Faith is drawn through these narrow and abject means that like himself have no comeliness in specie and when we see them there is no comeliness that we should desire them Isa 53.2 Nevertheless it is fit we should be well taught in the Contemplation of the hidden vertue inclosed in Baptism or else we could never think it worth our labour and obedience Our Common-Prayer-Book a store-house of rare Divinity tells us what is to be expected at that Laver for them that come to be Baptized 1. That God hath promised to be the Father of the faithful and of their seed and will most surely perform and keep his promise with them and by this introduction we are incorporated into the holy Congregation Behold they whom we love above all others by nature our Children are naturalized to be the Citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom and enter into it through this door of Grace 2. Secondly As God did save Noah and his Family from perishing by water and safely led the Children of Israel through the Red Sea while their enemies were drowned so the millions of the Nations whom God hath not given to Christ for his inheritance are drowned in their own lusts and corruptions But O what a priviledge it is to be among those few that are received into the Ark of Christs Church to be exempted from the common deluge and to be the faithful seed of Abraham led through the Chanel of the Sea and Baptized in the Cloud that went along with them when the Armies of the mighty are mightily consumed 3. Thirdly We may gather out of our Church-office for Baptism that the everlasting benediction of Heavenly washing affords two Comforts it signifies the bloud of Christ to cleanse us Per modum pretii as the price that was paid to ransom us from death and the sanctifying of the Holy Spirit to cleanse us per modum habitûs by his In-being and Celestial infusion and both are put together in one Collect That all that are Baptized may receive remission of sins by spiritual regeneration There is no remission of sin without bloud says the Apostle Heb. 9.22 meaning the invaluable bloud of the Lamb of God Verse 14. And the Heavenly thing is represented by the visible Element of Water for there must be some aptitude between the Sign and the Thing signified else it were not a Sacrament that as Water washeth away the filth of the body so the Bloud of Christ delivereth our Souls from the guilt and damnableness of sin The Bloud of Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 Epist Jo. 1.7 The metaphor of cleansing must have respect to Baptismal-water Again Who loved us and washed us from our sins in his Bloud Revel 1.5 Where the Scripture speaks of washing from sin it must be taken from the water of Baptism figuring the vertue of Christs Bloud that in the sight of his Father makes us white as Snow The Scriptures indeed strike most upon the other string and more directly as Ephes 5.25 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word Titus 3.6 He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost And in many other places Therefore our Liturgy falls most upon the purifying operation of the Spirit to be shadowed in the outward washing of water As when it prays Send thy Holy Spirit to these Infants and grant that they may be Baptiz'd with Water and with the Holy Ghost And Grant that all that are Baptized may receive the fulness of thy Grace Spiritual Regeneration is that which the Gospel hath set forth to be the principal correlative of Baptism O happy it is for us to be born again by Water and the Holy Ghost For better it were never to be born than not to be born twice God put a good mind into us and reform one great fault in us which is that our Baptism being past over a great while ago we cast it out of our memory and meditate but little upon the benefits and comforts of it We are got into the Church and do in a sort forget how we got in Whereas the whole life of a Christian man and woman should be a continual reflection how in Baptism we entred into Covenant with Christ to believe in him to serve him to forsake the Devil the vanities of the world and the sinful desires of the flesh Water is a pellucid Element to look through it to the bottom So look often through the sanctified Water to see what Christ hath done for you and what you have engaged to do for Christ And there is no heart so full of blackness and melancholy but will recover upon it and be as fresh in sound health as if it were filled with marrow and fatness Well did St. Paul put Baptism among the principles and foundations of Christian doctrine Heb. 6.2 For all the weight of Faith Sanctification and Mercy doth lie upon it Recount this by particulars 1. The first thought that my Soul hath upon it is That I am no longer a stranger and foreigner but a fellow-Citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God Ephes 2.19 I am no more a-far off but made nigh by the Bloud of Christ partaker of the priviledges of the Church and called by the new Name which the mouth of the Lord shall name a Christian Isa Chap. 62. Verse 2. 2. Secondly I find that I have gained to have the highest point of Faith unfolded to me which was but darkly discerned in the Old Testament to confess the Holy Trinity in which Faith I was Baptized For because that mystery was revealed at Christs Baptism it goes ever along with this Sacrament All Nations being Baptized in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 3. Thirdly I observe that my Christian engagement allows me not the liberty of sinning after the custom of the world but obligeth me to the strict discipline of my Lord to live holily justly and soberly to walk in newness of life as planted into the likeness of Christs death so to die unto sin for he that is dead is freed from sin Rom. 6.7 In every thing and at all times I must remember what the Sureties at the Font called Godfathers and Godmothers did promise for me in my Name which the Liturgy of Geneva retains in these words Do you promise to warn this Child to live according to God's Word and make the Law of God the square of his life to live by 'T is a binding Ceremony and we are brought up from our tender years in the knowledge of it that we continually may feel the work of the Ordinance to have our hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our bodies washt with clean Water Heb. 10.21 22. And as many as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 To put on Christ is to follow Christ in the Law of a
every Communicant Eats Christ to himself and the just shall live by his own Faith Nevertheless it is a Sacrament to combine and to knit together holding us fast into one Communion that there may be no breaking asunder of the parts and members Many grains of Wheat are kneaded into one Loaf many Grapes are trodden that their liquor may be pressed into one cup. We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 Now natural learning will teach us what a Comfort there is in Union and that fractions and dissolutions are painful and grievous Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is behold what a strengthening to the mystical Body to continue in one fellowship and breaking of Bread to link Faith and Love together in Jesus Christ It was but one deliverance common to all Israel whose solemnity was kept at the Passeover though every Lamb was Eaten by it self in a several family So it is one Cup of salvation which God hath given us to Drink though distributed to the faithful according to the multitude of persons and it is one Bread of which all do Eat though some have one share of it and some another It is necessary that many pieces be broken off from one Loaf to typifie the Body of the Lord broken for us and that the benefits of his Passion are distributed among us There are many instances that are pregnant to prove how pieces of something broken and divided into many shares do import a Communication of somewhat among the dividers The Heathen at the making of a League did now and then break a Flint-stone into pieces and they that entred into a League kept the parts in token of a Covenant Some upon a contract of marriage will break a piece of Gold and the two halfs are reserved by the contractors Shall I go further and yet come nearer to our case The Roman Souldiers parted our Saviour's garment among them and in that Symbolical accident is shewn that the Gentiles should share in the satisfaction of his death So Peter takes this morsel of the Bread John another c. yet Christ is not divided The same Ticket as it were in words in substance is put into every hand on which is written Take and Eat it in remembrance of me Take it says Christ and be not afraid as Saul was to take a Kingdom since Christ hath appointed it be not afraid as David was to be the Kings Son since such honour is predestinated to thee Take it and fear not as Peter did saying Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man it is the Lord's delight to seek and to save that which is lost Take it and take heed you let not go your hold the thing is fast and firm if you do not let it go and lose it Take it but not to hold the pleasures of the world and your sinful lusts in your gripe together if your hands be full of those things you can never hold this Take it and take Christ with it for He that made the Testament in his Bloud hath set the Seal unto the Testament which gives you interefs and possession of the Redemption by his Bloud Take it and reach out your hand to signifie that you receive Christ with the hand of Faith They are too nice for fear of I know not what in the Roman Church of losing a crum or so forth that they put the Body of Christ into the mouth of their Disciples and in pretence that they give it as a Mother doth her breast into the mouth of her Child whereas we receive this Sacrament not as Babes but as those that are grown to the measure of a good Age. And if we be not worthy to take it into our hands we are not worthy to receive it in our mouth Take it and eat it for it is not enough to be sprinkled without but to feed on Christ and to digest him within If upon the supply of Corn and Beasts and Cattel Paul might say that God had filled our hearts with food and gladness Acts 14.17 If we are glad of that which sustains us for a time and yet we must die How glad will we be to Eat of that as will give us such a life that will endure for ever Eat of the forbidden Tree says the Serpent to Eve and you shall not die but he lied unto her Therefore to dissolve the works of the Devil our Saviour hath appointed that which we shall Eat and assured the promise of Everlasting life unto it Eat as Jonathan did of th Hony-comb that you may be lusty to pursue your enemies and though Satan hath sworn your death as Saul did Jonathan's 1 Sam. 14.44 the Lord will deliver you Pine not away with the consumption of an evil Conscience but Eat and be strong in the Lord and in his mercy As the Spirit of the Aegyptian who was half dead came to him again when he had Eaten a little 1 Sam. 30.12 Eat and grind the Bread between your teeth to shew the Lord's death For Christ could have said This is my Body slain This is my Body crucified but he had rather say This is my Body broken for you to shew the great injuries of his sufferings Eat then and remember you Eat the Body as it was broken and remember that you Drink the blood as it flowed out of his wounds To keep these things in remembrance is the great design of the Sacrament an object which keeps the fancy of the Soul waking that otherwise it may be would fall asleep In the sixth of St. John Christ Preacheth over and over of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Bloud without a Sacrament by the power of Faith But to keep it in fresh and frequent meditation the Lord hath given us a palpable and signal token as if he would engrave it upon the palms of our hands and upon the roof of our mouth upon the membranes of our brain and upon the foreskin of our heart This is a blessing twice and twenty times given because it is given that it may never be forgotten They that love others would live in the memory of those they love it is because Christ loves us entirely that he would be remembred of us And no friend will say to another Remember me when I am gone but that he means reciprocally to remember his friend to whom he spake it If you will remember Christ he will remember you And the Thief on the Cross will teach you that it is good to continue in his memory Lord remember me when thou com'st into thy Kingdom O blessed Christ thou art good and dost good thou hast not only provided an invaluable benefit for thy Church but dost put it into our hands that we may not lose it and dost bring it into our eyes by clear ostension that we may not forget it We are apt to remember injuries and to forget benefits
them with whom God is well pleased No sin is forgiven to him that is not in Christ and against him that is in Christ there is no condemnation They are the sons of God to whom the Lord doth graciously remit any fault but where any fault is not remitted they are his enemies He that is justified from any sin must be truly penitent but a true penitent is sorry for all sins together hates them eschews them all alike Then follows a plenary absolution from all iniquity through Christ our Lord. And beware that you over-look not these multitudes of sins of the under size as if little grief or anxiety would serve for them are they not numberless corns of sand and may not a weight of too much sand sink a ship as soon as a burden of too much iron The dailiness of sin must be bewailed with the dailiness of sorrow And then when thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid yea thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet Prov. 3.24 Now tell me if this balm be not enough to heal the bleedings and bruisings of despair Talents of sin and sins in small mony you may hide them all in the wounds of Christ It is possible for God to do the benefit and possible for thee to receive it Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Psalm 130. verse ult 3. It must now be added how that which Hope waits for is possible since it may find satisfaction from long and constant experience In the yonger days of the world somewhat might be said to excuse the backwardness of Hope they wanted proof and demonstration in those times Even Cain was the sooner overtaken with despair crying out My sin is greater than can be forgiven me He had not lived so long to be taught the contrary by experience But every age hath given advantage to Hope to be satisfied better and better O God we have heard with our ears and our fathers have declared unto us the noble works that thou didst in their days and in the old time before them Psalm 44.1 The records of God do tell us how the Armies of aliens have been discomfited before his Children how the rocks have given them drink and the barren wilderness bread how the Church hath been scattered and recollected the righteous continually supported either with deliverance or patience that the dead have been raised up to life nay that Enoch and Elias were taken up alive into Heaven to implant into our minds that both they that are in the graves shall hear the voice of Christ and come forth and that such as shall be found living at that day shall be caught up in the clouds and be translated into Heaven And I challenge Hope to instance if it can surmise that any thing is impossible to be brought to pass since there is a president in every thing to demonstrate that the right hand of the Lord hath brought mighty things to pass There is one thing I confess for which there is no example neither can be evidenced till all things be accomplisht that is the coming of the Lord Christ with the new Heavens and the new Earth and yet to confirm us in that mystery to come St. John did see the Idea or glimpse of it in his Revelation The use of all this is to remember the transactions of God in the times that are gone before Who ever saw the righteous forsaken or the wicked flourish long was there ever any persecution of the Church which hath not ended in its triumph But stay for it and pray for it and condole for the delays of God's providence till you may say in earnest My soul fainteth for thy salvation Psalm 119.31 How easie is it for a Christian that hath any nostril to run after God in the odour of his sweet ointments and trace his steps from point to point and then to say with David I have remembred thy judgments of old O Lord and have comforted my self Psalm 119.52 and from another Prophet Ezek. 14.22 Ye shall see their way and their doings and shall be comsorted concerning all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem The great store-house of Consolation is Hope therefore all this and more must be said to keep it fresh like a green Olive-tree having never a sear or withered bough upon it I come now to complete it I have shewn it aims only at good and that which is only and excellently good at such a good whose harvest is not brought in all in a year but still there is more and more to be had and the most to come It is possible through the greatness of Gods power and mercy as all ages have witnessed IV. But lastly that which may seem to pinch is that it is Bonum arduum a good not easily attained but with great labour and diligence to give warning against sloth and security It were not worth our longing to say we hope for petty things easie and at hand but for things of value for which we must struggle with many lets and impediments to possess them No man need to hope to find Cockle-shells on the shore but to find Pearls in the Sea that 's an object for the adventure of a Jeweller Neither is the Jewel of Christian Hope easily purchast But as Elijah said to Elisha Thou hast asked a hard thing nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee it shall be so unto thee 2 Kings 2.10 Much after that sort I commune with my heart and say It is good to seek for eternal life pursue it as the Hart brayeth after the rivers of waters there will be much a-do to get it for many shall seek to enter in and shall not be able Luke 13.24 Nevertheless if thou canst see the Lord as if he were continually before thee thou shalt not miss of that thou desirest for all things are possible to him whose eyes are ever toward the Lord. These difficulties upon which I strike are either in our selves or in our adventure in our selves partly through natural imbecillity partly through contracted impotency 1. Our natural languor is that of original contagion which makes us so weak that there is none that doth good no not one Which is not to be extenuated as if the malignity of it might be supprest with a little resistance It is good to know the power of so strong an enemy that we may be fortified against it It is a root of bitterness never to be digg'd up out of corrupt nature a coal of fire spitting out sparks of temptations continually as inward to us as the marrow is in our bones Yet there is hope in Christ to slake this fire though not utterly in this life to quench it It is a body of death a whole body consisting of all the members of sin yet a body is but
there is not only the visible reception of the outward Signs but an invisible reception of the thing signified There is far more than a shadow than a type than a figure Christ did not only propose a Sign at that hour but also he gave us a Gift and that Gift really and effectually is Himself which is all one as you would say Spiritually himself for Spiritual Vnion is the most true and real union that can be That which is promised and Faith takes it and hath it is not fiction fansie opinion falsity but substance and verity Being strengthened with power by the Spirit in the inward mind Christ dwelleth in our hearts by Faith Ephes 3.17 As by a Ring or a meaner instrument of conveyance a man may be setled in Land or put into an Office and by such conveyances the Ratification of such Grants are held to be real How much more real is the gift and receipt of Christ's Body and Bloud when conveyed unto us by the confirmation of the Eternal Spirit For observe it is the same Spirit that is in Christ and that is in Us and we are quickned by one and the same Spirit Rom. 8.11 Therefore it cannot chuse but that a real Union must follow between Christ and Us as there is a Union between all the parts of a Body by the animation of one Soul But Faith is the mouth wherewith we Eat his Body and Drink his Bloud not the mouth of a man but of a Faithful man for we hunger after him not with a Corporal appetite but a Spiritual therefore our Eating must be Spiritual and not Corporal Yet this is a real a substantial partaking of Christ crucified broken his flesh bleeding his wounds gaping so he is exhibited so we are sure we receive him which doth not only touch our outward senses in the Elements but pass through into the depth of the Soul For in true Divinity real and spiritual are aequipollent although with the Papists nothing is real unless it be corporal which is a gross way to defraud us of the Sublime and Soul-ravishing vertue of the mystery A mystery neither to be set out in words nor to be comprehended sufficiently in the mind but to be adored with Faith says Calvin lib. Instit c. 17. Sect. 5. But herein we pledge Christ in the Cup of love herein we renew the Covenant of forgiveness strongly assured by the sprinkling of Bloud the life is in the Bloud and without shedding of Bloud is no remission of sins Because death is the wages of sin Sin is the greatest dishonour that can be done to God and death in Christ's person is the greatest satisfaction that can be made He died and gave himself for me he died and gave himself to me as he was dead in his gored and pierced body that his sacrifice might be in me and in all those that are redeemed by it We read of some Mothers that in a great famine have eaten their own Children 2 Kings 6. but what Mother in the time of famine did ever give her own flesh to save the life of her Child But Christ hath given himself for us that we might not perish O Lord I owe all my life to thee because thou hast laid down thy life for me O let me bleed out my sins that thy Bloud may fill all the veins of my Spirit O let my Body be transfigur'd to be Heavenly by cleanness and chastity by being used only for thy worship and service that the Body of my Saviour may come under the roof of it Then when the King shall let forth his Table and give himself to me in his wonderful Feast my Spicknard shall send forth a sweet smell Cant. 1.12 My Soul shall magnifie the Lord and my Spirit shall rejoyce in Christ my Saviour We have found the Messias says Philip to Nathaniel And where have we found him at a Feast a Feast of his own Body and Bloud but set out with no more cost and shew than a piece of Bread and a sip of Wine In this manner it is brought to pass by the Omnipotency of God's pleasure to institute it with the efficacy of a strong Faith concurring to receive it The Church had done very ill if of its own head it had made so mean a representation of Christ but the Lord must be obeyed and ought to be admired in the humility of his Ordinance who hath not given us rich Viands and full Cups but made the Feast out of the fragments of the meanest Creatures Let them understand this that will make themselves fit to be his guests bring a preparation of humility suitable to the exility of those oblations The meek shall Eat and be satisfied they shall praise the Lord and seek him Psalm 22.26 And at that season let the riotous remember his fulness of Bread and excess of Wine God is honour'd in a little and his liberality is abused in the excess of his creatures And it is worth the noting that the Elements which we are invited to take are of fruits that grow out of the Earth to shew that the Earth which was cursed for Adam's sake is blessed for Christ's sake As it brings forth Thorns and Thistles to call to mind our rebellion so it brings forth Bread and Wine to call to mind our redemption Neither doth God supply us with Bread only out of the furrows of the Earth but sometime it hath fallen out of the clouds of Heaven Behold says God I will rain Bread from Heaven for you Exod. 16.4 This was Manna called the Corn of Heaven Psalm 78.24 This was the Spiritual meat or Angels food in which the old believers in the Wilderness did Eat Christ with an implicit Faith Our outward Sign is the Bread of the Earth true Bread that grows in the Fields yet the Bread signified is that which the Father hath given us from Heaven Jo. 6.31 Bread is a great part of mans nourishment so Christ crucified is the sole refection of Faith Bread is champed in the mouth to make it fit for the stomach so the Body of Christ was ordained to be slain before it could profit us If the Corn of Wheat fall not into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth sorth much fruit Jo. 12.24 By his life we learn to live and by his death we are made alive Bread when it is grounded between our teeth and eaten is turn'd by concoction into the substance of our Body which explains our mystical union with Christ that we are made one Spirit with him by Faith as this sensible food is converted into our flesh and bone Beside in the several parts of the outward Signs it is God's meaning we should conceive how he loves the gathering together of many into one which is thus to be qualified At a common Supper or any Meal all that are at the Board feed of the same Meats yet every one feeds to himself and to none beside So