else we shall do nothing at the Lords Supper but what we might do at any other time as well If it be onely beleeving and meer spiritual eating that here is exercised then we may feed so without this food And when Christ commands so frequently Do this in remembrance of me it would be no more sence then if he had said Do this which yet you may do without doing this This eating and drinking therefore must be a profession of our faith a covenanting solemnly with God and a receiving and giving of those pledges of love which we cannot have any where else V. And indeed the old Christians did so sacredly bind themselves hereby to their Saviour that Heathens were ready to suspect them of dangerous combinations and such conspiracies as might prove mischievous to the Commonwealth From which imputation whilest Pliny doth acquit them L. 10. Epist. 97. he likewise instructs us for what end they met together at this feast They assemble themselves saith he in a Letter to Trajan the Emperor before day break and sing a Hymn to Christ as if he were God and then they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves with a Sacrament or Oath not that they will do mischief to any but that they will not rob or steal nor commit adultery nor falsifie their words nor deny their trust c. And then after they have eat together they depart to their own homes Of more then this they protested to him he should never find them guilty and this was the crime of Christians in those first ages to engage themselves to commit no crime which they bound themselves unto by this Sacrament of Christs body and blood The Greek Christians at this day Christop Angelus rit Eccles Graec. when they take the bread or cup into their hands make this profession Lord I will not give thee a kiss like Judas but I do confess unto thee like the poor thief and beseech thee to remember me when thy Kingdom comes If we do touch the body of Christ with traitorous lips and embrace him with a false heart we stain our souls with the guilt of that blood which can onely wash them from all their other sins And therefore we must come unfeignedly to bewail our neglects and to settle our former resolutions of strict obedience It is grown even to a Proverb as Joseph Accosta relates among the poor Indians that have entertained the faith De procur Ind. Sal. L. 6. that Qui eucharistiam semel susceperit nullum amplius crimen debet committere He must never be guilty more of any crime who hath once received the Eucharist And if they chance to commit any they bewail it with such a sorrow and compunction that he saith he hath not found such faith no not in Israel But it would be very sad if we should be sent to school as far as India There are I make no doubt many pious souls among our selves that look upon it as a blessed opportunity to knit their hearts in greater love to God and that are more afflicted for an evil thought after such engagements then other are for a base and unworthy action Whensoever therefore we come to celebrate the memory of Christs death in this manner we must remember with our selves that we are assembled for to renew our baptismal vow and league and in the devoutest manner to addict our selves to a more constant love and service of the Lord Jesus We must look upon this feast to which we are admitted as a disclaiming of all enmity to him and a profession of our continuing a hearty friendship so as never to do any hostile act against him And thence indeed it is called a Sacrament according to Tertullian and others with him because we here take an Oath to continue Christs faithfull Souldiers and never to do any thing against his Crown and dignity as long as there remains any breath in our bodies We do repeat our Oath of Allegiance and swear fealty again to him or as we ordinarily speak we take the Sacrament upon it that we will be Christs faithfull servants and Souldiers against the Devil World and Flesh and never flie from his service Every act of sin then after such promises is not onely treason but perjury not onely the breaking of our faith but of our Oath yea not onely the violation of a simple Oath but of Oath upon Oath which we ought more to dread then we do to break our bones We esteem it an impiety of a high nature for a Minister to give a cup of poyson into a mans hand instead of the blood of Christ and we do deservedly abhorre that Priest that poysoned Pope Victor the 3d. Venenum sub specie sacramenti dedit vertens calicem vitae in calicem mortis with the Sacrament and him that poysoned Henry the 7th Emp. turning as Nauclerus his phrase is the cup of life into the cup of death But whilest our hearts swell in indignation at such a crime let us consider with our selves what a treasonable act it is to poyson our souls with our own hands and by a base treachery to God to swallow down curses and woes into our selves Better were it for us to be choaked with the bread of life or to feel the venome of Asps boiling in our veins after the holy cup then to take an Oath which we take small care to keep then to go on in a course of sin after such sacred professions of our duty and service unto Christ We are amazed to hear that men can touch the Gospels before a Magistrate and kiss the book or lift up their hand to Heaven and yet make good never a word that they swear We are apt to think that either these men have no souls or that they do not value them at the price of a rotten nut O let our very flesh then tremble to think that we should lay our hand upon the body of Christ and take it into our very mouths and solemnly swear unto him and yet not be faithfull in his Covenant nor heartily indeavour to perform our promises unto him For there is no forsworn person hath such a black soul as he whose soul is fouled even by the blood of Christ himself which washes the souls of others The world cannot but shrink at the thoughts of that fearful act of one of the Popes who making a League with Caesar and the French King divided the bread of the Sacrament into three parts with this saying scarce tollerable As the holy Trinity is but one God so let the union indure between us three confederates and yet he was the first that broke it and started from the agreement Far be it from us then after this action wherein we joyn our selves to God and unite our hearts to fear his Name and become as it were one with him to rescind our Covenants or stand again at tearms of defiance But let us have a care
to observe this Vow far more religiously then we do an Oath to any mortal man which yet no person of credit and conscience would break for all the world CHAP. IV. TO all those that are thus faithfully in Covenant with him this Sacrament is a further sign and seal of remission of sin For the Law of Covenants doth require that where one party doth profess friendship and ingage to fidelity the other person in the agreement should make assurance of his love and confirm his promises And therefore when we come with hearts full of love to renew our friendship with God we may beleeve that he doth embrace us also with the dearest affection and giveth us greater testimonies that he hath cancelled all the bonds wherein we stood indebted to him Bonds able to break the whole world if payment were exacted Debts which all men and Angels cannot possibly discharge which yet he is so willing to acquit us of that he hath appointed this holy action for that end that we may have more pledges of his love and more assurance that we are not bound over to eternal punishment Well may we run into the armes of Christ where we expect to receive such favours It is no wonder if we be forward to tye our selves fast to God as I said in the last Chapter when he binds himself as fast to us We need not stand so much upon it to promise even to die for him when it is but the way to life We may be glad to lie in the wounds of Christ when we find a cure there for our sins A crucified Saviour should be most dear unto us and we should most joyfully kiss his cross seeing we hope thereby to have our iniquities crossed out and stand no longer upon our account Methinks all that hear of such a Covenant of Grace should be desirous to enter into it and so they would if they had not as trifling conceits of the evil of sin as they have of the worth of their souls And all that are in that Covenant should be glad of an opportunity to reiterate it that they may have stronger grounds whereon to hope for pardon And it is to be acknowledged to the singular mercy of God that we can never come to profess any love to him but he will return back a great deal more to us and that when we give thanks to him he will give us more cause to thank him Now for the full clearing of this thing I shall propound but these three considerations I. That our Saviour in the institution of this Sacrament doth tell us what was a great end of it when he saith Mâ—th 26.28 Luk 22.20 This cup is the new Testament in my blood or this is my blood of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins In which speech you must note that the word This doth stand for the action of giving and receiving not for that which is given and received in and by it For the Cup or the Blood cannot be a Testament or Covenant but the giving and receiving of the cup or blood is and therefore by This is the new Testament c. must be meant this action is a Covenant between you and me made in the blood of the Lamb for the forgiveness of your sins The Doing of this doth necessarily presuppose a Covenant of Grace which God hath made and which we own in Christs blood but besides it doth import a profession both on Gods part and on ours who do receive of performing and making good that which we are respectively bound unto so that God doth there tender all that which he promiseth in the Gospel comwe by receiving do bind our selves as you have seen to all the Gospel and mands Now this is the great thing that God promiseth in his Covenant I will be mercifull to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more This Action therefore is appointed by him not onely to be a symbol of his sufferings which did ratifie the Covenant of forgiveness but to be an exhibition of himself for to put us in possession of the great thing purchased by his blood which was pardon to all penitent sinners The blood of the Paschal Lamb as Chrysostom observes was shed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Matth. 26. for the saving of the first-born of Israel but Christs blood who is our Passeover was shed for the remission of the sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the whole world Now though the shedding of the blood and sprinkling of it on the door posts were the cause of the deliverance yet their eating of the Lamb was that which did entitle them to it and gave them a right to that salvation So though the blood of Jesus shed upon the tree be that which procures the pardon and be the price of our redemption yet that remission is solemnly exhibited and given unto us or as we speak applied to our persons by the eating of this bread and drinking of this cup which are as effectual as Deed or Instrument for the conveying of this mercy unto us We may see this well explained to our hands by an ancient Author The Sacrament saith Bernard is a sacred sign or secret Serm. de Coena as may be illustrated by a common example If I give a Ring to a friend it hath no other significancy but that I love him but if I give him a Ring ad investiendum de haereditate aliqua thereby to invest him in the right of some inheritance then it is both a Ring and a sign also In like manner though Bread and Wine set before us do denote nothing more then the kindness of a friend that would refresh us yet given and taken as a religious rite and in token of a Covenant they are turned into another thing and are both Bread and Wine and likewise the instrument of a conveyance And this is the change which the Ancients mention of the Bread and Wine into the body and blood of Christ a change not in the substance but in the accidents not in their nature but in their use not in any natural quality but in their significancy application and divine efficacy As when the wax is imprinted and made a seal or silver stamped and made a coin they remain the same in substance and yet are changed in regard of their use and value also So it is with the bread and wine when they are offered unto God and delivered by him again to us and received as a representation of the Lord Jesus they continue what they were if we look onely at their matter but are changed by Gods appointment into divine things if we respect the end to which they are applied which is to make over to us the blessing of the Covenant viz. remission of sins This is all that Theodoret means by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transmutation and Cyril by his 〈◊〉
take away but one offence among the Jews and that meerly against a carnall Commandment yet this though but one can take away all offences even against the eternall Law of God And the strength of a Sacrifice under the Law continued no longer than just while it was offered but was to be repeated again in case of a new offence but the bloud of Jesus endures for ever Heb 10.14 and by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified We that live at sixteen hundred years distance from that sacrifice may be as much expiated and receive as great benefit by it as they that saw him upon the Altar or as he that put his fingers into his wounds and thrust his hand into his side For the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all and he bare the sinnes not only of that generation but of all succeeding Ages Think then now that the Cup is in thy hands now that thou drinkest of his bloud that thou mayest receive as reall effects of his sacrifice as if thou hadst been permitted to have laid thy hands on his head and put all thy sins upon him as Aaron did upon the head of the Beast that was offered for the Congregation of Israel And so let thy thoughts slide to a second Meditation which is hereon depending 2. And consider with thy self how firm that Covenant is which is made with us in the bloud of Jesus and how certainly God will perform whatsoever his Sonne hath promised It is called the bloud of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 which doth intimate that he sealed the Covenant with his Bloud that he died to assert the truth of all that he said he took it upon his death that he was sent of God and as he sealed to it by his death so God did seal to it by his resurrection which two put together are the grand proofs which we have to shew for the truth of the Gospel And then we may be confident that the mercy of the Lord endures for ever for the seal of the Covenant is everlasting and never fails The first Covenant was made by bloud as you may see Exod. 24.7 8. yea there is such an affinity between these words sanctio and sanguis that in all likelihood their nearness arise from hence because by bloud all establishments and sanctions were wont to be made But the Bloud of that Covenant vanished away and never rose again and so in time did the Covenant it self as the Apostle tells us Heb. 8.13 And therefore the Lord sealed the new Compact by a better bloud which is quickned again to an eternall life to assure us that the mercies of it shall never cease Here therefore thy soul may again plead with God that he would put his Laws into thy heart and write them in thy mind and that thy sins and iniquities he would remember no more which is the sum of the Covenant as it there follows in the Apostles discourse Heb. 10.16 17. Thou mayest grow confident and rejoyce in God thy salvation thou mayest desire him to remember that it is the precious Bloud of his Sonne which thou remembrest thou mayest tell him that is not the bloud of Bulls and Goats that thou pleadest but of Jesus the Lamb of God without spot and blemish Thou mayest ask him if he do not see that Bloud in the Heavens if he be not more pleased with it than with the bloud of the Cattle upon a thousand Hills Say Lord is the Bloud of Jesus dead Doth it not cry as loud in thine ears as ever Hast thou not made him a Priest after the power of an endless life yea hast thou not sworn and is it not impossible that thou shouldst repent Then I humbly crave that a poor sinner which hath nothing to offer thee may be accepted by that offering Then let me live by his Life as so many already have done Let me know that thou art well pleased with sinners through him Let me know that I have found favour in thine eyes Let all the Prayers that I have now made be graciously accepted Remember all my offerings and accept of my sacrifice of Prayers and Praises Yea remember his bloud when I do not actually remember it and when I am silent and do not pray let that prevail for blessings upon me Psalm 21. Doth not the King joy in thy strength Hast thou not given him his hearts desire and not withholden the request of his lips Thou hast set a Crown of pure Gold upon his head He asked Life of thee and thou gavest it him even length of dayes for ever and ever His Glory is great in thy Salvation Honour and Majesty hast thou laid upon him For thou hast made him most blessed for ever Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy Countenance And therefore since he lives let us live also Since thou hast heard him hear us also for his sake Send us help out of thy Sanctuary and strengthen us out of Sion Grant us according to our heart and fulfill all our petitions Save Lord let the King hear us when we call 3. Meditate likewise what danger there is in not standing to that Covenant that is here confirmed by bloud between God and us They used when they made Covenants by bloud to cut the Beast in sunder and both parties passed between the two halfs as you may see Jer. 34.18 19. Which custome was as old as Abrahams time as Gen. 15.10 17 18. will inform you This passing of both parties between the parts of the Beast was as much as a wish that so it might befall him that should break the Covenant which was made between them Now when we behold the Bloud of the Son of God poured out and his Body broken and so a Covenant stricken between God and us by his receiving him into Heaven and our drinking of his bloud and eating of his Body here on Earth we should think what the danger will be of not being stedfast in his Covenant God will require his Sonnes bloud at our hands The Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and shall cut him in sunder and give him his portion with the Hypocrites Mat. 24.50 51. I have often thought that he alludes to that custome of cutting the Beast in twain and that the meaning is All persons that are deceitfull and false Luk. 12.46 or as St. Lukes phrase is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unbelievers unfaithfull souls all that break their faith with Christ and violate his Covenant they shall be cut in two as the word signifies they shall have such an execution done upon them as was done upon the Beast of old and receive such a horrible doom as is fit for perjured persons They shall be broken in pieces as his Son was broken Yea he will fall upon them as
a stone and grinde them to powder seeing they would not love him as the Bread of Life bruised for them Matt. 22.44 This sad Meditation may not be unseasonable at a Feast of joy no more than a little vinegar in a mixture of many sweets And as dreadfull as it is it may bring us the more abundant comfort afterward by making us firm to God and establishing us in Faith and Obedience But whether the Reader will think fit to meditate of this matter at that time or no yet let me stay his thoughts a while now and entreat him seriously to think what the doom of all those will be who rebel against him to whom they have so often sworn subjection The love of God cannot make them love him the Bloud of Christ cannot make them bleed notwithstanding the Death of Christ they will dye and all the bands that he can lay upon them will not hold them fast O what chains of Darkness are they reserved for who break so many cords of love asunder What a sacrifice must they be to the vengeance of God whom the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross could not deliver The wrath of God will utterly consume and burn them up They shall be a whole burnt-offering to his fiery indignation they themselves shall satisfie for their fins and then he can never be satisfied These men take all the guilt of their sinnes upon their own souls and fearlesly go to Hell as though they could bear his indignation or fave themselves from the fury of his anger O let sinners consider what they do when they neglect so great salvation So farre shall they be from being Christs and Saviours to themselves that they shall be their own Devils and Tormentors Their spirits shall turn into fiends and they shall miserably rage and fame against their own selves and eternally crucifie their own hearts in vexing and racking-thoughts Their anger and displeasure shall burn against their own souls for their contempt of the Covenant of Grace the bloud of Christ will call for their bloud the pardon that was offered will plead for no pardon and all the Expence which God hath been at will be charged upon them What then will they do when they shall be rendred guilty of the bloud of the Lord when the Love of God it self will be their accuser when they shall be oppressed and cast under an infinite debt which they can never pay They must groan and sigh and cry under the burden to all eternity and the Name of Christ which is so sweet to converted sinners will be a name of death and horror unto them and the bloud of Christ which is the life of all the holy Ones of God will be like red and bloudy colours to some creatures which will make them raging mad If I could exaggerate this as it deserves methinks I could affright a soul that is in the profoundest sleep in the Devils Arms. And yet why should I think such a thought if the bloud of Christ cannot do it but men will dye in secure-sinning why should we think to prevail O think of the bloud of Christ therefore and let it not be shed in vain Think how angry he will be that his dearest heart bloud should be spilt on the ground like water to no purpose at all as to thy soul Think how it grieves him to see his love so undervalued how it pierces him to see his bloud trodden under feet into what anger his love will at last turn and this will move thee more than all that I can say If a man could speak nothing but fire and smoak and bloud if flames should come out of his mouth instead of words if he had a voice like thunder and an eye like lightning he could not represent unto you the misery of those that make no reckoning of the bloud of the Sonne of God The very Sun shall be turned into darkness saith the Apostle out of Joel Acts 2.20 and the Moon into blood before the great and notable day of the Lord viz. the day when he shall come to destroy the Enemies of his Cross And yet he seems there to speak but of one particular day of Judgement upon the Jewish Nation who crucified the Lord of Life and that was but a type and figure of the last day and came far short of the blackness and darkness of that time when the Lord will come to take vengeance on all them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus How terrible would it be to see the Heavens all covered with clouds of blood to feel drops of blood come raining down upon our heads and next showres of fire from the melting Sun come trickling upon our eyes and then sheets of flames wrapping about our bodies to hear the earth groan and the pillars of the world crack as if the whole frame of Nature were a dying and the world were tumbling into its Grave All this would be but a petty image of that dreadfull Day when the Son of righteousness shall be cloathed with clouds of wrath when his countenance shall be as flames of fire when he shall cloath himself with vengeance as a Garment when the Lamb of God himself shall roar like a Lyon and the meek and compassionate Jesus shall rend in pieces and devour There can be nothing more strange than for a Lamb to be angry for a sheep to tear and destroy If he once gird his sword upon his thigh and resolve to dip his feet in the blood of the wicked it will be a dismall a bloudy day indeed and woe be to all those on whom that dreadfull storm shall fall when the God of Heaven himself shall come in flaming fire to destroy his Adversaries For ever shall they lye wallowing in their own bloud and all their bloud shall be turned into fire and they shall bathe themselves in streams of Brimstone and roll themselves in beds of flames and their torment shall never cease Much rather would I have a Lyon satisfie his bloudy Jawes with my flesh or a cruell Tyrant rake in my bowels with the teeth of burning Irons or be prickt to death with Needles or endure all the miseries that any ingenuous witty Devil can invent than fall into the angry hands of a loving Saviour Much rather would I see the Sun scowle and all the clouds of Heaven come ratling down in a Tempest upon my head than behold the least frown in the brow of the blessed Jesus What anger must that be which shall lye in the bosome of Love What fire burns like to Jealousie Who so enraged as those whose love is abused and grosly contemned All that the Apostle can tell us in Answer to this Question is that our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Our God even the God of Christians the God of St. Paul the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the God of Love and Goodness is a burning consuming Fire
full Atonement being made because it is onely bread and onely Wine These things then having such a special reference to Christs Death the worthy receiving of them must needs be of great force 1. As an Antidote to take away the poyson and killing-power of sin The Blood of Christ doth wash away our guilt and takes off all obligation unto punishment and the consideration that Christ hath died for us expels the poyson from the heart which would make us faint and die It heals the wounds that sin hath made and takes away the anger of the sore it asswages the rage and heat of that sting which the fiery Serpent had sent unto us and suffers not the venome to undo us The pardon indeed is granted to us by vertue of the Covenant of grace when we unfeignedly repent and believe i. e. when we are converted unto God but now likewise it is further sealed to such persons That which was confirmed before by the Blood of Christ is now in a sensible manner applied to us and ratified by the representations of that Blood In the use of these things likewise we receive an increase of Piety and get more full victories over our sins and thereby feel more the virtue of the Antidote and have a sense of our pardon made as lively as if there was a new act of grace passed to settle it more surely upon us 2. It is of a Cathartical virtue also and hath in it a force to purge and cleanse our souls from their impurities As it takes away the killing-power of sin against us so it kills sin in us By our abiding in the Wounds of Christ sin is wounded and slain If any of you saith St. Bernard do not feel so frequently the sharp motions of anger envy or luxury c Gratias agat corpori saâ—guini Domini c. Let him give thanks to the body and blood of our Lord and let him praise the power of this Sacrament The blood of Christ quenches the fire of anger the heart-burnings of malice and envy the feavourish heats of lust the raging thirst after sensual pleasures Consider what thou art Dost thou delight in drink Here is a draught to quench thy thirst Art thou a glutton Here is a morfel that will make thee say Lord evermore give us this Bread Art thou worldly-minded Here is Christ dying to the world and leaving the world who will carry thee away with him in his armes Art thou fearfull to suffer any thing for Christ Drink the Cup of the blood of Christ that thou mayst be able to shed thy own bloud for Christ Calicem sanguinis Christi bibas ut possis propter Christum sanguinem sundere Cypt. Give saith Cyprian the Cup of Christ to those who are to drink of the Cup of Martyrdome Art thou affraid of the power of the Devil Christ O man comes here to take possession of thee And as he upon the Cross spoiled principalities and powers triumphing over them so mayst thou do also in this Sacrament of the Cross Art thou affraid of growing cold and dead in good duties Thou drinkest of Jesus that is full of spirit and will warm and enliven thy heart Whatsoever sin thou hast unmortified bring it hither and nail it unto the Cross of Christ till it be stark dead And unto whatsoever good thou wouldst be animated shew thy Lord thy desire to it and shew him his bloud to move him to bestow it Onely remember that it works not as Physick doth in a natural but in a spiritual manner It works as a Sacrament and requires thy inward rational and spiritual operations and then thou wilt find the profit of it to be greater then all that I have said Some of the old Heathen represented plenty and worldly happiness by a man with bread in one hand and a Cup in the other and a Crown of Poppy about his head which signified sleep and emptiness of care and trouble in the midst of abundance That man thou maist be for by this bread and Wine is exhibited to thee all plenty of grace and blessing of peace and comfort Thou maist lay down thy self in peace and sleep quietly not in the lap of the world and carnal security but in the bosome of our Lord folacing thy self in his love and saying Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their Corn and Wine encreased Psal 4.7 Let me say therefore to every holy and well-disposed Soul in the words of St. Ambrose Venias venias ad cibum Christi adcibum c. Come come to the food of Christ to the food of the Lords Body to the banquet of the Sacrament to the Cup wherewith the affections of the faithfull are inebriated and made drunken That thou maist put off the cares of the world the snares of the Devil and the fears of Death and that thou maist put on the comforts of God the delights of Peace the joys of Pardon more sweet than all the Pleasures of a Paradise And thou O Lord our God who dost provide food for all Creatures and hast given all Creatures to be food for Man and feedest not onely his body but his soul also and givest him for his soul not onely the holy Word but the blessed Body and Blood of thy Son Do thou cause all our hearts to burn with desires after thee who art so full of love to us Make every Christian soul to rellish and savour the things of God Prepare every one by a full digestion of thy Heavenly Word to receive likewise this divine nourishment of their Souls Stir up all their hunger after this Feast Excite all their longing-appetites after this Heavenly Manna And let this be the voice and hearty language of every one that reads this Book Give us good Lord Give us evermore this food Amen most gracious God for Jesus Christ his sake Amen CHAP. XIX AS the Sun and the showres make those Plants more tall and beautifull which have any living roots in the earth but on the contrary do putrifie and dry up those whose roots are dead So it is with this Sacrament which renders their souls more fair and flourishing who receive it rooted in love but those are more dried and hardned by it and tend more to corruption who have no life at all in them whereby to convert it into their nourishment Or as you see it is in corporal nutriment those meats which give a plentifull increase to sound bodies do more weaken and infeeble those whose stomacks are corrupt and the higher and fuller the nutriment is the more corruption doth it breed in those that are infirm and not apt to receive it So it is in this sacred spiritual repast the greater and more large stock of spirits and strength it is apt to afford to a soul that fits it self to receive it the more distempers and weaknesses doth it leave in the spirit of him that cares not what he does
give some brief touches upon those things §. 5. which you can without trouble inlarge in your own thoughts Which is one reason why I shall spare my self any long pains about them and hold another course in this following Treatise For our part we do here profess our selves of the Religion that Christ hath instituted and taught us as you will see more largely in the ensuing Book We do at once in this Feast both shew our gladness and assure him of our affections Sin is here represented so unto us that it cannot but make our wounds bleed afresh The remembrance of Christs death doth pierce our hearts again with godly sorrow and revives the smart and pain which the sense of sin hath created in our souls Faith likewise here is as greedy of its food as an hungry mouth is of its meat And Obedience is hereby confirmed because we receive lively nourishment into our souls which will make us strong to execute the will of our Lord. Our suffering also with Christ we profess more lively than by Water even by Blood it self When our Saviour saith in the sixth of S. John That we must eat of his flesh he means we must receive himself and digest his Doctrine but seeing the word flesh in Scripture-phrase signifies very frequently weakness and meanness he intends that we must receive him so as to partake with him in his poor low and suffering condition And this we do most notably protest that we will when we receive the signs of his broken body For the Bread broken doth not only argue it to be fit for food but that first we must be slain and mortified and likewise receive such strength that if he call us unto death we must undergo it We own hereby the Covenant of sufferings and feed upon a dead Saviour Which makes Theophylact give this as a reason why Christ gave thanks when he brake the bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That so we might receive Martyrdom thankfully It is a feast which we partake of and yet signifies sufferings But let it not seem strange for we must count it all joy when we fall into divers temptations Neither doth it less signifie and seal on Gods part being a manifest token of his great and inexpressible love in giving of his own Son to death even to the cursed death of the Cross for us Here he takes us not only under his wings as I said he doth in Baptism but he takes us into his armes He takes us to himself and he gives himself wholly unto us And then for Remission of sins it is manifest to be the purchase of his blood and so must needs further here be assured to all good souls And it is the very thing that is expressed in the Institution of this Sacrament This is my blood of the New Testament that is shed for many for the remission of sins And there are not so many spirits contained in the Wine as there are lively influences of Gods good Spirit hereby conveyed to pious hearts We have assurance likewise given by these things That he will not take his holy Spirit from us but that he will let it always diffuse it self through all our powers And as for the Resurrection from the dead We being made as it were of his flesh and of his bone and incorporated into him he can lose none of his members but all that eat of his flesh and drink of his blood as they ought shall be raised again at the last day We eat of the tree of life which will make us live for ever and we receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Ephes as Ignatius speaks an Antidote against death a Medicine to preserve us from corruption This the ancient Christians thought to be so fully assured to us in the Eucharist that this is one of the Arguments whereby Irenaeus confutes the Valentinians who denied the rising again of the Body after it is dead How can that flesh be corrupted L. 4. adv haeres cap. 34. and not live again which is nourished by the Body and Bloud of the Lord Either let them change their mind or else abstain from this Offering For as the Bread which is of the Earth perceiving the invocation of God is no longer common bread but the Eucharist consisting of something earthly and something heavenly Even so our bodies perceiving this Eucharist are not now corruptible but have the hopes of a Resurrection L. 5. cap. 2. Thus he who hath more to the same purpose in another Book Herein likewise God gives us a foretaste of Heaven and the joys to come as will be made more manifest in the following Discourse And thus far we may grant the Bread and Wine of Melchizedeck to have been Sacramental that they were given to Abraham as earnests for to secure him of the Land flowing with milk and honey By this Banquet or Entertainment which the Royal Priest made him he took Livery of Seisin as our Lawyers speak of the promised Land And in that very place it is most likely where God intended the Mother-City of the Kingdom should be was this conveyance made to Abraham's seed This Bread and Wine were most certain evidences that his Posterity should eat of the fruit of that Land wherein now he was a stranger And just in the same manner doth God give unto faithful souls this blessed Bread and Wine as an Antepast of his eternal love and hereby they do begin to taste of the heavenly Feast that they shall celebrate above They have herein a right made them unto Heaven and a kind of delivery of possession which shall shortly be compleated by an actual enjoyment They that would more than such things as these in this Sacrament Sect. 6. are in danger to have nothing at all as they should have While they think that Christ is received coporally by them they may neglect the spiritual eating and while they chew him as it were between their teeth their Souls may feel but little of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eâ—nap in vita Jambl. For just as it is with those that would paint a beautifull person while they think to add something of their own to the face thereby to make him look better than he is they spoil the comeliness of the Picture and miss both of his face and likewise of his true beauty So it is with the modern Church of Rome which would make Religion seem as fair and beautifull yea as gaudy and trim as their fancies can devise but by adding their own inventions and novel fashions they quite spoil both true Religion and the beauty of it which they study to adorn Whilest they think to offer a proper Sacrifice they many times offer none at all And whilst they think it is a Sacrifice both for quick and dead they rely so much upon it that it proves to be for neither By making it flesh and blood and bones they make Christ the
food of the foulest and prophanest mouths And by using a multitude of Ceremonies they are in danger to take the mind off from all substantial exercises The Ancients I am sure understood not the new language of the Transubstantiation of the Bread and Wine into the Flesh and Blood of Christ And though they would suborn those worthies to speak against their mind and conscience on their side yet we find that they call the bread and wine figures or symboles of Christs body and blood Dionysius the Areopagite or that ancient Writer who passeth under his name calls them most frequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * In Cap. 3. Eccles Hierach Symboles Images Antitypes sensible things received instead of things intelligible And Maximus in his Scholion upon him interpreting what a Symbole is in his Language saith it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. A sensible thing which we partake of instead of a spiritual as for example Bread and Wine in stead of the immaterial divine nourishment and gladness And so Macarius calls it Homil. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The figure and representation of his Flesh and Blood and saith That he who partakes of the visible Bread doth spiritually eat the Flesh of our Lord. And he that will may repair to Theodoret who lived in later times and he shall tell him That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mystical representations and that their nature is not changed no more than the flesh of Christ ceases to be flesh now that it is in the Heavens And in his Comment upon the 1 Corinth 11.26 he saith Dialog 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostle uses these words Till he come because there will be no need of Symboles of his Body when his Body it self shall appear The name of Antiquity makes a great sound in their mouths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore let the Reader remember that there are many ancient Errors as well as Truths If they have followed the Ancients in their Novel Doctrines they are rather the Old Hereticks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vide Irenaeum l. 1. c. 9. than the Fathers of the Church For it hath been well observed by some of our Divines that Marcus a Magician is noted by Irenaeus for counterfeiting to consecrate in an Eucharistial manner Cups of Water mixed with Wine to a strange purpose He extended saith he the Words of invocation to a very great length and then he made the liquor in the Cup seem of a purple or bloody colour His followers believed that the divine Grace did drop down some of its own blood into the Cup at his request And all that were present were very greedy to taste of this Cup that the same Grace which he called down might showre it self upon them likewise I can little doubt but that this Cup over which he gave thanks was a counterfeit of that which the sound Christians drunk of from whom these men were apostatized And that he might gain greater applause by his followers he would make them believe that he was more devout than any and could give them more than the Christians pretended to do even the very blood of Christ it self which the Romanists now boast they have and therein excel us But we are content with what holy men then enjoyed and let them take heed that they follow not worse examples I am sure Theodoret in his second Dialogue brings in a wild conceited man speaking the same things that they do Cap. 24. The affirmation of that Phantastick is this That Christs humane Nature is swallowed up in the Divine His Argument for it is this As the Elements or Symbols or the Lords Body and Blood are one thing before the Invocation of the Priest but after Invocation are changed and made another so the Lords Body after his ascension is changed into a divine substance though before it was not Hereupon the Father saith You are caught in your onw net for the Symbols do not go out of their proper nature but remain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the former substance wherein they were Let the Reader then judge with whom they speak and who are the Masters of our language and assertions And let him take heed how he leaves our Communion where he hath the holy Bread and the Cup both whereas they something like the Manichees of old will not let the people drink of the Cup. But let them believe as much as they will so they will but quietly suffer us to believe as we see cause Let them practise as they please if it will do them any good we doubt not but we believe and practise enough to the receiving of as great benefits as they can enjoy I confess I cannot be angry with them for believing more than I can do but I desire they would not be angry at us but rather pity us that we cannot extend our faith so far If a man will say that Snow is nothing but frozen milk which drops from the skies much good may it do him with his conceit only let him not impose the same belief on others who intend not to trouble him for his fancy And if they will believe that wine is the very Blood of Christ I desire not that they should suffer the least harm for this opinion but let them not damn us because we will not put out our eyes and deny our taste and abandon our reason and the holy Scripture to the novel fancies and interpretations that they obtrude upon us I know that if a mans soul be not made of solid reason but consists of weak and credulous principles they will fearfully astonish it with the dismal names of Heresie and Schisme and such like bugbear words which every one applies as he pleases But considerate souls are grown wiser than to be affrighted out of their wits by the noise of words the great engine of this Age and they know that damnation doth not depend upon mens mouths for if it did I know not who should go to Heaven We cannot be so blind as not to see that every party arrogates to it self the glorious names of Christ and the Holy Ghost and if we would be led by sounds we must believe no body knows how many Christs The name of Heretick Schismatick yea and of Antichrist and Babylon signifie but little to us who hear them every day so carelesly applied that we are assured men know not what they say Neither will we be amazed with sad relations of the miserable ends of those who have contemned their Sacraments for we do not allow that any man should irreverently behave himself towards any of Christs institutions though there be something of mans invention mixed with it And we can repay their stories of the contempt of this Sacrament as among them administred with as sad and true relations concerning those who have despised that which in scorn and pride they are pleased to call Calvins Supper
to go out of our selves when we think of him For II. Just Mart. Ib. It was instituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in commemoration of his passion and sufferings for us As the bread and wine do commemorate the truth of his body so do bread broken and wine poured out commemorate the truth of his sufferings for us which those phantastical people in the first times did no less deny And the bread and wine being given to us severally not both together do clearly tell us that he was really dead his vital blood being separated from his body and his veins and heart being emptied of it This is that miracle of love which the Apostle saith we should shew forth till he come this is that famous act which never ennobled the story of any person that the Lord would purchase enemies by his own blood yea by the blood of the Cross reconcile them to himself The thoughts of this is able to wound a heart of marble with love and to turn a rock into a fountain of tears and to unloose the tongue of the dumb that they may speak the honour of his Name and shew forth his praise And therefore because this was such a singular instance of love and because it contains in it so many secrets which we should have before our eyes it is the chief thing that we are to make a remembrance of But as I said before there are two parts of this Commemoration and it cannot be contained within the bounds of this world but we must make it reach as far as Heaven For 1. We do shew it forth and declare it unto men which is sufficiently clear by all that hath been said We do publish and annunciate unto all that he is the Saviour of the world and that he hath died for us and purchased blessings thereby beyond the estimate and account of humane thought And further the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may import that we do extol praedicate magnifie and highly lift up in our praises this great benefit so that all may come to the knowledge of it as far as is in our powers to procure This commemoration the Minister chiefly makes unto the people and all the people together with him to all that are present so that all may wonder at his love When our Saviour therefore saith Do this in remembrance of me the meaning is do this in remembrance that I dwelt in flesh in memory of what I suffered in memory of the infinite price of my blood which I shed for you in memory of the victory that I have obtained by it over the enemies and tyrants of your souls in memory of the immortal glory that I have purchased for you celebrate this feast in memory of all these things and when I am dead let me alway live in your heart Tell them one to another in a solemn manner and declare them in the face of my Church Let all ages know these things as long as the world shall last that as the benefit is of infinite merit so may the acknowledgement be an eternal memorial Be so careful in doing this that when I come again I may find you so doing 2. We do shew forth the Lords death unto God and commemorate before him the great things he hath done for us We keep it as it were in his memory and plead before him the Sacrifice of his Son which we shew unto him humbly requiring that grace and pardon with all other benefits of it may be bestowed on us And as the Minister doth most powerfully pray in the virtue of Christs sacrifice when he represents it unto God so do the people also when they shew unto him what his Son hath suffered Every man may say Behold O Lord the bleeding wounds of thy own Son remember how his body was broken for us think upon his precious blood which was shed in our behalf Let us die if he have not made a full satisfaction We desire not to be pardoned if he have not paid our debt But canst thou behold him and not be well pleased with us Canst thou look on his body and blood which we represent to thee and turn thy face from us Hast thou not set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood O Lord then suffer us sinful creatures to plead with thee Let us prevail in the virtue of his sacrifice for the graces and blessings that we need and hide not thy self from us unless thou canst hide thy self from thy Son too whom we bring with us unto thee In this sort may we take the boldness to speak to God and together with a representation of Christ we may represent our own wants and we may be confident that when God sees his Son when we hold up him as it were between his anger and our souls he will take some pity and have mercy upon us Just as a poor man pleading with a King commemorates to him the worthy deeds of some of his Ancestors or makes mention of the name of some high Favourite for whose sake he desires his Petition may be granted So it is with us when we come before God to request mercy of him we can hope to prevail for nothing but through the Name of our Lord whom we can never mention with so much advantage as when we solemnly commemorate his sufferings and deservings For then we pray and do something else also which God hath commanded so that there is the united force of many acceptable things to make us prevalent And hence I suppose it is that Isid Pelus calls the Sacramental bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 1. Epist. 123. the shew-bread as we render it which we set before God as that stood alway before his face in the time of the Law that God looking upon it might remember his people Israel for good It will not be unprofitable to add That this was one reason why the Ancients called this action a Sacrifice which the Romanists now so much urge because it doth represent the Sacrifice which Christ once offered It is a figure of his death which we commemorate unto which the Apostle Paul as a Learned man conceives hath a reference L'Emptreur when he saith to the Galatians Gal. 3.1 That Jesus Christ was set forth evidently before their eyes crucified among them They saw as it were his Sacrifice on the Cross it was so lively figured in this Sacrament And it is very plain that Chrysostome understood no more Hom. 27. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c when as he thus speaks upon the Epistle to the Hebrews What then do not we offer every day yet we offer by making a commemoration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his death And we do not make another sacrifice every day but alway the same or rather a remembrance of a sacrifice Such an unbloody Sacrifice which is only rememorative and in representation we all acknowledge And if that would content
the Blood he sprinkled on the Altar which represented God and the other half he sprinkled on the people ver 6 7 8. as a token of the Covenant between them But for compleating of the Compact the chief of the people went up nearer to God and saw that bright appearance and did eat and drink ver 11. which sure must be understood of their feasting upon the Peace-offerings which had been sacrificed unto God whereby they professed to own that Covenant he had given to them Not long after this people made to themselves other gods and offered not onely burnt-offerings but also peace-offerings to them Exod. 32.6 and then sate down to eat and driuk and rose up to play i. e. to be wanton and commit uncleanness with each other Now that this was an associating of themselves with the Egyptian gods we may learn from the Apostle who reciting of this passage and speaking of their Idolatry makes no mention at all of their sacrificing to these new gods but onely of this eating c. which did conclude the Ceremony as if the Idolatry did formally consist in this and that hereby they did devote themselves to that strange Worship Neither be you Idolators saith he 1 Cor. 10.8 as were some of them as it is written the people sate down to eat and to drink and rose up to play By which words you may see the Apostle makes account that this eating and drinking of the sacrifices was a renouncing of the Covenant of their God and joyning of themselves to idols Now because it was the manner as it seems of some of the Corinthians still to feast in the Idols Temples and perhaps in the Temple of Venus famous in that City which makes the Apostle add those words ver 8. Neither commit fornication as some c. He tells them that this was a plain forsaking of Christ and utterly incompatible with his Profession For the vouching of which assertion he reminds them what the Sacrament of the Supper of the Lord doth import viz. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 participation or communion of the Body and Blood of Christ ver 16 17. which is as much as to say it is a profession that we as one body partaking of one bread do hold communion with Christ and adhere unto him as our Lord and Head and that to his Worship and Service we do consecrate our selves For just as Israel by eating of the sacrifices partake of or have communion with the Altar ver 18. i. e. profess to be of that Religion and adhere to that way of Worship So it is with Christians when they eat of the Body and Blood of the crucified Saviour which was offered for us And therefore by a likeness of Reason he concludes That to partake of the Table of Devils and eat of things sacrificed to them was to profess to have communion with those impure spirits and thereby to desecrate themselves it being impossible for them at once to be devoted to things so quite contrary as Christ and the Devil ver 20 21. From all which discourse we may thus reason That this holy Sacrament is a Feast upon the Sacrifice which Christ offered as the Jewish Feasts were made with the flesh of those sacrifices which they offered to God For the Apostle makes the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ ver 16. parrallel to eating of the sacrifices ver 18. And therefore it is a rite whereby we solemnly addict our selves to the service and Worship of Christ and take upon our selves strict engagements to be faithfull in that Covenant that is between us which is the thing that was to be proved As Israel joined themselves to God by feasting in his house of the Sacrifices so we joyn our selves to Christ by feasting in the place of his Worship and at his Table upon the remembrances of his body and blood And our obligations to cleave unto him do as much excel all other tyes in their sacredness strength and vertue as the Sacrifice of Christ excels the Sacrifice of a Beast or the eating and drinking of his Body and Blood is beyond all participation of the meat of the ancient Altars Yea it is supposed that we are the friends of God before we come hither and that we are not in any willing uncleanness else we should be shut out from partaking of this offering And therefore our approach to his Table is but more strongly to tye the knot and to bind us in deeper promises to continue friendship with him If more can be said then this I may add that the eating of this sacrifice is a solemn Oath that we will be true and loyal to him For even Heathens themselves did use by sacrifice to bind themselves in Oaths From whence it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies that sacrifice which was slain when they made a covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. and in regard of its relation to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be rendred the Oath-sacrifice And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cut this sacrifice in Homers phrase is to make a Covenant which it is likely may be taken from the Hebrew custome mentioned Jer. 34.18 And to swear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon the warm intrails of the beast was the greatest Oath that could be made When we lay our hands therefore upon the body of Christ that was sacrificed for us and much more when we eat of it we do solemnly take our Oaths that we will be his faithfull foederates and rather die then shrink from those duties to which we bind our selves IV. If there be any that look upon eating and drinking of this bread and wine onely as symbols of beleeving in Jesus Christ the matter draws to the same point for faith is the condition of the Covenant of Grace and comprehends in its signification all that God requires So some of the Ancients expound those words Joh. 6. ver 54. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life to signifie thus much He that is made partaker of my wisdom through my incarnation and sensible life among men shall be saved For flesh and blood saith Basil he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist 141. ad Caesar all the mystery of his incarnation and conversation here in the flesh amongst us together with his doctrine which he hath taught us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. by which the soul is nourished and fitted for the sight of coelestial things and therefore eating and drinking of these must denote embracing of all Christ so as to be conform to him and to his doctrine If then we take the body and blood of Christ in this Supper represented to us to signifie the same and eating and drinking to be onely believing yet you may easily see to how much we are engaged if we do really believe But it is manifest to me that eating and drinking here must comprehend more then it doth in St. John for
another likeness by the offering up of our bodies to God which is a piece of this service Rom. 12.1 2. And so some observe that all other meat is received as it is in it self and no otherwise but this meat is divers as it is received Other meat affecteth and altereth the taste but here the taste altereth the meat For if it be worthily received it is the body and blood of Christ if unworthily it is but bare bread and wine But yet this must be cautiously understood when we thus speak for his presence is with the bread though not in it Though it be onely in us yet it comes with it unto us if we will receive him because else we shall not know how unworthy persons are said to be guilty of his body and blood 1 Cor. 11.27 if he be not present with his body and blood to work in mens souls This likewise is to be further observed for the better under standing of it that the Devil who loves to imitate God that he may the better cozen and cheat doth seldom manifest his power to any great purpose but when he is called by some of his own ceremonies and sacraments that he hath appointed This doth but tell us that Christ is then most powerfully present when we use his rites which he hath instituted and hallowed as special remembrances of his love and testimonies of our love unto him So that we may come hither and expect that we shall feel more at such a time and in the use of such means then at or in others because he hath made them his body and blood in such sort as I have declared Other union then this by Christs spirit I know no use of though we should believe that which we do not understand I can conceive great things concerning the power of Christs humane nature and it is not for us to tell how far it may extend its influences through the inhabitation of the Deity That it is brighter then the Sun Saint Paul saw when the Lord appeared to him Acts 26.13 And as the Sun we see communicates his beams a vast way and twists it self about us by silver threads of light though seated in the Heavens so may we conceive that the sacred humanity of Christ doth tie us to it self by cords of love and now embrace us in its outstretched armes after a more affectionate manner when we come to remember him But to what purposes this should serve I do not well understand and without the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us the flesh can profit nothing at all though never so glorious and therefore I lay aside such thoughts and content my self to know that they that are joyned or cleave to the Lord 1 Cor. 6.17 are one spirit 5. Now from this secret union that is here made between Christ and our persons it comes to pass that this Sacrament hath been accounted an earnest and pledg of the resurrection For nothing that is made one with Christ can die and be lost but he will raise it up again at the last day His spirit can find out all their dust after a thousand changes it can gather all their dispersons and renuite their scattered crums and knead them again into a goodly body And this it will do 1 Cor. 6.19 for their very bodies are the Temples of the holy Ghost therefore he will quicken their mortal bodies Rom. 8.11 by his Spirit that dwelleth in them Hence it was that Cyril so earnestly invited guests to this feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saying Come eat the bread that renews your natures drink the wine that is the smile and cheer of immortality Eat the bread that purges away the ancient bitterness drink the wine that asswages the pain of our old sore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the very restorative of nature an healing plaister for the bitings of the Serpent a powerfull antidote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ainst all his poyson he hath infused into us And so several of the elder times speak not without reason for seeing our Lord gives to these things the name of his body and blood we need not fear to attribute to them the vertues and efficacy of his death which we know was the restorer of life We should think therefore when we go to the Table of the Lord that we go to joyn our selves more closely to our head and to unite our hearts more firmly to the fountain of our life That we go to receive of his holy Spirit which like wine running through our veins should diffuse it self into all the vital powers of our souls and make us more able and strong active and quick ready and forward in the service of our Saviour We should think that hereby we may get greater victories over our enemies if we do not betray our succours that we may more compleat our conquests if we use the power that is sent unto us We should look upon this bread as the bread of life and conceive that we take the cup of immortality into our hands and that the next draught may be in the Kingdom of God when our bodies shall be raised to feast at the eternal supper of the Lamb. For this is but a just consequence of forgiveness of sins which the former Chapter treated of that our bodies should live again which became mortal through sin And therefore as Christ here seals unto us the one so he likewise wise assures us of the other and gives unto us the earnest of the Spirit What joy then must these thoughts needs create in our souls What better chear can we desire What greater dainties would we taste then this holy feast affords or what cause would we have of thanksgiving more then hath been named If we desire a consort in our thanksgivings and to have an harmony of souls while we sing his praises if we would hear some voice besides our own that might fill up our joys and lift them to a greater height That is not wanting neither as the next Chapter shall declare For here is an union of minds begot and a sweet consent of hearts is the result of this entertainment CHAP. VI. AS this Sacrament is a means of uniting us to our Lord by faith so likewise of uniting us to our brethren by love It knits us not onely to our head but all the members also thereby are more indeared unto each other We enter here into a strict league of friendship with them as well as into a Covenant with God For all true Christians are not onely of the Family of God but his children and nearest relations so that we cannot profess any love unto the father of them all but we must at the same time embrace his whole progeny as bearing his character and having in them those very things which we love in him When we take the bridegroom we
under the load of sin when he beheld Christ groaning upon the Cross for it whose heart could remain unbroken when he saw his body broken for us who could withhold his eyes from tears when he saw the Wounds of Christ weeping blood for us Behold O Lord would such a mans soul answer unto him I am sorry that my sins have liv'd so long It was sore against my will that there should be any of them now to kill fain would I have had their lives but they are hitherto overstrong for me O do thou strike my soul through with a sense of thy sufferings and they will not be able to endure thy hand Do thou transfix me first with a sense of my baseness and then with a sense of thy love and sure they cannot but die when they feel thy pains I am resolved not to carry away one of them alive If they had a thousand lives they should lose them all that my soul may live to thee How it would delight our Lord to hear such language in mens hearts it is not for me to express nor can you imagine how you should please him better and draw him more powerfully into your armes then by such discourse within your selves Nor can you ever think to get the victory over your sins and bring them under your hatred and displeasure if such a sight as Christ crucified before your eyes be not able to effect it Never will they be killed if they can outlive the sight of a bleeding Saviour Never shall we get them under our power if they can escape with their lives when we remember so solemnly his accursed death III. When we see him that ministers come to give the bread unto us let us employ our selves in these three Acts of Devotion First It will well become a soul to sink into a very deep humility and to abase it self in the sense of its own unworthiness When thou seest that Christ is coming as it were towards thy house Run forth to meet him at the door before he come in and entertain him with an act of reverence worship and humble obeysance to him Say Lord I am not worthy that thou should'st come under my Roof I deserve not the crumbs that fall from thy Table Say as Ruth to Boaz Ruth 2.10 after she had bowed her self to the ground Why have I found grace in thine eyes that thou shouldst take knowledg of me seeing I am a stranger How comes it that my Lord should cast his eye upon me What am I that he should visit me and come to marry himself unto me And when thou hast depressed thy self a while at his feet Then Secondly Rise a little up again and mix some Acts of love with this humility Think of the infinite love of God that would give his own Son think of the infinite love of Christ that would so graciously come to save us and would leave us these remembrances and tokens of his love Wish that thou hadst a thousand hearts to correspond with so great a love Say within thy self Oh Lord What am I that thou shouldest command me for to love thee What compare between me and thee that thou shouldest so much desire to make me a visit and give to me an embracement Whence comes it that thou who art in Heaven among them who know so well how to love and serve thee wilt vouchsafe to descend to me who know little else but how to offend thee Is it possible O Lord that thou canst not content thy self to be without me Did thy meer love draw thee down from Heaven for my sake Dost thou still give thy self unto me as if thou couldst never be mine enough Who can abide the heat of this love Who can feel thy heart and not be burnt up There is none can dwell in such flames without being consumed No soul that can abide in the body if a great sense of this love do long abide We must therefore entreat our gracious Lord that he would stay for the full measure of our love till he hath made us able to do nothing else but love him And thirdly Let us turn our Love into desire Let us beseech him to fill us with his holy Spirit and to dwell in us by all his divine graces Say Lord since thou art pleased to come and offer thy self unto me My soul thirsteth for thee even as the thirsty Land I humbly stretch out my hands unto thee Psal 143.6 I open my mouth wide that thou mayest fill me O satisfie my soul with thy likeness O let me taste that the Lord is gracious And you may be assured that the Lord loves a soul that lies in such a posture ready to receive him that gasps and longs after him and saith in its heart Whom have I in Heaven but thee Psal 73.25 and there is none on earth besides thee Stir up thy appetite therefore and come to him as a chased Hart to the streams of water as an hungry man unto a Feast as a Bride unto her Wedding a thousand times desired Labour to feel something like to those longings that so thou mayst taste and savour his love the more and it may leave a sweeter gust and relish upon thy soul and thy mouth may praise him afterward with joyfull lips IV. When we take the Bread into our hands it is seasonable time to do that Act which I told you was one end of this Sacrament viz. Commemorate and shew forth or declare the Death of Christ unto God the Father Let us represent before him the sacrifice of atonement that Christ hath made let us commemorate the pains which he indured let us intreat him that we may enjoy all the purchase of his Blood that all people may reap the fruit of his Passion and that for the sake of his bloudy sacrifice he will turn away all his anger and displeasure and be reconciled unto us Themistocles they say not knowing how to mitigate and atone the wrath of King Admetus and avert his fury from him snatcht up the Kings Son and held him up in his armes between himself and death and so prevailed for a pardon and quenched the fire that was breaking out against him And this the Molossians of whom he was King held to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch in Themist the most effectual way of supplication and which of all others could not be resisted or denied Of far greater prevalency is this Act the holding up as it were the Son of God in our hands and representing to the Father the broken body and the Bloud of his onely begotten Let us set this between the heat of Gods anger and our souls let us desire he would have regard to his dearly beloved and the Lord cannot turn back our Prayers that press and importune him with such a mighty argument Say therefore to him Behold O Lord the sacrifice of the everlasting Covenant behold we lay before thee the Lamb
Tatius mentions that appeared to the sight as if they were on a flame and the fire leaped out of them continually but if you came to touch them they were as cold as any Snow And neither the fire saith he was quenched by the water nor the water heated by the fire but in that Fountain you might behold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an amity and reconciliation of fire and water together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just so it is with many professing people they have a seeming zeal and a flagrant devotion they have warm expressions in their mouthes and pray earnestly but if you come near to them and handle them if you grow acquainted with their converse the world lyes cold at their hearts and there is no life of God in them but they have made a syncretism between life and death a league between the god of this world and the God of Heaven The same Author tells of a River in Spain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lb. into whose whirlpits if the wind insinuate it self it strikes upon the folds of the water and plays with them as we do upon the strings of a Cittern so that a Passenger would imagine that he was entertained by some Musicians Which may aptly resemble many men in the world who when the Spirit of God breathes at some solemn time upon them or when they hear the voice of God and look a little into themselves do seem to be delightfully moved and to make a pleasant noise as though they were tuned to the praises of God but follow them home and let that sweet breath be over and you shall see they are as greedy of the world as a deep pit and their thoughts roll and turn about that they may draw all that comes near them into themselves VI. And therefore sixthly Let us labour to impress and retain an Image of Christ upon our souls whom we have seen crucified before our eyes Let us represent unto our selves what a Person Christ was and what his manner of behaviour was in the world and then let us labour to carry him before our mind and have him in our eyes that so by looking on him we may shape all our affections and all our actions after that rare pattern that he hath set us Let us endeavour to think every where that we see him hanging upon the Cross and behold him bleeding for our sins or declaring to us his mind or doing something that the Gospel speaks of so that we may lead a mortified life and be in every thing fashioned after his likeness And this we must do the rather because as I have said he is now more nearly united unto us so that when we are to do any thing we must act like him we must consider how he did or what he would do in such a case and we must so behave our selves that in a very proper sense Christ may be said to live and not we Gal. 2.20 We must do our endeavour that he may eat and drink and buy and sell c. i. e. all these things may be done as we think that Christ would do them were he in the flesh who is one with us We must become so many little Images of him in the world that they who see us may behold him And that is the meaning I suppose of another phrase of the Apostle when he bids us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 i. e. to be so transformed into him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumen that both in our outward garb and deportment and also in our inward features we may be a lively resemblance of him Now the same Apostle tells us That as many as are Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and therefore much more they who have eaten of his Body and drunk of his Blood are supposed to have put him on and to have dressed their souls compleatly after his holy Image 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. They must labour to be all over godly and to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his phrase is an universal vertue that they may be holy as he is holy And for our better direction 1. Let us labour to do something worthy of the expence of Christs Bloud and to think what manner of persons they ought to be for whom the Lord of life died and who are washed in no other laver but the Bloud of the Lamb. 2. Something answerable to the dearest love of the great God of Heaven and Earth and to consider after what sort they ought to live to whom God hath given so rich a gift whom he hath honoured not only to be his Sons but to have his dearest Son for their servant 3. Something that may correspond with so many and so great means of salvation And in particular we should think what is expected from those who have now received a greater strength from Heaven Strong food must not be given to those that intend to lead a sedentary life and have not much work to do A plentifull nourishment overthrows their health instead of yielding supports unto their spirits It is the greatest folly to come for this divine nutriment if we intend to sit still or to go but a slow pace in Religion as if we were newly come out of the sickness and disease of sin and could scarce stand in the wayes of God They ought to exercise themselves in all godliness to be active and full of motion who feed so abundantly They ought to be very good Children who are fed with such food for whom God furnished such a Table with so great a cost 4. We must labour to do something that is worthy of a soul and body consigned to immortal blessedness How holy should they be who expect such great things who have received such pledges of them who wait for the Lord from Heaven to change these vile bodies into his likeness O do not unhallow and desecrate that thing which is at present the Temple of the Lord and which is sanctified for the eternal mansions Prophane not that body and soul which shall for ever live with God are already become his habitation through his holy spirit dwelling in them Now consider I beseech you do you think that he leads a life worthy of any of these who delights not to converse with God who prays never or but very seldome exceeding briefly and as if he were frozen who hears Sermons and understands them not or else forgets them as soon as they are heard who grows no wiser nor better than he was many years agone whose time runs away in eating and drinking sleeping and playing working and toyling as if these were the things we exhorted them unto who rarely takes the Bible or a good Book into his hands and when he doth throws it away again at the call of any pleasure or worldly gain who loves no body but himself and is
of the divine Commandments which was among the Primitive Saints their despising of all worldly things their great charity and love may be thought to have flowed in great part from this spring that they received so frequently the Body and Blood of our Lord. Hence we may derive their strength activeness and zeal because they were so often refreshed with this Wine This gave them boldness against their adversaries this made them run so forwardly into flames because they were constantly heated with divine fires From this Table they went away with the courage of Lions and were terrible even to that great roaring Lion which devours so many careless souls He could not make such an easie prey of them as he doth of us because they did daily renew their strength by this food and became as bold as a Lion after he hath eaten flesh and drunken blood And if we did more frequently Communicate it would be a means to bring us to a greater resemblance of our Lord which was the thing that I last pressed who you know overcame the evil one and trod him under his feet As the Leverets saith the forementioned Author in the Mountains of Helvetia become all white because they neither see nor eat any thing but driven Snow so by often adorning and eating beauty goodness and purity it self in this divine Sacrament we should become altogether vertuous pure and beautifull And I am of the mind of another excellent Writer Dr. J. Taylor who judges it very probable That the Warres of Kingdomes the contentions in Families the infinite multitude of Law suits the personal hatreds and the universal want of charity which hath made the world so miserable and wicked may in a great degree be attributed to the neglect of this great Symbole and instrument of charity And that is the last thing that I shall commend unto you VIII Eighthly Let us be sure to live in charity with our Brethren to which we are in a special manner engaged by this Sacrament and of which we make a most solemn profession Let us behave our selves as Servants in the same family as sons of the same father as those who have eaten of the same bread Let us be very carefull that we do not cover the coals of anger and contention under the ashes for a night and then blow them up again the next morning but let us quite extinguish them and utterly put them out Let not your jealousies your hard thoughts your uncharitable and rash censurings your differences and enmities ever return again but let that sentence run in your minds 1 John 4.11 Beloved if God so loved us we ought to love one another If he have given his Son if he still give him to us if we feed and live upon him then let us love as Brethren and not fall out in our way to Heaven And if we find our love to grow sick and weak and to be fallen to decay then let us come hither on purpose for to revive it and raise it up again If the Lamp begin to burn dim and to cast a very weak light let us pour in more Oyl that it may not go out If our love begin to be chill and cold let us put this fire the oftner under it that it may be kept in a flame For assure your selves that they who take up their differences and enmities again did never truly lay them aside they did but mock God when they came to this holy Communion with a pretence of Love and Charity their hearts not being throughly resolved to forget all in juries and offences Or if they did seriously labour to put to death all hatreds one great reason why they are not throughly mortified is because they use so rarely this powerfull means of suppressing them and keeping them in their graves Men do one with another Plutarch alij as the Thespienses with married persons who once in five years space kept a Feast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Cupids honour for the reconciling of all differences that had happened between Man and Wife Such a small Festivity do men make of this Sacrament of the Lords Supper to which they come perhaps with an intention to bury all differences but then they give them a whole twelve moneths time if not more to revive and gather strength again Hence it is that the temper of the Christian World is as much different from the Spirit of the elder times as heat is from cold or life from death They held such frequent Communions that their love was so flagrant as to make them dye for one another and we hold them so seldome that the heat of our unmortified passions makes us wound and kill each other So that I make account there is but a little difference between doing this seldome and not doing it at all yea those enmities will be more fierce and untractable which even the Bloud of Jesus hath not quenched To put a conclusion then to this Discourse let me advise you when you come from the Table of the Lord thus to meditate within your selves I have received fresh Pledges of the love of my Lord and I have made new professions of my own What now doth the Lord require of me What have I that I can render back to him Alas I have nothing to give him but only my love nothing but my love did I say Oh how great a thing is love how much is inclosed in the bosome of love It is no such trifle as I imagine Love brought God down to us and love will carry us up to God Love made God like to man and love will make men like to God Love made him dye for us and love will make us lay down our lives for the Brethren O the power of Heavenly Love How shall I get thee planted in my heart Who can bring thee into my soul but only love Love begets love and the frequent Meditation of this love of God and of his Son will inflame thy heart in love to them Oh let a sense of this love lye perpetually in my breast that may change me into love Let me burn and languish in the Armes of Jesus Let me long for nothing but him let him be all my talk all my joy the Crown of my delight Let me never forget how gracious he is let the taste of his incomparable sweetness be never out of my mouth let me never rellish any thing but what hath some savour of him O my foul what should we wish for but to feast again with him What should we desire but to be satisfied with him Psal 27.4 This one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of my Lord all the dayes of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple What friend is there to whom we have been endeared that we can forget Do we use to throw the
but nothing methinks is more tempting and inviting than this heavenly Feast where pleasure is mixed with profit and physick with our food Where at once we may be both enriched and delighted both healed and nourished This Table if I may use the language of an holy Man is the very sinewes of our Soul S. Chrysost Hom. 24. in 1 Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the ligament of our mindes the foundation of our confidence our hope our salvation our light our life This mystery makes the earth to be an Heaven and therefore if thou wilt come hither thou mayest open the Gate of Heaven and look down into it or rather not into Heaven but into the Heaven of Heavens For that which is the most precious of all things above I will shew thee lying upon the earth For as in Kings Palaces the chiefest and most precious things are not the fair Walls the gilded Roofs the costly Hangings but the body of the King that sits upon the Throne even so in the Heavens the most glorious thing is the Body of Christ the King of Heaven Now behold and thou shalt see it here upon the earth For I do not shew thee the Angels or the Archangels or the Heavens or the Heaven of Heavens but him that is the Lord and Master of them all and therefore must thou not needs say that thou seest that upon the Earth that is more excellent than them all yea thou not only seest but thou touchest and not only touchest but eatest also yea and carriest him home with thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O then wipe thy soul very clean prepare thy mind to the receiving these Divine Mysteries Who would not be Religious that he may be thus happy who would not forsake all things for such a sight for such an embracement If thou mightest but have the priviledge to take up the Son of a King with his Purple and Diadem and other Ornaments into thy Arms wouldst thou not cast all other things to the ground to be so employed Tell me then why wilt thou not prepare thy self and reverently take the only begotten Son of God into thy hands Wilt thou not throw away the love of all earthly things for him Wilt thou not think thy self brave enough in the enjoying of him Dost thou still look to the earth and lovest money and admirest heaps of Gold Then what pity canst thou deserve What pardon canst thou hope for Or what excuse canst thou think of to make for thy self Thus he Homil. 27. in 1. ad Corinth When a man hath heard the sacred Hymns as he saith in another place and hath seen the spirituall Marriage and been feasted at the Royall Table and filled with the holy Ghost and hath been taken into the Quire of Seraphims and made partaker with the Heavenly Powers Who would throw away so great a Grace Who would spend so rich a Treasure Who would bring in drunkenness or the like Guest instead of such Divine Chear Drunkenness I say which is the Mother of Heaviness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the joy of none but the Devil and is big with a thousand evils What madness possesses a man that he should not rather chuse to feast with God than with the Devil If thou sayest that thou art merry and rejoycest and wonderfully pleased I answer And so I would have thee to be only let not thy laughter be like the crackling of Thornes under a Pot but a solid joy that will make thy heart to smile for ever God doth not envy to the Sonnes of men any happiness but he would have them to be sure they are happy and not please themselves in a phantasticall shadow of Happiness CHAP. XVIII BUT that I may proceed more distinctly and assault your souls with the stronger Reasons to deliver themselves up to a religious life one single piece of which hath such blessings in it I shall present you with the profit of worthy receiving in these three generall Heads which I shall borrow from a Devout Author We have most Princely Dishes saith St. Bernard served up to us in the Supper of the Lord prepared with the most curious and exquisite Art and they are Deliciosa multum ad saporem Serm. 2 de Caena Dom. very delicious and sweet to the taste solida ad nutrimentum strong and solid for our nourishment efficacia ad medicinam powerfull and working for the curing of our diseases Seeing this Sacrament is a Feast and is called the Table and the Supper of the Lord under these three heads I shall comprehend these benefits that may excite every man to the examination of himself and invite us all to this Heavenly Chear The things that are here set before us are 1. Most sweet pleasant and refreshing 2. They are solid strengthning and nourishing and 3. They are Medicinal and Healing I. First Deliciosa ad saporem To a well-prepared pallate they afford a most sweet and delightsome relish This holy Sacrament breeds a Divine pleasure an Heavenly Joy in a right tempered soul and overflowes it with sweetness more than the body is satisfied with marrow and fatness now this refreshment arises 1. From a great sense which is here given us of the love of Christ which as the song of songs saith is better than Wine Cant. 1.2 It is more chearing and exhilerating more cordial and reviveing to think of his dear love in shedding his Bloud for us than to drink the bloud of the richest Grape and therefore the Church saith ver 4. We will be glad and rejoyce in thee we will remember thy love more than Wine It is beyond a ravishment to remember that men are so beloved by the King of Heaven so embraced by the Lord of all the world and still it is the more transporting for to consider that they feed upon this Lord of Love and that he gives his very self unto them and by such secret and wonderfull wayes unites himself unto their souls And it is most of all affecting and but a little below Heaven to think that this is our Jesus and our Lord to say as the Spouse in the same Book My Beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2.16 When God thus lifts up the light of his countenance upon a soul he puts gladness in its heart more than the joy of Harvest This is a Marriage-Feast and therefore full of pleasure Here the soul embraceth him and he folds it in his arms here they plight their truth mutually each to other here they engage themselves in unseparable unions to hold perpetuall entercourse and live eternally together in the greatest affection As the Bridegroom rejoyceth over his Bride so the Lord rejoyceth over it and he speaks not to it meerly by his servants but he kisses it with the kisses of his own mouth So one of the Greek Commentators prettily glosses upon those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let me not
so he may but have it Let me wish therefore every man to approve himself to be a sincere Christian and so let him eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup for as the benefits are great if we use it aright so are the dangers great if we mind not what we do Presume not to draw nigh hither in your dirty garments Let not your souls stand in Gods presence all nasty and filthy Lay not unwashen hands upon his Table and let not your feet tread in his holy place unless they walk in the ways of his Commandments Let not him whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness of blasphemies and revilings of corrupt and rotten Communication dare to put this bread into his mouth Let not him that sits with the drunkard and delights in strong drink be so bold as to take this Cup into his hand Let not the covetous Miser that huggs his Mammon be so fearless as to come to the Feast of charity Let not the heart that is filled with wrath and hatred and uncharitableness presume to sit down at this Feast of love Let not that hand stretch forth it self to receive the Body and Bloud of Christ which is dipt in Blood or defiled with unlawfull gain Let every man that works iniquity and lives in the neglect of any-known duty or is not carefull to know it fear and stand in awe and keep at a distance and instantly flie from his sin which must thus make him avoid the presence of the Lord and the society of the faithfull Yea let not the most holy person dare to draw near to God in this duty till he hath trimmed and dressed up his Soul till he hath snuffed his Lamp and made it burn more clearly till he hath excited those affections in his heart which are most proper to this action till he hath considered what he is about to do and hath put himself in a meet disposition to be so familiar with God For 1. Though he hath some goodness in him that comes unprepared to the Lords Table yet he is guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. So the Apostle saith the Corinthians were 1 Cor. 11.27 29. who professed the faith of Christ because cause they did not discern the Lords Body nor minded for what ends they did communicate He offers a great disrespect to the body and bloud of Christ and is guilty of irreverence to it who makes not solemn and serious addresses to him and comes with no mote purity and cleanness into the presence of the King then he would take care of in the presence of an ordinary man He makes as if Christ was his fellow and that a man may come as rudely into his company as if he was coming into his own house and sitting at his own board 2. A good man that eats unpreparedly and without foregoing consideration may eat and drink damnation to himself 1 Cor. 11.29 i. e. he may bring upon himself bodily judgments when he minds not seriously the religious ends of this eating and drinking For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to be understood as it relates to the believing Corinthians as is manifest from v. 30. For this cause many were weak and others sick and others were dead The cause he speaks of was their unworthy eating and drinking i. e. their maintaining pride and contempt of their poor brethren their uncharitableness and want of love even when they were doing this sacred action This caused God to scourge them and inflict some punishments upon their bodies that he might awaken and save their souls Every sin may be the cause of diseases but this in particular is noted as the Author of those diseases that rage amongo Christians Take heed then how thou comest void of humility or brotherly kindness or not attendingl what thou art there to do He that drinks thus unworthily may have a poison run through his veins The Wine may breed the Stone in his kidneys or bladder and the Gout in his joynts An Ague or Feaver may have commission to invade his Bloudd Or if none of these fall upon him it may bring a curfe upon his goods or relations or good name Every time thou receivest and art not a man that examines thy self for any thing thou canst tell thou killests a Child or beast thou blastest thy Corn or callest for Worms and Catterpillars upon thy fruit And if we go on and will not amend in this thing whereas God doth now plague us with many sicknesses he may in a short time send the Pestilence and sweep us away with the besome of destruction he may depopulate our Parishes and leave but a few Concommicants 3. As for a wicked prophane person that approaches hither with some slight intentions to leave his sin in which perhaps he the last week lived He is guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord in another sense He is a kind of murtherer of the Lord of life He makes his Wounds bleed afresh and he pierces his sides with a greater cruelty then the Roman Souldier he grieves and wounds him more then the Jems that wrung his bloud out of his sacred Body For he brings that before him which he hates more then he did death more then the Nails and the Cross He pricks him with that which is sorer to him then the Spear which was thrust into his side He knows he should do better when they did they knew not what O how doth it trouble the heart of our Lord to see men lay that in their bosome and cherish its life which was the cause of his death Yea how grievous must it be unto him to see them do this even when they come to commemorate his Death This sin of unworthy receiving doth strike above the rest to his heart seeing all his pains cannot make them leave their sins It is as if a Child should kiss the bloody knife which killed his Father When he comes to make a solemn declamation against the Authors of his Death and pretends to take vengeance upon them as villains for such an unpardonable fact As if a Roman should have run into the enemies Camp having made a large commendation of that act of Decius in dying for his Countrey And there is one sin that seems more manifestly than others to open the closed Wounds of Christ that is hatred and enmity in our hearts which I doubt few of the common fort are free of He that comes with his heart full of passion and anger and rage against his Brother what doth he but rend and tear the body of Christ in pieces He separates and divides as much as he can one part of it from another and in a most formal manner kills him afresh in his members who are called his Body Whosoever hates his brother is a murtherer whosoever divides one man from another he doth what he can to rend the body of Christ and to destroy that which is
both of God and Man from you which is grounded upon a better foundation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Severus imperator gravis vir nominis sâ—i dicitur Lamprid. I verily believe that you will endeavour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greeks call them persons of your own name And as the Apostle prays for his Thessalonians 1 Thes 3.12 13. you will encrease and abound in love one toward another and towards all men to the end that you may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God even our Father at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints Let me speak to you and all others once more in the words of another Apostle 1 Pet. 3.8 Finally be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another love as Brethren be pitifull be courteous But what need I insist so long on this who find you so full of love towards me It is a delightfull Subject and therefore you will pardon my vehemence in it But though it be delightfull yet I will refrain my self from enumerating my particular obligations because I know Sir that you do not do your kindnesses that they should be talkt of And for you Madam who carries kindness in both your names I know also that you love to be concealed and that your love should have none to speak of it but it self and therefore I shall forbear to say how much at least to me you answer the double remembrance you have in them It will be more acceptable I know to you both if I turn this address to you into a Prayer to God that he would do all this and much more for you And to that God of Peace from whom all good comes I humbly bow my knees that he would make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ Hebr. 13.21 to whom be glory for ever and ever The more particular petitions that concern you I shall put up alone and ever remain what I am much engaged to be Your affectionate Friend and Servant Si. Patrick From your house at Batersea January 27. 1659 60 THE INTRODUCTION Shewing 1. That God manifests himself to our sense 2. That Bread and Wine are fit things for the representing our Lord to us 3. The first reason of the celebration of this Supper and the fittest time for us to do this that Christ commands us 4. Which is but a reiteration of what is done in Baptism 5. As may be seen by what I have briefly writ on that subject 6. And if we will extend this thing further we may lose all The Papists in danger of this who speak not the language of the ancient Church 7. The design of this present discourse 8. The alledging of some Heathen Customes and Principles need be no offence to any but may be an help if they please GOd who is simple and removed far from all sense considering the weakness of mans soul and how unable he is to conceive of things spiritual purely and nakedly in themselves and yet having a mind to be better known unto us and to make himself more manifest then ever was pleased in his infinite goodness to dwell in flesh and appear here in the person of his Son who was made like to Man to shew what God is in our nature This Son of his being to die and part with his life for great ends and purposes which he would not have us to forget was pleased to take the same course to convey to our minds spiritual notions by outward and sensible signs and to impress on our hearts what he hath done and suffered by a visible representation of it in bodily things and not onely by a plain description of it in the Gospel He knew very well that a Picture and Image of a thing doth more affect us than an Historical Narration and that the more lively and express that Image is the more lively motions it makes within us A dead Corpse is but the shadow of a man and yet we find that our souls are more assaulted and all our passions stirred by the sight of the face of a dead friend then by all the reports that are brought us of his death And long after his Corpse is mouldred in the Grave if we see a Child of his that hath his exact features manners and carriage it renews a fresh remembrance in us of that person and stirs up the Images that are in our mind more powerfully then we can do our selves by reflections upon them But though God was willing to teach us by outward and sensible representations Sect. 2. yet he thought it both unsafe and likewise unfit and no ways conducing to the spiritual ends he intended in the Sacrament of Christs body and bloud that we should have a picture of Christ or an Image of him set before our eyes There is too much of sense in the Tragical and Theatrical representations which are made by some Papists of Christs sufferings The outward actions are in danger not onely to take place of all spiritual affections but quite to thrust them out The eye and the ear are so fully possessed that their objects work by their own natural strength and not by the souls considering and meditating powers Our Saviour therefore that he might both help the soul and leave it something for to do in making of its own thoughts and forming its own apprehensions and resentments hath given us onely Bread and Wine as remembrances of him in which we see so much as to awaken our souls but not so much as to keep them awake without themselves They show Christ to our sences but more to our minds that so both may be employed but the mind may do most by the help of the senses And indeed these are very fit things upon other reasons to serve our Saviours design because First of all They are similiar bodies and not consisting of Heterogenious parts i. e. their parts are not of different kinds as the parts of our flesh are The flesh of a man is composed of veins and arteries and nerves and blood and muscles and divers skins but every part of Bread and Wine is like the other and hath nothing in it different from its neighbour Every piece of the one and every drop of the other doth as much represent what is intended as any other part doth and all the parts together make one body of the very same sort And yet secondly The parts of these bodies are easily separated one from another which makes them more fit to be communicated and divided among a great many who all notwithstanding do receive as it were the very same thing And thirdly They are constantly used at all feasts and never omitted whereas other things have their seasons and cannot do continual service at our Tables To which you may add fourthly That they were brought by
the sixth hour when Christ was condemned to be crucified But S. Mark speaks of his sentence and of the execution of it as things done before the sixth hour and saith Chap. 15. 33. That just when the sixth hour was come then darkness spread over all the Land till the ninth hour They do very well agree if we do but understand thus much that the day being divided into four equal parts consisting of three hours apiece every part had the name of that hour when it did begin and so the sixth hour was from twelve to three and then began the ninth hour Now S. John doth not say that it was the sixth hour when Pilate gave him up to be crucified but that it was about the sixth hour i. e. it was between nine a clock which was their third hour and twelve but nearer to twelve than to nine or it drew near to Noon yet not so near but that we must allow time for the leading him away to the Cross for the hanging him thereon and the rest In so much that S. Mark saith expresly vers 25. That it was but the third hour i. e. nine of the clock when those things were done Both of them say true if we do but conceive that it was between nine and twelve i. e. about half an hour after ten when our Lord was hanged on the Cross All the time between nine and twelve being called as I said the third hour S. Mark saith that that was the time But it drawing toward twelve S. John saith it was about the sixth hour And when the sixth hour was fully come i. e. when it was just twelve a clock and the Sun was in its Meridian then saith S. Mark was it eclipsed and the darkness continued till three which was the time of the offering of the Evening Sacrifice and just then our Lord expired and gave up the Ghost From whence we may clearly gather That our Saviour was in the very midst of his sufferings a little after twelve Which renders it unreasonable me thinks to innovate and forsake the common form by receiving towards night seeing our Saviour was in the middle and bitterness of his passion about Noon which is the common time of our Communions and his passion was quite finished a good while before that time wherein some do celebrate it But I do not intend that this Discourse should beget any quarrels and therefore I forbear the prosecution of any such observations which you must not expect to meet withal in these Papers The first design of which is to shew you for what end our Blessed Lord did appoint this Sacrament And here I might be tempted to make use of that method which I observed in a little Discourse concerning Baptism §. 4. for that which is done here is but a further confirmation of what was then agreed on between God and us As our knowledge and obedience increases so doth likewise the Favour of God and his testimonies of that Favour and the more his mercies are assured unto us the more are we engaged and confirmed in our resolution of persisting in obedience So that it is but one and the same thing that is thus frequently ratified first in Baptism and afterward in Confirmation and lastly in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper For there in the most solemn manner that can be devised we profess our selves foederates of God and he again owns us for his friends and treats us kindly by entertaining us at his own Table And this is no strange matter that one thing should be so often repeated for at the beginning of Friendship between God and Abraham he only made him a promise Gen. 12.1 2 3. That he would make him a great Nation and bless him and all those that blessed him and that all families of the earth should be blessed in him But in process of time when love was encreased between them this Promise became a Covenant when he and his received the token of Circumcision as you may read Gen. 17.2 4 5. I will make my Covenant between me and thee and will multiplie thee exceedingly c. But when he had walked longer with God as he there bids him vers 1. and had perfected his obedience by offering up his Son his onely Son Isaac then God confirmed the Covenant by an Oath and sware by himself that he would do what he had promised and sealed as you may see Gen. 22.16 17 18. By my self have I sworn that in blessing I will bless thee c. This may be conceived as a good representation of Gods dealing with us now At our first entrance into his family he gives us many promises which depend upon conditions and afterwards he renews the Covenant with us and doth further ascertain us of his favour yet on terms of perseverance and at last he swears unalterably when we have given proof of our obedience to him that he will not take away his mercies nor his loving kindness from us And it is observable that in every one of these God returned something to Abraham for what he gave to God When he left his own Countrey he promised him the Land of Canaan When he was circumcised he promised to bless his seed yea he promised to him the Messiah And when he offered Isaac God again assured by oath that his own Son should be really offered as Isaac was designed to be for a Blessing to all the Earth Even so in like manner doth God confer new graces and blessings on us when we are baptized and when we confirm our Vows and when we partake of the Supper of the Lord so that it is not in vain reiterate our acts of surrender unto God And thus it is among our selves when children are contracted in their younger years and made sure to each other they consummate the Marriage by their own consent when they are of age with festival joys And many of these married persons likewise renew the nuptial solemnity every year and observe that day that they entred into such holy bonds with more than ordinary chear Whereby they strengthen their faith unto each other by an open profession of their faith in the sight of their friends and they indear their hearts unto each other by a remembrance of their promises and they run more passionately into closer imbraces by these new expressions of kindness Thus do we at this Sacrament but tie the old bond with a faster knot and press harder upon the former zeal to make a deeper mark and a fairer Image of God in our hearts we do but renew our Covenant which we have already made swear most solemnly by taking it upon the Sacrament as we say that we will be the servants of the Lord Jesus And it is very easie to lead you through all the parts of the former method shewing you both how on our part and Gods it doth confirm a Covenant between us And perhaps it will not be unprofitable to
In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he that will read Joh. Protospatharius upon that Verse of Hesiods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will soon see that he also thought Homer to have described in those words the contexture and formation of our bodies in the womb For he saith by the web he advises the woman to weave on the twelfth day of the Moon is meant a Physical Mystery concerning the generation of our bodies which he there explains and for a proof of what he saith he directs us plainly to this place of Homer which I have recited But I have no list to prosecute this any further There is another instance that suggests it self to my thoughts and I should have taken it for a corruption of the Story of Elias calling for fire from Heaven to consume his sacrifice had not Pausanias assured us that he saw it with his own eyes But it will clearly show how studious those false Gods were to imitate the God of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pausan Esiac 〈◊〉 L. 5. and render what I have said very probable which makes me think it fitting to be here related Some Priests he saith in Lydia who worshipped after the Persian manner used to call upon he knew not what God in a barbarous form of words not to be understood by the Greeks and presently the wood that was upon the Altar was kindled without any fire and appeared all in a bright flame I could easily show that these barbarous words were Abraham Isaac and Jacob Sebaoth and such like and in all probability the God they invoked was the unknown God and the example they Apishly followed was that great Prophet And indeed the Prophet Elijah did therefore call for fire from Heaven because all Sacrifices at Jerusalem were consumed and eaten onely by the Holy fire which God sent from above to them The Devil therefore in this thing may have seemed to endeavour that his Offerings might sometimes correspond with those at the Temple of God And so Pindar gives us another instance how that the Rhodians being about to offer Sacrifice to Jupiter had forgotten to bring fire along with them to his Altars but he being loth it seems to lose this fat oblation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did bring a yellow cloud over them and rained much Gold upon the Altar This Golden showre as an excellent Person of our own doth interpret it was nothing else but a showre of fire which devoured the Sacrifice Dr. Cudworth in imitation of the Sacred Story No wonder then if in other things as well as these they were forward to transcribe the holy Writ and let it not be imputed to a vain and affected ostentation of learning if I sometimes use their customes for an illustration of Sacred matters But the following Discourse is interlaced with so few of their Authors that perhaps it doth not merit this Apology and therefore I will cease it with this double desire The one is to my Reader that if he understand not every Line in the first part yet he would not throw away the rest which are fitted to his practice The other is to God that he would bless it to those Ends for which it is designed Amen THE CONTENTS OF THE TREATISE SECT I. CAP. I. THe first end of this Supper is for a remembrance of Christ What it is to remember The Passeover appointed for that end Two things it remembers us of And two wayes we are to remember it In two sences it may be called a Sacrifice p. 3. CAP. II. It is a remembrance with thanksgiving This is explained in six particulars And two other sences are given wherein it may be called a Sacrifice p. 22. CAP. III. Here the third end is discoursed of and it is considered as an holy Rite whereby we enter into Covenant with God This is explained in five things p. 46. CAP. IV. It is considered here as a sign and seal of remission of sin and this is cleared in three considerations but especially from this that we eat of the sin-offering and of that which was not made for one but for many i. e. the whole Congregation p. 73. CAP. V. It is a means of our nearer Vnion with the Lord Jesus The Nature of this Union and the effect of it is explained in five considerations p. 93. CAP. VI. Here is shown how the Supper is a means of our Union one with another And five General Observations are made to this purpose The last of which treats of the holy kiss the feast of love c. To which two things are added by way of conclusion of the first part p. 115. SECT II. Concerning Preparation CAP. VII An Introduction to the Discourse about Preparation wherein those words of the Psalmist are opened Psal 93.5 p. 159. CAP. VIII This word Preparation is to be cautiously understood Not a little time required for it Three things are discoursed of that tend to the fuller explication of it p. 164. CAP. IX Four things more are treated of which further open the Nature of this Preparation And so from a general Discourse concerning it way is made to descend to a more particular p. 174. CAP. X. Here is discoursed at large concerning those actions wherein it is fit for us to be employed before we come Of the setting apart some portion of our time and of our goods Of Examination of Reconciliation c. The whole is digested into ten considerations p. 195. CAP. XI Mistakes are removed The Primitive Christians not too zealous No reason for the neglects of the present worldly Christians Good people may be superstitious while they take themselves to be great enemies to it p. 235. CAP. XII Advice and Directions to those who never yet received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Six things are said to them to prepare them and encourage them The Conclusion of this Discourse p. 251. SECT III. Concerning the Deportment of a Soul at the Lords Table c. CAP. XIII Love is instead of all other Directions Yet seeing it hath many wayes to express it self there is a necesssity to guide its motions so that they may not hinder each other p. 269. CAP. XIV Here therefore they are ranged and set in their right places And 1. The soul is directed what to do when it sees the Minister stand at the Table of the Lord. 2. What affections to express when the Bread is broken c. 3. When the Minister comes to give it to us 4. When we take it into our hands 5. When we eat 6. When we see him give it to others 7. When we receive the Cap. Every one of which is discoursed of in several Meditations And then 8. Meditations about the joys of Heaven And 9. Psalms of Praise are shown to be very fit conclusions of the solemnity p. 275. CAP. XV. An entrance is made upon the Discourse about our behaviour afterward 4. Sorts of Christians are
heavenly spirit We must remember Christ therefore as Nehemiah desires God to remember him by doing good or as we remember our Creator by a true subjection of all our faculties to his soveraign will Then we remember him as we ought when we get him formed in our hearts and have a more living image of him left in our minds when it stirs and is busie in our souls and awakens all other images and calls up all divine truths that are within us to send them forth upon their several imployments into our lives Now for the fuller understanding of this matter you must know that the Paschal Supper which is called by Greg. Naz. very elegantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more obscure type of this type was instituted for a remembrance and was a Feast of commemoration as will soon appear if you look but a while into the particulars of it And first you must observe that the very day of the Passeover was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a memorial of their miraculous deliverance out of Egypt as you may read Exod. 12.14 and therefore they are bid Exod. 13.3 to remember this day in which they came out of Egypt out of the house of bondage c. Thence it was that they were commanded to eat the Lamb with bitter herbs Exod. 12.8 for a remembrance of their hard bondage in Egypt which made their lives bitter unto them Exod. 1.14 So was the unleavened bread the bread of affliction in remembrance that they brought their bread out of Egypt unleavened Exod. 12.34 and were there in great servitude Exod. 13.3 so that their soul was even dried and parched in them The later Jews have added the charóseth which is a thick sawce in memory of the clay and morter which they wrought in and they use red wine for a remembrance that Pharaoh shed the blood of their children To which may be added that God required there should be a rehearsal to their children of what the Lord had done for them that so this feast might be for a sign upon their hand and for a memorial between their eyes to all posterity as you may see Exod. 13.8 9. And thence it is that the Jews call that section of the Law or the Lesson which they read that night the Haggádah annunciation or shewing forth because they commemorated and predicated both their hard services and Gods wonderful salvation and the praises that were due to him for so great a mercy It is easie now to apply all this to our present purpose if we do but consider that this likewise is a holy feast Whence it is called the Lords Supper not only because he appointed it 1 Cor. 11.20 but because he was the end of its celebration and an entertainment at the table of the Lord. 1 Cor. 10.21 This Feast our Saviour first keeping with his Apostles who were Jews he makes part of the Passeover-chear to be the provision of it For he takes the bread and wine which used to go about in that Supper through the whole family to signifie his broken body and his blood which was to be shed Now this was to be in commemoration of a deliverance wrought by him from a greater tyranny then the Israelites were under which made all the world to groan and was ready to thrust us all below into the Devils fiery furnace And therefore as it is said Exod. 13.8 thou shalt shew thy son in that day saying This is done c. So the Apostle in a manifest allusion to that phrase saith 1 Cer. 11.26 that when we eat this bread and drink this cup we do shew forth the Lords death until he come So that we may conclude that in this feast in honour of Christ we are to make a rehearsal of his famous acts to proclaim his mighty deeds to speak of the glorious honour of his Majesty and of his wondrous works and to indeavour that one generation may praise his works to another Psl 146.3 4 c. and declare his mighty acts that they may speak of the glory of his Kingdom and talk of his power And indeed it should seem that the memory of a thing is by nothing so sensibly preserved and so deeply ingraven in mens minds as by feasts and festival joys For it hath been the way of all the world to send to posterity the memory of their benefactors or famous persons by instituting of such solemn times wherein men did assemble together and by the joys and pleasures of them more imprint the kindnesses and noble atchievements of such Worthies in their minds So we find among the Greeks their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in honour of Aeacus their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in honour of Ajax and in latter times their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such like in remembrance of the merits of such persons and how highly they deserved of the places where their feasts were celebrated In like sort the Jews had their feasts in memory of some great and rare passage of divine providence though not of any particular persons lest they should be tempted to worship them as their Saviours according as the custom of the heathen was But all worship being due to our Lord and Saviour he thought fit in like manner to appoint this feast to be as a Passeover unto us a holy solemnity that should call us together and assemble us in one body that we might be more sensibly impressed with him and that all generations might call him blessed and he might never be forgotten to the worlds end Now of two things it is a remembrance and two ways we do commemorate or remember them I. It is instituted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Dialog cum Tryph. c. for a remembrance that he was imbodied for those that believe on him and became passible for their sakes The bread and the wine are in token that he had a true body and that the word was made flesh For thence Tertullian and Irenaeus do confute Marcion who denied the truth of Christs flesh and made his body to be a phantastical thing because then real bread and wine could not be a figure of it and so Theodoret saith out of Ignatius Dialog 3. that some Simon and Menander I think did not admit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thanksgivings and offerings viz. of bread and wine in this Sacrament because they did not confess that it was the flesh of our Saviour Now with what affection we should call to mind this love that God would appear to us not by an Angel in a bright cloud not in a body of pure air but by his Son in our own flesh I leave your own hearts to tell you Methink we should wish that all the world could hear us proclaim this love and that even the fields and forests i. e. the most desolate and heathenish places might resound our joyful acclamations to him We should wish to feel something of extasie and
Apostle speaks Heb. 13.15 16. where the serious Reader that can stay so long as to peruse those Scriptures which I cite will find both praise and likewise communication of our goods to others to be called sacrifices So that the spiritual sacrifice of our selves and the corporal sacrifice of our goods to him may teach the Papists that we are sacrificers as well as they and are made Kings and Priests unto God Yea they may know that the bread and wine of the Eucharist is an offering out of the stock of the whole Congregation to this service according as it was in the Primitive times Apolog. 2. when as Justin saith they offered bread and wine to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 chief Minister of the brethren who took it and gave praise and glory to the Lord of the whole world and then made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a large and prolix thanksgiving to him that had made them worthy of such gifts We have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Origen his phrase is a rational and unsmoaky sacrifice we offer our selves and our prayers and our praises and our goods so that if you please we may call the table of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Theodoret's stile a rational table where as God provides for us so we provide for him in those that are his members and offer upon it those sacrifices which are most befitting either him or rational creatures And that you may see we are engaged to this kind of offering it is to be observed that the eating of the Lamb was not all the solemnity of the Passeover but they sacrificed likewise offerings of thanksgivings in abundance that there might be provision for the poor You may understand this and a difficult place of Scripture both together It is said according to our translation in Dent. 16.2 Thou shalt sacrifice the Passeover unto the Lord thy God of the flock and the herd or sheep and Oxen in the place which he shall chuse c. It is well known that the sacrifice of the Passeover was to be a Lamb Exod. 12.5 taken from the sheep or goats and might not be of any other kind Therefore by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oxen or of the herd in this place Aben Ezra and others understand the Eucharisticall sacrifices which we find 2 Chron. 35.7 9. were offered in great abundance Or as Abarbanel will have it Moses speaks briefly of the Passeover as having sufficiently told them the manner of it before so that we are to understand ◠to be wanting before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. and to be wanting before of the flock and thus we read them Thou shalt sacrifice the Passeover to the Lord and sheep and oxen whichsoever way we take them they tell us thus much that they were other sacrifices to accompany the Lamb. For the Jews were bound at the three solemn feasts to be very liberal and bountifull and offer according to their abilities that so the Levites and strangers the Fatherless and Widow might feast and rejoyce together with them as you may see ver 10 11 16 17. Now Christ at this feast having nothing else to offer besides the Lamb he did offer himself which was more then if the cattel upon a thousand hills had been burnt unto God or all the world had been laid on its funeral pile In this he dealt the greatest charity to the world and by his poverty made us rich So that we are the more ingaged not onely by their example but by his to offer up something unto God beside praises that may supply the wants of those who may justly look to be refreshed by us To conclude then this Chapter We must remember always when we approach to the Table of the Lord that we are to bring hearts full of thankfulness and mouths full of praises and hands full of Almes and that we may bring all these we must bring our selves to be offered to him Our hearts must flame with love our minds must reek with holy thoughts our mouthes must breathe forth praises like clouds of incense and our hands must not be lifted up with nothing in them but we must pay such acknowledgements unto God that may really testifie that we and all ours are his We are to think that we come solemnly to bless the Lord for all his mercies and especially this great and rich one that he hath given his Son to die for us and that he hath purchased forgiveness repentance grace and salvation by his death on such desireable terms and we must think likewise that blessing of him includes in it self such good works as will provoke others for to bless him If you would briefly understand therefore what the meaning of this holy Rite is remember that it is a Commemoration of Christ and his death with hearty thanksgivings for all the benefits we receive thereby CHAP. III. THere will be no such cause of joy as the former discourse hath spoken of if we be not faithful unto God and his Son Christ And therefore we must further consider this action as a Rite whereby we enter iuto Covenant with him This is included in our taking the bread and wine as well as in our eating and drinking of them and was expressed before when I said we must offer our selves to God as the greatest act of our thanksgiving That offering of our selves is such a thing that it puts us out of our own power and besides we enter here into strict ingagements never to resume or draw back our selves again never to challenge any right to have our selves in our own disposal We make a solemn agreement with the Lord Jesus that he shall dwell in us and possess himself of all our faculties as the sole Lord and governour of our souls Though this have been done once already when we were baptized so that we cannot reverse the deed nor cancel the bond that is between us yet seeing the matter of the Covenant is alway to be performed and more than one world depends upon it God thinks fit to take new security of us and strengthen our obligations left we think of letting the debt run on unpaid one day after another till we be quite bankrupts and have nothing left whereby to discharge it We are also apt to think that we stand indebted unto God in no great sum and that though we should spend prodigally till the latter part of our life yet we should have enough to pay him and give him very good content Therefore it is but necessary that we should often be remembred of our huge engagements presently to perform our word to him and when we begin again to fail and not to keep our credit with him it is no less necessary that he should call again upon us and have us enter into more solemn bonds of a stricter performance And truly these that know what it is to enjoy God long for no better entertainment from him when they
come to his house and table then that they may be tied faster to him with new cords of his love and that it may be made more impossible for them to unloose themselves from his service What is there more in the desire of a holy soul then to cease to be its own what greater pleasure doth it feel then in parting with it self To what would it be more engaged then to the pleasing of him whom it heartily loves Let me be bound hand and foot saith such a soul that I may never stirre from him Let me seal to him a thousand Deeds to convey my self unto him If he would have me sign the Covenant with my Blood every vein in my body shall leap to do him that honour But rather let him come and seat himself in my heart and let him take my dearest life-life-blood if it will do him any service I accept of a suffering-Saviour I take him as he is all broken and bloody If he will have me follow him with a Cross upon my shoulder I refuse no conditions behold O Lord thy servant do with me as seems good in thy sight Thus we are to address our selves to this Feast as will be better understood if we consider these five things I. If we look upon this action onely under the general notion of a holy rite which God hath appointed as an act of his Worship yet the very using of it is an acknowledgment of him and his Religion and an engagement of our selves unto him as our God He that was circumcised was bound to observe the whole Law and so was he that offered sacrifice to the God of Israel at his Altar engaged to own him that had appointed that Worship Just so the performing but of one thing which God hath appointed as a ceremony in the Religion of Christ doth tie us to observe the whole Religion which he requires who did appoint that Rite And you may likewise observe That there being a mutual action in this Sacrament of Gods giving something and our taking it doth express that we are fast bound in that Covenant of which this action is a part So the giving and taking but of so small a thing as a straw doth bind persons firmly to that thing whereof they are agreed and which they conclude in that manner Stipulation one of the strongest words which we have to signifie the confirmation of a Bargain by was anciently made by no stronger thing as the very word doth import which carries a straw in its name And so any other thing in the World may be used to the same purpose The giving and taking of six-pence to strike up a contract doth lay as fast hold of a man as ten thousand pound in hand Much more then this solemn giving and takeing of Bread and Wine being a piece of Christ's Religion and he so represented by them doth bind us as fast to him as if we should repeat every word that he hath said and profess our consent unto it We are supposed to know the tearms of that Writing that Christ hath left us containing our duty and his promises and it is presumed we are willing to enjoy those promises and so to perform those duties this Action then doth but more solemnly conclude the agreement and we hereby stand engaged as strongly as if Covenants had been drawn between us and our hand and seal were affixed to them II. But then if we consider this Action as a coming to Gods Table and partaking of his meat we shall presently discern that thereby we prosess our selves of his Family and declare to all that we are his Followers and Retainers and that we own the Religion of the crucified Jesus I confess that coming to Christian Assemblies in the first times was an owning of Christ because it was very dangerous but this Action which was in those Assemblies performed was a more express profession of their belief in him and friendship with him For the great stumbling-block of the Jews was the Cross of Christ and it was foolishness to the Gentiles To declare therefore this death and Cross of his to eat of his dead body and drink of his blood was as much as to say I believe in this suffering-Saviour I am a Christian and will live and dye in this Religion A stranger may come unto a mans house but the friends onely are they that sit with him at his board and he that is not true to him of whose bread he eats is the worst and basest of all Enemies The Psalmist could put no worse character upon an enemy then this Psal 41.9 That he who put forth his hand to eat of his bread had lifted up his heel against him By coming then to Gods Table we profess our selves his familiar friends in whom he reposes a trust and we can put no greater scorn upon him then by being false to him that doth admit us to such a nearness You may observe therefore in Scripture these two things First That eating of bread together is spoken of as a token of friendship and agreement as these two places among others will satisfie you Job 42.11 Jer. 41.1 Bread is never wanting at any Feast and so they expressed by it a friendly entertainment Whence Pythagoras gave this Lesson to his Scholars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not break bread i. e. ne dirimas amici iam never break friendship but let it remain inviolable And so likewise Salt being never absent from any Meal and placed upon the Table it hath been used as a symbol of friendship and to have eaten Salt with a man at this day is proverbially as much as to be well acquainted with him which was a word as usual in ancient times among other people 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot. l. 8. Ethic. cap. 3. according to that speech of Aristotle We cannot know one another till according to the Proverb we have eaten a quantity of Salt together The Turks * Knolles in the life of Mahâ—met 1. at this day joyn both together and to say I have eaten Bread and Salt with sueh an one is an expression of having good acquaintance with him All which I but briefly touch upon to make it more sensible to us that this participation of Gods bread is a token that we are of his acquaintance and we do tell the World hereby That we profess all love and friendship to him The second thing I would have noted is That Covenants in Scripture story are made by eating and drinking together For which I need produce no other places but those in Gen. 26.30 Gen. 31.44 46. where Isaac and Abimelech Jacob and Laban conclude their Compacts with a Feast But you may add if you please that in Josh 9.14 where it is said the people took of the victuals of the Gibeonites and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord i. e. They made a Covenant with them before they consulted with the holy Oracle
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 change of one thing into another and Nyssen by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translation or Theophylact by his great word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transelementation For that this last word doth not amount to a change of one substance into another we may be clearly satisfied from himself who as he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bread is transelementated into Christs body so likewise affirms that we are transelementated into Christ Now as by this later expression he can intend no more but our mystical incorporation with him so by the former nothing else is to be understood but the conversion of the bread to no other use so that in effect it is made the body of Christ In short he that hath the picture of a King in his Chamber hath but a bare sign which may make him think of him and no more but he that hath the Kings great Seal which confirms him in the possession of all the land he injoyes hath his picture and something else that comes along with it which instates him in a real good And though the wax affixed to the writing be the same for substance with that which is in a mans shop yet for vertue as it is made use of it is much different and far better then all the wax that a whole County can afford Even so it is in this case before us Bread broken and Wine poured out are but bare signs of Christs sufferings if we consider them nakedly in themselves but if we look on them as a foederal rite and as they are given to us and eaten and drunken by us in remembrance of the death of Christ so they are seals and further confirmations of Gods great love towards us And though they are still the same for substance with the most common Bread and Wine which we use at our Meals yet in regard of the use to which now they are converted they become Sacred and of great vertue to convey unto us the things expressed in the Covenant which are of more worth then all the World II. It is further manifest that we are hereby confirmed in the state of pardon and forgiveness because we do here put forth the most solemn act of Charity and Forgiveness to all our enemies For it is a Feast of Love as you shall see afterwards and this is the very condition upon which our forgiveness depends that we forgive others Matt. 6.14 15. and therefore when we here pray for all men and put away all enmity out of our hearts never to return any more God is engaged to express himself to us as a friend and to let fall all differences that have been between him and us I know that we are never to harbour any hatred in our hearts and that we cannot pray successfully at any time unless we lift up pure hands without wrath and I likewise wish the Doctrines of Love were most frequently and severely pressed and practised but yet there is no time when we do more narrowly search our selves to find out the reliques of that sowre leaven and when we are more powerfully moved to extinguish even the least spark or seeds of fire that are in our souls then when we consider Christs death and remember how he prayed for his Enemies upon the Cross And therefore I conceive that upon this account the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood may be a means of assuring our pardon and strengthning of our title to Forgiveness But notwithstanding I consider with my self that this duty of pardoning others is not so peculiar to this Sacrament but that it may and must be done as I said at all other times and for that cause I shall pass it by and proceed to that which I would have most of all observed for the understanding of this part of my Discourse and that is this III. This eating and drinking is a feast upon a sin-offering and therefore is a greater pledg of remission of sin That you may conceive of this aright it must be remembred That though the people of Israel used to feast upon their peace-offerings which were made at the Altar as hath been said already yet they were not admitted to eat of any else The whole Burnt-offerings indeed had Peace-offerings attending alway upon them and so they did partake of the Altar when they were offered by eating of the latter but of the former none tasted but God himself The Offerings for sinne as you have seen were the portion of the Priests and the people were excluded from them unless you will say that they eat by them as their substitutes and mediators But now you must further note That though the Priests were to eat of the sin-offering for particular persons yet of the sacrifice made for the sinne of the whole Congregation whose blood was carried into the holy place the Priests themselves might not eat and so consequently nor the people by them but they were to burn its flesh without the Camp And whether it were upon the day of general atonement Lev. 16.27 or at any other time when the whole Congregation had committed a sin through ignorance Lev. 4.13.21 Lev. 6.30 that an offering was to be made for them they were not permitted to have the least share of it Now Christ made his soul an offering for sinne Isa 53.10 and such an offering that with his blood he entred into the holy place and suffered without the Camp and therefore was most illustriously set forth by that sacrifice which was for the whole Congregation According then to the Law none was to feed upon the Sacrifice and yet our Lord hath indulged unto us the priviledg of feasting upon this great Sacrifice of Propitiation according as the very words of the Institution of this Sacrament do intimate when our Saviour saith Mark 14.24 This is the blood of the New Testament which is shed for many i. e. which is like to the Sacrifice on the great Day of Atonement which was not made for one person but for the whole Congregation and of this I give you leave to drink This was a favour never granted to the World before and besides what the Law of Moses speaks it is remarkable what is delivered by Porphyry as the sence of all the Heathen Divines in the World L. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All Divines consent in this That it is not lawfull to touch so much as a bit of those Sacrifices which are for the averting of wrath Though it was never lawfull you know to eat the blood of any Sacrifice whether Peace-offering or other but it was to be poured out at the Altar and though the flesh of those that were offered for sin by the Laws of all people were not to be tasted yet we may drink the blood of the Sacrifice yea of this great Sacrifice for all the people and we may eat the flesh of it by the command of
Ch ysost Theophâ—l Or if we understand the Apostles words of the spirit received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after Baptisme but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Sacrament of the Lords Supper whereby he further waters so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used 1 Cor. 3.6 7 8. that which he hath planted yet still it will be true that at this time good Christians do receive larger irrigations from that fountain of life that they may shoot up to a greater height and bring forth more fruit For this spirit is always needfull being that which maintains our life and it is given in the use of those means that God hath instiruted for increase in grace of which means this holy feast being one of the chief that life-giving spirit must be conceived to lay faster hold of us and knit us more unto our head It is the vis vicaria of the Lord Jesus that power which supplies his place here in the world by which he is present to our souls Now when shall we conceive it more present then when we remember him whose spirit it is and when he doth exhibit himself unto us under these shadows of bread and wine These are tokens of his presence and represent him to us the spirit is that whereby he is present and therefore here it must be again conferred on us Here it doth take a stronger seizure of us here it possesses it self more fully of all our faculties here it gives us more sensible touches from our head and makes us feel more vital influences descending thence unto us and so it being the bond of union must needs strengthen and confirm us in an inseparable conjunction with him Christ doth not descend locally unto us that we may feed on him but as the Sun toucheth us by his beams without removing out of its sphaere so Christ comes down upon us by the power of the holy Ghost moving by its heavenly vertue in our hearts though he remain above And this vertue coming from our Head the man Christ Jesus it doth both quicken us to his service and tie us to him and likewise we are said to partake of his body and blood because we sensibly feel the vertue and efficacy of them in our selves And do not wonder that I say we are more strongly united to Christ hereby for unson is not to be conceved without all latitude but to be looked on as capable of increase or diminution and as that which may grow loose and slack or be made more perfect and compact As it is with the foul and body so it is between Christ and his members Though the soul be not quite unloosed from the body yet by sickness the bonds may become rotten or by fasting they may grow weak and feeble so that it may have but a slender hold of its companion and a little violence may snap them asunder Even so though our souls be tied to Christ yet by our daily infirmities or the frequent incursions of our enemies or by long abstaining from this holy food and other negligences we shall find a kind of loosness in our souls and that we are going off from Christ and tending to a dissolution unless we gird up the loyns of our mind and be vigilant and sober watching unto all holy duties And therefore as in the former case we must betake our selves to our physick and food and good exercise for the making the bonds sound and strong so in this we must have recourse to the holy feast we are speaking of which is both meat and medicine and we must stir up the grace that is in us and beg more of the Spirit of God that may strengthen the things that remain and are ready to die To receive the Spirit not by measure is the priviledg of none but our head We that receive from his fullness have not our portion all at once Phil. 1.19 but must daily look for a supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ And so the Apostle saith Rom. 1.17 The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith and we must grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ Which shews that we may be made one with him in a more excellent manner then when we were first born because the Spirit of Christ grows unto a greater strength within us as we receive more of heavenly nutriment into our souls And this is all that is meant by the real presence of Christ in this Sacrament which the Church speaks of and believes as it is one reason likewise of the change which is so much noised because by his power these things become effectual to so great purposes when they are holily received Our Lord doth call these signs by the name of the things they signifie because in a spiritual manner his body and blood are present to us viz. by the communication of that to us which they did purchase for us From the sacred humanity of Christ life and spirit is derived unto us as motion is from the head unto the members And the power of the Godhead doth diffuse the vertue or operation of the humane nature to the enlivening the hearts of men that rightly receive the Sacramental pledges Manna is called spiritual bread and water that came out of the rock is named spiritual dirnk 1 Cor. 10.3 4. and the rock is said to be Christ because they did signifie him and were tokens of his presence and therefore much more may this bread and wine be called his body and blood and spoken of as if they were himself because they do more lively represent him and he had annexed his presence more powerfully to them Or as one of the Ancients saith they are called his body and blood not because they are properly so sed quod in se mysterium corporis ejus sanguinis contineant but because they contain in them the mystery of his body and blood And this as I said is all the change that we are to understand in them according as Theodoret doth excellently express it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dialog 1. Christ saith he calls them by the name of the things they represent not changing the nature but adding grace unto the nature And what that grace is I have already told you in this Chapter So that the real presence is not to be sought in the bread and wine but in those that receive them according as Learned Hooker speaks For Christ saith first Take and eat and then after that This is my body Before we take and eat it is not the body of Christ unto us but when we take and eat as we ought then he gives us his whole self and puts us into possession of all such faving graces as his facrificed body can yield and our fouls do then need The change is in our souls and not in the Sacrament we are though not Transubstantiated into another body yet Metamorphosed and transformed into
have any set quantity of time allotted wherein to make it as of a month a year or the like space but so much is necessary as will compose our souls to the image of Christ and make us fit company for so holy a God It is not the washing our cloathes a little before the sprucing up of our souls as I may say and the putting on of a fine and demure behaviour when we come thither though we be never so filthy and ragged at other times But a holy life is the true time for preparing our souls to be Gods guests Whatsoever care and exactness we use and whatsoever extraordinary ornaments we put on immediately before our approaches to him yet that a constant good behaviour towards God and man is the main thing we are to look after is the sum of what I have to say in the following particulars I. The first of which I have already begun and it is nothing but this That holiness is to be a Christians constant employment and the great business of his life It is not a quality of which we have use onely at certain times nor is it a strictness at some seasons that gets us a liberty in the rest of our lives to be loose and careless nor a solitary retiredness now and then that shall make an amends for all our wandrings But it is a walking with God a patient running of the race which he hath set us and a daily dying unto the world insomuch that the Apostle saith we must be holy in all manner of conversation 1 Pet. 1.15 We are not to put on the Lord Jesus as we do a cloak which we throw off at our pleasure and again cast about us when there is occasion but as we do our inner garment which we never go without nor lay aside no not when we have none in company but our selves Our Religion is not the feast of unleavened bread which the Jews observed but for seven days except you take the number seven to denote perfection and to be a token that they should rejoyce always in a constant course of holiness before God And in this sense I confess the Apostle is pleased to call our life a feast of unleavened bread 1 Cor. 5.7 8. which he bids us observe now that Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us but without any limitation of time because it is to last always And the reason of it is because Christians themselves are become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unleavened ver 7. i. e. they are separated by their profession from the wickedness wherein formerly they lived and therefore were to be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new mass or lump that should never admit of any of the old prophane mixtures that formerly had defiled their hearts and lives We are not onely to make a solemn stir against a Sacrament and then light candles to search for the old leaven that it may be thrown out but being by Christ become unleavened we are constantly to maintain such a light shining in our hearts that not we may live but Christ may live in us and the life that we lead may be by faith of the Son of God Before a great festival the worst of Heathens had their Votivae noctes their severe and pure nights as their Authors call them ten of which together used to precede the feast of Isis in which time as if they had imitated the command to Israel when the Law was given Exod. 19.15 they abstained from the most lawfull enjoyments and chaste embraces But what an heathenish life notwithstanding was you all know or else the Apostle will tell you 1 Pet. 4.3 They walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of wine revellings banquetings abominable Idolatries And therefore their own sober Authors reproved this great folly of thinking holiness and purity to be the actions of a few days and not the course of a mans life Orat. in Timoer An illustrious place there is in Demosthenes to this purpose which I cannot but mention because it will testifie so much against the Christian world Before men come saith he to their holy offices they abstain for a certain number of days from all filthiness and vile actions whereas they who go about holy things should not onely for some space of time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but for their whole life have purified themselves of such kind of practices Hear O Christian what an Heathen saith and please not thy self in thy separate and strict devotion before thou comest to the Table of the Lord or against an holy time But think that every day is to be holy to the Lord though every action in the day be not equally holy Learn not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his phrase is to purifie thy self for a set number of days as if thou hadst appointed or ordered so much time to be spent in holiness and so much in sin but to behave thy self as if thou didst account thy whole life an opportunity of serving God and a season of cleansing thy self from all that filthiness which will not let thee see the face of God When I think of the Persians who they say every year had a feast wherein they destroyed all the Serpents that could be found and then let them multiply as fast as they would till the same solemnity returned again It puts me in mind of the Religion that is most in fashion among them that are named after Christ They are very angry at the Devil and all his cursed brood they are in some mood at a solemn feast mightily incensed against the old Serpent but afterwards they patiently suffer him to take his rest and his lusts increase like the spawn of fishes without any considerable distaste or opposition These men are as much mistaken in the Christian life as they that mistake a Serpent for an Eele or a stone for bread God expects and so he justly may that we should abound in all the fruits of righteousness that are by Christ Jesus to his praise and glory Phil. 1.11 and that we should pass the time of our sojourning here in fear 1 Pet. 1.17 abstaining as pilgrims and strangers from fleshly lusts that war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.11 II. The second thing that I would have observed is that this holiness consists of actions of divers sorts and is expressed in different manners It is diversified not onely by the objects about which it is imployed but the state of the subject wherein it is will not permit that all the acts of it should be of one kind and value And therefore it was that I said the Actions of a holy life are not equal in their holiness Some of them respect God others our neighbours and the rest our selves and all these we can do at some times with a better understanding and greater devotion then at other times it is possible for us to do For we begin this life of holiness
have laid down to our selves as the guide of our life From these two arise the whole of that which is necessary to be done continually for the approbation of our selves to be such persons as have a care to please God Now this may be the prime and first sense of the Apostles words when he saith Let a man examine himself and so let him eat c. i. e. let him have a care that he lead such a Christian life that his own heart may approve of him as one of Christs Disciples This you may be best satisfied out of another place where this word is used Gal. 6.4 Let a man prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or examine his own work c. The meaning of which is Let every man make his work so approved and behave himself in that manner that both God and his own Conscience may judge it to be right and according to the Word of God That this is the sense of the phrase in that place will appear from the whole context where the Apostle speaks of bearing the infirmities of the weak and not thinking our selves to be godly because we do not fall like them by any temptation And so saith he Thou shalt have glory or rejoycing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 toward thy self and not in regard of another i. e. thou shalt take comfort simply in thy self that thou art a good man and not only be pleased with comparing thy self with others and being better then they for so thou mayest be and yet not be good From this it appears that he speaks not of something that should follow the actions of our life viz. a searching whether they be good or no but of such an institution and ordering of our lives beforehand that we may not fall into those sins which we reprehend in another nor be beholden to their sins to make us seem godly And the next words v. 5. plead for this sense For every man shall bear his own burden i. e. Thou oughtest to make thy work good and approved for every man sins at his own peril One mans sin will not excuse thee who dost not sin in that fashion but thou art to do thy own duty heartily to God according to thy Conscience or else thou shalt suffer as well as he And that the Apostle may have respect unto this examination before we come to the Sacrament in that place before-mentioned there is another phrase following v. 31. which may perswade us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For if we judge our selves c. i. e. if we do discern our selves and discriminate our actions and determine our duty and live in conformity to it we should not be judged nor punished of God in this sort But whether this be the proper meaning of examining or no I shall not be overmuch solicitous seeing I have already made this good that he must be a holy person that comes to Gods Table And that there is beside this a more particular examination to be used when the time is near of communicating with our Lord I willingly grant And it consists of two parts according to the two-fold use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render examine The first is a proof trial and search into our own souls that we may know our estate and in what condition we stand before God So the word is used 1 Thess 5.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prove all things i. e. make a trial of them and consider what they are and then hold fast that which you find to be good This examination considering that I suppose a pious life to precede must chiefly consist in a review of those failings or of those wants which our every-day proof of our selves doth present us withall If we should never examine our selves but when we come to the Lords Supper we should not know what we are nor what we need but in a confused heap of things many would be unobserved and yet if we should not also examine then we should not have such a lively sense of what we are to ask and for what we ought to plead the bloud of Christ But then this examination is but a serious reflection upon the Notes which we take every day of our selves Unless it be needfull that we examine our selves whether we have not forgot any of the ends for which we go to the Table of the Lord and though that be a great part of the Apostles meaning yet I have already taken notice of it In short we are to search rather in what state our Graces stands than whether we be in a state of Grace or no. Then secondly We must approve and allow of our selves and bring the trial to such an issue that we pass a verdict on our souls So the word is used Rom. 2.18 thou approvest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the things that are excellent i. e. Thou professest to like and embrace them And so when the Apostle bids the Children of the light to prove what is acceptable unto God Ephes 5.8 10. He doth not mean a bare inquisition but that act which follows it which is embracing For they cannot be deemed Children of the light who do not so enquire after the pleasure of God as to pursue and practise it The meaning likewise of the Apostle Rom. 14.22 is this Happy is he that when he uses an indifferent thing doth approve himself as doing that which is lawfull and acts not against his Conscience Or this Happy is he that when he is resolved that he may do such a thing lawfully and with the approbation of his Conscience yet doth it with such a care that he hurts not others by the use of it There is one place more 2 Cor. 13.5 where you have both these parts of examination together Try your selves whether you be in the faith prove i. e. approve your selves When you know your estate by trial then pass a judgement upon your selves to be what you profess and pretend unto Now all the approbation that a good man is to give of himself before he go to the Lords Supper is this 1. He ought to judge himself to continue a friend of Christ and to remain as far as he can find in Covenant with God And 2. He ought to find that he hath used some godly care and diligence that he come not in a rude unbeseeming and drowsie manner into so holy a presence And this is plainly another part of the Apostles meaning when he saith Let a man examine himself and so eat c. i. e. Let him approve himself to come for pious and holy ends and with a due regard to the Lords most sacred body and blood Lay thy hand then Christian Reader upon thy heart before thou comest to this Table and feel how the pulse of thy soul beats mind whether it beat evenly or after a distempered sort Doth it move three times as quick when thou thinkest of the World as it doth when God is in
find it so laborious to please him well in this If they did alwayes keep a fear of God in their souls then they would without much pain be fit to approach with fear and reverence into his presence One saith he is incumbred with business and hath not time to prepare himself another hath differences with his Neighbour and is not reconciled a third intends it very shortly but for some reasons must at present omit it None of these men fear to live in the known sins of worldliness enmity delayes and yet fear to do a known duty which our Lord a little before he died did command us If these persons would but fear to do that which God hath forbidden then they would not fear to do that which God hath commanded But while they refuse to obey him in one thing it is not to be expected that they should yield subjection in another Nay the world shall do more with them than God can do while they remain such strangers to him For if there were a reward of an hundred pounds annexed by some Benefactor to every Receiving this golden reason no man would be able to resist but all business would be thrown aside upon so rich an account So base and deceitfull are the hearts of men that they pretend fear of displeasing God when it is but a fear of being engaged too strictly for to please him They say this is the most excellent food but they are loath to taste it because they would not be at the pains to get themselves a stomack to it and digest it They keep it for a good bit at last till sickness make them hungry and will give them no leave to sin after it They look upon it as a strong Cordial that must be used only in desperate cases when soul and body are parting and taking their leave of each other But if it have such a power to make men happy then why could it not make them holy and why did they not use it all their life long to that purpose but because they had no love to holiness Therefore as Antisthenes said to the Priest of Orpheus his mysteries who perswaded him to be initiated in his Religion because all such should receive eternal felicities Why then dost thou not dye man if thou believest so why lovest thou this life so well thy self So say I to these men if there be such vertue in the Sacrament to carry you to Heaven so that you would receive it when you die Why do you not use it that it may carry you thither while you live why would you not be in Heaven now if you think it such a desirable thing and why do not you value that which you account a means to bring you thither And as for godly people who are afraid to come because they find not themselves so prepared as they would be they had best take heed lest they turn truly superstitious by fearing more than needs Do you make it the business of your lives to please God do you daily live upon the Lord Jesus and feed on him in your hearts by a lively faith is he before your eyes as the director and example of all your actions Why should you think then that he will not be pleased with your company at his Table Would you have a thought as strong as an Angel would you be able to flie as swiftly as a Cherubim and love with such a flame as a Seraphim And will you stay till you be as richly adorned as a glorified Saint before you think it be fit to attend on him Methinks it should be some comfort to a good heart that it hath such enlarged and noble desires But if it may not feast with God till it have what it would why do not men tremble to pray without such perfections why do they not dread to hear and read the Word of God and turn away their faces when they look up to Heaven in any Meditations Are these such trifling duties or do not these constitute the prime and vital parts of this which they so dread Doth not the soul feed it self at the Sacrament by holy Prayers affectionate thoughts devout thanksgivings and a hearty oblation of it self to God I doubt while we cry out justly against the superstition of Rome many of us have that too near our very hearts which is the very root and life of all superstition For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or superstition is a causeless trembling arising out of our own mind when there is nothing in the object on which we look to breed such an affrightment If we make this Sacrament such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 terrible mystery that we dare not do the duty which Christ hath commanded us then it is plain our minds are filled with Heathenish terrors and we affright our souls with our own childish imaginations Take heed therefore of whatsoever it be that would make you run away from your duty and do not breed up your souls in such a dread of your Father that you should turn reverence into horror fear into affrightment and the cup of gladness into the Wine of astonishment Why should you turn your backs when God invites you to him why should you feed on scruples when you may feed on the bread of life why should you go and weep alone when God would have you to rejoyce with your Brethren I can imagine no reason of it but this that some have little care to live godlily and those that have understand not well the terms of the Gospel and one reason why many understand them no better is because this duty is performed so seldome wherein they should renew their Covenant with God Men have but little acquaintance with this thing and that makes them to be afraid of it and they seldome come to God in this manner and that makes them more fearfull when they have a mind to come If this Feast should be kept every day it might be apt to grow into contempt but now being rarely observed it breeds in our ignorant and weak natures a strange and panick fear And therefore the best advice that I know of to be given to all good people is this 1. That they throughly understand what the ends are for which this remembrance of Christ is appointed And 2. That they believe the chiefest preparation to it is a holy life CHAP. XII BUt some perhaps will say that I have only directed those that are already in a state of grace and it may be asked whether there be not another sort of preparation for those that are not yet entred upon Religion and what qualifications will dispose men for their first Communion with the People of God I answer That supposing they are Baptized and have been Catechized and instructed in the Christian Faith the duty of such Persons is First To own and profess their Baptismal Covenant now that they are attained to years of discretion and understanding Let
of the soul grow too big for the mouth when it lifts up it self in speaking-thoughts and this is their language That they are not able to understand the Miracles of this Love it shall not be long before it perceive how much God is pleased with its saying nothing Let us therefore labour at the very entrance to put our selves into some degree of wonderment to think what manner of love this is wherewith he hath loved us Wonder that he should dye for thee when he was upon the earth and that he should nourish thee with himself now that he is in the Heavens Be astonished that Heaven should so condescend to Earth and Man should be so united unto God Lose thy thoughts in contemplation of the strangeness of this kindness that God should dwell in flesh and that this flesh should be our Food Let it amaze thee that Christ can never think that he hath given himself enough to thee but as the Apostle saith he gave himself to redeem us from our sinnes and now he gives himself to be the strength and health of our souls He gave himself when he was among men he gives himself now that he is with God and as Dionysius relates the story he told a pious man in a vision That if it were necessary he would come and die again for the sons of men This would be a rarely good beginning of this holy service and we should be fitter for all following actions if we could put our hearts into a kind of extasie or admiration at the stupendious greatness of this mystery If our thoughts were once got so high we should be out of the reach of other things that are apt to thrust themselves in and interrupt us If we had once climbed above our selves and were ascended into Heaven we should not be inticed while the Solemnity lasted to come down to the World again II. When we see the Bread broken and the Wine poured out it is a fit season to entertain our selves with these three Meditations which are big with a great number of other thoughts that they will bring forth 1. Remember the pains and dolours the shame and reproach which our Lord endured For which purpose imagine as if you were in Golgotha the place where he was crucified think that you behold him stretched forth upon a Cross that you see his precious Bloud trickling down his side and that you look into his gaping wounds think that you see the pits that they digged in his hands and his feet the furrows that they made in his back and how miserably the Thorns scratched and harrowed his holy head Think that you hear his dying groans that the mocks and flouts of the Jews sound in your ears Yea think that you hear the groans of the Earth under the weight of his Cross and that you see how the Sun shrunk in his head as ashamed to look on such a spectacle and affrighted with the horror of such a sight And when you have meditated a while upon these wonders it will be greater wonder if there be no passion made in your hearts Your own thoughts will teach you such resentments as befit so strange an object and you will begin to tremble and bleed and desire and rejoyce and be in such a mixture of passions as if you would imitate the confusion which was in the world at his Sufferings But when you have recovered your self a little think that it will be most agreeable in the second place 2. To remember with due affection the great love of our Lord in submitting himself to such pains and disgrace for our sakes Never did eyes behold such a strange thing that the only begotten of the Father should bleed like a Malefactor that the glorious King of Heaven should dye for his own Subjects Rebels I should rather call them and Traytors to their Soveraign Lord. Was there ever any kindness like to this Was there ever such a Furnace of Love burning in any heart Could he do more for us than dye for us Was there any likelihood that the remembrance of such a Love should dye That mens hearts should freeze over such a fire Lest such a thing should happen he hath left himself still among us in symboles and representations he sets before our eyes his bloody Death and Passion he makes himself present to our faith and as if he would do more than dye for us he desires to live for ever in us and be united to us How can we chuse then but fall into his arms Yea how can we withhold our selves from running into his heart Can any heart refrain it self from tears of sorrow to think of its unkindness and from tears of joy to think of his strange love how can we be but overwhelmed both with floods of grief and gladness Can we look upon him whom we have pierced and not mourn Can we see his bleeding wounds and not be troubled What heart can be so hard It cannot but pain us to think that we love him no more who put himself to such pains for us It cannot but trouble us to think that but hearts should be so cold when his was so hot with love as to send out its life bloud for our redemption And yet when we consider that in this stream of blood our souls are washed and that by his stripes we are healed who can chuse but rejoyce in his love and hope that he will accept of our poor acknowledgements And let us but look upon him again as I described him on the Cross and we shall find our love more large and vehement Think that you hear him saying to you as he hangs there Behold my friends how my flesh was torn and wounded for your sakes See how your sinnes have used me Look into my heart which was pierced first by love and then by a spear for you See how my hands and my feet were bored through look how my blood runs out to fetch you home to God Was there ever any sorrow like to my sorrow Hath any one loved you so as I have loved you Behold here I give my self unto you as once I gave my self for you By these tokens of Bread and Wine I conveigh unto you all that I have and make over to you all that Inheritance which I have purchased by my Blood My Self and all that I have I freely give unto you Need any one now that hath such Meditations be taught with what affections he should behave himself towards his Lord Needs there any piercing words of him that ministers to wound mens souls with sorrow and grief Is any artifice of speech required to wind and insinuate Christ into their hearts Is any perswasive Language necessary to make them accept of the greatest and richest Blessings that all Heaven can afford Me thinks I see the pricking and compunction that will be in a heart that thinks of these things Me thinks I see such a soul running forth to
that takes away the sins of the World Is not thy soul in him well pleased Is not his Body as really in the Heavens as the signs of it are here in our hands Hear good Lord the cry of his Wounds Let us prevail with thee through the virtue of his sacrifice Let us feel yea let all the World feel the power of his intercession Deny us not O Lord seeing we bring thy Son with us Hear thy Son O Lord though thou wilt not hear us and let us let all others know that he lives and was dead and that he is alive for evermore Amen And secondly It is a seasonable time to profess our selves Christians and that we will take up our Cross and follow after him This taking of the bread we should look upon as a receiving the yoke of Christ upon our neck and laying his Cross upon our shoulder if he think fit We embrace a crucified Jesus and we are not to expect to live in pleasures unless they be spiritual nor to rejoice with the world but to endure affliction and account it all joy when we fall into manifold temptations Protest therefore unto him that thou lovest him as thou seest him stript and naked bruised and wounded slain and dead and that thou art contented to take joyfully the spoiling of thy goods to be pleased with pains and to count death the way to life V. When we eat it is a fit season to put forth these two acts of faith 1. Let us express our hearty consent that Christ shall dwell within us that we will be ruled by his Laws and governed by his Spirit that he shall be the alone King of our souls and the Lord of all our faculties and that we will have no other Master but onely him to give commands within us Eating I told you is a foederal rite and therefore when we have swallowed this bread we should think that we have surrendred all up into his hands and put him into full power over our souls And we should think also that we have given him the possession of our souls for ever and engaged never to change our Master For eating is more receiving then taking a thing with our hands It is as it were the incorporating of the thing with the substance of our bodies and making it a part of our selves that it may last as long as we So should we meditate that we receive the Lord Jesus never to be separated from his service for ever to adhere unto him as our Prince and Captain as our Head and Husband wheresoever his Commands will lead us And as we open our hearts thus to receive him so let us now fold him in our arms and embrace him with a most cordial affection Let the fire burn now and make us boyl up yea even run over with love to him Now is the time not onely to give our selves to him but to make a sacrifice of our selves as a whole burnt-offering unto God Now should we lay our selves on the Altar of the Lord to be offered up intirely to him who made his soul an offering for sin That there may not only be a representative but a real sacrifice at this Feast unto Heaven i.e. that we may not only shew forth the sacrifice of Christ and represent it before God but we our selves may offer up our souls and bodies unto him and send them up in flames of love as so many Holocausts to be consumed and spent in the service of our God Then let us wish for the flames of a Seraphim in the love of God for the cheerfulness and speed of a Cherubim in the service of God and for the voice of an Angel that we may sing the praises of God Let us like our choice so well and think that we are so beholden to him that we may give our selves to him as to begin to leap for joy that we have parted with our selves and are become his And as a token that we give our selves and all we have to God we should now think upon those offerings we intend to make for the poor members of Jesus Christ and desire the Lord to accept of our gifts which we present him withall as earnests of our selves which we have consecrated unto him And perhaps now our hearts may be stirred with so great compassion and our bowels may be so feelingly moved that our Charity may overflow the banks that we had set it and the fire that is within us may require a fatter and larger offering then we designed But howsoever we cannot but deal our bread to the hungry with a more cheerfull hand and give our Almes with a freer heart when we have received the Bread of Life into our hands and hearts and felt what the huge Charity of our Lord was toward us most miserable and wretched Creatures 2. A second Act of faith which we should now exercise is this Let us really believe that all the blessings of the New Covenant are made over to us by this giving and receiving of his sacred body Let thy soul say My beloved is mine as I am his Be confident and well assured that if thou wast hearty in the former act of saith thou shalt as certainly receive pardon and grace and strength and salvation as thy mouth thou art sure eateth the holy Bread The former Act was a receiving him as our Lord and this as our Saviour Think therefore that now Christ dwelleth in thee and thou in him that as he must be Master of the house so thou shalt partake of all his riches of all his honour and pleasure And so begin to ransack his treasures desire him to spread before thee his inestimable riches pray him to shew thee if it be but a little glimpse of the glory of the inheritance of the Saints And what joy will this create in thy soul when thou thinkest that thou and Christ are one that thou art united to his most precious Body and shall certainly receive all the benefits of his Death and Passion O what ravishment should it be unto us to believe that sin shall not have dominion over us that the Blood of Jesus cleanseth us from all unrighteousness that the flames of Hell shall never touch us that death is swallowed up in victory that the grave is buried in the Wounds of our Saviour that we are sealed with the mark of God and consigned to a blessed immortality and shall inherit the joys of our Lord With what boldness now may we renew our requests to him and importunately plead with him for a supply of all our wants We may put up stronger cries now that we conceive he is in us and intreat him since it is his pleasure to be so familiar with us that we may be filled with all the fulness of God O my Lord may a soul say if thou lovest me so much fulfill in me all the good pleasure of thy goodness 2 Thes 1.11 and the work of faith
And who may dwell with everlasting Burnings who may abide when he is angry Lest any should say that the Bloud of Jesus shall quench the flames and extinguish these angry heats observe to whom he speaks these words not to men under the Law from the fiery Mount but to those who were come to Mount Sion to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to the bloud of sprinkling c. v. 22 24. from whence he concludes these two things First That greater punishment shall be inflicted on Christians than others if they refuse obedience to Christs commands v. 25. Secondly That therefore they should seriously betake themselves to the service of their Lord with reverence and godly fear v. 28 29. Wicked men conclude O we shall escape well enough take you no care Christ hath died and done all for us We need not be so scrupulous since he hath satisfied for our sins But the Apostle makes just the quite contrary conclusion We are come to the Bloud of Jesus c. therefore see that you refuse not him that speaketh c. The Bloud of Jesus speaks better things to those that accept of the Gospel and obey it than the bloud of Abel's sacrifice did but to all that refuse it it speaks more sadly than the bloud that cryed against Cain and for ever shall such men be banished from the face of God The Apostle you see represents our God thus terrible after he had most highly magnified the priviledge of Christians and that will apologize for me who have diverted to this sad discourse when I was treating of the joyfull Feast of Christians But to that I shall now return again VIII Eighthly After all this Let us meditate of the joyes of Heaven of the Eternal Supper of the Lamb and the blessed life that we shall live above For the joyes of the other world are usually expressed among the Jewes by eating and drinking greater plenty of which chear was in their Countrey than any other being a Land flowing with Milk and Honey You may see a footstep of this in the New Testament beside all those in the Old One that sate at meat with our Saviour saith Luke 14.15 Blessed is he that shall eat Bread in the Kingdome of God Which some say was an ordinary saying among the Rabbines This is most certain that there are strange things in their latter Writers concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Garden of Eden or pleasure that is above answerable to that which was below Where they speak of delightfull Rivers of Tables furnished with Leviathan and Behemoth by which it is likely their Doctors first understood some spiritual dainties and under this mythology did hide an excellent meaning but the great impostor Mahomet hath from thence fabricated his carnal bruitish Paradise taking them in a gross and unworthy sense The like they speak of Wine kept from the beginning of the world in a certain place i. e. excellent old Wine of which their Messiah shall first taste together with the Leviathan and then the Just they expect shall be feasted So R. Hai in his Book of the interpretation of Dreams saith that it is a sign of good to see in our sleep white Grapes and the eating of them signifies the possession of eternal life because they shew the Wine that is kept in Grapes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the dayes of the beginning All which I bring for this purpose that you may see they used by eating and drinking to set forth the joyes of Heaven and that you may better understand those words of our Saviour immediately after he had given them this Sacramental Bread and Wine Mat. 26.29 I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the Vint untill that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers Kingdome Which is no more than to say I shall never feast again with you till we meet in Heaven and partake together of those joyes that are figuratively expressed by new Wine In some regard and of some sorts new Wine is the best and in others old is preferred and so sometimes by the one sometimes by the other those eternal pleasures are denoted St. Luke also hath the same sence more fully cap. 22.16 I will not eat any more thereof i. e. of the Passeover untill it be fulfilled in the Kingdome of God i. e. I will not keep with you another solemn Commemoration of Gods mercies though he did eat with them when he rose again but the next festivity that we shall celebrate together must be in Heaven in the very presence of God when the Devil your great enemy shall be overthrown and quite destroyed as Pharaoh was And again v. 18. He saith I will not drink of the fruit of the Vine untill the Kingdome of God shall come Which signifies no more but that he and they should not rejoyce together any more till they came to drink of the Rivers of Gods pleasures From all which we may well collect that the Wine here in the Kingdome of the Son is an embleme of the Wine in the Kingdome of the Father In this world is the Kingdome of Christ in the world to come shall be the Kingdome of God and what is done here is a shadow of what shall be done in a more excellent manner hereafter and therefore this holy Feast should represent unto us those Heavenly delights From this Wine of the Grape we should endeavour to raise our minds to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is apprehended by the mind and tasted by the pallate of the soul which flows from God himself We should think that these are but some forecasts of those pleasures that he will hereafter bestow upon us but the Antepasts of the eternal Supper but the Vigils of the everlasting rest and that now we rather fast than feast if we compare these joys with those that are above We should look upon these as assurance of better chear where our appetites shall be satiated and our thirst quenched where we shall see the Lord Jesus in his Glory and feast our eyes with the sight of his beauty yea where we shall be ravished with the sight of God himself and shall drink of the pleasures that stream from the light of his blessed face And after those things in the world to come should we strive to stir up the longings of our soul We should desire to be in Heaven we should thirst after larger draughts to quench our thirst in the Ocean it self and to pass from this dark Glass and this vail of the Sacraments to the clear vision of his brightness For if God do here satisfie his faithfull Servants as with Marrow and fatness much more in the world to come will he replenish and fill them with sweetness and joy it self IX Ninthly And in the conclusion we should give God thanks for these great favours for the hopes of his glory for the tastes which he gives us before-hand for all
angry at him that would save his soul Do we eat and drink this Heavenly provision and then rise up to play do we stand in need of such noble nourishment for the following of our trades and the encouragement of us in our worldly business O consider beloved Reader that lookest on these lines that an honest Heathen would do better things than these He that never heard of Christ and never tasted of this Heavenly food would be ashamed of such a life Philosophy which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the nutriment of the soul would produce far more excellent works There is no need thou shouldest be a Christian if thou hast no more noble end Meer reason will breed up better Scholars and therefore go and sit with the Deipnosophists and come not unto the Supper of the Lord unless thou intendest to walk worthy of him unto all pleasing Col. 1.10 being fruitfull in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God Do but hear what they promised themselves from their Philosophy Hoc est quod Philosophia mihi promittit ut me parem Deo faciat Epist 48. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. l. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then judge to what it is fit a Christian so divinely nourished should aspire This saith Seneca Philosophy doth make me promises of that it will make me a Peer with God This is that saith Cleomedes which preserves the Demy-God that is within us from being shamefully intreated which keeps it unmoveable and unshaken which gives it the better of all pleasures and pains which makes it intend some worthy end and receive all events and contingencies as coming from thence from whence it self came and above all which learns it to wait for the coming of death with a chearfull mind What man then deserves the name of a Christian that notwithstanding all the means of grace which God affords doth strive to make himself equal with a Beast that basely uses his noble part that is like a feather shaken with the wind and lyes down at the feet of every pleasure and cannot sustain the load of the least grief that vexes and frets at every cross as if the Devil ruled the world and trembles at death as a Child doth at a friend with a vizard on God expects sure that we should be men of another sort and that Philosophy should not beget more lusty souls than Christianity can We must be ashamed to live at a lower rate than a man that had been but at Plato's Compotation and we must make account the Blood of Christ is to nourish better Spirits in us than the very soul and spirit of reason if we could suck it in can be able to generate Let us look therefore into our hearts daily and see that he be there Whether we eat or drink or whatsoever else we do let us ask him if he be pleased Let us go to him constantly that he may know we love him And let us entreat him to tell us what he would have us to do and then let us do it with all our might VII Seventhly Let us maintain a longing in our souls after another such repast Let us strive every day to keep up a spiritual hunger after this food that so we may not neglect the next opportunity which God shall give us of Communion or if we should die before we have one yet Heaven may find us prepared for the Feast where the marriage shall be compleated Christ may find such holy longings after him that our souls may be taken into his bosome to dwell in him as he before dwelt in us When we cannot outwardly communicate yet we may in heart in spirit Though we cannot alwayes celebrate the mysteries yet we may have the thing signified in those mysteries as St. Bernard speaks at all times in all places i. e. We may with pious affections and holy actions receive Christ continually into our souls As the Sacrament saith he sine re Sacramenti without the thing of the Sacrament is death to the unworthy so we may conclude that res Sacramenti the thing it self without the Sacrament will be life eternal to the worthy Whensoever in remembrance of Christ thou art piously and devoutly affected into an imitation of Christ thou dost eat his Body and drink his Blood But then if we do constantly preserve such longings and hungring after this Feast and do at all times feast upon him we cannot pass by any occasion that God affords us of receiving him in that manner that he hath appointed and blessed and we cannot but be very forward to go to remember him when opportunity is presented in the Assembly of his people And therefore I shall not make it a distinct advice that you would come again when this Table is spread for you For this is but a just gratitude to God a sign that we like his fare and are well pleased with his chear and are ambitious of nothing more than such an entertainment And I think we shall shew our selves to have been very unworthy guests at the last Feast if we like it so little as to refuse to come the next time that we are invited In the beginning of our Religion they received every day Acts 2.46 Which proceeded from a great devotion and fervency of spirit when the holy Ghost like fire had descended upon them And this heat did not abate in all places for the space of 400 years but in some Churches of Affrica as St. Augustine writes and in Rome and Spain as St. Hierome tells us they retained this ardent love and continually remembred the dying of the Lord Jesus And it was proposed to St. Augustine as a doubt whether a person of business as a Merchant Husbandman or the like should every day Communicate To which he answered To receive the Sacrament every day I neither praise nor reprove but to Communicate every Lords-day I would wish you and exhort every one so to do And so St. Chrysostome exhorting of the people to build Churches in the Villages where they might hold Assemblies he perswades them by this Argument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cap. 8. Act. p. 716 edit Sav. There Prayers will be sent up daily for every one of you there God will be continually praised with Hymns and every Lords day will there be an Offering made for you And though the devotion of Christians fell from once in a day to once in a week and from thence to once in a moneth till at last the Church of Rome hath thought it fit to bind men of necessity but to once in a year yet I find a devout Papist thus speaking Fr. Sales Introd Though it be hard to say how often a man is bound to Communicate yet I think I may boldly affirm That the greatest distance between the times of Communicating among such as desire to serve God devoutly is from moneth to moneth And sure the strict observance
himself that is a glutton so it is most certain that he perishes who fasts and never eats at all If it be a duty to do this then there is a punishment annexed to the neglect as well as to the ill-performance of it There is a danger in not coming as well as in coming unworthily God is angry at one sin as well as at another and if he shall be condemned that doth this ignorantly or in love to his sins or in a half hatred of them so shall he be that stays away and will not get knowledge nor leave his sins He that eats irreverently is guilty by prophaning of Christs Body and so is he that eats not at all by despising of it and preferring his lusts before him As the one eats damnation to himself so doth the other by not eating judge himself to be in a damnable condition For if we cannot partake of his Supper here how can we think our selves fit to feast with him hereafter Many think that they are safe if they venture not upon these holy things and it disquiets them to come in their fins but it never troubles them that they stay away and continue in their sins These mens Consciences are but half informed and I seriously wish them not to endure in that condition wherein they judge themselves unmeet society for Christ and the faithfull Remember that you not onely live in sin but add this sin to all the rest that you do not come to remember Christ and shew forth his Death He that breaks one of the least of his Commandments and lives in the known neglect of it shall be called least in the Kingdome of Heaven i. e. shall be deemed not to belong to it Away then with this supine negligence James 4.8 Cleanse your hearts ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded Purge your souls by hearty sorrow by humble confession by great contrition by a professed hatred and detestation of all your sins Col. 3.5 8 12 13. Mortifie your members that are on the earth fornication uncleanness inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousness Put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy Communication out of your mouth Lye not one unto another But put on as the Elect of God bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye c. And come hither to strengthen your resolutions and to confirm your purposes Come and renew your vows of holy living and protest in the sight of God and his holy Angels and before his faithfull people that you will be the followers of the Lord Jesus Do not weep and mourn and afflict your Souls for a day do not banish your sins for a little time that you may entertain them afterward with a greater kindness but give them an eternal divorce and bid them never return again Do not go a little back from your sins that you may take your rise and leap into them with a greater violence but fly from them as from the Devil and the mouth of the pit resolving never to cast a friendly look upon them any more And then come to Christ and cause joy in Heaven at the return of a repenting sinner And if thou takest upon thee his yoke why should there not be joy on earth too why shouldst thou not come and praise the Lord for his goodness to thee and make the faithfull rejoyce with thee that they have got more company at this holy Feast But I am very ignorant will some say and I dare not come for fear I understand not these mysteries I answer That it is very well if thou art sensible of thy ignorance for then there is hope thou wilt labour after knowledge And it is not hard to understand the meaning of these things but very easie for our Lord hath made his sufferings sensible to us in these signs that we might more easily remember them and be more quickly moved by them to due affections to him But I am affraid my heart is not right saith another and that I am cheated with the shadows of Faith and Repentance Let that man who speaks thus tell himself what he means by true faith which he would find in himself Is it a perswasion that God loves thee Is it a resting on Christ for salvation A thousand to one this is the mistake which troubles many But that Faith is another thing which the Gospel speaks of which will be soon understood if thou understandest what the Gospel is which thou art to believe The Gospel is to be considered either as a Narrative relation and report of what Christ Jesus was upon earth and of what he hath done and suffered of what he taught and what he now is in the Heavens It is an History of his Life and Death Resurrection and Ascention into Heaven there to sit at Gods right hand and it is a Sermon concerning Christs Doctrines of his commands promises and threatnings Or secondly it is to be considered as it is a call or proclamation an offer or tender of pardon grace and salvation to all that will accept of them on the conditions that they are propounded Now Faith is first an assent of the mind and heart to that report a firm perswasion that all is true that is said in the Gospel and secondly It is a consent to that offer an acceptance of that invitation an embracement of all that is there tendred by yielding up of our selves to obey the Lord Jesus in all things This is receiving of Christ this is believing in the Son of God And there are many acts of faith to be in thy heart before thou canst lay hold of the mercy of God And proportionably to thy sincere and hearty consent to obey him will be thy perswasion of an interest in that mercy If thy confident relying on him for salvation exceed other acts of a lively faith it is to be suspected of too sudden a growth and thou hadst best fear that it starts up too high But consider with thy self doest thou believe the Gospel doth thy heart submit to that way of salvation there proposed art thou devoted to the service of Jesus Then be of good comfort if not confident come and strengthen thy faith that thou maist still do as thou hast resolved This is one of the commands of the Gospel that thou dost believe and therefore if thy faith be true obey it But a third saith That he hath so much business that he cannot prepare himself But consider I pray you in the fear of God what greater business can there be than to work out our salvation Had not they business as they pretended of great import to whom the Lord said you shall not taste of my Supper Consider whether thou canst not bring thy business into a less compass or may it not be let
thou lovest him nor will any sin which he afterward commits be imputed to thy neglect nor will the sin of his receiving unworthily be laid to thy charge because thou didst what thou couldst to prevent it It can only be matter of thy compassion and sorrow but not thy burden and trouble that another doth not do his duty when thou hast done thine And all Gods Servants in all ages of the Church have received comfort in such mixed communions and have patiently waited till Christs course was taken with men for their reformation And it is to be feared that such objectors seek for too much comfort in outward things and discomfort themselves in their own fancies Whereas their true comfort lyes in doing of their duty faithfully to God and to their Brethren and in the mercy of God in Christ And if they look for other comfort they will be deceived for the net of the Gospel brings both good and bad to the shore and where there is Wheat there are Tares many times also Let no man therefore plead this or that in excuse for his not coming to the Lords Table but resolve hereafter carefully to perform so necessary a duty Let the sinner quit his state of sin and death and so come and eat of the Bread of life Let the ignorant come into the School of Christ and proceed till they come to the highest form to the upper room where this Feast is prepared Let those that are in enmity with their Neighbours also come let them only first go and be reconciled to their Brethren and so let them offer their gift Let those that have a multitude of worldly employments come only let them leave them as Abraham did his Asses at the bottome of the Mount and so let them ascend to Heaven in their thoughts and converse with God Let the weak come that they may grow in strength and let the strong come that they may not grow weak Let them who have fears come that their hearts may be setled by the acts of a more lively faith and let them come who have hopes that they may rise to greater degrees of an humble confidence Let those who have leisure accept of this invitation because they have no excuse and let those who have but little leisure entertain it also that they may the more sanctifie their business and employments let the sad and sorrowfull approach that their hearts may be filled with the joys of the Lord and let those that rejoyce in the Lord alwayes approach that their joy may be full Do not send your excuses when you are called but resolve that a necessity lyes upon you unless you will be guilty of the foulest neglect of your duty and the greatest disrespect to Gods love If any man can be content to stay away after all these entreaties on to come but seldome when he may be so welcome Let him consider what a wrong he offers to his own soul how he robs it of its food and nourishment and how he pineth the most noble and excellent Creature in the world And let him consider what an affront it is to God to despise the choisest of his chear the most costly provision made by the expense of his Sons Bloud and the most kind and gracious invitations to it O foolish people and unwise do we thus requite the Lord do we thus slight the dying of our Saviour are we no more affected with his singular love Is this to commemorate the death of Christ to come once or twice in a year to this Feast The Lord have mercy upon us and help us How are we degenerated from the primitive practise how cold is our love to God and to his Son grown Unless we blow it up by a frequent remembrance of Christ it is to be feared it will quite go out The ashes and dust of this world will bury all the remaining sparks of it which are not yet extinguished Let Christ I beseech you see that you love him by taking all occasions to come to him by binding your selves faster with the cords of his love to all obedience and dutifulness toward him And let me but tell you these two truths and I shall put an end to this Discourse The way to have reformed us would not have been to leave off Communions but to make them more frequent Nor secondly To unite and consolidate Parishes but to make more Pastors in greater Parishes that by more personal instruction men might be better fitted for frequent Communion But so it is that zeal oft-times hath too much passion in it and too little knowledge The good Lord pardon us and be gracious unto us FINIS