onely in holy Scriptures but even in prophane Writers also to call the instrumentall Elements by the name of that Covenant of which they are onely the Sacrifices seales and visible confirmations because of that relation and neere resemblance that is betweene them The second End or Effect of this Sacrament which in order of Nature immediately followeth the former is to obsignate and to encrease the mysticall union of the Church unto Christ their Head for as the same operation which infuseth the reasonable soule which is the first act or principle of life naturall doth also unite it unto the body to the making up of one man so the same Sacrament which doth exhibite Christ unto us who is the first act and originall of life divine doth also unite us together unto the making up of one Church In naturall nourishment the vitall heate being stronger than the resistance of the meat doth macerate concoct and convert that into the substance of the Body but in this spirituall nourishment the vitall Spirit of Christ having a heate invincible by the coldnesse of Nature doth turne us into the same image and quality with it selfe working a fellowship of affections and confederacy of wills and as the body doth from the union of the soule unto it receive strength beauty motion and the like active qualities so also Christ being united unto us by these holy mysteries doth comfort refresh strengthen rule and direct us in all our waies Wee all in the vertue of that Covenant made by God unto the faithfull and to their seed in the first instant of our being doe belong unto Christ that bought us after in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of Baptisme we are farther admitted and united to him our right unto Christ before was generall from the benefit of the common Covenant but in this Sacrament of Baptisme my right is made personall and I now lay claime unto Christ not onely in the right of his common Promise but by the efficacy of this particular Washing which sealeth and ratifieth the Covenant unto mee Thus is our first union unto Christ wrought by the grace of the Covenant effectively and by the grace of Baptisme where it may bee had Instrumentally the one giving unto Christ the other obsignating and exhibiting that right by a farther admission of us into his Body But now wee must conceive that as there is a union unto Christ so there must as in naturall bodies be after that union a growing up till wee come to our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the measure of the fulnesse of Christ. This growth being an effect of the vitall faculty is more or lesse perfected in us as that is either more or lesse stifled or cherished for as in the soule and body so in Christ and the Church We are not to conceive the union without any latitude but capable of augmentation and liable to sundry diminutions according as are the severall meanes which for either purpose wee apply unto our selves The union of the soule and body though not dissolved is yet by every the least distemper slackned by some violent diseases almost rended asunder so that the body hath sometimes more sometimes lesse hold-fast of the soule so heere wee are in the Covenant and in Baptisme united unto Christ but wee must not forget that in men there is by Nature a roote of bitternesse whence issue those fruites of the flesh a spawne and wombe of actuall corruptions where sinne is daily conceived and brought forth a mare mortuum a lake of death whence continually arise all manner of noysome and infectious lusts by meanes of which our Union to Christ though not dissolved is yet daily weakened and stands in need of continuall confirmation for every sinne doth more or lesse smother and stoppe the principle of life in us so that it cannot worke our growth which we must rise unto with so free and interrupted a course as otherwise it might The Principle of life in a Christian is the very same from whence Christ himselfe according to his created Graces receiveth life and that is the Spirit of Christ a quickning Spirit and a strengthening Spirit Now as that great sinne which is incompatible with faith doth bidde defiance to the good Spirit of God and therefore is more especially called The sinne against the holy Ghost so every sinne doth in its owne manner and measure quench the Spirit that it cannot quicken and grieve the Spirit that it cannot strengthen us in that perfection of degrees as it might otherwise and thus is our union unto Christ daily loosened and slackened by the distempers of sinne for the reestablishing whereof God hath appointed these sacred Mysteries as effectuall instruments where they meet with a qualified subject to produce a more firme and close union of the Soule to Christ and to strengthen our Faith which is the joynt and sinew by which that union is preserved to cure those i wounds and purge those iniquities whose property it is to separate betwixt Christ and us to make us submit our services to knit our wils to conforme our affections and to incorporate our persons into him that so by constant though slow proceedings we might be changed from glory to glory and attaine unto the measure of Christ there where our Faith can no way bee impaired our bodies and soules subject to no decay and by consequence stand in no need of any such viaticums as wee heere use to strengthen us in a journey so much both above the Perfection and against the corruption of our present Nature CHAP. XIV Of three other Ends of the holy Sacrament the fellowship or union of the faithfull the obsignation of the Covenant of Grace and the abrogation of the Passeover NOW as the same nourishment which preserveth the Union betweene the Soule and Body or head and members doth in like manner preserve the Union betweene the members themselves even so this Sacrament is as it were the sinew of the Church whereby the faithfull being all animated by the same Spirit that makes them one with Christ are knit together in a bond of Peace conspiring all in a unity of thoughts and desires having the same common Enemies to withstand the same common Prince to obey the same common rule to direct them the same common way to passe the same common Faith to vindicate and therefore the same mutuall engagements to further and advance the good of each other so that the next immediate effect of this Sacrament is to confirme the Union of all the members of the Church each to other in a Communion of Saints whereby their prayers are the more strengthened and their adversaries the more resisted for as in naturall things Union strengtheneth motions naturall and weakeneth violent so in the Church Union strengtheneth all spirituall motions whether upward as meditations and prayers to God or downeward as
manifest his glory or more gratiously imprint his Image so also in the union of Christ unto us we may observe something generall whereby he is united to the whole mankind and something speciall whereby he is united unto his Church and that after a double manner either common unto the whole visible assemblie of the Christians or peculiar and proper unto that invisible company who are the immediate members of his misticall body First then all man kind may be said to be in Christ in as much as in the mistery of his incarnation hee tooke on him the selfe same nature which maketh us to be men and wherby hee is as properly man as any of us subject to the same infermities liable and naked to the same dangers temptations moved by the same Passion obedient to the same lawes with us with this only difference that all this was in him sinlesse and voluntary in us sinfull and necessary Secondly besides this there is a farther union of Christ unto all the Professors of his truth in knowledge and explicite faith which is by a farther operation infusing into them the light of truth and some generall graces that which make them serviceable for his Church even as the root of a tree will sometimes so farre enliven the branches as shall suffice unto the bringing forth of leaves though it supply not juyce enough for solid fruit for whatsoever graces the outwad professors of Christianity do receive they have it all derived on them from Christ who is the dispencer of his Fathers bounty and who inlightneth every man that commeth into the World Thirdly there is a more speciall and neere union of Christ to the faithfull set forth by the resemblances of building ingrasture members marriage and other the like similitudes in the Scriptures whereby Christ is made unto us the Originall and well-spring of all spirituall life and motion of all fulnesse and fructification Even as in naturall generation the soule is no sooner infus'd and united but presently there is sense and vegetation derived on the body so in spirituall new birth as soone as Christ is formed in us as the Apostle speakes then presently are we quickned by him and all the operations of a spirituall life sense of sin vegetation and growth in faith understanding and knowledge of the mysterie of godlinesse taste and relish of eternall life begin to shew themselves in us We are in Christ by grace even as by nature we were in Adam Now as from Adam there is a perpetuall transfusion of Originall sin on all his posterity because we were all then not only represented by his person but contained in his loynes so from Christ who on the Crosse did represent the Church of God and in whom we are is there by a most speciall influence transfus'd on the Church some measure of those graces those vitall motions that incorruption purity and holinesse which was given to him without measure that he alone might be the Author and Originall of eternall salvation the consecrated Prince of glory to the Church from which consecration of Christ and sanctification of the Church the Apostle inferres a union betweene Christ and the Church for he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one And all this both union or association with Christ and communion in those heavenly graces which by spirituall influence from him are shed forth upon all his members is brought to passe by this meanes originally because Christ and we do both partake of one and the selfe-same spirit which spirit conveighs to the faithfull whatsoever in Christ is communicable unto them For as the members naturall of man are all conserv'd in the integrity and unity of one body by that reasonable soule which animates enlivens and actuates them by one simple and undivided information without which they would presently fall asunder and moulder into dust even so the members of Christ are all firmely united unto him and from him receive all vitall motions by meanes of that common Spirit which in Christ above measure in us according unto the dispensation of Gods good will worketh one and the selfe-same life and grace so that by it we are all as really compacted into one mysticall body as if we had all but one common soule And this is that which we beleeve touching our fellowship with the Sonne as S. Iohn cals it the cleere and ample apprehension whereof is left unto that place where both our union and likenesse to him and our knowledge of him shall be made perfect Sixtly we eat and drink the Sacrament of Christs Passion that thereby we may expresse that more closse and sensible pleasure which the faithfull enjoy in receiving of him For there is not any one sense whose pleasure is more constant and expresse than this of Tasting the reasons whereof are manifest For first it followes by the consequence of opposites that that faculty when fully satisfied must needs be sensible of the greatest pleasure whose penury defect brings the extreamest anguish on nature For the evill of any thing being nothing else but an obliquity and aberration from that proper good to which it is oppos'd It must needs follow that the greater the extent and degrees of an evill are the more large must the measure of that good be in the distance from which that evill consisteth Now it is manifest that the evill of no senses is so oppressive and terrible unto nature as are those which violate the taste and touch which later is ever annexed to the former no ugly spectacles for the eyes no howles or shrikings for the eare no stench or infection of aire for the smell so distastefull through all which the anguish of a famine would not make a man adventure to purchase any food though affected even with noisome qualities Secondly the pleasure which nature takes in any good thing is caused by the union thereof to the faculty by meanes whereof it is enjoyed so that the greater the union is the more necessarily is the pleasure of the thing united Now there is not any faculty whose object is more closely united unto it than this of Tasting in Seeing or Hearing or Smelling there may be a farre distance betweene us and the things that do so affect us but no tasting without an immediate application of the object to the faculty Other objects satisfie though without me but meats never content nor benefit till they be taken in Even so is it with Christ and the faithfull many things there are which affect them with pleasure but they are without and at a distance onely Christ it is who by being and dwelling in them deligheth them Lastly we eat and drink the Sacrament of Christ crucified that therein we may learne to admire the wisdome of Gods mercy who by the same manner of actions doth restore us to life
sympathy and good workes towards our weake Brethren and it hindereth all violent motions the strength of sinne the darts of Satan the provocations of the World the Judgements of God or whatever evill may bee by the flesh either committed or deserved And this Union of the faithfull is both in the Elements and appellations and in the ancient ceremonies and in the very act of eating and drinking most significantly represented First for the Elements they are such as though naturally their parts were separated in severall graines and grapes yet are they by the art of man moulded together and made up into one artificiall body consisting of divers homogeneous parts men by Nature are disjoynted not more in being than in affections and desires each from other every one being his owne end and not any way affected with that tendernesse of Communion or bowels of love which in Christ wee recover but now Christ hath redeemed us from this estate of enmity and drawing us all to the pursuite of one common end and thereunto enabling us by one uniforme rule his holy Word and by one vitall Principle his holy Spirit wee are by the meanes of this holy Sacrament after the same manner reunited into one spirituall Body as the Elements though originally severall are into one artificiall masse And for the same reason as I conceive was the holy Passeover in the Law commanded to bee one whole Lambe and eaten in one Family and not to have one bone of it broken to signifie that there should bee all unity and no Schisme or rupture in the Church which is Christs Body Secondly for the appellations of this Sacrament it is commonly called The Lords Supper which word though with us it import nothing but an ordinary course and time of eating yet in other Language it expresseth that which the other appellation retaines Communion or fellowship and lastly it was called by the Ancients Synaxis a collection gathering together or assembling of the faithfull namely into that unity which Christ by his merits purchased by his prayer obtained and by his Spirit wrought in them so great hath ever beene the Wisedome of Gods Spirit and of his Church which is ruled by it to impose on divine institutions such names as might expresse their vertue and our duty as Adams Sacrament was called the Tree of Life the Iewes Sacraments the Covenant and the Passeover and with the Christians Baptisme is called Regeneration and the Lords Supper Communion that by the names we might bee put in minde of the power of the things themselves Thirdly for the Ceremonies and Customes annexed unto this Sacrament in the Primitive times notwithstanding for superstitious abuses some of them have beene abolished yet in their owne originall use they did signifie this uniting and knitting quality which the Sacraments have in it whereby the faithfull are made one with Christ by faith and amongst themselves by love And first they had a custome of mixing Water with the Wine as there came Water and Blood out of Christs side which however it might have a naturall reason because of the heate of the country and custome of those Southerne parts where the use was to correct the heate of Wine with Water yet was it by the Christians usâ—d not without a mysticall and allegoricall sense to expresse the mixture whereof this Sacrament is an effectuall instrument of all the People who have faith to receive it with Christs Blood Water being by the Holy Ghost himselfe interpreted for People and Nations Secondly at the receiving of this holy Sacrament their custome was to kisse one another with an holy kisse or a kisse of love as a testification of mutuall dearenesse it proceeding from the exiliency of the spirits and readinesse of Nature to meet and unite it selfe unto the thingâ— beloved for love is nothing else but a delightfull affection arising from an attractive power in the goodnesse of some excellent Object unto which it endeavoureth to cleave and to unite it selfe and therefore it was an argument of hellish hypocrisie in Iudas and an imitation of his father the Divell who transformeth himselfe into an Angell of Light for the enlargement of his kingdome to use this holy symbole of love for the instrument of a hatred so much the more devilish than any by how much the object of it was the more divine Thirdly after the celebration of the divine Mysteries the Christians to testifie their mutuall love to each other did eate in common together which Feasts from that which they did signifie as the use of God and his Church is to proportion names and things were called love-feasts to testifie unto the very Heathen how dearely they were knit together Fourthly after receiving of these holy mysteries there were extraordinary oblations and collections for refreshing Christs poore members who either for his Name or under his hand did suffer with patience the calamities of this present life expecting the glory which should be revealed unto them those did they make the Treasures of the Church their bowels the hordes and repositaries of their piety and such as were orphanes or widowes or aged or sicke or in bonds condemned to Mine-pits or to the Islands or desolate places or darke Dungeons the usuall punishments in those times with all these were they not ashamed in this holy worke to acknowledge a unity of condition a fellowship and equality in the spirituall Privileges of the same Head a mutuall relation of fellow-members in the same common Body unto which if any had greater right than other they certainly were the men who were conformed unto their Head in suffering and did goe to their Kingdome through the same path of blood which he had before besprinckled for them Lastly it was the custome in any solemne testimoniall of Peace to receive and exhibite this holy Sacrament as the seale and earnest of that union which the parties whom it did concerne had betweene themselves Such hath ever beene the care of the holy Church in all the customes and ceremoniall accessions whether of decency or charity which have beene by it appointed in this holy Sacrament that by them and in them all the concinnation of the Body of Christ the fellowship sympathy and unity of his members might be both signified and professed that as wee have all but one Sacrament which is the Food of life so wee should have but one Soule which is the Spirit of life and from thence but one heart and one minde thinking and loving and pursuing all the same things through the same way by the same rule to the same end And for this reason amongst others I take it it is that our Church doth require in the Receiving of these Mysteries a uniformity in all her Members even in matters that are of themselves indifferent that in the Sacrament of unity there might not appeare any breach or
Prince of darkenes Nature is in all her operations uniforme and constant unto her selfe one Tree cannot naturally bring forth Grapes and Figgs out of the same Fountaine cannot issue bitter water and sweete the selfe same vitall faculty of feeling which is in one member of the body is in all because all are animated with that soule which doth not confine it selfe unto any one The Church of God is a Tree planted by the same hand a Garden watred from the same Fountaine a body quickned by the same Spirit the members of it are all brethren begotten by one Father of mercy generated by one Seede of the Word delivered g from one wombe of ignorance fed with one bread of Life employd in one Heavenly calling brought up in one House-hold of the Church travellers in one way of grace heires to one Kingdome of glory and when they agree in so many unities should they then admit any fraction or disunion in their minds from Adam unto the last man that shall tread on the Earth is the Church of GOD but one continued and perfected body and therefore we finde that as in the body the head is affected with the grievances of the feete though there be a great distance of place betweene them so the holymen of God have mourned and been exceedingly touched with the afflictions of the Church even in after Ages though betweene them did interveane a great distance of time Certainly then if the Church of God lie in distresse and we stretch our selves on beds of Juory if she mourne in sack-cloath and we riot in soft rayment if the wild Bore of the Forrest breake in upon her and we send not out one prayer to drive him away if there bee cleanenesse of teeth in the poore and our teeth grinde them still if their bowells be empty of food and ours still empty of compassion if the wrath of God bee enflamed against his people and our zeale remaine still as frozen our charity as cold our affections as benum'd our compassion as stupid as it ever was In aword if Sion lye in the dust and wee hang not up our Harpes nor pray for her peace as wee can conclude nothing but that we are unnaturall members so can wee expect nothing but the curse of Meroz who went not out to helpe the Lord. Fourthly in that this Sacrament is Gods Instrument to ratifie and make sure our claime unto his Covenant we learne First therein to admire and adore the unspeakeable love of God who is pleased not onely to make but to confirme his promises unto the Church As God so his truth whether of judgments or promises are all in themselves immutable and infallible in their event yet notwithstanding as the Sunne though in it selfe of a most uniforme light and magnitude yet by reason of the great distance and of the variety of mists and vapours through which the raies are diffus'd it often seemeth in both properties to varie so the promises of God however in themselves of a fixed and unmoveable certainty yet passing through the various tempers of our minds one while serene and cleere another while by the steeme of passions and temptations of Satan foggie and distemperd doe appeare under an inconstant shape And for this cause as the Sunne doth it selfe dispell those vapours w ch did hinder the right percâ—â—tion of it so the grace of God together with and by the holy Sacrament communicated doth rectifie the minde and compose those diffident affections w ch did before intercept the efficacie and evidence thereof God made a Covenant with our fathers and not accounting that enough hee confirmed it by an oath that by 2. immutable things wherein it was impossible for God to ly they might have strong consolation who have had refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before them The strength wee see of the consolation depends upon the stability of the covenant And is Gods covenant made more firme by an oath than by a promise The truth of God is as his nature without variablenesse or shadow of changing and can it then bee made more immutable Certainly as to infinitenes in regard of extension so unto immutabillity in regard of firmenes can there not bee any accession of degrees or parts All immutability being noâ—thing else but an exclusion of whatsoever might possibly occur to make the thing variable and uncertaine So then the Oath of God doth no more adde to the certainty of his word then doe mens oathes and protestations to the truth of what they affirme but because wee consist of an earthly and dull temper therefore God when he speakes unto us doth ingeminate his compellations O Earth Earth Earth heare the word of the Lord. So weake is our sight so diffident our nature as that it seemes to want the evidence of what it sees peradventure God may repent him of his promise as he did sometime of his Creature Why should not the Covenant of grace bee as mutable as was that of gwords God promised to establish Sion for ever and yet Sion the City of the great God is fallen was not Shilo beloved and did not God forsake it had Comah beene as the signet of his hand had hee not yet beene cast away was not Ierusalem a Vine of Gods planting and hath not the wild Boare long since rooted it up was not Israel the naturall Olive that did partake of the fat and sweetnesse of the roote and is yea cut off and wrath come upon it to the uttermost Though God be most immutable may he not yet alter his promise did the abrogation of Ceremonies prove any way a change in him who was as well the erector as the dissolver of them Though the Sunne be fastned to his owne Spheare yet may hee bee moved by another Orbe What if Gods promise barely considered proceed from his Antecedent and simple will of benevolence towards the Creature but the stability and certainty of his promise in the event depend on a second resolution of his consequent will which presupposeth the good use of mine owne liberty may not I then abuse my free will and so frustrate unto my selfe the benefit of Gods promise Is not my will mutable though Gods bee not may not I sinke and fall though the place on which I stand be firme may not I let goe my hold though the thing which I handle bee it selfe fast what if all this while I have beene in a Dreame mistaking mine owne private fancies and misperswasions for the dictates of Gods Spirit mistaking Satan who useth to transforme himselfe for an Angell of light God hath promised it is true but hath hee promised unto mee did hee ever say unto mee Simon Simon or Saul Saul Or Samuel Samuel Or if hee did must he needs performe his promise to me who am not able to fulfill my conditions unto him Thus
beauty of his graces and so constraine and perswade me to be obedient unto it These are those good premises out of which I may infallibly conclude that I have had the beginnings the seeds of Faith shed a abroad in my heart which will certainly be further quickned by that holy spirit who is the next and principall producer of it The operations of this holy spirit being as numberlesse as all the holy actions of the Faithfull cannot therefore all possibly be set downe I shall touch at some few which are of principall and obvious observation First of all the spirit is a spirit of liberty and a spirit of prayer It takes away the bondage and feare wherein we naturally are for feare makes us runne from God as from a punishing and revenging Iudge never any man in danger fledde thither for succour whence the danger issued feare is so farre from this that it betrayeth and suspecteth those very assistances which reason offereth and it enableth us to have accesse and recourse unto God himselfe whom our sins had provoked and in our prayers like Aron and Hurr it supporteth our hands that they doe not faint nor fall It raiseth the soule unto divine and unutterable petitions and it melteth the heart into sights and groanes that cannot be expressed Secondly the holy Ghost is compared unto a witnesse whose proper worke it is to reveale and affirme some truth which is called in question There is in a mans bosome by reason of that enmity and rebellion betwixt the flesh and the spirit and by meanes of Satans suggestions sundry dialogues and conflicts wherein Satan questioneth the title wee pretend to salvation In this case the Spirit of a man as one cannot choose but do when his whole estate is made ambiguous staggereth droopeth and is much distressed till at last the Spirit of God by the light of the Word the Testimonie of Conscience and the sensible motions of inward grace layeth open our title and helpeth us to reade the evidence of it and thus recomposeth our troubled thoughts Thirdly the Spirit of God is compared to a Seale the worke of a Seale is first to make a siampe and impression in some other matter secondly by that means to difference and distinguish it from all other things And so the Spirit of God doth fashion the hearts of his people unto a conformity with Christ framing in it holy impressions and renewing the decayed Image of God therein and thereby separateth them from sinners maketh them of a distinct common-wealth under a distinct governement that whereas before they were subject to the same Prince Lawes and desires with the world being now called out they are new men and have another character upon them Secondly a Seale doth obsignate and ratifie some Covenant Grant or conveyance to the person unto whom it belongeth It is used amongst men for confirming their mutuall trust in each other And so certainely doth the Spirit of God pre-affect the soule with an evident taste of that glory which in the Day of Redemption shall be actually conferd upon it and therefore it is called an hansell earnest and first fruit of life Fourthly the Spirit of God is compared to an oyntment now the properties of oyntments are first to supple to asswage tumors in the body and so doth the Spirit of God mollifie the hardnesse of mans heart and worke it to a sensible tendernes and quicke apprehension of every sinne Secondly oyntments doe open and penetrate those places unto which they are applied and so the Unction which the faithfull have teacheth them all things and openeth their eyes to see the wonders of Gods Law and the beauty of his graces In vaine are all outward sounds or Sermons unlesse this Spirit be within to teach us Thirdly oyntments doe refresh and lighten nature because as they make way for the emission of all noxious humours so likewise for the free passage and translation of all vitall spirits which doe enliven and comfort And so the Spirit of God is a Spirit of consolation and a spirit of life hee is the comforter of his Church Lastly oyntments in the Leviticall Law and in the state of the Iewes were for consecration and sequestration of things unto some holy use As Christ is said to bee annoynted by his Father unto the oeconomy of that great worke the redemption of the world and thus doth the holy-Ghost annoint us to be a Royall Priest-hood a holy Nation a people set at liberty Fifthly and lastly I finde the holy Ghost compared unto fire whose properties are first to bee of a very active and working nature which stands never still but is ever doing something and so the Spirit of God and his graces are all operative in the hearts of the faithfull they set all where they come on worke Secondly the nature and proper motion of fire is to ascend other motions whatever it hath arise from some outward and accidentall restraint limiting the nature of it and so the Spirit of God ever raiseth up the affections from earth fastneth the eye of Faith upon Eternity ravisheth the soule with a servent longing to bee with the Lord and to bee admitted unto the fruition of those pretious joyes which heere it suspireth after as soone as ever men have chosen Christ to bee their Head then presently ascendunt de Terra they goe up out of the Land Hos. 1. 11. and have their conversation above where Christ is Thirdly fire doth inflame and transforme every thing that is combustible into the nature of it selfe and so the Spirit of God filleth the soule with a divine fervour and zeale which purgeth away the corruptions and drosse of the flesh with the spirit of judgment and with the Spirit of burning Fourthly fire hath a purifying and cleansing property to draw away all noxious or infectious vapors out of the Ayre to separate all soyle and drosse from mettalls and the like and so doth the Spirit of God clense the heart and in heavenly sighes and repentant teares cause to expire all those steemes of corruptions those noysome and infectious lusts which fight against the soule Fifthly fire hath a penetrating and insinuating quallity whereby it creepeth into all the pores of a combustible body and in like manner the holy Spirit of God doth penetrate the heart though full of insensible and inscrutible windings doth search the reines doth pry into the closest nookes and inmost corners of the soule there discovering and working out those secret corruptions which did deceive and defile us Lastly fire doth illighten and by that meanes communicates the comforts of it selfe unto others and so the Spirit being a Spirit of truth doth illuminate the understanding and doth dispose it likewise to discover its light unto others who stand in need of it for this is the nature of Gods grace that when Christ hath manifested himselfe to the soule of one
grace it doth the quality of that work whereby we reach unto our desired Good doth alter likewise Now fourthly wee must farther observe that between our working which is the motion towards our Good and our fruition or resting in it there is a distance or succession of time so that while we are in our estate of working we doe not enjoy God by any full reall presence or possession but only by a right of a Covenant and Promise which makes the Apostle say that in this life we live by faith and not by sight Now Promises or Covenants require to have annexed unto them Evidence and certaintie so farre as may secure the party that relyes upon them which in humane â—ontracts is done by giving our words and setting to our seales for confirmation And now lastly in as much as that Dutie on condition whereof God maketh this Promise of himselfe unto us is the work of the whole man the Evidence and Confirmation of the Promise is by God made unto the whole man likewise and to each facultie of man which it pleaseth him in mercy the rather to doe because of that dependance of our soules on the inferiour and subordinate powers and of that necessary connexion which there is betweene the inward reason and the outward senses God then presupposing ever the performance of conditions on our part doth secure hâ—s Church and give evidence for the discharge of his covenant and promise first to the soule alone by the testimony of his Spirit which is both the seale and the witnesse of Gods Covenant and secondly both to the soule and to the senses by that double bond his word written or preached and his seale visibly exhibited to the eye and taste but especially unto the taste in which objects are more really and with lesse fallibilitie united to the faculty in which there appeareth a more exquisite fruition of delight in these good things which are pleasing and lastly in which the mysticall union of the Church to its head unto the making up of one body is more naturally exprest And these seales annexed unto the word or patent of Gods Promise have been ever proposd unto the Church in all its estates and are nothing else but that which we call a Sacrament So that as the testimony of the Spirit is an invisible seale and earnest to the soule so is the Sacrament a visible seale and earnest to the sense both after a severall manner ratifying and confirming the infallible expectation of that future Reward which as well the senses as the soule shall in Gods presence really enjoy after they have fulfilled the service which God requireth CHAP. II. Sacraments are earnests and shaddowes of our expected glory made unto the senses THE Promises and word of grace with the Sacraments are all but as so many sealed Deeds to make over unto all successions of the Church so long as they continue legitimate children and observe the Lawes on their part required an infallible claime and title unto that Good which is not yet revealed unto that inheritance which is as yet laid up unto that life which is hid with God and was never yet fully opened or let shine upon the earth Even in Paradise there was a Sacrament a tree of life inded it was but there was but one whereas Adam was to eat of all the fruits in the Garden He was there but to taste sometimes of life it was not to bee his perpetuall and only food We read of a Tree of life in the beginning of the Bible and of a tree of life in the end too that was in Adams Paradise on earth this in Saint Iohns Paradise in heaven But that did beare but the first fruits of life the earnest of an after fulnesse This bare life in abundance for it bare twelve manner of fruits and that every moneth which shewes both the compleatnesse and eternity of that glory which wee expect And as the Tree of Paradise was but a Sacrament of life in heaven so Paradise it selfe was but a Sacrament of heaven Certainly Adam was placed amongst the dark and shady trees of the Garden that he might in an Embleme acknowledge that he was as yet but in the shadow of life the substance whereof he was elsewhere to receive Even when the Church was pure it was not perfect it had an age of infancy when it had a state of innocence Glory was not communicated unto Adam himselfe without the vaile of a Sacrament the light of God did not shine on Paradise with a spreading and immediate ray even there it was mixed with shadowes and represented only in a Sacramentall reflex not in its owne direct and proper brightnesse The Israelites in the wildernesse had light indeed but it was in a cloud and they had the presence of God in the Ark but it was under severall coverings and they had the light of God shining on the face of Moses but it was under the vaile and Moses himselfe did see God but it was in a cloud so uncapable is the Church while encompassed with a body of sinne to see the lustre of that glory which is expected Certainly as the Sonne of God did admirably humble himselfe in his hypostaticall union unto a visible flesh so doth he still with equall wonder and lowlinesse humble himselfe in a Sacramentall union unto visible Elements Strange it is that that mercy which is so wonderfull that the Angels desire to look into it so unconceiveable as that it hath not entred into the thought of man of such height and lenghth and breadth and depth as passeth knowledge should yet be made the object of our lowest faculties That that which is hid from the wise and prudent in mans little world his mind and spirit should bee revealed unto the babes his senses It were almost a contradiction in any thing save Gods mercy to bee so deep as that no thought can fadome it and yet so obvious that each eye may see it Handle mee and see for a spirituall substance hath not flesh was sometimes the argument of Christ and yet handle and see take and eat for a spirituall grace is conveyed by flesh is the Sacrament of Christ. So humble is his mercy that since we cannot raise our understandings to the comprehension of divine mysteries he will bring downe and submit those mysteries to the apprehension of our senses Hereafter our bodies shall be over-clothed with a spirituall glory by a reall union unto Christ in his kingdome mean time that spirituall glory which wee grone after is here over-clothed with weak and visible elements by a Sacramentall union at his Table Then shall sense be exalted and made a fit subject of glory here is glory humbled and made a fit object of sense Then shall wee see as wee are seen face to face here wee see but as in glasse darkly in the glasse of the creature in the glasse of the word
Elements are so necessary and beneficiall to that life of man with what appetite we should approach these holy mysteries even with hungry and thirsty soules longing for the sweetnesse of Christ crucified Wheresoever God hath bestowed a vitall being hee hath also afforded nourishment to sustaine it and an inclination and attractive faculty in the subject towards its nourishment Even the new-borne Babe by the impression of nature is moved to use the breasts before he knowes them Now we which were dead in sinnes hath Christ quickned and hath infused into us a vitall principle even that faith by which the just do live which being instilled into us Christ beginneth to be formed in the soule and the whole man to be made conformable unto him Then are the parts organced and fitted for their severall workes there is an eye with Stephen to see Christ an eare with Mary to heare him a mouth with Peter to confesse him a hand with Thomas to touch him an arme with Simeon to imbrace him feet with his Disciples to follow him a heart to entertaine him and bowels of affection to love him All the members are weapons of righteousnesse and thus is the new man the new creature perfected Now hee that left not himselfe amongst the Heathen without a witnesse but filled even their hearts with food and gladnesse hath not certainly left his owne chosen without nourishment such as may preserve them in that estate which he hath thus framed them unto As therefore new Infants are fed with the same nourishment and substance of which they consist so the same Christ crucified is as the cause and matter of our new birth so the food which sustaineth and preserveth us in it unto whose body and blood there must needs be as proportionable an appetite in a new Christian as there is unto Milke in a new Infant it being more nourishable then Milke and faith more vitall to desire it then nature And all this so much the rather because he himselfe did begin unto us in a more bitter Cup. Did he on his Crosse drink Gall and Vinegar for me and that also made infinitely more biâ—ter by my sinnes and shalâ— not I at his Table drink Wine for my selfe made infinitely sweeter with the blood which it conveighs Did hee drink a Cup of bitternesse and wrath and shal not I drink the Cup of blessing Did he eat the bread of affliction and shall not I eat the bread of life Did he suffer his Passion and shall not I enjoy it Did he stretch out his hands on the Crosse and shall mine be withered and shrunken towards his Table Certainly it is a presumption that he is not only sick but desperate who refuseth that nourishment which is both food to strengthen and Physick to recover him Secondly the benefit of Christ being so obvious as the commons and so sufficient as the properties of these Elements declare we see how little we should be dismaid at any either inward weaknesses and bruses of minde or outward dangers and assaults of enemies having so powerfull a remedy so neere unto us how little we ought to trust in any thing within our selves whose sufficiency and nourishment is from without There is no created substance in the world but receives perfection from some other things how much more must Man who hath lost his owne native integrity go out of himselfe to procure a better estate which in vaine he might have done for ever had not God first if I may so speak gone out of himselfe humbling the Divine Nature unto a personall union with the humane And now having such an Immanuel as is with us not only by assuming us unto himselfe in his incarnation but by communicating himselfe to us in these sacred Mysteries whatsoever weaknesses dismayes us his body is bread to strengthen us whatsoever waves or tempests rise against us his wounds are holes to hide and shelter us what though sinne be poyson have we not here the bread of Christ for an Antidote What though it be red as Skarlet is not his blood of a deeper colour What though the Darts of Satan continually wound us is not the issue of his wounds the balme for ours Let me be fed all my dayes with bread of affliction and water of affliction I have another bread another Cup to sweeten both Let Satan tempt mee to despaire of life I have in these visible and common Elements the Author of life made the food of life unto me let who will perswade me to trust a little in my owne righteousnesse to spie out some gaspings and faint reliques of life in my selfe I receive in these signes an all-sufficient Saviour and I will seeke for nothing in my selfe when I have so much in him Lastly we see here both from the example of Christ who is the patterne of unity and from the Sacrament of Christ which is the Symboll of unity what a conspiracy of affections ought to be in us both betweene our owne and towards our fellow-members Thinke not that thou hast worthily received these holy mysteries till thou finde the image of that unity which is in them conveighed by them into thy soule As the breaking of the bread is the Sacrament of Christs Passion so the aggregation of many graines into one masse should be a Sacrament of the Churches unity What is the reason that the bread and the Church should be both called in the Scripture by the same name The bread is the body of Christ and the Church is the body of Christ too Is it not because as the bread is one Loafe out of diverse cornes so the Church is one body out of diverse Beleevers that the representative this the mysticall body of the same Christ. Even as the Word and the Spirit and the faithfull are in the Scripture all called by the same name of seed because of that assimulating vertue whereby the one received doth transforme the other into the similitude and nature of it selfe If the beames of the Sunne though divided and distinct from one another have yet a unity in the same nature of light because all pertake of one native and originall splendor if the limbes of a Tree though all severall and spreading different wayes yet have a unity in the same fruits because all are incorporated into one stock or root if the streames of a River though running diverse wayes doe yet all agree in a unity of sweetnesse and cleerenesse because all issuing from the same pure Fountaine why then should not the Church of Christ though of severall and divided qualities and conditions agree in a unity of truth and love Christ being the Sunne whence they all receive their light the Vine into which they are all ingrafted and the Fountain that is opened unto them all for transgressions and for sins CHAP. IX Of the Analogy and
argument of comfort which no temptation could repell Secondly it hath a purging and purifying property The blood of Christ clenseth us from all sinne Thirdly it hath a quickning preserving and strengthning power Christ is our life and our life is hid with Christ u and Christ liveth in us and he hath quickned us together with Christ and we are able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us And lastly it hath a joying and delighting property I rejoyce in nothing but in the Crosse of Christ I count all things dung that I may winne Christ and I protest by our rejoycing which we have in Christ. Whether we want Physick to cure us or strong meats to nourish us or sweet meats to delight us Christ is unto us all in all our health our strength our joy Secondly the Sacrament is eaten and drunken to signifie the necessity we stand in of Christ crucified many things there are usuall in the life of man both for delight and profit beautifull and pleasant objects for the eye melody and harmony for the eare ointments and odours for the smell curiosities and luxuriancies of invention for the fancie but there is no faculty of nature that doth so immediately concurre to the support and preservation of the whole man as the sense of Tasting which is as it were the Sluce in-let to life without which we have not so much as a capacity of that delight which other objects of an inferiour and subordinate nature can afford even so many things there are wherein the children of God may and ought to take pleasure and solace even as many as we acknowledge from God for blessing but there is nothing in the world which is the object and principle of our life but only Christ no quality in man which is the Instrument and Organ of our life but onely a lively and operative faith by which only we taste how gracious the Lord is The just shall live by faith and I live by the faith of the Son of God and where the body is thither do the Eagles flye that they may eat and live Thirdly the Sacrament is eaten and drunken to shew unto us the greedy desire which is and ought to be in the hearts of Beleevers towards Christ crucified There is no one faculty in man will so much put to its utmost for procuring satisfaction as this of Tasting if once brought into anguish or straits Because as Death in the generall is most terrible so much more that lingring death which consumes with famine and therefore no power of nature more importunate and clamorous for satisfaction no motive stronger to worke a love and attempt a conquest on any nation than an experience of such excellent commodities as may from thence be obtained for the releeving of this one faculty And therefore Almighty God when he would provoke the people to forsake Egypt and comfort them with the newes of a better Countrey describes it by the plenty that it brought forth I will bring you to a Land which floweth with Milke and Honey And when the people murmured against God in the Wildernesse all that hatred of Egypt which the tyranny of the Land had wrought in them all the toyle and servitude that was redoubled on them was wholly swallowed up by the one consideration of flesh-pots and Onions which they there enjoyed And when by Gods appointment Spies were sent into Canaan to enquire of the goodnesse of the Land their Commission was to bring of the fruit of the Land unto the people that thereby they might be encouraged unto a desire of it And we finde how the Roman Emperours did strictly prohibit the transportation of Wine or Oile or other pleasant commodities unto barbarous Nations left they might prove rather temptations to some mischievous designe than matters of mutuall intercourse and trafique No marvell then if the Sacrament of Christ crucified who was to be the Desire of all Nations the desire of whom was not only to transcend and surpasse but even after a sort to nullifie all other desires be received with that faculty which is the seat of the most eager and importunate desire Fourthly we eat and drink the Sacrament to intimate unto us the conformity of the faithfull unto Christ. As in all the appeties and propensions of naturall things we finde an innate amity betwixt the natures that doe so incline towards or imbrace one another so principally in this maine appetite unto food is there ever found a proportion betweene nature and its nourishment insomuch that young Infants are nourished with that very matter of which their substance consisteth Whatsoever hath repugnant qualities unto nature she is altogether impatient of it and is never quieted till one way or other she disburthen her selfe And thus is it and ought to be betwixt Christ and the faithfull there is a conspiracy of affections motions passions desires a conformity of being in holinesse as well as in nature a similitude participation and communion with Christ in his death sufferings glory All other things in the world are very unsuitable to the desires of faith nor are able to satiate a soule which hath tasted Christ because we finde something in them of a different yea repugnant nature unto that pretious faith by him infus'd no man having tasted old Wine desireth new for he saith the old is better and therefore howsoever the wicked may drinke iniquity like water and role it under their tongue as a sweet thing yet the children of God who have beene sensible of that venimous quality which lurketh in it and have tasted of that bread which came downe from Heaven never thirst any more after the deceitfull pleasures the stolne waters of sinne but no sooner have they unadvisedly tasted of it but presently they feele a warre in their bowels a strugling and rebellion betweene that faith by which they live and that poyson which would smother and extinguish it which by the efficacy of faith whereby we overcome the world is cast out and vomited up in an humble confession and so the faithfull do re-gaine their fellowship with Christ who as he was by his mâ—rits our Saviour unto remission of sins so is he by his holinesse our example and by his Spirit our head unto newnesse of life CHAP. XI Of other Reasons why the Sacrament is eaten and drunken and of the manner of our union and incorporation into Christ. FIfthly wee eat and drinke the Sacrament of Christ crucified to signifie that reall and neere incorporation of the faithfull into Christ their head for the end of eating is the assimulation of our nourishment and the turning of it into our owne nature and substance whatsoever cannot bee assimulated is ejected and thus is it between us and Christ whence it commeth that wee so often read of the Inhabitation of
Christ in his Church of his more peculiar presence with and in his people of our spirituall ingrasture into him by faith of those more neere and approaching relations of Brotherhood and coinheritance between Christ and us that mutuall interest fellowship and society which wee have each to other with infinite other expressions of that divine and expresselesse mixture whereby the faithfull are not only by a consociation of affections and confederacy of wills but by a reall though mysticall union ingrafted knit and as it were joynted unto Christ by the sinew of faith and so made heires of all that glory and good which in his person was purchased for his members and is from him diffus'd on them as on the parts and portions of himselfe So that it pleaseth Gods spirit as some do observe so farre sometimes to expresse this union betwixt Christ and his Church as to call the Church it selfe by the name of Christ and every where almost to interest himselfe in the injuries and suffrings of his Church yea to esteeme him self incompleat and maimed without it And here this mysticall unity between Christ his Church being by eating and drinking so expressely signified and in the Sacrament so gratiously obsignated unto us it will not be impertinent to enlarge somewhat on so divine a point whersoever any thing hath so inward a relation and dependancy on something else as that it subsisteth not nor can retaine that integrity of being which is due unto it without that whereon it dependeth there is necessarily requir'd some manner of union between those two things by meanes whereof the one may derive unto the other that influence and vertue whereby it is preserved for broken discontinued and ununited parts receive no succour from those from which they are divided All manner of activity requiring a contract and immediatnesse between the Agent and the subject and this one proofe of that omnipresence and immensity which we attribute unto God whereby he filleth all creatures bestowing on them all that generall influence and assistance of his Providence whereby they live and move and have their being But besides this universall presence of God wherwith he doth equally fill all things by his essence which were from eternity wrapped up in his power and wisedome there is a more speciall presence and union of his unto the creature according as he doth in any of them exhibit more expresse Characters of his glorious Attributes In which sense he is said to be in Heaven because hee doth there more especially manifest his power wisedome and majesty in the soft and still voice because there his lenity was more conspicuous in the burning bush and in the light cloud because in them his mercy was more express'd in the mount Sinah because there his â—errour was especially declared According unto which different diffusions of himselfe on the Creature and dispensation of his Attributes God without any impeachment of his Immensity may be said to be absent to depart and to turne away from his Creature as the words are every where in the Scriptures used Thus is God united to the creature in generall by the right of a Creator upholding all things by his mighty word without the participation whereof they could not but be annihilated and resolved into their first nothing but besides there is a more distinct and nobler kind of union unto his more excellent Creature man for as there are some things which partake only of the vertue and efficacy others which partake of the Image and nature of the Sunne as the bowels of the earth recceive only the vertue heat and influence but the beame receives the very Image and forme of it light so in the creatures some partake of God only as an Agent as depending on his eternall power from whence they did originally issue and by which they doe now still subsist and so receive only some common Impressions and foot prints of divine vertue whereby they declare his glory others partake of the Image of God of the divine nature as Saint Peter speaks and receive from him those two speciall properties wherein principally consists the Image of God holinesse and happinesse that giving perfection to our working and this to our being which two satisfie the whole compasse of a created desire and so declare his love some acknowledge God as their maker others as their Father in them is dependance and gubernation only in these is cognition and inheritance The bond of this more speciall union of the reasonable creature unto God was originally the Law of mans creation which did prescribe unto him the forme and limits of his working and subordination unto God which knot he by his voluntary aversation violating and untying there did immediately ensue a dis-union between God and man so saies the Prophet your sinnes have separated between you and your God Now as the parts of a body so long as they are by the naturall bonds of joynts and sinewes united to the whole doe receive from the fountaines of life the heart and the braine all comfortable supplies for life and motion which are due unto them but being once dissolved and broken off there then ceaseth all the interest which they had in the principall parts so as long as man by obedience to the Law did preserve the union between God and him intire so long had he an evident participation of all those graces spirituall which were requisite to the holinesse and happinesse of so noble a creature but having once transgress'd the Law and by that meanes broken the knot he is no more posses'd of that sweet illapse and influence of the spirit which quickneth the Church unto eternall life but haveing united himselfe unto another head and subjected his parts unto another Prince even the Prince that ruleth in the children of disobedience hee is utterly destitute of all divine communion an alien from the common-wealth and by consequence from all the priviledges of Israel a stranger from the covenant of promise unacquainted with yee unable to conceive aright of spirituall things quite shut out from the Kingdome yea without God in the world And thus farre wee have considered the severall unions which are between the creatures either in generall as creatures or in particular as reasonable and God consider'd in the relation of a Creator which will give great light to understand both the manner and dignity of this mysticall and evangelicall union betwixt the Church and Christ consider'd under the relation of a Redeemer by whom we have re-union and accesse to the Father in whom only he hath accepted us againe and given unto us the adoption of children Now as in the union of God to the creatures we have before observed the differences of it that it was either generall unto all or speciall unto some in which he did either more expressely
doe eat and drink the Lord himselfe And therefore the Church hath both at first and since most devoutly imitated our blessed Saviour in consecrating both these mysteries and their owne soules by thanksgiving and prayer before ever they received the elements from the hands of the Deacons that so that same pure Wine that immaculate Blood might be put into pure and untainted vessels even into sanctified and holy hearts lest otherwise the wine should be spilt and the vessells perish And indeed the Sacrament is ignorantly and fruitlessely received if we doe not therin devote consecrate and set apart our selves unto Gods service for what is a Sacrament but a visible oath wherin wee doe in consideration of Christs mercies unto us vow eternall alleigeance and service unto him against all those powers and lusts which warre against the soule and to make our members weapons of righteousnesse unto him Secondly as Christ brake the bread before he gave it so must our hearts before they be offered up to God for a reasonable sacrifice be humbled and bruised with the apprehension of their owne demerits for a Broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise shall wee have adamantine and unbended soules under the weight of those sins which brake the very Rock of our salvation and made the dead stones of the Temple to rend in sunder Was his body broken to let out his blood and shall not our soules be broken to let it in Was the Head wounded and shall the Ulcers and Impostumes remaine unlanced Would not God in the Law accept of any but pushed and dissected and burned sacrifices was his Temple built of none but cut and hewed stones and shall we think to have no Sword of the Spirit divide us no Hammer of the Word break us none of our drosse and stubble burned up none of our flesh beaten downe none of our old man crucified and cut off from us and yet be still living sacrifices and living stones in his Temple Whence did David call on God but out of the pit and the deepe waters when his bones were broken could not rejoyce Certainly we come unto God either as unto a Physitian or as to a Judge wee must needs bring soules either full of sores to be cured or full of sins to be condemned Againe in that this Rock of ours was broken we know whither to flie in case of tempest and oppression even unto the holes of the Rock for succor To disclaime our owne sufficiency to disavow any confidence in our owne strength to flie from Church treasures and supererrogations and to lay hold on him in whom were the treasures the fulnes of all grace of which fulnesse we all receive to forsake the private Lampes of the wisest Virgins the Saints and Angels which have not light enough to shine into anothers house and to have recourse only unto the Sonne of righteousnesse the light not of a House but of the World who inlightneth every man that commeth into it Think when thou seest these Elements broken that even then thou applyest thy lips unto his bleeding wounds and doest from thence suck salvation That even then with Thomas thy hand is in his side from whence thou mayest pluck out those words of life My God my God that even then thou seest in each wound a mouth open and in that mouth the blood as a visible prayer to intercede with God the Father for thee and to solicite him with stronger cries for salvation than did Abels for revenge Let not any sins though never so bloody so numberlesse deterre thee from this pretious Fountaine If it be the glory of Christs blood to wash away sinne then is it his greatest glory to wash away the greatest sins Thy sinne indeed is the object of Gods hate but the misery which sinne brings upon thee is the object of his pitty O when a poore distressed soule that for many yeares together hath securely weltered in a sinck of numberlesse and noisome lusts and hath even beene environed with a Hell of wickednesse shall at last having received a wound from the sword of Gods Spirit an eye to see and a heart to feele and tremble at the terrors of â—ods judgements shall then I say flie out of himselfe smite upon his thigâ— cast away his rags crouch and crawle unto the throne of grace solicite Gods mercy with strong cries for one drop of that blood which is never cast away when powred into sinfull and sorrowfull soules how think we will the bowels of Christ turne within him How will he hasten to meet such an humbled soule to embrace him in those armes which were stretched on the Crosse for him and to open unto him that inexhausted Fountaine which even delighteth to mix it â—elfe with the teares of sinners Certainly if it were possible for any one of Christs wounds to be more pretious than the rest even that should be opened wide and powred out into the soule of such a penitent Yea if it might possibly be that the sins of all the World could be even throng'd into the conscience of one man and the whole guilt of them made proper and personall unto him yet if such a man could bee brought to sue for grace in the mediation of Christs broken body there would thence issue balme enough to cure blood enough to wash and to drowne them all Only let not us sin because grace abounds let not us make work for the blood of Christ and go about by crimson and presumptuous sins as it were to pose Gods mercy The blood of Christ if spilt and trampled under foot will certainly cry so much lowder than Abels for vengeance by how much it is the more pretious It may be as well upon us as in us As the vertue and benefit of Christs blood is in those that imbrace it unto life and happinesse so is the guilt of it upon those that despise it unto wretchednesse and condemnation Thirdly in that Christ gave and delivered these mysteries unto the Church we likewise must learne not to ingrosse our selves or our owne gifts but freely to dedicate them all unto the honour of that God and benefit of that Church unto which he gave both himselfe and them Even nature hath made men to stand in need of each other and therefore hath imprinted in them a naturall inclination unto fellowship and society in one common City by Christ we are all made of one City of one houshold yea of one Church of one Temple He hath made us members of one body animated by one and the same Spirit stones of one entire building united on one and the same foundation branches of one undivided stock quickned by one and the same root and therefore requires from us all a mutuall support succour sustentation and nourishment of each
yet never properly to bee called the Body of Christ till Taken and Eaten by meanes of which Actions if they bee Actions of Faith that holy Bread and Wine doe as really convey whole Christ with the vitall influences that proceed from him unto the Soule as the hand doth them unto the mouth or the mouth unto the stomacke Otherwise if Christ were really and corporally present with the consecrated Elements severed from the act of faithfull Receiving the wicked should as easily receive him with their teeth as the faithfull in their Soule which to affirme is both absurd and impious Now Christs Presence in this holy Sacrament being a thing of so important consequence and the consideration thereof being very proper to this first end of the Sacrament the exhibiting of Christ for to exhibite a thing is nothing else but to present it or to make it present unto the party to whom it is exhibited It will not be impertinent to make some short digression for setting downe the manner and clearing the trueth of Christs Reall Presence the understanding whereof will depend upon the distinguishing of the severall manners in which Christ may bee said to bee present First then Christ being an infinite Person hath in the vertue of his Godhead an infinite and unlimited Presence whereby hee so filleth all places as that hee is not contained or circumscribed in them which immensity of his making him intimately present with all the Creatures is that whereby they are quickened supported and conserved by him for by him all things consist and hee upholdeth them all by the Word of his power and in him they live and move and have their being But this is not that Presence which in the Sacrament wee affirme because that presupposeth a Presence of Christ in and according to that nature wherein he was the Redeemer of the World which was his humane nature Yet in as much as this his humane nature subsisteth not but in and with the infinitenesse of the second Person there is therefore in the second place by the Lutherans framed another imaginary Presence of Christs humane Body after once the Divinity was pleased to derive glory in fulnesse on it which giveth it a participated ubiquity unto it too by meanes whereof Christ is corporally in or under the Sacrament all Elements But this opinion as it is no way agreeable with the truth of the humane nature of Christ so is it greatly injurious to his Divinity for first though Christs humane nature was in regard of its Production extraordinary and in regard of the sacred union which it had with the Divinity admirable and in regard of communication of glory from the Godhead and of the unction of the Holy Ghost farre above all other names that are named in heaven or earth yet in its nature did it ever retaine the essentiall and primiâ—ive properties of a created substance which is to bee in all manner of perfections finite and so by consequence in place too for glory destroies not nature but exalts it nor exalts it to any farther degrees of Perfection than are compatible to the finitenesse of a Creature who is like unto us in regard of all naturall and essentiall properties but these men give unto Christs Body farre more than his owne divine nature doth for hee glorifies it onely to bee the Head that is the most excellent and first-borne of every Creature but they glorifie it so farre as to make it share in the essentiall properties of the divine nature for as that substance unto whom the intrinsecall unseparated and essentiall properties of a man belong is a man necessarily man being nothing else but a substance so qualified so that being unto which the divine attributes doe belong in that degree of infinitenesse as they doe to the divine Person it selfe must needs bee God and immensity wee know is a proper attribute of the Divinity implying infinitenesse which is Gods owne Prerogative neither can the distinction of ubiquity communicated and originall or essentiall salve the consequence for God is by himselfe so differenced from all the Creatures as that it is not possible any attribute of his should bee participated by any Creature in that manner of infinitenesse as it is in him nay it implies an inevitable contradiction that in a finite nature there should bee roome enough for an infinite attribute We confesse that in as much as the humane nature in Christ is inseparably taken into the subsistence of the omnipresent Sonne of God It is therefore a truth to say That the Sonne of God though filling all places is not yet in any of them separated or asunder from the humane nature may by the vertue of the communication of the properties it is true likewise to say that the Man Christ is in all Places though not in or according to his humane nature But now from the union of the Manhood to the Godhead to argue a coextention or joynt-presence therewith is an inconsequent argument as may appeare in other things The Soule hath a kinde of immensity in her little world being in each part thereof whole and entire and yet it followes not because the Soule is united to the Body that therefore the Body must needs partake of this Omnipresence of the Soule else should the whole body be in the little finger because the Soule unto which it is united is wholly there Againe there is an unseparable union betweene the Sunne and the beame so that it is infallibly true to say the Sunne is no where severed from the beame yet wee know they both occupy a distinct place againe Misleâ—oe is so united to the substance of the Tree out of which it groweth that though of a different nature it subsisteth not but in and by the subsistence of the Tree and yet it hath not that amplitude of place which the Tree hath Letting goe then this opinion there is a third Presence of Christ which is a carnall Physicall locall Presence which wee affirme his humane nature to have onely in Heaven The Papists attribute it to the Sacrament because Christ hath said This is my Body and in matters of fundamentall consequence hee useth no figurative or darke speeches to this wee say that it is a carnall Doctrine and a mistake like that of Nicodemus and of Origen from the Spirit to the letter And for the difficulty it is none to men that have more than onely a carnall eare to heare it for what difficulty is it to say that then the King gives a man an Office when hee hath sealed him such a Paâ—ent in the right whereof that Office belongeth and is conveyed unto him And if Christ bee thus locally in the Sacrament and eaten with the mouth and so conveyed into the stomacke I then demand what becomes of him when and after hee is thus received into the stomacke If hee retire from the accidents out of a man then first accidents shall be left without any substance
Schisme but that as at all times so much more then wee should all thinke and speake and doe the same things least the manner should oppose the substance of the celebration Lastly if we consider the very act of eating and drinking even therein is expressed the fellowship and the union of the faithfull to each other for even by Nature are men directed to expresse their affections or reconcilements to others in feasts and invitations where even publique Enemies have condescended to termes of fairenesse and plausibility for which cause it is noted for one of the Acts of Tyrants whereby to dissociate the mindes of their Subjects and so to breake them when they are asunder whom all together they could not bend to interdict invitations and mutuall hospitalities whereby the body politicke is as well preserved as the naturall and the love of men as much nourished as their bodies And therefore where Ioseph did love most there was the messe doubled and the nationall hatred betweene the Iewes and Aegyptians springing from the diversity of Religions whose worke it is to knit and fasten the affections of men was no way better expressed than by their mutuall abominating the tables of each other So that in all these circumstances we find how the union of the faithfull unto each other is in this holy Sacrament both signified and confirmed whereby however they may in regard of temporall relations stand at great distance even as great as is betweene the Palace and the Prison yet in Christ they are all fellow-members of the same common Body and fellow-heires of the same common Kingdome and spirituall stones of the same common Church which is a name of unity and Peace They have one Father who deriveth on them an equall Nobility one Lord who equally governeth them one spirit who equally quickneth them one Baptisme which equally regenerateth them one faith which equally warrants their inheritance to them and lastly one sinew and bond of love which equally interesteth them in the joyes and griefes of each other so that as in all other so principally in this divine friendship of Christs Church there is an equality and uniformity be the outward distances how great soever Another principall End or Effect of this holy Supper is to signifie and obsignate unto the Soule of each Beleever his personall claime and title unto the new Covenant of Grace We are in a state of corruption sinne though it have received by Christ a wound of which it cannot recover yet as beasts commonly in the pangs of death use most violently to struggle and often to fasten their teeth more eagerly and fiercely where they light so sinne here that body of death that besieging encompassing evill that Cananite that lieth in our members being continually heartened by our arch enemy Satan however subdued by Israel doth yet never cease to goad and pricke us in the eyes that we might not looke up to our future Possession is ever raising up steemes of corruption to intercept the lustre of that glory which wee expect is ever suggesting unto the Beleever matter of diffidence and anxiety that his hopes hitherto have beene ungrounded his Faith presumptuous his claime to Christ deceitfull his propriety uncertaine if not quite desperate till at last the faithfull Soule lies gasping and panting for breath under the buffets of this messenger of Satan And for this cause it hath pleased our good God who hath promised never to faile nor forsake us that wee might not be swallowed up with griefe to renew often our right and exhibite with his owne hands for what is done by his Officers is by him done that sacred Body with the efficacy of it unto us that wee might fore-enjoy the promised Inheritance and put not into our chests or coffers which may haply by casualities miscarry but into our very bowels into our substance and soule the pledges of our Salvation that wee might at this spirituall Altar see Christ as it were crucified before our eyes clinge unto his Crosse and graspe it in our armes sucke in his Blood and with it salvation put in our hands with Thomas not out of diâ—â—idence but out of faith into his side and fasten our tongues in his sacred wounds that being all over dyed with his Bloud wee may use boldnesse and approach to the Throne of Grace lifting up unto heaven in faith and confidence of acceptance those eyes and hands which have seene and handled him opening wide that mouth which hath received him and crying aloud with that tongue which having tasted the Bread of Life hath from thence both strength and arguments for prayer to move God for mercy this then is a singular benefit of this Sacrament the often repetition and celebration whereof is as it were the renewing or rather the confirming with more and more seales our Patent of life that by so many things in the smallest whereof it is impossible for God to lye wee might have strong consolation who have our refuge to lay hold on him who in these holy Mysteries is set before us for the Sacrament is not onely a Signe to represent but a Seale to exhibite that which it represents In the Signe wee see in the seale wee receive him In the Signe wee have the image in the seale the benefit of Christs Body for the nature of a Signe is to discover and represent that which in it selfe is obscure or absent as words are called signes and symboles of our invisible thoughts but the property of a Seale is to ratifie and â—o establish that which might otherwise bee uneffectuall for which cause some have called the Sacrament by the name of a Ring which men use in sealing those writings unto which they annexe their trust and credit And as the Sacrament is a Signe and Seale from God to us representing and exhibiting his benefits so should it bee a signe and seale from us to God a signe to separate us from sinners a seale to oblige us to all performances of faith and thankfulnesse on our part required Another End and Effect of this holy Sacrament was to abrogate the Passeover and testifie the alteration of those former Types which were not the commemorations but the predictions of Christs Passion and for this cause our blessed Saviour did celebrate both those Suppers at the same time but the new Supper after the other and in the evening whereby was figured the fulnesse of time that thereby the presence of the substance might evacuate the shadow even as the Sunne doth with his lustre take away all those lesser and substituted lights which were used for no other purpose but to supply the defect which there was of him The Passeover however in the nature of a sacrifice it did prefigure Christ yet in the nature of a Solemnity and annuall commemoration it did
reasonable desires so the confirmation of that happinesse is the solace and security of those that desire it He said the Prophet speaking of Christ shall bee the desire of all Nations in as much as without him that happinesse which all doe naturally desire is but a Meteor and fiction So then wee see that even the light of our inbred reason seconded and directed by Divine truths doth leade us unto a desire of Christ who alone is the Authour and Matter of that Happinesse which is the true though unknowne object of all our naturall desires Now this happines in Christ wee cannot have till we have actuall fruition of him enjoy this blessednes we never can till we are vnited to him no more then a dissected member enjoyes the vitall influences of the soule and Spirits Vnion unto Christ wee cannot have untill it please him by his Spirit as it were to stoope from that Kingdome where now he is and to exhibit himselfe unto those whom it pleaseth him to assume into the unity of his body Other way to enjoy him here we can have none since no man can at his pleasure or power lift up his eyes with Steven to see him or goe up with S. Paul to the third Heavens to injoy him Now it hath pleased the Wisdome of Christ whose honor ever it is to magnifie his power in his creatures weaknes and to borrow noe parcell of glory in his service from those earthly and elementary instruments which he useth in it by no other meanes to exhibite and confirme the virtue of his sacred Body unto us with the life and righteousnes that from it issueth but onely by those poore and ordinary elements of Bread and Wine in his Sacrament unto which therefore he requireth such reverence such hunger and affection as is in reason due to the Hand that reacheth to the Seale that secureth to the food that strengthneth that spirituall life in us without which we cannot possibly reach unto the end of our very naturall and created desires happinesse and tranquillity It behoves us therefore to beware how we give entertainment to any carnall thoughts which goe about to vilifie and undervalew the excellency of so Divine misteries from the outward meannesse of the things themselves Say not like sullen Naaman Is not the Wine in the Vintners Sellar or the Bread of mine owne Table as good as nourishing as is any in the Temple certainly if thou be commanded some great Worke for the procuring of so great a good as there had beene betweene the service and the reward we disproportion so would even reason it selfe have dictated unto us a necessity of obeying rather then of disputing how much rather when he biddeth us only to eat and live True it is that these creatures naturally have no more power to convey CHRIST then wax hath in it selfe to convey a Lordship yet as a small piece of wax when once in the vertue of a humane covenant or contract it is made the instrument to confirme and ratifie such a conveyance is unto the receiver of more consequence then all the wax in the Towne besides and is with the greatest care preserved so these elements though physically the same which are used at our owne Tables yet in the vertue of that holy Consecration whereby they are made the instruâ—ments of exhibiting and the seales of ascertaining Gods Covenant of grace unto us are unto us more valewable then our barnes full of graine or our presses full of grapes and are to be desired with so farre distant an affection from the other that are common as Heaven is above Earth Secondly in that these elements are consecrated and exhibited for confirmation of our Faith wee thence see how the Church hath her degrees of faith her measure the spirit her deficiencyes of grace her languishings ebbings imperfections her decayes blemishes and fals which makes her stand in neede of being perfected builded rooted established in faith and righteousnes all things under the middle region are subject to Winds Thunders Tempests the continuall uncertainties of boysterous wheather whereas in the Heavens there is a perfect uniforme serenity and calmenes so when a Christian comes once to his owne Countrey unto Heaven he then comes unto an estate of peace and security to be filled with the fulnes of GOD where theeves do not breake thorowgh nor steale where neither flesh nor Satan have any admission noe stormes of temptation No Ship-wrack of conscience but where all things are spirituall and peaceable But in this Earth where Satan hath power to goe from place to place to compasse the World to raise his tempests against the Church even the Waves of ungodly men can have no safety from any danger which eyther his subtelty can contrive or his malice provoke or his power execute or his instruments further and therefore wee are here subject to more or fewer degrees of faintnes in our Faith according as our strength to resist the common adversary is lesse or greater As in the naturall so in the mysticall Body though all the parts doe in common pertake of life yet one is more vitall then another the Heart and Head then the Hands and Feete yea the same part is at one time more active and quick then at others One while overgrowne with humors and stiffned with distempers another while free expedite and able for the discharge of any vitall office And this is that which drives us to a necessity of recovering our strength and making up our breaches by this holy Sacrament which should likewise tell us in what humble esteeme wee ought to have our perfectest endowments they being all subject to their faylings and decaies Thirdly in that these mysteries doe knit the faithfull together into the unity of on common body we see what fellow feeling the faithfull should have of each other how they should interest themselves in the seâ—verall states and affections of their fellow members to rejoyce with those that rejoyce and to weepe with those that weepe As we should thinke the same things and so agree in a unity of judgments because all led with one and the same Spirit which is the Spirit of truth so we should all suffer and doe the same things and so all concurre in a unity of affections because all animated by the same Spirit which is the Spirit of love too where there is dissention and disagreement there must needs be a severall Law where the Law is diverse the government differs too and in a different government there must of necessity be a differeÌ„t subjection He then that doth not sympathize with his brother but nourisheth factious and uncharitable thoughts against him doth therin plainly testifie that he is not subject at least totally unto the same prince with him and then we know that there are but two Princes a Prince of peace and a
as unto men floating upon the Sea or unto distempered braines the land and house though immoveable seeme to reele and totter or as unto weake eyes every thing seemes double so the promises of God however built on a sure foundation his Counsell and Fore-knowledge yet unto men prepossest with their owne private distempers doe they seeme unstable and fraile unto a weake eye of faith Gods Covenant to bee if I may so speake double to have a tongue and a tongue a promise and a promise that is a various and uncertaine promise And for this cause notwithstanding diffident and distrustfull men doe indeed deserve what they suspect and are worthy to suffer what they unworthily doe feare doth God yet in compassion towards our fraitly condescend to confirme his promises by an Oath to engage the truth of his own essence for performance to seale the Patent which he hath given with his own blood and to exhibite that seale unto us so often as with faith wee approach unto the Communion of these holy mysteries And who can sufficiently admire the riches of this mercy which makes the very weakenesses and imperfections of his Church occasions of redoubling his promises unto it Secondly in that this Sacrament is the instrumentall cause of confirming our faith from this possibility yea facility of obtaining we must conclude the necessity of using so great a benefit wherein wee procure the strengthning of our graces the calmeing of our consciences and the experience of Gods favour in the naturall body there being a continuall activity and conflict betweene the heate and the moisture of the body and by that meanes a wasting depassion and decay of nature it is kept in a perpetuall necessity of succouring it selfe by food so in the spirituall man there being in this present estate an unreconcileable enmity betweene the spirit and the flesh there is in either part a propension towards such outward food whereby each in its distresses may be releeved The flesh pursues all such objects as may content and cherish the desires thereof which the Apostle calleth the provisions of lust The Spirit of the contrary side strengthens it selfe by those divine helps which the wisedome of God had appointed to conferre grace and to settle the heart in a firme perswasion of its owne peace And amongst these instruments this holy Sacrament is one of the principall which is indeed nothing else but a visible oath wherein Christ giveth us a tast of his benefits and engageth his owne sacred body for the accomplishing of them which supporteth our tottering faith and reduceth the soule unto a more setled tranquility Fifthly In that in this one all other Types were abrogated and nullified wee learne to admire and glorifie the love of God who hath set us at liberty from the thraldome of Ceremonies from the costlinesse and difficulty of his Service with which his owne chosen people were held in bondage under the Pedagogie and governement of Schoole-masters the ceremoniall and judiciall Law as so many notes of distinctions charactristicall differences or wall of separation betweene Iew and Gentile untill the comming of the Messias which was the time of the reformation of all things wherein the Gentiles were by his death to bee ingrafted into the same stocke and made partakers of the same juyce and fatnesse the shadowes to bee removed the ordinances to bee canceld the Law to bee abolished for The Law came by Moses but Grace and Truth by Iesus Christ Grace in opposition to the Curse of the Morall Law Truth in opposition to the figures and resemblances of the Ceremoniall Law The Iewes in Gods service were bound unto one place and unto one forme no Temple or ministration of Sacrifices without Ierusalem nor without expresse prescription no use of Creatures without difference of common and uncleane wheras unto us all places are lawfull and pure all things lawfull and pure every Country a Canaan and every City a Ierusalem and every Oratory a Temple It is not an ordinance but a Prayer which sanctifieth and maketh good unto our use every creature of God But yet though we under the Gospell are thus set at liberty from all manner ordinances which are not of intrinsecall eternall and unvariable necessity yet may this liberty in regard of the nature of things indifferent bee made a necessity in respect of the use of them We may not thinke that our liberty is a licentious and unbounded liberty as if CHRIST had been the Author of confusion to leave every man in the externall carriages of his worship unto the conduct of his private fancy This were to have our liberty for a cloake of naughtines and as an occasion to the flesh but we must alwayes limite it by those generall and morall rules of piety loyalty charity and sobriety Use all things we may indifferently without subjection or bondage unto the thing but not without subjection unto GOD and superiors Use them we may but with temperatnes and moderation use them we may but with respect to Gods glory use them we may but with submission to authority use them we may but with avoyding of scandall Christian liberty consisteth in the inward freedome of the conscience whose onely bond is a necessity of Doctrine not in outward conformity or observances onely whose bond is a necessity of obedience and subordination unto higher powers which obeying though wee become thereby subject unto some humane or Ecclesiasticall ordinances the conscience yet remaines uncurbed and at liberty Secondly we have hereby a great encouragement to serve our God in spirit and in truth being delivered from all those burdensome accessions which unto the inward worship were added in the legall observances In spirit in opposition unto the Carnall in truth in opposition unto the Typicall ceremonies The services of the Iewes were celebrated in the bloud and smoake of unreasonable creatures but ours in the Gospell must be a spirituall a reasonable service of him for as in the Word of God the letter profiteth nothing it is the spirit that quickneth so in the worship of God likewise the Knee the Lip the Eye the Hand alone profiteth not at all it is the spirit that worshippeth It is not a macerated body but a contrite soule which he respecteth if there be palenes in the face but bloud in the heart if whitenes in the Eye but blacknes in the soule if a drooping countenance but an unbended conscience if a knee bowing downe in the Temple of God and thoughts rising up against the grace of God the head like a Bul-rush and the heart like an Adamant in a word if there bee but a bodily and unquickned service a schisme in the same worshipper betweene his outward and his inward man he that is not a God of the dead but of the living hee that accompteth in the leviticall Law carcases as