wine but substantially flesh and blood besides innumerable monstrous and most absurd Consequences and Contradictions which follow that Opinion which all do infinitely perplex and torture the minds of Christians If the Opinion were granted and all these absurdities swallowed by a wide and enormous Faith yet were there no advantage of Efficacy or Comfort gained to the Receiver by a gross and Carnal Eating and Drinking the body and blood of Christ. III. If those which Crucified him had done so or they who then believed in him when he was slain yet would they not any way have furthered their souls good and life which can no more be fed with carnal and sensible Objects than the body with light and truth which are of a Spiritual nature nor doth this first violent act of faith which they require of a Receiver in believing the essential change of the Bread and Wine into the body and Blood of Christ make a worthy Receiver except his Soul by a further act of Faith apply the virtue and merits of Christ's Death and Passion which is done effectually without the thought of Transubstantiation by that Faith which we say is necessary for a worthy Receiver which doth as clearly perceive and as really receive its proper Objects the Truth and Merits of Christ's Death and Sufferings to which no distance of place or time can be any impediment as the Sence doth its sensible Objects which requires a fit time and distance for perception IV. As for the Sacramental words given in the name of the Body and Blood of Christ to the consecrated Bread and Wine I believe them to be most true in the sense and meaning of our Saviour which sense I do not only guess at or implicitely believe but easily and plainly gather and understand by the like expressions both of our Saviour himself and the stile and phrase of the whole Scripture which never make such substantial predications of one thing to be another by way of transmutation of one into the other but by allusion relation similitude proportion designation of use and Sacramental Union or application no more than the Paschal Lamb which was a Type and Sacrament of Christ and his Sufferings was the very substance of Christ or that Rock on which St. Paul affirms it was Christ or that Christ is to be thought a natural door way vine light c. all which he affirms to be himself by a like manner of speech or more nearer the Cup to be the New Testament c. So that Reason Religion and the Rule of Faith the Holy Scriptures teach Christians to give commodam interpretationem a fit and agreeable interpretation V. Nor can we have a truer interpreter of Christ's meaning than himself who tells us that the Flesh profiteth nothing that is in that carnal and gross acceptation but his words are spiritual and must have a spiritual sense which is suitable to the Nature and Capacity of the Soul the dignity of Chiristan Religion and the sacred Mystery the Propriety of the object of Faith and the stile and tenour of God's Word which never enjoyns us any carnal thing horrible or inhumane For though the Letter may sound so yet the Figure in the words doth relieve our Faith and accommodate a fit and true meaning to such words and expressions nothing being more usual than for the Spirit of God to set forth Spiritual things and duties by corporal notions VI. So that as the Bread and Wine by their natural qualities and vertues are fit to represent the spiritual efficacy of the Body and Blood of Christ yet by a natural power are no whit able to impart to a Communicant the Body and Blood of Christ with the benefits of them to the Soul so that our blessed Saviour hath made choice of them for the First and hath given to them a Sacramental Virtue and a supernatural efficacy for the Second which they truly do as Remembrancers as Signs and Seals really conveying to the believing and prepared Soul by the concurrent Spirit and Power of the Institutor Jesus Christ that which in their nature they do fitly represent VII Which is all that I conceive I need beleive of or expect from this Sacrament which is appointed only to strengthen and confirm that Faith in us by which we believe in Christ crucified for Life and Salvation which Faith grounded on the Word and wrought by the Spirit is first confirmed and sealed by Baptism and may be true and sufficient to save a Christian who never lives to come to the Supper of the Lord nor hath any thought or use of Transubstantiation in this no more than of the substantial change of the Water in Baptism into the Blood of Christ which was never yet dreamed of yet our Saviour tells us Joh. the 6th Except a man eat his Flesh and drink his Blood he cannot have Eternal Life which many have who never eat of the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper yet dye believers and by Faith have eaten and drank the Body and Blood of Christ spiritually yet really without which they could not be saved VIII Neither to secure children of Salvation in case they dye before years of discretion need we resume the antient but erroneous practice of the Church now long since abolished by all sides viz. to put the Eucharistical Bread and Wine into the mouths of Infants which Error sprang from the gross and corporeal interpretation of our Saviour's words not considering that every Believer either in the internal disposition which is secretly wrought by the Spirits sanctifying Power in Baptism according to the capacity of the Subject or in the real exercise and actuating of his Faith which comes by Hearing in his riper years must necessarily and doth effectually and really Eat and Drink the Body and Blood of Christ to Salvation though they never come to receive in the Holy Supper so that it is but one Christ his Body and Blood the same Crucified Saviour which is received in both Sacraments and but one Faith for the kind that layes hold and feeds on Christ in them all only it receives degrees and addition of strength in this of the Supper the Word beginning the Life of Faith and by it the Believer into Christ the other maintaining and encreasing it to a further strength and assurance IX We deny not a true and real presence and perception of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament which reality even they of the other gross Opinion do not imagine is to Sence but to Faith which perceives its Objects as really according to the manner of Faiths perception as the senses do theirs after their manner I believe therefore that in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are both objects presented to and received by a Worthy Receiver first the Bread and Wine in their own nature and substances distinct do remain as well as their accidents which are the true objects of our sence and fit signs to represent
which are proportionable may be used so that no Nation or man may think himself excluded from the use and comfort of this Sacrament of the Lords Super. II. For their necessity such as no man in an ordinary way of living can dispence with the want of them and live long healthfully implying that Food is not more necessary for sustaining this present life and strength of the body than the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is for the supporting the life and well-being of the soul to all eternity III. For their plainness and simplicity it is such as may take off Christians minds from placing Piety and the Mysteries of Grace and Religion in any external pomp and vanity which doth but dazle the eyes and amaze the senses and detain vulgar and common minds by the outward glory of the senses Objects from that inward retiring of the Spirit and Soul to its proper and comfortable Objects which are Spiritual Invisible and Intellectual and far remote from the Senses and abstracted from them So that Christians cannot easily be so grossly and stupidly sensual as to imagine any efficacy in these small and simple elements of themselves no more than in Wax or Parchment which not of their proper virtue but only of the will of the conveigher have power to convey an estate to the Receiver of them IV. For their proportionable suitableness and familiar correspondency of Virtues and Efficiency first the bread and wine being apt to nourish the body by common ordination of Providence the body and blood of Christ fit to nourish the soul by special ordination of Grace Secondly the bread and wine at a distance will not feed us but must be personally applyed by taking eating drinking and digesting The body and blood of Christ looked on only by knowledg and Historical speculation will not profit the soul except by a lively Faith which is the hand mouth and stomach of the soul it accepts and takes hold on Christ and applies his merits to it self for Salvation V. The Bread after it passeth much violence of the Mill hand and fire is made wholesome for Food and the Wine after it hath endured the torture of the Press is prepared for drink the body and blood of Christ not whole entire and unsufferable but Crucified and Broken in his Passion when he did undergo the burthen of the sins of the world and was under the pressure of the Justice of God and Sacrificed for the redemption of mankind under this consideration is received by the believing Soul for its life and comfort looking on all these sufferings of Christ not as his own demerits whose innocency was without spot or blemish but as the satisfaction of the Justice and appeasing the wrath of God for the sins of them that shall believe in his name which work of reconciling Heaven and Earth God and Man as Christ willingly undertook so he fully performed and is fully performed and is by God accepted in full discharge whose mercy to man designed his only Son for this great End VI. For the facility of the performance both in respect of cost and labour the Indulgence of Christ seeking to render Christian services to God and the Offices of the Gospel as easy and as cheap as might be that neither the cost nor the pains might deter any from the frequent partaking of these Mysteries the comforts of which are the free gift of God and cost us nothing but acceptance for the evidence and perceptibleness of them falling under the perception of four several fenses by whose joyâ—t testimony of their proper Objects our minds and reason naturally gains the certainty and infallibility of natural truths whose Testimonies now by Christs institution are raised higher to give evidence and witness to Faith of the truth and certainty of its Objects VII The Body and Blood of Christ broken and shed in his death and sufferings which by these sensible signs are clearly represented and the merits and efficacy of his death as truly perceived and as really conveighed by faith to the soul and person of a Believer for life and happiness as the nutritive power and virtue of the Bread and Wine is perceived approved and applyed by the Senses to the Body that as by one sense of Hearing faith is begun so by the other four Senses in this Sacrament it might daily be encreased and strengthned there being not a greater Physical certainty given into our common Sense and Reason by our senses of the Truth of the bread and wine which the body receives then there is a Theological and Sacramental certainty given into Faith depending upon the Authority truth and power of the Institutor of a real and most effectual perception of the body and blood of Christ for the nourishment of our souls and bodies to eternal life that as our souls are here helped by the senses of the Body and its food in the way of a natural and momentary life so the body may at last be saved by the souls perception of its Spiritual Food to Glory and Immortal life Fourthly The Mystical Vnion by which they effectually attain and convey to us that end and benefit which is propounded I. For the Sacramental Union of the outward signs which are the proper Objects of our senses to the body and blood of Christ which are the proper Objects of our Faith this I conceive to be not by any Physical or natural Union as the Fruit to the Tree or the effect to its proportionate Cause nor yet by any Miraculous working of Omnipotency in changing the substance of these Elements into the substance of Christ's Body and Blood which makes the Judgment of Faith contradict the Judgment of the Senses which the will of God hath appointed by the Law of Nature to give a true Testimony of their proper Objects rightly dispos'd and withal do witness these to be indeed true bread and wine and the same for Substance after Consecration as they were before though wonderfully different from their use neither is faith ever commanded by any Divine will to deny or contradict the truth of Senses for the substance and nature of things Though it raiseth us far above them and bids us look infinite beyond them in a Divine and Supernatural relation and use annexed to them II. Nor may Omnipotency the common retreat and subterfuge be so far extended by Human fancy and imagination to maintain them as to imply a necessary contradiction in the Will of God about one and the same subject which Will is but one and regular setting bounds to Omnipotency agreeable to it self which cannot be avoided here if we say that God's Will is in the way of nature that the Senses judge truly of their Objects which They do here and tell us jointly that they are bread and wine and yet his Will is at the same and about the same thing that Faith should contradict the Senses Testimonny and believe truly that they are not bread and
by them the inward Grace X. Also there are the spiritual invisible and credible yet most true and really present objects of Faith the Body and Blood of Christ that is Christ Jesus himself whom by Faith I consider as suffering for my sins and cast my Soul by the Mercy offered me by the merits of his Death these two materials of the Sacrament are so united that it may truly be said not in a Gross and Physical but Divine and Sacramental sence the Bread and Wine are the Body and Blood of Christ and Christ's Body and Blood are Bread and Wine Joh. 6. Meat indeed and Drink indeed not by transmutation of Nature but by a similitude of vertues and proportionableness of effects by a Sacramental Union and Relation depending upon the Truth Authority and Divine Power of the Institutor Jesus Christ XI Whose appointment of these Elements to such an use or end and uniting them in this near Relation to his Body and Blood by the solemn Consecration of them makes up the firm and true Being of a Sacrament Which requires a Truth and Reality both of the signs and symbols and that which is by them represented and signified also a Truth and Certainty of relation and connexion one with another so that I receive not only Panem Domini the Bread of the Lord but also Panem Dominum my Lord Jesus Christ the true Bread of Life Eternal to my Soul and Body this latter as truly and really as the former together with all the benefits which flow from Christ XII On the other side whoso unpreparedly and irreverently and so un vorthily receives the one contracts a guilt of Damnation for neglect indignity and irreverence offered to the other that is the Body and Blood of Christ which Faith only discerns and receives in this great Mystery and whoso violates and contemns the Seal and authentick Letters of the King becomes guilty of indignity and offence to the Authority and Majesty which is not only restrained to his Person but also in separably anexed to any sign or token by which he is pleased to manifest his Royal Will and pleasure thus rightly informed as I hope in the nature of this Sacrament what it is in it self what it may be to me of how Divine a Mystery and dignity it is in it self to my Soul either of Comsort and Salvation in a worthy receiving or of Guilt and Damnation in an unworthy receiving of it Fifthly How we ought to propare our selves I. Which is by laying my hand upon my heart and feeling how the pulse of my Soul beats whether doth it move as quick now I am thinking of my Maker as it doth when my thoughts are upon the World that which God and my Conscience requires of me is that I consider my self the state and condition of my Soul for what is past of my will and affections for the present of my purpose and intentions for the future to all which it is necessary that I have a regard and by a self-examining see what fitness there is in me answerable to these holy mysteries and the Grace of God by these offered to me and most effectually conveyed except the unpreparedness and indisposition of my heart do frustrate and put an obstacle II. In the contemplation of my self I may not nor can avoid the sight of that which makes me unworthy of God and my self that is my sin and that evil both of my inclinations to which I am conscious I know by long and miserable Experience that in me dwelleth no Good of my self but a Proness to sin at the best oftentimes a violence and power of sin which makes me not only passive as in Temptations but active in the will to do and delight in sin this my Conscience witnesseth with so much truth in so many unhappy instances and with so many just aggravations that nothing appears to me more numerous more unreasonable more to be abhorred than my sins nor more miserable than my self III. I know by an inward and undeniable Dictate that since I have my Being from and dependance upon a higher and better Being than my self it is most just I should be at his Will and disposing whose power is not greater above me than his goodness is abundant towards me and his wisdom perfect in giving laws to me for the ordering my Being according to his Will and Word the perfect rule of holiness and the only and certain way to happiness that nothing can be more injurious injust ingrateful than for a Creature to offend against the will of its Creator who as he is the highest and happiest Good so on the contrary sin in me must needs be the lowest Evil and sink me to the deepest Misery by setting me at an Eternal distance from the Love and Favour of God which is Life it self as an object of his hatred and Eternal displeasure IV. So that when I look upon the deformity of my heart and life comparing them with the Beauty of Reason and Religion wherein the Image of God infinitly appears in Holiness and goodness I have cause to admire that infinite Patience which hath so long witheld the hands of Justice from punishing and damning a Creature doing and deserving so much and to deplore my own depraved and damnable Estate over whom sin so far prevaileth and exerciseth its Tyranny that neither my thoughts words nor actions natural civil nor religious do escape the brand or blemish of it so that it is not only ignorance forgetfulness or suddenness that gives sin advantage against me in many Vanities Passions and Omissions but a Predominancy and high Hand wherewith oftentimes I am led away Captive to sin with such violence that neither the force of Reason nor better Resolutions and Purposes are sufficient to rescue my Soul from the Speculation and Practice of that which should not be thought much less done with the least delight and pleasure since it is displeasing to God V. So that I see not only a habitude and propensity to any sin which is often restrained through want of matter or occasion to make it flame into action but an Empire and rule of some whose power excites by innate disposition and comfirm'd by custom seems to have made an utter conquest of me and does compel me against all my Knowledge Prayers and Vows to exchange my Souls happiness in the Love of God and Christ in Heaven for a moment of earthly content for a sensual imaginary pleasure which when the dream of this Life is past and vanish'd and by that immutable Law of mortality I am compell'd to leave the World and all things in it will betray me to endless and irrecoverable misery In the mean time it estranges my heart from that care intention and delight which I ought to have in holy duties and conversation with God and his Holy Spirit It robs and deprives my Soul of all that joy peace hope and assiance I might have in the service love