[§. 3] §. 3. Of the Elements Bread and Wine.

I begin with the Elements, and they are

1. Two, viz. Bread and Wine: Our Melchise∣dech entertains the children of Abraham, as that Melchisedech did Abraham himself, Gen. 18. •8. He brought forth to him bread and wine. Christ did not take these two by accident, because he found them then on the Table, but by choice and election for their use in signifying. The old Church of Israel had a Table-Sacrament, the Passeover, and Christ will have the Gospel-Church to have a Table-Sacrament too, this Supper; but as before Christ their Sacrifices and Sacraments were all bloudy: So when Christ the substance of all Sacrifices and Sacraments hath suf∣fer'd, the Sacraments of the Gospel and Sacrifices are unbloudy: Many Divines shew the conveniency Page  73 of Bread and Wine to be the materials of this Sacra∣ment,* and some with too much fancy, The repre∣sentation of his Body broken, and of his Blood shed. The participation of his Body and Blood for soul∣strength, and soul-refreshment, could not be better shadowed forth than by the staff of Bread; and chear∣full Wine; which as they are the most common▪ so the most necessary and prime materials that are used at our tables, answering both our appetites of hun∣ger and thirst; weakness is strengthened by bread, faintness cherisht by wine, the faint and feeble soul by Christ. Famine and thirst are importunate things, no delights of the eye, no Musick to the ear can satis∣fie them. Violent desires towards Christ are not to be excused, but praised: For his Flesh is meat indeed, his Blood is drink indeed, Joh. 6. 55.

2. Bread and Wine severally and asunder, to set forth his death, wherein Corpus a sanguine separa∣tum fuit, saith Jansenius, his Body and his Blood* was sundred. The Papists, as to their Priests and some Kings or Princes, will allow bread and wine, but as to the common people, bread or wine they say by concomitancy, the blood is in the bread virtually, and so they shut up the wounds of Christ by their dry Mass. But Christ would represent himself here not as a Lamb, but a Lamb sacrificed and slain; and therefore the blood is severed from the body, as the money is not a prisoners ransom, while it lies in the chest, but when it's paid: So the blood of Christ as shed is our ransom. As Israel in the wil∣derness had a type of Christ, Manna which they did eat, and the rock also of which they drank, so have we the memorials of his body and blood, that we may eat and drink.

And which is the summe of all that may be said on this point, since the Lord was pleased even under the Gospel to continue that old way of Fellowship and Communion with his Church, by entertaining them at his own Table, upon his own chear in an Ordinance of eating and drinking; as he alwaies al∣lowed the Israelites to feast with him upon the re∣mainders of the Sacrifices in token of followship: and the very Heathens did by feasting on their Sacrifices testifie their fellowship with their Idols, as is plain, 1 Cor. 10. 18, 19, 20. I see not how more fit materials could be used then Bread and Wine, which as they best stand with the simplicity of the Gospel, so they are the most common and necessary atten∣dants in all feasts, and do both together set forth that full and perfect nourishment which we finde in Christ.

As for that I finde in Cyprian, and from him in*August. and after both, in most Divines, That as one bread is made of many grains, and one cup of wine of many grapes, so the Church is one Body of many Members; whose Communion and Fellow∣ship is here professed, testified and signified by their participation of one Bread and of one Cup: The allusion is proper, and not unlike that of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 10. 17. We being many are one bread, and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. And this union of members was anciently professed with all dearness of love and affection in the use of this Ordinance; and they delighted to express their division and separation from all the world, their combination and concorporation among themselves, by all entercourses of love and dearness that could Page  75 be; their Feasts of Love, their Kiss, mentioned in Scripture and ancient Authours, are hereof great witnesses.

But what shall those places or Countries do that have no bread of corn, no fruit of the vine: I con∣fess that though God said in the Passeover, a Lamb* or Kid, yet Christ expresses nothing there of other materials, and therefore in case of extream necessity, where the proper Elements cannot be had, they must either be without the Ordinance, or celebrate in that which is Analogicall, and which passes for bread with them, or wine with them; which it's better (say some) to do, than wholly to be depri∣ved;* but this Eclipse is not likely to be seen in our Horison, therefore I shall not further discuss it.