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A77288 A sermon of the blessed sacrament of the Lords Supper; proving that there is therein no proper sacrifice now offered; together with the disapproving of sundry passages in 2. bookes set forth by Dr. Pocklington; the one called Altare Christianum, the other Sunday no Sabbath: formerly printed with licence. By William Bray, Dr. of Divinity. Now published by command. Bray, William, d. 1644. 1641 (1641) Wing B4316; Thomason E157_8; ESTC R22819 22,195 69

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the New Testament in my Blood This Bread and This Cup that do Sacramentally exhibite the Body and Blood of our Saviour are here specially design'd 2. Ye have The Sacramentall actions and they are in like manner two Eating and Drinking answerable to the parts of the Sacrament eating this Bread and drinking this Cup. First wee must Eate It is not enough to purpose or desire to be Guests at this heavenly Table neither may wee be present onely as spectators and beholders to see and to gaze but we must tast and eat Secondly wee must Drinke the Cup too as well as Eat the Bread these two are joyn'd together by Christ in the Institution and they may not be sever'd by Man without manifest impiety 3. The Circumstances of the actions which make the third particular in this first generall they are likewise two The first is of Time Baptisme is to bee received once onely but this blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper often both out of a gratefull obedience to our Saviour and out of a carefull regard of our owne spirituall advantage by it As oft as yee eate this Bread and drinke this Cup. It is not barely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how oft soever which implyes a frequency The second circumstance is of the Persons Communicating Ye First Ye in the plurall number for this Holy Sacrament is a Communion may not be received by one alone Ye againe that are Members of the Church Ye are to eat of this Bread and drinke of this Cup. For he that is not entred into the mysticall body of the Church by Baptisme is no fit subject as yet to partake of these high and holy mysteries And these are the severals in the first generall part of the Text to wit the Service of the Communion In the second generall part which is the Meaning of this service ye have three particulars likewise each of them sutable to the three particulars in the former part of the Text wherein you have the speciall meaning of each part of the service declared First ye have the meaning of the Sacramentall bread and cup to wit the death of Christ Secondly ye have the meaning of our eating this Bread and drinking this Cup namely the shewing forth of Christs death Thirdly ye have the meaning of our often eating this Bread and drinking this Cup to wit the perpetuation of our Saviours memory so long as he is corporally absent from us here on Earth even till he come againe in his glorious presence to judge the quicke and the dead As oft as yee eat this Bread and drinke this Cup yee doe shew the Lords Death till be come Here 's a large field of matter I can but gather here and there an eare of corne as I passe along without making any long stay upon any particular I begin first with the Parts of this Holy Sacrament which is the first particular under the first generall and first with the Earthy part or outward Elements which are Bread and Wine The outward senses of Man are the windowes or gates of the soule nothing enters into the soule but by them wee understand nothing we know nothing whilst wee are here in the body but the eare or the eye or some one or more of the senses present it first to the soule and the more senses there are that present a matter to the soule the soule understands it the more cleerely and beleeves it the more strongly even as the opening of many windows le ts in the more light into the house God knowes our mould in this and considers it graciously and accordingly he vouchsafes not onely to instruct and perswade us by the Eare in the hearing of his word but by the Eye Taste Touch in the outward elements of this Sacrament which we may see handle and taste for our further instruction and confirmation If any man therefore presuming upon I know not what spirituall Revelations and Seraphicall raptures shall neglect the hearing of Gods Word for his instruction or if any other resting in the bare hearing of the Eare shall neglect this blessed Sacrament wherein God farther manifests himself to the faithfull Soule by the doore of the rest of the senses if there be any such presuming spirits they very much forget themselves that they are yet in the body Yea they forget God too and his gracious condescent herein to our corporeall weaknesse who best knows whereof wee are made and how best to consider it That there is an earthy and sensible part in the Sacrament therefore ye see great reason for it But what is the reason of the choice of Bread and Wine to be the sensible part in this Sacrament Was not the killing of the Paschall Lamb and the striking of the blood therof upon the lintell and side-posts of the doore a more sensible and cleere Resemblance of the shedding of the blood of the immaculate Lambe of God Why then was the Passeover abrogated and Bread and Wine in the place thereof substituted as the sensible part of this Sacrament To omit many other most proper Analogies and aptitudes in the Elements of Bread and Wine serving for this purpose I will only give you an account of this change thus in briefe The Old Testament you know is abrogated I meane in regard of the manner of Administration of it by the Leviticall and Ceremoniall Law and the New is now in force the Testator himselfe having confirmed it by his owne precious Death and Blood-shedding Hence the shedding of the blood of the Paschall Lambe is justly ceas'd For after so soveraigne an expiation by the Blood of Christ himselfe no shedding of blood is now necessary Heb. 9. 10. ch as the Apostle argues in the Epistle to the Hebrewes and hence this Sacrament of the New Testament in the breaking of the Bread and powring forth of the Wine most fitly succeeds in the place thereof as being the most apt and vive expression of blood already shed without new blood-shedding Besides though our heavenly Father knowes that even under the New Testament we have need of these outward and sensible things and that for the strengthening of our Faith whilst we are here in the body and therefore as ye read but now God in his infinite Wisedome and Goodnesse to us hath instituted Sacraments for us in the New Testament as well as in the Old which consist of an outward and sensible as well as an heavenly and spirituall part Yet there is a very observable difference of degrees at least betwixt the Sacraments and Services of the Old and New Testament even in this regard Those of the Law and Old Testament were more sensible and earthy but these of the Gospel and New Testament more pure and spirituall the Law being as it were the body to the Gospel and the Gospel being the spirit and life of the Law Thus the Passeover which was a more crasse and corporeall Sacrament
is ceas'd also together with the Law and in stead thereof a Sacrament more sutable to the Gospel is instituted in Bread and Wine which of all sensible substances here below are the most pure and so the fittest to set out the spirituall service of the Gospel The consideration whereof should teach us that live under the Gospel not to rest our selves in any bodily or outward observations as if they were the onely or principall duty of the Gospel but to use them as helpes onely the better to enable us for the due performing of our spirituall services which is the perfection the Gospel cals us to and without which all other performances like a hungry and barren soyle will yeeld but little solid fruite or comfort to our soules And so I passe from the more sensible and earthy part of this Sacrament to the spirituall and heavenly part to wit the Body and Blood of Christ which is imported in the Emphasis of the Articles here This Bread and This Cup. Where before we come to the Emphasis and what it imports give me leave to observe First that the Apostle here cals the Sacramentall Elements Bread and Wine and that after the words of Institution and Consecration So they retaine their nature and substance still and remaine Bread and Wine even after this great advancement And here you may see upon what a sandy foundation the Church of Rome hath built that most dangerous and destructive doctrine of Transubstantiation Saint Paul calls the Elements Bread and Wine after consecration the Church of Rome saith they cease then to be Bread and Wine their very substance is converted into the substance of the naturall Body and Blood of Christ by a new way of their owne fancying which Biell a prime Doctor of theirs confesses is not to be found in the Canon of the Bible * Biel Lect. 40. in Can. Missae for which they have sutably invented a new Name of Transubstantiation And I call it a destructive Doctrine and that most justly and in many Regards For first it destroyes the nature of the Elements of Bread and Wine by a totall Conversion of them into the substance of Christs Body and Blood Secondly it destroyes the nature and properties of Christs Body by ascribing Infinitenesse and Omnipresence not onely to the Person of Christ but to his naturall Body which was borne of the Blessed Virgin Thirdly it destroyes the Peace of Christendome or at least it hath a great share in it as being boldly and rashly defin'd by the Church of Rome and presumptuously impos'd as an Article of Faith to be beleev'd upon Necessity of Salvation Fourthly it is notoriously knowne the denyall of it hath destroy'd the Lives of many of Gods faithfull Servants both here and in other parts of the Christian world Fifthly and Lastly to adde no more it 's destructive of Piety and Devotion in diverting the Soule from devout and usefull Meditations and drawing it aside to subtleties of wit and empty speculations To this purpose Master Hooker * Eccles. Poli● lib. 5. sect 67. excellently observes that the Discourses of the Romanists concerning Transubstantiation are hungry and unpleasant full of tedious and irkesome labour heartlesse and without Fruite whereas the Discourses of Ancient and Later Writers concerning the Mysticall presence of Christ the use efficacy and benefit of the Sacrament are heavenly and devout their words sweete as the Honeycombe their tongues melodiously-tun'd Instruments and their sentences meere Consolation and ioy The second thing which I will observe from this part is that Saint Paul doth not call the Consecrated Elements bare Bread and Wine and no more but Bread and Wine with an Emphasis This Bread and this Cup of which it was said before in the words of Christ This is my Body which is broken for you and this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood How the Bread and Wine in this Sacrament are the Body and Blood of Christ is a great Mystery to unfold Master Calvin in his fourth Booke of Institutions Calv. lib. 4. Instit cap. 17. sect 7. Cap. ●vij calls it sublime mysterium cui nec mens plane cogitando nec lingua explicando par esse potest A Mystery so sublime that the minde of Man is not able to comprehend it much lesse the tongue to unfold it Quod ergo mens nostra non comprehendit concipiat fides so hee goes on excellently in the same Chapter Sect. 10. What therefore our Reason cannot comprehend let Faith conceive Christ hath said it this is my Body let us therefore beleeve the Truth of the thing But hee hath not said the manner how let us not therefore search into that which is not written For mine owne part saith the same Authour * Lib. 4. Instit c. 17. sect 19. Caeterum his absurditatibus sublatis quicquid ad exprimendam veram substantialemque Corporis ac sauguinis Domini communicationem quae sub sacris Coenae symbolis fidelibus exhibētur facere potest libenter recipio atque ita ut non imaginatione duntaxat aut ment is intelligentia percipere sed ut re ipsa frui in alimentum vitae aeternae intelligantur his absurditatibus sublatis set aside the absurdities which boldly and falsely define the manner of the presence of Christs body and blood in the Lords Supper Hee meanes Consubstantiation and Transubstantiation whatsoever may be said to expresse the Communication of the true and substantiall Body and Blood of the Lord which are exhibited to the Faithfull under the holy Symboles of the Supper J willingly admit and that in such sort that this participation may be understood not in Imagination onely and Apprehension of the minde but a Reall Fruition to nourish the body and soule to eternall Life Thus that Reverend Author and much more to the same purpose in that place With the same wisedome and sobriety the Church of England speakes of this great Mystery shee does not as the Church of Rome unjustly charges us exclude Christ out of the Sacrament and make it a bare signe and Figure of his body and blood shee indeed denyes their Carnall and Corporeall presence of Christ in the Sacrament and acknowledges onely an heavenly and spirituall presence without any farther defining of the manner in particular But for the Truth of the thing it selfe shee beleeves and acknowledges expressely That to such as rightly worthily and with Faith receive the same the Bread which we breake is a partaking of the body of Christ and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ in the * Art 28. relig 28. Article of Religion and more fully in the * Doctr. of the Sacraments Catechisme The body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken of the Faithfull in the Lords Supper I goe on to the Sacramentall actions which are likewise two answerable to the parts of this Sacrament to wit Eating of this Bread