hear how our Saviour Christ hath expounded his own meaning who spake as never man spake like him he has given a clear interpretation of these mystical Scriptures afore mentioned that this eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood is to be understood Symbolically Spiritually and Sacramentally by faith to Commemorate the great love of God in the Transaction of mans Redemption by the Death and Sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ But thus much for the words of our Saviour Christ for the present But secondly in the second place let us hear the full of what the Apostle Paul saith unto this Doctrine also for give me leave to tell ye Sir that you have quoted but part of the Apostle's words you have curtailed his words also in the 1 Cor. 11.23 25 26. For I have received of the Lord that which also I deliver unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take this my body Thus far you go Take Eat this my body what Body was that why it was Christ's Sacramental Body namely the Bread and Wine which are the Signs of his Body which prefigures out unto us his real material Body which was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem it is to Commemorate the Death and Sufferings of Christ and all the Benefits and Blessings which did flow forth unto poor lost and undone fallen man for all that ever did believe or that ever should believe in him and expect eternal life and salvation upon the account of his Righteousness and Merits alone through the aid and agency of the Eternal blessed and holy Spirit and all this comes flowing unto us from that Blessed fountain of all the Christians Mercies namely the Eternal love of God the Father which was the efficient or first moving cause of all And as the Glorious Trinity had all a hand in making man so they all have a hand in redeeming man. But again this is that Body which was evidently set forth Crucified before the Galatians eyes Gal. 3.1 It was the Representation of Christ's Crucified Body in the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper among the Galatians and not the Real Crucifixion of his Substantial Body without the Gates of Jerusalem And this is that Body which the Apostle saith Take Eat this my body that was his Sacramental body or the sign of his body In the Sacrament of the Lords Supper that was crucified and nothing else and this is that body which all true believers in the Sacrament do discern and partake of and eat now in the Churches of Christ and all this is done by faith in a holy Reverential Remembrance of Christ to shew forth his Death till he come After the same manner also he took the Cup when he had supped saying This Cup is the New Testament in my blood this do ye as often as ye drink it in remembrance Which latter words you always omit and take no notice at all of them which words carry great weight in them if you would but be so kind unto your own souls as to adhere unto them for saith the Apostle As often as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lords Death till he come This Ordinance was Instituted by our Saviour Christ himself the same night in which he was betrayed And at that time Christ did partake of iâ with his Disciples so that if your Doctrine oâ Transubstantiation be true then Christ must make his body at that time and eat himself body soulâ and Divinity and so he had two bodies one to eaâ with and the other to be eaten or otherwise hâ must give the same body which he was then in unto his Disciples to eat and to drink nay that ãâã not all for he must eat his own body and yet ãâã visible at the Table with them at the same time nay that is not all for he must eat all his Disciple or Members and also all his Members that partaââ of this Ordinance must eat him for every true believer is in Christ and Christ is in them nay thâ is not all for every true believer when he partakeâ of this Ordinance according to your Doctrine mâ not only eat Christ carnally but he must also ãâã his own self Nay that is not all for he must ãâã the Church too for all is in Christ and Christ is God. I in them saith our Saviour and thou in ãâã that they may be one as thou art one And in the 1 ãâã 10.16 17. The cup of blessing which we bless is it ãâã the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which break is it not the communion of the body of Christ ãâã we being many are one bread and one body for we ãâã all partakers of that one bread Here the Church called bread and it is called body also as our ãâã viour Christ is in the Sacrament and at the Sacrament also in ãâ¦ã once more Every individual person that partaketh of this Ordinance must eat the body of Christ singly and intirely or else they divide Christ and so eat but a part of a Christ as you Laicks do for you have but a very dry lifeless Christ that hath not one drop of blood in his veins so that so many partakers so many Christs there must be which must be a jolly company of them indeed But Christ as he was God did make or prepare his own material body Heb. 10. but whither will these Absurdities hurry us I could name many more that this Doctrine affords us some of which will necessarily and consequentially fall in my way in the remaining part of my Discourse Secondly Again in the next place this Ordinance is to be kept up and celebrated during Christ's absence until some eminent and glorious appearance of his in his Churches which appearance I humbly conceive under correction will âender this Ordinance useless by the Apostle's words viz. Ye do shew the Lords Death till he come that is until Christ come I do not remember that I tread that Christ after he Instituted this Ordinance did ever partake of it himself nor his Disciples neither during Christ's personal presence with them until after his Ascension And this Ordinance doth also shew unto the world âhe great undertaking of Christ who trod the Wine-press of God's wrath alone and of the people there was none with him he bore the wrath of God for sin that was due unto sinners that poor sinners might be made partakers of the love and grace of God he was made a curse for sinners Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every âne that hangeth on a tree He bore the curse to purchase the blessing of Eternal life and Salvation for all that believe in him And this is that which will mightily aggravate the condemnation of the wicked world
are all partakers of that one bread Believers have Communion with a Crucified Saviour in this Ordinance by Faith in him and Love to him And our Saviour Christ and the Apostles gave both the Bread and the Wine unto all the Members that did partake as well to the Lay-People as to the Ecclesiasticks without any the least Exception in them words of our Saviour's command Drink ye all of it and you will hear that it is called Bread and breaking of Bread in several places of the Sacred Scripture Acts 2.42 And they continued stedfast in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers 1 Cor. 10.16 17. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread that is Christ the Bread of Life Here it is said Communion with the Blood and with the Bread that is thus Believers have Communion with a crucified Redeemer and Communion and Fellowship one with another in that Holy Ordinance of the Lords Supper As you may see in the same Chapter 20 21. verses all those that make a Sacrifice of the Ordinance of the Lords Supper have fellowship with Devils But in the 17 verse there the true Gospel-Church is called Bread and so is Christ her Head also both the Head and the Body which is the Church are called Bread. And in Acts 20.7 And upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow Thus you see it was called Bread and not Flesh both in the first Institution of the Ordinance by our Saviour Christ himself and likewise by the Apostles at the Celebration of this Holy Ordinance among the Disciples Therefore this eating of Christ's Body and drinking his Blood is to be understood no otherwise than our Saviour Christ intended and appointed it which was Spiritual and Sacramental for to commemorate his death and sufferings and all the blessed fruits and effects that do flow therefrom into the souls of Believers There is a feeding upon Christ in every Spiritual Gospel-Ordinance of God in Religious Worship and Discipline by Faith the Gospel-Ordinances are a feast of fat things full of marrow of wine from the lees well refined as the Prophet Isaiah calls it and on them the souls of Believers do feed and feast with and upon the Lord Jesus Christ And this feeding upon Christ's Body and drinking his Blood in the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper as well as in all other Ordinances of the Gospel aforesaid is to be done by faith as I have already proved for every believing soul doth live upon Christ by faith who is ãâ¦ã of Scriptures to prove the veracity or truth of thâ same and here following I shall lay down some feââ Scriptures instead of many which do import anââ clearly manifest the same and I will begin witââ Joh. 8.24 I said therefore unto you that ye shall die ãâã your sins for if ye believe not that I am he ye shall dâââ in your sins 1 Joh. 3.23 And this is his Commanâment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesââ Christ Here is God the Father's command for iââ Christ doth not say If you do not eat me Body Soul and Divinity ye shall die but if you do nââ believe that I am he ye shall die in your sins because ye believed not that I am he because ye dââ not obey me nor my Father's command as if ouââ Saviour should have said Rom. 10.9 10. That ãâã thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shaââ believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart maââ believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation Act. 16.30 31. Wheâ the sturdy Jaylor was convinced he said Sirs Whaâ must I do to be saved The Apostles did not tell him that he must go and eat Christ's substantial Body No but they told him that he must believe on thâ Lord Jesus Christ and he should be saved and his house Joh. 12.46 I am come a light into the world thaâ whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness Joh. 17.3 And this is Life Eternal that they might know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hasâ sent How must they know God and Christ so aâ they might have Eternal Life why only by believing in him Joh. 20.21 But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus ss the Christ the Son of God and believing ye might have life through his name Joh. 3.16 17 36. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God seââ not his Son into the world to condemn the world but thaâ the world through him might be saved He that believetâ on the Son hath eternal life and he that believeth nââ the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideâ on him Joh. 5.24 Verily verily I say unto you ãâã that believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting lifâ and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life Joh. 6.29 Jesus answered and faââ unto them This is the work of God that ye believe ãâã him whom he hath sent Thus you see dear Sir that I have answered yoâ fully and clearly and I have faithfully prove from the Holy Bible which is my only Library and also I have proved from Reason for God deaâeth with us as Rational Creatures that our Saviour Christ is to be eaten and drunken by faith and iâ love Spiritually and Sacramentally in that Hoââ Ordinance of the Lords-Supper for it is a Lovâ feast in remembrance of the greatest love that ãâ¦ã gave his only begotten Son to die for it and this âove of Christ that was stronger than death we are âo commemorate in that Ordinance by feeding by âaith upon a Crucified Saviour and not to eat him Corporeally and Substantially in his Person as you of the Roman Catholick Perswasion do vainly pretend to believe and imagine the Lord inlighten your minds in the true Knowledg of Christ and sanctifie your understandings and change your wills and make you willing in the day of his power for this is a very dangerous gross Error and such a one as cannot be parallell'd but in the case of the poor blind Jews for by this Doctrine of Personal Priests and Material Altars and Sacrifices you do put your selves back from under the Gospel dispensation and lay your selves under the Mosaical Law and the consequence of it is this it is inevitably and clearly a down-right denying Jesus Christ being come in the Flesh Pray Sir Consider what I have said and so
as well as he is the Infallible Head of the Church for who can give a better interpretation or Exposition of the Law than the Law-maker can therefore no person can understand or give a right Interpretation of the Holy Scriptures but them to whom Christ gives this gift and that is to many thousands to some more and some less some have a higher measure than others it is given to every believer which is a spiritual man to know the mystery of Gods will in the Salvation of poor sinners for saith Christ It is given to you to know the mystery of the Kingdom but unto them it is not God hides these things from the wise and prudent and revealeth them unto babes saith Christ 1 Cor. 2.14 15. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned But he that is spiritual judgeth all things Here you see who is the chief Judg of the Scriptures and who are Missionaries or whom he has Commissionated so âo do not any one single person above the rest But âo return to what we are upon Joh. 3.3 4. Jesus ânswered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto ââee Except a man be born again he cannot see the ââingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him How can ãâã man be born again when he is old can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born This is ââst as the unbelieving Jews that said How can this ââan give us his flesh to eat And old Nicodemus notwithstanding he was a great Rabbi and Ruler in Israel yet he had like to have gone away under as ââeat a mistake about the Doctrine of Regeneration ãâã you Romanist have done of this mystical saying of ââr Saviour Christ's in that he hath said Take Eat ââis is my Body and of giving his flesh to eat and ââs blood to drink Now pray observe how nearly alike our Saviour Christ interprets and expounds this Doctrine of Reââneration unto Nicodemus in the 5th and 6th verses ââsus answered Verily verily I say unto thee Except man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enââ into the Kingdom of God that which is born of the ãâã is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit ââw see the 6. Joh. 63. and compare them togeââr It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth ââhing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit ãâã they are life Here you see all the carnal fleshly âââeption or Transubstantiated fancy utterly overââwn and knockt in the head in these words of ââaviour Christ as well as that also of Nicodemus's ââal conception of the Doctrine of Regeneration ãâ¦ã understood mystically and Spiriâââ ãâ¦ã eaten by faith in every Ordinance of God in Religious worship and especially in the Ordinance of the Lords-Supper for faith is the mouth of the new creature the great grace of faith is the souls Nurse but it feeds upon Christ and lives upon Christ which is this spiritual Bread which came down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die And so likewise our Saviour gives the like interpretation of the graces of the Spirit in the Believer much after the same manner which are compared to rivers of living water in Joh. 7.37 38 39. In the last day that great day of the Feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink And pray mind what the drink is that Christ giveth him He that believeth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water But pray mind what Exposition our Blessed Redeemer gives in the following verses But this spake he of the Spirit which they that believe on him should receive You see this drinking here is by faith in Christ and the liquor which they drink is spiritual liquor it is the water of life Now if these Scriptures are to be understood literally and properly then you must understand the Contexts and the Coherence of them literally and properly also for Christ does not as I remember speak a whole sentence wherein one part wholly contains spiritual matter and the other part wholly contains a literal and proper meaning in it tho one whole sentence may have both a mystical and literal meaning in it Now pray mind in Joh. 6.35 50. And Jesus said unto them I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst Now is not here the very same reason to believe that we shall never be corporally a hungry nor a thirst again as there is for us to believe that that is material bread or flesh that Christ spake of in the same verse Again this is the bread which cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die Now is not here as much reason to believe and understand this literally and properly as there is for any of the other to be understood so and if the rest be to be understood so then they that eat Christ's flesh and drink his blood shall never die a natural death Again if this Doctrine in Joh. 6. be to be understood literally and properly then must the Doctrine of Regeneration be understood so in Joh. 3. And if so then none should ever see the Kingdom of God nor enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and be saved but them and them only that crept into their mothers womb and were born again literally and properly as old Nicodemus ignorantly imagined There is every whit as much reason to believe this as there is to believe your Doctrine of Transubstantiation Pray mind the Interrogation of Nicodemus and that of the Jews how like they are the one to the other ãâ¦ã is old c. Secondly the Jews they said How can this man give us his flesh to eat Now if these Scriptures in Joh. 3. and in Joh. 6. are to be taken and the sense of them expounded literally in the plain letter of the word then must this of Joh. 7.38 be understood so in like manner where it is said that rivers of living water shall flow out of the Believers belly and we might as rationally expect that Scullers should ply the Ferry at every believers belly in these rivers of living water and also that every believer has crept into his mothers womb and been born again as to believe that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper after Consecration is Transubstantiated into the Body Soul and Divinity of our Saviour Christ which is into his very person But what will become of all those poor souls whose mothers are dead before they are or were converted that have never a mothers womb to creep into for I will assure you that the one is as true as the other let who will deny or contradict it And thus you do
âârist's offering up himself a Sacrifice to satisfie âââvine Justice and so to make up the breach that ãâã had made between God and Man and reconcile ãâã and Man together And this great and only ââcrifice we are in special manner to commemorate ãâã the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper from them ââârds of our Saviour Christ Do this in remembrance âââone Why even so the Passover and all the Sacrifices under the Ceremonial Law were instituted and âââââinted by God for a Remembrance that Christ ãâã to come in the flesh and die in the flesh to reâââââ fallen Man And here I will shew you the ãâã over and the Sacrifice both joyned together in ãâã Antitype or that which they signified unto us ãâã also the sanctifying purging nature and virtue âââââysical operation of it in 1 Cor. 5.7 Purge out âââââfore the old leaven that ye may be a new lump as ãâã unleavened For even Christ our passover is sacriââââ for us ââd as there was a Remembrance of Sin in the âââââfices to shew what an evil and dangerous thing ãâã and how contrary it is to the holy Nature of ãâã why even so there is a remembrance of sin ãâã Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to shew ãâã an evil there is in sin and also how contrary ãâã the Holy Nature of God. ãâã Sacrifice under the Law and the Sacrament ãâã the Gospel are like two great Looking ãâã in which Believers saw the deformity of ãâã in which they also see the great Love of ãâã poor sinful Dust and Ashes In the Glass under ãâã they saw that Christ was to come and be ofâââââ for sin and in our great Glass under the ãâã we see that Christ hath come and has âââââered up for sin Sin is such a hainous ââââvoking thing that nothing short of the ãâã precious Blood of Christ the spotless ãâã God could appease or extinguish the ãâã God that was kindled against sinners and expel the guilt and expiate sin and satisfie the Justice of God and justifie and atone them to God and purchase Eternal Life and Salvation for them at the price of his own precious Blood and copious Righteousness and Alsufficient Merits And he made up the Breach that sin did make between sinful man and that God who is of purer eyes then to behold iniquity with any approbation thereunto For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord And Christ received the wages that was due unto us sinning men and poor sinners receive the gift of God that was purchased by him For although God gives it yet Christ purchases it All the Sacrifices under the Law of Moses no nor all the good works nor pretended sacrifices under the Gospel they all cannot take away nor expiate the least vain sinful thought for all our Righteousnesses are all but filthy Rags Tho it is true we shall not be saved without Good Works and right Gospel Sacrifices yet we shall never be saved by nor for them for Christ saith Luke 17.10 So likewise ye when ye shall have done all these things which are commanded you say We are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do Eph. 2.8 9. For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves for it is the gift of God No for Faith it self is not of our selves for it is the Gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast For if Man were to be saved by and for his own works he would be proud and make his boast of it For there is not a prouder person upon Earth in the account of God than a Pharisaical self-conceited righteous person is Pray see what is said of him in Prov. 30.12 13. There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes and yet is not washed from their filthiness There is a generation O how lofty are their eyes and their eye-lids are lifted up And in Isa 65.3 5. A people that provoked me to anger continually to my face that sacrificeth in gardens and burneth Incense upon Altars of brick The Prophet here prophesied of a Generation of pretended Christians Ay and of such as do look upon themselves to be the only Infallible holy Christians and that are Sacrificers in Gospel times Pray mind what he saith of them as followeth Which say stand by thy self come not near to me for I am more holier than thou It must needs be so when they count themselves the only Christians and all other to be Hereticks But see how God accepts these persons and their Sacrifices that are our Gospel Sacrificers viz. These are a smoak in my nose a fire that burneth all the day And no person is pure in his own eyes but the self-righteous person And I pray hear further what is said by our Saviour Christ of such a person Luke 18.10 11 12 13 14. Two men went up into the temple to pray the ãâã a Pharisee and the other a Publican the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this Publican I fast twice in the week It may be that was on Wednesdays and Fridays I give tithes of all that I possess He thought himself Cock-sure of Heaven and did not so much as dream of stopping at Purgatory by the way But see what it all came to at last And the Publican standing afar off would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven but snote upon his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted I say again That all the Sacrifices under the Law could not take away nor expiate sin for they were but figures of Christ the great and only Sacrifice that was to be offered up in due time to take away sin from the ungodly and make them holy Pray Sir observe with me these following Scriptures for further illumination Heb. 8.4 5 6 7. For if he were on earth That is Christ he should not be a priest seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law which serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things Mind These Sacrifices were but examples and shadows when they were in force and according to God's appointment before Christ abolished them of Heavenly things that was to come that was the fruit and effect or product of the heavenly things that were transacted between God the Father and Christ his Son in his Eternal Council with the Holy Ghost which proceeds from the Father and the Son in order to Man's Redemption As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the Iabernacle for see saith he that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the Mount