The Cause of this Sinne viz. Not discerning the Lords Body §. 1. 2. THe cause of this sinne of eating unworthily is not discerning the Lords body ver 2â— The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to make difference between one thing and another Act. 15. 9. Heb. 5. 14. and in this place to discern and put a difference between two and those two things as the common streame runs are common bread and wine and this Bread and Cup of the Lord which are imploy'd to another use and end than promiscuous and common bread at your own tables for this is called the Bread of the Lord the Body of Christ in respect of signification and use I finde no fault with this exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Justin We receive not this Bread as common bread nor this Cup as common wine which hath no other use than to refresh the body I say I finde no fault but why may not Not discerning the Lords Body signifie thus much Not minding the body of Christ signified by the Bread but looking all upon the shell or sign and not the kernel or inward thing which should be regarded with greatest intention Let me not offend in the terms of this distinction §. 2 §. 2. What it is not to discerne the Lords Body speculatively There is a speculative discerning of the Body of Christ and there is a practical The speculative discerning is the notion or knowledge of the signification of the outward elements That the Bread and Wine do represent Christs Body and Bloud That the Bread broken represents his Body broken c. This is an easie piece of knowledge as easie as to know that a picture or figure do represent such a man and there is no great measure of knowledge to construe all parts or rites of the Sacrament into a true meaning In this sense not to discern the Lords body is directly to inhere and stick in the bread and wine as bread and wine and to take the picture for the man It may be there be some such bruitish ignorants that discorn not the meat from the dish nor the marrow from the bone such as these are are fit to be excluded because where there is no Analogy holden there can be no Sacrament The Analogy I say between the outward Sacrament and inward thing must either be known or it is to us no Sacrament For a similitude resemblance or Analogy must be between two things at least and therefore those that in a blinde and bruitish ignorance know nothing but the outward part do not properly receive a Sacrament but are like the carnal Jews that knew not the meaning of their Sacrifices or of those types of Christ which they had The brazen Serpent was Christ the Rock they drank of was Christ but many of them dream'd not of him in the use of them I do not believe these Corinthians men of such knowledge were such bruits for the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 16. speaks to them as wisemen who knew this saying The Bread we break Is it not the Communion of the body of Christ c. Therefore §. 3 §. 3. What it is not to discerne the Lords Body practically The practical discerning of the Lords body is when the body and bloud of Christ are so minded and intended as to compose the inward man and the outward behaviour of the Communicant into such a posture of spirit and carriage as is suitable to Christs body and bloud there offered and exhibited unto faith and the not discerning the Lords body is when the behaviour is so loose and rude the inward man so discomposed and carnal as that interpretative they may be said not to minde or not to discern the Lords body So we would say of one whose carriage is wanton and loose in the presence of his fathers corpse lying in presence in a coffin or beer you doe not minde you consider not who lies there because if he did another countenance and carriage would beseem him and so the Corinthians are taxed here for such carriage of theirs as proclaim'd they had no serious thoughts no sad and fixed minde upon Christ bleeding and broken for that consideration would have bespoken another frame of spirit and forme of behaviour The result of this explication is The Apostle gives us a two-fold cause of eating and drinking unworthily 1. If we understand not know not the Analogy or resemblance of the bread and wine to the body and bloud of Christ but stick in the rind or shell and feed only on the husks as upon common bread and common wine and resting in that as knowing not the use or end which makes the difference which renders all bruitish ignorant people unworthy receivers And how should I make them know the danger that know not thus fâ—rre of the use of this Ordinance Willingnesse to be taught would help it if they were not more willing to runne blindefold into the pit than proudly unwilling to discover their fillinesse and ignorance and if they be unwilling It 's no cruelty but charity to keep a blinde man from running into a pit 2. If we understand the meaning of the outward elements by rote or notional knowledge but do not seriously and with a fixed intention consider and look wishly upon Christs body and bloud represented offered and to be exhibited to our faith for this will compose our outward behaviour and inward spirit this bespeaks faith repentance affections suitable this composes us unto reverence and serious behaviour Imagine the very Body of the Lord Jesus was presented to your eye broken bruised bleeding for thy sinnes under the stroke of Gods terrible justice and so offer'd unto thee for thy salvation Would not thy soul raise up all affections and muster up all it's forces to receive him to open to him to thirst after him to admire and praise him And doth not God in this Ordinance really hold him forth to thee as such and so to be received The nature of the feast to which we are invited teaches us how to dresse our selves To a funeral we come in mourning to a marriage in a wedding-garment The very minding of the body of Christ teaches men to come worthily that is suitably and the not minding of it with fixed intention is the cause that we come loosly carnally and so unworthily CHAP. XXXI The Aggravations of the Sinne of Vnworthy Receiving §. 1. 3. THe aggravation of unworthy receiving follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He shall be holden guilty of the body and bloud of the Lord or God will judge and repute him guilty of the body of Christ unworthily received and entreated or guilty of the unworthy handling or of the contempt and violation of Christs body and blood the memorial of whose death is prophaned by your irreverence and this appointed means of your participation of it is undervalued What a high sound is there in these words He shall be guilty of the Body and
passion and sufferings the death and bloudshed of our Lord had not been sutable to him in his lowest estate and darkest eclipse if it should have shined in outward lustre It was Tertullians Observation Nihil obdurat c. nothing Lib. de baptisme so hardens the mindes of men as the simplicity of the works and yet the magnificence of the promise that great and glorious things should be found under so plain a dresse as a rich diamond in a plain case to the end that the eye of faith might be more exercised then the eye of the body and that the spiritual and inward part might be looked after and intended Is not this the Carpenters sonne was a great stumbling block and so may the simplicity of the two Sacraments be to us The Temple Utensils and Service were rich and stately Christ was prefigured in golden Types But grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1. 17. But we have a better Covenant and better Promises Heb. 8. 6. And if that which is done away was glorious much more that which remains exceeds in glory 2 Cor. 3. 7 8 9 10 11 c. but that was an outward this an inward glory that was in Moses face this in the face of Christ that the carnal Jew might see this the spiritual Christian seeth We saw his glory Joh. 1. 14. or rather there the glory was veiled But we with open face behold the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 13 18. The glory of their Ordinance was a stumbling block to them for they rested in the cabinet and looked not for the jewels The meannesse of our Ordinances are a stumbling block to us for we look not for the treasure in such earthen vessels God doth great things by poorest meanes Jericho's wals fall at the sound of Rams-horns the fiery sting is healed by a piece of brasse the sight restored to the blinde by the use of spittle and clay The figure in this Sacrament is poor the thing signified heavenly and rich the Seal is mean the inheritance or estate is great but why were the types so rich and our memorials so poor You know Spectacles are for divers sights they had finer Spectacles we better eyes They had lesse spirit stirring in the Ordinances then than we now if their Tree had more shadow we have more fruit §. 2. Secondly Take along with you alwayes the Analogy proportion and similitude between a Sacrament and the thing of a Sacrament between the signe and the thing signified It 's Austin his Rule If Epist 23. alibi a Sacrament should not have similitude and resemblance with that whereof it is a Sacrament it should not be a Sacrament and from this similitude or resemblance it is that the signe is called by the name of the thing signified as the bread Christs body the wine is called Christs bloud The Rock was Christ Circumcision called the Covenant The Lamb called the Passeover and in common speech When we look on a Picture we say This is Casar this is Augustus this is Hercules nothing more ordinary In the Sacrament this similitude is a similitude of proportionality saith Bonaventure consisting of four termes You are most of you Arithmeticians and you have a golden Rule called The Rule of Three because three terms being given the fourth is given and this sets forth to you the Analogy of a Sacrament in four termes As water in Baptisme washes the body so the Spirit by his grace or the bloud of Christ cleanseth the soul As the bread and wine nourish and refresh the body so the body and bloud of Christ nourisheth and refresheth the soul As by the hand we take and with our mouth we eat and drink the bread and wine so by faith we receive the body and bloud of Jesus Christ If you destroy the similitude you destroy the Sacrament as the Papists do by their Transubstantiation for they destroy the Analogy Thus the accidents of Bread and Wine or the Species doe not nourish the Body say we Nor the very Body and Bloud of Christ doth not passe into bodily nourishment say they for it was horrible to imagine it therefore there is no resemblance the similitude is destroyed and so the Sacrament §. 3. Thirdly It is a most true most firm and golden Rule That a Sacrament out of the use appointed Chamier de Luchar l. 7. e. 4. §. 11. l. 8. c. 3 Forbes Hist. Theol p. 550. by God hath not the nature of nor is any more a Sacrament It is not a Sacrament extra usum out of the actual use There must not onely be Bread and Wine but Blessing and Taking and Eating and Drinking or else to us there is no Sacrament The Bread and Wine upon the Table are no Sacrament but the eating and drinking of Bread and Wine As in Baptism the water is no Sacrament but the washing with water is The Papists confesse this of every Sacrament and of Baptism but not of the Lords Supper which for Transubstantiation-sake which troubles the whole Scaene they hold to be a perfect Sacrament by consecration whether it be received by the Communicant yea or no and this is the Doctrine of their Schoolmen and Aquin. part 3. Qu. 80. aliis Scholasticis all others of their confession We appeal to the Text Take Eat This is my body It 's so being taken and eaten and not otherwise The remains of Bread and Wine are no Sacrament it is the use which gives the reason and nature of a Sacrament and when and where the use is not the Sacrament is not It 's true in our vulgar speech we call it the Sacrament as on the Table as the beast might be called a Sacrifice before it was slain being destin'd and appointed thereunto 1 Sam. 13. 9 Whitak deâ—â— acram p 621 624 c. as Whitaker saith but it is no Sacrifice till slain and offer'd nor was the Lamb a Passeover but as it was eaten and rosted so a meer stone is a stone wheresoever it be but not a boundary but in the use and an earnest is money but not an earnest except taken upon agreement Bread and Wine are Elements but not a Sacrament till all the Rites and Actions be observed which God hath appointed viz. in the participation and use 1 Cor. 10. 16 17 18. The Cup of blessing and the bread are the Communion of the body and bloud of Christ being partaken and received not else There is some kinde of Argument urged against this Rule from the reservation of the Bread especially and of the Wine which is read of in Antiquity and that was either private reservation when the Communicant carried home the Bread and kept it in his chest for his private use to eat of privately or else it was by the Ministers to give to lapsed Christians in time of extremity or sicknesse that were debarred of publick participation The first is mentioned Cypr. de
kils no body yet without it they are a Rout and not an Army FINIS THE TABLE A ABuses in Ordinances no ground for separation 30 Actions in the Lords Supper of Christ 76 Communicants 95 B BRead must be broken and why 88 Benefit of worthy receiving 314 1. Generally 1. It is of higher nature then the Elements of themselves can convey 319 2. Blessings of the Covenant are sealed and graces of the Covenant improved 320 2. Particularly 1. What God conveys 1. Christ and his benefits 322 2. The Covenant sealed 324 2. What believers receive 1 The body and bloud of Christ 326 2. Remission of sin 327 3. Communication of greater proportion of gospel-Gospel-spirit 329 C COvetousness cause of Judas Treason 47 Counsel of God fulfilled by wicked instruments 58 Consecration of Elements by what words 81 Cups divers in the Passeover 79 D DIscipline what to be done where it cannot be duly administred 223 Discerning the Lords body what it is 338 Danger of unworthy eating 345 E ELements what they signifie 73 Must be taken severally ib. Were severally blest 77 By what words consecrated 81 Ought to be consecrated only by a Presbyter 83 Changed only in their use 85 Whether given by Christ immediately to all 91 Inward signification of them 117 They work not physically 267 Examination of our selves required to right participation of the Lords Supper 352 Examination 3. 1. Of Men. 356 2. Of Christians ib. 3. Of Communicants 357 Motives to and Directions for it 358 Examination by Elders 370 F FAsting not necessary before the Lords Supper 29 Fitness for the Lords Supper wherein it consists 278 May be set too high or too low 279 G GRaces to be exercised in Communicants 289 1. Knowledge of Nature Vse End of this Ordinance 290 2. Christ-receiving faith 292 3. Repentance 293 4. Spiritual appetite after Christ 296 5. Love to fellow-members 297 6. Thankefulness 298 Grace that is true how differenced from counterfeits 367 Guilty of the body and bloud of Christ what 342 Ground of worthy receiving and of the Churches admission different 343 I JEwish writings and customs needfull to expound the New Testament 2 Institution best rule for Reformation 34 Words of it explained 111 Irreverent carriage reproved 277 Judas intended not Christs death 57 K KNowledge of the Nature Vse and End of this Ordinance required in a Communicant 290 L LOrds-Supper Elements of it taken from Passeover 2 Who capable of worthy receiving 20 Occasional circumstances not obliging 22 Christ the Author of it 48 Why instituted at night 63 After Supper ib. Little before betraid 66 An Ordinance of Fâ—llowship 98 What it exhibits 120 An inner Ordinance only for believers 140 The End of it the remembrance of Christ 141 Occasions of the neglect of it 148 How obstructions may be removed 153 How our mindes should be exercised in it 156 The great work of it to shew Christs death 167 An Ordinance to be repeated 171 Must continue till Christ come 174 A barred Ordinance 182 Who ought to be debarred 191 Not a converting Ordinance by Institution 247 Yet may occasionally convert 250 Love-feasts how abused 30 M MIxt Communion no ground for separation 234 Motives to endeavours after right participation 300 Motives to self-examination 358 N NEcessity of teaching and learning the true meaning of the Lords-Supper 161 P PApists must have faith of miracles 86 Passeover represented Christs death 3 Why so called ib. Whether a Sacrifice 5 Christ our Passeover 6 It looked Backward as a remembrancer 8 Forward as a type 8 How it resembles Christ sacrificed 9 Christ in the Sacrament 13 Preparation for the Lords Supper 274 Q QUalification for worthy receiving false and insufficient 304 Qualifications of remembrance of Christs death 143 R REmembrance of Christs death 143 To whom it is made 145 Rites and gestures spurious in Lords-Supper 101 S SAcrament and Sacrifice how differ 5 Sacrament must resemble the thing signified 104 Consists only in the use 106 Scriptures necessity 40 Separation not grounded on Abuses in Ordinances 30 Mixt Communions 234 Sign taken for thing signified 7 Sins of Judas and Disciples how differ'd 61 Sins scandalous what 212 Sins notorious what 213 Socinian errour 120 T TRansubstantiation its rise 128 Arguments against it 130 V UNworthy receiving a great and dangerous sin 332 The cause of the sin Not discerning c. 337 Aggravations of the sin 341 Danger of it 345 Dangerous to Church and State 348 A godly person may receive Unworthily 285 W WOrthy and unworthy receiving 45 180 263 Worthy receiving not to be measured by success 265 What required to it 283 Benefit of it 314 Who capable of it 20 False qualifications for it 304 FINIS ERRATA PAg. 3. lin 27 r to suffer p 4. l. 18 Gerard. p. 5. l. 2. r. paterfamilias p. 6. l. 3 prius prosunt p. 8. r. § 5 6. p 8. l. 28. r. not only hrist p. 9 l. 7. r. this life-giving death of p. 22. l. 15. r. and bâ—essing p. 33. l. 14 Hebrewish with whom the c. p. 37. l. 24. r. the Lord I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered p 44. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 5â— l. 13. r. Author from him therefore l. 22. r. Schoolman saith l. 23. r. were contained p. 58. l. 13. r. saith Ames p. 77. l. 16. r. Post-coenium p. 85. l. 17. r. Marcion l. 18. 1. body l. 20. r. humane l. 22. r. being p. 93. l. 32. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 95. l. 12. r. Thus Every p. 143. l. 14. r. Benefits Benefactors
Because he had c. him will I bring into the Land c. For the first it is not Calebs commendation onely but every mans duty also who bears this style My Servant You heare that Solomon who out of complyance with his wives tooke in also as I may say Concubines to Gods Temple is therefore charged 1 King 11. 6. Not to have fulfilled after the Lord and Iehu who out of complyance with that policy which proved fatall to that Kingdom not casting out that Ieroboamiticall Idolatry in being is likewise charged 2 King 10. 31. Not to have observed to walk in the Law of the Lord with all his heart both of them are taken as defective in this duty hee that tooke in more and hee that cast out lesse then might answer the levell of Gods order of worship and judge the same in other cases For it is plain by our Saviour his frequent and instant importunity that his people must deny lose sell forsake hate all not onely all sin but all dearest things of this life which are lawfull necessary and out of the case of impediment of our following of Christ and their competition with him worthy to be sought or enjoyed which can import no lesse then this duty of fulfilling after the Lord. Nor are these meerly Evangelicall counsels to some perfect men but obligatory of all Christians otherwise that weight could not be laid on which is Whosoever doth not this cannot be my Disciple And indeed as the Philosopher saith of privation that it is one of the principles of naturall generation so is self-deniall and the whole sale of all for Christ it is the first lesson howsoever it be last that is well learned being the only removens prohibens that which removes all impediments of our fulfilling after Christ And as the times of Christ opposite to the institution of the Gospel did require the inculcation of this Point so ours opposite to the restitution of Gods worship to it's native simplicity do bespeak the same being such In quibus animum firmare oportet constantibus exemplis as he in Tacitus For the opening of this Point we shall consider 1 What ground-work is requisite to be laid in a man that he may fulfill after the Lord. 2 What it is to fulfill after him 3 Why we should fulfill after him For the first of the three I shall acquit it in foure things of which the second will rise out of the first the third out of the second the fourth out of the third 1 The first and indeed the root of all the rest is this that there be in a man a principle of saving faith closing with Christ to secure the present and finall estate of the soule or the ground-work of sound Regeneration and conversion to God there may be many workings or gifts of the Spirit of God in and unto men in whom there is not a spirit uniting to Christ and there is a dogmaticall faith of holding the truth in opinion and assent which is not justifying of the person by reception of Christ now there must be such a spirit and such a faith as may carry the soule out of it self for subsistence and above it self in operation and working so that God may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whom and unto whom the soule doth act and then it will follow that hee that hath cast his soule on Christ by faith securing the mayn estate thereof shall the more easily cast away his life estate c. in a particular cause for him Hee that through all the pangs and struglings of the new-birth discouragements at the weight and height of his sin oppositions of reasonings delusions and flatteries of self-righteousnesse violence of hell it self hath shot the mayn gulf and hath landed in Christ shall with more facility lay aside his lesser his outward interests for him for it is a terrible thing for the stoutest heart alive to look such a danger in the face as for ought hee knows may at one blow kill him and damne him or in a moment send him both to his grave and Hell it makes a man follow the Lord fully when he obeyes the Commandement by the same faith whereby hee receives the saving promise and offers up Isaac by the same faith whereby hee got him that is to obey and suffer by a justifying faith as they Heb. 11. whose acts there expressed were not most of them justifying acts yet done by a saving and justifying faith for so it is the same hand which shuts and closes upon the gift and opens it self to work And yet I must needs preoccupate an Objection and grant that Abraham who believed the mayne promise without staggering shewed some trepidation when he conceived himself in danger of his life They will kill me Gen. 12. 12. saith he but that is but the encountring of sence with faith which sence fights sore against faith when it is upon it's own dunghil I mean in a sensible danger natures retraction of it selfe from a visible feare may cause the pulse of a Christian which beats truly and strongly in the mayn point the state of the soule to intermit and faulter at such a time but the Needle will return to the true point again upon self-recollection That godlinesse hath the Promises that belong to this life and the life to come as for such men whose hearts are not ballast with grace no marvell if they ride uncertainly and are up and down in rough water for though in fair and easie weather they may keep tune and time yet it will be no wonder if they ring their bels backward when things begin to be on fire Religio religat Godliness binds fast 2 The second is That a man affect God himselfe and account him his great reward and this is the immediate effect of saving grace and faith to bring the soule into the esteem and acceptance of God himself for our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chiefest good it is true those Promises I will call for the corn and increase it and will multiply the fruit of the Tree and of the Field are blessings and benefits of his Covenant Ezek. 36. 29. And blessed are the people that are in such a case Psal 144. 15. but the main Promise of the Covenant is I will be their God and they shall be my people and then saith the Psalmist Ibid. Yea blessed are the people whose God is the Lord That which we call amor amicitiae or conjugalis closes with the person and not onely with benefits The first Commandement shews that this is the most naturall order first to have God for our God and then and thence to performe other duties Servility when one is awed from sin or driven to duties by the whip and mercenaries when one is drawne by meere benefit or reward are the bane of following the Lord fully He that parts with sin as a slave parts with it and loves it and will in the calme
as a resul from what the Apostle had said in the beginning of the chapter where having in the 4 5 6 verses named seven ones one body and one spirit one hope of your calling one Lord one faith one baptisme one God and Father of all wherein the Ephesians and all beleevers are concenterated He passeth on and toucheth upon gifts and ministeries given to the Church by Jesus Christ sitting at the right-hand of God in which form of expression he seemes to allude to the c As he doth elsewhere viz. Luk. 2. 1c. and to the Olympick exercises 1 Cor. 9. 24. 25. c. alibi Romans in their tryumphs wherein the Conquerour having the glorious Captaines at his chariot scattered his munificence in congiaries and donatives to the souldiery and people for so our Saviour ascended up on high and led captivity captive and gave gifts to men and what are those gifts which might become the magnificence of a Conquerour so triumphant Are they not ministeries ver 12. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers a royall donative given in the day of his triumph but the use and end whereunto these ministeries are subservient and instrumentall addes value to them as it is set forth ver 12. 13. 14. 15. For the perfecting of the Saints c. That we henceforth be no more children In the next you have A Character and An Antidote The character is of 2. sorts of persons The Seduced The Seducer The Seduced are called children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine The Seducers are said to be sleighty crafty and to have their artifices methods stratagems of deceiving by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive The Antidote or preservative is two fold 1. The Ministery which Christ hath given to his Church He gave some Apostles c. That henceforth we be no more children c. for the salt yee are saith Christ the salt of the earth serves to preserve the people from being flye-blown with every corrupt doctrine unto putrefaction 2. The holding fast of the substance and vitals of practick godliness ver 15. Following the truth in love grow up in all things into him which is the Head even Christ The fortifying of the vitalls is a repercussive to all infections from the stinking breath of a corrupt teacher I shall open each part of the Text as I come to it And first the character or description of the Seduced or of them that are unstable for there is no doubt but the Apostle intends to descypher instability and fluctuancy by these words Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine which is a sentence as every eye may see carried on in metaphors and figurative expressions only some criticks might haply ask what decorum of speech there is in children tossed to and fro and carried about with winds For had it not been more congruity to have said waves tossed to and fro or clouds carried about then children But we must not teach the Spirit of God to speak the sence is obvious and proper for the better rendering whereof we may consider 1. By what name unstable people are called children 2. How their instability is expressed Tossed to and fro and carried about 3. What cause there is of it Every wind of doctrine 1. For the first They are children d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are synonymies 1 Cor. 14. 20. wiâ—h Heb. 5. 13. alibi so called not in respect of age but of knowledge and understanding 1 Cor. 14. 20. be not children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in understanding but be men Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect and ripe And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in veteri Testamento Isa 3. 4. Prov. 19. 25. Eccles 10. 18. alibi men of knowledge are opposed to children that is ungrounded and unskilful ones unskilful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe Heb. 5. 13. Such babes the Apostle calls carnall though they be in Christ 1 Cor. 3. 1 2 3. and opposeth them to spiritual that is perfect or ripe of knowledge and judgement and you may see that such men that are shallow and unballast with knowledge are easily carried into envying strife factions one crying up Paul another Apollo ver 4. yea they become the certain prey of Sectaries and Seducers made prize of by them as the e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Col. z. 8. word signifies Col. 2. 8. 2. For the second their instability is expressed in two f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 metaphors tossed to and fro and carried about the former is drawn from a wave of the sea for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a wave and so it denotes an uncertain man that fluctuates in opinion and is explained to the full James 1. 6. a wavering man is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed The latter from a light cloud swimming in the ayre carried about in a circle having no weight in it and may well be expounded by that of Jude ver 12. clouds without water carried about Nor wave nor cloud have any consistence but are alwayes in motion if any wind be stirring you shall in vain look to find them anon where you see them now 3. For the third the cause of this instability is every wind of doctrine there are winds of persecution that overthrow the house upon the sand and there are winds of doctrine that tosse to and fro these children Scripture mentions chaffe and stubble driven with wind the reed shaken with the wind the wave the cloud tossed and carried by the wind It is because we have no weight in our selves nor solid principles that the wind hath power over us they are light things and moveable that are at the command of every wind when the Apostle saith wind of doctrine he implies that there is no solidity and when he saith every wind he implies that there may be contrariety in those doctrins to one another and yet every one tosses some waves to and fro and carries some clouds about nay the very same cloud that is now carried one way is anon carried another and what a miserable passe is he at whose Religion consists in some empty opinion and is but thereof tenant at curtesie to the next wind that blowes being carried about with every g Heinsius excrcit in locum doctrina indies mutabilis change or novelty of doctrine There are others that are unstable not for want of principles and knowledge but rather want of a good by as of sincerity for God being carried about too but it is by their Interests and ends whereby they are off and on up and down as the sent lies and as the game which they hunt doth lead them with these I have not much
a signe of an excellent temperament and healthfull constitution of spirit he that hath his mouth in tast for such doctrine and his stomack craving such solid food hath cause to blesse God who it may be by inward shakings and temptations cals him to the setling of the main free hold and state of his soul and so takes him off from running himself out of breath after novelties and niceties which will sooner fill his head with dreames then his heart with strength or comfort 3. Because of its prevalencie with and over unstayed men one would wonder that this which the Apostle cals wind of doctrine should so prevail and spread how suddenly is a whole countrey leaven'd with it Whereas the saving knowledge and reception of Christ the power of godlinesse and self-deniall may be preacht an age and not so many fish be taken as are taken at one draught by a corrupt doctrine I will not borrow that comparison which Eusebius made choice of to expresse the quick spreading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb hist lib. 2. cap. 3. of the Gospell at the first saying that it passed through the world like a Sun-beam but I shall take that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. 17. Their word eateth like a gangrene which presently over-runs the parts and takes the brain as this wind of doctrine doth and the same Apostle then whom no man did more counter-work false teachers saith Acts 20. 30. they shall speak perverse things to draw disciples after them whereby it seemes that the way to draw disciples is to speake perverse things hereunto agreeing is that of our Saviour Joh. 5. 43. I am come in my Fathers Name and ye receive me not If another shall come in his own name him will ye receive Christ cannot finde entertainment but Bacchochebas is followed and the reason is because Truth when it commeth hath nothing in us but errour hath There is no tinder to catch a sparke of truth but there is oyl for the wild-fire of errour Heresies are works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20. therefore men are soon removed Gal. 1. 6. from truth to errour And now to draw up this point into a sum by way of Application 1. Consider the doctrine you hear and tell it over again from the hand of the teacher a man will tell money after his father Beware lest aâ—y man make prize of you Col. 2. 8. some there are to whom the reputation and worth of the teacher is the proof of his doctrine receiving all that is stamped with his ipse dixit We should not call any man our father on earth Matt. 23. 9. and some also think it enough to say This doctrine makes most against superstition and popery and yet we will not abide that in a Maldonat who shal rather pitch upon such a sense of Scripture because it makes most against the Calvinists and there are who falling upon some novell opinion do honestate it with the name of a new light and conceive themselves the greatest illuminates as having two eyes and all the world besides but one I deny it not but that every man in his Regeneration hath a new light which is a part of the new creature for the new creation begins in a fiat lux Nor do I deny but that in the Church there may be a clearer and further demonstration of and insight into many things in the Scriptures which have lien in the bottom of the pit and may be brought neerer day then aforetime for the neerer to the end the more glory and light as it s said Dan. 12. 4. Shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased But this light though new to us yet it is not new to the word to the Sun light is not new though it be to the Moon as the Apostle cals strange doctrines Heb. 13. 9. not such as are new to us but such as are forrein to the word so we call that strange light rather then new which the word of God ownes not as the off-spring thereof and therefore I exhort you to consider 1. Whether this light come from the Word or rather do not shine from a glo-worm in your own fancies Is not this vision of yours extra mittendo by beames going out of your own eyes to the object do you not first conceive and then go forth to seek a father for your child as the Sadduces that first denie the Resurrection and then think that they can make their heresie good out of a case in Moses Law Matth. 22. 24. 2. Whether it do nourish those graces in you in which the Kingdom of God consists Or whether doth not this new light starve you Doth not this sun-shine put out your fire For whether it be that the intention of the mind upon the vain theory of opinions doth divert the stream and leaves as I may say practick godlinesse dry or whether God withdraw his influences from them that lay themselves out in toyes or whatsoever the cause be experience sheweth that after this vertigo takes men in the head many of them decay in the vitals of Religion and turn either Polititians to erect a party or grow very lean in practicke godlinesse and draw loose in their geeres if indeed they become not loose in their lives and wayes 2. This point may give us just occasion to inquire into the reason why we are so tossed to and fro and carried about and crumbled into divisions for who is a stranger in Israel that he should not know these things The heavens are filled with fixed stars without number but the Planets are no more then seven if the proportion was cast up amongst us our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Jude cals them ver 13. do hold a greater proportion to our fixed starres Is not our Church called to the barre to answer not so much for her purity or chastitie in all Administrations as for her very being and life What children are these that will unmother her before God her husband have divorced and unwifed her That will throw Babylon in her face and then justifie their secession and departure by Flee out of Babylon which will not serve their turn except they can find also a Go out of Ephesus out of Pergamus out of Sardis out of Laodicea c. Our Sacraments are also called to the barre The Lords Supper under the reason of a mixt Communion by which as I conceive is not meant that unbeleevers or unregenerate persons do partake rem sacramenti the kernell of this ordinance for in that respect they have no Communion with the faith full but that the Company of Communicants in the outward seal is mixt of regenerate and unregenerate Saints and hypocrites unto which we say that though the door ought to be more narrow than to let in dogs and swine yet the presence and profession of intruders doth not evacuate
that Communion which the faithfull have with Christ and among themselves for the Master of the great Feast as He observed Matth. 22. 12. doth not say to them that hath the wedding garment how came you in hither with such a man but Friend how caâ—est thou in hither not having a wedding garment Our Baptisme is said to be a vanity a nullity as being dispensed to infants and that because we want example for it but so we do for womens receiving the Lords-Supper and if the reason and equity of the rule will carry it for woman as well as men then also we shall joyn issue in that point and make it good upon that ground for children of beleeving parents as for the parents themselves for are not such infants foederati confederates and in the Covenant See a learned Treatise called The Birth priviledge though they cannot actually restipulate yea surely as well as those which were circumcised The morall Law is questioned whether it be obligatory to and directory of a beleever in Christ for because he hath another bridle of restraint of him from sin and another spurre incentive of him unto obedience therefore he hath not the same rule which is but a confounding of the principle whereby and of the rule according to which a Christian is acted these men are much mistaken in that place whereupon they seem to ground their opinion Rom. 7. 6. That we should serve in newness of spâ—rit and not in the oldness of the letter Where they oppose these two as a rule and principle taking away the rule called say they the oldnesse of the letter by the principle which is the newnesse of the Spirit now there is nothing more cleer then that the Apostle opposes not the rule to the principle of obedience but duo principia or rather duos serviendi modos two manners of serving in the one of which they were bond-men in the other free-men Our Ministery is arraigned also as the Papists because the Ministers of many Reformed Churches have not Imposition of the hands of a Bishop deny their ordination to be legitimate so is ours denied because we had We are between two milstones what Ministers will they find in the Churches of Christ for many hundred yeares if this be good against ordination I cannot conceive but God owned some of them for his witnesses prophesying in sackcloth Rev. 11. 3. And finally to the nullity of these the Church the Sacraments the Morall Law the Ministery is added the Mortality of the soul which if reason cannot confute let a man consult conscience if that cannot Scripture will had it not been a strange mistake in our blessed Saviour to have but in a Parable supposed a rich man after his death in torment and Lazarus in Abrahams bosome if the soul bee not immortall or at least if it survive not for that cannot be applied to the resurrection when the rich man will have no brethren on earth to send unto neither can there be any sence in that portion of Scripture but upon supposal of the soul outliving the body I had rather draw a curtain before this face of things then paint it out unto you How sad a hearing is it to hear I am of Paul I am of Apollo I am of Cephas was not this that which as Jerome observes did at first set up Bishops our divisions are their factours but that is not all more sad it is to hear here is Christ and there is Christ for we are so impotent in our opinions that every man makes his own to be the very Shibboleth of the Church a thing unheard of before our times that men of divers Trades in this Famous City can be all of one Company but being of divers opinions they cannot be of one Church nor wil be all of one School except they be all of one form which breakes our communion into fragments Now what may be the cause of this transportation of people are they children ungrounded in knowledge That is too much to be feared or are they proud and wanton and have taken surfet of the great things of the Law Or are they ashamed to stand in the levell of sober practicall Christians but must be masters and set up the trade of some new opinion for themselves and build Babel to get a name and to be some body in the eyes of a party I know not what to say but the Lord stop the gangrene and turn all our eyes to the great things of the Law that so this tithing of mint and cummin may be left to a second place 3. Be not children and oh that this word might stop the fury of your precipitate levity as Caesar did the sedition of his Army by one word Quirites you have had the vitals of Religion a holy and pure doctrine and there is not another Gospell For Ministers that have burn'd and shined themselves out in holding forth essentials and saving truths the whole world since the Apostles time could not overmatch you and for Christians the seale of their Ministery begotten and bred up under their shadow in respect of the power of godlinesse there hath not been another England on earth since that time I do not ascribe this to the government and discipline no more then I do ascribe the multiplying of Israel to Pharaoh but under God to the paines and diligence of faithfull pastours whom I would not have any man now to undervalue and debase as brats of Antichrist they were Hereos and Worthies our regeneration and faith are their monuments let no man dig up their ashes and degrade them in esteem nor belch out poison against the learning livings callings of their godly successors in this Church for wise men will interpret that they do it upon no other reason then Herod burnt the Registries of the families and genealogies of the Iews in consciousnesse of his own obscurity And as for this Church certainly she hath had a womb to bear children and breasts to give them suck which two things do make a fair proof for her against all calumnies though alas she had also a generation of vipers eating through her bowels Finally This Kingdom owes as much to Religion as any in the world we have seen wonders of Gods love and miracles of deliverance and if God shall now bring his Ark to Jerusalem and set it up in greater state then before time let us dance before it but withall let us not despise the house of Obed-Edoâ—-which God blessed for the Ark sake wee must not put down the Temple because it s made a den of theeves but rather whip them out of it and for that we fast and pray as also that those seven Ones in the fourth and fifth verses may continue with us for ever One body and one spirit one hope of your calling one Lord one Faith one baptisme one God and Father of all which should be as so many quoines to lock together all parts of
godlinesse practicall and edifying truths which draw up the heart into acquaintance and communion with God and draw it out in love and obedience to him For its good that the heart be stablisht with grace Heb. 13. 9. 3. To hold faith and a good conscience 1. Tim. 1. 19. for if we thrust away a good conscience by entertaining base lusts and ends the shipwrack of faith will follow 4. To pray for confirmation and establishment by the hand of God for as it is not a strong constitution that is a protection against the plague so neither is it parts and learning which secure us from beleeving lies and delusions It s a mercy for which we are not enough thankfull that God keeps any of us standing upright when others shrink awry or that wee are enabled to discerne between truth and errour and to stand for the one and withstand the other when so many that have driven a great trade of profession are broken and turned bankerupts 5. To keep as a treasure those truths wherein you have formerly found comfort and which have been attested and confirmed to you by your owne experience sit upon those flowers still and sucke their fresh honey every day A Christian very hardly parts with those truths that have been sealed up to his experience but it s no wonder that a man should lose that out of his head which he never had in his heart Vse 2 To those that bring in or follow these pernicious wayes of damnable haeresy you shall see the crop which you shall reap swift destruction you are under judgement which slumbers not It will be destructive to you to wrest the Scriptures 2. Pet. 5. 16. and to make merchandise of mens soules for sinfull ends 2. Pet. 2. 3. To corrupt the mindes of men from the simplicity that is in Christ 2. Cor. 11. 3. and to cause divisions and scandalls Rom. 16. 17. are things which will cost you deare lay to heart the terrible expressions of wrath which are fulminated against such men in Scripture There may be differences in opinion betweene them that are godly which are not inconsistent with the peace of the Churches and for which its unlawfull 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the historian saith to make butter and cheese of one another It s a discreet rule which is laid downe by one a Conradus Bergius dedictamine c. Si non idem sentimus de veritate at saltem de pondere If we cannot agree upon the truth of every question or point of divinity yet at least lets be agreed concerning the weight and moment thereof so as not to make as great a stirr about a tile of the house as if it were a foundation stone nor erect new parties or Churches upon every lesser variation but to contend for or pretend a liberty of professing or publishing such docttrins as overthrow the faith and subvert the soule under the name of liberty of conscience can be no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Tim. 3. 9. a manifest folly or madnesse Is this liberty any part of Christs purchase Hath he made men free to sin and deny him that bought them what yoake of bondage doth this liberty free us from Gal. 5. 1. should we claime a liberty of being in bondage to errour or promise to men a liberty of being servants to corruption which the falseteachers in effect did 2. Pet. 2. 19. God hath as one saith reserved to himself as his prerogative three things Ex nihilo creare futura praedicere conscientijs dominari To create out of nothing to foretell things to come to have dominion over conscience and it is true that while a thing is within in the conscience it s out of mans reach but when ' its acted and comes abroad then it comes into mans jurisdiction and is cognizable in foro humano God onely is judge of thoughts men also are judges of actions It s a great mistake and of very ill consequence to imagine that a man is alwayes bound to act or practice according to the light or judgement of conscience though rightly informed in thesi for then I see not that there can be any place for that rule given by the Apostle Rom 14. 22. Hast thou faith have it to thy selfe before God Truth it selfe though never to be denyed yet is not alwayes to be declared for the hurt or scandall may be greater then an inseasonable profession or practice of that which is in it selfe lawfull may be worth but the mistake is yet more grosse to imagine that an erring conscience is a sufficient protection or warranty for an evill act It s sin to goe againstan erring conscience Stante dictamine as its sin to ravish and force awhore It s sin also to act according to the dictate of an erring conscience as to committ adul tery with consent To make conscience the finall judge of actions is to wipe out the hand writing of the word of God which doth condemne many times those things which conscience justifies yea and men also may passe just judgement on delusions or lyes though those that vent them doe beleeve them for truths If conscience be warrant enough for practices and opinions and liberty of conscience be a sufficient licence to vent or act them I cannot see but the judicatories either of Church or State may shut up their Shop and bee resolved into the judicatory of every mans private conscience And put the case that the Magistrate should conceive himselfe bound in conscience to draw forth his authority against false teachers or their damnable haeresies and upon that supposed errour should challenge a liberty of judging as wee doe of acting would our liberty give us any ease so long as he had his and were it not better for him to judge and for us to walke by a knowne rule and if we should say that his liberty of judging is unlawfull it is as easy for him to say that our liberty of preaching or professing errours is so too To you that are Ministers of the word that you would draw forth the sword of the Spirit against these spirits of errour as not onely the duty you owe to Gods truth and mens soules requireth but also the pressing examples of the Apostles doe constraine you let not the Lord Jesus Christ and his offices be denyed by false teachers and by your silence too and the Lord grant that it may not be said of you as of the Ministers of Ephesus Acts. 20. 30. also of your owne selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Catharinus said of some middle-region men in those times that they were Luther anunculi halfe or dough-baked Lutherans Let us not half between two opinions but be valiant for the truth He is but halfe a good Sheepheard that feeds the sheep in good pasture but defends them not from the wolves It belongs to you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Titus 1. 11.
that have the stamp or mark of authority upon them though the money differ in value yet there is a superscription on the least piece which speaks the same authority the image of Caesar was upon a peny The lower Officers are the Supream his eyes eares hands and therefore in them Magistracy may be wounded be subject saith the Apostle to every ordinance of man whether he be Supream or Governours under him 1 Pet. 2. 13. and it must be to both for the same reason for the Lords sake for conscience sake Rom. 13. The honour of a childe due to his father ther the subjection of a servant to a Master the respect of a wife towards a Husband and so the subjection of a subject to a Magistrate are not paid according to the grandeur of the person of the Superiour but according to the relation in which he stands to thee and me but yet this is not so much considered as it ought to be 2 To encourage the Magistrate what he may justly expect from the people under him while he acts within his sphere and stretches not his commands beyond his place so though he be in lowestorbe yet he hath by office a share and some pittance of authority wherein as Gods Minister for the conservation of the Peace and safety of the body he may expect protection and act boldly though not proudly as not fearing the contempt of lofty spirits but let every lower officer carry in his eye the law of his place for though the zeal of Phineas be highly commended by God in such a case as many men doe not understand the warrant which doubtlesse was unquestionable as also that of Moses in his killing the Egyptian yet ordinarily the subordinate Magistrate shall do well to observe the law of his place and verge of his power so that he himself is like the genus subalternum that is but a private man in respect of that authority which is above and Paramount to the place that he is in and we know that a two pence will go but for a two pence though it have a lawful superscription as a bigger piece 3 To enform the subject that howsoever he may be a greater man in birth estate riches c. then the Magistrate whom he disdainfully overlooks as the Cedar doth the shrub yet that God doth cōmand subjection obedience to the Magistrate both supream and lower not meerly for or according to the length of his sword but for conscience towards God upon whom the despising of his meanest Ministers reflects dishonour and unto whom it is a displeasure as the clipping but of two pēces as to the Prince whose honor is therby taken to be diminished though they be of small value I shall conclude with a word to you that are the Electors of this next years Lord Major know that your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Suffrage is a talent that is put into your hand of which you must give account it was an ancient constitution in the Election of a Bishop Ut non ordo sed meritum crearet Episcopum not seniority or order of course but merit should make a Bishop I know not whom you have in eye let both be if you please and as it was said 1 Sam. 16. 8. Look not upon externals the mans countenance but look unto those seven qualifications as the Hebrews number them which God requires in a Head or Judge Exod. 18. 21. Deut. 1. 15. which are all required as is observed to be found in him that is but one of Triumvirate or but a Captain of Tens how much more in a Lord Major of London And you Sir whom the Lord will honour pray that God would please to inaugurate you into your Government by pouring another spirit on you and the Lord support and guide you to follow the pattern of their wisdom that have broke the Ice before you in this weighty service FINIS The Books following are printed for Abel Roper at the Sun against S. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 12 Sermons preached upon several eminent occasions by Mr. Richard Vines Viz. 1 Calebs Integrity A Fast Sermon before the House of Commons on Numb 14 24. 2 The Imposture of Seducing Teachers discovered in a Spittle Sermon before the Lord Major Aldermen c. On Ephes 4. 14 15. 3 Magnalia Dei ab Aquilone A Thanksgiving Sermon before both Houses of Parliament on Isai 63. 8. 4 The posture of Davids spirit in a doubtful Condition a Fast Sermon before the House of Commons on 2 Sam. 15 25 26. 5 The Happiness of Israel A Thanksgiving Sermon before both Houses of Parliament and the City of London on Deut. 33. 29. 6 The purifying unclean Hearts and Hands A Fast Sermon before the House of Commons on James 4. 6. 7 The Hearse of the Renowmed Robert Earl of Essex A Sermon at his Funeral on 2 Sam. 3. 38. 8 The Authors Nature and Danger of Heresie a Fast Sermon before the House of Commons on 2 Col. 2. 1. 9 10 11. Subjection to Magistrates both supream and subordinate in three Sermons preached at the Elections of the Lord Major of the City of London 3 yeers successively on 2 Pet 13. 14 15 16. 12 Corruption of Minde described In a Sermon preached at Pauls on 2 Cor. 2. 17. The Growth and Spreading of Heresie a Fast Sermon before the House of Commons by Mr. Thomas Hodges on 2 Pet. 2. 2. The Noble Order a Fast Sermon before the House of Lords by Mr. Daniel Evance on 1 Sam. 2. 30. A Vindication of the Birth Priviledge or Covenant Holinesse of Beleevers and their Office in the times of the Gospel with the right of Infants to Baptisme by Mr. Thomas Blake in answer to Mr. Tombes Vindiciae Foederis or a Treatise of the Covenant of God entred with mankind in the several kinds and degrees of it by Mr. Thomas Blake The Covenant sealed or a Treatise of the Sacraments of both Covenants Polemicall aod Practicall especially of the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace by Mr. Thomas Blake Saint Augustines Confessions translated into English illustrated with notes wherein divers Antiquities are explained by Dr. Wats A New A. B. C. or short Catechisme composed according to the Rules and Directions concerning suspension from the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in case of ignorance published for the help of ignorant people by Mr. John Buckley Pastor of Thurlestone in Devon THE CORRUPTION OF MINDE DESCRIBED In a Sermon preached at Pauls the 24. day of June 1655. By RICHARD VINES Preacher of Gods Word at Laurence-Jury London 2 COR. 2. 17. We are not as many which corrupt the Word of God but as of sincerity but as of God speak we in Christ LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun over against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street The Corruption of Minde DESCRIBED 2 Cor. 11. 3. But I fear lest by any meanes as the Serpent beguiled Eve by his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupted
of bread and wine a monstrous Paradox holden stifly by the Transubstantiatists or Papists The middle way holden by the Churches of our Confession is That the outward Elements do represent as Signes and exhibit as Seales and morall Instruments to the faith of the receiver the very Body and Blood of Christ sacrificed as spirituall repast for our souls and spiritually given and taken but that they continue not as incorporated with them nor are converted into the very naturall Body of Christ as locally or corporally there to be received by the mouth of the receiver We hold a difference or change of bread and wine blessed but it is a change of signification not of substance a relative change not reall a change in regard of use and esteem not of their naturall substance as the wax now a Seal to a Conveyance is wax still but not a Seal not of that value till now all the Rhetoricall flowers used by the Ancients reach no further if they do we cannot keep them company We hold that the Body and Blood of Christ is really that is truly exhibited and present to the faith of the receiver and we might express the reall presence as reall is opposed to imaginary or chimericall were it not for caption and mis-understanding none of ours denies the Body of Christ to be really though spiritually eaten by a Beleever nay it is immotum axioma whatsoever is eaten in that it is Forbes p. 53◠eaten it must be present no man can eat a thing that 's absent but the presence with or under the Elements is one thing and the presence to the soul and faith of a Beleever is another We know no union of Christs Body with bread and Wine but with his members which is reall and mysticall not reall and corporall therefore Christ saith Take eat before he say This is my Body as if it were his Body to their faith not as in the outward Element §. 3 §. 3. Arguments for the Protestants sense of the words This is my Body For attestation of this sense many Arguments may be mustred up together 1. Compare one part of this Sacrament with the other This cup is the New Testament in my Blood that is by Metonymy the Seal of the New Testament but not the New Testament it self so This is my Body that is the Signe and Seal of it but not it self 2. Compare the one Sacrament of the Gospel with the other In Baptism the water is water without reall alteration so here the bread is bread the wine is wine not changed into flesh or blood 3. Compare the Sacraments of the Old Testament with the New Circumcision is the Covenant because the Sign or Seal of it the Lamb is the Passeover because the memoriall or sign of it so the bread is my Body the wine is my Blood in the same form of speech 4. The Language in which our Saviour spake had no other property of expression there being no word for signifie but is in stead thereof as Learned men say and its certain the Scripture in both Testaments Hebrew and Greek uses the same form in a hundred places giving the name of the thing signified to the sign as hath been shown as the seven ears of corn are seven years The dry bones are the house of Israel The seven Candlesticks are seven Churches c. 5. The words This is my Body are not proper in the Lutheran sense no more than to say This Cloak is Peter because Peter is in it nor in the Popish sense except the Body of Christ be there before the words be pronounced This is my Body which should rather be thus Let this be my Body as God said Let there be light not This is light for it was not light before 6. The spirituall benefit which is eating and drinking Christs Body and Blood by faith is no less in our sense than if there were his very flesh for Christ saith The flesh profits nothing Joh. 6. and the Papists hold that the eating of Christs flesh by wicked men profits nothing except besides the Sacramentall there be a spirituall feeding upon Christ which we affirm 7. The Apostles understood these words as we do and as the Hebrews had ever understood the same expression for form in the Old Testament else they would have been amazed and startled at it and have asked some question as they were inquifitive enough in lesser matters but they saw Christ fit at table and eat and drink first himself and therefore could not be ignorant of their meaning 8. The Capernaite Disciples Joh. 6. having taken offence at those frequent expressions of eating Christs flesh and drinking his blood understanding them carnally were answered by Christ himself The flesh profits nothing The words that I speak are spirit and life as if he himself would give the interpretation 9. The Apostle thrice in this Chapter following cals it still bread after consecration as also in the Chapter foregoing and surely he that never before did would not delude the senses of his Disciples in this Ordinance and himself cals it wine too Matth. 26. 26. I will not henceforth drink of this fruit of the Vine which is the Periphrasis usuall among the Jews for wine 10. The remembrance of Christ the shewing forth his death till he come do import the absence of his Body which the Scripture tels us ascended into heaven and there is contained in lieu of his corporall absence he sent the Spirit to abide for ever as another Comforter Memorials and monuments are of things absent 11. For the Ancient Fathers they prove against the Marcionites that held the Body of Christ to be meerly phantasticall That it is substantiall because the Elements of bread and wine are substantiall which was no good argument if only the accidents or shadows of the Elements do remain and all along downwards they call the outward Elements symbols Forbes p. 561. types figures signes of Christs Body untill about the year 1215. when subtill and superstitious Disputes grew hot about the presence of Christ in the Sacrament which occasioned Innocent the third to introduce both name of Transubstantiation and thing not before openly heard of and so as a Decree of the Lateran Council vented it as a point of faith since which time the Councill of Trent hath confirmed Sess 13. ca. 4. the Decree and the word as most fit and proper which are the rotten yet the best props upon which Transubstantiation doth stand at this day being upon the first birth of it as I said even now opposed Forbes p. 609 col 1. by the Waldenses and afterward by Wicliff and those that followed them and shall be opposed by all Orthodox till that Dagon fall §. 4 §. 4. Why the Error of Transubstantiation is to be rejected with utmost detestation II. To reject with utmost detestation the impossible and incomprehensible Errour of Transubstantiation and corporall presence by which Doctrine a silly
ancient and later both corrupter and purer not that I or that I wish any else to be absolutely swayed by this Authority for there may be errour in the practice of the Church yea errour universally received as in that of giving this Sacrament to infants upon that ground Jeh 6. â—3 Except ye eat the flesh c. ye have no life in you and yet it was the practice of the Church so to do both in Cyprians and Austin's time but I prove the evidence of Fact by this Argument otherwise not to be proved at all and I do not expect that any should condemn so ancient a practice nor think they do but rather do conceive that the bottom of the business is the disrellish of that Authority by which it is to be done Bucephalus will be ridden by none but Alexander and it was the saying of Cardinall Matheo Langi concerning Luther That the Church of Rome the Mass the Court the lives of Priests and Friers stood in need to be Reformed but that a poor rascall Monk meaning Luther Heilin Geog. in Bavaria should begin all that he deemed intollerable and not to be endured §. 6 §. 6. The evidence of Scripture The second evidence is that of Scripture which is first in dignity but I put it second because it justifies the Fact for the substance thereof and here it is confest that no Turk Jew Infidell is debarred by reason of his Nation for Scythian and Barbarian bond and free are all one We are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles bond or free 1 Cor. 12. 13. and have been made to drink into one Spirit and therefore the word of the Gospel lies open to all Nations and people without partition wall such as between the Jews and others of old time but the barre lies in point of Religion for if they lie in their Idolatry and Infidelity though they may come to the Word yet not to the Table of the Lord. Who are to be kept from the Sacrament 1. The Jews that serve the Tabernacle and stick to the old Service under the Legall shadows are excepted We have an Altar or rather a Sacrifice Jesus Christ our sin-offering whereof they have no right to eat Heb. 13. 10. that is no right of Communion with us or Christ The place is difficult but easily cleared by Levit. 6. 30. for as the Priests that served at the Altar had no right to eat of the flesh of the sin-offering whose blood was brought into the Sanctuary but burnt it must be without the Camp so the Jews that hold to the Legall service have no right of eating the flesh of Christ whose blood was brought into the Holy place of heaven virtually and his body suffered without the gates of earthly Jerusalem thereby signifying that they were discommended that hold to the Legall service 2. Heathens and Infidels are excluded from this Table because they are extraneous and without so they are called 1 Cor. 5. 12. What have I to do to judge or censure them that are without they are without the gates of the Church not obnoxious to the Government nor allowed the priviledges of it and they that are without the gate cannot be admitted to the Table untill they come in and be members of the family 3. All unbaptized persons are excepted by the order of our Sacraments whereof Baptism is first for insition and implantation into the Body of Christ and the Lords Table for further coalition and growth this order is confirmed by the use or business of the Sacraments the one being of Regeneration and so first the other of Communion and so the second See 1 Cor. 12. 13. By one spirit are we baptized into one Body and have been all made to drink into one spirit first baptized and then made to drink which order the Church of Christ hath held from the beginning as it 's said by Justin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. After the new Convert is thus washed we bring him to our meetings where the Eucharist is 4. Those that are under a present incapacity of performing such antecedaneous acts of preparation or which are to be exercised in the act of communicating provided that this incapacity be visible as I may say or manifest unto us as in infants ideots stupid ignorants bruits in the shape of men who though baptized yet are not capable of discerning the Lords Body or of examining themselves who seem to be excepted ver 28. Let a man examine himself and so let him eat and drink And so I know a mad man may have lucid intervals and a poor ignorant soul may be brought to know the letters and spell the first syllables of Christianity against either of which I would not shut the door but if the ignorant cannot be gotten beyond sottishness and stupidity nor got out of his obstinacy in blindness I should be very unwilling to let him runne blinofold down the precipice or leave the door open for him to fall into condemnation not that I envy him a benefit but pity his downfall which I ought to hinder or at least not to help forward and I may say of such an one as the Apostle of the Law Rom. 7. 13. Shall that which is good be made death unto him God forbid Especially considering that the Apostle having said Let a man examine himself and so let him eat doth in the next words come on again ver 29. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body As for infants though the Churches of ancient time admitted them after Baptism to partake of the P Martyr in Musculus de caena Lords Supper for some hundreds of years and one or two of our Reforming Divines speak somewhat favourably of it yet the ground they went upon Joh. 6. 53. that otherwise they had not salvation is disclaimed by all both because that Chapter speaks nothing of Sacramentall or Symbolicall eating the flesh of Christ and drinking his blood and also was delivered by Christ a year or two before this Sacrament was born into the world and because there is so much activity and exercise required in a Communicant as viz. to remember the Lords death to shew it forth to discern the Lords body to examine ones self to judge ones self therefore is that ancient practise obsolete and as by tacite consent deserted and in room thereof we admit now not by their years for a man of threescore may be a childe in understanding and a childe in years may be a man but by their discretion and knowledge in the mystery of Christ and if the Parents or Pastors care the blossoming of grace and pregnancy in the childe were answerable to my desires I should as I am for great reasons be foreâ—â—ly admissions of them as namely that the benefit and refreshing of this Ordinance might curb the over-growth of the sins and lusts of youth
to be an Ordinance appointed for conversion The first is that of Vasquez No effects can be ascribed Reas 1. Tom. 3. Disp 205. c. 4. to this Sacrament which fall not under the signification of it they cannot doe not exhibit any grace but what they signifie or figure out the sign and the thing signified are not such strangers as that one thing be signified and another wrought The Rock that followed them doth not set forth Christ for meat nor doth the Manna set forth Christ for spiritual drink What can be expected in Circumcision but the cutting off native corruption or concupiscence What in Baptism of water but the washing away the sordes or filthinesse of our nativity or fleshly birth Now the conversion of a sinner is not signified in this Sacrament or sealed there is no outward element that sets it forth to us and why so Because it is instituted in bread and wine eating and drinking and is it not evident that all this speaks growth nourishment comfort strength but it speaks not the giving of life Doth bread and wine give life to one that is dead Can they congruously signifie the first grace of spiritual life It 's against sense and reason but life is preserved and cherisht and continued by them and therefore this Sacrament is set forth saith Durand Durand lib 4. Dist 7. qu. 1. under the form of nourishment If you say But here is Christ set forth who is our life as well as our meat he gives and he maintains it in us True but he is set forth in this Sacrament as the one of these he doth both he begins life in us but in this Ordinance which is a Supper his body and bloud are set upon the Table for refection and nourishment of men that take and eat and drink and they are living men Meat is not set before dead folks My flesh is meat indeed my bloud is drink indeed saith Joh. 6. he and so is Christ here set forth As the use of corporall food is not congruous but to one that lives corporally So c. Durand ubi supra Reas 2 The second Reason is taken from the institution and the Schoolmen generally argue thence for the end use benefit effect of a Sacrament are undoubtedly learned by the institution and the reason stands thus This Sacrament by the institution of it appears to presuppose those that reap the sweet and benefit of it to be converts and in grace namely to have faith in Christ and to be living members and if this be presupposed by this Ordinance then it is not first wrought by it They must be in Christ that have benefit by it for them it is instituted and ordained not for such as are out of Christ to bring them in but for such as are in Christ to bring them up in him To my apprehension that is clear 1 Cor. 12. 13. We are by one Spirit baptized into one body and then we are all made to drink into one Spirit and that 's it which ye often reade in Divines That the Baptism of Regeneration is presupposed to the Supper of Communion they are children whose bread this is living members and not wooden legs that are capable of this benefit Unto admittance to the outward Ordinance Regeneration is not necessary but unto the inward benefit and effect it is pre-required in some measure and presupposed The fatted calf is for the returning Prodigal They are the friends of God that feed at this Table Communis mensa symbolum amicitiae saith Estius who also observes that ad cibi sumptionem vita Estius in 4. sen cap. 12. requiritur in sumente Life is presupposed to be in him that takes and eats and drinks spiritual life in him that doth it spiritually It is a communion of Christs body and that presupposes union The graâ—â— communicates not with the stock untill it be knit Why shall we think it strange that God should provide some Ordinances for those that are in grace already wherein he and his may have communion and fellowship and his very provission shows for whom he provides It 's absurd to give meat and drink to dead folks for they are no more nourisht by it saith Bellarmine than stones Christ promiseth Bell. de Euch. cap. 18. lib. 4. to sup with him and he with me When When the door is open'd the voice heard and Christ let in first Revel 3. 20. And so ye see the grace of Conversion is presupposed to the benefit of this Ordinance Object If any reply Here is Christ represented to us in his riches of Grace his death and Sacrifice and therefore this Ordinance may as well convert as confirm and beget as bring up Answ The institution must limit the use of Ordinances This Ordinance of the Supper is a representation of Christ but quo modo of Christ dying not rising or sitting in heaven so it exhibits Christ but how as meat and drink and the end is not conversion but Communion so Christ was typified in the brazen Serpent but how as lifted up to heal the pierced soul of every one that believeth in him because Christ is all in all things for every use yet in such and such an Ordinance he is of limited use and limited by the institution to be received to such an end or else all Ordinances may be confounded and tumbled together Reas 3 The third Reason may be to shew That the Word is the only instrument of God to beget faith or work Each Sacrament represents some respect or mode of the Covenant but seals the whole Covenant Ames Medulla conversion and there are many expressions of Scripture tending to prove it But you will say I doe but beg the Question in affirming it only to be so and so having said enough already I will not now stand to prove the exclusive but only in a word say That the Word is the great Charter of Gods Covenant His Covenant is to make us his to entertain us as his and so the Word is a seed of our new birth and the milk or meat of our spiritual growth Unto this Covenant or Indenture hang two seals the one seals our engraffing and implanting unto Christ and that is Baptism the other seals our fellowship with and building up in Christ and that is the Lords Supper the whole Covenant is sealed by both but respectively the one looking at our first entrance and admission the other to our progresse and consummation and both the seals are applied only to them that are in Covenant for their certioration and comfort that they are lifted into the service of Christ and that they shall be kept in constant pay § 5. I have given two Reasons the one taken from the signification the other from the end of the institution of this Sacrament to prove that it is not ordained for a converting Ordinance and have shown you that though a man may be converted at this time yet
Receiving c. §. 1. I Now proceed to handle this point That this Bread may be eaten and this Cup of the Lord may be drunk worthily It is the highest grace that the eternal God should admit sinfull dust and ashes to be his consederates that from his Altar he should furnish a Table for them and feed them with that flesh and bloud which is offer'd up unto himself a Sacrifice Ephes 5. 1. for a sweet smelling savour that he should account them to eat and drink worthily who account not themselves worthy to eat and drink Merit and worthinesse have both their due place merit belongs to the Sacrifice Christ Jesus worthinesse to the Communicant who eats and drinks in such manner as becomes the nature and is answerable to the use and end of this Ordinance I shall come up to the manner of receiving worthily by certain orderly steps As §. 2 §. 2. Of Preparation to this Sacrament 1. There is a certain peculiar preparation due to the celebration of this Ordinance for where the manner is so contrary as worthily and unworthily and the effect of the Ordinance much depending upon the manner of receiving it and the benefit so great as communion of Christs body the danger no lesse than of condemnation reason will tell us that there is a preparation requisite that the fruit may be of the Tree of Life and not of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil Eat and die It 's either too much blindnesse or boldnesse to rush upon this Ordinance without preparation Nature induceth not a new form without preparing the matter Art as it helps so it imitates nature else that which is medicinal may be mortal Our Saviour did not only use but honour preparations when he fasted and pray'd in order to his great work To the Passeover there belong'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a solemn preparation the Lamb was taken up on the tenth day the leaven was enquired after and purged out which if they have now no obligation yet they have a meaning and you use to have Sermons for preparation which are but preparatives to preparation they do but light the candle but you must as that woman Luk. 15. 8. Sweep the house and seek diligently else Sermon-preparation may as I fear it often doth go without soul preparation That word vers 28. And so let him eat Gerard. dâ— Sac. Caena c. 23. tels us plainly that somewhat must go before The Papists distinguish of preparation sufficient and probable but that which is probable may be insufficient and so no man be certain that he comes worthily A fit dispute for such as would have meritorious preparations so much sanctity as indeed needs no Sacrament which therefore they say takes away onely venial sinnes I would not bring so much to the Sacrament as to look for little from it Those that came to the Passeover 2 Chron. 30. 18. wanted the Sanctuary purification yet they prepared their hearts to seek God The good Lord pardon saith Hezckiah Here was a preparation with a Dominus misereatur The good Lord pardon I look for no preparation that shall not stand in need of mercy If I see so much in my self as makes my self empty and that emptinesse doth make me a thirst for Christ then I shall not dispute my preparation but deny my worthinesse and yet come §. 3 §. 3. Of the outward manner of Receiving 2. These words worthily and unworthily as I have often said expresse the manner of our receiving this Sacrament and that manner is either outward or inward The outward manner is either duly to observe the outward Rites that are prescribed without mutilation or addition whereby the face of the Ordinance is defaced and looks not like it self or which I intend such decent outward behaviour as is suitable to the holinesse and reverence of the Ordinance and if I be not deceived the Apostle in this place taxes the rudenesse and irreverence of the visible carriage or rather miscarriage of the Corinthians in the handling or celebration thereof and therefore expostulates with them vers 22. Have ye not houses to eat and drink in Doth that freedom of behaviour become the Congregation which you use at your own Tables Is quaffing and jollity a becoming deportment Is it not scandalous and offensive to use that liberty here which is rather fit for an Ordinary or a Tavern Let me speak freely to you we have almost lost that reverence devotion gravity decency which formerly and anciently adoâ—ned the publick Ordinances and Administrations and our experience may teach us that while we decline the extream of curiosity superstition pomp and starelinesse we incline to the other of irreverence profanenesse loosnesse sordidnesse While we talk of worshipping God in Spirit and Truth we exempt our bodies from adoration and both forget that our bodies are part of Christs purchase and the Rule that is infer'd thereupon Glorifie therefore God in your body and in your spirit 1 Cor. 6. 20. For doe we not prophane our eyes by wandring our tongues by talking our faces by laughing and the Ordinance of God by all I would there were not cause to wish that our publick meetings had more composednesse of outward behaviour but when sometimes and in some places the Pulpit looks like a stage and the house of prayer like a play-house we may justly fear least a Corinthian rudenesse come up to the Lords Table also and think it needfull to reprove such lightnesse as is offensive to serious devotion or common gravity The Moralist his Rule to remedy lightnesse of carriage is to set Socrates or some grave man before your eyes for the rudenesse of the Scene was shamed and bridled by the presence of Cato We have a better rule set God before you with whom we have to do who hath also promised to be in the mids of two or three that are congregated in his name Consider that the Angels are Spectâ—tours and Guardians of your Assemblies for that I take to be the plainest sense of that saying of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 10. and that other phrase vers 9. of discerning the body of the Lord doth denote not onely a knowing that the Lords body is represented by the bread as it is commonly interpreted but such a minding of the body of Christ here represented and exhibited to our faith or may produce a difference of our behaviour and carriage in the use of this Ordinance from that which we use in eating of common bread wherein men otherwise-knowing as these Corinthians might fail and be defective In short because a loose carriage is ordinarily an argument of a loose spirit therefore I have said this to compose the outward behaviour of Communicants to a sutable comelinesse and decency in the use of holy Ordinances Hoc agite is the old word §. 4 §. 4. What is requisite to make a man fit for the Sacrament 3. By having those graces which are to be exercised and
set on work at the Lords Table a believer shall try and judge of his fitnesse to come unto it I shall shew you in the next That the exercise of grace is requisite unto the act of receiving worthily but it is the having of that grace whereby a man shall try and judge of his fitnesse to come For I suppose first that there is some previous disposition or qualification which gives capacity or meetnesse to come to this Table as the word Let a man examine himself and so let him come doth clearly prove and then that this fitnesse or habitual qualification is the having or exciting of those graces which are to be exercised and set a work As a souldier is accoutred and furnisht with such weapons as in fight are to be exercised and used and therefore a Christian that would try or know his own fitnesse or worthinesse confiders first what graces are to be set on work in the act of receiving and then examines whether he have them before-hand or no Plain sense and reason shews that a dead man is not fit to eat and drink because he cannot exercise any act of life without which he neither eats nor can be refresht and therefore we must conclude that there is an habitual fitnesse required to be in the person that communicates worthily §. 5 §. 5. The pitch of fitnesse must not be set too high nor too low Now there are some and they godly souls that set the pitch of this fitnesse or worthinesse too high and there are others that are carnal set it too low and it must be confest there is a latitude in it it receives magis minus as Christians themselves are of divers elevations some are smoaking flax some are shining lights If we set it too high besides that Infants in grace and low statured Christians cannot reach it we doe but discomfort and dishearten our selves for we take a false measure and because we finde not that we can cut out to that measure we are at a losse and haply if we would follow it home we might cast out every one of the Apostles from the first Supper who were certainly very raw Christians and of as low a form as we are being after that time upbraided by Christ with their unbelief and hardnesse of heart Mark 16. 14. And if we should do so we should censure our Saviour of too much indulgence who reproved their sinne and yet received them to his Table Luke 22. 19 24. I have no warrant to set the mark so high that the least of Gods children qualified should not reach it for I confider that this Sacrament was ordained for the Church during the estate of imperfection and for remedy of weaknesse and infirmity not like the Tree of Life which man was debarred from for his sinne in the forbidden fruit and as Luther said A childe may receive a Ring as well as a Gyant and the least Candle points upwards as well as the greatest Torch Great Masters of Families as the Prodigal observed allow the meanest of their domestick servants to come to the Tables end and eat of their bread Many sinnes many backslidings if there be contrition and godly sorrow serve for bitter herbs to eat the Passeover with Many wants and weaknesses may be accompanied with vehement desires hunger and thirst Low graces may occasion low hearts when God makes the disease a preparative why should we refuse the medicine If we set the pitch of this fitnesse too low in some empty formes of Religion or some eminent works and moral vertues or some conceited perfections which feed our pride we shall take in many that have nothing of Christ in them Gospel-qualifications are most sutable to a Gospel Ordinance We are not prepared for Christ by ostentation of works but sense of misery The sense of unworthinesse is our worthinesse A little vessel that is empty will receive more than a great one that is full A broken Christ requires a broken heart To be rich and full and righteous in the Gospel-Dictionary doe signifie obstructions and impediments of our happinesse where the naked are cloathed the hungry are fed the ungodly are justified the weary are refresht the sick are healed the stung with fiery Serpents are recovered the returning lost childe is feasted and they that thirst do buy wine and milk without money and without price And hence it follows That no unregenerate man that lies dead in trespasses and sinnes without a seed a spark of Gospel-grace having no initials of true Repentance and Faith in Christ can be in capacity to eat and drink the Body and Bloud of Christ worthily and with effect for such a one is a stranger to the Covenant and uncircumcised and therefore expresly debar'd this Passeover Exod. 12. 43. Where there is no life there can be no reception of nourishment He that is void of the Condition of the Covenant cannot receive the benefit nor eat the Supper that wants the Wedding-Garment This is a severe point and disclaims the greatest part of men from eating and drinking worthily because they have no ticket of grace renewing or regenerating they are not Disciples indeed they are branches in Christ by externall ingraffing John 15. 2. but have not the life of Christ in them They that are not in the body of Christ do not eat his body saith Austin They that are not members of him do not spiritually feed on him Panem Dominâ— they do eâ—t as Judas not Panem Dominum Ego hoc axtoma teneo saith Calvin that without the Spirit Christ is not received in this Sacrament The Papists go no lesse Catholici omnes saith Vasquez all agree in this That it 's necessary for a worthy Communicant to be in the state of grace and sanctification and therefore howsoever any person be furnisht with endowments of nature and education famous for eminent works and vertues adorned with civil and fair conversation yet without something of Christ some work of the Spirit some seed of Regeneration he cannot eat and drink worthily and with effect And this Doctrine is the rather requisite to be taught because men may flatter themselves in that they have past the test are admitted with approbation to this Table and allowed the liberty thereof for all this may be and yet your case no better than Sauls that would needs be honoured before the people than Judas's who was not thrust out from the Sacrament than his who was let in by the servants to the feast but cast out by the King for want of his Wedding-garment You enjoy a priviledge to eat and drink but what judgement and condemnation to your selves Oh consider it The Lord of this feast will come to view his guests he will turn out some that the servants let in he will say Friend How camest thou in hither He answered not Lord I was called in I was admitted in by thy servants No He was dumb he had nothing to plead he had
garment We love a sweet willing disposition in a childe ready to do what it can than alwayes to be crying for plums God highly prizes those that set on work their obediential graces to observe the Law of any Ordinance and perform it for if we can lust for quails and yet murmur at the way of the wildernesse we are too like the carnal Israelites There is in all spirituall joyes comforts and raptures two parts the one is the fruition of the sweet of them the other is the serviceable use of them to oil the wheels and with more freedome to perform hardest duties of obedience Now if in this latter respect we improve or seek them it 's farre the better to like in any Christian for it's Gods part or share The joy of the Lord is your strength yet duty is the door by which reward enters as reaping comes by sowing They that sow to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6. 8. Motive III. 3. There is a sacramental disposition requisite to a Sacramental Communion and it is a very spiritual disposition as the Communion is spiritual This disposition is not one single grace but a complexion or temperament made up of divers ingredients which are not all distinctly and eminently acted by every man at this present but some of them as occasion and necessity may require I have already shown you them in general and told you that they are bespoken by the Sacrament it self and as it were deduced from it This Sacrament affords us the communion of Christs death where his body broken and bloud shed are set before us Here we communicate of a dying Christ in heaven we shall have him as a Tree of life This is that epulum foederale or Covenant-feast made for confederates God is one party and the faithfull are the other and both parties of confederates do sic dicam partake of the same foederal Sacrifice Christ Jesus the bloud of the Sacrifice is offer'd up to God The same bloud in the Sacrament is offer'd and given to us as it 's said Exod. 24. 6. Moses took half the blood and sprinkled it on the Altar and he sprinkled the other on the people and said Behold the bloud of the Covenant If we understood the Ordinance we should easily agree that a sacramental disposition is a very spiritual disposition and requires the very purest addresses that we can make to it where God himself entertains his people with no other cheer than which satisfies himself and will have them taste of that which he himself is pleased and delighted with that is I say again Christ Jesus Now in this so near approach to God ye have an excellent Rule as in all other approaches Levit. 10. 3. I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me the case was that two Priests had taken strange or other fire not Gods fire from his Altar but other fire common fire and so themselves became the Sacrifice for God will not be slighted If we bring fire and it be not his own but ours we may be consumed by it but he not pleased To which end and purpose that we be not found in this case and under this wrath I shall endeavour to shew you that strange fire or those false and insufficient qualifications which men draw nigh to God in this Sacrament withall to their own hurt and prejudice CHAP. XXVII False and insufficient Qualifications for the Receiving of this Sacrament §. 1. A Fair carriage of outward life or a good complexion of moral vertues is not a sacramental disposition but rather shew a plethorick constitution a self-fulnesse a self-righteousnesse which are the greatest obstructions against Christ that can be I confesse grace often dwels in a worse house and in rougher natures and constitutions but all the starres do not make day The metal of these vertues is very good but they want a superscription upon them there may be nothing of Christ and he that comes worthily to this Sacrament must have somewhat of Christ in him or must be in some necessity of him that he may eat with sour herbs A man may come with lesse sinne unworthily I say lesse than a worthy Communicant For it 's not the number or quality of sinne but the sense of and repentance for it that is here considerable A bottle stopt with gold receives not so much as an empty shell it 's Christ that must be in your eye and thirst or else your fire is strange fire II. A man may be humiliatus not humilis humbled not humble The Angels that sinn'd were tumbled down into a lower place without any abatement of their God-opposing pride man-opposing malice If God pound thee in a mortar by crosses pains miseries dreadfull horrours of conscience yet pride lives an argument whereof is thou wilt not adventure thy soul on free-grace without something to recommend thee to it and he that hath nothing else will have his misery to be his worthinesse and the murmurings which a broken estate and broken body and spirit do belch forth what are they but fumes and smoke of pride Cut a Bee in pieces yet she puts forth her sting There are many long for humbling breaches smarting sorrows and it may be their intention is good but the bottom is merit and pride most commonly they would make their humiliations their Christ Alas if God should charge but one sin in his full weight on thee it would break thee as a great stone an egge-shell Did it not so in Angels Who would be a Pharaoh Cain or Judas Is not broken iron broken ice hard still as ever But true humility is a Leveller there are 2 Cor. 10. 5. two things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every high thing and that is taken away and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every device and that is brought into captivity not only to the salvation but to the obedience of Christ The metal must be melted as well as broken and it 's enough melted when it will runne into the mold and take the impression Is the will conquer'd and changed to receive Gods Image Submit to Christ his righteousnesse and to his Soveraignty to receive the promises and take up the yoke of crosses and commandments Art thou humbled for sinne and hatest it humbled under thy own righteousnesse and castest it out Art thou willing to take Christ a Saviour and a Lord to have him and be his not on terms of thine own but terms of the Covenant Draw nigh to God this is not strange fire for it hath melted thee and not only tormented thee III. Thou findest in thy self a faith whereby thou assentest to the goodnesse and veracity of God the truth and all-sufficiency of Christ the whole tenour of the Covenant and Doctrine of the Gospel I say with James Chap. 2. 19. Thou believest that God is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou doest well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so believe the devils They have so great
Sacrament is not a Common without hedge or barre but a Several inclosed as appears by this short word And so The celebration of this Ordinance requires some previous preparation and bespeaks some due and competent qualifications of the Communicant therein This medicine that it may have its effect and fruit requires a preparative One duty prepares unto another I le wash my hands in innocency saith the Psalmist and so will I compasse thine Altar The unclean under the Law had their Purifications before they drew near to God in his holy Ordinances for saith God I will be sanctified in all that draw nigh to me I hope you are not onely convinced of this but well satisfied in it by what I have delivered to you and therefore I will not draw the Saw and say over againe what is already setled §. 2 §. 2. Of Self-Examination Doct. The Lord affords the free use of his Table to a professed Christian upon fore-going Self-examination This is the proviso of this priviledge Here is Admission and Accesse here is free both invitation and allowance But let a man examine himself and so c. 1. Let a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every man as the Hebrew language sometimes expresses it self What every man an examiner Yea of himself For what man knows the things of a man but the Spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. a partial examiner you may truly say but it is at his peril The Rule whereby he must proceed is impartial man that hath a reasonable soul hath this power above bruits which have not that we call conscience that he can make reflexion upon himself he can accuse testifie judge of and call himself to account But is every man in the world meant here The word examine rightly interpreted will answer that Question in the mean time I think it hath this restraint every man or every one of you and of them that are such as you Corinthians visible professours of Christ incorporate by Baptism Church-members that have all outward qualifications unto this Sacrament every such man Let him examine himself 2. Let every man examine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we try metal or gold by the touchstone or by the fire so the Greek version of the Septuagint useth this word Prov. 17. 3. God tries the hearts he tries man by tentations afflictions as gold by fire man tries himself as gold or silver by the Touchstone the Rule and Standard of this examination is the word of God called ◠Canon as a man that will not trust the fair looks of a piece of money rubs it on the stone and thereby discerns it whether true or spurious so not trusting the superficial outsides and forme which flatters us We must bring our selves to the standard and thereby judge whether we be drosse or gold 3. Let every man examine himself 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves prove your own selves Chrysostome 1 Cor. 11. 28. takes this word signantly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He doth not bid one saith he to examine another but a man himself to prove and search himself And Paraeus on the place speaking in opposition unto and detestation of the Popish Auricular Confession saith Non dicit Sacerdotes probent c. He saith not Let the Priests examine and dive into mens consciences but every man himself not that we refuse any just trial but we abhorre their tyranny and superstition I know men are backward to have their wounds searcht and very partial and indulgent to themselves but if conscience be set on work in the duty this unpopular Tribunal this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Chrysostome cals it is the most excellent for a man is within himself others are without him and he that is within may search the house bette◠than he that stands without Our secret hypocrisies and heart lusts may be discerned by our selves not by another and there is no mans heart but stoops most of all and is laid flat in the dust under self-conviction self-judgement Therefore let a man examine himself And so I have open'd the words Let a man examine himself which if any one cannot do as infants stupid ignorants men besides themselves or will not do because he hateth the light which discovers him or doth not do because worldly imployments possesse him or dare not do least he create trouble and pain to himself then he hath not performed the provilo which is And so let him eat of this Bread c. Quest There may be in some of your thoughts as there hath been in mine a Question upon this and it is thus Quest What if Judas by reflexion upon himself finde that he is conceived with a treasonable intention which he mindes to pursue and to bring forth What if any man upon examination of himself finde himself without any spark and without any desire of grace What if he be a scorner of all godlinesse and purposes so to be a vicious and flagitious slave of sinne and will not be made free Shall he come and eat this Bread because he hath examined himselfe Shall he plead his priviledge because he hath examined himself Answ Solut. If this were so then Examination is required for Examination sake but that is not so for self-examination is a duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tending to a further end and that is our meetnesse and fitnesse to come to this Table it is to finde a sacramental disposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that we may finde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a learned man saith Let us search and try our wayes and turn again to the Lord that 's the end and effect Lam. 3. 40. Prove your selves whether ye be in the faith examine whether Jesus Christ be in you 2 Cor. 13. 5. So here Let a man examine himself that is Let him prove in himself a disposition of fitnesse and meetnesse and so let him come as a man that tries gold at the stone he will not take it because he tries it for he findes it copper but if it be indeed true gold So one will not go abroad because he hath beheld himself in the Looking-glasse for he may finde deformity and filthinesse but because he hath corrected all inconcinnity by the glasse and composed his dresse And so except we will prevaricate the holy Ghost intends a fitnesse and meetnesse found by this self-examination and then and so Let him come and eat c. The garment is not made by taking measure nor the wedding-garment by meer examination For the clearer opening of this point of self-examination I might thus distinguish There is a self-examination required of all men of all Christians of all Communicants That which is required of all men is To search and try their wayes in order to conversion or repentance Lam. 3. 40. Let us search and try our selves and turn unto the Lord which if diligently done they might
against as §. 4 §. 4. Considerations about examining our selves in order to the Lords Supper I have laid down these six Rules which are of good use and great service in the examination of our selves at all times or at any time Now I come to the particular businesse of the Text which is self-examination in order to our worthy coming to the Lords Table for that 's the work which lies before us And for your better instruction I shall draw down your thoughts in order to the point by certain considerations 1. The Rule of this self-examination is the very Ordinance according to Christs Institution heretofore recited You see the Apostle doth not particularly number or rehearse what the graces or what the requisites are upon which interrogatories the examination must be made He saith not Let a man examine himself of this and of that but Let a man examine himself The reason is that which I learn from Chemnitius That if the Ordinances Chem. exam de Euchar. be the Rule by which the examination is to be made then it will follow that what such a representation of Christs death and sufferings and such a demonstration of Gods offended Justicâ— as is here made what such an offer and exhibition of Christ his body and bloud unto us for communion thereof doth bespeak and require of us That frame of spirit those affections those graces are requisite unto the Communicant which what they are hath been already deduced from the nature of the Ordinance it self and by me declared 2. They being known what they are it follows that a man examine himself whether they be in us for else we cannot come suitably to the Ordinance nor take and eat the body and bloud offer'd to us the effect and fruit of self-examination being to know our own selves 2 Cor. 13. 5. Whether Christ be in us Whether we be in the faith To know what graces are required is no point of self-examination but whether we be in some measure furnisht with them or no and by the duty enjoyn'd it is easily inferr'd That a man may know whether he have those graces for else all examination was unprofitable and vain and known they are by reflexion and insight into our selves as a man knows his thoughts his own purposes his meaning and can â—ell them to another being asked so we may know the graces and workings of the Spirit in our hearts Qui credit fidâ—m suam videt in Austin de trin l. 13. c. 1. corde suo saith Austin that is except such a darknesse and smoak be within that they appear not as sometimes clouds arise and cover the face of the Sun but that is not for want of an eye but for want of clearnesse in the object and then if there be a vapour upon the glasse it makes no reflexion And there is great reason that a man should not only have the graces required but should by self-examination know that he hath them because otherwise he might blindfold and at all adventures rush upon the Ordinance and eat and drink damnation to himself 3. Because a man can only then be said to know he hath the graces required when he doth discern and distinguish them from all counterfeits or semblances that are like therefore is self-examination necessary For as gold hath copper a counterfeit of it self so have all true graces some thing like themselves and called by their name which are not right but some slighty ore lying nearer day As there is a faith called which is not faith a repentance not repentance a love of God which is not the love of God a sorrow for sinne which is not godly sorrow there is meeknesse not a grace but a moral vertue c. And therefore examination of our selves is both necessary and difficult that we take not Leah for Rachel and so come to the Lords Table to no more purpose than he that goes to the market with a brasse shilling which he thinks to be good money 4. Then we have this priviledge And so let him eat of this bread c. When we by examination finde that we have though but a seed or spawne of those right and genuine graces which are differenced and distinguisht from all semblances and counterfeits which are called by the same name If every faith confessing Christ were saving If every nollem factum I am sorry were true repentance If every mans saying dolet it grieves me were godly sorrow there are few or none that could be called unworthy but there is a difference that makes distinction between semblance and truth which few do finde in themselves because they rest in generals and equivocals I have in a Sermon upon this point formerly given the Characters of true grace and need not say it over again at this time Let every man examine the truth of his graces by these Characters and so make use of this priviledge Let him eat c. And if I might give you the Iliads in a nut-shell these are the differences and the characters §. 5 §. 5. The Differences between true Grace and what is not such The Difference between Nature and Grace is 1. Nature begins all his actions from and refers all unto self pride profit pleasure glory common honesty of men to men Grace hath this Character it turns the face of and sets a by as on the heart whereby it intends aims to seek to please to know God and therefore discovers that we saw not that emptinesse of and enmity to God which is in us In a word it sets up Gods interest above self which nature cannot do 2. Between knowledge and knowledge There is a special knowledge of God and of the Word which is large and beautifull but the character of true knowledge is affection as the light that 's joyn'd with heat and assimilation of a man to that he knows forming 2 Cor. 3. ult and conforming to the image of God We are changed into the same image We shall be like him for we shall see him 1 Joh. 3. 1. 3. Between faith and faith There is a Christ confessing a Christ acknowledging faith Alii cogitant pij crâ—dunt saith Austin but the character of true faith is That it accepts of and closes with Christ himself both as a Lord and Saviour and that upon Gospel-terms to deny self and take up his Cross and be his and this faith is inseparable from holinesse or a godly life never to be found in a wicked or unregenerate man 4. Between Repentance and Repentance There is a Repentance like that of Judas full of anguish a tormenting anguish of spirit But the character of repentance unto salvation is the rise of it from godly sorrow which feels love the nature of it is a purpose to sinne no more but to cleave to God the effect of it is fruit unto holinesse Conviction contrition conversion make it perfect 5. Between Love and Love There is a love of God