CHAPTER III.

Inferences of practice from the former observations.

HERE then we see, first, the different state and disposition of the church here in a state of corruption; and, therefore, in want of water in baptism to wash it in a state of infancy; and, therefore, in want of milk in the Word to nourish it in a state of weakness; and, therefore, in want of bread, the body of Christ, to strengthen it: in a state of sorrow; and, therefore, in want of wine, the blood of Christ, to comfort it. Thus the church while it is a child, it speaks as a child, it understands as a child, it feeds as a child, here a little and there a little; one day in the week, one hour in the day, it is kept fasting and hungry. But when it is grown from strength to strength, unto a perfect age, and unto the fulness of the stature of Christ; then it shall be satisfied with fatness, and drink its full of those rivers of pleasures, which make glad the city of God. It shall keep an eternal sabbath, a continued festival: the supper of the Lamb shall be without end, or satiety: "so long as the bridegroom is with them," (which shall be for ever) "they cannot fast."

Secondly, We see here, nor see only, but even taste and touch, how gracious the Lord is, in that he is pleased even to unrobe his graces of their natural lustre, to overshadow his promises; and, as it were, to obscure his glory, that they might be made proportioned to our dull and earthly senses; to lock up so rich mysteries, as lie hidden in the sacraments, in a bason of water, or a morsel of bread. When he was invisible, by reason of that infinite distance between the divine nature and ours, he made himself to be seen in the flesh and now that his very flesh is to us again invisible, by reason of that vast distance between his place and ours, he hath made even it, in a mystical sense, to be seen and tasted in the sacrament. Oh then, since God doth thus far humble himself and his graces, even unto our senses,

:

let not us, by an odious ingratitude, humble them yet lower, even under our feet. Let us not trample on the blood of the covenant, by taking it into a noisome sink, into a dirty and earthy heart. He that eats Christ in the sacrament with a foul mouth, and receives him into an uncleansed and sinful soul,-doth all one as if he should sop the bread he eats, in dirt, or lay up his richest treasures in a sink.

Thirdly, We learn, how we should employ all our senses. Not only as brute beasts do, to fasten them on the earth, but to lift them unto a more heavenly use, since God hath made even them the organs and instruments of our spiritual nourishment. Mix ever with the natural, a heavenly use of thy senses. Whatsoever thou seest, behold in it his wonder; whatsoever thou hearest, hear in it his wisdom; whatsoever thou tastest, taste in it the sweetness, as well of his love, as of the creature. If Christ will not dwell in a foul house, he will certainly not enter at a foul door. Let not those teeth that eat the bread of angels, grind the face of the poor; let not the mouth which doth drink the blood of Christ, thirst after the blood of his neighbour; let not that hand which is reached out to receive Christ in the sacrament, be stretched out to injure him in his members; let not those eyes which look on Christ, be gazing after vanity; certainly, if he will not be one in the same body with a harlot, neither will he be seen with the same eyes. He is really in the heaven of the greater world; and he will be nowhere else sacramentally, but in the heavenly parts of man, the lesser.

Lastly, We see here what manner of conversation we have: The church on earth hath but the earnests of glory, the earnest of the Spirit, and the earnest of the sacrament; that witnessing f, this signifying; both confirming and sealing our adoption . But we know not what we shall be "; our life is yet hidi, and our inheritance is laid up for us k. A prince, that is haply bred up in a great distance from his future kingdom in another realm, and that amongst enemies where he suffers one while a danger, another a disgrace, loaded with dangers and discontents, though, by the assurance of blood, by the warrant of his Father's own hand

g Rom. iv. 11. Ephes. iv. 30. Col. iii. 3. k I Pet. i. 4.

and seal, he may be confirmed in the evident right of his succession,-can hardly yet so much as imagine the honour he shall enjoy, nor any more see the gold and lustre of his crown in the print of the wax that confirms it, than a man that never saw the sun, can conceive that brightness which dwelleth in it, by its picture drawn in some dark colours. "We are a royal people '; heirs, yea coheirs with Christ m;" but we are in a far country," and absent from the Lord";" in houses ruinous and made of clay,' in a 'region of darkness,' in a shadow of death,' in a valley of tears.' Though compassed in with a wall of fire, yet do the waves of ungodly men break in upon us: though shipped in a safe ark, the temple of God, yet often tossed almost unto shipwreck, and ready, with Jonah, to be swallowed up of a great Leviathan: though protected with a guard of holy angels, which pitch their tents about us, so that the enemy without eannot enter, yet enticed often out, and led privily, but voluntarily, away by the enchanting lusts, the Dalilahs of our own bosom. The kingdom and inheritance we expect, is hid from us P; and we know no more of it, but only this, that it passeth knowledge. Only the assurance of it is confirmed by an infallible patent, God's own promise, and that made firm by a seal, coloured with that blood, and stamped with the image of that body, which was the price that bought it. What remains then, but that where the body is, thither the eagles fly; where the treasure is, there the heart be also; that we groan after the revelation of the sons of God, when the veil of our mortality shall be rent; the mud wall of the flesh made spiritual and transparent; the shadows and resemblances of the sacraments abolished; the glass of the creature removed; the riddle of our salvation unfolded; the vapours of corruption dispelled; the patience of our expectation rewarded; and from the power of the Spirit within, and the presence of Christ without, shall be diffused on the whole man a double lustre of exceeding abundant glory? The hope and assurance of this is it which, in those holy mysteries of Christ's supper, we receive; which if received without dependence and relation on that glory which they

11 Peter ii. 9. Eph. iii. 9.

m Rom. viii. 17.

n 2 Cor. v. 6.

• Jam. i. 14.

foreshadow, and on that body which with all the merits of it they obsignate, doth no more good than the seal of a king, without any grant or patent whereunto it should be joined; in which there is no profit beyond the bare wax, and much danger in trifling with so sacred a thing.

CHAPTER IV.

Whence Sacraments derive their value and being, namely, from the Author that instituted them.

BUT why are not the instruments more glorious, where the effects are so admirable? Whence is it that there should lie so much power in the narrow room of so small and common elements? It had been worth the creating of a new creature, to be made the pledge of a new covenant. The first fruits are of the same nature with their crop; and earnest useth to be paid in coin of the same quality with the whole after-sum. If, then, sacraments are the earnests of our glory, why are not the faithful, instead of eating a morsel of bread, taken up, with St. Paul, into the third Heavens? Why are they not, instead of drinking a sip of wine, transformed with their Saviour; and have, with Stephen, a vision of him at the right hand of the Father? How discursive is foolish pride, when it would prescribe unto God! Vain man, who undertakest to instruct thy Maker, instead of praising him; to censure his benefits, when thou shouldest enjoy them; wilt thou not receive salvation without thine own counsel? or art thou so foolish as to conceive nothing precious without pomp? And to judge of the thing conveyed, by the value and quality of the instrument that conveys it? Tell me then, why it is, that water, a vulgar element, is held in a cistern of lead,-and thy wine, a more costly liquor, but in a vessel of wood? Tell me the reason why that wax, which in the shop haply was not priced at a penny, should, by cleaving unto a small parcel of parchment, be valuable unto a million of money? Tell me, why should that clay, which while it lay under foot, was vile and disho

• John ix. 6.

nourable dirt,--when it was applied by Christ unto the eyes of a blind man, be advanced unto the condition of a precious and supernatural salve? Is not, even in works of art, the skill of the workman more eminent in the narrowest and unfittest subjects? Are not the Iliads of Homer more admirable in a nutshell than in a volume"? Do not limners set the highest value on their smallest draughts? And is there not matter of admiration and astonishment in the meanest and most vulgar objects? And what madness is it, then, by those reasons to undervalue faith, which are the arguments to confirm it! As if the power of an agent were not there greatest, where the subject on which he worketh, doth confer least; as if the weakness of the elements, did not add unto the wonder of the sacrament. If it were an argument of Christ's miraculous power, to feed five thousand with so few loaves; why should not the miracle of his sacrament be equal, which feeds the whole church with so slender elements? Certainly, they who any way disesteem the seeming meanness and emptiness of the sacrament, entertaining but low and vulgar conceits thereof,-stumble at the same stone of foolishness, by which the Gentiles fell from their salvation. But wilt thou needs know both the reason why we use no other sacraments, and why these carry with them so much virtue? One answer resolves both :-it is the majesty of the same king that coins his money, and that values it: he that frames a private mint, or imposeth another rate, is in both equally a traitor; in the former by stealing the king's authority, in the other by altering it. The same author did both institute the sacrament and value it; from the same power did it receive the necessity of its being, and the efficacy of its working. In covenants or conveyances, the articles and instruments may be haply drawn by some lawyer; but the confirmations of them by hand and seal, are ordinarily performed by the men themselves who are interested in them. A secretary may write the letter; but his lord will himself subscribe and seal it.

Thus the patent of God's covenant hath been drawn out, for the benefit of God's church, by many selected and in

r Seneca, Naturalium Quæst. s August. ep. 3.-Ambros. Hexam. lib. 6. c. 6. -Chrysost. Hom. 12. ad Pop. Antioch.-Tertul. de Baptis. c. 2. & contra Marc. 1. 5. c. 5. f Vide Ambros. de Sacrament. lib. 4. cap. 4.