at all under them to sustaine them and which is if any thing can bee yet more absurd bare accidents should nourish bee assimulated and augment a substance for it is plaine that a man might bee nourished by the Bread yea the Priest by intemperate excesse made drunke with the consecrated Wine unto which detestable effects wee cannot imagine that God by a more especiall concurrence and miracle would enable the bare accidents of Bread and Wine But if Christ stay and doe corporally unite himselfe to the Receiver then I see not how all they that receive the Sacrament being physically and substantially united to Christs Body have not likewise a naturall union to his Person too that being no where separated from this which is blasphemous to affirme Secondly how Christs Body may not bee said to have a double subsistence Infinite in the second Person and Finite in all those with whom he is Incorporated Leaving then this as a fleshly conceit wee come to a fourth Presence of Christ which is by Energy and power thus where two or three bee gathered together in his Name Christ is in the middest of them by the powerfull working of his holy Spirit even as the Sunne is present to the Earth in as much as by its influence and benignity it heateth and quickeneth it For all manner of operation is by some manner of Contact betweene the Agent and the Patient which cannot bee without some manner of presence too but the last manner of Presence is a Sacramentall Relative mysticall Presence Understand it thus The King is in his Court or Presence-chamber onely locally and physically but representatively he is wheresoever his Chancellour or subordinate Judges are in as much as whatsoever they in a Legall and judiciall course doe determine is accompted by him as his owne personall act as being an effect of that power which though in them as the instruments doth yet originally reside no where but in his owne Person just so Christ is locally in Heaven which must containe him till the restitution of all things yet having instituted these Elements for the supply as it were of his absence hee is accompted present with them in as much as they which receive them with that reverend and faithfull affection as they would Christ himselfe doe together with them receive him too really and truly though not carnally or physically but after a mysticall and spirituall manner A reall Presence of Christ wee acknowledge but not a locall or physicall for Presence reall that being a metaphysicall terme is not opposed unto a meere physicall or locall absence or distance but is opposed to a false imaginary phantasticke presence for if reall presence may bee understood of nothing but a carnall and locall presence then that speech of Christ Where two or three bee gathered together in my Name there am I in the middest of them cannot have any reall Trueth in it because Christ is not locally in the middest of them This reall Presence being thus explained may bee thus proved The maine end of the Sacrament as shall be shewed is to unite the faithfull unto Christ to which union there must of necessity be a Presence of Christ by meanes of the Sacrament which is the instrument of that union Such then as the union is such must needs bee the presence too since Presence is therefore only necessary that by meanes thereof that union may be effected Now united unto Christ we are not carnally or physically as the meat is to the body but after a mysticall manner by joynts and sinewes not fleshly but spirituall even as the faithfull are united to each other in one mysticall Body of Christ into one holy spirituall Building into one fruitfull olive into a holy but mysticall marriage with Christ. Now what Presence fitter for a Spirituall union than a spirituall presence Certainly to confine Christ unto the narrow compasse of a piece of Bread to squeeze and contract his Body into so strait a roome and to grinde him betweene our teeth is to humble him though now glorified lower than hee humbled himselfe hee himselfe to the forme of a servant but this to the condition of a monster That Presence then of Christ which in the Sacrament wee acknowledge is not any grosse Presence of circumscription as if Christ Jesus in Body lay hid under the accidents of Bread and Wine as if hee who was wont to use the senses for witnesse and proofe of his Presence did now hide from them yea deceive them under the appearances of that which hee is not but it is a spirituall Presence of energie power and concomitancy with the Element by which Christ doth appoint that by and with these mysteries though not in or from them his sacred Body should bee conveyed into the faithfull Soule and such a Presence of Christ in power though absence in flesh as it is most compatible with the properties of a humane Body so doth it most make for the demonstration of his power who can without any necessity of a fleshly Presence send as great influence from his sacred Body on the Church as if hee should descend visibly amongst us Neither can any man shew any enforcing reason why unto the reall exhibition and reception of Christ crucified there should any more physicall Presence of his bee required than there is of the Sunne unto the eye for receiving his light or of the roote unto the utmost branches for receiving of vitall sappe or of the head unto the feete for the receiving of sense or of the land and purchase made over by a sealed Deed for receiving the Lordship or lastly to use an instance from the Jesuites owne Doctrine out of Aristotle of a finall Cause in an actuall existence to effect its power and causality on the the will for if the finall Cause doe truely and really produce its effect though it have not any materiall grosse Presence but onely an intellectuall Presence to the apprehension why may not Christ whose sacred Body however it bee not substantially coextended as I may so speake in regard of ubiquity with the Godhead yet is in regard of its cooperation force efficacy unlimited by any place or subject it having neither spheare of activity nor stint of merit nor bounds of efficacy nor necessary subject of application beyond which the vertue of it growes faint and uneffectuall why may not hee I say really unite himselfe unto his Church by a spirituall Presence to the faithfull Soule without any such grosse and carnall descent or rehumiliation of his glorified Body unto an ignoble and prodigious forme So then to conclude this digression and the first End of this Sacrament together when Christ saith This is my Body wee are not otherwise to understand it than those other Sacramentall speeches of the same nature I am the Bread of Life Christ was that rocke and the like it being a common thing not
onely in holy Scriptures but even in prophane Writers also to call the instrumentall Elements by the name of that Covenant of which they are onely the Sacrifices seales and visible confirmations because of that relation and neere resemblance that is betweene them The second End or Effect of this Sacrament which in order of Nature immediately followeth the former is to obsignate and to encrease the mysticall union of the Church unto Christ their Head for as the same operation which infuseth the reasonable soule which is the first act or principle of life naturall doth also unite it unto the body to the making up of one man so the same Sacrament which doth exhibite Christ unto us who is the first act and originall of life divine doth also unite us together unto the making up of one Church In naturall nourishment the vitall heate being stronger than the resistance of the meat doth macerate concoct and convert that into the substance of the Body but in this spirituall nourishment the vitall Spirit of Christ having a heate invincible by the coldnesse of Nature doth turne us into the same image and quality with it selfe working a fellowship of affections and confederacy of wills and as the body doth from the union of the soule unto it receive strength beauty motion and the like active qualities so also Christ being united unto us by these holy mysteries doth comfort refresh strengthen rule and direct us in all our waies Wee all in the vertue of that Covenant made by God unto the faithfull and to their seed in the first instant of our being doe belong unto Christ that bought us after in the Laver of Regeneration the Sacrament of Baptisme we are farther admitted and united to him our right unto Christ before was generall from the benefit of the common Covenant but in this Sacrament of Baptisme my right is made personall and I now lay claime unto Christ not onely in the right of his common Promise but by the efficacy of this particular Washing which sealeth and ratifieth the Covenant unto mee Thus is our first union unto Christ wrought by the grace of the Covenant effectively and by the grace of Baptisme where it may bee had Instrumentally the one giving unto Christ the other obsignating and exhibiting that right by a farther admission of us into his Body But now wee must conceive that as there is a union unto Christ so there must as in naturall bodies be after that union a growing up till wee come to our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the measure of the fulnesse of Christ. This growth being an effect of the vitall faculty is more or lesse perfected in us as that is either more or lesse stifled or cherished for as in the soule and body so in Christ and the Church We are not to conceive the union without any latitude but capable of augmentation and liable to sundry diminutions according as are the severall meanes which for either purpose wee apply unto our selves The union of the soule and body though not dissolved is yet by every the least distemper slackned by some violent diseases almost rended asunder so that the body hath sometimes more sometimes lesse hold-fast of the soule so heere wee are in the Covenant and in Baptisme united unto Christ but wee must not forget that in men there is by Nature a roote of bitternesse whence issue those fruites of the flesh a spawne and wombe of actuall corruptions where sinne is daily conceived and brought forth a mare mortuum a lake of death whence continually arise all manner of noysome and infectious lusts by meanes of which our Union to Christ though not dissolved is yet daily weakened and stands in need of continuall confirmation for every sinne doth more or lesse smother and stoppe the principle of life in us so that it cannot worke our growth which we must rise unto with so free and interrupted a course as otherwise it might The Principle of life in a Christian is the very same from whence Christ himselfe according to his created Graces receiveth life and that is the Spirit of Christ a quickning Spirit and a strengthening Spirit Now as that great sinne which is incompatible with faith doth bidde defiance to the good Spirit of God and therefore is more especially called The sinne against the holy Ghost so every sinne doth in its owne manner and measure quench the Spirit that it cannot quicken and grieve the Spirit that it cannot strengthen us in that perfection of degrees as it might otherwise and thus is our union unto Christ daily loosened and slackened by the distempers of sinne for the reestablishing whereof God hath appointed these sacred Mysteries as effectuall instruments where they meet with a qualified subject to produce a more firme and close union of the Soule to Christ and to strengthen our Faith which is the joynt and sinew by which that union is preserved to cure those i wounds and purge those iniquities whose property it is to separate betwixt Christ and us to make us submit our services to knit our wils to conforme our affections and to incorporate our persons into him that so by constant though slow proceedings we might be changed from glory to glory and attaine unto the measure of Christ there where our Faith can no way bee impaired our bodies and soules subject to no decay and by consequence stand in no need of any such viaticums as wee heere use to strengthen us in a journey so much both above the Perfection and against the corruption of our present Nature CHAP. XIV Of three other Ends of the holy Sacrament the fellowship or union of the faithfull the obsignation of the Covenant of Grace and the abrogation of the Passeover NOW as the same nourishment which preserveth the Union betweene the Soule and Body or head and members doth in like manner preserve the Union betweene the members themselves even so this Sacrament is as it were the sinew of the Church whereby the faithfull being all animated by the same Spirit that makes them one with Christ are knit together in a bond of Peace conspiring all in a unity of thoughts and desires having the same common Enemies to withstand the same common Prince to obey the same common rule to direct them the same common way to passe the same common Faith to vindicate and therefore the same mutuall engagements to further and advance the good of each other so that the next immediate effect of this Sacrament is to confirme the Union of all the members of the Church each to other in a Communion of Saints whereby their prayers are the more strengthened and their adversaries the more resisted for as in naturall things Union strengtheneth motions naturall and weakeneth violent so in the Church Union strengtheneth all spirituall motions whether upward as meditations and prayers to God or downeward as
proportion betweene the holy Actions used by Christ in this Sacrament and Christ himselfe who is the substance of it IT followes now that we enquire farther into the nature of this holy Sacrament which will be explained by considering the Analogie fitnesse and similitude betweene the signes and the things signified by them and conferred or exhibited together with them which is Christ the Lord. Now this Analogie or fitnesse as it hath been in some generall manner expres'd in the nature or quality of the elements substantially or physically taken so more expressely and punctually is it propos'd unto us in those holy actions which doe alter in the use and make it a Sacrament And first we finde that Christ tooke the Bread and Wine and blessed it and gave thanks and so consecrated it or set a part unto a holy or solemne use which is the reason why Saint Paul calls it a Cup of blessing so that unto the Church it ceaseth to be that which nature had made it and beginnes to be that unto which the blessing had consecrated it In like manner did the eternall Sonne of God assume into the subsistance of his owne infinite person the whole nature of man the body and the soule by the vertue of which wonderfull union notwithstanding the properties of the divine nature remaine absolutely intransient and uncommunicable unto the humane yet are there shed from that inexhaustible fountaine many high and glorious endowments by which the humanity under this manner of subsistence is annoynted consecrated sealed and set apart for that work of incomprehensible love and power the redemption of the world and secondly as the Bread is taken by us from Christ in the nature of a gift he brake it and gave it to his Disciples so is the humane nature taken by Christ from the Father as a gift from the good pleasure of God Thirdly as the taking of the Bread by Christ did alter only the manner of its being the operation and efficacy the dignity and use but no way at all the element or nature of the Bread Even so the taking of the humane body by Christ did conferre indeed upon it many glorious effects and advance it to an estate farre above its common and ordinary capacity alwayes yet reserving those defects and weaknesses which were required in the aeconomie and dispensation of that great work for which he assumed it but yet he never alterd the essentiall and naturall qualities of the body but kept it still within the measure and limits of the created perfection which the wisdome of God did at first share out unto it Lastly to come neerer unto the Crosse of Christ as hee did by prayer and thanksgiving consecrate their elements unto a holy use so did he immediately before his passion of which this is the Sacrament make that consecratory prayer and thanksgiving which is registred for the perpetuall comfort of his Church The second Action is the breaking of the Bread and powering the Wine into the Cup which doth neerly expresse his crucified Body where the joynts were loosed the sinewes torne the flesh bruized and peirced the skin rent the whole frame violated by that straining and razeing and cutting and stretching and wrentching which was used in the crucifying of it and by the shedding of that pretious blood which stop'd the issue and flux of ours It were infinite and intricare to spin a meditation into a controversie about the extent and nature of Christs passion but certainly whatsoever either Ignominie or Agony his body suffered which two â— conceive to comprize all the generalls of Christ crucified are if not particularly expressed yet typically and sacramentally shaddowed and exhibited in the Bread broken and the Wine powred out The third Action was the giving or delivering of the Bread and Wine which first evidently expresseth the nature and quality of Christ crucified with these benefits which flow from him that they are freely bestowed upon the Church which of it selfe had no interest or claime unto any thing save death Secondly we see the nature of Christs passion that it was a free voluntary and unconstrained passion for though it be true that Iudas did betray him and Pilate deliver him to bee crucified yet none of this was the giving of Christ but the selling of him It was not for us but for mony that Iudas deliver'd him it was not for us but for feare that Pilate deliver'd him but God deliver'd the Sonne and the Sonne deliver'd himselfe with a most mercifull and gracious will to bestow his death upon sinners and not to get but to be himselfe a price The Passion then of Christ was most freely undertaken without which free-will of his own they could never have laid hold on him and his death was a most free and voluntary explication his life was not wrentched nor wrung from him nor snatch'd or torne from him by the bare violence of any forraine Impression but was with a loud voice arguing nature not brought to utter decay most freely surrendred and laid downe by that power which did after reassume it But how then comes it to passe that there lay a necessicie upon Christ of suffring which necessicie may seeme to have enforc'd and constrain'd him to Golgatha in as much as hee himselfe did not only shrinke but even testifie his dislike of what he was to suffer by a redoubled prayer unto his Father that that Cup might passe from him doth not feare make Actions involuntary or at least derogate and detract from the fulnesse of their liberty and Christ did feare how then is it that Christs Passion was most voluntary though attended with necessitie feare and reluctance surely it was most voluntary still and first therefore necessary because voluntary the maine and primitive reason of the necessitie being nothing else but that immutable will which had fore-decreed it Christs death then was necessary by a necessitie of the event which musts needs come to passe after it had once been fore-determined by that most wise will of God which never useth to repent him of his counsells but not by a necessitie of the cause which was most free and voluntary Againe necessary it was in regard of the Scriptures whose truth could not miscarry in regard of the promises made of him which were to be performed in regard of propheticall predictions which were to be fulfilled in regard of typicall prefigurations which were to bee abrogated and seconded with that substance which they did fore-shaddow but no way necessary in opposition to Christs will which was the first mover into which both this necessitie and all the causes of it are to be finally resolv'd And then for the fear and reluctance of Christ noe marvell if he who was in all things like unto us had his share in the same passions and affections like wise though without sin But neither of
Elements are so necessary and beneficiall to that life of man with what appetite we should approach these holy mysteries even with hungry and thirsty soules longing for the sweetnesse of Christ crucified Wheresoever God hath bestowed a vitall being hee hath also afforded nourishment to sustaine it and an inclination and attractive faculty in the subject towards its nourishment Even the new-borne Babe by the impression of nature is moved to use the breasts before he knowes them Now we which were dead in sinnes hath Christ quickned and hath infused into us a vitall principle even that faith by which the just do live which being instilled into us Christ beginneth to be formed in the soule and the whole man to be made conformable unto him Then are the parts organced and fitted for their severall workes there is an eye with Stephen to see Christ an eare with Mary to heare him a mouth with Peter to confesse him a hand with Thomas to touch him an arme with Simeon to imbrace him feet with his Disciples to follow him a heart to entertaine him and bowels of affection to love him All the members are weapons of righteousnesse and thus is the new man the new creature perfected Now hee that left not himselfe amongst the Heathen without a witnesse but filled even their hearts with food and gladnesse hath not certainly left his owne chosen without nourishment such as may preserve them in that estate which he hath thus framed them unto As therefore new Infants are fed with the same nourishment and substance of which they consist so the same Christ crucified is as the cause and matter of our new birth so the food which sustaineth and preserveth us in it unto whose body and blood there must needs be as proportionable an appetite in a new Christian as there is unto Milke in a new Infant it being more nourishable then Milke and faith more vitall to desire it then nature And all this so much the rather because he himselfe did begin unto us in a more bitter Cup. Did he on his Crosse drink Gall and Vinegar for me and that also made infinitely more biâ—ter by my sinnes and shalâ— not I at his Table drink Wine for my selfe made infinitely sweeter with the blood which it conveighs Did hee drink a Cup of bitternesse and wrath and shal not I drink the Cup of blessing Did he eat the bread of affliction and shall not I eat the bread of life Did he suffer his Passion and shall not I enjoy it Did he stretch out his hands on the Crosse and shall mine be withered and shrunken towards his Table Certainly it is a presumption that he is not only sick but desperate who refuseth that nourishment which is both food to strengthen and Physick to recover him Secondly the benefit of Christ being so obvious as the commons and so sufficient as the properties of these Elements declare we see how little we should be dismaid at any either inward weaknesses and bruses of minde or outward dangers and assaults of enemies having so powerfull a remedy so neere unto us how little we ought to trust in any thing within our selves whose sufficiency and nourishment is from without There is no created substance in the world but receives perfection from some other things how much more must Man who hath lost his owne native integrity go out of himselfe to procure a better estate which in vaine he might have done for ever had not God first if I may so speak gone out of himselfe humbling the Divine Nature unto a personall union with the humane And now having such an Immanuel as is with us not only by assuming us unto himselfe in his incarnation but by communicating himselfe to us in these sacred Mysteries whatsoever weaknesses dismayes us his body is bread to strengthen us whatsoever waves or tempests rise against us his wounds are holes to hide and shelter us what though sinne be poyson have we not here the bread of Christ for an Antidote What though it be red as Skarlet is not his blood of a deeper colour What though the Darts of Satan continually wound us is not the issue of his wounds the balme for ours Let me be fed all my dayes with bread of affliction and water of affliction I have another bread another Cup to sweeten both Let Satan tempt mee to despaire of life I have in these visible and common Elements the Author of life made the food of life unto me let who will perswade me to trust a little in my owne righteousnesse to spie out some gaspings and faint reliques of life in my selfe I receive in these signes an all-sufficient Saviour and I will seeke for nothing in my selfe when I have so much in him Lastly we see here both from the example of Christ who is the patterne of unity and from the Sacrament of Christ which is the Symboll of unity what a conspiracy of affections ought to be in us both betweene our owne and towards our fellow-members Thinke not that thou hast worthily received these holy mysteries till thou finde the image of that unity which is in them conveighed by them into thy soule As the breaking of the bread is the Sacrament of Christs Passion so the aggregation of many graines into one masse should be a Sacrament of the Churches unity What is the reason that the bread and the Church should be both called in the Scripture by the same name The bread is the body of Christ and the Church is the body of Christ too Is it not because as the bread is one Loafe out of diverse cornes so the Church is one body out of diverse Beleevers that the representative this the mysticall body of the same Christ. Even as the Word and the Spirit and the faithfull are in the Scripture all called by the same name of seed because of that assimulating vertue whereby the one received doth transforme the other into the similitude and nature of it selfe If the beames of the Sunne though divided and distinct from one another have yet a unity in the same nature of light because all pertake of one native and originall splendor if the limbes of a Tree though all severall and spreading different wayes yet have a unity in the same fruits because all are incorporated into one stock or root if the streames of a River though running diverse wayes doe yet all agree in a unity of sweetnesse and cleerenesse because all issuing from the same pure Fountaine why then should not the Church of Christ though of severall and divided qualities and conditions agree in a unity of truth and love Christ being the Sunne whence they all receive their light the Vine into which they are all ingrafted and the Fountain that is opened unto them all for transgressions and for sins CHAP. IX Of the Analogy and
Vision fruition and possession heere darkly by stooping and captivating our understandings unto those divine Reports which are made in Scripture which is a knowledge of Faith distance and expectation wee doe I say heere bend our understandings to assent unto such truths as doe not transmit any immediate species or irradiation of their owne upon them but there our understandings shall be raised unto a greater capacity and bee made able without a secondary report and conveyance to apprehend clearely those glorious Truths the evidence whereof it did heere submit unto for the infallible credit of God who in his Word had revealed and by his Spirit obsignated the same unto them as the Samaritans knew Christ at first onely by the report of the Woman which was an assent of Faith but after when they saw his Wonders and heard his Words they knew him by himselfe which was an assent of vision Secondly as the Church is heere but a travelling Church therfore cannot possibly have any farther knowledge of that Countrey whither it goes but onely by the Mappes which describe it the Word of God and these few fruites which are sent unto them from it the fruits of the Spirit whereby they have some taste and relish of the World to come so moreover is it even in this estate by being enclosed in a body of sinne which hath a darkning property in it and addes unto the naturall limitednesse of the understanding an accidentall defect and sorenesse much disabled from this very imperfect assent unto Christ the Object of its Faith for as sinne when it wastes the Conscience and beares Rule in the Soule hath a power like Dalila and the Philistines to put out our eyes as Vlysses the eye of his Cyclops with his sweet wine a power to e corrupt Principles to pervert and make crooked the very Rule by which we worke conveying all morall truths to the Soule as some concave glasses use to represent the species of things to the eye not according to their naturall rectitude or beauty but with those wrestings inversions and deformities which by the indisposition thereof they are framed unto so even the least corruptions unto which the best are subject having a naturall antipathy to the evidence and power of divine Truth doe necessarily in some manner distemper our understandings and make such a degree of sorenesse in the faculty as that it cannot but so farre forth bee impatient and unable to beare that glorious lustre which shines immediately in the Lord Christ. So then we see what a great disproportion there is betweene us and Christ immediately presented and from thence wee may observe our necessity and Gods mercy in affoording us the refreshment of a Type and Shadow These Shadowes were to the Church of the Iewes many because their weaknesse in the knowledge of Christ was of necessity more than ours in as much as they were but an infant wee an adult and growne Church and they looked on Christ at a distance wee neare at hand hee being already incarnate unto us they are the Sacraments of his Body and Bloud in the which wee see and receive Christ as weake eies doe the light of the Sunne through some darke Cloud or thicke Grove so then one maine and principall end of this Sacrament is to bee an instrument fitted unto the measure of our present estate for the exhibition or conveyance of Christ with the benefits of his Passion unto the faithfull Soule an end not proper to this mystery alone but common to it with all those Legall Sacraments which were the more thicke shadowes of the Jewish Church for even they in the red Sea did passe through Christ who was their Way in the Manna and Rocke did eate and drinke Christ who was their Life in the Brasen Serpent did behold Christ who was their Saviour in their daily Sacrifices did prefigure Christ who was their Truth in their Passeover did eate Christ by whose Bloud they were sprinkled for howsoever betweene the Legall and Euangelicall Covenant there may be sundry Circumstantiall differences as first in the manner of their Evidence that being obscure this perspicuous to them a Promise onely to us a Gospell Secondly in their extent and compasse that being confined to Iudea this universall to all Creatures Thirdly in the meanes of Ministration that by Priests and Prophets this by the Sonne himselfe and those delegates who were by him enabled and authorised by a solemne Commission and by many excellent endowments for the same service Lastly in the quality of its durance that being mutable and abrogated this to continue untill the consummation of all things yet notwithstanding in substance they agree and though by sundry wayes doe all at last meet in one and the same Christ who like the heart in the middest of the body comming himselfe in person betweene the Legall and Evangelicall Church doth equally convey life and motion to them both even as that light which I see in a starre and that which I receive by the immediate beame of the Sunne doth originally issue from the same Fountaine though conveyed with a different lustre and by a severall meanes So then wee see the end of all Sacraments made after the second Covenant for Sacraments there were even in Paradise before the Fall namely to exhibite Christ with those benefits which hee bestoweth on his Church unto each beleeving Soule but after a more especiall manner is Christ exhibited in the Lords Supper because his pretence is there more notable for as by Faith wee have the evidence so by the Sacrament wee have the presence of things farthest distant and absent from us A man that looketh on the light through a shadow doth truely and really receive the selfe same light which would in the openest and clearest Sun-shine appeare unto him though after a different manner there shall wee see him as Iob speakes with these selfe same eyes here with a spirituall eye after a mysticall manner so then in this Sacrament wee doe most willingly acknowledge a Reall True and Perfect Presence of Christ not in with or under the Elements considered absolutely in themselves but with that relative habitude and respect which they have unto the immediate use whereunto they are consecrated nor yet so doe wee acknowledge any such carnall transelementation of the materials in this Sacrament as if the Body or Bloud of Christ were by the vertue of Consecration and by way of a locall substitution in the place of the Bread and Wine in but are truly and really by them though in nature different conveyed into the Soules of those who by Faith receive Him And therefore Christ first said Take Eate and then This is my Body to intimate unto us as learned Hooker observeth that the Sacrament however by Consecration it be changed from common unto holy Bread and separated from common unto a divine use is
are wholly delivered from all the sting and malediction of the Law Christ is unto us the end of the Law abolishing the shadowes of the Ceremoniall the the Curses of the Morall wee are no more under the Law but under Grace under the precepts but not under the Covenant under the obedience but not under the bondage of the Law unto the righteous there is no Law that is there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ wee are dead unto the Law by the Body of Christ it hath not the least power or dominion over us Secondly the most proper nature of a punishment is to satisfie an offended Justice but Christ bearing the iniquity of us all in his Body on the Tree did therein make a most sufficient and ample satisfaction to his Fathers wrath leaving nothing wherein wee should make up either the measure or the vertue of his sufferings but did himselfe perfectly save us for an infinite person suffering and the value of the suffering depending on the dignity of the Person it must needs bee that the satisfaction made by that suffering must be likewise infinite and by consequence most perfect Lastly if we consider as it is in all matters of consequence necessary but the author of this evill we shall finde it to be no true and proper punishment for it is a reconciled father who chasteneth every sonne whom hee receiveth who as hee often doth declare his severest wrath by forbearing to punish so doth he as often even out of tendernesse and compassion chastise his Children who hath predestinated us unto them doth execute his decrees of mercy in them doth by his providence governe and by his love sanctifie them unto those that suffer them in none of which things are there the prints of punishment But if Christ have thus taken away the malignity of all temporall punishments why are they not quite removed to what end should the substance of that remaine whose properties are extinguished Certainely God is so good as that he would not permit evill to bee if hee were not so powerfull as to turne it to good Is there not honey in the Bee when the sting is removed sweetnesse in the rose when the prickles are cut off a medicinable vertue in the flesh of Vipers when the poyson is cast out and can man turne Serpents into Antidotes and shall not God bee able to turne the fiery darts of that old Serpent into instruments for letting out our corruptions and all his buffets into so many stroakes for the better fastening of those Graces in us which were before loose and ready to fall out Briefly to conclude this digression some ends of the remaining of Death and other temporall evils notwithstanding the Death of Christ have taken away the malignity of them all are amongst others these First for the triall of our faith and other Graces our Faith in Gods Providence is then greatest when wee dare cast our selves on his care even when to outward appearances hee seemeth not at all to care for us when wee can so looke on our miseries that we can withall looke through them Admirable is that faith which can with Israel see the Land of Promise through a Sea a Persecution a Wildernesse through whole Armies of the sonnes of Anak which can with Abraham see a Posterity like the starres of Heaven through a dead wombe a bleeding sword and a sacrificed sonne which can with Iob see a Redeemer a Resurrection a restitution through the dunghill and the potsheard through ulcers and botches through the violence of heaven and of men through the discomforts of friends the temptations of a wife and the malice of Satan which can with Stephen see Christ in heaven through a whole tempest and cloud of stones which can with that poore Syrophenician Woman see Christs compassion through the odious name of Dogge which can in every Egypt see an Exodus in every red Sea a passage in every fiery Fornace an Angell of Light in every Denne of Lions a Lion of Iudah in every temptation a doore of escape and in every grave an arise and sing Secondly they are unto us for antidotes against sinne and meanes of humility and newnesse of life by which our faith is exercised and excited our corruptions pruned our diseases cured our security and slacknesse in the race which is set before us corrected without which good effects all our afflictions are cast away in vaine upon us Hee hath lost his affliction that hath not learned to endure it the evils of the faithfull are not to destroy but to instruct them they loose their end if they * teach them nothing Thirdly they make us conformable unto Christs sufferings Fourthly they shew unto us the perfection of Gods graces and the sufficiency of his love Fifthly they drive us unto God for succour unto his Word for information and unto his Sonne for better hopes for nothing sooner drives a man out of himselfe than that which oppresseth and conquereth him in so much as that publique calamities drave the Heathen themselves to their prayers and to consult with their Sybils Oracles for removing those Judgements whose authour though ignorant of yet under false names and idolatrous representations they laboured as much as in them lay to reconcile and propitiate Sixthly God is in them glorified in that he spareth not his owne People and yet doth so punish that hee doth withall support and amend them Lastly it prepareth us for Glory and by these evils convincing the understanding of the slipperinesse and uncertainty of this worlds delights and how happinesse cannot grow in that earth which is cursed with thornes and briars it teacheth us to groane after the revelation of that life which is hidde with Christ where all teares shall be wiped from our eyes So that in all temporall evils that which is destructive the sting and malediction of them is in the Death of Christ destroyed having therefore so many motives to make imprâ—ssions on the Soule the Wonder of Christs Death the Love of it and the Benefits redounding unto us from it there is required of us a multiplied recordation a ruminating and often recalling of it to our thoughts if it were possible at all times to have no word or thought or worke passe from us without an eye unto Christ crucified as the patterne or if not as the Judge of them but especially at that time when the drift and purpose of our whole sacred businesse is the Celebration of his Death CHAP. XVI Of the manner after which we are to celebrate the memory of Christs Passion BUt wee may not presume that wee remember Christs death as hee requires when either with an historicall memory or with a festivall solemnitie onely wee celebrate or discourse of it except we doe it with a practicke memory proportioned to the goodnesse and quality of