The Practice of Piety

The sixth end of the Lords Supper.

The sixt end of the Lords Supper.

6 To seal unto us the assurance of everlasting life. ¹Oh what more wished or loved then life? Or what do all men more, either fear, or abhor, then death? Yet is this first death nothing if it be compared with the second death; neither is this life any thing worth in comparison of the life to come. If therefore thou desirest to be assured of eternal life, prepare thy self to be a worthy receiver of this blessed Sacrament. For our Saviour assureth us, That if any man eat of this bread, ²he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the ⟨p. 713⟩world. He therefore who duly eateth of this holy Sacrament, may truly say, not only, Credo vitam aeternam, I believe the life everlasting: but also, Edo vitam aeternam, I eat life everlasting. And indeed this is the true tree of life ▪ which GOD hath planted in the middest of the Paradise of the Church. And whereof he hath promised to give every one that overcometh, to eat. ³And this tree of life by infinite degrees excelleth the tree of life, that grew in the Paradise of Eden; for that had his root, in the earth, this from heaven; that gave but life to the body, this to the soul, that did but preserve the life of the living, this restoreth life to the dead. ⟨p. 714⟩