A14237:26
The substance of that which was delivered in a sermon before the Commons House…The substance of that vvhich was deliuered in a sermon before the Commons House…
The substance of that which was delivered in a sermon before the Commons House of Parliament, in St. Margarets Church at Westminster, the 18. of February, 1620. By James Usher, Professor of Divinity in the University of Dublin, in IrelandThe substance of that vvhich was deliuered in a sermon before the Commons House of Parliament, in St. Margarets Church at Westminster, the 18. of February, 1620. By Iames Vssher, Professor of Diuinity in the Uniuersity of Dublin, in Ireland
London: printed by Felix Kyngston for John Bartlet, 1621London: printed by Felix Kyngston for Iohn Bartlet, 1621
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
To begin then with that which is symbolical and relative: we may observe out of the Scripture, which saith, that Abraham received the sign of Circumcision, 1a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being uncircumcised; that Sacraments have a twofold relation to the things whereof they be Sacraments: the one of a sign, the other of a seal. Signs, we know, are relatively united unto the things which they do signify; and in this respect are so nearly conjoined together, that the name of the one is usually communicated unto the other. This cup is the new Testament, or, the new Covenant, saith our Saviour in the institution of the holy Supper, Luk. 22.20. This is my Covenant, saith God in the institution of Circumcision in the old Testament, Gen. 17.10. but how it was his Covenant, he explaineth in the verse immediately following: Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a SIGN of the Covenant betwixt me and you. So words being the signs of things, no sooner is the sound of the word conveyed to our ears, but the notion of the thing signified thereby is presented unto our mind: and thereupon in the speech of the Scripture nothing is more ordinary, then by the term of* Word to note a thing. We read in the fourth of the first of Samuel, that the Philistines were afraid and said, God is come into the Camp, vers. 7. when the Israelites brought thither the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the Cherubims, vers. 4. and yet was that no other but this ⟨p. 15⟩relative kind of presence whereof now we speak: in respect whereof also the shewbread is in the Hebrew named [Greek or Hebrew] the bread of faces, or, the presence bread. We see with us, the room wherein the Kings chair, and other ensigns of State are placed, is called the Chamber of presence, although the King himself be not there personally present: and as the rude and undutiful behaviour of any in that place, or the offering of any dis-respect to the Kings portraiture, or to the Arms Royal, or to any other thing that hath relation to his Majesty, is taken as a dishonour done unto the King himself: so here, he that eateth the bread, and drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily, is accounted guilty of offering indignity to the body and blood of the Lord.