Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the work of the whole man,-the evidence and confirmation of the promise is, by God, made unto the whole man likewise, and to each faculty of man: which it pleaseth him in mercy the rather to do, because of that dependence of our souls on the inferior and subordinate powers, and of that necessary connexion which there is between the inward reason and the outward senses. God then (pre-supposing ever the performance of conditions on our part) doth secure his church, and give evidence for the discharge of his covenant and promise,-First, To the soul alone by the testimony of his Spirit, which is both the seal and the witness of God's covenant; and, Secondly, Both to the soul and to the senses by that double bond, his Word written or preached, and his seal visibly exhibited to the eye and taste, but especially unto the taste, in which objects are, more really and with less fallibility, united to the faculty, in which there appeareth a more exquisite fruition of delight in these good things which are pleasing: and, Lastly, In which the mystical union of the church to its head, unto the making up of one body, is more naturally expressed. And these seals, annexed unto the Word or patent of God's promise, have been ever proposed unto the church in all its estates, and are nothing else but that which we call "a sacrament." So that as the testimony of the Spirit is an invisible seal, and earnest to the soul; so is the sacrament a visible seal, and earnest to the sense: both, after a several manner, ratifying and confirming the infallible expectation of that future reward, which as well the senses as the sou! shall, in God's presence, really enjoy, after they have fulfilled the service which God requireth.

CHAPTER II.

Sacraments are earnests and shadows of our expected glory, made unto the senses.

THE promises and Word of grace with the Sacraments, are all but as so many sealed deeds, to make over, unto all successions of the church,-so long as they continue legitimate children, and observe the laws on their part required,-an infallible claim and title unto that good which

is not yet revealed,-unto that inheritance which is as yet laid up unto that life, which is hid with God, and was never yet fully opened or let shine upon the earth. Even in Paradise there was a Sacrament: a tree of life indeed it was, but there was but one. Whereas Adam was to eat of all the fruits in the garden, he was there but to taste sometimes of life; it was not to be his perpetual and only food. We read of 'a tree of life' in the beginning of the Bible, and of ‘a tree of life' in the end too: that was in Adam's paradise on earth; this, in St. John's paradise in Heaven: but that did bear but the first-fruits of life, the earnest of an after fulness; this, bare life in abundance; for it bare twelve manner of fruits, and that every month; which shows both the completeness and eternity of that glory which we expect. And as the tree of paradise was but a Sacrament of life in Heaven, so paradise itself was but a Sacrament of Heaven. Certainly, Adam was placed amongst the dark and shady trees of the garden, that he might, in an emblem, acknowledge that he was as yet but in the shadow of life, the substance whereof he was elsewhere to receive. Even when the church was pure, it was not perfect: it had an age of infancy, when it had a state of innocence. Glory was not communicated unto Adam himself, without the veil of a Sacrament: the light of God did not shine on paradise with a spreading and immediate ray even there it was mixed with shadows, and represented only in a sacramental reflex, not in its own. direct and proper brightness. The Israelites in the wilderness had light indeed, but it was in a cloud; and they had the presence of God in the Ark, but it was under several coverings; and they had the light of God shining on the face of Moses, but it was under the veil; and Moses himself did see God, but it was in a cloud: so incapable is the church, while encompassed with a body of sin, to see the lustre of that glory which is expected. Certainly as the Son of God did admirably humble himself, in his hypostatical union, unto a visible flesh,-so doth he still, with equal wonder and lowliness, humble himself, in a sacramental union, unto visible elements. Strange it is, that that mercy which is so wonderful, that the angels desire to look into it,

1 Pet. 1. 12

so unconceivable, as that it hath not entered into the thought of man; of such height, and length, and breadth, and depth, as passeth knowledge,-should yet be made the object of our lowest faculties: That that which is hid from the wise and prudent in man's little world, his mind and spirit,-should be revealed unto the babes, his senses. were almost a contradiction in any thing, save God's mercy, to be so deep, as that no thought can fathom it, and yet so obvious, that each eye may see it: "Handle me and see"; for a spiritual substance hath not flesh," was sometimes the argument of Christ: and yet " handle and see, take and eat, for a spiritual grace is conveyed by flesh," is the sacrament of Christ. So humble is his mercy, that, since we cannot raise our understandings to the comprehension of divine mysteries, he will bring down and submit those mysteries to the apprehension of our senses. Hereafter our bodies shall be over-clothed with a spiritual glory, by a real union unto Christ in his kingdom: mean time, that spiritual glory which we groan after, is here over-clothed with weak and visible elements, by a sacramental union at his table. Then shall sense be exalted, and made a fit subject of glory; here is glory humbled, and made a fit object of sense: "Then shall we see as we are seen, face to face; here we see but as in a glass darkly ;" in the glass of the creature,-in the glass of the word,-in the glass of the sacraments. And surely, these are in themselves clear and bright glasses; yet we see even in them but darkly, in regard of that vapour and steam which exhaleth from our corrupt nature, when we use them and even on these doth our soul look through other dark glasses, the windows of sense. But yet, at the best, they are but glasses, whose properties are to present nothing but the pattern, the shadow, the type of those things which are, in their substance, quite behind us, and therefore out of sight. So then, in general, the nature of a sacrament is to be the representative of a substance, the sign of a covenant, the seal of a purchase, the figure of a body, -the witness of our faith,-the earnest of our hope,-the presence of things distant,-the sight of things absent,-the taste of things unconceivable,-and the knowledge of things that are past knowledge.

Luke xxiv. 39.

2 Cor. v. 2, 4. 1 Cor. xv. 24.

d1 Cor. xi. 12.

CHAPTER III.

Inferences of practice from the former observations.

:

HERE then we see, first, the different state and disposition of the church here in a state of corruption; and, therefore, in want of water in baptism to wash it in a state of infancy; and, therefore, in want of milk in the Word to nourish it in a state of weakness; and, therefore, in want of bread, the body of Christ, to strengthen it: in a state of sorrow; and, therefore, in want of wine, the blood of Christ, to comfort it. Thus the church while it is a child, it speaks as a child, it understands as a child, it feeds as a child, here a little and there a little; one day in the week, one hour in the day, it is kept fasting and hungry. But when it is grown from strength to strength, unto a perfect age, and unto the fulness of the stature of Christ; then it shall be satisfied with fatness, and drink its full of those rivers of pleasures, which make glad the city of God. It shall keep an eternal sabbath, a continued festival: the supper of the Lamb shall be without end, or satiety: "so long as the bridegroom is with them," (which shall be for ever) "they cannot fast."

Secondly, We see here, nor see only, but even taste and touch, how gracious the Lord is, in that he is pleased even to unrobe his graces of their natural lustre, to overshadow his promises; and, as it were, to obscure his glory, that they might be made proportioned to our dull and earthly senses; to lock up so rich mysteries, as lie hidden in the sacraments, in a bason of water, or a morsel of bread. When he was invisible, by reason of that infinite distance between the divine nature and ours, he made himself to be seen in the flesh and now that his very flesh is to us again invisible, by reason of that vast distance between his place and ours, he hath made even it, in a mystical sense, to be seen and tasted in the sacrament. Oh then, since God doth thus far humble himself and his graces, even unto our sens(8,

let not us, by an odious ingratitude, humble them yet lower, even under our feet. Let us not trample on the blood of the covenant, by taking it into a noisome sink, into a dirty and earthy heart. He that eats Christ in the sacrament with a foul mouth, and receives him into an uncleansed and sinful soul,-doth all one as if he should sop the bread he eats, in dirt, or lay up his richest treasures in a sink.

Thirdly, We learn, how we should employ all our senses. Not only as brute beasts do, to fasten them on the earth, but to lift them unto a more heavenly use, since God hath made even them the organs and instruments of our spiritual nourishment. Mix ever with the natural, a heavenly use of thy senses. Whatsoever thou seest, behold in it his wonder; whatsoever thou hearest, hear in it his wisdom; whatsoever thou tastest, taste in it the sweetness, as well of his love, as of the creature. If Christ will not dwell in a foul house, he will certainly not enter at a foul door. Let not those teeth that eat the bread of angels, grind the face of the poor; let not the mouth which doth drink the blood of Christ, thirst after the blood of his neighbour; let not that hand which is reached out to receive Christ in the sacrament, be stretched out to injure him in his members; let not those eyes which look on Christ, be gazing after vanity; certainly, if he will not be one in the same body with a harlot, neither will he be seen with the same eyes. He is really in the heaven of the greater world; and he will be nowhere else sacramentally, but in the heavenly parts of man, the lesser.

Lastly, We see here what manner of conversation we have: The church on earth hath but the earnests of glory, the earnest of the Spirit, and the earnest of the sacrament; that witnessing, this signifying; both confirming and sealing our adoption. But we know not what we shall be "; our life is yet hid', and our inheritance is laid up for us *. A prince, that is haply bred up in a great distance from his future kingdom in another realm, and that amongst enemies where he suffers one while a danger, another a disgrace, loaded with dangers and discontents, though, by the assurance of blood, by the warrant of his Father's own hand

[blocks in formation]

-

g Rom. iv. 11. Ephes. iv. 30. k 1 Pet. i. 4.

i Col. iii. 3.

« AnteriorContinuar »