The worthy communicant, or, A discourse of the nature, effects, and blessings consequent to the worthy receiving of the Lords Supper and of all the duties required in order to a worthy preparation : together with the cases of conscience occurring in the duty of him that ministers, and of him that communicates : to which are added, devotions fitted to every part of the ministration / by Jeremy Taylor ...

CHAP. I. Of the Nature, Excellencies, Vses, and Intention of the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper. (Book 1)

SECT. I. Of the several apprehensions of men con∣cerning it.

WHen our Blessed Lord was to nail the hand writing of Ordinances to his Cross, he was pleased to retain two Ceremonies, Baptism and the Ho∣ly Supper; that Christians may first wash, add then eat; first be made clean, and then eat of the Supper of the Lamb: and it cannot be imagined but that this so signal and pe∣culiar retention of two Ceremonies is of great pur∣pose and remarkable vertues. The matter is evi∣dent in the instance of Baptism; and as the Myste∣ry is of the foundation of Religion, so the vertue of it is inserted into our Creed, and we all believe

one Baptism for the remission of our sins;* 1.1 and yet the action is external, the very Mystery is by a Ce∣remony, the allusion is bodily, the Element is water, the minister a sinful man, and the effect is produced out of the Sacrament in many persons and in many instances, as well as in it; and yet that it is effected also by it and with it,* 1.2 in the con∣junction with due dispositions of him that is to be baptized, we are plainly taught by Christs Apostles and the symbols of the Church.

But concerning the other Sacrament there are more divisions and thoughts of heart; for it is ne∣ver expressly joyned with a word of promise, and where mention is made of it in the Gospels, it is named only as a duty and a Commandment, and not as a grace, or treasure of holy blessings; we are bid∣den to do it, but promised nothing for a reward, it is commanded to us, but we are not invited to obe∣dience by consideration of any consequent blessing: and when we do it, so many holy things are re∣quired of us, which as they are fit to be done; even when we do not receive the Blessed Sacra∣ment; so they effect salvation to us by vertue of their proper and proportioned promises in the ver∣tue of Christs death however apprehended and understood.

Upon this account some say that we receive no∣thing in the B. Eucharist; but we commemorate many blessed things which we have received; that it is affirmed in no Scripture that in this mystery we are to call to minde the death of Christ, but be∣cause we already have it in our minde, we must al∣so have it in our hearts, and publish it in our con∣fessions and Sacramental representment, and there∣fore

it is not the memory, but the commemoration of Christs death; that as the anniversary sacrifices in the law were * 1.3 a commemoration of sins every year; not a calling them to minde; but a confession of their guilt and of our deserved punishment; so this Sacrament is a representation of Christs death by such symbolical actions as himself graciously hath appointed: but then, excepting that to do so is an act of obedience, it exercises no other vertue, it is an act of no other grace, it is the instrument of no other good; it is neither vertue nor gain, grace nor profit. And whereas it is said to confirm our faith, this also is said to be unreasonable; for this being our own work, cannot be the means of a Divine grace; not naturally; because it is not of the same kind, and faith is no more the natural effect of this obedience; than chastity can be the product of Christian fortitude; not by Divine ap∣pointment; because we find no such order; no pro∣mise, no intimation of any such event; and al∣though the thing it self indeed shall have what re∣ward God please to apportion to it as it is obedi∣ence; yet of it self it hath no other worthiness; it is not so much as an argument of persuasion; for the pouring forth of wine can no more prove or make faith that Christs blood was poured forth for us, than the drinking the wine can effect this persuasion in us that we naturally, though under a vail, drink the natural blood of Christ; which the Angels gathered as it ran into golden phials, and Christ multiplied to a miracle like the loaves and fishes in the Gospel. But because nothing that naturally remains the same in all things as it was be∣fore, can do any thing that it could not do before; the Bread and wine which have no natural change, can effect none; and therefore we are not to look

for an egge where there is nothing but order; and a blessing where there is nothing but an action; and a real effect where there is nothing but an ana∣logy, a Sacrament, a mystical representment, and something fit to signify, and many things past, but nothing that is to come. This is the sense and dis∣course of some persons that call for an express word, or a manifest reason to the contrary, or else resolve that their belief shall be as unactive as the Scriptures are silent in the effects of this mystery. Only these men will allow the Sacraments to be, marks of Christianity, symbols of mutual Charity, testi∣monies of a thankful mind to God, allegorical admoni∣tions of Christian mortification, and spiritual alimony, symbols of grace conferred before the Sacrament, and rites instituted to stir up faith by way of object and re∣presentation; that is, occasionally and morally, but neither by any Divine or physical, by natural or supernatural power, by the work done, or by the Divine institution. This indeed is something but very much too little.

But others go as far on the other hand and affirm that in the Blessed Sacrament we receive the body and blood of Christ; we chew his flesh, we drink his blood; for his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed, and this is the Manna which came down from heaven; our bodies are nourished, our souls united to Christ; and the Sacrament is the infal∣lible instrument of pardon to all persons that do not maliciously hinder it; and it produces all its effects by vertue of the Sacrament it self so ap∣pointed; and that the dispositions of the Commu∣nicants are only for removing obstacles and impe∣diments, but effect nothing; the sumption of the Mysteries does all in a capable subject; as in infants

who do nothing, in penitents who take away what can hinder; for it is nothing but Christ himself; the body that dyed upon the crosse is broken in the hand of him that ministers, and by the teeth of him that communicates; and when God gives us his Son in this Divine and glorious manner, with heaps of miracles to verify heaps of blessings, how shall not he with him give us all things else? They who teach this doctrine call the holy Sacrament; The host, the unbloody sacrifice; the flesh of God, the body of Christ, God himself, the Mass, the Sacra∣ment of the Altar. I cannot say that this is too much; but that these things are not true; and al∣though all that is here said, that is of any material benefit and reall blessing is true; yet the blessing is not so conferred, it is not so produced.

A third sort of Christians speak indefinitely and gloriously of this Divine mystery; they speak enough, but they cannot tell what; they publish great and glorious effects; but such which they ga∣ther by similitude and analogy, such which they desire, but cannot prove; which indeed they feel, but know not whence they do derive them: they are blessings which come in company of the Sacra∣ments, but are not alwayes to be imputed to them; they confound spiritual senses with mystical expres∣sions, and expound mysteries to natural significa∣tions: that is, they mean well but do not alwayes understand that part of Christian Philosophy which explicates the secret nature of this Divine Sacra∣ment, and the effect of it is this; that they some∣times put too great confidence in the mystery; and look for impresses which they find not, and are sometimes troubled that their experience does not answer to their Sermons; and meet with scruples

instead of comforts, and doubts instead of rest. and anxiety of mind in the place of a serene and peaceful conscience. But these men both in their right and in their wrong enumerate many glo∣ries of the holy Sacrament which they usually signifie in these excellent appellatives, calling it, the Supper of the Lord; the bread of elect souls, and the wine of Angels, the Lords body, the New Testa∣ment and the calice of benediction, spiritual food, the great Supper, the Divinest and Archisymbolical feast; the banquet of the Church, the celestial dinner, the spiritual, the sacred, the mystical, the formidable, the rational Table, the supersubstantial bread, the bread of God, the bread of life, the Lords mystery, the great mystery of salvation, the Lords Sacrament,* 1.4 the Sacrament of piety, the sign of unity, the contesse∣ration of the Christian communion, the Divine grace, the Divine ma∣king grace, the holy thing, the desi∣rable, the comunication of Good, the perf••ction and consummation of a Christian, the holy particles, the gracious symbols, the holy gifts, the Sacrifice of commemoration, the intellectual and mystical good, the hereditary donative of the New Testament, the Sa∣crament of the Lords body, the Sacrament of the Ca∣lice, the Paschal Oblation, the Christian pasport, the mystery of perfection, the great Oblation, the Worship of God, the life of Souls, the Sacrament of our price and our Redemption; and some few others much to the same purposes, all which are of great and useful signification; and if the explications and conse∣quent propositions were as justifiable as the title•• themselves are sober and useful, they would be apt

only for edification, and to minister to the spirit of devotion. That therefore is to be the design of the present Meditations, to represent the true and proper and mysterious nature of this divine nutri∣ment of our souls; to account what are the bles∣sings God reacheth forth to us in the Mysteries, and what returns of duty he expects from all to whom he gives his most holy Son.

I shall only here add the names and appellatives which the Scripture gives to these Mysteries, and place it as a part of the foundation of the follow∣ing doctrines;* 1.5 It is by the Spirit of God called, The bread that is broken, and the cup of blessing, the break∣ing of bread; the body and blood of the Lord; the communication of his body, and the communication of his blood; the feast of charity or love; the Lords Table, and the Supper of the Lord. Whatsoever is consequent to these titles we can safely own, and our faith may dwell securely, and our devotion like a pure flame, with these may feed, as with the spi∣ces and gums upon the Altar of Incense.

SECT. II. What it is which we receive in the holy SACRAMENT.

IT is strange that Christians should pertinaciously insist upon carnal significations and natural ef∣fects in Sacraments and Mysteries, when our blessed Lord hath given us a sufficient light to conduct and secure us from such mis-apprehensions. [The flesh profiteth nothing: the words which I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life,] that is, the flesh is corruption, and its senses are Ministers of death: and this one word alone was perpetually sufficient for Christ's Disciples. For when upon occasion of the grosse understanding of their Ma∣sters words by the men of Capernaum, they had been once clearly taught that the meaning of all these words was wholly spiritual; they rested there and inquired no further: insomuch that when Christ at the institution of the Supper affirmed of the bread and wine, that they were his body and his blood, they were not at all offended, as being sufficiently before instructed in the nature of that Mystery. And besides this, they saw enough to tell them that what they eat was not the natural body of their Lord: This was the body which himself did or might eat with his body: one body did eat, and the other was eaten; both of them were his body, but after a diverse manner. For the case is briefly this;

We have two lives, a natural and a spiritual, and both must have bread for their support and maintenance in proportion to their needs,* 1.6 and to their capacities: and as it would be an intollerable charity to give nothing but spiritual nutriment to a hungry body, and pour diagrams, and wise pro∣positions into an empty stomach; so it would be as useless and impertinent to feed the Soul with wheat, or flesh, unless that were the conveyance of a spiritual delicacy.

In the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the body of Christ, according to the proper signification of a humane body is not at all, but in a sense differ∣ing from the proper and natural body, that is, in a sense more agreeing to Sacraments; so St. Hie∣rom expresly. [

Of this sacrifice which is won∣derfully done in the commemoration of Christ we may eat,* 1.7 but of that sacrifice which Christ offered on the altar of the Crosse by it self, or in its own nature, no man may eat] For it is his flesh which is under the form of bread, and his blood which is in the form and tast of wine: for the flesh is the Sacrament of flesh, and blood is the Sa∣crament of blood: for by flesh and blood that is invisible,* 1.8 spiritual, intelligible, the visible and tangible body of our Lord Jesus Christ is consigned, full of the grace of all vertues, and of Divine Majesty.] So St Augustine. For there∣fore ye are not to eat that body which ye see, nor to drink that blood which my crucifiers shall

pour out: it is the same, and not the same; the same invisibly, but not the same visibly.] For un∣til the world be finished, the Lord is above, but the truth of the Lord is with us. The body in which he rose again must be in one place, but the truth of it is every where diffused.

* 1.9] For there is one truth of the body in the Mystery, and another truth simply and without Mystery. It is truly Christs body both in the Sacrament, and out of it;* 1.10 but in the Sacrament it is not the natural truth, but the spiritual and the mystical.

And therefore it was that our Blessed Saviour, to them who apprehended him to promise his na∣tural body and blood for our meat and drink, spake of his ascension into heaven, that we might learn to look from heaven to receive the food of our souls, heavenly and spiritual nourishment, said St. Athanasius.* 1.11 For this is the letter which in the New Testament kills him who understands not spiritually what is spoken to him, under the signi∣fication of meat and flesh, and blood and drink: So Origen For this bread does not go into the body (for to how many might his body suffice for meat?) but the bread of eternal life supports the substance of our spirit; and therefore it is not touch'd by the body, nor seen with the eyes, but by faith it is seen and touched: So St. * 1.12 Ambrose. And all this whole mystery hath in it neither car∣nal sense, nor carnal consequence, saith St. * 1.13 Chrysostom.] But to believe in Christ is to eat the bread; and therefore why do you prepare your teeth and stomach? believe him, and you have eaten him

] they are the words of S. Austin. For faith is that intellectual mouth, as S. Brasil calls it) which is within the man, by which he takes in nourishment.

But what need we to draw this water from the lesser cisterns? we see this truth reflected from the spring it self, the fountains of our blessed Saviour, I am the bread of life,* 1.14 he that cometh unto me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on me shall not thirst;* 1.15 and again, He that eats my flesh hath life abi∣ding in him, and I will raise him up at the last day; The plain consequent of which words is this, that therefore this eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood, can only be done by the Ministeries of life and of the spirit, which is opposed to nature, and flesh, and death. And when we consider, that he who is not a spiritual and a holy person does not feed upon Christ, who brings life eternal to them that feed on him, it is apparent that our manducati∣on must be spiritual, and therefore so must the food; and consequently, it cannot be natural flesh, how∣ever altered in circumstance and visibilities, and im∣possible or incredible changes. For it is not in this spiritual food as it was in Manna, of which our Fa∣thers did eat and died; but whosoever eats this di∣vine nutriment shall never die.* 1.16 The Sacraments indeed and symbols, the exterior part and ministe∣ries may be taken unto condemnation; but the food it self never. For an unworthy person cannot feed on this food, because here to eat Christs flesh is to do our duty, and to be established in our title to the possession of the eternal promises. For so Christ disposed the way of salvation, not by flesh, but by the spirit, saith Tertullian; that is, according to his own exposition, Christ is to be desired for life, and to be devoured by hearing, to be chewed by the un∣derstanding, and to be digested by faith; and all this is the method and oeconomy of heaven, which whosoever uses and abides in it, hath life abiding in

him. He that in this world does any other way look for Christ, shall never find him; and therefore, if men say, Loe here is Christ, or loe there he is in the desart, or he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in the Cupboards or Pan∣tries where bread or flesh is laid, believe it not: Christs body is in heaven, and it is not upon earth: the heavens must contain him till the time of restituti∣on of all things,* 1.17 and so long as we are present in the body, we are absent from the Lord.

In the mean time we can taste and see that the Lord is gracious, that he is sweet: but Christ is so to be tasted as he is to be seen, and no otherwise; but here we walk by faith and not by sight, and here also we live by faith, and not by meer or only bread, but by that Word which proceedeth out from God;* 1.18 that as meat is to the body, so is Christ to the soul, the food of the soul, by which the souls of the just do live. He is the bread which came down from heaven, the bread which was born at Bethl••hem, the house of bread, was given to us to be the food of our souls for ever.

The meaning of which mysterious and Sacra∣mental expressions, when they are reduced to easie & intelligible significations, is plainly this; By Christ we live and move and have our spiritual being in the life of grace, and in the hopes of glory. He took our life, that we might partake of his; he gave his life for us, that he might give life to us: He is the Author and finisher of our faith, the beginning and perfection of our spiritual life. Every good thought

we think, we have it from him; every good word we speak, we speak it by his spirit [for no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the holy Ghost:] and all our prayers are by the aids and communications of the spirit of Christ, who helpeth our infirmities, and by unutterable groans, and unexpressible re∣presentment of most passionate desires, maketh in∣tercession for us. In fine, all the principles and parts, all the actions and progressions of our spiritual life, are derivations from the Son of God, by whom we are born and nourished up to life Eternal.

* 1.192. Christ being the food of our souls, he is plea∣sed to signifie this food to us by such symbols and si∣militudes as his present state could furnish us with∣al. He had nothing about him but flesh and blood, which are like to meat and drink; and therefore what he calls himself, saying, I am the bread of life, he afterwards calls his flesh and his blood, saying, My flesh is meat indeed, my blood is drink indeed; that is, that you may perceive me to be indeed the food of your souls, see, here is meat and drink for you, my flesh and my blood; so to represent himself in a way that was neerest to our capacity, and in a more intelligible manner; not further from a Mystery, but neerer to our manner of understanding; and yet so involved in figure, that it is never to be drawn neerer than a Mystery, till it comes to expe∣rience, and spiritual relish and perception. But be∣cause we are not in darknesse, but within the fringes and circles of a bright cloud, let us search as far in∣to it as we are guided by the light of God, and where we are forbidden by the thicker part of the cloud, step back and worship.

3. For we have yet one further degree of cha∣rity

and manifestation of this Mystery. The flesh of Christ is his word; the blood of Christ is his spi∣rit; and by believing in his word, and being assisted and conducted by his spirit, we are nourished up to life; and so Christ is our food, so he becomes life unto our souls.

Thus St. * 1.20 Clemens of Alexandria, and * 1.21 Ter∣tullian affirm the Church in their days to have un∣derstood this Mystery, saying, The word of God is called flesh and blood: For so the eternal wisdom of the Father calls to every simple soul that wanteth un∣derstanding, come eat of the bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled: and that we may know what is this bread and wine, he adds, forsake the foolish and live, and go in the way of understanding. Our life is wisdom, our food is understanding. The Rabbins have an observation, that when ever men∣tion is made in the Book of the Proverbs of eating and drinking, there is meant nothing but wisdom and the Law: and when the Doctors using the words of Scripture, say, Come and eat flesh in which there is much fatness, they would be understood to say, Come and hear wisdom, and learn the fear of God, in which there is great nourishment and advantage to your souls. Thus Wisdom is called Water, and Ʋnderstanding Bread,* 1.22 by the son of Sirach [with the bread of understanding shall she feed him, and give him the water of wisdom to drink.] It is by the Prophet Isaiah called water and wine;* 1.23 and the desires of righteousness are called hunger and thirst by our blessed Saviour in his Sermon on the Mount:* 1.24 And in pursuance of this mysterious truth, we find that God in his anger threatens a famine of hearing the words of the Lord:* 1.25 when we want Gods word, we die with hunger, we want that bread on which

our souls do feed. It was an excellent Commentary which the Jewish Doctors make upon those words of the Prophet [with joy shall ye draw waters from the wells of salvation] that is,* 1.26 from the choicest or wisest of the just men,* 1.27 saith Rabbi Jonathan; from the chief Ministers of Religion, the Heads of the peo∣ple, and the Rulers of the Congregation; because they preach the Word of God, they open the wells of salvation, from the fountains of our Saviour gi∣ving drink and refreshment to all the people. Thus the Prophet Jeremy expresses his spiritual joy, and the sense of this Mystery;* 1.28 Thy words were found and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy Name, O Lord God of Hosts: the same with that of our Blessed Saviour; My words are spirit, and they are life, they give life and comfort, they re∣fresh our souls, and feed them up to immortality.

As the body or flesh of Christ is his Word, so the blood of Christ is his Spirit in real effect and signi∣fication. For as the body without blood is a dead and liveless trunck, so is the Word of God without the Spirit a dead and ineffective Letter: and this Mystery we are taught in that incomparable Epistle to the Hebrews: For by the blood of Christ we are sanctified; and yet that which sanctifies us is the spirit of grace, and both these are one: For so saith the Apostle,* 1.29 the blood of Christ was offered up for us, for the purification of our consciences from dead works; but this offering was made through the eternal spirit; and therefore he is equally guilty and does the same impiety, he who does d••sp••te to the spirit of Grace,* 1.30 and he who accounts the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing; for by this spirit and by this blood we are sanctified,* 1.31 by this spirit, and

by the blood of the everlasting Cov••nant, Jesus Christ does perfect us in every good work; so that these are the same Ministry of salvation, and but one and the same Oeconomy of God. Thus St. Peter af∣firms, That by the precious blood of Christ we are redeemed from our vain conversation; and it is every where affirmed, that we are purified and cleansed by the blood of Christ, and yet these are the express effects of his Spirit: for by the spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body; and we are justi∣fied and sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God. By which expressions we are taught to distinguish the natural blood of Christ from the spiritual; the blood that he gave for us, from the blood which he gives to us; that was in∣deed by the spirit, but was not the same thing; but this is the spirit of grace, and the spirit of wisdom. And therefore, as our Fathers were made to drink into one spirit, when they drank of the water of the rock; so we also partake of the spirit when we drink of Christs blood, which came from the spi∣ritual rock when it was smitten: for thus accor∣ding to the Doctrine of St. John, the water a••d the blood and the spirit are one and the same glorious purposes.

As it was with our Fathers in the beginning, so it is now with us, and so it ever shall be, world without end: for they fed upon Christ, that is, they be∣lieved in Christ, they expected his day, they lived upon his promises, they lived by faith in him: and the same meat and drink is set upon our Tables: and more than all this, as Christ is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world, so he shall be the food of souls in heaven, where they who are accounted worthy shall sit down and be feasted in the eternal

Supper of the Lamb: concerning which blessedness our B. Saviour saith,* 1.32 Blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God; for he hath appointed to his chosen ones to eat and drink, at his table in his King∣dom; plainly teaching us, that by eating and drinking Christ,* 1.33 is meant in this world to live the life of the spirit, and in the other world it is to live the life of glo∣ry: here we feed upon duty, and there we feed upon reward: our wine is here mingled with water and with myrrhe, there it is mere and unmixt; but still it is called meat and drink, and still is meant grace and glory, the fruits of the spirit and the joy of the spirit; that is, by Christ we here live a spiritual life, and hereafter shall live a life eter∣nal.

Thus are sensible things the Sacrament and repre∣sentation of the spiritual and eternal;* 1.34 and spiritual things are the fulfillings * 1.35 of the sensible. But the consequent of these things is this; that since Christ always was, is, and shall be the food of the faithful, and is that bread which came down from heaven; since we eat him here, and shall eat him there, our eating both here and there is spiritual; only the word of teaching shall be changed into the word of

glorification, and our faith into Charity; and all the way our souls live a new life by Christ, of which, eating and drinking is the Symbol and the Sacra∣ment. And this is not done to make this mystery obscure, but intelligible and easie. For so the pains of hell are expressed by fire, which to our flesh is most painful; and the joyes of God by that which brings us greatest pleasure, by meat and drink, and the growth in grace by the natural instruments of nutrition; and the work of the Soul by the mini∣steries of the body, and the graces of God by the blessings of nature, for these we know, and we know nothing else, and but by phantasmes and ideas of what we see and feel we understand no∣thing at all.

Now this is so far from being a diminution of the glorious mystery of our Communion, that the changing all into spirituality is the greatest increase of blessing in the world: And when he gives us his body and his blood, he does not fill our stomachs with good things, for of whatsoever goes in thither, it is affirmed by the Apostle, that God will destroy both it and them, but our hearts are to be replenished, and by receiving his spirit we receive the best thing that God gives; not his liveless body, but his flesh with life in it, that is, his doctrine and his spirit to imprint it, so to beget a living faith and a lively hope that we may live and live for ever.

4. St. John having thus explicated this mystery in general,* 1.36 of our eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ; added nothing in particular concerning any Sacraments, these being in parti∣cular instances of the general mystery and commu∣nion with Christ. But what is the advantage we re∣ceive

by the Sacraments, besides that which we get by the other and distinct ministeries of faith, I thus account in general.

The word and the spirit are the flesh and the blood of Christ; that is the ground of all. Now be∣cause there are two great Sermons of the Gospel which are the summe total and abbreviature of the whole word of God, the great messages of the word incarnate, Christ was pleased to invest these two words with two Sacraments, and assist those two Sacraments, as he did the whole word of God, with the presence of his Spirit, that in them we might do more signally and solemnly what was in the ordinary ministrations done plainly and without extraordinary regards.

Believe and repent; is the word in Baptisme, and and there solemnly consigned; and here it is that by faith we feed on Christ: for faith as it is op∣posed to works, that is, the new Covenant of faith as it is opposed to the old Covenant of works, is the covenant of repentance; repen∣tance is expressly included in the new covenant, but was not in the old; but by faith in Christ we are admitted to pardon of our sins if we repent and forsake them utterly. Now this is the word of faith; and this is that which is called the flesh or body of Christ, for this is that which the soul feeds on, this is that by which the just do live; and when by the operation of the holy spirit, the waters are reformed to a Divine Nature or efficacy, the bap∣tized are made clean, the•• are sanctified and pre∣sented pure and spotless unto God. This mystery * 1.37 St. Austin rightly understood when he affirmed, that we are made partakers of the body and blood of

Christ when we are in baptisme incorporated into his body; we are baptized in the passion of our Lord, so * 1.38 Tertullian, to the same sense with that of St. Paul, we are buried with him in baptisme into his death; that is, by baptisme are conveyed to us all the effects of Christ's death; the flesh and blood of Christ crucified are in baptisme reached to us by the hand of God, by his holy spirit, and received by the hand of man, the Ministery of a holy faith. So that it can without difficulty be understood that as in receiving the word and the spirit illuminating us in our first conversion, we do truely feed on the flesh and drink the blood of Christ who is the bread that came down from heaven; so we do it also, and do it much more in baptisme, because in this, be∣sides all that was before, there was superadded a rite of Gods appointment. The difference is only this; That out of the Sacrament, the spirit ope∣rates with the word in the ministery of man; in Baptisme the spirit operates with the word in the ministery of God. For here God is the preacher, the Sacrament is Gods sign, and by it he ministers life to us by the flesh and blood of his Son, that is, by the death of Christ into which we are bap∣tized.

And in the same Divine method the word and the spirit are ministred to us in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper. For as in Baptisme so here also there is a word proper to the ministery. So often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye declare the Lords death till he come. This indeed is a word of comfort. Christ died for our sins; that is, our repentance which was consigned in baptisme shall be to purpose; we shall be washed white and clean in the blood of the sacrificed Lamb. This is ver∣bum visibile; the same word read to the eye and to

the ear. Hear the word of God is made our food in a manner so near to our understanding, that our tongues and palats feel the Metaphor and the Sacra∣mental signification; here faith is in triumph and exaltation: but as in all the other ministeries Evangelical, we eat Christ by faith, here we have faith also by eating Christ: Thus eating and drink∣ing is faith; it is faith in mystery, and faith in ce∣remony; it is faith in act, and faith in habit; it is ex∣ercised and it is advanced; and therefore it is cer∣tain that here we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ with much eminency and advantage.

The sum is this. Christs body, his flesh, and his blood are therefore called our meat and our drink, because by his incarnation and manifestation in the flesh he became life unto us: So that it is mysterious indeed in the expression, but very proper and in∣telligible in the event, to say that we eat his flesh and drink his blood, since by these it is that we have and preserve life. But because what Christ begun in his incarnation, he finished in his body on the crosse, and all the whole progression of mysteries in his body, was still an operatory of life and spi∣ritual being to us; the Sacrament of the Lords Sup∣per being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemp∣tion by his body and blood, does contain in it a visible word, the word in symbol and visibility, and special manifestation. Consonant to which Do∣crtine, the Fathers by an elegant expression call the blessed Sacrament, [the extension of the Incar∣nation.]

So that here are two things highly to be re∣marked.

1. That by whatsoever way Christ is taken, out of the Sacrament, by the same he is taken in the Sacrament: and by some wayes here, more than there.

2. That the eating and drinking the consecrated symbols is but the body and lesser part of the Sacra∣ment: the life and the spirit, is believing greatly, and doing all the actions of that believing, direct and consequent. So that there are in this, two man∣ducations, and Sacramental, and the Spiritual. That does but declare and exercise this: and of the sacramental manducation as it is alone, as it is a ceremony, as it does only consigne or expresse the internal; it is true to affirm that it is only an act of obedience: but all the blessings and conjugations of joy which come to a worthy Communicant proceed from that spiritual eating of Christ, which as it is done out of the Sacrament very well, so in it and with it, much better. For here being (as in bap∣tisme) a double significatory of the spirit, a word, and a sign of his own appointment, it is certain he will joyn in this Ministration. Here we have bread and drink, flesh and blood, the word and the spirit, Christ in all his effects, and most gracious communi∣cations.

This is the general account of the nature and purpose of this great mystery. Christians are spi∣ritual men, faith is their mouth, and wisdom is their food, and believing is manducation, and Christ is their life, and truth is the Air they breath, and their bread is the word of God, and Gods spirit is their drink, and righteousness is their robe, and Gods laws are their light, and the Apostles are their

salt; and Christ is to them all in all: for we must put on Christ, and we must eat Christ, and we must drink Christ: we must have him within us, and we must be in him: he is our vine, and we are his branches; he is a door, and by him we must en∣ter; he is our shepherd, and we his sheep: Deus meus & omnia, he is our God, and he is all things to us: that is, plainly, he is our Redeemer, and he is our Lord: He is our Saviour and our Teacher: by his Word and by his Spirit he brings us to God and to felicities eternal, and that is the sum of all. For greater things than these we can neither receive nor expect: But these things are not consequent to the reception of the natural body of Christ, which is now in heaven; but of his Word and of his Spirit, which are therefore indeed his body and his blood, because by these we feed on him to life eternal. Now these are indeed conveyed to us by the several ministries of the Gospel, but especially in the Sa∣craments, where the Word is preached and con∣signed, and the Spirit is the teacher, and the feeder, and makes the Table full, and the Cup to overflow with blessing.

SECT. III. That in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there are represented and ex∣hibited many great blessings upon the special account of that sacred ministe∣ry, proved in General.

IN explicating the Nature of this Divine mystery in general, as I have manifested the nature and operations and the whole ministery to be spiritual, and that not the natural body and blood of Christ is received by the mouth, but the word and the spirit of Christ, by faith and a spiritual hand, and upon this account have discovered their mistake, who think the secret lies in the outside, and sup∣pose that we tear the natural flesh of Christ with our mouthes: So I have by consequent explicated the secret which others indefinitely and by conje∣cture and zeal do speak of, and know not what to say, but resolve to speak things great enough; it remains now that I consider for the satisfaction of those that speak things too contemptible of these holy mysteries; who say, it is nothing but a commemoration of Christs death, an act of obe∣dience, a ceremony of memorial, but of no spiri∣tual

effect, and of no proper advantage to the soul of the receiver. Against this, besides the preceding discourse convincing their fancy of weakness and derogation, the consideration of the proper excellencies of this mystery in its own seperate nature will be very useful. For now we are to consider how his natural body enters into his oeconomy and dispensation.

For the understanding of which are to con∣sider that Christ besides his Spiritual body and blood did also give us his natural, and we receive that by the means of this. For this he gave us but once, then, when upon the Crosse he was broken for our sins; this body could die but once and it could be but at one place at once, and Hea∣ven was the place appointed for it, and at once all was sufficiently effected by it which was design'd in the Counsel of God. ••or by the vertue of that death Christ is become the Author of life unto us and of salvation; he is our Lord and our Lawgi∣ver; but it he received all power in heaven and earth, and by it he reconciled his Father to the world, and in vertue of that he intercedes for us in heaven, and sends his spirit upon earth, and feeds our souls by his word, he instructs us to wis∣dom and admits us to repentance, and gives us pardon, and by means of his own appointment nourishes us up by holinesse to life eternal.

This body being carried from us into heaven; cannot be touch'd or tasted by us on earth; but yet Christ left to us symbols and Sacraments of this natural body; not to be, or to convey that natu∣ral body to us, but to do more and better for us; to convey all the blessings and graces procured for

us by the breaking of that body, and the effusion of the blood: which blessings being spiritual are therefore called his body spiritually, because pro∣cured by that body which died for us; and are therefore called our food, because by them we live a new life in the spirit, and Christ is our bread and our life, because by him after this manner we are nourished up to life eternal. That is plainly thus: Therefore we eat Christs spiritual body, be∣cause he hath given us his natural body to be bro∣ken, and his natural blood to be shed, for the remis∣sion of our sins and for the obtaining the grace and acceptability of repentance. For by this gift, and by this death, he hath obtained this favour from God, that by faith in him and repentance from dead works, by repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we may be saved.

To this sense of the Mystery are those excellent words of the Apostle:* 1.39 He bare our sins upon his own body on the Tree, that he might deliver us from the present evil world, and sanctifie and purge us from all pollution of flesh and spirit, that he might destroy the works of the devil, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, that he might purchase to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works, and that we being dead unto sin▪ might live unto righteousnesse. Totum Christiani nominis & pondus & fructus, mors Christi. All that we are, or do, or have, is produced and effected by the death of Christ.

Now because our life depends upon his death, the ministry of this life must relate ••o the ministry of this death; and we have nothing to glory in but the Crosse of Christ: the Word preached is no∣thing,

but Jesus Christ crucified: and the Sacra∣ments are the most eminent way of declaring this word: for by Baptism we are bu∣ried into his death,* 1.40 and by the Lords Supper we are partakers of his death: we communicate with the Lord Jesus as he is crucified; but now, since all belong to this, that Word and that Mystery that is highest and neerest in this rela∣tion, is the principal and chief of all the rest; and that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is so, is evident beyond all necessity of in∣quiry, it being instituted in the vespers of the Pas∣sion, it being the Sacrament of the passion, a sensi∣ble representation of the breaking Christs body, of the effusion of Christs blood; it being by Christ himself intituled to the passion, and the symbols in∣vested with the names of his broken body, and his blood poured forth, and the whole ministry being a great declaration of this death of Christ, and com∣manded to be continued until his second coming. Certainly by all these it appears, that this Sacrament is the great ministry of life and salvation: here is the publication of the great word of salvation: here is set forth most illustriously the body and blood of Christ, the food of our souls; much more clearly than in Baptism, much more effectually than in simple enunciation, or preaching and declaration by words; for this preaching is to strangers and in∣fants in Christ to produce faith, but this Sacramen∣tal enunciation is the declaration and confession of it by men in Christ; a glorying in it, giving praise for it, a declaring it to be done, and own'd, and ac∣cepted, and prevailing.

The consequent of these things is this, That if

any Mystery, Rite or Sacrament be effective of a∣ny spiritual blessings, then this is much more,* 1.41 as having the prero∣gative and illustrious principality above every thing else in its own kind, or of any other-kind in ex∣teriour or interiour Religion: I name them both, because as in Baptism the water alone does no∣thing, but the inward cooperation with the outward oblation does save us, yet to Baptism the Scri∣ptures attribute the effect: so it is in this sacred solemnity, the ex∣ternal act is indeed nothing but obedience, and of it self only declares Christs death in rite and ceremony, yet the worthy com∣municating of it does indeed make us feed upon Christ, and unites him to the soul, and makes us to become one spirit, according to the words of S. Ambrose,* 1.42 Ideo in similitudinem quidem accipis sacramentum, sed verae naturae gra∣tiam virtutemque consequeris, [thou rec••iv••st the Sa∣crament as the similitude of Christs body, but thou shalt receive the grace and the virtue of the true na∣ture.]

I shall not enter into so useless a discourse, as to inquire whether the Sacraments confer grace by their own excellency and power with which they are endued from above, because they who affirm they do, require so much duty on our parts as they also do who attribute the effect to our moral dispo∣sition: but neither one nor the other say true:

for neither the external act, nor the internal grace and morality, does effect our pardon and salvation; but the spirit of God, who blesses the symbols, and assists the duty, makes them holy, and this accepta∣ble. Only they that attribute the efficacy to the Ministration of the Sacrament, chose to magni∣fie the immediate work of man, rather than the imme∣diate work of God, and prefer the external, at least in glorious appellations, before the internal: and they that deny efficacy to the external work, and wholly attribute the blessing and grace to the moral cooperation, make too open a way for de∣spisers to neglect the divine Institution, and to lay aside or lightly esteem the Sacraments of the Church. It is in the Sacraments as it is in the Word preached, in which not the sound, or the letters and syllables, that is, not the material part, but the formal, the sense and the signification, prepare the mind of the hearer to receive the impresses of the holy spirit of God, without which all preach∣ing and all Sacraments are ineffectual: so does the internal and formal part, the signification and sense of the Sacrament, dispose the spirit of the recei∣ver the rather to admit and entertain the grace of the spirit of God there consigned, and there exhi∣bited, and there collated: but neither the outward nor the inward part does effect it, neither the Sa∣crament nor the moral disposition; only the spirit operates by the Sacrament, and the Communicant receives it by his moral dispositions, by the hand of faith. And what have we to do to inquire into the philosophy of Sacraments? these things do not work by the methods of nature: But here the ef∣fect is imputed to this cause, and yet can be produ∣ced without this cause, because this cause is but a s••gn in the hand of God, by which he tells the soul when he is willing to work.

Thus Baptism was the instrument and sign in the hands of God to confer the holy Spirit upon belie∣vers: but the holy Ghost sometimes comes like lightning, and will not stay the period of usual ex∣pectation; for when Cornelius had heard St. Peter preach, he received the holy Ghost: and as some∣times the holy Ghost was given because they had been baptized, now he and his company were to be baptized because they had received the holy Ghost: and it is no good argument to say, The graces of God are given to believers out of the Sacrament, ergo, not by or in the Sacrament; but rather thus, If Gods grace overflows sometimes, and goes with∣out his own instruments, much more shall he give it in the use of them: If God gives pardon with∣out the Sacrament, then rather also with the Sacra∣ment: For supposing the Sacraments in their design and institution to be nothing but signs and ceremo∣nies, yet they cannot hinder the work of God: and therefore holinesse in the reception of them, will do more than holinesse alone: for God does nothing in vain; the Sacraments do something in the hand of God, at least they are Gods proper and accu∣stomed times of grace; they are his seasons and our opportunity: when the Angel stirs the pool, when the Spirit moves upon the waters, then there is a ministry of healing.

For consider we the nature of a Sacrament in ge∣neral, & then pass on to a particular enumeration of the blessings of this, the most excellent. When God appointed the bow in the clouds to be a Sacrament, and the memorial of a promise, he made it our com∣fort, but his own sign:* 1.43 I will remember my Cove∣nant between me and the earth, and the waters shall

be no more a flood to d••stroy all flesh. This is but a token of the Covenant; and yet at the appearing of it God had thoughts of truth and mercy to man∣kind; The bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting Cove∣nant between me and every creature. Thus when Elisha threw the wood into the waters of Jordan;* 1.44 Sacramentum ligni, the Sacrament of the wood, Tertullian calls it; that chip made the iron swim, not by any natural or any infused power, but that was the Sacrament or sign at which the Divine power then passed on to effect and emanation. When Elisha talked with the King of Israel about the war with Syria, he commanded him to smite upon the ground,* 1.45 and he smote thrice and stayed. This was Sacramentum victoriae, the Sacrament of his future victory: For the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times, then thou hadst smitten Syria until thou hadst consumed it; whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. In which it is remarkable, that though it was not that smiting that beat the Syri∣ans, but the ground; yet God would effect the beating of the Syrians by the proportion of that Sacramental smiting. The Sacraments are Gods signs,* 1.46 the opportunities of grace and act••on Be ba∣ptized and wash away thy sins, said Ananias to Saul: and therefore it is cal••'d the laver of regeneration and of the ren••wing of the holy Gh••st; that is, in that Sacrament, and at that corporal ablution, the work of the spirit is done: for although it is not that washing of it self, yet God does so do it at that ablution, which is but the similitude of Christs death, that is, the Sacrament and symbolical re∣presentation of it; that to that very similitude a very glorious effect is imputed, for if we have been

planted together in the LIKENESSE of his death,* 1.47 we shall be also in the LIKENESS of his Resurrection. For the mystery is this: by im∣mersion in Baptism, and emersion, we are configu∣red to Christs Burial, and to his Resurrection: that's the outward part; to which if we add the inward, which is there intended, and is expressed by the Apostle in the following words;* 1.48 knowing that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin; that's our spiritual death, which answers to our configuration with the death of Christ in Baptism;* 1.49 that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in n••wness of life; there's the corre∣spondent of our configuration to the resurrection of Christ: that is if we do that duty of Baptism, we shall receive that grace: God offers us the mercy at that time, when we promise the duty, and do our present portion.* 1.50 This St. Peter calls the stipulation of a good conscience, the postulate and bargain which man then makes with God, who promises us pardon and immortality, resurrection from the dead, and life eternal, if we repent toward God, and have faith in the Lord Jesus, and if we promise we have and will so abide.

The same is the case in the other most glorious Sacrament: it is the same thing in neerer repre∣sentation: only what is begun in Baptism, proceeds on to perfection in the holy Com∣munion.* 1.51 Baptism is the antitype of the passion of Christ; and the Lords Supper 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that also represents Christs passion: Baptism is the union of the mem∣bers

of Christ and the admission of them under one head into one body: as the Apostle affirms we are all baptized into one body;* 1.52 and so it is in the Communion, the bread which we break, it is the communion of the body of Christ; for we being many, are one body and one bread: in baptisme we partake of the death of Christ: and in the Lords Supper we do the same, in that as Babes, in this as men in Christ; so that what effects are affirmed of one, the same are in greater measure true of the other; they are but several rounds of Jacobs ladder reach∣ing up to heaven upon which the Angels ascend and descend; and the Lord sits upon the top.

And because the Sacraments Evangelical be of the like kind of mystery with the Sacraments of old; from them we can understand, that even signs of secret graces, do exhibit as well as signifie: for besides that there is a natural analogy between the ablution of the body and the purification of the soul, between eating the holy bread and drinking the sacred calice, and a participation of the body and blood of Christ, it is also in the method of the divine oeconomy; to dispense the grace which him∣self signifies in a ceremony of his own institution; thus at the Unction of Kings, Priests and of Pro∣phets, the sacred power was bestowed, and as a Canon is invested in his dignity by the tradition of a book,* 1.53 and an Abbat by his staffe, a Bishop by a ring (they are the words of St. Bernard:) so are divisi∣ons of graces imparted to the diverse Sacraments. And therefore although it ought not to be denyed, that when in Scripture and the writings of the ho∣ly Doctors of the Church, the collation of grace is attributed to the s••gn, it is by a metonymy and a Sacramental manner of speaking, yet it is also a

synecdoche of the part for the whole; because both the Sacrament and the grace are joyned in the law∣ful and holy use of them, by Sacramental union, or rather by a confederation of the parts of the ho∣ly Covenant. Our hearts are purified by faith, and so our consciences are also made clean in the cestern of water. By faith we are saved;* 1.54 and yet he hath sav••d us by the laver of regeneration,* 1.55 and they are both joyned together by St. Paul, Christ gave himself for his Church, that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word: that is, plainly by the Sacrament, according to the fa∣mous Commentary of St. Austin, accedat verbum ad elementum & tum fit sacramentum, when the word and the element are joyned, then it is a per∣fect Sacrament, and then it does effect all its pur∣poses and intentions. Thus we find that the grace of God is given by the imposition of hands;* 1.56 and yet as Austin rightly affirmes, God alone can give his holy spirit, and the Apostles did not give the holy Ghost to them upon whom they laid their hands, but prayed that God would give it, and he did so at the imposition of their hands.* 1.57 Thus God sanctified Aaron, and yet he said to Moses, thou shalt sanctifie Aaron: that is, not that Moses did it instead of God, but Moses did it by his ministery,* 1.58 and by visible Sacraments and rites of Gods appointment, and though we are born of an immortal seed, by the word of the living God, yet St. Paul said to the Corinthians, I have begotten you through the Gos••el, and thus it is in the greatest as well as in the least, he that drinks Christ's blood, and eats his body hath life abiding in him, it is true of the ••acrament and true of the spiritual mandu∣cation and may be indifferently affirmed of either, when the other is not excluded, for as the Sacra∣ment

operates only by the vertue of the spirit of God; so the spirit ordinarily works by the instru∣mentality of the Sacraments. And we may as well say, that faith is not by hearing, as that grace is not by the Sacraments, for as without the spirit, the word is but a dead letter, so with the spirit, the Sacrament is the means of life and grace: And the meditation of St. Chrysostom is very pious and rea∣sonable,

If we were wholly incorporeal, God would have given us graces unclothed with signs and Sacraments, but because our spirits are in earthen vessels, God conveyes his graces to us by sensible ministrations.

] The word of God ope∣rates as secretly as the Sacraments, and the Sacra∣ments as powerfully as the word, nay the word is alwayes joyned in the worthy administration of the Sacrament, which therefore operates both as word and sign by the ear and by the eyes and by both in the hand of God, and the conduct of the spirit, effect all that God intends, and that a faithful re∣ceiver can require and pray for.

For justification and sanctification are continued acts: they are like the issues of a Fountain into its receptacles, God is alwayes giving, and we are alwayes receiving, and the signal effects of Gods holy spirit, sometimes give great indications, but most commonly come without observation, and therefore in these things we must not discourse as in the conduct of o••her causes and operations natural: for although in natural effects, we can argue from the cause to the event, yet in spiritual things we are to reckon only from the sign to the event. And the signs of grace we are to place in stead of natu∣ral causes, because a Sacrament in the hand of God, is a proclamation of his graces, he then gives us

notice that the springs of heaven are opened: and then is the time to draw living waters from the fountains of salvation. When Jonathan shot his arrows beyond the boy, he then by a Sacrament sent salvation unto David; he bad him be gone and flie from his Fathers wrath; and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation, yet that symbol brought it unto Da∣vid; for so are we conducted to the joyes of God by the methods and possibilities of men.

In conclusion; the sum is this, The Sacraments and symbols if they be considered in their own na∣ture, are just such as they seem, water, and bread, and wine; they retain the names proper to their own natures; but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery; and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin, and bread and wine, of Christs body and blood; therefore the symbols and Sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign; * 1.59 they are the body and they are the blood of Christ; they are Metonymically such. But because yet further, they are instru∣ments of grace in the hand of God, and by these his holy spirit changes our hearts and translates us into a Divine nature; therefore the whole work is attributed to them; by a Synecdoche; that is, they do in their manner the work for which God or∣dained them, and they are placed there for our sakes, and speak Gods language in our accent, and they appear in the outside; we receive the benefit of their ministery, and God receives the glory.

SECT. IV. The blessings and Graces of the Holy Sa∣crament enumerated and proved par∣ticularly.

IN the reception of the blessed Sacrament; there are many blessings which proceed from our own actions, the conjugations of moral duties, the of∣fices of preparation and reception, the reverence and the devotion; of which I shall give account in the following Chapters; here I am to enumerate those graces which are intended to descend upon us from the spirit of God in the use of the Sacrament it self precisely.

But first I consider that it must be infinite∣ly certain that great spiritual blessings are con∣sequent to the worthy receiving this Divine Sa∣crament; because it is not at all received but by a spiritual hand: for it is either to be understood in a carnal sense that Christs body is there eaten, or in a spiritual sense. If in a carnal, it profits no••hing. If in a spiritual he be eaten, let the meaning of that be considered, and it will convince us that innume∣rable blessings are in the very reception and Com∣munion. Now what the meaning of this spiritual eating is; I have already declared in this chapter,

and shall yet more fully explicate in the sequel.* 1.60 In the Sacrament we do not receive Christ carnally; but we receive him spiritually; and that of it self is a conjugation of blessings and spiritual graces. The very understanding what we do, tells us also what we receive. But I descend to particulars.

1. And first I reckon that the Sacrament is in∣tended to increase our faith: for although it is with us in this Holy Sacrament, as it was with Abra∣ham in the Sacrament of circumcision; he had the grace of faith before he was circumcised; and received the Sacrament after he had the purpose and the grace; and we are to believe, before we receive these symbols of Christ death; yet as by loving we love more, and by the acts of patience we increase in the spirit of mortification; so by believing we believe more; and by publication * 1.61 of our confessi∣on we are made confident, and by seeing the signs of what we believe, our very senses are in∣corporated into the article; and he that hath shall have more, and when we concorporate the sign with the signification, we con∣joyn the word and the spirit, and faith passes on from believing to an imaginary seeing; and from thence to a greater earnestness of believing, and we shall believe more abundantly; this increase of faith not being only a natural and proper production of the exer∣cise of its own acts; but a blessing and an effect of the grace of God in that Sacrament; it being cer∣tain, that since the Sacrament being of Divine institution it could not be to no purpose (for in

spiritualibus Sacramentis ubi praecipit virtus,* 1.62 servit effectus, where the commandment comes from him that hath all power, the action cannot be destitute of an excellent event) and therefore that the repre∣senting of the death of Christ being an act of faith, and commanded by God must needs in the hands of God be more effectual than it is in its own na∣ture; that faith shall then increase not only by the way of nature, but by Gods blessing his own in∣struments, can never be denied but by them that neither have faith nor experience. For this is the proper scene and the very exaltation of faith: the Latine Church for a long time into the very words of consecration of the calice, hath put words re∣lating to this purpose, [For this is the cup of my blood of the New and Eternal Testament, the mystery of faith, which for you and for many shall be shed for the remission of sins.] And if by faith we eat the flesh of Christ; as it is confessed by all the Schools of Chri∣stians, then it is certain, that when so manifestly and solemnly according to the divine appointment we publish this great confession of the death of Christ, we do in all senses of spiritual blessing eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ; and let that be ex∣pounded how we list, we are not in this world ca∣pable, and we do not need a greater blessing and God may s••y in the words of Isaac to his son Esau, with corn and wine have I sustained [thee] and what is there left that I can do unto thee my son? To eat the flesh and to drink the blood of Christ Sacramentally is an act of faith, and every act of faith joyned with the Sacrament does grow by the nature of grace, and the measures of a blessing, and therefore is eating of Christ spiritually, and this reflexion of acts like circles of a glorious and eternal fire, passes on in the univocal production

of its own parts till it passe from grace to glory.

2. Of the same consideration it is, that all the graces which we do exercise by the nature of the Sacrament requiring them, or by the necessity of the commandment of preparation, do here receive increase upon the account of the same reason; but I instance only in that of Charity, of which this is signally and by an especial remark the Sacrament: and therefore these holy conventions are called by St. Jude, feasts of charity,* 1.63 which were Christian Festivals, in which also they had the Sacrament ad∣joined; but whether that do effect this persuasion or no, yet the thing it self is dogmatically affirmed in St. Pauls explication of that mystery, * 1.64 we are one body because we partake of one bread; that is, plainly, Christ is our head, and we the members of his body, and are united in this mystical union by the holy Sacrament; not only because it symbolically does teach our duty, and promotes the grace of charity by a real signature, and a sensible Sermon; nor yet only because it calls upon Christians by the publick Sermons of the Go∣spel, and the duties of preparati∣on, and the usual expectations of conscience and Religion; but even by the blessing of God, and the operation of the holy Spirit in the Sacrament, which (as appears plainly by the words of the Apo∣stle) is designed to this very end, to be a reconciler and an atonement in the hand of God, a band of charity, and the instrument of Christian Commu∣nion; that we may be one body, because we par∣take

of one bread; that is, we may be mystically united by the Sacramental participation: and therefore it was not without mystery, that the Con∣gregation of all Christ servants, his Church, and this Sacramental bread, are both in Scripture called by the same name: This bread is the body of Christ, and the Church is Christs body too; for by the communion of this bread all faithful people are confederated into one body, the body of our Lord. Now it is to be observed, that although the expres∣sion is tropical * 1.65 and figurative, that we are made one body, because it is meant in a spiritual sense; yet that spiritual sense means the most real event in the world; we are really joyned to one common Di∣vine principle, Jesus Christ our Lord, and from him we do communicate in all the blessings of his grace, and the fruits of his passion, and we shall, if we abide in this union, be all one body of a spi∣ritual Church in heaven, there to reign with Christ for ever. Now unless we think nothing Good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth; if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive, we must confess this to be a real and e∣minent benefit; and yet whatever it be, it is there∣fore effected upon us by this Sacrament, because we eat of one bread. The very repeating the words of St. Paul is a satisfaction in this inquiry; they are plain and easie, and whatever interpretation can be put upon them, it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing, and the way of the Sa∣cramental efficacy; but it cannot evacuate the bles∣sing, or confute the thing: Only it is to be ob∣served in this, as in all other instances of the like nature, that the grace of God in the Sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours, for spi∣ritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do

not grow like grasse, but like corn; not whether we do any husbandry or no, but if we cultivate the ground, then by Gods blessing the fruits will spring and make the Farmer rich, if we be disposed to receive the Sacrament worthily, we shall receive this fruit also. Which fruit is thus expressed, say∣ing,* 1.66 [this Sacrament is therefore given unto us that the body of the Church of Christ in the earth may be joyned, or united with our head which is in the heavens.]

3. The blessed Sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins; not that it hath any formal efficacy, or any inherent vertue to procure pardon, but that it is the ministery of the death of Christ and the application of his blood, which blood was shed for the remission of sins, and is the great means of impetration, and as the Schools use to speak, is the meritorious cause of it. For there are but two wayes of applying the death of Christ: an internal grace and an external mini∣stery. Faith is the inward applicatory, and if there be any outward at all, it must be the Sacraments; and both of them are of remarkable vertue in this particular; for by baptisme we are baptized into the death of Christ, and the Lords supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christs death, and it is a Sacramental participation of it. Now to partake of it Sacramentally, is by Sacrament to receive it, that is, so to apply it to us, as that

can be applyed: it brings it to our spirit, it pro∣pounds it to our faith, it represents it as the matter of Eucharist, it gives it as meat and drink to our souls, and rejoyces in it in that very formality in which it does receive it, viz, as broken for, as shed for the remission of our sins. Now then what can any man suppose a Sacrament to be, and what can be meant by sacramental participation? for un∣less the Sacraments do communicate what they re∣late to; they are no communion or communication at all; for it is true that our mouth eats the mate∣rial signs; but at the same time, faith eats too, and therefore must eat, that is, must partake of the thing signified; faith is not maintained by ce∣remonies: the body receives the body of the mystery; we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths, but faith is not corporeal, but feeds up∣on the mystery it self; it entertains the grace, and enters into that secret which the spirit of God con∣veyes under the signature. Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remis∣sion of sins; if the soul does the work of the soul, as the body the work of the body, the soul re∣ceives remission of sins, as the body does the symbols of it and the Sacrament.

But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner; but to him that repents truely, & so does the Sacrament * 1.67 of Christs

death; this can do no more than that: and there∣fore let no man come with his guilt about him, and in the heat and in the affections of his sin, and hope to find his pardon by this ministery. He that thinks so will but deceive, wil but ruine himself. They are excellent but very severe words, which God spake to the Jews, and which are a prophe∣tical reproof of all unworthy Communicants in these divine mysteries, What hath my beloved to do in my house seeing she hath wrought l••wdness with many? The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil, that is, this holy sacrifice, the flesh and blood of thy Lord shall slip from thee without doing thee any good, if thou hast not ceased from doing evil. But the vulgar Latin reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose, Shall the holy flesh take from thee thy wickedness in which thou rejoycest? Deceive not thy self; thou hast no part nor portion in this matter. For the holy Sacrament operates indeed and consigns our pardon, but not alone; but in conjunction with all that Christ re∣quires as conditions of pardon; but when the conditions are present, the Sacrament ministers pardon, as pardon is ministred in this world; that is, by parts, and in order to several purposes, and with power of revocation, by suspending the Di∣vine wrath, by procuring more graces, by obtain∣ing time of repentance; and powers and possibili∣ties of working out our salvation; and by setting forward the method and Oeconomy of our salvati∣on. For in the usual methods of God, pardon of sins is proportionable to our repentance; which because it is all that state of Piety we have in this whole life after our first sin; pardon of sins is all that effect of grace which is consequent to that repentance; and the worthy receiving of the holy Communion,

is but one conjugation of holy actions and parts of repentance, but indeed it is the best and the noblest, and such in which man does best cooperate towards pardon, and the grace of God does the most illu∣striously consign it. But of these particulars I shall give full account when I shall discourse of the preparations of repentance.

4. It is the greatest solemnity of prayer, the most powerful Liturgy and means of impetration in this world. For when Christ was consecrated on the crosse and be∣came our High Priest,* 1.68 having reconciled us to God by the death of the crosse, he became infinitely gracious in the eyes of God, and was admitted to the celestial and eternal Priesthood in heaven; where in the vertue of the crosse he in∣tercedes for us, and represents an eternal sacrifice in the heavens on our behalf. That he is a Priest in heaven appears in the large discourses and direct affirmatives of St. Paul; that there is no other sacrifice to be offered,* 1.69 but that on the crosse; it is evident, because he hath but once appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; and therefore since it is necessa••y that he hath something to offer so long as he is a Priest, and there is no other sacrifice but that of himself offer∣ed upon the crosse;* 1.70 it follows that Christ in heaven perpetually offers and represents that sacrifice to his heavenly Father, and in vertue of that obtains all good things for his Church.

Now what Christ does in heaven he hath com∣manded us to do on earth, that is, to represent his

death, † 1.71 to commemorate this sacrifice, by humble prayer and thankful record; and by faithful mani∣festation and joyful Eucharist to lay it before the eyes of our heavenly Father, so ministring in his Priesthood, and doing according to his command∣ment and his example; the Church being the image of heaven, the Priest the Minister of Christ, the holy Table being a Copy of the celestial altar; and the eternal sacrifice of the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World, being alwayes the same; it bleeds no more after the finishing of it on the Crosse; but it is won∣derfully represented in heaven, and graciously re∣presented here; by Christs action there, by his commandment here; and the event of it is plainly this, that as Christ in vertue of his sacrifice on the crosse intercedes for us with his Father; so does the Minister of Christs Priest-hood here, that the vertue of the eternal sacrifice may be salutary and effectual to all the needs of the Church both for things temporal, and eternal: and therefore

it was not without great mystery and clear sig∣nification that our blessed Lord was pleased to command the representation of his death and sacrifice on the crosse should be made by breaking bread and effusion of wine; to signifie to us the nature and sacredness of the Liturgy we are about, and that we minister in the Priest-hood of Christ; who is a Priest for ever after the order of Melchi∣sedeck; that is, we are Ministers in that unchanga∣ble Priest-hood imitating in the external Ministery, the prototype Melchisedeck: Of whom it is said, † 1.72 he brought forth bread and wine and was the Priest of the most high God; and in the internal imitating the antitype or the substance, Christ himself; who offered up his body and blood for atonement for us, and by the Sacraments of bread and wine, and the pray∣ers of oblation and intercession commands us to officiate in his Priest-hood, in the external mi∣nistring like Melchisedeck; in the internal after the manner of Christ himself.

This is a great and a mysterious truth, which as it is plainly manifested in the Epistle to the Hebrews, so it is understood by the ancient and holy Doctors of the Church. So St.Ambrose. [Now Christ is offered, but he is offered as a man, as if he recei∣ved his passion; but he offers himself as a Priest, that he may pardon our sins; here in image or re∣presentation, there in truth, as an Advocate inter∣ceding with his Father for us.] So St. Chrysostom;

In Christ once the Sacrifice was offered, which is powerful to our eternal salvation; but what then do we? do not we offer every day? what we daily offer is at the memorial of his death, and the Sacrifice is one, not many; because Christ was once offered: but this Sacrifice is the example or representation of that. And another: Christ is not impiously slain by us, but piously sacrificed; and by this means we declare the Lords death till he come: for here through him we humbly do in earth, which he as a son who is heard according to his reverence, does powerfully for us in heaven, where as an advocate he intercedes with his Father, whose office or work it is; for us to exhibit and interpose his flesh which he took of us and for us, and as it were to presse it upon his Father. To the same sense is the meditation of St. Austin: By this he is the Priest and the Oblation, the Sacrament of which he would have the daily Sacrifice of the Church to be; which because it is the body of that head, she learns from him to offer her self to God by him, who offered himself to God for her. And there∣fore this whole Office is called by St. Basil, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the prayer of oblation, the great Chri∣stian Sacrifice and Oblation in which we present our prayers and the needs of our selves and of our brethren unto God in virtue of the great Sacrifice, Christ upon the Crosse, whose memorial we then celebrate in a divine manner, by divine appoint∣ment.

The effect of this I represent in the words of Lyra: [That which does purge and cleanse our sins must be celestial and spiritual, and that which is such hath a perpetual efficacy, and needs not to be done again; but that which is daily offered in the Church, is a daily commemoration of that one Sacrifice which was offered on the Crosse, accor∣ding

to the command of Christ, Do this in comme∣moration of me.]

Now this holy Ministry and Sacrament of this death, being according to Christs commandment and in our manner a representation of the eter∣nal Sacrifice, an imitation of Christs intercession in heaven in vertue of that Sacrifice, must be after the pattern in the Mount, it must be as that is, pur â prece, as Tertullians phrase, is by pure prayer; it is an intercession for the whole Church present and absent in the virtue of that Sacrifice. I need add no more, but leave it to the meditation, to the joy and admiration of all Christian people to think, and to enumerate the blessings of this Sacrament, which is so excellent a representation of Christs death, by Christs commandment; and so glorious an imi∣tation of that intercession which Christ makes in heaven for us all; it is all but the representment of his death, in the way of prayer and interpellati∣on; Christ as head, and we as members; he as High Priest, and we servants as his Ministers: and therefore I shall stop here, and leave the rest for wonder and Eucharist: we may pray here with all the solemnity and advantages imaginable; we may with hope and comfort use the words of David, I will take the cup of salvation,* 1.73 and call upon the name of the Lord: we are here very likely to prevail for all blessings, * 1.74 for this is by way of eminency, glo∣ry, and singularity, Calix benedictionis, the cup of blessing which we bless, and by which God will bless us, and for which he is to be blessed for ever∣more.

5. By the means of this Sacrament our bodies are made capable of the resurrection to life and e∣ternal glory. For when we are externally and symbolically in the Sacrament, and by faith and the spirit of God internally united to Christ, and made partakers of his body and his blood, we are joyned and made one with him who did rise again; and when the head is risen, the members shall not see corruption for ever, but rise again after the pattern of our Lord. If by the Sacrament we are really united and made one with Christ, then it shall be to us in our proportion as it was to him; we shall rise again, and we shall enter into glory. But it is certain we are united to Christ by it; we eat his body and drink his blood Sacramentally by our mouths, and therefore really and spiritually by our spirits and by spiritual actions co∣operating. * 1.75 For what good will it do us to partake of his bo∣dy, if we do not also partake of his spirit? but certain it is, if we do one, we do both; cum natu∣ralis per sacramentum proprietas perfectae sacramentum sit unitatis, as St. Hilaries expression is; the natural propriety, viz the outward elements by the Sacrament, that is, by the institution and blessing of God, become the Sacrament of a perfect unity, which beside all the premisses is distinctly affirmed in the words of the Apostle; we which are sanctified, and he which sanctifies are all of one; and again, the bread which we break, is it not the communication of the body of Christ; and the

cup which we drink is it not the communication of the blood of Christ? plainly saying, that by this holy ministery we are joyned and partake of Christs body and blood, and then we become spiritually one body, and therefore shall receive in our bodies all the effects of that spiritual union; the chief of which in relation to our bodies, is resurrection from the grave. And this is expresly taught by the Ancient Church. So St. Irenaeus teaches us.

As the bread which grows from the earth,* 1.76 receiving the calling of God, (that is, blessed by prayer and the word of God) is not now common bread, but the Eucharist, consisting of two things, an earthly, and an heavenly: so also our bodies re∣ceiving the Eucharist, are not now corruptible, but have the hope of resurrection. And again, when the mingled calice and the made bread re∣ceives the word of God viz. is consecrated and blessed, it is made the Eucharist of the body and blood of Christ out of those things by which our body is nourished, and our substance does consist: and how shall any one deny that the flesh is capable of the gift of God, which is eter∣nal life, which is nourished by the body and blood of Christ?* 1.77

And St. Ignatius calls the blessed Eu∣charist 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; the medicine of im∣mortallity, for the drink is his blood who is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, incorruptible love and eter∣nal life 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, so the Fathers of the Nicene Councel; the symbols of our resur∣rection, the meat nourishing to immortallity and eternal life, so Cyril of Alexandria; for this is to drink the blood of Jesus, to be partakers of the Lords incorruptibility, said St. Clement. For bread is food, and blood is life; but we drink the blood of Christ, himself commanding us that together with

him, we may by him be partakers of eternal life; So St. Cyprian, aut quicun{que} sit author Sermon. de coenâ Domini.

6. Because this is a ministry of grace by bodily ceremonies, and conveys spiritual blessings by temporal ministrations; there is something also of temporal regard directly provided for our bodies by the holy Sacrament. It sometimes is a means in the hand of God for the restoring and preserving respectively of our bodily health, and secular ad∣vantages: I will not insist upon that of St. Gorgonia▪ who being oppressed with a violent head-ach, threw her self down before the holy Table where the Sa∣crament was placed, and prayed with passion and pertinacy till she obtained relief and ease in that very place: Nor that of St. Ambrose, who having trod upon a Gentlemans foot afflicted with the gout, in the time of ministration, gave him the holy smbols, and told him it was good for his sick∣nesse also, and that he presently found his cure. I my self knew a person of great sanctity, who was afflicted to deaths door with a vomiting, and preparing her self to death by her viaticum the ho∣ly Sacrament, to which she always bore a great re∣verence, she was infinitely desirous and yet equally fearful to receive it, lest she should reject that by her infirmity which in her spirit she passionately longed for; but her desire was the greater passion, and prevailed; she received it, and swallowed it, and after great and earnest reluctancy being forced to cast it up, in zeal and with a new passion took it in again, and then retained it, and from that instant speedily recovered, against the hope of her Physi∣cian, and the expectation of all her friends. God does miracles every day; and he who with spittle

and clay cured the blind mans eyes, may well be supposed to glorifie himself by the extraordinary contingences and Sacramental contacts of his own body. But that which is most famous and remarked is, that the Austrian Family do attribute the rise of their House to the present Grandeur, to W••lliam Earl of Hasburgh, and do acknowledg it to be a reward of his piety in the venerable treatment and usage of these Divine mysteries. It were easier to heap together many rare contingences and mira∣culous effects of the holy Sacrament, than to find faith to believe them now-adayes; and therefore for this whole affair I relie upon the words of Saint Paul,* 1.78 affirming that God sent sicknesses and sundry kinds of death to punish the Corinthian irreverent treatment of the Blessed Sacrament; and there∣fore it is not to be deemed, but that life and health will be the consequent of our holy usages of it: for if by our fault it is a savour of death; it is cer∣tain, by the blessing and intention of God it is a favour of life. But of these things in particular we have no promise, and therefore such events as these cannot upon this account of faith and certain ex∣pectations be designed by us in our communions. If God please to send any of them, as sometimes he hath done, it is to promote his own glory and our value of the Blessed Sacrament the great ministry of salvation.* 1.79

7. The sum of all I represent in these few words of St. Hilary. These holy mysteries being taken, cause that Christ shall be in us, and we in Christ; and if this be more than words; we need no fur∣ther inquiry into the particulars of blessing conse∣quent to a worthy communion, for if God hath given his Son unto us, how shall not he with him give

us all things else? nay all things that we need are effected by this, said St. Clement of Alexandria, one of the most antient Fathers of the Church of Christ: Eucharistia qui per fidem sunt participes,* 1.80 sanctifi••antur & corpore & animâ: They who by faith are partakers of the Eucharist are sanctified both in body and in soul.

Fonte renascentes membris & sanguine Christi Vescimur, atque ideo templum Deitatis habemur. Sedul.

How great therefore and how illustrious bene∣fits (it is the meditation of St. Eusebius Emisse∣nus) does the power of the Divine blessing pro∣duce? you ought not to esteem it strange and im∣possible; for how earthly and mortal things are converted into the substance of Christ, ask thy self, who art regenerated in Christ: Not long since, thou wast a stranger from life, a pilgrim and wanderer from mercy, and being inwardly dead thou wert banished from the way of life. On a sudden being initiated in the laws of Christ, and renewed by the Mysteries of Salvation, thou didst passe suddenly into the body of the Church not by seeing, but by believing, and from a son of perdition, thou hast obtained to be adopted a son of God by a secret purity: remaining in a visible measure, thou art invisibly made greater than thy self, without any increase of quantity, thou art the same thou wert, and yet very much another person in the progression of Faith, to the outward nothing is added, but the inward is wholly changed, and so a man is made the son of Christ, and Christ is formed in the mind of a man. As therefore suddenly without any bodily

perception, the former vileness being laid down, on the sudden thou hast put on a new dignity, and this that God hath done, that he hath cured thy wounds, washed off thy staines, wiped away thy spots, is trusted to thy discerning, not thy eyes: so when thou ascendest the reverend altar to be satisfied with spiritual food, by faith regard, honour, admire the holy body of God, touch it with thy mind, take it with the hand of thy heart even with the draught of the whole in∣ward man:

SECT. V. Practical conclusions from the preceding Discourses.

THe first I represent in the words of St. Augu∣stin,* 1.81 who reduces this whole doctrine to pra∣ctice in these excellent words [let this whole affair thus far prevail with us that we may eat the flesh, [and drink] the blood of Christ, not only in the Sacrament, which many evil persons doe; but let us eat and drink unto the participation of the spirit; that as members we may abide in the Lords body, that we may be quickened by his spirit; and let us not be scandalized because many do temporally eat and drink with us, who yet in the end shall find eternal torments] that is; let us remember that the exteriour ministery is the least part of it;

and externally and alone it hath in it nothing ex∣cellent, as being destitute of the sanctity that God requires, and the grace that he does promise, and it is common to wicked men and good: but when the signs and the thing signified, when the prayers of the Church and the spirit of God, the word and the meaning, the sacrament and the grace do con∣cur; then it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, it is a venera∣ble cup, and full of power,* 1.82 and more honourable than all our possessions, it is a holy thing saith Ori∣gen and appointed for our sanctification. For Christ in the Sacrament is Christ under a vail: as without the hand of faith we cannot take Christ, so we must be sure to look here with an eye of faith, and whatsoever glorious thing is said of the holy Sacrament; it must be understood of the whole Sacrament, body and spirit, that is, the Sacramental and the spiritual Communion.

2. Let no man be lesse confident in his holy faith and persuasion concerning the great blessings and glorious effects which God designs to every faith∣ful and obedient soul in the communication of these Divine mysteries, by reason of any difference of judgement which is in the several Schools of Chri∣stians concerning the effects and consequent bles∣sings of this Sacrament. For all men speak honour∣able things of it, except wicked persons, and the scorners of Religion, and though of several per∣sons like the beholders of a dove walking in the sun, as they stand in several aspects and distances, some see red and others purple, and yet some per∣ceive nothing but green, but all allow and love the beauties: so do the several forms of Christians, according as they are instructed by their first teach∣ers, or their own experience conducted by their

fancy and proper principles, look upon these glori∣ous mysteries some as vertually containing the re∣ward of obedience, some as solemnities of thanksgi∣ving and records of blessings, some as the objective increasers of faith, others as the Sacramental parti∣cipations of Christ, others as the acts & instruments of natural union, yet all affirm some great things or other of it, and by their differences confesse the immensity and the glory. For thus Manna repre∣sented to every man the taste that himself did like, but it had in its own potentiality all those tasts and dispositions eminently, and altogether, those feasters could speak of great and many excellencies, and all confessed it to be enough, and to be the food of An∣gels: so it is here, it is that to every mans faith, which his faith wisely apprehends; and though there are some who are of little faith, and such receive but a less proportion of nourishment, yet by the very use of this Sacrament the appetite will increase, and the apprehensions grow greater, and the faith will be more confident and instructed; and then we shall see more, and feel more. For this holy nutriment is not only food, but physick too, and although to him who believes great things of his Physitian, and of his medicine, it is apt to do the more ad∣vantage; yet it will do its main work, even when we understand it not, and nothing can hinder it; but direct infidelity, or some of its foul and de∣formed ministers.

3. They who receive the blessed Sacrament must not suppose that the blessings of it, are effected as health is by physick, or warmth by the contact and neighbourhood of fire; but as musick one way affects the soul, and witty discourses another, and joyful tidings a way differing from both the former, so the operations of the Sacrament are produced by

an energy of a nature intirely differing from all things else; But however it is done, the thing that is done is this, no grace is there improved, but what we bring along with us: no increases but what we exercise; we must bring faith along with us, and God will increase our faith, we must come with charity, and we shall go away with more, we must come with truly penitential hearts, and to him that hath shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly: he shall be a better penitent: when he hath eaten the sacrifice that was slain for our sins, and died in the body, that we might live in the spirit and die no more. For he is the bread from heaven, he is the grain of wheat which falling into the earth, unless it dies it remains alone, but if it dies, it brings forth fruit and brings it forth abundantly.

4. Although the words, the names, and sayings con∣cerning the Blessed Sacrament are mysterious and inexplicable, yet they do, nay, therefore weare sure they signifie some great thing, they are in the very expression beyond our understanding, & therefore much more are the things themselves too high for us: but therefore we are taught three things. 1. To walk humbly with our God, that is, in all entercour∣ses with him to acknowledg the infinite distance be∣tween his immensitie and our nothing; his wisdom and our ignorance; his secrets and our apprehensions; he does more for us than we can understand. It was an excellent saying of Aristotle which Seneca reports of him, Nunquam nos verecundiores esse debere, quam cum de Diis agitur, we ought never to be more bashful and recollect, than when we are to speak any thing of God. Timidè de pot••state Deorum, & pauca dicenda sunt, said Cicero,* 1.83 we must speak of his power and glory, timorously and sparingly,

with joyfulness and singleness or simplicity of heart, so the first Christians eat their Bread, their Eucha∣rist, so we understand the words of St. Luke. 2. To walk charitably with our disagreeing bro∣ther, that this may be indeed a Sacrament of charity, and not to wonder if he be mistaken in his discourses of that which neither he nor you can understand. 3. Though it be hard to be under∣stood: yet we must be careful that with simplicitie we admire the secret, and accept the mystery; but at no hand by pride or ignorance, by interest or vanity to wrest this myste••y, to ignoble senses, or to evil events, or to dangerous propositions, or to our own damnation.

5. Whatever propositons any man shall enter∣tain in his manner of discoursing of these mysteries; let him be sure to take into his notice and memorie, those great appellatives with which the purest ages of the Church, the most ancient Liturgies, and the most eminent Saints of God use to adorn and invest this great mysteriousness. In the Greek Liturgie attributed to St. James; the Sacramental Symbols are cal∣led,* 1.84 sanctified, honourable, preci∣ous, celestial, unspeakable, incor∣ruptible, glorious, fearful, formi∣dable, divine; in the use of which Epithets, as we have the warran∣ty and consent of all the Greek Churches since they ever had a Liturgy; so we are taught only to have reverend usages and religious apprehensions of the Divine mysteries,* 1.85 but if by any appellative we can learn a duty, it is one of the best waies of entring into the secret. To which purpose the ages Primitive and Apostolical did use the word

Eucharist: the name and the use we learn from Origen; the Bread which is called the Eucharist, is the Symbol of our thanksgiving towards God. But it is the great and most usual appellative for the holy Supper; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, we find in * 1.86 Ignatius, St. Clemens. Justin Martyr, the Syrian Paraphrast, Origen, and ever after amongst the Greeks, a••d afterwards amongst the Latins. By him we understand that then we receive great blessings, since ••he very mystery it self obliges us to great thank••ulness. I have instanced in this as an example to the use of the other Epithets and appellatives which from Antiquity I have enumerated.* 1.87

6. He that desires to enter furthest into the se∣crets of this mystery,* 1.88 and to understand more than others, can better learn by love * 1.89 than by inqui∣ry. He that keepeth the law of the Lord getteth the understanding thereof, saith the wise Bensirach; if he will prepare himself dili∣gently, and carefully observe the dispensations of the Spirit, and receive it humbly, and treat it with great reverence, and dwell in the communion of Saints, and pass through the mystery with great devotion and purest sim∣plicity, and converse wi••h the purities of the Sacrament frequ••ntly, ••nd with holy intention, this man shall unde••stand more by his experience, than the greatest Cle••ks can by all their subtilties, the commentaries of the Doctors, and the glosses of inquisitive men: Obey and ye shall understand, said the Prophet: and our blessed

Saviour assur'd us,* 1.90 that if we continue in his word, then we shall know the truth; and if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or no. For we have not turned from our iniqui∣ties, that we might understand the truth, said Dani∣el:* 1.91 for the love of the Lord (saith the wise man) pas∣seth all things for illumination.

7. Let no man advance the preaching of the word of God, to the disparagement. or to occasion the neglect of the Sacraments. For though it be true, that faith comes by hearing; yet it is not in∣tended that by hearing alone faith is ingendred; for the faith of the Apostles came by seeing; and St. Pauls faith did not come by hearing; but by intuition and revelation; and hearing in those words of St. Paul does not signifie the manner of ministration;* 1.92 but the whole Oeconomie of the word of God, the whole office of preaching; which is done most usefully to babes and strangers by ser∣mon and homily, but more gloriously and illustri∣ously to men, by Sacraments. But however, be it so or otherwise; yet one ordinance ought not to exclude the other, much less to disparage the other, and least of all to undervalue that which is the most eminent: but rather let every Christian man and woman think; that if the word mini∣stred by the spirit is so mightie, it must be more, when the word and the spirit joyn with the Sacra∣ment, which is their proper significatorie. He that is zealous for the word of God does well; but let him remember, that the word of God is a good∣ly ring and leads us into the circles of a blessed eter∣nity; but because the Sacrament is not without the word, they are a jewel encha'sd in gold when they are together. The Ministeries of the Gospel are all

of a piece; they, though in several manners, work the same salvation by the conduct of the s••me spirit.

8. Let no man in the reception of the Sacra∣ment, and in his expectation of blessings and e∣vents from it, limit his hopes and belief to any one particular, for that will occasion a littleness of faith, and may make it curious, scrupulous and phan∣tastical; rather let us adore the secret of God, and with simple expectations receive it; disposing our selves to all the effects that may come rather with fear and indefinite apprehensions, than with dog∣matical and confident limitations; for this may be∣get scruples and diminution of value; but that hin∣ders nothing, but advances the reverential treat∣ments and opinion.

9. He that guesses at the excellency and power of the Sacrament, by the events that himself feels; must be sure to look for no other than what are e∣minently or virtually contained in it; that is, he must not expect that the Sacrament will make him rich; or discover to him stoln goods, or cure the Tooth-ach, or Countercharm Witches, or appease a Tempest if it be thrown into the Sea. These are such events which God hath not made the effects of religion; but are the hopes and expectations of vain and superstitious people. and I remember that Pope Alexander the third in the Council of La∣teran wrote to the Bishop of S. Agatha advice how to treat a woman who took the Holy Sacrament into her mouth, and ran with it to kiss her husband,* 1.93 hoping by that means to procure her husbands more intense affection. But the story tells that she was chastis'd by a miracle, and was not cur'd but by a long and severe repentance.

10. He that watches for the effects and blessings of the Sacrament, must look for them in no other manner, than what is agreeable to the usual dispen∣sation; we must not look for them by measures of nature and usual expectations: not that as soon as we have received the Symbols, we shall have our doubts answered; or be comforted in our spirit as soon as we have given thanks for the holy blood; or be satisfied in the inquiries of faith, as soon as the prayers of consecration and the whole ministery is ended; or prevail in our most passionate desires as soon as we rise from our knees; for we enter into the blessings of the Sacrament by prayer, and the exercise of proper graces; both which being spiri∣tual instruments of vertues, work after the manner of spiritual things; that is, not by any measure we have, but as God please; only that in the last e∣vent of things, and when they are necessary, we shall find them there: Gods time is best, but we must not judge his manner by our measures, nor measure eternity by time, or the issues of the spirit, by a measuring line. The effects of the Sacrament are to be expected as the effect of prayers: not one prayer or one solemn meeting, but persevering and pas••ionate, fervent and lasting prayers; a continu∣al desire and a dayly address is the way of prevail∣ing In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening with-hold not thy hand,* 1.94 for thou knowest not whether sh••ll prosper▪ either this or that, or whether they shall be both alike good.

11. He that looks for the effects and blessings told of to be appendant to the Sacrament, must ex∣pect them upon no other terms, but such as are the conditions of a worthy Communion. If thou doest

find thy faith as dead after the reception as it was before; it may be it is because thy faith was not only little, but reprovable: or thou didst not pray vehemently, or thou art indisposed by some secret disadvantage: or thou hast not done thy duty: and he shall imprudently accuse that physick for useless and unfit, that is not suffered to work by the incapacity, the ill-diet, the weak stomack, or some evil accident of the patient.

12. Let no man judge of himself or of the bles∣sings and efficacy of the Sacrament it self, or of the prosperity and acceptation of his service in this mi∣nistery by any sensible relish, by the gust and delici∣ousnesse which he sometimes perceives, and other times does not perceive For these are fine accidents and given to some persons often, to others very sel∣dom, to all irregularly, as God please: and some∣times are the effects of natural and accidental dispo∣sitions, and sometimes are illusions. But that no man may fall into inconvenience for want of them: we are to consider that the want of them proceeds from diverse causes. 1. It may be the palate of the Soul is indispos'd by listlesness or sorrow, anxiety or weariness. 2. It may be we are too much im∣merg'd in secular affairs and earthly affections. 3. Or we have been unthankfull to God when we have received some of these spiritual pleasures, and he therefore withdraws those pleasant entertainments. 4. Or it may be, we are therefore without relish and gust, because the Sacrament is too great for our weakness, like the bright Sun to a mortal eye; the object is too big for our perceptions, and our little faculties. 5. Sometimes God takes them a∣way least we be lifted up and made vain. 6. Some∣times for the confirmation and exercise of our faith;

that we may live by faith and not by sense. 7. Or it may be that by this driness of spirit God intends to make us the more fervent and resign'd in our di∣rect and solemn devotions, by the perceiving of our wants and weakness, and in the infinite inability, and insufficiency of our selves. 8. Or else it hap∣pens to us irremediably and inevitably, that we may perceive these accidents are not the fruits of our labour, but gifts of God, dispensed wholly by the measures of his own choice. 9. The want of just and severe dispositions to the Holy Sacrament may possibly occasion this uncomfortableness. 10. Or we do not relish the Divine Nutriment now, so as at other times, for want of spiritual mastication, that is, because we have not considered deeply, and me∣ditated wisely and holily. 11. Or there is in us too much self-love and delight in, and adherence to the comforts we find in other objects. 12. Or we are carelesse of little sins, and give too much way to the dayly incursions of the smaller irregula∣rities of our lives. If upon the occasion of the want of these sensible comforts and delightful relishes, we examine the causes of the want, and suspect our selves in these things, where our own faults may be the causes, and there make amends; or if we sub∣mit our selves in those particulars where the causes may relate to God, we shall do well, and receive profit. But unlesse our own sin be the cause of it, we are not to make any evil judgment of our selves by reason of any such defect; much lesse diminish our great value of the blessings consequent to a worthy communion.

13. But because the pardon of sins is intended to be the great effect of a worthy Communion, and of this men are most solicitous, and for this they

pray passionately, and labour earnestly, and al∣most all their lives, and it may be in the day of their death have uncertain souls; and therefore of this men are most desirous to be satisfied, if they appre∣hend themselves in danger, that is, if they be con∣vinced of their sin, and be truly penitent; although this effect seems to be least discernable, and to be a secret reserved for the publication and trumpet of the Arch-Angel at the day of Doom; yet in this we can best be satisfied. For because when our sins are unpardoned, we are under the wrath of God to be expressed as he pleases, and in the method of e∣ternal death; now if God intends not to pardon us, he will not bless the means of pardon; if we shall not return to his final pardon, we shall not passe through the intermedial; if he will never give us glory, he will never give us the increase of grace. If therefore we repent of our sins, and pray for pardon: if we confess them and forsake them: if we fear God and love him: if we find that our de∣sires to please him do increase, that we are more watchful against sin, and hate it more: that we are thirsty after righteousnesse: if we find that we increase in duty, then we may look upon the tra∣dition of the holy Sacramental Symbols as a direct consignation of pardon: not that it is them com∣pleated; for it is a work of time, it is as long in doing as repentance is in perfecting, it is the effect of that, depending on its cause in a perpetual opera∣tion; but it is then working, and if we go on in duty, God will proceed to finish the methods of his grace, and snatch us from eternal death which we have deserved, and bring us unto glory. And this he is pleased by the Sacramental all the way to consigne: God speaks not more articulately in any

voice from Heaven than in such real indications of his love and favour.

14. Lastly, since the Sacrament is the great so∣lemnity of prayer, and imitation of Christs inter∣cession in Heaven; let us here be both charitable and religious in our prayers; interceding for all states of men and women in the Christan Church; and representing to God all the needs of our selves and of our Relatives. For then we pray with all the advantages of the spirit, when we pray in the faith of Christ crucified, in the love of God and of our neighbour, in the advantages of solemn piety, in the communion of Saints, in the imitation of Christs intercession, and in the union with Christ himself Spiritual and Sacramental; and to such prayers as these nothing can be added, but that which will certainly come, that is, a blessed hearing and a gra∣cious answer.

SECT. III. Devotions preparatory to this Mystery.

Ejaculations. I.

1. I Will praise thee with my whole heart; be∣fore the Angels will I sing praise unto thee.

2. I will worship towards thy holy Temple, and praise thy Name for thy loving kindnesse and for thy truth; for thou hast magnified above all thy name, the word of thy praise.

3. In the day when I call upon thee, thou shalt answer: and shalt multiply strength in my soul.

4. How precious are thy thoughts unto me O God: how great is the sum of them! The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy O Lord endureth for ever.

5. I wait for the Lord: my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.

6. My soul doth wait for the Lord more than they that keep the morning watches: that they may observe the time of offering the morning sacrifices.

7. O let my soul hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous re∣demption: he shall redeem his people from all ini∣quitie.

II.

1. Our Lord is gentle and just: our God is mer∣ciful.

2. The Lord keepeth the simple: I was humbled, but the Lord looked after my redemption.

3. O my soul, return thou unto thy rest: because the Lord hath restored his good things un∣to thee.

4. He hath snatched my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling: I will therefore walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

5. I have believed, therefore will I speak: in the assemblies of just men I will greatly praise the Lord.

6. What shall I return unto the Lord: all his retributions are repayed upon me.

7. I will bear the chalice of redemptions in the Kingdom of God: and in the name of the Lord I will call upon my God.

III.

1. I will pay my vows unto the Lord: I will then shew forth his Sacraments unto all the peo∣ple.

2. Honourable before the Lord is the death of his holy one: and thereby thou hast broken all my chains.

3. I have sworn, and I will perform it: that I will keep thy righteous judgments.

4. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth: yea I will praise him among the multitude.

5. For he shall stand at the right hand of

the poor: to save him from them that condemn his soul.

6. His work is honourable and glorious, and his righteousnesse remaineth for ever: He hath made his wonderful works to be remembred.

7. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion: he hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant: he hath shewed his people the power of his works, blessed be God.

The Prayers to be used in any day or time of preparation to the Ho∣ly Sacrament.

I.

O Thou shepherd of Israel, thou that feedest us like sheep; thou makest us to lie down in plea∣sant pastures, and leadest us by the still waters run∣ning from the clefts of the rock, from the wounds of our Lord, from the fountains of salvation; thou preparest a table for us, and anointest our heads with the unction from above, and our cup runneth over: let the blood of thy wounds, and the water of thy side, wash me clean, that I may with a pure clean soul come to eat of the purest sacrifice, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world.

II.

THou givest thy self to be the food of our souls in the wonders of the Sacrament, in the faith of thy Word, in the blessings and graces of thy Spi∣rit: Perform that in thy Servant, which thou hast prepared and effected in thy Son; strengthen my in∣firmities, heal my sicknesses; give me strength to subdue my passions, to mortifie my inordinations, to kill all my sin: increase thy Graces in my soul; en∣kindle a bright devotion; extinguish all the fires of hell, my lust and my pride, my envy, and all my spi∣ritual wickednesses; pardon all my sins, and fill me with thy Spirit, that by thy Spirit thou maist dwell in me, and by obedience and love I may dwell in thee, and live in the life of grace till it pas•• on to glory and immensity, by the power and the blessings, by the passion and intercession of the Word incarnate; whom I adore, and whom I love, and whom I will serve for ever and ever.

III.

O Mysterious God, ineffable and glorious Ma∣jesty; what is this that thou hast done to the sons of men? thou hast from thy bosom sent thy Son to take upon him our nature; in him thou hast opened the fountains of thy mercy, and hast invited all pe∣nitent sinners to come to be pardoned, all the oppres∣sed to be eased, all the sorrowful to be comforted, all the sick to be cured, all the hungry to be filled, and the thirsty to be refreshed with the waters of life, and sustained with the wine of elect souls; admit me, O God, to this great effusion of loving kindness, that I may partake of the Lord Jesus, that by him I may

be comforted in all my griefs, satisfied in all my doubts; healed of all the wounds of my soul, and the bruises of my spirit; and being filled with the bread of heaven, and armed with the strength of the Spirit; I may begin, continue, and finish my journey thorow this valley of tears, unto my portion of thy heavenly kingdom, whither our Lord is gone before to prepare a place for every loving and obedient soul. Grant this, O Eternal God, for his sake who died for us, and intercedes for us, and gives himself daily to us, our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus. Amen.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Heb. 6.1.2.
• * 1.2

  Act. 2.38.
• * 1.3

  Heb. 10.3.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.4

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Desi∣derata. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, h••stia hostiarum, mysterium mysteriorum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Dominicum.
• * 1.5

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 2 Pet. 2.13.

  1 Cor. 11.20.8.29. 1 Cor. 10.16.

  Jude v. 12 Acts 16.2
• * 1.6

  Duplex vita, du∣plicem poscit pa∣nem. St, Aug. opor∣tuit au∣tem, non solum primitias nostrae naturae in participationem venire melioris, sed omnes quotquot velint ho∣mines & secundâ nativitate nasci, & nutriti cibo novo, & huic na∣tivitati accommodato, at{que} ita praevenire mensuram perfectionis. Damasc. de fide orthod. l. 4. c. 14. Et quoniam spiritualis est Adam, oportuit & nativitatem spiritualem esse, similiter & cibum. Ib. ibid.
• * 1.7

  in Levit: & habetur de conse∣crat: dist. 2. secun∣dum se.
• * 1.8

  habet. de consecrat, dist. 2. Epist. ad. Iren.
• * 1.9

  Ibid.
• * 1.10

  vide eund. in Joha••. tract. 50.
• * 1.11

  In tract. verb. Qui∣cun{que} dix∣erit ver∣bum in fi∣lium homi∣nis.

  In Levit. c. 10. hom. 7.
• * 1.12

  De Sa∣cram. l. 5. c. 4. & in Luc. l. 6. c. 8.
• * 1.13

  In Jo∣han. 6. hom. 47. Tract. 26. in Johan. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. S. Ba∣sil in Ps. 33
• * 1.14

  Joh. 6.35.
• * 1.15

  v. 54, 56.
• * 1.16

  Res ipsa cujus Sa∣cramen∣tum est, omni ho∣mini ad vitam, nulli ad exitium quicun{que} ejus par∣ticeps su∣erit. S. Aug tract 16. in Joh. de resur. car. c. 37.
• * 1.17

  Annon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 hoc my∣sterium pronunciat [Nestorius] & irreligiose fidelium mentes in sen∣sus adulterinos detrudit ac humanis cogitationibus aggreditur, quae solâ purâ & inexquisitâ fide accipiuntur. S. Cyril lib. ad Euophium anathem. 11.
• * 1.18

  Quod esca est carni, hoc anim••e fides.

  S. Cypr. de coen•• Dom.
• * 1.19

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 apud Ara∣bas & He∣braeos sig∣nificat pa∣nem & corpus. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. S. Chrysost
• * 1.20

  Pedag. 1. lib. de re∣sur. car. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M.S Prov. 9.5. Moreh. Ne∣vouch. l. 1. c. 30.
• * 1.21

  Pedag. 1. lib. de re∣sur. car. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Euseb. l. 3. Eccles. Theol. M.S Prov. 9.5. Moreh. Ne∣vouch. l. 1. c. 30.
• * 1.22

  Ecclus. 15.3.
• * 1.23

  Isa. 55.1, 2.
• * 1.24

  Mat. 5.6.
• * 1.25

  Amos. 8.11.
• * 1.26

  Isa. 12.3.
• * 1.27

  à selectis justorum; à capiti∣bus & pri∣mariis coetus.
• * 1.28

  Jer. 15.16.
• * 1.29

  Heb. 9.14.
• * 1.30

  10.29.
• * 1.31

  13.20.
• * 1.32

  Luke 14.15.
• * 1.33

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.Sibyl. Erithr. Orac. Luk. 22.30.
• * 1.34

  Eâ for∣mâ quâ semper carnalia in figu∣ram spi∣ritualium antece∣dunt. Ter∣tul. de ba∣ptis.
• * 1.35

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Philo. Allegor. In ratione sacrorum par est & animae & corporis causa, nam plerun∣que quae non possunt circa animam fieri, fiunt circa corpus. Servius in illud Virgil. [vittas{que} resolvit] & lib. 4. In sacris quae exhiberi non po∣terunt, simulabantur & erant pro veris.
• * 1.36

  Joh. Chap. 6.
• * 1.37

  Ad in∣fantes apud Bedam.
• * 1.38

  Tingi∣mur in passione Domini. Tertul. l. de bapt. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. S. Cyril. vocatbap∣tismum Catech. 11
• * 1.39

  Rom. 5.10.

  Col. 1.20, 21, 22.

  Tit. 2.14. Heb. 2.9, 14.

  Heb. 9.15 1 Pet. 1.18.

  1 Pet. 2.24.

  Tertul. l. 3. c. 8. contr. Marcion.
• * 1.40

  Figura est ergo praecipi∣ens, passioni Domini esse communicandum, & sua∣viter atque utiliter re∣condendum in memoria, quo pro nobis caro ejus crucifixa & vulnerata sit. S. August. de doctr. Christ. l. 3.
• * 1.41

  Et tu qui accipis panem divinae ejus substantiae in illo participas alimento. S. Ambros. lib. 66. de sacram. Hic umbra, hic imago, il∣lic veritas: umbra in le∣ge, imago in evangelio, veritas in coelestibus. Idem de offic. lib. 4. cap. 48. [si quis verò transire potue∣rit ab hâc umbrâ, veniat ad imaginem rerum, & vi∣deat adventum Christi in carne factum, videat eum pontificem, offerentem quidem & nunc patri ho∣stias, & postmodum obla∣turum, & intelligat haec omnia imagines esse spiri∣tualium rerum, & corpo∣ralibus officiis coelestia de∣signari. Origen in Psal. 38. Vide eund. hom. 7. in Levit. & Epiphanium in Anchorato.
• * 1.42

  De sa∣cram. l. 6.
• * 1.43

  Gen. 9.15.
• * 1.44

  2 Kings 6.6. advers. Judaeos.
• * 1.45

  2 Kings 13.18, 19.
• * 1.46

  Acts 22.16.

  Rom. 6.5. & 8.11.
• * 1.47

  Rom. 6.5.
• * 1.48

  v. 6.
• * 1.49

  v. 4.
• * 1.50

  1 Pet. 3.16.
• * 1.51

  Et institutio paria, & signi∣ficatio similia, & finis facit aequalia, S. August. apud Bedam in 1 Cor. 10.

  So Cyril, Hierom. catech. 2.
• * 1.52

  1 Cor. 12.13.

  1 Cor. 10.16.17.
• * 1.53

  Serm. de coenâ Dui.
• * 1.54

  Acts 15.9.
• * 1.55

  Ephes. 5.26.

  Rom. 3.28.

  Luk. 7.50. Tit. 3.5. Eph. 5.26.
• * 1.56

  2 Tim. 1.6 lib. 15. de Trinit. cap. 26.
• * 1.57

  Act. 8.18.
• * 1.58

  St. Aug. lib. 3. in Levit. pu. 84.
• * 1.59

  S. Austin. in Levit. q. 57. solet autem res quae signi∣ficat, ejus rei nomine quam sig∣nificat, nuncu∣pari.

  Theodoret. dial. 1. c. 8. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.60

  Chap. 3. Sect. 5.
• * 1.61

  Ante communicationem corporis Christi & sangui∣nis, juxta Orientalium par∣tium morem, unanimiter clarâ voce sacratissimum fi∣dei recenseant Symbolum, ut primum populi quam credulitatem teneant, fate∣antur. Concil. Tolet. 3. c. 2. & St. Ambros. quibus [sym∣bolis] vescentes confessio∣nem fidei suae addebant: re∣spondebant. Amen. Idem etiam sancitum in Concil. Agath.
• * 1.62

  Euseb. Emiss. ha∣betur de consecrat dist. 2.
• * 1.63

  Jude 12.
• * 1.64

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.

  Corpus sumus de conscien∣tiâ Religionis, & disciplinae unitate, & spei foedere. Coi∣mus ad Deum quasi manu factâ pre••ptionibus ambia∣mus. Haec vis Deo grata est Tertul. apol. cap. 39. Idem ad vers. haeret. cap. 20. ait Sacramentum esse contes∣serationem mutuae dilecti∣onis in membris Ecclesiae inter se.
• * 1.65

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Isid. Pe∣lusiot.
• * 1.66

  Serm. 8. ad fratres in erem. Hoc Sa∣cramen∣tum ideo nobis datum est ut corpus Ecclesiae Christi in terris cum capite quod est in coelis coadunetur] Itaque petendo panem nostrum quotidianum perpetuitatem postulamus in Christo, & individui∣tatem à corpore ejus. Tertul. de orat. Et ideo panem nostrum, i.e. Christum dari nobis quotidie petimus, ut qui in Christo manemus, à sanctificatione ejus & corpore non ••ecedamus St. Cyprian de orat. Domin.
• * 1.67

  Qui scel eratè vivunt in Ecclesiâ, & communicare non desinunt putantes setali communione mundari, discant nihil ad emundationem proficere dicente prophetâ, quid est quod dilectus meus facit in domo meâ scelera multa? nunquid carnes sanctae auferent à te malitias tuas? Jer. 11.15. Isidor. Hispal. de summo bono lib. 1. cap. 24.
• * 1.68

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
• * 1.69

  Heb. 7.24.
• * 1.70

  Heb. 8.3.
• † 1.71

  Nonne semel immola∣tus est Christus in seipso? & tamen in Sacramento non solum per omnes paschae solennitates, sed omni die populis immolatur. Nec utique mentitur qui inter∣rogatus, eum responderit immolari: si enim Sacramenta quan∣dam similitudinem earum rerum quarum Sacramenta sunt non haberent, omnino Sacramenta non essent St. Aug. Epist. ad Boni∣fac. 23. Quia corpus assumptum ablaturus erat ab oculis, & illa∣turus syderibus, necessarium erat ut die coenae Sacramentum no∣bis corporis & sanguinis consecraretur, ut coleretur jugiter per mysterium quod semel offerebatur in precium, ut quia quotidi∣ana & indefessa currebat pro omnium salute redemptio, perpetua esset redemptionis oblatio, & perennis victima illa viveret in me∣moria, & semper praesens esset in gratia, vera unica, & perfecta hostia, fide aestimanda non specie, ne{que} exteriori censenda visu sed interiore affectu. Unde coelestis confirmat authoritas, quia caro mea verè est cibus, & sanguis meus verè est potus. Recedat ergo om∣ne infidelitatis ambiguum quoniam qui author est muneris, idem testis est veritatis. Euseb. Emiss. & habetur de consecrat. dist. 2.
• † 1.72

  Non sine mysterio, sine re, vel panis ad aram,Vel vinum fertur cui su∣peraddis aquam.Utra{que} sub typico ritu, for∣maque futuri,Melchisedec Domino sa∣crificasse serunt.Hildebert. Cenoman.Melchisedec Domino pa∣nem vinum{que} litavit,Christus idem faciens, pa∣ctum vetus evacuavit.Hugo Card.— Rex ille Salem, qui munere tali,Mystica praemisit summi libamina Christi.Claud. Marian victor. lib. 3. in Genes.
• * 1.73

  Psal. 116.
• * 1.74

  Hinc ergo pen∣semus quale sit hoc sa∣cramen∣tum, quod pro absolutione nostrâ passionem unigeniti filii imitetur. Quis n. fidelium habere dubium posset in ipsâ immolationis horâ ad Sacerdotis vo∣••••m coelos aperiri, in illo Jesu Christi mysterio angelorum choros ••••lesse: S. Gregor. in homil. Paschali.
• * 1.75

  Humana enim caro quae erat peccato mortua, carnī mundae unita, incorporata, unum cum illâ effecta, vi∣vit de spiritu ejus, sicut u∣num corpus de suo spiritu, St. Aug. Epist. ad Iren.

  Condescendens Deus no∣stris fragilitatibus, influit oblatis vim vitae conver∣tens ea in veritatem propriae carnis, ut corpus vitae qua∣si quoddam semen vivifica∣tivum inveniatur in nobis. 8. Cyril. ad Calosyrium.

  St. Cyril. l. 11. in Johan. c. 26. Christus suo corpore per communionem mysticam be∣nedicens credentibus & secum & inter nos unum corpus ef∣ficit. de Trinit. lib. 8.
• * 1.76

  Lib. 4. c. 34. St. Clem. A∣lex. lib. 2. paedag. c. 2. Bibere Jesu san∣guinem est parti∣cipem esse incorrup∣tionis Do∣mini. lib. 5.
• * 1.77

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Epist. ad Ephes. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.78

  1 Cor. 11.26.
• * 1.79

  Haec sump∣ta & hausta fa∣ciunt ut nos in Christo & Christus in nobis sit. lib. 8. de Trinit. habetur de consecrat. dist.
• * 1.80

  lib. 2. paed. c. 2.
• * 1.81

  Tract. 17. in Johan. Contenti sint ad venera••i∣onem fi∣guris de∣fendenti∣bus a vi∣litate se∣cretam. Macrob. in somn. Scip. l. 1. c. 2.
• * 1.82

  St. Chry∣sost.

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Origen. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.83

  Denat. Deor.
• * 1.84

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.85

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Lib. 8. contr. Celsum.
• * 1.86

  Epist. ad Smyr.
• * 1.87

  Sect. 1. of this Chap.
• * 1.88

  Ecclus. 21.11.
• * 1.89

  Nam a∣nimalis homo, ho•• est, qui sequitur co∣gitationes humanas & ani∣males sive naturales, non est capax eorū, quae sunt su∣pra naturam, & spiritualiū, at{que} ita & spiritualem esum carnis Dominicae non in∣telligit, cujus qui non sunt participes, non erunt par∣ticipes aeternae vi••ae. Theo∣phylact in cap. 6. Joh.
• * 1.90

  Joh. 8.31, 32.
• * 1.91

  Ecclus. 25 11.
• * 1.92

  1 Joh. 1.1.
• * 1.93

  Concil. Later. part 50. cap. 30
• * 1.94

  Eccles. 11.6.