pour out all our Grief our Prayers and our Praises before the Lord in so happy a conjuncture The primitive Christians did it so who did as seldom meet to preach or pray without a Communion as did the old Israelites to worship without a Sacrifice On solemn daies especially or upon great Exigencies they ever used this help of Sacramental Oblation as the most powerful Means the Church had to strengthen their Supplications to open the Gates of Heaven and to force in a manner God and his Christ to have compassion on them The People of Israel for the better performance of Prayer and Devotion went up to the Tabernacle and the Temple because besides other Motives both these were Figures of that Body which was to be sacrificed Wherefore Christ calls his Body this Temple Joh. 2.19 and the first Christians went up to their Churches there to meet with these Mysteries which do represent him both as already sacrificed and yet as in some sort offering and giving up himself Those in worshipping ever turned their Eyes their Hearts their hopes towards that Altar and Sacrifice whence the High Priest was to carry the Blood into the Sanctuary and these looking toward the Cross and their crucified Savior there through his Sufferings hope for a way towards Heaven being encouraged to this hope by the very Memorial which they both take to themselves and shew to God of these Sufferings Lastly Jesus our Eternal Priest being from the Cross where he suffered without the Gate gon up into the true Sanctuary which is Heaven there above doth continually present both his Body in true reality and us as Aaron did the twelve Tribes of Israel in a Memorial Exod. 28.29 and on the other side we beneath in the Church present to God his Body and Blood in a Memorial that under this shadow of his Cross and image of his Sacrifice we may present our selves before him in very deed and reality 5. O Lord who seest nothing in me that is truely mine but Dust and Ashes and which is worse sinful flesh and Blood look upon what I have of thee some small Remnant of thine Image some small beginnings of thy Grace and some light sparks of thy Spirit But because all these are defective supply them O Lord with thy mercy and with the Sacrifice of thy Son Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name and thine Anointed give the praise Turn thine Eyes O Merciful Father to the satisfaction and Intercession of thy Son who now sits at thy Right Hand to the Seals of thy Covenant which lye before thee upon this Table and to all the wants and distresses which also thou seest in my heart O Father glorify thy Son whom thou hast sent into this World O Son bless thou this Sacrament which thou hast ordained for thy Church and send with it some influence of that Spirit whom thou hast promised to all Flesh that by the help of these Mercies the World the Church our Flesh and Souls may glorify thee now and ever Father Son and Holy Spirit Amen SECTION VII Concerning the Sacrifice of our own Persons 1. IT is either the Error or the incogitancy of too many Christians which makes them somtimes beleive and oftener live as if under the Gospel there were no other Sacrifice but that of Christ upon the Cross It is very true indeed there is no other nor can there be any other sufficient and proper for this end of satisfiing Gods Justice and expiating our sins I have troden the Winepress alone and of the People there was none with me I looked and there was none to help Esay 63.3.5 In this respect tho the whole Church should in a Body offer up her self as a burnt Sacrifice to God yet could she not contribute more towards the bearing up or bearing away the wrath to come then all those Innocent souls who stood neer Jesus Christ when he gave up the Ghost did towards the darkning of the Sun or the shaking of the whole Earth But that which is not so much as useful much less necessary to this Eternal Sacrifice which alone could redeem Mankind is indispensably both necessary and useful that we may have a share in this Redemtion So that if the Sacrifice of our selves which we ought to offer up to God cannot procure Salvation it is absolutely necessary to receive it 2. As the old Law never introduced Aaron officiating before the Lord without the whole People of Israel represented both by the twelve stones on his Ephod and the two other on his shoulders Exod. 28.12.30 The Gospel most commonly describes Jesus Christ and his Church not only as two Parties that do nothing the one without the other but somtimes also as one Person alone as particularly 1. Cor. 12.12 Christ acts officiates and suffers for his Body in that manner that doth become the Head and the Church imitates and follows all the motions and sufferings of this heavenly and holy Head in such a manner as is possible to its weak Members 3. The main if not the whole Divinity of S. Paul as well in point of faith as of Christian life runs upon this Conformity both of actions and sufferings And that of S. Iohn likewise upon this same Communion The truth is Our Savior had neither Birth nor Death nor Resurrection here on Earth but such as we ought to conform us to as he hath neither Ascention nor Throne nor Everlasting life nor Glory but such as we may also have in Heaven common with him 4. This Conformity or likeness to Christ which as the Hebrewes use to spake is the foundation and Pillar that is the grand Principle of the whole Christian institution relates more directly to our duty about his Sufferings and then to our happiness about his Exaltation And the Communion which is the other great fundamental that S. Iohn hath still in his Mouth points more at this and presupposes that And both make up a full Comment upon the words which our Savior so often commanded his Disciples to follow him thereby signifiing both the Labor and the success of this most Important Journy for without doubt we shall follow him into Heaven if we will follow him here on Earth and we shall have Communion with him in his Glory if we will keep Conformity with him here in his Sufferings 5. These three expressions to Follow to be like or have Conformity and to have Communion which are the most essential Clauses in the charter and charge of christianity are not to be limited to the imitation of Christs Moralls only as when he bids us be Holy as he is Holy c. but they oblige all his Disciples to follow and imitate him likewise as much as in them lies throughout all the other parts of his life and the very functions of his Offices For we must be regenerated in his Birth dye on his Cross be buried in his Grave bear his shame in his Tribulations in
only to charge it with all its sins Nevertheless as under the Law the Lamb and the Oblation added to it did join in one Sacrifice because both were offered upon one Altar and consumed by one fire so under the Gospel Christ and his People are accounted for one Oblation when both in their own proper way are consecrated by the same Cross and are in some manner alike obedient to death For we have bin planted together in the likeness of his death knowing this that our Old Man is dead c. Rom. 6.5 6. 18. By this likeness or conformity of Sufferings Christ is dead once to satisfie the rigor of the Law and so must Christians destroy their sins and mortifie themselves that they may observe hereafter the Righteousness of the Gospel Christ during that terrible storm that made him weep and cry aloud Matt. 27.46.50 Luk. 23.46 Heb. 5.7 did suffer such a heavy punishment as might satisfy Gods Justice And his Mystical Body must every day both undertake and suffer such fatherly Corrections as may overmaster their own sins In a word the Holy Savior was willing to be crucified because this dismal execution was indispensably necessary to turn away the wrath to come and his true members must be willing to crucifie themselves with him because this Discipline is as indispensably necessary to destroy in them by degrees that inward corruption which would bring back again this wrath 19. O Father of Mercies I beseech thee both by the merits of thy Son who now intercedes in Heaven awd by that bloody Sacrifice which he hath offered on the Cross whereof thou seest the Sacrament upon This Table this Day be pleased to receive me into the Communion of his Sufferings and hereafter into the Communion of his Glory Cast not away from thee in displeasure the Elevation of these hands which I will fasten to his Cross so far as they may not offend and which I do now stretch before thee with a true desire that hereafter they may serve thee neither despise the Sacrifice of a poor Soul which also his Cross hath wounded with the sense of her misery and by this wound laies it open both to pour out her own prayers and to gasp after thy mercies O God and Father bestow on me such a measure of that Spirit through which thy Son offered himself * Heb. 9.14 as may sanctifie for ever the Body and Soul which now I offer and may likewise help me to perform the service which I do promise A Spirit of Contrition that I may sufficiently detest those sins which did deliver my God to death then a spirit of Holiness that I may never be temted to them any more then a crucified man can be temted O let this crucified Body which I present to thee for such never be untied from his Cross either to fall to those viclences that have peirced my Saviors hands or to fly up to those vanities that have crowned his head with Thorns or to follow unjust pleasures that have filled his dear Soul with greif that have filled his Entrails with Gall. Arm and Rod of the Lord who in thine Anger didst revenge all these sins upon my Savior in thy mercy correct and destroy them also in me So my God accept of a heart that sheds now before thee its Tears as a poor Victim does its blood and that raises up unto thee all its desires its thoughts its zeal as a Burnt offering doth its flames Finally since my Sacrifice can be neither holy nor accepted being alone Accept of it O Father as it is an Oblation supported by that Sacrifice which alone is able to please thee Receive it clothed with the Righteousness of thy Son and made acceptable with that holy Perfume that rises from of his Altar And grant that He who sanctifies and they who are by him sanctified may be joined in one Passion and may enjoy hereafter with thee the same Glory Our Father which art in Heaven c. SECTION VIII Concerning the Oblation of our Goods and Alms or the Sacrifice of Justice 1. IT is an express and often repeated Law of God by Moses and no where repeated by Christ that no worshipper shall presume to appear before him with emty hands Sincere Christians must have them full at the receiving of the holy Communion with four distinct sorts of Sacrifices 1. The Sacramental and commemorative Sacrifice of Christ 2. The real and Actual Sacrifice of themselves 3. The free will Offering of their Goods 4. The Peace Offering of their Praises 2. The first as representing the Sacrifice offered on the Cross is the ground of the three others especially of the second which must no more be separated from it then Parts are from the Whole or the Body from its Head These two are so close coupled together that St. Austin * Aug. apud Fulg. de Bapt. Aethiop c. ult more then once by the Body of Christ in the holy Communion understands Christs mystical Body which is the Church And St. Cyprian * St. Cypr. l. 2. Ep. 3. saies expressly that Christ and his People are contained and united together in the Holy Cup that being represented by the Wine this represented by the Water so that Christ is not there without his People nor the People without their Savior 3. The Third and fourth which are the Sacrifices of our Goods and of our Praises are appendages following after the second that is the Sacrifice of our own selves by as natural a consequence as the fruits and leaves follow the Tree and as what we have or what we can must needs come after what we are All the world know how that blemisht and lame Sacrifices were abominable under the Law and certainly Bodies without heads souls without their faculties and Persons without their proper Duties are not better under the Gospel Such mutilated Sacrifices cannot suit with that of Christ which was perfectly whole and entire Therefore as when we once offer our selves to God our Souls and Bodies become attending Sacrifices on the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ so must by the same equity all our Goods and Services by way of seconddary Oblations attend the Sacrifice of our Persons And as the Lamb in the daily Sacrifice was never offered without its Meat Oblation nor this meat Oblation without its incense its Wine its Oil So the Eternal Son and Lamb of God who was pleased to offer himself for me must neither be offered without me nor whensoever I offer up my self both by him and with him must I appear as a dry and unsavory Meat offering without juice without sweet smell without all the holy dispositions of readiness and joy to obey and please my God in all good works whereof the Incense the Wine and the Oil were under the Law sacred Emblemes In a word whensoever we offer our selves we offer by the self same Act all that we have all that we can and so consequently we do engage for
Center both of his Happiness and his Duty and that ties the very knot which in a manner joins Man with God It was upon this account that the Devil who bore ever an equal hatred both to what is Holy to God and to all what is conducible to the Salvation of Man hath from the very beginning bin busie with this Sacrament and hath ever since given the Church more trouble about the Body of Jesus Christ then ever the Angel suffered about the Body of Moses Jude 9. For the Body of Christ as the Holy Fathers distinguish it being of two sorts to wit the Natural which is in Heaven and the Sacramental which is blessed and given at the holy Table the primitive Heretics whom the Spirit of Antichrist set up and animated against the Church spent all their strength and their venim at the very time and in the face of the Apostles in order to destroy the first which is the Human Nature of Christ and to reduce it to a Phantosm and God knows whether the second that is the Sacramental receives at this day any better entertainment from two contrary Parties who make it either a false God or an emty Ceremony Of all these opposite Enemies the first who assaulted his Flesh could in this impiety be but poor vain undertakers this glorious Body being highly exalted above their reach but the second are on this account more dangerous because the blessed Communion which makes up this other Body may daily fall into the hands of either an Idolatrous or a profane Abuser Therefore it very much concerns them whosoever have either any Piety towards God or any care of their own Souls to menage their Devotions with such precaution and judgment that this venerable Sacrament may be kept safe from the attemts of superstition and profaneness SECTION II. Concerning the Sacrament as it is a Memorial of the Sufferings and Death of Christ 1. THe blessed Communion was chiefly instituted by the Son of God for a Sacrament in the Church But when it is received by the Christian People if this receiving of theirs be right it must needs be attended with the addition of such other Performances as will make it also a Sacrifice As it is a Sacrament this great Mystery shews three Faces looking directly towards three Times and offering to all worthy Receivers three sorts of incomparable Blessings that of Representing the true Efficacy of Christs Sufferings which are past whereof it is a Memorial that of exhibiting the first Fruits of these Sufferings in real and present Graces whereof it is a moral Conveyance and Communication and that of assuring Men of all other Graces and Glories to come whereof it is an infallible Pledg 2. As this Sacrament looks back it is an authentic Memorial which our Savior hath left in his Church of what He was pleased to suffer for Her For tho these Sufferings of His were both so dreadful and Holy as to make the Heavens mourn the Earth quake and all men tremble yet because great Objects how terrible and magnificent soever they be whilst they last are not less then the smallest things apt to be forgotten when they are gon and so there was small likelyhood that the Passion of Jesus Christ which was not seen upon the Cross above the space of some few hours could be well preserved in the memory of men throughout all ages therefore our Saviour was pleased at his last Supper to ordain this Sacrament as a holy Memorial Representation and Image of what He was about to suffer for that short time to save his dear Church for ever So that when Christian Posterity which had not seen the Crucifixion of their Savior like the young Israelites that had not seen the killing of the first Passover should come to ask after the signification of those things this Bread this Wine the Breaking of the one the powring out of the other and the Participation of both this sacred Mystery might expose to faithful Beholders as a present and constant Object both the Martyrdom and the Sacrifice of this crucified Savior giving up his Flesh shedding his Blood and pouring out his very Soul for the expiation of their Sins 3. Therefore as in the Feasts of the Passover the late Jews could say This is the Lamb these are the Herbs and this is the Bread of affliction which our Fathers did eat in Egypt because their latter Feasts did so effectually represent the former that the People who did partake of those had ground enough both to act and to speak as if they had bin present at this So at our holy Communion which succeeds the Passover and is undoubtedly no less a blessed and powerful Sacrament to set before our eyes Christ our Passover who is sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.7 Our Saviour says St. Augustin doubted not to say This is my Body when he gave to his Disciples the Figure of his Body Because especially besides the Commemoration this Sacrament duly given and faithfully received makes the Thing which it represents as really present for our use and as really powerful in order to our Salvation as if the Thing it self were newly done or in doing Eating this Bread and drinking of this Cup you set forth the death of the Lord. 1 Cor. 11.26 4. For certainly not to mistake the meaning of Christ nor to injure his Mystery whensoever with the primitive Church we call it a Memorial or a Figure great care must be taken lest we confound these Venerable Representations which God himself hath set up in his Church and for his Church with those emty Figures and Marks which either some old Tradition or some private phansie may by chance have put in our way Men of ordinary Understanding do not regard with the same eye the Armes and Images of Princes which public Autority hath set up in a public eminent Place and which a Painter to please his phansie hath fixt in a private Room Without all doubt a wise Traveller would be much more moved at the sight of the Salt Pillar if it did stand yet where it did which God had set up purposely where Lots wife lookt towards Sodom then at some Prints of her Feet if they were to be seen yet when she turned some other way And if we credit the History that Cross which the first Christian Emperor is reported once to have seen in the Air which undoubtedly the hand of God or an Angel had made appear with some Design could not but cause a greater respect then that ordinary Sign of the Cross which Christians have used on common occasions Add what no body can deny that all Sorts of Signs and Monuments become more or less Venerable according to the greater or lesser worth of the Objects which they are made to represent It had bin hard for Abraham or for any devout Patriarck not to feel some motions of Reverence and holy Fear when they did chance to pass again by Mamre or by Morijah
same fire and went up towards Heaven in the same flame So Jesus Christ and all his Members may jointly appear before God this in a Sacramental Mystery these with their real Bodies and Souls offering themselves at the same time in the same place and by the same Oblation So that whosoever are attending on this sacrifice since they do it in remembrance of their Savior once really dead and every day Sacramentally dying for them do this in remembrance of me they do it in such a manner 1. as may become faithful Disciples who are resolved to dy both for and with their Master 2. as true and sincere Members that cannot outlive their own head and 3. as truly penitent sinners who dare not look for any share in the Glory and Redemtion and session at the right or left hand of their Savior unless after their way they undergo the same Baptism unless they will drink the same Cup and unless they enter really into the Communion of that Sacrifice and those Sufferings which their Master their head and their Savior hath passed through and which this very Sacrament engages them to 15. Now this Communion doth require first a Conformity of Actions that may in some sort correspond to all what Christ hath done as Priest Secondly another Conformity of mortifications and passions that may likewise answer to whatsoever he hath Suffered as a voluntary Victim As Priest for in this occasion all Christians after the example of their Savior become Priests since they offer themselves to God to follow all the steps and take upon them all the preparations the Course of life and the like dispositions of mind which were seen in this Blessed Melchisedeck when he presented himself to God To this effect the faithful Worshipper presenting that Soul and Body which God fitted him with at his coming into this world will lay them down at the Altar Lo I come if this Soul and Body may be useful to any thing here they are both to do thy will O God * Heb. 10.5.7 And hereafter if it please thee to use that power which thou hast as Creator over Dust and Ashes over weak flesh and Blood over a brittle vessel of Clay over the work of thine own hands Lo here they are to suffer also thy good pleasure I do now protest to my God that if he please to afflict me either with pain or dishonor I will humble my self under it and be obedient unto death even unto the death of the Cross †Phil. 2.8 Whatsoever may happen to me either from the Jews or Gentiles from my Neighbors or from strangers since it is my God that emploies them tho they neither know nor think it so unless at the same time God help me to some lawful means of securing my self against their wrongs I will not hereafter open my mouth before the Lord who doth strike me except only to sing the Psalm after I have eaten some bitter Herbs that belong to this Passover and to bless the Lord who gave them me and intreat him for the wicked who perhaps hath maliciously gathered them Hereafter no man can take away any thing from me no life no honor no Estate since I am ready of my self to lay them down assoon as I can perceive that God requires them at my hands Nevertheless O Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me yet if I must drink it thy will be don What kind soever of Suffering hereafter may trouble my Flesh or what kind soever of Agonies may perhaps worse trouble my Spirit following the example of this high Priest in the midst of his bitterest pains O Father into thy hand b Luke 23.46 I will ever remit my life and the dearest concernments that attend it And if thou be pleased that either I live yet a while or not I will with my Savior bow down my head c Joh. 19.30 Joh. 19.46 I will adore thee under my burthen and humble my self under thy hand I will give up all what thou wilt be pleased to ask Goods Joys c. until at last I surrender and give up the Ghost a Luke 22.42 Matth. 26.42 16. To this first part of our Conformity with Christ as Priest must be referred whatsoever we read he did from his last Passover to his Passion as far as we can imitate it as when he washed the feet of his Disciples when he prayed for his Murderers when he received with a mild reply the rashness of him that struck him commiting all the rest to God when he took that charitable care of gently restoring the Ear to an insolent fellow named Malchus when his dismallest Agonies never kept him from comforting a Penitent this day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23.43 nor from instructing Good pious Souls ye Doughters of Jerusalem weep not c. nor from interceding for his cruellest Enemies Father forgive them for they know not what they do nor from taking care for his Relations woman behold thy son c. Ioh. 19.26 Hereupon the success of these both Active and Passive dispositions must needs be this that God looking first to Abel and finding him endued with that spirit of humility of Charity of meekness and of patience which was also in Christ Jesus Phil. 2.5 he certainely will be pleased to look also upon his Sacrifice Genes 4.4 17. Besides this first Conformity of holy Dispositions and as it were Sacerdotal Ornaments between Jesus and his Disciples considered as they are Priests there must needs be also a conformity of Death and Passion between them being considered as Sacrifices The first Conformity which regards Personal and Priestly Endowments is never so exact nor so full as to adorn inferior Priests with all the proper Attire of Aaron his Golden Plate his embroidered Ephod or his Miter or his Breast Plate yet it is never so defective but that he and they may without indecency notwithstanding the inequality of their Garments officiate at one Altar The second Conformity which regards the Sacrifice is yet much shorter then the first being between things not only unequal in degrees of perfection but different in their nature For really the Sacrifice of a living Creature as the Lamb was could not differ so much in nature from dead and inanimate Offerings such as the Meal the Oil and the Wine were which as secondary Sacrifices were added to the first as the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ differs from what poor Christians either are in their nature or can offer up to God in Sacrifice For of these two Sacrifices as to their proper conditions The one is Divine allmighty and all Holy and the other is human infirm and sinful And as to their several ends The one is made to procure and work Expiation and the other only to get some capacity to receive it The first and prime Sacrifice imparts to the second its Righteousness and the second is thrown upon the first as a burthen