This is my Covenant saith God in the institution of Circumcision in the old Testament Gen. 17. 10. but how it was his Covenant he explainerh in the verse immediately following Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a SIGN of the Covenant betwixt me and you So words being the signs of things no sooner is the sound of the word conveyed to cur ears but the notion of the thing signified thereby is presented unto our mind and thereupon in the speech of the Scripture nothing is more ordinary than by the term of Word to note a thing We read in 1 Sam. 4. that the Philistines were afraid and said God is come in the Camp. ver 7. when the Israelites brought thither the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts which dwelleth between the Cherubims v. 4. and yet was that no other but this relative kind of presence whereof now we speak in respect whereof also the Shewbread is in the Hebrew named the bread of faces or the presence bread We see with us the room wherein the Kings Chair and other Ensigns of State are placed is called the Chamber of presence although the King himself be not there personally present And as the rude and undutiful behaviour of any in that place or the offering of any disrespect to the Kings Pourtraicture or to the Armes Royal or to any other thing that hath relation to his Majesty is taken as a dishonour done unto the King himself so here he that eateth the bread and drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily is accounted guilty of offering indignity to the body and blood of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11. 27. In this sort we acknowledge Sacraments to be Signs but bare signs we deny them to be Seals they are as well as signs of the Covenant of grace As it was therefore said of John the Baptist that he was a Prophet and more than a Prophet Matt. 11. 9. So must we say of Sacraments that they be signs and more than signs even pledges and assurances of the interest which we have in the heavenly things that are represented by them He that hath in his chamber the picture of the French King hath but a bare sign which possibly may make him think of that King when he looketh on it but sheweth not that he hath any manner of interest in him It is otherwise with him that hath the Kings great Seal for the confirmation of the title that he hath unto all the lands and livelihood which he doth injoy And as here the wax that is affixed to those letters Patents howsoever for substance it be the very same with that which is to be found every where yet being applied to this use is of more worth to the Patent than all the wax in the Countrey beside so standeth it with the outward elements in the matter of the Sacrament The bread and wine are not changed in substance from being the same with that which is served at ordinary tables but in respect of the sacred use whereunto they are consecrated such a change is made that now they differ as much from common bread and wine as heaven from earth Neither are they to be accounted barely significative but truly exhibitive also of those heavenly things whereto they have relation as being appointed by God to be a means of conveying the same unto us and putting us in actual possession thereof So that in the use of this holy ordinance verily as a man with his bodily hand and mouth receiveth the earthly creatures so verily doth he with his spiritual hand and mouth if any such he have receive the body and blood of Christ. And this is that real and substantial presence which we affirmed to be in the inward part of this sacred action For the better conceiving of which mistery we are to inquire first what the thing is which we do here receive secondly how and in what manner we are made partakers of it Touching the first the truth which must be held is this that we do not here receive only the benefits that flow from Christ but the very body and blood of Christ that is Christ himself crucified For as none can be made partaker of the vertue of the bread and wine to his bodily sustenance unless he first do receive the substance of those creatures so neither can any participate in the benefits arising from Christ to his spiritual relief except he first have communion with Christ himself We must have the Son before we have life 1 Joh. 5. 12. and therefore eat him we must Joh. 6. 57. as himself speaketh that is as truly be made partakers of him as we are of our ordinary food if we will live by him As there is a giving of him on Gods part for unto us a Son is given Esa. 9. 6. so there must be a receiving of him on our part for as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Joh. 1. 12. And as we are called by God unto the communion of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 9. so it we do hear his voice and not harden our hearts by unbelief we are indeed made partakers of Christ Heb. 3. 14. This is that great mistery for so the Apostle termeth it of our union with Christ whereby we are made members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5. 30 32. and this is that eating of the flesh of the Son of man and drinking of his blood which our Saviour insisteth so much upon in Joh. 6. Where if any man shall demand that I may now come unto the second point of our inquiry How can this man give us his flesh to eat Joh. 6. 52. he must be ware that he come not pre-occupied with such dull conceits as they were possessed withal who moved that question there he must not think that we cannot truly feed on Christ unless we receive him within our jaws for that is as gross an imagination as that of Nicodemus who could not conceive how a man could be born again unless he should enter the second time into his Mothers Womb Joh. 3. 4. but must consider that the eating and drinking which our Saviour speaketh of must be answerable to the hungring and thirsting for the quenching whereof this heavenly Banquet is provided Mark well the words which he useth toward the beginning of his discourse concerning this argument I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not Joh 6. 35 36. And compare them with those in the end It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life But there are some of you that believe not Now observe that such as our hungring is such is our eating
seeing we have faith and the quickening Spirit of Christ before we come thither To this I answer that the Spirit is received in divers measures and faith bestowed upon us in different degrees by reason whereof our conjunction with Christ may every day be made straiter and the hold which we take of him firmer To receive the Spirit not by measure Joh. 3. 34. is the priviledge of our Head we that receive out of his fulness Joh. 1. 16. have not our portion of grace delivered unto us all at once but must daily look for supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Phil. 1. 19. So also while we are in this word the righteousness of God is revealed unto us from faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. that is from one degree and measure of it to another and consequently we must still labour to perfect that which is lacking in our faith 1 Thes. 3. 10. and evermore pray with the Apostles Lord increase our faith Luke 17. 5. As we have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so must we walk in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith Colos. 2. 6 7. that we may grow up into him in all things which is the Head. Ephes. 4 4. 1. And to this end God hath ordained publick officers in his Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a persect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 12 13. and hath accordingly made them able Ministers of the Spirit that quickeneth 1 Cor. 3. 6. and Ministers by whom we should helieve even as the Lord shall give to every man 1 Cor. 3. 5. When we have therefore received the Spirit and Faith and so spiritual life by their ministery we are not there to rest but as new born babes we must desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2. 2. and as grown men too we must desire to be fed at the Lords Table that by the strength of that spiritual repast we may be inabled to do the Lords work and may continually be nourished up thereby in the life of grace unto the life of glory Neither must we here with a fleshly eye look upon the meanness of the outward elements and have this faithless thought in our hearts that there is no likelihood a bit of bread and a draught of wine should be able to produce such heavenly effects as these For so we should prove our selves to be no wiser than Naaman the Syrian was who having received direction from the man of God that he should wash in Jordan seven times to be cleansed of his Leprosie 2 Kings 5. 12. 13. replied with indignation Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel May I not wash in them and be clean But as his servants did soberly advise him then If the Prophet had bid the do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith to thee Wash and be clean So give me leave to say unto you now If the Lord had commanded us to do some great thing for the artaining of so high a good should not we willingly have done it How much rather then when he biddeth us to eat the bread and drink the wine that he hath provided for us at his own Table that by his blessing thereupon we may grow in grace and be preserved both in body and soul unto everlasting life True it is indeed these outward creatures have no natural power in them to effect so great a work as this is no more than the water of Jordan had to recover the Leper but the work wrought by these means is supernatural and God hath been pleased in the dispensation both of the Word and of the Sacraments so to ordain it that these heavenly treasures should be presented unto us in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be of God. 2 Cor 4. 7. As therefore in the preaching of the Gospel the Minister doth not dare verba and beat the air with a fruitless sound but the words that he speaketh unto us are Spirit and life God being pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe so likewise in the administration of the Lords Supper he doth not feed us with bare bread and wine but if we have the life of faith in us for still we must remember that this Table is provided not for the dead but for the living and come worthily the Cup of blessing which he blesseth 1 Cor. 10. 16. will be unto us the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread which he breaketh the communion of the body of Christ of which precious body and blood we being really made partakers that is in truth and indeed and not in imagination only altho' in a spiritual and not a corporal manner the Lord doth grant us according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that we may be filled with ad the fulness of God. Eph. 3. 16 19. For the Sacraments as well as the Word be a part of that ministration of the Spirit which is committed to the Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. 36 8. forasmuch as by one Spirit as before we have heard from the Apostle we have been all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12 13. And thus have I finished the first part of my task my Congregatio homogeneorum as I call it the knitting together of those that appertain to the same body both with their fellow-members and with their Head which is the thing laid down in the express words of my Text. It remaineth now that I proceed to the Apostles application hereof unto the argument he hath in hand which is Segregatio heterogeneorum a dissevering of those that be not of the same communion that the faithful may not partake with Idolaters by countenancing or any way joyning with them in their ungodly courses For that this is the main scope at which St. Paul aimeth in his treating here of the Sacrament is evident both by that which goeth before in v. 19. Wherefore my deatly beloved flee from Idolatry and that which followeth in the 21. Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils Whereby we may collect thus much that as the Lords Suprer is a seal of our conjunction one with another and with Christ our Head so is it an evidence of our dis-junction from Idolaters binding us to disavow all communion with them in their false worship And indeed the one must necessarily follow upon the other considering
the authority of Clement the 8. to omit other testimonies in this kind it is concluded that the Cross of the Popes Legate shall have the right hand upon this very reason quia debetur et âatria because the worship proper to God is due to it Now whether they commit Idolatry who communicate unto a senseless thing that worship which they themselves confess to be due unto God alone let all the world judge They were best therefore from henceforth confess themselves to be Idolaters and stand to it that every kind of Idolatry is not unlawful Their Jesuite Gregorius de Valentia will tell them for their comfort that it is no absurdity to think that St. Peter when he deterreth the faithful by name ab illicit is Idolerum cultibus St. Peter calleth them that is abominable Idolatries doth insinuate thereby that some worship of Images is lawful John Monceye the Frenchman in his Aaron Purgatus dedicated to the late Pope Paul 5. and in his 20 questions propounded to Visorius stretcheth yet a strain higher For howsoever he cannot away with the name of Idols and Idolatry yet he liketh the thing it self so well that he undertaketh to clear Aaron from committing any error in setting up the golden Calf and laboureth to purge Laban and Micha and Jeroboam too from the imputation of idolatry having found indeed that nothing had been done by them in this kind which is not agreeable to the practice of the Roman Church at this day And lest the poor people whom they have so miserably abused should find how far they have been misled we see that the masters of that Church do in the Service books and Catechisms which come unto the hands of the vulgar generally leave out the words of the second Commandment that make against the adoration of images fearing lest by the light thereof the mistery of their iniquity should be discovered They pretend indeed that this Commandment is not excluded by them but included only in the first whereas in truth they do but craftily conceal it from the peoples eyes because they would not have them to be ruled by it Nay Vasquez the Jesuit doth boldly acknowledge that it plainly appeareth by comparing the words of this Commandment with the place which hath been alledged out of Deut. 4. that the Scripture did not only forbid the worshipping of an image for God but also the adoration of the true God himself in an image He confesseth further that he and his fellow Catholicks do otherwise What saith he then to the commandment think you Because it will not be obey'd it must be repeal'd and not admitted to have any place among the moral precepts of God. It was saith he a positive and ceremonial Law and therefore ought to cease in the time of the Gospel And as if it had not been enough for him to match the Scribes and Pharisces in impiety who made the Commandments of God of none effect that they might keep their own traditions that he might fulfil the measure of his fathers and shew himself to be a true child of her who beareth the name of being the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth Rev. 17 5. he is yet more mad and sticketh not to maintain that not only a painted Image but any other thing of the world whether it be without life and reason or whether it be a reasonable creature may in the nature of the thing and if the matter be discreetly handled be adored with God as his image yea and counteth it no absurdity at all that a very wisp of straw should be thus worshipped But let us turn yet again and we shall see greater abominations than these Ezek. 8. 15. We heard how this blessed Sacrament which is here propounded by the Apostle as a bond to unite Christians together in one body hath been made the Apple of strife and the occasion of most bitter breaches in the Church we may now observe again that the same holy Sacrament which by the same Apostle is here brought in as a principal inducement to make men flee from Idolatry is by our Adversaries made the object of the grossest Idolatry that ever hath been practised by any For their constant doctrine is that in worshipping the Sacrament they should give unto it âatriae culâum qui vero Deo debetur as the Councel of Trert hath determined ' that kind of service which is due to the true God determining their worship in that very thing which the Priest doth hold betwixt his hands Their practice also runs accordingly for an instance whereof we need go no further than to Sanders book of the Lords Supper before which he hath prefixed an Epistle Dedicatory superscribed in this manner To the Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ under the forms of Bread and Wine all honour praise and thinks be given for ever Adding further in the process of that blockish Epistle Howsoever it be with other men I adore thee my God and Lord really present under the forms of Bread and Wine after consecration duly made Beseeching thee of pardon for my sins c. Now if the conceit which these men have concerning the Sacrament should prove to be false as indeed we know it to be most absurd and monstruous their own Jesuit Cosler doth freely confess that they should be in such an error and Idolatry qualis in orbe terratum nunquam vel visus vel auditus fuit as never was seen or heard in this world For the error of them is more tolerable saith he who worship for God a Statue of gold or silver or an Image of any other matter as the Gentiles adored their Gods or a red cloth lifted up upon a spear as it is reported of the Lappians or living Creatures as did sometime the Egyptians than of those that worship a piece of bread We therefore who are verily perswaded that the Papists do thus must of force if we follow their Jesuits direction judge them to be the most intolerable idolaters that ever were Nay according to their own principles how is it possible that any of themselves should certainly know that the Host which they worship should be any other thing but bread seeing the change doth wholly depend upon consecration duly made as Sanders speaketh and that rependeth upon the intention of the Priest which no man but himself can have notice of Bellarmin disputing against Ambrosius Catharinus one of his own brethren that a man hath no certain knowledge of his own justification can take advantage of this and alledge for himself that one cannot be certain by the certainty of faith that he doth recive a true Sacrament for as much as the Sacrament cannot be made without the intention of the Minister and none can see another mans intention Apply this now to the matter we have in hand and see into what intricate Labyrinths these men have brought themselves Admit the Priests intention stood right at the
Angel of the Lord curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to help the Lord to help the Lord against the mighty Judg. 5. 23. Not as if the Lord did stand in need of our help or were not able without our assistance to maintain his own cause but that hereby he would make trial of our readiness to do him service and prove the sincerity of our love If we hold our peace and sit still at this time deliverance shall arise to Gods Church from another place Esther 4. 14. but let us look that the destruction do not light upon us and ours I need not make any application of that which I have spoken the face of Christendom so miserably rent and torn as it is at this day cannot but present it self as a ruful spectacle unto all our eyes and if there be any bowels in us stir up compassion in our hearts Neither need I to be earnest in exciting you to put your helping hands to the making up of these breaches your forwardness herein hath prevented me and instead of petitioning for which I had prepared my self hath ministred unto me matter of thanksgiving A good work is at all times commendable but the doing of it in fit time addeth much to the lustre thereof and maketh it yet more goodly The season of the year is approaching wherein Kings go forth to battel 2 Sam. 11. 1. the present supply and offer of your Subsidy was done in a time most seasonable being so much also the more acceptable as it was granted not grudgingly or of necessity but frâely and with ãâ¦ã mind God ãâ¦ã giver and he is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work 2 Cor. 9. 7 8. And thus being by your goodness so happily abridged of that which I intended further to have urged from the conjunction which we have with the Body I pass now unto the second part of the Communion of Saints which consisteth in the union which we all have with one Head. For Christ our Head is the main foundation of this heavenly union Out of him there is nothing but confusion without him we are nothing but disordered heaps of rubbish but in him all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord and in him are we builded together an habitation of God through the Spirit Ephes. 2. 21 22. Of our selves we are but lost sheep scattered and wandring upon every Mountain From him it is that there is one fold and one shepheard Joh. 10. 16 God having purposed in himself to gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him Ephes. 1. 10. This is the effect of our Saviours prayer Joh. 17. 21. That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us c. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one And this is it which we find so oft repeated by St. Paul We being many are one body in Christ Rom. 12. 5 Ye are all one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3. 28. And in the Text we have in hand We being many are one bread and one body Why because We are all partakers of that one bread namely of that bread whereof he had said in the words immediately going before The bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10. 16. Under the name of Bread therefore here is comprehended both Panis Domini and Panis Dominus not only the bread of the Lord but also the Lord himself who is that living Bread which came down from heaven Joh. 6. 51. For as St. Peter saying that Baptism doth save us 1 Pet. 3. 21. understandeth thereby both the outward part of that Sacrament for he expressly calleth it a figure and more than that too as appeareth by the explication presently adjoyned not the putting away of the filth of the flesh even the inward purging of our consciences by vertue of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ So St. Paul here making the reason of our union to be our partaking of all this one bread hath not so much respect unto the external bread in the Sacrament through he exclude not that neither as unto the true and heavenly Bread figured thereby whereof the Lord himself pronounceth in John 6. 32. 51. The bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world and to shew that by partaking of this bread that wonderful union we speak of is effected He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him Joh. 6. 56. It is a lamentable thing to behold how this holy Sacrament which was ordained by Christ to be a bond whereby we should be knit together in unity is by Satans malice and the corruption of mans disposition so strangely perverted the contrary way that it is made the principal occasion of that woful distraction which we see amongst Christians at this day and the very fuel of endless strifes and implacable contentions And forasmuch as these mischiefs have proceeded from the inconsiderate confounding of those things which in their own nature are as different as may be for the clearer distinguishing of matters we are in the first place to consider that a Sacrament taken it its full extent comprehendeth two things in it that which is outward and visible which the Schools call properly Sacramentum in a more strict acception of the word and that which is inward and invisible which they term rem Sacramenti the principal thing exhibited in the Sacrament Thus in the Lords Supper the outward thing which we see with our eyes is bread and wine the inward thing which we apprehend by faith is the body and blood of Christ in the outward part of this mystical action which reacheth to that which is Sacramentum only we receive this body and blood but sacramentally in the inward which containeth rem the thing it self in it we receive them really and consequently the presence of these in the one is relative and symbolical in the other real and substantial To begin then with that which is symbolical and relative we may observe out of the Scripture which saith that Abraham received the sign of Circumcision a seal of the righteousness of the saith which he had being uncircumcised that Sacraments have a two-fold relation to the things whereof they be Sacraments the one of a sign the other of a seal Signs we know are relatively united unto the things which they do signify and in this respect are so nearly conjoyned together that the name of the one is usually communicated unto the other This cup is the new Testament or the new Covenant saith our Saviour in the institution of the holy Supper Luke 22. 20.