of what he hath so purchas'd The belief of these and the like Articles of our Faith being as manifestly presuppos'd to the belief of those Promises which in this place we are required to intend III. That which will it may be more concern us to enquire is what our Catechism means by a stedfast belief of them For my more orderly resolution whereof I will enquire first what it means by belief and then by a stedfast one Now by belief may be meant either a simple assent of the mind and in which fense there is no doubt it is oftentimes taken in Christian Writers Or there may be meant also a belief with affiance and such as beside the assent of the mind or understanding to them doth also connote a trust in them or in God because of them By vertue of which as I have elsewhere discours'd (k) Expl. of the Decal Com. 1. Part 3. concerning the grace of trust the heart or will is prompted to desire as well as assent to the matter of the divine promises and acquiesce in those for the obtaining of it And indeed if we may judge any thing by our Homilies to which the Articles (l) Art 11. of our Church do also particularly referr us in the point of justifying Faith this latter belief must be here intended Because a belief which hath for its end the remission of sins in Baptism and consequently a justifying one For the right and true Christian Faith saith one of our (m) Homily of Salvation Part 3. Homilies is not only to believe that the Holy Scripture and all the forecited Articles of our Faith are true but also to have a sure trust and confidence in God's merciful promises to be saved from everlasting damnation by Christ And it is not only saith another (n) Hom. of Faith the common belief of the Articles of our Faith but it is also a sure trust and confidence of the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ and a stedfast hope of all good things to be receiv'd at God's hands In fine saith the same (o) Ibid. Homily the very sure lively Christian faith is not only to believe all things of God which are contained in holy Scripture but also to have an earnest trust and confidence in God c. Which suppos'd as we may because we can have no more Authentick interpretation of it to be the sense of the belief here intended it will not be difficult to shew what our Catechism means by a stedfast one For considering the belief of these Promises as an Assent of the mind to them so a stedfast belief will imply that which is free from all doubts and which the mind of man gives to those Promises without any the least fear of there being any Collusion in them Which the mind of man may well give considering whose those Promises are and that they have both God and Christ for the Authors of them On the other side if we consider the belief intended as including in it also an affiance or trust and by vertue of which the heart or will is prompted to desire as well as believe the matter of those Promises and acquiesce in those Promises for the attaining of it So this stedfast belief will also imply such a one as is firmly rooted in the heart or will and can no more be rooted out of it by the force of temptations than the other by doubts or scruples And indeed as I do not see how any other belief than that can answer such glorious promises as are made to us in the Sacrament of Baptism so I see as little reason to doubt IV. What evidence there is of that being the Faith or belief which is pre-requir'd by Christianity to the receiving of it For though S. Luke may seem to intimate by the account he gives of the Baptism of the Samaritans (p) Acts 8.12 that they were baptiz'd upon a simple belief of what Philip preach'd concerning the things of the Kingdom of God Yet he doth much more clearly intimate afterward that Christianity requir'd another sort of belief and such as was accompani'd with an adherence of the will unto them He making it the condition of the Eunuch's Baptism afterward that he should believe with all his heart (q) Acts 8.37 Which is an expression that in the language of the Scripture referrs rather to the will and affections than to the understanding but however cannot well be thought not to include them there where the believing with all the heart is requir'd And indeed as I do not see considering the Doctrine of our First Reformers why this notion of Faith should be so exploded as it seems to me lately to have been As I do much less see why men should so boyle at that Justification which was wont to be attributed in an especial manner to it So if I live to finish the work I am now upon I will in a Comment upon the Epistle to the Philippians which I have almost gather'd sufficient materials for endeavour to clear both the one and the other that men may neither take occasion from thence to discard good works as unnecessary nor yet stay themselves upon any other than the promises of Christ and on which the holiest men upon earth when they have been approaching near God's tribunal have found themselves oblig'd to cast themselves In the mean time a little to repress the youthful heats of those who can hardly forbear smiling at such antiquated notions I will set before them the advice which was order'd to be given to sick persons when good works to be sure were not without their just repute It is among the Interrogatories which are said (r) Field of the Church Append. to the 3d. Book p. 303. to have been prescrib'd by Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury and particularly after that which prompts the Priest to ask Dost thou believe that thou canst not be sav'd but by the death of Christ and the sick persons Answer that he did so Go too therefore as the Priest was taught to proceed and whilst thy soul remaineth in thee place thy confidence in this death alone and in no other thing commit thy self wholly to it cover thy self wholly with it immerse fix and wrap thy self wholly in it And if the Lord God will judge thee say I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment otherwise I contend not with thee And if he say that thou art a sinner say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins If he say to thee thou hast deserv'd damnation say Lord I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my evil deserts and I offer the same death for that merit which I ought to have had and have not If he continue as yet to say that he is angry with thee say Lord I oppose the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me
(k) Joh. 6.34 which he had but just before affirm'd to give Life unto the World he not only declar'd to them in express words that he (l) Joh. 6.35 was that Bread of Life but sufficiently intimated that the way for them to attain it and that Life together with it was by coming to him and believing on him For he that cometh to me saith our Saviour (m) Ibid. shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst And he farther confirms that sort of eating by suggesting as he goes that it was the Will of his Father that every one which seeth the Son (n) Joh. 6.40 and believeth on him should have everlasting Life and that he that believeth on him (o) Joh. 6.47 hath everlasting Life For how was that either pertinent to the account he gave of his being the Bread of Life or but consistent with what he afterward saith that except (p) Joh. 6.53 they ate his Flesh and drank his Blood they had no Life in them if that belief in him were not the thing intended by the eating of him and that eating therefore a spiritual rather than a corporal one In like manner when some of his Disciples conceiving he intended another sort of eating were offended with that Discourse of his and represented it as an hard (q) Joh. 6.60 and unnatural one After he had ask'd them What if they should see the Son of Man ascend up (r) Joh. 6.62 where he was before whether the more to enhance the Difficulty before he resolv'd it or by the mention of his ascending into Heaven to take them off from understanding him in a carnal sense he hath these following words (s) Joh. 6.63 It is the Spirit that quickneth the Flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life The most plain and obvious meaning of which words is that it was the spiritual eating and not the carnal one that availed unto Life and that it was of such an eating that he had spoken all along as the only one from which eternal Life could be expected And indeed as the latter part of the words cannot well bear any other sense because words cannot be Spirit and Life unless it be as to the sense and meaning of them So I do not see how any other sense can answer that Design for which these and the former words were produc'd even the softning of that hard saying which the Disciples were so offended at To say as the Romanists (t) Annot. in loc in Vers de Mons do that our Saviour intended thereby that it was his Spirit or Divinity which made that Flesh of his to be such living Food and not any Property of the Flesh consider'd as separated from it answering in some measure what scruple they might have concerning its giving eternal Life to those that eat of it but answering not at all the scruple they had concerning the possibility of that Flesh of his being divided among so many or the lawfulness of their eating of it though it could be so divided For so far is the sense of the Romanists from answering the latter of these Scruples that it makes it yet more painful by how much more unnatural it is to eat the Flesh of him that was God-man as well as a living one than that of a meer Man and one that is also dead Sure I am St. Augustine was so choak'd with the literal sense of that which Christ's Disciples and the Jews are said to have been offended at that he took occasion from thence to assert (u) De Doct. Christ li. 3. cap. 15. Si autem praeceptiva locutio flagitium aut facinus videtur jubere aut utilitatem an t beneficentiam vetare figurata est Nisi manducaveritis inquit carnem filii hominis sanguinem biberitis non habebitis vitam in vobis faâ—inus vel flagitium videtur jubere Figura est ergo praecipiens passioni Domini esse Communicandum suaviter atque utiliter recondendum in memoriâ quòd pro nobis caro ejus Crucifixa vulnerata sit not only that that and other such like Precepts as seem to command any great wickedness ought to be look'd upon rather as figurative than proper but resolv'd the meaning of what is said concerning the eating of Christ's Flesh and drinking his Blood to be that we ought to communicate with his Passion and sweetly and profitably to lay up in our Memory that his Flesh was crucified and wounded for us Conformably to which he elsewhere (w) In Joh. Tract 26. En. in Psal 98. understands by those words They are Spirit and they are Life They ought to be spiritually understood and will be Spirit and Life to those which have that understanding of them And therefore as I cannot but wonder that the Romanists should think to free themselves from the Carnality of Christ's Disciples and the Jews because they do not understand our Saviour here of tearing his Flesh with their Teeth as the other are thought to have done For to take that Flesh into their Mouths which is their avow'd opinion and transmit it from thence into their Stomachs though it look like an improper eating yet will hardly pass for a figurative or spiritual one as the Scripture and St. Augustine represent the eating here enjoin'd so I cannot forbear with the same St. Augustine to admonish even with respect to the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament (x) Nolite parare fauces sed cor Inde commendata est ista coena Ecce credimus in Christum cum fide accipimus In accipiendo novimus quid cogitemus Modicum accipimus in corde saginamur Non ergo quod videtur sed quod creditur pascit De verbis Dom. Serm. 33. that we prepare not our Jaws but our Heart because the commendation of that Supper is that it was prepar'd for the latter Behold we then believe in Christ we receive him with Faith In receiving we know what we ought to think upon We receive a little and are fatned in the Heart It is not therefore that which is seen that feeds but that which is believ'd PART VIII Of Consubstantiation The Contents An account of that Doctrine which is by us called Consubstantiation out of the Augustan Confession and Gerhard And as it is founded by him and other the Lutheran Doctors in the letter of the words This is my Body and This is my Blood so Enquiry thereupon made first whether those words ought to be taken in the literal sense Secondly whether if so taken Consubstantiation can be inferred from them That the former words ought to be taken in the literal sense is endeavour'd by the Lutherans to be prov'd by general and special Arguments and those Arguments therefore propos'd and answer'd What is alledg'd in the general concerning the literal sense of Scripture being for the most part to
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 〈◊〉
set to denote also our being united to it thereby For as we cannot impose a more natural sense upon Baptized into that body than our being receiv'd by Baptism into it as the Baptized person is within the water and consequently some way united to it So much less if we consider what it was intended to prove even * 1 Cor. 12.12 that Christians how many soever are but that one body For how doth their being baptiz'd into it prove them to be that one Body but that that visible sign by which they are so unites them to one another and to the whole A meer sign of Union though it may shew what the partakers thereof ought to be yet being no just proof of what they are and much less as S. Paul seems to argue that they are so by the means of it And indeed as it will therefore be hard to make the sign here spoken of to be any thing less than a means of our Union to the Church So especially if we consider what is elsewhere said concerning those who first after the descent of the Holy Ghost were baptized in the name of Christ S. Luke not only affirming of those new baptiz'd ones that they were added to (a) Acts 2.41 the Apostles and their other company which he afterwards expresseth (b) Acts 2.47 by added to the Church but that they were partakers (c) Acts 2.42 with the rest in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in Prayers For this shews their having an interest in all the priviledges of that Body and therefore much more their being united to it But so it appears that the Antient Church esteemed of it whose determination is of the more force because it is only about the supposed means of Union to its own Body Justin Martyr after he had spoken of the baptizing of such as offer'd themselves to the Christian Church which he himself expresseth when so baptiz'd by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or conjoyned with themselves affirming that they were immediately brought where the brethren were assembled there to partake with them of the common Prayers that were then offer'd up of the kiss of peace and of the Lord's Supper Which last particular I have the more confidently represented the new baptized persons as then admitted to because the same Father doth not only make no distinction between them and the other brethren in it though he subjoyns the business of the Eucharist to the former Prayers and kiss of peace but affirms the same Eucharist presently after to be lawful to none to partake of but those that believ'd their Doctrine receiv'd the laver of regeneration and liv'd as Christ delivered For as he intimates there by the admission of those that believ'd and were baptiz'd if they were also such as liv'd as Christ deliver'd which the new baptized were in reason to be accounted till they had given proof to the contrary So there is reason to believe from the use of Excommunication in the Church that that addition of living as Christ deliver'd was not made to bar the new baptized from it till they gave farther proof of such a life but to intimate the exclusion of those who after they had been admitted to it liv'd otherwise than Christianity prescrib'd So making the persons excluded the unbaptiz'd or ill living Christians and consequently the contrary thereto admitted I deny not indeed that the Rite of Confirmation did very antiently come between the receiving of Baptism and the Eucharist I deny not farther because of what was before (d) Expl. of the Sacrament in general Part 4. quoted from Justin Martyr concerning the particular Prayer that was made for the new baptized person that the substance thereof was then in use even prayer for grace for him to live as he had but now profess'd But as the design of Confirmation appears to have been to procure for the new baptiz'd a more plentiful effusion of God's Graces which is no intimation at all of his having been before no perfect Christian or not perfectly united to the Church so Baptism may for all that be look'd upon as the means of our Union to the Church which is all that I have taken upon me to assert For the farther evidencing whereof I will in the next place alledge a passage of Tertullian (e) De Bapt c. 6. which will though not so directly prove the same thing That I mean where he saith that when the profession of our faith and sponsion of our salvation are pledged under the three witnesses before spoken of there is necessarily added thereto the mention of the Church because where those three are even the Father Son and Holy Ghost there is also the Church which is the body of the Three For as it is evident from thence that Men were even from his time baptiz'd expresly into the belief of the Church as well as into the belief of the Trinity So it will not be difficult to inferr that they were also baptiz'd into the unity thereof and made members of the Church by it Because as he affirms the Trinity to become Sponsors of our Salvation in Baptism as well as either Witnesses or objects of our Profession So he affirms those Sponsors to be as it were embodyed in the Church and consequently to exert their saving influences within it which supposeth Men's being united to it by Baptism in order to their partaking of the salutariness of the other And indeed though in that form which our Saviour prescrib'd (f) Matt. 28.19 for Baptism there is mention only of baptizing in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost yet inasmuch as he prescrib'd that very form for the making of Disciples (g) Ibid. by he must consequently be suppos'd to propose it for the aggregating them to that body which he had already begun to frame and making them alike members of it There being therefore no doubt to be made of the outward visible sign of Baptism being a means of our Vnion to Christ's mystical body the Church it may not be amiss if it were only to manifest the great advantages thereof as to that particular to shew the consequences of that Vnion Which we shall find in the general to be a right to all those priviledges which Christ hath purchas'd for it More particularly to the partaking of its Sacred Offices and in and through the means of them of those inward and spiritual Graces which those Sacred Offices were intended to procure or convey For every member of a Society being by that membership of his entituled to all the priviledges that belong to it as such He who becomes a member of Christ's Body the Church as every Man who is united to it by Baptism doth must in his proportion be entituled to all those priviledges which Christ hath purchas'd for it and particularly to the priviledge of partaking of its sacred Offices and in and by the means of
that Assertion of theirs in This is my Body and This is my Blood For though those words may assure me that the Body and Blood of Christ are there where I discern the species of the Sacramental Elements to be and consequently that naturally speaking the substances of those Elements cannot Yet as they do not so much as hint that the substances of those Elements neither are nor can be there by the extraordinary power of God so they say nothing to let us understand by what means they are convey'd away if they do not remain there But because this Assertion imports as well the remaining of the species or accidents of the Sacramental Elements as the not remaining of the substances thereof Therefore enquire we so far as we may what the grounds of that part of the Assertion are and if there be any need of it after such an enquiry oppose proper Arguments to it For the truth is that as those accidents are forc'd to subsist without a subject so they seem to have no other support save what the necessity of a bad cause and a confident asseveration can give them For is there any thing in the nature of an accident to persuade us that the thing is so much as possible and that though the substance of the Sacramental Elements remains not yet the species or accidents thereof may On the contrary they who believe any such thing as an accident make the inhering thereof in a subject to be of the very essence of it and that at the same time it ceaseth to inhere as it must do when the subject thereof is remov'd it also ceaseth to be Is it then that those separate species or accidents have any thing in the words This is my Body and This is my Blood to afford them any support But alas as the words my Body and my Blood are so far from giving any countenance to them that they rather bid defiance to them because professing to contain nothing less in them than the August Body and Blood of Christ So the word This is as much afraid of owning them for fear it should injure the substances thereof and instead of betokening the conversion of those into the substances of Christ's Body and Blood proclaim the conversion of the species or accidents thereof into them and so bid a far greater defiance to our already too much offended Senses Shall we then which is all we have to trust to at the last appeal to the testimony of our Senses for them But beside that no wise Transubstantiator ought to give any belief to his Senses as which will tell him farther if he listen to them that there is the substance of Bread and Wine under them Those Senses of ours do never represent those species as things distinct from their proper substances and much less as separate from them but as inherent in them and proper characters of them and so leading us more to the contemplation of their respective substances than to that of their own particular natures So little reason is there to believe the being of such Species or Accidents after their proper Substances are remov'd And there is this substantial Reason against it that the admission of such Species or Accidents in the Sacrament would render the Testimony of our Senses uncertain in other things Because whatever Pretence there may be from Revelation for the being of Christ's Body and Blood in the Sacrament yet there is no Pretence at all from that for the being of any such separate Species or Accidents and we therefore as much at liberty to believe them elsewhere as there and so boggle at any farther notice that may be suppos'd to come to us by the Species of any thing whatsoever 3. The third Assertion on which the Doctrine of Transubstantiation is founded is that the true Body and true Blood of Christ together with his Soul and Divinity are under the Species of the Sacramental Elements An Assertion which the Romanists seem to be so confident of from the words This is my Body and This is my Blood that they make no end of inculcating it and think all Men either blind or obstinate who will not as readily assent to it But with how little reason and how much against it also will soon appear if we compare them together whether as to that Body and Blood of Christ which they both profess to intreat of or as to the being of them in the Sacrament There being a manifest difference in each of these between the Assertion I am now upon and those words from which they profess to deduce it For first whereas the Body and Blood of Christ in the words of our Saviour are his Body and Blood as broken and shed at his Crucifixion and not as they were at the time of our Saviour's uttering those words or since his resurrection from the Dead The Body and Blood of Christ affirmed to be contain'd under the Species of Bread and Wine are the Body and Blood of Christ in that glorious estate wherein they now are now no more to fall under those Accidents which they sometime underwent For it is no way repugnant saith the Council of Trent (s) Sess 13. cap. 1. that our Saviour himself should alway sit at the right hand of the Father in Heaven according to a natural manner of existing and yet nevertheless be Sacramentally present to us by his substance in other places after that way of existing which though we can scarce express in words yet we believe to be possible to God And again (t) Ib. cap. 3. which shews it yet more to speak of Christ's glorified Body the Faith of the Church hath always been that presently after the Consecration the true Body and true Blood of Christ together with his Soul and Divinity are under the Species of Bread and Wine But the Body indeed under the Species of Bread and the Blood under the Species of Wine by vertue of the words but the Body it self under the Species of Wine and the Blood under the Species of Bread and the Soul under both by vertue of that natural Connexion and Concomitancy by which the parts of Christ our Lord who is now risen from the Dead now no more to die are coupled among themselves Than which what can be more plain that it is the Body and Blood of Christ as they now are which they affirm to be contained under the Species of those Elements and not as broken and shed for us It is true indeed that when the same Tridentine Fathers come to entreat of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Propriety of that Sacrifice they may seem to sing another Song because as was before * Part 5. observed representing it as the very same Sacrifice with that which he offer'd up upon the Cross But as they sufficiently unsay it again when they represent it as an unbloody Sacrifice and as an Oblation that is made of Christ's Body and Blood
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