not a Literal but Mystical Propriety the Lord 's Passover Exod. 12. 11. This Passover with Desire Christ desir'd to eat with his Disciples before he suffer'd as a very lively Table of his Redemptional Suffering so near but withal He declares He would no more Eat of it till it was fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God Immediately upon this whether out of an appendant Rite to the Passover or not is not now material He Institutes the Lord's Supper as it were proleptically and by way of Prophecy and yet Intuition and looking upon his Death just before him and draws in this new Table the Intention of it but whether it was to be celebrated any more there is no Explicite but that Implicite Preception In the Evangelist Luke Do it in Remembrance of me which carries an Intimation of a Continuation but it is observable It is applied only to the Bread importing the Body of Christ and it abates much from the rigour of a gross carnal Sense where it seems to press hardest For as to the Wine being materially the Blood of Christ that Figure This Cup for this Wine in the Cup and that variation is the New Testament in my Blood does beyond all Contradiction rebate the gross Literal Sense even as Remembrance does from This is my Body for Remembrance is of Absent and not Present This therefore was as before-hand to an after thing So Christ said of the Body which is broken although it was not yet actually broken and of the Blood which is shed although it was not then shed Immediately after the drinking of the Wine Christ subjoyn'd I will no more drink of This Fruit of the Vine till I drink it new in the Kingdom of God my Father when it comes which to shew a thing of weight and of the same Sense with eating the Passover no more till c. The Evangelist Luke is before-hand with the Institution of the Cup to joyn to that Saying of the Passover this of the Fruit of the Vine as is very visible And both these Expressions speak these three Things 1. That there was an eminent Kingdom of God the Father immediately to succeed at whose Right-hand Christ sits till the Time of his own peculiar Kingdom comes which is not till he puts down all Rule and Power and Authority and last of all abolishes Death and Hell out of God's Creation into the Lake it s own Place which is the Second Death or the Death of Death and then he resigns back the Kingdom The Kingdom of God and Christ are thus kept distinct and the Kingdom of the Father is in an especial manner the state of the Gospel after the Resurrection Ascension Sitting of Christ at his Right-hand and his continual Intercession even untill that Glorious Kingdom of Christ 2. That the Death of Jesus Christ imported in both the Passover and the Lord's Supper was to be renewed into a perpetual Life and Vertue immediately after his Death by those his Resurrection Ascension Session on God's Right-hand and Intercession which are the Gospel-Kingdom of the Father 3. That Christ in a spiritual sense continually eats the Passover as fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God drinks the Wine as new in the Kingdom of God and that with his Disciples of all Ages viz. in that perpetual Renovation of his Death in his Intercession and Application of the Benefits thereof to Believers according to the whole Tenor of the Gospel and particularly of the Lord's Supper and as in a Pro-gramma or afore-hand Portraicture of all this those excellent Discourses of at least John 15. c. 16. and that great Prayer a Pattern of the Intercession of Christ John 17. following shew And of this Intercession of Christ upon his own Death the Lord's Supper is in highest sense the Memorial for the Remembrance of Christ is not of a dead Christ but who lives for ever to make Intercession and so saves to the uttermost In consequence of all this especially the * A point most insisted upon by the Apostles Paul and John I had almost said solely by them Rom. 8. Epist to the Heb. frequently and solemnly c. 7. the Apostle John c. 15 c. 16. c. 17. especially Epist c. 2. 1 2. Intercession of Christ The Apostle Paul as a fourth Evangelist concerning this Institution is immediately commission'd by Christ from Heaven to promulge it to all Ages of Christians And therein he reveals it under a solemn new Title as it were new in the Kingdom of God The Lord's Supper He applies to it its great Scope and End both to the Bread and to the Wine Do it in solemn Memorial of Christ and his Action now in Heaven upon his Death which was here on Earth and farther in those Words You shew forth his Death till he comes that is the whole Contexture of his Death as his Body is eaten and his Blood drunk through the Efficacy and Application of his Intercession through which we offer the Sacrifice of Praise giving Thanks to his Name through him in this Eucharist or Feast of Thanksgiving of whose Altar we continually Eat even that of the Great Shepheard of the Sheep brought again from the Dead by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant as the Apostle hath most divinely woven these Things into a Neighbourhood Heb. 10. v. 10. v. 15. v. 20. And this Ordinance with this whole State of Things the Apostle hath dated till the Coming of Christ when a new State shall receive this into it self till which this Ordinance cannot be superannuated or out of Date for which his being receiv'd into Glory is postpond in the Mystery of Godliness that it may be a Pawn and Pledge of his Kingdom of Glory 1 Tim. 3. 16. on which the Apostasie follows darkning all till then c. 4. Laying then all these Things together how evident is it This whole Matter is of a divine spiritual heavenly Sense and therefore the Words concerning it are to be understood mystically spiritually heavenly however express'd in a Phrase and Language nearest most easie and familiar to Sense by which Sensibleness the Substantialness Reality certain Presence of those Spiritualities is to be understood and yet nothing to be detracted or derogated from the Spirituality and to interpret otherwise is to go contrary to the Rule of all Language and of Scripture-Language particularly and is as mischievous as the worst sort of Allegorizing or Evacuating the sense of the Letter of Scripture where plain historical Things are intended The one is turning Scripture into a spiritual Romance the other is to subvert the whole World of Spirituals to bring in horrible Anthropomorphitism or imagining God to have Eyes Hands Feet c. because Scripture representing the Reality of his divine Action Providence and Government does it in Words and Images we best understand and in a word to bring in rank Hobbianism into the Scripture the Church of God and into this Sacrament as shall be more particularly remark'd under a following
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
appears in every one it had its distinct particular Blessing even as the Bread that it hath some peculiar marks as the particular Command Divide it among your selves Drink all of it do this very particular thing as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me that the matter of Fact concerning it is peculiarly recited viz. They All drank of it that the Apostle calls it the Cup of Blessing All this speaks two things That the Cup is as essential a part of the Institution as the Bread of as high Necessity and Dignity and the Precept of one as extensive as the other and of the Two the most particularly remark'd in its Extensiveness 3. That it is worthy to explain the sense of those words This is my Body and the meaning of the Institution upon what occasion or account soever it shall be so urg'd seeing as the Doctrine of the Blood shed of Christ hath the Equality and rather the Preference to the Body if there could be any odds throughout the New Testament as being the last and completory Act of Christ's sacrificing himself and is therefore so expresly nam'd in that Tri-unity of Testimonies on Earth The Spirit the Water the BLOOD 1 John 5. 8. 4. When therefore we find two sacred Pen-men of this Institution write This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament and two other of which one by immediate Revelation This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood we thus collect It cannot be indeed so probable Christ said both if he did what I urge will be the stronger but I allow he said only one and that it was This is my Blood yet is this explanatory Alteration most Authentick and Divine so that there shall be as full a sense of the Blood offered to us in the Sacrament as of the Body by those Words This Cup is my Blood c. and yet the Explication of them shall limit that Presence to such a one as will bear those Words It is the New Testament in my Blood omitting the Figure of this Cup for the Wine in the Cup which yet shews Christ did not abhor from Figure in this Institution and so shews a mystical sense and seeing the Wine in the Lord's Supper is equal to the Bread even as the Blood in the Doctrine of the New Testament to the Body of Christ it shall have power to limit the sense of those Words This is my Body to such a Mysticalness as agrees to the Wine being the New Testament in Christ's Blood And when the Apostle explains both by the Communion of the Body and of the Blood of Christ it limits the sense so that the Bread is not the Body nor the Cup the Blood in any other sense than the Communion of each is so as shall be farther argued For these Words explain by divine Authority This is my Body this is my Blood into such a sense that it may be true This Bread is the Communion of the Body of Christ this Cup the Communion of his Blood 5. When the Evangelists Matthew Mark Luke all record the Saying of Christ I will no more drink of the Fruit of the Vine the Evangelist Matthew emphatically of this Fruit and the Evangelist Luke prefixes of the Passover and anti-dates part of the Institution of the Cup that he might joyn the like important Saying of our Saviour concerning the Fruit of the Vine That he will not eat any more of the Passover nor drink of the Fruit of the Vine till the Passover Which by the Evangelist Matthew must be This Fruit. be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God and till he drink of the Fruit of the Vine a new in the Kingdom of God his Father when it shall come and the Apostle says We shew forth the Lord's Death till he come From hence it may be argued That there was another manner of Presence of Christ to be expected than was just then at the eating and drinking with his Disciples and that such a one was to be expected in the Kingdom of God his Father so that he would no more eat nor drink with them either in the same manner of bodily Presence nor in the way of Anticipation or of eating that Passover and that Fruit of the Vine which at the time of this first Institution was not yet sacrificed nor the Blood yet offer'd but in such a manner as would agree to the fulfilling of all the renewing of all in the Kingdom of God and his Father when that should come after that Passover sacrific'd and that Blood offer'd of which we shall after enquire for this I esteem of great moment in this Discourse Lastly When we find the Apostle 1 Cor. 10. 17. making that Question The Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ and subjoyning in the very same Contexture in the same Ayr and manner of Expression We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread must we not needs infer the sense in both This is my Body and We are all one Bread and one Body must be alike one mystical Sense for seeing common sense teaches us All Christians cannot be one Bread and one Body but in a mystical sense no more can the Bread be Christ's Body but in such a mystical sense and the very Letter can no more oblige us in the one than in the other All which is much enforc'd by the Consideration The Notions of eating the Flesh of Christ and of drinking his Blood were given before the Lord's Supper instituted and though I doubt not Christ design'd it as a Foundation of that Supper as I said before yet it had been a true Doctrine if that Supper had not been instituted as a Representation of it because Christ as a Sacrifice gave himself for the Life of the World and offer'd himself to the Faith and Participation of his believing Servants as it were to be Eaten and Drunk by them had not the Lord's Supper been appointed Thus far I have endeavoured to prepare the way for this Discourse by laying a Foundation upon this Harmonical Context for it and indeed I desire in prosecuting it to use little more than Scripture Notions and Words and if I can be so happy by the Assistance of God to express the things as plain to you as I apprehend it in my own Mind I doubt not to give you a satisfactory Account of these Words This is my Body and also of the sense of this great Ordinance of the Lord's Supper In doing this I propose this Method 1. I shall endeavour to give a clear Resolution How Christ may be said to give us his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink for that was the great Stumble that those who heard Christ upon this Point John 6. made 2. I shall from thence endeavour to shew you That there is a clear Passage and Transition from that giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood
draw us to him by Faith and Repentance to apply his Blood and to Trust in his Redemption to move Christians to the same Mind in every thing that we see was in Christ it hath even a Constraining Power of love to live to him that dyed for us to purifie our selves as he is Pure to be in the World as he was in the World to Walk Heb. 13. 12 13. as he Walked to go out to him without the Camp of all False Religions out of the Camp of Sensuality and Worldly-mindedness bearing his Reproach to Crucifie the Flesh with the Lusts to be Crucified to the World and the World to us to set our Affections on things Above Whither His Humane Nature removed in regard of Place But by the Preaching and Manifestation of the Gospel it is every where as thus Represented as thus set forth This is a sense of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ being every where where his Gospel and Word come that cannot be denied and as therein it is so receiv'd as to become an Argument and powerful motive of uniting our selves to Him of being like Him It may be most significantly express'd by the Metaphor of Eating and Drinking like Ezekiel's Eating the Roll and filling his Bowels with it This is a hearing Christ's Voice which strongly Rev. 3. 20. knocks or persuades to open the Door to him that he may as he will come in to Sup with us and we with Him This is a Sense so proper and natural that it is chosen by that Learned Interpreter Grotius to expound that great Discourse John 6. of eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood Grot. in Evangel John viz. such a Receiving his Word and Sayings as to be every way confirm'd in a way of Holy Rational Intellectual Spiritual Obedience to Him And as there is so particular a Representation of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper as a Sacrament summing up the whole Doctrine of the Gospel or of Jesus Christ Crucified so a particular Approbation of our selves to it and for it and the danger of an unworthy an unbecoming Eating and Drinking is so earnestly and vehemently press'd upon us by the Apostle as to infold us in the Guilt of his Body and Blood as if we had Crucified the Son of God afresh and put him to open Shame and because in the Apostolical Times the Lord's Supper and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only two such words in the New Testament Lord's Day the only Institutions so inscribed were undivided It was a Constant Habitual Uniform Preparation that was required Now that this is Eating and Drinking Christ in a mystical Sense agreeable to the Mystery of the Doctrine and Supper of Jesus Christ is very easie to be Apprehended seeing Christ Jesus is not to be lov'd nor receiv'd in any Fleshly Figure He is no such kind of Object to our Souls even a virtuous Law-giver or Philosopher is not to be lov'd in his Flesh and Blood as Gross and Carnal but as in his Laws his Doctrine his Virtue how much more Christ If ye Love me keep my Commandments Pretend to no carnal Love to no Love to me by looking on and kissing my Pictures or Figures of fleshly Representations For he that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that thus loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will John 14. 15. 21. 23 24. come to him and manifest my self to him If a Man love me he will keep my Sayings and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our Abode with him Words equal in Sense to these He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in him On the other side He that loveth me not keepeth not my Sayings and therefore Whoever keepeth not my Sayings loveth me not All others attempt to do that which cannot be done to know and to love Christ after the Flesh whereas now there is no loving Christ but in the New Creation All old things are pass'd away Behold mark it well all Things are become new All outward Representations Images Pictures Gestures Geniculations Adorations if not commanded by him are not the least signs of Love but rejected and refus'd by Christ as a knowing him after the Flesh even the Ordinance 1 Cor. 5. 16. of the Lord's Supper had been a false Love of Christ if it had not been receiv'd from him and specially by himself commanded and yet even as it is without that spiritual Approbation or approving our selves which we translate by the Word Examine our selves It is so far from Acceptance 1 Cor. 11. 28. c. that it is eating and drinking Judgment to our selves And all this is most rational if we consider That we are our selves not truly our selves but as we are thus intellectually spiritually in a way of vertuous Conformity mov'd to things by the great efficacy of Christ and his Spirit in our Hearts and move effectually by inward rational Apprehension and Affection according to the Arguments and Motives in the Word of God without which we can under any Pretensions Professions Confessions of Faith Forms of Worship Prayers outward Rites Postures and Observations be no more Christians than the Statues and Images of the Apostles or Saints are Christians because they are inscrib'd with such Names and vouch'd to be such or such Representations But when there is a single Eye and Design to this Conformity to the Word and Sayings and Commandments of Christ there is then a far more real Presence of Christ in his Word than in any of the Writings or Lives of the most excellent Men that ever were in the World for the Sense and Reason they wrote are indeed here their Actions and Vertues are drawn into History and may be preserv'd from Copy to Copy but the Soul the Spirit that wrote them is gone from them but now Christ yesterday to day the same for ever is present by that Spirit that Divinity by which he preach'd of old even in Noah's Time to the disobedient Spirits now in Prison 1 Pet. 3. 20. While his Truth operates after the manner of rational Truth his Spirit works much higher even divinely His Table therefore in the Gospel and in his Supper is a Psal 28. 5. Table richly spread a Cup running over with spiritual Efficacies of which whoever is indeed Partaker cannot be a Partaker of the Table of Devils whoever truly drinks his Cup cannot drink of the Cup of Devils either in an Idolatrous Religion or an unholy Life He cannot eat of the Sinners Dainties of Folly's Bread or of the stollen Waters she hath Prov. 9. 17. provided For by one Offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified of which the Holy Ghost is witness even of that Covenant of which he is the Mediator it being establish'd upon the best Promises of writing the Laws of God in their hearts
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
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
Faculties and of Religion by it and the greatest danger of Idolatry against the Precept of the Apostle Paul upon the very Discourse of the Lord's Supper a Prophecy I am persuaded of Future Danger as well as an Admonition Dearly Beloved viz. Christians flee from Idolatry the Idolatry which 1 Cor. 10. 14. turns the Cup of the Lord and the Table of the Lord into a Cup and Table of what I am afraid to name for the Devil is the Author of all Idolatry It is likewise against the prophetical Farewel of the Apostle John after declaring the True God and Eternal Life Little Children Keep your selves from Idols 1 Ep. John c. ult v. ult When therefore There is so little Gain at the cost of such a miraculous Power suppos'd on God's part of so prodigious a Faith on ours and so great a danger what but a strange Servitude to a Church calling it self Infallible can subject us to such an undesirable Opinion 2. It should raise us to high Thoughts of the Redemption of Christ thus nearly uniting it self to and incorporating it self within us Although it is matter of Faith yet it is so abundantly assur'd to that Faculty of our Minds to Know and to be assur'd to that Faculty of our Minds to Know and to be assur'd by so high a Revelation that if we pursue it by that Power that Faculty sanctified actually to believe in Christ and that we come to live by that Faith of the Son of God it will be even as certain as sensible as Life it self 3. We should lift up our Souls and Hearts to Christ in the Heavens on the Right-hand of God Interceeding for us for there he still eats the Passover and drinks of that very same Fruit of the Vine with us as it is new and fulfill'd in his Fathers Kingdom there he continually applies it to our Hearts as the great Testator and Risen surviving Surety Executor or Mediator of his own Testament 4. It should oblige us to a continual Appretiation and high value of the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper and joyning the Lord's Supper if it could be to every Lord's Day Lordly Supper Lordly Day to which it is coupled in so peculiar and unparallel'd only to themselves a New-Testament-Expression For though it hath a constant and undividable Annexion to that New Testament of which Christ hath made it a visible Sum altho' it is always preach'd with the Gospel and is as it were administred in that Preaching yet because the whole Gospel is present and sensibly preach'd in that Sacrament also we should embrace both within our most conscientious Observation And the very Ordinance it self is undoubtedly the most ordinary means of a superadditional Assurance and Conveyance of the Gospel-Efficacy into our Hearts and therefore by no means to be neglected 5. It persuades us to an earnest Care and Caution against violating the great Ordinances of the Gospel preach'd in both the Word of God and in the Lord's Supper for it is the Offer of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to be Eaten and Drunk and if we neglect and refuse or unworthily partake we are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord we do not discern and take due notice of the Lord's Body so it becomes a savor of Death unto Death in the Word and of Judgment to Condemnation if we persevere so to do in the Lord's Supper because it is a degree of that great Sin of Apostacy treading under foot the Son of God counting the Blood of the Covenant a common thing doing Injury to the Spirit of Grace Crucifying him a-fresh and putting him to an open Shame And when by the ordinary Profession of Jesus Christ being Born and Baptiz'd into the only Holy Religion in the World Educated in it we are caught in its Net and under the Bond of the Covenant the Gospel is Preach'd to us whether we will or no and the Lord's Supper goes along with it whether we Hear or whether we forbear whether we Receive or whether we forbear we must know we shall know the Gospel in its Preaching in the Lord's Supper inseparable from it hath been among us We are All Baptiz'd in the Cloud and in the Sea of the Gospel Ministry every way surrounding us We All Eat the same spiritual Meat and 1 Cor. 10. 1. Drink the same spiritual Drink and that is Christ. The Bread broken among us the Cup of Blessing bless'd among us encloses us though in regard of Unbelief and Impenitency we Eat and Drink Judgment to our selves and with many of us God is not well pleased and our Carkasses will fall notwithstanding this Manna this Water of the Rock vouchsaf'd to us if we Repent not There is therefore no way of avoiding the Gospel-Penalty but by Receiving the Lord Jesus aright and walking in him No Abatement of our Danger as to the Lord's Supper but by giving no Sleep to our Eyes nor Slumber to our Eye-lids till we have brought our selves into an approved state for it Refusal of the Gospel in its Preaching in the Lord's Supper will not be so Tollerable as Sodom's Judgment There is no Safety any way but in Eating and Drinking Christ so that we may live for ever else we can have no life in us 6. Seeing all the Gospel and Lord's Supper hath such relation to the Last Day to the Table of Christ in his Kingdom in his Glory and to Eating and Drinking then in his Presence let us lift up our Heads our Thoughts our Desires our Prayers to it Although these Ordinances ought to be all our Delights on Earth yet they are but the State below a State of the Delay and Patience of Christ for his Kingdom A shewing forth the Lord's Death till he come Then
SERMON Of the True Spiritual Transubstantiation Oppos'd to the GROSS CARNAL IMAGINARY Transubstantiation WHEREIN The true Meaning of the Lord's Supper is opened in order to a constant habitual and actual Preparation to it By T Beverley Printed for the Author 1687. TO THE Christian Readers ESPECIALLY MY CONTINUAL AUDITORS I Offer this Sermon to the Publick as the most satisfactory Resolution concerning the Lord's Supper and its true Transubstantiation in opposition to the false so eagerly contended I have done it with all the Modesty and Inoffensiveness I could without Injury to Truth without Denying Christ before Men. I have put the best Value and all the Value possible upon Transubstantiation that is To Interpret it into a True Scripture Gospel Notion into a Spirituality I confess the very Word nor any one Word parallel to it is found that I know of in the New Testament but the Thing it self is every where in the Gospel of Christ Christ in us and we in Christ Baptiz'd into one Body one Body one Bread a Drinking into one Spirit are favourable to it Christ being All in All the Head putting on Christ but above all dwelling in Christ and Christ dwelling in us joyn'd with Eating his Flesh and Drinking his Blood are the very same thing with this Spiritual Transubstantiation to which the Bread and Wine are the most fit and sensible Symbols and Christ is as really present in them by his Word sanctifying them into Spirituality as in his Word it self And if we Abide in him and his Words abide in us we are one with him in Both as the Vine and the Branches are one John 15. 1. c. I consider nothing is so likely to satisfie so deeply an engraven Notion in some mens minds as this true and faithful Account of it as nothing could satisfie the confused Lineaments of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream in his own mind but Daniel's Prophetical Revelation of the Thing and of the Truth it self to him I look upon this True Presence of Christ given from the Word of God as the most effectual means to recover those to the Truth who live in Error concerning it to settle the Wavering resolve the Doubtful to confirm and stablish in the one Truth always present the True Christian This is far above all Reasons of Philosophy Vindication from Antiquity and the Fathers concerning it When we find we have that which answers all the Notions of Scripture and is worthy to be its meaning we may be at rest Here the Romanists Zeal for a Transubstantiation the Lutherans for a Consubstantiation other Protestants for a real Presence may find full Reception and just Entertainment in a sense worthy of them if they will accept it Besides this I have aimed at possessing the Minds of Christians with so high a spiritual Notion to recommend the Gospel as Preach'd as in the Lord's Supper in its highest Intendments and Efficacy and to win mens Souls to the outward Observation by their being impregnated with the inward Life and Power In which Pursuit many excellent Truths and of great moment have risen up and offered themselves There remains nothing but to beseech the God of all Grace to give his Blessing to it and to you particularly My very Honoured and truly Loved Hearers to whom it is my constant Endeavour through the Grace of God to open to you together the Spirituality and the Reasonableness of Divine Things whom I commend to God and the Word of his Grace to build you up strengthen stablish settle you and shall thereunto labour while God allows me opportunity with most conscientious Meditations most earnest Prayers and dearest Affections Your very faithful Servant in the Work of the Lord Beverley THE CONTENTS OF THE SERMON AN Introduction upon the general view of the Institution of the Lord's Supper as given by three Evangelists and by the Apostle Paul as a fourth compos'd into a Harmony and our Lord's Discourse John 6. lying as a Foundation Page 1. to Page 5. General Observations upon the Harmony giving Advantage to the right understanding the Institution p. 6. to p. 9. The method of the Sermon is laid down in general p. 9. The first general Head shews How Christ gives his Body or his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink in four Points p. 10. Point 1. The Humane Nature of Christ is in sacred Writ most expressively set out by his Flesh his Body and his Blood p. 11 12 13. Point 2. The Flesh Body and Blood of Christ and all his Actions therein are as so many Preparations that he may be spiritually eaten and drunk p. 14. Point 3. The Humane Nature of Christ and all his Sufferings and Actions in it are so many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Power p. 14 15 16 Point 4. The Divine Power of the Son of God extends the Body and Blood of Christ his Action and suffering therein in their saving virtue without limitation to Time or Place This is branch'd into three Points p. 17. Point 1. The Divine Nature of the Son of God acting in the Humane Nature united to him can draw out such spiritual Efficacies from his Actions and Sufferings therein as shall be most conducive to the Salvation of Souls that believe in him and this is display'd briefly in some Resemblances of Nature though found insufficient to decipher so great a Mystery p. 17 18. Therefore these Efficacies are drawn out into four Causalities according to Scripture 1. Of an eternal propitiatory expiatory Cause p. 19. 2. Of an exemplar Cause p. 20. 3. Of an efficient unitive Cause p. 22. 4. Of an argumentative Cause fill'd also with divine Efficacy p. 23. to p. 26. Point 2. and 3. The Divine Efficacy of Christ cannot be hindered by distance either of Time or Place p. 27 28. General Head the second propounds to shew how clear the Passage is to those Words Take Eat c. from the Point of Christ giving his Flesh to eat by shewing That as there is a rich Communicativeness on the part of Christ giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink so there are receiving Faculties and Powers of Man fitted by Grace that may be truly said in a spiritual sense to eat and to drink as Christ is said to give p. 29 30. This Eating is therefore resembled with eating and drinking 1. As in pledge of Peace and Reconciliation with God p. 31. 2. As a solemn Act of Worship p. 32. 3. As Eating and Drinking is made a Symbol of Eternal Glory p. 32. 4. Principally as Eating and Drinking are in order to Life and Nourishment where the Notion of Transubstantiation hath its most proper place and is most fully discours'd in its spiritual sense p. 32. to the end of p. 38. General Head the third offers a fair Accommodation so as that there may be no Encounter betwixt the Mystery and the Letter or betwixt the grand Sense and the very Words This is my Body discours'd upon the Harmonical Context
which the Evangelist John relates from Christ of which whoever eats shall live by him for ever and he will raise him up at the last day viz. at his Coming till which Coming there is a shewing forth of his Death in this Supper viz. a declaring that efficacy of it which shall then appear And it is certain though Christ had not yet instituted this sacred Rite nor did till some considerable space after this great Discourse yet he knew his own Intention concerning it and he knew this Doctrine should be in its just Time commanded by himself to be represented in that Rite and his Death as a Sacrifice he continually enlivens and keeps new vigorous and in full force by his Intercession upon it in which Intercession he appears with his own Blood in the true Holy of Holies as the High priest with the Blood of the Typical Sacrifices in that Typical Holiest All which becomes a most especial Preparation of his Flesh to be eaten and drunk in the Lord's Supper therefore the Lord's Supper is so peculiar an Annunciation of his Death till he comes viz. in the eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood now become a Peace-offering by his Intercession and to be feasted upon Now in these four sacred Pen-men of this Institution 't is observable That they are all uniform in these Words This is my Body there 's not any difference among them from one to the other not any variety found they all with one Mouth say to a very Tittle This is my Body But they are not so uniform concerning the Cup The Evangelist Matthew and the Evangelist Mark say This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament The Evangelist Luke and the Apostle Paul say This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood so here 's thus much of variety Two say This is my Blood of the New Testament two others say This is the New Testament in my Blood And this I do account will give us great light into the sense of this Institution as you shall perceive in the progress of this Discourse That which is yet farther considerable is that the Apostle Paul says That which I received of the Lord I deliver'd unto 1 Cor. 11. 23. you by which Words there is great Reason to believe that the Apostle as a fourth Evangelist receiv'd this Institution immediately from the Revelation of Jesus Christ and that it is part of that Gospel which he tells us Gal. 1. 11 12. he received not from men neither was taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ so that I think we may certainly and safely conclude He was not only inspired as a sacred Writer of that Epistle to the Corinths but Christ had before that at the time of his Call to the Apostleship made an immediate Revelation of this Institution to him which as it shews the great excellency of this holy Sacrament so to this Apostle was committed as his peculiar part to shew the Obligatoriness of this Ordinance upon all Ages till Christ's coming which is not given in express terms but by him only All this being premis'd it is of concern in the next place to give you an exact Harmony of these four sacred Writers and what they have written concerning this Institution that is out of all the words of each of them drawn out and laid together to make up one even Text of the whole which by Interpreters is call'd a Harmony And thus it is as I shall draw it out of the Apostle Paul as infolding the whole Institution I received of the Lord that which I deliver'd unto you that the Lord Jesus the Night in which he was betray'd while they were eating that Passover of which he had 1 Cor. 11. 23. said Luke 22. 15 16. With Desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer For I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Luc. 22. 19. Kingdom of God he took the Bread which we break and blessed it with Thanksgiving and gave it to his Disciples and said Take eat this is my Body viz. the Communion of it 1 Cor. 10. 16. which is broken for you This do in Remembrance of me In the same manner after Supper when he had supped He took the Cup of Blessing which we bless and when he had given Thanks he gave it to them saying to them Divide it among your selves and drink you all of it For this Cup is my Blood of the New Matt. 26. 28. Marc. 14. 24. Testament and this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood viz. in the Communion of it 1 Cor. 10. 16. which is shed for you and for many for the Remission of sins And they drank all of it Mark 14. 23. This do as often as ye drink it in Remembrance of me As often therefore as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye shew forth the Lord's Death till he come 1 Cor. 11. 26. This is that which laid together arises out of all these four Evangelists accounting the Apostle Paul for one and comprizing this Institution in what immediately concerns the Institution it self wholly and fully And before it we may place the sixth Chapter of the Evangelist John beginning at v. 27. as giving the Doctrine that supports this Institution And out of this Harmony I shall endeavour to discourse at this time Now it is certain this harmonical Context must be true in every Iota of it and whatever is fuller in any part must inlighten and clear the whole and whatever is obscure in any part or curt and short must be enlarged from what is more clear and full For you know one Writer is as true as another in whatever we place as from them to this matter The very Order in which they give this Institution is much to be considered and if in any particular there seems any thing that does encounter and run cross one thing with another it must be so explain'd as that the whole and every part may be most conciliated with it self so that the whole must be both clear'd and illustrated and reconcil'd by the concert of every part and every part by it self in compare with the other parts of all which we are to make our Advantages as 1. When we find the whole Concert of the Institution so one in these words This is my Body we know That in them is most plainly positively forcibly deliver'd the real Participation and Communion of the Body of Jesus in the Lord's Supper as we shall find all the words joyn'd with them viz. Blessing Breaking Taking Eating a Body broken for us lead us unto and make this Bread the Communion of Christ's Body as the Apostle Paul calls it 2. When we find the four Records of this Institution agree in the Cup even as in the Body thus far that the drinking of it is an equal part of the Institution with the eating the Body that it
to drink into those Words Take eat this is my Body or from the Doctrine into the Sacrament 3. I shall endeavour to find a fair Accommodation and no Encounter betwixt 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 4. I will enquire into this Thing How there came such a Notion into the Christian Church as that fleshly Transubstantiation so earnestly contended for 5. I will represent to you the danger of such a Doctrine as that Fleshly Transubstantiation not so much as it is a contemplative thing a Notion a manner of Apprehension or matter of Discourse but as it carries the Practice of Worship and Adoration 6. I will close all with practical Applications tending to a constant habitual Preparation for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Now to discharge the first part of this Undertaking I must establish these following Points That the Divine Person of our Lord Jesus Christ taking Point 1 the Humane Nature upon him that Humane Nature is most emphatically express'd in these Words his Body and his Flesh and his Blood or the Body and Flesh and Blood of Christ are the most fit Expressions that could be chosen to set out the Humane Nature of Christ or to set out the Man Christ Jesus Now this being rightly apprehended shews There is the Flesh and there is the Blood of Christ that are to be eaten and drunk by Believers in Jesus Christ That the Body the Flesh and the Blood of Christ and the Point 2 Actions of Christ in his Body in his Flesh and Blood were as so many Preparations of his Body Flesh and Blood to be spiritually eaten by or applied to the Souls of Believers or communicated by them That the Body the Flesh and the Blood of Christ are so Point 3 many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Power Spirit and Efficacy filling them with infinite saving Vertue and Effect in their Communication to the Souls of Believers in Jesus Christ That the divine Power Spirit and Efficacy extends the Point 4 Body Flesh and the Blood of Christ in their saving Vertue and Effect without limitation to Time or Place and to all Dimensions and degrees of Effect The first Point viz. That the most expressive and significant Point 1 Terms concerning the Man Christ Jesus that the Spirit of God hath chosen throughout the Scripture are the Flesh of Christ the Body of Christ and the Blood of Christ. This is the first Branch of the Mystery of Godliness God manifest 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 4. 2 3. in the flesh Jesus Christ come in the flesh is made the grand Principle of the Gospel The whole Humane Nature of Christ in which the Son of God was manifest is called Flesh The Word was made Flesh John 1. 14. So the Body of Christ how often is it mention'd The offering of the Body of Christ once for all Heb. 10. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who bare our Sins in his Body on the tree And in all the New Testament there is nothing so memorializ'd as the Blood of Jesus Christ And the Reason is this Because these The Body the Flesh and the Blood are the most visible Representations of Humane Nature and so in Scripture and all Language they are the readiest easiest and most familiar Expressions of Humane Nature The Apostle John therefore so often in his Epistle expresses the whole Doctrine of the Messiah by Christ come in the flesh that is God manifested in flesh So that though it is true Man is chiefly Soul and Spirit and so to be considered yet he is most visible most apparent in Body Flesh and Blood and Humane Nature is so fram'd and constituted that it desires most to appear and display it self in a Body And though God and Christ have a peculiar Care and Account of the Spirits of just men yet they are not Perfect without Bodies and till Christ does appear again in a Body of Glory He is not shewn Pray consider Though He 's now in a Body of Glory yet till he appears in this Body that every Eye may see him God does not till that time shew him whom he will shew who is the onely Potentate c. 1 Tim. 6. 15. that is He will shew Christ Jesus in a Body of Glory at his Appearance though Christ hath been in a Body of Glory ever since his Ascension So Just Men are not made Perfect Heb. 12. 23. till they appear in a Body at the Resurrection Although therefore the Soul of Jesus Christ understand I beseech you what I say was the Principal Agent in all the Work of Redemption yet it was as in a Body in the Action and Passion of a Body It was not indeed a Body that acted that suffered that dyed yet it was in a Body It was the Humane Soul and Spirit of Christ that came to do the Will of God and a Body was prepared him Hebr. 10. 5. It was not a Body but a Soul a Will in Christ that surrender'd it self to the Will of God that said Not my Will but thine be done It was a Spirit that surrender'd it self to God Into thy hands I commit my Spirit yet it was in a Body So it was in the Circumcision of Christ it was the Circumcision of the Spirit not of the Letter Soul and Spirit was the Life and Excellency of all yet all this was visible in a Body it was visible in Flesh and Blood So it was in Christ's fulfilling All Righteousness in his Baptism in all the Holiness of Life There was an Humane Soul a Spirit that acted in and throughout All yet All was still visible in a Body His Soul sent out Strong Cries and Fears with that he offer'd Prayers and Supplications but it was in the days of his Flesh Hebr. 5. 7. He was Circumcised Baptized Died in a Body He arose again in a Body and in such a Body as we carry about with us but just at his Ascension then undoubtedly in the very Time of his Ascending up to Heaven his Body was changed into a Glorious Body so that That Body which was in a state of Humiliation which he carried with him in the World after his Ascension remained no longer in those Circumstances of humbled Flesh and Blood he underwent while he was here in the World for Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15. 50. and therefore the dayes of Christ's Humiliation are call'd the Days of his Flesh Therefore observe 1 Tim. 3. ult The mystery of Godliness is absolv'd in that Receiv'd Taken up into Glory and there he is hidden to us though swallowed up in the Perfection and Excellency of Glory till God shews him till he appears and is revealed in that Glory From all which amounts That the whole undertaking of Christ was in Body and
had blessed the Bread with Thanksgiving and broke it and likewise after Supper Blessing the Cup with Thanksgiving and saying Divide it among your selves and drink ye All of it For This is my Blood of the New Testament or the New Testament in my Blood For when our Lord had settled that great Doctrine of Eating his Flesh John 6. and Drinking his Blood comprehensive of the whole of his Redemption and the saving Application of it by Faith and Love and the entire new Creation Galat. 5. 6. c. 6. 15. it is not at all strange he should establish so great a sacramental Institution upon it For when in so large and Sublime a Discourse and in more Words than he expended upon any one Subject that we find upon Record he had compriz'd the whole Mystery of our Salvation it cannot be surprizing he should adjust to it one of the two and that the most solemn and continual of his positive Laws which we call Sacraments For though it is true Eating and Drinking consider'd as mere sensitive Things and much more when it degenerates into Sensuality a Life of and for Eating and Drinking it is a sordid low and course thing as the Apostle says Meats for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God shall destroy both it and them and there cannot be a more ignoble Character than of those whose God is their Belly and who serve not the Lord Jesus but their own Bellies a beastly a bruitish Servitude But then taking it as it is by the Wisdom of Providence made the means of the support of the Humane Animal Life in Subordination to the Life of Reason and Religion and is symbolical and significant and also serviceable to many rational Communications and much noble Humanity of Conversation so it may even as the natural Purgation of Water in Baptism be worthy to be transplanted from common use to the highest Significations in Religion and as it had been so dignified in the Old Testament so to be farther ennobled in the New and to bear a sense far above and beyond it self And yet to shew both the Spirituality great use to the highest Life and also the Simplicity of the Gospel Institution it is taken from the most necessary plainest Food in Eating Bread and the most generous thing in Drinking viz. Wine Bread that strengthens and Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man And the Resemblance stands in these following Particulars between Eating Bread and Drinking Wine and Eating the Body and Drinking the Blood of Jesus Christ. But I shall begin with those Particulars that are as least of Controversie so of least Interest in the main Merits of the Point we are upon and will end in that which is of the grand Concern in this whole matter 1. It is an Eating and Drinking in Pledge of Reconciliation Peace and Friendship with God by Jesus Christ for so eating Bread and drinking Wine is in Scripture and by the general Impression of Providence upon Mankind ordain'd as Joseph's Brethren in token of extraordinary Favour were to eat Bread with him and it is said of the Nobles of Israel Gen. 43. 25. They saw God and he laid not his hand of viz. of Displeasure upon them They saw him and did eat and drink in Exod. 24. 11. token of Peace and especially this is a Feast upon a Sacrifice a Sin-offering become a Peace-offering of which the Jews that serve the Altar have no Right to eat because their Heb. 13. 10. Sin-offerings of greatest expiatory Account yet as not able to purge off the imputative Guilt laid upon them were burnt without the Camp But Christ though he suffer'd without the Camp yet consuming the Guilt and fully expiating it his Body as sacrific'd becomes an Altar of Peace-offerings to the true Christian although to the Jews an Offering only to Justice not conquering the Guilt but as a Malefactor dying in his own Blood but the true Believer feasts upon it after he is sanctified atton'd reconcil'd and purified by the Blood of it It is a Feast upon the Paschal Lamb in assurance against the destroying Angel the Blood being sprinkled by way of 1 Cor. 5. 7 8. Expiation and the Flesh eaten in the way of a holy Festival Rejoycing and Thanksgiving So that though eating the Flesh of Christ carries a broad Signification of the great Evil and Horror of Sin and of the dreadful way of Reconciliation looking so unnatural as the eating of the Flesh and the drinking the Blood of our Saviour does yet by the great attoning vertue of this Sacrifice it becomes a Feast of Joy and Peace 2. This Act is a solemn Act of Worship of God and Christ We eat thus and worship It is an Acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as our Saviour Lord and Master as all eating upon Sacrifices was an Acknowledgment of the God of the Sacrifice and seeing our Mediator is our Sacrifice of whom it is testified He lives for ever and we are to live to him it is an Acknowledgment of him our Saviour and so it requires Reverence and Godly Fear it calls for Self-probation even to Approbation or Approvizing our selves that so we may eat and not otherwise To eat and drink in a way worthy or becoming the Holy Body and Blood we seed upon to discern that Body of the Lord or to make a difference and discrimination betwixt it and all other Bread by spiritual holy Action and to carry from it such Obligations as by no means to partake of the Table or drink the Cup of Devils This is the solemn Worship of Eating and Drinking before God 3. Eating and Drinking is made a Symbol of Eternal Glory for so Christ expresses Eternal Glory by Eating and Luc. 22. 30. Matt. 8. 11. Drinking at his Table in his Kingdom By sitting down with Abraham with Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God And this is the Reason Christ in that great Sixth of John so often enterweaves with that Discourse of Eating Raising up at the last day because then shall the full effect of the Union to the Body of Christ be seen when all his Members shall indeed be seen as One Christ in Glory Their Bodies shall be fashioned like his Glorious Body It does not yet appear what we shall be but when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is He will then present us faultless before the Presence of his Glory And all this from the Power of Union to himself through the eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood So that Life Eternal Life Living for ever Never dying Raising up at the last Day Having no Life if we do not eat the Flesh of Christ and drink his Blood are in that Discourse sixteen Times mention'd to shew how close the Relation is betwixt eating the Flesh of Christ and drinking his Blood and Eternal Life So that the Apostle Peter sums up all the Discourse in the Words of