Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30663
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The constant communicant a diatribe proving that constancy in receiving the Lords Supper is the indespensible duty of every Christian / by Ar. Bury ...
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Bury, Arthur, 1624-1713.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing B6191; ESTC R32021
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237,193
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397
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Endeareth all other Lawes by new obligations proper to the Nature of a Man II. 2. Is it self a New Law upon a New account III. It is not only a Monument proper to our Lords memory but a Statu lively representing him IV. Our Lord expressed his esteem by his care in recommending it in the most advantageos circumstances 1. It was the Last night in his Life 2. The night in which he was and knew he should be bebetrayed V. The pervers returns many make to This care 1. The Profane make it their Last act as if it wer to shew forth their own death 2. Som make it their Last care by preferring every other before it Business unpreparednes uncharitablenes VI. The Scrupulos refuseing to receve bicause hindered by impossibl conditions blemish our Lords wisdom and goodness THIS and This Only is Appropriate to our Lords Person and Humane Nature and hath thereby a dubl singularity of power 1. It addeth a New inforcement to former Laws upon their Old account 2. It is it self a New Law upon a New account I. IT endeareth all Former Laws upon their Common account which well cast up amounteth to this End Total They promote Our happiness and that in all Kinds and Capacities Private and Publick Inward and Outward Temporal and Eternal They exalt us above the Troubles by putting us above the Cares and Pollutions of this world make us both Useful and Amiable in our generations Spiritual in our affections Godlike in our conversation Perfect as our heavenly father is perfect as much in Happiness as Goodness they promote not any other interest of God but his delight in our felicity And This is a great argument to invite our obedience twisted of Interest and Gratitude And the bonds of Gratitude which oblige us to obey God for Kindness of his Commands ar dubled by That of his Promises He imputeth it as a Service and promiseth Rewards infinitely greater than the best Service could pretend to if we will accept of the happiness he offereth us And what can Love do more Yes our Lord hath do'n yet More Infinitely More for us He hath not only taken Care but Paid for our happiness and the Price was great as the Love that paid it and the Obligation thence derived greater than Both the Other For his Laws and Promises shewed the Love indeed but mingled with the Authority of a Father His Power was thereby Governed but not Weakned they provide for Our happiness without robbing Him of any part of his own What the Psalmist says of his Works we may apply to his Laws and Promises He spake and it was do'n he commanded and they were created But rhe work our Redemtion cost him not onely a word speaking but strong cries and tears whereby he purchased to himself Another Right so much more Obliging to Us by how much more Costly to Himself than that of a Creator That our great Lawgiver should take upon himself the form of a servant and become Obedient yea that of a Malefactor and becom obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross That he should with his Own bloud purchase us a Pardon for breaking his Own so gracios Laws and Himself a peculiar peopl zelos of good works and thereby capabl of his so Promised Rewards leaving us an exampl that we should follow his steps which it is no less Shameful to Desert than Impossibl to Ourgo either in Active or Passive obedience This is indeed a most Admirabl and no less Powerful charm to constrain us to follow such a Captain These Things for their admirable Loveliness the Angels desire to look into and by such cords of Love Humanity must needs be Attracted No voice therefor of this Captain of our Salvation caled more loud upon Us to Follow Him than That whereby he caled upon God as forsaking him Never more a King than when Crowned with thorns Anointed with sweat and bloud and Enthroned on his Cross There There was he exalted on the throne of Love There did he stretch out his inviting Arms There did he open not his Arms only but his Heart who 's wide door let out his Bloud to make room for Us. This doth himself cal his Exaltation I when I am exalted will draw All men unto me All Men of All Humours and Complexions All Nations and Ages The stubbornest metal that will not be Broken by his Authority will be Melted by his Love which cannot be better Kindled or Fueled in our hearts than by the wood of the Cross Nor can That be better ordered than by This Sacrament which was appointed for That very End By This he is still set forth Crucified among Us as heretofore among the Galations however remote in time or place By this he is still Exalted to his Cross By This doth his Heart still open it self to send forth fresh bloud and his Mouth to utter new cries But oh those Cryes must be New indeed and to New but Sad purposes On his Cross he cried upward to his seemingly deserting Father My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me But at his Table he cryeth downward to his too really deserting disciples My friends My friends why do you forsake me Is it nothing to You Oh all you that pass by Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow which is do'n unto Me wherewith the Lord Once afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger for your sakes and which you still repete by your unkind neglects of the salvation I then so dearly purchased and now so lovingly offer Whether his Bloud by speaking more Sweetly do not also speak more Powerfully than his Commands yea or Promises can do I neither Dare nor Need to determin All that I pretend to I hope is plain viz. That This Sacrament by shewing forth his Death draweth us with a New attractive and bindeth us with New obligations to obey such a Lord so purchasing and so offering salvation II. 2. THIS doth not only add New Obligations to former Laws upon their Old account but is it self a New Law upon a New account This is therefor the Cord of a Man bicause it draweth and bindeth us to our Lords humanity He that said If you Love me keep my Commandments recommendeth them after the same proportion as they have interest in his Person to which therefor since This hath greatest Relation it must also have greatest Claim to our Obedience If you love me you will keep all my Commandments bicause they are Mine but This above All bicause it is not only My Commandment but My Monument It s Relation is so singular to our Lords Person that it is Incommunicable even to one part of his Nature In all the Rest the whole Trinity is concerned bicause they serv the whole Divine Nature In keeping them we obey the Father also from whom he professeth to have receved them If we partake his spirit the Holy Ghost is honored but Spirits have not Flesh and
verse 27. it is yoked with This Bread and being thus secured from any danger of mistake might safely be clothed with That larger title more suitable for It than for the Bread because it doth not only Represent his Blood as the Bread doth his Body but Prescribe the frequeny for celebration which the Bread doth Not. In verse 28. The Demonstrative is laid aside and in the 29th not only the Demonstrative but the very Subject In both a manifest Ellipsis easily and necessarily supplied since we cannot apprehend the Action of Eating and Drinking without the Bread and Cup nor any other Bread and Cup but only THIS so earnestly inculcated in the same breath And now that I may bring the whole Argument to a closer vieu I shall from a disjointed examination of its scattered parts proceed to a reduction of All to Logik form in a Syllogism of the most perfect mode Bar As often as you shew forth the Lords death unworthily you are guilty of his Body and Blood ba As often as you eat This Bread and drink This Cup you shew forth the Lords death ra As often as you eat This Bread and drink this Cup unworthily you are guilty of his Body and Blood Of this Syllogism the Assumtion is set forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 verse 26. The Conclusion thence inferred verse 27. But the Proposition which is generally look'd upon as the adaequate design the Apostle no otherwise proveth but by reciting the Institution which abundantly declareth the relation between the Lords Supper and his Body and Blood Since therefor it was necessary for him to convince them that the Lords Supper was concerned in All their meetings but not at all that the Lords Body and Blood were Represented in his Supper since accordingly he payeth All his service to This Bread and This Cup which was used in all their Meetings but None at all to the Lords Supper otherwise then by consequence therefrom Since the whole 26th verse must be utterly Impertinent and worse if it pretend only to assert the dignity of the Lords Supper but most Cogent if it intend to assert that of This Bread and This Cup since One way he shall prove a truth whose importance Deserved his service and whose Doubtfulness Needed it and the Other way one who 's Self-evidence superseded any Proof one might think the choice between them not very doubtful Yet ar we all this while no farther than the Entry For the very Life of the Argument is laid up in a Clause purposely inserted in the Close of our Lords Institution and resumed in the Head of his Own discourse as the strength of the whole yet so miserably mistaken that it is made the only Enemy to the Apostl's direct design Dispensing with the Constancy which he so industriosly laboreth to prove Indispensibl CHAP. II. Concerning the Clause AS OFTEN AS I. The unhappiness of this Clause II. The true sens of the words mesured by parallel precepts III. Serviceable remarks 1. With what care the Apostl recordeth this Claus IV. 2. With partiality he treateth the Cup. V. The justice he doth the bread joining it with the cup in his dedeductions VI. The Conclusion with an Objection answered HOW unhappy our Lords Supper hath be'n in All the means he used to indear it we have already noted He chose the Last night because the words of dying friends most forcibly affect the survivors and the horrors of the Tragical time dashed it out of the Apostl's thoghts He then made a contrary opportunity and by a Supper purposely contrived evidenced his care of This memorial of his Death equal to that of evidencing his Resurrection And then Joy and Wonder hindred them more from heeding This than from believing That Nor did Any other means prevail till the Holy Ghost broght it to their understandings But their Disciples had not the same mesur of This Spirit The Corinthians either mistook or soon forgot and St. Paul found it highly necessary not only to Remind them of their duty but further to Explain it And This very Explication suffers as much from the mistakes of Interpreters as did the Holy Supper it self from the profaneness of the Corinthians For St. Paul did no more intend to discorage our Obedience to our Lords Command than did our Lord himself to encourage Their profaneness in the Performance Yet in his Own words do we take refuge from his Reproofs as if he had taught us to place All our safety from Unworthiness in keeping distance from Obedience That we should run from One extreme to a Contrary thogh it be a great Error is no great Wonder thogh nothing be more Condemned yet nothing is more frequently practised But that Those very words whereby he indeavored to Prevent the Error should be made to Serv it That he should use his utmost care to prove Constancy indispensibl and we should take his words for a Dispensation from it is the Singular unhappiness of This Only clause perverted thereby to an utter Defaisance of our Lords Command and an utter Defait of his Own Design We shall therefor indevor to restore the Words to their due power First by shewing what must needs be their true meanang And Secundly by exposing the Absurdities of That which is vulgarly imposed upon them II. FIRST we are to enquire into the true sense of this Clause As often as And to this end we need not look back upon what we have seen in the word THIS For This Claus no less peremtorily requireth a certain Standard than That Demonstrative doth a certain Object And the Apostle plainly joineth them together in the same power as the dubl hinge whereon his whole Argument turneth These doth he jointly resume as the sum of our Lords institution These doth he fasten as a nail in a sure place and upon These doth he hang that chain of Consequences whereby he convinceth his Corinthians of their crime and discovereth the Need and Way to avoid it Let us first vieu the import of the Words and Then his care concerning them This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is plainly Relative it imports Equality in point of Frequency and requireth that the new Relative should conform it self to the mesur of a Former Correlate Now it is plain that whoever is obliged to make One thing Equal to Another must certainly know the mesur of That Other which he is to conform to No Town can shew a Standard made of Air or Water but of Wood or Metal whose firm substance having a stable bigness of its own may certainly determin the Quantity of what is to be mesured by it The Apostl is very careful to prove and inculcate that Eating THIS bread and drinking THIS cup is the stable Standard whereby we must mesure our Frequency in the Lords Supper It must therefor be necessary that it self must have its Determined Frequency fixed by som praevios Law or Custom certainly foreknown and thereby capable to give mesures to any Other performance