influence from himself made them temporary instruments of that propitiation, which it was impossible for them, in their own natures, to have effected) being himself come to finish that work which was by them only fore-shadowed, but not begun, much less accomplished.

CHAPTER XV.

The last end of this holy Sacrament; namely, the celebration and memory of Christ's death. A brief collection of all the benefits which are, by his death, conveyed on the Church. The question touching the quality of temporal punishments, stated.

THE last and most express end of this holy Sacrament, is, to celebrate the memory of Christ's death and passion', which was that invaluable price of our double redemption; redemption from hell, and redemption unto glory. Great deliverances, as they have moved the church unto anniversary celebrations of them, which Christ himself hath been pleased to honour with his own presence; so have they drawn even heathen men also, not only to solemnize the festivals, and deify the memories of those, unto whose inventions they owed the good things which they enjoy, but further to honour even brute creatures themselves with solemn triumphs and memorials. Nay, beasts have not been forgetful of those, unto whom they owe any way their life and safety how much more then doth it become Christians to celebrate, with an eternal memory the Author of their redemption: a work beyond all that ever the sun saw; yea, a work, whose lustre darkened the sun itself, and which the angels cannot comprehend! Matters circumstantial, as time. and place; and matters typical and representative, as ceremonies, sacrifices, and sacraments; as they receive their particular advancement and sanctification from those works

f 1 Cor. xi.

g Esth. ix. 17.

• Heb. x. 4. h 1 Mac. iv. 55, 56. John 1. 22.-Cypr. de Idol. Vanit.—Min. Fel. in Octav.-Clem. Alex. in Protreptico. i Anseres quotannis apud Romanos splendida in lectica sedebant, quod in obsidione Capitolii excitâssent. Vid. Rosin. Antiq. Rom. lib. 4. cap. 17. k Leo. apud Aul. Gell. lib. 5. cap. 14.

which they immediately respect; so are they not by us to be solemnly celebrated without continual memories of those works which do so dignify them. All places, naturally being but several parcels of the same common air and earth, are of an equal worth. But when it pleaseth God in any place to bestow a more special ray of his presence, and to sanctify any temple unto his own service, as it is then, by that extraordinary presence of his, made a holy and consecrated place; so are we, when we enter into it, to look unto our feet m, to pull off our shoes", to have an eye unto him that filleth it with his presence; or otherwise if we enter into it, as into a common place, we shall offer nothing but the sacrifice of fools. All times are naturally equal, as being distinguished by the same constant and uniform motion of the heavens yet notwithstanding, when God shall, by any notable and extraordinary work of his, honour and sanctify some certain days, as he did the Jewish sabbath with respect to the creation, and our Lord's day, by raising up Christ from the dead; as they are, by this wonderful work of his, severed from the rank of common times;-so are we, ever when we come unto them, not to pass them over without the memory of that work which had so advanced them: otherwise to solemnize a day, without reference unto the cause of its solemnization, is but a blind observance. And for this cause, when God commands reverence to places, and sanctification of days,-he annexeth the ground of both, and leads us to a sight of those works, from which they receive both their dignity and institution. So likewise in Sacraments, to eat bread and drink wine are naked, common, simple actions, and in themselves always alike: but when Christ shall, by that great work of his death, set them apart unto a holy use, and make them representations of his own sacred body, as they are by this divine relation hallowed, so to partake of them, without commemorating that great work which hath so sanctified them, is not only impious, in that it perverteth the divine institution, but absurd likewise; it being all one, as if a man should, with much ceremony and solemnity, receive parchment and wax, never so much as thinking on the land it conveys; or look on a picture, with

1 Exod. xi. 34. 1 Kings viii. 11. m Eccles. iv. 17. o Eis arduinon Tàu Talous. Just. Mart, Dialog.

Exod. iii. 4.

out any reflection on the pattern and original which it resembleth, which is indeed to look on the wood, and not on the picture; it being naturally impossible to separate things in notion, whose being do consist in relation to each other. So then, the Sacrament being a typical service, is not, nor can be, celebrated without a remembrance of the substance which it resembleth: which thing, according as the preciousness, value, and importance of it doth proportionably impose on us a greater necessity of this duty; which is then rightly performed, when there is a deep impression of Christ crucified made on the soul, by these seals of his death; than which there is not any thing in the world more fit to fasten a stamp of itself in the minds of men.

Permanent and firm impressions do use to be made in the minds of men by such causes as these:

First, If the object be wonderful?, and beyond the common course of things, it doth then strangely affect the thoughts; whereas obvious and ordinary things pass through the soul, as common people do through the streets, without any notice at all. And this is the reason why naturally men remember those things best, which either they did in their childhood, because then every thing brings with it the shape of novelty, and novelty is the mother of admiration; or those things which do very rarely fall out, which howsoever they may be in their causes natural, yet, with the greater part of men, who use to make their observations rather on the events, than on the originals of things, they pass for wonders. Now what greater wonder hath ever entered into the thoughts of men, even of those who have spent their time and conceits in amplifying nature with creatures of their own fancying than this,-That the God of all the world, without derivation from whose life, all the creatures must moulder into their first nothing,-should himself die, and expire, the frame of Nature still subsisting? That he who filleth all things with his presence, should be stretched out upon a piece of wood, and confined within a narrow

P Aug. de Gen. ad liter. I. 12. cap. 11. Amant homines inexperta mirari, &c. Ea quæ sub oculis posita sunt, negligimus: quia seu natura comparatum ita, ut proximorum incuriosi, longinqua sectemur; seu quod omnium rerum cupido languescit, cum facilis occasio est. Plin. lib. 8. epist. 20. Magnitudinem rerum consuetudo subducit: Sol spectatorem, nisi cum deficit, non habet; nemo observat luam, nisi laborantem. Senec. Nat. q. 1. 7. c. 1. q Arist, Polit. 1. 2.

stone? He who upholdeth all things by his power, should be himself kept under by that which is nothing, by death? Certainly, that at which the world stood amazed,—that which against the course of nature brought darkness on the fountain of light, which could no longer shine, when his glory, who derived lustre on it, was itself eclipsed;-that which made the earth to tremble under the burden of so bloody a sin;—that which the angels stoop and look into with humble astonishment and adoration;-that which consisteth of so great a combination and confluence of wonders; must needs make a deep impression on the soul, though hard as marble, at which the stones themselves of the temple did rend asunder.

Secondly, Those things use to make impressions on the understanding, which do move and excite any strong passion of the mind; there being ever a most near activity and intimate reference between passion and reason, by means of that natural affinity and subordination which is between them. Observe it in one passion of love, how it removes the mind from all other objects, firmly fixing it on one thing which it most respecteth. For as knowledge makes the object to be loved, so love makes us desire to know more of the object. The reason whereof is that inseparable union which nature hath fixed in all things between the truth and good of them; either of which, working on the proper faculty to which it belongeth, provokes it to set the other faculty on work, either by distinction, as from the understanding to the passion,-or by insinuation, as from the passion to the understanding;-even as fire doth not heat without light, nor enlighten without heat. Where the treasure is, the earth cannot be absent; where the body is, the eagles must resort. If I know a thing to be good, I must love it; and where I love the goodness of it, I cannot but desire to know it; all divine objects being as essentially good as they are true, and the knowledge and love of them being as naturally linked, as the nerve is to the part which it moveth, or as the beam is to the heat and influence by which it worketh. Now what object is there can more deserve our love, than the death of Christ? Certainly if it be natural

Non patior me quicquam nescire de co quem amem. Plin. Epist. Jackson, of Faith, sect. 1. cap. 8. sect. 3.

I Dr.

for men to love where they have been loved before; and if in that case it be fit, that the quantity of the former love should be the rule and measure of the latter; how can it be, that our love to him should not exceed all other love, even as he justly requireth ?" since greater love than this hath not been seen, that a man should neglect the love of himself, and lay down his life for his enemies." And if we love Christ, that will naturally lead us to remember him too; who as he is the life, and so the object of our love, so he is the truth likewise ", and so the object of our knowledge. And therefore the same apostle, who did rejoice in nothing but Christ crucified (and joy is nothing else but love perfected, for they differ only as the same water in the pipe, and in the fountain), did likewise, notwithstanding his eminency in all pharisaical learning, desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Such a dominion hath love on the mind, to make permanent and firm impressions.

There

Lastly, Those things work strongly upon the memory, which do mainly concern and are beneficial to man. is no man, not dispossessed of reason, who in sickness doth forget the physician; neither did ever any man hear of any one starved, because he did not remember to eat his meat. Beasts indeed I have heard of (but those very strange ones too) which, upon turning aside from their meat, have forgotten the presence of it. but never were any so forsaken by nature, as to forget the desire and enquiry after what they wanted. And the reason is, because wheresoever Nature hath left a capacity of receiving further perfection from some other thing, there she hath imprinted an appetite to that thing and there is such a sympathy between the faculties of nature, that the indigence of one sets all the rest on motion to supply it. Now what thing was there ever more beneficial unto mankind than the death of Christ? In comparison whereof, all other things are as dross and dung. The name ", and fruit, and hope of a Christian, would be all but shadows, if Christ had not died. By his humility, are we exalted; by his curse, are we blessed; by his bondage,

* Gal. vi. 12.

* Τοὺς πεποιηκότας εὖ φιλοῦσι. Arist. Rhet. lib. 2. t1 John xiv. 19. Rom. v. 7, 8. u John xv. 13. y 1 Cor. ii. 2. z Senec. de Benef. ■ Totum Christiani nominis et pondus et fructus, Mors Christi. Tertul, cont. Marc. 1. 3. c. 8.