Church in the most sutable manner to work in men a deep impression Therefore as God himself in order to satisfy Moses more fully that his People should not perish nor so much as diminish under the Thraldom of Egypt shewed him a Bush continuing still whole and entire in the midst of a great Fire and in order they might be more firmly perswaded that tho they were in a wilderness they were under Gods protection he made them go all the way under a Cloud that when soever there should happen any staggering in their Belief both Moses and the People might strengthen it Moses by remembring the Bush and the People by minding the Cloud to the same purpose hath Christ ordained some Visible Signes in his Church to compleat her common Faith and to assure this truth to every one who comes to him that he shall be cleansed of his sins as certainly as it is certain he sees some water which is the ordinary means for washing and that he shall be kept up and fed with a supply of all necessary Blessings as certainly and really as it is real and certain he tasts and takes in this Bread and Wine which are the ordinary means for preserving our life and strength 4. Besides because the Sacraments are designed not only to perswade us more strongly of the truth and Being of the Things but also to acquaint us more familiarly and sensibly with their Condition and nature these Sacraments must have in their natural constitution some known Qualities that make them fit for this Sacramental office Such hath the Water for example which was so deservedly chosen for the use of holy Baptism because of the proper virtue it hath of washing the things that are fowl of reviving and refreshing them that are dry and of making fruitful the Barren Hereupon S. Austin saies plainly that unless the holy Sacraments had some such agreement with the Holy Things which they are set up to represent they could not be Sacraments at all Epist 23. ad Bonif. 5. So the blessed Communion is made of two such Elements as can forthwith expose to the sight and sense of all men the true ground of its Sacramental and significative Function This function is twofold the first to represent Christs Sufferings and the second to represent the Blessing and the Benefit which we receive from these Sufferings The first I say to represent Christs Sufferings This Bread and Wine could neither sustain nor refresh me had not their intrinsecal Substance lost its first condition and estate that is if the one had never fallen under the Sickle the threshing the Milstone the Fire and the other under the Hook the Trampling and the Press of bandmen Nor doth the Son of God save me but by * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philip. 2.7 emtying himself in a manner for a while of his first glory in Heaven and by losing that second life which he had taken in Bethlehem This Blessed Savior is not a Savior by the strength of all the Miracles which He did about Judea nor by any thing that He could suffer as long as He would keep himself alive when he was made fast to his Cross As the best Harvest is not yet Bread as long as it stands in the Field nor is the best Corn Bread likewise as long as 't is kept whole in the Floor both Corn and Harvest being no more then antecedent Matter for mans Food Jesus living in Galilee Jesus teaching about the Temple Jesus commanding Storms and Waves when he did walk upon the Sea if he had proceeded no further could not have bin the Bread of life it must be Jesus suffering Jesus crucified Jesus dying the grinding Mill and the burning Fire have of this Corn made me this Bread and nothing less then Cross Wounds Death my Lord my God! could of thy dearest Son make my Savior 6. I say secondly this Eucharistical Bread is instituted to represent the Fruit and Benefit which we receive both at the Holy Table and upon all other occasions from Christs Sufferings to wit Maintenance and Improvement of life As without Bread and Wine or somthing answerable to it the strongest Bodies soon decay so without the virtue of the Body and Blood of Christ the best and holiest Souls must infallibly starve and perish The Body of the Lord as it was offered up to God in Sacrifice is the Truth represented by the Passover and as represented to us at the Holy Communion is the Truth and Accomplishment typified by the Manna The one is as it were the Seed and the Original Principle whence we are born and the other as the Bread wherewith we live That is to say as Bread and Wine do not produce but keep up that animal Life which another Cause hath produced so doth our Lord Jesus by a necessary and continual supply of strength and Grace represented by Bread and Wine sustain improve and set sorward that Spiritual Life and new Being which He hath procured us by his Cross 7. For Jesus the second Adams being seiz'd as He hung on the Cross with that deep sleep which God daused to fall upon him gave this new Being to his Church out of that side which at his Passion was opened and the Blood and Water which then gushed out of his Wounds are the true Principles of life by reason of which his spouse the Church may be called Eve that is true and everlasting Liver Before she had this new original out of her Saviors Passion her Husbands sleep she by her old Extraction was a very Daughter of Death and a Mother of such Children as could pretend to no better Inheritance then Curse and Wrath. Ephes 2.2 By the course of Nature our Life is but a sad Progress from Birth to Death and by the course of Gods Justice a sadder Motion such as is that of condemned Persons from Prison to the Place of their Execution But whilst we were daily passing on to that most dreadful Punishment the Son of God lookt on us and took our Condemnation upon himself and under it dyed in our steed Thus by the Death and satisfaction of this Victim Justice gave way to my Release God the Father forgave my Sin and God the Son procured my Life This Grace is the first Purchace of Christs Blood the first Irradiation of Gods mercy and the first Breath of spiritual Life in our Nostrils 8. But alas how soon would this first life vanish away were it not presently followed and supported by a second How soon would the removal of the former be frustrated by the commission of other Sins And since I am no sooner born in sin then dead in it how hard would it be without more help in this corrupted condition to keep dead Lazarus from Rottenness Therefore the Body and Blood of Christ once Sacrificed on the Cross to help this first procures a second Life that preserves whomsoever it saves out of this stupid death in sin it helps
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.
Sacrifice 1. IT is a certain truth that there never was on Earth a true Religion without some kind of Sacrifices and 't is a very great lye to say that now the Christian should want them The Jews and the Pagans who first aspersed the Church of Christ with this slander did it upon such a reason as became them because they saw neither Altars set up nor Beasts slain and burnt among them Thus the Pagans accused the Jews of adoring nothing but Clouds because they had no Gods of Stone or Silver in their Synagogues and thus silly men may think now that the world is destitute of Angels because they do not appear so often as they did in ancient times in the shape and forms of Men. The truth is as what appeared like a Body was not an Angel nor what was Stone or Silver could be a God Neither the slaughter of poor beasts could ever be true Sacrifices Thou delightest not in Oblations the Sacrifice of God is a broken Spirit Many among the Jews much less quick sighted then the Prophets were confessed as much nor certainly could any reason permit them to imagine that Flesh and Blood which in all their Scriptures passes both for the weakest and the vilest of Things could be the best and the soundest part of Sacrifices 2. Of all the Carnal Sacrifices which the Jews do reduce to six kinds besides many more Oblations none ever had any saving reality as to the washing away of sins but in dependance on Jesus Christ our Lord and as to our service and duty towards God which they were also to represent none had this second end so fully performed under the Law as it must be under the Gospel The blessed Communion alone when whole and not mutilated concenters and brings together these two great Ends full Expiation of sins and acceptable Duty to God towards which all the old Sacrifices never look't but as either simple Engagements or weak shadows As for the first which is Expiation of sins 't is most certain that the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone hath bin sufficient for it and that if all both men and Angels were joined to it it were not to add too but to receive from its fulness It is most certain also that this great Sacrifice being both of an infinit virtue to satisfy the most severe Justice and of an infinite virtue to produce at once all the Effects that can be expected of it it were impiety to think it should need to be don again as weak and infirm Causes must in order to make up by degrees and at several times their full Effect This was perhaps the want of Faith which the holy Scripture taxes in Moses Num. 20.12 which it is hard to find in any thing els to strike a second time and without order that mysterious Rock which to strike once had bin enough for this second blow could proceed but of a faithless mistrust that the first which alone was commanded could not suffice But it were a much greater offence both against the Blood of Christ to question its infinit worth and against the infinitness and Immensity of this worth to charge it with som Emtiness which any reiteration should fill up Therefore as the Expiatory Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Cross was infinitly able to do at once whatever an infinit number of other Sacrifices had bin able to do either all together at one time or each of them severally during the succession of all Ages the Offering of it must needs be one only and the Reiteration of it were not only superfluous as to its real effect but also most injurious to Christ in the very thought and Attemt 3. Nevertheless this Sacrifice which by a real Oblation was not to be offered more then once is by an Eucharistical and devout Commemoration to be offered up every day This is what the Apostle calls to set forth the death of the Lord to set it forth I say as well before the Eyes of God his Father as before the Eyes of all Men and what S. Augustin did explain when he said that the holy Flesh of Jesus Christ was offered up in three manners by prefiguring Sacrifices under the Law before his coming into the World in real deed upon the Cross and by a Commemorative Sacrament after he is ascended into Heaven All comes to this first that the Sacrifice as t is it self and in it self it can never be reiterated yet by way of devout Celebration and Remembrance it may nevertheless be reiterated every day Secondly that whereas the Holy Eucharist is by it self a Sacrament wherein God offers unto all men the Blessings merited by the Oblation of his Son it likewise becomes by our Remembrance a kind of Sacrifice also whereby to obtain at his hands the same Blessings we present and expose before his Eyes that same holy and precious Oblation once offered Thus the ancient Israelites did continually represent in their Solemn Prayers to God that Covenant which he had made once with Abraham Isaac and Jacob their Forefathers Thus did the Jews in their Captivity turn their Faces towards either the Country or the Temple where the Mercy Seat and the Ark were which were the Memorial of his Promises and the Sacramental Engagement of his Blessings And thus the Christians in their Prayers do every day insist upon and represent to God the Father the meritorious Passion of their Savior as the only sure ground whereon both God may give and they obtain the Blessings which they do pray for Now neither the Israelites had ever Temple or Ark or Mercy seat nor the Christians have any Ordinance Devotion or Mystery that may prove to be such a blessed and effectual Instrument to reach to this Everlasting Sacrifice and to set it out so solemnly before the Eyes of God Almighty as the Holy Eucharist is To men it is a sacred Table where Gods Minister is ordered to represent from God his Master the Passion of his dear Son as still fresh and still powerful for their Eternal Salvation and to God it is an Altar whereon Men mystically present to him the same Sacrifice as still bleeding and still sueing for Expiation and Mercy And because it is the high Priest himself the true Anointed of the Lord who hath set up most expressly both this Table and this Altar for these two ends namely for the Communication of his Body and Blood to Men and for the Representation and Memorial of both to God it cannot be doubted but that the one must be most advantageous to the penitent Sinner and the other most acceptable to that good and gracious Father who is alwaies pleased in his Son and who loves of himself the repenting and the sincere return of his Children Luke 15.22 4. Hence one may see both the great use and advantage of more frequent Communion and how much it concerns us whensoever we go to receive it to lay out all our wants and
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