Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many years sinceMeditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many yeares since

Thirdly, in that Christ gave and delivered these mysteries unto the Church▪ we likewise must learn not to engross our selves, or our own gifts, but freely to dedicate them all unto the honour of that God and benefit of that Church, unto which he gave both himself and them. Even nature hath made men to stand in need of each other, and therefore hath imprinted in them a natural^a inclination unto fellowship, and society, in one common City: by Christ we are all made of one City^b, of one household, yea, of one Church, of one Temple^c. He hath made us members^d of one body, animated by one^e and the same Spirit; stones^f of one entire building, united on one and the same foundation^g; branches^h of one undivided stock, quickenedⁱ by one and the same root, and therefore requires from us all a mutual support, succour, sustentation, and nourishment, of each other a kind of traffic, and continual intelligence from part to part; a union of members by the supply of nerves^k and joints, that so each may be serviceable unto the whole. The eye seeth not for it self, but for the body; and therefore if the eye^l be simple, the whole body is full of light, for the light of the body is the eye. Nay, God in each creature imprinteth a love of community ⟨p. 82⟩