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
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
his holy Seat For then it was the kindness of the Lord towards his first People as certainly He hath no less mercy for the second virtually to diffuse the Propitiation and strength of Holy Things from his Palace into their Tents and to bless them both inherently with all the Graces and imputatively with all the Right which could be conferred on them whose fault 't is not if they cannot either eat the Passover nearer the Temple or wait upon Christ at his Cross 13. Thus this great and Holy Mystery extends and communicates the Death of the Lord both as offering himself to God and as giving himself to Men. As he offered himself to God it enters me both into that mysterial Body which is reputed as dead with Christ and into their Society priviledg and Communion for whom He was pleased to dye it sets me among the precious stones of Aarons Ephod Exod. 28. close to the Breast and on the very shoulders of that Eternal Priest whilst he offers up himself and intercedes for his spiritual Isiael and by this means it conveyes to me the Communion of his Sufferings Philip 3.10 whence will infallibly proceed another Communion in all his Graces and Glories Under the second notion as He offers himself to Men the holy Eucharist is after the Sacrifice for sin the true Festival and Sacrifice of Peace offerings and the Table purposely set up to receive those Mercies that are sent down from the Altar Take and eat this is my Body which was broken for you And this is the Blood that was shed for you 14. Here then I wait at the Lords Table that both shews me what an Apostle who had Heaven for his School had the greatest mind to see and learn and offers me the richest Gift that a Saint can receive on Earth the Lord Jesus crucified Amen Jesu my Lord and my God give me all this which Thou showest and grant withal that I may both devoutly take and faithfully keep what Thou art pleased to give Bless this thine own Ordinance and make it of a true Sign an effectual Means of thy Grace then bless and sanctify my Heart also and make it a fit Temple for thy Mercies Certainly Thou wilt deal with me in these thy Mysteries O God of Truth according to thy faithfulness but dispose also my heart so towards the right using of them that I may safely wish it may be don according to my Faith O Father which art in Heaven here I offer up to thee my Soul and thou offerest to me thy Son The Oblation which I make is alas an unclean habitation to receive the Holy One of Israel and a Tent infected with Leprosy therein to Lodg the Saint of the Lord. Come in nevertheless come in high and Eternal Priest but wash thy house at thy coming Let no ill savor of the grave no more then that of Lazarus keep thee so far from the Sepulcher and from the vile condition wherein I ly but that thy power with thy Voice and thy Blood with thy Sacrament may reach to me to raise me up And let none of those uncleannesses that after the Law of Moses did defile them who came too near keep off the great Saint of the Lord from touching and healing me Evil Spirits enter somtimes into swept houses to make them foul * Matth. 12. But O Holy and hallowing Spirit of God draw nigh unto my Soul which of it self is foul already to make it clean I am a poor sinful and unless thou help a lost person but yet such as I am sinful and lost I wait for thy Salvation Come in O Lord with thy Salvation to a dying Man to make him whole to a sinner tyed hand and foot with the bonds of iniquity to release him to one who confesses his sins to absolve him Finally come in my Savior as thou didst to the Publican both to make me better and to save me O let this day Salvation come to this House Amen SECTION V. Of the Blessed Communion as being a Pledg of the Happiness and Glory to come 1. THe blessed Communion opens such a treasure of Blessings on the two sides which look towards the past or present Time as I have considered it as it may very well take up both all the eyes of Cherubins in beholding the Mysteries and all the hands of the numerous Israelites in gathering up all the Manna that it contains yet it hath one other side or prospect more which goes beyond the two former as much as the future Blessings exceed the present and as the Glory which we hope for exceeds the small degree of grace which we possess The blessed Communion which is a speciall Instrument ordained of Christ both to present a new as to our use his Passion and to convey on us the present Graces which flow out of this Passion doth there withall assure us likewise of all the Happiness to come whereof the received Graces are a hopeful Earnest and this Sacrament under this third notion is a certain Pledg 2. Now tho what is given before hand for Earnest and what is engaged by way of Pledg come all to one in point of Validity and obligingness yet they quite differ many times both in their use and in their intrinsecal value Whence it comes to pass that Earnests may be allowed upon account for part of the Payment which is promised whereas Pledges are recalled and taken back as the Seal and Staff of Juda once were Gen. 38. Thus for example zeal Charity and these degrees of Holiness which God bestowes at the use of holy Sacraments will remain still ours in Heaven and there make part of our Happiness whereas the Sacraments themselves shall be kept back and shall not appear more in Heaven then did the Cloudy Pillar in Canaan or do now the shadows of the Law under the time of the Gospel Certainly we shall have no need either of these sacred Images of Christ when we shall see him face to face or of these Pledges to assure us of that Glory which is to be revealed when we shall actually possess it But till that day the holy Communion hath this third use namely of being a Pledg and an assurance from the Lord that in his good time he will crown us with Everlasting Happiness 3. Our blessed Savior pointed at it when He said to his Disciple the Holy Cup being in his hand that he would drink no more of that Fruit till he should drink it new in the Kingdom of his Father Luk. 22.18 In the reall purpose of God his Church and Heaven go both together That being the way that leads to this as the Holy Place to the Holyest and both Holy Place and Holyest come to this one Thing which Christ calls the Kingdom of God Let them not whom He hath invited to eat and drink at Abrahams Table trouble themselves about the Room where our blessed Savior will feed them for tho it were but
pass away and the power which the other hath to take and enjoy what is given him Now Christ and his Estate his Happiness and his Glory his Eternity and his Heaven are not Things that may be moved more easily then the Mountains or the Earth and therefore not to be disposed of in any other real manner then great immoveable Estates are Therefore the Kingdom of Israel was once conferred upon David with some drops of that Sacred Oil which Samuel poured on his head 1 Sam. 16.13 The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ is in full value and Heaven with all its fulness is in sure Title instated on true Christians by those small portions which they receive at the Blessed Communion the Minister of Christ having as to this effect as much power from his Master for what he acts as any Prophet or any Angel ever had for what they did 9. Hence it appears what crime it is not to discern the Lords Body It is to do worse then Esau did who sold his Birthright for a trifle it is to value at the same rate the Anointing of a Prophet and the composition of a Perfumer it is to take the Lords Body for a despicable Morsel of Bread In a word 't is to perform the action of a Beast that devours but the gross and earthy Matter of this Sacrament and have nothing of a Christian or rational creature who elevates his Soul to that Body which by Christs institution it represents and to the Price of that Body which it promises For since the proper essence of Sacred signs or Sacraments consists not in what they are in their nature but in what they signify by divine institution hence it happens infallibly that when the Sacraments are abused the injury must needs light not upon them in their own natural Being Bread Wine and Water which upon this account are not at all considerable but upon the Holy mysteries the Body and Blood of Christ himself who is the main object of their formal Being that is their Signification And therefore the Apostle speaks most exactly when he saies that whosoever eats of this Bread unworthily doth not discern or doth not sanctify but uses as a common and profane thing the very Body of Jesus Christ 11. In this profane want of Discerning 't is hard to say whether the Sin or the Punishment be the greater For the sin is abominable since not the Bread but Christ himself suffers the wrong the Bread being not here concerned at all nor more abused by the Villain that abuses the Sacrament then is the Earth the water or any other common matter of human Bodies by the Murtherer that kills a Man or then are Brass and Marble by the Rebels who pull down their Princes Statues or then Parchment Paper and Ink by that unnatural Son who tears and tramples upon the Deeds and the last will of his Father Only there is this difference that in these last Instances the Outrage proceeds but from the Earth the Brass the Marble the Paper and other such common Matter to the Man King or Fathers persons who should have bin considered and who alone suffer the wrong whereas in abusing the blessed Sacraments the sin flys a great deal higher namely to the very Face of Jesus Christ for whose Body and Blood they stand So that as the Holy Communion is not exposed in the Church under the notion of Bread and Wine the faithful Communicants do appear there to receive Christ and the faithless to abuse Him 11. But if this Attemt is impious the Punishment that attends it is most dreadful It is a very sad mischance when Dogs or Apes tear like lose paper all to fitters the Titles and assurances of a good Estate and who would not pitty that wretch who in his mad Passion had thrown into the sea the very Keyes which were given him to Justify the Propriety of vast Treasures in such Houses as these keyes might open Blind Villains you cannot discern either among these Papers the Original Deeds of your Estate or among all these Instruments the keyes that might both assure and give you admittance to immense Riches Whensoever you eat of this Bread and drink of this Cup thus unworthily unhappy men you do not discern the Pledges of your Salvation nay most Impious as you are you neither discern nor will honor the Body and Blood of your Savior which would bring salvation to you At once both impious and unhappy men you despise and cast away from you both the Salvation and the Savior 12. Lord Jesu who hast ordained this Mystery for a Communion of thy Body for a Means of advancement and proficiency in Holiness and for an infallible Pledg of Eternal Salvation which thou hast purchased by thy Body and which thou preparest thy People to receive by this Proficiency in Holiness now Lord in mercy look on me help my unbelief increase my Faith and order the Soul of thy Servant who is to take these Holy Things Then since thou thy self originally givest them tho not immediatly but by the ministry of thy Disciples * Joh. 4.1 2. In giving them bless them also and bless them whilst I receive them that they may be efficacious to settle me in the Communion of thy Sufferings which they exhibit and shew forth to feed me with that living Bread which they present and to sanctify me for that eternal Happiness which they promise O Lord thou knowest my simpleness my Growning is not hid from thee look on a poor Sinner at thy Table as thou didst on him who hung by thy Cross O Lord my God remember me now when thou art come into thy Kingdom * Luke 23.42 Amen 13. Eternal Priest who art gon up on high there to receive Gifts for men fill my Heart I beseech thee with blessings out of thy holy Seat as now thou fillest my Mouth with the Holy Things of thy Church and so dispose me by thy Grace to eat both spiritually and really the Flesh of that Sacrifice which thou didst offer without the Gate and which this Sacrament sets before me here in thy Courts that thence I may be admitted into that Holyest Sanctuary which thy Sacrifice hath opened and which this Sacrament invites me to This is the Bread which the Lord hath prepared for his Children and which he sends me now by the hand of one of his Angels O that in the strength of this Meat I may walk as Elijah did my fourty daies or as Israel my fourty years and come at last to that Holy Mountain where without the help of any Bread or the Ministry of any Angels I shall see my God face to face Eternal and blessed and blessing Spirit of God bless me now and help me to drink so worthily of this fruit of the Vine that I may drink it new in the Kingdom of my Father Amen SECTION VI. Of the Holy Eucharist as it implies a Sacrifice And first of the Commememorative
that is his Church For we that are many saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 10.17 are one Bread To this purpose the holy Martyr Ignatius Epist Rom. being ready to be offered up by Martyrdom said he was the wheat of God which was to be ground by Beasts teeth Soon after the Church added Oyl and Frankincense to Bread and Wine to make up the whole Meat Offering which consisted of these four Things The truth is all what we can offer upon our own account is but such an Oblation as this Meat and Drink offering of Moses was that cannot be presented but by the virtue and merits of Jesus Christ who supports it and that can never ascend up to Heaven but along with the sacred smoke of that great Burnt Sacrifice which is to carry it up thither For on the one side our own persons our works or any thing else that may be ours are by themselves but weak unsubstantial kinds of Offerings which cannot be presented unto God otherwise but as these Additional Oblations which from themselves fall to the ground unless a more solid Sacrifice do sustain them And on the other side this solid and fundamental Sacrifice upholds saves and sanctifies but those persons and things that according to the Law of Moses his Meat Offerings are thrown into this his fire are hallowed upon his Altar and are together with him consecrated to God by him 11. For this cause it is that as soon as the Prophet had preached the coming of this Everlasting Sacrifice and the propitiation and happiness which it would spread over all the world he foretels at the same time that the Apostles and their successors whom he designs by expressions proper to that Oeconomy under which he did live should bring the Nations from all parts of the Earth as an Offering unto the Lord. Esay 66. And to the same purpose St. Paul himself speaks of his Evangelical Office as of a Sacrificing Priesthood and of the Gentiles whom he did convert to Christ as of so many Sacrifices which he presented to the Lord. I exercise saies he in the Gospel a holy Sacerdotal Priesthood for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both that the Oblation of the Gentiles may be acceptable being sanctified by the holy spirit Rom. 15.16 Hence proceeds that Method which he observes most constantly never to preach the Faith in Jesus Christ without inviting presently the Beleivers to Offer up unto God either their Bodies and Souls as Rom. 12. or their works of holiness of Praise of Charity c. as every where else And these are the Spiritual Offerings which every true Christian must join to cast upon the fundamental Sacrifice of Christ Jesus 12. We know indeed that the universal Assembly of Christians could never meet at the same time or place either to follow Christ in a Body when he went to offer himself for them or to fall upon their faces and prostrate themselves to the ground when he bowed his head under their Sins Providence that scatters men up and down throughout all places and times of the world permitting no possibility of such a general meeting But the Sacrifice of Christ tho it was confined to few hours and to a small parcel of Ground as to the Suffering yet being everlasting infinit and still the same as as to the sufficiency and virtue of it coextends it self most perfectly to all both times and places when and where those scattered members will ever come to Offer up themselves to God with their head And besides this the second part of his Sacerdotal Office which consists in interceding continuing still in the very Act till the worlds end They that could not embrace his Cross and join with him at that same time that he Offer'd himself may do it every day and humble themselves like poor victims loaden with sins and miseries at the same time that now he continues still actually interceding So in all Places at all times and upon any emergencies whensoever the Beleivers will present themselves unto God both with and by his Son Jesus they may still receive the favor of acceptation and that real efflux of saving Odor from Christ which was represented by that typical holiness which the additional Oblation did receive from the principal Sacrifice when it was adjoined to it Whereas it is most certain that all the Merit and blood of Christ shall no more save Men that will not draw neer and join themselves to conformity and Communion of his Death then the continual and other burning Sacrifices were ever able to consecrate that meat that Wine that Oyl and that Frankincense which were not brought nor burned upon the the same Altar with them 13. Now tho all men be called to this conformity and Communion in the Sufferings of Christ from the time of those sufferings until there be no times at all and altho the daies of our present life have all the priviledg which these seven feast daies once had when every one might gird his loins eat his unleavened bread and kill his own Bullock as the Priest did Sacrifice the Paschal Lamb which Bullock was superadded to the Paschal Lamb that both might better suffice for the 7 Festival daies besides its other ritual and figurative importance as a Sacrifice it is certain nevertheless that there are two more special and extraordinary daies wherein Christians are invited by more urgent and proper Circumstances to present their Souls and Bodies by way of Second Offering upon the Sacrifice of their Savior The first is past and that was when the Savior offered himself to death when Heaven and Earth Temple and Graves shook at the blow that killed him when pious Souls either stood immoveable as the blessed Virgin hard by his Cross or in a manner crucified themselves beating their breasts as the Daughters of Jerusalem and when every Disciple might by the very conjuncture of all the things he saw be moved to say as Thomas let us go and let us dy with him Joh. 11.16 The other time most favorable and proper next to that of his real Passion is that of the holy Communion which as it hath bin * Gelas Cyzic part 2. cap. 31. explained is a Sacramental Passion where tho the Body be broken and the blood shed but by way of representative Mystery yet both are as effectually and as truly offered for our own use if we go to it worthily as when that holy and divine Lamb did offer himself the first time 14. Therefore whensoever Christians approach to this dreadful Mystery and to the Lamb of God lying and sacrificed as some say that the holy Nicene Council speaks upon the holy Table it concerns their main interest in point of Salvation as well as in other duties to take a special care not to lame and deprive the grand Sacrifice of its own due Attendance But to behave themselves in that manner that as both the principal and additional Sacrifices were consumed by the
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
in his Talent or his Didrachm or his Mite according as God daily blosses him and whence he must be sure to take nothing but for a special holy use as if he did take it from Gods Altar 15. It is true indeed that not only this but also any thing else that we have at home is already consecrated since God having given it to us we have given it back again unto God For whensoever we gave him up our own persons all our Goods were involved in this general Consecration and thereby became ipso facto holy Offerings unto the Lord. But as these holy Offerings under the Law were of two sorts some which the Worshipper and his wife and Children might eat some of which it was not lawful for any to eat except the Priests only my meaning is that the truly pious Christian should gather day by day and by little and little both to make his Devotion less burthensom and by a continual application to this work to sanctify the whole course of his life the better a Magazine of holy things of this last kind which may be only emploied to God and his Churches service 16. But at the same instant that the Christian Worshipper shall take the materials of his good works out of this store he must have a great care to draw withal out of the good Treasure of his heart the fire and the Frankincense that is the zeal and the holy thoughts that may improve and raise good moral works to the being of Religious Sacrifices And as without doubt at first he had a care not to lay aside these first fruits in a Corner of his house either negligently or rudely as some do throw their Alms into Beggars hands or as Judas did his thirty Pieces into the Temple so he must not forget himself so much as to take them thence and bestow them on the Body or members of Christ that is the Church and his Neighbor but with such pious Elevations and applications of his mind as may become both that Majesty which he adores and the pious and holy Act that he intends Let him do it whether at his door or in the way or in the Temple it matters not for the hour is long since come that Religious Acts or Worshippings are confined neither to this Mountain nor to Jerusalem Joh. 4.21 wheresoever God gives thee the occasion and power to perform any holy work there he makes holy Ground for thee only this work to be holy and becoming a Worshipper must by all means be don in Spirit and in Truth This Spirit will teach us what Flesh and Blood cannot do both to perceive and consider not an Angel only as the Patriarcks often did but Christ himself in the condition of an afflicted Church for example or of an honest distressed friend and then at such occasions to lay our liberalities with that same mind and thought that a true Worshipper would lay his Oblations upon the Altar where he knows that Christ will most effectually both find it and accept of it Once He received the Gold the Myrrh and the Frankincense which the wise men gave Joseph He did also receive the Goods which Susanna and other Religious Women did put in the hands of his Disciples since that time the Church and all her distressed Members have bin instated by Christ himself most expressly into the Place of these happy Persons and as if they had bin for this purpose created Christs solemn Officers and Angels about the time that he was to suffer and to leave his beloved Disciples he promised them both to accept and account as bestowed on himself these small Offerings which for his sake we should deposite in their hands Mat. 25.40 45. 17. This same spirit and this Actual application is the only means that we can have to raise up good moral works and to make them true Heave-Offerings Without this Elevation what we give may in it self be a good deed to us a considerable-expense and to other men some benefit but to God it is no sacrifice or it is such a sacrifice as sends up no savor above but either like the Oblation of Cain falls all down to Ashes and Dust or like the Alms of Pharises to such a paltry toward as we get perhaps from men Gen. 10. Mat. 6. 18. All these considerations and pious intentions of the Soul which to the Worshipper must be instead of the Sacerdotal Utensils and to the Oblation instead of the fire and Frankincense are much revived and stirred up by the Circumstantial solemnity and Holiness of the blessed Communion Look to the Adoration of the Ancient Israelites I was c. Deut. 26. I Dare appear before the Lord with all my sins and my sorrows It is very just also that I should appear with these few blessings which are mine they are mine by thy favor and having received them of thy hand now do I offer them to thee * 1 Chron. 29.14 Forgive I beseech thee my sins deliver me from my sorrows and accept of this small Blessing Accept of this my sacrifice as thou didst of that of Abel of Abraham and of Noah or rather look in my behalf on that only true Sacrifice whereof here is the Sacrament the Sacrifice of the only unspotted Lamb the Sacrifice of thine own Son of thine only begotten Son of thy Son proceeding from thee to dy for me O let him again come from thee to me let him come now as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and of truth to bless me Amen Amen FINIS INDEX SECTION I. The Importance of well understanding the Nature of this Sacrament Pag. 1. SECTION II. Concerning the Sacrament as it is a Memorial of the Sufferings and Death of Christ p. 4. SECTION III. Of the blessed Sacrament as it stands for a Sign of present Graces p. 19 SECTION IV. Concerning the Communion as it is not a Representation only but a means of Grace p. 36. SECTION V. Of the Blessed Communion as being a Pledg of the Happiness and Glory to come p. 56. SECTION VI. Of the Holy Eucharist as it implies a Sacrifice And first of the Commemorative Sacrifice p. 71. SECTION VII Concerning the Sacrifices of our own Persons p. 80. SECTION VIII Concerning the Oblation of our Goods and Alms or the Sacrifice of Justice p. p. 106.