Head Add hereunto This is most particularly the Language of Scripture in Sacramental or Testamentary Discourses Discourses concerning the Covenant according to that famous Instance Heb. 9. 19. 20. When Moses had spoken every Precept to the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Calves of Goats with Scarlet-wool and Hysop and sprinkled both the Book and the People saying upon the whole This Thing this whole Thing is the Blood of the Covenant which God hath enjoyn'd you Thus the Bread Blessed Broken Taken Eaten is the Body of Christ and proportionably the Blood This whole Thing the whole Doctrine and Law of the Gospel always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consider'd and embrac'd first and then the Bread so Blessed Broken Taken Eaten is the Body of Christ and accordingly this Cup or Wine particularly Blessed Divided Drunk And that not only in a figurative cold sacramental or commemorative Sense for that Divine Power that Eternal Spirit of Christ does infinitely propagate the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ representing his whole Humanity in all the saving Efficacies and mighty Effects proper thereunto as perpetually in the Doctrine and Truth of the Gospel in an intellectual way so in this Supper as in a sensible material Representation but yet only confirming assuring making present a divine spiritual Efficacy as hath been all along declar'd And even as the Bread and Wine have an undoubted evident Appearance to Sense are Eaten Tasted Concocted in the Stomach converted into Flesh Blood and Spirits so are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ really present in the Bread in the Wine viz. in their spiritual Effects justly called his Body and Blood So that the Bread is in true spiritual Sense the Body of Christ to be eaten spiritually to be tasted spiritually to be turn'd into spiritual Life to the Soul in which Body and Blood go hand in hand with the Elements in all their natural Progress by their Spirituality and so that the want of due spiritual Action in all that profess Christ Jesus whether at or not at the Sacrament however particularly applied to that is an Offence against the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and brings a Guilt proportionable to the Offence All which hath the Full of a spiritual Transubstantiation and is the Thing we have pursued Head 4 I am come down now to the fourth Head viz. To enquire into this Thing How there came into the Christian Church such a Notion as that Fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for And I account it to these four Causes Cause 1 That this Great and Excellent Doctrine of the Gospel especially in that so often magnified Sixth of John and in the Institution of the Lord's Supper give great Warranty to observe a great and divine Mystery in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in his Supper That there must be some real sense of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as preach'd in the Gospel as presented in the Lord's Supper Transubstantiated so as to be Meat and Drink indeed and to give Life to our Souls All this Mystery cannot be exhausted and drawn out in no more than a plain Assent to this that Christ dyed as an Attonement for the World if so much be allowed as Socinianism denies and gave a Body of Holy Precepts and Commands of an excellent Nature and that whoever lives in Obedience to these with Sincerity shall have that their Obedience imputed to them for Righteousness through the Covenant of Grace and justifie Men as perfect and unsinning Obedience should have been and done by the first Covenant with Adam Rationalists and Moralists draw down this Gospel-Mystery too low while they seem to acquit themselves to Reason and general Understanding and to carry all Things plausibly before that They lose the high Spirituality of Christianity which they are too ready to esteem no better than Jargon Cant and Non-sense There is a Gospel middle betwixt gross portentous carnal Transubstantiation and such an emaciating and shrinking up the great and unsearchable Treasures of the Gospel as if they did not much excell a Lecture out of Plato Plutarch Epictetus or some of the great Sages of Morality joyn'd to some Articles of Faith and Forms of Worship The way and manner of the Gospel speaking of these things and especially as our Lord and Saviour spake who spake as never man spake might well raise the Minds of Christians to look for something high and surpassing in the Mysteries of Christian Religion and beyond common Sense or common Reason 2. Many of those we call the Antients or Fathers coming out of the Heathen Learning and Eloquence into the Profession of Christianity Men of great Holiness Innocency and Sanctity of Conversation Contempt of the World Readiness to dye for the Name of Christ and generally Martyrs of curious and delicate Reason of very sublime Notion and Sentiments of a flowing Language softness and sweetness of Speech and accomplish'd with all the Gracefulnesses of Rhetorick taking the Scripture-Expressions and displaying upon them with that Magnificency and Gallantry of Words and all kind of Wit but not pursuing strongly and closely the Reason Strength and whole Analogy of Scripture nor guarding their Discourse by a Nervous Compare of Scripture with Scripture launch'd out into many free and liberal Expressions concerning these Things which not ballanc'd limited defended against possible Mistake at some Times and in some Veins of their Writings in this Matter might give occasion to the more grievous and dreadful Mistakes to such a course of Times as we may easily observe succeeded them And this they did at the higher rate undoubtedly out of a great Zeal for the Honour of Christian Religion for the Jews and Pagans speaking high of their Cabalaes Great Mysteries and Secrets of Religion and their Mystae who had the guard of these Mysteries their Priests and Devotoes The Fathers of the Christian Church knowing the true Excellency of Divine Mysteries and pitching upon this as easily the most remarkable viz. the Doctrine of eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ and this Doctrine in an especial manner consigned into the Mystery of the Lord's Supper to which is adjoyn'd that severe Discourse of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. It was very obvious to them here especially to exalt the Glory of Christianity and of the holy Ministers of it as highly surmounting the Poor if true but therefore most poor because false Mysteries of outdated Judaism and much more of Paganism It is most evident at the very same Time in the very same Places of their Writings they in the same kind of flowing Eloquence intermix other Expressions that sufficiently argue How free they were from any Misapprehensions in these Things But their way of Writing being not by way of severe Examination of Scripture Notions and Texts not by the austere Beam of Scripture in its several Portions of Revealed Truth and of the Sacred Context nor having any surmise of the after
is not receiv'd it then does not work Good where that Preparation is not because it is not receiv'd but if it be receiv'd it hath its certain Effect On the other side when it is not receiv'd it does hurt by way of increasing Guilt because a spiritual Offer of so excellent a Nature is refus'd and contemn'd and because the Soul by such pretence of receiving and yet Refusal grows much more confirm'd in Evil. But this is not all for though the Holiness and Spirituality of a Holy Created Finite Spirit may by Instruction Suggestion or Example offer much Good to other Spirits and be instrumental in affecting them aright yet this is in all Regards in so finite and limited a way that the Effect may be very small or none at all and so it is not possible in any more than a very low and abated sense to eat or to drink of the Communications of any Angel or Saint above or below But now whatever is divine is communicative even to what degrees it pleases All Finite is Poor and Scanty and hath not for it self but as received But the Son of God in Humane Nature hath all Fulness dwelling in Col. 1. 19. Him and so can derive and convey to what degrees he thinks fit Of which is to be spoken in the next Particular But this Assures in Christ there is Meat and Drink abounding to the Life of the World The Divine Power of the Son of God and its Efficacy Point 4 extend the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ and his Action therein in their saving Virtue and Effect without limitation to Time or Place and to all dimensions and degrees of Effect And under this Head I will undertake these three Particulars 1. To shew that the Divine Nature of the Son of God acting in the Humane Nature united to Him can draw out such spiritual Powers and Efficacies from those his Actings and Sufferings as shall be most conducing to the Salvation of Souls that believe in Him now this I shall make good by shewing what kind of Causalities and what answerable Effects are by the Word of God ascribed to the Divine Power of Christ Acting in the Humane Nature 2. I will shew that they cannot be prejudg'd nor hindered by any distances of Time because of the Eternity of Jesus Christ the Son of God 3. That they cannot be intercepted by any distances of Place because of the Omnipresence of Jesus Christ the Son of God Now I shall not presume to speak of these Particulars but as I am guided by the Spirit of God in his Word For Who can describe the way of the Divine Spirit in Nature Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me I cannot attain to it if not in Nature how much more not in Grace and supernaturals But yet it is not unworthy to be taken notice of That all Philosophy owns some kind of Effluviums some flowing Atomes Ramenta or little Globules of matter that fly every way or if but some Sympathies in Nature that pass up and down and fly unknown ways and unmeasurable distances without the Load Cumber Presence of those Bodies from which they flow which cannot move nor pass as they do if Spirits of much greater Efficacy are extracted more agile more portable and more easily conveyed than the Bodies themselves from which they are extracted if there are some Relations of unknown Communications of Minds at great distance of Bodies These may be taken notice of as some Illustration of this matter But such things are too slippery and incertain and also too gross to rest so great a Point upon seeing what so infinite an Agent as the Spirit of Holiness can do cannot be grasp'd or comprehended by any material Likenesses its Extractions its Abstractions are more subtile than our gross Apprehensions can find out or receive or natural Agents imitate There are yet in common Observation some Instances that may come nearer this great Point From the vertuous Actions of great Personages in Bodies there is an Honour an Esteem a Dignity an excellent Example flowing out that continues Ages beyond the very Actions and beyond the Persons continuance in Bodies that perform'd them and may be imputed to their Posterity and are as it were Abstracts from Persons in Bodies and yet of a spiritual kind of Diffusiveness as to both Time and Place and much exceed the Places whereupon they were acted that have a kind of Universality both as to Time and Place are nearer the matter we are upon and yet they are but dark and dull shades of so great a Truth Let us therefore come to the Holy Word of God it self and we shall find four kinds of Causality attributed to God manifested in Flesh and to all his Divine Action and suffering therein 1. The Causality of an expiatory propitiatory or meritorious Cause 2. Of an exemplar Cause 3. Of an efficient Cause by way of Union to himself 4. Of a rational argumentative Cause so effecting a Conformity of the Souls of his People to himself There is nothing more evident than that the Gospel ascribes Causality 1 to the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ the Efficacy of an eternal propitiatory expiatory Cause By one Offering Heb. 10. 14. of the Body of Christ and that once for all He hath for ever perfected that is reconcil'd and consecrated them who are sanctified because it was offered by the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 24. His Body is an Offering a Sacrifice of an eternal sweet-smelling Ephes 5. 2. savour because he offer'd himself now himself is God in our Nature so the Offering is in the hand of Divinity Thus his Blood offered by the Eternal Spirit purges the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God The Blood of Christ more precious than Silver or Gold redeems from a vain Conversation All these are plain and high Effects of a spiritual Nature and they are deriv'd from the humane Nature of Christ call'd his Flesh his Body his Blood acted by an intellectual holy humane Soul which delighted to do the Will of God and the Law of God was within his heart And Psal 40. 8. all this by being in the hand of the Divinity of Jesus Christ is infinitely communicative both as to Time and Place The Righteousness of Angels or of Men though they had continued Holy as the standing Angels could not have done this but what Christ the Lamb did he did by the Eternal Spirit which is infinite Now these expiatory Extracts Abstracts drawn from the Body of Jesus Christ are so DIVINIZ'D if I may so speak by the Eternal Spirit That they are every where Christ's Body in this sense may be every where even as his Divinity is with Pardon of Sin Reconciliation to God Peace with him sprinkling the Heart from an evil Conscience and all other great Effects For where is it that the Gospel is and true Christians are where this Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World
danger there being so little occasion or appearance of Fear at the Time left Things so as that the following Times deprav'd their Innocent Glory of Learning and sublime Ingeny dyed deep with Love of Christ 3. Through the many Devastations of the Christian Empire by the Barbarous Nations by the Saracens and Turks in a long Tract of Time through the daily Decay of Christian Knowledge Zeal and Holiness there ensued a great Darkness Ignorance Barbarism upon the Christian World in which Men of the best Note seiz'd upon such Expressions of Scripture and the Fathers whose Sepulchres they built and garnished their Tombs all manner of ways I add no more and it may be as it seem'd to them most to make for the Honour of Christian Religion But their Understanding being heavy course sinking into the thick and impure matter bearing also a deep Grain of Paganism they grievously err'd neither knowing the Scriptures the true Sense of the Fathers nor of the Power of God And hereunto they proportion'd all their Notions of the Christian Religion their Worship of God and Christ and most miserably especially They stuck in the mirey Clay as to this great Mystery of the Lord's Supper and the Doctrine of Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of Christ out of which it was drawn and degraded the most losty Spirituality of the Gospel into the poorest and even vilest of carnal Apprehensions concerning it in the Doctrine of a Carnal fleshly Transubstantiation 4. At the same Times and by the same Degrees grew up a Despotick Arbitrary Church power that imposed what it pleas'd under Anathemaes Curses Excommunications Brands of Heresie and all Cruelty upon the Bodies Names Estates of those who even to Syllables did not Say as they Said and do as they did while at the same Time also there Invaded Persons of as honest and sincere a Devotion as Ignorance could produce a Veneration for the Name of the Catholick Church and the Governours of it and their Canons Now the Impress the Stamp of this Authority being set so particularly and Imperially upon this Doctrine of Transubstantiation it is no wonder it prevail'd so far and sunk so deep into the Minds of Men through what every Age from those Worthies before-nam'd contributed both to the Grossness and Authoritativeness of this false Article of Faith I forbear because I would be as inoffensive as may be consistent with Truth to remark upon that Apostacy that Mystery of Iniquity which the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour foretold were even then beginning and to rise higher and higher in the Latter Times to which even many Things innocent and inoffensive in themselves at first and indeed all Contingencies fathally concurr'd and which it is most certain are not yet remov'd Nor do I think fit at this Time to Animadvert upon the Covetous Practices Cruelties and Inhumanities into which Transubstantiation hath been Transubstantiated not only in the true real sense of spiritual Wickedness but in a sense as corporeal as Corporeity it self I hasten therefore to the fifth Head viz. To represent to you the Danger of such a Doctrine as that Fleshly Transubstantiation not so much as it is a contemplative Thing a Notion a manner of Apprehension or matter of Discourse though that also but as it carries the Practice of Worship and Adoration Now in these Great Points we may very plainly and convincingly understand the great Danger of that Transubstantiation 1. The believing it must needs shake the Credit of all the knowing and judging Faculties of our Natures and Beings than which nothing can be more destructive to Religion or put all Things into greater Disorder and Confusion that concern God our Selves or our Motions in relation to another World For if our Faculties are not true we have nothing to guide our selves or to be guided by Now the Faculties of our Minds first judge and act by Sense then by Reason then by the Notices or Sentiments of Natural Conscience then by Faith and these must be all sound in due state They have all their proper Objects they are all finite and by these Rules they are limited they must not go out of their Limits It is true these are each as so many Stories one above another and the lower must not presume into the Region of the higher for then they will be mistaken and in Error yet the highest is supported and sustained by the lower And seeing they all are from God whatever is true in the lowest cannot be contradicted in the highest and therefore whatever is pretended in the highest cannot be true there if it be justly denied in the lowest Now it were easie to shew this Notion of Carnal Transubstantiation must be false in all the judgment of our Faculties but I shall only instance in Sense And if the Bread be Bread in the Judgment of every one of our Senses of the Senses of all Men in all Places at all Times and in all Ages under the most advantageous Circumstances for sense to judge by the contrary can never be true in Reason in natural Conscience nor in Faith for then either there must be no such Faculty as Sense or that fundamental Faculty of the Souls Judgment by Sense must be false and so all our Faculties will lose their Credit for they may be false too seeing he that gave us one gave us all of them and this of Sense is that we most live and act by in this World If any attempt to parallel this with the Doctrine of the Father the Word and the Spirit being ONE to which Reason say they can never subscribe the Case is manifestly different seeing it is certain our Faculties are finite and cannot judge of Infinity but by Faith in divine Revelation Infinite Being is too High too Deep too Broad too Long for Job 11. 7 8 9. a Finite Reason to judge of It is not its proper Object But Colour Taste Figure Hard Soft Sound may be all judg'd by Sense and properly are so to be judg'd Or if any should make the same Objection against that Spiritual Transubstantiation we have made out by Scripture 't is certain It is only cognisable and to be judg'd of by Faith and Revelation Sense hath no Title to judge of it If it be maintain'd by Faith it is maintain'd in its proper Court But it is certain The Judgment whether this Bread be Bread or Wine be Wine is to be made by some one or more of the Senses at least in the Universality of all the Senses of all Persons Times Places Let any one then lay that place 1 Epist John c. 1. v. 1. That which we have heard that which our Eyes have seen which we have looked upon and our Hands have handled c. to the being born down That in these Senses and all others we are mistaken in judging Bread to be Bread when it is no Bread and Wine when it is no Wine Must not all the Argument the Evidence