Meditations on the Lords Supper, Chapter 8
CHAP. VIII.
Practicall inferen…es from the materials of the Lords Supper.
HEre then we see first, in as much as these Elements are so necessary and beneficiall to that life of man, with what appetite we should approach these holy mysteries, even with hungry and thirsty soules, longing for the sweetnesse of Christ crucified. Wheresoever God hath bestowed a vitall being, hee hath also afforded nourishment to sustaine it, and an inclination and attractive faculty in the subject towards its nourishment. Even the new-borne Babe by the impression of nature, is moved to use the breasts before he knowes them. Now we which were dead in sinnes hath Christ quickned,Ephes. 2… and hath infused into us a vitall principle, even that faith by which the just doaHab. 2. Gal. 2. 20. live; which being instilled into us, Christ beginneth to be formedbGal. 4. 19. in the soule, and the whole man to be made conformable cPhil 3. 10.unto him. Then are the parts organced and fitted for their severall workes; there is an eye with Stephen to see Christ, an eare with Mary, to heare him; a mouth with Peter, to confesse him; a hand with Thomas, to touch him; an arme with Simeon, to imbrace him; feet, with his Disciples, to follow him; a heart to entertaine him, and bowels of affection to love him. AlldRom. 6. 19. the members are weapons of righteousnesse; and thuseEpes. 4. 24. is the new man, the newf2 Cor. 5. 17. creature perfected. Now hee that left notgActs 14. 17. himselfe amongst the Heathen without a witnesse, but filled even their hearts with food and gladnesse, hath not certainly left his owne chosen without nourishment, such as may preserve them in that estate which he hath thus framed them unto. As therefore newhClem. Alex. Paed. …. l. 1. cap. 6. Infants are fed with the same nourishment and substance of which they consist; so the same Christ crucified, is as the cause and matter of our new birth, so the food which sustaineth and preserveth us in it: unto whose body and blood there must needs be as proportionable an appetite in a new Christian, as there is untoi1 Pet. 2. 2. Milke in a new Infant; it being more nourishable then Milke, and faith more vitall to desire it then nature. And all this so much the rather, because he himselfe did begin unto us in a more bitter Cup. Did he on his Crosse drinkkPsal. 69. 21. Gall and Vinegar for me, and that also made infinitely more bi…ter by my sinnes, and shal… not I at his Table drink Wine for my selfe, made infinitely sweeter with the blood which it conveighs? Did hee drink a CuplMat. 26. 39. Mat. 20. 23. of bitternesse and wrath, and shal not I drink the Cup of blessingm1 Cor. 10. 16.? Did he eat the bread of affliction, and shall not I eat the bread of life? Did he suffer his Passion, and shall not I enjoy it? Did he stretch out his hands on the Crosse, and shall mine be withered and shrunken towards his Table? Certainly it is a presumption that he is not only sick but desperate, who refuseth that nourishment which is both food to strengthen, and Physick to recover him. Secondly, the benefit of Christ being so obvious as the commons, and so sufficient as the properties of these Elements declare: we see how little we should be dismaid at any either inward weaknesses and bruses of minde, or outward dangers and assaults of enemies, having so powerfull a remedy so neere unto us: how little we ought to trust in any thing within our selves, whose sufficiency and nourishment is from without. There is no created substance in the world but receives perfection from some other things; how much more must Man who hath lost his owne native integrity go out of himselfe to procure a better estate, which in vaine he might have done for ever, had not God first (if I may so speak) gone out of himselfe, humbling the Divine Nature unto a personall union with the humane. And now having such an Immanuel as is with us, not only by assuming us unto himselfe in his incarnation, but by communicating himselfe to us in these sacred Mysteries: whatsoever weaknesses dismayes us, his body is bread to strengthen us, whatsoever waves or tempests rise against us: his wounds are holes to hide and shelter us: what though sinne be poyson, have we not here the bread of Christ for an Antidote? What though it be red as Skarlet, is not his blood of a deeper colour? What though the Darts of Satan continually wound us, is not the issue of his wounds the balme for ours? Let me be fed all my dayes with bread of affliction, and water of affliction, I have another bread, another Cup to sweeten both. Let Satan tempt mee to despaire of life, I have in these visible and common Elements, the Author of life made the food of life unto me; let who will perswade me to trust a little in my owne righteousnesse, to spie out some gaspings and faint reliques of life in my selfe: I receive in these signes an all-sufficient Saviour, and I will seeke for nothing in my selfe when I have so much in him. Lastly, we see here, both from the example of Christ who is the patterne of unity, and from the Sacrament of Christ which is the Symboll of unity, what a conspiracy of affections ought to be in us, both betweene our owne, and towards our fellow-members. Thinke not that thou hast worthily received these holy mysteries, till thou finde the image of that unity which is in them, conveighed by them into thy soule. As the breaking of the bread is the Sacrament of Christs Passion, so the aggregation of many graines into one masse should be a Sacrament of the Churches unitya1 Cor. 10. 17.. What is the reason that the bread and the Church should be both called in the Scripture by the same name? The breadb1 Cor. 11. 24. is the body of Christ, and the Churchc1 Cor. 12. 27. is the body of Christ too? Is it not because as the bread is one Loafe out of diverse cornes, so the Church is one body out of diverse Beleevers; that the representative, this the mysticall body of the same Christ. Even as the Word,dMat. 13. 19. and the Spirit,e1 Iohn 3. 9., and the faithfull,fMat. 13. 2…., are in the Scripture all called by the same name of seedgforeign Isid. Pel…t., because of that assimulating vertue, whereby the one received, doth transforme the other into the similitude and nature of it selfehCypria…. de unit. Eccles.. If the beames of the Sunne, though divided and distinct from one another, have yet a unity in the same nature of light, Iames 3. 13. Rom. 11. 16.because all pertake of one native and originall splendor: if the limbes of a Tree, though all severall, and spreading different wayes, yet have a unity in the same fruits, because all are incorporated into one stock or root: if the streames of a River, though running diverse wayes, doe yet all agree in a unity of sweetnesse and cleerenesse, because all issuing from the same pure Fountaine: why then should not the Church of Christ, though of severall and divided qualities and conditions, agree in a unity of truth and love, Christ being the Sunne whence they all receive their light, the VinelIohn 15. 1. into which they are all ingrafted and the FountainmZach. 13. 1. that is opened unto them all for transgressions and for sins.