appears in every one it had its distinct particular Blessing even as the Bread that it hath some peculiar marks as the particular Command Divide it among your selves Drink all of it do this very particular thing as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me that the matter of Fact concerning it is peculiarly recited viz. They All drank of it that the Apostle calls it the Cup of Blessing All this speaks two things That the Cup is as essential a part of the Institution as the Bread of as high Necessity and Dignity and the Precept of one as extensive as the other and of the Two the most particularly remark'd in its Extensiveness 3. That it is worthy to explain the sense of those words This is my Body and the meaning of the Institution upon what occasion or account soever it shall be so urg'd seeing as the Doctrine of the Blood shed of Christ hath the Equality and rather the Preference to the Body if there could be any odds throughout the New Testament as being the last and completory Act of Christ's sacrificing himself and is therefore so expresly nam'd in that Tri-unity of Testimonies on Earth The Spirit the Water the BLOOD 1 John 5. 8. 4. When therefore we find two sacred Pen-men of this Institution write This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament and two other of which one by immediate Revelation This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood we thus collect It cannot be indeed so probable Christ said both if he did what I urge will be the stronger but I allow he said only one and that it was This is my Blood yet is this explanatory Alteration most Authentick and Divine so that there shall be as full a sense of the Blood offered to us in the Sacrament as of the Body by those Words This Cup is my Blood c. and yet the Explication of them shall limit that Presence to such a one as will bear those Words It is the New Testament in my Blood omitting the Figure of this Cup for the Wine in the Cup which yet shews Christ did not abhor from Figure in this Institution and so shews a mystical sense and seeing the Wine in the Lord's Supper is equal to the Bread even as the Blood in the Doctrine of the New Testament to the Body of Christ it shall have power to limit the sense of those Words This is my Body to such a Mysticalness as agrees to the Wine being the New Testament in Christ's Blood And when the Apostle explains both by the Communion of the Body and of the Blood of Christ it limits the sense so that the Bread is not the Body nor the Cup the Blood in any other sense than the Communion of each is so as shall be farther argued For these Words explain by divine Authority This is my Body this is my Blood into such a sense that it may be true This Bread is the Communion of the Body of Christ this Cup the Communion of his Blood 5. When the Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke all record the Saying of Christ I will no more drink of the Fruit of the Vine the Evangelist Matthew emphatically of this Fruit and the Evangelist Luke prefixes of the Passover and anti-dates part of the Institution of the Cup that he might joyn the like important Saying of our Saviour concerning the Fruit of the Vine That he will not eat any more of the Passover nor drink of the Fruit of the Vine till the Passover Which by the Evangelist Matthew must be This Fruit. be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God and till he drink of the Fruit of the Vine a new in the Kingdom of God his Father when it shall come and the Apostle says We shew forth the Lord's Death till he come From hence it may be argued That there was another manner of Presence of Christ to be expected than was just then at the eating and drinking with his Disciples and that such a one was to be expected in the Kingdom of God his Father so that he would no more eat nor drink with them either in the same manner of bodily Presence nor in the way of Anticipation or of eating that Passover and that Fruit of the Vine which at the time of this first Institution was not yet sacrificed nor the Blood yet offer'd but in such a manner as would agree to the fulfilling of all the renewing of all in the Kingdom of God and his Father when that should come after that Passover sacrific'd and that Blood offer'd of which we shall after enquire for this I esteem of great moment in this Discourse Lastly When we find the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 17. making that Question The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ and subjoyning in the very same Contexture in the same Ayr and manner of Expression We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread must we not needs infer the sense in both This is my Body and We are all one Bread and one Body must be alike one mystical Sense for seeing common sense teaches us All Christians cannot be one Bread and one Body but in a mystical sense no more can the Bread be Christ's Body but in such a mystical sense and the very Letter can no more oblige us in the one than in the other All which is much enforc'd by the Consideration The Notions of eating the Flesh of Christ and of drinking his Blood were given before the Lord's Supper instituted and though I doubt not Christ design'd it as a Foundation of that Supper as I said before yet it had been a true Doctrine if that Supper had not been instituted as a Representation of it because Christ as a Sacrifice gave himself for the Life of the World and offer'd himself to the Faith and Participation of his believing Servants as it were to be Eaten and Drunk by them had not the Lord's Supper been appointed Thus far I have endeavoured to prepare the way for this Discourse by laying a Foundation upon this Harmonical Context for it and indeed I desire in prosecuting it to use little more than Scripture Notions and Words and if I can be so happy by the Assistance of God to express the things as plain to you as I apprehend it in my own Mind I doubt not to give you a satisfactory Account of these Words This is my Body and also of the sense of this great Ordinance of the Lord's Supper In doing this I propose this Method 1. I shall endeavour to give a clear Resolution How Christ may be said to give us his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink for that was the great Stumble that those who heard Christ upon this Point John 6. made 2. I shall from thence endeavour to shew you That there is a clear Passage and Transition from that giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood
not a Literal but Mystical Propriety the Lord 's Passover Exod. 12. 11. This Passover with Desire Christ desir'd to eat with his Disciples before he suffer'd as a very lively Table of his Redemptional Suffering so near but withal He declares He would no more Eat of it till it was fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God Immediately upon this whether out of an appendant Rite to the Passover or not is not now material He Institutes the Lord's Supper as it were proleptically and by way of Prophecy and yet Intuition and looking upon his Death just before him and draws in this new Table the Intention of it but whether it was to be celebrated any more there is no Explicite but that Implicite Preception In the Evangelist Luke Do it in Remembrance of me which carries an Intimation of a Continuation but it is observable It is applied only to the Bread importing the Body of Christ and it abates much from the rigour of a gross carnal Sense where it seems to press hardest For as to the Wine being materially the Blood of Christ that Figure This Cup for this Wine in the Cup and that variation is the New Testament in my Blood does beyond all Contradiction rebate the gross Literal Sense even as Remembrance does from This is my Body for Remembrance is of Absent and not Present This therefore was as before-hand to an after thing So Christ said of the Body which is broken although it was not yet actually broken and of the Blood which is shed although it was not then shed Immediately after the drinking of the Wine Christ subjoyn'd I will no more drink of This Fruit of the Vine till I drink it new in the Kingdom of God my Father when it comes which to shew a thing of weight and of the same Sense with eating the Passover no more till c. The Evangelist Luke is before-hand with the Institution of the Cup to joyn to that Saying of the Passover this of the Fruit of the Vine as is very visible And both these Expressions speak these three Things 1. That there was an eminent Kingdom of God the Father immediately to succeed at whose Right-hand Christ sits till the Time of his own peculiar Kingdom comes which is not till he puts down all Rule and Power and Authority and last of all abolishes Death and Hell out of God's Creation into the Lake it s own Place which is the Second Death or the Death of Death and then he resigns back the Kingdom The Kingdom of God and Christ are thus kept distinct and the Kingdom of the Father is in an especial manner the state of the Gospel after the Resurrection Ascension Sitting of Christ at his Right-hand and his continual Intercession even untill that Glorious Kingdom of Christ 2. That the Death of Jesus Christ imported in both the Passover and the Lord's Supper was to be renewed into a perpetual Life and Vertue immediately after his Death by those his Resurrection Ascension Session on God's Right-hand and Intercession which are the Gospel-Kingdom of the Father 3. That Christ in a spiritual sense continually eats the Passover as fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God drinks the Wine as new in the Kingdom of God and that with his Disciples of all Ages viz. in that perpetual Renovation of his Death in his Intercession and Application of the Benefits thereof to Believers according to the whole Tenor of the Gospel and particularly of the Lord's Supper and as in a Pro-gramma or afore-hand Portraicture of all this those excellent Discourses of at least John 15. c. 16. and that great Prayer a Pattern of the Intercession of Christ John 17. following shew And of this Intercession of Christ upon his own Death the Lord's Supper is in highest sense the Memorial for the Remembrance of Christ is not of a dead Christ but who lives for ever to make Intercession and so saves to the uttermost In consequence of all this especially the * A point most insisted upon by the Apostles Paul and John I had almost said solely by them Rom. 8. Epist to the Heb. frequently and solemnly c. 7. the Apostle John c. 15 c. 16. c. 17. especially Epist c. 2. 1 2. Intercession of Christ The Apostle Paul as a fourth Evangelist concerning this Institution is immediately commission'd by Christ from Heaven to promulge it to all Ages of Christians And therein he reveals it under a solemn new Title as it were new in the Kingdom of God The Lord's Supper He applies to it its great Scope and End both to the Bread and to the Wine Do it in solemn Memorial of Christ and his Action now in Heaven upon his Death which was here on Earth and farther in those Words You shew forth his Death till he comes that is the whole Contexture of his Death as his Body is eaten and his Blood drunk through the Efficacy and Application of his Intercession through which we offer the Sacrifice of Praise giving Thanks to his Name through him in this Eucharist or Feast of Thanksgiving of whose Altar we continually Eat even that of the Great Shepheard of the Sheep brought again from the Dead by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant as the Apostle hath most divinely woven these Things into a Neighbourhood Heb. 10. v. 10. v. 15. v. 20. And this Ordinance with this whole State of Things the Apostle hath dated till the Coming of Christ when a new State shall receive this into it self till which this Ordinance cannot be superannuated or out of Date for which his being receiv'd into Glory is postpond in the Mystery of Godliness that it may be a Pawn and Pledge of his Kingdom of Glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. on which the Apostasie follows darkning all till then c. 4. Laying then all these Things together how evident is it This whole Matter is of a divine spiritual heavenly Sense and therefore the Words concerning it are to be understood mystically spiritually heavenly however express'd in a Phrase and Language nearest most easie and familiar to Sense by which Sensibleness the Substantialness Reality certain Presence of those Spiritualities is to be understood and yet nothing to be detracted or derogated from the Spirituality and to interpret otherwise is to go contrary to the Rule of all Language and of Scripture-Language particularly and is as mischievous as the worst sort of Allegorizing or Evacuating the sense of the Letter of Scripture where plain historical Things are intended The one is turning Scripture into a spiritual Romance the other is to subvert the whole World of Spirituals to bring in horrible Anthropomorphitism or imagining God to have Eyes Hands Feet c. because Scripture representing the Reality of his divine Action Providence and Government does it in Words and Images we best understand and in a word to bring in rank Hobbianism into the Scripture the Church of God and into this Sacrament as shall be more particularly remark'd under a following
Faculties and of Religion by it and the greatest danger of Idolatry against the Precept of the Apostle Paul upon the very Discourse of the Lord's Supper a Prophecy I am persuaded of Future Danger as well as an Admonition Dearly Beloved viz. Christians flee from Idolatry the Idolatry which 1 Cor. 10. 14. turns the Cup of the Lord and the Table of the Lord into a Cup and Table of what I am afraid to name for the Devil is the Author of all Idolatry It is likewise against the prophetical Farewel of the Apostle John after declaring the True God and Eternal Life Little Children Keep your selves from Idols 1 Ep. John c. ult v. ult When therefore There is so little Gain at the cost of such a miraculous Power suppos'd on God's part of so prodigious a Faith on ours and so great a danger what but a strange Servitude to a Church calling it self Infallible can subject us to such an undesirable Opinion 2. It should raise us to high Thoughts of the Redemption of Christ thus nearly uniting it self to and incorporating it self within us Although it is matter of Faith yet it is so abundantly assur'd to that Faculty of our Minds to Know and to be assur'd to that Faculty of our Minds to Know and to be assur'd by so high a Revelation that if we pursue it by that Power that Faculty sanctified actually to believe in Christ and that we come to live by that Faith of the Son of God it will be even as certain as sensible as Life it self 3. We should lift up our Souls and Hearts to Christ in the Heavens on the Right-hand of God Interceeding for us for there he still eats the Passover and drinks of that very same Fruit of the Vine with us as it is new and fulfill'd in his Fathers Kingdom there he continually applies it to our Hearts as the great Testator and Risen surviving Surety Executor or Mediator of his own Testament 4. It should oblige us to a continual Appretiation and high value of the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper and joyning the Lord's Supper if it could be to every Lord's Day Lordly Supper Lordly Day to which it is coupled in so peculiar and unparallel'd only to themselves a New-Testament-Expression For though it hath a constant and undividable Annexion to that New Testament of which Christ hath made it a visible Sum altho' it is always preach'd with the Gospel and is as it were administred in that Preaching yet because the whole Gospel is present and sensibly preach'd in that Sacrament also we should embrace both within our most conscientious Observation And the very Ordinance it self is undoubtedly the most ordinary means of a superadditional Assurance and Conveyance of the Gospel-Efficacy into our Hearts and therefore by no means to be neglected 5. It persuades us to an earnest Care and Caution against violating the great Ordinances of the Gospel preach'd in both the Word of God and in the Lord's Supper for it is the Offer of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to be Eaten and Drunk and if we neglect and refuse or unworthily partake we are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord we do not discern and take due notice of the Lord's Body so it becomes a savor of Death unto Death in the Word and of Judgment to Condemnation if we persevere so to do in the Lord's Supper because it is a degree of that great Sin of Apostacy treading under foot the Son of God counting the Blood of the Covenant a common thing doing Injury to the Spirit of Grace Crucifying him a-fresh and putting him to an open Shame And when by the ordinary Profession of Jesus Christ being Born and Baptiz'd into the only Holy Religion in the World Educated in it we are caught in its Net and under the Bond of the Covenant the Gospel is Preach'd to us whether we will or no and the Lord's Supper goes along with it whether we Hear or whether we forbear whether we Receive or whether we forbear we must know we shall know the Gospel in its Preaching in the Lord's Supper inseparable from it hath been among us We are All Baptiz'd in the Cloud and in the Sea of the Gospel Ministry every way surrounding us We All Eat the same spiritual Meat and 1 Cor. 10. 1. Drink the same spiritual Drink and that is Christ. The Bread broken among us the Cup of Blessing bless'd among us encloses us though in regard of Unbelief and Impenitency we Eat and Drink Judgment to our selves and with many of us God is not well pleased and our Carkasses will fall notwithstanding this Manna this Water of the Rock vouchsaf'd to us if we Repent not There is therefore no way of avoiding the Gospel-Penalty but by Receiving the Lord Jesus aright and walking in him No Abatement of our Danger as to the Lord's Supper but by giving no Sleep to our Eyes nor Slumber to our Eye-lids till we have brought our selves into an approved state for it Refusal of the Gospel in its Preaching in the Lord's Supper will not be so Tollerable as Sodom's Judgment There is no Safety any way but in Eating and Drinking Christ so that we may live for ever else we can have no life in us 6. Seeing all the Gospel and Lord's Supper hath such relation to the Last Day to the Table of Christ in his Kingdom in his Glory and to Eating and Drinking then in his Presence let us lift up our Heads our Thoughts our Desires our Prayers to it Although these Ordinances ought to be all our Delights on Earth yet they are but the State below a State of the Delay and Patience of Christ for his Kingdom A shewing forth the Lord's Death till he come Then
from p. 38. to p. 44. General Head the fourth is taken up in an Enquiry How there came such a Notion into the Christian Church as that fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for and finds it arising from four Causes 1. From the great mystery of spiritual Transubstantiation given in that our so magnified Sixth of John and in the Institution of the Lord's Supper p. 44. 2. From the Ancients and Fathers discoursing with high Eloquence of this Point not sufficiently guarded p. 45. 3. From the Ignorance and Barbarity which after them invaded the Christian Church p. 46. 4. From the rising of a Church-Power at the same time over mens Consciences and pressing this as an Article of Faith p. 47. General Head the fifth shews the danger of such a Doctrine as fleshly Transubstantiation 1. As it shakes the Credit of all our knowing and judging Faculties p. 48 49. 2. As it makes void the Divineness of Scripture-Language expressing spiritual things by sensible and indeed perverts the Wisdom of all Language so doing p. 49. 3. As it amuses Mens Minds and draws them off from spiritual Action in Holy Mysteries p. 49. 4. The great danger especially lies in bringing down God into a contemptible vile Appearance and allowing divine Honour to it which is one sort of Idolatry Scripture most abhors p. 50 to 52. General Head the sixth draws all into six practical Applications p. 52. to the end 1. By proposal to our choice the most worthy of these two The spiritual or the carnal Transubstantiation 2. By raising us to high Thoughts of the Redemption of Jesus Christ so uniting it self to us as by eating and drinking his Body and Blood 3. By lifting up our Hearts to Christ eating the Passover and drinking the very same Fruit of the Vine with us by his Intercession in Heaven which he did here on Earth 4. By obliging us to a high value of this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper in which we so unite to Christ. 5. By perswading us to an earnest care against violating so great a Mystery as Christ eaten and drunk in the Gospel and the Lord's Supper 6. By lifting up our Heads in Prayers and Desires to the Table of Christ in his Kingdom A SERMON OF THE True Spiritual Transubstantiation oppos'd to the Gross Carnal Imaginary Transubstantiation MATTH 26. 26. Compar'd with Mark 14. 22. Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 23. c. This is my Body I Take all these Scriptures as the common Subject that by the Grace and Assistance of God I intend to discourse at this time and especially to Treat the Sense of these Words This is my Body And This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament And as I have earnestly begg'd of God that he would waken me morning by morning that he would waken my Ear to hear as the learned concerning it so that He would give me the Tongue of the Learned to speak of it and grant you also to hear with the Ear of the Learned that so in this whole Duty the Preparations of the Heart the Answer of the Tongue and the Hearing of the Ear may be from the Lord. Now I shall endeavour so to treat of it as if there were no other Point of Controversie between us Protestants and the Roman Persuasion but only the Sense of these Words This is my Body And I shall consider that Transubstantiation as it is generally called that is built upon it as if there were no other Fault nor Errour in that Doctrine but only a Zeal for the Mystery of the Lord's Supper and the Letter of Scripture in this Institution though it be not according to Knowledge and therefore I will allow the utmost both to the Words and the Sense that can be allowed the very utmost that can be made of This is my Body This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament And I shall endeavour so to treat of it that there may be nothing that may be offensive except the plain Evidence and Reason of Things the Evidence of Truth without any umbrage any shadow of a Railing Accusation I will discourse only upon the single Account of Scripture and the Reasons drawn from it And therefore I do allow That these Words This is my Body and This Cup is my Blood they do carry a most high and important Sense And I shall consider the utmost Tendency they can have to such a thing as is called Transubstantiation though the Word it self be not indeed found in Scripture yet I will allow the thing in its due sense And I shall endeavour so to do this that you may have the clearest understanding of the Intention and Meaning of the Lord's Supper and the Institution of it and of these Words This is my Body and so as may tend most to the real Sense and Impression upon your Hearts of so great an Expression of our Saviour both in the general Doctrine of the Gospel and in the particular Sense and Meaning of the Lord's Supper and that sacred Solemnity and also may be most practical and may most serve to the good of every man's Soul who desires spiritually to understand this great Doctrine and the particular Ordinance of the Lord's Supper And because it is agreed among all men that profess any Reverence to the Lord's Supper that as it is not a humane Device so not a natural Duty made known by natural Light nor written in natural Conscience it is not like the Reverence of the Divine Being or Prayer to God or the desire to know his Mind or Will or any moral Duty but it depends wholly upon Divine Institution and Ordination 'T is wholly from Scripture or else there could never have been such a Worship of God known in the World as the Solemnity of eating Bread and drinking Wine in the Lord's Supper in Remembrance of him To introduce therefore this matter I consider There are Four inspired Writers who have given us this Institution from our Lord the Evangelist Matthew the Evangelist Mark the Evangelist Luke and the Apostle Paul and then the Evangelist John although it was not committed to him as every Evangelist had throughout the whole Evangelick History his Portion of every Matter and the proper Words of it committed to him to write of this Institution yet he had a sublime and highly spiritual Discourse intrusted with him all along the last part of his sixth Chapter concerning the eating the Flesh of Christ and drinking his Blood which must needs be the Foundation of eating the Flesh of Christ and drinking his Blood in the Sacrament for a Sacrament must have a Doctrine to sustain it that it may not be an insignificant Ceremony and what can have nearer Relation to the Sacrament of eating the Body of Christ broken for us and drinking his Blood of the New Testament shed for many than eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood which he gave for the life of the World which is Meat indeed and Drink indeed
had blessed the Bread with Thanksgiving and broke it and likewise after Supper Blessing the Cup with Thanksgiving and saying Divide it among your selves and drink ye All of it For This is my Blood of the New Testament or the New Testament in my Blood For when our Lord had settled that great Doctrine of Eating his Flesh John 6. and Drinking his Blood comprehensive of the whole of his Redemption and the saving Application of it by Faith and Love and the entire new Creation Galat. 5. 6. c. 6. 15. it is not at all strange he should establish so great a sacramental Institution upon it For when in so large and Sublime a Discourse and in more Words than he expended upon any one Subject that we find upon Record he had compriz'd the whole Mystery of our Salvation it cannot be surprizing he should adjust to it one of the two and that the most solemn and continual of his positive Laws which we call Sacraments For though it is true Eating and Drinking consider'd as mere sensitive Things and much more when it degenerates into Sensuality a Life of and for Eating and Drinking it is a sordid low and course thing as the Apostle says Meats for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God shall destroy both it and them and there cannot be a more ignoble Character than of those whose God is their Belly and who serve not the Lord Jesus but their own Bellies a beastly a bruitish Servitude But then taking it as it is by the Wisdom of Providence made the means of the support of the Humane Animal Life in Subordination to the Life of Reason and Religion and is symbolical and significant and also serviceable to many rational Communications and much noble Humanity of Conversation so it may even as the natural Purgation of Water in Baptism be worthy to be transplanted from common use to the highest Significations in Religion and as it had been so dignified in the Old Testament so to be farther ennobled in the New and to bear a sense far above and beyond it self And yet to shew both the Spirituality great use to the highest Life and also the Simplicity of the Gospel Institution it is taken from the most necessary plainest Food in Eating Bread and the most generous thing in Drinking viz. Wine Bread that strengthens and Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man And the Resemblance stands in these following Particulars between Eating Bread and Drinking Wine and Eating the Body and Drinking the Blood of Jesus Christ. But I shall begin with those Particulars that are as least of Controversie so of least Interest in the main Merits of the Point we are upon and will end in that which is of the grand Concern in this whole matter 1. It is an Eating and Drinking in Pledge of Reconciliation Peace and Friendship with God by Jesus Christ for so eating Bread and drinking Wine is in Scripture and by the general Impression of Providence upon Mankind ordain'd as Joseph's Brethren in token of extraordinary Favour were to eat Bread with him and it is said of the Nobles of Israel Gen. 43. 25. They saw God and he laid not his hand of viz. of Displeasure upon them They saw him and did eat and drink in Exod. 24. 11. token of Peace and especially this is a Feast upon a Sacrifice a Sin-offering become a Peace-offering of which the Jews that serve the Altar have no Right to eat because their Heb. 13. 10. Sin-offerings of greatest expiatory Account yet as not able to purge off the imputative Guilt laid upon them were burnt without the Camp But Christ though he suffer'd without the Camp yet consuming the Guilt and fully expiating it his Body as sacrific'd becomes an Altar of Peace-offerings to the true Christian although to the Jews an Offering only to Justice not conquering the Guilt but as a Malefactor dying in his own Blood but the true Believer feasts upon it after he is sanctified atton'd reconcil'd and purified by the Blood of it It is a Feast upon the Paschal Lamb in assurance against the destroying Angel the Blood being sprinkled by way of 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. Expiation and the Flesh eaten in the way of a holy Festival Rejoycing and Thanksgiving So that though eating the Flesh of Christ carries a broad Signification of the great Evil and Horror of Sin and of the dreadful way of Reconciliation looking so unnatural as the eating of the Flesh and the drinking the Blood of our Saviour does yet by the great attoning vertue of this Sacrifice it becomes a Feast of Joy and Peace 2. This Act is a solemn Act of Worship of God and Christ We eat thus and worship It is an Acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as our Saviour Lord and Master as all eating upon Sacrifices was an Acknowledgment of the God of the Sacrifice and seeing our Mediator is our Sacrifice of whom it is testified He lives for ever and we are to live to him it is an Acknowledgment of him our Saviour and so it requires Reverence and Godly Fear it calls for Self-probation even to Approbation or Approvizing our selves that so we may eat and not otherwise To eat and drink in a way worthy or becoming the Holy Body and Blood we seed upon to discern that Body of the Lord or to make a difference and discrimination betwixt it and all other Bread by spiritual holy Action and to carry from it such Obligations as by no means to partake of the Table or drink the Cup of Devils This is the solemn Worship of Eating and Drinking before God 3. Eating and Drinking is made a Symbol of Eternal Glory for so Christ expresses Eternal Glory by Eating and Luc. 22. 30. Matt. 8. 11. Drinking at his Table in his Kingdom By sitting down with Abraham with Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God And this is the Reason Christ in that great Sixth of John so often enterweaves with that Discourse of Eating Raising up at the last day because then shall the full effect of the Union to the Body of Christ be seen when all his Members shall indeed be seen as One Christ in Glory Their Bodies shall be fashioned like his Glorious Body It does not yet appear what we shall be but when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is He will then present us faultless before the Presence of his Glory And all this from the Power of Union to himself through the eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood So that Life Eternal Life Living for ever Never dying Raising up at the last Day Having no Life if we do not eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood are in that Discourse sixteen Times mention'd to shew how close the Relation is betwixt eating the Flesh of Christ and drinking his Blood and Eternal Life So that the Apostle Peter sums up all the Discourse in the Words of