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
draw us to him by Faith and Repentance to apply his Blood and to Trust in his Redemption to move Christians to the same Mind in every thing that we see was in Christ it hath even a Constraining Power of love to live to him that dyed for us to purifie our selves as he is Pure to be in the World as he was in the World to Walk Heb. 13. 12 13. as he Walked to go out to him without the Camp of all False Religions out of the Camp of Sensuality and Worldly-mindedness bearing his Reproach to Crucifie the Flesh with the Lusts to be Crucified to the World and the World to us to set our Affections on things Above Whither His Humane Nature removed in regard of Place But by the Preaching and Manifestation of the Gospel it is every where as thus Represented as thus set forth This is a sense of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ being every where where his Gospel and Word come that cannot be denied and as therein it is so receiv'd as to become an Argument and powerful motive of uniting our selves to Him of being like Him It may be most significantly express'd by the Metaphor of Eating and Drinking like Ezekiel's Eating the Roll and filling his Bowels with it This is a hearing Christ's Voice which strongly Rev. 3. 20. knocks or persuades to open the Door to him that he may as he will come in to Sup with us and we with Him This is a Sense so proper and natural that it is chosen by that Learned Interpreter Grotius to expound that great Discourse John 6. of eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood Grot. in Evangel John viz. such a Receiving his Word and Sayings as to be every way confirm'd in a way of Holy Rational Intellectual Spiritual Obedience to Him And as there is so particular a Representation of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper as a Sacrament summing up the whole Doctrine of the Gospel or of Jesus Christ Crucified so a particular Approbation of our selves to it and for it and the danger of an unworthy an unbecoming Eating and Drinking is so earnestly and vehemently press'd upon us by the Apostle as to infold us in the Guilt of his Body and Blood as if we had Crucified the Son of God afresh and put him to open Shame and because in the Apostolical Times the Lord's Supper and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only two such words in the New Testament Lord's Day the only Institutions so inscribed were undivided It was a Constant Habitual Uniform Preparation that was required Now that this is Eating and Drinking Christ in a mystical Sense agreeable to the Mystery of the Doctrine and Supper of Jesus Christ is very easie to be Apprehended seeing Christ Jesus is not to be lov'd nor receiv'd in any Fleshly Figure He is no such kind of Object to our Souls even a virtuous Law-giver or Philosopher is not to be lov'd in his Flesh and Blood as Gross and Carnal but as in his Laws his Doctrine his Virtue how much more Christ If ye Love me keep my Commandments Pretend to no carnal Love to no Love to me by looking on and kissing my Pictures or Figures of fleshly Representations For he that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that thus loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will John 14. 15. 21. 23 24. come to him and manifest my self to him If a Man love me he will keep my Sayings and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our Abode with him Words equal in Sense to these He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him On the other side He that loveth me not keepeth not my Sayings and therefore Whoever keepeth not my Sayings loveth me not All others attempt to do that which cannot be done to know and to love Christ after the Flesh whereas now there is no loving Christ but in the New Creation All old things are pass'd away Behold mark it well all Things are become new All outward Representations Images Pictures Gestures Geniculations Adorations if not commanded by him are not the least signs of Love but rejected and refus'd by Christ as a knowing him after the Flesh even the Ordinance 1 Cor. 5. 16. of the Lord's Supper had been a false Love of Christ if it had not been receiv'd from him and specially by himself commanded and yet even as it is without that spiritual Approbation or approving our selves which we translate by the Word Examine our selves It is so far from Acceptance 1 Cor. 11. 28. c. that it is eating and drinking Judgment to our selves And all this is most rational if we consider That we are our selves not truly our selves but as we are thus intellectually spiritually in a way of vertuous Conformity mov'd to things by the great efficacy of Christ and his Spirit in our Hearts and move effectually by inward rational Apprehension and Affection according to the Arguments and Motives in the Word of God without which we can under any Pretensions Professions Confessions of Faith Forms of Worship Prayers outward Rites Postures and Observations be no more Christians than the Statues and Images of the Apostles or Saints are Christians because they are inscrib'd with such Names and vouch'd to be such or such Representations But when there is a single Eye and Design to this Conformity to the Word and Sayings and Commandments of Christ there is then a far more real Presence of Christ in his Word than in any of the Writings or Lives of the most excellent Men that ever were in the World for the Sense and Reason they wrote are indeed here their Actions and Vertues are drawn into History and may be preserv'd from Copy to Copy but the Soul the Spirit that wrote them is gone from them but now Christ yesterday to day the same for ever is present by that Spirit that Divinity by which he preach'd of old even in Noah's Time to the disobedient Spirits now in Prison 1 Pet. 3. 20. While his Truth operates after the manner of rational Truth his Spirit works much higher even divinely His Table therefore in the Gospel and in his Supper is a Psal 28. 5. Table richly spread a Cup running over with spiritual Efficacies of which whoever is indeed Partaker cannot be a Partaker of the Table of Devils whoever truly drinks his Cup cannot drink of the Cup of Devils either in an Idolatrous Religion or an unholy Life He cannot eat of the Sinners Dainties of Folly's Bread or of the stollen Waters she hath Prov. 9. 17. provided For by one Offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified of which the Holy Ghost is witness even of that Covenant of which he is the Mediator it being establish'd upon the best Promises of writing the Laws of God in their hearts
to drink into those Words Take eat this is my Body or from the Doctrine into the Sacrament 3. I shall endeavour to find a fair Accommodation and no Encounter betwixt the Mystery and the Letter or betwixt the grand sense and the very Words This is my Body by a compare of this whole Harmonical Context with other Scripture and its way of speaking in such Cases 4. I will enquire into this Thing How there came such a Notion into the Christian Church as that fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for 5. I will 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 but as it carries the Practice of Worship and Adoration 6. I will close all with practical Applications tending to a constant habitual Preparation for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Now to discharge the first part of this Undertaking I must establish these following Points That the Divine Person of our Lord Jesus Christ taking Point 1 the Humane Nature upon him that Humane Nature is most emphatically express'd in these Words his Body and his Flesh and his Blood or the Body and Flesh and Blood of Christ are the most fit Expressions that could be chosen to set out the Humane Nature of Christ or to set out the Man Christ Jesus Now this being rightly apprehended shews There is the Flesh and there is the Blood of Christ that are to be eaten and drunk by Believers in Jesus Christ That the Body the Flesh and the Blood of Christ and the Point 2 Actions of Christ in his Body in his Flesh and Blood were as so many Preparations of his Body Flesh and Blood to be spiritually eaten by or applied to the Souls of Believers or communicated by them That the Body the Flesh and the Blood of Christ are so Point 3 many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Power Spirit and Efficacy filling them with infinite saving Vertue and Effect in their Communication to the Souls of Believers in Jesus Christ That the divine Power Spirit and Efficacy extends the Point 4 Body Flesh and the Blood of Christ in their saving Vertue and Effect without limitation to Time or Place and to all Dimensions and degrees of Effect The first Point viz. That the most expressive and significant Point 1 Terms concerning the Man Christ Jesus that the Spirit of God hath chosen throughout the Scripture are the Flesh of Christ the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ. This is the first Branch of the Mystery of Godliness God manifest 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 4. 2 3. in the flesh Jesus Christ come in the flesh is made the grand Principle of the Gospel The whole Humane Nature of Christ in which the Son of God was manifest is called Flesh The Word was made Flesh John 1. 14. So the Body of Christ how often is it mention'd The offering of the Body of Christ once for all Heb. 10. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who bare our Sins in his Body on the tree And in all the New Testament there is nothing so memorializ'd as the Blood of Jesus Christ And the Reason is this Because these The Body the Flesh and the Blood are the most visible Representations of Humane Nature and so in Scripture and all Language they are the readiest easiest and most familiar Expressions of Humane Nature The Apostle John therefore so often in his Epistle expresses the whole Doctrine of the Messiah by Christ come in the flesh that is God manifested in flesh So that though it is true Man is chiefly Soul and Spirit and so to be considered yet he is most visible most apparent in Body Flesh and Blood and Humane Nature is so fram'd and constituted that it desires most to appear and display it self in a Body And though God and Christ have a peculiar Care and Account of the Spirits of just men yet they are not Perfect without Bodies and till Christ does appear again in a Body of Glory He is not shewn Pray consider Though He 's now in a Body of Glory yet till he appears in this Body that every Eye may see him God does not till that time shew him whom he will shew who is the onely Potentate c. 1 Tim. 6. 15. that is He will shew Christ Jesus in a Body of Glory at his Appearance though Christ hath been in a Body of Glory ever since his Ascension So Just Men are not made Perfect Heb. 12. 23. till they appear in a Body at the Resurrection Although therefore the Soul of Jesus Christ understand I beseech you what I say was the Principal Agent in all the Work of Redemption yet it was as in a Body in the Action and Passion of a Body It was not indeed a Body that acted that suffered that dyed yet it was in a Body It was the Humane Soul and Spirit of Christ that came to do the Will of God and a Body was prepared him Hebr. 10. 5. It was not a Body but a Soul a Will in Christ that surrender'd it self to the Will of God that said Not my Will but thine be done It was a Spirit that surrender'd it self to God Into thy hands I commit my Spirit yet it was in a Body So it was in the Circumcision of Christ it was the Circumcision of the Spirit not of the Letter Soul and Spirit was the Life and Excellency of all yet all this was visible in a Body it was visible in Flesh and Blood So it was in Christ's fulfilling All Righteousness in his Baptism in all the Holiness of Life There was an Humane Soul a Spirit that acted in and throughout All yet All was still visible in a Body His Soul sent out Strong Cries and Fears with that he offer'd Prayers and Supplications but it was in the days of his Flesh Hebr. 5. 7. He was Circumcised Baptized Died in a Body He arose again in a Body and in such a Body as we carry about with us but just at his Ascension then undoubtedly in the very Time of his Ascending up to Heaven his Body was changed into a Glorious Body so that That Body which was in a state of Humiliation which he carried with him in the World after his Ascension remained no longer in those Circumstances of humbled Flesh and Blood he underwent while he was here in the World for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. and therefore the dayes of Christ's Humiliation are call'd the Days of his Flesh Therefore observe 1 Tim. 3. ult The mystery of Godliness is absolv'd in that Receiv'd Taken up into Glory and there he is hidden to us though swallowed up in the Perfection and Excellency of Glory till God shews him till he appears and is revealed in that Glory From all which amounts That the whole undertaking of Christ was in Body and