Family did officiate among his Houshold Luke 22.19 1 Cor. 11.23 that it was very Natural to them to understand all that our Saviour said or did according to those Forms with which they were acquainted There were after Supper upon a new covering of the Table Loaves of Unleavened Bread and Cups of Wine set on it in which though the Bread was very unacceptable yet they drank liberally of the Wine Christ took a Portion of that Bread and brake it and gave it to his Disciples and said This is my body which is broken for you Do this in remembrance of me He did not say only this is my body but this is my body broken so that his Body must be understood to be there in its broken State if the Words are to be expounded literally And no reason can be assigned why the Word Broken should be so separated from Body or that the Bread should be literally his Body and not literally his Body broken The whole Period must be either literally True or must be understood mystically And if any will say that his Body cannot be there but in the same state in which it is now in Heaven and since it is not now broken nor is the Blood shed or separated from the Body there therefore the Words must be understood thus This is my Body which is to be broken But from thence we argue that since all is one Period it must be all understood in the same Manner And since it is impossible that Broken and Shed can be understood literally of the Body and Blood that therefore the whole is to be mystically understood and this appears more evident since the Disciples who were naturally slow at understanding the easiest Mysteries that he opened to them must naturally have understood those Words as they did the other Words of the Paschal Supper This is the Lord 's Passover That is this is the Memorial of it And that the rather since Christ added these Words Do this in remembrance of me If they had understood them in any other Sense that must have surprized them and naturally have led them to ask him many Questions Which we find them doing upon Occasions that were much less surprizing as appears by the Questions in the 14th of St. Iohn that discourse coming probably immediately after this Institution Whereas no Question was asked upon this so it is reasonable to conclude that they could understand these Words This is my Body no other way but as they understood that of the Lamb This is the Lord 's Passover And by consequence as their celebrating the Pascha was a constant Memorial of the Deliverance out of Egypt and was a Symbolical Action by which they had a Title to the Blessings of the Covenant that Moses made with their Fathers it was natural for them to conclude that after Christ had made himself to be truly that which the first Lamb was in a Type the true Sacrifice of a greater and better Passover they were to commemorate it and to communicate in the Benefits and Effects of it by continuing that Action of taking blessing breaking and distributing of Bread Which was to be the Memorial and the Communion of his Death in all succeeding Ages This will yet appear more Evident from the Second Part of this Institution he took the Cup and blessed it and gave it to them saying This Cup is the New Testament or New Covenant in my blood drink ye all of it Or as the other Gospels report it This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the Remission of Sins As Moses had enjoined the sprinkling of the Blood of the Lamb so he himself sprinkled both the Book of the Law and all the People with the Blood of Calves and of Goats Hâ—b 9.20 saying This is the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant which God had enjoined you The Blood of the Paschal Lamb was the Token of that Covenant which God made then with them The Iews were under a very strict Prohibition of eating no Blood at all But it seems by the Psalms that when they payed their Vows unto God they took in their Hands a cup of Salvation that is Psal. 116. of an acknowledgment of their Salvation and so were to rejoice before the Lord. These being the Laws and Customs of the Iews they could not without Horror have heard Christ when he gave them the Cup say This is my Blood The Prohibition of Blood was given in such severe Terms as that God would set his face against him that did eat blood Levit. 7.26 27. Levit. 17.14 and cut him off from among his people And this was so often repeated in the Books of Moses that besides the natural Horror which Humanity gives at the mention of drinking a Man's Blood it was a special Part of their Religion to make no use of Blood yet after all this the Disciples were not startled at it Which shews that they must have understood it in such a way as was agreeable to the Law and Customs of their Country and since St. Luke and St. Paul report the Words that our Saviour said when he gave it differently from what is reported by St. Matthew and St. Mark it is most probable that he spake both the one and the other that he first said This is my Blood and then as a clearer Explanation of it he said This cup is the New Testament in my Blood The one being a more easy Expression and in a style to which the Iews had been more accustomed They knew that the Blood of the Lamb was sprinkled and by their so doing they entred into a Covenant with God And tho' the Blood was never to be sprinkled after the first Passover yet it was to be poured out before the Lord in remembrance of that sprinkling in Egypt In remembrance of that deliverance they drank of the Cup of Blessing and Salvation and rejoiced before the Lord. So that they could not understand our Saviour otherwise than that the Cup so blessed was to be to them the Assurance of a New Testament or Covenant which was to be established by the Blood of Christ and which was to be shed In lieu of which they were to drink this cup of Blessing and Praise According to their Customs and Phrases the Disciples could understand our Saviour's Words in this Sense and in no other So that if he had intended that they should have understood him otherwise he must have expressed himself in another Manner And must have enlarged upon it to have corrected those Notions into which it was otherwise most Natural for Iews to have fallen Here is also to be remembred that which was formerly observed upon the word Broken that if the Words are to be expounded literally then if the Cup is literally the Blood of Christ it must be his Blood shed poured out of his Veins and separated from his Body And if it is
him to deliver his Will to the Iewish Nation The Relation given of those Miracles represents them to be such in themselves and to have been acted so publickly that it cannot be pretended they were Tricks or that some bold Asserters gained a Credit to them by affirming them They were so publickly transacted that the Relations given of them are either downright Fables or they were clear and uncontested Characters of a Prophet authorized of God Nor is the Relation of them made with any of those Arts that are almost necessary to Impostors The Iewish Nation is all along represented as froward and disobedient apt to murmur and rebel The Laws it contains as to the Political part are calculated to advance both Justice and Compassion to awaken Industry and yet to repress Avarice Liberty and Authority are duly tempered the moral part is pure and suitable to Human Nature though with some Imperfections and Tolerances which were connived at but yet regulated And for the Religious part Idolatry Magick and all Human Sacrifices were put away by it When we consider what remains are left us of the Idolatry of the Egyptians and what was afterward among the Greeks and Romans who were Polite and well constituted as to their Civil Laws and Rules and may be esteem'd the most refin'd Pieces of Heathenism we do find a Simplicity and Purity a Majesty and Gravity a Modesty with a Decencyin the Iewish Rituals to which the others can in no sort be compar'd In the Books of Moses no design for himself appears his Posterity were but in the Crowd Levites without any Character of Distinction and he spares neither himself nor his Brother when there was occasion to mention their Faults no more than he does the rest of his Countrymen It is to be further considered that the Laws and Policy appointed by Moses settled many Rules and Rites that must have perpetuated the Rememâ—rance of them The Land was to be divided by Lot and every Shaâ—e was to descend in an Inheritance The frequent Assemblies at Ierusalem on the Three great Festivals the Sabbaths the New Moons the Sabbatical Year and the great Jubilee the Law of the double Tythe the Sacrifices of so many different kinds the distinctions of Meats the Prohibition of eating Blood together with many other Particulars were all founded upon it Now let it be a little considered whether the Foundation of all this I mean the Five Books of Moses could be a Forgery or not If the Pentateuch was delivered by Moses himself to the Iews and received by them as the Rule both of their Religion and Policy then it is not possible to conceive but that the Recital of all that is contained from the Book of Exodus to the End of Deuteronomy was known by them to be true and this establishes the Credit of the whole But if this is not admitted then let it be considered in what time it can possibly be supposed that this Imposture could have appeared There is a continued Series of Books of their History that goes down to the Babylonish Captivity so if there was an Imposture of this sort set on foot in that time all that History must have been made upon it and an account must have been given of the discovery of those Books otherwise the Imposture must have been too weak to have gain'dCredit Whereas on the contrary thewholeThread of their History represents these Books to have been always amongst them The discovery made in the Reign of Iosias cannot be supposed to be of this sort since how much disorder soever the long and wicked Reign of Manasses might have brought them under and what havock soever might have been made of the Writings that were held Sacred among them yet it was impossible that a Series of Forged Laws and Histories could have been put upon them of which there was still a contiâ—ued Memory preserved among them and that they could be brought to believe that a Book and a Law full of so much History and of so many various and unusual Rites founded upon it had been held Sacred among them for many Ages if it was but a new Invention Therefore this is an extravagant Conceit So that the Book that was then found in the Temple was either the Original of the Law written by Moses's own hand 2 Chron. 34.14 for so the Words may be rendred or it may be understood of some of the last Chapters of Deuteronomy Ch. 26.16 to the End of Deut. which seem by the Tenor of them to have been at first a Book by themselves tho afterwards joined to the rest of Deuteronomy and in the Collection that Iosias was making these might be wanting at first and in these there are such severe Threatnings that it was no wonder if aHeart so tender as Iosias's Dâ—ut 18. 〈◊〉 36. to 〈◊〉 End was verymuch affected at the readingthem Upon the whole matter there is no Period in the whole History of the Iews to which any suspicion of such an Imposture can be fasten'd before the Babylonish Captivity So it must be laid either upon the timâ—s of Captivity or soon after their Return out of it Now not to observe that men in such Circumstances are seldom capable of things of that nature Can it be imagined that a Series of Books that run through many Ages could have been framed so particularly and yet so exactly that nothing in any concurrent History could ever be brought to disprove any part of it That such a thing could pass in so short a time upon a whole Nation while so many men remembred or might well remember what they had been before the Captivity if they had not all known that it was true is a most inconceivable thing These Books were so far from being disputed though we see their Neighbours the Samaritans were inclined enough to contest every thing with them that all acquiesced in them and in that second beginning of their being a State as it is opened in the Books of Esdras and Nehemiah and in Daniel and theThree Prophets of the second Temple all the other Books were received among them without dispute And their Law was in such high esteem that about Two hundredYears after that theKing of Egypt did with much Entreaty and at a vast Charge procure a Translation of it to be made in Greek The Iewish Nation as they live much within themselves where it is safe for them to profess their Religion so they have had the Divine Authority of their Books so deeply infused into them from Age to Age that now above Sixteen hundred Years though it is not possâ—ble for them to practise the main parts of their Religion and though they suffer much for professing it yet they do still adhere to it and practise as much of it as they can by the Law it self which ties the chief Performances of that Religion to one determinate Place This is a Firmness which has never yet appeared in any
Isa. 12.3 ye shall receive a new Doctrine with joy from some select Persons Since then the Figure of eating and drinking was used among the Iews for receiving and imbibing a Doctrine it was no wonder if our Saviour pursued it in a Discourse in which there are several hints given to shew us that it ought to be so understood It is further observable that our Saviour did frequently follow that common way of Instruction among the Eastern Nations by Figures that to us would seem strong and bold These were much used in those Parts to excite the Attention of the Hearers and they are not always to be severely expounded according to the full Extent that the words will bear The Parable of the unjust Judge of the unjust Steward of the ten Virgins of plucking out the right Eye and cutting off the right Hand or Foot and several others might be instanced Our Saviour in these considered the Genius of those to whom he spoke So that these Figures must be restrained only to that Particular for which he meant them and must not be stretched to every thing to which the Words may be carried We find our Saviour compares himself to a great many Things to a Vine a Door and a Way And therefore when the Scope of a Discourse does plainly run in a Figuâ—e we are not to go and descant on every Word of it much less may any pretend to say that some Parts of it are to be understood literally and some Parts figuratively For instance if that Chapter of St. Iohn is to be understood literally then Christ's Flesh and Blood must be the Nourishment of our Bodies so as to be meat indeed and that we shall never hunger any more and never die after we have eat of it If therefore all do confess that those Expressions are to be understood figuratively then we have the same reason to conclude that the whole is a Figure For it is as reasonable for us to make all of it a Figure as it is for them to make those Parts of it a Figure which they cannot conveniently expound in a literal Sense From all which it is abundantly clear that nothing can be drawn from that Discourse of our Saviour's to make it reasonable to believe that the words of the Institution of this Sacrament ought to be literally understood On the contrary our Saviour himself calls the Wine after those Words had been used by him the Fruit of the Vine which is as strict a Form of Speech as can well be imagined to make us understand that the Nature of the Wine was not altered And when St. Paul treats of it in those two Chapters in which all that is left us besides the History of the Institution concerning this Sacrament is to be found he calls it five times Bread and never once the Body of Christ. 1 Cor. 10.16 In one Place he calls it the Communion of the Body as the Cup is the Communion of the Blood of Christ. Which is rather a saying that it is in some sort and after a manner the Body and the Blood of Christ than that it is so strictly speaking If this Sacrament had been that mysterious and unconceivable Thing which it has been since believed to be we cannot imagine but that the Books of the New Testament the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles should have contained fuller Explanations of it and larger Instructions about it There is enough indeed said in them to support the plain and natural Sense that we give to this Institution and because no more is said and the design of it is plainly declared to be to remember Christ's death and to shew it forth till he come we reckon that by this natural Simplicity in which this Matter is delivered to us we are very much confirmed in that plain and easy Signification which we put upon our Saviour's words Plain things need not be insisted on But if the most sublime and wonderful Thing in the World seems to be delivered in Words that yet are capable of a lower and plainer Sense then unless there is a concurrence of other Circumstances to force us to that higher meaning of them we ought not to go into it for simple Things prove themselves Whereas the more extraordinary that any thing is it requires a fulness and evidence in the Proof proportioned to the uneasiness of conceiving or believing it We do therefore understand our Saviour's Institution thus that as he was to give his body to be broken and his blood to be shed for our Sins so he intended that this his Death and Suffering should be still commemorated by all such as look for remission of sins by it not only in their Thoughts and Devotions but in a visible Representation Which he appointed should be done in Symbols that should be both very plain and simple and yet very expressive of that which he intended should be remembred by them Bread is the plainest Food that the Body of Man can receive and Wine was the common nourishing Liquor of that Countrey So he made choice of these Materials and in them appointed a Representation and Remembrance to be made of his body broken and of his blood shed that is of his Death and Sufferings till his Second coming And he obliged his Followers to repeat this frequently In the doing of it according to his Institution they profess the Belief of his Death for the Remission of their Sins and that they look for his Second coming This does also import that as Bread and Wine are the simplest of bodily Nourishments â—o his Death is that which restores the Souls of those that do believe in him As Bread and Wine convey a vital Nourishment to the Body so the Sacrifice of his Death conveys somewhat to the Soul that is vital that fortifies and exalts it And as Water in Baptism is a natural Emblem of the Purity of the Christian Religion Bread and Wine in the Eucharist are the Emblems of somewhat that is derived to us that raises our Faculties and fortifies all our Powers St. PÃ ul does very plainly tell us that unworthy receivers that did neither examine nor discern themselves nor yet discern the Lord's Body were guilty of the body and blood of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.27 29. and did eat and drink their own damnation That is such as do receive it without truly believing the Christian Religion without a grateful acknowledgment of Christ's Death and Sufferings without feeling that they are walking suitably to this Religion that they profess and without that decency and charity which becomes so Holy an Action but that receive the Bread and Wine only as bare bodily Nourishments without considering that Christ has instituted them to be the Memorials of his Death such Persons are guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ That is they are guilty either of a Prophanation of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood or they do in a manner Crucify