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that gives otherways than Christ instituted, doth not indeed give Christ, but an idol of his own making.

Secondly, We see here, with how great reverence we ought to approach God's temple, to receive these deep mysteries of salvation, which it pleased Christ in his own person to institute, and with his own presence to exhibit unto the church. Was a beast slain for touching the mount; and shall not a man of beastly and vile affections be punished for touching that table where the Lord is present? Was Moses' to put off his shoes at that bush which represented God's power; and must not we shake off our earthly and corrupt desires at those mysteries which represent his mercy? Were Nadab and Abihu destroyed before the Lord, for offering strange fire at his altar; and shall we plead immunity, if we present strange souls and a false faith at his table? Was Adam thrust out of paradise for his sin in eating of the tree of knowledge; and shall we escape, if we sin in eating of the bread of life? Even unto the institutions of mortal men, though often in their substance needless, in their observance difficult, and in their end not much beneficial, so long as they keep within the compass of indifferent things,—there is required, not only our obedience, but our reverence. The Word of God, though delivered unto us in earthen vessels, by men of like weak and frail affections with ourselves; yet, because of that native preciousness which resides in it, and of that derived glory which it brings from the spirit that revealed it, is so far to be honoured, as that the vessels that bring it, are to be had in high estimation, even for their work's sake. But the sacraments are not either of human authority, as are positive laws; nor of Divine inspiration unto holy men, as were the Scriptures: but they are by so much the more the immediate effects of Divine power, by how much they are instituted without the least concurrence of any other instrument; being reached out first unto the church of God by that immaculate and precious hand, which was itself presently stretched forth on the cross, to embrace the weary and heavy laden. Let us not, then, venture to receive so sacred things with unwashed hands, as matters of mere custom, fashion, or formality. But let us look unto that high authority that ordained them, on that holy mouth

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that blessed them, on that arm of mercy that exhibits them; being ever assured, that as Christ hath one hand of bounty and redemption, which reacheth forth life to the worthy receiver, so hath he another of justice and power, ready to avenge the injuries and contempt, that shall be done to his own holy institution.

Thirdly, We see here the honourable condition of the faithful, in that they not only receive Christ, and all the benefits of his merits and actions,-but all this they receive from his own hands. For we may not think, that the actions of Christ, in looking up, and blessing, and breaking, and giving, were merely temporary, local, or confined actions, terminated only to the present company that were then with him certainly as the apostles were then the representative church, so was that a representative action, the virtue and effect whereof descends and passeth through all successions of the church. The arm of the Lord is not shortened, or any way shrunk, that it cannot still exhibit what then it did. If he can so lengthen the arm of faith in us, as to reach as far as Heaven to embrace him,- he can as well stretch out his own arm of mercy from Heaven, to present that unto us, which he did unto his disciples. It was an admirable and unexpected honour that was shown to Mordecai", when the royal crown and the king's own apparel was put upon him, though by the service of wicked Hainan: but Christ" doth not only bestow on us his kingdom in the sacrament, which seals unto us our inheritance with him; nor doth only invest us with his own meritorious purple robes, his red garments from Bozra, the garments of innocency and of unity, but doth all this with his own immediate hand: so that our honour must needs be so much greater than was Mordecai's, by how much the robes of Christ are more royal than the Persian king's, and his person more sacred than was wicked Haman's.

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CHAPTER VI.

Of the circumstances of the institution, namely, the time. and place.

AND as the author, so the circumstances of the institution, do not a little add unto the excellency of this sacrament. First, For the circumstance of time: it was the same night wherein he was betrayed: in the evening, and after supper. In the evening, or night, a time fit to prefigure a passion and eclipse, his especially who was the Sun of righteousness, and the light of the world; a passion that brought darkness on the very fountain of light, the sun, even in the mid-day. In the evening, to note that now the fulness of time was come, wherein Christ was to accomplish the redemption of the world. In the evening, or twilight, when the passover was celebrated 9. Learn, from the condition of the time, the nature as of that legal, so, in some sort, of this evangelical sacrament; it is but a shadow and dark representation of that light which shall be revealed. It hath but the glimmerings and faint resemblances of that mercy, which redeemed us,-of that glory, which expecteth us. In the evening, at the eating of the paschal lamb; to note that Christ's active obedience to the commands of the law, went together with his passive obedience to the curse and penalty of the law. He first celebrated the passover, that therein he might testify his performance of the law; and then he instituted his own supper, that therein he might prefigure his suffering of the law. In the evening after the passover, to signify the abolishing both of the evening and of the passover, the plucking away of Moses' veil, of all those dark and misty prefigurations of that light, which was within a few days to rise upon the world. He would first celebrate the passover, and there nullify it, to make it appear unto the world, that he did not abrogate that holy ordinance, because he oppugned it, but because he fulfilled it and therefore to

⚫ 1 Cor. xi. Matth. xxvi. 20. P Chrysost. in Matth. xxvi. q Exod. xii. 6. * Chrysost. Tom. 5. Serm. 80. de proditione Judæ.—Id sacrificium successit ommibus sacramentis Veteris Testamenti. Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 17. c. 20.

the substance he joins the shadow, the lamb of the Jews to the Lamb of God, the true sacrifice to that which was typical; that the brightness of the one might abolish and swallow up the shadow of the others. In the evening, at the time of unleavened bread; to signify that we also (it is the inference of the apostle') should keep our feast, not with the unleavened bread of malice or of wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth: that we should not venture to play the hucksters with so divine and pure mysteries, by adulterating them with either the mixture of human inventions ", or with the mud of our own sinful affections. In the evening, at the time of supper; to note, the most willing and ready, yea, the forward and greedy, resigning himself into the hands of bloody and cruel men; to signify, that unto him it was meat and drink, not only to do but to suffer, his Father's will. In the evening of that same night wherein he was betrayed; to give first a warrant unto his church, of his approaching passion; which though so intolerable for the quality and burden of it, that it could not but amaze his humanity, and draw from him that natural and importunate expression of the desire he had to decline it, yet in their elements did he ascertain the church, that as he came to drink of the brook in the way, so he should not shrink from drinking the very bitterest part of it.

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And secondly, In the night wherein he was betrayed; to fore-arm his poor disciples with comfort against the present loss of him, and against all that anguish which their tender hearts must needs suffer at the sight of that bloody and savage usage, which Judas and the Jews would show towards their Master. And, therefore, in these elements, he acquaints them with the nature and quality of his passion: that it should be as bread to strengthen, and as wine to comfort, the faint-hearted; to confirm the knees that tremble, and the hands that hang down.

Thirdly, It was the night wherein he was betrayed; to let us understand that these words were the words of a dying man, and therefore to be religiously observed '; and that

• Καθάπερ ζωγράφοι ἐν αὐτῷ πίνακι τὴν σκιὰν γράφουσιν, καὶ τότε τὴν ἀλήθειαν τῶν χρωμάτων. Chrysost. t1 Cor. v. 7.

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u 2 Cor. ii. 17. z Psal. cx. a Vid. Aug. de b"Plerique mortales postrema

meminere: Cæsar apud Sall, in Catil.-Vid. August. Epist. 118. prope finem.

this sacrament was the work of a dying man, and therefore in its nature a gift or legacy. gift or legacy. In his lifetime, he gave hist church his Word and his miracles; he went about doing good; but now, in his passion, he bestowed that which added weight and value to all his other gifts, himself. Other men use to bequeath their bodies to the earth, from whence it came but Christ's body was not to see corruption ; and therefore he bequeathed it unto the church. It was his body by his hypostatical and real,-but it is ours by a mystical and spiritual, union. Whatsoever fulness is in him, of it have we all received; whatsoever graces and merits flow from him as the head, they trickle down as far as the skirts of his garment, the meanest of his chosen. The pains of his wounds were his, but ours is the benefit; the sufferings of his death were his, but ours is the mercy; the stripes on his back were his, but the balm that issued from them, ours; the thorns on his head were his, but the crown is ours; the holes in his hands and side were his, but the blood that ran out, was ours; in a word, the price was his, but the purchase ours. The corn is not ground, nor baked, nor broken for itself; the grape is not bruised nor pressed for itself: these actions rather destroy the nature of the elements than perfect them; but all these violations that they suffer, are for the benefit of man. No marvel then, if the angels themselves stoop and gaze upon so deep a mystery, in which it is impossible to decide whether is greater,-the wonder, or the

mercy.

f

If we look unto the place where this sacrament was celebrated, even there also shall we find matter of meditation; for we may not think that two evangelists would be so express and punctual in describing the place, if there were not some matter of consequence to be observed in it.

First, then, It was a borrowed room; he that had no hole where to lay his head in, had no place where to eat the passover. We may not then expect, in Christ's new supper, any variety of rich and costly dishes; as his kingdom is not, so

d John i. 16.

e Acts ii. 27. e Scivit (Latro) quod illa in corpote Christi vulnera non essent Christi vulnera, sed latronis. Ambros. de Sancto Latrone Serm. 44. f Matth. xiv. 15. Luke xxii. 12. g Matth. viii. 20. Διδασκόμεθα ἐντεῦθεν ὅτι οὐκ εἶχεν οἰκίαν ἀφωρισμένην ὁ Χριστός. Chrysost. Tom. 3. Serm. 30.

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