* p. 42. will Ambitious and Imperious Men stick at to promote their Worldly Power and Greatness? For my part I cannot but believe, that God hath fuffer'd this Abominable Doctrine to be raised by them, and by Violence and Fraud to be propagated, and for a time to flourish, that he might at laft with everlasting fhame confound and utterly caft down the intollerable Pride and Tyranny of the Romish Church; as he permitted even his own chofen People, the ftiff-necked Jews, to bend their Tongues for lies and to proceed from c. 31. 36, 37. Evil to Evil, till at last they were quite caft off and ceafed to be a Nation. Jer. 9. 3. P. 479. b. 、 Those words of Chrift, this do in Remembrance of me, for the Bread, this do in Remembrance of me as often as you drink it, for the Cup, do manifeftly fhew the very end of the Eucharift to be no more then this, do this as a Memorial of my Paffion; as if he had faid, as you just now did eat the Bread of Affliction in Remembrance of your fervitude in Egypt, fo hereafter eat this Bread and drink this Cup in Remembrance of me; that is, not only in Remembrance of my Death, but of all the Actions and Paffages of my whole Life and Converfation here on Earth, from my Birth to my Afcenfion into Heaven; as likewife in Remembrance of my Promife to come again, by the Effufion of the Holy Ghoft upon you, and laftly to Judgment. It is most evident that this was the very defign of all the Authors of the Antient Liturgies, whoever they were; whether thefe Liturgies were the Genuine works of those Fathers whofe names they now bear, I will not here rafhly and indeed impertinently affert or determine any thing; but I fhall only add, to what I have already noted in the following Treatife, fome Obfervations out of them, which will be Obvious to any diligent Reader. To omit thofe of Peter, Mark, James, and many others, that in the Apoftolical Constitutions, though it is by no means fo univerfally approved as Genuine, (being plainly in many things fpurious, and in as many places patcht and interpolated,) yet it is generally b. 8. c. 12. own'd as the Antienteft of all. There you will find Commemorated in due Order, Chrift's Nativity, his whole Life, Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection, Afcenfion; Then follows the Eucharift as a Memorial of all thele; Meumuévo v, Therefore remembring what he hath suffered for our fakes, we give thanks to thee Almighty God, not as much as we ought, but as much as we are able, and we fulfill his command. Then are related his very words; For in the fame night that he was betrayed, he taking Bread, &c. then they go on, wherefore remembring his Paffion, Death, Refurrection, Afcenfion. and coming again to Judgment, we offer unto thee our King and God, according to his Command, this Bread and this Cup, thanking thee through him, for that thou hast thought us worthy to ftand in thy fight, and ferve thee as Priests; and we beseech thee, that thou wouldeft pleasingly look upon thefe Gifts which are fet before thee, O thou God who wanteft nothing; and kindly regard them for the Honour of thy Chrift; and that thou wouldest fend down thy Holy Spirit upon this Sacrifice as a witness of the sufferings of the Lord Jesus, and, año, declare, or pronounce, this Bread the Body of thy Christ, and this Cup the Blood of thy Chrift, that all who partake thereof may be confirmed to Piety, and obtain remiffion of Sins, &c. Then follows, "En en, again and again let us befeech God through his Chrift for the Gift offered to the Lord God, that the good God would receive it through the Mediation of his Chrift unto his Heavenly Altar for a Savor of Sweatness. Then follows two very pious Prayers with Thanks and Supplications for all devout Chriftians. Thus then that part, containing the Narration of Christ's Confecrating the Bread and the Wine at the last Supper, is no more then one particular member of the whole general Commemoration of Chrift's whole Oeconomy. c. 13. C. 14. C. 15. And here I cannot omit that remarkable paffage in their giving of Thanks at the Eucharist, which we there meet with fomething before; we give thanks. O our Father, for the Precious Blood of Jefus Christ shed for us, and for his Precious Body, & ý ávτíTuTa Tauta iπITλõμey, of which we also celebrate thefe Antitypes, or Figures, he himself having commanded us to fhew forth his Death. Nothing can more clearly prove that the Eucharift in those early days was lookt upon only as a meer Typical or Figurative Memorial of Christ's whole Difpenfation, or Life and Actions, and of his Death more particularly amongst the rest. Let the Author or Authors of thefe Conftitutions be who you will, they are avowedly very Antient and Primitive, though perhaps not, as is pretended, Apoftolical. Now let us caft an Eye upon the prefent Greek Liturgy which goes under the name of Chryfoftom. When the Pricft and Deacon come to the Prothefis, or by Altar, it begins thus. the Priest taking up a Loaf croffeth it three times faying, in Remembrance of our Lord and God and Saviour Jefus Christ; which cannot be restrain'd only to his Death, but must be extended to his whole Oeconomy. Then is reprefented, the piercing of his Side, his Death, the Water and Blood iffuing out of his Side; as one principal part of it. Then are remembred the Virgin Mary, and all the Apostles, Prophets and Fathers, &c. and particular Perfons and Friends both Quick and Dead, as vicarious Communicants with thofe that are prefent, by their feveral Portions there particularly affign'd to each of them. Then is reprefented the Star which flood over, where the Child Jefus was. At the Communion Table they first represent Chrift being laid in the Sepulcher. In the first Prayer after the Gifts are fet there, Praife and Prayer are called their Spiritual Sacrifices; and they pray God, that they may be accepted; and God's Mercies are largely recounted in those parts of the fame Prayer (for undoubtedly at firft it was all but one, as I have elsewhere noted) which immediatly go before and then contain the Narrative of Chrift's Inftitution; and in what follows there are particularly mention'd, the Cross, Sepulcher, Refurrection, Afcenfion, Chrift's fetting in Heaven, and his fecond Coming; and they all are called, our Rational and Unbloody λaτgéla, Worship, again and again, not only for those who are prefent, but for all our Fore fathers who are Dead; particularly for the Virgin Mary, John Baptift, the Apostles, and all that have flept in hope of a Refurrection to Life, &c; with one Heart Glorifying and with Hymns celebrating God's All venerable and Magnificent Name. Thus our Prayers and Praifes and Thanks; and this folemn Memorial duly performed, being the Calves and Hof 14. 2. Fruits of our Lips, humbly offer'd upon the golden Altar of a Contrite Heart, Heb. 13. 15. are the true and only Sacrifices, which we now can make both for Quick and Dead, both being Perfonally or Vicariously made Communicants with us. Then after the Confecration, they pray for the precious Gifts, that God receiving them unto his Altar in Heaven, would in lieu of them fend down upon them his Grace and the gift of his Holy Spirit, and that they might worthily partake of the Mysteries of that Sacred and Spiritual Table for the Remifion of Sins, &c. They acknowledge, that they bow not to Flesh and Blood but to thee the terrible God. This Adoration then is not to Chrift's Body and Blood, as being now there, but to God the Father alone; and they immediately pray, (as by way of Distinction,) to Jefus Chrift as fitting in Heaven and Invisibly prefent with them. The Priest lifting up the Holy Bread, (or Chrift's Portion taken out of the middle of the Loaf) faith, Holy things to thofe that are Holy; this is far enough from the Romish Elevation, as you will fee in the following Difcourfe; and in my old MS the Prieft r. p. 137 perfumes the Holy Table, first faying these words, infánt éπì tès égava's ò Deòs, be thou Exalted above the Heavens O God, and then lifts up the Bread which words are left out here, and brought in afterwards in a far diftant place; so that in my MS. Copy they feem to me rather to Symbolize his Refurrecti on or Afcenfion, then any thing elfe; or perhaps his Exaltation on the Crofs, for then they pour hot Water into the Wine in the Chalice, the Priest saying, Bleed is the Heat of thy Saints; and the Deacon faith, the Heat of Faith full of the Holy Ghoft; I have noted upon this place the ftrange Variety of Read Rev. 8. 3. * p. 44. P. 43. Readings in Printed Copies and MSS. I fhall here add this fhort Remark. The Custom of mixing Water with the Wine, as I have noted, was very Antient both with Jew and Gentile. Cyprian, and others of the first Ages, gives us this Mysticall meaning of it when it was first retain'd and continued amongft Chriftians at the Eucharift. By the Water, faith he, is understood the People, by the Wine the Blood of Chrift; both remaining unchanged in their Nature as diftinct Symbols, that of that, this of this. This mixture reprefents the Union of Christ, the Head, with the People, the Members, of his Mystical Bo1 Cor. 10. 16.dy, the Church; according to St. Paul, the Cup, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Chrift? I question not in the least but that the Water in the Primitive ufe was Cold, as it is yet obferved by the Latins. But fome Greek Fathers thinking that this Mixture might reprefent the Water and Blood which ifued out of Chrift's Side when it was pierced on the Crofs, the following Greeks used hot Water, because it and the Blood were fo when they came out of his Body. Yet I could recount a very earnest Controverfy amongst them even about that. But the very words here of the Priest and Deacon (to make good Senfe) most plainly agree with Cyprian's Expofition; the Heat of thy Saints, the Heat of Faith full of the Holy Ghost, muft ftill fignify properly, the Zeal, and the Liveliness of Faith in the Communicants. However hot Water being once brought into the Greek Church, right cr wrong, it will be continued by them, who are most obftinately tenacious of their own Ceremonies and Superftitions, though they know nothing of their first beginning or meaning; the Latins blamed them at the Council of Florence for this hot Water, but after all they could not move them from their old Mumpfimus. At laft the Prieft paffes through, ayo Ba, the Chancel entring into the Prothefis, and there in a fhort Prayer he declares, teat Chrift being the Fullness of the Law and the Prophets hath now fullfilled all his Father's difpenfations; fignifying his leaving the Earth and his Afcenfion. Here then we fee the Memorial of all Chrift's Oeconomy, though confused and not in that due Order which is obferved in the Apoftolical Conftitutions. Feb. 2. 9. ad finem. The Latins alfo plainly acknowledge the Eucharift to be a Memorial, not only of Christ's Death, but of his whole Oeconomy, though very briefly and imperfectly; for in the Order of their Mafs, they pray the Trinity, to receive the Oblation which they offer in Memory of Chrift's Paffion, Refurrection, and Afcenfion, in Honour of the bleed Virgin and all Saints, and that it may prove to their Honour and our Salvation; and in their Canon it felf, the very fame Memorial is expreffly repeated; and they there call the whole, Sacrificium Laudis, a Sacrifice of Praife; as it was only fo accounted and therefore call'd in primitive Ages a Spiritual and Unbloody Sacrifice. And therefore to me Scotus and fome others feem rightly to have made the whole Synaxis only one entire Form of Confecrating the whole Eucharift, it being a general Memorial of all Christ's Life, as well as of his Paffion and Afcenfion. The Eucharift was thus Celebrated only as a Memorial of all Chrift's Life, Actions, and Sufferings on Earth, and of his being Crown'd with Glory and Honour in Heaven, for many hundreds of Years; but the Jewish Original of it was by degrees forgotten, and both Greeks and Latins began to change the true Idea of it into various Conceits and Fancies of their own. Let us then fee the Effect of fuch a Devout, Pious, Serious Memorial and Meditation of Chrift's whole Oeconomy; It must needs moft ftrangely ravish every good Chriftian's heart, and heat his Affections, Inflame his Zeal, ftrengthen and enliven his Faith, work true Repentance and make him a worthy and acceptable Communicant. To think that Chrift defpifed not the Virgin's Womb; was laid in a Manger; was driven in Swadling-Cloath into Egypt; was Baptized; Fafted; was Tempted of the Devil; was flighted. and contemn'd by his own Countrey men; was Scourged and Spit upon; was was Crown'd with thorns in fcorn; and at laft was nailed to the Crofs. These are meer Cavils, Chrift did not fay, this is a Type or Token, or Memorial of my Body, but this is my Body; might not I fay as well, the Jews did not fay, this is a Sign or Token or Memorial of the Bread of Affliction, but, this is the Bread of Affliction; and yet they understood it only as a Token or Memorial of it. So Chrift did not fay, this in my Hand is my Body, or my entire Self both Body and Blood; but following Ages who had (as is before faid) forgotten the true Senfe taken from the Jewish Original, turn'd it into quite another conceit, and maintain'd meer impossible Abfurdities only by a pretended Faith. Next let us fee how this Memorial will folve all the Difficulties juftly charged upon Metufiotism, if Chrift's words and the Sayings of the Fathers, according to the Schools, are taken literally. First then that which in Manuel Commenus his time puzzled all his Wife-men (which I have mention'd in the following Treatife,) thou, O Chrift, art he who offereft, and who art offered; who receiveft and art diftributed, or received. The Elements are the very fame Memorial of Chrift's Death which he himself offer'd, and the very thing at the fame time which he offer'd to the reft; which he himself received, and which was received by the Apoftles; as the Bread, or Memorial of the Jews Affliction in Ægypt, was the fame which the Father of the Family (or chief of the Company, if more Families join'd,) first took himself and then offer'd to all the reft; and thefe words, this is my Body, could fignify no more to them then thofe, this is the Bread of Affliction, did; that is, only a Memorial of them both alike. And thus that forry fhuffle of the Metufiots, he bare bimfelf in his own hands, in another manner quite different from that g * P. 44. * p. 45. P.19.P.77,78 * p. 45. that when one carries other Bodies fo, is unintelligible; but this is Senfe, It was he who Bare, Received, and Distributed only the Memorial of Himfelf. p. 26. p. 77,78 865. So that in the Liturgy, the Lamb of God is divided and made into Portions; who is divided into Portions but not into separate parts; who is always eaten but never confumed. Here first Chrift is plainly called the Lamb of God; but this cannot be taken Litterally but Figuratively; and by parity of Reafon what follows ought to be taken fo too; the whole Chriftian Loaf, or Jewish Cake, was but one outward Memorial, and every bit of it is still the very fame, entire to every Communicant; the Elements are Eaten and Drank, but the inward Remembrance remains entire for ever in their Hearts. What hath ever been or is ftill more common over all the World, then to make fome fenfible thing or action a Memorial or Remembrance of what is abfent. Amongst the prefent Brachmans or Banians on the Coaft of Cormandel, (as my worthy and gratefull Pupil, Mr. John Marshal, hath fully inform'd me,) every family of any note makes a particular Anniverary Festival of their own, wherein they fet by fome inanimate antient Relick, as a Box, a Cup, a Staff, or the like; as a peculiar Memorial of the first of their Progenitors, and is (as our Coats of Arms were at first,) a Badge or Diftinction of each Race amongst them, to preferve the Memory of its Beginning, Rifing, and Hiftory. What other Original can be given by Votaries for keeping the Relicks of Saints? And if they were used as only Memorials of their Glorious Deeds, without any acts of Adoration or Worship, (as the Banians use theirs,) for my part, as I have elsewhere faid, I fhould not much blame them. The Eulogia, or Confecrated Bread, of old was mutually fent from one Chriftian to another, in Memory of Chrift's Passion, and in token of Brotherly Love; and the Greek Antidoron, and Hypfon or Hypfoma are all, even now, of the fame nature and uled for the fame purpose; efpecially the Panagia or Morfel of Bread, which they ConfeGoar, Euch. p. crate by a peculiar Office, for devout Travailers by Sea or Land, to be carried with them in Memory of the Virgin Mary, who is looked upon by them as their fafeguard, and is therefore called ontgia, the fhe Convoy or Guide in their way. What else was the Cup, 'Ayats daimov, of the good Genius, then, Stuck. Antiq as it is expounded (to name no more) out of Theophraftus, a calling to mind conviv. 1. 3. P. how great the Power, or Might, of God himself was, and how great that Gift (Wine) of his was to be efteem'd? What is our Grace Cup but a Memorial of our Benefactors and ablent Friends? Every one partakes of it and divides it amongst themselves, but the Memory of them remains entire in every one of their Minds. Chrift's words, eis élu àváμnow, which we render, in Remembrance of me, may as well be faid for my Memorial. And thus many of the Antients explain it. Thus one even in the fixth Century writes, Chrift gave us his Command and Example, that as oft as we do it, we Remembring him might not be unthankfull for all his most gracious Favours, as when a dying Man leaves fome pledge of his Love to his Friend, who as often as he fees it thinks of him with all due Affection. I have fomewhere read of one of the Antient Fathers, who (as it feems the Custom then was) preferved a Portion of the Holy Bread, Confecrated at the Eucharift, by him to his lives end, and order'd it to be buried with him; he certainly kept it only as a Memorial, for had he thought that it was Chrift himself, he would not have put that Indignity upon him as to have confind him to his own Carcafe whilst it turn'd to Putrifaction. * P. 46. 386. b. Primas. in 1 Cor. 11. Gear. p. 208. de Bafilio. 6 Thus that of St. Ambrofe, I fee, I taft, I smell, I bite quite another thing; how do you affure me that I receive the Body of Chrift? Answer, by this his Memorial, you as verily hear him Preach, fee his wonderfull works, behold him nail'd to the Cross and his Blood ftreaming down, and do fpiritu ally Eat him, as the Jews did Eat that very Bread of Affliction by their Memorial, which their Fathers had eaten fo many hundreds of years before them in Egypt.. So |