God who super-added the word to the sign The Relation is mutual betwixt the Word and the Sign as betwixt the Form and the Matter The Word as the Form the Sign as the Matter Conjoyn them and they are a Sacrament By the Word we are to understand the Mandate of Christ enjoyning us to use them and to expect spiritual Grace thereby So we think we have good right to root out the other two and whole five supernumerary Sacraments since Confirmation and Extreme Unction have indeed the Element but wanting the Word ought not to be accounted Sacraments since Absolution and Ordination have no Element since Matrimony has no promise of Grace And thus we may more than ghess at the just number of Sacraments Wherefore laying aside the Supposititious we find but two Sacraments of the Gospel Baptism and the Lord's Supper In the first of these we have no Dispute with the Church of Rome but will I hope in some sort be cleared by our Disquisitions concerning the latter save about such trifles as their mixing of Salt and Spittle their Exorcisms their suffering Women sometimes to administer it c. Come we then to that which is commonly called the Communion How far the real Presence of Christs Body is allowed by us I shall in the first place declare We are then to distinguish betwixt the outward and inward Act of the Communicant In the outward with our bodily mouths we receive really the Elements of Bread and Wine In the inward we do by Faith really receive the Body and Bloud of the Lord that is We are truly and indeed by Vertue of the Covenant where the Sacrament is a Seal made partakers of Christ crucified to the spiritual strengthening of our souls Our Adversaries of the Roman Perswasion have made such a confusion of these things that for the former they deny that after Consecration there remains any Bread or Wine at all to be received though Paul does in my mind give a strong intimation 1 Cor. 11. 26. 10. 16. That it is Bread at breaking or distribution at eating or participation Then for the second they affirm That the body and blood of Christ is in such a manner present under the outward shewes of Bread and Wine as whosoever receives the one be he good or bad Believer or Infidel does therewith really receive the other A Tenent not consistent with that place in John 6. where our Saviour saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath Eternal life abiding in him and I will raise him up at the last day Hence hath that Reverend Usher often before quoted in that Answer to the Jesuits Challenge where you may find many clear testimonies out of the Fathers to this purpose framed this Syllogism The Body and Blood of Christ is received unto Life by all that do receive it and by none unto condemnation But that which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not received by all unto Life but by many unto Condemnation Therefore that which is outwardly delivered in the Sacrament is not really the Body and Blood of Christ. What was his last shall be my first proof out of St. Augustin handling this very place The Sacrament of this thing viz. of eating the flesh of Christ is taken from the Lord's Table by some unto life by some unto destruction but the thing it self whereof it is a Sacrament is received by every Man that doth receive it unto Life and by none that is made Partaker thereof unto destruction Now seriously if Protestants could adde no more Arguments to this and my self were as much an Adorour of that Way and Church as ever I was I am perswaded that it alone had been sufficient by the blessing of God to have gained me to the Reformed Belief But let us ponder well the Words of Institution 'T is true This is my Body and This is my blood is the Phrase used But were not the Sacraments of the Old Testament instituted with the same manner of Speech This is my Covenant and the slaying of the Lamb called the Passover The former is presently expounded by God himself when he says It shall be a Sign of the Covenant The other is known to have been the Commemoration of passing by the Israelites when the first-born of Egypt were slain Thus our Saviour having said This is my body goes on This do in Remembrance of me Luke 22. 19. The Disciples having been trained up to the meaning of the Old Sacraments could not and we if we will compare them with the New need not think the Expression at all obscure As the Lamb was the Passover As the Sign of the Covenant was the Covenant As the Rock was Christ So we acknowledge the Bread to be his body In the Institution of the other part of this Sacrament the Words are clear Matth. 26. He took the Cup blessed and gave it them saying Drink ye all of this for it is my Blood of the New Testament or as St. Paul and Luke relate it This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood How is the Cup or that conteined therein the New Testament otherwise than as a Sacrament of it And generally for all Sacraments the Rule is thus laid down by St. Augustin If Sacraments did not some way resemble the things whereof they are Sacraments they should not be Sacraments at all for this resemblance they do often bear the names of the things As therefore the Sacrament of the Body of Christ is after a certain manner the Body of Christ c. In another place he tells us the seven Ears of Corn were seven years and the Blood is called the Soul of Man after the manner of Sacraments It 's Evident the Fathers though they delighted to imitate our Saviour's manner of locution yet their meaning even when they followed the Metaphor through large discourses were not dissonant from that of Origen who after he had playd the Rhetorician in this sort concludes Et haec quidem de typico symbolicóque Corpore If you will but observe what strange relations my Authour gives you have full lieve to examine the truth of them though for my part I believe them What can you think but that some by-ended Priests the better to increase their esteem with the People such as Marcus Radbertus Damascen and Amalalarius there named wrought up the Vulgar Ignorance to an amazed Admiration of those mens power who could perform such great wonders and were the Makers of that they were taught to adore In Charles the Bald's time this Phansie had got some ground and several Questions and Debates arose about it That Emperour required Ratrannus to deliver his thoughts upon it whereunto he obeyed in such terms as Turrian the Jesuite is forced to say That to cite Bertram so is Ratrannus more usually named What is it else but to say The Heresie so he thinks fit to phrase it of
it is absolutely necessary so far as means or opportunities are given to be much in exercise of such good works and vertues as are contrary to the vices we were formerly given up unto both to ascertain peace at home and to cause others to say of us as 't was said of Mary Magdalen Our sins that were many are shewn to be remitted for we love much But if Queen Alfrida or Leofwin who were both deep dyed in bloud guiltiness give liberally to build Monasteries under a belief that by the merit of the work they might leave this world in safety and escape the punishment due to those crimes after dissolution or that the Prayers there to be ratled over by the living Monks should merit remission for them being already dead There was sure an horrible indignity offered to our great High-Priest who by once offering himself hath perfected for ever those that are sanctified Heb. 10. 12 14. There 's no doubt but it 's universally a duty to curb the flesh to keep under the body and so to bridle the appetite as to bring them under the yoke of obedience yet if any Monk Anchorite or other person whereof you may see many Examples in Matth. Paris should macerate his carcase and deny himself all use of wholesome food till he becomes fit for nothing but Enthusiastical dosings at last when he felt the infallible prodromes of approaching death engaging the whole Convent to flea him unmercifully with Rods from a conceipt that merely for such Penances here he should escape wrath to come or deserve a greater degree of Glory what can we say or think but that he was in a manner Felo de se and that the best he shall at any time hear from the Great Judge will be Who required this at thy hands For the real presence but not Transubstantiation I Perceive by my Saviours own Words recorded Joh. 6. 23. that I am under an absolute necessity of eating his Flesh and drinking his Bloud In the first place having therefore considered of how great concern it is to arrive at the true meaning of them I do humbly supplicate the Divine Majesty in St. Augustine's phrase that he will give me ever to think comprehend speak of and to go about that great Mystery so as may be best pleasing to him and most expedient for my soul. His own Paraphrase on what he had said cannot deceive me in the sence I ought to give them I dare believe since he so told his inquisitive Disciples vers 63. that the life of them is wrapt up in a spiritual acception And since he declares vers 35. after he had termed himself the Bread of Life that whoso cometh to him which is the peculiar act of Faith Joh. 1. 12. shall never hunger and attributes most clearly in pursuit still of the same Metaphor the quenching of thirst to believing as well in that place as in Joh. 7. 37 38 39. I can doubt no more concerning the matter He takes not off their amazement nor gives stop to their murmurs vers 61. by assuring them That though they were to see him ascend up where he was before yet they were ere long to have him corporally present in the form of Bread upon ten thousand Altars at once nay in the very jaws of every person how wicked soever that comes but to eat there He does not I say make his return at this rate but instructs them how to spiritualize the whole business in their apprehensions as is evident from vers 62 63. Neither would any thing obscure or difficult be found in the words of institution afterwards for besides that Christ had as we see in this Chapter informed and pre-instructed his hearers there was almost nothing among the Jews which had Type or significancie in it but was expressed in this manner Circumcision the Pascal Lamb Manna the Rock were all sufficiently known to carry the names of those things they did but adumbrate If we may believe St. Augustine in Psal. 98. with the most holy Sacrament Not the flesh which was crucified is carnally eaten but the vertues of that flesh are really eaten by the Soul in such manner as the soul can eat that is spiritually by her affections and other immanent real Acts or internal Operations Of Images ALL that dust wherewith the Church of Rome would blear our eyes in reference to the use of Images is easily blown away by the breath of that one Text Deut. 4. 15 which plainly speaks no less than that it is mainly the mind and intent of God by the second Commandment severely to prohibite all representations of him in his worship The well-meaning Papist makes perhaps full accompt that he worships not the Image but God or some Saint by the Image But let them know that most of their great Doctors have determined it lawful yea absolutely necessary to terminate a religious worship in the Image it self and that even it is to be worshipped with the same sort of Devotion as is due to the Anti-Type For instance If it be the Image of a Saint I must adore it with Doulia If of God with Latria In this doughty dispute they have been so keen and eager as whoever notes it can be no more surely of opinion that Romanists are more than Protestants at unity amongst themselves Since I have so good an Author for what I am about to say as Della Villa that noble Roman let none be offended if I insert here a pleasant shall I say or deplorable story however it will evince that there is abundance of grossness in the vulgar practice Thus it was Upon the Persian Gulph as I remember and not very many years since the Portugnise Ship he had taken his passage in was in great stress and imminent danger the Mariners having now no confidence in the Sails or Rudder ply'd St. Anthony with their Orasons and Vows but all in vain the storm still rages at last they tyed the Image to the main Mast and whipt it most grievously because they said he would often do what they required of him for blows when he could not be prevailed with by supplications Of Miracles COncerning which and more especially the dispossession of Daemoniacks our present Romanists are got to so great a degree of confident boasting that no place almost is free from the noise We ought to regulate and bound our Notions By The light of Scripture By The light of History By The light of Reason By The darkness of their practice 1. In the Book of God we have a direct Prohibition we must not make them the sole or principal rule of our Faith yea not though the sign or wonder should come to pass Deut. 13. 1 2. We have farther a clear caution that we expose not by too easie a credulity our selves to such deceptions Mark 13. 22. Matth. 24. 11. We have too an evident Declaration that it should so fall out the greatest part of the Earths inhabitants should
of Justification Those terms Rom. 4. 5 6. of Justifying the Ungodly and of Imputing Righteousness without Works are not so to be taken as if God ever did or ever would save any Person who resolved to continue impious or contemn the practice of good Works but they stand in opposition to all conceit of any Justifying power in good Works and may teach us That no man's holiness can be such in this Life but he will at God's Tribunal stand in need of that Covering which St. Paul fetcheth out of the 32. Psal. and points out to us in ver 7. Ponder too ver 8. and tell me then whether you can conceal from your self the whole Plat-form of the Protestant Doctrine in this point For the not Imputing of Sins and the Imputing of Righteousness without Works make up the Whole of our Belief Secondly a Sinner is not Justified by Faith as it is a Quality which deserves remission of Guilt and the Glory of Heaven nor as it is by God's favourable acceptance taken for the whole and perfect Righteousness of the Law But it justifies only with reference to its Object Christ Faith being that Grace which the Soul makes use of to close in with him receive and imbrace the Promises by it we are ingrafted into that Olive-tree and are made Members of that glorious Head We do not here as some traduce us erect a Justification merely supposititious or state betwixt Christ and the Believer only an imaginary Relation But we hold the Interest we have in him to be of most real and true Participation Forasmuch as having by God's effectual and gratious Ordination taken upon him the Humane Nature so entirely put on he communicates by vertue of the Mystical Union through the Covenant whereto God the Father the Son and Man are Parties really his Satisfaction and Merits to all Believers Joh. 6. 27. Isa. 42. 1. Heb. 5. 4 5. Jer. 31. 31. Thus he who knew no Sin was made Sin for us and we not having any Righteousness in our selves are made the Righteousness of God in him Rom. 3. 26. Who rose again for our Justification as he died for our sins Thus he is the Justifier and thus the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believes Rom. 10. 4. Let but Faith be the Substance of things hoped for the Evidence of things un-seen whereby we Receive and Imbrace as well as are Perswaded of the Promises Heb. 11. Suffer us but to draw Consolation by laying hold on the Hope set before us Heb. 6. 18. Let it be an Eying of Christ offering his Body shedding his Blood and fulfilling the Law perfectly as the Church of England speaks in the Homilies of Salvation very clearly Let it be a Fiducial Recumbence upon our Saviour in his whole Mediatorial Office which is certainly our Duty as well as Privilege And we desire no more Heb. 12. 1 2. The Free Gift which is said to come upon all men to the Justification of Life is held forth as the immediate Consequence and Effect of that exact and complete Justice which was in our Saviour Christ only and the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used imports the very Act of Justifyng or judicially pronouncing Just and not infusion into the Soul of any Habit of Justice We have no obscure Intimation what Righteousness is able to appear before God in all those Places where the Scriptures treating of Man's Justification in his sight points out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Righteousness of God affixing it to the very Person of Christ and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were only derived from him into the Regenerate Thirdly We are Justified by Faith in Opposition to the Righteousness of Works by fulfilling the Law in our own persons or else making Satisfaction for what we come short Paul's Disputations are levelled against the Moral Law as well as the Ceremonial for in the point of Justification he waves even that Law Rom. 7. 12 13. which he terms Holy and Just and Good and which to other uses he is careful to establish Here again if we consult the Original where the Righteousness of the Law is said to be fulfilled in us we may by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 4. never applied to that inherent Righteousness which is our Sanctification but to that Righteousness of Christ whereby he satisfied the utmost Demands of the Law be guided through the Labyrinth of Disputes to a right understanding of this Unum Necessarium wherein having expatiated a little more than the Brevity I at first proposed to my self would permit let me now represent to your view these three former heads copied out in Little 1. Faith is not an Empty Speculation but an Operative Grace of God's Spirit 2. The Righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the World to come is both Perfect and Inherent The former in Christ the latter in us 3. The Righteousness which is our Sanctification is indeed Inherent but not Perfect And 1. Justificatio apprehensiva called often Justifying Faith is not properly Justification but an apprehension or knowledge of it 2. Justificatio Effectiva termed Causal Justification none but Christ can have a Claim unto 3. Justificatio declarativa is by St. James styled Justifying by Works as it is the manifestation or testimony of true Conversion Thus those Scriptures do sweetly agree which say we are Justified sometimes by Grace sometimes by Faith sometimes by Christ and that once by Works Let us do Evil that Good may come thereof Rom. 6. 1. was the Devil's Rhetorick in the mouths of licentious men to bring an obloquie upon St. Paul's Doctrine of free Grace But doubtless Satan is a more cunning Sophister than to frame an Argument of so much Inconsequence as to say Continue in Sin that inherent Grace may abound Whence I think we may not improbably conclude That nothing else is intended by all the preceding Discourse but the Gracious Act of Almighty God whereby he absolves a believing Sinner at the Tribunal of his Justice Pronouncing him Righteous acquitting and accepting him to Glory only for Christ's sake Thus when he had assigned to sin its proper Effect due Wages and Merit Death coming to speak of Life Eternal we find no such terms in his mouth but he suddenly cuts off the File of his Contexture and calls it Rom. 6. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Free Gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There is Justification by Remission of Sins there is Justification by having the Righteousness of the Law fulfilled in us there is the Justification of Life or the Receiving that Crown of Life All these are laid up in the Person of Christ for the use of his Church and brought home to every true member by the hand of Faith There is too another Sort of Justification viz. At the Bar of Conscience and in Foro Humano by Works of Righteousness which