Eternal Life Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life 4. I come now to the last and greatest of those Resemblances between the Flesh or Body eaten and Christ's Blood drunk in the Lord's Supper and natural Eating and Drinking viz. Life and Nourishment and this is that upon which the weight and stress of the whole matter lies and in order to the understanding of this it is most necessary well to weigh the Words Take Eat This is my Body And drink ye All for This Cup is my Blood For here the Notion of Transubstantiation hath the most proper place and here it will be most properly to be decided and here I will allow the utmost to it that can be allowed I have then as I hope made evident The real Communication of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in its spiritual saving and redemptory Effects without any change of Place is no incompossible Notion to the Divine Power of the Son of God And this being rightly apprehended It will be as evident He can convey through such mediatory Channels and Conveyances as he pleases those divine Influences It is out of all Controversie The Truth of his Word and Gospel together with Prayer and holy Meditation begetting in the Soul Knowledge spiritual Understanding Faith Repentance Love and the whole New Creation are the primary and fundamental Conveyances of such divine Influences by which the sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ touch the Soul and unite with it unto all the salvifick Effects of Spiritual and Eternal Life And the very effects of Truth and the Word of God uniting the Soul to Christ through the Efficacy of his Divine Power and Spirit are in the first place before the Lord's Supper Instituted compar'd to Meat and Drink And as They in the Course of that Providence or Word of God by which Man lives and not by Bread alone are Transubstantiated into the Body Flesh and Blood of those that Eat and Drink them even so the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in these saving Effects are Transubstantiated into the Soul and Spirit of every faithful Receiver of them and enliven them to a spiritual and eternal Life and there can be no fitter Notion of these Divine Effects than this Transubstantiation of natural Meat and Drink and Incorporation thereof into the Eater for even as what is eaten according to the nature of Perishables lives in the Eater dwells in the Eater and he in that and they are one in one another even so they that Eat Christ dwell in Christ and Christ in them Christ lives in his Church and Saints out of which he is pleas'd not to live as our Mediator and Head But he lives in them as in his Fullness and they in him as in their Fountain of Life Christ in them and They in him by this spiritual Transubstantiation or else they have no life in them but pine away as through want of Nourishment This then being the true measure of eating and drinking Christ and the spiritual Transubstantiation arising from it as in the general Doctrine of the Gospel it must give Law and Rule to our eating and drinking of Christ in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper that we may rightly understand it and so to the Transubstantiation flowing from it It must be all in our spiritual Transformation into Christ living in us and we in him and no other in that principal Notion But because in all Intellectual and Spiritual Communications of Truth to our Minds there are no sensible no material Images or Representations and that by the Wisdom of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper there are those sensible Images of Bread eaten and Wine drunk and these Cargoed and enrich'd with the Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and that these are to awaken collect and sum all our intellectual rational and spiritual Notions of Christ the Vertue of his Sacrifice and whole Transaction of the Humane Nature and our closest Application thereunto as to our Redemption by him It must needs therefore be that the Bread and Wine as to our Understandings our Souls and all intellectual and spiritual Appetite and Action having done their very first Service of leading us through the whole suitableness betwixt Bread and Wine and the natural Life of Man and the same suitableness betwixt the Body and Blood of Christ and the Life of the Soul according to the Institution they must immediately drop their bodily and sensible Nature and become to our Minds Thoughts and Affections the Body and Blood of Christ. And it pertains to the Divine Power of Jesus Christ and his Eternal Spirit to make in a spiritual Reality that Bread and Wine his very Body and Blood in all its Efficacies to us if we are duely prepar'd so to receive them And the inward high and saving Effects to all Intents and Purposes immediately follow But yet if the true natural Realities of these Elements or the subsequent unitive Incorporating Vertues of those Elements were lost not only the Institution it self founded on those sensible Qualities would be lost but the very Body and Blood of Christ by such a monstrous kind of Miracle would become outward Elements to themselves for by the very Confession of the gross Transubstantialist They however Transubstantiated do no good without Faith and Repentance and so do no more than the Vntransubstantiated Bread and Wine may do and so prodigious a Miracle serves to no purpose which is most absurd For it makes the Body and Blood mere outward Elements to themselves The Bread and Wine then must as to the bodily Senses as to the natural Effects upon the Body be Themselves or keep their own Natures but as to the spiritual Sentiments and the spiritual Effects they must be thus Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Cbrist in regard of Christ really communicating them by his divine Power to the Soul as the Soul by Faith must receive them There must therefore be the Conduct of all the Instituted Actions Blessing Breaking Taking Eating the Bread Blessing Dividing among our selves Drinking All of the CUP and that in a solemn manner as in an Act of spiritual Worship with Reverence and godly Fear else it is not to eat the Lord's Supper for If a Priest not rightly ordain'd or not intending to consecrate the Bread shall in the very Judgment of the Transubstantialist defeat the sacred Institution how much more ought in the very same mens Judgments the Neglect or Omission of any of the solemn Instituted Acts evacuate the spiritual use and end of which the natural use of the Bread and Wine necessarily to that end continuing in their Natures was one great part and therefore undoubtedly if the Stomachs of Communicants were open'd as Alexander open'd the Stomach of his Souldier to find whether the Milk charg'd upon him to be taken away from the poor Woman by violence were there and there he found it so the Bread and Wine would be found in
Head Add hereunto This is most particularly the Language of Scripture in Sacramental or Testamentary Discourses Discourses concerning the Covenant according to that famous Instance Heb. 9. 19. 20. When Moses had spoken every Precept to the People according to the Law he took the Blood of Calves of Goats with Scarlet-wool and Hysop and sprinkled both the Book and the People saying upon the whole This Thing this whole Thing is the Blood of the Covenant which God hath enjoyn'd you Thus the Bread Blessed Broken Taken Eaten is the Body of Christ and proportionably the Blood This whole Thing the whole Doctrine and Law of the Gospel always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consider'd and embrac'd first and then the Bread so Blessed Broken Taken Eaten is the Body of Christ and accordingly this Cup or Wine particularly Blessed Divided Drunk And that not only in a figurative cold sacramental or commemorative Sense for that Divine Power that Eternal Spirit of Christ does infinitely propagate the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ representing his whole Humanity in all the saving Efficacies and mighty Effects proper thereunto as perpetually in the Doctrine and Truth of the Gospel in an intellectual way so in this Supper as in a sensible material Representation but yet only confirming assuring making present a divine spiritual Efficacy as hath been all along declar'd And even as the Bread and Wine have an undoubted evident Appearance to Sense are Eaten Tasted Concocted in the Stomach converted into Flesh Blood and Spirits so are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ really present in the Bread in the Wine viz. in their spiritual Effects justly called his Body and Blood So that the Bread is in true spiritual Sense the Body of Christ to be eaten spiritually to be tasted spiritually to be turn'd into spiritual Life to the Soul in which Body and Blood go hand in hand with the Elements in all their natural Progress by their Spirituality and so that the want of due spiritual Action in all that profess Christ Jesus whether at or not at the Sacrament however particularly applied to that is an Offence against the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and brings a Guilt proportionable to the Offence All which hath the Full of a spiritual Transubstantiation and is the Thing we have pursued Head 4 I am come down now to the fourth Head viz. To enquire into this Thing How there came into the Christian Church such a Notion as that Fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for And I account it to these four Causes Cause 1 That this Great and Excellent Doctrine of the Gospel especially in that so often magnified Sixth of John and in the Institution of the Lord's Supper give great Warranty to observe a great and divine Mystery in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and in his Supper That there must be some real sense of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as preach'd in the Gospel as presented in the Lord's Supper Transubstantiated so as to be Meat and Drink indeed and to give Life to our Souls All this Mystery cannot be exhausted and drawn out in no more than a plain Assent to this that Christ dyed as an Attonement for the World if so much be allowed as Socinianism denies and gave a Body of Holy Precepts and Commands of an excellent Nature and that whoever lives in Obedience to these with Sincerity shall have that their Obedience imputed to them for Righteousness through the Covenant of Grace and justifie Men as perfect and unsinning Obedience should have been and done by the first Covenant with Adam Rationalists and Moralists draw down this Gospel-Mystery too low while they seem to acquit themselves to Reason and general Understanding and to carry all Things plausibly before that They lose the high Spirituality of Christianity which they are too ready to esteem no better than Jargon Cant and Non-sense There is a Gospel middle betwixt gross portentous carnal Transubstantiation and such an emaciating and shrinking up the great and unsearchable Treasures of the Gospel as if they did not much excell a Lecture out of Plato Plutarch Epictetus or some of the great Sages of Morality joyn'd to some Articles of Faith and Forms of Worship The way and manner of the Gospel speaking of these things and especially as our Lord and Saviour spake who spake as never man spake might well raise the Minds of Christians to look for something high and surpassing in the Mysteries of Christian Religion and beyond common Sense or common Reason 2. Many of those we call the Antients or Fathers coming out of the Heathen Learning and Eloquence into the Profession of Christianity Men of great Holiness Innocency and Sanctity of Conversation Contempt of the World Readiness to dye for the Name of Christ and generally Martyrs of curious and delicate Reason of very sublime Notion and Sentiments of a flowing Language softness and sweetness of Speech and accomplish'd with all the Gracefulnesses of Rhetorick taking the Scripture-Expressions and displaying upon them with that Magnificency and Gallantry of Words and all kind of Wit but not pursuing strongly and closely the Reason Strength and whole Analogy of Scripture nor guarding their Discourse by a Nervous Compare of Scripture with Scripture launch'd out into many free and liberal Expressions concerning these Things which not ballanc'd limited defended against possible Mistake at some Times and in some Veins of their Writings in this Matter might give occasion to the more grievous and dreadful Mistakes to such a course of Times as we may easily observe succeeded them And this they did at the higher rate undoubtedly out of a great Zeal for the Honour of Christian Religion for the Jews and Pagans speaking high of their Cabalaes Great Mysteries and Secrets of Religion and their Mystae who had the guard of these Mysteries their Priests and Devotoes The Fathers of the Christian Church knowing the true Excellency of Divine Mysteries and pitching upon this as easily the most remarkable viz. the Doctrine of eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ and this Doctrine in an especial manner consigned into the Mystery of the Lord's Supper to which is adjoyn'd that severe Discourse of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. It was very obvious to them here especially to exalt the Glory of Christianity and of the holy Ministers of it as highly surmounting the Poor if true but therefore most poor because false Mysteries of outdated Judaism and much more of Paganism It is most evident at the very same Time in the very same Places of their Writings they in the same kind of flowing Eloquence intermix other Expressions that sufficiently argue How free they were from any Misapprehensions in these Things But their way of Writing being not by way of severe Examination of Scripture Notions and Texts not by the austere Beam of Scripture in its several Portions of Revealed Truth and of the Sacred Context nor having any surmise of the after
from p. 38. to p. 44. General Head the fourth is taken up in an Enquiry How there came such a Notion into the Christian Church as that fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for and finds it arising from four Causes 1. From the great mystery of spiritual Transubstantiation given in that our so magnified Sixth of John and in the Institution of the Lord's Supper p. 44. 2. From the Ancients and Fathers discoursing with high Eloquence of this Point not sufficiently guarded p. 45. 3. From the Ignorance and Barbarity which after them invaded the Christian Church p. 46. 4. From the rising of a Church-Power at the same time over mens Consciences and pressing this as an Article of Faith p. 47. General Head the fifth shews the danger of such a Doctrine as fleshly Transubstantiation 1. As it shakes the Credit of all our knowing and judging Faculties p. 48 49. 2. As it makes void the Divineness of Scripture-Language expressing spiritual things by sensible and indeed perverts the Wisdom of all Language so doing p. 49. 3. As it amuses Mens Minds and draws them off from spiritual Action in Holy Mysteries p. 49. 4. The great danger especially lies in bringing down God into a contemptible vile Appearance and allowing divine Honour to it which is one sort of Idolatry Scripture most abhors p. 50 to 52. General Head the sixth draws all into six practical Applications p. 52. to the end 1. By proposal to our choice the most worthy of these two The spiritual or the carnal Transubstantiation 2. By raising us to high Thoughts of the Redemption of Jesus Christ so uniting it self to us as by eating and drinking his Body and Blood 3. By lifting up our Hearts to Christ eating the Passover and drinking the very same Fruit of the Vine with us by his Intercession in Heaven which he did here on Earth 4. By obliging us to a high value of this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper in which we so unite to Christ. 5. By perswading us to an earnest care against violating so great a Mystery as Christ eaten and drunk in the Gospel and the Lord's Supper 6. By lifting up our Heads in Prayers and Desires to the Table of Christ in his Kingdom A SERMON OF THE True Spiritual Transubstantiation oppos'd to the Gross Carnal Imaginary Transubstantiation MATTH 26. 26. Compar'd with Mark 14. 22. Luke 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 23. c. This is my Body I Take all these Scriptures as the common Subject that by the Grace and Assistance of God I intend to discourse at this time and especially to Treat the Sense of these Words This is my Body And This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament And as I have earnestly begg'd of God that he would waken me morning by morning that he would waken my Ear to hear as the learned concerning it so that He would give me the Tongue of the Learned to speak of it and grant you also to hear with the Ear of the Learned that so in this whole Duty the Preparations of the Heart the Answer of the Tongue and the Hearing of the Ear may be from the Lord. Now I shall endeavour so to treat of it as if there were no other Point of Controversie between us Protestants and the Roman Persuasion but only the Sense of these Words This is my Body And I shall consider that Transubstantiation as it is generally called that is built upon it as if there were no other Fault nor Errour in that Doctrine but only a Zeal for the Mystery of the Lord's Supper and the Letter of Scripture in this Institution though it be not according to Knowledge and therefore I will allow the utmost both to the Words and the Sense that can be allowed the very utmost that can be made of This is my Body This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament And I shall endeavour so to treat of it that there may be nothing that may be offensive except the plain Evidence and Reason of Things the Evidence of Truth without any umbrage any shadow of a Railing Accusation I will discourse only upon the single Account of Scripture and the Reasons drawn from it And therefore I do allow That these Words This is my Body and This Cup is my Blood they do carry a most high and important Sense And I shall consider the utmost Tendency they can have to such a thing as is called Transubstantiation though the Word it self be not indeed found in Scripture yet I will allow the thing in its due sense And I shall endeavour so to do this that you may have the clearest understanding of the Intention and Meaning of the Lord's Supper and the Institution of it and of these Words This is my Body and so as may tend most to the real Sense and Impression upon your Hearts of so great an Expression of our Saviour both in the general Doctrine of the Gospel and in the particular Sense and Meaning of the Lord's Supper and that sacred Solemnity and also may be most practical and may most serve to the good of every man's Soul who desires spiritually to understand this great Doctrine and the particular Ordinance of the Lord's Supper And because it is agreed among all men that profess any Reverence to the Lord's Supper that as it is not a humane Device so not a natural Duty made known by natural Light nor written in natural Conscience it is not like the Reverence of the Divine Being or Prayer to God or the desire to know his Mind or Will or any moral Duty but it depends wholly upon Divine Institution and Ordination 'T is wholly from Scripture or else there could never have been such a Worship of God known in the World as the Solemnity of eating Bread and drinking Wine in the Lord's Supper in Remembrance of him To introduce therefore this matter I consider There are Four inspired Writers who have given us this Institution from our Lord the Evangelist Matthew the Evangelist Mark the Evangelist Luke and the Apostle Paul and then the Evangelist John although it was not committed to him as every Evangelist had throughout the whole Evangelick History his Portion of every Matter and the proper Words of it committed to him to write of this Institution yet he had a sublime and highly spiritual Discourse intrusted with him all along the last part of his sixth Chapter concerning the eating the Flesh of Christ and drinking his Blood which must needs be the Foundation of eating the Flesh of Christ and drinking his Blood in the Sacrament for a Sacrament must have a Doctrine to sustain it that it may not be an insignificant Ceremony and what can have nearer Relation to the Sacrament of eating the Body of Christ broken for us and drinking his Blood of the New Testament shed for many than eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood which he gave for the life of the World which is Meat indeed and Drink indeed
the Stomach of the fresh Communicant making the just natural Progresses and moves to Union Incorporation and Nourishment that according to the Law of substantial Food not Accidents or according to Nature it should do And it is necessary it should be so that the spiritual Transubstantiation may answer the Resemblance Christ hath chosen for it and might guide us into the understanding of it and Application of our Souls to it according to the steps of the natural Conversion of Food into our Flesh and Blood and Life yet not so that Christ should be obliged to his own Ceremonies as if he could not work without them But this is the ordinary means even besides and beyond the Word that the Goodness of Christ hath chosen that we might have the most sensible and powerful Application of our Souls to him and of him to our Souls in such a Sacrament which hath besides the very Time of Celebration even in cases of Omission by necessary Impediment it s constant use for the Ordination it self is a Seal always and inseparably fasten'd to God's Covenant and does assure the great Point of the real Exhibition of Christ to the Faith of his Servants as substantially as the Meat and Drink we live by assures it self to our Bodies and Senses and this always And this Offer this Exhibition is so real that whoever professing the Gospel and having the Knowledge of this Sacramental Institution and especially coming to the Lord's Supper and not approving himself in all the spiritual Acts of receiving Christ becomes guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Now as we know this Guilt is only of a spiritual Nature committed against the Body and Blood of Christ thus spiritualiz'd in their effects for who can hurt Christ's natural Body in Heaven so it assures us the Presence of the Body and Blood is only of a spiritual Nature and so the Transubstantiation is only spiritual for as the Guilt is so is the Presence and if the Presence were sensible the Guilt might be by an Injury of a sensible Nature but we know It is not so and so the Presence and Sin also must be of a spiritual Nature And so also is the Sin of not discerning of not discriminating the Lord's Body It must needs be the Sin of the Mind because there is no Presence that strikes the Sense The Sense is in no Fault for there is no Body of Christ before it but the Mind that does not discern is to be blam'd for that hath a high spiritual Object made known to it evidently set before it by the Word of Christ in the Sacrament but only to it not to the bodily eye or sense therefore the Presence can be only spiritual But so certain as the Bread and Wine are present to the Sense so certain are the Body and Blood of Christ in a spiritual Transubstantiation For it must be acknowledg'd This is my Body standing in a Sacramental solemn Institution is of greater force than a mere metaphorical Saying I am the Vine and does signifie a Presence of Christ with the Bread in such a manner that the General Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the real Communication of the Body and Blood of Christ in general is more particularly determin'd to the Bread Blessed and Broken Taken and Eaten which is become a Memorial perpetually annex'd to the Gospel by Christ's Institution and is a Superaddition of the Certainty of a real spiritual Presence of all the saving Effects of the Body and Blood of Christ in the manner before discours'd And the Guilt of unworthy Receiving or not discriminating this Body and Blood is proportionally a Sin committed against the spiritual Presence of the Body and Blood there represented in all its spiritual Effects and really and substantially though by Divine Abstraction and Infinite Diffusion of them without any material bodily Presence And though this Sin according to the Laws of Discourse is charg'd only upon the unworthy Eating and Drinking as at the Table of Christ in a set Discourse of the Sacrament yet as the Divine Institution offers at all Times the Body and Blood of Christ and testifies the Truth of a real Participation of Christ by the True Believer so the Obligation and consequently the Guilt is chargeable upon every Pretender to Christ whether he be a Receiver or not as is most evident by 1 Cor. 10. all along the Chapter And such a Profanation of the Lord's Supper as the Corinthians were guilty of as even the turning it into a Riot and Revel so that it was not to Eat the Lord's Supper yet the weight of the Institution fell upon them even as it does upon all that profanely forbear the Lord's Supper among us as it were in their own Defence against the Danger of it whose Guilt is the same as to the not Receiving Christ exhibited to them in the Lord's Supper that must be always Preach'd as a Memorial of Christ Instituting it wherever this Gospel is preach'd and is pretended to be so Receiv'd by All that is by all who pretend to be Christians So that they do not by neglect lessen the Guilt of an unworthy Eating and Drinking which the very Profession of Christianity entitles them to but also add that of a profane Omission and Neglect of so Holy an Institution Now as all this is most evident by a Collation of the Apostle's Discourse in the fore-mention'd Chapters so it is of 1 Cor. c. 10. great Illustration to the Point we are upon as also Conviction of careless profane Christians who must whether they will or no be under the Bond of this Covenant to whom Christ is so clearly set forth before their Eyes and no Shift can disoblige them I come therefore to the Third Head of this Discourse viz To find a fair Accommodation and no Encounter betwixt Head 3 the Mystery and the Letter or betwixt the grand Sense and the very Words This is my Body by a compare of this whole Harmonical Context with other Scripture and its way of speaking in such Cases And in this I have so far prevented my self that there remains nothing but to gather up the whole Context and then to apply to it the sense of this Mystery I have pursued Whereupon it will be evident these Words This is my Body This is my Blood agree with the constant manner of Scriptures speaking in such Matters and that less than these Words could not import the great Sense that was to be imported It is therefore first to be consider'd That Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour even the very night he was betray d to dye that he might draw up the whole Mystery of Redemption in short and into a Sum He does it first in that most significant typical sacrifical Rite of the Passover that had been of so great use and signification in the Church of God among the Jews of which the several Ordinances for the solemnity of it bound together are call'd by