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
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
for the former their representing Baptism as the laver (k) Tit. 3.5 of Regeneration which is a thing we must have from God (l) Joh. 3.5 and as a thing by which we must obtain forgiveness of sins (m) Act. 2.38 which is as undoubtedly (n) Expl. of the Lords Pr. forgive us c. another For the latter the same Scriptures requiring us to look upon the elements thereof as that body of Christ which was (o) Luk. 22.19 given for us and that blood which was shed for many (p) Matt. 26.28 for the forgiveness of sins For as these and the former benefits are such as manifestly come from God so they are alike manifestly represented as the consequents of the former Sacraments and a Sacrament therefore as such to be looked upon as having a relation to that which flows from God to us The only difficulty in my opinion is to shew a Sacrament to relate equally to that which passeth from us to God and imports our duty and service But besides that the Antients apprehended no such difficulty in it because giving it the title of a Sacrament in respect of that Obligation * See the prec Disc which it lays upon the Receivers of it The Scriptures have said enough concerning Baptism and the Lords Supper to confirm us in the belief of this relation of them Only because I would not too much anticipate my Discourse concerning those Sacraments and beside that may have another occasion to speak more largely to this Argument I will content my self at present with what St. Peter hath observ'd of Baptism (q) 1 Pet. 3.21 and which I have elsewhere (r) Explic. of the Prel Quest and Answers c. given a more particular account of For if as that Apostle insinuates and hath accordingly been more largely confirmed the stipulation or answer of a good conscience toward God be a considerable part of Baptism If it be so considerable a part of it as to give it much of that savingness which it hath Then must that Sacrament be thought because the stipulation of a good Conscience is of that nature to relate to something that must come from us as well as to those things which flow from God to us It is true indeed that our Church where it sets it self to define a Sacrament takes no notice of this object of it Whether it were through a simple inadvertency and from which our Church doth no where pretend it self to be free or which I rather think that it might give so much the more particular an account of that other and more considerable object of it even that inward and Spiritual Grace which it was intended to signifie and exhibit and assure For that our Church did not wholly forget this second object of a Sacrament even that duty and service of ours which it doth equally signifie and prompt us to declare is evident from its before minding the Catechumen of his Baptismal vow (ſ) Prelim. Quest and Answ of the Cat. and from the declaration it elsewhere (t) Office of Publ. Bapt. makes that they who are to be baptized must also for their parts promise the renouncing of the Devil and his works and both Faith and Piety toward God That as it shews her to have looked upon Baptism as a federals rite or ceremony so that she equally believed it to relate to our duty and service as well as to those divine benefits we receive from the Author of it Let it remain therefore for an undoubted truth and the acknowledged Doctrine of our Church that a Sacrament relates as well to what is to pass from us to God as to what is to come from God to us and that accordingly it may be so far forth defined such an outward and visible sign whereby we make a declaration of our piety toward God as Mr. Calvin (u) Instit li. 4. c. 14. §. 1. hath very well observed I may not forget to add for the farther clearing of this head that as a Sacrament relates first and chiefly to that which passeth from God to us so we are to conceive of that to which it so relates under the notion of a Grace given unto us yea of an inward and spiritual one That we ought to conceive of it under the notion of a grace given unto us is evident from those Texts which I but now made use of to shew that a Sacrament relates to that which passeth from God to us For instancing in such things as have the nature of benefits and so far forth therefore are to be looked upon as Graces or Favours instancing moreover in such benefits as are manifestly the issues of the Divine Goodness yea which the Scripture expresly affirms to be given to us by him for so it doth as to that (w) Luk. 22.19 Body of Christ which is the foundation of them all they must consequently oblige us to conceive of that to which a Sacrament relates as a Grace given unto us But neither will there be less evidence from thence if those Texts be well considered that that Grace to which a Sacrament relates is an inward and Spiritual one For as our Church means no other by an inward and Spiritual Grace than that which conduceth in an especial manner to the welfare of our inward man or Spirit as is evident from its making the Body and Blood of Christ the inward and Spiritual Grace of the Lords Supper and which it cannot be in any other sense than that it hath such an effect upon us so the Texts before alledged attribute such Graces to the Sacraments as are in that sense at least inward and Spiritual ones Witness their attributing to them the Graces of regeneration and forgiveness which are as it were the formal causes of our welfare and the grace of Christs Body and Blood which is the meritorious cause thereof and under God and by his acceptation in the place of an Efficient also I observe farther that as a Sacrament relates to such things as have the nature of divine Graces or humane duties so those graces and duties being parts of the New Covenant and receiving all their force from it a Sacrament must consequently relate to that New Covenant to which they do belong and from which they receive all their force Of which yet if there remain any doubt it will not be difficult to clear it from what the Scripture assures us concerning Baptism and the Lords Supper St. Peter (x) 1 Pet. 3.21 representing the former under the notion of a Stipulation or Contract as our Saviour the Cup of the other (y) Luk. 22.20 Matt. 26.28 as the New Covenant in his Blood for the remission of those sins for which it was shed For that that is in truth the meaning of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not as we usually render it the New Testament in it is not only evident from the word 〈◊〉
washing away their guilt or washing away the pollution of them we shall still find it to be the immediate issue of an inward and spiritual Grace It being the blood of Jesus Christ as the Scriptures (q) Explic. of the Creed in the word Dead every where declare that washeth us from sin in the former sense and the sanctifying Graces of God's spirit (r) Expl. of the Creed in the words I believe in the Holy Ghost which purifie us from it in the other If therefore the Sacrament of Baptism may be said so to wash and purifie it must be as it is an Instrument whereby it conveys to us those graces to which that purification doth belong But so the same Scriptures do yet more expresly declare as to that other Sacrament of our Religion even the Supper of the Lord St. Paul telling us (Å¿) 1 Cor. 10.16 of the bread of it that it is the Communion or Communication of Christ's body as of the Cup that goes along with it that it is the Communion of his blood For what other can we well understand by that expression of his than that they are an instrument whereby God conveys and we accordingly come to partake of that body and blood of Christ which is signified by them This only would be added for the clearer Explication of it that when were present the Sacrament as an instrument whereby God conveys to us that grace which is signified by it we do not mean thereby that it is a natural one or such as contains that grace in it as a Vessel doth liquor or a cause its effect but rather as the Judicious Hookes (t) Eccl. Pol. li. 5. sect 57. speaks as a moral instrument thereof That is to say as such a one to the use whereof God hath made a promise of his grace and which accordingly he will accompany with the exhibition of the other I deny not indeed but there are who are otherwise perswaded and who accordingly either attribute a greater efficacy to a Sacrament or deny even that which we have attributed to it Of the former sort are they who not contented to affirm that a Sacrament is an instrument whereby God conveys grace to the worthy receiver of it do moreover represent it under the notion of a Physical one yea of such a Physical one as contains grace in it as a cause doth its effect and accordingly contributes by its own internal force to the producing of it as well as to the possessing us thereof Even as a Chezil for so they (u) Hist of Counc of Trent li. 2. explain themselves contributes to the formation of a Statue or as a Hatchet to that Bed (w) Aquin. sum Part. 3. Qu. 62. Art 1. which is shaped by it But as it appears by Aquinas (x) Ibid. who was it may be the first framer of it that that conceit had its original from the fear of making a Sacrament to be nothing but a bare sign of grace contrary to the opinion of the Holy Fathers so nothing more therefore can be necessary toward the overthrowing of it than to shew the groundlesness of that fear which the doctrine before deliver'd will sufficiently evince For if it be but a moral instrument whereby God conveys his own graces it is certainly more than a sign yea it may in some sense be said to be a cause as well as the instrument thereof For as they who attribute to a Sacrament the efficacy of a cause make it to be no farther a cause of grace than that it produceth in the Soul a disposition (y) Hist of Counc of Trent li. 2. to receive it by which means it is not so much the cause of grace as of our receiving it so such a kind of causality will be found to belong to it though we make a Sacrament to be no other than a means whereby we attain it Because it is so far forth by the force of a Sacrament that grace comes to be in us that without that we cannot ordinarily hope to attain it nor fear to fail of it where the other is duly receiv'd The only difference as to this particular between the one and the other opinion is that whereas the former makes a Sacrament to dispose us to the reception of Grace as well as to convey it The latter supposeth that disposition already produc'd and consequently leaves no place for the former operation In that respect yet more agreeably to the Doctrine of the Scriptures because not only pre-requiring certain qualifications (z) Act. 8.36 37. 1 Cor. 11.20 of those that are to receive it but assuring them that if they come so qualifi'd they shall not fail * Mark 16.16 Act. 2.38 of that grace which the Sacrament was intended to convey These and the like assertions as they suppose the Soul to be before dispos'd so leaving no place for any other causality in a Sacrament than its serving to us as a means of conveying that grace which we are so disposed to receive And indeed as it doth not appear by any thing that Schoolman hath alledg'd that the Antients ever attributed any other causality to a Sacrament for though St. Augustine as he is quoted by him affirms the power of God to work by a Sacrament yet he doth not affirm it to do so as by a Physical instrument As it appears farther even from that Schoolman that St. Bernard was of opinion that Grace is no otherwise conveyed by a Sacrament than a Canonry in his time was by a Book or a Bishoprick by Ring so there is no defect in the Instances of that Father supposing a Book or a Ring to have been as much a means of conveying of those preferments as we affirm a Sacrament to be of the divine Grace For in that case the delivery of a Ring or a Book would not only have been a sign whereby the delivery of those preferments was declar'd as Aquinas argues in the place before but a ceremony by which they were actually made over and without which they could not have been Canonically invested in them I conclude therefore that if a Sacrament be an instrument of Grace it is a moral one and such as contributes no farther toward our partaking of it than as it is a means to which God hath annex'd the promise of it and which accordingly he will not fail where the receiver is rightly dispos'd to accompany with the exhibition of the other But because there are some who are so far from owning a Sacrament to be a physical instrument of grace that they will not so much as allow it to be a moral one And because such a conceit may tend as much to the depretiating of a Sacrament as the other seems to tend to the overvaluing of it Therefore consider we in the next place the pretensions of those that entertain it and the strength or rather weakness of those pretensions There are who have
Sacramental Purposes to which they are to be appli'd it is a needless superstition to be sollicitous about the kind of it or indeed about any thing else of that nature farther than the Laws of Decency or the general Nature of the Sacrament may seem to exact of us The same is to be said and for the same reasons as to the kind of the Wine though the Wines of Palestine were generally Red (b) Psal 75.8 Prov. 23.31 Isa 27.2 63.2 for which cause it is not improbable that they were stiled the Bloud (c) Deut. 32.14 of the Grape and those therefore the most apt to represent the Blood of our Saviour For whatever the Colour thereof may be they may serve by the Liquidness thereof and the pouring of them from one Vessel to another to denote the shedding of his Blood which is all that the Institution obligeth us to reflect upon Upon which account I shall in this place confine my self to enquire whether it ought to be mix'd with Water or no as which seems to me to be the only material Enquiry in this Affair And here indeed they who think it enough to make use of pure Wine may seem to be hardly press'd whether we do consider the Antiquity of the contrary Usance or the Reason which is alledged for it For it appears from Justin Martyr (d) Apol. 2. p. 97. to have been carefully practis'd in his time And it appears too not only to have been pleaded for by St. Cyprian * Ad Caecil Ep. 63. even where he disputes against the foremention'd Aquarii but to such a degree also as to represent the Sacrament as imperfect without it The mixture of Wine and Water being as he saith (e) Quando autem in calice aqua vino miscetur Christo populus adunatur credentium plebs ei in quem credidit copulatur conjungitur Quae copulatio conjunctio aquae vini sic miscetur in calice domini ut commixtio illa non possit ab invicem separari Nam si vinum tantùm quis offerat sanguis Christi incipit esse sine nobis si vero aqua sit sola plebs incipit esse sine Christo Quando autem utrumque miscetur adunatione confusâ sibi invicem copulatur tunc Sacramentum spiritale coeleste perficitur intended to signifie the conjunction of Christ and his People and that we can therefore in the sanctifying of the Lord's Cup no more offer Wine alone than we may presume to offer Water only These things to those that have a regard to Antiquity cannot but appear very considerable and I must needs say they weigh so much with me as to believe that the Wine of the Sacrament might have been from the beginning diluted with Water yea that that very Wine might which our Saviour consecrated into it But this rather with respect to the Custom of the Eastern Country and the generousness of their Wines which might be but needful to be temper'd where the same Liquor was to be the Entertainment of their Love-Feasts as well as the Matter of a Sacrament than out of any regard to the Sacrament it self or that particular Mystery in it which St. Cyprian thought to be intended Because there is not any the least hint either in the Evangelists or St. Paul of such a mixture or Mystery but rather an intimation of Christ's employing only the Fruit of the Vine and his having a regard to the sole Properties thereof and of that Blood of his which he shed for our Redemption If there were from the beginning any Mystery in such a mixture it may most probably be thought to have been intended to make so much the more lively a Representation to us of that Blood which it was designed to remember and which we learn from St. John (f) Joh. 19.34 to have issued from his side attended with Water and accordingly particularly remarked by him Upon which account though I cannot press a mixture of Wine and Water as necessary yet neither can I condemn it or those Churches which upon that reason think fit to retain it and enjoin on their respective Members the due observation of it 3. But because there neither is nor can well be a more material Enquiry than wherein the Bread and Wine of this Sacrament were intended as a Sign Therefore it may not be amiss to pass on to the resolution of it and employ all requisite diligence in it For my more orderly performance whereof I will consider those Elements of Bread and Wine with respect to Christ's Body and Blood whether as to the usage that Body and Bloud of his receiv'd when he was subjected to Death for us or as to the Benefit that was intended and accrued to us by them If we consider the Elements of Bread and Wine with respect to Christ's Body and Blood as to the usage they receiv'd when he was subjected to Death for us So we shall find them again to be a Sign of that Body and Blood by what is done to them before they come to be administred or by the separate administration of them when they are For in the former of these Notions the Bread manifestly became a Sign of Christ's Body by our Saviour's breaking of it For which cause as was before observ'd St. Paul in his rehearsal of the Institution attributes that breaking to Christ's Body and describes its crucifixion by it And not improbably the Wine of the Sacrament became a Sign of Christ's Blood by its being poured out of some other Vessel into that Cup which he took and blessed and gave to his Disciples There being not otherwise any thing in it to represent the shedding of Christ's Blood which it appears by the several Evangelists that our Saviour had a particular respect unto Neither will it suffice to say though it be true enough that we do not read either in the Evangelists or St. Paul of our Saviour's before pouring the Wine of the Sacrament out of some other Vessel into that Cup which he made use of for that purpose and consequently cannot with equal assurance make the Wine to be a Sign of Christ's Blood by any such effusion of it For whether we read of it or no such an Effusion must of necessity precede the use of a Cup being not to keep Wine in but to drink out of after it hath receiv'd it by effusion from another and that effusion therefore and the particular mention there is of the effusion of that Blood which is acknowledg'd to be signified by the Wine no unreasonable intimation of that Effusion's being one of those things wherein the Wine of the Sacrament was intended as a Sign or Representation of the other By these means the Bread and Wine become a Sign of Christ's Body and Blood as to what is done to them before they come to be administred And we shall find them in like manner to be a Sign of the same Body and
her But as if any thing be of the substance of the Sacrament the doing of that must be which tends most apparently to set forth the Sacrifice of Christ's Death upon the Cross as which was one great end of its Institution and the most clearly expressed in it So nothing doth or can tend more apparently to the setting forth of that than Men's partaking of that Cup which was by our Saviour himself intended to represent the Blood of that Sacrifice of his as poured out for our Expiation and Remission PART V. Of the inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it The Contents The inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it is either what is signified on the part of God and Christ or on the part of the Receiver of it The former of these brought under Consideration and shewn to be the Body and Blood of Christ not as they were at or before the Institution of this Sacrament or as they now are but as thâ—y were at the time of his Crucifixion as moreover then offered up unto God and offer'd up to him also as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World The Consequences of that Assertion briefly noted both as to the presence of that Body and Blood in the Sacrament and our perception of them The things signified on the part of the Receiver in the next place consider'd and these shewn to be First a thankful Remembrance of the Body and Blood of Christ consider'd as before described Secondly our Communion with those who partake with us of that Body and Blood Thirdly a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them The two latter of these more particularly insisted on and that Communion and Resolution not only shewn from the Scripture to be signified on the part of the Receiver but confirmed by the Doctrine and Practice of the Antient Church II. THE outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper being thus accounted for Question What is the inward part or thing signified and that shewn to be no other than Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be receiv'd Reason would as well as the Method before laid down that I should entreat of the inward part thereof or the thing signified by it Answer The Body and Blood of Crhist which are verily and indeed taken and received by the Faithful in the Lord's Supper Which on the part of God and Christ is that Christ's Body and Blood As on our part a thankful Remembrance of them our Communion with those who partake with us thereof and a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them That which our Catechism obligeth us especially to consider is that which is signified on the part of God and Christ and which accordingly it declares to be that Christ's Body and Blood A thing which consider'd in the general admits of no dispute because the plain Assertion of the Scripture as well as the Acknowledgment of all sorts of Men however otherwise divided about the Sacrament thereof or the presence of that Body and Blood in it They all agreeing as they must that the Body of Christ is that which is signified by one of its Signs and the Blood of Christ which is signified by the other But as it is not so well agreed under what Notion we are to consider that Body and Blood nor for ought that I have observ'd much attended to which is it may be the principal Cause of all the Controversie in this Particular So I shall therefore for the farther clearing of the thing or things signified by this Sacrament enquire under what Notion we ought to consider them which if we have a due regard to the words of the Institution will not be so difficult to unfold For from thence it will appear first that we ought to consider Christ's Body and Blood here not in the state wherein they were at or before the Institution of this Sacrament or in that more happy one to which they are now arriv'd but as they were at the time of our Saviour's Crucifixion To wit the one as given to Death or broken and the other as shed for us Which St. Paul farther confirms when he tells his Corinthians * 1 Cor. 11.26 that as often as they ate the Bread of this Sacrament and drank the Cup of it they did shew forth the Lord's death till he came The consequent whereof will be secondly because that Death of Christ is represented by the Scriptures as a Sacrifice that we ought to look upon that Body and Blood of Christ which we have said to be signified by this Sacrament as offer'd unto God by him and as such to be consider'd in it Which they of all Men have the least reason to refuse who do not only affirm †Conc. Trid. Sess 22. cap. 1. with us that this Sacrament was intended for a Memorial of the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross but that the Body and Blood of Christ is even now * Ibid. offer'd up to God in it under the respective Species thereof It is as little to be doubted thirdly That as we ought to consider the Body and Blood of Christ here as offer'd up to God for us so we ought to consider them as offer'd up as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of those Persons for whom it is offer'd Which is not only evident from the words of the Institution because representing the Cup of this Sacrament as the Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the Remission of Sins but abundantly confirm'd by the suffrage of those Men with whom we have most to do in this Affair They not only representing the Sacrifice of the Mass as they are pleas'd to call this Sacrament as one and the same Sacrifice with that which our Saviour offer'd upon the Cross but as a truly propitiatory one (a) Ib. cap. 2. and which accordingly is of force for the sins of the quick and the dead and tends to the remission of them Of what use these Considerations are will more fully appear when I come to entreat of that relation which the outward Signs of this Sacrament have to the inward part thereof or the things signified by them At present it may suffice briefly to note that the Body and Blood of Christ consider'd as broken and shed upon the Cross having now no Existence in the World nor any more capable of having such an Existence than that which is past can be recall'd They cannot be substantially present either to the Sacramental Elements or to the Person that receiveth them nor be substantially eaten and drunken by him that eats and drinks the other That they must therefore be present to the Sacramental Elements in a Figure or Mystery and to the Receiver by their respective Vertue and Efficacy That being as was before said to be consider'd as offer'd up to
that strengthening and refreshing of the Soul which it is said to receive by the Body and Blood of Christ Enquire we in the next place what Evidence there is of their being intended for it Which will soon appear from their being intended by Christ as the Meat and Drink of the Soul and particularly as such Meat and Drink as Bread and Wine are to the Body For Meat and Drink being intended for the strengthening and refreshing of Men's Bodies and particularly such Meat and Drink as are the outward part of the present Sacrament If the Body and Blood of Christ were intended as such to the Soul they must be consequently intended for its strengthening and refreshing Now that the Body and Blood of Christ were intended as Meat and Drink to the Soul and particularly as such Meat and Drink as Bread and Wine are to the Body is evident for the former of these from several passages of the sixth of St. John's Gospel * See Part 3. where it is so declar'd in express terms and for the latter from our Saviour's making use of Bread and Wine to represent them and which is more calling upon us to eat and drink of them in remembrance of Christ's giving that Body and Blood of his for us This as it farther shews them to have been intended as our Spiritual Meat and Drink so to have been intended too in a Spiritual manner to be eaten and drunken by us and so made yet more subservient to our strengthening and refreshment 3. Now this the Body and Blood of Christ effect first and chiefly as the meritorious cause of that Grace by which that strengthening and refreshing is immediately produc'd Or secondly as stirring up the Minds of the Faithful to contemplate the meritoriousness thereof and in the strength of that to grapple with all Difficulties and bear up under all Troubles and Disquiets For beside that the Body and Blood of Christ as was before observ'd (m) Part 5. are to be consider'd in this Sacrament under the Notion of a propitiatory Sacrifice and which as such doth rather dispose God to grant us that strength and refreshment which we desire than actually collate them on us There is nothing more evident from the Scriptures than that it is the Spirit of God (n) Eph. 3.15 and his Graces by which we must be immediately strengthened with might in the inner Man and that it is by him (o) Acts 9.31 that we receive comfort and consolation For which cause our Saviour gives him the title of the Comforter and professeth to send him to supply his own place in that as well as in other particulars From whence as it will follow that it is to the Spirit of God and his Graces that we are immediately to ascribe that strength and refreshment which we expect So that we ought therefore to look upon Christ's Body and Blood as conferring to it not so much by any immediate influence thereof upon the Soul as by their disposing God to grant that Spirit by which both the one and the other are produc'd Upon which account we find St. Paul where he attributes the several Graces of a Christian to the immediate Influences of that Spirit affirming those that partake of this Cup to be made to drink into the same Spirit as that which is the immediate Author of them This I take to be in an especial manner that strengthning and refreshing which our Catechism and the Scripture prompts us to ascribe to the Body and Blood of Christ Neither can I think of any other than what the contemplation of the meritoriousness thereof may infuse into the Soul of him who seriously reflects upon it That I mean whereby the Soul becomes so confident of the Divine Assistance and Favour as neither to doubt of his enabling it to do what he requires nor despair of his delivering it from all its fears and troubles I will close this Discourse when I have added that as the Sign of this Sacrament hath the relation of a Means whereby God conveys and we receive the Body and Blood of Christ So it hath also the Relation of a Pledge to assure us thereof or as our Church elsewhere expresseth it (p) Art 19. a certain sure Witness of it A Relation which is not more generally acknowledg'd than easie to make out from the former one For what is ordained by Christ as a Mean for the conveying of his Body and Blood being as sure to have its effect if it be received as it ought to be He who so receives what Christ hath thus ordain'd will need no other Proof than that of his receiving that Body and Blood of Christ which it was so ordained to convey PART VII Of Transubstantiation The Contents 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 alledg'd for the former of these from the substantial changes mention'd in the Scripture of no force in this particular because there is no appearance of the actual existing of those things into which the change was made at the instant the other were chang'd into them As little force shewn to be in the words This is my Body and This is my Blood to prove the actual change of the Sacramental Elements whether we consider the word This in the former words as denoting the Bread and Wine or The thing I now give you That supposed change farther impugned by such Scriptures as represent the Bread of the Eucharist as remaining after Consecration by the concurrent Testimony of Sense and the Doctrine of the Antient Fathers Enquiry next made into that Assertion which imports that the substances of the Sacramental Elements are so chang'd as to retain nothing of what they were before save only the Species thereof Where is shewn that if nothing of their respective Substances remain there must be an annihilation rather than a change and that there is as little ground for the remaining of the Species without them either from the nature of those Species the words of Consecration or the Testimony of Sense That the true Body and true Blood of Christ together with his Soul and Divinity are under the Species of the Sacramental Elements a third Capital Assertion in this Matter but hath as little ground in the words of Consecration as either of the former First because those words relate not to Christ's glorified Body and Blood which are the things affirmed to be contain'd under the Species of the Sacramental Elements but to Christ's Body as broken and to his Blood as shed at his Crucifixion Secondly because however they may import the being of that Body and Blood