Church in the most sutable manner to work in men a deep impression Therefore as God himself in order to satisfy Moses more fully that his People should not perish nor so much as diminish under the Thraldom of Egypt shewed him a Bush continuing still whole and entire in the midst of a great Fire and in order they might be more firmly perswaded that tho they were in a wilderness they were under Gods protection he made them go all the way under a Cloud that when soever there should happen any staggering in their Belief both Moses and the People might strengthen it Moses by remembring the Bush and the People by minding the Cloud to the same purpose hath Christ ordained some Visible Signes in his Church to compleat her common Faith and to assure this truth to every one who comes to him that he shall be cleansed of his sins as certainly as it is certain he sees some water which is the ordinary means for washing and that he shall be kept up and fed with a supply of all necessary Blessings as certainly and really as it is real and certain he tasts and takes in this Bread and Wine which are the ordinary means for preserving our life and strength 4. Besides because the Sacraments are designed not only to perswade us more strongly of the truth and Being of the Things but also to acquaint us more familiarly and sensibly with their Condition and nature these Sacraments must have in their natural constitution some known Qualities that make them fit for this Sacramental office Such hath the Water for example which was so deservedly chosen for the use of holy Baptism because of the proper virtue it hath of washing the things that are fowl of reviving and refreshing them that are dry and of making fruitful the Barren Hereupon S. Austin saies plainly that unless the holy Sacraments had some such agreement with the Holy Things which they are set up to represent they could not be Sacraments at all Epist 23. ad Bonif. 5. So the blessed Communion is made of two such Elements as can forthwith expose to the sight and sense of all men the true ground of its Sacramental and significative Function This function is twofold the first to represent Christs Sufferings and the second to represent the Blessing and the Benefit which we receive from these Sufferings The first I say to represent Christs Sufferings This Bread and Wine could neither sustain nor refresh me had not their intrinsecal Substance lost its first condition and estate that is if the one had never fallen under the Sickle the threshing the Milstone the Fire and the other under the Hook the Trampling and the Press of bandmen Nor doth the Son of God save me but by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 2.7 emtying himself in a manner for a while of his first glory in Heaven and by losing that second life which he had taken in Bethlehem This Blessed Savior is not a Savior by the strength of all the Miracles which He did about Judea nor by any thing that He could suffer as long as He would keep himself alive when he was made fast to his Cross As the best Harvest is not yet Bread as long as it stands in the Field nor is the best Corn Bread likewise as long as 't is kept whole in the Floor both Corn and Harvest being no more then antecedent Matter for mans Food Jesus living in Galilee Jesus teaching about the Temple Jesus commanding Storms and Waves when he did walk upon the Sea if he had proceeded no further could not have bin the Bread of life it must be Jesus suffering Jesus crucified Jesus dying the grinding Mill and the burning Fire have of this Corn made me this Bread and nothing less then Cross Wounds Death my Lord my God! could of thy dearest Son make my Savior 6. I say secondly this Eucharistical Bread is instituted to represent the Fruit and Benefit which we receive both at the Holy Table and upon all other occasions from Christs Sufferings to wit Maintenance and Improvement of life As without Bread and Wine or somthing answerable to it the strongest Bodies soon decay so without the virtue of the Body and Blood of Christ the best and holiest Souls must infallibly starve and perish The Body of the Lord as it was offered up to God in Sacrifice is the Truth represented by the Passover and as represented to us at the Holy Communion is the Truth and Accomplishment typified by the Manna The one is as it were the Seed and the Original Principle whence we are born and the other as the Bread wherewith we live That is to say as Bread and Wine do not produce but keep up that animal Life which another Cause hath produced so doth our Lord Jesus by a necessary and continual supply of strength and Grace represented by Bread and Wine sustain improve and set sorward that Spiritual Life and new Being which He hath procured us by his Cross 7. For Jesus the second Adams being seiz'd as He hung on the Cross with that deep sleep which God daused to fall upon him gave this new Being to his Church out of that side which at his Passion was opened and the Blood and Water which then gushed out of his Wounds are the true Principles of life by reason of which his spouse the Church may be called Eve that is true and everlasting Liver Before she had this new original out of her Saviors Passion her Husbands sleep she by her old Extraction was a very Daughter of Death and a Mother of such Children as could pretend to no better Inheritance then Curse and Wrath. Ephes 2.2 By the course of Nature our Life is but a sad Progress from Birth to Death and by the course of Gods Justice a sadder Motion such as is that of condemned Persons from Prison to the Place of their Execution But whilst we were daily passing on to that most dreadful Punishment the Son of God lookt on us and took our Condemnation upon himself and under it dyed in our steed Thus by the Death and satisfaction of this Victim Justice gave way to my Release God the Father forgave my Sin and God the Son procured my Life This Grace is the first Purchace of Christs Blood the first Irradiation of Gods mercy and the first Breath of spiritual Life in our Nostrils 8. But alas how soon would this first life vanish away were it not presently followed and supported by a second How soon would the removal of the former be frustrated by the commission of other Sins And since I am no sooner born in sin then dead in it how hard would it be without more help in this corrupted condition to keep dead Lazarus from Rottenness Therefore the Body and Blood of Christ once Sacrificed on the Cross to help this first procures a second Life that preserves whomsoever it saves out of this stupid death in sin it helps
of Blessing which wee bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ 1. Cor. 10.16 For whether the word which wee render Communion be taken in an active sense as 't is often for Communication the holy Eucharist is a Means of communicating the Blood of Christ or tho we take it but in a neuter and intransitive sense yet the holy Eucharist will be still a Mystery wherein one way or other true Christians shall find not a Commemoration or Representation only but a Communion also with the Blood so represented and remembred 5. The reall Efficacy which the Holy Communion hath to convey Grace and Blessing on the true Christian Receiver is evidently demonstrated by the opposite Efficacy it hath to convey a Curse and Destruction on the Profane Whosoever sayes S. Paul eats of this Bread unworthily eats damnation to himself Now certainly this would be as much to think unworthily as to eat unworthily of this holy Bread to think it might be really pernicious when it is abused but not really blissful and saving in its right use and that this Bread which we eat of should be an effectual Communion to procure death but meerly Sacramental only to shew and not to procure Salvation S. Paul sets out the Character of the unworthy Communicant by not discerning the Lords Body and thereby declares him guilty of the very Body and Blood of Christ That is to say that whosoever offers to abuse this Sacrament plunges himself into their Crime who have abused Christ himself and that that Villain goes hand in hand with Judas with Pilate with both Jews and Romans who murthered Him What therefore can be thought of those good Souls who approach to this Sacrament with faith humility and a trembling Reverence but that they will return home as much Justified and full of grace after their Devout as the other shall full loaded with Damnation after their impious usage and that God will be as merciful in reckoning those among the Righteous Mary Joseph Nicodemus as He is Just against these when upon this account he shuts up their Souls with the Sinners that in very deed crucified him And God forbid that the Body of Christ who came to save not destroy should not diffuse as much of its Savor of life for the life and Salvation of Devout Souls as it doth of its Savor of Death for the Death of the Impious 2 Cor. 2.16 6. The manner of this real Communication and Conveyance is the great unfathomable Mystery which the Holy Fathers have ever admired and which therefore we neither need nor do take upon us to explain The Shepherds think themselves happy with the Message brought to them by an Angel This day is born to you a Savior Luke 2.11 tho they know nothing of the way of his most miraculous Birth and the honest Israelites ought not to receive Manna less thankfully as they do not less effectually tho they know neither of what matter nor by what means the Heavens the Air or the Clouds can thus every morning shed about their Tents this strange Meat I must not wonder if the waies of the Lord be unknown to me in his Miracles since they are so very often in his most ordinary works And if David tho a Prophet cannot think upon that natural virtue which makes Bones and Veins every day out of that feed that is apparently nothing like to all these parts of Mans body but he cries out I have bin strangely and wonderfully made Ps 139.13 Who am I to pretend to a clear understanding of that hidden and incomprehensible wisdom wherewith God is pleased to make out of Water or Wine or Bread in themselves weak Elements strong and supernatural Organs for Mens Souls and salvation 7. It is true indeed that Bread Wine and Water can without much ado come up so high as to become a Sacrament to signify since the Act of signifying depends meerly on Institution Yet this Institution such as may make a Sacrament must needs proceed both from a Divine and an almighty Origine Divine I say to give a Sacred Character and Almighty withal to justify and maintain it For example after the Flood no man or Angel had authority to make of the Rainbow a Mystery that should signify the worlds preservation from Drowning and if either Men or Angels had taken on them that Liberty none of them had the power to make it true that is to make it a standing infallible Evidence that the world shall never perish by water So in the Church neither Apostles nor Bishops have any more Right to confer either upon the water of Baptism or upon the Bread and Wine of the Holy Communion a Sacramental or representative Office then they have power to make good their Representation by conferring the Blessings promised by it And it is specially to this purpose that most of the Expressions and Epiphonemas of the holy Doctors are to be understood when they stand somtimes amazed at the infinit Power of God either in the Institution or the use of these Mysteries God alone being able to raise water or Blood or any Thing else to the Order of Sacraments But to raise them a step higher that is to the Dignity of standing for true Means and Instruments which may convey on us those Graces which by their proper institution they represent there is the Finger of God indeed and there is a fitter matter for Mens admiration then Mens knowledg 8. Here then I come to Gods Altar with a full perswasion that these words This is my Body promise me more then a figure that this holy Banquet is not a Representation made of outward shews without substance and that it is not so dangerous a Mystery but that the Religious use of it may convey to me at the least as many and as great Blessings as the profane abuse of it may throw on the Abuser Plagues and Curses But how these Mysteries become in my behalf the supernatural Instruments of such Blessings it is enough for me to admire One thing I know as said the blind man after he had received his sight S. Joh. 9.25 he laid Clay upon mine Eyes and behold I see He hath blessed and given me this Bread and my Soul received Comfort I verily believe that Clay hath nothing in it self that could have wrought such a Miracle as Israel never saw the like And I know as much of this Bread that it is not such a Jewel as may contain in its substance or impart from it self to others Grace Holiness and Salvation which is the juice and the substance of Christs Body Only I am perfectly satisfied that 't is the constant way of God to produce his greatest Works at the presence tho not by the virtue of the most useless Instruments At the very stroke of a Rod He parted once in two the red Sea At the blowing some Trumpets He tumbled down massy strong walls At some few washings in Jordan he
his holy Seat For then it was the kindness of the Lord towards his first People as certainly He hath no less mercy for the second virtually to diffuse the Propitiation and strength of Holy Things from his Palace into their Tents and to bless them both inherently with all the Graces and imputatively with all the Right which could be conferred on them whose fault 't is not if they cannot either eat the Passover nearer the Temple or wait upon Christ at his Cross 13. Thus this great and Holy Mystery extends and communicates the Death of the Lord both as offering himself to God and as giving himself to Men. As he offered himself to God it enters me both into that mysterial Body which is reputed as dead with Christ and into their Society priviledg and Communion for whom He was pleased to dye it sets me among the precious stones of Aarons Ephod Exod. 28. close to the Breast and on the very shoulders of that Eternal Priest whilst he offers up himself and intercedes for his spiritual Isiael and by this means it conveyes to me the Communion of his Sufferings Philip 3.10 whence will infallibly proceed another Communion in all his Graces and Glories Under the second notion as He offers himself to Men the holy Eucharist is after the Sacrifice for sin the true Festival and Sacrifice of Peace offerings and the Table purposely set up to receive those Mercies that are sent down from the Altar Take and eat this is my Body which was broken for you And this is the Blood that was shed for you 14. Here then I wait at the Lords Table that both shews me what an Apostle who had Heaven for his School had the greatest mind to see and learn and offers me the richest Gift that a Saint can receive on Earth the Lord Jesus crucified Amen Jesu my Lord and my God give me all this which Thou showest and grant withal that I may both devoutly take and faithfully keep what Thou art pleased to give Bless this thine own Ordinance and make it of a true Sign an effectual Means of thy Grace then bless and sanctify my Heart also and make it a fit Temple for thy Mercies Certainly Thou wilt deal with me in these thy Mysteries O God of Truth according to thy faithfulness but dispose also my heart so towards the right using of them that I may safely wish it may be don according to my Faith O Father which art in Heaven here I offer up to thee my Soul and thou offerest to me thy Son The Oblation which I make is alas an unclean habitation to receive the Holy One of Israel and a Tent infected with Leprosy therein to Lodg the Saint of the Lord. Come in nevertheless come in high and Eternal Priest but wash thy house at thy coming Let no ill savor of the grave no more then that of Lazarus keep thee so far from the Sepulcher and from the vile condition wherein I ly but that thy power with thy Voice and thy Blood with thy Sacrament may reach to me to raise me up And let none of those uncleannesses that after the Law of Moses did defile them who came too near keep off the great Saint of the Lord from touching and healing me Evil Spirits enter somtimes into swept houses to make them foul * Matth. 12. But O Holy and hallowing Spirit of God draw nigh unto my Soul which of it self is foul already to make it clean I am a poor sinful and unless thou help a lost person but yet such as I am sinful and lost I wait for thy Salvation Come in O Lord with thy Salvation to a dying Man to make him whole to a sinner tyed hand and foot with the bonds of iniquity to release him to one who confesses his sins to absolve him Finally come in my Savior as thou didst to the Publican both to make me better and to save me O let this day Salvation come to this House Amen SECTION V. Of the Blessed Communion as being a Pledg of the Happiness and Glory to come 1. THe blessed Communion opens such a treasure of Blessings on the two sides which look towards the past or present Time as I have considered it as it may very well take up both all the eyes of Cherubins in beholding the Mysteries and all the hands of the numerous Israelites in gathering up all the Manna that it contains yet it hath one other side or prospect more which goes beyond the two former as much as the future Blessings exceed the present and as the Glory which we hope for exceeds the small degree of grace which we possess The blessed Communion which is a speciall Instrument ordained of Christ both to present a new as to our use his Passion and to convey on us the present Graces which flow out of this Passion doth there withall assure us likewise of all the Happiness to come whereof the received Graces are a hopeful Earnest and this Sacrament under this third notion is a certain Pledg 2. Now tho what is given before hand for Earnest and what is engaged by way of Pledg come all to one in point of Validity and obligingness yet they quite differ many times both in their use and in their intrinsecal value Whence it comes to pass that Earnests may be allowed upon account for part of the Payment which is promised whereas Pledges are recalled and taken back as the Seal and Staff of Juda once were Gen. 38. Thus for example zeal Charity and these degrees of Holiness which God bestowes at the use of holy Sacraments will remain still ours in Heaven and there make part of our Happiness whereas the Sacraments themselves shall be kept back and shall not appear more in Heaven then did the Cloudy Pillar in Canaan or do now the shadows of the Law under the time of the Gospel Certainly we shall have no need either of these sacred Images of Christ when we shall see him face to face or of these Pledges to assure us of that Glory which is to be revealed when we shall actually possess it But till that day the holy Communion hath this third use namely of being a Pledg and an assurance from the Lord that in his good time he will crown us with Everlasting Happiness 3. Our blessed Savior pointed at it when He said to his Disciple the Holy Cup being in his hand that he would drink no more of that Fruit till he should drink it new in the Kingdom of his Father Luk. 22.18 In the reall purpose of God his Church and Heaven go both together That being the way that leads to this as the Holy Place to the Holyest and both Holy Place and Holyest come to this one Thing which Christ calls the Kingdom of God Let them not whom He hath invited to eat and drink at Abrahams Table trouble themselves about the Room where our blessed Savior will feed them for tho it were but
Center both of his Happiness and his Duty and that ties the very knot which in a manner joins Man with God It was upon this account that the Devil who bore ever an equal hatred both to what is Holy to God and to all what is conducible to the Salvation of Man hath from the very beginning bin busie with this Sacrament and hath ever since given the Church more trouble about the Body of Jesus Christ then ever the Angel suffered about the Body of Moses Jude 9. For the Body of Christ as the Holy Fathers distinguish it being of two sorts to wit the Natural which is in Heaven and the Sacramental which is blessed and given at the holy Table the primitive Heretics whom the Spirit of Antichrist set up and animated against the Church spent all their strength and their venim at the very time and in the face of the Apostles in order to destroy the first which is the Human Nature of Christ and to reduce it to a Phantosm and God knows whether the second that is the Sacramental receives at this day any better entertainment from two contrary Parties who make it either a false God or an emty Ceremony Of all these opposite Enemies the first who assaulted his Flesh could in this impiety be but poor vain undertakers this glorious Body being highly exalted above their reach but the second are on this account more dangerous because the blessed Communion which makes up this other Body may daily fall into the hands of either an Idolatrous or a profane Abuser Therefore it very much concerns them whosoever have either any Piety towards God or any care of their own Souls to menage their Devotions with such precaution and judgment that this venerable Sacrament may be kept safe from the attemts of superstition and profaneness SECTION II. Concerning the Sacrament as it is a Memorial of the Sufferings and Death of Christ 1. THe blessed Communion was chiefly instituted by the Son of God for a Sacrament in the Church But when it is received by the Christian People if this receiving of theirs be right it must needs be attended with the addition of such other Performances as will make it also a Sacrifice As it is a Sacrament this great Mystery shews three Faces looking directly towards three Times and offering to all worthy Receivers three sorts of incomparable Blessings that of Representing the true Efficacy of Christs Sufferings which are past whereof it is a Memorial that of exhibiting the first Fruits of these Sufferings in real and present Graces whereof it is a moral Conveyance and Communication and that of assuring Men of all other Graces and Glories to come whereof it is an infallible Pledg 2. As this Sacrament looks back it is an authentic Memorial which our Savior hath left in his Church of what He was pleased to suffer for Her For tho these Sufferings of His were both so dreadful and Holy as to make the Heavens mourn the Earth quake and all men tremble yet because great Objects how terrible and magnificent soever they be whilst they last are not less then the smallest things apt to be forgotten when they are gon and so there was small likelyhood that the Passion of Jesus Christ which was not seen upon the Cross above the space of some few hours could be well preserved in the memory of men throughout all ages therefore our Saviour was pleased at his last Supper to ordain this Sacrament as a holy Memorial Representation and Image of what He was about to suffer for that short time to save his dear Church for ever So that when Christian Posterity which had not seen the Crucifixion of their Savior like the young Israelites that had not seen the killing of the first Passover should come to ask after the signification of those things this Bread this Wine the Breaking of the one the powring out of the other and the Participation of both this sacred Mystery might expose to faithful Beholders as a present and constant Object both the Martyrdom and the Sacrifice of this crucified Savior giving up his Flesh shedding his Blood and pouring out his very Soul for the expiation of their Sins 3. Therefore as in the Feasts of the Passover the late Jews could say This is the Lamb these are the Herbs and this is the Bread of affliction which our Fathers did eat in Egypt because their latter Feasts did so effectually represent the former that the People who did partake of those had ground enough both to act and to speak as if they had bin present at this So at our holy Communion which succeeds the Passover and is undoubtedly no less a blessed and powerful Sacrament to set before our eyes Christ our Passover who is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Our Saviour says St. Augustin doubted not to say This is my Body when he gave to his Disciples the Figure of his Body Because especially besides the Commemoration this Sacrament duly given and faithfully received makes the Thing which it represents as really present for our use and as really powerful in order to our Salvation as if the Thing it self were newly done or in doing Eating this Bread and drinking of this Cup you set forth the death of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11.26 4. For certainly not to mistake the meaning of Christ nor to injure his Mystery whensoever with the primitive Church we call it a Memorial or a Figure great care must be taken lest we confound these Venerable Representations which God himself hath set up in his Church and for his Church with those emty Figures and Marks which either some old Tradition or some private phansie may by chance have put in our way Men of ordinary Understanding do not regard with the same eye the Armes and Images of Princes which public Autority hath set up in a public eminent Place and which a Painter to please his phansie hath fixt in a private Room Without all doubt a wise Traveller would be much more moved at the sight of the Salt Pillar if it did stand yet where it did which God had set up purposely where Lots wife lookt towards Sodom then at some Prints of her Feet if they were to be seen yet when she turned some other way And if we credit the History that Cross which the first Christian Emperor is reported once to have seen in the Air which undoubtedly the hand of God or an Angel had made appear with some Design could not but cause a greater respect then that ordinary Sign of the Cross which Christians have used on common occasions Add what no body can deny that all Sorts of Signs and Monuments become more or less Venerable according to the greater or lesser worth of the Objects which they are made to represent It had bin hard for Abraham or for any devout Patriarck not to feel some motions of Reverence and holy Fear when they did chance to pass again by Mamre or by Morijah
or such other remarkable Places where God had appeared to them and who doubts but the very sight of Bethlehem of the Mount of Olives of Calvary c. which Christ honored with his Presence when he was born when he suffered and when he went up to Heaven did heat the primitive Christians with considerable Flames of Zeal besides that usuall Faith and Knowledg which they had got by their reading But when these Signs and Monuments besides their ordinary use bear withal as it were on their Face the glorious Character of their Institution from above and with this Institution the most express Design that God hath thereby to revive in a manner and to expose as full to all our senses his Passion and sufferings as if they had still there true Being as they have still the same vertue a discreet and pious Beholder must needs look on these Ordinances with these three degrees of Devotion 5. The first is when he considers those great and dreadful Passages which this Sacrament sets before him I doe observe on this Altar some what very like the Sacrifice and Passion of my Savior For thus the Bread of life was broken thus the Lamb of God was slain thus his most precious Blood was shed And when I look upon the Minister who by speciall order from God his Master distributes this Bread and this wine I conceive that thus verily God himself hath both given once his Son to dye and gives still the virtue of his Death to bless and to save every Soul that comes unfaignedly to him 6. The second is an Act of Adoration and Reverence when he looks upon that good Hand that hath consecrated for the use of the Church the Memorial of these great Things I cannot without some degree of devotion look on any Object that in any wise puts me in mind of the Sufferings of my Savior and if I did perceive but any Cloud somewhat like them altho it were but casual I would not neglect the Accident that had caused that Resemblance But since the good hand of my God hath purposely contrived it thus to set before me what I see and since by his special Appointment these Representatives are brought in hither for this Church and among all the rest for me I must mind what Israel did when the Cloud filled the Tabernacle I will not fail to worship God assoon as I perceive these Sacraments and Gospel-Clouds appearing in the Sanctuary Here I worship neither Sacrament nor Tabernacle but I will observe the manner that Moses David and all Israel have taught me to receive poor Elements with after the Institution of God hath once raised them to the estate of great Mysteries Neither the Ark nor any Clouds were ever adored in Israel tho some brutish Heathen sometimes thought so but sure it is the Ark was considered quite otherwise then a Chest and the Cloud then a Vapor assoon as God had hallowed them both to be the Signs of his presence Therefore as the former People did never see the Temple or the Cloud but that presently at that sight they used to throw themselves on their faces I will never behold these better and surer Sacraments of the glorious Mercies of God but as soon as I see them used in the Church to that holy purpose that Christ hath consecrated them to I will not fail both to remember my Savior who consecrated these Sacraments and to worship also my Savior whom these Sacraments do represent And God forbid that when I am able I should not receive them as my Savior himself was pleased to receive his own Baptism with Devotion and Prayer Luk. 3.21 7. The third which is the Crown and the compleating of the two other is such a vigorous and intense Act of Faith as may correspond to the great End which our Savior aimed at when He instituted this Sacrament The main Intention of Christ was not here to propose a bare Image of his Passion once suffered in order to a bare Remembrance but over and above to enrich this Memorial with such an effectual and real Presence of continuing Atonement and strength as may both evidently set forth Christ himself crucified before our eyes Gal. 3.1 and invite us to his Sacrifice not as done and gone many years since but as to expiating grace and mercy still lasting still new still the same that it was when it was first offered for us 8. All those Sacrifices under the Law which had both their use and their strength limited some to a year some to a Month some to a day were not less powerful at the last then they were at the first moment of their proper Duration and they who lived or dyed within the twelfth month of the year after the Feast of Propitiations had as much benefit from that anniversary Sacrifice as they who were upon the place and at the very day when the high Priest did offer it Upon the like but infinitly better reason the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ being appointed by God the Father for a Propitiation that should continue throughout all Ages to the Worlds end and withal being everlasting by the Priviledg of its own Order which is an unchangeable Priesthood Heb. 7.24 and by his worth who offered it that is the Blessed Son of God and by the Power of the Spirit by whom it was offered which is the eternal Spirit Hebr. 9.14 all kinds of Eternity thus concurring together to the Sacrifice upon the Cross it must in all respects stand everlasting and Eternal and the same yesterday to day and for ever Hebr. 13.8 9. Therefore this Sacrifice being such the holy Communion is ordained of Christ to set it out to us as such that is as effectual now at this holy Table as it was then at the very Cross and by the same proportion the Act of worthy Receivers besides Remembrance and Worship must needs be this first to elevate their Faith and stretch their very Souls up to the Mount with the blessed Virgin who stood nearest the Sacrifice or at the least with the Disciples who lookt on it at some distance and then look up to the Victim to Jesus the Everlasting Mediator of the Everlasting Covenant and to the Blood of sprinkling that speaks yet and craves for better things Pardon and Blessing then Abels did Hebr. 12.24 Here Faith must be as true a subsistence of those things past which we believe as 't is of those other things yet to come which we hope for Heb. 11.1 10. At the approach therefore of this great Mystery and by the help of this strong Faith the worthy Communicant being prostrated at the Lords Table as at the very foot of his Cross shall with earnest sorrow confess and lament all his Sins which were the nails and spears that pierced our Savior We our selves most chiefly not Pilate nor the Jewes for he would not have dyed for such alone we have crucifyed that Just one Men and Brethren what shall
them out of the Puddle where they did ly like Beasts without sense of danger or shame and it quickens these rotten Trees for the producing of better Fruit. The first Life being opposite to Condemnation and Eternal Punishment belongs properly to the Blood that hath satisfied divine Justice and so removed Punishment and the second which is opposite to stupid and senseless both falling into sin and lying in it relates properly to the Water that after Propitiation and Pardon washes and sanctifies the sinner These two Lives are the two first Effluxes which proceeded out of Jesus Christ when his Body was pierced and both are inseparable as the Blood and the water were which flowed together out of his side Let none who finds himself clean from the filth and spots of his sin be afraid of Punishment for them I have found a Ransom for him Job 33.24 for the water came not without the Blood But let every one that hath a mind to be safe from Punishment which is taken off by the Blood seek for farther security in the purifying of himself from all the uncleanness of sin which the Water is to wash away for the Blood came not without water Christ came not by Blood alone but by water and Blood 1 Joh. 5.6 9. Over and above these two Lives whereof one consists in Pardon and removal of Punishment the other in Sanctification and enlivens us from dead works so as not thenceforward to deserve it as before there remains besides a third Life which consists in an absolute Redemtion from Death and other miseries This life as to the sure Title and Right is together with the two other purchased by the same Sacrifice but as to the real use and possession it is reserved for us in Heaven and there hid with Christ in God Coloss 3.3 Until it be revealed we appear as if we were dead these two Jewels lying in and being wrapped about with the dark Veils of human Mortality till that Christ becoming unto us actual Redemtion as well as actual Justice and actual Sanctification this third life succeeds to break the Cloud 10. Now the blessed Savior being by his Sacrifice the Author and giver of these three Lives shews himself by this Sacrament to be the preserver of them also and to this purpose sets up a Table by his Altar where he engages most solemnly to feed and nourish our Souls with the constant supply of his Mercies to the very day of eternal Salvation as really as he gives and we receive these Elements of Bread and Wine which are the usual meanes of sustaining mortal Bodies until the end of this short Life My Father worketh hitherto and I work with him Ioh. 95.17 God the father rested indeed upon the seventh day from the work of Creating and God the Son at the same day from the work of Suffering but neither of them will rest till the day of Redemtion from the work of preserving both what the Creation hath produced and what the Passion hath saved In the first Creation here is a Man and a Woman made of the Flesh and as it were of the very wounds of her Husband and there you find a Tree planted to maintain both their life and strength In the Deliverance of Egypt here is a People saved by the Sacrifice of the Passeover and lest so many rescued out of Egypt should faint and starve in the Desert there you see an Angel leading them the way with his Light keeping them cool under the Shadow of his Cloud and feeding them through all their journny with a miraculous sort of Meat Jesus is both in the Original and progress of Salvation the Truth foreshewed by these Figures When he dyed upon the Cross there he fullfilled that which had bin shadowed forth both by the Sleep and wound of Adam and by the killing of paschal Lambs And when he feeds from Heaven with a continual Effusion of Blessing those souls and lives which he hath bin pleased to redeem by the effusion of his own Blood He is the Truth both of the Tree and of the Angel which were appointed the one to maintain Man and the other to keep Israel 11. Christ relates to these four Figures as the Body which fulfils them and the Holy Communion relates to them on the other side as an Antitype that is as one Image may relate to another all to express the same object Upon the breaking the one and powring out the other of these consecrated Elements you see what Christ hath suffered as upon the wound of Adam and the death of the Passeover Abel Enoc and Israel might partly see what he should suffer And upon the nourishing nature of this Bread you see that which others have seen in the Tree of life and in the Angel raining down Manna what He would give But this is the advantage of the Holy Communion above all the ancient Figures Adam with his open Side and all Sacrifices with their Blood did foretel only Christs Passion and the Tree of life with all its fruit and the Angel with all his Food did foretel only his preserving Grace whereas this Sacrament alone represents both his Passion and Preserving and besides these another great Mystery by their mutual dependency What wee take and eat is made of a Substance cut bruised and put to the fire that shews my Saviors Passion and it was used in that manner that it may afford me wholesom food that shewes the Benefit which both he gives and I receive out of this dreadful Passion The Angels enjoy such an immortality and wear such Crowns as cost God nothing but the pain he took to give them ours are more precious and costly then so Our inheritance in Heaven is not less then Akeldamah a Possession bought with Christs Blood In this Sacrament here is Death represented there Life the Life is mine the Death my Saviors and ô blessed Jesus this my Life comes out of thy Death and the Salvation which I hope for is purchased with all the pain and Agonies which Thou didst suffer 12. Here Melchisedek and Aaron wait upon Jesus Christ at this Table as Moses and Elias did on the Mount These two great Priests stand to soreshew what Christ alone is to perform For there is Aaron the Priest with Blood and here Melchisedek with Bread There Aaron breaks sheds and destroies here Melchisedek feeds and blesses Nay both are one in Jesus Christ First Christ appears to Sacrifice upon the Cross as Aaron did at his Altar with Flesh and Blood and as in Melchisedeks case and figure with his own Flesh and his own Blood Then as Aaron did use to enter once every year into the Sanctuary Christ once for all is ascended into Heaven thence to bless us Act. 3.26 And this blessing is the strength the Food and Refreshment which Melchisedek brought in a figure that with the help of these good Things both Abraham and his Followers that is all sincere Christians may
Sacrifice 1. IT is a certain truth that there never was on Earth a true Religion without some kind of Sacrifices and 't is a very great lye to say that now the Christian should want them The Jews and the Pagans who first aspersed the Church of Christ with this slander did it upon such a reason as became them because they saw neither Altars set up nor Beasts slain and burnt among them Thus the Pagans accused the Jews of adoring nothing but Clouds because they had no Gods of Stone or Silver in their Synagogues and thus silly men may think now that the world is destitute of Angels because they do not appear so often as they did in ancient times in the shape and forms of Men. The truth is as what appeared like a Body was not an Angel nor what was Stone or Silver could be a God Neither the slaughter of poor beasts could ever be true Sacrifices Thou delightest not in Oblations the Sacrifice of God is a broken Spirit Many among the Jews much less quick sighted then the Prophets were confessed as much nor certainly could any reason permit them to imagine that Flesh and Blood which in all their Scriptures passes both for the weakest and the vilest of Things could be the best and the soundest part of Sacrifices 2. Of all the Carnal Sacrifices which the Jews do reduce to six kinds besides many more Oblations none ever had any saving reality as to the washing away of sins but in dependance on Jesus Christ our Lord and as to our service and duty towards God which they were also to represent none had this second end so fully performed under the Law as it must be under the Gospel The blessed Communion alone when whole and not mutilated concenters and brings together these two great Ends full Expiation of sins and acceptable Duty to God towards which all the old Sacrifices never look't but as either simple Engagements or weak shadows As for the first which is Expiation of sins 't is most certain that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone hath bin sufficient for it and that if all both men and Angels were joined to it it were not to add too but to receive from its fulness It is most certain also that this great Sacrifice being both of an infinit virtue to satisfy the most severe Justice and of an infinite virtue to produce at once all the Effects that can be expected of it it were impiety to think it should need to be don again as weak and infirm Causes must in order to make up by degrees and at several times their full Effect This was perhaps the want of Faith which the holy Scripture taxes in Moses Num. 20.12 which it is hard to find in any thing els to strike a second time and without order that mysterious Rock which to strike once had bin enough for this second blow could proceed but of a faithless mistrust that the first which alone was commanded could not suffice But it were a much greater offence both against the Blood of Christ to question its infinit worth and against the infinitness and Immensity of this worth to charge it with som Emtiness which any reiteration should fill up Therefore as the Expiatory Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Cross was infinitly able to do at once whatever an infinit number of other Sacrifices had bin able to do either all together at one time or each of them severally during the succession of all Ages the Offering of it must needs be one only and the Reiteration of it were not only superfluous as to its real effect but also most injurious to Christ in the very thought and Attemt 3. Nevertheless this Sacrifice which by a real Oblation was not to be offered more then once is by an Eucharistical and devout Commemoration to be offered up every day This is what the Apostle calls to set forth the death of the Lord to set it forth I say as well before the Eyes of God his Father as before the Eyes of all Men and what S. Augustin did explain when he said that the holy Flesh of Jesus Christ was offered up in three manners by prefiguring Sacrifices under the Law before his coming into the World in real deed upon the Cross and by a Commemorative Sacrament after he is ascended into Heaven All comes to this first that the Sacrifice as t is it self and in it self it can never be reiterated yet by way of devout Celebration and Remembrance it may nevertheless be reiterated every day Secondly that whereas the Holy Eucharist is by it self a Sacrament wherein God offers unto all men the Blessings merited by the Oblation of his Son it likewise becomes by our Remembrance a kind of Sacrifice also whereby to obtain at his hands the same Blessings we present and expose before his Eyes that same holy and precious Oblation once offered Thus the ancient Israelites did continually represent in their Solemn Prayers to God that Covenant which he had made once with Abraham Isaac and Jacob their Forefathers Thus did the Jews in their Captivity turn their Faces towards either the Country or the Temple where the Mercy Seat and the Ark were which were the Memorial of his Promises and the Sacramental Engagement of his Blessings And thus the Christians in their Prayers do every day insist upon and represent to God the Father the meritorious Passion of their Savior as the only sure ground whereon both God may give and they obtain the Blessings which they do pray for Now neither the Israelites had ever Temple or Ark or Mercy seat nor the Christians have any Ordinance Devotion or Mystery that may prove to be such a blessed and effectual Instrument to reach to this Everlasting Sacrifice and to set it out so solemnly before the Eyes of God Almighty as the Holy Eucharist is To men it is a sacred Table where Gods Minister is ordered to represent from God his Master the Passion of his dear Son as still fresh and still powerful for their Eternal Salvation and to God it is an Altar whereon Men mystically present to him the same Sacrifice as still bleeding and still sueing for Expiation and Mercy And because it is the high Priest himself the true Anointed of the Lord who hath set up most expressly both this Table and this Altar for these two ends namely for the Communication of his Body and Blood to Men and for the Representation and Memorial of both to God it cannot be doubted but that the one must be most advantageous to the penitent Sinner and the other most acceptable to that good and gracious Father who is alwaies pleased in his Son and who loves of himself the repenting and the sincere return of his Children Luke 15.22 4. Hence one may see both the great use and advantage of more frequent Communion and how much it concerns us whensoever we go to receive it to lay out all our wants and
that is his Church For we that are many saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.17 are one Bread To this purpose the holy Martyr Ignatius Epist Rom. being ready to be offered up by Martyrdom said he was the wheat of God which was to be ground by Beasts teeth Soon after the Church added Oyl and Frankincense to Bread and Wine to make up the whole Meat Offering which consisted of these four Things The truth is all what we can offer upon our own account is but such an Oblation as this Meat and Drink offering of Moses was that cannot be presented but by the virtue and merits of Jesus Christ who supports it and that can never ascend up to Heaven but along with the sacred smoke of that great Burnt Sacrifice which is to carry it up thither For on the one side our own persons our works or any thing else that may be ours are by themselves but weak unsubstantial kinds of Offerings which cannot be presented unto God otherwise but as these Additional Oblations which from themselves fall to the ground unless a more solid Sacrifice do sustain them And on the other side this solid and fundamental Sacrifice upholds saves and sanctifies but those persons and things that according to the Law of Moses his Meat Offerings are thrown into this his fire are hallowed upon his Altar and are together with him consecrated to God by him 11. For this cause it is that as soon as the Prophet had preached the coming of this Everlasting Sacrifice and the propitiation and happiness which it would spread over all the world he foretels at the same time that the Apostles and their successors whom he designs by expressions proper to that Oeconomy under which he did live should bring the Nations from all parts of the Earth as an Offering unto the Lord. Esay 66. And to the same purpose St. Paul himself speaks of his Evangelical Office as of a Sacrificing Priesthood and of the Gentiles whom he did convert to Christ as of so many Sacrifices which he presented to the Lord. I exercise saies he in the Gospel a holy Sacerdotal Priesthood for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both that the Oblation of the Gentiles may be acceptable being sanctified by the holy spirit Rom. 15.16 Hence proceeds that Method which he observes most constantly never to preach the Faith in Jesus Christ without inviting presently the Beleivers to Offer up unto God either their Bodies and Souls as Rom. 12. or their works of holiness of Praise of Charity c. as every where else And these are the Spiritual Offerings which every true Christian must join to cast upon the fundamental Sacrifice of Christ Jesus 12. We know indeed that the universal Assembly of Christians could never meet at the same time or place either to follow Christ in a Body when he went to offer himself for them or to fall upon their faces and prostrate themselves to the ground when he bowed his head under their Sins Providence that scatters men up and down throughout all places and times of the world permitting no possibility of such a general meeting But the Sacrifice of Christ tho it was confined to few hours and to a small parcel of Ground as to the Suffering yet being everlasting infinit and still the same as as to the sufficiency and virtue of it coextends it self most perfectly to all both times and places when and where those scattered members will ever come to Offer up themselves to God with their head And besides this the second part of his Sacerdotal Office which consists in interceding continuing still in the very Act till the worlds end They that could not embrace his Cross and join with him at that same time that he Offer'd himself may do it every day and humble themselves like poor victims loaden with sins and miseries at the same time that now he continues still actually interceding So in all Places at all times and upon any emergencies whensoever the Beleivers will present themselves unto God both with and by his Son Jesus they may still receive the favor of acceptation and that real efflux of saving Odor from Christ which was represented by that typical holiness which the additional Oblation did receive from the principal Sacrifice when it was adjoined to it Whereas it is most certain that all the Merit and blood of Christ shall no more save Men that will not draw neer and join themselves to conformity and Communion of his Death then the continual and other burning Sacrifices were ever able to consecrate that meat that Wine that Oyl and that Frankincense which were not brought nor burned upon the the same Altar with them 13. Now tho all men be called to this conformity and Communion in the Sufferings of Christ from the time of those sufferings until there be no times at all and altho the daies of our present life have all the priviledg which these seven feast daies once had when every one might gird his loins eat his unleavened bread and kill his own Bullock as the Priest did Sacrifice the Paschal Lamb which Bullock was superadded to the Paschal Lamb that both might better suffice for the 7 Festival daies besides its other ritual and figurative importance as a Sacrifice it is certain nevertheless that there are two more special and extraordinary daies wherein Christians are invited by more urgent and proper Circumstances to present their Souls and Bodies by way of Second Offering upon the Sacrifice of their Savior The first is past and that was when the Savior offered himself to death when Heaven and Earth Temple and Graves shook at the blow that killed him when pious Souls either stood immoveable as the blessed Virgin hard by his Cross or in a manner crucified themselves beating their breasts as the Daughters of Jerusalem and when every Disciple might by the very conjuncture of all the things he saw be moved to say as Thomas let us go and let us dy with him Joh. 11.16 The other time most favorable and proper next to that of his real Passion is that of the holy Communion which as it hath bin * Gelas Cyzic part 2. cap. 31. explained is a Sacramental Passion where tho the Body be broken and the blood shed but by way of representative Mystery yet both are as effectually and as truly offered for our own use if we go to it worthily as when that holy and divine Lamb did offer himself the first time 14. Therefore whensoever Christians approach to this dreadful Mystery and to the Lamb of God lying and sacrificed as some say that the holy Nicene Council speaks upon the holy Table it concerns their main interest in point of Salvation as well as in other duties to take a special care not to lame and deprive the grand Sacrifice of its own due Attendance But to behave themselves in that manner that as both the principal and additional Sacrifices were consumed by the