A Book for Beginners, Chapter 3
CHAP. III. Of the Ends for which it was inſtituted.
YOU will be the more inclined to this, when you conſider the Ends for which this Commemoration of Chriſt's Death was ordained. Which were ſuch as theſe.
Firſt, to profeſs that you are Chriſtians, and believe that Religion which Chriſt hath ſealed by his Bloud, to be the true and onelyonly way to Happineſs; and that you mean to continue in it, whatſoever it coſts you, though it ſhould ingage you, that is, to follow Him to his Croſs.
Secondly, to give thanks to God the Father, for ſending his onelyonly begotten Son into the world, to be the Propitiation for our Sins:
And to God the Son, our Bleſſed Saviour Jeſus Chriſt, for humbling himſelf ſo low, as to die the death of the Croſs; where He offered his own Body, to put away our ſins by the Sacrifice of Himſelf:
And to God the Holy Ghoſt, who hath brought us glad tidings from Heaven, ſince our Saviour's aſcenſion thither, that having purged our ſins by Himſelf, He ſate down on the right hand of the Majeſty on high; where He lives for evermore, and is mindfull of us and of his Promiſes, which He will certainly fulfill, as we ſee by theſe Pledges He hath left us of his endleſs Love. And therefore,
Thirdly, you bind your ſelves, by the remembrance of theſe things, to be faithfull to Him; and to keep that Holy Covenant, wherein you are ſolemnly tied to be wholly His. For as the very coming to his Table, naturally ſignifies you are of his Family, and belong to Him: ſo being there ſo kindly entertained by Him, you ſtand bound to behave your ſelves as his Servants, or rather Friends; and engage ſo to doe. Now ye are his Friends, if you comply with his will in all other things, as well as in this of commemorating his dying Love for your ſake. So He himſelf tells his Apoſtles, in thoſe memorable words, XV. Joh. 13, 14. where He repreſents to them, in what conſiſted the greatneſs of his Love, and the ſincerity of theirs. Greater love hath no man then this, that a man lay down his life for his Friends. Ye are my Friends, if ye doe whatſoever I command you. For,
Laſtly, being thus of the number of the Faithfull, you have, in this Holy Sacrament, Communion with Chriſt in his Death and Paſſion, and in the Merits of them. For though the things you receive be in themſelves but Bread and Wine; yet by a Divine and ſpiritual grave they become the Body and Bloud of Chriſt to the Faithfull, who are thereby made partakers of all the Benefits which He purchaſed, by his Sacrifice which He made of Himſelf for our Sins. Thus one of the Prayers after the Communion excellently inſtructs you, that God vouchſafes to feed thoſe, who duly receive theſe holy Myſteries, with the ſpiritual food of the moſt precious Body and Bloud of his Son, our Saviour Jeſus Chriſt; and doth aſſure you thereby of his favour and goodneſs; and that you are very Members incorporate in the myſtical Body of his Son, which is the bleſſed Company of all Faithfull people; and are alſo Heirs, through hope, of his everlaſting Kingdom, by the merits of the moſt precious Death and Paſſion of his dear Son.
I need not adde that, by doing this in remembrance of Him, you have Communion with all your Chriſtian Brethren, (for it is already expreſſed;) and that you beg his gracious aſſiſtence, that you may continue (as it follows in the Prayer now mentioned) in this holy Fellowſhip, and doe all ſuch good works as He hath prepared for us to walk in: for this holy action being a Sacrifice of praiſe and thanksgiving, (as it is in the Prayer going before,) wherein Chriſt's Sacrifice is commemorated; it is in its own nature the moſt powerfull Prayer (as all Sacrifices were (1 Sam. XIII. 12.) more powerfull then any other can be) to ſupplicate for, and to impetrate (that is, obtain) the Divine Bleſſing upon us.