MEDITATIONS ON THE HOLY SACRAMENT. CHAPTER I. Man's being to be employed in working; that working directed unto some good, which is God; that good, a free and voluntary reward, which we here enjoy only in the right of a promise; the seal of which promise, is a sacrament. THE almighty power and wisdom of God hath given unto his creatures a triple degree of perfection, their being, their working, and their good;—which three are so subordinate to each other, that working is the end and scope of being, and good is the end and scope of working: but no being can produce any work, no work reach unto any good, without something that may be a rule of working, and a way to good. And therefore Almighty God, in the work of the creation, imprinted in each creature a secret principle, which should move, govern, and uniformly direct it to its proper work and end and that principle we call a law, which, by assigning unto each thing the kind, measure, and extent of its working, doth lead it on, by a straight and infallible line, unto that good for which it worketh. All other creatures below the sphere of reason, being not only, in the quality of their nature, of a narrow and strait perfection, but, in their duration, finite and perishable; the good unto which this law of their creation directs them, is a finite good likewise. But men and angels, being both in nature more excellent than all others, and, in continuance, infinite and immortal, cannot possibly receive from any thing, which is a mere creature, and less perfect than themselves, any com plete satisfaction of their desires; and therefore must, by a circle, turn back unto God, who is as well the Omega, the end and object of their working,-as the Alpha, the cause and author of their being. Now God being most free, not only in himself, but in the diffusion and communication of himself, unto any thing created (which, therefore, he cannot be naturally or necessarily bound unto), and being also a God infinitely beyond the largest compass of the creature's merit or working,-it follows, that neither men nor angels can lay any necessary claim unto God, by a debt of nature (as a stone may unto the centre by that natural impress, which directs it thither); but all our claim is by a right of promise and voluntary donation: so that that which, in other mere natural creatures, is called the term or scope, is, in reasonable creatures, the promise or reward of their working. "Fear not, Abraham; I am thy exceeding great reward." So then we have here our good, which is God,—to be communicated unto us, not in the manner of a necessary and natural debt, but of a voluntary and supernatural reward. Secondly, We have our working required, as the means to lead us, in a straight line, unto the fruition of that good. And inasmuch as man's will, being mutable, may carry him unto several operations of different kinds,-we have, Thirdly, A rule or law, to moderate the kind and manner of our working, whereby we reach unto our desired good: which rule when it altereth, as in the new covenant of grace it doth, the quality of that work, whereby we reach unto our desired good, doth alter likewise. Now, Fourthly, We must farther observe, That between our working, which is the motion towards our good,-and our fruition, or resting in it, there is a distance or succession of time. So that while we are in our estate of working, we do not enjoy God by any full real presence or possession, but only by a right of a covenant and promise; which makes the apostle say, That, in this life, "we live by faith, and not by sight." Now promises or covenants require to have annexed unto them evidence and certainty, so far as may secure the party that relies upon them; which, in human contracts, is done by giving our words and setting-to our seals for confirmation. And now, Lastly, Inasmuch as that duty, on condition whereof God maketh this promise of himself unto us, is - the work of the whole man,-the evidence and confirmation of the promise is, by God, made unto the whole man likewise, and to each faculty of man: which it pleaseth him in mercy the rather to do, because of that dependence of our souls on the inferior and subordinate powers, and of that necessary connexion which there is between the inward reason and the outward senses. God then (pre-supposing ever the performance of conditions on our part) doth secure his church, and give evidence for the discharge of his covenant and promise,-First, To the soul alone by the testimony of his Spirit, which is both the seal and the witness of God's covenant; and, Secondly, Both to the soul and to the senses by that double bond, his Word written or preached, and his seal visibly exhibited to the eye and taste, but especially unto the taste, in which objects are, more really and with less fallibility, united to the faculty, in which there appeareth a more exquisite fruition of delight in these good things which are pleasing: and, Lastly, In which the mystical union of the church to its head, unto the making up of one body, is more naturally expressed. And these seals, annexed unto the Word or patent of God's promise, have been ever proposed unto the church in all its estates, and are nothing else but that which we call "a sacrament." So that as the testimony of the Spirit is an invisible seal, and earnest to the soul; so is the sacrament a visible seal, and earnest to the sense: both, after a several manner, ratifying and confirming the infallible expectation of that future reward, which as well the senses as the soul shall, in God's presence, really enjoy, after they have fulfilled the service which God requireth. CHAPTER II. Sacraments are earnests and shadows of our expected glory, made unto the senses. THE promises and Word of grace with the Sacraments, are all but as so many sealed deeds, to make over, unto all successions of the church, so long as they continue legitimate children, and observe the laws on their part required, an infallible claim and title unto that good which is not yet revealed,-unto that inheritance which is as yet laid up unto that life, which is hid with God, and was never yet fully opened or let shine upon the earth. Even in Paradise there was a Sacrament: a tree of life indeed it was, but there was but one. Whereas Adam was to eat of all the fruits in the garden, he was there but to taste sometimes of life; it was not to be his perpetual and only food. We read of ‘a tree of life' in the beginning of the Bible, and of ‘a tree of life' in the end too: that was in Adam's paradise on earth; this, in St. John's paradise in Heaven: but that did bear but the first-fruits of life, the earnest of an after fulness; this, bare life in abundance; for it bare twelve manner of fruits, and that every month; which shows both the completeness and eternity of that glory which we expect. And as the tree of paradise was but a Sacrament of life in Heaven, so paradise itself was but a Sacrament of Heaven. Certainly, Adam was placed amongst the dark and shady trees of the garden, that he might, in an emblem, acknowledge that he was as yet but in the shadow of life, the substance whereof he was elsewhere to receive. Even when the church was pure, it was not perfect: it had an age of infancy, when it had a state of innocence. Glory was not communicated unto Adam himself, without the veil of a Sacrament: the light of God did not shine on paradise with a spreading and immediate ray even there it was mixed with shadows, and represented only in a sacramental reflex, not in its own direct and proper brightness. The Israelites in the wilderness had light indeed, but it was in a cloud; and they had the presence of God in the Ark, but it was under several coverings; and they had the light of God shining on the face of Moses, but it was under the veil; and Moses himself did see God, but it was in a cloud: so incapable is the church, while encompassed with a body of sin, to see the lustre of that glory which is expected. Certainly as the Son of God did admirably humble himself, in his hypostatical union, unto a visible flesh,-so doth he still, with equal wonder and lowliness, humble himself, in a sacramental union, unto visible elements. Strange it is, that that mercy which is so wonderful, that the angels desire to look into it, a 1 Pet. i. 12. so unconceivable, as that it hath not entered into the thought of man; of such height, and length, and breadth, and depth, as passeth knowledge,-should yet be made the object of our lowest faculties: That that which is hid from the wise and prudent in man's little world, his mind and spirit, should be revealed unto the babes, his senses. It were almost a contradiction in any thing, save God's mercy, to be so deep, as that no thought can fathom it, and yet so obvious, that each eye may see it: "Handle me and see "; for a spiritual substance hath not flesh," was sometimes the argument of Christ: and yet " handle and see, take and eat, for a spiritual grace is conveyed by flesh," is the sacrament of Christ. So humble is his mercy, that, since we cannot raise our understandings to the comprehension of divine mysteries, he will bring down and submit those mysteries to the apprehension of our senses. Hereafter our bodies shall be over-clothed with a spiritual glory, by a real union unto Christ in his kingdom: mean time, that spiritual glory which we groan after, is here over-clothed with weak and visible elements, by a sacramental union at his table. Then shall sense be exalted, and made a fit subject of glory; here is glory humbled, and made a fit object of sense: "Then shall we see as we are seen, face to face; here we see but as in a glass darkly d;" in the glass of the creature,—in the glass of the word,-in the glass of the sacraments. And surely, these are in themselves clear and bright glasses; yet we see even in them but darkly, in regard of that vapour and steam which exhaleth from our corrupt nature, when we use them and even on these doth our soul look through other dark glasses, the windows of sense. But yet, at the best, they are but glasses, whose properties are to present nothing but the pattern, the shadow, the type of those things which are, in their substance, quite behind us, and therefore out of sight. So then, in general, the nature of a sacrament is to be the representative of a substance, the sign of a covenant, the seal of a purchase, the figure of a body, -the witness of our faith,-the earnest of our hope,-the presence of things distant,-the sight of things absent,-the taste of things unconceivable,-and the knowledge of things that are past knowledge. : • 2 Cor. v. 2, 4. 1 Cor. xv. 24. d 1 Cor. xiii. 12. |