Presbyters of those very Churches that differ'd from them about the observation of Easter And the like was done by other Churches as appears by the fourteenth Canon of the Council of Laodicea till it was forbidden by that Council because of the inconveniences thereof The third thing signified on our part by the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of Christ's Body and Blood For the evidencing whereof we are to know that as this Sacrament hath been shewn to be a Sign of the New Covenant (f) Expl. of the Sacraments in Gen. Part 2. which as such implies a Profession of something to be done on the part of God So the taking of this Sacrament must consequently imply our Covenanting to perform whatsoever that New Covenant obligeth us unto Which what it is will need no other Proof than what I have shewn in another place (g) Expl. of the Prelimin Quest and Answ c. to be the importance of that Sacrament whereby we enter into it For if that Sacrament import the Profession of a good Conscience toward God That new Covenant of which it is a Sacrament must consequently have the same good Conscience for the Object of it and therefore also make the like Profession of it to be the Duty of that Man who takes this other Sacrament thereof And though it be true that this part of the signification of the Lord's Supper is not so clearly express'd in the Stories of the Institution of it Yet as they give us to understand that we ought to take the Elements thereof in remembrance of Christs giving his Body and Blood for us so they do consequently imply our taking them also with a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them That Remembrance as it can be no other than a thankful one because the remembrance of such Benefits as do above all others require such a Remembrance of us so connoting as such a readiness to walk well-pleasing unto him by whom those Benefits are bestow'd Agreeable hereto is the both Language and Practice of the Antient Christians as appears by that account which I have before given of them (h) Expl. of the Sacr. in Gen. Part 1. They not only giving this Institution as well as Baptism the Name of a Sacrament in consideration of that Obligation they supposed it to lay upon the Persons that took it but obliging themselves by this Sacrament not as too many have since learn'd to do to the perpetrating of any notorious wickedness but to avoid all Thefts and Robberies and Adulteries the falsifying of their Trusts or the denying of any thing that was committed to their Custody when they were call'd upon by the true Owner to restore it For that those words of Pliny are to be understood of this Sacrament is not only evident from its being represented as a constant Attendant of the Christians publick Assemblies and particularly of their Assemblies before day which the Eucharist is known to have been (i) Tert. de Cor. Mil. c. 3. but from the no mention there is in Ecclesiastical Story of any other Sacrament in them PART VI. What farther relation the Sign of the Lord's Supper hath to the Body and Blood of Christ The Contents 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 III. WHat the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper is and what the inward Part or thing signified by it enough hath been said to shew neither shall I need to resume the Consideration of them That which will more concern me to intend is What farther relation beside that of a Sign that outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper hath to the inward part or thing signified and particularly to the Body and Blood of Christ Where first I will declare and confirm the Doctrine of our own Church concerning it and then enquire into the truth of those Relations which the Church of Rome hath advanced on the one hand and the Lutheran Churches on the other Now as our Church hath defin'd a Sacrament to be such an outward and visible Sign of an inward and Spiritual Grace as is also ordain'd as a means whereby we receive the same and must therefore be suppos'd to have the same opinion of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper So it hath said enough both in its Catechism and elsewhere concerning that Sacrament to shew this to have been its opinion of it For it gives us to understand * Catechism that the Faithful for whom to be sure this Sacrament was principally ordain'd do verily and indeed receive the thing signified even the Body and Blood of Christ as well as the Signs of them and that they do verily and indeed receive that Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper which one would think were a competent Evidence of that 's being a Means whereby we receive them It consequently thereto teacheth us to pray †Pray of Cons in the Commun Service which one would think to be of equal force as to this Particular that we
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
no more by Receive ye the Holy Ghost than receive ye of his Authority to whom the power of the Church is committed under me as ye shall in due time of such abilities and gifts as may fit you for the exercise thereof And if that were the sense yea only sense of those words of Christ which contain both the Exemplar and Institution of Ordination I know not why we should suppose that which they call the Sacrament of Orders to have a farther design in it self than to communicate a Ghostly Authority to those on whom it is bestow'd But let us suppose that something more was meant by these words than Receive ye a Ghostly Authority or at least that it was the intention of our Saviour because of what we read * 1 Tim. 4.14 2 Tim. 1.16 concerning Timothy that something more should be afterwards intended by them when no Apostolical Pentecost was to ensue even the communicating of gifts and graces as well as a Ghostly Authority Yet even so it will not follow that an exhibition of Sanctifying and Saving Graces was intended or that even Timothy receiv'd any such Graces by it For who knows not that there are Gratiae gratis datae as well as Gratum facientes yea that the word †Rom. 12.6 1 Cor. 1.7 1 Cor. 12.4 1 Cor. 12.9 1 Cor. 12.28 1 Cor. 12.30 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is as often if not more often the title of the former Who knows not that those Gratiae gratis datae are more proper for the Ministerial Function than the other can be suppos'd to be yea that they may avail for those spiritual purposes for which that Function was intended In fine who knows not that God hath appointed other Sacraments for the conveying of his sanctifying Graces and by the participation of which therefore they might be more reasonably expected For these things being suppos'd there will not only be no necessity of understanding St. Paul of the sanctifying Graces of God's Spirit but not so much as any probable reason for it Though granting thirdly that there were also some sanctifying Graces attending it Yet as we cannot for the reasons before mention'd understand any other sanctifying Graces than what may serve more immediately for the discharge of the Ministerial Function such as is a holy Zeal for the welfare of those Souls which are committed to those that are of it so we can much less as our Homily * Hom. of Com. Pray and Sacram. instructs us expect remission of sins by it which is the undoubted fruit of Baptism and the Lord's Supper From all which put together it is evident that if judgment be to be made of Sacraments by Baptism and the Lord's Supper Orders will hardly pass for one of them As which varies so much from them both in the External Sign and in the Graces which are signified by it One only Institution remains of those which have the name of Sacraments and which if they who so entitled it would understand only in a general sense they would not find our Church dissenting from them because affirming (a) The form of Solemn of Matrim God to have consecrated the State of Matrimony into such an excellent mystery that in it is signified and represented the Spiritual Marriage and Vnity that is betwixt Christ and his Church But to make it a true and proper Sacrament of the Evangelical Law as the Council of Trent (b) Sess 24. can 1. doth is extremely unreasonable and neither hinted by St. Paul in that place (c) Eph. 5.25 c. from whence they pretend to infer it nor any farther than a simple representation reacheth agreeable with those things whichhave the name of Sacraments either with us or among themselves For neither was that which they call a Sacrament of the Evangelical Law instituted by Christ but by God nay St. Paul in the place before quoted founds all the Sacramentality thereof in those passages (d) Eph. 5.30 31. which are represented by Moses (e) Gen. 2.23 24. as declaring the Identity of Man and Wife and the necessity that ariseth thereupon of their adhering to one another even to the abandoning of all other relations for it It hath no certain external sign as other Sacraments have to confer that grace which is supposed to belong to it It hath no other promise of Grace belonging to it than may be supposed to belong to any state of life which a Man shall set himself to with a due respect to the Commands of God and use with that care and sobriety that becomes him It hath much less any promise of the forgiveness of sins and an Universal Holiness as Baptism and the Lord's Supper undoubtedly have And if it hath not nothing can oblige us to look upon it as a true and proper Sacrament or indeed but in the same degree wherewith their other Sacraments are For they though not perfectly such have yet some more near resemblance to those which they pretend to rival But because it may be demanded how if there be but two strict and proper Sacraments several other things should come to have the same name and honour and particularly how the Church of Rome should at length advance them to the number of Seven this seeming to be some prejudice against our asserting only two I answer first by reason of their general cognation with them and which we know in other things to procure the same name to things that are of a very disserent nature Whence it is that as was before observ'd out of one of our own (f) Hom. of Com. Pray and Sacram. Homilies not only those five which we but now mention'd have obtain'd the name of Sacraments but whatsoever in a manner hath been made use of to signine a holy thing Which is so true that Tertullian in one place (g) De Animâ cap. 9. gives the name of Sacrament to Dreams and Visions and in others (h) De pudic c. 9. adv Marcion li. 5. c. 4. to Parables and Allegories For if even Dreams and Parables come to have the name of Sacraments by reason of their representing things of a higher nature How much more such Religious Institutions as were transacted by the same visible solemnities as Baptism and the Lord's Supper as to be sure the Institutions before remembred were For though it may be they had not the ceremonies now in use or at least had not that number of them wherewith they are now encumber'd yet wanted they not some or other which was of the same symbolical nature and particularly Imposition of hands For that as we learn from the Scripture they made use of in Confirmation (i) Act. 8.17 in the gift of healing (k) Act. 28.8 Orders (l) 1 Tim. 4.14 and Absolution (m) 1 Tim. 5.22 And that too as we learn from Grotius (n) Annot in Consult Cassand ad Art 9. they made use of toward those who
entered into Marriage and still do in the Eastern parts But beside that general and external cognation which is between Sacraments and Sacramentals for so I shall for the future entitle those things which are not strict and proper ones there is also as to some of the latter a more particular and intimate cognation but especially as to those which are before remembred and are by the Papists advanc'd into true and proper Sacraments For setting aside that which they call the Sacrament of Marriage and which hath even among them rather the name than nature of one There is none of the other four which tend not to the conferring of some Divine Grace or Benefit as well as to the signification of it For thus Confirmation tends to procure a farther addition of God's sanctifying Graces and so to strengthen and perfect the person that ofers himself unto it And thus the Oyl of Vnction as us'd of Old toward the procuring of the Grace of health and the removal of the sick persons guilt so far as was necessary for the procuring of the other Thus Absolution tends to the procuring of the forgiveness of the Penitent and Ordination for the person ordain'd of a spiritual and ghostly Authority if not also of such spiritual gifts as are necessary for the exercise thereof By which means as they approach yet nearer to the nature of true and proper Sacraments so it is the less to be wonder'd at that they should obtain the name of Sacraments yea have the reputation of such in a more eminent manner than other Sacramentals had Especially if we consider thirdly that those five supposed Sacraments are upon the matter the only noted Acts that are administred by the Church or at least that are attended with such Rites and Ceremonies For so it is yet less difficult to believe that they might not only come by degrees to be ranked with Baptism and the Lord's Supper but together with them to be accounted if not the only yet at least the primary ones Which Peter Lombard (o) Sentent li. 4. Distinct 2. taking notice of made the Number of Christian Sacraments to be neither more nor less than seven and the Church of Rome sway'd by him did afterwards Authoritatively confirm This I take to have been the true Original of that number to which the Sacraments are now advanc'd and not either any cogent arguments for the being of so many or indeed any firm belief even in that Church it self that they ought all to be look'd upon as true and proper ones And I am yet more confirm'd in that belief by the silence there was (p) Consult Cassandri ad Art 13. before Peter Lombard of any certain and determinate number and by the Authority of two of the greatest Fathers of the Latin Church St. Ambrose in his tract de Sacramentis and in another de iis qui mysteriis initiantur mentioning only Baptism and the Lord's Supper and St. Augustine not only resolving (q) Epist 118. ad Januar. the Sacraments to be numero paucissima and mentioning none but those but affirming elsewhere (r) De Doctr. Christ li. 3. cap. 9. that our Lord and the Apostolical discipline had delivered some few such as is the Sacrament of Baptism and the celebration of Christ's Body and Blood For that is enough to shew that though the Fathers might sometime mention the other Institutions under the notion of Sacraments yet they look'd upon Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the only true and proper ones or at least were not over confident of the being so of the other If the Church of Rome hath since arriv'd at a greater confidence it will concern her rather than us to give an account of it But however not so far concern us as to remove us from an opinion which seems to us to be built upon solid and substantial grounds For either she hath arriv'd at that confidence by the means before declar'd and then her Authority will be very incompetent Or she hath arriv'd at it by some other means which we are not acquainted with and which therefore we cannot be suppos'd to be influenced by till she shall be pleased to declare them I have insisted thus long upon the Number of the Christian Sacraments not because I was obliged to it by my more immediate task for our Catechism contents it self to declare that there are two only as generally necessary to Salvation but because our Church affirms elsewhere (Å¿) Art of Rel. 25. and Homily of Com. Pr. and Sacram. that there are but two strict and proper ones and because the joyning of others with them in the same rank and order of Sacraments may help in time to bring them into less repute It being natural for men where there are several means tending to the same end either to adhere to some of them to the utter rejecting of the other or to use those others with less preparation and respect And whether this be not the case of the Eucharist where that which they call the Sacrament of Penance is so much in vogue may be judg'd of by the little care they take to fit themselves for the one where they have obtain'd as they easily may the absolution of the other And I shall only add that if our Church did not distinguish in the present Catechism between proper and improper Sacraments it was not as I conceive because she had departed from her own Articles and Homilies but because being to instruct those who were no proper Auditors of higher matters she contented her self to let them know what was sufficient for their purpose that there were but two that were generally necessary to Salvation even Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Now that there are no more than these that are generally necessary to Salvation which is all that remains for me to demonstrate will appear if we reflect upon those which have been added to them by the Papists and ranked in the same order with them For who can think Marriage to be such who believe as the Papists do that it is unlawful to the whole Order of Priesthood yea who know that there are not a few who live not long enough to desire or need it or are otherwise sufficiently fortified by God against any necessity of espousing it Who can believe Orders to be such when there ever was and ever will be a greater number of those who are to be instructed than there was or ever will be of those who are to instruct them In fine who can believe the Vnction of the sick to be such when it appears by the former discourse to have had no other design than the recovery of them from their infirmities For well may that be look'd upon as not generally necessary to Salvation which appears not to have been intended to minister at all unto it If therefore there be any of the five of that necessity it must be Confirmation and Absolution but
God to precede in this affair and consequently that the Priest rather declares the person already absolved than absolves him himself from the band of his offences The fourth sort of Absolution is that which looseth men from the censures of the Church and which I shall not stick to affirm to be generally necessary to the loosing of those who have been before bound even from the band of their offences before God Partly because God hath promis'd to bind that in Heaven which the Governours of the Church shall rightfully bind on Earth And partly because the Censures of the Church consisting especially in restraining men from its saving Offices and particularly from the Sacrament of the Eucharist till men are loosed from those Censures they must be depriv'd of the ordinary means whereby God hath appointed to transmit the pardon of offences But as the question is not Whether Absolution may be necessary in a particular case or to particular persons but whether it be generally so So we cannot look upon this Absolution as generally necessary to Salvation unless it were such to fall under those Censures from which this Absolution frees The result of the Premises is this The Church of God is indeed invested with a power of Absolution and such as exerts it self in several Acts answerably to the needs of those with whom it hath to do But as it is not invested with any such power of Absolution as doth actually free the Offender from his guilt the doing of that pertaining only unto God As it is not therefore invested with any other power of Absolution than what may serve to declare the pardon of God or help toward the procuring of it So what it doth toward either of these unless it be in Baptism or the Lord's Supper is either no Sacrament at all and so falls not under this enquiry or is no generally necessary one And indeed however the Church of Rome may seem to advance another Absolution even that which actually looseth the sinner from his guilt Though she moreover represent that Absolution of her's as generally necessary to the Salvation of those who are under any mortal sin yet is there no appearance of any such Absolution nor indeed of the necessity of any but what is before describ'd As is evident as to the former of these from that very Text on which it is founded even a promise of loosing that in Heaven which shall be loosed on Earth For if there must be a loosing in Heaven after that on Earth that on Earth cannot be look'd upon as actually freeing the Sinner from his guilt but only as preparatory to it With this only advantage which might very well occasion the so entitling it that that loosing shall certainly be followed by a more effectual and heavenly one So little reason is there to believe that there is any Absolution among men but what is purely preparatory to the Absolution of God And we shall find there is as little reason to seek out any other modes of it than those which were before describ'd As will appear if we consider who they are that are to be loosed and who as they are either such as are within the Communion of the Church or such as are excluded from it so if they be of the former sort have either done nothing to deserve an exclusion or have committed such offences as are worthy of it If the persons we speak of be such Members of the Church as have not done any thing to deserve an exclusion from it So there cannot lye any engagement upon them to confess their sins to a Priest or seek any other Absolution than by the Sacrament of the Eucharist or other the like ordinary methods of the Church The Communion in which they are and which they have not done any thing to deprive themselves of giving them a title to that Sacrament or any other priviledge of their Religion But then if they be such as do really deserve to be excluded till they have given sufficient testimonies of their repentance Either they ought to be excluded and afterwards loosed as Excommunicate persons or if they be thought fit to be continued in the Church be look'd upon as Members of it and allowed the common Absolutions of it It being a kind of contradiction in adjecto to continue men in the Communion of the Church and yet deny them the common priviledges thereof All therefore that remains to be accounted for is the Absolution of those who have been shut out of the Church But concerning which as there is no great difference between us and the Church of Rome so we deny not but that it may require a peculiar form of words and such as may signifie to the persons concern'd and the Members of the Church the act of the Officers thereof in it But that the Essence of Absolution consisteth in it doth not appear to us nor can indeed be reasonably affirm'd Partly because the very restoring Excommunicated persons to the Communion of the Church will as effectually vacate its former Censures as any express declaration can do And partly because Excommunication consisting in a deprivation from those methods of Salvation which God hath deposited in the Church the only effectual release of it must lye in a re-admission to them and particularly to the Sacrament of the Eucharist But so the Antient Church appears to have understood it as is evident both from her language and practice She not only expressing this Absolution by (w) See Vsher's Answer to the Jesuites Challenge pag. 132. bringing men to the Communion reconciling them to it or restoring it to them but taking care above all things that no Excommunicated person generally should go out of the World (x) Dionys Alex. apud Euseb Eccl. Hist li. 6. c. 44. item Conc. Nic. can 13. without partaking of the Eucharist For what other account can be given of that both language and practice of hers than that she conceiv'd the Absolution of Excommunicated persons to lye in a re-admission to the common methods of Salvation and consequently that they were rather loos'd by the use of those methods than by any judicial sentence This however is certain which is enough for our present purpose that Absolution in this sense cannot be look'd upon as generally necessary because the peculiar refuge of such as have been shut out of the Church And if that be the case of Absolution as well as of the other supposed Sacraments Baptism and the Lord's Supper will continue to be the only ones that are of that necessity to Salvation THE CATECHISM OF THE Church of England PART IV. Question HOW many Sacraments hath Christ ordained in his Church Answer Two only as generally necessary to Salvation that is to say Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Question What meanest thou by this word Sacrament Answer I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us ordained by Christ himself
the Antients meant no more by that Oblation or Sacrifice than a Commemorative one by that sacred rite of Bread and Wine representing to God and the Father the expiatory Sacrifice of his Son upon the Cross and as it were putting him in mind of it that so he would for the sake of that Son and the valuableness of his sacrifice be propitious to them and to all those whom they recommended to his grace and favour And indeed as it is not difficult to conceive that they who meant no more when they call'd the Eucharist the body of Christ than its being a figure and a memorial and a means of its conveyance meant no more when they entituled it a sacrifice than a Commemoration of that great one which Christ made of himself upon the Cross So it is evident that St. Cyprian with whose authority Baronius begins his proofs meant no more than such a Commemorative Sacrifice For in that very Epistle †Ad Caecil de sacr Dom. Cal. Vt calix qui in commemoratione ejus offertur mixtus vino offeratur Et quia passionis ejus mentionem facimus in sacrificiis omnibus passio est enim Domini sacrificium quod offerimus nihil aliud quam quod ille fecit facere debemus Quotlescunque ergo calicem in commemorationem Domini passionis ejus offerimus id quod constat Dominum fecisse saciamus Epist 63. which he seems so much to stand upon St. Cyprian affirms That the cup of that Sacrament is offer'd in commemoration of our Lord and that because we make mention of his passion in all sacrifices For the passion of the Lord is the sacrifice that we offer we ought to do no other thing than what he himself did And again Therefore as often as we offer the cup for a commemoration of the Lord and his passion let us do that which it is manifest that the Lord did I will conclude this affair with the words of Peter Lombard * Lib. 4. Dist 12. G. because they not only shew the former notion to have been the sense of the Antients in this particular but make it evident also that that of an expiatory Sacrifice is but a novelty in the Church of Rome it self After these things saith he it is enquir'd whether what the Priest doth be properly call'd a Sacrifice or Offering and whether Christ be every day offer'd or only once To this it may be said in short that that which is offer'd and consecrated by the Priest is called a Sacrifice and Oblation Because it is the Memorial and Representation of the true Sacrifice and the Holy Offering that was made upon the Cross And Christ died once upon the Cross and was there offered in himself But he is every day offered in the Sacrament because in the Sacrament a remembrance is made of that which was once done Whereupon St. Augustine We are assur'd that Christ rising from the dead doth not now die any more c. Yet lest we should forget what was once done it is every year done in our memory to wit as often as the Paschal Feast is celebrated Is Christ then so often kill'd But only an anniversary Remembrance represents what was heretofore done and so causeth us to be mov'd as if we saw the Lord upon the Cross This and more doth that Author alledge out of St. Augustine and Ambrose which shews what notion they as well as he had of this Sacrament's being also a Sacrifice And if they who insist so much upon its having been intituled a Sacrifice will content themselves with this and the former sense we will allow that they have the Fathers on their side but otherwise to have no title to them in this affair I shall not need to say much concerning the name Missa or Mass though that hath for a long time been appropriated to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Partly because antiently it was common to other services with it and nothing therefore that is singular to be inferr'd therefrom toward the clearing of the nature of this And partly because it had its Original not as Baronius would have it from the Hebrew or Chaldee word Missah which he saith is us'd (w) Deut. 16.10 for that Free-will Offering which the Israelites offer'd to God in gratitude for the Fruits of the earth but from the dismission of those who pertain'd to the same service after that service was finish'd For thus we read in Antient Authors (x) Vid. Justel in notis ad Cod. Eccl. univ can 123. of the Missa Catechumenorum as well as of the Missa Fidelium of the Mass of those who were not suffer'd to be present at the Lord's Supper as well as of those who were invited and admitted to it If in tract of time the word Missa or Mass came to be restrain'd to the service of the Lord's Supper it was in all probability because as the discipline of the Catechumens wore out (y) Cave's Primit Christ Part 1. cap. 9. so their Mass or Service wore out also and thereby nothing left to give that title to but that which was of old entitled the Mass of the Faithful Or because the Mass of the faithful was the more eminent part of the Christian service and so in time came to appropriate to it self that name And though Baronius out of Reuchlin for I find by Polydore Virgil (z) De invent rerum lib. 3. c. 11. that he was the first Author of that fancy derive the word Missa or Mass from the Hebrew or Chaldee word Missah which as they say signifies a free-will Offering in the place but now quoted yet is there in truth no ground for such a conceit if either the due signification of that word or the text it self be more nearly consider'd Because the word Missah neither in that place nor in any other signifies a free-will Offering but only sufficientia * vid. Grot. in Deut. 16.10 Lexicogr or quantum sufficit and is in that particular place set only to denote that which might suffice according to their respective abilities for such a Nibdath Jadeka or free-will Offering of their hand as the Israelites were then oblig'd to celebrate the Feast of weeks with Whence it is that the same word is in the Chaldee Paraphrase frequently made use of to render the Hebrew Dai or sufficient and the Septuagint express it here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according as thy hand shall be able But therefore as that account of the word Missa or Mass must be look'd upon as a very idle one and only agreeable to those dawning times wherein it first appear'd So there is still the more reason to believe what Polydore Virgil †ubi supra and after him many others have suggested that it had its original from the dismission that was given to those who pertained to any service after that service was finished Which may the more reasonably be believ'd
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
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
God to atone his Wrath and to procure the remission of our Sins and all other Graces they must consequently be look'd upon not as the immediate producers of those Effects which are attributed to them but as meritorious Causes thereof and disposing God who is the giver of every good and perfect Gift to produce them That therefore if the Body and Blood of Christ strengthen and refresh the Soul of the Receiver as the Sacramental Signs thereof do the Body of him that receives them they must do it in the way of a meritorious Cause and such as disposeth God to grant to the worthy Receiver of the Sacrament the pardon of his Sin which is that which especially refresheth the Soul and Grace whereby he may be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner Man In fine that the Body and Blood of Christ cannot otherwise be eaten and drunken than by the Mind meditating upon the Merits and Satisfaction of that Offering which our Saviour made of them and relying wholly upon them for that Salvation which it expects But leaving these things to be discuss'd in a more proper place where I shall also have an occasion to add farther light and strength to them Let us in the next place reflect upon that which I have said to be signified on our part by the Signs of the Lord's Supper which are these three especially First a thankful Remembrance of the Body and Blood of Christ consider'd as before describ'd Secondly our Communion with those who partake with us thereof Thirdly a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them Of the first of these little need to be said after the account I have given of it in my Explication (b) Part 3. of the words of the Institution It may suffice here to observe from thence that as the words of our Saviour are express that we should do what is enjoin'd as to the outward Elements of this Sacrament for a thankful Remembrance of the offering up of his Body and Blood So what is done by the Priest to those Elements and our receiving them from him in that state is a lively Representation to our Minds of the offering up of Christ's Body and Blood and a thankful Remembrance thereof therefore not unreasonably look'd upon as one of those things which are signifi'd on our part by the Sacrament thereof The second thing signified on our part by the outward Elements of this Sacrament is our Communion with those who partake with us of Christ's Body and Blood A thing which St. Paul doth not only fairly intimate where he affirms (c) 1 Cor. 10.17 that we being many are one Bread and one Body because we all partake of that one Bread which he had before affirm'd to be the Communion of Christ's Body But points us to those things by which this Communion of ours is signified even the unity of that Bread which is one of the Elements of this Sacrament and our partaking together of it For as there can be no better account given of St. Paul's calling us one Bread and one Body than that we our selves though many are yet one mystical Body as that Bread though made up of several Granes is one Loaf and ought accordingly to be thereby admonish'd of that intimate Communion which ought to be between us in all Offices of Christian Love and Friendship So there is nothing more usual with the Antients than to represent that Unity of the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament as a Symbol of ours and of that Communion and Fellowship which ought therefore to be between us For by this Sacrament saith St. Cyprian * Ep. 63. ad Caecil de Sacr. Dom. Calicis Quo ipso Sacramento populus noster ostenditur adunatus ut quemadmodum grana multa in unun collecta commolita commixta panem unum faciunt Sic in Chrislo qui est panis coelestis unum sciamus esse Corpus cui conjunctus sit noster numerus adunatus Our People is also shew'd to be made one that as many Grains collected into one and ground and mixed together make one Loaf so in Christ who is the heavenly Bread we may know there is one Body to which our number is conjoin'd and united And again Finally saith the same Father †Denique unanimitatem Christianam firmâ sibi atque inseparabili charitate connexam etiam ipsa dominica sacrificia declarant Nam quando Dominus corpus suum panem vocat de multorum granorum adunatione congestum populum nostrum quem portabat indicat adunatum Et quando sanguinem sunm vinum appellat de botris atque acinis plurimis expressum atque in unum coactum gregem item nostrum significat commixtione adunatae multitudinis copulatum Epist 76. ad Magnum de Bapt. Novatianis c. the Sacrifices of our Lord do also declare that Christian Vnanimity which is connected to it self by a firm and inseparable Charity For when the Lord gives the title of his Body to that Bread which is made up of the Vnion of many Granes he shews our People whom he carried to be united together and when he gives the title of his Blood to that Wine which is prest out of many Bunches and Grapes and gathered into one he also signifies our People coupled together by the commixture of an united multitude Thus St. Cyprian and other of the Antients argue from the Unity of the Bread and Wine that Union and Communion which ought to be between the Faithful and consequently shew that Communion to be one of those things which are signifi'd on our part by the Elements of this Sacrament And St. Paul without any Comment upon him will help us to inferr that the same Communion is signified by the Faithful's partaking together of them where he declares us to be one Bread and one Body for that we all partake of one Bread For if barely to eat and drink together be a Symbol of Love and Friendship and accordingly often employ'd both by Jews and Heathen (d) See a Discourse concerning the true Notion of the Lord's Supper by R.C. cap. 6. as a Ceremony whereby they declar'd their entring into Covenant or being at Peace with one another How much more may we affirm the same after so clear an Affirmation of St. Paul of Mens partaking of the same mystical Bread and Wine Even of that mystical Bread and Wine which was instituted by him who above all other things enjoin'd upon his Disciples the Love of one another and gave that as the great Characteristick whereby they should be known to be so Sure I am the Antients were so perswaded of this Communion's being a thing signified by this Sacrament that as I have elsewhere (e) Expl. of the Creed Art The holy Catholick Church shewn from Irenaeus the antient Presbyters of Rome in Testimony of that Communion sent the Mysteries of this Sacrament to the
receiving God's Creatures of Bread and Wine according to his Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy Institution may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood In fine it gives us to understand * Art of Rel. 28. which is yet more express that to such as rightly worthily and with a true Faith receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the Bread which we break is the partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of Blessing a partaking of the Blood of Christ For what more could have been said unless it had made use of that particular Expression which yet it doth use where it declares the general nature of a Sacrament what more I say could have been said to shew that this Sacrament is no naked or ineffectual Sign of the Body and Blood of Christ but such a Sign as is also ordained as a Means whereby we receive the same and so sure and certain a one that if we rightly and worthily receive that Sign we do as verily receive the Body and Blood of Christ as we do the Sacrament thereof How well the Scripture agrees with the Doctrine of our Church in this Particular will not be difficult to shew whether we do consider its making use of the most emphatical Phrase which our Church doth concerning this Sacrament or the Effects which it attributeth to it For it is St. Paul (a) 1 Cor. 10.16 as well as our Church that affirms that the Bread which we break is the Communion of the Body of Christ and that the Cup which we bless is the Communion of his Blood Words which considering the place they have in that Chapter from whence they are borrowed cannot admit of a lower sense than that the elements of this Sacrament are at least a Means of that Communion because alledged by him as a proof or at least as an illustration of their really having fellowship with Devils that partook of the Sacrifices that were offer'd to them For if the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament were not a Means as well as a sign of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ Neither could the Gentiles Sacrifices be a Means of their or other Men's Communion with those Devils to whom they were offer'd and therefore neither charge them with any real fellowship with Devils but only with a sign or semblance of it Which how it agrees with St. Paul's charging the partakers of those Sacrifices with having fellowship with Devils as that too upon the account of the Gentiles Sacrificing to Devils and not to God I shall leave all sober Men to judge Such evidence there is from that one place of St. Paul concerning the Lords Supper being a Means as well as a Sign whereby we come to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ And we shall find it no less confirm'd by an effect which the Scripture attributes to one of its Symbols and which is in that place by an usual Synecdoche set to denote the whole Sacrament That I mean where St. Paul affirms (b) 1 Cor. 12.13 that we have been all made to drink into one Spirit For as the foregoing mention of Baptism makes it reasonable to believe that these words ought to be understood of the Cup or Wine of the Lord's Supper So we cannot without great violence to the words understand less by being made to drink into one Spirit than our partaking by Means of that Cup of the Blood of Christ and the Benefits thereof of which the Spirit of God is no doubt one of the principal ones To be made to drink into that Blood or the Spirit of God importing somewhat more even in common understanding than to receive a naked sign of them And though I know that some of the Reformed Churches and particularly those of Zuinglius and Oecolampadius's institution have been charg'd with meaner thoughts concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Yet whosoever shall take the pains to peruse what our Cosins (c) Hist Transubstant Papal cap. 2. hath collected upon this Argument and particularly what he quotes from Bucer (d) ibid. will find that they always thought or at least now do that Christ's true Body and Blood are truly exhibited given and taken together with the visible signs of Bread and Wine as well as signified by them But because the question is not so much at present concerning this Sacrament's being a Means whereby we receive the Body and Blood of Christ as what kind of Means it is how it conveys to us the Body and Blood of Christ and how we receive them by it Therefore enquire we so far as we may what our Church delivers in these particulars and what evidence there is from the Scripture of our Churches Orthodoxy therein Now though we may not perhaps find in any Monument of our Church a distinct and particular Answer to the questions before propos'd Yet we may find that in the eight and twentieth Article of our Church which may serve for a general Answer to them all and for a particular answer too to the last of them The Doctrine thereof being that the Body of Christ and the same mutatis mutandis must be said of his Blood is given taken and eaten in the Supper after an heavenly and spiritual manner only and again that the mean whereby the Body of Christ is receiv'd and taken in the Supper is Faith For if the Body and Blood of Christ be given taken and eaten or drunken in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner only that Supper must so far forth be a means purely heavenly and Spiritual the conveyance thereof of the same heavenly and spiritual nature and the reception of it also And if again the Mean whereby the Body and Blood of Christ are receiv'd and taken in the Supper is Faith then do we in the opinion of our Church receive them by Faith which will serve for a particular answer to the last of the questions propos'd To all which if we add our Churches teaching us to pray to God even in the prayer of Consecration that we receiving the Creatures of Bread and Wine according to our Saviour Jesus Christ's Holy Institution may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood so we shall be able to make out a more particular answer to the questions propos'd and such as we shall find reason enough to allow For it appears from the premisses and particularly from the prayer of Consecration that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is such a spiritual Mean as depends for the force of it not upon any vertue that is infus'd into it and much less upon any natural union there is between that and the Body and Blood of Christ but upon our receiving it on the one hand according to our Saviours Holy Institution and God's bestowing on the other hand Christ's Body and Blood upon such a reception of it It appears therefore that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
cannot any other way convey Christ's Body and Blood to us than by prompting us by the representation it makes to us of the offering of that Body and Blood upon the Cross for us to meditate upon it and rely upon it for our Salvation and by prompting God who hath annex'd that Body and Blood to the due use of the Sacrament to confer that Body and Blood upon us In fine it appears from the premisses and from a passage or two (e) For as the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that Holy Sacrament for then we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ c. And above all things ye must give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father c. for the Redemption of the World by the death and passion of our Saviour c. in our Church's exhortation to the Communion that we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament when we are thereby prompted to reflect with a penitent and thankful heart upon the offering Christ made of that Body and Blood of his upon the Cross for us and to rely upon it for our Salvation Which several assertions what foundation they have in the Scripture is in the next place to be enquir'd and the Doctrine of our Church therein established by it In order whereunto we are to know that the Body and Blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper as well as out of it are in the opinion of the Scripture not corporal but spiritual food and as such therefore to be look'd upon and owned by us For St. Paul affirming of the Antient Jews that they receiv'd in their Eucharist of Manna and Water of the Rock the same spiritual Meat (f) 1 Cor. 10.3 4. and drink which we also do and which he afterwards (g) 1 Cor. 4. declares to be Christ must consequently suppose what there is of Christ in our Eucharist to be of the same spiritual nature and because the Body and Blood of Christ is that which we receive by it that that also is Spiritual Meat and Drink and as such to be look'd upon and owned by us Now as if the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist are Spiritual Meat and Spiritual Drink they must consequently be communicated rather to the Soul than to the Body as which alone is qualified to taste of them and be nourished by them So they must be communicated to the Soul by such ways and means as are proper to possess the Soul of them and receiv'd by the same Soul by such act or acts thereof as are proper to apprehend them Which things being granted it will not be difficult to make answer what kind of Mean the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is how it conveys to us the Body and Blood of Christ and how we receive them by it For if the things which this Sacrament professeth to convey be Spiritual Meat and Drink such as are proper for the nourishment of the Soul and accordingly communicated to it Then must this Sacrament so far forth be a Spiritual Mean also as which alone can make way for such Spiritual nourishment to enter into the Soul If again the things which this Sacrament conveys must be conveyed to the Soul by such ways as are proper to possess the Soul of them Then must this Sacrament convey them to it either by prompting the Soul to reflect as the Institution requires upon that Body and Blood of Christ which it was intended to represent or by prompting God who hath annex'd that Body and Blood to the due use of it to confer that Body and Blood upon us These being the only ways by which that Spiritual repast can be communicated to that Soul for which it was intended In like manner if the things which this Sacrament conveys are to be receiv'd by such Act or Acts of the Soul as are proper to apprehend them Then if the Soul do receive the Body and Blood of Christ by means of the Sacrament it must do it by taking occasion from that Sacrament to reflect as the Institution requires upon that Body and Blood of Christ which it was designed to represent and particularly with Faith in that Body and Blood as which is of all other things most required to apply them to us And though it be true that the Church of Rome hath found out another sort of food and another sort of receiving it as shall be more fully declar'd when I come to the handling of it Yet as the Tridentine Fathers have been forced to confess that our Saviour requir'd this Sacrament to be taken (h) Sess 13. cap. 2. as the spiritual food of Souls by which they are nourished and strengthened So they have in like manner acknowledg'd that it ought to be spiritually taken (i) ib. cap. 8. as well as Sacramentally in order to our profiting by it But because our Catechism 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 where it entreats of the faithful's receiving the Body and Blood of Christ proceeds to ask as is but reason what are the benefits we partake of by it and makes answer that they are the strengthening and refreshing of our Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ as our Bodies are by the Bread and Wine Therefore it will be but needful before we pass any farther to reflect upon those Benefits and accordingly enquire 1. What is meant by the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul 2. What Evidence there is of the Body and Blood of Christ being intended for it 3. How the Body and Blood of Christ effect it 1. Now as Strength and Refreshment are things which relate rather to the Body than the Soul and must therefore receive their Explication from thence So the former when applied to the Body signifies an ability for those operations for which it is intended as the latter a freedom from all heaviness and lumpishness And they are brought about especially by the Food which we receive and particularly by that Food which was made choice of for the present Sacrament Bread as the Scripture speaks (k) Psal 104.15 being that which strengthens the Heart and Wine that which chears (l) Judg. 9.13 and refresheth it By Analogy to which as the strength and refreshment of the Soul must signifie in like manner an ability for its proper operations and particularly for such as Christianity obligeth it to and a freedom from all trouble and disquiet So that which is said to strengthen and refresh it must consequently furnish it with such an ability and freedom and both enable it to do those things which God requireth of it and deliver it from those troubles and disquiets which its own guilt or any thing else might be apt to fill it with 2. This therefore being
in the Eucharist yet they specifie nothing as to the modus of it and much less intimate any thing concerning their being under the Species thereof That that Body and Blood which is the fourth Capital Assertion in this Matter are truly really and substantially under the Sacramental Species shewn to be as groundless and Evidence made of the contrary by such Arguments from Sense and Reason as are moreover confirmed to us by the Authority of Revelation Some brief Reflections in the close upon the Worship of Christ in the Sacrament and more large ones upon what the Romanists advance concerning the real eating of him in it Where is shewn that that which they call a real eating is a very improper one that it is however of no necessity or use toward our spiritual nourishment by him and not only no way confirm'd by the discourse of our Saviour in the sixth of St. John's Gospel but abundantly confuted by it BUT because whatever Sacramental Relations our Church may content it self with yet it is certain that that which calls it self Catholick hath advanc'd one of a far different nature and those of Luther's Institution another before I pass any farther I will examine both the one and the other the grounds upon which they are built and the supposed Reasonableness thereof That which I intend to examine here is the relation which the Church of Rome advanceth by which as the Council of Trent * Sess 13. c. 4. instructeth us the whole substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of Christ's Body and the whole substance of the Wine into the substance of his Blood There remaining no more after that †Can. 2. of the Bread and Wine saving only the Species thereof and the Body and Blood of Christ together with his Soul and Divinity coming in the place of those Elements and truly really and substantially * Can. 1.3 contained under the Species of them By which means the same Christ comes to be worshipped with divine Worship in the Sacrament of the Eucharist (a) Can. 6. and to be really (b) Can. 8. eaten in it as well as either Spiritually or Sacramentally Now as such Assertions as these had need to be well prov'd because apparently contrary to Sense and Reason So especially such of them as are the Foundations of Transubstantiation which are these following ones 1. That the whole substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of Christ's Body and the whole substance of the Wine into the substance of his Blood 2. That those Substances of Bread and Wine are so changed into the substances of Christ's Body and Blood as to retain nothing of what they were before save only the Species thereof 3. That the true Body and true Blood of Christ together with his Soul and Divinity are under the Species of those Elements 4. That they are truly really and substantially contain'd in or under them Which four Assertions I will consider in their order and after I have examin'd the grounds upon which they stand oppose proper Arguments to them 1. That which is first to be consider'd 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 An Assertion which though it require as substantial a Proof yet hath nothing of moment to support it whether as to the Possibility or actual Existence of it For though the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament make mention of substantial changes and from which therefore we may infer a Possibility of the like For thus we read of Moses's Rod being changed by the Divine Power (c) Exod. 4.3 into a Serpent and from a Serpent again (d) Exod. 4.4 into a Rod of Lot's Wife being turn'd (e) Gen. 19.26 into a Pillar of Salt and of Water (f) Joh. 2.9 into Wine Yet is there no appearance of their being chang'd into things that had an actual Existence at the instant when they were chang'd into them which is the change that Transubstantiation imports If there be any change of that Nature to make out the Possibility of this it must be that which is made of the Nourishment we receive into the substance of our Body and Blood But beside that this is a change by augmentation and must consequently be either preceded by an impairing of Christ's glorious Body which is not so consistent with that estate or make it in time grow into a monstrous one It is a change which will not do the Business of Transubstantiation even to bring whole and entire Christ (g) Conc. Trid. Sess 13. cap. 3. under either Species A change by augmentation being a change of the Object of it not into the whole substance of that into which it is chang'd but only into a part of it But it may be there is better proof of the actual being of the change we speak of than there is in any thing else of the possibility thereof As indeed such a stupendous change as this ought to be without Example Be it so But let us at least see so clear and express a Proof that our Faith may acquiesce in it if our Reason cannot let us see it affirm'd by him to whom so great a change is ascrib'd And neither are we without one if the words This is my Body and This is my Blood may pass for such a Proof as they have been hitherto represented to us I will not now say because I have elsewhere shewn it (h) Parts 3-8 that there is much more reason to believe that they ought to be figuratively taken and cannot therefore be any ground for such a change as is sought to be established by them I shall choose rather for once to allow that they may be literally taken and leave it to those that can to inferr such a change from them For whether by the word This in This is my Body be meant the Bread before spoken of As indeed how the change of the substance of the Bread into the substance of Christ's Body can be proved from those words which profess not to speak of that Bread is as hard to conceive as Transubstantiation it self But whether I say be thereby meant the Bread before spoken of or The thing which I now give you there is no appearance in the proposition of any substantial change and much less of such a substantial change as is intended to be inferred from them All that the words profess to say supposing them to mean Bread by the Particle This is that one thing is the other but in what manner or by what kind of change they do not in the least pretend to affirm And if the Text do not determine either where is that clear and express proof of such a substantial change as they profess to speak of Or where our either stupidity or infidelity for not being convinced by it But it
is spiritual as if the latter though undoubtedly the principal were an imaginary one But as we gain thus much by it that that Council by real must consequently mean a corporal one so I shall therefore make no farther use of that opposition at present than to enquire into the truth of that real manducation understood as is before describ'd In order whereunto that which I shall in the next place take notice of is that the word manducare which the Council makes use of signifies primarily and properly chewing and consequently where intended to denote a corporal manducation ought to be understood of such a one as is made by the breaking of the thing eaten by the Teeth And indeed as this is the true corporal manducation and which alone therefore deserves the name of a real one So the Church of Rome appears to have been heretofore of the same mind by the recantation it put into the Mouth of Berengarius The words thereof so far being (g) Baron Annal. Eccl. ad Ann. 1059. that he believ'd the true Body of Christ to be sensually not only in Sacrament but in truth handled and broken by the hands of the Priest and ground in pieces by the Teeth of the faithful And thus if the Romanists were still persuaded they might pretend to a real manducation indeed and such as had some title to that name which they bestow upon it But as they saw such a manducation to agree but ill with that glorious Body to which they ascrib'd it and have not therefore fail'd to set a brand upon those words which were made use of to express the Churches mind So they now put off that manducation to those Capernaites to whom our Saviour discours'd in St. John concerning eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood and make that to be the very eating which our Saviour faulted them for the imagination of and not that more refined one which they themselves advance But what then is that real manducation or eating of Christ which the Romanists advance What is that which they think fit to give that name unto Nothing for ought that I can discern save the receiving of him with their mouth and transmitting him from thence into their stomachs If there be any thing else that looks like manducation the poor species are fain to bear it For that is the Sum and substance of their eating Christ in them But in conscience can this manducation of Christ look like a real one Is this answerable to that literal sense which they seem to be so fond of in other things For why if the letter of the text persuades that the very Body of Christ is in the Sacrament as that too not figuratively or spiritually but properly and substantially should not the same letter persuade that it is eaten as literally and properly and not only spiritually and sacramentally Especially when they themselves advance a real manducation as well as a sacramental and spiritual one But as they who contend so eagerly for the very Body of Christ being in the Sacrament and which is more will have it to be substantially there do yet arbitrarily enough assert its being only spiritually there or after the manner of a Spirit So out of the same meer will and pleasure they assert also a real manducation and yet at the same time make that real manducation to be no other than Mens receiving Christ's Body into their Mouths and transmitting it from thence into their Stomachs As if our Saviour had given them an absolute Empire over his words and empower'd them to give those words a proper and improper Sense as best suited with their own Hypotheses and interests For if the letter of the words will prevail so far as to make us understand the eating enjoyn'd of such an eating as is performed by the Mouth I do not see without the Empire before spoken of why they should not understand it of such an eating as is also performed by the Teeth and profess as Berengarius was taught to do that the Body of Christ is sensually not in Sacrament but in truth handled and broken by the hands of the Priest and ground in pieces by the Teeth of the Faithful Beside to what purpose any corporal eating at all To what purpose our so much as receiving Christ with our Mouths and transmitting him from thence into our Stomachs when for ought appears by the Council of Trent it self this Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood was intended not for the corporal nourishment of our Bodies but for the spiritual nourishment of our Souls That Council where it professeth to intreat of the Reason of the Institution of this most holy Sacrament (h) Sess 13. cap. 2. affirming only that our Saviour would have this Sacrament to be taken as the Spiritual Food of Souls whereby they are nourished and strengthened living by the Life of him that said He that eateth me even he shall live by me For such as the Food is such in reason ought to be that eating by which it is to be receiv'd And therefore if the Body of Christ in the Sacrament were intended for the Spiritual Food of our Souls to be spiritually eaten also and not after a corporal manner But that which will shew yet more the no necessity there is of this corporal eating of Christ's Body any more than of that Body's being really and locally present in the Sacrament is what is assign'd by Mons Claud (i) Resp au â— Traite de la Perpet c. 4. where he intreats of the no necessity of the latter and which because I know not how to do better I will express in that Author's words To wit that the Flesh and Blood of Christ are indeed a Principle of Peace and Life and salvation to our Bodies and Souls not in the quality of Physical Causes which act by contact and by the position of their substances but in the quality of meritorious Causes which act morally or of Causes Motives which do not only operate and produce their Effects being absent but when they themselves are not as yet in being as appears by the Examples of the Antient Patriarchs who were sav'd by the vertue of Jesus Christ even as we For what necessity can there be of any corporal eating of Christ's Body when that Body is not a Principle of Life to us in the quality of a Physical Cause but of a meritorious and moral one And when moreover they who were antienly saved by it as well as we now are were not in a capacity so to eat of it because that which was to be the matter of it had not at that time a being in the World Agreeable hereto is the discourse of our Saviour in the sixth of St. John's Gospel and after which it is a wonder that any Man should think of eating Christ's Flesh after a corporal manner For when they who were present at it desir'd him evermore to give them of that Bread
that Doctrine savours at all of Popery because the signification we give to the breaking of the Bread is of a quite different nature from what the Papists suggest and indeed no other than the Institution it self offers to us For we no more than the Lutherans believe that the Host ought to be broken into just three parts or for the reasons that are given by them for it so I see as little how our Doctrine ministers to Socinianism even in the point that is now before us Because though we declare the breaking of the Bread to have been intended for a representation of our Saviour's crucified Body yet we do not believe as they do that that was the sole intendment of that and other the usances of the present Sacrament but that as Christ meant we should shew forth by them what he suffered in his Body so we should also thereby be made partakers of it and of the Benefits thereof 2. But not any longer to insist upon the breaking of the Bread because as I suppose sufficiently clear'd Let us go on to enquire because a Question of far greater moment whether he who administers this Sacrament is oblig'd by the words of the Institution or otherwise to make an Offering to God of Christ's Body and Blood as well as to make a tender of the Sacrament thereof to Men The Council of Trent as is well known avowing that to be the importance of the words Do this in remembrance of me and that the Apostles were by the same words appointed Priests to offer them For my more advantageous resolution whereof I will shew 1. What they who advance this Offering declare concerning it 2. The vanity of those Grounds upon which it is built and 3. Oppose proper Arguments to it 1. That which the Council of Trent teacheth concerning this pretended Offering is that it hath for the matter of it the Body and Blood of Christ (h) Sess 22. cap. 1 2. Can. 3. or rather Christ himself under the Species of Bread and Wine That the Offering which is made of it is no simple tender of it to the Father but the offering of it up by way of a Sacrifice and accordingly he himself sacrificed or slain in it but after an unbloody manner That this Sacrifice is not only an Eucharistical or Commemorative Sacrifice but a truly propitiatory one for quick and dead and by which God is so far appeas'd as to grant Pardon and Grace to the one and a Refrigerium to the other 2. How well these things agree either with one another or with that Sacrifice which Christ made of himself upon the Cross shall then be considered when I come to oppose proper Arguments to it My present Business shall be to examine the Grounds upon which it is built and shew the vanity thereof Where again I will insist upon no other Grounds than what the same Council of Trent offers for it and which therefore those of the Roman Communion must think themselves obliged either to stand or fall by Now that which the Council of Trent principally founds it self upon in this Affair is on the one hand the conversion of the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament into the Body and Blood of Christ as without which there could be no Pretence for the offering of them up under the Species of the other And on the other hand those known words of Christ to his Apostles and their Successors Do this in remembrance of me These words as that Council tells us having been always understood and declar'd by the Catholick Church as a Command of Christ to them to offer up his Body and Blood But as enough hath been said already (i) Part 7. to shew the unsoundness of the former of these grounds and that therefore no just foundation of the offering of Christ's Body and Blood in the present Sacrament So we shall find there is as little solidity in that supposed Command of Christ to his Apostles and their Successors in the words Do this in remembrance of me For neither can those words be fairly drawn to signifie the offering up of Christ's Body and Blood neither doth it appear whatever is pretended that the Catholick Church hath had that understanding of them That the words themselves cannot be fairly drawn to signifie the offering up of Christ's Body and Blood will appear if we consider them either as referring to the several things before spoken of and particularly to what he himself had done or enjoined them to do or as referring only to that Body and Blood which immediately precede them and in which sense they are suppos'd to signifie the sacrificing or offering of them If we consider the words Do this in remembrance of me as referring to the several things before spoken of even those which Christ himself had done or enjoined them to do So there is no appearance of their being a Command to the Apostles or their Successors to offer up his Body and Blood unless there had been any precedent mention of Christ's offering them up himself or any kind of intimation of his enjoining them to do it The latter of which two as it is not to by affirm'd by those who make the words Do this in remembrance of me to be those which constituted both the Sacrifice and the offerers of it So I see as little reason for the affirming of the former how confidently soever the Church of Rome advanceth it For what mention can we expect for instance of Christ's offering up his Body under the Species of Bread when till he had spoken the words This is my Body which was not till he had done all appertaining to that Element there was no such thing under the Species of Bread for Christ to offer up because not to be till those words had pass'd upon it But it may be there is more force in the words Do this as referring to that Body and Blood which immediately precede them in which sense they are suppos'd to signifie the sacrificing or offering of them And so no doubt there is or they will be found to have little force in them But what if we should say first that there is as little appearance of their referring to the words Body and Blood as what St. Paul subjoineth to them and the very Canon of the Mass perswades For St. Paul inferring upon those words that as oft as they ate that Bread and drank that Cup they did shew forth the Lord's death till he came And again that whosoever should eat that Bread and drink that Cup of the Lord unworthily should be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord He doth not obscurely intimate that when our Saviour said with relation to each Element Do this in remembrance of me his meaning was that they should do what he had before enjoin'd them concerning each in remembrance of himself and particularly that they should eat and drink them with that design Which they of all Men
ought not to refuse who are taught by the Canon of the Mass to look upon the words Hoc est enim corpus meum and Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei for so the Roman Missal expresseth them as a Reason of what is before enjoin'd and particularly of the Disciples eating and drinking the things given to them For if those very words referr'd to what was before enjoyn'd and particularly to their eating and drinking the things given to them The words Do this in remembrance of me ought in reason to referr to the same eating and drinking and no otherwise to the Body and Blood of Christ than as that was an inducement to them to do what they did in remembrance of Him and of his Death But let us suppose however because some of the Roman Communion will have it so that the words Do this c. referr to the Body and Blood of Christ and that it must therefore be somewhat about those that this Precept of Christ must be thought to enjoin Yet how doth it appear which is the only thing that can advantage them that we are to understand thereby Sacrifice or make an Offering of them For though I grant that if the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be considered with respect to Christ's Body and Blood it must have another sense than we are wont to put upon it Yet why should it not signifie make as well as sacrifice especially when that sense is both the most natural and the most obvious one For so it will yet more agree with the opinion these Men have of their converting the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament into the Body and Blood of Christ and accordingly producing that Body and Blood out of them And indeed as one would think that they who give the Priest the priviledge of making his God should be willing to understand the words in that sense because setting those aside there is nothing else from whence that Power can be colourably deduc'd So one would think too that they should secure to themselves that Power before they pretend to offer him as without which there can be no place for it But let that Notion also how natural soever even in their own opinion be laid aside with the rest if it be only to make way for that other of sacrificing or offering Yet how will it appear that this latter one ought to have place here or if it hath that it denotes such a sacrificing or offering as they advance For though the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 agreeably to the notion of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth sometime signifie to sacrifice or offer for so it doth Lev. 15 15-30 and in other places according to the Septuagint Version * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet as even there it comes to have that sense rather from the matter intreated of than from any natural signification of the word So there is nothing in the present Argument to determine it to that sense or oblige us to such an understanding of it Though if that also should be allow'd which yet there is not the least necessity of doing yet will not the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reach that Sacrifice which is intended to be superstructed upon them Because he who commands Men to sacrifice or offer in remembrance of himself doth rather enjoin a Commemorative than Expiatory one and consequently not that Sacrifice which is intended So little is there in the words themselves how favourably soever consider'd to oblige us to understand them of such an Offering as the Church of Rome advanceth And we shall find them to signifie as little though we take in the sense of the Catholick Church upon them how conformable soever the Council of Trent affirms it to be unto its own Because though the Antients did all agree upon a Sacrifice and which is more look'd upon those words as either directly or indirectly obliging to the offering of it yet as hath been elsewhere (k) Part 2. shewn they advanc'd other kind of Sacrifices than what the Church of Rome now doth and consequently cannot be suppos'd to give any countenance to it And I shall only add that though Justin Martyr (l) Dial. cum Tryph. p. 259 c. represented that Offering of fine Flour which was offer'd for those that were cleansed from the Leprosie as a Type of the Bread of the Eucharist Though he moreover appli'd the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that Bread and if any of the Fathers therefore did affirm'd Christ to command us to make or offer that Bread to God Yet he adds that he commanded us to do so in remembrance of that Passion which he suffered for those that were cleansed in their Souls And again that we might at the same time give thanks to God for his having made the World and all things in it for the sake of Man and for his having delivered us by Christ from that wickedness in which we sometime were and dissolv'd all noxious Principalities and Powers Which shews him not to have thought in the least of our being commanded to offer Christ's Body and Blood under the Species of Bread or indeed of any other Sacrifice than a Commemorative or Eucharistical one The principal Argument of the Tridentine Fathers being thus discharg'd and the Sacrifice of the Mass so far forth depriv'd of its support We shall the less need to concern our selves about those which are of an inferiour rank and in truth rather Assistants to the former Argument than any proper proofs of the Sacrifice it self For what boots it to alledge that our Saviour's Priesthood like that of Melchizedek being not to be extinguished by death we are in reason to presume that upon his departure hence he appointed his Apostles and their Successors to offer up continually that Offering which Melchizedek first and after him our Saviour offer'd For beside that there is no appearance of Melchizedek's offering up Bread and Wine and we therefore not to argue from the Bread and Wine which he brought forth that our Melchizedek was either to offer or appoint any such Sacrifice Our Melchizedek was to abide for ever as well as his Priesthood yea he was to abide in his Priesthood for ever as well as in his Person Witness not only the Psalmist's affirming that he was to be a Priest for ever but St. Paul's affirming also that (m) Heb. 7.23 24. whereas the Aaronical Priests were of necessity to pass over their Priesthood from one to another because no one of them could continue by reason of Death our Melchizedekian Priest because he was to abide for ever was invested with an unchangeable Priesthood and such as should not pass away from him For what was this but to say that he should keep his Priesthood in his own Person and should not therefore either need or be in a capacity to appoint other Priests in his room