publik worship might be celebrated without This it was not hard to gain one step more for if it be as Well in point of Duty it must seem Better in point of Prudence to make it Venerable by Distance than Cheap by Familiarity And if it be Best to make it Venerable then will it be best to speak the Most that can help to make it so and when once it came to This that he speaketh Best who speaketh Most what wonder if Alexander claim adoration But to Adore the Sacrament and Trample upon the Institution To pretend that This is but a Positive Law and therefor subject to the Churches power and then with an express non obstante not only to Universal tradition but to our Lords Command to forbid the One half to the Peopl exalting their own Authority in the One and their Wisdom in the Other against His This was a jump which even the Church of Rome it self durst not make but after long exercise of omnipotence And as she herein exceeded all her Former Ages so doth she in This All her Other Doctrines In Other Doctrines they cheat men of their mony by scaring them with Purgatory soothing them with Indulgences wheadling them with Merits cullying them with Absolution upon the Priest's own terms fooling them with Foppish ceremonies c. But by This they pull out their very Eys forbidding them to believe any of their Senses If countermanding that singular Law which is appropriate to our Lords own Person if tearing away that badge which himself made the cognisance of his Church if to affront him in Both his Natures his Divine by derogating from his Authority and his Humane by defacing his Image can deserv the title then must This above All Doctrines be most worthy to be stiled Antichristian In brief and plain Ether the Church of Rome is to be followed in opposition to the Church Universal or the Church Universal in opposition to the Church of Rome If the Church of Rome be to be followed why do we deny implicite Faith to any her Other traditions If the Church Universal be to be followed why do we forsake her in This point of Constancy which she paid the Sacrament 'till the Church of Rome out-faced her III. VVE have seen by who 's Prescription this Phlebotomy hath be'n exercised let us now enquire with what Success And this will occasion another Question viz. Whether of the two we have more reason to be ashamed of The Practice is two-fold and ether part is answered by its proper success On the One side the Sacrament is rob'd of Constancy and That is followed by loss of tolerable Frequency On the Other side That Loss is recompensed by Veneration and This is followed by as great Mischiefs as the Author designed Benefits 1. By loss of CONSTANCY we have lost tolerabl Frequency The Obligation ones untyed and Latitude allowed without any other limit
THE Constant Communicant A DIATRIBE Proving that Constancy in Receiving THE Lords Supper Is the Indispensible Duty of Every Christian By AR. BURY D. D. Rector of Exon. Coll. in Oxford Canon Apostol IX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoever of the Faithful enter and hear the Scriptures but stay not out prayers and Communion ought to be Excommunicated as disturbers of the Church Socrates Hist Lib. V. Ca. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For whereas All Churches through the world on the Sabbath day in every revolution of the week celebrate the mysteries they of Alexandria and they of Rome upon a certain ancient Tradition have refused so to do OXFORD Printed by LEON LICHFIELD Printer to the University for STEPHEN BOLTON 1631. TO The Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM By Divine Providence Lord ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY Primate of all ENGLAND and Metropolitan And one of His Majesties most Honorable PRIVY COUNCIL c. May it please your Grace MANY great miracles do the Romanists pretend to be frequently wrought By the Holy Sacrament of the Altar but none so admirable as what their ancestors wrought Upon it For what more wonderful than This that a particular Church by colour of a Tradition should prevail with All other Churches throughout the whole Christian world to reneg That Constancy which was universally practised as indispensible for more than 400 years That from Dispensing they should proceed to Discouraging and therein so prevail that those who have freed themselvs from their many other gross abuses cannot from This but still believ our Lord more honored by Forbearing his Table than by Frequenting it In opposition to this Vulgar error I have in my narrow Sphaere used all other endeavors but with so litle fruit that I must either sit down in despair or fly to the last remedy Writeing which beside the advantage of fastening conviction better upon those few that ly under My inspection may extend it to as many others as shall bring my papers under Theirs But here also I meet great discoragements I see that many worthy persons have of late be'n as careful to exhort to the Performance of the Duty as to Worthiness in it but with no better success than those first messengers who 's kind Invitations brought nothing to the Lord of the Fest but variety of excuses If therefor I would conform either to the Parable or to Reason I must proceed to rougher means compell by force of irrefragable arguments the unwilling and resisting world and by all cogent proofs assert a Truth which by Many ages was never Doubted by More generally Denyed by Ours somtimes Affirmed but never that I know clearly proved viz. that it is every Christians duty to be a Constant Communicant And this I have do'n with Such evidence that I fear not any mans confutation yet with litl hope to see the Table furnished with guests For alas what can a poor Enchiridion do toward subduing such an error double armed with Prejudice in the Vnderstanding and Partiality in the Affections fortified with long Possession defended by the Priests and beloved by the Peopl I must therefor be unfaithful both to the service I have undertaken and to Your Grace's right should I either expose it naked and unsheltered to a Cold Advers world or seek any other Patron than your Grace For as this Sacrament hath a double aspect so hath your Grace a double right to it's protection As it is the greatest exercise of Love and duty to our Lord by your Eminence in Piety As it is the Principal office of Church-worship by your eminence in Power Ecclesiastical By the former every good christian may claim common with your Grace in most of the following pages but by the Later your Grace hath a peculiar jurisdiction over some particularly a PART III. Chap. 1. Sect. 4. those wherein I have justified the Constitutions of our Church as doing what in such unhappy circumstances is possible for retriving Primitive Constancy Could I say as much for the Practice But be it never so defective it cannot hinder us from justifying our Church as well as St. Paul himself For his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no less generally mistaken for a derogation from That very obligation to constancy which he employed it to prove indispensible than is the three times in every year which our Church defines as the Least that she can tolerate in the Peopl for the most that she expecteth from the Priests who therefor think themselvs exactly conformable if they minister it just so often and no more though without any care either Before-hand to exhort the people to Receve it or Afterward to reprove them if they Neglect it which yet they cannot avoid seeing them generally do being so taught and accustomed during our confusions and still biased by their sloth or worse What may be allowed for the untractableness of the people under our present Distractions is not for Me to determin But that those very Distractions which now toss us between two such parties whereof the One first robbed the Sacrament of Constancy and the Other strippeth it stark naked of All Performance ly on us as a just punishment for our compliance with them is plainly enough to be discovered without any rude intrusion into God's secrets For Constancy in This Office is apparently the most effectual means to unite us as being both by it's own nature most serviceable thereto and by its singular interest in our Lord's Person singularly intitled to his Blessing I therefor conceve it no impertinent disturbance of those great cares wherewith your Grace is too much molested if as a kind of Church-warden-general I make humble presentment of that defect in Parochial Churches especially which your residence in Cathedrals hath hindered you from discovering bicause those Officers who ought to be eyes to your Grace and our other Fathers in God are themselves blinded with the vulgar error Whereof we saw a pernicious experiment in the days of your Grace's immediate predecessor when a General enquiry made upon these Questions 1. How many inhabitants in your Parish 2. How many refuse to join in Communion with the Church proved abortive bicause those who refused to communicate in This Principal office were not noted as refusing to join in Communion with the Church which had they ben the necessity of compulsory means would have appeared so evident that we had not now be'n in danger to have our nineteenth Article urged against us to disprove our being a True Church I know my self chargeable with a double great boldness first in fronting these Papers with your Grace's name and then in the account I make for it But when I first engaged in the work I resolved not to do it by halvs and I think I might better have omitted the better half than This way of advantageing the whole And since your Grace is so well known eminent for zeal in redressing whatever you shall find to need it I have
Proposition ver 26. is not the Lords Supper but This Bread and This Cup. The Praedicate is utterly useles and wors toward such a design VI. 2. Positively The Proposition pointeth at som Determinate Bread and Cup. The Argument reduced to a Syllogism CHAP. II. Concerning the Clause AS OFTEN AS Pag. 70. I. The unhappiness of this Clause II. The true sons of the words mesured by parallel precepts III. Serviceable remarks 1. With what care the Apostl recordeth this Claus IV. 2. With partiality he treateth the Cup. V. The justice he doth the Bread joining it with the Cup in his deductions VI. The Conclusion with an Objection answered CHAP. III. Concerning the Vulgar interpretation of as often as pag. 85. I. The Distinction between Suppositive and Absolute stated because made the mesure of obligation II. The words of the Author set forth and III. Examined IV. The merely suppositive sens enervates our Lords Command And V. The Apostl's own Argument VI. The two senses ballanced in order to Conscience CHAP. IV. Objections answered pag. 100. I. The First Objection That the Tradition may be novel answered 1. By mater of Fact II. By passing judgment upon it 2. No necessity of difference in point of frequency between the breaking of bread before meat and Grace-cup after it 2. If the Jews Antiquities be against us we may reject their authority III. 3. Seeing a party of them are on our side we may well prefer that party above the opposite So great an agreement as is between them could not be 1. From Chance IV. 2. Nor the Jews conforming their custom to Christs Institution bicause it is incredible they should have such 1. care 2. or wit V. Another Objection That we must have Fests or no Sacrament adjourned VI. A third Objection That the Jews used their Grace-cup in their Houses not their Synagogs Answered by six steps VII The last Objection The universal silence of all Ages Answered 1. By shewing reason why both Primitive and Later ages should be silent and 2. by shewing that the best critiks have observed it CHAP. V. Mater of Fact recorded in Scripture pag. 117. I. A transition to Mater of Fact Not so easily understood as might have be'n expected Two things considerable 1. The Backwardness of the Apostl's in Understanding our Lords mind 2. The means which our Lord used to recommend it unprosperos The night of Institution by its terrors II. Our Lord's conversation with the two Disciples in the way and at Emaus so ordered as to discover the meaning of his Institution as well as the truth of his Resurrection ineffectual upon a contrary reason Their ignorance 'till the coming of the Holy Ghost III. The second observable Their diligence in obeying our Lord's will when discovered That by their breaking of Bread must be meant the Lord's Supper appears by 1. The exercises accompanying it 2. The Phrase expressing it IV. 3. The Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must signifie the Meeting house where the first Christians held their Conventicles for fear of the Jews V. 4. The time The Apostl's a d Brethren at Hire daily The Remote Churches on the Lo d's day VI. The first day of the week consecrated to this office and for that reason stiled the Lords day dishonored by derivation from the Fourth Commandment cannot be worse profaned than by neglect of this office to which it oweth its sacredness CHAP. VI. The Practice of Antiquity pag. 131. I. The constant Practice of Christ's Church in it's best ages proved by one evidence of each kind viz. 1. Canon the 9th Apostolik II. 2. One Father Justin Martyr 3. One Historian Socrates The Church of Rome under pretence of tradition innovated against the Church Universal III. 4. Enemies of each kind 1. Protestants IV. 2. Papists V. 3. Junior Fathers particularly St. Augustin whose words are recited wherein we must distinguish between Father and Doctor As Father he stateth the question The question and the practice of the Church both in Doctrine and Discipline very different between St. Augustin's time and Ours VI. As a Doctor he determins the question 1. His stile very diffident bicause his Opinion is opposit to all other Fathers 2. His determination reacheth not Our question Yet have later ages caght at his words and strained them beyond his intentions with unhappy success His Syncretism rectified PART III. Concerning the word DO CHAP. I. We must answer such a Command no otherwise but by Performance Pag. 149. I. The cause of our disobedience to this Command too much Fear II. We may not commute Doing for any other service III. The reason why som think best not to do this often and their appeal to the Church of England IV. The Church vindicated V. The two opposite opinions personated The Vniversity Statutes the best comment upon the Churches Rubrike The Greek Church in great Churches celebrateth the Holy Communion every Sunday and Holy day VI. Those who omit the Communion it self greater Non-conformists than those who neglect the Communion Service CHAP. II. We may not omit This duty without warrant pag. 164. I. Necessity may be complied with A doubl question II. Difference between Laws Moral and Positive The Apostl's vouching our Lords revelation a proof of the valu of the Sacrament Fear of cheapness no reason why we should make it scarce III. Omission compared with unworthiness IV. Our Warrant must be either Countermand or Dispensation V. Defect of preparation no Dispensation VI. All other Duties in the same danger CHAP. III. The Obligation ceased not upon the change of the Manner of the Festing in the Church but must be accommodated thereto pag. 174. I. The Apostle hath prevented such a consequence by saying our Lord appointed us to do this 'till he com II. The adequate mesure of our doing this is not Eating but Meeting in the Church As change of the Ceremony hindereth not Perjury from being a sin Nor doth change of the season hinder us from stiling it a Supper III. The Church careful to preserve the memory and titl of Festing VI. The Apostl's argument holdeth by vers 20. more for the Thing than for the Manner wherein we cannot now be guilty as the Corinthians were V. The Equitable and Moral sens of the Argument accommodate to the present manner of Church-meetings VI. Distinguish between yielding and justifying PART IV. Concerning the End In Remembrance CHAP. I. It is the badge of a Christian pag. 183. I. This the only rite whereby we honor our Lords Person Three Considerations 1. Every Religion distinguished from Every other by som proportion This Nature taught the Heathen and Gods Law the Jews II. The New Testament contracteth the multitude of Jewish rites to two whereby Christians ar known as the Knights of the Garter 1. By a rite of admission III. 2. By continual wearing the badge IV. Those distinguishing rites must be highly valued It was mortal to a Jew to omit any of them and to a Heathen to wear them V. This wors in
worse But 't is no such jesting mater For as Opinions are Multiplied without Number so are they Valued without Mesure and what is spoken without Reason is imposed without Moderation No Province in Religion is so pestered with Controversies among the Scholastical Mysteries among the Contemplative Scruples among the Practik none prosecuted with greater heat and less satisfaction Every ones zele for his Opinion taking its mesure or unmesurableness rather from his value for the Subject II. WERE there no other Disputes but such as concern the precarious Mysteries which have no other Parent but fanciful mens Inventions nor no other Nurse but Curiosity in niceties not practical however great the Troubl might be the Scandal would be litle toward the Scripture which might with Gallio refuse to be judge of such matters But when the Question is as Important as the Subject is Venerable when it pretends not to gratifie Curiosity but to satisfie Conscience and that not in some Inferior but the Capital Critical duty That our Lord and All his Churches should value it so High and yet the Scripture treat it so Slightly is a Mystery as Great and as Fals as any among the multitude imposed upon it How then shall we escape the Scandalous Dilemma Either the Scriprure cannot be Sufficient if defective in so Capital a subject or the Institution must not be so Valuable if the great Author both of it and the Scriprure did not think it worthy to be Legibly written Wer not the Recrimination more obvious than the Objection did not Tradition leave the Romanists under as great uncertainty in these great questions as the Scriptures do us they would undoubtedly so Urge that we should not be able to Answer the Scandal But to Recriminate is a poor justification Or if the Papists be to be answered What say we to the Jews If the Lord took off the vele from Moses 's face and put a thicker on his Own How shall the Light of the Gospel triumph over the Obscurity of the Law Not all the Ceremonies of the Mosaik Law put together will thicken to so opake a mask as this One They hid indeed the Significance but not the Obligation of the Law The vele was upon their Hearts but not upon their Eyes They saw not the full meaning of Circumcision but they did the Certain Time wherein they were to celebrate it They understood not the utmost signification of the Paseal Rite yet were they sure How often and in what Day they were to Sacrifice and eat the Lamb. But This great office is obscure even in its Obligations We as litle know what we are to Do as the Jews did what they were to Believe How then shall we justifie the Scripture in point of Sufficiency against the Papists or in point of Clearness against the Jews without reneguing the Honor due to the Sacrament We find a kind of Composition offered by one of our greatest Assertors both of the Sufficiency of the Scripture and Dignity of the Sacrament It is saith he not much opened in the writings of the New Testament but still left in its mysterious nature it is too much untwisted and nicely handled by the writings of the Doctors and by them made more mysterious and like a Doctrine of Philosophy made intricate and difficult by the aperture and dissolution of distinctions But if the New Testament hath left it a Shining cloud and the Doctors reasonings varied it into Contingent shapes as he expresseth it what can we say but either there is no need to unvele the Mystery and then the Sacrament must be degraded from its Dignity as not Worthy to be understood or celebrated or we must have some better Oracle to fix its signification and since other Doctors make it more Intricate where can we hope to find satisfaction but from the Infallible Chair This most excellent Author hath written so Much and so Well both for the Scripture and the Sacrament that I cannot doubt him willing to sacrifice This One assertion to Their Reconciliation which also is as worthy our labor as the advancement of Either in prejudice of the Other AND why should we not improve the offer now made us wholely free the New Testament from Mysteriousness and lay the whole blame upon the Doctors as having not encreased only but first caused the entanglement He that shall do this and Prove it true if he appear Rude toward so many Reverend Persons may well hope to be justified by the Necessity And if he further discover not only the Cause of the entanglement but the way to clear it if he take the right Thred and so draw it as to Untwist the whole without leaving any Knot untied he may deserve no worse usage than a Child that with better Luck than Art hath disentangled a skein of Silk which his Parent had snarled and could not unwind The former half of this so justifiable work will not require much time or labor It is but observing and it is obvios to the first glance what is the regular way to discover the mind of any Author and we shall soon find how Generally how Grosly and how Mischievosly it hath be'n forsaken in this Subject If we look upon the Anatomist dissecting a dead Body we may thence learn how we are to examine a Discourse The Artist who aims at no other design but to trace the ways of life first takes a General vieu of the whole Body and then a Particular one of every Member examins the Texture of every Particle the mutual Aspect of each to other and the joint Usefulness of All to the life But the Butcher who aims at nothing but his Profit chops off such members as may best advance it makes of Them the most he can leaving the Bowels as inconsiderable because unprofitable to himself thogh most serviceable to the life Can I help it if truth oblige me to say the Doctors have handled those parts of Scripture which relate to This Sacrament not like Anatomists but like Butchers that they cut off such a Particular clause as they think most advantageous for their own preconceved Opinion treat it as a distinct Body by it self regard not its Office in the Discourse it ought to serve but make the utmost they can of that One without respect to all the Rest c. In matter of Fact nothing is rude that is true I need not therefore stand upon manners but boldly say that the Doctors on both sides have so Treated as if they had agreed to Abuse the Apostles Discourse and our Lords Institution For the Papists cut the Institution alongst and lay aside One Side our Own Divines cut the Apostles Comment athwart laying aside the Upper half IV. 1. THE Papists that they may maintene their beloved Transubstantiation cut our Lords Institution into Sides make all possible advantage of That which seems most Serviceable and lay by the Other as wors than Useless For whereas the Elements are two they
Country accordingly His General design we cannot mistake Nothing can be plainer than This that it is to convince the Corinthians of their guilt in profaning the Lords Supper but the Medium whereby he prosecutes this charge is both Generally and Grosly mistaken and since this is the Mother error whence all our Neglects on One hand and all our Earnestness on the Other and all our Disputes on All hands proceed it cannot be too plainly exposed and thogh it be troublesom yet must we crave the Reader to undergo a labor so necessary that without it he cannot understand what the Apostle meaneth throughout his discourse We too hastily believe that he endeavoreth to prove no more but this that our Lords Person was concerned in all the abuses of his Supper taking it for granted that they knew how his Supper was concerned in Those Meetings which he reproved Whereas the more we consider it the plainer we shall find that his Direct and Immediate endeavor is to prove the Later supposing the Former as self-evident upon the first notice of our Lords Institution So the case of the Corinthians toward the Lords Supper was much like the Apostles Own toward the High Priest Acts 23.4 5. They that stood by said Revilest thou Gods high priest Then said Paul I wist not brethren that he was the high priest For it is written Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people He reproveth the Corinthians as the By-standers reproved Him Profane you the Lords Holy Supper And supposing them likewise to excuse themselves in the same manner by saying We wist not that it was the Lords Holy Supper for we cannot but know That must be celebrated with reverence he argueth in such manner as to convince them of what they seemed either not to Understand or not to Own II. THE understanding of This will give us great light towards discovery of every step and that this is true we may the better perceve if we proceed by these Enquiries 1. Whether this might not be the Corinthians case 2. What might become the Apostle to do in such a case 3. How doth the Apostles procedure suit with such a Supposal 1. This might very well be the Corinthians case For 1. Possibly they might suppose that our Lord pointed at the Bread as Paschal not as Festival and consequently preferred not Every Fest but only the Passover to this honor and for This there are appearances of reason not contemtibl 1. He chose the Passover for the Season of his Institution and embraced it with such expressions of Affection as seemed Proper to That Particular solennity saying With a desire have I desired to eat not this Supper but this Passover 2. This above All other Fests best Prefigured his death while Future and was therefor most fit to Commemorate it when Past 3. The Jews said of the Lamb This is the BODY of the Passover and our Lord seemeth to allude to it saying This is my BODY 4. The Jews distributing the Paschal Cake said THIS IS the Bread of affliction c. and our Lord distributing the Bread said THIS IS my Body c. And at That time having newly filled their minds with phrases proper to the Season it is very probable that they might receve our Lords words in such a sens 2. And probably such an error might proceed from want of a proper form of Words to accompany the celebration One of the best Doctors our Church can bost of authoriseth me to say That such a Form of words however Useful is not indispensibly Necessary Our Lord enjoined none and we find not that his Apostles either Practised or Taught their Disciples any and it was prone for the Corinthians to slide into an error concerning That cup which carried no Inscription to declare its contents Certainly from hence came that which Tertullian complains of in his days That Fests of Charity were celebrated in the Church without the Lords Supper and from hence came our loss of the meaning which is the Soul of our Grace-cup And on the contrary the Jews with the Mater retene also the meaning of their Tradition because both the Bread and Cup are accompanied with such a Form of words as will not suffer it to be lost 3. And possibly they might look upon the Whole as a mere outward Performance For knowing how litle fondness our Lord had toward Such exercises they might thence infer that he left it in Their choice to Perform or Omit it as Themselves should judge convenient and their Partiality to their beloved riot might incline them both to Entertene such an opinion and Improve it Our Lords Supper must strike some Aw into their unwilling minds Commanding not only Sobriety but Devotion And how unwelcom such a check must be to the Corinthian humor and consequently how willing they must be to free themselfs from it if we know not already we shall anon Thus far we have considered Probabilities we come now to Certainty 4. Whatever they Really believed it is Certain they might Pretend that they believed our Lords Supper unconcerned in Those Fests which the Apostle thus reproved and the very Possibility of such a Pretence no less required a confutation than a Real profession of such a Belief which requireth us to consider as our next step III. VVHat might become the Apostle to do in such a case If it were but Possibl for them to believ so Himself hath taught us that he ought to suppose they Did For Charity thinketh no evil but hopeth All things believeth All things Since therefor This was much better than Knowingly and Willingly to affront our Lord in his Representative This must in Charity be supposed And Prudence agreed with Charity rather to seek out Excuses for them than to expose them to the Vttermost He was to deal as Sweetly and Obligingly as possibl so to endear Himself and the Gospel to them Praise them as much as possibly he might Reprove them no more than Needs he must and Excuse them when he could not Justifie them And this as it sweetened the Reproof in appearance so did it more bitterly aggravate the Crime if their own consciences upbraided them as uncapabl of such an excuse Since the Guilt must needs be Great which to the Reprover appeared Incredibl Nor could any Inconvenience on the Other side dissuade such a procedure This way he might meet with them at All turns If they wer Really mistaken he might Rectifie their Judgments if they wer not he might Baffl their Pretences and Both waies Reprove their Misdemeanors rescuing our Lords Supper from Profanation if they intended to celebrate it and his Commands from Neglect if they intended it not and Himself from any appearance either of Severity towards Them or Coldness towards our Lords Supper IV. 3. HOW doth his Procedure suit with such Supposals If we carefully observe we find that the former part agreeth very well with them and the later part will agree with
him by his Father with its counterpart which by I know not what means he had obtained out of the Scriptoire of another Family He applieth the One to the Other sheweth their exact agreement in every word of the Writing every turning of the Indenture and every stroke of the divided Letters and proveth this could not be the effect of any collusion bicause there had ever be'n and still continued a mortal feud between his own Family and That whence he had gotten the counterpart If this be our present Case we are to consider 2 things First the agreement of the Counterparts and 2ly the impossibility of Collusion 1. The Agreement of the Apostl's Argument with the Thus stated Custom we have fully discovered 1. In the Body of the discours in either Chapter In the 10th chap. both Bread and Cup caled by their proper Jewish names and under Those very names urged to be Body and Blood of the Lord. In the 11th chap. the Argument no other way Rational This way Unanswerable many words and Aspects of words no other way accountable This way Necessary the Charge otherwise to be evaded This way Unavoidable In the whole not one word or order of words impertinent deficient or superfluos 2. In the Indenting every reeling step exactly jointed with the answerably crooked process of the Argument No discours in the World so full of odd bizarreries every one this way rendered rational clear and convictive In the 10th chap. the names of Both elements industriosly so Varied as to answer the Jewish stile and so Transposed as to answer the Apostl's argument In the 11th chap. the Demonstrative THIS affectedly inculcated the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inforcedly appropriate to the Cup thogh distributed in like manner with the Bread The Bread honored above the Cup one way the Cup above the Bread another way 3. Letters so cut in sunder that in the Apostl's discours we find but one half not to be read but by supplying the other half from the Tradition THIS without an object 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a relative look like tails of Letters without heads but by application to This custom becom fairly legible So exact agreement in such strange variety one would think Gods providence here acted the Chirographer managing the Apostl's pen in such a manner that after the death of all Wirnesses and loss or embeazling of all other Evidences we might by this multiplied sutableness be armed against all doubt which either malice or carelesness of the Jews forgetting or corrupting their Tradition might bring upon us IV. 2. THE other part of my Assumtion is that This Agreement could not be the issu of the Jews conforming their practice to our Lords Institution Since the greatest Care maried to the greatest Wit Could not produce such an offspring and the Jews Would not employ ether the One or the Other to such a purpose 1. It were extravagant credulity to believ they Would employ such Care Their very differences concerning the Tradition of their Fathers is abundant evidence that they minded not its agreement or disagreement with our Scriptures And their known zele against our Lord and Apostle is a yet greater one that they would not be more careful to explain the Ones institution and the Others argument than all the Fathers of the Christian Church have be'n Shall we believ their esteem for their Gamaliel so much greater than their hatred of Saint Paul that they should he more than masorically careful to contrive a way whereby to make such a discours worthy the Disciple of their so famous Master Do they so glory in their ancestors crucifying the Lord of Life that they put themselves to great care and cost to adorn the Monument which himself raised to his own memory and That with such Figures as should blazon His great goodness and their great wickedness Were the Jewish Rabbins so much more careful of Christs worship than the Fathers of his own Church that when These had lost the key which must unlock his Oracles Those took the pains to make a new one Whoever can believ this shall never from Them receve the thanks which he shall deserv for such exorbitant charity 2. To believ their Wit capable of finding out such an invention is no less incredible So many wheels so many motions so smoothly and so strongly cooperating so remote from the common practice of All other Nations so suitable to the humor of their own so exactly fitting every titl of the Apostl's discourse and the circumstances wherein it was written was sure above all human Wit to invent Many discoveries appear obvious when made which yet for thousands of years escaped the sagacity of all mankind The very difficulties and odnesses of the Apostles discurs have be'n so far from Smoothed that many of them have not be'n Observed by any Critiks and Commentators and perhaps might not have be'n so now had not their agreement with This key occasioned it It is not to be believed that the Apostl should make the least fals step drop the least syllable that should be impertinent much less that should be mischievos to his design And the account that is to be given of them must equal the sum to a farthing Whoever will suppose the Discours worthy of a reasonabl man much more whoever will suppose it worthy the Holy Spirit if he reject what I offer Let him to his study let him summon together All his faculties let him use as much liberty of invention as he please and if he can find out any Hypothesis that shall so cleverly answer all the Phaenomena erit mihi magnus Apollo Since therefor chance Could not and the Jews neither could nor would conform their practice to our Lords Institution and the Apostl's discurse The conclusion must be That both This and That were conformed to the Jewish practice And I thank my worthy Friend for giving me occasion to confirm what I have said by this Reflection V. ANOTHER OBJECTION saith That if our frequency in celebrating the Lords Supper must be mesured by such a Grace-cup since there can be no such Grace-cup where there is no Fest no more than there can be an end without a beginning or an Adjunct without a Subject it will be as necessary that a Fest should alway usher the Lords Supper as that the Lords Supper should attend every Fest and so the revers of our Hypothesis will no less severely reprove the Universal Church of Christ for Not festing in All meetings than did the Apostl the Corinthians for not honoring the Lords Supper in them All but every particular member of Christ's Church will be blameless though he never communicate in such manner as by his Church-officers he is invited to do since he is to do it only so often as by That Practice whence Christ's Institution was derived he is obliged i. e. only so often as a Fest is to be closed with a cup of blessing To answer such an
but adaequately for this Duties sake which gave it both Holiness and Name nor as Successor but Superior to the Sabbath And this is worthy our consideration not only for the Sacrament's sake but the Day 's too VI. FOR to derive the LORDS DAY from the fourth Commandment as it is Inconvenient upon other accounts so is it Mischievous upon This that it looseneth its relation to This office for who 's sake alone it was dignified as with the assemblies of the Saints so with it's title of the Lord's day Nor is such an opinion consistent with the practice of the Primitive Church which for several ages celebrated Both the One for the Jews sake the Other for the Sacraments which therefor we ought to celebrate as constantly at least as we do That day which cannot be duly bicause it needs not all be sanctified without it Were this as carefully heeded as in Scripture it is plainly declared in Reason duly accounted for and in the Primitive times publikly practised both the Lords Day and His Supper would have escaped Those Losses which Both of them suffer by their separation the One rob'd of it's greatest Honor the Other of its very Being For as it is higher Honor to the Day to be acknowledged an Evangelical Substance than a Legal Shadow and to be celebrated with this office than without it so is it not only Less Honorable but More Destructive to this Holy office to be spoiled both of the acknowledgement due to it from the Day so preferred by it's interest and of Safety from that Neglect which could never have befallen it while the Day it self is sanctified if that Sanctification were acknowledged to relate to this Performance Those therefor who ar zelos for the honor of the Day are for it's sake obliged to consider whether any Sport or any Lrbor can be so pernicious a desecration of it as the Omission of this Sacrament who 's celebration was the sole reason of the sacredness both of the Day it self and of its Eve which of the two hath the greater interest in the Fourth Commandment as being the same Seventh day which Gods peopl celebrated as thereby consecrated yet had not retained any difference under the Gospel from common days but in order to the better preparation for the Sacrament to be receved the Lords day following and upon That account differenced not by Festing but by Fasting And since necessity may drive to Mean condescensions I beg now not only for the Lord's sake but for the Lord's day's sake for That day's sake in who 's behalf so many complaints ar made not only To our Governors but Against them I beg that those who ar so zelous to have the Day restored to its due honor would do their part to restore this Sacrament to its due celebration whereby the Lord's Day with his Person would be better righted than by Sabbatizing with Rigot more than Jewish but with Worship less than Christian Let us now spell all together The Exercises accompanying this constant breaking of Bread Were they not Holy The Phrase expressing This exercise Is it not proper The Place Was it not consecrated before The Time Was it not consecrated purposely What then can be answered to the Apostls demand The bread which they brake was it not the Communion of the body of Christ Or to Our inference that they were as constant in the Holy Communion as in Common Prayer CHAP. VI. The Practice of Antiquity I. The constant Practice of Christ's Church in it's best ages proved by one evidence of each kind viz. 1. Canon the 9th Apostolik II. 2. One Father Justin Martyr 3. One Historian Socrates The Church of Rome under pretence of Tradition innovated against the Church Universal III. 4. Enemies of each kind 1. Protestants IV. 2. Papists V. 3. Junior Fathers particularly St. Augustin whose words are recited wherein we must distinguish between Father and Doctor As Father he stateth the question The question and the practice of the Church both in Doctrine and Discipline very different beeween St. Augustin's time and Ours VI. As a Doctor he determins the question 1. His stile very different bicause his Opinion is opposit to all other Fathers 2. His determination reacheth not Our question Yet have later ages caght at his wonds and strained them beyond his intentions with unhappy success His Syncretism rectified FROM Scripture I am now to descend to Humane Writers to examin whether by Them we find the Practice of the Primitive Churches agreeable to That of the Apostls I. AND now I feel somthing like a Tentation to imploy my Servitor to collect what the Fathers the Eldest especially have writen on This subject and then stifling my Reader with a multitude of Quotations purchase my self at Both their costs the name of Well read in the Fathers and Councils c. But corage Reader I have no more such a Design than my Subject such Need Where none contradicts One competent witness of Each kind may very well claim the belief of any indifferent person and with More I will not troubl you I shall therefor produce but One ancient Canon One Father One Historian and One Enemy of each party 1. Of CANONS I account Those most Ancient which have usurped the title of Apostolical thogh many of them bewray themselves unworthy of it We have reasons more than enough to decline their Authority but None to except against Their Testimony concerning Mater of Fact such as is the Publik practice of the Visibl Church at the Time of their Date which is Therefor certainly Ancient bicause not certainly known since having no Councel to father them they must needs be elder than Any Of Those Canons the 9th thus briefly and plainly delivereth the opinion we ar pleading for All the faithful which enter the Church and hear the Scriptures but do not stay out the Prayers nor receve the Holy Communion ought to be excommunicate as disturbers of the Church To This so clear evidence I know nothing capabl of being opposed unless perhaps the word faithful be supposed to exclude All but such as deserv the highest sens of That title But it is sufficiently know'n that That comprehensive word conteineth All but Catechumens and Penitens All others as visibl Members of Christs Body being in Those days honored with That stile And that it signifies no otherwise Here the words themselvs sufficiently evince For This title is allowed to Those very Persons who at the same time ar censured as worthy of Excommunication Nor can the Last clause be taken so copulatively as if Those passed uncensured who stayed out Prayers thogh they receved not the Holy Communion For This was lookt upon as the greater crime of the Two The Councils of Antioch and Bracara required that such should be driven out of the Church and St. Chrysostom bitterly chides them saying If thou stand by and dost not Communicate thou art wicked thou art shameless thou art impudent And we shall presently
legacy so serviceabl both to his own honor and his Churches happiness yet so unkind as to clog it with such condicions as must render it Inaccessibl to the Most Tormentive to the Best Dangeros to every Single person Mischievous to the Church in general and Necessary to None whereas by a plain determination of his will inforced by his Command he might have prevented all Inconveniences and promoted all Good effects Had it not be'n better that the Christian World had never heard of it than suffered so many mischievs by it What Fires hath it kindled What blood hath it drawn What wounds hath it made in the authors Mystical body more grievos to him than those it commemorateth of his Natural What member which it hath not tormented What Church what Person hath escaped its mischievous influence And on the other side Where ar its good fruits Where is that Church Where is that Person that can in these last Ages boast of any so great benefits obteined by it as may in any proportion pretend to recompence so many and great mischievs The Conclusion reflecting upon the whole I. All reduced to three questions Qu. 1. By what Authority do we depart from Constancy By that of the Church of Rome II. No Doctrine hath so much Popery as This. III. Qu. 2. With what Success 1. By loss of Constancy we have lost tolerabl Frequency IV. 2. By too much advanceing Reverence we have made it mischievos 1. To the honor of our Lord 2. to the peace of his church V. Qu. 3. Upon what Need No such danger as is feared of loss of reverence or if there were any it is much outweighed both by prudential and conscientious considerations VI. The Reverence which is due to the Sacrament is not such as belongs to Gods Decrees which require our Forbearance but such as belongs to his Laws which require our Performance MAY not so many and great abuses make This holy Sacrament ashamed as the Prophet is described in Zachary of it's Commission May it not say of the wounds in its hands These ar the wounds wherewith I have be'n wounded in the house of my friends They ar indeed but in the Hands not in the Heart destroy not its Being but leave it such an one as Epicurus allowed God incomprehensibl in Majesty Glory and Idleness exalted as much above our Concerns as our Understandings but wounded in the Hands maimed and pained unserviceabl and troublsom to the Church in General and every member in Particular And This in the house of friends Reverence for it's mysteries Zele for it's honor Care for it's service by being wise overmuch and righteous overmuch Wise overmuch even wiser than our Lord himself and Righteos overmuch even more than can well stand ether with the nature of a fest or the frailty of mankind By spinning our Lords institution to such fineness as robbeth it of it's strength and straining the Apostl's discours to such rigor as maketh the duty impracticabl By practising upon the body of Christ as Empiriks do upon those of their patients against all Rules and often without any Need. Yes 't is even so The Sacrament they say was grow'n Plethorik it must therefor bleed away somthing of Constancy for preservation of Reverence and these ar the wounds it receved from the hands of Chyrurgeons exerciseing Phlebotomy But 1. By who 's Prescription 2. With what success 3. Vpon what need ar questions so important that it may be worth our labor to sum up all that we have said or can be said into those three enquiries 1. By who 's Prescription What Doctor durst presume thus to practise upon the Body and Blood of the Lord contrary to his own Institution Were we to answer by conjecture we should not long deliberate but we have better evidence than bare suspion even as good as can be wished the testimony of an Historian beyond exception who could neither dare to impose upon the world nor could himself be deceved in matter of Fact notoriously known even to the most ignorant We have already heard from Socrates who made an end of his History in the year of our Lord 441. and shall now again more heedfully take his report Whereas saith he All Churches over the whole world on the Sabbath days in every week celebrate the Mysteries they of Alexandria and Rome upon som ancient Tradition refuse so to do But the Egyptians who ar neighbors of the Alexandrians and the inhabitants of Thebais do indeed meet on the Sabbath but partake not the Mysteries after the manner of Christians for after they are filled with all manner of meats about evening they offer and receve the Mysteries And again in Alexandria on the fourth day and that which is caled the preparation-day the Scriptures ar read and the Teachers interpret them and all things belonging to a meeting ar performed except the celebration of the Mysteries As the first clause of these words speaketh the Holy Sacrament constantly celebrated every Sunday so doth the last witness the same for every other Holy-day for by observing it as a singularity in the Church of Alexandria that their weekly Lectures were defective for want of This he plainly supposeth it notorios that it was celebrated every where els in all Church-assemblies And concerning the Sundays-Sacrament we must observ 1. The Church of Alexandria was but Accessary and that of Rome Principal For as the former furnished the later with her Corn so was her self filled with the Wealth and Merchants of Rome for who 's sake she complyed with her customs But the voisinage who had no such tentations liked not the trade but refused to consent to their own Metropolis in so gross an innovation Yea they thence took such jealosie as to stand the more stifly to such other customs of their Ancestors as all the rest of the World thoght fit to be changed Nor indeed could they well justify the One without the Other For if they refused to reneg constancy for This very reason bicause their Ancestors practised it then could they not deny the consequence which was pressed upon them that they must upon the same reason stick to the ancient but now generally disused circumstances which made it the close of a Fest 2. The Evidence whereon This innovation was founded was not derived from Scripture or Reason or any other competent Topik but a pretended Tradition a private Tradition a Tradition whispered to the Church of Rome and her Zany of Alexandria so close in the ear that it could not be heard by any other Church equally Apostolik not more contrary to the practice of the rest of the World than to the very Nature of Tradition which cannot be but Universal 3. The vantage they have since made of This invention hath made it plain that they therefor wer thus industrios to advance this Sacrament obove all other offices of Worship that they might thereby advance both their own Church above other Churches and their Priests
Other shall very much outweigh those fears 1. It is much better run the risque of abating Reverence than of Losing the Sacrament it self Somthing however cheap is better than Nothing and Obedience than Sacrifice But it is not singl Disobedience when accompanied as here with pretence of Prudence which no less affronteth our Lord's Wisdom than his Authority oblikely intimating that he could not ' foresee or prevent the danger 2. Probability is much lighter than Experience We do but Suspect the danger and we have Experience to the contrary On One side more than 400 years experience proved that Constancy and Reverence drew happily together to God's glory and his Churches benefit On the Other side many hundred years experience hath manifested that by their separation a multitude of mischievs have overwhelmed the world T. Livy said That Experience is the best judge and corrector of Laws If it may correct Laws much better may it Disobedience to Laws 3. This probabl Fear is answered by a more probabl Hope that by their re-union Common-Prayer would gain more than the Sacrament lose We have found that St. Paul and after him St. Augustin used this Sacrament as an argument for reverence in God's hous and the Later went a step further improving it for Purity of life if the Argument be good why should it be lost Hnd not Jehoshaphat accompanied the Kings of Israel and Edom in their address to the Prophet their three armies had perished and how much of devotion is lost for want of joining the Lords Supper with other offices of his worship who can divine 4. If Prayer and other Religios offices gain not altogether so much as the Sacrament may lose yet will the service of God be advanced by the Great bicause Frequency will abundantly recompence the disadvantage in the Particular Quick thogh Light returns make rich merchants and a little gain repeted every Sunday and other Holiday will enrich piety thogh purchased with greater abatement from the Sacrament as it is now rarely celebrated Thus our adversaries own Topik Prudence will write upon their pretended necessity for abatement of Constancy Mene Mene tekel how light then will it appear when so many and weighty obligations shall be weighed against it The Positive Command of our Lord not only Expressly enjoined but Carefully Recommended by the extraordinary season of the Institution in the Last night of his Life and no less carefully interpreted by posthum revelations after his death The Singular worth of the Duty it self appropriate to his Own Person the Livree of his Church the Monument and Effigies of his Death and benefits The great vertues of the performance the cement of charity among his members the Comfort of his faithful servants the advancer of devotion in his worship c. Against so great a weight nothing cast into the opposit scale but the mistaken sound of an unhappy word misinterpreted and abused upon loss of it's key by Modern Doctors but That mistaken Sound again infinitely out-weighed by the Apostl's design manifestly imploying That very word for enforcement of Constancy and the authority of Modern Doctors out-voted by the unanimos consent of more than 400 years universal practice of the Catholik church which having not yet lost the key perfectly understood the Apostl's mind by uninterrupted tradition not to be destroyed but by the Church of Rome nor by That upon any other Evidence than of a pretended Tradition not to be gainsaid thogh not to be credited by other less potent Churches VI. SO great a weight born up by an emty scale This could never be did we pay This Sacrament That Reverence which is due to it I say That which is Due to it For we oght to be careful in distinguishing There is One kind of Reverence Due to Gods Laws and Another to his Decrees Moses long since and very clearly stated the difference Deut. 29.29 Secret things belong unto the Lord our God but those things which are reveled belong unto us and to our children for ever that we may do all the words of this Law Secret things to God who hath reserved them for his own Knowlege and Execution and the Reverence which we ar to pay to them requireth us to keep an Awful Distance not to intrude but to admire and cry out Oh the depth of the riches hoth of Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchabl But Those things which ar reveled belong to us Faithful Study and Diligent Practice is the Reverence they claim Oh how I lov thy Law All the day long is my study in it said David in conformity to his character of the Blessed man Ps 1. And it is wonderfully unhappy that our most learned ages have most grossly erred on Both sides Concerning the Secret things that bolong to God how irreverently busy To marshal his Presence and Decrees in due order to prescribe limits for his Justice and Goodness to mesure the influences of his Decrees and his Grace upon our Liberty c. is every one's work While those things which ar reveled concerning this Sacrament ar reverenced by being treated as Mysteries with an Awful Distance with Admiration Ignorance and Forbearance I am therefor so farr from deposeing it from due Reverence that my whole endeavor hath be'n to restore it from the grossest Contemt which hath so long left it in the meanest state of Neglect Unstudied and Unpractised Yes it is Vnstudied in the mids of that multitude of disputes which have so long and so much pestered the Christian world concerning Sacraments in General and This in Particular still our Lord's Institution lieth Unstudied Unstudied as a Law bicause Overstudied as a Mystery Unstudied in what belongs to Us bicause Overstudied in what belongs to God What can he be said to have studied the Law that understands not it's first Rudiments That knoweth not whether it be a Law or no Whether it be a Law Absolute or only Condicional Is he learned in a Law that knoweth not how farr or how often it obligeth to Action When and in what cases the obligation ceaseth c. If this be to Love a Law what is to Slight it If this be Reverence what is Contemt A Contemt so much the Greater by how much Less labor the study requireth Did it require the reading of many large volums the loss of much sleep the wast of much time the Neglect might be imputed not so much to want of Reverence as of Corage But All the words of this Law were delivered by our Lord in one Breath and explicated by his Apostl in a Few Lines and how can you pretend Reverence to the One or the Other if you let the least tittl fall to the ground I pray' now have you indeed studied All the words of this Law Have you well examined what bread and cup the Demonstrative THIS points at or what is the import of the Imperative DO Or have you studied All the words of the Apostl's comment Yea have you examined All it's clauses or the Design of them All Why did he charge his Corinthians with profaning the Lord's Supper in All their meetings And how did he make good That Charge What meant he by such industrios inserting and repeting a claus unmentioned by any Evangelist and what standard doth it relate to What is the intent of the whole 26th vers how doth it summ up the evidence of the ' foregoing or support the inferences following These and many other main limbs Which of our assertors of Reverence have honored with any enquiry If to Neglect the most fundamental clauses and largest limbs of a Discours so to handl a Law as to disabl it from obligeing so to order a Duty as to render it impracticable be to pay Reverence I cannot but confess my self gilty of haveing denied it On the Other side I have be'n so bold both with our Lord's and Apostl's words as to examin every syllabl and every look taken them to a strict account what service they do to the author's designe What agreement they maintein with their fellow-members what order they keep and why Traced the diatribe throgh all it's turnings and hunted out the reason of them all Suffered not the least Phoenomenon to ' scape the most rigid examination and over and above compared all with the practice of the other Apostls and the primitive Churches This I take to be the Best way of Reverence except One wherein I hope my good reader will join with me which is to pass from Studying to Doing all the words of This Law FINIS
more evident when we consider that he is no less careful to speak of the Bread in the same Jewish stile caling that also by its traditional â—lame For the Jews throughout their Misna and Talmud call this part of their Tradition by the same Name as doth the Apostle in this place and whereby it is still knowen in the New Testament They call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Phrase cannot be more exactly translated than by The breaking of the Bread Yea this is so expressive with them that it is diverbial to stile the head of the family from this office and the whole performance by one word This you may plainly discover by what the lerned and laborios Doctor Castel in his Heptaglot Lexicon saith upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rabb Fractor Sic dicitur Pater familias q. in convivio primus frangit panem s cibum illumque benedicit distribuit convivis sec illud 1 Sam. 19.13 Hinc Phrasis illa in N. T. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 III. LEt us now observ how the Apostle treateth these parts of the Lords Supper under these their Proper names and we shall find still more proof of his respecting This tradition He caleth That the cup of Blessing but he doth not call This the bread of Blessing and why not Two Evangelists more expresly note that our Lord blessed it and the third agreeth with our Apostle that he gave thanks before he brake it On the other side he caleth This the bread which we break but doth not stile That the cup which we distribute yet doth our Lord speak it more plainly of the Cup than of the Bread Take This and divide it among your selves Other reason for this duble difference of stiles we cannot Find and Better we cannot Desire than This that as our Lord borrowed both Parts of his Institution from the Jewish tradition so did the Apostle both their Names Again the Apostle keepeth to the Jewish stile in the Cup saying You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils but in the other part he quitteth the name of Bread changing it for Table and saying You cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of devils And for this he had sufficient reason if the Greeks did not what we find no reason to believ they did consecrate Bread as they did Wine in All yea or Any of their Fests but if we quit This reason we shall hardly find another Yet again The Bread had the First Place both in the Jewish Tradition and the Lords Institution yet ver 16. he giveth the Cup precedence Why doth he thus cross his hands as old Jacob did preferring the Cadet before the First born What 's the reason were his eyes dim or his choice irrespective By no means For we shall again find him in the same partiality and upon the same reason because the Cup was more serviceable to his Argument than the Bread In This place it better demonstrates the inconsistency between the Church of Christ which blessed it and an Idols Temple which did not and in That it better distinguisheth a Fest which requireth the Lords Supper from a common Supper which doth not Yet must not the Bread be so deposed from its primogeniture as to be left without its blessing Thogh the Greeks custom had no rival for it yet our Lords Supper hath need of it and must not be maimed of the one half equally necessary to His Table thogh not to the Apostles argument Thogh therefor he cannot now as in the Cup oppose Name to Name yet he doth Thing to Thing Table to Table and under that stile payeth the Bread the same Justice thogh not the same Deference as he doth the Cup. Look we now which way we will we meet clear evidence Direct in the so careful caling each Element by its proper Name and Collateral in the no less careful Transplaceing them suitably to the aspect they had upon his Design yet doing right to the Institution and Tradition by mentioning the Bread as necessary to These thogh not to That IV. WHat more can be Expected yea What more can be Desired must we prove not only that here are the same Names but the same Person too This is do'n 8.15 16. I speak as to the wise men judge ye what I say The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ Can now any thing be plaine could any Lawyer or Grammarian more clearly and properly have expressed that the same bread and cup whose names he had thus translated from Hebrew to Greek were by our Lord translated from the Jewish Tradition to his Own Institution Are not Those the same with These I cannot pretend any stronger Proof but I shall endeavor to Illustrate it by a Custom of our own in our accademical Fests hitherto unaccounted V. OUr predecessors have no less exactly translated the name of the Jewish cup into English than hath the Apostle into Greek What They caled Blessing the Table We call Saying Grace and This answereth That in Both senses Praying or Praising Imploring a Blessing upon the Meat before we eat or returning Thanks for it after we have eaten Our Grace-cup therefore deriveth its Proper Name from St. Pauls Cup of Blessing by exact translation of the word And this same Cup hath a Sirname derived from the Same original by another Apostle In Acts 20. we find the Primitive Churches met every first day of the week to break bread And 1 Cor. 16.1 Upon this day they made their contributions to the poor so joining their Charity to the Lords Mystical Body with their Honor to his Natural which St. Jude so highly approveth as to denominat those meetings Fests of charity J whence our Ancestors have given this Grace-cup its Surname the Cup of Charity as used in those Fests of Charity I wish they had be'n as careful to preserve the significance as the ceremony and the duble name But if from These we may learn That we find Characters legible enogh to inform us The Cup of Blessing and our Grace-cup have Both the same Name the same Mater the same Circumstances after Grace after Washing in such order that not one of the Guests can be past by It 's the Last action before rising requireth the same Number three at least We find that however the remoter Churches met the First day of the week to break bread yet the Apostles at Jerusalem did it daily and Religios Fraternities think themselves obliged rather to take their paterns from the Apostolic College than the Graecian Churches as our Church requireth more constancy in Collegiate and Cathedral Fraternities than Parochial When the Governors of the Church upon urgent nenessity changed the Season for the people who were not to be trusted after Supper
they recompenced the thus injured Season with a succedaneos Sacrament in the Grace-cup as the Jews did their unattended Temple with a succedaneos Sacrifice in the Tradition The concurrence of two such Names evidently derived from the same Cup no less remarkable than that of all other circumstances dubleth the evidence All this may well justify a challenge to the gainsayer either to accept of This or produce a better Yea perhaps it might be urged that we cannot avoid but that we must own either the cup of the Lord or the cup of divels there being no other imaginable Original for the unaccountable Grace-cup Yet as I will not disparage the Table in our Chappel by equaling it with That in our Hall so neither will I my better Evidences by leveling them with a mere Conjecture how ever Probable I therefor take it not as we may suppose it delivered down by our Ancestors but as it is still practised among our Selvs not as a Proof of a pios custom in the Churches of Christ but as an Illustration of his Own meaning Suppose we then that our Lord should again visit the Earth convene a Council truly General make a publik Fest declare his great satisfaction in the Opportunity and then in its proper Season and with all due Circumstances take the Grace-cup and deliver it about with the same Words as he did that in his Institution saying This is c. would we then doubt but by the Particl This he pointed at That Cup so in his hand under the long knowen character of a Grace-cup If This would not put us out of doubt let us further suppose that our Lords chief Secretary should profess that he had to him declared his meaning and that this unexceptionable person should not only describe the Grace-cup by its proper characters but even it by its proper name and in plain words tell us that the Grace-cup which we drink is the Communion of the blood of Christ Would any one now doubt but the Grace-cup so Circumstanced and so Named and so pointed at must be the peculiar cup of the Lord which must cary its old Constancy to a new Dignity If this amount not to Full Evidence yet sure we cannot deny it to be more then Half and then the Civil Law will allow us to bring a Suppletory The Bread then joineth its Evidence with this of the Cup. In our Lords Institution it holdeth the same Place as in the Jewish Tradition In the Apostles Argument by loss of its Place it is advanced in Power for by its Deposition so alloyed it appeareth that thogh rhe Apostles Argument were yet was not our Lords Institution complete without it for which there can be no other reason given but this that it was an equally Necessary part of the Tradition whence the whole Supper was derived Let us therefor carefully compare them What Lineaments what Feature what Meen what Motion is there in the Tradition that is not answered both in our Lords Institution and in each of the Apostles Arguments What Family can shew a Son so lively resembling both Father and Grandfather what Artist a Picture more exactly representing the Original what Wisdom less then that of the wonderful Counsailer could have invented a Rite more perfectly setting forth the Tradition it copieth the Passion is commemorateth the Benefits it exhibiteth c. I do not upon all these Evidences crave your Sentence There remain other necessary Enquiries to be made We have rejected the Passover because it answered not the Apostles Argument thogh it better did so our Lords Institution we must bring them to the same Test and if it agree not with every title confess all our hopes vain and labor lost VI. VVHICH yet I am so secure against that I cannot forbear to anticipate the Observation That this notice must silence a multitude of trifling troublesom questions concerning the definition and qualifications of a Sacrament For Both This and its Twin Sacrament upon examination confess themselvs nothing els but Jewish Traditions sublimed by our Lord to Evangelical Commands requiring all Christians to wear them as badges of his service as we shall have another occasion more fully to discover And from this we may well take occasion to warn som too zelos persons that they need examin whether there be as good agreement between their own Spirits and that of our Lord as we have found between these two Cups The Jews were no less zelos of Moses's Law in opposition to the Gospel than any Papist can be of his Superstition in opposition to Reformation Our Lord as much abolished Legal Ceremonies as our Reformers did Popish He as much declared against the Traditions of the Scribes as our Church doth or needeth to do against Superfluos Ceremonies Yet behold he was so far from refusing their Customs for This only reason because they were Theirs that for This very reason he chose them He could doubtless have invented som other rite for Matriculating Disciples no less proper than that of Baptism and som other for Commemorating his death than This of the Grace-cup yet did not disdain to borrow Both his Sacraments from those implacabl Enemies of his Person and Gospel while he abolished all those Divine Ordinances that prefigured Both Leaving us an example so to shun what is prejudicial as to retain what may be serviceabl and make our adversaries practice a reason not to Fly but Embrace it PART II. Concerning the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHAP. I. The Apostl's design was not to assert Reverence to the Lords Supper I. The Apostl's proper design first to be enquired into II. Three steps 1. What might be the Corinthians case III. 2. What might becom the Apostl to do in such a case IV. 3. How doth the Apostl's procedure agree with such Suppositions 1. The former part very well agreeth with them V. 2. The later part necessarily requireth them Proved 1. Negatively He did not design to assert Reverence due to our Lords Supper precisely taken The subject of the Proposition ver 26. is not the Lords Supper but This Bread and This Cup. The Praedicate is utterly useles and wors toward such a design VI. 2. Positively The Proposition pointeth at som Determiminate Bread and Cup. The Argument reduced to a Syllogism HAVING thus found our Key as Fit as Necessary to unlock our Lords Institution we may with the better corage prove it upon the Apostl's Discours concerning it Wherein as there are More and som of them cross Wards so if it answer them All in All their turnings we shall have so many the More Evidences that it is the tru one That we may work regularly it will be necessary in the First place to Enter it in due manner i. e. begin with a right understanding of the Apostles proper Design whereto every word is to be serviceable For it is no small help to a travailer to know which way his journies end lies and to cast the