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gladness. So then Christ freely offereth, both in himself originally, and in his sacraments instrumentally, all grace sufficient for nourishment unto life, to as many as reach forth to receive or entertain it.

CHAPTER X.

Of the fourth action, with the reasons why the Sacrament is to be eaten and drunken.

THE fourth and last action, made mention of in this sacrament, is the eating of the bread,' and the 'drinking of wine,' after we have taken them from the hands of Christ: to signify unto us, That Christ crucified is the life and food of a Christian that receiveth him. Here are the degress of faith:

First, We take Christ; and then we eat him. There are none that find any nourishment or relish in the blood of Christ, but those who have received him, and so have an interest, propriety, and title to him. He must first be ours, before we can taste any sweetness in him: ours, first, in possession and claim; and, after, ours, in fruition and comfort. For all manner of sweetness is a consequent and effect of some propriety, which we have unto the good thing which causeth it; unto which the nearer our interest is, the greater is the sweetness that we find in it. In natural things we may observe, how nothing will be kindly nourished in any other place or means, than those unto which nature hath given it a primitive right and sympathy. Fishes perish in the air; and spice-trees die and wither in these colder countries, because nature hath denied them any claim or propriety unto such places. We are all branches', and Christ is a vine: now no branch receiveth juice or nourishment, unless first it be inserted into the stock. If we are not first ingrafted into Christ, and so receive the right of branches, we cannot expect any nourishment from him. As the name that was written in that 'white stone,' was known unto him only that had it so in these mysteries, which have the impress and

Heb. i. 9. ↑ John xv. ⚫ Revel. it.

character of Christ's passion on them, Christ is known and enjoyed only by those, who first take him, and so have a hold and right unto him. But why is it that Christ, in this sacrament, should be eaten and drunken? Cannot the benefit of his passion be as well conveyed by the eye as by the mouth? It was the joy of Abraham, that he saw Christ's day; the comfort of Simeon ", that he had seen God's salvation; the support of Stephen, that he saw Christ in his kingdom; the faith of Thomas, that he saw his resurrection: and why is it not enough that we see the passion of Christ in this sacrament, wherein he is crucified before our eyes? Certainly if we look into the Scriptures, we shall find nothing more common than the analogy and resemblance betwixt spiritual grace and natural food. Hence it is that we so often read of manna from Heaven, water from the rock, trees in paradise, apples and flaggons for Christ's spouse, wisdom's feasts, and the marriage-feast, of hungering and thirsting, and sucking of marrow, and fatness, and milk, and honey, and infinite the like expressions of Divine grace. The reasons whereof are many and important: First, To signify the benefit we receive by Christ crucified, exhibited unto us, in his Last Supper, by that analogy and similitude, which is betwixt him and those things we eat and drink. Now meats are all either physical, common, or costly; either for the restoring, or for the supporting, or for the delighting of nature: and they have all some of those excellent properties of good which Aristotle hath observed, either to preserve nature entire, or to restore it when it hath been violated, or to prevent diseases ere they creep upon it. And all these benefits, do the faithful receive by Christ.

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1st. His body and blood is an antidote against all infections of sin, or fear of death. When he said, "Fear not, it is I'," it was an argument of comfort, which no temptation could repel.

2d. It hath a purging and purifying property: "The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin "."

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3d. It hath a quickening, preserving, and strengthening power. Christ is our life"; and our life is hid with Christ°; and Christ liveth in us; and he hath quickened us P together with Christ; and we are able to do all things through Christ that strengthens us".

And lastly, It hath a joying and delighting property: "I rejoice in nothing but in the cross of Christ: I count all things dung, that I may win Christ;" and "I protest by our rejoicing which we have in Christ." Whether we want physic to cure us, or strong meats to nourish us, or sweetmeats to delight us, "Christ is unto us all in all," our health, our strength, our joy.

Secondly, The Sacrament is eaten and drunken; to signify the necessity we stand in of Christ crucified. Many things there are usual in the life of man, both for delight and profit; beautiful and pleasant objects, for the eye; melody and harmony, for the ear; ointments and odours, for the smell; curiosities and luxuriances of invention, for the fancy: but there is no faculty of nature that doth so immediately concur to the support and preservation of the whole man, as the sense of tasting, which is (as it were) the sluice and inlet to life; without which, we have not so much as a capacity of that delight, which other objects of an inferior and subordinate nature can afford. Even so many things there are, wherein the children of God may and ought to take pleasure and solace, even as many as we acknowledge from God for a blessing. But there is nothing in the world, which is the object and principle of our life, but only Christ; no quality in man, which is the instrument and organ of our life, but only a lively and operative faith ", by which only we taste "how gracious the Lord is."-"The just shall live by faith ;" and "I live by the faith of the Son of God";" and "Where the body is, thither do the eagles fly," that they may eat and live.

Thirdly, The Sacrament is eaten and drunken, to show unto us the greedy desire which is, and ought to be, in the hearts of believers towards Christ crucified. There is no one fa

☐ Phil. i. 21.

TM Phil. iii. 8. v. 17.

• Col. iii. 3, 4. P Eph. ii. 5. .Phil. iv. 4. 1 Cor. xv. 31. " Crede et manducasti. Aug. in Johan. 20. Vide Chrysost. in 1 Cor. Hom, 24.

q Phil. iv. 13. Gal. vi. 14.

t Eccles. ii. 24, iii. 12, 22, y Gal.

* Hab. ii.

culty in man's will so much put to its utmost for procuring satisfaction, as this of tasting, if once brought into anguish or straits. Because, as death, in the general, is most terrible, so much more that lingering death which consumes with famine and therefore no power of nature more importunate and clamorous for satisfaction, no motive stronger to work a love, and attempt a conquest on any nation, than an experience of such excellent commodities, as may from thence be obtained for the relieving of this one faculty. And therefore Almighty God, when he would provoke the people to forsake Egypt, and comfort them with the news of a better country, describes it by the plenty that it brought forth: "I will bring you to a land which floweth with milk and honey"." And when the people murmured against God in the wilderness; all that hatred of Egypt, which the tyranny of the land had wrought in them,-all the toil and servitude that was redoubled on them,-was wholly swallowed up by the one consideration of flesh-pots and onions, which they there enjoyed. And when, by God's appointment, spies were sent into Canaan, to enquire of the goodness of the land,—their commission was to bring of the fruit of the land unto the people; that thereby they might be encouraged unto a desire of it. And we find, how the Roman emperors did strictly prohibit the transportation of wine or oil, or other pleasant commodities unto barbarous nations, lest they might prove rather temptations to some mischievous design, than matters of mutual intercourse and traffic. No marvel then, if the sacrament of Christ crucified, who was to be the desire of all nations, the desire of whom was not only to transcend and surpass, but even (after a sort) to nullify all other desires d,-be received with that faculty which is the seat of the most eager and importunate desire.

Fourthly, We eat and drink the Sacrament, to intimate unto us the conformity of the faithful unto Christ. As, in all the appetites and propensions of natural things, we find an innate amity betwixt the natures that do so incline to

* Πάντων φοβερώτατον. Αrist. Πάντες μὲν στυγεροὶ θάνατοι δειλοῖσι βροτοῖσι, Λιμῷ δ' οἴκτιστον θανέειν καὶ πότμον ἐπισπεῖν. Hom. Odyss. lib. 12. and l. 17. Exod. iii. 17. b Exod. xvi. 3. Num. xiii. 21, 24. Matth. xiii. 44, 45. Luke xviii. 28.

Num. xi. 5.
Phil. iii. 7, 8.

wards, or embrace one another; so, principally, in this main appetite unto food, is there ever found a proportion between nature and its nourishment; insomuch, that young infants are nourished with that very matter, of which their substance consisteth. Whatsoever hath repugnant qualities unto Nature, she is altogether impatient of it; and is never quieted, till, one way or other, she disburden herself. And thus is it, and ought to be, betwixt Christ and the faithful: there is a conspiracy of affections, motions, passions, desires; a conformity of being in holiness, as well as in nature; a similitude, participation, and communion with Christ in his death, sufferings, glory h. All other things in the world are very unsuitable to the desires of faith, nor are able to satiate a soul which hath tasted Christ; because we find something in them of a different, yea, repugnant nature, unto that precious faith by him infused. No man, having tasted old wine, desireth new, for he saith the old is better i: and therefore howsoever the wicked may drink iniquity like water, and roll it under their tongue as a sweet thing; yet the children of God, who have been sensible of that venomous quality which lurketh in it, and have tasted of that bread which came down from Heaven, never thirst any more after the deceitful pleasures, the stolen waters of sin: but no sooner have they unadvisedly tasted of it, but presently they feel a war in their bowels, a struggling and rebellion between that faith by which they live, and that poison which would smother and extinguish it, which, by the efficacy of faith, whereby we overcome the world", is cast out and vomited up in a humble confession, and so the faithful do regain their fellowship with Christ; who as he was, by his merits, our Saviour unto remission of sins,-so is he, by his holiness, our example"; and, by his Spirit, our head, unto newness of life.

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