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
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
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
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
and putting them in their mind together with the Remission of their Sins So that as there needs no other offering than that one offering so needs it not to be daily offered for it was once for all offer'd and he is now at the Right-hand of God interceeding upon that one offering once offer'd by the Blood of which he entred into the Holiest to appear before God for us and from whence he cannot be mov'd till the Time he expects of his Enemies being made his Footstool Heb. 8. 6. compar'd with c. 9. 12. 24. c. 10. 13. c. 2. And thus I have made good the first Point of this Head viz. Of the spiritual Efficacies that flow from the Humane Nature of Christ express'd by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ as in Union with the Son of God I come now to the second to shew that in regard of the Eternity of the Son of God these Efficacies cannot be hindered nor prejudic'd in Point of Time The Divine Person of Christ being unchangeable and eternal there 's no distance of Time occurs to him or can encounter his Divine Efficacy Before Abraham was saith Christ I am How could it be that Christ that was born so many hundred years after Abraham could be before Abraham were it not in regard of the Eternity of the Divine Person communicated to the Humanity and predating the Great Powers and Efficacies of God manifested in Flesh before the Incarnation Upon this Account Christ is call'd the Lamb slain before the Foundation of the World because the Divine Person anticipated the Efficacy of the Death of the Lamb ordain'd before the Foundation of the World much earlier than his Manifestation which was not till the last Times Christ was not abridg'd nor forestall'd in Time because he did not actually dye till about four thousand Years after the Fall of Man for the Divine Person Jesus Christ never had a Yesterday nor can have a To morrow but is always in a To day the same for ever In this very Point of Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of Christ when the Jews were so disgusted with the Doctrine Christ to ease their Thoughts proposes his Eternity to their Consideration and shews the mighty spiritualizing Power of the Divine Nature by it What saith he if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before though he was as Man the Son of not Fifty Years by many as the Jews observ'd to him yet he was in Heaven as the Son of God calling his Humanity that was not actually till his Incarnation as if it were And as it is thus in regard of Time past so in regard of Time to come he saith Lo I am with you to the End of the World 3. In respect to Place we shall find very great Expressions of the Divine Vbiquity and Omnipresence of the Son of God extending the Manhood to all Spiritual Effects without any Limitation or Confinement within Place though yet it be according to its natural Presence determin'd to Place even as the Incarnation it self was to the Fullness of Time Our Saviour discoursing with Nicodemus upon the Point of Regeneration John 3. 13. tells him No Man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of Man who is in Heaven Observe it Christ was in his Body upon Earth His being the Son of Man was that to which his Body was proper yet saith he The Son of Man that now discourses thee upon Earth This Son of Man is now in Heaven How could this be but only because no space does hinder or straiten the spiritual Efficacy of the Divinity or confine its Presence even as it is united to the Humanity By all this you may see Christ was in Heaven while he was upon Earth and he was in Heaven before he was Incarnate for He came down from Heaven and all this by the Unchangeableness and the Omnipresence of the Action of the Divinity united to the Humane Nature and then as to his being now upon Earth although the Heavens contain him Consider what the Apostle saith He ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill all things so that Christ by his Divine Power fills all things and the Church which is his Body in his Humane Nature on Earth is the Fullness of him who filleth All in All even he that was Raised up from the Dead is he that fills All in All. And the Church on Earth is his Fullness though Christ is in Heaven either receiving his Fullness or as he is pleas'd to account himself Full by his Union to it Upon these Accounts The Humane Nature of Christ as it is united to the Divinity though it self be Finite yet in the Extensive Power of the Divinity spiritually applying it to the Salvation of his Church hath the Nature of Infinite both as to Time and Place it is always it is every where filling All in All Yesterday to day the same for ever For if the Soul of Man can improve the Senses and Faculties of the Body in representing to it self in a Map Places at greatest Distances from the Body and the Mind can thereby in some sense convey it self thither while the Body remains in the same place If we can by Writing converse one with another at greatest distance How much more can the Divine Nature of the Son of God extend the Humane in the Spirituality of all its Use and Effects in an Infinite manner so that it can convey and dispose them unlimitedly as it pleases and this may well be call'd his Body and Blood in very real though mystical sense It remains yet as to the clearing this Point of Christ giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink to shew That as there is such a rich Communicativeness on the part of Christ giving his Flesh to eat and his Blood to drink so there are Receiving Powers and Faculties of Man's Soul prepared and fitted by Grace that may be properly and truly said in a spiritual Sense to Eat and to Drink as Christ is said to Give Now unto this the Understanding Will Conscience Memory Imagination and Affection with the active and executive Powers of the whole Man are prepar'd even to receive spiritually the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ however at a bodily distance viz. by Understanding Faith close inward Application holy Affection obediential self-Resignation all which are this Intellectual spiritual Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ And to all this there is no Notion or Resemblance more significant or expressive than spiritual Transubstantiation as shall be more fully discours'd under the two following Heads And so having thus far discuss'd the first Head I go forward to the second to shew That there is a clear Passage and Transition from Christ giving his Flesh to eat as it stands thus in the whole Doctrine of the Gospel to those Words Take Eat this is my Body when he