Kindness and gratious Intentions towards them for this is matter of Faith and Hope which are the things we must necessarily go upon in all our addresses unto the Father of mercies but yet the fruit of eating and drinking here is Joy and Peace to every honest hearted Communicant because his Faith and Hope is hereby much the stronger and built upon more sure and certain grounds 'T is true also that a mans pardon is begun before he doth make his appraoches that is if he makes his approaches regularly and like a good Christian for he must repent first of all his transgressions and that doth dispose him for Gods mercy and makes him meet to be a Partaker of it We must not presume to go to the Lords Table with guilt about us or while we are Reeking in our Sins but Repentance must wipe our defilements off because Christs Body and Bloud is not food for Swine As the Paschal Lamb was not to be eaten but by persons that were pure and clean according to the Sanctifications of the Law so this Christian Passeover Feast is not to be celebrated but by such persons as are purged by Repenance which is the Sanctification of the Gospel Yet all this not withstanding the Blessed Sacrament is an Ordinance of very great concernment and comfort to the cleanest Communicant for though he hath Repented long ago and though upon his having done so he hath great Reason to Hope that he is Reconciled unto God yet this Reconciliation is as yet but imperfect in comparison A man is not fully perfectly and finally pardoned till he hath Ended his Life well While we Live we are still Transacting our business with Heaven but do not finish our work till we dye My Pardon is Inchoa ted upon my Repentance 't is compleatd and irrevocable upon my Perseverance unto the End but t is Confirm'd to me upon my due Eating and Drinking at this Solemnity Hereby all former Grants are Ratified and Sealed anew so that now we have a fair Evidence to shew for our discharge and such an Evidence as will be valid and hold in the day of Judgement if we be not so Foolish as to Cancel the Deed our selves and render our Title to a blessed Eternity Null and void by returning again with the dog to his vomit A Release you know may pass between Parties onely by the Consent and Promise of the Injured Person but when once it is committed to Deed the act is then Confirmed and the Seal which is affixt to the Deed makes that Sure in Law with before was onely Parol or by Promise In like manner though our forgiveness be Inchoated and Begun upon our Repentance yet it is Continued Ratified and Ascertain'd unto us upon our Participation so that he who was justified is justified still and his Justification is more certain certitudine Subjecti than it was before that is a Sincere Commu nicant hath better Hopes to comfort himsurer grounds to go upon more to shew and say for himself more to plead against the clamours of his Conscience more and better Reasons to be Quiet in his mind than when he was barely a Penitent To say the Truth if he doth not Backslide and Revolt he hath a certain Title to the Kingdom of Heaven Upon this account 't is every mans Interest to Communicate often The longer he lives the Older he grows the more he draws towards his grave still he should be the more intent upon this Duty that his Peace and Comfort may still receive the more Additions and that his Assurances may be the more and more strong so that by the blessing of God he may at last use such expressions as S. Paul did which I am sure no Non-Communicant in the world can with such Reason use I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith hence forth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness 2. Tim. 4. 7. 8. CHAP. VII Thirdly We really communicate of Christ Glorified The Doctrine of Transubstantiation condemned as utterly contrary to sence Reason and the Holy Scriptures BEsides that participation of Christ Crucified which is Mystical by Interpretation and Construction as I have shew'd already there is also at this Ordinance a participation of Christ Glorified So 't is Exprest in the Prayer of Consecration which is Real by our being actually made partakers of his most Blessed Body and Bloud This is manifestely the Doctrine of our Church that the Body and Bloud of Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the Faithful in the Lords Supper and that our Souls are strengthened and Refreshed by the Body and Bloud of Christ as our Bodies are by the Bread and Wine Now our Bodies receive nourishment by our actual receiving the very Substances of Bread and Wine and so according to the Comparison our Souls also do receive strengh and Comfort by actually receiving and participating of the very Nature of Christ After the same manner was the Faith of the Church of England delivered in the beginning of the Reformation by that truly Learned and Great man Arch-Bishop Cranmer in that Admirable Book of his called a Defence of the true and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament wherein he doth often use Fol. 32 33 73 100. Et alibi fol. 42 76 84. that Similitude That as the Bread and Wine Corporally comfort and feed our Bodies so doth Christ with his Flesh and Bloud spiritually comfort and feed our Souls and he positively affirms that by the Communion we receive spiritual food and supernatural nourishment from Heaven of the very true Body and Bloud of our Saviour Christ that our Souls by faith do eat his very body and drink his Bloud though spiritually Sucking out of the same everlasting Life and that the Hearts of them that receive the Sacraments are secretly inwardly and Spiritually Transformed renew'd fed comforted and nourisht with Christs Flesh and Bloud through his most holy Spirit the same Flesh and Bloud still remaining in Heaven So that according to the sense of the Church of England not onely the Sacrifice of Christs Death is in the account of God Sacramently Imputed unto us for the Pardon of sin but moreover the very Glorified Jesus now Living and sitting in Heaven is in the Reality of the thing Actually Communicated unto us from above and verily received by us in the Sacrament And the outward Elements of Bread and Wine are not onely Signes and Tokens much less Empty Tokens and Bare Signs of Christs Body and Bloud but are also the Means and Instruments of bringing the whole Christ to us so that his Flesh and Bloud do Really but after a Spiritual and wonderfull manner go along with the Bread and Wine to Sustain and Refresh the Soul as They do the Body I know very well that I am now entring upon the Tenderest point concerning this Sacrament perhaps upon the Nicest speculation in the whole Body of Divinity
should prepare not so much the Mouth as the Heart And this is the true reason of those Rhetorical Expressions of some of the Fathers S. Chrysostomes especially where they seem to speak as if it were not Bread and Wine but something of a more Noble and Excellent nature that we Communicate of Such forms of speech were not Pure Negatives but Negatives by Comparison as hath been admirably well proved and explained by the Learned Archbishop Cranmer in several the like instances both in the old and New Testament It is not Bread and Wine that is it is not so much the Bread and Wine as the Body and Bloud of Christ which is to be considered The Elements are nothing at all in Comparison of that which they do Represent Exhibite and bring to us And the design Defence pag. 36. of those Fathers was to draw our minds upwards to Heaven that we should not regard so much the Bread the Wine the Priest and the Natural Body of Christ as we should consider his Divinity and Holy Spirit given unto us to our Eternal salvation That we should not fix our thoughts and minds upon the things themselves before us but lift up our hearts higher unto Christs Spirit and Divinity without which his Body availeth not as he said himself it is the Spirit that giveth life the Flesh profiteth nothing The Arch-Bishop is very copious upon this and I shall transcribe his words the rather because the passage is very useful and the Book is not very common This form of speech saith he is Negatives by compason commonly used not only in the Scripture and among all good Authors but also in all manner of Languages For when two things be compared together in the extolling of the more excellent or abasing of the more vile is many times used a Negative by comparison which nevertheless is no pure Negative but only in the respect of the more excellent or the more base As by example When the people rejecting the Prophet 1 Reg. 8. Samuel desired to have a King almighty God said to Samuel They have not rejected thee but me Not meaning by this Negative absolutely that they had not rejected Samuel in whose place they desired to have a King but by that one Negative by comparison he understood two affirmatives that is to say that they had rejected Samuel and not him alone but also that they had chiefly rejected God And when the Prophet David Psal 22. said in the person of Christ I am a Worm and not a Man By this Negative he denied not utterly that Christ was a man but the more vehemently to express the great humiliation of Christ he said that he was not abased only to the Nature of Man but was brought so low that he might rather be called a Worm than a man This manner of speech was familiar and usual to St. Paul as when he said It is Rom. 7. not I that do it but it is the sin that dwelleth in me And in an other place he saith Christ sent me not to baptise but 1. Cor. 1. to preach the Gospel And again he saith My speech and preaching was not in words 1 Cor. 1. of mans perswasion but in manifest declaration of the Spirit and power And he saith also Neither he that grafteth nor he 1 Cor. 3. that watereth is any thing but God that giveth the increase And he saith moreover It is not I that live but Christ liveth Gal. 2. within me And God forbid that I should Gal. 6. rejoyce in any thing but in the Cross of our Lord Jesu Christ And further we do not Ephe. 6. wrestle against flesh and blood but against he Spirits of Darkness In all these sentences and many other like although they be Negatives nevertheless St. Paul meant not clearly to deny that he did that evil whereof he spake or utterly to say that he was not sent to Baptize who indeed did Baptize at certain times and was sent to do all things that pertained to salvation or that in his office of setting forth Gods word he used no witty perswasions which indeed he used most discreetly or that the grafter and waterer be nothing which be Gods Creatures made to his similitude and without whose work there should be no increase or to say that he was not alive who both lived and ran thro' all Countries to set forth Gods Glory or clearly to affirm that he gloried and rejoyced in no other thing than in Christs Cross who rejoyced with all men that were in joy and sorrowed with all that were in sorrow or to deny utterly that we wrestle against flesh and blood which cease not daily to wrestle and War against our Enemies the world the flesh and the Devil In all these sentences St. Paul as I said meant not clearly to deny these things which undoubtedly were all true but he meant that in comparison of other greater things these smaller were not much to be esteemed but that the greater things were the chief things to be considered As that sin committed by his infirmity was rather to be imputed to original sin or corruption of Nature which lay lurking within him than to his own will and consent And that although he was sent to Baptize yet he was chiefly sent to preach Gods word And that although he used wise and discreet perswasions therein yet the success thereof came principally of the power of God and of the working of the Holy Spirit And that although the Grafter and Waterer of the Garden be some things and do not a little in their Offices yet it is God chiefly that giveth the increase And that although he lived in this world yet his chief life concerning God was by Christ whom he had living within him And that although he gloried in many other things yea in his own infirmities yet his greatest joy was in the Redemption by the Cross of Christ And that although our spirit daily fighteth against our flesh yet our chief and principal fight is against our ghostly enemies the subtil and puissant wicked Spirits and Devils The same manner of speech used also St. Peter in his first Epistle saying that the apparel Pet. 3. of Women should not be outwardly with broidred Hair and setting on of Gold nor in puting on of gorgious apparel but that the inward man of the heart should be without corruption In which manner of speech he intended not utterly to forbid all broidering of Hair all gold and costly apparel to all Women For every one must be apparelled according to their condition state and degree but he meant hereby clearly to condemn all pride and excess in apparel and to move all Women that they should study to deck their Souls inwardly with all virtues and not to be curious outwardly to deck and adorn their bodies with sumptuous apparel And our Saviour Christ himself was full of such manner of speeches Gather
Day of their deliverance out of Egypt Thus also for the Posture used at the eating of the Passeover at first it was probably a Standing posture because the Jews were commanded to eat it with their Loyns girded with their shooes on their Feet and with their Staff in their hand But there were proper and peculiar reasons for this Ceremony for it was Significative and in Token of their great Haste and that concerns us no more neither than it concerns us to eat Unleavened Bread which was in token of their Haste also In our Saviours time the Posture was Altered as I shall shew in its due place and 't was neither standing nor sitting as many ignorant mem conceive but a Recumbent and Leaning posture one guest lying along in the bosome of another as St. John lay in our Lords Bosome so making part of a Round or Oval figure And even This posture was of peculiar fignificancy to the Jews too for it was in Token that their Journey and Travels were at an End and that they were possest of the Land of Rest which God had sworn to their Fathers that he would give them So that neither from hence can we gather any thing that bindes us unless it be this that in circumstantial matters we should submit to those innocent usages which either the Laws or Customes of a Nation or the Reason of times have introduced as our Blessed Saviour himself did who took such Customes as they were and observed them as he found them not troubling the World with debates and Controversies about things of nothing So then the Rites used at the Passeover are no Leading Rites to us nor are we to Copy out that pattern any more than we are Commemorate the Jews feast This Sacrament of ours is not a Memorial of the Paschal Supper but of our blessed Redeemers Death and accordingly we are to use such Rituals as are most proper and suitable to the meaning and purpose of this Mystery and most significative unto Us. Considering that it was between Nine and Three of the Clock that our dear Lord was hurried to Golgotha nailed to the Cross and there hung upon four wounds languishing bleeding dying with pangs and throws unspeakable unconceivable it is proper for us to Celebrate about Noon this Blessed Sacrament which is the Memorial of his Great Passion Considering too the Intendments of this Mystery that it serveth as I shall prove as I go along to engage us to be faithful and True to the Redeemer of our Souls and to convey unto us all those benefits which he purchased for us by his Passion as Pardon of Sin the Communication of his Blessed body and Blood the assistance of his Holy Spirit a close Union with him and an assurance of a glorious Immortality and considering also what We are that the Divine Goodness should be thus propitious and kind to us his Unworthy Despicable because Sinful Creatures I appeal to any man of sense and true humility if it be not most proper most becoming us were Laws and Customes altogether silent to receive the blessed instruments and Pledges of the Divine Grace in the Lowlyest in the most Reverent in the most Humble posture and after such a manner as is most expressive of that sense we ought to have of our own Vileness and nothingness and of the Love of Jesus When I who am so unworthy that the Lord should come under my Roof am invited to come so near unto him as to lie as it were not in his Bosome but in his Heart too and to take into my hands the Holy Seals of his dearest Love of his tenderest and everlasting Compassions then be thou Prostrate O my Soul let me then Worship and fall down and Kneel before the Lord my Redeemer and if there be any thing viler than the Dust or any place lower and baser than the Earth let my sinful Body grovel and lie there Thus the Nature and Ends of this Sacrament and the consideration that it serves to Commemorate not what the Jews did at their Paschal Supper but what Christ our true Passeover did in being Sacrificed for us are enough to take any humble man off from that regard which Superstitious Persons have of supposed Jewish postures because we are not to represent and Commemorate their Actions but to shew forth the bitter Passion and Death of the Holy Jesus And this shall suffice to be said as the Use and Improvement of this matter that this Eucharistical solemnity was intended to be a a perpetual and standing Memorial of our Saviours sufferings and Love Do this in Remembrance in Commemoration of me That 's one great End of this sacrifical Banquet CHAP. III. The second End of the Holy Sacrament to be a Covenant-Feast The Ancient and general use of Covenant Feasts That this is such proved from its Analogy to those Ancient Covenant-Feasts among Heathens and Jews and from the Words of Christ at the Institutions Two conclusions BY the leave of the Socinians we will go further and confidently affirm that this Holy Sacrament is intended to another End too viz. that it may be a Federal Rite or a Covenant banquet between God and the Communicants By a Covenant is meant such a Communion Allyance and League with God whereby he claimeth a peculiar right interest and propriety in us as in those who have devoted our selves to his Worship and service and expect good things at his hand And by a Covenant-Banquet is meant such a Religious Feast whereby a League of that nature is contracted or Confirmed This at first may seem somewhat dark to you because the generality of us are not well acquainted with the old Customes of of other Countries especially of the Oriental Nations the right understanding whereof will give us a great deal of light into this matter For the opening of it therefore we must know that it was very usual for People especially in the Eastern parts of the World to make and ratifie Contracts by eating and drinking together Of this the Holy Scriptures give us some plain Exemples For that Feast which Abimelech and Isaac celebrated together Gen. 26. 30. was a Covenant-Feast a token and symbol of Friendship between them Labans eating with Jacob upon an heap of stones Gen. 31. 46. was no other then a Foederal rite The Israelites eating of the Gibeonites Victuals Josh 9. 14. was the contracting of a League with those crafty people which the Israelites were blameable for doing without asking Counsel at the mouth of the Lord for had they first enquired of God they had not been Circumvented as they were into a confederacy with them When David after an upbraiding manner spake of his friends treachery in words which are very appicable to Judas Psal 41. 9. mine own familiar Friend said he in whom I trusted which did eat of my Bread hath lift up his heel against me He meant one that had entred into Covenant with him by a Feast as you
his word whereby our Flesh and Bloud are by alteration nourisht to be the Flesh and Bloud of our Incarnate Saviour As Christ was God and man by the union of two real and distinct Substances the Humane and divine Substance so must the Eucharist be believed to consist of two real and distinct Natures the visible and invisible nature which Joannes Langus observed to be so strong an Argument against Transubstantiation that the Expurgatory Indexes have ordered his Annotations upon those words of Justin to be Quod Transubstantiationem non agnoseit sed apertè contendat cum corpore sanguine Christi remanere veram panis vini Substantiam Ind. Belgic p. 76. blotted out So he that wrote the forementioned book of the Lords Supper affirmeth that as in the Person of Christ the Humanity was seen and the Divinity was hid so in the visible Sacrament the Divine Essence infuseth it self after an invisible and ineffable manner S. Augustin S. Hillary and others of the Antients use the very same similitude and conclude that the Mystery of the Eucharist where two real Vide Augustin in Gratian de Consecr Distinct 2. c. 72. Hilar. de Trin. 1. 8. Ibid. c. 82. Natures go together in the same Sacrament is like the Mystery of the Incarnation where two real Substances were united together in the same Person For the Romanists themselves dare not say that only the Accidents of Humanity were in our Lord at his Incarnation and therefore they ought not to say neither that only the Accidents of bread and wine are in the Eucharist after Consecration At least they ought not to appeal to Antiquity for this conceit it being plainly the sense of the Primitive Church that as the Nature of Man was neither abolisht nor changed into Christs Divinity when 't was united to it so neither is the nature of bread abolisht or changed into Christs Body when 't is administred with it 5. It is observable that whereas some Hereticks in the Ancient times denyed our Saviour to have two several Natures the Catholicks proved he had so by this known received Principle because there are two several Natures in the Sacrament which is a Figure of Christ This is a thing which requires particular observation because it will clearly and undeniably prove that the sense of the Church which I have shewn for the first 300. years was the same still and indeed more plain if possible for the two Centuries next following The occasion of their speaking so plainly was this Between the third and fourth Century there brake out the pestilent heresie of Apollinaris S. Aug. de Haeres c. 55. who held that our Lord took not his Body of the holy Virgin but that the Word was made Flesh so that the Deity was turned and transubstantiated into the Manhood Against this Heresie S. Chrysostom undertook the defence of the Catholick Faith that Christ at his Incarnation was both God and Man one Person of two Natures joyned together which are not one Substance but each hath its Properties distinct from the other And how doth he prove this Why he argues from the condition of the Holy Sacrament wherein there are two Natures so that neither is the Bread turned into Christs Flesh nor his Flesh into Bread but both are distinct Sicut enim antequam Sanctisicetur panis panem nominamus Divina autem illum Sanctificante gratia medinate Sacerdote liberatus est quidem ab appellatione Panis dignus autem habitus est Dominici Corporis â—appellatione ersi Natura panis in ipso Permansâ—t non duo corpora sed unum flii corpus praedicatur sic hîc divina insidente corpori natura unum filium unam personam utraque haec fecerunt S. Chrysoft Ep. ad Caesarium contra Appollinarem in themselves though they go As saith S. Chrysostom before the Consecration of the bread we call it bread but when the Grace of God hath sanctified it by the Priest it is delivered from the name of Bread and is exalted to the Lords Body though the Nature of Bread remaineth still and so two things make one Eucharist so here the Divine Nature is in the Body of Christ but these two Substances are distinct and make one Son and one Person This is a very plain testimony on our side Afterwards the Apollinarians were divided in their opinions for they shifted and were Unstable for want of truth and then Theodoret took up the quarrel against them all in his book entitled Polymorphos For then the Heresie of Eutyches appeared abroad whose opinion was that though Christ had at First two Natures yet after the Union of them the Humanity ceased was quite absorpt and Transubstantiated into the Divinity To prove this those Hereticks drew an argument from the Eucharist Christs Body said they was turned into his Deity at the Ascension even as the Bread and Wine are turned into his Flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret Dialog 1. and Bloud upon Consecration But to his Theodoret answered roundly that Christ honoured the visible Symbols with the name of his Body and Bloud not changing their Nature but to their Nature adding Grace And whereas it was urged again by those Hereticks that the Symbols of the Lords Body and Bloud are one thing before Invocation and another thing after Theodoret told them that they were taken in their own nets because the Mystical Signs do not Id. Dialog 2. depart from their own Nature after Sanctification but Remain in their former Substance aswell as in their Figure and form If this be not Home and Plain I know not what can be and yet we have a Further Testimony from the mouth of Gelasius who was Bishop of Rome too about 500 years after our Saviour He wrote an Excellent Book of the Two Natures of Christ against the Eutychians and Nestorians and how doth he argue Why he clears the Catholick Faith by arguing from the Eucharist too and these Gelas de duabus Naturis in Christo are his words Indeed the Sacraments of Christ Body and Bloud which we receive are a Divine thing for by them we are made partakers of the Divine Nature and yet it doth not cease to be the Substance or Nature of Bread and Wine The Image and Similitude of Christs Body and Bloud is in the Action of the Mysteries and by this it appears that we must think that to be in Christ which we Profess celebrate and take in the Image that as they pass into a Divine Substance by the Operation of the Holy Spirit the Nature of the things remaining still in their own Propriety so is the Principal Mysterie the Efficiency and Virtue whereof the Sacraments do Represent by their Continuing what they were it appears that they shew one entire and true Christ to continue also If this be not enough yet we will produce Ephraim the Patriarch for another witness after Gelasius He wrote very learnedly against
Communicants do indeed receive Christs very Body and Bloud by receiving the Elements and that Christs Body and Bloud are verily tendred and offer'd even to the unworthy though they receive them not For were it not thus I would gladly understand how it cometh to pass that unworthy receiving brings upon a mans Soul some peculiar and extraordinary Guilt If it be a special sin as S. Pauls words argues it to be against the Body and Bloud of our Lord it must follow that the Body and Bloud of our Lord are there For a sin is of a peculiar nature and consideration when it is acted against an Object that is more peculiarly Interested and Concern'd so the sin against the Holy Ghost seems strictly and and properly to be a malicious resisting and reproaching of the Truth in spight of those Miracles which are wrought by the Holy Ghost for the Confirmation of the Truth A man is then said to be peculiarly guilty of the sin against the Holy Ghost because in the working of Miracles the Holy Ghost is concern'd and interested after a peculiar manner To this purpose it is observable that when our Saviour spoke of this sin it was after some Miracle that he had done and by occasion of the Jews reproaching it as if it had been done not by the Power and Spirit of God but by Beelzebub It was especially a sin against the Holy Ghost because in the Miracle the Holy Ghost was specially concern'd Even so here unworthy receiving makes a man guilty of a sin against our Lords Body and Bloud because his Body and Bloud are peculiarly Interested in the Sacrament Evil men strike at Christ then after a most sinful sort because his Body and Bloud are present there after a singular manner and therefore doth the sin bring an extraordinary guilt because it is the doing despight to the very Body and Bloud of Him who made himself an offering for us For these and the like reasons the Catholik Church of Christ hath in all ages believed a real presence of his Body and Bloud in the Sacrament nor do I know any one Doctrine of Christianity which hath come unto us with less Contradiction then this came down from the very days of the Apostles even to the times of Berengarius And so true is this that the Learned know well that the Ancients grounded their Faith of our real Union with Christ upon this Principle because his very Body and Bloud are really communicated to us by our receiving the Eucharist As they believed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys in 1 Cor. 10. 16. vide Iren. multos alios a Supernatural Union between the Natures in Christ so they believed a Mystical Union between all the Faithful and Christ and this they concluded because they believed a Sacramental Union between Christ and those Creatures of Bread and Wine whereby we receive Christ S. Hilary calls our Conjunction Hilar. de Trinit lib. 8. with Christ a Natural conjunction because as Our Nature was before united to his by his Incarnation so now his Nature is United to Ours by the Communion Our Church calls it the Communion of the Body and Bloud of the Lord in a marvellous Incorporation and S. Austin himself Homily of the Sacram 1. Part. used the same Expression and all the Ancients acknowledged this real Union to be wrought by means of that Real S. August Ep. ad Iren. Communion of our Saviours very Body and Bloud at and by the Holy Sacrament For the Opening now of this great Mystery I shall shew these Five things 1. That we are to distinguish between Christs Natural and his Spiritual Body 2. What is meant by his Spiritual Body 3. Why it is so called 4. That Christ hath a Spiritual Body indeed 5. That this Spiritual Body is received by us in the Sacrament 1. We are to distinguish Christs Spiritual from his Natural Body not as if he had two different Bodies but because that One and the same Body of his is to be considered after a different manner Now this is S. Pauls own distinction 1 Cor. 15. 44. There is a Natural or Animal Body and there is a Spiritual Body The Apostle there treats of that Exalted state our bodies shall be in after the Resurrection how they shall be delivered from all Mortality and Corruption and shall be the everlasting Temples of the Divine Spirit and shall shine with light like the Stars and shall be like Angelical Substances and Spirits in Comparison and all this because our Saviour is risen and gone before us into heaven and there remaines in a Glorious Body as 't is called Philip. 3. 21. Now this Body of Christ may be considered either in respect of its own Natural Substance as it consisteth of Flesh Bones and Bloud and other Constituent and Perfective parts of humane nature and in this sense no man can partake of the Lords Body Or else it may be considered with respect to his Divinity as that is united to it as it is clothed with infinite Majestie as it is replenisht with the Presence and energy of the God-head as it casteth live Influences upon his Church by virtue of the God-head dwelling in it and filleth all things with Spiritual rayes and emanations of his Grace In this respect our Lord is called a Quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. the first man Adam was made a living soul the last Adam was made a Quickning Spirit because he giveth life to every Humble and Obedient heart here below and through his Humane Nature dispenseth to every one the Vertues of his Passion and in this respect every good Christian participates of Christs Body that is of the Spiritualities of his glorious Body The Ancient Christians acknowledged and insisted much upon this distinction between the Natural and the Spiritual body of Christ confessing the one to be in the Sacrament but not the other There is Saith Clemens Alexandrinus a Twofold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Paedag. l. 2. in mitio Blond of our Lord there is his Fleshly Bloud whereby we were redeemed from destruction and there is his Spiritual Bloud whereby we are now Anointed and this is to drink the Bloud of Jesus to be made partakers of our Lords Incorruption In like manner Origen Shewing that even in the New Testament there is a letter which killeth if men do not understand that which is said after a Spiritual Si enim secundum liberam sequaris hoc ipsum quod dictum est nisi manducaveretis carnem mean biberitis Sanguinem meum occider haec litera Orig. in Lev. 10. Homilt manner instanceth in that Phrase of eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Bloud for saith he if you understand this according to the sound and clink of the Expression it is a killing letter S. Jerome also tells us that the Bloud and Flesh of Christ is to be Duplicitur verè sanguis Christi caro intelligitur
eo dictum est Ecce ego vobiscum sum usque ad consummationem seculi Secundum carnem vero quod verbum assumpsit secundum id quod de Virgine natus est secundum id quod a Hudaeis prebensus est quod ligno confixus quod de cruce depositus quod linteis involutus quod in sepulchro conditus quod in resurrectione manifestatus non semper habebitis vobiscum S. Aug. Tractat. 50. in John plainly in respect of that Body which was assumed by the Word which was born of the Virgin which was apprehended by the Jews which was nailed to the Tree which was taken down from the Cross and was wrapped up and laid in the Sepulchre in respect of that Body we have him not with us but in respect of his Majesty in respect of his Providence in respect of his Ineffable and invincible Grace that promise of his is fulfilled lo I am with you alwayes even unto the end of the world And speaking of the Eucharist he doth distinguish between Nam nos bodie accipimus visibilem cibum used aliud est Sacramentum aliud virtus Sacramenti S. Aug. Tractat. 26. in John Usque ad Spiritûs participationem manducemus bibamus Id Tract 27. the Sacrament it self and the virtue of the Sacrament calling that the Grace of Christ which is not consumed with our Teeth and the participation of the Spirit This is that which S. Austin elsewhere calls the Intelligible the Invisible the Spiritual Body of Christ that which Ireneus calls the Heavenly thing that which Clement and Jerome call the spiritual Flesh and Bloud of the Lord That which Pseudo-Cyprian calls the Divine Virtue the Divine Essence the Divine Majesty the participation of the Spirit the drink which flowes and streams from that Spiritual Rock Christ Jesus That which S. Ambrose calls the spiritual Aliment and the Body of a Divine Spirit that which others call the Lords Immortality his Divine Body the Truth of his Body the Nutriment of the Inward Man the vital Pulment of the Incarnate Deity and divers other expressions we meet with in old Authors signifying the wonderful vertues of Christs Glorified Humanity whereof every Faithful Soul is made Partaker S. Ifidore Pelusiot conceived that the roasting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isidor Pelus Ep. 219. l. 1. of the Paschal Lamb with Fire did Typically fignifie that Christ the true Pasleover was to unite the Fire of the Divine Essence to his Flesh to be eaten of us That 's his Experssion and it shews his opinion that we receive the virtue of his Divine through his Humane Nature Among modern Foreign Writers none seems to me to have explained this thing better than the moderate and Judicious Author of the Diallacticon Eucharistiae a Book written about 130. years ago to compose all controversies Hoc corpus hunc sanguinem carnem hanc substantiam corporis non communi more nec ut humana ratio dictat accipi oportet sed it a nominari existimari credi propter eximios quosdam effectus virtutes proprietates conjunctas quae corpori sanguini Christi natura in sunt nempe quod Pascat animas nostras vivificet simul corpora ad resurrectionem immortalitatem praeparet Dialact pag. 33. 34. Non hic cogitandûm est nos crudas bominis carnes comedere vel sanguinem bibere Sed verba spiritalia esse spiritualiter intelligenda carnem quidem sanguinem nominari sed de Spiritu Vita idest vivifica dominicae carnis virtute debere intellagi c. Ibid. pag. 25. Quia figur a veri corporis panis est jure Corpus appellatur quia virtutem ejusdem vitalem conjunctam habet multo magis tum vero maxime quod utrumque complectitur Ibid. pag 54. Panis Domini Corpus Christi est quia gratiam virtutem ejus vitalem conjunctam habet Quod outem haec non commentitia aut nuper nata sententia est sed ab antiquis recepta approbata Scriptoribus claris ipsorum testimoniis confirmabimus Ibid. pag. 57. about the Sacrament and he too goes altogether this way shewing that that Body of Christ which is present with us is his spiritual Body and that we communicate thereof by deriving Efficacy Power and Vital Virtue from the Body of the Lord. And this account I am the better pleased and satisfied with because it was a Notion that was en tertained and really asserted by a very Learned Doctor of our own Church with Dr. Jack vol. 3. p. 325. Seq whose words I shall conclude this consideration we must not collect saith he that Christs Body because comprehended within the Heavens can exercise no real operation upon our Bodies or Souls here on Earth or that the live Influence of his Glorified Humane Nature may not be diffused through the World as he shall be pleased to dispense it no we must not take upon us to limit or bound the Efficacy of Christs Body upon the Bodies or Souls which he hath taken into his Protection there are Influences of Life which his Humane Nature doth distill from his Heavenly Throne And the Sacramental Bread is called his Body and the Sacramental Wine his Bloud as for other reasons so especially for this because the Virtue and Influence of his most Bloudy Sacrifice is most plentifully and most effectually distilled from Heaven unto the worthy Receivers and many more things he saith to the same effect By this account we may easily undergand the meaning of the sixth chapter of S. John which hath so puzled many Learned Interpreters and we may fairly give the reason of the Sentence of our Lords Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink his Bloud ye have no life in you For the Principle of life comes from our Lords Glorified Humanity and unless we receive into our Souls the vital Virtue which distilleth from it we can be in no other than a dead Condition I do not mean that 't is impossible to have life without receiving the Sacrament no there is that which Divines call a Sacramental and Spiritual receiving of Christ and a Spiritual receiving only when men eat and drink after a right manner they receive both the Sacrament and also the thing or virtue of the Sacrament but yet men may derive and by Faith do derive virtue from Christ without the Sacrament if they do not abstain through negligence or the love of sin and the like The Grace of God is not tyed to Sacraments so but that God may dispense it as he pleaseth nor are we to conceive that the Blessed Body of Christ doth quicken none but at the Communion CHAP. X. That Christs Spiritual Body is actually verily and really taken and received by the Faithful in the Lords Supper Proved from the Analogy thereof to other Sacrifical Feasts among Jews and Heathens From S. Pauls Viscourse 1 Cor. 10. and from the sense of
the Root doth Convey its Quality to the Boughs so doth the Son of God give Cyril Alex. in Joan. l. 10. c. 13. to his Saints an affinity of his Own and his Fathers Nature by giving them his Spirit so that by the participation of his Spirit whereby we are conjoyned unto him we Communicate of his Nature To the same purpose are those words Jo. 17. 21. where the Holy Jesus prayed that his Disciples might be One that as the Father is in him and he in the Father so his Disciples might be One in or with them Which words do import something more than an Unity of Affection and Will for the Son is One with the Father and the Father One with the Son by being Both of the same Divine Essence so that we may conceive the full meaning of that Prayer to be that all Christians might be One not onely with themselves by the Unity of Faith and Love and with God by Consent and Agreement of Will but that they might be One with the Son and the Father by bearing in them the Divine Image by a likeness Similitude and Resemblance of Nature though they cannot be One by Identity of Substance Thus I am sure some of the Ancients understood this and the other place of Scripture where Christ is called a Vine And the Faith of the Old Catholick Church was this that by the efficacious Energy of Gods Spirit some Rays of his Divinity are conveyed into us whereby we are made partakers of the Divine Nature and that this Participation of Nature is the closest Ligament * S. Ignatius calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. ad Ephes pag. 22. Bandage and Instrument of Union between Us and our Redeemer This will evidently appear by this one Argument Some Hereticks did of old as the the Socinians do now Deny the Divinity of our Saviour and when they were put hard to it by the Catholick Doctors who argued against them from those words of Christ himself I and my Father are One and from other places of the like importance the Hereticks returned this answer that Christ is One with the Father by * Id quod ait Ego Pater unum sumus tentant Haeretici ad unanimitatis referre consensum ut voluntatis in his Unit as sit non naturae id est ut non per id quod idem Sunt sed per id quod idem volunt unum sunt Hilar nitate lib. 8. pag. 119. Ed. Par. Unity of Love and by agreement of Will but not by Identity of Essence But this would not by any means Satisfie the Catholicks who proved an Unity of Nature between Christ and his Father by shewing that Unity of Nature which is between Christ and Us in some Cvril Alex. in Joan. lib. 10. c. 13. measure and Degree We do not deny saith S. Cyril but that we are joyned to Christ by a True Faith and Sincere Love but that there is no Union at all between him and Us in respect of his Flesh that saith he we do utterly Deny For Christ is in Us by the Communication of his Nature And again besides the Unity of Consent and Will Id lib. 11. c. 26. there is saith he a Natural Union whereby we are Tyed unto God And again we are made the Sons of God and Heavenly men being made one with Christ by the participation of the Divine Nature and so we are One not onely by Affection and Consent but one also by the Communion of his Holy Flesh and one by the Participation of One Holy Spirit S. Cyril was very prolix and very Positive and Dogmatical upon this point and so was S. Hilary before him for he did argue the same way and did plainly assert a Natural * Eos nunc qui inter patrem filium voluntatis ingerant unitatem interrogo utrumne per naturae veritatem bodie Christus in nobis sit an per concordiam voluntatis Si enim vere verbum caro factum est nos vere verbum carnem cibo Dominico sumimus quomodo non naturaliter manere in nobis existimandus est qui naturam carnis nostrae jam insepar abilem sibi homo natus assumpsit naturam carnis suae ad naturam aternitatis sub Sacramento nobis communicanda carnis admiscuit Hilar. de Trin. lib. 8. Haec vitae nostrae causa est quod in nobis carnablibus manentem per carnem Christum habemus victuris nobis per euin ea conditione qua vivit ille per patrem Si ergo nos naturaliter secunduim carnem per eum vivimus id est naturam carnis suae adepti quomodo non naturaliter secundum spiritum in se patrem habeat cum vivat ipse per Patrem Id. ibid. Unity between Christ and Us meaning such an Union as is wrought by the Communion of his Nature This is saith he the cause of our Life that we have Christ abiding in us according to his Flesh that is his Spiritual Flesh and we live by him as he himself liveth by the Father c. Now Christ liveth by his Father through the Communication of his Divine Substance and we live by Christ through the Communication of his Holy Nature * By the Communication of Christs Nature to us is meant the Communinication of the Divine Virtues of his Flesh which are like sparks conveyed into Our nature and by means of this Communication of Christs Virtues that Union is wrought between him Us which S. Hillary and S. Cyril call a Natural Union Sensus est Christum in nobis esse non per corporis sui Substantiam sed per Efficaciam carnis suae quam in Eulogia Mystica participamus unde resultat cum eo inter nos vera Unitas Quis enim negare posset aut participationem efficaciae earnis ejus veram ac Realem esse aut ex ejusmodi participatione veram Realem unitatem inter illum nos consurgere Albertinus de Sacr. Euchar. lib. 2. pag. 765. The Notion of our Union with Christ being thus explained it is easie to prove now that this strict and most blessed Union is effected by a due use of this Holy Sacrament For since we do hereby participate of his Blessed Body and Bloud and are endued with a plentiful measure of his Spirit it necessarily and plainly followeth that we receive such a portion of his Nature as is suitable to our Capacities and so that we are One with him because we receive of His and are enlivened and quickned by the same Spirit which dwelleth in him and are of one and the same Nature with him But besides the words of Christ himself are plain Jo. 6. 56. He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in Him Perhaps the words are to be understood as if they were to be read Thus as he dwelleth in me so I dwell in him meaning that as our Nature was United to
but remained perfectly United to it by a Substantial Conjunction and by reason of that Conjunction it was restored to life after so many hours In like manner when we give up the Ghost the Body parteth with the Soul and during this state hath no manner of sensation or Motion having lost the Natural Principle of Both but yet it is not separated from Christ though it Corrupteth in the Grave while its Mate is in the enjoyment of Bliss yet it is still United to its Lord by a Mystical Conjunction and by reason of that Union it shall be reunited to the soul in Gods good time that Both may have their Partnership in the fruition of an endless Life 3. This consideration were it duely weighed would be of very great Use and Comfort to good men when they are going out of this world But there is besides a third thing to be considered viz. that as we are united to Christ so Christs Nature is also communicated to Us by means of this Sacrament which doth further conclude an Assurance of an Happy Resurrection This Nature thus communicated is as it were a Spark of the Divine Nature which gives the Body a Disposition and Aptitude to Rise again like that Vital Principle in wheat that makes it Apt to spring out of the earth again when 't is committed to the ground though it hath been laid up a long time in the Granary S. Cyril calls Christs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a living Body and so corpus vitae in some of the Latines as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Glorious Body Phil. 3. 21. Living Body meaning the Virtue of it or his Spiritual Body the Quickning Seed that is in us For Christ by Divine Influences from his body giveth vitality to our mortal Bodies by that vivifick Virtue which is communicated by the Bread it entreth into the bodies of the Faithful though it be Substantially absent And hence he argues that if the dead in our Saviours time were raised to Life onely by being touched with his Holy Body out of which there went Virtue certainly the vital 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cyril in Joan. lib. 4. cap. 14. Blessing must be much more abundant which we receive who even Taste and Communicate of it because it transforms Communicants into its own Blessed Condition that is into Immortality In like manner Ireneus proved the Certainty of a Resurrection from the Virtue and efficacy of this Sacrament supposing it a thing very Unreasonable to deny that Flesh to be capable of Incorruption which is nourished with This is plainly the meaning and force of those words of Irenaeus Quomodo dicunt Haeretici carnem in corruptionem scilicet finalem devenire non percipere vitam quae a corpore Domini sanguine alitur Quemadmodum qui est e terra panis percipiens invocationem Dei jam non communis panis est sed Eucharistia ex duabus rebas constans terrena caelisti sic corpora nostra percipientia Eucharistiam jam non sunt corruptibilia spem Resurrectionis habentia Adv. Haeres lib. 4. cap. 34. Quando mixtus calix fractus panis percipit verbum Dei fit Eucharistia sanguinis corporis Christi ex quibus augetur consistit carnis nostrae substantia quomodo negant carnem capacem esse donationis Dei quae est vita aeterna quae sanguine corpore Christi nutritur membrum ejus est Id. lib. 5. cap. 2. that Bread which carrieth with it the vital Virtues of the Flesh of our Lord because those Virtues turn to the advantage of that Body as well as of the soul by reason that our Flesh being United to the Flesh of Christ by the Spirit is by the Eucharist Prepared and Disposed for and made capable of the gift of God which is eternal Life But to conclude this point besides these arguments drawn from the Reason of the thing it self and from the sense and suffrage of Antiquity our Saviours own words are abundantly demonstrative of this matter in S. Jo. 6. The bread of God is be with cometh down from heaven and giveth Life unto the world I am that bread of Life Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead this is the bread which cometh down from Heaven that a man may eat thereof and not dye for ever I am the Living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall Live for ever and the bread that I will give is my Flesh which I will give for the Life of the world Who so eateth my Flesh and drinketh my bloud hath eternal Life and I will raise him up at the last day for my Flesh is meat indeed and my bloud is drink indeed As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me These words are so plain that they need no Explication if by eating the Bread the Meat the Flesh here spoken of we understand not of Believing the Doctrines of Christianity as some most Absurdly imagine nor of eating the very Substance of Christs Body as others most Ridiculously conceive but our partaking and communicating of the Virtues of his Flesh and Bloud which is the genuine and Catholick construction Now by a right use of this Holy Sacrament we do this effectually and consequently may be assured that as we are blest with the Spirit and Life and Communion of Christ in this world by so doing so we have an undoubted Title to a Life of Glory and Immortality in the next CHAP. XII Two Practical Conclusions from the Whole Discourse I Have now done with the Speculative or Doctrinal part of this Subject having after a plain Didactical manner delivered and asserted the true Catholick Faith concerning this Sacrament and from the consideration of those blessings which it brings with it I shall briefly draw these following Inferences and so conclude the whole matter 1. That we are not to rate this Mystery according to its Face and Outward Appearance nor judge of its efficacy and Dignity by the Elements For though our Senses do infallibly assure us that it is Bread and Wine yet our Faith ought to assure us too that it is not Common bread or Bare Wine but something more By the word and Prayer and by the Secret but effectual operation of the Holy Ghost there is besides the Natural and true Substance of the materials an Addition of Grace which is chrefly und principally to be considered by us And this is that Change of the Elements which the Catholick Church ever did believe meaning not a change of their Nature but of their Use of their Quality of their Condition As when we say such a man is turned a Christian or such a Christian is turned a Minister or such a Fabrick is turned into a Church our meaning is not that
not Mat. 6. unto you saith he treasure upon Earth willing us thereby rather to set our minds upon Heavenly treasure which ever endureth than upon Earthly treasure which by many sundry occasions perisheth and is taken away from us And yet worldly treasure must needs be had and possessed of some men as the person time and occasion doth serve Likewise Mat. 10. he said When you be brought before Kings and Princes think not what and how you shall answer Not willing us by this Negative that we should negligently and unadvisedly answer we care not what but that we should depend of our Heavenly Father trusting that by his Holy Spirit he will sufficiently instruct us of answer rather than to trust of any answer to be devised by our Wit and study And in the same manner he spake when he said It is not you that speak but it is the Spirit Mat. 10. of God that speaketh within you For the Spirit of God is he that principally putteth godly words into our mouths and yet nevertheless we do speak according to his moving And to be short in all these sentences following that is to say Call no Man your Father upon Earth Let Mat. 23. no Man call you Lord or Master Fear not Mat. 23. them that kill the Body I came not to send Mat. 10. peace upon Earth It is not in me to set Mat. 10. you at my right hand or left hand You shall Mat. 20. not worship the Father neither in this Mount Joh. 4. nor in Jerusalem I take no witness at no Joan. 5. Man My Doctrine is not mine I seek John 7. not mine I seek not my glory In all John 8. these Negatives our Saviour Christ spake not precisely and utterly to deny all the foresaid things but in comparison of them to prefer other things as to prefer our Father and Lord in Heaven above any worldly Father Lord or Master in Earth and his fear above the fear of any Creature and his word and Gospel above all worldly peace Also to prefer spiritual and inward honouring of God in pure heart and mind above local corporal and outward honour and that Christ preferred his Fathers glory above his own Now forasmuch as I have declared at length the Nature and kind of these Negative speeches which be no pure Negatives but by comparison it is easie hereby to make answer to St. John Chrysostome who used this phrase of speech most of any Author For his meaning in his foresaid homily was not that in the Celebration of the Lords Supper is neither Bread nor Wine neither Priest nor the Body of Chist which the Papists themselves must needs confess but his intent was to draw our minds upwards to Heaven that we should not consider so much the Bread Wine Priest and Body of Christ as we should consider his Divinity and Holy Spirit given unto us to our eternal Salvation And therefore in the same place he useth so many times these words think and think not Willing us by those words that we should not fix our thoughts and minds up the bread Wine Priest nor Christs body But to lift up our hearts higher unto his Spirit and Divinity without the which his Body availeth nothing as he said himself It is the spirit that giveth life the Flesh availeth Joan. 6. nothing Thus far he Therefore when you address your selves to the Table of the great God you should be full of lofty and Divine apprehensions of that hidden Treasure of Celestial Grace and Virtue which is then to be tendred unto you how mean soever the Instruments of that Grace are in their own Nature And accordingly you should go with those Holy dispositions and affections with that Reverence dread and awe of God but withal with that forwardness and swiftness of Devotion and with those transports of pleasure and joy as if you were now going to the very gate of Heaven Men should be afraid to use this important and venerable Ordinance with respect to secular and base ends only to satisfie the Laws of the Realm to save their Places their Reputation their mammon It is a most fearful act of presumption a deadly and horrid prophanation an argument of Atheistical or debaucht minds when men dare prostitute a thing of such a sacred Nature to their carnal Lusts and take the Viands of Eternity into their hands and mouths even when the Devil is in their hearts When you prepare for this solemn occasion be in good earnest with God and with your own Souls be as considerate and serious as if you were going to die be as upright in heart as if you were to take the next step to judgment When you see the Holy Table spread call home your thoughts let your minds be as composed and your Meditations be as full of Reverence as if you saw a vision and beheld the food of Angels let down from Heaven in a Sheet when the happy hour is now come that God waits to bless you with the greatest Treasure of his love begrudge not the going to his Table for it but bless God that you may have it for fetching and when you go be as pure in heart as if your lips were touched with a live Coal from off the Altar prostrate your bodies and cast your Souls down to the lowest step of humility and adore the Almighty like those Seraphims in Isaiahs Vision who covered their feet and their Faces with their wings as they cried one unto another Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory Isa 6. 2 3. When the Bread and Wine are made Sacraments and those blessed Symbols of Grace are reached out unto you think and know that the Lord of Life and Glory is now coming under your roof and great is the Peace of such as receive him with the passionate desires of affectionate Penitents that bathe his feet with their Tears and lodge him in the retirements of a clean innocent and Virgin heart And when you depart let it be with Thanksgivings and Hallelujahs and with all the expressions of grateful Souls enflamed with the Love of Jesus and with a deep sense of your Honour and Felicity that God hath vouchsafed thus to visit you with his goodness that he hath taken you into his Arms that he hath covered your offences that he hath fed you with the true Bread of Life from Heaven that he hath shed his love abroad in your hearts by the Holy Ghost which is now given unto you that he hath united you to himself by the Communication of the Divine Nature that he hath cast into you the seed of immortality and given you an earnest of a blessed Resurrection and an antepast of Heaven for all these blessings you receive at the hand of God as oft as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord after a worthy manner and as it becometh Saints
and if my Desires now are to Express this my Duty to your Grace alone I know such is my Good Lords Affection to Your Grace that he will not think it a Fault in me or if the World shall think it so will easily pardon it if your Grace will be pleased to forgive my presumption Madam I have no more to add now but to beg that your Grace will favourably accept of my humblest Acknowledgements and to beseech God whose good Providence hath knit both your Graces together that the fortunate Band may prosperously continue neither dissolved nor weakened through the long Succession of many the most happy years That those mutual Affections which are so Eminently between You Both may Vigorously Hold to a good old age and make your Graces equally Examples of the sincerest Love as of Vertue and Piety That your Grace may be a fruitful Mother of a great Race of Noble Children to inherit your Fortunes Honour and Vertue and to perpetuate your Names to the Worlds end That my Young Lord that is now in the Arms of your Love may long live a Blessing to his Parents and to the whole Nation That in the midst of those Uncertainties which the Course of this World makes us subject unto the Goodness of God may ever Rest upon your Graces and on your whole Family That God will vouchsafe to protect guide prosper and preserve you and bless you with all the blessings of heaven and earth which is the sincere and Earnest Prayer of Madam Your Graces most Humble most Obedient and Dutiful Servant and Chaplain EDWARD PELLING THE CONTENTS THe Introduction page 1 Chap. 1. Of the Nature of this Sacrament That it is a sacrifical Feast Sacrifical Feasts used both by Heathens and Jews The Analogy between those Ancient Feasts and This Especially between This and the Paschal Supper The usefulness of this observation against the Socinians p. 9. Chap. 2. Of the Ends of this Sacrament First it is a Memorial of Christs Love proved from Christs own words From its Analogy to other sacrifical Banquets and from the Proctice of the Ancient Church Two inferences the one against Romanists the other against our Dissenters p. 31 Chap. 3. The second end of the Holy Sacrament to be a Covenant Feast The Ancient and general use of Covenant-Feasts That this is such proved from its Analogy to those Ancient Covenant-Feasts among Heathens and Jews and from the Words of Christ at the Institutions Two conclusions p. 53 Chap. 4. A third end of this Sacrament is to engage us to observe the Laws of that Religion to which it doth belong Proved from the Notion of the new Covenant From the design of of Mysteries in general From its Analogy to Mystical Banquets in particular both among Heathens and Jews especially the Paschal-Supper The sense of the Church touching this matter p. 78 Chap. 5. It is to be a Pledge and a Token of Gods favour Proved from its Analogy to the Antient Feasts both among Heathens and Jews and from the words of St. Paul Two Conclusions p. 104 Chap. 6. Of the blessings we receive by a due use of this Ordinance First we Mystically participate of Christs Body and Bloud What that Mystical participation is Secondly that we receive the Pardon of Sin Proved from the correspondency of this Feast to the Ancient Sacrifical Banquets in general And from its Analogy to those Feasts which were used after Sin-offerings in particular and from the words of Christ at the Institution p. 128 Chap 7. Thirdly We really communicate of Christ Glorified The Doctrine of Transubstantiation condemned as utterly contrary to sence Reason and the Holy Scriptures p. 152 Chap. 8. The Doctrine of Transubstantiation inconsistent with and contrary to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church Proved by five Observations touching the common sense of Christians in the most ancient times A short account of the Doctrine of the Church in succeeding Ages till the twelfth Century p. 188 Chap. 9. That though there be no Transubstantiation yet Christs Body is really in the Sacrament A distinction between Christs Natural and Spiritual Body What is meant by his Spiritual Body Why so called That such a Spiritual Body there is And that it is received in and by the Sacrament p. 224 Chap. 10. That Christs Spiritual Body is actually verily and really taken and received by the Faithful in the Lords Supper Proved from the Analogy thereof to other Sacrifical Feasts among Jews and Heathens From S. Pauls Discourse 1 Cor. 10. and from the sense of the Catholick Church Several advantages gained by this Notion p. 252 Chap. 11. Other Blessings which we receive by the Sacrament As the Assistance of the Holy Spirit Proved from the Words of Christ and S. Paul The Confirmation of our Faith An intimate Union with Christ What that Union is explained and proved Lastly a Pledge of an Happy Resurrection p. 275 Chap. 12. Two Practical Conclusions from the Whole Discourse p. 306 A DISCOURSE OF THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SUPPER The Introduction COnsidering the wretched state this distemper'd Age is in beyond the condition of former Times how many Spirits among us are infected with Atheism how Debauchery of all sorts prevaileth over our Land how negligent and supine some are that talk of Religion how hypocritical others are who make use of Religion only as a Tool to further their Factious and Seditious ends how miserably we are divided into several Parties how each Party struggles for its own preservation as if the pangs of death were come upon all how the interest of our Religion is hereby weakened and its honour blemish't how the Peace of the Kingdom is endanger'd and hoâ— mischeivous these evils are likely to prove to our establisht Government in Church and State I say considering these things I humbly conceive that the most effectual way to reform and recover us is by all possible and justifiable methods to bring men to a right Christian use of that solemn Ordinance commonly called The Sacrament of the Lords Supper For to this Ordinance Men are bound to come with all gravity and seriousness with minds possest with a deep sense of vertue and true Piety with humble and holy Souls with Spirits that are ingenuous candid and tractable with hearts void of all rancour and baseness and full of Peaceableness Goodness and Charity so that were this Ordinance duly and regularly used and with a real design to do our Souls good by the use of it it would prove a blessed Restorative of the Life of Religion a certain instrument of Concord and Love and a most excellent means of making us all what we should be Good men would be at ease in their thoughts and the evil part of the World would be under a necessity of being brought to Repentance and we should soon find a new heaven and a new earth wherein Righteousness and Peace and whatsoever is desirable by rational Creatures would then dwell among us
and therefore St. Paul calls it the Annunciation the Declaration or the shewing forth of the Lords death 1 Cor. 11. 26. alluding manifestly to the Haggadah at the Jewish Passeover By this that has been spoken it doth plainly appear that this Holy Solemnity is Analogous and answerable to those Religious Feasts which were used of old and especially to the Paschal Feast which observation will help us not only to understand fully the purport of this Mystery but also to baffle the pretences of those Monsters of Hereticks the Socinians who give a very mean and contemptuous account of the Lords Supper For they take no notice of any strict engagements it lays upon us to an Holy Life they believe not the Sacrament to be a Seal of Gods favour and Grace so far are they from owning this that Socinus had the confidence Multo praestantior sine dubio respectu veteris faederis fuit sanguis ille pecudum quam respectu novi sit panis ille vinum Socin ad Epist Niemojevii to say that the blood of Beasts under the Law was of Greater efficacy and value than the Bread and Wine in this Ordinance They utterly deny that we hereby Receive any thing at the hands of God nor will they indure us to say that Gods Spirit is here given or that our Faith is here increased or that pardon of sin is here tendered or that we receive here any Pledge of a blessed Resurrection and a glorious Immortality No they explode all doctrines of this nature and teach Is finis est vitûs istius usurpandi ut beneficium a Christo nobis praestitum commemoremus seu Annunciemus nec ullus alius Cat. Eccles. Pol. that the proper end for which the Lords Supper was instituted is this that we may Commemorate the Lords Passion Nay Socinus was of opinion In caena Domini ne ipsam quidem mentionem Christi corporis pro nobis traditi sanguinis fusi disertis verbis faciendam necessariam plane esse Socin de usu fine Caenae Dom. that 't is not necessary so much as to make express mention of Christs Body being delivered or of his blood being poured out for us which yet is inconsistent with his own Principle for how can we Commemorate the Death of our Blessed Saviour without making mention of it Briefly these Blasphemous Hereticks look upon this Holy Ordinance only as the memorial Vide Excerpta ex ore Socini in fine disputationis de usu fine caenae Domini of a Friends kindness This is all they will allow and so they conclude that we may Celebrate it either sitting or standing or with our Heads covered or with Water if we will instead of Wine but to kneel or so much as to sigh with eyes lifted up at the Celebration is in their account a kind of Idolatry I confess these ill conclusions do for the most part follow from that unsound Principle that the Supper of the Lord was intended only in Commemoration of him But what reason and ground have they for this Principle Why Non ullus alius praeter hunc a Christo est indicatus finis Cat. Eccl. Pol. because say they at the institution Christ mentioned only this end Do this in remembrance of me But this is not a reason and ground sufficient For the mentioning of one end is not the excluding of others though Christ in express terms had said no more yet it doth not follow that no more was intended The very Analogy which this Feast beareth to other the like Sacrifical Feasts of old and especially to the Paschal Feast is enough to shew us the several Ends of it had our Saviour mentioned no end at all And this is the Reason that I have now taken notice of that Analogy For if such Feasts were commonly reputed to be Covenant-Rites between God and Man then we may reasonably believe that this is to be reputed so too If to eat the body of a roasted Lamb was a Pledge of Gods favour to the Jews then we may infer that to eat Bread instead of Christs body is a pledge of Gods favour to us Christians If the use of other Sacrifical Feasts did entitle the partakers to all those Benefits for which the Sacrifices were offered then we may conclude that the use of this Sacrifical Feast doth entitle the Communicants to all those benefits for which Christ our Sacrifice offered up himself and which he purchased for us Therefore the Socinians do but trifle and are very vain in pretending to teach us the full meaning of this Rite when they take no notice of that correspondence and Analogy which is between this and other ancient Rites of the like nature For this is a principal thing to be taken notice of and we cannot easily conceive what else it was which satisfied the Apostles touching the purport of this Ordinance when it was instituted first For that they presently discerned the meaning of it is clear because we do not find that they desired of our Lord any explanation at all of this mystery In other cases they were very inquisitive and sometimes about matters which we think had little need of explication being obvious to Men of common and ordinary capacities And yet at the institution of this Holy Sacrament tho it containeth some things so difficult and dark to us that they have occasioned Quarrels in all parts of the Christian world yet the Disciples were who ly silent being very sensible what such Sacred Feasts did mean in those days and what the general sense of Mankind was about them They could not but know that by eating of things which bad been offered at the Altar men undertook to observe that Religion to which that sacred Rite did belong and whereof it was a part They could not but know that by such an action they had a right to those benefits which the Sacrifice had been offered up for and so they became very nearly related to God as his Favourites and Family And when they found by our Saviouts discourse that he would offer up himself a Sacrifice for them and heard him now say of the bread in his hands this is my Body they might easily apprehend him to mean that they were to eat of Bread in the Place and Room of his flesh and instead of feeding upon his Natural Body Considering that the Lamb which was drest for the Paschal-Supper was usually called the Body of the Passeover no sooner did Christ call the Loaf His Body but they did instantly conceive it was appointed to be eaten for his Body and in liew of it especially since he had told them before that they were not to feed on him as they were wont to feed upon the Lamb after a carnal and cross manner because the Flesh profiteth nothing Joh. 6. 63. Hence they saw presently that this institution did very much resemble the Sacrifical Banquets which had been observed of old only it was
Credit of our Senses give Atheistical Spirits and all that are Enemies to our Religion advantage and Arguments to Discredit all the Doctrines of Christianity and therefore their Hypothesis is so far from being Believed that it is to be Condemned as Impious and Scandalous in the Highest degree For if when our Senses tell us this is Bread and this is Wine we may not Trust our Senses Ill men will presently draw thence this Natural Conclusion that they have no Reason to give credit to any Article of the Christian Creed especially if the Church of Rome be Infallible in this definition that mens Judgements must not be governed by what they See or feel The credibility of the whole Gospel dependeth Originally upon the Testimony of Sense and we therefore believe the Evangelical tidings to be True because we believe they were Preached by the most Holy Jesus and were Attested by God himself who by working wonders Confirmed the Doctrines which were taught by his Eternal Son Now if men over-rule the Evidence which is given by Sense I would fain know how the Subtilest Romanist can prove that there was such a one as Christ in the world or that he was not a meer Phantasm as some Hereticks thought of old Or how can they make it credible upon Sufficient grounds that Christ Preached some of those things which the Papists themselves believe or that he Confirmed his Doctrine by Miracles They must at last come to this that competent witnesses heard him deliver those Doctrines and saw his works and to all this any Infidel may answer that according to their Principle mens Senses may be Deceived and if we may not believe our Own eyes as they say we must not what reason is there to believe the Senses of Others and if All may be mistaken how can it be made appear that the History of the Gospel is not a Dream a Fancy a Fable as one of the Popes did upon a time call it The Holy Apostles proved the Truth of Christs Religion by the certainty of their Senses So S. John 1. Jo. 1. 1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our Hands have Handled of the word of Life for the Life was made Manifest and we have seen it and bear witness c. that which we have Seen and Heard declare we unto you The Expressions are ingeminated to shew the Truth and Certainty of Christs being in the Flesh and this certainty is proved by the Testimony of their Senses which undeniably argues that such a Testimony is to be taken when the Organs of Sensation are rightly disposed and the Object is suitable to the Faculty Briefly the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead is the fundamental Article upon which many others do depend for if Christ be not risen then is our Preaching in vain and your faith is also vain 1. Cor. 15. 14. Now Christ himself appealed to the Senses of his Disciples to Convince them that he was Risen indeed As they were frighted at his appearance and fancied that it was a Ghost to Satisfie them to the Full Behold said he my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones as ye see me have S. Luke 24. 39. Now if they had reason to conclude that it was their Master indeed because they heard saw and handled him why may not we aswell believe and conclude that this is Bread and Wine indeed when we see and taste and smell and feel it to be so The Apostles had the Testimony but of Three Senses we have the Testimony of Four and if our Senses must not be believed then not theirs neither and then what becomes of our Christian Religion 2. Methinks all thoughtful men should mistrust that cause which to secure it self from the danger of a Shock blinds their eyes and befools them into such absolute Bondage that they must be obliged to believe that snow is Ink and that Ice is fire But besides this secondly nothing can be more contrary to Reason than the doctrine of Transubstantiation The Spirit of man is the Candle of the Lord saith Solomon Prov. 20. 27. and 't is senseless to imagine that when God set up this luminary in our hearts his meaning was that we should mind it no more than as if we lived in utter darkness or that it should be less useful to us than the light of a Glow worm Now first this is a certain principle of Reason that a man can have but one body and so we are to conclude that Christ himself had no more But if that which he gave to his Disciples was his very Natural Body consisting of so many organical parts then had he more Bodies than one even as many as there were Morsels because it is supposed that every Disciple received the body of Christ entirely Now this is an imagination which the greatest Hereticks yet never durst to defend Some indeed held of old that Christ had no real Body at all but only an imaginary and Phantastick being which was a delusion of mens senses so the followers of Simon Magus the Marciouites and others did falsly maintain But that he had more than one natural Body properly so called none did ever affirm And yet this is the consequence of the Romish Doctrine of Transubstantiation For either his Natural body is not in the Wafer at all or else it is not there wholly and entirely or else it must be supposed to be multiplied proportionably to the number of the consecrated Wafers And hence it must follow of necessity that as at the institution of this Sacrament Christ had some Bodies which were not Crucified for the Supper was before the Passion and that body which every Apostle did eat was never Crucified so still that Christ hath an indefinite number of Bodies even as many as there are Communicants in the whole World And then where shall we find that one man Christ Jesus that St. Paul speaks of Rom. 5. 15. the gift of grace hath abounded unto many by one man Jesus Christ Again Secondly these are certain and Eternal principles of Reason that one and the same body can be but in one and the same Place at once as my body cannot be here and at the Indies in the same moment for then it would be one Body and yet not one at the same time it is certain by reason that a body must have Parts divisible and distinct the one from another as every humane Body hath a Leg distinct from the arm and the head distinct from the trunk for else it would be a body and not a body A body must be Circumscribed and limited to a determinate space proportionable to its dimensions for else it would be a finite and yet an infinite substance A body cannot be broken into pieces and yet remain entire for then it
vel Spiritualis illa atque Divina de qua ipse dixit caro mea vere est cibus sanguis meus verè est potus vel caro sanguis quae Crucifixa est qui militis effusus est lancea S. Hierom. Comment in Ep. ad Ephes cap 1. understood in a twofold sense either for the Spiritual and Divine Flesh and Bloud of which our Lord said my Flesh is meat indeed and my Bloud is drink indeed or for that Flesh and Bloud which was Crucified and which was poured out by the Souldiers Spear So doth S. Austin distinguish the Invisible the Intelligible the Spiritual Gratian. de Consecr dist 2. cap. 148. Flesh and Bloud of Christ from that Visible that Palpable Body of his which is full of Grace and of the Divine Majestie This he calls strictly and properly the Body of Christ Donec seculum finiatur sursum est Dominus sed tamen hic etiam nobiscum est veritas Domini Corpus enim Domini in quo resurrexit unto loco esse oportet Veritas autem ejus ubique diffusa est Id. cap. 144. Quaere whether it should not be read Virtus instead of veritas Whereas in some Ancient Authors and specially in S. Austin there is mention made of Veritas Domini and Veritas corporis Dominici c. I mistrust that those Expressions are corrupt and that we should read Virtus Domini and Virtus corporis c. Albertinus observed a corruption in a passage of S. Cyril Translated out of Greek into Latin by Thomas Aquinas in the Catena There 't is thus Influit Deus oblatis vim vitae convertens ea in veritatem propriae carnis whereas it should have been rendred in virtutem propriae carnis for 't is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at Albertinus shews out of Victor Antiochenus his Comment upon S. Mark preserved in the Kings Library at Paris Albertin de Sacr. Euchar. lib. 2. pag. 752. Here was a Palpable Trick so there might be in other such instances for ought we know the other he calls the truth of his Body meaning the Virtue of it and saith positively that till the end of the world the Lord is in heaven above nevertheless that the truth of the Lord is with us here below For that Body of Christ wherein he arose is necessarily to be in one place but the truth or Virtue thereof is diffused every where St. Ambrose speaking of that Body which is received in the Eucharist calls it the Spiritual S. Ambros de Mister c. 9. Body of Christ the Body of a Divine Spirit and this I confidently affirm of all the Ancients who have either purposely interpreted or occasionally quoted those words of Christ in the sixth of S. John that they all understand him to speak of our feeding upon him after a Spiritual manner and of Spiritual food of Spiritual Flesh of Spiritual Bloud which he doth give us from Heaven to eat and drink of Secretly and Undiscernably always distinguishing this Spritual Body not onely from the Substance of the Holy Elements but also from that Natural Body of Christ which he took of the Substance of the Holy Virgin 2. This then being manifest that our Saviour hath a Spiritual body of which and of which alone we do participate I am now in the next place to shew what that spiritual Body is Now by his spiritual body we mean the spiritual virtues of his glorified Body those Heavenly streams of Grace which flow from him those vital Powers which we receive into our Bosoms through him those Divine operations which our poor Souls depend upon him for those Coelestial and admirable influences which are derived to his whole Church from his Throne of Glory For the right understanding of this matter we must consider 1. That the Body of Christ is filled not only with the habitual Graces of the Holy Spirit where with he was anointed above his Brethren but filled too even with the Majesty of the God head so that in him all the fullness of the God-head dwelleth bodily that is really substantially and fully Col. 2. 9. 2. We must consider that of his fullness all we do now receive plentifully and Grace upon Grace as St. John tells us Jo. 1. 16. So that tho Christ be in Heaven above all Principalities and Powers and there is to remain until the restitution of all things yet is he unto every one of us the Source and principle of Life Virtue goeth out of him even now still he imparteth himself to us after an ineffable but effectual manner and the meanest Soul in his Church is no more hid from the Emanations of his Grace than the least Plant in a Garden is hid from the influence of the Sun Hence it is that we are said to be made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. Because we do partake of those Divine Graces and Influences which flowing from Him do transform and shapen Us into his own likeness And this is that anointing which St. John speaks of 1. Jo. 2. 20. Ye have an unction from the Holy one meaning that plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit through the Man Christ Jesus whereby the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts For Christ himself hath received the Spirit without measure and is anointed with the Oyl of gladness above his Brethren but this is like the Oyntment which was upon Aaron it was poured out upon his Head but it ran down even to the skirts of his cloathing and perfumed his whole Body So doth the Spirit of Christ descend from Him upon Us in streams of bliss and joy and every drop of comfort which falleth upon our hearts is a distillation from him whom God hath made the head of his Church At present I do only suppose what shall be shew'd by and by that every faithful Christian doth derive Virtues from the Blessed Jesus which do relieve and operate upon our Souls as those Virtues did upon the Bodies of such as were healed and relieved by him in the days of his Flesh For St. Luke tells us Luk. 6. 19. that there went Virtue out of him so that he healed them all And when that poor Woman had been healed of her bloody issue only by touching our Saviours Cloathes he himself said that virtue had gone out of him Mark 5. 30. which Story is related by St. Luke too who adds also that Jesus perceived that Virtue was gone out of him Luc. 8. 46. And if such wonders were wrought by the Virtues of his body in his state of Servitude and Humiliation we may well believe that he now casteth upon every member of his Church more Abundant Virtues and influences since his body now is infinitely Glorious and Vivifick by reason that the Divinity which was hid in him before abideth in it in its greatest plenitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Ignat. Ep. ad Ephes 3. Now these spiritual Virtues we
receive from Christ are called his Body his flesh and Blood upon these three accounts 1. First because they have the like Natural Properties which Flesh and blood hath and tend to the like Ends and Purposes to which flesh and blood serveth For as this helpeth to corroborate and animate our Bodies so do these Divine Virtues help to strengthen and enliven our Souls In which respect Christ Panis est esca sanguis vita caro substantia panis propter nutrimenti congruentiam sanguis propter vivificationis efficientiam caro propter assumptae humanitatis proprietatem Panis iste communis in carnem sanguinem mutatus procurat vitam incrementum corporibus ideoque ex consueto rerum effectu fidei nostrae adjuta infirmitas sensibili argumento edocta est visibilibus Sacramentis in esse vitae eterne effectum c. Author de Can. Domini Cyprian is to us meat indeed and drink indeed for these Spiritual Influences which spring from him are as Flesh to feed and as Bloud to preserve our Spirits to Life everlasting 2. These Spiritual Virtues do issue immediately from Christs Humane Nature and therefore when we receive them we are truly said to participate of Christs Body For the Body of Christ by being united to the Deity is become a Quickning Body This S. Cyril 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Cyril Alex. in Joan. l. 4. of Alexandria teacheth us that the Son of God is by Nature Life as being begotten of the Living Father yet nevertheless that his Holy Body is Vivifick too as being joyned and United after an ineffable manner to the Word which Quickneth all things This S. Cyril of all the Ancient Doctors I know of hath given the Fullest the Clearest the most Substantial account of this matter though what he says is very agreeable to the sense of the Rest who by Christs Real Presence in the Sacrament understood nothing else but the Presence of those Heavenly Virtues and Influences which are called his Body because they are the Distillations and Effects of his Glorified Humane Nature For as a Learned Doctor of our own Church hath confidently affirmed though the Divine Nature be the Prime Fountain of life to Dr. Jaekt son vol. 3. l. 2. c. 3. all and an inexhaustible Fountain in it self yet a Fountain it is whereof we cannot drink save as it is derived to us through the Humane Nature of Christ And though God the Father doth convey unto us many inestimable blessings yet he conveys them only through his Son and not only through him as our Advocate or Intercessor but through him as our Mediator that is through his Humanity as the Organ or Conduit So that we are as truly said to partake of Christs Body when we partake of these Blessings as we can be said to partake of a Spring when we drink of the Waters which stream and flow from it 3. Besides nothing is more usual among Mankind than to give the Denomination of things to the Virtue and efficacy of those things So we are said to be warmed with the Fire when we onely feel its Heat and to have the benefit of the Sun when we are comforted onely with its Rayes Which Two Similitudes I make use of the rather not onely because they serve to illustrate the matter in hand but also because S. Chrysostome calls that Heavenly thing we receive at Sacrament Spiritual Fire and because the Holy Scripture it self calls our Ad Pop. Antioch Hom. 60. Saviour the Sun of Righteousness And as it is not Improper to say that the Sun though it be at a vaste distance from us reacheth every corner of the Earth so that in the Fields in our Houses in our Closest Retirements we feel it and nothing is hid from it from the moss upon the wall to the Vegetables that are wrapped up in the bosome of the earth when yet all these are cherisht not by the Sun it self but by its Beans onely so it is not a Paradox to believe that the Sun of Righteousness casteth his Influences from above and quickens his Church and every part thereof so that every heart that is not quite Dead in Trespasses and Sins Ecclesia corpus Christi effecta obsequitur capiti suo superius lumen in inferior a diffusum claritatis suae plenitudinae a fine usque ad finem attingens totum apud se manens totum se omnibus commodat caloris illius identitas it a corpori assidet uta capite non recedat Panis itaque hic azymus cibus verus sincerus per speciem Sacramentum nos tactu Sanctificat c. De Caena Dom. opusc S. Cypriano ascript like a Rotten Root Receives the benefit of his Operations neither is it any Impropriety of speech to say that our hearts are wrought upon by the Body of Christ that we are Partakers of his Body that we are enlivened and comforted by his very Body when we receive those Spiritual Virtues which are darted from that Glorified Body of his which is in Heaven 4. By this time I hope it doth appear how necessary the distinction is between Christs Natural and Spiritual Body and what is meant by that Spiritual Body and why it is so called I proceed next to shew that He hath indeed such a Spiritual Body wherewith he really quickneth and strengthneth every faithful Christian For the clearing hereof we must observe our Saviours discourse which the Jews in the sixth chapter of S Johns Gospel by occasion of their speaking of the Miracle of the Manna he told them that he would give his followers the true Bread from Heaven that his Flesh which he would give for the life of the World should be that Heavenly Bread that his Flesh should be meat indeed and his Bloud drink indeed and that it was necessary for every one who hoped for life to eat that Flesh and to drink that Bloud of his To conceive as the Socinians and some other modern Writers do that by his Flesh is meant his Doctrine only and that by eating his Flesh and drinking his Bloud is meant the Believing of his Doctrine and no more to me seems a forced a foreign and very weak Notion and an inexcusable act of Singularity For all the Fathers of the Greek and Latin Churches do with one mouth interpret our Saviours discourse of that Spiritual Communication of his Flesh and Bloud wherewith every good Christian is blest Now that our Saviour might make this credible and easie to his Auditors that his Flesh and Bloud should be meat and drink to the Souls of his Disciples he opens the matter to them these two ways 1. By intimating to them that he was to Ascend up in his Body into Heaven vers 62. what if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before For this reason saith Athanasius he put them in mind of his Ascension 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas in illud si
Body of Christ that is doth it not work this in Us that our bodies participate of the Immortality and glory of our Head This is the meaning saith he that the participation of the Bread and Cup of the Lord hath this effect that our souls and Bodies are thereby made conformable and Like to the soul and Body of our Redeemer We eat Id. in 1. ad Cor. cap. 11. and drink even to the participation of Christs Spirit so that we are the members of his Body and are enlivened by his Spirit Indeed Anselm was but a late Writer in comparison for he lived in the 11th Century But in this he spake the sense of the Ancient Doctors of the Catholick Church whose faith it was that Christs Humane nature by being united to the Deity hath a Quickning faculty so that all true believers do receive Quickning Virtues from him specially by a due use of the blessed Eucharist That this was the Catholick faith appears by one pregnant instance which hath not been taken notice of by many Writers upon this Subject A little above 400 years after our Saviour Nestorius the Heretick taught that the Divinity and Humanity of our Lord was not united in one person Upon this a General Council met at Ephesus and unanimously condemned this Heresie S. Cyril of Alexandria was a great man at the Council and had a great hand in the condemnation of Nestorius and one Reason he gave to justifie their proceedings was this because Nestorius by that his Doctrine made void the Virtue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Ephes of the Sacrament And how did they conclude so why this was the principle of S. Cyril and the rest of them that the Body of Christ is Vivifick and that the Souls of Communicants live by receiving Vital Virtue from it Now if as Nestorius said the Divinity and Humanity of Christ be not United it is impossible for his Flesh to yield any Life because no flesh quickneth of it self neither can Christs flesh Quicken but by the power of the Word Seeing therefore that Heretick denyed the Union between the Word and the Flesh of Christ it would follow of necessity that the Body of Christ is not vivifick and consequently that we receive no vital virtue from it at the Sacrament which Doctrine being contrary to the Common Faith the Author of it Nestorius and his followers were very justly Anathematiz'd Whosoever reads the History of that Council with indifferency of judgement may easily perceive that the sence of the Church at that time was that at the Holy Communion men receive Divine and heavenly Virtues from our Saviours glorified Humanity so that we live by Him through the Communication of his Virtues as he himself lived by the Father through the Communication of his Nature And I am sufficiently satisfied that this was the faith of the Catholick Church both before that Councel and also for many ages after it Thus when St. Ignatius intimates that the Eucharist is the Flesh of Christ 't is clear to me that he meant Christs spiritual Flesh as Clemens Alexandrinus and St. Jerome expresly called it meaning the Spiritual Virtue of his flesh by reason of its Hypostatical Union with the Deity When Ireneus said that the Eucharist consisteth of two things the Earthly and the Heavenly thing 't is plain that by the Heavenly thing he meant not Christs solid Natural Body but that Heavenly Grace and Virtue which goeth along with the Sacrament When Justin Martyr compared the Mystery of the Eucharist with the Mystery of the Incarnation I cannot doubt but he meant that as in the one there was a Personal union between Humanity and Divinity so in the other there is a Sacramental Union between Bread and Spirit when the Pseudo Dionysius affirms De Eccl. Hier. c. 3. that by the Sacrament we Communicate of the Divine things of Christ 't is but fair to understand him to speak of those Divine Virtues and influences wherewith the Holy Jesus doth bless every humble and devout heart When Clemens Alexandrinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Paedag. lib. 2. c. 2. distinguisheth the spiritual Blood of Christ from that which is fleshly and moreover saith that by drinking the bloud of Jesus is meant the being made partaker of the Lords Incorruption any man may see that he spake of the Spiritual Virtues of Christs Blood whereby we are purified sanctified and fitted for a blessed Immortality When Theodotus affirmed that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodot in fine oper Clem. Alex. pag. 800. the power of the Spirit the Bread is changed into a spiritual virtue his plain meaning was that there is a change not of the substance but of the quality of the Bread so that by the manducation thereof spiritual Virtue is given to the worthy Receiver When Origen speaking of the Bread calls it the Typycal and Symbolical Body of Christ or the figure and Type In Matth. 15. of it and then presently mentions by way of distinction the Word it self which was made flesh and is the true food which whosoever eateth shall live for ever it is most reasonable to understand him to speak of that vital and Divine virtue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Catech. m yst-8 which goes along with the symbol and is derived from the Word which is the suitable food of the Soul as bread is of the Body When Athanasius understands by the flesh of Athanas in illud quicunque dixerit verbum c. Christ that Heavenly food from above that spiritual Alimony which Christ gives us from Heaven what else could he mean but those Divine and Caelestial Virtues whereby he strengthneth and refresheth every craving Soul tho in the substance of his Natural body he be absent from us When according to Julius Fermicus Ipse ut Majestatis suae substantiam credentibus tradens ait nisi edevitis carnem filiis hominis c. Jul. Firmic de Errore Profan Gent. in Bibliotheca Patrum the receiving the substance of Christs Majesty is the very same thing with the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his Blood what can he mean by the substance of Christs Majesty but those substantial and Divine influences which come from his Throne of Glory whereby we are made partakers of the Divine Nature as St. Peter Si ergo nos naturaliter secundum carnem per eum vivimus id est Naturam carnis suae adepti c. Hilar. de Trin. lib. 8. speaks or as St. Hilary expresseth it whereby we are made partakers of the Nature of his Flesh glorified when St. Cyril of Jerusalem saith of the Bread as he did of the Oyntment which was used in those days that after St. Cyril Cateeh 3. Invocation it is not any common or inconsiderable thing but the gift of Christ and of the Holy Spirit made efficacious by the presence of his God-head how
made partakers of the Nature of Christ and consequently it must be granted that we partake thereby of the Spirit of Christ For considering that the fullness of the Deity dwelleth in him considering that he hath received the Spirit without measure and considering that of his Fullness we receive by this Ordinance according to our capacities and wants we must conclude that we receive of his Spirit whatever the Socinians affirm to the contrary Secondly S. Paul hath put the thing out of doubt if we will but observe his meaning in 1 Cor. 12. 13. where he saith that by one Spirit we are all Baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit The Apostles design there is to perswade Christians to Unity and Love and he useth this as an argument because they have all received one Spirit first at their Baptism and afterwards at the Lords Supper there they all drink of one Spirit or as some conceive it should be read they are all drenched For the Socinians themselves grant a Redundancy in that Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idque redundat utrumque Hebraea Phrasi Slichtingius in 1 Cor. 12. 13. with one and the same Spirit quasi potionati Spiritu as S. Jeromes expression is by receiving very liberal These Pharses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide Chrysost in Locum And Clemens Alex. reards it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which cannot favour the fancy of the Socinians who understand the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in reference to our Spiritual washing in Baptism for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 plainly relates to our drinking at the other Sacrament and to our receiving of the Spirit by it measures of the Spirit at the Sacrament To drink the Spirit and to drink into the Spirit are Phrases here of the same importance they signifie the receiving of the Spirit in a very plentiful measure and S. Pauls expression doth constrain us to believe that we receive the Spirit plentifully by drinking of the Sacramental Cup. Indeed this must not be understood so as if the Holy Spirit were first given us at the Lords Table For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His nor is he fit to be a Communicant For every one ought to use this Ordinance being well prepared with a lively Faith towards God with sincere Repentance from dead works and with unfeigned Charity to all Mankind as shall be shewn hereafter and these virtues are wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ who divideth to every man severally as he pleaseth and as every one needs The meaning therefore is that by eating and drinking after a worthy manner great Additions are still made to our former stock Here is an Improvement of every Talent of Grace which was put into our hands before Here that Holy seed which was sown in our hearts by Baptism is nourisht and made very fruitful by fresh Influences from Heaven For as the Spirit is given us by measure so is it given by degrees too and every Ordinance of God brings a portion of the Spirit if our hearts be but ready and our bosomes be but open to receive it But at this Ordinance men receive a double portion so that to him that hath much more is given and Quotiescunque bibis remissionem peccatorum accipis inebriaris Spiritu Sancto Ambros de Sacram. l. 5. c. 3. he hath more abundantly and by drinking duely of the sacred Chalice we are inebriated with the Holy Ghost as S. Ambrose said if the Books de Sacramentis be his And if we may have leave to guess at the reasons why our blessed Saviour was pleased to continue the use of bread and wine at this Mystery which he himself instituted instead of the Passeover we may conjecture this reason to have been one that they might signifie that variety and abundance of Grace which he gives us by our worthy eating and drinking of these Elements For bread and wine are the most principal and most substantial sorts of nutriment the one serves to strengthen mans heart the other to make it glad Ps 104. 15. Now the designation of these two things to this Sacred use intimates that plentiful Assistance and Recruit which is by this Holy Rite given unto all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity They have not only so much as is necessary for their support but such a portion of the Spirit too as is productive of chearfulness and pleasure in the ways of Religion This was eminently verified in the case of the Primitive Christians who had this Mystery in such great esteem and were fitted by it for the sharpest afflictions that could be brought upon them They had not only the tongues but the hearts of Saints and Religion was not matter of their discourse but of their practice They overcame the World and were more than Conquerours their constancy was as firm as the Rocks their Prayers went up daily as the Incense their Zeal was like the fire upon Gods Altar that went not out their Charity was as active as the Flames and as large as the World their Love of Christ was so vigorous and fervent that they sang in Prisons and rejoyced in their torments and at the very stake and I cannot so well impute the reason of this to any other thing as to their frequent and religious use of this blessed Sacrament I am sure they themselves believed that the Holy Ghost did both Sanctify those things which were to be distributed at the Communion and did also enter into the heart of every Faithful Receiver Hence it was that they thought it the greatest punishment that could be inflicted upon them in this world to be deprived of the Sacrament concluding that they were thereby cut off from all fellowship with God Hence it was that Penitents were wont to beg the Prayers of good Christians upon their knees at the Church-doors and were content to undergo any the severest Penance that they might have the liberty to go to the Altar of God again And hence it was too that on all occasions especially in times of danger or distress they flocked together in crowds and throngs to the Holy Table because this was the most certain and the most effectual course they could take to arm themselves so with the Spirit of God that they might persevere in well doing and endure all their conflicts and agonies as it became the Hearty Disciples of a crucified Jesus It being clear therefore that large measures of the Spirit are given by this Ordinance this conclusion will serve as a principle to infer another viz. that those Divine Graces wherewith our Souls are endued are hereby increased and strengthned and particularly that our Faith in Christ is very much Confirm'd at and by this Ordinance For the Spirit of God is never given to vain or
World now by eating of bitter Herbs only certified and convinced and confirm'd in their Faith touching the truth of that deliverance It cannot be denied but that story was made undoubtedly credible by that Mystery because that Mystery was instituted and appointed by God himself upon that occasion so that from that rite any man might conclude that the matter of Fact to which it did relate was beyond all controversie true Why this Christian Rite is of the like signification and use to us as the Paschal Solemnity was to them Though to unbelievers and Hereticks it may seem a thing of a very mean Nature yet considering the reason of its institution and designation it serveth very much to comfort the Hearts and to strengthen the Faith of such as look into it well For it is the memorial of our spiritual deliverance by that Holy Lamb of God which took away the Sins of the World and because we are commanded by him who is the way the truth and the Life to Celebrate this memorial to that End and under that Notion we may be assured that the thing whereof it is a memorial was most certainly True we are hereby certified that Christ our Passeover was Sacrificed for our sins indeed and so our Faith is Confirmed by this Mystery that with Christ there is Plenteous Redemption for us all if we will but quit our bondage and accept of that deliverance which he hath purchased for us by the effusion of his most sacred blood Our Souls being thus establisht by a well grounded Faith another invaluable blessing accrues unto us still For hereby we are closely and if we our selves do not dissolve the band inseparably United to the Lover and Redeemer of our Souls the same Holy Spirit which strengthens our Faith making us also partakers of Christs Nature so that we dwell in him and he in us we are one with him and he with us Exhortat before the Communion as our Church teacheth I confess this is an abstruce speculation and that which many Divines have laboured hard to open to our understanding though all of them have not laboured with equal success Some call it a personal and Mystical Union that is between Christ and every true Believer and in some sense they call it rightly so for this personal Union as some fanciful Men talk of it is such a Mystical business indeed that it is an unaccountable and unintelligible Notion Others calls it and with more Reason and clearness a Moral and political Union and I wish that some in this Age were not so peevish as to be angry at every word that comes not out of their own Mint nor clinks according to their own fancy but would be so charitable and Candid as to give one another grains of allowance considering the unavoidable weaknesses of our Nature for many times 't is hard for us to Conceive of things rightly and sometimes 't is much harder for us to express and utter our Conceptions Now for the due understanding of this matter I conceive that there is a four-fold Union which relateth most to our present business 1. Such an Union as is between the Foundation of a Fabrick and the superstructure which are made one House by being fastned together with the same pins and Cement 2. Such as is between Husband and Wife who become one Flesh by being knit together by the same consent and Love 3. Such as is between a King and his Subjects who become one Society by being linked together by the same Laws 4. Such as is between a root and the boughs which become one Tree by being nourisht with the same moisture and between the head and the Members which are made one Body by being animated with the same Soul Now our Union unto Christ beareth a Resemblance and similitude with all these though it be above them all and it increaseth in degrees according as we grow more and more perfect Then are we one with Christ when we heartily believe his Doctrines when we love him and set our affections upon him when we submit to his Government and obey his Laws when we put our selves out of our own power and resign up our selves to his command and when our own wills are entirely Subject and Conformable to his This is that Moral Union whereby we are fastned to him as to the Foundation and corner Stone of his Church whereby we are Joyned to him as to the Foundation and corner Stone of his Church whereby we are Joyned to him as to the Bridegroom of our souls and whereby we are Related to him as to our Sovereign Head and Lord. Upon no other Terms but these will he own us to be his and when men talk after that wilde and Iewd rate as if Christ were all theirs though they be of an Unchristian Temper and live in open Disobedience to the Laws of Christianity 't is the same thing as if they should say that such may be the Sons of God as are not led by the Spirit of God which is contrary to what S. Paul teacheth us Rom. 8. 14. But yet there seems to be besides this Moral Union a Closer Band between Christ and his Church and that which is the efficient Cause of our abundant Love and Obedience to him and this I call as some of the Ancients did an Union of Nature For as our Humane Nature dwelleth in Christ by means of that Hypostatical Union of our Flesh in his Person so doth Christs Divine Nature dwell in Us by means of a Mystical Union of his Spirit with our Souls The same Spirit which is in him is Communicated to Us also and by Virtue of that Communication we are transformed into his Image his Nature is Graffed in Ours so that we are of a New Constitution and mould and every Lively Member of his Church by Participating of his Spirit is of the same mind with him of the same Temper frame and Disposition that is Holy Humble Heavenly-minded Just Pure Good Charitable Compassionate Kinde and Obedient as he himself was To do men of Learning right they who dispute about Christs being a Political Head do not at all Deny but plainly Own his being an Influential Head too Nor can any thing be more clear then that we derive Influences from him as every member Dr. Sherlocks defence of his Book against Owen pag. 505. in ones Body deriveth Influences from the Head so that we are animated with the Life of Christ there is as it were one and the same Soul in Him and in his Church for he that is joyned unto the Lord is One Spirit 1. Cor. 6. 17. I am the S. Aug. in loc Vine thy are the Branches saith our Saviour Jo. 15. 5. The Vine and the Branches are of One and the same Nature the same Vital Humour which is in the Root is Transmited and Communicated to every living Twig and for that reason did our Saviour use that Similitude to shew that as
his when he became Incarnate so his Nature is United to Ours when we eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud And this we infallibly do when we worthily celebrate this Holy Mystery Though in some cases men may eat his Flesh and drink his Bloud Spiritually and by faith alone without the Sacrament yet we do it much more and more effectually by the Sacrament and consequently we must be supposed to be more nearly United to him by means of this Ordinance then by any other means whatsoever Hence it was as some of the Ancients tell us that Christ appointed the use of such Creatures as are of a Nourishing faculty for so Bread and Sicut cibus materialis forinsecus nutrit corpus vegetat ita etiam verbum Dei intus animam nutrit roborat c. Raban de Serm. proprietate lib. 5. cap. 11. Wine are to shew that as there is a Natural Incorporation of our nourishment into our Flesh so there is a Spiritual Incorporation if I may so speak of Christ into our souls And hence it is that others of them compare the Spirit of Christ which is received by the Sacrament to Leaven representing to us by that Similitude that there is such a Diffusion Cyril Alex. in Joan. l. 4. cap. 17. of Spiritual Virtue throughout the soul as there is of ferment that leaveneth the whole Lump into which it is cast And Id. lib. 10. c. 13. hence it is that S. Cyril also compares the Mixture of Christ's Nature with Ours to the Mixture of wax with wax when several pieces of wax are melted and incorporated together All these Notions and Similitudes and divers more such which we meet with in the writings of the Ancients do shew that by eating Christs Flesh and drinking his Bloud especially at and by the Sacrament we do so participate of his Spirit of his Virtues Influences and Divine Nature as that Christ and we do become One * Quemadmodum intelligit Cyrillus Glaphyr in Genes lib. 7. Christum se in animas immittere per Gratiam virtutem Spiritus sic etiam sensus ipsius est eum corpora ingredi per virtutem corporis sui Eucharistiae communicatam nec ulterius urgendae sunt comparationes quas affert mixtionis scentillae ignis caerae fermenti Albertinus ubi supr pag. 761. And thence followeth the last inestimable blessing that I shall mention a Blessing that we carry with us to the very Grave viz. an Assurance and Pledge of a Glorious Resurrection It is appointed unto man once to dye Heb. 9. 27. This Sentence having past upon our Parents in Paradise Nature it self doth now Execute it upon their Posterity For as none can bring a clean thing out of an Unclean so none can bring an Incorruptible thing out of a Mortal We dye of course Christ that took on him the burden of our sins did not take off this weight from us though he delivered us from all Necessity of tumbling into Hell yet there are wise and great Reasons for which he did not think it fit for him to keep us from falling into the Grave But yet that we may dye in Hope in hope of a joyfull Resurrection as corn is committed to the earth in hope of a good Harvest Christ doth by this Sacrament take Seisure of our Bodies by communicating to us his Own and so uniting us to himself that he may change our vile Body and make it like unto his own Glorious Body according to the mighty Energy whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. 13. Hence it is that the Church in her wisdome hath thought it convenient that men should often receive this Sacrament especially in times of danger distress and Sickness to the end that they may make their peace with God and with their own Consciences and may go out of this world with firm and well grounded hopes both of a plenary Absolution and of an Happy Resurrection For this Sacrament is an Earnest to assure all worthy Communicants that these very Bodies of theirs in which Infirmities and death do now Lodge shall be raised again out of the dust being nourisht as it were out of the veins of our Redeemer These Elements are the Symbols of our Resurrection the Medicine of Immortality the Antitode that keeps us from Final Corruption the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep ad Ephes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanal Conservatory for a Resurrection to Eternal Life That which hath been spoken already doth make this evident sufficiently 1. For first it is sure that by the Sacrament we receive the Spirit of Christ and since the same Spirit is communicated to Us that dwelleth in Him it must necessarily follow that it shall have the same power over our Flesh which it had over His to raise it up again at the day appointed Thus S. Paul himself argueth Rom. 8. 11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you 2. Secondly seeing the Holy Communion is an instrument of Uniting even our Bodies unto him who is the Head over all so that the members of our Bodies are the very members of Christ and we become as it were bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh less cannot follow then that our Bodies shall be made Immortal as His is it being impossible that any thing which is His should perish everlastingly To effect such an Union as is between Christ and his Church it is not necessary nor possible that there should be a confusion or conjunction of bodily Substances It sufficeth that there is a Contact of Spiritual Vertue from the Flesh of Christ Now this Vertue goes along with the Sacrament and is received by every faithful Communicant so that it doth affect even his Body Sanctifying and Appropriating it to the Saviour of our Souls and Bodies both and making our whole man His. And this Union cannot in any wise be dissolved by Death because Death is onely a Separation of the Soul from the Body so that for that time the one loseth all vital activity from the other but neither of them doth or can lose its Title to Christs Protection the Body continueth still related unto its Head as in time of its Life and the Union between Christ and it remaineth entire and so its Right to a glorious Resurrection through Christ is indefeisable In this respect our Condition is very like to the Condition of the Son of God when he himself was in a state of Death He dyed as we do though to purposes infinitely Great and with torments unspeakably Excessive his Spirit was actually sever'd from his Flesh when he gave up the Ghost Nevertheless though his Flesh had no manner of vitality from his Humane Soul being really Separated from it yet it was not separated from the Deity
to mean purposes but his office is by kindly and gracious operations to renew mens minds and to bring their hearts still more and more to such a temper and frame as is suitable to the Laws of the Gospel So that our drinking of the Spirit at the Holy Communion must necessary have this effect that those good things are establisht which were wrought in us before by the Spirits Energy Noâ— is this any more than what Devout Communicants find to be true by their own experience their minds are then fixt upon things of Heaven their sense of Christs Love is then strong their affections to him are then warm their hope in him is then lively and comfortable their Charity to others is then great and their whole Soul is full of the most ravishing Pleasures so that were men careful not to stifle or resist the Spirit but to keep themselves so well disposed all their time as they are when they go from the Lords Table it would be impossible either for their salvation to be insecure or for their minds to be uneasie And yet Faustus Socinus will by no means allow our Faith to be at all Confirm'd by the use of the Lords Supper He looks upon that Holy Rite as a work of our own as he is pleas'd to call it as an ordinary thing that we do among one another in Commemoration of the Lords Death but not as a Mystery whereby we receive any benefit any advantage from God But though the Heretick be so admired as a great man of sense and reason yet he trifles altogether and talks Impertinently and Idly upon this as he doth Sophistically upon the Rest of his own notions For why doth not the celebration of this Mystery confirm our Faith Why saith Socinus the distribution of the bread and wine cannot do it because they are mean things which testifie Nec enim panis ille fractus a nobis comestus vinumque in poculum infusum a nobis epotum oftendunt nobis aut suadent vere Christi Corpus pro nobis fractum fuisse c. Socin de usu S. Caen. nothing which shew no reasons for our Faith nor contain any thing that perswadeth us to believe that Christs Body was Broken or that his Bloud was shed for us Now the Heretick and his followers in this argument do first mistake the Question for we do not say that the bare distribution of the Elements is the thing which serveth to help and strengthen our faith but that this is done by the whole action Now the whole Action containeth Prayers and praises a rehearsal of the Institution and a declaration of Christs Passion as well as a division of the Creatures of Bread and Wine All these things come under the Notion of the Eucharist and each of them ministreth to the confirmation of our faith especially since they all concur in the same Action because they were appointed by Christ himself to be done in Commemoration of his death and consequently do suppose and argue that he died indeed 2. So that Secondly these men are false and deceitful in this their way of reasoning that the Sacrament is no Proof of our Lords Passion For 1. St. Paul saith plainly that as often as we eat this Bread and drink this Cup we do shew forth the Lords Death 1 Cor. Nec oftendunt nobis aut suadent c ubi supr 11. 26. which in express terms contradicteth the Doctrine of Socinus This is an outward Testimony for my faith to rely up on 2. The Holy Spirit is given as hath Nonne ad credendum Evangelio Spiritus sancti interiore dono opus est Non Catech Sect. 6. cap. 6. been proved with the Bread and Wine and by his secret operation I am perswaded to believe the Article of Christs Passion to be true That 's an inward Confirmation of my Faith though I suppose the Socinians may not value that because they allow not Faith to be the effect of the Spirits operation 3. Considering that this Ordinance was instituted by Christ himself as a memorial of his death and that he hath appointed us the use of it for that reason and upon that account this is evidence and proof enough to convince me that he suffered and died of a truth The Divine institution and command together with the meaning End and Design of it this is that which we ought Quid insulsius quam si quis ita argumentaretur nos panem istum frangimus comedimus idque ut praedicemus Christum corpus Sanguinem suum pro nobis tradidisse Igi ur verum est ita Christum fecisse Socin in Append ad scriptum de Caena Dom. particularly and carefully to regard and then if I argue thus we eat Bread and drink Wine by the Divine appointment and institution that we may declare that Christ gave his Body and blood for us and therefore it is very true that Christ did so this is no absurd argumentation as that wicked Impostor had the confidence to say it is rather a very rational and clear way of reasoning for why should I believe that Christ would command me to commemorate that which is an untruth It is a plain argument that Christ did dye because he hath required us to Celebrate this Mystery in memory of his Passion and consequently it is true that the Celebration of this mystery is for the confirmation of our faith The meaning and signification of this Mystery is the thing which we are principally to consider and to illustrate this matter briefly by two familiar instances let us consider that common Phaenomenon in the air which we call the Rainbow If you ask a Philosopher about it he will tell you that t is nothing but a Meteor the Natural effect of such and such Natural causes but the Christian will tell you that it is a Token of that promise which God made of old unto Noah and therefore when we see the Rainbow we may assuredly believe that tho the World was once drowned with a Flood it shall never be destroyed by Waters again Thus the signification and meaning of that thing is for the Confirmation of our Faith tho' there be not groundse nough for this perswasion from the Nature of the thing it self 2. Again let us consider that ancient Mystery the Passeover Supper the eating of a Lamb with bitter Herbs to the ignorant Pagan might seem but an Ordinary meal or perhaps a silly because unpleasant Ceremony but to the Jews it was a Rite of great signification because it was a memorial of Gods Mercy to their Fathers in delivering them out of Egypt and therefore God commanded even their Posterity to keep it with all diligence and solemnity Now let me ask the Socinian was not this memorial thus instituted thus appointed sufficient grounds for all the Jews in after-ages to believe that the History of that deliverance was true Nay are not all the Jews in the