quicken, and grieve the Spirits, that it cannot strengthen us in that perfection of degrees as it might otherwise.

And thus is our union unto Christ daily loosened and slackened by the distempers of sin. For the re-establishing whereof, God hath appointed these sacred mysteries as effectual instruments, where they meet with a qualified subject, to produce a more firm and close union of the soul to Christ, and to strengthen our faith, which is the joint and sinew by which that union is preserved; to cure those wounds', and to purge those iniquities, whose property is to separate betwixt Christ and us; to make us submit our services, to knit our wills, to conform our affections, and to incorporate our persons into him: that so, by constant, though slow proceedings, we might be changed from 'glory to glory,' and attain unto the 'measure of Christ,' there where our faith can no way be impaired, our bodies and souls subject to no decay, and by consequence stand in no need of any such viaticums *, as we here use to strengthen us in a journey so much both above the perfection, and against the corruption of our present nature.

CHAPTER XIV.

Of three other ends of the holy Sacrament: the fellowship or union of the faithful; the obsignation of the covenant of grace; and the abrogation of the passover.

Now as the same nourishment, which preserveth the union between the soul and body, or head and members, doth, in like manner, preserve the union between the members themselves; even so this Sacrament is, as it were, the

Ephes. iv. 30.

Iste qui vulnus habet, medicinam requirit. Vulnus est, quia sub peccato sumus; medicina est cœleste et venerabile Sacramentum. Ambros. de Sacram. 1. 5. cap. 4. Simul medicamentum et holocaustum ad sanandas infirmitates, et purgandas iniquitates. Cyprian. de Cœn. Dom. u Potus quasi quædam incorporatio, subjectis obsequiis, voluntatibus junctis, affectibus anitis: Esus carnis hujus quædam aviditas est, et quoddam desiderium manendi in ipso. Cyprian. Ibid.—Evwors. Chrysost. hom. 24. in 1 Cor.-Qui vult vivere, habet ubi vivat, accedat, credat, incorporetur, vivificetur. Aug. epist. 59. et vide de Civ. Dei, lib. 10. cap. 6. * Sicolim Sacramentum appellatum. Vid. Dur.

de ritibus Ecclesiæ, lib. 2. cap. 25.

sinew of the church, whereby the faithful, being all animated by the same Spirit that makes them one with Christ, are knit together in a bond of peace, conspiring all in a unity of thoughts and desires; having the same common enemies to withstand, the same common prince to obey, the same common rule to direct them, the same common way to pass, the same common faith to vindicate; and therefore the same mutual engagements to further and advance the good of each other. So that the next immediate effect of this Sacrament is, to confirm the union of all the members of the church, each to other, in a communion of saints, whereby their prayers are the more strengthened, and their adversaries the more resisted. For as in natural things, union strengtheneth motions natural, and weakeneth violent; so, in the church, union strengtheneth all spiritual motions, whether upward, as meditations and prayers to God,—or downward, as sympathy and good works towards our weak brethren: and it hindereth all violent motions, the strength of sin, the darts of Satan, the provocations of the world, the judgements of God; or whatever evil may be by the flesh, either committed or deserved. And this union of the faithful, is both in the elements, and appellations, and in the ancient ceremonies, and in the very act of eating and drinking, most significantly represented.

First, For the elements, they are such as, though naturally their parts were separated in several grains and grapes, yet are they, by the art of man, moulded together, and made up into one artificial body, consisting of divers homogeneous parts. Men, by nature, are disjointed not more in being, than in affections and desires each from other, every one being his own end, and not any way affected with that tenderness of communion, or bowels of love, which in Christ we recover. But now Christ hath redeemed us from this estate of enmity; and drawing us all to the pursuit of one common end, and thereunto enabling us by one uniform rule, his holy Word, and by one vital principle, his holy

Advancement of Learning, lib. 2.

Ephes. iv. 3, 4. a Quando Dominus Corpus suum panem' vocat de multorum granorum adunatione congestum, populum nostrum quem portabat, indicat adunatum, &c. Cypr. lib. 1. epist. 6. Καθάπερ γὰρ ὁ ἄρτος ἐκ πολλῶν συγκείμενος κόκκων ἥνωται, &c Chrysost. in 1 Cor. Hom 24.

Spirit, we are, by the means of this holy Sacrament, after the same manner, reunited into one spiritual body, as the elements, though originally several, are into one artificial mass. And for the same reason (as I conceive) was the holy passover, in the law b, commanded to be one whole lamb, and eaten in one family, and not to have one bone of it broken; to signify that there should be all unity, and no schism or rupture in the church, which is Christ's body.

Secondly, For the appellations of this Sacrament, it is commonly called "The Lord's Supper;" which word, though with us it import nothing but an ordinary course and time of eating, yet in other language it expresseth that, which the other appellation retains, communion' or fellowship. And lastly, it was called by the ancients, Synaxis,' a collection, gathering together, or assembling of the faithful, namely, into that unity which Christ by his merits purchased, by his prayer obtained, and by his Spirit wrought in them. So great hath ever been the wisdom of God's spirit, and of his church, which is ruled by it; to impose on divine institutions such names, as might express their virtue and our duty. As Adam's sacrament was called the tree of life; the Jews' sacraments', the covenant, and the passover; and with the Christians, baptism is called regeneration: -and the Lord's Supper, communion: that, by the names, we might be put in mind of the power of the things themselves.

Thirdly, For the ceremonies and customs, annexed unto this Sacrament in the primitive times,-notwithstanding for superstitious abuses some of them have been abolished, yet in their own original use they did signify this uniting and knitting quality, which the Sacraments have in it, whereby the faithful are made one with Christ by faith, and amongst themselves by love.

And first, They had a custom of mixing water with the wine (as there came water and blood out of Christ's side),

b Exod. xii. 26. e Cana, drò Tou Kowoû, à Communione vescentium. Plut. et Isiod. · Σύναξις διὰ τὸ συνάγειν πρὸς τὸ ἕν. Dionys. in John 17. • Gen. in. 22. xvii. 10. * Exod. xii. 17. g Tit. iii. 5. 1 Cor. x. 16. h Quando in calice vino aqua miscetur, Christo populus adunatur. Si vinum tantum quis offerat, sanguis Christi incipit esse sine nobis ; si verò aqua sit sola, plebs incipit esse sine Christo. Cypr. lib. 2. epist. 3.-Пorpiov idaros kal кpáμaros, Just. Ματί. Αpol. 2. Ὁ μὲν οἶνος τῷ ὕδατι κίρναται, τῷ δὲ ἀνθρώπῳ τὸ πνεῦμα. Clem. Alex. Pod. lib. 2. c. 2.-Ambros. de Sacra. 1. 5. c. 1.

which, however it might have a natural reason, because of the heat of the country, and custom of the southern parts, where the use was to correct the heat of wine with water i; yet was it, by the Christians, used not without a mystical and allegorical sense,-to express the mixture (whereof this Sacrament is an effectual instrument) of all the people (who have faith to receive it) with Christ's blood: water being, by the Holy Ghost himself, interpreted for people' and ' nations.'

Secondly, At the receiving of this holy Sacrament, their custom was to kiss one another with a holy kiss', or a kiss of love, as a testification of mutual dearness; it proceeding from the exiliency of the spirits ", and readiness of nature to meet and unite itself unto the thing beloved. For love is nothing else but a delightful affection arising from an attractive power in the goodness of some excellent object, unto which it endeavoureth to cleave and to unite itself. And therefore it was an argument of hellish hypocrisy in Judas, and an imitation of his father the Devil (who transformeth himself into an angel of light, for the enlargement of his kingdom), to use this holy symbol of love for the instrument of a hatred: so much the more devilish than any, by how much the object of it was the more divine.

Thirdly, After the celebration of the divine mysteries, the Christians, to testify their mutual love to each other, did eat in common together. Which feasts, from that which they did signify (as the use of God and his church, is to proportion names and things), were called ، love-feasts ',' to testify unto the very heathen, how dearly they were knit together.

Fourthly, After receiving of these holy mysteries, there were extraordinary oblations and collections P for refreshing Christ's poor members; who, either for his name, or under his hand, did suffer with patience the calamities of this pre

i Stuck. Antiq. Conviv. lib. 3. c. 11. άorazóμela, &c. Justin. Mart. Apol. 2.

m Scalig. de Subt. Exercit.-Arist. Pol. 1. 2. c. 4. n Acts ii. 26. 2 Pet. ii. 13. Jude v. 12. Coena nostra de nomine rationem sui ostendit. Tert. Apol. cap. 39. Vide Stuck. Antiq. Conviv. 1. 1. c. 33. • Vide (inquiunt) ut invicem diligunt! Tertul. et Minut. Fel. • Οἱ εὐποροῦντες καὶ βουλόμενοι, κατὰ προαίρεσιν ἕκαστος τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ὅ βούλεται, δίδωσι, καὶ τὸ συλλεγόμενον παρὰ τῷ προεστῶτι ἀποτίθεται, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐπινέμει opparous Te Kal xpaus, &c. Just. Mart. Apolog. 2.

sent life, expecting the glory which should be revealed unto them. Those did they make the treasures of the church,their bowels, the hordes and repositories of their piety; and such as were orphans, or widows, or aged, or sick, or in bonds, condemned to mine-pits, or to the islands, or desolate places, or dark dungeons (the usual punishments in those times), with all these were they not ashamed in this holy work to acknowledge a unity of condition, a fellowship and equality in the spiritual privileges of the same Head, a mutual relation of fellow-members in the same common body; unto which, if any had greater right than other, they certainly were the men, who were conformed unto their Head in suffering, and did go to their kingdom through the same path of blood, which he had before besprinkled for them.

Lastly, It was the custom, in any solemn testimonial of peace', to receive and exhibit this holy Sacrament, as the seal and earnest of that union, which the parties, whom it did concern, had between themselves. Such had ever been the care of the holy church in all the customs and ceremonial accessions, whether of decency or charity, which have been by it appointed in this holy Sacrament,-That by them and in them all, the concinnation of the body of Christ, the fellowship, sympathy, and unity of his members, might be both signified and professed:-That as we have all but one sacrament, which is the food of life,-so we should have but one soul, which is the Spirit of life; and from thence but one heart, and one mind, thinking, and loving, and pursuing all the same things, through the same way, by the same rule, to the same end. And for this reason, amongst others, I take it, it is that our church doth require, in the receiving of these mysteries, a uniformity in all her members, even in matters that are of themselves indifferent,-that, in the sacrament of unity, there might not appear any breach or schism; but that as at all times, so much more then, we

Deposita Pietatis: Vide Tert. Apol. c. 39. r Vide Stuck. An. Conv. lib. 1. cap. 3. Acts iv. 32.-Phil. i. 27.-Unum signum habemus: quare aca in uno ovili sumus? August. Tom. 7. Serm. ad Pleb. Cæsariensem. EσT 8' ή το αύτη ὁμόνοια ἐν τοῖς ἐπιείκεσιν· οὗτοι γὰρ καὶ ἑαυτοῖς ὁμονοοῦσι καὶ ἀλλήλοις. Arut. Ethic. I. 9. c. 6. edit. Zell, vol. 1. p. 407.—Vide fus. de hac re Stuck. Antiq. Conv. L. 1. c. 3.