Table in that Rituall posture and manner then in Use be holden as indifferent or appendant to the Paschall custom for we shall never hit that pattern in all respects becaUse they sate at the Table while Christ blessed and brake the Bread which we that have severall Tables full do not nor can do and let the Disciples dividing among themselves or handing both the Bread and Cup from one to another be accounted indifferent too and hardly and not conveniently imitable in our numbers yea and not certain neither though very probable to me for if one as Peter Martyr holds it so yet another as Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. Paraus in locum saith that it 's not Obscure out of the History that when the Lord said Take ye Benedictum fractum panem singulis manu porrexisse he reacht the Bread to every person with his hand Let us touch the other Question Whether there were any words spoken to every one at the delivering into his hands and here indeed we finde nothing but Take ye eat this is my Body broken for you Drink ye all of it this is the Cup of the New Testament and doubtless the whole Institution needs not to every single person be repeated having been recited in the Consecration Yet you know that in the form Used in England the Minister was appointed to deliver Bread and Wine into the Communicants particular hands with a prescript form of words The Body of our Lord The Blood of our Lord c. and Chemnitius Examen de praparat ad coenam the best Scholar of all called Lutheran saith that the form of applying the words of Institution to every Communicant mihi maxime probatur is best of all approved by him And that in these words the Sacrament was delivered in the Church of old time he cals in for witness Ambrose who hath indeed these lib. 4. de Sac. sub finem words the Minister saith Corpus Christi tu dicis Amen The body of Christ and thou saist Amen And before this time Novatus distributing the Mysteries to every one his part adjured them into his faction first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in stead of saying Amen Histor lib. 6. cap. 35. saith EUsebius which Amen it seems every Communicant said when the Bread was put into his hand as Justin Martyr saith when the Minister hath finisht his Consecration-prayer all the people present Apol. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes acclamation to it saying Amen I Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. p. 366. conclude with Learned Hooker that upon the ground that Sacraments are particularly applying Ordinances and we are dull and heavy-hearted If I Baptize thee offend not why should Eat thou offend any man I conclude upon the whole matter that what is most to the reverence of this Ordinance and serves best to raise up and elevate the peoples hearts shall be followed by me So much for the opening of the Rites or Actions Used by Christ or that are to be Used by any Minister that shall in his Name celebrate this Ordinance He took the Bread and the Cup He blessed or gave thanks He brake he gave In which it is to be noted that he did not recede from the then received rite or custom for both the Elements and the rites are quite through the same which were usually and by custom at that present on foot in their Paschall Solemnities and which is more yet this Bread and Cup so blest and given at these Solemnities are not found to stand by any express command of holy Scripture but were such as their wisdom had by custom made Use of in this service of that Bread and that Cup the Lord was pleased to make the Seals of his Body and Blood as Hugh Broughton our Learned Broughton in Dan. pag. 46. Countryman Observes §. 10. Of the outward Actions pertaining to the Communicants § 10 Now I proceed to the other sort of outward Rites or Actions pertaining to the Communicants which are these He said Take eat He said Drink ye all of it as you may see in St Matthew who was Myroth lin Matth. 26. 26. present in the action and as it is here Forsan at haec sunt vetus formula c. saith Cameron Haply that this was the old Rite but in the Jewish Rituals that are now as it is recited by Cameron in the Hebrew and by Scaliger in Greek it is somewhat diverse Scaliger de Emend lib. 6. pag. 536. Thus every one that is hungry let him come and eat and whoso hath need let him come and keep the Passeover 1. Take ye It is to be understood of taking in the hand for it 's not likely that Christ rose and put the Bread and Wine in every ones mouth saith Beza Epist. 2. Beza but as the Cup passed from the nearest to Christ to them more remote so it 's probable saith the same Author that the Bread also did There is a great stirre about the Communicants taking the Elements in his hand not as though if other wise the Sacrament was a nullity as Beza proves for a Bezain Epist. 2. man may have no hands to take it with but for the decency and significancy thereof The taking in the mouth only being more like that of Bruits which take their meat with mouth or beak as Chamier saith than that of men and there is a whole Chapter spent in reciting Antiquities for this taking in the hand in Chamier who saves me the labour to recite any of De Euchar. l 7. cap. ult them to you and this is all upon occasion of the Papists who take the Bread into their mouths and touch it not with hand out of a too superstitious veneration Beza Epist 2. of the Elements as Beza notes Nor do they of them that search out the footsteps of this custom rise any higher than about five or six hundred years ago The signification of it is the appropriation of Christ to our selves whom God makes ours by his gift and we make ours by faith even as truly as if he were put into our very hand They that make Paraeus in loe Taking and Eating divers Rites of divers significations as many of our excellent Divines do do tell us that there are divers degrees of faith that by taking Christ we have propriety in him He is ours by eating his Body and drinking his Blood we have comfort and refreshment from him and that he is first ours in claim before he be ours in comfort as first take then eat In the Use of the brazen Serpent our beleeving was set forth by an act of our eye Joh. 3. 14. looking up but here 't is set forth by an act of ourhand retension or receiving the promise of Adoption is made to our receiving Christ Joh. 1. 12 and our faith must be a Christ taking a Christ-receiving faith Christ would be ours else he would not have instituted this
is my Body the wine is my Blood in the same form of speech 4. The Language in which our Saviour spake had no other property of expression there being no word for signifie but is in stead thereof as Learned men say and its certain the Scripture in both Testaments Hebrew and Greek Uses the same form in a hundred places giving the name of the thing signified to the sign as hath been shown as the seven ears of corn are seven years The dry bones are the hoUse of Israel The seven Candlesticks are seven Churches c. 5. The words This is my Body are not proper in the Lutheran sense no more than to say This Cloak is Peter becaUse Peter is in it nor in the Popish sense except the Body of Christ be there before the words be pronounced This is my Body which should rather be thus Let this be my Body as God said Let there be light not This is light for it was not light before 6. The spirituall benefit which is eating and drinking Christs Body and Blood by faith is no less in our sense than if there were his very flesh for Christ saith The flesh profits nothing Joh. 6. and the Papists hold that the eating of Christs flesh by wicked men profits nothing except besides the Sacramentall there be a spirituall feeding upon Christ which we affirm 7. The Apostles understood these words as we do and as the Hebrews had ever understood the same expression for form in the Old Testament else they would have been amazed and startled at it and have asked some Question as they were inquifitive enough in lesser matters but they saw Christ fit at table and eat and drink first himself and therefore could not be ignorant of their meaning 8. The Capernaite Disciples Joh. 6. having taken offence at those frequent expressions of eating Christs flesh and drinking his blood understanding them carnally were answered by Christ himself The flesh profits nothing The words that I speak are spirit and life as if he himself would give the interpretation 9. The Apostle thrice in this Chapter following cals it still bread after consecration as also in the Chapter foregoing and surely he that never before did would not delude the senses of his Disciples in this Ordinance and himself cals it wine too Matth. 26. 26. I will not henceforth drink of this fruit of the Vine which is the Periphrasis usuall among the Jews for wine 10. The remembrance of Christ the shewing forth his death till he come do import the absence of his Body which the Scripture tels us ascended into heaven and there is contained in lieu of his corporall absence he sent the Spirit to abide for ever as another Comforter Memorials and monuments are of things absent 11. For the Ancient Fathers they prove against the Marcionites that held the Body of Christ to be meerly phantasticall That it is substantiall becaUse the Elements of bread and wine are substantiall which was no good argument if only the accidents or shadows of the Elements do remain and all along downwards they call the outward Elements symbols Forbes p. 561. types figures signes of Christs Body untill about the year 1215. when subtill and superstitious Disputes grew hot about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which occasioned Innocent the third to introduce both name of Transubstantiation and thing not before openly heard of and so as a Decree of the Lateran Council vented it as a point of faith since which time the Councill of Trent hath confirmed Sess 13. ca. 4. the Decree and the word as most fit and proper which are the rotten yet the best props upon which Transubstantiation doth stand at this day being upon the first birth of it as I said even now opposed Forbes p. 609 col 1. by the Waldenses and afterward by Wicliff and those that followed them and shall be opposed by all Orthodox till that Dagon fall §. 4. Why the Error of Transubstantiation is to be rejected with utmost detestation § 4 II. To reject with utmost detestation the impossible and incomprehensible Errour of Transubstantiation and corporall presence by which Doctrine a silly Priest doth that which all the Angels cannot do and that is Make his Maker as they call the Host and people do devour their God and yet they justifie it by Gods omnipotency that God is able to effect it which is no better an argument than the Turks may justifie most of the fooleries of their Alcoran There are two grounds for the rejection of this abomination 1. The Idolatry and Sacriledge which doth ensue upon it and that is the adoration and worship of the Host a piece of bread and the mutilation or maiming of the Sacrament by bread only and the propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ himself in the Mass who was once only offered up to God upon the Cross all which are the issue of this Errour 2. The monsters of contradiction and absurdity to sense and Reason which follow thereupon It was begotten by feigned miracles and fabulous Legends and is the mother of blasphemies and inextricable absurdities which set faith it self on the rack and which though they would seem easily to blow away yet by their stragling it appears they strive with that they cannot master The point of Consubstantiation hath brought forth a grand absurdity maintained by some Psendo Lutherans the Ubiquity of Christs Body in all places But this of Transubstantiation surpasses all as I shew thus 1. Suppose Christ sitting at the table with his Disciples and eating this bread and drinking this cup first as the custom at the Paschall Supper was and as the Papists generally and the Fathers hold and we deny not becaUse the Scripture seems plain for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 26. 19. Henceforth I will not drink of the fruit of the Vine supposing I say this How is it possible or imaginable that he should eat himself or how can he sit at table and yet be in the mouths of his Apostles Was he at the same time in his Apostles mouths or stomacks while he sate and rose from table and discoursed those three Chapters of John 15 16 17 or while he sweat that Bloody sweat in his Agony in the Garden c. a monstrous impossibility 2. It 's Impossible to make that which was before existent and in being Can a father beget a son that Chelling p. 70. is already begotten Can an Architect build a hoUse that is already built Can the body of Christ which is before the conversion of the bread be made or produced by the turning of bread into it Can he that was conceived by the holy Ghost born of the Virgin be made by pronouncing of four or five words If ever delusions were strong these are Nam factum facere factum infectum facere are equally impossible 3. They say that the substance of bread and wine is avoided and that only the accidents remain so
of this Sacrament CHAP. IV. Of the time of this Sacraments Institution and of Judas betraying Christ CHAP. V. Why Christ deferred the instituting of the Supper untill the night in which he was betrayed CHAP. VI. Of the Outwards or Elements of this Ordinance of the Supper CHAP. VII Some Observations upon the precedent Discourses CHAP. VIII Of the Real Presence CHAP. IX Of the inward things signified or represented in this Supper CHAP. X. A fonr-fold Exhortation from the premises CHAP. XI Of Christs Mandate or Charge for the celebration of this Ordinance in Remembrance of him CHAP. XII Of doing this in remembrance of Christ The Properties of this Memorial CHAP. XIII A Lamentation for the neglect of this Ordinance CHAP. XIII How much it concerneth Ministers to Teach and all to Learn the true meaning of this Ordinance CHAP. XIV The great Business that lies upon the Communicant as oft as he eats this Bread and drinks this Cup he shews the Lords Death CHAP. XV. The Lords-Supper is an itterable Ordinance CHAP. XVI Of the Continuance of this and other Gospel-Ordinances in the Church CHAP. XVII Of Worthy and Unworthy Receiving of the Lords-Supper CHAP. XVIII The Uses which are to be made of the two last Theses CHAP. XIX What must be done where Discipline cannot be executed for want of Administrators CHAP. XX. Whether a Godly man lawfully may or ought to stand as a Member of and hold Communion in the Ordinances of God with such a Congregation as is mixt as they call it that is where men visibly scandalous in Life and Conversation are mingled with the Good in the Participation and Use of Divine Ordinances Or Whether this Mixture of Heterogeneals do not pollute the Ordinances and the Communion to the Godly so as they are concerned to separate from such Communion CHAP. XXI Whether the Lords Supper be a Converting Ordinance CHAP. XXII Of Worthy and Unworthy Receiving with some Cautions to prevent mis-judging our selves in the Case CHAP. XXIII Of Worthy Receiving c. CHAP. XXIV That a Godly man may receive the Sacrament unworthily CHAP. XXV Of the Graces which are to be exercised and set on work in the Use of this Sacrament CHAP. XXVI Motives to quicken Endeavors to a fit or worthy Participation of this Ordinance CHAP. XXVII False and insufficient Qualifications for the Receiving of this Sacrament CHAP. XXVIII The Fruit and Benefit of worthy Receiving CHAP. XXIX The Sinfulness of Eating and Drinking unworthily CHAP. XXX The CaUse of this Sin Viz Not discerning the Lords Body CHAP. XXXI The Aggravations of the Sin of unworthy Receiving CHAP. XXXII The Danger of this Sinne. CHAP. XXXIII Of Examination in order to this Sacrament The Bookseller to the READER THis Treatise was very fairly writ by the Reverend Authour Mr Richard Vines now with God and perfected for the Press with his own Hand after which a great part of it was lost and carried by a stranger that took it up thirty miles off which yet by a good Providence of God was brought to his own hands again to his great rejoycing and I hope the Churches great benefit which seems to be the design of that unexpected Providence now that it is made publick He omitted to divide it into Chapters and Sections for the pleasure of the Reader which notwithstanding is now done together with the Contents of every Chapter and of most of the Sections which I thought good to certifie lest any expressions therein should seem unsuitable to the Authours own Genius and derogatory to his worth A TREATISE OF THE Right Institution Administration and Receiving of the SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SUPPER CHAPTER I. Of the Passeover or Paschall-Lamb Its signification and the Analogy or Resemblance between it and Christ our Passeover 1 COR. 5. 7 8. For Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us Therefore let us keep the Feast not with old leven c. § 1 IT is usuall in handling the nature and Use of Sacraments to begin with the notion of a Sacrament in generall and then to descend to particular Sacraments which we call Baptism and the Lords Supper in their order But the Field is large and the compasse great and therefore I begin where the Lords Supper it self began and therefore I begin where the Lords Supper it self began and that is at the Passeover at the death whereof and out of the ashes of it this Sacrament of ours like another Phoenix did arise for our Lord at his last Passeover called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his dying Passeover did institute and ordain this which is to live and remain till he come again and which Scaliger and others have Observed the very materials of our Sacramental Supper were taken out of the Paschall Supper for that very bread which the Master of the Family Used of custome not by any Scripture-command to blesse and give to the fraternity saying Holachma degnania 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the bread of affliction which the Fathers did eat in Egypt and that Cup which he blessed and gave to them to drink called the Cup of the hymn or Cos hallel becaUse the hymn followed after and closed all That bread and that Cup did Christ according to the rite severally blesse and give saying This is my body This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud and so he put a new Superscription or signification upon the old metall and let all blinde and bold Expositors know that if they expound not many phrases and things in the New Testament out of the old Records of Jewish writings or customes they shall but fancy and not expound the Text as may be confirmed saith Scaliger sexcentis argumentis by very many arguments In handling of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper I shall select such practical and preparative doctrine as is necessary for your knowledge that ye may discern the Lords body and not be guilty of it and for your practise that you may examine your selves and not eat and drink unworthily For if I should lanch out into controversies there would be no end There hath been more paper written upon those six syllables but five in English This is my body then would contain a just and large Commentary upon the whole Bible I begin with the Passeover which was the second for Circumcision was the first ordinary standing Sacrament of the Jewish Church beginning at their going forth out of Egypt and continuing till the Death of Christ when the Lords Supper did commence or begin and so displaced it The Passeover signified what should be the Lords Supper what is fulfilled in Christ In the Passeover were represented the Sufferings and Death of Christ by a Lamb slain rosted with fire In the Supper by bread broken and wine poured forth The outward symbols or signs differ But Christ is the same under both As Circumcision theirs baptism ours are different signs and rites but the inward Circumcision and Regeneration both one Theirs were both bloudy
phrases the signe called the thing signified the figure called the thing figured The Rock was Christ Christ our Passeover that is paschal Lamb Circumcision called the Covenant Gen 17. 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh this will be allowed in every place but one and that is this one This is my body For the Lutheran stands up for a corporall presence under the Signes The Papist for a change of the Bread and Wine into Christs body and bloud No conferences no disputes no condescensions will satisfie them and yet we say very fairly the very body of Christ born of the Virgin that died on the Crosse that sits in heaven is present in this Sacrament but not in the Bread or Wine but to the faithfull Receiver not in the Elements but to the Communicants but all this will not serve turn These two Prepositions Con and Trans have bred more jarres and cost more bloud since they were born and there is neither of them in this caUse six hundred years old then can be well imagined § 4 3. The Passeover figured Christ and yet the Jews ordinarily saw not Christ in it It is plain in their celebration of the Passeover or their Rituals they take notice of and commemorate their Egyptian slavery and their deliverance and so they were commanded but of Christ not a syllable It entred not into them that a Lamb rosted should figure the Messiah as they had formed him in their thoughts and so they held the Passeover as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking backward but as a Type looking forward no knowledge except the faithfull had some glimpse of it and this is the great fault of men in all Sacraments they minde not the inwards of a Sacrament nor look for the kernell they did so and we also not discerning the Lords body is not that it which makes us guilty of his body and bloud there is in all Sacraments res terrena res coelestis as Irenaeus Earthly men see the earthly part they eat they drink It feeds not they eat shells the inwards within the bone are marrow Christ Christ set spirituall food before our bodies viz. ayery set corporall before the soul and you illude both saith Parisiensis de Euchar sub finem § 5 4. The Passeover is Christ sacrificed not Christ a Lamb unspotted but Christ a Lamb rosted with fire and this tels you that the Passeover and our Supper represent Christ crucified Christ dying or dead It is the death of Christ not his Resurrection nor ascension that is here set forth Ye shew the Lords death till he come this is the sight which a sinful soul would see this is the comfortable spectacle to see the price paying the ransome laying down the thing in doing Hence he draws the hope and comfort of Redemption and therefore the bread was broken and the Cup was full of bloud to represent to the life this life giving Death to Christ The Papists have cheated the people of the bloud by a trick of concomitancy telling them that the bread is his body and his body hath bloud in it we have a word of Institution of both severally the life of the representation is the bloud shed the Passeover is a Lamb slain and rosted and the bloud on the door-post and by providence if the Papists will allow all to eat then we have expresly for the Cup a Bibite ex hoc omnes Mat. 26. 27. Drink ye all of it So that it is the Death of Christ here represented and which is one step further it is a Sacrifice Death which works and makes atonement this was it that all the Sacrifices that the Passeover did prefigure a Sacrifice death that should deliver and make expiation This Cup saith Christ is the New Testament in my bloud which is shed for you and many for remission of sins a death and such a kinde of death as in our Sacrament set forth a Sacrifice Death therefore it 's said sacrificed for us § 7 Now let us come to the Analogy or resemblance between the Passeover and Christ sacrificed wherein I shall The resemblance between the Passeover and Christ sacrificed endeavour to avoid the vanity and curiosity of making similitudes to run of all four which is incident to men in handling Types Parables and similitudes which like a string over-stretched makes a jar and disharmony and shews more fondnes then soundness 1. The Paschal must be a male-Lamb without blemish the son of a year taken from the Sheep or Goats Exo. 12. 5. and this resembles Christ himself and his perfection there were many blemishes which the superstitious or curious Jews Observed to the number of fifty or seventy any blemish disabled it Christ was without all blemish nothing was excepted from other men or his likenesse to them but sin in all Points tempted like as weare yet without sin Heb. 4. 15. He was of masculine perfection at the perfection of his age about 33 or 34 years of Lamb-like humility and meeknesse which are noted in him as exemplary graces He was figured out in the Lamb of the daily Sacrifice in the Lamb of the Passeover in Abrahams Ram in stead of Isaac in the Scape-goat Lev. 16. 21. and pointed out by John Baptist under this Name Behold the Lamb of God It 's implied Heb. 9. 28. he shall appear the second time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in his first coming he was not without but we must distinguish of sin ours imputed to him and so he was made sin for us so as to bear it in his body which at his second coming he shall not bear nor be loden with as he was before and therefore is said to come without sinne both his and ours 2. This Paschall-Lamb was to be separated from the flock and set apart for Sacrifice on the tenth day of the moneth but not killed till the 14. day in the Evening or according to that vexed phrase between the two Evenings that is in the afternoon when the Sun declined before Sunset and about the same time of day our Saviour the true Passeover was slain but in a further meaning it shews that Christ was set apart and fore-designed of God to be our Passover long before not in his decree but his promise and the predictions of the Prophets which have been since the world began Luk. 1. 70. but now in the end of the world hath he appear'd to put away sinne by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9. 26. He suffer'd between the two Evenings of the world which was in his declination when he came that was our Evening and the latter is to come the dayes of his appearance are called often the last daies and though that have another meaning shewing the unalterableness of the Gospel-Ordinances contrary to those of the Law yet we may affirm that it was past the noon of the world when he came and the time shall not be so long after unto Sun-set as before
do as oft as ye do it hoc facite is as much as See that ye make or do all things according to the pattern The Apostles were not now at a Councel-Table with their Lord to give their vote what manner of Sacrament should be appointed but as guests to take and eat at present such cheer as the Master set before them and in after-times to do This Do this in remembrance of me and yet our Lord Christ would have his Ordinances administred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently Clemens the ancientest of Fathers in his Epistle to these Corinthians hath an excellent saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ought to do all those things orderly which our Master hath commanded us to do For Christ himself was no friend to slovenliness or loathsome nastiness as one observes Hildersam in John 4. out of that Mark 14. 15. He shall shew you an upper room furnished and prepared but presumption is bold Superstition adventurous as if it was called to councel with God makes no bones of clipping his coyn and therefore this Sacrament hath been filled with many devices and long groaned under their inventions which after long possession plead prescription and come in after-times to be counted parts which at first were but scabs or wens The Apostle did not durst not deliver but what he had received but they that have lesse power than the Apostle dare deliver what they received not and by adding or substracting do plainly finde fault with Gods own model Why should the Papist give into the mouth of his Communicant a whole wafer but that he is afraid to break the bread least some loose crums should fall Why doth he cheat the people wholly of the Cup but upon pretence that a drop of the bloud might be shed or spilt May we not think that they are too nice and more scrupulous than Christ at whose breaking bread there might fall crums and in the Apostles drinking drops from the cup Superstition is foolish that pretends holiness and corrupts Ordinances and had rather make than take a Sacrament We have the Minister in the name and stead of Christ Jesus if this be denied as it is by some I shall at present affirm but this That the reverend and most ancient Father Justin Martyr in his second Apology to the Roman Emperour written about fifty years after the death of John the Apostle sets out as I shall shew you the full manner of their administration of this Sacrament and therein saith the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Minister doth pour forth prayer and gives thanks over the bread and wine which I can give no account of private corners hath been practised in the Christian Churches till this very time and year being 1500 years at least The Minister takes the bread and likewise takes the Cup. He gives thanks or blesseth over the Bread and Cup He breaks the Bread he saith Take ye eat ye drink ye He pronounces This bread is the body of our Lord Jesus Christ This Cup is the New Testament in his bloud You do take you eat you drink This the Minister doth this you do for a remembrance and commemoration of Christ shewing forth his death and this is an Ordinance sutable to the institution § 19 2. That the Communicant be sutable to the Ordinance When the Song is truly set and prickt the singer must Of worthy communicating keep time and tune or else all is not right The Papists have the Ordinance unsuitable to the institution and we alas have Communicants unsuitable to the Ordinance That word which follows in this Chapter that dangerous word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unworthily what is it but unsutably we must measure and fashion the Communicant by the Ordinance He must of necessity be a Disciple to such Christ spoke Take ye eat ye c. not as ye are Apostles but as Disciples He must bring with him a Christ receiving or a Christ applying faith for Take Eat without a hand or mouth of the soul he cannot He must come with hunger and thirst for strength and refreshment for he doth come to a Table to eat and drink the staff of bread the cordial cheering wine This strength and nourishment is by vertue of his union with Christ himself and communion therefore he comes to eat the very body and drink the very bloud of Christ He comes as a confederate with God to receive the seal or as a Legator to receive a Legacy bequeath'd by Will viz. Christ and remission of sins in Christ for this Cup is the New Covenant or New Testament sealed with Christs bloud He comes as to a festival commemoration where the founder of the feast is remembred with praise and honour Do it in remembrance of me He looks through and beyond the broken bread and wine poured out to a broken body and the shed bloud of Christ He looks at another taking then taking of bread another eating and drinking than of bread and wine viz. the taking to himself and the spiritual and intimate application of Christs body and bloud For he discerns the Lords body and therefore comes as a consecrated person to consecrated elements to broken bread with a broken heart full of affections as the Ordinance is full of mysteries and here is a Communicant suitable to the Ordinance and so Paul who received of the Lord and delivered unto them the institution of Christ hath set to rights both the Ordinance and the Corinthian Communicant CHAP. III. That the Lord Jesus is the Authour of this Sacrament 1 COR. 11. 23. That the Lord Jesus c. I Shall follow the track of the Apostle who goes before me in the two points I am to entreat upon 1. The Nature and Use of this Sacrament 2. The due Preparation of the Communicant Of these in order and with what brevity I can contenting my self to speak in decimo sexto what might be spoken in folio in hope that your proficiency by Mr Anthony Burgess and Mr Love your former most worthy teachers may excUse me the labour of so large a volume The next words I come unto do plainly point out unto us 1. The Author of the institution The Lord Jesus 2. The Time of it The same night in which he was betrayed Doct. 1 The Authour of this Sacrament The Authour of this institution is the Lord Jesus The consent of all the Evangelists that write the History puts this out of all controversie Christ was personally present both celebrating and instituting this Ordinance He is res Sacramenti the thing of the Sacrament and Author Sacramenti the Authour of the Sacrament the feast-maker and the feast Out of this pierced side as Austin alludes there came forth both bloud and water the two Sacraments of the Church He took the bread he blest he brake it he gave it it may well be called the Lords Supper yea the Lord is the Supper This is my body this is my bloud § 1
himself hers sed de hoc infra § 5 The Use which may be hence inferr'd is twofold Use 1 The Lord Jesus is authour therefore this Supper is not ours that are Ministers but it is the Lords Alexander Ales pars 4. quaest 49. memb 1. Hales hath an excellent Rule which I shall make Use of hereafter it 's this Sacerdos est dispensator non Dominus Sacramentorum Ecclesiae non dat suum sed reddit alienum quod de jure negari non potest The Minister is the Dispenser or Steward not the Lord of the Sacraments of the Church He gives not that which is his but restores that which is anothers which de jure cannot be denied to him to whom it 's Homil. 83. in Mat. due and therefore Chrysostom speaks to his fellow Ministers and cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Distributers Dispensers as you are of the poors bread in the Church which some Benefactour formerly appointed to be bestowed on them by his Will and of his Gift to whom the Lord gives it We cannot deny if they be within the Sphere of our office and to whom the Lord denies we cannot give A man comes to an Executour Sir I come to you for a certain Legacy given me by my Fathers will whereof you are Executour the gift bequeathed is not yours and you are but the hand whereby the Donour was pleased to hand it unto me True saith the Executour there is such a Legacy bequeath'd but if you look the Will you shall finde it given with some limitations and proviso's See the words ver 28. of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so there is an And so But let a man examine himself and so let him eat and so let him drink It is confest on all hands The Conditions being performed the claim is good but if it can be said You are not a Disciple and to such only this Legacy was bequeathed by Christ or the Church hath set on you the brand of a Heathen or a Publican though you was a Disciple and you have for the present by your sinne forfeited the right you had untill by your repentance you return again why then all will say that an Executour or Administratour may not act directly contrary to the Will for he is not the Testatour to do what he will but he is Administratour to Observe and not to violate the Will § 6 Use 2 The Lord Jesus is authour from him therefore let the benefit and efficacy of this Ordinance be expected for it hath veritatem virtutem both esse and operari being and working from the authour As money hath the stamp and the value from the supream power and here is the difference between natural and moral instruments we take the word instrument largely pro medio for a mean that if the Sacraments were natural means or instruments in which as the Schoolman doth the very vertue or the grace and benefit by them convey'd were contrived then were the vertue and benefit to be expected from themselves and no otherwise from the authour than as authour of the instrument as the Candle gives light whether the maker of it be present or no and the plaister heals by a quality in it self but a moral instrument not so being empty of any vertue to such an effect except the authour do work by it or ad praesentiamejus at the presence of it as the Serpent of brasse on the Pole the Clay and Spittle on the eye the Lambs bloud on door-posts had in themselves no power to their several effects but as they were appointed and Used by God or Christ It is very hard to believe that there is a true and real exhibition of Christs body and bloud to my faith as there is of the bread and wine to the mouth of the receiver sottish and superstitious people that Use charms or inchanted means for diseases c. never ask themselves How these things work by any natural vertue in them or by the devil the authour of them And so here there are thousands that have a reverend esteem of these mysteries yea and a superstitious conceit thinking that there is some good in them and imagining at least that they shall be better for them but whether to apply their eye to the very things themselves or to Christ they know not nor matter not but rest in a confUsed imagination just as they that Use charms Now for redress of this confUsed notion I commend that of famous Dr Whitaker Quasi De Euchar. pag. 624. in 40. Christos in medio sederet c. As if Christ fate amongst you and did the same as in the first Supper so ought we to think of this Sacrament and that is to see Christ to take and bless and say to us This is my body take and eat This is my bloud Drink ye all of it a very effectual consideration according to that good old solemn word Used to be spoken to the people at this Table Surjum corda Have your hearts upward to which they answered Habemus ad Dominum Now as to others that have their eyes so near the book that they see the worse I mean such as by curious enquiry and too much niceness how it 's possible that the eating of a piece of bread and drinking of a sup of wine should exhibit and convey to the faith of a believer the very true and real body and bloud of Christ do dispute themselves into a naked figure and sign as a painted supper represents a true I say this That God imitates men in their assurances or conveyances as we read of his oath of his earnest of his seal so that as men in passing of estates and inheritances do make Deeds and seal them and deliver them and then the real estate is not convey'd out by vertue of a bit of wax but by the Donors sealing that wax and fastening it to his Deed and delivering it as his Act and Deed So God or the Lord Jesus Christ makes a Covenant of giving Christ and eternal life to believers and appoints Sacraments to be Seals of that Covenant and delivers this sealed Covenant to a believer and thereby really and truly the Lord Jesus Christ for in hoc sacro speaking of the Supper saith Bernard non solum quaelibet gratia sed Serm. de caena 2. ille in quo est omnis gratia not only some one certain grace is given but he in whom is all grace viz. Christ Jesus the Lord. And yet I must not say that God hath so tied himself or us to the sacramental Seals as that no man can have Christ or the inheritance without them for that faith which eats and drinks the flesh and bloud of Christ extra Sacramentum Joh. 6. 50 51 53 54. doth save and the Covenant whosoever believes in Christ shall be saved passes the estate effectually to a believer though it be never sealed sacramentally so a Will
sale the most precious jewel Jesus Christ Luke 22. 3. 3. Of this sinne he went breeding and came full Matth. 26. 16. of it to the Passeover This he had premeditated and with this he was prepossest and with no better preparation comes to the Sacrament to which he came not to repent of his sinne but to cover it So some men Use Religion and his successe was according for what he was conceived with before now is quicken'd After the sop Satan entered into him Joh. 13. 27. 4. He goes from the Sacrament full of Satan and within few hours sels that bloud which should have been sprinkled on his door-posts § 6 This is a fearfull example to all that after such a president dare venture upon a Sacrament to which they come with purpose to go on in those sinnes they bring to it as he did whether covetousness as his was or luxury drunkenness loosness of life fraud rapine ungodly callings unjust Use of their callings c. they think to receive Christ in the Sacrament and Satan receives them for you must know That as Christ is presented in the Sacrament so Satan is present at it to enter in after the morsel being first by the morsel sealed to be his Sins of purpose and resolution are the key that opens the door for his entrance do not look at Judas his particular sinne of selling his Master that was not yet but look at his purpose and resolution to commit the sinne for that was now even at the Sacrament that was it that set open the door to the Devil and such a purpose to continue in your sinnes will do the like office for Satan in you as in him that is hold the door open The Devil had put it into Judas heart Joh. 13. 2. and after the Supper he enter'd into him vers 27. It 's true the best of us bring sinne and corruption in us and with us to the Lords Table it 's well if it be sour herbs to this Passeover but it must not be unleavened bread sweet sinnes we may come with sour sinnes but not with sweet The Apostles as Luke relates Chap. 22. 24. had some ambition and desire of greatness in them which even now began to peep up and our Saviour checks it and they also freshly come from the Lords Table shewed infirmity they could not pray with him they all ranne away from him after denied him What alas so soon after the Sacrament We learn this excellent lesson to bewail our corruptions that bubble up in us even while we are at the Table and those in us which still appear in us when we are newly gone from it But there is great difference between their sins and Judasses they thought of some preferment under Christ and he made a preferment of him He like a false souldier forsook his colours and fled to the other side They were routed and ranne away with intent to return again for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His was an old fire that had long lien in him and been fed by him Theirs were some sparklings that sparkled and soon went out His was premeditated and purposed sin theirs upon the sudden temptation They were imperfectly good he was perfectly evil as was said of Simon Magus Act. 8 2â— Thou art in the gall of bitternesse not there is some gall of bitternesse in thee I have said this and laid open Judas to affright men not from the Supper but unto preparation or self-examination And so let him come saith the Text. I will wash mine hands in innocency and so will I compasse thine Altar Psal â—6 6. For when or where do ye read such an expression as vers 29. He that eats and drinks unworthily eats damnation drinks damnation to himself It puts me in minde of a comparison of Chrysostoms in his Sermon de proditione Judae As corporal food finding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stomack possest with ferment vitious humours doth more hurt than good and incReases the disease not of it's own nature but by fault of the stomack So this Sacrament received by wicked men aggravates their condemnation not of it self but through their unrepented sins Obs 3 The same night in which he was betrayed the Lord Jesus did both institute and celebrate this Sacrament The concurrent testimony of the Evangelists and of Paul in this Text asserts it as the first Passeover in Aegypt was eaten in the night so was this Supper and as that was kept in after-times as a memorial of the destroying Angel his passing over the hoUses of Israel untill the death of Christ So this is kept as a memorial of the deliverance of the Church from eternal destruction by the death of Christ untill his second coming CHAP. V. Why Christ deferr'd the instituting of this Supper untill the night in which he was betrayed THat Christ could have ordained this Supper before this time there is no doubt but why he deferr'd it to this night in which he was betrayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in loc saith Chrysostom was not without some Reason and the Lord himself intimates as much Luke 22. 15. With desire I have desired to eat this Passeover with you before I suffer Which Reasons are divers and may be ordered to two heads 1. Why he instituted it at the close of the Supper for after Supper he took the Cup v. 24. 2. Why he instituted and celebrated it a few hours if hours before he was betrayed § 1 First Being ordained at or at the end of the Passeover and Supper annexed which some call coena justa Grotius or apolytica the dimissory Supper it must of necessity be at night for the Passeover was eaten at the beginning or fore-part of the night therefore Christ was necessitate legis adactus saith Peter Martyr moved by In locum necessity of the Law to do it in the night and after Supper as substituting it in the place and room of the Passeover as Paraeus which he first fulfilled and then abrogated it and he abrogated it as one that did not impugn it for it was an Ordinance of God and therefore he did not tear it down as some old hangings off the wall but he did fulfill it by Observing it and decently laid it in the grave by placing in its room the memorial of an infinitely greater and more largely extending mercy than the deliverance from Aegypt was So that when he whom that rosted and slain Lamb did type out was as the true Passeover slain and sacrificed then it was time the body being present to draw a curtain over the picture and in stead of that commemoration Used at the Passeover when they broke the bread and distributed it saying This is the bread of affliction which our Fathers suffered in Aegypt to put a new memorial upon it This is my body broken for you This is my bloud shed for you and as that continued in the Church till the body came which that
the winde blow and seasonably antidotes the hearts before the bitter cup that they may stand fast though for fear they runaway 5. That when we iterate this Sacrament our hearts may be prickt with remembrance of this dismal night Chrysost in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostom that he might exceedingly prick us for a wounded heart is a good preparative to the receiving of a wounded Saviour He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities Isa 53. 5. Let a man survey this night how his blessed Saviour was for him betray'd into the hands of bloudy men This right he was plunged into most dolefull sorrows He was amazed and loaden with grief exceeding sorrowfull in a wofull agony sweating like drops of bloud running down to the ground without any comfort from any man his chief Disciples could not pray with him all fled and ran away from him betray'd by one of his own denied by another sending forth loud cries and tears God smit the Shepherd scatter'd the flock an Angel from heaven strengthening him an Angel that had not the benefit of Redemption by him but not a man for whose Redemption this was Oh the dark eclypse that now seized on this Sunne of righteousness Who can express the anguish and dolour of this night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though he was a very stone saith Chrysostom it would melt him wound him Therefore I exhort you all when you come to this Sacrament bring this night with you bring this night with you in which he was betray'd It is a night of Observation to be remembred as was said of the first Passeover in Aegypt Exod. 12. 42. so it may be said of the night of this first Supper read read again or get some body to read to you this History related by Matthew or St Luke and water your meditations with sorrowfull tears not as he that wept when he read the History of Dido in the Poet out of an imaginary compassion but as beholding in this glass both your sins and your redemption This do in remembrance of him CHAP. VI. Of the outwards of this Ordinance of the Supper 1 COR. 11. 23 24 25. He took bread and when he had given thanks c. § 1 IN the Sacrament of Baptism there is but one outward element water in this of the Supper two bread and wine which though they distinctly signifie the one the body the other the bloud of Christ yet becaUse they set forth one nourishment of the body by bread and drink of the soul by the body and bloud of Christ and make but one commemoration of Christ and his death This do in remembrance of me vers 24. Drink it in remembrance of me vers 25. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lords death vers 26. Therefore as several dishes are but one Supper so these several signs are the parts of one Sacrament To avoid tautology and coincidency I mean to open the parts distinctly and yet to take together element with element rule with rule action with action as fitly yoked together joyntly and so be as soon at the end of the one as of the other which course of handling that word in Luke 22. 20. whom of all the Evangelists Paul doth nearliest agree with and vers 25. of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Likewise or After the same manner points me unto and if there be any word in the three Evangelists that write the History of the institution whereof one that is Matthew was present at the action that may serve for the beautifying or clearing of any point as we go along we shall take it also into the contexture of our Discourse The Method and order is to handle 1. The outward Ordinance of this Supper 2. The inward thing signified or represented 3. The mandate or command Do this 4. The end For remembrance of me § 2 The outward Ordinance is properly called the Sacrament the inward kernel or thing signified is called Res Sacramenti the thing of the Sacrament for the Sacrament is the outward visible sign and therefore it is very absurdly said of Bellarmine and other Lib. â— de Euch. cap. 24. Papists who have lest nothing but accidents and shadow of bread and wine that Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is the figure and remembrance of himself as if one should say that the King is the picture or image of himself for as Dr Whitaker Observes The De Sacram. pag. 616. body and bloud of Christ is no Sacrament but the thing it self whereof the Sacrament is taken As the contract is no ring but that whereof the ring is a pledge The Covenant is no Seal but that whereof the Seal is though in vulgar speech when we take the Sacrament and the thing of the Sacrament in complexion we Use to say that the Sacrament consists of two parts Terrena and coelesti as Irenaeus saith an earthly Iren. l. 4. c. 34. Whitak de Sacram. 626. and a heavenly an outward and an inward a visible and an invisible Ut duae naturae in Christo. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper or the outward Ordinance consists 1. Of materials or elements bread and wine 2. Of rituals or actions about those elements and they are 1. The Rites Used by Christ or some other in his name He took bread he blessed c. 2. The Actions of the Communicants They take and eat they take and drink And so ye have a Sacrament consisting of several elements and sundry outward rites and actions all concurring to the essence or integrity of this Sacrament §. 3. Of the Elements Bread and Wine § 3 I begin with the Elements and they are 1. Two viz. Bread and Wine Our Melchisedech entertains the children of Abraham as that Melchisedech did Abraham himself Gen. 18. â—8 He brought forth to him bread and wine Christ did not take these two by accident becaUse he found them then on the Table but by choice and election for their Use in signifying The old Church of Israel had a Table-Sacrament the Passeover and Christ will have the Gospel-Church to have a Table-Sacrament too this Supper but as before Christ their Sacrifices and Sacraments were all bloudy So when Christ the substance of all Sacrifices and Sacraments hath suffer'd the Sacraments of the Gospel and Sacrifices are unbloudy Many Divines shew the conveniency of Bread and Wine to be the materials of this Sacrament Vide J nsen Harm p. 626. and some with too much fancy The representation of his Body broken and of his Blood shed The participation of his Body and Blood for soul-strength and soul-refreshment could not be better shadowed forth than by the staff of Bread and chearfull Wine which as they are the most common so the most necessary and prime materials that are Used at our tables answering both our appetites of hunger and thirst weakness is strengthened by bread
faintness cherisht by wine the faint and feeble soul by Christ Famine and thirst are importunate things no delights of the eye no Musick to the ear can satisfie them Violent desires towards Christ are not to be excUsed but praised For his Flesh is meat indeed his Blood is drink indeed Joh. 6. 55. 2. Bread and Wine severally and asunder to set forth his death wherein Corpus a sanguine separatum fuit saith Jansenius his Body and his Blood Harm 896. was sundred The Papists as to their Priests and some Kings or Princes will allow bread and wine but as to the common people bread or wine they say by concomitancy the blood is in the bread virtually and so they shut up the wounds of Christ by their dry Mass But Christ would represent himself here not as a Lamb but a Lamb sacrificed and slain and therefore the blood is severed from the body as the money is not a prisoners ransom while it lies in the chest but when it 's paid So the blood of Christ as shed is our ransom As Israel in the wilderness had a type of Christ Manna which they did eat and the rock also of which they drank so have we the memorials of his body and blood that we may eat and drink And which is the summe of all that may be said on this point since the Lord was pleased even under the Gospel to continue that old way of Fellowship and Communion with his Church by entertaining them at his own Table upon his own chear in an Ordinance of eating and drinking as he alwaies allowed the Israelites to feast with him upon the remainders of the Sacrifices in token of followship and the very Heathens did by feasting on their Sacrifices testifie their fellowship with their Idols as is plain 1 Cor. 10. 18 19 20. I see not how more fit materials could be Used then Bread and Wine which as they best stand with the simplicity of the Gospel so they are the most common and necessary attendants in all feasts and do both together set forth that full and perfect nourishment which we finde in Christ As for that I finde in Cyprian and from him in Cyp. Epist 76. Aug. Tract in Jo. cap. 6. 26. August and after both in most Divines That as one bread is made of many grains and one cup of wine of many grapes so the Church is one Body of many Members whose Communion and Fellowship is here professed testified and signified by their participation of one Bread and of one Cup The allusion is proper and not unlike that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 17. We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread And this union of members was anciently professed with all dearness of love and affection in the Use of this Ordinance and they delighted to express their division and separation from all the world their combination and concorporation among themselves by all entercourses of love and dearness that could be their Feasts of Love their Kiss mentioned in Scripture and ancient Authours are hereof great witnesses But what shall those places or Countries do that have no bread of corn no fruit of the vine I confess that though God said in the Passeover a Lamb Exod. 12. 5. or Kid yet Christ expresses nothing there of other materials and therefore in case of extream necessity where the proper Elements cannot be had they must either be without the Ordinance or celebrate in that which is Analogicall and which passes for bread with them or wine with them which it's better say some to do than wholly to be deprived Moulin Buckler pag. 531. Beza Epist 2. but this Eclipse is not likely to be seen in our Horison therefore I shall not further discuss it §. 4. The Rites or Actions about the Sacrament § 4 So much of the Elements Bread and Wine Now I proceed to the Rites or Actions and first them of Christs using in which you are to Use your eye as in the Word preached God speaks to your ear so here he speaks to your eye The Sacrament is a visible Word and therefore I hold it requisite that the Communicant be within sight of the Elements and Actions that he may see the bread and the wine Taken Blessed Broken Poured forth and not in corners and holes whence he hath not the actions under command of his eye Not that I deny but a blinde man may receive the Sacrament but that all means of spirituall impression must be Used Behold saith Moses the blood of the Covenant Exod. 24. 8. The first Action of Christ is He took bread likewife after supper the cup so Paul so Luke He took the bread he took the cup so Matthew and Mark of the two Elements the Bread is first taken both by Christ and by the Communicant This order is to be held by the consent of all the four Writers And of Christs Action let us Note 1. That Christ took the Bread into his hands he took the Cup into his hands Observing the rite and custom then Used and gave thanks over the Bread holding it in his hands and so over the Cup having it in his hands This is the first step towards the separating and setting apart the Elements he took them in his hand see there was a solemn rite that the pater familias did Use to take into his hands and bless these principall parts of the meal or feast The taking of the Lamb was the first action towards the Paschall Exod. 12. 2 5 21. 2. That Christ took and blest the Bread and the Cup severally one after the other He took Bread and blest and pronounced This is my Body Afterwards he took the Cup and blest and pronounced This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood The Evangelists Matthew and Mark express it Luke and Paul likewise confirm it and if there were nothing else the very rule and usage amongst the Jewes to blesse them severally would prove it to us 3. But whether there was any intervall of time between his taking and blessing the Bread and the Wine is a harder knot Matthew and Mark say As they were eating or as they did eat he took Bread Luke and Paul say After they had supped he took the Cup This seems to plead for some intervall of time Videtur saith Calvin in 1 Cer. 11. 25. In Mar. 14. 22. Beza and yet if Matthew and Mark be viewed alone the Action seems to be continued What wedge must be Used for this knot Beza hints that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be variously translated When they had eaten but I shall not grant Beza his Interpretation but hold to our own and appeal to the rule or custom then received amongst the Jews to decide the Controversie for if those words As they were eating be all one with those of Paul After they had supped then how doth Paul and Luke so frequently and
emphatically apply them to the Cup which may by that interpretation be said of the Bread also The rise Gretius in Matth. 26. 26. was that while they were eating not the Passeover Lamb for so all that Christ did was after supper but the post coenam or after supper the second course and toward the end thereof the Master took bread and blest and brake it and distributed it with a signification of the bread of affliction in Egypt then at the very close and after all eating the Cup was taken and blest what intervall of time went between I know not Non constat saith Calvin whether Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. 25. the Action was continued but I beleeve the Bread was eaten before the Cup was blest or taken and Christ that instituted no new Rites but set a Hugh Broughtâ—â— new superscription on the old mettall imitated this custom and took and blest the Bread while they were yet eating and took and blest the Cup at the close after all and so all are agreed And here let me shew you a Reason why the Churches now are not bound to consecrate and distribute the Bread before they consecrate the Wine as it was in Christs Supper becaUse the Rite was so at that time and the thing being meerly occasionall is not obligatory but indifferent We pronounce the words of signification This is my Body This Cup is c. severally but we do not distribute the Bread before we bless the Wine that Christ did occasionally to the Rite 4. The Bread which Christ took into his hands was such as was obvious and ordinary on the Table at that time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Matthew signanter some Cameron in Mycoth Matth. 26. peculiar Bread designed and prepared for that Use doubtless unleavened according to Law and custom and yet the Greek Church stiffly holds to leaven'd bread on opinion that Christ kept his last Passeover on the 13th day of the moneth one day before the time by Law prefixed for leaven to commence and of this opinion for the day is a late Learned Writer in his answer to six Queries who also holds that Christ and his Disciples at this time did eat no Lamb but kept only the usuall post coenum or after-supper As to the time I assent not and therefore hold the bread unleavened in which the Romanist celebrates the Supper and Calvin would not contend in so slight a matter against the same custom Used in Geneva nor do we make it any matter of moment but bless such as the Table doth afford being pure and wholsom as the Use requires The Cup which Christ took hath this mark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—os Hallel was a Cup after they had supped and that was the Cup of the Hallell or of the Hymn the last Cup which Used very solemnly to be blest this mark after supper differences it from that Cup Luke 22. 17. He took the cup and gave thanks and said Take this and divide it among your selves This is not the Cup which Christ took into his Supper for that comes after ver 20. There were divers Cups solemnly blest and given round at this Passeover feast three or four therefore this which Christ took in is the very last after which they eat and drunk no more that time And the last Cup was even among the Heathens counted solemn and sacred in honorem Grotius in Matth. 26. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in honour of their good Genius c. §. 5. Of Christ his Consecration or Blessing of the Elements § 5 The second Rite or Action Used by Christ was giving thanks He took Bread and giving thanks he brake likewise also the Cup. He took the Bread and blessed Matth. 26. 16. Mark 14. 22. He took Bread and gave thanks Luk. 22 19. and St Paul here Two of them say of the Bread He blessed Two of them say of the same Bread He gave thanks They all say of the Cup He gave thanks and yet in another place 1 Cor. 10. 6. The Cup of blessing which we bless what can be more plainly infer'd hence then that these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in this business of one signification and effect as in Mark 8. 6 7. He gave thanks and brake the bread or loaves the fishes he blest Shall we be so trivially curious as to seek criticisms in a thing so plain Not only our Divines but Romanists also consent he blest the Bread by thanksgiving and prayer over it He prayd God he blest God or he gave God thanks and thereby blest the Bread and Wine therefore it is said The Cup of blessing which we bless apply the one of these words to God he gave him thanks the other to the Bread as Paraeus and others all comes to one the Bread and the Cup were blest by Prayer and In loc Jansen Harm p. 96. Thanksgiving Thus the Jew in his form blessed his Bread and Cup by blessing God that created the fruit of the earth and of the vine and these two words in Greek expresse but that one in the Hebrew Barak as Maldonate and Paraeus note and this blessing is that we call Consecration or Sanctification by which the Elements are set apart to holy Use and segregated from common or prophane For the further clearing of which First That Christ whether at miraculous meals Calvin in loc P. Martyr in locum Mark 6. 41. or at common sittings down with his Disciples Luke 24. 30. Matth. 14 19. alwayes gave thanks and blessed the bread Let his holy example be a command to us The Jew held his meat prophane untill he had blest it He had a form of Religion beyond most of us therefore the Apostle Useth the word It 's sanctified It 's sanctified or made legitimate unto us by the Word that warrants it and prayer that blesseth it 1 Tim. 4. 5. For shame either learn of Christ or of the Jew mock not God with pulling a hat over your face but give thanks and blesse Secondly We finde no form of words Used by Christ in this Consecration or Blessing none of the Evangelists tell us what words he Used but they expresse the action in the same words of ordinary grace at meals He gave thanks he blessed in what words Estius in loc it is not reported to us He prayed saith Estius that the Bread and Wine might be turned into his very body and bloud So he imagines But who told him so No Scripture nor ancient Father The Jewish form of words is known in their Rituals Rara benedictio saith Scaliger without these solemn words Blessed be thou O Lord that hast sanctified us by thy commands and given us a charge concerning such or such a thing In Reason Christ did accomode his blessing to the occasion praising God for his Redemption of man-kinde and for the coming of his Kingdom for his new Testament or Covenant and
of Christs sanctifying or blessing them is not any change or alteration of the Elements themselves but of their Use and office The change is relative not inherent Panis certa conservatione Com. Faust l. 20. c. 13. Apol. 2. fit mysticus saith Austin now the bread is not common bread saith Justin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The bread when it doth percipere vocationem Dei saith Irenaeus then it is not common bread but the Lib. 4. c. 34. l. 5 c. 4. Eucharist of the body and bloud of Christ If the bread should be changed in substance what argument could the ancient Fathers have found thence to prove against Marcion that Christ had not a phantastical Iren l. 5 c. 4. and aiery body And how again could they every where allude thus that the Divine Nature of Christ did not destroy the humane As the symbolical Nature of the Elements destroyes not the substantial and natural being The water of Baptism is water still The Rock that was Christ was a Rock still The Serpent on the Pole was brasse still The great Seal that conveys a great Estate is Wax still The Use the office the relation of these sacramental mysteries is high and admirable and becaUse the spiritual signification and Use is so admirable therefore the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exceeding rhetorically and hyperbolically do speak of them to awaken and quicken and cheer up the spirits of people to look upon and Use them in their symbolical Use as instruments and exhibitive conveyances of Christ to our faith Bellarmine triumphs in one word of Cyprian de Coena Lib. 2. de Euch. cap. 9. Panis non effigie sed natura mutatus nullam admittit solutionem a crack of vanity That piece is later then Cyprian but if his by sinne of first parents natura humana humane nature was changed saith Austin Aug. de cin lib. 14. c. 12. and when a man is regenerated his nature is changed say we how not his flesh his body but quality c. Naturam expellas furcâ licet what 's that but Vide Forbes Epist Theol. p. 537. quality or custome not substance The holinesse of any thing sanctified to God infers a change of Use and relation but not of substance consecrations of times persons places things may appropriate them to holy Use and ends and there is accordingly an esteem or reverence of such things so set apart but the substance of the things is as it was for consecration is not a Philosophers-stone holy things may be spent in their Use as the Sacrifices of old the Paschal Lamb the bread and wine in the Supper but the sanctifying of them to that Use doth not first change them into the thing signified and so destroy the sign and signification as the relation is destroyed sublato fundamento Every Papist is bound to have the faith of miracles for the miracle of turning stones into bread is nothing so great as this of turning bread into Christs body Maldonate hath a story that in his dayes there was a book came forth De Arte nihil credendi and that there was but one true saying in it which was this He that will be an Atheist let him first be a Calvinist and if there had been in that book He that will believe any thing let him first be a Papist there had been another or rather one true saying indeed §. 8. Of Christs Action of Breaking the Bread § 8 Thirdly The next Rite or action of Christ He brake it and so say all the three Evangelists and he said as here it follows This is my body broken for you and concerning his bloud both Matthew and Luke say thus This is my bloud which is shed for you which as some say was in the parallel the Cup represented correspondent to the breaking of the bread by the Morton in loc pouring forth of the wine out of some greater vessel into the Cup and so the bread is broken the wine is poured out as the body of Christ was crucified and his bloud shed Upon this Action we shall for memory sake speak of these particulars 1. That from hence the Eucharist or Lords Supper hath been called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The breaking of bread as the phrase Acts 2. 42 Acts 20. 7. have been interpreted So Paul 1 Cor. 10. 16. The bread which we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ Thus some love to speak in our dayes calling I wish it be not out of singularity this Sacrament The breaking of bread which as it is by Synecdoche of the part for the whole so it was Used by the Hebrews of any common feast or meal when they did eat together and is applied to this Sacrament but at second hand They began all their solemn meals with blessing and breaking of bread and their feasting was called eating of bread Gen. â—â— 25. a form of Casaub Exerc. 16 p. â— 339. Beza in Act. 2. 42. 46. speech new and insolent to Greek and Latine ears who called their feasts by the other element 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or convivia drinkings together 2. Christ at all other meals where he was Master of the meal and blest did also break the bread for he that pray'd the blessing was by the Jews called Giodw in Antiq Jewish in the Passeover ex Drusio Habbotseang the breaker at his meal-meals and at other he blest and brake but in this Paschal Postcaenium or Supper to which you must still have your eye the usual Rite was That he that blest broke the Grot. in Mat. 26. Scult de emend l. 6. p. 536 bread into parts to be distributed to the guests or sitters and the pieces were about the bigness of an Olive Morton in loc Martyr in loc Beza in Act. 2. saith Scaliger He that brake did eat one and the rest were communicated for their bread at this time was not as learned men say great and thick loaves but 42. Steph. Glossa Mat. 26. broad and thin instar placentae like your Cakes here in England If they were thick as ours then may the knife Leviter scindere non Obscindere and so be broken 3. The Churches of God do many of them hold this Ceremony of breaking of the bread and it ought to be holden Our Churches saith Paraeus do Par. in loc rightly Observe it And in all our Churches saith Chamier we Use it And it hath a command Do this Chamier De Euchar. lib. 7. c. 11. Piscat in loc Paraeas â—â— 1 Cor. 11. contro 2 sed non integram saith Piscator And therefore it is not a diaphorous or indifferent And there is a Dissertation in Paraeus fully debating the point in which he doth not say The Sacrament is null without it nor doth Beza say so Epist 2. Nor yet that it is meerly indifferent and left to choice but Usefull and requisite he holds it for
good ends and significations as I shall shew and he affirms That it continued in the Church and was Used for a thousand years after Christ But the Papists as sacrilegious they steal away the Cup from the people So they Use the Bread superstitiously making their Host into pines nummularios little round wafers like our money and put them whole into the mouths of the Communicants For saith the learned Jansenius The Church viz. of Rome doth laudably Harm 895. Observe that the Eucharist be toucht only by sacred hands viz. the Priests As for Christ saith he Promore fecit he followed the Custom or Rite at that time 4. This Bread was broken and Wine poured forth Calvin in loc P. Martyr in locum Beza in loc 1. For the more lively representation of the death and grievous sufferings of our Lord for though a bone of him was not broken nor his body properly yet the Apostle cals it broken in regard of those wounds and pains and torments which brought forth a violent death and all this for us As the corn is not grinded or baked nor the bread cut or broken but for us that the breaking of his body might break our hearts and his flowing bloud shed our tears for it is the highest representation of death the bread broken and wine poured forth and is Usefully Observed to raise up such affections as the sight of a dying Christ may work even in a heart of stone as Chrysostom said before 2. It was broken for distribution sake for in Hebrew speech to break bread to the hungry is to distribute it Lam. 4. 4 and this hath another meaning in it and sets forth the communion and fellowship of the Church all partaking of one Christ and feeding on him and his death unto eternal life 1 Cor. 10. 17. We being many are one bread We are one body and of one holy fellowship and communion For we are all partakers of that one bread for Christ is that common center in whom we meet and by union with him we have communion with one another and thus the signification is lively one bread broken and divided amongst many Communicants who are one is one Christ given wholly to every believer and all believers one in Christ This brotherhood was observed and noted for their mutual love in those times when their profession of Christ distinguisht them from all the Heathens about them and when they were inclosed round by Observing and cruel men that envied and hated them to death now that heat is diffUsed and not so concenter'd by the antiperistasis and so is not so warm we stand in need of persecution to make us love one another §. 9. Of the Manner of Christs giving the Bread and the Wine § 9 Fourthly The fourth Rite or Action of Christ He gave it to his Disciples which in this place you finde not but in the implication of the word Accipite Take ye but all the three Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke expresly say He gave to the Disciples He gave to them for the word Disciple I leave it a while and only speak of the Action He gave that the Disciples received the bread and wine from Christ into their hands and not put by him into their mouths I make no Question as I shall touch afterward Nor do I doubt but they received them from his hand for he blessed and brake and reached them forth to them and so the people may be said to receive them from the hand of the Minister that consecrates either mediately or immediately which may be the true meaning of that speech of Tertullian Nec de aliorum manu De Corona quam praesidentium sumimus nor we take them saith he from the hands of others but of our Presidents or Ministers but the clear Question will be Whether Christ did with his own hand give to every particular person into his hand the bread and the cup And Whether there were any words spoken particularly to every one in the delivery of them as for instance Take thou Eat thou Drink thou For the first Whether Christ did with his own hand deliver the bread and cup into the hand of every particular Communicant viz. immediately We must look still to the rite or custome Used in the Paschal Supper and if we consider that well we shall see it probable that the Pater-familias did not rise from his discumbency or posture of lying to go to every particular person or that every one came to his hand for there might be twenty at the Table and not all within the reach of his hand nor do we finde that Christ rose up nor that they rose up to receive them He said Take ye eat ye Drink all of it and though he might give the Cup to the next into his hand yet his speech is general to them all and so the bread and the cup past in the Postcaenium or Paschal Supper Maldonate saith He reacht out the Maldona in Mat. 26. 26. bread sigillatim but the cup he gave to the next and he to the next for he saith Luk 21. 17. Take this and divide it among your selves wherein though he De emend l. 6. Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. be mistaken in the cup as not being the same with ours ut supra yet the rite and manner of distribution is very like to be the same in both So Scaliger that the Master first delivered the cup to the second the second to the next till it had past through the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Table and Jansenius saith That he Jans Harm p. 895. gave to each particular his part Aut patinam tradidit propinquioribus or gave the plate or dish with broken bread in it to them that sate nearest and then successively and in order it passed along As also saith he he delivered the Cup so that every Communicant had his part from the hand of Christ either immediatly or mediatly As for after times and not long after that of Justin Martyr is express that when the Ministers had blessed the Deacons did carry it and deliver it to the severall Communicants and did either put each part into each persons hand or as I finde in Clem. Alex and. Strom. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the distributers do suffer or permit each person to take his part of the bread There might be different Rites in severall Churches as to this point and of no great moment one way or other but for all the Communicants sitting down at the very Table by companies and their sitting and receiving the Elements I finde not in my simple reading in Antiquity when Communicants grew numerous and met in one common place to perform Divine Offices but so did Christ and all other Paschall societies which eat in chambers and hoUses and as I shewed you before were not under ten nor above twenty of a company Let then the Lords and his Disciples sitting at the same
it were a knife set in the Text to cut that intricate knot that makes such a garboyle in the Text when you take and eat by faith then is the Body and Blood of Christ present to you but not latent and hidden in the Bread or Cup The union of Christ is not otherwise with the Bread then as the thing signified with the sign but it is with the Communicant the Hooker Eccles Polit. p. 359. believer really though spiritually the sacramental signs do exhibit Christ but not contain him under them they contain not the grace which God bestows with or by them §. 12. Of Spurious Rites and Gestures § 12 So have I opened to you the outward Elements the outward Rites or Actions of this Sacrament whether those of Christ or of the Communicant and these are genuine and proper by which the Sacrament is sutable to the Institution as for other Rites which time or superstition have introduced without example or command they are adulterine and spurious especially the adoration of the Eucharist upon opinion of the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and bloud of Christ which whether it be performed at the elevation or lifting up of the host by the Priest in the Masse or at the circumgestation or carrying it up and down in procession in the streets as is usual in Popish countreys is no better then abominable Idolatry even by their own confession For Costerus saith That the bread-worship was the greatest Idolatry that ever was in the world If the bread be not turned into the true and natural body of Christ as saith a learned man Dr J. Burgesse Lawf of kneeling p. 113. upon my soul it is not and if the perswasion of Christs real presence in the Eucharist will by no means excUse their adoration from Idolatry much lesse excusable is any Protestant who is perswaded of the contrary As for other circumstances of the action as the time viz. at night in the close of the Paschal Supper the place an upper-room or chamber Mark 14. 15. The guest twelve in number Matth. 26. 20. The gesture which was discubiture or lying on couch-beds fitted to the Table which the Jews were at the Passeover by custom fixed unto as appears by the ritual In other Scaliger lib. 6. De emend pag. 534. nights we sit or lie on couches but in this we lie along These I say are moveables and not of the freehold of this Ordinance Nor shall I say any thing of the D. Burgess ubi supra p. 112. gesture which as it was Used in England hath been an apple of contention and much written pro and con The Reformed Churches vary some sit at some about the Table some receive this Sacrament passing by the Table in order as in a Marah as in the Reformed Churches in France and I condemn them not and for those Divines of the Reformed Churches that disliked our gesture Used here in England they did not many of them pronounce it simply unlawfull but inconvenient becaUse it was a gesture of adoration and did not serve to pull the bread worship out of mens mindes nor was so sutable to this Ordinance which is a Table Ordinance nor to set forth that fellowship and communion which is exprest in eating and drinking with our Lord these were their Reasons and I do not know that I have any occasion to debate the point but to leave it determinable by the Churches of God as may be most sutable to the Decorum and nature of this Ordinance for if I should some of you might haply say that I made a Funeral-sermon for meeting at Sacrament Having laid open the parts of this Supper let us upon the whole matter stand still a little and make Observation CHAP. VII Some Observations upon the precedent Discourses § 1 NOte here the simplicity of this high and excellent Ordinance the feast is drest out in plainness and simplicity answerable to the simplicity of the Gospel as the Apostle cals it 2 Cor. 11. 2. Here is no outward pomp or ostentation no stateliness to take the eye for as gaudy attire becomes not mourning so this Sacrament setting forth the passion and sufferings the death and bloudshed of our Lord had not been sutable to him in his lowest estate and darkest eclipse if it should have shined in outward lustre It was Tertullians Observation Nihil obdurat c. nothing Lib. de baptisme so hardens the mindes of men as the simplicity of the works and yet the magnificence of the promise that great and glorious things should be found under so plain a dresse as a rich diamond in a plain case to the end that the eye of faith might be more exercised then the eye of the body and that the spiritual and inward part might be looked after and intended Is not this the Carpenters sonne was a great stumbling block and so may the simplicity of the two Sacraments be to us The Temple Utensils and Service were rich and stately Christ was prefigured in golden Types But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 17. But we have a better Covenant and better Promises Heb. 8. 6. And if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remains exceeds in glory 2 Cor. 3. 7 8 9 10 11 c. but that was an outward this an inward glory that was in Moses face this in the face of Christ that the carnal Jew might see this the spiritual Christian seeth We saw his glory Joh. 1. 14. or rather there the glory was veiled But we with open face behold the glory of the Lord 1 Cor. 3. 13 18. The glory of their Ordinance was a stumbling block to them for they rested in the cabinet and looked not for the jewels The meannesse of our Ordinances are a stumbling block to us for we look not for the tReasure in such earthen vessels God doth great things by poorest meanes Jericho's wals fall at the sound of Rams-horns the fiery sting is healed by a piece of brasse the sight restored to the blinde by the Use of spittle and clay The figure in this Sacrament is poor the thing signified heavenly and rich the Seal is mean the inheritance or estate is great but why were the types so rich and our memorials so poor You know Spectacles are for divers sights they had finer Spectacles we better eyes They had lesse spirit stirring in the Ordinances then than we now if their Tree had more shadow we have more fruit § 2 Secondly Take along with you alwayes the Analogy proportion and similitude between a Sacrament and the thing of a Sacrament between the signe and the thing signified It 's Austin his Rule If Epist 23. alâ—bi a Sacrament should not have similitude and resemblance with that whereof it is a Sacrament it should not be a Sacrament and from this similitude or resemblance it is that the signe is called by the name of
the thing signified as the bread Christs body the wine is called Christs bloud The Rock was Christ Circumcision called the Covenant The Lamb called the Passeover and in common speech When we look on a Picture we say This is Casar this is Augustus this is Hercules nothing more ordinary In the Sacrament this similitude is a similitude of proportionality saith Bonaventure consisting of four termes You are most of you Arithmeticians and you have a golden Rule called The Rule of Three becaUse three terms being given the fourth is given and this sets forth to you the Analogy of a Sacrament in four termes As water in Baptisme washes the body so the Spirit by his grace or the bloud of Christ cleanseth the soul As the bread and wine nourish and refresh the body so the body and bloud of Christ nourisheth and refresheth the soul As by the hand we take and with our mouth we eat and drink the bread and wine so by faith we receive the body and bloud of Jesus Christ If you destroy the similitude you destroy the Sacrament as the Papists do by their Transubstantiation for they destroy the Analogy Thus the accidents of Bread and Wine or the Species doe not nourish the Body say we Nor the very Body and Bloud of Christ doth not passe into bodily nourishment say they for it was horrible to imagine it therefore there is no resemblance the similitude is destroyed and so the Sacrament § 3 Thirdly It is a most true most firm and golden Rule That a Sacrament out of the Use appointed Chamiâ—r de Luchar l. 7. c. 4. §. 11. l. 8. c. 3 Forbes Hist. Theol p. 550. by God hath not the nature of nor is any more a Sacrament It is not a Sacrament extra usum out of the actual Use There must not onely be Bread and Wine but Blessing and Taking and Eating and Drinking or else to us there is no Sacrament The Bread and Wine upon the Table are no Sacrament but the eating and drinking of Bread and Wine As in Baptism the water is no Sacrament but the washing with water is The Papists confesse this of every Sacrament and of Baptism but not of the Lords Supper which for Transubstantiation-sake which troubles the whole Scaene they hold to be a perfect Sacrament by consecration whether it be received by the Communicant yea or no and this is the Doctrine of their Schoolmen and Aquin. part 3. Qu. 80. aliis Scholasticis all others of their confession We appeal to the Text Take Eat This is my body It 's so being taken and eaten and not otherwise The remains of Bread and Wine are no Sacrament it is the Use which gives the Reason and nature of a Sacrament and when and where the Use is not the Sacrament is not It 's true in our vulgar speech we call it the Sacrament as on the Table as the beast might be called a Sacrifice before it was slain being destin'd and appointed thereunto 1 Sam. 13. 9 Whitak deâ— acram p 621 624 c. as Whitaker saith but it is no Sacrifice till slain and offer'd nor was the Lamb a Passeover but as it was eaten and rosted so a meer stone is a stone wheresoever it be but not a boundary but in the Use and an earnest is money but not an earnest except taken upon agreement Bread and Wine are Elements but not a Sacrament till all the Rites and Actions be Observed which God hath appointed viz. in the participation and Use 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 18. The Cup of blessing and the bread are the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ being partaken and received not else There is some kinde of Argument urged against this Rule from the reservation of the Bread especially and of the Wine which is read of in Antiquity and that was either private reservation when the Communicant carried home the Bread and kept it in his chest for his private Use to eat of privately or else it was by the Ministers to give to lapsed Christians in time of extremity or sicknesse that were debarred of publick participation The first is mentioned Cypr. de lapsis by ancient Authours and by some commended as Ambrose de obitu Satyr Nazian Epitaph pro sor This is excUsed by Jewell against Harding As in time Forbes Hist. Theol. p. 553. Col. 1. of persecution when Christians might be deprived of the publick Ordinance and by others on other grounds Burgess of knealing The other hath one onely example in true Antiquity and that is Serapions case EUseb Histor lib. 6. cap. 34. and is excUsed by Chemnitius as if Chem. de coena Examen p. 93. it was to oppose the Novatian opinion of not restoring the lapsed though penitent unto the Communion of the Sacrament Of both these I see no clear warrant in the Institution of Christ and therefore say with Cyprian Non quod aliquis ante nos c. We are not to look what any hath done before us but what he did and commanded that was before all even Jesus Christ § 4 Fourthly It is the peoples right to receive the Cup as well as the Bread Drink ye all of it Matth. 26. 27. Moulin Buckler p. 529. They all drank of it Mark 14. 23. As often as ye eat this bread and drink of this Cup saith Paul 1 Cor. 11. 26. Nothing more plain and yet whether it be the ambition of the Priests that would exalt themselves above the people or whether it be the fruit of Transubstantiation or both this Cup is taken from the people in the Romane Churches but it was not taken away by publick Decree till the Council of Constance Anno 1416. since which time there was great petitioning to the Council of Trent for the Cup but Chem. Exam. de coena p. 134 135. Concil Trid. Sess 6. they referr'd it to the Pope in whose hands it lies and it seems will lie till God put another cup into his hand to drink And so you see that that Council of Constance that burnt John Husse and Jerome did let out the bloud of good Christians and shut up the bloud of Christ from them I conclude Let us follow that which is simplest and purest according to Christs Institution and neither superstitiously reserve nor impiously mutilate the holy Ordinance CHAP. VIII Of the Real Presence NOw I draw on to the Anatomy of the viscera the entrails and inwards of this Ordinance under the outside whereof if you take off the cover you shall finde such cheer as never was in any other feast This is my body saith Christ which is broken for you saith Paul Which is given for you saith Mat. 26 26 27 28 Mark 14. 22 24. Luk. 22. 20. Luke This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud saith Paul Which is shed for you saith Luke Or as Matthew and Mark This is my bloud of the New Testament which is
shed for many for remission of sinnes saith Matthew which is shed for many saith Mark which is shed for you saith Luke And all these together are my Text at this time § 1 In this Sacrament Mirificè lusit Satan saith an excellent Authour Satan hath play'd his pranks and Chamier de Euchar. l. 6 c. 1. §. 1. tried conclusions upon Divines how he could infatuate aad make them mad such cart-loads of perplexities alterations absurdities and wilde fancies have they been possest with in the agitation of this point and discussion of these very words which as a Reverend D. Rainolds Medit. Divine saith truly are clear and easie to a spiritual ear or minde it is the carnal fancy that perplexes all and corrupts the Text which had been clear if the water had not been muddied with dirty hands so Nicodemus understands Christ carnally in matter of Joh. 3. Regeneration and talks of entring again into our mothers womb So the Disciples of Capernaum understand that excellent Doctrine of Christ John 6. about eating his flesh and drinking his bloud of the very Cannibal eating of mans flesh and bloud The very antidote he gave them would serve here John 6. 63. The words that I speak they are spirit and they are life that is their spiritual meaning is lively and if we could agree on this then we should give our Hooker l. 5. p. 359. selves more to meditate with silence what we have by this Sacrament and lesse dispute the manner how for this heavenly food is given for satisfying empty souls and not exercising our curious and subtil wits for it often comes to passe that curious sifting and disputing Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5. p. 364. too boldly chils all warmth of our zeal and brings soundnesse of belief into great hazzard § 2 The words have been and are interpreted in divers senses the most notable I have Observed to be five I Hooker speaking of Ancients lib. 5. pag. 362. say the most notable for there are more 1. That Christ is present in this Sacrament by his efficacy and power to realize and exhibit vertue to and by the Ordinance Nec ullo modo se absentat divina Majestas a Ministeriis Cyprian de Caena and other Ancients 2. That Christ his very body is present with or in or under the outward elements as the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran saith 3. That Christ is really present but modum nescimus we know not the manner how and in this dark some of our learned men spoke of late to what intent they best knew 4. That there is a real turning of the substance of Bread and Wine into the very substance of Christs Body and Bloud Thus the Papists or Transubstantiatists 5. That the Bread and Wine are sacramentally Christs Body and Bloud or the memorials thereof symbolically representing and exhibiting to the faithfull Christians himself and so say We. § 3 And yet all parties in their difference professe themselves clear and that they follow the true naked and literal sense in their judgement Chemnitius that learned Examen de Eucbar p. 65. Col. 1. Luther an professes That he imbraceth that sense which holds the true and substantial presence of Christ in the Supper which the words in their proper and genuine and usual signification hold forth The Papist professes That he hath the very plain letter of the words and the sense literal So farre as Lapide I know not whether with more confidence or impudence saith That if God ask him at the day of Judgement why he held so he will confidently say Tu docuisti Thou hast taught me We are as clear Vide Lee in Annot. in loc that we follow the true proper literal sense and that saith a learned man Upon my soul there is no such D. Jo. Burgesse Kneeling at Sacramâ—nt p. 113. turning of the Bread into Christs Body as the Papist affirms §. 4. This is my Body § 4 I shall open the words severally This is my Body about which there is the greatest heat and quarrel In the Rite of the Paschal Supper when the bread Cameron Myrothec in Mat. 26. Scaliger de Emend lib. 6. pag. 536. was given there was a solemn signification put upon it This is the bread of affliction and our Saviour transferring that bread into his Supper gave a new signification This is my body In the first Rite there was no turning the substance of bread nor yet in this second Mouliu Bucklet p. 471. For our clearer understanding we must constantly hold these two things 1. That Christ gave bread 2. That this bread was his body First Christ gave bread to his Disciples at this Supper for that which he took which he blest which he brake was bread He took bread and that he gave saying This is my body which is broken for you for the bread was broken as a signe that his body should be crucified and bread the Apostle cals it after consecration thrice in this Chapter vers 26 27 28. and 1 Cor. 10. 16. The bread which we break and ver 17. We are all partakers of that one bread and he cals it so not becaUse it was bread before for he might so have called it wheat a man might be called a boy ripe wine verjuice but becaUse it is so except all our senses be put out and extinguisht with the bread Secondly This bread is Christs body What body Even his own natural body which is given for you Luk. 22. 19. which is broken for you as in my Text What bloud Even that which is shed for you Matth. 26. 28. Luke 22. â—0 But how can this be it 's impossible that bread while it is bread as we have proved it is should be Christs body or wine while it's wine should be his bloud It 's very true that it is impossible Disparatum de disparato non proprium praedicatur therefore we must seek for a possible Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. meaning and of necessity conclude with Calvin Sacramentalem esse loquutionem that it is a sacramental form of speech the signe bears the name of the thing signified as in vulgar and in Scripture language for in Scripture both signs figuratively representing or sacramentally sealing do bear the name of the things represented or sealed as Gen. 40. 12. The three branches are three dayes vers 18. The three baskets are three dayes Gen. 41. 26. The seven ears of corn are seven years the seven kine are seven years Ezek. 37. 11. These dry bones are the whole hoUse of Israel Dan. 2. 38. Thou O King art this head of gold Dan. 7. 17. The four beasts are four Kings Gal. 4. 25. This Agar is mount Sinai Revel 17. 9. The seven heads are seven mountains So in sacramentals Circumcision is called the Covenant Gen 17. 13. And a token of the Covenant v. 11. And a seal of the righteousnes of Faith Rom. 4. 11. The Lamb is
called the Passeover Exod. 12. 21. The Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. and in this Sacrament This Cup is the New-Testament What shall we require further the form of speech is plain a childe may understand it And it is without example in all Scripture that the signe should be or be changed into the substance of the thing signified and which is further to be said The Hebrew Tongue or the Syriack in which Christ spake doth not Use in this form of speech any copula of subject and predicate either is or signifieth but sometimes and not alwayes a Pronoun as in these places by me cited in the Old Testament There is no is nor other Verb but thus the seven ears of corn they seven years the four beasts four Kings which when Cameron Myrothec in Mat. 26. Moulin Buckler p. 478. they come to be translated into Greek or Latine then the idiome of the language requires it and saith is The Rock was Christ and so in the present case Hoo lach ma this bread of affliction that is This is the bread of affliction §. 5. This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud § 5 I proceed to the next part This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud or This is the bloud of the New Testament where the contenders are a little cooler and must perforce allow a Trope or figurative speech for the Cup sure is not changed into a Covenant or Testament nor the bloud of Christ neither nor the wine The cup is not put for the bloud of Christ for then it would be thus This bloud is the New Testament in my bloud a pure non sense that Papists cannot salve without invention of two blouds but the cup is put for the wine This wine is the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ratified in my bloud The wine represents and by representation is the very bloud of Christ which confirms and ratifies Gods Gospel-covenant or the New Testament bequeathing to believers the Legacy of remission of sinnes in Christ for that Christ gave wine and not very bloud in the cup is that which Matthew and Mark say Matth. 26. 29. Mark 14. 25. I will drink no more of the fruit of the Vine Peri Haggephen was the word signantly Used Stegman disp 51. p. 593. for wine in the Paschal Rite The fruit of the vine That Climax and Gradation of Luther is pleasant The Cup contains the wine the wine exhibits the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ ratifies and confirms the New Covenant the New Covenant promiseth remission of sinnes Therefore the drinking of this Cup applies seals confirms to believers the promise of remission of sinnes And the allusion is excellent as Cameron in Mat. 26. 27. the Apostle Observes Heb. 9. 20. out of Exod. 24. 8. that Moses said This is the bloud of the Covenant which God hath enjoyned you for all covenant with man fallen is sealed with bloud that under the Law with typical bloud this of the Gospel by the very bloud of Christ For without bloud is no remission Heb. 9. 22. And of this Covenant-confirming bloud of Christ this wine is the lively representation or memorial The particulars thus cast up are summ'd up into this total as the sense and meaning of this Ordinance § 6 First This bread is my body this wine is my bloud as representations and memorials of my body broken and my bloud shed figuring and signifying my death and suffering for you but this is not all for God doth not feed us with empty shows and void figures onely representing as the footstep in the snow the foot or the picture of Hercules represents Hercules This would bring the Sacrament to a Socinian emptinesse as a matter of our duty onely not as of Gods conferring any benefit upon us This is more like the Signe of a Shop than the Seal of a Deed and would rather serve the eye than refresh the soul by eating and drinking as meat and drink Therefore Secondly This Bread is my Body This Cup is the Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. New Testament in my bloud as Pledges Seals and instrumental means of exhibition solemnly Pet. Martyr ibid. Hooker Eccles Polit. p. 359. Paraeus in 1 Cor. 11. conveying though symbolically to the faith of a beleever Christ himself for union and communion and the benefits of his death remission of finnes as the pledge confirms the contract the Seal passeth or conveyeth the estate by which we are as truly partakers of Christ Jesus if we receive by faith as we are partakers of bread and wine for nourishment this is a high signification and Use it 's full and rich and comfortable and this I prove by that of the Apostle wherein I rest as a full explication of the phrase in hand 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we blesse Is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The bread which we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ Here is Participation Communion and he saith Is it not Is it not As a known and received truth amongst Christians and with this I content my selfe as cleare and full against all contenders and gainsayers As for the Ancients I referre you to a whole Parliament of them called together and voting down Transubstantiation Crakanthorpe Defens cap. 73. against that unhappy man the Arch-Bishop of Spalato who had before his last revolt said Omnes Patres All the Fathers are against the Real Presence but he unsaid it again afterward to his Justin Apol. 2. losse Justin Martyr cals the bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread over which thanks were given Irenaeus the very same Tertullian and Origen prove That Tertul. l. 4. contra Marc. c. 40. Origen Christ had a true body against the Phantasticks becaUse the bread is a figure and signe of a true body Hierom cals it a representation and Austin is Greek Fathers call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionysius Basilius Theodores totus Calvinianus in the point There are rhetoricall flourishes hyperbolies and high expressions sometimes to procure honour to the Ordinance or quicken up the Communicants but in judgement they are with us Crakantherp Defens cap. 73. § 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lingua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry. hom 82. in Matth. sanguinem sugimus Cyp. de caena and such hyperbolies c. So much be spoken for the explication of the words which are so ravelled and perplexed by contrary senses CHAP. IX Of the Inward thing signified or represented in this Supper I. What is presented to the Beleever NOw we shall proceed to open to you what Christ presents unto and sets before the faithfull in this Supper and what the faithfull do receive in the right Use thereof For the first There is here presented and set before you in this Supper 1. Christ himself sacrificed for you with the fruits and benefits of his death or of the sacrifice of
himself 2. The New Testament or the New Covenant confirmed and ratified by his Blood with the contents of that Covenant viz. Remission of sins and other benefits by consequence flowing from it § 1 1. Here is Christ himself sacrificed for you with the Fruits and Benefits accruing from his death presented and set before you The efficacy of his Hooker Eccl. lib. 5. pag. 360. Body and Blood is not all that is here presented to be received as is consist by the true Protestant Churches of our Confession but first and principally Christ himself as the influence of heaven is in plants beasts men but there is not such a thing only here set forth but a Divine and mysticall Union with Christ himself for here is a participation saith the Apostle of the Body and Blood of Christ who is exhibited as really and truly present not opposing reall to spirituall but to chimericall or phantasticall nor intending his presence in the Elements as contained in them but to the faith of the receiver who hath union with him The very Body and Blood of Christ that Body which was fastened Peter Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. 24 25. to the Cross that Blood which was shed was a Sacrifice as offered up to God is meat and drink as offered unto us and therefore our Divines say that Christ is truly and really but yet spiritually given to us as he was given for us This is my Body which is broken for you given for you saith the Text and that which was given for you is given to you He was given for you in the Sacrifice he is given to you in the Sacrament with those blessed fruits and benefits that flow from his Death § 2 2. Here is presented to you the New Testament a Covenant ratified and confirmed in his Blood with the benefits and priviledges thereof It is called New either from the excellency of it as the word New sometimes signifies or for the durableness and perpetuity of it as the Apostle explains it Heb. 8. ult in opposition to the Old made with Israel Cameron in Myreth Matth. 26. which was to determine and vanish away as to the form of dispensation This Covenant is That God will be our God and we shall be his people That he will forgive our iniquities and remember our sins no more c. and the Blood of Christ is the sanction of this Covenant for without Blood is no remission the blood of Christ is the Seal which ratifies the truth and validity of this Covenant The Wine in this Sacrament represents that Blood of Christ and is not so properly a Seal confirming the Covenant in it self as conveying the comfort and participation of it unto us or if you will it is a Seal of Remission of sin to us which is an Article of the Covenant that is sealed by the Blood of Christ and therefore it is said This is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for Remission of sins § 3 And so you have here presented to your Faith Christ himself sacrificed for you the New Covenant confirmed by Christs Blood shed for the pardon of sinnes which are the highest and most glorious things of Gods gift to mankinde who hath in the dishes of this outward Sacrament set before you such good cheer to feed upon as all Sacrifices under the Law and Feasts were but the meer shadows of Take heed of thinking meanly of the furniture of this Table God hath no better provision to set before a sinner than his Sons flesh and blood and his Covenant of grace sealed and confirmed our Socinian likes not this that word My Body broken for you my Blood shed for remission of sinnes makes him bestirre himself to turn off the Body broken to the bread and the Blood shed to the wine and so you see two extreams the Papist turns bread into Christs Body and wine into Blood the Socinian on the other hand that which is spoken of the Body puts off upon the bread and that of the Blood upon the wine that the death of Christ might not be a proper Sacrifice for us §. 4. II. What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance § 4 What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance and this is easily answered For as guests at the Table receive the meat and drink set before them so having seen what God presents to them we shall easily finde what they receive at this Table and that is 1. The faithfull communicant receives Christ himself or his Body and Blood Faith is a receiving of Christ himself we cannot receive the benefits that come by him without receiving of himself as in Marriage the consent is I take thee not I take thine and yet this is consequent upon that our union with Christ is strengthened and more closed and this union with Christ is one of those great mysteries Eph. 5. 32. resembled by man and wise who are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder and as she is under covert and free from arrest of Law for debt so a Beleever by his union with Christ is under coverture and the curse and condemnation of Gods Law cannot touch him or as members knit or branches united to the tree receive influx of life and spirits from the head and root so Beleevers united to Christ by his Spirit receive influences and spirit and life from him by vertue of their union I in them saith Christ Joh. 7. 23 26. The inhabitation of Christ in his people seems to be exprest by their eating and drinking of his Body and Blood spiritually and that inhabitation cannot be without a presence of him such as his inhabitation is such is his presence both reall and yet both spirituall he dwels in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. § 5 2. The faithfull communicant receives the confirmation of that Covenant which is his only comfort He takes hold of the Covenant by the Seal of it the Blood of Christ the severall articles whereof as that God will be our God and that in Christ he will forgive us all our sins c. are particularly sealed up for our better evidence and peace and security that we may be inabled to make a personall and particular claim of the benefits and priviledges of it which are called The unsearchable riches of Christ § 6 And from hence ver 12. the receiving of Christ himself and of the Covenant made in Christ and confirmed in his Blood doth follow that which is usually said to be the benefit of this Sacrament the strengthening refreshing sustentation of the soul by those graces comforts hopes which flow by consequence from Christ or the Covenant so that whatsoever a man may expect for bodily strength or reparation from bread and wine the like he may expect from Christ or the Covenant for his soul life maintained graces quickened deadness enlivened resolutions enabled
hope erected faith strengthened lusts subdued which follow by consequence upon our union with Christ and our interest in the Covenant in the sense of which when a Christian walks he is in a good frame and posture of spirit CHAP. X. A four-fold Exhortation from the premises FRom what hath been said upon this point I would possess you with four things § 1 I. That you hold fast and stick to the true sense and right meaning of these words This is my Body This is the Blood of the New Testament which hath been so perplexed and depraved by superstition and the vanity of humane inventions especially since the rise of the Schoolmen whose itch of Disputation hath bred such a scab that there hath been left no soundness in the place which hath been tortured with such Convulsions Distortions and Absurdities that the sense which to a chast and simple ear is easie and smooth hath been raveld into knots inextricable and this Text of all other hath suffered infinite injuries and been made the stage of impudent fooleries which have brought and buried out of sight the true meaning of them and made our Saviour that Used to speak vulgarly and easily to delude the senses amUse the Reason nonplus the faith of sober Beleevers And though it be truly said The sense of Scripture is the Scripture and that the right understanding of these words carries you in a right line to the nature Use and benefit of this Or inance yet let me say this more to you as English men That the true meaning of them hath been conveyed to you by the blood of your own Martyrs who in Q Mary her daies were most of them put to the test upon the point of Reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament and bare witness against it and I do beleeve that if Popery do ever make another attempt upon you it will play upon you with his battery at this place §. 2. Extreams about Christs Reall presence and the middle way held by the Churches of our Profession § 2 The Churches of our Confession have warily and justly avoided the extreams on both sides 1. The first extream is that which some did fear in Zuinglius and others at first and yet is unjustly charged upon us by many viz. That the Sacraments are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked signes empty figures and shadows meerly representing the death of Christ as the Picture of Hercules resembles and represents Hercules which we disclaim and leave it to Socinianizing spirits and other Levellers of Divinity for we are taught that Sacramentall signes are more than meer representing signes being Seals which do confirm and make over unto us the spirituall benefit which they represent and exhibit also they are signs which God commands us to Use and in their right Use he conferres upon us the benefit as the Seal passes a Right to the Estate promised and conveyed as the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 11. He received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith and 1 Cor. 10. 16. 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 not representation only but communion or participation also for the picture of a loaf of bread feeds not the hungry nor doth the Ivy-bush refresh the weary and therefore there is not only a representation of the body of Christ broken by the breaking of the bread but Take and eat and drink which denotes participation of the body and blood of Christ 2. The other extream is twofold 1. That the very body and blood of Christ is as it were moulded up with the bread and wine or hidden under them which is the sense of the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran Churches and this though it be too gross an opinion yet is not liable to so many monsters and incompresensible absurdities as the other which is 2. That the bread and wine cease to be and are evoided being turned or change the substance of them into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ which is hidden under the species or outward accidents of bread and wine a monstrous Paradox holden stifly by the Transubstantiatists or Papists The middle way holden by the Churches of our Confession is That the outward Elements do represent as Signes and exhibit as Seales and morall Instruments to the faith of the receiver the very Body and Blood of Christ sacrificed as spirituall repast for our souls and spiritually given and taken but that they continue not as incorporated with them nor are converted into the very naturall Body of Christ as locally or corporally there to be received by the mouth of the receiver We hold a difference or change of bread and wine blessed but it is a change of signification not of substance a relative change not reall a change in regard of Use and esteem not of their naturall substance as the wax now a Seal to a Conveyance is wax still but not a Seal not of that value till now all the Rhetoricall flowers Used by the Ancients reach no further if they do we cannot keep them company We hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is really that is truly exhibited and present to the faith of the receiver and we might express the reall presence as reall is opposed to imaginary or chimericall were it not for caption and mis-understanding none of ours denies the Body of Christ to be really though spiritually eaten by a Beleever nay it is immotum axioma whatsoever is eaten in that it is Forbes p. 53◠eaten it must be present no man can eat a thing that 's absent but the presence with or under the Elements is one thing and the presence to the soul and faith of a Beleever is another We know no union of Christs Body with bread and Wine but with his members which is reall and mysticall not reall and corporall therefore Christ saith Take eat before he say This is my Body as if it were his Body to their faith not as in the outward Element §. 3. Arguments for the Protestants sense of the words This is my Body § 3 For attestation of this sense many Arguments may be mustred up together 1. Compare one part of this Sacrament with the other This cup is the New Testament in my Blood that is by Metonymy the Seal of the New Testament but not the New Testament it self so This is my Body that is the Signe and Seal of it but not it self 2. Compare the one Sacrament of the Gospel with the other In Baptism the water is water without reall alteration so here the bread is bread the wine is wine not changed into flesh or blood 3. Compare the Sacraments of the Old Testament with the New Circumcision is the Covenant becaUse the Sign or Seal of it the Lamb is the Passeover becaUse the memoriall or sign of it so the bread
that there is length and nothing long breadth and nothing broad thickness and nothing thick whiteness and nothing white moisture and nothing moist sweetness and nothing sweet that is a long broad thick white moist sweet Nothing The Priest pours out nothing but lines and colours when he pours out the wine for these accidents of bread and wine are not in the bread becaUse that is avoided and vanisht and they are not in the Body of Christ as themselves say and yet it is plain this bread and wine do nourish the body and is the body nourishable by meer accidents Can there be plainer contradictions 4. Can the same body at the same time have his just dimensions distance of parts symmetry proportion as the Body of Christ hath and yet not have these becaUse all parts yea the whole Body of Christ say they are in one and the self same point or crum of bread 5. Can the Body of Christ which is much greater be wholly contained in a wafer or piece of bread in his full dimensions and that as many times as there are points crums drops in the bread or wine 6. Can the bread be turned into the very Body of Christ and yet not anything of that bread become anything of Christ nor the matter nor form nor accidents of bread be made either the matter or form or accidents of Christ 7. Can the same thing as Christs true Body at the same time be wholly above it self and wholly below it self within and without it self can it be moved and yet be still be carried from one place to another and yet not move be brought from heaven to earth and yet not come out of heaven who then can assure me that when he hung upon the Cross he was not walking somewhere else crucified and not crucified eaten and not eaten alive in one dead in another place as in case the Apostles celebrated this Supper while Christ was in the grave 8. What dishonour do these men render the Body of Christ obnoxious unto to be eaten by wicked men by bruit creatures by mice by other vermin to be cast into some unclean place for so long as the form of bread remains so long the Body of Christ is there though it be in the mouth or belly of a moUse saith Ales and the rest of the Schoolmen who do one where or other acknowledge the most of these monstrous absurdities and go about to heal and salve them I surcease from raking further into this ingratefull sink whose name Transubstantiation is but of yesterday in comparison and which dishonours the Body of Christ into a monster destroies the nature of the Sacrament and fils the world with dreadfull contentions and broils and let us but observe 1. What grievous impositions the Romanists lay upon the faith of them that are devoted to her communion 2. What contradictions and absurdities the common people do ignorantly and implicitly beleeve 3. What strong delusions even to believe lies God gives up Learned men unto that refUse the simplicity of the truth for interests and politick ends 4. What a mercy of God it is to deliver us from that tyranny which leaves us no other choice but to swallow and digest such impossible things or to be sacrificed in flames and the Lord forbid the re-entrance of that Religion among us which in all likelihood will cost us our souls or our lives § 5 III. Having past the most rugged and craggy part of my way now we shall have a sweeter and smoother way and the third thing that I commend to you is To keep fixt your eyes and hearts upon the inward of this Sacrament which Christ himself doth anatomize and unfold to you saying This is my Body This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood teaching all Ministers to explain the outward Ordinance what it means and all communicants to set their hearts upon it for as the Parchment and Wax are little worth but the Estate conveyed so the Bread and Wine do but convey by their Use the Body and Blood of Christ and the Covenant of grace and peace confirmed unto us and as we Use to search and pick out of every corner of the shell that 's broken as of a Wallnut the kernell that is in it so we should study the marrow and kernell of this Ordinance to lose the sight and Use of nothing here presented God loses honour and praise and we benefit and com ort when we look not to the inwards of an outward Ordinance especially when Christ himself and all the great and capitall benefits that accrue by him are not only represented but confirmed and to be participated They that look upon a meer representation of Christs death in this Ordinance reduce it to a pretence or shadow and look for too little for it 's a sealing Ordinance They that look for his very Body to be eaten look for too much we may expect from Gods institutions the grace or benefit which God appoints them to exhibit and in the way wherein he so appoints Then have we the benefit of his death when we have him and here is offered to Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. you not the benefit only but the Body in which he suffered his body was a Sacrifice here it is spirituall food we feed upon that Sacrifice as the manner was the Covenant was confirmed by his Blood here we feast upon it the Blood was shed that he might reconcile to God it 's drunk that we may be partakers of that Reconciler and that reconciliation He shall confirm the Covenant with mercy is Daniels phrase Dan. 9. 29. The memoriall we celebrate the benefit we participate here and the great Question Whether I have remission of sins whereat we stick is here answered to a doubting soul that beleeves in desire not in comfort as sure as God can devise by outward Ordinance The Word answers that Question by description of qualification of the person a Believer The Spirit answers it by witnessing and sealing it up to our spirits that we are children The graces of Regeneration do answer it as fruit doth to the life of the tree by demonstration This Sacrament answers it by exhibition and offering Christ to me that I may appropriate him for the blood was shed for you saith Christ Luk. 22. 20. for you that take and eat and drink § 6 IV. The communicant should be one that seeks union and communion with Christ for he that is not a Jew inwardly eats but outwardly Finis non intus dente non mente as Austin expresses the inward of Ordinances are enjoyed by them that inwardly are Christians the Covenant is sealed to them that come to the terms of that Covenant those that bring inward graces receive inward benefits Sed de hoc plura CHAP. XI Of Christs mandate or charge for the celebration of this Ordinance in remembrance of Him 1 COR. 11. 24 25 26. This do in remembrance of me This do ye
as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me For as often c. § 1 SO much be spoken upon the outward part or Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Elements and Rites He took bread and giving thanks he brake it and gave it Likewise also the cup after Supper And so much also touching the Kernell and Marrow of the Feast This is my Body broken for you This Cup is the New Testament in my blood And now having past through our thorny and perplexed way encombred with adversaries through whom we must fight our way we are come into a fairer and clearer road as into a champain not so much infested with enemies and Disputes For whether it be that a practicall conscience be easilier satisfied than a subtill wit or that the devil doth most labour to corrupt our intellectuals that so as once he may corrupt our worship and our morals or whatsoever the Reason be there are more wranglings and Disputes raised about speculative and theoreticall Points than about matters of practice or morall obedience These words contain our Saviour his mandate or charge for the celebration of this Ordinance together with the end whereunto it serves This do in remembrance of me This do as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me This do ye there is the charge for remembrance of me there is the end None of the Evangelists have these words but Luke only out of whom either our Apostle takes the words or at least symbolizeth with him making them or rendring them as part of Christs own words spoken by himself at the first Institution and Celebration of his Supper and which you may Observe the two Elements Bread and Wine taken and received though they have distinct significations Christs Body broken and his Blood shed yet they meet as two lines in this one point The remembrance of Christ This do in remembrance of me is spoken of eating the bread ver 24. This drink in remembrance of me is spoken of the cup ver 25. The Use of both the signes makes up but one memoriall of Christ once dying once sacrificed up to God for us and I shall take up the words in this one Point § 2 Doct. The Lord Christ hath left it in charge and commandment that his Church or people should celebrate this Supper for a remembrance of him Or if you will read the words thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for my memoriall or for my commemoration What impression hath the dying charge or commandment of a Testator upon his children or executors Christ builds a monument for himself before he die plain and simple to the eye but a lasting monument that must continue till he come again ver 26. One of the seven wonders of the Heathen world was Mausolaeum a Monument or Tomb. The goodliest monument which distinguishes and beautifies the Christian Church is this of Christs own erecting his Memoriall The second Temple built after the captivity of Babylon was farre inferiour in outward magnificence and splendour to the first built by Solomon and the Jews observe five things to be wanting in the second which were in the first as the Ark c. yet God promiseth Hag. 2. 9. The glory of this latter hoUse shall be greater then the former becaUse Christ the desire of all Nations should come and fill it with glory ver 7. And shall not the presence of Christs Body and Blood in this Sacrament excell in glory all the typicall glory of Sacrifices and Sacraments of the Law They were but shadows of him that should come this the memoriall of him that died and is alive The particulars comprehended under this Point are these § 3 First There is a command and charge in the words Do this it is more then a Warrant which gives authority it 's a Command that requires duty It is more than a Command it is a Charge of a dying Testatour or Saviour laying an injunction upon his Church to do this For both Sacraments of the Gospel we have the word of command The Baptizate Go and Disciple all Nations baptizing them is the word for Baptism Hoc facite This do ye in remembrance of me is the word for the Supper There must be in a Sacrament First An outward Element Secondly A word of promise Thirdly A word of command to Use it to that end as none but Whitak de Sacr. Qu. 6. de numero the supream power hath authority to stamp or coyn legitimate and currant money so none but God can institute and make a Sacrament The Sacraments are parts of Gods instituted worship standing by positive appointment of God The eating and drinking of bread and wine in their natural being or Use are no more memorials symbols and pledges of Christs body and bloud than the form of a Serpent in brasse of healing those that were bitten with fiery Serpents no man can authoritatively institute a Sacrament or prescribe to God any part of his worship I have received of the Lord saith the Apostle that which I delivered also unto you and the Reason is good He onely can make a Sacrament who can make good the promise or grace thereby represented and exhibited § 4 Secondly The charge is to Do this that is to celebrate this Supper Chist limits and confines us to Jans Harm in Mat 26. this as God did Moses See thou do all things according to the patern shown thee in the Mount If we vary from the patern there lies a quis requisivit against us Who hath-required this at your hands So God checks our inventions and superstition in creating will-worship by adding or detracting as we may not coyn so neither wash or clip or embase that which is stamped by the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referrs to that which went before Eat this blessed and broken Bread the next words explain it Do this as oft as ye drink it principally it relates to the actions of Gerard. Harm cap. 171. Communicants Do this that is Eat ye Drink ye and consequently to the actions of the Dispenser or Minister Do this that is Blesse ye Break ye which are antecedent to eating and drinking and so all the external rites or actions of this Sacrament may come under the command Do this but we may not stretch the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to accessories and circumstances appendant not to the upper room nor to the night after Supper nor to the gesture of discubiture for neither the injunction of the Passeover did in after times extend to all the circumstances Used at the first Passeover in Aegypt as the Hebrews note The Papist seems to espie here some glimpse of proof of the real Sacrifice of Christ in his Masse from the word here Used Facite which in Latine sometimes signifies to sacrifice or offer and so it doth with an ablative case which is not here but the thred is too fine to hold for if the word signifie so somewhere it is not
his Corinthian communicants to right teaching them and us what is the meaning of this Ordinance and what the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or main business of a communicant is that so he may eat and drink worthily viz. To shew forth the Lords death this he collects from the institution this he inculcates upon the communicant as the great business which he is to do that he may be suitable to the Ordinance The words have no difficulty but what may best be opened in every point as it comes to hand The first Point shall be from the connexion or whole words § 2 Doct. People have need to be taught what the meaning of this Ordinance is and what is the main business of the Communicant The Apostle hath set forth this Sacrament and now teaches them what is the meaning or great business intended in it For as often as c. Outward Ordinances consisting of visible matter as most of the Jewish Ordinances did and our Sacraments do do ordinarily terminate and bound the eye of the ignorant that cannot and of the Christian outwardly that doth not look within the rinde or shell of them The time is not lost that 's bestowed either by us in the anatomy and opening or by you in learning and spelling out the minde and meaning of an Ordinance of God When your children Exod. 12. 26. shall say unto you What mean you by this service ye shall say It is the sacrifice of the Lords Passeover c. And in another instance When your children shall say What mean you by these stones ye shall answer Josh 4. 6. The waters of Jordan were cut off c. This was the veil that covered the eye of the Jews they had Sacrifices Washings manifold Rites but were not able to spell and put together they generally little dreamd of the meaning of them but were as the Apostle cals them Jews outwardly and in the letter for it pleased God in the times of that dispensation to give his people the kernell but inclosed in a hard shell to give them a pillar of fire but in a cloud to hide the light in a dark lanthorne to convey the truth in shadows Now that the Obscurity is taken off the Ordinances there remains an ignorance upon our hearts and many of us know as little the meaning of our Sacraments as the Jews did of theirs there is scarce any of our ignorant superstitious prophane persons but they think there is some holiness in this Sacrament and therefore they put on a posture of some reverence for the time but the particular Use of it or the spirituall importance they know not and therefore rest in the opus operatum and receive the Sacrament as a medicinall potion naturally working or worship that which should be made Use of by faith for the nourishment of the soul § 3 The Use of this point may be for Instruction of both Minister and people First The Minister is hereby taught That it is not only his duty to give the Sacrament but also to teach the Sacrament he gives the outward Elements he teaches the inward meaning of them he gives the bone and shews the marrow that is in it otherwise you take the Sacrament by rote and he gives you integram nucem as Bernard saith a whose nut to a child that cannot crack it and so partakes in that sin and guilt being dumb which you contract being blinde Our Saviour when he gave the Bread and the Cup said also This is my Body This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood and so taught the meaning St. Paul when he had recited the Institution shews the mind of it As oft as ye eat ye shew the Lords death And you are to be taught what is Gods meaning and what is the meaning of your own actions Gods meaning is to make a representation of Christs death and sufferings by the breaking of the bread and to afford you the communion of his Body and Blood 1 Cor. 10. 16. The meaning of your actions is to make commemoration of Christ and to shew forth his death Gods meaning is to dress out Christ in best manner and fittest for a sinner Christ broken Christ bleeding and the meaning of your eating and drinking is to feed sorrowfully and sweetly upon Christ so prepared and presented to you for your repast and comfort But now if the same cup taken with such ingredients would be deadly poyson with such a lively Cordiall would you not expect that the Physician should teach you to make it Cordiall so the Lords Supper worthily received is the most soveraign Cordiall But some again may eat and drink damnation to themselves Would you not expect that the Minister if he have either conscience of his duty or respect to your souls should teach you to avoid the danger and obtain the benefit If you do not yet God looks for it at our hands Ezek. 44. 23. And they the Priests shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and caUse men to discern between the unclean and clean for else you may eat and drink damnation to us as well as to your selves § 4 Secondly The people are taught To know the meaning of the Sacrament before they take it That 's a terrible expression ver 29. He eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body that is not knowing the meaning the nature Use and end of the Ordinance which to understand is a good part of preparation and without it there can be no right or true preparation And therefore all you that intend to be Supper-communicants attend The first lesson which you must learn the first Question to be answered is What is the true meaning of this Ordinance what is the main business of it for it is supposed in those words Exod. 12. 26. When your children shall say to you What mean you by this service i. Passeover that the father should be able to teach his childe as it is there directed and that the child should as his first lesson be taught what is meant To know what the meaning of this Ordinance is 1. It is a proper and excellent antidote or remedy of such abUses and miscarriages as creep in at the door either of ignorance superstition or prophaneness and the Apostle signifies so much here by applying this corrective to those distempers which then reigned in the Church of Corinth as if he had said Could you come and eat and drink so rudely proudly confUsedly irreverently unworthily if ye did consider but what ye ought to do that is exercise communion with Christ keep a commemoration of him shew forth his death 2. This will direct all your preparations to the true end your praiers meditations self-examination will be answerable and suitable to the Ordinance Here is not the eating of a piece of bread nor the drinking of a cup of wine in a publique company of sober men and of my betters which yet
is enough to the putting on my better clothes and framing my self to a grave composure but here I am to meet my Lord Christ and to receive him as my Saviour I am to have the Covenant of mercy sealed to me in his blood I am to make a thankfull memoriall of Christ and to profess my embracement and adherence to his death as my only comfort therefore be thou awakened O my faith my godly sorrow my spirituall appetite my thankfulness that I may go out to Christ and he come in to me 3. This takes off all slighting and undervaluing of this Ordinance which appears to an outward and carnall eye No better bread or wine than I can have at home for in this plain case is a rich Jewel this bread is the body this wine is the Blood of the Lord of Glory and therefore I must not value the seal by the worth of the wax which is not worth a penny but by the pardon or the inheritance which passes and is conveyed by it 4. This keeps me from running blindfold into the sin of guiltiness of the Body and Blood of the Lord and so into condemnation for as the same Signet or Seal of a Prince doth to one seal a pardon to another an execution so this very Sacrament is to a Beleever a seal of pardon to another as it were the seal of his condemnation 5. Lastly The preparation so much spoken of and the self-examination required by the Apostle cannot be imagined to referre to the eating of bread and drinking wine but to the inward thing of the Sacrament it necessarily follows that those inward graces that enable us to have communion with Christ and make commemoration of him can never be known or sought except we know the meaning of this Sacrament for it is that which gives the Law and Rule of all our preparations And so I have shown you the Reasons why we should labour to understand the language of this Ordinance So much of this generall Point the second Point shall be taken from those words Ye shew the Lords death or shew ye for the word might be construed imparatively but that the particle For would not then so well consist CHAP. XIV The great business that lies upon the Communicant as oft as he eats this Bread and drinks this Cup is to shew the Lords Death Doct. 2 THis Point cleaves into two parts § 1 First It is the Lords death which in this Sacrament is shewn forth The two standing Sacraments of the Jewish Church Circumcision and the Passeover did both appear in blood The two standing Sacraments of the Gospel do also referre to death We are buried with him by Baptism into death Rom. 6. 4. and in the Supper we shew the Lords death As of all deliverances and benefits vouchsafed to Israel of old God would have the Passeover-deliverance celebrated by a constant memoriall in all generations so of all that Christ doth for us it is his death that must be shewn forth in all generations of the Church till he come again and therefore this Ordinance is speculum crucifixi as Calvin saith and In 1 Cor. 11. the memoriall not so much of Christs life or resurrection De satisfact cap. 1. saith Grotius as of his death This death hath no second in all the world for it was the death of the Sonne of God the death of the Lamb of God 1. Of the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory whose highness and excellency gave price and value to his death Had he not been man he could not have suffered Had he not been the Sonne of God God blessed for ever he could not have satisfied and conquered 2. Of the Lamb of God and therefore his death was a Sacrifice and that 's more than a Martyrdom for though a Martyr may be said to seal with his blood that truth he dies upon yet no blood can seal the Covenant but this of Christ no death can ratifie the Testament but the Testators death Had the death been the death of the Lord a most excellent person and not also the death of a Lamb for Sacrifice to make attonement it had wanted one of his properties but it was both As it was the death of the Lord of Glory the Sonne of God so it gave us the most illustrious testimony and example of the love of God as ever was or could be and that the Scripture often points unto As it was the death of the Lamb of God so it was a Sacrifice death wherein he was made sinne for us and bore our sinnes in his Body As it was the Joh. 11. 13. Rom. 5. Gal. 2. 20. death both of the Sonne of God and the Lamb of God so it reconciled us sinners unto God and meritoriously redeemed and ransomed us from our bondage to the curse and wrath of God the only ground and foundation of our hope peace and comfort § 2 Secondly It is the business of the Communicant to shew forth this death of the Lord The Ordinance it self is full of death what other language doth bread broken and the blood severed from the body speak but a dying Christ As the Ordinance so the Communicant doth by eating and drinking in fact declare and annunciate his profession of adherence to and embracement of the death of Christ we solemnly and publiquely avow both to God and men that we stick unto and abide by the death of the Lord for remission of sinne and reconciliation of our persons to God and it is a solemn part of Gods positive worship to shew forth the death of Christ our Lord not by a meer historicall relation but a practicall and publique profession of our faith and acceptance thereof which though at all times we may remember yet God would have a solemn Ordinance in his Gospel-Churches for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Supper I know men are witty to elude Ordinances and to flatter themselves with private devotions and meditations but when God hath set up an Ordinance on purpose for the publique and solemn shewing of the Lords death let them consider it that are not only careless of the benefit of it but fail of their duty by not presenting themselves at this solemn shewing of the Lords death but how can it be expected that they that shew not the life of Christ by a godly conversation should care to shew forth his death by publique profession or rather how can it be construed that they do it out of conscience of duty and not out of meer superstition expecting that from the Sacrament which the Papist expects from his auricular confession that is to quit the old score that he may more freely begin upon a new But I may not forget that which is very learnedly Observed that the Apostle using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which frequently is Used for publishing and preaching Schiud in loc Haggada the Gospel doth
the Church of God waited neer four thousand years from the first promise of Christ made to Adam to his first coming so shall the Church of the Gospel wait many years from that promise of Christs second coming Act. 1. 11. untill it be The first Christians did not imagine so long Revolution of time untill Christs second coming as we have seen sixteen hundred and how many yet are to runne out we know not The Apostle checks it in the Thessalonians 2 Thess 2. 2. who began to think that the day of Christ was at hand and the Christians in Justins time who were most of them of the millenary opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he did not think it should be so long ere the thousand years should commence and in Tertullians time they Used in their publick prayers to pray pro mora finis for delay of the end in respect of Antichrists tyranny but the Jews are the example of the efficacy of errour that have overshot already that which is Christs first coming by above sixteen hundred years and are yet gazing we rest in this there is a fulnesse of time for Christs first and so for his second coming and then he will come our hope our comfort our salvation do all lie upon it and therefore we look for it Secondly This Ordinance of the Supper is to continue till Christ come the meaning is not That men shall not deface and dishonour it in some places but that it shall continue in force though not in Use God will not alter or discharge it and the like for there is the like Reason may be said of other standing Ordinances of worship The Jewish Passeover was an Ordinance for ever but that ever had an end when Christ came and the Ordinances of that Church though they might be defaced and destroyed for a time yet were in force till Christs first coming and so the Gospel-Sacraments Worship Ordinances and may it please you Ministry shall be in force and God grant in Use for the time of their Ever and that is Christs second coming The legal Sacrifices and Ordinances were as the Apostle expounds Heb. 12. 27. the Prophet to be shaken down and removed by the bringing in of a better Covenant and other Ordinances by Christ Jesus but the Ordinances of the Gospel cannot be shaken are never to be removed by any other Ordinance or any new Church but onely to cease and expire with the worlds end The Scripture closes and shuts it self up with this Come Lord Jesus Rev. 22. 20. § 3 The Use of this Point may be 1. To confirm us in the Use and esteem of the Ordinances of Christ which have no other period then the world wiser we cannot be than he that thought them necessary but we may be prouder than we should by thinking our selves in a state of perfection and not infirmity which Christ hath provided for by his Ordinances of the Sacrament he saith Till I come Of the Gospel-Ministry he saith I am with you to the worlds end The devil is foolishly subtil now adayes under a pretence of immediate spirit crying down Ordinances and the Gospel-spirit must put down Gospel-Ordinances what Christ set up the Spirit must demolish and it is a Spirit indeed but a perverse one as you may see by the same argument cast in another mould The water only refreshes and quenches thirst therefore cut off all the cocks and pipes you know my meaning § 4 2. This point may stop the mouth of those degenerate Apostates the shame of Christianity that mock at the common principles and fundamentals of our faith saying Where is the promise of his coming 2 Pet. 3. 4. They are Infidels in their faith that they may be Epicures in life We have not waited half so long for his second coming as the old believers did for his first God hath somewhat to do in the world besides the saving of us Time is not so long if it be measured by his span as by ours a thousand years are as one day and then what shall we say to the real Presentialists who will have Christ to come into every Sacrament and yet it 's said Till he come as if he were not personally there at present The Scripture sayes nothing of Christs corporal invisible presence on earth takes notice of a first coming and a second but no more and yet lastly What shall we say to those that are called Seekers and to the Sans-Ordinance men and the Supra ordinance men that will be without and are above Ordinances I say no more then this Christ is not yet come the second time and as it was his first coming that set them up So it is his second only that shall take them down Let not pride infatuate you for as it is a miserable case when the best plea or excUse for a man is to say he was drunk he was mad so it is but a sorry excUse for blasphemy to say It is his conscience let the Ordinances of Christ have his own date viz. till he come § 5 Doct. 5 The fifth point might be taken up from those words This Bread and this Cup where we finde it called Bread still after Consecration in confutation of Popish Transubstantiation and both Bread and Cup allowed to the Communicants a shame to Popish Sacriledge that hath robb'd the Sacrament of one of them but enough was said of both these before when I handled the words of Institution CHAP. XVII Of worthy and unworthy Receiving of the Lords Supper 1 COR. 11. 27. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord. THis verse hath a mark in it's fore-head the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore whereby at first sight it looks like an inference or collection from that which went before where the Apostle having laid down the Institution of this Sacrament in the Use thereof gathers from thence That whosoever eats this bread c. unworthily he shall be guilty of the body and bloud of Christ § 1 The sinne of receiving unworthily is largely insisted on in the following part of this Chapter where the aggravation of this sinne is shown by the special guilt that attends it and that is a guiltinesse of the Lords body by the particular caUse of this guiltinesse Not discerning the Lords body by the judgement that follows upon it damnation or punishment by the way of prevention of the sinne the guilt and judgement and that is self-examination and self-judging self-examination for the prevention of the sin self-judging for prevention of the punishment inflicted by God So that for a particular sinne properly incident to the abUse or miscarriage of men in this Ordinance there is very much said to shew the nature and danger of it becaUse the distempers reigning amongst the Corinthians did herein shew themselves which the Apostle studies to discover and to heal and
being accompanied with the Word and so still it is the Word that converts But what will you say to the naked Use and application of the signes that is the act of distribution Taking Eating Drinking Do these convert or confer the first grace I answer I am not curious in delivering the very nick of time of mans conversion I affirm not that so it is nor deny that so it may be The winde blows when and where it listeth This yet is not the Question But whether there be found any declared intention any institution and appointment of God that this Ordinance shall convert souls or hath made it apt for that purpose so as we may look for such efficacy from it by vertue of Gods institution thereof to this end For it is a meerly positive Ordinance and the effect or efficiency must be expected in vertue of the appointment and institution and I cannot assent that the institution of the Supper promiseth this effect Greg. de Valentia and others of the Schoolmen De efficacia Euch punct distinguish between the primary and per se effects of the Lords Supper and these that are per accidens not of institution among which he instances the conferring of the first grace and so Vasquez saith that he doth not hold That this Sacrament conveys Vasquez Tom. 3. Disp 205. the first grace by vertue of institution or appointment to that end and yet cites Bonaventure that the first grace may be given here secundum misericordiam of Gods meer mercy not secundum institutionem according to the institution of the Ordinance And this I say in answer to the Question But doth it follow hence that therefore all may come be invited or admitted becaUse we say that which God can do not what he hath promised or declared that he will Prater intentional or accidental effects give no ground to seek them at such a caUse as is not ordained to work them though haply some have been converted at that time Must a man that seeks a Kingdom be sent to seek his fathers Asses becaUse Saul heard such news at such a time Must we run a man thorow with a sword to save his life becaUse one did so once and let out a secret impostume BecaUse some Minister hath been converted at his Ordination Is therefore the laying on of hands instituted for that purpose BecaUse a man hath been converted at his marriage where the Sermon and benediction have wrought on him Is therefore marriage a converting Ordinance I might adde a great deal more for illustration of this point if I Questioned your apprehension Secondly There is difference to be made between the qualifications of a man to his admittance to this Sacrament and the qualifications of him unto the inward grace benefit or effect of it If one be a baptized person a knowing professour of the Gospel against whom there lies no barre of notorious ignorance or scandal though it appear not that he is truly regenerate and sincere in grace yet he hath admittance he claims upon such a right as the Church cannot justly disallow no more than an Israelite circumcised and clean could be debarred the Passeover but as to the effect and benefit of the Supper to his soul there is required more than so even true faith in Christ and regeneration that he may exercise such graces as the benefits are promised unto and come to the Seals of the Covenant with the condition of the Covenant The wise Virgins cannot forbid the foolish from waiting with them for they have lamps as well as they but the Lord shuts the door against them from entring in with him for their oyl was out Glory not in this that the Church admits you to the Table but labour for the grace to feed upon the dainties set upon it many have the liberty to Use it that have not the benefit or effect of that Use many have a hundred times tasted bread and wine that never once tasted the body and bloud of Christ §. 4 Reasons proving the Lords Supper not to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion § 4 The Reasons proving the Lords Supper not to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion Tom. 3. Disp 205. c. 4. The first is that of Vasquez No effects can be ascribed to this Sacrament which fall not under the signification of it they cannot doe not exhibit any grace but what they signifie or figure out the sign and the thing signified are not such strangers as that one thing be signified and another wrought The Rock that followed them doth not set forth Christ for meat nor doth the Manna set forth Christ for spiritual drink What can be expected in Circumcision but the cutting off native corruption or concupiscence What in Baptism of water but the washing away the sordes or filthinesse of our nativity or fleshly birth Now the conversion of a sinner is not signified in this Sacrament or sealed there is no outward element that sets it forth to us and why so BecaUse it is instituted in bread and wine eating and drinking and is it not evident that all this speaks growth nourishment comfort strength but it speaks not the giving of life Doth bread and wine give life to one that is dead Can they congruously signifie the first grace of spiritual life It 's against sense and Reason but life is preserved and cherisht and continued by them and therefore this Sacrament is set forth saith Durand Durand lib 4. Dist 7. qu. 1. under the form of nourishment If you say But here is Christ set forth who is our life as well as our meat he gives and he maintains it in us True but he is set forth in this Sacrament as the one of these he doth both he begins life in us but in this Ordinance which is a Supper his body and bloud are set upon the Table for refection and nourishment of men that take and eat and drink and they are living men Meat is not set before dead folks My flesh is meat indeed my bloud is drink indeed saith Joh. 6. he and so is Christ here set forth As the Use of corporall food is not congruous but to one that lives corporally So c. Durand ubi supra The second Reason is taken from the institution and the Schoolmen generally argue thence for the end Use benefit effect of a Sacrament are undoubtedly learned by the institution and the Reason stands thus This Sacrament by the institution of it appears to presuppose those that reap the sweet and benefit of it to be converts and in grace namely to have faith in Christ and to be living members and if this be presupposed by this Ordinance then it is not first wrought by it They must be in Christ that have benefit by it for them it is instituted and ordained not for such as are out of Christ to bring them in but for such as are in Christ to bring them up in
not my having faith or the truth of my faith I allow too but if this be all the Sacrament seals then it seals no more to a believer than to any man in the world no more to a receiver than a spectatour For whether I believe or no by the relation that the seal hath to the Covenant it confirms and seals it even as it is instituted in the Word for that purpose As the Seal of a Bond Deed Conveyance seals the truth of that Bond to all men to the Witnesses to the Jury who are confirmed that the Bond is true by the Seal But there is a further sealing and that is the Sacrament seals the interest of a believer in Christ unto or in the Covenant and Promises thereof As the Seal of the Bond seals the summe to be paid to the Creditour and the Seal of the Deed seals the propriety and benefit and possession of the State convey'd I say to a believer the Sacrament seals this as to no man else for those words Take Eat Drink are part of the sealing Use or the applying Use and which puts this out of doubt it 's said That this bread we break This Cup we blesse is the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ And what is that but participation For as Chemnitius observes Chem. exam de Praeparat ad caenam The great thorn in a weak believer that disquiets him is this Christ is indeed full and sweet the Promises true and precious but have I any share Have I any portion in them Have I any right or interest Now this is that which is sealed to a believer and of it self though no man believe it seals as was said before the truth and reality of the Promise and of Gods offer for I shall not deny that Now if a man through want of faith be not capable of this effect or Use of the Seal it is not for meer want of that capacity that he is prohibited the Lords Table for then all unregenerate men and all that are not converted should be forbidden which we teach not but it is for scandalous and enormous sin persisted in with Obstinacy and scorn it is becaUse he hath not so much as a little beam of light to know what he doth or what danger he runs upon § 6 Nor can it be said that confirming grace afforded in this Sacrament is in substance the same with converting and that which is confirming to one may be converting to another and so the Sacrament may as well afford one as another Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. being but still the same grace for this is a meer fallacy and a strain beyond Reason Let confirming grace be the same with converting As every degree of heat or fire is the same nature as the first degree yet this Sacrament affords confirming and not converting grace becaUse it presupposeth faith in the Receiver whereby a further degree of grace may be bestowed and without that Faith doth not impart any grace at all As the life maintain'd by meat and drink is the same life Doth it therefore follow that meat and drink may convey life into a dead man becaUse it maintaines it in a living No It 's true the same life in a dead man would make him live but the life maintain'd in a man by meat and drink is therefore maintain'd becaUse there is a life in the man that can eat and drink receive nourishment by which the meat is made nutritive and lively which otherwise could not be And so there must be life in the Patient else the Plaister or Medicine if applied to a dead man would not recover or strengthen life I deny not but if the Sacrament could convey the same grace to a dead man as it doth to a living that dead man would live but that it cannot doe becaUse it works by way of nourishment which the dead receive not Quest If niceties may be heard we shall have no end Suppose saith one a godly man fall into scandalous sinne and therein lie impenitent Why doe you not forthwith admit him to the Sacrament which you say may helpe towards his conversion from a fall though it convert not a man from the state of nature Answ I answer That this Ordinanee doth excite and quicken grace by which a Christian may recover his fall and yet if I say such a Plaister is good to heal a sore it will not follow that therefore it must forthwith be applied for there is proud flesh and a rotten core first to be eaten out with corrosives and then the Plaister may be Used So if there be such or such a sinne under which a godly man lies there is another 1 Cor. 5. Ordinance of God first to be applied for destruction of the flesh for to bring shame and confusion and that is the casting of him out the putting of him away from the society of the faithfull and when that corrosive hath wrought than the Sacrament is to be applied for his strengthning and refreshing Having acquit my self of this Digression I now returne to the Point which I propounded and explain'd before I tooke the turne which I have travail'd and am now in the ready way againe CHAP. XXII Of Worthy and Vnworthy Receiving With some Cautions to prevent mis-judging our selves in the Case § 1 THe Point formerly propounded is That this Sacrament may be received worthily and it may also be received unworthily I mean de facto worthily and unworthily referre to the manner of communicating The Apostle expresses but the one of them being led thereunto by the occasion at present but having precisely laid down the institution of the Supper which regulates the manner of receiving he said enough to make us know what it is to receive unworthily and consequently for the right line is judge of the crooked what to receive unworthily and therefore after he had laid forth the institution he brings in this 27th verse with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore or so that as concluding the manner of receiving from the very nature Use and end of the Ordinance I know worthily and unworthily are opposites and sometimes competent to the same person at the same time or in the Use of the same element either the bread or the Cup. Upon which last words you may ask me May a man receive the bread worthily and the Cup unworthily And I answer That the reading of this Text dis-junctively Whosoever shall Estius in loc eat this bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily which some of the Papists contend for in favour of their dry Masse hath occasioned the starting of that Question which yet I will not contend about in this place but leave it to such resolution as may be given by the sequell of our discourse for I naturally abhorre the crumbling of Scripture into crums when it is delivered to us as the bread in this Ordinance is not by crums when
and demonstrate We know that in all Sacraments there is Analogy or proportion and so in this the elements broken bread and wine pouned forth or the body and bloud of Christ the actions of Taking Eating and Drinking the outward elements doe denote the acts of a Communicants soul receiving and feeding upon Christ and such acts there must be to answer unto the outward actions So as if you tell me of any sensible object it 's easie to shew what sense it belongs unto for if it be light or colour it belongs to the eye if it be any sound it belongs to the ear c. So this Sacrament being survey'd and studied it is not hard to finde what graces are to be set on work accordingly And this Rule that I may not guesse at randome I shall follow in the ensuing Discourse First It 's necessary that the Communicant have knowledge of the Nature Use and End of this Sacrament and that is demonstrate thus Here are outward elements and actions which do signifie some other thing as namely the body and bloud of Christ as himself expounds it offer'd by God unto and to be received by the Communicant and therefore there must be knowledge to discern and understand this mystery that 's hidden under a visible out-side to wit the Sacrifice of Christs body which is represented and the confirmation of the Gospel-Covenant by his bloud for without this knowledge a man comes blinde-fold eats and drinks as a bruit takes the dish for the meat and is no otherwise refresht than a thirsty man would be by eating and sucking a sign-post which doth but signifie that there is wine within It was a childes Question Exod. 12. 26. What mean you by this service And I would our ignorant people would so play the childe for they do but eat the shell and gnaw the bone of the outward service becaUse they know not the meaning of it So the carnall Jew knew not the meaning of the Rites and Types then Used nor saw both Law and Gospel in their Sacrifices both which they were full of I confesse the knowledge of this Sacrament draws with it the knowledge of our lost estate as Passeover is not understood without Egypt in sinne and misery For where Christ appears bloudy there sinne must needs appear deadly and those fundamentals and grounds of Christianity which are but the A. B. C. of Religion must be knowne but it is not the knowledge of a Scholar but the knowledge of a Christian which we plead for so much as may serve to look into the entrails of this Sacrament and may lead on the affections to value prize thirst after Jesus Christ whom if we see not we cannot desire or love Visus est prima amor is linea fight is the first line of love nor can we believe in him untill we see John 6. 40. Whosoever see the Sonne and believes in him shall have everlasting life I should not charge a poor Christian with any great rate of knowledge for the quality is more to be regarded than the quantity If he know both sinne and Christ by taste as well as by sight if he have a distinguishing and favoury knowledge of the things of the Spirit and there be as it is in embers a great heat though but little light then is it good though not great I know that Questions demodo in all points of Divinity are hard to answer It 's well if we can answer a Question aere I may know what sinne is and yet not tell how it enters and comes at first into my soul The Apostles took Christ at this time for their Saviour and Lord the true Messiah but how he should execute all the parts of his Office they did not clearly understand and yet did at and drink with him at his Table § 3 Secondly This is not all but it is first as light was at the Creation the first creature but all the world was not made when light was He is not wholly fitted that hath knowledge there must be a Christ-receiving or a Christ-taking faith and this is shown thus God offers the body and bloud of his Sonne which was shed for the remission of sinne and saith Take ye Eat ye Drink ye and that inward act which answers to this outward action whereby we do receive Christ that is exhibited we call faith when Christ is tender'd to us in the Word we believe ex-promisso when offer'd in the Supper we believe ex pignore There we have a promise here a pawn or pledge This faith is the taking hand which goes forth to the offering-hand of God This taking eating drinking are but faith appropriating and applying Christ You say you believe What believe you That God offers Christ to your faith What 's a poor man the richer for believing that one offers him a shilling What 's a condemned man the better for believing that a pardon is offer'd to him This is but a faith of the truth of the offer But doe ye receive Christ offered Do you close in with Christ Do you take him into you Here is the best Covenant sealed with the best blood that ever was You believe this to be a truth but come not in to this Covenant that saith doth but serve to your just condemnation It is the Christ-receiving not the truth acknowledging saith that brings salvation to you If men did but know what saving saith is we should have either more or fewer believers more for they would renounce that superficial thing cahed faith and buy gold tried in the fire Fewer for they would not count themselves to believe by that faith which they have A woman may believe a man to be rich and honourable and reall in his suit yet that belief doth not make a marriage but actual consent to take him for a husband For saith gives as well as takes it gives a man up to Christ as well as takes Christ to be a Saviour It is not true faith that blows hot and cold out of the same mouth and cries Hosanna to Christ a Saviour but yet I will not have him reigne over me This Sacrament presents Christ to faith thus It presents Christ himself his body and bloud not the benefits of Christ apart and abstract but Christ himself It presents Christ for intimate union with us as the nourishment is to the body It presents him really as the bread and wine is really taken and received It presents him crucified and suffering as if he was now dving and bleeding in whom faith findes reconciliation remission justification and redemption so is it acted and exercised in this Ordinance § 4 Thirdly The third grace that is freshly revived and set on work in this Sacrament is Repentance and that appears thus Here is represented Goes Justice against our sinne in bruising his own Sonne with fore and dreadfull breaches made upon him and this Justice is mixt with goodnesse in transferring and laying upon the Sacrifice
Christ receive here the pardon of sin Question not the Seal or truth of it 3. That I may not divide into further particulars there is by this Sacrament a communication of a greater proportion of Gospel-Spirit For we have been all made to drinke into one Spirit 2 Cor. 12. 13. which Spirit plentifully bestows his severall fruits and graces for the growing up of a member into Christ the Head in all things Ephes 4. 15. from whence we have not onely those Auxilia actualia actual influences and aids of delight comfort evidence sweet tastes powerfull motions and impressions which Vasquez cals grace sacramental and saith That Gratia Sacramentalis non est gratia habitualis sed auxilia quaedam actualia which I conceive is an errour For though a man have a sweet taste and transient delight in meat or wine yet there is also a permanent and abiding nourishment proceeding from that he eats or drinks So here the very habituall graces are nourisht strengthened excited It may be a man at present doth not feele that strength he doth receive nor is sensible of the intention of his graces For the same Vasquez saith Intentionem habituum infusorum sub experimento humano cadere non posse And it 's true at present time But the growth of grace manifests it selfe in time We doe not see our selves or others grow but that we are growne is plaine enough nor doe we see how much the light incReases by every step of the Sunne rising higher for our growth is graduall and by imperceptible instances and degrees when power of resisting temptations mortifie lusts which before were too hard for us doth appear we may see our growth as we see our shadowes are shortened but how much in a minute we see not and may say That the graces which this Ordinance requires and excites are thereby strengthened and enlarged and therefore the Rule is good What Grace thou wouldest have strengthened by this Ordinance that doe thou set on work and exercise in it for that is Sowing to the Spirit as the Apostle cals it And I make no Question but a believer shall finde the benefit of this Sacrament in his obedience also for the fuller the Vessell is the faster it will runne out at the tap If the habits incRease the fruit of obedience will be proportionable We mend a barren Tree at the root sweeten the sap there and the Tree is more fruitfull When Jacob had seen the sweet vision in Bethel then he lifted up his feet Genes 29. 1. it put mettle into him So much for this Point the Benefit of this Sacrament which being dis-Used as at this time is a great losse to the improvement of Christians though they see it not The Christians in persecuting times when a storme was coming then were they most diligent to frequent this Table to lay in store for a hard Winter and fortifie their resolutions And let this Benefit be a Motive to the Use of Preparation which was the Reason I have handled it in this place for there is no Promise no Benefit to one that comes to this Table unworthily CHAP. XXIX The Sinfulness of Eating and Drinking Vnworthily § 1 I Have said concerning eating this Bread and drinking of this Cup of the Lord worthily Now I come to the other branch The eating and drinking unworthily What that is hath been sufficiently opened already The Antithesis or opposition between worthily and unworthily is such as if you know the one you know both as he that knows what a right line is knows what is a crooked or oblique Worthily to eat is in such manner as is answerable and suitable to the nature end and Use of the Ordinance and unworthily to eat is contrary that is without a sacramental or Supper-disposition and otherwise then is fit that these holy mysteries be handled and intreated as I have before proved The Point I shall take up is this § 2 To eat the bread and drink the Cup of the Lord unworthily is a sinne of an high Nature and of consequence dangerous It is a fearfull sinne and attended with fearfull effect It is of a high nature as appears by that peculiar guilt which is contracted he shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord it is of fearfull consequence He eats and drinks judgement to himself Thou seest saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In loc what a terrible word the Apostle speaks speaks nay thunders so as may awake the secure soul into a trembling The example of Nadab and Abihu their being made Sacrifices themselves was enough to give warning to all after them against offering of strange fire and was the occasion of that excellent Rule which God gave at that time to be observed in all our near approaches to him I will be sanctified of all that come nigh me Lev. 10. 3. There are four things to be open'd 1. The sin it self viz. Eating and drinking unworthily 2. The caUse of the sinne Not discerning the Lords body 3. The aggravation of the sinne by the object and peculiar nature of it viz. A guiltinesse of the body and bloud of Christ 4. The danger that attends or follows upon it He eats and drinks judgement to himself § 3 1. The sinne is Eating and drinking unworthily and it is a peculiar sinne or transgression of the Law of this Ordinance One may do what the Law requires and yet sinne grievously if the manner of doing be vicious and corrupt Men may be content if the matter by their Law required be done whether with a good will or an evil but God is not so who values the disposition of heart when the thing in command sometimes is not done so he hearkned to Hezekiah his prayer for them that prepared their heart to seek God though not legally purified 2 Chron. 31. 19. and is highly displeas'd when the command Do this is Observed but it is done unworthily and therefore they say he is pleased with benè not meerly with bonum The Ordinance it self is the Index or Touchstone of unworthinesse Here is Christ offer'd and presented to thee and thou hast no faith Christ broken bleeding for sinne and thou hast no repentance Christ for spiritual nourishment and thou hast no appetite The Covenant is sealed and thou art no confederate strengthening and refreshing grace convey'd and thou art a dead man Communion of Christs body and bloud and thou art no member in Union with him How unsatiable art thou to the Ordinance and therefore eatest and drinkest unworthily § 4 This word unworthily may he taken two wayes Privative and Contrary Taken privatively it is as much as not worthily not suitably to the Nature and Use of the Ordinance Taken contrarily it is as much as wickedly so we say a man deals unworthily that is basely unjustly injuriously In the first sense He that hath no spiritual grace and therefore cannot exercise it or he that hath some but doth not exercise
it may come unworthily for the words Take ye eat ye do denote and so require the exercise and acting of our graces such as have no grace can exercise none as a dead body without life cannot exercise an act of life it cannot take and eat Hear what the Schoolman saith Statum gratiae c. that a state of holinesse and grace is necessary to the worthy receiving of this Sacrament And I believe the ancient Fathers were of this sense by the order of Baptism the Sacrament of Regeneration going before the Supper an Ordinance of corroboration and this Rule speaks plainly no man unregenerate receives this Sacrament worthily It 's a Doctrine of hard digestion but hard wedges cleave hard knots make that the point of your examination § 5 Such as have some grace and do not exercise it but are either stupid or presumptuous they have a wedding garment but do not put it on Pride and presumption of grace betrayes many a man to fin and to come to this Table unworthily These Corinthians were most blown up of any and they are punisht for eating and drinking unworthily Let no Christian be secure as if he could not come unworthily and so neglect the trimming of his Lamps The best swimmers are soonest drown'd I would not crush the least spark of grace I mean by having grace that spark in the flax and by exercise the very smoak of that spark Christ would not let them be drown'd whom he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o ye of little faith he exercised his faith that Matth. 8. 26. said Lord I believe help my unbelief In the second sense taken contrary unworthily is He that comes to this Table with a conscience imbrued in guilt without remorse or lives in practice and custom of foul sins and lusts we have such as come out of the adulterous bed newly stept off the ale-bench their hands are full of bribes and extortions their mouths belch out lying swearing and revenge they come to the Sacrament in superstition to be shriven to sin again not in repentance to be forgiven to go away and sin no more their prosanenesse dreams of a cure not of a conQuest they are willing to leave their sins upon Christs back only while they go and fetch more There is a wretched crew of such Communicants that make conscience of the Sacrament and make no conscience of those sins they live in Judas came impudently and in the purpose of horrible sinne Parta timeat qui paria audet saith Novarine Let them fear the like that dare do the like God was not pleased with them that did eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink the Reason is given they were idolaters and committers of fornication and other enormous sinnes 1 Cor. 10. And who you will say can come without sinne I say there are remaining sinnes in the regenerate but not reserved sinnes If you hold the course and custom of those sinnes which your conscience cannot but tell you of you do but adde the sinne of receiving unworthily to the rest of your sinnes and blow up the fire of Gods wrath the hotter against you why then you say better stay away then come to load our selves with more guilt If you will not come becaUse you will not repent and cast off your sinnes you proclaim your just condemnation in preferring your sinnes before Christ Jesus If ye come without true repentance you eat and drink your own damnation nothing can lead you out of this labyrinth but repentance and conversion Therefore as the Prophet said to some that desired the day of the Lord To what end is it for you It 's darkness and not light so shall I say to many that are forward to rush into the Lords Table without fear To what end is it for you The bread and wine ye eat and drink is but your own condemnation Unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to Amos 5 18. take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and art not reformed Psal 50. 16 17 CHAP. XXX The CaUse of this Sinne viz. Not discerning the Lords Body § 1 2. THe caUse of this sinne of eating unworthily is not discerning the Lords body ver 29. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make difference between one thing and another Act. 15. 9. Heb. 5. 14. and in this place to discern and put a difference between two and those two things as the common streame runs are common bread and wine and this Bread and Cup of the Lord which are imploy'd to another Use and end than promiscuous and common bread at your own tables for this is called the Bread of the Lord the Body of Christ in respect of signification and Use I finde no fault with this exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Justin We receive not this Bread as common bread nor this Cup as common wine which hath no other Use than to refresh the body I say I finde no fault but why may not Not discerning the Lords Body signifie thus much Not minding the body of Christ signified by the Bread but looking all upon the shell or sign and not the kernel or inward thing which should be regarded with greatest intention Let me not offend in the terms of this distinction §. 2. What it is not to discerne the Lords Body speculatively § 2 There is a speculative discerning of the Body of Christ and there is a practical The speculative discerning is the notion or knowledge of the signification of the outward elements That the Bread and Wine do represent Christs Body and Bloud That the Bread broken represents his Body broken c. This is an easie piece of knowledge as easie as to know that a picture or figure do represent such a man and there is no great measure of knowledge to construe all parts or rites of the Sacrament into a true meaning In this sense not to discern the Lords body is directly to inhere and stick in the bread and wine as bread and wine and to take the picture for the man It may be there be some such bruitish ignorants that discorn not the meat from the dish nor the marrow from the bone such as these are are fit to be excluded becaUse where there is no Analogy holden there can be no Sacrament The Analogy I say between the outward Sacrament and inward thing must either be known or it is to us no Sacrament For a similitude resemblance or Analogy must be between two things at least and therefore those that in a blinde and bruitish ignorance know nothing but the outward part do not properly receive a Sacrament but are like the carnal Jews that knew not the meaning of their Sacrifices or of those types of Christ which they had The brazen Serpent was Christ the Rock they drank of was Christ but many of them dream'd not of him in the Use of them I do not
believe these Corinthians men of such knowledge were such bruits for the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 16. speaks to them as wisemen who knew this saying The Bread we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ c. Therefore §. 3. What it is not to discerne the Lords Body practically § 3 The practical discerning of the Lords body is when the body and bloud of Christ are so minded and intended as to compose the inward man and the outward behaviour of the Communicant into such a posture of spirit and carriage as is suitable to Christs body and bloud there offered and exhibited unto faith and the not discerning the Lords body is when the behaviour is so loose and rude the inward man so discomposed and carnal as that interpretative they may be said not to minde or not to discern the Lords body So we would say of one whose carriage is wanton and loose in the presence of his fathers corpse lying in presence in a coffin or beer you doe not minde you consider not who lies there becaUse if he did another countenance and carriage would beseem him and so the Corinthians are taxed here for such carriage of theirs as proclaim'd they had no serious thoughts no sad and fixed minde upon Christ bleeding and broken for that consideration would have bespoken another frame of spirit and forme of behaviour The result of this explication is The Apostle gives us a two-fold caUse of eating and drinking unworthily 1. If we understand not know not the Analogy or resemblance of the bread and wine to the body and bloud of Christ but stick in the rind or shell and feed only on the husks as upon common bread and common wine and resting in that as knowing not the Use or end which makes the difference which renders all bruitish ignorant people unworthy receivers And how should I make them know the danger that know not thus farre of the Use of this Ordinance Willingnesse to be taught would help it if they were not more willing to runne blindefold into the pit than proudly unwilling to discover their fillinesse and ignorance and if they be unwilling It 's no cruelty but charity to keep a blinde man from running into a pit 2. If we understand the meaning of the outward elements by rote or notional knowledge but do not seriously and with a fixed intention consider and look wishly upon Christs body and bloud represented offered and to be exhibited to our faith for this will compose our outward behaviour and inward spirit this bespeaks faith repentance affections suitable this composes us unto reverence and serious behaviour Imagine the very Body of the Lord Jesus was presented to your eye broken bruised bleeding for thy sinnes under the stroke of Gods terrible justice and so offer'd unto thee for thy salvation Would not thy soul raise up all affections and muster up all it's forces to receive him to open to him to thirst after him to admire and praise him And doth not God in this Ordinance really hold him forth to thee as such and so to be received The nature of the feast to which we are invited teaches us how to dresse our selves To a funeral we come in mourning to a marriage in a wedding-garment The very minding of the body of Christ teaches men to come worthily that is suitably and the not minding of it with fixed intention is the caUse that we come loosly carnally and so unworthily CHAP. XXXI The Aggravations of the Sinne of Vnworthy Receiving § 1 3. THe aggravation of unworthy receiving follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be holden guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord or God will judge and repute him guilty of the body of Christ unworthily received and entreated or guilty of the unworthy handling or of the contempt and violation of Christs body and blood the memorial of whose death is prophaned by your irreverence and this appointed means of your participation of it is undervalued What a high sound is there in these words He shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord and the eclypsis is left open to be filled with some fearfull word guilty of neglect of contempt of profane violation of and injury to this body the body of our Lord. For the right understanding of which phrase §. 2. What it is to be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. § 2 1. The Papists and no lesse the Lutherans doe hence infer That the very Body and Bloud of Christ is eaten and drunk by the mouth of the Communicant which they call Sacramentall eating and the reason is How else is an unworthy Receiver guilty of his Body We of our Confession that hold the Corporeal Presence of Christ under the Bread impossible as well as false do therefore inferre That that Body which is not corporally there cannot be eaten and therefore the guiltinesse of Christs Body is not by the oral eating 2. We expound it thus Whatsoever irreverence slightnesse neglect or contempt is Used by any in the celebration of this Ordinance is reputed and adjudged to redound to the very Body and Bloud of Christ As it's TReason against the State to embase their coin to abUse a Picture is dishonour to the person to hang a man in effigie or subvert ones Statue as the Romans Used are interpreted to the disgrace of the man whose they are And thus it is here by Reason of that near relation and analogy which this Bread and Cup have to Christ himself so the uncircumcised man-childe Gen. 17. 14. is said to have broken my covenant and therefore the Fathers reckon an unworthy receivers sinne to be like that of Judas the Jews the Souldiers that abUsed and dishonour'd the very Body and Bloud of Christ and this is a peculiar guilt that attends upon the celebration of this Ordinance wherein Christ condescends to come so near us by offering his Body and Bloud to us and this condescention to be neglected and refUsed Think of this and measure not the sinne by your own apprehension of it but by the account which God makes of it who accounts all them that come unworthily to vilifie the Body the sufferings of his Sonne our Lord and to despise the Seal of that gracious Covenant which we make our selves believe we doe not do The result from hence is § 3 1. The sins of wicked Christians against Gospel-Ordinances are of highest nature and incurre greater guilt It 's said of Christians That after illumination and taste fall away they crucifie to themselves again the Sonne of God and put him to open shame Heb. 6. 6. And they that sin wilfully after the knowledge of the truth are said to have trodden under foot the Sonne of God and counted the bloud of the Covenant a common thing and to have done despight to the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. 19 26. A meer Heathen is out of capacity of guiltinesse of these high sinnes He
blinde and unworthy the Remedy and Reformation of which inveterate abUse and the prevention of Separation from our Churches had no order been appointed which must have universally followed by the necessity of the thing and instigation of them that lay on the advantage were such Reasons as could enforce no lesse Nor do I know how possibly otherwise the matter could be remedied or radrest not intended to despise any that had right before and had been long admitted 3. The principal thing is that the end of this Examination be obtained though the form or manner be not punctual as namely That a man have competent knowledge of this Ordinance and be so known to have whether by good testimony of others that are able or by our acquaintance or by conference or he is a learned man a knowing man a Minister of the Word which may be justly presumed to have due knowledge as Paul presumed that Agrippa believed the Prophets I say in these cases the end of Examination is attained Nay if one should come and declare himself by confession of his Christian faith and purpose of life without any Question propounded or asked I should not so dote upon Questions and forms of Examination as not to passe such a one for a knowing man becaUse I have attained the end of all Examination which is I know that he hath knowledge competent not that I would encourage any man to break a wholsom order or establishment for the Scripture requires and the Apostle enjoyned to see order in the Church Col. 2. 5. But that I would principally intend the thing it self above the form not denying the right which he hath by his knowledge and profession nor thrusting him upon a separation meerly upon a form except in one case that a man intend to break a publick order and to destroy it by his example As if a man tear my hedge upon a just occasion I take no offence but if he purpose to let all the Swine into my corn I should oppose him 4. I could wish that all Examination were bounded and limited to such Questions as are of necessity to this Sacrament There were printed some few Questions and Answers as the rule and bounds of it some five or six years since For I dare not trust the discretion of all men without a gage And if any man should ask me such a Question as is not necessary or for a Scholar to know or to pry into my secrets I should though I could answer crave excUse I am afraid of and terribly hate auricular confession I love no step toward it and therefore I would not answer upon my own liberty 5. Though some will say I can declare my self to my Minister but not otherwise I confess the Pastour hath the greatest account to make of his people and is most concerned But what if the Church will not trust him with that report as all Ministers are not to be trusted with it such is their loosnesse in this point and too much facility And were I to chUse I had rather do it under the eye of witnesses especially in conversing with women who though in one regard their modesty hinders to speak before others yet in other regards is matter of occasion to them that are ill minded which must needs be avoided providing things honest not before God but men 6. Lastly Let men lay conscience to the point and set by passion and prejudice both examiner and examined and in humility and meeknes deny themselves to keep up some face of order in these broken times Let your thirst to this Sacrament carry you thorow a thorn-hedge and I on the other hand shall stoop low rather than a thirsty soul should want the Sacrament or be thrust on the Rock of Separation and so we shall meet at the end though differ in the way It should be a very sorry answer indeed that I would not make the best of and I hope you would not make the worst of any errour or infirmity in me I know Order in an Army as he sayes kils no body yet without it they are a Rout and not an Army FINIS THE TABLE A ABUses in Ordinances no ground for separation 30 Actions in the Lords Supper of Christ 76 Communicants 95 B BRead must be broken and why 88 Benefit of worthy receiving 314 1. Generally 1. It is of higher nature then the Elements of themselves can convey 319 2. Blessings of the Covenant are sealed and graces of the Covenant improved 320 2. Particularly 1. What God conveys 1. Christ and his benefits 322 2. The Covenant sealed 324 2. What believers receive 1 The body and bloud of Christ 326 2. Remission of sin 327 3. Communication of greater proportion of Gospel-spirit 329 C COvetousness caUse of Judas TReason 47 Counsel of God fulfilled by wicked instruments 58 Consecration of Elements by what words 81 Cups divers in the Passeover 79 D DIscipline what to be done where it cannot be duly administred 223 Discerning the Lords body what it is 338 Danger of unworthy eating 345 E ELements what they signifie 73 Must be taken severally ib. Were severally blest 77 By what words consecrated 81 Ought to be consecrated only by a Presbyter 83 Changed only in their Use 85 Whether given by Christ immediately to all 91 Inward signification of them 117 They work not physically 267 Examination of our selves required to right participation of the Lords Supper 352 Examination 3. 1. Of Men. 356 2. Of Christians ib. 3. Of Communicants 357 Motives to and Directions for it 358 Examination by Elders 370 F FAsting not necessary before the Lords Supper 29 Fitness for the Lords Supper wherein it consists 278 May be set too high or too low 279 G GRaces to be exercised in Communicants 289 1. Knowledge of Nature Vse End of this Ordinance 290 2. Christ-receiving faith 292 3. Repentance 293 4. Spiritual appetite after Christ 296 5. Love to fellow-members 297 6. Thankefulness 298 Grace that is true how differenced from counterfeits 367 Guilty of the body and bloud of Christ what 342 Ground of worthy receiving and of the Churches admission different 343 I JEwish writings and customs needfull to expound the New Testament 2 Institution best rule for Reformation 34 Words of it explained 111 Irreverent carriage reproved 277 Judas intended not Christs death 57 K KNowledge of the Nature Vse and End of this Ordinance required in a Communicant 290 L LOrds-Supper Elements of it taken from Passeover 2 Who capable of worthy receiving 20 Occasional circumstances not obliging 22 Christ the Author of it 48 Why instituted at night 63 After Supper ib. Little before betraid 66 An Ordinance of Fellowship 98 What it exhibits 120 An inner Ordinance only for believers 140 The End of it the remembrance of Christ 141 Occasions of the neglect of it 148 How Obstructions may be removed 153 How our mindes should be exercised in it 156 The great work of it to shew Christs death 167 An Ordinance to be repeated 171 Must continue till Christ come 174 A barred Ordinance 182 Who ought to be debarred 191 Not a converting Ordinance by Institution 247 Yet may occasionally convert 250 Love feasts how abUsed 30 M MIxt Communion no ground for separation 234 Motives to endeavours after right participation 300 Motives to self-examination 358 N NEcessity of teaching and learning the true meaning of the Lords-Supper 161 P PApists must have faith of miracles 86 Passeover represented Christs death 3 Why so called ib. Whether a Sacrifice 5 Christ our Passeover 6 It looked Backward as a remembrancer 8 Forward as a type 8 How it resembles Christ sacrificed 9 Christ in the Sacrament 13 Preparation for the Lords Supper 274 Q QUalification for worthy receiving false and insufficient 304 Qualifications of remembrance of Christs death 143 R REmembrance of Christs death 143 To whom it is made 145 Rites and gestures spurious in Lords-Supper 101 S SAcrament and Sacrifice how differ 5 Sacrament must resemble the thing signified 104 Consists only in the Use 106 Scriptures necessity 40 Separation not grounded on AbUses in Ordinances 30 Mixt Communions 234 Sign taken for thing signified 7 Sins of Judas and Disciples how differ'd 61 Sins scandalous what 212 Sins notorious what 213 Socinian errour 120 T TRansubstantiation its rise 128 Arguments against it 130 V UNworthy receiving a great and dangerous sin 332 The caUse of the sin Not discerning c. 337 Aggravations of the sin 341 Danger of it 345 Dangerous to Church and State 348 A godly person may receive Unworthily 285 W WOrthy and unworthy receiving 45 180 263 Worthy receiving not to be measured by success 265 What required to it 283 Benefit of it 314 Who capable of it 20 False qualifications for it 304 FINIS ERRATA PAg. 3. lin 27 r to suffer p 4. l. 18 Gerard. p. 5. l. 2. r. paterfamilias p. 6. l. 3 prius prosunt p. 8. r. § 5 6. p 8. l. 28. r. not only hrist p. 9 l. 7. r. this life-giving death of p. 22. l. 15. r. and blessing p. 33. l. 14. ◠Hebrewish with whom the c. p. 37. l. 24. r. the Lord I have received of the Lora that which also I delivered p 44. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 5◠l. 13. r. Author from him therefore l. 22. r. Schoolman saith l. 23. r. were contained p. 58. l. 13. r. saith Ames p. 77. l. 16. r. Post-coenium p. 85. l. 17. r. Marcion l. 18. 1. body l. 20. r. humane l. 22. r. being p. 93. l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 95. l. 12. r. Thus Every p. 143. l. 14. r. Benefits Benefactors
Sacraments for the bloud of Christ was to be shed ours unbloudy for the bloud is shed and our English well translates the word Passeover the Greek and Latine keep the word Pascha which gave some occasion to derive it from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer a mistake The word is Pesach from Pasach which is to leap or passe over For when Israel after long servitude in Egypt was on wing to be gone God commanded them in their several Families to kill Seh a Lamb or kid to rost it whole to eat it within doors that night to sprinkle the side and upper door-posts with the bloud not the threshold propter reverentiam significationem Christs bloud must not be trampled on and so doing they should be safe from the destroying Angel that rode circuit that night to kill all Egypts first-born but he past over all the hoUses of Israel sprinkled with bloud and hence the name Passe-over the Etymon whereof is given by God himself Exod. 12. 27. We have the kernell in this shell the marrow of this bone a Passeover as well as they but ours is Christ our Passeover is Christ saith the Text. § 2 We proceed Our Passeover Christ is or was sacrificed for us Our Passeover Christ was a true Sacrifice but whether their Passeover was a Sacrifice or no it is in Question The Papists swallow it greedily hoping thereby to prove our Supper to be both a Sacrifice and a Sacrament as their Passeover they say was but there are others both Lutheran and Calvinist as Gerald. in harmon Rivet on Exod. 12. that do not yield the Passeover a proper Sacrifice though it be so called Exo. 12. 27. It is the Sacrifice of the Lords Passeover for the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Hebrew Zabach are sometimes taken generally for mactare when there is no Sacrifice and they finde in Egypt at the first Passeover no Priest but the head of the Family or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no Altar no offering of the Lamb to God no expiation nor is it necessary that it should be a Sacrifice to type a Sacrifice for the Serpent on the Pole signified Christ crucified and so the Passeover as a Sacrament may figure out a Sacrifice as our Supper is the commemoration of a Sacrifice but not a Sacrifice On the other hand Calvin and others the Jewish Writers and many from them do hold it to be a Sacrifice and a Sacrament for the Scripture cals it Sacrifice and this bloud is shed at first by the Pater-familia's that was a Priest no other being yet consecrated in after times by the Priests or Levites and the bloud brought to the Altar as it was bloud shed to a religious end a bloud preservative from destroying Angels and therefore a proper Sacrifice What shall we say The difference between a Sacrifice and a Sacrament I 'le promise you not to puzzle you with controversies and disputes for I had rather set meat before you which you may eat then hard bones to gnaw upon The truth is a Sacrifice is something offered up to God by men a Sacrament is offered and given to man by God to be eaten or Used in his Name and so that part of the offering which is offered up to God may be called a Sacrifice and that part eaten or Used by man a Sacrament the very body and bloud of Christ was a Sacrifice no Sacrament The bread and wine as Used are a Sacrament no Sacrifice The Passeover was the figure of a true Deut. 16. 5. Sacrifice Christ and we may call it so becaUse the Scripture doth It follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the Feast What is that Ye shall finde that after the Passeover Lamb was eaten the next day began the Feast Numb 28. 16 17. and the Passeover is called Feast too Exod. 12. 15. c. and that continued seven daies kept in great festivity and solemnity but with unleavened bread the Apostle alludes hereunto Our Passeover is sacrificed therefore let us henceforth c. We that have received the sprinkling of bloud and eaten his flesh by faith live all our daies in a holy rejoycing and thanks giving which is a continuall Feast and let us cast out the incestuous Corinthians out of our Society for he is a leven ver 6 7. and let us purge out of our selves malice wickednesse c. For they are leven ver 8. that we may be a holy Congregation and a holy people and so the argument of the Apostle stands thus from the example of the Old Passeover Those for whom Christ the Passeover is sacrificed ought as holy Congregations and holy people to be unleavened with sin and wickednesse and to walk before God in an unleavened sincerity but for us Christ the Passeover is sacrificed therefore let us keep the Feast c. I have explained the words and now we shall consider this Passeover two waies 1. As a Sacrifice or figure of a Sacrifice and so it refers to Christ our Passeover Christ is sacrificed for us 2. As a Sacrament and so it relates to us and shews us our duty upon that Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the Feast The Sacrifice is given for us the Sacrament is given to us From the first Our Passeover is Christ sacrificed for us Our Passeover is Christ sacrificed for us We have a Passeover but it is Christ sacrificed And here before I shew the Analogy or resemblance between the Passeover and Christ we shall note three or four things § 3 1. They in the Old Church of Israel had Christ as well though not so clear as we 1 Cor. 10. 4. The Rock that followed our Fathers in the Wildernesse was Christ the Passeover was Christ the personall Types such as Isaac on the Wood the reall Types as their bloudy Sacrifices were Christ He was then in his swadling clouts swathed up in shadows and types and not naked as now Gal. 3. 1. those Types being anatomized unbowelled are full of Gospel full of Christ the death of Christ pecus prosunt quam fuit saith Bernard de coena Christ is the marrow in the bone the kernell in the shell yesterday and to day and the same for ever the summe and sweet of all Ordinances therefore those that say they were filled with temporall promises but had no spirituall derogate too much from them as that they were Swine filled with husks and speak a wondrous Paradox that those that had so much faith Heb. 11. should have no Christ we give them the right hand of fellowship and they were the elder brother yet we have the double portion § 4 2. Mark the form of speech Christ our Passeover that is our Paschall Lamb which is also called the Passeover Exod. 12. 31. Kill the Passeover Now the Passeover properly was the Angels passing over the Israelites hoUses and not the Lamb but we must learn to understand Sacramentall
3. This paschal Lamb must be killed the bloud taken into a basin sprinkled with hysop shall be on every door the flesh rosted with fire not eaten raw or boyl'd in water the head the legs the inwards Exod. 12. 7 8 9 22. and this may set forth unto us the unutterable sufferings of Christ both in his soul and body which the Scripture sets out to the life with such an emphasis of words I mean especially those of his soul scorched with the sense of Gods extream wrath which are exprest by words extraordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sweating like drops of bloud with expression of strong cries and tears Oh man thou understandest not the sufferings of this Passeover rosted with fire forbidden to be boyl'd in scalding water for that expresses not the sufferings in extremity and what is all this for Even to make Christ more pleasant meat to thee which if thou feed upon and with a bunch of hysop sprinkle this bloud applying it by faith eating this rosted flesh and drinking this bloud poured forth it will feast thy soul and secure thee from the wrath of God which is the next 4. The destroying Angel seeing this blood on the door posts passes over the hoUse goes and kils the Aegyptians first-born and executes Gods last plague upon them in the mean time the Israelites were safe within the protection of blood Exod. 12. 12 13. and here is the safety of those Israelites Believers that have applied by faith the blood of Jesus Christ when God shall let loose his last and final plagues upon the world they shall be safe Hell and wrath and condemnation shall not touch them When I see the blood saith he I 'le pass over you Exod. 12. 13 23. nothing else will save you God looks at nothing but the blood of Christ upon you Happy they that before God ride his circuit of destruction to make a cry in all Aegypt are gotten under the Sanctuary of blood for then the plague shall not be upon you when I smite the Land of Aegypt Exod. 12. 13. 5. After the Israelites had been secured from the stroke of that dismall night then presently they march away are hired by the Aegyptians to be gone the four hundred and thirty years were out and God being punctual in his times finishes their captivity that hour and begins to fulfill his promises that he had made to them of bringing them to their promised Land Exod. 12. 31 32 33 c. 41 42. and here we see that when a soul hath long lien in the base bondage under sinne and the devil and comes to take hold of Christ and is sprinkled with his blood and enters Covenant with God in Christ then is he set free from his bondage and then he goes out of Aegypt and then all the promises begin to open upon him and he sets upon his heavenly journey and no Pharaoh can hinder him any longer All the sweet promises of peace and comfort and hope begin to be made good to him for they are all Yea and Amen in Christ the Devil and all his power and instruments cannot hold him the blood is upon him from that hour he is a free-man to own no Lord but God and yet still he hath a Wilderness to go thorow but he is miraculously carried as Israel was thorow it but this must not be expected that they should eat the Passeover and stay in Aegypt still they must go out of their bondage that are sprinkled with this blood by the blood of thy Covenant I have sent out thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water saith he in a like case Zech. 9. 11. and haply this Type is yet to be fulfilled in the Gospel Churches whom the Lord will deliver out of the hands of their oppressing tyrants Pope or Turk not by the Sword but Ordinances of his Covenant and then if they shall pursue a people under blood as Pharaoh did there will be a red Sea to swallow them horse and man And so much for the Passeover as referring to Christ our Sacrifice for that it doth so is plain by this That which is said of the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12. 46. is expresly applied to and fulfilled in Christ John 19. 36. So much for the Passeover as a Sacrifice or as the figure of our Sacrifice and theirs Christ Jesus § 8 Now we proceed to consider it as a Sacrament not ours but theirs nor yet a figure of our Sacrament in Considered as a Sacrament propriety though often so called in transitu and much contended for by Papists For what Jew could ever have found out our Supper figured in that Passeover and in what propriety can our Sacrament be the Sacrament of another Christ is the res Sacramenti of theirs and ours there they meet as the inward Circumcision and Regeneration is the thing of their Circumcision and our Baptism but that one Sacrament should be the figure of another is absurd and void of Reason As two pictures of one man are both resemblances of that one man but one is not the picture of another and yet becaUse the Passeover hath the common nature of a Sacrament doth set forth the same Christ as our Supper and that the Apostle draws an Argument from it to perswade Gospel-Christians to holiness Therefore we shall consider what significancy there is in it for though the signs be not ours yet the significancy is § 9 First The Passeover or Paschal Lamb as killed and rosted and the blood sprinkled was a Sacrifice The signification of the Passeover as eaten by the Israelites and feasted upon it was a Sacrament and in after-times both by Jewish Records and by Scripture I conceive it appears 2 Chro. 35. 11. Ezra 6 20. that the Levites killed the Paschals the Priests sprinkled the bloud on the Altar and then they took the Lamb to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Families or Chambers in Jerusalem and there did eat it so in our Supper there is a Sacrifice slain and offer'd up for atonement and that is Christ his body and bloud and then there is an eating and drinking of this Sacrifice in the Sacrament of bread and wine as in many Sacrifices of the Law there was first an offering up to God and then a feasting on the remainder we have a true Sacrifice Christ offer'd up to God for us we have a true Sacrament as that Sacrifice is eaten and drunk by us the oblation belongs to God to propitiate and redeem the communication belongs to us to be refresht and nourisht their eating the Passeover was no Sacrifice but a Sacrament our eating and drinking bread and wine is no Sacrifice but a Sacrament their killing and rosting of the Lamb made it eatable Christ his sacrificing of himself for us renders him fit nourishment to us Had he not been a Sacrifice offer'd up for us what profit had there been in eating and drinking sacramentally and spiritually that body
our Saviour rather have sent for John Baptist to have baptized him rather than himself have come from Nazareth to Bethabara which some compute Hildersam in Joh. 4. Lect. 26 p. 122. fourteen Dutch miles that 's of ours fifty six If that generation of vipers that came also to Johns Baptism had either polluted the water or the Ordinance unto Christ Matth. 3. 7 14. But of this more afterwards § 8 Obs 4 The abUses reproved were such as depraved the Ordinance and the corruptions such as put themselves forth in the Communicants at the very time of their participation The Lords Supper was so intermedled with their festival cheer as the difference between the Lords body and their own repast was not truly made They discerned not the Lords body Their corruptions which at all times are blame-worthy as divisions intemperance slighting the poor brethren do now appear most odious and unsuitable I note hereupon That sinne never doth us more hurt than in frustrating and disabling the Use and fruit of Ordinances This is not saith he to eat the Lords Supper vers 20. You come together not for the better but for the worse vers 17. We are the worse when we bring such sins as carnalize the heart and disapten us for spiritual fruition and enjoyment An outward reverence as it is an argument of a serious spirit so it is becoming the Ordinances of the Gospel The meeting of the Church is the greatest meeting in the world the irreverent Use of the Lords Supper call'd for a sudden Reformation Other things saith the Apostle will I set in order when I come vers ult but this cannot stay it 's a matter of importance that the reverence of this Ordinance be preserv'd bring not hither then the behaviour of a Tavern or of your meeting at the Hall of your Company though grave but the deportment of Christians that come to the best and greatest Table in the world It 's true I could worship Christ though lying in a manger but I should not put him in a manger if I had a better room for him in my Inne Let all things be done decently or beautifully 1 Cor. 14. ult § 9 The words are For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you A good recommendation of his Doctrine a good preparative to make way for Cameron Myrothec in loc Horac lib. 2. Satyr 8. Aeneid l. 2. their acceptance of it I received it from the Lord. The expression is Hebrewish with whom the Teacher is said to give Prov. 9. 9. The Scholar to receive and the Latine owns both the words in that sense That which I have learned I also have delivered This very Doctrine he had taught them by word of mouth but now upon occasion of their swerving from it he repeats and writes them a copy of it for perpetual memory Beza is in this place a Hypercritick from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and will have it thus Ut à Domino profectum I received it upon report as from the Lord It weakens not the credit of the Doctrine whether the Apostle had it by immediate revelation as most say or by report of eye-witnesses or both He did receive it from the Lord and from the Lord he hands it to the Church and therein as Estius saith he is a fourth Evangelist for John Estius in loc recites not the institution of the Supper though he speak upon the borders of it and so Paul makes the fourth relator The Observations hence are § 10 1. The best way to redress and remedy abUses and corruptions crept into this Ordinance is to reduce it to the Justum regulum adjubet Martyr Institutio Christi certa regula Calvin Lords Institution This the Apostle here doth having opened the nature of the disease he applies this medicine For I have received of the Lord c. Our Saviour had Used this way upon the Question of Divorce which was grown very abusive and stood in need of regulation he tries it by the standard of the first institution yea though the authority and antiquity of Moses was pleaded But saith Christ from the beginning it was not so Mat. 19. 8. Though errour be old yet truth is first All corruptions of Ordinances are deviations from their institution and therefore the false copy must be corrected by the true original The institution of Christ is the certain Rule He instituted it for a Communion therefore O Corinthians your divisions and contempt of the poor is unsuitable He instituted it as a Sacrament of his body and blood for spiritual repast therefore your intemperance and common Use of it at your feasts is not agreeable to the nature and Use of it as the standard discovers false weights and measures and a straight rule a crooked line so the institution of our Lord corruptions The Popish-masse would not be found in the masse if it were tried by this Rule but we must distinguish between Christs institution of this Sacrament and his celebration of it though at the same time The institution shews the nature and Use of it and abides as a perpetual Rule He took bread he blest he broke he gave c. His celebration of it was by Reason of the Passeover attended by very many occasional circumstances after Supper in a private room in such a gesture to such a number in unlevened bread c. It 's no corruption to vary in these occasional circumstances except we must alwayes keep Passeovers too I show'd you before out of Jewish Writers That the Passeover of after-times even that of Christ varied in such particulars from the first Passeover in Egypt without corruption and so this Supper in all ages hath varied from the first celebration in such occasionals He saith Naz anzen Naz. Nat. 40. celebrated the Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in an upper room we in our hoUses of prayer he after we before Supper he before his death we after his Resurrection and so accordingly all Divines It is universalis notio saith Chamier an universal notion Chamier de Euchar. l. 8. c. 7. that the circumstances of an individual action be distinguisht from those that pertain to the Law thereof and these may be of good Use for instruction not of necessary Use for imitation I say with learned Hooker Hooker Eccles Polit. l. 5. p. 366 To do throughout every like circumstance with Christ were to erre more from the purpose he aimed at then we now do by not following them with so nice strictness What is superstition but to make that necessary which is indifferent and that a part of worship which is an accident to it So Constantine the Emperour defer'd his Baptism and almost mist it becaUse he would have been baptized in Jordan as Christ was Hold the institution but be not superstitious without a command or hoc facite in the circumstances that fall out at
First The Lord Jesus is Authour the Mediatour of the new Covenant the Testator of the new Testament appoints the seal of that Covenant and ratifies that Testament with his bloud He is the Lord to whom is committed the Soveraignty and Government of his Church therefore he makes Officers Laws and Ordinances The Lords day and the Lords Supper are particularly in Scripture called by Rev. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 11. his name The Lords The Lords day ex illius resurrectione festivitatem suam habere coepit took its festivity Epist 119. from his Resurrection as Austin The Lords Supper is the memorial of his death so his death and resurrection a Supper and a day to memorize them As he is Lord so his Laws binde whatsoever they be though Abraham be commanded to kill his sonne for the Laws of God have not their obligation from the quality of the Law but from the authority of the Lord the Law-giver As he is Jesus a Saviour so his Laws are benefits and liberties tending to salvation as the Laws of your City are freedoms and your freedoms laws so you obey them â—s Laws enjoy them as freedoms they are our benefit and our duty His invitation is to a Supper it 's the invitation of a Lord it 's the Supper of a Saviour § 2 Secondly There must be institution of a Sacrament The elements are cyphers till the institution make them figures Institution is as necessary to a Sacrament as superscription is to money for it is created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things that did not appear Sacraments are of that rank of things Quae nihil sunt sine institutione saith Chamier they were bread and wine Chamier de Euchar. l. 7. c. 10 indeed before but they were nothing to that relation which Christ put upon them a seal of a thousand a year is made of a peny-worth of wax What was a piece of brasse to the healing of a mortal sting Nothing till God put an Use upon it that all that lookt to it being bitten should be healed § 3 Thirdly There must be a divine institution to make a Sacrament The Legatee doth not seal the will but the Testatour the Granter seals the Deed not the Grantee the Delinquent seals not the pardon but the Keeper of the seal Sola divina institutio facit Sacramentum Montac origin part 1. pag. 73. saith a learned man Take that away and it ceaseth to be a Sacrament The Supream Power only can coyn money in other its câ—pitâ—l All the whole Church together cannot make a Sacrament then it should be the Churches Supper not the Lords and it is theirs to eat but not to make Ejus est signa Synopsis de coena §. 7. gratiae addere cujus est gratiamtribuere He may adde the signs of grace that can give the grace There is a four-fold word requisite to a Sacrament 1. A word of institution which appoints the matter and form 2. A word of Sanctification or blessing to set them apart from common Use 3. A word of Promise of some good to the Communicant and so we have here a promise of the Lords body and bloud The promises of Sacraments as is well Observed by the Centuriators are vestitae Centur. mag ceâ—t 1. promissiones cloathed promises He that believes shall be saved is a naked promise He that eats this bread c. shall have Christ as a cloathed promise 4. A word of Command as we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buckler Prâ—t evidence in Baptism so hoc facite here as a learned man Let the Word be added to the Element and you have a Sacrament Austin § 4 Fourthly It 's the institution that gives the nature and efficacy to a Sacrament He that mints the money sets the value and price upon it A Sacrament is an outward and visible signe but it is not a natural but a voluntary sign nor yet a bare signe as the picture of Hercules is a signe of Hercules and no more we must not make the Sacraments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 empty names empty figures empty representations that resemble and signifie something and no more as the Sacrament was a crucifix and the Supper painted resemblances of meat and drink this is a hungry feast he must have his stomack in his eye that is fed with it but the Sacraments are signacula symbola seals and pledges or instruments offering exhibiting and making present to our faith the very benefits which they signifie the very body and bloud of Christ is not only represented but presente to a believer and brought home to his soul yet they are not natural instruments Montac orig part 1. p. 67. in which the inward grace is contained as in a vessel as the Romish Praesentialists and Schoolmen dream like plaisters which have in themselves a virtue or power to heal a wound or a medicine to expell poison but they are moral and voluntary means or instruments serving to the purpose ex destinatione by appointment as the brazen Serpent to heal the sting Bernard hath writ upon it As saith he in vestitures and possessions Bernard de câ—â—â—â—a and assurances do pass by the staff and ring Annulus non valet qnicquam haereditas est quam quaerebam The ring avails little I seek the inheritance that is confirmed and convey'd by it so we say the Lands Inheritance c. do passe by the great Seal for so I come to have and hold and they are mine by it Thus the Sacrament is a seal of confirmation and conveyance of the inward grace to the hand or faith of a believing soul And as really as the estate doth passe by the Seal into your right and possession not by any inward work or power of the Seal in it self but by the Use it 's of in sealing and conveying so really is Christ and all his tReasure passed over unto you that receive him by faith not in respect of any worthiness or vertue in the very outward Sacrament but in and by the Use it 's of by Christs appointment to seal confirm and convey that excellent place speaks my minde fully 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we bless Is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The Bread which we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ He saith not barely representation as a signe but communion or participation as a conveying seal I declare this to you becaUse some believe too much and think the outward Sacrament works I know not how like a plaister by some vertue contained in them that is opere operato as they barbarously speak and others believe-too little as if they were meer and empty signs and resemblances of Christs body and bloud as if a woman should receive a ring meerly becaUse the picture of her beloved is engraven on it and not as a ring of espousals really sealing and confirming the contract and assuring
shadow represented so shall this continue in the Church till the person come alive which is here represented dying and then an end of this too 2. At the end of the paschal Supper to shew that Jansen Harm p. 105. in this Sacrament there is no bodily repast intended for they had already supped but a spiritual refection of the soul The rosted Lamb might afford the guests a belly-full so the Religion and Ordinances and Promises in the Law were more outward and bodily but this Sacrament of the Gospel is an after Supper modicum full of spiritual signification but not so stuffie for outward matter that we may prepare not as Austin saith our months but our faith and expect to satisfie not the hunger and thirst of the body as they might but the hunger and thirst of the soul which in this little model may finde enough and over-measure The Temple-service among the Jews was an Heb. 9. 1 10. Rom. 2. penult outward Religion and as their Ordinances were outward so they generally were Jews outwardly we wonder that they so little saw and tasted the marrow and kernel of them and stuck in the rinde feeding on the crust of most Ordinances as if a man should think the cloth would heal the sore and not the plaister spread upon it but if we take estimate of them by our selves we shall finde that most of us should have been as they in that case for God having ordained for us outward Sacraments for number few for Observation easie for signification excellent as Austin speaks Epist 118. we are for the general but outward in them though we be clearlier taught what is within them yet we are in the Use of them but outwardly reverent as they and do not spiritually and inwardly enjoy the kernell of them which the Apostle took notice of when he said Not discerning the Lords body and so they are seals indeed but rather seals of a Letter which shut it up than seals of a Deed or Covenant conveying the Estate to us 3. Though it be not a Reason why this Ordinance was appointed after the Passeover-Supper yet I may Observe it to you in this place that hence it is called The Lords Supper from the Author it 's called the Lords and from the Time it 's called a Supper being celebrated in the night and at the close of Supper Some later Maldonat in Mat. 26. 26. Estius in 1 Cor. 11. 20. Jesuites do tax the novelty of the name and affirm Nullus in Scripturâ locus c. No place of Scripture cals it so for the term in this Chapter refers say they to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts of Love Used with it they may say as well that Lords Table 1 Cor. 10. 21. refers to them too which we believe not it is a spiritual feast that which Matthew cals a dinner Matth. 22. 4. is called by Luke a Supper Luk. 14. 16. but we call it the Lords Supper though it be received in the morning or any other time of day with reference to the time of the first institution as the Passeover in after-times was called the Passeover not becaUse there was any destroying Angel past over their hoUses every year but in respect of the first Passeover in Aegypt and in memory of that wherein there was a passing over the Israelites hoUses and a destroying of the Aegyptians first-born I could name to you many other names that this Sacrament bears in Scripture and ancient Authours farre more ancient then their Missa which is but once found in Ambrose and in none before him or the Sacrament of the Altar as they call it but I insist not now on names He that will may see them in Casaub Exercit 16. § 2 Secondly Why the Lord Jesus ordained it a very little before he was betrayed 1. He now seals his will which men Use to do Paraeus in loc when they are in sight of death This is the New Testament saith he in my bloud when men make their Wils they bequeath their body to the earth Christ bequeaths his body and bloud to us He bestows his body natural on his body mystical the Church The Testatour is Christ Heb. 9. 16. The Legacy bestowed is himself and all spiritual benefits with him My body and bloud The heirs are all believers Disciples The Executours for the outward part are those to whom he saith Hoc facite do this execute this my Will The Witnesses are the Evangelists and Saint Paul Here is a perfect sealing then of a Testament which is of force by the death of the Testatour and nothing must be added or taken away for it is a Will sealed and Gal. 3. 15. publisht 2. To leave it as his ultimum vale or last memorial Aug. Epist 118 of precious relish and esteem when men are going then they give memorial gifts unto their friends then they give their pictures Keep this for me Remember me when you see me not When men are dying then they pull their ring off their finger and leave it with their beloved Oh what impression have the verba morientis the word of a dying man As if a man saith Chrysostome should say to children These were your fathers dying words This was his last charge This he spoke and died and there is nothing that is remembred with more awe more affection than the last words the last gift of dying friends 3. To testifie his dearest love to his Church and people that when death was in sight and all the unspeakable sorrows shame and suffering were now ready to invade him when injuries from men were ready to load him and the justice of God upon sinne to be demonstrated on him all these did not make him forget his love His love to his poor people overtop'd all He loved them to the end Joh. 13. 2. and exprest it at the last and when he was in expectation of utmost sorrow he forgets not his love to his 4. To fortifie his Disciples against temptations which were now rushing in upon them when they should presently see their Lord led away as a prisoner to be arraigned and themselves scattered and discouraged Peter denying bloudy enemies insulting then to fortifie their hearts Let not your hearts be troubled Joh. 1◠1. He administers this Sacrament to strengthen the Union and Communion between him and them and to tie them to him so fast that the gates of hell might not prevail against them that their faith might not fail though it fainted as was said to Peter and though they fall yet they might not utterly be cast down as the Psalmist saith They had before eaten the body which they after saw broken and drunk the bloud which they after saw shed The broken body was not theirs that broke it The bloud shed was not theirs that shed it but it was theirs that had before eaten it and drunk it so God underprops his weak servants before
Christ-applying Ordinance He came into the hand of murderers that slew him that crucified and wounded and dying he might be taken in the hand of thy faith faith like the hand hath a faculty of working and bringing forth obedience but like the hand again it hath a taking and receiving faculty which is the most excellent the justifying act of faith taking Christ Take ye is not a bare permission but a command it 's our duty as well as our benefit to receive Christ and consequently not to receive him is both sinne and misery §. 11. Of Sacramentall Eating and Drinking Christs Body and Blood § 11 2. Eat ye drink ye all of it Christ speaks and repeats often Joh. 6. the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood at which some of his followers took offence conceiving him carnally and literally which he told them were to be understood spiritually ver 63. There is a spirituall eating and drinking Christ his flesh and blood by faith only which is extra-symbolicall or without the Sacrament for that Doctrine was delivered a year or two before this Sacrament was instituted and it is such as without which ye have no life in you ver 53. which may not be said of all that never received this Sacrament but that spirituall eating and drinking is here symbolized as that flesh and blood is For the understanding of which let us neither be like the carnall Israelite that did eat Manna and drink of the Rock but neither saw nor tasted Christ in them nor on the other side let us be like the Capernaites Joh. 6. that had a gross apprehension of eating very flesh and drinking mans blood but rightly conceive the meaning thus 1. The first and not the least thing is this that This is the one and only Ordinance under the Gospel where eating and drinking are Sacred and Religious acts for in all the world among all sorts of men friendship fellowship communion are maintained and shown in feasting together eating and drinking together and our God never let his Church be without such an Ordinance wherein he and his people might testifie this fellowship and communion In the Law there was not only a Lamb rosted but in all their Shelamim or Peace-offerings they that brought them had part to feast upon and make good cheer as at all their feasts they rejoyced before the Lord God bidding them to his own Table to feed upon Sacrifices for they that eat of the Sacrifices are partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 10. 18. Rev. 3. 20. I will come in and sup with him and he with me Thus God entertains his friends invites them to eat and drink with him upon his own Sacrifices upon Christ the great Sacrifice It 's Gods own cheer provided for such Abrahams as are the friends of God What a favour and condescension of God is this What honour and dignity is dust and she s graced with to sit together and feast and have fellowship with God in an Ordinance of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of this Sacrifice Jesus Christ Nay and further yet It was a custom in Covenants making that the Confederates feasted eat and drank together therefore Berith the Hebrew word Covenant may come of Barah to eat and so still and further it is implied that this is a Covenant solemnity an eating and drinking of confederates together God smels a savour of rest in the Sacrifice of Christ and we eat and drink of that flesh and blood sacrificed unto God and renew our Covenant with him and he with us by mutuall feeling he to be ours we his I am so taken up with this that if no more be said I should be satisfied but there is more 2. That Christ is full and perfect nourishment of the soul both meat and drink Joh. 6. 55. My flesh is meat indeed my blood is drink indeed farre beyond Manna which yet was called Angels food as the substance is beyond the type sights may please the eye sounds or airs the ear but they are not so necessary as nourishment unto life life cannot be maintained without nourishment growing bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hypocrates growing Christians stand in need of much nourishment to bring them up to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stature of a full Christ decaying Christians stand in need of nourishment to repair decaies Every life be it never so little must be nourisht so necessary is Christ to every Christian and still more of Christ for his meat is Christ his drink is Christ As nothing so necessary so neither so sweet and pleasant sights are pleasing to the eye and smels to the sense but nothing is so close and delightfull as the meat and drink to the sense of tasting Christ is sweet to faith as meat and drink to hunger There is no content comparable to the receiving of Christ He is Manna the best Bread and Wine the best drink The fruition of the joys of heaven is set forth by the pleasure of eating and drinking Luk. 22. 30. That you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome It was experimentally said of Galeacius that all the delights of this world are not comparable to an hours enjoyment of Christ Jesus 2. No act of ours could so well have signified the close and intimate union of Christ with a Beleever We may see at a distance and hear and smell but not taste nor eat nor drink the meat and drink is concorporated into us and is made flesh and bone with us Job 6. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwels in me and I in him Christ must be present to the faith of a Christian for we cannot eat and drink that which is absent This union with Christ is reall though mysticall and it is lively drawn forth in this Ordinance under the resemblance of eating and drinking We hardly conceive and hardly beleeve it but when we see the graft live we are sure it 's knit and we may be as sure of our union with Christ by his spirituall sap of Grace which we finde is in us 4. This command Take and eat goes before the pronouncing of the words This is my Body Aquinas saith it is a Hysteron Proteron but I shall not take his word let 's hear him speak that was present an ear witness an eye witness Matth. 26. 26 27. Take eat This is my Body Drink ye all of it For this is my Blood what stands this For for if drink ye did not go before This Observation is noted by almost all Divines from Peter Martyr and Mr Hooker makes Use of it thus That Christ is not present in the Elements but in the worthy receiver The order of the words shews it first eat and drink then it follows for this is my Body and this is my Blood an ingenious observation that cuts the hamstrings of the Popish or corporall presence in or under the outward signes as if
the Apostles did not herein vary for they sung a Hymn at the close as Matth. 26. 30. which example I need not stand to improve against the Anti-psalmists of this age There are severall pertinent meditations that may fully take up the time of the action with great advantage and benefit to our souls as namely 1. The dreadfulness of Gods justice which with a terrible stroak did smite the great Shepherd for our sins the least dram of it would have sunk us to all eternity 2. The cursed nature of sinne that so exasperates the holy God and makes such a breach between God and the creature as can never be made up but by the broken body of the Lord of Glory 3. What it cost to redeem a soul a mass of gold as big as the whole earth not valuable with one drop of this blood 4. What an infinite love broke forth that God rather than let our souls be lost would send his eternall Son and make him sin for us 5. What a great work it is to reconcile a sinner to his God all names of men and Angels are nothing to it all their sufferings would not pay a penny of this debt which is not dissolved by any blood but of the Lord of Glory 6. That God would not only pardon sin by giving forth a generall pardon as a King pardons rebels but so pardon as might even melt the hardest heart and for ever humble and silence and satisfie it by the love of God and the sufficiency of that Sacrifice whose vertue extends to thousands and lasts alwaies 7. That the gratious Covenant of God made with all that beleeeve in Christ is sealed and ratified with such blood as there needs no doubt of the validity of the Covenant though one man bad as many sins on him as all the world 8. That Gods way of saving man by a Mediatour the death of a Mediatour doth oblige man to be the thankfullest creature in the world Angels that sin'd not have need of no Mediatour Angels that sin'd have none man that sin'd and therefore needs one hath one given to him The man Christ Jesus 9. That as God gave Christ for you so he gives him to you that he that was your Sacrifice offered up to God might in this Sacrament be offered unto you as meat and drink as spirituall repast that as we live by Christ so we may live upon him being entertained as confederates to feast with God upon the Sacrifice offered up unto him It is a fruitfull field of Meditation through which ye may walk the time of celebration and then breathe out your Meditations in a Song of praise as the close and musick of this heavenly Feast Concerning which Hymn wherewith the Jews did usually close the coenam apolyticam or dimissory Supper calling it the Hallel from the first word of it Hallelujah you may consult not only the Jewish Writers but our Learned men Cameron Myroth in Matth. 16. 30. Drusius in Matth. 26. 30. Hugo Broughton in Dan. pag. 46. beside Paulus Burgensis Gerard Harm Fol. 178. col 3. who do also point out to us the 113. 114. Psalms as that Hymn for though some others do rather conceive it a new Hymn composed by our Saviour Grotius in Matth. 26. and the 17 Chapter of St John to be it we finde no Reason to go with them in that opinion both becaUse our Saviour did not easily vary from the Rite or Custom received nor could the Disciples have sung with him in consort except we imagine such a praelection of it to them as is Used by us now a daies which will not be proved CHAP. XIII How much it concerneth Ministers to Teach and all to Learn the true meaning of this Ordinance 1 COR. 11. 26 27. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the death of the Lord untill he come Wherefore whosoever doth eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord c. VVHen this Ordinance of the Supper is suitable to the Institution and the Communicant is suitable to the Ordinance then all is right Of the former I have acquitted my self by setting forth the nature Use end of this Sacrament according to our Lords Institution recited by the Evangelists and by St Paul in this place § 1 Now I am to proceed unto the later which is to render the Communicant suitable to the Ordinance of which our Saviour did not in the Institution directly speak but the Apostle in this place speaks more fully and directly unto than in any other place is found the abUses and distempers of the Corinthians leading him most properly to it and though in Popish Churches the grand errour and abUse lies in the unsutableness of their Mass to the Institution yet in Reformed Churches who endeavour to imitate the pattern in the Mount the common sin lies in the unsutableness of the Communicant to the Ordinance and so the point of worship stands between us and the Papists much alike as it stood between the Samaritans and the Jews of old The Samaritans Used a false worship Ye worship ye know not what Joh. 4. 22. The Jews had a true worship but were carnall and for the most part formall worshippers The Feast is prepared drest and ordered according to the Institution of Christ Now the guests are to be surveyed and tried whether they come worthily or unworthily by the test or ticket of the Apostles Doctrine following to the end of the Chapter of which I shall say this in generall 1. That the Apostles Doctrine in this place is properly calculated for the rectifying the abUses and unworthiness of the Corinthians as ye may see at the 33 34 verses but so also most other Scriptures occasionally written are of generall Use their latitude is greater than their particular direction 2. That the Apostle spends the most of his Doctrine upon eating and drinking unworthily setting home the sin and danger of it for the occasion viz. the sinne of the Corinthians required it and yet doubtless the point of worthiness should in order of nature be first stated before unworthiness can be understood for how should I know sinne except first I knew a law of duty how a crooked line except I know what is straight and therefore to attent consideration the Apostle will be found to begin there as I shall shew you afterwards 3. That the Apostle in setting home the sinne and danger of eating and drinking unworthily speaks thunder and lightning in very pertinent but yet new and unusuall phrases which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have no brother in any other part of Scripture as guilty of the body and blood of the Lord eating and drinking judgement or damnation c. full of terrour and fit for compunction These of the 26 verse are the words of St Paul who having recited what Christ did and said at the first celebration and institution of this Sacrament goes about to set
allude to the Haggada as it was called by the Jewish custom at the Passeover and that was a set and solemn declaration or annunciation of the Lords passing over the hoUses sprinkled with blood of their slavery and hard bondage in Aegypt and their deliverance thence teaching us in this our Gospel-Passeover to shew forth our hard bondage under sinne and the Lords justice passing over all the souls sprinkled with this blood and thereby delivering us from our spirituall Aegypt § 3 The Use of this Point is to call upon all Communicants hoc agere to be intent upon and taken up with this employment Shew ye forth the Lords death this must be your actuall exercise at the time of eating and drinking the death of Christ must fill your eyes your ears your lips your thoughts If any of you could see Christ dying the sight would wholly take you up and you come as near to see him dying as an Ordinance can bring you in a representation If any where that Psal 2. 11. takes place here Rejoyce with trembling Tremble for you see the weight of sinne upon the Lord Christ and the severity and wrathfull indignation of God against sinne both those terrours cannot be seen in a clearer glass than the death of the Lord Rejoyce for the love that delivers up Christ is unparallel'd and the death of the Lord is succedaneous a Sacrifice death the Sacrifice bears the sinne and takes it off you there is a nunc dimitiis for all you that take Christ in your arms I would not be thinking of the joys of heaven the second coming of Christ absolutely and abstractly considered but shewing forth his death As in prayer good thoughts if impertinent are distractions and to be whipt for vagrants so here If my heart present to me the anger and terrible wrath of a just and holy God I shew the Lords death If the Law take me by the throat and say Pay that thou owest I shew the Lords death If conscience ask me what I have to shew for pardon of sin and peace with God I shew the Lords death Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It s Christ that died CHAP. XV. The Lords Supper is an iterable Ordinance THe third Point is taken up from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as often as ye eat this bread c. Doct. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper is an iterable Ordinance which is to be repeated Our Saviour gives a hint of this in those words This do for a remembrance of me and the Apostle from him For as often c. The word often is sometimes opposed to seldom and sometimes to once as Heb. 9. 25 26. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the High priest entreth into the holy place every year For then he must have often suffered since the foundation of the world The Sacrifice of Christ or the offering of him up was but once Heb. 9. 26. The Sacrament of his body and bloud is often as a memorial of that Sacrifice and the comparison Used in that place is this As man dies but once so Christ also As in the Sacraments of the Jews the first of them Circumcision was but once nor indeed could be but the Passeover often once every year and Christ was but once circumcised but kept the Passeover often So in the Sacraments of the New Testament Baptism is but once Christ was but once baptized but the Supper often which though Christ celebrated but once yet he gave order for the repetition of it I will not now take up the discussion why Baptism but once the Supper often the Scripture gives us no hint for the repetition of the one but it doth for the other and the old saying is plausible Semel nascimur saepius pascimur we are but once born but we are often nourisht God did more punctually and precisely under the Law prescribe the times of their Sacraments the eighth day for circumcision such a day of such a moneth yearly for the Passeover as he also did the times and place and other circumstances of his worship for the people were more servile then and the worship more outward but under the Gospel circumstances are at more liberty and spiritualnesse more call'd for and therefore in this Sacrament for instance we have nothing for how often but we have for how worthily as a learned man Observes and therefore under correction it was not so right Muscul de coena Lib 4. distinct 13. Qu. 5. that when as Durand saith The primitive devotion of communicating every day was grown so cool that it came to be commanded on the three great festivals whereof Easter was by Innocent the first made Anno 1200. of the Quorum I might instance nearer home enjoyning all to it at that time For of this Chrysostom had complained long before that at those times the people either of custome or by Law crouded in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the custome saith he O the partiality of men The truth is I finde that in times of persecution threatning Christians either to arm themselves or in fear of being scatter'd and dispers'd took every occasion to celebrate the Supper and Justin Martyr signifies that their solemn meetings on the Lords dayes were accompanied with this feast and that the Question how often is propounded in Austine and Chrysostom and Austin perswades and exhorts every Lords-day Austin Eccles Dogm cap. 53. Chrysost hom 13. heb Gerard. Harm cap. 171. if the heart be prepared and Chrysostom saith that a pure conscience may come as often as it will but for a wicked man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once is too often and to conclude if the necessity of our infirmities the great benefit the honour of this memorial may be heard to speak we shall come to this Rule That frequency beget not a customary formality or fastidious satiety as Manna did nor seldomnesse beget forgetfulnesse or superstitiousnesse extraordinarinesse and under this caution I leave the determination of the times unto the Church CHAP. XVI Of the Continuance of this and other Gospel-Ordinances in the Church THe fourth point ariseth from the last words Untill he come and it is this This Ordinance and so all Gospel-ordinances are to continue in force in the Churches untill Christ come and this point cleaves into two parts § 1 First The Lord Christ will come again he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10. 37. He that shall come he shall appear the second time Heb. 9. 28. as in the old Church of Israel there was a glorious Temple then a captivity that followed after the captivity a second Temple and then Christ came So in Gospel-Churches there was first a glorious Virgin primitive Church then followed a captivity under Antichrist and that captivity shall be followed with a second Temple a Reformed Church and then Christ shall come again but as
therefore the Argument which is drawn from the signification of the legall type is not so contemptible as a Learned man of M. Humfrey late would seem to make it since the Apostle seems to argue from the leaven cast out at the Passeover as I have hinted §. 7. The evidence of Reason § 7 The third evidence is that of Reason which was this that such as have no right to eat or have lost for present right or capacity should not intrude themselves I say those that have no right and they are those that as the Apostle saith Eph. 2. 12. are meer strangers to the Covenant for in Reason the Covenant must go before the Seal and not the Seal before the Covenant and therefore they were Disciples to whom Christ said Take and eat not aliens or strangers to the Gospel Covenant whereof it was ordained a Sacrament infidels or unbeleevers which answer to the uncircumcised were debarred the Passeover Or else they are such as having had both right unto and Use of this Ordinance have afterward lost their capacity for the time by some gross and enormous crime which hath brought them under seQuestration or deprivation by the censure of the Church and these answer the unclean under the Law who having right to the Passeover as Church-members were yet forbidden the Use during such uncleanness for against such is the key turned and the door shut untill and unless by their repentance for their sinne they be restored to their right and the seQuestration be taken off for so in the ancient Churches while the Lapsi lay under pennance and were in the School of repentance they could not communicate the Crier said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysost hom 3. in Ephes and if the same Authour and the same place may be heard ye shall learn from him the very two sorts which I am speaking of There ought saith he to come to this Table neither any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them that are not initiated and entred Disciples 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor any of those that are professours and members but unclean or flagitious whose sinnes are such ut judicatur excommunicandus as it 's said in Austin Epist 118. ad Januarium Now there is Reason that such as lie in manifest and enormous sinne without repentance should either forbear or by the Church be forbidden access to the terrible mysteries as Chrysostom often cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them 1. That they should forbear being made acquainted what a fearfull sinne they boldly adventure upon viz. to be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord the very naming of it being able to strike terrour and what danger they rush themselves into of eating and drinking damnation to themselves as it were professedly seeking and solemnly setting their hands to their own ruine for though every sinne have death the wages of it yet for a man to provoke his own destruction and solemnly seal it upon himself is most fearfull Who would not tremble to eat such a sop as should be presently followed with Satan or to eat such forbidden fruit as is sawced with this bitter sawce Morte morieris Thou shalt die for if this bread enter into a man filthy and polluted Calvin Iustit lib. 4. ca. 17. Majore illum ruina praecipitat and he that hath purpose to sinne gravatur magis saith Austin he is De Eccles Dogmat cap. 35. loaden with a greater guilt He takes poyson both by Reason of his guiltiness of other sinnes and of the abUse of the Sacrament saith Bernard And therefore let Serm. de caena 2 men consider what they are like to reap that either ravish and force or secretly think themselves well if they can steal the Sacrament for he that is in mortall sinne sinnes mortally as Alensis saith and Pars 4. Q◠46 that becaUse as the Schoolmen say Committit falsum Aquin. 3. pars Quaest 8. Esti◠lib. 4. distinct 12. in Sacramento he commits a falshood in this Sacrament professing himself to come to and receive Christ to whom he is an enemy and a stranger he mocks God solemnly And therefore as Mr Selden De Synodecis p. 254. saith If Judas that had a deliberate purpose of betraying Christ had of himself therefore gone forth becaUse he was so unworthy certum ipsi laudi fuisset verily it had been a credit and commendation to him to have forborn and indeed there would appear some conscience in such forbearance whereas there appears nothing but blindness boldness pride custom c. in a dangerous intrusion I cannot encourage men to forbear this Ordinance nor allow the excUse of those that flatter themselves in such forbearance by their sinne as I have heard some they cannot come to the Sacrament becaUse they are not in charity Sinne may be an impediment but it is not an excUse if you be in manifest and flagitious sinne ye may not come but that sinne excUses not for you ought to finde a third way that is to repent and lay aside your sinne that you may come Let a man examine himself and so let him eat saith the Apostle As in the Marriage feast Matth. 22. he that came without his wedding garment was cast out and they that pretending excUses came not are said not to be worthy v. 8. What then is to be done this third to have a wedding garment and come too Instance a drunken servant that forbears to wait at his Masters table becaUse he is drunk but yet that is no excUse for he ought to be sober and wait also And this answers a captious fallacy or objection which may be made by some There is Reason that the Church should forbid openly criminous persons from access to the Lords Table 1. It would be not only contra veritatem but contra charitatem to make such partakers of the holy Supper They are the words of Learned Grotius Grotius de imperio p. 229. who cannot be suspected to speak partially in this caUse but to speak the sense of Antiquity Against truth for the seal saith he is not to be applied to him to whom the thing signified manifestly belongs not and therefore in the Churches of old it was wont to be proclaimed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy things to holy persons And Chrysostom shews that one with a loud and terrible Homil 17. ad Hebr. voice pronounced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for pearls are not to be cast to swine Against charity it is to suffer a blinde soul that discerns not the Lords body to fall into the pit which we have left open No mother would suffer her childe to eat that which may be poyson to it no shepherd would call his sheep into such pastures as will certainly rot them no friend would put a sword into the hand of a furious man no Physician would reach water to an Hydropick that eagerly thirsts for it It was charity as well as
If the Rule of Analogy or proportion may be here allowed and I believe that had not the profit of the Courts more swaid then point of conscience this Suspension of act had not been a crime For the Schoolmen generally allow the Dhrand part 4. Dist 9 Quaest 5. aliique Minister to deny the Sacrament to any that is in mortal sin if it be but notorious by evidence of fact And so much for this point which I have spoken the more unto becaUse it is a Question that may often come to hand even in our times and the places in which we live and only with this intention that I would have the Sacraments on their wheels and yet so that their male administration bring not epidemick judgements upon us as the receiving unworthily did on the Church of Corinth CHAP. XX. Whether a Godly man lawfully may or ought to stand as a Member of and hold Communion in the Ordinances of God with such a Congregation as is mixt as they call it that is where men visibly Scandalous in Life and Conversation are mingled with the Good in the Participation and Vse of Divine Ordinances Or VVhether this Mixture of Heterogeneals do not pollute the Ordinances and the Communion to the Godly so as they are concerned to Separate from such Communion § 1 BEfore I make particular Answer to this Question I must tell you That all serious and weighty Christians have caUse to lament the levity and inconstancy of people of our times and the spirit of Separation which so easily puts them upon wing to practice and plead for separation as they did for Divorce upon every caUse Matth. 19. 3. There are many make but a humour of it being ignorant of the greatnesse of the sinne of renting asunder the Unity and Union of the body of Christ which Chrysostom aggravates Homil. 11. in Ephes and recites a saying of a holy man before his time he means Cyprian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might seem a very bold speech and that is That the bloud of Martyrdom cannot wash off this stain which many account an ornament not a sinne Among other principles of Separation this which I have now to speak unto that we must excommunicate our selves from Gods Ordinances if men of wicked life be not excommunicate for fear of pollution by them is Donatistical and urged by Parmenian the Vide cap. 21. Epist ad Parmenianum alibi Donatist and answer'd by Austin many hundred years ago and now retrimed and revived being called a new truth as we commonly call a new fashion that which lately come up though about fourty year ago or in our memory it was a fashion laid aside and rejected And the truth is That the Reason of this Separation seems plausible to easie capacities such as the Apostle cals Rom. 16. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the simple becaUse it pretends to set up holinesse both of Ordinances and people but if it be weighed by the standard of Scripture will be found too light and the two sorts of complainers directly opposite to one another will be found erroneous both them that complain of any hedge at all about the Sacrament and they that complain and therefore separate becaUse the hedge is not so sufficient as may keep off every undue intruder Let us then by Scripture Rule lay down the Answer to this Question and that orderly and in certain Theses § 2 First I shall grant That the very notion and nature of the Church denotes a separation God separates his Church from Infidels and them that are extraneous and strangers to the Covenant He separates them to be his inheritance his peculiar tReasure above Levit. 20 24. 1 King 8. 53. other people and they also do and ought to separate themselves from communion with Devils in idolatrous service and worship Nehem. 9. 2. Come out from among them and be ye separate 2 Cor. 6. 17. This is not necessary to be a locall Separation for present There was a mixt multitude of uncircumcised people No just Proselytes as Mr Selden saith with Israels De Synedriis cap. 2. in the wildernesse after their separation from Aegypt but this separation is moral or foederal God cals them propounds the terms of his Covenant they professedly submit and accept Exod. 19. 5 8. and now they are separate set apart sanctified by dedication unto God and his service and are called no more Heathens Infidels but Saints Gods people believers Christians or the like § 3 Secondly All that are thus separated by their professed submission unto and acceptance of the Covenant are not true members of Christ or of his body All the people when God did but generally propound a Covenant to them professed with open voice their yeeldance and the Lord acquiesced in it Exod. 19. 5 8 9. and the same people when they heard the particular Laws of that Covenant profest again they would do them Exod. 24. 3. and so it became as we say Done and done on both sides and yet he that should affirm all these though newly baptized to be truly regenerate were very wide of the truth for there are many reputative members that are in the visible Society and fellowship of the Church and it's Ordinances that are but Jews outwardly and they are saith the Apostle no Jews and yet they are circumcised and eat the Passeover and communicate in Ordinances and if we will not be captious in words are true members of the visible Society yet no members of Christs mystical Body nor yet can they be dispossest by us of their right unto Ordinances for we have no judgement of their spiritual and inward Estates nor any Command nor any Rule to dispossesse them nor any example of God himself who lets the corn and chaff lie together in area and separates them locally in horreo as Austin speaks and this body howsoever consisting of members heterogeneall yet being taken together in grosse or in the lump hath very sublime and honourable compellation both in the Old Testament A holy Nation a Exod. 19. 5 6 c. Kingdom of Priests Gods special tReasure and in the New The Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 25. 1. for so the Gospel net that contains both good and bad is called and so the whole knot of wise and foolish Virgins and yet it 's plain that in this Kingdom there are children that are to be cast out and scandalous persons for Doctrine and them that work iniquity for Practice that are to be gathered out at last Mat. 13. 41. § 4 Thirdly Whereupon we grant That it 's rare and hard to finde a visible Church in any Age or time that was without corruption or mixture of good and bad in it They that talk of purity of Churches may more easily finde in the world a body that hath never a frecken or spot than a Church without corruption and yet both a body and a
the fruit will fall into his bosom for he that goes out weeping and bears precious seed shall doubtlesse come again with joy and bring his sheaves Psalm 126. 6. And again Hosea 6. 2. After two dayes he will revive us in the third as Christ was raised he will raise us up then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord in the mean time before this fruit be ripe the very running of the sap is a certain signe the Tree lives And so I have given you a measure or rule of judging whether you receive worthily Secondly Think not that the Sacrament conveyes or contributes any thing to you as a medicinal potion or plaister Doth the Physick work and so the plaister by an inherent or inward vertue in it self not by any vertue in the Phyfician or Chyrurgeon So ignorant and superstitious people look on the Sacrament they think it saves them and does them good they know not how and so regard the matter more than the manner of receiving they mistake Gods manner of working by Sacraments and therefore regard not their own manner of receiving them and are so fond as if they could eat and drink away their sinnes and had by very receiving this bread and wine quit all old scores and were fresh to begin upon a new account as the Papist thinks of his auricular confession § 2 It is a very excellent and profitable knowledge to understand how God conveys grace by the Sacrament I speak not of understanding subtilties but the plain and open Use of the Ordinance Now I cannot possibly conceive how the elementals of bread and wine can or do any otherwise convey to or afford me any spiritual grace but as instruments and means by Gods meer positive appointment and ordination representing testifying sealing to me not only Gods reality of promise or Covenant in offering Christ but my interest and propriety in Christ and the benefits that flow from Union and Communion with Christ and therefore that reviving refreshing incRease of grace power of mortification of lusts Come no otherwise to me by the Use of this Ordinance than as it seals Christ to me and by sealing Christ or the Covenant to me doth confirm faith revive the heart elevate the affections strengthen resolutions fortifie against lusts and temptations for it is a sure Rule The nearer applications of Christ to the soul and his benefits in way of taste or assurance the more quickning grace of all sorts follows thereupon As the nearer approach of the Sunne in the Spring cheers up and revives all things that live but things stark dead are as dead then as in deep of winter Let me convey this to you by a familiar similitude A man hath an Estate the Wool the Wine the Corn that grows out of that Estate clothes him refreshes him feeds him but the Seal that confirms and assures this Estate to him doth no otherwise cloath or refresh or feed him than as it confirms that estate to him out of which all these do rise And by this you may plainly understand how grace is conveyed by this Sacrament which doth seal up to you and assure you of Christ and the Covenant of promises in Christ out of which all these graces grow and flow Do ye understand this Then it follows 1. That for any man to imagine that the very eating and drinking this bread and this Cup should cure and heal his soul is as fond as to think the very seal or wax of a Deed should either seed or clothe him for in that case it 's not a seal but a piece of wax how infinitely do our common people undervalue this Sacrament that make but a piece of holy bread of it which is an exhibition of the body of Christ as they that value a seal by the worth of the wax and not by the Estate thereby confirmed 2. That it 's absolutely necessary to bring to this Sacrament that grace which is necessary to the receiving of Christ himself Quid paras dentem What does the providing of teeth to eat saith Austin What avail is all outward preparation The thing that is exhibited to us is Christ his body broken his bloud shed Christ dying Christ a Sacrifice offer'd up to God is here commemorated and is here offer'd and that inward grace which is necessary to receive and close with Christ must be brought with you That grace is found by and from the word and that grace must be Used here and exercised The Covenant requires it and the Seal is the Seal of the Covenant You cannot take the Seal and leave the Covenant you cannot enter Covenant without faith and Repentance you do but expect that the Seal should seal a lie to you if you expect remission of sinnes to be sealed without your faith in Christ It 's impossible that the Word and Sacrament should be opposite as that the Covenant and Seal thereof should disagree As therefore if one would know what a Seal conveys or confirms let him reade the Deed and the Conditions of it and there it is learn'd So if you would know what the Sacrament seals to you hear what the Word saith Mercy and Grace to a believer in Christ and to no other which he that will receive from this fountain must bring his vessel with him for qui fide vacuus foras manducat non intus Chem. Exam. c. dente non mente August Thirdly Be not frighted with the sound of this Corollary 3. Word worthily or worthy Communicant but labour to understand the least and lowest manner of receiving worthily for we wrong our comforts when we make that which is the measure of growth to be the measure of truth of grace and judge of the life of the tree not by the bud but by ripe fruit and here consider § 3 1. That words of high sound in vulgar and common acceptation when they come to be undertaken in a Gospel-sense and notion do shrink into a meer contemptiblenesse with worldly wise men For as the Gospel Useth some Greek words in a sense unknown to eloquent profane Authours so it hath a notion of Blessednesse Perfection Glory Worthinesse which relishes not the palate nor bears any show in the world If Aristotle describe blessednesse what a deal of humane perfection and accomplishments of fortune doth he croud into it for which he is derided by other Sects But if Christ describe blessednesse in the Gospel what do you hear of but poverty of Spirit purity of heart meeknesse mourning suffering for righteousnesse sake wherein there is no more shew of blessednesse to a worldly man than there was in Christ of Majesty to Herod and his men of warre So perfection in Gospel-phrase is a disclaiming thereof and sence of our imperfection Phil. 3. 12. And the Spirit of glory rests upon you that suffer 1 Pet. 4. 14. And your worthinesse is rather the sense of your unworthinesse Thus the Gospel construes these high
childe may receive a Ring as well as a Gyant and the least Candle points upwards as well as the greatest Torch Great Masters of Families as the Prodigal Observed allow the meanest of their domestick servants to come to the Tables end and eat of their bread Many sinnes many backslidings if there be contrition and godly sorrow serve for bitter herbs to eat the Passeover with Many wants and weaknesses may be accompanied with vehement desires hunger and thirst Low graces may occasion low hearts when God makes the disease a preparative why should we refUse the medicine If we set the pitch of this fitnesse too low in some empty formes of Religion or some eminent works and moral vertues or some conceited perfections which feed our pride we shall take in many that have nothing of Christ in them Gospel-qualifications are most sutable to a Gospel Ordinance We are not prepared for Christ by ostentation of works but sense of misery The sense of unworthinesse is our worthinesse A little vessel that is empty will receive more than a great one that is full A broken Christ requires a broken heart To be rich and full and righteous in the Gospel-Dictionary doe signifie Obstructions and impediments of our happinesse where the naked are cloathed the hungry are fed the ungodly are justified the weary are refresht the sick are healed the stung with fiery Serpents are recovered the returning lost childe is feasted and they that thirst do buy wine and milk without money and without price And hence it follows That no unregenerate man that lies dead in trespasses and sinnes without a seed a spark of Gospel-grace having no initials of true Repentance and Faith in Christ can be in capacity to eat and drink the Body and Bloud of Christ worthily and with effect for such a one is a stranger to the Covenant and uncircumcised and therefore expresly debar'd this Passeover Exod. 12. 43. Where there is no life there can be no reception of nourishment He that is void of the Condition of the Covenant cannot receive the benefit nor eat the Supper that wants the Wedding-Garment This is a severe point and disclaims the greatest part of men from eating and drinking worthily becaUse they have no ticket of grace renewing or regenerating they are not Disciples indeed they are branches in Christ by externall ingraffing John 15. 2. but have not the life of Christ in them They that are not in the body of Christ do not eat his body saith Austin They that are not members of him do not spiritually feed on him Panem Domin they do eat as Judas not Panem Dominum Ego hoc axtoma teneo saith Calvin that without the Spirit Christ is not received in this Sacrament The Papists go no lesse Catholici omnes saith Vasquez all agree in this That it 's necessary for a worthy Communicant to be in the state of grace and sanctification and therefore howsoever any person be furnisht with endowments of nature and education famous for eminent works and vertues adorned with civil and fair conversation yet without something of Christ some work of the Spirit some seed of Regeneration he cannot eat and drink worthily and with effect And this Doctrine is the rather requisite to be taught becaUse men may flatter themselves in that they have past the test are admitted with approbation to this Table and allowed the liberty thereof for all this may be and yet your case no better than Sauls that would needs be honoured before the people than Judas's who was not thrust out from the Sacrament than his who was let in by the servants to the feast but cast out by the King for want of his Wedding-garment You enjoy a priviledge to eat and drink but what judgement and condemnation to your selves Oh consider it The Lord of this feast will come to view his guests he will turn out some that the servants let in he will say Friend How camest thou in hither He answered not Lord I was called in I was admitted in by thy servants No He was dumb he had nothing to plead he had not a Wedding-garment For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly Rom. 2. penult §. 6. What is requisite to our Receiving Worthily § 6 The actual exercise of our graces is requisite to our eating and drinking worthily The instrument must be in tune before-hand as I shew'd you in the former but now the strings are stricken now they make their musick The activity and imploiment of our faith and affections is now required and our graces must be on their wheels now the sails are spread to catch the gale which sweetly breathes from this holy Ordinance for here it 's said Take Eat Take and drink and as the eye the hand the mouth are now in actual imploiment as to the Sacrament or outward part so faith which is the eye hand mouth of the soul and all the affections are to be actually imploy'd as to the inward thing the body and bloud of Christ Not the having of an eye but looking up to the brazen Serpent healed the biting It 's not enough to have faith but we must believe Now that the Sacrament is in Use now must our graces be in Use too Now that God actually offers and presents Christs body and bloud to my faith Now let the hand of faith go forth and take Christ in Awake my faith and see the atonement of my sins in the broken body of my Saviour Awake repentance and hear the strong cries and see the dolefull agony of him that bears our chastisement Awake my memory and call to minde that Aegypt wherein I was and the bloud of the Passeover which removed the destroying Angel from my soul Awake all that is within me to blesse and praise the Lord. Oh let this Crosse crucifie my lusts and passions Let this death stay my reigning sins as Joshua did the Kings of Canaan Now let the Altar smoak with the Sacrifice of a loving heart inflamed with holy fire of Gods love to me Now the wax is warm Oh let the Seal be stamped fair that I may see the impression alwayes after Now that God shews forth to methe death of his Sonne for me let me shew forth that death of Christ to God again as that which I stick unto and abide by for my righteousnesse and peace with God Alas if my graces be now asleep they are next a kin to dead We might have sweet we might have fruitfull Sacraments had we but lively graces Graces upon their wing not lying sullen and benum'd with cold therefore blow up your graces as the Apostle his phrase is blow the smothering fire the embers into a flame by pertinent meditation Be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that this King of glory may come in And that I may speak to the comfort of a godly soul Let grace run forth at what tap it will so there be but vent whether at the uppermost of
The Lord satisfie you with the fatnesse of his hoUse and make you drink of the river of his pleasures Psal 36. 8. CHAP. XXVI Motives to quicken Endeavours to a fit or worthy Participation of this Ordinance § 1 THat which remains of this Point is that I excite and awaken all endeavours to a fit or worthy participation of this Ordinance The modus orandi or manner how the Sacrament works or contributes to spiritual grace is not of vulgar disquisition I signified to you last day that Questions de modo in all parts of Divinity are usually difficult to unty All confesse that Sacraments work by institution of God as the brazen Serpent healed the fiery sting but that is yet too short For doth Gods institution elevate the nature of the Sacrament to produce the effect Then is that effect plainly miraculous and the faith of miracles should be required Or doth the institution of God appoint the signification and Obsignation of the Sacrament in such and such an Use of it This indeed is according to rule of Schools and of our Divines Modus operandi sequitur modum significandi and then it 's plain that there must be somewhat in the Communicant both to understand their signification and to receive the Obsignation and sealing by the Use of them for otherwise they are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 empty names as an Hebrew word to an English ear and hence it is that I say the capacity must be excited and awakened for the fit participation of this Sacrament or else it 's nothing to us but bread and wine and the spiritual benefit is lost That you may have alwayes at hand as a fyle to sharpen your endeavours some brief Motives and Reasons to awaken you I shall briefly recite and offer to you these few Motive I. 1. That as your coming worthily may yeeld a great improvement of your spiritual state so your coming unworthily may adde much to your guilt and condemnation The same passage through the red sea was safe to the Israelites by faith the Egyptians assaying to do the like were all drowned Heb. 11. 29. Let no man say Why may not I receive good by the Sacrament as well as any other for the Egyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 trying conclusions were drowned The same Sacrament like the Cloud is to one the refreshing shadow to another the consuming fire The bread as broken is the Communion of the body of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 16. and yet he that eats unworthily eats condemnation to himself 1 Cor. 11. That which is Manna to a believer is to a Judas poison as the Ancients speak and all this is vitio sumentis through the sin of the receiver who eats Quails under wrath Psal 78. 31. and sits down to Haman's feast Esth 7. Motive II. 2. Though a Christian is not altogether to judge of his receiving worthily by the fruitfull successe and benefit which he findes but by the exercise of his grace and by his sacramental disposition yet the fruit doth not follow except there be a right Use and worthy participation of the Ordinance Some are so childish and such spiritual sensualists that if they have not sensible and sweet joy or comfort or a present removal of their thorn they conclude they come unworthily It 's our fault that as Israel in the wildernesse we limit God to give that we desire or else murmur and think we have nothing So it is in this Sacrament and so in our prayers we are passionately desirous of serving even our own lusts Jam. 4. 3. The after-fruit cannot be the measure of our worthy receiving but the present gracious frame of spirit and exercise of our graces As by fair and beautifull children we cannot judge of lawfull marriage but by consent declared and ritely given at the present time and yet the fruit and benefit comes not but in and by the way of receiving worthily we judge of our selves to be fit guests by the wedding garment not the sweet taste of the Supper and yet we cannot sit down and eat except we have the wedding garment We love a sweet willing disposition in a childe ready to do what it can than alwayes to be crying for plums God highly prizes those that set on work their obediential graces to Observe the Law of any Ordinance and perform it for if we can lust for quails and yet murmur at the way of the wildernesse we are too like the carnal Israelites There is in all spirituall joyes comforts and raptures two parts the one is the fruition of the sweet of them the other is the serviceable Use of them to oil the wheels and with more freedome to perform hardest duties of obedience Now if in this latter respect we improve or seek them it 's farre the better to like in any Christian for it's Gods part or share The joy of the Lord is your strength yet duty is the door by which reward enters as reaping comes by sowing They that sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. Motive III. 3. There is a sacramental disposition requisite to a Sacramental Communion and it is a very spiritual disposition as the Communion is spiritual This disposition is not one single grace but a complexion or temperament made up of divers ingredients which are not all distinctly and eminently acted by every man at this present but some of them as occasion and necessity may require I have already shown you them in general and told you that they are bespoken by the Sacrament it self and as it were deduced from it This Sacrament affords us the communion of Christs death where his body broken and bloud shed are set before us Here we communicate of a dying Christ in heaven we shall have him as a Tree of life This is that epulum foederale or Covenant-feast made for confederates God is one party and the faithfull are the other and both parties of confederates do sic dicam partake of the same foederal Sacrifice Christ Jesus the bloud of the Sacrifice is offer'd up to God The same bloud in the Sacrament is offer'd and given to us as it 's said Exod. 24. 6. Moses took half the blood and sprinkled it on the Altar and he sprinkled the other on the people and said Behold the bloud of the Covenant If we understood the Ordinance we should easily agree that a sacramental disposition is a very spiritual disposition and requires the very purest addresses that we can make to it where God himself entertains his people with no other cheer than which satisfies himself and will have them taste of that which he himself is pleased and delighted with that is I say again Christ Jesus Now in this so near approach to God ye have an excellent Rule as in all other approaches Levit. 10. 3. I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me the case was that two Priests had taken strange or other fire
afford grace or spiritual benefits You are to understand that this is not per modem emplastri seu medicae potionis not as a natural agent but per modum sigilli or Sacramenti in a way proper to a Sacrament As we say an estate passes by the Seal that is is assured or confirmed or as we say the promise or contract passes by a Ring words which every one understands and doubtlesse the benefit and fruit of the Sacrament is afforded in a peculiar way As the Word besides begetting grace doth also incRease and confirm but not in the same way as the Sacrament doth as it may be the same bargain that passes by promise by oath by earnest by seal yet these are several wayes of certioration so it 's the same grace that 's nourisht by the Sacrament as by the Word but the way is divers That of the Sacrament is by way of sign and seal that of the Word by way of Promise or Covenant-agreement nay the two Sacraments themselves do differ in their proprieties Baptism seals the Covenant by way of initiation and the Lords Supper by way of nutrition or augmentation God did not make or multiply Ordinances at random without their distinct and peculiar Use for the exhibiting to us the same Christ the same graces the same benefits as men have several wayes of assurance making one to another §. 5. What is done to a Worthy Receiver by Christ § 5 So much generally For the particular we shall consider 1. What is here done 2. What is hence received For the first There is here done by Christ two things and answerably two things by a believer in Christ Two things principally are here done by God or by Christ 1. Christ crucified is really exhibited to the faith of a believer 2. The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer 1. Christ crucified together with all those benefits More particularly that ensue upon his death is really exhibited to a believer for there is not a meer representation or empty figure but a real and true exhibition of Christ himself as broken for our sinnes The word accipite Take ye Eat ye does evidently confirm it to us If there were only a resemblance or figurative representation then See ye were more properly said but Take Eat this is my body plainly shews that Christ himself is here given to a believer I think we look so much on the representation that we forget the exhibition and therefore should labour to conclude that Christ himself as in the state of a redeeming Saviour is truly and indeed holden forth and presented to our faith as verily as any benefit can be offer'd and holden forth by one man to another This body and bloud was really offer'd up to God for us which is in this Sacrament really offer'd and applied to us by our faith Answerable to this exhibition of Christ himself the believer performs an act of Communion 1 Cor. 10. 16. partaking of the body and bloud of Christ in a spiritual sense for spiritual nourishment incRease and building up for the new creature is fed and maintain'd by Christ and by vertue of union with him we have communion as the Vine-branches by their union with the Vine receive sap and nourishment So as we have not graces without Christ nor benefits without Christ but first in order of nature we have union as members of him and then of his fulnesse we receive For a Christian is like a branch that hath nothing of its own but what it receives from the root as it self springs from the root so the incRease and growth of it is from the root also He is as the Moon which as appears in the Eclypse hath no light of it self but incReases and comes to full as it receives from the Sunne Let no man think that a believer hath no further Use of Christ after his first believing and receiving of him for then this Sacrament would not be Usefull the effect whereof as Durand saith is not absolutely necessary to salvation as if one could not be in a state of salvation without it becaUse it serves for confirmation of one that is already in a saving state and it 's plain that a great part of Christs Office is exercised in preserving and continuing of them in him who are already members of him and therefore is the finisher as well as authour of our faith for we live in him and from him and our grace is maintain'd by emanations from Christ as the light by continual emanations from the Sunne and therefore this Ordinance of Communion of Christ and the exercise of such acts of communion are of prime Use and benefit as the branch that shoots from the Tree grows and lives from that root which gave to it the first being by a contrived influx of sap into it And this is the first combination of Gods act and of ours 2. The second combination is The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer The common nature of a Sacrament is to be a seal of Justification or Righteousnesse with God by faith in Christ Rom. 4. 11. As a seal refers to some Covenant so the Sacrament refers to Gods Covenant with man which is this That God promises to accept into favour and into his propriety all that do believe in and receive Christ and to bestow upon them all the blessings and benefits thereof God gives Christ in way of Covenant He covenants with Christ our Lord that he should give his soul an offering and a Sacrifice for sin and in so doing should see his seed Isa 53. 10. So Arminius in this point is orthodox Of this Covenant the death or bloud of Christ is the Condition which Christ accepted and performed The Covenant of God with us is That all that believe in Christ that died and receive him for their Lord and Saviour shall have remission of sins c. and of this Covenant the bloud of Christ is the ratification as the Testators death ratifies the Will or Testament for it is bloud that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicate the Testament Heb. 9. 18. and so in the words of this Chapter This Cup is the New Testament or Covenant in my bloud viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicated thereby and this bloud we receive in this Sacrament as the Seal of the gracious Covenant made with us So that if doubts arise concerning the reality of God and surenesse of this Covenant that speaks so much grace and mercy we look upon and take hold of this Seale of bloud and are thereby setled and therein acquiesce Answerable to this act of God the believer accepts of and submits to this Covenant and the Conditions of it viz. to believe and to have God for our God and thereof makes a solemn profession in this Sacrament giving up himself to Christ as Lord and Saviour restipulating and striking hands with him to be
his and so bindes himself and doth as it were seal a counterpart to God again and not onely so but comes into a claim of all the riches and legacies of the Will or Covenant becaUse he hath accepted and here declares his acceptance of the Covenant The Seal is indeed properly of that which is Gods part of the Covenant to perform and give and is no more but offer'd untill we subscribe and set our hands to it and then it 's compleat and the benefits may be claimed as the benefit of any conditional promise may be when the condition is performed And least you should stumble at that word I must let you know That the Will accepting and submitting to the conditions is the performance of the conditions required and so the gracious God that might pro imperio require duty and allegiance of his creature condescends to us to enter into a Covenant of Grace with us and vouchsafes us the honour of coming into Covenant with him that so he might settle and maintain a communion and correspondence between himself and his people and there might be a mutual bond of engagement each to other which is solemnly professed as often as we meet with God in this Sacrament becaUse we are so apt to disbelieve and waver about his promises and to halt and decline from our obligations to him And this is the second combination of action according to that which is to be remembred at every sealing day the Sacrament is a sealing day Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes c. And the Lord hath avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee So much for the first What is here done §. 6. What is here Received by the Worthy Communicant § 6 2. I come to the second What is here received and I do not mean to say what every believer doth sensibly receive but what God hath appointed by this Sacrament to convey and what may be received by a believer in the right Use of it not alwayes to his own sense but according to the nature of this Ordinance I will not say that which some affirm but it is Apocryphal of the Manna which the Israelites did eat that it had the taste that every man desired But this I may say that as Calvin of himself When I have Instit l. 4. c. 17. §. 7. said all I have said but little the tongue is overcome yea the minde is overwhelmed I say then in one word 1. Christ is here received the body and bloud of Christ into intimate Union as the nourishment of our souls What is more ours than the meat we eat What is more nearly joyn'd to us than that which becomes part of our selves The Scripture by the language it Useth hath even overcome our apprehensions A man may eat the fruit that hath no interest in the Tree but here the believing eater grows into the Tree he that drinks drinks the fountain he comes to a closer Union with the conduit-pipe of all grace the flesh of Jesus Christ You know the best meat and drink doth you no good except it be made your own nor is Christ of worth except he be ours he is as if he were not Tolle meum tolle Deum we must be happy by a Christ within us Know you not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. There was a croud toucht Christ but vertue went out of him to none but one that toucht him by faith So there is a throng about the Table but none receive Christ but those that by faith take and eat his crucified body If Christ himself be here received what spiritual grace is there that is not in him It is somewhat a grosse conceit to ask How Christ in heaven and a believer on earth can be united For man and wife are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder And we know that as the Apostle saith Col. 2. 19. there are bands and joynts whereby the Head and every Member the root and every branch are united and they in this mystical union are Spirit and faith He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And so according to that strange expression We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30 A phrase which signifies that the humane nature of Christ is the root of this Union but not to be exagitated by too subtill curiosity becaUse mysticall 2. A believer in Christ may here receive remission of sinne not veniall onely as Papists teach but deadly and mortall Oh but we may not come with such sinnes Yes with repentance and remorse for them We may bring our sinnes to the head of our Sacrifice and put them thereupon by Bellarm. de Euch l. 4 c 18. confession Bellarmine resolves all the difference between Papists and Protestants about the effect of this Sacrament into this That the Papists deny the Protestants hold remission of sinne to be given here and the Papists do it in favour of their Sacrament of Pennance that one Sacrament may not rob another but Scripture tels us Matth. 26. 28. This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for remission of sinne Shed for remission that 's true saith Bellarmine not given in the Sacrament a meer evasion for we drink the bloud that was shed even that which confirmes the New Testament which promises remission of sinne The great Argument wherein he triumphs before the victory is That a believer hath remission of sinnes before he comes viz by his faith in Christ and that 's true Nemo cibum Christi accipit nisi actu sanatus but in this Sacrament the pardon passes Obsignante sigillo before a believer is pardon'd by the Covenant and here that pardon is seal'd and sealed it cannot be except it be before for the pardon of forgiven sinnes is seal'd as Abraham received the signe of circumcision the seale of the righteousnesse of faith which he had before Rom. 4. 11. And this is needfull for reliefe of our doubts and fears and waverings For this is the great Question of anxiety which troubles the soul Are my sinnes pardon'd Are my sins blotted out And God hath saith Chemnitius instituted this Sacrament for solution of this Question to the weak faith Ecce signum Behold the Seal believe upon the Word believe upon the Seal of God Luther gathers it by a gradation The Cup is put for the Wine the Wine signifies the bloud the bloud is the bloud of the New Testament Matth. 26. 28. The New Testament containes the gracious pardon of sinne to a believer And if remission of sinne be an Article of the Covenant the Seale must reach it Therefore all that have wounded their souls with grievous sinnes be wounded again with sorrow put off the purpose of sinning bring repentance and faith touch the hemme of
is not guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord which was never offer'd to him in this Sacrament No aggravations of sinne are like to the aggravations of the sins of wicked Christians their guilt is not of so high complexion that never knew of Christ either we must be saved or we cannot be so easily damned the weight of sins against Christ is heavier than of those that are meerly against the Law of God We are the earth that drinks in the rain that cometh upon us If we bear briars and thorns we are nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6. 7 8. 2. How many do that they think least of and are guilty of that they once imagine not themselves to be guilty of but few of a thousand will own this guiltinesse of the Body and Bloud of Christ and yet as often as they do or have eaten and drunk at this Table unworthily so often they have incurred and renew'd this guilt Do not they say at the last day When saw we thee an hungry or in prison Did the Jews think they pierced their true Messiah There are not many Christians in name and profession such that can be convinced that they hate and despise Christ as much as the very Jews that crucified him which yet may be demonstrate by clear arguments The Jew honour'd the name of the Messiah and expected great things of him and yet hated and rejected him blindfold and so we call Christ Saviour and Lord and besprinkle him with sweet water but his reign and government over us we utterly despise and hate and prefer a sordid lust far before him CHAP. XXXII The Danger of this Sinne. § 1 4. THe fourth thing expounded was the danger of this sinne He eats and drinks judgement to himself if he be a godly man that eats and drinks unworthily or haply also damnation if he be an hypocrite for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may respectively extend to both A strange phrase it is to eat and drink judgement but it is allusive and per mimesin as sure as he eats of the Bread and drinks of the Cup unworthily so sure is judgement to follow thereupon or to accompany it for he eats judgement but it is to himself not to others except they be partakers in his sinne which may be divers ways So as we have reason to insert in all our prayers Lord forgive our nostra aliena our other mens sins but without partnership in the sinne we need not fear share in the judgement He eats it to himself and therefore that argument of the Donatist which is rise now a dayes Si corruptis sociaris c. If you be joyned with wicked men how can you be clean If you pray with them hear with them receive the Sacrament with them was answer'd by Austin True saith he if we be joyned but that is not in bodily presence locally but by consent or allowance and so we are no more joyn'd then Christ and the Apostles were joyn'd with Judas at the Passeover or Supper who I believe was not defiled by his presence as neither were those guests that came in to the marriage by the presence of him that had no wedding garment It 's true example may defile by contagion and infection but allowance and consent defiles by accessarinesse unto the sin §. 2. The Application § 2 How precious an Ordinance is this Supper and yet how dangerous There is life and death set before you It 's on one side a refreshing cloud on the other a flaming fire so by the same water and way were the Israelites saved and the Aegypians attempting the like were drown'd Thus Christ also is a precious stone to believers a stumbling and a crushing stone to unbelievers and the Word is a savour of life and a savour of death Some mens eyes are open'd by it and some are shut The same Ark is to Israel a glory to the Philistims a scourge Here is honey in the same rose to the Bee and poyson to the Spider and it is according as you eat and drink worthily or unworthily We reade in Scripture that when people cried to Christ for cure usually he put it upon their faith According to your faith and If thou canst believe and we never reade of any one that cried that he was put by for want of faith for if they gave never so little account Lord I believe help my unbelief it was accepted The benefit of this Ordinance is according to your Faith Repentance and if you can give but any account of them to God you may drink Christ out of this Rock but if you be in sinnes of love and delight and come in your wickednesse you take the Sword by the point not by the haft and you shall smart for your presumption Secondly The horrible thunder of the Apostle in this place is not to deterre but to prepare Communicants An humble soul is affrighted with the terrour and dare not draw nigh this fiery Mount but it is not spoken to affright from the Sacrament but to enforce a due preparation When the destroying Angel rode his circuit the Israelites lay secure within the line of bloud This bloud here offer'd will protect thee from this condemnation threatned if thou flie to it But Thirdly The ignorant that are without knowledge and the scandalous without repentance who are by the common vote of men excepted against as unfit Communicants they may know that this is a dreadfull eating and drinking which is accompanied with such a guiltinesse and wiâ—h such judgement and yet this fiery Sword will not keep them off they will be rushing in to this Tree of Life It is not envy malice or partiality but it is charity to entreat you not to lust so eagerly after those Quails which while they are in your mouths the wrath of God is like to fall upon you both of you have marks enough of condemnation upon you Desire not to adde more be sure the King will survey and view his guests you cannot scape in the croud What if you be taken from the Table and cast into utter darknesse It concernes me to give you warning If you take the Allarme and first labour for knowledge and seeke repentance by the means appointed to beget them and to beget you unto God Well If not then it concernes the Church to shew you mercy in making stay of you from falling into the fire For Fourthly The eating and drinking of the Lords Bread and the Lords Cup unworthily is a sinne dangerous to Common-wealths and Churches for it brings judgement Epidemick judgement so it did upon this Church of Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For this caUse many among you are sick and die Haply they had some common and mortall sicknesse or mortality and knew not the caUse of it Happy we if we knew the particular caUse of Gods angry visitations sinne in the generall we acknowledge but we owne not our particular
them to the happier part the regenerate for they are smoaking flax and bruised reeds under the sweet promise of Christ to be blown up and to be strengthened and so would I have them comfortably in their self-examinations to reckon themselves As likewise all men in the world may compendiously reckon themselves under sinne and wrath and in state of damnation upon and by the argument which is the convictive argument of the holy Ghost Joh. 16. 9. All men are under sinne that believe not in Christ Of sin becaUse they believe not in me and it reaches all the world Not believing in Christ proves every man under sin if not propter infidelitatem for their unbelief therefore Thomas and other Schoolmen deny it as to them that never heard of Christ yet ratione infidelitatis by Reason of their not believing The wrath of God abides upon them as all confesse and as the Scripture speaks These four things may serve as motives to this duty of self examination and there are two more that rather look like directions therein Fifthly The Rule of this self-examination must be according to the properties of a Rule a known and certain inflexible Rule that is not partial to or against us for how shall we proceed from examination of our selves to judge our selves vers 31. if the processe be not regulated so as the judgement may be true and certain therefore the word of God must be that Canon or measure by which if we will not be deceived we must be tried for that must judge us another day by a false standard or a false touchstone or false rule we discern nothing and therefore when thou goest about this work banish all thy own flattering Reasons all other mens foolish and fraudulent comforts and counsels Let the Word of God sit upon thee and stand or fall before that Tribunal Seest thou not how the Pharisee flatter'd himself judging himself by his own traditional exercises The young man flatter'd himself All this have I done Paul shows upon what confidences he flatter'd himself and indeed every man will be in good estate if he may judge by his own fancy flattery or conceit but false mediums beget but fallacies in conclusion and our souls are betray'd and undone by Lesbian rules a sincere heart will not stand to that test knowing that flesh and bloud may speak good to me as the false Prophets to Ahab and the word of God speak evil as Michaiah did unto him God is not pleased that any man should bear false witnesse against or for himself We may neither proudly and partially acquit our selves upon false and flattering perswasions nor on the other hand deny the least evidence of grace and of the Spirit in our selves wherein the godly do often deserve blame by slighting and undervaluing the work of grace in their hearts There are proud self complaints as well as self flatteries The Word is the most impartial Judge of our state or of our actions Sixthly It 's necessary to stick upon the work of self-examination untill we bring it to an issue and be able to make a judgement upon our own selves for we are apt to pull off the plaister when it begins to smart before it hath done its work and are unwilling to set up all our Reasonings and bring them to a non plus and so we never know our selves never judge our selves sometimes a man is Sermon-shaken and his heart begins to tremble and to Question with it self and if he would but follow the stroke he might come to finde out his condition but he lets the iron cool again and like Felix when he trembled he dismisses Paul till another time This the Apostle shews us in these words Jam. 1. 24. he goes away from the glasse and straightway forgets what manner of man he was and therefore he saith we must look into the glasse and continue therein resolving to be deaf to flesh and bloud friends carnal counsels and by the Rule of the Word to bring the Question to an issue whether pro or con for us or against as §. 4. Considerations about examining our selves in order to the Lords Supper § 4 I have laid down these six Rules which are of good Use and great service in the examination of our selves at all times or at any time Now I come to the particular businesse of the Text which is self-examination in order to our worthy coming to the Lords Table for that 's the work which lies before us And for your better instruction I shall draw down your thoughts in order to the point by certain considerations 1. The Rule of this self-examination is the very Ordinance according to Christs Institution heretofore recited You see the Apostle doth not particularly number or rehearse what the graces or what the requisites are upon which interrogatories the examination must be made He saith not Let a man examine himself of this and of that but Let a man examine himself The Reason is that which I learn from Chemnitius That if the Ordinances Chem. exam de Euchar. be the Rule by which the examination is to be made then it will follow that what such a representation of Christs death and sufferings and such a demonstration of Gods offended Justice as is here made what such an offer and exhibition of Christ his body and bloud unto us for communion thereof doth bespeak and require of us That frame of spirit those affections those graces are requisite unto the Communicant which what they are hath been already deduced from the nature of the Ordinance it self and by me declared 2. They being known what they are it follows that a man examine himself whether they be in us for else we cannot come suitably to the Ordinance nor take and eat the body and bloud offer'd to us the effect and fruit of self-examination being to know our own selves 2 Cor. 13. 5. Whether Christ be in us Whether we be in the faith To know what graces are required is no point of self-examination but whether we be in some measure furnisht with them or no and by the duty enjoyn'd it is easily inferr'd That a man may know whether he have those graces for else all examination was unprofitable and vain and known they are by reflexion and insight into our selves as a man knows his thoughts his own purposes his meaning and can tell them to another being asked so we may know the graces and workings of the Spirit in our hearts Qui credit fidem suam videt in Austin de trin l. 13. c. 1. corde suo saith Austin that is except such a darknesse and smoak be within that they appear not as sometimes clouds arise and cover the face of the Sun but that is not for want of an eye but for want of clearnesse in the object and then if there be a vapour upon the glasse it makes no reflexion And there is great Reason that a man should not only have
and bloud This consideration is of special remark you feast upon a sacrifice you live you feed upon a sacrifice tolle Sacrificium tolle Sacramentum the mouth eats the Sacrament the eye of faith discerns the sacrifice Christ is the sacrifice the Sacrament no sacrifice but the commemoration and communication of a sacrifice and here the Reason must be Observed why God did institute their Passeover and our answerable Sacrament to consist in meat and drink eating and drinking and I conceive thus that it being the most proper way to partake of a sacrifice for how else can it be Therefore we eat and drink in way of participation of our sacrifice Hence the phrase Living upon Heb. 13. 10. the Altar eating of the Altar and thus if we carry our eye to the earthly part in the Supper and to the heavenly part that is to the Sacrament and the sacrifice represented and feed upon the sacrifice represented as well as the Sacrament representing we then discern the Lords body This is the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de hoc plus intra 2. Their Passeover was instituted as an Ordinance for ever for a memorial of their Deliverance in Aegypt and their eduction out of it a commemoration it was and to be Observed for ever that is in all succeeding generations whiles their Polity and Religion stood Exod. 12. 14 24 42. and therefore we read in Jewish Writers and there is some foot-step or original of it Exod. 26. 27. What mean you by this service that in every company of Passeover-communicants there was some one that rehearsed and made commemoration Haggadah shet pesuch the history Buxtorf Chal. Lexic of the Passeover and so God that would have the sacrifice of Christ for our sinne that greatest work of his and our deliverance thereby from worse then Aegypt or destroying Angel to be Observed and kept in minde by a lasting trophy or monument viz our Supper The Apostle in allusion to their custome Useth a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 26. Ye do shew As often as ye eat this bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lords death till he come or ye do commemorate and with affection and thanksgiving set it forth and as theirs was for ever till Christs first coming so ours is for ever till his second coming so long as their Church continued they were charged with this Ordinance so long as the Gospel-Church continues they are charged with this and therefore neither of the Doctrine of the Gospel nor of the Sacraments shall there be any removal or alteration till Christ come 3. Their Passeover in Aegypt was eaten in their several Families or societies A Lamb for a hoUse except it were too little Exod. 12. 3 4. and in after times when this was repeal'd Deut. 16. 6 7. and was confined to the place that God should chUse and so to Jerusalem then though the Lamb might be slain in the holy Court and the bloud sprinkled on the Altar yet they did carry it home to their hired chambers and there did eat in companies not less then ten in a fraternity Joseph de bello lib. 7. cap. 17. nor above twenty but no man alone Solum epulari non licet saith Joseph Christ and his company made one society so though Christ be our Sacrifice once offer'd up upon the cross a sacrifice to God yet doth our Supper bring him home to us into our Churches and into our souls There is an application of him to be made the bloud sprinkled on our doors the Paschal brought home to our own hoUse Take ye Eat ye Drink ye God comes to particulars with us and the application of the sacrifice is the life of the Sacrament we must eat and drink at home in our own souls Christ comes home to us and yet this Supper ought as the Passeover to be eaten in societies I know no Reason for one alone there must be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a company for it is a communion one makes not a communion The Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 20. When you come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a meeting v. 33 34. when you come together tarry one for another hence it hath been anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meeting a Congregation It 's Gods Ordinance saith a learned man that the Lords Hildersam Joh. 4 p. 122. Supper be administred in publick Assemblies How can there be a Communicant without a Communion sed de hoc infra not that the wals of a Church do make it a communion but a meeting of believers 4. Their Passeover was eaten with unlevened bread and sowre or bitter herbs Exod. 12. 8. There are many circumstances and ceremonies found in the Jewish Authors about the searching out of all leven yea with candles at noon-day and an execration of all leven if any should remain unfound and the bitter herbs were in constant Use the unlevened bread remembred them what haste they went out of Aegypt in Exod. 12. 34. and the bitter herbs what affliction and bondage they had suffer'd and further they saw not The Apostle interprets leven malice and wickedness unlevened bread sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. and so it teaches us how Christ is to be received by us and what manner of persons they must be that apply and receive Jesus Christ They must remember their bondage under sinne not with delight but bitterness and feel the sowr taste of their former wayes as sinners contrite and broken bitter herbs are good sauce for the paschal Lamb sinne felt sets an edge on the stomack as vinegar Christ relishes well to such a soul When thou comest to eat his Supper bring thy own sauce with thee bitter herbs and refresh on thy self the memory of thy old wayes and former lusts that 's the sauce the bread is unleavened bread you cannot eat the Lamb and leaven togegether a secure hypocrite a filthy swine not purged from sinne to think to have Christ and his sinne too to be pardon'd and not purged to be saved and not sanctified Away and never think to eat this Lamb with leaven'd bread come with bitter herbs thou maist contrition for sinne but come not with and in thy sins for that 's eating with leaven'd bread therefore search it out and let thy sinnes be searcht out as with a candle and let them be execrable to thee that God may see thy hatred of them and thy loathing of thy self for them 5. Their Passeover in Aegypt was to be eaten with loyns girded in procinctu shoes on feet and staff in hand and ye shall eat in haste Exod. 12. 11. and therefore standing as ready to be instantly on their march to leave the Land of Aegypt and go to seek their promised countrey which signifies to us that we must receive Christ and his bloud with intention and purpose to leave the dominions of Pharaoh the Kingdom service and bondage of sinne and the Devil and