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 â—en 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 §. 5. This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud 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 Peâ—
Martyr ibid. Hâ—â—aker Eccles Pola 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. â— 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
§. 4. II. What the faithfull do receive in the right use of this Ordinance 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 §. 2. Extreams about Christs Reall presence and the middle way held by the Churches of our Profession 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
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 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 Graâ—ia 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 infusâ—rum 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. Doct. 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
offices of his Priest Prophet and King in great simplicity Doctrinal in the preaching of the Gospel Conversionall in the deportment of his life But now I speak of the simplicity of his Doctrine the Doctrine of the Gospel which is a mistery that exceeds in glory 2 Cor. 3. 9. and which the Angels stoop down to pry into and yet is in contempt as foolishness with the wisdom of this world that which is a quintessence above al clementary learning and transcendent above every predicament hath been entertained with Stand thou here or sit under my footstool whereas that which the Apostle calls vain Philosophy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 science falsly so called hath been entertained with Sit thou here in a good place The Doctrine of which you are born is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruptible sad and which you are nourished by is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere milk which denotes simplicity Christ for righteousness Christ for a root on whom the branches do live dependingly for the root beares them and derivingly for the root feeds them is the sum of this doctrine Here is no mixture of Jewish rites as if we would look for Christ in that manger wherein he lay when he was a babe the bird is now hatcht and the eggshel lies empty Here is no corrival of mans works to spoile this simplicity there remains no place for them as they are meritorious for that sets them in the chair of Christ nor as they are motives of God to justifie for that sets them in the place of free-grace nor as conditions of the Covenant for that sets them in the place of faith but as they are fruits of holiness for that sets them in their own place assigned to them by this Doctrine 2 Simplicity of worship which is called spirit and truth Joh. 4. 23. not Judaicall and shadowish not Samaritan idolatrous but spiritual and inward The Apostle calls the Jewish types which were rich beggarly Elements we have them in the rich plainness of the Gospel In matter of worship that of Austin is the truth and Socrates had seen it before colendus est quomodo se colendum praeceperit as himself hath commanded Those that were mint-masters of worship used to feign correspondence with some deity that under that reputation they might vend off their devices God must stamp that worship as shall be currant man is apt to indulge his eye in Gods worship It 's the hardest thing saith one to leave our eye and fancie behind us as Abraham did his servants when we go up into the monnt to sacrifice The spiritual part of religion is the hardest part If we look into Justin Martyr and see how the dresse of worship was changed by degrees we shal finde that it became at length quasi reductus in Ecclesiam Judaismus unbecoming the purity of this virgin 3 The simplicity of life It was an excellent testimoniall subscribed by the Apostle his conscience 2 Cor. 1. 2. that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in this world The form of godliness is but a Mathematicall body consisting of lineaments onely Religion is practicall and alwayes married to honesty and righteousness towards men religious dishonesty is worse than a Christian married to a Heathen in the times we live that saying is too true universus mundus exercet histrioniam all men almost disguise and act parts Men either make it a stalking horse to their own game a footstool to their ends a covert of gold for their filthy designes or lodge it onely in the cock-loft of a cold brain and not in the warme room of affections And the simplicity of Christ is broken into a multiplicity of senses and wayes Let this Point for use recommend to Ministers and people both the simplicity of Christ 1 To the Ministery for though this be not a place to teach them yet it is a place to teach you what to say and what to expect of Archippus videlicet the simplicity of Christ both in the matter and manner of the delivery of this Doctrine 1 Simplicity for the matter of the Doctrine I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ faith he that had sitten at the feet of Gamaliel for though that of Justin Martyr be true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All truth spoken by Plato or Aristotle is ours and that which is true in Philosophy is true also in every place yet it is of the seed of the Word quod Christus nascitur in corde auditorum We must set bread before hungry souls and not be like the School-men that set men upon gnawing hard stones All learning may be spent upon the simplicity of the Gospell In breaking down strong holds meeting with subtilty of mens hearts raising up the dejected Spirit prostrate under sin counter-mining the methods and stratagems of the Devill and you will finde that the old Adam in mens hearts is too hard for young Melancthon and who is sufficient for these things 2 Simplicity for manner of delivery for painted glasse is more gaudy but cleer glass transmits more light the rule is to clothe spiritual things with spiritual words 1 Cor. 2. 13. It s vain oile that 's spent in strong lines that hang together as sand without lime standing together as letters in the Hebrew one not touching another Let a crucified Christ be preacht in a crucified Phrase and though you preach not with embroidery of silver and gold yet surge ambula if you make the hearer arise and walk it s farre the better It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide the Word a right a word taken from culling up of the sacrifices to shred the intrals into mince meat or to put the text to death and torment so as to make the people eat the flesh with the blood Keep the true pattern of wholsom words The People Are exhorted to hold fast this threefold simplicity of Christ in Doctrine worship and conversation In Doctrine All Scripture centers in and looks to Christ both Old Testament and New as the Cherubims to one another and both to the mercy seat he was then swathed up in types he is now unvaled in a rich plainnes of the Gospel those precious stones which God promises to build his Church Isa 54. 13. Do all come but to this All thy children shall be taught of God In worship spirit and truth are better than Jerusalem and this mountain therefore be satisfied in simplicity of Gospel-sacraments which as DuPlessis observs have been made by men the port-gates of superstititon and curiosity because the eye hath somewhat to do in them as corruption began at the tree in Paradise and came in by the eye In life that your voice be not onely smooth and hands rough for practical holiness is the life of religion else we may have golden heads and feet of clay To conclude let it be our joynt aime the simplicity that is in Christ and be
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 iâ— 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 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 wâ—s bloud shed to a religious end a bloud preservative from destroying Angels and therefore a proper Sacrifice What shall we say I 'le promise you not to puzzle you with controversies and disputes for I had rather The difference between a Sacrifice and a Sacrament 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 Exâ—d 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
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. 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 capital 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 Centurâ—mag ceâ—t 1. promissâ—ones 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
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 exâ—mple 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 alâ—quis 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. â— 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 Capâ—rnaum 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 §. 4. This is my Body 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 Myrâ—thec in Mat. 26. Scâ—â—iger de
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 §. 3. Arguments for the Protestants sense of the words This is my Body 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 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 §. 4. Why the Error of Transubstantiation is to be rejected with utmost detestation II. To reject with utmost detestation the impossible and incomprehensible Errour of Transubstantiation and corporall presence by which Doctrine a silly
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 parâ— of Christs Office is exercised in preserving and continuing of them in him who are already members of him and therefore is the finishâ—r 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. â— 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 §. 6. What is here Received by the Worthy Communicant 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. â— 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 Chrâ—st but those that by faith take and eat his crucified body If Christ himâ—elf be hâ—re 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
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 Fâ—llowship 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 bâ—essing p. 33. l. 14 Hebrewish with whom the c. p. 37. l. 24. r. the Lord I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered p 44. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 5â— 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
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 coena and assurances do pass by the staff and ring Annulus non valet quicquam 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 himself hers sed de hoe 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
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 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 o◠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. ◠de Euch. cap.
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 sealiâ—g 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 Câ—lebration 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
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