West Port Experiment

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 conjoined 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 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 would see thee.” You hear His answer to their demand, how little He esteems that carnal bond; He answers 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 conjunction, 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; 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.”

From Sermons on the Sacrament (1591)