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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95982	A treatise of the institution, right administration, and receiving of the sacrament of the Lords-Supper. Delivered in XX. sermons at St Laurence-Jury, London. / By the late reverend and learned minister of the Gospel Mr Richard Vines sometime master of Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge.	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Burgess, Anthony, d. 1664.	1656 (1656)	Wing V572; Thomason E894_2; ESTC R203900	224,149	399

his and so bindes himself and doth as it were seal a counterpart to God again and not onely so but comes into a claim of all the riches and legacies of the Will or Covenant becaUse he hath accepted and here declares his acceptance of the Covenant The Seal is indeed properly of that which is Gods part of the Covenant to perform and give and is no more but offer'd untill we subscribe and set our hands to it and then it 's compleat and the benefits may be claimed as the benefit of any conditional promise may be when the condition is performed And least you should stumble at that word I must let you know That the Will accepting and submitting to the conditions is the performance of the conditions required and so the gracious God that might pro imperio require duty and allegiance of his creature condescends to us to enter into a Covenant of Grace with us and vouchsafes us the honour of coming into Covenant with him that so he might settle and maintain a communion and correspondence between himself and his people and there might be a mutual bond of engagement each to other which is solemnly professed as often as we meet with God in this Sacrament becaUse we are so apt to disbelieve and waver about his promises and to halt and decline from our obligations to him And this is the second combination of action according to that which is to be remembred at every sealing day the Sacrament is a sealing day Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes c. And the Lord hath avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee So much for the first What is here done §. 6. What is here Received by the Worthy Communicant § 6 2. I come to the second What is here received and I do not mean to say what every believer doth sensibly receive but what God hath appointed by this Sacrament to convey and what may be received by a believer in the right Use of it not alwayes to his own sense but according to the nature of this Ordinance I will not say that which some affirm but it is Apocryphal of the Manna which the Israelites did eat that it had the taste that every man desired But this I may say that as Calvin of himself When I have Instit l. 4. c. 17. §. 7. said all I have said but little the tongue is overcome yea the minde is overwhelmed I say then in one word 1. Christ is here received the body and bloud of Christ into intimate Union as the nourishment of our souls What is more ours than the meat we eat What is more nearly joyn'd to us than that which becomes part of our selves The Scripture by the language it Useth hath even overcome our apprehensions A man may eat the fruit that hath no interest in the Tree but here the believing eater grows into the Tree he that drinks drinks the fountain he comes to a closer Union with the conduit-pipe of all grace the flesh of Jesus Christ You know the best meat and drink doth you no good except it be made your own nor is Christ of worth except he be ours he is as if he were not Tolle meum tolle Deum we must be happy by a Christ within us Know you not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. There was a croud toucht Christ but vertue went out of him to none but one that toucht him by faith So there is a throng about the Table but none receive Christ but those that by faith take and eat his crucified body If Christ himself be here received what spiritual grace is there that is not in him It is somewhat a grosse conceit to ask How Christ in heaven and a believer on earth can be united For man and wife are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder And we know that as the Apostle saith Col. 2. 19. there are bands and joynts whereby the Head and every Member the root and every branch are united and they in this mystical union are Spirit and faith He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And so according to that strange expression We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30 A phrase which signifies that the humane nature of Christ is the root of this Union but not to be exagitated by too subtill curiosity becaUse mysticall 2. A believer in Christ may here receive remission of sinne not veniall onely as Papists teach but deadly and mortall Oh but we may not come with such sinnes Yes with repentance and remorse for them We may bring our sinnes to the head of our Sacrifice and put them thereupon by Bellarm. de Euch l. 4 c 18. confession Bellarmine resolves all the difference between Papists and Protestants about the effect of this Sacrament into this That the Papists deny the Protestants hold remission of sinne to be given here and the Papists do it in favour of their Sacrament of Pennance that one Sacrament may not rob another but Scripture tels us Matth. 26. 28. This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for remission of sinne Shed for remission that 's true saith Bellarmine not given in the Sacrament a meer evasion for we drink the bloud that was shed even that which confirmes the New Testament which promises remission of sinne The great Argument wherein he triumphs before the victory is That a believer hath remission of sinnes before he comes viz by his faith in Christ and that 's true Nemo cibum Christi accipit nisi actu sanatus but in this Sacrament the pardon passes Obsignante sigillo before a believer is pardon'd by the Covenant and here that pardon is seal'd and sealed it cannot be except it be before for the pardon of forgiven sinnes is seal'd as Abraham received the signe of circumcision the seale of the righteousnesse of faith which he had before Rom. 4. 11. And this is needfull for reliefe of our doubts and fears and waverings For this is the great Question of anxiety which troubles the soul Are my sinnes pardon'd Are my sins blotted out And God hath saith Chemnitius instituted this Sacrament for solution of this Question to the weak faith Ecce signum Behold the Seal believe upon the Word believe upon the Seal of God Luther gathers it by a gradation The Cup is put for the Wine the Wine signifies the bloud the bloud is the bloud of the New Testament Matth. 26. 28. The New Testament containes the gracious pardon of sinne to a believer And if remission of sinne be an Article of the Covenant the Seale must reach it Therefore all that have wounded their souls with grievous sinnes be wounded again with sorrow put off the purpose of sinning bring repentance and faith touch the hemme of

hope erected faith strengthened lusts subdued which follow by consequence upon our union with Christ and our interest in the Covenant in the sense of which when a Christian walks he is in a good frame and posture of spirit CHAP. X. A four-fold Exhortation from the premises FRom what hath been said upon this point I would possess you with four things § 1 I. That you hold fast and stick to the true sense and right meaning of these words This is my Body This is the Blood of the New Testament which hath been so perplexed and depraved by superstition and the vanity of humane inventions especially since the rise of the Schoolmen whose itch of Disputation hath bred such a scab that there hath been left no soundness in the place which hath been tortured with such Convulsions Distortions and Absurdities that the sense which to a chast and simple ear is easie and smooth hath been raveld into knots inextricable and this Text of all other hath suffered infinite injuries and been made the stage of impudent fooleries which have brought and buried out of sight the true meaning of them and made our Saviour that Used to speak vulgarly and easily to delude the senses amUse the Reason nonplus the faith of sober Beleevers And though it be truly said The sense of Scripture is the Scripture and that the right understanding of these words carries you in a right line to the nature Use and benefit of this Or inance yet let me say this more to you as English men That the true meaning of them hath been conveyed to you by the blood of your own Martyrs who in Q Mary her daies were most of them put to the test upon the point of Reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament and bare witness against it and I do beleeve that if Popery do ever make another attempt upon you it will play upon you with his battery at this place §. 2. Extreams about Christs Reall presence and the middle way held by the Churches of our Profession § 2 The Churches of our Confession have warily and justly avoided the extreams on both sides 1. The first extream is that which some did fear in Zuinglius and others at first and yet is unjustly charged upon us by many viz. That the Sacraments are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked signes empty figures and shadows meerly representing the death of Christ as the Picture of Hercules resembles and represents Hercules which we disclaim and leave it to Socinianizing spirits and other Levellers of Divinity for we are taught that Sacramentall signes are more than meer representing signes being Seals which do confirm and make over unto us the spirituall benefit which they represent and exhibit also they are signs which God commands us to Use and in their right Use he conferres upon us the benefit as the Seal passes a Right to the Estate promised and conveyed as the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 11. He received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith and 1 Cor. 10. 16. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ not representation only but communion or participation also for the picture of a loaf of bread feeds not the hungry nor doth the Ivy-bush refresh the weary and therefore there is not only a representation of the body of Christ broken by the breaking of the bread but Take and eat and drink which denotes participation of the body and blood of Christ 2. The other extream is twofold 1. That the very body and blood of Christ is as it were moulded up with the bread and wine or hidden under them which is the sense of the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran Churches and this though it be too gross an opinion yet is not liable to so many monsters and incompresensible absurdities as the other which is 2. That the bread and wine cease to be and are evoided being turned or change the substance of them into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ which is hidden under the species or outward accidents of bread and wine a monstrous Paradox holden stifly by the Transubstantiatists or Papists The middle way holden by the Churches of our Confession is That the outward Elements do represent as Signes and exhibit as Seales and morall Instruments to the faith of the receiver the very Body and Blood of Christ sacrificed as spirituall repast for our souls and spiritually given and taken but that they continue not as incorporated with them nor are converted into the very naturall Body of Christ as locally or corporally there to be received by the mouth of the receiver We hold a difference or change of bread and wine blessed but it is a change of signification not of substance a relative change not reall a change in regard of Use and esteem not of their naturall substance as the wax now a Seal to a Conveyance is wax still but not a Seal not of that value till now all the Rhetoricall flowers Used by the Ancients reach no further if they do we cannot keep them company We hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is really that is truly exhibited and present to the faith of the receiver and we might express the reall presence as reall is opposed to imaginary or chimericall were it not for caption and mis-understanding none of ours denies the Body of Christ to be really though spiritually eaten by a Beleever nay it is immotum axioma whatsoever is eaten in that it is Forbes p. 53● eaten it must be present no man can eat a thing that 's absent but the presence with or under the Elements is one thing and the presence to the soul and faith of a Beleever is another We know no union of Christs Body with bread and Wine but with his members which is reall and mysticall not reall and corporall therefore Christ saith Take eat before he say This is my Body as if it were his Body to their faith not as in the outward Element §. 3. Arguments for the Protestants sense of the words This is my Body § 3 For attestation of this sense many Arguments may be mustred up together 1. Compare one part of this Sacrament with the other This cup is the New Testament in my Blood that is by Metonymy the Seal of the New Testament but not the New Testament it self so This is my Body that is the Signe and Seal of it but not it self 2. Compare the one Sacrament of the Gospel with the other In Baptism the water is water without reall alteration so here the bread is bread the wine is wine not changed into flesh or blood 3. Compare the Sacraments of the Old Testament with the New Circumcision is the Covenant becaUse the Sign or Seal of it the Lamb is the Passeover becaUse the memoriall or sign of it so the bread

3. This paschal Lamb must be killed the bloud taken into a basin sprinkled with hysop shall be on every door the flesh rosted with fire not eaten raw or boyl'd in water the head the legs the inwards Exod. 12. 7 8 9 22. and this may set forth unto us the unutterable sufferings of Christ both in his soul and body which the Scripture sets out to the life with such an emphasis of words I mean especially those of his soul scorched with the sense of Gods extream wrath which are exprest by words extraordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sweating like drops of bloud with expression of strong cries and tears Oh man thou understandest not the sufferings of this Passeover rosted with fire forbidden to be boyl'd in scalding water for that expresses not the sufferings in extremity and what is all this for Even to make Christ more pleasant meat to thee which if thou feed upon and with a bunch of hysop sprinkle this bloud applying it by faith eating this rosted flesh and drinking this bloud poured forth it will feast thy soul and secure thee from the wrath of God which is the next 4. The destroying Angel seeing this blood on the door posts passes over the hoUse goes and kils the Aegyptians first-born and executes Gods last plague upon them in the mean time the Israelites were safe within the protection of blood Exod. 12. 12 13. and here is the safety of those Israelites Believers that have applied by faith the blood of Jesus Christ when God shall let loose his last and final plagues upon the world they shall be safe Hell and wrath and condemnation shall not touch them When I see the blood saith he I 'le pass over you Exod. 12. 13 23. nothing else will save you God looks at nothing but the blood of Christ upon you Happy they that before God ride his circuit of destruction to make a cry in all Aegypt are gotten under the Sanctuary of blood for then the plague shall not be upon you when I smite the Land of Aegypt Exod. 12. 13. 5. After the Israelites had been secured from the stroke of that dismall night then presently they march away are hired by the Aegyptians to be gone the four hundred and thirty years were out and God being punctual in his times finishes their captivity that hour and begins to fulfill his promises that he had made to them of bringing them to their promised Land Exod. 12. 31 32 33 c. 41 42. and here we see that when a soul hath long lien in the base bondage under sinne and the devil and comes to take hold of Christ and is sprinkled with his blood and enters Covenant with God in Christ then is he set free from his bondage and then he goes out of Aegypt and then all the promises begin to open upon him and he sets upon his heavenly journey and no Pharaoh can hinder him any longer All the sweet promises of peace and comfort and hope begin to be made good to him for they are all Yea and Amen in Christ the Devil and all his power and instruments cannot hold him the blood is upon him from that hour he is a free-man to own no Lord but God and yet still he hath a Wilderness to go thorow but he is miraculously carried as Israel was thorow it but this must not be expected that they should eat the Passeover and stay in Aegypt still they must go out of their bondage that are sprinkled with this blood by the blood of thy Covenant I have sent out thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water saith he in a like case Zech. 9. 11. and haply this Type is yet to be fulfilled in the Gospel Churches whom the Lord will deliver out of the hands of their oppressing tyrants Pope or Turk not by the Sword but Ordinances of his Covenant and then if they shall pursue a people under blood as Pharaoh did there will be a red Sea to swallow them horse and man And so much for the Passeover as referring to Christ our Sacrifice for that it doth so is plain by this That which is said of the Paschal Lamb Exod. 12. 46. is expresly applied to and fulfilled in Christ John 19. 36. So much for the Passeover as a Sacrifice or as the figure of our Sacrifice and theirs Christ Jesus § 8 Now we proceed to consider it as a Sacrament not ours but theirs nor yet a figure of our Sacrament in Considered as a Sacrament propriety though often so called in transitu and much contended for by Papists For what Jew could ever have found out our Supper figured in that Passeover and in what propriety can our Sacrament be the Sacrament of another Christ is the res Sacramenti of theirs and ours there they meet as the inward Circumcision and Regeneration is the thing of their Circumcision and our Baptism but that one Sacrament should be the figure of another is absurd and void of Reason As two pictures of one man are both resemblances of that one man but one is not the picture of another and yet becaUse the Passeover hath the common nature of a Sacrament doth set forth the same Christ as our Supper and that the Apostle draws an Argument from it to perswade Gospel-Christians to holiness Therefore we shall consider what significancy there is in it for though the signs be not ours yet the significancy is § 9 First The Passeover or Paschal Lamb as killed and rosted and the blood sprinkled was a Sacrifice The signification of the Passeover as eaten by the Israelites and feasted upon it was a Sacrament and in after-times both by Jewish Records and by Scripture I conceive it appears 2 Chro. 35. 11. Ezra 6 20. that the Levites killed the Paschals the Priests sprinkled the bloud on the Altar and then they took the Lamb to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Families or Chambers in Jerusalem and there did eat it so in our Supper there is a Sacrifice slain and offer'd up for atonement and that is Christ his body and bloud and then there is an eating and drinking of this Sacrifice in the Sacrament of bread and wine as in many Sacrifices of the Law there was first an offering up to God and then a feasting on the remainder we have a true Sacrifice Christ offer'd up to God for us we have a true Sacrament as that Sacrifice is eaten and drunk by us the oblation belongs to God to propitiate and redeem the communication belongs to us to be refresht and nourisht their eating the Passeover was no Sacrifice but a Sacrament our eating and drinking bread and wine is no Sacrifice but a Sacrament their killing and rosting of the Lamb made it eatable Christ his sacrificing of himself for us renders him fit nourishment to us Had he not been a Sacrifice offer'd up for us what profit had there been in eating and drinking sacramentally and spiritually that body

shadow represented so shall this continue in the Church till the person come alive which is here represented dying and then an end of this too 2. At the end of the paschal Supper to shew that Jansen Harm p. 105. in this Sacrament there is no bodily repast intended for they had already supped but a spiritual refection of the soul The rosted Lamb might afford the guests a belly-full so the Religion and Ordinances and Promises in the Law were more outward and bodily but this Sacrament of the Gospel is an after Supper modicum full of spiritual signification but not so stuffie for outward matter that we may prepare not as Austin saith our months but our faith and expect to satisfie not the hunger and thirst of the body as they might but the hunger and thirst of the soul which in this little model may finde enough and over-measure The Temple-service among the Jews was an Heb. 9. 1 10. Rom. 2. penult outward Religion and as their Ordinances were outward so they generally were Jews outwardly we wonder that they so little saw and tasted the marrow and kernel of them and stuck in the rinde feeding on the crust of most Ordinances as if a man should think the cloth would heal the sore and not the plaister spread upon it but if we take estimate of them by our selves we shall finde that most of us should have been as they in that case for God having ordained for us outward Sacraments for number few for Observation easie for signification excellent as Austin speaks Epist 118. we are for the general but outward in them though we be clearlier taught what is within them yet we are in the Use of them but outwardly reverent as they and do not spiritually and inwardly enjoy the kernell of them which the Apostle took notice of when he said Not discerning the Lords body and so they are seals indeed but rather seals of a Letter which shut it up than seals of a Deed or Covenant conveying the Estate to us 3. Though it be not a Reason why this Ordinance was appointed after the Passeover-Supper yet I may Observe it to you in this place that hence it is called The Lords Supper from the Author it 's called the Lords and from the Time it 's called a Supper being celebrated in the night and at the close of Supper Some later Maldonat in Mat. 26. 26. Estius in 1 Cor. 11. 20. Jesuites do tax the novelty of the name and affirm Nullus in Scripturâ locus c. No place of Scripture cals it so for the term in this Chapter refers say they to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feasts of Love Used with it they may say as well that Lords Table 1 Cor. 10. 21. refers to them too which we believe not it is a spiritual feast that which Matthew cals a dinner Matth. 22. 4. is called by Luke a Supper Luk. 14. 16. but we call it the Lords Supper though it be received in the morning or any other time of day with reference to the time of the first institution as the Passeover in after-times was called the Passeover not becaUse there was any destroying Angel past over their hoUses every year but in respect of the first Passeover in Aegypt and in memory of that wherein there was a passing over the Israelites hoUses and a destroying of the Aegyptians first-born I could name to you many other names that this Sacrament bears in Scripture and ancient Authours farre more ancient then their Missa which is but once found in Ambrose and in none before him or the Sacrament of the Altar as they call it but I insist not now on names He that will may see them in Casaub Exercit 16. § 2 Secondly Why the Lord Jesus ordained it a very little before he was betrayed 1. He now seals his will which men Use to do Paraeus in loc when they are in sight of death This is the New Testament saith he in my bloud when men make their Wils they bequeath their body to the earth Christ bequeaths his body and bloud to us He bestows his body natural on his body mystical the Church The Testatour is Christ Heb. 9. 16. The Legacy bestowed is himself and all spiritual benefits with him My body and bloud The heirs are all believers Disciples The Executours for the outward part are those to whom he saith Hoc facite do this execute this my Will The Witnesses are the Evangelists and Saint Paul Here is a perfect sealing then of a Testament which is of force by the death of the Testatour and nothing must be added or taken away for it is a Will sealed and Gal. 3. 15. publisht 2. To leave it as his ultimum vale or last memorial Aug. Epist 118 of precious relish and esteem when men are going then they give memorial gifts unto their friends then they give their pictures Keep this for me Remember me when you see me not When men are dying then they pull their ring off their finger and leave it with their beloved Oh what impression have the verba morientis the word of a dying man As if a man saith Chrysostome should say to children These were your fathers dying words This was his last charge This he spoke and died and there is nothing that is remembred with more awe more affection than the last words the last gift of dying friends 3. To testifie his dearest love to his Church and people that when death was in sight and all the unspeakable sorrows shame and suffering were now ready to invade him when injuries from men were ready to load him and the justice of God upon sinne to be demonstrated on him all these did not make him forget his love His love to his poor people overtop'd all He loved them to the end Joh. 13. 2. and exprest it at the last and when he was in expectation of utmost sorrow he forgets not his love to his 4. To fortifie his Disciples against temptations which were now rushing in upon them when they should presently see their Lord led away as a prisoner to be arraigned and themselves scattered and discouraged Peter denying bloudy enemies insulting then to fortifie their hearts Let not your hearts be troubled Joh. 1● 1. He administers this Sacrament to strengthen the Union and Communion between him and them and to tie them to him so fast that the gates of hell might not prevail against them that their faith might not fail though it fainted as was said to Peter and though they fall yet they might not utterly be cast down as the Psalmist saith They had before eaten the body which they after saw broken and drunk the bloud which they after saw shed The broken body was not theirs that broke it The bloud shed was not theirs that shed it but it was theirs that had before eaten it and drunk it so God underprops his weak servants before