a Sin to make us the Children of Wrath and to deserve God's Wrath and Damnation The resolution of it is of no small moment toward the right stating of our duty and the valuableness of that remedy which Christianity hath provided for it For neither otherwise can we look upon Original Sin as any proper matter for our Repentance whatsoever it may be for our lamentation nor upon Baptism as bringing any other pardon to Infants than that of the Sin of their first Parents and which they who look upon Original Sin as rather our unhappiness than fault are generally as far from charging them with This only would be premis'd for the better understanding of it that by Sin is not meant any actual transgression of a Law for no Man was ever so absurd as to affirm that concerning Original Sin but that which is contrary to a Law in the nature of an evil habit and both imports an absence of that Righteousness which ought to be in us and an inclination to those evils from which we ought to be averse This as it is no less the transgression of a Law than any actual sin is so making the person in whom it is as obnoxious to punishment and consequently to be look'd upon as yet more properly a sin Now that that which we call Original Sin is really such in this latter notion will appear if these two things be considered First that the Scripture gives it the title of sin Secondly that it represents it as such upon the account of our being obliged by the Law of God to have in us a contrary temper That the Scripture gives that whereof we speak the title of sin is evident from those Texts which we before made use of to prove the being of it More particularly from that (d) Psa 91.5 which represents David as conceiv'd and born in sin and those (e) Rom. 7 17-20 which represent us all as having sin dwelling in us For these having been before shewn to speak of Original Sin make it evident that the Scripture gives it the title of Sin because in the former places representing it under that notion And though I will not from that only Topick conclude it to be properly such because the Scripture makes use of figurative expressions as well as proper yea doth so in this very particular whereof we speak for thus it sometimes gives the title of sin to that which is intended only as the punishment thereof yet as we may lawfully inferr from thence that there is more cause to believe Original Sin to be properly than figuratively such till the contrary thereof be made appear The proper sense being otherwise to be preferr'd before the figurative So that there can be no place for the figurative sense if that which is there represented as a sin be elsewhere represented as such upon the supposition of our being obliged to have in us the contrary temper Which that it is will appear from such Texts as do more immediately affirm it or such as affirm those things from which it may by good consequence be deduced Of the former sort I reckon that which is immediately subjoyn'd by David to the mention of his being conceiv'd in sin and brought forth in iniquity (f) Psa 51 6. Behold thou requirest truth in the inward parts and shalt or rather hast made me to understand wisdom secretly For as we cannot but look upon what is there said concerning God's requiring truth in the inward parts as spoken with relation to that sin whereof he before complains and to the mention whereof he subjoyns the mention of the other So neither considering it to have been his intent to aggravate his sinfulness before God but look upon it as also his intent to aggravate the sinfulness of his frame by that piety which God required of him Which suppos'd Original Sin will not only be found to be so entituled by the Scripture but to have had that name bestowed upon it upon the account of Men's obligation to the contrary and consequently to be truely and properly such And though there be not it may be many more Texts of that nature or which therefore can be thought so directly to affirm that it becometh the sin of those in whom it is upon the account of their obligation to the contrary Yet will it not be difficult to find others which do as clearly assert those things from which it may by good consequence be deduced Such as are those which make Original Sin to be a proper matter for confession yea to induce a guilt upon the person in whom it is But so the Prophet David doth plainly suppose in that very Psalm which we but now made use of Because not only confessing (g) Psa 51.5 the sinfulness of his Nature together with that of his external actions but begging of God immediately after that confession of his that he would purge him (h) Psa 51.7 with Hyssop from it For as we have no reason to exclude that from the matter of the desir'd purgation which immediately precedes the Prayer that is put up for it So much less reason to doubt after that Prayer for the purgation of it of its inducing a guilt upon the person in whom it is The use of Hyssop in the Old Law as appears by several places (i) Exo. 12.22 Lev. 14.6 in it and a consentient Text in the Epistle to the Hebrews (k) Heb. 9.19 c. being to sprinkle the Blood of the Sacrifices upon those who were any way obnoxious to its censures and so deliver them from the severity thereof For what other then could the Psalmist mean by that Prayer of his than that God would purge him from that and his other sins by the blood of an expiatory Sacrifice Or so meaning be thought to intimate more clearly than that that from which he desir'd to be purg'd stood in need of such a Sacrifice and consequently was no more without its guilt than his actual transgressions were Only if that notion may not be thought to be of sufficient clearness to build so important a Conclusion on it will not be difficult to strengthen it yet more by the word the Hebrew makes us of for purge and those Prayers which the Psalmist subjoyneth to it By the former because literally (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a purification from sin by the latter because importing it to be his desire (m) Psal 51.7 8 9. that God would wash him from it that he would cause those bones that had been broken by it to rejoyce and in fine that he would hide his face from his sins and blot out all his iniquities These as they are known and usual expressions for the remission of sins and consequently importing the guilt of those to whom they are apply'd and their purification from it so with this farther reason to be so taken here because the Psalmist afterwards begs (n) Psal
it who are qualified as Christianity requires for the receiving of it So the only thing therefore farther necessary to be enquir'd into on this Head is how men ought to be qualified for it or as our Catechism expresseth it what is required of them For supposing those praerequisites of Baptism he who enjoyns the discipling and baptizing all Nations must consequently be suppos'd to enjoyn the administring of it to all such in whom those praerequisites are Now there are two things again as our Catechism instructs us which are requir'd of all those that are to be baptized Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises made to them in that Sacrament And for these two things at least it hath the astipulation of the Scripture and I may add also of that Profession which is made by the baptized person in Baptism and which having before establish'd I may now the more securely argue from Witness for the Scripture S. Peter's †Acts 2.38 enjoyning those Jews who demanded of him and the rest what they ought to do in order to their salvation to repent and so be baptiz'd in the name of the Lord Jesus And Philip's replying upon the Eunuch who ask'd what did hinder him to be baptiz'd that if he believ'd * Acts 8.37 with all his heart he might Thereby more than intimating that if he did not he could not be baptiz'd at all though all other things concurred to the receiving of it And indeed what less can be suppos'd to be requir'd of such persons when as was before †Expl. of Bapt. Part 8. observ'd the baptized person makes Profession in his Baptism of renouncing all sin and wickedness and of a belief in that Jesus into whose Religion he is admitted That Profession of his supposing Repentance and Faith to have been before in him as without which otherwise he could not there make a sincere Profession of renouncing sin or of believing in the name of the Lord Jesus But so that I may add that by the way the Antient Church appears to have requir'd before she admitted men to the participation of Baptism Justin Martyr where he professeth to give a sincere account of her doings in this affair telling those he wrote his Apology to that such as were persuaded and believ'd that the things taught and said by the Christians were true (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. p. 93. and moreover took upon them so to live were taught to pray and ask of God with fasting the forgiveness of their former sins and then and not till then brought by them to the place of Baptism and there regenerated after the same manner with themselves Which is so clear a proof of the Antients believing Repentance and Faith to be prerequisites of Baptism that nothing need to be added to it For the clearing of the first of which we are to know that though Repentance in strict speech be nothing else than a sorrow of mind for those sins we stand guilty of before God Yet as even so it presupposeth a right apprehension of those sins as without which we could never be brought to a due sorrow for them so taking Repentance as our Catechism and the Scripture also sometime doth as one of the two prerequisites of Baptism For S. Paul in one place (b) Acts 20.21 makes that Repentance and Faith the sum of his Preaching to the Jews and Greeks and in another (c) Heb. 6.1 the foundation of our Christianity it will be found to imply in it whatsoever that sorrow for sin doth naturally dispose men to as well as that sorrow it self The same S. Paul elsewhere professing that he shewed both to the Jews and Gentiles that they should turn unto God as well as Repent and do works meet for Repentance as well as either To attain therefore a due understanding of this Repentance as well as to clear that definition of it which our Catechism hath given us it will be necessary for us to enquire what this Repentance doth presuppose what it imports and to what it doth dispose us That which Repentance doth most manifestly presuppose is a right apprehension of that sin about which it is to be conversant And may be fetch'd in part from the dictates of our own reason but more especially from the declarations of Christianity concerning it Such as are that sin is the transgression of a Law and particularly of that of God and that as such it justly exposeth us to his wrath and indignation Partly as it is a violation of his Authority to whom we are naturally subject and partly as an equal affront to his goodness who gives us our being and all things else and who therefore ought more diligently to have been attended to In fine that it hath for its wages Death both temporal and eternal and under each of which without the mercy of God in Christ the sinner must necessarily fall For as these are known in part from the dictates of our own reason to be the properties of that sin whereof we speak So they are much more known to be so from the Doctrine of Christianity and consequently to be known by us toward a right apprehension of that which ought to be the matter of our sorrow But from hence it will be easie to collect what that sorrow for sin doth import which is requir'd of all those that take upon them the Profession of Christianity Even that it importeth such a sorrow of mind as hath a regard to the violation of God's Authority and Goodness by it as well as to the evils which are like to arise to it from our selves Our sorrow being in reason to be suited to that which is most considerable in the object of it And indeed as otherwise it will be rather a sorrow for punishment than sin because sin as such is a transgression of God's Law and consequently our sorrow for it to have a more especial regard to the affront that is offer'd him thereby So it will much less deserve those titles which are given it by the Scripture of being a sorrow or repentance toward (d) Acts 20.21 God for so it is sometime stil'd and a sorrow (e) 2 Cor. 7.9 according to God or a Godly one as it also is That being neither toward God nor according to God which hath not a regard to that affront which is offer'd to him by sin as well as to the evils which are like to accrue unto our selves But because even such a sorrow will not qualifie us for Baptism unless we add thereto what the same sorrow doth naturally dispose us to Therefore to make out more fully the true nature of Repentance as well as to clear our Churches definition of it I will proceed to that and shew what those things are Of which nature I reckon first an ingenuous confession of sin and earnest prayer to God for the pardon of it Sorrow
51.10 that God would purifie him from the filth of them and renew a right spirit within him VI. Now though from what hath been said it be competently evident that the Doctrine of Original Sin is not without good Authority to warrant it yet because that Doctrine hath been impugned by the Pelagians of Old and since that by the followers of Socinus therefore it may not be amiss for the farther clearing of it to consider their Objections against it and either return a direct and satisfactory answer to them or at least shew that they ought not however to be admitted as a bar against what the Scripture hath said concerning it To begin with those Objections which respect the being of it or rather tend to shew that it hath no being in the World Which are either such as consider it as a simple corruption of humane Nature or such as do also consider it as a sinful one Of the former sort are those which represent it as a thing unconceivable how it should come into humane Nature which the better to persuade they alledge plausible reasons against all those means whereby it may be suppos'd to find admittance For these being destroy'd they think they may lawfully inferr that there is indeed no such depravation upon humane Nature Of what force those reasons are will be then more seasonable to enquire when I consider what is objected against the fountain of Original Corruption or the means by which it is convey'd At present it may suffice to say that of what force soever they may be thought to be yet they are not of sufficient force to destroy the being of Original Corruption which is the thing for which they are here alledg'd Partly because many things may be yea be assur'd to us of the original or conveyance whereof we our selves are perfectly ignorant for who doubts of the being of humane Souls though he neither knows nor well can whether they be traduc'd or infus'd and partly because the testimony of Scripture with the experience we have of its effects is a much more forcible argument of the being of it than all the former reasons are of the other These being direct and immediate proofs of its existence whereas the other are only indirect and mediate From such objections therefore as consider Original Sin as a simple Corruption of humane Nature pass we to those which consider it also as sinful and which indeed seem most hardly to press upon it Such as are that all sin is the transgression of a Law which Original Sin seems not to be That it requires the consent of the will of him in whom it is which cannot well be affirm'd of that As in fine that the Scripture it self may seem to make that which we call Original Sin rather the Parent of Sin than sin it self because making sin to arise (o) James 1.13 c. from the conception and parturition of it As to what is objected from the forementioned Scripture it is either nothing at all to the purpose or very much against the purpose of those that alledge it Partly because by the sin there spoken of can be meant no other than actual sin and nothing therefore to be concluded from thence but that all actual sin is the product of Men's Lust and partly because that Text makes even actual sins to be the product of Men's Lust yea of such a lust as draweth them aside and enticeth them For who can well think the Parent of such Children to be of a better Nature than the Children themselves especially when she is described as giving birth to them by false and deceitful Arts Such Arts as those reflecting no great honour upon the Mother but on the contrary making her to be altogether as criminal as the other If therefore they who impugn Original Sin as such would do it with any advantage it must not be by Arguments drawn from Scripture which will rather hurt than profit them but by Arguments drawn from reason and particularly by such as represent Original Sin as no transgression of a Law and therefore no sin properly so call'd or as a thing which hath not the consent of the will of him in whom it is and therefore yet farther removed from it As concerning the former of these even that which represents Original Sin as no transgression of a Law I answer that they who so speak must deny it to be such either because it is no Act or because there is no Law which it can be suppos'd to be a transgression of If the former of these be their meaning I willingly grant what they alledge but I say withall that it will not from thence follow that it is no sin at all For if Men are obliged by the divine Law to a pious and innocent temper as well as not to swerve from it in their actions the want of that happy temper or the having a contrary one will be as much the transgression of a Law as the want of the same piety in their actions Which will consequently devolve the whole force of that Objection upon the supposition of there being no such Law of God which requires the former temper or which therefore Original Sin can be thought to be a transgression of But as I have already made it appear in some measure that there is in truth such a Law as requires a pious and innocent temper so I shall now endeavour to strengthen it by some more particular proofs and by answering those exceptions that are made against it In order to the former whereof we are to know that as the Law we speak of must be supposed to have been given to Adam as that too not only in his private but publick capacity and as he may be thought to have been the representative of all Mankind there being no other Law which can be suppos'd to concern us before we come to be in a capacity to apprehend and obey it so I shall endeavour to make it appear first that there was such a Law given to Adam and then that it was given to him not only in his private but publick capacity and as he may be thought to have been the representative of all Mankind Now that there was a Law given to Adam requiring a pious and innocent temper as well as the preserving that piety and innocency in his actions will need no other proof than God's creating him in it and the love he may be supposed to bear unto it For as we cannot think God would have ever intrusted such a Jewel with Adam if it had not been his intention that he should preserve and exercise it so much less when the holiness of the divine Nature persuades his love to it as well as the declarations of his word For what were this but to make God indifferent what became of his most excellent gifts which no wise person and much less so hearty a lover of them can be supposed to be If
proof than his being not the first committer of sin even in this sublunary World but that Serpent who tempted our first Parents to it For as he and his fellow Angels sinned before them in those glorious seats in which they were first bestow'd So he sinned also before them here by that temptation which he suggested to them and without which they had not fallen from their integrity Which as it is an evidence of sin 's not entring in by Adam in that sense and consequently that that was not the sense intended by S. Paul So is the more to be considered because S. John attributes this entrance of sin to the Devil (q) 1. Joh. 3.8 yea makes all the committers of sin to be therefore of him But besides that Adam was not the first of those that sinned and we therefore not so to understand S. Paul when describing sin as entring by him Neither was he the first of humane kind that sinned which will be a yet farther prejudice to the former surmise For as we learn from the story of the Fall (r) Gen. 3.6 yea from this very Apostle elsewhere (Å¿) 1 Tim. 2.14 Adam was not deceiv'd that is to say was not the first that was so but the Woman being deceiv'd was in the transgression Which what is it but to say that sin did not enter in by Adam in that sense and consequently that that was not the sense intended by the Apostle in it Only if it be said and more than that cannot be said in it that we are not so to understand S. Paul when describing sin as entring by Adam as not also to suppose him to connote the Partner both of his Bed and of his transgression As I will not be forward to deny the suggestion altogether because believing them both to have contributed to the production of our transgressions as well as Nature so I cannot forbear to say upon the account of that which follows that we ought to consider Adam as the more especial instrument in it Because S. Paul not only represents him (t) Rom. 5.14 in particular as the Type or Figure of him that was to come but both describes him all along under the notion of one Man (u) Rom. 12.15 16. c. yea makes a great part of the likeness that was between him and Christ to consist in it Which could by no means have been proper if he had meant no other by sin's entring in by Adam than entring in by him as one of the first committers of it For in this sense Eve must necessarily have had the preeminence because not only offending before her Husband but tempting even him to do the same From that first sense therefore pass we to the second and which indeed is both more antient and plausible than the former For as it is as old as that Pelagius (w) Vid. Voss Hist Pelag. li. 2. parte 2. Thes 1. who first call'd Original Sin in question so it allows the sin of Adam to have had an influence upon other Men's sins as well as to have given beginning to the being of it But that it hath as little solidity or pertinency to the words whereunto it is apply'd will appear if we reflect upon the sequel of S. Paul's Discourse or the subject matter of that which is offered as the interpretation of it For is there any reason to think without which that interpretation can be of no avail that Adam by his sin tempted all his posterity to offend Nay is there not reason enough to believe that that example of his contributed little to Men's following sins yea contributed nothing at all to many of them For how many Men have there been to whom the knowledge of his sin never reach'd How many are there yet who are under the same ignorance or may hereafter be And must not these therefore be look'd upon as exempted from the influence of his ill example and consequently if their sins entred in by Adam be acknowledg'd to have entred some other way And though the same be not to be said of those to whom the Scriptures have come because those are not without the knowledge of his sin nor incapable of being influenc'd by his example Yet is there as little reason to think that that example of his contributes much to their sins or indeed ever did to theirs who lived nearer to him and so were more likely to have been inflicted by him For beside that a sin so chastis'd as that was was not very likely to draw their thoughts towards it and therefore as little likely to tempt them to the imitation of it Beside that many of them might have no actual consideration of it as no doubt many now have not even when they offend in the like kind They might have been influenc'd and no doubt were by other sins of his as much or more than by his first transgression or by the ill examples of those that were nearer to them rather than by any of his In fine they might have been and no doubt often were influenced by the baits of pleasure or profit and thereby drawn aside from their integrity These having been as apt to influence them as the example of that sin by which their several offences are suppos'd to have entred into the World And I shall only add that as that sense cannot therefore be reasonably impos'd if we regard as no doubt we ought the subject matter of it So we shall find as little encouragement for it from the sequel of his Discourse whose words are now under consideration For beside that he himself may seem sufficiently to obviate it by affirming presently after (x) Rom. 5.14 that there were many of those that sinned that did not nor well could sin after the similitude of Adam's transgression because knowing nothing at all of any such positive law as he transgress'd It is the main design of his Discourse to compare the good that Christ brought by his obedience with the hurt which that type of his did by his transgression Which comparison had been but a frigid one if all the hurt that Adam did us was by the force of his ill example Because it is certain that Christ's obedience was of a much more efficacious influence in the kind of it as well as in the degree and would therefore rather have been vilified than any way illustrated or commended by the comparison if the malign influence of Adam's sin had reach'd no farther than that of an example I conclude therefore that what ever was meant by sin's entring in by Adam yet something more was meant by it than its entring by him either as the first committer of it or as one who by his ill example tempted others to do the like And indeed as the instance but now alledg'd even the likeness that is between Adam's sin and Christ's obedience makes it but reasonable to look upon all sin as entring also by
therefore there can be any doubt concerning the Law we speak of it must be as to its having been given to Adam in his publick capacity and as he may be suppos'd to have been the representative of all Mankind Which I shall endeavour to evince first by shewing what I mean by his publick capacity secondly by shewing that Adam was set in such a capacity and thirdly that the Law we speak of was given to him as considered in it By the publick capacity of Adam I mean such a one whereby as he was design'd to be the Father of all Mankind so God made him a kind of Trustee for it In order thereunto both giving him what he did for their benefit as well as his own and obliging him for their sakes as well as his own to see to the preservation of it and act agreeably to it Which if he did his Posterity as well as himself should have the benefit thereof and God's favour together with it but if not forfeit together with him what God had so bestow'd upon him and incurr the penalty of his displeasure Now that Adam was set in such a capacity which is the second thing to be demonstrated will appear from the Scriptures making him the cause of all Men's death by his offence and disobedience For the effects of another disobedience being not otherwise chargeable upon any Man than as that other may be suppos'd to be appointed to act for him If the effects of Adam's disobedience were to fall upon all his Posterity he also must be supposed to have been appointed to act for them and consequently to have been set in that publick capacity whereof I speak Which will leave nothing more for us to shew upon this Head than that that Law which requires a pious and innocent temper was given to Adam in that capacity But as we can as little doubt of that if his contracting a contrary temper was as fatal to his Posterity as to himself So that it was will need no other proof than his producing the like temper in them and that temper 's proving as deadly to them The former whereof is evident from what I before said to shew that Original Sin had its beginning from Adam the latter from S. Paul's (p) Rom. 7.24 calling it a Body of Death or a Body that brings it The Genitive Case (q) Grot. in loc among the Hebrews and Hellenists being usually set for such Adjectives as betoken a causality in them Even as the Savour of Death is us'd for a deadly one or that which bringeth death and the Tree of Life for a life-giving one or that which was apt to produce or continue it I deny not indeed that I may now pass to those Exceptions that are commonly made against it that it may seem hard to conceive how Adam should be set in such a capacity as to involve all mankind in happiness or misery according as he either continued in or fell from that integrity wherein God created him I deny not therefore but that it is equally hard to conceive how God should give him such a Law the observation or transgression whereof on his part should redound to the account of his Posterity But as every thing that is hard to be conceiv'd is not therefore to be deny'd if it be otherwise strengthen'd with sufficient proofs So it would be consider'd also whether it be not much more hard to conceive how God should otherwise involve Infants and Children in those calamities into which they often fall especially in National Judgments It being certainly more agreeable to the divine Justice to conceive those to have some way or other offended and consequently thereto to have fallen under the displeasure of it than to conceive them to suffer it without any offence at all For why then should we not think especially when the Scripture hath led the way that God oblig'd them in Adam to a pious and innocent temper and which they losing in him they became obnoxious with him to the same sad effects of his displeasure And though it be true that there is this great imparity between the cases that the effect of God's displeasure upon occasion of Original Sin is made to reach to eternal misery as well as to a temporal one whereas the case we before instanc'd in concerns only a temporal punishment Yet as they do thus far agree that a punishment is inflicted where there is no actual sin to deserve it which is sufficiently irreconcileable with the understanding we otherwise have of the divine Justice So that great imparity may be much abated by considering that God hath provided a Plaster as large as the Sore even by giving his Son to dye for all Mankind and appointed the Sacrament of Baptism to convey the benefit of it For as the consequents of Original Sin will be thereby taken off from so many Infants at least as are admitted to that Sacrament so that mercy of his to those and the assurance we have from the Scripture of his giving his Son to dye for all may perswade us to believe that though he hath not reveal'd the particular way to us yet he hath some other way to convey the benefit of that death to those who are not admitted to the other But it will be said it may be which is a no less prejudice against the being of Original Sin that all sin to make it truly such must have the consent of the will of those in whom it is as well as be the transgression of a Law A thing by no means to be affirm'd concerning that which we call Original Sin because not only contracted before we had a being and therefore also before we had so much as the faculty of willing but moreover conveyed to us when we had neither reason to apprehend it nor any power in our wills either to admit or reject it And indeed how altogether to take off the force of that Objection is beyond my capacity to apprehend or satisfie the understandings of other Men Because as I cannot see how any thing can be a sin which hath not also the consent of the will of those in whom it is so I am as little able to conceive how Original Sin should have the consent of ours either when it was first contracted or when it was transmitted to us But as I am far less able to conceive how Infants and Children should come to be so severely dealt with without any offence at all or therefore without having some way or other consented to one So I think first that that difficulty may well be laid in the ballance against the other yea alledged as a bar to the supposed force of it For why should my inability to apprehend how Infants and Children could consent to Original Sin prevail with me to deny the being of it when a far greater inability to apprehend how the same persons should come to be so severely dealt withal
those two Sacraments which he had before intreated of and which he affirms in the next words the guilt of that sin in Children to be loosed by concerning which the Scripture affirms that no one is free from it though his Life be but of a days continuance PART XI How the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ought to be receiv'd The Contents The receit of this Sacrament suppos'd by the present Question and that therefore first established against the Doctrine of those who make the supposed Sacrifice thereof to be of use to them who partake not Sacramentally of it Enquiry next made How we ought to prepare our selves for it how to demean our selves at the celebration of it and in what Posture to receive it The preparation taken notice of by our Catechism the Examination of our selves whether we truly repent us of our sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life c. and the both necessity and means of that Examination accordingly declar'd The examination of our Repentance more particularly insisted upon and that shewn to be most advantageously made by enquiring how we have gain'd upon those sins which we profess to repent of and particularly upon our most prevailing ones which how they are to be discover'd is therefore enquir'd into and the marks whereby they are to be known assigned and explain'd A transition from thence to the examination of the stedfastness of our Purposes to lead a new Life of our Faith in God through Christ our remembrance of his Death and Charity Where the necessity of that Examination is evinced and the means whereby we may come to know whether we have those Qualifications in us discover'd and declar'd How we ought to demean our selves at the celebration of this Sacrament in the next place enquir'd into and that shewn to be by intending that Service wherewith it is celebrated and suiting our Affections to the several parts of it The whole concluded with enquiring in what posture of Body this Sacrament ought to be receiv'd Where is shewn first that the Antients so far as we can judge by their Writings receiv'd in a posture of Adoration and particularly in the posture of standing Secondly that several of the Reformed Churches receive in that or the like posture and that those that do not do not condemn those that do Thirdly that there is nothing in the Example of Christ and his Disciples at the first Celebration of this Supper to oblige us to receive it sitting nor yet in what is alledg'd from the suitableness of that Posture to a Feast and consequently to the present one This as it is a Feast of a different nature from common ones and therefore not to receive Laws from them so the receit thereof intended to express the grateful resentment we have of the great Blessing of our Redemption and stir up other Men to the like resentment of it Neither of which can so advantageously be done as by receiving the Symbols of this Sacrament in such a posture of Body as shews the regard we have for him who is the Author of it VI. THE sixth and last Question proposed to be discoursed of Question What is requir'd of them who come to the Lord's Supper Answer To examin themselves whether they repent them truly of their former sins stedfastly purposing to lead a new Life have a lively Faith in God's mercy through Christ with a thankful remembrance of his Death and be in charity with all men is How this Sacrament ought to be receiv'd Which Question I have proposed in those terms partly that it may come so much the nearer to the last Question of our own Catechism and partly because there is no one sort of Men that doth expresly deny that it ought to be receiv'd by all that are qualified for it as well as administred by those who are the proper Stewards of it For though the Socinians out of a belief of Baptism's being proper only to Jewish or Gentile Converts have thrown off that Sacrament altogether and which is more have represented the shewing forth of Christ's Death as the only design of this yet they have thought fit to retain the use of it as a thing enjoin'd by our Lord himself Though the Tridentine Fathers have also in a great measure transform'd this Sacrament into a thing of another nature and accordingly pointed out other ways for Men to receive benefit by it beside their communicating at it Yet they have declar'd an Anathema (a) Sess 13. Can. 9. against any one that shall deny all and singular the faithful People of Christ to be oblig'd when they come to years of discretion to communicate every year at least at Easter according to the Precept of holy Mother the Church Only because those Fathers seem to found even that single Communion upon the Precept of the Church or at least do not represent it as enjoin'd by any Divine Law And because though they elsewhere profess to wish that they who assist at their several Masses did also Sacramentally communicate at them for their receiving greater benefit by them (b) Sess 22. cap. 6. yet they represent even those where the Priest alone Communicates as common to them that do not I think it not amiss to premise something concerning the obligation of the Faithful to receive this Sacrament as well as to assist at the celebration of it and examine what those Fathers alledge for their loosing the Faithful from it That the Faithful are under an obligation of receiving this Sacrament as well as of assisting at the celebration of it is so evident from the words of the Institution that I know not how our Saviour could have more expresly enjoin'd it For Take Eat saith he concerning the Bread of it And Drink ye all of it saith the same Jesus concerning the Cup With this farther Reason as we learn from the Hoc est enim corpus meum and Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei in the Roman Missal because the one is his Body and the other as certainly the Cup of his Blood as that Missal expresseth it So that if a Command with so substantial a Reason annex'd may be concluded to be obligatory the receit of this Sacrament is And we can no more be freed from doing it than we can be freed from believing that it is Christ's Body and Blood that is tender'd to us or believing it than we may reject so signal a Blessing as that is which was either broken or shed for our Redemption For what is this but as the Author to the Hebrews speaks (c) Heb. 10.28 29. to despise not Moses's Law but one the transgression whereof is worthy of a sorer punishment yea to tread under foot the Son of God and count the Blood of the Covenant wherewith we are sanctified an unholy thing and as such contemptuously to reject it Neither will it avail to say as possibly it may be that they cannot be look'd upon as despisers