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A79541
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Christian consolations taught from five heads in religion I. Faith. II. Hope. III. The Holy Spirit. IV. Prayer. V. The Sacraments. Written by a learned prelate.
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Learned prelate.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing C3943A; ESTC R232695
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66,056
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242
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every Communicant Eats Christ to himself and the just shall live by his own Faith Nevertheless it is a Sacrament to combine and to knit together holding us fast into one Communion that there may be no breaking asunder of the parts and members Many grains of Wheat are kneaded into one Loaf many Grapes are trodden that their liquor may be pressed into one cup. We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.17 Now natural learning will teach us what a Comfort there is in Union and that fractions and dissolutions are painful and grievous Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is behold what a strengthening to the mystical Body to continue in one fellowship and breaking of Bread to link Faith and Love together in Jesus Christ It was but one deliverance common to all Israel whose solemnity was kept at the Passeover though every Lamb was Eaten by it self in a several family So it is one Cup of salvation which God hath given us to Drink though distributed to the faithful according to the multitude of persons and it is one Bread of which all do Eat though some have one share of it and some another It is necessary that many pieces be broken off from one Loaf to typifie the Body of the Lord broken for us and that the benefits of his Passion are distributed among us There are many instances that are pregnant to prove how pieces of something broken and divided into many shares do import a Communication of somewhat among the dividers The Heathen at the making of a League did now and then break a Flint-stone into pieces and they that entred into a League kept the parts in token of a Covenant Some upon a contract of marriage will break a piece of Gold and the two halfs are reserved by the contractors Shall I go further and yet come nearer to our case The Roman Souldiers parted our Saviour's garment among them and in that Symbolical accident is shewn that the Gentiles should share in the satisfaction of his death So Peter takes this morsel of the Bread John another c. yet Christ is not divided The same Ticket as it were in words in substance is put into every hand on which is written Take and Eat it in remembrance of me Take it says Christ and be not afraid as Saul was to take a Kingdom since Christ hath appointed it be not afraid as David was to be the Kings Son since such honour is predestinated to thee Take it and fear not as Peter did saying Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man it is the Lord's delight to seek and to save that which is lost Take it and take heed you let not go your hold the thing is fast and firm if you do not let it go and lose it Take it but not to hold the pleasures of the world and your sinful lusts in your gripe together if your hands be full of those things you can never hold this Take it and take Christ with it for He that made the Testament in his Bloud hath set the Seal unto the Testament which gives you interefs and possession of the Redemption by his Bloud Take it and reach out your hand to signifie that you receive Christ with the hand of Faith They are too nice for fear of I know not what in the Roman Church of losing a crum or so forth that they put the Body of Christ into the mouth of their Disciples and in pretence that they give it as a Mother doth her breast into the mouth of her Child whereas we receive this Sacrament not as Babes but as those that are grown to the measure of a good Age. And if we be not worthy to take it into our hands we are not worthy to receive it in our mouth Take it and eat it for it is not enough to be sprinkled without but to feed on Christ and to digest him within If upon the supply of Corn and Beasts and Cattel Paul might say that God had filled our hearts with food and gladness Acts 14.17 If we are glad of that which sustains us for a time and yet we must die How glad will we be to Eat of that as will give us such a life that will endure for ever Eat of the forbidden Tree says the Serpent to Eve and you shall not die but he lied unto her Therefore to dissolve the works of the Devil our Saviour hath appointed that which we shall Eat and assured the promise of Everlasting life unto it Eat as Jonathan did of th Hony-comb that you may be lusty to pursue your enemies and though Satan hath sworn your death as Saul did Jonathan's 1 Sam. 14.44 the Lord will deliver you Pine not away with the consumption of an evil Conscience but Eat and be strong in the Lord and in his mercy As the Spirit of the Aegyptian who was half dead came to him again when he had Eaten a little 1 Sam. 30.12 Eat and grind the Bread between your teeth to shew the Lord's death For Christ could have said This is my Body slain This is my Body crucified but he had rather say This is my Body broken for you to shew the great injuries of his sufferings Eat then and remember you Eat the Body as it was broken and remember that you Drink the blood as it flowed out of his wounds To keep these things in remembrance is the great design of the Sacrament an object which keeps the fancy of the Soul waking that otherwise it may be would fall asleep In the sixth of St. John Christ Preacheth over and over of Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Bloud without a Sacrament by the power of Faith But to keep it in fresh and frequent meditation the Lord hath given us a palpable and signal token as if he would engrave it upon the palms of our hands and upon the roof of our mouth upon the membranes of our brain and upon the foreskin of our heart This is a blessing twice and twenty times given because it is given that it may never be forgotten They that love others would live in the memory of those they love it is because Christ loves us entirely that he would be remembred of us And no friend will say to another Remember me when I am gone but that he means reciprocally to remember his friend to whom he spake it If you will remember Christ he will remember you And the Thief on the Cross will teach you that it is good to continue in his memory Lord remember me when thou com'st into thy Kingdom O blessed Christ thou art good and dost good thou hast not only provided an invaluable benefit for thy Church but dost put it into our hands that we may not lose it and dost bring it into our eyes by clear ostension that we may not forget it We are apt to remember injuries and to forget benefits
15.8 and why God's delight but because his servants delight in prayer He that sheweth mercy let him do it with chearfulness Rom. 12.8 And he that giveth offereth a blemisht sacrifice if he do it grudgingly For God loveth a chearful giver 2 Cor. 9.7 Not so much but our losses and tribulations must be sustained with gladness Thy rod and thy staff do comfort me Psalm 23.4 Enter into the combat willingly and the continuance will be a pleasure Our consolation aboundeth by Christ for as ye are partakers of the sufferings so shall ye be also of the consolation 2 Cor. 1.7 Therefore the Apostles did change the name of a famous Disciple called Joses into a notion of this Theme and called him Barnabas which is being interpreted The son of consolation Acts 4.36 The Rabbies of the Jews hold themselves very close to this doctrine and would have it observ'd that the merrier the heart is in the Lord the more capable it is of the Spirit of God Partly because Miriam when she prophesied of the mighty acts of Jehovah took a Timbrel in her hand and danced Exod. 15.20 Partly because that Samuel after he had anointed Saul to be King over Israel told Saul Thou shalt meet a company of Prophets coming down from the high place with a Psaltery a Tabret a Pipe and a Harp and they shall prophesie and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shalt prophesie with them and shalt be turned into another man 1 Sam. 10. verses 5 6. More emphatically when Jehosaphat called for Elisha to enquire of the Lord says Elisha Bring me a Minstrel and it came to pass when the Minstrel played that the hand of the Lord came upon him 2 Kings 3.15 That by the ravishing strains of Musick his mind might be exalted into Heavenly contemplations Which is a great check to that drowsie dulness in devotion which our late Reformers have brought in and have excluded the solemn melody of the Organ and the raptures of warbling and sweet voices out of Cathedral Quires They that miss that harmony can best tell how it was wont to raise up their Spirit and as it were to carry it out of them to the Quire in Heaven And beside chearfulness is not only an adjunct or companion with all the works of grace in that time they are bringing forth but being done and finisht that which is post-nate the after-birth as I may call it comes with such a gleam gliding over all the Soul with such serenity and peace of mind as cannot be exprest our Conscience bearing us witness that we have been conversant in doing the pleasure of the Lord as it is 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world Here I shall find work to heal the broken in heart who look upon the fruits of their lives with no content in themselves but are unsolaced and cast down because neither in number nor in weight have they brought in that which the Lord required they look on their ways and they find them crooked they look on their heart and they find it is not constant to good purposes To whom I rejoyn If this proceed from penitence from quick sense of sin from humility which is opposite to a self-justifying they have cause to praise God that they are thus affected Let them look narrowly if this Gold for it may prove no worse be currant when it is brought to the touch-stone then they may lift up their eyes and look chearfully towards Christ for it is no flattery to say they are under his grace and mercy Deal clearly that you are astonisht at your frailties because you think you can never work enough never shun sin enough and though your Conscience condemn you God will afford you equity against the rigour of Conscience for he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit Rom. 8.22 We are conceived in sin and it is so intimate unto us that we have no promise to be so spiritualized in this life that we shall not often trespass God hath concluded all in sin all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all Rom. 11.32 But it is one thing to fall into sin another thing to run into it One thing to be carried away by the passions of it another to covet and desire it One thing to be overtaken in a fault another thing to abide in it without repentance And great odds between those that are given over to please themselves in filthiness and between them that labour and desire to please God though many times they attain not to perfect that willingness The scope of the Seventh Chapter to the Romans as I apprehend the mind of the Apostle is to refresh our guilty Consciences that a regenerate man is not obnoxious to condemnation though his flesh upon some temptations make him the servant of sin because still in his mind he serves the law of God And I am confirm'd in that sense because without all contradiction He teacheth the like doctrine Gal. 5.17 The flesh and the Spirit are contrary one to another so that we cannot do the things that we would And will the righteous God require more of a sick and feeble servant than his best endeavour Will not Christ accept from us the same that he did from Mary that broke the Box of Ointment over his head She hath done what she could Mark 14.8 Let a contrite heart that would fain be righteous remember the prayer of Nehemiah Chap. 1. verse 10. Let thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name or the protestation of St. Paul Heb. 13.18 We trust we have a good Conscience in all things willing to live honestly But this desire and willingness must be without hypocrisie not like iron that is gilded base mettal within and rich without It must be steddy industrious instant to perform Vehement holy desire is a great degree to perfection in our state For the beginning of wisdom is the desire of discipline Wisd 6.18 but a lazy careless desire is a great token of imperfection The Soul of the sluggard desireth and hath nothing Prov. 13.4 And again The desire of the slothful killeth him for his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21.25 Like Vagabonds that when an Officer catcheth them will feign that they desire a service and to be set at work but take them at their word and they will run away that they may live in loitering and upon other mens labours St. Paul provoking both rich and poor to liberality according to their respective abilities frames a rule upon that occasion which is applicable to all good works 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be a willing mind it is accepted according to that which a man hath and not according to that which he hath not Yea in some cases when I desire a good thing