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THB
WHOLE WORKS
OF TSB
RIGHT REV. EDWARD REYNOLDS, D.D-
LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH ;
^010 ft#t Collectttt»
WITH HIS FUNERAL SERMON, BY B. RIVELEY.
ONB OF HIS LOEDSIIir*! CIlAPLAIVt. TO WHICS II PBCriZBD
A MEMOIR OF THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, Ht ALEXANDER CHALMERS, F.S.A.
. •
IN SIX VOLUMES.
VOL. III.
^* Oportet EtfclciiMticiun, qnando Miadct aliqiiid quod ifniduBi cat, noa to. lam doorre at instruct, ei delectare ut tcncat. irer^m Kum flactart ut TincBC**
Aug. de DuctrinA ChrutiuiA, lib. 4. cap. 13.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR B. H0LD8W0RTH,
18, 8T. PAUL'S CBUKCH.YARD.
lOK.
nft
LOKDOM : PRINTSD BY 8. AND R. BBNTLBY^ D0R8BT-8TRKRT.
CONTENTS
Of
THE THIRD VOLUME.
MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE LORiyS LAST SUPPER.
Chap. I. Man's being, to be employed in working: ihit working it
directed unto Mine good, which n God : that good a free tod
Tolantary reward, which we here enjoy, only in the right of a
promise : the seal of which prombe is a sacrament ... 5 Chap. II. Sacrameou are eamcats and shadows of oar expected
glory made unto the senses . .7
Chap. III. Inferences of practice from the former obsenratioot 10
Chap. IV. Whence sacraments derive their value and being, namely,
from the author that instituted them .13
Chap. V. Inferences of practice from the Author of this sacrament . 15 Chap. VI. Of the circumsunces of the institution, namely, the time
and place . . • '9
Chap. VII. Of the matter of the Lord's Supper, bread and wine,
with their analogy unto Christ .24
Chap. VIII. Practical inferences from the materials of the Lord's
Supper . • ^
Chap. IX. Of the analogy and proportion between the holy actions
used by Christ in this Sacrament, and Christ himself who is
the substance of it .38
Chap. X. Of the fourth action, with the reasons why the Sacrament
is to be eat«^ and drunken . -37
Chap. XI. Of other reasons, why the Sacrament u eaten and drunken,
and of the manner of our union and incorporation into Christ 49 Chap. XII. Inferences of practice from the consideration of the
former actions -49
Chap. XIII. Of the two fim ends or effecU of the Sacrament,
namely, the exhibition of Christ to the Church, and the union
of the Church to Christ. Of the real presence . .64
Chap. XIV. Of three other ends of this Holy Sacrament, the fel- lowship or vnion of the faithfk), the obtignation of the Core-
nant of Gftec, ami ihc •brogation of the Pamottf • 77
IV CONTENTS,
Page
Chap. XV. The last end of this Holy Sacrament, namely, the cele- bration and memory of Christ's death. A brief collectNm of all the benefits, which are by his death conveyed on the Church. The question touching the quality of temporal punishments stated ^ • . . .87
Chap. XVI. Of the manner after which we are to celebrate the ' memory of Christ's passion .... 104
Chap. XV 11. Inferences of practice from the several ends of this Holy Sacrament . . . • .111
Chap. XVI II. Of the subject, who may with best benefit receive the Holy Sacrament, with the necessary qualification thereunto; of the necessity of due preparation .... 194
Chap. XIX. Of the form or manner of examination required, whieh is, touching the main qualification of a worthy receiver, ianU : The demonstration whereof is made, first, from the causes ; secondly, from the nature of it . . . .132
Chap. XX. Of the third and last means for the trial and demonstra- tion of faith, namely, from effects or properties thereof .154
SEVEN SERMONS ON THE FOURTEENTH
CHAPTER OF ROSEA.
SERMON I. Sect. I. £phraim*s blessings and judgements answerable to his name ...... 173
II. When judgement purposed against obstinate sinners, mercy pro-
claimed to penitent . . . .174
III. How good and bad are alike involved in outward judgements. Judgements make no difference, but of penitent and impenitent. Penitent sinners, in all kinds of trouble, have a refuge to some promise or other . . .176
IV. Conversion must not merely be philosophical or political, but spiritual, and that full and constant . .179
V. Motives unto conversion, meioy and judgement, especially inter-
woven ........ 180
VI. Great preparation due in our addresses unto God. The rule, matter, principle, and power of prayer. How sin is taken away 182
VII. When God tbreateueth juttgements, we must pray agaiast sins . . . . . • .. 186
VIII. Judgements may be removed in anger. Repentance makes afRictions precious, as sin doth corrupt blessings . 186
IX. No affliction comes in anger, but with respect to sin . .189
X. One sin, generally unrrpented of, may undo a kingdom ; we
must pray against all, an(l die unto all . . . 19I
XI. Sense of sin. The wrath of God beyond the fears of man . 1 94
XII. Confrwifwi of tin. foil aod free. Out wmkneu am comaiU tin, MMie b«i God's pow«r OKI ranofe U . • • li)7
XIII. WhatGod woffkethio ttt^kcabareqaifcibofits. Sin bou daiBgefoiu id gmc men, to ilmitclTet amI the pubUck . . 109
XIV. How iniquity is to be takca out of the land • tOO
XV. God tbeaoihorofgood^ thtOMlcnr of erti • .009
XVI. From cooTcnioo to tilTatioOy ffee fvaec woffkodi • 904 XVU. No worklmlygood^btttMdcriicd fffomGod .905
XVII I. Puieoce in soflering evil, in doing duly. Uiuniliiy Um ooiBfMoioo of gnce, pride of cmplioeM. CootMiod deptadiuioe oaGqd. Fiddity in aemccft. The imoty of divtsioos . . ?<»7
XIX. In temporal jodgemenu pray for tpiritnal meretes. No Mps can avail «a ^giwnH God'« tngtr, bal his grace . • tl I
XX. Comal pf«y«ft proroke God» when men make leligion •erre uwaa. Piety the foondauoB of proftpcriiy .813
XXL Jodgemeou are then truly sancli6ed» when ihey make oa more in lore with gnee. Pnyer the more heavenly* the more prevalent . « .915
SERMON IL
Sect. L $piriunl edds of legal cetcinooies and sacrilweA. We teinro
nothing to God» hot words for meioies • .218
U. A rrooonctng carnal confidence in the Assyrian, horses, idols. How the Ckmrch an orphan -919
lil. Penitents not only pray, bat covenant. Circumcision a cove- ojot. Circumcised in onctrcumcision. Gcniiles converted, arc called Jews: Jews onconverted. Gentiles. Baptism, how the answer of a good conscience. The covenant perpetual . .991
IV. God btndeth himielf to ns by promise, by oath : we Ire his by
his sovereign iniefcst, and our own voluntary coneeot . 993
V. PicUenese of the heart hi duty, and sluggithncM to It . . 995 VL Ootiet in combination strongest .... 996
VII. Eoemiea combine: military oaths. How truth a girdle, doctri- fially, morally ..... 997
VIII. Wicked men, like wttchet, in covenant with the DevO, doing service for wages ....... 998
IX. PrayLf Ttin withont obedience. God's covenant to tu, ours to him ... 931
X. The outerial cante of a covenant, our persons ; onr services, in
ttfcn of necessity, expediency, and praise . 933
XI. The formal and efieieot cause ; Knowledge, wOlingness, power
of promise and performance .... 936 XIL Onatgerefoevennntii^ in ilus dark only . .937
Xill. And on the laek .938
XIV. When we promise duty, we must pray for grace, ^tht final eanae ..... 939
XV. The folseness and perfidionsness of the bean ; how it is unsta- ble at water ... . • '^
VI CONTENTS.
XVI. God's fiuthfiilnets and mercies: our baptism, faith, s|Hrits, hopes, are all obligalions to fidelity • 842
SERMON III. Sect. I. SacriBces propitiatory and encharistical . • 944
II. Praises the matter of a coTehant, a staple commodity for com-
merce with Heaven . . ib«
III. Praises the fruits of repentance • . . 24f
IV. An argument in prayer: God forceth his glory out of wicked men» but is glorified actively by the godly . , . . 248
V. A principle of obedience ; difference between the obedience of
fear and of love . . . . 25 1
VI. An instrument of glory to God* Praises of the heart and of the lips. Communion of sinners. Communion of saints . . 253
VII. Converts report God's mercies to others. No true praises without piety. Sins against mercy soonest ripe • • 256
VIII. The more greedy, the less thankful. God's greatness matter, of praise. Things strongest when they are nearest their original. Other creatures guided by an external, reasonable by an internal knowledge ..... 257
IX. God's goodness matter of praise. Kirowledge of God notional and experimental. Praise the language of Heaven. Sacrifices were God's own. Love of communion above self-love . .260
X. We are wide to receive, narrow to acknowledge. The benefit of
praises is his own . . . . • 26s
XI. Wherein the duties of praising God stand . • 263
XII. Repentance careful of obedience . • 265
XIII. This care wrought by godly sorrow. Present sense. Holy jealousy. Love to Christ. Sons by adoption and regeneration 2G6
XIV. Repentance sets itself most against a man's special sin . . 271
XV. fiy this sin God most dishonoured. By thb repentance sincerity most evidenced ..... 275
SERMON IV. Sect. I. Repentance removes carnal confidence: naturally we affect
an absoluteness within oursehes . . . 279
II. This failing, we trust in other creatures . .281
III. When all fail, we go to God in ways of our own inventing. Repentance the cure of all this • .28V
IV. Confederacies with God's enemies dangerous. Take heed of competition between our own interest and God's . 282
V. The creature not to be trusted in, it #ants strength and wisdom . 283
VI. Idols not to be trusted in, they are lies. Ground of confidence,
all wanting in idols . .285
VIL God only to be trusted absolutely in the way of his eommands and provideoce .... 287
CONTESTS. vii
VLLL Tbe way lo macj b to be dthcdctt: fnikam ni ovntlvct
m^es us trek help abore ountlvet . f^^
IX. Sin healed by pardoo, porting, dcfivcfaacc, oofliftirt. Why back-eliding panhooed bj nana . fg^
X. Oar coQTcruoo gnmndcd oo fraa giaca. No gmk too graac lor
love to paiT^o. God*t angar will eoDMal wkh bit lore . . sgs
XL CooTenioQ and bcaliog go tngeiber. Sin a iickocaa and %
wound ...... fiQ7
XII. The pcoper paaaioot of tickneta agree to tin, viz. Plaao, weak-
D«M, coQsamptioo, deformity .... SQi Xill. Stn a woonid; the hnportaat, wilM» and dcfpcrme eaae of
this patieot . . 30ff
Xi V. The mercy of thb pbyiiciaa .... 30#
XV. Goilc cannoc look on Mj^fcaty. ApptebemoM of nerry tbe groands of prayer ...... 305
XVI. Sense of mieery works ettimation of aoerey . 3o5
XV II. Back-eliding formally oppoaiie to hiik and repentance. Apostasy two-fold. What it is to speak against the Son of Man, and againu the Spirit. How a tin b said not to be fbr- gzrea in thu world, nor in the world to come. Free lore 1^ specu not persons, nor free paidon, sins . JM
XVI II. From the beginning to the end of saKatioo, all b ftee grace ..•••. 91^
XIX. In jodgeoienta, God'a anger nwre to ba noted than out tnffBf> ings ..... 315
SERMON V. Sect. I. Blessings are large to the penitent, as canes to the ioipeoi.
tenty and answer all our wants .318
II. God aoswereth prayers, beyond the petitions of his people . , 390
III. We may pray according to the knowledge and love we hare of ourselves. God aniwen according to hit knowledge and love .321
IV. God answers prayer not only with respect to our wants, but his own honour. God's ultimate end in working, our strongest as- gument in prayii^ ...... 323
V. Encouragement to prayer. God's shekel double to us . , 3?4 VL Prayer may be ambitious and beg great things . 3f^ Vlh Fnc love pots forth itself in various blessings . . 317
VIII. Grace as dew of a celestial original, fruit of a serene heaven . 39g
IX. Abundaniy insensible, insinuating and searching, vagetating and quickening. Refreshing and comforting . .331
X. Peace no blessing, except it come as dew from heaven . 394
XI. All wants must be stipplied from Heaven. Christ all beauties to hb Chnrch. The root and stability of the Church, foundation doctrinal, personaL Blghtecwsoess of redemption stronger than
of creation ...... 339
XII. Growth of the Church under the law, national i under tbe go^ pel, uoirersaL Christ tbe oht e-tree, original of graae 10 his Church ...... 339
Vlll CONTENTS.
XI [J. Our refuge and shelter. Our power above af&ictions . 340
XIV. All Christ's graces, fruits of Lebanon, the best of all others.: Creature-helps, liars either by falseness or impotcncj » • 342
XV. Promises should beget duties. God promiaeth beauty to his Church ; we should labour to adorn it . ... ^,349
XVI. He promiseth stability ; we should be rooted ia truth and. grace ; all our gifts should serve the Temple • , / • 344
XVII. He promiseth growth ; we should grow ourselves, and endea- vour the growth of others. Christ both the end and beginning
of the Church's growth .... 346
XV HI. Compacture and unity in the Church, necessary to the
growth of it. Divisions hinder it . . . . 348
XIX. In the body compacted, there are several distinct members, each to act in hia own place, and joints fastening members to the head, and to one another. A different measure of virtue for se- veral offices. A mutual supply and helpfulness one to another. An eternal faculty in each part to form and concoct the matter subministered unto it . • • • . 360
XX. He promiseth the fruitfulneas of the olive, which we should . show forth in works of grace and peace • • • 353
XXI. He promiseth the smell of Lebanon ; the ointment of the got* pel, the graces of which we should express . ' 353
XXH. He promiseth protection and conversion ; we should make him our shelter, and from his. protection learn our duty of con- version ....... 354
XXIII. He promiseth reviving out of afflictions, profiting by them. We should not be discouraged by temptations, but amended } . they have many times mercy in them . . , 357
XXIV. The virtues of heathens, grapes of Sodom ; the graces of ' Christ, grapes of Lebanon. Whatever we present unto God, must grow in Emmanuel's land . . . 359
SERMON VI.
Sect. I. God's promise enabling, is our confidence to engage. Idols sorrows. God's observing us, a note of care, counsel, honour, hearing prayers . .361
II. Sum, division of the text . . • 364
III. Man's seal to God*s promise, only a confession ', God's seal to man's covenant, a confirmation . • * • 36(
IV. Man's covenant of obedience, hath its firmiiess in God's pro- mise of grace. Indissolvable dependence of all second causes . on the first ....*. 365
V. In sins of men, God kath an influence into them as actions, a pro-
vidence over them as sins. In gracious actions, God's inftuence necessary both to the substance and goodness of them . . 36?
VI. Of the concord between God's grace and man's will. Free-will, natural, theological. Innate pravityand corrupt force, which resisteth grace ; the remainders thertof in the xegencrate . OCQ
CON'T£NTfl. IX
Vfl. The will of God't preecpu and of bu purpofc .371
Vlil. T>iey who are called exleroally only, nuu and pertth: ibey who cternallj, are made willing and obedient . 379
IX. By an act of spiritnal itaching .... 373
X. By aa act of cfiectoal dedioing and delennining the will, pfo-
rcnting, assisting tobseqaent grace . 375
XI. We may not tnut in oar own tticngth, bat be ever jeakma of oar orii^nal impotency onto good, oar natural antipathy againat it ; and of the frequent decays and abatemcnu of the giaoe of God in us . . • 37i
XII. By prayer and frith get a heart fixed upon God . 381 XTIL Great comfort that oar cooTertion and obedience dependeth
on the power of God. Th'is no ground of supine neglect of duties ; for grace so worketH in us, as that it disposeth us unto working, the means being decreed as well as the end . 389
XIV. Other men's wills are in God's keeping. He the author and ordcrer of our troubles . .385
XV. Repentance breaks off sin, and makes haste out of it . . 387 XVL God beareth only penitents. Our persons, accepted before
OUT prayers. A wicked man may pray a prayer of nature, not of £uth. Two wills in prayer, oar's and God's. When a wicked man prays for mercy, he prays against God's will : when for grace, against hb own .... 389
XV^IL When we pray for oatward things, our aims must be spi- ritual . The way to hare all our other ends, is to make God our chief end . . . . . 39I
XVIII. Prayet the key of obedience. The piinciplcs of scrricc, are
the fruiu of player ..... 308
XrX. Words ammunition against arms ; that way as prayer goes,
Ood goes ...... 3Q9
XX. Sound conversation engageth God*s protection, and yieUlcth
comfort in all conditions of lilc .... J{)3
SEKMON VII. Sect. I. The seal of the Prophet's doctrine. Interrogation, deny nig,
wishing, demonstrating, awakening .... 39^ II. In spiritual things, menul knowledge seconded with practical
ivMrlom 1A7
ill. The ways of the Lord, his providence, his precepts . 398
J V. Few men wise to salvation .... 399
V. The weaker part more than the wiser. The Word a sweet savour
to all. Humorous singubriiy sinful ; pious singularity necessary 400
VI. Tf«e wisdom poodcreth all God's ways. Wisdom particular, general ...... 408
Vjl. Wicked men shape their own end, and apply sinful means by a sinful wisdom unto it. God only the last cud of righteous tntn .*...• 40.)
VI II. All wisdom is for obtaining of good, avoiding of evil. The excellency of <very thing in beauty and use - 4o4
K CONTENTS.
Pigc iX. Wisdom of angdt conversant about the Word. Scripture the best counsellor : the plenituile thereof. The pernicious influ- ence of corrupt doctrines upon the present state of the Church 406
X. Two-fold knowledge of judgements and blessings • • 406
XI. The rectitude of God's ways in their equity and reason, able- ness» their perfect harmony, their directness to their end, their conformity to the will of God, their plainness and perspicuity 410
XII. We are apt to pick quarrels at the Word . .413
XIII. Wicked men set up their wills against God's, and invent dis- tinctions to reconcile God's will to theirs . .414
XIV. Ministers may not stamp God's mark on doctrines of human invention, nor superindaoe any thing upon the Scripture. Peo- ple have a judgement of discretion to try the Spirits .415
XV. Obedience the end of the ministry. Ordinances, not obeyed, ripen and increase sin, and hasten judgements . .417
XVI. ^lone but righteous men will obey the Word. Every wicked man doth, in something or other, gainsay the truth .418
XVII. The right ways of the Lord are unto wicked men matter of scandal ..*... 421
XVIII. They stumble at the profoundness of the Word, as being above reason ..... 422
XIX. At the strictness of it, as being against their peculiar lust 423
XX. At the searching power and simplicity of the Gospel . 424
XXI. At impossibility of fulfilling the law, which is but accidental. To regenerate men the law is evangelically possible. Wicked men hardened willingly, as well as judicially . • 425
XXII. At the grace of the Word, by presumption ; at Uie threat- enings and judgements of it, by stubbornness . . 427
XXIII. Wicked men stumble at the Word, not only unto scandal, but unto ruio ... ... 429
MEDITATIONS
ON THE
HOLY SACRAMENT
OP THE
LORD'S LAST SUPPER.
VOL. 11U
TU THR RIGHT WOBSHtrFVL
SIR HEXRY MARTEN, KNIGHT,
JUDGE OP THE ADMIRALTY, AND OP THE PREROGATIVE COURT
OP CANTERBURY.
Saimt Jerome having, in the heal of kin youth, written an allegorical exposition npon the prophet Obadiah, did, in hit riper age, solemnly bewail onto his friend Pammacliius, both bis rashness in that attempt; and his infelicity farther herein, that what be thought had been buried amount his private papers, was gotten into the hands of a certain young man, and saw the light The selfsame complaint am I forced to make, touching this little manual of " Sacramental Medi- tations,^ which 1 humbly put into your hands. It was writ- ten with respect only to mine own private use many years since, when I was a young student in the university, as my first theological essay. And now lately, by means of a pri- vate copy, long ago communicated unto a friend, it had, without my knowledge, received a license for the press. My earnest care was, upon the first notice thereof, wholly to have suppressed the publication : but the copy which had been licensed, being, by I know not what miscarriage, lost, I have found it necessary, for fear of the like inconvenience again, to review a broken copy which I had by me, and have rather chosen to let it pass forth with some brief and sudden castigatioDS of mine own, than once more run the hazard of a surreptitious edition. Mine apology shall be no other than that of the good Father ; " Infans eram, nee turn scriberc noveram : Nunc, ut nihil aliud profecerim, sallem Socrati- cum illud habeo, Scioquod nescio." — And now Kinre I find that the oblation of the first-fruits, though haply tlu*y were not always the best and ripest, did yet find favourable nc- reptance with Qod himself; 1 have bctii einbuUlciitil to pre-
11-2
IV Tilt: EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
sent this small enchiridion (the very first fruits of my theo- logical studies) unto the hands and patronage of so greatly learned, eloquent, and judicious a person : — and that upon this assurance; That as many times aged men, when they walk abroad, lean upon the hand of a little child, so even in this little and youthful treatise, such comfortable truths may be, though weakly, delivered, as may help, in your jour- ney towards a better country, to refresh and sustain your aged thoughts. The blood of Christ, and the food of life, are subjects worthy of all acceptation, though brought unto us in an earthen vessel. Elisha^ was not a whit the less valued by that noble Naaman, though it were a hand- maid which directed unto him. Neither was David^s "" com- fort in rescuing of his wives, and recovering of the spoils from the Amalekites any jot the smaller, because a young man of Egypt made way for the discovery. The sovereignty of the gospel is herein most excellently set forth, in that it many times leadeth the soul by the hand of a child"*, and is as truly, though not as abundantly, powerful from young Timothy ', as from Paul the aged. As Christ can use weak elements to exhibit, so can he also use a weak pen to ex- press, the virtue and comforts of his body and blood.
In this confidence, I have made bold to prefix your name before these meditations ; that therein I might make a pub- lic acknowledgment of my many deep engagements for your abundant favours, and might, with most hearty prayers, commend you and yours to that blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things for us than that of Abel. In which desires I daily remain.
Yours, in all humble observance,
Eow. Reynolds.
^ 2 Kings V, 2, 3. 2 Sam. xvii. 17. c i Sam. xxx. 13. ^ Itai. zi. 6.
• 1 Tim. iv. 12.
MEDITATIONS
OH TUB
HOLY SACRAMENT
CHAPTER I.
MauM being io be employed in working ; thai working directed unio tome good, which is God ; that good^ a free and volun^ taiy reward^ which we here enjoy only in the right of a promise ; the seal of which promise^ is a sacrament.
The almighty power and wisdom of God hath giren unto his creatures a triple degree of perfection, their being, their working, and their good ,— which three are so subordinate to each other, that working is the end and scope of being, and good is the end and scope of working : but no being can produce any work, no work reach unto any good, without something that may be a rule of working, and a way to iTood. And therefore Almighty God, in tlie work of the creation, imprinted in each creature a secret principle, which should move, govern, and uniformly direct it to its proper work and end ; and that principle we call a law, which, by assigning unto each thing the kind, measure, and extent of Its working, doth lead it on, by a straight and infallible line, unto that good for which it worketh. All other crea- tures below the sphere of reason, being not only, in the quality of their nature, of a narrow and strait perfection, but, in their duration, finite and perishable ; the good unto which this law of their creation directs them, is a finite good like- wise. But men and angels, being both in nature more ex- cellent than all others, and, in continuance, infinite and im- mortal, cannot possibly receive from any thing, which is a mere creature, and less perfect than themselves, any com-
0 MiilDITATlONS ON THK
piete satisfaction of their desires ; and therefore must, by a circle, turn back unto God, who is as well the Omega, the end and object of their working, — aa the Alpha, the cause and author of their being. Now God being most free, not only in himself, but in the diffusion and communication of himself, unto any thing created (which, therefore, he cannot be naturally or necessarily bound unto), and being also a God infinitely beyond tlie laigest compass of the creature'^s merit or working,— it follows, that neither men nor angels can lay any necessary claim unto God, by a debt of nature (as a stone may unto the centre by that natural impress^ which directs it thither) ; but all our claim is by a right of promise and voluntary donation: so that that which, in other mere natural creatures, is called the term or scope, is, in reasonable creatures, the promise or reward of their woit- ing. " Fear not, Abraham ; I am thy exceeding great re- ward/* So then we have here our good, which is God,— to be communicated unto us, not in the manner of a necessary and natural debt, but of a voluntary and supernatural re- ward. Secondly, We have our working required, as the means to lead us, in a straight line, unto the fruition of that good. And inasmuch as man's will, being mutable, may carry him unto several operations of different kinds, — we have. Thirdly, A rule or law, to moderate the kind and man- ner of our working, whereby we reach unto our desired good : which rule when it altereth, as in the new covenant of grace it doth, — the quality of that work, whereby we reach unto our desired good, doth alter likewise. Now, Fourthly, We must farther observe. That between our working, which is the motion towards our good, — and our fruition, or resting in it|-^there is a distance or succession of time. So that while we are in our estate of working, we do not enjoy God by any full real presence or possession, but only by a right of a covenant and promise ; which makes the apostle say. That, in this life, " we live by faith, and not by sight.^' Now promises or covenants require to have annexed unto them evidence and certainty, so far as may secure the party that relies upon them ; which, in human contracts, is done by giving our words and setting-to our seals for confirma- tion. And now. Lastly, Inasmuch as that duty, on condi- tion whereof God maketh this promise of himself unto us, is
HOLY SACRAMENT. 7
liie work of the whole man, — the cfideiice aud confirmaiioo of the proBiise is, by God, made unto the whole man like- viae, and to each faculty of man: which it pleaaeth him in mercy the rather to do, because of that dependence of oor soub on the inferior and subordinate powers, and of that Beceaaary coanexion which there is between the inward reason and the outward senses. God then (pre-supposing erer the performance of conditions on our part) doth secure his chnicli, and give evidence for the discharge of his co? e- Baot and promise, — First, To the soul alone by the testimony of his Spirit, whkh is both the seal and the witness of God^s coTeoant ; and, Secondly, Both to the soul and to the sensea by thai double bond, his Word written or preached, and his seal visibly exhibited to the eye and taste, but especially unto the taste, in which objects are, more really and with less fallibility, united to the faculty, in which there appear- eth a more exquisite fruition of delight in these good things which are pleasing: and. Lastly, In which the mystical anion of the church to its head, unto the making up of one body, is more naturally expressed. And these seals, annexed unto the Word or patent of God's promise, have been ever {mspoaed unto the church in all its estates, and are nothing else but that which we call *' a sacrament."* So that as the testimony of the Spirit is an invisible seal, and earnest to the soul; so is the sacrament a visible seal, and earnest to the sense: both, after a several manner, ratifying and con- firming the infallible expectation of that future reward, which as well the senses as the soul shall, in God^s presence, really enjoy, after they have fulfilled the service which God reqoireth.
CHAPTER II.
S^crameidi are earnest i and ihadamt of our expected glortf^
made ymto the sensee.
Thb promises and Word of grace with the Sacraments, arc all but as so many sealed deeds, to make over, unto all successions of the church, — so long as they continue legitimate children, and observe the laws on their part re- quired,— an infallible claim and title unto that good which
8 MEDITATIONS ON TUJl
is not yet revealed, — unto that inheritance which is as yet laid up unto that life, which is hid with God, and was never yet fully opened or let shine upon the earth. Even in Para^ dise there was a Sacrament : a tree of life indeed it was, but there was but one. Whereas Adam was to eat of all the fruits in the garden, he was there but to taste sometimes of life ; it was not to be his perpetual and only food. We read of ' a tree of life* in the beginning of the Bible, and of ' a tree of life' in the end too : that was in Adam's paradise on earth; this, in St. John'^s paradise in Heaven : but that did bear but the first-fruits of life, the earnest of an after fulness ; this, bare life in abundance; for it bare twelve manner of fruits, and that every month; which shows both the com- pleteness and eternity of that glory which we expect. And as the tree of paradise was but a Sacrament of life in Hea- ven, so paradise itself was but a Sacrament of Heaven. Cer- tainly, Adam was placed amongst the dark and shady trees of the garden, that he might, in an emblem, acknowledge that he was as yet but in the shadow of life, the substance whereof he was elsewhere to receive. Even when the church was pure, it was not perfect: it had an age of infancy, when it had a state of innocence. Glory was not communicated unto Adam himself, without the veil of a Sacrament : the light of God did not shine on paradise with a spreading and immediate ray : even there it was mixed with shadows, and represented only in a sacramental reflex, not in its own direct and proper brightness. The Israelites in the wilder- ness had light indeed, but it was in a cloud ; and they had the presence of God in the Ark, but it was under several coverings ; and they had the light of God shining on the face of Moses, but it was under the veil ; and Moses himself did see God, but it was in a cloud : so incapable is the church, while encompassed with a body of sin, to see the lustre of that glory which is expected. Certainly as the Son of God did admirably humble himself, in his hyposta* tical union, unto a visible flesh, — so doth he still, with equal wonder and lowliness, humble himself, in a sacramental union, unto visible elements. Strange it is, that that mercy which is so wonderful, that the angels desire to look into it, —
• 1 Pet. I. 12
HOLY SACRAMKNT. 9
SO oDCOneeiTable, as that it hath not entered into the thoaght of man ; of such height, and length, and breadth, and depth, as passeth knowledge, — should yet be made the object of oar lowest faculties : That that which is hid from the wise and prudent in man's little world, his mind and gpint, — should be revealed unto the babes, his senses. It were almost a contradiction in any thing, save God's mercy, to be so deep, as that no thought can fathom it, and yet so obrioos, that each eye may see it: ^' Handle me and see **; for a spiritual substance hath not flesh,'* was sometimes tlie argument of Christ : and yet " handle and see. take and eat, for a spiritual grace is conveyed by flesh, '^ is the sacrament of Christ. So humble is his mercy, that, since we cannot raise our understandings to the comprehension of divine mysteries, he will bring down and submit those mysteries to the apprehension of our senses. Hereafter our bodies shall be over-clothed with a spiritual glory, by a real union unto Christ in his kingdom : mean time, that spiritual glory which we groan after % is here over-clothed with weak and visible elements, by a sacramental union at his table. Then shall sense be exalted, and made a fit subject of glory; here u glory bumbled, and made a fit object of sense: " Then shall we see as we are seen, face to face ; here we see but as in a glass darkly '* ;" in the glass of the creature, — in the glass of the word, — in the glass of the sacraments. And surdy, these are in themselves clear and bright glasses ; yet we see even in them but darkly, in regard of that vapour and steam which exhaleth from our corrupt nature, when we use them: and even on these doth our soul look through other dark glasses, the windows of sense. But yet, at the best, they are but glasses, whose properties are to present no- thing but the pattern, the shadow, the type of those things which are, in their substance, quite behind us, and therefore out of sight. So then, in general, the nature of a sacrament is to be the representative of a substance, — the sign of a covenant, — the seal of a purchase, — the figure of a body, — the witness of our faith, — the earnest of our hope,~the presence of things distant, — the sight of things absent, — the taste of things unconceivable,— and the knowledge of things that are past knowledge.
^ Luke xsiv. 3:1. • 2 Cur. t. 2, 4. I Cot. iv. 24. •• I Cot. xiii. 12.
10 MKDlTA'flONS ON Tilt
CHAPTER 111.
Inferettcts of practice from the former observations.
Here then we see, first, the different state and disposition of the church here in a state of corruption ; and, therefore, in want of water in baptism to wash it : in a state of in- fancy ; and, therefore, in want of milk in the Word to nou- rish it: in a state of weakness ; and, therefore, in want of bread, the body of Christ, to strengthen it : in a state of sorrow; and, therefore, in want of wine, the blood of Christ, to comfort it. Thus the church while it is a child, it speaks as a child, it understands as a child, it feeds as a child, here a little and there a little ; one day in the week, one hour in the day, it is kept fasting and hungry. But when it is grown from strength to strength, unto a perfect age, and unto the fulness of the stature of Christ ; then it shall he satisfied with fatness, and drink its full of those rivers of pleasures, which make glad the city of God. It shall keep an eternal sabbath, a continued festival : the supper of the Lamb shall be without end, or satiety: '* so long as the bride- groom IS with them,^ (which shall be for ever) " they can- not fast.^
Secondly, We see here, nor see only, but even taste and touch, how gracious the Lord is, in that he is pleased even to unrobe* his graces of their natural lustre, to overshadow his promises; and, as it were, to obscure his glory, that they might be made proportioned to our dull and earthly senses ; to lock up so rich mysteries, as lie hidden in the sacraments, in a bason of water, or a morsel of bread. When be was invisible, by reason of that infinite distance between the divine nature and ours, he made himself to be seen in the fiesh : and now that his very flesh is to us again invi- sible, by reason of that vast distance between his place and ours, — ^he hath made even it, in a mystical sense, to be seen and tasted in the sacrament. Oh then, since God doth thus far humble himself and his graces, even unto our senses.
let oot uh, by au odious ingratitude, bumble tbeui yet lower, even under our feet. Lei us not trample on the blood of tbc covenant, by taking it into a noisome sink, into a dirty and earthy heart He that eats Christ in the sacrament with a fool mouth, and receives him into an uncleansed and sinful soul,— doth all one as if he should sop the bread he eats, in dirt, — or lay up his richest treasures in a siuk.
Thirdly, We learn, how we should employ all our senses. Not only as brute beasts do, to fabten them on tbc earth, but to lift them unto a more heavenly use, since God hatli made even them the organs and instruments of our Hpiritual nourishment. Mix ever with the natural, a heavenly use of thy senses. Whatsoever thou seest, behold in it his wonder ; whatsoever thou hearest, hear in it his wisdom ; whatsoever thou tastest, taste in it the sweetness, as well of his love, as of the creature. If Christ will not dwell in a foal house, he will certainly not enter at a foul door. Let not tfaoae teeth that eat the bread of angeU, grind tlie face of the poor; let not the mouth which doth drink the blood of Christ, thirst after the blood of his neighbour; let not that hand which is reached out to receive Christ in the sacra- ment, be stretched out to injure him in his members; let not those eyes which look on Christ, be gazing after vanity ; certainly, if he will not be one in the same body with a harlot*, neither will he be seen with the same eyes, lie is really in the heaven of the greater world ; and he will be no- where eUe sacramentally, but in the heavenly parts of man, the lesser.
Lastly, We see here what manner of conversation wc have : The church on earth hath but the earnests of glory, the earnest of the Spirit, and the earnest of the sacrament ; that witnessing^, this signifying; both confirming; and scal- ing our adoption *. But we know not what we shall be **; our life is yet hid *, and our inheritance is laid up for us ''. A prince, that is haply bred up in a great distance from his future kingdom in another realm, and that amongst enemies where he suffers one while a danger, another a disgrace, loaded with dangers and discontents, — though, by the assurance of blood, by the warrant of bin Father^s own hand
• 1 Cor. fj. 15. ' Rom. viii. Iti. R Horn. i\. 11. K^)hc^. iv. .iO.
Ruai.hr. 11« ^1 John iii. 2. • Cot. lit. .1. k i |*cc. i. 4.
12 MEDITATIONS ON THE
and seal, he may be confirmed in the evident right of his succession, — can hardly yet so much as imagine the honour he shall enjoy, nor any more see the gold and lustre of his crown in the print of the wax that confirms it, than a man that never saw the sun, can conceive that brightness which dwelleth in it, by its picture drawn in some dark colours. ** We are a royal people *; heirs, yea coheirs with Christ'";" but we are in a far country, '* and absent from the Lord ° ;'' in houses ruinous and * made of clay/ in a ' region of darkness/ in a ' shadow of death,^ in a * valley of tears.** Though compassed in with a wall of fire, yet do the waves of ungodly men break in upon us : though shipped in a safe ark, the temple of God, yet often tossed almost unto ship- wreck, and ready, with Jonah, to be swallowed up of a great Leviathan : though protected with a guard of holy apgels, which pitch their tents about us, so that the enemy without cannot enter, yet enticed often out, and led privily, but voluntarily, away by the enchanting lusts'*, the Dalilahs of our own bosom. The kingdom and inheritance we expect, is hid from usP; and we know no more of it^ but only this, that it passeth knowledge. Only the assurance of it is con- firmed by an infallible patent, God's own promise, and that made firm by a seal, coloured with that blood, and stamped with the image of that body, which was the price that bought it. What remains then, but that where the body is, thither the eagles fly ; where the treasure is, there the heart be also ; that we groan after the revelation of the sons of God, when the veil of our mortality shall be rent ; the mud wall of the flesh made spiritual and transparent; the shadows and resemblances of the sacraments abolished ; the glass of the creature removed ; the riddle of our salvation unfolded ; the vapours of corruption dispelled ; the patience of our expec- tation rewarded ; and from the power of the Spirit within, and the presence of Christ without, shall be difiused on the whole man a double lustre of exceeding abundant glory ? The hope and assurance of this is it which, in those holy mysteries of Christ's supper, we receive ; which if received without dependence and relation on that glory which they
I 1 Fcter ii. !'. « Rum. viii. 17. n 2 Cor. v. 6. <> Jam. i. 1 1.
f Eph. iii. *J,
HOLY SACRAMENT. 13
foreshadow, and on that body which with all the meritji of it they obsignate, doth no more good than the seal of a king, without any grant or patent whereunto it should be joined; in which there is no profit beyond the bare wax, and much danger in trifiing with so sacred a thing.
CHAPTER IV.
WhoKt SacramenU derive their value and beings namely, from
the Author thai insiituted them.
But why are not the instruments more glorious, where the efibcts are so admirable? Whence is it that there should lie so much power in the narrow room of so small and common elements ? It had been worth the creating of a new creature, to be made the pledge of a new covenant. The first fruits are of the same nature with their crop ; and earnest usetb to be paid in coin of the same quality with the whole after-sum. If, then, sacraments are the earnests of our glory, why are not the faithful, instead of eating a morsel of bread, taken up, with St Paul, into the third Hea- rens ? Why are they not, instead of drinking a sip of wine, transformed with their Saviour ; and have, with Stephen, a vision of him at the right hand of the Father ? How discur- sive is foolish pride, when it would prescribe unto God ! Vain man, who nndertakest to instruct thy Maker, instead of praising him ; to censure his benefits, when thou shonldest enjoy them ; wilt thou not receive salvation without thine own counsel ? or art thou so foolish as to conceive nothing precious without pomp? And to judge of the thing con- veyed, by the value and quality of the instrument that con- veys it ? Tell me then, why it is, that water, a vulgar ele* ment, is held in a cistern of lead, — and thy wine, a more costly liquor, but in a vessel of wood ? Tell me the reason why that wax, which in the shop haply was not priced at a penny, should, by cleaving unto a small parcel of parchment, be valuable unto a million of money ? Tell me, why should that clay ^ which while it lay under foot, was vile and (IihIio-
« J«»fan ix. 6.
14 MEDITATIONS ON THE
noumble dirt^ — when it was applied by Christ unto the eyes of a blind man, be advanced unto the condition of a precious and supernatural salve ? Is not, even in works of art, the skill of the workman more eminent in the narrowest and un- fittest subjects ? Are not the Iliads of Homer more admira- ble in a nutshell than in a volume '^? Do not limners set the highest value on their smallest dmughts ? And is there not matter of admiration and astonishment in the meanest and most vulgar objects ? And what madness is it^ then, by those fMsoos to undervalue fitith, which are the arguments to confirm it ! As if the power of an agent were not there greatest, where the subject on which he worketh, doth con- fer least ; as if the weakness of the. element *, did not add onto the wonder of the sacrament. If it were an argument of Christ's miraculous power, to feed five thousand with so few loaves ; why should not the miracle of his sacrament be equal, which feeds the whole church with so slender ele- ments ? Certainly, they who any way disesteem the seem- ing meanness and emptiness of the sacrament, entertaining but low and vulgar conceits thereof, — stumble at the same fitone of foolishness, by which the Cventiles fell from their salvation. But wilt thou needs know both the reason why we use no other sacraments, and why these carry with them «o much virtue ? One answer resolvea both : — it is the ma- jeaty of the same king that coins bis money, and that values it : he that iVames a private mint, or imposeth another rate, is in both equally a traitor; in the former by stealing the king^s authority, in the other by altering it. The same au- thor did both institute the sacrament and value it ; from the same power did it r( ceive the necessity of its being, and the efficacy of its working \ In covenants or conveyances, the articles and instruments may be haply drawn by some law- yer; but the confirmations of them by hand and seal, are or- dinarily performed by the men themselves who aie interested in them. A seci^etary may write tlie letter; but his lord will himself subscribe and seal it.
Thus the patent of God's covenant hath been drawn out, for the benefit of God's church, by many selected and in-
r SenuOf Naturalium Qusest. * August, ep. 3. — Amlros, Hexacn. lib. 6. c. 6.
Chrysost. Horn. 12. ad Pop. Antioch. — TertuL de Baptis. c. 2. tc contia Marc.
1. 5. c. 5. t Vide Amir OS. dc Secrament. Hb. 4. cap. 4.
HOLY SACEAMENT. 15
Bpmd inatmments^ unto whom God did dictate so much of fajs viU by diTine suggestion^ €i8 his pletsure was to acquaint and edify his churoh withaL But when he comes to confirm this gift I7 hand and seal, behold then an immediate pre- sence of his own : then comes Qod's** own finger^ that is, in the piurase of scripinre, his spirit to write as a witness in the sool: and then doth God stretch ont his own hand, and icach unto na that suppei which is the seal to obsignate •nto the senses, the infallible truth of those covenants, and oar cvid^it i&terest in those benefits^ which were before pro- claimed in the patent of his word. The apostle ' delivered nothing an it were by a second hand to the Corinthians, but what he had fonaerly received from the Lord. Divine dungs are unto us deposited ^ ; we mast first be receivers, befiore deliverers*
CHAPTER V.
/j^rrcBces ofpractke/rom the Author of this Sacretneni.
HuRB Iben we ae^ first, both the absurdity and the wick. of a will-wQrship ; when the same man who is to per* the obedience, shall dare to appoint the laws, implying 1 pcsemptoiy purpose of no farther observance, than may esasist with the allowance of his own judgement : whereas Iras obechence ' must be grounded on the majesty of that power that commands, not on the judgement of the subject, or beasfit of the precept imposed. Divine laws require obe* i, not so niuch from the quality of the things com- (though they be ever holy and good*), as from the authority of him that institutes them. We are all the servants of God; and servants*" are but living instruments, whose property it is to be governed by the will of those, ia whose possession they are ^ WilUworship, and services of
• IfACth. zii. 28. Loke xi. 20. > 1 Cor. xi. 23. 7 1 Tim. i. 1 1. and
vi 2S. ■ Vid. TertuL de Poenitent. c. 4. & j4ug. de Civit. Dei. 1. i. c. 26. &
4e GoMt. ad Uc lib. 8. c. 12. • Rmu. 7. 12. k jifist. Polit. Ubu U-^Plw
lardi ^ Supcratitione. ^ Accnr^ov fUv 4<m idvoif ri lwrrdTl9ty, 9qvX£p U
Ti wtCiitHbtf. CJb-yf . in Rom. Horn. 2.
16 • ^ MEDITATIONS ON THE
superstition, well they may flatter God, they do not please him. He that requires us to deny ourselves in his service, doth therein teach us, that his commands stand rather in fear than in need of us ; in fear of our boldness, lest we abuse them ; not in need of our judgements, to polish or alter them. The conquest of an enemy against the prescript of his general, cost a Roman gentleman his life ^, though his own father were the judge. The killing of a lion contrary to the established laws of the king^s hunting, — though it were only to rescue the king himself, whose life was set upon, — cost a poor Persian the loss of his head *. The overwise in- dustry of the architect, in bringing, not the same, but a fitter piece of timber than he was commanded, to the Roman con- sul, was rewarded with nothing but the bundle of rods ^ So jealous and displeased are even men themselves >, to have their own laws undervalued by the private judgements of those, who rather interpret than obey them. And therefore even those men who erected the fabricks of superstition and wilUworship, have yet ever endeavoured to derive the origi- nal of them on some divine revelations *". And that great Roman captain Scipio, ever before the undertaking of any business, was wont first to enter the Capitol, and pretend a consultation with the gods, touching their allowance of his intended designs, grounding all his attempts and governing all his actions by the unerring judgement of their deities. And generally in all Uie Roman sacrifices, the minister or servant' was to attend a command, before he was to strike the beast that was offered. Horrible then, and more than heathenish, is the impiety of those, who mixing human in- ventions and ceremonies of their own unto the substance of these sacred mysteries, and imposing them as divine duties with a necessity of absolute obedience, — do, by that means, wrench Christ's own divine prerogative out of his own hands, and make themselves, shall I say, confounders and joint au- thors of his sacraments ; nay, rather, indeed, the destroyers of them : — since as he that receives otherwise than Christ requires, receives not Christ, but rather damnation '^ ; so he
d Liv, lib. 8. • hHiion. dc Reg. Pert. lib. 1. ^ A, GelL 1. I. c. 13.
■ Cyprian, cont. Demetiianutn. ^ Numa, apud Li v. lib. 1. ^ Semper
agitne rogat : ncc nUi Justus agit. Ovid. Fast. lib. 2. ^ i Cor. zi.
HOLY SACRA MKVT. 17
that gives otberways than Christ institutcc!, d<>t!i not iiidec*! gi?e Christ, but an idol of his own making.
Secondly, We see here^ with how great re vereiu e we <>iit;ht to approach God's temple, to receive these deep niy<tteri(.>4 of tal\-ation, which it pleased Christ in his own person to in<>ti- tute, and with his own presence to exhibit unto the church. Was a beast slain for touching the mount ; and bhall not a man of beastly and vile affections be punished for touching; that table where the Liord is present r Was Muses ' to put off his shoes at that bush which represented God^'n power; and most not we shake off our earthly and cornipt desires at those mysteries which represent his mercy? Were Nadab and Abibu destroyed before the I^rd, for offerinir ntrange fire at his altar; and shall we plead immunity, if ue present strange souls and a false faith at his table ^ Was Adam thrust out of paradise for his sin in eating of the tree of knowledge; and shall we escape, if we sin in eatini^ of the bread of life ? Even unto the institutions of mortal men, though often in their substance needless, in their obfiervance difficult, and in their end not much beneficial, so long an they keep within the compass of indifferent things, — there i* required, not only our obedience, but our reverence. Hie Word of God, though delivered unto us in earthen vessels, by men of like weak and frail affections with ourselves ; yet, because of that native preciousness which resides in it, and of that derived glory which it brincrs from the spirit that re- vealed it, is so far to be honoured, as that the vessels that bring it, are to be had in high e^^timation, even for their work^s sake. But the sacraments are not cither of human authority, as are positive laws ; nor of Divine inspiration unto holy men, as were the Scriptures : but they are by so much the more the immediate effects of Divine power, by how much they are instituted without the least concurrence of any other instrument ; being reached out first unto the church of God by that immaculate and precious hand, which was itself presently stretched forth on the cross, to embrace the weary and heavy laden. Let us not, then, venture to re- ceive so sacred things with unwashed hands, as matters of mere custom, fashion, or formality. Uut let us look unlo that high authority tliat ordained them, on that holy mouth
Heb. xii.2U. VOL. 111. (-
18 MEDITATIONS ON THE
that blessed them, on that arm of mercy that exhibits them ; being ever assured, that as Christ hath one hand of bounty and redemption, which reacheth forth life to the worthy re- ceiver,— so hath he another of justice and power, ready to avenge the injuries and contempt, that shall be done to his own holy institution.
Thirdly, We see here the honourable condition of the faithful, in that they not only receive Christ, and all the be- nefits of his merits and actions, — but all this they receive from his own hands. For we may not think, that the actions of Christ, in looking up, and blessing, and breaking, and giv- ing, were merely temporary, local, or confined actions, ter- minated only to the present company that were then with him : certainly as the apostles were then the representative church, — so was that a representative action, the virtue and effect whereof descends and passeth through all successions of the church. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, or any way shrunk, that it cannot still exhibit what then it did. If he can so lengthen the arm of faith in us, as to reach as far as Heaven to embrace him, — he can as well stretch out his own arm of mercy from Heaven, to present that unto us, which he did unto his disciples. It was an admirable and unexpected honour that was shown to Mordecai"*, when the royal crown and the king's own apparel was put upon him, though by the service of wicked Haman : but Christ ^ doth not only bestow on us his kingdom in the sacrament, which seals unto us our inheritance with him ; nor doth only invest us with his own meritorious purple robes, his red garments from Bozra, the garments of innocency and of unity, but doth all this with his own immediate hand : so that our honour must needs be so much greater than was Mordecai's, by how much the robes of Christ are more royal than the Persian king^s, and his person more sacred than was wicked Haman^s.
a Estbfr vi. 10. > 1 Pet. ii. 9. Rom. viii. 17.
HOLY SACIiAUKNT. 19
CHAPTER VI.
0/ Ike circumsiances of the inttitiition, vu*ueln^ ihr lime
and place.
A9CD as the author, so tiie circumstanceii of the iofttitu* tioD, do not a little add unto the excellency of this sacra- ment First, For the circumstance of time: it was the same night ^ wherein he was betrayed: in the evening, and after supper. /« the eveniftg, or night* a time fit to prefi;:ure a passion and eclipse, — bis especially who was the Sun of i ighte- OQsness, and the light of the world ; a passion > th.it brought darkness on the very fountain of light, the sun, rvt-n in the mid-day. In the evenings to note that now the fulnchs of time was come, wherein Christ was to accomplish the redemptioB of the world. Im the evening, or twilight, when the passover was celebrated "i. Learn, from the condition of the time, the natore as of that legal, so, in some sort, of this evangelical sacrament ; it is but a shadow and dark representation of that light which shall be revealed. It bath but the glim- merings and faint resemblances of that mercy, >vhich re* deemed us, — of that glory, which expecteth us. In the even* /sg, at the eating of the paschal lamb; to note that Christ's active obedience' to the commands of the law, went toge- ther with his passive obedience to the curse and penalty of the law. He Grst celebrated the passover, that therein he might testify his performance of the law ; and then he in- stituted his own supper, that therein he might prefigure his suffering of the law. In the evening after the passover, to signify the abolishing both of the evening and of the pass- over, the plucking away of Moses' veil, of all those dark and misty prefi^urations of that light, which was within a few days to rise upon the wcrld. He would first celebrate the passover, and there nullify it, to make it appear unto the world, that he did not abrogate that holy ordinance, because he oppugned it, but because he fulfilled it : and tiierefore to
• 1 Cor. zi. Mmnh.zzri. 30. P Chrytost, in M4|tli. i&vi. n Rxod. xii.tf. ' CfcryjotL Tmh. &. Serm. 80. de proditione Jute. — M faeriAdam tucccnii om-
VcterkTlMtmiiicntt. jhig. 4e Civ. Dai, 1. 17. c. 20.
C 2
20 .MEDITATJONS ON THF.
the substance he joins the shadow, the lamb of the Jews to the Lamb of God, the true sacrifice to that which was typical ; that the brightness of the one might abolish and swallow up the shadow of the other*. In the evening, at the time of un- leavened bread ; to signify that we also (it is the inference of the apostle^) should keep our feast, not with the unlea- vened bread of malice or of wickedness, but with the un- leavened bread of sincerity and truth : that we should not venture to play the hucksters with so divine and pure mys- teries, by adulterating them with either the mixture of hu- man inventions ", or with the mud of our own sinful affec- tions. In the evening, at the time of supper ; to note, the most willing and ready, yea, the forward and greedy, re- signing himself into the hands of bloody and cruel men ; to signify, that unto him it was meat and drink, not only to do but to suffer, his Father's will. In the evening '^ of that same night wherein he was betrayed ; to give first a warrant unto his church, of his approaching passion ; which though so intolerable for the quality and burden of it, that it could not but amaze his humanity, and draw from him ' that natural and importunate expression of the desire he had to decline it, — yet in their elements did he ascertain the church, that as he came to drink of the brook in the way', so he should not shrink from drinking the very bitterest part of it.
And secondly. In the night wherein he was betrayed: to fore-arm his poor disciples with comfort against the present loss of him, and against all that anguish which their tender hearts must needs suffer at the sight of that bloody and savage usage, which Judas and the Jews would show to- wards their Master. And, therefore, in these elements, he acquaints them with the nature and quality of his passion : that it should be as bread to strengthen, and as wine to comfort, the faint-hearted ; to confirm the knees that trem- ble, and the hands that hang down.
Thirdly, It was the night wherein he was betrayed; to let us understand that these words were the words of a dying manS and therefore to be religiously observed*^; and that
0ciav TB»y xpmfxi&friav, Chrytott, * 1 Cor. t. 7. "2 Cor. ii. 17.
« 1 Cor. xi. 7 Mmtth. xxvi. 29 « Psal. ex. • Vid. jhig, de
Unitite Eccl. cap. 11. — ChryscsL in 1 Cor. zi. ^ ''Plerique mortales pottremm rorminerr :" Cimr mpud S^il, in Catil.— Vid. Augutt, Epist. 118. prope finem.
HOLT .5ACRAMe.Vr. 21
ibis ucraiueat was the work of a dyin^ man, aiul therefore ia ill natare a gift or legacy. In bin lifetime, he gave hu charch his Word and his miracles ; he went about <ioing good; bat now, in his passion, he bestowed that which added weight and ralue to all his other gifts, himself. Other men use to bequeath their bodies to the earth, from whence it came : but Chrises body was not to see corruption '; and therefore he bequeathed it unto the church. It was his body by his hypostatical and real, — but it is ours by a mys- tical and spiritual, union. Whatsoever fulness is in him, of it have we all receivecl ** ; whatsoever graces and merits flow from him as the head, they trickle down as far as the skirts of his garment, the meanest of his chosen. The pains of his wounds were his *, but ours is the benefit ; the sufferings of his death were his, but ours is the mercy ; the stripes on his back were his, but the balm that issued from them, ours ; the thorns on his head were his, but the crown is ours ; the holes in his hands and side were his, but the blood that ran out, was ours ; in a word, the price was his, but ttie purchase ours. The com is not ground, nor baked, nor broken for itself; the grape is not bruised nor pressed for itself: these actions rather destroy the nature of the elements than perfect them ; but all these violations that they suffer, are for the boiefit of man. No marvel then, if the angels themselves stoop and gaze upon so deep a mystery, in which it is im- possible to decide whether is greater, — the wonder, or the
mercy.
If we look unto the place where this sacrament was cele- brated« eren there also shall we find matter of meditation; for we may not think that two evangelists ^ would be so ex- press and punctual in describing the place, if there were not some matter of consequence to be observed in it.
First, then^ It was a borrowed room ; he that had no hole ■ where to lay his head in, had no place where to eat the pasa. over. We may not then expect, in Christ's new supper, any variety of rich and costly dishes ; as his kingdom is not, so
c Acts ii. 27. ^ Joba i. 16. • Scint (Latio) quud ilU in cur|«>4c
Chhsb ▼olncra noo CMent Chritti vulncrm, icJ Utronis- Aml'To%. de Sancto t^- trooe Senn.44. ' Mmtih. liv. 15. Luke xxii. 12. f Matih. vni. 20.
Tom. 5. Scnn. 30.
22 MEDITATIONS ON THE
neither is his supper, of this world. It was not his purpose to make our worship of him a chargeable service, and to en- join us such a table, as should fix our thoughts on the meats, rather than on the substance which they resembled. He knew that where the senses are overcharged, faith lies un- exercised : and therefore he proportioned his supper both to the quality of his own estate, which was poor, — and to the condition of our weakness, apt (as the cluirch after in her Love-feasts found ^) to be rather tempted than edified, in too much variety of outward meats. It was likewise an upper room ; to note the dignity and divineness of this sacrament, and that property of lifting up the hearts, which it should work in the receivers of it. Our thoughts and afiections while conversant about these mysteries, should not lie grovelling on the earth, but should be raised unto high and noble contemplations ^
And this particular of the place may seem to have been imitated by the churches, in placing Uie Lord's table, and celebrating the Lord^s supper in the chancel, or upper room of the temple : besides, it was a spacious and great room, and BO it should be ; for it was a great supper, the supper of a king ^. The disciples were then the type and representa- tive of the whole Catholic church, which waa now by them to be begotten unto God : and therefore, the chamber must needs be a resemblance and model of the whole world, throughout which the sound of Christ's name, and the memory of his passion, should, in his supper, be celebrated until the end of all things ; — and then no marvel, if it were a great chamber.
Lastly, It was ready spread, fitted, trimmed, and prepared. So sacred a mystery as this may not be exhibited in an un* fitted or unclean place, much less received into a corrupt and unprepared soul. The body of Christ was never to see cor- ruption ; and therefore it will never be mixed with corruption. It lay first in a clean womb ; it was afterwards buried in a virgin sepulchre ; it then was taken into the brightest hea* vens ; and it still resides in molten and purified hearts. He that had the purity of a dove, will never take up the lodging
^ Jttde V. 12. i Sursum cordm. ^ Aug, dc Dono Perseiver.— 1/t^ofi. ad
Hedib. quaest. 2,-^Cypnan. dc Ont. Dominica. — Cyrii. Catech. hijm..
UOLV SACRA Mt N'T. 23
of a crow. Here then we lee, from ibcse circumstauces, with what rererence and preparation, with what affection and high esteem, we should receife these sacred mysteries. The gift of a dying friend, though of contemptible Tslue, is yet greatly prized for the memory of the donor ; for though the thing itself be small, yet is it the pledge of a great love '. The words of a dying man, though formerly vile and vain, are, for the most part, serious and grave ; how much more pre- cious was the gift of Christ, who is the almoner of Almighty God, and whose only business it was ^* to give gifts unto men";'" how much more sacred were his last words, who, all bis lifetime, " spake as never man spake.*" The very pre- sence of a dying man stamps on the mind an affection of fear and awe ; much more should the words and gifts of him, who was dead and is alive again. Certainly he hath a flinty soul, whom love as strong as death ", and death the work of that love, cannot melt into a sympathy of afft^ction.
In sum, the time of this sacrament was a time of passion ; let not US be stupid : — It was a time of passover ; let not our sools be unsprinkled :— It was a time of unleavened bread ; let not oar doctrine of it be adulterated with the leaven of heresy ; nor our souls in receiving, tainted with the leaven of malice : — It was the time of betraying Christ ; let not our hands again play the Judas, by delivering him unto Jewish and sinful souls, which will crucify again unto themselves ' the Lord of glory ;^ let not us take that precious blood into our hands, rather to shed it than to drink it ; and, by re- ceiving the body of Christ unworthily, make it as the sop to Judas, even a harbinger to provide room for Satan.
Again, The place of the sacrament was a high room ; let not our souls lie sinking in a dungeon of sin. It was a great room ; let not our souls be straitened in the entertaining of Christ. It was a trimmed room ; let not our souls be sluttish and unclean, when the ' King of glory should enter in:' but as the author of those mysteries was holy by a ful- ness of grace, the elements holy by his blessing, the time holy by his ordination, and the place holy by his presence,— so let us, by the receiving of tliem, be transformed, as it
< Dcbetri quippe ouzimo opcii banc qooque vcnenittoneni, ut novissimum Kt, mactofcmqiie qui ttattm oooiecraiiilain, 1^ Pliti. Piui. Gicrig. x. &. £phe». IT. 7, 8, 1 1. • Cmt. TiiL
24 MEDITATIONS OX THE
were, into their nature, and be holy by that union unto Christ ; of which they are as well the instrumental means whereby it is increased, as the seals and pledges whereby it is confirmed.
CHAP. VII.
Of the matter of t/ie Lord's supper^ bread and uine, with their
analogy unto Christ,
We have considered the author or efficient of this sacra* raent, and those circumstances which were annexed unto its institution. We may now a little consider the essential parts of it : and. First, The elements or matter, of which it con- sistethy consecrated bread and wine. It neither stood with the outward poverty of Christ, nor with the benefit of the church, to institute such sumptuous ^ and gaudy elements, as might possess too much the sense of the beholder, and too little resemble the quality of the Saviour. And therefore he chose his sacraments rather for the fitness, than the beauty of them ; as respecting more the end, than the splen- dour or riches, of his table ; and intended rather to manifest his divine power in altering poor elements unto a precious use, than to exhibit any carnal pomp, in such delicious fare, as did not agree with the spiritualness of his kingdom. Though he be contented, out of tenderness toward our weak- ness, to stoop unto our senses, yet he will not cocker them : as in his real and natural body, so in his representative, the sacrament, — a sensual or carnal eye sees not either form or beauty I", for which it may be desired. Pictures ought to re- semble their originals ; and the sacrament, we know, is the picture or type of him who was a man of sorrow ^ ; and this picture was drawn, when the day of God's fierce wrath was upon him ' : and can we expect from it any satisfaction or pleasure to the senses ? This body was naked on the cross ; it were incongruous to have the sacrament of it pompous on the table. As it was the will of the Father, which Christ both glorifies and admires, to reveal unto babes what he hath hid-
* Noil ad, clmburiM impensis ct arte, convivia populi invitantur. Cyprian . P liai. liii. 2. q kai liu.3. r Lam. i. 12.
HOLY SACHAULSJ. 25
deD froiQ tbe wise ; so is it here his wisdom to comuiuiiicatey bv the meanest iustrumeDts, what he hath denied UDto tbe choicest delicates, to feed his Daniels rather with pulse, than with all the dainties on the king s table. And if we obsenre it, divine miracles take ever the poorest and meanest subjects to manifest themselves on. If he want an army to protect his chorch, flies % and frogs* and caterpillars *, and lamps, and pitchers ", &c. shall be the strongest soldiers * and wea- pons he nsetb ; the lame and the blind ', the dumb ', and the dead% water ^ and clay % these are materials for his power **. — Even where thou seebt the instruments of God weakest, there expect and admire tbe more abundant manifestation of his greatness and wisdom: undervalue not the bread and wine in this holy Sacrament, which do better resemble the benefits of Christ crucified, than' any other the choicest de- licates.
" Bread a md wine r the element is double to increase the comfort of the faithful, that by two things wherein it is inw pomble for God to deceive, we might have strong consola- tion who hare laid hold upon him *. *' The dream is doubled," said Joseph ^ to Pharaoh, " because the thing is certain :*' and surely here the element is doubled too, that the grace may be the more certain. No marvel then, if those men who deny onto the people the certainty of grace, deny unto them Ukewise these double elements : so fit is it, that they which preached but a half-comfort, should administer likewise but a half-sacrament.
Secondly, Bread and wine : in the pasnover there was blood shed, but there was none drunken'; yea, that flesh which was eaten, was but once a-year. They who had all in types, bad yet their types, as it were, imperfect. In the fulness of time ^ came Christ ; and with or in Christ came the fulness of grace; and of his fulness do we receive in the gospel, which the Jews only expected in the promise, that they with* out us might not be made perfect *. " These things have I
• Uai. Til. IS. ^ Exod. viii. 6, 24. « Judges ¥it. 20. Joth. %i. 4. Judgct
XT. 15. «Joelii. 25. y John v. 23. Mitth. xii. 10. >Johnii. I.
•Mauh. ix.25. l> M^tth. lii. 22. cJohnii. 7. 'Johnii.6. • Hcb. li. 18. f^Gen. xli. 32. ff Lxx Mum sanguinis protiibci : Kvangclium prirct* jbc, oc bibxtur. Cyjrr» dc Coena Dom. — Vid. AmhM, Toro. 4. lib. dc ii» ^ui inici> r, c 9. k Gal. iv. 4. Col. i. l«i. * Hcb. xi. 40.
26 M£D1TATI0N8 ON THE
spoken/' saith Christ*', "that your joy might be full." The fulness of our sacrament, notes also the fulness of our sal- vation, and of his sacrifice who is able perfectly to save those that come unto God by him ^
Thirdly, Bread and wine : common, vulgar, obvious food ; wine with water being the only known drink with them in those hot countries. Amongst the Jews, a lamb was to be filain, a more chargeable and costly sacrament, not so easy for the poor to procure : and therefore in the offering of purification™, the poor were dispensed with; and, for a lamb, offered a pair of pigeons. Christ now hath broken " down that partition wall, that wall of enclosure which made the church as a garden with hedges ^ — and made only the rich, the people of the Jews, capable of God^s covenants and sacraments. Now that God's table hath crumbs as well as flesh P, the dogs and Gentiles eat of it too ; the poorest in the world is admitted to it, even as the poorest that are to shift for bread, though they are not able to provide flesh. Then the church was a fountain sealed up^ ; but, in Christ, there was a fountain, opened for transgressions and for sins '.
Fourthly, Bread andtaifte; bread to strengthen, and wine to comfort*. All temporal benefits are, in divine dialect, called " bread V it being the staff of life; and the want of which, though in a confluence of all other blessings, causeth famine in a land *"• See here the abundant sufficiency of Christ's passion:— it is the universal food of the whole church, which sanctifieth all other blessings ; without which they have no relish nor comfort in them. Sin and the corrupt nature of man hath a venomous quality in it to turn all other good things into poison, unless corrected by this antidote, this *' bread of life '^* that came down from Heaven. And well may it be called a bread of life, inasmuch as in it resides a power of trans-elementation ; that whereas other nourish- ments do themselves turn into the substance of the receiver, — this, quite otherwise, transforms and assimilates the soul unto the image of itself. Whatsoever faintness we are in,
k John XV. U. ^ Heb. vii. 15. ^ Levit. xii. 8. n Ephes. ii. 14.
o Cent. ir. 12. P Matth. xv. 27. q Cut. iv. 12. r Zach. xiii. 1.
• Psalm civ. 19. Matth. zi. 6. Gen. zviii. 5, 8. * Lerit. xxvi. 26. « Amos viii. 11. > John vi. Vita Christu5, rt viu panis.
HOLT SACaAMENT. 27
if we hunger after Christ, he can refresh us : whaUoeTer
fears oppress as, if, like men oppressed with fear, we thirst
sad gasp after his blood, it will comfort ut : whatsoever
weakness either our sins or sufferings hare brought us to,
the staff of this bread will support us : whatsoever sorrows
of mind, or coldness of affection do any way surprise us, —
this wine, or rather this blood (in which only is true life '),
will, with great efficacy, quicken us. If we want power,
we have the power of Christ's cross ' ; if victory \ we have
the victory of his cross ; if triumph ^ we have the triumph
of his cross ; if peace *", we have the peace of his cross ; if
wisdom ^, we have the wisdom of his cross. Thus is Christ
crucified a treasure to his church, full of all sufficient provi-
iion both for necessity and delight.
Fifthly, Bread and wine^ both of parts homogeneal, and alike ; each part of bread, bread ; each part of wine, wine ; no crumb in the one, no drop in the other, differing from the quality of the whole. O the admirable nature of Christ's blood, to reduce the affections and the whole man to one uniform and spiritual nature with itself ! Insomuch, that when we shall come to the perfect fruition of Christ's glo- rious body *, our very bodies likewise shall be spiritual bo- dies; spiritual in a uniformity of glory, though not of nature with the soul. Sins, commonly, arc jarring and contentious^: one affection struggles in the same soul with another for mastery ; ambition fights with malice ■, and pride with covetousness ; the head plots against the heart, and the heart swells against the head; reason and appetite, will and passion, soul and body, set the whole frame of na- ture in a continual combustion ; like an unjointed or broken arm, one faculty moves contrary to the government or attrac- tion of another; and so as, in a confluence of contrary streams and winds, the soul is whirled about in a maze of intestine contentions. But when once we become conforma- ble unto Christ's death **, it presently makes of two one, and so worketh peace ^ ; it slayeth that hatred and war in the members, and reduceth all unto that primitive harmony, unto
7 Lrrit. xvii. 11. '1 Cor. i. 24. * 1 Cor. xf. ^ Col. ii. 15.
< Col. i. 30. ^\ Cor. i. 24. Col. ii. 3. • 1 Cor. xv. ' Scclera dissident. Seme€, ff Jmnies ir. 1. ^ Phil. iii. 10. ^ Ephcs. ii. 15, 1ft.
28 MEDITATIONS ON THE
that uniform spiritualness, which changeth us all into the same image " from glory to glory ^"
Sixthly, Bread and wine, as they are homogeneal, so are they united together, and wrought out of divers particular grains and grapes, into one whole lump or vessel ' : and therefore bread and blood, even amongst the heathen, were used for emblems of leagues, friendship, and marriage, the greatest of all unions. See the wonderful efficacy of Christ crucified to solder, as it were, and joint all his members into one body by love, as they are united unto him by faith. They, are built up as living stones^ through him, who is the chief comer-stone, elect and precious unto one temple : they are all united by love, by the bond or sinews of peace unto him who is the head**, and transfuseth through them all the same vital nourishment : they are all the flock of Christ^ reduced unto one fold, by that one chief shep- herd of their souls, who came to gather those that wan- dered either from him in life, or from one another in affec- tion.
Lastly, Bread attd wine severed and asunder ; that to be eaten, this to be drunken ; that, in a loaf, — this, in a cup. It is not the blood of Christ running in his veins, but shed on his members, that doth nourish his church. Impious, therefore, is their practice, who pour Christ's blood, as it were, into his body again ; and shut up his wounds, when they deny the cup unto the people, under pretence that Christ's body by being received, the blood by way of conco- mitancy is received together with it; and so seal up that pre- , cious fountain which he had opened, and make a monopoly of Christ's sacred wounds ; as if his blood had been shed only for the priest, and not as well for the people ; or as if the church had power to withhold that from the people of Jesus, which himself had given them.
' 2 Cor. iii. 18. • Vid. Cyprian, 1. 1. epi^t. 6. — Vid. Gul, Stuck, in Aiitiq.
Convival. ^ 1 Pet. ii. 5, 6. n Ephcs. iv. \Cu 1 Cor. xii. * John x.
1 Pet. V. 4.
HOLY NACKAAir.XT. *29
CHAPTER Vni.
Ftactieal imfertmces ftfum the materials of the Ijonfs Suf^r,
Hbie then we see. First, Inasmuch as these elements are so necessary and beneficial to that life of man, with what appetite we should approach these holy mysteries, ereii with hangry and thirsty souls, longing for the sweetness of Christ crucified. Wheresoever God hath bestowed a vital being, be hath also afibrded nourishment to sustain it, and an in- clination and attractive faculty in the subject towards its nourishment. Even the new born-babe* by the impreitftion of nature, is moved to use the breasts before he knows them. Now us which were dead in sins ', hath Christ quickened, and hath infused into us a vital principle, even that faith by which the just do live ' ; which being instilled into us, Christ beginneth to be formed in the soul % and the whole man to be made conformable unto him**. Then are the parts organized and fitted for their several works ; there is an eye, with Stephen, to see Christ ; an ear, with Mary, to bear him ; a mouth, with Peter, to confess him ; a hand, with Thoaias, to touch him ; an arm, with Simeon, to em- brace him ; feet, with his disciples, to follow him ; a heart lo entertain him, and bowels of aflfection to love him. All the members are * weapons of righteousness*;' and thus is the ' new man*',' the ' new creature*' perfected. Now ho that left not himself amongst the HeaUien without a wittleH8^ but filled even their hearts with food and gladness, — hath not, certainly, left his own chosen without nourishment *, such as may preserve them in that estate which he hath thus* framed them unto. As therefore new infemts are fed with tbe same nourishment and substance of which they consint ; so the same Christ, crucified, is as the cause and matter of oar new birth, so the food which sustaineth and preservetli
fEpbcs.u.1. • Hab. ii. 4. Gd. ii. 20. •Gal. iv. 19. b Pbil. lii. 10.
<Rom.ri. 19. ' Ephct. iv. 24. •2Cor. v. 17. ^Acuxiv. 17.
I C7<»». yllrT. FrBil. 1. 1. 1. cmp. 6.
30 MEDITATIONS ON THE
US in it : unto whose body and blood there must needs be as proportionable an appetite in a new Christian, as there is unto milk in a new infant ^ ; it being more nourishable than milky and faith more vital to desire it than nature. And all this so much the rather, because he himself did begin unto us in a more bitter cup. Did he, on his cross, drink gall and vinegar for me, and that also made infinitely more bit- ter by my sins ; and shall not I, at his table, drink wine for myself, made infinitely sweeter with the blood which it con- veys ? Did he drink a cup of bitterness and wrath *, and shall not I drink the cup of blessing ^ ? Did he eat the bread of affliction, and shall not I eat the bread of life ? Did he suffer his passion, and shall not I enjoy it 7 Did he stretch out his hands on the cross, and shall mine be withered and shrunken towards his table ? Certainly, it is a presumption that he is not only sick but desperate, who refuseth that nou- rishment, which is both food to strengthen, and physic to recover him.
Secondly, The benefit of Christ being so obvious as the commons, and so sufficient as the properties of these ele- ments declare ; we see how little we should be dismayed at any either inward weaknesses and bruises of mind, or outward dangers and assaults of enemies, having so powerful a remedy so near unto us; how little we ought to trust in any thing within ourselves, whose sufficiency and nourish- ment is from without There is no created substance in the world, but receives perfection from some other things : how much more must man, who hath lost his own native inte- grity, go out of himself to procure a better estate! which in vain he might have done for ever, had not God first (if I may so speak) gone out of himself, humbling the divine nature unto a personal union with the human. And now having such an Emmanuel as is with us, not only by assuming us unto himself in his incarnation, but by communicating himself to us in these sacred mysteries ; whatsoever weakr nesses dismay us, his body is bread to strengthen us : what* soever waves or tempests rise against us, his wounds are boles to hide and shelter us. What though sin be poison; have we not here the bread of Christ for an antidote ? What
(i 1 Pet. ii. 2. > Matth. xxvu39. zx. 2a. ^ 1 Cor. z. 16,
HOLY SACRA BIKNT. 31
though it be red as scarlet; is not his blood of a deeper coloar ? What though the darts of Satan continually wound us ; is not the issue of his wounds the balm for ours ? Let me be fed all my days with bread of affliction and water of affliction, I hare another bread, another cup to sweeten both. Let Satan tempt me to despair of life. I have, in these Tisible and common elements, the author of life, made the food of life nnto roe. Let who will persuade me to trust a litde in my own righteousness, to spy out some ga<«pinga and faint relics of life in myself; — I receive, in these signs, an all-sufficient Saviour ; and I will seek for nothing in myself, when I have so much in him.
Lastly. We see here, both from the example of Chri«»t, who is the pattern of unity, — and from the Sacrament of Christ, which is the symbol of unity. — what a conspiracy of affections ought to be in us. both between our own and towards our fellow-members. Think not, that thou hast worthily received these holy mysteries, till thou find the image of that unity which is in them, conveyed by them into thy soul. As the breaking of the bread is the sacrament of Cfarisrs passion ; so the aggregation of many grains into one mass, should be a sacrament of the church's unity. What is the reason, that the bread and the church bhould be both called in the Scripture by the same name ? The bread ' is the body of Christ, and the church is the body of Christ too ! Is it not. because as the bread is one loaf out of divers corns, so the church is one body out of divers believers : that, the representative ; this, the mystical body of the san^e Christ ? Even as the Word, and the Spirit, and the faithful, are, in the Scripture, all called by the same name ot seed"^, — because of that assimilating virtue, whereby the om\ re« caved °, doth transform the other into the similitude and nature of itself. If the beams of the sun, though divided and distinct from one another, have yet a unity in the same nature of light, because all partake of one native and origi. nal splendour; — if the limbs of a tree% though all several, and spreading different ways, have yet a unity in the same
1 1 Cor. X. 17. xi. S4. • Macth. siii. 19. I John iii. 9. Mitth. liii. i8.
• 4ii n^ 0iyftfmBrt9 mU ^MwrmxiUftf'iy. ItuL Peiui. Cyprian, dc Unit. Fax*Ic«.
• lun. iii. 13. Rom. zi. 16.
33 MEDITATIONS OS THE
fruits, because nil nre incorporated into one stock or root ; — if the streams of a river, though running divers ways, do yet all agree in a unily of sweetness and clearness, because all issuing from the same pure fountaiu ;— why then should not the church of Christ, though of several and divided qualities and conditions, agree in a unity of truth and love ? — Christ being the sun whence they all receive tight; the vine <", into which they are all ingrafted; and the fountain", that is opened unto them all for trun agressions and for eins.
CHAPTER IX.
I
Of the analogy and proportion between the holj/ actions bif Christ in this Sacrament, and Christ himseif who U substance of it.
It folioivs now, that we enquire farther into the nature of this holy Sacrament, which will be explained by considering -the analogy, fitness, and similitude between the signs and the things signified by them, and conferred or exhibited to. gether with them, which is Christ the Lord, Now this ana- logy or fitness, as it hath been, in some general manner, ex- pressed in the nature or quality of the elements substantially or physically laNen, — so, more expressly and punctually, is it proposed unto us in those holy actions, which do alter it in the use, and make it a sacrament '.
And first. We find that " Christ took the bread and wine % and blessed it, and gave thanks, and so consecrated it," or set it apart unto a holy or solemn use; which is the reason why St. Paul ' calls it "a cup of blessing;" so that unto the church it ceaseth to be that which nature iiid made it, and begins to be that unto which the blessing had consecrated. In like manner, did the eternal Son of God " assume, into the subsistence of his own infinite person, the whole nature of man, the body and the soul : by the virtue of which won- derful union, notwithstanding the properties of the divine
p Joha n. I. ' Ztch. xiii. 1. ' Cyprian, dc Can-Tniul. com
Muc lib. 1. c. 23. • Muih. xxvi. 36. Luke xnii- 19. > 1 Cor, >. Ifi,
^jtmbnu.Vib. dciiiqm initlantur. c. 9. El ric Sxciatneniis, 1. I. C. ."i. ell. 4. c.4. Ju$Hn. Marly, ill Apoli>e. 2.
HOLY SACRAMENT. U3
Daturv remain mbnolately intraosieiit and incommuuicahle unto the boman ; yet are there shed, from that ineibaustible fountaio, many high and glorious eodowmenU, by which the humanity onder this manner of sabsistence is anointed, con« secrated, sealed, and set apart for that work of incompreheii- ftible love and power, the redemption of the world.
And secondly. As the bread is taken by us from Christ in the natnre of a gift, — he brake it and gave it to his disciples ' ; — so is the human nature taken by Christ from the Father ' as a gift from that good pleasure of God.
Thirdly, As the taking of the bread by Christ did alter only the manner of its being, the operation and efficacy, the dignity and use, but no way at all the element or nature, of the bread ; even so the taking of the human body by Christ, did confer, indeed, upon it many glorious virtues, and advance it to an estate far above its common and ordinary capacity (always yet reserving those defects and weaknesses, which were required in the economy and dispensation of that great work for which he assumed it); but yet he never altered the essential and natural qualities of the body, but kept it still within the measure and limits of the created per- fection, which the wisdom of Ood did at (irst share out unto it.
lastly (to come nearer unto the cross of Christ), As he did, by prayer and thanksgiving, consecrate these elements unto a holy use ; so did he, immediately before his passion (of which this is the sacrament), make that consecratory prayer and thanksgiving % which is registered for the per- petual comfort of his church.
The second action is the ' breaking of the bread, and pouring the wine into the cup ;' which doth nearly express his crucified body, where the joints were loosed ^, the sinews torn, the flesh bruised and pierced, the skin rent, the whole frame violated by that straining, and razing, and cutting, and stretcbingi and wrenching, which was used in the cruci- iying of it, and by the shedding of that precious blood « which stopped the issue and flux of ours. It were infinite snd intricate to spin a meditation into a controversy, about
■iMLbd. 1. Luke iT. 18. Heb. i. 9. John vi. 53. Matth. si. 27. xxviii. 18. > Phil. ii. 9. John 5. as. • John irii. ^ Pnl. zxiu 14. • 8wi-
gmam Aattm de foti voraU rtvoctmot. TertuL cone. Gnosf . c. 5.
TOL. 111. 9
34 MEDITATIONS ON THK
the extent and nature of Christ's passion : but certainly, whatsoever either ignominy or agony his body suffered (which two I conceive to comprise all the generals of * Christ crucified') are, if not particularly expressed, yet typically and sacramentally shadowed and exhibited in the bread broken, and the wine poured out.
The third action was the giving, or * the delivering of the bread and wine : ' which, First, evidently expresseth the nature and quality of ' Christ crucified,' with these benefits which flow from him, that they are freely bestowed upon the church ; which, of itself, had no interest or claim unto any thing save death.
Secondly, We see the nature of Chrisf s passion, that it was a free, voluntary, and unconstrained passion^. For though it be true, that Judas did betray him, and Pilate de- liver him to be crucified, yet none of this was the giving of Christ, but the selling of him. It was not for us, but for money that Judas delivered him : it was not for us, but for fear, that Pilate delivered him. But God delivered the Son % and the Son delivered himself^, with a most merciful and gracious will, to bestow his death upon sinners ; and not to get, but to be himself, a price. The passion, then, of Christ was most freely undertaken ; without which free-will of his own, they could never have laid hold on him. And his death was a most free and voluntary expiation : his life was not wrenched nor wrung from him, nor snatdied or torn from him by the bare violence of any foreign impression ; but was, with a loud voice (arguing nature not brought to utter de- cay), most freely surrendered and laid down by that power, which did after re-assume it.
Bat how then comes it to pass, that there lay a necessity upon Christ of suffering >, which necessity may seem to have enforced and constrained him to Qolgotha, inasmuch as he himself did not only shrink, but even testify his dislike of what he was to suffer, by a redoubled prayer unto his Father, that '' That cup might pass from him !" Doth not fear make
<i Augutt, Vid. torn. 8. in Ptal. zciii. et torn. 9. Tract. 7. in Epitt. Johinnis. • Rom. Tiii. 32. Acts ii. 23. Gftl. iv. 4. f Gal. ii. 20. Phil. ii. 7. John xiz. U. X. U, 17, 18. t Aupat.tom. 9. Tract. 31. in Johan. et Tract. 47. et de
Trinitate, 1. 3. cap. 13. — Tertul. in Apolog. cap. 21. — Cyprian, de Coena Doin.^- Non necessitate, ted obedtentii, urgetur ad mortem: et lib. de Dupl. Martyr.
HOLV SACRAMENT. 3*>
acUoDft inToluntAry. or at least derogate and detract from tho falness of their liberty ? And Christ did fear : how tlien it it that Christ^s passion was most voluntary, though attended with necessity, fear, and reluctance I — Surely, it was most foloatary still ; and first therefore necessary, because volun- tary; the main and primitive reason of the necessity being nothing else but that immutable will which had fore*decreed it. Christ's death, then, was necessary by a necessity of the event, which must needs come to pass, after it had once been fore-determined by that most wise will of God ^; — which never useth to repent him of his counsels ; but not by a ne- cessi^' of the cause, which was most free and voluntary. Again ; Necessary it was in regard of the Scriptures, whose truth could not miscarry ; in regard of the promises made of him, which were to be performed ; in regard of prophetical predictions which were to be fulfilled ; in regard of typical prefigurations which were to be abrogated, and seconded with that substance which they did fore-shadow : but no way necessary io opposition to Christ's will, which was the first mover, into which both this necessity and all the causes of it tie to be finally resolved.
And dien for the fear and reluctance of Christ : — no mar- vel if he, who was in all things like unto us, had his share in the aame passions and affections likewise, though without on. But neither of these did any way derogate from the most free sacrifice, which he himself offered once for all'; inas- much as there was an absolute submission of tlie inferior to the higher will; and the inferior itself shrunk not at the obedience but at the pain.
To explain this more clearly, consider in Christ a double win, or rather a double respect of the same will ^
First, The natural will of Christ ; whereby he could not hot wish well unto himself, and groan ' after the conservation of that Being, whose anguish and dissolution did now ap- proach ; whereby he could not, upon the immediate burden of the sin of man, and the wraUi of God, but fear; and, notwithstanding the assistance of the angels, drop down a
fc Heb. Tiii. 3. Mark viii. 31. Luke xiiv. 7. xxvi.46. Mitth. xx?i. 39. Hcb. ?. 7. Men ti. 23, 33. Hd). ix. 14. * Heb. U. 13. ^ Vid. Hooker I. 5. tcci .
4S tad Dr. FiHd of the Charch, lib. 1 . c. IS. I Hcb. v. 7.
D 2
3& MEDITATIONS ON THE
sweat, as full of wonder as it was of torment, great drops of blood : — and then no marvel, if we hear, •' Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me "".**
But then again consider, Not the natural, but the merci- ful will of Christ, by which he intended to appease the wrath of an offended, and, by any other way, unsatisfiable God, The removal of an unsupportable curse, the redemption of his own, and yet his fellow-creatures ; the giving them access unto a Father, who was before a ' consuming fire ;' — in a word, the finishing of that great work which the angels desire to look into ; and then we find that he did freely lay down his life, and most willingly embraced what he most naturally did abhor. As if Christ had said (if we may venture to para- phrase his sacred words) '^ Father, thou hast united me to such a nature, whose created and essential property it is to shrink from any thing that may destroy it ; and, therefore, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me : — but yet I know that thou hast likevlrise anointed me to fulfil the eternal de- cree of thy love, and to the performance of such an office, the dispensation whereof requires the dissolution of my as- sumed nature ; and therefore not as I, but as thou wilt.'^ So then both the desire of preservation was a natural desire ; and the offering up of his body was a free-will offering. And, indeed, the light of nature hath required a kind of willingness, even in the heathen's brute sacrifices : and there- fore the beast was led ^, and not haled to the altar ; and the struggling of it, or flying and breaking from the altar, or bellowing and crying, was ever counted ominous and un« happy. Now our Saviour Christ's willingness to offer up himself is herein declared, " In that he opened not his mouth :^ in that he suffered such a death, wherein he first did bear the cross % before it bore him ; in that he dehorted the women that followed after him, to weep or express any passion or unwillingness for his death p.
Thus did he, in his passion, and still doth in his Sacrament, really, perfectly, and most willingly, give himself unto his church : insomuch, as that the oil of that unction which consecrated him unto that bitter work, is called an 'oil of
» Luke xzii. 43, 44. n Macrob, Satur. lib. 3. e. 5.— P/tny, L S. c. .Sttft. in Galb. c. Id^^Fal, Max. 1. 1. c. 6.— P^ul. Sjrop. 1. B.C. 8. • Jotm xiz. 17, F Lukexxiii. 28.
HOLY SACRAMENT. 37
gladness^.' So then Christ freely ofTereth, both in himself onginally, and in his sacraments instrumentally, all grace suf- ficient for nourishment unto life, to as many as reach forth to receive or entertain it.
CHAPTER X.
Of the fourth aciioNy with the reasons why the SacrameiU is to
be eaten and drunken.
The fourth and last action, made mention of in this sacra- ment, is the ' eating of the bread/ and the ' drinking of wine,' after we have taken them from the hands of Christ : to signify unto us, That Christ crucified is the life and food of a Christian that receiveth him. Here are the degress of fiuth:—
First, We take Christ ; and then we eat him. There are none that find any nourishment or relish in the blood of Christ, but those who have received him, and so have an in- terest, propriety, and title to him. He must first be ours^ before we can taste any sweetness in him : ours, first, in pooession and claim ; and, after, ours, in fruition and com- fort. For all manner of sweetness is a consequent and effect of some propriety, which we have unto the good thing which cuaeth it ; unto which the nearer our interest is, the greater is the sweetness that we find in it. In natural things we may observe, how nothing will be kindly nourished in any other place or aieans, than those unto which nature hath given it a primitive right and sympathy. Fishes perish in the air ; and spice-trees die and wither in these colder countries, because nature hath denied them any claim or propriety unto such phces. We are all branches % and Christ is a vine : now no hranch receiveth juice or nourishment, unless first it be in- serted into the stock. If we are not first ingrafted into Christ, and so receive the right of branches, we cannot ex- pect any nourishment from him. As the name that was written in that ' white stone *,' was known unto him only that hid it ; so in these mysteries, which have the impress and
^ Heb. 1.9, ' John xv. • Rc¥cl. ii.
38 MEDITATIONS ON THE
character of Christ's passion on them, Christ is known and enjoyed only by those, who first take him, and so have a hold and right unto him. But why is it that Christ, in this sacrament, should be eaten and drunken? Cannot the benefit of his passion be as well conveyed by the eye as by the mouth ? It was the joy of Abraham % that he saw Christ's day ; the comfort of Simeon '', that he had seen God's salva- tion ; the support of Stephen "", that he saw Christ in his kingdom ; the faith of Thomas ^, that he saw his resurrection : and why is it not enough that we see the passion of Christ in this sacrament, wherein he is crucified before our eyes ' ? Certainly if we look into the Scriptures, we shall find nothing more common than the analogy and resemblance betwixt spiritual grace and natural food. Hence it is that we so often read of manna from Heaven *, water from the rock ^ trees in paradise, apples ^ and flaggons for Christ's spouse, wisdom's feasts **, and the marriage-feast*, of hungering ' and thirsting *, and sucking ^ of marrow, and fatness, and milk ^ and honey, and infinite the like expressions of Divine grace. The rea- sons whereof are many and important : First, To signify the benefit we receive by Christ crucified, exhibited unto us, in his Last Supper, by that analogy and similitude, which is be* twixt him and those things we eat and drink. Now meats are all either physical, common, or costly ; either for the restoring, or for the supporting, or for the delighting of na- ture : and they have all some of those excellent properties of good which Aristotle ^ hath observed, either to preserve nature entire, or to restore it when it hath been violated, or to prevent diseases ere they creep upon it. And all these benefits, do the faithful receive by Christ.
1st. His body and blood is an antidote against all infections of sin, or fear of death. When he said, *' Fear not, it is I *," it was an argument of comfort, which no temptation could repel.
2d. It hath a purging and purifying property : " The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin '".''
^ John viii. 56. ■ Luke ii. 30. " Acts vii. 55- 7 John xx. 29. ■ Gal. Hi. I. a See John vi. >> 1 Cor. x. 3, 4. « Cant. ii. 5. ^ Prov. iz. 2, 5.
•Matth. xzii.4. 'MaUh. t. f Psalm briii. 1. cxiz. 103. xlii. 1, 2.
cxix. 131. ^ Isai. lz?i. 11. i Isai. U. 1, 2. 1 Pet. ti.2. Ueb. v. 12. See
Jackson of Justifying Faith, sect. 1. cap. 9. k ^uxorruc^r, dfpcnrffVTiM^,
KuXvriKdv tmv iiwrrUnf. Rhet, 1. 1. et Elh, » Matth. xi?. 27. » 1 John xvii.
IIOLV SACRAMENT. 39
3d. It hath a quickening, pretenring, and strengtbentng power. Christ is our life * ; and our life it hid with Christ * ; 4Dd Christ fiweth in us ; and be hath quickened us ^ together with Christ; and we are able to do all things through Christ that strengthens us \
And lastly. It hath a joying and delighting property : *< I icjotce in nothing bat in the cross of Christ: I count all things dung \ that I rosy win Christ ;" and *' 1 protest by our rejoiciDg which we have in Christ*" Whether we want phync to cure us, or strong meats to nourish us, or sweet- meau to delight us, ** Christ is unto us all in all/* our health, onr strength, our joy.
Secondly, The Sacrament is eaten and drunken ; to sig- nify the necessity we stand in of Christ crucified. Many things there are usual in the life of man, both for de- light and profit ; beautiful and pleasant objcctn, for the eye ; n^lody and harmony, for the ear ; ointments and odours, for the smell ; cariosities and luxuriances of invention, for the fancy : but there is no faculty of nature that doth so imme- diately concur to the support and preservation of the whole man, as the sense of tasting', which is (as it were) the sluice and inlet to life ; without which, we have not so much as a capacity of that delight, which other objects of an inferior and subordinate nature can aflbrd. Even so many things there are, wherein the children of God may and ought to take pleasure and solace, even as many as we acknowledge from God for a blessing. But there is nothing in the world, which is the object and principle of our life, but only Christ; no qoality in man, which is the instrument and organ of our life, bat only a lively and operative faith ", by which only we taste " how gracious the Lord is." — " The just shall live by faith * r' and " I live by the faith of the Son of God ' ;" and •' Where the body is, thither do the eagles fly," that tliey mav eat and live.
Thirdly, The Sacrament is eaten and drunken, to show unto us the greedy desire which is, and ought to be, in the hearts of believers towards Christ crucified. There is no one fa-
BPtaU-i. 21. •Col.m. 3, 4. P Eph. ii. 5. q Phil. it. 13. GaI. ¥i. U.
' Pbil. iit. 8. • Phil. iv. 4. 1 Cor. xv. 31. > Ecclct. ii. 24, iii. 13. 22,
▼.17. ■ Crnlc et nundacMti. y^Ht^r- in Jnhan. > Hab. ii. 7 <>al. It. 2Q. Vide Ckrysoat. in 1 Cm. Horn. 24.
40 MEDITATIONS ON THE
culty in man^s will so much put to its utmost for procuring satisfaction, as this of tasting, if once brought into anguish or straits. Because, as death, in the general, is most ter- rible % so much more that lingering death which consumes with famine : and therefore no power of nature more im* portunate and clamorous for satisfaction, no motive stronger to work a love, and attempt a conquest on any nation, than an experience of such excellent commodities, as may from thence be obtained for the relieving of this one faculty. And therefore Almighty God, when he would provoke the people to forsake Egypt, and comfort them with the news of a better country, describes it by the plenty that it brought forth : " I will bring you to a land which iloweth with milk and honey *." And when the people murmured against Ood in the wilderness ; all that hatred of Egypt, which the ty- ranny of the land had wrought in them, — all the toil and servitude that was redoubled on them, — was wholly swal- lowed up by the one consideration of flesh-pots and onions ^ which they there enjoyed. And when, by God's appoint- ment, spies were sent into Canaan, to enquire of the good- ness of the land, — their commission was to bring of the fruit of the land unto the people ^ ; that thereby they might be encouraged unto a desire of it. And we find, how the Ro- man emperors did strictly prohibit the transportation of wine or oil, or other pleasant commodities unto barbarous nations, lest they might prove rather temptations to some mischievous design, than matters of mutual intercourse and traffic. No marvel then, if the sacrament of Christ cruci- fied, who was to be the desire of ail nations, the desire of whom was not only to transcend and surpass, but even (after a sort) to nullify all other desires ^, — be received with that faculty which is the seat of the most eager and importunate desire.
Fourthly, We eat and drink the Sacrament, to intimate unto us the conformity of the faithful unto Christ. As, in all the appetites and propensions of natural things, we find an innate amity betwixt the natures that do so incline to-
« nimir ^etfcpa»r«ror. Aritt. Tidyrts fUv enr/^pol b^wnn SctXouri fipcr^i&i, Ai/«f t' tlUriarw i^oWtiy icoi v^/ior IwiffVMf, Horn. Odyts. lib. 12. and I. 17.
• Ezod. iii. 17. ^ Ezod. x?i. 3. Num. zi. 5. < Num. xiii. 21, 24.
* Matth. xiii. 44, 45. Luke xfiii. 28. Phil. iii. 7, 8.
liOLY SACllAMENT. 41
wardi, or embrace one another ; so, principally, in this main appedte unto food^ is there ever found a proportion between nalnre and its nourishment*; insomuch, that young infants are noariahed with that very matter, of which their sub- stance consisteth. Whatsoever hath repugnant qualities onto Nature* she is altogether impatient of it ; and is never quieted, till» one way or other, she disburden herself. And dius is it, and ought to be, betwixt Christ and the faithful : there is a conspiracy of affections, motions, passions, de- sues ; a conformity of being in holiness, as well as in na- ture ; a similitude, participation, and communion with Christ in his death ^ sufferings^, glory ^ All other things in the world are very unsuitable to the desires of faith, nor are able to satiate a soul which hath tasted Christ ; because we find something in them of a different, yea, repugnant nature, onto that precious faith by him infused. No man, having tasted old wine, desireth new, for he saith the old is better ' : and therefore howsoever the wicked may drink iniquity like water^, and roll it under their tongue as a sweet thing ; yet the children of God, who have been sensible of that ve- nomous quality which lurketh in it, and have tasted of that bread ^ which came down from Heaven, never thirst any more after the deceitful pleasures, the stolen waters of sin : but BO sooner have they unadvisedly tasted of it, but presently they fed a war in Uieir bowels, a struggling and rebellion between that faith by which they live, and that poison which would smother and extinguish it, which, by the efficacy of bith, whereby we overcome the^ world "", is cast out and vo- miled up in a humble confession, and so the faithful do regain their fellowship with Christ ; who as he was, by his merits, our Saviour unto remission of sins, — so is he, by his holiness, our example ° ; and, by his Spirit, our head, unto newness of life.
• CtoR. Alex. Plaedag. 1. 1. c. 6. f Rom. ¥i. 4, 5. f Rom. viii. 17.
k 1 Cor. XT. 49. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Phil. iii. 10, 20. i Luke t. 39.
klobzx.12. I John vi. 48, 50, 51. iv. 14. ' mlJohnT.l. »! Pfct.
1.15. n. 21.
42 MEDITATIONS ON THE
CHAPTER XI.
Of other reasons why the Sacrament is eaten and drunken, mid of the manner of our union and incorporation into Christ,
Fifthly, We eat and drink the sacrament of Christ cru- cified, to signify that real and near incorporation of the faithful into Christ their head ® : for the end of eating f is the assimilation of our nourishment^ and the turning of it into our own nature and substance : whatsoever cannot be assi- milated, is ejected : and thus is it between us and Christ. Whence it cometh that we so often read of the inhabitation of Christ in his church^ ; of his more peculiar presence with, and in, his people ; of our spiritual ingrafture into him by faith'; of those more near and approaching relations of brotherhood* and coinheritance between Christ and us ; that mutual interest, fellowship, and society, which we have to each other; with infinite other expressions of that divine and expressless mixture, whereby the faithful are, not only by a consociation of affections^ and confederacy of wills, but by a real, though mystical, union, ingrafted, knit, and (as it were) jointed unto Christ l^ the sinew of fai^ ; and so made heirs of all that glory and good, which in his per- son was purchased for his members, and is from him diffused on tliem, as on the parts and portions of himself. So that it pleaseth Ood's spirit (as some do observe) so far some- times to express this union betwixt Christ and his church, as to call the church itself by the name of Christ ; and every where almost to interest himself in the injuries and suf- ferings of his church", yea, to esteem himself incomplete and maimed without it.
And here this mystical unity between Christ and his church being, by eating and drinking, so expressly signified,
o Eph. iii. 17. P Rev. iii. 20. H Ephes. iv. 6. ' Gal. ii. 20.
John xiv. 20. Rom. xi. 17. John xv. and zx. 17. ■ Matth. xxy. 40.
Mark iii. 35. Rom. viii. 17. ^ Afiectui consociat ct confederal Toluntates.
Cyprian, de Ccena Dom. — August, de PMxat. Merit, et Remiss, lib. 1. c. 31. de Genesi ad lit. I. ii. c. 24. — Bexa in annotat. ad Ephes. i. 23. — Hooker, p. 306. tt Mattb. zxv. 45. Acts iz. 4. Hooker 1. 5. sect. 56.
HOLY SACKAMENT. 43
and m the Sacrament so gracioutly obsignated unto u§, — it will not be impertinent to enlarge somewhat on so divine a point Wheresoever any thing hath so inward a relation and dependency on something else, as that it subsisteth not, nor can retain that integrity of being which is due unto it, without that whereon it dependeth, — there is necessarily re- quired some manner of union between those two things ; by means whereof, the one may derive unto the other that in- fluence and virtue whereby it is preserved : for broken, dis« continued, and ununited parts receive no succour from those, from which they are divided ; all manner of activity re« quiring a contact and immediateness between the agent and the subject. And this is one proof of that omnipresence and inmiensity irhich we attribute unto God, whereby he filleth all creatures *, bestowing on them all that general influence and assistance of his providence, '* whereby they live, and move, and have their being ^'^
Bat besides this universal presence of God, wherewitli he doth equally fill all things by his essence, which were from eternity wrapped up in his power and wisdom ; there is a more special presence and union of his unto the creature ; according as he doth, in any of them, exhibit more express characters of his glorious attributes. In which sense, he is said to be in Heaven % because he doth there more especially manifest his power, wisdom, and majesty : in the soft and still Toice, because there his lenity was more conspicuous : in the burning bush*, and in the light cloud, because in them his mercy was more expressed : in the Mount Sinai, because there his terror was especially declared. According unto which difierent diffusions of himself on the creature, and dispensation of his attributes, God (without any im- peachment of his immensity) may be said to be absent, to depart, and to turn away from his creature, as the words are every where in the Scriptures used ^.
Thus is God united to the creature in general, by the
> Demn nunque ire ptr onmet Temtquc tfsctuique marit coelumqae profun- daiB. rirg. — Vkl. Hmgo. yut. de Stcnment. 1. 1. ptft. 3. c. 17. FmI. czrxvtii. JrL vi. Anas ix. 1, 3. Jer. zziii. 24. 7 Acts ztii. S8. Vid. Juguu, dc Gc- ocsi adKt.lib.4.cap.l2.ft Gxifess. l. 1.C.2, 3. « Pftal. ciii. 19. Matih. vi. 9. • Ezod. iii. six. 18. ^ Vide TntuL Ad?cr. Prixeam, c. 23. ct Aui:u»t. cp. 3.
8<i Volos.
44 MEDITATIONS ON THE
right of a creator*', upholding all things by his mighty Word without the participation whereof they could not but be an* nihilated and resolved into their first nothing : but besides, there is a more distinct and nobler kind of union unto his more excellent creature, man. For as there are some things which partake only of the virtue and efficacy, others which partake of the image and nature, of the sun ; as the bowels of the earth receive only the virtue, heat, and influence, — but the beam receives the very' image and form of it, light ; — so in the creatures, some partake of God only as an agent, as depending on his eternal power, from whence they did ori- ginally issue, and by which they do now still subsist ; and so receive only some common impressions and foot-prints of Divine virtue, whereby they declare his glory** : Others par- take of the image of God % of " the Divine nature," as St, Peter speaks ^ ; and receive from him those two special pro- perties wherein principally consists the image of God, holi- ness and happiness, that giving perfection to our working, and this to our being (which two satisfy the whole compass of a created desire), and so declare his love. Some acknow- ledge God as their maker, others as their Father : in t/iem, is dependence and gubernation only ; in these, is recognition and inheritance.
The bond of this more special union of the reasonable creature unto God, was originally the law of man's creation, which did prescribe unto him the form and limits of his working, and subordination unto God ; which knot he, by his voluntary aversation, violating and untying, there did im- mediately ensue a disunion between God and man. So says the prophet * ; " Your sins have separated between you and your God." Now as the parts of a body, so long as they are, by the natural bonds of joints and sinews, united to the whole, do receive from the fountains of life, the heart and the brain, all comfortable supplies for life and motion, which are due unto them; but being once dissolved and bro- ken off, there then ceaseth all the interest which they had in the principal parts ; — so, as long as man, by obedience to the law, did preserve the union between God and him entire, so long had he an evident participation of all tliose
<Hcb. i. 3. ' Psalm xix. I. • Ephes. iv. 24. f2Pct. i. 4. f hii. lis. 2.
HOLV SACRAMENT. 45
graces spiritual, which were requisite to the holiness and btppioess of so noble a creature : but having once trans- grened the law, and by that means broken the knot, he is ■o more possessed of that sweet illapse and influence of the Spirit, which quickeneth the church unto eternal life : but havii^ united himself unto another head, and subjected his parts anto another prince, even the prince that ^' ruleth in the children of disobedience V^ ^^ is utterly destitute of all divine communion, an ' alien from the commonwealth V &Qd, by consequence, from all the privileges of Israel ; a stranger from the ' covenant of promise/ unacquainted with, yea, un- aUe to conceive aright of spiritual things ^ ; quite shut out from the kingdom, yea, " without God in the world."
And thus far we have considered the several unions, which are between the creatures, either in general, as creatures, — or in particular, as reasonable, — and considered God in the relation of a Creator ;— which will give great light to under- stand both the manner and dignity of this mystical and evangelical union betwixt the church and Christ, considered under the relation of a Redeemer, by whom we have reunion and access to the Father ^ ; in whom only he hath accepted OS again, and given unto us the adoption of children. Now as, in the union of God to the creatures, we have before ob- lerved the differences of it, that it was either general unto all, or special unto some ; in which he did either more expressly manifest bis glory, or more graciously imprint his image ; — lo also, in the union of Christ unto us, we may observe ■ometfaing general, whereby he is united to the whole man- kind; and something special, whereby he is united unto his choich ; and that after a double manner ; either common ante the whole visible assembly of the Christians, or pecu- liar and proper unto that invisible company, who are the immediate members of his mystical body.
First, Then, all mankind may be said to be in Christ, inasmuch as, in the mystery of his incarnation "^, he took dn him the self-same nature, which maketh us to be men ;
h Epbes. ii. 2. > Epbes. ii. 12. ^ 1 Cor. ii. 14. 1 Rev. uii. 14.
Epbcs. ii. 13, 18. i. 5, 6. ™ Unius naturae tunt vites et palmites ; propter
qood cam nset Deus, cujus naturae non sumus. Cactus est homo, ut in illo esset titit bamanmnatura; cujus et nos orones palmites esseraus. Au%, Tract. 80. Joh.
46 MEDITATIONS ON THE
and whereby he is as properly man as any of us, subject to the same infirmities °y liable and naked to the same dangers and temptations, moved by the same passions, obedient to the same laws with us ; — with this only difference, that all this was in him sinless and voluntary,— in us, sinful and necessary.
Secondly, Besides this, there is a farther union of Christ unto all the professors of his truth, in knowledge and ex- plicit faith ; which is, by a farther operation, infusing into them the light of truth, and some general graces which make them serviceable for his church : even as the root of a tree will sometimes so far enliven the branches, as shall suffice unto the bringing forth of leaves, though it supply not juice enough for solid fruit. For whatsoever graces the outward professors of Christianity do receive, they have it all derived on them from Christ, who is the dispenser of his Father^s bounty, and who enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world.
Thirdly, There is a more special and near union of Christ to the faithful, set forth by the resemblances of " building % ingrafture, members p, marriage \** and other the like simi- litudes in the Scriptures, — whereby Christ is made unto us the original and well-spring^ of all spiritual life' and motion, of all fulness^ and fructification °. Even as, in natural gene- ration, the soul is no sooner infused and united, but pre- sently there is sense and vegetation derived on the body ; — so in the spiritual new birth, as soon as '' Christ is Ibrmed in us," as the apostle speaks', then presently are we ' quicken- ed by him 7,' and all the operations of a spiritual life % sense of sin, vegetation, and growth in faith, understanding, and knowledge of the mystery of godliness, taste and relish of eternal life, begin to show themselves in us: we are in Christ by grace, even as, by nature, we were in Adam. Now as, from Adam, there is a perpetual transfusion of
n Efurieni tub dtmbolo, sitiens tub Samaritide, flens lAzaroin, anxius tuque ad mortem. Tert. de Cam. ChrUti, c. 9. et advera. Prax. c. 27. o 1 Pet. ii. 4.
Eph. ii. 15. i Cor. iii. 16. John xv. 5. Eph. it. 15, 16. p 1 Cor.zii. 12.
q Eph. T. 32. Psalm x\v, 2 Cor. xi. 2. r John it. 14. ti. 51. • John
xiT. 19. 1 John t. 12. * John i. 16. « John zt. 5. > Gal. it. 19.
7 Eph. ii. 5. > Gal. ii. 20. Rom. t. 12, 15, 17, 18, 19. 1 Cor. zt. 22,
45, 49.
HOLV SACRAMENT. 47
origiifal sin on all bis posterity \ because we were all then not only represented by his person, but contained in his /oins ; so from Christy who, on the cross, did represent the chttrch of Gody and in whom we are, — is there, by a most special ioflnence, transfused on the church, some measure of those graces ^ those vital motions, that incorruption, pu- rity, and holiness, which was given to him without measure ; tiiat be mione might be the author "" and original of etei'nal ssdvatioii, the consecrated Prince of Glory to the church : — from which consecration of Christ, and sanctification of the cbttcli, the apostle infers a union between Christ and the cfaafch ; ^' For he that sanctifieth, and they that are sancti- fied, are of one *^.^ And all this, both union or association with Christy and communion in those heavenly graces, which, by spiritual influence from him, are shed forth upon all his members, is brought to pass by this means originally, — be- came Christ and we do both partake of one and the self- sune Spirit * ; which Spirit conveys to the faithful, whatso- ever in Christ is communicable unto them. For as the mem- bers natural of man are all conserved in the integrity and oaity of one body, by that reasonable soul which animates, calivens, and actuates them, — by one simple and undivided iafoniiation, without which they would presently fall asunder ud moulder into dust; even so the members of Christ are iB firmly united unto him, and from him receive all vital ■otioiis* by means of that common Spirit, which, in Christ abofe measure, in us according unto the dispensation of God's good will, worketh one and the sdf-same life and : so that by it, we are all as really compacted into one
body, as if we had all but one common soul. And Ikis is that which we believe touching our *' fellowship with Ihe Son,^' as St. John^ calls it : the clear and ample appre-
wbereof, is left unto that place where both our and likeness to him, and our knowledge of him, shall be made perfect >.
^ J^gusL Eachlnd. cap. 26. et Epist. 23. ad Bonifacium: "Trazit reatum, fua imiit erat in illo k quo traxit;** etTert, de Testim. Anim. c.3. Regene- aric honunem in uno Christo, ex uno Adam generatum. Aug, Epist. 23. » John L 16. « Heb. t. 9. <> Heb. ii. 10, 11. • Rom. viii. 9.
' 1 Mm L 3* f Nam et nunc est in nobis, et nos in illo ; ted hoc nunc
tone etiam cognoscemus : quamTis et nunc credendo noverimus, sed eontemplando noscemus. Aufrusl. Tom. 9. Tract. 75. in Johan.
48 MEDITATIONS ON THE
Sixthly, We eat and drink the Sacrament of Christ's pas« sion, that thereby we may express that more close and sen- sible pleasure, which the faithful enjoy in receiving of him. For there is not any one sense, whose pleasure is more con- stant and express, than this of tasting : the reasons whereof are manifest.
For first. It follows by the consequence of opposites^ that that faculty when fully satisfied, must needs be sensible of the greatest pleasure, whose penury and defect brings the extremest anguish on nature. For the evil of any thing, being nothing else but an obliquity and aberration from that proper good to which it is opposed, — it must needs follow, that the greater the extent and degrees of an evil are, the more large must the measure of tliat good be, in the distance from which that evil consisteth. Now it is manifest that the evil of no sense is so oppressive and terrible unto nature, as are those which violate the taste and touch *"; which latter is ever annexed to the former. No ugly spectacles for the eyes, no howls or shriekings for the ear, no stench or in- fection of air for the smell, so distasteful, — through all which, the anguish of famine would not make a man ad- venture to purchase any good, though afiected even with noisome qualities.
Secondly, The pleasure which nature takes in any good thing, is caused by the union thereof to the faculty, by meane whereof it is enjoyed : so that the greater the union is, the more necessarily is the pleasure of the thing united. Now there is not any faculty, 'whose object is more closely united unto it, than this of tasting. In seeing, or hearing, or smell- ing, there may be a far distance between us and the things that do so afiect us ; but no tasting without an immediate application of the object to the faculty. Other objects sa- tisfy, though without me; but meats never content nor benefit, till they be taken in. Even so is it with Christ and the faithful : many things there are, which affect them with pleasure, but they are without, and at a distance ; only Christ it is, who, by being and dwelling in them ^ delight- eth them.
b Moriensque recepit Qnis nollet victuru*, aqaat, &c. Vid. Lucan. lib. 4. I '£y Cfup. Gtl. iv. 19.— *Ey tm ttapilM ^/twr. Eph. iii. 17.
HOLT SACHAMESr. 4i>
ListJy, We eat and driok the Sacrament of Christ cruci- fied, that therein we may learn to admire the wjtdoiti of God*s mercy, who, by the same manner of actionn \ doth restore us to life, by which we fell from it. Satan and death did first aiBsault onr ear, and then took posse»iiion of us by the nK>uth : Christ and faith chose no other i;ates, to make a re-entry and dispossess them,
Thos as skilful physicians ' do oflen cure a body by tlie same means which did first distemper it, quench heats witli heat, and stop one flux of blood by opening another ; mo Christ*, that he may quell Satan at his own weapons, dotli, by the same instruments and actions, restore us unto our imnitiTe estate, by which he had hurried us down from it : that those mouths, which were al first open to let in death, may now much more be open, not only to receive, but to praise him, who is made unto uk the autlior and Prince of life.
CHAPTER XII.
Ittjeretwes of practice from the coniideration of the former
actions.
These are all the holy actions we find to have liecn, l>y Christ and bis apostles, celebrated in the great mystery <>t' this Supper. All other human accessions and su|>er8truc- tions, that are by the policy of SataUi and that carnal afTec- tion, which ever labouretb to reduce God's service unto an oatwaxd and pompous gaudiness, foisted into the substance of so divine a work, are, all of them, that ' straw and Htub- Ue%^ which he who is ' a consuming fire^' will at last purge away. Impotent Christ was not, that he could not, — nor malignant, that he would not, — appoint, — nor improvi. dent, that he could not foresee, — the needfulness of such actions ; which are by some proposed, not as matter of or- nament, comeliness, and ceremony, but are obtruded on con- sciences, swayed with superstitious pompousness, for matterH
^T^tuLconUGoMt. c. 5 ' Arist. Probl. icci. I. quest. 45. el »ccf.
3 quaest. 26. «• Vid^AuguMl, dc Ductrina ChrUtiana, ;:b. I.e. U. " I Cor. .H. 12. « Hcb. xii. 29.
VOL. 111. K
50 MEDITATIONS ON THE
substanti&l and necesgary to be observed. As if God, vrho, in the first creation of the world fcom nothing, did, immedi- ately after the work produced, ceaae from all manner of fur- ther creations, — did. in the second creation of the world from sin, not finish the wori^ himself, but leave it imperfect, to be by another consummated and finished. Certainly, whatsoever human inventions do claim, direct, proper, and immediate subscriptioti of conscience, and do propose them- selves as essential, or integral, or any way necessary parts of Divine mysteries ; they do not only rob God of his honour, and intrude on his sovereignty, but they do farther lay on him the aspersion of an imperfect Saviour, who staudeth in need of the church's concurrence, to consummate the work which he had begun. Away then with those actions of ele- vation, adoration, oblation, circumgestatton, mimical ges- tures, silent whisperings I*, and other the like encroachments, in the supposed proper and real sacrifice of Christ in the mass ; wherein I see not, how they avoid the guilt of St. Paul's fearful observation, "To crucify again the Lord of glory, and put him unto an open shame." In which things, BB in sundry others, they do nothing else but imitate the carnal ordinances of the Jews, and the heathenish will-wor- ship of the Ethnicks ; who thought rather by the motions of their bodies, than by the affections of their hearts, to wind into the opinion and good liking of their gods.
Certainly, affectation of pomp, ceremony, and such other human superstructions on the Divine institution, which are not used for order, with decency and paucity, but imposed as yokes upon the consciences of the people, by an arro- gated power of the ciiurch, to bind the conscience by them j — I say, all other pompous accumulations unto the sub- siance of Christ's Sacraments, are, by TertuUian'', made the characters and presumptions of an idolatrous service. True it is indeed, that the ancients make mention, out of that fervour of love and piety towards ao sacred mysteries, of adoration at them', and of carrj'ing the remainders' of tlteut
f Dr. RcyncJdi' amtcrtate with H«rt, c. S, divra. i. — El Momay <ie Euchuici.
p. 62. in lo\. 4 Mcniior, li rod Idolorum Htlemmi de luggeiiu, cl ippuacu,
deque mmptu fidcm cl auctoijlium sibi exilruuni. Trrl. de Bipt. cap. 2.
' Carncm Chiiili in roysleriU adoramus. AmL-riu, de Spiiit. Sanclo, 1.3. c. 13.
MaaduGiiH el adoiani. /tug, ep. 120. c. 27, • 'H Siihru kbI q utrixnta '
HOLY SACRA M|:M. HI
unto tbm abseot Christians. But^ ss in other things »o here liiame» we find it most true. That thiogH, by devout men begun pioiisly« and continued with seal, do efter, when they light in the handling of men otherwise qualified, degenerate into superBtition,~the form, purpose, end, end reason of their observation bttog utterly neglected : it bein^ the contrivance of Satan to raise his temple after the some form, and with the same materials whereof God's consisteth,— to pretend the practice of the saints, for the enforcements of his own pro- jects,— to transform himself into an angel of light*, that he may die easier mislead unstable and wandering souls, — and to retain at least ' a form of godliness"/ that he may, with less claraour and reluctancy, withdraw the substance. And as, in many other things, so hath be herein likewise abused tiie pi^ of the best men, unto the furtherance of his own ends. That adoimtion, which they in and at the mysteries did ex- hibit unto Christ himself (as indeed they could not choose a belter time to worship him in), he impiously derives upon the creatnre ; and makes it now to be done, not so much at, as unto, the elements ; making them as well the term and object % as occasion of that worship, which is due only to the Lord of the Sacrament^. That carrying about, and reserving of the eucharist, which the primitive Christiuns ' used for the benefit of those, who, either by sickness or by persecutions, were withheld from the meetiugs of the Christians (as m those days many were), is by him now turned into an idola- trous circumgestation ; that, at the sight of the bread, the people might direct unto it that worship, which is due only to the person whose passion it representeth, but iihose honour it neither challengeth nor knoweth. And certainly, if we riew the whole fabric either of gentilism or heresy, we shall observe the methods and contrivances of Satan ', must often to drive at this point, — That, either under pretence of Divine truth, or under imitation of Divine institutions, retain-
TM W ^rafmiaiw hd tww Suur^vtfr vt^tvtrcu. J'ultn. Mart. Apolog. 2. ]un
t 2 Cor. zi. 14. • 8 Tim. iti. ft. ■ Justin, Matt, ut
teripCiini CM. 7 Mitth. It. 10. ■ Vid. Ten. de Corcm. Milit. c. 15.
d dc BB(Mift. c. ft. et de PnMcript. cap. 40. coot. Prmzeum, c. 1. cc de Specta. op. 27. cc Apolo^ 47. ctJokam. Stuck. de Andq. Coovival. 1. 1. c. 33. et I. 3. c. 21 . • nm^mn^ 2 Cor. &i. 3. Mo<«««u, IC|>hei. vi. 1 1. /S«i^, Rev. li. 24. ^,4ara, 2 Cor. ii.
L 2
62 MKDITATIONS ON THE
ing the same material actions which God requires, or which the godly have piously, or upon temporary reasons observed^ — he may convey into the hearts of men his own poison, and imprint an opinion of holiness towards his own devices. For howsoever his power and tyranny have done much mis- chief to God's church ; yet his masterpiece is that cunning and deceit which the Scripture so often takes notice of.
Secondly, We see here what manner of men we ought to be in imitation of these blessed actions, that we may be con- formable unto the death of Christ ^
First, As he, when he took these elements, did consecrate them unto a holy use ; so we, ^hen we receive them, should first consecrate ourselves with thanksgiving^ and prayer*' unto a holy life. For if, not only amongst Christians, but even amongst heathens' themselves, it hath been, by the law of nature, received for a religious custom, not to eat their ordinary food without blessing and prayer ; with how much more fervency of prayer should we call'upon the name of the Lord, when we take this ^ cup of salvation,' this * bread of life,' wherein we do not only * taste how gracious the Lord is,' but do 'eat and drink the Lord himself!' And, there- fore, the church hath, both at first and since, most devoutly imitated our blessed Saviour in consecrating both these mys- teries and their own souls, by thanksgiving and prayer, be- fore ever they received the elements from the hands of the deacons; that so that same pure wine, that immaculate blood, might be put into pure and uutainted vessels^, even into sanctified and holy hearts, — lest otherwise the wine should be spilt, and the vessels perish. And indeed the Sa- crament is ignorantly and fruitlessly received, if we do not therein devote, consecrate, and set apart ourselves unto God^s service. For what is a Sacrament but a visible oath?* wherein we do, in consideration of Christ's mercies unto us« vow eternal allegiance and service unto him, against all those
b Phil. lit. 10. 1 Pec iv. 1. « 1 Cor. z. 31. 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5. d Non
prius discumbifur, quam oratio id Deum prsesustetur. TerL Apolog. c. 39. • Inter epalat ubi bene precari mos esset. Ltv, lib. 39. Justinus Martyr fute ezplicat in Apolog. 2. et Tertul. cont. Marc 1. 1. c. 23. ' Matth. iz. 17.
Vasa pura ad rem divinam. Plaut, in Captiv. Act. 4. Scene 1. 8 Sacramen-
turn visibile juramentum. Parous, in Heb. vi. 17. Vid. j4ug, ep. 57. Vcrbum a miliiait juiamcnlo sumptuni. Vid. Dempster, in Ro«ins. Antiq. 1. 10. cap. 3.
HOLY SACRAMENT. o3
povfTs and losU which war against the soul* and to make oar iBemben weapons of righteousness unto him f
Secondly, As Christ brake the bread before he ((ave it, — so must our hearts, before they be offered up to God for a reasonable sacrifice ^, be humbled and bruised with the ap- prehension of their own demerits: for ''a broken and con- trite heart, O Lord, thou wilt not despise *.** Shall we have adamantine and unbended souls, under the weight of those sins which brake the very rock of our salvation^, and made the dead stones of the temple to rend asunder*? Was his bodv broken to let oot his blood, and shall not our souls be broken to let it in ? Was the head wounded, and shall the aJcers arxi imposthumes remain unlanced ? Would not God, in the law ^, accept of any but pushed, and dissected, and burned sacrifices? was his temple *" built of none but cut and hewed stones ? and shall we think to have no sword of the Spirit* divide us; no hammer of the Word ^ break us; none of our dross and stubble ** burned up ; none of our Hesh beaten down ; none of our old man crucified ' and cut ofi** (torn vs, and yet be still living sacrifices', and living stones " in his temple ? Whence did David ' call on God. but out of the pit and the deep waters, when his bones were broken, and could not rejoice ? Certainly, we come unto God, either as unto a physician, or as to a judge: we must needs bring souls, either full of sores to be cured, or full of sins to be condemned.
Again ; In that this rock of ours was broken.— we know whither to fiy, in case of tempest and oppression, even unto the holes of the rock for succour. To disclaim cur own sufficiency, to disavow any confidence in our own strength ; to fiy from church, treasures, supererogations, and to lay hold on him ' in whom were the treasures ', the fulness of all grace*, of which fulness we all receive ^; to forsake the pri- vate lamps of the wisest virgins, the saints and angels, which have not light enough to shine into another's house ;
k Sflm. ui. 1. i Pol. li. k 1 Cor. z. 4. i Matth. uvii. 51.
* Lcrit. xxwi. Vkl. TtrhtL coot. Jodsot, c 14. Levit. i. 6.9. ■ 1 Kin(;« vt. 7.
• Epfect. vi. 17. P Jcf . zziii. 39. S 1 Cor. iii. 13. is. 27. r tphe*. i#. 23. Cot iii. 5. * Mitth. v. 29, 30. « Rom. iit. 1. • 1 Pet. ii. ft. > Pkaim Iziz. and IL J Cant. ii. 14. « Col. it. X » Col. i. 19. ^Johni. 16.
54 MEDITATIONS ON THE
and to have recourse only to the sun of righteousness, the light not of a house, but of the world, who enlighteneth every man that cometh into it. Think when thou seest these elements broken, that even then thou appliest thy lips unto his bleeding wounds^ and dost from thence suck salvation. That even then with Thomas, thy hand is in his side, from whence thou mayest pluck out those words of life, " My Lord and my God ;^ that even then thou seest in each wound, a mouth Open, — and in that mouth the blood, as a visible prayer to intercede with Ood the Father for thee ; and to solicit him with stronger cries for salvation, than did Abera for revenge ^. Let not any sins, though never so bloody, so numberless, deter thee from this precious fountain. If it be the glory of Christ's blood to wash away sin, then is it his greatest glory to wash away the greatest sins. Thy sin, in- deed, is the object of Ood^s hate ; but the misery which sin brings upon thee, is the object of his pity. O when a poor distressed soul, that for many years together hath securely weltered in a sink of numberless and iioisome lusts, and hath ever been environed with a hell of wickedness, — shall, at last, have received a wound from the sword of God^s Spirit, an eye to see, and a heart to feel and tremble at, the terrors of God's judgements, — shall then (I say) fly out of him- self, smite upon his thigh, cast away his rags, crOuch and crawl unto the Throne of Grace, solicit God's mercy With strong cries for one drop of that blood which is nevet cast away, when poured into sinful and sorrowful souls; — how think we, will the bowels of Christ turn within him ! How will he hasten to meet such an humbled soul, to embrace him in those arms which were stretched on the cross for him, and to open unto him that inexhausted fountain, which even delighteth to mix itself with the tears of sinners ! Certainly, if it were possible for any one of Christ's wounds to be more precious than at the rest, even that should be opened wide, and poured out into the soul of such a penitent. Yea, if it might possibly be, that the sins of all the world could be even thronged into the conscience of one man, and the whole guilt of them made proper and personal unto him ; yet if such a man could be brought to sue for grace in the medita-
« Hcb. zii. 24.
HOLY SACRAMENT. 55
tion of Christ's broken body, there would thence issue balm enoogb to cure, blood enotigh to wash and to drown^ them all. Only let not us iiin, b^cKtise grace abounds ; let not us make work for the blood of Christ, and goi about, by orintison and presumptuous sins, Hh it were, to pose God^s mercy: the Uood of Christ, if spilt and trampled under foot, will certainly cry so much louder than Abel's for vengeance, by bow much it is the more precious. It may be as well qpoN OS as m us. As the virtue and benefit of Christ^s blood is im tbose, that embrace it unto life and happiness ; so is the g^t of it tgnm those, that despise it utklo wretchedness and condemnation.
Thirdly^ In that Christ gave and delivered these mysteries «nto the church, we likewise must learn not to engross our- selves or otir own gifts ; but freely to dedicate them all unto fkt honour of that God, afid benefit of that church, nnto which he gav6 both himself and them. Even nature hath made men to stand in need of each other''; and therefore hath imprinted in them a natural inclination unto fellowship and society, in one common city. By Christ we are all made of one city % of one household ; yea of one church, of one lfple> He hath made us members of one body ^ animated by one and the same spirit : stones ^ of one entire building, united on one and the same foundation ** : branches ' of one ODdivided stock, quickened by one and the same root ^ : and therefore requires from us all fi iiiutual suppoit, 8U(5Conr, sus^ tentation, and nourishment of each other, a kind of traffic and continual intelligence from part to part; a union of SKmbers by the supply of nerves and joints, that 60 each OHiy be serviceable unto the whole '• The eye seeth not for Itself, but for the body ; and therefore if the eye be simple, the whole body is full of light ; for the light of the body is the eye "'. Nay, God in each creature imprinteth a love of community (which is that whereby one thing doth, as it bestow itself on another) far above the private and do- love, whereby it labours the preservation and advance- sent of itself. From which general charity and feeling of
^4mi. FoUt. 1. 1. • Eph. ii. 19, 21. ' 1 Cor. vi. !9. xii. 12, 13. Rom.
^ 11. Bph. if. 4. f 1 Pee. ii. 5. »» Eph. ii. 29. 1 Cof. iii. 11. » John w. t. k Rom. xi. 16, 17, 18. > Eph. iv. 16. ■» Mauh. vi. 22.
56 AIEUITATIONS ON THE
communion it comes to pass, that if, by any casualty, the whole body of the universe be like to suffer any rupture or deformity (as in tlie danger of a vacuum, which is the con- tumely of nature), each particular creature is taught to relin- quish his own natural motion, and to prevent the public re- proach, even by forsaking and forgetting of themselves. Agreeable unto which noble impress of nature, was that he- roical resolution of Pompey, when the safety of his country depended on an expedition dangerous to his own particular : *' It is not (said he) necessary for me to live ; it is necessary that I go ^'^ And more honourable that of Codrus, to dedi- cate his own life as a sacrifice for his country's victory. But yet more honourable that of the blessed apostle, — " I count not my life dear unto myself, that I may finish the ministry which 1 have received of the Lord^^' But lastly, most admirable was that of the same blessed Paul p and Moses ^ whose feeling of community transported them, not only beyond the fear, but even into a conditional desire, of their own destruction.
In man's first creation, what was that great endowment of original righteousness % but such a harmony of all man's feu culties *, as that there was no schism in the body, no part unsubordinated, or unjointed from the rest'; but did each conspire with other, unto the service of the whole, and with the whole unto the service of God ? And what was the im- mediate effect of that great fall of man, but the breaking and unjointing of his faculties, the rebellion of his members each towards other, whereby every faculty seeketh the satisfaction of itself, without any respect unto the common good ? And as it bred in man an enmity to himself, so to his neighbour likewise. So long as Adam remained upright, his judge- ment of Eva was a judgement of unity, '* bone of bone ":" — no sooner comes sin, but we hear him upbraid God with "the woman that thou gavest me'';" terms of dislike and enmity.
n Necesse est ut cam, non ut vivam. « Acts zx. 24. p Rom. tx. 3.
9 Ezod. xzxti. 32. ' Aquitu Sum. part 1. qua»t. 95. art. l.-^Zatmannus de Dei Imagine in Horn. c. 5. **n0Vcp r6p wtuZa 9§7 Ktnd rd wpoardyfutra rov
«ai8cr)nryov f^y, oZrm jcol rb iwiBvfiriruu^if Kord r6w K6yw, Vide ArUt, Cthic. 1. .3.C. 12. iKa$dw§p rd wap0\9kvfiitta rov (rijfurrof /Wpia. Vide /fn«/. Ethic. 1. 1 . cap. 13. • Gen. ii. 33. > Gen. iii. 13.
HOLY SACRAMKNT. 57
For the removal whereof, we must imitate this great ex- anple of Christ our head, whose sufferings are not only our* aierit, but our example^; who, denying himself ', his own natural will, and life, bestowed himself on us, that we like* wise might not seek every man his own, but every man the )^ood of another * ; bestowing ourselves on the service and benefit of the church S and so grow up S and be built up to- gether in love, which is the concinnation or |>erfecting of the saints *'.
Secondly, In that Christ gave this sacrament, and did thereby testify his most willing obedience unto a cursed death, we likewise should, in all our respects, back unto him, break through all obstacles of self-love, or any tempta- tions of Satan, and the world ; and though contrary to the bent of our own desires, to the propension of our own cor- rupt hearts, most willingly render our obedience unto him, and make him the Lord of all our thoughts.
Firbt, For our understandings ; we should offer them as free and voluntary sacrifices, ready not only to yield unto truth out of constraint, but out of willingness and love to embrace it, not only for the evidence % but for the author, and goodness of it ;— and thus to resign our judgements into God''s hands, to be (though never so much against its own natural and carnal prejudices) informed and captivated unto all kind of saving knowledge, even to the extirpating of all those presumptions, prepossessions, and principles of cor- ruption ^ which use to smother and adulterate olivine truth. For there is naturally in the minds of men, (though otherwise eagerly pursuing knowledge) a kind of dread and shrinking from the evidence of divine truths, (as each faculty avoideth too excellent an object) a voluntary and affected ignorance S lest, knowing the truth, they should cease to hate it ** : — a fa- culty of making doubts^ touching the meaning and extent of such truths, whose evidence would cross the corruptions of our practice ; and then a framing of arguments and pre*
ilPeCu.21. > Match, zxvi. 39. » 1 Cor. x. 2, 4. Phil.ii. ai.andii. 17. ^ Acuxx. 24. c Epbcfl. iv. 15. ^ Kmrmprtffftis rm¥ iyim^, Ephet. tv. 12.
• TrrfK/. de Pocnit. cap. 4. ' Ktuclm 4^ri ^daprtK^ ^X^'- ^nti. Elh. L 6.
g'Ayro&a U mpmipitr^m. Arist. Eth. 1. 3. c. 1. ^ Simul ut dctinant tgoo-
rarc, otsaant ct odisK. Tertul. Apolog. cap. 1. ^ Domc^tica judicia, TfrtmL
\poL cap. l.'^Ciemens AUs. Sifom. lib 4. Vid. fhrttid. in Trrtul. Apol. c. 1.
58 MEDITATIONS OK THE
sumptions for that part, which is most favourable and flatter- ing unto nature ; a certain private prejudice against the lus- tre of the most strict and practical principles ; a humour of cavilling and disputing about those parts of Ood's will ^, which bring with them a more straight obligation on the con- science ; a withdrawing the thoughts from acquainting them- selves with the more spiritual parts of divine truth, under pretence of more important employments, about scholastical and sublime specidations. All which do evidently prove, that there is not, in the understandings that willingness to give up itself unto Ood, which there was in Christ to bestow himself Unto us.
Secondly, For our wills and affections * ; we should be ready to cross and bend them against all the noise of corrupt ^ delights ; to pluck out our right eye, cut off our right hand ; to be crucified to the world ; to be disposed of by God^s provi- dence, cheerfully in any course, whether of passive obedience to have a mind submitting unto it, and rejoicing in it ; or of active obedience to obey him, contrary to the stream and current of our natural desires ; though it be to offer unto him our Isaac"', our closest and choicest affection; though to shake off the child that hangeth about our neck °, to stop our ear to the voice of her that bare us, to throw the wife out of our bosom, when they shall tempt us to neglect Ood, to spit out the sweetest sin that lies under our tongue ; briefly, to take under Christ^s banners the Roman oath % to go and do where and whatsoever our great captain commanded ; neither for fear of death, or dread of enemy, to forsake service, or resign weapon till death shall extort it.
Lastly, In that Christ gave his sacrament, and therein himself, the author and finisher of oiir salvation p ; we learn how to esteem of our salvation^ — ^namely, as of a free and unmerited gift. Christ was sold by Judas, but he was given by God ^ ; and that in the absolute nature of a gift, without
k Audadam extstiino de bono divini pnBcq>ti ditputare ; TerL de PoeniL c. 4. I Qui pcrspicit apud te paratam faisse virtutem, reddet pro virtute mercedem. Cyprian, de Morttl. Vide Tertul, Apol. c.49. ™ Quid fooeres si fUium jubere- rls ocddere ? Cyprian, de Mortal. n Licet panrnlos ex ooUo pendeat nepoe, ftc. Werwu ad Heliodomm. ^ H^tBapxM**" "^ tron^ciy r6 wpoffrarlSfuitow ihrA rwf dpx^'^*^ '^^"''^ iCpofutf. Vid. Briuon. de Fonnulis, 1. 4. et Just, Martyr, Apol. 2. P Heb. zii. 3. 4 Deus cogitavit talutem qua redempti sumos ; Jadas oogitavit pretium, &c. j4yg. Tom. 9, Tract. 7. in Ep. 1 . Johan.
HOLY SACRAMENT. 59
K) modi AS soil or request on our part for him. True it is^
that if man had persisted in the state of his created integrity,
be might, after an improper manner, be said to hate merited
the glory which he was after to enjoy, inasmuch as he was to
obtain it in the virtue of those legal operations, unto which
he was, by the abilities of his own nature, without the special
iolQeooe of a supernatural infused grace, fitted and disposed ;
though eren this was not from the dignity and value of our
work, but from the indulgence of Almighty God ', who
would set no higher price on that glory, which he proposed
onto man for the object of his desires, and reward of his
works. For if we go exactly unto the first rule of justice
onqoalified with clemency and bounty, it could not possibly
be, that Gkid should be bound to requite our labours with
eternal blias ; there being so vast a disproportion between
the fraition of God, an infinite good, and any the most
excellent, yet still limited operation of the creature. For as
water in its own nature riseth no farther than the spring
whence it first issueth ; so the endeavours of nature could
never have raised man, without a mixture of God'^s mercy,
unto a higher degree of happiness, than should have been
proportionable to the quality of his work. But now having
in Adam utterly disabled ourselves to pay that small price.
It which God was pleased to rate our glory * ; all those who
are restored thereunto again, must acknowledge both it, and
Christ the purchaser of it, as a free gift of Almighty God,
by them so far undeserved, as he was, before the promise,
unknown ainl unexpected.
If it be here demanded, how salvation can be said to be fredy given us, when on our part there is a condition re- quired ; — for the work whereby we obtain life, is not quite taken away, but only altered : before, it was a legal work ; now, an evangelical; before, it was an obedience to the law; now, a belief in the promise ; before, *' eat not, lest ye die ;'* now, '' eat and you shall live :" — We answer, that the hand of the beggar, without which the aluis is no way received,
r Habcmos not aliqoid r>ei, ted ab ipto, non k nobis ; Md ex gniiA iptiut, non ex ooitrft pf oprictAte ; Trrfii/. coot. Hcrmog. — Vide Hooker, Eccles. Folic. 1. 1. lect. 1 1.— Sec Dr. Field of the Chorch, 1. 1 . c. 2. • Ncc quiiqaaiii dieat meri- tif opemm nocum, fcl lOCftiit fidei tibi trtdimm, &c. ^ug, Rp. 45, ad Valcntcm. R— ^^tnm aliod 4 lege, non alienum ; dircrmm, ted mui contrafium. Terhtl, cant. Marckm. lib. 4. cap. 1 1 .
fiO MEDITATIONS OX THE
doth not prejudice the free donation thereof, that being the instrument whereby the gift is conveyed. The labourer doth not deserve his wages, because he receives it ; but he re- ceives it, because he hath before deserved it ; receiving con- veyethy it doth not merit it. Neither is salvation given us for our faith in the virtue of a work, but only because of that respect and relation, which it hath unto him who trod the wine-press alone, without any assisting or co-meriting cause. Even Adam in innocency could not be without an assent and firm belief, that the faithful God would perform the promise of life S made and annexed unto the covenant of works. But this faith could not be the merit of life ", but the fruit and effect of merit, or rather obedience anteceding ; for his performance of the law (in the right whereof he had interest unto glory) preceding, there should immediately from thence have issued, by faith, a prepossession (as it were) and pre-apprehension of that glory, which, by. virtue of that legal obedience, he should have had interest unto. So that it is repugnant absolutely to the nature of faith, to be any way the cause meritorious of salvation, it being nothing else but the application and apprehension of that salvation ; which in vain our faith layeth claim unto, unless in the right of some anteceding work, either our own, or some others in our behalf, it be first merited for us. He which believes, and so by consequence lays hold on life, without a ground preceding for his claim thereunto, is a rob- ber rather than a believer, and doth rather steal Heaven than deserve it, though he is not likely so to do ; for in Heaven, thieves break not through nor steal '•
Again, Suppose faith in the quality of the work should merit that, which until merited, can, in truth, be never by faith apprehended ; — yet, inasmuch as nothing can merit for another any farther, than as it is his own proper work, — faith, therefore, being not within the compass, either of natural or of acquired endowment, but proceeding from a supernatu- ral and infused grace ^, it is manifest, that even so, it cannot possibly obtain salvation by any virtue or efficacy of its own. For as he which bestows money on his poor friend, and after, for that money, sells him land, far beyond the value
t G^n. H. 17. • John vi. 51. * Match, vi. 80. y John vi. 29.
HOLV SACIiAMLM. Gl
of the mouey which he gave, may be thus far ataid rather to muitiply and change his gifts, than to receive a price fur them ; so God, bestowing eternal life on roan, upon the con- dition of beliering, the ability whereunto he himself hath first bestowed *, and between which life and faith there is an infinite disproportion of worth, — may be said rather to heap his gifts, than to bargain and compact for them ; rather to doable his free bounty, than to reward man^s weak and im- pofect obedience, unless we take it improperly for the din- cbarge of a Toluntary debt, wherein it hath pleased God in mercy, as it were, to oblige and engage himself upon con- dition of oor faith *.
Neither do we herein at all make way for that cursed doc- trine of Socinianism, — than which a more venomouH nan never sacked from so sweet and saving a tni*h, — That be- caose Ovation is a free gift, Christ therefore lii! ..ot suffer for the satisfaction of God's wrath, nor pay any le^al price for the salvation of the world, nor lay down himself in our room, as the ransomer of us, and purchaser of life for us, but became incarnate in the flesh, made under the law, obedient onto death, only for an example of patience and huniilily onto us, not for a propitiation to his Father, and reconcile- Bieni of the world unto God. A price was paid ^ and that so precious, as that the confluence of all created wealth into one sum, cannot carry tlie estimate of one farthing in compa- rison of it ; and indeed it ought to be a price more valuable than the whole world, which was to ransom so many souIm, the loss of the least whereof cannot, by the purchase of the whole world, be countervailed. A price it was, valuable only by him tliat paid and received it, by us to be enjoyed and adored, by God only to be measured. Neither could it stand witli the truth and constancy of (sod\ law, with the sacredness and majesty of his justice, to suffer violation and not revenge it; and when all his attributes are in him one and the same thing, to magnify his mercy, not by the satis-
s Grstias ago tibi, Domine, cjaia quod quaris k mc, prius ipse donatti z Cypnun. de Bapt. Christi- — Rrtnunerant in nobis quicquid ipse prarstUtt, U honorans quod ipae pcrfedt : Cypt. 1. 3. eptst. 25. * Dcut, promittendo, «icip5um fecit dc-
bitofcm. August. ^ A^^m, Mattk. xx. 28. drrJAirrpov, 1 Tim. li. 5. wpo^-
fofd KwX ^«0^ Eph. T. 2. Heb. ix. 12. Kordpa, Gal. iii. Li. diroXurpw^ir, 1 Cof *. JO. iAcvfurf, 1 John ti. 2. Mattli. xri. 2(!.
62 MEDITATIONS ON THE
faction, but the destruction of his justice, and so to set his own unity at variance with itself. Mercy and truth, right- eousness and peace^ they were, in man's redemption, to kiss, and not to quarrel with each other : God did not disunite his attributes, when he did reunite his church unto himself. A price then was paid unto God's justice, and eternal life is a purchase by Christ- bought % but still unto us a giff^^ not by any pains or satisfaction of ours attained unto, but only by him who was himself given unto us, that together with himself he might give us all things \ He unto whom I stand engaged in a sum of money, by mc ever impossible to be raised, if it please him to persuade his own heir to join in my obligation, and out of that great estate, by himself con- ferred on him for that very purpose, to lay down so much as shall cancel the bond, and acquit me ; doth not only freely forgive my debt^, but doth moreover commend the abun- dance of his favour, by the manner and circumstances of the forgiveness. Man by nature is a debtor unto God : there is a hand-writing against him ^, which was so long to stand in virtue, till be was able to o£fer something in value propor- tionable tp that infinite justice unto which he stood obliged; which being by him, without the sustaining of an infinite misery, utterly unsatisfiable, it pleased God to appoint his own co-essential and co-eternal Son ^ to enter under the same bond of law for us, on whom he bestowed such rich graces, as were requisite for the oeconomy of so great a work. By the means of which human and created graces, concurring with, and receiving value from, the divine nature, meeting hypostatically in one infinite person, — the debt of mankind was discharged, and the obligation cancelled ; and so as-many as were ordained to life, effectually delivered by this great ransom, virtually sufficient, and, by God's power, applicable unto all, but actually beneficial, and by his most wisA and just will, conferred only upon those, who should, by the grace of a lively faith, apply unto themselves this common gift So then, all our salvation is a gift, Christ a gift ^, the knowledge of Christ ^ a gift, the faith * in Christ a
« TltfHwoiriais, Ephes. 1. 14. d John iii. 16. Gal. i. 4. Tit. 2. 14. Isai. iz. 6. • Kom.vm.32. 'Matth.vi. 12. sCol.ii.14. hGal.iv.4. ilsai.iz.6. k Matth. xiii. II. 1 Jude v. 3. Phil. i. 29.
IIOLV SACRAMENT. 63
gift, repentance "^ by Christ a gift, the suffering ° Tor Christ a gift, the reward "* of all a gift ; whatsoever we have, what- toerer we are, is all from Cod that showeth mercy ^.
Lastly, In that Christ gives his sacrament to be eaten, we learn, first, not only our benefit, but our duty : the same Christ it is, whom, in eating, we both enjoy and obey, he being as well the institutor as the substance of the sacra- ment. If it were bat his precept, we owe him our obser- fSAce ; but besides it is his body, and even self-love might move OS to obey his precept : our months have been wide open anto poison, let them not be shut up against so sove- rejjgn an antidote ^.
Secondly, We see how we should use this precious gift of Christ cmcified, not to look on, but to eat, not with a gazing, speculative knowledge of him, as it were at a dis- tance, but with an experimental and working knowledge ; ■one truly knows Christ, but he that feels him. " Come, tMte and see,'* saith the prophet, '^ how gracious the Lord is.'* In divine things, tasting goes before seeing, the union before the vision : Christ must first dwell in us, before we mn know the love of God that passeth knowledge \
Thirdly, We learn not to sin against Christ, because there- in we do sin against ourselves, by offering indignity to the body of Christ, which should nourish us ; and, like swine*, by tiampling under foot that precious food, which pre- •crvath nnto life those that with reverence eat it, but fatteth sato slaughter those who profanely devour it:— even as the wtmm nun in difiSsrent grounds serves sometimes to bring on fte seed, other times to choke and stifle it by the forward- ness of weeds ^ For as it is the goodness of God to bring gsod out of the worst of things, even sin ; so is it the ma- hgaity of sin and cunning of Satan, to pervert the most holy (, the word of Ood, yea, the very blood of Christ, unto
■ Acuv. 31. 2 Tim. ii. 25. b Phil. i. 29. • Rom. vi. 23. P Restat M pfopicfea iect£ dictum intelligatur, * Non volentis, neque currentis, sed mite* ■Mb est Dei ;* ut totum Deo detur, qui hominis voluntatsm bonam ec praeparat manudam, et adjuvat praeparatam. Vid. Aug. Encbir. cap. 32. q Nauseabit
li f klimini, qui hiavit ad venenum ? Teri, cont Gnost. cap. 5. ' Eph. 3.
U, IS. • Porcis compaiandi, qui ca prius conculcant, ac luto ccenoque invol- «•■(, que mox ayide devorant : Parker de Antiq. Brit, in Praefat. * Macth.
".3,6.
64 MEDlTATIOIsrs ON TlIK
Lastly, We leani, how pure we ought to preserve those doors of the soul from filtbiness and intemperance, at which so often the ' Prince of glory ' himself will enter in.
CHAPTER XllL
Of the two first ends or effects of the Sacrament^ namelj/, the exhibition of Christ to the Church, and the union of the Church to Christ : Of the real presence.
Having thus far spoken of the nature and quality of this holy sacrament, it follows in order to treat of the ends or effects thereof, on which depends its necessity, and our comfort. Our sacraments are nothing else but evangelical types or shadows of some more perfect substance. For as the legal sacrifices were the shadows " of Christ expected, and wrapped up in a cloud of predictions, and in the loins of his predecessors ; so this new mystical sacrifice of the gos- pel is a shadow of Christ, risen indeed, but yet hidden from us under the cloud of those heavens, which shall contain him until the dissolution of all things. For the whole heavens are but as one great cloud, which intercepts the lustre of that sun of righteousness, who enlightenetli every one that cometli into the world. Now shadows are for the refreshing of us against the lustre of any light, unto which the weakness of the sense is yet disproportioned. As there are many things for their own smallness imperceptible, — so some, for their mag- nitude, do exceed the power of sense, and have a transcend- ency in them, which surpasseth the comprehension of that faculty, unto which they properly belong. Mo man can, in one simple view, look upon the whole vast frame of heaven ; because he cannot, at the same moment, receive the species of so spreading and diffused an object : so is it in things divine; some of them are so above the reach of our imperfect faculties, as that they swallow up the understanding, and make not any immediate impression on the soul, between which and their excellency, there is so great disproportion. Now disproportion useth, in all things, to arise from a
« Hcb. X. 1.
HOLY SACRAMENT 65
double caase: the one natural % being the limited constitii- tioo of the faculty, whereby^ even in its best sufficiency « it is disabled for the perception of too excellent an object, as are the eyes of an owl in respect of the sun.
The other accidental ; namely, by violation and distemper of the faculty, even vrithin the compass of its own strength ; ■s in soreness of eyes in regard of light, or lameness in re- gard of motion. Great certainly was the mystery of man's redemption, which posed and dazzled the eyes of the angels themselves^ : so that between Christ and man, there are both these former disproportions observable.
For first of all, man, while he is on the earth, a traveller towaids that glory which yet he never saw, and which the tongue of St. Paul himself could not utter', is altogether, eveo in his highest pitch of perfection, unqualified to com- prehend the excellent mystery of Christ, either crucified, or much more glorified. And, therefore, our manner of as- senting in this life, though in regard of the authority on which it is grounded (which is God^^s own Word), it be most evident and infallible, — yet, in its own quality, it is not so immediate and express, as is that which is elsewhere re- served for as. For, hereafter, we shall know even as we are known, by a knowledge of vision *, fruition, and possession : here daricly, by stooping and captivating our understandings aato those divine reports, which are made in Scripture, which is a knowledge of faith, distance, and expectation. We do, J say, here bend our understandings to assent unto such* tatbsy as do not transmit "any immediate species or irradiation of their own upon them : but there our understandings shall be raised unto a greater capacity, and be made able, without a secondary report and conveyance, to apprehend clearly those glorious truths, the evidence whereof it did here sub- mit onto, for the infallible credit of God ; who, in his Word, had revealed, and, by his Spirit, obsignated the same unto them : as the Samaritans knew Christ at first only by the re- port of the woman ^ — which was an assent of faith ; but after, when they saw his wonders, and heard his words, they knew him by himself, — which was an assent of vision.
> Vide jtfuin, part. 1. quaest.62. arL 2. ad secundum. 7 1 Titn. iii. ir>.
■ t Cor. xii. 4. » I Cor. xv. *> John iv.
VOL. III.' F
66 MEDITATIONS ON THE
Secondly, As the church is here but a travelling church, therefore cannot possibly have any farther knowledge of that country whither it goes, but only by the maps which describe it, the Word of God ; and these few fruits * which are sent unto them from it, the fruits of the Spirit**, whereby they have some taste and relish of the world to come : so more- over is it even in this estate, by being enclosed in a body of sin (which hath a darkening property in it, and adds unto the natural limitedness of the understanding, an accidental de- fect and soreness), much disabled from this very imperfect assent unto Christ, the object of its faith. For as sin, when it wastes the conscience, and bears rule in the soul, hath a power like Delilah and the Philistines, to put out our eyes (as Ulysses the eye of his Cyclops with his sweet wine •), a power to corrupt principles, to pervert and make crooked the very rule by which we work'; conveying all moral truths to the soul, as some concave glasses use to represent the species of things to the eye, not according to their na^ tural rectitude or beauty, but with those wrestings, inversions, and deformities, which, by the indisposition thereof, they are framed unto ; — so even the least corruptions, unto which the best are subject (having a natural antipathy to the evidence and power of Divine truth), do necessarily, in some manner, distemper our understandings, — and make such a degree of soreness in the faculty, as that it cannot but, so far forth, be impatient and unable to bear that glorious lustre, which shines immediately in the Lord Christ. So then, we see what a great disproportion there is between us and Christ immediate- ly presented : and from thence we may observe our necessity, and God^s mercy, in a£fording us the refreshment of a type and shadow.
These shadows were to the church of the Jews, many ; be* cause their weakness in the knowledge of Christ was of ne-
D
cessity more than cure, inasmuch as they were but an infant', we an adult and grown church: and they looked on Christ at a distance; we near at hand, he being already incarnate : unto us, they are the sacraments of his body and blood, in which we see and receive Christ, as weak eyes do the light
c Numb. xiii. 21. <i Gal. v. 22. • Horn. Odyss. 1. 9. f Sr/>c«Adj^ troi- •Iv riv icQM6ya, Arist, Rh. lib. 1. cap. 1. s Gal. W. 3.
HOLY SACRAMENT. 67
of the 8un, through some dark cloud, or thick grove. So theo, one main and principal end of this Sacrament, is, to be •a instrument fitted unto the measure of our present estate, for the exhibition or conveyance of Christ, with the benefits of his passion unto the faithful soul ; an end not proper to this mystery alone, but common to it with all those legal sacraments which were the *^iore thick shadows of the Jewish chnrch: for even they in the Red Sea ^ did pass through Christ, who wa« their way; in the manna' and rock, did eat and drink Christy who was their life ; in the brazen serpent, did behold Christy who was their Saviour ; in their daily sacrifices, did prepare Christ, who was their truth ; iu their passover, did eat Christ, by whose blood they were sprinkled. For how- soever between the legal and evangelical covenant there may be sundry circumstantial differences :
As first. In the manner of their evidence ; that, being ob- •core, — this, perspicuous ; to them, a promise only, — to us, a gospel ; —
Secondly, In their extent and compass ; that, beiug con- fined to Judea ^, — this, universal to all creatures * ; —
Thirdly, In the means of ministration; that, by priests and prophets % — this, by the Son himself, and those delegates who were by him enabled and authorized by a solemn com- mission, and by many excellent endowments for the same
Lastly, In the quality of its durance ; that being mutable and abrogated, this to continue until the consummation of all things ; — yet notwithstanding, in substance they agree, and, though by sundry ways, do all at last meet in one and the same Christ, who, like the heart in the midst of the body, coming himself in person between the legal and evangelical church, doth equally convey life and motion to them both : even as that light which I see in a star, and that which I receive by the immediate beam of the sun, doth originally
k 1 Cor. X. 1, 2, 3, 4. Terlul, de Baptis. cap. 9.et cont. Marcion. lib. S. cap. IG. CI L S. c 7. ' Manna et aqua i petr& habebant in se figuram futuri mysterii, ^•od none samimus in comroemoratiunem Christi Domini. Amhros. in ICor.Zw— Vk). Momaifdc Eucharist, lib. 4. cap. 1.— Dr. AVM of the Church, L1.C.5. Pffreus in Ueb. cap. 8. et cap. 10, &c. 12, 18, 28. Acts xiii.32. Gil. ill. 17. Acts xui. 46. Matth. z. 5, 6. ^ Rom. iii. 2. Eph. ii. 12. ^ Nfark ati. 15. liai. xlix. 6. » Hcb. i. 1, 2. x. 9. vii. 12, 16. vi. 20. vii. 16, 24, 28.
F 2
68 MEDITATIONS ON THE
issue from the same fountain, though conveyed with a different lustre, and by a several means.
So then, we see the end of all Sacraments made after the second covenant (for Sacraments there were even in Para- dise before the fall), namely. To exhibit Christ, with those benefits which he bestoweth oh his church, unto each be- lieving soul. But after a more especial manner, is Christ ex- hibited in the Lord's Supper, because his presence is theit more notable. For as, by faith, we have the evidence,— so, by the Sacrament, we have the presence of things farthest distant and absent from us. A man that looketh on the light through a shadow, doth, truly and really, receive the selfsame light, which would, in the openest and clearest sunshine, ap- pear unto him, though after a different manner. *' There shall we see him.'^as Job speaks, " with these selfsame eyes ;^ here, with a spiritual eye, after a mystical manner. So then, in this Sacrament we do most willingly acknowledge a real, true, and perfect presence of Christ, — not in, with, or under the elements, considered absolutely in themselves **, but with that relative habitude and respect, which they have unto the immediate use, whereunto they are consecrated. Nor yet so do we acknowledge any such carnal trans-elementation of the materials in this Sacrament, as if the body or blood of Christ were, by the virtue of consecration, and, by way of a local sub- stitution, in the place of the bread and wine, — but are truly and really by them, though in nature different, conveyed into the souls of those, who by faith receive him. And there^ fore Christ first said, " Take^ eat," and then, •* This is my body ;^ to intimate unto us (as learned Hooker observeth "*), that the Sacrament, however by consecration it be changed from common unto holy bread, and separated from common unto a divine use, is yet never properly to be called the ' Body of Christ,' till taken and eaten ; by means of which actions (if they be actions of faith) that holy bread and wine do as really convey whole Christ, with the vital influences that proceed from him, unto the soul, as the hand doth them unto the mouth, or the mouth unto the stomach. Otherwise,
> Secanducn quendaro rooduin Sacramentom Corporis Christi Corpus est, et Sacramentum sanguinis sanguis est. Atig- Epist. 23. • Hooker, lib. 5. page 359. Od 7«lp tit Ktwiw wdna, rt£r* XmfM^ofuw, Just. Mort. Apol. 2.
HOLY SACKAMLNT. 69
if Christ were not really and corporally present wiih the con- santed elemeots, severed from the act cif faithful receivini;, tfce wicked should as easily receive him nith their teeth, as the fiuthfnl in their soul : which to affirm, is both absurd and impioas p.
Now Christ'*s presence in this holy Sacrament being a thing of so important consequencei and the consideration thereof being very proper to this first end of the Sacrament, the exhibiting of Christ (for to exhibit a thing, is nothing else bnt to present it, or to make it present unto the party to whom it is exhibited ;) it will not be impertinent to make some short digression for setting down the manner, and clearing the truth of Christ^ s real presence ; the understand* ing whereof will depend upon the distinguishin«^ uf the seve- ral manners, in which Christ may be said to be present.
Pint then, Christ being an infinite person, hath, in tlie virtue of his godhead, an infinite and unlimited presence* whereby he so filleth all places, as that he is not contained or circumacribed in them : which immcuaity of his making him intimately present with all the creatures, is that where- by they are quickened, supported, and conserved by him. For ^^ by him all things consist;" and "he upholdeth them all by the word of his power ;** and " iu him they live, and move, and have their being." But this is not that pre- •ence, which in the Sacrament we affirm, because that pre- npposeth a presence of Chriit in and according to that na- tore, wherein he was the Redeemer of the world ; which wu4 hia human nature. Yet inasmuch as thitt his hun)an nature subsisteth not, but in and with tlie infiniteness of tlie second person ; there is therefore, in the second place, by the Lu- therans framed another imaginary presence of Christ's human body (after once the Divinity was pleased to derive glory in fulness on it) ; which giveth it a participated ubiquity unto it too, by means whereof. Christ is corporally in or under the sacramental elements.
But this opinion, as it is no way agreeable with tht* truth of the human nature of Christ, so is it greatly injurioun to
f Nob denm id mordendum acuiraus, ted Mc siooerA panem franKimus ct pntimar. Cff^r.^^Qm numducat tatu^, non foris; (|ui manducat in oirdr, noi) qm fwit date. /ftig. Trad. 26. in Johan. ci rU\, de Civil. I)ci. lib. 21. eapuSS.
70 MEDITATIONS ON THE
his divinity. For first, Though Christ's human nature mas, in regard of its production, extraordinary, — and in regard of the sacred union which it had with the divine nature, ad- mirable, — and in regard of communication of glory from the godhead, and of the unction of the Holy Ghost, far above all other names that are named in Heaven or earth ; — yet, in its nature, did it ever retain the essential and primitive pro- perties of a created substance, which is to be in all manner of perfections finite, and so by consequence in place too. For glory destroys not nature, but exalts it ; nor exalts it to any farther degrees of perfection, than are consistent with the finiteness of a creature, who is like unto us in regard of all natural and essential properties. But these men give unto Christ's body far more than his own divine nature doth ; for he glorifies it only to be the head, that is, the most ex^ cellent and first-bom of every creature : but they glorify it BO far, as to make it share in the essential properties of the divine nature. For as that substance unto which the intrin- secal and essential properties of a man belong, is a man ne- cessarily (man being nothing else but a substance so qua- lified) ; so that being, unto which the divine attributes do belong in that degree of infiniteness, as they do to the di- vine person itself, must needs be God : and immensity, we know, is a proper attribute of the Divinity, implying infi- niteness, which is God^s own prerogative. Neither can the distinction of ubiquity communicated, and original or essen-' tial, solve the consequence : for God is by himself so difier- enced from all the creatures, as that it is not possible any attribute of his should be participated by any creature in that manner of infiniteness as it is in him : nay, it implies an in- evitable contradiction, that, in a finite nature, there should be room enough for an infinite attribute.
We confess, that inasmuch as» the human nature in Christ is inseparably taken into the subsistence of the omnipresent Son of God, it is therefore a truth to say, That the Son of God, though filling all places, is not yet, in any of them, separated or asunder from the human nature. Nay, by the virtue of the communication of the properties, it is true like- wise to say, that the man Christ is in all places, though aot in, or according, to his human nature. But now from the union of the manhood to the godhead, to argue a co-exten-
HOLY SACUAMENT. 71
siooy or joint-presence therewith, is an inconsequent argu- Qieot, as may appear in other things. The soul hath a kind of immensity in her little world, beinj^ in each part thereof whole and entire : and yet it follows not, because the soul is onited to the body, that therefore the body must needs partake of this omnipresence of the soul : else should the whole body be in the little finger, because the soul, unto which it is united, is wholly there.
Again, There is an inseparable union between the sun and the beam : so that it is infallibly true to say, the sun is no where severed from the beam ; yet we know they both oceopy a distinct place. Again, Misletoe is so united to the sabstence of the tree out of which it groweth, that (though of a dififerent nature) it subsisteth not but in and by the sub- wtence of the tree ; and yet it hath not that amplitude of place, which the tree hath.
Letting go then this opinion, there is a third presence of Christy which is a carnal, physical, local presence, which we affirm his human nature to have only in heaven ; the Papists attribute it to the Sacrament, because Christ hath said, ** Tliis is my body ;^ and, in matters of fundamental conse- fjaence, be useth no figurative or dark speeches. — To this we say, that it is a carnal doctrine, and a mistake like that of Nicodemus, and of Origen, from the spirit to the letter. And for the difficulty, it is none to men that have more than only a carnal ear to hear it : for what difficulty is it to say, that then the king gives a man an office, when he hath sealed him such a patent, in the right whereof that office belong- eth, and is conveyed unto him i And if Christ be thus lo- cally in the Sacrament, and eaten with the mouth, and so conveyed into the stomach ; I then demand what becomes of him, when and after he is thus received into the stomach ? If he retire from the accidents out of a man, then first acci- dents shall be left without any substance at all under them to sustain them ; and which is (if any thing can be) yet more absurd, bare accidents should nourish, be assimilated, and augment a substance. For it is plain, that a man might be nourished by the bread ; yea, the priest by intemperate ex- cess made drunk with the consecrated wine: unto which de- testable effects, we cannot imagine that God, by a more especial concurrence and miracle, would enable the bare ac-
72 MEDITATIONS ON THE
cidents of bread and wine. But if Christ stay, and do cor- porally unite himself to the receiver; then I see not how all they that receive the Sacrament, being physically and sub- stantially united to Christ's body, have not likewise a natu- ral union to his person too, that being no where separated from this, which is blasphemous to affirm.
Secondly, How Christ's body may not be said to have a double subsistence ; infinite in the second person, and finite in all those with whom be is incorporated.
Leaving then this as a fleshly conceit, we come to a fourth presence of Christ, which is by energy and power. Thus, *' Where two or three be gathered together in his nameS Christ is in the midst of them^' by the powerful working of his holy Spirit ; even as the sun is present to the earth, inas- much as, by its influence and benignity, it heateth and quickeneth it. For all manner of operation is, by some manner of contact, between the agent and the patient, which cannot be without some manner of presence too : but the last manner of presence is a sacramental, rela- tive, mystical presence. Understand it thus; — The king is in his court or presence-chamber only locally and phy- sically ; but, representatively, he is wheresoever his chan- cellor or subordinate judges are, inasmuch as whatsoever they, in a legal and judicial course, do determine, is accounted by him as his own personal act, — as being an effect of that power, which though in them as the instru- ments, doth yet originally reside no where but in his own person. Just so, Christ is locally in Heaven, which must contain him till" the restitution of all things f yet having instituted these elements for the supply, as it were, of his absence, he is accounted present with them ; inasmuch as they which receive them with that reverend and faithful af- fection, as they would Christ himself, do, together with them, receive him too. really and truly, though not carnally or physically, but after a mystical and spiritual manner. A real presence of Christ we acknowledge, but not a local or physical ; for presence real (that being a metaphysical term) is not opposed unto a mere physical or local absence or dis- tance ; but is opposed to a false, imaginary, fantastic pre-
% Matth. xxviii.
HOLY SACEAUENT. 73
%tnce. For if real presence may be undereiood of nothing but a carnal and local presence, then that speech of Christ, " Where two or three be gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them," cannot have any real troth in it ; because Christ is not locally in the midst of them.
This real presencci being thus explained, may be thus prored : — ^The main end of the Sacrament (as shall be shown) is to unite the faithful unto Christ ; to which union there must, of necessity, be a presence of Christ by means of the Sacrament, which is the instrument of that union. Such then as the union is, such must needs be the presence too : since presence is therefore only necessary, that by m€*ans thereof that union may be effected. Now united unto Christ we are not carnally or physically^ a^ the meat is to the body ; but after a mystical manner, by joints and sinews, not fleshly, but spiritual : even as the faithful are united to each other in one mystical body of Christ, into one holy spiritual building % into one fruitful olive-tree, into a holy but mystical marriage with Christ. Now what presence fitter for a spiritual union than a spiritual presence ? Cer- tainly, to confine Christ unto the narrow compass of a piece of bread, to squeeze and contract his body into so strait a room, and to grind him between our teeth, is to humble him (though DOW glorified) lower than he humbled himself: he himself, to the form of a servant; but this, to the condition of a monster.
That presence then of Christ, which, in the Sacrament, we acknowledge, is not any gross presence of circumscription ; as if Christ Jesus, in body, lay hid under the accidents of bread and wine ; as if he who was wont to use the senses * for witness and proof of his presence, did now hide from them, yea, deceive them under the appearances of that whicli be is not ; — but it is a spiritual presence, of energy, power, and concomitancy with the element, by which Christ doth appoint, that by and with these mysteries, though not tn or from them, his sacred body should be conveyed into tlie faithful souL And such a presence of Christ in power, though absent in flesh, as it is most compatible with the
f 1 Prt.ii. 5. * John xx. 20, 27. Luke xxiv. 39. Match, zxviii. T.
74 MEDITATIONS ON THE
properties of a human body*, so doth it most make for the demonstration of his power, who can, without any necessity of a fleshly presence, send as great influence from his sa- cred body on the church, as if he should descend visibly amongst us. Neither can any man show any enforcing rea- son, why, unto the real exhibition and reception of Christ crucified, there should any more physical presence of his be required, than there is of the sun unto the eye for receiving his light, or of the root unto the utmost branches for receiv- ing of vital sap**, or of the head unto the feet* for the receiv- ing of sense, or of the land and purchase made over by a sealed deed^ for receiving the lordship'; or lastly (to use an instance from the Jesuits'* own doctrine out of Aristotle), of a final cause in an actual existence, to effect its power and casualty on the will. For if the final cause do truly and really produce its efilect, though it have not any material gross presence, but only an intellectual presence to the apprehen- sion ; why may not Christ (whose sacred body, however it be not substantially coextended, as I may bo speak, in re- gard of ubiquity with the godhead, — yet in regard of its co- operation, force, eflicacy, unlimited by any place or subject^ it having neither sphere of activity, nor ^tint of merit, nor bounds of efficacy, nor necessary subject of application, be- yond which the virtue of it grows faint and ineffectual), — why may not he, 1 say, really unite himself unto his church by a spiritual presence to the faithful soul, without any such gross and carnal descent, or re-humiliation of his glorified body, unto an ignoble and prodigious form ?
So then, to conclude this digression, and the first end of this Sacrament together; when Christ saith, "This is my body,^ we are not otherwise to understand it, than those other sacramental speeches of the same nature, '* 1 am that bread of life V—** Christ was that rock%" and the like: it being a common thing, not only in holy Scriptures*^, but even in profane writers also % to call the instrumental ele-
t Ent ciro ejus in monumento, sed virtus ejus operabbtur in Coeloi Ambrot, de Incarnat. cap. 5. n Rom. xi. 16. ' Ephcs. i. 22. w*pnroifi9ts.
y Epbes. i. 14, v^peeyls, ■ Rom. xiv. 11. » Greg, de FaUfL torn. 1.
disp. 1. qu. 1. punct. 1. — Hooker, lib. 5. sect. 55. p. 303, 304. ^ John vi. 51.
« 1 Cor. X. 4. (* Gen. zvii. 10. Exod. xii. 11. • Foedus ferirc. Lw.
Ki^pVMS 8* (Ua iorv, Scfir ^potf Zptua wtardt, 'A pre i6» nccU Jpoy, Homer,
HOLY SACRAMENT. 75
meots by the name of that covenant, of which they arc only the iachfices, seals, and visible confirmations, because of tliat relation and near resemblance that is between them.
The second end or effect of this Sacrament, which in order of nature immediately followeth the former, is to obsignate, and to iDcrease the mystical union of the church unto Christ their head. For as the same operation, which infuseth the reasonable soul (which is the first act or principle of life natnial) doth also unite it unto the body, to the making up of one man ; so the same Sacrament which doth exhibit Christ mito us (who is the first act and original of life di. rine) doth also unite us together unto the making up of one church. In natural nourishment, — the vital heat, being stronger than the resistance of the meat, doth macerate, con- coct, and convert that into the substance of the body : but in this spiritual nourishment, the vital Spirit of Christ ', hav. ing a heat invincible by the coldness of nature, doth turn us into the same image and quality with itself, working a fel- lowship of affections, and confederacy of wills '. And as the body doth, from the union of the soul unto it, receive strength, beauty, motion, and the like active qualities ; so also Christ, being united unto us by these holy inyHterics, doth comfort, refresh, strengthen, rule, and direct us in all oar ways. We all, in the virtue of that covenant made by God onto the faithful, and to their seed in the first instant of our being, do belong unto Christ that bought us^; after, in the laver of regeneration, the sacrament of baptism, we are Cuther admitted and united to him. Our right unto Christ before was general, from the benefit of the common cove- nant*; bat, in this sacrament of baptism, my right is made persona] ; and I now lay claim unto Christ, not only in the right of his common promise, but by the efficacy of this par- ticular washing, which sealeth and ralifieth the covenant unto me. Thus is our first union unto Christ wrought by the grace of the covenant effectively, — and by the grace of bn|>- tism (where it may be had) instrumentally ; the one giving
' John Ti. 63. Rom. viii. 2. S Affcctus consoctat et confoedcrmt vuluntttes. Cfp^atu ^ 1 Cor. iii. 16. Rom. viii. 9, 1 1. 2 Tim. i. 14. Eph. iii. 17. Gen.
irh. 17. Dexu uc penooam non accipit, sic ncc sptmtem. Cyprian, lib. 3. Episi. 8. * Tit. iii. 5. Vide Coqutr, Comroen. ad lib. 1. — Au^. dc Cif . Dei, cap. 27. num. 2.
76 MEDITATIONS ON THE
unto Christi the other obsignating and exhibiting, that right, by a farther admission of us into his body.
But now we must conceive, that as there is a union unto Christy so there must» as in natural bodies, be, i(fter that union, a growing up, till we come to our «»|uuy» the measure of the fulness of Christ ^. This growth, being an effect of the vital faculty, is more or less perfected in us, as that is either more or less stifled or cherished. For as in the soul and body, so in Christ and the church, we are not to conceive the union without any latitude, but capable of augmentation, and liable to sundry diminutions, according as are the seve- ral means, which, for either purpose, we apply unto our- selves. The union of the soul and body, though not dis- solved, is yet, by every the least distemper, slackened, — by some violent diseases, almost rended asunder ; so that the body hath sometimes more, sometimes less holdfast of the soul. So here, we are in the covenant and in baptism united unto Christ : but we must not forget, that in men there is by nature ' a root of bitterness ^'' whence issue those ' fruits of the flesh ™,^ a spawn and womb of actual corruptions, where sin is daily 'conceived and brought forth **;' a 'mare mor- tuum,' a lake of death, whence continually arise all manner of noisome and infectious lusts : by means of which, our union to Christ, though not dissolved, is yet daily weakened, and stands in need of continual confirmation. For every sin doth more or less smother and stop the principle of life io us ; so that it cannot work our growth, which we must rise unto, with so free and uninterrupted a course as otherwise it might.
The principle of life in a Christian, is the very same, from whence Christ himself, according to his created graces, re- ceiveth life ; and Ifaat is the Spirit of Christ % a quickening Spirit P, and a strengthening Spirit "i. Now as that great sin, which is incompatible with faith, doth bid defiance to the good Spirit of God, and therefore is more especially called, ' The sin against the Holy Ghost ;^ so every sin doth, in its own manner and measure, quench the Spirit **, that it cannot
k Eph. i¥. 13, 15. Heb. zii. 15. m Gtl. v. » J«n. i. IS.
• G«l. iv. 6. Rotn. t iti. 2. P John vi. 63. <l Eph«t. iii. 16. r i Thett. V. 19.
HOLY SACKAMENT. 77
quk^eiit and grieve the Spirit*, that it cannot strengthen ui in that perfection of degrees aa it might otherwise.
And thaa is oar onion unto Christ dailj loosened and slackened by the distempers of sin. For the re-establishing whereof, God hath appointed these sacred mysteries as ef- fectual iii8tFiimeota» where they meet with a qualified sub- ject, tB prodaoe a more firm and close union of the soul to Chriaty and to strengthen our faith, which is the joint and sinew by which that union is preserved ; to cure those wouda \ and to p«ge those iniquities, whose property is to aepsnte betwixt Christ and us ; to make ns submit our ser- vices \ to knit our wills, to conform our afiections, and to iacorpoimte oar persona into him: that ao, by constant, though alow proceedingay we might be changed from ' glory to ^ory/ and attain onto the 'measure of Christ,* there wbm oar fetth cuk bo vray be impaired, our bodies and soaia sobjeot to no decay, and by consequence stand in no need of any such viaticums ', as we here use to strengthen OS ia a journey ao much both above the perfection, and against the corruption of our present nature.
CHAPTER XIV.
Of tkrte other endt of the holy Sacrament : the fellowship or umkm of the faithfid: the obsignation of the covenant of grace : and the abrogation of the passover.
"Now as the same nourishment, which preaerveth the umoo between the soul and body, or head and members, doth, in like manner, preserve the union between the mem- bers themselves; even so this Sacrament is, as it were, the
> Epbet. iv. Sa. * Iste qui vulniiB habet, mcdicinani rcqoirit. Vulnnt ctt, ^OM «bH pcocttD MMnos ; RMdidns ml ooalaie cc ««iienibile SacruBcaton. jfrn* Ifw. de Smenm. I. 5. cap. 4. Simul roedicaroentum ct botocamtum ad tanaodat ■tatet* et pnrgandas iniquiutct. CyprUm. de Caen. Dom. • Pociu
qoaedam iooorporauo, tubjectit obtequiit, volunatibus juoctia, affcctibot : Ecus carnlt hojos qviadaai aviditaa esc, et quoddain detiderium manendi is ipio. C^vprim. Ibid. Immu. Chrymui. bom. 24. in 1 Cor.— Qui mlc Tiveie, habct ttbi virac, aeeedat, ctedac, incorpoictur, vivificetur. /lug, episc &9. et vide de Or. Dei, lib. 10. cap. 6. « Sioolim Saaamencum appellatam. Vid. Dmr.
de ntiboi Ecdcsi«, lib. 2. cap. 25.
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sinew of the church, whereby the faithful, being all animated by the same Spirit that makes them one with Christ, are knit together in a bond of peace ^, conspiring all in a unity of thoughts and desires ; having the same common enemies to withstand, the same common prince to obey, the same common rule to direct them, the same common way to pass, the same common faith to vindicate; and therefore the same mutual engagements to further and advance the good of each other. So that the next immediate effect of this Sacrament is, to confirm the union of all the members of the church, each to other, in a communion of saints, whereby their prayers are the more strengthened, and their adversaries the more resisted. For as in natural things, union* strength* eneth motions