den from the wise; so is it here his wisdom to communicate, by the meanest instruments, what he hath denied unto the choicest delicates, to feed his Daniels rather with pulse, than with all the dainties on the king's table. And if we observe it, divine miracles take ever the poorest and meanest subjects to manifest themselves on. If he want an army to protect his church, flies, and frogs, and caterpillars, and lamps, and pitchers", &c. shall be the strongest soldiers and weapons he useth; the lame and the blind, the dumb 2, and the dead, water, and clay, these are materials for his power d.Even where thou seest the instruments of God weakest, there expect and admire the more abundant manifestation of his greatness and wisdom: undervalue not the bread and wine in this holy Sacrament, which do better resemble the benefits of Christ crucified, than any other the choicest delicates. "Bread and wine;" the element is double to increase the comfort of the faithful, that by two things wherein it is impossible for God to deceive, we might have strong consolation who have laid hold upon him. "The dream is doubled," said Joseph to Pharaoh, "because the thing is certain:" and surely here the element is doubled too, that the grace may be the more certain. No marvel then, if those men who deny unto the people the certainty of grace, deny unto them likewise these double elements: so fit is it, that they which preached but a half-comfort, should administer likewise but a half-sacrament. Secondly, Bread and wine: in the passover there was blood shed, but there was none drunkens; yea, that flesh which was eaten, was but once a-year. They who had all in types, had yet their types, as it were, imperfect. In the fulness of time came Christ; and with or in Christ came the fulness of grace; and of his fulness do we receive in the gospel, which the Jews only expected in the promise, that they without us might not be made perfect 1. "These things have I h $ Isai. vii. 18. t Exod. viii. 6, 24. u Judges vii. 20. Josh. vi. 4. Judges xv. 15. * Joel ii. 25. y John v. 23. Matth. xii. 10. z John ix. 1. a Matth. ix. 25. b Matth. xii. 22. c John ii. 7. d John ix. 6. • Heb. vi. 18. f Gen. xli. 32. g Lex esum sanguinis prohibet: Evangelium præcipit, ut bibatur. Cypr. de Cœna Dom.—Vid. Ambros. Tom. 4. lib. de iis qui initiantur, c. 9. h Gal. iv. 4. Col. i. 19. i Heb. xi. 40. spoken," saith Christ, "that your joy might be full." The fulness of our sacrament, notes also the fulness of our salvation, and of his sacrifice who is able perfectly to save those that come unto God by him '. Thirdly, Bread and wine: common, vulgar, obvious food; wine with water being the only known drink with them in those hot countries. Amongst the Jews, a lamb was to be slain, a more chargeable and costly sacrament, not so easy for the poor to procure: and therefore in the offering of purification, the poor were dispensed with; and, for a lamb, offered a pair of pigeons. Christ now hath broken " down that partition wall, that wall of enclosure which made the church as a garden with hedges,—and made only the rich, the people of the Jews, capable of God's covenants and sacraments. Now that God's table hath crumbs as well as flesh P, the dogs and Gentiles eat of it too; the poorest in the world is admitted to it, even as the poorest that are to shift for bread, though they are not able to provide flesh. Then the church was a fountain sealed up; but, in Christ, there was a fountain, opened for transgressions and for sins'. Fourthly, Bread and wine; bread to strengthen, and wine to comforts. All temporal benefits are, in divine dialect, called "bread," it being the staff of life; and the want of which, though in a confluence of all other blessings, causeth famine in a land". See here the abundant sufficiency of Christ's passion:-it is the universal food of the whole church, which sanctifieth all other blessings; without which they have no relish nor comfort in them. Sin and the corrupt nature of man hath a venomous quality in it to turn all other good things into poison, unless corrected by this antidote, this "bread of life *" that came down from Heaven. And well may it be called a bread of life, inasmuch as in it resides a power of trans-elementation; that whereas other nourishments do themselves turn into the substance of the receiver, -this, quite otherwise, transforms and assimilates the soul unto the image of itself. Whatsoever faintness we are in, n Ephes. ii. 14. r Zach. xiii. 1. u Amos m Levit. xii. 8. Psalm civ. 19. Matth. xi. 6. Gen. xviii. 5, 8. viii. 11. * John vi. Vita Christus, et vita panis. if we hunger after Christ, he can refresh us: whatsoever fears oppress us, if, like men oppressed with fear, we thirst and gasp after his blood, it will comfort us: whatsoever weakness either our sins or sufferings have brought us to, the staff of this bread will support us: whatsoever sorrows of mind, or coldness of affection do any way surprise us,this wine, or rather this blood (in which only is true life ), will, with great efficacy, quicken us. If we want power, we have the power of Christ's cross; if victorya, we have the victory of his cross; if triumph, we have the triumph of his cross; if peace, we have the peace of his cross; if wisdom, we have the wisdom of his cross. Thus is Christ crucified a treasure to his church, full of all sufficient provision both for necessity and delight. Fifthly, Bread and wine, both of parts homogeneal, and alike; each part of bread, bread; each part of wine, wine; no crumb in the one, no drop in the other, differing from the quality of the whole. O the admirable nature of Christ's blood, to reduce the affections and the whole man to one uniform and spiritual nature with itself! Insomuch, that when we shall come to the perfect fruition of Christ's glorious body, our very bodies likewise shall be spiritual bodies; spiritual in a uniformity of glory, though not of nature with the soul. Sins, commonly, are jarring and contentious f: one affection struggles in the same soul with another for mastery; ambition fights with malice, and pride with covetousness; the head plots against the heart, and the heart swells against the head; reason and appetite, will and passion, soul and body, set the whole frame of nature in a continual combustion; like an unjointed or broken arm, one faculty moves contrary to the government or attraction of another; and so as, in a confluence of contrary streams and winds, the soul is whirled about in a maze of intestine contentions. But when once we become conformable unto Christ's death", it presently makes of two one, and so worketh peacei; it slayeth that hatred and war in the members, and reduceth all unto that primitive harmony, unto that uniform spiritualness, which changeth us all into the same image "from glory to glory r "" Sixthly, Bread and wine, as they are homogeneal, so are they united together, and wrought out of divers particular grains and grapes, into one whole lump or vessels: and therefore bread and blood, even amongst the heathen, were used for emblems of leagues, friendship, and marriage, the greatest of all unions. See the wonderful efficacy of Christ crucified to solder, as it were, and joint all his members into one body by love, as they are united unto him by faith. They are built up as living stones through him, who is the chief corner-stone, elect and precious unto one temple: they are all united by love, by the bond or sinews of peace unto him who is the head", and transfuseth through them all the same vital nourishment: they are all the flock of Christ reduced unto one fold, by that one chief shepherd of their souls, who came to gather those that wandered either from him in life, or from one another in affection. X Lastly, Bread and wine severed and asunder; that to be eaten, this to be drunken; that, in a loaf,—this, in a cup. It is not the blood of Christ running in his veins, but shed on his members, that doth nourish his church. Impious, therefore, is their practice, who pour Christ's blood, as it were, into his body again; and shut up his wounds, when they deny the cup unto the people, under pretence that Christ's body by being received, the blood by way of concomitancy is received together with it; and so seal up that precious fountain which he had opened, and make a monopoly of Christ's sacred wounds; as if his blood had been shed only for the priest, and not as well for the people; or as if the church had power to withhold that from the people of Jesus, which himself had given them. r 2 Cor. iii. 18. Convival. 1 Pet. v. 4. Vid. Cyprian. 1. 1. epist. 6.—Vid, Gul. Stuck. in Antiq. t1 Pet. ii. 5, 6. Ephes. iv. 16. 1 Cor. xii. x John K. CHAPTER VIII. Practical inferences from the materials of the Lord's Supper. HERE then we see, First, Inasmuch as these elements are so necessary and beneficial to that life of man, with what appetite we should approach these holy mysteries, even with hungry and thirsty souls, longing for the sweetness of Christ crucified. Wheresoever God hath bestowed a vital being, he hath also afforded nourishment to sustain it, and an inclination and attractive faculty in the subject towards its nourishment. Even the new born-babe, by the impression of nature, is moved to use the breasts before he knows them. Now us which were dead in sins, hath Christ quickened, and hath infused into us a vital principle, even that faith by which the just do live"; which being instilled into us, Christ beginneth to be formed in the soul, and the whole man to be made conformable unto him". Then are the parts organized and fitted for their several works; there is an eye, with Stephen, to see Christ; an ear, with Mary, to hear him; a mouth, with Peter, to confess him; a hand, with Thomas, to touch him; an arm, with Simeon, to embrace him; feet, with his disciples, to follow him; a heart to entertain him, and bowels of affection to love him. All the members are weapons of righteousness;' and thus is the ' new man", the new creature' perfected. Now he that left not himself amongst the Heathen without a witness, but filled even their hearts with food and gladness,-hath not, certainly, left his own chosen without nourishments, such as may preserve them in that estate which he hath thus framed them unto. As therefore new infants are fed with the same nourishment and substance of which they consist; so the same Christ, crucified, is as the cause and matter of our new birth, so the food which sustaineth and preserveth y Ephes. ii. 1. e Rom. vi. 19. "Hab. ii. 4. Gal. ii. 20. 8 Clem. Alex. Præd. 1. 1. 1. cap. 6. a Gal. iv. 19. e 2 Cor. v. 17. b Phil. iii. 10. f Acts xiv. 17. |