breviate of our case. 'He that runneth in races,' saith the apostle, 'he that contends for mastery, is temperate in all things;' and this at least must he be that comes to find Christ in these mysteries; he must be prepared by the rules and method of the sanctuary; there is very much to be done on his part; there is an heap of duties, there is a state of excellency, there are preparations solemn and less solemn, ordinary and extraordinary, which must be premised before we can receive the mysterious blessings which are here not only consigned, but collated and promoted, confirmed and perfected.

The holy communion or supper of the Lord is the most sacred, mysterious, and useful conjugation of secret and holy things and duties in the religion. It is not easy to be understood, it is not lightly to be received: it is not much opened in the writings of the New testament, but still left in its mysterious nature; it is too much untwisted and nicely handled by the writings of the doctors; and by them made more mysterious, and like a doctrine of philosophy made intricate by explications, and difficult by the aperture and dissolution of distinctions. So we sometimes espy a bright cloud formed into an irregular figure; when it is observed by unskilful and fantastic travellers, looks like a centaur to some, and as a castle to others; some tell that they saw an army with banners, and it signifies war; but another wiser than his fellow says it looks for all the world like a flock of sheep, and foretells plenty; and all the while it is nothing but a shining cloud by its own mobility and the activity of a wind cast into a contingent and inartificial shape. So it is in this great mystery of our religion; in which some espy strange things which God intended not, and others see not what God hath plainly told: some call that part of it a mystery which is none, and others think all of it nothing but a mere ceremony and a sign: some say it signifies, and some say it effects; some say it is a sacrifice, and others call it a sacrament; some schools of learning make it the instrument of grace in the hand of God; others say that it is God himself in that instrument of grace; some call it venerable, and others say as the vain men in the prophets, that 'the table of the Lord is contemptible: some come to it with their sins on their heads, and others with their sins in their mouth: some come to be cured, some to be quickened; some to be nourished, and others to be made alive; some out of fear and reverence take it but seldom, others out of devotion take it frequently; some receive it as a means to procure great graces and blessings, others as an eucharist, and an office of thanksgiving for what they have received: some call it an act of obedience merely, others account it an excellent devotion and the exercising of the virtue of religion; some take it to strengthen their faith, others to beget it, and yet many affirm that it does neither, but supposes faith beforehand as a disposition; faith in all its degrees 8 [Mal. i. 7.]

according to the degree of grace whither the communicant is arrived. Some affirm the elements are to be blessed by prayers of the bishop or other minister; others say it is only by the mystical words, the words of institution; and when it is blessed, some believe it to be the natural body of Christ; others to be nothing of that, but the blessings of Christ, His word and His spirit, His passion in representment, and His grace in real exhibition: and all these men have something of reason for what they pretend; and yet the words of scripture from whence they pretend, are not so many as are the several pretensions.

My purpose is not to dispute, but to persuade; not to confute any one, but to instruct those that need; not to make a noise, but to excite devotion; not to enter into curious, but material enquiries; and to gather together into an union all those several portions of truth, and differing apprehensions of mysteriousness, and various methods and rules of preparation, and seemingly opposed doctrines, by which even good men stand at distance and are afraid of each other. For since all societies of Christians pretend to the greatest esteem of this above all the rites or external parts and ministries of religion, it cannot be otherwise but that they will all speak honourable things of it, and suppose holy things to be in it, and great blessings one way or other to come by it; and it is contemptible only among the profane and the atheistical; all the innumerable differences which are in the discourses and consequent practices relating to it, proceed from some common truths and universal notions and mysterious or inexplicable words, and tend all to reverential thoughts and pious treatment of these rites and holy offices; and therefore it will not be impossible to find honey or wholesome dews upon all this variety of plants; and the differing opinions and several understandings of this mystery, which (it may be) no human understanding can comprehend, will serve to excellent purposes of the spirit, if, like men of differing interest, they can be reconciled in one communion; at least the ends and designs of them all can be conjoined in the design and ligatures of the same reverence and piety and devotion.

My purpose therefore is to discourse of the nature, excellencies, uses and intention of the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper, the blessings and fruits of the sacrament; all the advantages of a worthy communion, the public and the private, the personal and the ecclesiastical, that we may understand what it is that we go about, and how it is to be treated: I shall account also concerning all the duties of preparation, ordinary and extraordinary, more and less solemn; of the rules and manners of deportment in the receiving; the gesture and the offering, the measures and instances of our duty, our comport and conversation in and after it; together with the cases of coni [what it is, what' A.]

[Compare vol. iii. p. 305 med.]

science that shall occur under these titles respectively, relating to the particular matters.

It matters not where we begin: for if I describe the excellencies of this sacrament, I find it engages us upon matters of duty and enquiries practical: if I describe our duty, it plainly signifies the greatness and excellency of the mystery: the very notion is practical, and the practice is information; we cannot discourse of the secret, but by describing our duty: and we cannot draw all the lines of duty, but so much duty must needs open a cabinet of mysteries. If we understand what we are about, we cannot choose but be invested with fear and reverence and if we look in with fear and reverence, it cannot be but we shall understand many secrets. But because the

natural order of theology is by faith to build up good life, by a rectified understanding to regulate the will and the affections; I shall use no other method, but first discourse of the excellent mystery, and then of the duty of the communicant, direct and collateral.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE NATURE, EXCELLENCIES, USES AND INTENTION OF
THE HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE LORD'S Supper.

SECTION I.

OF THE SEVERAL APPREHENSIONS OF MEN CONCERNING IT.

WHEN our blessed Lord was to nail the handwriting of ordinances to His cross, He was pleased to retain two ceremonies, baptism and the holy supper; that Christians may first wash and then eat; first be made clean, and then eat of the supper of the Lamb: and it cannot be imagined but that this so signal and peculiar retention of two ceremonies is of great purpose and remarkable virtues. The matter is evident in the instance of baptism; and as the mystery is of the foundation of religion; so the virtue of it is inserted into our creed, and we all believe one baptism for the remission of our sins";' and yet the action is external, the very mystery is by a ceremony, the allusion is bodily, the element is pure water, the minister a sinful man, and the effect is produced out of the sacrament in many persons and in many instances, as well as in it; and yet that it is effected also by it and with it, in the conjunction with due dispositions of him that is to be baptized, we are plainly taught by Christ's apostles and the symbols of the church.

b

But concerning the other sacrament there are more divisions and thoughts of heart; for it is never expressly joined with a word of promise, and where mention is made of it in the gospels, it is named only as a duty and a commandment, and not as a grace, or treasure of holy blessings; we are bidden to do it, but promised nothing for a reward, it is commanded to us, but we are not invited to obedience by consideration of any consequent blessing; and when we do it, so many holy things are required of us, which as they are fit to be done even when we do not receive the blessed sacrament; so they effect salvation to us by virtue of their proper and proportioned promises in the virtue of Christ's death however apprehended and understood.

Upon this account some say that "we receive nothing in the blessed eucharist, but we commemorate many blessed things which we have received; that it is affirmed in no scripture that in this mystery we [Acts ii. 38.]

a

[Heb. vi. 1, 2.]

b

с

are to call to mind the death of Christ, but because we already have it in our mind, we must also have it in our hearts, and publish it in our confessions and sacramental representment; and therefore it is not the memory, but the commemoration of Christ's death; that as the anniversary sacrifices in the law were a commemoration of sins every year; not a calling them to mind, but a confession of their guilt and of our deserved punishment; so this sacrament is a representation of Christ's death by such symbolical actions as Himself graciously hath appointed: but then, excepting that to do so is an act of obedience, it exercises no other virtue, it is an act of no other grace, it is the instrument of no other good; it is neither virtue nor gain, grace nor profit. And whereas it is said to confirm our faith, this also is said to be unreasonable; for this being our own work, cannot be the means of a divine grace;—not naturally; because it is not of the same kind, and faith is no more the natural effect of this obedience than chastity can be the product of christian fortitude;-not by divine appointment; because we find no such order; no promise, no intimation of any such event; and although the thing itself indeed shall have what reward God please to apportion to it as it is obedience; yet of itself it hath no other worthiness; it is not so much as an argument of persuasion; for the pouring forth of wine can no more prove or make faith that Christ's blood was poured forth for us, than the drinking the wine can effect this persuasion in us that we naturally, though under a veil, drink the natural blood of Christ; which the angels gathered as it ran into golden phials, and Christ multiplied to a miracle like the loaves and fishes in the gospel. But because nothing that naturally remains the same in all things as it was before, can do any thing that it could not do before; the bread and wine which have no natural change, can effect none; and therefore we are not to look for an egg where there is nothing but order; and a blessing where there is nothing but an action; and a real effect where there is nothing but an analogy, a sacrament, a mystical representment, and something fit to signify, and many things past, but nothing that is to come." This is the sense and discourse of some persons that call for an express word, or a manifest reason to the contrary, or else resolve that their belief shall be as unactive as the scriptures are silent in the effects of this mystery. Only these men will allow the sacraments to be 'marks of christianity, symbols of mutual charity,' 'testimonies of a thankful mind to God,'allegorical admonitions of christian mortification,' and 'spiritual alimony,' symbols of grace conferred before the sacrament,' and 'rites instituted to stir up faith by way of object and representation; that is, occasionally and morally, but neither by any divine or physical, by natural or supernatural power, by the work done, or by the divine institution. This indeed is something, but very much too little.

* Heb. x. 3. Ανάμνησις ἁμαρτιῶν κατ' ἐνιαυτόν.