I begin with the feeling of our miserie and a religious or godly sorrow for having sinned that is to say by considering by the breaking of Christs body which is proposed and intimated to vs in the breaking of bread the paine and torments which we haue deserved For my beloved Brethren it is for vs that Christs body hath been broken with cruell torments on the Crosse and therefore this sad wofull spectacle doth both shew and teach vs that in requitall thereof wee haue deserved to bee bruised and broken with torments for ever Christs sufferings and groanes vnder the burthen of Gods wrath is a pourtrait or mappe of that miserie wherein we all should haue perished for our sinnes Behold then O sinner the terrible indignation curse of God which violently was comming to alight and fall vpon thee Thou who art insensible of thy misery here behold and see thy condition in the estate of Iesus Christ on the Crosse See I say thy torments and misery and when thou seest this Bread in the Sacrament of his Supper broken say O Lord here I am who haue deserued to bee bruised broken with the rodde of thine anger It was I who had sinned and therfore merited to support and suffer thy fierce indignation from thence there must bee ingendred and borne in our hearts a holy and a religious sorrow for that wee haue bin the efficient and reall cause that the Sonne of God hath suffered all these vndeserved tortures afflictions Seest thou O Christian the body of Iesus Christ broken on the Crosse It is therefore requisite that thou breake thy heart with sorrow for that thy sinnes haue produced all this evill and caused all this calamitie Therefore behold the drops of blood trickling downe the face of Iesus Christ Thou who drinkest and suppest vp sinne as water loe thy sinnes are the sharpe thornes which haue pricked and pierced his head Thee to whom thy sinne is so sweet and delicious behold they are thy sinnes which haue beene the nayles and speare that haue transpierced thy blessed body Thou who esteemest thy sins to bee but some indifferent or triviall thing what deep passions of sorrow should thy heart and soule conceiue to haue beene the cause of the death of thy friend thy brother thy father or thy child by any action or accident of thine owne But how much more grief sorrow then oughtest thou hereto retaine feele at the remembrance of thy sins which haue caused thy Creator to be murdred and thy God to be crucified to death The II. Act of our hearts which ought to streame foorth and arise from that which the Lords blessed Supper exposeth and presenteth to our eyes is the faith and assurance of the remission of sinnes Thou sayest to thy selfe O Sinner I have offended God and broken and transgressed his Law therefore who shall ransome and redeeme mee from his furious wrath and indignation But be cheerefull and couragious for loe here is thy ransome which Iesus Christ brings and denounceth vnto thee in these words This is my Body which hath beene broken for thee This is my Blood that hath beene shed for thee and wilt thou therefore doubt when the only Sonne of God is hee who hath satisfied for thee and that it is not a silly man but the eternall himselfe who is both thy righteousnes and thy Redeemer say then with the Apostle who is hee that will condemne sith it is Christ that is dead dost thou doubt of Gods love where his owne Sonne the onely beloved of his Father is the propitiation for thy sinnes If thou propose to thy selfe thine owne merits or the sufferings of any other creatures or persons thou shouldest feare that God will not receive them for satisfaction because they are too base money and of a false and counterfeit mettall to be approved and received of God But wee must present him the body of his onely Sonne broken and his blood shed and then hee cannot but approve thereof as a full and valable satisfaction God heeretofore knew the blood of the Lambe vpon the postes of the doores when he sent his destroying Angell against Egypt and will he not then know the blood of his owne Sonne as of a Lambe without spot or blemish whereby you have besprinckled your consciences Be therefore bold and confident and say with the Apostle to the Hebrewes Hebr. 10.21,22 Seeing wee have a high Priest which is over the house of God let vs draw neere with a true heart in assurance of faith our hearts being pure from an evill conscience that so wee may obtaine mercy and find grace in due time And here againe O faithfull Christian two reasons of thy assurance and confidence drawen from this Sacrament The one is that as in Baptisme it is to thy selfe to thine owne body that the water is applyed that thou mayest thereby know that thou art washt in the blood of Iesus Christ so in this Sacrament of his blessed Supper it is to thee that hee gives his body yea it is into thine owne hands which hee commits and puts this Sacrament to assure thee that it is onely to thee which hee gives himselfe and not to others whom thou mayest hold and esteeme to be better then thy selfe In which regard for that this Sacrament is given to thee and put into thine owne hands it is because thou must esteeme and beleeue that Christs body is thine as a Ransome which is given into thy hands to present vnto God wherefore doubt not but it properly belongs and appertaines vnto thee for otherwise thou doest annull and annihilate the Sacrament which Christ giues thee and thou doubtest that he be true in giving it to thee The other reason is That although there hee a great distance betwixt Iesus Christ vs as betwixt the Saint of Saints and poore and miserable sinners neverthelesse we learne by this Sacramēt that wee are incorporated with Christ and into Christ and that wee become his members his blood and his bone as flesh which wee eate becomes our blood and bone But to the members and body rightly belongs the power of the Head which cannot bee denyed her Thou mayest then inferre O Christian that the righteousnesse of Iesus Christ is thine owne and that it properly belongs and appertaines to thee The third Act of our hearts in the participation of this Sacrament is the sanctifying of our soules by the loue of God and the denying and renouncing of our selues the which is performed by three things that are seene appeare in this Sacrament that is to say I. The great Charitie and loue of God towards vs. II. The foulenes and odiousnes of sinne III. The example of our owne dutie I say first The great charitie loue of God For my brethren should not this infinite love of God in exposing and delivering vp his onely begotten Son to death for vs replenish inspire and fill vs with a reciprocall love
our soules in the participation and receiving thereof But the excellencie of this Sacrament is fully comprised and containd in the very words wereby our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ doth institute it to vs which were a briefe declaration of his owne vse and custome So that as this Sacrament is a short abridgement and epitome of the mysterie of our redemption so the words which Iesus Christ hath pronounced therin containe the most excellent matter and the most necessary meditations of faith and to give but a word for all is the very true Epitome and Compendium of all that which Faith ought to contemplate and behold in Iesus Christ Wherefore Since by the Grace of God wee are heere this day assembled to prepare and dispose our selues for the celebration of the Lords holy Supper Wee have now purposely chosen for our text and meditation the words of Iesus Christ which hee vsed in that Supper not to stay or make you listen to points of Controversie which at the first hearing of the text you may conceive or imagine which is not so requisite for this time and occasion wherein wee have more cause to dispute and reason to fight against the obduratnesse of our owne hearts against our impenitency diffidencie presumption and the like vices and sinnes then against our aduersaries But to represent and shew you what meditations and functions the words of Iesus Christ should produce and propagate in our soules when wee present our selues to his holy Table to receive this Sacrament And although as wee have formerly sayd It be not now my intent or meaning to treat of Controversies yet notwithstanding wee are obliged to deduce and give you the occasion and reason of these words and to shew the cleare and pure sense thereof thereby to cause to slide into your hearts and to distill into your soules the holy doctrine and Instructions which they containe To which end and purpose by Gods assistance we will especially treat insist on three mayne points and generall heads 1. The Reason and Sense of these words 2. The Meditations which these words administer and furnish vs with 3. The Dutie and Functions whereunto they oblige vs. I. Point or Generall Head The words are Take eat this is my body which is broken for you Where first we must know why it was that Iesus Christ spake of eating and why hee proposed this Sacrament vnder the words of Meate and Drinke It is not sufficient to alleadge that Iesus Christ did this occasionally that is to say because hee was at Table as by occasion he found himselfe neer a well and demaunding water to drinke of the Samaritane woman that the spake to her of the grace efficacy of the holy Ghost vnder the names of water and drinke This answere sufficeth when wee demaund why Iesus Christ speaking to the troopes and multitude of people before hee instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist proposed himselfe as bread descended from Heaven and his flesh as meat which gave everlasting and eternall life For it is cleare and apparant that Iesus Christ spake so by occasion answering those troopes and multitudes which asked him for bread and who followed him for earthly meate and for this occasion hee therefore assumed the names of those things to the which hee saw them affected But here where it concernes and depends of the Institution of the Sacrament the answere drawen and derived from the occasion to bee at Table is not sufficient For we may demaund againe why Iesus Christ placed and sate himselfe at Table to institute and celebrate this Sacrament For answere whereof they alleadge and propose three reasons I That Iesus Christ having already instituted Baptisme vnder the similitude of a Birth It was likewise very fit and expedient that hee should institute his holy Supper vnder the similitude of nutriment or nourishment For if the beginning of Grace and of spirituall life had bin propos'd in the first Sacrament by a Birth in comparison of a temporall life It was very requisite and reasonable that the aduancement and progresse of Grace should by the same comparison be proposed by a nourishment in the second Sacrament As then Iesus Christ had in Baptisme given water which is the principall of the generation of corporall things to bee a figure of the Holy Ghost which is the principall and efficient cause of the regeneration of our soules So he instituted the Sacrament of his blessed Supper by those things from whēce we have and receiue our temporall nourishment to wit Bread and Wine thereby to represent vnto vs the life which our soules receiue of his body and blood offered on the Crosse from whence it followes that the word of eating is no more meant or taken of the letter in this Sacrament then that of Birth in the Sacrament of Baptisme and that hee who thinkes or pretends to nourish himself of Iesus Christ by his bodily mouth commits the same errour which Nicodemus did who because Christ spake to him of being borne againe Iohn 3.4 Asked if man when hee were growen old could reenter into his mothers belly and be borne anew II. Reason That our vnion with Iesus Christ being the foundation of the application which is made and given vs by the merits of Christ For the death and passion of Iesus Christ is not applyed or given but to those who are one and the same body with him according as it is sayd that Iesus Christ is the Saviour of his body It is expedient that this vnion should bee represented vnto vs But it cannot more perfectly or lively be represented or figured to vs then by the vnion of meates with our body Sith there is nothing which nature doth more strictly or efficably vnite to our bodies then meates by our eating thereof As then by eating meats doe become our owne proper flesh and bones so wee are taught that by the faith and vertue of Christs holy Spirit wee become one with Iesus Christ and are made flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone And againe that as by the vnion of meates we receiue our temporall life so by our vnion with Iesus Christ wee receiue our spirituall and eternall life III Reason That Iesus Christ would institute his holy Supper at the Sacrament of Easter in which Sacrament the Iewes were accustomed to eat a Lambe And indeed Iesus Christ was at the table for the celebration of Easter But at the Sacrament or Passeouer of Easter two things were done and performed first there was a Lambe eaten and after as for a banquet and this is verified and recited by those who have written the Iewes Liturgie the Father of the family tooke bread to wit vnleavened bread which was held course and poore bread and in giving it to every one of his family which were sitting at Table said Take eat this is the bread of misery which our fathers have eaten in Egypt and taking the Cup blessed it with a solemne
but also to expose himselfe to death in this forme and shape of a Seruant yea to the shamefull death of the Crosse which is the very meditation of the Apostle to the Philippians Philip. 2.6,7,8 Iesus Christ being in the forme of God thought it no robberie to make himselfe equall to God But he made himselfe of no Reputation and tooke on him the forme of a Seruant and was made like vnto man and found in the shape of a man who humbled himselfe and became came obedient to death yea to the death of the Crosse And the same Apostle ravished in this meditation saith in another place Rom. 8.32 Who spared not his owne Sonne for vs but gaue him for vs all to death Hee saith not simply that he hath given him but that he hath not spared him as if he should have said hee made no difficulty to expose him for vs to extreame paine and torments A degree of Charity which the Angels themselues cannot sufficiently comprehēd and therefore the Apostle postle requireth in vs the Spirit of wisedome and revelation to wit that the eyes of our vnderstanding bee so illuminated Ephes 3.13 that wee may know what is the length breadth height and depth of this love of God towards vs. In a word vpon this obiect let vs briefly collect and consider against our adversaries of the Church of Rome That in this holy Supper and Communion the body of Iesus Christ is not simply proposed as vnderstanding it to bee a body nor the blood as taking it for blood but the body as vnderstanding it to be broken and the blood as taking it to bee spilt Because in that consisteth all the merit of our salvation and all the cause of our life From whence it followes That the action wherewith wee receiue the body and blood of Christ cannot choose but bee spirituall to wit an action of the soule and no way of the body because the bodie cannot bee taken as vnderstood broken nor the blood as meant shed except by Faith For those forepast and betided things on the crosse that is to say the breaking of the body and the effusion of blood cannot bee giuen or presented to the soule but by the meditation of Faith The third obiect of our Meditation is the fruit and benefit of this obligation which were received by Christs body and blood in these words Broken for you Shed for many for the remission of sinnes And heere two considerations againe present them to vs I. Of the persons for whome Iesus Christ is offered II. The profit and benefit which it brings them Of the persons vnderstanding that he offereth himselfe for wretched and sinfull creatures who in regard of his excellent being are nothing but dust and ashes and as it were formed but yesterday but which is more for creatures infected with sinne guilty of rebellion against him and professed enemies of his divine maiestie both in their thoughts and wicked workes and actions which the consideration of the Apostle to the Colossians thus expresseth Col. 1.21 You which in times past were strangers and enemies because your minds were set in evill workes he now also hath reconciled in that body of his flesh to make you holy and vnblameable and without fault in his sight And also writing to the Romans saith Rom. 5.6,7,8 For Christ when we were yet of no strength at his time dyed for the vngodly adding againe farther doutblesse one will scarse die for a righteous man but yet for a good man but God setteth out his love to vs seeing that whiles we were yet Sinners Christ died for The other consideration proceeds from the profit and benefit which it brings vs and Iesus Christ defines it whē he saith that it is for the remission of sins And this is the profit and benefit which to expresse the Prophets aleage that our sinnes have beene throwen into the bottome of the Sea and that God remembreth them no more and that as farre distant as the East is from the West so farre from him the Lord hath cast away our sinnes and the figures vnder the Law to wit that of the Goat Hazazel teaching that our sinnes have beene caried into a desert and vnhabitable Countrey never to returne more in Gods sight and Presence Which beleeving wee see all evils as they are paines and torments to have lost their being in the faithfull righteous man yea and that death it selfe is swollen vp in victory and the Law with his curses which were as a contrary obligation is quite rased out defaced by the blood of the Sonne of God cleare abolished cancelled and fastened to his Crosse as the Apostle teacheth to the Colosians Col. 2.14 Likewise Sathan who performed nothing but as the Executioner of Gods iustice against Sinners by this alone death found all his power to be vanquished and overthrowen as the Apostle sheweth vs in the same Chapter of the same Epistle to the Colossians in these words Col. 2.15 Christ hath spoyled the Principalities and Powers and hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them on the Crosse But besides that our enemies and afflictions are taken away and defaced by this oblation of Iesus Christ so likewise all sorts of profits and benefits are put in place thereof as many promses as there are they are so many Yeas and Amens in Christ Iesus life is given which is a new spirituall and divine life by regeneration and the new heavenly Sanctuary is opened vnto vs Heb. 10.19 for there wee have leave and liberty to enter by the blood of Christ and therefore it is that the earthly vaile of the Templerent in peeces at his death The Kingdome of God is given vnto vs and wee are made children and heires to possesse and enioy all the goods and treasures of God as the Apostle saith Gal. 4.6,7 That Iesus Christ having beene made subiect vnder the Law hath redeemed vs from the Law to the end that wee should receive the adoption of children and that if wee are children wee are also heires of God by Christ Iohn 17.11 yea God himselfe is given to vs in his Sonne to the end that wee be in him and he in vs 1. Cor. 1. and likewise that one day he be all things in all III. Poynt or generall Head These are the Meditations which the words of Iesus Christ in his Supper requireth of vs And now come wee to see the acts functions which these Meditations ought to produce in our hearts the which likewise result and descend from these words of Iesus Christ These actes and functions are fiue to wit I. The feeling of our misery and a godly sorrow for having sinned II. The beliefe and assurance of the remission of our sinnes III. The sanctification of the soule and particularly of Loue and Charitie towards our neighbour IIII. Our consolation and patience in afflictions V. Our hope of heavenly felicitie
the blood of God according as the Apostle sayth in the Actes Actes 20.28 That God hath purchased the Church by his blood And behold my brethren to what a degree of glory of the Gospell caries you in the New Testament above his faithfull Seruants of the old wherefore here revoke to your mind and memory these passages of Pauls Epistle to the Galathians Gal. 4.4,5 God sent foorth his Sonne made of a Woman and made vnder the Law And writing to the Romanes againe likewise said Rom. 8.3 God sending his owne Sonne in the Similitude of sinfull flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh And before were passe to the Meditation of the ensuing words I pray obserue heere againe with mee in these This is my Body the cleare refutation of all which Superstition and humane Inuentions propose of the intercession and meditation of Saints and of their suffering for the expiation of the â—emporall paine of our sinnes which pretended sufferings and satisfactions are partly the treasure whereof the Bishop of Rome drawes his Indulgences and Pardons which makes that the Saints are a peece and part of our Sacrifice But Iesus Christ hath designed it and the price of our deliverance in these words This is my Body for hee said not This is a part of my Body and part of the bodyes of Saints who shall suffer for you If our Aduersaries consider that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper presenteth and exposeth to our eyes our Price and Ransome as some of the Ancients for that cause and reason tearme the Sacrament our Price and if they likewise consider that this Sacrament proposeth not to vs the bodies of men but the body of Christ they shall find that there is no other price for our Ransome and Redemption but this body And although these people which say That this Sacrament of the Lords Supper is the Abridgement of the mysteries of the Gospell doe they accuse it of Imperfection not to have proposed or given it all our Price and Ransome And those who daily make and create the body of Christ and who pretend daily to offer him wherefore doe they not content themselues But heer let them vnderstand and hearken to the thundring words of the Apostle writing to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1.13 Is Christ divided hath Paul beene crucified for you I affirme that the Bread of this holy Supper sheweth vs also a Communion of the faithfull with Iesus Christ for as the same Apostle writes againe to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 10.17 Wee who are many are one Bread and one Body But it is a Communion with Iesus Christ To receive and not To give To receive I say of Iesus Christ the expiation and remission of our sinnes and not to give or conferre it to other mens merits A Communion to bee freed bought and vivified or quickned by him and not to free buy and vivifie with him The second Obiect of our Meditation is the Oblation of this body in these words Which is broken This is my Blood which is shed In the words This is my body you have seene Christ Iesus made capable to be this Sacrifice but in these latter words you see him actually to be a Sacrifice and here is given you to meditate and contemplate first the Immolation and then the Oblation of the Sacrifice The Sacrifice is a soveraigne honour given and yeelded to God which consists in an extreame vnmaking and dissolution of the Creature which dissolution and vnmaking is not nor cannot be extreame except by the destroying of the thing which is offered wherefore all things heretofore which were offered vp in Sacrifice to God were first to be destroyed For it is one thing to bee offered simply and another thing to be offered vp in Sacrifice As for example The Sacrificators the Levites and the first borne of Israel were offered vp to God But how not offered vp in Sacrifice because they still remained living All things then offered in Sacrifice ought firs to be destroyed if they were liquid or wet things without life they were to bee shed If solide things without life they were to be burnt Or if living things they were to bee killed and for witnesse and Testimony of a true death there must needs bee an effusion of the Beasts blood because blood being the seat of the Beasts life the separation of blood from the flesh shewed and figured the separation of life from the body and consequently an entire death And in the expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifices this was the more requisite and needfull for that these Sacrifices were satisfactions for typicall and carnall sinne But the absolute satisfaction and expiation for sinne must consist in the death and destruction of the thing offered because the Apostle peremptorily and truely tels vs Rom. 6.33 That the wages of Sinne is death from whence you first see wherefore it was that of necessity Christ must die For the wages of Sinne being death it must needs follow that he who placed himselfe an Vndertaker for Sinners must vndergoe the punishment ordained for Sinne Secondly from hence you likewise see wherefore it was that the blood of Christ was shed in his death and separated from his body to wit thereby to expresse and shew the truth of the death and expiation of Sinne as the Apostle to the Hebrewes proves by legall figures that Iesus Christ must die and shed his blood in Sacrifice because saith hee Heb. 9.22 That according to the Law all things are purged and purified by blood and without the effusion of blood there is no remission So Iesus Christ by shedding his blood hath accomplished the figures of the Law and given vs this Consolation that the Ransome and expiation of our sinnes is entire and perfect And hence as it were in passing you learne two things I. That it is impossible that there is any propitiatory Sacrifice without blood and consequently impossible that the Masse wherein there is neither death nor effusion of blood be a propitiatory Sacrifice for sinnes as our Aduersaries call it II In the Lords Supper It was needfull that the body and blood of Iesus Christ was represented to vs distinctly and severally for that there were two signes to wit The Bread broken and the Wine filld out which was the Reason why Iesus Christ did not only say This is my Body broken but also takes the Cup and said This is my blood which is shed Because without effusion of blood there could be no remission of sinne From whence it followes That the taking and cutting away of the Cup in the Lords Supper which shewes the blood of Christ to bee separated from his body takes away from the mysterie of that sacred Supper it 's plenitude power perfection depriving it of the signe of the Condition requisite for the expiation of sinnes to wit the effusion of blood But this is told you but cursorily and as it were in passing Now the
on earth in his Sacrament gives vs the first tastes and relishes because the peace and ioy of conscience and the refreshing and replenishing of the soule in God is a true beginning and a shining ray of the delights and felicities of heaven wherfore faithfull Christian reioyce thou at these beginnings in hope of that happy heavenly accoÌ„plishment which is promised thee and through the eyes of thy faith behold cheerefully and ioyfully the tree of eternall life which is in the Paradice of God and the hidden Manna the bread of Angels which thy Lord and Saviour prepares for thee and behold the fulnesse and satiety which is prepared for thee in the sacred and glorious face of God whereof David in the times of the thickest and obscurest shaddowes said Psal 16.11 In thy presence O Lord is fulnesse of ioy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore And againe in another place Psal 65.4 O how blessed is hee whom thou choosest and causest to come vnto thee he shall dwell in thy courts and shall bee satisfied with the pleasures of thine house and of thine holy Temple and likewise in another Psal 36.8 They shall bee satisfied with the fatnesse of thine house and thou shalt give them drinke out of the River of thy pleasures Contemne therefore O Christian all earthly pleasures in Comparison of those heavenly delights which passe all vnderstanding because by this blessed Sacrament thou art inuited and called to the wedding banquet of the Lambe where thou halt sit downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob and where thou shalt be satisfied and ravished with God And these my beloâ—ed brethren are the meditations and functions which God requires of vs condignely and worthily to receiue the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to entertaine vs religiously piously in the expectaÌ„ce of his comming as this Sacrament was purposly instituted to declare and foretell vs his death and the inestimable benefits which issue and proceed thereof vnto vs vntill he come Let vs therefore examine and prooue our selues if wee are of this holy dispositioÌ„ for feare lest eating this Bread or drinking this Wine vnworthily wee thereby make our selues guiltie of the Lords body and blood and consequently eat and drinke our owne damnation And if wee find not this holy sanctified disposition in our hearts let vs then effectually endeavor to produce enkindle it in vs by the often reading and meditating of the sacred Bible the divine Oracles and written Word of God as also by frequent incessant Prayer For this Word of God I say is the Looking glasse wherin opeÌ„ly beholding the glorie of the Lord face to face 1. Cor. 3.18 wee are transformed and changed into the same Image from glory to glory as saith the Apostle I say likewise by Prayer because the Lord most benignly and graciously conferres and giues wisdome to all those who seeke it of him and hath promised his holy spirit to all those who with humble contrit hearts demand it of him And let vs possesse and retain this consolation amidst the defects and imperfections which we feele in our hearts that if we are discontented or sorrowfull if we are afflicted heavie laden that yet notwithstanding Christ wil not reiect vs because he saith Come vnto me all yee that are heavie laden Or if we hunger thirst after righteousnesse for this hunger and thirst is a desire of Gods grace proceeding from a liuely and sensible feeling of our sinnes he promiseth to replenish and satisfie vs. May it therefore please thee O our blessed Lord and Saviour to call vs to this sacred Banquet to send vs thy holy Spirit and giue decent and religious dispositions and because hee now knockes at the doore of our hearts by his holy Word giue vs grace that we may open it vnto him in the obedience of our faith to the end Revel 3. that hee may sup with vs and we with him and that he himselfe may be both our Hoast and our Banquet Amen A Prayer to prepare our selues before we receiue the holy Supper of the Lord. O God how shall I present my selfe before thee being a wretched creature defiled polluted with sin If the Angels who haue never sinned overvaile and cover their faces wheÌ„ they appeare before thy holinesse how much greater ought my astonishment and confusion bee who am guiltie of so many foule faults transgressions and likewise my griefe and sorrow sith thy wrath reveales it self from heaven against sin and that on every side we see the effects therof Nature is afflicted and troubled and our bodies are already possessed of diseases and death and therfore what greater punishment may our soules attend and expect and if in this life thy wrath and indignation be thus manifested what will it be when we shal appeare before thy Tribunal and that thou pronounce a sharp and heavie sentence against vs but O Lord in this feareful amazement here ariseth vp to vs newes of grace and matter of comfort and consolation Thou hast had compassion of mankind thou hast sent thine only Son here below to reconcile and expiate our sinnes the earth had nothing for the saluation of man the Angels who have no part of righteousnesse or of life but for themselues could not resist thine anger but in stooping and sincking downe vnder the burthen therof But O Lord thou hast opened thine owne bosome from wheÌ„ce alone could come saluation and from it thou hast sent thine only Sonne to cloth himselfe with our nature and to suffer therein the punishment due to our sinnes and fully to satisfie thy Iustice for all our transgressions so that we haue redemptioÌ„ by his blood to wit remission of sins according to the riches and treasure of thy mercy and we heare this thy Son to pronounce these sweet pleasing words in his Gospel Come to me all ye that are oppressed and heauy laden and I will refresh and comfort you Overloaden then as I am with the heavie burthen of my sinnes I come to discharge disburthen them on thy crosse because he hath borne our sinnes in his body on the wood therof And wherfore should not I fully beleeue it sith this soveraigne loue immense goodnes was worthy of thee and that not onely by thy Testament but also by this Sacrament of thy blessed Supper thou givest mee this redemption and placest it as it were before mine eyes For wherfore serveth this great Sacrament but to represent to my soule by faith this great sacrifice of Christs body which he hath given presented thee on the Crosse So because I see my ransome and redemption have I not therefore iust cause O my God to reioyce and comfort my self in thee that ransome I say which thine owne selfe hast freely given me A divine ransom of a most inestimable price and value because it is the body of thine only begotten Son true God together with thee