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A68467 A treatise of the sacraments according to the doctrin of the Church of England touching that argument Collected out of the articles of religion, the publique catechism, the liturgie, and the book of homilies. With a sermon preached in the publique lecture, appointed for Saint Pauls Crosse, on the feast of Saint Iohn Baptist, Iune 24. 1638. / By T.B. Pr. Pl. Bedford, Thomas, d. 1653. 1638 (1638) STC 1789; ESTC S113179 66,854 266

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for the Sacrament of Baptism that which is signified by the water to speak exactly is the blood of Christ not the blood in the living bodie but the blood that was spilt and shed upon the ground prefigured in the Law by the blood of the sacrifices which was sprinkled upon the unclean for the purifying of the flesh The blood of Bulls and Goats were shaddows of prefiguration but the body is Christ whose blood doth wash and cleans the soul from sinne and is signified by the water in Baptism Q. How can this be may some say when as the blood of Christ is signified by the Wine in the Lords Supper For answer hereunto we shall do well to remember what Saint Iohn hath related in his Gospell viz. That upon the pei●cing and goring of Christs side there came forth blood and water what water was this not any miraculous humour much lesse the corruption of blood in Pleuritick bodies but that watery substance which Anatomists do find in the Pericardium placed there by nature as it may seem for the refrigeration of the heart Now for the full manifestation of the death of Christ it pleased the providence of God to make use of the malice of the Souldier to peirce the Pericardium and gore the heart which being done it is impossible for any one to live And this watery substance is that which the water of Purification and the water of Baptism doth properly signifie the which t●o in propriety of nature it differ from the blood of the vitall vessels viz. the heart and the liver running in the veins and arteries yet in common phrase it is called the blood of Christ which blood of Christ is represented in both the Sacraments Hence there is a different respect of the blood of Christ shed for expiation and a two-fold use of it after the effusion viz. partly for Nutrition in the Supper partly for ablution and purgation as in the Sacrament of Baptism hence are those phrases of washing and cleansing so frequent in the new Testament this is that fountain which is set open for sinne and for uncleannesse thus in the new Testament as well as in the old all things are purged by blood Hebrews 9.22 Thus both Sacraments have speciall Relation to the death of Christ which the phrase of Scripture doth manifest for of Baptism it is said that by it we are baptised into his death and buried with Christ Rom. 6.4 Col. 2.12 and the Supper is the remembrance and commemoration of the death of Christ 1 Cor. 11 26. and this doth fully manifest unto us what that grace is which is signified in the Sacrament and how the word Grace used in the definition of a Sacrament is to be understood Doubtlesse hereby is meant not a quality infused but a gracious gift bestowed upon us Now of Gods gracious gifts some are corporall and reach no further than the body Others are spirituall touching the state and welfare of the soule and such is that Grace or gracious gift presented in the Sacraments Again whereas there be divers sorts of these spirituall graces that Grace which is the ground-work of the Sacraments is not any among the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit but the gracious Gift of the Father who gave his own Sonne for us indeed Christ himselfe is that gracious gift of God which is presented to us in the Sacrament Christus quâ passus the body and blood of Christ given for mankind in the work of redemption are by the Sacrament given to mankind for the application of that redemption Bellarmin is deceived while in the heat of his scholasticall discourse he will needs have the Grace of Justification or as we do better stile it sanctification to be the thing which is principally signified in the Sacrament That is an effect and consequent but Christ crucified is the speciall signification of the Sacrament Reason giveth it for it is against the nature of the cause especially of the instrumentall cause to represent the effect which it self produceth Adde this the nature of a sacramentall sign consisteth in analogicall proportion now this is most apt betwixt these Elements and the body and blood of Christ so also of the operation of the one upon the body and of the other upon the soul but no similitude at all betwixt these Elements and the grace of Justification To conclude this both the doctrine of the Schoolmen and that common saying of the ancients received from Saint Augustine doth shew that Christus passus Christ on the Crosse is that grace which is primarily and principally signified in either Sacrament CHAP. V. A Corollary drawn from this part of the Definition NOvv from this first part of the Definition wherein we have heard the Essence and Originall of the Sacrament we may justly collect this Corollary viz. That if either part be wanting that is if either there want a visible sign or an invisible grace there can be no Sacrament And thus doth the Church teach her children that the parts of every Sacrament are and must be two the outward visible sign and the inward spirituall grace How can this be might some curious Critick say is the Genus and and common nature of a Sacrament the sign of grace and is grace now become part of the Sacrament Is not this all one as if the man should be called a part of the picture which is the representation of the man in very deed to speak properly grace is no part of the sign but Subjectum or Substratum praesuppositum the ground-work thereof but when we speak in the vulgar phrase we call those things parts which are any way Essentiall and so grace is a part of the sign that is essentiall to it for except it be a sign of grace it is not a Sacrament adde this also that howsover the School saith that the sign is properly as indeed properly it is the Sacrament and doth relatively oppose it to the grace signified yet the Church speaking to the capacity of the simple calleth the whole sacred action of Baptism and of the Supper by the name of the Sacrament which taken in this larger signification is as it were compounded of two things one earthly the other heavenly and these vulgarly are called the parts of the Sacrament as being both of them essentiall to the constitution of a Sacrament Hence is an argument fetcht to overthrow Transubstantiation which by changing the bread into the very body of Christ hath taken away the sign and so spoyled the Sacrament for as the soul departed and the body separated is not the man so neither the sign without the grace nor the grace without the sign but being both together considered relatively do make a Sacrament there may be therfore no change of the one into the other Hence also fetch arguments to convince those five obtruded by the Roman Church to be no true born Sacraments properly so called