for ever And when He said take and eat He commanded Heb. 5. 6. us not to offer up His body but only to feed on it So also another abuse of the Papists is to deny the Cup to the people whereas Christ in His institution said Drink ye all of this It is a high Sacrilegious impiety thus expresly to go against Christ's institution in His own words It is by faith alone we eat the body and drink the blood of Christ And yet we say not that the body of Christ is included in the Bread and His blood included in the Cup but if we will enjoy the truth and reality of the Sacrament we must have our hearts lifted up heaven-wards and look upwards where Christ is in the glory of His Father and from whence He shall come to be our Judge for he that seeks Him corporally in these corruptible elements manifestly errs So for me to eat the body of Christ crucified for me and to drink His blood shed for me is not only firmly to believe the whole passion and death of Christ and by it to obtain remission of Joh. 6. 35. to 54. sins and everlasting life but also by His Spirit which dwelleth in me to be more and more united to His blessed body as Christ there said He that eateth My Joh. 6. 56. â—lesh and drinketh My blood dwelleth in Me and I in him So that although Christ is in Heaven and we on Earth yet we are flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone Eph. 5. 30. 3. 16 17. 4. 15 16. Joh. 6. 57. Even as all the members of the body are quickened and directed by one soul so are we by one and the self same S-pirit So then our eating the body and drinking the blood of Christ which is not corporally but spiritually done signifies four things 1. Our believing of the passion and death of Christ 2. Our receiving remission of sins and everlasting life by faith in Him 3. Our union with Christ by His Holy Spirit which dwelleth both in Christ and us 4. The benefit of quickening by the same Holy Spirit So to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ is to believe that we through the merits of Christ are received by God into grace and favour and by the same faith we receive remission of sins and are reconciled unto God and that the Son of God that Word which was made flesh who hath Joh. 1. 14. united to Himself our humane nature which He personally took doth dwell in us and hath joyned us to Himself and His assumed humane nature by pouring upon us His Holy Spirit by which He regenerates us and restores light in us righteousness and eternal life the same which shineth in His assumed humane nature Or more briefly thus to eat the body of Christ is 1. To believe in Him 2. By faith to receive remission of sins 3. To be united unto Christ 4. To be made partaker of the life of Christ or to be conformable to Christ by His Holy Spirit which worketh the same things both in Christ and in us This our eating is our communion with Christ which the Scripture teacheth and which in this Sacrament we do profess namely our spiritual union with Christ such as is of the members with the head and of the branches with the vine This eating of His flesh Christ teacheth in John 6. and confirmeth it by these outward signs in the Lord's Supper For in the Lord's Supper as we do eat the Bread and drink the Wine even so there as surely Christ gives to all true believers His body to eat and His blood to drink This is clearly manifested to us in the words of institution Mat. 26. 26 27 28. 1 Cor. 11. 23 24 25. And this promise is repeated by St. Paul 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread To explain this briefly It is called the cup of blessing or of giving thanks because it is received to this end that we should give thanks to Christ for His death and passion for us or that we should use it so as to put us in mind of Christ's benefits towards us and for these to give Him thanks Communion of the blood of Christ Communion is a participation of a common thing the Communion of the body and blood of Christ is by faith to be made partakers of Christ and all His benefits the same Spirit being in us which is in Christ and working the same thing in us which he doth in Christ It is a spiritual communion which believers have with Christ as members with the head and as branches with the vine For the Bread and Wine are the Communion that is the sign and testimony of our Communion with Christ This Communion as the Apostle there said consisteth in this that we being many are one body This makes against the corporal eating of the Papists in this Sacrament for our communion with Christ is only by faith and by the Holy Ghost Christ is the common head His benefits are common and communicated to all His members Hence also it follows that the members are common among themselves whence should flow mutual love and amity The Papists to uphold their Transubstantiation do say that we must take the words litterally and so immediately after the words of consecration at the last syllable of the last word that the Bread is transubstantiated or changed into the very body of Christ and the Wine into His blood But this is a Sacramental speech of Christ This is my body As St. Austin to that general rule about Sacramental actions adds this instance of eating the body of Christ This is a certain way said he of finding out whether such a phrase or speech be proper or figurative that whatsoever in Divine Word or holy Scriptures cannot be done by honest and good manners nor be properly referred to the truth of our faith we must know it to be a figurative speech And shortly after instances in that place Vnless ye eat the flesh of the Son of man Joh. 6. 53. and drink His blood ye have no life in you Doth our Saviour here command such a nefarious act to have the Jews fall upon Him kill and â—ley Him to eat His flesh and drink His blood No it is a figurative speech there Christ commands them to communicate with the passion and sufferings of the Lord and most sweetly to lay it up in remembrance that for us His body and flesh was crucified and wounded So also this is a figurative speech when our Saviour speaks of the Bread This is my body and of the Cup This is my blood This Cup is the New Testament in My blood where the
name of the thing signified by a Sacramental Metonymie is given to the sign So the words of Christ must be understood Sacramentally the Bread is called the body of Christ because it is the sign of the body of Christ and the Cup or the Wine in the Cup is called the blood of Christ because it is the sign of the blood of Christ And the Cup is called the New Testament because it is the sign of the New Testament So the true sence and meaning of Christ's words This is my body which is given for you is thus This Bread which is broken by Me and given to you is a sign of My body which is given to death for you and is a certain sign of your conjunction and union with Me so that he that believeth and eateth this bread he doth truly feed on My body But according to that impious fiction of the Popish transubstantiation many absurdities follow As 1. Christ brake bread not His body therefore the bread is not really the body of Christ 2. The body of Christ is given for us and not bread therefore bread is not really the body of Christ 3. Christ did not say under these species is My body or My body is contained under these species therefore Papists pervert Christ's words and keep not to the institution 4. Christ said not of bread let this be made My body but this is My body 5. Notwithstanding their transubstantiation the bread is neither annihilated nor changed into the substance of a body but remaineth bread still 6. In every Sacrament there are two things the sign and the thing signified but transubstantiation taketh away the sign namely Bread and Wine therefore it doth wholly overthrow the Sacrament 7. Transubstantiation takes away the analogy between the sign and the thing signified But no more of this I will only add four Reasons against the carnal or corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament Reason 1 If the bread were turned into Christ's body then there would be two Christs one that giveth and one that is given for our Saviour gave the bread c. Reason 2 If the bread be the very body of Christ there would then be no more sign of the thing signified and so no Rom. 4. 11. Sacrament Reason 3 Then the wicked receiver might eat and drink Christs body and blood as well as the true believer Reason 4 The Minister cannot give the inward Grace but the outward elements only in the administration of the Sacrament There is another gross error also of Consubstantiation Consubstantiation is a coexistency of two substances in the same place or the presence of the body and blood of Christ not under the species of Bread and Wine but under the very Bread and Wine Luther was of this opinion that it remained bread still but under in or with the bread is the body of Christ And this is the common tenent and opinion of those who this day are called Lutherans Against this these few reasons may suffice 1. The whole action of the Lord's Supper is done in remembrance of Christ what need have we of that if Christ's body were really present either under with or in the elements 2. Christ's body is in Heaven and the Heavens must receive Him until the times of restitution of all things Acts 3. 21. 3. This is an essential property of every magnitude and therefore of Christ's body also to be in one place and circumscribed or encompassed of one place 4. If Christ's body were eaten corporally then the wicked as well as the Godly partake of the flesh of Christ but to eat His flesh is to believe in Him and to have eternal life 5. It is absurd to think that Christ sitting with His disciples did with His own hands take His own body and give it wholly to every one of His Disciples This is the Sacrament not of the living or of the glorious body of Christ but of His suffering and crucified body So Christ said This is My body which is given for you it is the Sacrament of Christ's body delivered unto death for us And that these two ways 1. It is a visible sign bringing to our remembrance or representing to us the body of Christ that as with our bodily eyes we see the bread of the Lord so with the eyes of our Soul we may see Christ's body crucified for us 2. It is a seal sealing to our faith that Christ's body was certainly delivered to death for us and is become the bread of life unto us We must not therefore seek Christ's body in the earthly element but by faith lift up our hearts to Heaven whither Christ ascended and where He is So in our Liturgy at the celebration of this Supper we are admonished to lift up our hearts Now let us come to speak of the outward actions both of the Minister and also of the Receivers 1. The actions of the Minister are these four 1. To take the Bread and Wine into his hands and to separate it from ordinary Bread and Wine Which is to signifie to us that God in His eternal decree separated Christ to be our Mediator and that He was set apart for this office Him hath God the Father sealed 2. To bless and consecrate the Bread and Wine by the Word and Prayer Which signifies to us that God in His due time sent Christ into the world and sanctified Him furnishing Him with all gifts needful for a Mediator 3. To break the Bread and pour out the Wine Which signifies the passions and sufferings of Christ with all the torments which He endured both in soul and body for our sins 4. To give and distribute the Bread and Wine to the receivers which signifies that God gave Christ and that Christ gave Himself to us and that whole Christ and all His merits are freely offered to all sorts of receivers And that God hath given Christ to the faithful receivers to feed their souls unto eternal life Joh. 3. 14 15. Joh. 6. 50 51. 2. Next we come to the Sacramental actions of the receivers and they are these two 1. To take the Bread and Wine offered by the Minister every one into his or her hand This signifies his taking and laying hold of Christ freely offered from God the Father by the hand of faith Joh. 1. 12. Or the receiving of Christ with all His benefits into his soul by faith They and they only have benefit by Christ crucified which thus apply Christ to themselves by a true and lively faith To as many as thus receive Him to them gives He power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on His name 2. To eat the Bread and drink the Wine receiving them into the body and digesting them And this signifies our uniting to Christ and enjoying of 1 Cor. 11. 26. Him or our application of Christ by faith that the feeling of our true union and communion with Christ may be increased We
upholds all things by the word of his power And they cannot Heb. 1. 3. subsist a moment without Him In Him we live and move and have our Acts 17. 28. being In Whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind He giveth a being to all His Job 12. 10. promises In Him all the promises are 2 Cor. 1. 20. yea and in Him Amen All the creatures out of this inexhausted fountain have all the good which they have For we are not sufficient as of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but all our sufficiency is of God Rom. 11. 36. Of Him through Him and by Him are all things therefore to Him be glory for ever Amen And now what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord Deut. 10. 12 13. thy God to walk in all His ways and to love Him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul to keep the Commandment of the Lord and His statutes for thy good continually Loe this is My God I have waited for Him and He will save me this is the Lord I have waited for Him Isai 25. 9. I will rejoyce and be glad in His Salvation He shall guide me here with His Psal 73. 24. Counsel and afterward receive me unto Glory Now blessed be the Lord My God the God of Israel who only doth wondrous Psal 72. 18 19. things and blessed be His glorious Name for ever and let the whole earth be filled with His glory Amen and Amen EXERCITATION THE SECOND Of Sacraments in general which are the Seals of the Covenant Q. VVHat is a Sacrament A. A Sacrament is an Ordinance of God wherein by giving and receiving of outward Elements according to His Will the promises of the Covenant of Grace made in the blood of Christ being represented exhibited and applyed unto us are farther signed and sealed betwixt God and Man Sacraments are seals annexed to the Rom. 4. 11. Covenant of Grace to instruct assure 1 Cor. 11. 23. and possess us of our part in Christ and His benefits and to bind us to all thankful Gal. 3. 27. obedience to God in Him that we Rom. 6. 4. should walk in newness of life God alone is the Author of a Sacrament because He alone can bestow those Graces which are sealed therein There be two only Sacraments in the New Testament 1. Baptism 2. The Supper of the Lord. Baptism is a Sacrament of our entrance into the Covenant of Grace the Lords Supper is a Sacrament of our continuance therein The other five Sacraments of the Papists as Matrimony Orders Extreme Unction Penance and Confirmation do want an outward sign and institution by Christ and so be no seals of saving Grace I could severally and distinctly prove those five to be no Sacraments but then I should be too prolix The word Sacrament is not used in all the New Testament it is here taken for a Divine Mysteric propounded and represented by outward signs and figures or symbols This signification in the word Sacrament is fitly answered and is borrowed by the Latin Ecclesiastical Writers from Military businesses in which the Oath that Soldiers took and were obliged by to their General was called a Sacrament This may aptly and sitly be so used here for in our Baptism by our Sureties until we come of age to perform it our selves we oblige and bind our selves by a solemn vow to our great Captain and General the Lord Jesus Christ to fight under His banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue His faithful Soldiers and Servants to our lives end These were the words used by every Roman Soldier in his Oath Obtemperaturus sum facturus quioquid mandabitur ab imperatoribus juxta vires And these were termed milites per Sacramentum The word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mysterie or a hidden secret belonging to holy things known but to few and not to be communicated but to those that are initiated or let into the Church From 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacris initior or instituor doctrinâ quae ad res sacras pertinet I am instructed in the Doctrine concerning holy things But the word Mysterie is of larger acceptation than Sacrament A Sacrament is called a Mysterie because it signifieth secret things and such things as are unknown to those who have not been taught out of the Word of God concerning the signification and use of them and because there one thing is seen and another thing is meant The lawful use of the Sacraments is not the observation of the external Rite but to have faith to reserve the Rite it self to that end to which it was ordained by God For to the Sacraments of the Covenant of Grace no other promise is annexed or added but the promise of Grace which hath always the condition of faith with it either expressed or implyed Faith is the instrument medium or hand by which the things signified and offered by God are received both in the Word and also in the Sacraments Christ Himself by His Spirit doth make the things promised present to our faith and so faith receiveth them In the right use of the Sacrament the giving and receiving the sign and thing signified is joyned and goes together The giving and receiving of the sign is bodily by the hand of the Minister and receiver but the giving and receiving of the thing signified is spiritual through true faith in the receiver and by the hand of Christ Himself giving it A Sacrament in proper speech comprehends the whole action as well the sign as the thing signified But by a Synechdoche it is taken only for the sign the outward visible sign of the inward invisible and spiritual Grace The outward and earthly matter of the Sacrament is the visible sign or element The inward and heavenly matter of the Sacrament is the things signified Christ with all His benefits The external form consisteth in the lawful administration and participation of the Sacrament according to the command of God The inward form is in the Analogy proportion or union of the sign and the thing signified which is a spiritual relation whereby the things signified are really communicated to them who rightly receive and use the signs The Sacraments are signs in a fourfold respect 1 Signifying 2 Exhibiting 3 Applying 4 Sealing 1. The outward signs in the Sacrament do signifie or represent the body and blood of Christ 2. Together with the sign the thing signified is exhibited and given yet not in the sign or element but in the sacramental action the Minister giving the sign or element but our Lord Jesus Christ gives the thing signified 3. The thing signified in the Word of the Gospel generally promised to all true believers is applyed to every believing Soul the outward sign or element being
the words in our Church-Catechism are a death unto sin and a new-birth unto righteousness So said the Apostle buried with Christ in Baptism wherein also we are risen with Him through faith c. Col. 2. 12. God who usually accompanies His own Ordinance with His blessing will not frustrate our expectation in any of those good things which He hath promised therefore we must strive to be perswaded that remission of sins and regeneration or a renewedness of life by Baptism is offered unto us and that we receive it therein In as much as by Baptism we are incorporated into Christ and receive His Holy Spirit unless we reject the promises there made unto us and so render them unprofitable to our selves The right use of Baptism is placed in faith and repentance if thou wouldst use Baptism aright as it should be then repent and believe so we read in sundry places of the Gospels and also in the Acts of the Apostles that is that we be perswaded that we are purged by the blood of Christ from our sins and be sensible that we have His holy Spirit dwelling in us and so daily to meditate of mortifying our corrupt flesh and of yielding obedience to all Gods commands Baptism is a Sacrament of the New Testament by the washing of water representing the powerful washing of Eph. 5. 26. the Blood and Spirit of Christ and so 1 Cor. 6. 11. Heb. 10. 22. sealing up our regeneration or new birth our entrance into the Covenant of Grace our ingraffing into Christ and into His mystical body which is the Joh. 3. 5. Tit. 3. 5. Church Acts 8. 27. This Sacramental washing sealeth to those that are within Gods Covenant their birth in Christ and entrance into Christianity The Covenant which is in general to all believers is in Baptism especially made and established with every one of the faithful And it is always ratified and sure even to them that fall when they do repent Although Novatus and his Sect taught otherwise Neither do they enter into a new Covenant after their falls but that which was entered into is restored renewed and confirmed again We must often meditate on and consider of the Covenant made and entered into in our Baptism Baptism came in place of circumcision and keepeth analogy and proportion with it for both of them were a Sacrament of entrance or of receiving into the Covenant of Grace Baptism came in place of circumcision 1. By the command of God God sent John to baptize with water so we have it Joh. 1. 33. 2. By the Ministry of John therefore he was called John the Baptist so we have it Mat. 3. 1 In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness c. 3. It was sanctified and confirmed by our Saviour Christ Himself being baptized by John Mat. 3. 13. 4. By his giving commission to His Apostles and Ministers to continue the Mat. 28. 18. same in His Church unto the end Baptism is therefore also called the circumcision made without hands or tâ—ue regeneration in the Spirit in puting off the body of the sins of the flesh Col. 2. 11 by the circumcision of Christ That is by virtue of the gift of regeneration which is the spiritual circumcision whereof Christ alone is the workeâ— Buried with Him in Baptism c. So Baptism is our Circumcision on comes to us in the place of Circumcision that is by which the same things are confirmed and in all things assured to us in the Nâ—w Testament which were confirmed and conferred on those in the Old Testament by Circumcision The words of institution of Baptism are recorded in Mat. 28. 19. Mark 16. 14. Go ye into all the world and preach theâ— Gospel to every creature that is to every rational and intelligent creature or Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned To be baptized in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost signifies and imports these things 1. That it is done by the command of God 2. To testifie that by this Rite and Ceremony that he that is thus baptized is received into Grace and favour by the eternal Father for and through His Son and is sanctified by the Holy Ghost We must still understand this of believers and them alone for Mark 16. 1â— He that believeth not shall be damned and that for all his Baptism unless he believe So here is the principal end of Baptism 3. To be baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost is to shew that the pâ—â—son baptized is bound to know and acknowledg to believe and trust in to worship and fear to honour and call upon this true God Father Son and Holy Ghost and this is the second end of Baptism which St. Paul shews in these words 1 Cor. 1. 13 Were ye baptized in the name of â—aul â—â— as much as if he had said ye must be His to whom in Baptism ye have given and obliged your selves given your names unto and in whose name ye were baptiâ—eâ— Of Baptism there are two parts 1. The water of Baptism 2. The lawful use thereof 1. By the water of Baptism is signified both the Spirit and the Blood of Christ spilt upon the Cross This is that blood of sprinkling which speaketh better Heb 12. 24. things than that of Abel We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without 1 Pet. 1. 19. spot This is the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13. 1. As the Blood of Christ so also the Spirit of Christ is signified by the water of Baptism Therefore said our Saviour If any man thirst let him come unto Me Joh. 7. 37 38 39. and drink he that believeth on Me out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water this spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive John indeed baptized with water but Acts 11. 16 â—e shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost The lawful use of the water of Bapâ—ism is perceived in the action both of the Minister administring it and also of the faithful who receive Baptism The action of the Minister is twoâ—old 1. The Sanctification of the water 2. The outward washing 1. The Sanctification of the water is the setting it apart to this end to signifie the Blood and Spirit of Christ by His ordinance and institution which the words of institution do declare 2. The outward washing is a most sure sign pledg and seal of the inward washing whereby we with the Blood and Spirit of Christ are washed from out sins He hath washed us from our sins Rev. 1. 5. in His own blood So many of us as Rom. 3. 1. are baptized into Jesus Christ are