will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ saith he that beleeveth not shall be damned And what forbids us to beleeve that being God worketh without means upon
Mercury and then worshipped them for gods and called the daies of the week after their names and so made their superstitions more permanent Mathe. Why do we still retain these superstitious names to our daies and months Phila. By custome that ancient Tyrant which loveth no alteration although for the best otherwise we might find out twelve Apostles to name the months by and the first six Deacons if Nicholas be not liked to name the daies and as many noble martyrs to name the daies by and as many images of notable men actions and things named in Scripture Duhartas to configure with the celestiall constellations on the sphere better then Icarius Dog or Europa's Bull Hercules Hydra or Theseus Trull Since the whole world was made for the Scriptures I conceive it would conduce much to the honour of Christian Religion as it did to Rome to cal some months by the name of their Emperors as July and August But how much more if some parts of Scripture were turned into the text Latin and Greek of Poets and Orators and read in schools instead of the more vain prophane authors surely it would be a means to state verity in the place of vanity and so season tender years that so they might read those prophane books in riper years and not be infected Thus heaven and earth might meet together in one symphony without discord And to add one thing by the way Certainly as this being done would make Religion more setled in mens minds so if the memorable Feast of Christs Nativity had been fastned to the Lords day which by the account of some Chronologers hapned that year to be the 25. of December on which Christ was born the celebration would have been more certainly continued and yet this change could have altered no more the calculation then the difference of Astronomers among themselves about the Epoche of Christs birth some of them differing from others * Mercator Christianus Jos Scalig. Sethus Calvisius against the Quarte decemani 1 2 3 4 5. years Or then the alteration of Easter hath from the time of Constantine the Great who in the great Councill of Nice caused that Easter should be generally kept upon the Lords day and not on the 14. of the month Nisan and therefore made a new Decem novall or Golden number differing from the Roman This constitution continued not above seven years But the contention between the Latin and Greek Churches about it lasted 200. years Then about the time of Justinian the Emperor one Dionysius Abbas drew the Paschall tables which were confirmed by the Councill of Chalcedon that none should keep Easter but according to the Roman account and statute but should be accounted an Heretick and this held till the year 1582. yet they finding that the Equinoctium went back from the 21 of March to the eleventh the Romans corrected their Calender and so there is sometimes 28 daies difference between them and us as 1557. and sometimes 25. daies as in the year 1565. So they reformed their Paschall tables and appointed the Feast of Easter according to the Councill of Nice in Pontus 322. to be celebrated the Sunday after the first full moon that should happen after the Sun entred Aries we see still difference between us and them but yet all conclude it on the Lords day And indeed the very just day of either the Nativity or Resurrection is not much to be stood upon so the Feast be kept 1 Cor. 5.8 Mathe. God having made the world what did he next Phila. He made man of the earth and woman of man and then made them Lords of all he had made as Isa 45.12 I have made the earth and created man upon it And this we know by Scriptures the ground of that most excellent science called Divinity which leads us to the knowledge of God that made us Plutarch in the life of Theseus speaks of some such people called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 least we should imagine our selves sprung up of our selves though many will give more for a Parrat then a Preacher and to a Painter for the picture of their face then to one that can delineate their souls I suppose the reason is because Divinity is no flattering science it shewes our moules and spots where they are As Alexanders Limner did who drew his finger upon his face which he laied there to hide a skar It is the corruption of man that will make more of him that shapes his body in cloths though he deform it than of him that shewes him the God that made his soule and body Like Crates Laertius who gave in his Testament ten talents to his Parasite to his Harlot one 2 Talent is 375. l. to his Cook ten pound to his Physitian a groat and to his Philosopher but three halfe pence And why so little to the best science but because rich men know not the want of philosophy Diogenes though Philosophers know the want of monie They think with Laodicea they be happy enough but consider not that science which shewes them how to live when they are dead Mathe. Doth God immediately make all men Phila. He made the first man immediatly by himselfe and the first woman of the man but all other mediately by them two 1 Cor. 11.12 as the woman is of the man by creation so the man is of the woman by generation by the speciall concurrence of Gods providence It was impossible he should make himselfe any more then the world could For if it were nothing before it was something how could something come out of nothing Nor could any creature make him Pythag. ex nihilo nil fit he being above them both in eminence and excellence consisting of an heavenly and earthly nature his form is a reasonable soule his body upright beholding the heavens Ovid. Metam lib. 1. this body is more curiously made then any other creatures Psal 139.14 15. like unto rich Arras work The anatomy of it convinced Galen of a Godhead It was made in number weight and measure in weight that the earthy body might balast the light and nimble soule in number by the four qualities or temperaments of hot cold moist and dry in measure because at first each of them kept their several proportions though since the fall one invading the other breeds severall diseases A rare body it was being composed of so mean a matter as earth shewing thereby the most excellent skill of the workman Lecham is Lechem But now our flesh is become the bread of worms as Herod Agrippa's body proved not giving glory to God Acts 12.23 Mathe. Wherein doth it appear more excellent then other creatures Phila. Surely as Adams body was more excellent then other mens being Gods immediate worke so no doubt our bodies are more excellent then the common creature Adams body was so because it had in it potentially all the rare qualities which are dispersed now among
paschal Feast without acknowledging Christ to be their spirituall Paschal Lamb the oblation for sin by his innocency Bed in Exo. 12. nor the He-Goat by taking our sinfull nature upon him This time both in regard of the month and houre had a speciall relation to Christ For the name of this month Abib signifieth an ear of corn not only because in this month the green ears of corn appeared but also because in this month they were to offer the first fruits of corn to God Lev. 23.14 the green corn relating to Christ who in this month was to spring up fresh and green out of the earth by his resurrection and to become the first fruits of the dead which by that resurrection of his should be all raised This was prophecied of Psal 72.16 There shall be an handfull of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains whose fruit shall bud like Lebanon and shall flourish from the City as grasse John 12.24 This was effected by Christs death upon mount Calvary after which he was sowed like corn in the ground by his buriall and after he was thus mortified then by his resurrection he multiplied in the hearts of men who beleeved upon him to be the fruitfull seed of eternall life and the Sun of excellency both which the word Bar in that Psalm signifieth as well as in Psal 2.12 Their celebration of this feast also was typicall Lact. de vera sapien l. 4. c. 8. 1. In slaying the Lamb to shew that there was no deliverance from infernall Pharaoh the Devill but by the blood of Christ the immaculate Lamb. 2. In dashing the blood of it on their door-posts it signified the sprinkling of Christs blood upon the conscience Heb. 9.14 cap. 10.22 to purifie it from dead Egyptian works and to guard our souls from the destroying Angel The rosting of this Lamb typed forth the wrath of God which Christ was to undergo which made him in the garden sweat blood like rosted flesh and to cry out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me So their eating of it in one family typed out the one true Church united to Christ So the calling of another family to them Rabanus if one were too little shewed the calling in the Gentiles to partake of Christ because they without us should not be made perfect Heb. 11.40 In that they were to eat all of it the inward appurtenances as well as the outward parts it shewed that the divinity and humanity of Christ must both by faith be fed upon and that the meanest things of Christ must not be rejected because every part and parcell of him in his rudiments principles as well as in substance is profitable to salvation Again if any thing remained of it they were to burn it that shewed that if there were any thing in Christ which we could not as yet digest Rabanus as in the great mystery of his Incarnation Resurrection or Ascension we should with all submissive reverence commit it to the Holy Ghost who in his time and by his divine light shall reveale it unto us This Sacramentall service no doubt did also foretype how we in after-times should receive Christ in the Sacrament As they with unleavened bread so we should keep that feast not with the leaven of malice and wickedness 1 Cor. but with sincerity and truth So they with bitter herbs we with remembrance of our bitter bondage under sin They with their loins girded staves in their hands shooes on their feet so we with all readinesse to passe from the state of sin to the state of grace as God shall call us Mathe. What was the next exhibitive Type of Christ Phila. Manna with which God fed Israel forty years lack a month in the wildernesse Exod. 15.12 c. of which every one might take an omer full for a day and on the sixt day two omers because on the Sabbath day none of it fell from heaven This Moses called bread from heaven and Psal 78.24 the wheat of heaven and bread of Angels by the Septuagint but in the Hebrew bread of the strong ones as if given from Elohim the strong God in Trinity But the people gave it the name Mannah or man Exod. 16.15 by saying Manha Is it a gift or this is a gift for Man or Mannah signifieth a portion or a gift and so it was indeed to be acknowledged the free gift of God as Christ is upon which we are to feed by faith in our travell in this wildernesse of sin till we come to the land of everlasting rest Therefore Christ cals himselfe the bread of life that came down from heaven John 6.33 35. and S. Paul cals this manna spiritual bread 1 Cor. 10.3 For indeed that sensible bread did signifie spiritual bread Aug. de utilit paenit and whosoever did in manna understand Christ did eat the same spirituall bread with us which is better then their manna so far as substance is beyond a shadow And therefore though called heavenly food because it came down from heaven yet it must give way to him that came from an higher heaven than that did Ambrose de sacrif l. 5. c. j. Bern. de coen dom For the sign considered severally from the thing signified is but earthly but with it is heavenly So in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the bread sacramentall is not that which goeth into the body but the eternall bread which sustaineth the substance of our soule for the naturall nutriment perisheth but the Sacrament is bread not for the belly but the blessed soule They were to gather it every day to shew that we must gather alwaies something of heaven It began first to fall on the first day of the week but none on their seventh to type forth to them that the true manna would appear on the first day of the week as indeed he did as Chronologers do account in his birth and resurrection and ever since the heavenly manna of his word falleth upon that day whereon if men neglect to gather it God may justly famish them and deny to them the bread of life The measure for each to gather was an omer for a day the tenth part of an ephah which was the quantity of forty three hens eggs a competent portion Therefore God so ordered it by his divine providence that he that gathered much had nothing over and he that gathered little had no lack Exod. 16.17 Rom. 12.3 Now as manna represents Christ so doth the omer the capacity of every beleever to whom God hath given a measure of faith For the filling of which measure or capacity every beleever must be stirring betimes as the Israelites did before the sun of persecution arise which dissolves the sacred custome of Gods ordinances which if men would do the little they get should be enough because God accepts their will for the deed 2. This manna may signifie our temporall
estates and the omer the measure of getting and so St Paul applyeth it 2 Cor. 8.14 15. namely that there should be such an equality that the abundance of some Pro. 22.2 the want of others might be supplied and yet not levelling every mans estate in the quantity but by communicating to others the portions of charity Thus they did in the primitive times till those frivolous words of Mine and Thine came in Chrys in Hom. oportet sis reses esse which hath vexed the world with so much wranglings whereas before men lived like Angels now like devils Again whereas in the sixth day they were to gather double so much it figured that in the sixt age of the world which now is the gifts of God should be doubled and also that in our latter age we should labour the more for Gods grace because our sabbath of rest draweth neerer to us And farther in that God made that to stink which was gathered over and above either out of distrust that they should not find it the next day or out of sloath to save their labour in going out We 1. Ought not to distrust the sufficiency of Christ who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 yet neverthelesse we must seek him daily 1 Tim. though without distrust 2. It teacheth us moderation in seeking after the world Mat. 6.34 care not for the morrow Jam. i. by unnecessary carking and afflicting the soul for what is too much doth but stink canker and corrupt and causeth God to smite them sudden as Nabal and the rich fool in the Gospel Mathe. I pray shew me the next Phila. It was the Rock water Rocke set down Exod. 17. which flowed forth when Moses struck it with his rod at Gods command Exod. 17. and Numb 20. The first rock was to be smitten the latter only to be spoken unto and not to be smitten to shew that God could work as much by a word as by a stroke of his rod which it may be was some cause of Moses and Aarons staggering because the rod was not commanded to be used now Aug. q. 19. Rabanus Rupertus by which he used to work wonders afore time or possibly that God would be so kind to them upon this second murmuring for water as he was before at Rephidim Exod. 17. That these Rocks signified Christ is plain from 1 Cor. 10.4 saying they drank of that spirituall which was Christ yet no more Christ then the element of bread and wine is the body and blood of Christ save only to faith Aug. in Joh. tract 45. fide manente signa sunt mutata whereby the rock was Christ to them as the Sacrament is Christ to us Which Christ is well called a Rock because upon him the Church and every faithfull one is built so strong against all storms and tempests of temptation Mat. 7.24 as Peter was shaken but fell not finally Mat. 16.18 Ber. in ser 61. because he trusted to a better rock then himselfe who is now in heaven in whom only is stedfastnesse So the smiting of it Orig. in Exod. Raban signified Christ smitten by that woodden rod of the Crosse out of whom flowed the fountains of the Tew Testament even those holy mysteries by which we have the grace of washing in the font of regeneration from sin and uncleannesse Zach. 13.1 and the gift of the Holy Chost conferred upon us John 6.35 which in us will quench all evill thirst and flowe up to a well of everlasting life Mathe. I pray declare the next shadow Phila. The next was the Brazen Serpent Brazen Serpent commanded to be set up for the peoples cure when they were bitten by the fiery serpents Numb 21. That this signified Christ see John 3.14 where our Saviour likens his own lifting up upon the Crosse to Moses lifting up the brazen serpent in the wildernesse The occasion of these serpents was Israels murmuring for ordinary bread and speaking slightly of manna calling it light bread This St Paul cals a tempting of Christ signified by manna 1 Cor. 10. and represented by Moses and Aaron the chiefe magistrates civill and ecclesiastick against whom they banded themselves Actuarius de medic compos in cap. de rabiosa cane The serpents signifie Satan whose sting is sin who like the asps seems to give a small wound which breeds a kind of pleasure but kils certainly though fools make it but a sport to do wickedly The cure was a brazen serpent on a pole in the camp upon which whosoever looked when he was stung by the Sharaph or fiery serpent Beda in Num. 21. was presently cured Which did mystically teach them to fasten the eie of faith upon Christ in whom whosoever beleeveth shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3.14 15. And thus as the sin committed by a tree was cured by the Lord of life that hung on a tree so the serpents sting is overcome by one that had no sting no venome gall nor guile Mathe. Are there no shadowes and types of Christ his Church under the New Testament as well as of himselfe Phila. Yes for the type of both was Noah and his Ark Moses and his Tabernacle Solomon and his Temple Mathe. I pray declare how Phila. First we find Noah's name to signifie a Comforter so was Christ to be Isa 61. Secondly a Comforter to them that mourn his office was to preach righteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.5 that is of the righteousnesse of Gods judgement in drowning the world for sin and the righteous grace of God in saving some Again Anselm in Rom. 14. the righteousnesse of man in a civill sense and morall behaviour which cannot save him from Gods wrath and the righteousnesse of man by faith which layeth hold of the ark of Gods salvation And as he was a preacher so he was a builder i. of an ark by both which he endeavoured to edifie the old world and make it Gods Church but they would not and so he built an ark as a type of it only wherein he saved himselfe and his houshold only because the spirit of Christ speaking in him was rejected by the world The ark signified the Church of the faithfull 1 Pet. who are like the wood thereof of a mounting nature above all the waters of the worlds temptations So in regard of their juncture it signified that unity by which the Church is combined the length breadth and height the dimensions of Christs love to the Church Eph. 3.14 The door but one signifieth that one entrance into the Church by Baptisme as 1 Pet. The window signifieth the light which God gives to his Church whereby to see and contemplate his judgements upon the wicked that die not in the unity of the Church The three rooms the sacred Trinity in whom all things live move Acts 17.28 and have being but especially the godly who are effectually baptized into those
Boniface the third had got the title of universall Bishop they began to break out into strange opinions and manners as that the Chair of Rome was infallible as you see in Pope Agatho his decree and excommunicating Emperours and suffering them to kisse his feet as did Pope Constantine the first and others Condemning Priests marriage and setting up the the service of the Church in Latine as did Nicolaus the first and that whatsoever the Church of Rome appointed should be perpetually observed as did Stephanus the fifth and setting up the Masse Purgatory Pilgrimages adoration of images invocation of Saints and transubstantiation and setting themselves above generall Councils in determinations of faith so that no decree or Canon could passe without the Popes approbation They getting thus aloft suppressed all that withstood their tenets From hence it came that the true Religion became eclipsed yet some God raised up in every age who wrote against both their pride and errors though by reason of the over ruling power of the Church of Rome they could not so plainly appear as in the time of Luther and afterwards For Basilius Magnus writes to the Bishops of the West that if they held themselves to be the head yet they could not say to the feet Bas transmar Ep. 77. About the 4th century of years I have no need of you which plainly reproved the Popes usurping supremacy as well as do the Protestants Gregory Nyssâ—n wrote against Pilgrimages to Jerusalem Mount Olivet and Bethelem saying that Pilgrimages from carnall lusts to the righteousnesse of God is acceptable to him Hist Magd. cent 4. cap. 10. and not pilgrimages from Cappadocia to Palestina and that no rewards will be given in the life to come but for such things which are done by the command of God so the Protestants hold also So Hilarius the Bishop of Arls opposed Leo Bishop of Rome by acknowledging that the Bishop of Rome had no dominion over the Churches of France For which though they accused him as a usurper yet he nothing regarded the Popes curses but went to Rome Leo ad Gal. Epis Ep. 77. 89. and to the Popes face maintained that Christ did not appoint Peter to be head over the rest of the Apostles nor had the Pope from Peter any such power so hold the Protestants So the Councill of Constantinople called by the Emperour Constantinus Copronymus deposed and excommunicated Germanus the Patriarch of that City for allowing the worshipping of images which sin also the Protestants abhor Serenus the Bishop of Marsieles in France brake down all images in the Church of his Diocesse more then 1000. yeers past so the Protestants So Albertus Gallus and Clement and Sampson Scotish men said Hist Magd. cent 8. cap. 10. that the Pope of Rome was the author of lies a disturber of the Christian peace a corrupter and a deceiver of the people and for this suffered bonds and imprisonment in France by the procurement of Pope Zacharias So the Protestants hold So Claudius Thurinensis cast down images and abolished the worshipping of the crosse out of his Diocesse of Thurin by Piedmont and said they might as well worship the Asse upon which Christ did ride and said that he was not to be accounted an Apostolike Bishop that sate in the Apostolike Chair but he that performed the Apostolike Office So think the Protestants Theophilactus Bishop of Bulgaria writ that Antichrist would spring up in the decay of the Roman Empire and called the marriage of Priests honourable and a step to Church government So held St Paul 1 Tim. 3.4 5. So the Protestants hold Berengarius a Deacon at Argiers writ against the popish opinion of transubstantiation or conversion of the bread and wine in the Sacrament into the very body and blood of Christ But he following the opinion of Augustine and Joannes Scotus he was condemned unheard by a Councill called at Rome by Pope Leo the ninth for an heretick Whose opinion the Protestants also do hold Radulphus Patriarch of Antiochia refused to be subject to the Pope of Rome saying that Antiochia was the ancient Chair of St Peter and therefore had a prerogative above Rome So think the Protestants if St Peters being Bishop of a place can give prerogative Arnulphus in his preaching Opus Tripart much reproved the Roman Clergy for their lewd lives of the number of holy daies spent rather in lawlesse pleasures then devotions and against the number of begging Fryers and the unchast behaviour of Church-men He was drowned by them in the night as is reported About this time sprung up Waldus of whom you have heard formerly His opinions be these following 1. That the Scriptures are only to be beleeved in matters of faith and contain all things necessary for faith and manners 2. That Christ is the only Mediator and that Saints are not to be invoked 3. He held traditions not necessary to salvation and denied Purgatory and Masses sung for the dead 4. That constrained fast daies and making difference of meats superfluous holy daies variety of superstitious orders of Priests and Monks Friers and Nuns hallowing of creatures vowes and also pilgrims and humane ceremonies were to be abolished and that no degrees should be received into the Church but Bishops Priests and Deacons 5. They denied the Popes supremacy over other Churches States and Governments 6. That the Church of Rome is spiritual Babylon and the Pope Antichrist and rejected the Popes pardons and allowed the marriages of Priests 7. And that they that hear the true word of God and beleeve it are the true Church 8. And that the Communion was to be eaten and not reserved for shew or worship For which opinions they endured persecutions of Pope Alexander the third who excited all Christian Princes to persecute them with fire and sword all which the Protestants hold for which they also have been persecuted as shall appear Hildebertus also abhorred the pride of Rome and said that Rome if it had no Rulers or at least such as did not violate the faith Bernard Abbot of Claravell held free justification by Christs merits and thought that all Christian people had conspired against Christ and that those were the chiefe persecutors that had the highest places in the Church So thought Protestants Nichetes Bishop of Nicomedia held against Anselmus Bishop of Havelburgh that the Pope was not the principall Bishop and that the power of binding and loosing was not given to Peter but also to all the rest of the Apostles even as they all received graces alike on the day of Pentecost Act 2. So hold the Protestants About 1300. yeers after Christ 1300. true Religion began to be much darkened by schoole disputations by many that followed school disputations and Peter Lombards Sentences as Albertus Magnus Aquinas Alexander de Ales and Scotus called Dunce of the Town in Scotland where he was born but of a most subtile wit But God still stirred
of base mettall are made valuable by the power of Kings and a small piece of parchment by law enabled to convey an inheritance The elements are mean and poor the better to resemble him that had neither form nor beauty in his passion and also to set forth his power who can do wonders and miracles by weak means yet they be doubled to confirm our comfort and they be the elements of our sustentation to present to us his vertue by which the soule is nourished to everlasting life Next we are to consider what relation the actions of Christ in the consecration hath to himselfe and of the receiver to Christ namely in that he eateth and drinketh the Sacrament The actions of Christ in his consecration of the elements to a sacramentall use are First his taking and blessing of the elements Luke 22.19 20. There is another cup named in the 17 verse which was only the cup of thanksgiving used by the Jewes in all their solemn feasts But this was the cup of blessing 1 Cor. 10.16 the cup of the New Testament in his blood which blessing caused it to cease from being a common drink and to become sacramentall signifying that he took our nature and sanctified it to undertake the work of redemption and yet altered not the elements in their nature but use not in their substance but efficacy no more then he altered the nature of man by taking it into the deity though he advanced it in quality above the common capacity of humane nature So he brake it Aug. tom 8. in Psal tom 9. tract 7. in Ep. Johannis to shew what violence should be used to his body and poured out the wine to set forth the effusion of his blood So he gave it to his disciples to shew that he freely bestowed himselfe upon the Church with all his merits Secondly we are to consider in the actions of the receiver what relation they have to Christ Their action is taking eating drinking Taking shewes the beleevers hand of faith apprehending Christ Then he eats and drinks the Sacrament to signifie the benefit we get by Christ whose precious death is exhibited to us in the Sacrament and proves to us either like physick to prevent evill or to purge us of it 1 John 1.7 or else is like ordinary food to sustain us or like dainty meat to refresh and restore us Again it is eaten and drunk to shew that he is like meat without which we cannot live and after which we should most earnestly long and eagerly desire as hungry men do after victuals as also to shew what conformity our spirituall stomack hath with Christ for as that which we eat is retained if it agree with our stomack else it is repelled so if our stomacks spirituall do agree with Christ we retaine him because he agreeth with it and pleaseth it and contents it which the world doth not Beside it is eaten and drunk to shew that Christ must incorporate with us not that we turn him into our nature as we do other meat but by our receiving him he turneth our nature to his likenesse as leaven doth turn the bread into its own likenesse the bread doth not turn it and in this respect the Kingdome of God is like a leven Mat. 13. By this is also set forth that rare union that we have with Christ he concorporating himselfe with us by faith in a wonderfull manner Aug. Ep. 23. Aug. in tract 26. in Joh. for though we eat him not with our mouth yet we do by our mind Therefore Christ said take eat this is my body which indeed is not his body till it be eaten nor then his naturall but his sacramentall body which men feed on by faith and not by sense by which faith Christ is there present to every beleever and that not only by his infinite and unlimited presence by which he filleth all places nor by that reall presence which the Lutherans imagine as if Christs body did partake of the incommunicable properties of the deity such as ubiquity by which they beleeve Christ to be in or under the elements nor is Christ present in the Sacrament by the change of the elements into his body as the papists hold A strange opinion to make Christ subject to orall eating and gutterall swallowing and to make God do things not only contrary to nature which all men grant he can but things contrary in nature which he cannot do because that implieth a contradiction As we read that God made the Sun and Moon stand still it was contrary to nature But he never did nor never will make the Sun to stand and go at one and the same instant so neither make Christs body infinite like the deity to be every where at one time Nor certainly will he so far debase the body of Christ as to make it a generall food for all in the Sacrament which was intended only for the spirituall nourishment of the faithfull And farther Christ is present energetically i. by vertue and power so he is among those that are gathered together in his name by the working of his holy spirit but in the Sacrament he is relatively present as being represented thereby as Kings are in their officers of State whose act is counted as the Kings own though he be personally present in his Court only Amb. de Incar cap. 5. So when his body was in the grave his vertue wrought from heaven to quicken it so now his body though in heaven yet his power worketh in every faithfull receiver as the Sun enlightneth the eie though the body of the Sun be in heaven Again our eating and drinking the Sacrament must intimate to us that as food makes a uniting continue between soule and body so doth the Sacrament between Christ and us by faith and as food doth more strongly unite one member to another so doth the Sacrament one member mysticall of Christ to another by love because we being many are one bread and one body being all partakers of that one bread and as by one spirit we are all baptized into one body so we all have been made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 that so we having all one food of life so we be of one mind and souse and one affection which is the spirit of life Moreover by partaking of this Sacrament by eating and drinking is sealed to us our right to the covenant of grace as sure as that which we eat is our own and concorporated with us Therefore it is the duty of a communicant to consider how he understands the end of the Sacrament and the effects of it that so he may not receive only but perceive the Lords body and so do it in remembrance of him In which duty it is required that we remember his death and the benefits thereof which not being done the Sacrament is slighted and profaned because that to which it relates hath no impression in us