spatious and great roome and so it should bee for it was a great Supper the Supper of a King The Disciples were then the type representative of the whole Catholick Church which was now by them to be begotten unto God and therfore the Chamber must needs be a resemblance and Modell of the whole world throughout which the sound of Christs name and the memory of his passion should in his Supper be celebrated untill the end of all things and then no marvell if it were a great Chamber Lastly it was ready spread fitted trimmed and prepared So sacred a mysterie as this may not be exhibited in an unfitted or uncleane place much lesse received into a corrupt and unprepared soule The body of Christ was never to see corruption and therefore it will never be mix'd with corruption It lay first in a cleane womb it was after buried in a virgin Sepulcher it then was taken into the brightest heavens and it still resides in molten and purifide hearts He that had the purity of a Dove will never take up the loding of a Crow Here then we see from these circumstances with what reverence and preparation with what affection and high esteeme we should receive these sacred mysteries The gift of a dying friend though of contemptible value is yet greatly prized for the memory of the donor for though the thing it selfe be small yet is it the pledge of a great love The words of a dying man though formerly vile and vaine are for the most part serious and grave how much more pretious was the gift of Christ who is the Almoner of Almighty God and whose only businesse it was to give gifts unto men how much more sacred were his last words who all his life time spake as never man spake The very presence of a dying man estamps on the mind an affection of feare and awe much more should the words and gifts of him who was dead and is alive againe Certainly he hath a flinty soule whom love as strong as death and death the work of that love cannot melt into a sympathie of affection In summe the Time of this Sacrament was a time of passion let not us be stupid it was a time of passeover let not our soules be unsprinkled it was a time of unleavened bread let not our doctrine of it be adulterated with the leaven of heresie not our soules in receiving tainted with the leaven of malice it was the time of betraying Christ let not our hands againe play the Iudas by delivering him unto jewish and sinfull soules which will crucifie againe unto themselves the Lord of glory let not us take that pretious blood into our hands rather to shed it than to drink it and by receiving the body of Christ unworthily make it as the sop was to Iudas even an harbenger to provide roome for Satan Againe the place of the Sacrament was a high Roome let not our soules lie sinking in a dungeon of sin it was a great roome let not our soules be straightned in the entertaining of Christ it was a trimmed roome let not oursoules be sluttish and uncleane when then the King of glory should enter in but as the Author of those mysteries was holy by a fulnesse of grace the elements holy by his blessing the tyme holy by his ordination and the place holy by his presence so let us by the receiving of them bee transformed as it were into their nature and bee holy by that union unto Christ of which they are as well the instrumentall meanes whereby it is increased as the seales and pledges whereby it is confirm'd CHAP. VII Of the matter of the Lords Supper Bread and Wine with their Analogie unto Christ. WEE have considered the Author or efficient of this Sacrament and those circumstances which were annexed unto its Institution we may now a little consider the essentiall parts of it and first the elements or matter of which it conconsisteth consecrated bread wine it neither stood with the outwad poverrty of Christ nor with the benefit of the Church to institute such sumptuous and gaudy elements as might possesse too much the sense of the beholder and too little resemble the quality of the Saviour And therefore he choose his Sacraments rather for the fitnesse than the beauty of them as respecting more the end than the splendor or riches of his Table and intended rather to manifest his divine power in altering poore elements unto a pretious use than to exhibit any carnall pompe in such delicious fare as did not agree with the spiritualnesse of his Kingdome Though he be contented out of tendernesse toward our weaknesse to stoop unto our senses yet he will not cocker them as in his reall and naturall body so in his representative the Sacrament a sensuall or carnall eye sees not either forme or beauty for which it may bee desired Pictures ought to resemble their originalls and the Sacrament wee know is the picture or type of him who was a man of sorrow and this picture was drawne when the day of Gods fierce wrath was upon him and can we then expect from it any satisfaction or pleasure to the senses this body was naked on the Crosse it were incongruous to have the Sacrament of it pompous on the Table As it was the will of the Father which Christ both glorifies and admires to reveale unto babes what hee hath hidden from the wise so is it here his wisedome to communicate by the meanest Instruments what he hath denied unto the choisest delicates to feed his Daniels rather with poâ—lse than with all the dainties on the Kings table And if we observe it divine miracles take ever the poorest meanest subjects to manifest themselves on If he want an army to protect his Church flies frogs and catterpillers and lamps and pitchers c. shall be the strongest souldiers and weapons he useth the lame and the blind the dumb and the dead water clay these are materialls for his power even where thou seest the instruments of God weakest there expect and admire the more abundant manifestation of his greatnesse wisedome undervalue not then the Bread and Wine in this holy Sacrament which doe better resemble the benefits of Christ crucified than any other the choisest delicateâ— Bread and Wine the element is double to encrease the comfort of the faithfull that by two things wherin it is impossible for God to deceive wee might have strong consolation who have laid hold upon him The dreame is doubled said Iosâ—ph to Pharoah because the thing is certaine and surely here the element is doubled too that the grace may be the more certaine No marvell then if those men who deny unto the people the certainty of grace deny unto them likewise these double elements so fit is it that they which preached but a halfe comfort should administer
proportion betweene the holy Actions used by Christ in this Sacrament and Christ himselfe who is the substance of it IT followes now that we enquire farther into the nature of this holy Sacrament which will be explained by considering the Analogie fitnesse and similitude betweene the signes and the things signified by them and conferred or exhibited together with them which is Christ the Lord. Now this Analogie or fitnesse as it hath been in some generall manner expres'd in the nature or quality of the elements substantially or physically taken so more expressely and punctually is it propos'd unto us in those holy actions which doe alter in the use and make it a Sacrament And first we finde that Christ tooke the Bread and Wine and blessed it and gave thanks and so consecrated it or set a part unto a holy or solemne use which is the reason why Saint Paul calls it a Cup of blessing so that unto the Church it ceaseth to be that which nature had made it and beginnes to be that unto which the blessing had consecrated it In like manner did the eternall Sonne of God assume into the subsistance of his owne infinite person the whole nature of man the body and the soule by the vertue of which wonderfull union notwithstanding the properties of the divine nature remaine absolutely intransient and uncommunicable unto the humane yet are there shed from that inexhaustible fountaine many high and glorious endowments by which the humanity under this manner of subsistence is annoynted consecrated sealed and set apart for that work of incomprehensible love and power the redemption of the world and secondly as the Bread is taken by us from Christ in the nature of a gift he brake it and gave it to his Disciples so is the humane nature taken by Christ from the Father as a gift from the good pleasure of God Thirdly as the taking of the Bread by Christ did alter only the manner of its being the operation and efficacy the dignity and use but no way at all the element or nature of the Bread Even so the taking of the humane body by Christ did conferre indeed upon it many glorious effects and advance it to an estate farre above its common and ordinary capacity alwayes yet reserving those defects and weaknesses which were required in the aeconomie and dispensation of that great work for which he assumed it but yet he never alterd the essentiall and naturall qualities of the body but kept it still within the measure and limits of the created perfection which the wisdome of God did at first share out unto it Lastly to come neerer unto the Crosse of Christ as hee did by prayer and thanksgiving consecrate their elements unto a holy use so did he immediately before his passion of which this is the Sacrament make that consecratory prayer and thanksgiving which is registred for the perpetuall comfort of his Church The second Action is the breaking of the Bread and powering the Wine into the Cup which doth neerly expresse his crucified Body where the joynts were loosed the sinewes torne the flesh bruized and peirced the skin rent the whole frame violated by that straining and razeing and cutting and stretching and wrentching which was used in the crucifying of it and by the shedding of that pretious blood which stop'd the issue and flux of ours It were infinite and intricare to spin a meditation into a controversie about the extent and nature of Christs passion but certainly whatsoever either Ignominie or Agony his body suffered which two â— conceive to comprize all the generalls of Christ crucified are if not particularly expressed yet typically and sacramentally shaddowed and exhibited in the Bread broken and the Wine powred out The third Action was the giving or delivering of the Bread and Wine which first evidently expresseth the nature and quality of Christ crucified with these benefits which flow from him that they are freely bestowed upon the Church which of it selfe had no interest or claime unto any thing save death Secondly we see the nature of Christs passion that it was a free voluntary and unconstrained passion for though it be true that Iudas did betray him and Pilate deliver him to bee crucified yet none of this was the giving of Christ but the selling of him It was not for us but for mony that Iudas deliver'd him it was not for us but for feare that Pilate deliver'd him but God deliver'd the Sonne and the Sonne deliver'd himselfe with a most mercifull and gracious will to bestow his death upon sinners and not to get but to be himselfe a price The Passion then of Christ was most freely undertaken without which free-will of his own they could never have laid hold on him and his death was a most free and voluntary explication his life was not wrentched nor wrung from him nor snatch'd or torne from him by the bare violence of any forraine Impression but was with a loud voice arguing nature not brought to utter decay most freely surrendred and laid downe by that power which did after reassume it But how then comes it to passe that there lay a necessicie upon Christ of suffring which necessicie may seeme to have enforc'd and constrain'd him to Golgatha in as much as hee himselfe did not only shrinke but even testifie his dislike of what he was to suffer by a redoubled prayer unto his Father that that Cup might passe from him doth not feare make Actions involuntary or at least derogate and detract from the fulnesse of their liberty and Christ did feare how then is it that Christs Passion was most voluntary though attended with necessitie feare and reluctance surely it was most voluntary still and first therefore necessary because voluntary the maine and primitive reason of the necessitie being nothing else but that immutable will which had fore-decreed it Christs death then was necessary by a necessitie of the event which musts needs come to passe after it had once been fore-determined by that most wise will of God which never useth to repent him of his counsells but not by a necessitie of the cause which was most free and voluntary Againe necessary it was in regard of the Scriptures whose truth could not miscarry in regard of the promises made of him which were to be performed in regard of propheticall predictions which were to be fulfilled in regard of typicall prefigurations which were to bee abrogated and seconded with that substance which they did fore-shaddow but no way necessary in opposition to Christs will which was the first mover into which both this necessitie and all the causes of it are to be finally resolv'd And then for the fear and reluctance of Christ noe marvell if he who was in all things like unto us had his share in the same passions and affections like wise though without sin But neither of
by which we fell from it Satan and Death did first assault our eare and then tooke possession of us by the mouth Christ and faith chose no other gates to make a re-entry and dispossesse them Thus as skilfull Physitians doe often cure a body by the same meanes which did first distemper it quench heats with heat and stop one flux of blood by opening another so Christ that he may quell Satan at his owne weapons doth by the same instruments and actions restore us unto our primitive estate by which he had hurried us downe from it That those mouthes which were at first open to let in death may now much more be open not only to receive but to praise him who is made unto us the Author and Prince of life CHAP. XII Inferences of Practice from the consideration of the former Actions THESE are all the holy actions we finde to have been by Christ and his Apostles celebrated in the great mystery of this Supper all other humane accessions and superstructions that are by the policy of Satan and that carnall affection which ever laboureth to reduce Gods service unto an outward and pompous gaudinesse foisted into the substance of so divine a work are all of them that straw and stubble which hee who is a consuming fire will at last purge away Impotent Christ was not that he could not nor malignant that hee would not appoint nor improvident that he could not foresee the needfulnesse of such actions which are by some proposed not as matter of ornament comelinesse and ceremony a thing left ever arbitrary to the Church but are obtruded on consciences swayed with superstitious pompousnesse for matters substantiall and necessary to be observed As if God who in the first Creation of the world from nothing did immediately after the work produc'd cease from all manner of further Creations did in the second creation of the world from sinne not finish the work himselfe but leave it imperfect to be by another consummated and finished Certainly whatsoever humane Inventions doe claime direct proper and immediate subscription of Conscience and doe propose themselves as essentiall or integrall or any way necessary parts of divine mysteries they doe not onely rob God of his honour and intrude on his Soveraignty but they doe farther lay on him the aspersion of an imperfect Saviour who standeth in need of the Churches concurrence to consummate the work which he had begunne Away then with those Actions of elevation adoration oblation circumgestation mimâ—call gestures silent whisperings and other the like incroachments in the supposed proper and reall sacrifice of Christ in the Masse wherein I see not how they avoyd the guilt of Saint Pauls fearfull observation To crucifie againe the Lord of glory and put him unto an open shame In which things as in sundry others they do nothing else but imitate the carnall ordinances of the Jewes and the Heathenish will-worship of the Ethnicks who thought rather by the motions of their bodies than by the affections of their hearts to wind into the opinion and good liking of their Gods Certainly affectation of Pomp Ceremony and such other humane superstructions on the divine institution I alwaies except Ecclesiasticall observances which being imposed for order and used with decencie Paucity and indifferencie are not lawfull only but with respect to the Authority which requires them obligatory also I say all other pompous accumulations unto the substance of Christs Sacramentr are by Tertullian made the characters and presumptions of an Idolatrous service True it is indeed that the Ancients make mention out of that fervour of Love and Piety towards so sacred mysteries of Adoration at them and of carrying the remainders of them unto the absent Christians but as in other things so here likewise wee finde it most true that things by devout men begunne piously and continued with zeale doe after when they light in the handling of men otherwise qualified degenerate into superstition the forme purpose end and reason of their observation being utterly neglected It being the contrivance of Satan to raise his Temple after the same forme and with the same materialls whereof â—ods consisteth to pretend the practice of the Saints for the enforcement of his owne Projects to transforme himselfe into an Angel of light that hee may the easier mislead unstable and wandring soules and to retaine at least a forme of Godlinesse that he may with lesse clamor and reluctancy with-draw the substance And as in many other things so hath hee herein likewise abus'd the Piety of the best men unto the furtherance of his owne ends That Adoration which they in and at the mysteries did exhibit unto Christ himselfe as indeed they could not choose a better time to worship him in he impiously derives upon the creature and makes it now to bee done not so much at as unto the elements making them as well the terme and object as occasion of that worship which is due only to the Lord of the Sacrament That carrying about and reserving of the Eucharist which the primitive Christians used for the benefit of those who either by sicknesse or by persecutions were with-held from the meetings of the Christians as in those dayes many were is by him now turned into an Idolatrous circumgestation that at the sight of the Bread the people might direct unto it that worship which is due only to the person whose passion it representeth but whose honour it neither challengeth nor knoweth and certainly if wee veiw the whole fabrick either of Gentilisme or Heresie we shall observe the methods and contrivances of Satan most often to drive at this point that either under pretence of divine truth or under imitation of divine Institutions retaining the same materiall Actions which God requires or with the godly have piously or upon temporary reasons observed he may convay into the hearts of men his owne poyson and imprint an opinion of holinesse towards his owne devices for howsoever his power and tyranny have done much mischiefe to Gods Church yet his master-peece is that cunning and deceit which the Scriptures so often takes notice of Secondly we see here what maner of men wee ought to be in imitation of these blessed Actions that we may be conformable unto the death of Christ. First as he when hee took these elements did consecrate them unto a holy use so we when we receive them should first consecrate our selves with thanksgiving and prayer unto a holy life For if not only amongst Christians but even amongst Heathens themselves it hath been by the Law of nature receiv'd for a religious custome not to eat their ordinary food without blessing and prayer with how much more fervency of prayer should we call upon the name of the Lord when we take this Cup of salvation this bread of life wherein we doe not only taste how gratious the Lord is but
onely in holy Scriptures but even in prophane Writers also to call the instrumentall Elements by the name of that Covenant of which they are onely the Sacrifices seales and visible confirmations because of that relation and neere resemblance that is betweene them The second End or Effect of this Sacrament which in order of Nature immediately followeth the former is to obsignate and to encrease the mysticall union of the Church unto Christ their Head for as the same operation which infuseth the reasonable soule which is the first act or principle of life naturall doth also unite it unto the body to the making up of one man so the same Sacrament which doth exhibite Christ unto us who is the first act and originall of life divine doth also unite us together unto the making up of one Church In naturall nourishment the vitall heate being stronger than the resistance of the meat doth macerate concoct and convert that into the substance of the Body but in this spirituall nourishment the vitall Spirit of Christ having a heate invincible by the coldnesse of Nature doth turne us into the same image and quality with it selfe working a fellowship of affections and confederacy of wills and as the body doth from the union of the soule unto it receive strength beauty motion and the like active qualities so also Christ being united unto us by these holy mysteries doth comfort refresh strengthen rule and direct us in all our waies Wee all in the vertue of that Covenant made by God unto the faithfull and to their seed in the first instant of our being doe belong unto Christ that bought us after in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of Baptisme we are farther admitted and united to him our right unto Christ before was generall from the benefit of the common Covenant but in this Sacrament of Baptisme my right is made personall and I now lay claime unto Christ not onely in the right of his common Promise but by the efficacy of this particular Washing which sealeth and ratifieth the Covenant unto mee Thus is our first union unto Christ wrought by the grace of the Covenant effectively and by the grace of Baptisme where it may bee had Instrumentally the one giving unto Christ the other obsignating and exhibiting that right by a farther admission of us into his Body But now wee must conceive that as there is a union unto Christ so there must as in naturall bodies be after that union a growing up till wee come to our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the measure of the fulnesse of Christ. This growth being an effect of the vitall faculty is more or lesse perfected in us as that is either more or lesse stifled or cherished for as in the soule and body so in Christ and the Church We are not to conceive the union without any latitude but capable of augmentation and liable to sundry diminutions according as are the severall meanes which for either purpose wee apply unto our selves The union of the soule and body though not dissolved is yet by every the least distemper slackned by some violent diseases almost rended asunder so that the body hath sometimes more sometimes lesse hold-fast of the soule so heere wee are in the Covenant and in Baptisme united unto Christ but wee must not forget that in men there is by Nature a roote of bitternesse whence issue those fruites of the flesh a spawne and wombe of actuall corruptions where sinne is daily conceived and brought forth a mare mortuum a lake of death whence continually arise all manner of noysome and infectious lusts by meanes of which our Union to Christ though not dissolved is yet daily weakened and stands in need of continuall confirmation for every sinne doth more or lesse smother and stoppe the principle of life in us so that it cannot worke our growth which we must rise unto with so free and interrupted a course as otherwise it might The Principle of life in a Christian is the very same from whence Christ himselfe according to his created Graces receiveth life and that is the Spirit of Christ a quickning Spirit and a strengthening Spirit Now as that great sinne which is incompatible with faith doth bidde defiance to the good Spirit of God and therefore is more especially called The sinne against the holy Ghost so every sinne doth in its owne manner and measure quench the Spirit that it cannot quicken and grieve the Spirit that it cannot strengthen us in that perfection of degrees as it might otherwise and thus is our union unto Christ daily loosened and slackened by the distempers of sinne for the reestablishing whereof God hath appointed these sacred Mysteries as effectuall instruments where they meet with a qualified subject to produce a more firme and close union of the Soule to Christ and to strengthen our Faith which is the joynt and sinew by which that union is preserved to cure those i wounds and purge those iniquities whose property it is to separate betwixt Christ and us to make us submit our services to knit our wils to conforme our affections and to incorporate our persons into him that so by constant though slow proceedings we might be changed from glory to glory and attaine unto the measure of Christ there where our Faith can no way bee impaired our bodies and soules subject to no decay and by consequence stand in no need of any such viaticums as wee heere use to strengthen us in a journey so much both above the Perfection and against the corruption of our present Nature CHAP. XIV Of three other Ends of the holy Sacrament the fellowship or union of the faithfull the obsignation of the Covenant of Grace and the abrogation of the Passeover NOW as the same nourishment which preserveth the Union betweene the Soule and Body or head and members doth in like manner preserve the Union betweene the members themselves even so this Sacrament is as it were the sinew of the Church whereby the faithfull being all animated by the same Spirit that makes them one with Christ are knit together in a bond of Peace conspiring all in a unity of thoughts and desires having the same common Enemies to withstand the same common Prince to obey the same common rule to direct them the same common way to passe the same common Faith to vindicate and therefore the same mutuall engagements to further and advance the good of each other so that the next immediate effect of this Sacrament is to confirme the Union of all the members of the Church each to other in a Communion of Saints whereby their prayers are the more strengthened and their adversaries the more resisted for as in naturall things Union strengtheneth motions naturall and weakeneth violent so in the Church Union strengtheneth all spirituall motions whether upward as meditations and prayers to God or downeward as
reason is because wheresoever Nature hath left a capacity of receiving farther perfection from some other thing there she hath imprinted an appetite to that thing and there is such a sympathy betweene the faculties of Nature that the indigence of one sets all the rest on motion to supply it Now what thing was there ever more beneficiall unto mankinde than the Death of Christ in comparison whereof all other things are as drosse and dung The name and fruite and hope of a Christian would be all but shadowes if Christ had not dyed By his humility are wee exalted by his curse are wee blessed by his bondage are wee made free by his stripes are wee healed we who were vessels of dishonour had all our miseries emptied into him in whom dwelled the fulnesse of the Godhead Whatsoever evils hee suffered ours was the propriety to them but the paine was his all that Ignominy and Agony which was unworthy so honourable a Person as Christ was necessary for so vile a sinner as man Infinite it is and indeed impossible to take a full view of all the benefits of Christ Death yet because the remembrance of Christs Death heere is nothing else but a recordation of those unvaluable blessings which by meanes of it were together with his holy Bloud shed downe upon the Church I will touch a little upon the principall of them That Christ Jesus is unto his Church the Authour and Originall of all spirituall Life the deliverer that should come out of Sion that should set at liberty his People spoile Principalities and Powers lead Captivity captive take from the strong man all his armour and divide the spoiles is a Trueth so clearely written with a Sun-beame that no Craconian Heretique daâ—e deny it Let us then see by what meanes he doth all this and wee will not heere speake of that worke whereby Christ having formerly purchased the Right doth afterwards conferre and actually apply the benefit and interest of that right unto his members which is the worke of his quickening Spirit but onely of those meanes which hee used to procure the right it selfe and that was in generall Christs Merit The whole conversation of Christ on the earth was nothing else but a continued merit proceeding from a double estate an estate of Ignominy and Passion procuring and an estate of Exaltation and honour applying his benefits The Passion of Christ was his Death whereby I understand not that last act onely of expiration but the whole space betweene that and his Nativity wherein being subject to the Law of Death and to all those naturall infirmities which were the Harbingers of Death hee might in that whole space bee as truly called A man of Death as Adam was a dead man in the vertue of the Curse that very day beyond which notwithstanding hee lived many hundred yeares that which we call Death being nothing else but the consummation of it The estate of exaltation is the Resurrection of Christ whereby the efficacy of that merit which was on the Crosse consummated is publikely declared and his Intercession wherein it is proposed and presented unto God the Father as an eternall Price and Prayer in the behalfe of his Church Now the Benefits which by this merit of Christs we receive are of severall kindes Some are Privative consisting in an immunity from all those evils which wee were formerly subject unto whether of sinne or punishment others are Positive including in them a right and interest unto all the Prerogatives of the sonnes of God The one is called an Expiation Satisfaction Redemption or Deliverance The other a Purchase and free Donation of some excellent blessing Redemption thus distinguished is either a Redemption of Grace from the bondage and tyranny of Sinne or a Redemption of Glory from the bondage of Corruption and both these have their parts and latitudes for the first In Sinne we may consider three things The state or masse of sinne the Guilt or damnablenesse of sinne and the Corruption staine or deformity of sinne The state of sinne is a state of deadnesse or immobility in Nature towards any good the understanding is dead and disabled for any spirituall perception the will is dead and disabled for any holy propension the affections are dead and disabled for any pursute the body dead and disabled for any obedient Ministery and the whole man dead and by consequence disabled for any sense of its owne death And as it is a state of death so it is a state of enmity too and therefore in this state wee are the objects of Gods hatred and detestation so then the first part of our Deliverance respects us as we are in this state of death and enmity and it is as I said before a double Deliverance negative by removing us out of this estate and positive by constituting us in another which is an estate of life and reconcilement First the understanding is delivered from the bondage of ignorance vanity worldly wisedome misperswasions carnall principles and the like and is after removall of this darknesse and vaile opened to see and acknowledge both its owne Darkenesse and the evidence of that Light which shines upon it Our wils and affections are delivered from that disability of embracing or pursuing of divine Objects and from that love of darknesse and prosecution of evill which is naturally in them and after this are wrought unto a sorrow and sense of their former estate to a desire and love of Salvation and of the meanes thereof with a resolution to make use of them and the whole man is delivered from the estate of Death and enmity unto an estate of Life and Reconciliation by being adopted for the sonnes of God of these Deliverances Christ is the Authour who worketh them as I observed by a double Causality the one that whereby he meriteth them the other that whereby hee conveyeth and transfuseth that which hee had merited This conveying cause is our Vocation wrought by the Spirit of Christ effectively by the Word of Life and Gospell of Regeneration instrumentally by meanes of both which this latter as the seed that other as the formative vertue that doth vegetate and quicken the seed are wee from dead men engrafted into Christ and of enemies made sonnes and Coheires with Christ but the meritorious cause of all this was that Price which Christ laid downe whereby he did ransome us from the estate of Death and purchase for us the Adoption of sonnes for every Ransome and Purchase which are the two acts of our Redemption are procured by the lâ—ying downe of some Price valuable to the thing ransomed and purchased Now this Price was the precious Blood of Christ and the laying downe or payment of this Bloud was the powring it out of his sacred Body and the exhibiting of it unto his Father in a passive obedience and this
is to be applied in the other Deliverances The second consideration then of sinne was the Guilt of it which is the binding over unto some punishment prescribed in the Law so we have here a double Deliverance from the Guilt of sinne and from the Bondage of the Law First for sinne though it leave still a staine in the soule yet the sting of it is quite removed though wee are not perfectly cleansed from the soile yet are wee soundly healed from the mortalnesse and bruises of it Then for the Law wee are first freed from the Curse of the Law It is not unto us a killing letter nor a word of Death in as much as it is not that rule according unto which wee expect Life Secondly wee are freed from the Exaction of the Law wee are not necessarily bound to the rigorous performance of each jot and title of it a performance unto which is ever annexed Legall Justification but our endeavours though imperfect are accepted our infirmities though sundry are forgiven for his sake who was under both these Bondages of Law for our sakes And as wee are thus delivered from the Guilt of sinne so are wee farther endued with positive Dignities interest and propriety to all the Righteousness of Christ with which wee are clothed as with a garment claime unto all the blessings which the Law inferres upon due obedience performed to it and the comforts which from either of these Title and Prerogatives may ensue And this is the second branch of Deliverance conveyed by the act of Iustification but merited as the rest by the Death of JESUS CHRIST The third consideration of sinne was the Corruption of it from the which likewise wee are by Christ delivered sinne doth not any more rule nor raigne nor lead captive those who are ingrafted into Christ though for their patience triall and exercise sake and that they may still learne to live by faith and to prize mercy the remnants of it doe cleave fast unto our Nature like the sprigges and rootes of Ivie to a Wall which will never out till the Wall bee broken downe and new built againe Sinne is not like the people of Ierico utterly destroied but rather like the Gibeonites it liveth still but in an estate of bondage servitude and decay and besides this wee are inabled to love the Law in our inner man to delight in it to performe a ready and sincere though not an exact and perfect obedience to it we are made partakers of the divine Nature the Graces with which Christ was anointed doe from him streame downe unto his lowest members which of his fulnesse doe all receive and are all renewed after Gods Image in righteousnesse and true holinesse The next part of our Redemption was from the Bondage of Corruption unto the Liberty of Glory which likewise is by Christ performed for us which is a Deliverance from the Consequents of sinne for sinne doth binde over unto punishment even as the perfect obedience of the Law would bring a man unto Glory Now the Punishments due unto sinne are either Temporary or Eternall consisting principally in the oppressions and distresses of Nature for as Sinne is the evill of our working so Punishment is the evill of our being and it includes not onely bodily and spirituall death but all the inchoations and preparatory dispositions thereunto as in the soule doubtings distractions tremblings and terrours of Conscience hardnesse of heart fearefull expectation of the wrath that shall be revealed in the body sicknesse poverty shame infamy which are so many earnests and petty payments of that full debt which will at last bee measured out to all the wicked of the World Even as amongst the Romans their Prelusory fight with dull and blunt weapons were but introductions to their mortall and bloudy games And besides this Deliverance there is in the soule peace and serenity in the body a patient waiting for Redemption and in the whole man the pledges of that eternall glory which shall be reveled of all which the onely meritorious cause is the Death of Christ. This alone is it which hath overcome our death even as one heate cureth one Flux of blood stoppeth another and hath caught Satan as it were by deceit with a baite and a hooke this is it which hath taken away the enmity betweene God and man reconciling us to the Father and by the prayer of that precious Blood hath obtained for us the right of Children this is it which tooke away the guilt of sinne and cancelled the Bond that was in force against us swallowing up the Curse of the Law and humbling Christ unto the forme of a servant that thereby wee might be made free this is it which removeth all both temporall and eternall punishment from the faithfull it having beene a perfect payment of our whole debt for in as much as Christ himselfe said on the Crosse It is finished wee are to conclude that the other worke of Resurrection was not properly an essentiall part of Christs merit but onely a necessary consequent required to make the Passion applicable and valuable to the Church As in coined metals it is the substance of the coine the Gold or Silver onely that buyeth the ware but the Impression of the Kings Image is that which makes that Coine to bee currant and passable it doth not give the value or worth to the Gold but onely the application of that value unto other things even so the Resurrection and Intercession of Christ doe serve to make actuall applications of those merits of his to his Church which yet had their consummation on the Crosse. And if it be heere demanded how it comes to passe if all these consequents of sinne be removed that the faithfull are still subject to all those temporall evils both in life and death which even in the state of Nature they should have undergone wee answere in generall that the faithfull dye in regard of the state but not in regard of the sting of Death they are subject to a dissolution but it is to obtaine a more blessed union even to bee with Christ and though a man may not take the whole World in exchange for his Soule yet he may well take Christ in exchange for his life It is not a losse of our money but traffique and merchandise to part from it for the procuring of such commodities as are more valuable and Saint Paul telles us that to dye is gaine The sting wee know of Death is sinne for sinne is the cause of all inward discomforts for which cause the wicked are often compared to the foaming Sea which is still tossed and unquiet with every winde and the strength of sinne is the Law with the malediction and bondage thereof from the which wee being perfectly delivered by him who was himselfe made under the Law and
interrogation to the Conscience that so the major and minor being contriv'd the light of reason in the soule may make up a practicall syllogisme and so conclude either its fitnesse or indisposition towards these holy mysteries First for the causes of faith not to meddle with that extraordinary cause I meane miracles the ordinary are the word of God and the Spirit of God the Word as the Seed the Spirit as the formative and seminall virtue making it active and effectuall for the Letter profiteth nothing it is the Spirit which quickneth What the formality of that particular action is whereby the Word and Spirit doe implant this heavenly branch of faith in the soule Faith it selfe having in its nature severall distinct degrees some intellectuall of assent some fiduciall of relyance and confidence some of abnegation renouncing and flying out of our selves as insufficient for the contriuance of our owne salvation and so in congruity of reason requiring in the causes producing them severall manners of causalities as I take it not necessary so neither am I able to determine I shall therefore touch upon some pâ—incipall properties of either all which if they concurre not unto the originall production doe certainely to the raduation and establishing of that divine virtue and therefore may justly come within the compasse of those premises from the evidences of which assumed and applied the Conscience is to conclude the truth of its faith in Christ. And first for the word to let passe those properties which are onely the inherent attributes and not any transient operations thereof as its sufficiency perspicuity majesty selfe-Authority and the like let us touch upon those which it carrieth along with it into the Conscience and I shall observe but two Its Light and its Power Even as the Sunne where ever it goes doth still carry with it that brightnesse whereby it discovereth and that Influence whereby it quickneth inferiour bodies First for the Word the properties thereof are first to make manifest and to discover the hidden things of darknesse for whatsoever doth make manifest is light The heart of man naturally is a labyrinth of darknesse his workes workes of darknesse his Prince a Prince of darkenesse whose projects are full of darknesse they are depths devices craftinesse methods The Word of God alone is that light which maketh manifest the secrets of the heart that glasse wherein wee may see both our selves and all the devices of Satan against us discovered And secondly by this act of manifesting doth light distinguish one thing from another In the darke we make no difference of faire or foule of right or wrong waies but all are alike unto us and so while wee continue in the blindnes of our naturall estate wee are not able to perceive the distinction betweene Divine and naturall objects but the Word of God like a touchstone discovereth the differences of truth and falshood good and evill and like fire seperateth the pretious from the vile Secondly light is quickning and a comforting thing The glory of the Saints is an inheritance of light and they are children of light who shall shine as the Sunne in the Firament whereas darknes is both the Title and the Portion of the wicked The times of darknes men make to be the times of their sleeping which is an Image of Death t is in the light onely that men worke And so the Word of GOD is a comforting Word It was Davids delight his hony-Combe And it is a quickning Word too for it is the Word of Life Lastly light doth assist direct and guide us in our waies and so doth the Word of GOD it is a Lanterne to our feete and a light unto our pathes Secondly for the power of the Word it is two fold even as all power is a governing power in respect of that which is under it and a subduing power in respect of that which is against it First the Word hath a governing power in respect of those which are subject to it for which cause it is every where called a Law and a royall that is a commanding Soveraigne Law It beares Dominion in the soule conforming each faculty to it selfe directeth the righteous furnisheth unto good workes raiseth the drooping bindeth the broken comforteth the afflicted reclaimeth the straggling Secondly it subdueth all emnity and opposition discomfiteth Satan beateth downe the strong holdes of sinne t is a Sword to cut off a weapon to subdue a Hammer to breake in peeces whatsoever thought riseth up against it Now then let a mans conscience make but these few demands unto it selfe Hath the light and power of Gods Word discovered it selfe unto mee Have the Scriptures made me knowne unto my selfe have they unlocked those crooked windings of my perverse heart have they manifested unto my soule not onely those sinnes which the light of reason could have discerved but even those privy corruptions which I could not otherwise have knowne have they acquainted me with the devices of Satan wherewith he lieth in waite to deceive have they taught me to distinguish betweene truth and appearances betweene goodnes and shaddowes to finde out the better part the one necessary thing and to adhere unto it am I sensible of the sweetnes and benefits of his holy Word doth it refresh my soule and revive me unto every good worke Is it unto my soule like the hony Combe like pleasant pastures like springs of water like d the Tree of life doe I take it along with me wheresoever I goe to preserve me from stumbling and straggling in this valley of darknes and shaddow of death Againe doe I feele the power of it like a Royall commanding Law bearing rule in my soule Am I willing to submit and resigne my selfe unto the obedience of it doe I not against the cleere and convincing evidence thereof entertaine in my bosome any the least rebellious thought Doe I spare noe Agag noe ruling sinne withdraw noe wedge or babilonish Garment noe gainefull sin make a league with noe Gibeonite noe pretending sinne But doe I suffer it like Ioshua to destroy every Cananite even the sinne which for sweetnes I roled under my tongue doth it batter the Towers of Ierico breake downe the Bul-warkes of the flesh lead into captivity the corruptions of nature mortifie and crucifie the old man in me doth it minister comforts unto me in all the ebbs and droopings of my spirit even above the confluence of all earthly happines and against the combination of all outward discontents and doe I set up a resolution thus alwayes to submit my selfe unto the Regiment thereof In one word doth it convince me of sin in my selfe and so humble me to repent of it of Righteousnes in CHRIST and so raise me to beleeve in it of his spirituall judgment in governing the soules of true beleevers by the power of love and
Tradition and suggestion there hath not in any age been enough to make up a number who upon inducements of argument and debate have forsaken the Scriptures at the last which is a strong presumption that they all who persisted in the embracing of them did after triall and further acquaintance by certaine taste and experience finde the Testimony and tradition of the Church to bee therein faithfull and certaine Secondly That man being made by God and subject to his will and owing unto him worship and obedience which in reason ought to bee prescribed by none other than by him to whom it is to bee performed that therefore requisite and congruous it is that the Will of God should bee made knowne unto his Creature in such a manner and by such meanes as that hee shall not without his owne willfull neglect mistake it in as much as Law is the rule of obedience and promulgation the force of Law Thirdly that no other Rule or Religion can bee assigned either of Pagans or Mahumetans which may not manifestly by the strength of right reason bee justly disproved as not proceeding from God either by the latenesse of its originall or the shortnesse of its continuance or the vanity and brutishnesse of its rules or the contradictions within it selfe or by some other apparent imperfection And for that of the Iewes notwithstanding it had its originall from Divine ordination yet from thence likewise it may bee made appeare out of those Scriptures which they confesse to have received its period and abrogation God promising that as hee had the first time shaken the Mount in the publication of the Law and first founding of the Mosaicall Pedagogie so he would once againe shake both the Earth and the Heaven in the promulgation of the Gospell To say nothing that force of reason will easily conclude that with such a God as the old Scriptures set forth the Lord to be the bloud of Bulls and Goates could not possibly make expiation for sinne but must necessarily relate to some greater sacrifice which is in the Gospell revealed And besides whereas the Lord was wont for the greatest sinnes of that people namely Idolatry and pollution of his worship to chastice them notwithstanding with more tolerable punishments their two greatest captivities having beene that of Egypt which was not much above two hundred yeares and that of Babylon which was but seventie yet now when they hate Idolatry as much as ever their fathers loved it they have lien under wrath to the uttermost under the heaviest judgment of dispersion contempt and basenesse and that for fifteene hundred yeeres together a reason whereof can bee no other given than that fearefull imprecation which hath derived the staine of the bloud of Christ upon the children of those that shed it unto this day Fourthly the prevailing of the Gospell by the ministery of but a few and those unarmed impotent and despised men and that too against all the opposition which power wit or malice could call up making it appeare that Christ was to rule in the midst of enemies When Lucian Porphyrie Libanius and Iulian by their wits Nero Severus Diocletian and other Tyrants by their swords the whole world by their scorne malice and contempt and all the arts which Satan could suggest laboured the suppression and extinguishing of it The prevaling I say of the Gospell by such meanes against such power in the midst of such contempt and danger and that over such persons as were by long custome and tradition from their fathers trained up in a Religion extreamely contrary to the truth and very favourable to all vitious dispositions and upon such conditions to deny themselves to hate the world and the flesh to suffer joyfully the losse of credit friends peace quiet goods liberties life and all for the name of a crucified Saviour whom their eyes never saw and whom their eares daily heard to bee blasphemed such a prevailing as this must needs prove the originall of the Gospell to bee divine for had not God favoured it as much as men hated it impossible it must needs have been for it to have continued Fifthly that the doctrines therein delivered were confirmed by miracles and divine operations And certaine it is that God would not in so wonderfull a manner have honoured the figments of men pretending his Name and Authority to the countenancing of their owne inventions And for the Historicall Truth of those miracles they were not in those Ages when the Church in her Apologies did glory of them and when if faigned they migh most easily have been disproved nor yet by those enemies who marvailously maligned and persecuted Christian Religion ever gain saied Lastly That were it not so that omne mendacium est pellucidum and hath ever something in it to bewray it selfe yet it could not bee operaepretium for them to lie in publishing a Doctrine whereby they got nothing but shame stripes imprisonment persecution Torments Death Especially since the holinesse of their lives their humility in denying all glory to themselves and ascribing all to God must needs make it appeare to any reasonable man that they did not lay any project for their owne glory which they purposely disclaymed refused to receive from the hands of such as offered it yea and registred their owne infirmities upon perpetuall Records With these and many other the like arguments is the Church furnished to prepare the mindes of men swayed with but ordinary ingenuity and respect to common Reason at the least to looke further and make some sad inquiry into the Doctrine of the Gospell There being therein especially promises of good things made without monie or price of incomprehensible value and of eternall continuance But now though a Philosopher may make a very learned discourse to a blinde man of colours yet it cannot bee that any formall and adaequate notion of them should bee fashioned in his minde till such time as the faculty bee restored and then all that preceeding Lecture being compared with what hee afterward actually seeth in the things themselves doth marvailously settle and satisfie his minde So though the Church by these and the like inducements doth prepare the minds of men to assent to divine Authority in the Scriptures yet till the naturall ineptitude and disposition of the soule be healed and it raised to a capacity of supernaturall light the worke is no whit brought to maturity Two things therefore doe yet remaine after this ministry and manuduction of the Church First an Act of the Grace of Gods Spirit healing the understanding and opening the eye that it may see wonders in the Law writing the Law in the heart and so making it a fit receptacle for so great a light Secondly the subject being thus by the outward motives from the Church prepared and by the inward Grace of God repaired then lastly the object it selfe being proposed and being maturely considerd by reason thus guided and thus assisted doth then
assent must arise an approbation and love of those objects whence doth issue such sweetnesse A second effect is affiance and hope confidently for the present relying on the goodnesse and for the future waiting on the power of God which shall to the full in time performe what hee hath in his Word promised when once the minde of a man is wrought so to assent unto divine promises made in Christ as to acknowledge an interest and propriety unto them and that to bee at last actually performed not by a man who is subject both to unfaithfulnesse in perseverance and to disability in performance of his promises for every man is a lyar either by imposture ready to deceive or by impotencie likely to disappoint the expectations of those who rely upon him but by Almighty God who the better to confirme our faith in him hath both by his Word and Oath engaged his fidelity and is altogether omnipotent to doe what hee hath purposed Impossible it is but from such an assent grounded on the veracity and on the All-sufficiency of God there should result in the minde of a faithfull man a confident dependance on such promises renouncing in the meane time all selfe-dependance as in it selfe utterly impotent and resolving in the midst of Temptations to relie on him to hold fast his mercy and the profession of his Faith without wavering having an eye to the recompence of reward and being assured that he who hath promised will certainely bring it to passe A third effect of Faith is ioy and peace of Conscience for being iustified by faith we have peace with God The minde is by faith and the impression of sweetnesse in Gods Promises composed unto a setled calmenesse and serenity I doe not meane a dead peace an immobility and sleepinesse of Conscience like the rest of a dreaming prisoner but such a peace as a man may by a syllogisme of the practicke judgment upon right examination of his owne interest in Christ safely inferre unto himselfe The wicked often hath an appearance of peace as well as the faithfull but here is the difference Betweene a wicked mans sinne and him there is a Doore shut which will surely one day open for it is but either a doore of Error or the doore of Death for sinne lieth at the doore ready to flye at his throate as soone as it shall finde either his eyes open to see it or his life to let it in upon the soule but betweene a faithfull man and his sinne there is a Corner-stone a Wall of fire through which Satan himselfe cannot breake even the merits of Christ Iesus Briefly the peace which comes from Faith hath these two properties in it tranquility and serenity too otherwise it is but like the calmenesse of the dead Sea whose unmoveablenesse is not Nature but a Curse The last effect which I shall now name of Faith is that generall effect of fructification purifying the heart and disposing it unto holinesse and new obedience which is to bee framed after Gods Law Faith unites us unto Christ being thus united we are quickned by one and the same Spirit having one spirit and soule we must needs agree in the same operations and those operations must necessarily beare conformity unto the same rule and that rule is the Law under which Christ himselfe was for our sakes made So that the rule to examine this effect of Faith by should bee the whole compasse of Gods Law which to enter into were to redouble all this labour past for thy Law saith David is exceeding wide Briefly therefore in all our obedience observe these few rules First The obligatory power which is in the Law depends upon the one and sole authority of the Law-giver who is God He that breakes but one Commandement venturs to violate that authority which by the same Ordination made one equally obligatory with the rest And therefore our obedience must not bee partiall but universall unto the whole Law in as much as it proceeds from that Faith which without indulgence or dispensation yeeldeth assent unto the whole compasse of Divine Truth Secondly as is God so is his Law a spirituall and a perfect Law and therefore requires a universality of the subject as well as of the obedience I meane besides that perfect integrity of Nature which in regard of present inherence is irrecoverably lost in Adam and supplied onely by the imputed righteousnesse and integrity of Christ an inward spirituall sincere obedience of the heart from thence spreading like lines from a Centre unto the whole Circumference of our Nature unto our Words Actions Gestures unto all our parts without crooked mercenary and reserv'd respects wherein men often in stead of the Lord make their ends or their feares their God Lastly remember that in every Law all homogeneall matters to the maine duty which is commanded every sprigge or seed or originall or degree thereof is included as all the severall branches of a Tree are fastned to one and the same stocke And by these rules are wee to examine the truth of our obedience But heere before I draw downe these premises to an Assumption I will but name one caution which is this That Faith as it may bee either habituall or Actuall so it is the cause of these holy actions either habitually by framing and disposing the heart unto them or actually when it is it selfe as it ought ever to bee sound and operative But sometimes Faith so great is the corruption of our nature admits of a decay and languor wherein it lies as it were like fire under ashes raked up and stifled under our corruptions Againe in some there is a weaker in some a stronger Faith according unto which difference there must be a difference in the measure and magnitude of the effects But yet it is infallibly true that all or most of those holy fruits doe in some seasons or other bud forth of that stocke which is quickned by Faith though sometimes in some men lesse discernable by reason of corruptions interposed For it usually thus falleth out that our graces are but like the Army of Gedeon a small handfull whereas our corruptions are like the Midianits which lay on the ground as Grashoppers innumerable But yet in these God crowneth his owne meanest gists with victory and successe So then these things being thus proposed let the conscience without connivence examine it selfe by such interrogatories as these Doe I finde my selfe live by the Faith of the Sonne of GOD who gave himselfe for me Doe I delight in his Word more then my appoynted food never adulterating it with the Leaven or Dreggs of hereticall fancies or dead workes Doth the word of Truth transforme me to the Image of it selfe Crucifying all those corruptions which harboured in me Doe I finde my selfe to grow in all graces universally and uniformely towards God and man not thinking to recompence some defects which my nature drives me unto with