building the two chiefe Pillars of which building as h 1 Kin. 7.21 Jachin and Boaz in Solomons Temple are the two maine Articles of our Christian faith viz. the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting And that which as John Baptist did to Christ fore-runneth and i Mat. 3.3 prepares the way to solid comfort in them both is to eat the flesh and to drinke the bloud of Christ whose flesh is meat indeed and whose bloud is drinke indeed verse 55. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed because no food in shadow or in type but truely and in substance indeed because not provant for the body but spirituall nourishment of the soul indeed because not k Col. 2.22 perishing with the using but an heavenly viond a food l 1 Cor. 8.8 commending us to God and nourishing up for ever unto life eternall These four then viz. The division 1. The manducation of the flesh of Christ 2. The compotation of the bloud of Christ 3. The resurrection of the body And lastly 4. The possession of eternall life the certain issue of the other three These foure like the foure rivers in the garden of m Gen. 2.10 Eden doe all spring from the pure fountaine of this Scripture and must now flow abroad into so many severall streames of discourse which in their present spreading shall make glad I hope this City of God The same hand that gave the opportunity vouchsafe to give successe to this businesse Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day I shall begin in that n Singula quaeque locum teneant dicenda decenter Horat. de Arte Poetica order which the Text presenteth the parts in and in the former generalls observe 1. The guest invited to this heavenly Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whoso or as the Genevians render it Whosoever answering to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Saint o 1 Cor. 11.27 Paul the parallel Scripture unto this 1 Cor. 11.27 2. The provision made to entertaine these guests the flesh and bloud of Christ for meat and drink 3. The two actions with their relation to their severall object eating the flesh and drinking the bloud of Christ 4. And fourthly the conjunction of both these together for which cause I called it a compotation not flesh onely without bloud but bloud also as equally as the flesh and both respectively to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the beginning Of these in their order This Whoso is not either so universall The first particular or indefinite that pell mell promiscuously by vertue of it all commers or intruders were to be admitted to this sacred soules-repast though it be true that every worthy and accomplished guest may take p Isa 55.1.2 freely of the heavenly Supper and without cost Come saith the Prophet eat ye that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse and all without money and without price Isa 55.1.2 Procul hinc procul ite profani For if he that thrust himselfe in without his q Mat. 22.11.13 wedding garment to the Kings Feast was shamefully bound hand and foot and cast into outer darknesse where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth if there bee a Nolite sanctum canibus r Mat. 7.6 holy things and pearles be interdicted unto dogges and swine unto persons of a currish and swinish disposition that still as a 2 Pet. 2.22 Peter saith are turning backe to their vomit and to their wallowing in the mire of all impenitency Was a beast slain for touching the b Heb. 12.20 mount and shall not a person that is embrutished and sunke below his species in vile affections bee punished for touching that Table where the Lord is present Loe He that eates Christs flesh with a foule mouth and receives him into an uncleansed and sinfull soule doth as one saith well all one as if he should sop the bread he eates in dirt or lay up his richest treasures in a sinke No such unworthy and undressed guests are to touch here yea if they should all that they eat or drinke is but sure c 1 Cor. 11.29 judgement and damnation to themselves by such a presumptuous impreparation laying themselves open to the strokes of Gods displeasure of which Nadab and Abihu in a parallel case are exampled out for our warning being suddenly destroyed for offering d Lev. 10.2 strange fire at Gods Altar and no lesse are those endangered that present strange souls and a false faith at Christs Table for surely as Moses said to Aaron God wil be e Ver. 3. sanctified in them that come nigh him Wherefore our Saviour whose essence was Purity it self in abstracto when he meant though not to lay downe any thing which he had before to wit his Divinity save only as f Pantolcon tract de lumin sanct pag. 587. in patrum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pantoleon hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the act and time of his exinanition he seemed awhiles to shadow the manifestation and as it were to hide the glorious splendour of the same yet to assume unto his divine Person another Nature and that not of Angels for some of them stood but of Man whose whole species was quite lost as say the School-men in the fall of Adam In this his incarnation or assumption of his humanity he chose the wombe of none but of a pure Virgin to be lodged in for as no uncleane thing can enter into the kingdome of Heaven no more would the King of Heaven enter into any uncleane thing hee was a Lamb without h 1 Pet. 1.19 spot or blemish and could not therefore enter into a leprous soule yea his very body and his flesh so pure that those two noble Converts of his Joseph of Arimathea and his i 1 Joh. 7.50 night-Disciple Nicodemus thought it fittest as Primasius noteth out of St. John to be wound up onely in linnen cloaths and with sweet spices and fragrant odours to be interred in a new sepulchre never soyled by a sinfull body Joh. 19.40 41. And when himselfe was now about to give this same body of his in Sacrament at the first institution of his last blessed Supper unto his Disciples its noted by the same Evangelist chap. 13.4 5. that he riseth from supper that is if I misconceive not from the second and common supper now begun next to the eating of the Passeover which was the first and legall supper which the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rising up partly intimates For the legall Passeover as we may gather from Exod. 12.11 was to be eaten standing with staves in their hands and at which common supper it was before it was wholly ended that Judas eate the sop and had his traiterous hand with his Master in the dish after which sop no Sacramentall sop as I beleeve with a n
11.28 Corinthians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let every particular man examine himselfe and as the word imports put himself upon the tryall Examination is the eye of the soul by which reflexively it seeth it selfe and knoweth what it hath done Other meates saith St. Chrysostome are e're they be taken to be first proved lest they hurt us but here lest this heavenly meat prove noxious to thee thou must first goe prove thy selfe Judge p 1 Cor. 11.31 your selves therefore Brethren that ye be not judged of the Lord let us be impartiall in the scrutiny of our hollow and q Jer. 17.9 deceitfull hearts and like the woman that sought her groat in the Gospel light up the candle of our best faculties and leave no corner of our soules a Luk. 15.8 unswept till we have found out that sin of our soules that doth as Paul speaks so b Heb. 12.1 easily beset us and as that Jebusite in Canaan that will not out of our coasts and when we have discovered it to c Col. 3.5 mortifie it and to d Gal. 5.24 crucifie it with the affections and lusts thereof And as the speciall sacrifice that was offered upon the Altar in Jerusalem was wont diligently to bee looked into by the high Priest and his Ministers to spy out the blemishes or otherwise of it before the actuall oblation so let us S. e S. Clement epist ad Cor. pag. 53 54. Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthians a late and * See Mr Mede Serm. of the reverence of Gods house p. 14. genuine monument of antiquity set forth hath expressed it to the life thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word is interpreted by e Philo Judaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo Judaeus thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it implyeth such a disquisition so exact as if Momus himselfe with a Lincean eye were to come after hee should not finde a thing to carpe at in the very entrails of our sacrifices of our soules The same word is used by St. f Chrys Hom. 20. in Rom. Chrysostome upon this occasion of pre-examination 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Thus we should doe from the bottome of our soules wherefore g Jam. 4 8. cleanse your hands you sinners and purifie your hearts ye double-minded Thus if we doe at least in * Tota vita boni Christiani est sanctum desiderium desire and endevour we then come under this same ὠWhoso in my Text and are the men whosoever we be for externall condition in state or place that be all invited hither to eat and to drinke and that of no meaner cheare then the very flesh and bloud of Christ Jesus himselfe And thus I passe from the guests unto the provision made ready for them the flesh and the bloud of Christ Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud The second particular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Flesh and bloud these are strange cates to make a banquet of We read in the Scripture that h 1 Cor. 15.50 flesh and bloud cannot enter into the Kingdome of heaven but that 's meant of flesh corruption not of flesh the substance as the words ensuing shew for as there is Iron so the rust of Iron how much lesse shall he that feeds upon it for his food Satia te sanguine quem sitisti saith Tamyris as I remember in i Justin hist lib. 1. Justins history to Cyrus when his head was off and cast into a vessell full of bloud Now surfet on that bloud which thou so much thirstedst after It was a law of Gods owne enacting He that sheds k Gen. 9.6 mans bloud by man also shall his bloud be shed My flesh and my Bloud Surely what the Israelites said of Manna when first they saw and tasted it crying out in admiration l Exod. 16.15 Man-hu What is this portion or meat prepared for us for they wist not saith Moses what it was so may many a man that knowes not how to discerne the Lords Body such an one is apt to thinke with that monster Cacus in the Poet who from his wickednesse in abstracto had his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith * Foribusque affixa superbis ora virûm tristi pendebant pallida tabo Virg. Aeneid 8. Servius that nought but * Servius ib. fol. 505. mans flesh must be drawn into his den and as some savage Cannibal professing anthropophagie as some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man-hating Miso some Minotaure or bloudy * Sen. Tragaed in Thyeste Atreus or the like prodigies of nature that man was made to be m 2 Pet. 2.12 taken as St. Peter saith of brute beasts and to be destroyed and as the n Judg. 19. Levites concubine to be chopt in pieces Thus surely may your dull Capernaites and unilluminated men imagine for so they strove among themselves saying How can this man give us his flesh to eat John 6.52 yea more then so ver 60. many even of Christs owne Disciples when they heard this said Durus est hic senno this is a hard saying who can beare it And the very truth is this its that which poseth nature utterly and makes her stand as he without his wedding garment in the Gospel upon conviction o Mat. 22.12 speechlesse But though the words as they are in the shell be hard to pierce into yet when as our Saviour hath to our hands broken it for us we may easily take out the kernell of them The main scope of the Text. The mind of our Saviour in this Text which is but repeated from the former verses is to shew us the sweet effect of the spirituall eating of his body and drinking of his bloud by faith above that other orall eating and drinking of the bread and wine which are but the Sacraments thereof and may be taken as well by Hypocrites as by True believers This mysticall partaking instrumentally procureth eternall life after the resurrection whereas the other which is meerly outward and no more may yet engage to p 1 Cor. 11.29 judgement and damnation the reason is because the one partakes of the Lord himselfe who is the Bread of life Joh. 6.35 whom to know and with whom to have communion aright is life eternall Joh. 17.3 The other onely of the bread of the Lord which hath no vertue without faith at all to procure such endlesse blisse yea more Dum Sacramenta possunt obesse as St. Austin truly when those elements of Bread and Wine once consecrated by the lawfull minister and changed by that act of his duely and as it ought performed though not from their q Neque enim id Christus egit ut panis friticeus abjiceret naturam suam ac novam quandam divinitatem indueret sed ut nos potius immutarer utque Theophylactus loquitur in Joh. 6. transe lementaret in corpus suum Juel Apol. p. 41 vol.
there bin no expresse appointment was notwithstanding of a very p The approved practice of the Saints of God is equivalent to a precept Dr Sclater my father s rm on 1 Cor. 9.13 14. p 34. stiled The Ministers portion edit Oxon 1612. Illa quae ubique observantur multum proculdubio valent ubique id est toto terrarum orbe semper observata c. Dr Whitak l. 1. cont Duraeum sect 16. binding observation did observe it so as Cassander one of the chiefest Divines of his time confesseth Nor indeed can they themselves shew us q Quando primùm vigere coepit in aliquibus Ecclesiis minimè constat Valent Jes de Eucharist c. 10. p. 499. sect Haec igitur when certainly the Communion onely under one kinde first began yea till within these last 400. yeares which is a very new-antiquity it had no spreading entertainment for Aquinas confesseth that under both kindes was in use even to his times and he was both a My L. Grace against A.C. sect 33. p. 275 276. num 13. borne and dead during the reign of Henry the third of England and the one kinde was decreed but in the thirteenth Session of the Councell of Constance which is very b Id. ib. sect 38 p. 340. moderne at least farre downewards from the Primitive and purest Church so that I have no other hopes to keepe up your attention with any further discourse herein then to tell you onely as Demosthenes was wont to say to his Athenian auditors when they grew remisse under his Orations Here is newes for you which word Newes though it may spur your attention in the listening to it yet it should withall encrease your abhorrence of that religion which is thus patched together with the fragments of c I will sincerely promise that when ever any point of the Religion I professe shall be proved to be new and not ancient Catholike and Apostolike I meane for matter of faith I will renounce it c. See K. James confess of faith Art 23 in fine exactly Novelty for there is no faith or religion True but onely That which is Catholike Truely and properly which is and was beleeved every where alwayes and by all which hath as Vincentius d Vincent Lirin cap. 3. cont haeres Confer my Lo. Primate of Armagh ser on Eph. 4.13 p. 27 28 29. edit 1631. Lirinensis saith both Universality Antiquity and unanime Consent of the e See Aug. epist 18. c. 5. l. 4. de Bapt. cont Donatist c. 24. Confer my L. Grace against A.C. sect 21. p. 137 138. num 4. sect 38. p. 352. num 17. initio sect 39. p. 378. num 4. ib. whole Church of Christ which these late upstart devices and f Mat. 15.9 doctrines of men undoing by consequence the ancient and pure worship of God have not Sith then my deare Brethren these Romanists the onely Catholikes as they cry themselves up by which one g My L. of Durh. quâ supra c. 15. sect 1. initio word as by a Gorgon's or a Medusa's head painted in a shield they thinke at first sight to terrifie and delude poore ignorant Protestants as they count most of them and if they could sith I say these be such h 2 Sam. 10.4 Hanuns to shame us by cutting off at halfes the best of our spirituall ornaments as he did of Davids servants in a mock and fith they dare to be so bold as to take from you the i Psal 116.13 Calix salutaris sanguis est Salvatoris Bern. tract de lib. arbit gratia fol. 289 G. Illyr p. 126. in verbo Calix cup of salvation pray you for their conversion if God k 2 Tim. 2.25 peradventure wil give them repentance to the knowledging of the truth and then leave them and their l This without all doubt is all the infallibility the Pope hath to be sure to be infallible in whatsoever he would have determined chiefly remembring the Councells of Constance and Basil See my L. Grace qua supra sect 29. num 2. p. 219 sect 33 ib. p. 262 263 c. infallible Head if so they will not returne unto Gods cup of Trembling which shall make them reel and stagger more with Terrour then excesse And for your selves listen to your dearly-loving Saviours invitation who saith * Luc. 14.17 Come unto me If any man thirst let him come unto me and drinke Joh. 7.37 What is this thirst but a thirst of faith for so verse 38. and what is this drinke but the precious liquour of his owne bloud for as hee saith Joh. 6.55 in the next verse to my Text My flesh is meat indeed so also My bloud is drinke indeed whereof this Sacramentall cup tendred unto every of you by us deare Christians that be members by faith of Christ according to his owne appointment and institution is the sure signe and seale and pledge unto your soules For this cause yee see clearely in the Text that by a copulative both Eating and Drinking are conjoyned together what therefore God hath thus joyned together let no man much lesse the l 2 Thes 2.3 man of sinne shortly to be consumed by the m Vers 8. ib. spirit of Christs mouth dare to put n Mat. 19.6 asunder and sith both are so placed in the Text that as the o Exod. 25.20 Cherubims on the mercy seat though they look each to other yet still turning with their faces to the mercy seat so both these to the universall particle that is set in the doore of my Text to call in all worthy commers Loe every one all ye that hunger and thirst aright by faith come in and eat and drinke your fill saith Christ Behold my owne flesh and bloud stand ready fitted for your best provision and to set an edge upon your spirituall appetites see here is after Supper eternall life to abide with you and you with it for ever and this most fully to bee given at the last act for so we read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Whoso Whosoever eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life Hath eternall life See here and note it The third particular No man ever yet lost by his obedience to Christ he is not p Heb. 6.10 unrighteous to forget it hee alone is worthy to lose who when Christ inviteth him he puts him off with fond q Luk. 14.18 excuses and will not come loe here is life given the sweetest monosyllable in the world and not so alone but life eternall Had he said length of daies he had made good the first promise made to the obedience of the morall law Eph. 6.3 but in that he names eternall life see here the complement of all blisse But I pray note the expression 't is in the present tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not he shall have but he hath it and how so because
so that when our Sermon is ended wee can hardly say our Sermon is done wee heare more often of our owne good voices elocution memorie then of our hearers holy doings My hope is not so high as to please all nor my intention so factiously sordid as to displease any yet I cannot but suspect the worst for that whereas I hitherto mine o Anno tricessimo carnis assumptae Salvator ad signa miracula doctrinam usus est potestate non antea quia hac aetate tempus doctrinae insinuatum est rationabile ante has metas perperam invadi magisterium data est forma quia non competit annis impubibus sedere in cathedra c. Cypr. de jejun tentat Christi Sect. 1. age not daring farther have beene onely as a Standing in a Faire set up before anothers doore and have beene read but in a Preface to some bookes published of my fathers by me I must now stand alone upon my owne bottome by my selfe and yet not all alone but as the learners hand though framing characters yet by direction of the Scrivener that holds and guides it so I have singly vented nothing or at all steared the least point farther then as I have beene guided by the proper starres and cynosure of the worthiest in our Church of England whose names are now all noted in my margin which I could not mention in my preaching lest I should have lost my Sermon in so large quotations Honoured Sir amidst the many dangers it is like to meete with vouchsafe to patronize this my first publick Theologicall Essay by your countenancing of it I shall so lesse feare either the spleen or gall of any Reader One Plato saith p Marcil Ficin in vita Platonis Unus Plato plus est quà m Atheniensis populus Marcilius is worth all Athens else one pearle out-vies a thousand pebles one such Mecoenas so acute an Aristarchus of all learning who approves beares down before him like an Indian Hurraca all the sullen opposition of the whole droves of Momus Should I here take occasion to blazon your so many excellent graces which be like the Spouses flock of sheep which came up from the washing even-shorne each one being not like the Pelican in the wildernesse alone but every one bearing a Cant. 4.2 twinnes and none is barren among them Should I pen-down in this Epistle that those which are in others rare and singular are in you but ordinarie and common I should but make that legible by your owne which hath long since been visible to the eies of others that have truly known you But though your various graces as being all links of one and the same chain might well claime as those in the b Scholiast in Thucyd. Lacedaemonian army a priviledge all of them to be Captaines and to lead yet that which is as Davids Tachmonite the c 2 Sam. 23.8 chiefe among these Captaines and which as King Lemuels vertuous daughter doth d Pro. 31.29 excell the rest is your humble and admired Patience This is that bulwarke which as a c Mat. 7.25 rocke returnes the billowes of malevolence in froth and makes the shafts of the meagrest envie to bee split in vaine This is that which doth and shall preserve you as Alpheus still untainted by the washings of the bitterest f Sic tibi cùm fluctus subterlabêre Sicanos Doris amara suam non intermisceat undam Virg. Eclog. 10. Doris till you salute at last the limpid Arethusa and sweet fountaine of all blisse I will assure you noble Sir as the great Doctour of the Gentiles told his endeared Corinthians my heart is much g 2 Cor. 6.11 enlarged towards you and my respectfull thoughts be most voluminous though now my quill much like mine oratorie too jejune and dry hath thus epitomized my expressions in a line or two But I perceive as Jordan above his bankes the measure of my affection hath over-swoln the bounds of an Epistle What remaines now but that I must implore the favours of Heaven on you and that you may still persist to beautifie the seat you sit in to credit the West and to adorne the Gospell Mee both your selfe and your so rarely vertuous consort a genuine branch of a most holy and devout stocke shall ever have though your meanest friend yet one that hath resolved to print himselfe Your most true honourer in my faithfull observances much devoted WILLIAM SCLATER Exon. May 11. 1639. THE WORTHY COMMUNICANT REWARDED JOHN 6.54 Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day AFTER some agitation of thoughts what most opportunely I might this day entertaine your noble audience withall at length I fastened on this Text which is that sacred Map in which we have compendiated the summe of those choice favours from above that now this gladsome anniversary of our Saviours all-glorious Resurrection hath occasioned to his Church For now we have more solemnly and more generally renewed our Covenant with our God and received the Seale of all our pardons in the blessed Sacrament Now also hath the all-powerfull arising of our Head Christ Jesus carrying away in triumph as a Jud. 16.3 Samson did the gates of Azzah on his shoulders the bars of Death Hell and the Grave and all this to assure his members of their complete b Rom. 4.25 justification before his offended Father yea of their sure possession of eternall blisse offered it selfe unto our meditations We are too many of us as Christ said unto the two Disciples whereof the one was named Cleophas and the other one Ammaon as St. Ambrose or Nathanael as c Epiphan haer 23. ad finem Epiphanius or else S. Luke himself the Writer of the story as Haymo Lyranus and Theophylact opine to these two what ever was the others name going to Emmaus we are I say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Luk. 24.25 slow of heart to beleeve at least wise through want of a more earnest taking-heed unto the things we heare so sieve-like are our memories that they doe e Heb. 2.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Pauls word is let slip and to run out as leaking vessels what should better be retained Wherefore as the Manna on the Jewish Sabbath being f Exod. 16.24 laid up in a pot was rendred sweet and fresh for use so that we may not as ingratefull Israel so soone g Psa 106.13 forget the wonders of the Lord so marvellous in our eyes but rather on the contrary as Ophir in the dayes of Solomon was the place for gold because the most and best was there so went I for a seasonable Text herefore to this golden and beaten chapter as well travelled in this kind as Ophir was for gold because here was the richest veine to furnish such an occasion thence have I extracted a small modell for my
of it They by oblation asservation circumgestation and carrying about adoration and the like prophane it Whereas the actions enjoyned to us herein are Sacramentall only expressed in the Text by eating and by drinking which is the next particular though but in a little mouthfull of words onely to bee discoursed of Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud These actions of Eating The third particular and of Drinkking are both of Sacramentall Institution and signification symbolically representing the inward application of and as it were the mysticall mastication or feeding upon Christs flesh and bloud by faith which is the mouth of the soule and her exercise and acts about this mystery as 't were the very eating and the drinking of Christs flesh and bloud Now this eating is as Christs body to which it doth relate twofold 1. Sacramentall 2. Spirituall both are required but chiefly the spirituall because the wicked may equally share with us in the first and if we have the second though necessity perchance barre us of the first yet we are safe still remembring the Rule that Nuda carentia non damnat but contemptus because that Christ doth not universally and alwayes l Deus gratiam Sacramentis non alligavit quasi absque illis neque possit neque velit ullos servare Pet. Martyr loc com class 4. c. 5. sect 16. p. 826. tye without any exception his saving graces to the outward means Hence is that of m P. Lumb l. 4. dist 4. 9. Lumbard Some saith he take both the Sacrament and the thing signified with it so the Elect and faithfull in their health or well-disposed some the Sacrament onely and no more so the Hypocrite a third sort the thing onely without the signe which is indeed the principall eating hence is that knowne word of S. n Aug. Tract 25. in Joh. Austin Ut quid paras ventrem dentem crede manducasti Why preparest thou thy teeth and belly beleeve only and thou hast eaten Christ Now though I might here take occasion justly to exhort my selfe and you to a frequent partaking of Christ even Sacramentally too and so o Eph. 5.16 redeem the time of our freedome herein because the dayes are evill so that we may either be taken from the Sacrament or it from us we finde that the Primitive Church was p 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.46 daily in it which made Saint q S. Cyprian in orat Dom. sect 13. Cyprian to interpret the daily Bread in the Lords prayer of the Sacramentall bread And in Saint Chrysostomes dayes there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Chrys hom 3. ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a daily sacrifice in use and he in wonder cryed out on the slacke comming unto the holy Altar and blamed it as an ill custome But though I urge not such a frequency lest the commonnesse might abate somewhat of the reverence to it yet at least let not the moone pace over the Zodiack oftner sith the spouse of Christ is likened to the b Cant. 6.10 moone then we performe if possible our course this way St. Paul is at his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his c 1 Cor. 11.26 oftennesse of which d Thom. 3 qu. 66 art 9. ad 5um in fine Quia homo semel nascitur multoties autem cibatur semel tantum datur baptismus multotiens autem Eucharistia Thomas gives a reason though Baptisme be but once for all administred because though man be but once borne yet because he stands in need of often feeding and nourishment therefore though the Sacrament of Initiation Baptisme be but once given yet the Sacrament of farther confirmation and strengthening the Lords Supper or the Eucharist is often administred In Concilio Agathensi as I find in Isidores Councels he was sentenced for an unsound Christian who did not at the three great Festivals of the yeere at least communicate Our own Church hath pressed her children to e Canon Angl. 21. Three times a yeare at the least whereof one to be now at f Certum habemus quia Christus resurgens ex mortuis jam non moritur c. tamen ne obliviscamur quod semel factum est in memoria nostra omni anno fit sc quotiens Pascha celebratur August praef in 2. expos Psal 21. de cons dist 2. apud Lumb l 4. dist 12. G. Easter But as for our spirituall eating that must be every day for else the soule would starve and dye which liveth not but by the g Hab. 2.4 Gal. 3.11 The fourth particular life of faith And as Christs flesh must thus be eaten by us so must every good Christian drink his bloud too for which cause we find a Conjunction coupling them both together in the Text And both bread and wine too were prefigured in Melchisedech his oblation of both bread and wine to Abraham Gen. 14.18 as St. h S. Cyprian sect 2. de Coen Dom. Cyprian i Rabbi Samuel quâ supra cap. 19. p. 645. Rabbi Samuel k Thom. 3. qu. 61. Act. 3. ad 3um Aquinas l Hales par 4. qu. 10. mem 1. Art 2. p. 223. edit 1622. Hales and many others have well observed See yet if herein our Romanists be not directly Antichristian and both wayes run themselves upon the rockes the dangerous Scylla of * Apoc. 22.18 19. adding on the one side and the engulphing Charybdis of taking away on the other side both pernicious In the Councell of Florence for loe a deepe silence of this till that time in all Antiquity which was but in the yeere 1200. some 30. yeares after that Hugo de S. Victore and P. Lumbard had vented their conceits herein and they were the first that made any noise about it as m Dr Whitaker l. 8. sect 59. de paradox cont Duraeum Dr Whitaker sometimes Oracle of the chaire in Cambridge hath shewed us Then and There they decree for seven Sacraments whereas our Saviour appoints but two They might as well have settled 70. times 7. in the larger acception of the word Sacrament as it signifies the signe of an holy thing in generall And now here they mangle the use of these that our Saviour appointed allowing the cup only unto the Clergy pretending that Christ meant that onely to the Apostles then present with him at the institution but as well they may say the same likewise for the bread But besides the expresse institution of our Saviour himselfe under both kindes and not of the bread onely in the maine the wine being by n Pet. Martyr loc com clas 4. c 10 sect 18. p. 849. concomitancy alone consecrated as some of them doe tell us not onely the Primitive but even the whole o Cassander consult Art 22. initiō Catholicke Church of Christ yea even the purer Romane too for a thousand yeares continuance which had
receive the seeds of grace One sting of the fiery Serpent in the wildernesse drives the pained Israelite to look up for remedy to the i Num. 21.9 brasen Serpent there set up so when the Conscience is as it were stung with the bitings of the k Rev. 12.9 old Serpent the Devill by the sight and smart for sinne Then flies the Penitent and sobbing soule for ease and remedy to the True brasen l John 3.14 Serpent Christ Jesus who hath broken the teeth and plucked out that m 1 Cor. 15.55 57. sting which so much pained the good soule The n Initium salutis notitia peccati qui peccare se nescit corrigi non vult Sen. Frustra medicantis auxilium expectat qui vulnus non detegit Boctius sight and sense of misery by sinne is the sure preparatory meanes to seek and finde a remedy by mercy as when the powers of the jaylors soule were shaken with as strong an earth-quake as the Prison it selfe was Then but not till then hee o Act. 16.29 Non potest scire quo modo morbos curare conveniat qui undè hi sunt ignorat Cornel. Cels de Re Med. lib. 1. sprang in to Paul and Silas desiring both ease and direction from the guilt of sinne unto the life of Christianity The like to which wee read of S. Peters Converts when they were p Act. 2.37 * A man were better feele wrath then nothing D. Sclater in sick souls salve pricked in their hearts then they cry out What shall wee do to bee saved 2. Secondly Christs Resurrection was q Thom. 3ª qu. 54ª Art 2. Integrall whole in every part a most complete and perfect Resurrection he had nothing wanting or defective in his body which now arose in incorruptibilitate as r Primasius in 1. ad Corinth c. 15. v. 20. Primasius speaks in an absolute incorruption yea and impossibility of returning back againe to Death He being risen dieth o Rom. 6.9 no more death hath no more dominion over him for he arose Immortalis Totaliter as p Raymund à Sabunde in Theolog. Natural Raymundus à Sabunde saith Totally Immortall Now his Resurrection being an example of ours from hence wee are instructed to a Totall Integrall and Universall abrenunciation of all sinne unto the contrary reformation A Christian must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whole in regard of sincerity universall in regard of the extent of his obedience unto q Psal 119.128 all Gods Commandements for hee that allowes himselfe in any one knowne sinne cannot bee said Truly to hate any sinne even as a loose adulterer that hath many curtisans but some one above the rest on whom hee doates on whom his luxurious affections are more intensively enamoured though hee entertaine the rest but onely in a generall salute and so goes them all by to glut himselfe with pleasure on that one Though the manifestation of his carnall love be greater to this one then to all the other yet hee cannot properly be said to hate any of the rest But a Christian must not onely as Herod be at his r Mar. 6.20 many things nor as Agrippa at his ſ Act. 26.28 almost nor as Naaman at his Rimmon and his being pardoned in t 2 King 5.18 This though but an onely minion but he that is in Christ must bee a new Creature throughout and u Act. 26.29 altogether x 2 Cor. 5.17 all things must become New in heart and affection in life and conversation in body in soule in spirit y 1 Thes 5.23 Wholly Integrally Universally for so was Christs Resurrection 3. Thirdly Christ arose speedily the z Luke 24.46 Third day from his death and that no sooner nor no later first saith a Thom. 3ª qu. 53. Art 2. in corp Aquinas to shew the Truth of both his Natures it behoved him to rise quickly least if his Resurrection had beene deferred till the end of the world the Truth of his Divinity might with his omnipotency have beene suspected as if hee b See John 10.18 could not have raised up himselfe before and it behoved him to lie till the third day before hee arose least the Truth of his humanity and his death might have beene questioned now continuing in the grave untill the Third Day so that the grave to our Saviour was not onely Sheol but also b Bp. Lake quà supra p. 152. Shacath not onely a greedy swallower but a ravenous digester also it 's manifest that his Death was True No Apoplectick extasie being compatible with life under favour above three dayes Secondly Hee rose the third day that is speedily no long delay intervening betweene his Dissolution and his Resurrection to bee a Patterne to us herein of our speedy and c Luke 24.1 early arising out of the grave of sinne unto the life of grace Ne differas de die in diem saith d Ecclus. 5.7 Siracides Make no tarrying to turne to the Lord and put not off from day to day I love them that love me saith God and they that seeke me early shall finde me Prov. 8.17 God loves such as bee aurorantes ad se that with the first peeping of the day give up themselves to God Let us with Abel offer up the e Gen. 4.4 firstlings of our Time in Sacrifice to God we shall so be the first in his acceptation Let us die the wooll of our infancy and youth into the graine colour of sanctity that when our dayes are woven into more yeares wee may never after change colour Awake up my glory saith King David awake Psaltery and Harpe I my selfe will awake right early Psal 57.8 Or as some render it Excitabo auroram I will stirre up the morning non illam ut me à somno excitet praestolabor sed illam ego morantem excitabo saith m Granatens tom 3. concion de temp conc 1. in die S. Pasch Granatensis And surely my Beloved Christians would wee as now it 's n Rom. 13.11 high time awake out of the sleepe of our carnall security and sin and as Bildad advised Job seek unto God o Job 8.5 6. betimes surely now he would awake for us and make the habitation of our righteousnesse prosperous Yea if thus we would awake and arise from the dead in the first Resurrection Christ himselfe shall give us p Eph. 5.14 light that is himselfe for so old Simeon calleth him The q Luk. 2.32 Joh. 1.9 Light to lighten the Gentiles and in thy a Psal 36.9 light O blessed and sweet Saviour we shall surely see light This was the way that a * Dr Peterson the reverend Dean of Exeter in his learned and elegant sermon upon Eph. 5.14 preached in the Cathedrall of Saint Peter there upon Easter day 1639 bright starre pointed out unto me lately as yee all know and the readiest affections of mine heart lending mee winde and sayles at will for present would now put mee on to steare amayne in the same course This was the Musick that so tooke our eares and hearts upon the solemne Festivall it selfe Oh that as the voice and eccho in the woods that most divine Sermon and our true Practice might make up one sound and termination I confesse my meditations have since that time as Moses on the Mount b Exod. 32.1 stayed long upon it and were it not that I justly feared my jarring notes would marre that taking harmony I could yet winde up mine instrument a while longer but so divine an Orpheus could not but draw even the stony heart to follow Doe then what then you heard I will assure you it is that which leads the way directly to the life eternal in this my Text Concerning which if ye would now enquire of me and aske me what it is I must needs tell you that its that which sooner swallowes up our thoughts in wonder then it can become capable of but a competent expression by our speech it s better knowne indeed by True fruition then discourse Therefore leaving that let us now rather all pray so to bee enabled all to feed upon the flesh and to drinke the bloud of Christ by faith that in the issue we may make sure of the full fruition of the same and in the end of all things obtaine infallibly the c 1 Pet. 1.9 end of all our faith even the salvation of our soules and this through the alone merits and mediation of the same Jesus Christ the d 1 Joh. 2.1 righteous who hath risen from the dead is e Eph. 4.8 9. ascended up into Heaven there to f Joh. 14.3 prepare those eternall mansions of blisse promised to all that cleave unto him by a true effectuall and lively faith even for ever and ever Unto him with thee O righteous Father and thy blessed incomprehensible Spirit our God in Unity our God in Trinity be all honour and praise thanksgiving immortality dominion salvation and glory in the g Eph. 3.21 Church throughout all ages world without end Amen FINIS
THE WORTHY COMMUNICANT REWARDED LAID FORTH IN A SERMON ON JOHN 6.54 PREACHED IN THE Cathedrall of St. PETER in Exeter on Low-Sunday being the 21. of Aprill Anno 1639. BY WILLIAM SCLATER MASTER Of Arts late Fellow of Kings Colledge in Cambridge now Chaplaine of the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop's Baronry of Saint Stephens and Preacher also at S. Martin in the same City 1 COR. 11.27 Whosoever shall eate this Bread and drinke this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. Aug. apud P. Lumb l. 4. dist 9. C. Non manducans manducat manducans non manducat quia non manducans sacramentaliter aliquando manducat spiritualiter è converso LONDON Printed by R. Y. for G. LATHUM at the Bishops head in Pauls Church-yard TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFULL Doctor PETERSON Dean and Canon residentiary of St. Peter in Exeter Chaplaine in ordinary to his Majesty c. my worthily honoured friend the exuberancie of all blessings Reverend Sir THat which was graced with your audience in preaching with your thanks when preached be pleased now to honour with your noble Patronage in print which is a kind of preaching too that as a 2 Sam. 18.23 Ahimaaz did Cushi and Saint b John 20.4 John Saint Peter doth out-run the vocall by so much farther as it can lengthen out its strides as Procrustes stretched his guests in c Plutarch in vita Thesei Plutarch that were for his bed otherwise too short to reach it self unto the hands and eyes of those good Catholike Christians unto whose ears my voice had it bin Stentorian or as a d Mar. 3.17 Boanerges could not come To preach by the pen which in the expression of Clemens Alexandrinus is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as usefull sometimes as to doe so by the tongue and this instruction by the e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hand like to a wedge of gold beaten into a plate spreads more abroad and often with as large emolument to the Church as that which is by lively f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alex lib. prim Strom. speech or sermocination I may seeme perchance by this to light a candle to the Sun and to cast my spoonfull into that vast Ocean of knowledge which we though sitting upon the very lees and dregs of time for Atheisme and ill practice which with bleeding hearts we view abroad and wonder at have lived to see make up that prophesie of great Daniel who foretold it should g Dan. 12.4 abound and of the Kingly Prophet whose prediction is now at its full height and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of accomplishment God gave the word and great are the company of the h Psal 68.11 Preachers when thus comparatively I lay me in the ballance I finde most others to preponderate sith I must on the generall audit of my selfe confessedly with Paul bring in my account with i 2 Cor. 12.11 I am nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with good Calvin mine empty k Calvin Inst lib. 2. cap 5. sect 13. in fine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying of all my best parts and performances as S. Andrew of the five loaves and two fishes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alas l John 6.9 What are these They reach not as I reade of Davids later Worthies unto the dignity of the m 2 Sam. 23.19 former who did not more outstrip in worth then Saul did overgrow in n 1 Sam. 9.2 stature his under brethren or Zacheus o Luke 19.4 climb'd up on the Sycamore o'relooke the company in the way below with Christ But when againe I meditate that even a paire of p Luke 2.24 Turtles and the two q Mar. 12.42 43. Mites where there was no more to give were valued by that God who measureth more by quality then by a Non de patrimonio sed de animo opus ejus examinans considerans non quantum sed ex quanto dedisset S. Cypr. lib. de opere cleemosyn sect 14. quantity as a rich oblation and a large additament to the common corban and the treasurie of the Church and when I think that my little light though but as a candle or a glimmering ray of that orient b Mal. 4.2 Sun of righteousnesse is given and derived to me not to be hidden under the c Mat. 5.15 bushell whether of covetousnesse or obscurity nor to be set under the d Luke 8.16 bed of lazinesse or sluggish ease much lesse to be dipped in the liquour of what is e Isa 5.20 called good but is the worst of fellowship till it be quite extinct but as Saint Paul saith even of the commonest gift of the Spirit that it s bestowed not for ostentation of the haver but for to f 1 Cor. 12.7 profit withall the whole Church Why should I be shie to pay though but my g Eccles 1.7 rivulet as in tribute to this Ocean and to improve though but my one talent to the best advantage of my Lord and Master Christ who is wont to give to him that h Luke 8.18 hath and having doth employ the i Mat. 25.28 more by how much more the good alreadie given spreadeth and doth become diffusive to communitie I would not therefore with the Spider weave this web to thrust it to a corner but with the Silk-worme rather spinne my thread so that it might help to cloath at least some younger children of the Church I must confesse the Presse may now well begin to surfet and as k Gen. 49.14 Issachar to couch down under the burdens of those sons of Anak those Giant-like voluminous writers on this my subject those are your bulky Elephants that with whole l 1 Mac. 6.37 castles-full of paper on their backes occasion the common Readers to keep aloofe their purse-strings are too weake to tye and hold them and the acies of their eie-sight hebetated by so too-big objects I have not written m Tenuis mihi campus aratur such Iliades after Homer Many before me have done worthily this * Est illud magnae fertilitatis opus Ovid. Trist lib. 2. larger way in Ephratah and for it are become as the people in the gates told Boaz very n Ruth 4.11 famous in our Bethleem I have chosen to present my Mother-Church as Saint Austin did Laurentius with an enchiridion onely as having limmed out what is more copiously pourtraied by others into a smaller draught and so doe offer it as were Homers Iliades to that mightie Monarch in a Nutshell to her I must expect having thus hoised up my saile to steare amaine some surges some whistlings of your windy spirits that like to summer flies will blow corruption on the sweetest of provision Wee are fallen into those times wherein all Sermons are most sure of censure most of all unsure of practice