fruits, because all are incorporated into one stock or root;if the streams of a river, though running divers ways, do yet all agree in a unity of sweetness and clearness, because all issuing from the same pure fountain ;-why then should not the church of Christ, though of several and divided qualities and conditions, agree in a unity of truth and love?-Christ being the sun whence they all receive light; the vine, into which they are all ingrafted; and the fountain, that is opened unto them all for transgressions and for sins.

CHAPTER IX.

Of the analogy and proportion between the holy actions used by Christ in this Sacrament, and Christ himself who is the substance of it.

Ir follows now, that we enquire farther into the nature of this holy Sacrament, which will be explained by considering the analogy, fitness, and similitude between the signs and the things signified by them, and conferred or exhibited together with them, which is Christ the Lord. Now this analogy or fitness, as it hath been, in some general manner, expressed in the nature or quality of the elements substantially or physically taken,-so, more expressly and punctually, is it proposed unto us in those holy actions, which do alter it in the use, and make it a sacrament '.

And first, We find that "Christ took the bread and wines, and blessed it, and gave thanks, and so consecrated it," or set it apart unto a holy or solemn use; which is the reason why St. Paul' calls it "a cup of blessing;" so that unto the church it ceaseth to be that which nature had made it, and begins to be that unto which the blessing had consecrated. In like manner, did the eternal Son of God" assume, into the subsistence of his own infinite person, the whole nature of man, the body and the soul; by the virtue of which wonderful union, notwithstanding the properties of the divine

P John xv. 1.

Marc. lib. 1. c. 23.

Zach. xiii. 1.

r Cyprian. de Coen. Tertul. cont s Matth. xxvi. 26. Luke xxii. 19. t 1 Cor. x. 16.

u Ambros. lib. de iis qui initiantur, c. 9. Et de Sacramentis, 1. 1. c. 5. et l. 4. c. 4. Justin, Martyr. in Apolog. 2.

nature remain absolutely intransient and incommunicable unto the human; yet are there shed, from that inexhaustible fountain, many high and glorious endowments, by which the bumanity under this manner of subsistence is anointed, consecrated, sealed, and set apart for that work of incomprehensible love and power, the redemption of the world.

And secondly, As the bread is taken by us from Christ in the nature of a gift,-he brake it and gave it to his disciples *; —so is the human nature taken by Christ from the Father2 as a gift from that good pleasure of God.

Thirdly, As the taking of the bread by Christ did alter only the manner of its being, the operation and efficacy, the dignity and use, but no way at all the element or nature, of the bread; even so the taking of the human body by Christ, did confer, indeed, upon it many glorious virtues, and advance it to an estate far above its common and ordinary capacity (always yet reserving those defects and weaknesses, which were required in the economy and dispensation of that great work for which he assumed it); but yet he never altered the essential and natural qualities of the body, but kept it still within the measure and limits of the created perfection, which the wisdom of God did at first share out unto it.

Lastly (to come nearer unto the cross of Christ), As he did, by prayer and thanksgiving, consecrate these elements unto a holy use; so did he, immediately before his passion (of which this is the sacrament), make that consecratory prayer and thanksgiving a, which is registered for the perpetual comfort of his church.

The second action is the 'breaking of the bread, and pouring the wine into the cup;' which doth nearly express his crucified body, where the joints were loosed", the sinews torn, the flesh bruised and pierced, the skin rent, the whole frame violated by that straining, and razing, and cutting, and stretching, and wrenching, which was used in the crucifying of it, and by the shedding of that precious blood which stopped the issue and flux of ours. It were infinite and intricate to spin a meditation into a controversy, about

с

* Isai. Ixi. 1. Luke iv. 18. Heb. i. 9. John vi. 33. Matth. xi. 27. xxviii. 18. * Pail. ii. 9. John 5. 26. ■ John xvii. b Psal. xxii. 14. e Sanguinis fluxum de fusâ venulâ revocamus. Tertul. cont. Gnost. c. 5.

VOL. III.

the extent and nature of Christ's passion: but certainly, whatsoever either ignominy or agony his body suffered (which two I conceive to comprise all the generals of 'Christ crucified') are, if not particularly expressed, yet typically and sacramentally shadowed and exhibited in the bread broken, and the wine poured out.

The third action was the giving, or the delivering of the bread and wine:' which, First, evidently expresseth the nature and quality of Christ crucified,' with these benefits which flow from him, that they are freely bestowed upon the church; which, of itself, had no interest or claim unto any thing save death.

Secondly, We see the nature of Christ's passion, that it was a free, voluntary, and unconstrained passion. For though it be true, that Judas did betray him, and Pilate deliver him to be crucified, yet none of this was the giving of Christ, but the selling of him. It was not for us, but for money that Judas delivered him: it was not for us, but for fear, that Pilate delivered him. But God delivered the Son, and the Son delivered himself', with a most merciful and gracious will, to bestow his death upon sinners; and not to get, but to be himself, a price. The passion, then, of Christ was most freely undertaken; without which free-will of his own, they could never have laid hold on him. And his death was a most free and voluntary expiation: his life was not wrenched nor wrung from him, nor snatched or torn from him by the bare violence of any foreign impression; but was, with a loud voice (arguing nature not brought to utter decay), most freely surrendered and laid down by that power, which did after re-assume it.

But how then comes it to pass, that there lay a necessity upon Christ of suffering 5, which necessity may seem to have enforced and constrained him to Golgotha, inasmuch as he himself did not only shrink, but even testify his dislike of what he was to suffer, by a redoubled prayer unto his Father, that "That cup might pass from him!" Doth not fear make

d August. Vid. tom. 8. in Psal. xciii. et tom. 9. Tract. 7. in Epist. Johannis. Rom. viii. 32. Acts ii. 23. Gal. iv. 4. f Gal. ii. 20. Phil. ii. 7. John xix. 11. x. 11, 17, 18. August. tom. 9. Tract. 31. in Johan. et Tract. 47. et de Trinitate, 1. 3. cap. 13.—Tertul. in Apolog. cap. 21.-Cyprian. de Cœna Dom.Non necessitate, sed obedientiâ, urgetur ad mortem: et lib. de Dupl. Martyr.

actions involuntary, or at least derogate and detract from the fulness of their liberty? And Christ did fear: how then is it that Christ's passion was most voluntary, though attended with necessity, fear, and reluctance ?-Surely, it was most voluntary still; and first therefore necessary, because voluntary; the main and primitive reason of the necessity being nothing else but that immutable will which had fore-decreed it. Christ's death, then, was necessary by a necessity of the event, which must needs come to pass, after it had once been fore-determined by that most wise will of God";-which never useth to repent him of his counsels; but not by a necessity of the cause, which was most free and voluntary. Again; Necessary it was in regard of the Scriptures, whose truth could not miscarry; in regard of the promises made of him, which were to be performed; in regard of prophetical predictions which were to be fulfilled; in regard of typical prefigurations which were to be abrogated, and seconded with that substance which they did fore-shadow: but no way necessary in opposition to Christ's will, which was the first mover, into which both this necessity and all the causes of it are to be finally resolved.

And then for the fear and reluctance of Christ :-no marvel if he, who was in all things like unto us, had his share in the same passions and affections likewise, though without sin. But neither of these did any way derogate from the most free sacrifice, which he himself offered once for all; inasmuch as there was an absolute submission of the inferior to the higher will; and the inferior itself shrunk not at the obedience but at the pain.

To explain this more clearly, consider in Christ a double will, or rather a double respect of the same will *.

First, The natural will of Christ; whereby he could not but wish well unto himself, and groan' after the conservation of that Being, whose anguish and dissolution did now approach; whereby he could not, upon the immediate burden of the sin of man, and the wrath of God, but fear; and, notwithstanding the assistance of the angels, drop down a

Heb. viii. 3. Mark viii. 31. Luke xxiv. 7. xxvi. 46. Matth. xxvi. 39. Heb. v. 7. Acts ii. 23, 33. Heb. ix. 14. i Heb. ix. 12. k Vid. Hooker 1. 5. sect. 48. and Dr. Field of the Church, lib. 1. c. 18. 1 Heb. v. 7.

sweat, as full of wonder as it was of torment, great drops of blood:-and then no marvel, if we hear, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me "."

But then again consider, Not the natural, but the merciful will of Christ, by which he intended to appease the wrath of an offended, and, by any other way, unsatisfiable God. The removal of an unsupportable curse, the redemption of his own, and yet his fellow-creatures; the giving them access unto a Father, who was before a 'consuming fire ;'-in a word, the finishing of that great work which the angels desire to look into; and then we find that he did freely lay down his life, and most willingly embraced what he most naturally did abhor. As if Christ had said (if we may venture to paraphrase his sacred words) "Father, thou hast united me to such a nature, whose created and essential property it is to shrink from any thing that may destroy it; and, therefore, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me:-but yet I know that thou hast likewise anointed me to fulfil the eternal decree of thy love, and to the performance of such an office, the dispensation whereof requires the dissolution of my assumed nature; and therefore not as I, but as thou wilt." So then both the desire of preservation was a natural desire; and the offering up of his body was a free-will offering. And, indeed, the light of nature hath required a kind of willingness, even in the heathen's brute sacrifices: and therefore the beast was led ", and not haled to the altar; and the struggling of it, or flying and breaking from the altar, or bellowing and crying, was ever counted ominous and unhappy. Now our Saviour Christ's willingness to offer up himself is herein declared, "In that he opened not his mouth" in that he suffered such a death, wherein he first did bear the cross, before it bore him; in that he dehorted the women that followed after him, to weep or express any passion or unwillingness for his death P.

Thus did he, in his passion, and still doth in his Sacrament, really, perfectly, and most willingly, give himself unto his church insomuch, as that the oil of that unction which consecrated him unto that bitter work, is called an 'oil of

in Luke xxii. 43, 44. n Macrob. Satur. lib. 3. c. 5.-Pliny, 1. 8. c. 45,Suet. in Galb. c. 19.-Val. Max. 1. 1. c. 6.-Plut. Symp. 1. 8. c. 8. xix. 17.

P Luke xxiii. 28.

• John