the remission of sins and last of all the end of this institution and of this celebration of the Lords Supper in the words of my Text This doe as oft as you do it in remembrance of me Which words I read to you as S. Pauls but indeed they are Christs delivered by him and received from Christ as he tells us v. 23. In which you may behold his love streaming forth as his blood did on the Crosse for not content once to dye for us he will appear unto us as a crucified Saviour to the end of the world and calls upon us to look upon him and remember him whom our sins have pierced presents himself unto us in these outward elements of Bread and Wine and in the breaking of the one and pouring out of the other is evidently set forth before our eyes and even crucified amongst us as S. Paul speaks Gal. 3.1 thus condescending and applying himself to our infirmities that he may heal us of our sins and make and keep us a peculiar people to himself And since the words are his we must in the first place look up and hearken to him who breaths forth this love secondly consider what task his love hath set us what we are to do thirdly ex praescripto agere since it is an injunction whose every accent is love doe it after that form which he hath set down after the manner which he hath prescribed So the parts are four First the Author of the Institution Secondly the duty enjoyned to do this Thirdly to do it often Lastly the end of the Institution or the manner how we must do it we must do it in remembrance of him i.e. of all those benefits and graces and promises which flowed with his blood from his very heart which was sick with love and with these we shall exercise your Christian devotion at this time And first we must look upon the Author of the Institution for in every action we do it is good to know by what authority we do it and this is the very order of nature saith S. Austin Aug. l. 1. de Morib Eccl. c. 2. ut rationem praecedat autoritas that Authority should go before and have the preheminence of Reason that where Reason is weak Authority may come in as a supply to strengthen and settle it For what can Reason see in Bread and Wine to quicken or raise a soul what is Bread to a wounded spirit or Wine to a sick soul 1 Cor. 8.8 For neither if we eat are we the better the more accepted nor if we eat not are we the worse saith S. Paul 'T is true the outward elements are indifferent in themselves but authority changes even transelements them gives them vertue efficacy a commanding power even the force of a Law He that put vertue into the clay spittle to cure a bodily eye may do the same to bread and wine to heal our spiritual blindness he that made them a staff to our body may make them also a prop to our souls when they droop and sink and then if he say this do ye though our reason should be at a stand and boggle at it as at a thing which holds no proportion with a soul yet we must do it because he sayes it It may be said Is not his word sufficient which is able to save our souls is it not enough for me to beat down my body to pour forth my prayers to crucifie my flesh No nothing is sufficient but what the authority of Christ hath made so nescit judicare quisquis didicit perfectè obedire is true in matters of this nature we have no judgement of our own our wisdome is to obey and let him alone to judge what is fit who alone hath power to command Authority must not be disputed with nor can it hear why should I do this for such a question denies it to be authority if it were possible that God to try our obedience should bid us sow the rocks or water a dry stick or teach a language which we do not know as the Jesuits do their Novices a necessity would lie upon us and woe unto us if we did it not how much rather then should we obey when he commands for our advantage gives us a law that he may give us more grace binds us to that which will raise us neerer to him when he spreads his table prepares his viands bids us eat and drink and then sayes grace bids a blessing himself unto it that we may grow up in his Favour and be placed amongst those great examples of eternall happinesse Look not then on the Minister howsoever qualified for a brasse seal makes the same impression which a ring of Gold doth and it is not materiall whether the seal be of baser or purer mettall so the image and character be authentique saith Nazianz. Look not on the outward elements for of themselves they have no power at all no more than the water of Jordan had to cure a Leper but their power and vertue is from above the force and vertue of a Sacrament lies in the institution all the power it hath is from the Author Before it was but Bread but common Bread now it is Manna the bread of strength the bread of Angels and this truth thou maist build upon nor doth the Church of Rome deny it and though they have added five Sacraments and may adde as many more as they please Quicquid arant homines navigant aedificant any thing we do may be made a Sacrament when the fancy is working she may spin out what she please yet they cannot deny that every Sacrament must have immediate institution from Christ himself from his own mouth or else it is of no validity and therefore are forced to pretend it though they cannot prove it in those which themselves have added for their own advantage Think then when thou hearest these words Take eat this is my body which was broken thou hearest thy Saviour himself speaking from heaven think not of the Minister or the meannesse of the Elements but think of him who took thee out of thy blood and sanctified thee with his and by the same power is able to sanctifie these outward Elements by the vertue of whose institution The cup of blessing which we blesse which he blessed first shall be to every one that comes worthily the Communion of the Blood and the Bread which we breake which he first brake the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 And thus much of the Author Let us now consider what he enjoyns us to do and the command is to do this that is to do as he did though to another end to take Bread and to give Thanks and eat it and so of the Cup to take and drink it and if this be done with an eye to the Author and a lively faith in him this is all for this table was spread not for the
Christians and thus he dyed one Thus Saint Peter would not converse and eat with the heathen as polluted and unclean and when the sheet was let down and in it the will of Christ preached unto them and baptized them Acts 10. And this is the mother of all repentance for what is repentance but the changing of our mind upon better information This if it were well practised would fill the world which is now full of errour with Recognitions and Recantations which are not onely confessions but the triumphs over a conquered errour as the rejoycings and Jubilees of men who did sit in darknesse but have now found the light This would be an Amulet and sure preservative against prejudice and those common and prevailing errours to which it gives life and strength and which spread themselves as the plague and infect whole Families Cities and Nations In brief this would make our errours more veniall and men more peaceable for he that seeks the truth with this impartiall diligence is rather unfortunate then faulty if he misse it and men would never advance their opinion with that heat and malice against dissenters if they could once entertain this thought that it is possible that they themselves may erre and that that opinion in which they now say they will dye may be false if they did not rest in the first evidence as best and so suffer it to passe unquestioned and never seek for a sure word of prophesie or a well grounded assurance that this is one For if this were done as it should either errour would not overtake or if it did it could not hurt us But this is an argument of a large compasse a subject full and yielding much matter and I was but to declare my mind and intention which may better thrive and be more seen under the manage of more nimble and ready wits and the activity of a better hand and pen. Second and as I thought it worth my paines and endeavour to strike at those common errours at which so many stumble and into which they willingly fall and with great complacency so did I set up in the course of my office and ministery this desire and I could not bring much more then desire to present in as faire an appearance as I could those more necessary and essentiall truths by the embracing of which we lay hold on happinesse and come neerest to it and to set them up as a mark at which all mens actions should especially aime For if this be once obtained the other will follow of it self because these truths are not so obnoxious and open to prejudice and men would not run into so many obliquities if they did principally and earnestly intend that to which they were everlastingly and indispensably bound nor could they so often erre if they were willing to be good It was as wise counsell as could have been given to those who sate to solve knotty doubts and to determine controversies in Religion in the Council at Dort Beati pacifici King James his Motto or Dicton and it was given by a King and it would have made good his motto and styled him a peacemaker though there had been nothing else to contribute to that title Paucissima definienda quia paucissima necessaria that they should not be too busie and earnest in defining and determining many things because so few were necessary which counsel if men had thought it worth their eare and favour and willingly bowed to it had made the Church as Jerusalem a City compact within it self and there would have been abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth For questions in divinity are like meats in this the more delicate and subtile they are the sooner they putrifie and by too much agitation and sifting anoy and corrupt the rule whilest men are more swift and eager in the pursuit and advance of that humour that raised them then in following of those truths which are but few and easie and with which they might build themselves up in their holy faith Lex nos innocentes esse jubet non curiosos innocency and not curiosity is the fulfilling of the Law Senec. Controv as it is not luxury which raiseth an healthfull constitution but temperance and those meats which are as wholesome as common The summe of all Christianity is made up in this to levell and place all our hope where it should be on God through Jesus Christ our Lord to love him and keep his commandments which are both open and easie when we are willing In other more nice then usefull disquisitions I am well pleased to be puzzled and to be at losse and yet am not at losse because I cannot lose that which I would not which I cannot have and I resolve for God and not my self or indeed for my self because for God and my answer is most satisfactory that I believe the thing and God onely knows the manner how it is and doth not therefore reveale it because it is not fit for me to know When I am to appeare before God in his house and at his table I recollect my thoughts and turn them upon my self I severely inquire in what termes I stand with God and my neighbour whether there be nothing in me no imagination which stands in opposition with Christ and so is not suitable with the feast nor with him that makes it And when this is done my businesse is at an end for to attempt more is to do nothing or rather that which I should not do but I do not ask with the Schooles how the ten predicaments are in the Eucharist how the bread is con or transubstantiated or how the body of Christ is there for they who speak at distance most modestly and tell us it is not corporally but yet 't is really there yet do not so define as to ascertain the manner but leave it in a cloud and out of sight I know that my redeemer liveth and that he will raise me up at the last day for he hath promised who raised himself and is the first fruits of them that slept but I do not enquire what manner of trumpet it shall be which shall then sound nor of the Solemnity and manner of the proceeding at that day or how the body which shall rise can be the same numericall body with that which did walk upon the earth It is enough for me to know that it is sown in dishonour and shall be raised in glory and my businesse is to rise with Christ here and make good my part in this First Resurrection for then I am secure and need not extend my thoughts to the end of the world to survey and comprehend the Second To add one instance more in the point of justification of a sinner in which after sixteen hundred yeares preaching of the Gospel and more we do not yet well agree and yet might well agree if we would take it as the Scripture hath
see them Debauch their reason and deliver up their understandings and wills to a Face to a voice to the Gesture and Behaviour and sleight of men when every empty cloud that comes towards them shall be taken for heaven and he that speaks not so much reason as Balaams Asse shall be received for a Prophet when men are so enclined so ready so ambitious to be deceived we need not wonder to see so many Blind Bartimeus's in our streets that Grope at noone-day and stumble at every straw That blindness is happened to Israel That Truth is become a Monster and error a Saint we need not wonder that the Pharisees have more Disciples then Christ Men and Brethren what should I say why should you desire to be pleased if we thus please you we damne you why should we study to please you if we study to please you we damne our selves 'T is not your Favour your Applause which we affect we know well enough out of what Treasury those windes come and how uncertainly they blow one applause of Conscience is worth all the Triumphs in the World Bring then the Ballance of the Sanctuary The Touch-stone of the Scripture If our Doctrine be not minus Habens be not light but full weight If it be not Refuse Silver but current Coine and beare no other Image but of the King of Kings even for the Truths sake for our common Masters sake whose servants we are lay aside all malice and guile and Hypocrisy and receive it That you may grow thereby but if nothing yet be Truth which doth not please you then what shall we say but even tell you another Truth vero verius most true it is you will not heare the Truth And therefore in the last place Heb. 10 14. Ephes 4. Let us all both Teachers and Hearers purge out this evill Humour of pleasing and being pleas'd and let us as the Apostle exhorts Consider one another to provoke unto love and Good works Let us speak Truth every one to his Neighbour For we are members one of another This is the true and surest Method of pleasing one another for Flattery like the Bee carries Honey in its mouth but hath a sting in its Tayle but Truth is sharp and bitter at first but at last more pleasant then Manna He that would seale up thy lips for the Truth which thou speakst will at last kisse those lips and Blesse God in the Day of his Visitation And this if we doe we shall please one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Edification and not unto ruine And thus all shall be pleased the Physitian that he hath his Intent and the Patient in his Health The strong shall be pleas'd in the weak and the weak in the strong The wise in the Ignorant and the Ignorant in the wise and Christ shall be well pleas'd to see Brethren thus walk together in Unity strengthning and inciting one another in the wayes of Righteousnesse and when we have thus walkt hand in hand together to our journeys End shall admit us into his presence where there is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore HONI â—…T QVI MAL Y PENSE THE EIGHTEENTH SERMON BEING A PREPARATION TO THE HOLY COMMUNION 1 COR. 11.25 This doe ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me THat which is made to degenerate from its first institution is so much the worse by how much the better it would have been if it had been levell'd and carried on to that end for which it was ordained the truth of which is plain and visible as in many others so in this great businesse of the Administration of the Lords Supper which in its right and proper use might have been as physick to purge and as manna to feed the soul to eternall life but being either raised higher or brought lower than it self either made more than it is or lesse than it is either made miraculous or nothing hath become fatall and destructive and hath left most men guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. For some we see have quite changed and perverted the Ordinance of Christ scarce left any shadow or sign of its first institution have made of a Supper for the living a Sacrifice for the dead turned the Minister into a sacrificing Priest Bread and Wine into very Flesh and Blood and Bones the remembrance of Christs Death into the adoration of the outward Elements have written books filled many volumes in setting out the miraculous vertue it hath of which we may say as Pliny did of the writings of those magicall Physicians that they have been published non sine contemptu irrisu generis humani not without a kind of contempt and in derision of all the world as if there breathed not in it any but such who were either so bruitish as not to know or such fools as to believe whatsoever fell from the pen of such idle dreamers Others have fell short have been more coldly affected and have lost themselves in a strange indifferency as not fully resolved whether it be an institution that binds or no and look upon it rather as an invention of man than the word and command of Christ Others run far enough from Superstition as they think and are great enemies to Popery and yet unawares carry a Pope with them in their belly lean too much to the opus operatum to the bare outward action think what they will not say that if they come to the Feast it is not much materiall what garment they come in that the outward elements are of vertue to sanctifie the Profaner himself that though they have been haters of God yet they may come to his Table though they have crucified Christ yet here they may taste and see how gracious he is These extreams have men run upon whilest they did neglect the plain and easie rule by which they were to walk the one upon the rock of Superstition the other as it falls out most commonly not onely from the errour which they were afraid of but from the truth it self which should be set up in its place we see at the first institution almost and when this blessed Table was as it were first spread that many abuses crept in to poyson the feast some by factiousnesse others by partiality and some by drunkennesse v. 21. prophaned it did come and sit down and eat and drink but to their punishment and damnation saith S. Paul and therefore having laid open their grosse errours and prophanations having set their irregularities in order before them he prescribes the remedy and calls them back to the first institution and the example of Christ himself v. 23 24. First he shewes the manner of Christs institution He took the bread and gave thanks brake it and gave it them Secondly The mystery signified thereby The breaking of the Bread and pouring out of the Wine representing the brusing of his Body and shedding of his Blood for
large for this excuse to palliate and cover For 1. By this their abstaining they do either pity or condemn those that are more forward as those that venture too far upon that formidable mystery which they look upon at distance and tremble and dare not come neere as those that do not well consider what they do and therefore are bold to do it as men whom not conscience but presumption brings to the Altar They will say perhaps they passe no such censure on their brethren they condemn them not but yet they may and speak not a word condemn them by their actions as Noah did condemn the world by his faith for when in our behaviour we turn our back upon them there is something of a sharpe reprehension flyes from us like an arrow from a Parthians bow after those who walk another way And this utterly is a fault by my not eating to condemn them that eat This is contristari fratres this is to grieve our brethren to make them think that mors in olla that death is in the pot danger in eating the Bread of life this is to walk uncharitably and for ought we know to destroy him with our not eating for whom Christ dyed Or 2ly Their refraining to come may keep others at the same distance and it is not easy to determine utrùm pejor us an pejori exemplo agatur as Cato speaks to another purpose in Livy whether is more dangerous their absence to themselves or the example to others For if Moses turn his back who will not be afraid to come neere to the mount If men of more reserved conversation who keep themselves unspotted of the world tremble and dare not come nigh how may many weak Christians who hope here to receive their additionall strength be struck with terror and so refuse to come and think of these mysteries as the Germans in Tacitus did of those offices which they performed to their Goddesse Hertha the earth The Goddesse was washed and they who ministred unto her were swallowed up in the same lake Arcanus hinc terror sanctaque Tacitus ignorantia saith the Historian quid sit illud quod tantùm perituri vident Hence a secret terror and holy ignorance possest them who wondred what that divine power should be which none could see but they who were to perish in the sight for minister to it was to dye I know we cannot give too much reverence unto it we cannot give enough but that servant doth but little honour his master who will bow and cringe and kisse his hand and keep at distance and yet sleep in his service Obedience and reverence are twins they are borne and grow up and dye together I am not truly reverent till my obedience speaks and publisheth it and if I obey not my reverence is but a name and it profiteth nothing as Saint Paul spake in another case If be a breaker of the law my Circumcision is made uncircumcision If I doe not come as Christ commands I may call it reverence but he will count it a great dishonour to his love We complaine much of the superstition of the Romish party we are angry with their Altars their vestments their bowings and cringes and count it a kind of Theatricall Idolatry and I think without breach of Charity we may for as they make it it is one of the greatest Idols in the world but we must take heed how we cry down superstition in others whilst we suffer it to lye at our own doores how we condemn it as a monster as it walks abroad when we hug and cherish it in our own breasts Superstâ—tio error insanus est amandos timet quos colit violat Quid enim interest utrum Deos neges an infames Sen. ep 123. For what is superstition but a groundlesse feare what is it but a feare where no feare is or if there be a feare which we are bound to abolish A feare to doe our duty is something worse then superstition and if we doe not make the Sacrament an Idol yet by this kind of lazy reverence we make it nothing in this world and as much as in us lyes frustrate the grace of God which in these outward elements is presented in a manner to the eye I have dwelt the longer on this subject because I see this duty so much neglected some not fit to come others not so much unfit as unwilling some so spirituall or rather so carnall and profane that they contemn it some so careless that they seldome think on t but suffer their soule to run to ruine not to be raiss'd and repaired till it be taken from them some pleading their own infirmity others the high dignity of these mysteries the best of which pretenses is a sinne which one would think we but a hard and uneasie pillow for a sick conscience to rest on Not come because I care not not come because I will not not come because I dare not not come That utterly is a fault and neglect doth aggrandize it contempt doth make it yet greater and infirmity and conceit of our unworthinesse is another fault and our high esteeme of the Ceremony cannot wipe it out but it shewes it self even through this reverence and shewes us guilty of the Body and bloud of Christ though we eat not this Bread nor drink this cup we pretend indeed we cannot but the truth is we will not come Let us not then bring in our unworthinesse as an excuse for such an Apology is our doome which we passe against our selves which removes and sets us a farre off from any relief of that mercy which should seale our pardon because we say we need it not we ought not to doe what we ought to doe and we are unworthy to doe our duty is brought in as an excuse but it is our condemnation Let us then doe it and let us doe it often and in the last place let us doe it to that end for which he did first institute and ordaine it Let us doe it in remembrance of him And now we may imagine that this is a thing soon done a matter of quick dispatch for as the Jewes had Moses so have we Christ read in our Churches every Sabbath day he is the story the discourse of the times and we name him almost as often as we speak and too often name him but not with that reverence which we should but thus to remember him may be a greater injury then forgetfulnesse and better we never knew him then thus to remember him And therefore we must remember that this remembrance consists not in a bare calling back into our mind every passage of his glorious Oeconomy by bringing him from his cratch to his crosse and from his crosse to his grave for words of knowledge in scripture evermore imply the affections when Joseph desired Pharaohs Butler to remember him his meaning was he should procure his liberty when Nehemiah prayes to