as it is here Forsan at haec sunt vetus formula c. saith Cameron Haply that this was the old Rite but in the Jewish Rituals that are now as it is recited by Cameron in the Hebrew and by Scaliger in Greek it is somewhat diverse Scaliger de Emend lib. 6. pag. 536. Thus every one that is hungry let him come and eat and whoso hath need let him come and keep the Passeover 1. Take ye It is to be understood of taking in the hand for it 's not likely that Christ rose and put the Bread and Wine in every ones mouth saith Beza Epist. 2. Beza but as the Cup passed from the nearest to Christ to them more remote so it 's probable saith the same Author that the Bread also did There is a great stirre about the Communicants taking the Elements in his hand not as though if other wise the Sacrament was a nullity as Beza proves for a Bezain Epist. 2. man may have no hands to take it with but for the decency and significancy thereof The taking in the mouth only being more like that of Bruits which take their meat with mouth or beak as Chamier saith than that of men and there is a whole Chapter spent in reciting Antiquities for this taking in the hand in Chamier who saves me the labour to recite any of De Euchar. l 7. cap. ult them to you and this is all upon occasion of the Papists who take the Bread into their mouths and touch it not with hand out of a too superstitious veneration Beza Epist 2. of the Elements as Beza notes Nor do they of them that search out the footsteps of this custom rise any higher than about five or six hundred years ago The signification of it is the appropriation of Christ to our selves whom God makes ours by his gift and we make ours by faith even as truly as if he were put into our very hand They that make Paraeus in loe Taking and Eating divers Rites of divers significations as many of our excellent Divines do do tell us that there are divers degrees of faith that by taking Christ we have propriety in him He is ours by eating his Body and drinking his Blood we have comfort and refreshment from him and that he is first ours in claim before he be ours in comfort as first take then eat In the use of the brazen Serpent our beleeving was set forth by an act of our eye Joh. 3. 14. looking up but here 't is set forth by an act of ourhand retension or receiving the promise of Adoption is made to our receiving Christ Joh. 1. 12 and our faith must be a Christ taking a Christ-receiving faith Christ would be ours else he would not have instituted this Christ-applying Ordinance He came into the hand of murderers that slew him that crucified and wounded and dying he might be taken in the hand of thy faith faith like the hand hath a faculty of working and bringing forth obedience but like the hand again it hath a taking and receiving faculty which is the most excellent the justifying act of faith taking Christ Take ye is not a bare permission but a command it 's our duty as well as our benefit to receive Christ and consequently not to receive him is both sinne and misery §. 11 §. 11. Of Sacramentall Eating and Drinking Christs Body and Blood 2. Eat ye drink ye all of it Christ speaks and repeats often Joh. 6. the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood at which some of his followers took offence conceiving him carnally and literally which he told them were to be understood spiritually ver 63. There is a spirituall eating and drinking Christ his flesh and blood by faith only which is extra-symbolicall or without the Sacrament for that Doctrine was delivered a year or two before this Sacrament was instituted and it is such as without which ye have no life in you ver 53. which may not be said of all that never received this Sacrament but that spirituall eating and drinking is here symbolized as that flesh and blood is For the understanding of which let us neither be like the carnall Israelite that did eat Manna and drink of the Rock but neither saw nor tasted Christ in them nor on the other side let us be like the Capernaites Joh. 6. that had a gross apprehension of eating very flesh and drinking mans blood but rightly conceive the meaning thus 1. The first and not the least thing is this that This is the one and only Ordinance under the Gospel where eating and drinking are Sacred and Religious acts for in all the world among all sorts of men friendship fellowship communion are maintained and shown in feasting together eating and drinking together and our God never let his Church be without such an Ordinance wherein he and his people might testifie this fellowship and communion In the Law there was not only a Lamb rosted but in all their Shelamim or Peace-offerings they that brought them had part to feast upon and make good cheer as at all their feasts they rejoyced before the Lord God bidding thâ—m to his own Table to feed upon Sacrifices for they that eat of the Sacrifices are partakers of the Altar 1 Cor. 10. 18. Rev. 3. â—0 I will come in and sup with him and he with me Thus God entertains his friends invites them to eat and drink with him upon his own Sacrifices upon Christ the great Sacrifice It 's Gods own cheer provided for such Abrahams as are the friends of God What a favour and condescension of God is this What honour and dignity is dust and â—shes graced with to sit together and feast and have fellowship with God in an Ordinance of eating and drinking the flesh and blood of this Sacrifice Jesus Christ Nay and further yet It was a custom in Covenants making that the Consederates feasted eat and drank together therefore Birith the Hebrew word Covenant may come of Barah to eat and so still and further it is implied that this is a Covenant solemnity an eating and drinking of confederates together God smels a savour of rest in the Sacrifice of Christ and we eat and drink of that flesh and blood sacrificed unto God and renew our Covenant with him and he with us by mutuall feeling he to be ours we his I am so taken up with this that if no more be said I should be satisfied but there is more 2. That Christ is full and perfect nourishment of the soul both meat and drink Joh. 6. 55. My flesh is meat indeed my blood is drink indeed farre beyond Manna which yet was called Angels food as the substance is beyond the type sights may please the eye sounds or airs the ear but they are not so necessary as nourishment unto life life cannot be maintained without nourishment growing bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Hypocrates growing Christians
to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion The first is that of Vasquez No effects can be ascribed Reas 1. Tom. 3. Disp 205. c. 4. to this Sacrament which fall not under the signification of it they cannot doe not exhibit any grace but what they signifie or figure out the sign and the thing signified are not such strangers as that one thing be signified and another wrought The Rock that followed them doth not set forth Christ for meat nor doth the Manna set forth Christ for spiritual drink What can be expected in Circumcision but the cutting off native corruption or concupiscence What in Baptism of water but the washing away the sordes or filthinesse of our nativity or fleshly birth Now the conversion of a sinner is not signified in this Sacrament or sealed there is no outward element that sets it forth to us and why so Because it is instituted in bread and wine eating and drinking and is it not evident that all this speaks growth nourishment comfort strength but it speaks not the giving of life Doth bread and wine give life to one that is dead Can they congruously signifie the first grace of spiritual life It 's against sense and reason but life is preserved and cherisht and continued by them and therefore this Sacrament is set forth saith Durand Durand lib 4. Dist 7. qu. 1. under the form of nourishment If you say But here is Christ set forth who is our life as well as our meat he gives and he maintains it in us True but he is set forth in this Sacrament as the one of these he doth both he begins life in us but in this Ordinance which is a Supper his body and bloud are set upon the Table for refection and nourishment of men that take and eat and drink and they are living men Meat is not set before dead folks My flesh is meat indeed my bloud is drink indeed saith Joh. 6. he and so is Christ here set forth As the use of corporall food is not congruous but to one that lives corporally So c. Durand ubi supra Reas 2 The second Reason is taken from the institution and the Schoolmen generally argue thence for the end use benefit effect of a Sacrament are undoubtedly learned by the institution and the reason stands thus This Sacrament by the institution of it appears to presuppose those that reap the sweet and benefit of it to be converts and in grace namely to have faith in Christ and to be living members and if this be presupposed by this Ordinance then it is not first wrought by it They must be in Christ that have benefit by it for them it is instituted and ordained not for such as are out of Christ to bring them in but for such as are in Christ to bring them up in him To my apprehension that is clear 1 Cor. 12. 13. We are by one Spirit baptized into one body and then we are all made to drink into one Spirit and that 's it which ye often reade in Divines That the Baptism of Regeneration is presupposed to the Supper of Communion they are children whose bread this is living members and not wooden legs that are capable of this benefit Unto admittance to the outward Ordinance Regeneration is not necessary but unto the inward benefit and effect it is pre-required in some measure and presupposed The fatted calf is for the returning Prodigal They are the friends of God that feed at this Table Communis mensa symbolum amicitiae saith Estius who also observes that ad cibi sumptionem vita Estius in 4. sen cap. 12. requiritur in sumente Life is presupposed to be in him that takes and eats and drinks spiritual life in him that doth it spiritually It is a communion of Christs body and that presupposes union The graâ—â— communicates not with the stock untill it be knit Why shall we think it strange that God should provide some Ordinances for those that are in grace already wherein he and his may have communion and fellowship and his very provission shows for whom he provides It 's absurd to give meat and drink to dead folks for they are no more nourisht by it saith Bellarmine than stones Christ promiseth Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. to sup with him and he with me When When the door is open'd the voice heard and Christ let in first Revel 3. 20. And so ye see the grace of Conversion is presupposed to the benefit of this Ordinance Object If any reply Here is Christ represented to us in his riches of Grace his death and Sacrifice and therefore this Ordinance may as well convert as confirm and beget as bring up Answ The institution must limit the use of Ordinances This Ordinance of the Supper is a representation of Christ but quo modo of Christ dying not rising or sitting in heaven so it exhibits Christ but how as meat and drink and the end is not conversion but Communion so Christ was typified in the brazen Serpent but how as lifted up to heal the pierced soul of every one that believeth in him because Christ is all in all things for every use yet in such and such an Ordinance he is of limited use and limited by the institution to be received to such an end or else all Ordinances may be confounded and tumbled together Reas 3 The third Reason may be to shew That the Word is the only instrument of God to beget faith or work Each Sacrament represents some respect or mode of the Covenant but seals the whole Covenant Ames Medulla conversion and there are many expressions of Scripture tending to prove it But you will say I doe but beg the Question in affirming it only to be so and so having said enough already I will not now stand to prove the exclusive but only in a word say That the Word is the great Charter of Gods Covenant His Covenant is to make us his to entertain us as his and so the Word is a seed of our new birth and the milk or meat of our spiritual growth Unto this Covenant or Indenture hang two seals the one seals our engraffing and implanting unto Christ and that is Baptism the other seals our fellowship with and building up in Christ and that is the Lords Supper the whole Covenant is sealed by both but respectively the one looking at our first entrance and admission the other to our progresse and consummation and both the seals are applied only to them that are in Covenant for their certioration and comfort that they are lifted into the service of Christ and that they shall be kept in constant pay § 5. I have given two Reasons the one taken from the signification the other from the end of the institution of this Sacrament to prove that it is not ordained for a converting Ordinance and have shown you that though a man may be converted at this time yet
lapsis by ancient Authours and by some commended as Ambrose de obitu Satyr Nazian Epitaph pro sor This is excused by Jewell against Harding As in time Forbes Hist. Theol. p. 553. Col. 1. of persecution when Christians might be deprived of the publick Ordinance and by others on other grounds Burgess of knealing The other hath one onely exâ—mple in true Antiquity and that is Serapions case Euseb Histor lib. 6. cap. 34. and is excused by Chemnitius as if Chem. de coena Examen p. 93. it was to oppose the Novatian opinion of not restoring the lapsed though penitent unto the Communion of the Sacrament Of both these I see no clear warrant in the Institution of Christ and therefore say with Cyprian Non quod alâ—quis ante nos c. We are not to look what any hath done before us but what he did and commanded that was before all even Jesus Christ §. 4. Fourthly It is the peoples right to receive the Cup as well as the Bread Drink ye all of it Matth. 26. 27. Moulin Buckler p. 529. They all drank of it Mark 14. 23. As often as ye eat this bread and drink of this Cup saith Paul 1 Cor. 11. 26. Nothing more plain and yet whether it be the ambition of the Priests that would exalt themselves above the people or whether it be the fruit of Transubstantiation or both this Cup is taken from the people in the Romane Churches but it was not taken away by publick Decree till the Council of Constance Anno 1416. since which time there was great petitioning to the Council of Trent for the Cup but Chem. Exam. de coena p. 134 135. Concil Trid. Sess 6. they referr'd it to the Pope in whose hands it lies and it seems will lie till God put another cup into his hand to drink And so you see that that Council of Constance that burnt John Husse and Jerome did let out the bloud of good Christians and shut up the bloud of Christ from them I conclude Let us follow that which is simplest and purest according to Christs Institution and neither superstitiously reserve nor impiously mutilate the holy Ordinance CHAP. VIII Of the Real Presence NOw I draw on to the Anatomy of the viscera the entrails and inwards of this Ordinance under the outside whereof if you take off the cover you shall finde such cheer as never was in any other feast This is my body saith Christ which is broken for you saith Paul Which is given for you saith Mat. 26 26 27 28 Mark 14. 22 24. Luk. 22. 20. Luke This Cup is the New Testament in my bloud saith Paul Which is shed for you saith Luke Or as Matthew and Mark This is my bloud of the New Testament which is shed for many for remission of sinnes saith Matthew which is shed for many saith Mark which is shed for you saith Luke And all these together are my Text at this time §. 1. In this Sacrament Mirificè lusit Satan saith an excellent Authour Satan hath play'd his pranks and Chamier de Euchar. l. â— c. 1. §. 1. tried conclusions upon Divines how he could infatuate aad make them mad such cart-loads of perplexities alterations absurdities and wilde fancies have they been possest with in the agitation of this point and discussion of these very words which as a Reverend D. Rainolds Medit. Divine saith truly are clear and easie to a spiritual ear or minde it is the carnal fancy that perplexes all and corrupts the Text which had been clear if the water had not been muddied with dirty hands so Nicodemus understands Christ carnally in matter of Joh. 3. Regeneration and talks of entring again into our mothers womb So the Disciples of Capâ—rnaum understand that excellent Doctrine of Christ John 6. about eating his flesh and drinking his bloud of the very Cannibal eating of mans flesh and bloud The very antidote he gave them would serve here John 6. 63. The words that I speak they are spirit and they are life that is their spiritual meaning is lively and if we could agree on this then we should give our Hooker l. 5. p. 359. selves more to meditate with silence what we have by this Sacrament and lesse dispute the manner how for this heavenly food is given for satisfying empty souls and not exercising our curious and subtil wits for it often comes to passe that curious sifting and disputing Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5. p. 364. too boldly chils all warmth of our zeal and brings soundnesse of belief into great hazzard §. 2. The words have been and are interpreted in divers senses the most notable I have observed to be five I Hooker speaking of Ancients lib. 5. pag. 362. say the most notable for there are more 1. That Christ is present in this Sacrament by his efficacy and power to realize and exhibit vertue to and by the Ordinance Nec ullo modo se absentat divina Majestas a Ministeriis Cyprian de Caena and other Ancients 2. That Christ his very body is present with or in or under the outward elements as the Consubstantiatists or Lutheran saith 3. That Christ is really present but modum nescimus we know not the manner how and in this dark some of our learned men spoke of late to what intent they best knew 4. That there is a real turning of the substance of Bread and Wine into the very substance of Christs Body and Bloud Thus the Papists or Transubstantiatists 5. That the Bread and Wine are sacramentally Christs Body and Bloud or the memorials thereof symbolically representing and exhibiting to the faithfull Christians himself and so say We. §. 3. And yet all parties in their difference professe themselves clear and that they follow the true naked and literal sense in their judgement Chemnitius that learned Examen de Eucbar p. 65. Col. 1. Luther an professes That he imbraceth that sense which holds the true and substantial presence of Christ in the Supper which the words in their proper and genuine and usual signification hold forth The Papist professes That he hath the very plain letter of the words and the sense literal So farre as Lapide I know not whether with more confidence or impudence saith That if God ask him at the day of Judgement why he held so he will confidently say Tu docuisti Thou hast taught me We are as clear Vide Lee in Annot. in loc that we follow the true proper literal sense and that saith a learned man Upon my soul there is no such D. Jo. Burgesse Kneeling at Sacramâ—nt p. 113. turning of the Bread into Christs Body as the Papist affirms §. 4 §. 4. This is my Body I shall open the words severally This is my Body about which there is the greatest heat and quarrel In the Rite of the Paschal Supper when the bread Cameron Myrâ—thec in Mat. 26. Scâ—â—iger de
of bread and wine a monstrous Paradox holden stifly by the Transubstantiatists or Papists The middle way holden by the Churches of our Confession is That the outward Elements do represent as Signes and exhibit as Seales and morall Instruments to the faith of the receiver the very Body and Blood of Christ sacrificed as spirituall repast for our souls and spiritually given and taken but that they continue not as incorporated with them nor are converted into the very naturall Body of Christ as locally or corporally there to be received by the mouth of the receiver We hold a difference or change of bread and wine blessed but it is a change of signification not of substance a relative change not reall a change in regard of use and esteem not of their naturall substance as the wax now a Seal to a Conveyance is wax still but not a Seal not of that value till now all the Rhetoricall flowers used by the Ancients reach no further if they do we cannot keep them company We hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is really that is truly exhibited and present to the faith of the receiver and we might express the reall presence as reall is opposed to imaginary or chimericall were it not for caption and mis-understanding none of ours denies the Body of Christ to be really though spiritually eaten by a Beleever nay it is immotum axioma whatsoever is eaten in that it is Forbes p. 53◠eaten it must be present no man can eat a thing that 's absent but the presence with or under the Elements is one thing and the presence to the soul and faith of a Beleever is another We know no union of Christs Body with bread and Wine but with his members which is reall and mysticall not reall and corporall therefore Christ saith Take eat before he say This is my Body as if it were his Body to their faith not as in the outward Element §. 3 §. 3. Arguments for the Protestants sense of the words This is my Body For attestation of this sense many Arguments may be mustred up together 1. Compare one part of this Sacrament with the other This cup is the New Testament in my Blood that is by Metonymy the Seal of the New Testament but not the New Testament it self so This is my Body that is the Signe and Seal of it but not it self 2. Compare the one Sacrament of the Gospel with the other In Baptism the water is water without reall alteration so here the bread is bread the wine is wine not changed into flesh or blood 3. Compare the Sacraments of the Old Testament with the New Circumcision is the Covenant because the Sign or Seal of it the Lamb is the Passeover because the memoriall or sign of it so the bread is my Body the wine is my Blood in the same form of speech 4. The Language in which our Saviour spake had no other property of expression there being no word for signifie but is in stead thereof as Learned men say and its certain the Scripture in both Testaments Hebrew and Greek uses the same form in a hundred places giving the name of the thing signified to the sign as hath been shown as the seven ears of corn are seven years The dry bones are the house of Israel The seven Candlesticks are seven Churches c. 5. The words This is my Body are not proper in the Lutheran sense no more than to say This Cloak is Peter because Peter is in it nor in the Popish sense except the Body of Christ be there before the words be pronounced This is my Body which should rather be thus Let this be my Body as God said Let there be light not This is light for it was not light before 6. The spirituall benefit which is eating and drinking Christs Body and Blood by faith is no less in our sense than if there were his very flesh for Christ saith The flesh profits nothing Joh. 6. and the Papists hold that the eating of Christs flesh by wicked men profits nothing except besides the Sacramentall there be a spirituall feeding upon Christ which we affirm 7. The Apostles understood these words as we do and as the Hebrews had ever understood the same expression for form in the Old Testament else they would have been amazed and startled at it and have asked some question as they were inquifitive enough in lesser matters but they saw Christ fit at table and eat and drink first himself and therefore could not be ignorant of their meaning 8. The Capernaite Disciples Joh. 6. having taken offence at those frequent expressions of eating Christs flesh and drinking his blood understanding them carnally were answered by Christ himself The flesh profits nothing The words that I speak are spirit and life as if he himself would give the interpretation 9. The Apostle thrice in this Chapter following cals it still bread after consecration as also in the Chapter foregoing and surely he that never before did would not delude the senses of his Disciples in this Ordinance and himself cals it wine too Matth. 26. 26. I will not henceforth drink of this fruit of the Vine which is the Periphrasis usuall among the Jews for wine 10. The remembrance of Christ the shewing forth his death till he come do import the absence of his Body which the Scripture tels us ascended into heaven and there is contained in lieu of his corporall absence he sent the Spirit to abide for ever as another Comforter Memorials and monuments are of things absent 11. For the Ancient Fathers they prove against the Marcionites that held the Body of Christ to be meerly phantasticall That it is substantiall because the Elements of bread and wine are substantiall which was no good argument if only the accidents or shadows of the Elements do remain and all along downwards they call the outward Elements symbols Forbes p. 561. types figures signes of Christs Body untill about the year 1215. when subtill and superstitious Disputes grew hot about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which occasioned Innocent the third to introduce both name of Transubstantiation and thing not before openly heard of and so as a Decree of the Lateran Council vented it as a point of faith since which time the Councill of Trent hath confirmed Sess 13. ca. 4. the Decree and the word as most fit and proper which are the rotten yet the best props upon which Transubstantiation doth stand at this day being upon the first birth of it as I said even now opposed Forbes p. 609 col 1. by the Waldenses and afterward by Wicliff and those that followed them and shall be opposed by all Orthodox till that Dagon fall §. 4 §. 4. Why the Error of Transubstantiation is to be rejected with utmost detestation II. To reject with utmost detestation the impossible and incomprehensible Errour of Transubstantiation and corporall presence by which Doctrine a silly
and let us cast out the incestuous Corinthians out of our Society for he is a leven ver 6 7. and let us purge out of our selves malice wickednesse c. For they are leven ver 8. that we may be a holy Congregation and a holy people and so the argument of the Apostle stands thus from the example of the Old Passeover Those for whom Christ the Passeover is sacrificed ought as holy Congregations and holy people to be unleavened with sin and wickednesse and to walk before God in an unleavened sincerity but for us Christ the Passeover is sacrificed therefore let us keep the Feast c. I have explained the words and now we shall consider this Passeover two waies 1. As a Sacrifice or figure of a Sacrifice and so it refers to Christ our Passeover Christ is sacrificed for us 2. As a Sacrament and so it relates to us and shews us our duty upon that Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us keep the Feast The Sacrifice is given for us the Sacrament is given to us From the first Our Passeover is Christ sacrificed for us We have a Doct. Our Passeover is Christ sacrificed for us Passeover but it is Christ sacrificed And here before I shew the Analogy or resemblance between the Passeover and Christ we shall note three or four things §. 3. 1. They in the Old Church of Israel had Christ as well though not so clear as we 1 Cor. 10. 4. The Rock that followed our Fathers in the Wildernesse was Christ the Passeover was Christ the personall Types such as Isaac on the Wood the reall Types as their bloudy Sacrifices were Christ He was then in his swadling clouts swathed up in shadows and types and not naked as now Gal. 3. 1. those Types being anatomized unbowelled are full of Gospel full of Christ the death of Christ pecus prosunt quam fuit saith Bernard de coena Christ is the marrow in the bone the kernell in the shell yesterday and to day and the same for ever the summe and sweet of all Ordinances therefore those that say they were filled with temporall promises but had no spirituall derogate too much from them as that they were Swine filled with husks and speak a wondrous Paradox that those that had so much faith Heb. 11. should have no Christ we give them the right hand of fellowship and they were the elder brother yet we have the double portion §. 4. 2. Mark the form of speech Christ our Passeover that is our Paschall Lamb which is also called the Passeover Exod. â—2 â—1 Kill the Passeover Now the Passeover properly was the Angels passing over the Israelites houses and not the Lamb but we must learn to understand Sacramentall phrases the signe called the thing signified the figure called the thing figured The Rock was Christ Christ our Passeover that is paschal Lamb Circumcision called the Covenant Gen 17. 13. My Covenant shall be in your flesh this will be allowed in every place but one and that is this one This is my body For the Lutheran stands up for a corporall presence under the Signes The Papist for a change of the Bread and Wine into Christs body and bloud No conferences no disputes no condescensions will satisfie them and yet we say very fairly the very body of Christ born of the Virgin that died on the Crosse that sits in heaven is present in this Sacrament but not in the Bread or Wine but to the faithfull Receiver not in the Elements but to the Communicants but all this will not serve turn These two Prepositions Con and Trans have bred more jarres and cost more bloud since they were born and there is neither of them in this cause six hundred years old then can be well imagined §. 4. 3. The Passeover figured Christ and yet the Jews ordinarily saw not Christ in it It is plain in their celebration of the Passeover or their Rituals they take notice of and commemorate their Egyptian slavery and their deliverance and so they were commanded but of Christ not a syllable It entred not into them that a Lamb rosted should figure the Messiah as they had formed him in their thoughts and so they held the Passeover as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking backward but as a Type looking forward no knowledge except the faithfull had some glimpse of it and this is the great fault of men in all Sacraments they minde not the inwards of a Sacrament nor look for the kernell they did so and we also not discerning the Lords body is not that it which makes us guilty of his body and bloud there is in all Sacraments res terrena res coelestis as Irenaeus Earthly men see the earthly part they eat they drink It feeds not they eat shells the inwards within the bone are marrow Christ Christ set spirituall food before our bodies viz. ayery set corporall before the soul and you illude both saith Parisiensis de Euchar sub finem §. 5. â— The Passeover is Christ sacrificed not Christ a Lamb unspotted but Christ a Lamb rosted with fire and this tels you that the Passeover and our Supper represent Christ crucified Christ dying or dead It is the death of Christ not his Resurrection nor ascension that is here set forth Ye shew the Lords death till he come this is the sight which a sinful soul would see this is the comfortable spectacle to see the price paying the ransome laying down the thing in doing Hence he draws the hope and comfort of Redemption and therefore the bread was broken and the Cup was full of bloud to represent to the life this life giving Death to Christ The Papists have cheated the people of the bloud by a trick of concomitancy telling them that the bread is his body and his body hath bloud in it we have a word of Institution of both severally the life of the representation is the bloud shed the Passeover is a Lamb slain and rosted and the bloud on the doorposâ— and by providence if the Papists will allow all to eat then we have expresly for the Cup a Bibite ex hoc omnes Mat. 26. 27. Drink ye all of it So that it is the Death of Christ here represented and which is one step further it is a Sacrifice Death which works and makes atonement this was it that all the Sacrifices that the Passeover did prefigure a Sacrifice death that should deliver and make expiation This Cup saith Christ is the New Testament in my bloud which is shed for you and many for remission of sins a death and such a kinde of death as in our Sacrament set forth a Sacrifice Death therefore it 's said sacrificed for us §. 7. Now let us come to the Analogy or resemblance between the Passeover and Christ sacrificed wherein I shall The resemblance between the Passeover and Christ sacrificed endeavour to avoid the vanity and curiosity of making similitudes to
Christ John 19. 36. So much for the Passeover as a Sacrifice or as the figure of our Sacrifice and theirs Christ Jesus §. 8. Now we proceed to consider it as a Sacrament not ours but theirs nor yet a figure of our Sacrament in Considered as a Sacrament propriety though often so called in transiâ—â— and much contended for by Papists For what Jew could ever have found out our Supper figured in that Passeover and in what propriety can our Sacrament be the Sacrament of another Christ is the res Sacramenti of theirs and ours there they meet as the inward Circumcision and Regeneration is the thing of their Circumcision and our Baptism but that one Sacrament should be the figure of another is absurd and void of reason As two pictures of one man are both resemblances of that one man but one is not the picture of another and yet because the Passeover hath the common nature of a Sacrament doth set forth the same Christ as our Supper and that the Apostle draws an Argument from it to perswade Gospel-Christians to holiness Therefore we shall consider what significancy there is in it for though the signs be not ours yet the significancy is §. 9. First The Passeover or Paschal Lamb as killed and rosted and the blood sprinkled was a Sacrifice The signification of the Passeover as eaten by the Israelites and feasted upon it was a Sacrament and in after-times both by Jewish Records and by Scripture I conceive it appears 2 Chro. 3â— 11. Ezra 6 20. that the Levites killed the Paschals the Priests sprinkled the bloud on the Altar and then they took the Lamb to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Families or Chambers in Jerusalem and there did eat it so in our Supper there is a Sacrifice slain and offer'd up for atonement and that is Christ his body and bloud and then there is an eating and drinking of this Sacrifice in the Sacrament of bread and wine as in many Sacrifices of the Law there was first an offering up to â—od and then a feasting on the remainder we have a true Sacrifice Christ offer'd up to God for us we have a true Sacrament as that Sacrifice is eaten and drunk by us the oblation belongs to God to propitiate and redeem the communication belongs to us to be refresht and nourisht their eating the Passeover was no Sacrifice but a Sacrament our eating and drinking bread and wine is no Sacrifice but a Sacrament their killing and rosting of the Lamb made it eatable Christ his sacrificing of himself for us renders him fit nourishment to us Had he not been a Sacrifice offer'd up for us what profit had there been in eating and drinking sacramentally and spiritually that body and bloud This consideration is of special remark you feast upon a sacrifice you live you feed upon a sacrifice tolle Sacrificium tolle Sacramentum the mouth eats the Sacrament the eye of faith discerns the sacrifice Christ is the sacrifice the Sacrament no sacrifice but the commemoration and communication of a sacrifice and here the reason must be observed why God did institute their Passeover and our answerable Sacrament to consist in meat and drink eating and drinking and I conceive thus thâ—t it being the most proper way to partake of a sacrifice for how else can it be Therefore we eat and drink in way of participation of our sacrifice Hence the phrase Living upon Heb. 13. 10. the Altar eating of the Altar and thus if we carry our eye to the earthly part in the Supper and to the heavenly part that is to the Sacrament and the sacrifice represented and feed upon the sacrifice represented as well as the Sacrament representing we then discern the Lords body This is the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de hoc plus intra 2. Their Passeover was instituted as an Ordinance for ever for a memorial of their Deliverance in Aegypt and their eduction out of it a commemoration it was and to be observed for ever that is in all succeeding generations whiles their Polity and Religion stood Exod. 12. 14 24 42. and therefore we read in Jewish Writers and there is some foot-step or original of it Exod. 26. 27. What mean you by this service that in every company of Passeover-communicants there was some one that rehearsed and made commemoration Haggadah shet pesuch the history Buxtâ—rf Chal. Lexic of the Passeover and so God that would have the sacrifice of Christ for our sinne that greatest work of his and our deliverance thereby from worse then Aegypt or destroying Angel to be observed and kept in minde by a lasting trophy or monument viz our Supper The Apostle in allusion to their custome useth a word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— Cor. 11. 26. Ye do shew As often as ye eat this bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lords death till he come or ye do commemorate and with affection and thanksgiving set it forth and as theirs was for ever till Christs first coming so ours is for ever till his second coming so long as their Church continued they were charged with this Ordinance so long as the Gospel-Church continues they are charged with this and therefore neither of the Doctrine of the Gospel nor of the Sacraments shall there be any removal or alteration till Christ come 3. Their Passeover in Aegypt was eaten in their several Families or societies A Lamb for a house except it were too little Exod. 12. 3 4. and in aâ—ter times when this was repeal'd Deut. 16. 6 7. and was confined to the place that God should chuse and so to Jerusalem then though the Lamb might be slain in the holy Court and the bloud sprinkled on the Altar yet they did carry it home to their hired chambers and there did eat in companies not less then ten in a fraternity Joseph de bello lib. 7. cap. 17. nor above twenty but no man alone Solum epulari non licet saith Joseph Christ and his company made one society so though Christ be our Sacrifice once offer'd up upon the cross a sacrifice to God yet doth our Supper bring him home to us into our Churches and into our souls There is an application of him to be made the bloud sprinkled on our doors the Paschal brought home to our own house Take ye Eat ye Drink ye God comes to particulars with us and the application of the sacrifice is the life of the Sacrament we must eat and drink at home in our own souls Christ comes home to us and yet this Supper ought as the Passeover to be eaten in societies I know no reason for one alone there must be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a company for it is a communion one makes not a communion The Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 20. When you come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into a meeting v. 33 34. when you come together tarry one for another hence it hath been anciently
stand in need of much nourishment to bring them up to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stature of a full Christ decaying Christians stand in need of nourishment to repair decaies Every life be it never so little must be nourisht so necessary is Christ to every Christian and still more of Christ for his meat is Christ his drink is Christ As nothing so necessary so neither so sweet and pleasant sights are pleasing to the eye and smels to the sense but nothing is so close and delightfull as the meat and drink to the sense of tasting Christ is sweet to faith as meat and drink to hunger There is no content comparable to the receiving of Christ He is Manna the best Bread and Wine the best drink The fruition of the joys of heaven is set forth by the pleasure of eating and drinking Luk. 22. 30. That you may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome It was experimentally said of Galeacius that all the delights of this world are not comparable to an hours enjoyment of Christ Jesus 2. No act of ours could so well have signified the close and intimate union of Christ with a Beleever We may see at a distance and hear and smell but not taste nor eat nor drink the meat and drink is concorporated into us and is made flesh and bone with us Job 6. 56. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwels in me and I in him Christ must be present to the faith of a Christian for we cannot eat and drink that which is absent This union with Christ is reall though mysticall and it is lively drawn forth in this Ordinance under the resemblance of eating and drinking We hardly conceive and hardly beleeve it but when we see the graft live we are sure it 's knit and we may be as sure of our union with Christ by his spirituall sap of Grace which we finde is in us 4. This command Take and eat goes before the pronouncing of the words This is my Body Aquinas saith it is a Hysteron Proteron but I shall not take his word let 's hear him speak that was present an ear witness an eye witness Matth. 26. 26 27. Take eat This is my Body Drink ye all of it For this is my Blood what stands this For for if drink ye did not go before This observation is noted by almost all Divines from Peter Martyr and Mr Hooker makes use of it thus That Christ is not present in the Elements but in the worthy receiver The order of the words shews it first eat and drink then it follows for this is my Body and this is my Blood an ingenious observation that cuts the hamstrings of the Popish or corporall presence in or under the outward signes as if it were a knife set in the Text to cut that intricate knot that makes such a garboyle in the Text when you take and eat by faith then is the Body and Blood of Christ present to you but not latent and hidden in the Bread or Cup The union of Christ is not otherwise with the Bread then as the thing signified with the sign but it is with the Communicant the Hooker Eccles Polit. p. 359. believer really though spiritually the sacramental signs do exhibit Christ but not contain him under them they contain not the grace which God bestows with or by them §. 12 §. 12. Of Spurious Rites and Gestures So have I opened to you the outward Elements the outward Rites or Actions of this Sacrament whether those of Christ or of the Communicant and these are genuine and proper by which the Sacrament is sutable to the Institution as for other Rites which time or superstition have introduced without example or command they are adulterine and spurious especially the adoration of the Eucharist upon opinion of the conversion of the bread and wine into the body and bloud of Christ which whether it be performed at the elevation or lifting up of the host by the Priest in the Masse or at the circumgestation or carrying it up and down in procession in the streets as is usual in Popish countreys is no better then abominable Idolatry even by their own confession For Costerus saith That the bread-worship was the greatest Idolatry that ever was in the world If the bread be not turned into the true and natural body of Christ as saith a learned man Dr J. Burgesse Lawf of kneeling p. 113. upon my soul it is not and if the perswasion of Christs real presence in the Eucharist will by no means excuse their adoration from Idolatry much lesse excusable is any Protestant who is perswaded of the contrary As for other circumstances of the action as the time viz. at night in the close of the Paschal Supper the place an upper-room or chamber Mark â—4 15. The guest twelve in number Matth. 26. 20. The gesture which was discubiture or lying on couch-bâ—ds fitted to the Table which the Jews were at the Passeover by custom fixed unto as appears by the ritual In other Scaliger lib. 6. De emend pag. 534. nights we sit or lie on couches but in this we lie along These I say are moveables and not of the freehold of this Ordinance Nor shall I say any thing of the D. Burgess ubi supra p. 112. gesture which as it was used in England hath been an apple of contention and much written pro and con The Reformed Churches vary some sit at some about the Table some receive this Sacrament passing by the Table in order as in a Marah as in the Reformed Churches in France and I condemn them not and for those Divines of the Reformed Churches that disliked our gesture used here in England they did not many of them pronounce it simply unlawfull but inconvenient because it was a gesture of adoration and did not serve to pull the bread worship out of mens mindes nor was so sutable to this Ordinance which is a Table Ordinance nor to set forth that fellowship and communion which is exprest in eating and drinking with our Lord these were their reasons and I do not know that I have any occasion to debate the point but to leave it determinable by the Churches of God as may be most sutable to the Decorum and nature of this Ordinance for if I should some of you might haply say that I made a Funeral-sermon for meeting at Sacrament Having laid open the parts of this Supper let us upon the whole matter stand still a little and make Observation CHAP. VII Some Observations upon the precedent Discourses §. 1. NOte here the simplicity of this high and excellent Ordinance the feast is drest out in plainness and simplicity answerable to the simplicity of the Gospel as the Apostle cals it 2 Cor. 11. 2. Here is no outward pomp or ostentation no stateliness to take the eye for as gaudy attire becomes not mourning so this Sacrament setting forth the
and knows to be a scandalous person as he might do in cafe a Hookers Pref. Turk Jew or excommunicate person should intrude unto the Table of the Lord in which case viz. of Excommunication Calvin saith He would die rather than reach forth his hand to give the Sacrament to such an one It 's true you will reply This may be done in the case of such as are debarred by the Church but not in the case of a scandalous sinner not yet so judged For answer to which Objection I say That indeed there are men of great renown for learning and holinesse that hold If a M. Ball. Trial p. 205. Minister know a man unworthy he must yet receive him because he cannot manifest it to the Church If a mans unworthinesse be notorious and yet not so judged by them that have authority he must administer the Sacramental Signs to him not as one worthy or unworthy but as one as yet undivided from them And the truth is the Minister alone singly as a Minister hath not by warrant of the Word the power of Excommunication or Suspension in his hand as Grotius de imperio p. 230. is generally holden nor will I dispute but this with holding of his hand from actual giving of the outward Signs is no act of censure no Suspension of the person no casting of him out but as those that allow it say An Act of liberty as a Physicians not giving drink to an hydropick person or the withholding his own Sword from a furious man for the time of his rage and as saith the Authors last cited a Minister may do this by the same right whereby he doth by Doctrine declare such a mans incapacity or whereby a private Christian withdraws his fellowship or society Nor otherwise can Chrysostom charge to Ministers to hinder the unworthy which he presses in his 83. Homil. on Matthew on pain of being guilty of their bloud be understood for it must be meant of such scandalous sinners known to them but not so judged by the Church they being kept from accesse or sight of the holy mysteries in his time by the censure of the Church and I as little doubt of the judgement of many learned men or of the intention of the Church of England in the Rule given to the Minister before the Communion in the case of some emergent scandal at the present time nor do I conceive that any learned man would deny this liberty to a Minister to withhold his hand from some mankiller drunkard perjured c. that hath been convicted before the Civil Authority though no censure of the Church be against or upon him Nor is that charge given to Timothy very far from proving it Lay hands suddenly on no man Be not partakers of other mens sins 1 Tim. 5. 22. If the Rule of Analogy or proportion may be here allowed and I believe that had not the profit of the Courts more swaid then point of conscience this Suspension of act had not been a crime For the Schoolmen generally allow the Dhrand part 4. Dist 9 Quaest 5. aliique Minister to deny the Sacrament to any that is in mortal sin if it be but notorious by evidence of fact And so much for this point which I have spoken the more unto because it is a Question that may often come to hand even in our times and the places in which we live and only with this intention that I would have the Sacraments on their wheels and yet so that their male administration bring not epidemick judgements upon us as the receiving unworthily did on the Church of Corinth CHAP. XX. Whether a Godly man lawfully may or ought to stand as a Member of and hold Communion in the Ordinances of God with such a Congregation as is mixt as they call it that is where men visibly Scandalous in Life and Conversation are mingled with the Good in the Participation and Vse of Divine Ordinances Or VVhether this Mixture of Heterogeneals do not pollute the Ordinances and the Communion to the Godly so as they are concerned to Separate from such Communion §. 1. BEfore I make particular Answer to this Question I must tell you That all serious and weighty Christians have cause to lament the levity and inconstancy of people of our times and the spirit of Separation which so easily puts them upon wing to practice and plead for separation as they did for Divorce upon every cause Matth. 19. 3. There are many make but a humour of it being ignorant of the greatnesse of the sinne of renting asunder the Unity and Union of the body of Christ which Chrysostom aggravates Homil. 11. in Ephes and recites a saying of a holy man before his time he means Cyprian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might seem a very bold speech and that is That the bloud of Martyrdom cannot wash off this stain which many account an ornament not a sinne Among other principles of Separation this which I have now to speak unto that we must excommunicate our selves from Gods Ordinances if men of wicked life be not excommunicate for fear of pollution by them is Donatistical and urged by Parmenian the Vide cap. 21. Epist ad Parmenianum alibi Donatist and answer'd by Austin many hundred years ago and now retrimed and revived being called a new truth as we commonly call a new fashion that which lately come up though about fourty year ago or in our memory it was a fashion laid aside and rejected And the truth is That the reason of this Separation seems plausible to easie capacities such as the Apostle cals Rom. 16. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the simple because it pretends to set up holinesse both of Ordinances and people but if it be weighed by the standard of Scripture will be found too light and the two sorts of complainers directly opposite to one another will be found erroneous both them that complain of any hedge at all about the Sacrament and they that complain and therefore separate because the hedge is not so sufficient as may keep off every undue intruder Let us then by Scripture Rule lay down the Answer to this Question and that orderly and in certain Theses §. 2. First I shall grant That the very notion and nature of the Church denotes a separation God separates his Church from Infidels and them that are extraneous and strangers to the Covenant He separates them to be his inheritance his peculiar treasure above Levit. 20 24. 1 King 8. 53. other people and they also do and ought to separate themselves from communion with Devils in idolatrous service and worship Nehem. 9. 2. Come out from among them and be ye separate 2 Cor. 6. 17. This is not necessary to be a locall Separation for present There was a mixt multitude of uncircumcised people No just Proselytes as Mr Selden saith with Israels De Synedriis cap. 2. in the wildernesse
that proves not the institution of it to that end no more than if a sick man be to take a medicine and prayer be made for the prosperous successe of that medicine and by something suggested to the minde of that man by that prayer whereby he is converted therefore the medicine should be called a converting Ordinance because the institution of an Ordinance leads on the denomination of it and so have also shown you that upon this ground mis-laid and mistaken we cannot allow of all unconverted mens coming or invitation The Word is indeed a converting Ordinance and therefore those that believe not that oppose themselves that are dead in sinnes may be admitted and invited to it If they come not with faith they may come for faith If they come unclean they may yet come to be cleansed but the Lords Supper is not of that nature It is a more inward Ordinance and presupposes some foundation laid by the Word that it may have effect the converting Ordinance must go before the confirming the qualifications of a receiver are not the same with the necessary qualifications of a hearer and which I conceive Divines mean in part by requiring Baptism before the Supper the grace properly sealed in Baptisme is necessary to the obtainment of that grace which is properly sealed in the Supper As Christ washt his Disciples feet before he celebrated and administred this Sacrament It 's true God hath shewed us that we should not call any man common or unclean as Act. 10. 28. that is legally or unclean by his Nation as if the distance and partition wall between Jew and Gentile was yet standing but morally unclean there are still and we may call them so or else we must call evil good and this uncleanness is not proper to the sinners of the Gentiles but even Jews by nature Christians as I may say by nature are many of them unclean wherein I would not confirm them but endeavour to wash them from it And there is yet another offer made to prove an universal accesse to this Table without limitation or restriction afore-said and that is this That the Sacrament seals to the veracity of God the truth of his Covenant the Articles thereof are true and firm and the offer of them by God is serious and in good earnest to induce our faith thereof and our acceptance this Ordinance was appointed as a testification of the truth and reality and of the offer of the Promises unto us and therefore why may not all come here is no seal to a blank The seal is to Gods Covenant not our inherent graces The Promises are true the offer reall whether we have faith or no. Answ That the Sacrament seals the reality of Gods Covenant and of his offer of and proposal thereof to us I allow as proper and good That the Sacrament seals not my having faith or the truth of my faith I allow too but if this be all the Sacrament seals then it seals no more to a believer than to any man in the world no more to a receiver than a spectatour For whether I believe or no by the relation that the seal hath to the Covenant it confirms and seals it even as it is instituted in the Word for that purpose As the Seal of a Bond Deed Conveyance seals the truth of that Bond to all men to the Witnesses to the Jury who are confirmed that the Bond is true by the Seal But there is a further sealing and that is the Sacrament seals the interest of a believer in Christ unto or in the Covenant and Promises thereof As the Seal of the Bond seals the summe to be paid to the Creditour and the Seal of the Deed seals the propriety and benefit and possession of the State convey'd I say to a believer the Sacrament seals this as to no man else for those words Take Eat Drink are part of the sealing use or the applying use and which puts this out of doubt it 's said That this bread we break This Cup we blesse is the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ And what is that but participation For as Chemnitius observes Chem. exam de Praeparat ad caenam The great thorn in a weak believer that disquiets him is this Christ is indeed full and sweet the Promises true and precious but have I any share Have I any portion in them Have I any right or interest Now this is that which is sealed to a believer and of it self though no man believe it seals as was said before the truth and reality of the Promise and of Gods offer for I shall not deny that Now if a man through want of faith be not capable of this effect or use of the Seal it is not for meer want of that capacity that he is prohibited the Lords Table for then all unregenerate men and all that are not converted should be forbidden which we teach not but it is for scandalous and enormous sin persisted in with obstinacy and scorn it is because he hath not so much as a little beam of light to know what he doth or what danger he runs upon §. 6. Obj. Nor can it be said that confirming grace afforded in this Sacrament is in substance the same with converting and that which is confirming to one may be converting to another and so the Sacrament may as well afford one as another being Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. but still the same grace Answ for this is a meer fallacy and a strain beyond reason Let confirming grace be the same with converting As every degree of heat or fire is the same nature as the first degree yet this Sacrament affords confirming and not converting grace because it presupposeth faith in the Receiver whereby a further degree of grace may be bestowed and without that Faith doth not impart any grace at all As the life maintain'd by meat and drink is the same life Doth it therefore follow that meat and drink may convey life into a dead man because it maintaines it in a living No It 's true the same life in a dead man would make him live but the life maintain'd in a man by meat and drink is therefore maintain'd because there is a life in the man that can eat and drink receive nourishment by which the meat is made nutritive and lively which otherwise could not be And so there must be life in the Patient else the Plaister or Medicine if applied to a dead man would not recover or strengthen life I deny not but if the Sacrament could convey the same grace to a dead man as it doth to a living that dead man would live but that it cannot doe because it works by way of nourishment which the dead receive not Quest If niceties may be heard we shall have no end Suppose saith one a godly man fall into scandalous sinne and therein lie impenitent Why doe you not forthwith admit him
set on work at the Lords Table a believer shall try and judge of his fitnesse to come unto it I shall shew you in the next That the exercise of grace is requisite unto the act of receiving worthily but it is the having of that grace whereby a man shall try and judge of his fitnesse to come For I suppose first that there is some previous disposition or qualification which gives capacity or meetnesse to come to this Table as the word Let a man examine himself and so let him come doth clearly prove and then that this fitnesse or habitual qualification is the having or exciting of those graces which are to be exercised and set a work As a souldier is accoutred and furnisht with such weapons as in fight are to be exercised and used and therefore a Christian that would try or know his own fitnesse or worthinesse confiders first what graces are to be set on work in the act of receiving and then examines whether he have them before-hand or no Plain sense and reason shews that a dead man is not fit to eat and drink because he cannot exercise any act of life without which he neither eats nor can be refresht and therefore we must conclude that there is an habitual fitnesse required to be in the person that communicates worthily §. 5 §. 5. The pitch of fitnesse must not be set too high nor too low Now there are some and they godly souls that set the pitch of this fitnesse or worthinesse too high and there are others that are carnal set it too low and it must be confest there is a latitude in it it receives magis minus as Christians themselves are of divers elevations some are smoaking flax some are shining lights If we set it too high besides that Infants in grace and low statured Christians cannot reach it we doe but discomfort and dishearten our selves for we take a false measure and because we finde not that we can cut out to that measure we are at a losse and haply if we would follow it home we might cast out every one of the Apostles from the first Supper who were certainly very raw Christians and of as low a form as we are being after that time upbraided by Christ with their unbelief and hardnesse of heart Mark 16. 14. And if we should do so we should censure our Saviour of too much indulgence who reproved their sinne and yet received them to his Table Luke 22. 19 24. I have no warrant to set the mark so high that the least of Gods children qualified should not reach it for I confider that this Sacrament was ordained for the Church during the estate of imperfection and for remedy of weaknesse and infirmity not like the Tree of Life which man was debarred from for his sinne in the forbidden fruit and as Luther said A 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 Dominâ— they do eâ—t 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
garment We love a sweet willing disposition in a childe ready to do what it can than alwayes to be crying for plums God highly prizes those that set on work their obediential graces to observe the Law of any Ordinance and perform it for if we can lust for quails and yet murmur at the way of the wildernesse we are too like the carnal Israelites There is in all spirituall joyes comforts and raptures two parts the one is the fruition of the sweet of them the other is the serviceable use of them to oil the wheels and with more freedome to perform hardest duties of obedience Now if in this latter respect we improve or seek them it 's farre the better to like in any Christian for it's Gods part or share The joy of the Lord is your strength yet duty is the door by which reward enters as reaping comes by sowing They that sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. Motive III. 3. There is a sacramental disposition requisite to a Sacramental Communion and it is a very spiritual disposition as the Communion is spiritual This disposition is not one single grace but a complexion or temperament made up of divers ingredients which are not all distinctly and eminently acted by every man at this present but some of them as occasion and necessity may require I have already shown you them in general and told you that they are bespoken by the Sacrament it self and as it were deduced from it This Sacrament affords us the communion of Christs death where his body broken and bloud shed are set before us Here we communicate of a dying Christ in heaven we shall have him as a Tree of life This is that epulum foederale or Covenant-feast made for confederates God is one party and the faithfull are the other and both parties of confederates do sic dicam partake of the same foederal Sacrifice Christ Jesus the bloud of the Sacrifice is offer'd up to God The same bloud in the Sacrament is offer'd and given to us as it 's said Exod. 24. 6. Moses took half the blood and sprinkled it on the Altar and he sprinkled the other on the people and said Behold the bloud of the Covenant If we understood the Ordinance we should easily agree that a sacramental disposition is a very spiritual disposition and requires the very purest addresses that we can make to it where God himself entertains his people with no other cheer than which satisfies himself and will have them taste of that which he himself is pleased and delighted with that is I say again Christ Jesus Now in this so near approach to God ye have an excellent Rule as in all other approaches Levit. 10. 3. I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me the case was that two Priests had taken strange or other fire not Gods fire from his Altar but other fire common fire and so themselves became the Sacrifice for God will not be slighted If we bring fire and it be not his own but ours we may be consumed by it but he not pleased To which end and purpose that we be not found in this case and under this wrath I shall endeavour to shew you that strange fire or those false and insufficient qualifications which men draw nigh to God in this Sacrament withall to their own hurt and prejudice CHAP. XXVII False and insufficient Qualifications for the Receiving of this Sacrament §. 1. A Fair carriage of outward life or a good complexion of moral vertues is not a sacramental disposition but rather shew a plethorick constitution a self-fulnesse a self-righteousnesse which are the greatest obstructions against Christ that can be I confesse grace often dwels in a worse house and in rougher natures and constitutions but all the starres do not make day The metal of these vertues is very good but they want a superscription upon them there may be nothing of Christ and he that comes worthily to this Sacrament must have somewhat of Christ in him or must be in some necessity of him that he may eat with sour herbs A man may come with lesse sinne unworthily I say lesse than a worthy Communicant For it 's not the number or quality of sinne but the sense of and repentance for it that is here considerable A bottle stopt with gold receives not so much as an empty shell it 's Christ that must be in your eye and thirst or else your fire is strange fire II. A man may be humiliatus not humilis humbled not humble The Angels that sinn'd were tumbled down into a lower place without any abatement of their God-opposing pride man-opposing malice If God pound thee in a mortar by crosses pains miseries dreadfull horrours of conscience yet pride lives an argument whereof is thou wilt not adventure thy soul on free-grace without something to recommend thee to it and he that hath nothing else will have his misery to be his worthinesse and the murmurings which a broken estate and broken body and spirit do belch forth what are they but fumes and smoke of pride Cut a Bee in pieces yet she puts forth her sting There are many long for humbling breaches smarting sorrows and it may be their intention is good but the bottom is merit and pride most commonly they would make their humiliations their Christ Alas if God should charge but one sin in his full weight on thee it would break thee as a great stone an egge-shell Did it not so in Angels Who would be a Pharaoh Cain or Judas Is not broken iron broken ice hard still as ever But true humility is a Leveller there are 2 Cor. 10. 5. two things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every high thing and that is taken away and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every device and that is brought into captivity not only to the salvation but to the obedience of Christ The metal must be melted as well as broken and it 's enough melted when it will runne into the mold and take the impression Is the will conquer'd and changed to receive Gods Image Submit to Christ his righteousnesse and to his Soveraignty to receive the promises and take up the yoke of crosses and commandments Art thou humbled for sinne and hatest it humbled under thy own righteousnesse and castest it out Art thou willing to take Christ a Saviour and a Lord to have him and be his not on terms of thine own but terms of the Covenant Draw nigh to God this is not strange fire for it hath melted thee and not only tormented thee III. Thou findest in thy self a faith whereby thou assentest to the goodnesse and veracity of God the truth and all-sufficiency of Christ the whole tenour of the Covenant and Doctrine of the Gospel I say with James Chap. 2. 19. Thou believest that God is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou doest well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so believe the devils They have so great