seeing we have faith and the quickening Spirit of Christ before we come thither To this I answer that the Spirit is received in divers measures and faith bestowed upon us in different degrees by reason whereof our conjunction with Christ may every day be made straiter and the hold which we take of him firmer To receive the Spirit not by measure Joh. 3. 34. is the priviledge of our Head we that receive out of his fulness Joh. 1. 16. have not our portion of grace delivered unto us all at once but must daily look for supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Phil. 1. 19. So also while we are in this word the righteousness of God is revealed unto us from faith to faith Rom. 1. 17. that is from one degree and measure of it to another and consequently we must still labour to perfect that which is lacking in our faith 1 Thes. 3. 10. and evermore pray with the Apostles Lord increase our faith Luke 17. 5. As we have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so must we walk in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith Colos. 2. 6 7. that we may grow up into him in all things which is the Head. Ephes. 4 4. 1. And to this end God hath ordained publick officers in his Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a persect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4. 12 13. and hath accordingly made them able Ministers of the Spirit that quickeneth 1 Cor. 3. 6. and Ministers by whom we should helieve even as the Lord shall give to every man 1 Cor. 3. 5. When we have therefore received the Spirit and Faith and so spiritual life by their ministery we are not there to rest but as new born babes we must desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2. 2. and as grown men too we must desire to be fed at the Lords Table that by the strength of that spiritual repast we may be inabled to do the Lords work and may continually be nourished up thereby in the life of grace unto the life of glory Neither must we here with a fleshly eye look upon the meanness of the outward elements and have this faithless thought in our hearts that there is no likelihood a bit of bread and a draught of wine should be able to produce such heavenly effects as these For so we should prove our selves to be no wiser than Naaman the Syrian was who having received direction from the man of God that he should wash in Jordan seven times to be cleansed of his Leprosie 2 Kings 5. 12. 13. replied with indignation Are not Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel May I not wash in them and be clean But as his servants did soberly advise him then If the Prophet had bid the do some great thing wouldest thou not have done it How much rather then when he saith to thee Wash and be clean So give me leave to say unto you now If the Lord had commanded us to do some great thing for the artaining of so high a good should not we willingly have done it How much rather then when he biddeth us to eat the bread and drink the wine that he hath provided for us at his own Table that by his blessing thereupon we may grow in grace and be preserved both in body and soul unto everlasting life True it is indeed these outward creatures have no natural power in them to effect so great a work as this is no more than the water of Jordan had to recover the Leper but the work wrought by these means is supernatural and God hath been pleased in the dispensation both of the Word and of the Sacraments so to ordain it that these heavenly treasures should be presented unto us in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be of God. 2 Cor 4. 7. As therefore in the preaching of the Gospel the Minister doth not dare verba and beat the air with a fruitless sound but the words that he speaketh unto us are Spirit and life God being pleased by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe so likewise in the administration of the Lords Supper he doth not feed us with bare bread and wine but if we have the life of faith in us for still we must remember that this Table is provided not for the dead but for the living and come worthily the Cup of blessing which he blesseth 1 Cor. 10. 16. will be unto us the communion of the blood of Christ and the bread which he breaketh the communion of the body of Christ of which precious body and blood we being really made partakers that is in truth and indeed and not in imagination only altho' in a spiritual and not a corporal manner the Lord doth grant us according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man that we may be filled with ad the fulness of God. Eph. 3. 16 19. For the Sacraments as well as the Word be a part of that ministration of the Spirit which is committed to the Ministers of the New Testament 2 Cor. 36 8. forasmuch as by one Spirit as before we have heard from the Apostle we have been all baptized into one body and have been all made to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12 13. And thus have I finished the first part of my task my Congregatio homogeneorum as I call it the knitting together of those that appertain to the same body both with their fellow-members and with their Head which is the thing laid down in the express words of my Text. It remaineth now that I proceed to the Apostles application hereof unto the argument he hath in hand which is Segregatio heterogeneorum a dissevering of those that be not of the same communion that the faithful may not partake with Idolaters by countenancing or any way joyning with them in their ungodly courses For that this is the main scope at which St. Paul aimeth in his treating here of the Sacrament is evident both by that which goeth before in v. 19. Wherefore my deatly beloved flee from Idolatry and that which followeth in the 21. Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils Whereby we may collect thus much that as the Lords Suprer is a seal of our conjunction one with another and with Christ our Head so is it an evidence of our dis-junction from Idolaters binding us to disavow all communion with them in their false worship And indeed the one must necessarily follow upon the other considering
But every one will confess that the hunger here spoken of is not corporal but spiritual Why then should any man dream here of a corporal eating Again the corporal eating if a man might have it would not avail any thing to the slaking of this hunger nay we are expresly told that the flesh thus taken for so we must understand it profiteth nothing a man should never be the better nor one jot the holier nor any whit further from the second death if he had filled his belly with it But that manner of feeding on his flesh which Christ himself commendeth unto us is of such profit that it preserveth the eater from death and maketh him to live for ever Joh. 6. 50 51 54 58. It is not therefore such an eating that every man who bringeth a bodily mouth with him may attain unto but it is of a far higher nature namely a spiritual uniting of us unto Christ whereby he dwelleth in us and we live by him If any do farther inquire how it is possible that any such union should be seeing the body of Christ is in heaven and we are upon earth I answer that if the manner of this conjunction were carnal and corporal it would be indeed necessary that things conjoyned should be admitted to be in the same place but it being altogether spiritual and supernatural no local presence no physical nor mathematical continuity or contiguity is any way requisite thereunto It is sufficient for the making of a real union in this kind that Christ and we tho' never so far distant in place each from other be knit together by those spiritual ligatures which are intimated unto us in the words alledged out of Joh. 6. to wit the quickening Spirit descending downward from the Head to be in us a fountain of supernatural life and a lively faith wrought by the same spirit ascending from us upward to lay fast hold upon him who having by himself purged our sins sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high First therefore for the communion of the Spirit which is the ground and foundation of this spiritual union let us call to mind what we have read in Gods Book that Christ the second Adam was made a quickening Spirit Cor. 15. 45. and that he quickeneth whom he will Joh. 5. 21. that unto him God hath given the spirit without measure Joh. 3. 34. and of his fulness have all we received Joh. 1. 16. that he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. and that hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us his Spirit 1 Joh. 3. 24. 4. 13. By all which it doth appear that the mistery of our union with Christ consisteth mainly in this that the self same Spirit whch is in him as in the Head is so derived from him into every one of his true members that thereby they are animated and quickened to a spiritual life We read in Ezekel 1. of four living creatures and of four wheels standing by them When those went saith the Text those went and when those stood these stood and when those were lifted up from the earth the wheels were lifted up over against them He that should behold such a vision as this would easily conclude by that which he saw that some invisible bands there were by which these wheels and living creatures were joyned together howsoever none did outwardly appear unto the eye and the holy Ghost to give us satisfaction herein discovereth the secret by yielding this for the reason of this strange connexion that the spirit of the living creature was in the wheel Exek 1. 21. From whence we may inferr that things may truly be conjoyned together tho' the manner of the conjunction be not corporal and that things distant in place may be united together by having the spirit of the one communicated unto the other Nay if we mark it well we shall find it to be thus in every of our own bodies that the formal reason of the union of the members consisteth not in the continuity of the parts tho' that also be requisite to the unity of a natural body but in the animation thereof by one and the same spirit If we should suppose a body to be as high as the heavens that the head thereof should be where Christ our Head is and the feet where his members are no sooner could that head think of moving one of the toes but instantly the thing would be done without any impediment given by that huge distance of the one from the other And why because the same soul that is in the head as in the fountain of sence and motion is present likewise in the lowest member of the body But if it should so fall out that this or any other member proved to be mortified it presently would cease to be a member of that body the corporal conjunction and continuity with the other parts notwithstanding And even thus is it in Christ altho ' in regard of his corporal presence the heaven must receive him until the times of the restitution of all things Act. 3 21. yet is he here with us alway even unto the end of the world Matt. 28. 20. in respect of the presence of his Spirit by the vital influence whereof from him as from the Head the whole body is fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part Which quickening Spirit if it be wanting in any no external communion with Christ or his Church can make him a true member of this mistical body this being a most sure principle that He which hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Now among all the graces that are wrought in us by the Spirit of Christ the soul as it were of all the rest and that whereby the just doth live Habak 2. 4. Rom. 1. 17. Gal. 3 11. Heb. 10. 38 is Faith For we through the Spirit wait for the bope of righteousness by faith saith St. Paul to the Galatians Gal. 5. 5. And again I live yet nâ—t I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. By faith it is that we do receive Christ Joh. 1. 12. and so likewise Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Eph. 3. 17. Faith therefore is that spiritual mouth in us whereby we eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood that is as the Apostle expresseth it without the Trope are made partakers of Christ Heb. 3. 14. he being by this means as truly and every ways as effectually made ours as the meat and drink which we receive into our natural bodies But you will say If this be all the matter what do we get by coming to the Sacrament
This is my Covenant saith God in the institution of Circumcision in the old Testament Gen. 17. 10. but how it was his Covenant he explainerh in the verse immediately following Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a SIGN of the Covenant betwixt me and you So words being the signs of things no sooner is the sound of the word conveyed to cur ears but the notion of the thing signified thereby is presented unto our mind and thereupon in the speech of the Scripture nothing is more ordinary than by the term of Word to note a thing We read in 1 Sam. 4. that the Philistines were afraid and said God is come in the Camp. ver 7. when the Israelites brought thither the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts which dwelleth between the Cherubims v. 4. and yet was that no other but this relative kind of presence whereof now we speak in respect whereof also the Shewbread is in the Hebrew named the bread of faces or the presence bread We see with us the room wherein the Kings Chair and other Ensigns of State are placed is called the Chamber of presence although the King himself be not there personally present And as the rude and undutiful behaviour of any in that place or the offering of any disrespect to the Kings Pourtraicture or to the Armes Royal or to any other thing that hath relation to his Majesty is taken as a dishonour done unto the King himself so here he that eateth the bread and drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily is accounted guilty of offering indignity to the body and blood of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11. 27. In this sort we acknowledge Sacraments to be Signs but bare signs we deny them to be Seals they are as well as signs of the Covenant of grace As it was therefore said of John the Baptist that he was a Prophet and more than a Prophet Matt. 11. 9. So must we say of Sacraments that they be signs and more than signs even pledges and assurances of the interest which we have in the heavenly things that are represented by them He that hath in his chamber the picture of the French King hath but a bare sign which possibly may make him think of that King when he looketh on it but sheweth not that he hath any manner of interest in him It is otherwise with him that hath the Kings great Seal for the confirmation of the title that he hath unto all the lands and livelihood which he doth injoy And as here the wax that is affixed to those letters Patents howsoever for substance it be the very same with that which is to be found every where yet being applied to this use is of more worth to the Patent than all the wax in the Countrey beside so standeth it with the outward elements in the matter of the Sacrament The bread and wine are not changed in substance from being the same with that which is served at ordinary tables but in respect of the sacred use whereunto they are consecrated such a change is made that now they differ as much from common bread and wine as heaven from earth Neither are they to be accounted barely significative but truly exhibitive also of those heavenly things whereto they have relation as being appointed by God to be a means of conveying the same unto us and putting us in actual possession thereof So that in the use of this holy ordinance verily as a man with his bodily hand and mouth receiveth the earthly creatures so verily doth he with his spiritual hand and mouth if any such he have receive the body and blood of Christ. And this is that real and substantial presence which we affirmed to be in the inward part of this sacred action For the better conceiving of which mistery we are to inquire first what the thing is which we do here receive secondly how and in what manner we are made partakers of it Touching the first the truth which must be held is this that we do not here receive only the benefits that flow from Christ but the very body and blood of Christ that is Christ himself crucified For as none can be made partaker of the vertue of the bread and wine to his bodily sustenance unless he first do receive the substance of those creatures so neither can any participate in the benefits arising from Christ to his spiritual relief except he first have communion with Christ himself We must have the Son before we have life 1 Joh. 5. 12. and therefore eat him we must Joh. 6. 57. as himself speaketh that is as truly be made partakers of him as we are of our ordinary food if we will live by him As there is a giving of him on Gods part for unto us a Son is given Esa. 9. 6. so there must be a receiving of him on our part for as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Joh. 1. 12. And as we are called by God unto the communion of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 9. so it we do hear his voice and not harden our hearts by unbelief we are indeed made partakers of Christ Heb. 3. 14. This is that great mistery for so the Apostle termeth it of our union with Christ whereby we are made members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5. 30 32. and this is that eating of the flesh of the Son of man and drinking of his blood which our Saviour insisteth so much upon in Joh. 6. Where if any man shall demand that I may now come unto the second point of our inquiry How can this man give us his flesh to eat Joh. 6. 52. he must be ware that he come not pre-occupied with such dull conceits as they were possessed withal who moved that question there he must not think that we cannot truly feed on Christ unless we receive him within our jaws for that is as gross an imagination as that of Nicodemus who could not conceive how a man could be born again unless he should enter the second time into his Mothers Womb Joh. 3. 4. but must consider that the eating and drinking which our Saviour speaketh of must be answerable to the hungring and thirsting for the quenching whereof this heavenly Banquet is provided Mark well the words which he useth toward the beginning of his discourse concerning this argument I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not Joh 6. 35 36. And compare them with those in the end It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life But there are some of you that believe not Now observe that such as our hungring is such is our eating