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of the sun, through some dark cloud, or thick grove. So then, one main and principal end of this Sacrament, is, to be an instrument fitted unto the measure of our present estate, for the exhibition or conveyance of Christ, with the benefits of his passion unto the faithful soul; an end not proper to this mystery alone, but common to it with all those legal sacraments which were the more thick shadows of the Jewish church: for even they in the Red Sea' did pass through Christ, who was their way; in the mannai and rock, did eat and drink Christ, who was their life; in the brazen serpent, did behold Christ, who was their Saviour; in their daily sacrifices, did prefigure Christ, who was their truth; in their passover, did eat Christ, by whose blood they were sprinkled. For howsoever between the legal and evangelical covenant there may be sundry circumstantial differences:

As first, In the manner of their evidence; that, being obscure,-this, perspicuous; to them, a promise only,—to us, a gospel ;

Secondly, In their extent and compass; that, being confined to Judea *,-this, universal to all creatures';—

Thirdly, In the means of ministration; that, by priests and prophets ",—this, by the Son himself, and those delegates who were by him enabled and authorized by a solemn commission, and by many excellent endowments for the same service;

Lastly, In the quality of its durance; that being mutable and abrogated, this to continue until the consummation of all things;-yet notwithstanding, in substance they agree, and, though by sundry ways, do all at last meet in one and the same Christ, who, like the heart in the midst of the body, coming himself in person between the legal and evangelical church, doth equally convey life and motion to them both: even as that light which I see in a star, and that which I receive by the immediate beam of the sun, doth originally

1 Cor. x. 1, 2, 3, 4. Tertul. de Baptis. cap. 9. et cont. Marcion. lib. 3. cap. 16. et L. 5. c. 7. i Manna et aqua è petrâ habebant in se figuram futuri mysterii, quod nunc sumimus in commemorationem Christi Domini. Ambros. in 1 Cor. x.-Vid. Mornay de Eucharist. lib. 4. cap. 1.-Dr. Field of the Church, L. 1. c. 5. Pareus in Heb. cap. 8. et cap. 10, &c. 12, 18, 28. Acts xiii. 32. Gal. iii. 17. Acts xiii. 46. Matth. x. 5, 6. Rom. iii. 2. Eph. ii. 12. 1 Mark IV. 15. Isai. xlix. 6. m Heb. i. 1, 2. x. 9. vii. 12, 16. vi. 20. vii. 16, 24, 28.

issue from the same fountain, though conveyed with a different lustre, and by a several means.

So then, we see the end of all Sacraments made after the second covenant (for Sacraments there were even in Paradise before the fall), namely, To exhibit Christ, with those benefits which he bestoweth on his church, unto each believing soul. But after a more especial manner, is Christ exhibited in the Lord's Supper, because his presence is there more notable. For as, by faith, we have the evidence,-so, by the Sacrament, we have the presence of things farthest distant and absent from us. A man that looketh on the light through a shadow, doth, truly and really, receive the selfsame light, which would, in the openest and clearest sunshine, appear unto him, though after a different manner. "There shall we see him," as Job speaks," with these selfsame eyes;" here, with a spiritual eye, after a mystical manner. So then, in this Sacrament we do most willingly acknowledge a real, true, and perfect presence of Christ,-not in, with, or under the elements, considered absolutely in themselves ", but with that relative habitude and respect, which they have unto the immediate use, whereunto they are consecrated. Nor yet so do we acknowledge any such carnal trans-elementation of the materials in this Sacrament, as if the body or blood of Christ were, by the virtue of consecration, and, by way of a local substitution, in the place of the bread and wine,—but are truly and really by them, though in nature different, conveyed into the souls of those, who by faith receive him. And therefore Christ first said, "Take, eat," and then, "This is my body;" to intimate unto us (as learned Hooker observeth °), that the Sacrament, however by consecration it be changed from common unto holy bread, and separated from common unto a divine use, is yet never properly to be called the 'Body of Christ,' till taken and eaten; by means of which actions (if they be actions of faith) that holy bread and wine do as really convey whole Christ, with the vital influences that proceed from him, unto the soul, as the hand doth them unto the mouth, or the mouth unto the stomach. Otherwise,

Secundum quendam modum Sacramentum Corporis Christi Corpus est, et Sacramentum sanguinis sanguis est. Aug. Epist 23. Hooker, lib. 5. page 359. Οὐ γὰρ ὡς κοινὸν πόμα ταῦτα λαμβάνομεν. Just. Mart, Apol. 2.

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if Christ were not really and corporally present with the consecrated elements, severed from the act of faithful receiving, the wicked should as easily receive him with their teeth, as the faithful in their soul: which to affirm, is both absurd and impious P.

Now Christ's presence in this holy Sacrament being a thing of so important consequence, and the consideration thereof being very proper to this first end of the Sacrament, the exhibiting of Christ (for to exhibit a thing, is nothing else but to present it, or to make it present unto the party to whom it is exhibited ;) it will not be impertinent to make some short digression for setting down the manner, and clearing the truth of Christ's real presence; the understanding whereof will depend upon the distinguishing of the several manners, in which Christ may be said to be present.

First then, Christ being an infinite person, hath, in the virtue of his godhead, an infinite and unlimited presence, whereby he so filleth all places, as that he is not contained or circumscribed in them: which immensity of his making him intimately present with all the creatures, is that whereby they are quickened, supported, and conserved by him. For by him all things consist;" and "he upholdeth them all by the word of his power;" and "in him they live, and move, and have their being." But this is not that presence, which in the Sacrament we affirm, because that presupposeth a presence of Christ in and according to that nature, wherein he was the Redeemer of the world; which was his human nature. Yet inasmuch as this his human nature subsisteth not, but in and with the infiniteness of the second person; there is therefore, in the second place, by the Lutherans framed another imaginary presence of Christ's human body (after once the Divinity was pleased to derive glory in fulness on it); which giveth it a participated ubiquity unto it too, by means whereof, Christ is corporally in or under the sacramental elements.

But this opinion, as it is no way agreeable with the truth of the human nature of Christ, so is it greatly injurious to

▷ Non dentes ad mordendum acuimus, sed fide sincerâ panem frangimus et partimur. Cypr.-Qui manducat intùs, non foris; qui manducat in corde, non qui premit dente. Aug. Tract. 26. in Johan. et vid. de Civit. Dei, lib. 21. cap. 25.

his divinity. For first, Though Christ's human nature was, in regard of its production, extraordinary,—and in regard of the sacred union which it had with the divine nature, admirable, and in regard of communication of glory from the godhead, and of the unction of the Holy Ghost, far above all other names that are named in Heaven or earth;-yet, in its nature, did it ever retain the essential and primitive properties of a created substance, which is to be in all manner of perfections finite, and so by consequence in place too. For glory destroys not nature, but exalts it; nor exalts it to any farther degrees of perfection, than are consistent with the finiteness of a creature, who is like unto us in regard of all natural and essential properties. But these men give unto Christ's body far more than his own divine nature doth; for he glorifies it only to be the head, that is, the most excellent and first-born of every creature: but they glorify it so far, as to make it share in the essential properties of the divine nature. For as that substance unto which the intrinsecal and essential properties of a man belong, is a man necessarily (man being nothing else but a substance so qualified); so that being, unto which the divine attributes do belong in that degree of infiniteness, as they do to the divine person itself, must needs be God: and immensity, we know, is a proper attribute of the Divinity, implying infiniteness, which is God's own prerogative. Neither can the distinction of ubiquity communicated, and original or essential, solve the consequence: for God is by himself so differenced from all the creatures, as that it is not possible any attribute of his should be participated by any creature in that manner of infiniteness as it is in him: nay, it implies an inevitable contradiction, that, in a finite nature, there should be room enough for an infinite attribute.

We confess, that inasmuch as the human nature in Christ is inseparably taken into the subsistence of the omnipresent Son of God, it is therefore a truth to say, That the Son of God, though filling all places, is not yet, in any of them, separated or asunder from the human nature. Nay, by the virtue of the communication of the properties, it is true likewise to say, that the man Christ is in all places, though not in, or according, to his human nature. But now from the union of the manhood to the godhead, to argue a co-exten

sion, or joint-presence therewith, is an inconsequent argument, as may appear in other things. The soul hath a kind of immensity in her little world, being in each part thereof whole and entire and yet it follows not, because the soul is united to the body, that therefore the body must needs partake of this omnipresence of the soul: else should the whole body be in the little finger, because the soul, unto which it is united, is wholly there.

Again, There is an inseparable union between the sun and the beam: so that it is infallibly true to say, the sun is no where severed from the beam; yet we know they both occupy a distinct place. Again, Misletoe is so united to the substance of the tree out of which it groweth, that (though of a different nature) it subsisteth not but in and by the subsistence of the tree; and yet it hath not that amplitude of place, which the tree hath.

Letting go then this opinion, there is a third presence of Christ, which is a carnal, physical, local presence, which we affirm his human nature to have only in heaven; the Papists attribute it to the Sacrament, because Christ hath said, "This is my body;" and, in matters of fundamental consequence, he useth no figurative or dark speeches.-To this we say, that it is a carnal doctrine, and a mistake like that of Nicodemus, and of Origen, from the spirit to the letter. And for the difficulty, it is none to men that have more than only a carnal ear to hear it for what difficulty is it to say, that then the king gives a man an office, when he hath sealed him such a patent, in the right whereof that office belongeth, and is conveyed unto him? And if Christ be thus locally in the Sacrament, and eaten with the mouth, and so conveyed into the stomach; I then demand what becomes of him, when and after he is thus received into the stomach? If he retire from the accidents out of a man, then first accidents shall be left without any substance at all under them to sustain them; and which is (if any thing can be) yet more absurd, bare accidents should nourish, be assimilated, and augment a substance. For it is plain, that a man might be nourished by the bread; yea, the priest by intemperate excess made drunk with the consecrated wine: unto which detestable effects, we cannot imagine that God, by a more especial concurrence and miracle, would enable the bare ac

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