him To my apprehension that is clear 1 Cor. 12. 13. We are by one Spirit baptized into one body and then we are all made to drink into one Spirit and that 's it which ye often reade in Divines That the Baptism of Regeneration is presupposed to the Supper of Communion they are children whose bread this is living members and not wooden legs that are capable of this benefit Unto admittance to the outward Ordinance Regeneration is not necessary but unto the inward benefit and effect it is pre-required in some measure and presupposed The fatted calf is for the returning Prodigal They are the friends of God that seed at this Table Communis mensa symbolum amicitiae saith Estius who also Observes that ad cibi sumptionem vita Estius in 4. sen cap. 12. requiritur in sumente Life is presupposed to be in him that takes and eats and drinks spiritual life in him that doth it spiritually It is a communion of Christs body and that presupposes union The grass communicates not with the stock untill it be knit Why shall we think it strange that God should provide some Ordinances for those that are in grace already wherein he and his may have communion and fellowship and his very provission shows for whom he provides It 's absurd to give meat and drink to dead folks for they are no more nourisht by it saith Bellarmine than stones Christ promiseth Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. to sup with him and he with me When When the door is open'd the voice heard and Christ let in first Revel 3. 20. And so ye see the grace of Conversion is presupposed to the benefit of this Ordinance Object If any reply Here is Christ represented to us in his riches of Grace his death and Sacrifice and therefore this Ordinance may as well convert as confirm and beget as bring up Answ The institution must limit the Use of Ordinances This Ordinance of the Supper is a representation of Christ but quo modo of Christ dying not rising or sitting in heaven so it exhibits Christ but how as meat and drink and the end is not conversion but Communion so Christ was typified in the brazen Serpent but how as lifted up to heal the pierced soul of every one that believeth in him becaUse Christ is all in all things for every Use yet in such and such an Ordinance he is of limited Use and limited by the institution to be received to such an end or else all Ordinances may be confounded and humbled together The third Reason may be to shew That the Word is the only instrument of God to beget faith or work Each Sacrament represents some respect or mode of the Covenant but seals the whole Covenant Ames Medulla conversion and there are many expressions of Scripture tending to prove it But you will say I doe but beg the Question in affirming it only to be so and so having said enough already I will not now stand to prove the exclusive but only in a word say That the Word is the great Charter of Gods Covenant His Covenant is to make us his to entertain us as his and so the Word is a seed of our new birth and the milk or meat of our spiritual growth Unto this Covenant or Indenture hang two seals the one seals our engraffing and implanting unto Christ and that is Baptism the other seals our fellowship with and building up in Christ and that is the Lords Supper the whole Covenant is sealed by both but respectively the one looking at our first entrance and admission the other to our progresse and consummation and both the seals are applied only to them that are in Covenant for their certioration and comfort that they are lifted into the service of Christ and that they shall be kept in constant pay § 5 I have given two Reasons the one taken from the signification the other from the end of the institution of this Sacrament to prove that it is not ordained for a converting Ordinance and have shown you that though a man may be converted at this time yet that proves not the institution of it to that end no more than if a sick man be to take a medicine and prayer be made for the prosperous successe of that medicine and by something suggested to the minde of that man by that prayer whereby he is converted therefore the medicine should be called a converting Ordinance becaUse the institution of an Ordinance leads on the denomination of it and so have also shown you that upon this ground mis-laid and mistaken we cannot allow of all unconverted mens coming or invitation The Word is indeed a converting Ordinance and therefore those that believe not that oppose themselves that are dead in sinnes may be admitted and invited to it If they come not with faith they may come for faith If they come unclean they may yet come to be cleansed but the Lords Supper is not of that nature It is a more inward Ordinance and presupposes some foundation laid by the Word that it may have effect the converting Ordinance must go before the confirming the qualifications of a receiver are not the same with the necessary qualifications of a hearer and which I conceive Divines mean in part by requiring Baptism before the Supper the grace properly sealed in Baptisme is necessary to the obtainment of that grace which is properly sealed in the Supper As Christ washt his Disciples feet before he celebrated and administred this Sacrament It 's true God hath shewed us that we should not call any man common or unclean as Act. 10. 28. that is legally or unclean by his Nation as if the distance and partition wall between Jew and Gentile was yet standing but morally unclean there are still and we may call them so or else we must call evil good and this uncleanness is not proper to the sinners of the Gentiles but even Jews by nature Christians as I may say by nature are many of them unclean wherein I would not confirm them but endeavour to wash them from it And there is yet another offer made to prove an universal accesse to this Table without limitation or restriction afore-said and that is this That the Sacrament seals to the veracity of God the truth of his Covenant the Articles thereof are true and firm and the offer of them by God is serious and in good earnest to induce our faith thereof and our acceptance this Ordinance was appointed as a testification of the truth and reality and of the offer of the Promises unto us and therefore why may not all come here is no seal to a blank The seal is to Gods Covenant not our inherent graces The Promises are true the offer reall whether we have faith or no. That the Sacrament seals the reality of Gods Covenant and of his offer of and proposal thereof to us I allow as proper and good That the Sacrament seals
the fruit will fall into his bosom for he that goes out weeping and bears precious seed shall doubtlesse come again with joy and bring his sheaves Psalm 126. 6. And again Hosea 6. 2. After two dayes he will revive us in the third as Christ was raised he will raise us up then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord in the mean time before this fruit be ripe the very running of the sap is a certain signe the Tree lives And so I have given you a measure or rule of judging whether you receive worthily Secondly Think not that the Sacrament conveyes or contributes any thing to you as a medicinal potion or plaister Doth the Physick work and so the plaister by an inherent or inward vertue in it self not by any vertue in the Phyfician or Chyrurgeon So ignorant and superstitious people look on the Sacrament they think it saves them and does them good they know not how and so regard the matter more than the manner of receiving they mistake Gods manner of working by Sacraments and therefore regard not their own manner of receiving them and are so fond as if they could eat and drink away their sinnes and had by very receiving this bread and wine quit all old scores and were fresh to begin upon a new account as the Papist thinks of his auricular confession § 2 It is a very excellent and profitable knowledge to understand how God conveys grace by the Sacrament I speak not of understanding subtilties but the plain and open Use of the Ordinance Now I cannot possibly conceive how the elementals of bread and wine can or do any otherwise convey to or afford me any spiritual grace but as instruments and means by Gods meer positive appointment and ordination representing testifying sealing to me not only Gods reality of promise or Covenant in offering Christ but my interest and propriety in Christ and the benefits that flow from Union and Communion with Christ and therefore that reviving refreshing incRease of grace power of mortification of lusts Come no otherwise to me by the Use of this Ordinance than as it seals Christ to me and by sealing Christ or the Covenant to me doth confirm faith revive the heart elevate the affections strengthen resolutions fortifie against lusts and temptations for it is a sure Rule The nearer applications of Christ to the soul and his benefits in way of taste or assurance the more quickning grace of all sorts follows thereupon As the nearer approach of the Sunne in the Spring cheers up and revives all things that live but things stark dead are as dead then as in deep of winter Let me convey this to you by a familiar similitude A man hath an Estate the Wool the Wine the Corn that grows out of that Estate clothes him refreshes him feeds him but the Seal that confirms and assures this Estate to him doth no otherwise cloath or refresh or feed him than as it confirms that estate to him out of which all these do rise And by this you may plainly understand how grace is conveyed by this Sacrament which doth seal up to you and assure you of Christ and the Covenant of promises in Christ out of which all these graces grow and flow Do ye understand this Then it follows 1. That for any man to imagine that the very eating and drinking this bread and this Cup should cure and heal his soul is as fond as to think the very seal or wax of a Deed should either seed or clothe him for in that case it 's not a seal but a piece of wax how infinitely do our common people undervalue this Sacrament that make but a piece of holy bread of it which is an exhibition of the body of Christ as they that value a seal by the worth of the wax and not by the Estate thereby confirmed 2. That it 's absolutely necessary to bring to this Sacrament that grace which is necessary to the receiving of Christ himself Quid paras dentem What does the providing of teeth to eat saith Austin What avail is all outward preparation The thing that is exhibited to us is Christ his body broken his bloud shed Christ dying Christ a Sacrifice offer'd up to God is here commemorated and is here offer'd and that inward grace which is necessary to receive and close with Christ must be brought with you That grace is found by and from the word and that grace must be Used here and exercised The Covenant requires it and the Seal is the Seal of the Covenant You cannot take the Seal and leave the Covenant you cannot enter Covenant without faith and Repentance you do but expect that the Seal should seal a lie to you if you expect remission of sinnes to be sealed without your faith in Christ It 's impossible that the Word and Sacrament should be opposite as that the Covenant and Seal thereof should disagree As therefore if one would know what a Seal conveys or confirms let him reade the Deed and the Conditions of it and there it is learn'd So if you would know what the Sacrament seals to you hear what the Word saith Mercy and Grace to a believer in Christ and to no other which he that will receive from this fountain must bring his vessel with him for qui fide vacuus foras manducat non intus Chem. Exam. c. dente non mente August Thirdly Be not frighted with the sound of this Corollary 3. Word worthily or worthy Communicant but labour to understand the least and lowest manner of receiving worthily for we wrong our comforts when we make that which is the measure of growth to be the measure of truth of grace and judge of the life of the tree not by the bud but by ripe fruit and here consider § 3 1. That words of high sound in vulgar and common acceptation when they come to be undertaken in a Gospel-sense and notion do shrink into a meer contemptiblenesse with worldly wise men For as the Gospel Useth some Greek words in a sense unknown to eloquent profane Authours so it hath a notion of Blessednesse Perfection Glory Worthinesse which relishes not the palate nor bears any show in the world If Aristotle describe blessednesse what a deal of humane perfection and accomplishments of fortune doth he croud into it for which he is derided by other Sects But if Christ describe blessednesse in the Gospel what do you hear of but poverty of Spirit purity of heart meeknesse mourning suffering for righteousnesse sake wherein there is no more shew of blessednesse to a worldly man than there was in Christ of Majesty to Herod and his men of warre So perfection in Gospel-phrase is a disclaiming thereof and sence of our imperfection Phil. 3. 12. And the Spirit of glory rests upon you that suffer 1 Pet. 4. 14. And your worthinesse is rather the sense of your unworthinesse Thus the Gospel construes these high
afford grace or spiritual benefits You are to understand that this is not per modem emplastri seu medicae potionis not as a natural agent but per modum sigilli or Sacramenti in a way proper to a Sacrament As we say an estate passes by the Seal that is is assured or confirmed or as we say the promise or contract passes by a Ring words which every one understands and doubtlesse the benefit and fruit of the Sacrament is afforded in a peculiar way As the Word besides begetting grace doth also incRease and confirm but not in the same way as the Sacrament doth as it may be the same bargain that passes by promise by oath by earnest by seal yet these are several wayes of certioration so it 's the same grace that 's nourisht by the Sacrament as by the Word but the way is divers That of the Sacrament is by way of sign and seal that of the Word by way of Promise or Covenant-agreement nay the two Sacraments themselves do differ in their proprieties Baptism seals the Covenant by way of initiation and the Lords Supper by way of nutrition or augmentation God did not make or multiply Ordinances at random without their distinct and peculiar Use for the exhibiting to us the same Christ the same graces the same benefits as men have several wayes of assurance making one to another §. 5. What is done to a Worthy Receiver by Christ § 5 So much generally For the particular we shall consider 1. What is here done 2. What is hence received For the first There is here done by Christ two things and answerably two things by a believer in Christ Two things principally are here done by God or by Christ 1. Christ crucified is really exhibited to the faith of a believer 2. The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer 1. Christ crucified together with all those benefits More particularly that ensue upon his death is really exhibited to a believer for there is not a meer representation or empty figure but a real and true exhibition of Christ himself as broken for our sinnes The word accipite Take ye Eat ye does evidently confirm it to us If there were only a resemblance or figurative representation then See ye were more properly said but Take Eat this is my body plainly shews that Christ himself is here given to a believer I think we look so much on the representation that we forget the exhibition and therefore should labour to conclude that Christ himself as in the state of a redeeming Saviour is truly and indeed holden forth and presented to our faith as verily as any benefit can be offer'd and holden forth by one man to another This body and bloud was really offer'd up to God for us which is in this Sacrament really offer'd and applied to us by our faith Answerable to this exhibition of Christ himself the believer performs an act of Communion 1 Cor. 10. 16. partaking of the body and bloud of Christ in a spiritual sense for spiritual nourishment incRease and building up for the new creature is fed and maintain'd by Christ and by vertue of union with him we have communion as the Vine-branches by their union with the Vine receive sap and nourishment So as we have not graces without Christ nor benefits without Christ but first in order of nature we have union as members of him and then of his fulnesse we receive For a Christian is like a branch that hath nothing of its own but what it receives from the root as it self springs from the root so the incRease and growth of it is from the root also He is as the Moon which as appears in the Eclypse hath no light of it self but incReases and comes to full as it receives from the Sunne Let no man think that a believer hath no further Use of Christ after his first believing and receiving of him for then this Sacrament would not be Usefull the effect whereof as Durand saith is not absolutely necessary to salvation as if one could not be in a state of salvation without it becaUse it serves for confirmation of one that is already in a saving state and it 's plain that a great part of Christs Office is exercised in preserving and continuing of them in him who are already members of him and therefore is the finisher as well as authour of our faith for we live in him and from him and our grace is maintain'd by emanations from Christ as the light by continual emanations from the Sunne and therefore this Ordinance of Communion of Christ and the exercise of such acts of communion are of prime Use and benefit as the branch that shoots from the Tree grows and lives from that root which gave to it the first being by a contrived influx of sap into it And this is the first combination of Gods act and of ours 2. The second combination is The gracious Covenant which God hath made in Christ is sealed to a believer The common nature of a Sacrament is to be a seal of Justification or Righteousnesse with God by faith in Christ Rom. 4. 11. As a seal refers to some Covenant so the Sacrament refers to Gods Covenant with man which is this That God promises to accept into favour and into his propriety all that do believe in and receive Christ and to bestow upon them all the blessings and benefits thereof God gives Christ in way of Covenant He covenants with Christ our Lord that he should give his soul an offering and a Sacrifice for sin and in so doing should see his seed Isa 53. 10. So Arminius in this point is orthodox Of this Covenant the death or bloud of Christ is the Condition which Christ accepted and performed The Covenant of God with us is That all that believe in Christ that died and receive him for their Lord and Saviour shall have remission of sins c. and of this Covenant the bloud of Christ is the ratification as the Testators death ratifies the Will or Testament for it is bloud that doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicate the Testament Heb. 9. 18. and so in the words of this Chapter This Cup is the New Testament or Covenant in my bloud viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dedicated thereby and this bloud we receive in this Sacrament as the Seal of the gracious Covenant made with us So that if doubts arise concerning the reality of God and surenesse of this Covenant that speaks so much grace and mercy we look upon and take hold of this Seale of bloud and are thereby setled and therein acquiesce Answerable to this act of God the believer accepts of and submits to this Covenant and the Conditions of it viz. to believe and to have God for our God and thereof makes a solemn profession in this Sacrament giving up himself to Christ as Lord and Saviour restipulating and striking hands with him to be
himself 2. The New Testament or the New Covenant confirmed and ratified by his Blood with the contents of that Covenant viz. Remission of sins and other benefits by consequence flowing from it § 1 1. Here is Christ himself sacrificed for you with the Fruits and Benefits accruing from his death presented and set before you The efficacy of his Hooker Eccl. lib. 5. pag. 360. Body and Blood is not all that is here presented to be received as is consist by the true Protestant Churches of our Confession but first and principally Christ himself as the influence of heaven is in plants beasts men but there is not such a thing only here set forth but a Divine and mysticall Union with Christ himself for here is a participation saith the Apostle of the Body and Blood of Christ who is exhibited as really and truly present not opposing reall to spirituall but to chimericall or phantasticall nor intending his presence in the Elements as contained in them but to the faith of the receiver who hath union with him The very Body and Blood of Christ that Body which was fastened Peter Martyr in 1 Cor. 11. 24. Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. 24 25. to the Cross that Blood which was shed was a Sacrifice as offered up to God is meat and drink as offered unto us and therefore our Divines say that Christ is truly and really but yet spiritually given to us as he was given for us This is my Body which is broken for you given for you saith the Text and that which was given for you is given to you He was given for you in the Sacrifice he is given to you in the Sacrament with those blessed fruits and benefits that flow from his Death § 2 2. Here is presented to you the New Testament a Covenant ratified and confirmed in his Blood with the benefits and priviledges thereof It is called New either from the excellency of it as the word New sometimes signifies or for the durableness and perpetuity of it as the Apostle explains it Heb. 8. ult in opposition to the Old made with Israel Cameron in Myreth Matth. 26. which was to determine and vanish away as to the form of dispensation This Covenant is That God will be our God and we shall be his people That he will forgive our iniquities and remember our sins no more c. and the Blood of Christ is the sanction of this Covenant for without Blood is no remission the blood of Christ is the Seal which ratifies the truth and validity of this Covenant The Wine in this Sacrament represents that Blood of Christ and is not so properly a Seal confirming the Covenant in it self as conveying the comfort and participation of it unto us or if you will it is a Seal of Remission of sin to us which is an Article of the Covenant that is sealed by the Blood of Christ and therefore it is said This is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for Remission of sins § 3 And so you have here presented to your Faith Christ himself sacrificed for you the New Covenant confirmed by Christs Blood shed for the pardon of sinnes which are the highest and most glorious things of Gods gift to mankinde who hath in the dishes of this outward Sacrament set before you such good cheer to feed upon as all Sacrifices under the Law and Feasts were but the meer shadows of Take heed of thinking meanly of the furniture of this Table God hath no better provision to set before a sinner than his Sons flesh and blood and his Covenant of grace sealed and confirmed our Socinian likes not this that word My Body broken for you my Blood shed for remission of sinnes makes him bestirre himself to turn off the Body broken to the bread and the Blood shed to the wine and so you see two extreams the Papist turns bread into Christs Body and wine into Blood the Socinian on the other hand that which is spoken of the Body puts off upon the bread and that of the Blood upon the wine that the death of Christ might not be a proper Sacrifice for us §. 4. II. What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance § 4 What the faithfull do receive in the right Use of this Ordinance and this is easily answered For as guests at the Table receive the meat and drink set before them so having seen what God presents to them we shall easily finde what they receive at this Table and that is 1. The faithfull communicant receives Christ himself or his Body and Blood Faith is a receiving of Christ himself we cannot receive the benefits that come by him without receiving of himself as in Marriage the consent is I take thee not I take thine and yet this is consequent upon that our union with Christ is strengthened and more closed and this union with Christ is one of those great mysteries Eph. 5. 32. resembled by man and wise who are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder and as she is under covert and free from arrest of Law for debt so a Beleever by his union with Christ is under coverture and the curse and condemnation of Gods Law cannot touch him or as members knit or branches united to the tree receive influx of life and spirits from the head and root so Beleevers united to Christ by his Spirit receive influences and spirit and life from him by vertue of their union I in them saith Christ Joh. 7. 23 26. The inhabitation of Christ in his people seems to be exprest by their eating and drinking of his Body and Blood spiritually and that inhabitation cannot be without a presence of him such as his inhabitation is such is his presence both reall and yet both spirituall he dwels in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. § 5 2. The faithfull communicant receives the confirmation of that Covenant which is his only comfort He takes hold of the Covenant by the Seal of it the Blood of Christ the severall articles whereof as that God will be our God and that in Christ he will forgive us all our sins c. are particularly sealed up for our better evidence and peace and security that we may be inabled to make a personall and particular claim of the benefits and priviledges of it which are called The unsearchable riches of Christ § 6 And from hence ver 12. the receiving of Christ himself and of the Covenant made in Christ and confirmed in his Blood doth follow that which is usually said to be the benefit of this Sacrament the strengthening refreshing sustentation of the soul by those graces comforts hopes which flow by consequence from Christ or the Covenant so that whatsoever a man may expect for bodily strength or reparation from bread and wine the like he may expect from Christ or the Covenant for his soul life maintained graces quickened deadness enlivened resolutions enabled
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. 2. 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 Quest 3 § 1 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 by his name But then as to the grace of education of his children up unto maturity and ripenesse by confirming them and strengthning and causing them to grow c. He hath ordained another Sacrament which is called the second becaUse it presupposes the first as Passeover did Circumcision and that is the Lords Supper of which learned Hooker saith The grace Eccles pol. l. 5. pag. 536. which we have by it doth not begin but continue grace or life no man therefore receives this Sacrament before Baptism becaUse no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live And to this purpose all our learned Divines have given their suffrage And the Papists though Concil Trid. Sess 13. c. 2. 7. Can. 5. 11. Bellarm. de Euch. c. 17. l. 4. Catech-sub fin Confes cap. de Sac. c. 29. they differ from us in denying remission of sinnes in this Sacrament in favour to their Sacrament of pennance yet they hold it to be an Ordinance of nutrition and so do all their Schoolmen and so doth the Church of England The strengthning and refreshing of our souls c. I need not number Authours or Churches It is so plain a case that I wonder they that have stood up in defence of it as a converting Ordinance have not taken notice of it There is an Army to a man against them and the ancient Christian Churches are so clear in it that they admitted no convert from the Heathen to either Baptism or Supper till they had testified their faith and repentance nor were they called fideles till they were baptized and admitted to the Supper whatsoever knowledge faith or repentance so ever they showed before Let me first clear the state of the Question and then give you the Reasons For the first First I do not deny that a man having some knowledge of the Gospel and visibly professing it for I do not think that any doth imagine that the very popping of the elements into a meer Heathens mouth may convert him may be truly and really converted at the Sacrament for who shall lock up the hands of the Spirit so as the Laver of Regeneration and the renewing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. The work of the Lord and a mans eating and drinking may not be together Or do we think that this time and conversion are incompossible No I think not so Nor do I Question or doubt that the Word of God adjoyned to the Sacrament it being accompanied with the Gospel-promises and the lively painting forth of Christ may not work coversion for why the word out of a Pulpit and the word at a Table or in any other place should not have this same effect I see not You will say This is the cloathed Use of the Sacrament the administration
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 unto though it be plaine they are but of Balaam's temper who desired to die the death of the righteous but loved the wages of unrighteousnesse God helps his people much by giving them good desires both for that they make prayer warme and give great comfort in the midst of sad complaints yea they bring us to the Word and to the Sacrament where the want which occasions the desire may be supplied Keep them alive and they will keep you alive Sharpen and whet them as men doe indifferent stomacks with vinegar Sense of sinne and desire of grace are excellent preparatives to this Supper § 6 Fifthly Love to fellow-members of the body of Christ For we are all partakers of that one bread 1 Cor. 10. 17. If we eat together all of one loaf let us love them with whom we have this fellowship and Communion The Love-feaâ—â—s of the Primitive Church are read of but alas they are lost I mean not the feasts but the Love and in stead thereof In joelix lolium unhappy feuds quarrels divisions rents abound as if we were not children of one Table Corinth is come into England I hear that when you come together in the Church there are divisions among you 1 Cor. 11. 18. Ours are wider divisions we doe not come together in the Church one Table is prophane to another and yet the Apostle faith If I have all Faith If I suffer death without Charity I am nothing it profits me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 2 3. It 's almost Popery to speake of Charity By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another saith Christ And this was the old marke but truely it 's almost worne out Oh let us revive it at this Sacrament where God seales the pardon of our Talents Let 's learne to forgive the pence of our brethren Of all sinnes the Apostle interprets the Leaven to be purged out of malice 1 Cor. 5. 8. Purge out malice For Love is the cement of this Fellowship and Communion of members which are supposed to have one life becaUse nourisht with the same nourishment that is Christ § 7 Sixthly The last grace I will speak of which is here to be exercised or call it rather a duty if you please It 's Thankfulnesse without which the memorial or remembrance of Christs death is but a dry and fruitlesse commemoration Humility makes thankfull The Samaritane Leper return'd to give thanks He was more remote from expectation of cure and therefore the more thankfull The sense of our own unworthinesse and of the great disproportion between Christ and us may raise up our thanksgiving to a higher flame The lowest hearts rise highest in gratitude pride and merit are unthankfull And so I have showne you those graces which being exercised doe fit us to receive worthily and set the heart in tune to this Ordinance
some particular fruit as elevation of heart sensible comfort clear assurance or the like which becaUse they finde not they think they have nothing I have shew'd you before That God answers the expectations and satisfies the necessity of his people by giving some other grace than we would have or have our eye upon as Pauls prayers were answer'd in sufficient grace not the removing of the thorn We cry for comfortable signs and God gives obediential and serviceable graces We look for spiritual gifts he gives humbling grace We would have conQuest of sinne God gives power to encounter it We look for lively grace and God keeps grace alive We expect at present God afterward gives us it in bodily nourishment it 's not possible for a man to tell what degree of nourishment he received by such a meal yet he findes that he lives and is strengthned and he may be nourisht by that which he doth not relish with delight As for those that upon pretence of spirit and spirituality have cast off Ordinances as fruitlesse unto them I should wish they would consider whether they be not rather besides their wits than above Ordinances seeing Christ himself doth not onely by his institution but example commend this Sacrament unto us as a standing Ordinance for the whole Church untill he come and so hath commended the Ministry also till we all come to a full stature Ephes 4. 11. I would know how that spirit which hath carried them to the pinacle of the Temple and hath set them above Ordinances or that witnesses to them without graces can be proved to be the Spirit of Christ and if they would shew us how they can live without meat and drink too there would be some hope that they might be starved into their senses and right minds § 3 So much for the first That there is a fruit and benefit by this Ordinance And now to the second What that benefit is and I have Reason to shew what it is 1. BecaUse superstitious and carnal persons do expect what they have no warrant to expect perverting the Use of this Sacrament to other intents and ends than it hath by institution of Christ The sick man too superstitiously conceives that the opus operatum is a viaticum that will pay his fare for a present passage into heaven or that it is like a Popish shrift that blots out all sinne and wipes off the old score If in stead of making the right Use we idolize the brazen Serpent and worship it what is it but superstition which to avoid the only way is to minde the institution and the end thereof or else we shall look for that which God never intended to convey by it as Eve was deceived in the fruit of the Tree she are of 2. BecaUse commonly men have confUsed thoughts of a benefit but they know not what They think it 's good for something but they know not what and so do as it were take physick meerly upon trust not knowing what is in it Hence is that awfulnesse of this Ordinance with all men they must be holy now at this time they must not follow their wicked and loose wayes They are going to the Sacrament and they go with an ignorant reverence not knowing what is either the fruit or the danger of it So much for the first §. 4. What the Benefit is § 4 Now to that point What the effect as some call it or the fruit and benefit of this Sacrament is I answer generally and then more particularly 1. Generally 1. The benefit of the Sacrament is of an higher nature than these creatures are able to convey and therefore they are stampt and made instrumental by an institution of God It had been both vain and superstitious to have expected spiritual benefit by the Use of these elements had not the word of institution given a new relation to them which without it they have not There might a similitude or representation have bin borrowed to signifie the sufferings of Christ but that would not have made a Sacrament any more than marriage representing the mystical union of Christ and the Church is therefore a Sacrament There must be a promise and a command of God added to the visible creature whereby the Use of it to such a purpose is warranted and authorized therefore we must look higher than the outward elements or their power An Axe is more than iron A Seal is more than wax Gods institution renders the creatures of bread and wine which as Bellarmine notes though two elements are but one instrument or seal Usefull to spiritual effects not by elevating their natures as the iron or wax being instruments are not elevated to any efficacy as physical instruments but by appointing their Use and working by them therefore that Question How can bread and wine How can water reach or touch the soul is impertinent for it refers to a natural causation but moral relation needs no contact there is a benefit follows upon the right Use of them which comes not through them tanquam per canalem but from God by the Use of such means as an estate is convey'd from the donor by a seal of wax 2. The benefits and blessings promised in the Covenant of Grace are sealed and the graces of the Covenant are improved in a believer by this Ordinance Christ Christ crucified or rather in crucifying together with such benefits as are immediately sealed in his death reconciliation redemption remission of sinnes as on Gods part offered to a sinner are here Obsignate and sealed And faith in Christ repentance from dead works c. are here exercised excited confirmed renewed the main fundamental and essential benefits and graces which are in most necessary order to salvation are here in act not such things as some Christians have and some have not But the common necessaries of the Covenant both on Gods part and ours without which no Christian can be saved And therefore I cannot but wonder that many well-meaning souls should fix their eyes on such benefits or gifts to be given in this Sacrament as are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a Christian but eminencies of some and not of all they look for gifts of prayer of memory freedom from passions some Parts or Endowments which they see others excell in and if they gain not these they gain nothing they are unworthy c. Alas that you should so mistake I tell you Covenant-benefits Covenant graces the radicals the vitals are they which receive improvement here here is Christ offer'd and faith is quickned here Christ crucified is exhibited and here repentance is renewed the main benefits that God can give the main graces that we can have such as are essential without which salvation is not This I would have Observed for the honour of the Ordinance and the quickning of addresse to it And another thing also viz. That when you hear us Use the words exhibit convey conferre
blinde and unworthy the Remedy and Reformation of which inveterate abUse and the prevention of Separation from our Churches had no order been appointed which must have universally followed by the necessity of the thing and instigation of them that lay on the advantage were such Reasons as could enforce no lesse Nor do I know how possibly otherwise the matter could be remedied or radrest not intended to despise any that had right before and had been long admitted 3. The principal thing is that the end of this Examination be obtained though the form or manner be not punctual as namely That a man have competent knowledge of this Ordinance and be so known to have whether by good testimony of others that are able or by our acquaintance or by conference or he is a learned man a knowing man a Minister of the Word which may be justly presumed to have due knowledge as Paul presumed that Agrippa believed the Prophets I say in these cases the end of Examination is attained Nay if one should come and declare himself by confession of his Christian faith and purpose of life without any Question propounded or asked I should not so dote upon Questions and forms of Examination as not to passe such a one for a knowing man becaUse I have attained the end of all Examination which is I know that he hath knowledge competent not that I would encourage any man to break a wholsom order or establishment for the Scripture requires and the Apostle enjoyned to see order in the Church Col. 2. 5. But that I would principally intend the thing it self above the form not denying the right which he hath by his knowledge and profession nor thrusting him upon a separation meerly upon a form except in one case that a man intend to break a publick order and to destroy it by his example As if a man tear my hedge upon a just occasion I take no offence but if he purpose to let all the Swine into my corn I should oppose him 4. I could wish that all Examination were bounded and limited to such Questions as are of necessity to this Sacrament There were printed some few Questions and Answers as the rule and bounds of it some five or six years since For I dare not trust the discretion of all men without a gage And if any man should ask me such a Question as is not necessary or for a Scholar to know or to pry into my secrets I should though I could answer crave excUse I am afraid of and terribly hate auricular confession I love no step toward it and therefore I would not answer upon my own liberty 5. Though some will say I can declare my self to my Minister but not otherwise I confess the Pastour hath the greatest account to make of his people and is most concerned But what if the Church will not trust him with that report as all Ministers are not to be trusted with it such is their loosnesse in this point and too much facility And were I to chUse I had rather do it under the eye of witnesses especially in conversing with women who though in one regard their modesty hinders to speak before others yet in other regards is matter of occasion to them that are ill minded which must needs be avoided providing things honest not before God but men 6. Lastly Let men lay conscience to the point and set by passion and prejudice both examiner and examined and in humility and meeknes deny themselves to keep up some face of order in these broken times Let your thirst to this Sacrament carry you thorow a thorn-hedge and I on the other hand shall stoop low rather than a thirsty soul should want the Sacrament or be thrust on the Rock of Separation and so we shall meet at the end though differ in the way It should be a very sorry answer indeed that I would not make the best of and I hope you would not make the worst of any errour or infirmity in me I know Order in an Army as he sayes kils no body yet without it they are a Rout and not an Army FINIS THE TABLE A ABUses in Ordinances no ground for separation 30 Actions in the Lords Supper of Christ 76 Communicants 95 B BRead must be broken and why 88 Benefit of worthy receiving 314 1. Generally 1. It is of higher nature then the Elements of themselves can convey 319 2. Blessings of the Covenant are sealed and graces of the Covenant improved 320 2. Particularly 1. What God conveys 1. Christ and his benefits 322 2. The Covenant sealed 324 2. What believers receive 1 The body and bloud of Christ 326 2. Remission of sin 327 3. Communication of greater proportion of Gospel-spirit 329 C COvetousness caUse of Judas TReason 47 Counsel of God fulfilled by wicked instruments 58 Consecration of Elements by what words 81 Cups divers in the Passeover 79 D DIscipline what to be done where it cannot be duly administred 223 Discerning the Lords body what it is 338 Danger of unworthy eating 345 E ELements what they signifie 73 Must be taken severally ib. Were severally blest 77 By what words consecrated 81 Ought to be consecrated only by a Presbyter 83 Changed only in their Use 85 Whether given by Christ immediately to all 91 Inward signification of them 117 They work not physically 267 Examination of our selves required to right participation of the Lords Supper 352 Examination 3. 1. Of Men. 356 2. Of Christians ib. 3. Of Communicants 357 Motives to and Directions for it 358 Examination by Elders 370 F FAsting not necessary before the Lords Supper 29 Fitness for the Lords Supper wherein it consists 278 May be set too high or too low 279 G GRaces to be exercised in Communicants 289 1. Knowledge of Nature Vse End of this Ordinance 290 2. Christ-receiving faith 292 3. Repentance 293 4. Spiritual appetite after Christ 296 5. Love to fellow-members 297 6. Thankefulness 298 Grace that is true how differenced from counterfeits 367 Guilty of the body and bloud of Christ what 342 Ground of worthy receiving and of the Churches admission different 343 I JEwish writings and customs needfull to expound the New Testament 2 Institution best rule for Reformation 34 Words of it explained 111 Irreverent carriage reproved 277 Judas intended not Christs death 57 K KNowledge of the Nature Vse and End of this Ordinance required in a Communicant 290 L LOrds-Supper Elements of it taken from Passeover 2 Who capable of worthy receiving 20 Occasional circumstances not obliging 22 Christ the Author of it 48 Why instituted at night 63 After Supper ib. Little before betraid 66 An Ordinance of Fellowship 98 What it exhibits 120 An inner Ordinance only for believers 140 The End of it the remembrance of Christ 141 Occasions of the neglect of it 148 How Obstructions may be removed 153 How our mindes should be exercised in it 156 The great work of it to shew Christs death 167 An Ordinance to be repeated 171 Must continue till Christ come 174 A barred Ordinance 182 Who ought to be debarred 191 Not a converting Ordinance by Institution 247 Yet may occasionally convert 250 Love feasts how abUsed 30 M MIxt Communion no ground for separation 234 Motives to endeavours after right participation 300 Motives to self-examination 358 N NEcessity of teaching and learning the true meaning of the Lords-Supper 161 P PApists must have faith of miracles 86 Passeover represented Christs death 3 Why so called ib. Whether a Sacrifice 5 Christ our Passeover 6 It looked Backward as a remembrancer 8 Forward as a type 8 How it resembles Christ sacrificed 9 Christ in the Sacrament 13 Preparation for the Lords Supper 274 Q QUalification for worthy receiving false and insufficient 304 Qualifications of remembrance of Christs death 143 R REmembrance of Christs death 143 To whom it is made 145 Rites and gestures spurious in Lords-Supper 101 S SAcrament and Sacrifice how differ 5 Sacrament must resemble the thing signified 104 Consists only in the Use 106 Scriptures necessity 40 Separation not grounded on AbUses in Ordinances 30 Mixt Communions 234 Sign taken for thing signified 7 Sins of Judas and Disciples how differ'd 61 Sins scandalous what 212 Sins notorious what 213 Socinian errour 120 T TRansubstantiation its rise 128 Arguments against it 130 V UNworthy receiving a great and dangerous sin 332 The caUse of the sin Not discerning c. 337 Aggravations of the sin 341 Danger of it 345 Dangerous to Church and State 348 A godly person may receive Unworthily 285 W WOrthy and unworthy receiving 45 180 263 Worthy receiving not to be measured by success 265 What required to it 283 Benefit of it 314 Who capable of it 20 False qualifications for it 304 FINIS ERRATA PAg. 3. lin 27 r to suffer p 4. l. 18 Gerard. p. 5. l. 2. r. paterfamilias p. 6. l. 3 prius prosunt p. 8. r. § 5 6. p 8. l. 28. r. not only hrist p. 9 l. 7. r. this life-giving death of p. 22. l. 15. r. and blessing p. 33. l. 14. ◠Hebrewish with whom the c. p. 37. l. 24. r. the Lord I have received of the Lora that which also I delivered p 44. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 5◠l. 13. r. Author from him therefore l. 22. r. Schoolman saith l. 23. r. were contained p. 58. l. 13. r. saith Ames p. 77. l. 16. r. Post-coenium p. 85. l. 17. r. Marcion l. 18. 1. body l. 20. r. humane l. 22. r. being p. 93. l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 95. l. 12. r. Thus Every p. 143. l. 14. r. Benefits Benefactors
First The Lord Jesus is Authour the Mediatour of the new Covenant the Testator of the new Testament appoints the seal of that Covenant and ratifies that Testament with his bloud He is the Lord to whom is committed the Soveraignty and Government of his Church therefore he makes Officers Laws and Ordinances The Lords day and the Lords Supper are particularly in Scripture called by Rev. 1. 10. 1 Cor. 11. his name The Lords The Lords day ex illius resurrectione festivitatem suam habere coepit took its festivity Epist 119. from his Resurrection as Austin The Lords Supper is the memorial of his death so his death and resurrection a Supper and a day to memorize them As he is Lord so his Laws binde whatsoever they be though Abraham be commanded to kill his sonne for the Laws of God have not their obligation from the quality of the Law but from the authority of the Lord the Law-giver As he is Jesus a Saviour so his Laws are benefits and liberties tending to salvation as the Laws of your City are freedoms and your freedoms laws so you obey them â—s Laws enjoy them as freedoms they are our benefit and our duty His invitation is to a Supper it 's the invitation of a Lord it 's the Supper of a Saviour § 2 Secondly There must be institution of a Sacrament The elements are cyphers till the institution make them figures Institution is as necessary to a Sacrament as superscription is to money for it is created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things that did not appear Sacraments are of that rank of things Quae nihil sunt sine institutione saith Chamier they were bread and wine Chamier de Euchar. l. 7. c. 10 indeed before but they were nothing to that relation which Christ put upon them a seal of a thousand a year is made of a peny-worth of wax What was a piece of brasse to the healing of a mortal sting Nothing till God put an Use upon it that all that lookt to it being bitten should be healed § 3 Thirdly There must be a divine institution to make a Sacrament The Legatee doth not seal the will but the Testatour the Granter seals the Deed not the Grantee the Delinquent seals not the pardon but the Keeper of the seal Sola divina institutio facit Sacramentum Montac origin part 1. pag. 73. saith a learned man Take that away and it ceaseth to be a Sacrament The Supream Power only can coyn money in other its câ—pitâ—l All the whole Church together cannot make a Sacrament then it should be the Churches Supper not the Lords and it is theirs to eat but not to make Ejus est signa Synopsis de coena §. 7. gratiae addere cujus est gratiamtribuere He may adde the signs of grace that can give the grace There is a four-fold word requisite to a Sacrament 1. A word of institution which appoints the matter and form 2. A word of Sanctification or blessing to set them apart from common Use 3. A word of Promise of some good to the Communicant and so we have here a promise of the Lords body and bloud The promises of Sacraments as is well Observed by the Centuriators are vestitae Centur. mag ceâ—t 1. promissiones cloathed promises He that believes shall be saved is a naked promise He that eats this bread c. shall have Christ as a cloathed promise 4. A word of Command as we have the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Buckler Prâ—t evidence in Baptism so hoc facite here as a learned man Let the Word be added to the Element and you have a Sacrament Austin § 4 Fourthly It 's the institution that gives the nature and efficacy to a Sacrament He that mints the money sets the value and price upon it A Sacrament is an outward and visible signe but it is not a natural but a voluntary sign nor yet a bare signe as the picture of Hercules is a signe of Hercules and no more we must not make the Sacraments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 empty names empty figures empty representations that resemble and signifie something and no more as the Sacrament was a crucifix and the Supper painted resemblances of meat and drink this is a hungry feast he must have his stomack in his eye that is fed with it but the Sacraments are signacula symbola seals and pledges or instruments offering exhibiting and making present to our faith the very benefits which they signifie the very body and bloud of Christ is not only represented but presente to a believer and brought home to his soul yet they are not natural instruments Montac orig part 1. p. 67. in which the inward grace is contained as in a vessel as the Romish Praesentialists and Schoolmen dream like plaisters which have in themselves a virtue or power to heal a wound or a medicine to expell poison but they are moral and voluntary means or instruments serving to the purpose ex destinatione by appointment as the brazen Serpent to heal the sting Bernard hath writ upon it As saith he in vestitures and possessions Bernard de câ—â—â—â—a and assurances do pass by the staff and ring Annulus non valet qnicquam haereditas est quam quaerebam The ring avails little I seek the inheritance that is confirmed and convey'd by it so we say the Lands Inheritance c. do passe by the great Seal for so I come to have and hold and they are mine by it Thus the Sacrament is a seal of confirmation and conveyance of the inward grace to the hand or faith of a believing soul And as really as the estate doth passe by the Seal into your right and possession not by any inward work or power of the Seal in it self but by the Use it 's of in sealing and conveying so really is Christ and all his tReasure passed over unto you that receive him by faith not in respect of any worthiness or vertue in the very outward Sacrament but in and by the Use it 's of by Christs appointment to seal confirm and convey that excellent place speaks my minde fully 1 Cor. 10. 16. The Cup of blessing which we bless Is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The Bread which we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ He saith not barely representation as a signe but communion or participation as a conveying seal I declare this to you becaUse some believe too much and think the outward Sacrament works I know not how like a plaister by some vertue contained in them that is opere operato as they barbarously speak and others believe-too little as if they were meer and empty signs and resemblances of Christs body and bloud as if a woman should receive a ring meerly becaUse the picture of her beloved is engraven on it and not as a ring of espousals really sealing and confirming the contract and assuring
that there is length and nothing long breadth and nothing broad thickness and nothing thick whiteness and nothing white moisture and nothing moist sweetness and nothing sweet that is a long broad thick white moist sweet Nothing The Priest pours out nothing but lines and colours when he pours out the wine for these accidents of bread and wine are not in the bread becaUse that is avoided and vanisht and they are not in the Body of Christ as themselves say and yet it is plain this bread and wine do nourish the body and is the body nourishable by meer accidents Can there be plainer contradictions 4. Can the same body at the same time have his just dimensions distance of parts symmetry proportion as the Body of Christ hath and yet not have these becaUse all parts yea the whole Body of Christ say they are in one and the self same point or crum of bread 5. Can the Body of Christ which is much greater be wholly contained in a wafer or piece of bread in his full dimensions and that as many times as there are points crums drops in the bread or wine 6. Can the bread be turned into the very Body of Christ and yet not anything of that bread become anything of Christ nor the matter nor form nor accidents of bread be made either the matter or form or accidents of Christ 7. Can the same thing as Christs true Body at the same time be wholly above it self and wholly below it self within and without it self can it be moved and yet be still be carried from one place to another and yet not move be brought from heaven to earth and yet not come out of heaven who then can assure me that when he hung upon the Cross he was not walking somewhere else crucified and not crucified eaten and not eaten alive in one dead in another place as in case the Apostles celebrated this Supper while Christ was in the grave 8. What dishonour do these men render the Body of Christ obnoxious unto to be eaten by wicked men by bruit creatures by mice by other vermin to be cast into some unclean place for so long as the form of bread remains so long the Body of Christ is there though it be in the mouth or belly of a moUse saith Ales and the rest of the Schoolmen who do one where or other acknowledge the most of these monstrous absurdities and go about to heal and salve them I surcease from raking further into this ingratefull sink whose name Transubstantiation is but of yesterday in comparison and which dishonours the Body of Christ into a monster destroies the nature of the Sacrament and fils the world with dreadfull contentions and broils and let us but observe 1. What grievous impositions the Romanists lay upon the faith of them that are devoted to her communion 2. What contradictions and absurdities the common people do ignorantly and implicitly beleeve 3. What strong delusions even to believe lies God gives up Learned men unto that refUse the simplicity of the truth for interests and politick ends 4. What a mercy of God it is to deliver us from that tyranny which leaves us no other choice but to swallow and digest such impossible things or to be sacrificed in flames and the Lord forbid the re-entrance of that Religion among us which in all likelihood will cost us our souls or our lives § 5 III. Having past the most rugged and craggy part of my way now we shall have a sweeter and smoother way and the third thing that I commend to you is To keep fixt your eyes and hearts upon the inward of this Sacrament which Christ himself doth anatomize and unfold to you saying This is my Body This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood teaching all Ministers to explain the outward Ordinance what it means and all communicants to set their hearts upon it for as the Parchment and Wax are little worth but the Estate conveyed so the Bread and Wine do but convey by their Use the Body and Blood of Christ and the Covenant of grace and peace confirmed unto us and as we Use to search and pick out of every corner of the shell that 's broken as of a Wallnut the kernell that is in it so we should study the marrow and kernell of this Ordinance to lose the sight and Use of nothing here presented God loses honour and praise and we benefit and com ort when we look not to the inwards of an outward Ordinance especially when Christ himself and all the great and capitall benefits that accrue by him are not only represented but confirmed and to be participated They that look upon a meer representation of Christs death in this Ordinance reduce it to a pretence or shadow and look for too little for it 's a sealing Ordinance They that look for his very Body to be eaten look for too much we may expect from Gods institutions the grace or benefit which God appoints them to exhibit and in the way wherein he so appoints Then have we the benefit of his death when we have him and here is offered to Calvin in 1 Cor. 11. you not the benefit only but the Body in which he suffered his body was a Sacrifice here it is spirituall food we feed upon that Sacrifice as the manner was the Covenant was confirmed by his Blood here we feast upon it the Blood was shed that he might reconcile to God it 's drunk that we may be partakers of that Reconciler and that reconciliation He shall confirm the Covenant with mercy is Daniels phrase Dan. 9. 29. The memoriall we celebrate the benefit we participate here and the great Question Whether I have remission of sins whereat we stick is here answered to a doubting soul that beleeves in desire not in comfort as sure as God can devise by outward Ordinance The Word answers that Question by description of qualification of the person a Believer The Spirit answers it by witnessing and sealing it up to our spirits that we are children The graces of Regeneration do answer it as fruit doth to the life of the tree by demonstration This Sacrament answers it by exhibition and offering Christ to me that I may appropriate him for the blood was shed for you saith Christ Luk. 22. 20. for you that take and eat and drink § 6 IV. The communicant should be one that seeks union and communion with Christ for he that is not a Jew inwardly eats but outwardly Finis non intus dente non mente as Austin expresses the inward of Ordinances are enjoyed by them that inwardly are Christians the Covenant is sealed to them that come to the terms of that Covenant those that bring inward graces receive inward benefits Sed de hoc plura CHAP. XI Of Christs mandate or charge for the celebration of this Ordinance in remembrance of Him 1 COR. 11. 24 25 26. This do in remembrance of me This do ye
odium and terrour of the former point This settles and quiets all mistakes of them For God is not the Authour of confusion but of order and peace in all the Churches of the Saints 1 Cor. 14. 33. Let all things be done in order ver 40. And therefore the Apostle when he had enjoyned Timothy To rebuke them that sinne before all that others may fear 1 Tim. 5. 10. doth in the next words lay a serious charge upon him To Observe these things without preferring one before another and to do nothing by partiality Would you call that a well-govern'd City a well-order'd hoUse or rather a Cycleps den where every one may cast out another and he himself as the Rabbies in the latter end of the Jewish State ridiculously excommunicated one the other As promiscuous accesse is not to be allowed so neither promiscuous denial As one may intrude and usurp the Lords Supper rashly so he may be as rashly forbidden As there is an ignorant and scandalous rushing in so there is an ignorant and scandalous thrusting out The door may be open'd and shut both errante clave If I say that a gangren'd leg or arm may and must sometimes be cut off Doth it follow that for every sore before healing plaisters be Used we must runne to the Knife or Axe Or if I say a robber or murderer may be put to death must I therefore have him to the next tree without further trial or judgement The case is plain but particularly handled thus 1. It cannot be denied to a repentant sinner one that doth renew his purpose of amendment and after his fall with Peter bewails it bitterly whatsoever his sins have been for which he hath been punisht or censured Repentance doth dissolve the bands and pull away the barre from the door repentance prevents the punishment I le cast them into great tribulation except they repent as it prevents so it restores a man as Ezek. 18. 30. Repent so iniquity shall not be your ruine This was the Novatian rigour and errour they would not allow lapsed Christians that had fallen into sinne the benefit of repentance and restoring to the holy Table but leave them to Gods mercy for to the peace and communion of the Church they must not return But the Orthodox Churches did allow repentance to be medicinal Yea the very Church-censures were not intended to be mortal but to be medicinal viz. that sinne might be destroyed but the soul saved 1 Cor. 5. 5. and here is a difference between civil sentences of death and Church-censures If a man be condemned to die for felony his repentance doth not acquit or restore him from the sentence of death but it restores a man to his Church-priviledge that had lost it it is Tabula post naufragium like a plank or board after a Shipwrack which saves from drowning him that gets to it Object Some may object That this is an obvious and easie Engine to open any door that is shut for if a man make a verbal profession of his repentance and say I repent of my sins and that is to my self you know not my heart I demand my right Answ The Discipline of the Church is not to be exposed to mockery nor is it a meer external Pageant I will know saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. 20. not the speech of them that are puffed up but the power For the Kingdom of God is not in word but in power Hypocritical and superficial expressions signifie nothing but the powerfull work of grace and regeneration which changes the heart and becaUse the Objection may be made by some ex animo intending to shew with how easie a word as Nollem factum or I repent to blow the door open to himself therefore I answer it That though I should rest in a serious profession of faith and repentance which is not pull'd down again by a wicked life or scandalous sinne As Philip rested in it when the Eunuch answer'd him I believe that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God Act. 8. 37. and so was baptized yet when a man lies under the charge of our censure for some scandalous sinne the case is otherwise for as it is in such sinnes as are with damage to another it is not enough to professe repentance but there must be Zacheus his repentance that is restitution and reparation of injury if one be able so in scandalous sinnes whereby the Church is injured and offended There was alwayes in the ancient Churches a certain Discipline as Chemnitius saith whereby the repentance of men Depraeparat p. 95. was explored and tried whether it were serious slighty and superficial Sayings served not the turn the Church had received a wound the mouth of the enemy was open'd to blaspheme and therefore it was her honour to be satisfied in that reparation which was made by repentance that God might regain his visible honour by the repentance which he had lost by the scandal and there is ground for it 2 Cor. â— 6 7 8. where the incestuous person lies humbled and overwhelmed with great sorrow and therefore the Apostle writes to the Church to be content to comfort to forgive him and to confirm their love towards him This is no dallying matter when the fall is scandalous the repentance must be serious Peter thrice denies Christ and Christ asks Peter three times Lovest thou me 2. A visible professour of Christian Religion that stains not his profession with a wicked course of life or some scandalous act cannot be debarred his right of Communion with the visible Church in her priviledges Many are in the external Covenant and Kingdom of Christ who are not truly regenerate nor lively members of Christ himself inward grace makes a member of the Church invisible and the profession makes a visible The Sacraments are given to the visible Church we cannot discern or judge infallibly who is regenerate who an hypocrite a visible Judge is not to go by an invisible rule You shall know them saith Christ by their fruits He doth not say You shall know them by their sap It 's one Question Who is a true member of Christs body and truly in Christ It 's another Question Whom we may communicate with It 's one Question Who comes and eats and drinks unworthily So do hypocrites It 's another Question Who may not come at all and those are visible unbelievers and scandalous persons usitatissima phrasi saith Chemnitius in the most usual phrase of Scripture they are called holy and Saints who are Saints by calling Disciples of Christ separated from infidelity and Heathenism unto the worship of God by their faith of the Gospel It must be evidence of some fact or disorderly walking which is proved that must give ground to discommon or dis-franchize a reputed Member Who ever heard of witnesses to prove a man unregenerate Oh but in judgement of charity at least he must be truly regenerate I would all the Congregation were holy
it is delivered to us as the bread in this Ordinance is not by crums but by the piece Three things I would have you bear in minde 1. That these words referre to the manner of communicating and consequently to the act or actual receiving of the Sacrament and therefore the Text saith He that eats and drinks unworthily these adverbial expressions denote the mode or manner of the act and cannot be applied to any man out of the very act 2. That yet they connote some aptitude or inaptitude some fitnesse or unfitnesse of the person from whence this manner of the action doth proceed as acts referre to some habit or disposition whence they arise and so we call a worthy or unworthy Communicant one that hath or wants such qualifications or such frame of spirit as is apt to bring forth sutable actions and these qualifications denominate the person antecedaneous to the act as we call a valiant man before we fight a worthy Communicant though not in the act we need no place of Scripture to name a Communicant worthy or unworthy for if it denominate the act worthily unworthily then Logick and Reason will suppose an aptitude or disposition of the person whence this act comes 3. That howsoever in our English Use and so in the Latine we mean by worthinesse and unworthinesse of some person or action an extraordinary perfection or excellency or an extraordinary poornesse and basenesse yet here the words must be interpreted relatively that is in relation to the Ordinance and so they import no more then fitly condecently answerably becomingly or contrarily If the manner of eating or drinking be answerable to and becoming of the Ordinance being such as the exigence and nature thereof doth demand or bespeak of us then we receive it worthily for as you cannot tell whether a man act a part well unlesse you know what part it is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or decorum whereof must be observed and as a picture may be very curious and lively and yet very false if it answer not the prototype so that eating or drinking which is according to the Ordinance or demands thereof is worthily and that which is not answerable is unworthily and thus the word is to be interpreted when we reade of walking-worthy of God worthy of the Gospel or as it becometh Saints c. So that to receive this Sacrament in that holy manner and to that end with such spirit and affection as the institution or nature of the Ordinance is to receive worthily Certa norma est ipsa institutio Exam de praepa ad Euchar. saith Chemnitius I have recommended to you the sense and meaning of the words and before I go further will infer from them two or three Corollaries or Cautions requisite to stand in the front of my following Discourse for prevention of mistake of my words I would not measure or judge of my eating and Caution 1. drinking worthily or unworthily by the successe I finde afterwards but by the manner of my receiving for these words referre not to the successe or after fruit but the manner of the present act as I have shown you This Rule prevents a great deal of perplexity and trouble which Christians create in themselves to their discouragement falsly concluding that they have not haply never have received worthily becaUse they finde not the after-fruit answerable to their expectations they finde not such elevations of spirit sensible joyes powerfull conQuest over their particular lusts and corruptions not that vigour and incRease of some particular graces which they in their expectation have as it were limited God to bestow upon them by the Use of this Ordinance I do not take off a Christian from waiting on God in the Use of this Ordinance for those benefits and graces which it's properly ordained to impart but I deny the conclusion thence inferr'd therefore I have not received worthily for it is the spiritual manner of the performance of the act must be Judge of that and not the sensible fruit and benefit actually enjoyed for thou mayest as I may say wrestle with God as Jacob did and yet go away halting that was no sign of prevailing yet the Text tels us by his strength he had power with God he prevailed Oh but he went lame away True but he wept and made supplication to him Hos 12. ◠◠The Apostle Paul doth not finde fault with his prayer becaUse it prevail'd not at first for removal of the thorn nor with God neither but he had his eye open'd to see the Use of that thorn like a corrosive to eat away the proud flesh growing and that contented him the stay of the thorn was answer to his prayer when he saw the Use of it and was supported under it 2 Cor. 12. 8. We look for Gods answer to us in our prayer or in his Ordinance as that man that lookt for the Sunne rising towards the East whereas he that looked West-ward for it on the top of the high Tower or Steeple saw it first To see and to have the Use of a sinne or corruption is a better answer of an Ordinance many times than to be quit of it For as Austin saies Proud hearts have need of sinnes as proud sores of eating plaisters And therefore to answer this point nearer home and nearer the case it self The Apostles that were near Christ at this first Sacrament within few hours after it betray'd their weaknesse they fled from him they hid themselves and the strongest of them took the greatest fall Shall we say they communicated unworthily becaUse the successe was so bad No for we must not measure altogether by that Rule but by the manner of receiving if such graces and affections be then set on work as the Ordinance doth bespeak It 's well observed that the recording of the sinnes of holy men in Scripture is as profitable and Usefull to the Church as the record of their graces or heroical acts For as we look upon their graces we are ashamed of our selves and instructed to imitation as we look on their sinnes and failings we are not discouraged unto desperation and the Scripture it self directs us to some such like Use Jam. 5. 17. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are viz. to like afflictions and to like fruit trees It 's Gods part of the Covenant to finish our faith and support our graces to revive our spirits and subdue our corruptions It 's our part to believe and walk humbly with God not only in our conversation but the Use of his ordinances Let us minde our own part and take comfort in the acting of grace at least if we have not the desired benefit and fruit of Ordinances to comfort us For were I to chUse I had rather exercise grace in my communion with God than enjoy a sensible rapture I speak it to improve a Christian in his gracious actings though I know withall that at last
childe may receive a Ring as well as a Gyant and the least Candle points upwards as well as the greatest Torch Great Masters of Families as the Prodigal Observed allow the meanest of their domestick servants to come to the Tables end and eat of their bread Many sinnes many backslidings if there be contrition and godly sorrow serve for bitter herbs to eat the Passeover with Many wants and weaknesses may be accompanied with vehement desires hunger and thirst Low graces may occasion low hearts when God makes the disease a preparative why should we refUse the medicine If we set the pitch of this fitnesse too low in some empty formes of Religion or some eminent works and moral vertues or some conceited perfections which feed our pride we shall take in many that have nothing of Christ in them Gospel-qualifications are most sutable to a Gospel Ordinance We are not prepared for Christ by ostentation of works but sense of misery The sense of unworthinesse is our worthinesse A little vessel that is empty will receive more than a great one that is full A broken Christ requires a broken heart To be rich and full and righteous in the Gospel-Dictionary doe signifie Obstructions and impediments of our happinesse where the naked are cloathed the hungry are fed the ungodly are justified the weary are refresht the sick are healed the stung with fiery Serpents are recovered the returning lost childe is feasted and they that thirst do buy wine and milk without money and without price And hence it follows That no unregenerate man that lies dead in trespasses and sinnes without a seed a spark of Gospel-grace having no initials of true Repentance and Faith in Christ can be in capacity to eat and drink the Body and Bloud of Christ worthily and with effect for such a one is a stranger to the Covenant and uncircumcised and therefore expresly debar'd this Passeover Exod. 12. 43. Where there is no life there can be no reception of nourishment He that is void of the Condition of the Covenant cannot receive the benefit nor eat the Supper that wants the Wedding-Garment This is a severe point and disclaims the greatest part of men from eating and drinking worthily becaUse they have no ticket of grace renewing or regenerating they are not Disciples indeed they are branches in Christ by externall ingraffing John 15. 2. but have not the life of Christ in them They that are not in the body of Christ do not eat his body saith Austin They that are not members of him do not spiritually feed on him Panem Domin they do eat as Judas not Panem Dominum Ego hoc axtoma teneo saith Calvin that without the Spirit Christ is not received in this Sacrament The Papists go no lesse Catholici omnes saith Vasquez all agree in this That it 's necessary for a worthy Communicant to be in the state of grace and sanctification and therefore howsoever any person be furnisht with endowments of nature and education famous for eminent works and vertues adorned with civil and fair conversation yet without something of Christ some work of the Spirit some seed of Regeneration he cannot eat and drink worthily and with effect And this Doctrine is the rather requisite to be taught becaUse men may flatter themselves in that they have past the test are admitted with approbation to this Table and allowed the liberty thereof for all this may be and yet your case no better than Sauls that would needs be honoured before the people than Judas's who was not thrust out from the Sacrament than his who was let in by the servants to the feast but cast out by the King for want of his Wedding-garment You enjoy a priviledge to eat and drink but what judgement and condemnation to your selves Oh consider it The Lord of this feast will come to view his guests he will turn out some that the servants let in he will say Friend How camest thou in hither He answered not Lord I was called in I was admitted in by thy servants No He was dumb he had nothing to plead he had not a Wedding-garment For he is not a Jew that is one outwardly Rom. 2. penult §. 6. What is requisite to our Receiving Worthily § 6 The actual exercise of our graces is requisite to our eating and drinking worthily The instrument must be in tune before-hand as I shew'd you in the former but now the strings are stricken now they make their musick The activity and imploiment of our faith and affections is now required and our graces must be on their wheels now the sails are spread to catch the gale which sweetly breathes from this holy Ordinance for here it 's said Take Eat Take and drink and as the eye the hand the mouth are now in actual imploiment as to the Sacrament or outward part so faith which is the eye hand mouth of the soul and all the affections are to be actually imploy'd as to the inward thing the body and bloud of Christ Not the having of an eye but looking up to the brazen Serpent healed the biting It 's not enough to have faith but we must believe Now that the Sacrament is in Use now must our graces be in Use too Now that God actually offers and presents Christs body and bloud to my faith Now let the hand of faith go forth and take Christ in Awake my faith and see the atonement of my sins in the broken body of my Saviour Awake repentance and hear the strong cries and see the dolefull agony of him that bears our chastisement Awake my memory and call to minde that Aegypt wherein I was and the bloud of the Passeover which removed the destroying Angel from my soul Awake all that is within me to blesse and praise the Lord. Oh let this Crosse crucifie my lusts and passions Let this death stay my reigning sins as Joshua did the Kings of Canaan Now let the Altar smoak with the Sacrifice of a loving heart inflamed with holy fire of Gods love to me Now the wax is warm Oh let the Seal be stamped fair that I may see the impression alwayes after Now that God shews forth to methe death of his Sonne for me let me shew forth that death of Christ to God again as that which I stick unto and abide by for my righteousnesse and peace with God Alas if my graces be now asleep they are next a kin to dead We might have sweet we might have fruitfull Sacraments had we but lively graces Graces upon their wing not lying sullen and benum'd with cold therefore blow up your graces as the Apostle his phrase is blow the smothering fire the embers into a flame by pertinent meditation Be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that this King of glory may come in And that I may speak to the comfort of a godly soul Let grace run forth at what tap it will so there be but vent whether at the uppermost of
his and so bindes himself and doth as it were seal a counterpart to God again and not onely so but comes into a claim of all the riches and legacies of the Will or Covenant becaUse he hath accepted and here declares his acceptance of the Covenant The Seal is indeed properly of that which is Gods part of the Covenant to perform and give and is no more but offer'd untill we subscribe and set our hands to it and then it 's compleat and the benefits may be claimed as the benefit of any conditional promise may be when the condition is performed And least you should stumble at that word I must let you know That the Will accepting and submitting to the conditions is the performance of the conditions required and so the gracious God that might pro imperio require duty and allegiance of his creature condescends to us to enter into a Covenant of Grace with us and vouchsafes us the honour of coming into Covenant with him that so he might settle and maintain a communion and correspondence between himself and his people and there might be a mutual bond of engagement each to other which is solemnly professed as often as we meet with God in this Sacrament becaUse we are so apt to disbelieve and waver about his promises and to halt and decline from our obligations to him And this is the second combination of action according to that which is to be remembred at every sealing day the Sacrament is a sealing day Deut. 26. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his wayes c. And the Lord hath avouched thee to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee So much for the first What is here done §. 6. What is here Received by the Worthy Communicant § 6 2. I come to the second What is here received and I do not mean to say what every believer doth sensibly receive but what God hath appointed by this Sacrament to convey and what may be received by a believer in the right Use of it not alwayes to his own sense but according to the nature of this Ordinance I will not say that which some affirm but it is Apocryphal of the Manna which the Israelites did eat that it had the taste that every man desired But this I may say that as Calvin of himself When I have Instit l. 4. c. 17. §. 7. said all I have said but little the tongue is overcome yea the minde is overwhelmed I say then in one word 1. Christ is here received the body and bloud of Christ into intimate Union as the nourishment of our souls What is more ours than the meat we eat What is more nearly joyn'd to us than that which becomes part of our selves The Scripture by the language it Useth hath even overcome our apprehensions A man may eat the fruit that hath no interest in the Tree but here the believing eater grows into the Tree he that drinks drinks the fountain he comes to a closer Union with the conduit-pipe of all grace the flesh of Jesus Christ You know the best meat and drink doth you no good except it be made your own nor is Christ of worth except he be ours he is as if he were not Tolle meum tolle Deum we must be happy by a Christ within us Know you not that Christ is in you except you be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. There was a croud toucht Christ but vertue went out of him to none but one that toucht him by faith So there is a throng about the Table but none receive Christ but those that by faith take and eat his crucified body If Christ himself be here received what spiritual grace is there that is not in him It is somewhat a grosse conceit to ask How Christ in heaven and a believer on earth can be united For man and wife are one flesh though a thousand miles asunder And we know that as the Apostle saith Col. 2. 19. there are bands and joynts whereby the Head and every Member the root and every branch are united and they in this mystical union are Spirit and faith He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. And so according to that strange expression We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Ephes 5. 30 A phrase which signifies that the humane nature of Christ is the root of this Union but not to be exagitated by too subtill curiosity becaUse mysticall 2. A believer in Christ may here receive remission of sinne not veniall onely as Papists teach but deadly and mortall Oh but we may not come with such sinnes Yes with repentance and remorse for them We may bring our sinnes to the head of our Sacrifice and put them thereupon by Bellarm. de Euch l. 4 c 18. confession Bellarmine resolves all the difference between Papists and Protestants about the effect of this Sacrament into this That the Papists deny the Protestants hold remission of sinne to be given here and the Papists do it in favour of their Sacrament of Pennance that one Sacrament may not rob another but Scripture tels us Matth. 26. 28. This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for remission of sinne Shed for remission that 's true saith Bellarmine not given in the Sacrament a meer evasion for we drink the bloud that was shed even that which confirmes the New Testament which promises remission of sinne The great Argument wherein he triumphs before the victory is That a believer hath remission of sinnes before he comes viz by his faith in Christ and that 's true Nemo cibum Christi accipit nisi actu sanatus but in this Sacrament the pardon passes Obsignante sigillo before a believer is pardon'd by the Covenant and here that pardon is seal'd and sealed it cannot be except it be before for the pardon of forgiven sinnes is seal'd as Abraham received the signe of circumcision the seale of the righteousnesse of faith which he had before Rom. 4. 11. And this is needfull for reliefe of our doubts and fears and waverings For this is the great Question of anxiety which troubles the soul Are my sinnes pardon'd Are my sins blotted out And God hath saith Chemnitius instituted this Sacrament for solution of this Question to the weak faith Ecce signum Behold the Seal believe upon the Word believe upon the Seal of God Luther gathers it by a gradation The Cup is put for the Wine the Wine signifies the bloud the bloud is the bloud of the New Testament Matth. 26. 28. The New Testament containes the gracious pardon of sinne to a believer And if remission of sinne be an Article of the Covenant the Seale must reach it Therefore all that have wounded their souls with grievous sinnes be wounded again with sorrow put off the purpose of sinning bring repentance and faith touch the hemme of
Christ receive here the pardon of sin Question not the Seal or truth of it 3. That I may not divide into further particulars there is by this Sacrament a communication of a greater proportion of Gospel-Spirit For we have been all made to drinke into one Spirit 2 Cor. 12. 13. which Spirit plentifully bestows his severall fruits and graces for the growing up of a member into Christ the Head in all things Ephes 4. 15. from whence we have not onely those Auxilia actualia actual influences and aids of delight comfort evidence sweet tastes powerfull motions and impressions which Vasquez cals grace sacramental and saith That Gratia Sacramentalis non est gratia habitualis sed auxilia quaedam actualia which I conceive is an errour For though a man have a sweet taste and transient delight in meat or wine yet there is also a permanent and abiding nourishment proceeding from that he eats or drinks So here the very habituall graces are nourisht strengthened excited It may be a man at present doth not feele that strength he doth receive nor is sensible of the intention of his graces For the same Vasquez saith Intentionem habituum infusorum sub experimento humano cadere non posse And it 's true at present time But the growth of grace manifests it selfe in time We doe not see our selves or others grow but that we are growne is plaine enough nor doe we see how much the light incReases by every step of the Sunne rising higher for our growth is graduall and by imperceptible instances and degrees when power of resisting temptations mortifie lusts which before were too hard for us doth appear we may see our growth as we see our shadowes are shortened but how much in a minute we see not and may say That the graces which this Ordinance requires and excites are thereby strengthened and enlarged and therefore the Rule is good What Grace thou wouldest have strengthened by this Ordinance that doe thou set on work and exercise in it for that is Sowing to the Spirit as the Apostle cals it And I make no Question but a believer shall finde the benefit of this Sacrament in his obedience also for the fuller the Vessell is the faster it will runne out at the tap If the habits incRease the fruit of obedience will be proportionable We mend a barren Tree at the root sweeten the sap there and the Tree is more fruitfull When Jacob had seen the sweet vision in Bethel then he lifted up his feet Genes 29. 1. it put mettle into him So much for this Point the Benefit of this Sacrament which being dis-Used as at this time is a great losse to the improvement of Christians though they see it not The Christians in persecuting times when a storme was coming then were they most diligent to frequent this Table to lay in store for a hard Winter and fortifie their resolutions And let this Benefit be a Motive to the Use of Preparation which was the Reason I have handled it in this place for there is no Promise no Benefit to one that comes to this Table unworthily CHAP. XXIX The Sinfulness of Eating and Drinking Vnworthily § 1 I Have said concerning eating this Bread and drinking of this Cup of the Lord worthily Now I come to the other branch The eating and drinking unworthily What that is hath been sufficiently opened already The Antithesis or opposition between worthily and unworthily is such as if you know the one you know both as he that knows what a right line is knows what is a crooked or oblique Worthily to eat is in such manner as is answerable and suitable to the nature end and Use of the Ordinance and unworthily to eat is contrary that is without a sacramental or Supper-disposition and otherwise then is fit that these holy mysteries be handled and intreated as I have before proved The Point I shall take up is this § 2 To eat the bread and drink the Cup of the Lord unworthily is a sinne of an high Nature and of consequence dangerous It is a fearfull sinne and attended with fearfull effect It is of a high nature as appears by that peculiar guilt which is contracted he shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord it is of fearfull consequence He eats and drinks judgement to himself Thou seest saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In loc what a terrible word the Apostle speaks speaks nay thunders so as may awake the secure soul into a trembling The example of Nadab and Abihu their being made Sacrifices themselves was enough to give warning to all after them against offering of strange fire and was the occasion of that excellent Rule which God gave at that time to be observed in all our near approaches to him I will be sanctified of all that come nigh me Lev. 10. 3. There are four things to be open'd 1. The sin it self viz. Eating and drinking unworthily 2. The caUse of the sinne Not discerning the Lords body 3. The aggravation of the sinne by the object and peculiar nature of it viz. A guiltinesse of the body and bloud of Christ 4. The danger that attends or follows upon it He eats and drinks judgement to himself § 3 1. The sinne is Eating and drinking unworthily and it is a peculiar sinne or transgression of the Law of this Ordinance One may do what the Law requires and yet sinne grievously if the manner of doing be vicious and corrupt Men may be content if the matter by their Law required be done whether with a good will or an evil but God is not so who values the disposition of heart when the thing in command sometimes is not done so he hearkned to Hezekiah his prayer for them that prepared their heart to seek God though not legally purified 2 Chron. 31. 19. and is highly displeas'd when the command Do this is Observed but it is done unworthily and therefore they say he is pleased with benè not meerly with bonum The Ordinance it self is the Index or Touchstone of unworthinesse Here is Christ offer'd and presented to thee and thou hast no faith Christ broken bleeding for sinne and thou hast no repentance Christ for spiritual nourishment and thou hast no appetite The Covenant is sealed and thou art no confederate strengthening and refreshing grace convey'd and thou art a dead man Communion of Christs body and bloud and thou art no member in Union with him How unsatiable art thou to the Ordinance and therefore eatest and drinkest unworthily § 4 This word unworthily may he taken two wayes Privative and Contrary Taken privatively it is as much as not worthily not suitably to the Nature and Use of the Ordinance Taken contrarily it is as much as wickedly so we say a man deals unworthily that is basely unjustly injuriously In the first sense He that hath no spiritual grace and therefore cannot exercise it or he that hath some but doth not exercise
believe these Corinthians men of such knowledge were such bruits for the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 16. speaks to them as wisemen who knew this saying The Bread we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ c. Therefore §. 3. What it is not to discerne the Lords Body practically § 3 The practical discerning of the Lords body is when the body and bloud of Christ are so minded and intended as to compose the inward man and the outward behaviour of the Communicant into such a posture of spirit and carriage as is suitable to Christs body and bloud there offered and exhibited unto faith and the not discerning the Lords body is when the behaviour is so loose and rude the inward man so discomposed and carnal as that interpretative they may be said not to minde or not to discern the Lords body So we would say of one whose carriage is wanton and loose in the presence of his fathers corpse lying in presence in a coffin or beer you doe not minde you consider not who lies there becaUse if he did another countenance and carriage would beseem him and so the Corinthians are taxed here for such carriage of theirs as proclaim'd they had no serious thoughts no sad and fixed minde upon Christ bleeding and broken for that consideration would have bespoken another frame of spirit and forme of behaviour The result of this explication is The Apostle gives us a two-fold caUse of eating and drinking unworthily 1. If we understand not know not the Analogy or resemblance of the bread and wine to the body and bloud of Christ but stick in the rind or shell and feed only on the husks as upon common bread and common wine and resting in that as knowing not the Use or end which makes the difference which renders all bruitish ignorant people unworthy receivers And how should I make them know the danger that know not thus farre of the Use of this Ordinance Willingnesse to be taught would help it if they were not more willing to runne blindefold into the pit than proudly unwilling to discover their fillinesse and ignorance and if they be unwilling It 's no cruelty but charity to keep a blinde man from running into a pit 2. If we understand the meaning of the outward elements by rote or notional knowledge but do not seriously and with a fixed intention consider and look wishly upon Christs body and bloud represented offered and to be exhibited to our faith for this will compose our outward behaviour and inward spirit this bespeaks faith repentance affections suitable this composes us unto reverence and serious behaviour Imagine the very Body of the Lord Jesus was presented to your eye broken bruised bleeding for thy sinnes under the stroke of Gods terrible justice and so offer'd unto thee for thy salvation Would not thy soul raise up all affections and muster up all it's forces to receive him to open to him to thirst after him to admire and praise him And doth not God in this Ordinance really hold him forth to thee as such and so to be received The nature of the feast to which we are invited teaches us how to dresse our selves To a funeral we come in mourning to a marriage in a wedding-garment The very minding of the body of Christ teaches men to come worthily that is suitably and the not minding of it with fixed intention is the caUse that we come loosly carnally and so unworthily CHAP. XXXI The Aggravations of the Sinne of Vnworthy Receiving § 1 3. THe aggravation of unworthy receiving follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be holden guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord or God will judge and repute him guilty of the body of Christ unworthily received and entreated or guilty of the unworthy handling or of the contempt and violation of Christs body and blood the memorial of whose death is prophaned by your irreverence and this appointed means of your participation of it is undervalued What a high sound is there in these words He shall be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord and the eclypsis is left open to be filled with some fearfull word guilty of neglect of contempt of profane violation of and injury to this body the body of our Lord. For the right understanding of which phrase §. 2. What it is to be guilty of the Body and Bloud of the Lord. § 2 1. The Papists and no lesse the Lutherans doe hence infer That the very Body and Bloud of Christ is eaten and drunk by the mouth of the Communicant which they call Sacramentall eating and the reason is How else is an unworthy Receiver guilty of his Body We of our Confession that hold the Corporeal Presence of Christ under the Bread impossible as well as false do therefore inferre That that Body which is not corporally there cannot be eaten and therefore the guiltinesse of Christs Body is not by the oral eating 2. We expound it thus Whatsoever irreverence slightnesse neglect or contempt is Used by any in the celebration of this Ordinance is reputed and adjudged to redound to the very Body and Bloud of Christ As it's TReason against the State to embase their coin to abUse a Picture is dishonour to the person to hang a man in effigie or subvert ones Statue as the Romans Used are interpreted to the disgrace of the man whose they are And thus it is here by Reason of that near relation and analogy which this Bread and Cup have to Christ himself so the uncircumcised man-childe Gen. 17. 14. is said to have broken my covenant and therefore the Fathers reckon an unworthy receivers sinne to be like that of Judas the Jews the Souldiers that abUsed and dishonour'd the very Body and Bloud of Christ and this is a peculiar guilt that attends upon the celebration of this Ordinance wherein Christ condescends to come so near us by offering his Body and Bloud to us and this condescention to be neglected and refUsed Think of this and measure not the sinne by your own apprehension of it but by the account which God makes of it who accounts all them that come unworthily to vilifie the Body the sufferings of his Sonne our Lord and to despise the Seal of that gracious Covenant which we make our selves believe we doe not do The result from hence is § 3 1. The sins of wicked Christians against Gospel-Ordinances are of highest nature and incurre greater guilt It 's said of Christians That after illumination and taste fall away they crucifie to themselves again the Sonne of God and put him to open shame Heb. 6. 6. And they that sin wilfully after the knowledge of the truth are said to have trodden under foot the Sonne of God and counted the bloud of the Covenant a common thing and to have done despight to the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. 19 26. A meer Heathen is out of capacity of guiltinesse of these high sinnes He