unsealed and unwritten too will stand good to many purposes The Emperour Valentinian earnestly desired Baptism but before Ambrose could come died He was sayed saith Ambrose voto Baptismi by the desire of Baptism No The desire was good but it was his faith in Christ that saved him Crede manducasti saith Austin Believe and thou hast eaten What then need we care for Sacraments Yea the Covenant passes the Estate the Seal secures and quiets it God need neither adde to his Promise Oath or Seal to binde himself thereby but to settle us CHAP. IV. Of the Time of this Sacraments Institution And of Judas his betraying Christ. SO much of the Authour now to the Time of this The time Institution In the same night wherein he was betrayed The Lord Jesus was betray'd he was betray'd in the night The same night in which he was betrayed he instituted and celebrated this Supper § 1 First The Lord Jesus was betrayed The same word signifies Gods delivering up his Sonne to death Rom. 8. 32. and Judas his delivering up his Master to the Jews Luk. 22. 4. and the Jews their delivering of him up to Pilate Mat. 27. 18. God is not said to betray his Sonne becaUse according to his purpose and out of his love to man-kinde he delivered him to death for their redemption but both the Jews and Judas are said to have betray'd him they for envy seeking his bloud Matth. 27. 18. He for covetousness seeking money Matth. 26. 15. for it is thought that Judas conceiv'd that Christ would slip out of the mids of them and go away as often he had done and then his Master were safe and he had his money for it 's said Matth. 27. 2. that then Judas which had betray'd him when he saw that Christ was condemned repented himself It 's a good saying that we should not look on pleasure as it comes toward us but as it goes from us Sinne before it be committed seems to the eye of lust full of profit pleasure after commission when the lust is spent Ammon hates Tamar for whom he was sick before But the traitor sticks fastest to Judas he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the betrayer of Christ his Lord and Master and therefore the brand is set upon him Judas Iscariot who betrayed him as on Jeroboam that made Israel to sinne and how did he betray him He brought a band of men to the place where Christ was and marked him out unto them with a kisse Matth. 26. 48. This is he take him and hold him fast This Text refers not to Gods delivering up of Christ nor to the Luk. 22. 48. Jews but to Judas for it 's said In the night that he was betrayed and that was by Judas only § 2 Judas being an instrument to bring to passe Gods holy councel and purpose plunged himself by his sinne into Obs deep damnation It was Gods purpose and decree that Christ should die and he himself deliver'd him up to death but as God holily and justly doth what Josephs brethren do sinfully so he delivers up the Lord Jesus by wicked hands Luk. 22. 22. The Sonne of man goes viz dies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it was decreed and determin'd But woe to that man by whom he is betrayed it had been good for that man that he had not been born It is according as it is decreed yet woe to that man c. Acts 2. 23. He was deliver'd by the determinate councel and fore-knowledge of God but you have slain him by wicked hands God brings his holy councels purposes and decrees to passe by most wicked instruments The giving up his Sonne to death was the most glorious work of grace and love that ever was but effected by most wicked hands Godly men could not be imployed in such services An Artificer Useth a crooked tool to do that which he cannot do by a strait one The secret will of God is no rule of our obedience Nec omnis revelata saith Ainsw not every reveal'd Medull a lib. cap. 1. §. 23. will neither his instance is of Jeroboam to whom it was reveal'd long before that he should have ten Tribes 1 King 11. â—1 which yet peccavit occupando he sinn'd in assuming 2 Chron. 3. 5 6 7. The revealing of an event which God hath determined or those actions whereby that event shall be brought to passe gives no warrant for else Hazael being told 2 King 8. 12. before and Judas too what they should both do might have been pleaded for justification After a wonderfull manner saith Austin that is against Gods will which is not besides it It 's against the will of his command which is our rule which is not beside the will of his purpose and yet may be our sin God is just and gracious in delivering up his Sonne to death but Judas and the Jews sin horribly in it there is Rom. 12. 2. That good and acceptable and perfect will of God which the godly are to hold unto but for the Act. 2. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods determinate councell Pharaoh and Judas and Herod and Pilate the worst names in the whole world may be the instruments and damned midwives to bring it to the birth for as Mr Brightman saith in another case a fair and perfect childe born doth not make any thing the better the adultery in which it was begotten so the being the work of Gods purpose nothing warrants the act of any man or of Judas that betray'd Christ I must not enlarge upon these § 3 Obs 2 The Lord Jesus was betrayed in the night Judas marches as Captain of the band of men and Officers of the Chief-Priests and Pharisees unto the Garden with Lanterns Torches Weapons Joh. 18. 3. They are cunning to do their work in the night without notice and noise tumult He that about an hour or two ago had been at Passeover with Christ now betrayes him He had sold him afore and now delivers him § 4 Observe here the pattern of a wicked heart made worse by spiritual Ordinances Whether Judas was present at and participant of the Lords Supper that is whether he received both Sacraments the Passeover and the Lords Supper we may haply hereafter consider but at the Passover he was at that Passover which Christ saith he had heartily desired to eat with them Luk. 22. 15. and with the holiest society in the world but he was a Serpent in Paradise all the while § 5 His Character is this 1. He was purse-bearer and receiver of the contributions that came in and steward to lay out upon occasion and becaUse he inverted the publick stock to his private Use he is called a thief John â—2 6. 2. His Covetousness in time began to flie at great gain for though he retained to such a Master and was both a Teacher and Preacher of heavenly Doctrine yet he thrives from a thief to a traitour and exposed to
a Christian Church in the world this day nor hath been in any Age since Christ who have not inclosed made several and impaled this Ordinance of the Supper And if I could but lead your eye into the Primitive Churches you would wonder at the fortifications they made about it There you should see the Catechumeni that were in the school of Catechism learners of the Doctrine of Christianity admitted indeed to hear the Sermon Tertullian cals them Audientes but never grumbling at the Ite missa est Go you are dismist When the Fideles or Communicants went to this service And there you should see the Lapsi or Poenitentes Christians that had fallen into open and manifest scandals standing a long time upon the four stairs or degrees of publique repentance weeping for admission and bewailing their sin and suspension from the Lords board which rigour of Discipline though full of sharpnesse and asperity yet the reverence of this Ordinance the Heathens among whom they lived that watched for their haltings and the great temptations to Idolatry and Apostasie by fear of persecutions and continual Alarms may plead some excUse of that severity In short though some have made the gate wider than others yet all have impaled the Ordinance and taken it from the common The Word indeed preached or read lies open to all the high wayes and hedges may be compell'd in to fill up the place where it sounds and Baptism may be administred at the entrance for imitation and listing of souldiers under Christs colours but the Lords Supper ever was intra Cancellos within the mound for it is the inmost Ordinance that we have for Church-members Disciples not lying open to the streets but as an inner room within a room an Ordinance for fellowship of Saints and Christians that are past the Font All have not right to it and some that have had right may for the time have forfeited and lost their capacity This is my general position which as in the sequel will be clear to you may be proved by a threefold evidence 1. By evidence of fact the universal sense and consent of all Christian Churches and thereby it will appear that it is no new Doctrine 2. By evidence of Scripture by which it will appear to be no false Doctrine for it 's past all doubt that the Passeover in the old Church was a barred Ordinance shut up from the uncircumcised and the unclean and the Supper in the New Testament is so too In the 28 verse Let a man examine himself and so the word And so is a limitation and a proviso and contains in it otherwise not When men have traversed the Point to the utmost this little word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so as it opens the door to such as are so qualified so it is a barre and shuts it against them that are not And it is Chrysostom his note upon the man that came in without his wedding garment Matth. 22. 12. that the King said not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he said not Why didst thou sit down and eat but How camest thou in hither 3. By evidence of Reason for those that have no right or no capacity may not communicate nor those that having had a right or capacity have lost it for present by some grievous sinne and the censure of the Church which I shall pursue more particularly and distinctly In the mean time I thus conclude my generall Position We have warrant and may call all men Turks and Jews unto the Word of the Gospel The Word cals them all to faith in Christ and repentance If they enter not into Covenant the seals of the Covenant are not for them If they do enter Covenant then the Sacraments or Seals follow for the Covenant doth not follow the Seal but the Seal the Covenant I hope to rationall men this appears Reason to me it appears above contradiction So much for the generall Position or Thesis Now I will proceed to confirm it particularly according to the three fold evidence §. 5. The evidence of Fact § 5 The first is the evidence of Fact the universall and concurrent sense and consent of the Ancient Churches of Christ to the intent it may appear to be no new Doctrine and so the odium cast upon it as upon an upstart or one of the new devices of this age by such as are too tender to their lusts and sinfull liberties may be taken off and though I reverence the gray hairs and despise not the custom of the Churches of God as St Paul saith ver 16. yet I make them not Dictators but Consuls only and that testimony they give shall be but in matter of Fact their own practice which those in our daies that set open too wide a gate to this Ordinance seem to take very little notice of And I begin with Justin Martyr who seems saith Bellar. to be the first of De Script Eccl. those after the Apostles times whose writings are come to our hand He in his second Apology saith That it 's lawfull for no other person to partake of the Eucharist viz. this Sacrament but such an one as beleeves the Doctrines taught in the Gospel to be true that is baptized for remission of sins that so lives as Christ hath delivered where you finde the three requisites of partaking in this Ordinance are Faith Baptism and good Conversation This is the most ancient Testimony of the custom of the Christian Church in his time and for that age fully stops the mouth of all contradiction For the Ages after this Authour both those that passed under the Heathen and under Christian Emperours I shall not cloy the Reader with citing the Testimonies of the Ancients by retale becaUse there Cypr. Passe Tertullian de Panit. was a form of Discipline or Government which obtained in all Churches Greek African Roman which with great consent prohibited access to this Sacrament unto two sorts principally 1. Those that were yet in the School of learning the grounds of Christianity 2. Those that having been reckoned among the fideles were for some great sinne put into the School of correction and these two sorts do answer those so much spoken of now adaies the ignorant and the scandalous I say there was a form of Discipline that took place as appears by that of Origen in his third Book against Celsus so much magnified and insisted on by Blondell and it is this De Jureplebis pag. 94. That among the Christians there were appointed certain men to enquire into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lives and conversations of those that came to this Table that they might prohibit them who had committed finne forbidden from access to this publique Convention A clear place against them that will have none seQuestred for a time from participation of the Lords Table 1. The first sort of which were such as having a minde to relinquish
him To my apprehension that is clear 1 Cor. 12. 13. We are by one Spirit baptized into one body and then we are all made to drink into one Spirit and that 's it which ye often reade in Divines That the Baptism of Regeneration is presupposed to the Supper of Communion they are children whose bread this is living members and not wooden legs that are capable of this benefit Unto admittance to the outward Ordinance Regeneration is not necessary but unto the inward benefit and effect it is pre-required in some measure and presupposed The fatted calf is for the returning Prodigal They are the friends of God that seed at this Table Communis mensa symbolum amicitiae saith Estius who also Observes that ad cibi sumptionem vita Estius in 4. sen cap. 12. requiritur in sumente Life is presupposed to be in him that takes and eats and drinks spiritual life in him that doth it spiritually It is a communion of Christs body and that presupposes union The grass communicates not with the stock untill it be knit Why shall we think it strange that God should provide some Ordinances for those that are in grace already wherein he and his may have communion and fellowship and his very provission shows for whom he provides It 's absurd to give meat and drink to dead folks for they are no more nourisht by it saith Bellarmine than stones Christ promiseth Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. to sup with him and he with me When When the door is open'd the voice heard and Christ let in first Revel 3. 20. And so ye see the grace of Conversion is presupposed to the benefit of this Ordinance Object If any reply Here is Christ represented to us in his riches of Grace his death and Sacrifice and therefore this Ordinance may as well convert as confirm and beget as bring up Answ The institution must limit the Use of Ordinances This Ordinance of the Supper is a representation of Christ but quo modo of Christ dying not rising or sitting in heaven so it exhibits Christ but how as meat and drink and the end is not conversion but Communion so Christ was typified in the brazen Serpent but how as lifted up to heal the pierced soul of every one that believeth in him becaUse Christ is all in all things for every Use yet in such and such an Ordinance he is of limited Use and limited by the institution to be received to such an end or else all Ordinances may be confounded and humbled together The third Reason may be to shew That the Word is the only instrument of God to beget faith or work Each Sacrament represents some respect or mode of the Covenant but seals the whole Covenant Ames Medulla conversion and there are many expressions of Scripture tending to prove it But you will say I doe but beg the Question in affirming it only to be so and so having said enough already I will not now stand to prove the exclusive but only in a word say That the Word is the great Charter of Gods Covenant His Covenant is to make us his to entertain us as his and so the Word is a seed of our new birth and the milk or meat of our spiritual growth Unto this Covenant or Indenture hang two seals the one seals our engraffing and implanting unto Christ and that is Baptism the other seals our fellowship with and building up in Christ and that is the Lords Supper the whole Covenant is sealed by both but respectively the one looking at our first entrance and admission the other to our progresse and consummation and both the seals are applied only to them that are in Covenant for their certioration and comfort that they are lifted into the service of Christ and that they shall be kept in constant pay § 5 I have given two Reasons the one taken from the signification the other from the end of the institution of this Sacrament to prove that it is not ordained for a converting Ordinance and have shown you that though a man may be converted at this time yet that proves not the institution of it to that end no more than if a sick man be to take a medicine and prayer be made for the prosperous successe of that medicine and by something suggested to the minde of that man by that prayer whereby he is converted therefore the medicine should be called a converting Ordinance becaUse the institution of an Ordinance leads on the denomination of it and so have also shown you that upon this ground mis-laid and mistaken we cannot allow of all unconverted mens coming or invitation The Word is indeed a converting Ordinance and therefore those that believe not that oppose themselves that are dead in sinnes may be admitted and invited to it If they come not with faith they may come for faith If they come unclean they may yet come to be cleansed but the Lords Supper is not of that nature It is a more inward Ordinance and presupposes some foundation laid by the Word that it may have effect the converting Ordinance must go before the confirming the qualifications of a receiver are not the same with the necessary qualifications of a hearer and which I conceive Divines mean in part by requiring Baptism before the Supper the grace properly sealed in Baptisme is necessary to the obtainment of that grace which is properly sealed in the Supper As Christ washt his Disciples feet before he celebrated and administred this Sacrament It 's true God hath shewed us that we should not call any man common or unclean as Act. 10. 28. that is legally or unclean by his Nation as if the distance and partition wall between Jew and Gentile was yet standing but morally unclean there are still and we may call them so or else we must call evil good and this uncleanness is not proper to the sinners of the Gentiles but even Jews by nature Christians as I may say by nature are many of them unclean wherein I would not confirm them but endeavour to wash them from it And there is yet another offer made to prove an universal accesse to this Table without limitation or restriction afore-said and that is this That the Sacrament seals to the veracity of God the truth of his Covenant the Articles thereof are true and firm and the offer of them by God is serious and in good earnest to induce our faith thereof and our acceptance this Ordinance was appointed as a testification of the truth and reality and of the offer of the Promises unto us and therefore why may not all come here is no seal to a blank The seal is to Gods Covenant not our inherent graces The Promises are true the offer reall whether we have faith or no. That the Sacrament seals the reality of Gods Covenant and of his offer of and proposal thereof to us I allow as proper and good That the Sacrament seals
not my having faith or the truth of my faith I allow too but if this be all the Sacrament seals then it seals no more to a believer than to any man in the world no more to a receiver than a spectatour For whether I believe or no by the relation that the seal hath to the Covenant it confirms and seals it even as it is instituted in the Word for that purpose As the Seal of a Bond Deed Conveyance seals the truth of that Bond to all men to the Witnesses to the Jury who are confirmed that the Bond is true by the Seal But there is a further sealing and that is the Sacrament seals the interest of a believer in Christ unto or in the Covenant and Promises thereof As the Seal of the Bond seals the summe to be paid to the Creditour and the Seal of the Deed seals the propriety and benefit and possession of the State convey'd I say to a believer the Sacrament seals this as to no man else for those words Take Eat Drink are part of the sealing Use or the applying Use and which puts this out of doubt it 's said That this bread we break This Cup we blesse is the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ And what is that but participation For as Chemnitius observes Chem. exam de Praeparat ad caenam The great thorn in a weak believer that disquiets him is this Christ is indeed full and sweet the Promises true and precious but have I any share Have I any portion in them Have I any right or interest Now this is that which is sealed to a believer and of it self though no man believe it seals as was said before the truth and reality of the Promise and of Gods offer for I shall not deny that Now if a man through want of faith be not capable of this effect or Use of the Seal it is not for meer want of that capacity that he is prohibited the Lords Table for then all unregenerate men and all that are not converted should be forbidden which we teach not but it is for scandalous and enormous sin persisted in with Obstinacy and scorn it is becaUse he hath not so much as a little beam of light to know what he doth or what danger he runs upon § 6 Nor can it be said that confirming grace afforded in this Sacrament is in substance the same with converting and that which is confirming to one may be converting to another and so the Sacrament may as well afford one as another Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. being but still the same grace for this is a meer fallacy and a strain beyond Reason Let confirming grace be the same with converting As every degree of heat or fire is the same nature as the first degree yet this Sacrament affords confirming and not converting grace becaUse it presupposeth faith in the Receiver whereby a further degree of grace may be bestowed and without that Faith doth not impart any grace at all As the life maintain'd by meat and drink is the same life Doth it therefore follow that meat and drink may convey life into a dead man becaUse it maintaines it in a living No It 's true the same life in a dead man would make him live but the life maintain'd in a man by meat and drink is therefore maintain'd becaUse there is a life in the man that can eat and drink receive nourishment by which the meat is made nutritive and lively which otherwise could not be And so there must be life in the Patient else the Plaister or Medicine if applied to a dead man would not recover or strengthen life I deny not but if the Sacrament could convey the same grace to a dead man as it doth to a living that dead man would live but that it cannot doe becaUse it works by way of nourishment which the dead receive not Quest If niceties may be heard we shall have no end Suppose saith one a godly man fall into scandalous sinne and therein lie impenitent Why doe you not forthwith admit him to the Sacrament which you say may helpe towards his conversion from a fall though it convert not a man from the state of nature Answ I answer That this Ordinanee doth excite and quicken grace by which a Christian may recover his fall and yet if I say such a Plaister is good to heal a sore it will not follow that therefore it must forthwith be applied for there is proud flesh and a rotten core first to be eaten out with corrosives and then the Plaister may be Used So if there be such or such a sinne under which a godly man lies there is another 1 Cor. 5. Ordinance of God first to be applied for destruction of the flesh for to bring shame and confusion and that is the casting of him out the putting of him away from the society of the faithfull and when that corrosive hath wrought than the Sacrament is to be applied for his strengthning and refreshing Having acquit my self of this Digression I now returne to the Point which I propounded and explain'd before I tooke the turne which I have travail'd and am now in the ready way againe CHAP. XXII Of Worthy and Vnworthy Receiving With some Cautions to prevent mis-judging our selves in the Case § 1 THe Point formerly propounded is That this Sacrament may be received worthily and it may also be received unworthily I mean de facto worthily and unworthily referre to the manner of communicating The Apostle expresses but the one of them being led thereunto by the occasion at present but having precisely laid down the institution of the Supper which regulates the manner of receiving he said enough to make us know what it is to receive unworthily and consequently for the right line is judge of the crooked what to receive unworthily and therefore after he had laid forth the institution he brings in this 27th verse with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore or so that as concluding the manner of receiving from the very nature Use and end of the Ordinance I know worthily and unworthily are opposites and sometimes competent to the same person at the same time or in the Use of the same element either the bread or the Cup. Upon which last words you may ask me May a man receive the bread worthily and the Cup unworthily And I answer That the reading of this Text dis-junctively Whosoever shall Estius in loc eat this bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily which some of the Papists contend for in favour of their dry Masse hath occasioned the starting of that Question which yet I will not contend about in this place but leave it to such resolution as may be given by the sequell of our discourse for I naturally abhorre the crumbling of Scripture into crums when it is delivered to us as the bread in this Ordinance is not by crums when
the fruit will fall into his bosom for he that goes out weeping and bears precious seed shall doubtlesse come again with joy and bring his sheaves Psalm 126. 6. And again Hosea 6. 2. After two dayes he will revive us in the third as Christ was raised he will raise us up then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord in the mean time before this fruit be ripe the very running of the sap is a certain signe the Tree lives And so I have given you a measure or rule of judging whether you receive worthily Secondly Think not that the Sacrament conveyes or contributes any thing to you as a medicinal potion or plaister Doth the Physick work and so the plaister by an inherent or inward vertue in it self not by any vertue in the Phyfician or Chyrurgeon So ignorant and superstitious people look on the Sacrament they think it saves them and does them good they know not how and so regard the matter more than the manner of receiving they mistake Gods manner of working by Sacraments and therefore regard not their own manner of receiving them and are so fond as if they could eat and drink away their sinnes and had by very receiving this bread and wine quit all old scores and were fresh to begin upon a new account as the Papist thinks of his auricular confession § 2 It is a very excellent and profitable knowledge to understand how God conveys grace by the Sacrament I speak not of understanding subtilties but the plain and open Use of the Ordinance Now I cannot possibly conceive how the elementals of bread and wine can or do any otherwise convey to or afford me any spiritual grace but as instruments and means by Gods meer positive appointment and ordination representing testifying sealing to me not only Gods reality of promise or Covenant in offering Christ but my interest and propriety in Christ and the benefits that flow from Union and Communion with Christ and therefore that reviving refreshing incRease of grace power of mortification of lusts Come no otherwise to me by the Use of this Ordinance than as it seals Christ to me and by sealing Christ or the Covenant to me doth confirm faith revive the heart elevate the affections strengthen resolutions fortifie against lusts and temptations for it is a sure Rule The nearer applications of Christ to the soul and his benefits in way of taste or assurance the more quickning grace of all sorts follows thereupon As the nearer approach of the Sunne in the Spring cheers up and revives all things that live but things stark dead are as dead then as in deep of winter Let me convey this to you by a familiar similitude A man hath an Estate the Wool the Wine the Corn that grows out of that Estate clothes him refreshes him feeds him but the Seal that confirms and assures this Estate to him doth no otherwise cloath or refresh or feed him than as it confirms that estate to him out of which all these do rise And by this you may plainly understand how grace is conveyed by this Sacrament which doth seal up to you and assure you of Christ and the Covenant of promises in Christ out of which all these graces grow and flow Do ye understand this Then it follows 1. That for any man to imagine that the very eating and drinking this bread and this Cup should cure and heal his soul is as fond as to think the very seal or wax of a Deed should either seed or clothe him for in that case it 's not a seal but a piece of wax how infinitely do our common people undervalue this Sacrament that make but a piece of holy bread of it which is an exhibition of the body of Christ as they that value a seal by the worth of the wax and not by the Estate thereby confirmed 2. That it 's absolutely necessary to bring to this Sacrament that grace which is necessary to the receiving of Christ himself Quid paras dentem What does the providing of teeth to eat saith Austin What avail is all outward preparation The thing that is exhibited to us is Christ his body broken his bloud shed Christ dying Christ a Sacrifice offer'd up to God is here commemorated and is here offer'd and that inward grace which is necessary to receive and close with Christ must be brought with you That grace is found by and from the word and that grace must be Used here and exercised The Covenant requires it and the Seal is the Seal of the Covenant You cannot take the Seal and leave the Covenant you cannot enter Covenant without faith and Repentance you do but expect that the Seal should seal a lie to you if you expect remission of sinnes to be sealed without your faith in Christ It 's impossible that the Word and Sacrament should be opposite as that the Covenant and Seal thereof should disagree As therefore if one would know what a Seal conveys or confirms let him reade the Deed and the Conditions of it and there it is learn'd So if you would know what the Sacrament seals to you hear what the Word saith Mercy and Grace to a believer in Christ and to no other which he that will receive from this fountain must bring his vessel with him for qui fide vacuus foras manducat non intus Chem. Exam. c. dente non mente August Thirdly Be not frighted with the sound of this Corollary 3. Word worthily or worthy Communicant but labour to understand the least and lowest manner of receiving worthily for we wrong our comforts when we make that which is the measure of growth to be the measure of truth of grace and judge of the life of the tree not by the bud but by ripe fruit and here consider § 3 1. That words of high sound in vulgar and common acceptation when they come to be undertaken in a Gospel-sense and notion do shrink into a meer contemptiblenesse with worldly wise men For as the Gospel Useth some Greek words in a sense unknown to eloquent profane Authours so it hath a notion of Blessednesse Perfection Glory Worthinesse which relishes not the palate nor bears any show in the world If Aristotle describe blessednesse what a deal of humane perfection and accomplishments of fortune doth he croud into it for which he is derided by other Sects But if Christ describe blessednesse in the Gospel what do you hear of but poverty of Spirit purity of heart meeknesse mourning suffering for righteousnesse sake wherein there is no more shew of blessednesse to a worldly man than there was in Christ of Majesty to Herod and his men of warre So perfection in Gospel-phrase is a disclaiming thereof and sence of our imperfection Phil. 3. 12. And the Spirit of glory rests upon you that suffer 1 Pet. 4. 14. And your worthinesse is rather the sense of your unworthinesse Thus the Gospel construes these high
afford grace or spiritual benefits You are to understand that this is not per modem emplastri seu medicae potionis not as a natural agent but per modum sigilli or Sacramenti in a way proper to a Sacrament As we say an estate passes by the Seal that is is assured or confirmed or as we say the promise or contract passes by a Ring words which every one understands and doubtlesse the benefit and fruit of the Sacrament is afforded in a peculiar way As the Word besides begetting grace doth also incRease and confirm but not in the same way as the Sacrament doth as it may be the same bargain that passes by promise by oath by earnest by seal yet these are several wayes of certioration so it 's the same grace that 's nourisht by the Sacrament as by the Word but the way is divers That of the Sacrament is by way of sign and seal that of the Word by way of Promise or Covenant-agreement nay the two Sacraments themselves do differ in their proprieties Baptism seals the Covenant by way of initiation and the Lords Supper by way of nutrition or augmentation God did not make or multiply Ordinances at random without their distinct and peculiar Use for the exhibiting to us the same Christ the same graces the same benefits as men have several wayes of assurance making one to another §. 5. What is done to a Worthy Receiver by Christ § 5 So much generally For the particular we shall consider 1. What is here done 2. What is hence received For the first There is here done by Christ two things and answerably two things by a believer in Christ Two things principally are here done by God or by Christ 1. Christ crucified is really exhibited to the faith of a believer 2. The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer 1. Christ crucified together with all those benefits More particularly that ensue upon his death is really exhibited to a believer for there is not a meer representation or empty figure but a real and true exhibition of Christ himself as broken for our sinnes The word accipite Take ye Eat ye does evidently confirm it to us If there were only a resemblance or figurative representation then See ye were more properly said but Take Eat this is my body plainly shews that Christ himself is here given to a believer I think we look so much on the representation that we forget the exhibition and therefore should labour to conclude that Christ himself as in the state of a redeeming Saviour is truly and indeed holden forth and presented to our faith as verily as any benefit can be offer'd and holden forth by one man to another This body and bloud was really offer'd up to God for us which is in this Sacrament really offer'd and applied to us by our faith Answerable to this exhibition of Christ himself the believer performs an act of Communion 1 Cor. 10. 16. partaking of the body and bloud of Christ in a spiritual sense for spiritual nourishment incRease and building up for the new creature is fed and maintain'd by Christ and by vertue of union with him we have communion as the Vine-branches by their union with the Vine receive sap and nourishment So as we have not graces without Christ nor benefits without Christ but first in order of nature we have union as members of him and then of his fulnesse we receive For a Christian is like a branch that hath nothing of its own but what it receives from the root as it self springs from the root so the incRease and growth of it is from the root also He is as the Moon which as appears in the Eclypse hath no light of it self but incReases and comes to full as it receives from the Sunne Let no man think that a believer hath no further Use of Christ after his first believing and receiving of him for then this Sacrament would not be Usefull the effect whereof as Durand saith is not absolutely necessary to salvation as if one could not be in a state of salvation without it becaUse it serves for confirmation of one that is already in a saving state and it 's plain that a great part of Christs Office is exercised in preserving and continuing of them in him who are already members of him and therefore is the finisher as well as authour of our faith for we live in him and from him and our grace is maintain'd by emanations from Christ as the light by continual emanations from the Sunne and therefore this Ordinance of Communion of Christ and the exercise of such acts of communion are of prime Use and benefit as the branch that shoots from the Tree grows and lives from that root which gave to it the first being by a contrived influx of sap into it And this is the first combination of Gods act and of ours 2. The second combination is The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer The common nature of a Sacrament is to be a seal of Justification or Righteousnesse with God by faith in Christ Rom. 4. 11. As a seal refers to some Covenant so the Sacrament refers to Gods Covenant with man which is this That God promises to accept into favour and into his propriety all that do believe in and receive Christ and to bestow upon them all the blessings and benefits thereof God gives Christ in way of Covenant He covenants with Christ our Lord that he should give his soul an offering and a Sacrifice for sin and in so doing should see his seed Isa 53. 10. So Arminius in this point is orthodox Of this Covenant the death or bloud of Christ is the Condition which Christ accepted and performed The Covenant of God with us is That all that believe in Christ that died and receive him for their Lord and Saviour shall have remission of sins c. and of this Covenant the bloud of Christ is the ratification as the Testators death ratifies the Will or Testament for it is bloud that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicate the Testament Heb. 9. 18. and so in the words of this Chapter This Cup is the New Testament or Covenant in my bloud viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicated thereby and this bloud we receive in this Sacrament as the Seal of the gracious Covenant made with us So that if doubts arise concerning the reality of God and surenesse of this Covenant that speaks so much grace and mercy we look upon and take hold of this Seale of bloud and are thereby setled and therein acquiesce Answerable to this act of God the believer accepts of and submits to this Covenant and the Conditions of it viz. to believe and to have God for our God and thereof makes a solemn profession in this Sacrament giving up himself to Christ as Lord and Saviour restipulating and striking hands with him to be
his and so bindes himself and doth as it were seal a counterpart to God again and not onely so but comes into a claim of all the riches and legacies of the Will or Covenant becaUse he hath accepted and here declares his acceptance of the Covenant The Seal is indeed properly of that which is Gods part of the Covenant to perform and give and is no more but offer'd untill we subscribe and set our hands to it and then it 's compleat and the benefits may be claimed as the benefit of any conditional promise may be when the condition is performed And least you should stumble at that word I must let you know That the Will accepting and submitting to the conditions is the performance of the conditions required and so the gracious God that might pro imperio require duty and allegiance of his creature condescends to us to enter into a Covenant of Grace with us and vouchsafes us the honour of coming into Covenant with him that so he might settle and maintain a communion and correspondence between himself and his people and there might be a mutual bond of engagement each to other which is solemnly professed as often as we meet with God in this Sacrament becaUse we are so apt to disbelieve and waver about his promises and to halt and decline from our obligations to him And this is the second combination of action according to that which is to be remembred at every sealing day the Sacrament is a sealing day Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes c. And the Lord hath avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee So much for the first What is here done §. 6. What is here Received by the Worthy Communicant § 6 2. I come to the second What is here received and I do not mean to say what every believer doth sensibly receive but what God hath appointed by this Sacrament to convey and what may be received by a believer in the right Use of it not alwayes to his own sense but according to the nature of this Ordinance I will not say that which some affirm but it is Apocryphal of the Manna which the Israelites did eat that it had the taste that every man desired But this I may say that as Calvin of himself When I have Instit l. 4. c. 17. §. 7. said all I have said but little the tongue is overcome yea the minde is overwhelmed I say then in one word 1. Christ is here received the body and bloud of Christ into intimate Union as the nourishment of our souls What is more ours than the meat we eat What is more nearly joyn'd to us than that which becomes part of our selves The Scripture by the language it Useth hath even overcome our apprehensions A man may eat the fruit that hath no interest in the Tree but here the believing eater grows into the Tree he that drinks drinks the fountain he comes to a closer Union with the conduit-pipe of all grace the flesh of Jesus Christ You know the best meat and drink doth you no good except it be made your own nor is Christ of worth except he be ours he is as if he were not Tolle meum tolle Deum we must be happy by a Christ within us Know you not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. There was a croud toucht Christ but vertue went out of him to none but one that toucht him by faith So there is a throng about the Table but none receive Christ but those that by faith take and eat his crucified body If Christ himself be here received what spiritual grace is there that is not in him It is somewhat a grosse conceit to ask How Christ in heaven and a believer on earth can be united For man and wife are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder And we know that as the Apostle saith Col. 2. 19. there are bands and joynts whereby the Head and every Member the root and every branch are united and they in this mystical union are Spirit and faith He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And so according to that strange expression We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30 A phrase which signifies that the humane nature of Christ is the root of this Union but not to be exagitated by too subtill curiosity becaUse mysticall 2. A believer in Christ may here receive remission of sinne not veniall onely as Papists teach but deadly and mortall Oh but we may not come with such sinnes Yes with repentance and remorse for them We may bring our sinnes to the head of our Sacrifice and put them thereupon by Bellarm. de Euch l. 4 c 18. confession Bellarmine resolves all the difference between Papists and Protestants about the effect of this Sacrament into this That the Papists deny the Protestants hold remission of sinne to be given here and the Papists do it in favour of their Sacrament of Pennance that one Sacrament may not rob another but Scripture tels us Matth. 26. 28. This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for remission of sinne Shed for remission that 's true saith Bellarmine not given in the Sacrament a meer evasion for we drink the bloud that was shed even that which confirmes the New Testament which promises remission of sinne The great Argument wherein he triumphs before the victory is That a believer hath remission of sinnes before he comes viz by his faith in Christ and that 's true Nemo cibum Christi accipit nisi actu sanatus but in this Sacrament the pardon passes Obsignante sigillo before a believer is pardon'd by the Covenant and here that pardon is seal'd and sealed it cannot be except it be before for the pardon of forgiven sinnes is seal'd as Abraham received the signe of circumcision the seale of the righteousnesse of faith which he had before Rom. 4. 11. And this is needfull for reliefe of our doubts and fears and waverings For this is the great Question of anxiety which troubles the soul Are my sinnes pardon'd Are my sins blotted out And God hath saith Chemnitius instituted this Sacrament for solution of this Question to the weak faith Ecce signum Behold the Seal believe upon the Word believe upon the Seal of God Luther gathers it by a gradation The Cup is put for the Wine the Wine signifies the bloud the bloud is the bloud of the New Testament Matth. 26. 28. The New Testament containes the gracious pardon of sinne to a believer And if remission of sinne be an Article of the Covenant the Seale must reach it Therefore all that have wounded their souls with grievous sinnes be wounded again with sorrow put off the purpose of sinning bring repentance and faith touch the hemme of
himself 2. The New Testament or the New Covenant confirmed and ratified by his Blood with the contents of that Covenant viz. Remission of sins and other benefits by consequence flowing from it § 1 1. Here is Christ himself sacrificed for you with the Fruits and Benefits accruing from his death presented and set before you The efficacy of his Hooker Eccl. lib. 5. pag. 360. Body and Blood is not all that is here presented to be received as is consist by the true Protestant Churches of our Confession but first and principally Christ himself as the influence of heaven is in plants beasts men but there is not such a thing only here set forth but a Divine and mysticall Union with Christ himself for here is a participation saith the Apostle of the Body and Blood of Christ who is exhibited as really and truly present not opposing reall to spirituall but to chimericall or phantasticall nor intending his presence in the Elements as contained in them but to the faith of the receiver who hath union with him The very Body and Blood of Christ that Body which was fastened Peter Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. 24 25. to the Cross that Blood which was shed was a Sacrifice as offered up to God is meat and drink as offered unto us and therefore our Divines say that Christ is truly and really but yet spiritually given to us as he was given for us This is my Body which is broken for you given for you saith the Text and that which was given for you is given to you He was given for you in the Sacrifice he is given to you in the Sacrament with those blessed fruits and benefits that flow from his Death § 2 2. Here is presented to you the New Testament a Covenant ratified and confirmed in his Blood with the benefits and priviledges thereof It is called New either from the excellency of it as the word New sometimes signifies or for the durableness and perpetuity of it as the Apostle explains it Heb. 8. ult in opposition to the Old made with Israel Cameron in Myreth Matth. 26. which was to determine and vanish away as to the form of dispensation This Covenant is That God will be our God and we shall be his people That he will forgive our iniquities and remember our sins no more c. and the Blood of Christ is the sanction of this Covenant for without Blood is no remission the blood of Christ is the Seal which ratifies the truth and validity of this Covenant The Wine in this Sacrament represents that Blood of Christ and is not so properly a Seal confirming the Covenant in it self as conveying the comfort and participation of it unto us or if you will it is a Seal of Remission of sin to us which is an Article of the Covenant that is sealed by the Blood of Christ and therefore it is said This is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for Remission of sins § 3 And so you have here presented to your Faith Christ himself sacrificed for you the New Covenant confirmed by Christs Blood shed for the pardon of sinnes which are the highest and most glorious things of Gods gift to mankinde who hath in the dishes of this outward Sacrament set before you such good cheer to feed upon as all Sacrifices under the Law and Feasts were but the meer shadows of Take heed of thinking meanly of the furniture of this Table God hath no better provision to set before a sinner than his Sons flesh and blood and his Covenant of grace sealed and confirmed our Socinian likes not this that word My Body broken for you my Blood shed for remission of sinnes makes him bestirre himself to turn off the Body broken to the bread and the Blood shed to the wine and so you see two extreams the Papist turns bread into Christs Body and wine into Blood the Socinian on the other hand that which is spoken of the Body puts off upon the bread and that of the Blood upon the wine that the death of Christ might not be a proper Sacrifice for us §. 4. II. What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance § 4 What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance and this is easily answered For as guests at the Table receive the meat and drink set before them so having seen what God presents to them we shall easily finde what they receive at this Table and that is 1. The faithfull communicant receives Christ himself or his Body and Blood Faith is a receiving of Christ himself we cannot receive the benefits that come by him without receiving of himself as in Marriage the consent is I take thee not I take thine and yet this is consequent upon that our union with Christ is strengthened and more closed and this union with Christ is one of those great mysteries Eph. 5. 32. resembled by man and wise who are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder and as she is under covert and free from arrest of Law for debt so a Beleever by his union with Christ is under coverture and the curse and condemnation of Gods Law cannot touch him or as members knit or branches united to the tree receive influx of life and spirits from the head and root so Beleevers united to Christ by his Spirit receive influences and spirit and life from him by vertue of their union I in them saith Christ Joh. 7. 23 26. The inhabitation of Christ in his people seems to be exprest by their eating and drinking of his Body and Blood spiritually and that inhabitation cannot be without a presence of him such as his inhabitation is such is his presence both reall and yet both spirituall he dwels in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. § 5 2. The faithfull communicant receives the confirmation of that Covenant which is his only comfort He takes hold of the Covenant by the Seal of it the Blood of Christ the severall articles whereof as that God will be our God and that in Christ he will forgive us all our sins c. are particularly sealed up for our better evidence and peace and security that we may be inabled to make a personall and particular claim of the benefits and priviledges of it which are called The unsearchable riches of Christ § 6 And from hence ver 12. the receiving of Christ himself and of the Covenant made in Christ and confirmed in his Blood doth follow that which is usually said to be the benefit of this Sacrament the strengthening refreshing sustentation of the soul by those graces comforts hopes which flow by consequence from Christ or the Covenant so that whatsoever a man may expect for bodily strength or reparation from bread and wine the like he may expect from Christ or the Covenant for his soul life maintained graces quickened deadness enlivened resolutions enabled
First The Lord Jesus is Authour the Mediatour of the new Covenant the Testator of the new Testament appoints the seal of that Covenant and ratifies that Testament with his bloud He is the Lord to whom is committed the Soveraignty and Government of his Church therefore he makes Officers Laws and Ordinances The Lords day and the Lords Supper are particularly in Scripture called by Rev. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 11. his name The Lords The Lords day ex illius resurrectione festivitatem suam habere coepit took its festivity Epist 119. from his Resurrection as Austin The Lords Supper is the memorial of his death so his death and resurrection a Supper and a day to memorize them As he is Lord so his Laws binde whatsoever they be though Abraham be commanded to kill his sonne for the Laws of God have not their obligation from the quality of the Law but from the authority of the Lord the Law-giver As he is Jesus a Saviour so his Laws are benefits and liberties tending to salvation as the Laws of your City are freedoms and your freedoms laws so you obey them â—s Laws enjoy them as freedoms they are our benefit and our duty His invitation is to a Supper it 's the invitation of a Lord it 's the Supper of a Saviour § 2 Secondly There must be institution of a Sacrament The elements are cyphers till the institution make them figures Institution is as necessary to a Sacrament as superscription is to money for it is created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things that did not appear Sacraments are of that rank of things Quae nihil sunt sine institutione saith Chamier they were bread and wine Chamier de Euchar. l. 7. c. 10 indeed before but they were nothing to that relation which Christ put upon them a seal of a thousand a year is made of a peny-worth of wax What was a piece of brasse to the healing of a mortal sting Nothing till God put an Use upon it that all that lookt to it being bitten should be healed § 3 Thirdly There must be a divine institution to make a Sacrament The Legatee doth not seal the will but the Testatour the Granter seals the Deed not the Grantee the Delinquent seals not the pardon but the Keeper of the seal Sola divina institutio facit Sacramentum Montac origin part 1. pag. 73. saith a learned man Take that away and it ceaseth to be a Sacrament The Supream Power only can coyn money in other its câ—pitâ—l All the whole Church together cannot make a Sacrament then it should be the Churches Supper not the Lords and it is theirs to eat but not to make Ejus est signa Synopsis de coena §. 7. gratiae addere cujus est gratiamtribuere He may adde the signs of grace that can give the grace There is a four-fold word requisite to a Sacrament 1. A word of institution which appoints the matter and form 2. A word of Sanctification or blessing to set them apart from common Use 3. A word of Promise of some good to the Communicant and so we have here a promise of the Lords body and bloud The promises of Sacraments as is well Observed by the Centuriators are vestitae Centur. mag ceâ—t 1. promissiones cloathed promises He that believes shall be saved is a naked promise He that eats this bread c. shall have Christ as a cloathed promise 4. A word of Command as we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buckler Prâ—t evidence in Baptism so hoc facite here as a learned man Let the Word be added to the Element and you have a Sacrament Austin § 4 Fourthly It 's the institution that gives the nature and efficacy to a Sacrament He that mints the money sets the value and price upon it A Sacrament is an outward and visible signe but it is not a natural but a voluntary sign nor yet a bare signe as the picture of Hercules is a signe of Hercules and no more we must not make the Sacraments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 empty names empty figures empty representations that resemble and signifie something and no more as the Sacrament was a crucifix and the Supper painted resemblances of meat and drink this is a hungry feast he must have his stomack in his eye that is fed with it but the Sacraments are signacula symbola seals and pledges or instruments offering exhibiting and making present to our faith the very benefits which they signifie the very body and bloud of Christ is not only represented but presente to a believer and brought home to his soul yet they are not natural instruments Montac orig part 1. p. 67. in which the inward grace is contained as in a vessel as the Romish Praesentialists and Schoolmen dream like plaisters which have in themselves a virtue or power to heal a wound or a medicine to expell poison but they are moral and voluntary means or instruments serving to the purpose ex destinatione by appointment as the brazen Serpent to heal the sting Bernard hath writ upon it As saith he in vestitures and possessions Bernard de câ—â—â—â—a and assurances do pass by the staff and ring Annulus non valet qnicquam haereditas est quam quaerebam The ring avails little I seek the inheritance that is confirmed and convey'd by it so we say the Lands Inheritance c. do passe by the great Seal for so I come to have and hold and they are mine by it Thus the Sacrament is a seal of confirmation and conveyance of the inward grace to the hand or faith of a believing soul And as really as the estate doth passe by the Seal into your right and possession not by any inward work or power of the Seal in it self but by the Use it 's of in sealing and conveying so really is Christ and all his tReasure passed over unto you that receive him by faith not in respect of any worthiness or vertue in the very outward Sacrament but in and by the Use it 's of by Christs appointment to seal confirm and convey that excellent place speaks my minde fully 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we bless Is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The Bread which we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ He saith not barely representation as a signe but communion or participation as a conveying seal I declare this to you becaUse some believe too much and think the outward Sacrament works I know not how like a plaister by some vertue contained in them that is opere operato as they barbarously speak and others believe-too little as if they were meer and empty signs and resemblances of Christs body and bloud as if a woman should receive a ring meerly becaUse the picture of her beloved is engraven on it and not as a ring of espousals really sealing and confirming the contract and assuring
shed for many for remission of sinnes saith Matthew which is shed for many saith Mark which is shed for you saith Luke And all these together are my Text at this time § 1 In this Sacrament Mirificè lusit Satan saith an excellent Authour Satan hath play'd his pranks and Chamier de Euchar. l. 6 c. 1. §. 1. tried conclusions upon Divines how he could infatuate aad make them mad such cart-loads of perplexities alterations absurdities and wilde fancies have they been possest with in the agitation of this point and discussion of these very words which as a Reverend D. Rainolds Medit. Divine saith truly are clear and easie to a spiritual ear or minde it is the carnal fancy that perplexes all and corrupts the Text which had been clear if the water had not been muddied with dirty hands so Nicodemus understands Christ carnally in matter of Joh. 3. Regeneration and talks of entring again into our mothers womb So the Disciples of Capernaum understand that excellent Doctrine of Christ John 6. about eating his flesh and drinking his bloud of the very Cannibal eating of mans flesh and bloud The very antidote he gave them would serve here John 6. 63. The words that I speak they are spirit and they are life that is their spiritual meaning is lively and if we could agree on this then we should give our Hooker l. 5. p. 359. selves more to meditate with silence what we have by this Sacrament and lesse dispute the manner how for this heavenly food is given for satisfying empty souls and not exercising our curious and subtil wits for it often comes to passe that curious sifting and disputing Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5. p. 364. too boldly chils all warmth of our zeal and brings soundnesse of belief into great hazzard § 2 The words have been and are interpreted in divers senses the most notable I have Observed to be five I Hooker speaking of Ancients lib. 5. pag. 362. say the most notable for there are more 1. That Christ is present in this Sacrament by his efficacy and power to realize and exhibit vertue to and by the Ordinance Nec ullo modo se absentat divina Majestas a Ministeriis Cyprian de Caena and other Ancients 2. That Christ his very body is present with or in or under the outward elements as the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran saith 3. That Christ is really present but modum nescimus we know not the manner how and in this dark some of our learned men spoke of late to what intent they best knew 4. That there is a real turning of the substance of Bread and Wine into the very substance of Christs Body and Bloud Thus the Papists or Transubstantiatists 5. That the Bread and Wine are sacramentally Christs Body and Bloud or the memorials thereof symbolically representing and exhibiting to the faithfull Christians himself and so say We. § 3 And yet all parties in their difference professe themselves clear and that they follow the true naked and literal sense in their judgement Chemnitius that learned Examen de Eucbar p. 65. Col. 1. Luther an professes That he imbraceth that sense which holds the true and substantial presence of Christ in the Supper which the words in their proper and genuine and usual signification hold forth The Papist professes That he hath the very plain letter of the words and the sense literal So farre as Lapide I know not whether with more confidence or impudence saith That if God ask him at the day of Judgement why he held so he will confidently say Tu docuisti Thou hast taught me We are as clear Vide Lee in Annot. in loc that we follow the true proper literal sense and that saith a learned man Upon my soul there is no such D. Jo. Burgesse Kneeling at Sacramâ—nt p. 113. turning of the Bread into Christs Body as the Papist affirms §. 4. This is my Body § 4 I shall open the words severally This is my Body about which there is the greatest heat and quarrel In the Rite of the Paschal Supper when the bread Cameron Myrothec in Mat. 26. Scaliger de Emend lib. 6. pag. 536. was given there was a solemn signification put upon it This is the bread of affliction and our Saviour transferring that bread into his Supper gave a new signification This is my body In the first Rite there was no turning the substance of bread nor yet in this second Mouliu Bucklet p. 471. For our clearer understanding we must constantly hold these two things 1. That Christ gave bread 2. That this bread was his body First Christ gave bread to his Disciples at this Supper for that which he took which he blest which he brake was bread He took bread and that he gave saying This is my body which is broken for you for the bread was broken as a signe that his body should be crucified and bread the Apostle cals it after consecration thrice in this Chapter vers 26 27 28. and 1 Cor. 10. 16. The bread which we break and ver 17. We are all partakers of that one bread and he cals it so not becaUse it was bread before for he might so have called it wheat a man might be called a boy ripe wine verjuice but becaUse it is so except all our senses be put out and extinguisht with the bread Secondly This bread is Christs body What body Even his own natural body which is given for you Luk. 22. 19. which is broken for you as in my Text What bloud Even that which is shed for you Matth. 26. 28. Luke 22. â—0 But how can this be it 's impossible that bread while it is bread as we have proved it is should be Christs body or wine while it's wine should be his bloud It 's very true that it is impossible Disparatum de disparato non proprium praedicatur therefore we must seek for a possible Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. meaning and of necessity conclude with Calvin Sacramentalem esse loquutionem that it is a sacramental form of speech the signe bears the name of the thing signified as in vulgar and in Scripture language for in Scripture both signs figuratively representing or sacramentally sealing do bear the name of the things represented or sealed as Gen. 40. 12. The three branches are three dayes vers 18. The three baskets are three dayes Gen. 41. 26. The seven ears of corn are seven years the seven kine are seven years Ezek. 37. 11. These dry bones are the whole hoUse of Israel Dan. 2. 38. Thou O King art this head of gold Dan. 7. 17. The four beasts are four Kings Gal. 4. 25. This Agar is mount Sinai Revel 17. 9. The seven heads are seven mountains So in sacramentals Circumcision is called the Covenant Gen 17. 13. And a token of the Covenant v. 11. And a seal of the righteousnes of Faith Rom. 4. 11. The Lamb is
called the Passeover Exod. 12. 21. The Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 10. 4. and in this Sacrament This Cup is the New-Testament What shall we require further the form of speech is plain a childe may understand it And it is without example in all Scripture that the signe should be or be changed into the substance of the thing signified and which is further to be said The Hebrew Tongue or the Syriack in which Christ spake doth not Use in this form of speech any copula of subject and predicate either is or signifieth but sometimes and not alwayes a Pronoun as in these places by me cited in the Old Testament There is no is nor other Verb but thus the seven ears of corn they seven years the four beasts four Kings which when Cameron Myrothec in Mat. 26. Moulin Buckler p. 478. they come to be translated into Greek or Latine then the idiome of the language requires it and saith is The Rock was Christ and so in the present case Hoo lach ma this bread of affliction that is This is the bread of affliction §. 5. This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud § 5 I proceed to the next part This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud or This is the bloud of the New Testament where the contenders are a little cooler and must perforce allow a Trope or figurative speech for the Cup sure is not changed into a Covenant or Testament nor the bloud of Christ neither nor the wine The cup is not put for the bloud of Christ for then it would be thus This bloud is the New Testament in my bloud a pure non sense that Papists cannot salve without invention of two blouds but the cup is put for the wine This wine is the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ratified in my bloud The wine represents and by representation is the very bloud of Christ which confirms and ratifies Gods Gospel-covenant or the New Testament bequeathing to believers the Legacy of remission of sinnes in Christ for that Christ gave wine and not very bloud in the cup is that which Matthew and Mark say Matth. 26. 29. Mark 14. 25. I will drink no more of the fruit of the Vine Peri Haggephen was the word signantly Used Stegman disp 51. p. 593. for wine in the Paschal Rite The fruit of the vine That Climax and Gradation of Luther is pleasant The Cup contains the wine the wine exhibits the bloud of Christ the bloud of Christ ratifies and confirms the New Covenant the New Covenant promiseth remission of sinnes Therefore the drinking of this Cup applies seals confirms to believers the promise of remission of sinnes And the allusion is excellent as Cameron in Mat. 26. 27. the Apostle Observes Heb. 9. 20. out of Exod. 24. 8. that Moses said This is the bloud of the Covenant which God hath enjoyned you for all covenant with man fallen is sealed with bloud that under the Law with typical bloud this of the Gospel by the very bloud of Christ For without bloud is no remission Heb. 9. 22. And of this Covenant-confirming bloud of Christ this wine is the lively representation or memorial The particulars thus cast up are summ'd up into this total as the sense and meaning of this Ordinance § 6 First This bread is my body this wine is my bloud as representations and memorials of my body broken and my bloud shed figuring and signifying my death and suffering for you but this is not all for God doth not feed us with empty shows and void figures onely representing as the footstep in the snow the foot or the picture of Hercules represents Hercules This would bring the Sacrament to a Socinian emptinesse as a matter of our duty onely not as of Gods conferring any benefit upon us This is more like the Signe of a Shop than the Seal of a Deed and would rather serve the eye than refresh the soul by eating and drinking as meat and drink Therefore Secondly This Bread is my Body This Cup is the Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. New Testament in my bloud as Pledges Seals and instrumental means of exhibition solemnly Pet. Martyr ibid. Hooker Eccles Polit. p. 359. Paraeus in 1 Cor. 11. conveying though symbolically to the faith of a beleever Christ himself for union and communion and the benefits of his death remission of finnes as the pledge confirms the contract the Seal passeth or conveyeth the estate by which we are as truly partakers of Christ Jesus if we receive by faith as we are partakers of bread and wine for nourishment this is a high signification and Use it 's full and rich and comfortable and this I prove by that of the Apostle wherein I rest as a full explication of the phrase in hand 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we blesse Is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The bread which we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ Here is Participation Communion and he saith Is it not Is it not As a known and received truth amongst Christians and with this I content my selfe as cleare and full against all contenders and gainsayers As for the Ancients I referre you to a whole Parliament of them called together and voting down Transubstantiation Crakanthorpe Defens cap. 73. against that unhappy man the Arch-Bishop of Spalato who had before his last revolt said Omnes Patres All the Fathers are against the Real Presence but he unsaid it again afterward to his Justin Apol. 2. losse Justin Martyr cals the bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread over which thanks were given Irenaeus the very same Tertullian and Origen prove That Tertul. l. 4. contra Marc. c. 40. Origen Christ had a true body against the Phantasticks becaUse the bread is a figure and signe of a true body Hierom cals it a representation and Austin is Greek Fathers call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionysius Basilius Theodores totus Calvinianus in the point There are rhetoricall flourishes hyperbolies and high expressions sometimes to procure honour to the Ordinance or quicken up the Communicants but in judgement they are with us Crakantherp Defens cap. 73. § 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lingua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chry. hom 82. in Matth. sanguinem sugimus Cyp. de caena and such hyperbolies c. So much be spoken for the explication of the words which are so ravelled and perplexed by contrary senses CHAP. IX Of the Inward thing signified or represented in this Supper I. What is presented to the Beleever NOw we shall proceed to open to you what Christ presents unto and sets before the faithfull in this Supper and what the faithfull do receive in the right Use thereof For the first There is here presented and set before you in this Supper 1. Christ himself sacrificed for you with the fruits and benefits of his death or of the sacrifice of
is enough to the putting on my better clothes and framing my self to a grave composure but here I am to meet my Lord Christ and to receive him as my Saviour I am to have the Covenant of mercy sealed to me in his blood I am to make a thankfull memoriall of Christ and to profess my embracement and adherence to his death as my only comfort therefore be thou awakened O my faith my godly sorrow my spirituall appetite my thankfulness that I may go out to Christ and he come in to me 3. This takes off all slighting and undervaluing of this Ordinance which appears to an outward and carnall eye No better bread or wine than I can have at home for in this plain case is a rich Jewel this bread is the body this wine is the Blood of the Lord of Glory and therefore I must not value the seal by the worth of the wax which is not worth a penny but by the pardon or the inheritance which passes and is conveyed by it 4. This keeps me from running blindfold into the sin of guiltiness of the Body and Blood of the Lord and so into condemnation for as the same Signet or Seal of a Prince doth to one seal a pardon to another an execution so this very Sacrament is to a Beleever a seal of pardon to another as it were the seal of his condemnation 5. Lastly The preparation so much spoken of and the self-examination required by the Apostle cannot be imagined to referre to the eating of bread and drinking wine but to the inward thing of the Sacrament it necessarily follows that those inward graces that enable us to have communion with Christ and make commemoration of him can never be known or sought except we know the meaning of this Sacrament for it is that which gives the Law and Rule of all our preparations And so I have shown you the Reasons why we should labour to understand the language of this Ordinance So much of this generall Point the second Point shall be taken from those words Ye shew the Lords death or shew ye for the word might be construed imparatively but that the particle For would not then so well consist CHAP. XIV The great business that lies upon the Communicant as oft as he eats this Bread and drinks this Cup is to shew the Lords Death Doct. 2 THis Point cleaves into two parts § 1 First It is the Lords death which in this Sacrament is shewn forth The two standing Sacraments of the Jewish Church Circumcision and the Passeover did both appear in blood The two standing Sacraments of the Gospel do also referre to death We are buried with him by Baptism into death Rom. 6. 4. and in the Supper we shew the Lords death As of all deliverances and benefits vouchsafed to Israel of old God would have the Passeover-deliverance celebrated by a constant memoriall in all generations so of all that Christ doth for us it is his death that must be shewn forth in all generations of the Church till he come again and therefore this Ordinance is speculum crucifixi as Calvin saith and In 1 Cor. 11. the memoriall not so much of Christs life or resurrection De satisfact cap. 1. saith Grotius as of his death This death hath no second in all the world for it was the death of the Sonne of God the death of the Lamb of God 1. Of the Sonne of God the Lord of Glory whose highness and excellency gave price and value to his death Had he not been man he could not have suffered Had he not been the Sonne of God God blessed for ever he could not have satisfied and conquered 2. Of the Lamb of God and therefore his death was a Sacrifice and that 's more than a Martyrdom for though a Martyr may be said to seal with his blood that truth he dies upon yet no blood can seal the Covenant but this of Christ no death can ratifie the Testament but the Testators death Had the death been the death of the Lord a most excellent person and not also the death of a Lamb for Sacrifice to make attonement it had wanted one of his properties but it was both As it was the death of the Lord of Glory the Sonne of God so it gave us the most illustrious testimony and example of the love of God as ever was or could be and that the Scripture often points unto As it was the death of the Lamb of God so it was a Sacrifice death wherein he was made sinne for us and bore our sinnes in his Body As it was the Joh. 11. 13. Rom. 5. Gal. 2. 20. death both of the Sonne of God and the Lamb of God so it reconciled us sinners unto God and meritoriously redeemed and ransomed us from our bondage to the curse and wrath of God the only ground and foundation of our hope peace and comfort § 2 Secondly It is the business of the Communicant to shew forth this death of the Lord The Ordinance it self is full of death what other language doth bread broken and the blood severed from the body speak but a dying Christ As the Ordinance so the Communicant doth by eating and drinking in fact declare and annunciate his profession of adherence to and embracement of the death of Christ we solemnly and publiquely avow both to God and men that we stick unto and abide by the death of the Lord for remission of sinne and reconciliation of our persons to God and it is a solemn part of Gods positive worship to shew forth the death of Christ our Lord not by a meer historicall relation but a practicall and publique profession of our faith and acceptance thereof which though at all times we may remember yet God would have a solemn Ordinance in his Gospel-Churches for the commemoration and shewing of it forth which Ordinance is this of the Supper I know men are witty to elude Ordinances and to flatter themselves with private devotions and meditations but when God hath set up an Ordinance on purpose for the publique and solemn shewing of the Lords death let them consider it that are not only careless of the benefit of it but fail of their duty by not presenting themselves at this solemn shewing of the Lords death but how can it be expected that they that shew not the life of Christ by a godly conversation should care to shew forth his death by publique profession or rather how can it be construed that they do it out of conscience of duty and not out of meer superstition expecting that from the Sacrament which the Papist expects from his auricular confession that is to quit the old score that he may more freely begin upon a new But I may not forget that which is very learnedly Observed that the Apostle using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which frequently is Used for publishing and preaching Schiud in loc Haggada the Gospel doth
Laodicea whose temper was so loathsom as her self is threatned to be spued out from which saith Mr Brightman who would not think of flying very quickly meaning by his parallel the Church of England yet becaUse Revel 3. 30. The Lord stands at the door and knocks is present with and by his Ordinances to all in this Church therefore doth that holy man mightily inveigh against their wicked and blasphemous errour so he cals it that fell away from this Church Will they be ashamed saith he to sit down there where they see Christ not to be ashamed Are they holier and purer then he Can they deny themselves to be believers in Christ before their separation from us Came it not by our preaching c Adi locum And indeed the Argument is considerable If God afford his Communion with a Church by his own Ordinances and his Grace and Spirit It would be unnaturall and peevish in a childe to forsake his Mother while his Father ownes her for his Wife Fourthly The presence of wicked men at Gods Ordinances pollutes not them that are neither accessary to their sinne nor indeed to their presence there If the Ordinances be polluted by the unclean to themselves it is polluted not to me He shall bear his own burden He eats and drinkes damnation to himself 1 Cor. 11. 29. I come to the Sacrament it is my duty and my right Shall I sinne in separating from Ordinances becaUse he sinnes in coming to them and the Church sinnes in not excluding him The wickednesse of Eli his sonnes made men abhor the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 17. but they transgrest in so doing shall I go forth from the marriage-feast having a wedding-garment becaUse one comes in thither without it Must not I offer my gift at the Altar becaUse another comes thither that should first go and be reconciled to his brother Shall I leap out of Noah's Ark becaUse a Cham is in it Shall I separate from Gods children in Communion of Gods Ordinances when it is not arbitrary and at my liberty to do so becaUse I see a sinfull intruder and do my private duty by mourning that such a one may be taken away from among us 1 Cor. 5. 2. and yet perform my publique duty also And therefore to avow Separation upon this ground is § 8 1. To maintain a principle destructive to the communion of the Church visible which is a body moulded up of Jews outwardly and Jews inwardly as I may say and if one part destroy or pollute the communion of the other part is not all ruin'd Let a man but conceive in his minde How this principle pursued would in the time of the Jewish Church have rouled and rooted out all visible Communion in Ordinances out of the world And if one incestuous person not cast out at Corinth had polluted the communion of the whole Church and some one like sinner in another had done the like had not all been polluted and a ground of separation laid through all points of the Compasse till we had separated through the whole circle 2. An adventurous and bold assertion that carries farther than we are aware for why then did not Judas being to Christ a known wicked man pollute the Communion to our Saviour at the Passeover and Supper And why did not the wicked Jews pollute Christs Communion in the Ordinances of God in that Church And how could all the holy servants of God and Prophets in the Old or the Apostles and Christians in the New escape this pollution it being well known that there were hypocrites and such as being vitious under forme of godlinesse as 2 Tim. 3. 1 2. which remain'd in Church-communion 3. A great mistake for it grows hence that as Parmenian said Si corruptis sociaris c. If you be Lib. 3. c. 21. joyn'd or associate with corrupt men how can ye be clean And Austin answers True If we be joyn'd in society with them that is commit sin with them or consent or favour them in sin but if a man do not this Nullo modo sociatur he is no way joyned with them for it 's not the local contact or conjunction but the moral conjunction that defiles and we are as morally separate and sever'd from them when they are at the Lords Table as if they were in place distant It 's they that joyn with us in our profession not we with them in their sins if their profession be hypocritical that infects not us for spiritually infected we are not by contagion but consent nor do we professe our selves to be of one body with them any otherwise 1. Cor. 10. 17. than all that communicate with hypocrites do viz. upon supposition that they are as they professe members of the body which if they be not our profession is not false but theirs is and yet I confesse that those are best Churches where the presumption of godlinesse in the members is most Reasonable § 9 In summe and for conclusion we defend the communion of the visible Church in Gods Ordinances but we defend not the sinne of them that professe to know God but in works deny him It was a sad complaint of Salvian long ago Praeter paucissimes De Guderu l. 3. c. Besides some few that serve the Lord in Spirit quid est omnis caetus Christianorum Free our Communion from this exception by amendment of their lives and that the godly would as the School saith Abuti alieno peccato make good Use of other mens sins and their own for even they are mixt persons as I may say having flesh and Spirit as well as our Churches are mixt of good and bad and that they would stirre up their graces to be the better for other mens sinnes and perform the duties required of them at such a time and not give way to thoughts of Separation which puls a good stake out of a rotten hedge where it did more good by standing than by removal For unto the pure all things are pure but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure Tit. 1. 15. whereby it is plain that what is impure to them that are defiled is not made impure to them that are pure and so I conclude with this recapitulation The Separation of the Church from wicked men and infidels by Gods calling and Covenant with it is as necessary as the profession of faith and holinesse The Church her Separation or casting out of Obstinately wicked men from her communion is defended for the recovery of lapsed members and the avoidance of infection of and scandal to her self The secession of those good people from the Idolatry erected by Jeroboam to worship at Jerusalem is allowed 2 Chron. 11. 16. The negative Separation or the not communicating in the worship of Baal not so much as by knees or lips of those seven thousand in Israel is liked of by the Lord 1 King 19. 18. The avoidance of private
being accompanied with the Word and so still it is the Word that converts But what will you say to the naked Use and application of the signes that is the act of distribution Taking Eating Drinking Do these convert or confer the first grace I answer I am not curious in delivering the very nick of time of mans conversion I affirm not that so it is nor deny that so it may be The winde blows when and where it listeth This yet is not the Question But whether there be found any declared intention any institution and appointment of God that this Ordinance shall convert souls or hath made it apt for that purpose so as we may look for such efficacy from it by vertue of Gods institution thereof to this end For it is a meerly positive Ordinance and the effect or efficiency must be expected in vertue of the appointment and institution and I cannot assent that the institution of the Supper promiseth this effect Greg. de Valentia and others of the Schoolmen De efficacia Euch punct distinguish between the primary and per se effects of the Lords Supper and these that are per accidens not of institution among which he instances the conferring of the first grace and so Vasquez saith that he doth not hold That this Sacrament conveys Vasquez Tom. 3. Disp 205. the first grace by vertue of institution or appointment to that end and yet cites Bonaventure that the first grace may be given here secundum misericordiam of Gods meer mercy not secundum institutionem according to the institution of the Ordinance And this I say in answer to the Question But doth it follow hence that therefore all may come be invited or admitted becaUse we say that which God can do not what he hath promised or declared that he will Prater intentional or accidental effects give no ground to seek them at such a caUse as is not ordained to work them though haply some have been converted at that time Must a man that seeks a Kingdom be sent to seek his fathers Asses becaUse Saul heard such news at such a time Must we run a man thorow with a sword to save his life becaUse one did so once and let out a secret impostume BecaUse some Minister hath been converted at his Ordination Is therefore the laying on of hands instituted for that purpose BecaUse a man hath been converted at his marriage where the Sermon and benediction have wrought on him Is therefore marriage a converting Ordinance I might adde a great deal more for illustration of this point if I Questioned your apprehension Secondly There is difference to be made between the qualifications of a man to his admittance to this Sacrament and the qualifications of him unto the inward grace benefit or effect of it If one be a baptized person a knowing professour of the Gospel against whom there lies no barre of notorious ignorance or scandal though it appear not that he is truly regenerate and sincere in grace yet he hath admittance he claims upon such a right as the Church cannot justly disallow no more than an Israelite circumcised and clean could be debarred the Passeover but as to the effect and benefit of the Supper to his soul there is required more than so even true faith in Christ and regeneration that he may exercise such graces as the benefits are promised unto and come to the Seals of the Covenant with the condition of the Covenant The wise Virgins cannot forbid the foolish from waiting with them for they have lamps as well as they but the Lord shuts the door against them from entring in with him for their oyl was out Glory not in this that the Church admits you to the Table but labour for the grace to feed upon the dainties set upon it many have the liberty to Use it that have not the benefit or effect of that Use many have a hundred times tasted bread and wine that never once tasted the body and bloud of Christ §. 4 Reasons proving the Lords Supper not to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion § 4 The Reasons proving the Lords Supper not to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion Tom. 3. Disp 205. c. 4. The first is that of Vasquez No effects can be ascribed to this Sacrament which fall not under the signification of it they cannot doe not exhibit any grace but what they signifie or figure out the sign and the thing signified are not such strangers as that one thing be signified and another wrought The Rock that followed them doth not set forth Christ for meat nor doth the Manna set forth Christ for spiritual drink What can be expected in Circumcision but the cutting off native corruption or concupiscence What in Baptism of water but the washing away the sordes or filthinesse of our nativity or fleshly birth Now the conversion of a sinner is not signified in this Sacrament or sealed there is no outward element that sets it forth to us and why so BecaUse it is instituted in bread and wine eating and drinking and is it not evident that all this speaks growth nourishment comfort strength but it speaks not the giving of life Doth bread and wine give life to one that is dead Can they congruously signifie the first grace of spiritual life It 's against sense and Reason but life is preserved and cherisht and continued by them and therefore this Sacrament is set forth saith Durand Durand lib 4. Dist 7. qu. 1. under the form of nourishment If you say But here is Christ set forth who is our life as well as our meat he gives and he maintains it in us True but he is set forth in this Sacrament as the one of these he doth both he begins life in us but in this Ordinance which is a Supper his body and bloud are set upon the Table for refection and nourishment of men that take and eat and drink and they are living men Meat is not set before dead folks My flesh is meat indeed my bloud is drink indeed saith Joh. 6. he and so is Christ here set forth As the Use of corporall food is not congruous but to one that lives corporally So c. Durand ubi supra The second Reason is taken from the institution and the Schoolmen generally argue thence for the end Use benefit effect of a Sacrament are undoubtedly learned by the institution and the Reason stands thus This Sacrament by the institution of it appears to presuppose those that reap the sweet and benefit of it to be converts and in grace namely to have faith in Christ and to be living members and if this be presupposed by this Ordinance then it is not first wrought by it They must be in Christ that have benefit by it for them it is instituted and ordained not for such as are out of Christ to bring them in but for such as are in Christ to bring them up in
it is delivered to us as the bread in this Ordinance is not by crums but by the piece Three things I would have you bear in minde 1. That these words referre to the manner of communicating and consequently to the act or actual receiving of the Sacrament and therefore the Text saith He that eats and drinks unworthily these adverbial expressions denote the mode or manner of the act and cannot be applied to any man out of the very act 2. That yet they connote some aptitude or inaptitude some fitnesse or unfitnesse of the person from whence this manner of the action doth proceed as acts referre to some habit or disposition whence they arise and so we call a worthy or unworthy Communicant one that hath or wants such qualifications or such frame of spirit as is apt to bring forth sutable actions and these qualifications denominate the person antecedaneous to the act as we call a valiant man before we fight a worthy Communicant though not in the act we need no place of Scripture to name a Communicant worthy or unworthy for if it denominate the act worthily unworthily then Logick and Reason will suppose an aptitude or disposition of the person whence this act comes 3. That howsoever in our English Use and so in the Latine we mean by worthinesse and unworthinesse of some person or action an extraordinary perfection or excellency or an extraordinary poornesse and basenesse yet here the words must be interpreted relatively that is in relation to the Ordinance and so they import no more then fitly condecently answerably becomingly or contrarily If the manner of eating or drinking be answerable to and becoming of the Ordinance being such as the exigence and nature thereof doth demand or bespeak of us then we receive it worthily for as you cannot tell whether a man act a part well unlesse you know what part it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or decorum whereof must be observed and as a picture may be very curious and lively and yet very false if it answer not the prototype so that eating or drinking which is according to the Ordinance or demands thereof is worthily and that which is not answerable is unworthily and thus the word is to be interpreted when we reade of walking-worthy of God worthy of the Gospel or as it becometh Saints c. So that to receive this Sacrament in that holy manner and to that end with such spirit and affection as the institution or nature of the Ordinance is to receive worthily Certa norma est ipsa institutio Exam de praepa ad Euchar. saith Chemnitius I have recommended to you the sense and meaning of the words and before I go further will infer from them two or three Corollaries or Cautions requisite to stand in the front of my following Discourse for prevention of mistake of my words I would not measure or judge of my eating and Caution 1. drinking worthily or unworthily by the successe I finde afterwards but by the manner of my receiving for these words referre not to the successe or after fruit but the manner of the present act as I have shown you This Rule prevents a great deal of perplexity and trouble which Christians create in themselves to their discouragement falsly concluding that they have not haply never have received worthily becaUse they finde not the after-fruit answerable to their expectations they finde not such elevations of spirit sensible joyes powerfull conQuest over their particular lusts and corruptions not that vigour and incRease of some particular graces which they in their expectation have as it were limited God to bestow upon them by the Use of this Ordinance I do not take off a Christian from waiting on God in the Use of this Ordinance for those benefits and graces which it's properly ordained to impart but I deny the conclusion thence inferr'd therefore I have not received worthily for it is the spiritual manner of the performance of the act must be Judge of that and not the sensible fruit and benefit actually enjoyed for thou mayest as I may say wrestle with God as Jacob did and yet go away halting that was no sign of prevailing yet the Text tels us by his strength he had power with God he prevailed Oh but he went lame away True but he wept and made supplication to him Hos 12. ◠◠The Apostle Paul doth not finde fault with his prayer becaUse it prevail'd not at first for removal of the thorn nor with God neither but he had his eye open'd to see the Use of that thorn like a corrosive to eat away the proud flesh growing and that contented him the stay of the thorn was answer to his prayer when he saw the Use of it and was supported under it 2 Cor. 12. 8. We look for Gods answer to us in our prayer or in his Ordinance as that man that lookt for the Sunne rising towards the East whereas he that looked West-ward for it on the top of the high Tower or Steeple saw it first To see and to have the Use of a sinne or corruption is a better answer of an Ordinance many times than to be quit of it For as Austin saies Proud hearts have need of sinnes as proud sores of eating plaisters And therefore to answer this point nearer home and nearer the case it self The Apostles that were near Christ at this first Sacrament within few hours after it betray'd their weaknesse they fled from him they hid themselves and the strongest of them took the greatest fall Shall we say they communicated unworthily becaUse the successe was so bad No for we must not measure altogether by that Rule but by the manner of receiving if such graces and affections be then set on work as the Ordinance doth bespeak It 's well observed that the recording of the sinnes of holy men in Scripture is as profitable and Usefull to the Church as the record of their graces or heroical acts For as we look upon their graces we are ashamed of our selves and instructed to imitation as we look on their sinnes and failings we are not discouraged unto desperation and the Scripture it self directs us to some such like Use Jam. 5. 17. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are viz. to like afflictions and to like fruit trees It 's Gods part of the Covenant to finish our faith and support our graces to revive our spirits and subdue our corruptions It 's our part to believe and walk humbly with God not only in our conversation but the Use of his ordinances Let us minde our own part and take comfort in the acting of grace at least if we have not the desired benefit and fruit of Ordinances to comfort us For were I to chUse I had rather exercise grace in my communion with God than enjoy a sensible rapture I speak it to improve a Christian in his gracious actings though I know withall that at last
sounding words and the Reason is becaUse the Gospel placing our righteousnesse and our happinesse in the having of Christ and taking every man utterly off his own bottom doth thereby come to a new reckoning that is not Used in the whole world and accounts them full that are most empty rich that are poor blessed that are in their own sense or outward condition miserable possessing all things that have nothing and so in this point in hand according to Luther's paradoxal expression which our Whitaker approves is Est optime dispositus qui est pessime dispositus He is most worthy that is most unworthy viz. that is sensible of his unworthinesse 2. If this worthinesse of a Communicant should Whitak de Sacram. p. 658. be imagin'd to signifie any meritorious or proud congruities of our vertues works righteousnesse it would be the greatest unworthinesse that could be What should such proud creatures come to a Sacrament or memorial of Christs death for that being no sinne with them to be expiated by that death Thou sayest I am rich I stand in need of nothing go anoint thy eyes that thou mayest see Revel 5. This Pool of Siloam is for such as have infirmities Nor doth the Gospel require perfect faith or perfect repentance or grace for that 's against the nature of this Sacrament which is to last no longer than our imperfections and infirmities last that is untill Christ come So as there is no better Argument of our imperfection than the command of growing in grace so neither is any a fit patient for this medicine but the weak and impotent the doubting and complaining soul The Gospel knows not the name of attainers nor the thing Not that I have attained or were already perfect Phil. 3. 12. This meat and drink is for growing children which as the old Physician Hippocrates saith must be often-nourisht How long might a man examine himself before he finde this temper in himself that he wants nothing there can be no wonder that such a one is above Ordinances especially this which though it be one of the highest Ordinances of the Church yet is accommodated to the Use of the lowest believer The Apostles communicated in it before the Spirit was sent down solemnly upon them they were but ignorant and raw when Christ said Take Eat Drink ye all of it 3. If thou hast the seminals of grace mixt with a masse of corruptions as gold at first is mixed with much earth there may be worthinesse despise not small things Natural generation begins in a small thing a little drop and so Regeneration If there be sense of sin if thirst after Christ there is something Thou art discouraged with thy daily lapses why drink of this wine for thy often infirmities Thou art overborn with strong lusts come and eat and drink to nourish thy weak graces keep them alive to fight though they do not conquer and triumph Thou canst not say thou hast faith but canst thou feel thy want of it and mourn for it This smoak comes from some invisible spark Thou art not thou sayest in Covenant and the Seal belongs not to thee But art thou willing to be in it and come into the bond of the Lord Is it the longing of thy soul to be ingaged into the ways of God and disenthrall'd from the sweet bondage of sin In a word Let thy sins and corruptions be strong and violent thy wants many thy weaknesse great Let them be as thou sayest as thou fearest yet if there be a groaning sense a longing desire of remedy affections piercing of and breathing after Christ If there be a seed of God in thy heart which is kept alive in the midst of so much corruption by no lesse a miracle than if a spark be kept alive in the sea then surely there is a Gospel-meetnesse in thee to be partaker of this Supper Here is Christ cook'd ready to thy weakest and lowest faith in obvious materials of meat and drink Let not the pride of any worthinesse bring thee nor the sense of unworthinesse keep thee back CHAP. XXIII Of Worthy Receiving c. § 1 I Now proceed to handle this point That this Bread may be eaten and this Cup of the Lord may be drunk worthily It is the highest grace that the eternal God should admit sinfull dust and ashes to be his confederates that from his Altar he should furnish a Table for them and feed them with that flesh and bloud which is offer'd up unto himself a Sacrifice Ephes 5. 1. for a sweet smelling savour that he should account them to eat and drink worthily who account not themselves worthy to eat and drink Merit and worthinesse have both their due place merit belongs to the Sacrifice Christ Jesus worthinesse to the Communicant who eats and drinks in such manner as becomes the nature and is answerable to the Use and end of this Ordinance I shall come up to the manner of receiving worthily by certain orderly steps As §. 2. Of Preparation to this Sacrament § 2 1. There is a certain peculiar preparation due to the celebration of this Ordinance for where the manner is so contrary as worthily and unworthily and the effect of the Ordinance much depending upon the manner of receiving it and the benefit so great as communion of Christs body the danger no lesse than of condemnation Reason will tell us that there is a preparation requisite that the fruit may be of the Tree of Life and not of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil Eat and die It 's either too much blindnesse or boldnesse to rush upon this Ordinance without preparation Nature induceth not a new form without preparing the matter Art as it helps so it imitates nature else that which is medicinal may be mortal Our Saviour did not only Use but honour preparations when he fasted and pray'd in order to his great work To the Passeover there belong'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a solemn preparation the Lamb was taken up on the tenth day the leaven was enquired after and purged out which if they have now no obligation yet they have a meaning and you Use to have Sermons for preparation which are but preparatives to preparation they do but light the candle but you must as that woman Luk. 15. 8. Sweep the hoUse and seek diligently else Sermon-preparation may as I fear it often doth go without soul preparation That word vers 28. And so let him eat Gerard. de Sac. Caena c. 23. tels us plainly that somewhat must go before The Papists distinguish of preparation sufficient and probable but that which is probable may be insufficient and so no man be certain that he comes worthily A fit dispute for such as would have meritorious preparations so much sanctity as indeed needs no Sacrament which therefore they say takes away onely venial sinnes I would not bring so much to the Sacrament as to look for little from it Those that
and demonstrate We know that in all Sacraments there is Analogy or proportion and so in this the elements broken bread and wine pouned forth or the body and bloud of Christ the actions of Taking Eating and Drinking the outward elements doe denote the acts of a Communicants soul receiving and feeding upon Christ and such acts there must be to answer unto the outward actions So as if you tell me of any sensible object it 's easie to shew what sense it belongs unto for if it be light or colour it belongs to the eye if it be any sound it belongs to the ear c. So this Sacrament being survey'd and studied it is not hard to finde what graces are to be set on work accordingly And this Rule that I may not guesse at randome I shall follow in the ensuing Discourse First It 's necessary that the Communicant have knowledge of the Nature Use and End of this Sacrament and that is demonstrate thus Here are outward elements and actions which do signifie some other thing as namely the body and bloud of Christ as himself expounds it offer'd by God unto and to be received by the Communicant and therefore there must be knowledge to discern and understand this mystery that 's hidden under a visible out-side to wit the Sacrifice of Christs body which is represented and the confirmation of the Gospel-Covenant by his bloud for without this knowledge a man comes blinde-fold eats and drinks as a bruit takes the dish for the meat and is no otherwise refresht than a thirsty man would be by eating and sucking a sign-post which doth but signifie that there is wine within It was a childes Question Exod. 12. 26. What mean you by this service And I would our ignorant people would so play the childe for they do but eat the shell and gnaw the bone of the outward service becaUse they know not the meaning of it So the carnall Jew knew not the meaning of the Rites and Types then Used nor saw both Law and Gospel in their Sacrifices both which they were full of I confesse the knowledge of this Sacrament draws with it the knowledge of our lost estate as Passeover is not understood without Egypt in sinne and misery For where Christ appears bloudy there sinne must needs appear deadly and those fundamentals and grounds of Christianity which are but the A. B. C. of Religion must be knowne but it is not the knowledge of a Scholar but the knowledge of a Christian which we plead for so much as may serve to look into the entrails of this Sacrament and may lead on the affections to value prize thirst after Jesus Christ whom if we see not we cannot desire or love Visus est prima amor is linea fight is the first line of love nor can we believe in him untill we see John 6. 40. Whosoever see the Sonne and believes in him shall have everlasting life I should not charge a poor Christian with any great rate of knowledge for the quality is more to be regarded than the quantity If he know both sinne and Christ by taste as well as by sight if he have a distinguishing and favoury knowledge of the things of the Spirit and there be as it is in embers a great heat though but little light then is it good though not great I know that Questions demodo in all points of Divinity are hard to answer It 's well if we can answer a Question aere I may know what sinne is and yet not tell how it enters and comes at first into my soul The Apostles took Christ at this time for their Saviour and Lord the true Messiah but how he should execute all the parts of his Office they did not clearly understand and yet did at and drink with him at his Table § 3 Secondly This is not all but it is first as light was at the Creation the first creature but all the world was not made when light was He is not wholly fitted that hath knowledge there must be a Christ-receiving or a Christ-taking faith and this is shown thus God offers the body and bloud of his Sonne which was shed for the remission of sinne and saith Take ye Eat ye Drink ye and that inward act which answers to this outward action whereby we do receive Christ that is exhibited we call faith when Christ is tender'd to us in the Word we believe ex-promisso when offer'd in the Supper we believe ex pignore There we have a promise here a pawn or pledge This faith is the taking hand which goes forth to the offering-hand of God This taking eating drinking are but faith appropriating and applying Christ You say you believe What believe you That God offers Christ to your faith What 's a poor man the richer for believing that one offers him a shilling What 's a condemned man the better for believing that a pardon is offer'd to him This is but a faith of the truth of the offer But doe ye receive Christ offered Do you close in with Christ Do you take him into you Here is the best Covenant sealed with the best blood that ever was You believe this to be a truth but come not in to this Covenant that saith doth but serve to your just condemnation It is the Christ-receiving not the truth acknowledging saith that brings salvation to you If men did but know what saving saith is we should have either more or fewer believers more for they would renounce that superficial thing cahed faith and buy gold tried in the fire Fewer for they would not count themselves to believe by that faith which they have A woman may believe a man to be rich and honourable and reall in his suit yet that belief doth not make a marriage but actual consent to take him for a husband For saith gives as well as takes it gives a man up to Christ as well as takes Christ to be a Saviour It is not true faith that blows hot and cold out of the same mouth and cries Hosanna to Christ a Saviour but yet I will not have him reigne over me This Sacrament presents Christ to faith thus It presents Christ himself his body and bloud not the benefits of Christ apart and abstract but Christ himself It presents Christ for intimate union with us as the nourishment is to the body It presents him really as the bread and wine is really taken and received It presents him crucified and suffering as if he was now dving and bleeding in whom faith findes reconciliation remission justification and redemption so is it acted and exercised in this Ordinance § 4 Thirdly The third grace that is freshly revived and set on work in this Sacrament is Repentance and that appears thus Here is represented Goes Justice against our sinne in bruising his own Sonne with fore and dreadfull breaches made upon him and this Justice is mixt with goodnesse in transferring and laying upon the Sacrifice
not Gods fire from his Altar but other fire common fire and so themselves became the Sacrifice for God will not be slighted If we bring fire and it be not his own but ours we may be consumed by it but he not pleased To which end and purpose that we be not found in this case and under this wrath I shall endeavour to shew you that strange fire or those false and insufficient qualifications which men draw nigh to God in this Sacrament withall to their own hurt and prejudice CHAP. XXVII False and insufficient Qualifications for the Receiving of this Sacrament § 1 A Fair carriage of outward life or a good complexion of moral vertues is not a sacramental disposition but rather shew a plethorick constitution a self-fulnesse a self-righteousnesse which are the greatest Obstructions against Christ that can be I confesse grace often dwels in a worse hoUse and in rougher natures and constitutions but all the starres do not make day The metal of these vertues is very good but they want a superscription upon them there may be nothing of Christ and he that comes worthily to this Sacrament must have somewhat of Christ in him or must be in some necessity of him that he may eat with sour herbs A man may come with lesse sinne unworthily I say lesse than a worthy Communicant For it 's not the number or quality of sinne but the sense of and repentance for it that is here considerable A bottle stopt with gold receives not so much as an empty shell it 's Christ that must be in your eye and thirst or else your fire is strange fire II. A man may be humiliatus not humilis humbled not humble The Angels that sinn'd were tumbled down into a lower place without any abatement of their God-opposing pride man-opposing malice If God pound thee in a mortar by crosses pains miseries dreadfull horrours of conscience yet pride lives an argument whereof is thou wilt not adventure thy soul on free-grace without something to recommend thee to it and he that hath nothing else will have his misery to be his worthinesse and the murmurings which a broken estate and broken body and spirit do belch forth what are they but fumes and smoke of pride Cut a Bee in pieces yet she puts forth her sting There are many long for humbling breaches smarting sorrows and it may be their intention is good but the bottom is merit and pride most commonly they would make their humiliations their Christ Alas if God should charge but one sin in his full weight on thee it would break thee as a great stone an egge-shell Did it not so in Angels Who would be a Pharaoh Cain or Judas Is not broken iron broken ice hard still as ever But true humility is a Leveller there are 2 Cor. 10. 5. two things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every high thing and that is taken away and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every device and that is brought into captivity not only to the salvation but to the obedience of Christ The metal must be melted as well as broken and it 's enough melted when it will runne into the mold and take the impression Is the will conquer'd and changed to receive Gods Image Submit to Christ his righteousnesse and to his Soveraignty to receive the promises and take up the yoke of crosses and commandments Art thou humbled for sinne and hatest it humbled under thy own righteousnesse and castest it out Art thou willing to take Christ a Saviour and a Lord to have him and be his not on terms of thine own but terms of the Covenant Draw nigh to God this is not strange fire for it hath melted thee and not only tormented thee III. Thou findest in thy self a faith whereby thou assentest to the goodnesse and veracity of God the truth and all-sufficiency of Christ the whole tenour of the Covenant and Doctrine of the Gospel I say with James Chap. 2. 19. Thou believest that God is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou doest well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so believe the devils They have so great knowledge and conviction that they believe more than we do becaUse they know more but this faith hath no seat in the will or at least draws it not to election of the good things believed to be A man may be called an orthodox believer by vertue of this faith and it is sides recta not vera a right faith not a true sana but not salvifica sound faith but not saving if thou bring this faith only thou shalt receive only the outward signe for it is a seeing eye but not a receiving hand and many shallow effects it may have by vertue of the general mercies and promises of God but the Sacrament saith Take Eat and therefore there is besides this a Christ-receiving or a Christ-accepting faith for not to those that believed by meer conviction John 2. 23. did Christ impart himself but to as many as received him Joh. 1. 12. Weaknesse of faith in our times is properly said of this manner of believing It 's the receiving hand that shakes with the palsie Few complain of weaknesse of faith historical nor of the hardnesse of it becaUse it 's not encountred with discouragements sins temptations as saving faith is becaUse the whole adventure of the soul lies upon it and God knows when we come to shoot the gulf and to renounce all false hopes or true fears and cast our selves on Christ we do it with great difficulty for without Gods attraction it 's impossible and this is the faith which we must be exercised in and which is confirmed by this Sacrament and a rare faith it is even in the believing world For it gives up man to Christ as well as receives Christ And the dis-interessing of self-love and the interessing of Christ into preheminence and government is very rare and infrequent For I count that no receiving of Christ which divides him and takes so much as self-love would serve it self upon but brings not every thought into captivity to the obedience of him IV. If thou finde in thy affections any appearances or seeming impressions of grace be not over-credulous till the bottom be searched for there lies abundance of self-love and self-interest even when there is a good countenance and fore-side as in the zeal of Jehu which carried in the fore-head of it The Lord of hosts but there was a byas within that wheeled towards his own interest I shall name but four and that briefly § 2 1. The love of God which is a reflex of his first love to us As the Sun-beams which come from the wall are the reflex of the beams that first smite upon it and there may be a love of God upon terms of his beneficence providence patience general goodnesse to mankinde without any love of Christ in sincerity which is upon special and distinguishing grounds for that love of God which is over-topt by self-love is not
some particular fruit as elevation of heart sensible comfort clear assurance or the like which becaUse they finde not they think they have nothing I have shew'd you before That God answers the expectations and satisfies the necessity of his people by giving some other grace than we would have or have our eye upon as Pauls prayers were answer'd in sufficient grace not the removing of the thorn We cry for comfortable signs and God gives obediential and serviceable graces We look for spiritual gifts he gives humbling grace We would have conQuest of sinne God gives power to encounter it We look for lively grace and God keeps grace alive We expect at present God afterward gives us it in bodily nourishment it 's not possible for a man to tell what degree of nourishment he received by such a meal yet he findes that he lives and is strengthned and he may be nourisht by that which he doth not relish with delight As for those that upon pretence of spirit and spirituality have cast off Ordinances as fruitlesse unto them I should wish they would consider whether they be not rather besides their wits than above Ordinances seeing Christ himself doth not onely by his institution but example commend this Sacrament unto us as a standing Ordinance for the whole Church untill he come and so hath commended the Ministry also till we all come to a full stature Ephes 4. 11. I would know how that spirit which hath carried them to the pinacle of the Temple and hath set them above Ordinances or that witnesses to them without graces can be proved to be the Spirit of Christ and if they would shew us how they can live without meat and drink too there would be some hope that they might be starved into their senses and right minds § 3 So much for the first That there is a fruit and benefit by this Ordinance And now to the second What that benefit is and I have Reason to shew what it is 1. BecaUse superstitious and carnal persons do expect what they have no warrant to expect perverting the Use of this Sacrament to other intents and ends than it hath by institution of Christ The sick man too superstitiously conceives that the opus operatum is a viaticum that will pay his fare for a present passage into heaven or that it is like a Popish shrift that blots out all sinne and wipes off the old score If in stead of making the right Use we idolize the brazen Serpent and worship it what is it but superstition which to avoid the only way is to minde the institution and the end thereof or else we shall look for that which God never intended to convey by it as Eve was deceived in the fruit of the Tree she are of 2. BecaUse commonly men have confUsed thoughts of a benefit but they know not what They think it 's good for something but they know not what and so do as it were take physick meerly upon trust not knowing what is in it Hence is that awfulnesse of this Ordinance with all men they must be holy now at this time they must not follow their wicked and loose wayes They are going to the Sacrament and they go with an ignorant reverence not knowing what is either the fruit or the danger of it So much for the first §. 4. What the Benefit is § 4 Now to that point What the effect as some call it or the fruit and benefit of this Sacrament is I answer generally and then more particularly 1. Generally 1. The benefit of the Sacrament is of an higher nature than these creatures are able to convey and therefore they are stampt and made instrumental by an institution of God It had been both vain and superstitious to have expected spiritual benefit by the Use of these elements had not the word of institution given a new relation to them which without it they have not There might a similitude or representation have bin borrowed to signifie the sufferings of Christ but that would not have made a Sacrament any more than marriage representing the mystical union of Christ and the Church is therefore a Sacrament There must be a promise and a command of God added to the visible creature whereby the Use of it to such a purpose is warranted and authorized therefore we must look higher than the outward elements or their power An Axe is more than iron A Seal is more than wax Gods institution renders the creatures of bread and wine which as Bellarmine notes though two elements are but one instrument or seal Usefull to spiritual effects not by elevating their natures as the iron or wax being instruments are not elevated to any efficacy as physical instruments but by appointing their Use and working by them therefore that Question How can bread and wine How can water reach or touch the soul is impertinent for it refers to a natural causation but moral relation needs no contact there is a benefit follows upon the right Use of them which comes not through them tanquam per canalem but from God by the Use of such means as an estate is convey'd from the donor by a seal of wax 2. The benefits and blessings promised in the Covenant of Grace are sealed and the graces of the Covenant are improved in a believer by this Ordinance Christ Christ crucified or rather in crucifying together with such benefits as are immediately sealed in his death reconciliation redemption remission of sinnes as on Gods part offered to a sinner are here Obsignate and sealed And faith in Christ repentance from dead works c. are here exercised excited confirmed renewed the main fundamental and essential benefits and graces which are in most necessary order to salvation are here in act not such things as some Christians have and some have not But the common necessaries of the Covenant both on Gods part and ours without which no Christian can be saved And therefore I cannot but wonder that many well-meaning souls should fix their eyes on such benefits or gifts to be given in this Sacrament as are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a Christian but eminencies of some and not of all they look for gifts of prayer of memory freedom from passions some Parts or Endowments which they see others excell in and if they gain not these they gain nothing they are unworthy c. Alas that you should so mistake I tell you Covenant-benefits Covenant graces the radicals the vitals are they which receive improvement here here is Christ offer'd and faith is quickned here Christ crucified is exhibited and here repentance is renewed the main benefits that God can give the main graces that we can have such as are essential without which salvation is not This I would have Observed for the honour of the Ordinance and the quickning of addresse to it And another thing also viz. That when you hear us Use the words exhibit convey conferre
Christ receive here the pardon of sin Question not the Seal or truth of it 3. That I may not divide into further particulars there is by this Sacrament a communication of a greater proportion of Gospel-Spirit For we have been all made to drinke into one Spirit 2 Cor. 12. 13. which Spirit plentifully bestows his severall fruits and graces for the growing up of a member into Christ the Head in all things Ephes 4. 15. from whence we have not onely those Auxilia actualia actual influences and aids of delight comfort evidence sweet tastes powerfull motions and impressions which Vasquez cals grace sacramental and saith That Gratia Sacramentalis non est gratia habitualis sed auxilia quaedam actualia which I conceive is an errour For though a man have a sweet taste and transient delight in meat or wine yet there is also a permanent and abiding nourishment proceeding from that he eats or drinks So here the very habituall graces are nourisht strengthened excited It may be a man at present doth not feele that strength he doth receive nor is sensible of the intention of his graces For the same Vasquez saith Intentionem habituum infusorum sub experimento humano cadere non posse And it 's true at present time But the growth of grace manifests it selfe in time We doe not see our selves or others grow but that we are growne is plaine enough nor doe we see how much the light incReases by every step of the Sunne rising higher for our growth is graduall and by imperceptible instances and degrees when power of resisting temptations mortifie lusts which before were too hard for us doth appear we may see our growth as we see our shadowes are shortened but how much in a minute we see not and may say That the graces which this Ordinance requires and excites are thereby strengthened and enlarged and therefore the Rule is good What Grace thou wouldest have strengthened by this Ordinance that doe thou set on work and exercise in it for that is Sowing to the Spirit as the Apostle cals it And I make no Question but a believer shall finde the benefit of this Sacrament in his obedience also for the fuller the Vessell is the faster it will runne out at the tap If the habits incRease the fruit of obedience will be proportionable We mend a barren Tree at the root sweeten the sap there and the Tree is more fruitfull When Jacob had seen the sweet vision in Bethel then he lifted up his feet Genes 29. 1. it put mettle into him So much for this Point the Benefit of this Sacrament which being dis-Used as at this time is a great losse to the improvement of Christians though they see it not The Christians in persecuting times when a storme was coming then were they most diligent to frequent this Table to lay in store for a hard Winter and fortifie their resolutions And let this Benefit be a Motive to the Use of Preparation which was the Reason I have handled it in this place for there is no Promise no Benefit to one that comes to this Table unworthily CHAP. XXIX The Sinfulness of Eating and Drinking Vnworthily § 1 I Have said concerning eating this Bread and drinking of this Cup of the Lord worthily Now I come to the other branch The eating and drinking unworthily What that is hath been sufficiently opened already The Antithesis or opposition between worthily and unworthily is such as if you know the one you know both as he that knows what a right line is knows what is a crooked or oblique Worthily to eat is in such manner as is answerable and suitable to the nature end and Use of the Ordinance and unworthily to eat is contrary that is without a sacramental or Supper-disposition and otherwise then is fit that these holy mysteries be handled and intreated as I have before proved The Point I shall take up is this § 2 To eat the bread and drink the Cup of the Lord unworthily is a sinne of an high Nature and of consequence dangerous It is a fearfull sinne and attended with fearfull effect It is of a high nature as appears by that peculiar guilt which is contracted he shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord it is of fearfull consequence He eats and drinks judgement to himself Thou seest saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In loc what a terrible word the Apostle speaks speaks nay thunders so as may awake the secure soul into a trembling The example of Nadab and Abihu their being made Sacrifices themselves was enough to give warning to all after them against offering of strange fire and was the occasion of that excellent Rule which God gave at that time to be observed in all our near approaches to him I will be sanctified of all that come nigh me Lev. 10. 3. There are four things to be open'd 1. The sin it self viz. Eating and drinking unworthily 2. The caUse of the sinne Not discerning the Lords body 3. The aggravation of the sinne by the object and peculiar nature of it viz. A guiltinesse of the body and bloud of Christ 4. The danger that attends or follows upon it He eats and drinks judgement to himself § 3 1. The sinne is Eating and drinking unworthily and it is a peculiar sinne or transgression of the Law of this Ordinance One may do what the Law requires and yet sinne grievously if the manner of doing be vicious and corrupt Men may be content if the matter by their Law required be done whether with a good will or an evil but God is not so who values the disposition of heart when the thing in command sometimes is not done so he hearkned to Hezekiah his prayer for them that prepared their heart to seek God though not legally purified 2 Chron. 31. 19. and is highly displeas'd when the command Do this is Observed but it is done unworthily and therefore they say he is pleased with benè not meerly with bonum The Ordinance it self is the Index or Touchstone of unworthinesse Here is Christ offer'd and presented to thee and thou hast no faith Christ broken bleeding for sinne and thou hast no repentance Christ for spiritual nourishment and thou hast no appetite The Covenant is sealed and thou art no confederate strengthening and refreshing grace convey'd and thou art a dead man Communion of Christs body and bloud and thou art no member in Union with him How unsatiable art thou to the Ordinance and therefore eatest and drinkest unworthily § 4 This word unworthily may he taken two wayes Privative and Contrary Taken privatively it is as much as not worthily not suitably to the Nature and Use of the Ordinance Taken contrarily it is as much as wickedly so we say a man deals unworthily that is basely unjustly injuriously In the first sense He that hath no spiritual grace and therefore cannot exercise it or he that hath some but doth not exercise
himself hers sed de hoc infra § 5 The Use which may be hence inferr'd is twofold Use 1 The Lord Jesus is authour therefore this Supper is not ours that are Ministers but it is the Lords Alexander Ales pars 4. quaest 49. memb 1. Hales hath an excellent Rule which I shall make Use of hereafter it 's this Sacerdos est dispensator non Dominus Sacramentorum Ecclesiae non dat suum sed reddit alienum quod de jure negari non potest The Minister is the Dispenser or Steward not the Lord of the Sacraments of the Church He gives not that which is his but restores that which is anothers which de jure cannot be denied to him to whom it 's Homil. 83. in Mat. due and therefore Chrysostom speaks to his fellow Ministers and cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Distributers Dispensers as you are of the poors bread in the Church which some Benefactour formerly appointed to be bestowed on them by his Will and of his Gift to whom the Lord gives it We cannot deny if they be within the Sphere of our office and to whom the Lord denies we cannot give A man comes to an Executour Sir I come to you for a certain Legacy given me by my Fathers will whereof you are Executour the gift bequeathed is not yours and you are but the hand whereby the Donour was pleased to hand it unto me True saith the Executour there is such a Legacy bequeath'd but if you look the Will you shall finde it given with some limitations and proviso's See the words ver 28. of this Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so there is an And so But let a man examine himself and so let him eat and so let him drink It is confest on all hands The Conditions being performed the claim is good but if it can be said You are not a Disciple and to such only this Legacy was bequeathed by Christ or the Church hath set on you the brand of a Heathen or a Publican though you was a Disciple and you have for the present by your sinne forfeited the right you had untill by your repentance you return again why then all will say that an Executour or Administratour may not act directly contrary to the Will for he is not the Testatour to do what he will but he is Administratour to Observe and not to violate the Will § 6 Use 2 The Lord Jesus is authour from him therefore let the benefit and efficacy of this Ordinance be expected for it hath veritatem virtutem both esse and operari being and working from the authour As money hath the stamp and the value from the supream power and here is the difference between natural and moral instruments we take the word instrument largely pro medio for a mean that if the Sacraments were natural means or instruments in which as the Schoolman doth the very vertue or the grace and benefit by them convey'd were contrived then were the vertue and benefit to be expected from themselves and no otherwise from the authour than as authour of the instrument as the Candle gives light whether the maker of it be present or no and the plaister heals by a quality in it self but a moral instrument not so being empty of any vertue to such an effect except the authour do work by it or ad praesentiamejus at the presence of it as the Serpent of brasse on the Pole the Clay and Spittle on the eye the Lambs bloud on door-posts had in themselves no power to their several effects but as they were appointed and Used by God or Christ It is very hard to believe that there is a true and real exhibition of Christs body and bloud to my faith as there is of the bread and wine to the mouth of the receiver sottish and superstitious people that Use charms or inchanted means for diseases c. never ask themselves How these things work by any natural vertue in them or by the devil the authour of them And so here there are thousands that have a reverend esteem of these mysteries yea and a superstitious conceit thinking that there is some good in them and imagining at least that they shall be better for them but whether to apply their eye to the very things themselves or to Christ they know not nor matter not but rest in a confUsed imagination just as they that Use charms Now for redress of this confUsed notion I commend that of famous Dr Whitaker Quasi De Euchar. pag. 624. in 40. Christos in medio sederet c. As if Christ fate amongst you and did the same as in the first Supper so ought we to think of this Sacrament and that is to see Christ to take and bless and say to us This is my body take and eat This is my bloud Drink ye all of it a very effectual consideration according to that good old solemn word Used to be spoken to the people at this Table Surjum corda Have your hearts upward to which they answered Habemus ad Dominum Now as to others that have their eyes so near the book that they see the worse I mean such as by curious enquiry and too much niceness how it 's possible that the eating of a piece of bread and drinking of a sup of wine should exhibit and convey to the faith of a believer the very true and real body and bloud of Christ do dispute themselves into a naked figure and sign as a painted supper represents a true I say this That God imitates men in their assurances or conveyances as we read of his oath of his earnest of his seal so that as men in passing of estates and inheritances do make Deeds and seal them and deliver them and then the real estate is not convey'd out by vertue of a bit of wax but by the Donors sealing that wax and fastening it to his Deed and delivering it as his Act and Deed So God or the Lord Jesus Christ makes a Covenant of giving Christ and eternal life to believers and appoints Sacraments to be Seals of that Covenant and delivers this sealed Covenant to a believer and thereby really and truly the Lord Jesus Christ for in hoc sacro speaking of the Supper saith Bernard non solum quaelibet gratia sed Serm. de caena 2. ille in quo est omnis gratia not only some one certain grace is given but he in whom is all grace viz. Christ Jesus the Lord. And yet I must not say that God hath so tied himself or us to the sacramental Seals as that no man can have Christ or the inheritance without them for that faith which eats and drinks the flesh and bloud of Christ extra Sacramentum Joh. 6. 50 51 53 54. doth save and the Covenant whosoever believes in Christ shall be saved passes the estate effectually to a believer though it be never sealed sacramentally so a Will
hope erected faith strengthened lusts subdued which follow by consequence upon our union with Christ and our interest in the Covenant in the sense of which when a Christian walks he is in a good frame and posture of spirit CHAP. X. A four-fold Exhortation from the premises FRom what hath been said upon this point I would possess you with four things § 1 I. That you hold fast and stick to the true sense and right meaning of these words This is my Body This is the Blood of the New Testament which hath been so perplexed and depraved by superstition and the vanity of humane inventions especially since the rise of the Schoolmen whose itch of Disputation hath bred such a scab that there hath been left no soundness in the place which hath been tortured with such Convulsions Distortions and Absurdities that the sense which to a chast and simple ear is easie and smooth hath been raveld into knots inextricable and this Text of all other hath suffered infinite injuries and been made the stage of impudent fooleries which have brought and buried out of sight the true meaning of them and made our Saviour that Used to speak vulgarly and easily to delude the senses amUse the Reason nonplus the faith of sober Beleevers And though it be truly said The sense of Scripture is the Scripture and that the right understanding of these words carries you in a right line to the nature Use and benefit of this Or inance yet let me say this more to you as English men That the true meaning of them hath been conveyed to you by the blood of your own Martyrs who in Q Mary her daies were most of them put to the test upon the point of Reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament and bare witness against it and I do beleeve that if Popery do ever make another attempt upon you it will play upon you with his battery at this place §. 2. Extreams about Christs Reall presence and the middle way held by the Churches of our Profession § 2 The Churches of our Confession have warily and justly avoided the extreams on both sides 1. The first extream is that which some did fear in Zuinglius and others at first and yet is unjustly charged upon us by many viz. That the Sacraments are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 naked signes empty figures and shadows meerly representing the death of Christ as the Picture of Hercules resembles and represents Hercules which we disclaim and leave it to Socinianizing spirits and other Levellers of Divinity for we are taught that Sacramentall signes are more than meer representing signes being Seals which do confirm and make over unto us the spirituall benefit which they represent and exhibit also they are signs which God commands us to Use and in their right Use he conferres upon us the benefit as the Seal passes a Right to the Estate promised and conveyed as the Apostle saith Rom. 4. 11. He received the sign of circumcision a seal of the righteousness of faith and 1 Cor. 10. 16. 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 not representation only but communion or participation also for the picture of a loaf of bread feeds not the hungry nor doth the Ivy-bush refresh the weary and therefore there is not only a representation of the body of Christ broken by the breaking of the bread but Take and eat and drink which denotes participation of the body and blood of Christ 2. The other extream is twofold 1. That the very body and blood of Christ is as it were moulded up with the bread and wine or hidden under them which is the sense of the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran Churches and this though it be too gross an opinion yet is not liable to so many monsters and incompresensible absurdities as the other which is 2. That the bread and wine cease to be and are evoided being turned or change the substance of them into the very substance of the flesh and blood of Christ which is hidden under the species or outward accidents of bread and wine a monstrous Paradox holden stifly by the Transubstantiatists or Papists The middle way holden by the Churches of our Confession is That the outward Elements do represent as Signes and exhibit as Seales and morall Instruments to the faith of the receiver the very Body and Blood of Christ sacrificed as spirituall repast for our souls and spiritually given and taken but that they continue not as incorporated with them nor are converted into the very naturall Body of Christ as locally or corporally there to be received by the mouth of the receiver We hold a difference or change of bread and wine blessed but it is a change of signification not of substance a relative change not reall a change in regard of Use and esteem not of their naturall substance as the wax now a Seal to a Conveyance is wax still but not a Seal not of that value till now all the Rhetoricall flowers Used by the Ancients reach no further if they do we cannot keep them company We hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is really that is truly exhibited and present to the faith of the receiver and we might express the reall presence as reall is opposed to imaginary or chimericall were it not for caption and mis-understanding none of ours denies the Body of Christ to be really though spiritually eaten by a Beleever nay it is immotum axioma whatsoever is eaten in that it is Forbes p. 53◠eaten it must be present no man can eat a thing that 's absent but the presence with or under the Elements is one thing and the presence to the soul and faith of a Beleever is another We know no union of Christs Body with bread and Wine but with his members which is reall and mysticall not reall and corporall therefore Christ saith Take eat before he say This is my Body as if it were his Body to their faith not as in the outward Element §. 3. Arguments for the Protestants sense of the words This is my Body § 3 For attestation of this sense many Arguments may be mustred up together 1. Compare one part of this Sacrament with the other This cup is the New Testament in my Blood that is by Metonymy the Seal of the New Testament but not the New Testament it self so This is my Body that is the Signe and Seal of it but not it self 2. Compare the one Sacrament of the Gospel with the other In Baptism the water is water without reall alteration so here the bread is bread the wine is wine not changed into flesh or blood 3. Compare the Sacraments of the Old Testament with the New Circumcision is the Covenant becaUse the Sign or Seal of it the Lamb is the Passeover becaUse the memoriall or sign of it so the bread