for the former their representing Baptism as the laver (k) Tit. 3.5 of Regeneration which is a thing we must have from God (l) Joh. 3.5 and as a thing by which we must obtain forgiveness of sins (m) Act. 2.38 which is as undoubtedly (n) Expl. of the Lords Pr. forgive us c. another For the latter the same Scriptures requiring us to look upon the elements thereof as that body of Christ which was (o) Luk. 22.19 given for us and that blood which was shed for many (p) Matt. 26.28 for the forgiveness of sins For as these and the former benefits are such as manifestly come from God so they are alike manifestly represented as the consequents of the former Sacraments and a Sacrament therefore as such to be looked upon as having a relation to that which flows from God to us The only difficulty in my opinion is to shew a Sacrament to relate equally to that which passeth from us to God and imports our duty and service But besides that the Antients apprehended no such difficulty in it because giving it the title of a Sacrament in respect of that Obligation * See the prec Disc which it lays upon the Receivers of it The Scriptures have said enough concerning Baptism and the Lords Supper to confirm us in the belief of this relation of them Only because I would not too much anticipate my Discourse concerning those Sacraments and beside that may have another occasion to speak more largely to this Argument I will content my self at present with what St. Peter hath observ'd of Baptism (q) 1 Pet. 3.21 and which I have elsewhere (r) Explic. of the Prel Quest and Answers c. given a more particular account of For if as that Apostle insinuates and hath accordingly been more largely confirmed the stipulation or answer of a good conscience toward God be a considerable part of Baptism If it be so considerable a part of it as to give it much of that savingness which it hath Then must that Sacrament be thought because the stipulation of a good Conscience is of that nature to relate to something that must come from us as well as to those things which flow from God to us It is true indeed that our Church where it sets it self to define a Sacrament takes no notice of this object of it Whether it were through a simple inadvertency and from which our Church doth no where pretend it self to be free or which I rather think that it might give so much the more particular an account of that other and more considerable object of it even that inward and Spiritual Grace which it was intended to signifie and exhibit and assure For that our Church did not wholly forget this second object of a Sacrament even that duty and service of ours which it doth equally signifie and prompt us to declare is evident from its before minding the Catechumen of his Baptismal vow (ſ) Prelim. Quest and Answ of the Cat. and from the declaration it elsewhere (t) Office of Publ. Bapt. makes that they who are to be baptized must also for their parts promise the renouncing of the Devil and his works and both Faith and Piety toward God That as it shews her to have looked upon Baptism as a federals rite or ceremony so that she equally believed it to relate to our duty and service as well as to those divine benefits we receive from the Author of it Let it remain therefore for an undoubted truth and the acknowledged Doctrine of our Church that a Sacrament relates as well to what is to pass from us to God as to what is to come from God to us and that accordingly it may be so far forth defined such an outward and visible sign whereby we make a declaration of our piety toward God as Mr. Calvin (u) Instit li. 4. c. 14. §. 1. hath very well observed I may not forget to add for the farther clearing of this head that as a Sacrament relates first and chiefly to that which passeth from God to us so we are to conceive of that to which it so relates under the notion of a Grace given unto us yea of an inward and spiritual one That we ought to conceive of it under the notion of a grace given unto us is evident from those Texts which I but now made use of to shew that a Sacrament relates to that which passeth from God to us For instancing in such things as have the nature of benefits and so far forth therefore are to be looked upon as Graces or Favours instancing moreover in such benefits as are manifestly the issues of the Divine Goodness yea which the Scripture expresly affirms to be given to us by him for so it doth as to that (w) Luk. 22.19 Body of Christ which is the foundation of them all they must consequently oblige us to conceive of that to which a Sacrament relates as a Grace given unto us But neither will there be less evidence from thence if those Texts be well considered that that Grace to which a Sacrament relates is an inward and Spiritual one For as our Church means no other by an inward and Spiritual Grace than that which conduceth in an especial manner to the welfare of our inward man or Spirit as is evident from its making the Body and Blood of Christ the inward and Spiritual Grace of the Lords Supper and which it cannot be in any other sense than that it hath such an effect upon us so the Texts before alledged attribute such Graces to the Sacraments as are in that sense at least inward and Spiritual ones Witness their attributing to them the Graces of regeneration and forgiveness which are as it were the formal causes of our welfare and the grace of Christs Body and Blood which is the meritorious cause thereof and under God and by his acceptation in the place of an Efficient also I observe farther that as a Sacrament relates to such things as have the nature of divine Graces or humane duties so those graces and duties being parts of the New Covenant and receiving all their force from it a Sacrament must consequently relate to that New Covenant to which they do belong and from which they receive all their force Of which yet if there remain any doubt it will not be difficult to clear it from what the Scripture assures us concerning Baptism and the Lords Supper St. Peter (x) 1 Pet. 3.21 representing the former under the notion of a Stipulation or Contract as our Saviour the Cup of the other (y) Luk. 22.20 Matt. 26.28 as the New Covenant in his Blood for the remission of those sins for which it was shed For that that is in truth the meaning of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not as we usually render it the New Testament in it is not only evident from the word 〈◊〉
of the Divine Grace in it self and the aptness of a Sacrament to manifest its approaches to us For as the imperceptibleness of the Divine Grace in it self makes it but necessary for the comfort of mankind to have its approaches manifested to them by some other ways and means so a Sacrament as before describ'd is an apt means to notifie it to us yea assure us of the approaches of it Partly because a means to which God hath annexed the exhibition of his grace and partly because such a means as is apparent to mens senses and which therefore whilst they are so assured of they can as little doubt of that Grace which by the Decree of God is annexed to it Of the relation a Sacrament bears to the Divine Grace I have spoken hitherto and shewn what kind or kinds of relation it beareth to it I come now according to the method before laid down to entreat of its relation to our selves and of that piety and service which we owe to the giver of it For the understanding whereof we are to know that as a Sacrament is undoubtedly a sign of that of which it is such so if it hath a relation to our piety as I have before shewn it to have and as the very title of a Sacrament in the Original notion of it obligeth us to conceive it must be look'd upon as such a sign whereby we may make a declaration of that piety of ours as was before observ'd out of Mr. Calvin But so we do in Baptism as by other ways and means so especially by our receipt of it as a mark of our present acknowledgment of those Divine Persons into whose names we are baptized and a resolution for ever after to keep a good Conscience to them In the Eucharist by the grateful commemoration we there make of the death of Christ by a declaration of our intimate union with those who partake with us thereof and a resolvedness to maintain it by all the offices of love and kindness Which things I do now only mention because I must insist upon them more largely elsewhere and whither it will be more proper to deferr the particular explication of them Only as a Sacrament appears to have receiv'd its Name from the obligation it layes upon us to the performance of religious duties so I cannot forbear to add that as it is a declaration of that piety we owe to God so it is also an obligation to the continuance of it Because as I shall afterwards shew it serves to conciliate or renew that New Covenant by which we are obliged to them From that second thing to which a Sacrament relates pass we to the third even that New Covenant in which both the former are founded and to which I shall not stick to affirm First that a Sacrament hath the relation of a sign because at once representing the concernments of each party what God obligeth himself to conferr and what we make profession of performing But neither shall I stick to affirm that it hath moreover the relation of such a sign whereby the parties concern'd declare their consent to it and so make that which was before but in a disposition to become a Covenant or at most but in a weak and tottering condition to become actually and firmly such Which if any man shall give the title of a Seal unto I for my part shall not be at all displeas'd because seals were sometime (b) Neh. 9.38 made use of for the declaration of such a consent But I have my self avoided to make use of the expression because there may be some Ambiguity in it And because they who have lately employ'd it seem to look upon it as a thing which rather adds strength to mens faith concerning it than to the Covenant it self and much less doth either give being to it or renew it Whereas Baptism in my opinion is that which first strikes the Covenant between God and man and the Eucharist that which continues or renews it after it hath been shatter'd by our miscarriages As is evident as to the former by its being the means of (c) Matt. 28.19 making Disciples and the laver of our (d) Tit. 3.5 new birth and as to the latter by our Saviour's entitling it the New Covenant (e) Luk. 22.20 in his blood and remitting men to it for that remission of (f) Matt. 26.28 sin which had been made over to them by the other This I take to be the true relation of a Sacrament to the New Covenant and so I shall continue to do till I come to be better enlightned in it For which cause I shall only add that as the consent we now speak of is in a Sacrament declar'd by both parties so he who administers it is in that case in the place of God and declares his consent to the Covenant Because doing what he doth by vertue of that Commission (g) Matt. 28.19 which empower'd the Apostles and their Successors to Baptize all that should offer themselves unto it and made them the dispensers of that and the other (h) 1 Cor. 4.1 mysteries of our Religion The fourth and last thing to which I affirm'd a Sacrament to relate is the body of Christ even that mystical one which is made up by those that believe in him and adore him Now to this Body it relates in the general as a discriminative sign of the profession of it and by which the several members thereof may both know and be known by one another and accordingly joyn in such acts as God exacts of their body For because God who made men sociable Creatures was willing they should worship him in society also as for other reasons so to make him an apt return (i) Expl. of the fourth Com. Part 1. of praise for that blessing which they receiv'd by God's disposing them to a sociable life And because as St. Augustine (k) Aug. contr Faust Manichae li. 19. c. 11. speaks men cannot be associated into any Religious body nor indeed into any other but by a community of visible signs and Sacraments of which beside the thus confederating of men of all Religions we have a proof in men's general inability to judge of the profession of their Associates by any other way than by such outward notes or characters therefore I say God and Christ when they meant to erect a Christian body gave it such signs and notes also Partly to give beginning to it and the several members of it and partly to continue them in those joynt Offices and services which they requir'd the performance of The former whereof is done by the Sacrament of Baptism the latter by the Sacrament of the Eucharist And how much these two Sacraments conferr toward the keeping up the profession of Christianity will appear on the one hand from those miserable Christians who live under the Turks and on the other from those much more miserable persons
Therefore pass we both from the one and the other to that Heavenly thing to which it relates the manner of its relation to it and the foundation of that relation Now as the first of these hath been before defin'd to be an inward and Spiritual Grace as that again declar'd to be such a Grace or favour of God as conduceth in an especial manner to the welfare of our inward Man or Spirit so I must now add for the farther Explication of it that it is moreover such a Grace as conduceth immediately to the welfare of it Whether as purifying the soul from the filth of sin and introducing the contrary affections or as delivering it from that guilt which the filth of sin had brought upon it A notion which stands confirm'd to us not only by the Doctrine of our own Catechism but by the account the Scripture gives us both of Baptism and the Eucharist and the confesons of the Romanists themselves Witness for the first its declaring the inward and Spiritual Grace of Baptism to be a death unto sin and a new birth unto Righteousness as the inward grace of the Eucharist to be the Body and Blood of Christ and by which as it afterward follows our Souls are strengthened and refreshed as our bodies are by the outward elements thereof Witness for the second its representing Baptism as a thing which sanctifies (b) Eph. 5.26 and saves (c) 1 Pet. 3.21 and both that (d) Act. 2.38 and the Eucharist (e) Matt. 26.28 as things which tend to the remission of Sins Witness for the third their great Schoolman Aquinas (f) Sum. 3. Part. quaest 60. Art 2. representing a Sacrament as a sign of such a Sacred thing as procures the sanctification of us Which is the rather to be noted because of the use it will hereafter be of toward the determining the Number of those things which are to be accounted of as Sacraments of our Religion Concerning the relation a Sacrament bears to the object of it and particularly to that Grace to which it especially referrs I have nothing to add and shall not therefore bring it again under consideration I shall only observe from what hath been before said concerning it that it is an instrument of Grace as well as a pledge of it that it is a moral instrument thereof and not a physical one that it is such a moral instrument thereof as is rather apt to convey or produce it than that which actually and infallibly doth The actual conveying of that Grace depending upon the due disposition of the party receiving it and who as St. Paul speaks if he be not rightly qualified for it will rather reap Damnation by it than either the Divine Graces or the rewards of them Which things I have this second time made mention of not because they were not before sufficiently clear'd but because they lay dispersedly in my former account of this relation and so would have been less useful toward the forming a distinct conception of it That which will especially require our second thoughts is the foundation of that and other the relations of a Sacrament The which as I have affirm'd in the general to be the Institution of Christ so the farther consideration of that Institution will both lead us to a more distinct knowledge of the nature of a Sacrament and inform us concerning the necessity and efficacy thereof Now as there are two things which that Institution doth manifestly import that is to say a Command and a Promise so that Command again respects the elements of a Sacrament either as being to put on that relation or as actually invested with it In the former of these regards it commands the setting them apart for that purpose but more especially because that is the principal design of a Sacrament for their becoming a means of conveying the Divine Graces to us Which as was before observ'd it either prescribes particular rules for or remits men for them to the general precepts of Christianity so far as they are applicable thereto And I shall only add because those rules were before declar'd that to make the elements put on the relation of a Sacrament there is a necessity of applying that part of the Institution to them by the execution of those Commands which it enjoyns Because the setting them apart for that purpose is by the Institution it self put into the hands of men But of what men and how qualified I have not as yet declar'd and shall therefore now set my self to enquire And here in the first place it is easie to see by what is deliver'd in the general concerning the power of remitting sins or in particular concerning the power of Baptism that the Separation or Consecration of the elements is the proper work of the Ministers of the Gospel and ought accordingly to be left to them to perform Because as both the one and the other were by Christ committed to his Apostles so none can therefore pretend to the power of either but those who deriv'd it from them which none but the Ministers of the Gospel have It is no less easie to see secondly that as the Separation or Consecration of the elements is the proper work of the Ministers of the Gospel even by the Institution of Christ so it cannot therefore ordinarily at least be attempted without sin by others because a deviation from his Institution And thus far all who acknowledge a Ministerial Function are at an accord in this particular and the farther prosecution thereof no way necessary to be intended I say therefore thirdly that as the Separation or Consecration of the elements cannot ordinarily at least be attempted without sin by other than the Ministers of the Gospel so there is reason enough to believe even from thence that those elements cannot ordinarily have the relation of a Sacrament by any others Consecration than theirs For beside that the Promise of Christ is not to be suppos'd to extend any farther than those Commands to which it is annexed are observ'd Neither can we think he will vouchsafe his benediction to that Action which without any necessity at all varies from his own Institution This being to encourage men to go against his own Institution which no wise Institutor can be suppos'd to give way to All therefore that can be suppos'd to admit of a dispute in this affair is whether in extraordinary Cases and where a lawful Minister cannot be had other Persons may take upon them to Consecrate and Administer it And whether if they do so what they do is so far valid as to make that which they pretend to Consecrate and Administer to have the relation of a Sacrament But as it would be consider'd whether it were not equally advisable for such Persons to let alone altogether the Consecration and Administration thereof Because Christ may as well supply to men the want of the Sacraments themselves as the defects of those who
this Sacrament with the declarations of the Antient Fathers concerning them God be thanked we of the Church of England are under no such necessity of either slightly passing over or any way perverting the Story of this Holy Sacrament And therefore being now by the order of my discourse to entreat of the Institution of it I will set down the Story thereof in the words of those that first deliver'd it and bound my Observations by them Mat. 26. Mark 14. Luke 22. 1 Cor. 11. 26. And as they were eating Jesus took Bread and blessed it and brake it and gave it to the disciples and said Take Eat This is my body 22. And as they did eat Jesus took Bread and blessed and brake it and gave to them and said Take Eat This is my body 19. And he took Bread and gave thanks and brake it and gave unto them saying This is my body which is given for you This do in remembrance of me 23. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took Bread    24. And when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take Eat This is my body which is broken for you This do in remembrance of me 27. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying Drink ye all of it 23. And he took the cup and when he had given thanks he gave it to them and they all drank of it 20. Likewise also the cup after Supper saying 25. After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped saying 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins 24. And he said unto them This is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you This cup is the New Testament in my blood This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me 29. But I say unto you I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom 25. Verily I say unto you I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day I drink it new in the kingdom of God   Now the first thing I shall take notice of in the History of this Sacrament is the Time of the Institution of it Which we learn from St. Paul to have been the same night in which he was betray'd from the context of the several Evangelists at the Celebration of the Feast of the Passover or rather toward the close of it It being whilst they were yet eating that two of them affirm that he took the Bread of it and bless'd and brake and gave it but so near the conclusion of that Feast that St. Luke and St. Paul tell us that it was after Supper before he took the Cup and gave thanks over it and gave it to his Disciples And though I do not pretend to affirm neither do I know any sober Man that doth that there is any obligation upon us for celebrating it after Supper or any other Meal Our Saviour's celebrating it then being in compliance with those Jews whose Institution he now transcrib'd and reform'd and probably also to intimate its succeeding to that solemnity Tho I acknowledg it to have been an antient usage * Tert. de Cor. cap. 3 in the Church to celebrate it at their Meetings before day and where it was not so soon yet before †Aug. Epist 119. ad Janu. their eating of any thing else as that too out of respect to that Sacrament Yet I see as little reason to grant that there is any more of religion in receiving it fasting than what the custom of the Church or the Laws of decency give it It being not otherwise to be thought that our Saviour would have instituted it at Supper time or rather presently after it And much less that St. Paul would have given it in command to the Corinthians (a) 1 Cor. 11.34 that if any Man hungred he should eat at home before he came to the participation of it and of those Agapae that attended it From the Time of the Institution pass we to the Institution it self and the several things done and said in it Where the first thing I am to take notice of is Christ's taking Bread to wit into his hands and probably from off that table on which it was plac'd Agreeably to that usance of the Jews which he fram'd his own Eucharist by and where as was before * Part 1. observ'd the Father of the Family held it in both his hands whil'st he us'd the words of Consecration or Blessing over it However he so took it to be sure as to separate it from what other Bread then was upon the Table as which the word took in the most simple notion of it will oblige us to believe This importing the choice of some particular Bread from out the rest and leaving the other to the ordinary uses of it Now the Bread which our Saviour thus took was either some whole Loaf of Bread answerably to the former usance or at least some larger but entire piece of one as appears by the breaking of it into several pieces answerably to the several persons that were to partake of it And it was also agreeably to the time when it was made use of unleavened Bread as the Latines have truly observ'd against the Greeks It being upon the first day of the feast of unleavened Bread as three of the Evangelists †Mat. 26.17 Mark 14.12 Luke 22.7 have observ'd that that Passover which immediately preceded this Sacrament was celebrated and consequently that this Sacrament also was But why it should be so far urged against the Greeks as to make it the matter of a quarrel is a very unaccountable thing unless there were somewhat either in the words or in the rites of the Institution which directed to the use of unleavened Bread only For leavened or unleavened matters not after the taking away of that Law which made the difference And much less where the present Law requires only (a) 1 Cor. 5.8 the laying aside of the leaven of malice and wickedness and keeping our Passover feast with the unleavened Bread of sincerity and truth It followeth in the Story And Jesus took Bread and blessed as St. Matthew and St. Mark deliver it or as St. Luke and St. Paul after him gave thanks A thing which will require a more accurate consideration because of the momentousness thereof It being to that Blessing or Thanksgiving probably that we are to assign that both change in it and effects of it which are afterwards attributed to it That therefore we may the better understand this whether Blessing or Thanksgiving we will consider
they were first to mention even our Saviour's taking it and giving it to his Disciples because liquid things cannot well be taken by our selves or convey'd to others but by a Cup or by an usual Metonymy of the continent for the thing contained in it set to denote the Wine wherewith it was replenished This Cup as we shall afterwards understand being given them to drink of and as appears from what our Saviour subjoins in the close of St. Matthew's and St. Mark 's account of this matter of the Fruit of the Vine or Wine Now this Cup as he had done before with the Bread he in like manner (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 22.20 1 Cor. 11.25 after he had supp'd took into his Hand or Hands as the fashion was in the Eucharistical Cup of the Jews but however so took as was before observed concerning the Bread as to separate it from what other Wine then was upon the Table and appropriated it to his own purposes The Cup being thus taken by our Saviour into his Hands and held by him there till he gave it to his Disciples Two of the Evangelists tell us he gave thanks over it and as appears by what was said before in the matter of the Bread and by St. Paul's elsewhere (g) 1 Cor. 10.16 entitling it the Cup of blessing which we bless by that Thanksgiving and Prayer blessed it or rather recommended it to the Father to be blessed by him and made useful for those purposes for which it was design'd and particularly for the Communion of his Blood Which Blessing there is no doubt the Father granted thereupon and fitted it for that for which it was so separated and recommended to him As because he readily promis'd the like or a greater Blessing to the Blessing (h) Num. 6.23 c. of the Jewish Priests and may therefore be presum'd as ready to grant this to the Blessing of his well beloved Son So because our Saviour when he gave this Cup to his Disciples told them even then that it was his Blood of the New Testament and St. Paul that being blessed by such as himself it was the Communion of Christ's Blood which it could not have been in either instance without the Blessing of the Father Our Saviour having thus taken and given thanks over the Cup or blessed it gave it to his Disciples saying Drink ye all of it But whether as was said before in the matter of the Bread he gave it into each of his Disciples Hands or to him only that sat next to him and by him to be handed to the next is not material neither will I therefore concern my self about it Sure it is that by the words accompanying that Gift he signified it to be his Mind that they should all drink of it and St. Mark in particular tells us that they all drank of it Upon the strength of what Motive is in the next place to be enquir'd but which we shall not need to go farther than St. Matthew for or at least not for the general notion of it For this saith he in our Saviour's name is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins The thing which I now offer you is my Blood of the New Testament and it is upon that account I both invite and oblige you all to drink of it And if it was even when he offer'd it to them to drink his Blood of the New Testament one would think it should need no new Blessing or Consecration to make it such and much less that those words by which he declar'd it to be so should be that blessing or Consecration it self But be that as it will at present for the fuller discussion of these things belongs to another place most certain it is from the other Evangelists and from St. Paul that our Saviour when he gave the Cup to the Disciples made use of these or the like words upon what occasion soever they were employed by him And as certain it is from the Controversies now on foot that the words consider'd in themselves will require an explication to which therefore I shall now address my self In order thereunto as I did before in the matter of the Bread enquiring what the subject of this Proposition is what the thing predicated of it and what the importance of the word Is which is made use of to joyn them together And here in the first place it is easy to see that whatever difficulties the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or This may be encumbred with when set to denote the Bread because of a different Gender from it both in the Greek and the Latin yet it is encumbred with no such difficulties here Because even in St. Matthew and St. Mark where it hath no Substantive affixed to it it is of the same Gender with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cup before spoken of and which they were also commanded to drink of as well as with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Blood that follows it It is alike easy to see secondly that whatever pretence may be made for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or This in the former Proposition having respect to some individuum vagum yet there is not the like pretence here Because though St. Matthew and St. Mark add no Substantive to it yet St. Luke and St. Paul in their History of the Institution add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to it and so shew This Cup even the Cup before spoken of to be the thing whereof our Saviour spake And indeed as the rules of Construction require us so to understand it even where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cup is not express'd and much more where This is my Blood is assign'd as a motive to the Disciples drinking of the Cup For how could it otherwise be any motive to it if that Cup were not the Blood here spoken of So our Saviour's commanding his Disciples to drink of that Cup in order to their partaking of his Blood and his afterwards describing it by the title of the Fruit of the Vine shews the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Cup to be set to denote the liquor that was contained in it and particularly the Blood of the Grape Which is a proof that figurative expressions are no such strangers to the Doctrine of a Sacrament because one is of necessity to be allow'd in the subject of this important Proposition and is accordingly allow'd by the Romanists themselves The subject of the present Proposition being thus found out and shewn to be no other than the Cup before spoken of or rather the Wine of it Let us in the next place take a view of the thing affirmed of it and wherein indeed there is some variety even between those who give an Historical account of this affair St. Matthew and St. Mark representing the Cup here spoken of as Christ's Blood of the New Testament or
Covenant which was shed for many for the remission of fins but St. Luke and St. Paul as the New Testament or Covenant in his Blood which was shed for them For which cause I will consider the thing here affirmed under each of these notions and first as Christ's Blood of the New Testament or Covenant which I conceive to be the clearest and most proper declaration of it Because it appears even by that St. Paul who makes use of the other expression that the Blood of Christ is the principal thing signified by it even in that very Chapter where he entitles it the New Testament in his Blood For not only doth he before (i) 1 Cor. 10.16 entitle the Cup the Communion of his Blood as he doth the Bread in the same verse the Communion of his Body but immediately after the words of the Institution declare him who eateth that Bread and drinketh that Cup with due preparation to shew forth the Lord's Death till he come as him who eateth and drinketh unworthily to be guilty of his Body and Bloody The Blood of Christ therefore being the thing principally signified and consequently the principal thing predicated of the Cup by the one and the other reason would that we should enquire what our Saviour meant by it that is to say whether that Blood which now ran in his Veins and was shortly after to be shed or only a memorial of it A Question which will soon be voided not only by what I have before said concerning the Notion of Christ's Body but by the Adjuncts of that very Blood whereof we speak The Blood of the New Testament or Covenant as appears by a Text of the Author to the Hebrews (k) Heb. 9.14 c. and by what I have elsewhere (l) Expl. of the Sacrament in general Part 2. discours'd upon it being no other than that Blood which the Mediator of it shed at his Death For that Author tells us that neither that nor any other Testament or Covenant can be firm without it And the Blood that was shed for remission of Sins the very same It being by means of the same Death that the Redemption of Sins against the First Testament or Covenant is procur'd which is but another Name for the Remission of them And I shall only add for the better explanation of those words even the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant that as of old God would not enter nor did enter into the First Covenant with the Israelites till he was aton'd and they sprinkled by the Blood of their Sacrifices So neither would he enter into the New till he was first aton'd and we sprinkled by the Blood of the Sacrifice of his Son and that Blood therefore conformably to what was said of the Blood of the First Covenant stiled the Blood of the New There will be no great difficulty after what I have said of the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant as to the meaning of that New Testament or Covenant in Christ's Blood which St. Luke and St. Paul bring in our Saviour as affirming the Cup to be Because thereby must consequently be meant that New Covenant which was brought about by the Bloud of his Cross even that by which the same Saint Paul elsewhere (m) Col. 1.20 tells us that Christ made Peace between us and God Which will consequently leave nothing more to us to enquire into upon this Head than the importance of that is which joyns the subject and the foregoing predicates together and how the Cup of this Sacrament was and is his Blood of the New Testament or Covenant and how the New Testament or Covenant in his Blood For the understanding whereof though it may suffice to remit my Reader to what I before said upon the account of the Bread's being Christ's Body because that mutatis mutandis may be apply'd to the Particle Is here Yet I shall add ex abundanti that there cannot well be any doubt of its being taken figuratively here either in the one or the other predication concerning it Because the Cup of this Sacrament cannot literally and properly be both his Blood of the New Testament or Covenant and the New Testament or Covenant in it which yet in some or other of the Sacred Writers it is affirm'd to be Which as it will make it so much the more reasonable to allow of that figurative Sense here which we have attributed to the same Particle Is in This is my Body So consequently make it reasonable to understand by This is my Blood of the New Testament which answers directly to the other This is a Sign and a Memorial and a Means of its conveyance as well as the Bread is of my Body And indeed as the Cup or rather the Wine of it may well pass for a Sign of that Blood as for other Reasons so for that effusion which is attributed to it So that it is both a Memorial and a Means of its conveyance is evident from St. Paul's bringing in our Saviour subjoining the words Do this as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me to the Story of the Cup and elsewhere representing the same Cup as the Communion of his Blood This I take to be a fair account of the Particle Is as it is made use of to connect the Cup and Christ's Blood of the New Tescament or Covenant And it will be no less easie to give as clear an account of it as it is made use of to connect the same Cup and the New Testament or Covenant in his Blood That Cup representing to us God's exhibiting together with it Christ's Blood and the Merits of it and our receiving that Blood and the Merits of it with that thankfulness which doth become us and a Mind resolv'd to walk worthy of those Benefits we receive by it I will conclude this long Discourse concerning the Institution of this Sacrament when I have lightly animadverted upon that which St. Matthew and St. Mark bring in our Saviour subjoining to all he had said concerning the Elements thereof To wit that he would not any more drink of this Fruit of the Vine for so St. Matthew expresseth it until he should drink it new with them in his Father's Kingdom For though it should be granted what Grotius contends for out of St. Luke that these words were spoken just before the Institution of this Sacrament and only plac'd here upon the account of Christ's being again to speak of the Cup Yet thus much must be granted to St. Matthew and St. Mark 's placing it here that it was the Fruit of the Vine that our Saviour gave them and they accordingly drank of even in this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper There being no more reason nor so much neither considering that that is the immediate Antecedent to deny this Fruit of the Vine's referring to what our Saviour gave his Disciples and they all drank of than there would be to deny
thing enjoin'd to perswade it For as there is no difference so far as we can see between Take Eat the Bread and drink ye all of the Cup that we should think one to respect the Clergy any more than the other So one would think the reason assign'd by our Saviour in St. Matthew for their drinking all of it even because it was his Blood of the New Testament which was shed for many for the remission of Sins should concern the Laity as well as the Clergy that consecrate and consequently that Precept also which it was intended to enforce Unless we should think or indeed could that the Laity and fuch of the Clergy as do not consecrate have no interest in Christ's Blood or the Benefits thereof or at least that they were no way oblig'd with due thankfulness to remember it But beside that our Saviour's Disciples had no interest in consecrating that Eucharist which he celebrated with them and were therefore so far forth to be look'd upon rather as Lay-men than Clergy-men and consequently Representers of those that were such where there was nothing enjoin'd upon them that was not manifestly peculiar to them as Priests St. Paul where he repeats the same Institution of Christ doth not only make no difference between Priest and People as to this particular but rather suppose the Cup to be common to all and accordingly both warns all to beware of such an unworthy receiving of it as they had been before guilty of and exhorts them as indifferently after they had well examin'd themselves to drink of the Cup as to eat of the Bread Thereby farther intimating that they were all alike concern'd in the thing it self I mean as to the receit of it So that for ought that hitherto doth appear we must not only look upon the receit of the Cup as a thing under Command but under such a Command too as respects People as well as Priest yea as well as that very Priest that consecrates it and the other Element Which will consequently leave nothing more to enquire upon this head than whether as the receit of the Cup even by the Faithful be a thing under Command so those Faithful are under the obligation of it and bound by it to the receiving of the Cup. Now though a Command as such doth naturally oblige and consequently they that are under it are obliged by it and to that which is the matter of it Yet because question may seem to have been made by the Council of Trent rather concerning Men's being bound by any Precept of Christ to receive the Cup than concerning the Precept it self therefore I will set my self more particularly to the resolution thereof and together with that of those Objections that are made against it In order thereunto asserting first that if there be such a Command as we have before evinc'd they for whom that Command was intended are generally obliged by it to that which is the matter of it This being no more than what the very nature of a Command enforceth and the Credit of the Author of it perswades For as it is of the nature of a Command to oblige and consequently they that are under it generally obliged by it as without which otherwise that Command would not have its end So it is not for the Credit of him that gave it either to prescribe that which cannot generally be observed or not to hold those that can to the obligation of it This opening a way to the contempt of his Authority and not only to reject this or that particular Command but all From whence as it will follow that it must be only as to some Persons and some Cases that the Precept of the Cup must be thought not to oblige if indeed it do not So that alone being granted the depriving of whole Towns and Provinces and Kingdoms of the Cup will admit of no Excuse which will be enough to justifie us for separating from the Church of Rome in this Affair and to condemn the Church of Rome for usurping so much upon the World against a Divine Institution and Command Only to dispense with a Law as to the Major part being rather to destroy than dispense with it How much more then to hinder the Major part from the observance of it by contrary Decrees and by Anathema's upon those who shall not acquiesce in them But because all we have hitherto said tends only to shew that the generality of Christians are oblig'd to the receit of the Cup which is an intimation unless we proceed farther that some Persons and in some Cases may be exempted from the Obligation And because the Church of Rome pretends that she is not without reasons to shew that there is no Obligation upon all and singular the Faithful to receive it Therefore I will now proceed to consider the reasons of that Pretence and shew whether or no and how far they ought to be admitted And first it is pretended that there are some Countries in the World which are not furnished with Wine nor can it may be with any Conveniency furnish themselves from other places or at all for publick and general Communions And I will not deny but such places there may be and that they cannot therefore because no one can be ty'd to that which is impossible be oblig'd either to celebrate or receive the Eucharist in it But as this signifies nothing to the defence of those who forbid it where it may be had and is therefore very frivolously alledged in the present Case So I shall upon the strength of what I have before said refer it to Consideration whether some other generous Liquor which I suppose few Nations want may not be substituted in the place of Wine and so the Cup be preserved though that specifical Liquor cannot It is pretended secondly which I doubt not might give the first occasion to the taking of it away that there would be great danger of irreverence otherwise by shedding the Liquor of it either in the Church by carrying it to the Communicants there or in carrying of it especially over the Mountains in Winter to sick Persons By the hanging of some part of it in the Beards of the Laicks wheresoever it was delivered to them or by its growing sowre by being kept For to these and the like Purposes did some of the Fathers of the Council of Trent discourse (q) Hist of the Council of Trent li. 6. p. 521. and as it should seem too out of Gerson the learned Chancellor of Paris But a Man would wonder first that if these were just Reasons for abridging the Laity of the Cup they should not have prevail'd with our Saviour who certainly knew all that might hereafter happen not to admit them to it at the first but however that they should not have taken him off from enjoining them to drink of it A Man would wonder as much secondly why there should be thought to be so great
her But as if any thing be of the substance of the Sacrament the doing of that must be which tends most apparently to set forth the Sacrifice of Christ's Death upon the Cross as which was one great end of its Institution and the most clearly expressed in it So nothing doth or can tend more apparently to the setting forth of that than Men's partaking of that Cup which was by our Saviour himself intended to represent the Blood of that Sacrifice of his as poured out for our Expiation and Remission PART V. Of the inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it The Contents The inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it is either what is signified on the part of God and Christ or on the part of the Receiver of it The former of these brought under Consideration and shewn to be the Body and Blood of Christ not as they were at or before the Institution of this Sacrament or as they now are but as thâ—y were at the time of his Crucifixion as moreover then offered up unto God and offer'd up to him also as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World The Consequences of that Assertion briefly noted both as to the presence of that Body and Blood in the Sacrament and our perception of them The things signified on the part of the Receiver in the next place consider'd and these shewn to be First a thankful Remembrance of the Body and Blood of Christ consider'd as before described Secondly our Communion with those who partake with us of that Body and Blood Thirdly a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them The two latter of these more particularly insisted on and that Communion and Resolution not only shewn from the Scripture to be signified on the part of the Receiver but confirmed by the Doctrine and Practice of the Antient Church II. THE outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper being thus accounted for Question What is the inward part or thing signified and that shewn to be no other than Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be receiv'd Reason would as well as the Method before laid down that I should entreat of the inward part thereof or the thing signified by it Answer The Body and Blood of Crhist which are verily and indeed taken and received by the Faithful in the Lord's Supper Which on the part of God and Christ is that Christ's Body and Blood As on our part a thankful Remembrance of them our Communion with those who partake with us thereof and a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them That which our Catechism obligeth us especially to consider is that which is signified on the part of God and Christ and which accordingly it declares to be that Christ's Body and Blood A thing which consider'd in the general admits of no dispute because the plain Assertion of the Scripture as well as the Acknowledgment of all sorts of Men however otherwise divided about the Sacrament thereof or the presence of that Body and Blood in it They all agreeing as they must that the Body of Christ is that which is signified by one of its Signs and the Blood of Christ which is signified by the other But as it is not so well agreed under what Notion we are to consider that Body and Blood nor for ought that I have observ'd much attended to which is it may be the principal Cause of all the Controversie in this Particular So I shall therefore for the farther clearing of the thing or things signified by this Sacrament enquire under what Notion we ought to consider them which if we have a due regard to the words of the Institution will not be so difficult to unfold For from thence it will appear first that we ought to consider Christ's Body and Blood here not in the state wherein they were at or before the Institution of this Sacrament or in that more happy one to which they are now arriv'd but as they were at the time of our Saviour's Crucifixion To wit the one as given to Death or broken and the other as shed for us Which St. Paul farther confirms when he tells his Corinthians * 1 Cor. 11.26 that as often as they ate the Bread of this Sacrament and drank the Cup of it they did shew forth the Lord's death till he came The consequent whereof will be secondly because that Death of Christ is represented by the Scriptures as a Sacrifice that we ought to look upon that Body and Blood of Christ which we have said to be signified by this Sacrament as offer'd unto God by him and as such to be consider'd in it Which they of all Men have the least reason to refuse who do not only affirm †Conc. Trid. Sess 22. cap. 1. with us that this Sacrament was intended for a Memorial of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross but that the Body and Blood of Christ is even now * Ibid. offer'd up to God in it under the respective Species thereof It is as little to be doubted thirdly That as we ought to consider the Body and Blood of Christ here as offer'd up to God for us so we ought to consider them as offer'd up as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of those Persons for whom it is offer'd Which is not only evident from the words of the Institution because representing the Cup of this Sacrament as the Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the Remission of Sins but abundantly confirm'd by the suffrage of those Men with whom we have most to do in this Affair They not only representing the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are pleas'd to call this Sacrament as one and the same Sacrifice with that which our Saviour offer'd upon the Cross but as a truly propitiatory one (a) Ib. cap. 2. and which accordingly is of force for the sins of the quick and the dead and tends to the remission of them Of what use these Considerations are will more fully appear when I come to entreat of that relation which the outward Signs of this Sacrament have to the inward part thereof or the things signified by them At present it may suffice briefly to note that the Body and Blood of Christ consider'd as broken and shed upon the Cross having now no Existence in the World nor any more capable of having such an Existence than that which is past can be recall'd They cannot be substantially present either to the Sacramental Elements or to the Person that receiveth them nor be substantially eaten and drunken by him that eats and drinks the other That they must therefore be present to the Sacramental Elements in a Figure or Mystery and to the Receiver by their respective Vertue and Efficacy That being as was before said to be consider'd as offer'd up to
occasion of those words of our Saviour This is my Blood of the New Testament or The New Testament in it which is shed for many for the remission of Sins For since it should seem by those expressions that that Sacrament was instituted under the form of a Testament the words whereof ought in reason to be taken in the literal sense as without which all Testaments would be very uncertain and litigious Therefore the words of this Sacrament and particularly such of them as respect the principal Legacies in it ought to be taken in the literal sense and not in a figurative one If a Man should make answer as I have elsewhere (a) Expl. of the â—â—â—r in Gen. Part â— done and I think too not without great reason that what we render Testament ought to be rendred a Covenant all that argument would be spon'd and whatever the promoters of it have brought concerning Testaments out of the Body of the Civil Law or the Interpreters thereof But I will however allow for once the usual rendring of the Word and answer directly to that Argument which is formed from it As indeed what should hinder me when those very Laws which they pretend to do not prove what they are designed for For such I look upon that (b) Ille aut ille D. de legat fidei commiss which saith that when there is no ambiguity in the words there ought to be no question made concerning the Will of the Testatour For who will allow these Men to suppose that there is no ambiguity in the words of the present Testament strictly and literally understood and particularly in those words that are the subject of the present controversie As little force is there in that Law (c) L. Non aliter D. de legatis c. which saith that we ought not otherwise to depart from the natural signification of words than when it is manifest that the Testatour meant somewhat else than what seems to have been expressed in them For one would think that should consider what impossibilities and contradictions the literal sense of This is my Body and This is my Blood involves one would think I say that those alone should make it manifest enough that the Testatour meant somewhat else than what the literal sense of the words will necessarily lead Men to So little reason is there to believe that there is any thing even in the Civil Law to persuade a strict and literal interpretation of all that a Testament contains And they who produce the two former Laws to persuade such an Interpretation are the more inexcusable in it because if they had pleas'd to read on to the paragraph Titius in the latter of them they would have seen enough to make them asham'd of their pretensions Because it is there affirm'd in express terms that we are not in a cause of Testaments to descend to a strict definition of words since for the most part Testatours speak abusively neither do they always use proper Names and Titles All which things I have said not as constrain'd thereto by the force of the present Argument For I know no reason why the sense of the New Testament should be judg'd of by the niceties of the Law but to let the World see how partial Men are in the allegations of such proofs as they think to be of use to them For beside what was before quoted from the Law concerning Testatours speaking abusively and improperly the same Law gives us to understand (d) L. ex facto D. de haered institu Paragr Rerum aubem Italicarum that the will of the deceased doth all and that (e) L. Siquis â—ta D. de adimendis vel tâ—ansferendis c. Par. Condit Legati his sense is more to be regarded than the words Which could have no sense in it if Legitimate Testaments were alway to be taken in the strictness of the letter For then the will or sense of the Testatour and the words of his Testament would be perfectly the same The next argument for the literal sense of the words in question is taken from the Majesty of him that instituted this Sacrament and from all those glorious Attributes that make it up Such as are his Truth and the place he holds under God of our Instructer his being the very wisdom of the Father and omniscient his being nigh unto death when he instituted this Sacrament and so much the more likely still to weigh all the words he utter'd in this important affair as in fine his being so far from giving any indication of other than a literal Interpretation of the present words that when he was advanced to Heaven he reveal'd the Doctrine of the Eucharist in the very same words wherein he had before exhibited it Things which for the most part must be acknowledg'd to be duly attributed to Christ but which have no force at all to conclude the thing in question For what if Christ be true and appointed by God to be our Instructer Will it therefore follow that we must understand all he saith in the Letter though we want not sufficient Indications even from some of his own words that we ought to understand him in a figurative sense All that they who press us with Christ's Truth and the Place he holds under God seem to pretend to is that we ought to hear him and be guided by him in our Belief Which I suppose they do to very good purpose who submit their Belief to that which all things consider'd they are firmly perswaded to be his Mind and Will But it is farther alledg'd that Christ is the very Wisdom of the Father and one who could therefore express his Mind clearly and plainly and in proper and literal Expressions as well as in figurative ones And whoever doubted of it or could doubt of it who look'd upon him but as an ordinary Prophet and not as one who was also of the same Essence with the Father But as the Question is not What Christ could do but What he hath done So we find no reason to grant but that our Saviour hath spoken plainly enough to those that are willing to understand him The Argument goes on to alledge that our Saviour was omniscient and as he could not therefore but know what Contentions would arise about this part of heavenly Doctrine to the certain destruction of Souls So it is not at all likely that he would so far contribute to it as of set purpose to wrap the true and certain meaning of this holy Mystery in the dark coverings of figurative words But as I do not find any necessity to grant that Christ was bound to do all he could to prevent the Contentions that might afterwards happen because as St. Paul spake (f) 1 Cor. 11.19 concerning Heresies this Good might accrue by them that they that were approved might thereby be made manifest So I see as little reason to grant that Christ did
Sacrament and so far therefore to be in a capacity to profit those to whom they are dispens'd so it is Christ and not the Minister who must dispense the Graces of the Sacrament and the effect of that Sacrament therefore depend not upon the Minister's intention and purpose but upon the intention and purpose of Christ whose Instrument and Minister he is As will appear yet more clearly when I come to consider the Promises of the Institution the second thing whereof I affirmed it to consist Only as that Command of it which I am now entreating of doth as well respect those for whose sanctification the Sacraments were intended as those who are the Consecraters and Dispensers of them so I must therefore admonish first of all that as that part of the Institution of Christ enjoyns upon his Ministers the dispensation of the Sacraments so it must consequently enjoyn the receipt or use of them by all that are capable thereof as without which the former injunction would be vain I say secondly that as it enjoyns upon all that are capable thereof the receipt or use of the Sacraments so it enjoyns their receipt or use of them under the relation of Sacraments and particularly because that is the principal relation of a Sacrament as a means appointed by Christ for the conveying of the Divine Graces Which is so true as to those Sacraments which are the only clear and undoubted ones and by which if there be any such the other are to be judg'd that men are expresly call'd upon to be Baptiz'd (k) Act. 2.38 for the remission of sins and as expresly admonish'd by our Saviour to take the elements of the Eucharist (l) Matt. 26.26 c. Luk. 22.19 as that Body which was given for them and as that Blood which was shed for them and others for the same remission of sins From whence as it will follow that those Sacraments are of necessary use as which both the one and the other injunction oblige us to believe so they are also so necessary by vertue of the former that they cannot be neglected without sin and by the latter if not the former that men cannot hope for the graces of them where those Sacraments are in like manner neglected For beside that every neglect of a Command is as such a sin against the imposer of it and must consequently not only despoil us of his favour but expose us also to his Wrath and Vengeance Beside that that neglect must be yet more sinful and dangerous which is a neglect of such a Command as is enjoyn'd for the Subjects profit He who commands this or that particular for such or such an end must thereby be presum'd to declare that he will not give it in any other way than that which is prescribed by him Because otherwise a gap would be open to the Violation of his Authority which every wise Lawgiver must be suppos'd to provide against Neither will it avail to say that there are other means beside Sacraments for the attaining of the Divine Graces and such as God hath promis'd to reward with the bestowing of them Of which nature are our attendance to the word and Prayer For as it doth not appear that these are any where represented as sufficient of themselves for that purpose and therefore the Divine Graces not to be expected by them alone so they can however be no farther represented as such than as made use of by men out of a due regard to his Authority and wisdom by whom they are imposed on them Which cannot be suppos'd to be there where any one prescribed mean is neglected because the same Authority and Wisdom will lead to the observation of it As little will it avail to say that the Divine Graces have been sometime bestow'd without them and the Sacraments therefore not to be accounted as necessary to the attaining of them For as the question is not now Whether Sacraments are so necessary that the graces thereof can in no case be hop'd for without them but whether they can be hoped for where the Sacraments are neglected so that they are so far necessary will need no other proof than the enjoyning of Baptism to those who may seem if any to have attain'd the graces thereof without it For so we find St. Peter to have done as to Cornelius (m) Act. 10.48 and his company Yea though Cornelius had before his Preaching receiv'd a Divine approbation of his Prayers and Alms and after that that gift of the Holy Ghost for the procuring whereof we find Baptism to have been especially (n) Act. 2.38 ordain'd For well may we look upon that Sacrament as so far necessary to obtain the Divine Graces the use whereof was commanded even to those men who had in a great measure before attain'd them The only thing that seems to me to admit of any doubt is whether Sacraments be so far necessary that the Divine Graces cannot be had without them or at least cannot with any assurance be expected by us But as the single example of the Thief upon the Cross to say nothing now of that of Cornelius may suffice to perswade that no Sacrament is so necessary but that the Graces thereof may be had without it As the benignity of the Divine nature and those Graces God hath sometime given even to unbaptized persons may serve in like manner to perswade men that if that or any other Sacrament be wanting without their fault it shall be otherwise supplied to them So I cannot forbear to say that such persons have not the same Assurance with that which Baptized persons have Partly because they have no promise to bottom their assurance on and partly because God who may annex what conditions he pleaseth to his own favours hath made those Sacraments whereof we speak the standing means of obtaining them I will conclude what I have to say concerning that part of the Institution which enjoyns the receipt or use of the Sacraments when I have admonished in the third place that it requires our coming to it with certain previous qualifications in order to our receiving the benefit thereof Which is so notorious as to Baptism and the Lord's Supper and will hereafter be so largely insisted on that I shall content my self with the bare mention of it All that I at present aim at is to give a general account of what it enjoyns and which having now in some measure done I shall proceed to consider of what it promiseth which is the second thing whereof I affirmed the Institution of a Sacrament to consist For the clearing whereof we are first to know that though those Promises whereof we speak are not always so express as its Commands must be acknowledg'd to have been Yet will it not be difficult for us to evince the being of such Promises nor after that to shew what things it makes a promise of For supposing as we now may because I have
be thought to have had any interest in it and much less to have been especially intended as the Sacrament thereof And indeed as there are no footsteps in that Antiquity which is truly primitive of any such Unction of sick persons in order to their spiritual welfare As there is mention moreover in it of another kind of treatment and particularly of the Elders of the Church giving unto those Dionys Alex. apud Euseb Eccl. Hist li. 6. c. 44. item Conc. Nic. can 13. that were under penance the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood as their last and necessary Viaticum So I see not what necessity there is of any such Sacrament as Extreme Vnction to confer upon sick persons the remission of sins or other such like graces as they may stand in need of There being place even in them for the Absolution of the Church and the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood In fine so far is that Vnction of which St. James speaks from being any standing Sacrament of our Religion that it may seem to have been only an Appendage of that extraordinary gift of healing (g) 1 Cor. 12.9 which was sometime deposited in the Church and which therefore was to cease when that and other such like operations vanished As appears in part from its being joyned in St. Mark (h) Mark 6.13 with the casting out of Devils but more from our Saviours ranking the laying on of hands upon the sick which was but another way of administring it with (i) Mark 16.17 18. the same casting out of Devils speaking new tongues and the taking up of Serpents For if these be to be look'd upon as extraordinary gifts there is equal reason to believe the anointing or laying on of hands upon the sick to have been of the same order Sure I am Tertullian (k) Tert. ad Scapnlam cap. 4. doth not only rank the gift of healing even in his time with the casting out of Devils but makes mention of one Proculus a Christian administring this supposed Sacrament to Severus the Emperor yea curing him by the Oyl of it From Extreme Vnction therefore pass we to that which they call the Sacrament of Orders and which is not only affirm'd by the Trent Council to be a true (l) Sess 13. Can. 3. and proper Sacrament but as certainly to confer (m) Ib. cap. 3. grace as the most undoubted Sacraments do It is not my purpose nor was it ever the purpose of the Church of England to detract in the least from the force of that which they entitle the Sacrament of Orders But that it hath not the nature of a true and proper Sacrament will appear in the first place from it s not having by the Institution of Christ any external sign to which the grace thereof may be supposed to be annexed For if it had it must have been the external sign or ceremony of breathing on the persons to be ordain'd This being the only one which our Saviour (n) Joh. 20.22 made use of when he conferr'd the power of Order upon his Apostles But so far were the Apostles or the succeeding Church from making use of that that we find them on the contrary to have made use of Imposition of Hands yea to have entitled the grace of Orders (o) 1 Tim. 4.14 2 Tim. 1.6 in a more especial manner to it Whether it were that they took their pattern therein from the known usage of the Jews and which we find our Saviour himself to have followed in other instances or which I rather think that they were directed to it by that spirit of God which guided them in all their actions and to whose guidance and instruction our Saviour had left them after his being taken from them Sure I am there are no footsteps of that external sign in the first Institution of it as there was in the Institution of Baptism and the Lord's Supper of their proper ones nor any appearance from Scripture of any after command of Christ concerning it But because the external sign of Ordination though none of our Saviours Institution yet is confessed by our selves to have had a legitimate one Therefore enquire we in the second place whether after the manner of other Sacraments it be a means of Grace or as the Romanists love to speak have the power of conferring it A thing which seems to them sufficiently evident not only from that form of words (p) Joh. 20.22 wherewith by the prescript of Christ it hath been always attended even receive ye the Holy Ghost but from St. Paul's willing Timothy in one place (q) 1 Tim. 4.14 not to neglect that gift or grace which was given with it and in another (r) 2 Tim. 1.6 to stir up that gift or Grace of God which was in him by the laying on of his hands And thus much I willingly yield to the force of the foremention'd Texts that the Holy Ghost ever was and still is conferr'd upon those men who are rightly ordain'd by the Governours of the Church But in what measure and to what purposes is the thing in question between us and particularly whether it is conferr'd as to its sanctifying and saving Graces which I have shewn elsewhere (Å¿) Supra Part 3. to be the proper graces of a Sacrament Now what is there in any or all the foremention'd Texts to evince that which they call the Sacrament of Orders to confer such graces upon the person Ordain'd If we enquire as to the first of them (t) Joh. 20.22 even that Text which makes Orders to exhibit the Holy Ghost the utmost that can be inferr'd from thence is such an exhibition of it as may be requisite for the party ordain'd to remit or retain sins as for which (u) Joh. 20.23 and which alone it is professed to be bestow'd But so sure the person ordain'd may be qualifi'd to do without the sanctifying graces of God's Spirit even in the opinion of the Tridentine Fathers themselves It being their opinion (w) Sess 7. can 12. as well as ours (x) Art of Rel. 26. that the personal qualifications of the Minister do neither add to nor detract from the force of the Sacraments they dispense But as therefore no such sanctifying graces can be suppos'd to be design'd though we make the Text to import such an exhibition of the Holy Ghost as is requisite for the remitting or retaining of sins so much less if nothing more were meant by Receive ye the Holy Ghost than receive ye Authority from him so to do Which that there was not is at least probable from his referring them to another time (y) Act. 1.4 c. for the other powers of the Holy Ghost yea bidding them not to expect them till after his ascension (z) Joh. 16.7 into Heaven For that supposeth them to have been as yet without those powers of the Holy Ghost and consequently that Christ meant
Disciples and requiring them to take and eat of it The words This is my body next taken into consideration and more particularly and minutely explain'd Where is shewn at large that by the word This must be meant This Bread and that there is nothing in the gender of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hinder it That by body must be meant that body which Christ now carried about him and was shortly after to suffer in and that the sigurativeness of the proposition lies in the word is Vpon occasion whereof is also shewn that that word is oftentime figuratively taken that it ought to be so taken here and that accordingly it imports the Bread to be a sign and a memorial and a means of partaking of Christ's body This part of the Institution concluded with an explication of the words which is given or broken for you and a more ample one of Christ's commanding his Disciples to do this in remembrance of him Where the precept Do this is shewn to refer to what Christ had before done or enjoyned them to do And they enjoyn'd so to do to renew in themselves a grateful remembrance of Christ's death or prompt other Men to the like remembrance of it That part of the Institution which respects the Cup more succinctly handled and enquiry made among other things into the declaration which our Saviour makes concerning its being his Blood of the New Testament or the New Testament in it Where is shewn What that is which our Saviour affirms to be so what is meant by his Blood of the New Testament or The New Testament in it and how the Cup or rather the Wine of it was that Blood of his or the New Testament in it pag. 173. The Contents of the Fourth Part. Of the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper BRead and Wine ordinarily the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper and the Heresie of the Aquarii upon that account enquir'd into and censur'd The kind of Bread and Wine enjoin'd in the next place examin'd and a more particular Enquiry thereupon Whether the Wine ought to be mix'd with Water and what was the Ground of the Antients Practice in this Affair The same Elements consider'd again with respect to Christ's Body and Blood whether as to the Vsage that Body and Blood of his receiv'd when he was subjected unto Death or as to the Benefit that was intended and accru'd to us by them In the former of which Notions they become a Sign of Christ's Body and Blood by what is done to them before they come to be administred and by the separate administration of them In the latter by the use they are of to nourish and refresh us Of the Obligation the Faithful are under to receive the Sacrament in both kinds and a resolution of those Arguments that are commonly alleg'd to justifie the Romish Churches depriving them of the Cup. pag. 197. The Contents of the Fifth Part. Of the inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it THE inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it is either what is signified on the part of God and Christ or on the part of the Receiver of it The former of these brought under Consideration and shewn to be the Body and Blood of Christ not as they were at or before the Institution of this Sacrament or as they now are but as they were at the time of his Crucifixion as moreover then offered up unto God and offer'd up to him also as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World The Consequences of that Assertion briefly noted both as to the presence of that Body and Blood in the Sacrament and our perception of them The things signified on the part of the Receiver in the next place consider'd and these shewn to be First a thankful Remembrance of the Body and Blood of Christ consider'd as before described Secondly our Communion with those who partake with us of that Body and Blood Thirdly a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them The two latter of these more particularly insisted on and that Communion and Resolution not only shewn from the Scripture to be signified on the part of the Receiver but confirmed by the Doctrine and Practice of the Antient Church pag. 213. The Contents of the sixth Part. What farther relation the Sign of the Lord's Supper hath to the Body and Blood of Christ THE outward Part or Sign of this Sacrament consider'd with a more particular regard to the Body and Blood of Christ and Enquiry accordingly made what farther relation it beareth to it That it is a Means whereby we receive the same as well as a Sign thereof shewn from the Doctrine of our Church and that Doctrine confirm'd by Saint Paul's entitling it the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood and by his affirming Men to be made to drink into one Spirit by partaking of the Cup of it Enquiry next made what kind of Means this Sign of the Lord's Supper is how it conveys to us the Body and Blood of Christ and how we receive them by it To each of which Answer is made from the Doctrine of our Church and that Answer farther confirm'd by the Doctrine of the Scripture The sum of which is that this Sign of the Lord's Supper is so far forth a Mean spiritual and heavenly That it conveys the Body and Blood of Christ to us by prompting us to reflect as the Institution requires upon that Body and Blood of his and by prompting God who hath annex'd them to the due use of the Sign to bestow that Body and Blood upon us In fine that we receive them by the Sign thereof when we take occasion from thence to reflect upon that Body and Blood of Christ which it was intended to represent and particularly with Faith in them What Benefits we receive by Christ's Body and Blood in the next place enquir'd and as they are resolv'd by our Catechism to be the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul so Enquiry thereupon made what is meant by the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul what Evidence there is of Christ's Body and Blood being intended for it and how they effect it The Sign of the Lord's Supper a Pledge to assure us of Christ's Body and Blood as well as a Means whereby we receive them pag. 219. The Contents of the Seventh Part. Of Transubstantiation THE Doctrine of Transubstantiation briefly deduc'd from the Council of Trent and digested into four capital Assertions Whereof the first is that the whole substance of the Bread is chang'd into the substance of Christ's Body and the whole substance of the Wine into the substance of his Blood The grounds of this Assertion examin'd both as to the possibility and actual being of such a change What is alledgâ—d for the former of these from the substantial changes mention'd in the Scripture of no force in this
for you as St. Luke Yet as they all say enough to shew that this Sacrament of Bread and Wine was intended for a Representation of our Saviour's Passion and the violence that was then offer'd to his crucified Body so they do thereby sufficiently intimate that the breaking of the Bread was intended as a Representation of it There being nothing in the Bread to represent this to us but only the breaking of it This however is evident that our Saviour brake that Bread which he before took and blessed And that Rite of breaking was afterwards look'd upon as so considerable that it gave Name to the Sacrament it self and the whole of it from that one Rite entituled The breaking of Bread Our Saviour having thus taken and blessed and broken Bread for thus far to be sure we have Bread whatever we have beside he proceeds to give it to his Disciples For so the three Evangelists assure us Not that the Original of those Evangelists hath any thing in it to express the thing given but that it speaks of his giving somewhat to them and which considering the connexion of this Act of Christ with the former ones cannot reasonably be understood of any other than the Bread which he had before taken and blessed and broken And though St. Paul take no notice of this Gift of our Saviour's in the rehearsal he makes of this his Institution Yet he sufficiently intimates it when he brings him in saying Take Eat This is my Body c. His willing them to take and eat implying his parting with it that they might partake of it This however is manifest from the Evangelists that what our Saviour before took and blessed and brake he gave to his Disciples and I suppose to each of the Disciples in particular and by reaching it forth unto them The former being the manner of that Eucharist by which he fram'd his own Both the one and the other the Ancient Practice of the Church whether by the Hands of him that blessed it or of those Deacons that ministred to him I will not spend time in animadverting upon the words Take Eat which he us'd with the giving of the Bread It may suffice to say as to the former of these that as it is and always was the manner of Guests to take or receive into their hands or in some plate which they held in them what was given to them by another so the Antients knew no other taking or receiving of this Bread than that which was performed by them As little need to be said concerning that eating which our Saviour subjoin'd to the Command of taking or receiving what he gave them Unless there could be any doubt of that 's being Bread which was now to be eaten by them For as what it is to eat Bread is sufficiently known even after we have put it into our mouths to chew it there and transmit it from thence into our Stomachs for the nourishment of our Bodies So that it was Bread which they were commanded to eat St. Paul plainly shews in the words (m) 1 Cor. 11.26 27. which he subjoins to the Institution of this Sacrament He affirming the worthy Receiver of the Eucharist to eat Bread as well as the most unworthy one To go on therefore to those words which our Saviour subjoyn'd to his Precept of taking and eating even those most noted ones This is my Body Words which the wanton Wits of Men have transform'd into many shapes and those too no less monstrous than what they design'd to inferr from them Whereas if they were consider'd without any sinister Affections they would as Aretius long since observ'd (n) Com. in Mat. 26.26 Quomodo autem verae sint propositiones illae Panis est corpus Christi Vinum est sanguis Christi anxie disputatum est Res tamen sint affectibus simplicem habet intellectum Verae sunt ut aliae sacramentales loquutiones Agnus est transitus Circumcisio est foedus sacrificia sunt remissio peccatorum Baptismus est ablutio peccatorum In quibus nemo est tam stupidus ut nodos sibi quaerat Sed ut symbola sacramentalia hae res nominatae accipiuntur Ita judicandum de his propositionibus etiam puto have receiv'd a plain and simple Vnderstanding and which Men would otherwise no more have bogled at than at other Speeches of the like nature For this is my Body and This is my Blood are true as other sacramental Speeches are A Lamb is the Passover Circumcision is a Covenant Sacrifices are the remission of Sins and Baptism the washing away of them In which no Man is so stupid as to seek to entangle himself or go about to create Scruples to other Men. For these things are taken as sacramental Symbols and so I suppose we ought to judge of the former Propositions also Only because there is no one particle in the words This is my Body which hath not among prejudiced Men ministred matter for Dispute I will be so much the more minute in my Explication of them and first of the word This. This is my Body Now that which unprejudiced Men would undoubtedly think to be intended by the word This was the Bread before spoken of and which our Saviour is said to have taken blessed broken and given to his Disciples with a design they should take and eat of it Partly because that was the thing manifestly intended all along and therefore by the common Rules of Construction to be understood also here And partly because the demonstrative Particle This must by the natural importance of it be thought to point out something certain and apparent to them which hitherto nothing but the Bread of the Sacrament was Thus I say unprejudiced Men would be apt to think of the word This though they had nothing to direct them but the words of the Institution How much more then if they should reflect upon what St. Paul (o) 1 Cor. 11.26 27. subjoyneth to and inferreth from them in the account he gives us of that Affair For as often saith he as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lord's Death till he come And again Wherefore whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. For it appearing from the words of the Institution that the word This referrs to that which was given them to eat which St. Paul affirmeth to be Bread it must consequently be thought to denote not this Being or Substance in common or individuum vagum or the like but this Bread as St. Paul doth twice express it Conformable hereto whether the Romanists will or no is their own Opinion of the Bread's being transubstantiated by the words Hoc est corpus meum and that Transubstantiation not effected till the last Syllable of meum is pronounc'd For if that Transubstantiation be not effected till then it must
other words Yet is not that essence or being to be adapted to the nature of that to which it is affixt Now wherein consists the essence or being of such a relative thing as a sacred sign but in the relation which it bears to the thing signified and consequently in its signifying that which it is appointed to mark out And if the essence or being of a sign consists in the relation which it bears to the thing signified may it not as such be said to be that thing which it is intended to signifie For who if ask'd concerning this or that Picture as for instance the Picture of Alexander or Julius Caesar would describe it by a piece of Paper or Cloath or Wood so and so Painted but as such or such a person who did such admirable things in the World Nay who is there that when he sees this or that Picture though he knows them to be but inanimate things doth so much as ask What it is but Who So naturally and almost necessarily do Men take the very being of such a thing to consist in its relation to the person it represents and accordingly do as naturally express themselves in that manner concerning it And if that be the case as to other signs why not in like manner as to this Sacred sign of Christ's Body the Bread Especially if as I shall by and by shew it hath a yet nearer relation to it In order whereunto I will now proceed to shew 3. What the word Is imports in that figurative sense whereof we speak And here in the first place it is easie to observe that the word Is imports that to which it is attributed even the Bread of the Sacrament to be a sign of that Body of Christ which it is affirmed to be Which I do not only affirm upon account of the notion that all Men have of it but upon account of the likeness there is between the Bread broken and the Mortifying of our Saviour's Body and upon account also of the same Body's being affirmed by St. Paul in his History of the Institution to be broken for us There being otherwise no ground for that expression as to the Body of Christ but that the breaking of the Bread was intended to signifie or represent the injury that was offer'd to Christ's Body and consequently that that Bread was so far forth intended as a sign of it Which is no more than the Romanists themselves and particularly Estius have said in this affair and therefore I shall not need to insist upon it I say secondly that as the word Is imports that to which it is attributed to be a sign of Christ's Body so also to be such a sign in particular as was intended to bring Christ's Body and the Crucifixion of it to our own Minds or the Minds of others or in a word to be a memorial of it The former being evident from our Saviour's enjoyning his Disciples presently upon these words to do what he had now taught them in remembrance of himself The latter from St. Paul's telling his Corinthians that as often as they ate that bread and drank that cup they did shew the Lord's death till he came I say thirdly and lastly that the word Is doth likewise import that to which it is attributed to be a means of our partaking of the Body of Christ as well as a sign or a memorial of it Which we shall the less need to doubt when St. Paul (a) 1 Cor. 10.16 doth in express terms represent the Bread which is broken in the Sacrament as the Communion or Communication of the Body of Christ and the Cup of Blessing which is blessed in it as the Communion of his Blood Now if a sign even where it is hardly such may be said to be that which it signifies How much more such a sign as is also by the Institution of Christ a means of its conveyance and of which whosoever doth worthily partake shall as verily partake together with it of the Body of Christ and of the Benefits that accrue to us thereby I may not forget to add what St. Luke and St. Paul have added to the words This is my Body even This is my Body which is given for you as the former which is broken for you as the latter Both to the same purpose though in different expressions even to mark out to us more clearly how we are to consider that Body that is to say as a crucified one The giving of Christ or his Body being sometime express'd by giving him for our sins (b) Gal. 1.4 and at other times by giving him (c) Tit. 2.10 to redeem us from them which we know by the same Scripture to have been compassed by his death As indeed under what other notion can we conceive the giving of his Body when it is not only consider'd apart from his Blood but that Blood afterward affirm'd to be shed for the remission of sins and accordingly so requir'd to be consider'd here The expression of St. Paul which is broken for you is yet more clear because more manifestly pointing out the violence that was offer'd to Christ's Body With this farther advantage as was before said that it doth not obscurely intimate the breaking of the Bread to have been intended to represent what was done unto his Body and under what notion we are to consider it Though to put it farther out of doubt St. Paul after his account of the History of the Institution affirms both the one and the other Element of this Sacrament to relate to our Saviour's Death and consequently to respect his Body as mortist'd as well as his Blood as shed He relling his Corinthians that he that did eat that Bread as well as he that drank that Cup did thereby shew forth the Lord's Death till he came Only if it be enquir'd why our Saviour should even then represent his Body as broken or given when it was not to be so till the day after the Institution of this Sacrament I answer partly because it was very shortly to be so but more especially because he intended what he now enjoyn'd as a prescription for the time after his Death as his willing his Disciples to do this in remembrance of him doth manifestly imply That importing the thing to be remembred to be past and gone as which otherwise could not be capable of being remembred It follows both in St. Luke and St. Paul Do this and Do this in remembrance of me Words which the Romish Church hath pick'd strange matters out of even no less as was before observ'd out of Baronius than the Priesthood of the A postles as which was collated upon them by these words and the Sacrifice of the Mass For then also saith that Author the Apostles when the Lord commanded them to do the very same thing in remembrance of him were made Priests and that very Sacrifice which they should offer was ordain'd By what Alchymie the
necessity nor ever was of any Man 's receiving the Cup whether he be Priest or private Person Consecrater of the Bread and it or only a simple Communicant Then every one too that heretofore did or now doth receive in both kinds doth in one and the same Eucharist receive the Blood twice once in the Species of Bread and again in the Species of Wine In fine by the same Rule and their affirming whole Christ to be contained under either Species Hoc est corpus meum may be as proper to make a Transubstantiation of the Cup as it is a Transubstantiation of the Bread The two former whereof render our Saviour's injunction concerning the receit of the Cup perfectly unnecessary The last gives us occasion to wonder why our Saviour who to be sure affected no change of Phrase did not make use of the same Hoc est corpus meum to make an alteration of the Cup especially when if he had it might have so aptly hinted to us the sufficiency of one only Species to possess us of his Body and Blood These I take to be the natural Consequences of making Hoc est corpus meum to signifie at all times This is my Body and Blood and by vertue thereof to possess the Receivers of that over which they are pronounc'd of whole and entire Christ And if on the other side they with whom we have to do make those words to signifie so only where the Sacrament is administred but in one kind and only to those to whom it is so administred they must consequently make the very same words Hoc est corpus meum to signifie one thing to the Lay-man who receives but in one kind and another to the Priest that consecrates and receives in both Which beside that it will make the signification of those words to be arbitrary and according as the Priest shall intend them will make them vary from the signification they had in the Institution of Christ which is and ought to be the Pattern of all Our Saviour as he both instituted and distributed the Sacrament in both kinds so to be sure making the words Hoc est corpus meum to signifie only This is my Body apart from my Blood as which latter he both appointed a distinct Element for and as they love to speak converted that distinct Element into by words equally fitted for such a Conversion I think I shall not need to say much to shew the Bread of the Sacrament not to be converted into Christ's Body and Blood by the force of the words This is my Body and This is my Blood as if the latter extended to the Species of the former as well as to its own proper Sacrament even the Liquor of the Cup Both because those words are not appli'd even by themselves to the Bread but to the Cup and cannot therefore in reason be thought to have any operation upon the former And because our Saviour in that Eucharist which he consecrated for his Disciples gave them the Bread of it to eat before he proceeded to the Consecration of the Cup and before therefore it could be suppos'd to receive any influence from those words This is my Blood as which were not till some time after pronounced by him One only Device remains to bring Christ's Blood as well as Body under the Species of Bread called by the Schoolmen Concomitancy but ought rather by the Romanists explication of it and indeed by the words natural connexion before us'd by the Council of Trent to be termed a real Vnion By vertue of which if Christ's Blood and Body are brought together under the Species of Bread Christ's Body in the Sacrament even that which the words Hoc est corpus meum produc'd is no more that Body which was broken upon the Cross at least consider'd as such for that to be sure was separated from his Blood but his Body entire and perfect And then farewell not only to the natural signification of Hoc est corpus meum and quod pro vobis frangitur but to the Sacrifice of Christ's Body in the Eucharist which yet they have hitherto so contended for as not to think it to be such only by a Figure or Memorial of it Such reason is there to believe how confidently soever the contrary is affirm'd that Christ's Body and Blood are not contain'd under the single Species of Bread And yet if that could be prov'd it would not therefore follow that it were an indifferent thing whether we receiv'd the Cup or no. For the design of the several Species and our receit of them (u) 1 Cor. 11.26 being to shew forth to others the Lord's Death as well as to possess our selves of his Body and Blood If that be not to be compass'd without the receit of the Cup it will make the use of it to be so far necessary what ever we may gain by the Bread alone He satisfying not his Duty who complies with one end of any thing to the neglect of another as that too which tends apparently to the Honour of the Institutor as to be sure the Commemoration of our Saviour's Death and Passion doth Now that the Death of our Saviour cannot be otherwise shewn forth or at least not as he himself represented it without the receit of the Cup as well as Bread may appear from his own representing his Death as a thing effected by the shedding or pouring out of his Blood For so it is in the several Evangelists as well as by the breaking of his Body Blood shed or poured out of a Body being not to be represented in a Sacrament but by a Species at least distinct from the Species of that Body nor we therefore in a capacity so to represent or shew it forth by our receiving but by the receit of such a distinct one Add hereunto that as it is agreed among all Men that the Death which we are to represent or shew forth hath the nature of a Sacrifice and the Eucharist it self for that reason represented by the Romanists as such So it is alike certain and agreed that there is nothing more considerable in the Sacrifice of Christ's Death than the shedding of his Blood as to which he himself peculiarly attributes the Remission of Sins Which Sacrifice therefore whosoever will shew forth as to that particular by the receit of the Sacrament of it he must do it by the receit of such a Symbol as may represent the Blood of Christ as separated from his Body which nothing but a Symbol distinct from that of the Body can and therefore neither because there is no other here but that Cup whereof we speak I may not forget to represent as a fourth Pretence because suggested by the Council of Trent (w) Sess 21. cap. 2. that the receit of the Cup is not of the substance of the Sacrament and may therefore by the Church be either granted or deny'd as it shall seem most expedient to
sin is generally Luxury and Vanity If in a City or other place of Trade Deceit and Covetousness If in a mean estate any where repining and murmuring If in a more honourable one oppressing or Lording it over other Men. By one or other of these marks a Man may come to know his prevailing Sin and knowing it to know also the truth of his repentance for them and others For if he finds himself to get ground on such sins he shall not need to doubt of the truth of his Repentance because there cannot be a better proof of that than its leading Men to abandon their sins and particularly such of them as have the greatest force with the committers of them and are therefore the most difficult to be overcome And though it be true that all Men neither have nor can have that proof of their Repentance For they who have but lately begun to make a strict search into themselves must of necessity be without it how true soever their Repentance is Though they ought not therefore if they find no other reason to question the truth of it to condemn or doubt of that their Repentance because true Repentance must of necessity precede the Fruits of it Yet I think they will act most safely for themselves and most for the comfort of their own Souls I do not say if they stay so long from the participation of this Sacrament till they can have the Fruits of their Repentance to justifie the sincerity thereof but if when they may they think betimes and often what Repentance they are to bring with them to this Sacrament and accordingly set themselves as early to improve what they have and bring forth the fruits of it in those instances wherein they have been most peccant and are by their natural inclinations most likely to be so still For so they shall be able to see by the event what the nature of their Repentance is and accordingly be stirred up to labour after a more sincere one or be satisfied by the fruits they have brought forth that they are so far duly qualified for the partaking of this so excellent a Sacrament Having said thus much concerning the examination of our Repentance which I judge of all other things to be most necessary to be enquir'd into I shall need to say the less concerning that which follows even the examination of our stedfast purpose to lead a new Life as well as of the truth of our Repentance For as it is evident from what hath been said elsewhere (t) Part V. that that ought to be enquir'd into because the thing we are to make profession of in the receit of this Sacrament So he who is satisfied of the truth of his Repentance by the fruits which it hath produc'd may by the same fruits satisfie himself of the stedfastness of his present Purpose to abandon his former sins and pursue the contrary Graces There being no great likelihood of his departing from his present Purpose who knows himself to have already produc'd those good fruits which he now resolves upon as that too out of the Conscience of his own obligation to them and the just sense he hath of his former aberrations and the Affront he offer'd to his both Authority and Kindness to whom he now devotes himself anew Only if any Man find not in himself this most sure proof of the stedfastness of his Purpose and yet find in himself a disposition thus to shew forth his Saviour's death and a desire to partake of the several Graces and Benefits of this Sacrament Let him see whether he can by his own earnest Prayers and reflections and God's Blessing upon them both bring himself to resolve as well against the particular ways and means whereby he was formerly train'd into sin as against the sin it self and upon such particular ways and means also whereby it is most certainly prevented For so I do not see why he should not look upon his Resolution as stedfast and such as God will both accept of in the present case and add farther strength to by the participation of this Sacrament those Resolutions which prove in the event to be uncertain and tottering being for the most part only general ones and such as descend not to those particular ways and means whereby men come to be ensnar'd or whereby that seduction of theirs may be certainly prevented Thus for instance if a Man who hath heretofore given himself more liberty in drinking than the Laws of Temperance will allow should reflect so far upon his former failings this way as not only to resolve against the like intemperance for the future but against such Company too so far as he may by which he hath been drawn into it or to keep however within such measures that there can be no danger for him of offending I do not see why that Man may not look upon such a Resolution as a stedfast one and which God the giver of all Grace will add farther firmness and stedfastness to and make it hold out even against those temptations which at present it may be it is not in a condition to grapple with The Catechism goes on to tell us That we ought to examine our selves in the third place whether we have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ As well it way when he who was the Institutor of this Sacrament prompts us to receive the Elements thereof as that Body of his which was broken for us and as that Blood which was shed for the remission of our sins That as it supposeth that we ought to look upon the mercy of God as convey'd to us by Christ's death and accordingly expect that mercy by it and trust upon that death for it which is that our Church understands by Faith (u) See Expl. of Bapt. Part 10. so supposing too that we ought to approach this Sacrament with such a sorrow for sin and resolution against it as so great a Benefit requires which will convert this Faith or trust into a lively and operative one Now whether we have such a lively Faith or no we may easily satisfie our selves by its being attended or not attended with that sorrow and resolution and which how they are to be known I have already accounted for I shall hardly need to say any thing concerning examining our selves in the fourth place whether we have a thankful remembrance of Christ's death Partly because that thankful remembrance is one of the principal things enjoin'd in the celebration of this Sacrament and we therefore to bring that with us to the due receiving of it And partly because it will not be difficult for us to discover whether we have such a Remembrance or no That being to be judg'd in part by our own desire of receiving the present Sacrament but more by the care we take to prepare our selves for it as by other ways and means so by an earnest reflection upon the Benefits of that Death
of the death of the same Mediators In fine that I render the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it is never of force whilst he who so makes it lives is because those words as the former are a continuation and confirmation of the foregoing Argument and so still to be understood with reference to the same Mediator All which things I have laid together not so much out of a desire of being thought the Author of a new Interpretation from which no man is more averse where there is not some kind of necessity for it but to clear up an acknowledged and important truth and which the Text I have so long insisted upon hath helped more than any thing to obscure For as there is nothing more certain from the Scripture nor more attested to by our own Translators than that the dispensation of the Gospel ought to be looked upon under the notion of a Covenant As there is nothing in like manner of more importance to us to know and consider because it will prompt us to the doing of our part in the Covenant if we mean that God should do his so setting aside this Text of the Hebrews there is not one where this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is mentioned which will not as commodiously or more be interpreted of a Covenant than it can be thought to be of a Testament Only if some men swayed by their former prejudices or by the Latins giving the Codex of the Old and New Law the title of the Old and New Testament †Tertull. de jejun c. 11. Secundum utriusque Testamenti paraturam though they also give them the more general title of Instrumenta * Idem Apol. c. 19. Primam Instrumentis istis auctoritatem summa Antiquitas vindicat Ib. c. 21. Sed quoniam edidimus antiquissimis Judaeorum Instrumentis sectam istam esse suffultam Adv. Marc. li. 1. c. 13. Quantas autem foveas in ista vel maxime epistola ad Romanos nempe Marcion fecerit auferendo quae voluit de nostri Instrumenti integritate parebit But if some men I say swayed by the one or the other think fit to continue to the former Text and some others the notion of a Testament As I shall not contend with them about it for the reverence I my self bear to the judgment of the Antients so I shall ask as is but reason their acknowledging in like manner that the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do equally import a new Covenant and particularly where mention is made of the Cup of the Lord's Supper being the blood of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it Partly because that old 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which it was opposed had the nature of a Covenant and could not unless very improperly be stiled a Testament And partly because it was not only sealed with blood but that blood also stiled the blood of (k) Exo. 24.8 the Covenant For that is enough to perswade especially when we otherwise know that the dispensation of the Gospel is undoubtedly a Covenant that our Saviour when he represented the Cup of his Last Supper as the blood of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meant the blood of the New Covenant and consequently that that Sacrament and the other have a relation to it I will conclude what I have to say concerning those things to which a Sacrament relates when I have taken notice of its relating to that body of men with whom this New Covenant is made as well as to the Covenant it self For that it doth so we have the former instances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to assure us or rather what we learn from the Scriptures concerning them St. Paul giving us to understand that it is into that body that we are baptized (l) 1 Cor. 12.13 as in like manner that though we be many yet we become one bread and that one body (m) 1 Cor. 10.17 by partaking of the bread of the other Sacrament II. It appearing from the premises what those things are to which a Sacrament relates and the way therefore so far plained toward the discovery of the properties thereof enquire we in the next place into the nature of that relation which I have affirmed it to bear unto the other For my more advantageous discovery whereof I will resume each of those things to which it doth relate and shew what kind of relation it beareth to them Now as the first of those things is an inward and Spiritual Grace that is to say such a one as conduceth in an especial manner to the welfare of our inward man or spirit so we shall find a Sacrament as to it to have the nature of a sign or visible representation of it A thing so acknowledged by all by whom the Sacraments are acknowledged in any measure that it will hardly be worth our while to insist upon it It may suffice here to say that as a sign is so much of the Essence of a Sacrament that it is the very Genus of it and must therefore be supposed to be such as to all those things to which it relates so we shall find the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper to represent even to our eyes those inward and spiritual graces which are attributed to them For thus the water of Baptism doth by that cleansing quality which is natural to it and which as such is a representation of that spiritual Grace which purgeth (n) Heb. 9.14 the Conscience from dead works which are as it were the filth (o) 2 Cor. 7.1 and pollution of it And thus too the Elements of the Lord's Supper do as by other ways and means so by that which is done unto them The breaking of the one serving to set forth the breaking of Christs body upon the Cross as the pouring out of the other doth the shedding of his blood at those passages which were made for it by the Nails and Spear that pierced him But beside that a Sacrament hath the relation of a sign to that inward and spiritual Grace which belongeth to it it hath also the relation of such a sign as is moreover an apt instrument to convey that grace which is signified by it I instance for the proof hereof in the Scriptures attributing such effects to Baptism and the Lord's Supper as are the immediate issues of those graces which are signified by them For if it attribute such effects to them it must consequently intimate them to be the conveyers of those Graces from whence they result as which otherwise they could not be in a condition to produce Now that the Scriptures attribute such effects to the Sacraments before remembred as are the immediate issues of those graces which are signified by them will appear as to Baptism by their attributing to it a power of washing away (p) Acts 22.16 the sins of men For whether we understand thereby the
washing away their guilt or washing away the pollution of them we shall still find it to be the immediate issue of an inward and spiritual Grace It being the blood of Jesus Christ as the Scriptures (q) Explic. of the Creed in the word Dead every where declare that washeth us from sin in the former sense and the sanctifying Graces of God's spirit (r) Expl. of the Creed in the words I believe in the Holy Ghost which purifie us from it in the other If therefore the Sacrament of Baptism may be said so to wash and purifie it must be as it is an Instrument whereby it conveys to us those graces to which that purification doth belong But so the same Scriptures do yet more expresly declare as to that other Sacrament of our Religion even the Supper of the Lord St. Paul telling us (Å¿) 1 Cor. 10.16 of the bread of it that it is the Communion or Communication of Christ's body as of the Cup that goes along with it that it is the Communion of his blood For what other can we well understand by that expression of his than that they are an instrument whereby God conveys and we accordingly come to partake of that body and blood of Christ which is signified by them This only would be added for the clearer Explication of it that when were present the Sacrament as an instrument whereby God conveys to us that grace which is signified by it we do not mean thereby that it is a natural one or such as contains that grace in it as a Vessel doth liquor or a cause its effect but rather as the Judicious Hookes (t) Eccl. Pol. li. 5. sect 57. speaks as a moral instrument thereof That is to say as such a one to the use whereof God hath made a promise of his grace and which accordingly he will accompany with the exhibition of the other I deny not indeed but there are who are otherwise perswaded and who accordingly either attribute a greater efficacy to a Sacrament or deny even that which we have attributed to it Of the former sort are they who not contented to affirm that a Sacrament is an instrument whereby God conveys grace to the worthy receiver of it do moreover represent it under the notion of a Physical one yea of such a Physical one as contains grace in it as a cause doth its effect and accordingly contributes by its own internal force to the producing of it as well as to the possessing us thereof Even as a Chezil for so they (u) Hist of Counc of Trent li. 2. explain themselves contributes to the formation of a Statue or as a Hatchet to that Bed (w) Aquin. sum Part. 3. Qu. 62. Art 1. which is shaped by it But as it appears by Aquinas (x) Ibid. who was it may be the first framer of it that that conceit had its original from the fear of making a Sacrament to be nothing but a bare sign of grace contrary to the opinion of the Holy Fathers so nothing more therefore can be necessary toward the overthrowing of it than to shew the groundlesness of that fear which the doctrine before deliver'd will sufficiently evince For if it be but a moral instrument whereby God conveys his own graces it is certainly more than a sign yea it may in some sense be said to be a cause as well as the instrument thereof For as they who attribute to a Sacrament the efficacy of a cause make it to be no farther a cause of grace than that it produceth in the Soul a disposition (y) Hist of Counc of Trent li. 2. to receive it by which means it is not so much the cause of grace as of our receiving it so such a kind of causality will be found to belong to it though we make a Sacrament to be no other than a means whereby we attain it Because it is so far forth by the force of a Sacrament that grace comes to be in us that without that we cannot ordinarily hope to attain it nor fear to fail of it where the other is duly receiv'd The only difference as to this particular between the one and the other opinion is that whereas the former makes a Sacrament to dispose us to the reception of Grace as well as to convey it The latter supposeth that disposition already produc'd and consequently leaves no place for the former operation In that respect yet more agreeably to the Doctrine of the Scriptures because not only pre-requiring certain qualifications (z) Act. 8.36 37. 1 Cor. 11.20 of those that are to receive it but assuring them that if they come so qualifi'd they shall not fail * Mark 16.16 Act. 2.38 of that grace which the Sacrament was intended to convey These and the like assertions as they suppose the Soul to be before dispos'd so leaving no place for any other causality in a Sacrament than its serving to us as a means of conveying that grace which we are so disposed to receive And indeed as it doth not appear by any thing that Schoolman hath alledg'd that the Antients ever attributed any other causality to a Sacrament for though St. Augustine as he is quoted by him affirms the power of God to work by a Sacrament yet he doth not affirm it to do so as by a Physical instrument As it appears farther even from that Schoolman that St. Bernard was of opinion that Grace is no otherwise conveyed by a Sacrament than a Canonry in his time was by a Book or a Bishoprick by Ring so there is no defect in the Instances of that Father supposing a Book or a Ring to have been as much a means of conveying of those preferments as we affirm a Sacrament to be of the divine Grace For in that case the delivery of a Ring or a Book would not only have been a sign whereby the delivery of those preferments was declar'd as Aquinas argues in the place before but a ceremony by which they were actually made over and without which they could not have been Canonically invested in them I conclude therefore that if a Sacrament be an instrument of Grace it is a moral one and such as contributes no farther toward our partaking of it than as it is a means to which God hath annex'd the promise of it and which accordingly he will not fail where the receiver is rightly dispos'd to accompany with the exhibition of the other But because there are some who are so far from owning a Sacrament to be a physical instrument of grace that they will not so much as allow it to be a moral one And because such a conceit may tend as much to the depretiating of a Sacrament as the other seems to tend to the overvaluing of it Therefore consider we in the next place the pretensions of those that entertain it and the strength or rather weakness of those pretensions There are who have
as a means whereby we receive the same and as a pledge to assure us thereof Question How many parts are there in a Sacrament Answer Two the outward visible sign and the inward spiritual grace Question What is the outward visible sign or form in Baptism Answer Water wherein the person is baptized In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Question What is the inward and spiritual grace Answer A death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath we are hereby made the children of grace Question What is required of persons to be baptized Answer Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that Sacrament Question Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them Answer Because they promise them both by their Sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform Question Why was the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ordained Answer For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ and of the benefits which we receive thereby Question What is the outward part or sign of the Lord's Supper Answer Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received Question What is the inward part or thing signified Answer The body and blood of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper Question What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby Answer The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ as our bodies are by the bread and wine Question What is required of them who come to the Lord's Supper Answer To examine themselves whether they repent them truly of their former sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new life have a lively faith in God's mercy through Christ with a thankful remembrance of his death and be in charity with all men OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM In Pursuance of an EXPLICATION OF THE CATECHISM OF THE Church of England BY GABRIEL TOWERSON D.D. and Rector of Welwynne in Hartfordshire Imprimatur Ex Aedib Lamb. Apr. 10. 1686. Jo. Battely RRmo P. ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris Domesticis LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE Right Reverend FATHER in GOD FRANCIS Lord Bishop of ELY AND LORD ALMONER TO His Majesty My Lord YOUR Lordship 's favourable acceptance of my Discourse of the Sacraments in General with the desire I have if it may be to put an end to the whole hath prompted me to make the more hast to present your Lordship and the World with this of Baptism in particular Two things there are in it which I thought my self most concern'd to clear and which therefore I have employ'd all requisite diligence on the Doctrine of Original Sin and Infant-Baptism The former being in my opinion the foundation of Christianity the latter of our interest in it For if there be no such thing as Original Sin I do not see but some persons heretofore might and may here after live with such exactness as not at all to stand in need of a Saviour And I see as little if Infant-Baptism be null what interest any of us can have in him according to the ordinary dispensation of the Gospel who have for the most part been baptized in our Infancy or at least have been baptized by those that were Throughout the whole Treatise I have endeavour'd to retrive the antient notion of Baptism to shew what advantages are annexed to it and what duties it either involves or obligeth to To either of which if I have given any light or strength I shall hope I have done some small service to the Church and which your Lordship in particular will take in good part from Your Lordship's Most Obliged Most Obedient and Most humble Servant GABRIEL TOWERSON Wellwyne Aug. 23. 1686. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART Of the Rite of Baptism among the Heathen and the Jews THe Heathen themselves not without the knowledge of another World and of the insufficiency of natural Religion to bring them to the happiness thereof Occasion taken by them from thence to enquire after other ways of obtaining it and by the Devil to suggest the mysteries of their respective Deities as the only proper means of compassing it Those mysteries every where initiated into by the Rite of Baptism partly through Men's consciousness of their past sins and which they judged it but meet they should be some way purged from and partly through the policy of the Devil who thereby thought to procure the greater veneration to them That as it was a Rite which was in use among God's own people so naturally apt to represent to Mens minds their passing from a sinful to a holy Estate Of what Service the Heathens use of this Rite is toward the commendation of the Christians Baptism and a transition from thence to the use of it among the Jews Which is not only prov'd at large out of the Jewish Writings and several particulars of that Baptism remark'd but that usage farther confirm'd by several concurring proofs such as is in particular the no appearance there is otherwise of any initiation of the Jewish Women the Baptizing of the whole Nation in the Cloud and in the Sea and a remarkable allusion to it in our Saviour's Discourse to Nicodemus The silence of the Old Testament concerning that Rite shewn to be of no force because though it take notice of the first Jews being under the Cloud and passing through the Red Sea yet it takes no notice at all of their being Baptized in them or of their Eating and Drinking that spiritual Repast whereof S. Paul speaketh The Baptism of Christians copied by our Saviour from that of the Jews and may therefore where it appears not that he hath made an alteration receive an elucidation from it pag. 1. The Contents of the Second Part. Of the Baptism of the Christians and the Institution of it THe Institution of the Christian Baptism more antient than the Command for it in S. Matthew 28.19 though not as to the generality of the World nor it may be as to the like explicit Profession of the Trinity As is made appear from Christ or his Disciples baptizing in Judea not long after his own Baptism by S. John Enquiry thereupon made whether it were not yet more antient yea as antient as Christ's execution of his Prophetical Office Which is rendred probable from our Saviours making Disciples before and the equal reason there appears to have been for his making them after the same manner with those of Judea From Christ's representing to Nicodemus the necessity of being born again of water and the spirit which is shewn at large to be meant of a true and proper Baptism As
a Sin to make us the Children of Wrath and to deserve God's Wrath and Damnation The resolution of it is of no small moment toward the right stating of our duty and the valuableness of that remedy which Christianity hath provided for it For neither otherwise can we look upon Original Sin as any proper matter for our Repentance whatsoever it may be for our lamentation nor upon Baptism as bringing any other pardon to Infants than that of the Sin of their first Parents and which they who look upon Original Sin as rather our unhappiness than fault are generally as far from charging them with This only would be premis'd for the better understanding of it that by Sin is not meant any actual transgression of a Law for no Man was ever so absurd as to affirm that concerning Original Sin but that which is contrary to a Law in the nature of an evil habit and both imports an absence of that Righteousness which ought to be in us and an inclination to those evils from which we ought to be averse This as it is no less the transgression of a Law than any actual sin is so making the person in whom it is as obnoxious to punishment and consequently to be look'd upon as yet more properly a sin Now that that which we call Original Sin is really such in this latter notion will appear if these two things be considered First that the Scripture gives it the title of sin Secondly that it represents it as such upon the account of our being obliged by the Law of God to have in us a contrary temper That the Scripture gives that whereof we speak the title of sin is evident from those Texts which we before made use of to prove the being of it More particularly from that (d) Psa 91.5 which represents David as conceiv'd and born in sin and those (e) Rom. 7 17-20 which represent us all as having sin dwelling in us For these having been before shewn to speak of Original Sin make it evident that the Scripture gives it the title of Sin because in the former places representing it under that notion And though I will not from that only Topick conclude it to be properly such because the Scripture makes use of figurative expressions as well as proper yea doth so in this very particular whereof we speak for thus it sometimes gives the title of sin to that which is intended only as the punishment thereof yet as we may lawfully inferr from thence that there is more cause to believe Original Sin to be properly than figuratively such till the contrary thereof be made appear The proper sense being otherwise to be preferr'd before the figurative So that there can be no place for the figurative sense if that which is there represented as a sin be elsewhere represented as such upon the supposition of our being obliged to have in us the contrary temper Which that it is will appear from such Texts as do more immediately affirm it or such as affirm those things from which it may by good consequence be deduced Of the former sort I reckon that which is immediately subjoyn'd by David to the mention of his being conceiv'd in sin and brought forth in iniquity (f) Psa 51 6. Behold thou requirest truth in the inward parts and shalt or rather hast made me to understand wisdom secretly For as we cannot but look upon what is there said concerning God's requiring truth in the inward parts as spoken with relation to that sin whereof he before complains and to the mention whereof he subjoyns the mention of the other So neither considering it to have been his intent to aggravate his sinfulness before God but look upon it as also his intent to aggravate the sinfulness of his frame by that piety which God required of him Which suppos'd Original Sin will not only be found to be so entituled by the Scripture but to have had that name bestowed upon it upon the account of Men's obligation to the contrary and consequently to be truely and properly such And though there be not it may be many more Texts of that nature or which therefore can be thought so directly to affirm that it becometh the sin of those in whom it is upon the account of their obligation to the contrary Yet will it not be difficult to find others which do as clearly assert those things from which it may by good consequence be deduced Such as are those which make Original Sin to be a proper matter for confession yea to induce a guilt upon the person in whom it is But so the Prophet David doth plainly suppose in that very Psalm which we but now made use of Because not only confessing (g) Psa 51.5 the sinfulness of his Nature together with that of his external actions but begging of God immediately after that confession of his that he would purge him (h) Psa 51.7 with Hyssop from it For as we have no reason to exclude that from the matter of the desir'd purgation which immediately precedes the Prayer that is put up for it So much less reason to doubt after that Prayer for the purgation of it of its inducing a guilt upon the person in whom it is The use of Hyssop in the Old Law as appears by several places (i) Exo. 12.22 Lev. 14.6 in it and a consentient Text in the Epistle to the Hebrews (k) Heb. 9.19 c. being to sprinkle the Blood of the Sacrifices upon those who were any way obnoxious to its censures and so deliver them from the severity thereof For what other then could the Psalmist mean by that Prayer of his than that God would purge him from that and his other sins by the blood of an expiatory Sacrifice Or so meaning be thought to intimate more clearly than that that from which he desir'd to be purg'd stood in need of such a Sacrifice and consequently was no more without its guilt than his actual transgressions were Only if that notion may not be thought to be of sufficient clearness to build so important a Conclusion on it will not be difficult to strengthen it yet more by the word the Hebrew makes us of for purge and those Prayers which the Psalmist subjoyneth to it By the former because literally (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a purification from sin by the latter because importing it to be his desire (m) Psal 51.7 8 9. that God would wash him from it that he would cause those bones that had been broken by it to rejoyce and in fine that he would hide his face from his sins and blot out all his iniquities These as they are known and usual expressions for the remission of sins and consequently importing the guilt of those to whom they are apply'd and their purification from it so with this farther reason to be so taken here because the Psalmist afterwards begs (n) Psal
them of those inward and spiritual Graces which those sacred Offices were intended to procure or convey Which how great a commendation it is of our Vnion to that Body and consequently of that Baptism by which it was made will need no other proof than the Scripture's assuring us that Christ is the Saviour (h) Eph. 5.23 of that Body and the promises it makes to those Prayers (i) Matt. 18.19 20. that are made by it and to that Eucharist (k) Matt. 26.26 c. which is administred in it The purport of those promises being no other than the granting what is asked by it and particularly all those benefits which Christ's Body and Blood were intended for the procuring of And if these be as no doubt they are the consequences of our union to the Church by Baptism yea so far as I have elsewhere (l) Expl. the Creed Art of The forgiveness sins shewn that they are not ordinarily to be attained out of it That very Union may not improperly be stil'd one of its inward and spiritual Graces because leading to those that are most strictly such and indeed the only ordinary means of obtaining them PART VIII Of the Profession that is made by the Baptized person The Contents The things signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized brought under consideration and shewn from several former discourses which are also pointed to to be an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and particularly of the Trinity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws Our resolution of acting agreeably to the Laws of Christianity more particularly consider'd and the Profession thereof shewn by several Arguments to be the intendment of the Christian Baptism What the measure of that conformity is which we profess to pay to the Laws of Christianity and what are the consequences of the Violation of that Profession HAving thus consider'd the things signified by Baptism on the part of God and Christ best known by the name of its inward and spiritual Graces It remains that I give the like account of the things signified by it on the part of the baptiz'd or the things the baptized person maketh Profession of by it Which as was before observ'd are an Abrenunciation of sin a present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and a resolution for the time to come to continue in that belief and act agreeably to its Laws That something is signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized as well as on the part of God and Christ is evident from what was before said * Of the Sacrament in general Part 2. concerning the nature of a Sacrament in the general and Baptism's †Ibid. relating as well to something to be perform'd by the baptiz'd as to those divine Graces or priviledges which we expect from the other That the things before mentioned are the things thus signified by it hath also been elsewhere * Expl. of the Apostles Creed declar'd and so that it would not be difficult for a diligent Reader to satisfie himself from thence But because what I have said concerning them lies dispersedly in my former Discourses and would therefore require more pains than I ought to impose upon my Reader to find it out and apply it to the present Argument I will here though very briefly consider them anew and if not which would be too tedious repeat all that I have said concerning them yet point him as I go to the particular places from whence they may be fetch'd That Abrenunciation of sin is one of the things signified by Baptism is not only evident from the manner of administring it in the Primitive times and which together with the form of their Abrenunciation and our own are set down in my account of the Preliminary questions and answers of the Catechism but also from the general tenour of that Religion which Baptism is an initiation into That requiring the renouncing of all sin and wickedness and therefore supposing the baptized person to do so when he takes that Religion upon him For which cause as an express Abrenunciation was heretofore requir'd and continues so to be to this very day So it was signified as by other Rites and particularly by the baptized persons putting off his cloaths in order to his Baptism as putting off together with them the Old Man and his deeds so by the Rite of Baptism it self He who submits to that implying thereby his looking upon sin as a Moral impurity and which therefore for the future he would not have any thing to do with The second thing signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized is his present belief of the Doctrine of Christianity more especially of the Doctrine of the Trinity As is evident from that Baptism's being commanded by our Saviour to be made in or into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost For to be baptiz'd into the name of those persons importing the owning of those persons as our Masters (a) Expl. of the Creed Art I believe in the Holy Ghost and our selves as the Disciples of them To be so baptized moreover importing the owning of those persons as alike (b) Ibid. Masters of us and consequently because the Father cannot be own'd in any lower relation as partakers of the same divine Nature and Authority Lastly to be so baptiz'd importing the owning of them in particular by a belief of the Christian Doctrine that being the most signal instance of that Discipleship we receive by it The belief of the Doctrine of Christianity and of the Trinity in particular must be look'd upon as signified by Baptism on the part of the baptized and those baptized ones consequently as making profession of that belief by it For which cause as the rule of Faith or the Creed (c) Introd concerning Catechising c. was given to those to learn who were willing to be initiated into Christianity so they were particularly interrogated (d) Expl. of the Prel Quest and Answers as to their belief of the Articles thereof and then and not till then baptiz'd into it and the priviledges thereof The third and last thing signified on the part of the baptized is a resolution for the time to come to continue in the belief of Christianity and act agreeably to its Laws Both which will receive a sufficient confirmation from S. Peter's affirming Baptism to be the Answer or stipulation of a good conscience toward God and from what I have elsewhere (e) Ibid. said concerning it For as it is evident from thence that Baptism signifies on the part of the baptized a stipulation or promise of somewhat to be done by him So it will not be difficult to inferr from thence that it signifies also a stipulation or promise to continue in that belief of Christianity into which he
because Ite Missa est is the conclusion of the Mass even now and which considering the place it hath in this service as well as the word Ite to which it is joyn'd cannot be thought to denote any other thing than that the Deacon doth by those words of his Missam or Missionem facere give leave to the people to depart and so justifie yet more the account we have before given of the title of that service For when it is evident from the story of the Church and particularly from Dionysius the Areopagite * Eccl. Hierarch c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Catechumens and others were formally dismist the congregation upon the finishing their respective service When it is farther evident from the present Canon of the Mass that the faithful were alike dismist after that their service was over and not only so but by these very words Ite Missa est Depart you for you have now a dismission or free leave to do so What can be more clear than that the word Missa or Mass had its original from that dismission and that the several services of the Church and this of the faithful in particular had that name because they who pertained to it and attended on it were at the end thereof solemnly dismist and sent away to their own home Only if any be fond of that Rabbinical notion which makes it to import a voluntary oblation because of the near cognation it may seem to have to that sacrifice which they are willing to advance Let them in God's name enjoy it provided they look upon it as only an Eucharistical one of which nature the Missah in Deuteronomy was or a commemoration of that voluntary oblation which Christ made of himself upon the Cross For whatever may be said against that Etymology of the word nothing can be said from Antiquity against the supposed sense of it Because all Antiquity acknowledg'd that which hath the title of the Mass to be either an Eucharistical or commemorative Oblation PART III. Of the Institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The Contents The Story of the Institution first set down out of the Evangelists and St. Paul and animadverted upon in the several parts of it Where after an account of the time of it the consequents whereof are also declar'd entrance is made with the consideration of the Bread and both the quality of that Bread and Christ's taking it explain'd This followed by a more ample declaration of Christ's blessing it and that Blessing both shewn to have the Bread for its object and to consist in making it useful for the purposes of a Sacrament or rather in Christ's addressing himself to his Father to make it such That address of his thereupon carefully enquir'd into and because it appears from St. Luke and St. Paul to have been by Thanksgiving enquiry also made what benefits he so gave thanks for what use that Thanksgiving was of toward the procuring of the blessing desir'd and whether it did not also contain some express request to God for the granting of it Of Christ's breaking the Bread its signification and momentousness as also of his giving it to his Disciples and requiring them to take and eat of it The words This is my body next taken into consideration and more particularly and minutely explain'd Where is shewn at large that by the word This must be meant This Bread and that there is nothing in the gender of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hinder it That by body must be meant that body which Christ now carried about him and was shortly after to suffer in and that the figurativeness of the proposition lies in the word is Vpon occasion whereof is also shewn that that word is oftentime figuratively taken that it ought to be so taken here and that accordingly it imports the Bread to be a sign and a memorial and a means of partaking of Christ's body This part of the Institution concluded with an explication of the words which is given or broken for you and a more ample one of Christ's commanding his Disciples to do this in remembrance of him Where the precept Do this is shewn to refer to what Christ had before done or enjoyned them to do And they enjoyn'd so to do to renew in themselves a grateful remembrance of Christ's death or prompt other Men to the like remembrance of it That part of the Institution which respects the Cup more succinctly handled and enquiry made among other things into the declaration which our Saviour makes concerning its being his Blood of the New Testament or the New Testament in it Where is shewn What that is which our Saviour affirms to be so what is meant by his Blood of the New Testament or The New Testament in it and how the Cup or rather the Wine of it was that Blood of his or the New Testament in it IT is very observable Question Why was the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ordain'd Answer For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ and of the benefits we receive thereby and was accordingly long since taken notice of by Isaac Casaubon * Exercit. 16. s. 28. That when Baronius was to give an account of the Institution of this Sacrament which three Evangelists and St. Paul had carefully describ'd instead of producing the words of those Scriptures as he often doth upon less occasions and bestowing as was but reasonable a just Commentary upon them he slubbers it over with this imperfect story †Baron Annal. Eccl. ad Ann. Christi 34. num 45. shall I say or rather with this perverse interpretation of it In which Supper speaking of that of the Paschal Lamb that ineffable Sacrament was instituted whereby Transubstantiation was made of Bread and Wine into the Flesh and Blood of Christ into the very body of Christ entire under both species Then also the Apostles when the Lord commanded them to do the very same thing in remembrance of him were made Priests and that very sacrifice which they should offer was ordain'd A Man would have thought that whatever interpretation he had afterwards made of it one who pretended to be an Historian should at least have given a more particular and perfect account of that whole action and as near to as might be in the words of some of those Holy Men that had transmitted it to posterity And so no doubt this Historian would have done if there had not been somewhat in the words of the Institution to which the practice of his Church had made a non obstante to be necessary But as he saw but too well how ill the practice of his Church answer'd what was then done and enjoyn'd by our Saviour so he therefore chose rather to give that imperfect as well as insincere account of it and endeavour to supply what was wanting by an account of those names which were antiently given to
Blood by the separate administration of them when they are For as our Saviour's Body and Blood were parted by Death and accordingly requir'd to be consider'd the one as broken and mortifi'd the other as shed or poured out of it So our Saviour did not only appoint divers Symbols to represent them but administred them apart and by themselves and if there be any force in Do this in remembrance of me commanded them to be so administred afterwards By which means they become even by that separate administration a yet more perfect and lively Representation of Christ's Body and Blood as to the usage they receiv'd when he whose they were was subjected to Death for us But because the Body and Blood of Christ are consider'd in this Sacrament as to the Benefit that was intended and accru'd to us by them as well as to the usage they receiv'd For This is my Body which is given or broken for you say St. Luke and St. Paul and This is my Blood of the New Testament or the New Testament in it which is shed for you say all the Evangelists upon this Argument Therefore enquire we wherein the Elements of Bread and Wine are a sign of his Body and Blood as to that Benefit they were so intended and given for Which will soon appear if we consider what the proper use of those Elements is what we are requir'd to do with them and what is elsewhere said concerning that Body and Blood when consider'd with respect to our welfare and advantage These several things making it evident that they become a sign of Christ's Body and Blood by the use they are of to nourish and refresh us For as we cannot lightly think but that when our Saviour made choice of such things as those to represent the usefulness of his Body and Blood to us he made choice of them for that purpose with respect to their proper usefulness as which is both most notorious in them and most apt to affect the Mind of him to whom they are suggested So much less can we think otherwise of them when he moreover requires us to eat of the one and drink of the other which are the ways by which we are to receive that nourishment and refreshment which we have said them to be so useful for Otherwise any thing else might have been as proper for the purpose as Bread and Wine Or if God who may no doubt make use of what Methods he pleaseth thought good however to make choice of Bread and Wine to represent Christ's Body and Blood yet he might have contented himself to have enjoyn'd upon us the casting our Eyes upon them and not as we find he doth prompted us to eat and drink of them as that too in remembrance of him and them For what need would there be of eating and drinking those Elements in remembrance of his Body and Blood or indeed what aptness in so doing to call them to our own Minds or the Minds of others were it not that there were somewhat in them to represent the usefulness of Christs Body and Blood which was not to be drawn from them or so sensibly perceiv'd in them as by eating and drinking of them This I take to be a competent evidence of Bread and Wine 's becoming a sign by the use they are of to nourish and refresh us But I am yet more convinced of it by what is elsewhere said concerning Christ's Body and Blood when consider'd as they are here as to our Benefit and advantage Even that his Flesh or Body was food * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed and his Blood drink indeed (g) Joh. 6.55 and that accordingly except his Disciples ate that Flesh of his and drank his Blood (h) Joh. 6.53 they could have no life in them but if they did (i) Joh. 6.54 they should have eternal Life In fine that the flesh (k) Joh. 6.51 which he should give for the life of the World was in the nature of Bread to them and so represented by him throughout that whole Discourse For if Christ's Body and Blood be in the nature of Food and drink to us If they be so far such that we are requir'd to eat and drink of them and so also that we cannot promise our selves life without them That Bread and Wine which in the present Sacrament are appointed to signifie and represent them cannot be thought by any more proper way to be a Sign or Representation of them than by their usefulness as Bread and Drink to nourish and refresh our Bodies to maintain them in their present beings and fill them with joy and gladness 4. The fourth thing to be enquir'd as concerning the Bread and Wine of this Sacrament is what evidence there is of Christ's commanding us to receive them A question which one would think might soon be voided by the words of the Institution it self Take Eat This is my Body being the voice of our Saviour concerning the Bread and Drink ye all of it and This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me being the words of the same Jesus in St. Matthew and St. Paul concerning the Cup which one would think to be sufficient expresses of Christ's command concerning it But as nothing is enough to those who are prejudic'd against any Doctrine as it is apparent that the Church of Rome was against the use of the Cup when this business came to be debated in the Council of Trent So that Council did not only determine that whole and entire Christ is contained under either species and particularly under the species of Bread (l) Sess 13. cap. 3. but that the faithful are not oblig'd by any command of the Lord to receive both species (m) Sess 21. cap. 1. and that accordingly if any shall say that all and singular the faithful people of Christ are oblig'd to take both species either by vertue of any command from God or as of necessity to Salvation (n) ib. Can. 1. he ought to be anathematiz'd for it or rather hath already incurr'd it For which cause it will be necessary for us to shew that the faithful are obliged by the Command of Christ to receive the Cup and then answer the principal reasons that are brought against it And here in the first place I would gladly know whether there be or ever were any command from Christ for the receiving of the Cup whether by the Apostles at first or the Priest that consecrates now whatsoever become of simple Laymen or the Priests that do not officiate and are therefore so far forth reckoned in the number of the other The ground of which question is because the Council of Trent doth not say that there is no command from Christ for the faithful's receiving the Cup but that the faithful are not bound by any command of his to the taking of both species and again that if any shall say that all the faithful
form and figure and circumscription and in a word the essence of a Body But after the resurrection it became immortal and above corruption and was thought worthy to sit at the right hand of God and is worshipped by every creature as being called the Body of the Lord of nature So that if the two natures of Christ ought to be look'd upon even now as two distinct and different ones and not one nature swallowed up into the other We also in the opinion of this Holy Man ought to look upon this Sacrament and the thing of the Sacrament as two distinct things and upon the Sacrament in particular however dignified with a noble relation yet as of the same nature and figure and form as it was before it was advanced to it For Theodoret arguing the distinction of Christ's two natures from the distinction there is between the Sacrament and the thing of the Sacrament and particularly from that Sacrament's continuing in its former nature and essence must consequently suppose that to have been a thing then known and confess'd as from which otherwise he could not reasonably have argued the other I am not ignorant indeed that even these passages have met with subtle evasions and such as shew in some measure the art of those that fram'd them But as whosoever shall compare them with those words to which they are apply'd will find them to be rather subtle than solid So they put such a sense upon the words of their respective Authors as if they should be admitted would make them look rather like Sophisters than Fathers of the Church like Men who intended to impose upon their Disciples rather than to enlighten them in the Truth For what other would it have been in Theodoret to have argued against the change of Christ's Body into the divine essence from the continuing of the Symbols of it in their essence and figure and form if he had meant no more thereby than that they remained what they were in their outward appearances as the Romanists are willing to understand him or as they are sometime pleas'd to phrase it in their outward substance For so the Body of Christ also might have remain'd as to the outward appearances thereof and yet have been as substantially chang'd into the divine essence or nature as the Bread of the Sacrament is said to be into the substance of Christ's Body But beside that the Antients represent the Sacramental Elements as continuing what they were and thereby sufficiently impugne that substantial change of them into Christ's Body and Blood which this first Assertion imports They represent them also as Types and Symbols and Images thereof and as we should therefore think as distinct things from them No like being the same with that to which it is said to be like nor indeed any more capable of being so than that which is the most different from it Now how standing the substantial change of the Sacramental Elements can these titles be admitted Or what is there to build that Typicalness or Symbolicalness or resemblance on Certainly no other than those aiery species thereof which in the opinion of those that maintain them have themselves no subject to uphold them But as it doth not appear that the Antients believ'd any such species and one (x) August ep ad Dardan 57. Tolle ipsa corporae qualitatibus corporum non erit ubi sint Et ideo necesse est ut non sint Veruntamen si moles ipsa corporis quantacunque vel quantulacunque sit penitus auseratur qualitates ejus non erit ubi sint quamvis non mole metiendae sint of the Learnedest of them deni'd the possibility thereof So they sometime place the Symbolicalness of the Sacramental Elements in such properties thereof as can belong to no other than their respective substances For thus they apparently do when they represent them as Symbols of Christ's mystical Body upon the account of their being made up of the substance of sevelal granes and several Grapes as that Body of Christ is of the respective members of it This importing the union of several substances into a Mass or Body and consequently that that is much more a substance which is made up of an aggregation of them 2. It appearing from the premisses how little ground there is to believe that the whole substance of the Bread is chang'd into the substance of Christ's Body and the whole substance of the Wine into the substance of Christ's Blood We shall the less need to concern our selves in the examination of that which follows even that those substances of Bread and Wine are so chang'd into the substances of Christ's Body and Blood as to retain nothing of what they were before save only the species thereof For if they can in no sense be said to be substantially chang'd how much less to such a degree as to retain nothing of what they were save only the species thereof But as this Assertion whatever it is hath something peculiar in it in the common understanding of the World So it may not therefore be amiss especially when the Council of Trent seems to have made a peculiar Article of it to consider it apart and both enquire what grounds it hath to support it self and oppose proper reasons to it In order whereunto I will consider it as importing first that nothing of the substance of Bread and Wine remains and secondly as importing that the species or accidents thereof do If they who affirm that nothing of the substance of the Bread and Wine remains mean no more thereby than that nothing thereof remains in the form or essence of Bread and Wine as one would think they should not by their affirming them to be chang'd into the substance of Christs Body and Blood They may then be thought to say somewhat which may seem to have some foundation in those words This is my Body and This is my Blood because those words make no mention of any thing else but them But then as they must also suppose that the matter thereof remains though in another form or essence because otherwise the substance thereof will not be chang'd but annihilated So they must suppose too an addition made thereby to the substance of Christ's Body because a new accession of matter to it Which being granted the change will be made not into the whole substance of Christ's Body and Blood as Transubstantiation was before said to import but only into that part thereof into which they are affirmed to be chang'd On the other side if they who affirm that nothing of the substance of Bread and Wine remains mean thereby that nothing remains in the form of Bread and Wine or any other substance They then do not only destroy the change of them into the substance of Christ's Body and Blood because that change supposeth the former matter of them to abide though in another form or essence but take away all pretence of founding
the Heathen can expect the whole of our Victime upon them which is expresly contrary to the Doctrine of the Romanists So supposing the similitude between them not to be exact as no similitude they say runs upon all four there may be place for partaking of our Victime by means of that Bread and Wine which is prepared for us as well as for the Heathens partaking of their Victimes by means of those parts thereof that were set before them Because how far soever that Bread and Wine may be in themselves from being parts of our Victime or Sacrifice or possessing us of the Benefits thereof Yet they may by the appointment of God become a means of exhibiting that Victime or Sacrifice to our Souls and possessing us of the happy Fruits of it I know not whether I ought to take notice of what is added in the close That this is that Oblation which is figur'd by the several Oblations of former days as well those which prevail'd in the time of Nature's Law as those which were in use under that of Moses Because it doth not appear to me which is the proof the Council of Trent gives of it that it contains in it all those good things that are signified by the other as the consummation and perfection of them For neither for ought that doth appear from the Roman Missal doth it any way contain in it an Atonement for the unconverted World Neither doth it contain in it what it doth as the consummation and perfection of those Sacrifices or Oblations which were made in antient times This as I shall by and by shew being the Priviledge of that Sacrifice which our Saviour made of himself upon the Altar of the Cross and no other way belonging to the Eucharist than as a means appointed by God to convey to us the Benefits of the other 3. Now to make it appear to the World that we are no more without Arguments against this pretended Sacrifice than we are unprovided of Answers to what the Romanists alledge in its behalf I will make it my Business to shew 1. That this Sacrifice as explain'd by them is inconsistent with it self 2. That it is contrary to the present state of our Lord and Saviour 3. That it is extreamly derogatory to the dignity of that Sacrifice which Christ made of himself upon the Altar of the Cross That this Sacrifice as explain'd by those that advance it is inconsistent with it self will need no other proof than that unbloody Immolation or Offering which is attributed to it For how is that an Immolation or Offering understanding it as they do of a propitiatory Sacrifice which is without any shedding of Blood when both the Old and the New Testament assure us that it was the Blood which was to make the Atomement and that without shedding of Blood there is no Remission For what is this but to say that it is a Sacrifice and no Sacrifice that it is a truly propitiatory Sacrifice for the quick and dead and yet hath nothing of that which is to make a Propitiation for them It is true indeed that an unbloody Immolation or Offering is an Expression that may pass well enough where it is attributed to that which is rather the Commemoration of a Sacrifice than any true and proper one But to attribute such an Immolation or Offering to a Sacrifice properly so call'd is to deny it to be what we affirm it and indeed rather a piece of nonsense than any legitimate Predication or so much as a witty one But beside that this Sacrifice as explain'd by the Romanists themselves is inconsistent with it self and as such therefore might be reasonably rejected We shall find it to be as inconsistent with the present state of our Lord and Saviour and indeed directly contrary to it For if there be any kind of Propriety in the Immolation that is offer'd to it it must betoken some kind of violence to be offer'd to that Body which is the subject of it and consequently of a glorious Body make it an inglorious one Which they of all Men ought not to refuse who do sometime tell us of the bleeding of the Host and so turn this unbloody Immolation into a bloody one Neither will it avail to say as the Council of Trent doth and their Authors commonly gloss this Immolation That this Body of Christ is offer'd under the Species of Bread and Wine and again under the visible Signs For whether under the Species or no yet still according to them Christ is truly immolated Neither is there any more difference between the Immolations than there would have been between the murdering of an Infant covered over with Meal as the Heathen in Minutius Felix chargeth the Primitive Christians to have done and the murdering of one under no such disguise For as the Murder is the same in both so the Immolation must be so too and those Species can no more priviledge our Saviour's Body from violence than the Meal wherewith an Infant is covered can hinder the violence that is offer'd to it to be really a Murder or those that offer it from being really guilty of one But that which is most to be consider'd in this Affair and is in truth the greatest prejudice against this pretended Sacrifice is that it is extreamly derogatory to the dignity of that Sacrifice which Christ made of himself upon the Altar of the Cross For whereas it is the peculiar Priviledge of this Sacrifice to be so perfect as not to need to be repeated whilst those of the Levitical Law daily were For every Priest saith the Author to the Hebrews (s) Heb. 10.11 c. standeth daily ministring and offering oftentimes the same Sacrifices which can never take away Sins But this Man after he had offer'd one Sacrifice for Sin for ever sat down on the right hand of God From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool The Sacrifice of the Mass doth at the best pretend to repeat that Sacrifice and though in another way to offer it up again yea makes our Saviour himself to do it by the Ministry of his Priests Whereas again it is the Priviledge of that Sacrifice which our Saviour made of himself upon the Cross to procure eternal Redemption for us (t) Heb. 9.12 and such a Redemption too (u) Heb. 9.15 as should draw after it the receit of an eternal Inheritance in the mean time so perfecting for ever them that are sanctified (w) Heb. 10.14 that they should not only not need any more offering for Sin but have boldness by the Blood of it to enter into the Holiest The sacrifice of the Mass by pretending to be a truly propitiatory one makes the redemption of that former Sacrifice to be imperfect as without which there could have been no need of a farther propitiatory one and much less of the frequent offering of it Neither will it suffice to argue as the Council of Trent
to be eaten by the Houshold (c) Exo. 12. ◠of which the younger Infants to be sure were no way capable And it appears from a Passage in Josephus (d) Jud. Antiqu. li. 12. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that no one that was born was to taste of any Sacrifice till he came to the Temple which we learn from the instance of our Saviour (e) Luke 2.42 Grot. in loc not to have been till they were twelve Years of Age. At or after which time they might be in a capacity to enquire into the meaning of their Paschal Service and receive a due information concerning it Which instead of justifying the communicating of Infants will rather overthrow it and perswade the deferring of it till they be of understanding to consider the nature of the Sacrament and prepare themselves in some measure for the receiving of it One only Argument remains for the administring of this Sacrament to Infants even the long and general practice of the Antient Church in this particular and the like general practice at this day of the Greeks Aethiopians Bohemians and Moravians All which to condemn of Errour may seem a little hard as we must do unless we will at least allow of the lawfulness of the Practice whatsoever we do of the necessity thereof But as I must needs say that I do not see how we can acquit them for Errour considering what hath been before said against the Communion of Infants So I a little wonder how he should stick at the condemnation of the thing it self who so freely acknowledg'd the Practice to be built upon a Text which he himself confesseth to have been mistaken by them The utmost in my opinion that is to be said in behalf of the Antients and accordingly of those Churches which derive their Practice from them is that the Communicating of Infants was an Errour of their charity toward them and whom whilst they were willing to deliver from that Original Corruption wherein they were born and bring them to Christ's Kingdom and Happiness they did not only conferr upon them the Sacrament of Baptism which they had learn'd from the words of our Saviour (f) Mark 10.13 the Doctrine of St. Paul (g) 1 Cor. 7.14 and the Circumcision of the Jewish Infants to be but proper for them but mistaking what our Saviour spake in St. John concerning the necessity of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood for the necessity of a Sacramental Manducation gave them this Sacrament also so the better to secure them of eternal Life and Heaven For as for that Salvo of the Council of Trent (h) Sess 21. cap. 4. that the Antients gave them the Sacrament of the Eucharist out of some probable and temporary Reasons and not out of a Belief of the necessity thereof unto Salvation or the like Salvo of Mr. Thorndike * Epil to the Trag. of the Ch. of Engl. li. 1. cap. 23. who agreeably to the same Opinion makes them look upon that Text in St. John as sufficiently answer'd by the Sacrament of Baptism and their partaking of Christ's Body and Blood in it It is so contrary to the Doctrine of the Antients and particularly to that of St. Cyprian (i) Cypr. Test ad Quirin li. 3. cap. 27. Pope Innocent (k) Epist 93. apud August and St. Augustine in many places of his Works that it is not a little to be wondred at that so learned a Man as Mr. Thorndike could advance so groundless an Assertion For though it be true that St. Cyprian where he makes it his Business to shew that none can enter into the Kingdom of God unless he be baptiz'd and born again doth not only alledge that Text for it (l) Joh. 3.5 which doth more immediately concern it but that unless Men eat Christ's Flesh and drink Christ's Blood they shall have no Life in them Yet that he did not intend thereby their receiving that Body and Blood in Baptism but in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and only made use of that Text as proving Baptism â fortiori because enforcing the necessity of a Sacrament which was to be administred after it is evident from his beginning his next Testimony or Christian Doctrine with these very words That it was a small matter to be baptiz'd and receive the Eucharist unless a Man profit in good Works For how comes the Eucharist to be join'd with Baptism in Testimonies that depend so upon one another but that he had spoken of it just before and consequently meant no other than that Eucharist by eating Christ's Flesh and drinking his Blood according as is but just before alledg'd In like manner though Pope Innocent to shew the foolishness of the Pelagians in affirming that little Children could have eternal Life without Baptism make use of these very words to prove it For unless they shall eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood they shall have no Life in them Yet whosoever shall consider what he saith as it is worded by himself will find that he did not at all intend their receiving the Flesh and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of Baptism but in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and that he esteem'd that Sacrament to be as necessary as the former and intended to prove the necessity of Baptism by the necessity of that Sacrament which was to follow it For thus he in his Epistle to the Fathers of the Milevitan Council Now that which your Brotherhood affirms them to preach that little Children may have their rewards of eternal Life even without the Grace of Baptism is extreamly foolish For unless they shall eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood they shall not have Life in them For what was this but to say that they should be so far from having eternal Life without the Grace of Baptism that they could not by the Dispensation of the Gospel attain that Life without the Grace of the Eucharist also Agreeable hereto is the Doctrine of St. Augustine as appears from this following Testimony (m) De peccat merit Rem li. 4. cap. 24. Where having said that by an Antient and Apostolical Tradition as he thought the Churches of Christ were intimately perswaded that without Baptism and the participation of the Lord's Table none could come to the Kingdom of God and eternal Life and confirm'd that Opinion of theirs and his own by Scriptures peculiar to each Sacrament and particularly as to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by that so much celebrated saying of our Saviour Vnless ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man c. he hath these following words If therefore as so many and so great Divine Testimonies do agree neither Salvation nor Life can be hoped for by any one without Baptism and the Body and Blood of Christ in vain is it promised to little Children without them even without
those two Sacraments which he had before intreated of and which he affirms in the next words the guilt of that sin in Children to be loosed by concerning which the Scripture affirms that no one is free from it though his Life be but of a days continuance PART XI How the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ought to be receiv'd The Contents The receit of this Sacrament suppos'd by the present Question and that therefore first established against the Doctrine of those who make the supposed Sacrifice thereof to be of use to them who partake not Sacramentally of it Enquiry next made How we ought to prepare our selves for it how to demean our selves at the celebration of it and in what Posture to receive it The preparation taken notice of by our Catechism the Examination of our selves whether we truly repent us of our sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life c. and the both necessity and means of that Examination accordingly declar'd The examination of our Repentance more particularly insisted upon and that shewn to be most advantageously made by enquiring how we have gain'd upon those sins which we profess to repent of and particularly upon our most prevailing ones which how they are to be discover'd is therefore enquir'd into and the marks whereby they are to be known assigned and explain'd A transition from thence to the examination of the stedfastness of our Purposes to lead a new Life of our Faith in God through Christ our remembrance of his Death and Charity Where the necessity of that Examination is evinced and the means whereby we may come to know whether we have those Qualifications in us discover'd and declar'd How we ought to demean our selves at the celebration of this Sacrament in the next place enquir'd into and that shewn to be by intending that Service wherewith it is celebrated and suiting our Affections to the several parts of it The whole concluded with enquiring in what posture of Body this Sacrament ought to be receiv'd Where is shewn first that the Antients so far as we can judge by their Writings receiv'd in a posture of Adoration and particularly in the posture of standing Secondly that several of the Reformed Churches receive in that or the like posture and that those that do not do not condemn those that do Thirdly that there is nothing in the Example of Christ and his Disciples at the first Celebration of this Supper to oblige us to receive it sitting nor yet in what is alledg'd from the suitableness of that Posture to a Feast and consequently to the present one This as it is a Feast of a different nature from common ones and therefore not to receive Laws from them so the receit thereof intended to express the grateful resentment we have of the great Blessing of our Redemption and stir up other Men to the like resentment of it Neither of which can so advantageously be done as by receiving the Symbols of this Sacrament in such a posture of Body as shews the regard we have for him who is the Author of it VI. THE sixth and last Question proposed to be discoursed of Question What is requir'd of them who come to the Lord's Supper Answer To examin themselves whether they repent them truly of their former sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life have a lively Faith in God's mercy through Christ with a thankful remembrance of his Death and be in charity with all men is How this Sacrament ought to be receiv'd Which Question I have proposed in those terms partly that it may come so much the nearer to the last Question of our own Catechism and partly because there is no one sort of Men that doth expresly deny that it ought to be receiv'd by all that are qualified for it as well as administred by those who are the proper Stewards of it For though the Socinians out of a belief of Baptism's being proper only to Jewish or Gentile Converts have thrown off that Sacrament altogether and which is more have represented the shewing forth of Christ's Death as the only design of this yet they have thought fit to retain the use of it as a thing enjoin'd by our Lord himself Though the Tridentine Fathers have also in a great measure transform'd this Sacrament into a thing of another nature and accordingly pointed out other ways for Men to receive benefit by it beside their communicating at it Yet they have declar'd an Anathema (a) Sess 13. Can. 9. against any one that shall deny all and singular the faithful People of Christ to be oblig'd when they come to years of discretion to communicate every year at least at Easter according to the Precept of holy Mother the Church Only because those Fathers seem to found even that single Communion upon the Precept of the Church or at least do not represent it as enjoin'd by any Divine Law And because though they elsewhere profess to wish that they who assist at their several Masses did also Sacramentally communicate at them for their receiving greater benefit by them (b) Sess 22. cap. 6. yet they represent even those where the Priest alone Communicates as common to them that do not I think it not amiss to premise something concerning the obligation of the Faithful to receive this Sacrament as well as to assist at the celebration of it and examine what those Fathers alledge for their loosing the Faithful from it That the Faithful are under an obligation of receiving this Sacrament as well as of assisting at the celebration of it is so evident from the words of the Institution that I know not how our Saviour could have more expresly enjoin'd it For Take Eat saith he concerning the Bread of it And Drink ye all of it saith the same Jesus concerning the Cup With this farther Reason as we learn from the Hoc est enim corpus meum and Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei in the Roman Missal because the one is his Body and the other as certainly the Cup of his Blood as that Missal expresseth it So that if a Command with so substantial a Reason annex'd may be concluded to be obligatory the receit of this Sacrament is And we can no more be freed from doing it than we can be freed from believing that it is Christ's Body and Blood that is tender'd to us or believing it than we may reject so signal a Blessing as that is which was either broken or shed for our Redemption For what is this but as the Author to the Hebrews speaks (c) Heb. 10.28 29. to despise not Moses's Law but one the transgression whereof is worthy of a sorer punishment yea to tread under foot the Son of God and count the Blood of the Covenant wherewith we are sanctified an unholy thing and as such contemptuously to reject it Neither will it avail to say as possibly it may be that they cannot be look'd upon as despisers