from that hour to set forward towards our heavenly countrey This is that hard Doctrine of the Gospel This makes men neglect refUse Jesus Christ becaUse they cannot part with sinne they will not resolve to quit their former course as he that went away sorrowfull for he had great possessions So we would fain be saved but go away sorrowfull for we have powerfull pleasing and profitable lusts And as it may allude to our Supper Let it teach us to come to the Table of the Lord with staves in our hand and our loyns girded up as men resolving to march and begin a new and holy life Henceforth not to serve sin Rom. 6. 6. But of this I spake before 6. In their Passeover they must rost and eat a whole Lamb and nothing of it must remain till the morning If any did remain it must be burnt with fire Exod. 11. 9 10. the flesh must be eaten not a bone broken Numb 9. 12. This shews that Christ is all meat there is no offal in him there is variety of nourishment for all our Uses righteousness and peace and comfort and contentment to fill our capacities relieve temptations pardon and purge away our sins but we must not divide but take him whole his merit and Spirit his salvation and Soveraignty Christ our Way our Truth our Life What an unhappy Doctrine is that of the Papists that takes the bloud from us and will not let the people drink It is as if they should not allow our Passeover to be a whole Lamb and as unhappy they that do not only rent his coat but break his bones by depraving the fundamentals of Gospel-Doctrine and tearing the Creed Article from Article and nothing left untill the morning tels us That in the morning-light of the Gospel all those shadows should be abolisht and disclaimed or as Rivet saith That Sacraments are not Sacraments but in their Use and while they are Used as the bread and wine after the Use are no Sacraments as a mear stone is a boundary in it's place remove it and it is lapis not limes 7. No uncircumcised person might eat the Passeover nor no unclean person that was under an uncleanness Exod. 12. 44 48. Numb 9. 7. where the instance is of some unclean by the dead but it extendeth to other uncleanness leprous or menstruous c. Joseph de bello lib. 7. cap. 17. and yet there was provision made for the unclean that they might keep the Passeover in the second moneth as they did in Hezekiah his Passeover 2 Chron. 30. 13. but for the uncircumcised there was no provision and this sets forth to us two sorts of men that are uncapable of worthy coming to the Lords Supper 1. The uncircumcised that are strangers and foreiners Two sorts uncapable of the Lords Supper to the Church and not initiated by the first Sacrament of Baptism no person of what condition soever that is unbaptized can come to the Supper for he is not entred and admitted into Church-fellowship or Communion by the first Sacrament He is not one of the hoUse or of the fraternity where the Lamb is eaten and out of the hoUse the Passeover must not be carried they that are out of the Church have no right to the priviledges of the Church as they that are no freemen have not the priviledge of the City It was never known in the old Church that an uncircumcised person nor in the Gospel-Church that an unbaptized did partake of either of the Suppers theirs or ours for both of them are second Sacraments not firsts the way to the Table hath ever been by the Font or Laver of washing Of this more hereafter 2. The domesticks that are of the hoUse that are Almost one and twenty hundred thousand all pure Joseph cap. 17. lib. 7. de bello Judaic circumcised Israelites yet if they be at the time of the Passeover unclean they may not eat it was a case came into Question thus some were unclean put the case to Moses he respited the decision till he had asked of the Lord and the Lord adjudged it that he should be put off to the Passeover of the second moneth and this tels us by way of allusion that a member of the Church baptized yea a true believer may be unfit at some particular time to come to the Lords Table and may eat and drink unworthily Were not the Corinthians such men and in such a case 1 Cor. 11 Were they not punisht for their unworthy coming and yet doubtless some of them godly and all professed Christians But of this more also § 10 8. There were in the first Passeover in Aegypt Used and commanded by express word certain rituals or occasionals which as Jewish Writers and practice shews were omitted and not Used in after-times As 1. The eating in dispersed hoUses afterward in Jerusalem only 2. The taking up the Lamb four dayes before which we reade not of afterward 3. The striking of the door-posts with the bloud 4. The not going out of the hoUse that night which in after-times Christ and his Disciples did 5. The eating it in travelling posture in procinctu with staves c. which we finde our Saviour and reade that the Jews did in another posture of discumbency a lying on beds c. These or some of these were occasional at the first and the occasion ceasing custom had ruled it otherwise without offence for in our Supper the Lord celebrated and instituted it at night in or at the end of the paschal and common supper 2. In unlevened bread 3. Late at night 4. In a gesture of discumbency a leaning or lying posture Joh. 3. 13. 5. In a chamber of a private hoUse 6. Without presence of any woman 7. Consecrating a blessing the bread and See Evang. for so Used in Passeover the Cup severally and apart 8. Singing the hymne at the close of all as was usual c. And these or many of these were occasional circumstances by Reason of the custom Rite of the paschal Supper or the particular exigency at that time And what then Do they oblige to a hairs breadth all after-ages Do they that impose any one of these themselves hold to all of them Shall we be supercilious and superstitious in Observing all occasional or local customs Why do we not appear in sackcloth at our Fasts Where is that osculum pacis As the Apostle said about the 1 Cor. 11. 16. length of hair so I say If any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome nor the Churches of God If Christ had celebrated the Supper with his loyns girt and staff in hand had we been bound to it and yet we must not raffle this thred too far and under colour of an occasionall circumstance change or mutilate the real substance as the Papist that takes away the Cup which Christ blest and breaks not the Bread as he did and of a Sacrament makes a
that they were discommended that hold to the Legall service 2. Heathens and Infidels are excluded from this Table becaUse they are extraneous and without so they are called 1 Cor. 5. 12. What have I to do to judge or censure them that are without they are without the gates of the Church not obnoxious to the Government nor allowed the priviledges of it and they that are without the gate cannot be admitted to the Table untill they come in and be members of the family 3. All unbaptized persons are excepted by the order of our Sacraments whereof Baptism is first for insition and implantation into the Body of Christ and the Lords Table for further coalition and growth this order is confirmed by the Use or business of the Sacraments the one being of Regeneration and so first the other of Communion and so the second See 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one spirit are we baptized into one Body and have been all made to drink into one spirit first baptized and then made to drink which order the Church of Christ hath held from the beginning as it 's said by Justin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. After the new Convert is thus washed we bring him to our meetings where the Eucharist is 4. Those that are under a present incapacity of performing such antecedaneous acts of preparation or which are to be exercised in the act of communicating provided that this incapacity be visible as I may say or manifest unto us as in infants ideots stupid ignorants bruits in the shape of men who though baptized yet are not capable of discerning the Lords Body or of examining themselves who seem to be excepted ver 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat and drink And so I know a mad man may have lucid intervals and a poor ignorant soul may be brought to know the letters and spell the first syllables of Christianity against either of which I would not shut the door but if the ignorant cannot be gotten beyond sottishness and stupidity nor got out of his Obstinacy in blindness I should be very unwilling to let him runne blinofold down the precipice or leave the door open for him to fall into condemnation not that I envy him a benefit but pity his downfall which I ought to hinder or at least not to help forward and I may say of such an one as the Apostle of the Law Rom. 7. 13. Shall that which is good be made death unto him God forbid Especially considering that the Apostle having said Let a man examine himself and so let him eat doth in the next words come on again ver 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body As for infants though the Churches of ancient time admitted them after Baptism to partake of the P Martyr in Musculus de caena Lords Supper for some hundreds of years and one or two of our Reforming Divines speak somewhat favourably of it yet the ground they went upon Joh. 6. 53. that otherwise they had not salvation is disclaimed by all both becaUse that Chapter speaks nothing of Sacramentall or Symbolicall eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood and also was delivered by Christ a year or two before this Sacrament was born into the world and becaUse there is so much activity and exercise required in a Communicant as viz. to remember the Lords death to shew it forth to discern the Lords body to examine ones self to judge ones self therefore is that ancient practise Obsolete and as by tacite consent deserted and in room thereof we admit now not by their years for a man of threescore may be a childe in understanding and a childe in years may be a man but by their discretion and knowledge in the mystery of Christ and if the Parents or Pastors care the blossoming of grace and pregnancy in the childe were answerable to my desires I should as I am for great reasons be for eatly admissions of them as namely that the benefit and refreshing of this Ordinance might curb the over-growth of the sins and lusts of youth and help forward the growth of their graces to an early maturity Those that are professed Christians baptized-Church-members whether they live in open practice or fall under the guilt of some gross and scandalous sinne are for that time as they be impenitent to be secluded from or not admitted unto this Communion and this is an adjudged case in Scripture 1 Cor 5. where one for terrible incest notoriously manifest detested by very Heathens remained in the Communion of the Church through neglect of their duty which the Apostle reproves and having shown what power they had of judging such as were within members of their Church enjoyns them to purge out the leaven and to cast out from themselves that wicked person and least any perverse gainsayer should restrain this power to this one sin the Apostle saith ver 11. If any that is called a brother be a fornicatour a covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or extortioner the Church hath power to judge them that are within But what is this to the Sacrament enough verily for he that is cast out of the hoUse is certainly cast out from the houshold table and the abstention from Communion so much named in Cyprian or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or seclusion Forbes 631. mentioned in the Canons and whatsoever word is Used for this casting one out of church-Church-communion here if any where it operates and works in forbidding the Use of the Table where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Church society and communion is as for instance Divorce though it extend further yet signifies nothing at all is no Divorce if not a thoro or mensa from bed or board so this restention is nothing it works nothing I speak not of a private avoidance of familiarity with wicked persons which lies on private persons if not to this seclusion from the Table I shall not further urge the example of the old Testament which debarres the uncircumcised and the unclean for the time from the Passeover and I deny not that under that worldly Sanctuary and those carnall Ordinances as they are called Heb. 9. 1 10. Legall uncleanness might debarre when spirituall and morall did not as now morall filthiness may when legall uncleanness is not for that uncleanness under the Law had a spirituall signification and though it was not alwaies sinne yet it signified morall pollution as the leaven which was held Hag. 2. 13. execrable and must be cast out at the Passeover is spiritually applied to another meaning by the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. Purge out the old leaven ver 7. for Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us the old leaven that is the wicked and incestuous person Beza Slater alii out of your society and malice and wickedness out of your lives ver 8. and
odium and terrour of the former point This settles and quiets all mistakes of them For God is not the Authour of confusion but of order and peace in all the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14. 33. Let all things be done in order ver 40. And therefore the Apostle when he had enjoyned Timothy To rebuke them that sinne before all that others may fear 1 Tim. 5. 10. doth in the next words lay a serious charge upon him To Observe these things without preferring one before another and to do nothing by partiality Would you call that a well-govern'd City a well-order'd hoUse or rather a Cycleps den where every one may cast out another and he himself as the Rabbies in the latter end of the Jewish State ridiculously excommunicated one the other As promiscuous accesse is not to be allowed so neither promiscuous denial As one may intrude and usurp the Lords Supper rashly so he may be as rashly forbidden As there is an ignorant and scandalous rushing in so there is an ignorant and scandalous thrusting out The door may be open'd and shut both errante clave If I say that a gangren'd leg or arm may and must sometimes be cut off Doth it follow that for every sore before healing plaisters be Used we must runne to the Knife or Axe Or if I say a robber or murderer may be put to death must I therefore have him to the next tree without further trial or judgement The case is plain but particularly handled thus 1. It cannot be denied to a repentant sinner one that doth renew his purpose of amendment and after his fall with Peter bewails it bitterly whatsoever his sins have been for which he hath been punisht or censured Repentance doth dissolve the bands and pull away the barre from the door repentance prevents the punishment I le cast them into great tribulation except they repent as it prevents so it restores a man as Ezek. 18. 30. Repent so iniquity shall not be your ruine This was the Novatian rigour and errour they would not allow lapsed Christians that had fallen into sinne the benefit of repentance and restoring to the holy Table but leave them to Gods mercy for to the peace and communion of the Church they must not return But the Orthodox Churches did allow repentance to be medicinal Yea the very Church-censures were not intended to be mortal but to be medicinal viz. that sinne might be destroyed but the soul saved 1 Cor. 5. 5. and here is a difference between civil sentences of death and Church-censures If a man be condemned to die for felony his repentance doth not acquit or restore him from the sentence of death but it restores a man to his Church-priviledge that had lost it it is Tabula post naufragium like a plank or board after a Shipwrack which saves from drowning him that gets to it Object Some may object That this is an obvious and easie Engine to open any door that is shut for if a man make a verbal profession of his repentance and say I repent of my sins and that is to my self you know not my heart I demand my right Answ The Discipline of the Church is not to be exposed to mockery nor is it a meer external Pageant I will know saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 20. not the speech of them that are puffed up but the power For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power Hypocritical and superficial expressions signifie nothing but the powerfull work of grace and regeneration which changes the heart and becaUse the Objection may be made by some ex animo intending to shew with how easie a word as Nollem factum or I repent to blow the door open to himself therefore I answer it That though I should rest in a serious profession of faith and repentance which is not pull'd down again by a wicked life or scandalous sinne As Philip rested in it when the Eunuch answer'd him I believe that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God Act. 8. 37. and so was baptized yet when a man lies under the charge of our censure for some scandalous sinne the case is otherwise for as it is in such sinnes as are with damage to another it is not enough to professe repentance but there must be Zacheus his repentance that is restitution and reparation of injury if one be able so in scandalous sinnes whereby the Church is injured and offended There was alwayes in the ancient Churches a certain Discipline as Chemnitius saith whereby the repentance of men Depraeparat p. 95. was explored and tried whether it were serious slighty and superficial Sayings served not the turn the Church had received a wound the mouth of the enemy was open'd to blaspheme and therefore it was her honour to be satisfied in that reparation which was made by repentance that God might regain his visible honour by the repentance which he had lost by the scandal and there is ground for it 2 Cor. â— 6 7 8. where the incestuous person lies humbled and overwhelmed with great sorrow and therefore the Apostle writes to the Church to be content to comfort to forgive him and to confirm their love towards him This is no dallying matter when the fall is scandalous the repentance must be serious Peter thrice denies Christ and Christ asks Peter three times Lovest thou me 2. A visible professour of Christian Religion that stains not his profession with a wicked course of life or some scandalous act cannot be debarred his right of Communion with the visible Church in her priviledges Many are in the external Covenant and Kingdom of Christ who are not truly regenerate nor lively members of Christ himself inward grace makes a member of the Church invisible and the profession makes a visible The Sacraments are given to the visible Church we cannot discern or judge infallibly who is regenerate who an hypocrite a visible Judge is not to go by an invisible rule You shall know them saith Christ by their fruits He doth not say You shall know them by their sap It 's one Question Who is a true member of Christs body and truly in Christ It 's another Question Whom we may communicate with It 's one Question Who comes and eats and drinks unworthily So do hypocrites It 's another Question Who may not come at all and those are visible unbelievers and scandalous persons usitatissima phrasi saith Chemnitius in the most usual phrase of Scripture they are called holy and Saints who are Saints by calling Disciples of Christ separated from infidelity and Heathenism unto the worship of God by their faith of the Gospel It must be evidence of some fact or disorderly walking which is proved that must give ground to discommon or dis-franchize a reputed Member Who ever heard of witnesses to prove a man unregenerate Oh but in judgement of charity at least he must be truly regenerate I would all the Congregation were holy
belongs to Westminster-Hall not the Church but to gain a brother to repent that 's the work And here we may complain of a great neglect of this duty of private reproof or admonition Men would have their private offences brought upon the publick stage at first dash they expect the Church should proceed to do their work at first instance they forget that Levit. 19. 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sinne upon him The Church would have lesse to doe if this course were held the matter would be stopt the offendour gained by this private plaister which if it do the cure what need we go to the Chyrurgion Men have their own private plaisters and untill the sore rankle they call not the Chyrurgions to counsel Men are apt to runne to the Church or Minister with private whispers and what can they do by Gods Word upon private whispers just nothing go and do your own duty Let Christs order be Observed He will not have a member of the Church made a Publican or Heathen at first dash there are three neglectings to hear before that be If he hear not thee If he hear not two or three If he hear not the Church but if he do hear thee then no end of bringing two or three If he hear two or three then no telling of the Church If he hear the Church then is he no Heathen or Publican unto thee How rashly and passionately do many separate from the Church becaUse she cannot doth not cast out her members upon their private whispers let them go and seperate also from the Commonwealth becaUse she doth not banish or put to death upon private information Do they neglect their own duty to their brother and will they make the Church a Heathen and a Publican to them for not doing that which by Christs order they cannot do 5. The proper and adequate and immediate object of this debarment from the Communion of the Church is a scandalous person that holds either a course or hath committed the act of a scandalous sinne And what call you that It may be explained thus 1. Some atrocious or grievous sinne of first magnitude If any that is called a brother be a fornicator idolater covetous c. 1 Cor. 5. There is a list with an Et catera Gal. 5. 19. where they are called Works of the flesh and they that do such shall not inherit the Kingdom of God As also 1 Cor. 6. 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdome of God nor fornicatours idolaters adulterers abUsers of themselves with mankinde nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners and such were some of you These the Papists call mortal sins they bring scandal on the Church provoke God blot out our comfort waste the conscience c. but there are quotidian sinnes of daily incursion common to all godly men infirmities which like little flies are not to be knockt down with so great a hammer whose absolute cure can hardly be expected or performed by such as are subject to the like passions themselves divorce or banishment are too great but for such offences as are directly contrariant to the respective societies of marriage or Commonwealth 2. It must be an open and manifest sinne else it is 1 Cor. 5. 1. not scandalous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is reported commonly fornication and such fornication Chrysostom saith he speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning manifest sinnes when he charges his Ministers to admit no scandalous offendour Now to render a sinne manifest or notorious I suppose first it's requisite 1. That it manifestly be a sinne and this is quaestio juris for a thing may be commonly cried down under the name of an enormous crime and yet indeed be very doubtfull I instance usury where the Question is What it is Then Whether this in Question be usury Then Whether all usury be sinfull For there are great names of learning and godlinesse who upon considerable Reasons do deny it 2. That it be manifest that the sinne be committed for it 's one thing to know simply and another to know judicially and known it must be either by evidence of fact or confession or conviction if it be and yet appear not it is as if it were not De non existentibus non apparentibus eadem ratio if it come to that passe that the offendour put himself upon conviction then the processe must be Secundum allegata probata in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word must stand saith our Saviour upon this point If I were to judge the fact which I my self do know but yet it is not proved I durst not make a censure but should rather Exuere personam judicis induere personam testis And as Jerome saith Cont Ruffin lib. 2. A single witnesse is not to be believed Ne Catoni quidem No though he were Cato You would be loath to lose your horse your goods but upon sufficient conviction and I hope you think that to lose your right to the Sacrament is a greater losse I like well of that of Durand Lib. 4. Dist. ◠Qu. 5. §. 7. Aug. in 1 Cor. 5. If any be a brother out of Austine We cannot prohibite à Communione any man but he that either confesses his sinne or is convict of it before the secular Judgement or in the face of the Church You see what a sufficient hedge the Scripture and Reason hath made about the right of a Communicant Sixthly No private person by any private Authority can dispossess a visible member of his right of Communion As in the Common-wealth Justice is necessary but private persons doe not bear the Sword It 's unReasonable that a man laying claime to the Ordinance should at any mans private discretion be denied What inconveniences and mischiefes would this fill the Church of God with How full of scandals This would not heal scandals but make them Nor can I warrant or encourage any private or single Minister ordinarily to assume the power of jurisdiction to cast out of the Church as it once did Diotrephes 2 Epist of John vers 10. and I say ordinarily becaUse Saint Paul deliver'd to Satan Hymenaeus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1. 20. For the Pastour is not Dominus but Dispensator Sacramentorum as Alensis saith not the Head of the Sacraments but the Steward And it would goe very ill with the best Communicants many times if the power lay in that hand He that preaches against them would make no bones to forbid them the Table and they that least deferved it should feel the severity most but our Saviour his Rule is Tell the Church and that Matth. 18. rebuke which was given to the incestuous Corinthian was inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2. 6. It 's true The Minister may alone performe the executive part and pronounce
Laodicea whose temper was so loathsom as her self is threatned to be spued out from which saith Mr Brightman who would not think of flying very quickly meaning by his parallel the Church of England yet becaUse Revel 3. 30. The Lord stands at the door and knocks is present with and by his Ordinances to all in this Church therefore doth that holy man mightily inveigh against their wicked and blasphemous errour so he cals it that fell away from this Church Will they be ashamed saith he to sit down there where they see Christ not to be ashamed Are they holier and purer then he Can they deny themselves to be believers in Christ before their separation from us Came it not by our preaching c Adi locum And indeed the Argument is considerable If God afford his Communion with a Church by his own Ordinances and his Grace and Spirit It would be unnaturall and peevish in a childe to forsake his Mother while his Father ownes her for his Wife Fourthly The presence of wicked men at Gods Ordinances pollutes not them that are neither accessary to their sinne nor indeed to their presence there If the Ordinances be polluted by the unclean to themselves it is polluted not to me He shall bear his own burden He eats and drinkes damnation to himself 1 Cor. 11. 29. I come to the Sacrament it is my duty and my right Shall I sinne in separating from Ordinances becaUse he sinnes in coming to them and the Church sinnes in not excluding him The wickednesse of Eli his sonnes made men abhor the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 17. but they transgrest in so doing shall I go forth from the marriage-feast having a wedding-garment becaUse one comes in thither without it Must not I offer my gift at the Altar becaUse another comes thither that should first go and be reconciled to his brother Shall I leap out of Noah's Ark becaUse a Cham is in it Shall I separate from Gods children in Communion of Gods Ordinances when it is not arbitrary and at my liberty to do so becaUse I see a sinfull intruder and do my private duty by mourning that such a one may be taken away from among us 1 Cor. 5. 2. and yet perform my publique duty also And therefore to avow Separation upon this ground is § 8 1. To maintain a principle destructive to the communion of the Church visible which is a body moulded up of Jews outwardly and Jews inwardly as I may say and if one part destroy or pollute the communion of the other part is not all ruin'd Let a man but conceive in his minde How this principle pursued would in the time of the Jewish Church have rouled and rooted out all visible Communion in Ordinances out of the world And if one incestuous person not cast out at Corinth had polluted the communion of the whole Church and some one like sinner in another had done the like had not all been polluted and a ground of separation laid through all points of the Compasse till we had separated through the whole circle 2. An adventurous and bold assertion that carries farther than we are aware for why then did not Judas being to Christ a known wicked man pollute the Communion to our Saviour at the Passeover and Supper And why did not the wicked Jews pollute Christs Communion in the Ordinances of God in that Church And how could all the holy servants of God and Prophets in the Old or the Apostles and Christians in the New escape this pollution it being well known that there were hypocrites and such as being vitious under forme of godlinesse as 2 Tim. 3. 1 2. which remain'd in Church-communion 3. A great mistake for it grows hence that as Parmenian said Si corruptis sociaris c. If you be Lib. 3. c. 21. joyn'd or associate with corrupt men how can ye be clean And Austin answers True If we be joyn'd in society with them that is commit sin with them or consent or favour them in sin but if a man do not this Nullo modo sociatur he is no way joyned with them for it 's not the local contact or conjunction but the moral conjunction that defiles and we are as morally separate and sever'd from them when they are at the Lords Table as if they were in place distant It 's they that joyn with us in our profession not we with them in their sins if their profession be hypocritical that infects not us for spiritually infected we are not by contagion but consent nor do we professe our selves to be of one body with them any otherwise 1. Cor. 10. 17. than all that communicate with hypocrites do viz. upon supposition that they are as they professe members of the body which if they be not our profession is not false but theirs is and yet I confesse that those are best Churches where the presumption of godlinesse in the members is most Reasonable § 9 In summe and for conclusion we defend the communion of the visible Church in Gods Ordinances but we defend not the sinne of them that professe to know God but in works deny him It was a sad complaint of Salvian long ago Praeter paucissimes De Guderu l. 3. c. Besides some few that serve the Lord in Spirit quid est omnis caetus Christianorum Free our Communion from this exception by amendment of their lives and that the godly would as the School saith Abuti alieno peccato make good Use of other mens sins and their own for even they are mixt persons as I may say having flesh and Spirit as well as our Churches are mixt of good and bad and that they would stirre up their graces to be the better for other mens sinnes and perform the duties required of them at such a time and not give way to thoughts of Separation which puls a good stake out of a rotten hedge where it did more good by standing than by removal For unto the pure all things are pure but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure Tit. 1. 15. whereby it is plain that what is impure to them that are defiled is not made impure to them that are pure and so I conclude with this recapitulation The Separation of the Church from wicked men and infidels by Gods calling and Covenant with it is as necessary as the profession of faith and holinesse The Church her Separation or casting out of Obstinately wicked men from her communion is defended for the recovery of lapsed members and the avoidance of infection of and scandal to her self The secession of those good people from the Idolatry erected by Jeroboam to worship at Jerusalem is allowed 2 Chron. 11. 16. The negative Separation or the not communicating in the worship of Baal not so much as by knees or lips of those seven thousand in Israel is liked of by the Lord 1 King 19. 18. The avoidance of private
the delinquencies and sinnes which had they been charged on us had sunk us into the bottome of perdition and who that sees this shall not tremble at the fearfull wrath of God which Angels and men could not stand before Who shall not mourn over Christ whom we have pierced as it 's said of them Zech. 12. 10 Who can love the knife that slew his friend I meane the sinne that our Saviour bore in his body on the Tree This consideration here presented to you if you follow Christ from the Garden to Golgotha should me thinks affect the soul of a believer 1. With tender meltings of godly sorrow for sinne 2. With fresh purpose of amendment of life 1. With godly sorrow for sinne To hear the strong cries and see the streaming bloud of Christ for can there be a greater demonstration either of Gods Justice toward sinne or of his goodnesse to a sinner They say an adamant will be broken by bloud but alas the heart of man hath lost ingenuity or else the bloud of Christ would make us love sinne as bad as the terrours of Mount Sinai yea and to love it lesse and hate it more Fear may break a man but goodnesse melts him The terrours of the Lord may amaze and leave a man as hard still but godly sorrow makes tender and changes the disposition of the soul Revive then the sense of your sinne even pardon'd sins do revive godly sorrow and the more becaUse he tastes goodnesse and grace to him unworthy the sweet of the Passeover is lost for want of bitter herbs 2. With fresh purpose of amendment a needfull grace to be renew'd at this Sacrament we should eat this Passeover with shoes on our feat and slaves in our hand ready to march out of Aegypt We cannot eat the Passeover and stay in Aegypt still God confirmes his Covenant and we must restipulate with God to cast out and execrate the old Leaven Let 's carry wounded sinnes from this Table Bring wonded hearts and carry away wounded sinnes Let 's learne to die to sinne by seeing Christ die for sinne Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam saith Austine The Covenant of Grace is sealed Let us seal a Covenant of Obedience By the merit of Christs death we are purchased to be Gods not our own By the power of his Death we are slain dead to sinne But here I must break out to meet with our common purposers and resolvers which if ever in their lives do now when they come toward the Lords Table flatter God and themselves with a new beginning of a new life from this time they are resolved that the ear that hath heard them shall hear them swear no more The eye that hath seen them shall see them drunk no more c. I would these greene cords would hold but we finde this righteousnesse is but a morning dew their Sampson lusts when they awake break all these cords And why BecaUse these purposes arise from a fit of conscience not from a principle of life or love and so they prove but Lucida intervalla they returne to their madnesse againe when the fit takes them I would such men would resolve to be ashamed of these resolutions which so often leave them in the dirt that selfe confusion may carry them out of their owne strength which selfe-resolution doth but arme them with and therefore doth not stand For he that hath the Falling-sicknesse may resolve to fall no more but in vaine untill the disease be purged These are the principall the staple graces to be exercised in this Ordinance there are others which are included in these which I but name As § 5 Fourthly Spiritual appetite of hunger and thirst after Christ who is here offered as full nourishment for the soul under the form of bread and wine I account gracious desires to be the immediate products of regenerated graces and very comfortable testimonies of life spirituall 1 Peter 2. 2. but it is called vehement desire 2 Cor. 7. 11. in difference from the sluggards desires which are but wishes and which every man pretneds unto though it be plaine they are but of Balaam's temper who desired to die the death of the righteous but loved the wages of unrighteousnesse God helps his people much by giving them good desires both for that they make prayer warme and give great comfort in the midst of sad complaints yea they bring us to the Word and to the Sacrament where the want which occasions the desire may be supplied Keep them alive and they will keep you alive Sharpen and whet them as men doe indifferent stomacks with vinegar Sense of sinne and desire of grace are excellent preparatives to this Supper § 6 Fifthly Love to fellow-fellow-members of the body of Christ For we are all partakers of that one bread 1 Cor. 10. 17. If we eat together all of one loaf let us love them with whom we have this fellowship and Communion The Love-feaâ—â—s of the Primitive Church are read of but alas they are lost I mean not the feasts but the Love and in stead thereof In joelix lolium unhappy feuds quarrels divisions rents abound as if we were not children of one Table Corinth is come into England I hear that when you come together in the Church there are divisions among you 1 Cor. 11. 18. Ours are wider divisions we doe not come together in the Church one Table is prophane to another and yet the Apostle faith If I have all Faith If I suffer death without Charity I am nothing it profits me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 2 3. It 's almost Popery to speake of Charity By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another saith Christ And this was the old marke but truely it 's almost worne out Oh let us revive it at this Sacrament where God seales the pardon of our Talents Let 's learne to forgive the pence of our brethren Of all sinnes the Apostle interprets the Leaven to be purged out of malice 1 Cor. 5. 8. Purge out malice For Love is the cement of this Fellowship and Communion of members which are supposed to have one life becaUse nourisht with the same nourishment that is Christ § 7 Sixthly The last grace I will speak of which is here to be exercised or call it rather a duty if you please It 's Thankfulnesse without which the memorial or remembrance of Christs death is but a dry and fruitlesse commemoration Humility makes thankfull The Samaritane Leper return'd to give thanks He was more remote from expectation of cure and therefore the more thankfull The sense of our own unworthinesse and of the great disproportion between Christ and us may raise up our thanksgiving to a higher flame The lowest hearts rise highest in gratitude pride and merit are unthankfull And so I have showne you those graces which being exercised doe fit us to receive worthily and set the heart in tune to this Ordinance
and bloud This consideration is of special remark you feast upon a sacrifice you live you feed upon a sacrifice tolle Sacrificium tolle Sacramentum the mouth eats the Sacrament the eye of faith discerns the sacrifice Christ is the sacrifice the Sacrament no sacrifice but the commemoration and communication of a sacrifice and here the Reason must be Observed why God did institute their Passeover and our answerable Sacrament to consist in meat and drink eating and drinking and I conceive thus that it being the most proper way to partake of a sacrifice for how else can it be Therefore we eat and drink in way of participation of our sacrifice Hence the phrase Living upon Heb. 13. 10. the Altar eating of the Altar and thus if we carry our eye to the earthly part in the Supper and to the heavenly part that is to the Sacrament and the sacrifice represented and feed upon the sacrifice represented as well as the Sacrament representing we then discern the Lords body This is the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de hoc plus intra 2. Their Passeover was instituted as an Ordinance for ever for a memorial of their Deliverance in Aegypt and their eduction out of it a commemoration it was and to be Observed for ever that is in all succeeding generations whiles their Polity and Religion stood Exod. 12. 14 24 42. and therefore we read in Jewish Writers and there is some foot-step or original of it Exod. 26. 27. What mean you by this service that in every company of Passeover-communicants there was some one that rehearsed and made commemoration Haggadah shet pesuch the history Buxtorf Chal. Lexic of the Passeover and so God that would have the sacrifice of Christ for our sinne that greatest work of his and our deliverance thereby from worse then Aegypt or destroying Angel to be Observed and kept in minde by a lasting trophy or monument viz our Supper The Apostle in allusion to their custome Useth a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 26. Ye do shew As often as ye eat this bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lords death till he come or ye do commemorate and with affection and thanksgiving set it forth and as theirs was for ever till Christs first coming so ours is for ever till his second coming so long as their Church continued they were charged with this Ordinance so long as the Gospel-Church continues they are charged with this and therefore neither of the Doctrine of the Gospel nor of the Sacraments shall there be any removal or alteration till Christ come 3. Their Passeover in Aegypt was eaten in their several Families or societies A Lamb for a hoUse except it were too little Exod. 12. 3 4. and in after times when this was repeal'd Deut. 16. 6 7. and was confined to the place that God should chUse and so to Jerusalem then though the Lamb might be slain in the holy Court and the bloud sprinkled on the Altar yet they did carry it home to their hired chambers and there did eat in companies not less then ten in a fraternity Joseph de bello lib. 7. cap. 17. nor above twenty but no man alone Solum epulari non licet saith Joseph Christ and his company made one society so though Christ be our Sacrifice once offer'd up upon the cross a sacrifice to God yet doth our Supper bring him home to us into our Churches and into our souls There is an application of him to be made the bloud sprinkled on our doors the Paschal brought home to our own hoUse Take ye Eat ye Drink ye God comes to particulars with us and the application of the sacrifice is the life of the Sacrament we must eat and drink at home in our own souls Christ comes home to us and yet this Supper ought as the Passeover to be eaten in societies I know no Reason for one alone there must be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a company for it is a communion one makes not a communion The Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 20. When you come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a meeting v. 33 34. when you come together tarry one for another hence it hath been anciently called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meeting a Congregation It 's Gods Ordinance saith a learned man that the Lords Hildersam Joh. 4 p. 122. Supper be administred in publick Assemblies How can there be a Communicant without a Communion sed de hoc infra not that the wals of a Church do make it a communion but a meeting of believers 4. Their Passeover was eaten with unlevened bread and sowre or bitter herbs Exod. 12. 8. There are many circumstances and ceremonies found in the Jewish Authors about the searching out of all leven yea with candles at noon-day and an execration of all leven if any should remain unfound and the bitter herbs were in constant Use the unlevened bread remembred them what haste they went out of Aegypt in Exod. 12. 34. and the bitter herbs what affliction and bondage they had suffer'd and further they saw not The Apostle interprets leven malice and wickedness unlevened bread sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5. 8. and so it teaches us how Christ is to be received by us and what manner of persons they must be that apply and receive Jesus Christ They must remember their bondage under sinne not with delight but bitterness and feel the sowr taste of their former wayes as sinners contrite and broken bitter herbs are good sauce for the paschal Lamb sinne felt sets an edge on the stomack as vinegar Christ relishes well to such a soul When thou comest to eat his Supper bring thy own sauce with thee bitter herbs and refresh on thy self the memory of thy old wayes and former lusts that 's the sauce the bread is unleavened bread you cannot eat the Lamb and leaven togegether a secure hypocrite a filthy swine not purged from sinne to think to have Christ and his sinne too to be pardon'd and not purged to be saved and not sanctified Away and never think to eat this Lamb with leaven'd bread come with bitter herbs thou maist contrition for sinne but come not with and in thy sins for that 's eating with leaven'd bread therefore search it out and let thy sinnes be searcht out as with a candle and let them be execrable to thee that God may see thy hatred of them and thy loathing of thy self for them 5. Their Passeover in Aegypt was to be eaten with loyns girded in procinctu shoes on feet and staff in hand and ye shall eat in haste Exod. 12. 11. and therefore standing as ready to be instantly on their march to leave the Land of Aegypt and go to seek their promised countrey which signifies to us that we must receive Christ and his bloud with intention and purpose to leave the dominions of Pharaoh the Kingdom service and bondage of sinne and the Devil and
Sacrifice the Matter and Form the intended Analogy between the Sign and the Thing signified will guide us in our distinguishing Substance from Accidents I here make an end though in this Point and in this Lamb which was served in with Legs and Purtenance I might finde out other lesser Resemblances which I shall not but having shown you what fresh Marrow lies in the old Bones of this Passeover-Sacrifice will hereafter set forth our Lords Supper before you CHAP. II. Of Errours and Corruptions in the Church How soon they sprung up When they are a ground of Separation and when not That this Ordinance must be suitable to Gods Institution And the Communicants must be suitable to this Ordinance 1 COR. 11. 83. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you c. THis Epistle is directed to the Church of God in 1 Cor. 1 2. Grotius in initio hujus Epistolae Heylin Geog. pag. 388. 1 Cor. 1. 5 7. Corinth which was sometime a slately City of Greece much renown'd in ancient Authours but now is a place of small note being together with other Cities mentioned in the New Testament swallowed up by that great Leviathan of the Land the Turkish Empire In this City was a famous Christian Church of the highest degree of elevation for parts and gifts and spiritual endowments but their beauty was blemisht with as great blots schisms 1 Cor. 1. 11. Denial of the Resurrection of the dead by some of them 1 Cor. 15. 12. and in this Chapter with a grand abUse of that high and precious Ordinance the Supper of the Lord with ordinary and unwashen hands polluting it with their own intemperance and drunkenness not brought from their own homes or from the Tavern to the Table but Used at the very Table it self which that you may understand you may take notice that it was an ancient custom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Zonaras in Concil 6. in Trullo in the Primitive times that the rich and wealthier sort of Christians did by a common purse or contributions furnish out solemn feasts in the very meeting places or Churches and there sit down promiscuously the rich and poor which feasts were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feasts of Love or Brotherly-charity to testifie the intimate affection of Christians among themselves The Scripture speaks of them Jude vers 12. 2 Pet. 2. 13. and the ancient Fathers make often mention of them The occasion of them might be this It 's plain that the Heathens at their Sacrifice had their festival entertainments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Idols Temple that the Jews in their Eucharistical Sacrifices feasted before the Lord God as it were entertaining them to eat and drink with him and that Christ and his Apostles feasted together at the Paschal Supper before the celebration of the Lords Supper and so by imitation very obvious the Christians had taken up a custome of feasting at their religious meetings at which entertainments no Heathens were present and thereupon they suspected and scandalized the Christians for these feasts de pabulo crudae post convivium mesto Tertul. Apol. c. 7 c. 39. that they eat and drunk the flesh and bloud of a childe and that after they had filled themselves with wine and good cheer they fell to incestuous and promiscuous lusts but the ancient Fathers wipe off these aspersions c. § 2 The abUse of these feasts the Apostle reproves from the 17. verse of this Chapter for they fomented their schismes and parties even at these feasts one party and their faction sorting themselves together in one corner another at another as their humour led them and so the common love was broken by private divisions then followed another abUse the poor that could send in nothing had nothing but were set light by and suffered to starve while they were filling themselves and which was worst of all they were intemperate at their feasts eating and drinking excessively one is hungry another is drunken vers 21. The word may signifie had drank liberally as it 's said of Joseph and his brethren Gen 43. ult and as the word is Used John 2. 10. The Summe is there was § 3 1. Siding and sorting themselves into parties with their messes and dishes of good cheer each faction by themselves vers 18. which is contrary to the nature or name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Feasts of Love One party went to it before another came v. 21. 33. 2. Here was a slighting and laying aside the poor Christians that could send in nothing contrary to the nature of a religious communion ver 28 22. 3. Here was intemperance and excess ver 21. contrary to Christian sobriety 4. These feasts were made in the Assembly or meeting-place as we say the Church as appears ver 22. Have ye not hoUses And § 4 5. With these juncats and feasts they joyn'd the celebration Beza in Act. 2. in illis convivis Grot. in Mat. 26. 25. Casaub Exere 16. of the Lords-Supper Mensis suis pascebant saith Austin Epist 118. and therefore the Apostle tels them they defaced it vers 21. This is not to eat the Lords-Supper for quod non ritè fit fieri non dicitur and he doth therefore set forth the Lords institution of the Supper vers 23. that they might see the bare and naked nature of it one thing is doubtfull Whether the Lords-Supper was celebrated at the beginning or end of these feasts And the doubt riseth BecaUse in this Chapter as is conceived by learned Diodat Estius Cajetan in loc Gerard. in har p. 461. men the feast went before as in Christs last Supper the paschal Lamb was first eaten and the Cup was taken after Supper vers 25. and the unworthy coming to it mentioned v. 29. and the punishment of this Church for their unworthiness vers 30 argues That their feasting first had unfitted them for the participation of this Ordinance and yet Chrysostom and Donaras saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the participation of the Lords Supper the feast was and that Vbi supra is true for after-times for the reproof of the Apostle haply had removed the feast unto the last place for good Reasons but the feasts were not quite removed out of the Churches of Greece and Africk where Tertul. Apol. c. 39. we finde them continuing Insomuch as the Synod of Laodicea which was about three hundred years after Christ and before the Nicene Councel made a Canon cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That it is not fit the Agapae should be in Churches or publick places of worship and so these ancient Feasts grew out by little and little and now no remainders of them in all Christendom I have been the longer upon this becaUse I think otherwise you would not clearly understand the foregoing verses that touch upon the abUse nor the caUse and Reason of the Corinthians coming
faintness cherisht by wine the faint and feeble soul by Christ Famine and thirst are importunate things no delights of the eye no Musick to the ear can satisfie them Violent desires towards Christ are not to be excUsed but praised For his Flesh is meat indeed his Blood is drink indeed Joh. 6. 55. 2. Bread and Wine severally and asunder to set forth his death wherein Corpus a sanguine separatum fuit saith Jansenius his Body and his Blood Harm 896. was sundred The Papists as to their Priests and some Kings or Princes will allow bread and wine but as to the common people bread or wine they say by concomitancy the blood is in the bread virtually and so they shut up the wounds of Christ by their dry Mass But Christ would represent himself here not as a Lamb but a Lamb sacrificed and slain and therefore the blood is severed from the body as the money is not a prisoners ransom while it lies in the chest but when it 's paid So the blood of Christ as shed is our ransom As Israel in the wilderness had a type of Christ Manna which they did eat and the rock also of which they drank so have we the memorials of his body and blood that we may eat and drink And which is the summe of all that may be said on this point since the Lord was pleased even under the Gospel to continue that old way of Fellowship and Communion with his Church by entertaining them at his own Table upon his own chear in an Ordinance of eating and drinking as he alwaies allowed the Israelites to feast with him upon the remainders of the Sacrifices in token of followship and the very Heathens did by feasting on their Sacrifices testifie their fellowship with their Idols as is plain 1 Cor. 10. 18 19 20. I see not how more fit materials could be Used then Bread and Wine which as they best stand with the simplicity of the Gospel so they are the most common and necessary attendants in all feasts and do both together set forth that full and perfect nourishment which we finde in Christ As for that I finde in Cyprian and from him in Cyp. Epist 76. Aug. Tract in Jo. cap. 6. 26. August and after both in most Divines That as one bread is made of many grains and one cup of wine of many grapes so the Church is one Body of many Members whose Communion and Fellowship is here professed testified and signified by their participation of one Bread and of one Cup The allusion is proper and not unlike that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 17. We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread And this union of members was anciently professed with all dearness of love and affection in the Use of this Ordinance and they delighted to express their division and separation from all the world their combination and concorporation among themselves by all entercourses of love and dearness that could be their Feasts of Love their Kiss mentioned in Scripture and ancient Authours are hereof great witnesses But what shall those places or Countries do that have no bread of corn no fruit of the vine I confess that though God said in the Passeover a Lamb Exod. 12. 5. or Kid yet Christ expresses nothing there of other materials and therefore in case of extream necessity where the proper Elements cannot be had they must either be without the Ordinance or celebrate in that which is Analogicall and which passes for bread with them or wine with them which it's better say some to do than wholly to be deprived Moulin Buckler pag. 531. Beza Epist 2. but this Eclipse is not likely to be seen in our Horison therefore I shall not further discuss it §. 4. The Rites or Actions about the Sacrament § 4 So much of the Elements Bread and Wine Now I proceed to the Rites or Actions and first them of Christs using in which you are to Use your eye as in the Word preached God speaks to your ear so here he speaks to your eye The Sacrament is a visible Word and therefore I hold it requisite that the Communicant be within sight of the Elements and Actions that he may see the bread and the wine Taken Blessed Broken Poured forth and not in corners and holes whence he hath not the actions under command of his eye Not that I deny but a blinde man may receive the Sacrament but that all means of spirituall impression must be Used Behold saith Moses the blood of the Covenant Exod. 24. 8. The first Action of Christ is He took bread likewife after supper the cup so Paul so Luke He took the bread he took the cup so Matthew and Mark of the two Elements the Bread is first taken both by Christ and by the Communicant This order is to be held by the consent of all the four Writers And of Christs Action let us Note 1. That Christ took the Bread into his hands he took the Cup into his hands Observing the rite and custom then Used and gave thanks over the Bread holding it in his hands and so over the Cup having it in his hands This is the first step towards the separating and setting apart the Elements he took them in his hand see there was a solemn rite that the pater familias did Use to take into his hands and bless these principall parts of the meal or feast The taking of the Lamb was the first action towards the Paschall Exod. 12. 2 5 21. 2. That Christ took and blest the Bread and the Cup severally one after the other He took Bread and blest and pronounced This is my Body Afterwards he took the Cup and blest and pronounced This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood The Evangelists Matthew and Mark express it Luke and Paul likewise confirm it and if there were nothing else the very rule and usage amongst the Jewes to blesse them severally would prove it to us 3. But whether there was any intervall of time between his taking and blessing the Bread and the Wine is a harder knot Matthew and Mark say As they were eating or as they did eat he took Bread Luke and Paul say After they had supped he took the Cup This seems to plead for some intervall of time Videtur saith Calvin in 1 Cer. 11. 25. In Mar. 14. 22. Beza and yet if Matthew and Mark be viewed alone the Action seems to be continued What wedge must be Used for this knot Beza hints that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be variously translated When they had eaten but I shall not grant Beza his Interpretation but hold to our own and appeal to the rule or custom then received amongst the Jews to decide the Controversie for if those words As they were eating be all one with those of Paul After they had supped then how doth Paul and Luke so frequently and
emphatically apply them to the Cup which may by that interpretation be said of the Bread also The rise Gretius in Matth. 26. 26. was that while they were eating not the Passeover Lamb for so all that Christ did was after supper but the post coenam or after supper the second course and toward the end thereof the Master took bread and blest and brake it and distributed it with a signification of the bread of affliction in Egypt then at the very close and after all eating the Cup was taken and blest what intervall of time went between I know not Non constat saith Calvin whether Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. 25. the Action was continued but I beleeve the Bread was eaten before the Cup was blest or taken and Christ that instituted no new Rites but set a Hugh Broughtâ—â— new superscription on the old mettall imitated this custom and took and blest the Bread while they were yet eating and took and blest the Cup at the close after all and so all are agreed And here let me shew you a Reason why the Churches now are not bound to consecrate and distribute the Bread before they consecrate the Wine as it was in Christs Supper becaUse the Rite was so at that time and the thing being meerly occasionall is not obligatory but indifferent We pronounce the words of signification This is my Body This Cup is c. severally but we do not distribute the Bread before we bless the Wine that Christ did occasionally to the Rite 4. The Bread which Christ took into his hands was such as was obvious and ordinary on the Table at that time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Matthew signanter some Cameron in Mycoth Matth. 26. peculiar Bread designed and prepared for that Use doubtless unleavened according to Law and custom and yet the Greek Church stiffly holds to leaven'd bread on opinion that Christ kept his last Passeover on the 13th day of the moneth one day before the time by Law prefixed for leaven to commence and of this opinion for the day is a late Learned Writer in his answer to six Queries who also holds that Christ and his Disciples at this time did eat no Lamb but kept only the usuall post coenum or after-supper As to the time I assent not and therefore hold the bread unleavened in which the Romanist celebrates the Supper and Calvin would not contend in so slight a matter against the same custom Used in Geneva nor do we make it any matter of moment but bless such as the Table doth afford being pure and wholsom as the Use requires The Cup which Christ took hath this mark it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—os Hallel was a Cup after they had supped and that was the Cup of the Hallell or of the Hymn the last Cup which Used very solemnly to be blest this mark after supper differences it from that Cup Luke 22. 17. He took the cup and gave thanks and said Take this and divide it among your selves This is not the Cup which Christ took into his Supper for that comes after ver 20. There were divers Cups solemnly blest and given round at this Passeover feast three or four therefore this which Christ took in is the very last after which they eat and drunk no more that time And the last Cup was even among the Heathens counted solemn and sacred in honorem Grotius in Matth. 26. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in honour of their good Genius c. §. 5. Of Christ his Consecration or Blessing of the Elements § 5 The second Rite or Action Used by Christ was giving thanks He took Bread and giving thanks he brake likewise also the Cup. He took the Bread and blessed Matth. 26. 16. Mark 14. 22. He took Bread and gave thanks Luk. 22 19. and St Paul here Two of them say of the Bread He blessed Two of them say of the same Bread He gave thanks They all say of the Cup He gave thanks and yet in another place 1 Cor. 10. 6. The Cup of blessing which we bless what can be more plainly infer'd hence then that these two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are in this business of one signification and effect as in Mark 8. 6 7. He gave thanks and brake the bread or loaves the fishes he blest Shall we be so trivially curious as to seek criticisms in a thing so plain Not only our Divines but Romanists also consent he blest the Bread by thanksgiving and prayer over it He prayd God he blest God or he gave God thanks and thereby blest the Bread and Wine therefore it is said The Cup of blessing which we bless apply the one of these words to God he gave him thanks the other to the Bread as Paraeus and others all comes to one the Bread and the Cup were blest by Prayer and In loc Jansen Harm p. 96. Thanksgiving Thus the Jew in his form blessed his Bread and Cup by blessing God that created the fruit of the earth and of the vine and these two words in Greek expresse but that one in the Hebrew Barak as Maldonate and Paraeus note and this blessing is that we call Consecration or Sanctification by which the Elements are set apart to holy Use and segregated from common or prophane For the further clearing of which First That Christ whether at miraculous meals Calvin in loc P. Martyr in locum Mark 6. 41. or at common sittings down with his Disciples Luke 24. 30. Matth. 14 19. alwayes gave thanks and blessed the bread Let his holy example be a command to us The Jew held his meat prophane untill he had blest it He had a form of Religion beyond most of us therefore the Apostle Useth the word It 's sanctified It 's sanctified or made legitimate unto us by the Word that warrants it and prayer that blesseth it 1 Tim. 4. 5. For shame either learn of Christ or of the Jew mock not God with pulling a hat over your face but give thanks and blesse Secondly We finde no form of words Used by Christ in this Consecration or Blessing none of the Evangelists tell us what words he Used but they expresse the action in the same words of ordinary grace at meals He gave thanks he blessed in what words Estius in loc it is not reported to us He prayed saith Estius that the Bread and Wine might be turned into his very body and bloud So he imagines But who told him so No Scripture nor ancient Father The Jewish form of words is known in their Rituals Rara benedictio saith Scaliger without these solemn words Blessed be thou O Lord that hast sanctified us by thy commands and given us a charge concerning such or such a thing In Reason Christ did accomode his blessing to the occasion praising God for his Redemption of man-kinde and for the coming of his Kingdom for his new Testament or Covenant and
good ends and significations as I shall shew and he affirms That it continued in the Church and was Used for a thousand years after Christ But the Papists as sacrilegious they steal away the Cup from the people So they Use the Bread superstitiously making their Host into pines nummularios little round wafers like our money and put them whole into the mouths of the Communicants For saith the learned Jansenius The Church viz. of Rome doth laudably Harm 895. Observe that the Eucharist be toucht only by sacred hands viz. the Priests As for Christ saith he Promore fecit he followed the Custom or Rite at that time 4. This Bread was broken and Wine poured forth Calvin in loc P. Martyr in locum Beza in loc 1. For the more lively representation of the death and grievous sufferings of our Lord for though a bone of him was not broken nor his body properly yet the Apostle cals it broken in regard of those wounds and pains and torments which brought forth a violent death and all this for us As the corn is not grinded or baked nor the bread cut or broken but for us that the breaking of his body might break our hearts and his flowing bloud shed our tears for it is the highest representation of death the bread broken and wine poured forth and is Usefully Observed to raise up such affections as the sight of a dying Christ may work even in a heart of stone as Chrysostom said before 2. It was broken for distribution sake for in Hebrew speech to break bread to the hungry is to distribute it Lam. 4. 4 and this hath another meaning in it and sets forth the communion and fellowship of the Church all partaking of one Christ and feeding on him and his death unto eternal life 1 Cor. 10. 17. We being many are one bread We are one body and of one holy fellowship and communion For we are all partakers of that one bread for Christ is that common center in whom we meet and by union with him we have communion with one another and thus the signification is lively one bread broken and divided amongst many Communicants who are one is one Christ given wholly to every believer and all believers one in Christ This brotherhood was observed and noted for their mutual love in those times when their profession of Christ distinguisht them from all the Heathens about them and when they were inclosed round by Observing and cruel men that envied and hated them to death now that heat is diffUsed and not so concenter'd by the antiperistasis and so is not so warm we stand in need of persecution to make us love one another §. 9. Of the Manner of Christs giving the Bread and the Wine § 9 Fourthly The fourth Rite or Action of Christ He gave it to his Disciples which in this place you finde not but in the implication of the word Accipite Take ye but all the three Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke expresly say He gave to the Disciples He gave to them for the word Disciple I leave it a while and only speak of the Action He gave that the Disciples received the bread and wine from Christ into their hands and not put by him into their mouths I make no Question as I shall touch afterward Nor do I doubt but they received them from his hand for he blessed and brake and reached them forth to them and so the people may be said to receive them from the hand of the Minister that consecrates either mediately or immediately which may be the true meaning of that speech of Tertullian Nec de aliorum manu De Corona quam praesidentium sumimus nor we take them saith he from the hands of others but of our Presidents or Ministers but the clear Question will be Whether Christ did with his own hand give to every particular person into his hand the bread and the cup And Whether there were any words spoken particularly to every one in the delivery of them as for instance Take thou Eat thou Drink thou For the first Whether Christ did with his own hand deliver the bread and cup into the hand of every particular Communicant viz. immediately We must look still to the rite or custome Used in the Paschal Supper and if we consider that well we shall see it probable that the Pater-familias did not rise from his discumbency or posture of lying to go to every particular person or that every one came to his hand for there might be twenty at the Table and not all within the reach of his hand nor do we finde that Christ rose up nor that they rose up to receive them He said Take ye eat ye Drink all of it and though he might give the Cup to the next into his hand yet his speech is general to them all and so the bread and the cup past in the Postcaenium or Paschal Supper Maldonate saith He reacht out the Maldona in Mat. 26. 26. bread sigillatim but the cup he gave to the next and he to the next for he saith Luk 21. 17. Take this and divide it among your selves wherein though he De emend l. 6. Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. be mistaken in the cup as not being the same with ours ut supra yet the rite and manner of distribution is very like to be the same in both So Scaliger that the Master first delivered the cup to the second the second to the next till it had past through the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Table and Jansenius saith That he Jans Harm p. 895. gave to each particular his part Aut patinam tradidit propinquioribus or gave the plate or dish with broken bread in it to them that sate nearest and then successively and in order it passed along As also saith he he delivered the Cup so that every Communicant had his part from the hand of Christ either immediatly or mediatly As for after times and not long after that of Justin Martyr is express that when the Ministers had blessed the Deacons did carry it and deliver it to the severall Communicants and did either put each part into each persons hand or as I finde in Clem. Alex and. Strom. lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the distributers do suffer or permit each person to take his part of the bread There might be different Rites in severall Churches as to this point and of no great moment one way or other but for all the Communicants sitting down at the very Table by companies and their sitting and receiving the Elements I finde not in my simple reading in Antiquity when Communicants grew numerous and met in one common place to perform Divine Offices but so did Christ and all other Paschall societies which eat in chambers and hoUses and as I shewed you before were not under ten nor above twenty of a company Let then the Lords and his Disciples sitting at the same
Christ-applying Ordinance He came into the hand of murderers that slew him that crucified and wounded and dying he might be taken in the hand of thy faith faith like the hand hath a faculty of working and bringing forth obedience but like the hand again it hath a taking and receiving faculty which is the most excellent the justifying act of faith taking Christ Take ye is not a bare permission but a command it 's our duty as well as our benefit to receive Christ and consequently not to receive him is both sinne and misery §. 11. Of Sacramentall Eating and Drinking Christs Body and Blood § 11 2. Eat ye drink ye all of it Christ speaks and repeats often Joh. 6. the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood at which some of his followers took offence conceiving him carnally and literally which he told them were to be understood spiritually ver 63. There is a spirituall eating and drinking Christ his flesh and blood by faith only which is extra-symbolicall or without the Sacrament for that Doctrine was delivered a year or two before this Sacrament was instituted and it is such as without which ye have no life in you ver 53. which may not be said of all that never received this Sacrament but that spirituall eating and drinking is here symbolized as that flesh and blood is For the understanding of which let us neither be like the carnall Israelite that did eat Manna and drink of the Rock but neither saw nor tasted Christ in them nor on the other side let us be like the Capernaites Joh. 6. that had a gross apprehension of eating very flesh and drinking mans blood but rightly conceive the meaning thus 1. The first and not the least thing is this that This is the one and only Ordinance under the Gospel where eating and drinking are Sacred and Religious acts for in all the world among all sorts of men friendship fellowship communion are maintained and shown in feasting together eating and drinking together and our God never let his Church be without such an Ordinance wherein he and his people might testifie this fellowship and communion In the Law there was not only a Lamb rosted but in all their Shelamim or Peace-offerings they that brought them had part to feast upon and make good cheer as at all their feasts they rejoyced before the Lord God bidding them to his own Table to feed upon Sacrifices for they that eat of the Sacrifices are partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 10. 18. Rev. 3. 20. I will come in and sup with him and he with me Thus God entertains his friends invites them to eat and drink with him upon his own Sacrifices upon Christ the great Sacrifice It 's Gods own cheer provided for such Abrahams as are the friends of God What a favour and condescension of God is this What honour and dignity is dust and she s graced with to sit together and feast and have fellowship with God in an Ordinance of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of this Sacrifice Jesus Christ Nay and further yet It was a custom in Covenants making that the Confederates feasted eat and drank together therefore Berith the Hebrew word Covenant may come of Barah to eat and so still and further it is implied that this is a Covenant solemnity an eating and drinking of confederates together God smels a savour of rest in the Sacrifice of Christ and we eat and drink of that flesh and blood sacrificed unto God and renew our Covenant with him and he with us by mutuall feeling he to be ours we his I am so taken up with this that if no more be said I should be satisfied but there is more 2. That Christ is full and perfect nourishment of the soul both meat and drink Joh. 6. 55. My flesh is meat indeed my blood is drink indeed farre beyond Manna which yet was called Angels food as the substance is beyond the type sights may please the eye sounds or airs the ear but they are not so necessary as nourishment unto life life cannot be maintained without nourishment growing bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hypocrates growing Christians stand in need of much nourishment to bring them up to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stature of a full Christ decaying Christians stand in need of nourishment to repair decaies Every life be it never so little must be nourisht so necessary is Christ to every Christian and still more of Christ for his meat is Christ his drink is Christ As nothing so necessary so neither so sweet and pleasant sights are pleasing to the eye and smels to the sense but nothing is so close and delightfull as the meat and drink to the sense of tasting Christ is sweet to faith as meat and drink to hunger There is no content comparable to the receiving of Christ He is Manna the best Bread and Wine the best drink The fruition of the joys of heaven is set forth by the pleasure of eating and drinking Luk. 22. 30. That you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome It was experimentally said of Galeacius that all the delights of this world are not comparable to an hours enjoyment of Christ Jesus 2. No act of ours could so well have signified the close and intimate union of Christ with a Beleever We may see at a distance and hear and smell but not taste nor eat nor drink the meat and drink is concorporated into us and is made flesh and bone with us Job 6. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwels in me and I in him Christ must be present to the faith of a Christian for we cannot eat and drink that which is absent This union with Christ is reall though mysticall and it is lively drawn forth in this Ordinance under the resemblance of eating and drinking We hardly conceive and hardly beleeve it but when we see the graft live we are sure it 's knit and we may be as sure of our union with Christ by his spirituall sap of Grace which we finde is in us 4. This command Take and eat goes before the pronouncing of the words This is my Body Aquinas saith it is a Hysteron Proteron but I shall not take his word let 's hear him speak that was present an ear witness an eye witness Matth. 26. 26 27. Take eat This is my Body Drink ye all of it For this is my Blood what stands this For for if drink ye did not go before This Observation is noted by almost all Divines from Peter Martyr and Mr Hooker makes Use of it thus That Christ is not present in the Elements but in the worthy receiver The order of the words shews it first eat and drink then it follows for this is my Body and this is my Blood an ingenious observation that cuts the hamstrings of the Popish or corporall presence in or under the outward signes as if
it were a knife set in the Text to cut that intricate knot that makes such a garboyle in the Text when you take and eat by faith then is the Body and Blood of Christ present to you but not latent and hidden in the Bread or Cup The union of Christ is not otherwise with the Bread then as the thing signified with the sign but it is with the Communicant the Hooker Eccles Polit. p. 359. believer really though spiritually the sacramental signs do exhibit Christ but not contain him under them they contain not the grace which God bestows with or by them §. 12. Of Spurious Rites and Gestures § 12 So have I opened to you the outward Elements the outward Rites or Actions of this Sacrament whether those of Christ or of the Communicant and these are genuine and proper by which the Sacrament is sutable to the Institution as for other Rites which time or superstition have introduced without example or command they are adulterine and spurious especially the adoration of the Eucharist upon opinion of the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and bloud of Christ which whether it be performed at the elevation or lifting up of the host by the Priest in the Masse or at the circumgestation or carrying it up and down in procession in the streets as is usual in Popish countreys is no better then abominable Idolatry even by their own confession For Costerus saith That the bread-worship was the greatest Idolatry that ever was in the world If the bread be not turned into the true and natural body of Christ as saith a learned man Dr J. Burgesse Lawf of kneeling p. 113. upon my soul it is not and if the perswasion of Christs real presence in the Eucharist will by no means excUse their adoration from Idolatry much lesse excusable is any Protestant who is perswaded of the contrary As for other circumstances of the action as the time viz. at night in the close of the Paschal Supper the place an upper-room or chamber Mark 14. 15. The guest twelve in number Matth. 26. 20. The gesture which was discubiture or lying on couch-beds fitted to the Table which the Jews were at the Passeover by custom fixed unto as appears by the ritual In other Scaliger lib. 6. De emend pag. 534. nights we sit or lie on couches but in this we lie along These I say are moveables and not of the freehold of this Ordinance Nor shall I say any thing of the D. Burgess ubi supra p. 112. gesture which as it was Used in England hath been an apple of contention and much written pro and con The Reformed Churches vary some sit at some about the Table some receive this Sacrament passing by the Table in order as in a Marah as in the Reformed Churches in France and I condemn them not and for those Divines of the Reformed Churches that disliked our gesture Used here in England they did not many of them pronounce it simply unlawfull but inconvenient becaUse it was a gesture of adoration and did not serve to pull the bread worship out of mens mindes nor was so sutable to this Ordinance which is a Table Ordinance nor to set forth that fellowship and communion which is exprest in eating and drinking with our Lord these were their Reasons and I do not know that I have any occasion to debate the point but to leave it determinable by the Churches of God as may be most sutable to the Decorum and nature of this Ordinance for if I should some of you might haply say that I made a Funeral-sermon for meeting at Sacrament Having laid open the parts of this Supper let us upon the whole matter stand still a little and make Observation CHAP. VII Some Observations upon the precedent Discourses § 1 NOte here the simplicity of this high and excellent Ordinance the feast is drest out in plainness and simplicity answerable to the simplicity of the Gospel as the Apostle cals it 2 Cor. 11. 2. Here is no outward pomp or ostentation no stateliness to take the eye for as gaudy attire becomes not mourning so this Sacrament setting forth the passion and sufferings the death and bloudshed of our Lord had not been sutable to him in his lowest estate and darkest eclipse if it should have shined in outward lustre It was Tertullians Observation Nihil obdurat c. nothing Lib. de baptisme so hardens the mindes of men as the simplicity of the works and yet the magnificence of the promise that great and glorious things should be found under so plain a dresse as a rich diamond in a plain case to the end that the eye of faith might be more exercised then the eye of the body and that the spiritual and inward part might be looked after and intended Is not this the Carpenters sonne was a great stumbling block and so may the simplicity of the two Sacraments be to us The Temple Utensils and Service were rich and stately Christ was prefigured in golden Types But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 17. But we have a better Covenant and better Promises Heb. 8. 6. And if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remains exceeds in glory 2 Cor. 3. 7 8 9 10 11 c. but that was an outward this an inward glory that was in Moses face this in the face of Christ that the carnal Jew might see this the spiritual Christian seeth We saw his glory Joh. 1. 14. or rather there the glory was veiled But we with open face behold the glory of the Lord 1 Cor. 3. 13 18. The glory of their Ordinance was a stumbling block to them for they rested in the cabinet and looked not for the jewels The meannesse of our Ordinances are a stumbling block to us for we look not for the tReasure in such earthen vessels God doth great things by poorest meanes Jericho's wals fall at the sound of Rams-horns the fiery sting is healed by a piece of brasse the sight restored to the blinde by the Use of spittle and clay The figure in this Sacrament is poor the thing signified heavenly and rich the Seal is mean the inheritance or estate is great but why were the types so rich and our memorials so poor You know Spectacles are for divers sights they had finer Spectacles we better eyes They had lesse spirit stirring in the Ordinances then than we now if their Tree had more shadow we have more fruit § 2 Secondly Take along with you alwayes the Analogy proportion and similitude between a Sacrament and the thing of a Sacrament between the signe and the thing signified It 's Austin his Rule If Epist 23. alâ—bi a Sacrament should not have similitude and resemblance with that whereof it is a Sacrament it should not be a Sacrament and from this similitude or resemblance it is that the signe is called by the name of
it and a good part of preparation in our selves to the due and orderly receiving of it the childe is either very fullen or sick that cries not for his bread §. 2. The Occasions of the Eclypse of this Ordinance in our dayes § 2 If we look upon the Reason or occasions of that great eclypse which hath befallen this Ordinance for so long a time and in so many places of this Land we might be long upon so unpleasing a subject but I shall but touch and so away 1. As I look upon God without whose hand this could not come to passe I acknowledge that when he brings a man or a Church into an incapacity of Sacraments as Israel in the wildernesse or as in that case then that a man was unclean by Reason of a dead body or in a journey far off Numb 9. 10. and such like cases now There is a relaxation of this command for the time and either necessity or duty may dispence with our forbearance And I further say That God is just in punishing us with this losse or stroke for our abUse and contempt of this holy Ordinance in former times by shutting out those that were fit to be admitted meerly upon a ceremonious inconformity and compelling in upon penalty that by this test they might finde out Recusant Papists such as were contrary to their own rules sottishly ignorant notoriously wicked and therefore I conceive this storm may be upon us and this breach in this Ordinance for the Lord tels Israel that when in good intention they sought to bring up the Ark of God and laid it on a Cart which should have been carried on the shoulders of the Levites he made a breach upon them for that they sought him not after the due order 1 Chron. 15. 13. For God is severely holy in exacting of us the due order of his Ordinances as we may see in Nadab and Abihu and in that great rule Numb 10. 3. I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me When we take hold of mis-shapen Ordinances put out of forme by us we take a knise by the edge and not the haft we cut our fingers 2. As for them of the Separation whose advantage it was and of some of them the design to have us broken that they might thrive as the people on the Sea-coast do by the wrack They I say while some were labouring and all were waiting for to have Gods order stamped by civil Authority not to give esteem or value to that which is of God but to make it more currant with us As the stamp makes not the gold more precious but more currant in common Use While I say some were endeavouring this or haply some of you will say While men slept the envious man sowed his tares and took his opportunity of that long vacation as Israel did of Moses his absence in the Mount and they planted their battery here upon this Sacrament and cried down promiscuous Communions with all their might laying a good foundation That onely visible Saints are fit Communicants which is true as to the Churches Admission That real Saints only are worthy Communicants which is true too as to the inward grace or benefit but then as alwayes in such cases it is the superstructure was hay and stubble That Saints are only such as are of their making and judging And That they that are of their opinion or party though vicious in life and empty of true grace are Saints and thence come the several Communions and divisions moulded up together into several bodies for and by interests passions and worldly ends which I speak not of all for some godly souls might be carried away to enjoy this Sacrament in a Communion more pleasing to them as Aaron was in the businesse of the golden Calf and others were mightily taken with it who hardly passing for honest men at home in their own Churches were presently canonized for Saints All the Congregation are Saints every one of them saith Corah Numb 16. 3. 3. When I look upon the standing Ministers who should dispense the Sacrament I must plead this for them that while it is their intention and practise to make the door of this Sacrament no wider no narrower than Christ hath made it they cannot be condemned It may be so wide as to let in the uncircumcised to the Passeover and bring Greeks into the Temple as they said of Paul It may be so narrow as to shut out fit and worthy Communicants for circumstances for meer ceremonies as in former times There is great difference between Christs real members and guests at this Table and as I may say the visible Churches members or guests If he be a visible Professour of faith unshipwrackt of capacity to discern the Lords body of life without scandal he is a guest of the Church and yet not haply a true member of Christ but a Jew outwardly in letter a Simon Magus a Judas an hypocrite We are not Domini but Dispensatores Lords of the Sacrament we are not Stewards we may be but the Steward cannot invite to his Masters Table whom the Master will not have his guest nor shut out any whom the Master hath invited The Priests that were partial in the Law did God make base and contemptible before the people Mal. 2. 9. and their partiality was in admitting the blinde lame and blemisht Sacrifices of the rich or of their friends Such partiality will embase the Ministers of Christ and the Lord taxes the Prophetesses for like partiality Ezek. 13. 19. For handfuls of barley and pieces of bread they slay the souls that should not die they save the souls alive that should not live These are the two extreams which as applied to our purpose is to shut the door against them that should come in and open the door to them that should not enter which if any do for handfuls of barley c. for partial respects and carnal ends their sin is great 4. If we look on the generality of people in this Land they are not prepared and which is worse they will not be How many are bruits for their knowledge and beasts for their lives The onely way to bring them and the Sacrament together is either to stoop the Ordinance to them and being so set on tilt I fear it will runne dregs or to elevate and lift them up to the Ordinance and that 's the only way to be attempted God grant successe When the ignorant superstitious prophane are weeded out the Garden will hardly look green These are they that hold up old corruptions Religion is nothing with them but an ancient custome or tradition received from father to son The high-places were not taken away for as yet the people had not prepared their heart to the God of their Fathers 2. Chron. 20. 33. For the frowardnesse of those places where security senslesnesse of spiritual things opposition is predominant this Rule would be laid That there
Heathenism and Idolatry yielded up themselves to learn the Doctrine and rule of Christianity and these were called Catechumenoi or hearers who were instructed and trained up to learn untill they had attained cum al quo profectu convenienti Aug. de Fide Operibus some convenient proficiency to become competontes that is to give up their names to be baptized till which they were alwaies dismist with Ite missa est when the faithfull went on to the Lords Table and the Officers thereto pertaining 2. The second sort were such as having been Communicants styled Fideles in opposition to the Catechumeni and Stantes in opposition to the Lapsi did afterwards lapse or fall into Heathenish Idolatry by offering to Idols and these were thurificati renegates or else they gave money to be excUsed from that abhorred act professing themselves Christians but they would buy it out and these were called Libellatici or they were traditores such as in Dioclesian's Forbes 649 c. 646. cruell time delivered up their Bibles to the fire or they fell into some atrocious and notorious sinne Heresie Whoredom Drunkenness Murder c. and these were seQuestred from the Lords Table and put to the School of repentance called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Balsamon the stairs or degrees of correction which were four through which they passed with weeping and sorrow some longer some shorter time till they were reconciled to the Church and so re-admitted to the Table Cyp. Epist 28 38 39 52. Cypr. de Orat. Dominica Yea and after the date and danger was out of being compel'd to offer to Idols in the times of Christian Emperours Chrysostom charges the Ministers under him that if they knew a man to offer himself to the Table that is a gross and open sinner they should prohibit him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. though he be a Lord Generall though a great Commander though he wear a Diadem as Ambrose forbad and interdicted Theodosius And if you say saith he I dare not do it then tell me of him Homil. 83. in Matth. and I for my part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. will part with my life before I will allow him the Lords Board 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us stave off all notorious persons absolutely Was this a copy of his particular zeal or rather a testimony of the ancient Discipline the vigour of which being drowned in the dead sea of Popery yet even therein the rubbish or skeleton thereof is seen by the Doctrine of their Schoolmen and by the Council of Trent which requires of necessity to a man in mortall sinne that he that will come to the Concil Trid. do praparat ad Euch. cap. 7. can 11. Mass must premise Auricular or Sacramentall confession and pennance for they also have their preparation to the Sacrament such as it is As for the Lutheran Churches they have an exploration of all what they understand of this Sacrament and before the Communion a certain confession of sinne which Chemnitius cals paenam institutam And as for Chem. Exa de praparat ad Euchar. the Churches of our Confession you may reade their Confessions and Books of Discipline and be satisfied I will instance only The Church of England English Liturgy Rubrick before Commun and after Confirmation by rule whereof no notorious and Obstinate offendour might be admitted nor none that had not their Catechism perfect which are the two points of ignorance and scandall If this rule had been followed and this Law put in execution the practice would have been no new thing in England as even the old rule is now by some accounted I conclude with that which one argues as out of the common rule of the Church in Austin's Epistle ad Januarium Austin Epist 118. Epist 118. That if there be such a course or force of sin in any man he is to be removed from the Lords board by the authority of the chief and put into the School of penitence till he be reconciled to the Church And so much be said of the evidence of Fact as appears in the rules of the Churches both ancient and later both corrupter and purer not that I or that I wish any else to be absolutely swayed by this Authority for there may be errour in the practice of the Church yea errour universally received as in that of giving this Sacrament to infants upon that ground Jeh 6. 53. Except ye eat the flesh c. ye have no life in you and yet it was the practice of the Church so to do both in Cyprians and Austin's time but I prove the evidence of Fact by this Argument otherwise not to be proved at all and I do not expect that any should condemn so ancient a practice nor think they do but rather do conceive that the bottom of the business is the disrellish of that Authority by which it is to be done Bucephalus will be ridden by none but Alexander and it was the saying of Cardinall Matheo Langi concerning Luther That the Church of Rome the Mass the Court the lives of Priests and Friers stood in need to be Reformed but that a poor rascall Monk meaning Luther Heilin Geog. in Bavaria should begin all that he deemed intollerable and not to be endured §. 6. The evidence of Scripture § 6 The second evidence is that of Scripture which is first in dignity but I put it second becaUse it justifies the Fact for the substance thereof and here it is confest that no Turk Jew Infidell is debarred by Reason of his Nation for Scythian and Barbarian bond and free are all one We are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles bond or free 1 Cor. 12. 13. and have been made to drink into one Spirit and therefore the word of the Gospel lies open to all Nations and people without partition wall such as between the Jews and others of old time but the barre lies in point of Religion for if they lie in their Idolatry and Infidelity though they may come to the Word yet not to the Table of the Lord. Who are to be kept from the Sacrament 1. The Jews that serve the Tabernacle and stick to the old Service under the Legall shadows are excepted We have an Altar or rather a Sacrifice Jesus Christ our sin-offering whereof they have no right to eat Heb. 13. 10. that is no right of Communion with us or Christ The place is difficult but easily cleared by Levit. 6. 30. for as the Priests that served at the Altar had no right to eat of the flesh of the sin-offering whose blood was brought into the Sanctuary but burnt it must be without the Camp so the Jews that hold to the Legall service have no right of eating the flesh of Christ whose blood was brought into the Holy place of heaven virtually and his body suffered without the gates of earthly Jerusalem thereby signifying
duty in that Jehojada 2 Chron. 23. 19. that set porters at the gates of the hoUse of the Lord that none that was unclean in any thing should enter in The diseased or dropick man is angry and frets sore against those that keep water from him but they are his best friends that do it 2. The admittance of ignorant malitious unclean scandalous drunkards blasphemers and such manifest works of the flesh of which it 's said that those that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5. 19 21. will render the Lords Table a common Ordinary a common lane a common shore and fill the Church of God and the society of Saints with all prodigious lusts and heresies as if it were a stie of unclean swine and what an ulcerous body would that Church be where such a common liberty doth reign when so many spoâ—s should be in your feasts of love Jude â—2 so much old leaven to leaven the lump by their example when as the Apostle in the case tels us a little leaven would do it and therefore purge it out saith he purge out 1 Cor. 5. 6. that leaven while it is little For as when the multitude a major part of a Town or City becomes infected who shall shut them up Si contagio peccandi multitudinem invaserit saith Austin then farewell all censures And therefore if any shall encourage the Church to keep as I may so say open hoUse in this Grotius de imperio pag. 233. case doth little less considering the corruption of men that would account such a liberty a warrant than if I should counsell you to plant weeds in your Garden or bring stones into your Vineyard 3. This would give occasion and advantage to separation and put into the hands of men an argument to withdraw from such society and communion and to rend themselves off from the body so corrupted not that I justifie separation upon such ground as I intend to shew hereafter for the people were blame-worthy that abhorred the offerings of the Lord for the wickedness of Eli his sonnes 1 Sam. 2. 17. and yet their wickedness was to be abhorred which gave the occasion Wo be to him by whom the offence cometh The Matth. 18. 7. mouth that blasphemeth the truth and way of God is wicked but the sin of him that opens that mouth is also to be condemned We are told Ezra 6. 21. that all such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the Heathen of the Land came to the Passeover and if we separate not from the filthinesse of the Heathen there are many that will separate from the filthinesse of the Church and we shall in vain call them back into a hoUse infected with the plague when once they are broken out 4. The Church hath little or none other way as the Church to keep the holy things from being profaned to correct the sins and lapses of her children Ezek. 22. 26. to preserve it self from being gangren'd to defend and wipe off scandals but this way of privation of priviledges and calling of the peccant from her Communion shutting this door against rebellious children and what should the Church have done all the while the Civil Magistrate gave no assistance if they had not Used this power of their own to maintain themselves free from scandals and heresies and to keep the credit of their corporation which otherwise would be the most contemptible corporation in the world and of no better credit than Algier or any City of miscreants for if God have deposited his Word and Ordinances with his Church and committed them to it the case is hard if they might not put to the door against unjust invaders of her priviledges as if one should commit a Vineyard to be kept and not allow a hedge to be made about it Now all men know that almost all the coercion or correction that lies in the Churches hand is the debarment of priviledges of the Church that is of the Sacraments for the Word lies open to all as the outward Court to all comers and as for civil punishments they are neither proper nor the Churches the rod belongs to Moses And whereas it may be said The Church hath the word of God and by that they denounce judgement declare sinne wound the profane prohibit the unworthy from this Table I grant it and it is a necessary and proper means but withall I say If a City or Common-wealth have Laws proclaimed and expounded and penalties set forth and declared but no execution of any restraint or punishment no power to correct or punish I need not tell you how full we should be of thieves and felons for all that Thus much be said in confirmation and maintenance of my general Position That the Lords Supper is a barred Ordinance which I have endeavoured to make good by evidence of Fact by evidence of Scripture and by evidence of Reason for the satisfaction of your scruples if any be and the settling of animosities Much more might have been said and argued upon the point For if the very Heathens in their idolatrous Sacrifices by their light of Reason did no lesse as appears by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Callimachus Callimachus and Procul ô procul este profani in Virgil Away away all you that are profane If both Heathens and the Church of God had some that did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 survey the Sacrifices that they had no blemish that might disable them from being presented to God If in the Olympick games or masteries Chrysost hom 17. ad heâ— the Crier made Proclamation If any man come out and accUse this Combatant or Antagonist that he is a thief a slave c. being a dishonour for a Gentleman a Free-man to enter lists with such a fellow If the old Druids in France had a form of Excommunication Caesar Commentaries out of their Society and it was accounted a mighty punishment If the Essens a Sect among the Jews in Christs time had it in Use to cast out of their Society such as were offensive as Josephus tels us If the Synagogues had a form of dissynagoguing offences Grot. de imp pag. 232. though they abUsed it as all Church-censures are when they spare the carrion-Crows and vex the Doves I say if all this and much more why then should this be accounted a new and unreasonable either Doctrine or practice I end this point with a reQuest That every one of you would rather labour and study to prevent all occasion of using this course than to remove the old Land-marks §. 8. Who may not be denied this Ordinance The second general Position is this That though this Sacrament be a barred Ordinance denied to some yet it cannot be denied to any baptized visible Professour of the Gospel but upon such grounds and in such manner and order as God hath appointed or allowed And this takes off the
Hezekiah his Passeover in the second moneth 2 Chron. 30. Many in the Congregation were not sanctified vers 17. Many came out of the Tribes of Israel which had not cleansed themselves they did eat the Passeover otherwise than it was written vers 18. Here you see it was not so well as it ought but it was as well as it could at that time and therefore Hezekiah pray'd The good Lord pardon every one that prepares his heart to seek God though he be not according to the purification of the Sanctuary and the Lord healed the people vers 20. And therefore to speak more particularly to the point I cannot counsel but bewail the intermission of the Lords Supper in such Churches where there are a number of worthy Communicants at least visibly though there be no power of juridical exclusion of the unworthy The Helvetian or Switzerland Churches claim to be Churches and have the notes of Word and Sacraments though this order of Discipline be not setled among them and I am not he that shall blot out their name There is an expresse command Do this and a very great obligation There is an excellent benefit of this Ordinance which if it stirre up the thirst of Gods people to desire or rather claim it at the Ministers hand I see no ground for the refusal I know the Sacraments of ordinary Use were intermitted in the wildernesse wholly or mostly and they were recompensed with extraordinary 1 Cor. 10. but that arose on another occasion than this I speak of for alas How many Churches in England or if you will good Christians in them shall everlastingly be deprived of this high Ordinance and the benefit of it shall lie under the temptation of separation shall lose this mark of a Church and shall in effect be equally debarred of this Communion with Christ as wicked men are and that also not for any default of theirs but for their unhappiness of being planted in a Vineyard that wants a wall or hedge § 3 2. A particular Church having administration of the Word and Sacraments is not bound alwayes to want a hedge pale or door unto the Supper of the Lord in case the Civil Power is not pleased to intermeddle or interpose in these affairs but are as I conceive bound to Use all warrantable means to preserve their society from infection and scandal and the Ordinance from undue invasion by giving up themselves to such inspection as God hath entrusted it with and themselves have chosen and by associating themselves with other Churches of God that the unity may be preserved of the body of Christ for the Arch is firm by the mutual support of the stones and their joyning to the top-stone For the Church is a body or society with which God hath deposited his Ordinances and given it power to meet and assemble themselves together for performance of them and it were a wonder that they should not have a power of exercising them in a right manner I do not arrogate unto the Church any the least power of outward force or coercion for that belongs to him that bears the Sword who if he do not give effect to the censures of the Church yet they have their effect by the consent of the Church it self Ex Disciplina confederata as they say which is that by which he that consents to be of that body is subject to the Laws and Rules of it and is cut off if he prove a rotten member To give light to this point How stood the Discipline of Synagogues from which I am apt to think our Christian Churches took much of their pattern They had a power to discommon their own members and it seems to me that their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or agreement among themselves was that which gave effect to their censures Joh 9. 22. And what is the government of Colledges Corporations and petty Courts in Countrey-villages where the by-Laws and amerciaments and penalties are by agreement north warting the municipal Laws of the Commonwealth He that will enjoy the priviledges and freedoms of such a body must be subject to the Rules and Laws of that society and so the Christian Churches under Heathen Emperours could do no more but disfranchize their own members from the priviledges of the Church of which body they had by their own consent come in to be members and so submitted themselves to them The Emperours gave not this power to the Church but God who gave them his great Charter to be a City and Corporation of his own did eo ipso give them this power without which they might be a Cyclops den or chaos but not a regular Society And upon this ground as I conceive the Apostle reproves the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 1 Cor. 5. for not doing those things to prevent scandal which they were impowred and enabled to have done as a Church of Christians And if any man had been of such stomack or disposition in those times as not to have cared a straw for those Church-censures so long as the Civil power toucht him not in purse body liberty it was enough to proclaim him fitter for to be a Heathen than a Christian For it 's admirable to consider as it is most evident That a Church censure a Suspension from the Communion of the Church wrought more sorrow and trouble and heart-breaking than the fire and faggot of the persecution In conclusion and upon the whole matter as he said of the Romans they must redire ad casas return to their poor shepherd cottages again So I say that in case of this necessity when the Civil power contributes not assistance or furtherance to the Church she must consider the case of the primitive Churches and what intrinsecally belongs to her to do as a corporation or body of Gods making with no other power of self preservation from scandals of members but purging them out nor from injuries of forreiners but suffering § 4 3. Every particular member of the Church ought to withdraw or refrain from such conversation with a scandalous brother as may either give occasion of scandal to others or infection to himself The Apostle allows civil commerce or entercourse with Heathens and Infidels if we live among them and the bonds of natural and civil relations or duties must not be violated on pretence of Christianity but an arbitrary familiar and intimate society or fellowship with them that live or act scandalously doth but soil our selves harden them offend sober Christians It 's a caution much inculcate in Scripture Withdraw from every brother that walks disorderly 2 Thess 3. 6. Have no company with them that they may be ashamed vers 14. Turn away from such wicked formalists as have no power of godlinesse and under the form of it are so wicked 2 Tim. 3. 5. With a brother that 's scandalous no not to eat 1 Cor. 5. 9 12 Them that caUse divisions and scandals mark and avoid them Rom. 16.
Church be beautifull for all that The Scripture gives us a perfect delineation of the Church as it ought to be in Rules of faith and holinesse but yet shews us plainly that it being Gods pleasure that the Net should gather both good and bad and the servants inviting to the marriage did bring in both good and bad it must needs be consequent that many of those that are called are not chosen That all that are of Israel are not Israel Had not this mixture served more to Gods glory even the glory of his inwardly discriminating grace it is likely it had not been So that as they say of the Hebrew Greek Latine these Languages may be pure in books but hardly to be found purely spoken by any Nation now in the world so are the rules of faith and life pure and perfect in the Word and yet not so perfectly Observed by the visible Church And if a man suppose that a number or Colony of really holy persons might be pickt out of the Churches and embody themselves into a Church Are they sure this would be answerable to their fancy Did not the Donatists dream so of themselves And what may one think of their children in time Doth not the purest seed we sow come up with straw and chaff If they hold Communion with the visible Church Is it not all one If they do not Is it not worse and more clearly without warrant § 5 The Church may be corrupted many wayes in Doctrine Ordinances Worship and this I account the worst becaUse it is the corruption of the best as the corruption of bloud that runnes thorow all the body the poisoning of Springs and Rivers that run thorow a Nation is worse than a sore finger in the body or a ground of thistles in the Nation and there are degrees of this corruption the Doctrine in some remote points hay and stubble upon the foundation the Worship in some rituals or rites of mens invention or custom How many Scripture Churches do ye finde thus corrupted and yet no Separation of Christ from the Jewish Church nor any commanded to the godly of Corinth in the Provinces of Galatia or those of Asia in the Revelation I must in such case avoid the corruption hold the Communion Hear them in Moses chair and yet beware of their leaven but if corruptions invade the fundamentals the foundation of Doctrine is destroyed the worship is become idolatrous the leprosie is gotten into the wals and substance of the hoUse and which is above all If the Church impose such Laws of their Communion as there is necessity of doing or approving things unlawfull or I am ruin'd and undone then must I either break with God or men and in that case Come out of Babylon The Churches of Protestants so separated from them of Rome it was a necessary and just Separation the Lawes of their Communion were ruinous to the soul if we hold it to the body and life if we held it not § 6 In summe then and in conclusion of this part about Doctrine or Worship which is but upon the bie to the Question If a corrupt Church as Israel was have their Ordinances according to the patern in the Mount If it may be said as Peter to Christ John 6. 68. when some Disciples separated themselves Thou hast the words of eternal life If as Christ said in matter of Worship John 4. Salvation is of the Jews than as he said Whether shall we go Why do we separate And yet I would not be mistaken by the simplest man as if I accounted it separation if a Christian hear a Sermon or receive the Sacrament in another Congregation For he that takes a meal at another Table doth not thereby separate from his own hoUse or if a Christian at liberty to dispose his dwelling shall remove and sit down under more fruitfull Ordinances I account not this secession a Separation no more than if being sickly and having not health in the City he remove his seat into the Countrey for purer air becaUse in so doing he removes from the City but renounces not his freedom therein nor disclaims in like proportion the Communion of the Church §. 7. Of Separation § 7 But now to the point of Separation becaUse there is found not kept in the Communion of the Church but not cast out of it some scandalous for life and conversation visibly unworthy of the Ordinance of the Supper For let it be granted that in Adams family there be a Cain in Noahs a Cham in Christs a Judas and if Cain go forth yet Adam doth not Noah doth not Christ doth not Let them be separated let not me separate my self Let the wicked be discommon'd not the godly for the godly are in the right and may stand in it as a man at his own table in his own hoUse or in his own ground If others that ought not do intrude it 's they that must be excluded for they are trespassers not he that 's owner and in his right It 's very true say you but they are not cast out I answer There may be sufficient caUse to cast out Obstinate sinners and yet not sufficient caUse for me to leave the Church I finde that God accepts of such that sigh and cry for all the abominations that are done in Jerusalem Ezek. 9. 4. That God commands us To have no fellowship with the unfruitfull works of darkness but reprove them rather Ephes 5. 11. That he wils us To withdraw from them that walk disorderly and commends it 2 Thess 3. 6. That he bids his people Plead with their mother plead Hos 2. 2. These are duties for private Christians to performe in this case but I finde not that they must separate from Communion in Ordinances upon that caUse For I pray you consider 1. Haply there is no Rule in the Word or no proof by sufficient evidence of the fact or no competent Authority by which such a sinner as thou instancest in may be cast out And shall this be done disorderly Shall one disorder be rectified by another 2. Thou for thy part hast no power to cast him out and every member must not usurp and snatch the power of Excommunication to himself for then as he usurps the Sacrament so thou usurpest the Keys he unworthily thou unlawfully 3. It may be the sinne of the Church that such are not cast out but is that sinne a just caUse of thy Separation I have a few things against thee thou hast them that hold the Doctrine of Balaam thou hast them that hold the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans saith Christ to the Church of Pergamus Revel 2. 14 15. Thou sufferest that woman Jezabel to seduce my servants and commit fornication saith he to the Church in Thyatyra vers 20. but upon the rest that are free I put no other burden Hold fast till I come But where is any separation commanded in this case Not any And for the Church of