obtained and did obtain that Prerogative that in the Lords Supper only and at no time else it had the priviledge to be in many places at once About 150 years after him one James Faber of Stapula enlarged this Privilege of Christ's Human Nature and what Gerson had restrain'd only to the Sacrament he extended to the whole World and made Christ's Human Nature as extensive as his Divinity Luther afterward exceeding fond of this Opinion establish'd it in the Churches of Saxony insomuch that he averâ—'d Christ's Body was as much in a Baker's Shop as in the Eucharist only in the Shop he did not desire to be taken and worshipp'd because he had not tyed himself to a Shop by any word of Promise Nay that his Body was in the very Rope wherewith Judas hang'd himself and went through doors that were lock'd and through the very Stone that was laid upon his Sepulchre A strange fancy For certainly Christ's Body was Crucified at Jerusalem and not in all places of the World and when he fate at Table with his Disciples he did not sit at the same time at Rome or in the East-Indies How near this Doctrine approaches to the errors of the Marcionites and Manichaeans of old who taught that Christ had no real or substantial Body but only a Bodily Shape and that when he was felt and found to have Flesh and Bones it was only by special Dispensation how near this Doctrine I say approaches these Errors condemn'd by the Antient Church I will not determine It cannot be denied that Luther was not always the same and sometimes he seem'd to deny what he asserted before But still those among the Lutherans that are for this Ubiquity make him the Great Patron of their Doctrine And though some of them give out that they do not assert the Ubiquity of Christ's Body so much as his Omnipresence yet it will be a hard matter to shew how Ubiquity and Omnipresence differ Some pretend that the fore-mention'd expressions were not Luther's expressions but foisted in by some that would fain take Sanctuary at his Books for the defence of their Opinions But the composers of the History of the Augsburg Confession are ashamed of this Conceit and the Elector of Saxony when in the Year 1574. he came to examine the thing found that it was only an idle report and that in the Edition of Luther's Works there was no variation used from his own words and expressions And if Luther writes in some places against this Ubiquity of Christ's Body it 's an argument that he ought not to be believ'd in other Books where he asserts it Thus came in Consubstantiation and this Opinion the Lutheran Churches do at this time follow and maintain very eagerly And though in all other Points they differ very little from the Protestants of the Reformation for with us they protest against Popish Invocation of Saints Religious Worship of Images Human Satisfactions Indulgences Purgatory Worship of Relicks Prayers in an unknown Tongue Merit of Works Transubstantiation Adoration of the Sacrament Sacrifice of the Mass Monarchy of the Pope pretences of Infallibility and blind Obedience to the decisions of Councils c. Yet this Point they do so stifly and so uncharitably maintain that the greatest part of them refuse communion with us upon this account which as it is an error so we believe it is no fundamental one especially since all this while they are against Transubstantiation and Adoration of the Sacrament and though in the point of their Consubstantiation they ground themselves much upon that saying of Christ Matth. 28. 20. Lo I am with you always even into the end of the World Yet this is easily answer'd For 1. From hence it doth not follow that he will always vouchsafe them his Bodily Presence for he was after this receiv'd into Heaven and therefore could not be present with his Body at that time 2. What he promises here he made good when he sent the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of Truth upon them Which Spirit though not as to his miraculous Gifts yet as to his saving Graces is with all true Believers to the end of the World So that 3. His being always with them must be understood of his Power and Virtue and Influence which would be with them and with the Churches they should Plant unto the end of the World as the Sun is in Heaven and with his Virtue and Influence cherishes this lower World And thus far we agree with them that Christ is present in the Holy Sacrament by his Power and Influence and Gracious Assistances which sincere Believers feel in their worthy Receiving But from hence it can never be made out that his Body therefore is hid under the Bread in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist III. In what sense the Bread in this Sacrament is the Body of Christ we may easily guess if we explain Scripture by Scripture and compare this expression with others not unlike it 1. This is my Body i.e. This is a significant Emblem or Sign or Figure of my Body Or this Bread thus broken represents my Body that shall be Crucified for the Sins of the World Thus not only Rabanus Maurus Erigena Bruno Berengarius and other wise Men understood it in the Ninth and Eleventh Centuries but most of the Fathers that lived before Pasâ—â—sius or before 800 Years after Christ. So that This is my Body is as much as this Bread is representative of my Body As Bread is proper Food for your Bodies so my Crucified Body is proper Food for your precious and immortal Souls As Bread strengthens your Bodies so shall the Comforts and Benefits of my Crucified Body support and fortifie your inward Man As Bread nourishes your mortal Bodies so shall the Love and Charity express'd in my giving my Body to be Crucified for your Sins nourish your better part and a sense of that Love cause a reciprocal Love and Charity in your Souls As Bread unites with your Bodies and turns into the substance of your Bodies So my Crucified Body or Faith in me who give my self for you shall be a means of my being one with you and of your being one with me And this interpretation is conformable to the sense of parallel places I am the door of the sheep saith our Saviour Joh. 10. 9. i.e. As the Door opens and being open'd the Sheep are let into the Fold so I am he by whose Light and Influence Men are admitted into the number of God's Children or by my Gospel they get admittance to God's marvellous Light by this they are let into the knowledge of the greatest Mysteries and by believing in me Men have access to the greatest Felicity So Joh. 15. 1. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husbandman i. e. As the Vine hath Branches so I have Disciples As the Branches are nourish'd by the Vine so are my Disciples by me As the Vine yields an excellent Juice so my
rejoyce in nothing so much as in this that I love thee XX. O my bountiful Saviour O my loving Redeemer When when shall it be that I shall love thee perfectly Here on Earth I must not hope for this Happiness but in Heaven I shall O Heaven Heaven How desirable art thou Where the Love of Jesus shall eternally reign in my Soul Where my Love shall be perfectly pure perfectly Seraphick perfectly Extatical and Eternal Ages shall not alter it At present I am in Prison encompassed with a Mortal Body and must sojourn in a wicked World Oh when will that Day that Hour that Minute that happy Time come that I shall be delivered from this Dungeon and translated to that place where Love is all in all where Love knows no End no Decay no Period where it is pure without Mixture invariable without Changes eternal without ceasing Come Lord Jesu Come quickly Particular Acts of Devotion at the Acts of Consecration and Receiving of the Consecrated Bread and Wine At the Minister's pouring out the holy Wine into the Cup. O Jesu Who can think of the flowing of thy Blood without being desirous to be washed with it Or I fancy I do at this present stand under thy Cross and see thee bleeding for my Sins Or Oh. Let thy Blood flow upon my wounded Soul that I may become a sound Member of thy Mystical Body At the Minister's laying his Hand upon the Bread O Blessed Saviour Lay thy Hand upon my Soul that all my Distempers may depart from me Or Oh lay hold on my Soul as the Angel did on Lot Save me from the Flames and let me escape into the Mount of God that I perish not At the Minister's Breaking the Bread Lord Jesu In suffering thy Body to be broken for my Sins I see the Vehemence the Strength and Fervour of thy Love Oh make me all Love all Fervour all Charity Or Oh break the united Forces of my Sins scatter them by thy mighty Arm. Gather the broken Planks of Vertue in my Soul unite them make them whole and strong and secure against the Fury of Winds and Tempests At the Minister's pronouncing the Words This is my Body Lord Let me look off from these material Things and shew me Things invisible and Heavenly Or O Lord The Benefits of thy wounded Body my Soul longs for Oh say They shall be thy Portion At the Minister's touching the Cup. Lord Touch my Soul that it may feel the Power of thy Super-abundant Charity Or Oh! Touch me as thou didst the Blind of old that I may see the Bowels of thy Compassion and rejoyce in the glorious Sight At the Minister's pronouncing the Words This is my Blood Lord My Soul wants Wine of another nature than is in this Cup Oh wash it and cleanse it and purifie it in thy Blood Or Lord Speak thou to my Soul and say I will be thou clean At the Receiving of the Bread Lord Let thy Death be my Life And the Bread represented by this Bread feed me into Everlasting Life Or Lord As thou hast provided Food for my Soul so give me a Taste and Relish also of this Food and a Tongue to praise thy Name for ever Or Lord As thou hast given thy Body for me so I freely offer my Soul and Body as Living Sacrifices to thy Majesty At the Receiving of the Cup. Lord Nothing is more precious than thy Blood Oh! Let it warm my Heart that it may comply with thy Will wlthout wavering Or Lord Bid me look upon thy Blood and in thy Blood upon the Reconciliation wrought by it to the Comfort and Edification of my Soul Or O Lord I am heavy laden and my Pollutions are great And as thy Blood alone can remove that Burthen so free me from those Spots and Wrinkles which make me look deformed in thy Sight CHAP. XXVIII Of the proper Acts of Devotion after we have Received The CONTENTS The Time that is left after our Personal Receiving before all have Communicated not to be spent in Gazing or Looking about Acts of Devotion to be used after Receiving and relating to the Wisdom Mercy Liberality Love Goodness Greatness and Majesty of God to our own Vileness and Unworthiness c. IT falls out so often that when we have Communicated and our Souls have been fed at this Table a considerable Space of Time remains before the united Praises and Thanksgivings of the Congregation begin again This Time be it more or less must not be spent in looking about or in sitting still or in thinking of what Objects our Fancy is pleased to offer and present to us but in holy Aspirations And that the Communicant may know how to employ himself in that Interval it may not be amiss to set down some pious and proper Ejaculations whereby he may exercise his Mind according as Time will permit I. O God! Thy Love in Christ Jesus deserves to be praised admired and magnified There is all that in it which can engage a Soul to break forth into Praises and Hallelujahs There is Beauty Wisdom Condescention Mercy Liberality Sweetness Power Greatness Majesty in it and all these in the highest Degree which would force even a dumb Man to speak of thy Glory II. I adore thee O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity for that infinite Care of my immortal Soul which I see in all thy Proceedings and Transactions and particularly in the Cross of my dearest Redeemer Here thou seemest to empty all thy Stores and pourest out thy Grace abundantly upon the Heads and Hearts of thy Servants Behold Bless ye the Lord all ye Servants of the Lord which by Night stand in the House of the Lord Lift up your Hands in the Sanctuary and bless the Lord. The Lord that made Heaven and Earth hath blessed us out of Zion III. O Charming Son of God! I alone am not able sufficiently to praise thee and therefore I wish that every Drop of the Ocean every Grain of Sand every Leaf of the Trees of the Field and every Sprig of Herbs and all the Creatures that ever were or are or shall be might be turn'd into Seraphick Tongues to praise thee IV. O Jefu When I behold thy wonderful Love how it hath bowed how it hath stooped to so mean a Creature as I am the Thoughts of it force my Soul into the humblest and deepest Prostrations Thou art Beauty I am Deformity Thou art Wisdom I am Ignorance Thou art Light I am Darkness Thou art Omnipotence I am feeble Thou art Purity I am Filth and Dung Thou art rich I am Poverty it self Thou art happy I am Misery it self Thou art Perfection I am Weakness Thou art All in All I am nothing V. O Blessed Saviour When I see how Men fall in love with a mortal and fading Beauty which to Day shines bright as the Sun to Morrow by Sickness or Death is all tarnish'd and decay'd how do I blame my self that I do not love thee better whose
afford matter of comfort to think at such times that the same Jesus who was crucified will ere long appear in Glory with all his mighty Angels to give those that have followed him in the Regeneration full possession of the purchas'd Glory However at the best the Celebration of this Feast at night was but a circumstantial thing and therefore the Church is not obliged to keep to it circumstantial things depending much upon conveniency or inconveniency which vary in several Ages and this was the reason that though standing at the eating of the Passover was a commanded circumstance Exod. 12. 11. yet the Jewish Church in after Ages varied from it even by Christs own Approbation and turned that posture into leaning as I shall have occasion to shew more largely in the Chapter about Kneeling at the Communion The Church therefore sins not in Celebrating this Feast at any other time especially in a circumstance barely related not commanded Yet as I said before because this Spiritual Feast kept up in all Churches is still in imitation of Christs Supper and that Supper is religiously remembred in it and the same essential things together with the scope drift and design of all are still preserved it is not unfitly called the Lords Supper still so that if any man seems to be contentious about the name We have no such Custom neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. 12. 16. IV. Yet this is no Argument but that it may also lawfully be called and expressed by other Names and this we find the Christian Churches have done from time to time Tertullian was the first that called it a Sacrament taking the Name from the Oaths the Roman Soldiers took that they would be true and faithful to their Emperor and the rather because we vow Allegiance and Fidelity in this Ordinance to the great Master that died for us Others have call'd it an Oblation because we offer up our humble Prayers and Supplications to the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ and our Souls and Bodies too when we remember this Beneficial Death Sometimes it hath been call'd a Sacrifice because it is not only a commemoration of the wonderful Sacrifice of Christs Death but we chearfully offer up the Sacrifice of our Praises for this inestimable Mercy The name of Communion occurs frequently in the Writings of the Ancients because all sincere Christians are hereby tyed in a bond of mutual Love participate of the same Bread are Fellow-members of the Mystical Body of Christ and have Communion with Christ their Head and enjoy all the same Benefits of his Death and sufferings The word Eucharist is used as often as any other because Thanksgiving and Magnifying the Goodness Mercy and Charity of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost are a great part of the Service here The name Mass which they of the Roman Persuasion and even the Lutheran Churches make use of as it was not known in the Church for the first Four hundred years after Christ so the Original of it was this When the Lords Supper was to be celebrated after Sermon the Deacon or some other Officer of the Church called to the People that did not or were not to receive in these words Ite missa est Depart the Congregation is dismissed In time that which was only a Preliminary circumstance of the Lords Supper was applied to the whole Office and the Service was called Missa or Mass a word which the Romanists make a great stir with and turn into a perfect Charm and a monstrous Sacrifice to the great disparagement of Christs Sufferings and the Benefits that accrue thereby to true Believers Some of their Writers make it a Hebrew word and fetch it from the Old Testament others derive it from the Greek others from the Northern Language and though it expresses less then any of those Names we mentioned before yet hath this swallowed up all the rest and the more superstitious in the Roman Church are almost afraid to call it by any other Name and the Mass is that which both young and Old both learned and unlearned among them have most frequently in their Mouths though few of the Vulgar know what it means I omit here many other Names appropriated by Writers to this Mystery such as Collect Oeconomy Liturgy Dominical Agenda Anaphora Synaxis c. partly because I intend no Critical History and partly because by the names I have already spoken of this Sacrament is usually known in the Western Churches That we do so often call it a Mystery is because the things discovered and imitated here do altogether depend upon Divine Revelation and are such as Flesh and Blood understand not and the Secrets of which none but a Person enlightned by the Spirit of God apprehends to any purpose and which transcend all the Arcana or hidden points of Heathen Divinity V. The name of the Lords Supper puts us in mind that this Holy Feast differs from Common Suppers 1. In that Common Suppers are for the support of Nature this for the support of Grace and Goodness in our Souls The former are intended for the strengthning of the Body this for the corroboration of our Faith and Hope and Love Our Common Supper represents to us the Ordinary Providence of God which opens its hand and fills the desire of every living thing This Gods extraordinary dispensation which shews at what cost and charges we are made the Children of God and fitted for everlasting habitations The former gives us an account of the Blessings of Gods Left this of the favours of his Right Hand The former bids us look into the nether this into the upper Springs of the Divine Clemency 2. In our Common Suppers our Spirits may unbend and our Minds and Tongues take liberty of thinking and speaking of things relating to our necessary Employments in the World in this our thoughts must rise mount up with Wings as Eagles pierce the Clouds and fix on the Riches of Divine Love retire from the World view God and his glorious Attributes and unite with that excellent object improve themselves into Contemplaâ—ion and adore the Mystery of Redemption In the former no other Preparation is required but what we are to bring with us to common affairs and businesses i. e. Gravity and Sobriety but in this the Heart must be prepared the Soul chafed the Affections warmed prayers offered Ejaculations press into Gods presence and Self-examination dispose the Soul for the visits of the Holy Ghost that it may be a worthy Guest at so great a Table and the rather because God is in a special manner present here for wherever Providence displays its brighter beams of Love there God is eminently present that makes Heaven what it is because there the Divine Goodness shines most gloriously In this Sacrament are set before us more then ordinary Characters of Gods Love the Angels of Heaven saith St. Chrysostom stand round about the Altar and while the Minister
so serious a Death How absurd is it not to have all things suitable in a great Solemnity In the Communion we come to behold a Fasting Saviour fasting and abstaining not only from Common Food that Day he suffered but fasting from a Sense of the charming Love of God and from the Comforts and Communications of the Divine Nature which by a Miracle withdrew its Shine and Splendor and left him in the Dark a severer Fast than if those Three and Thirty Years he lived in the World he had eaten nothing and can we behold this dreadful Fast and not appear fasting before the Altar Besides do People make a Meal when they are going to a Feast A greater Banquet we cannot go to than that which the King of Heaven hath prepared and shall we fill our Bellies before we appear here and dull our Appetite to the richer Food 3. To receive the Lord's Supper Fasting hath been the Practice of the Christian Church for many hundred Years for when sad Experience taught the Fathers how unfit the preceding Love-Feasts made the Generality for Receiving Christ in this Ordinance they thought themselves obliged not only to separate those Love-Feasts from the Supper of the Lord but to make strict Orders for the Celebrating of it in the Morning and to charge all Persons to receive it with an empty Stomach while the heat of Persecution lasted they were forced to receive it very early before Day that they might not meet with Affronts or Disturbances from the Heathens if if they had known of the time of their Meetings but what Persecution made necessary at first was made so afterwards by a Law I mean by a Law Ecclesiastical and therefore the Third Council of Carthage decrees expresly That the Sacrament of the Altar should be taken and received by none but such as are Fasting A thing so religiously observed especially by the Eastern Churches that when some of St. Chrysostom's Enemies had informed against him that he had given the Holy Communion to Persons who he knew had eaten at Home before they came to Church he falls a protesting and wishing If he had done such a thing that his Name may be blotted out of the Catalogue of Bishops nay That Christ may exclude him from his Everlasting Kingdom In St. Austin's time it was become an universal practice to take and receive it Fasting And though in Egypt not a few kept to the old Custom of receiving it after their common Suppers yet the Disorders lrreverence and Intemperance they fell into by that means hath been defensative sufficient to wise Men from following them in that preposterous way of Receiving so that we may truly say that this Communicating with an empty Stomach hath been the Practice of most Christian Churches ever since the Apostles days and this was part of their Rules and Canons and what hath been so punctually observed by most Churches of the World ought certainly to weigh much with him that believes the Church to be the Ground and Pillar of Truth as it is called 1 Tim. 3. 16. III. However since it is possible that some by total Abstinence from common Food that Morning they are to receive may make themselves unfit to receive with due Devotion their Stomachs not being able to bear Emptiness such must be allowed to eat something before they Receive whether they be Ministers of the Word who must take pains and spend their Spirits on such days and sometimes are none of the strongest or other Persons of a weak and sickly Constitution But in this case the following Rules must necessarily be observed 1. That we eat no more than what just serves to support Nature against Fainting Not only the Law of Self-preservation but of Religion too bids us keep our Bodies serviceable to our Souls If these Tabernacles of Clay be out of order the Soul which in this Valley of Tears at least works by the Organs of the Body must needs languish too and the Pen which is the Body being spoiled or cracked or weakened the Scribe which is the Soul cannot write so fair as otherwise it would do But then there is a great difference betwixt keeping the Body from fainting and pampering of it He that before the Sacrament eats to Satiety cannot be supposed to bring very lively Thoughts or a profound Sense of the great Mystery with him to the Holy Table so that the quantity of Food that 's taken before must be such as leaves the Soul in a good Posture and Temper to be affected and touched with the Solemnity and Greatness of the Ordinance 2. The Food we take before must be of the courser sort that the Mind may be preserved in a mortified Frame God Es. 58. 3. finds fault with the Jews for allowing themselves in Pleasures while they fasted to shew how unsuitable Carnal Recreations though at other times lawful are on such Humiliation Days This may justly be applied to Eating before Men come to the Holy Sacrament Pleasant Meat is unsuitable To find pleasure in Eating and Drinking before spoils the Pleasure the Soul should take in this Ordinance Christ before he did eat of the Eucharist did eat 't is true but it was Unleavened Bread and bitter Herbs which I reckon was as much as Fasting for such Food cannot be supposed to be very palatable And before the Love-Feasts that preceded the Sacrament were corrupted the Christians did eat so moderately that they seemed to feed rather upon Discipline than the Meat that was set before them as Tertullian words it 3. Even that small quantity of courser Food must be taken with pious Reflections and Contemplations of the far nobler Food which within a few Minutes after we are like to be partakers of Serpents they say whatever injuries are offered them still their great care is to preserve their heads If it be our duty to be wise as Serpents it must be our care too to guard our Heads our Minds I mean especially where necessity forces us to eat before we come to the Lord's Table that the serious frame be not overthrown and that it may appear it is not delight in eating but desire to be the better able to converse with God which makes us give our Bodies such necessary Refreshments as their weakness requires And if you ask me What Reflections are most proper in this case I need only send you to that Guest Luc. 14. 15. who sitting at the Table said Blessed is he that shall eat Bread in the Kingdom of God! So he that upon such occasions gives his Body ordinary Food may reflect on the Table in Christ's everlasting Kingdom where God's Glory will be the Meat and the light of his Favour the Drink and Angels the Musicians and glorified Saints the Company and the Eternal Love of God the Canopy under which the vast Armies of Martyrs and Saints will feast and gather everlasting strength strength which no sickness no illness and no accidents can ever weaken or dissolve
risen after he had been dead And how can any Man be sure there are such Words in the Bible as This is my Body if he may not believe his Eye-sight 3. This is my Body differs very much from This is Transubstantiated or Changed into my Body or Let it be changed into my Body This is my Body speaks what is already in Being not what may or shall be effective of something else To be and to be changed into a Thing are quite different Expressions And he that says a Thing is or hath a Being cannot be therefore supposed necessarily to say that it is changed or transubstantiated or shall be so for a Thing may be several Ways besides being changed That of which Christ affirms that it is his Body was the Bread he took in his Hand or that which he broke and that may be said to be his Body several Ways without being changed or transubstantiated into his Body Which very Thing hath made the wiser and more judicious Papists confess that these Words do not necessarily infer a Transubstantiation without the Decree Order and Explication of the Church upon which they chiefly build their Doctrine and Assertion And how ridiculous this Explication of their Church is any common Capacity may perceive that doth but understand Grammar and the ordinary Way of speaking in all Countries and Languages whatsoever For What can be more common than to say Such a Man is a Fox and Such a Person is a Lion and Such a Neighbour is a Beast and Such a Boy is a Tyger But doth any Man of common Sense infer from thence that such a Person is transubstantiated into a Fox or Lion or Tyger 'T is true God can do all Things but his Power is one Thing and his Will another and to believe he will do that which he hath no where said or promised to do is notorious Presumption And though we are not presently to reject a Thing because our Reason cannot comprehend it yet it is fit that what we cannot comprehend with our Reason we should be sufficiently assured of that God hath revealed it Such as is the Mystery of the Trinity the Incarnation of our Lord and the future Resurrection c. And if we had but as good Ground for Transubstantiation as we have for these Mysteries not only God's express Revelation but the constant Doctrine of the Church no wise Man would dispute it Transubstantiation is a Thing which neither the Scripture nor the Primitive Church did ever acknowledge And there being nothing in the Word of God to establish it and being besides contrary to all Sense and Reason we must be first given up to believe a Lye as some 〈◊〉 it seems are 2 Thess. 2. 11. before we can give 〈◊〉 unto it It were endless to repeat here all the Contradictions and Absurdities that this Doctrine may be charged with for Mice and Vermine will eat the consecrated Wafer if it lies in their Way It destroys not only the Nature of Christ's Body but a principal Article of our Belief too which saith That Christ is ascended and sitteth at the Right Hand of God whom the Heavens must receive until the Time of the Restitution of all Things Act. 3. 21. Not to mention that the Apostle calls the Bread in the Sacrament even after Consecration Bread still 1 Cor. 11. And that this Doctrine crosses the Nature of a Sacrament and is confuted by Christ's saying Do this in remembrance of me which supposes that he is absent as to his Body which was crucified c. Nor will that Place Joh. is 55. My Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed do any great Service to our Adversaries in this Controversie For if it be Meat indeed how doth that infer that the Bread must needs be transubstantiated into his Flesh since his Flesh may be Meat indeed several Ways For to all true Believers that take Comfort in his Death and are released from Sin and the Snares of the Devil by his Flesh that was nailed to the Cross he may be truly said to be Meat indeed and Drink indeed because their Souls are comforted by the Remembrance of it and preserved to Eternal Life and though he be only spiritual Meat to them yet he is so indeed and really and in a very good Sense As we say of a comfortable Word spoken to a troubled Conscience That that Word is Meat and Drink to it indeed and doth it more Good than all the Meat and Drink in the World would have done And that all that Discourse John 6. is to be understood of Spiritual Meat and Drink whereby the Soul receives comfort and refreshment Christ himself hath declared Joh. 6 63. II. As these words This is my Body do not infer a Transubstantiation so neither do they import a Consubstantiation a word as hard as the former and which hath been taken up by the Lutheran Protestants to express their Opinion that Christ's Glorified Body is in with and under the Element of the Bread in the Holy Sacrament or hid under it a Doctrine which they ground upon the Ubiquity of Christ's Body or being every where and in all places which Priviledge they fancy was communicated to Christ's Human Nature by its being joyn'd with the Divine a thing so irrational that hereby they confound the Divine Nature with the Human And to say that Christ had a Body which as all other Bodies must have Dimensions heighth and breadth and depth and length and yet to make that Body every where present is a conclusion so weak that I am apt to believe that if it had not been pitch'd upon by Luther in a heat or passion he would never have embraced it For indeed this was the infirmity of that excellent Man who tho' otherwise very much mortified in his desires after the Riches Honours and Glories of the World yet could not endure to be contradicted nor yield to another Man's Opinion tho' much sounder because himself was not the first inventer of it And by what I can see from History this was one great reason why he differ'd from Zwinglius in the point of the Holy Sacrament and embraced Consubstantiation which implies as is said already that the Body of Christ is hid under the substance of the Bread a Point that transported him into very great passion which made him afterward upon his Death-bed deplore That he had been too hot in his Controversie He that gave the first hint of this Opinion was John Gerson Chancellor of Paris who about the time of the Council of Constance not being able to digest the absolute Doctrine of Transubstantiation and finding that Assertion to be full of Blasphemy and Idolatry found out this expedient as he thought That Christ as he was a Creature and had a Body finite could not be at one and the same time in divers places yet being united to the Divine Nature in one Person the Human Nature by that conjunction had
beautifie the Meek with Salvation Let the Saints be joyful in Glory let them sing aloud upon their Beds let them praise the Name of the Lord for his Name alone is excellent his Glory is above the Earth and Heaven III. See here how rich a Meal God the Father prepares for our Souls even the crucified Body of his Son Shall we look upon that Celestial Food with dull and careless Thoughts Can we behold this costly Bread and forbear crying out Lord for ever give us that Bread Christian if thou meanest to be saved by the crucified Body of thy Lord thou must needs eat of it Not only thy Mouth must eat the Sacramental Bread and chew it but thy Soul must ascend and employ her self in eating of the crucified Body represented by that Bread Thy Soul thy Mind thy Will thy Affections must have the greatest Share in eating at this Table Thy Body hath little to do here that is only the Chariot that brings thy Soul to this Banquet Thy Soul not being engaged and busie here in Thinking Admiration Resolution Love and Joy the Cringes and Bowings of thy Body will be insignificant The End of our common Eating is Assimilation and in our ordinary Meals we therefore eat Food agreeable to our Bodies that it may be united to our Substance mingle with our Blood and become one with our Bodies So here our Souls must feed on the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus that we may become one with him All Creatures may be said to be one with Christ as he is God as he is their Creator in which respect he fills Heaven and Earth with his Presence and is not far from every one of us and in him we live and breath and have our Being Nay in a more particular manner every Professor of Christianity may be said to be one with him as he professes the same Religion which Christ taught his Disciples But this is not the Union aimed at in this Sacrament nor can the Union which respects our Profession only give any great Comfort to a Christian. The Union designed by this Sacrament is effected by the Spirit of Christ Jesus and the Soul that unfeignedly see◠here on the crucified Body of her Master gets the same Spirit that dwelt in her crucified Lord which produces the same Graces in her that shined in that great Shepherd of Souls and the same Mind the same Temper the same Disposition in substance at least though not in the same Degree is effected and produced in her by this Spirit as we see Rem 8. 11. Phil. 2. 5. And this is that Union every true Communicant is to aim at and from hence flows a Communion with Christ in all his Privileges and Glories whereby the Soul is raised up together with Christ and made to sit together with him in Heavenly Places though not by way of actual Enjoyment as yet but by getting a Right and Title to those Privileges as the Apostle informs us Ephes. 2. 6. By feeding on this crucified Body the Soul is nourished and gathers Strength against her spiritual Enemies becomes bold in Temptations resolute in Dangers couragious in spiritual Enterprizes The Soul that comes to feed on this crucified Body and comes not with this Intent comes in vain comes only to stare upon the Cross but not to be refreshed by it The Soul that after the Sacrament yields wilfully to the same Temptations it did before is ensnared by the same sinful Pleasure that ruin'd it before is led Captive by the same Lusts that intangled her before certainly feeds not on the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus because the Contemplation of that Crucifixion works no suitable Effects which if it did the Soul would unfeignedly destroy the Body of Sin according to the Apostle's Rule Rom. 6. 6. and offer up her Body a living Sacrifice holy acceptable unto God as it is said Rom. 12. 1. Make the Body obedient to Reason and Sense to Faith and the Flesh to the Spirit and it would keep under the Body and bring it into Subjection as St. Paul did 1 Cor. 9. 27. i. e. it would deny the Body those Satisfactions which are manifest Hindrances to the Things of the Spirit it would force it to Temperance to Hardships to Industry and Laboriousness in God's Service it would strive and take care that the Body might become a Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6. 19. 〈◊〉 what the Soul doth in this Ordinance would leave such a Sense upon us as would not only enable but constrain us to glorifie God both in Body and Soul as the Scripture requires 1 Cor. 6. 20. These are the blessed Effects of eating the crucified Body of the Lord Jesus And the Soul that feeds on that Body will find these happy Consequences it will not go away empty from this Meal and though for the present it doth not see all these Effects yet there is that Impression made on her by this Eating that these Effects will afterward discover themselves in her Life and Conversation The PRAYER O My God! What Care dost thou take of my immortal Soul that it may not starve Thou hast made large Provision for my Body in the Earth in the Air and in the Water The Earth brings forth Herbs and Roots and Cattel to feed it The Air affords Fowl and Feather'd Creatures to nourish it The Water provides Fish for it But none of all these can satisfie my Soul that must have a spiritual Diet and rather than it shall want thou hast given thine own Son to be her Food O mysterious Love Can I after tbis have low and mean Thoughts of thy Goodness O sweetest Jesu if my Soul feeds not on thee if must die and be separated from thy glorious Presence for ever If it feeds on thee it is made for ever Oh! be thou my most beloved and most delightful Food Thy crucified Body alone can keep my Soul from fainting Thy Death must yield me Life Thy Sufferings must give me Joy Thy Agonies must afford me Comfort Thy Torments must work mine Ease Thy Nails and Thorns must be my Bed of Roses Nothing else can give my Soul Rest. When the Snares of Death and Hell encompass me I will lay hold on these Horns of the Altar here I shall be safe safer than in the Arms of Angels Thou that diedst for me livest for ever to intercede for me and having such an Advocate I may come boldly to the Throne of Grace O let me not survey this glorious Provision made for my Soul with carnal Eyes O let me ponder seriously not with flying and transient but with steady and fixed Thoughts how thou hast favoured how thou hast loved how thou hast dignified this miserable Soul of mine that I may rejoyce in thee for ever and ever Amen CHAP. XII Of remembring Christ in this Sacrament or doing what we do here in remembrance of him The CONTENTS The Death of Christ Jesus the principal thing to be
when he whose Wisdom cannot by searching be found out hath given us these Symbols and by them thought fit to help our infirmities to fancy that Christ did more than he need to have done as if he understood not our Natures better than we Those that look upon those Symbols as Crutches for weaker Christians to lean upon and such as they themselves have no need of had need examine and search their Hearts better than hitherto they have done lest they be unable when the time comes to stand before the Son of Man II. Why this Sacrament is to last in the Christian Church to the end of the World or till Christ come to Judgment may easily be guess'd at for 1. The means of Grace are the same and unalterable to the end of the World and whatever things bore the name of ordinary means of Grace in the Apostles days still bear that Name and shall bear it till Heaven and Earth do perish for God intended but one Gospel to the Christian World even that Gospel which we have and after it we are to expect no other This is to serve the Church while it is a Church and as the Church is to last to the consummation of all things so this Gospel is to last for which reason it is expresly call'd The Eternal Gospel Rev. 14. 6. And the Apostle is very peremptory in his Assertion Though we or an Angel from Heaven should Preach any other Gospel meaning either now or hereafter than what we have Preached to you let him be accursed Gal. 1. 8. And if the Gosbe to last to the end of the World this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper in the Church must needs last as long for this is part of the Gospel as much as Prayer Preaching or any other message delivered in that Book That which is most properly called the Gospel or Glad-tidings is the mistery of God's reconciling the World to himself in Christ Jesus and this is in an eminent manner express'd in this Sacrament so that this Sacament is the principal part of the Gospel the chief subject it treats of the principal thing it aims at the very foundation of the whole For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Christ saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. 12. Nay he determined with himself not to know any thing save Jesus Christ and him Crucified which is the very purport and scope of this Ordinance and if the Gospel be a thing perpetual and eternal the principal part of it without all peradventure must be so 2. The comforts of Christian Souls are to last while Christians live in the World and that by virtue of Christ's Pontificial Prayer Joh. 17. 20. 21. Neither Pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word i. e. to the end of the World that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us than which there cannot be greater comforts and if such are to last to the Worlds end the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper must needs be of the same perpetuity for from hence flow the greatest comforts of true Believers this assuring us that as the material Bread by eating is united to ouâ— Bodies so is Christ united to our Souls or our Souls united to him as Members to their Head and to be one with Christ it such a Treasury of Comforts that there is no affliction no condition so mean or so calamitous but may receive ease and content from this Consideration for if I am one with Christ my Blessed Redeemer will be concern'd for me will take care of me will be with me in the Tryals that fall to my share will support me under Temptations assist me with his Grace relieve me by his Presence subdue Satan under my Feet shortly will furnish me with Arguments to resist will not leave me when I dye but convey and conduct my Soul where her Head is that it may be for ever with her Lord and will make me partaker of the same Glories too which himself is possest of By this Sacrament we become one with Christ Jesus and this comfort being to attend sincere Christians while Christians are in the World the means whereby that Union is made must necessarily last as long as Christianity lasts i. e. to the Day of Judgment 3. Lo I am with you saith Christ to his Disciples who were Representatives of all future Christian Congregations that should maintain the purity of his Doctrine and Morals to the end of the World Matth. 28 20. This is not to be understood of his Bodily Presence or Human Nature for that was to be Translated into his Father's Kingdom and with respect to that he had told his Followers before that they should not have him always with them Matth. 26. 11. And as to his Divine Nature though the words may be referr'd to that yet it is to be noted that he spoke these words as one who had all Power given him in Heaven and in Earth v. 18. and therefore as Mediator or the promised Messiah of the World and if he spake these words as Mediator or Head of the Church it must follow that he meant them of his being with them and their Followers to the World's end by his Spirit and virtue and influence in their observing all things whatsoever he Commanded them as the words immediately preceding do evince for he doth not tye his special Presence to a bare function of Men as the Romanists falsly infer but to Obedience and as Baptism was one of the things he commanded them to use and observe in the Verse before so the Lord's Supper and Celebration of it was another so that if Christ's Presence be necessary to the Worlds end and that Presence be tied to Obedience and this Sacrament be one of the things he hath commanded and in which he must be obey'd in order to his Gracious Presence this Ordinance also must be necessary and must needs be kept up to the end of the World 4 Christ's Church is to last to the World's end for it is for his Church's sake that the World stands so long as it doth as the World was created upon that account because God meant to gather a Church out of the World out of the foreseen corrupt Mass of Mankind so it is preserved upon that account even that the number of those that shall be saved may be compleated which great Truth is I believe aim'd at by the Apostle Col. 1. 15 16 17 18. and to this end this Church is said to be so durable and so firm that the Gates of Hell shall not be able to prevail against it Matth. 16. 18. The Devil we may be confident will endeavour to bâ—tter it to to the very last moment of the World's duration and if with all his stratagems and continued and lasting assaults he shall not be able to conquer or to destroy
upon them that they make some attempts and use some trifling endeavours to resist but as this resistance is not an effect of an active Faith but only of slavish fear so it doth not preserve them untainted and undaunted in the hour of Temptation which is an Argument both of Spiritual Weakness and God's Judgment because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge as St. Paul speaks Rom. 28. 2. Spiritual Sickness the signs of which are as follows 1. Want of relishing the Things of God and the Mysteries of Religion By this we conclude that a Man is sick in his Body if the Bread or Wine or Apples or Meat he swallows seem to him Food or Drink different from what they appear to sound and healthy and by the same Argument we may infer that a Man's Soul is very sick when the Promises Precepts Commands Mercies Privileges and Immunities of the Gospel are insipid and unsavoury to him and his Soul finds no sweetness no agreeableness no juice no life no pleasantness no delight no pungency in them If these appear to her as common things and affect her no more than what the Great Mogol doth in the Indies or what Men talk on the Coast of Guinea If they raise no wonder no admiration no affection no appetite no strong desire in her if she can hear them read of them survey them think of them without being touch'd with the consequence and importance of them the Soul is infallibly under some great distemper and the whole Head is sick the whole Heart is sick grievously sick and the wound is dangerous and that this Spiritual sickness discovers it self too often in unworthy Receivers we need no other proof but what their known aversion gives us I mean their aversion from good Thoughts and Discourfes after they have been at the Table of the Lord. Reading the Word digesting it and endeavouring to see wondrous things in that Law and meditating of some part of it day and night is irksome to them tedious and when something savouring of Heaven and Eternity is propos'd to them they stand upon Thorns all the while nor can the goodness of God prevail with them to deny themselves in any thing they have a mind or strong inclination to a certain sign of their being sick and of God's Judgment upon their Souls 2. Another symptom of this Spiritual sickness is When a known Sin becomes habitual and the few single Acts pass into temper and come to be incorporated with nature and turn into constitution and complexion In this case the Soul may be judged very sick as sick as the Body that is troubled with the Stone or Gout and where the distemper or Morbific Matter is so dispers'd through the Mass of Blood and Joynts that tho' it admits of respite and lucid intervals sometimes yet as the Humours that feed it gather strength again so the Distemper returns And this sickness doth evidently discover it self in unworthy Receivers who were formerly but Punies and Novices in certain sins but after their unworthy Receiving harden themselves in the practice of them commence Graduates and drink them in as the Ox doth the Water and they become their Darlings their Benjamins as dear to them as their Right Eye as dear as their Foot or Hand than which there cannot be a surer sign of their being spiritually sick and lying under the weight of a spiritual Judgment 3. Spiritual Death And this also is to be known by symptoms which are these 1. When the Conscience smites no more When it gives over striving with the Sinner he is dead as that Body in which the Pulse hath left off beating So it was with the Prodigal of whom Christ expresly saith Though his natural life was sound and whole that he was dead No remorse no regret appear'd in his Soul All was still as in a Charnel-House no noise within to fright him All was turn'd into the silence of the Grave He delighted in his nastiness in his Mud and Dung and Filth and Swinish Desires nothing prick'd him nothing stung his Heart And that this Death is to be found in some unworthy Receivers is manifest from their Actions for they become stupid in their Errors and having bafâ—led their Conscience laid that inward witness to sleep and hush'd it into a fatal slumber It stirs not it moves not and they know not when they sin and when they do not To that insensibleness they bring themselves that when God calls they cannot see with their Eyes nor hear with their Ears nor understand with their Hearts 2. Another Symptom of this Spiritual Death is When the Sinner begins to look upon Religion either as a trick of Divines or Politicians or a needless thing This excludes all sense of another world the only thing whereby the Soul lives and therefore that being gone the Soul is dead and that he who hath the power of Death even the Devil hath killed and mortified all the good Seed that lay scattered in his Breast Indeed this is such a degree of Death which unworthy Receivers do not very ordinarily arrive to yet sometimes they fall even into this Gulph for what should hinder them from tumbling down so low that have lost their hold in a Crucified Saviour from whose Arms they have broke loose unwilling that he should have any thing to do with them but just to save them if he pleases The Bands of Love and Obedience are the only things that preserve the Soul from Death and the unworthy Communicant having made a shift to throw those Cords from him being loth to be tied and held by them he sinks into contempt of these things and from thence into scorning of Religion it self In all which the Judgment of God is clearly to be seen for though God doth not call by an audible Voice from Heaven that it is so nor set a mark upon the unworthy Receiver as he did on Cain whereby spectators may know that this is a sign of the Divine Judgment upon him yet it 's enough that we are told in the Word of God Woe to them when I depart from them Hos. 9. 11. III. And from hence it 's easie to guess how God inflicts this spiritual Judgment upon unworthy Receivers 1. By a gradual withdrawing his Holy Spirit from them This Spirit is called Oyl Heb. 1. 9. and Unction or Anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. Whatever the quantity of that Oil was that was put in their Lamps as that abates so the strength of their Soul abates and from hence comes Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death The Spirit of God is the Pillar that supports the House if this Prop be removed the Inference is easie that the House will not be of any long standing There are general Gifts of the Spirit of God common to good and bad Men under the Gospel and there are some that are peculiar to those that walk after the Spirit and as in an unworthy Receiver we can suppose
Temptations were stronger than my Purposes and when they came I fell This Sickness Lord I am still apt to fall into and though by thy Grace I act sometimes according to my good Intentions and Resolutions yet how often do I miscarry in this point Lord give me not only good Inclinations but Courage to perform them too Oh let me not think it enough to entertain good Wishes in my Soul but make them so strong that the Good I intend and purpose may break forth like the Sun from a Cloud into a perfect Day 17. For of necessity he must release one unto them at the Feast VVHen the Paschal Lamb was to be killed the Jews had a Prisoner released to confirm the Memory of their Deliverance from the House of Bondage O Lamb of God! When thou diedst thou openedst the Prison-door for all Mankind to come out Thou didst proclaim Liberty to all Men captivated by Sin and the Devil O wonderful Release This makes me admire how Men after this Liberty procured for them by thy Death should yet be fond of their Prisons still and delight in Slavery and the Bondage of Iniquity Oh Bring my Soul out of Prison that I may praise thy Name The Righteous shall compass me about when thou shalt deal bountifully with me 18. And they cried out all at once saying Away with this Man and release unto us Barabbas A Monstrous Choice To prefer a Man before God a Son of Death before the Lord of Life a Malefactor before Innocence it self a Murtherer before the Saviour of the World Darkness before Light a Villain before the Son of God! Yet blessed Jesu such a sad Choice I have made too often when I have preferred the Cares of the World before the better part and while I have condemned these wicked Men and been in a kind of Passion to see and hear of their Impiety have unawares sunk into this Sin my self by preferring a Trifle before thy Will and a foolish Satisfaction before Rest in thy Bosom and an Interest in thy Favour and the Things of this World before a more glorious Reversion in another Life Pardon my desperate Choice And let me henceforward prefer thee who art fairer than the Children of Men before all that my Flesh doth promise or the World give For one thing is needful even thy Love of Complacency and if I have that it shall not be taken away from me 19. Who for a certain Sedition made in the City and for Murther was cast in Prison PRisons are fit Places for Malefactors not only upon the Account of securing Humane Societies from Enemies but also because such Sinners being removed from Temptations and Objects that enticed them to do ill and under pressure may think of God and reflect upon their wicked Lives and come to a sincere Repentance Yet when they are delivered out of their Durance their Lives very often are the same that formerly they were O my dear Redeemer Thou hast made me a Prisoner sometimes by Sickness and other Disasters in hopes that the Affliction might work upon me and the Fire I was in would make me a new Man yet when thou hast freed me from this Prison I have re-assumed my former Liberty in sinning Oh let it be so no more And seeing I am made whole let me take heed and sin no more lest worse things happen unto me 20. Pilate therefore willing to release Jesus spake again to them HEre I see greater Charity and Tenderness in an Heathen than in those who had the lively Oracles of God What a strange Sight is this to see Uncircumcision which is by Nature fulfilling the Law judge them who by the Letter and Circumcision do transgress the Law How many excellent Acts of Vertue do I see and read of in mere Pagans that had nothing but the Light of Nature to direct them Acts which I do not come up to that have the Light of Heaven to shine upon me O Jesu make me ashamed of my Backwardness and let my Righteousness exceed that of Men which do not call upon thy Name lest it be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in that Day than for me 21. But they cried saying Crucifie him crucifie him THis was the most infamous Punishment that any Man could be condemned to Ah Wretches Did not your Hearts smite you when you said so Will nothing serve you but the most ignominious Death a Death which none but Slaves were destin'd to What a brutish thing is Wrath and Anger It stops its Ears against all common Ingenuity and Reason It doth things in haste which must be repented of by leisure Lord Jesu I remember what unreasonable things I have done when my Passion hath been up things I am ashamed of now Oh leave me not to these Winds and Tempests Oh let me learn of thee for thou art meek and lowly in Heart that I may find Rest for my Soul 22. And he said unto them the third time Why what Evil hath he done I have found no Cause of Death in him I will therefore chastise him and let him go O Jesu 'T is very true thou hast done no Evil neither was Guile found in thy Mouth When thou wast reviled thou didst not revile again when thou sufferedst thou threatnedst not Thou wentest about doing good no Man could convince thee of any Sin Thou wast good and didst good even to those that now cried Crucifie him Thou camest to discourage Men from Evil it was thy Province to destroy the Works of the Devil and to make Men Partakers of the Divine Nature Goodness was in thy Nature and all thy Actions breathed of it Thou wast tender of Men's Good of the Good of their Souls and Bodies Oh make me conformable to thy Goodness Let me abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good Let thy Goodness be my Pattern and let me ever rejoyce in thy Goodness Make me steadily and invincibly good good unto Death that I may receive a Crown of Life Thy Goodness endures for ever Give mine the same Duration Oh touch it with thy Light and it shall burn bright for ever 23. And they were instant with loud Voices requiring that he might be crucified and the Voices of them and the Chief Priests prevailed THE Devil was let loose in these Sinners and see how he rages He makes them leap Bogs and Ditches and a Thousand Precipices to get their Wills accomplished The Damned in Hell were not more outragious than these Men. Lord Jesu What are we when left to our selves or to the Power of the Enemy Thou camest to redeem me from this Power Oh let me come under it no more Once I dwelt under that Tyranny I now serve a gentler Master Oh let me serve thee not with Eye-service as a Man-pleaser but as a Servant of God doing the Will of God from the Heart 24. And Pilate gave Sentence that it should be as they required THese Brutes threaten to accuse him
call his Friends the Angels together saying Rejoyce with me for I have found him that was lost He saw what it was for God to humble himself and take upon him the Nature of Man a Thing infinitely below him and to advance it above all Heavens above Angels Powers Ceraphim and Cherubim and place it at the Right Hand of God He saw what it was for Infinite Majesty to fall in love with Misery and for him that was adored by all the Host of Heaven to make himself of no Reputation on purpose to magnifie his Mercy in the greatest Misery He saw the happy Strife and Contention that was betwixt God's Justice and Mercy He saw how these Twins struggled in the Womb of Eternity and Mercy got the better and triumph'd over the Almighty's Rods and Axes He saw the Beginning Progress Order and Beauty of that Love He could measure the vast Distance betwixt Heaven and Earth betwixt God and Man betwixt the Judge and the Malefactor betwixt Infinite Purity and extream Wretchedness betwixt Righteousness and Sin betwixt perfect Innocence and perfect Misery And what a Paradox it must be to the holy Angels to see that Light which lights every Man that comes into the World submit to the Darkness of the Grave that some of Adam's Posterity might be Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light This he saw and as a Man who was to shew his Church an Example he gave Thanks VI. Christ's Actions as they were intended for our Instruction so we cannot think that his Giving of Thanks was only to express his own Devotion as Mediator but that it was designed to teach us 1. Never to sit down at our common or ordinary Meals without praising God for the Blessings his bountiful Hand hath vouchsafed unto us This it seems is so necessary that the Holy Ghost reckons those Men among the Workers of Iniquity that sit down to Meat and praise not the Creator for the Provision he hath made for them Psal. 14. 4. Have the Workers of Iniquity no Knowledge who eat Bread and call not upon the Lord We render the Words As they eat Bread our Translators thinking the Expression to be a Similitude to express the Greediness of Persecutors who make a Prey of God's Servants but the Particle As being left out in the Original the Words denote another Sin of those Men that do eat Bread and call not upon the Lord at their Eating 'T is true the Duty seems to be observed by most People and there are few so profane as not to say Grace at their Meals but it is for the most part done so slovenly and so carelesly without any Sense of the Greatness of the Duty and of the Goodness of God that it is made a mere Formality which is as bad as the total Omission of it The Giving of Thanks before and after Meals must be performed with a Sense of our Unworthiness and God's Charity This is to be thought and taken notice of as much as the Meat that is set before us and Admiration of God's Compassion in feeding us will add to the Relish of the Victuals set upon the Table and that is to eat to the Glory of God as the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 10. 32. 2. It was also to teach us Gratitude to our Benefactors here on Earth Though Men are but the Instruments whereby the Almighty's Blessings are conveyed to us yet there is a Gratitude due to them and such Gratitude as is expressed in kind Offices and Readiness to assist and help them when they stand in need of our Services But then this Gratitude must not be stretched to assisting of them in their Sins or complying with them in their Viciousness and Debaucheries or flattering them in their sickly Passions Man must not be pleased to the Dishonour of God And where Dust and Ashes is loved more than he he protests we are not worthy of him But to pray for them to honour them to study and embrace all lawful Opportunities to express our Respect and Esteem of them to requite their Kindnesses with equal Civilities or spiritual Advice and Counsel and Consolation is to act like Persons prompted by Christ's Example to be thankful 3. It was more particularly to direct us in our Praises and Thanksgivings when we come to the Table of our dearest Lord Here certainly if any where our Hearts ought to be fixed and ready to sing and give Praise 1. For putting us in a Way of being pardon'd and happy for ever We were all concern'd in Adam's Fall had all forfeited our Right to God's Favour and the Happiness we might have expected at his Hands God might have lock'd up the Gate of Mercy and made the Access to it impossible Having desperately turned our Backs upon him he might have let the Rebels sink deeper and deeper till they had come into the bottomless Gulf of Eternal Misery and no doubt all the Host of Heaven would have applauded his Justice And for him who was cloathed with Majesty and Honour unexpectedly and of his own accord to turn the Stream and to promise a Saviour and instead of making a Way to his Anger shew Men a Way to his Bosom and in the midst of all this Confusion and Perplexity to proclaim the acceptable Year to the poor Prisoners How can this be thought of in the holy Sacrament without Praise and Admiration 2 For revealing this wonderful Love to us A Favour Thousands of Heathens and Infidels enjoy not at this Day nay are wholly ignorant of A Love which is a Mystery that puzzles the Understandings of the wisest Men. How God intends to deal with Heathens and Mahometant is hard to determine only in general we are told that those who have sinned without Law shall be judged without Law Rom. 2. 12. Nor can we assign a just and satisfactory Reason why he makes not these Nations Partakers of the glad Tidings of the Gospel much less why he continues these Revelations to the Christian World though corrupt and debauched to a Prodigy But this we know That if any Thing in the World deserves our Praises this that we have such a Treasure communicated to us deserves it and more especially in this Sacrament where this Mystery of Reconciliation is a most proper Object of our Meditation 3. For passing by the Apostate Spirits and offering the Mercy of Reconciliation to the Children of Men. The evil Angels sinned as well as we yet the Son of God took not upon him the Nature of Angels â—ut took the Seed of Abraham 'T is true there was more to be said for Adam's Fall than that of Lucifer That Son of the Morning was all Spirit and Understanding and Man had a Body of Earth about him which though not troublesom in Paradise yet was the apter to receive Impressions of Sin from external Objects The rebellious Angels were the first that made a Breach betwixt God and the Creature and Man was seduced by them
Blood is for the healing of Mens Souls or what a Vine is to Men on Earth the same am I to my living Members and what an Husbandman doth to his Vineyard the same doth my Father to the Branches that shoot forth from me or to my Followers 2. This is my Body i. e This Bread is my Body as the roasted Lamb is the great Festival of the Jews was the Passover i. e. The Memorial of it This Sacrament of the Lords Supper being instituted immediately after the celebration of the Passover as hath been often hinted the Disciples of our Lord being acquainted with that way of speaking could not wonder at Christ's expression for thus the Jews used to say of the Paschal Lamb This is the Passover as we may read Exod. 12. 11. And there was not any so rude among them but understood by this phrase that by eating that Lamb they were to remember the Angels passing by the Houses of the Israelites in Egypt to save them from Destruction This Sense they imbibed with their Mothers Milk and when the Father instructed his Children he told them that by these words This Lamb is the Passover was meant nothing else but this Lamb is the Memorial or puts us in mind of the Passover for so God had himself explain'd it Exod. 12. 26 27. So that our Saviour in saying of the Bread he broke This is my Body brought in no new way of speaking but what the Disciples and all the Jews were already sufficiently acquainted with in Sacramental Discourses which makes Christ add immediately to shew that he meant no more by it but a Memorial Do this in remembrance of me i. e. As the Lamb put the Jews in mind of the destroying Angel's passing over their Houses so the Bread in this Ordinance puts you in mind of my Body that shall be nailed to the Tree of the Cross for the Life of the World and tells you how by that Sacrifice offer'd for your Souls ye shall escape the Everlasting Wrath of God and the burning Lake prepared for the Devil and his Angels as they did the Destruction prepared for Pharaoh and his People 3. That Christ's Church is often called his Body none can be ignorant that peruses these passages Col. 1. 18. Ephes. 5. 23 Ephes. 4. 12. 1 Cor. 10. 16. 1 Cor. 12. 27. And though that Sense we have already alledgâ—d be the principal thing aim'd at in these words This is my Body yet to shew how little need there is to have recourse either to Transubstantiation or Consubstantiation rather than run into such absurdities we might very well say that the Bread is an Emblem or Adumbration of Christ's Body i. e. of Christ's Church For as that Bread is made up of many Particles so Christ's Church of many Members and as those various Crums are closely united to th' other so the various Members ought to be link'd together in Love and Charity according to the Royal Law given by our Master Joh. 13. 34. A new Commandment I give unto you that ye love one another But this we add to shew rather what little temptation there is to run our selves into inextricable difficulties in the explication of these words than to express the immediate intent of this expression All Churches agree in 't That Christ's Crucified Body is meant here only the difference is how the Bread is Christ's Body and how Christ's Body is present in the Sacrament we say it is there spiritually as the Bread is a Symbol a Figure a Sign a Representation and a Memorial of Christ's Body which was offer'd for the Sins of the World and this Interpretation is so easie so intelligible so agreeable to Sacramental expressions and to the Analogy of Faith that one would think it should be impossible for Men to contradict it except they were resolv'd to defend an Opinion right or wrong merely because it is their interest to do so The Romanists indeed have of late years endeavour'd very much to perswade the World that the Greek Church in the Levant is of their Opinion in the Sacrament but not to mention the rudeness and ignorance of those poor Churches which scarce understand the Principles of their own Faith if the Protestants had but taken the same pains with the Modern Greeks that the Popish Missioners do i. e. bribed and paid them for their assent and consent to their Faith they would have been Protestants in this Article of the Sacrament as some of them are Papists at this present Cyril who was Patriarch of Constantinople in the year 1622 where-ever he imbibed his Doctrine certainly was not for Transubstantiation and though by the endeavours of the Jesuits he was afterwards strangled yet that doth not make him an Heretick And though several Synods have been held by the Greeks of late years which have establish'd Transubstantiation yet it 's sufficiently known that it hath been by instigation of those of the Roman Communion who spare no cost that they may bring them to say as they do However such Greeks as are not yet corrupted by the Roman Emissaries are so far from believing Transubstantiation that they know not what it is and as a late ingenious Travellr hath observed wonder any Man should think them such Beasts as to believe such an Absurdity But what doth it signifie whether the Modern Greeks who are sunk into gross Ignorance and Barbarism be of our Opinion or no 'T is sufficient that the ancient Greek Church is and hath been of the same Belief with us The Churches of the Levant at this Day as Learning is become a very scarce Commodity among them so their Opinion in a controverted Point is of no great Consequence Where they can give Proof of an uninterrupted Succession of their Doctrine it may be of importance else not The Church of the Aethiopians or Habessines as they have for many Centuries continued in the honest Simplicity of their Doctrine so their Testimony in this Point of the Eucharist may be of some use and by what appears they seem to joyn with us in this Sacrament For though they pray in their Liturgy That the Holy Ghost may descend and come and shine upon the Bread that it may become the Body of Christ and that the Taste of the Cup may be changed and become the Blood of Christ yet by what one of their own Priests confessed they believe no other Change but a mysterious or representative one or a Change of the use of the Bread whereby from common it becomes sacred And so much appears from the Exposition they give of the Words used by Christ for they say expresly This Bread is my Body and This Cup is my Blood IV. From what hath been said 't is easie to conclude what it is to eat Christ's Body in this holy Sacrament 1. It is to contemplate Christ's crucified Body and the Cause and Reasons of that Crucifixion to view all this with our warmest Thoughts to make
none but general Gifts so even these upon his Abuse and misemploying of them are gradually removed as Men take meat and victuals away from insolent Beggars that throw their Gift upon a Dunghil and as a charitable Pension is withdrawn when we find that the Party which enjoy'd it spends it in Ale-houses and Taverns or in Play 2. By a gradual permitting the Devil to exercise his Power and Jurisdiction upon them God doth not very frequently suffer the Enemy to fly upon the Offender with all his force or to ruin him at once but he lengthens his Chain by degrees to see whether the Sinner will yet give himself leave to think and attempt to be freed from that intolerable Yoak and Slavery but that tenderness and patience of Almighty God becoming fruitless and ineffectual the Judge gives the Executioner greater liberty to darken his Mind to pervert his Will and to sear his Conscience Time was when but one Devil was permitted to Tyrannize over him but if instead of being angry and displeas'd at that single foe the unworthy Communicant embraces and makes him his friend then that Devil takes with him seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that Man is worse than the first saith Christ Matth. 12. 45. Nor is there any thing of injustice in these proceedings of God For 1. It is nothing but Lex Talionis a just Retaliation a Rule whereby God ordinarily governs himself in the execution of his Judgements Hâ—s 6. 4. He tells Judah and Ephraim Your Goodness is as a Morning Cloud and as the early Dew it passes away The Judgment therefore is made proportionable Hos. 13. 3. Therefore they shall be as the Morning Cloud and as the early Dew that passes away so here the Sin is spiritual the Judgment is so too The unworthy Receiver wrongs his own Soul and in his Soul the marks of God's Wrath appear 2. God in this case doth no more than what we our selves do and think our selves very reasonable and just for doing so A Father reduces his spend-thrift Son to a smaller Allowance and the ground that will not bear any thing after a world of Toil we Dung and Dig and Manure no more In this manner and for Reasons â—ike these God withdraws his Holy Spirit from the unworthy Receiver 3. As the Devil is God's Minister of Justice his Jaylor and Hangman so he may justly make use of him to judge and lash the unworthy Receiver the rather because he wilfully hearkens to the base suggestions of his sworn Enemy and who finds fault with a Prince or Magistrate for sending an Executioner to behead or hang those that have committed Treason or conspired against their lawful Sovereign 4. That God doth gradually send this Spiritual Judgment upon unworthy Receivers this speaks his Goodness Compassion and Patience and shews how loth he is to give up Ephraim how loth he is to deliver up Israel to the rage of the Enemy how loth he is to make them as Admah and to set them as Zeboim so that there is Charity mingled with the Justice and in the midst of his Anger he remembers Mercy IV. And this will give us occasion to enquire which of these two Judgments is greater the Temporal or the Spiritual And here if we consider the mischief done by them we must conclude and assert that the Spiritual is greater For 1. Pain and sickness of Body may yet bring a Man or drive a Man to a true Repentance and a sight of the Errors of his ways as we proved in the foregoing Chapter but this Spiritual Weakness makes the way and passage to Repentance more difficult and the more any thing doth hinder a Man from Repentance the more dangerous it is Spiritual Weakness Sickness and Death supposes that the faculties which should be chiefly employed in the product of Repentance are out of order and violated such as the Understanding the Will and the Affections Bodily Sickness very often puts these into a new fermentation and a strong desire after Spiritual Things But when the very Tools whereby the Soul is to work are blunt and their edge rebated or are become rusty and useless the work is very likely to be left undone If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness saith our Saviour Matth. 5. 23. 2. The Spiritual Judgment is the more dangerous because it is less perceiv'd and taken notice of than Bodily sickness If a Man feel the smart and pain of his Wounds and Sores they oblige him to seek out for a Physician for Remedy for Counsel and Advice and so we find it is for the most part with all Diseases of the Body which cause anguish and grief and great inconvenience and disorder in the Body yet among these various distempers some there are where the poison creeps along in the secret parts and Men perceive it not till it seizes upon the Vitals invades the very Heart and tolls the Bell for Death and these we count the most dangerous Of this nature is Spiritual sickness and weakness It leaves the Body in the same temper it found it in causes no prickings in the Back no stitches in the side no disturbance in the Head It lets Men eat and drink and sleep and walk and do their business and as to the outward Man they feel no inconvenience which makes them think that they have nothing of a distemper about them that all is safe and they ail nothing For this Spiritual sickness cannot be perceiv'd without Thinking and Self-examination which being neglected Men feel it not whence it comes to pass that it spreads insensibly in the dark while Men are asleep and by degrees corrupts the Soul till all its goodness be consumed and consequently this Spiritual Judgment is greater than the Corporal 3. The Spiritual Judgment is a sign of God's greater anger too and though it will not enter into the thoughts of a sensual Man that it is so or that any thing can be a sign of God's Anger but what relates to losses and disappointments and crosses in the outward Man and in the World yet enlighten'd Souls have ever look'd upon Spiritual sickness and Death as a sign of God's heavier wrath and indignation because in this case God doth as it were let Men alone leaves them to themselves and his not punishing of them with Bodily troubles looks like an aversion from their Persons and so much we may guess from what we read Hos. 4. 14 17. The Preceding Considerations reduced into farther Practice I IF Christ and his Apostles press Eating and Drinking worthily at this Table it is because they would have our Souls be in perfect health and they are then in perfect health when they rejoyce in the Lord always Thomas Aquinas upon that saying Cant. 1. 13. A bundle of Myrrhe is my well-beloved unto me observes that as Myrrhe preserves Bodies from