the blood of God according as the Apostle sayth in the Actes Actes 20.28 That God hath purchased the Church by his blood And behold my brethren to what a degree of glory of the Gospell caries you in the New Testament above his faithfull Seruants of the old wherefore here revoke to your mind and memory these passages of Pauls Epistle to the Galathians Gal. 4.4,5 God sent foorth his Sonne made of a Woman and made vnder the Law And writing to the Romanes againe likewise said Rom. 8.3 God sending his owne Sonne in the Similitude of sinfull flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh And before were passe to the Meditation of the ensuing words I pray obserue heere againe with mee in these This is my Body the cleare refutation of all which Superstition and humane Inuentions propose of the intercession and meditation of Saints and of their suffering for the expiation of the â—emporall paine of our sinnes which pretended sufferings and satisfactions are partly the treasure whereof the Bishop of Rome drawes his Indulgences and Pardons which makes that the Saints are a peece and part of our Sacrifice But Iesus Christ hath designed it and the price of our deliverance in these words This is my Body for hee said not This is a part of my Body and part of the bodyes of Saints who shall suffer for you If our Aduersaries consider that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper presenteth and exposeth to our eyes our Price and Ransome as some of the Ancients for that cause and reason tearme the Sacrament our Price and if they likewise consider that this Sacrament proposeth not to vs the bodies of men but the body of Christ they shall find that there is no other price for our Ransome and Redemption but this body And although these people which say That this Sacrament of the Lords Supper is the Abridgement of the mysteries of the Gospell doe they accuse it of Imperfection not to have proposed or given it all our Price and Ransome And those who daily make and create the body of Christ and who pretend daily to offer him wherefore doe they not content themselues But heer let them vnderstand and hearken to the thundring words of the Apostle writing to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1.13 Is Christ divided hath Paul beene crucified for you I affirme that the Bread of this holy Supper sheweth vs also a Communion of the faithfull with Iesus Christ for as the same Apostle writes againe to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 10.17 Wee who are many are one Bread and one Body But it is a Communion with Iesus Christ To receive and not To give To receive I say of Iesus Christ the expiation and remission of our sinnes and not to give or conferre it to other mens merits A Communion to bee freed bought and vivified or quickned by him and not to free buy and vivifie with him The second Obiect of our Meditation is the Oblation of this body in these words Which is broken This is my Blood which is shed In the words This is my body you have seene Christ Iesus made capable to be this Sacrifice but in these latter words you see him actually to be a Sacrifice and here is given you to meditate and contemplate first the Immolation and then the Oblation of the Sacrifice The Sacrifice is a soveraigne honour given and yeelded to God which consists in an extreame vnmaking and dissolution of the Creature which dissolution and vnmaking is not nor cannot be extreame except by the destroying of the thing which is offered wherefore all things heretofore which were offered vp in Sacrifice to God were first to be destroyed For it is one thing to bee offered simply and another thing to be offered vp in Sacrifice As for example The Sacrificators the Levites and the first borne of Israel were offered vp to God But how not offered vp in Sacrifice because they still remained living All things then offered in Sacrifice ought firs to be destroyed if they were liquid or wet things without life they were to bee shed If solide things without life they were to be burnt Or if living things they were to bee killed and for witnesse and Testimony of a true death there must needs bee an effusion of the Beasts blood because blood being the seat of the Beasts life the separation of blood from the flesh shewed and figured the separation of life from the body and consequently an entire death And in the expiatory and propitiatory Sacrifices this was the more requisite and needfull for that these Sacrifices were satisfactions for typicall and carnall sinne But the absolute satisfaction and expiation for sinne must consist in the death and destruction of the thing offered because the Apostle peremptorily and truely tels vs Rom. 6.33 That the wages of Sinne is death from whence you first see wherefore it was that of necessity Christ must die For the wages of Sinne being death it must needs follow that he who placed himselfe an Vndertaker for Sinners must vndergoe the punishment ordained for Sinne Secondly from hence you likewise see wherefore it was that the blood of Christ was shed in his death and separated from his body to wit thereby to expresse and shew the truth of the death and expiation of Sinne as the Apostle to the Hebrewes proves by legall figures that Iesus Christ must die and shed his blood in Sacrifice because saith hee Heb. 9.22 That according to the Law all things are purged and purified by blood and without the effusion of blood there is no remission So Iesus Christ by shedding his blood hath accomplished the figures of the Law and given vs this Consolation that the Ransome and expiation of our sinnes is entire and perfect And hence as it were in passing you learne two things I. That it is impossible that there is any propitiatory Sacrifice without blood and consequently impossible that the Masse wherein there is neither death nor effusion of blood be a propitiatory Sacrifice for sinnes as our Aduersaries call it II In the Lords Supper It was needfull that the body and blood of Iesus Christ was represented to vs distinctly and severally for that there were two signes to wit The Bread broken and the Wine filld out which was the Reason why Iesus Christ did not only say This is my Body broken but also takes the Cup and said This is my blood which is shed Because without effusion of blood there could be no remission of sinne From whence it followes That the taking and cutting away of the Cup in the Lords Supper which shewes the blood of Christ to bee separated from his body takes away from the mysterie of that sacred Supper it 's plenitude power perfection depriving it of the signe of the Condition requisite for the expiation of sinnes to wit the effusion of blood But this is told you but cursorily and as it were in passing Now the
but also to expose himselfe to death in this forme and shape of a Seruant yea to the shamefull death of the Crosse which is the very meditation of the Apostle to the Philippians Philip. 2.6,7,8 Iesus Christ being in the forme of God thought it no robberie to make himselfe equall to God But he made himselfe of no Reputation and tooke on him the forme of a Seruant and was made like vnto man and found in the shape of a man who humbled himselfe and became came obedient to death yea to the death of the Crosse And the same Apostle ravished in this meditation saith in another place Rom. 8.32 Who spared not his owne Sonne for vs but gaue him for vs all to death Hee saith not simply that he hath given him but that he hath not spared him as if he should have said hee made no difficulty to expose him for vs to extreame paine and torments A degree of Charity which the Angels themselues cannot sufficiently comprehēd and therefore the Apostle postle requireth in vs the Spirit of wisedome and revelation to wit that the eyes of our vnderstanding bee so illuminated Ephes 3.13 that wee may know what is the length breadth height and depth of this love of God towards vs. In a word vpon this obiect let vs briefly collect and consider against our adversaries of the Church of Rome That in this holy Supper and Communion the body of Iesus Christ is not simply proposed as vnderstanding it to bee a body nor the blood as taking it for blood but the body as vnderstanding it to be broken and the blood as taking it to bee spilt Because in that consisteth all the merit of our salvation and all the cause of our life From whence it followes That the action wherewith wee receiue the body and blood of Christ cannot choose but bee spirituall to wit an action of the soule and no way of the body because the bodie cannot bee taken as vnderstood broken nor the blood as meant shed except by Faith For those forepast and betided things on the crosse that is to say the breaking of the body and the effusion of blood cannot bee giuen or presented to the soule but by the meditation of Faith The third obiect of our Meditation is the fruit and benefit of this obligation which were received by Christs body and blood in these words Broken for you Shed for many for the remission of sinnes And heere two considerations againe present them to vs I. Of the persons for whome Iesus Christ is offered II. The profit and benefit which it brings them Of the persons vnderstanding that he offereth himselfe for wretched and sinfull creatures who in regard of his excellent being are nothing but dust and ashes and as it were formed but yesterday but which is more for creatures infected with sinne guilty of rebellion against him and professed enemies of his divine maiestie both in their thoughts and wicked workes and actions which the consideration of the Apostle to the Colossians thus expresseth Col. 1.21 You which in times past were strangers and enemies because your minds were set in evill workes he now also hath reconciled in that body of his flesh to make you holy and vnblameable and without fault in his sight And also writing to the Romans saith Rom. 5.6,7,8 For Christ when we were yet of no strength at his time dyed for the vngodly adding againe farther doutblesse one will scarse die for a righteous man but yet for a good man but God setteth out his love to vs seeing that whiles we were yet Sinners Christ died for The other consideration proceeds from the profit and benefit which it brings vs and Iesus Christ defines it whē he saith that it is for the remission of sins And this is the profit and benefit which to expresse the Prophets aleage that our sinnes have beene throwen into the bottome of the Sea and that God remembreth them no more and that as farre distant as the East is from the West so farre from him the Lord hath cast away our sinnes and the figures vnder the Law to wit that of the Goat Hazazel teaching that our sinnes have beene caried into a desert and vnhabitable Countrey never to returne more in Gods sight and Presence Which beleeving wee see all evils as they are paines and torments to have lost their being in the faithfull righteous man yea and that death it selfe is swollen vp in victory and the Law with his curses which were as a contrary obligation is quite rased out defaced by the blood of the Sonne of God cleare abolished cancelled and fastened to his Crosse as the Apostle teacheth to the Colosians Col. 2.14 Likewise Sathan who performed nothing but as the Executioner of Gods iustice against Sinners by this alone death found all his power to be vanquished and overthrowen as the Apostle sheweth vs in the same Chapter of the same Epistle to the Colossians in these words Col. 2.15 Christ hath spoyled the Principalities and Powers and hath made a shew of them openly and hath triumphed over them on the Crosse But besides that our enemies and afflictions are taken away and defaced by this oblation of Iesus Christ so likewise all sorts of profits and benefits are put in place thereof as many promses as there are they are so many Yeas and Amens in Christ Iesus life is given which is a new spirituall and divine life by regeneration and the new heavenly Sanctuary is opened vnto vs Heb. 10.19 for there wee have leave and liberty to enter by the blood of Christ and therefore it is that the earthly vaile of the Templerent in peeces at his death The Kingdome of God is given vnto vs and wee are made children and heires to possesse and enioy all the goods and treasures of God as the Apostle saith Gal. 4.6,7 That Iesus Christ having beene made subiect vnder the Law hath redeemed vs from the Law to the end that wee should receive the adoption of children and that if wee are children wee are also heires of God by Christ Iohn 17.11 yea God himselfe is given to vs in his Sonne to the end that wee be in him and he in vs 1. Cor. 1. and likewise that one day he be all things in all III. Poynt or generall Head These are the Meditations which the words of Iesus Christ in his Supper requireth of vs And now come wee to see the acts functions which these Meditations ought to produce in our hearts the which likewise result and descend from these words of Iesus Christ These actes and functions are fiue to wit I. The feeling of our misery and a godly sorrow for having sinned II. The beliefe and assurance of the remission of our sinnes III. The sanctification of the soule and particularly of Loue and Charitie towards our neighbour IIII. Our consolation and patience in afflictions V. Our hope of heavenly felicitie
Iesus to death yea to the shamefull death of the Crosse for our redemption and that he was so gracious a God and so mercifull and indulgent a Father to vs that he suffered his blessed Sonne to dye for vs Tit. 2.14 That hee might redeeme vs from all iniquitie and purge vs to be a peculiar people to himselfe For wretched sinners that we are In Paradise where our Forefathers gained their life there by their wilfull disobedience and transgression they lost their righteousnes and we in them because the foule staine and Leprosie of that their originall sin hath successively and actually made vs their vnfortunate seede and posteritie guilty both of Death and Hell and there iustly adiudged to haue our Portions with the Devill and his Angels But notwithstanding all this God yet hath beene as mercifull to vs as we have bene sinnefull to him for although wee were lost in Adam by Nature yet we are againe both found and saved in Iesus Christ by grace 1 Tim. 2.6 Who hath given himselfe a ransome for all men Isai 53.4,5 Hath borne our infirmities and carried away our sinnes and sorrows by suffering himselfe to bee wounded for our transgressions and broken for our iniquities So that it is the present ioy of our hearts and the future happinesse of our soules Eph. 2.4,5 That God who is rich in mercie Eph 2.4,5 through the great loue wherewith he loved vs when we were dead by our sins hath quickned vs together in Iesus Christ by whose grace we are saved And to the ende that all true Christians should not despaire of Christs promises vnto them nor so much give themselues over either to the reprobate sense and pleasures of sinne or to the sugred insinuations and trecherous temptations of Satan as any way to doubt of their salvation in the Lord Why this our sacred Lord Master Christ Iesus the great Shepheard of his Flocke and Saviour of his people who by incorporating his Divinitie with his humanitie was wholly composed of loue mercy toward them Hee I say a litle before his bloody yet blessed death and passion on the Crosse was gratiously pleased to honour and sanctifie his Apostles and in them vs who are of the true seed of Abraham with the holy Sacrament of his most blessed Supper as a diuine pledge and a firme authenticall confirmation of his inestimable loue towards vs and of his watchful care and vigilancy for our saluation I meane for the full perfecting and accomplishing of our glorification in Heaven with God his father Rom 6.4 That sin might haue no more dominion over ver vs because we are now no longer vnder the Law but vnder Grace but that by the worthy receiving and holy partaking thereof In the imitation of Christ and his blessed Apostles Ephes 2.6 wee might be raysed vp together with him in heavenly places It is therefore not our owne merits but onely Gods mercies not our own workes which are sinfull but onely the blessed death and passion of Christ Iesus which is sacred that must be both the triumph and glory of a Christian And I confesse with ioy and acknowledge with Confidence and Consolation that this holy Sacrament of his most blessed Supper wherin the bread of his body was broken and the wine of his blood powred out and shed for the sinnes of all mankind is the perfect pledge the sacred seale the full ransome and the divinest mysterie of our redemption in Iesus Christ And that as wee are absolutely cleansed and washed from our originall sinne by the water of Baptisme when wee enter into the State of Grace in the Church militant heere on earth That so by the blood of this Paschall Lambe Christ Iesus in the Sacrament of his blessed Supper our sinnes are wholly defaced and washed away and consequently that therefore wee shall enter into the state of glory in the Church triumphant in heaven So that fighting vnder the banner of Christ his Crosse and being spiritually armed with these two sacred Sacraments we may boldly beleeue confidently assure our selues that neither Sathan nor hell shall have power to prevaile against vs. And here Christian Reader before I proceed farther in this my Preface to thee I give thee to vnderstand That I am not ignorant with what a great world of different opinions and controversies this our little world of Christendome is perplexed and troubled with about this blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper betwixt the Protestant and the Papist especially about Transubstantiation the Reall Presence and communicating in one kind In so much that an infinite number yea too great a number of pens pulpits and presses are pittifully because vnprofitably oppressed therwith and that Christs blessed body in this Sacrament without pietie reason or charity is daily dilacerated and torne in peeces with these contentions whereas his owne Coate or vesture was without peece or seame So that our silly soules may well feare drowning when the barke of our weake faith masted and rigged with curiositie sayleth in so dangerous and turbulent an Ocean that hath neither bottome nor shoare and which is daily and hourly tossed and ready to be split and dashed in peeces either with the wavering waves of levity and inconstancy or with the boysterous winds of propensd malice or scandalous and erronious virulency without looking vp to the true day-Starre of their hope Iesus Christ or to the Sunne of their saluation God or without endevoring or thinking safely to arrive and cast anchor in the Cape of good hope Heaven O that the spirit of Pietie should without piety thus bee conuerted and transformed into the spirit of Contention And as for mee who am the meanest and most vnworthie of all Gods Seruants and Children bingeniously confesse and acknowledge that in some few languages I have read so many of these intemperate Contreversies and vntimely Contentions that I am wearie of reading them And yet so That I rather pitie then maligne first their Authors for their sakes and then them for their Authors sakes and my witnesse is in heaven in mine own besome that with my heart soule I wish that all these vnspirituall quarells might be composed in peace and amitie and that these vnfortunate disputes and lynes might terminate in one and the same Centre Charitie and that their learned Authors having their curiosity vanquished with the honour and glory of God as Christian members might bee inseparably fast knit and vnited to their Head and grand Captaine Iesus Christ and because contention is not the way to heaven and that God was found in the still and quiet and not in the whirle and tempestuous winds As also that where the great Lamps of learning and lights of the Church contend fight about matters of faith that there assuredly the weake ones and the more illiterat Christians doe infinitly suffer in this quarell That therefore in the name and feare of God they would
please to take vp and embrace this saying of the blessed Apostle Heb. 12.14 Follow peace with all men and also holynesse without which no man shall see God and againe to the same purpose Ephe. 4.15 Let vs fellow the truth in loue and in all things grow vp in him who is the Head to wit Iesus Christ To call our religion in questioÌ„ is to doubt therof and to halt betweene two opinions in matters of saith is with the Luke-warme Laodicean to be of neither I know wee are commanded by the Apostle To make our election sure and taught by the Prophet Hosh 4.14 That the people who doe not vnderstand shall fall I likewise know that curiositie in matters of Faith and Religion is dangerous and that for being too curious in prying into the sacred secrets of God it is a fatall Rocke whereon some excellent iudgements have suffered Shipwracke wilfully and a world of weake wits ignorantly That Gods vnrevealed mysteries and purposes are as secret as sacred and as occult and abstruse as they are divine and that wee are positively told and taught by the Prophet Isa 40.28 That there is no searching out of Gods vnderstanding VVherefore as I envy no man for his religion so I prayse and blesse my Redeemer I am not so wretchedly instructed in piety as to deny mine to the world much lesse to dare to desemble it to God It shall suffice mee that I had rather beleeue the truth then quarell with it and farre sooner and with more alacritie and promptitude to embrace and follow it then to contend or contest against it As therefore wee cannot beleeue in God before wee first know him So wee cannot perfectly know this Sacrament of his blessed Supper except we first beleeve in it and in the pure truth and naked vertue and integritie thereof I am not therefore of the vnion or communion of those vncatholique Romanists who are carnall and not spirituall eaters of this blessed Sacrament and who tye their implicite faith onely to the bare letter not to the true sense and to the sight not to the figure or commemoration which this heavenly mysterie infoldeth and containes VVho can dispense with their consciences yea with their soules rather to eat their God then to obey him and daily to teare his blessed body in peeces with them teach as they doe hourly with their sinnes and who rely on their own poore wretched merits rather then on Christs rich promises or on the inestimable treasor of his blessed death and passion premised and prefigured vnto vs in the bread and wine of his sacred Supper But for my part I really and confidently beleeue that Christs owne words Take eat and drinke this in remembrance of me doth make this Sacrament of his holy Supper to bee a mysticall not a corporall a spirituall and not a carnall sacrifice But to leave Controversie and contention to those who love them in and about this divine doctrine of this Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to come to that which more neerly and narrowly concearnes our edification to Christ and sanctification by Christ I ioyfully affirme and averre That it hath bene a great part and degree of my earthly selicity to have heard many excellent Sermons and seene and read many comfortable Tracts vpon this sacred Supper of the Lord aswell on this side as beyond the seas and preached and written aswell by the Samts of God abroad as by our owne English Saints and Seruants of the Lord here at homâ—… who have most painfulâ—… and industriously travellâ—… heerein with much truâ—… glory to God with infiniâ—… prayse and honour to theâ—… selues and with a world oâ— consolation and happinesâ—… to their Christian Auditorâ— and Readers have piously chalked them out the truâ— and safe way to Heaven and most divinely pointed and shewed them the righteous path-way and glorious narrow way to God And now by Gods providence and mercy meeting very lately with a Sermon of that heavenly nature preached on Easter day last to the famous and flourishing assembly of the Protestants in the reformned Church of Paris at Charenton vpon these words of our Lord and Saviour in the blessed Sacrament of his last Supper This is my body By the learned and reverend Seruant of the Lord Monsieur Iohn Mestrezat the first Pastor and minister of that great and godly congregation and the worthy Successor of that famous divine Monsr P. Du. Moulins the great light of his time and Ornament of his Church I say I no sooner seriously perused and religiously considered it but finding it to bee pend in an elegant excellent phrase and digested and cast into a most spirituall order aâ—… method at last after â— short parlie with my soulâ—… and a little reluctation wiâ—… my resolutions God nâ—… only suggested but coÌ„maâ—ded me to teach it to speaâ— English and especially foâ— these two reasons and considerations I. That the translatioâ— thereof infinitly tended tâ— Gods honour and glory aâ— being a perfect and a promising way to draw many soules to God aswell by their seeing and knowing of it as by practising and putting into execution that sacred discipline and doctrine which it containes II For that the Author and Preacher of it is so worthy a Minister of Gods word as Saint Paul wished and counselled his beloved titus to bee to wit Titus 2.7 That his life is a Patterne and example of good workes and of vncorrupt doctrine gravitie and integritie for to my knowledge as also to all others who know him or his endowments and abilities he is so learned and of so meeke and Saint-like a conuersation that it is a disputable question whether his doctrine doe more crowne and grace his life or his life his doctrine And that thorefore it might well stand with Gods pleasure as it doth referre and conduce to his honour that the reading heereof might refresh and profit some Christians heere in England as well as the preaching thereof hath done many in France As also that as at my residence in Paris I have taken singular delight and comfort to have often heard him preach so consequently that others might doe the like here by visibly reading or tacitly seeing and hearing him preach in this his Sermon or Divine Pourtrait which so lively yea so truly at life representeth the Sacrament of the Lords blessed Supper vnto vs I being as confident of this truth as of this presumption That as in most of his Sermons hee excelleth and surpasseth others so in this that hee hath infinitly both surpassed and exceld himselfe And although Christian Reader I have formerly in this my Preface expressed and signified to thee that this little yet most excellent Sermon of his doth most sweetly shew thee the sure the righteous way to heaven and to God and with a happines peraduenture beyond expectation hath most fully performed and most diuinely acted thee that part whereunto I will referre and commend