danger there being so little occasion or appearance of Fear at the Time left Things so as that the following Times deprav'd their Innocent Glory of Learning and sublime Ingeny dyed deep with Love of Christ 3. Through the many Devastations of the Christian Empire by the Barbarous Nations by the Saracens and Turks in a long Tract of Time through the daily Decay of Christian Knowledge Zeal and Holiness there ensued a great Darkness Ignorance Barbarism upon the Christian World in which Men of the best Note seiz'd upon such Expressions of Scripture and the Fathers whose Sepulchres they built and garnished their Tombs all manner of ways I add no more and it may be as it seem'd to them most to make for the Honour of Christian Religion But their Understanding being heavy course sinking into the thick and impure matter bearing also a deep Grain of Paganism they grievously err'd neither knowing the Scriptures the true Sense of the Fathers nor of the Power of God And hereunto they proportion'd all their Notions of the Christian Religion their Worship of God and Christ and most miserably especially They stuck in the mirey Clay as to this great Mystery of the Lord's Supper and the Doctrine of Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of Christ out of which it was drawn and degraded the most losty Spirituality of the Gospel into the poorest and even vilest of carnal Apprehensions concerning it in the Doctrine of a Carnal fleshly Transubstantiation 4. At the same Times and by the same Degrees grew up a Despotick Arbitrary Church power that imposed what it pleas'd under Anathemaes Curses Excommunications Brands of Heresie and all Cruelty upon the Bodies Names Estates of those who even to Syllables did not Say as they Said and do as they did while at the same Time also there Invaded Persons of as honest and sincere a Devotion as Ignorance could produce a Veneration for the Name of the Catholick Church and the Governours of it and their Canons Now the Impress the Stamp of this Authority being set so particularly and Imperially upon this Doctrine of Transubstantiation it is no wonder it prevail'd so far and sunk so deep into the Minds of Men through what every Age from those Worthies before-nam'd contributed both to the Grossness and Authoritativeness of this false Article of Faith I forbear because I would be as inoffensive as may be consistent with Truth to remark upon that Apostacy that Mystery of Iniquity which the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour foretold were even then beginning and to rise higher and higher in the Latter Times to which even many Things innocent and inoffensive in themselves at first and indeed all Contingencies fathally concurr'd and which it is most certain are not yet remov'd Nor do I think fit at this Time to Animadvert upon the Covetous Practices Cruelties and Inhumanities into which Transubstantiation hath been Transubstantiated not only in the true real sense of spiritual Wickedness but in a sense as corporeal as Corporeity it self I hasten therefore to the fifth Head viz. To represent to you the Danger of such a Doctrine as that Fleshly Transubstantiation not so much as it is a contemplative Thing a Notion a manner of Apprehension or matter of Discourse though that also but as it carries the Practice of Worship and Adoration Now in these Great Points we may very plainly and convincingly understand the great Danger of that Transubstantiation 1. The believing it must needs shake the Credit of all the knowing and judging Faculties of our Natures and Beings than which nothing can be more destructive to Religion or put all Things into greater Disorder and Confusion that concern God our Selves or our Motions in relation to another World For if our Faculties are not true we have nothing to guide our selves or to be guided by Now the Faculties of our Minds first judge and act by Sense then by Reason then by the Notices or Sentiments of Natural Conscience then by Faith and these must be all sound in due state They have all their proper Objects they are all finite and by these Rules they are limited they must not go out of their Limits It is true these are each as so many Stories one above another and the lower must not presume into the Region of the higher for then they will be mistaken and in Error yet the highest is supported and sustained by the lower And seeing they all are from God whatever is true in the lowest cannot be contradicted in the highest and therefore whatever is pretended in the highest cannot be true there if it be justly denied in the lowest Now it were easie to shew this Notion of Carnal Transubstantiation must be false in all the judgment of our Faculties but I shall only instance in Sense And if the Bread be Bread in the Judgment of every one of our Senses of the Senses of all Men in all Places at all Times and in all Ages under the most advantageous Circumstances for sense to judge by the contrary can never be true in Reason in natural Conscience nor in Faith for then either there must be no such Faculty as Sense or that fundamental Faculty of the Souls Judgment by Sense must be false and so all our Faculties will lose their Credit for they may be false too seeing he that gave us one gave us all of them and this of Sense is that we most live and act by in this World If any attempt to parallel this with the Doctrine of the Father the Word and the Spirit being ONE to which Reason say they can never subscribe the Case is manifestly different seeing it is certain our Faculties are finite and cannot judge of Infinity but by Faith in divine Revelation Infinite Being is too High too Deep too Broad too Long for Job 11. 7 8 9. a Finite Reason to judge of It is not its proper Object But Colour Taste Figure Hard Soft Sound may be all judg'd by Sense and properly are so to be judg'd Or if any should make the same Objection against that Spiritual Transubstantiation we have made out by Scripture 't is certain It is only cognisable and to be judg'd of by Faith and Revelation Sense hath no Title to judge of it If it be maintain'd by Faith it is maintain'd in its proper Court But it is certain The Judgment whether this Bread be Bread or Wine be Wine is to be made by some one or more of the Senses at least in the Universality of all the Senses of all Persons Times Places Let any one then lay that place 1 Epist John c. 1. v. 1. That which we have heard that which our Eyes have seen which we have looked upon and our Hands have handled c. to the being born down That in these Senses and all others we are mistaken in judging Bread to be Bread when it is no Bread and Wine when it is no Wine Must not all the Argument the Evidence
appears in every one it had its distinct particular Blessing even as the Bread that it hath some peculiar marks as the particular Command Divide it among your selves Drink all of it do this very particular thing as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me that the matter of Fact concerning it is peculiarly recited viz. They All drank of it that the Apostle calls it the Cup of Blessing All this speaks two things That the Cup is as essential a part of the Institution as the Bread of as high Necessity and Dignity and the Precept of one as extensive as the other and of the Two the most particularly remark'd in its Extensiveness 3. That it is worthy to explain the sense of those words This is my Body and the meaning of the Institution upon what occasion or account soever it shall be so urg'd seeing as the Doctrine of the Blood shed of Christ hath the Equality and rather the Preference to the Body if there could be any odds throughout the New Testament as being the last and completory Act of Christ's sacrificing himself and is therefore so expresly nam'd in that Tri-unity of Testimonies on Earth The Spirit the Water the BLOOD 1 John 5. 8. 4. When therefore we find two sacred Pen-men of this Institution write This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament and two other of which one by immediate Revelation This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood we thus collect It cannot be indeed so probable Christ said both if he did what I urge will be the stronger but I allow he said only one and that it was This is my Blood yet is this explanatory Alteration most Authentick and Divine so that there shall be as full a sense of the Blood offered to us in the Sacrament as of the Body by those Words This Cup is my Blood c. and yet the Explication of them shall limit that Presence to such a one as will bear those Words It is the New Testament in my Blood omitting the Figure of this Cup for the Wine in the Cup which yet shews Christ did not abhor from Figure in this Institution and so shews a mystical sense and seeing the Wine in the Lord's Supper is equal to the Bread even as the Blood in the Doctrine of the New Testament to the Body of Christ it shall have power to limit the sense of those Words This is my Body to such a Mysticalness as agrees to the Wine being the New Testament in Christ's Blood And when the Apostle explains both by the Communion of the Body and of the Blood of Christ it limits the sense so that the Bread is not the Body nor the Cup the Blood in any other sense than the Communion of each is so as shall be farther argued For these Words explain by divine Authority This is my Body this is my Blood into such a sense that it may be true This Bread is the Communion of the Body of Christ this Cup the Communion of his Blood 5. When the Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke all record the Saying of Christ I will no more drink of the Fruit of the Vine the Evangelist Matthew emphatically of this Fruit and the Evangelist Luke prefixes of the Passover and anti-dates part of the Institution of the Cup that he might joyn the like important Saying of our Saviour concerning the Fruit of the Vine That he will not eat any more of the Passover nor drink of the Fruit of the Vine till the Passover Which by the Evangelist Matthew must be This Fruit. be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God and till he drink of the Fruit of the Vine a new in the Kingdom of God his Father when it shall come and the Apostle says We shew forth the Lord's Death till he come From hence it may be argued That there was another manner of Presence of Christ to be expected than was just then at the eating and drinking with his Disciples and that such a one was to be expected in the Kingdom of God his Father so that he would no more eat nor drink with them either in the same manner of bodily Presence nor in the way of Anticipation or of eating that Passover and that Fruit of the Vine which at the time of this first Institution was not yet sacrificed nor the Blood yet offer'd but in such a manner as would agree to the fulfilling of all the renewing of all in the Kingdom of God and his Father when that should come after that Passover sacrific'd and that Blood offer'd of which we shall after enquire for this I esteem of great moment in this Discourse Lastly When we find the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 17. making that Question The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ and subjoyning in the very same Contexture in the same Ayr and manner of Expression We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread must we not needs infer the sense in both This is my Body and We are all one Bread and one Body must be alike one mystical Sense for seeing common sense teaches us All Christians cannot be one Bread and one Body but in a mystical sense no more can the Bread be Christ's Body but in such a mystical sense and the very Letter can no more oblige us in the one than in the other All which is much enforc'd by the Consideration The Notions of eating the Flesh of Christ and of drinking his Blood were given before the Lord's Supper instituted and though I doubt not Christ design'd it as a Foundation of that Supper as I said before yet it had been a true Doctrine if that Supper had not been instituted as a Representation of it because Christ as a Sacrifice gave himself for the Life of the World and offer'd himself to the Faith and Participation of his believing Servants as it were to be Eaten and Drunk by them had not the Lord's Supper been appointed Thus far I have endeavoured to prepare the way for this Discourse by laying a Foundation upon this Harmonical Context for it and indeed I desire in prosecuting it to use little more than Scripture Notions and Words and if I can be so happy by the Assistance of God to express the things as plain to you as I apprehend it in my own Mind I doubt not to give you a satisfactory Account of these Words This is my Body and also of the sense of this great Ordinance of the Lord's Supper In doing this I propose this Method 1. I shall endeavour to give a clear Resolution How Christ may be said to give us his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink for that was the great Stumble that those who heard Christ upon this Point John 6. made 2. I shall from thence endeavour to shew you That there is a clear Passage and Transition from that giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood
his Intercession is now in Body though a Body of Glory Now from hence you may perceive what I drive at viz. That there was great Reason that Christ should say This is my Body This is my Blood because the Body of Christ the Flesh and Blood of Christ was that which was visibly and sensibly active and was to be so throughout the whole Work of our Redemption for Forasmuch as the Children Heb. 2. 14 17. were Partakers of Flesh and Blood he himself took part of the same that c. And it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren The holy Humane Soul and Spirit of Christ was the principal Agent the Body Flesh and Blood of Christ was the Theatre upon which All was made publick the Tube and Channel through which All is convey'd therefore the whole Humane Nature is express'd by Flesh and Blood the Representation of it and the Communication of it is so given in the Doctrine and therefore so in the Lord's Supper The Body Flesh and Blood of Christ and all his Action Point 2 and Suffering in it were as so many Preparations that he may be spiritually eaten applied to and communicated with by the Souls of Believers of which his Death is the most comprehensive and principal as that in which center not only his Incarnation Circumcision Baptism Holy Life Prayers in the Days of his Flesh but even his Resurrection Ascension Intercession at the Right-hand of God and therefore as the Doctrine of the Communion of his Body styles his John 6. 51. Death the giving his Flesh for the Life of the World so the Sacrament of it in the Lord's Supper calls it his Body given for us and the Remembrance of his Death and the whole Application by Faith is call'd Eating in both And proportionably in sense Christ was sent in the Likeness Rom. 8. 3. of sinful Flesh that he might condemn Sin in the Flesh that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us We put off the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ we Col. 2. 11. are buried in his Baptism we rise in his Resurrection and Rom. 6. 4. know the Power of it Phil. 3. 10. We sit in Heavenly Places in him He makes Intercession for us and so saves to the uttermost Heb. 7. 25. And his Death is in all Senses communicated to us All which are in other Words the very same thing with giving us his Flesh te eat and his Blood to drink The humane Nature of Christ call'd his Body his Flesh Point 3 and his Blood and all his Actions and Sufferings in it were so many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Nature Power Efficacy and Virtue of Jesus Christ filling them with infinite saving Virtue and Effect in their Communication to the Senses of Believers in Jesus Christ For in all the Action and Sufferings of Christ the Son of God was immediately Active the Divine Power and Spirit was always present and Active in all as a supreme Spirit and Soul The Incarnation of Christ was a sensible fleshly and bodily Thing But there was a Manifestation of Divinity in it The Power of the most High over-shadowed the Virgin and Rom. 8. 2. Christ was Conceiv'd as we daily Profess by the Holy Ghost The Law of the Spirit of Life purified the Humane Nature of Christ to the highest Elevation of Purity The Circumcision of Christ was a Divine Circumcision made without Col. 2. 11. Hands by the immediate Action of the Divine Spirit for if ours were so much more His the original of it The Baptism of Christ was full of a Divine Presence The Spirit rested like a Dove upon Him This is my beloved Son c. Matt. 3. 18. Philip. 3. 9. His Obedience and Righteousness was the Righteousness of God In his Death he offer'd Himself by the Eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14. His Blood is called the Blood of God He Rose by the Spirit Acts 20. 28. of Holiness which Justified Him He is made higher than the Heavens in his Intercession And this is of supreme Consideration in all the Communications of Christ in all our Eating and Drinking his Flesh and his Blood as may be seen in that excellent Discourse John 6. to which the Lord's Supper is a parallel Representation As the Living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father v. 57. even so he that eateth me shall live by me For his Flesh eaten is the Conduit of divine Life It is the Spirit viz. the Divine Nature that quickneth The Flesh profiteth nothing v. 63. The Words that I speak unto you are Spirit and they are Life that is by the Vertue and Presence of the Divinity of which they were spoken for by Power he is declar'd to be Rom. 1. 4. the Son of God viz. by the Power of the Divinity He was 2 Cor. 13. 4. put to death through weakness but he liveth by the Power of 1 Pet. 3. 18. God He was put to death in the Flesh quickned by the Spirit If any Man therefore considers the Actions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh and does not consider the Divine Nature in them he does not consider that which our Saviour says Quickens He only considers that which our Saviour saith Profits nothing From hence therefore it is plainly first to be understood that it is most impossible Material or Bodily should by it self do any thing to that which is Spiritual Immaterial Intellectual as is the Soul of Man The Sun though so glorious a Body can do nothing to Man's Soul immediately and suppose the Body of Christ as much higher in Glory than any thing we know in Nature as the Sun excells a Turf of Earth yet this very glorious Body can do nothing to our Souls to our Spirits It can do nothing in these great Negotiations of Peace with God Purification of our Consciences Sanctification This is so acknowledg'd a thing that you know as many as know any thing of Transubstantiation as it is held in the Roman Persuasion That they themselves confess That if a Man Eat that very transubstantiated Body and Drink that very transubstantiated Blood of Christ though it is as they suppose the Body and Blood of Christ in the most fleshly sensible Presence we can imagine yet it does a wicked Man no good a Man who hath not Faith and Repentance And it is very true it must needs be so because it is a material thing and cannot act so as to act upon spiritual and immaterial Things on the other side it can do no hurt to these immaterial Beings But if it did operate after the manner of material Things upon material I cannot conceive how it should miss the best Effect seeing it is infinitely prepar'd to do good in that very Case of presupposed Evil of Sin but when it is spiritual and requires spiritual Preparation to receive it or else it
and putting them in their mind together with the Remission of their Sins So that as there needs no other offering than that one offering so needs it not to be daily offered for it was once for all offer'd and he is now at the Right-hand of God interceeding upon that one offering once offer'd by the Blood of which he entred into the Holiest to appear before God for us and from whence he cannot be mov'd till the Time he expects of his Enemies being made his Footstool Heb. 8. 6. compar'd with c. 9. 12. 24. c. 10. 13. c. 2. And thus I have made good the first Point of this Head viz. Of the spiritual Efficacies that flow from the Humane Nature of Christ express'd by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as in Union with the Son of God I come now to the second to shew that in regard of the Eternity of the Son of God these Efficacies cannot be hindered nor prejudic'd in Point of Time The Divine Person of Christ being unchangeable and eternal there 's no distance of Time occurs to him or can encounter his Divine Efficacy Before Abraham was saith Christ I am How could it be that Christ that was born so many hundred years after Abraham could be before Abraham were it not in regard of the Eternity of the Divine Person communicated to the Humanity and predating the Great Powers and Efficacies of God manifested in Flesh before the Incarnation Upon this Account Christ is call'd the Lamb slain before the Foundation of the World because the Divine Person anticipated the Efficacy of the Death of the Lamb ordain'd before the Foundation of the World much earlier than his Manifestation which was not till the last Times Christ was not abridg'd nor forestall'd in Time because he did not actually dye till about four thousand Years after the Fall of Man for the Divine Person Jesus Christ never had a Yesterday nor can have a To morrow but is always in a To day the same for ever In this very Point of Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of Christ when the Jews were so disgusted with the Doctrine Christ to ease their Thoughts proposes his Eternity to their Consideration and shews the mighty spiritualizing Power of the Divine Nature by it What saith he if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before though he was as Man the Son of not Fifty Years by many as the Jews observ'd to him yet he was in Heaven as the Son of God calling his Humanity that was not actually till his Incarnation as if it were And as it is thus in regard of Time past so in regard of Time to come he saith Lo I am with you to the End of the World 3. In respect to Place we shall find very great Expressions of the Divine Vbiquity and Omnipresence of the Son of God extending the Manhood to all Spiritual Effects without any Limitation or Confinement within Place though yet it be according to its natural Presence determin'd to Place even as the Incarnation it self was to the Fullness of Time Our Saviour discoursing with Nicodemus upon the Point of Regeneration John 3. 13. tells him No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man who is in Heaven Observe it Christ was in his Body upon Earth His being the Son of Man was that to which his Body was proper yet saith he The Son of Man that now discourses thee upon Earth This Son of Man is now in Heaven How could this be but only because no space does hinder or straiten the spiritual Efficacy of the Divinity or confine its Presence even as it is united to the Humanity By all this you may see Christ was in Heaven while he was upon Earth and he was in Heaven before he was Incarnate for He came down from Heaven and all this by the Unchangeableness and the Omnipresence of the Action of the Divinity united to the Humane Nature and then as to his being now upon Earth although the Heavens contain him Consider what the Apostle saith He ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill all things so that Christ by his Divine Power fills all things and the Church which is his Body in his Humane Nature on Earth is the Fullness of him who filleth All in All even he that was Raised up from the Dead is he that fills All in All. And the Church on Earth is his Fullness though Christ is in Heaven either receiving his Fullness or as he is pleas'd to account himself Full by his Union to it Upon these Accounts The Humane Nature of Christ as it is united to the Divinity though it self be Finite yet in the Extensive Power of the Divinity spiritually applying it to the Salvation of his Church hath the Nature of Infinite both as to Time and Place it is always it is every where filling All in All Yesterday to day the same for ever For if the Soul of Man can improve the Senses and Faculties of the Body in representing to it self in a Map Places at greatest Distances from the Body and the Mind can thereby in some sense convey it self thither while the Body remains in the same place If we can by Writing converse one with another at greatest distance How much more can the Divine Nature of the Son of God extend the Humane in the Spirituality of all its Use and Effects in an Infinite manner so that it can convey and dispose them unlimitedly as it pleases and this may well be call'd his Body and Blood in very real though mystical sense It remains yet as to the clearing this Point of Christ giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink to shew That as there is such a rich Communicativeness on the part of Christ giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink so there are Receiving Powers and Faculties of Man's Soul prepared and fitted by Grace that may be properly and truly said in a spiritual Sense to Eat and to Drink as Christ is said to Give Now unto this the Understanding Will Conscience Memory Imagination and Affection with the active and executive Powers of the whole Man are prepar'd even to receive spiritually the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ however at a bodily distance viz. by Understanding Faith close inward Application holy Affection obediential self-Resignation all which are this Intellectual spiritual Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ And to all this there is no Notion or Resemblance more significant or expressive than spiritual Transubstantiation as shall be more fully discours'd under the two following Heads And so having thus far discuss'd the first Head I go forward to the second to shew That there is a clear Passage and Transition from Christ giving his Flesh to eat as it stands thus in the whole Doctrine of the Gospel to those Words Take Eat this is my Body when he
not a Literal but Mystical Propriety the Lord 's Passover Exod. 12. 11. This Passover with Desire Christ desir'd to eat with his Disciples before he suffer'd as a very lively Table of his Redemptional Suffering so near but withal He declares He would no more Eat of it till it was fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God Immediately upon this whether out of an appendant Rite to the Passover or not is not now material He Institutes the Lord's Supper as it were proleptically and by way of Prophecy and yet Intuition and looking upon his Death just before him and draws in this new Table the Intention of it but whether it was to be celebrated any more there is no Explicite but that Implicite Preception In the Evangelist Luke Do it in Remembrance of me which carries an Intimation of a Continuation but it is observable It is applied only to the Bread importing the Body of Christ and it abates much from the rigour of a gross carnal Sense where it seems to press hardest For as to the Wine being materially the Blood of Christ that Figure This Cup for this Wine in the Cup and that variation is the New Testament in my Blood does beyond all Contradiction rebate the gross Literal Sense even as Remembrance does from This is my Body for Remembrance is of Absent and not Present This therefore was as before-hand to an after thing So Christ said of the Body which is broken although it was not yet actually broken and of the Blood which is shed although it was not then shed Immediately after the drinking of the Wine Christ subjoyn'd I will no more drink of This Fruit of the Vine till I drink it new in the Kingdom of God my Father when it comes which to shew a thing of weight and of the same Sense with eating the Passover no more till c. The Evangelist Luke is before-hand with the Institution of the Cup to joyn to that Saying of the Passover this of the Fruit of the Vine as is very visible And both these Expressions speak these three Things 1. That there was an eminent Kingdom of God the Father immediately to succeed at whose Right-hand Christ sits till the Time of his own peculiar Kingdom comes which is not till he puts down all Rule and Power and Authority and last of all abolishes Death and Hell out of God's Creation into the Lake it s own Place which is the Second Death or the Death of Death and then he resigns back the Kingdom The Kingdom of God and Christ are thus kept distinct and the Kingdom of the Father is in an especial manner the state of the Gospel after the Resurrection Ascension Sitting of Christ at his Right-hand and his continual Intercession even untill that Glorious Kingdom of Christ 2. That the Death of Jesus Christ imported in both the Passover and the Lord's Supper was to be renewed into a perpetual Life and Vertue immediately after his Death by those his Resurrection Ascension Session on God's Right-hand and Intercession which are the Gospel-Kingdom of the Father 3. That Christ in a spiritual sense continually eats the Passover as fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God drinks the Wine as new in the Kingdom of God and that with his Disciples of all Ages viz. in that perpetual Renovation of his Death in his Intercession and Application of the Benefits thereof to Believers according to the whole Tenor of the Gospel and particularly of the Lord's Supper and as in a Pro-gramma or afore-hand Portraicture of all this those excellent Discourses of at least John 15. c. 16. and that great Prayer a Pattern of the Intercession of Christ John 17. following shew And of this Intercession of Christ upon his own Death the Lord's Supper is in highest sense the Memorial for the Remembrance of Christ is not of a dead Christ but who lives for ever to make Intercession and so saves to the uttermost In consequence of all this especially the * A point most insisted upon by the Apostles Paul and John I had almost said solely by them Rom. 8. Epist to the Heb. frequently and solemnly c. 7. the Apostle John c. 15 c. 16. c. 17. especially Epist c. 2. 1 2. Intercession of Christ The Apostle Paul as a fourth Evangelist concerning this Institution is immediately commission'd by Christ from Heaven to promulge it to all Ages of Christians And therein he reveals it under a solemn new Title as it were new in the Kingdom of God The Lord's Supper He applies to it its great Scope and End both to the Bread and to the Wine Do it in solemn Memorial of Christ and his Action now in Heaven upon his Death which was here on Earth and farther in those Words You shew forth his Death till he comes that is the whole Contexture of his Death as his Body is eaten and his Blood drunk through the Efficacy and Application of his Intercession through which we offer the Sacrifice of Praise giving Thanks to his Name through him in this Eucharist or Feast of Thanksgiving of whose Altar we continually Eat even that of the Great Shepheard of the Sheep brought again from the Dead by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant as the Apostle hath most divinely woven these Things into a Neighbourhood Heb. 10. v. 10. v. 15. v. 20. And this Ordinance with this whole State of Things the Apostle hath dated till the Coming of Christ when a new State shall receive this into it self till which this Ordinance cannot be superannuated or out of Date for which his being receiv'd into Glory is postpond in the Mystery of Godliness that it may be a Pawn and Pledge of his Kingdom of Glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. on which the Apostasie follows darkning all till then c. 4. Laying then all these Things together how evident is it This whole Matter is of a divine spiritual heavenly Sense and therefore the Words concerning it are to be understood mystically spiritually heavenly however express'd in a Phrase and Language nearest most easie and familiar to Sense by which Sensibleness the Substantialness Reality certain Presence of those Spiritualities is to be understood and yet nothing to be detracted or derogated from the Spirituality and to interpret otherwise is to go contrary to the Rule of all Language and of Scripture-Language particularly and is as mischievous as the worst sort of Allegorizing or Evacuating the sense of the Letter of Scripture where plain historical Things are intended The one is turning Scripture into a spiritual Romance the other is to subvert the whole World of Spirituals to bring in horrible Anthropomorphitism or imagining God to have Eyes Hands Feet c. because Scripture representing the Reality of his divine Action Providence and Government does it in Words and Images we best understand and in a word to bring in rank Hobbianism into the Scripture the Church of God and into this Sacrament as shall be more particularly remark'd under a following
Head Add hereunto This is most particularly the Language of Scripture in Sacramental or Testamentary Discourses Discourses concerning the Covenant according to that famous Instance Heb. 9. 19. 20. When Moses had spoken every Precept to the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Calves of Goats with Scarlet-wool and Hysop and sprinkled both the Book and the People saying upon the whole This Thing this whole Thing is the Blood of the Covenant which God hath enjoyn'd you Thus the Bread Blessed Broken Taken Eaten is the Body of Christ and proportionably the Blood This whole Thing the whole Doctrine and Law of the Gospel always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consider'd and embrac'd first and then the Bread so Blessed Broken Taken Eaten is the Body of Christ and accordingly this Cup or Wine particularly Blessed Divided Drunk And that not only in a figurative cold sacramental or commemorative Sense for that Divine Power that Eternal Spirit of Christ does infinitely propagate the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ representing his whole Humanity in all the saving Efficacies and mighty Effects proper thereunto as perpetually in the Doctrine and Truth of the Gospel in an intellectual way so in this Supper as in a sensible material Representation but yet only confirming assuring making present a divine spiritual Efficacy as hath been all along declar'd And even as the Bread and Wine have an undoubted evident Appearance to Sense are Eaten Tasted Concocted in the Stomach converted into Flesh Blood and Spirits so are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ really present in the Bread in the Wine viz. in their spiritual Effects justly called his Body and Blood So that the Bread is in true spiritual Sense the Body of Christ to be eaten spiritually to be tasted spiritually to be turn'd into spiritual Life to the Soul in which Body and Blood go hand in hand with the Elements in all their natural Progress by their Spirituality and so that the want of due spiritual Action in all that profess Christ Jesus whether at or not at the Sacrament however particularly applied to that is an Offence against the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and brings a Guilt proportionable to the Offence All which hath the Full of a spiritual Transubstantiation and is the Thing we have pursued Head 4 I am come down now to the fourth Head viz. To enquire into this Thing How there came into the Christian Church such a Notion as that Fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for And I account it to these four Causes Cause 1 That this Great and Excellent Doctrine of the Gospel especially in that so often magnified Sixth of John and in the Institution of the Lord's Supper give great Warranty to observe a great and divine Mystery in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in his Supper That there must be some real sense of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as preach'd in the Gospel as presented in the Lord's Supper Transubstantiated so as to be Meat and Drink indeed and to give Life to our Souls All this Mystery cannot be exhausted and drawn out in no more than a plain Assent to this that Christ dyed as an Attonement for the World if so much be allowed as Socinianism denies and gave a Body of Holy Precepts and Commands of an excellent Nature and that whoever lives in Obedience to these with Sincerity shall have that their Obedience imputed to them for Righteousness through the Covenant of Grace and justifie Men as perfect and unsinning Obedience should have been and done by the first Covenant with Adam Rationalists and Moralists draw down this Gospel-Mystery too low while they seem to acquit themselves to Reason and general Understanding and to carry all Things plausibly before that They lose the high Spirituality of Christianity which they are too ready to esteem no better than Jargon Cant and Non-sense There is a Gospel middle betwixt gross portentous carnal Transubstantiation and such an emaciating and shrinking up the great and unsearchable Treasures of the Gospel as if they did not much excell a Lecture out of Plato Plutarch Epictetus or some of the great Sages of Morality joyn'd to some Articles of Faith and Forms of Worship The way and manner of the Gospel speaking of these things and especially as our Lord and Saviour spake who spake as never man spake might well raise the Minds of Christians to look for something high and surpassing in the Mysteries of Christian Religion and beyond common Sense or common Reason 2. Many of those we call the Antients or Fathers coming out of the Heathen Learning and Eloquence into the Profession of Christianity Men of great Holiness Innocency and Sanctity of Conversation Contempt of the World Readiness to dye for the Name of Christ and generally Martyrs of curious and delicate Reason of very sublime Notion and Sentiments of a flowing Language softness and sweetness of Speech and accomplish'd with all the Gracefulnesses of Rhetorick taking the Scripture-Expressions and displaying upon them with that Magnificency and Gallantry of Words and all kind of Wit but not pursuing strongly and closely the Reason Strength and whole Analogy of Scripture nor guarding their Discourse by a Nervous Compare of Scripture with Scripture launch'd out into many free and liberal Expressions concerning these Things which not ballanc'd limited defended against possible Mistake at some Times and in some Veins of their Writings in this Matter might give occasion to the more grievous and dreadful Mistakes to such a course of Times as we may easily observe succeeded them And this they did at the higher rate undoubtedly out of a great Zeal for the Honour of Christian Religion for the Jews and Pagans speaking high of their Cabalaes Great Mysteries and Secrets of Religion and their Mystae who had the guard of these Mysteries their Priests and Devotoes The Fathers of the Christian Church knowing the true Excellency of Divine Mysteries and pitching upon this as easily the most remarkable viz. the Doctrine of eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ and this Doctrine in an especial manner consigned into the Mystery of the Lord's Supper to which is adjoyn'd that severe Discourse of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. It was very obvious to them here especially to exalt the Glory of Christianity and of the holy Ministers of it as highly surmounting the Poor if true but therefore most poor because false Mysteries of outdated Judaism and much more of Paganism It is most evident at the very same Time in the very same Places of their Writings they in the same kind of flowing Eloquence intermix other Expressions that sufficiently argue How free they were from any Misapprehensions in these Things But their way of Writing being not by way of severe Examination of Scripture Notions and Texts not by the austere Beam of Scripture in its several Portions of Revealed Truth and of the Sacred Context nor having any surmise of the after