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. Answ 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. Obj. 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 being Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. but still the same grace Answ 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
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 Corollary 3 Thirdly Be not frighted with the sound of this 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 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
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 parâ— of Christs Office is exercised in preserving and continuing of them in him who are already members of him and therefore is the finishâ—r 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. â— 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 §. 6. What is here Received by the Worthy Communicant 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. â— 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 Chrâ—st but those that by faith take and eat his crucified body If Christ himâ—elf be hâ—re 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 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 Graâ—ia 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 infusâ—rum 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. Doct. 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
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 coena and assurances do pass by the staff and ring Annulus non valet quicquam 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 himself hers sed de hoe 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
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 â—en 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 §. 5. This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud 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 Peâ—
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 Gudern 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 familiarity with scandalous sinners is often commanded ut supra The flying of Gods people out of Babylon where Idolatry is maintain'd by force and tyranny is called for and required The Separation of heretical and vitious members from the Church is branded with a black coal Jude v. 19. These be they that separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit which above all men they pretend unto But the Separation of the godly from Gods Ordinances because of the corrupt lives of some in the Church is no where by any syllable of Scripture allow'd or countenanc'd being contrary to the example and not warranted by command of Christ or his Apostles and it 's a vain pretending to a holinesse above their Rule or their example All that I would is an order in the Church I should rejoyce to behold as saith he your order and the stedfastness of your faith Col. ◠5. which too many too much slight and undervalue for as one said Order in an Army kils no body yet without it the Army is but a rout neither able to offend or defend so haply order in the Church converts no body yet without it I see not how the Church should attain her end or preserve themselves in begetting or breeding up souls to God CHAP. XXI Whether the Lords Supper be a converting Ordinance §. 1. Quest 3 THe third Question is Whether the Sacrament of the Lords Supper be a converting Ordinance There is a conversion of a regenerate man from some Luk. 22. 32. fall or sinne as in that saying When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren and so a man that 's godly may be often converted that is raised up from lapses and backslidings Of this the Question is not for this is but as the blowing in of the candle when the flame is gone out by exciting or wakening the fire that yet glows in the weeck of the candle which may be done by this Sacrament But the Question is Whether God doth offer or exhibit the first grace for conversion of an unbeliever or unregenerate man for as Davenant rightly saith The first faith must be given to an unbeliever as the first light is that which comes into meer darkness This Question is but an upstart among us which hath risen on occasion of seclusion of some from this Sacrament and indeed quite overthrows it if the Sacrament be a converting Ordinance for upon this ground we may invite the most wicked to the Table as well as to the Word namely for conversion and it were a great sin to prohibit any from the appointed means of their conversion §. 2. For answer to the Question I premise That it is the Doctrine of Whitaker that as the Word is the mean and instrument of grace so is the Sacrament in general the one is applied to the ear the other to the eye This is the difference The Word begins and works grace in the heart For faith comes by hearing but the Sacrament is objected to the eye and doth not begin the work of grace but nourishes and increases it for faith is not begotten by the Sacraments but only augmented Thus he The Doctrine of physical operation is exploded by all the orthodox Sacraments do not work grace as a plaister cures a sore that 's a blinde conceit of ignorant souls but God by them or in their use imparts grace as he did healing by the brazen Serpent Now God by Baptism solemnly represents and seals to his people their planting into Christ We are planted by Baptisme into the likenesse of his death Rom. 6. 3 4 5. And by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12. 13. and therefore Baptism is called the Sacrament of our implanting ingraffing incorporating into Christ and so is a Sacrament of initiation Ye are all children of God by faith in Christ For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3. 2◠God was pleased to have his Covenant sealed by Baptism as to the first grace of that Covenant as by Circumcision also under the Law and so we are solemnly listed and admitted to be his and called
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 â—ewer 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 â—eall 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 Justiâ—e 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 the delinquencies and sinnes which had they been charged on us had sunk us into the bottome of perdition and who that sees this shall not tremble at the fearfull wrath of God which Angels and men could not stand before Who shall not mourn over Christ whom we have pierced as it 's said of them Zech. 12. 10 Who can love the knife that slew his friend I meane the sinne that our Saviour bore in his body on the Tree This consideration here presented to you if you follow Christ from the Garden to Golgotha should me thinks affect the soul of a believer 1. With tender meltings of godly sorrow for sinne 2. With fresh purpose of amendment of life 1. With godly sorrow for sinne To hear the strong cries and see the streaming bloud of Christ for can there be a greater demonstration either of Gods Justice toward sinne or of his goodnesse to a sinner They say an adamant will be broken by bloud but alas the heart of man hath lost ingenuity or else the bloud of Christ would make us love sinne as bad as the terrours of Mount Sinai yea and to love it lesse and hate it more Fear may break a man but goodnesse melts him The terrours of the Lord may amaze and leave a man as hard still but godly sorrow makes tender and changes the disposition of the soul Revive then the sense of your sinne even pardon'd sins do revive godly sorrow and the more because he tastes goodnesse and grace to him unworthy the sweet of the Passeover is lost for want of bitter herbs 2. With fresh purpose of amendment a needfull grace to be renew'd at this Sacrament we should eat this Passeover with shoes on our feat and slaves in our hand ready to march out of Aegypt We cannot eat the Passeover and stay in Aegypt still God confirmes his Covenant and we must restipulate with God to cast out and execrate the old Leaven Let 's carry wounded sinnes from this Table Bring wonded hearts and carry away wounded sinnes Let 's learne to die to sinne by seeing Christ die for sinne Mutet vitam qui vult accipere vitam saith Austine The Covenant of Grace is sealed Let us seal a Covenant of Obedience By the merit of Christs death we are purchased to be Gods not our own By the power of his Death we are slain dead to sinne But here I must break out to meet with our common purposers and resolvers which if ever in their lives do now when they come toward the Lords Table flatter God and themselves with a new beginning of a new life from this time they are resolved that the ear that hath heard them shall hear them swear no more The eye that hath seen them shall see them drunk no more c. I would these greene cords would hold but we finde this righteousnesse is but a morning dew their Sampson lusts when they awake break all these cords And why Because these purposes arise from a fit of conscience not from a principle of life or love and so they prove but Lucida intervalla they returne to their madnesse againe when the fit takes them I would such men would resolve to be ashamed of these resolutions which so often leave them in the dirt that selfe confusion may carry them out of their owne strength which selfe-resolution doth but arme them with and therefore doth not stand For he that hath the Falling-sicknesse may resolve to fall no more but in vaine untill the disease be purged These are the principall the staple graces to be exercised in this Ordinance there are others which are included in these which I but name As §. 5. Fourthly Spiritual appetite of hunger and thirst after Christ who is here offered as full nourishment for the soul under the form of bread and wine I account gracious desires to be the immediate products of regenerated graces and very comfortable testimonies of life spirituall 1 Peter 2. 2. but it is called vehement desire 2 Cor. 7. 11. in difference from the sluggards desires which are but wishes and which every man pretneds
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 afford grace or spiritual benefits You are to understand that this is not per modâ—m 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 dâ—ffâ—r 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 §. 5. What is done to a Worthy Receiver by Christ 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
offices of his Priest Prophet and King in great simplicity Doctrinal in the preaching of the Gospel Conversionall in the deportment of his life But now I speak of the simplicity of his Doctrine the Doctrine of the Gospel which is a mistery that exceeds in glory 2 Cor. 3. 9. and which the Angels stoop down to pry into and yet is in contempt as foolishness with the wisdom of this world that which is a quintessence above al clementary learning and transcendent above every predicament hath been entertained with Stand thou here or sit under my footstool whereas that which the Apostle calls vain Philosophy and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 science falsly so called hath been entertained with Sit thou here in a good place The Doctrine of which you are born is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incorruptible sad and which you are nourished by is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sincere milk which denotes simplicity Christ for righteousness Christ for a root on whom the branches do live dependingly for the root beares them and derivingly for the root feeds them is the sum of this doctrine Here is no mixture of Jewish rites as if we would look for Christ in that manger wherein he lay when he was a babe the bird is now hatcht and the eggshel lies empty Here is no corrival of mans works to spoile this simplicity there remains no place for them as they are meritorious for that sets them in the chair of Christ nor as they are motives of God to justifie for that sets them in the place of free-grace nor as conditions of the Covenant for that sets them in the place of faith but as they are fruits of holiness for that sets them in their own place assigned to them by this Doctrine 2 Simplicity of worship which is called spirit and truth Joh. 4. 23. not Judaicall and shadowish not Samaritan idolatrous but spiritual and inward The Apostle calls the Jewish types which were rich beggarly Elements we have them in the rich plainness of the Gospel In matter of worship that of Austin is the truth and Socrates had seen it before colendus est quomodo se colendum praeceperit as himself hath commanded Those that were mint-masters of worship used to feign correspondence with some deity that under that reputation they might vend off their devices God must stamp that worship as shall be currant man is apt to indulge his eye in Gods worship It 's the hardest thing saith one to leave our eye and fancie behind us as Abraham did his servants when we go up into the monnt to sacrifice The spiritual part of religion is the hardest part If we look into Justin Martyr and see how the dresse of worship was changed by degrees we shal finde that it became at length quasi reductus in Ecclesiam Judaismus unbecoming the purity of this virgin 3 The simplicity of life It was an excellent testimoniall subscribed by the Apostle his conscience 2 Cor. 1. 2. that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in this world The form of godliness is but a Mathematicall body consisting of lineaments onely Religion is practicall and alwayes married to honesty and righteousness towards men religious dishonesty is worse than a Christian married to a Heathen in the times we live that saying is too true universus mundus exercet histrioniam all men almost disguise and act parts Men either make it a stalking horse to their own game a footstool to their ends a covert of gold for their filthy designes or lodge it onely in the cock-loft of a cold brain and not in the warme room of affections And the simplicity of Christ is broken into a multiplicity of senses and wayes Let this Point for use recommend to Ministers and people both the simplicity of Christ 1 To the Ministery for though this be not a place to teach them yet it is a place to teach you what to say and what to expect of Archippus videlicet the simplicity of Christ both in the matter and manner of the delivery of this Doctrine 1 Simplicity for the matter of the Doctrine I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ faith he that had sitten at the feet of Gamaliel for though that of Justin Martyr be true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All truth spoken by Plato or Aristotle is ours and that which is true in Philosophy is true also in every place yet it is of the seed of the Word quod Christus nascitur in corde auditorum We must set bread before hungry souls and not be like the School-men that set men upon gnawing hard stones All learning may be spent upon the simplicity of the Gospell In breaking down strong holds meeting with subtilty of mens hearts raising up the dejected Spirit prostrate under sin counter-mining the methods and stratagems of the Devill and you will finde that the old Adam in mens hearts is too hard for young Melancthon and who is sufficient for these things 2 Simplicity for manner of delivery for painted glasse is more gaudy but cleer glass transmits more light the rule is to clothe spiritual things with spiritual words 1 Cor. 2. 13. It s vain oile that 's spent in strong lines that hang together as sand without lime standing together as letters in the Hebrew one not touching another Let a crucified Christ be preacht in a crucified Phrase and though you preach not with embroidery of silver and gold yet surge ambula if you make the hearer arise and walk it s farre the better It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide the Word a right a word taken from culling up of the sacrifices to shred the intrals into mince meat or to put the text to death and torment so as to make the people eat the flesh with the blood Keep the true pattern of wholsom words The People Are exhorted to hold fast this threefold simplicity of Christ in Doctrine worship and conversation In Doctrine All Scripture centers in and looks to Christ both Old Testament and New as the Cherubims to one another and both to the mercy seat he was then swathed up in types he is now unvaled in a rich plainnes of the Gospel those precious stones which God promises to build his Church Isa 54. 13. Do all come but to this All thy children shall be taught of God In worship spirit and truth are better than Jerusalem and this mountain therefore be satisfied in simplicity of Gospel-sacraments which as DuPlessis observs have been made by men the port-gates of superstititon and curiosity because the eye hath somewhat to do in them as corruption began at the tree in Paradise and came in by the eye In life that your voice be not onely smooth and hands rough for practical holiness is the life of religion else we may have golden heads and feet of clay To conclude let it be our joynt aime the simplicity that is in Christ and be
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 uâ—e charms Now for redress of this confused notion I commend that of famous Dr Whitaker Quasi De Euchar. pag. 624. in 40. Chriâ—â—â—s in medio sederet c. As if Christ fate amongst â—ou and did the same as in the first Supper so ought â—ve 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 sacramentâ—l 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 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. Obs Judas being an instrument to bring to passe Gods holy councel and purpose plunged himself by his sinne into 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
Martyr ibid. Hâ—â—aker Eccles Pola 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. â— 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 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
§. 4. II. What the faithfull do receive in the right use of this Ordinance 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 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 §. 2. Extreams about Christs Reall presence and the middle way held by the Churches of our Profession 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
sinner Christ broken Christ bleeding and the meaning of your eating and drinking is to feed sorrowfully and sweetly upon Christ so prepared and presented to you for your repast and comfort But now if the same cup taken with such ingredients would be deadly poyson with such a lively Cordiall would you not expect that the Physician should teach you to make it Cordiall so the Lords Supper worthily received is the most soveraign Cordiall But some again may eat and drink damnation to themselves Would you not expect that the Minister if he have either conscience of his duty or respect to your souls should teach you to avoid the danger and obtain the benefit If you do not yet God looks for it at our hands Ezek. 44. 23. And they the Priests shall teach my people the difference between the holy and prophane and cause men to discern between the unclean and clean for else you may eat and drink damnation to us as well as to your selves §. 4. Secondly The people are taught To know the meaning of the Sacrament before they take it That 's a terrible expression ver 29. He eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body that is not knowing the meaning the nature use and end of the Ordinance which to understand is a good part of preparation and without it there can be no right or true preparation And therefore all you that intend to be Supper-communicants attend The first lesson which you must learn the first question to be answered is What is the true meaning of this Ordinance what is the main business of it for it is supposed in those words Exod. 12. 26. When your children shall say to you What mean you by this service i. Passeover that the father should be able to teach his childe as it is there directed and that the child should as his first lesson be taught what is meant To know what the meaning of this Ordinance is 1. It is a proper and excellent antidote or remedy of such abuses and miscarriages as creep in at the door either of ignorance superstition or prophaneness and the Apostle signifies so much here by applying this corrective to those distempers which then reigned in the Church of Corinth as if he had said Could you come and eat and drink so rudely proudly confusedly irreverently unworthily if ye did consider but what ye ought to do that is exercise communion with Christ keep a commemoration of him shew forth his death 2. This will direct all your preparations to the true end your praiers meditations self-examination will be answerable and suitable to the Ordinance Here is not the eating of a piece of bread nor the drinking of a cup of wine in a publique company of sober men and of my betters which yet 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
to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion The first is that of Vasquez No effects can be ascribed Reas 1. Tom. 3. Disp 205. c. 4. 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 Reas 2 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 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 feed 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 graâ—â— 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 tumbled together Reas 3 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
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 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
garment We love a sweet willing disposition in a childe ready to do what it can than alwayes to be crying for plums God highly prizes those that set on work their obediential graces to observe the Law of any Ordinance and perform it for if we can lust for quails and yet murmur at the way of the wildernesse we are too like the carnal Israelites There is in all spirituall joyes comforts and raptures two parts the one is the fruition of the sweet of them the other is the serviceable use of them to oil the wheels and with more freedome to perform hardest duties of obedience Now if in this latter respect we improve or seek them it 's farre the better to like in any Christian for it's Gods part or share The joy of the Lord is your strength yet duty is the door by which reward enters as reaping comes by sowing They that sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. Motive III. 3. There is a sacramental disposition requisite to a Sacramental Communion and it is a very spiritual disposition as the Communion is spiritual This disposition is not one single grace but a complexion or temperament made up of divers ingredients which are not all distinctly and eminently acted by every man at this present but some of them as occasion and necessity may require I have already shown you them in general and told you that they are bespoken by the Sacrament it self and as it were deduced from it This Sacrament affords us the communion of Christs death where his body broken and bloud shed are set before us Here we communicate of a dying Christ in heaven we shall have him as a Tree of life This is that epulum foederale or Covenant-feast made for confederates God is one party and the faithfull are the other and both parties of confederates do sic dicam partake of the same foederal Sacrifice Christ Jesus the bloud of the Sacrifice is offer'd up to God The same bloud in the Sacrament is offer'd and given to us as it 's said Exod. 24. 6. Moses took half the blood and sprinkled it on the Altar and he sprinkled the other on the people and said Behold the bloud of the Covenant If we understood the Ordinance we should easily agree that a sacramental disposition is a very spiritual disposition and requires the very purest addresses that we can make to it where God himself entertains his people with no other cheer than which satisfies himself and will have them taste of that which he himself is pleased and delighted with that is I say again Christ Jesus Now in this so near approach to God ye have an excellent Rule as in all other approaches Levit. 10. 3. I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me the case was that two Priests had taken strange or other fire 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
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 Chrysosâ—em 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 bâ—dy 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 it may come unworthily for the words Take ye eat ye do denote and so require the exercise and acting of our graces such as have no grace can exercise none as a dead body without life cannot exercise an act of life it cannot take and eat Hear what the Schoolman saith Statum gratiae c. that a state of holinesse and grace is necessary to the worthy receiving of this Sacrament And I believe the ancient Fathers were of this sense by the order of Baptism the Sacrament of Regeneration going before the Supper an Ordinance of corroboration and this Rule speaks plainly no man unregenerate receives this Sacrament worthily It 's a Doctrine of hard digestion but hard wedges cleave hard knots make that the point of your examination §. 5. Such as have some grace and do not exercise it but are either stupid or presumptuous they have a wedding-garment but do not put it on Pride and presumption of grace betrayes many a man to fin and to come to this Table unworthily These Corinthians were most blown up of any and they are punisht for eating and drinking unworthily Let no Christian be secure as if he could not come unworthily and so neglect the trimming of his Lamps The best swimmers are soonest drown'd I would not crush the least spark of grace I mean by having grace that spark in the flax and by exercise the very smoak of that spark Christ would not let them be drown'd whom he cals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 o ye of little faith he exercised his faith that Matth. 8. 26. said Lord I believe help my unbelief In the second sense taken contrary unworthily is He that comes to this Table with a conscience imbrued in guilt without remorse or lives in practice and custom of foul sins and lusts we have such as come out of the adulterous bed newly stept off the ale-bench their hands are full of bribes and extortions their mouths belch out lying swearing and revenge they come to the Sacrament in superstition to be shriven to sin again not in repentance to be forgiven to go away and sin no more their prosanenesse dreams of a cure not of a conquest they are willing to leave their sins upon Christs back only while they go and fetch more There is a wretched crew of such Communicants thaâ— make conscience of the Sacrament and make no conscience of those sins they live in Judas came impudently and in the purpose of horrible sinne Parta timeat qui paria audet saith Novarine Let them fear the like that dare do the like God was not pleased with them that did eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink the reason is given they were idolaters and committers of fornication and other enormous sinnes 1 Cor. 10. And who you will say can come without sinne I say there are remaining sinnes in the regenerate but not reserved sinnes If you hold the course and custom of those sinnes which your conscience cannot but tell you of you do but adde the sinne of receiving unworthily to the rest of your sinnes and blow up the fire of Gods wrath the hotter against you why then you say better stay away then come to load our selves with more guilt If you will not come because you will not repent and cast off your sinnes you proclaim your just condemnation in preferring your sinnes before Christ Jesus If ye come without true repentance you eat and drink your own damnation nothing can lead you out of this labyrinth but repentance and conversion Therefore as the Prophet said to some that desired the day of the Lord To what end is it for you It 's darkness and not light so shall I say to many that are forward to rush into the Lords Table without fear To what end is it for you The bread and wine ye eat and drink is but your own condemnation Unto the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to Amos 5 18. take my Covenant in thy mouth seeing thou hatest instruction and art not reformed Psal 50. 16 17 CHAP. XXX