ROBERT BRUCE'S SERMONS ON THE SACRAMENT £ DONE INTO ENGLISH -WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION- BY JOKN LA1DLAW, D.D.&< The Leonard Library Mptltffe College Toronto shelf No.. Register No 19 SERMONS ON THE SACRAMENT ROBERT BRUCE OF KINNAIRD. From a Brooch belonging to Lady Thurlow. ROBERT BRUCE'S SERMONS ON THE SACRAMENT DONE INTO ENGLISH WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. JOHN LAIDLAW, M.A., D.D. I-KOFKSSOR OF THBOI.OOY, NEW COLLKOK, EDINBflGH AUTUOB OK " BIBLK DOCTK1NK OF MAM," ITC. £Mnbur0b anfc lotion OLIPHANT, ANDERSON & FERRIER MDOCCCI PRINTED BY RULL AND SPEARS EDINBURGH PREFACE THE " Sermons on the Sacrament," which have so long been classic in our Theology, were first published in 1591) in the Scottish tongue of their original delivery. Together with eleven other sermons of the Author, on various passages of Scripture, published in 1591, they were re printed in our ordinary language (London 1017) under the- rather meaningless title (not given by their author) " The Way to True Peace and Rest." These sixteen sermons were again reprinted in their original form, together with one other, in the Wodrow Society's Edition (1843) edited by Dr William Cunningham. The elder I)r Thomas M'Crie says, " they are curious as speci mens of composition in the Scottish language within a few years of the time when it was generally laid aside by our writers," and the younger Thomas M'Crie adds that " even in this form, now become so obsolete as almost to act as a disguise, they have commanded much admira tion." The time seems to have arrived when the " disguise " should be entirely removed. The VI PREFACE rendering of 1617, as English, contemporary with the original, has been used as a ba,sis for the present edition, but it has been freely altered, chiefly in the direction of following with much more closeness the Author's own forcible and vigorous style. It has to be remembered that these sermons were originally printed " as they were received from the Author's mouth." But he superintended their publication. These, together with the sermons added in 1591, appeared in the early years of his ministry, and during his long life (so far as we know) he published nothing more. The doctrine of the Sacraments expounded in these discourses is that of the Reformed Church. That doctrine has never been better stated. The Author's formal standard was the Scottish Con fession of 1560. But the possible exaggerations in Calvin's Sacramental ideas, just hinted at in that Confession, are avoided by Bruce. He had evidently taken his stand on the more generally accepted Reformed view which had already ap peared in the Second Helvetic Confession (1566), in the XXXIX articles (1563), and which was yet to be more clearly stated, immediately after his time, in the Westminster Standards. He devotes more attention, than is usual now, to a refutation of the Romish ideas. But that was PREFACE vii necessary at the time. Otherwise the view he takes of the Sacrament is monumental and com plete ; and is in clear and firm distinction from the looser and less guarded views which have crept into our Presbyterian Churches, presumably as a supposed protest against High Church ism. It is worthy of notice that the English Bible from which the texts and some other citations in these sermons are taken is " The Geneva Bible " which for about eighty years was used in Scotland before the adoption of the Authorised Version of 1G11 ; but several citations in the course of the Sermons are made freely, as if from memory. The portrait in the frontispiece is from a collection of Moderators' portraits in the Hall of Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh. The other is from an engraving in St Giles' Vestry, kindly granted by Dr Cameron Lees. The view of the old House of Kiunaird is from a photograph sent by the kindness of the present proprietor. J. LAIDLAW. NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH, November 1900. CONTENTS PAGE . vi-viii ix-lxxvi Ixxix-lxxxi PREFACE ..... BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH . DEDICATION .... THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL ... 1 THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR . . 42 THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR . . 81 THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE PREPARATION TO THE LORD'S SUPPER . 138 THE FIFTH AND LAST SERMON UPON THE PREPARATION TO THE LORD'S SUPPER . 180 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH SOME outline of a life so distinguished as that of our author cannot be unacceptable. He was one of that group of eminent Scotsmen who, in immediate succession to Knox, defended the liberties and religion of the nation, strenuously resisted the encroachments of James and of the subsequent Stuart kings, and whose principles were ultimately triumphant in the Revolution of 1688. No one among them held so notable a phice as Bruce in the affairs of the Court, the Nation, and the Church during the first twelve years of his public life. Throughout the remain ing thirty years, he became the victim of ceaseless petty persecution which drove him from his official place — as minister of Edinburgh — but his personal worth and influence in Scotland continued and increased to the last day of his life. Robert Bruce was the second son of Sir Alexander Bruce of Airth, Stirlingshire. "The family claimed the nearest descent of any of that name to the blood-royal." l He was born about 1 Hill Burton, "History of Scotland," vol. v., \\ 340. Robert Bruce of Kinnaird was descended, in the seventh generation, from Edward do Bruys, the second son of Robert de Bruys of Clack mannan. The Bruces of Clackmannan are usually held — though b ix x BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 1554, brought up in letters, passed his course of philosophy in the University of St Andrews, and thereafter, furnished by his father, was sent to study civil law in France, as was at that time the custom ; where, as also in the Low Countries — at Louvain — he applied himself closely to these studies and to humanity, in which he was inferior to few in his day. When he returned from his travels and foreign studies he was directed to attend the Court and Lords of Session, and there had the management of his father's affairs together with the business of a good many other friends and acquaintances. His reputation for knowledge in law and practice, was so considerable that a design was formed by his father to make him one of the senators of the College of Justice. Accord ing to the practice of the times, such a position had been secured for him by patent, and his father had provided him in the lands and barony of Kinnaird, near Larbert, which house he continued to possess all his days.1 The Court of Session was, then, like other parts of government in Scotland, in complete and partially disordered. The Judges were too often court-partizans, and were individually this is not quite certain — to have been descended from John de Brays, fourth son of the competitor with Baliol for the crown, and therefore uncle of King Robert Bruce. Sir Alexander Bruce of Airth was granted, by James VI., a crown-charter to the lands which he inherited from an ancestor several generations back. 1 The old house of Kinnaird, of which a view is given on page xlix. was pulled down in 1897 and is now replaced by a modern mansion. The house deserves to be remembered as the residence not only of Robert Bruce, but also of James Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, his lineal descendant. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xi under the pressure of men in power. Young Bruce was disinclined to a course of life which in volved such inconveniences, and in no very long time determined to devote himself to the Church. His parents combated this resolution, and even threatened his inheritance. Bruce resigned his claim to the estate without a sigh, threw oft' the scarlet dress of a courtier, and returned to St Andrews, where he now commenced the study of theology. For a considerable period indeed pre vious to this, a struggle had been going on within his own breast as to his choice of a profession. He found strong inclination to apply himself wholly to the study of divinity and of the Scriptures, and a great attraction to the society of those who were promoting the reformation of religion in the country. In the period just following the death of Knox, we can understand how keenly this desire would be fostered. His own account of the matter (only penned by him so late as the year 1C 24) comes in appropriately here : " As touching my vocation to the ministry, I was first called to grace before I obeyed my calling to the ministry. He made me first a Christian before he made me a minister. I repugned long to this calling. Ten years, at the least, I never leaped on horseback, nor alighted, but with a re pugning and justly accusing conscience. At last it pleased God, in the year 1581, in the month of August, in the last night thereof, being in the place of Airth lying in a room, called the new loft chamber, in the very night while I lay, to xii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH smite me inwardly and judicially in my conscience and to present all my sins before me, in such sort that He omitted not a circumstance, but made my conscience to see time, place, and persons as vividly as in the hour I did them. He made the devil to accuse me so audibly that I heard his voice, as vividly as ever I heard anything, not being asleep but waking. So far as he spake true, my conscience bare him record, and testified against me very clearly. But when he came to be a false accuser and laid things to my charge which I had never done, then my conscience failed him and would not testify with him. But in those things which were true, my conscience condemned me and the condemner tormented me, and made me feel the wrath of God pressing me clown, as it were, to the lowest bell. Yea, I was so fearfully and extremely tormented that I would have been content to have been cast into a cauldron of hot melted lead, to have had my soul relieved of that insupportable weight. Always so far as he spoke true, I confessed, restored God to His glory, and craved God's mercy for the merits of Christ ; yea appealed sore to His mercy purchased to me by the blood, death and passion of Christ. This Court of Justice holden upon my soul turned (of the bottomless mercy of God) to a Court of mercy to me, for that same night, 'ere the day dawned, or the sun rose, He restrained these furies and these outcries of my justly accusing conscience and enabled me to rise in the morning."1 He 1 Calderwood, iv. 636. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xiii goes on, in the same connection, to describe the opposition he hail to encounter at home, on this change, " It was long before I got leave to go, my mother made me such impediment. My father at last condescended but my mother would not, until I had denuded my hands of some lands and casualties I was infefted in ; and that I did willingly, cast my clothes from me — my vain and glorious apparel — sent my horse to the fair, emptied my hands of all impediments and went to the New College." Of his entrance there in divinity, James Melville tells us " He came to us at the beginning of that same winter at the end whereof Mr Andrew was put at, whom most lovingly and faithfully he assisted till his departure out of the country." After this he returned to the College and pro secuted his studies with the greatest attention. He told James Melville, one day, walking in the fields with him, that he had been drawn perforce as it were to the study of divinity, and that by a mighty inward working which suffered him to get no rest, but when about this purpose ; adding, that " 'ere he cast himself again into that torment of conscience which was laid on him for resisting the call of God to the study of theology and to the ministry, he had rather go through a fire of brim stone half-a-mile long." Though most assiduous in his studies, he seems to have been oppressed for a time with a shyness or reserve which pre vented his making any public appearance. It was customary for the students of divinity of that xiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH College to read a chapter of the Scriptures, at their meals, and shortly to open it up. Before Bruce would take his turn with the rest of the scholars there, he desired that he might have some private re hearsals, with two special companions. These were accordingly held, at first once a week, and after wards thrice a week, in a large room in the College. There they handled a chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and then of that to the Hebrews. But before they came any length in the latter, these two friends prevailed with Bruce to take the whole upon him. From this they drew him to the school, where the students had their private " exercises " before the masters. Then they induced him to take his course at table, and further, in the " morning exercise" upon the Sabbath, to which a multitude of the best people of the town resorted. About two years or more elapsed before Andrew Melville was restored to his place and work in the College. From this time Melville and Bruce preached along side each other, to the delight and edification of their auditors. It soon became evident that a great aid to the pulpit of the times was being prepared in the ministry of the younger man. At the Assembly of 1587 Andrew Melville was chosen moderator. He had of set purpose brought Bruce with him to Edinburgh. With difficulty he prevailed upon him to preach there. The charge was then vacant by the death of James Lawson, Knox's successor. The Commissioners proposed Bruce for pastor, and the Commissioners being removed, the whole Assembly voted with BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xv almost universal consent for this appointment. To account for this early prominence, as well as for other signs of confidence in him which im mediately followed, we have to remember that Bruce had now reached the age of thirty-three, which was older than usual for an entrant to the ministry. But his marked ability and standing were no doubt the real causes. On the call being submitted to him, he declared that he could not accept the charge aimpliciter, although he would labour in that rlock till the next Assembly, and if he found himself meet for the charge would continue ; if not, he should be free. His inclina tion led him to prefer St Andrews to which he also had a call. His strong aversion to preach in presence of the King and the Court acted in the same direction ; and for a short while he trans ferred himself to his university seat. However the people of Edinburgh were insistent, and soon sent commissioners to entreat for his return. " Loath was I to go," he writes. " They threatened me with authority, so I advised with my God and thought it meet to obey ; but not to take on fully the burden ; only to assay how the Lord would bless my travails for a while." An Ex traordinary General Assembly was convened at Edinburgh, February 6, 1588, upon the alarm the King and all ranks had conceived, as to the invasion from Spain by the well-known Armada ; and such was Brace's reputation for wisdom and management that he was chosen moderator of this assembly, where he contributed not a little to the xvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH firmness and vigour of its measures against Popery and Papists. Upon the calling of another assembly in little more than six months, Bruce, as preced ing moderator, gave the exhortation or sermon. This again raised the question of his appointment to the ministry of the city. The people of Edin burgh repeated their desire that he would accept the ordinary charge. His answer was that he " could not presently accept of the said ordinary charge though he offered his labours, as before, till the next Assembly." These acceptances of the charge at Edinburgh, for a restricted period, renewed as they were again and again, no doubt led to the curious circumstance of which so much was made ten years later, that he never received formal ordination at the hands of the Presbytery till that time now named. He had the repeated call of the people. He had the repeated concur rence of the General Assembly of the Church to take the pastoral charge, and their concurrence was cordially renewed in 1598, when all this was brought up again and punctiliously debated by the King himself. There was no intention on Bruce's part or that of anyone else to deviate from the reasonable and ordinary method of ordi nation to the ministry by imposition of hands. The case was altogether exceptional and peculiar. An account of the manner in which he was led to discharge the duties proper to an ordained minister is thus given by John Livingstone, and as it became by-and-by a topic of dispute, may be here narrated. He had been "most earnestly BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xvii and unanimously called to be minister of Edin burgh ; but for a while he only preached and could not be moved to take on the charge, till one of the ministers by advice of the rest en trapped him. For that minister, one day giving the Communion, had desired Mr Robert Bruce, who was to preach in the afternoon, to sit by him ; and when he himself had served two or three tables, he removed out of the church, as being shortly to return, but sent in word to Mr Bruce with some of the elders that he would not return at that time ; and therefore Mr Robert behoved to serve the rest of the tables, or else the work must be given over ; and therefore when the eyes of the elders and of the whole people were upon him, and many also cried to him to serve the table now filled, he went on and administered the Communion to the rest, with such singular assistance and elevated affections among the people, as had not been seen in that place before. And for that cause he would not thereafter receive in the ordinary way the imposition of hands, see ing before he had the material of it, to wit, the approbation of all the ministers, and had already celebrated the Communion, which was not by a new ordination to be made void." Of his position and acceptance as minister of Edinburgh there is the amplest evidence. James Melville in his diary writes, " The ministry of Mr Robert Bruce was very profitable and mighty that year (1588), and divers years following most comfortable to the good and godly, and most xviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH fearful to the enemies." This kind of reputation he continued to hold not only during his whole ministry in Edinburgh, but long after in his years of exile. His labours were blessed to many. " Multitudes of all ranks," we read, during his preaching at Inverness, " would have crossed several ferries every day to hear him. They came both from Ross and Sutherland." Many signal instances of the effect of his ministry are given down to the closing years of his life. Re ferring especially to the earlier years of his min istry in the capital, M'Crie says, " The nobility respected him for his birth and connections ; his eminent gifts as a preacher gained him the affec tions of the common people ; and those who could not love him stood in awe of his commanding talents, of his severe and incorruptible virtue." It was at this point also that he had most remarkable favour with the young King. James had been contracted in marriage to Anne of Denmark, the second daughter of the king of that country. His marriage by proxy had already taken place, 20th August 1589. But the young Queen's little escort was driven by storm into one of the ports of Norway. The King suspecting some plot for delay, instantly started for Norway, to rescue his bride in person, and was married to her in November of this year in her own country. At his setting out from Scotland the King nomin ated Bruce an extraordinary member of his Privy Council. The charge indeed appears to have been much wider and more general. " At the BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xix King's departure, he willed Mr Kobert Bruce to be made acquaint with the affairs of the country and proceedings of the Council, reposing, as he professed, upon him and the rest of the ministry above all his nobles." Though Bruce abstained from any formal exercise of Privy Councillorship, there was the fullest response, on his part, to the trust committed to him. The King certainly was not disappointed. The country was never in greater peace than during his absence ; whereas before, few months or weeks passed over without slaughter and bloodshed, there was little or none at all during his absence. Among other pictur esque incidents at this time, the Earl of Bothwcll, " an eccentric and half insane relation of the King's," l made a voluntary appearance in the kirk of Edinburgh, before the minister, and publicly repented of his licentious dissolute life and all his bye-past sins, and promised to turn out another man in time coming. The event is pre served in memory by a sermon of Bruce's published on the occasion. " But," adds the historian, " it was a taking of God's name in vain, and a public mocking of himself and of the Lord's people." • He soon after broke out into greater extravagancies. Owing to the severity of the season, the royal party spent the winter in Denmark, and did not return to Scotland till the beginning of the follow ing summer. Three or four letters were written to Bruce during this period from the King himself, 1 Hill Burton, " History of Scotland," vol. v. 280. 2 Melville, "Diary," p. 277. xx BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH breathing the utmost cordiality and confidence. One gives him the title of " trusty and well-beloved councillor." Another thanks him for the care he had of the peace of the country in the King's absence, acknowledging that he " was worthy of the quarter of his petite kingdom" ; another still says, " I think myself beholden while I live, and never to forget the same." Two or more letters came to Bruce from the same place, in the hand of Sir John Maitland, the Chancellor, afterwards Lord Thirl estane, thank ing him with great sincerity for his many services to the country and to himself. This friendship was only broken by the Chancellor's death some five years later. On the 1st of May 1590, the King, with his newly wedded bride, arrived in Leith Roads, and landed about 2 o'clock of the afternoon. The King repaired to the church to praise God. Bruce met him as he was about to enter, was kindly embraced by him and communed with him for a long time. On the 6th of May, the King and Queen came from Leith to the palace of Holy rood ; and on Sabbath the 1 7th, the Queen was crowned in the Abbey Church. Not withstanding some little demur, this was thought not improper to the day and place ; because like marriage it was a "mixed action," and a solemn oath was passed mutually between the Prince and his subjects and from both to God. Bruce, Pont, Lindsay, Balcanquall, and the King's own ministers were appointed to be present at the coronation. After the court and the ladies were placed in their BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxi seats in the church, there were three sermons made, one in Latin, another in French, the third in English. After sermon Bruce and Craig made short orations to the Queen. She was then con veyed to a cabinet within the church, where she was clothed in her royal robes and so returned to her own chair. Then the crown was set upon her head. The Lady Alar loosed her right arm which Bruce plentifully anointed, as also her forehead and her neck. Upon the Tuesday im mediately following, the Queen made her public entry into Edinburgh with various and ample ceremony. She went into the church and sat in the east end, in the gallery, under a fair canopy of velvet. Bruce made the sermon, which being ended within half-an-hour the Queen was brought forth. Andrew Melville recited a Latin ode to the great admiration of the ambassadors, and which the King acknowledged as an honour to himself and to the country. When published, this poem (" Stephaniskion ") drew from Scaliger the well-known compliment to Melville, " Profccto nos talia non jiossumus " ; and Lipsius having read it said, " Revera Andreas Mclvinus est serio doctus." Shortly after these events came Bruce's own marriage to Margaret Douglas, daughter of Douglas of Parkhead, a considerable baron, who, some years afterwards, rendered himself conspicuous by slay ing with his own hand, James Stewart — Earl of Arrau, once a favourite of King James, and an arch-enemy to the Presbyterian polity. At this time Bruce's own family became thoroughly re- xxii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH conciled to him, and his original patrimony of Kinnaird was restored to him for good. Up till now we have seen him in the fullest favour with the King, and for several years follow ing his influence at Court was very considerable, and his hold on the people of Edinburgh really never relaxed. But we must next trace the process by which the King's favour was lost to him, and in consequence of which even his place and office were at length forfeited. During all this process Bruce never stands alone. He was eminently at the head of the ecclesiastical party whose views and desires he represented. But the royal displeasure at last so concentrated upon him that he may be said to have been its supreme victim. The earliest cause of alienation was a personal one. The King's opposition to the cause of the Church was not yet developed ; indeed, can hardly be said to have existed at all. In the General Assembly of August 1590, he had made his famous speech, extolling the Church of Scotland as " the sincerest Kirk in the world," and placing it for purity of doctrine and discipline even beyond the " Kirk of Geneva," and far beyond " our neighbour Kirk in England." But in a very short while, a personal alienation developed, on the ground of the plain and bold terms in which the Presbyterian ministers took it upon them to address their monarch especi ally in their speeches to him from the pulpit. The manner of our own time easily condemns their language and inclines us to take the side of the King. But the truth is, these ministers ROBERT BRUCE OK KINNAIKH, Minister at Edinburgh, 1587. From an Engraving on steel by J. Swan. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxiii were honestly trying to form the character of their young King and had not yet discovered that the task was hopeless. The feature which at Hrst offended them in James, was a certain frivolity and inconsistency which would not take up any firm course, such as they could honestly approve. In the year 1591, after a visitation of ministers at Holyrood and at a time when some trafficking Papists were commanded to appear before the Council, the King was present at a sermon in the Little Kirk in which Bruce moved the question, " what could the great disobedi ence of this land mean now, seeing some reverence had been borne to the King's shadow when he was absent ? " The preacher answered his own question : "It meant a universal contempt of him by his subjects ; therefore, ought the King to call upon God before he ate or drank that the Lord should give him a resolution to execute justice upon malefactors, although it should be to the hazard of his life." This is a pungent example of the kind of reproof often directed, at this time, by the ministers to their sover eign. James soon gave them serious causes of displeasure. It was not only his underhand dealings with Jesuits. There followed his un accountable leniency to his mad cousin, Bothwell. who made repeated attempts upon his person and his palace. After one of these, at Falkland, in June 1592, Bruce said from the pulpit, " Your Majesty hath had many admonitions . . . but xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH this last is sharper than any of the former. They pretend to come to seek justice for the last terrible murder, and how can you punish others when you are pursued yourself ? He desired His Majesty to humble himself before God and confess his negligence." The " terrible murder," here alluded to, was the putting to death, at Donibristle, in February of the same year, of the Earl of Moray, a son-in-law of the Good Regent, by the Earl of Huntly. James's unaccountable indifference about this vile trans action, and his failure to bring anyone to justice because of it, greatly alienated the minds of the people of Scotland from their King. In the same year occurred the incident of " the Spanish blanks," a curious cause of alarm to the Reformers, chiefly from its mysterious nature. The docu ments so designated were blank sheets, with a form of address to the King and subscribed by the Popish nobles — Huntly, Errol, and Angus, besides some minor emissaries. Orders were issued to the Popish lords to ward themselves. The King himself marched with a party to Aberdeen and they fled northwards, leaving their strongholds at his mercy. A long series of wars and negotiations followed, with petty bicker ings between the King and the ministers, about what was called " the Act of Abolition," con ceived by him for the protection of these Popish rebels from the sentence of excommunication. James had an idea that to conciliate the Romish members of his own aristocracy was one of the BIOGRAPHICAL SKHTCH xxv methods for opening to him the way to the English throne. It was one of his small attempts at kingcraft founded upon the notion, which he actually expounded to Bruce, that there existed in England a powerful Romish faction who would otherwise oppose his succession. The notion was mistaken, and the King was rebuked l>y Elizabeth herself for his want of Protestant firmness and straightforwardness. Now it was upon matters such as these that the plain speeches of the Presbyterian ministers were founded. However different from our modern manner, it is easy to see the justification of the line they took. There was no other organ of public expression, or of criticism, in things political except the pulpit of the Kirk. There was no public press. The nobles were constantly engaged in factions of their own and had no united mind on public affairs. The ministers of the Kirk were really the leaders of the Scottish nation and, however rude and unskilful, their remonstrances were honest. In a similar way we must deal with the alleged disloyalty of the ministers. In a semi-jocular fashion James was wont to hint at such a thing, on the part of even Bruce himself. On the occasion of his return from a professional visi tation of the East Country James is reported to have noted him from the windows of Holyrood, and to have exclaimed, with indignation and an oath, "Here comes Robert Bruce — I am sure he intends to be King, and declare himself heir to his namesake." xxvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Though recorded by an adversary,1 the story bears marks of truth, or at least pretty accurate reflection of that senseless buffoonery in which the royal wit often displayed itself. A more definite case was made out in the following fashion. Upon Friday, 8th December 1592, some of the ministers went down to the King to urge a proof of treason laid to the charge of Robert Bruce, James Gibson, Andrew Hunter, and others. The King would have had the matter passed over ; that is, when it came to the point, the King was well aware there was nothing in it. But upon the following Sabbath Bruce spoke out from his place. He said " the King was environed with liars, and he himself would suspend preaching till he was purged of that heinous accusation, that he and others had conspired to take the crown off the King's head and put it upon Both well." He insisted to know the individuals who had so slandered him to His Majesty. After some shift ing James named the Master of Gray and one Tyrie a Papist as his informers. But on the day fixed for investigating the affair no one appeared to make good the charge. Gray having left the Court, sent word that he had given no such information against Bruce. He offered to fight any one (His Majesty excepted) who should affirm that he had defamed the minister. " Indeed," as M'Crie remarks, " there is not the slightest ground for calling in question the loyalty of the ministers of the Church, or their decided and steady attach- 1 Bp. Maxwell, " Issachar's Burden," 1646. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxvii mcnt to the person and government of James. Had the King ceased from favouring a faction, hostile equally to his crown and to the established religion, had he exerted a reasonable superinten dence over the* administration of the State, and abstained from encroachments on the jurisdiction of the Church ; and, above all, had he maintained his word and promise inviolate he would have found the ministers disposed to give him all due satisfaction, and might have derived from them the most essential and efficient support. The submission which the nobility yielded to him was always partial and precarious. . . . The preachers were inclined to favour no faction in the State. . . . Had their jealousies not been awakened and kept alive by the misconduct of the King the lead ing men among them possessed too much sense and were too well aware that the safety of the Church — including their own — depended upon the stability of his government, to indulge in or countenance any freedoms from the pulpit which tended to embarrass his administration, or to bring his person into contempt." l Bruce, at the time he was using the greatest freedom in rebuking the Court, said, " It is our part to crave wisdom for the King ; because for as loose as he is, he is the greatest blessing that ever we shall see." And again, "Surely the only band temporal that holds up the commonwealth here, which is ruinous on all sides, and is like to fall down, stands upon that Prince. Though he be many ways 1 M'Crie, "Life of Melville " (edition 1856), p. 172. xxviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH abused, out of question were he removed, I look to see confusion multiplied upon confusion." There can be no doubt that the joint influence of the " doctrine and discipline of the Kirk pre sented to James a powerful instrument, not pos sessed by any of his predecessors, for suppressing the feuds of the nobility, purifying the administra tion of justice, civilizing and reforming the morals of the people. Had he known how to avail him self of this, his reign in Scotland might have been tranquil and happy." The strange delusion pos sessing the minds of our historians is that the ministers of the Kirk were bent upon some pro fessional or sectarian purpose instead of the welfare of the nation at large. If the eyes of these writers had been open to the facts of history they would have seen, what the event has demon strated, that just as at an earlier stage, Holland and the more powerful of the Swiss Cantons had chosen that form of the Reformed faith, the Scottish nation adhered to the Presbyterian re ligion — that the ministers were the real leaders of the Scottish people — that their purpose was patriotic, and their aim coincident with the triumph of civil and religious liberty. Up to the point we have reached there had been no attack on the King's part upon the con stitution of the Scottish Church. The tendency of progress was rather in the other direction. The General Assembly having met on 21st May 1592, for the second time chose Robert Bruce as their Moderator. The main things enacted in this BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxix Assembly were the annulling of the Acts of 1584 against the discipline of the Kirk ; the abolition of the Act of annexation ; and the restitution of the patrimony of the Kirk. In the Parliament which met immediately thereafter, the Presbyterian polity and discipline were established, and to these enactments the Church of Scotland has ever looked back as to the charter of her liberties. During the years succeeding, — 1593-5 — there was a general concurrence between the King and the Kirk, a time of prosperity for the Church and of partial peace for the kingdom. The only domestic events of note were the birth of Prince Henry, August 151)4, and the death of Chancellor Maitland, 3rd October 159"). We read that " Robert Bruce, one of the leading ministers, rode at four o'clock of the morning to Tliirlestanc (near Lander), to find the Chancellor full of penitence for neglected oppor tunities, and imploring the prayers of the Kirk. He was sorely troubled in conscience with fears that his dealings between the King and Queen should come out."1 There had been some dispute the pre vious year about the care of the young Prince. In the beginning of the year 159G Calder- wood writes : " This year is remarkable to the Kirk of Scotland both for the beginning and for the end of it. The Kirk of Scotland was now come to her perfection and the greatest purity that ever she attained, so that her beauty was admirable to foreign Kirks. The assemblies of the saints were never so glorious, nor profitable 1 Tytler, " History of Scotland," vol. iv. 238. xxx BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH to every one of the true members thereof, as in the beginning of this year. There was good appearance of further reformation of abuses and corruptions, and the appearance of a constant provision for all the parish kirks within the country." What he notes about the end of that same year is of a totally different character, and marks an unhappy departure which set in and continued for many years. The point of quarrel is very much the old one, viz., the resentment felt by the King at the liberties taken by the Scottish preachers in the pulpit. His vanity and self- conceit were deeply wounded by these attacks. They contrasted very keenly with the suavity which marked the representatives of a Court and Church where a maiden queen had sway, and he was rapidly approaching that episcopal leaning which afterwards condensed itself in his favourite maxim, "No Bishop, no King." The point from which the whole quarrel developed was the process raised by the King against Mr David Black. This minister of St Andrews had preached a sermon towards the close of the year 1596, in which he not only adverted on the threatened triumph of idolatry (i.e. Popery) at home, but raised his voice against the Prelacy which had established itself in the neighbour ing kingdom. " As for His Highness, none knew better than he did of the meditated return of these Papist lords, and herein he was guilty of manifest treachery. Were not the Lords of Session miscreants and bribers, the nobility BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCH xxxi cormorants, and the Queen of Scotland one whom for fashion's sake they might pray for, but in whose time it was vain to hope for good?" For these injudicious remarks Black was at once summoned before the Privy Council. Now such a summons raised far deeper questions as to the liberty of the pulpit and the juris diction of the Church. After careful consulta tion with his brethren, Black declined the judicature of the Council, at least in the first instance, declaring that the Ecclesiastical Court must first judge whether or not he had trans gressed his bounds ; that upon their so deciding, he would not decline to submit himself to the civil authority, and to undergo the judgment they should inflict upon him. Upon this point the whole Church sided with Black, and tho firm, strong hand of Bruce can be traced in several of the public documents of the time. On one occa sion it was Bruce himself who gave striking answer to a suggestion of compromise made by the King. " If it was Mr Black's particular," he said, " that was in question, His Majesty's offer was thankfully to be accepted ; but seeing it was the liberty of Christ's Gospel that was grievously wounded by the proclamation, and the preaching of the word by usurpation of the judicatory, it was a matter of such importance in the estimation of all the brethren that if the King had taken Mr Black's life, and a dozen of others with him, he could not have wounded the hearts of the brethren more, £nor done such injury to the Lord Jesus." xxxii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH On this answer being given, a gentleman of the Chamber came the next morning to shew how much the King was moved ; that he had thought upon the matter all night, and requested that the preacher be calm that day. To this it was returned that " the brother who was to teach had God to answer, and his brethren's expectation, whom he could not offend for pleasuring all the kings of the earth." A very tender point had evidently been touched. It was only roughly debated at the time. But it was unquestionably one which perplexed that whole period, and led at last to the inevitable result. King James said no one could doubt that Black had exceeded his bounds. Probably no one but Black himself — if even he — did ever doubt it. But who was to call him to account ? Was it for the civil authority at once to step in ? If so, where was the liberty of the Word of God ? Were there not regular Church Courts whose province it was to deal in the first instance with such offenders ? That was the whole contention of the ministers. But the occasion was made one for carrying civil or royal jurisdiction into spiritual matters. Not withstanding repeated declinature on the part of the ministers, the Privy Council at length decided against Black, found all the charges against him proved, and sentenced him to be confined beyond the North Water, until His Majesty resolved what further punishment should be inflicted on him. This is the first cut of the civil sword into the liberties of the Christian Church. The BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxxiii quarrel may be said to have raged, at intervals, for nearly a hundred years to come in Scotland. Stealthily and subtly, at first almost uncon sciously, or, from lack of discernment, was the encroachment made by James, more openly by his successors, until this claim to rule the con science and religion of the nation by civil and military force provoked the expulsion of the Stuart dynasty from the throne. But this particular dispute we are now con sidering was further embroiled by Court factions. The Octet vians, as they were called, that is, the eight gentlemen appointed for the control of the royal finances, restricted the King from lavishing money upon his private favourites. Irritated at this, the latter, known at the time by the name of Cubiculars, or gentlemen of the bed-chamber, were desirous of driving these statesmen from their places; and to accomplish this object, they in dustriously fomented the dissension between the King and the Church. They insinuated to the Octavians that the friends of the ministers were engaged in a plot against their lives. They, at the same time, privately assured the ministers that the Octaviaus were the advisers of the return of the Popish lords . . . and of the prosecution of Black ; that it was through their influence that the mind of the King was alienated from the Church, and that they intended nothing less than the overthrow of the Protestant religion. The result of these plottings was the so-called tumult of seventeenth December (159(5), which xxxiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH has been magnified into a daring and horrid re bellion. On the morning of that day, information was conveyed to Bruce that the Earl of Huntly had been all night in the palace and that his friends and retainers were at hand waiting for orders to enter the Capital. This communication, which was partly true, excited the more alarm that a charge had just been given to twenty-four of the most zealous burghers to leave the city within six hours. This being the day of the weekly sermon the ministers agreed to call to gether the barons and burgesses after public worship to advise what ought to be done, a practice for which the ministers had the authority of an express act of privy council. They met accordingly and deputed two persons from each of the estates to wait on the King, who happened then to be in the immediate neighbourhood, in conference with the Lords of Session in the Upper Tolbooth. Having obtained an audience Bruce told His Majesty that they were sent to lay before him the dangers which threatened religion. "What dangers see you?" said the King. Bruce men tioned what they had been told as to Huntly. " What have you to do with that ? " said His Majesty, " and how durst you convene against my proclamation." " Dare," said the fierce Lord Lindsay, " we dare more than that, and will not suffer the truth to be overthrown and stand tamely by." Upon this the King retired to an inner apartment or retreated downstairs and com manded the door to be shut upon them The BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxxv Protestant barons and ministers returned to the Little Kirk, where meanwhile Craustoun — a 1'or- ward minister — had been reading to the people in the church certain Scripture passages — among others the story of Hainan and Mordecai. Per ceiving that their minds were somewhat moved, Bruce proposed that they should defer the con sideration of their grievances and merely pledge themselves at present, for the defence of their religion. This proposal having been received with acclamation, he besought them as they regarded the credit of their cause, to be silent and quiet. At this moment an unknown person (supposed to have been tin emissary of the Cubiculars) hastily entered the church and cried out, " Fy ! Fy ! save yourselves, the Papists are coining to massacre you. Bills and axes ! " and someone exclaimed, " The sword of the Lord and of (Jideon." " These are not our weapons," cried Bruce, but panic had seized them. They rushed into the street, where they found a crowd already collected, and for a time all was confusion. The ministers imme diately called in the aid of the magistrates, and by their joint persuasion the tumult was speedily quelled. Within less than an hour, not an offen sive weapon, not the least symptom of riot were to be seen on the streets. The barons and ministers resumed their deliberations and sent to lay their requests before the King. His Majesty directed them to come to him in the afternoon, after which he walked down the public street to Holyrood attended by his courtiers, with as xxxvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH much quietness and security as he had ever experienced. Such are the facts connected with this famous incident. " No tumult in the world," says Baillie, " was ever more harmless in its effects or more innocent in its causes, if you consider all those who did openly act therein." It was never seriously alleged that there was the most distant idea of touching the person of the King. No assault was made upon the meanest creature belonging to the Court ; no violence was offered to the person or the property of a single in dividual. So far from partaking of the nature of a rebellion, the affair scarcely deserves the name of a riot. Unpremeditated in its origin and harmless in its effects, as the uproar in Edinburgh was, it offered a pretext which was eagerly laid hold of by the Court for com mencing an attack on the government of the Church. It was comparatively easy to involve the ministers who were present on the occasion, in the odium attached to that crime. Nothing could be more congenial to the character of James than this piece of policy, which had a show of deep wisdom in the device and required a very slender portion of courage in the exe cution. The King hastily quitted Edinburgh and the palace. As soon as he was gone, a proclamation was issued requiring all in public office to repair to him at Linlithgow. The ministers of Edinburgh with a certain number of the citizens were commanded to enter ward BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxxvii in the castle, and were summoned before the privy-council at Linlithgow. The tumult was declared to be " a cruel and barbarous attempt against His Majesty's royal person, his nobility and council, at the instigation of certain seditious ministers and barons." Events concurred ap parently with the King in this policy. On the day that he left Edinburgh the barons who remained met and agreed to take upon them the mediation of the Church and its cause. At their desire Bruce wrote a letter to Lord Hamilton asking him to come and countenance them in the matter. The letter was altered, in such a manner, as to make it express approbation of the tumult and was so conveyed by Hamilton to the Court at Lin lithgow. The Court did not dare to make any public use of this vitiated document, but it was privately circulated to blast the reputation of Bruce and his friends. In the beginning of January 1597 His Majesty with great pomp and in a warlike attitude returned to Edinburgh. It was ordained that the Courts of Justice should be removed and that no meeting of General Assembly, Synod, or Presbytery should hence forth be held within the Capital. A deputation from the Town Council waited on the King to implore forgiveness for a tumult which they had done everything in their power to suppress. Their supplication was rejected, and they heard nothing but denunciations of vengeance. They were told that the Borderers would be brought xxxviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH in upon them — that their city would be razed to the ground and sowed with salt, that a monument would be erected on the place where it stood to perpetuate the memory of such an execrable treason. The ministers advised by their friends withdrew and concealed themselves for a time. Bruce and Balcanquhal went into England. Balfour and Watson concealed them selves in Fife. As soon as it was known that they had taken this step they were publicly denounced as rebels. The spirits of the Edinburgh magistrates and citizens were cowed by the pro ceedings of the King ; and the magistrates offered to deliver up those who had fostered the so-called tumult. The King deemed that he had gone far enough for the present, and proceeded to reassure the trembling citizens. Why so much was made by James and by those writers who take his side, of this trifling disturbance comes out very clearly in the events which follow, and is by no one made clearer than by Tytler, " The tumult committed by the citizens and the part acted in it by the clergy wras a prodigious advantage to the monarch who quickly perceived it. He was well aware of the difficulty of dealing with the ministers as long as they confined themselves to their political attacks in the pulpit, and pleaded an indepen dent jurisdiction; but the Bailies and citizens were unquestionably amenable to the authority of the Crown and the laws. They were, with scarcely a single exception, Protestants warmly BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xxxix attached to the Kirk and a principal clement in its power. All this the King knew, and when he saw that he had them within his grasp, he determined they should feel the full weight of his resentment. . . . The sword was thus kept suspended over the heads of the un happy magistrates and their capital ; and it was quite apparent that the King, having be come convinced of his own strength, was deter mined to defer the moment of mercy till he had accomplished some great purpose which now tilled his mind. Thin was nothing Less than the establishment of Episcopacy. The recent excesses of the more violent ministers had made the deepest impression upon the monarch ; and it was evident to him that it' the principles of independent jurisdiction which they had not hesitated to adopt were preached and acted upon, there must ensue a per petual collision between the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. He longed therefore to see (in the words of Spottiswood) ' a decent authority established in the Kirk, which should be con sistent with the word of God, the custom of primitive times, and the laws of the realm/ and he believed that no fitter moment could occur to carry this great object than the present." l His first step was to summon a General Assembly of the Church to meet at Perth on the last of February 1597. A series of questions — pre pared, it is said, before the Edinburgh tumults 'Tytlcr, "History of Scotland," vol. iv. p. 256. xl BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH — were suggested for the consideration of synods and presbyteries implying a compromise on the debated topic of the jurisdictions. For the first time in the history of the Presbyterian Church, the composition of this assembly was cooked by the King's instructions. He did his part to keep Melville, Bruce and others of the leading lowland ministers from being members of it. He instructed his emissaries to scour the Highlands and other northern districts and secure as many as possible of the north- country ministers — more lukewarm Presbyterians and more devoted courtiers than their lowland brethren. This assembly, which on the whole inclined to the royal view, was called an " extraordinary " one, and its validity was doubted. The King gained several points. It was agreed that no unusual conventions should be held amongst pastors without the royal consent, and that the acts of the privy council or the laws passed by the three estates should not be attacked or dis cussed in the pulpit ; that in the principal towns of the realm no minister should be chosen with out consent of the King and of the flock ; and that no man should by name be rebuked in the pulpit, unless he had fled from justice or were under sentence of excommunication.1 James's next step was to reconcile the Catholic lords to the Kirk, and here he was equally successful. The ceremony of their reconciliation 1 Spottiswoode, p. 441. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xli to the Kirk and restoration to their estates, took place in the Old Kirk in Aberdeen, the 2Gth of June 1597. The repentant earls then received the Sacrament after the Presbyterian form, and solemnly swore to keep order in their wide and wild territories. This success encouraged James to go forward with his great ecclesiastical project. The question was raised of representing the Kirk in Parliament. To prepare for this, a commission was proposed of the wisest among the brethren. Fourteen were chosen, most of whom were known to be favourable to the views of the Court. The " King's led horse," as Calderwood styles this body, gave a specimen of their quality during the summer and soon hud their petition before Parliament for a share in its councils. Its re quisition was in these words, "That the ministers, as representing the Church and third estate of the Kingdom, might be admitted to have a voice in Parliament." This application, made so artfully as to seem to come from the Kirk itself, was the first step towards restoring the order of bishops. A General Assembly was soon after convened in which the subject was solemnly argued in the King's presence. The object had been already wittily exposed and ridiculed by Davidson. " Busk him, busk him," said he, " as bonnily as ye can, and fetch him in as fairly as ye will, we ken him weel eneuch ; we see the horns of his mitre." In the assembly, just mentioned, it was keenly debated by James Melville, Davidson, Bruce, Carmichael and Ami and denounced in d xlii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH the strongest language. James had tried every method of conciliation. He had extended his forgiveness to the ministers of Edinburgh for their part in the late tumult ; he restored their privileges and the comfort of his royal presence to the magistrates and citizens of the Capital, but in the end, this scheme of his was carried in the assembly only by a narrow majority of ten. And the final establishment of this modi fied form of Episcopacy did not take place for more than twelve months after, in a General Assembly convened at Montrose, 28th March 1600. Meanwhile, at least two severe passages at arms of a more personal nature took place be tween Bruce and the King. The first of these has been already slightly alluded to. It had been determined, several years before, that the pastoral care, at Edinburgh, should be divided into eight several charges. Bruce as the principal minister of Edinburgh could of course not be passed over. The question was now (14th April 1598) put to him, in presence of the King, whether he was willing to accept a particular flock according to the Act of Assembly. He at once assented. Then it was suggested that he must have ordination in addition to the others, for this had in his case been omitted before. A prolonged and acrimonious contest here broke out on the King's part. It was characteristic of James's petty acuteness to go back now upon that old matter and make so much of it. It BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xliii is difficult to conceive on what ground one so prominent and distinguished in the Church of Scotland as Bruce could have been assailed on the score of a technical informality, which had occurred at the very beginning of his ministry, in those somewhat unsettled times. The length and intricacy of the discussion, degenerating even to a personal wrangle on the King's part, seems now so grossly pedantic, as to recall Carlyle's suggestion that the ferule of a schoolmaster would have became James better than the sceptre of a monarch.1 Bruce explained that he was perfectly willing to accept " imposition of hands," in common with his brethren, in token of their admission to these particular cures, but that he could not submit to a special ordination which would have seemed to invalidate all his previous ministry. The Presbytery came frankly forward at this point (2nd May 1.398) and declared Bruce " to be a lawful pastor of the Kirk of Edinburgh, having his calling of the General Assembly thereto." The " imposition of hands " was at length conferred (19th May). But it is only when we attend to the gradual and stealthy process the King's mind was now following, that we begin to perceive the significance of the inci dent. " Imposition of hands " had been regarded in the Scottish Church as a ceremony, somewhat indifferent, and not absolutely necessary. Now when the foundations of Episcopacy were being attempted to be laid, all this was changed. If 1 Carlyle's "Historical Sketches," p. 147 (1898). xliv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ordination to the ministry cannot be received without imposition of hands, and if possible by the hands of a bishop, it becomes plainer why the King and the Commissioners were so very stringent in the matter. The other incident was, if possible, more grossly and peculiarly personal. It pertained to what the King chose to call Bruce's " pension." Bruce had a grant out of the Abbey of Arbroath of twenty- four chalders of victual, by a gift for his lifetime. On the 10th February of this year the King took it from him, without notice, and openly assisted Lord Hamilton's tenants in resisting Bruce's " charge." Bruce offered to pass from his gift if the King would keep it in his own hands, or bestow it in settling the stipends of the Church. But the King transferred it to Lord Hamilton, upon which Bruce went on with his process before the Lords of Session. Tytler's account of what followed is worthy of quotation as showing how that Court had already improved its position. " The subject of quarrel was a judgment pronounced by the Court in favour of the celebrated minister. . . . Bruce sued the Crown and obtained a decision in his favour. The monarch appealed, came to the court in person, pleaded his own cause with the utmost violence, and commanded the judges to give their vote against Mr Robert. The president, Seton, then rose : ' My liege,' said he, ' it is my part to speak first in this Court of which your Highness has made me head. You are our King ; we, your subjects bound and ready to obey you BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xlv from the heart, and with all devotion to serve you with our lives and substance, but this is a matter of law, in which we are sworn to do justice accord ing to our conscience and the statutes of the realm. Your Majesty may, indeed, command us to the con trary, in which case I, and every honest man on this bench, will either vote according to conscience, or resign and not vote at all.' Another of the judges, Lord Ncwbattle, spoke in the same strain and alluded to the imputation that they dared not do justice in that court to all classes. He said ' they would now deliver a unanimous opinion against the Crown.' For this brave and dignified conduct James was unprepared ; he proceeded to reason long and earnestly with the recusants, but persuasions, arguments, taunts, and threats were unavailing. The judges, with only two dissentient votes, pronounced their decision in favour of Bruce, and the mortified monarch flung out of Court ' muttering revenge and raging marvellously.' When the subservient temper of those times is considered, and we remember that Seton the President was a Roman Catholic, while Bruce was a chief leader of the Presbyterian ministers, it would be unjust to withhold our admiration from a judge and a court which had the courage thus fearlessly to assert the supremacy of the law." l How the matter ended can be easily foreseen. On the 18th January 1C 00 Bruce resigned into the King's own hand a gift which was so reluctantly con tinued and had been so frequently interfered with. 1 Tytler, "History of Scotland," iv. 270. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH But this brings us to the last and severest public trial which Bruce encountered with the King. At Perth, on 5th August 1600, occurred the fatal termination of the well-known Gowrie conspiracy. On August 6th, by ten o'clock in the forenoon, the Town Council of Edinburgh received a letter from the King giving them an account of his deliverance and commanding the ministers to return public thanks on his behalf. The ministers agreed, in general, but not to enter into particulars. On coming out they found the magistrates summoned to a Privy Council and a charge to themselves to attend. The Chancellor desired them to go to the church and praise God for the King's marvellous deliverance from so vile a treason. Bruce answered they were not certain of the treason, but they would go, and in general terms bless God for His Majesty's deliverance from great danger. While they were talking Mr David Lindsay arrived from Falkland, where he had heard the King tell the matter. It was thought best that Lindsay should speak, so the Council and the rest went with him to the Cross where Lind say harangued ; where the people with uncovered heads praised God ; bells were rung, fires were kindled, and the like. On Tuesday, August 12th, the King himself having arrived in Edinburgh summoned the minis ters and asked why they had disobeyed him. Bruce answered that they did not disobey, but gave thanks to God, as they all did on the Sabbath after. The King questioned each of the ministers. BIOGRAPHICAL SKKTCH xlvii In a little while they were called in again and sentence intimated that they were suspended from preaching under pain of death, ami were charged to remove out of Edinburgh within forty- eight hours and not come within ten miles of it. This quarrel was speedily patched up, so far as the other ministers were concerned, but the difference between Bruce and the King continued unrecon ciled. Grounds for their hesitation are obvious enough. The young Earl of Gowrie had returned to his own country only a few months before, with the favour of England, and with special commendation to the Reformers from Beza with whom for a time he had sojourned when on the Continent. At first a strong suspicion was entertained in the country that the atfair at Perth was rather a design of the King against the Gowries, than a conspiracy of the Gowries against the King. And the extreme haste, violence, and partizunship of James in the matter rather tended to confirm these suspicions. It was several years after, before all reasonable grounds of doubt were removed by the discovery of the letters of Logan of Restalrig1 detailing this curious plot. Indeed, the facts by themselves carry their own evidence. The young Gowries had the deepest grounds for desiring personal revenge on the King, and would probably have liked to see a change of government, but their ideas were crude and fantastic and they fell in their own snare. " The theory that the whole was a plot of the 1 Still preserved iu the Register House. xlviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Court to ruin the powerful house of Gowrie must be dismissed as beyond the range of sane con clusions." 1 As the historian remarks, James was the last man in the world to render himself — an unarmed man — into the hands of his armed ad versaries and out of this to bring himself by his own courage and dexterity to an end, the very opposite of what was expected. But how an affair so perplexed and mysterious in itself should also have afforded occasion for a final misunder standing between Bruce and the King, for Bruce's extrusion from his Edinburgh charge, and for the commencement of an entirely new chapter in his history, viz., his course for the long remainder of his days, as a banished and outed minister, is at first sight far from obvious. Again and again Bruce declared that he believed and accepted the King's account of what took place at Perth, the more firmly and fully as years went on. But what he could not submit to was the King's demand that he should " preach " this, in its entire detail, from the pulpit. To bring into that place these public and political affairs was a flat contradiction of the policy of non-interference in such things, which the King himself had been so keen to enforce. In a letter to the King (October 1600), on the eve of his departure from the country, Bruce says, " I offer to God my most hearty thanks for all your Majesty's deliverances, from the cradle to this present hour ; but mainly for that deliverance which He granted to your Majesty in St Johnston 1 Hill Burton, "History of Scotland," v. 336. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH xlix the fifth of August, far above all our deserts and Your Majesty's expectations." It becomes plain, at length, that this Gow: ie affair was used by the acuteness of the King as an occasion to accomplish a long cherished purpose. Perceiving the hold he had on Bruce, through a certain punctilious sense of honour, lie urged it with tireless pertinacity, as a mode of reducing to silence this bold preacher ; and arresting perman ently the opposition which he continued to otter to the King's ecclesiastical designs. He first passed sentence upon him of banishment to France, which was carried out by his departure for Dieppe, Nov. 2nd, ItiOO. He was recalled to his own country, through the intercession of Lord Mar, the next year. But instead of being set at liberty, or re stored to Edinburgh, he was commanded to keep ward in his own house at Kinnaird, and was after wards tossed up and down the country for a long succession of years. We begin to perceive that this was part of a general policy, relentlessly pur sued by James, towards all the main opponents of his Church Schemes. Welch of Ayr was banished to France in 160G. Andrew Melville, the next year, was thrown into the Tower, and four years later was exiled to the same country. The quieter and more subtle mode of deprivation was antici pated upon Bruce, as one who had higher con nections and interests in his own country. But the truth is, as M'Crie says,1 " from the moment that Bruce was removed from Edinburgh, 1 " Life of Andrew Melville," p. 229 (Ediu., 1856). 1 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH it was determined that he should never be allowed to return. He was tantalised for years with hopes of being restored to his place. The terms pro posed to him were either such as it was known he would reject, or they were evaded and with drawn when he was ready to accede to them. And he was afterwards persecuted till his death by the mean jealousy of the bishops, who set spies on his conduct, sent information to court against him, and procured orders to change the place of his confinement from time to time and to drag him from one corner of the kingdom to an other. The whole treatment which this inde pendent minister received was disgraceful to the government. Granting that he gave way to scrupulosity, that he required a degree of evi dence as to the guilt of Gowrie. which was not necessary to justify the part he was required to take in announcing it, that there was a mixture of pride in his motives, and that he stood too much on the point of honour (conclusions that some will not be disposed to make), still the nice and high sense of integrity which he uniformly displayed, his great talents, and the eminent ser vices which he had rendered to Church and State, not to speak of his birth and connections, ought to have secured him very different treatment. But the Court hated him for his fidelity and dreaded his influence in counteracting its favourite plans." The second part of Bruce's career is worthy of some remembrance and record. During the earlier BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH H years of this dreary period the King allowed him a great many personal interviews and conferences. Indeed lie rather seemed to court his concessions, and professed to allow his return to his pulpit upon conditions. One of these conferences took place at Craigmillar (Jan. 1602). There, answer ing a written question of the King's, he said : " As to preaching, 1 never as yet had a calling of God to any place of that kind save to Edinburgh. Place me there, where God placed me, and I shall teach as faithful and wholesome doctrine to the honour of the magistrates as God shall give me grace. But to go through the country, and make pro clamations here and there, it will be counted either a beastly fear or a beastly flattery, and in so doing I should not remove doubts neither, but raise greater, do no good to the cause but great harm ; for people look not to words but grounds." What influence this answer had upon the King, or whether it was ever presented by the commissioners, is not signified to us. But the King and the commissioners would willingly have had Bruce come greater lengths than he had free dom to come ; therefore the King took unusual pains with him. Not that ever he designed to permit him to return to his charge. At a second conference at Brechin (April 1602) Bruce s:iid " he had offered to subscribe his resolu tion which was a more lasting and constant testi mony than any had yet given." At a third meeting in Perth (June 1602) they got nearer than at any other time to the original matter of con- Hi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH troversy. " I give you leave to pose me/' said the King, " upon the particulars." " Then first," said Bruce, " if it please Your Majesty, had you a purpose to slay my Lord ? " " As I shall answer to God," said the King, " I knew not that my Lord was slain, till I saw him in his last agony, and I was very sorry, yea, prayed from my heart for him." " What say you then of Mr Alexander, sir ? " said Bruce. " I grant," said the King, " I am art and part in Mr Alexander's slaughter, for it was in my own defence." " Why brought you him not to justice," said the other, " seeing you should have had God before your eyes ? " " I had neither God nor the devil, man ! before my eyes," answered the King, in some froth, " but my own defence. ..." Further Bruce asked His Majesty, " If he had a purpose that day in the morning to slay Mr Alexander." The King answered, on his salvation, " That day, in the morning, he loved him as his brother." " Mr Robert signified that he was persuaded by the King's oaths that he was innocent of any pur pose to slay them in the morning ; but since he confessed he had not God, nor justice before his eyes, was in a heat, and a mind of revenge, he could not be altogether innocent before God, and had great cause to repent and crave mercy for Christ's sake." Bruce signed this resolution at Perth 20th June 1602: " I am resolved of His Majesty's innocency and of the guiltiness of the Earl of Gowrie and his brother, according as it is declared by Act of Parliament ; and therefore BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH liii acknowledge the great mercy of God towards His Majesty, and to the whole kirk and country in His Majesty's deliverance." All the commissioners subscribed as witnesses, and the King granted him a warrant to travel where he pleased — save to Edinburgh and four miles about it. The religious people of Edinburgh without exception were longing to have Bruce back to the town. In November 1G02 two commis sioners were sent to the Assembly at Holyrood House to desire the return of their minister. The Assembly received the proposal with applause ; but the King and the moderator alleged they had sundry things to propound before that could be granted. After this Assembly the King sends for Bruce to the Sciennes. Upon the last of Novem ber, his own cousin, Beltrees, writes to him that he might preach next Sabbath, if he came up to the King's terms, removed all scruples from the people, and cleared His Majesty's innocence. Bruce, find ing that only preaching in their terms would please the King and his commissioners, resolved to retire, and returned to his own house. It was given out that he had deserted his kirk, which he had full liberty to enter. Upon 30th December, the same year, Mr Hall and some people of Edinburgh came to his house to inquire of him, " why he entered not his calling." Bruce declared liberty was not granted him. Early the next year (1G03) the King at a meeting of commissioners desired them to depose Bruce for disobedience. They answered that they " had no power to depose him." " Could they not Hv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH remove him and declare his place vacant ? " This they said they could do, but the matter was put off, and other important events intervened. Calder- \vood tells us that Brace's meditation during this time was " That if it were the Lord's good pleasure to exercise him with a new temptation, and pull the people and ministry from him, that it would please God, instead of prince, priest, or people's favours, to triple His Spirit upon him, and let him see in his heart His face brighter and brighter — a threefold measure of His favour, to supply his outward wants." One glimpse of mutual personal amenities is permitted us upon the occasion of the King's leaving Scotland to take possession of the English throne. Queen Elizabeth died on the 24th of March 1603. On Sabbath, April 3rd, James took farewell of his people at the public service in St Giles, and on the 5th April set out on his month's triumphant journey to the English Court. On the morning of his departure Bruce was taken into the King's bed-chamber. With reverence he approached him, and said, " Sir, I have marked four things in this great work of your Majesty's advancement ; first, that God has placed you on three earthly thrones, without loss of credit to your holy religion, or of peace to your conscience ; next, without shedding a drop of your blood ; without any loss to the person of Your Majesty's subjects, and last of all, with the approval of that noble Queen and the affections of the whole council of England. This craves a twofold duty BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH lv of Your Majesty, viz., that the glory and glare of these earthly things deceive you not ; and that you extend Your Majesty's credit, and employ your whole care for the preservation of His own Kingdom." The King answered, " Mr Robert, by God's grace I shall not place my comfort or consolation in them, or in any earthly thing. As for the preservation of His Kingdom, if I would preserve my own life, I must study to preserve that." So Bruce took his leave and had as good a countenance of the King as ever he hail in his life. And after the King had mounted his horse Bruce went to him again and was as well received as any subject of his rank in Scotland. The King's last words were (though Bruce says he did not hear them) : " Now all particulars are passed between me and you." After the King's departure, Bruce had quiet ness and rest for about a year. But thereafter troubles of a new kind began to gather round him, fostered no doubt by the favourers of the new schemes of Church-government in Scotland. Since it was now perceived to be hopeless to win him over to these schemes, he was marked as one of their most influential opponents, and measures were taken to allow him no more liberty of preaching, at least in the central parts of the country. In February 1G05 the com missioners of the General Assembly summoned him to appear to " see and hear " himself removed from his function in Edinburgh. He compeared in the company of a friend. Only himself got Ivi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH access. After long reasoning they removed him. He appealed from their sentence. They further inhibited him from preaching, but he took no notice of that part of the sentence. In the month of July the same year, Chancellor Seton sent for him to intimate that he had got a command from the King to discharge him from teaching. " He would not," he said, " go further at the time than request him to desist preaching for nine or ten days that he might get further instructions from the Court." Bruce considered this a requisition so trivial that he agreed to comply with it. But that night in his sleep his conscience awoke, " How durst you make such a promise ? " He confessed his fault and craved for mercy. But his trouble so increased as to cast his body into a fever and sickness. Yet in the morning it pleased God to relieve him and he resolved not to obey that injunction. As soon as he went home, he preached in the Woodside, and in the presence of Lord Elphin- stone and his lady in the garden where they were secluded with the pestilence. The next month he was charged to " ward " in Inverness within ten days ; and so began that course of banishment and wandering which he had to pursue for a great portion of his remaining years. The allegations made in support of this sentence were, " his apprehending a most sinister distrust of the King's sincerity in the treason of Gowrie, his uttering his distrust in public and private meetings ; his entertaining a BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ivii frequent resort of the ministry and people, and meddling with the affairs of the King and of the State; censuring the doings of ministers and there by fostering factions and divisions in the Kirk, grudges and mi scon tents against the present government." The real cause of quarrel was of course behind all these. His banishment to Inverness began on 27th August 1605, when he took instruments of his entry. He is said to have remained there four years.1 But, in point of fact, he continued for the most part there for eight years, till 1613. There he preached every Lord's Day forenoon and every Wednesday ; read and exhorted at prayers every evening. He had great success in that ministerial work. Many were converted and multitudes edified. All this work was carried on amid manifold annoyance and opposition. He was very hardly used by the magistrates, who made him as uneasy as they possibly could. The minister of the town also contended much with him, and every year was bringing him into new troubles ; indeed he was in hazard of his life by the malice some people bore against him. One day he was going through Fisher Street with two friends ; some villains shot a gun at him, and the ball missed him by a few inches. The offender was afterwards found to be the old Lady Sutherland's officer's son. Being most un- 1 Calderwood says that Bruce entered Inverness and took in struments of his entry, 27th August 1605, "where he remained four years," yet he is still writing from Inverness, February 1613. e Iviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH easy there, at the desire of the magistrates of Aberdeen Bruce came to that town, venturing upon an old licence. But complaints being made against his preaching there, after he had stayed about a quarter of a year at Aberdeen he was charged to return to Inverness, where he continued till the beginning of the year 1613.1 In reference to this migration we have a letter of Bruce to the King, declaring that if there had been a " prescription or limitation of time," he had failed in passing the bounds of it ; that " he went not without sanction of the bishops " ; and asking that " his repairing to Aberdeen for his better health, and for the comfort of his wife and children, might stand with his majesty's favour." In that year he supplied the pulpit at Forres for some months upon the death of Mr John Strachan the minister. Any occasion to remove from Inverness was welcome to him. After his son's intercession at Court, he obtained licence to come and live at his own house at Kinnaird ; and preached there and in that neighbourhood for three years following (1613- 1616). The explanation of the discrepancy of dates is due to the manner in which the outed ministers were treated by the authorities. The case of Bruce was only one of many. Delay and procrastination were constantly practised upon them. We read in this same year (1613) a letter of Bruce to Sir James Semple, remonstrating with him that no notice of the King's pleasure 1 Wodrow, " Collections as to the Life of Bruce," p. 125. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH lix had been sent him. A proclamation of relief to banished ministers was made at the Cross of Edinburgh ; but George Johnstone, minister of Ancrum, and David Caldcrwood, minister of Crailing, got no notice of it for a long lime afterwards. Mr Andrew Duncan, minister of Crail, suffered eight years' exile for attending the Assembly of Aberdeen, and only obtained liberty, upon a special petition, to return to his native country. This kind of petty persecution lasted through the years of Brucc's banishment, In a General Assembly called to meet at Edin burgh, July 1GOG, "supplication was made for the banished brethren confined in the Highlands, for Mr Robert Bruce, and for those detained in London." The nobility, at request of the Assem bly, wrote to his majesty in favour of Bruce. At a subsequent Assembly, 1GOS, a motion was made to grant Melville, Bruce, Murray, and Row — banished and confined ministers — their wonted liberty. No notice appears to have been taken of these requests or motions. At length there came a respite which in Brucc's case lasted for about eight or nine years, 1G1.°>- 1G22. He was nominally confined to his house at Kinnaird ; but in reality his activity was very considerable. Indeed his enemies complained of this very thing. He supplied the pulpit at Stirling during a vacancy. He preached often at communions and with brethren of his acquaint ance. He was therefore traduced for behaving himself like a " general bishop," and going from Ix BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH place to place. For this his adversaries had themselves to thank. In this period occurred the incident which connects him — a leader in the First Reformation — with Alexander Henderson, the leader of the Second Reformation and (years afterwards) the Moderator of the famous Assembly of 1638. At the beginning of his ministry — which was probably about 1615 — Henderson belonged to the prevailing party in the Church. He was brought into his first charge at Leuchars by Glad stan es, the bishop of St Andrews, against the consent of the parish ; so that upon the day appointed for his admission, the people shut the church doors and his friends were obliged to break up a window and procure him entrance that way. A little after his settlement, having heard that Bruce was to be at a communion some distance from Leuchars and being very desirous to hear him preach, Henderson went to the place, where few knew him, and concealed himself in a dark corner of the church. Bruce came into the pulpit, and after a pause, according to his usual manner, which fixed Henderson's attention, he read with his wonted dignity and deliberation these words as his text : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheep- fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." These words so literally applicable to the manner in which he had entered on his ministry went (< like drawn swords " to BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH l*i his inmost soul. He who wished to conceal himself from the eyes of men, felt that he was naked and opened before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. In short, this powerful preacher was by the divine blessing the means of Henderson's conversion. Ever after he retained a great affection for Bruce, whom he called his spiritual father.1 Why wr date this incident so early, is that Henderson is known to have been a member of the Perth Assembly of 1C 18, and to have then voted against the so-called Perth Articles. All which is a presumption that, by that date, his views on the great question in the Church had under gone a change. The later years of Bruce's ministry, which we have now reached, undoubtedly place him in an intenser light. In the regard of the religious people of Scotland he was held in a manner "sainted." it may indeed be said that his chequered mode of life, his moving about from place to place, without any settled charge, pre vented him from leaving on his country so deep a mark as his character and faculties were fitted to make. But the same facts have another side. The bitter trials which marked the last half of his life commended him all the more to the esteem of the like-minded. He was much con sulted by those with whom he agreed on the policy of the Church. He was greatly trusted in regard to things still more deeply spiritual. 1 M'Crie, "Story of the Scottish Church," p. 152. Ixii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH He was much visited for purposes of consultation at his own house and elsewhere, and this went on until it attracted the notice and provoked the sneers of the King. So late as March 1622 the Council took it upon them to ask permission that he be allowed to remain at his own house till the winter season should be over — considering his age and infirmity — before he should be ban ished, a second time, to Inverness. The King replied, blaming them for the delay, alleging that it was not for love of Bruce, " but to keep up a schism in the Kirk, and that lie (the King) would not allow any more Popish pilgrimages to Kinnaird." Some further persecutions were practised upon him just before his second exile. In March 1619 he had been charged by the ministers of Edin burgh with preaching against them at Cramond when preaching upon false apostles. The Council commanded him to remove out of Stirling, and confined him to his own house at Kinnaird and a mile round it. In a little time he procured a warrant from the Council to remove to another house of his, at Monkland, not far from Glasgow. There he taught in the parish kirk for some time, till Bishop Law, grieved at the great resort of people to hear him, sent Mr Patrick Walkingshaw to signify to him that he must keep his own house, otherwise he would pass sentence of de privation on him. It was one of the articles of the bishop's complaint against him that he kept private fasts in his house at Monkland. There BIOGRAPHICAL SKHTCH Ixiii were only two such, where Mr Robert Boyd of Trochrig, Principal of Glasgow University, and Robert Scott, minister of the parish, were present ; and the whole number of persons did not exceed twenty. In a little while he was obliged to leave his house. The bishop had tabled complaints against him in London, that he kept private fasts in his own house ; that when at communions he did not observe the Articles of Perth, but dis pensed the sacrament in conformity with the prac tice of the Reformed Kirk. A letter from the King was read in Council, Oct. 2f>th, 1G20, requir ing him to be cited before them and tried, and commanding them to ward him in Aberdeen if he did not obey the Acts of the Perth Assembly. When the letter was read Chancellor Scton said, " It was not their province now to judge of Kirk arVairs ! The bishops have a High Commission of their own to try these' things." Secretary Hamil ton asked him if he would reason whether his majesty must be obeyed or not ? The Chancellor answered, he thought " they might reason whether they would be the bishops' hangmen or not." So the Council referred the business to the bishops. The death of Bruce's wife, following soon after this, he was spared for a little time. The next year (1621) Parliament confirmed the Articles of Perth, and no little suffering followed to several ministers — Bruce could not miss his share. On the 29th of August a letter came from the King to the Council requiring them to cite Bruce before them for breaking the bounds Ixiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of his confinement and coming to Edinburgh the time of the last parliament to move sedition. On 17th Sept. 1621 he compeared, and denied the seditious charge libelled against him. He com plained, " though he had his majesty's own letters wherein he declared himself so much obliged to him for his services, that he thought the quarter of Scotland too little to give him for a recom pense ; now, at the instigation of the bishops, he was exhausted in his living, estate, and person ; and nothing almost was left to him but his vital spirit and breath, which were apparently now sought. The King was not readier to seek these than he was to reader them, and, providing his innocence were tried, he was ready to suffer." The Chancellor passed from the contempt and sedition in the libel, but insisted on his breach of confinement. Bruce desired his accuser and witnesses to be brought, and complained that no forms of law were kept with him. The Chancellor again requested him to answer whether he had broken his confinement. Bruce said, " My Lord, if you will pose me as a friend, not as a judge, I will answer truly. I went out of my confine, but driven to it by necessity. Since my wife's death I have had none to act for me. I wrote to the Secretary for a licence to come to Edinburgh, but had no answer. I had a matter of 20,000 merks in dependence, which needed my personal attendance. I came in very secretly. At the last parliament where his majesty was I was at Edinburgh much more openly, yet it was never BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ixv imputed to me." The Chancellor confessed that if he had written to him for a licence to come, he could not have refused. Bruce was called in again, and a warrant delivered to him to ward his person in the Castle of Edinburgh. The bishops, though they were his accusers, absented themselves from the Council that day. He was detained in the Castle till January of the succeeding year. He was then dismissed to his own house to remain till the 12th April 1C 22, after which he was to transport himself to Inverness and there remain during His Majesty's pleasure. Inter cession was made for him by the Council, as we have seen, but without effect. He himself wrote a humble petition to the Lords of Privy Council, desiring that at his age he should be spared such a journey, and offering to spend the remainder of his days at his own house. This petition was equally in vain. On April 18, 1622, he set out a second time to Inverness. It is probable that to this occasion belongs the incident related by one of his suc cessors at Larbert, well vouched for and believed in the place. A considerable number of gentle men, relations and acquaintances, some of them ministers, came to take leave of him, and some to accompany him part of the way. When the horses were all drawn up and he had taken his leave of them, and the whole company were mounting, his horse was brought out last. Just as he was setting his foot in the stirrup he stopped and stood, with his eyes fixed towards heaven, for BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH nearly a quarter of an hour. The rest, mounting or mounted, rode softly on. None of the company apparently observed the incident ; but an intimate friend of his seeing him in that posture, stopped his horse and waited till Bruce joined him, which he did very cheerfully and they soon overtook the company. His friend took the freedom to ask him what he was doing when he seemed to be in a muse before taking horse. Bruce said he was receiving his commission and charge from his Master to go to Inverness. "And He gave it me Himself before I set foot in the stirrup. I go to sow a seed in Inverness that shall not be rooted out for many ages." The outward circumstances of this second exile appear to have been almost as uncomfortable as the former one had been. He was so hardly used that he was forced to remove out of the place. He could not get convenient lodging, or at least keep it long. "The Lord Enzie vexed him with reproachful speeches against the ministers, and pretended to find treason in his doctrine. Mr John Gordon, minister at Strachan, stirred up this enemy against him, applying to himself something which Bruce had said in his preaching. Such was the opposition at Inverness that he was forced to remove to Chanonry, now called Fortrose, but the religious people at Inverness prevailed with him to return. When Lord Enzie went to Edinburgh he had peace and rest, but when he came home again, the battle was renewed. At last, a fashion of BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ixvii reconciliation was made by Lord Lovat's means." ] Very different was the estimate formed of the results of this Inverness ministry, by those who could look back upon the past. Some of Bruce's converts were alive in lb'.S4, when Mr Angus M'Bain, Episcopal minister at Inverness, had his mind enlightened and publicly owned himself sorry for his conformity, and testified to the singular effects of the martyr's ministry. In the diary of John Brand, minister of Bo'ness (June 1700) we read : " The memory of that man of God, Mr Robert Bruce, is sweet to this day in this place. In the days of King James he was confined in this town, where the Lord blessed his labours to the conversion of many brethren in the town and country round about, for multitudes of all ranks would have crossed ferries every day to hear him. They came both from Ross and Sutherland." A contemporary testimony is that of Robert Blair, afterwards minister of St Andrew's. In lu'2'J he writes : " I intended a journey to the North to visit the faithful servants of Christ who were confined there by the Prelatic High Com mission. I found very sweet passages of Divine Providence all the time from day to day ; my spirit was much refreshed observing the Lord's guidance ; and when I arrived at the sufferers their company and conference was to me admirably refreshful, especially at Turriff, where Mr David Dicksou was confined, and at Inverness where Mr Robert Bruce was now a second time confined. 1 Culilenvood, vii. 566. Ixviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH That ancient heroic servant of Christ, considering how long a journey I had made from Glasgow to visit him — being estimated at one hundred and forty miles — did impart to me the memorable passages of his life from a large book, wherein was set down what hard and sore exercises his soul had met with, both before his entry to the ministry at Edinburgh and after, ... as also the strong consolations whereby the Lord had comforted him, among which two were most eminent, whereby he said, the Lord had strengthened him before he fell under the King's displeasure. Also therein were contained choice letters either written to him or written by him." l Bruce continued at Inverness till September 1624, when he obtained licence to come south about his necessary domestic affairs. The con ditions of his warrant from the Council were so strait that he was resolved to return North again, but he got his time prorogued till the winter was over. In March 1625 the King died, the severity against him was mitigated, and he was not urged to return to confinement. During the remainder of his life, he was permitted to live at his own house of Kinnaird. The parish of Larbert having neither stipend nor church fit to preach in, he repaired the church at his own charges and ful filled all ministerial duties to the people. Multi tudes came from all quarters to hear him. This pastorate he had supplied occasionally for many years previous. But it is worthy of remark, that 1 Blair's Autobiography, p. 39 (Wodrow). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH with all his many preachings throughout Scotland, and with his many shorter temporary supplyings of Forres, Stirling, Larbert and the like, he never renounced his claim upon his first charge. So late as the beginning of the year 1629 King Charles wrote a letter to the Council ordaining Bruce to be confined to his own house of Kinnaird and two miles about it. It was thought the ministers of Edinburgh were the procurers of this letter, because he had preached in sundry kirks near to the city and desired to have taught in Edinburgh itself. " For," said he, " I may avow that there is not now a lawful minister of Edin burgh living except I ; for they have all entered in a corrupt way contrary to the good order of our kirk ; and I verily think that these ministers are greater enemies to the gospel of Christ than the bishops are." The last public occasion on which we have any notice of him was at the well-known communion at Kirk of Shotts (1G30), where there was a great gathering of Christians from all parts of Scotland. He bore a share in the preaching " with his wonted majesty and authority," and joined in the meetings for intercession and prayer, which were kept in that place, almost day and night, for four or five days. Bruce had now reached an advanced age. He longed much for dissolution before it came. In 1627, according to Livingstone, he said, " I wonder how I am keeped so long here ; I have now lived two years in violence," meaning he was two years Ixx BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH beyond the ordinary time of man's days — three score and ten. He had no pain or sickness almost to his death — nothing but age and in firmity. Some of his last sayings have become " household words " among the religious people of our country. He was much visited in these last days by Christian friends and brethren. One of them asked him how matters stood betwixt God and his soul, under his frailty and bodily decays. " When 1 was a young man/' said he, " I was diligent, and lived by faith in the Son of God ; but now I am old, and not able to do so much ; yet He condescends to feed me with lumps of sense." The last scene is well-known and truly characteristic. " In the morning he came to breakfast at his table. After he had eaten, as his use was, a single egg, he said to his daughter, ' I think I am yet hungry ; you may bring me another egg/ and instantly fell silent ; and after having mused a little he said, 1 Hold, daughter, hold ; my Master calls me/ With these words his sight failed him ; he called for the Bible, but finding he was not able to read, ' Cast me up the eighth chapter of Romans, thirty-eighth verse/ much of which he repeated. ' For I am persuaded that neither life nor death shall be able to separate me from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus my Lord.' ' Now/ said he, ' is my finger upon these words ? ' They told him it was. Then he said, ' God be with you, my children, I have breakfasted with }rou; and shall sup with my Lord Jesus Christ 'his BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ixxi night ' ; and straight gave up the ghost, without one groan or shiver. Thus this great champion for the truth, and the crown and interest of his Master, who knew not what it was to be afraid of the face of man, was taken off the field as more than a conqueror, and had an abundant entrance administered to him into the everlasting kingdom of his Lord and Saviour." 1 He died 27th July 1G31, and was buried in an aisle of the kirk of Larbert, built by himself. He was followed to the grave by an immense multitude of people of all ranks and classes, amounting in number to four or five thousand. His tombstone bears the inscription : R. H., 1G.J1. C/trixtu* in i'i(<i ct inortc I it <' nun? The person of Bruce was tall and dignified ; his countenance majestic, and his appearance in the pulpit grave and expressive of much authority. "Though he was no Boanerges as to his voice, being of a slow and grave delivery, yet he spoke 1 Wodiow, l,r)G; " Scot's Worthies," ]>. 150, <•<!. 1S70. - Bruce'a posterity. He resigned the estate of Kinnaird to his son, Robert Bruce, and his wife, Margaret Menteith, IG'JS. He, again, resigned it to his eldest son Robert, December 30th, 1643. This son died of wounds received at the battle of Wor cester, 1651. His brother Alexander succeeded to the estate in 1655. He married Margaret Elphinstono by \vhom he had no sons, hut two daughters. The eldest of these married David Hay of Woodcockdale, Linlithgowshire, 1687- Their son, David Bruce, was the father of James Bruce — the Abyssinian traveller, who repaired, enlarged, and lived in Kinnaird. There being now no direct male descendant the property has changed hands. Ixxii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH with so much weight that some of the most stout hearted of his hearers were ordinarily made to tremble. . . . Whilst he was in his ministry at Edinburgh he shone as a great light throughout the whole land ; the power and efficacy of the Spirit accompanying most sensibly the word he preached. He was a terror to evil-doers. His carriage was with such majesty of countenance as forced fear and respect from the highest in the land." l Those who have given us any account of his preaching record how with much impres- siveness he carried his hearers back to first prin ciples. When he came up to the pulpit, after being for some time silent, which was his usual way, he would say, " I think it is a great matter to believe that there is a God," telling the people that it was another thing to believe than they judged. But it was also known by those with whom he was familiar, what extraordinary con firmations he had and what nearness he attained in his secret converse with God. Blair says the first time he heard him preach, the fame of so great a man caused him to expect something very extraordinary ; " but his whole sermon did press the truth of the soul's being immortal, and that it was a great thing to believe it. Some what surprised why he dwelt so much upon so common and known a subject, he afterwards found that it was some other thing than appears at the first look, for which men may dispute, and toss as a notion of the schools, who never knew what 1 Fleming " Fulfilling of the Scriptures." BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Ixxiii it was to believe the truth thereof and that a seri ous impression of it in the heart is something else than a swimming in the head of some ordinary speculations." * John Livingston, who was his hearer in the church of Larbert for a great part of the summer of 1627, says, "No man in his time spake with such evidence and power of the Spirit ; no man had so many seals of conversion ; yea, many of his hearers thought that no man since the apostles spake with such power. He had a notable faculty in searching deep in the Scriptures, and of making the most dark mysteries plain, but especially in dealing with every one's conscience. . . . He was both in public and private very short in prayer with others, but then every sentence was like a strong bolt shot up to heaven. I have heard him say he hath wearied when others were longsome in prayer, but being alone, he spent much time in prayer and wrestling. . . . When he preached at Larbert, he used after the first sermon on the Sabbath, when he had taken some little refreshment, to retire to a chamber in a house near the kirk. I heard one day that some noblemen being there, he staying long in the chamber, and they having far to ride after the afternoon's services, desired the bellman to go hearken at the door if there were any appearance of his coming. The bellman returned and said, ' I think he shall not come out the day at all, for I hear him always saying to another, that he will not nor cannot go except the other go with 1 Fleming, " Fulfilling of the Scriptures. " Ixxiv BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH him, and I hear not the other answer him a word at all." The foolish bellman understood not that he was dealing with God. He had a very majestic countenance, and whatever he spake in public or private, yea, when he read the Word, I thought it had such a force as I never discerned in any other man." 1 Andrew Melville described him as " a hero adorned with every virtue, a constant confessor and almost martyr to the Lord Jesus." Calder- wood in his Preface to the " Altare Damas- cenum " says, " Robertus Brucius vir genere et virtute nobilis, rnaj estate vultus venerabilis, qui plura animarum millia Christo lucri fecit, cujus anima, si ullius mortalium, (absit verbo invidia), sedet in celestibus, ex ecclesia Edinburgena 23 ab hinc annis extrusus, et in hunc usque diem terris jactatus et undis. Anima mea cum anima tua Bruci, si ex aliena fide esset pendendum." No life of Robert Bruce has ever been written. Wodrow has left us " Collections " or " prepara tions " for such a work extracted mainly from Calderwood's " History of the Kirk of Scotland." Wodrow further professes to give in his Appendix Bruce's own account of the later parts of his life in several papers, but these papers are not to be found. Near the close of the " Collections " he says that what has been given is but a small part of what might have been preserved " had this account of his life been written fifty or sixty 1 Livingston, Characteristics, Wodrow Soc., " Select Bio graphies," i. 306, 307. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH years sooner." There are scattered notices of him in the remains of Row, Blair, Livingston and others. In the ordinary Histories of Scotland we find distinct and even conspicuous mention made of Bruce during the few years of his prominent public life as a courtier and minister in the pulpit of the Capital, but the later part of his life falls into oblivion. It is unlikely, though still not impossible, that further materials may be discovered. Meanwhile little more than such a sketch as is here given can be made out. It is not to be denied that the fragmentary and obscure nature of the record may have, in a sense, deepened the impression which Bruce left on the memory of his time. It is partly the gloom and disappointment of the times and his conduct under these which have helped to shed lustre on his name. A man of bold and comprehensive mind, of stern independence and stainless integrity he would, in any case, have secured the respect of his countrymen. Had he chosen to accommo date himself, even in the slightest degree, to the contemporary spirit, he might have continued to stand high in royal favour and might have become in point of influence the first man of his age. But the greatness of his character as a Christian minis ter and patriot shone brightest in adversity, and thus contributed most largely to secure those bless ings of religious freedom and liberty of conscience which have come down to us. It is not only by his writings that he made his mark. These give ample proofs of an incisive and masterly Ixxvi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH mind. But his earnest contendings, his patient personal sufferings, his unflinching protest main tained to the last, against the course of declension that was forced upon the Church and country, have impressed both his own and subsequent ages. Let us remember that he passed away before the first fringe of the cloud was raised, though not before some rays of light had begun to struggle through. His time was that which one of his contemporaries has called "the declining age of the Kirk of Scotland." 1 But this brave man never lost heart nor hope, never doubted that a better day would come, and that the cause of truth and right would triumph. His name will ever be dear to his country as that of one of the Heroes of the Scottish Reformation. 1 James Melville's " Diary," p. 505. SERMONS VPON THE SACRA- ment of the LorcCs Supper : PREACHED IN THE KIRK OF EDIN- B VR Gil BE M. ROBER T BR VCEy MINISTER OF CHRISTES Euangcl there ; at the time of the cele- bration of the Supper, as they were receaued from his niouth. IOHN. vi. 54. 63. QohafMuer eaUth mj flefh, and drinketh mj blood, hath eUrnali life, and I will raife him rp at the laft da jr. It is the Spirit that quikneth ; the flefh profiteth oithicg : the word* that I fpejike unto tou, are Spirit and life. AT EDINBVROH PRINTED BY ROBERT WALDE- graue, Printer to the Kings Majejlie. Cum Priuilegio Regali. To the MOST HIGH, PUISSANT, AND CHRISTIAN PRINCE, JAMES THK SIXTH, KING OF SCOTS, GRACE AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER, AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, — I was not of mind, at the- first, that this work should have come out in my time ; for the conscience of my own weakness testifies unto me that nothing worthy of light can proceed from such a one. Vet, notwithstanding, being overcome at the last by the instant suit of our Kirk and Session, I was content that their authority should command me in this. And if it shall please the Lord to bless it in such sort, that poor and simple ones may find either comfort or instruction in it, suppose learned ears find no con tentment, I will think myself abundantly satisfied. For, seeing God has sanctified me in some measure to His work, it must be an argument of His ever lasting blessing that if, while life lasteth, it may be employed always to the profit of His Kirk ; for who am I that should not employ His own graces to His own glory ? And I pray God that it may be found in that great day, that how mean that Ixxix DEDICATION ever they be, yet they were accompanied with this special grace, that they were well used. And suppose ye be a King, Sir, of this kingdom presently, and apparent of another, yet think with yourself that all your magnificence, honour, wealth, liberty, and all the rare gifts which God, of His mercy, has planted in you, cannot be otherwise well employed except they be employed to the defence of the truth, and of that pure and sincere discipline grounded thereupon, which, to your Majesty's great praise, and to our singular com fort, has this long time, by your Majesty's autho rity, been established in this country ; for this sort of doing shows that God has not only made you an heir to earthly kingdoms, but also has appointed you to be a fellow-heir with Jesus Christ, of that immortal kingdom and glorious Crown that cannot fade or fall away. And as your Majesty's life and liberty has hitherto been conjoined with the stand ing and liberty of Jesus Christ's kingdom within your country, continue and stick by this liberty, and, no doubt, Jesus Christ shall stick by you. I will not fash your Majesty with many words ; only this I do your Majesty to wit, that I clothe not this work with your Majesty's name and authority for any worthiness that I thought to be in it — for it is rudely set out in sensible and homely terms, as it was received of my mouth, and as it pleased God for the time to give me it ; but I had this respect, that as it is the first thing that proceeds from me, so I thought meet to make it the first testimony of my thankfulness and sincere affection, DEDICATION Ixxxi as well to the truth of God as to your Majesty's service, whom, under God, I tender as mine own life, and would be glad that God would bless me with the influence that might advance your High ness' name or estimation, both here in this present world and in the world to come. And, in the meantime, because I may not as I would, I shall do as 1 may, in my prayers continually remember your Royal person, together with the Queen your bed-fellow ; and crave continuance of your race, at the hands of the Almighty God, through the righteous merits of Jesus Christ ; under whose protection, for now and ever, I leave your Majesty. From Edinburgh, the 9th of December 1590. Your Majesty's most humble and obedient subject, MR ROBERT BRUCE, Minister oj Christ's Evangel. 9 SERMONS UPON THE SACRAMENT : FIRST SERMON UPON THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL (/Vwc/j'W the first of Ftbrwtry 1589) For I have received of the Lord, tliat which I also have delivered unto you, to wit, that the Lord Jesus in the night when he was betrayed took Bread, &c. — 1 COK. xi. 23. THERE is nothing in this world, nor out of the world, more to be craved and sought of every one of you, than to be conjoined, and once for all made one with the God of glory, Christ Jesus. This heavenly and celestial conjunction is procured and brought about by two special means ; It is brought about by means of the word and preach ing of the Gospel ; and it is brought about by means of the sacraments, and ministration thereof. The word leads us to Christ by the ear ; the sacraments lead us to Christ by the eye : two senses, of all the rest, which God has chosen as most meet for this purpose, to instruct us and bring us to Christ. For that doctrine must be most effectual and moving which addresses and stirs up most of the outward senses : that doctrine which awakens not only the ear, but the eye, the taste, the feeling, and all the rest of the outward 2 THE FIRST SERMON senses, must move the heart most, must be most effectual and piercing in the soul. But so it is, that this doctrine of the sacraments moves, stirs up and awakens most of the outward senses ; therefore it must be (if we come well prepared to it) most effectual to stir up the inward senses of the dull heart. But there is a thing that must ever be remembered ; there is no doctrine, neither of the simple word, nor yet of the sacraments, (if Christ abstract his Holy Spirit), that is able to move. Therefore, whenever you come to hear the doctrine, whether it be of the sacraments or of the simple word, crave of God that He would be present by his Holy Spirit, or otherwise all the doctrine in the earth will not avail you. Nevertheless this doctrine of the sacraments stirs up and awakens most of the outward senses, and there is no question therefore, but it is an effectual and potent instrument, to awaken, prepare, and stir up our hearts. Then, to let you see what the word " sacra ment " means, and to remove the ambiguity of it, it is certain and out of all question, that the most ancient Latin divines, did interpret the Greek word fwgrjjgiov, by the word " sacrament " ; and that they used the Greek word, not only to signify the whole action, — as the whole action of Baptism, and the whole action of the Lord's Supper ; but they used the word " Mystery," to signify whatsoever is dark and hid in itself, and not made familiar by the common use of men : as, after this manner, the Apostle calls the voca- THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 3 tion of the Gentiles a mystery.1 This con junction which is begun here between us and Christ, is called a Mystery ; 2 and the Latin in terpreters call it a Sacrament : and to be short, you will not find in the Book of God a word more frequent than the word Mystery. But as to the word Sacrament, whereby they translate the Greek word, we find not this word taken so largely by the same divines : neither is it taken so largely in any part of the Book of God. Never theless the word " sacrament " is very ambiguous in itself, and there arise about the ambiguity of this word many controversies which are not yet ceased, nor will cease while the world lasts : whereas if they had kept the Apostle's words, and called them as the Apostle calls them, Signs and Seals ; all this controversy, strife and con tention, had probably not fallen out. But where men will be wiser than God, and give names to things without warrant from God, upon the wit of man, which is mere folly, all this trouble falls out. Well then, to come to the purpose ; the ancient divines took the word Sacrament, as we may perceive, in a fourfold manner. Sometimes they took it for the whole action, that is, for the whole ministry of the elements : sometimes they took it, not for the whole action, but for the outward things that are used in the action of Baptism and of the Supper; as they took it for the water and sprinkling of it ; for the bread and wine, 1 Ephcs. iii. 9. 2 Ephes. v. 32. 4 THE FIRST SERMON — breaking, distributing, and eating of these. Thirdly, again, they took it, not for the whole outward things that are used in the action, but only for the material and earthly things, the elements : as for bread and wine in the Supper, and water in Baptism. And after this sort, says Augustine, " the wicked eat the body of our Lord, concerning the sacrament only ; that is concerning the elements only." Last of all, they took it, not only for the elements, but for the things signified by the elements. And after this manner Irenaeus says, that a sacrament stands on two things : the one earthly, the other heavenly. The ancient divines then, taking the word after these sorts, no question, all these ways, took it rightly. But leaving the ambiguity of the word, I take the word Sacrament, as it is taken and used this day in the Church of God, for a holy Sign and Seal that is annexed to the preached word of God, to seal up and confirm the truth contained in the same word : in such sort that I call not the seal separated from the word, a sacrament. For as there cannot be a Seal but that which is the seal of an evidence ; and if the seal be separated from the evidence it is not a seal, but simply what it is by nature, and no more. So there cannot be a sacrament except it be hung to the evidence of the word. Was it a common piece of bread ? It remains common bread, ex cept it be joined to the evidence of the word. Therefore the word only cannot be a sacrament, THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 5 nor the element only; but wonl and element conjointly, must make a sacrament. And so Augustine said well, " Let the word come to the element, and so you shall have a sacrament." Ju such sort then, the word must come to the element : that is, the word preached distinctly, and all the parts of it opened up, must go before the hanging to of the sacrament ; and the sacra ment as a seal must follow and be appended thereafter. Thus I call a sacrament, the word and seal conjointly, the one appended to the other. It is without all controversy, and there is no debate about it, that all sacraments are signs : Now if a sacrament be a sign, as the sign is in a relation, in that category, (for so we must speak it :) so must the Sacrament be placed in that same category of relation. Now every relation again must stand, of necessity, between two things ; for one thing cannot be the correlative of itself: therefore in every sacrament that has a relation, there must be two things which two have ever a mutual respect the one to the other. Take away one of these two things from the sacrament, you lose the relation, and losing the relation, you lose the sacrament, Confound one of these two with the other ; make either a confusion or mix ture of them, you lose the relation : and losing the relation, you lose the sacrament. Turn over the one into the other, so that the substance of the one escapes, and vanishes in the other ; you lose the relation, and so you lose the sacrament. 6 THE FIRST SERMON Therefore as in every sacrament there is a relation, so to keep the relation, you must ever keep the two things severally in the sacrament. Now for the better understanding and con sideration of these two diverse things which are relative to one another, we shall keep this order, by God's grace. (1) First I shall let you see what is meant by a sign in the sacrament. (2) Next I shall let you understand what is meant by the thing signified. (3) Thirdly, how these two are coupled, by what power and virtue they are con joined ; and from whence this power and virtue flows. (4) Fourthly, and last of all, I shall let you understand whether one and the selfsame instru ment gives the sign and the thing signified, or not ; whether they be given in one action or two ; whether they be offered to one instrument or two ; or whether they be given, after one manner or two, to both the instruments. Mark these diversities ; the diverse manner of receiving, the diversity of the instruments, and the diversity of the givers : and ye shall find little difficulty in understanding the sacrament. 1. Now to begin at the signs, seeing all sacra ments are signs, what call we the signs in the sacrament ? I call the signs in the sacrament whatsoever I perceive and take up by my outward senses, by mine eye especially. Now you see in this Sacrament, there are two sorts of things subject to the outward senses, and to the eye especially : you see the elements of Bread and Wine are subject to mine eye ; therefore they THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 7 must be signs. You see again, that the rites and ceremonies, whereby these elements are dis tributed, broken, and given, are subject to mine eye also. Therefore 1 must make two sorts of signs ; one sort of the Bread and Wine, and we call them elemental : another sort of the rites and ceremonies whereby these are distributed, broken, and given ; and we call them ceremonial. Be not deceived with the word " ceremony " ; think not that I call the breaking of the Bread, and drinking of the Wine, "ceremonies"; think not that they are vain, as we use that word " cere mony " for a vain thing, which has no grace nor profit following after it. No, although I call them "ceremonies," there is never a ceremony which Christ instituted in this Supper, but it is as essential as the Bread and Wine are, and you cannot leave out one jot of them, but you pervert the whole institution : for whatever Christ com manded to be done, whatever he spake or did, in that whole action, it is essential and must be done. The reason why I call them Signs is this : I call them not signs for the reason that men commonly call them signs, because they signify only ; as the bread signifies the body of Christ, and the wine signifies the blood of Christ : I call them not signs because they represent only ; but I call them signs, because they have the body and blood of Christ conjoined with them. Yea so truly is the body of Christ conjoined with that Bread, and the blood of Christ conjoined with 8 THE FIRST SERMON that Wine, that as soon as thou receivest that Bread in thy mouth (if thou be a believing man or woman) so soon receivest thou the body of Christ in thy soul, and that by faith : and as soon as thou receivest that Wine in thy mouth, so soon receivest thou the blood of Christ in thy soul, and that by faith : In respect of this ex hibition chiefly, that they are instruments to deliver and exhibit the things that they signify, and not in respect only of their representation, are they called signs. For if they did nothing but represent or signify a thing absent, then any picture or dead image should be a sacrament ; for there is no picture, — as, for example, the picture of the King, — but at the sight of the picture, the King will come in your mind, and it will signify unto you that that is the King's picture. So if the sign of the sacrament did no more, all pictures should be sacraments : but in respect that the sacrament exhibits and delivers the thing that it signifies, to the soul and heart, so soon as the sign is delivered to the mouth, for this cause, especially, it is called a sign. There is no picture of the King that will deliver the King unto you ; there is no other image that will exhibit the thing whereof it is the image ; therefore there is no image can be a sacrament. Thus, in respect the Lord hath appointed the sacraments, as hands to deliver and exhibit the thing signified, for this delivery and exhibition chiefly they are called signs. As the word of the Gospel is a mighty and potent instrument to THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 9 our everlasting salvation : so the Sacrament is a potent instrument appointed by God to deliver to us Christ Jesus, for our everlasting salvation. For this spiritual meat is dressed and served up to us in spiritual dishes : that is, in the ministry of the word, and in the ministry of the sacraments. And though this ministry be external, yet the Lord is said to deliver spiritual and heavenly things by these external things. Why ? Because He has appointed them as instru ments whereby He will deliver his own Son to us. For this is certain, that none has power to deliver Christ Jesus to us, except God and his Holy Spirit : and therefore, to speak properly, there is none can deliver Christ but God by his own Spirit. He is delivered by the ministry of the Holy Spirit ; it is the Holy Spirit that seals Him up in our hearts, and confirms us more and more in Him : as the Apostle gives Him this style, 2 Cor. i. L>1>. To speak properly, there is none has power to deliver Christ but God the Father or Himself. There is none has power to deliver the Mediator but His own Spirit : yet it has pleased God to use some instruments and means, whereby He will deliver Christ Jesus to us. The means are these ; the ministry of the word, and the ministry of the sacraments ; and in respect He uses these as means to deliver Christ, they are said to deliver Him. But here you have to distinguish between the principal efficient deliverer, and the instru mental efficient, which is the word and sacra- 10 THE FIRST SERMON ments : keeping this distinction, both these are true ; God by his word, and God by his Spirit, delivers Christ Jesus to you. Therefore I say, I call them signs, because God has made them potent instruments to deliver that same thing which they signify. 2. Now I come to the thing signified, and I call the thing signified by the signs in the sacrament, that which Irenaeus, that old writer, calls the heavenly and spiritual thing : to wit, whole Christ with his whole gifts, benefits and graces, applied and given to my soul. Thus I call not the thing signified by the signs of Bread and Wine, — the benefits of Christ, — the graces of Christ, — or, the virtue that flows out of Christ only : but I call the thing signified, — together with the benefits and virtues flowing from Him, — the very substance of Christ Himself, from which this virtue doth flow. The substance with the virtues, gifts and graces that flow from the sub stance, is the thing signified here. As for the virtue and graces that flow from Christ, it is not possible that thou canst be partaker of the virtue that flows from His substance, except thou be first partaker of the substance itself. For how is it possible that I can be partaker of the juice that flows out of any substance, except I be partaker of the substance itself first ? Is it possible that my stomach can be refreshed with that meat, the substance whereof never came into my mouth ? Is it possible my thirst can be slaked with that drink, which never passed THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 11 down my throat ? Is it possible that I can suck any virtue out of anything except I get the sub stance first ? So it is impossible that I can get the juice and virtue that flow out of Christ except I get the substance, that is — Himself first. So I call not the thing signified, the grace and virtue that flow from Christ only ; nor Christ himself and his substance, without his virtue and graces ; but jointly the substance with the graces, — whole Christ, God and man, without separation of His natures, without distinction of His sub stance from His graces. This I call the thing signified by the signs in the Sacrament : for why ? if no more be signified by the Bread but the flesh and body of Christ only, and no more be signified by the Wine but the blood of Christ only, thou canst not say, that the body of Christ is Christ ; it is but a part of Christ : thou canst not say, that the blood of Christ is whole Christ ; it is but a part of Him : and a piece of thy Saviour saved thee not ; a part of thy Saviour wrought not the work of thy salva tion : and so suppose thou get a piece of Him in the sacrament, that part will do thee no good. To the end therefore that this .sacrament may nourish thee to life everlasting, thou must get in it thy whole Saviour, whole Christ, God and man, with his whole graces and benefits, without separa tion of His substance from His graces, or of the one nature from the other. And how get I Him ? Not by my mouth. It is a vain thing to think that we will get God by our mouth : but we get 12 THE FIRST SERMON Him by faith. As He is a Spirit, so I eat Him by faith and belief in my soul ; not by the teeth of my mouth ; that is a vain thing. Be it, that thou mightest eat the flesh of Christ with thy teeth, this were a cruel manner of doing ; yet thou mayest not eat the God-head with thy teeth : this is a gross fashion of speaking. So if ever you get good of the Sacrament, you must get whole Christ ; and there is not an instrument whereby to lay hold of Him but by faith only : therefore come with a believing heart. O ! but you will ask me, — and by appearance, the definition laid down of the thing signified gives a ground to it, — if the flesh of Christ and the blood of Christ be a part of the thing signi fied, how can I call His flesh a spiritual thing, and Christ in respect of His flesh, a heavenly thing ? You will not say that the substance of Christ's flesh is spiritual, or that the substance of His blood is spiritual ; wherefore then call you it an heavenly and spiritual thing ? I will tell you ; — The flesh of Christ is called a spiritual thing, and Christ is called spiritual in respect of His flesh : not that His flesh is become a spirit ; or that the substance of His flesh is become spiritual. No ! it remains true flesh, and the substance of it is one, as it was in the womb of the Virgin. Nor is His flesh called spiritual, in respect it is glorified in the heavens at the right hand of the Father ; be not deceived with that : for though it be glorified, yet it remains true flesh, that same flesh which He took out of the womb of the THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 13 Virgin. Neither is it spiritual, because thou seest it not in the Supper ; if thou wert where it is, thou mightest see it : but it is called spiritual in respect of the spiritual ends where- unto it serves to my body and soul ; because the flesh and blood of Christ serves to nourish rne, not to a temporal, but to a spiritual and heavenly life. Now in respect this flesh is a spiritual food, serving me to a spiritual life, for this cause it is called a spiritual thing : if it nourish me as the flesh of beasts doth, but to a temporal life, it should be called but a temporal thing : but in respect it nourishes my soul, not to an earthly and temporal life, but to an heavenly, celestial, and spiritual end, in respect of this cud, the flesh of Christ, and Christ in respect of His flesh, is called the spiritual thing in the Sacrament. It is also called the spiritual thing in the Sacrament, in respect of the spiritual instrument whereby it is received. The instrument whereby the flesh of Christ is received, is not a corporal instrument ; is not the teeth and mouth of the body, but it is spiritual, it is the mouth of the soul which is faith : and in respect the instrument is spiritual, therefore Christ who is received, is also called spiritual. In respect also that the manner of receiving is a heavenly, spiritual, and celestial manner ; not a natural nor external manner : in respect that the flesh of Christ which is given in the Sacrament, is received in a spiritual and secret manner, which is not seen by the eyes of i 14 THE FIRST SERMON men ; in all these respects I call Christ Jesus the heavenly and spiritual thing, which is signified by the signs in the Sacrament. Now I say, in the end, the thing signified must be applied to us. What avails it me to see my medicine in a box, standing in an apothecary's shop ? What can it work toward me if it be not applied ? What avails it me to see my salva tion afar off, if it be not applied to me ? There fore it is not enough for us to see Christ, but He must be given us, or else He cannot work health and salvation in us. And as this salvation is given us, we must have a mouth to take it. What avails it me to see meat before me, except I have a mouth to take it ? So the thing signi fied in the Sacrament, must be given us by God, by the three persons of the Trinity one God, by Christ Jesus, who must give Himself: and as He gives Himself, so must we have a mouth to take Him. Though He presents and offers Him self, yet He can profit and avail none but those who have a mouth to receive Him. Thus you see what I call the thing signified : whole Christ, God and Man, without separation of His natures, with out distinction of His substance from His graces, all applied to us and received by us. Therefore I say, seeing we come to the Sacra ment to be fed by His flesh, and refreshed by His blood, to be fed to an heavenly and spiritual life : and seeing there is no profit to be had at this table without some kind of preparation : there fore let no man presume to come to this table, THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 15 except in some measure he be prepared. Some will be prepared in a greater measure than others; but let no man presume to go to it, except his heart be in some measure sanctified. Therefore my exhortation concerning the way, whereby every one of you ought to prepare yourselves that you may tit you the better to the table, is this ; There is not one of you that comes to the table of the Lord, who may bring before the Lord his integrity, justice, and uprightness : but whosoever goes to the table of the Lord, he ought to go with the acknowledging and confession of his misery : he ought to go with a sorrowful heart, for the sins wherein he has offended (lod ; he ought to go with a hatred of those sins : Not to protest that he is holy, just and upright ; but to protest, and confess, that lie is miserable, and of all creatures the most miserable : and therefore he goes to that table to get support for his misery, to obtain mercy at the throne of Grace : to get remission and forgiveness of his sins, to get the gift of repentance, that more and more he may study to live uprightly, holily, and soberly in all time to come. Therefore except you have entered on this course, and have a purpose to continue in this course, to amend your past life, to repent you of your sins, and by the grace of God to live more uprightly and soberly than you have done ; for God's cause, go not to the table. For where there is not a purpose to do well and to repent, of necessity there must be a purpose to do ill : and whosoever comes to that table with a pur- 16 THE FIRST SERMON pose to do ill, and without a purpose to repent, he comes to mock Christ, to scorn Him to His face, and to eat his own present condemnation. So let no man come to that table that has not in his heart a purpose to do better, that has not a heart to sorrow for his past sins, and thinks not his former folly and madness over-great. Let no man come to the table without this, under the pain of condemnation. But if you have in your heart a purpose to do better, though your former life has been dissolute and loose ; yet if you be touched in your hearts with any feeling or remorse for your past life, go not from the table, but come with a protestation of your misery and wretched ness, and come with a heart to get grace. If with a dissolute life, (I mean not of open slanders) thou hast also a purpose not to amend, but to do worse, for God's sake abstain. Thus far of the thing signified. Unto this general consideration there remain these things yet, to be made plain to you : First, how the signs and the thing signified are coupled together, — how they are conjoined. Next, it remains to be told you, how the sign is delivered and how the thing signified is delivered, and how both are received as they are delivered. This being done, I shall speak briefly of the other part of the Sacrament, which is the word. And last of all, we shall let you see what sort of faults they are that pervert the sacrament, and make it of no effect. And if time shall serve, I shall enter, in particular, upon this sacrament which we have in hand. THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 17 3. Then, to come back again. In the third place, it is to be considered, how the sign and the thing signified, are coupled : For about this conjunction all the debate stands ; all the strifes that we have with those who vary from the straight truth, turn upon the manner of this con junction. Some will have them conjoined one way, and some after another way ; and men strive very bitterly about this matter, and continue so to strive, that through the bitterness of contention, they lose the truth. For when the heat of con tention arises, and especially in disputation, they take no heed to the truth, but to the victory. If they may be victorious, though it were but by a multitude of words, they regard not even if they lose the truth. Head their works and books about this conjunction, and you will crave rather con science than knowledge : yea if they had the quarter of conscience, that they have of knowledge, no question this controversy might be easily taken up : but men lacking conscience, and having know ledge, an evil conscience perverts their knowledge, and draws them to an evil end. To tell you now how these two are conjoined, it will be far easier for me, and easier for you to understand, to tell you first how they are not conjoined : for I shall make it very clear to you, by letting you see how they are not conjoined : but it is not possible to make it so clear by telling you the manner how they are conjoined. You may perceive clearly by your own eyes, that the sign and the thing signified are not locally 18 THE FIRST SERMON conjoined : that is, they are not both in one place. You may perceive also by your outward senses, that the body of Christ, which is the thing signified, and the signs, are not conjoined corpor ally ; their bodies touch not one another. You may perceive also that they are not visibly con joined, they are not both subject to the outward eye. So it is easy to let you see how they are not conjoined. For if the sign and the thing signified were visibly and corporally conjoined, what need were there for us to have a sign ? To what end should the sign in the Sacrament serve us ? Is not the sign in the Sacrament appointed to lead me to Christ ? Is not the sign appointed to point out Christ to me ? If I saw Him present with mine own eye, as I do the Bread, what need had I of the Bread ? Therefore you may see clearly, that there is no such thing as a corporal, natural, or any such like physical conjunction between the sign and the thing signified. So I say, it is easy to let you see how they are not conjoined. Now let us see how they are conjoined. We cannot crave here any other sort of conjunction than may stand and agree with the nature of the sacrament : for nothing can be conjoined with another, after any other sort, than the nature of it will suffer ; therefore there cannot be here any other sort of conjunction than the nature of the sacrament will suffer. Now the nature of the sacrament will allow a sacramental conjunction. 0, but that is as hard yet ; you are never the THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 19 better for this ; but I shall make it clear, by God's grace. Every sacrament is a mystery ; there is not a sacrament but it contains a high and divine mystery. In respect then that a sacrament is a mystery, it follows, that a mystical, secret, and spiritual conjunction agrees well with the nature of the sacrament. Since the conjunction between us and Christ is full of mystery, as the Apostle lets us see, (Eph. v. 32) as it is a mystical and spiritual conjunction : so no doubt the conjunction between the sacrament and the thing signified in the sacrament, must be of the same nature ; mystical and spiritual. It is not possible to tell you by any ocular demonstra tion, how Christ and we are conjoined. But whoever would understand that conjunction, his mind must be enlightened with an heavenly eye ; that as he has an eye in his head to see corporal things : so he must have in his mind and heart a heavenly eye to see this mystical conjunction ; a heavenly eye to take up this secret conjunction that is between the Son of God and us in the sacrament. So I need not to insist any longer : except you have this heavenly illumination, you can never understand your own conjunction with Christ, nor yet the conjunction between the sign and the thing signified in the sacrament. But I keep to my ground. As the sacrament is a mystery ; so the conjunction that is in the sacrament, no doubt must be a mystical, secret and spiritual conjunction. Besides this, I will let you see by a general deduction, that in every 20 THE FIRST SERMON sacrament are two things ; which two have a relation and mutual respect the one to the other : so that a relative conjunction agrees well with the nature of the sacrament. Then wilt thou ask what kind of conjunction it is ? I answer, the conjunction that agrees with their nature ; namely, a relative and a respective conjunction ; such a con junction wherein the sign has a continual respect to the thing signified, and the thing signified to the sign. Would you know, then, in a word the kind of conjunction that is between the sign and the thing signified ? I call it a secret and mystical conjunction, that stands in a mutual relation between the sign and the thing signified. There is another conjunction, besides the conjunction that is between Christ and us, that may make this conjunction betwixt the sign and the thing signified in the Sacrament more clear : and this is the conjunction which is between the word which you hear, and the thing signified by the same word. Mark what sort of conjunction there is between the word which you hear, and the thing signified which cometh into your mind ; the like conjunction is there between the sign that you see, and the thing signified in the sacrament. You may easily perceive that there is a conjunc tion by the effect, although you cannot so well know the manner of conjunction. And why ? You hear not the word so soon spoken by me, but immediately the thing which my words signify, comes into your mind. If I speak of things past, THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 21 of things to come, or of things that are never so far absent, I can no sooner speak to you of them in this language, but presently the thing signified comes into your mind ; no doubt because there is a conjunction between the word and the tiling signified by the word. As for example : though Paris, be far distant from us ; yet if I speak of Paris the word is no sooner spoken, but the City will come into your mind. If I speak of the King, although he be far distant from us, the word is no sooner spoken but the thing signified will come into your mind. So this coming of the thing signified into heart and mind, makes it plain to you, that there is a conjunction between the word and the thing signified by the word. To tell you of this sort of conjunction is not so easy, because the thing signified is not present to the eye, as the word is to the ear. If everything signified were as present to your eye as the word is to the ear, it were easy to see the conjunction : but now seeing the conjunction is mystical, secret, and spiritual, therefore it is hard to make you understand it. Only observe what conjunction there is between the simple word and the thing signified by the word ; the same kind of conjunction is there between the sacrament and the thing signified by the sacrament : for the Sacrament is no other thing but a visible word. I call it a visible word. Why ? Because it conveys the signification of it, by the eye to the mind ; as this is an audible word, because it conveys the signification of it by the ear to the mind. In the sacrament so often 22 THE FIRST SERMON as you look on it, you shall no sooner see the Bread with your eye, but the body of Christ shall come into your mind ; you shall no sooner see the Wine, but after the preaching and opening up of the parts of the sacrament, the blood of Christ shall come into your mind. Now this conjunction between the sign and the thing signified in the sacrament, stands chiefly as you may perceive, in two things. First, in a relation between the sign and the thing signified ; which arises from a likeness and proportion betwixt these two : for if there were no proportion arid analogy between the sign and the thing signified by the sign, there could not be a sacrament or a relation. So the first part of this conjunction stands in a relation, which arises from a certain similitude and likeness which the one has to the other. And this likeness may be easily perceived : for look how able the Bread is to nourish thy body to this life, earthly and temporal ; the flesh of Christ signified by the Bread, is as able to nourish both body and soul to life everlasting. So you may perceive some kind of proportion between the sign and the thing signified. The Second point of the conjunction stands in a continual and mutual con curring of the one with the other ; in such sort that the sign and the thing signified are offered both together, received together at one time, and in one action ; the one outwardly, the other in wardly, if so be that thou hast a mouth in thy soul, which is faith, to receive it. Thus the second point of conjunction stands in a joint THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 23 offering, and in a joint receiving : and this I call a concurrence. Thus would you know what manner of conjunction is between the sign and the thing signified ? I say, it is a relative con junction, a secret and a mystical conjunction, which stands in a mutual relation. There is no more to be observed here but this only, that while you conjoin these two, you be careful not to con found them : beware that you turn not the one into the other, but keep each of them in his own integrity, without confusion or mixture of the one with the other; and so you shall have the lawful conjunction that should be in the sacrament. There is not a lesson that can be learned out of this, at the least that I can mark or gather, — except only the lesson of the kindness and good ness of the overliving God, who has invented so many wonderful sorts of conjunction, and all to this purpose, that we might be conjoined ; to advance this great and mystical conjunction between the God of Glory and us : In the which conjunction, our weal, felicity, and happiness in this life, and in the life to come, do only stand : that He is so careful to conjoin Himself with His word and sacraments, that we, in His word and sacraments, might be conjoined with Him. If we were moved with the care and love of God expressed in these conjunctions, though it were never so little on our parts, assuredly we should never defraud ourselves of the fruit of that happy conjunction, nor bring it into such loathing and disdain as we do this day : for we by following 24 THE FIRST SERMON and preferring our pleasures to Christ and His counsel, have made the stomachs of our souls so foul and ill-disposed, that either they receive Him not at all, or if He be received, He is not able to tarry. And why ? Because a foul stomach is not able to keep Him : for immediately we choke Him so, either with the lusts of the flesh, or with the cares of this world, that He is compelled to depart. And if Christ be not both eaten and digested, He can do us no good : and this digestion cannot be, where there is not a greedy appetite to the receiv ing of Him ; for if thou be not hungry for Him, He is not ready for thee. And I am assured, if all the men in this country were examined by this rule, — that there were none that received Christ but he that has a stomach and is hungry for Him, I doubt that few should be found to receive Him. I fear that we have taken such a loathing and disdain of that heavenly food, that there is not such a thing as any kind of hunger or appetite for it in our souls. And what is the cause of this ? I will tell you : Though we have renounced the corporal and gross idolatry wherein our fathers were plunged and drowned, and which men, in some parts, go about to erect still : yet, as the manners of this country, and the behaviour of every one of us testifies, there is not a man that has renounced that damnable idol that he has in his own soul, nor the invisible idolatry that he has in his own heart and mind. There is not a man but to that same idol wherewith he was conceived and THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 25 born, and whereunto lie addicted himself and was a slave before, but to that idol he gives his service yet. And therefore marvel not, when thou hast addicted thy service, set thy affection, and poured out thy heart upon that pleasure, idol, lust and mischief of thine own, marvel not if thou have no appetite to Christ nor to that heavenly food. When thou hast thy soul poured forth on some villainy and wickedness, and hast sent it far afield, how is it possible for thee to retire it or draw it home again, to employ it where thou shouldest, on Christ Jesus ? Then let every one in his own rank, take heed to his own domestic idol that lodges within his own heart, and strive to clear himself of it ; or otherwise you cannot see the face of Christ, nor be partakers of His kingdom. There is not another lesson in Christianity but this : this is the first and the last lesson, — to shake oil' your lusts and affections piece by piece, and so piece by piece renounce thyself, that thou mayest embrace Christ. I grant there is greater progress in this point, in some than in others ; some less, some more profit in this : but except, in some measure, you cast oil' yourselves, and whatsoever in your own eyes you count most precious, to come by Christ, you are not worthy of Him. And this is very hard to be done : It is very easy for a man to speak it, to bid a man renounce his own idol, which I call his affections ; but it is not so soon done. Assuredly the stronger must come in to cast out these affections ; yea, a stronger than the devil 26 THE FIRST SERMON must come in to drive out the devil who makes residence in the affection, or else he will remain there for ever. Therefore, there are not many that have renounced themselves ; and examine thine heart when thou wilt, if there be anything in the world thou lovest better than Christ : if thou be not content to leave father and mother, to leave wife and children, or whatsoever is dearest to thee in this world, for Christ, thou art not worthy of Him. If thou be not content to cast off whatever makes thee a stranger to Christ, thou art not worthy of Him. Is this any small matter, — seeing there is no part nor power of our souls but is opposed to it, and repines against this heavenly conjunction ? Is this an easy thing, to cast off and renounce ourselves, that we may come to Christ ? There is no greater thing than this : It has not entered into every heart, to consider this ; for this work of a new creation is ten thousand times greater than the work of our first creation. And there fore, it is most necessary that every man take heed to himself; for the devil is so crafty on this point, that he erects ever, one idol or other in our souls ; and sometimes under the show of virtue ; which of all is most dangerous. And in every work that we take in hand, be it never so holy, he is at our right hand, and makes himself to have interest in it : and he contents himself not with this, under the show of virtue to deceive us ; but he is so watchful, that even in the best case, when you are best occupied THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 27 in your most virtuous actions, he mixes them with sins, and so does all that lies in him to make you lose your profit, and lose your reward. For when you are best occupied he goes about to engender in you an opinion of yourselves, and so defraud (Jod of His glory. Or, otherwise, in doing of good deeds he makes you so slack and negligent, that if you do them, you do them coldly, or so indiscreetly, that he makes yon begin at the last first, and makes that which should be first, last ; and so, as Martha was, to be occupied and over-busy in those things which are not so necessary, as the things wherein Mary was occupied : for she should have preferred first the hearing of the word, to the preparing of Christ's supper. This is but to give you an insight, and to let you see that the devil is so crafty, that either he casts in a false conceit of ourselves, in doing any good turn, or else makes us do that last which should be first ; or then, makes us altogether so sluggish and so negligent, that we do the work of the Lord coldly : and so one way or other, he holds us ever in a continual business, so that we cannot be half watchful enough. For we have to do with principalities and powers, with spiritual wickednesses, which are above us, and within us also : for there is not that man that has corruption within him, but Satan is in him : we cannot therefore be half watchful or studious enough to cast out the devil, to renounce our selves, and to submit us unto the obedience of Christ. Thus far concerning the conjunction. 28 THE FIRST SERMON Now seeing that the sign and the thing signified are diverse, it remains to be considered how the sign is delivered, and how the thing signified is delivered ; and after what manner they are re ceived. And therefore concerning this, you have these things to weigh. (1) First, to consider whether the sign and the thing signified, be delivered unto you by one man or not. (2) Secondly, to consider whether the sign and the thing signified, be delivered unto you in one action or not. (3) Thirdly, whether both these things be given by one instrument or not. (4) Fourthly, you are to consider whether the sign and the thing signified be offered and received after one manner or not. After you have con sidered all these, you shall find in the end that the sign and the thing signified are not given by one person. You shall find next, that they are not given in one sort of action. Thirdly, you shall find that they are not both offered and given by one instrument. And fourthly, you shall find that they are not both given and received after one manner. So finding this diversity, you have this to do : mark the diversity of the offerers and givers : mark the diversity of the actions : mark, thirdly, the diversity of the in struments : and fourthly, the diverse manner of receiving. Mark all these diligently, and you shall find little difficulty in understanding the Sacrament. (1) And first to make it clear unto you, I say, that the sign and the thing signified by the sign, THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 29 are not both given by one man ; and this you see plainly. As for the sign, — that Bread and that Wine, — you see yourselves, that the Minister offers unto you the sign, he gives you that Sacrament ; as that sign is an earthly and corporal thing, so it is an earthly and corporal man that gives it. Now the thing signified is of another nature : for it is a heavenly and spiritual thing. Therefore this heavenly thing is not given by an earthly man ; this incorruptible thing is not given by a natural and corruptible man. But Christ Jesus has locked up and reserved the ministry of this heavenly thing to Himself alone. Therefore there are two givers in this sacrament ; the Minister gives the earthly thing; Christ Jesus the Mediator, gives the heavenly thing in this sacrament. For Christ, in giving the earthly thing, will not use His own ministry immediately, nor the ministry of an angel, but only the ministry of an earthly man. And as for the dispensation of His own body and blood, He will not give it either to any heavenly creature, far less to an earthly man ; but He keeps this ministry to Himself; and He dis penses His own body and blood, to whom and when He pleases. For why ? If any man in the world had power to give Christ's body and blood, no question, this man should have power to cleanse the heart and conscience, (for the blood of Christ has this power with it), and consequently should have power to forgive sins. Now, it is only God that may forgive sins ; and therefore it is not possible that the ministry of the heavenly tiling can be in the 30 THE FIRST SERMON power of any man. Example, we have in John the Baptist, (Matt. iii. 11), says he not, "The ministry that I have, is of the element. I am commanded to minister the element of water only : but as for the ministry of fire and of the Spirit, Christ hath reserved it unto Himself." Therefore look not to get the Spirit at man's hands, but at the hands of Christ Himself only. And without this inward ministry the outward ministry is not worth a straw. For my outward ministry, yea, though it were the ministry of an angel, and though Christ were present in the flesh to minister unto you these outward things ; except He conjoin the inward ministry of His Spirit therewith, it avails nothing. It may well make up an accusation and process against you, in the day of that general assembly ; but to your salvation it will never profit you. Therefore this ought you always to pray for, that the Lord would water your hearts by his Holy Spirit, as He waters your ears by the hearing of the word. Thus there are two offerers ; the Minister offers the sign, Christ Jesus offers Himself, — the thing signified. The three persons, one God, offers the Mediator, or the Mediator offers Himself, and that by the power and virtue of his own Spirit. (2) As there are two offerers, two persons that offer and give the sacrament, and the thing signified by the sacrament : so these two are offered and given in two actions. Christ who is the heavenly thing is offered and given to you by an inward, secret, and spiritual action, which THE SACRAMKNTS IN GENERAL 31 is not subject to the outward eye. The sign again, is offered and given in an outward action, after a corporal and visible manner. (3) As there are two sorts of actions, so there are two sorts of instruments whereunto the sign and the thing signified are o tiered : for the thing signified, that is, Christ, is never offered to the mouth of my body : the blood of Christ, the flesh of Christ, whole Christ, or the Spirit of Christ, is not offered either in the word or in the sacrament to the mouth of my body. Let them find me that in any part of the Bible, that there is any other manner of receiving Christ than by faith, and let them have the victory. So there is not an instrument as I told you, neither hand nor mouth to take Christ, but faith only. As Christ who is the thing signified, is held by the hand and mouth of faith : so the sign which signifies Christ, is received by our own natural mouth and hand. You have a mouth in your heads, and in your bodies, as proper to lay hold of the sign, as faith is to lay hold of Christ. So the sign and the thing signified are offered and given, not to one instrument but to two ; the one to the mouth of the body, the other to the mouth of the soul. (4) Now mark ; by what way these things are offered and given, by the same way they are received : as the sign is corporal and naturally offered to a corporal instrument, so is it received after a corporal and natural manner : for thou must take the Bread and Wine, either by thy hand or by thy mouth. The thing signified is 32 THE FIRST SERMON not taken after a corporal manner, but after a secret and spiritual manner : and as it is offered so it is taken. There can be nothing clearer than this ; the one is taken after a natural manner, the other after a secret and spiritual manner. So in this last part, you have these things to mark, to distinguish between the out ward action and the inward, between the sign and the thing signified, and to keep a proportion and analogy between the inward and the outward actions : you may surely persuade yourselves, that if you be faithful, Christ is as busy working inwardly in your soul, as the Minister is working outwardly toward your body : Look how busy the Minister is in breaking that Bread, in pour ing out that Wine, in giving that Bread and Wine to thee ; as busy is Christ in breaking His own body unto thee, and in giving thee the juice of His own body after a spiritual and in visible manner. So keep this distinction, and you may assure yourselves that by faith Christ is as well occupied towards your soul, to nourish it, as the Minister is outwardly towards your body. Keep this, and you have the whole Sacrament. Then from this discourse and deduction you may learn a double matter, whereof the sacrament consists. It consists of two sorts of material ; that is, of an earthly matter, and of a heavenly matter : the sign and the thing signified. And as there is a double matter in the sacrament, so the sacra ment must be handled after a double manner ; by an outward action, and an inward action. THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 33 Keep the distinction in these things, between the sign and the thing signified, and you shall not easily slip in the understanding of the Sacrament. This being said, concerning the general con sideration of the elements, (for all this yet appertains to the elements) it remains that we speak somewhat concerning the Word, which I call the other part of the Sacrament. I mean and understand by the word, whereunto the elements are annexed, that thing which quickens, which supplies as it were a soul, and gives life to the whole action. For by the word and the appointment of Christ in the word, the Minister knows what is his part, the hearer knows what is his part, and every one is prepared — the Minister how he should deliver, and the hearer how he should receive. 80 the Institution of Christ is the quickening of the whole action : for all the action is warranted from the Institution set down in his word. In the Institution of Christ, there are two things chiefly to be considered : — a Com mand, and a Promise. The Command is this, Where he says " Take, cat." The Command obliges and craves obedience. There is a Promise also in the Institution, and it is contained in these words, "This is my body." As the command craves obedience, so the promise craves belief. Therefore come not to the sacrament, except you bring both faith and obedience with you. If thou come not with a heart minded to obey Christ, at least more than thou wast wont to do, 34 THE FIRST SERMON thou comest to thine own damnation. And if thou bringest a heart void of faith, thou comest to thine own damnation. So let every one that comes to the sacrament, bring with him a heart minded to do better ; that is, to obey and believe Christ better than he did in time past. Except you bring these two in some measure, come not to the sacrament : for whatever thou do, except it flow from faith, it can profit nothing. Thus far briefly concerning the Word. Now it will be demanded, what need is there that these sacraments and seals should be annexed to the word ? Wherefore are they annexed, see ing we get no more in the sacrament than we get in the word, and we get as much in the very simple word as we get in the sacrament ? Seeing then we get no new thing in the sacra ment but the same thing which we get in the simple word, wherefore is the sacrament appointed to be hung to the word ? It is true certainly that we get no new thing in the sacrament ; we get no other thing in the sacrament than we get in the word : for what more wouldest thou crave than to get the Son of God, if thou get Him well ? Thy heart cannot wish nor imagine a greater gift than to have the Son of God, who is king of heaven and earth : therefore I say, what new thing wouldest thou have ? For if thou get Him, thou gettest all things with Him ; thy heart cannot imagine a new thing besides Him. Where fore then is the sacrament appointed ? Not to get thee any new thing: I say, it is appointed THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 35 (1) To get thec that same thing better, than thou hadst it in the word The Sacrament is appointed that we may get better hold of Christ than we got in the word ; that we may possess Christ in our hearts and minds, more fully and largely than we did before by the simple word. That Christ might have a larger space to make resi dence in our narrow hearts, than He could have by the hearing of the word ; and to possess Christ more fully is a better thing. For suppose Christ be one thing in Himself, yet the better hold thou hast of Him, thou art the surer of His promise. The sacraments are appointed that I might have Him more fully in my soul ; that I might have the bounds of it enlarged, that He may make the better residence in me. This no doubt is the cause wherefore these Seals are annexed to the evidence l of the simple word. (2) They serve to this end also, to seal up and confirm the truth that is in the word, for as the office of the Seal hung to the evidence, is not to confirm any other truth than that which is in the evidence ; and though you believed the evidence before, yet by the seals you believe it better : even so the Sacrament assures me of no other truth, than is contained within the word : yet because it is a seal annexed to the word, it persuades me the better of the same : for the more the outward senses are awakened, the more 1 An "Evidence," in a sense familiar to Scotch lawyers, is strictly a "document" which not only asserts a claim, but proves it. — ED. 36 THE FIRST SERMON is the inward heart and mind persuaded to believe. Now the Sacrament awakens all the outward senses, as the eye, the hand, and all the rest ; and the outward senses being moved, no question, the Spirit of God concurring therewith, moves the heart the more. The sacraments are there fore annexed to the word, to seal up the truth contained in the word, and to confirm it more and more in thy heart. The word is appointed to work belief; and the sacrament is appointed to confirm you in this belief. But except you feel the truth of this inwardly in your hearts, except you have your heart as ready as your mouth, think not that anything will avail you. All the seals in the world will not work, except the Spirit of God concur and seal the same truth in your hearts, which the Sacrament seals outwardly : Except He make clear the sight of thy mind inwardly, and work a feeling in thy heart, both word and sacrament shall lose their fruit and effect which they should have. All the Scriptures are full of this : the whole scriptures of God are but a slaying letter to you, except the -Spirit of God concur to quicken inwardly. So your whole endeavour should be, to strive to feel Christ alive in your own hearts, that finding Him in your hearts and seeing Him in your minds, both word and sacraments may be effectual : If not, your souls remain dead, you are not translated from that death wherein you were conceived. There fore all the study of Christians should be, when THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 37 they see the sacraments and hear the word, to labour to find and feel in their hearts and minds, that which they hear and see ; and this I call to find Christ alive in your own souls. This cannot be except you sanctify His lodging : for if all the corners of thy soul remain a dunghill, Christ cannot dwell there : and so except you study a continual sanctification, and sever yourselves from every thing, that severs you from Christ, it is not possible that He can live or dwell in you. This is a great lesson, and it is not possible to do this, except, as I have said, a stronger come in, and possess us, and make us to renounce ourselves. Thus, the seals had not been annexed to the word, except for our cause : for there is no necessity on God's part, that God should either swear, or confirm by seals, the thing that He has spoken : for His word is as good as any oath or seal. But the necessity comes of us : there is such a great weakness in us, that when He has sworn, and set His seal to His word, we are as near to belief as if He had never spoken a word. So to help our belief, our weakness and inability that is in us ; (for we are so unable by nature that we can believe nothing but that which is of ourselves ; and the more we lean unto ourselves ; the further we are from God ;) I say to help this wonderful weakness, whereby we are ready to mistrust God in every word ; He has annexed His sacraments; and besides His sacraments, He swears the things that concern most our salvation ; as you heard in the Priesthood of Christ, (Psalm 38 THE FIRST SERMON ex. 4) He will not speak only, but He swears, and that for our weakness and infirmity : but yet if He abstract the ministry of His Spirit, all these means will do us no good. Now the last thing is, how the Sacrament is perverted ; and how we are defrauded of the fruit and effect thereof. Two sorts of faults pervert the sacrament, and defraud us of the profit and use thereof; and these faults are either in the form, or in the person. In form, if the essential form be spoiled, we get nothing : for when the sacra ment is spoiled of the essential form, it is not a sacrament. There is an essential form in Baptism, and an essential form in the Supper, which if they be taken away, you lose the use of the sacrament. The essential form of Baptism is : " I baptize thee in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Leave out one of these three, or do it in the name of anyone of the Three Persons only, you lose the essential form of Baptism. In the Lord's Supper, if you leave out the least ceremony, you lose the essential form, and so it is not a sacrament. I speak of the essential form, in respect of the Papists, who keep the essential form in Baptism, though they have brought in trifles of their own, and mixed with it ; yet in respect they keep the substantial form, it is not necessary that they who were baptized under them, be rebaptized. If indeed the virtue of regeneration flowed from the person, it were something ; but in respect Christ has this to give to whom and when He pleases, the essential form THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 39 being kept, it is not necessary that this sacrament be reiterated. Now what are the faults in the person that pervert the sacrament ? The fault may be either in the person of the giver, or in the person of the receiver. (I speak not of those faults which are common to all, but of such faults as disable the person of the giver, to be a distributer of the Sacrament, and take the office from him.) So when the person of the giver is in this way disabled, no question, it is not a sacrament. Then again, in the person of the receiver, the fault may be ; if their children be not in the covenant, but out of it, they get not the sacra ment. Indeed if the parents afterwards come to the covenant, the children (though they be gotten out of the covenant) may be received. Even so in the Lord's Supper, if a man be laden with any burden of sin, without any purpose to repent, he ought not to receive it. So then, if you come without a purpose to repent, you lose the use of the sacrament : it is only this purpose to repent, that makes me who receive the sacrament, to get the fruit and effect thereof; therefore everyone who goes to the sacrament, must look what purpose he has in his heart. Hast thou a pur pose to shed blood, to continue in harlotry, or to commit any other vile sin that is in thy heart, and art not resolved to repent ? In shewing thee to be without repentance, thou shewest thyself to be without faith, and consequently thou comest to thy condemnation, and not to thy salvation : 40 THE FIRST SERMON take heed, then, what your purpose is ; for if with a dissolute life, you have a dissolute purpose, you come to your condemnation. I had thought to have entered particularly into the handling of this Sacrament ; but because the time is past, and some of you, I doubt not, are to communicate, only this : Kemember that you address not yourselves to that Table, except you find your hearts in some sort prepared. The first degree of preparation stands in contrition, in sorrowing for sin, in a feeling of your own sins, wherein you have offended so gracious a God. If you be able, as that woman was, by the tears of a contrite heart to wash the feet of Christ, humbly to kiss His feet, and to get hold of the feet of Christ ; though you dare not presume so high as to get Him whole, you are in good case : but if thou want all these, and hast them not in some measure, thou lackest all the degrees of prepara tion. Therefore let none come to this Table, except he have these in some measure. But where there is a displeasure for sin, a purpose to do better, and an earnest sobbing and sighing to get the thing that thou wantest ; in that soul where God hath placed this desire of Christ, it is the work of God's Spirit, and Christ will enter there. And therefore though that soul be far from the thing that he should be at, let him not refuse to go to the Lord's Table but let him go with a profession of his own infirmity and weak ness, and with a desire of the thing that he wants. Everyone of you that finds himself this way THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL 4i disposed, let him go in God's name to the Lord's Table : and the Lord work this in every one of your hearts, that this ministry may be effectual in you at this time, and that in the righteous merits of Jesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, praise and glory, both now and for ever. Amen. THE SECOND SERMON UPON THE LORD'S SUPPER TN PARTICULAR (Preached the 8th of February 1589) For I have received of the Lord, that which I also have delivered unto you : to wit, that the Lord Jesus in the night when he was betrayed, took Bread, etc. — 1 COR. xi. 23. WE ended the consideration of the sacraments in general in our last exercise, well-beloved in Christ Jesus : now it remains that we proceed to the consideration of this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in particular. And that you may the better attain to the knowledge and consideration of the great variety of matter that is contained in this Sacrament of the Supper, I shall endeavour as God shall give me grace, to set down certain things for the easier understanding of it. (1) First of all, 1 shall let you see what names are given to this sacrament in the Bible ; and I shall shew you some names that are given to this sacrament by the ancients. (2) Next I shall let you understand for what chief ends and respects this sacrament was instituted and appointed by Christ Jesus. (3) Thirdly, I shall come to the things that are contained in the sacrament ; how these things are coupled, how they are delivered, and how they are received. (4) And last of all, I shall 42 THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 43 answer certain objections, which may be laid against this doctrine : and as God shall give me grace I shall refute them, and so end this present exercise. 1. Now we find sundry names given to the Sacrament of the Supper in the book of God ; and every name carries a special reason with it. We find this sacrament called " the body and blood" of Christ.1 This name is given it, no doubt, because it is a heavenly and spiritual nutriment ; it contains a nourishment of the soul, that is able to nourish and train up the soul to a life spiritual, to that life everlasting : for this cause it is called " the body and blood of Christ." It is also called " the Supper of the Lord " to put a difference betwixt it and a common supper : for this is the Lord's Supper,'- a holy supper; not a profane or common supper : a supper appointed for the increase of holiness, for the food of the soul in holiness, to feed the soul to life everlasting. Not a supper appointed for the belly ; for He had ended that supper that was appointed for the belly, ere ever He began this supper which was appointed for the soul. A " supper " no doubt having respect to the circum stance of time, by reason it was instituted in that article of time when they used to sup. It is called also in the Bible, " the Table of the Lord." 3 It is not called the " Altar " of the Lord : but the apostle calls it a table to sit at ; not an altar to stand at : a table to take and receive at, not 1 1 Cor. xi. 27. 2 1 Cor. xi. 20. 8 1 Cor. x. 21. 44 THE SECOND SERMON an altar to offer and present at. It is called also " the Communion " and participation " of the body and Wood of Christ." 1 We have these names given to it, besides some others, in the Scriptures of God. The ancients of the Latin and of the Greek Churches, gave it sundry names for sundry respects. They called it a " public action," and this was a very general name. Sometimes they called it a " thanksgiving." Sometimes they called it a "Banquet of Love"; sometimes they gave it one name and sometimes another. And at last in the declining estate of the Latin Church and in the falling estate of the Roman Church, this sacrament began to be perverted ; and with this decay there came in a perverse name, and they called it " the Mass." They trouble themselves much concerning the derivation of this name : sometimes they seek it from a Hebrew origin ; sometimes from a Greek ; and sometimes from a Latin origin : but it is plain, as the word sounds, that it is derived from the Latin ; 2 and it is a word which might have been tolerable when it was first instituted : for no doubt, the sacrament, at the first institution of this word, was not wholly 1 1 Cor. x. 16. 2 Evidently the Author holds the usual derivation of " Mass " to be the correct one. The words ' ' lie missa est " were pronounced at the end of a service in the Church ; more particularly at the end of the service in which Catechumens and other non-com municants took part (missa catechumenorum). After these had left, the service of the faithful began (missa fidelhmi). So the term "mass" was applied to that sacred rite from which all others than the faithful were excluded. In earlier ages the word THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 45 perverted ; but now, in process of time, corrup tion has prevailed so far, that it has turned the sacrament into a sacrifice ; and where we should take from the hand of God and Christ, they make us to give. This is plain idolatry : and therefore whereas the word was tolerable before, now it ought not to be tolerated any way, it ought not to be suffered. And certainly, if we had eaten and drunk, as oft, the body and blood of Christ in our souls, as we have eaten that bread and drunk that wine, which are the signs of His body and blood, we should not have suffered this word of " the Mass," much less the action of it, to be so common in this Country. But in respect we have only played the counterfeit, and defrauded our souls of the body and blood of Christ, and taken only the outward sacrament ; therefore it is that our zeal decays, therefore it is that our knowledge and light decay : and for want of zeal, love and knowledge, the word of " the Mass " is become customary to you, and not only the word, but the very action. I shall not run out herein : I only tell you, what comes of the abuse of the hearing of the word, what judgments follow upon the abuse of the reception of the sacraments. was applied to all services of prayer or praise, even to those where there was no Communion. The word, being afterwards applied to the service of the Sacrament, came to denote the very thing which at first it did not mean. The other favourite derivation of the word, by Tymlall and others, from the Hebrew inisach, — a pension-giving, — because at the Sacrament men gave a portion for the austentation of the poor, is plainly an after-thought. — ED. 46 THE SECOND SERMON 2. Now I come to the ends for which the Sacrament was appointed. This Sacrament was instituted in the signs of Bread and Wine ; and was appointed chiefly for this end, to represent our spiritual nutriment, the full and perfect nutriment of our souls : that as he who has Bread and Wine lacks nothing for the full nourishment of his body : so he, or that soul, which has the participation of the body and blood of Christ, lacks nothing of the full and perfect nourishment of the soul. To represent this full and perfect nourishment, the signs of Bread and Wine in the Sacrament were set down and instituted. The second end for which this Sacra ment was instituted is this ; that we might testify to the world and to the princes of the world, who are enemies to our profession ; that we might openly avow and testify to them our Eeligion and our manner of worshipping, in the which we avow and worship Christ : and that we might also testify our love towards His members our brethren : this is the second end for which it was instituted. The third end wherefore it was instituted is this ; to serve for our special comfort and consolation, to serve as a sovereign medicine for all our spiritual diseases, as we find ourselves either ready to fall, or provoked to fall, by the devil, the flesh, or the world ; or, after that we have fallen and are put to flight by the devil, and would vain flee away from God ; God of His mercy, and of His infinite pity and bottom less compassion has set up this sacrament, as a THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 47 sign on an high hill, whereby it may be seen on every side, far and near, to call all them again that have run shamefully away : and He clucks to them as a hen doth to her chickens, to gather them under the wings of His infinite mercy. The fourth end for which this sacrament was instituted is this, that in this action we might render to Him hearty thanks for His benefits, and that He has come down so familiarly to us, bowed the heavens as it were, and given us the body and blood of His own Son ; that we might render unto Him hearty thanks, and so sanctify His benefits to us : for this thanksgiving was also this Sacrament instituted. Thus far concerning the ends briefly. 3. Now I come to the things contained in this Sacrament. You see with your eyes there are corporal things, visible things, as the Bread and Wine. There are again, hid from the eye of your body, but present to the eye of your mind, spiritual things, heavenly and inward things : both these are in the sacrament. The corporal, visible and outward things, are the things which are appointed to signify the spiritual, heavenly, and inward things. And why? Nothing without a reason. These corporal signs are appointed to signify the spiritual things, because we are corporal ; we are earthly bodies, we have our soul lodging within a carnal body, in a tabernacle of clay, a gross tabernacle, which cannot be awakened nor moved except by the things that are like itself. It cannot be induced 48 THE SECOND SERMON to the consideration of heavenly things, except by gross, temporal, and corporal things. If we had been of the nature of the thing signified, that, as the thing signified is spiritual and heavenly, so we had been always spiritual and heavenly, we had not needed a corporal thing. Again, if the thing signified had been as we are, corporal, earthly, and visible, we had not needed a sign to lead us to consider it : But because the thing signified is spiritual, and we are corporal, therefore to bring us to the sight of these spiritual things, He uses corporeal means, and an outward sign. This is the reason why these corporal signs are appointed to signify the spiritual thing. The spiritual thing in both the sacraments, is one and the self-same, — Christ Jesus, signified in both the sacraments : yet in diverse respects. He is the thing signified in Baptism, and He is the thing signified in the Supper. This Christ Jesus, in His blood chiefly, is the thing signified in the sacrament of Baptism : and why ? Be cause that by His blood He washes away the filth of our souls ; because that by the virtue of His blood, He quickens us in our souls with a heavenly life : because that by the power of His blood He engrafts and incorporates us in His own body. For that sacrament is a testimony of the re mission of our sins : that is, of the cleanness of our conscience, that our consciences by that blood are washed inwardly. It testifies also our new birth, that we are begotten spiritually to a heavenly life. It testifies further the joining of THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 49 us to the body of Christ. As it is a testimony, so it is a seal : it not only testifies, but seals it up in our hearts, and makes us in our hearts to feel the taste of that heavenly life begun in us, that we are translated from death, in which we were conceived and engrafted, into the body of Christ. Mark then : Christ in his blood, as He is the lavcr of our regeneration, is the thing signified in Baptism. In this Sacrament of the Supper, again, this same Christ is the thing signified, in another respect; to wit in this respect, that His body and blood serve to nourish my soul to life everlasting : for this Sacrament is no other thing than the image of our spiritual nutriment ; God testifying how our souls are fed and nourished to that heavenly life, by the figure of a corporal nourish ment. So in diverse respects the same thing, that is, Christ Jesus, is signified in Baptism, and is signified in the Supper: In this Sacrament, the fruits of Christ's death whereof I spake, the virtue of his sacrifice, the virtue of his passion ; I call not these fruits and virtues only, the thing signified in the Sacrament of the Supper : but rather I call the thing signified, that substance and that person, out of which substance this virtue and these fruits do flow and proceed. I grant, and it is most certain, that by the lawful use and participation of the sacrament, thou art partaker of all these fruits : yet these fruits are not the first and chief thing, whereof thou art partaker in this sacrament ; but of necessity thou D 50 THE SECOND SERMON must get another thing first. It is true that no man can be partaker of the substance of Christ, but the same soul must be also partaker of the fruits that flow from His substance : yet notwith standing, thou must discern betwixt the substance and the fruits that flow from it, and thou must be partaker of the substance in the first place ; then in the next place, thou must be partaker of the fruits that flow from His substance. To make this clear ; in Baptism, the fruits are remission of our sins, mortification, the killing of sin, and the sealing of our adoption to life everlasting. The substance out of which these fruits do flow, is the blood of Christ. You must here, of necessity, discern between the blood, which is the substance ; and between remission of sins, washing and regeneration, which are the fruits which flow from this blood. Likewise in the Sacrament of the Supper, the fruits are, growth of faith, and increase in holiness. The thing signified is the substance ; that is, the body and blood of Christ is the substance, out of which this growth in faith and holiness proceeds. Now see you not this ; That you must discern between the substance and the fruits, and must place the substance in the first place ? So that the substance of Christ ; that is, Christ Himself, is the thing signified in this sacrament. For your own experience will make this plain to you. Before your stomach be filled with any food, you must eat the substance of the food first : before you be filled with bread, you must eat the substance THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 51 of the bread first ; before your thirst be quenched with any drink, you must of necessity drink the substance of the drink first. Even so, after this manner ; before the hunger of your soul be satis fied, and the thirst thereof quenched, you must eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood first, and that by faith. So consider the one by the other ; look to what use bread and wine serve to thy body, to the same use the body and blood of Christ serve to thy soul ; and He that appointed the one to serve for thy body, the same God appointed the other to serve for thy soul. As impossible as it is for thee, to be fed with that food that never cometh into thy mouth, or to recover health by those drugs which never were applied, so impossible is it for thee, to be fed by the body of Christ and to get thy health by the blood of Christ, except thou first eat His body and drink His blood. Thus you see, that the thing signified in the Lord's Supper, is not the fruits so much, as the body and blood, and Christ Jesus, the fountain and substance, from whom all these fruits do flow and proceed. Therefore I say, suppose Christ who is the thing signified, remain always one and the same in both the sacraments : yet the signs whereby this one Christ is signified in the sacraments, are not one, nor of an equal number. For in Baptism the thing that representeth Christ is Water. In the Lord's Supper, the things that represent Christ, are Bread and Wine. Water is appointed to represent Christ in Baptism, 52 THE SECOND SERMON because it is meetest to represent our washing with the blood of Christ : for what is fitter to wash with than water ? So there is nothing meeter to wash the soul, than the blood of Christ. In this Sacrament he has appointed Bread and Wine : why ? Because there is nothing more meet to nourish the body than bread and wine ; so the Lord has not chosen these signs without a reason. As the signs in the sacraments are not always one, so the signs, in both, are not of one number: For in Baptism, we have but one ele ment; in this Sacrament, we have two. Now what is the reason of this diversity, that the Lord in the one sacrament hath appointed two signs, and in the other but one sign ? I will shew you the reason. He hath appointed only one sign in Baptism, to wit, Water; because Water is sufficient, enough for the whole. If Water had not been sufficient to represent the thing signified, He would have appointed another sign : but in re spect that Water does the turn, and represents fully the washing of our souls by the blood of Christ, what need then have we of any other sign ? Now in this Sacrament one sign will not suffice, but there must be two. And why ? Wine cannot be sufficient alone, neither can Bread be sufficient alone : for he that has Bread only, or Wine only, has not a perfect corporal nutriment ; therefore that they might represent and let us see a perfect nutriment, He has given us both Bread and Wine (for the perfect corporal nourishment consists in meat and drink) to repre- THK LORDS SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 53 sent the full and perfect nourishment of the soul. Mark how full and perfect a nourishment, he has to his body, that has store of Bread and Wine : so he that has Christ lacks nothing of a full and perfect nourishment for his soul. Thus you see the reason wherefore there are two signs appointed in this Sacrament, and only one sign in Baptism. There remain yet concerning these signs, two things to be enquired. First, what power has that Bread in this Sacrament, to be a sign more than the bread which is used in common houses. Whence comes that power ? Next, if it have a power, how long endures and remains that power with the bread ? For the first, concerning the power which that bread has more than any other bread, I will tell you. 1. That Bread has a power given to it by Christ and by His institution ; by the which institution it is appointed to signify His body, to represent His body, and to deliver His body. That Bread has a power flowing from Christ and His institution, which other common bread has not : so that if any of you would ask, when the Minister in this action is breaking or distributing that Bread, pouring out and distributing that Wine ; if you would, I say, ask what sort of creatures those are ? This is the answer : They are holy things. You must give this name to the signs and seals of the body and blood of Christ. That Bread of the Sacrament is a holy Bread ; and that Wine is an holy Wine : Why ? Because the blessed institution of Christ, has 54 THE SECOND SERMON severed them from that use whereunto they served before, and has applied them to an holy use ; not to feed the body, but to feed the soul. Thus far concerning the power of that Bread : it has a power flowing from Christ and His institution. 2. Now the second thing is, how long this power continues with that Bread ; how long that Bread has this office. In a word, I say, this power continues with that Bread during the time of the action ; during the service of the Table. Look how long that action continues, and the service of the Table lasts, so long it continues holy Bread ; so long continues the power with that Bread : but look how soon the action is ended, so soon ends the holiness of it : look how soon the service of the Table is ended ; so soon that Bread becomes common bread again, and the holiness of it ceases. Therefore this power continues not for ever, but it continues only during the time of the action and service of the Table. Thus far concerning the elements. There is, besides the elements, another sort of sign in the sacrament : there is not a rite nor ceremony in the Sacrament of the Supper, but is a sign, and has its own spiritual signification with it : as namely, looking to the breaking of that Bread, it represents to thee the breaking of the body and blood of Christ. Not that His body was broken in bone or lith, but that it was broken with dolour, with anguish and distress of heart ; with the weight of the indignation and fury of THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 55 God, that He sustained for our sins which He took upon him. Therefore the breaking is an essential ceremony : the pouring out of the wine also is an essential ceremony. For as you see clearly, that by the Wine is signified the blood of Christ, so by the pouring out of the Wine, is signified that His blood was severed from His flesh; and the severing of those two makes death: for in blood is the life; and consequently it testifies His death. The pour ing out of the Wine, therefore, tells thee that He died for thee, that His blood was shed for thee ; so this is an essential ceremony which must not be left out. Likewise the distribution, giving and eating of that bread are essential ceremonies. And what does the eating testify to thee? The applying of the body and blood of Christ to thy soul. So that there is none of these rites but have their own signification ; and there cannot one of them be left out, but you shall pervert the whole action. Thus far concerning the signs. Now what profit can you make of all this dis course ? Learn this lesson, and you shall make your profit of these things. In respect that every sign and ceremony has its own spiritual signifi cation, so there is not a ceremony in this whole action that wants spiritual significance. Take this into consideration, and think with yourselves at that time, especially, when you are at the Lord's Table, and in the sight of that action. Look what thou seest the minister doing outwardly, whatever it be ; is he breaking that Bread ? Is he dealing that Bread ? Is he pouring out that Wine 56 THE SECOND SERMON and distributing that Wine ? Think assuredly with thyself, that Christ is as busy doing all these things spiritually to thy soul. He is as busy giving to thee His own body with His own hand: He is as busy giving to thee His own blood with the virtue and efficacy of it. Likewise, in this action, (if thou be a faithful communicant) look what the mouth is doing and how the mouth of the body is occupied outwardly : so is the hand and mouth of the soul (which is faith) occupied inwardly. As the mouth takes that Bread and that Wine ; so the mouth of thy soul takes the body and blood of Christ, and that by faith. For by faith and a constant persuasion, is the only way to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ inwardly : and doing this, there cannot but follow a fruitful manducation. Thus far for the con sideration of the signs. Now comes in the matter wherein greatest difficulty stands, whereof I spake the last day, as God gave me the grace ; yet in the particular 1 must speak, as well as in the general ; but some what more shortly. Then, for the better infor mation of your consciences ; and for the better preparation of your souls you have to understand, how that Bread and that Wine which are signs, are coupled with the body and blood of Christ which are signified thereby : what sort of con junction this is, and whence it flows. I shall be brief ; because I have already, last day, spoken of it at large. Take heed, for if you give not good attention, THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 57 it is not possible that you can take it up rightly. Concerning this conjunction, would you know how these two are coupled ? Then, must you first mark the nature of the signs, next, the nature of the thing signified ; you must observe both their natures ; and why ? Because nothing can be coupled nor conjoined with another, but so far as the nature of it will sutler. If the nature of it will not suffer a conjunction, they cannot be conjoined. Again will the nature of it suffer a conjunction? look how for it will go, so far are they conjoined. Seeing then you must observe the nature of the things, first mark the tiling signified, what the nature thereof is ; marking that, you shall see that the thiog signified is of a spiritual nature, of a heavenly and mystical nature: then may you conclude, that this spiritual thing will suffer a spiritual conjunction, a mystical and secret conjunction. Again, observe the sign : The sign of its own nature, (as I told you at the beginning) has a relation to the thing signified : and the thing signified, of its own nature has a relation to the sign. So then the sign and the thing signified will suffer to be conjoined by a mutual relation : both will suffer themselves to be conjoined by a relative conjunction. Now if you ask me what sort of conjunction there is between that Bread and Wine and the body and blood of Christ : to tell you in a word, I say, it is a secret and spiritual conjunction. You would not be so inquisitive of this conjunction if it were corporeal, 58 THE SECOND SERMON visible, or local : if you saw them both before your eyes, you would not ask how they are conjoined ; or if you saw them both in one place. But because you see only the one with your eyes, and the other is hid ; this makes the conjunction the more difficult to be uttered and understood. And how is it possible that you can conceive this secret and hidden conjunction, except you have the eyes of your mind illumi nated by the Spirit, whereby you may come to the right understanding of it ? But if you have any insight into these spiritual matters, which comes by faith, this conjunction will appear as clearly to the eye of your faith, as the physical conjunction does to the eye of your body. Now, to have this matter made more plain. There is another conjunction which serves to make this one very clear : namely, the conjunction betwixt the word which I speak, and the thing signified by that same word. Speak I to you of things in a language which you understand, as by God's grace you understand this language now ; speak I of things past, though never so long since ; of things to come, though never so far off; of things absent, though never so far distant ; yet so soon as I speak the word, whether it be of things past or to come, the thing itself will come into your mind. The word is heard no sooner by your ear, but the thing signified by the same word comes into your mind. What makes the thing signified, though absent, to come into my mind ? This THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 59 could not be, except there were a conjunction between the word and the thing signified by the word. As for example ; if I speak of the King who is now a great way (" a good piece ") distant from us, (I pray God save him !) you will no sooner hear the word, but the King who is the thing signified by the word, will come into your mind.1 If I speak of things past, though they be already expired, yet the thing signified will presently come into your mind : so there is a conjunction you see, between the word and the thing signified by the word. Mark it, and you shall get the nature of the coupling of the sign with the thing signified in the sacrament. For observe what sort of conjunction is between the word and the thing signified by the word, the same is there between the sacrament which is seen by the eye of your body, and the thing signified by the sacrament, which is seen by the eye of your soul only. As for example ; so soon as you see that Bread taken in the hand of the minister, immediately must the body of Christ come into your mind ; these two are so conjoined, that they come both together : the one to the outward sense ; the other to the inward sense. And even this is not enough ; for in the institution you are commanded to 1 This reads as if the King were already abroad ; but he did not leave for Norway till the 22nd Oct. 1589. The date of the discourse may be mistaken ; or the reference may only be to his absence in the North of Scotland. — ED. 60 THE SECOND SERMON go further ; not only to look to that Bread and Wine, but to take that Bread and Wine : immediately as your hands take the one, your heart takes the other ; as your teeth eat the one, the teeth of your soul, which is faith, eats the other ; that is, applies Christ to your soul. So you see there is a conjunction here, secret and mystical : and therefore Christ cannot be received but in a secret and mystical way. The conjunction between Christ and us is one which the Apostle (Ephes. v.) calls that spiritual con junction, full of an high mystery. This con junction cannot be taken up at the first ; So seeing the conjunction is secret and spiritual and not perceived but by the Spirit of God ; all is as nothing, except you have some portion and measure of His Spirit. All that is taught in the word and sacraments will never do you good, will never carry your soul to heaven, except the Spirit of God illuminate your minds, and make you to find in your souls the thing that you hear in the word. Therefore, let us learn this ; seeing the word cannot be understood but by the Spirit of God, let us crave that the Lord would illuminate the eyes of your minds by His Spirit ; and be you as careful to get the Spirit as you are careful now, in the hearing of the word. Thus far concerning the conjunction. Now you have heard how the sign is conjoined to the thing signified. It remains yet for you to know how the sign is received, and how the thing signified is received ; whether they be both THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 61 received with one mouth or not ; whether the sign and the thing signified be received after one fashion and manner or not. And marking the diverse manner of receiving, and the diversity of the instruments, you shall not easily err in the sacrament. The sign, and the thing signified, are received by two mouths : for you see the signs, that is, bread and wine, to what they are given ; they are given to the mouth of the body. So the mouth of the body is the instrument to receive the bread and wine, which are the signs. As the Bread and Wine are visible and corporeal : so the mouth or instrument whereby they are received, is visible and corporeal. The thing signified by the bread and wine is not received by the mouth of the body : no, the Scripture denies that plainly ; but it is received by the mouth of the soul : There are two mouths : the broad anil wine which are the signs, are received by the mouth of the body : Christ, who is the thing signified, is received by the mouth of the soul ; that is, by a true faith. So bring not to the Lord's Table one mouth only, (for if ye bring the mouth of your body only, all is wrong !) but bring with you also the mouth of the soul, — a constant persuasion in the death of Christ, — and all goes well. Now as to the manner how the signs are received, and the fashion how the thing signified is received, you may easily know that these corporeal and natural signs must be received after a corporeal and natural manner : They 62 THE SECOND SERMON must be taken with the hand or mouth of the body. Again, a supernatural thing must be re ceived after a supernatural manner : a spiritual thing must be received after a spiritual manner. So as the signs are corporeal, and received after a corporeal manner, with the hand or the mouth of the body ; in like manner, the thing signified is spiritual, and received after a spiritual manner with the hand and mouth of the soul, which is true faith. Thus you have, briefly delivered to you, the whole preparation that is necessary for the understanding of the sacrament. Now what doctrine gather I from this ? Of the last point, where I say that Christ is the thing signified, and cannot be perceived but by faith, cannot be received nor digested but by a faithful soul : what kind of perception establish I in this sacrament 1 I establish no kind of per ception of Christ but a spiritual perception. He cannot be perceived nor received but by faith, and faith is spiritual : therefore in the sacrament I establish only a spiritual perception of Christ ; and not an oral, carnal or fleshly perception. This is the ground ; now let us see what in convenience can follow upon this ground. The Papists say, that upon this ground this incon venience shall follow : If there be no perception of Christ but a spiritual perception, then (say they) your sacrament is in vain ; this sacrament of the Supper was instituted to no end. And what is their reason ? If there be no way to receive Christ (say the Papists) but by faith, THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 63 what need have you of a sacrament ? You receive Christ by faith in the word : by the naked and simple preaching of the word, you get faith. So the simple word may serve the turn. What need have you of a sacrament, if you get not some new thing in the sacrament, which you could not get in the word ? This is their argument ; whereof ye see their conclusion to be this : We get no other new thing in the sacrament than we do in the word, if there be no perception but spiritual. Ergo, the sacrament, is superfluous. We admit the antecedent to be true ; we get no other thing, nor no new thing in the sacra ment, but the same thing which we got in the word. I would have thee devise and imagine with thyself, what new thing thou wonkiest have : let the heart of man devise, imagine, and wish ; he durst never have thought to have such a thing as the Son of God ; he durst never have presumed, to have pierced the clouds, to have ascended so high, as to have craved the Son of God in His flesh, to be the food of his soul. Having the Son of God, thou hast Him who is the heir of all things ; who is King of heaven and earth ; and in Him thou hast all things. What more then canst thou wish ? What better thing canst thou wish ? He is equal with the Father, one in substance with the Father, true God, and true man, what more canst thou wish ? Therefore, I say, we get no other thing in the sacrament than we had in the word : content thee with this. 64 THE SECOND SERMON But suppose it be so ; yet the sacrament is not superfluous. For wouldest thou understand what new thing thou obtainest, what other thing tbou gettest ? I will tell thee. Suppose thou get that same thing which thou hadst in the word, yet thou gettest that same thing better. What is that better ? Thou obtainest a greater and surer hold of that same thing in the sacrament, than thou hadst by the hearing of the word. That same thing which thou possessedst by the hearing of the word, thou dost possess now more largely ; He has larger bounds in thy soul by the receiving of the sacrament, than otherwise He could have by the hearing of the word only. Then, wilt thou ask what new thing we get? I say, we get this new thing : we get Christ better than we did oefore ; we get the thing which we had, more fully, that is, with a surer apprehension than we had of it before ; we get a greater hold of Christ now. For by the sacrament my faith is nourished, the bounds of my soul are enlarged : and so, whereas I had but a little hold of Christ before, as it were between my finger and my thumb, now I get Him in my whole hand ; and still the more that my faith grows, the better hold I get of Christ Jesus. So the sacrament is very necessary, if it were no more but to get Christ better, and to get a closer apprehension of Him, by the Sacrament than we could have before. Now if it were true that the sacrament is superfluous ; by the same reason it should follow also, that the repetition of the sacrament is THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 65 superfluous. For when you come to the sacra ment the second time, you can get no other thing than you did the first time : when you come to the sacrament the third time, you get no other thing than you did the first time : and yet no man will say, that the third and second coming is a superfluous tiling. And why ? Because by the second coming my faith is augmented. I understand better, I grow in knowledge, in appre hension, in feeling : and getting the growth of all these as oft as I come, there is no man will say that the oft coming to the sacrament is superfluous, even if it were once every day. "So their first in convenience avails not : " We get no new thing in the sacrament," say they ; Ergo the Sacrament is superfluous. Thus far for the first. Then there depends another thing on the same ground. If Christ be not received but by faith, then, say we, no wicked person can receive Him ; he that lacks faith cannot receive Him. He that lacks faith may perceive the sacrament of that Bread and Wine, and may eat of that Bread and drink of that Wine ; but he that lacks faith, may not eat of the body and blood of Christ signified by that Bread and Wine. So this is the ground : No unbelieving person can receive Christ, nor eat the body of Christ in the sacrament. Against this ground they discharge their artillery also, and they bring their argument out of the same words of the Apostle which I have read ; the words are these : " Whosoever shall eat this Bread (says the Apostle) and drink the 66 THE SECOND SERMON cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the "body and Hood of the Lord" There is their ground : So that their argument will take this form: "No man can be guilty of that thing which he has not received : they have not re ceived the body and blood of Christ : therefore they cannot be guilty of the body and blood of Christ : but so it is that the Apostle says, they are guilty, therefore they have received the body and blood of Christ." I answer to the proposition and say, it is very false that they could not be guilty of that body and blood, except they had received it ; for they may be guilty of the body and blood, though they never received it. For note the text : it says not, that they eat the body of Christ unworthily ; but it says that they eat that Bread and drink that Wine unworthily ; and yet because of this, they are counted before God guilty of the body and blood of Christ. Now wherefore is this ? Nob because they receive Him ; for if they received Him, they could not but receive Him worthily, for Christ cannot be received of any man but worthily. Yet they are accounted guilty of the body and blood of the Son of God, because they refused Him. For when they did eat that Bread and drink that Wine, if they had had faith, they might have eaten and drunk the flesh arid blood of Christ Jesus. Now because thou refusest the body of Christ, thou contemnest His body ; if thou have not an eye to discern and judge of His body that is offered thee. For if they had had faith, they THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR G7 might have seen His body offered with the Bread ; by faith they might have taken and eaten that body. Therefore lacking their wedding garment, — lacking faith whereby they should eat the body and drink the blood of Christ ; lacking faith, which is the eye of the soul to perceive, and the mouth of the soul to receive that body which is spiritually offered ; they are counted guilty of the body and blood of Christ. Now let us make this more clear by a simili tude. You see among worldly Princes, their custom is not to suffer their majesty to be im peached in the smallest thing that they have. What smaller thing is there that concerneth the majesty of a Prince than a seal ? For the sub stance of it is but wax : yet if them disdainfully use that seal and contemn it, and tread it under thy feet, thou shalt be esteemed as guilty of his body and blood, as he that laid violent hands on him, and thou shalt be punished accordingly. Much more, if thou come as a swine or a dog to handle the seals of the body and blood of Christ ; much more, I say, rnayest thou be reckoned guilty of His body and blood. Thus far of the eating of the body of Christ : The wicked cannot eat the body of Christ ; but they may be guilty of it. The Apostle makes this more plain yet by another speech which I have aforetime handled from this place. In Heb. vi. 6, it is said that the apostates, — they that make grievous defection, — "crucify aydin to Uieinselves the Son of God;" and their falling 68 THE SECOND SERMON away makes them as guilty as they were who crucified Him. He is now in heaven, they can not fetch Him from thence to crucify Him : yet the Apostle says they crucify Him. Why ? Be cause their malice is as great as theirs that cruci fied Him ; so that if they had Him on the earth, they would do the like : therefore they are said to crucify the Son of God. Likewise in Heb. x. 29, there is another speech : the wicked are said to tread the blood of Christ under their feet. Why ? Because their malice is as great as theirs that trode upon His blood. They are accounted for this reason to be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, not because they eat His body, but be cause they refuse it, when they might have had it. Now the time remains yet, wherein we may have the body and blood of Christ. This time is very precious, and the dispensation of times is very secret and has its own bounds ; if you take not this time now, it will away. This time of grace and of that heavenly food has been dispensed to you very long : but how ye have profited, your life and behaviour testify. Re member, therefore, yourselves in time, and in time make use of it, for you know not how long it will last : crave a mouth to receive, as well the food of your soul that is offered, as the food of your bodies : and take this time while you may have it, or assuredly the time shall come, when you shall cry for it but shall not get it ; but in place of grace and mercy, shall come judgment, vengeance, and the dispensation of wrath. THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 69 They will not leave this matter so, but they insist yet, and they bring more arguments to prove that the wicked are partakers of the body and blood of Christ ; " That bread (say they) ye will grant which the wicked man eats is not naked bread, but is that bread which is the sacrament." Thus then they make their argu ment ; "The sacrament has ever conjoined with it, the thing signified : But the sacrament is given to all, therefore the thing signified is given to all." What if I grant to them all this argument ? There should no inconvenience follow. For the thing signified may be given to all ; that is, offered to all, as it is offered to all men, and yet not received of all. Given to all, therefore re ceived of all, it follows not. I may offer you two things ; yet it is in your own will, whether you will take them or no ; but you may take the one and refuse the other : and yet He that offers, offered you the thing that you refused, as truly as the thing which you took. So God deceives no man : but with the word and sacraments assuredly He gives two things, if they would take them. By His word He offers the word to the ear, He offers Christ to the soul. By His sacraments He offers the sacraments to the eye ; to the soul He offers Christ Jesus. Now it may be, that where two things are truly and conjointly offered, a man may receive the one and refuse the other. He receives the one, because he has an instrument to take it : he 70 THE SECOND SERMON refuses the other because he lacks an instrument. I hear the word, because I have an ear to hear it with : 1 receive the sacrament, because I have a mouth to receive it with : but as for the thing which the word and sacraments represent, I may refuse it ; because I have not a mouth to take it, nor an eye to perceive it : and therefore the fault is not upon God's part, but upon our part. The wicked get the body and blood of Christ offered to them conjointly with the word and sacraments ; but the fault is on their part, that they have not a mouth to take Him, and God is not bound to give them a mouth. Mark this : That if it were not of God's special grace and mercy, that He gives me an eye to perceive Him, and a mouth to re ceive Him, I would refuse Him as well as they. So this argument holds not : " Christ is offered to all ; Ergo, he is received of all." Happy were they, if they could receive Him. Thus far for the third argument. What remains now for the full understanding of the sacrament ? These things remain ; That we understand the sacramental speeches in the sacrament : for we used to speak of them : God uses to speak of them : and the ancients used to speak of them. We used to say, that the soul eats the body of Christ, and drinks the blood of Christ. These speeches should be opened to you, how the soul is said to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. And I shall make this plain by God's grace. These words are sacramental ; what is that ? Eating and drinking as you know THE LORDS SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 71 are the proper actions of the body only. But they are ascribed to the soul by a translation, by a figurative manner of speaking. That which is proper to the body, is ascribed to the soul, and it is said that the soul eats and drinks. The eating of the soul must resemble the eating of the body : for it is no other thing than the applying of Christ to the soul ; to believe that He has shed His blood for me, that He lias purchased remission of sins for me ; Wherefore, then, call you this an eating ? Thy body eats when thou appliest the meat to thy mouth. If then the eating of the body be no other thing, than the applying of the meat to the mouth ; the eating of the soul must be no other thing, than the applying of the nourishment to the soul. So you see what is meant by the eating and drinking of the soul : no other thing than the applying of Christ, — the applying of His death and passion to my soul ; and this is only done by faith : therefore He that lacks faith cannot eat Christ. Thus far, for the eating and drinking of the soul, which are sacramental expressions. There remains now, of all these great things, and of all this doctrine which has been taught, but this one lesson. Learn to apply Christ rightly to thy soul and thou hast won all ; thou art a great theologian, if thou hast learned this well : for in the right application of Christ to the sick soul, to the wounded conscience, and diseased heart, here begins the fountain of all our felicity, and the well-spring of all our joy. And I shall tell you what this application works : Observe 72 THE SECOND SERMON what the presence of thy soul within thee (sup pose thou want Christ in thy soul) does to this earthly body, to this lump of clay ; as by the presence of the soul, it lives, it moves, it feels : as the soul gives to the body, life, moving, and senses : that very same thing does Christ to thy soul. Hast thou once laid hold of, and applied Him to thee ? As the soul quickens the body, so He quickens the soul ; not with an earthly or temporal life, but with the life which He lives in heaven : He makes thee to live that same life, which the angels live above : He makes thee to move, not with worldly motions, but with heavenly, spiritual and celestial motions. Again, He inspires in thee, not outward senses, but heavenly senses ; He works in thee a spiritual feeling, that in thine own heart and conscience, thou mayest find the effect of this word. So by the conjunction of Christ with my soul, I get a thousand times a greater benefit than the body does by the soul : for the body, by the presence of the soul, gets only an earthly and temporal life, subject to continual misery ; but by the presence of Christ in my soul I see a blessed life, I feel a blessed life : and that same life makes daily more and more increase in me. Therefore the ground of all our perfection and blessedness, stands in this conjunction : and suppose thou mightest live Methuselah's years, and wert ever seeking; yet if in the last hour thou get this conjunction, thou mayest think thy labour well be stowed ; thou hast gotten enough : for if we have THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 73 obtained Christ, we have gotten all with Him. So the applying of Christ to my soul, is the fountain of all my joy and felicity. Now let us see how we get this conjunction. This is a spiritual conjunction, hard and difficult to be procured, obtained, and gotten of us. How then is this conjunction brought about ? which are the means of it employed on God's part ? and which are the means employed on our part, to get Christ, to put Christ Jesus in our souls, and to make Christ one with us ? There is one means employed on God's part, that helps to get us Christ, and there is another on our part. Upon the part of God, there is the Holy Spirit Who offers the body and blood of Christ to me : Upon our part, there must also be a means employed, or else though He offer, we will not receive. There fore, of necessity, there must be faith in our souls, to receive that heavenly food of the body and blood of Christ which the Holy Spirit ofTers. Thus faith and the Holy Spirit are the two means employed in this spiritual, and heavenly con junction. By these two agencies, by faith and by the Holy Spirit, I get, the body of Christ, — the body of Christ is mine, and He is given to my soul. Now here comes in the question ; How canst thou say that the body of Christ is given or delivered to thee, seeing the body of Christ is sitting at the right hand of God the Father ? and as great as is the distance between heaven and earth, so great distance is there, betwixt the body 74 THE SECOND SERMON of Christ, and thy body : how then say you, that the body of Christ is given to you ? The Papists cannot get this understood ; and therefore they imagine a gross and carnal conjunction. Except the Spirit of God reveal these things, they cannot be understood. The Spirit of God must illumi nate our minds, and be busy in all our hearts, before we can come to the understanding of this. Then, wouldest thou understand how Christ is given thee ? This ground is true, that the body of Christ is at the right hand of the Father ; the blood of Christ is at the right hand of the Father: yet notwithstanding, though there be as great distance betwixt my body and the body of Christ, as there is between heaven and earth, yet Christ's body is given to me, because I have a title of His body given to me : the right and title which is given me, makes me to possess His body and blood. The distance of the place, hurts not my title nor my right ; for if any of you have a piece of land lying in the farthest part of Orkney ; if you have a good title to it, the distance of the place cannot hurt your title. So I say, the distance of place hurts not my right and title that I have to Christ. For though He be sitting at the right hand of the Father, yet the right and title that I have to Him makes Him mine ; so that I may say truly, this Christ is my property. Therefore Christ is not made mine, because I fetch Him out of the heavens : but He is mine because I have a sure right and title to Him, and having this, the distance of place, — how far soever it be, — can THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 75 no ways hurt my title nor my right ; but where- ever He be, He is mine. Yea not only so, but this title is confirmed to me : For as I get a title to Him in the word (and if I got not that title to Him in the word, I durst not come to the sacrament), so in the sacrament I get the con firmation of my title, I got the seal which con firms it. Then, to come to the point ; Christ's body is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and yet He is mine, and is delivered to me, because I have right to His body, be it where it will. He was born for me, given to me, and delivered to me. So distance of place hurts not the sureness of my title, as propinquity of place helps not the sureness of the same. Though Christ should bow the heavens, and touch thee with His body, as He did Judas, yet this could not help thee a whit ; for if thou hast not a title to Him, thou darest not call Him thine. So it is not the nearness nor proximity of place that makes Christ mine : It is only the right that I have to Him : I have right to Him by faith alone : So by faith only is Christ made mine. Now they think they have gotten a great advantage of us, if we be so far from Christ as the heaven is from the earth ; but this shall be answered also, by God's grace. I have a title to His body, which is distant from my body : yet His body is not distant from me, that is, from my soul ; His body and ray soul are conjoined. It is a strange ladder that will climb from the earth to the 76 THE SECOND SERMON heavens ; yet let me tell you, there is a cord that extends so far, and couples me and Christ to gether, and this is only true faith : By true faith, Christ, though He be in the heavens, is coupled and conjoined with me who am here on earth. Let me show you this by a similitude. Is not the body of the Sun in the firmament ? It is impossible for you to touch the body of the Sun ; yet the body of the Sun and you are conjoined. How ? By those beams, by that light which shines on you : Why may not the body of Christ then, though it be in the heavens, be conjoined with me that am on earth, namely, by the beams, by the light and gladness that flow from His body ? My body and Christ's body are conjoined by the virtue and power flowing from His body : which virtue and power quickens my dead soul, makes me to live the life of Christ, to begin to die to myself : and ever the more I die to myself, the more I live to Him. This conjunction now is the ground, as I told you, of all our felicity and happiness, and I have made it clear to you, at this time, so far as God has yet given me insight. Nevertheless you see this conjunction is brought about by two special means; by means of the Holy Spirit and by means of faith : If there be no other means than these two, why era vest thou a carnal or visible conjunction ? Faith is invisible, and the Spirit is invisible, therefore thou canst not see it, nor take it up with the eye of thy body. The power of the Holy Spirit is so subtle, secret, and invisible, that thou canst not perceive THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 77 it; yet He will work great effects in thy soul, ere ever thou perceivest His working. In respect therefore that the agencies of this conjunction are so subtle, secret, and spiritual, why thinkest thou to get a sight of it with the eye of thy body ? why iinaginest thou such a carnal conjunction as this, which would do thee no good if thou hadst it ? Knowest thou not that the Spirit who coupleth us and Christ is infinite ? So that it is as easy for the Spirit to couple Christ and us, how far distant soever we be, as it is easy for our souls to couple the head and feet of our bodies, though they be distant. Therefore, seeing this conjunction is the ground and fountain of all our happiness : and seeing this ground of happiness is so subtle and so spiritual ; what is your part ? Remove all your outward senses, your natural notions, your natural dis courses and your natural reason, and follow the sight and information of the Spirit of God : Crave that it would please Him to illuminate your understanding, that by the light of His Spirit you may see clearly the spiritual conjunction. Except the eye of the Spirit be given you, it is not possible that you can get any insight in it. But if the Lord of His mercy will bestow some measure of His Holy Spirit upon you ; out of question, you shall soon come to the understanding of it, and shall think the time happy that ever you beard this word. Except you have some part of this Spirit, it is not possible that you can be spiritual. That which is born of flesh and blood will 78 THE SECOND SERMON remain flesh and blood, except that Spirit come in and make it spiritual. Therefore you must be born again of the Spirit, you must be born in the body of Christ, his Spirit must quicken you. This is called, by John, the quickening and living Spirit of Christ. And so soon as this Spirit comes unto us, what doth He ? He chases away the darkness out of our understand ing. Whereas before I knew not God, now I see Him ; not only generally that He is God, but that He is my God in Christ. What more doth the Holy Spirit ? He opens the heart as well as the mind : and what does He there ? Those things, whereon I bestowed the affections of my heart and employed the love of my soul, are by the working of the Holy Spirit made gall to me, He makes them venom to me, and to be as deadly hated of me as poison. He works such an inward disposition in my soul, that He makes me to turn and flee from those very things whereon I employed my love before, and to employ it on God. This is a great perfection ! In some measure, He makes me continually to love God better than any other thing : He changes the affections of my soul, He changes the faculties and qualities of my soul : And though our hearts and minds be made new, yet the substance of them is not changed, but only the faculties and qualities are changed, in respect of which change we are called new creatures, and except you be found new creatures, you are not in Christ. Now to come to the point. This secret con- THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 79 junction is brought about by faith and by the Holy Spirit : by faith we lay hold on the body and blood of Christ : And though we be as far distant as heaven and earth are, the Spirit serves us as a ladder to conjoin us with Christ : As the ladder of Jacob which reached from the ground to the heaven, to the self-same use serves the Spirit of God to conjoin the body of Christ with my soul. Then observe the whole in a word : What makes you to have any right or title to Christ ? Nothing but the Spirit : nothing but faith. What should be your study then ? Seek by all possible means to get faith : that as Peter (Acts xv. 9) says : " Your hearts and consciences may be sanctified by faith." And if you endeavour not as well to get faith in your hearts as in your minds, your faith avails not. What avails the faith that fleets in the fantasy, and brings a bare knowledge, without the open ing of the heart and consent of the will ? So there must be an opening of thy heart and con sent of thy will to do that thing which God com mands, or else thy faith avails not. Therefore strive to get faith in your hearts and minds ; and doing so, you do the duty of Christians. This is not done, without the diligent hearing of the word and diligent receiving of the sacraments. There fore be diligent in these exercises, and be dili gent in prayer ; praying in the Holy Ghost, that He would nourish your souls inwardly with the body and blood of Christ : That He would increase faith in your hearts and minds, and 80 THE SECOND SERMON make it to grow up more and more daily, until you come to the full fruition of that blessed immortality. Unto the which, the Lord of His mercy bring us, and that for the righteous merits of Christ Jesus : To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, praise and glory, both now and for ever. Amen. THE THIRD SERMON UPON THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR (Preached the fifteenth of February 1589) For I have received of the Lord, that which I also have delivered unto you : to wit, That the Lord Jesus in the night when he was betrayed, took Bread, &c.— 1 Con. xi. 23. WE heard (well-beloved in Christ Jesus) in our last lesson, what names were given to the sacra ment of the Supper, as well in the Book of God as by the ancients of the Latin and Eastern Churches : we heard the chief ends wherefore, and whereunto this holy Sacrament was instituted. We heard the tilings that were contained in this sacrament, what they were, how they are coupled, how they are delivered, and how they are received. We heard also some objections that might be brought against this doctrine : we heard them propounded, and as God gave the grace, refuted : and last of all, we heard how the faithful soul is said to eat Christ's body, and drink His blood. We heard the manner how Christ is, or can be received of us ; And we concluded on this point : That Christ Jesus, the Saviour of Man kind, our Saviour, cannot be perceived nor yet received, but by a spiritual way and apprehension ; Neither the flesh of Christ, nor the blood of r- 81 82 THE THIRD SERMON Christ, nor Christ Himself, can be perceived but by the eye of faith ; can be received but by the mouth of faith ; nor can be laid hold of but by the hand of faith. Now faith is a spiritual thing : for faith is the gift of God, infused into the hearts and minds of men, wrought in the soul of every one, and that by the mighty working and opera tion of the Holy Spirit. So, the only way to lay hold on Christ being by faith, and faith of its own nature being spiritual, it follows that there is no way to lay hold on Christ but a spiritual way. There is not a hand to fasten on Christ but a spiritual hand, there is not a mouth to digest Christ but a spiritual mouth. The Scriptures familiarly, by all these terms, describe the nature and efficacy of faith. We are said to eat the flesh of Christ and to drink His blood by faith, in this sacrament : chiefly in doing of two things : First, in calling to our remembrance the bitter death and passion of Christ, the blood that He shed upon the cross, the supper which He instituted in remembrance of Him, before He went to the cross ; the Com mandment which He gave: "Do this in re membrance of me " : We eat his flesh, and drink his blood spiritually, first in this point, in record ing and remembering faithfully, how He died for us, how His blood was shed upon the cross. This is the first point, a point that cannot be remembered truly, except it be wrought by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. The Second point of the spiritual eating consists in this, That THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 83 I and every one of you believe firmly, that He died for me in particular : That His blood was shed on the cross, for a full remission and redemp tion of me and my sins. The chief and principal point of the eating of Christ's flesh and drinking of His blood, stands in believing firmly that that flesh was delivered to death for my sins ; that that blood of His was shed for the remission of my sins : and except every soul come near to Himself, and firmly consent, agree, and be persuaded, that Christ died for him, that soul cannot be saved, that soul cannot eat the flesh nor drink the blood of Christ. Thus the eating of the flesh, and drinking of the blood of Christ, stands in a faithful memory, in a firm belief, and in a true applying of the merits of the death and passion of Christ, to my own conscience in particular. There were sundry things objected against this kind of receiving : I shall not insist to repeat them : But beside all the objections you have heard against this kind of spiritual receiving by faith, they say, " If Christ's flesh and blood be not perceived, nor received, but by the Spirit, by faith : then," say they, " you receive Him only by an imagination. If He be not received carnally nor corporally, but only by the Spirit and by faith ; then is He not received but by way of imagina tion, conceit, and fantasy." So they account faith an imagination of the mind, a fantasy and opinion, fleeting in the brains of men. I cannot blame them to think so of faith : For as none can 84 THE THIRD SERMON judge of the sweetness of honey, but they that have tasted it, so there is none can discern nor judge of the nature of faith, but they that have felt and tasted in their hearts, what it is. And if they had tasted and felt in their souls, what faith brings with it ; alas, they would not call that spiritual jewel, — that only jewel of the soul, — an imagination. They call it an imagination : and the Apostle describing it (Heb. xi. 1), calls it a substance and a substantial ground : Mark how well these two agree ! " An imagination, and a substantial ground ! " They call it an uncertain opinion, fleeting in the brain and fantasy of man. He calls it an evidence and demonstration, in the same definition. See how directly contrary the Apostle and they are, as to the nature of faith. Upon this they infer, that as it is true in general, Christ cannot be delivered nor given but that same way that He is received ; and, consider, what way anything is received, the same way is it given and delivered : So (according to them) Christ being received by way of imagination, He is also in their fantasy, given and delivered by way of imagination. For if He be not given, say they, to thy hand, to thy mouth, nor to the corporeal stomach : He cannot be given but by an imagina tion and fantastical opinion. The reason that moves them to think that Christ cannot be theirs, nor given to them truly, — in effect and really, — except He be given carnally, is this : That thing which is so far absent and distant from us, as the heaven is from the earth, cannot be said to be THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 85 given us, nor to be ours. But by your own con fession, say they to us, Christ's body is as far absent from us as the heaven is from the earth : Therefore Christ's Mesh cannot be given to us, except by way 'of imagination, and so not truly nor in effect. This argument framed in this sort, would, at first sight, seem to be of some force. But let us examine it. The proposition is this: That thing which is so far absent from us as the heaven is from the earth, cannot be said to be delivered to us, to be given to us, or in any way to be ours. Now whether is this proposition true or false ? I say, this proposition is untrue, and the contrary most true. A thing may be given to us, and may become ours, though the thing in person itself be as distant from us, as the heaven is from the earth. And how prove I this ? What makes anything to be yours ? What makes any of you esteem a thing to be given to you ? Is it not a title ? Is it not a just right to that thing ? If you have a just right given to you, by him who has power to give it, and a sure title confirmed to you by him who has the power ; though the thing that he gives you be not delivered into your hands, yet by the right and title which he grants to you, is not the thing yours ? There is no doubt of it, for it is not the nearness of the thing to my body and to my hand, that makes the thing mine ; it may be in my hand, and yet not belong to me. Neither is it the distance nor absence of the thing that makes it not to be mine, 86 THE THIRD SERMON for it may be far absent from me and yet be mine, because the title is mine, and because I have got my right to it from him who has the power to give it. So then, this ground is true ; it is a sure title and a just right that makes a thing, though it be far distant from us, to be ours. But so it is, that a lively and true faith in the blood and death of Christ, makes us to have a sure title and a good right to the flesh and blood of Christ, and to His merits : consider what He merited by his death, and the shedding of His blood upon the cross ; all that together with Himself also appertains to me, and that by a title and a right which I have gotten to Him, of God ; which is faith : And the surer my title is, the more sure am I of the thing that is given me by the title. Now this sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted to confirm our title, to seal up our right which we have to the body and blood, to the death and passion of Christ : and so, the body of Christ is said to be given to us, the blood of Christ is said to be delivered to us, when our title which we have of Him, of His death, of His body and blood, is confirmed in our hearts. For this sacrament is instituted for the growth and increase of our faith, for the increase of our holiness and sanctification : which faith the greater that it is in our hearts, the more sure are we, that Christ's death appertains to us. I grant, as I have said, that the flesh of Christ is not delivered into my hands, His flesh is not put into my mouth, nor enters into my stomach : yet God forbid that thou THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 87 shoulclest say, He is not truly given, although not carnally. And wherefore should it ? Has He not appointed Bread and Wine for the nourishment of the body, and may not these content you ? Are they not sufficient to nourish you to this earthly and temporal life ? Has He not appointed Christ to be delivered to the inward mouth of thy soul, to be given into the hand of thy soul, that thy soul may feed on Him and be quickened with that life wherewith the angels live, wherewith the Son of God and God Himself live ? So the flesh of Christ is not appointed to nourish thy body, but to nourish thy soul in the hope, yea in the growth of that immortal life : and therefore I say, though the flesh of Christ be not delivered into the hand of thy body, yet it is delivered to the soul which is that part that it should nourish. Yea, that Bread and Wine are no more really delivered to the hand of the body, than the flesh of Christ is delivered to the hand and mouth of the soul, which is faith : Therefore crave no more a carnal delivery, nor think upon a carnal receiving. Thou must not think that either God gives the flesh of Christ to the mouth of the body ; or that thou by the mouth of thy body receivest the flesh of Christ : For you must understand this principle in the Scriptures of God ; our souls cannot be joined with the flesh of Christ, nor the flesh of Christ with our souls but by a spiritual bond. Not by a carnal bond of blood or alliance ; not by the touching of His flesh with our flesh : but He is conjoined with us by a spiritual bond ; 88 THE THIRD SERMON that is, by the power and virtue of His Holy Spirit. And therefore the Apostle says, (1 Cor. xii. 13) that hy the means of His Holy Spirit, all we, who are faithful men and women, are baptized into the one body of Christ. That is, we are conjoined and fastened up with one Christ by the means, says he, of one Spirit : not by a carnal bond or by any gross conjunction, but only by the bond of the Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit that is in Him, is in every one of us in some measure : and in respect one Spirit is in Him and in us, therefore we are accounted all to be members of one spiritual and mystical body. And in the same verse the Apostle says, " We are all made to drink into one and the self-same Spirit " : that is we are made to drink of the blood of Christ. And this blood is no other thing than the quickening virtue and power that flow from Christ, and from the merits of His death : we are made all to drink of that blood, when we partake of the lively power and virtue that flow out of that blood. So there is not a bond that can couple my soul with the flesh of Christ, but only a spiritual bond and a spiritual union. And therefore it is that the Apostle (1 Cor. vi. 17) says, " He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit." And John says (ch. iii. 6), " That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit." So it is only by the participation of the Holy Spirit that we are con joined with the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus. That carnal bond, whether it be the bond of blood running through one race, or the carnal touching THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 89 of flesh with flesh, that carnal bond was never esteemed by Christ In the time that He was conversant here upon earth, He respected it nothing : for as He witnessed himself by His own words, He never had it in any kind of reverence or estimation in comparison with the spiritual bond. But as for the spiritual tie whereby we are coupled with Him, He ever esteemed it in the time that He was conversant on earth, and in his Book, He has left the praise and commendation of the same. To let you see how lightly He esteemed the carnal bond of blood and alliance, which we regard so much, take this place — (Luke viii. 20, 21) for there they come to him, and say, " Master, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, and ivoidd sec thee." You hear His answer to their demand, how little He esteems that carnal bond ; He answers (v. 21) in a manner denying that bond, He says, " My mother and my brethren, arc these which hear the word of God and do it." As if He would say, It is not that I esteem, it is not that carnal conjunction I reverence, it is the spiritual couj unction, by the participation of the Holy Spirit ; whereby we are moved to hear the word of God, to give reverence to it and obey it. This carnal bond was never profitable, as that passage plainly testifies, for if the touching of Christ's flesh had been profitable, the multitude, whereof mention is made in that chapter, that thrust and pressed Him, had been the better of it. But so it is, that there was never one of them the better ; 90 THE THIRD SERMON therefore the carnal touching profits nothing. Says not Christ himself (John vi. 63), to draw them from that sinister confidence, they had in the flesh only, " The flesh profits nothing ; It is the spirit that quickens ? " As to the other kind of touch, by the Holy Spirit and by faith in thy soul, this has always been profitable, and we have a plain example of it in the same chapter. The poor woman that had long been diseased with a bloody issue, — the space of twelve years, — and had wasted and consumed the greater part of her substance in seeking remedy, — found no help in the natural and bodily physicians. At last, by virtue of the Holy Spirit working faith in her heart, she understands and conceives that she is able to recover the health of her body and the health of her soul by Christ Jesus, who came to be the Saviour of both. And upon this persuasion which she had in her heart, that Christ could cure both body and soul, she presses through the multitude till she comes to Him : and when she comes it is not said that she touched His flesh (in case the Papists would ascribe the virtue which came out of Him, to her carnal touching) but it is said, that she touched only the hem of His garment with her hand ; and with faith, which is the hand of the soul, she touched her Saviour, God and man. And to let you understand that she touched him by faith, He says to her in the end, " Go thy way, thy faith hath saved thee." THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 91 She no sooner touched Him by faith, but immediately there came a power out of Him : which power and virtue she felt by the effect of it in her soul ; and our Saviour felt it when it went out from Him. So soon as he felt it, He says, " Who is this that hath touched me ? " Peter (who was ever most sudden) says, " Thou art thronged and thrust by the multitude, and yet thou askest who has touched thee." Our Saviour answers again, " It is not that touching that I speak of; it is another kind of touching. There is one has touched me, who has drawn a virtue a». I power out of me : the multitude take no virtue from me." The poor woman thinking she had done amiss, and perceiving she could not be hid, came trembling and said ; " I have done it." He answers her, in the end, and says, " Depart in peace, thy faith has saved thee " : Thy faith has drawn out a virtue and power from me, that has made both soul and body whole. This touching of Christ has ever been profitable; is and shall be profitable : like as the touching of Christ with the corporal hand has never been, nor ever shall be. And why ? Christ is not appointed to be a carnal head, to be set upon the necks of our bodies, to furnish natural senses and motions to our bodies. No, the Scriptures call not Christ a natural head, but the Scriptures call Him a spiritual head, to be set upon the neck of our souls : that is, to be conjoined with our souls ; that out of Him there may distil into 92 THE THIRD SERMON our souls holy motions, heavenly senses ; and that there may flow out of Him to us, a spiritual and heavenly life. Therefore the Scriptures call Him a spiritual head, as they call us a spiritual body : and as the life which we get from Him is spiritual, so all our conjunction with Him is spiritual. And in respect He works that same operation in my soul, which the carnal head does in the body, therefore He is counted a spiritual head : therefore is He counted the head of his Church, because He furnishes her with spiritual motion and senses, which is the life of the Church. So to be short, there is nothing i.i this con junction carnal ; there is nothing gross in it ; there is nothing that may be compassed by our natural judgment and understanding. And there fore whosoever would attain to any small insight of this spiritual conjunction between Christ and us, of necessity he must humble himself and earnestly pray for the Spirit ; otherwise it is not possible to get any understanding, were it ever so slight, how the flesh of Christ and we are conjoined, except we have some light given us by the Spirit ; that is, except our hearts be wakened by the mighty working of the Spirit of Christ, this shall remain as a dead and closed letter to us. So you have to crave that the Lord in His mercy would awaken you, illuminate your under standings, and make you to have a spiritual light to discern these spiritual things. Next, you must study and be careful to remove all vain THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 93 cogitations and earthly fantasies : when you come to hear of so high a matter, you must cast off all filthy thoughts, ill motions and cares of the world ; and you must shake off all things that clog your hearts. And thirdly, you must come with a purpose to hear the word, to give diligent ear to the word, and with a sanctified heart to receive it ; with a purpose to grow and increase in holiness, as well in body as in soul, all the days of your life. And coining with this purpose, no question, the Holy Spirit shall reveal those things to you which you need. And though this word pass and bring no great commodity for the present, yet the Holy Spirit hereafter shall reveal to thee the truth of that which thou hast now heard. This then is the point of all ; Be present in your hearts and minds, and let your souls be emptied of all the cares of the world, that they may receive that comfort which is offered in the hearing of the word. Now I come to the defining of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. I call this sacrament, An holy Seal, annexed to the covenant of grace and mercy in Christ. A seal to be ministered publicly, always according to the holy institution of Christ Jesus : that by the lawful administering thereof, the sacramental union between the signs and the thing signified, may stand : and this union standing, Christ Jesus who is the thing signified, is as truly delivered to the increase of our spiritual nourishment, as the signs are given and delivered to the body, for our temporal nourishment. 94 THE THIRD SERMON Now let us examine the words and parts of this definition. First of all, I call this sacrament a Seal ; because this sacrament serves the same use to our souls, that a common seal serves to a common evidence. As the seal which is annexed to the evidence, confirms and seals up the truth contained in the evidence : so this sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, confirms and seals up the truth of mercy and grace, contained in the covenant of mercy and grace : in this respect it is called a seal. It is called An holy Seal. Why ? Because it is taken from the common use, whereunto that Bread served before ; and is applied to an holy use. There is a power given to that bread, to signify the precious body of Christ Jesus, to represent the nourishing and feeding of our souls. And in respect it serves now in the sacrament to so holy an use, therefore I call it an holy seal. This is not my word ; it is the Apostle's (Rom. iv. 11), where he gives the sacrament the same name and calls it a seal. And further, if the wisdom of Christ, in his Apostle, had been followed, and if men had not invented new names of their own for this sacrament, but had contented and satisfied themselves with the names which God has given by His Apostle, and which Christ him self had given to this sacrament ; I am assured, none of these controversies, storms and debates (which never will cease) had fallen out : but where men will go about to be wiser than God, and go beyond God in devising names which He THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 95 never gave, — upon men's own invention, — such debates have fallen out. A lesson, by the way, that no flesh presume to be wiser than God, but let them stoop, and keep the names which God has given to this sacrament. Thirdly, I say, annexed to the Covenant ; annexed and hung to the Charter : because it cannot be called a seal properly except it be hung to an evidence. What it is by nature the same it remains, and no more, if it be not annexed to some evidence : it is only the hanging of it to the evidence that makes men account it a seal ; not being so esteemed, except it be hung to the evidence. Even so it is here ; if this sacrament be not ministered and joined to the preached word, to the preaching of the covenant of mercy and grace, it cannot be a seal ; it is no more than what it is by nature. It is but a common piece of bread, — it is no more, if it be not annexed to the preaching of the word, and ministered therewith as Christ has commanded. Therefore, I say, the seal must be annexed, appended, and hung to the evidence, to the preaching of the word, for establishing the evidence ; otherwise it is not a seal. But it is not so, with the evidence which is the word of God : for you know any evidence will produce faith, though it want a seal ; and it will serve to establish a right, if it be subscribed, even without a seal : but the seal without the evi dence avails nothing. Even so it is with the word of God : though the sacrament be not 96 THE THIRD SERMON annexed to the word, yet the word will serve our turn : it serves us to get Christ, it serves to engender and beget faith in us, and makes us to grow up in faith. But the seal without the word can serve us to no holy use : therefore I say, the seal must be annexed to the word preached, to the covenant of mercy and grace. Now it follows in the definition, that this seal must be ministered publicly. Wherefore say I publicly ? To exclude all private administration of this sacrament. For if this sacrament be administered to any privately, it is not a sacra ment. Why ? Because the Apostle calls this sacrament a Communion : therefore if you ad minister it to one alone, you lose the sacrament. For this sacrament is a Communion of the body and blood of Christ : therefore, of necessity, it must be by way of communication ; and so the action must be publicly ministered. Secondly, this sacrament must be publicly ministered, because Christ Jesus who is the thing signified in this sacrament, is no such thing as pertains to one man only : If this were so, He might be privately given and ministered. But seeing Christ, who is the thing signified in the sacrament, belongs to every believing man and woman, therefore He ought to be given in common to all, in a common action, in a society, and congregation of the faith ful. Thirdly, this sacrament is a thanksgiving to God the Father for His benefits. Now it appertains not to one or two, to thank God only ; but as we are all partakers of His temporal and THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 97 spiritual benefits, so we ought all of us publicly to give Him thanks for the same. Therefore I say, in the definition, this seal ought to be publicly and not privately ministered ; as the Papists do in their private Masses. This seal must be publicly ministered accord ing to Christ's institution. Wherefore say I Christ's institution rather than man's or angel's institution ? Why keep I to Christ's institution ? Because man has not power to institute or make a sacrament : because an angel has not power to make or institute a sacrament. For none has power to make or institute a sacrament, but He that has power to give Christ, who is the thing signified in the sacrament. But none has power to give Christ, except either the Father or Him self : therefore none has power to make or in stitute a sacrament, but either the Father or the Son : only God must make a sacrament. Further, this sacrament is a part of God's service and worship : but none has power to appoint any part of His service, or prescribe any part of His worship, but only God himself : therefore none can make a sacrament but God himself. There is no Prince on earth will be content to be served after another man's fantasy : but he will prescribe his services according to his own pleasure: how much more is it meet that God should appoint His own service and worship ? Therefore there is neither man nor angel has power to institute any part of the service of God. The greatest style that any man on earth gets, in the ministry G 98 THE THIRD SERMON of the word and sacraments, is that style which the Apostle gives them (1 Cor. iv. 1). There we are called stewards and dispensers of the grace of God, ministers of those mysteries and holy things. It follows then, that we are not authors, creators, or makers of them, but only ministers and dis pensers of the sacraments. So it is evident, that no man nor creature has power to make a sacra ment. Therefore it must be according to the institution of Christ. His institution must be kept : look what He said, what He did, what He commanded thee to do ; all that must be said, done and obeyed. If thou leave one jot of that undone which He commanded thee to do, thou pervertest the institution : for there is nothing left in register of that institution, but it is essential. So in the celebration of Christ's institution we must take heed to whatsoever He said, did or commanded to be done : Thou must first say whatsoever He said, and then do whatsoever He did. For the ministration of the sacrament must follow after the word. First, thou must say that which Christ commanded thee to say, and thou must teach that which He commanded thee to teach : and then minister the sacrament. Thus to keep this institution, we must begin at the saying, and say whatsoever Christ commanded us : thereafter, faithfully do all that which He commanded to be done. So I call the word, — the whole institution of Christ Jesus, — preached and proclaimed, announced distinctly, clearly and THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 99 sensibly to the people ; in such sort, that if we leave any kind of circumstance or ceremony of this institution undone, we pervert the whole action. It is agreed and condescended upon between us who celebrate this institution, and all the sects in the world who have separated themselves from this institution, That two things are necessary, and must concur in the nature and constitution of a sacrament. To wit, there must be a word, and there must be an element concurring. There is not a sect but grants this, That the word must concur with the element, before there can be a sacrament. Though they easily admit this in general, wherein we agree well with them ; yet when it comes to the special, and we enter into particulars in the handling and treating of the word ; how well soever we agree in the general, yet, in the particular, we part as far asunder. For when we come to dispute and reason on these particulars ; First, what we mean by the word : Secondly, how this word ought to be treated : Thirdly, what virtue this word has : Fourthly, how far the virtue of this word extends itself : and last of all, to whom the words ought to be directed and pronounced : In all these particulars we are as far asunder, as ever we seemed to agree in the general. I forbear to meddle with any other sect, but shall deal with the Papists only, because we have most to do with them : And first of all we are to understand what we mean by the word, and 100 THE THIRD SERMON what they mean by it. We, by the word (as I have said), understand the whole institution of Christ Jesus, whatsoever He said, or did, or com manded to be done, without adding or diminishing, or alteration of the meaning or sense of that word : This we mean by the word in the sacrament. Now what understand the Papists by the word ? They preach not the institution of Christ, nor take the whole institution as He left it. But in place thereof, they select and choose out of His institution four or five words, and they make the whole virtue of the institution to consist in these four or five words. And it were nothing, if they would content themselves with these words, because they are the words of the institution. But they add to the words, they take from the words, and alter the meaning of the same words at their pleasure. That you may know this ; In their Mass which they call the Supper, I shall let you see the substance of it : I shall divide their Mass into things substantial and things accidental. To the substance of the Mass there are three things required. There must of necessity be a Priest, that is to say, one who takes upon himself the office of our Mediator Christ Jesus, to inter cede between God and man. Secondly, to the substance of the Mass it is required, that the Priest offer the body and blood of Christ. We come here to receive the same things : There, the Priest offers them to God the Father. Thirdly, by this work (say they) they obtain all good things : by this work wrought, they obtain re- THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 101 mission of sins, as well to the dead as to the quick ; but in special, they obtain remission of sins to the Priest who is the distributer, and to him to whom the Priest applies that sacrifice : And as for the rest of the Church who are absent, they obtain remission of their sins, by this work generally. These three things are necessary to the substance of the mass. As for the "accidents " that must concur to the making of a Mass, they are of two sorts : Some of them are always necessary, without which that action cannot be : again, some are not necessary, and the action may be without them, but not without a deadly sin. Those things that are necessary concern partly the Priest, and partly the action itself. The accidents that are necessary to the Priest are of two sorts: One sort are those without which he cannot be a Priest ; The other sort, those without which he cannot be free from deadly sin. The things without which he cannot be a Priest, are these : Except he have power given of his Bishop to consecrate, which power is instituted by the unction and shaving of his crown. Except, again, he have power to speak, and that the roof of his mouth be whole that he may speak, he cannot be a Priest. These two are always necessary, and concur to the person. Other things again are not so necessary ; as, that the Priest must be free from suspension, from cursing, from deadly sin, and from all ecclesiastical pains and censures. These things are necessary to the person. Again, there are two things necessary to 102 THE THIRD SERMON the action : One sort without which the action cannot be ; it cannot be without the Lord's Prayer, nor without the five words of the insti tution. Other things, again, are not so necessary; as the consecration of the place where the Mass is said, the Altar stone, the blessing of the Chalice, the water, the mutterings, the singing, he that should help to say Mass, and the rest. So they and we in no sort agree concerning the word, what is meant by it. The second point is, how this word ought to be treated, wherein we are as far asunder ; we say, the word, taken as has been said for the whole institution, ought to be treated after this manner: First, there ought to be a lawful Pastor who has his calling of God to deliver it. And this Pastor ought to deliver the word lawfully ; what is that? he ought to preach it, to proclaim it publicly, with a clear voice to announce it. He ought to open up and declare all the parts of it, what is the people's part, and what is his own part ; how he ought to deliver and distribute that Bread and Wine ; how the people ought to receive at his hands that Bread and Wine ; to inform their faith, how they ought to receive Christ's body and blood, signified by that Bread and Wine ; As also, he ought to teach them how they should come with great reverence to that Table, and communicate with the precious body and blood of Christ. This he ought to do in a familiar language, that the people may understand him, that they may hear him, that they may perceive THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 103 and take up in their hearts the things he speaks. For what avails it you, to hear a thing whispered and not spoken out ? or if it be spoken out, what avails it you to hear it if you understand it not ? For except you hear Christ in a familiar and plain language, you cannot understand : and except you understand, it is not possible for you to believe ; and without belief there is no application of Christ : and except ye believe and apply Christ to yourselves, your coming to the sacrament is in vain. So, of necessity, if this sacrament be lawfully handled, the Pastor must preach the institution of Christ that it may be heard, and in a familiar language, that it may be understood, in such sort that the faithful people may be informed how to receive, and the Minister may know his part, how to deliver and distribute. This, we say, should be the right handling of the holy institution of this sacrament. Now what do they ? In place of a Minister, Pastor, or Bishop (call him what you please) who is lawfully called of God, they substitute a priest, surrogate an hireling, who has no calling or office now in the Church of God. For the office of a priest as they use their priesthood, is no other thing but the office of Christ Jesus, the office of Mediator between God and us. For they make their priests daily to offer up Christ Jesus, to the Father. Now this is the Mediator's office, and Christ did it once for all, and once for ever, says the Apostle : so that they can have no entrance to do this over again : and in respect 104 THE THIRD SERMON that their priests intrude to do this again which Christ has done already, they do it without command, they have no warrant in the word of God. And, even if they had warrant for their calling in the word of God, yet they handle the sacrament amiss : for where they should speak forth clearly, they whisper and conjure the ele ments by a certain kind of whispering. Where they should speak it in a known language, that the people may understand, they speak it in an unknown language : and though they were to speak it in a known and familiar tongue, yet in that they whisper it, the people cannot be the better of it. Now what shall I say ? Seeing they thus handle the word, though it were the very institution itself, yet they so spoil it in the handling, that it is not an holy sacrament. Thus we differ as much in the second point, how the word ought to be handled and treated. The third point is, what virtue this word has, how far the virtue of this word extends itself: In this head we grant and acknowledge that the word has a virtue : and the word taken, as has been said, works somewhat even toward the same elements of bread and wine ; for we acknowledge that those elements by virtue of this word are changed, not in their substance, not in their nature, nor yet in their substantial and natural properties, but we grant that the elements are changed, in a quality which they had not before ; in such sort, that these elements are taken from the common use whereunto they served before, THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 105 and by the institution of Christ they are applied now to a holy use. Mark how far the holy use differs from the common use ; there is as great difference between the elements this day in the action, and the thing that they were yesterday. For I grant that the elements are changed ; and yet this change proceeds not from the nature of the elements, from an enclosed virtue supposed to be in the words, nor from the whispering of the words, but it proceeds from the will of Christ, from His ordinance and appointment, set down in His own institution : for that thing is holy, which God calls holy ; and that thing is common, which God calls common. To let you understand how these signs arc made holy, it is necessary that these two things be considered. First, who is he that makes them holy, whether God, angel, or man ? Second, whosoever he be that makes them holy, by what means and ways makes he them holy ? And by the consideration of these two, we shall come to the consideration and right estimate of the snncti- fication of the elements. For the first, we say that God only is He who can make a thing which was common to be holy. So we say, that God by His will and ordinance declared and set down in His word, has made the things that were common, by His appointment to be holy. As for the way and means whereby they are made holy, it is the word of God, the institution of Christ, the will of Christ, declared in His institution, that makes them holy. For 106 THE THIRD SERMON the preaching and opening up of the word and institution of Christ, lets us see that God has made these things holy ; and not only that He has made them holy, but lets us see a holy manner how they should be used, in what place, at what time, with what heart, and to what end. So it is the will of Christ, declared in His institution, whereby the things that were common before are now made holy. There are two other things also which make the same elements holy : and these two are used in this institution. There is prayer and thanksgiving, which make the creatures of God holy to our use : whereas, otherwise, if we receive the good creatures of God like dogs, and thank Him not for them, it is a sure token that they were never sanctified to our use. By prayer we obtain grace and strength from God to use the creatures, and this whole action, holily and lawfully as it should be. And there fore not only in this holy action should we begin with God and with invocation of His name, but in all actions in the world we should begin in that name of God. So it is the will of God that prayer, and thanksgiving, conjoined with the elements, do make them holy. All these three contained in the action of the Lord's Supper, make the seals holy : For beside the will of God declared in the institution, in the Lord's Supper we use an invocation, and in this invocation we use a thanksgiving. So the elements are made holy not by the word of God only, but by the use of prayer and thanksgiving, which three THE LORD'S SUPPKR IN PARTICULAR 107 are the only means whereby these things are sanctified. Now to express and declare the sanctificatiou of the elements : The Evangelists and the Apostle Paul use indifferently the word, TO BLESS and TO GIVE THANKS, and commonly they put the one for the other : For you may see that Mark and Paul use the word bless : Matthew and Luke use the word to gire thanks, and all in one significa tion : And Mark himself in the xivth of his Gospel, 2 2nd verse, speaking of the same action of the Lord's Supper, uses the word "TO BLESS," and in the 23rd verse he uses the word "TO GIVE THANKS," and both in one signification. To let you see, that Christ Himself, the Apostle, and the Evangelists, use the word " TO BLESS," and " TO GIVE THANKS," indifferently, to signify the saucti- fication and consecration of the elements ; except you take the one for the other, it will be hard to gather a good meaning out of the Apostle's words : for I remember the Apostle (1 Cor. x. 16) says : The cup of blessing which we bless ; what is that ? I take the word to signify, as I have said, " which we sanctify and prepare by blessing." So " to bless " and " to give thanks " in the Lord's Supper, signify no other thing but to sanctify : otherwise if you take the word in another significa tion you shall fall into an error ; and why ? God is said to bless, and man is said to bless : God is said to bless when He gives good things to His creatures, for God's blessing is ever effectual ; and therefore He is said to bless when He gives good 108 THE THIRD SERMON things. Man again is said to bless, either privately or publicly, when he craves blessing at the hands of God for any man ; when he blesses in the name and at the command of God, any person or people. Now if you ascribe blessing in any of these two significations to the cup, it is amiss : for we use neither to crave a blessing to insensible elements ; nor yet to bless them in the name of God : and God uses to give good things to the sons of men, and not to insensible creatures. Therefore we must needs use the word " Bless " in the third signification, " The cup of blessing which we bless," that is, which we sanctify and prepare by bless ing. Thus far we understand, for the sanctifica- tion of the elements. Now let us see how they sanctify these elements, and what is the form of their consecration ; so far as I understand, it consists in these five words : Hoc est enim corpus meum. It stands in these five words, and in the whispering of them ; for if you whisper them not, you lose the fashion of incantation : for the thing which we call sanctify ing, they call whispering : and the whispering of these five words, they call the " consecration " of the elements. And when the words are after this manner whispered, they pre-suppose such a secret and portentous virtue to be enclosed in the syllables, that the virtue and power which flows from the words, is able to chase away wholly the substance of the bread ; so that the very bread and substance of it is altogether destroyed by this power. Secondly, that this power which flows THE LORD S SUPPKR IN PARTICULAR 109 from these words, is able to fetch and pull down another substance, to wit, the flesh and blood of Christ Jesus Who sits at the right hand of His Father, and is able to put it within that bread. This is a strange and a great virtue, that not only will draw down that substance, but put it within the compass of that bread. These same five words, whispered in this manner, have such a wondrous operation, say they, that they are able both to chase away the one substance, to pull down another, and to put it in the bread. We altogether deny that there is such a virtue in these words : for, as I have said before, though we deny not that the word has a virtue, we deny that there is sueh a virtue enclosed in the words : we deny the quality and quantity of the virtue, or that it flows from such a fountain. For we grant that the word has a virtue ; there is never a word that God speaks here, but it has a virtue joined with it : but we deny that this virtue is enclosed in the syllables, in the whispering or pronouncing of the words : for if there were such a virtue and power enclosed in the syllables, by the same reason it should follow, that there were a virtue in the figure and shape of the letters that make up the words. Now there is no man will think that there is any virtue in the figure or shape of the letters: and there is as little virtue in the syllables or pronouncing of the words themselves. So we deny that there is any virtue enclosed in the syllables or resident in the words. But we say that there is a power conjoined with the word, — 110 THE THIRD SERMON not resident in the word, — but in the Eternal and essential Word, whereof John the Evangelist makes mention (chap, i.) "The ivord which ivasfrom the beginning," that is, the Son of God, Christ Jesus. We say, there is not a dram-weight of this virtue and power resident in any creature that ever God created, but it is resident only in Christ Jesus : And therefore there flows no virtue from the syllables, nor from the words that are spoken, but from Christ and His Spirit, who gives the virtue to these words. So we differ in this ; we say, that there is not any virtue resident in the syllables, we say that the pronouncing of the syllables works nothing : but we say that the virtue is resident in the person of the Son of God, and He works by His own word. Now we say that there cannot be such a por tentous change, as that the whispering of so many words should change the very substance of the bread, draw down the substance of the body of Christ, and put His body in so narrow a compass. We say that cannot be ; and this I shall prove by these three rules ; namely, By the verity of the flesh of Christ Jesus ; by the articles of our belief; and by the true end of the institution of this sacrament. So we shall see, by God's grace, the infinite absurdities that follow upon their opinion. (1) The first principle that I lay down is this : Seeing that Christ Jesus, the Son of God, in the time appointed, took true flesh of the womb of the Virgin, and united Himself with our nature THE LORDS SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 111 in a personal union, to the end that our nature, which fell altogether from integrity in the first Adam, might recover the same in the second Adam : yea, not only the same, but so much the greater as our second Adam excels the first in all degrees. And in respect he took on Him a body like unto ours iii all thiugs (sin excepted), of necessity it must follow, that the definition of a true body, and the inseparable properties thereof must be competent to Him. But these are the inseparable properties ; namely, to be in one certain place, to be finite, circumscribed, visible, and palpable : for all these concur (qiutrto modo as the Logicians say) to a body ; so that they cannot be separate from the subject, without its destruction. Therefore I reason in this manner ; all true human body is in a certain place ; Christ Jesus' body is a true human body : therefore, it is in a certain place. I call place, a certain condition of an organic body, whereby it comes to pass that wherever the body be, of necessity it is limited within that place ; and while it is there, it cannot be elsewhere. If you would have the probation of my proposition, from the Doctors, read Augustine to Dardanus, speaking of this same body of Christ. " Take away a certain room from bodies, and they shall be in no place ; and if they be in no place, they are not." The same Augustine, writing upon John, in his 30th Treatise says, " The body in which the Lord rose again must of necessity be in one place ; but His divine efficacy and nature is diffused everywhere," And 112 THE THIRD SERMON in his third Epistle he says, " How much soever the body be, or how little soever the body be, it behoves to occupy the bounds of a place." And besides these, the history of " the Acts " proves most evidently Christ's body to be in a certain place: as in Acts iii. 21, the words are these: " Whom the heaven must contain, until the time that all things be restored, which God had spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets" Though I need not insist on the probation of these things, yet I proceed. Secondly then, I reason after this manner ; all human body is finite and circum scribed ; but the body of Christ is a human body. What warrant from the Doctors have I for this ? I leave out many purposely, and allege only Augustine, who writing to Dardanus says " Believe Christ to be everywhere in that he is God ; but only to be in heaven, according to the nature of a true body." And in his 146th Epistle, " I believe," says he, " the body of Christ to be so in heaven as it was on earth, when He went up to heaven." But it was circumscribed in a certain place on earth, ergo, it is so in heaven, and, con sequently, it cannot be in the Mass-bread and in heaven both at one time. The last reason is this : a human body is visible and palpable : but Christ has a human body, and He is corporally present, as you say : therefore Christ's body is visible and palpable. I prove my proposition by Christ's own words taken out of Luke xxiv. 39. In the which place, to persuade the Apostles of the verity of His body, and to prove evidently that it THE LORDS SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 113 was not visionary, He uses the argument taken from these two qualities, and He commands His Apostles to feel and see ; giving them thereby to understand, that as these two senses are the most certain of all the rest, so are they most able to discern, whether He was a body or a spirit. As if He would say, " If I be visible and palpable, you may be out of doubt that I have a true body." For as the poet says, whom 2Jcrtnlliaii cites also to this same purpose : Tamjcre cnim d tamji^ ni*i corpus, inilht potcst res. By these arguments it may be evidently seen how this Trausubstantiation may no ways consist with the verity of the body of Christ Jesus. (2) And as it fights with the flesh of Christ Jesus, so it repugns directly the articles of our faith. For in our Belief we profess, that Christ ascended out of this earth to heaven, where He sits at the right hand of the Father, where He governs and directs all things in heaven ami earth ; from which place, He is to come at the last day to judge the world. This article teaches us, that He has left His dwelling which He had amongst us on earth, and has ascended into the heavens, where He sits at the right hand of His Father, and shall there remain (according to the testimony of Peter, which I have cited, Acts iii. 21) until the last day. If He sit at His Father's right hand, and be to remain in heaven until the last day, then He is not corporally in the bread. But the Article says, that He sits at the right hand H 114 THE THIRD SERMON of His Father : and Peter says in that place, that the heavens must contain Him until the last day. Therefore, this Transubstantiation is directly against the articles of our Belief, and the mani fest place of the Scripture. (3) It is opposed to the end for which this sacrament was instituted ; and this is most evident : for the end of the sacrament is spiritual, as the effect that flows from it is spiritual, and the instrument whereby this spiritual food is applied to us, is also spiritual. But from a natural and corporeal presence, a spiritual effect can never flow : Therefore the corporeal and natural presence of the body and blood of Christ Jesus repugns directly the end of this sacrament : for the corporeal presence must have a corporeal eating : of this eating follows a digestion in the stomach and the thing that is digested in the stomach is never able to feed thy soul to life eternal. So this corporeal presence must ever tend to a corporeal purpose ; which is directly contrary to the end for which the sacrament was instituted. Further, if the bread were transubstantiated, it would become the thing signified : if it become the thing signified, this sacrament should want a sign, and so it should not be a sacrament ; for every sacrament, as you have heard, is a sign. Now to say that the accidents of true bread, as the colour and the roundness of it, may serve as signs, that is more than folly : for between the sign and the thing signified, there must be a THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 115 conformity : but there is no conformity between the accidents, and the body and blood of Christ Jesus ; for if that were so, the accidents be hove to nourish us corporally ; as the body and blood of Christ Jesus is appointed to nourish us spiritually. Again, if the bread become the body of Christ Jesus, it would follow that He had a body without blood ; for He has instituted another sign besides, to represent His blood. Also, if there had been such a wonderful thing as they speak of in this sacrament, there would have been plain mention made thereof in the Scripture ; for God himself never works a notable work but He declares it either openly or more privately in the Scripture, that thereby He may be glorified in His wonderful works. As ye may read in the Evangelist John ii. 8 : Where the water is changed into wine. Gen. ii. 22 : Where the rib of Adam was changed into Eve. Exodus viii. 10 : Where Aaron's rod was turned into a serpent : in all these, you see, that changing is manifestly expressed. Therefore I say, if there had been such a notable change in these elements of the Supper as they aftirm, the Scripture would not have concealed but expressed it : but in respect there is no mention made of this change in the Scriptures, therefore there is no such change in this action. Further, if there were such a change, as they say, either it is before the words of con secration are spoken, or it follows after. If the change be before the words of consecration are spoken, the consecration is superfluous, and their 116 THE THIRD SERMON proposition is false : if the change be after the words are spoken, " This bread is my body," their proposition is also false, because the word " bread " is spoken before the last syllable of these five words is pronounced. These, and many more absurdities follow from this doctrine. Yet they obstinately persevere, and urge us with the letter, affirming that the words of Christ are so plain that they admit no figure. They would have spoken more advisedly if they had sought counsel of Augustine, to have discerned between a figurative speech, and a proper speech : for he in his third book and sixteenth chapter of Christian Doctrine, speaks after this sort ; "If the speech," says he, "seems to command a wickedness or mischief, or to forbid any happiness or welfare, it is not proper, it is figurative/' And he adds for an example, a place out of John vi. 53, "Except," says our Master, "ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Whereimto Augustine adds, " this speech," says he, " seems to command a mischief, therefore it is a figurative speech, whereby we are commanded to communicate with the sufferings of Christ Jesus, and with gladness to keep in perpetual memory, that the flesh of the Lord was crucified and wounded for us." " For otherwise, it were more horrible " (as the same author makes mention in his second book against the adversaries of the law *) " to eat the 1 i.e. " Contra adversarium Icgis ct prophetarum ; Libri duo." — Works of Augustine, Benedictine Edn. Tom. viii. THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 117 flesh of Christ Jesus really than to murder him ; and more horrible to drink his blood, than to shed his blood." Yet notwithstanding, they hold on still to the same tune, and maintain that those words ought to be taken literally. So, that it appears, that of very malice, for contradiction's sake, to the end only that they may withstand the truth, they will not acknowledge this to be a sacramental speech. For they are compelled, whether they will or not, in other speeches of the like sort, to acknowledge a figure ; as Gen. xvii. 10, Circumcision is called "the covenant," and Exod. xii. 11, The Lamb is called "the Pass over," and Matt. xxvi. 28, The Cup is called "His Blood," and Luke xxii. 20, The Cup is called " the new Testament," and 1 Cor. x. 4, The Rock is called " Christ." All these speeches are sacramental, and receive a kind of interpreta tion : yet they maliciously presume to deny us in these words (Hoc cst corpus incuin], what they are compelled to grant in the rest, as especially where Paul calls the rock "Christ." Now when they are driven out of this fortress they tlee as unhappily to a second : namely, That God by his omnipotence can make the body of Christ to be in heaven, and in the bread both, at one time ; £7770, say they, it is so. If I denied their consequent, they would be much troubled to prove it. But the question stands not here, whether God can do it or not : but the question stands, whether God will do it or not ; or may will it or not. And we say reverently, that His 118 THE THIRD SERMON Majesty may not will it : for, though it be true, that He may do many things which He will not, yet it is as true that there are many things which He may not will ; of the which sort this is : and these are reduced to two sorts. First, He may not will those things which are contrary to His nature : as to be changeable, to decay, and such others : for if He might will these things : they should not be arguments of any puissance or power, but rather certain arguments of His impotency and infirmity. And therefore though He may not will these things, He ceases not to be omnipotent; but so much the rather His constant and invincible power is known. Secondly, God may not will some things by reason of a presupposed condition, as things, whereof He has concluded the contrary before ; of the which sort is this which is now controverted. For seeing that God has concluded, that all human body should consist of organic parts, and therefore should be comprehended and circumscribed within one, and their own proper place : and also seeing He has appointed Christ Jesus to have the like body, and that not for a time but eternally : in respect of this determined will (I say) God may not will the contrary now, either to abolish this body which He has appointed to be eternal, or yet to make it at one time, in respect of one thing, a body and not a body, quantified and not quantified, finite and infinite, local and illocal ; for to will these things which are plain contradic tions in themselves, He may not, no more than it THE LORDS SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 119 is possible for Him to will a lie. So it may bo seen of all men, that we preserve the omnipotence of God ; and with reverence from our hearts acknowledge Him alone to be alone omnipotent : and we desire all men to esteem them as calum niators, who abuse the ears of the simple, to persuade them the contrary of us. They are not content with this : but they say, That the Lord may will a contradiction, and make both the parts to be true at one time. And to prove this, they would bring in the miracles which God works : as if they would say, Every miracle includes a contradiction. As for example ; God made a Virgin to bear a Son ; they think this work brings with it a contradiction. To bear a Son, say they, is the one part of the contradic tion ; and to be a Virgin, is the other part of the contradiction. Now this work is a miracle, but it implies no contradiction : for concerning the holy Virgin's conception, there is no contradiction. There was a miracle indeed, that a virgin should bear a Son, contrary to the course of nature : for to be a Virgin, and yet to have a child, are not contradictory, if she have conceived and brought forth by miracle, as did the blessed Virgin : But to be a virgin, and not a virgin at one time, this is a contradiction. So Christ's body to be visible and invisible, local and illocal, at one time, is in every respect the like contradiction ; and, there fore, impossible to be true. The other example, of Christ's entering in, the doors being closed and shut, what appearance of contradiction has it ? 120 THE THIRD SERMON Can they prove that He entered through the doors ? And if He did, then was there an altera tion of qualities and that by miracle ; either in Christ's body, or in the doors ; but no contradic tion, in nature, unless you know not what a contradiction is. Their third and last example of the fire in Nebuchadnezzar's oven, which consumed the ministers, but hurt not them that were in the midst of it, appears to be of no weight, by that which has already been answered. They imagine, as appears, that in every miracle a contradiction is implied : which is absurd. If they can prove that this fire was both hot and cold, then they say something to the purpose : but that it burns up some and hurts not others, is no contradiction ; because by miracle the force thereof was repressed. So this second ground holds fast ; God may not will that thing which implies a contradiction. But so it is that the real presence of the body of Christ in the sacrament implies a contradiction ; for it makes the body of Christ visible and invisible, compassed and not compassed at one time : therefore God may not will such a thing. When they are driven out of this, they make their last refuge a peremptory defence of their own opinion : for they say, Christ's body is exempt from physical rules : for theology is not subject to physical rules. It is a very ill-gathered consequence, to say, that we subject theology to physic, because that we — first, according to Theology, which is the law of God ; and next, THK LORDS SUPPKR IN PARTICULAR 121 according to Physic, which is the law of nature —defend the natural properties of the true body of Christ Jesus. Suppose I grant this, that theology is not subject to physic ; what of that ? ergo, Christ's body is exempt from physical rules. How follows that I pray you ? By what law may you exempt or can you exempt the body of Christ ? By the law of nature you cannot ; for He was made of the seed of David and took on Him true Hesh of the womb of the Virgin : And far less by the law of God, which is Theology : for you know that Christ was appointed from all eternity, to take on Him our nature and to become true man. Indeed it is true, that the law of God cannot be subject to the law of nature; fur the law of nature flows from the law of God as out of its own spring : but it is as true that if you exempt Christ's body from the law of nature, you shall exempt it also from the law of God. For I affirm that the Scripture so consents with the law of nature, that if you deny the one, you shall deny the other ; And if you admit the one, you shall admit also the other. Therefore if they look well about them, they shall find the beam to be in their own eye : for they pervert both the law of God and the law of nature, by a new invented natural knowledge of their own. For whosoever he be that attributes to one and the self-same body, natural and un natural properties, which directly fight against one another ; I say, that man perverts both true theology, and nature. But, to one and the self same body of Christ Jesus, they attribute natural 122 THE THIRD SERMON and unnatural properties : therefore it is they who pervert both the use of true theology, and the order set down and established in nature. Would you know the reason of my proposition ? I say, it behoves as well in theology as in nature, that one of two contradictory enunciations must be false. But to make an end once for all with them, I will answer their last refuge. Thus they reason ; A glorified being is not subject to natural rules : but Christ's body is glorified ; therefore it is not subject to natural rules. First of all, before we answer directly, we must consider wherein standeth the glorification of a body, and then, the answer will be easy. The Apostle Paul (1 Cor. xv. 42) speaks after this manner ; " so also," says he, " is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, and is raised in incorruption : It is sown in dishonour, and is raised in glory : It is sown in weakness, and is raised in power." And a little after : " This corruptible must put on in corruption, and this mortal must put on immor tality." By this clear antithesis, Paul plainly describes the glorification of a body ; for he opposes these two, the unglorified and the glorified body : And to the unglorified body he ascribes corruption, ignominy, infirmity, carnality, and mortality : To the glorified body he attributes incorruption, glory, power, spirituality, and immortality. From this opposition we may gather easily, what resurrec tion and glorification bring to the body. In a word, by them we see that the body is only THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 123 spoiled of corruption, shame, infirmity, naturality, and mortality : i.e. it becomes only spoiled of all the infirmities of our nature, that it may be clothed with a more glorious apparel : as with iucorrup- tion, power, glory, spirituality, and immortality. We see then, that this glorification imports a change indeed ; but I believe no man will be so mad, as to think this change to be made in the substance : for if that were so, the old substance behoved to decay, and a new one should arise : but we hear of no such thing in this description. And as little is the change made in the quantity for we hear no word either of augmentation or diminution of any substance ; which behoved to be, if it were in the quantity. So far as we can perceive, this mutation consists in the qualities, by which the body casts off the old coat of infirmity, and is clothed anew with the coat of glory : For Christ after He rose, both went and came, was seen and touched. From the things before deduced, it clearly follows that, in respect the glory of the body of Christ has wrought no change in His nature and substance, nor consequently in His natural dimen sions, nor yet in any other essential property ; therefore, the glorification of His body exempts it not from the rules of nature. For so long as the nature of a true body remains, there are no super natural gifts whereby it may be glorified, — were they never so high (so far as may be gathered from Scripture), — that may hurt either the nature, or the natural property of it : For there is no 124 THE THIRD SERMON gift nor quality that may hurt nature, but that gift that is against nature. But the supernatural gift is neither unnatural, nor yet against nature : therefore it cannot hurt nor impair nature. And my reason is this ; Those gifts that decorate and beautify nature, cannot hurt nor impair nature : But all supernatural gifts beautify and decorate nature ; Therefore they cannot take away either nature, or natural quality. They leave us not so : but out of this same doctrine of Paul, concerning the glorification of the body, they draw another objection with which to press us. Paul grants that a glorified body is a spiritual body : but a spiritual body is an invisible body : Therefore a glorified body is in visible ; and consequently, the body of Christ is invisible. Though the argument be not formal, yet to be short I deny their assumption : for if there were no more than that word, " body," that word might be an argument that the spiritual body is not invisible. Yet to open the matter more clearly, according to the meaning of Paul in that place : in a word as it were, in the 44th verse of that chapter, he shews the change that shall be in the qualities of the body by the resurrection ; for he says, that of a natural body it shall become a spiritual body : and then in the next verse immediately following, he expounds these two qualities: for in the 45th verse, " That is called a natural body," says he, " which is maintained and quickened by a living soul only, such as THE LORDS SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 125 Adam's was. And again, that is said to be a spiritual body, which together with the soul is quickened by a far more excellent virtue, namely, by the Spirit of God, which is derived from Christ the second Adam" Then, according to this ground, I answer witli Augustine ad Constantium : " As the natural body is not a soul, but a body : even so the spiritual body is not said to be a soul, but a body." And consequently, it is not invisible. For the further explaining of this head, I shall give them only one knot to loose, and so end this point. 'I'h us I reason : If Christ's body is natur ally and really in the Lord's Supper, because it is glorified ; it follows consequently, that when it was not glorified, it could not be really present. But it was not glorified when this supper was first instituted; therefore it was not really present in the bread at Christ's first Supper. If His body was not naturally present in the bread at the first Supper, it cannot be naturally present now. For whatsoever they use now in the admin istration of the Supper, or of their Mass, (call it what they will) according to their own confession, they use it according to the ordinance, form, and manner that Christ Jesus Himself used in His first Supper : For they say plainly in their dis putation at Poissy 1 and in all the rest of their 1 In the year 1561 a Conference between Catholics and Pro testants was hold at Poissy— a religious house in the environs of Paris— in presence of Catherine dc Medici, Charles IX., the Queen of Navarre, and several other distinguished persons. The aim was a wise one. A considerable minority of the French people inclined to the Reformed views ; and the professed object 126 THE THIRD SERMON works, that Christ Jesus first of all observed that form which they use in their Mass, and left it to His Apostles and to their successors, that they should do the like. So by their own words, they have entangled themselves in a hose-net and crucified their Mass. What can they answer to this ? They will not stand dumb, I am sure ; for maintenance of their religion they must say something. For if this reason bear it away, they are done with it. Therefore they say, that though, the body of Christ which was locally present with the rest of his disciples, was not glorified, yet the body which he exhibited in the bread was glorified. They might as well have held their peace, and said nothing. For mark the words of the text as they are written, Luke xxii. 19, where it is said, "And he took Bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them saying, This is my body which is given for you": and Paul (1 Cor. xi. 24) has these words, " Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you." This relative, " which," is relative to the body which was exhibited in the of this meeting was to prepare some modus vivendi between the two parties. The colloquy was continued from the first part of September till towards the close of November. The Protestant doctrines were clearly and boldly set forth by Beza, who was supported by Peter Martyr and other men of eminence. So ably and convincingly were the views of the Reformed Church, on the sacramental question for instance, drawn up, that the delegates on the Romish side declared themselves willing to subscribe, and most of the Prelates seemed to approve ; but the authority of the Sorbonne led to the rejection of the formula, and the Romish collocutors fell under no small reproach in consequence. THE LORD S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 127 bread: for according to their own confession, those words are pronounced upon the bread and directed unto it. But that same body was given and broken for us, that is to say, crucified and humbled with anguish and sorrow. Therefore I reason after this sort : " To be crucified and broken with anguish and sorrow, can no ways agree and accord with a glorified body : But the body that Christ exhibited in the bread, is said of the Evangelists to be crucified and broken for us : cr<jo, that body was not glorified." Now, last of all, they are not yet content, but say, Christ can make the bread His body ; and therefore his body is really present. That Christ can make the bread His body, we grant : for Christ being God, can do whatsoever He will : only let them shew, that Christ will make of real bread, His real Mesh, and then this controversy is brought to an end. Christ indeed makes the bread His body, not really but sacramentally : For Christ lias not a body made of bread ; His body was made once for all of the pure substance of His blessed Mother : Another body than this, or oftener made than once, has He none : wherefore all doctrine that teaches Christ's body to be made of bread is impious and heretical. The Papist's doctrine of real presence teaches that Christ's body in the sacrament is made of bread, by changing the bread into His body through force of consecration : wherefore we may boldly and truly conclude that their doctrine of real presence is both wicked and heretical. Now to conclude 128 THE THIRD SERMON this head : I beseech them, seeing that reason fails them, that they fight not against God for maintenance of a lie how old soever it be (for the devil is old enough, and yet he could never change his nature), but let them rather glorify God in confessing these words to be sacramental. Then, what is the reason and ground for which the Papists draw down the substance of the body and blood of Christ, and make the very substance to be corporally, really, and substantially in the sacrament ? The reason is this ; because they cannot see by their natural judgment, nor under stand by their natural wit, the truth of this, namely, how Christ's flesh and blood can be present in the sacrament, except it be present to their corporal mouth and stomach. If they had light to inform them that Christ may be present in the sacrament, yet not to the hand, to the mouth or stomach, they would never have thought of such a portentous presence as they imagine to be there. But being destitute of the spiritual light, they follow their natural reason, and make a natural and carnal presence. So that ye have this lesson to note from hence : There is no man that has not the Spirit of God to understand this word, This is my body, but, out of question, he will do as the Papists do, that is, he will under stand it carnally : And so they mis-knowing the right meaning, it is no marvel though they and we differ in this matter. For will you ask of a Papist, first if the true body of Christ be there, or if the true flesh and THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 129 blood of Christ be there ; he will say, it is there : Will you ask him wherein ? he will say in and under the accidents of the bread and wine, under the hue and roundness of the bread : Will you ask him again, by what instrument it is received ? He will tell you by the mouth and stomach of the body : So this is their gross understanding of the body and blood of Christ : Will you ask of the Ubiquiter,1 if the true body of Christ be present ? He will say it is : Will you ask, if it be in, with, or under the bread ? he will answer, it is in the bread, contentirt, that is, the bread contains it : Will you ask him to what instrument it is offered? he will answer, that the body of Christ is offered to the mouth of our body, and that the blood of Christ is ottered to the mouth of our body, as the Papists do. Will you know of us how the true body and blood of Christ Jesus is present ? We will say, that they are spiritually present, really present, that is, present in the Supper, and not in the bread : we will not say, that His true Hesh is present to the hand or to the mouth of our bodies; but we say it is spiritually present, that is, present to thy spirit and believing soul : yea, even as present inwardly to thy soul, as the bread and wine are present to thy body outwardly. Will you ask then if the body and blood of Christ Jesus be present in the Supper ? We answer in a 1 I.e. Perhaps the higher Lutlreran who holds the absolute Ubiquity of the Lord's glorified body ; as contrasted with the more moderate Lutheran view which requires only a Multi- prttmlia. I 130 THE THIRD SERMON word ; They are present in the Supper ; but not in the bread and wine, nor in the accidents, nor substance of bread and wine. And we make Christ to be present in the Supper, because He is present to my soul, to my spirit and faith. Also we make him present in the Supper, because I have Him in His promise, This is my body ; which promise is present to my faith : and the nature of faith is to make things that are absent in themselves, yet present. And therefore seeing He is both present by faith in His promise, and present by the virtue of his Holy Spirit, who can say, but that He is present in the Supper ? But yet it should be explained, what we mean by the word " present " ; how a thing is said to be present and absent. And knowing this, ye shall find all the matter easy. I say, things are said to be present, as they are perceived by any out ward or inward sense, and as they are perceived by any of the senses, so are they present, and the further they be perceived, the further present : and by what sense anything is perceived, to that sense it is present. Now if it be outwardly per ceived by an outward sense, that thing is outwardly present. As for example, if it be perceived by the outward sight of the eye, by the outward hearing of the ear, by the outward feeling of the hands, or taste of the mouth, it is outwardly present. Or, if anything be perceived by the inward eye, by the inward taste and feeling of the soul, this thing cannot be outwardly present, but it must be spiritually and inwardly present to THE LORD'S SUPPKR IN PARTICULAR 131 the soul. Everything is present as it is perceived. So that if you perceive not a tiling outwardly, it is outwardly absent ; and if you perceive not a thing inwardly, it is inwardly absent. It is not distance of place that makes a thing absent, nor propinquity of place that makes a thing present ; but it is only the perception of anything, by any of thy senses, that makes a thing present, and it is the non-perception that makes a thing absent. Though the thing itself were never so far distant, if thou perceive it by thine outward sense, it is present to thee. As for example, my body and the Sun are as far distant in place, as the heaven is from the earth ; and yet this distance keeps not the Sun:s presence from me : why ? Because I perceive the Sun by mine eye and other senses ; I fei'l him and perceive him by his heat, by his light, and by his brightness. If a thing were never so far distant, if we have senses to perceive the same, it is present to us. Thus the distance of place makes not a thing absent from thee, if thou have senses to perceive it : likewise, the nearness of place makes not a thing present, be it never so near, if thou have not senses to perceive it. As for example, if the Sun shine upon thine eyes, if thou be blind, he is not present to thee, because thou canst not perceive him. A sweet tune will never be present to a deaf ear, though it be sung in the ear of that man, because he has not a sense to perceive it : and a well-told tale will never be present to a fool, because he cannot understand it, nor has judgment to perceive 132 THE THIRD SERMON it : So it is not the nearness nor distance of place that makes anything present or absent, but only the perceiving or not perceiving it. Now, the word being made clear, ask you how the body of Christ is present ? To give our judg ment in a word, as you have heard from time to time, He is present, not to the outward senses, but to the inward senses, which is faith wrought in the soul. For this action of the sacrament and of the Supper, is partly corporeal, and partly spiritual: I call this action partly corporeal, not in respect only that the objects, that is, the bread and wine are corporeal, but also in respect my mouth, whereunto these things are offered, the instrument whereby, and the manner how these things are received, are all corporeal and natural. I call the same action again, partly spiritual, not only in respect of Christ Jesus who is the heavenly and spiritual thing of the sacrament, but also in respect of my soul whereunto Christ is offered and given ; in respect the instrument whereby, and the manner in which He is received, are all spiritual : for I get not Christ corporeally but spiritually. So in these respects 1 call this action partly corporeal and partly spiritual. Now, confound not these two sorts of actions, the corporeal and natural signs, with the spiritual thing signified thereby : again, confound not the mouth of the body with the mouth of the soul ; thirdly, confound not the outward manner of receiving by the hand of the body, with the spiritual manner of receiving by the hand of the THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 133 soul. And so it shall be exceeding plain to see, that each thing is present to its own instrument ; that is, the body of Christ which is the spiritual thing signified, shall be present to the spiritual mouth and hand : and the bread and wine which are the corporeal signs, are present to the corporeal mouth and hand. Then how is any object present? A corporeal object is corporeally present : and an inward object is inwardly present. Of what nature is the thing signified ? It is of a heavenly nature. Then ask you how He is present ; He is spiritually and heavenly present to the soul, and the mouth of the soul, which is faith. For it were a preposterous thing to make the thing signified present to thy belly, or to the mouth or eye of thy body ; for if that were so. it would not be spiritually present : because everything is present as it accords with its own nature. Is it a bodily thing? it is bodily present: and if it be a heavenly thing, it is spiritually present. So I think no man can doubt how the body of Christ is present : He is not carnally present, but spiritu ally present to my soul, and to faith in my soul. Thus far concerning the manner of His presence. Now the last part of our difference is this : we have to consider to whom the words ought to be directed and pronounced : For we and the Papists differ in this last head ; we say that the words ought to be directed and pronounced unto the people, to the faithful communicants. They on the contrary say, that the words ought not to be directed or pronounced to the people, but to the 134 THE THIRD SERMON elements, and not to be clearly pronounced, but whispered over the elements ; So that if they be spoken to the people, or spoken plainly, their charm avails not. Now I say, that as this holy Action is perverted by them in all the rest, so they pervert it in this point also, in speaking that to the dumb elements which they should speak to the people of God : For I shall prove it clearly by three arguments taken out of the Scriptures, that the words ought not to be spoken to the bread, but to the people of God. And First I say, the promises of mercy and grace ought to be directed and pronounced to them in whom the Lord performs them and makes them effectual : But so it is that the promises of mercy and grace are performed, and made effec tual not in bread and wine, but in faithful men and women : Therefore these promises should be directed to faithful men and women. Now here is the promise of mercy and grace : This is my body ivliicli is broken for you : and this promise is made to no other thing but to faithful men and women, and so to them only it ought to be directed. Secondly, we have to consider that this sacrament seals up a covenant of grace and mercy. Now with whom will God make His covenant of mercy and grace ? will He make a covenant with a piece of bread or any dumb element : There is no man will enter into covenant with his servant, far less will he enter into covenant with a dumb element. So in respect this sacrament seals up a covenant, this covenant, THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 135 of necessity, must be made with a faithful soul, and in no wise with the dumb element : and therefore these words cannot be directed to the elements. Thirdly, look to the end for which this sacrament was appointed. Is it not to lead us to Christ ? Is it not to nourish my faith in Christ ? Is it not to nourish me in a constant persuasion of the Lord's mercy in Christ ? Was this sacrament appointed to make the elements gods ? No ! for if you mark God's purpose in this institution, you shall find that Christ lias not ordained this institution to nobilitate the elements, to favour and respect the elements which were bread and wine yesterday and make them gods to-day. We, on the contrary, say plainly that the institution of Christ respects not the elements, to alter their nature. Indeed it is appointed to alter us, to change us, and to make us more and more spiritual, and to sanctify the elements to our use. But the special end is this, to make us holy, and more and more to grow up in a sure faith in Christ, and not to alter the elements, nor to make them gods. And therefore by all these three arguments, it is evident that the words ought not to be directed to the elements, but to the people and faithful communicants. Now to come to an end : There is one thing without which we cannot profit, let us discourse never so long upon the right understanding of the sacrament. You see now, how all that is spoken concerning the sacrament, is grounded and de pended on faith. Let a man have faith, be 136 THE THIRD SERMON it never so little, he gets some hold of Christ, and some insight in the understanding of this sacrament : but lacking faith, though a man strive to make the sacraments never so sensible, it is not possible that he can get any hold of Christ, or any insight of Him. For without faith we cannot be Christians : we can neither get a sight of God, nor feel God in Christ without faith. Faith is the only thing that translates our souls out of that death and damnation in which we were conceived and born, and plants us into life. So the whole study and endeavour of a Christian should tend to this : To crave that the Lord in His mercy would illuminate his mind with the eye of faith, and would kindle in his heart a love of faith, and work in his heart a thirst and desire for the object of faith, and more and more thirst and hunger for the food of faith that nourishes us to life eternal. Without this faith (howsoever the natural man and natural understanding would flatter itself) surely there is no blessedness ; but all his life is more than terrible misery. For whatsoever it be that natters and pleases thee now, be it a thought or motion of the mind, or an action of the body without faith, — the very same motion, cogitation, or action, shall torment thee hereafter. So, without faith it is not possible to please God ; and whatsoever pleases not God, is done to torment thee. Therefore crave mercy for any motion, cogitation, or action, in which thou hast offended God ; else, by the same, God shall offend THE LORD'S SUPPER IN PARTICULAR 137 and torment thee. And to avoid the offending God, there is no means but by true faith ; therefore, the study of a Christian should be to grow in faith. Now by hearing of the word thou gettest faith ; and by receiving this sacrament thou obtainest the increase of faith ; and having faith, the re ceiving of the sacrament shall be fruitful : but without faith thou eatest thine own condemnation. So the whole study of a Christian is to get faith ; and this faith cannot be obtained in idleness, but by earnest prayer : therefore let every one of us fall down, and crave earnestly this faith and the increase of it, whereby we may be worthy receivers of this sacrament ; and that for the righteous merits of Christ Jesus : To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honour, praise and glory, both now and for ever. Amen. THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE PREPARATION TO THE LORD'S SUPPER (Preached the Twenty-second day of February 1589) Let every man therefore examine himself, and so let him eat of this Bread, and drink of this Cup. — 1 COR. xi. 28. THOUGH the doctrine of our own trial and self- examination (well-beloved in Christ Jesus) ought to come before the doctrine and receiving of the sacrament, yet seeing that preparation is, at all times, necessary for the hearing of the simple word, as well as for the receiving of the visible sacrament (for no man can hear the word of God fruitfully, except in some measure he prepare his soul and prepare the ear of his heart how to hear) therefore the doctrine of preparation and due examination must come in its own place, and be very necessary for every one of you. The Apostle, in the words which we have read, delivers his counsel, and gives his advice ; and not only gives his advice, but his admonition and command : That we should not come to the Table of the Lord, that we should not come to the hear ing of the word rashly : but that every one of us should come to this holy work with reverence ; that we should prepare and sanctify ourselves in 138 PREPARATION TO LORIES SUPPER 139 some measure. And seeing we go to the King of Heaven's Table, it becomes us to put on our best array. In a word he delivers the whole doctrine and matter of this preparation, when he says ; " Let every man, and let every woman, try and examine themselves." As if he would say, " Let every one of you try and examine your souls." That is, try the estate of your own heart, and the condition of your own conscience. Mark and behold in what estate your heart is with God, and in what estate your conscience is with your neighbour. He bids not your neighbour try you, he bids not your companion try your heart ; but lie bids yourself in person try your own conscience ; he bids yourself try your own heart ; because none can be certain of the estate of your heart, or of the condition of your conscience, but yourself. Now he excludes not others from the trial of you, (for it is lawful that the Pastor try you) ; but others cannot try you so narrowly as you yourselves can ; for no man can know so much of me as I know of myself. No man can be certain of the estate of your heart and the condition of your con science ; and yet you yourselves may be certain of it. As for others, men may judge of your heart and conscience according to your works and effects ; and except your works and effects be very wicked and altogether vicious, we are bound in conscience to judge charitably of your heart and conscience. Therefore, there is none so meet to try the spirit of maD, to try the heart or conscience of man, as is the man himself. 140 THE FOURTH SERMON Now that this trial may be the better made, you have first to understand what it is that you should try : what you call a conscience, which the Apostle commands you to try. Next, you have to weigh and consider for what reasons and causes you should try your conscience. Thirdly, and last of all, you are to know in what chief points you should try and examine your conscience. I. First, then, that we speak not to you of things unknown, it is necessary for every one of you (seeing there is none of you that lacks a conscience) to understand ivliat a conscience is : and as nearly as God shall give me grace, I shall bring you to the understanding and knowledge of a conscience. I call a conscience, a certain feeling in the heart resembling the judgment of the living God, follow ing upon a deed done by us, flowing from a know ledge in the mind, accompanied with a certain motion in the heart, to wit, fear or joy, trembling or rejoicing. Now, we shall examine the parts of this definition. I call it, first of all, a certain feeling in the heart ; for the Lord has left such a stamp in the heart of every man, that he does not that thing so secretly, nor so quietly, but He makes his own heart to strike him, and to smite him ; He makes him to feel in his own heart whether he has done well or ill. The Lord has placed this feeling in the heart ; why ? Because the eyes of God look not so much upon the out ward countenance and exterior behaviour, as upon the inward heart. For He says to Samuel in his First Book, xvi. 7, " The Lord beholds the heart." PREPARATION TO LORD'S SUPPER 141 So, 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, He says to Solomon, " The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of thoughts." Also, Jeremiah says (xi. 20), "The Lord tries the reins and the heart." And the Apostle (1 Cor. iv. 5) says, "The Lord shall lighten things that are hid in darkness, and make the counsels of the hearts manifest." So, in respect that the Lord will chietly have to do with the heart, therefore in the heart He places this feeling, which is the chief part of conscience. I say next, that this feeling resembles the judgment of God : for this feeling was left and placed in our soul for this end and purpose, that we might have a domestic and familiar judgment within ourselves, to resemble and subscribe the secret and invisible judgment of the high God ; a particular judgment, to go before that general judgment, in that great day, when every man shall be justified, or condemned, according to the particular judgment that is within Ids own con science. In the meantime, this conscience is left in us, to make out our whole process in this life, there by, as it were, to ease the living God at that last judgment. For the books of our own conscience, in that last day shall be opened ; and every man shall receive, according to the report of the decree that is within his own conscience : therefore I say, that our conscience resembles the judgment of God. The third thing that I say, is this ; It follows upon a deed done by us : our conscience and our 142 THE FOURTH SERMON heart strike us not before the deed be done ; our heart strikes us not before the evil deed be com mitted ; no, it goes not before the deed ; but the stroke of the conscience and feeling of the heart follow immediately upon the deed, in such sort, that the deed is no sooner done by thee, but thy conscience applies it to thyself, and gives out the sentence against thyself : therefore, I say, it is a feeling, following upon a deed done by us. And next I say, flowing from a knowledge in the mind] for except the conscience have informa tion, and except the heart know that the thing which is done is evil, the heart nor the conscience can never count it to be evil : therefore know ledge must go before the stroke of the conscience; thy heart can never feel that to be evil, which thy mind knows not to be evil. So knowledge must ever go before feeling, and according to the measure of thy knowledge, according to the nature and quality of thy knowledge, accordingly shall the testimony and stroke of thy conscience be. For a light knowledge, a doubting and uncertain knowledge, makes a light and small stroke : as, on the other hand, a holy and solid knowledge, drawn out of the word of God, makes a heavy stroke of the conscience. So the con science must answer to the knowledge. If we have no other knowledge but the knowledge which we have by nature, and by the light and sparks which are left in nature, our conscience will answer no farther than to that knowledge : but if, beside the light of nature, we have a PREPARATION TO LORD'S SUPPER 143 knowledge of God in His word, and a knowledge of God by his Holy Spirit working in our hearts, our conscience will then go farther, and excuse or accuse us, according to the light that is in the word. So that the conscience is not acquired or obtained at what time we are enlightened by the working of the Holy Spirit, and hearing of the word of God : hut our conscience is born with us, is natural to us, and is left in the soul of every man and woman : and as there are some sparks of light left in nature, so there is a conscience left in it. And if there were no more, that same light that is left in thy nature shall be enough to condemn thec. So the conscience is not acquired, gotten or begun at the hearing of the word, or at that time when we begin to reform ourselves by the assistance and renewing of the Holy Spirit : But every man by nature has a conscience, and the Lord has left it in our nature ; and except that this conscience be reformed according to the word of God, that same natural conscience shall be enough to condemn thee eternally. Therefore, I say, "flowing from a knowledge of the mind." Last of all, I say, it is accompanied with a certain motion of the heart ; and we express this motion, in fear or joy, trembling or rejoicing. In very great fear, if the deed be exceeding heinous, and the stroke of the conscience be very heavy ; then the conscience never takes rest, for guilt must ever dread. But if the deed be honest, godly and commendable, it makes a glad heart, and makes the heart even to burst out in joy. So, 144 THE FOURTH SERMON to be short in this matter (for I purpose not to make a commonplace of it) you see, that in every conscience there must be two things : First, there must be a knowledge ; and next, there must be a feeling, whereby according to thy knowledge, thou appliest to thine own heart, the deed done by thee. So that, as the word itself testifies, it arises of two parts : of knowledge, according to which it is called " science " ; and of feeling, according to which the " Con " is added, and it is called " conscience." Thus the word " con science," signifies knowledge with application. This conscience, the Lord has appointed to serve in the soul of man for many uses ; to wit, he has appointed the conscience of every one of you to be a keeper, a waiter on, a careful attender upon every action done by you. So that, that action cannot be so secretly, so quietly, nor so theftuously accomplished, but whether thou wilt or not (1) thy conscience shall bear testimony of it ; thy conscience shall be a faithful observer of it ; and one day, shall be a faithful recorder of that same action. So, the Lord has appointed thy conscience to this office, that it attends and waits upon thee in all thy actions ; nothing can escape it. Likewise, the Lord has appointed thy conscience, and placed it in thy soul (2) to be an accuser of thee ; so that when thou dost any evil deed, thou hast a domestic accuser within thine own soul, to find fault with it. He has also placed it in thy soul (3) to be a true and stead fast witness against thee ; yea, the testimony of PREPARATION TO LORD\S SUPPER 145 the conscience, resembles not only a testimony or witness, but the conscience is tos good as ten thousand witnesses. The conscience also is left in thy soul (4) to do the part of a judge against thee, to give out sentence against thee, to con demn thee ; and so it does ; for our particular judgment, must go before the general and uni versal judgment of the Lord at that great Day. And what more ? He has left thy conscience within thee (5) to put thine own sentence in execution against thyself. This is terrible, He has left it within thee, to be a very torture and tormentor to thyself; and so to put thine own sentence in execution against thyself. Is not this a matter more than wonderful, that one and the self-same conscience, shall serve to so many uses in a soul ; as to be a continual observer and marker of thy actions, an accuser, ten thousand witnesses, a judge, an executioner, and tormentor; to execute thine own sentence against thyself? So that the Lord needs never to seek a member of court, outside of thine own soul, to make out a lawful process against thee, for thou shalt have all these within thyself, to make out a full process against thyself. Take heed to this : for there is never a word of this shall fall to the ground ; but either you shall find it to your weal, or to your everlasting woe. And this secret and particular judgment, that every one of you carries about with you, abides so sure and so fast writhiu you, that do what you can, if you would employ your whole labour to blot it out, thou shalt never get it K 146 THE FOURTH SERMON scraped out of thy soul. If you were as malicious, and were become as wicked as ever any incarnate devil was upon the earth, yet shall you never get this conscience altogether scraped out of your soul : but whether you will or not, there shall as much remain of it, as shall make you inexcusable in the great day of the general judgment. I grant, thou mayest blot all knowledge out of thy mind, and make thyself become as blind as a mole. I grant also, that thou mayest harden thy heart, so that thou wilt blot all feeling out of it, so that thy conscience will not accuse thee, nor find fault with thee, but thou shalt have a delight in ill-doing, without remorse : but I deny, that any degree of wickedness in the earth shall bring thee to that point, that thou mayest do evil without fear ; but always the more thou doest evil, and the longer thou continuest in evil-doing, thy fear shall become the greater : yea, in despite of the devil, and in despite of all the malice of the heart of man, that fear shall remain. And though they should both conspire together, it shall not be in their power to banish that fear, but that gnawing of the conscience shall ever remain, to testify to thee that there is a day of judgment. I grant also, that there shall be a vicissitude, and that fear shall not always remain, but shall be sometimes turned into security ; neither shall that security always abide, but shall be turned again into fear : so that it is not possible, to get this fear wholly extinguished ; but the greater the security is, the PREPARATION TO LORD'S SUPPER 147 greater shall thy fear be, when thou art awakened. Thirdly, I grant, that this fear shall be blind ; for from the time a man by evil doing has banished knowledge out of his mind, and feeling out of his heart, what can remain there but a blind fear? When men have put out all light, and left nothing in their nature but darkness, there can remain nothing but a blind fear. So 1 grant, that the fear is blind : for neither know they whence that fear comes, what progress it has made, whereunto it tends, where, nor when, it shall end : therefore, they that are in this way misled in their souls, are of all men on earth the most miserable. For so long as thou mayest keep in thy mind, a spark of this knowledge and spiritual light, in the which thou mayest see the face of God in Christ, wherein thou mayest sec an outgate in the deatli and passion of Christ, and wherein thou mayest see the bowels of mercy offered in the blood of Christ ; if thou hast any spark of this light, (albeit it were never so little), to direct thee, and albeit this knowledge were never so much wounded, yet there is mercy enough for thee in Christ : but if thou close up all the windows of thy soul and of thy heart, and make them to become palpable darkness, that thou neither knowest whence the terror comes, nor yet seest any outgate ; that is the misery of all miseries. We have many things to lament in the state of this Country ; though they are not present, to whom this specially appertains. Nevertheless 148 THE FOURTH SERMON there are none of you but have cause to take heed to your consciences now, while you have leisure, that you banish not altogether this light which is yet offered you, and whereof some sparks yet remain. For I see the most part of our great men in this country run headlong to banish the spark of light that is in them ; and they will not rest so long as there is any spark of it left, till it be utterly banished. And when they have so done, alas ! what can follow, but a blind and terrible fear in their conscience, which they can never get extinguished ? A fear without remedy, — a fear to grow, and not to decay, — a fear to devour them wholly at the last. Therefore, everyone of you take heed to this light that is within you ; take heed, that the foul affections of your hearts draw not your bodies after them ; see, at least, that those affections banish not this light. And so long as the Lord offers you this light in time, crave that of His mercy He would give you the grace to embrace it, to take a new course, and yet to amend your lives while time is given you. The body shall leave the soul, and the soul shall leave the body ; but the conscience shall never leave the soul : but wherever the soul goes, to the same place shall the conscience repair; and in whatever state thy conscience is when thou diest, in the self-same state shall it meet thee in the great Day. So that if thy conscience was a tormentor to thee at the time of thy death, if thou got it not pacified, it shall be an executioner to thee in that general Judgment. PREPARATION TO LORD'S SUPPER 149 Therefore, should this matter be well weighed, and every one of you should study to have a good conscience, that when the soul is severed from the body, leaving your conscience at rest and peace with God, it may be restored to you, and meet you again with as great peace and quietness. Thus far concerning conscience, what it is. I beseech the living Lord, so to sanctify your memories, that you may keep these things ; and that every one of these things may be so imprinted on your hearts, that to the end of your life you may be mindful of them. II. The second thing that we have to speak of, is this ; We are to consider wherefore we should try our consciences : for what anises we should examine our own souls and consciences. I shall declare the reasons briefly. It behoves every one of you to try your conscience. Why? (1) Because the Lord will make His residence in no other part of the soul but in the conscience : He has ap pointed His dwelling to be in the heart of man, in the will and conscience of man ; and therefore it becomes you to make His dwelling-place clean, and to take heed to your heart. (2) Xext, though the Lord of heaven made not His residence there, yet in respect the eye of God is an all-seeing eye, and able to pierce through the very thickness of man's flesh, how dark and gross so ever it be, and to enter into the very secret corners of thy conscience ; (for unto the all-seeing eye of God, the most secret corner of thy conscience is as clear and manifest, as any 150 THE FOURTH SERMON outward or bodily thing on the earth can be to the outward eye of the body) : In respect there fore that this eye is so piercing, and that He casts His eye only upon our heart, it becomes us to try our hearts. (3) Thirdly, he is the Lord of the conscience. There is no monarch on earth that has any sovereignty or lordship over the conscience : only the God of heaven, only Christ Jesus, King of Heaven and Earth, is Lord of the conscience, He only has power to save and lose. Therefore when thou comest to this sacrament of the Lord's Table, becomes it thee not to look upon thy conscience, to try and examine the state of it ? (4) Last of all, which is the chief reason ; It becomes thee to prove thy conscience, because the welfare, and health of thy soul depends upon thy conscience. If thy conscience that is within thy soul be well, if it be at peace and rest, th}^ soul is well ; if thy conscience be in. good estate thy soul must needs be in good estate ; if thy conscience be in good health, of necessity thy soul must be in good health ; for the good health and happiness of the soul depends upon a good conscience : therefore, it concerns every one of you to try well your consciences. There was never any law made or devised, that forbade us to have a care of our health ; it is lawful for us to seek such things as may procure and preserve it : but the health of thy soul stands in the health of thy conscience, and in preserving there of : therefore, by all laws, thou oughtest to attend PREPARATION TO LORIES SUPPKR 151 to tliy conscience. If thou keep thy conscience well, thy soul is in health ; and if thy soul be in health, let troubles come, what will, upon thy body, thou wilt endure them all. But if thy soul be diseased, and if that pining sickness occupy it which an evil conscience brings on, thou shalt not be able to endure the least trouble that can come upon thy body : whereas, if the conscience were at rest and in good health, no trouble could light upon thy body, but the strength of a good conscience should bear it out. Thus have you not reason, and more than reason, to take heed to your conscience, to try and examine your conscience, in what state and disposition it is ? Now, because it is a savourless jest to tell you that health is necessary, and not to show how this health may be acquired, preserved and enter tained ; therefore, to keep your conscience in quietness and good health, I shall give you these few lessons. First of all, be sure that thou retain a steadfast persuasion of the mercy of God in Christ Jesus ; examine when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, in what estate thou art with God ; whether thou mayest look for mercy at His hand, or not. Art thou persuaded of mercy ? Assure thyself thy conscience is in a good state, thou hast health in thy soul ; for by the keeping of faith, the conscience is preserved, as saith the Apostle (1 Tim. i. 19). Keep this persuasion, preserve it whole and sound, hurt it not, bring not thy soul into doubting, stay not, 152 THE FOURTH SERMON nor hinder thy persuasion, if thou desire to keep health in thy soul : for, if thou doubt, or any way diminish thy persuasion and assurance, as suredly at that very instant shall follow the diminishing of the health of thy soul ; yea it cannot be, but in that very article of time shall follow the hurt of thy conscience ; for faith will not dwell but in a sound conscience. Therefore, at what time thou doest anything against thy conscience, at that very time thou losest a de gree of thy persuasion of the mercy of God : and until such time as thou fall down at the feet of Christ, and obtain mercy for that wicked deed, procure peace at His hands, and repair thy per suasion, thou shalt ever doubt of mercy, and want health in thy conscience. This, then, is the first lesson, to keep health in your souls, see that you be careful to be persuaded of mercy. The Second lesson to keep a good conscience, or to keep health in thy soul, is this ; you must flee, eschew, and forbear, whatever may trouble the health of your soul, whatever may trouble the quietness and peaceable state of your conscience ; cast it out, forbear it, and eschew it. This in general is good ; but let us see what it is that troubles the quiet state of the conscience. Nothing in the world but sin ; nothing but an evil nature. Therefore, we must of necessity, to keep health in our souls, forbear and eschew sin ; we must flee and avoid sin. It is not possible that you can both keep a good conscience and serve the affec tions of your heart : and, therefore, to keep peace PREPARATION TO LORDS SUPPER 153 and health in thy soul, them must bid thy lusts good-night, thou must renounce the lusts and affections of thy heart, and thou must not do as thou wast wont to do : thou must not be given to the service of thine affections, and of thine appetite, to put them in execution as thou wast wont. But in case thine affection or lust command thee to do anything, what is thy part ? Thou must examine how far this may stand with the good will of God, and how far that affection which commands thee may agree with the law of God. Is there such a harmony, that that which thine affection commands thee may stand witli God's law and holy will ? Then no question, it is a sanctified affection, thou inaycst put it in execu tion. But after this trial, if thou find thine affec tion to be exorbitant and out of rule, carrying the field from God and against His law, beware of it, resist it, put it not in execution ; for if thou fulfil the will of that affection one hour, what pleasure can it bring with it ? It may well bring a flatter ing pleasure at the first, but it closes ever with a bitter remorse in the end. Therefore to eschew this bitter remorse, should you not all try your affections ? You must examine and try them by the square of God's law, you must see how far they agree with His law, and how far they dissent from it, and so far as they are dissonent from that law, let every man deny himself, renounce his affections : and so, this trial being taken in this manner by thyself, it sanctifies thine affections, makes Christ to lodge in thy soul, makes thy 154 THE FOURTH SERMON conscience to be at rest. And the Holy Spirit this way makes both body and soul to be in good health, and to rejoice. Therefore flee from sin. This is the second lesson. The Third lesson is this : study to do well. Wouldest thou keep health in thy soul ? Study to do better and better continually : At the least, have a purpose in thy heart, to do better daily ; which is the last lesson. Seeing that when we study to do best, and that the just man, that is, the most holy man, falls so often as seven times a day, yea rather, seventy times seven, what is thy part in these slips and snares ? Though thou fall, as thou canst not eschew to fall, lie not still there, sleep not there where thou hast fallen : It is a shame to sleep there, therefore rise again. And how shouldest thou rise ? By lifting up thy soul, and running to the Fountain of grace and mercy ; by repairing to Christ Jesus, to obtain mercy for thy soul, and to crave that He would send out of Himself that measure of peace, that may put thy conscience to rest, and restore thy soul to health. So, lie not where thou fallest, but rise immedi ately and crave mercy, and in obtaining mercy thou shalt repair thy fall, thou shalt amend thy life by repentance, and by repentance thou shalt get peace, thou shalt have thy conscience at rest, and get health to thy soul. Now keep this rule, if thou would'st keep thy soul in health : look that thou sleep not in sin as David did : lie not still when thou art fallen, and so fall from one sin to another ; as from adultery to murder, and from murder to PREPARATION TO LORD'S SUPPER 155 the next. As commonly if a man sleep in sin, and rise not in time, one sin will draw on another ; for there is never a sin alone, but always the greater and more heinous the sin be, it has greater and worse sins waiting on it. Therefore when you fall, delay not to rise, but repair to the fountain of mercy and seek grace in time : run to prayer, run to the Church of Clod wherever it be, whether in the field or in the town : run to Christ Jesus and crave mercy of Him, that you may have peace in your consciences ; and so by these means every one of you shall preserve health in your souls. By these means you shall learn what difference there is between this living word of mercy and grace, which sounds in our religion ; and that slaying letter which slays the soul of every one that hears it, — I mean that idolatrous doctrine of the dumb Mass. I advert to this, because I see that our youth, for the most part, are given to it ; and the Lord is beginning to take away his grace and mercy from this country, for the contempt of this quickening word, which has so clearly sounded here, and which our noblemen (for the most part, running headlong to the devil, in a dumb guise) strive utterly to banish. Is not this a miserable thing, that so few of you have eyes to consider and discern the time of peace, mercy and grace, which is so abundantly offered ? The Lord of His mercy give you eyes in time. Thus far concerning the reasons wherefore every one of you should try and examine your 156 THE FOURTH SERMON own consciences : and this trial ought not to be for a day or for a year, but it ought to be every day and every year of thy whole life. For that conscience that should rest for ever with the living God, that conscience which must ever behold the face of the Son of God, cannot be over-well cleansed, we cannot look over-narrowly to it. The more anxious we are in searching the conscience, we are the better occupied : I speak of our own conscience. I speak not of our neighbour's. III. Thirdly, I come to the points wherein every one of you should try and examine your selves. Every one of you ought to try and examine your consciences in two things : First, whether thou be at peace with God who is the Lord of heaven, or not. Next, examine thy conscience whether thou art in love and amity with thy neighbour, or not. Wouldest thou know whether thy conscience be at unity and peace with God, or not ? Thou shalt know it this way ; the God of heaven can have no society nor company with that soul which is always unclean, which is every way defiled ; no, He cannot ! Now I speak not so precisely that I make a soul to be fully sanctified and perfectly holy in this life : no ! in this life there are wonderful iniquities, gross sins, and great faults wherewith even the righteous are defiled. But this is my meaning ; there is no soul can be at peace with God, or with which the Lord can have any society, but in some measure it must be PREPARATION TO LORD'S SUPPER 157 sanctified and made holy. For God cannot make residence in a soul that is always a stinking dunghill ; and therefore, of necessity, it must be sanctified : there must be so much made clean, in one corner or other of that soul, in which the Lord of heaven by his Holy Spirit may make His residence. Now let us see whereby the heart is sanctified ; Peter (Acts xv. 9) says, that the soul of man is purified by faith, that the heart of man is purged by faith. So faith opens and purges the heart by faith in Christ Jesus, and in the merit of His blood we have peace with God : " Being justified by faith, we have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ," says the Apostle, Romans v. 1. Now then this point comes in, that you have to prove yourselves whether you be in the faith or not ; as the Apostle says (2 Cor. xiii. 5), " Prove yourselves whether ye are in the faith." Examine if your soul be seasoned with this faith, for if you have not faith in Christ, Christ is not in you ; and if Christ be not in you, you are in an evil state, you are in the estate of the reprobate and the condemned. So every one ought to look carefully and see if he has a belief in the blood of Christ or not : whether or not, he believes to get mercy by His merits, and sanctification by His blood. For if thou have no measure of this faith, thou hast no measure of peace with God, for our peace with God is engendered and grows daily more and more by true faith in Christ. Now this faith where it is true, where it is lively and 158 THE FOURTH SERMON couples the heart with God, as I have already said, it must break forth in word and deed, it can by no means be held in, but it will break forth. It must break out in word, in glorifying the God of heaven, who has forgiven us our sins ; it must break forth in word, by giving a notable confession of those sins wherein we have offended Him. It must break out in deed, in doing good works, to testify to the world that thing which is within thy heart ; to testify to the world that thou who hast this faith art a new man ; that by thy good example of life and conversation thou mayest edify thy brethren, the simple ones of the church of God ; and that by thy holy life thou mayest draw sinners to repentance, that they, seeing thy light, may be compelled to glorify God in thee. Therefore in the first point of trial let us look to these three, to the heart, to the mouth, and to the hand. Take heed that there be a harmony among these three, — that they all sing one song ; for if the heart be inwardly coupled with God, there is no doubt but the mouth will outwardly glorify Him ; and if thy heart and mouth be renewed and be one, of necessity thou must express this in thy conversation. Further there must be an agreement betwixt the heart and the hand ; thy conversation must be changed with the heart, and be holy, honest, and godly as the heart is. So that, if thy conversation be good, it is a sure token that thou art at one with God : but if thy conversation be not good, speak what thou wilt, thy heart is only denied, this true and lively PREPARATION TO LORD'S SUPPER 159 faith has no place in it. Then, wouldest tliou know when thou art at one with God ? When thy conversation, thy heart, and thy mouth say all one thing, then, without question, thou hast the work of faith wrought by the Holy Spirit in thy heart, which makes thee to be at peace with God. This is the first point wherein ye should try yourselves. The next point is love. You must try whether you be in love and charity with your neighbour or not. For as thou art not coupled with God but by the bond of faith, so thou art not coupled with thy neighbour nor joined with any member of Christ in this earth, but by the bond of love, amity and charity. Take away love, thou art not a member of this body : for love is the master sinew, which couples all these members of Christ's body together and makes them to grow up in a spiritual and mystical unity. Love is the only mark whereby the children of Christ, and members of Christ's body, are known from the rest of the world : love is that holy oil which refreshes our souls, and makes us like unto God : and the more we grow in love, the more God by His Spirit dwells in us ; for God is love. So that, except in some measure love towards thy neighbour dwell in thy heart, thou canst have no society with thy neighbour, and far less with God. If the manners of men were examined by this rule, we should find a multitude of godless people in this country, who have their hearts raging with malice one against another : and where the 160 THE FOURTH SERMON devil and a malicious spirit dwells, there is no place for the Holy Spirit. And now although the Lord has gone about by all means possible, early and late, to instruct them, and to infuse into them this precious love and amity towards God and their neighbour, and so to alter their conditions; yet they will not suffer themselves to be awakened, until