I Take all these Scriptures, as the common Subject, that by the Grace and Assistance of God, I intend to discourse at this time, and especially to Treat the Sense of these Words, This is my Body: And This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament. And as I have earnestly begg'd of God, that he would waken me morning by morning, that he would waken my Ear to hear as the lear­ned concerning it; so that He would give me the Tongue of the Learned to speak of it; and grant you also to hear with the Ear of the Learned; that so in this whole Duty the Preparations of the Heart, the Answer of the Tongue, and the Hearing of the Ear, may be from the Lord.

Now I shall endeavour so to treat of it, as if there were no other Point of Controversie between us Protestants and the Roman Persuasion, but only the Sense of these Words, [Page 2] This is my Body: And I shall consider that Transubstantia­tion, as it is generally called, that is built upon it, as if there were no other Fault nor Errour in that Doctrine, but on­ly a Zeal for the Mystery of the Lord's Supper, and the Let­ter of Scripture in this Institution, though it be not according to Knowledge: and therefore I will allow the utmost both to the Words, and the Sense, that can be allowed, the very utmost that can be made of This is my Body, This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament. And I shall endeavour so to treat of it, that there may be nothing that may be offensive, except the plain Evidence and Reason of Things, the Evi­dence of Truth, without any umbrage, any shadow of a Railing Accusation. I will discourse only upon the single Account of Scripture, and the Reasons drawn from it.

And therefore I do allow, That these Words, This is my Body, and This Cup is my Blood, they do carry a most high and important Sense; And I shall consider the utmost Ten­dency they can have to such a thing as is called Transubstan­tiation: though the Word it self be not indeed found in Scripture, yet I will allow the thing in its due sense. And I shall endeavour so to do this, that you may have the clear­est understanding of the Intention and Meaning of the Lord's Supper, and the Institution of it, and of these Words, This is my Body, and so as may tend most to the real Sense, and Impression upon your Hearts, of so great an Expression of our Saviour both in the general Doctrine of the Gospel, and in the particular Sense and Meaning of the Lord's Sup­per, and that sacred Solemnity; and also may be most pra­ctical, and may most serve to the good of every man's Soul who desires spiritually to understand this great Doctrine, and the particular Ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

And because it is agreed among all men that profess any Reverence to the Lord's Supper, that as it is not a humane Device, so not a natural Duty, made known by natural Light, nor written in natural Conscience; it is not like the Reverence of the Divine Being, or Prayer to God, or the [Page 3] desire to know his Mind or Will, or any moral Duty: but it depends wholly upon Divine Institution and Ordination: 'Tis wholly from Scripture, or else there could never have been such a Worship of God known in the World, as the Solemnity of eating Bread, and drinking Wine in the Lord's Supper, in Remembrance of him.

To introduce therefore this matter, I consider, There are Four inspired Writers who have given us this Institution from our Lord; the Evangelist Matthew, the Evangelist Mark, the Evangelist Luke, and the Apostle Paul: and then the Evangelist John, although it was not committed to him (as every Evangelist had throughout the whole Evangelick History, his Portion of every Matter, and the proper Words of it committed to him) to write of this Institution; yet he had a sublime and highly spiritual Discourse intrust­ed with him all along the last part of his sixth Chapter con­cerning the eating the Flesh of Christ, and drinking his Blood; which must needs be the Foundation of eating the Flesh of Christ, and drinking his Blood in the Sacrament: for a Sa­crament must have a Doctrine to sustain it, that it may not be an insignificant Ceremony: and what can have nearer Relation to the Sacrament of eating the Body of Christ bro­ken for us, and drinking his Blood of the New Testament shed for many, than eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood, which he gave for the life of the World, which is Meat indeed and Drink indeed, which the Evangelist John relates from Christ, of which whoever eats shall live by him for ever, and he will raise him up at the last day, viz. at his Coming, till which Co­ming there is a shewing forth of his Death in this Supper, viz. a declaring that efficacy of it which shall then appear. And it is certain, though Christ had not yet instituted this sacred Rite, nor did till some considerable space after this great Discourse, yet he knew his own Intention concerning it, and he knew, this Doctrine should be in its just Time com­manded by himself, to be represented in that Rite; and his Death, as a Sacrifice, he continually enlivens, and keeps, [Page 4] new, vigorous, and in full force by his Intercession upon it, in which Intercession he appears with his own Blood in the true Holy of Holies, as the High priest with the Blood of the Typical Sacrifices in that Typical Holiest. All which becomes a most especial Preparation of his Flesh to be eaten and drunk in the Lord's Supper: therefore the Lord's Supper is so pe­culiar an Annunciation of his Death till he comes; viz. in the eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood, now become a Peace-offering by his Intercession, and to be feasted upon.

Now in these four sacred Pen-men of this Institution, 'tis observable, That they are all uniform in these Words, This is my Body: there's not any difference among them, from one to the other, not any variety found: they all with one Mouth say to a very Tittle, This is my Body. But they are not so uniform concerning the Cup: The Evangelist Matthew and the Evangelist Mark, say, This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament: The Evangelist Luke, and the Apostle Paul, say, This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood: so here's thus much of variety, Two say, This is my Blood of the New Testament; two others say, This is the New Testament in my Blood. And this I do account will give us great light into the sense of this Institution, as you shall perceive in the pro­gress of this Discourse.

That which is yet farther considerable, is, that the Apostle Paul says, That which I received of the Lord I deliver'd unto 1 Cor. 11. 23. you: by which Words, there is great Reason to believe, that the Apostle, as a fourth Evangelist, receiv'd this Institu­tion immediately from the Revelation of Jesus Christ, and that it is part of that Gospel, which he tells us, Gal. 1. 11, 12. he received not from men, neither was taught it, but by the Re­velation of Jesus Christ: so that I think we may certainly and safely conclude, He was not only inspired as a sacred Writer of that Epistle to the Corinths, but Christ had before that, at the time of his Call to the Apostleship, made an immediate Revelation of this Institution to him; which, as it shews the great excellency of this holy Sacrament, so to this Apostle [Page 5] was committed, as his peculiar part, to shew the Obligato­riness of this Ordinance upon all Ages till Christ's coming, which is not given in express terms, but by him only.

All this being premis'd, it is of concern in the next place, to give you an exact Harmony of these four sacred Writers, and what they have written concerning this Institution: that is, out of all the words of each of them drawn out, and laid together, to make up one even Text of the whole, which, by Interpreters, is call'd a Harmony. And thus it is, as I shall draw it out of the Apostle Paul, as infolding the whole Institution.

‘I received of the Lord that which I deliver'd unto you, that the Lord Jesus the Night in which he was betray'd, while they were eating that Passover, of which he had 1 Cor. 11. 23. said, Luke 22. 15, 16. [With Desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the Luc. 22. 19. Kingdom of God,] he took the Bread, which we break, and blessed it with Thanksgiving, and gave it to his Dis­ciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my Body, viz. the Com­munion of it, 1 Cor. 10. 16. which is broken for you, This do in Remembrance of me. In the same manner, after Supper, when he had supped, He took the Cup of Blessing, which we bless, and when he had given Thanks, he gave it to them, saying to them, Divide it among your selves, and drink you all of it; For this Cup is my Blood of the New Matt. 26. 28. Marc. 14. 24. Testament, and this Cup is the New Testament in my Blood, viz. in the Communion of it, 1 Cor. 10. 16. which is shed for you and for many for the Remission of sins. [And they drank all of it,] Mark 14. 23. This do as often as ye drink it in Remembrance of me. As often therefore as ye eat this Bread, and drink this Cup, ye shew forth the Lord's Death till he come, 1 Cor. 11. 26.’

This is that, which laid together arises out of all these four Evangelists (accounting the Apostle Paul for one,) and comprizing this Institution in what immediately concerns [Page 6] the Institution it self, wholly and fully. And before it we may place the sixth Chapter of the Evangelist John, begin­ning at v. 27. as giving the Doctrine that supports this In­stitution. And out of this Harmony I shall endeavour to dis­course at this time.

Now it is certain, this harmonical Context must be true in every Iota of it; and whatever is fuller in any part, must inlighten and clear the whole; and whatever is obscure in any part, or curt, and short, must be enlarged from what is more clear and full. For you know one Writer is as true as another in whatever we place, as from them to this matter. The very Order in which they give this Institution is much to be considered; and if in any particular there seems any thing that does encounter, and run cross, one thing with another, it must be so explain'd, as that the whole, and eve­ry part, may be most conciliated with it self; so that the whole must be both clear'd, and illustrated, and reconcil'd by the concert of every part, and every part by it self in compare with the other parts: of all which we are to make our Advantages; as,

1. When we find the whole Concert of the Institution so one in these words, This is my Body, we know, That in them is most plainly, positively, forcibly, deliver'd the real Parti­cipation and Communion of the Body of Jesus in the Lord's Supper; as we shall find all the words joyn'd with them, viz. Blessing, Breaking, Taking, Eating a Body broken for us, lead us unto and make this Bread the Communion of Christ's Body; as the Apostle Paul calls it.

2. When we find the four Records of this Institution agree in the Cup, even as in the Body, thus far, that the drink­ing of it is an equal part of the Institution with the eating the Body: that it appears in every one, it had its distinct parti­cular Blessing, even as the Bread: that it hath some peculiar marks, as the particular Command, Divide it among your selves, Drink all of it; do this very particular thing, as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me: that the matter of Fact [Page 7] concerning it is peculiarly recited, viz. They All drank of it: that the Apostle calls it the Cup of Blessing. All this speaks two things; That the Cup is as essential a part of the Insti­tution as the Bread, of as high Necessity and Dignity; and the Precept of one as extensive as the other, and of the Two the most particularly remark'd in its Extensiveness.

3. That it is worthy to explain the sense of those words, This is my Body, and the meaning of the Institution, upon what occasion or account soever it shall be so urg'd; seeing as the Doctrine of the Blood shed of Christ hath the Equality and rather the Preference to the Body (if there could be any odds) throughout the New Testament, as being the last and completory Act of Christ's sacrificing himself, and is therefore so expresly nam'd in that Tri-unity of Testimonies on Earth, The Spirit, the Water, the BLOOD, 1 John 5. 8.

4. When therefore we find two sacred Pen-men of this Institution write, This Cup is my Blood of the New Testament, and two other, of which one by immediate Revelation, This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood, we thus collect; It cannot be indeed so probable Christ said both (if he did, what I urge will be the stronger:) but I allow he said only one, and that it was, This is my Blood, yet is this explana­tory Alteration most Authentick and Divine: so that there shall be as full a sense of the Blood offered to us in the Sa­crament as of the Body, by those Words, This Cup is my Blood, &c. and yet the Explication of them shall limit that Presence to such a one as will bear those Words, It is the New Testament in my Blood, (omitting the Figure of this Cup for the Wine in the Cup, which yet shews, Christ did not abhor from Figure in this Institution;) and so shews a mystical sense: and seeing the Wine in the Lord's Supper is equal to the Bread, even as the Blood in the Doctrine of the New Testament to the Body of Christ, it shall have power to limit the sense of those Words, This is my Body, to such a Mysticalness, as agrees to the Wine, being the New Testa­ment in Christ's Blood. And when the Apostle explains both, [Page 8] by the Communion of the Body and of the Blood of Christ; it limits the sense so, that the Bread is not the Body, nor the Cup the Blood, in any other sense than the Communion of each is so, as shall be farther argued: For these Words explain, by divine Authority, This is my Body, this is my Blood, in­to such a sense, that it may be true, This Bread is the Com­munion of the Body of Christ, this Cup the Communion of his Blood.

5. When the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, all re­cord the Saying of Christ, I will no more drink of the Fruit of the Vine, the Evangelist Matthew emphatically of [this] Fruit; and the Evangelist Luke prefixes of the Passover, and anti-dates part of the Institution of the Cup, that he might joyn the like important Saying of our Saviour, concerning the Fruit of the Vine, That he will not eat any more of the Passover, nor drink of the Fruit of the Vine, till the Passover Which by the Evan­gelist Mat­thew must be This Fruit. be fulfilled in the Kingdom of God, and till he drink of the Fruit of the Vine a new in the Kingdom of God his Father, when it shall come: and the Apostle says, We shew forth the Lord's Death till he come: From hence it may be argued, That there was another manner of Presence of Christ to be expected than was just then, at the eating and drinking with his Disciples, and that such a one was to be expected in the Kingdom of God, his Father: so that he would no more eat nor drink with them, either in the same manner of bodily Presence, nor in the way of Anticipation, or of eating that Passover, and that Fruit of the Vine, which at the time of this first Institution was not yet sacrificed, nor the Blood yet offer'd; but in such a manner as would agree to the ful­filling of all, the renewing of all in the Kingdom of God, and his Father, when that should come, after that Passover sacri­fic'd, and that Blood offer'd; of which we shall after en­quire: for this I esteem of great moment in this Dis­course.

Lastly, When we find the Apostle, 1 Cor. 10. 17. making that Question [The Bread which we break, is it not the Com­munion [Page 9] of the Body of Christ? and subjoyning in the very same Contexture, in the same Ayr, and manner of Expres­sion, [We being many are one Bread, and one Body, for we are all partakers of that one Bread,] must we not needs infer, the sense in both [This is my Body] and [We are all one Bread and one Body] must be alike one mystical Sense? for seeing common sense teaches us, All Christians cannot be one Bread and one Body, but in a mystical sense; no more can the Bread be Christ's Body, but in such a mystical sense: and the very Letter can no more oblige us in the one than in the other.

All which is much enforc'd by the Consideration, The No­tions of eating the Flesh of Christ, and of drinking his Blood, were given before the Lord's Supper instituted: and though I doubt not Christ design'd it as a Foundation of that Sup­per, as I said before, yet it had been a true Doctrine, if that Supper had not been instituted, as a Representation of it; because Christ, as a Sacrifice, gave himself for the Life of the World, and offer'd himself to the Faith and Participation of his believing Servants, as it were to be Eaten and Drunk by them, had not the Lord's Supper been appointed.

Thus far I have endeavoured to prepare the way for this Discourse, by laying a Foundation upon this Harmonical Context for it: and indeed I desire in prosecuting it to use little more than Scripture Notions and Words: and if I can be so happy, by the Assistance of God, to express the things as plain to you as I apprehend it in my own Mind, I doubt not to give you a satisfactory Account of these Words, This is my Body, and also of the sense of this great Ordinance of the Lord's Supper.

In doing this, I propose this Method:

1. I shall endeavour to give a clear Resolution, How Christ may be said to give us his Flesh to eat, and his Blood to drink: for that was the great Stumble that those who heard Christ upon this Point, John 6. made.

[Page 10] 2. I shall from thence endeavour to shew you, That there is a clear Passage and Transition from that giving his Flesh to eat, and his Blood to drink, into those Words, Take, eat, this is my Body, or from the Doctrine into the Sacrament.

3. I shall endeavour to find a fair Accommodation, and no Encounter betwixt the Mystery and the Letter, or be­twixt the grand sense and the very Words, This is my Body, by a compare of this whole Harmonical Context with other Scripture, and its way of speaking in such Cases.

4. I will enquire into this Thing, How there came such a Notion into the Christian Church as that fleshly Transub­stantiation, so earnestly contended for.

5. I will represent to you the danger of such a Doctrine as that Fleshly Transubstantiation; not so much as it is a con­templative thing, a Notion, a manner of Apprehension, or matter of Discourse; but as it carries the Practice of Wor­ship and Adoration.

6. I will close all with practical Applications, tending to a constant habitual Preparation for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

Now to discharge the first part of this Undertaking, I must establish these following Points:

That the Divine Person of our Lord Jesus Christ taking Point 1 the Humane Nature upon him, that Humane Nature is most emphatically express'd in these Words, his Body, and his Flesh, and his Blood: or, the Body, and Flesh, and Blood of Christ are the most fit Expressions that could be chosen to set out the Humane Nature of Christ, or to set out the Man Christ Jesus. Now this being rightly apprehended, shews, There is the Flesh, and there is the Blood of Christ, that are to be eaten and drunk by Believers in Jesus Christ.

That the Body, the Flesh, and the Blood of Christ, and the Point 2 Actions of Christ in his Body, in his Flesh, and Blood, were as so many Preparations of his Body, Flesh, and Blood, to be spiritually eaten by, or applied to the Souls of Believers, or communicated by them.

That the Body, the Flesh, and the Blood of Christ, are so Point 3 many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Power, Spirit, and Efficacy, filling them with infinite saving Vertue and Effect in their Communication to the Souls of Believers in Jesus Christ.

That the divine Power, Spirit, and Efficacy, extends the Point 4 Body, Flesh, and the Blood of Christ in their saving Vertue and Effect, without limitation to Time or Place; and to all Dimensions and degrees of Effect.

The first Point, viz. That the most expressive and signifi­cant Point 1 Terms concerning the Man Christ Jesus, that the Spirit of God hath chosen, throughout the Scripture, are the Flesh of Christ, the Body of Christ, and the Blood of Christ. This is the first Branch of the Mystery of Godliness; God manifest 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 John 4. 2, 3. in the flesh, Jesus Christ come in the flesh, is made the grand Principle of the Gospel.

The whole Humane Nature of Christ, in which the Son of God was manifest, is called Flesh: The Word was made Flesh, John 1. 14. So the Body of Christ, how often is it mention'd? The offering of the Body of Christ once for all. Heb. 10. 10. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who bare our Sins in his Body on the tree. And in all the New Testament, there is nothing so memorializ'd as the Blood of Jesus Christ.

And the Reason is this; Because these, The Body, the Flesh, and the Blood, are the most visible Representations of Humane Nature; and so in Scripture, and all Language, they are the readiest, easiest, and most familiar Expressions of Humane Nature. The Apostle John therefore so often in his Epistle expresses the whole Doctrine of the Messiah, by Christ come in the flesh; that is, God manifested in flesh. So that, though it is true, Man is chiefly Soul and Spirit, and so to be considered, yet he is most visible, most apparent, in Body, Flesh, and Blood; and Humane Nature is so fram'd and constituted, that it desires most to appear and display it self in a Body.

And though God and Christ have a peculiar Care and Account of the Spirits of just men, yet they are not Perfect without Bodies; and till Christ does appear again in a Bo­dy of Glory, He is not shewn. Pray consider, Though He's now in a Body of Glory, yet till he appears in this Body, that every Eye may see him, God does not till that time shew him, whom he will shew, who is the onely Potentate, &c. 1 Tim. 6. 15. that is, He will shew Christ Jesus, in a Body of Glory, at his Appearance, though Christ hath been in a Body of Glory ever since his Ascension. So Just Men are not made Perfect, Heb. 12. 23. till they appear in a Body at the Resurrection.

Although therefore the Soul of Jesus Christ (understand I beseech you, what I say) was the Principal Agent in all the Work of Redemption, yet it was, as in a Body, in the Action and Passion of a Body.

It was not indeed a Body that acted, that suffered, that dyed, yet it was in a Body. It was the Humane Soul and Spirit of Christ that came to do the Will of God, and a Body was prepared him, Hebr. 10. 5. It was not a Body, but a Soul, a Will in Christ that surrender'd it self to the Will of God, that said, Not my Will, but thine be done. It was a Spirit that surrender'd it self to God, Into thy hands I commit my Spirit: yet it was in a Body. So it was in the Circumcision of Christ; it was the Circumcision of the Spirit, not of the Letter. Soul and Spirit was the Life and Excellency of all: yet all this was visible in a Body, it was visible in Flesh and Blood. So it was in Christ's fulfilling All Righteousness in his Baptism, in all the Holiness of Life; There was an Humane Soul, a Spirit, that acted in and throughout All, yet All was still visible in a Body. His Soul sent out Strong Cries and Fears, with that he offer'd Prayers and Supplications, but it was in the days of his Flesh, Hebr. 5. 7. He was Cir­cumcised, Baptized, Died in a Body. He arose again in a Body, and in such a Body as we carry about with us: but just at his Ascension, then undoubtedly, in the very Time of his Ascending up to Heaven, his Body was changed into a [Page 13] Glorious Body: so that That Body which was in a state of Humiliation, which he carried with him in the World, af­ter his Ascension remained no longer in those Circumstances of humbled Flesh and Blood he underwent while he was here in the World; for, Flesh and Blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 15. 50. and therefore the dayes of Christ's Humiliation are call'd the Days of his Flesh. There­fore observe, 1 Tim. 3. ult. The mystery of Godliness is ab­solv'd in that, Receiv'd, Taken up into Glory: and there he is hidden to us, though swallowed up in the Perfection and Excellency of Glory till God shews him, till he appears, and is revealed in that Glory: From all which amounts, That the whole undertaking of Christ was in Body, and his Interces­sion is now in Body, though a Body of Glory.

Now from hence you may perceive what I drive at; viz. That there was great Reason that Christ should say, This is my Body, This is my Blood; because the Body of Christ, the Flesh and Blood of Christ, was that which was visibly and sensibly active, and was to be so throughout the whole Work of our Redemption; for, Forasmuch as the Children Heb. 2. 14: 17. were Partakers of Flesh and Blood, he himself took part of the same, that &c. And it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren. The holy Humane Soul, and Spirit of Christ, was the principal Agent; the Body, Flesh, and Blood of Christ, was the Theatre upon which All was made publick, the Tube and Channel through which All is con­vey'd: therefore the whole Humane Nature is express'd by Flesh and Blood, the Representation of it and the Communi­cation of it is so given in the Doctrine, and therefore so in the Lord's Supper.

The Body, Flesh, and Blood of Christ, and all his Action Point 2 and Suffering in it, were as so many Preparations, that he may be spiritually eaten, applied to, and communicated with, by the Souls of Believers; of which his Death is the most comprehensive, and principal, as that, in which center not only his Incarnation, Circumcision, Baptism, Holy Life, Pray­ers [Page 14] in the Days of his Flesh, but even his Resurrection, As­cension, Intercession at the Right-hand of God: and therefore as the Doctrine of the Communion of his Body styles his John 6. 51. Death, the giving his Flesh for the Life of the World, so the Sacrament of it in the Lord's Supper, calls it his Body given for us, and the Remembrance of his Death: and the whole Ap­plication by Faith is call'd Eating in both.

And proportionably in sense, Christ was sent in the Like­ness Rom. 8. 3. of sinful Flesh, that he might condemn Sin in the Flesh, that the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us: We put off the Sins of the Flesh by the Circumcision of Christ; we Col. 2. 11. are buried in his Baptism, we rise in his Resurrection, and Rom. 6. 4. know the Power of it, Phil. 3. 10. We sit in Heavenly Pla­ces in him. He makes Intercession for us, and so saves to the uttermost, Heb. 7. 25. And his Death is in all Senses com­municated to us. All which are in other Words the very same thing with giving us his Flesh te eat, and his Blood to drink.

The humane Nature of Christ, call'd his Body, his Flesh, Point. 3 and his Blood, and all his Actions and Sufferings in it, were so many Rests and Repositories of the Divine Nature, Pow­er, Efficacy, and Virtue of Jesus Christ; filling them with in­finite saving Virtue and Effect in their Communication to the Senses of Believers in Jesus Christ.

For in all the Action, and Sufferings of Christ, the Son of God was immediately Active, the Divine Power and Spi­rit was always present, and Active in all, as a supreme Spi­rit and Soul.

The Incarnation of Christ was a sensible, fleshly, and bo­dily Thing; But there was a Manifestation of Divinity in it. The Power of the most High over-shadowed the Virgin, and Rom. 8. 2. Christ was Conceiv'd, as we daily Profess, by the Holy Ghost: The Law of the Spirit of Life, purified the Humane Nature of Christ to the highest Elevation of Purity: The Circum­cision of Christ was a Divine Circumcision made without Col. 2. 11. Hands, by the immediate Action of the Divine Spirit; for [Page 15] if ours were so, much more His, the original of it. The Baptism of Christ was full of a Divine Presence; The Spi­rit rested like a Dove upon Him; This is my beloved Son, &c. Matt. 3. 18. Philip. 3. 9. His Obedience and Righteousness was the Righteousness of God. In his Death he offer'd Himself by the Eternal Spirit, Heb. 9. 14. His Blood is called the Blood of God. He Rose by the Spi­rit Acts 20. 28. of Holiness, which Justified Him. He is made higher than the Heavens in his Intercession. And this is of supreme Consi­deration in all the Communications of Christ, in all our Eating and Drinking his Flesh and his Blood, as may be seen in that excellent Discourse, John 6. to which the Lord's Supper is a parallel Representation.

As the Living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Fa­ther, v. 57. even so he that eateth me shall live by me. For his Flesh eaten is the Conduit of divine Life. It is the Spirit, viz. the Divine Nature, that quickneth. The Flesh, profiteth nothing. v. 63. The Words that I speak unto you, are Spirit, and they are Life; that is, by the Vertue and Presence of the Divinity, of which they were spoken; for by Power he is declar'd to be Rom. 1. 4. the Son of God; viz. by the Power of the Divinity. He was 2 Cor. 13. 4. put to death through weakness, but he liveth by the Power of 1 Pet. 3. 18. God. He was put to death in the Flesh, quickned by the Spirit.

If any Man therefore considers the Actions of Jesus Christ in the Flesh, and does not consider the Divine Nature in them, he does not consider that which our Saviour says, Quickens. He only considers that which our Saviour saith, Profits nothing.

From hence therefore, it is plainly first to be understood, that it is most impossible, Material or Bodily should by it self do any thing, to that which is Spiritual, Immaterial, In­tellectual, as is the Soul of Man. The Sun, though so glo­rious a Body, can do nothing to Man's Soul immediately; and suppose the Body of Christ as much higher in Glory than any thing we know in Nature, as the Sun excells a Turf of Earth; yet this very glorious Body can do nothing to our [Page 16] Souls, to our Spirits: It can do nothing in these great Ne­gotiations of Peace with God, Purification of our Conscien­ces, Sanctification.

This is so acknowledg'd a thing, that you know, as many as know any thing of Transubstantiation, as it is held in the Roman Persuasion, That they themselves confess, That if a Man Eat that very transubstantiated Body, and Drink that very transubstantiated Blood of Christ, though it is, as they suppose, the Body and Blood of Christ in the most fleshly sensible Presence we can imagine; yet it does a wicked Man no good, a Man who hath not Faith and Repentance: And it is very true, it must needs be so, because it is a material thing, and cannot act so as to act up­on spiritual and immaterial Things; on the other side, it can do no hurt to these immaterial Beings. But if it did operate after the manner of material Things upon material, I cannot conceive how it should miss the best Effect, seeing it is infinitely prepar'd to do good in that very Case of pre­supposed Evil of Sin: but when it is spiritual, and requires spiritual Preparation to receive it, or else it is not receiv'd, it then does not work Good where that Preparation is not, because it is not receiv'd; but if it be receiv'd, it hath its certain Effect. On the other side, when it is not receiv'd it does hurt by way of increasing Guilt; because a spiritual Offer, of so excellent a Nature, is refus'd and contemn'd, and because the Soul, by such pretence of receiving, and yet Re­fusal, grows much more confirm'd in Evil.

But this is not all; for though the Holiness and Spiritua­lity of a Holy, Created, Finite Spirit, may by Instruction, Suggestion, or Example, offer much Good to other Spirits, and be instrumental in affecting them aright; yet, this is in all Regards in so finite and limited a way, that the Effect may be very small, or none at all: and so it is not possible in any more than a very low and abated sense, to eat or to drink of the Communications of any Angel or Saint above or below. But now whatever is divine is communicative, [Page 17] even to what degrees it pleases. All Finite is Poor and Scanty, and hath not for it self, but as received. But the Son of God in Humane Nature hath all Fulness dwelling in Col. 1. 19. Him; and so can derive and convey to what degrees he thinks fit. Of which is to be spoken in the next Particular. But this Assures in Christ there is Meat and Drink abound­ing to the Life of the World.

The Divine Power of the Son of God, and its Efficacy Point 4 extend the Body, Flesh, and Blood of Christ, and his Acti­on therein in their saving Virtue, and Effect without limi­tation to Time or Place, and to all dimensions and degrees of Effect.

And under this Head I will undertake these three Parti­culars.

1. To shew that the Divine Nature of the Son of God, act­ing in the Humane Nature united to Him, can draw out such spiritual Powers and Efficacies from those his Actings and Sufferings, as shall be most conducing to the Salvation of Souls that believe in Him; now this I shall make good by shewing what kind of Causalities, and what answerable Ef­fects are by the Word of God ascribed to the Divine Pow­er of Christ Acting in the Humane Nature.

2. I will shew, that they cannot be prejudg'd nor hinder­ed by any distances of Time, because of the Eternity of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

3. That they cannot be intercepted by any distances of Place, because of the Omnipresence of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Now I shall not presume to speak of these Particulars, but as I am guided by the Spirit of God in his Word; For, Who can describe the way of the Divine Spirit in Nature? Such Knowledge is too wonderful for me, I cannot attain to it; if not in Nature, how much more not in Grace and su­pernaturals? But yet it is not unworthy to be taken notice of, That all Philosophy owns some kind of Effluviums, some flowing Atomes, Ramenta, or little Globules of matter, [Page 18] that fly every way, or if but some Sympathies in Nature, that pass up and down, and fly unknown ways, and un­measurable distances, without the Load, Cumber, Presence of those Bodies from which they flow, which cannot move nor pass as they do; if Spirits of much greater Efficacy are extracted, more agile, more portable, and more easily con­veyed than the Bodies themselves from which they are ex­tracted; if there are some Relations of unknown Commu­nications of Minds at great distance of Bodies; These may be taken notice of, as some Illustration of this matter: But such things are too slippery and incertain, and also too gross to rest so great a Point upon, seeing what so infinite an Agent as the Spirit of Holiness, can do, cannot be grasp'd or comprehended by any material Likenesses; its Extracti­ons, its Abstractions, are more subtile than our gross Ap­prehensions can find out or receive, or natural Agents imitate.

There are yet in common Observation, some Instances, that may come nearer this great Point: From the vertuous Actions of great Personages in Bodies, there is an Honour, an Esteem, a Dignity, an excellent Example flowing out, that continues Ages beyond the very Actions, and beyond the Persons continuance in Bodies that perform'd them, and may be imputed to their Posterity; and are, as it were, Ab­stracts from Persons in Bodies, and yet of a spiritual kind of Diffusiveness, as to both Time and Place, and much exceed the Places whereupon they were acted; that have a kind of Universality both as to Time and Place, are nearer the mat­ter we are upon, and yet they are but dark, and dull shades of so great a Truth: Let us therefore come to the Holy Word of God it self, and we shall find four kinds of Causa­lity attributed to God manifested in Flesh, and to all his Divine Action and suffering therein.

• 1. The Causality of an expiatory, propitiatory, or meri­torious Cause.
• [Page 19]2. Of an exemplar Cause.
• 3. Of an efficient Cause, by way of Union to himself.
• 4. Of a rational argumentative Cause, so effecting a Con­formity of the Souls of his People to himself.

There is nothing more evident, than that the Gospel as­cribes Causality 1 to the Body, Flesh, and Blood of Christ, the Efficacy of an eternal, propitiatory, expiatory Cause: By one Offer­ing Heb. 10. 14. of the Body of Christ, and that once for all, He hath for ever perfected, that is, reconcil'd and consecrated, them, who are sanctified, because it was offered by the Eternal Spirit. Heb. 9. 24. His Body is an Offering, a Sacrifice of an eternal sweet-smelling Ephes. 5. 2. savour, because he offer'd himself: now himself is God in our Nature; so the Offering is in the hand of Divinity. Thus his Blood offered by the Eternal Spirit purges the Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God. The Blood of Christ, more precious than Silver or Gold, redeems from a vain Con­versation. All these are plain, and high Effects of a spiri­tual Nature, and they are deriv'd from the humane Nature of Christ, call'd his Flesh, his Body, his Blood, acted by an intellectual, holy, humane Soul, which delighted to do the Will of God, and the Law of God was within his heart. And Psal. 40. 8. all this, by being in the hand of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, is infinitely communicative both as to Time and Place.

The Righteousness of Angels, or of Men, though they had continued Holy as the standing Angels, could not have done this: but what Christ the Lamb did, he did by the Eternal Spirit, which is infinite.

Now these expiatory Extracts, Abstracts drawn from the Body of Jesus Christ, are so DIVINIZ'D, if I may so speak, by the Eternal Spirit, That they are every where: Christ's Body, in this sense, may be every where (even as his Divi­nity is,) with Pardon of Sin, Reconciliation to God, Peace with him, sprinkling the Heart from an evil Conscience; and all other great Effects: For, where is it that the Gospel is, and true Christians are, where this Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World is not? Where is it, that true Believers [Page 20] in Jesus Christ have not Right to eat of this Altar? And is not this Altar, as in a peculiar Institution presented in the Lord's Supper? These Spirits may be extended any way, conveyed every way, not gross Flesh and Blood, but these Divine, expiatory Extracts of the Body of Jesus Christ, ex­tended and applyed by the Divinity; the savour of that Of­fering, of that Sacrifice fills Heaven and Earth.

From the Humane Nature, call'd the Body and Flesh, and Causality 2 Blood of Jesus Christ united to the Son of God, is drawn that common Image, Idea, and Exemplar, to which his Saints are every where Conform'd; They are Called, Justified, and Glorified according to this Image, for whom God did fore­know, He predestinated to be so Conform'd. Rom. 8. 29.

This is in all Nature, there is a common Idea and Plat­form of every kind of Being, and Life, and it is every where, as in the Mind, and under the Hand and Power of God; so that all in whatever parts of the World agree in it, each to their kind; And whatever is not form'd and shapen accord­ing to it, is monstrous and mis-shapen.

So in Christ Jesus, is deposited, that common univer­sal Image, and Idea, according to which the New Creature is fram'd, and this is God manifested in the Flesh, that He might be the First Born among many Brethren: And this Image by the Divine Spirit is every where, and there is neither Jew nor Gentile, Scythian nor Barbarian, Bond nor Free; but Col. 3. 11. all are one in Christ Jesus. Called, Justified, as Christ was; Glorified, as He is, so shall they be; and particularly in the Lord's Supper, this Image is so presented, that We are all one Bread, and one Body by being made partakers of that one 1 Cor. 10. 17. Bread by Faith.

And this Image is not either a liveless or meer Contempla­tive Image, but it hath a mighty Power and Operation from the Spirit of Jesus Christ to conform and configurate all his Servants to himself; That as He was in All Things made like unto his Brethren, so his Brethren are to Him. And this mu­tual Assimilation is so close, that He dwells in them, and they in Him.

The Humane Nature of Christ hath therefore the Power Causality 3 of an unitive efficient Cause; for the Divine Spirit of Christ, by the Mediation of his Humanity, does unite himself to the Souls of his Servants, and so to their Bodies, and so con­veys his Righteousness in the value of his Blood, his Spirit in the power of Holiness, that we become Members of his Body, his Flesh, and his Bone; as Eve coming out of Adam and made one flesh with him, was Flesh of his Flesh, Bone of Eph. 5. 30. his Bone: And so we are Branches of this Vine, of this Good Rom. 11. 24. Olive, who as a common Root beareth us All.

So that indeed it comes to this, That all the Servants of Christ are as one Christ; for as the Body is one, and hath ma­ny 1 Cor. 12. 12. Members, and all the Members of that Body being many, are one Body; so also is Christ: As there are many Members, and one Body, just so is Christ, not Christ in his Person, but Christ in all his Members, All one Christ: So Galat. 3. 16. he saith not, Unto Seeds, as unto many, but as of one, To thy Seed; which is Christ, viz. Christ in his whole Body of Members. And we all come in the unity of the Faith of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the Sta­ture of the fullness of Christ, Christ full in all his Members: And the Apostle to the Colossians, calls Jews and Gentiles, One new man in Christ; and the Church is the fullness of him that fills all in all: And thus we are one Body and one Bread. Eph. 1. ult.

This is a great mystery of Christ and the Church; but if rightly understood, it greatly explains Christ's Words, This is my Body: for as there are many Incorporations, as of po­litical Bodies, which are not lost by distance of Place, as being Citizens of such a City, mystical as the Incorporation of Husband and Wife, which is not made void by distance of Place, while the Bands of Union hold; thus Christ in Heaven, by his Spirit, unites his Members to him on Earth; and his Body, in this spiritual sense, is every where to be so joyn'd, and it does so draw to it self.

But this Union is yet more nearly express'd by a natural Union, viz. by eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood, even as the Branches are united to the Vine, by being fed by the Vine, and sucking from it; and so the Members are supplied with Spirits from the Head: and if they were not so, they would, notwithstanding a local Union, be disunited, as a withered Branch or Member is; even so by receiving the saving Effluxes and Communications of Jesus Christ, which is an eating of him, we dwell in him, and he in us. And without this we are not united by any outward Professi­onal Duties.

And this Union shall be most evident in the separated state of Souls, made like the Holy separated Soul of Christ, or the Spirit of Christ committed into his Fathers Hand, and as it were all one Spirit, and are therefore, as Stephen was, receiv'd by him, and yet most visible in the Resurrection, when the Bodies of his Saints shall be made like his glorious Body, because they shall see him as he is: for then indeed the 1 John 3. 2. Body of Christ shall have a most natural Presence and Influ­ence on the Bodies of Saints, and shall act properly, as mat­ter upon matter, or as the Sun upon the Moon and Planets about it, whose Bodies it illustrates. He will present his Church to himself then, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such Phil. 3. 21. thing, by that Power that subdues all things to himself. That Col. 3. 3, 4. Life that is now hid, as Christ is hid, shall then appear, and we shall appear with him in Glory, as all one Christ.

He will then be as a Tree of Life, in the midst of the Pa­radise of God, and his Blood in a spiritual sense, as a Water of Life.

And of this, the Lord's Supper is the great pledge, till He comes, and the Sacrament of Eating him, so as to live by him, and to be raised up by him at the last day when this Union shall fully appear.

The Humanity of Jesus Christ, that is, His Body, Flesh, Causality 4 and Blood, as it is arrayed in the Holiness, Heavenliness, pu­rity of it, and in that self-Resignation to the Will of God [Page 23] in suffering, and becoming Obedient to Death, even to the Death of the Cross, in highest love to lost Sinners, is present every where in the Gospel, every where set forth before our Eyes, Evidently Crucified among us. Galat. 3. 1.

And this hath in all due Reason the force of a strong and mighty Argument to draw us to him by Faith, and Repen­tance, to apply his Blood, and to Trust in his Redemption, to move Christians to the same Mind in every thing, that we see, was in Christ, it hath even a Constraining Power of love, to live to him that dyed for us, to purifie our selves, as he is Pure, to be in the World, as he was in the World, to Walk Heb. 13. 12, 13. as he Walked, to go out to him without the Camp of all False Religions, out of the Camp of Sensuality, and Worldly-mind­edness, bearing his Reproach, to Crucifie the Flesh with the Lusts, to be Crucified to the World, and the World to us, to set our Affections on things Above, Whither His Humane Na­ture removed in regard of Place; But by the Preaching and Manifestation of the Gospel, it is every where, as thus Re­presented, as thus set forth; This is a sense of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, being every where, where his Gospel and Word come, that cannot be denied; and as therein it is so receiv'd, as to become an Argument, and powerful mo­tive of uniting our selves to Him of being like Him, It may be most significantly express'd by the Metaphor of Eating and Drinking, like Ezekiel's Eating the Roll, and filling his Bowels with it. This is a hearing Christ's Voice, which strong­ly Rev. 3. 20. knocks or persuades to open the Door to him; that he may, as he will, come in to Sup with us and we with Him.

This is a Sense so proper and natural, that it is chosen by that Learned Interpreter, Grotius, to expound that great Dis­course, John 6. of eating the Flesh, and drinking the Blood, Grot. in Evangel. John. viz. such a Receiving his Word and Sayings, as to be every way confirm'd in a way of Holy, Rational, Intellectual, Spi­ritual Obedience to Him.

And, as there is so particular a Representation of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper, as a Sacrament summing up the [Page 24] whole Doctrine of the Gospel, or of Jesus Christ Crucified; so a particular Approbation of our selves to it, and for it, and the danger of an unworthy, an unbecoming Eating and Drink­ing, is so earnestly and vehemently press'd upon us by the Apostle, as to infold us in the Guilt of his Body and Blood, as if we had Crucified the Son of God afresh, and put him to open Shame, and because in the Apostolical Times, the Lord's Supper, and the [...], the only two such words in the New Testament. Lord's Day, the only Institutions so inscri­bed, were undivided; It was a Constant, Habitual, Uni­form Preparation that was required.

Now that this is Eating and Drinking Christ in a mystical Sense agreeable to the Mystery of the Doctrine and Supper of Jesus Christ, is very easie to be Apprehended, seeing Christ Jesus is not to be lov'd, nor receiv'd in any Fleshly Figure, He is no such kind of Object to our Souls; even a virtuous Law-giver, or Philosopher, is not to be lov'd in his Flesh and Blood, as Gross and Carnal, but, as in his Laws, his Do­ctrine, his Virtue, how much more Christ? If ye Love me, keep my Commandments: Pretend to no carnal Love, to no Love to me by looking on, and kissing my Pictures, or Fi­gures of fleshly Representations; For he that hath my Com­mandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that thus loveth me, shall be loved of my Father, and I will John, 14. 15. 21. 23, 24. come to him, and manifest my self to him: If a Man love me, he will keep my Sayings, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our Abode with him; Words equal in Sense to these, He that eateth my Flesh, and drink­eth my Blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him: On the other side, He that loveth me not, keepeth not my Sayings, and there­fore, Whoever keepeth not my Sayings, loveth me not, All o­thers attempt to do that, which cannot be done, to know and to love Christ after the Flesh; whereas now there is no loving Christ, but in the New Creation, All old things are pass'd away, Behold (mark it well) all Things are become new. All outward Representations, Images, Pictures, Ge­stures, [Page 25] Geniculations, Adorations, if not commanded by him, are not the least signs of Love, but rejected and refus'd by Christ, as a knowing him after the Flesh; even the Ordinance 1 Cor. 5. 16. of the Lord's Supper had been a false Love of Christ, if it had not been receiv'd from him, and specially by himself commanded; and yet even as it is, without that spiritual Approbation, or approving our selves (which we translate by the Word Examine our selves,) It is so far from Acceptance, 1 Cor. 11. 28. &c. that it is eating and drinking Judgment to our selves.

And all this is most rational, if we consider, That we are our selves not truly our selves, but as we are thus intelle­ctually, spiritually, in a way of vertuous Conformity mov'd to things, by the great efficacy of Christ, and his Spirit in our Hearts, and move effectually by inward, rational Appre­hension and Affection, according to the Arguments and Mo­tives in the Word of God, without which, we can under any Pretensions, Professions, Confessions of Faith, Forms of Worship, Prayers, outward Rites, Postures, and Observa­tions, be no more Christians, than the Statues and Images of the Apostles or Saints are Christians, because they are in­scrib'd with such Names, and vouch'd to be such or such Representations.

But when there is a single Eye and Design to this Confor­mity to the Word, and Sayings, and Commandments of Christ, there is then a far more real Presence of Christ in his Word, than in any of the Writings or Lives of the most excellent Men that ever were in the World; for the Sense and Reason they wrote are indeed here, their Actions and Vertues are drawn into History, and may be preserv'd from Copy to Copy, but the Soul, the Spirit that wrote them, is gone from them: but now Christ, yesterday, to day, the same for ever, is present by that Spirit, that Divinity, by which he preach'd of old, even in Noah's Time to the disobedient Spirits now in Prison, 1 Pet. 3. 20. While his Truth operates after the manner of rational Truth, his Spirit works much higher, even divinely.

His Table therefore in the Gospel, and in his Supper, is a Psal. 28. 5. Table richly spread, a Cup running over with spiritual Effica­cies, of which, whoever is indeed Partaker, cannot be a Par­taker of the Table of Devils, whoever truly drinks his Cup cannot drink of the Cup of Devils, either in an Idolatrous Religion, or an unholy Life: He cannot eat of the Sinners Dainties, of Folly's Bread, or of the stollen Waters she hath Prov. 9. 17. provided.

For by one Offering he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified, of which the Holy Ghost is witness, even of that Covenant of which he is the Mediator, it being establish'd up­on the best Promises of writing the Laws of God in their hearts, and putting them in their mind, together with the Remission of their Sins. So that as there needs no other offering than that one offering, so needs it not to be daily offered, for it was once for all offer'd, and he is now at the Right-hand of God interceeding upon that one offering, once offer'd; by the Blood of which he entred into the Holiest to appear before God for us, and from whence he cannot be mov'd till the Time he expects, of his Enemies being made his Footstool, Heb. 8. 6. compar'd with c. 9. 12. 24. c. 10. 13. &c.

2. And thus I have made good the first Point of this Head, viz. Of the spiritual Efficacies that flow from the Humane Nature of Christ, express'd by the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, as in Union with the Son of God. I come now to the second, to shew that in regard of the Eternity of the Son of God, these Efficacies cannot be hindered, nor pre­judic'd in Point of Time: The Divine Person of Christ be­ing unchangeable and eternal, there's no distance of Time occurs to him, or can encounter his Divine Efficacy: Before Abraham was, saith Christ, I am. How could it be, that Christ, that was born so many hundred years after Abraham, could be before Abraham? were it not in regard of the Eter­nity of the Divine Person, communicated to the Humanity, and predating the Great Powers and Efficacies of God ma­nifested in Flesh before the Incarnation? Upon this Account [Page 27] Christ is call'd the Lamb slain before the Foundation of the World; because the Divine Person anticipated the Efficacy of the Death of the Lamb, ordain'd before the Foundation of the World, much earlier than his Manifestation, which was not till the last Times: Christ was not abridg'd, nor fore­stall'd in Time, because he did not actually dye till about four thousand Years after the Fall of Man: for the Divine Person, Jesus Christ, never had a Yesterday, nor can have a To morrow, but is always in a To day, the same for ever.

In this very Point of Eating the Flesh, and Drinking the Blood of Christ, when the Jews were so disgusted with the Doctrine, Christ, to ease their Thoughts, proposes his Eter­nity to their Consideration, and shews the mighty spirituali­zing Power of the Divine Nature by it; What; saith he, if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before: though he was as Man, the Son of not Fifty Years by many, as the Jews observ'd to him; yet he was in Heaven, as the Son of God, calling his Humanity, that was not actually till his Incarnation, as if it were.

And as it is thus in regard of Time past, so in regard of Time to come, he saith, Lo I am with you to the End of the World.

3. In respect to Place, we shall find very great Expressions of the Divine Ʋbiquity, and Omnipresence of the Son of God, extending the Manhood to all Spiritual Effects, without any Limitation, or Confinement within Place, though yet it be, according to its natural Presence, determin'd to Place, even as the Incarnation it self was to the Fullness of Time.

Our Saviour discoursing with Nicodemus upon the Point of Regeneration, John 3. 13. tells him, No Man hath as­cended up to Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in Heaven: Observe it, Christ was in his Body upon Earth, His being the Son of Man was that to which his Body was proper, yet saith he, The Son of Man, that now discourses thee upon Earth, This Son of Man is now in Heaven. How could this be, but only, because no [Page 28] space does hinder or straiten the spiritual Efficacy of the Di­vinity, or confine its Presence, even as it is united to the Humanity?

By all this you may see, Christ was in Heaven while he was upon Earth, and he was in Heaven before he was Incar­nate, for, He came down from Heaven; and all this by the Unchangeableness and the Omnipresence of the Action of the Divinity united to the Humane Nature: and then as to his being now upon Earth, although the Heavens contain him, Consider what the Apostle saith, He ascended far above all Heavens, that he might fill all things: so that Christ, by his Divine Power, fills all things; and the Church, which is his Body in his Humane Nature on Earth, is the Fullness of him who filleth All in All; even he that was Raised up from the Dead, is he that fills All in All. And the Church on Earth is his Fullness, (though Christ is in Heaven) either receiving his Fullness, or, as he is pleas'd to account him­self, Full by his Union to it. Upon these Accounts, The Humane Nature of Christ, as it is united to the Divinity, though it self be Finite, yet in the Extensive Power of the Divinity, spiritually applying it to the Salvation of his Church, hath the Nature of Infinite: both as to Time and Place, it is always, it is every where, filling All in All, Yesterday, to day, the same for ever.

For if the Soul of Man can improve the Senses, and Fa­culties of the Body, in representing to it self in a Map, Pla­ces at greatest Distances from the Body, and the Mind can thereby in some sense convey it self thither while the Body remains in the same place; If we can by Writing converse one with another at greatest distance, How much more can the Divine Nature of the Son of God extend the Humane in the Spirituality of all its Use and Effects, in an Infinite man­ner, so that it can convey and dispose them unlimitedly as it pleases? and this may well be call'd his Body and Blood in very real, though mystical sense.

It remains yet, as to the clearing this Point of Christ gi­ving his Flesh to eat, and his Blood to drink, to shew, That as there is such a rich Communicativeness on the part of Christ, giving his Flesh to eat, and his Blood to drink; so there are Receiving Powers and Faculties of Man's Soul, prepared and fitted by Grace, that may be properly and truly said, in a spiritual Sense, to Eat, and to Drink, as Christ is said to Give.

Now unto this, the Understanding, Will, Conscience, Memory, Imagination, and Affection, with the active and executive Powers of the whole Man, are prepar'd, even to receive spiritually the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ, how­ever at a bodily distance; viz. by Understanding, Faith, close inward Application, holy Affection, obediential self-Resig­nation; all which, are this Intellectual spiritual Eating and Drinking the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ.

And to all this, there is no Notion or Resemblance more significant or expressive than spiritual Transubstantiation, as shall be more fully discours'd under the two following Heads: And so having thus far discuss'd the first Head, I go forward to the second, to shew, That there is a clear Pas­sage and Transition from Christ giving his Flesh to eat, (as it stands thus in the whole Doctrine of the Gospel) to those Words, Take, Eat, this is my Body, when he had blessed the Bread with Thanksgiving, and broke it; and likewise after Supper, Blessing the Cup, with Thanksgiving, and saying, Divide it among your selves, and drink ye All of it, For, This is my Blood of the New Testament, or the New Testament in my Blood.

For when our Lord had settled that great Doctrine of Eating his Flesh, John 6. and Drinking his Blood, compre­hensive of the whole of his Redemption, and the saving Ap­plication of it by Faith and Love, and the entire new Crea­tion; Galat. 5. 6. c. 6. 15. it is not at all strange, he should establish so great a sacramental Institution upon it; For when in so large and Sublime a Discourse, and in more Words, than he expended [Page 30] upon any one Subject that we find upon Record, he had compriz'd the whole Mystery of our Salvation, it cannot be surprizing he should adjust to it one of the two, and that the most solemn and continual of his positive Laws, which we call Sacraments.

For though it is true, Eating and Drinking consider'd, as mere sensitive Things, and much more, when it degene­rates into Sensuality, a Life of, and for Eating and Drink­ing, it is a sordid, low, and course thing, as the Apostle says, Meats for the Belly, and the Belly for Meats, but God shall destroy both it and them; and there cannot be a more ignoble Character, than of those, whose God is their Belly, and who serve not the Lord Jesus, but their own Bellies, a beastly, a bruitish Servitude.

But then taking it, as it is by the Wisdom of Providence made the means of the support of the Humane, Animal Life, in Subordination to the Life of Reason and Religion, and is symbolical and significant, and also serviceable to many rational Communications, and much noble Humanity of Con­versation, so it may even (as the natural Purgation of Wa­ter in Baptism) be worthy to be transplanted from common use to the highest Significations in Religion, and as it had been so dignified in the Old Testament, so to be farther en­nobled in the New, and to bear a sense far above and be­yond it self. And yet to shew both the Spirituality, great use to the highest Life, and also the Simplicity of the Gospel Institution, it is taken from the most necessary, plainest Food in Eating, Bread, and the most generous thing in Drinking, viz. Wine; Bread that strengthens, and Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man. And the Resemblance stands in these fol­lowing Particulars between Eating Bread and Drinking Wine, and Eating the Body, and Drinking the Blood of Jesus Christ.

But I shall begin with those Particulars that are, as least of Controversie, so of least Interest in the main Merits of the Point we are upon, and will end in that which is of the grand Concern in this whole matter.

[Page 31] 1. It is an Eating and Drinking in Pledge of Reconciliati­on, Peace, and Friendship with God by Jesus Christ; for so eating Bread and drinking Wine is in Scripture, and by the general Impression of Providence upon Mankind ordain'd; as Joseph's Brethren, in token of extraordinary Favour, were to eat Bread with him: and it is said of the Nobles of Israel, Gen. 43. 25. They saw God, and he laid not his hand of, viz. of Displea­sure, upon them; They saw him, and did eat and drink in Exod. 24. 11. token of Peace; and especially this is a Feast upon a Sacri­fice, a Sin-offering become a Peace-offering, of which the Jews, that serve the Altar, have no Right to eat, because their Heb. 13. 10. Sin-offerings of greatest expiatory Account, yet as not able to purge off the imputative Guilt laid upon them, were burnt without the Camp. But Christ, though he suffer'd without the Camp, yet consuming the Guilt, and fully expiating it, his Body, as sacrific'd, becomes an Altar of Peace-offerings to the true Christian, although to the Jews an Offering only to Ju­stice, not conquering the Guilt, but, as a Malefactor, dying in his own Blood: but the true Believer feasts upon it, af­ter he is sanctified, atton'd, reconcil'd, and purified by the Blood of it.

It is a Feast upon the Paschal Lamb, in assurance against the destroying Angel, the Blood being sprinkled by way of 1 Cor. 5. 7, 8. Expiation, and the Flesh eaten in the way of a holy Festival, Rejoycing, and Thanksgiving.

So that though eating the Flesh of Christ carries a broad Signification of the great Evil, and Horror of Sin, and of the dreadful way of Reconciliation, looking so unnatural as the eating of the Flesh and the drinking the Blood of our Sa­viour, does; yet by the great attoning vertue of this Sacri­fice, it becomes a Feast of Joy and Peace.

2. This Act is a solemn Act of Worship of God and Christ, We eat thus, and worship: It is an Acknowledgment of Jesus Christ, as our Saviour, Lord, and Master, as all eating upon Sacrifices was an Acknowledgment of the God of the Sacri­fice: and seeing our Mediator is our Sacrifice, of whom it [Page 32] is testified, He lives for ever, and we are to live to him, it is an Acknowledgment of him our Saviour; and so it requires Reverence and Godly Fear, it calls for Self-probation even to Approbation, or Approvizing our selves, that so we may eat, and not otherwise. To eat and drink in a way worthy or becoming the Holy Body and Blood we seed upon; to dis­cern that Body of the Lord, or to make a difference and dis­crimination betwixt it and all other Bread by spiritual, holy Action; and to carry from it such Obligations as by no means to partake of the Table, or drink the Cup of Devils; This is the solemn Worship of Eating and Drinking be­fore God.

3. Eating and Drinking is made a Symbol of Eternal Glory; for so Christ expresses Eternal Glory, by Eating and Luc. 22. 30. Matt. 8. 11. Drinking at his Table in his Kingdom. By sitting down with Abraham, with Isaac, and Jacob, in the Kingdom of God. And this is the Reason Christ, in that great Sixth of John, so often enterweaves with that Discourse of Eating, Raising up at the last day; because then shall the full effect of the Union to the Body of Christ be seen, when all his Members shall indeed be seen, as One Christ in Glory; Their Bodies shall be fashioned like his Glorious Body; It does not yet ap­pear what we shall be, but when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. He will then present us fault­less before the Presence of his Glory: And all this from the Power of Union to himself, through the eating his Flesh, and drinking his Blood. So that Life, Eternal Life, Living for ever, Never dying, Raising up at the last Day, Having no Life if we do not eat the Flesh of Christ, and drink his Blood, are in that Discourse sixteen Times mention'd, to shew how close the Relation is betwixt eating the Flesh of Christ, and drinking his Blood, and Eternal Life: So that the Apostle Peter sums up all the Discourse in the Words of Eternal Life; Thou hast the Words of Eternal Life.

4. I come now to the last and greatest of those Resem­blances between the Flesh or Body eaten, and Christ's Blood [Page 33] drunk in the Lord's Supper, and natural Eating and Drink­ing, viz. Life and Nourishment; and this is that upon which the weight and stress of the whole matter lies: and in order to the understanding of this, it is most necessary well to weigh the Words, Take, Eat, This is my Body, And drink ye All, for This Cup is my Blood.

For here the Notion of Transubstantiation hath the most proper place, and here it will be most properly to be deci­ded: and here I will allow the utmost to it that can be al­lowed.

I have then, as I hope, made evident, The real Commu­nication of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, in its spiri­tual, saving, and redemptory Effects, without any change of Place, is no incompossible Notion, to the Divine Power of the Son of God: And this being rightly apprehended, It will be as evident, He can convey through such mediatory Channels and Conveyances (as he pleases) those divine In­fluences. It is out of all Controversie, The Truth of his Word and Gospel, together with Prayer and holy Medita­tion, begetting in the Soul, Knowledge, spiritual Under­standing, Faith, Repentance, Love, and the whole New Creation, are the primary and fundamental Conveyances of such divine Influences, by which the sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ touch the Soul, and unite with it, unto all the salvifick Effects of Spiritual and Eternal Life.

And the very effects of Truth, and the Word of God, uniting the Soul to Christ, through the Efficacy of his Divine Power and Spirit, are in the first place, before the Lord's Supper Instituted, compar'd to Meat and Drink.

And as They, in the Course of that Providence, or Word of God, by which Man lives, and not by Bread alone, are Transubstantiated into the Body, Flesh, and Blood of those that Eat and Drink them; even so the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, in these saving Effects, are Transubstantiated into the Soul and Spirit of every faithful Receiver of them, and enliven them to a spiritual and eternal Life: and there [Page 34] can be no fitter Notion of these Divine Effects than this Transubstantiation of natural Meat and Drink, and Incorpo­ration thereof into the Eater: for even as what is eaten ac­cording to the nature of Perishables lives in the Eater, dwells in the Eater, and he in that, and they are one in one ano­ther; even so they that Eat Christ, dwell in Christ, and Christ in them. Christ lives in his Church and Saints, out of which he is pleas'd not to live, as our Mediator and Head: But he lives in them as in his Fullness, and they in him, as in their Fountain of Life; Christ in them, and They in him by this spiritual Transubstantiation; or else they have no life in them, but pine away as through want of Nourishment.

This then being the true measure of eating and drinking Christ, and the spiritual Transubstantiation arising from it, as in the general Doctrine of the Gospel, it must give Law and Rule to our eating and drinking of Christ in the Sacra­ment of the Lord's Supper, that we may rightly understand it, and so to the Transubstantiation flowing from it: It must be all in our spiritual Transformation into Christ living in us, and we in him, and no other in that principal Notion.

But because in all Intellectual and Spiritual Communicati­ons of Truth to our Minds, there are no sensible, no mate­rial Images or Representations, and that by the Wisdom of Jesus Christ in the Lord's Supper, there are those sensible Images of Bread eaten and Wine drunk, and these Cargoed and enrich'd with the Representation of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ; and that these are to awaken, collect, and sum all our intellectual, rational, and spiritual Notions of Christ, the Vertue of his Sacrifice, and whole Transaction of the Humane Nature, and our closest Application there­unto, as to our Redemption by him.

It must needs therefore be, that the Bread and Wine, as to our Understandings, our Souls, and all intellectual and spiritual Appetite and Action, having done their very first Service of leading us through the whole suitableness betwixt Bread and Wine, and the natural Life of Man, and the same suitableness betwixt the Body and Blood of Christ, [Page 35] and the Life of the Soul, according to the Instituti­on, they must immediately drop their bodily and sen­sible Nature, and become to our Minds, Thoughts, and Affections the Body and Blood of Christ. And it pertains to the Divine Power of Jesus Christ, and his Eternal Spirit, to make, in a spiritual Reality, that Bread and Wine his very Body and Blood, in all its Efficacies, to us, if we are duely prepar'd so to receive them: And the inward, high, and sa­ving Effects, to all Intents and Purposes, immediately follow.

But yet if the true natural Realities of these Elements, or the subsequent unitive Incorporating Vertues of those Ele­ments were lost, not only the Institution it self, founded on those sensible Qualities, would be lost, but the very Body and Blood of Christ, by such a monstrous kind of Miracle, would become outward Elements to themselves; for, by the very Confession of the gross Transubstantialist, They, how­ever Transubstantiated, do no good without Faith and Re­pentance, and so do no more than the Ʋntransubstantiated Bread and Wine may do, and so prodigious a Miracle serves to no purpose, which is most absurd; For it makes the Body and Blood mere outward Elements to themselves.

The Bread and Wine then must, as to the bodily Senses, as to the natural Effects upon the Body, be Themselves, or keep their own Natures; but as to the spiritual Sentiments, and the spiritual Effects, they must be thus Transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Cbrist, in regard of Christ really communicating them by his divine Power to the Soul, as the Soul by Faith must receive them.

There must therefore be the Conduct of all the Instituted Actions, Blessing, Breaking, Taking, Eating, the Bread; Blessing, Dividing among our selves, Drinking, All, of the CUP, and that in a solemn manner, as in an Act of spiritual Worship, with Reverence and godly Fear; else it is not to eat the Lord's Supper: for, If a Priest, not rightly ordain'd, or not intending to consecrate the Bread, shall in the very Judgment of the Transubstantialist defeat the sacred Institu­tion; [Page 36] how much more ought, in the very same mens Judg­ments, the Neglect or Omission of any of the solemn Insti­tuted Acts evacuate the spiritual use and end of which the natural use of the Bread and Wine, (necessarily to that end continuing in their Natures) was one great part; and there­fore, undoubtedly, if the Stomachs of Communicants were open'd, as Alexander open'd the Stomach of his Souldier, to find whether the Milk charg'd upon him to be taken away from the poor Woman by violence, were there, and there he found it; so the Bread and Wine would be found in the Stomach of the fresh Communicant, making the just natural Progresses, and moves to Union, Incorporation, and Nou­rishment, that according to the Law of substantial Food (not Accidents) or according to Nature, it should do.

And it is necessary it should be so, that the spiritual Tran­substantiation may answer the Resemblance Christ hath cho­sen for it, and might guide us into the understanding of it, and Application of our Souls to it, according to the steps of the natural Conversion of Food into our Flesh, and Blood, and Life; yet not so that Christ should be obliged to his own Ceremonies, as if he could not work without them.

But this is the ordinary means, even besides and beyond the Word, that the Goodness of Christ hath chosen, that we might have the most sensible and powerful Application of our Souls to him, and of him to our Souls in such a Sacra­ment, which hath, besides the very Time of Celebration, [even in cases of Omission by necessary Impediment,] its con­stant use; for, the Ordination it self is a Seal, always and inseparably fasten'd to God's Covenant, and does assure the great Point of the real Exhibition of Christ to the Faith of his Servants, as substantially, as the Meat and Drink we live by, assures it self to our Bodies and Senses, and this always.

And this Offer, this Exhibition, is so real, that whoever professing the Gospel, and having the Knowledge of this Sacramental Institution, and especially coming to the Lord's Supper, and not approving himself in all the spiritual Acts of [Page 37] receiving Christ, becomes guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. Now as we know this Guilt is only of a spiritual Na­ture, committed against the Body and Blood of Christ thus spiritualiz'd in their effects, for who can hurt Christ's natu­ral Body in Heaven? so it assures us, the Presence of the Body and Blood is only of a spiritual Nature, and so the Transubstantiation is only spiritual; for as the Guilt is, so is the Presence: and if the Presence were sensible, the Guilt might be by an Injury of a sensible, Nature: but we know, It is not so; and so the Presence and Sin also must be of a spiritual Nature.

And so also is the Sin of not discerning, of not discrimi­nating the Lord's Body. It must needs be the Sin of the Mind, because there is no Presence that strikes the Sense; The Sense is in no Fault, for there is no Body of Christ be­fore it; but the Mind, that does not discern, is to be blam'd: for that hath a high, spiritual Object, made known to it, evidently set before it by the Word of Christ, in the Sacra­ment, but only to it, not to the bodily eye or sense: there­fore the Presence can be only spiritual.

But so certain as the Bread and Wine are present to the Sense, so certain are the Body and Blood of Christ, in a spi­ritual Transubstantiation. For it must be acknowledg'd, This is my Body, standing in a Sacramental, solemn Institu­tion, is of greater force than a mere metaphorical Saying, I am the Vine, and does signifie a Presence of Christ with the Bread, in such a manner, that the General Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the real Communication of the Body and Blood of Christ in general, is more particularly determin'd to the Bread, Blessed, and Broken, Taken and Eaten, which is be­come a Memorial perpetually annex'd to the Gospel by Christ's Institution, and is a Superaddition of the Certainty of a real, spiritual Presence, of all the saving Effects of the Body and Blood of Christ, in the manner before discours'd: And the Guilt of unworthy Receiving, or not discriminating this Body and Blood, is proportionally a Sin committed [Page 38] against the spiritual Presence of the Body and Blood there represented, in all its spiritual Effects, and really, and sub­stantially, though by Divine Abstraction and Infinite Diffu­sion of them, without any material bodily Presence.

And though this Sin, according to the Laws of Discourse, is charg'd only upon the unworthy Eating and Drinking, as at the Table of Christ, in a set Discourse of the Sacrament; yet, as the Divine Institution offers at all Times the Body and Blood of Christ, and testifies the Truth of a real Participati­on of Christ by the True Believer; so the Obligation, and consequently the Guilt, is chargeable upon every Pretender to Christ, whether he be a Receiver or not, as is most evi­dent by 1 Cor. 10. all along the Chapter. And such a Pro­fanation of the Lord's Supper as the Corinthians were guilty of, as even the turning it into a Riot and Revel, so that it was not to Eat the Lord's Supper; yet the weight of the In­stitution fell upon them, even as it does upon all, that pro­fanely forbear the Lord's Supper among us, [as it were in their own Defence, against the Danger of it;] whose Guilt is the same as to the not Receiving Christ exhibited to them in the Lord's Supper, that must be always Preach'd, as a Memorial of Christ Instituting it, wherever this Gospel is preach'd, and is pretended to be so Receiv'd by All, that is by all who pre­tend to be Christians: So that they do not, by neglect, lessen the Guilt of an unworthy Eating and Drinking, which the very Profession of Christianity entitles them to, but also add that of a profane Omission and Neglect of so Holy an Institution. Now as all this is most evident by a Collation of the Apo­stle's Discourse, in the fore-mention'd Chapters, so it is of 1 Cor. c. 10. great Illustration to the Point we are upon, as also Convi­ction of careless profane Christians, who must, whether they will or no, be under the Bond of this Covenant, to whom Christ is so clearly set forth before their Eyes, and no Shift can disoblige them.

I come therefore to the Third Head of this Discourse, viz To find a fair Accommodation, and no Encounter betwixt Head 3 [Page 39] the Mystery and the Letter, or betwixt the grand Sense and the very Words, This is my Body, by a compare of this whole Harmonical Context with other Scripture, and its way of speaking in such Cases.

And in this I have so far prevented my self, that there re­mains nothing, but to gather up the whole Context, and then to apply to it the sense of this Mystery I have pursued: Whereupon it will be evident, these Words, This is my Body, This is my Blood, agree with the constant manner of Scriptures speaking in such Matters, and that less than these Words could not import the great Sense that was to be im­ported.

It is therefore first to be consider'd, That Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, even the very night he was betray▪d to dye, that he might draw up the whole Mystery of Redemption in short, and into a Sum; He does it first in that most signifi­cant, typical, sacrifical Rite of the Passover, that had been of so great use and signification in the Church of God among the Jews; of which, the several Ordinances for the solemni­ty of it bound together, are call'd by not a Literal, but Mystical Propriety, the Lord's Passover. Exod. 12. 11.

This Passover, with Desire, Christ desir'd to eat with his Disciples, before he suffer'd, as a very lively Table of his Re­demptional Suffering, so near: but withal, He declares, He would no more Eat of it, till it was fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God.

Immediately upon this, whether out of an appendant Rite to the Passover, or not, is not now material, He Insti­tutes the Lord's Supper, as it were proleptically, and by way of Prophecy, and yet Intuition, and looking upon his Death just before him, and draws in this new Table the Intention of it: but whether it was to be celebrated any more, there is no Explicite, but that Implicite Preception. In the Evan­gelist Luke, Do it in Remembrance of me; which carries an Intimation of a Continuation: but it is observable, It is ap­plied only to the Bread, importing the Body of Christ: and [Page 40] it abates much from the rigour of a gross, carnal Sense, where it seems to press hardest. For as to the Wine being materially the Blood of Christ, that Figure, This Cup, for this Wine in the Cup; and that variation [is the New Testa­ment in my Blood] does, beyond all Contradiction, rebate the gross Literal Sense, even as Remembrance does from [This is my Body;] for Remembrance is of Absent, and not Pre­sent; This therefore was as before-hand to an after thing; So Christ said of the Body [which is broken] although it was not yet actually broken, and of the Blood [which is shed] al­though it was not then shed.

Immediately after the drinking of the Wine, Christ sub­joyn'd, I will no more drink of This Fruit of the Vine, till I drink it new in the Kingdom of God my Father, when it comes; which to shew a thing of weight, and of the same Sense with eating the Passover no more till, &c. The Evange­list Luke is before-hand with the Institution of the Cup, to joyn to that Saying of the Passover, this, of the Fruit of the Vine, as is very visible.

And both these Expressions speak these three Things:

1. That there was an eminent Kingdom of God the Father immediately to succeed, at whose Right-hand Christ sits till the Time of his own peculiar Kingdom comes, which is not till he puts down all Rule, and Power, and Authority, and last of all abolishes Death and Hell out of God's Creation, in­to the Lake, its own Place, which is the Second Death, or the Death of Death, and then he resigns back the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God and Christ are thus kept distinct, and the Kingdom of the Father is in an especial manner the state of the Gospel, after the Resurrection, Ascension, Sitting of Christ at his Right-hand, and his continual Intercession even untill that Glorious Kingdom of Christ.

2. That the Death of Jesus Christ, imported in both the Passover and the Lord's Supper, was to be renewed into a per­petual Life and Vertue immediately after his Death, by those his Resurrection, Ascension, Session on God's Right-hand, [Page 41] and Intercession, which are the Gospel-Kingdom of the Father.

3. That Christ, in a spiritual sense, continually eats the Passover, as fulfill'd in the Kingdom of God, drinks the Wine as new in the Kingdom of God, and that with his Disciples of all Ages, viz. in that perpetual Renovation of his Death in his Intercession, and Application of the Benefits thereof to Believers, according to the whole Tenor of the Gospel, and particularly of the Lord's Supper; and as in a Pro-gramma or afore-hand Portraicture of all this, those excellent Dis­courses of at least John 15. c. 16. and that great Prayer, a Pattern of the Intercession of Christ, John 17. following shew.

And of this Intercession of Christ upon his own Death, the Lord's Supper is in highest sense the Memorial; for, the Re­membrance of Christ is not of a dead Christ, but who lives for ever, to make Intercession, and so saves to the uttermost.

In consequence of all this, especially the A point most in­sisted up­on by the Apostles Paul and John, (I had almost said solely by them) Rom. 8. Epist. to the Heb. frequently and so­lemnly, c. 7. the Apostle John c. 15, c. 16. c. 17. especially Epist. c. 2. 1, 2. Intercession of Christ, The Apostle Paul, as a fourth Evangelist, concerning this Institution, is immediately commission'd by Christ from Heaven, to promulge it to all Ages of Christians. And therein he reveals it under a solemn new Title, as it were new in the Kingdom of God. The Lord's Supper. He applies to it its great Scope and End, both to the Bread and to the Wine; Do it in solemn Memorial of Christ, and his Action now in Heaven upon his Death which was here on Earth: and farther in those Words; You shew forth his Death till he comes, that is, the whole Contexture of his Death, as his Body is eaten and his Blood drunk through the Efficacy and Application of his Intercession, through which we offer the Sacrifice of Praise, giving Thanks to his Name, through him, in this Eucharist or Feast of Thanksgiving, of whose Altar we continually Eat, even that of the Great Shepheard of the Sheep brought again from the Dead by the Blood of the everlast­ing Covenant, as the Apostle hath most divinely woven these Things into a Neighbourhood, Heb. 10. v. 10. v. 15. v. 20.

And this Ordinance, with this whole State of Things, the Apostle hath dated till the Coming of Christ, when a new State shall receive this into it self, till which this Ordinance cannot be superannuated, or out of Date; for which his be­ing receiv'd into Glory is postpond in the Mystery of Godli­ness, that it may be a Pawn and Pledge of his Kingdom of Glory. 1 Tim. 3. 16. on which the Apostasie follows, dark­ning all till then. c. 4.

Laying then all these Things together, how evident is it, This whole Matter is of a divine, spiritual, heavenly Sense? and therefore the Words concerning it are to be understood mystically, spiritually, heavenly, however express'd in a Phrase and Language nearest, most easie, and familiar to Sense, by which Sensibleness, the Substantialness, Reality, certain Pre­sence of those Spiritualities is to be understood; and yet no­thing to be detracted, or derogated from the Spirituality: and to interpret otherwise, is to go contrary to the Rule of all Language, and of Scripture-Language particularly, and is as mischievous as the worst sort of Allegorizing, or Eva­cuating the sense of the Letter of Scripture, where plain hi­storical Things are intended. The one is turning Scripture into a spiritual Romance, the other is to subvert the whole World of Spirituals, to bring in horrible Anthropomorphi­tism, or imagining God to have Eyes, Hands, Feet, &c. be­cause Scripture representing the Reality of his divine Action, Providence and Government does it in Words and Images we best understand; and in a word, to bring in rank Hob­bianism into the Scripture, the Church of God, and into this Sacrament, as shall be more particularly remark'd under a following Head.

Add hereunto, This is most particularly the Language of Scripture in Sacramental or Testamentary Discourses, Dis­courses concerning the Covenant, according to that famous Instance, Heb. 9. 19. 20. When Moses had spoken every Precept to the People, according to the Law, he took the Blood of Calves, of Goats, with Scarlet-wool and Hysop, and sprinkled both the [Page 43] Book, and the People, saying, upon the whole, This Thing, this whole Thing, is the Blood of the Covenant, which God hath enjoyn'd you.

Thus the Bread, Blessed, Broken, Taken, Eaten, is the Body of Christ, (and proportionably the Blood.) This whole Thing, the whole Doctrine and Law of the Gospel, always [...]. consider'd and embrac'd first, and then the Bread, so Blessed, Broken, Taken, Eaten, is the Body of Christ; and accor­dingly this Cup or Wine particularly Blessed, Divided, Drunk.

And that not only in a figurative, cold sacramental, or commemorative Sense; for that Divine Power, that Eternal Spirit of Christ, does infinitely propagate the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, representing his whole Humanity, in all the saving Efficacies and mighty Effects proper thereunto; as perpetually in the Doctrine and Truth of the Gospel, in an intellectual way, so in this Supper, as in a sensible mate­rial Representation; but yet only confirming, assuring, ma­king present a divine spiritual Efficacy, as hath been all along declar'd: And even as the Bread and Wine have an undoubted evident Appearance to Sense, are Eaten, Tasted, Concocted in the Stomach, converted into Flesh, Blood, and Spirits; so are the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ really present in the Bread, in the Wine, viz. in their spiritual Effects, justly called his Body and Blood: So that the Bread is in true spiritual Sense the Body of Christ, to be eaten spi­ritually, to be tasted spiritually, to be turn'd into spiritual Life to the Soul, in which Body and Blood go hand in hand with the Elements, in all their natural Progress, by their Spirituality: and so that the want of due spiritual Acti­on in all that profess Christ Jesus, whether at, or not at the Sacrament, (however particularly applied to that) is an Of­fence against the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and brings a Guilt proportionable to the Offence; All which hath the Full of a spiritual Transubstantiation, and is the Thing we have pursued.

Head 4 I am come down now to the fourth Head, viz. To en­quire into this Thing, How there came into the Christian Church such a Notion as that Fleshly Transubstantiation, so earnestly contended for. And I account it to these four Causes:

Cause 1 That this Great and Excellent Doctrine of the Gospel, especially in that so often magnified Sixth of John, and in the Institution of the Lord's Supper, give great Warranty to observe a great and divine Mystery in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and in his Supper: That there must be some real sense of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, as preach'd in the Gospel, as presented in the Lord's Supper, Transubstan­tiated so, as to be Meat and Drink indeed, and to give Life to our Souls.

All this Mystery cannot be exhausted, and drawn out in no more than a plain Assent to this, that Christ dyed as an Attonement for the World, (if so much be allowed as Soci­nianism denies,) and gave a Body of Holy Precepts and Com­mands, of an excellent Nature; and that whoever lives in Obedience to these, with Sincerity, shall have that their Obedience imputed to them for Righteousness, through the Covenant of Grace, and justifie Men, as perfect and unsinning Obedience should have been and done by the first Covenant with Adam.

Rationalists and Moralists draw down this Gospel-Myste­ry too low, while they seem to acquit themselves to Reason and general Understanding, and to carry all Things plausi­bly before that, They lose the high Spirituality of Christi­anity; which they are too ready to esteem no better than Jargon Cant, and Non-sense. There is a Gospel middle betwixt gross, portentous, carnal Transubstantiation, and such an emaciating and shrinking up the great and unsearchable Treasures of the Gospel, as if they did not much excell a Lecture out of Plato, Plutarch, Epictetus, or some of the great Sages of Morality; joyn'd to some Articles of Faith and Forms of Worship.

The way and manner of the Gospel speaking of these things, and especially as our Lord and Saviour spake, who spake as never man spake, might well raise the Minds of Chri­stians to look for something high, and surpassing in the My­steries of Christian Religion, and beyond common Sense, or common Reason.

2. Many of those we call the Antients, or Fathers, co­ming out of the Heathen Learning and Eloquence, into the Profession of Christianity, Men of great Holiness, Innocen­cy, and Sanctity of Conversation, Contempt of the World, Readiness to dye for the Name of Christ, and generally Martyrs, of curious and delicate Reason, of very sublime Notion and Sentiments, of a flowing Language, softness and sweetness of Speech, and accomplish'd with all the Graceful­nesses of Rhetorick, taking the Scripture-Expressions, and displaying upon them with that Magnificency and Gallantry of Words, and all kind of Wit, but not pursuing strongly and closely the Reason, Strength, and whole Analogy of Scripture, nor guarding their Discourse by a Nervous Com­pare of Scripture with Scripture, launch'd out into many free and liberal Expressions concerning these Things, which not ballanc'd, limited, defended against possible Mistake, at some Times, and in some Veins of their Writings in this Matter, might give occasion to the more grievous and dreadful Mi­stakes to such a course of Times, as we may easily observe succeeded them.

And this they did at the higher rate, undoubtedly, out of a great Zeal for the Honour of Christian Religion; for, the Jews and Pagans speaking high of their Cabalaes, Great Mysteries, and Secrets of Religion, and their Mystae, who had the guard of these Mysteries, their Priests, and Devo­toes. The Fathers of the Christian Church, knowing the true Excellency of Divine Mysteries, and pitching upon this, as easily the most remarkable, viz. the Doctrine of eating the Flesh, and drinking the Blood of Christ; and this Do­ctrine in an especial manner consigned into the Mystery of [Page 46] the Lord's Supper, to which is adjoyn'd that severe Discourse of the Apostle, 1 Cor. 11. It was very obvious to them, here especially, to exalt the Glory of Christianity, and of the holy Ministers of it, as highly surmounting the Poor, if true, but therefore most poor, because false Mysteries of outdated Judaism, and much more of Paganism.

It is most evident, at the very same Time, in the very same Places of their Writings, they in the same kind of flowing Eloquence intermix other Expressions, that suffici­ently argue, How free they were from any Misapprehensi­ons in these Things: But their way of Writing being not by way of severe Examination of Scripture Notions and Texts, not by the austere Beam of Scripture, in its several Portions of Revealed Truth, and of the Sacred Context, nor having any surmise of the after danger, there being so little occasion, or appearance of Fear at the Time, left Things so, as that the following Times deprav'd their Innocent Glory of Learning, and sublime Ingeny, dyed deep with Love of Christ.

3. Through the many Devastations of the Christian Em­pire, by the Barbarous Nations, by the Saracens, and Turks, in a long Tract of Time, through the daily Decay of Chri­stian Knowledge, Zeal, and Holiness, there ensued a great Darkness, Ignorance, Barbarism, upon the Christian World; in which, Men of the best Note seiz'd upon such Expressions of Scripture, and the Fathers, whose Sepulchres they built, and garnished their Tombs all manner of ways, (I add no more) and it may be, as it seem'd to them most to make for the Honour of Christian Religion: But their Understanding being heavy, course, sinking into the thick and impure matter, bearing also a deep Grain of Paganism, they grie­vously err'd, neither knowing the Scriptures, the true Sense of the Fathers, nor of the Power of God; And hereunto they proportion'd all their Notions of the Christian Religion, their Worship of God and Christ, and most miserably espe­cially, They stuck in the mirey Clay, as to this great My­stery [Page 47] of the Lord's Supper, and the Doctrine of Eating the Flesh and Drinking the Blood of Christ, out of which it was drawn, and degraded the most losty Spirituality of the Gos­pel, into the poorest and even vilest of carnal Apprehensi­ons concerning it, in the Doctrine of a Carnal fleshly Tran­substantiation.

4. At the same Times, and by the same Degrees, grew up a Despotick, Arbitrary Church power, that imposed what it pleas'd under Anathemaes, Curses, Excommunications, Brands of Heresie, and all Cruelty, upon the Bodies, Names, Estates, of those, who even to Syllables did not Say as they Said, and do as they did: while at the same Time also there Invaded Persons of as honest and sincere a Devotion as Ignorance could produce, a Veneration for the Name of the Catholick Church and the Governours of it, and their Ca­nons.

Now the Impress, the Stamp of this Authority, being set so particularly and Imperially upon this Doctrine of Tran­substantiation, it is no wonder it prevail'd so far, and sunk so deep into the Minds of Men, through what every Age from those Worthies before-nam'd, contributed both to the Gross­ness and Authoritativeness of this false Article of Faith.

I forbear, because I would be as inoffensive as may be consistent with Truth to remark upon that Apostacy, that Mystery of Iniquity, which the Apostles of our Lord and Sa­viour foretold, were, even then beginning, and to rise high­er and higher in the Latter Times, to which even many Things, innocent and inoffensive in themselves at first, and indeed all Contingencies, fathally concurr'd; and which, it is most certain, are not yet remov'd. Nor do I think fit at this Time to Animadvert upon the Covetous Practices, Cru­elties, and Inhumanities, into which Transubstantiation hath been Transubstantiated, not only in the true, real sense of spiritual Wickedness, but in a sense as corporeal as Corporeity it self.

I hasten therefore to the fifth Head; viz. To represent to you the Danger of such a Doctrine, as that Fleshly Tran­substantiation, not so much as it is a contemplative Thing, a Notion, a manner of Apprehension, or matter of Discourse, though that also, but as it carries the Practice of Worship and Adoration.

Now in these Great Points we may very plainly and con­vincingly understand the great Danger of that Transubstan­tiation.

1. The believing it must needs shake the Credit of all the knowing and judging Faculties of our Natures and Beings, than which, nothing can be more destructive to Religion, or put all Things into greater Disorder and Confusion, that concern God, our Selves, or our Motions in relation to another World.

For if our Faculties are not true, we have nothing to guide our selves, or to be guided by.

Now the Faculties of our Minds first judge, and act by Sense, then by Reason, then by the Notices or Sentiments of Natural Conscience, then by Faith; and these must be all sound, in due state; They have all their proper Objects, they are all finite, and by these Rules they are limited; they must not go out of their Limits. It is true, these are each as so many Stories one above another, and the lower must not presume into the Region of the higher, for then they will be mistaken, and in Error; yet the highest is support­ed and sustained by the lower. And seeing they all are from God, whatever is true in the lowest cannot be contradicted in the highest; and therefore whatever is pretended in the highest, cannot be true there, if it be justly denied in the lowest.

Now it were easie to shew, this Notion of Carnal Tran­substantiation must be false in all the judgment of our Facul­ties; but I shall only instance in Sense: And, if the Bread be Bread in the Judgment of every one of our Senses, of the Senses of all Men, in all Places, at all Times, and in [Page 49] all Ages under the most advantageous Circumstances for sense to judge by, the contrary can never be true in Reason, in natural Conscience, nor in Faith; for then, either there must be no such Faculty as Sense, or that fundamental Fa­culty of the Souls Judgment by Sense, must be false, and so all our Faculties will lose their Credit; for they may be false too, seeing he that gave us one gave us all of them, and this of Sense is that we most live and act by in this World.

If any attempt to parallel this with the Doctrine of the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, being ONE, to which, Rea­son (say they) can never subscribe; the Case is manifestly different, seeing it is certain, our Faculties are finite, and cannot judge of Infinity but by Faith in divine Revelation: Infinite Being is too High, too Deep, too Broad, too Long, for Job 11. 7, 8, 9. a Finite Reason to judge of; It is not its proper Object.

But Colour, Taste, Figure, Hard, Soft, Sound, may be all judg'd by Sense, and properly are so to be judg'd.

Or if any should make the same Objection against that Spiritual Transubstantiation we have made out by Scripture, 'tis certain, It is only cognisable, and to be judg'd of by Faith and Revelation: Sense hath no Title to judge of it; If it be maintain'd by Faith, it is maintain'd in its proper Court. But it is certain, The Judgment whether this Bread be Bread, or Wine be Wine, is to be made by some one or more of the Senses, at least in the Universality of all the Senses, of all Persons, Times, Places.

Let any one then lay that place 1 Epist. John c. 1. v. 1. That which we have heard, that which our Eyes have seen, which we have looked upon, and our Hands have handled, &c. to the being born down, That in these Senses, and all others, we are mistaken in judging Bread to be Bread when it is no Bread, and Wine, when it is no Wine; Must not all the Argument, the Evidence, the Assurance the Apostle gives, stand for nothing? Nay, Must not all Scripture-Miracles whatever fall by the same stroke the Senses do in this mat­ter? and Religion be suspected but only Juggle and Impo­sture? [Page 50] For here Sense is upon its own Object, in its own Business: All Sense that is in the World, agrees; and a pre­tended Faith only makes it void.

2. Hereby that great Excellency of Scripture in giving Divine and Spiritual Things under sensible, prophetical Events under Emblems, mystical Things under Types of a material Nature, great, concernful practical Truth under Parables, is made void; for if it may not be allowed it to mean Spirituality under [This is my Body,] it may be deni­ed it in all Things else, seeing in nothing it can be more necessary, than when all the Senses in the World bear wit­ness to the necessity, and the sublime Spirituality of the Thing, as we have set out, requires it. This must needs turn even the minds of Men into gross and carnal. Must not that great Heresie of the Anthropomorphites (as was intimated before) be defended and made good, because Scripture speaks spiritual Things freely and under Sensibles; nay, all Lan­guage does the same, and is made foolish by so perverting it.

3. The Amuse and Wonderment of the minds of men, per­suaded of such a Transubstantiation, must needs be great, and their Thoughts gazing after a Nothing, and taken off from the greatest Business of a spiritual Application to Christ according to his Word, and the whole Truth of the Gospel concerning Redemption by him.

4. But that which is yet the greatest danger of all, There is nothing the Scripture so much abhors, as to bring God into a contemptible, vile, mean Appearance, and that such an Appearance should claim Divine Honour, a share in the Di­vine Glory. There never was a Divine Appearance, that God requir'd any Acknowledgment of himself in, but there was a Retinue of Divine Power and Majesty with it, to assure the minds of men, and to direct them to the Appre­hensions of God alone.

When Christ was here in the World under the Form of a Servant, the Disguise of a Carpenters Son, I do not find that there was any Act of Worship done to him; but when the [Page 51] Shecinah, the Presence of Glory, descended upon him; when the Wise men from the East worshipped him in his Infancy, a Star from Heaven, as an Evidence of his Divinity, guided them. It is never recorded the Disciples worshipped him, but after his Resurrection, and when they saw his Apotheosis, his Ascension, his receiving up into Glory, or when a Ray of his Divinity shone out, as in the Draught of Fishes.

And yet it is true, that throughout the Time of his publick Luke 5. 8. Appearance, though he was made Flesh, and dwelt among them, yet they beheld his Glory as the Glory of the only Begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth, not bodily, but divine, spiritual was the Object of their Worship.

How does God caution and warn the Israelites, that They saw no Similitude, no Likeness of any thing when he spake out of the midst of the Fire: They heard a Voice of Words, but they saw no Similitude, that they might not Copy God out into any such. Deut. 4. 12. 15, 16.

If men say, They intend to worship only the True God in Jesus Christ, in the chang'd Bread; Consider what miracu­lous Presence, what Evidences of Divinity can you find to summon your Worship, that you may be secure from Ido­latry?

Consider what the Glory, what the Majesty of the Divine Appearances are, when he hath summon'd the Worship of his Servants; some Extraordinaries of Glory have always been the Alarm of their Worship.

One great part of the Idolatry of the Heathens was their course Representation of God; They changed the Glory of the Rom. 1. 23. 25. Incorruptible God into an Image made like to Corruptible Man, and to Birds, &c. They changed the Truth of God into a Lye, and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator, Blessed for ever, or besides, or missing the Creator, and as against him, Blessed for ever.

Though I would not therefore say, It is Idolatry; yet I heartily pray, Men may not be ensnar'd in so great a danger of it: I could wish it were not, as the Apostle, Rom. 9. 1. if [Page 52] it be lawful to do so. I am sure the Danger is exceeding great of stooping God so low, and then Worshipping him as in a piece of Bread.

There remains nothing now but the last Head of this Dis­course; viz. To draw up all into short Inferences, applica­tory to Practice.

Applic. 1 I would even put it to the Choice of any wise Man, what kind of Transubstantiation is most desirable, and worthy to be preferr'd; Whether that Insipid one, at the suppos'd Expence of a Miracle, so unaccountable to Sense and Reason as chan­ging the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ materially taken, which yet offers nothing to the Sense to excite and stir up the Mind by, to attend upon the Di­vine Presence, nor contributes any thing to the Soul; Or that spiritual Transubstantiation which is All Spirit and Life, and certainly gives Life to the Soul that Receives it.

The one can be not so much as an outward Sign, because not visible; the other is certainly the inward, invisible Grace, that yet demonstrates it self in all real, visible Effects, with Demonstration of the Spirit and Power, and that will raise us up at the last day: The one does nothing, For if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his; The other is that very Spirit of Christ that is Life and Righteousness: so that the true Believer, who hath the Spirit of Christ, hath the whole Vertue from that within, and the Bread and Wine are present to the Sense, by Christ himself sanctified, and appointed to do good that way; which nothing unseen can do, in the very nature of the Thing, any more than in­sensible can affect Sense.

That then which offers not it self to Sense nor Reason, and does no good without the Spirit, and Life receiv'd by Faith, what can it do at all?

To a Man without Faith, it hath not so much as the out­ward Visibility to stir up to Faith by sense; it cannot of it self give the inward Grace neither; so that it indeed is no­thing, nor can do any thing. But the Spirit and Life of the [Page 53] Body and Blood of Christ immediately hath the saving Effect upon the true Believer; It Invites the very Unbeliever by its Excellency, while it offers it self under the sensible Signs of Bread and Wine made Intelligible and Intellectual by the whole Doctrine of the Gospel.

It is easie therefore thus far to know, what is to be cho­sen: But on the other side, There is the great Danger, if this Transubstantiation be a mistake, (as there is so great as­surance it is.) There is, for a mistakes sake, all the danger imaginable of overthrowing the whole Credit of our Facul­ties and of Religion by it, and the greatest danger of Ido­latry, against the Precept of the Apostle Paul, upon the very Discourse of the Lord's Supper, a Prophecy, I am persuaded, of Future Danger, as well as an Admonition; Dearly Belo­ved, viz. Christians, flee from Idolatry, the Idolatry which 1 Cor. 10. 14. turns the Cup of the Lord, and the Table of the Lord, into a Cup and Table of, what I am afraid to name; for the De­vil is the Author of all Idolatry. It is likewise against the prophetical Farewel of the Apostle John, after declaring the True God and Eternal Life; Little Children, Keep your selves from Idols, 1 Ep. John c. ult. v. ult.

When therefore, There is so little Gain at the cost of such a miraculous Power suppos'd on God's part, of so prodigi­ous a Faith on ours, and so great a danger; what, but a strange Servitude to a Church, calling it self Infallible, can subject us to such an undesirable Opinion?

2. It should raise us to high Thoughts of the Redemption of Christ, thus nearly uniting it self to, and incorporating it self within us: Although it is matter of Faith, yet it is so abundantly assur'd to that Faculty of our Minds, to Know, and to be assur'd to that Faculty of our Minds, to Know, and to be assur'd by so high a Revelation; that if we pursue it by that Power, that Faculty, sanctified actually to believe in Christ; and that we come to live by that Faith of the Son of God, it will be even as certain, as sensible, as Life it self.

[Page 54] 3. We should lift up our Souls and Hearts to Christ in the Heavens, on the Right-hand of God, Interceeding for us; for there he still eats the Passover, and drinks of that ve­ry same Fruit of the Vine with us, as it is new and fulfill'd in his Fathers Kingdom, there he continually applies it to our Hearts, as the great Testator, and Risen surviving Surety, Executor, or Mediator of his own Testament.

4. It should oblige us to a continual Appretiation, and high value of the Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, and joyn­ing the Lord's Supper, (if it could be) to every Lord's Day, Lordly Supper. Lordly Day. to which it is coupled in so peculiar, and unparallel'd only to themselves, a New-Testament-Expression. For though it hath a constant and undividable Annexion to that New Te­stament, of which Christ hath made it a visible Sum; altho' it is always preach'd with the Gospel, and is as it were ad­ministred in that Preaching; yet, because the whole Gospel is present, and sensibly preach'd in that Sacrament also, we should embrace both within our most conscientious Obser­vation: And the very Ordinance it self is undoubtedly the most ordinary means of a superadditional Assurance and Conveyance of the Gospel-Efficacy into our Hearts, and therefore by no means to be neglected.

5. It persuades us to an earnest Care and Caution against violating the great Ordinances of the Gospel preach'd in both the Word of God, and in the Lord's Supper; for it is the Of­fer of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to be Eaten and Drunk; and if we neglect and refuse, or unworthily par­take, we are guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord; we do not discern and take due notice of the Lord's Body, so it becomes a savor of Death unto Death in the Word, and of Judgment to Condemnation (if we persevere so to do) in the Lord's Supper, because it is a degree of that great Sin of Apo­stacy, treading under foot the Son of God, counting the Blood of the Covenant a common thing, doing Injury to the Spirit of Grace, Crucifying him a-fresh, and putting him to an open Shame.

And when by the ordinary Profession of Jesus Christ, be­ing Born, and Baptiz'd into the only Holy Religion in the World, Educated in it, we are caught in its Net, and under the Bond of the Covenant, the Gospel is Preach'd to us whe­ther we will or no, and the Lord's Supper goes along with it, whether we Hear, or whether we forbear, whether we Receive, or whether we forbear, we must know, we shall know the Gospel in its Preaching, in the Lord's Supper inse­parable from it, hath been among us. We are All Baptiz'd in the Cloud, and in the Sea of the Gospel Ministry, every way surrounding us: We All Eat the same spiritual Meat, and 1 Cor. 10. 1. Drink the same spiritual Drink, and that is Christ. The Bread broken among us, the Cup of Blessing bless'd among us, encloses us, though in regard of Unbelief and Impenitency, we Eat and Drink Judgment to our selves, and with many of us God is not well pleased, and our Carkasses will fall notwith­standing this Manna, this Water of the Rock vouchsaf'd to us, if we Repent not.

There is therefore no way of avoiding the Gospel-Penal­ty, but by Receiving the Lord Jesus aright, and walking in him: No Abatement of our Danger, as to the Lord's Supper, but by giving no Sleep to our Eyes, nor Slumber to our Eye­lids, till we have brought our selves into an approved state for it. Refusal of the Gospel, in its Preaching, in the Lord's Supper, will not be so Tollerable as Sodom's Judgment: There is no Safety any way, but in Eating and Drinking Christ, so that we may live for ever; else we can have no life in us.

6. Seeing all the Gospel and Lord's Supper hath such rela­tion to the Last Day, to the Table of Christ in his Kingdom, in his Glory, and to Eating and Drinking then in his Pre­sence, let us lift up our Heads, our Thoughts, our Desires, our Prayers, to it: Although these Ordinances ought to be all our Delights on Earth, yet they are but the State below, a State of the Delay, and Patience of Christ for his Kingdom; A shewing forth the Lord's Death till he come.

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