Meditations on the Lords Supper, Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
Inferences of practice from the Author of this Sacrament.
HEre then we see, first both the absurdity and the wickednesse of a wil-worship, when the same man who is to performe the obedience shall dare to appoint the lawes, implying a peremptory purpose of no farther observance than may consist with the allowance of his own judgement. Whereas truedVid. Tertul. de po…itent. c. 4. & A…gust. de Civit. Dei. l. 1. c. 26. & de Genes. ad lit. lib. 8. c. 12. obedience must be grounded on the majesty of that power that commands, not on the judgement of the subject, or benefit of the precept impos'd: divine laws require obedience, not so much from the quality of the things commanded (thougheRom. 7. 12. they be ever holy and good) as from the authority of him that institutes them. We are all the servants of God, and servants are but living fArist. Polit. lib. 1.instruments, whose property it is to be governed by the will of those in whose possession they are. Wil-worship, and services of superstition, well they may flattergPlutarch de superstitione. God, they do not please him. He that requires us to denie our selves in his service, doth therein teach us that his commands stand ratherin feare, than in need of us; in feare of our boldnesse lest we abuse them,foreign Chr…sost. in Rom. Hom. 2. not in need of our judgements to polish or alter them. The conquest of an enemy against the perscript of his Generall cost a Roman Gentleman his life, though his own father were the judge. The killing of a Lion contrary to the establish'd Laws of the Kings hunting, (though it were only to rescue the King himself,Liv. lib. 8. whose life was set upon) lost a poor Persian the losse of his head.Brisson. de. Reg. Pers. lib. 1. The overwise industry of the Architect in bringing not the same but a fitter peece of timber than he was commanded to the Romish Consul,A. Gell. l. 1. c. 13. was rewarded with nothing but the bundle of rods. So jealous and displeased are even men themselves,Cyprian cont. Demetrimum. to have their own Laws undervalued by the private judgements of those who rather interpret than obey them. And therefore even those men who erected the fabricks of superstition and wil-worship,Numa. apud Liv. lib. 1. have yet ever endeavoured to derive the originall of them on some divine revelations. And that great Roman Captain Scipio, ever before the undertaking of any businesse, was wont first to enter the Capitol and pretend a consultation with the Gods touching their allowance of his intended designes, grounding all his attempts and governing all his actions by the unerring judgement of their Deities.S…mper Agatni rogat, nec nisi justus agit. Ovid. Fast. lib. 2. And generally in all the Roman sacrifices the minister or servant was to attend a command before hee was to strike the beast that was offered. Horrible then and more than heathenish is the impiety of those who mixing humane inventions and ceremonies of their owne unto the substance of these sacred mysteries, and imposing them as divine duties with a necessitie of absolute obedience, do by that meanes wrench Christs owne divine prerogative out of his owne hands, and make themselves, shall I say confounders and joynt authors of his Sacraments? nay rather indeed the destroyers of them: since as he that receives otherwise than Christ requires,1 Cor. 11. receives not Christ but rather damnation; so he that gives otherwayes than Christ instituted doth not indeed give Christ, but an Idoll of his own making.
Secondly, we see here with how great reverence we ought to approach Gods Temple, to receive these deep mysteries of Salvation, which it pleas'd Christ in his owne person to institute, and with his owne presence to exhibit unto the Church: was a beast slaine for touching the Mount, and shall not a man of beastly and vile affections,Heb. 12, 20. bee punished for touching that table where the Lord is present? was Moses to put off his shooes at that bush which represented Gods power, and must not we shake off our earthly and corrupt desires at those mysteries which represent his mercy? were Nadab and Abihu destroyd before the Lord for offring strange fire at his Altar, and shall we plead immunity if we present strange soules, and a false faith at his Table? was Adam thrust out of Paradise for his sinne in eating of the tree of knowledge; and shall we escape if we sinne in eating of the bread of life? even unto the institutions of mortall men, though often in their substance needlesse, in their observance difficult, and in their end not much beneficiall, so long as they keep within the compasse of indifferent things, there is requir'd not only our obedience, but our reverence. The word of God, though delivered unto us in earthen vessells, by men of like, weak, and fraile affections with our selves, yet because of that native pretiousnesse which resides in it, and of that derived glory which it brings from the spirit that reveald it, is so farre to be honor'd, as that the vessells that bring it, are to be had in high estimation, even for their works sake: But the Sacraments are not either of humane authority, as are positive lawes, nor of; divine inspiration unto holy men, as were the Scriptures, but they are by so much the more the immediate effects of divine power, by how much they are instituted without the least concurrence of any other instrument; being reach'd out first unto the Church of God by that immaculate and pretious hand, which was it selfe presently stretcht forth on the Crosse to embrace the weary and heavy laden. Let us not then venture to receive so sacred things with unwashen hands, as matters of meere custome, fashion, or formality. But let us look unto that high authority that ordayn'd them, on that holy mouth that blessed them, on that arme of mercy that exhibits them; being ever assur'd that as Christ hath one hand of bounty and redemption which reacheth forth life to the worthie receiver, so hath he another of justice and power ready to avenge the injuries and contempt that shall be done to his owne holy institution.
Thirdly, we see here the honourable condition of the faithfull, in that they not only receive Christ, and all the benefits of his merits and actions, but all this they receive from his owne hands. For we may not think that the actions of Christ in looking up and blessing, and breaking, and giving, were meerly temporary, locall, or confined actions, terminated only to the present company that were then with him. Certainly as the Apostles were then the representative Church, so was that a representative action, the vertue and effect whereof descends, and passeth through all successions of the Church. The arme of the Lord is not shortned or any way shrunk that it cannot still exhibit what then it did. If he can so lengthen the arme of faith in us, as to reach as farre as heaven to embrace him, he can as well stretch out his owne arme of mercy from heaven to present that unto us which he did unto his disciples. It was an admirable and unexpected honour that was shewd to Mordecay when the royall Crowne and the Kings owne apparell was put upon him,Easter. 6. 10. though by the service of wicked Haman: But Christ doth not only bestow on us his Kingdom in the Sacrament (which seales unto us our inheritance with him) nor doth only invest us with his own meritorious purple roabs,1 Pet. 2. 9. his red garments from Bozrha (the garments of innocency and of unity) but doth all this with his owne immediate hand;Rom. 8. 17. so that our honour must needs be so much greater than was Mordecay's, by how much the roabs of Christ are more royall than the Persian Kings, and his person more sacred than was wicked Hamans.