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
Disciples and requiring them to take and eat of it The words This is my body next taken into consideration and more particularly and minutely explain'd Where is shewn at large that by the word This must be meant This Bread and that there is nothing in the gender of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hinder it That by body must be meant that body which Christ now carried about him and was shortly after to suffer in and that the sigurativeness of the proposition lies in the word is Vpon occasion whereof is also shewn that that word is oftentime figuratively taken that it ought to be so taken here and that accordingly it imports the Bread to be a sign and a memorial and a means of partaking of Christ's body This part of the Institution concluded with an explication of the words which is given or broken for you and a more ample one of Christ's commanding his Disciples to do this in remembrance of him Where the precept Do this is shewn to refer to what Christ had before done or enjoyned them to do And they enjoyn'd so to do to renew in themselves a grateful remembrance of Christ's death or prompt other Men to the like remembrance of it That part of the Institution which respects the Cup more succinctly handled and enquiry made among other things into the declaration which our Saviour makes concerning its being his Blood of the New Testament or the New Testament in it Where is shewn What that is which our Saviour affirms to be so what is meant by his Blood of the New Testament or The New Testament in it and how the Cup or rather the Wine of it was that Blood of his or the New Testament in it pag. 173. The Contents of the Fourth Part. Of the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper BRead and Wine ordinarily the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper and the Heresie of the Aquarii upon that account enquir'd into and censur'd The kind of Bread and Wine enjoin'd in the next place examin'd and a more particular Enquiry thereupon Whether the Wine ought to be mix'd with Water and what was the Ground of the Antients Practice in this Affair The same Elements consider'd again with respect to Christ's Body and Blood whether as to the Vsage that Body and Blood of his receiv'd when he was subjected unto Death or as to the Benefit that was intended and accru'd to us by them In the former of which Notions they become a Sign of Christ's Body and Blood by what is done to them before they come to be administred and by the separate administration of them In the latter by the use they are of to nourish and refresh us Of the Obligation the Faithful are under to receive the Sacrament in both kinds and a resolution of those Arguments that are commonly alleg'd to justifie the Romish Churches depriving them of the Cup. pag. 197. The Contents of the Fifth Part. Of the inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it THE inward Part of the Lord's Supper or the thing signified by it is either what is signified on the part of God and Christ or on the part of the Receiver of it The former of these brought under Consideration and shewn to be the Body and Blood of Christ not as they were at or before the Institution of this Sacrament or as they now are but as they were at the time of his Crucifixion as moreover then offered up unto God and offer'd up to him also as a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World The Consequences of that Assertion briefly noted both as to the presence of that Body and Blood in the Sacrament and our perception of them The things signified on the part of the Receiver in the next place consider'd and these shewn to be First a thankful Remembrance of the Body and Blood of Christ consider'd as before described Secondly our Communion with those who partake with us of that Body and Blood Thirdly a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them The two latter of these more particularly insisted on and that Communion and Resolution not only shewn from the Scripture to be signified on the part of the Receiver but confirmed by the Doctrine and Practice of the Antient Church pag. 213. The Contents of the sixth Part. What farther relation the Sign of the Lord's Supper hath to the Body and Blood of Christ THE outward Part or Sign of this Sacrament consider'd with a more particular regard to the Body and Blood of Christ and Enquiry accordingly made what farther relation it beareth to it That it is a Means whereby we receive the same as well as a Sign thereof shewn from the Doctrine of our Church and that Doctrine confirm'd by Saint Paul's entitling it the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood and by his affirming Men to be made to drink into one Spirit by partaking of the Cup of it Enquiry next made what kind of Means this Sign of the Lord's Supper is how it conveys to us the Body and Blood of Christ and how we receive them by it To each of which Answer is made from the Doctrine of our Church and that Answer farther confirm'd by the Doctrine of the Scripture The sum of which is that this Sign of the Lord's Supper is so far forth a Mean spiritual and heavenly That it conveys the Body and Blood of Christ to us by prompting us to reflect as the Institution requires upon that Body and Blood of his and by prompting God who hath annex'd them to the due use of the Sign to bestow that Body and Blood upon us In fine that we receive them by the Sign thereof when we take occasion from thence to reflect upon that Body and Blood of Christ which it was intended to represent and particularly with Faith in them What Benefits we receive by Christ's Body and Blood in the next place enquir'd and as they are resolv'd by our Catechism to be the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul so Enquiry thereupon made what is meant by the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul what Evidence there is of Christ's Body and Blood being intended for it and how they effect it The Sign of the Lord's Supper a Pledge to assure us of Christ's Body and Blood as well as a Means whereby we receive them pag. 219. The Contents of the Seventh Part. Of Transubstantiation THE Doctrine of Transubstantiation briefly deduc'd from the Council of Trent and digested into four capital Assertions Whereof the first is that the whole substance of the Bread is chang'd into the substance of Christ's Body and the whole substance of the Wine into the substance of his Blood The grounds of this Assertion examin'd both as to the possibility and actual being of such a change What is alledgâ—d for the former of these from the substantial changes mention'd in the Scripture of no force in this
consider it as a Feast a Supper-feast or a Supper-feast of the Lord Because intended as a Communion of that Body and Blood by which we are to be nourished to eternal life instituted at first at Supper time and both instituted by and intended for a Commemoration of our Lord. Next to the name of the Lord's Supper reckon we that of the Eucharist or Thanksgiving for so the word Eucharist imports A name thought to have been given to it in the time of the Writel of the New Testament but however following close after it For thus they are wont to interpret what we find in St. Paul (g) 1 Cor. 14.16 17. where he disputes against praying in an unknown tongue Else when thou shalt bless with the Spirit how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy Eucharist or giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest For thou verily givest thanks or celebratest the Eucharist well but the other is not edified Where we have not only the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are made use of to denote what our Saviour did to the Elements of this Sacrament but an intimation of that Amen which we shall understand afterwards from Justin Martyr to be return'd to the office of it However that be most certain it is that this name of Eucharist followed presently upon those times as appears by the familiar use of it in Ignatius's Epistles For thus he tells us in one place (h) Ep. ad Smyrn pag. 5. ed Voss That certain hereticks abstain'd from the Eucharist and prayer because they confess'd not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ And presently after (i) ib. pag. 6. Let that Eucharist be accounted firm which is under the Bishop or to whom he shall commit it As without whom as it follows it is not lawful to Baptize or celebrate a Love-feast but only what he shall approve In fine saith the same Ignatius elsewhere (k) Ep. ad Phil. pag. 40. endeavour therefore to use one Eucharist For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and one Cup for the union of his Blood Agreeable hereto that I may not now descend any lower was the language of Justin Martyr's time as may appear from these following testimonies Where he doth not only shew this to have been the name of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper but acquaints us with the reasons of their so denominating it After prayers saith he (l) Apol. 2. pag. 97. are done we salute one another Then is offer'd to him who presides over the Brethren Bread and a cup of Water and Wine Which he taking sendeth forth praise and glory to the Father of the Vniverse through the name of the Son and Holy Ghost and maketh a large Thanksgiving unto God for that we have been made worthy of these things by him Having thus completed the prayers and Thanksgiving all the people present signifie their Assent to it by an Amen which in the Hebrew Tongue is as much as So be it After that the President hath thus given thanks and the people answer'd Amen they who among us are called Deacons give to every one that is present of that Bread and Wine and Water over which thanks hath been given and carry it to those that are absent And this Food saith he is among us called the Eucharist to wit because of the Thanksgivings before remembred To the like purpose doth the same Father discourse elsewhere (m) Dial. cum Tryph. Jud. pag. 259 c. speaking still of the same Sacrament of the Lord's Supper And that offering of fine flowre which was delivered to be offered for those that were cleansed from the Leprosy was a type of the Bread of the Eucharist which Jesus Christ our Lord commanded us to celebrate in remembrance of that passion which he suffered for those that are cleansed in their Souls from all the wickedness of Men That we might at the same time give thanks or keep an Eucharist to God both for his having made the World and all things in it for the sake of man and for his having delivered us from that wickedness in which we sometime were and having perfectly dissolv'd Principalities and Powers by him who was made passible according to his will From which places it is evident that as the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper had at that time the title of the Eucharist or Thanksgiving so it receiv'd its name from those Thanksgivings which were us'd over the Elements thereof and which what they were I shall in another place have a more fit occasion to enquire All I desire to observe at present is that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper receiving one of its most noted names from those Thanksgivings that were us'd over the Elements thereof we are in reason to think that those Thanksgivings contribute in a great measure to that saving nature and efficacy they put on I may not forget to add because that seems as antient as any that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was also known by the name of breaking of Bread Not only the Syriack version but reason also obliging us so to understand St. Luke where he tells us that the first Converts of the Apostles (n) Acts 2.42 continued stedfast in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in prayer As again of the Disciples of Ephesus (o) Acts 20.7 that they came together on the first day of the week to break Bread For what other breaking of Bread can we understand there where it is joyn'd with the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and prayers and moreover made the special business of the Assemblies of that day which was from the beginning set apart for the honour and service of Almighty God Agreeable hereto was the language of Ignatius's time as appears by this following testimony He describing those (p) ep ad Ephes pag. 29. who communicate with the Bishop and his Presbytery in the exercises of Religion as breaking that one Bread which is the medicine of immortality an antidote against death and a means of living in Jesus Christ for ever And it had no doubt its original from the Hebrews manner of speaking who as I have elsewhere (q) Expl. of the Lord's Prayer in the words Give us this day out daily Bread shewn under the title of Bread comprehended the whole of their entertainments and from the breaking of the Bread of the Eucharist's being one special ceremony about it and intended as St. Paul remarks (r) 1 Cor. 11.24 to signifie the Breaking of Christ's body After which if any Man can think fit to make use of such like passages to justifie a Communion in one kind he may as well hope to shew that even the Feasts of the Hebrews for of such I have shew'n (ſ) Expl. of the Lord's Prayer ubi supra the word Bread to
for you as St. Luke Yet as they all say enough to shew that this Sacrament of Bread and Wine was intended for a Representation of our Saviour's Passion and the violence that was then offer'd to his crucified Body so they do thereby sufficiently intimate that the breaking of the Bread was intended as a Representation of it There being nothing in the Bread to represent this to us but only the breaking of it This however is evident that our Saviour brake that Bread which he before took and blessed And that Rite of breaking was afterwards look'd upon as so considerable that it gave Name to the Sacrament it self and the whole of it from that one Rite entituled The breaking of Bread Our Saviour having thus taken and blessed and broken Bread for thus far to be sure we have Bread whatever we have beside he proceeds to give it to his Disciples For so the three Evangelists assure us Not that the Original of those Evangelists hath any thing in it to express the thing given but that it speaks of his giving somewhat to them and which considering the connexion of this Act of Christ with the former ones cannot reasonably be understood of any other than the Bread which he had before taken and blessed and broken And though St. Paul take no notice of this Gift of our Saviour's in the rehearsal he makes of this his Institution Yet he sufficiently intimates it when he brings him in saying Take Eat This is my Body c. His willing them to take and eat implying his parting with it that they might partake of it This however is manifest from the Evangelists that what our Saviour before took and blessed and brake he gave to his Disciples and I suppose to each of the Disciples in particular and by reaching it forth unto them The former being the manner of that Eucharist by which he fram'd his own Both the one and the other the Ancient Practice of the Church whether by the Hands of him that blessed it or of those Deacons that ministred to him I will not spend time in animadverting upon the words Take Eat which he us'd with the giving of the Bread It may suffice to say as to the former of these that as it is and always was the manner of Guests to take or receive into their hands or in some plate which they held in them what was given to them by another so the Antients knew no other taking or receiving of this Bread than that which was performed by them As little need to be said concerning that eating which our Saviour subjoin'd to the Command of taking or receiving what he gave them Unless there could be any doubt of that 's being Bread which was now to be eaten by them For as what it is to eat Bread is sufficiently known even after we have put it into our mouths to chew it there and transmit it from thence into our Stomachs for the nourishment of our Bodies So that it was Bread which they were commanded to eat St. Paul plainly shews in the words (m) 1 Cor. 11.26 27. which he subjoins to the Institution of this Sacrament He affirming the worthy Receiver of the Eucharist to eat Bread as well as the most unworthy one To go on therefore to those words which our Saviour subjoyn'd to his Precept of taking and eating even those most noted ones This is my Body Words which the wanton Wits of Men have transform'd into many shapes and those too no less monstrous than what they design'd to inferr from them Whereas if they were consider'd without any sinister Affections they would as Aretius long since observ'd (n) Com. in Mat. 26.26 Quomodo autem verae sint propositiones illae Panis est corpus Christi Vinum est sanguis Christi anxie disputatum est Res tamen sint affectibus simplicem habet intellectum Verae sunt ut aliae sacramentales loquutiones Agnus est transitus Circumcisio est foedus sacrificia sunt remissio peccatorum Baptismus est ablutio peccatorum In quibus nemo est tam stupidus ut nodos sibi quaerat Sed ut symbola sacramentalia hae res nominatae accipiuntur Ita judicandum de his propositionibus etiam puto have receiv'd a plain and simple Vnderstanding and which Men would otherwise no more have bogled at than at other Speeches of the like nature For this is my Body and This is my Blood are true as other sacramental Speeches are A Lamb is the Passover Circumcision is a Covenant Sacrifices are the remission of Sins and Baptism the washing away of them In which no Man is so stupid as to seek to entangle himself or go about to create Scruples to other Men. For these things are taken as sacramental Symbols and so I suppose we ought to judge of the former Propositions also Only because there is no one particle in the words This is my Body which hath not among prejudiced Men ministred matter for Dispute I will be so much the more minute in my Explication of them and first of the word This. This is my Body Now that which unprejudiced Men would undoubtedly think to be intended by the word This was the Bread before spoken of and which our Saviour is said to have taken blessed broken and given to his Disciples with a design they should take and eat of it Partly because that was the thing manifestly intended all along and therefore by the common Rules of Construction to be understood also here And partly because the demonstrative Particle This must by the natural importance of it be thought to point out something certain and apparent to them which hitherto nothing but the Bread of the Sacrament was Thus I say unprejudiced Men would be apt to think of the word This though they had nothing to direct them but the words of the Institution How much more then if they should reflect upon what St. Paul (o) 1 Cor. 11.26 27. subjoyneth to and inferreth from them in the account he gives us of that Affair For as often saith he as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew forth the Lord's Death till he come And again Wherefore whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. For it appearing from the words of the Institution that the word This referrs to that which was given them to eat which St. Paul affirmeth to be Bread it must consequently be thought to denote not this Being or Substance in common or individuum vagum or the like but this Bread as St. Paul doth twice express it Conformable hereto whether the Romanists will or no is their own Opinion of the Bread's being transubstantiated by the words Hoc est corpus meum and that Transubstantiation not effected till the last Syllable of meum is pronounc'd For if that Transubstantiation be not effected till then it must
other words Yet is not that essence or being to be adapted to the nature of that to which it is affixt Now wherein consists the essence or being of such a relative thing as a sacred sign but in the relation which it bears to the thing signified and consequently in its signifying that which it is appointed to mark out And if the essence or being of a sign consists in the relation which it bears to the thing signified may it not as such be said to be that thing which it is intended to signifie For who if ask'd concerning this or that Picture as for instance the Picture of Alexander or Julius Caesar would describe it by a piece of Paper or Cloath or Wood so and so Painted but as such or such a person who did such admirable things in the World Nay who is there that when he sees this or that Picture though he knows them to be but inanimate things doth so much as ask What it is but Who So naturally and almost necessarily do Men take the very being of such a thing to consist in its relation to the person it represents and accordingly do as naturally express themselves in that manner concerning it And if that be the case as to other signs why not in like manner as to this Sacred sign of Christ's Body the Bread Especially if as I shall by and by shew it hath a yet nearer relation to it In order whereunto I will now proceed to shew 3. What the word Is imports in that figurative sense whereof we speak And here in the first place it is easie to observe that the word Is imports that to which it is attributed even the Bread of the Sacrament to be a sign of that Body of Christ which it is affirmed to be Which I do not only affirm upon account of the notion that all Men have of it but upon account of the likeness there is between the Bread broken and the Mortifying of our Saviour's Body and upon account also of the same Body's being affirmed by St. Paul in his History of the Institution to be broken for us There being otherwise no ground for that expression as to the Body of Christ but that the breaking of the Bread was intended to signifie or represent the injury that was offer'd to Christ's Body and consequently that that Bread was so far forth intended as a sign of it Which is no more than the Romanists themselves and particularly Estius have said in this affair and therefore I shall not need to insist upon it I say secondly that as the word Is imports that to which it is attributed to be a sign of Christ's Body so also to be such a sign in particular as was intended to bring Christ's Body and the Crucifixion of it to our own Minds or the Minds of others or in a word to be a memorial of it The former being evident from our Saviour's enjoyning his Disciples presently upon these words to do what he had now taught them in remembrance of himself The latter from St. Paul's telling his Corinthians that as often as they ate that bread and drank that cup they did shew the Lord's death till he came I say thirdly and lastly that the word Is doth likewise import that to which it is attributed to be a means of our partaking of the Body of Christ as well as a sign or a memorial of it Which we shall the less need to doubt when St. Paul (a) 1 Cor. 10.16 doth in express terms represent the Bread which is broken in the Sacrament as the Communion or Communication of the Body of Christ and the Cup of Blessing which is blessed in it as the Communion of his Blood Now if a sign even where it is hardly such may be said to be that which it signifies How much more such a sign as is also by the Institution of Christ a means of its conveyance and of which whosoever doth worthily partake shall as verily partake together with it of the Body of Christ and of the Benefits that accrue to us thereby I may not forget to add what St. Luke and St. Paul have added to the words This is my Body even This is my Body which is given for you as the former which is broken for you as the latter Both to the same purpose though in different expressions even to mark out to us more clearly how we are to consider that Body that is to say as a crucified one The giving of Christ or his Body being sometime express'd by giving him for our sins (b) Gal. 1.4 and at other times by giving him (c) Tit. 2.10 to redeem us from them which we know by the same Scripture to have been compassed by his death As indeed under what other notion can we conceive the giving of his Body when it is not only consider'd apart from his Blood but that Blood afterward affirm'd to be shed for the remission of sins and accordingly so requir'd to be consider'd here The expression of St. Paul which is broken for you is yet more clear because more manifestly pointing out the violence that was offer'd to Christ's Body With this farther advantage as was before said that it doth not obscurely intimate the breaking of the Bread to have been intended to represent what was done unto his Body and under what notion we are to consider it Though to put it farther out of doubt St. Paul after his account of the History of the Institution affirms both the one and the other Element of this Sacrament to relate to our Saviour's Death and consequently to respect his Body as mortist'd as well as his Blood as shed He relling his Corinthians that he that did eat that Bread as well as he that drank that Cup did thereby shew forth the Lord's Death till he came Only if it be enquir'd why our Saviour should even then represent his Body as broken or given when it was not to be so till the day after the Institution of this Sacrament I answer partly because it was very shortly to be so but more especially because he intended what he now enjoyn'd as a prescription for the time after his Death as his willing his Disciples to do this in remembrance of him doth manifestly imply That importing the thing to be remembred to be past and gone as which otherwise could not be capable of being remembred It follows both in St. Luke and St. Paul Do this and Do this in remembrance of me Words which the Romish Church hath pick'd strange matters out of even no less as was before observ'd out of Baronius than the Priesthood of the A postles as which was collated upon them by these words and the Sacrifice of the Mass For then also saith that Author the Apostles when the Lord commanded them to do the very same thing in remembrance of him were made Priests and that very Sacrifice which they should offer was ordain'd By what Alchymie the
Covenant which was shed for many for the remission of fins but St. Luke and St. Paul as the New Testament or Covenant in his Blood which was shed for them For which cause I will consider the thing here affirmed under each of these notions and first as Christ's Blood of the New Testament or Covenant which I conceive to be the clearest and most proper declaration of it Because it appears even by that St. Paul who makes use of the other expression that the Blood of Christ is the principal thing signified by it even in that very Chapter where he entitles it the New Testament in his Blood For not only doth he before (i) 1 Cor. 10.16 entitle the Cup the Communion of his Blood as he doth the Bread in the same verse the Communion of his Body but immediately after the words of the Institution declare him who eateth that Bread and drinketh that Cup with due preparation to shew forth the Lord's Death till he come as him who eateth and drinketh unworthily to be guilty of his Body and Bloody The Blood of Christ therefore being the thing principally signified and consequently the principal thing predicated of the Cup by the one and the other reason would that we should enquire what our Saviour meant by it that is to say whether that Blood which now ran in his Veins and was shortly after to be shed or only a memorial of it A Question which will soon be voided not only by what I have before said concerning the Notion of Christ's Body but by the Adjuncts of that very Blood whereof we speak The Blood of the New Testament or Covenant as appears by a Text of the Author to the Hebrews (k) Heb. 9.14 c. and by what I have elsewhere (l) Expl. of the Sacrament in general Part 2. discours'd upon it being no other than that Blood which the Mediator of it shed at his Death For that Author tells us that neither that nor any other Testament or Covenant can be firm without it And the Blood that was shed for remission of Sins the very same It being by means of the same Death that the Redemption of Sins against the First Testament or Covenant is procur'd which is but another Name for the Remission of them And I shall only add for the better explanation of those words even the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant that as of old God would not enter nor did enter into the First Covenant with the Israelites till he was aton'd and they sprinkled by the Blood of their Sacrifices So neither would he enter into the New till he was first aton'd and we sprinkled by the Blood of the Sacrifice of his Son and that Blood therefore conformably to what was said of the Blood of the First Covenant stiled the Blood of the New There will be no great difficulty after what I have said of the Blood of the New Testament or Covenant as to the meaning of that New Testament or Covenant in Christ's Blood which St. Luke and St. Paul bring in our Saviour as affirming the Cup to be Because thereby must consequently be meant that New Covenant which was brought about by the Bloud of his Cross even that by which the same Saint Paul elsewhere (m) Col. 1.20 tells us that Christ made Peace between us and God Which will consequently leave nothing more to us to enquire into upon this Head than the importance of that is which joyns the subject and the foregoing predicates together and how the Cup of this Sacrament was and is his Blood of the New Testament or Covenant and how the New Testament or Covenant in his Blood For the understanding whereof though it may suffice to remit my Reader to what I before said upon the account of the Bread's being Christ's Body because that mutatis mutandis may be apply'd to the Particle Is here Yet I shall add ex abundanti that there cannot well be any doubt of its being taken figuratively here either in the one or the other predication concerning it Because the Cup of this Sacrament cannot literally and properly be both his Blood of the New Testament or Covenant and the New Testament or Covenant in it which yet in some or other of the Sacred Writers it is affirm'd to be Which as it will make it so much the more reasonable to allow of that figurative Sense here which we have attributed to the same Particle Is in This is my Body So consequently make it reasonable to understand by This is my Blood of the New Testament which answers directly to the other This is a Sign and a Memorial and a Means of its conveyance as well as the Bread is of my Body And indeed as the Cup or rather the Wine of it may well pass for a Sign of that Blood as for other Reasons so for that effusion which is attributed to it So that it is both a Memorial and a Means of its conveyance is evident from St. Paul's bringing in our Saviour subjoining the words Do this as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me to the Story of the Cup and elsewhere representing the same Cup as the Communion of his Blood This I take to be a fair account of the Particle Is as it is made use of to connect the Cup and Christ's Blood of the New Tescament or Covenant And it will be no less easie to give as clear an account of it as it is made use of to connect the same Cup and the New Testament or Covenant in his Blood That Cup representing to us God's exhibiting together with it Christ's Blood and the Merits of it and our receiving that Blood and the Merits of it with that thankfulness which doth become us and a Mind resolv'd to walk worthy of those Benefits we receive by it I will conclude this long Discourse concerning the Institution of this Sacrament when I have lightly animadverted upon that which St. Matthew and St. Mark bring in our Saviour subjoining to all he had said concerning the Elements thereof To wit that he would not any more drink of this Fruit of the Vine for so St. Matthew expresseth it until he should drink it new with them in his Father's Kingdom For though it should be granted what Grotius contends for out of St. Luke that these words were spoken just before the Institution of this Sacrament and only plac'd here upon the account of Christ's being again to speak of the Cup Yet thus much must be granted to St. Matthew and St. Mark 's placing it here that it was the Fruit of the Vine that our Saviour gave them and they accordingly drank of even in this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper There being no more reason nor so much neither considering that that is the immediate Antecedent to deny this Fruit of the Vine's referring to what our Saviour gave his Disciples and they all drank of than there would be to deny
necessity nor ever was of any Man 's receiving the Cup whether he be Priest or private Person Consecrater of the Bread and it or only a simple Communicant Then every one too that heretofore did or now doth receive in both kinds doth in one and the same Eucharist receive the Blood twice once in the Species of Bread and again in the Species of Wine In fine by the same Rule and their affirming whole Christ to be contained under either Species Hoc est corpus meum may be as proper to make a Transubstantiation of the Cup as it is a Transubstantiation of the Bread The two former whereof render our Saviour's injunction concerning the receit of the Cup perfectly unnecessary The last gives us occasion to wonder why our Saviour who to be sure affected no change of Phrase did not make use of the same Hoc est corpus meum to make an alteration of the Cup especially when if he had it might have so aptly hinted to us the sufficiency of one only Species to possess us of his Body and Blood These I take to be the natural Consequences of making Hoc est corpus meum to signifie at all times This is my Body and Blood and by vertue thereof to possess the Receivers of that over which they are pronounc'd of whole and entire Christ And if on the other side they with whom we have to do make those words to signifie so only where the Sacrament is administred but in one kind and only to those to whom it is so administred they must consequently make the very same words Hoc est corpus meum to signifie one thing to the Lay-man who receives but in one kind and another to the Priest that consecrates and receives in both Which beside that it will make the signification of those words to be arbitrary and according as the Priest shall intend them will make them vary from the signification they had in the Institution of Christ which is and ought to be the Pattern of all Our Saviour as he both instituted and distributed the Sacrament in both kinds so to be sure making the words Hoc est corpus meum to signifie only This is my Body apart from my Blood as which latter he both appointed a distinct Element for and as they love to speak converted that distinct Element into by words equally fitted for such a Conversion I think I shall not need to say much to shew the Bread of the Sacrament not to be converted into Christ's Body and Blood by the force of the words This is my Body and This is my Blood as if the latter extended to the Species of the former as well as to its own proper Sacrament even the Liquor of the Cup Both because those words are not appli'd even by themselves to the Bread but to the Cup and cannot therefore in reason be thought to have any operation upon the former And because our Saviour in that Eucharist which he consecrated for his Disciples gave them the Bread of it to eat before he proceeded to the Consecration of the Cup and before therefore it could be suppos'd to receive any influence from those words This is my Blood as which were not till some time after pronounced by him One only Device remains to bring Christ's Blood as well as Body under the Species of Bread called by the Schoolmen Concomitancy but ought rather by the Romanists explication of it and indeed by the words natural connexion before us'd by the Council of Trent to be termed a real Vnion By vertue of which if Christ's Blood and Body are brought together under the Species of Bread Christ's Body in the Sacrament even that which the words Hoc est corpus meum produc'd is no more that Body which was broken upon the Cross at least consider'd as such for that to be sure was separated from his Blood but his Body entire and perfect And then farewell not only to the natural signification of Hoc est corpus meum and quod pro vobis frangitur but to the Sacrifice of Christ's Body in the Eucharist which yet they have hitherto so contended for as not to think it to be such only by a Figure or Memorial of it Such reason is there to believe how confidently soever the contrary is affirm'd that Christ's Body and Blood are not contain'd under the single Species of Bread And yet if that could be prov'd it would not therefore follow that it were an indifferent thing whether we receiv'd the Cup or no. For the design of the several Species and our receit of them (u) 1 Cor. 11.26 being to shew forth to others the Lord's Death as well as to possess our selves of his Body and Blood If that be not to be compass'd without the receit of the Cup it will make the use of it to be so far necessary what ever we may gain by the Bread alone He satisfying not his Duty who complies with one end of any thing to the neglect of another as that too which tends apparently to the Honour of the Institutor as to be sure the Commemoration of our Saviour's Death and Passion doth Now that the Death of our Saviour cannot be otherwise shewn forth or at least not as he himself represented it without the receit of the Cup as well as Bread may appear from his own representing his Death as a thing effected by the shedding or pouring out of his Blood For so it is in the several Evangelists as well as by the breaking of his Body Blood shed or poured out of a Body being not to be represented in a Sacrament but by a Species at least distinct from the Species of that Body nor we therefore in a capacity so to represent or shew it forth by our receiving but by the receit of such a distinct one Add hereunto that as it is agreed among all Men that the Death which we are to represent or shew forth hath the nature of a Sacrifice and the Eucharist it self for that reason represented by the Romanists as such So it is alike certain and agreed that there is nothing more considerable in the Sacrifice of Christ's Death than the shedding of his Blood as to which he himself peculiarly attributes the Remission of Sins Which Sacrifice therefore whosoever will shew forth as to that particular by the receit of the Sacrament of it he must do it by the receit of such a Symbol as may represent the Blood of Christ as separated from his Body which nothing but a Symbol distinct from that of the Body can and therefore neither because there is no other here but that Cup whereof we speak I may not forget to represent as a fourth Pretence because suggested by the Council of Trent (w) Sess 21. cap. 2. that the receit of the Cup is not of the substance of the Sacrament and may therefore by the Church be either granted or deny'd as it shall seem most expedient to
receiving God's Creatures of Bread and Wine according to his Son and our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy Institution may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood In fine it gives us to understand * Art of Rel. 28. which is yet more express that to such as rightly worthily and with a true Faith receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the Bread which we break is the partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of Blessing a partaking of the Blood of Christ For what more could have been said unless it had made use of that particular Expression which yet it doth use where it declares the general nature of a Sacrament what more I say could have been said to shew that this Sacrament is no naked or ineffectual Sign of the Body and Blood of Christ but such a Sign as is also ordained as a Means whereby we receive the same and so sure and certain a one that if we rightly and worthily receive that Sign we do as verily receive the Body and Blood of Christ as we do the Sacrament thereof How well the Scripture agrees with the Doctrine of our Church in this Particular will not be difficult to shew whether we do consider its making use of the most emphatical Phrase which our Church doth concerning this Sacrament or the Effects which it attributeth to it For it is St. Paul (a) 1 Cor. 10.16 as well as our Church that affirms that the Bread which we break is the Communion of the Body of Christ and that the Cup which we bless is the Communion of his Blood Words which considering the place they have in that Chapter from whence they are borrowed cannot admit of a lower sense than that the elements of this Sacrament are at least a Means of that Communion because alledged by him as a proof or at least as an illustration of their really having fellowship with Devils that partook of the Sacrifices that were offer'd to them For if the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament were not a Means as well as a sign of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ Neither could the Gentiles Sacrifices be a Means of their or other Men's Communion with those Devils to whom they were offer'd and therefore neither charge them with any real fellowship with Devils but only with a sign or semblance of it Which how it agrees with St. Paul's charging the partakers of those Sacrifices with having fellowship with Devils as that too upon the account of the Gentiles Sacrificing to Devils and not to God I shall leave all sober Men to judge Such evidence there is from that one place of St. Paul concerning the Lords Supper being a Means as well as a Sign whereby we come to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ And we shall find it no less confirm'd by an effect which the Scripture attributes to one of its Symbols and which is in that place by an usual Synecdoche set to denote the whole Sacrament That I mean where St. Paul affirms (b) 1 Cor. 12.13 that we have been all made to drink into one Spirit For as the foregoing mention of Baptism makes it reasonable to believe that these words ought to be understood of the Cup or Wine of the Lord's Supper So we cannot without great violence to the words understand less by being made to drink into one Spirit than our partaking by Means of that Cup of the Blood of Christ and the Benefits thereof of which the Spirit of God is no doubt one of the principal ones To be made to drink into that Blood or the Spirit of God importing somewhat more even in common understanding than to receive a naked sign of them And though I know that some of the Reformed Churches and particularly those of Zuinglius and Oecolampadius's institution have been charg'd with meaner thoughts concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Yet whosoever shall take the pains to peruse what our Cosins (c) Hist Transubstant Papal cap. 2. hath collected upon this Argument and particularly what he quotes from Bucer (d) ibid. will find that they always thought or at least now do that Christ's true Body and Blood are truly exhibited given and taken together with the visible signs of Bread and Wine as well as signified by them But because the question is not so much at present concerning this Sacrament's being a Means whereby we receive the Body and Blood of Christ as what kind of Means it is how it conveys to us the Body and Blood of Christ and how we receive them by it Therefore enquire we so far as we may what our Church delivers in these particulars and what evidence there is from the Scripture of our Churches Orthodoxy therein Now though we may not perhaps find in any Monument of our Church a distinct and particular Answer to the questions before propos'd Yet we may find that in the eight and twentieth Article of our Church which may serve for a general Answer to them all and for a particular answer too to the last of them The Doctrine thereof being that the Body of Christ and the same mutatis mutandis must be said of his Blood is given taken and eaten in the Supper after an heavenly and spiritual manner only and again that the mean whereby the Body of Christ is receiv'd and taken in the Supper is Faith For if the Body and Blood of Christ be given taken and eaten or drunken in the Supper after a heavenly and spiritual manner only that Supper must so far forth be a means purely heavenly and Spiritual the conveyance thereof of the same heavenly and spiritual nature and the reception of it also And if again the Mean whereby the Body and Blood of Christ are receiv'd and taken in the Supper is Faith then do we in the opinion of our Church receive them by Faith which will serve for a particular answer to the last of the questions propos'd To all which if we add our Churches teaching us to pray to God even in the prayer of Consecration that we receiving the Creatures of Bread and Wine according to our Saviour Jesus Christ's Holy Institution may be partakers of his most blessed Body and Blood so we shall be able to make out a more particular answer to the questions propos'd and such as we shall find reason enough to allow For it appears from the premisses and particularly from the prayer of Consecration that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is such a spiritual Mean as depends for the force of it not upon any vertue that is infus'd into it and much less upon any natural union there is between that and the Body and Blood of Christ but upon our receiving it on the one hand according to our Saviours Holy Institution and God's bestowing on the other hand Christ's Body and Blood upon such a reception of it It appears therefore that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
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
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 〈◊〉
as a means whereby we receive the same and as a pledge to assure us thereof Question How many parts are there in a Sacrament Answer Two the outward visible sign and the inward spiritual grace Question What is the outward visible sign or form in Baptism Answer Water wherein the person is baptized In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Question What is the inward and spiritual grace Answer A death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness for being by nature born in sin and the children of wrath we are hereby made the children of grace Question What is required of persons to be baptized Answer Repentance whereby they forsake sin and Faith whereby they stedfastly believe the promises of God made to them in that Sacrament Question Why then are Infants baptized when by reason of their tender age they cannot perform them Answer Because they promise them both by their Sureties which promise when they come to age themselves are bound to perform Question Why was the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ordained Answer For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ and of the benefits which we receive thereby Question What is the outward part or sign of the Lord's Supper Answer Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be received Question What is the inward part or thing signified Answer The body and blood of Christ which are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper Question What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby Answer The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the body and blood of Christ as our bodies are by the bread and wine Question What is required of them who come to the Lord's Supper Answer To examine 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 OF THE SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM In Pursuance of an EXPLICATION OF THE CATECHISM OF THE Church of England BY GABRIEL TOWERSON D.D. and Rector of Welwynne in Hartfordshire Imprimatur Ex Aedib Lamb. Apr. 10. 1686. Jo. Battely RRmo P. ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris Domesticis LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE Right Reverend FATHER in GOD FRANCIS Lord Bishop of ELY AND LORD ALMONER TO His Majesty My Lord YOUR Lordship 's favourable acceptance of my Discourse of the Sacraments in General with the desire I have if it may be to put an end to the whole hath prompted me to make the more hast to present your Lordship and the World with this of Baptism in particular Two things there are in it which I thought my self most concern'd to clear and which therefore I have employ'd all requisite diligence on the Doctrine of Original Sin and Infant-Baptism The former being in my opinion the foundation of Christianity the latter of our interest in it For if there be no such thing as Original Sin I do not see but some persons heretofore might and may here after live with such exactness as not at all to stand in need of a Saviour And I see as little if Infant-Baptism be null what interest any of us can have in him according to the ordinary dispensation of the Gospel who have for the most part been baptized in our Infancy or at least have been baptized by those that were Throughout the whole Treatise I have endeavour'd to retrive the antient notion of Baptism to shew what advantages are annexed to it and what duties it either involves or obligeth to To either of which if I have given any light or strength I shall hope I have done some small service to the Church and which your Lordship in particular will take in good part from Your Lordship's Most Obliged Most Obedient and Most humble Servant GABRIEL TOWERSON Wellwyne Aug. 23. 1686. THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST PART Of the Rite of Baptism among the Heathen and the Jews THe Heathen themselves not without the knowledge of another World and of the insufficiency of natural Religion to bring them to the happiness thereof Occasion taken by them from thence to enquire after other ways of obtaining it and by the Devil to suggest the mysteries of their respective Deities as the only proper means of compassing it Those mysteries every where initiated into by the Rite of Baptism partly through Men's consciousness of their past sins and which they judged it but meet they should be some way purged from and partly through the policy of the Devil who thereby thought to procure the greater veneration to them That as it was a Rite which was in use among God's own people so naturally apt to represent to Mens minds their passing from a sinful to a holy Estate Of what Service the Heathens use of this Rite is toward the commendation of the Christians Baptism and a transition from thence to the use of it among the Jews Which is not only prov'd at large out of the Jewish Writings and several particulars of that Baptism remark'd but that usage farther confirm'd by several concurring proofs such as is in particular the no appearance there is otherwise of any initiation of the Jewish Women the Baptizing of the whole Nation in the Cloud and in the Sea and a remarkable allusion to it in our Saviour's Discourse to Nicodemus The silence of the Old Testament concerning that Rite shewn to be of no force because though it take notice of the first Jews being under the Cloud and passing through the Red Sea yet it takes no notice at all of their being Baptized in them or of their Eating and Drinking that spiritual Repast whereof S. Paul speaketh The Baptism of Christians copied by our Saviour from that of the Jews and may therefore where it appears not that he hath made an alteration receive an elucidation from it pag. 1. The Contents of the Second Part. Of the Baptism of the Christians and the Institution of it THe Institution of the Christian Baptism more antient than the Command for it in S. Matthew 28.19 though not as to the generality of the World nor it may be as to the like explicit Profession of the Trinity As is made appear from Christ or his Disciples baptizing in Judea not long after his own Baptism by S. John Enquiry thereupon made whether it were not yet more antient yea as antient as Christ's execution of his Prophetical Office Which is rendred probable from our Saviours making Disciples before and the equal reason there appears to have been for his making them after the same manner with those of Judea From Christ's representing to Nicodemus the necessity of being born again of water and the spirit which is shewn at large to be meant of a true and proper Baptism As
words Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the World who createst the Fruit of the Vine Which said he first of all tasted of it himself and then reach'd it out to all that sate with him Presently after he took a Loaf of Bread and holding it with both his hands consecrated it in these words Blessed be thou O Lord our God who bringest Food out of the Earth Which said he brake it and after he had eaten a piece of it himself gave the like to each that sate with him Thus that Learned Man informs us that the Father of the Family did at their sitting down at their more solemn Feasts As after the Feast was over that he or some other person to whom he committed it taking a second time a Cup full of Wine into both his hands prayed Let us bless him who hath fed us of his own and by whose goodness we live Passing on from thence to other Blessings and Prayers and particularly to bless God for the Food which he had afforded to them all and for all the Benefits bestow'd either on their Fathers or themselves and to pray unto him in like manner for the state of their Nation for the restoring of Jerusalem for the coming of Elias and the Messiah and particularly for their Domesticks and Kindred After which the same person began as before Blessed be thou O Lord our God King of the World who createst the Fruit of the Vine and thereupon again drank a little of the Wine himself and then gave it in order to his Guests Now as it is easie to guess by the likeness there is between our Sacrament and this Usance that our Sacrament or rather the Author thereof took his Pattern from thence if that Usance be ancienter than the Sacrament it self So there is just ground to believe it was both from what we find in St. Luke's account of Christ's celebration of the Passover and this Sacrament and from the manner wherewith this Sacrament was celebrated in the first Ages of Christianity For St. Luke in his account of the former Solemnities takes notice of our Saviour's taking a Cup giving thanks over it and distributing it among his Disciples (d) Luke 22.17 18. with this farther Remark that he said he would not drink any more of the fruit of the vine the particular title here us'd until the kingdom of God should come And the Ancients in their mention of the celebration of the Lord's Supper speak of the Symbols thereof as alike intended for memorials of their thankfulness to God for the Blessings of this World as well as for the Blessing of their Redemption For thus Justin Martyr first affirms the Bread of the Eucharist to have been given by our Saviour to us (e) Dial. cum Tryph. pag. 260. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might at the same time give thanks to God for having made the World with all things in it for the sake of Man and for delivering us from the evil in which we sometime were by him whom he made passible for us As Irenaeus (f) Adv. haeres lib. 4. c. 32. Sed suis discipulis dans consilium primitias deo offerre ex suis creaturis non quasi indigenti sed ut ipsi nec infructuosi nec ingrati sint eum qui ex creatura panis est accepit gratias egit dicens Hoc est corpus meum Et calicem similiter qui est ex ea creatura quae est secundum nos suum sanguinem confessus est novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem quam Ecclesia ab Apostolis accipiens in universo mundo offert deo ei qui alimenta nobis praestat primitias suorum munerum in novo Testamento in like manner that Christ giving his Disciples counsel to offer to God the First-fruits of his Creatures not as to one that wanted them but that they themselves might not be ungrateful or unfruitful he took Bread and gave thanks saying This is my Body And the Cup in like manner which is of that Creature which is according to us he confessed to be his Blood and taught a new oblation of the New Testament Which Oblation the Church receiving from the Apostles offers in all the World to God even to him who gives us Food the First-fruits of his Gifts in the New Testament Agreeable hereto is that of Origen though not so clearly express'd as the former passages were For these Reasons saith he (g) Contr. Cels lib. 8. p. 399. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let Celsus who knows not God pay the testimonies of his thanks to Devils even for the Benefits of this World But we being desirous to please the maker of the Vniverse eat even those Loaves which are offered with Thanksgiving and Prayer over the things bestow'd upon us being now made by Prayer a certain Holy Body and one which sanctifies those who use it with a good intention Plainly intimating by the opposition he there makes between Celsus's paying the testimonies of his thanks to Devils for the Benefits of this World and our eating of the Eucharistical Bread with respect to the maker of the Vniverse that the Christians of old ate of it with regard to the Creation of the World and the Benefits thereof as well as with respect to the redemption of it by the Body of his Son Now from whence I pray considering the no intimation there is of any such thing in the Institution of Christ or Saint Paul's rehearsal of it from whence I say that regard to the Creation of the World and the Benefits thereof but from those Thanksgivings which from old descended to them from the Jews together with the Institution of Christ And which being so will prove the Usance before remembred not to have been the Usance of the latter Jews only but of those who were as old as our Saviour's time and that Passover which he celebrated among them Add hereunto what is apparent from the Ancient Liturgies of the Church the Prayers of the Eucharist descending to such Intercessions for all sorts of men as the Prayers of the Jews over their Eucharist appear to have done For these are a yet farther proof of the Antiquity of that Jewish Service and that our Saviour copied his own Institution by it What use these Observations may be of will be more fit to declare elsewhere neither shall I therefore at this time set my self to the investigation of it At present I desire only it may be remembred that in this Exemplar of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper both the one and the other Element thereof were consecrated with Thanksgivings and the Bread of it though consecrated in the mass or lump was yet carefully broken off from it in order to a distribution of it That as the Cup as well as the Bread had a place in that Eucharist so it was alike distributed among the Communicants yea distributed at the end as well as at
because Ite Missa est is the conclusion of the Mass even now and which considering the place it hath in this service as well as the word Ite to which it is joyn'd cannot be thought to denote any other thing than that the Deacon doth by those words of his Missam or Missionem facere give leave to the people to depart and so justifie yet more the account we have before given of the title of that service For when it is evident from the story of the Church and particularly from Dionysius the Areopagite * Eccl. Hierarch c. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Catechumens and others were formally dismist the congregation upon the finishing their respective service When it is farther evident from the present Canon of the Mass that the faithful were alike dismist after that their service was over and not only so but by these very words Ite Missa est Depart you for you have now a dismission or free leave to do so What can be more clear than that the word Missa or Mass had its original from that dismission and that the several services of the Church and this of the faithful in particular had that name because they who pertained to it and attended on it were at the end thereof solemnly dismist and sent away to their own home Only if any be fond of that Rabbinical notion which makes it to import a voluntary oblation because of the near cognation it may seem to have to that sacrifice which they are willing to advance Let them in God's name enjoy it provided they look upon it as only an Eucharistical one of which nature the Missah in Deuteronomy was or a commemoration of that voluntary oblation which Christ made of himself upon the Cross For whatever may be said against that Etymology of the word nothing can be said from Antiquity against the supposed sense of it Because all Antiquity acknowledg'd that which hath the title of the Mass to be either an Eucharistical or commemorative Oblation PART III. Of the Institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The Contents The Story of the Institution first set down out of the Evangelists and St. Paul and animadverted upon in the several parts of it Where after an account of the time of it the consequents whereof are also declar'd entrance is made with the consideration of the Bread and both the quality of that Bread and Christ's taking it explain'd This followed by a more ample declaration of Christ's blessing it and that Blessing both shewn to have the Bread for its object and to consist in making it useful for the purposes of a Sacrament or rather in Christ's addressing himself to his Father to make it such That address of his thereupon carefully enquir'd into and because it appears from St. Luke and St. Paul to have been by Thanksgiving enquiry also made what benefits he so gave thanks for what use that Thanksgiving was of toward the procuring of the blessing desir'd and whether it did not also contain some express request to God for the granting of it Of Christ's breaking the Bread its signification and momentousness as also of his giving it to his Disciples and requiring them to take and eat of it The words This is my body next taken into consideration and more particularly and minutely explain'd Where is shewn at large that by the word This must be meant This Bread and that there is nothing in the gender of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to hinder it That by body must be meant that body which Christ now carried about him and was shortly after to suffer in and that the figurativeness of the proposition lies in the word is Vpon occasion whereof is also shewn that that word is oftentime figuratively taken that it ought to be so taken here and that accordingly it imports the Bread to be a sign and a memorial and a means of partaking of Christ's body This part of the Institution concluded with an explication of the words which is given or broken for you and a more ample one of Christ's commanding his Disciples to do this in remembrance of him Where the precept Do this is shewn to refer to what Christ had before done or enjoyned them to do And they enjoyn'd so to do to renew in themselves a grateful remembrance of Christ's death or prompt other Men to the like remembrance of it That part of the Institution which respects the Cup more succinctly handled and enquiry made among other things into the declaration which our Saviour makes concerning its being his Blood of the New Testament or the New Testament in it Where is shewn What that is which our Saviour affirms to be so what is meant by his Blood of the New Testament or The New Testament in it and how the Cup or rather the Wine of it was that Blood of his or the New Testament in it IT is very observable Question Why was the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper ordain'd Answer For the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ and of the benefits we receive thereby and was accordingly long since taken notice of by Isaac Casaubon * Exercit. 16. s. 28. That when Baronius was to give an account of the Institution of this Sacrament which three Evangelists and St. Paul had carefully describ'd instead of producing the words of those Scriptures as he often doth upon less occasions and bestowing as was but reasonable a just Commentary upon them he slubbers it over with this imperfect story †Baron Annal. Eccl. ad Ann. Christi 34. num 45. shall I say or rather with this perverse interpretation of it In which Supper speaking of that of the Paschal Lamb that ineffable Sacrament was instituted whereby Transubstantiation was made of Bread and Wine into the Flesh and Blood of Christ into the very body of Christ entire under both species Then also the Apostles when the Lord commanded them to do the very same thing in remembrance of him were made Priests and that very sacrifice which they should offer was ordain'd A Man would have thought that whatever interpretation he had afterwards made of it one who pretended to be an Historian should at least have given a more particular and perfect account of that whole action and as near to as might be in the words of some of those Holy Men that had transmitted it to posterity And so no doubt this Historian would have done if there had not been somewhat in the words of the Institution to which the practice of his Church had made a non obstante to be necessary But as he saw but too well how ill the practice of his Church answer'd what was then done and enjoyn'd by our Saviour so he therefore chose rather to give that imperfect as well as insincere account of it and endeavour to supply what was wanting by an account of those names which were antiently given to
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
even upon that account to call in the assistance of such words as may declare to those that are concern'd for what ends and purposes it was appointed Otherwise men may either look upon the whole as a purely civil action or if the Person that administers it and other such like circumstances prompt them to conceive of it as a religious one yet fancy to themselves such ends and purposes as are either different from or contrary to the true intendment of it Agreeable hereto is the command of the Author of our respective Sacraments as is evident from what he enjoyns concerning Baptism and the Lord's Supper His own express injunction concerning the former being that his Disciples should baptize men in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which could not be done without a rehearsal of those names at least As concerning the latter that they should do what they had seen and heard him do as oft as that Sacrament was administred and therefore also make a verbal declaration concerning it For though that be not so clear from those words of our Saviour Do this in remembrance of me I mean as they lie in St. Luke (n) Luk. 22.19 yet will it be found to be so if we take in the Comment of St. Paul (o) 1 Cor. 11 20. c. where he gives a like account of the Institution of it For representing what was then said and done as a prescription for future (p) 1 Cor. 23.25 26. Sacraments as well as for that of Christ's own immediate consecration Representing it moreover as such upon the account of what Christ then enjoyn'd concerning their doing the same things in remembrance of him he must consequently because he brings in our Saviour making a verbal declaration concerning the purport of that Sacrament and subjoyns the former injunction to it be thought to represent it as our Saviour's mind that they who consecrated that Sacrament should use the same declarations concerning it But beside a declaration of the purport of the Institution and which the Church hath generally kept so close to as to make that declaration by the very words (q) Constit Apost li. 8. c. 12. of the Institution it is no doubt alike necessary if not more toward the producing of the former relations to do those things to the Elements which either the general tenour of Christianity or the particular precepts of the Institution prompt us to the performance of For if Prayer be so generally necessary toward the procuring of any favour that it becomes such as to the obtaining of common and ordinary ones If it be so far necessary toward them as to become such even to the blessing of our ordinary repast (r) 1. Tim. 4.4.5 though that be not without a natural aptitude to nourish and sustain us How much more may we think it to be necessary as to the making of those elements which are in no disposition to it to become the conveyers of the Divine Grace to those who are to partake of them But so the perpetual practice of the Church will oblige us to believe and act as to the one and other Sacrament of our Religion For though there be not any particular injunction concerning consecrating the water of Baptism and I suppose because the necessity thereof was sufficiently known by what the Scripture hath said concerning the general necessity thereof Yet as we find Ananias admonishing St. Paul (Å¿) Act. 22.16 to wash away his sins by Baptism calling upon the name of the Lord and which no doubt because he Baptiz'd him the same Ananias went before him in As we find farther by Justin Martyr (t) Apolog. 2. that they who were to be baptiz'd were admonished to fast and pray the Brethren praying and fasting for and with them for these are sufficient proofs that some sort of Prayers did alway precede it so we find by those who have given a more particular account of the Offices of the Church that the Priest did pray particularly (u) Constit Apost lib. 7. c. 43. Dionys Areop Eccl. Hier. c. 2. that God would look down from Heaven and sanctifie that water wherein they were to be Baptized by him The case is yet more plain as to the Sacrament of the Eucharist as shall be made appear when I come to entreat purposely concerning it And therefore I shall only add that as the Institution of our respective Sacraments cannot obtain its effect without doing those things to the Elements thereof which the general tenour of Christianity obligeth us to perform so much less without the doing of those things which the particular precepts of the Institution oblige to the practice of For the force of a Sacrament depending more immediately upon the Institution of him whose the Sacrament is it must consequently as to the application of that Institution depend more upon the doing of those things which the particular precepts of the Institution oblige to the practice of than upon those which the more general and therefore remoter precepts of Christianity oblige unto The consequence whereof as to the Eucharist will be among other things a necessity of giving God thanks for those gracious boons which that Sacrament was intended both to convey and assure The result of the premises is this A Sacrament as such is a relative thing it is so in an especial manner as to the Divine Grace as which it signifies and conveyes and assures But as those relations thereof are founded rather in the institution of the Author of it than in the vertue of those elements in which they are subjected so in that again not so much as delivered by our Saviour as applied to the elements by a declaration of the purport of it and by such other Acts as the general tenour of Christianity or the particular precepts of the Institution oblige those who are the dispensers of a Sacrament to do to the elements thereof I do not at all found the relations of a Sacrament in such Act or Acts as are requir'd of those that partake of it Yea though without such Act or Acts they cannot partake of the Graces of it Partly because a Sacrament being an institution of Christ it must rather depend upon his appointment and the facts of those who act in his behalf than upon the disposition of such as are to partake of it And partly because a Sacrament though not conveying or assuring the Divine Grace to any but the worthy Receivers of it yet is as really and truly a Sacrament to those who are otherwise dispos'd as it is to the most worthy ones As is evident among other things from St. Paul's affirming the unworthy receiver of the Eucharist to be guilty of the Body (w) 1 Cor. 11.27 and Blood of Christ and again to eat and drink Damnation to himself for not discerning (x) 1 Cor. 11.29 the Lord's Body For how come they to be guilty of
the Body and Blood of Christ by the meer reception of the elements if those elements be not even to them a Sacrament of his Body and Blood Or how faulty for not discerning in them the Lord's Body and Blood if those elements which they receive have not the relation of a Sacrament to them Neither will it avail to say that such persons may become guilty of Christ's Body and Blood because receiving not as they ought those elements which are the signs of them For as it will follow from thence that those elements which they receive are so far at least a Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood I mean as that is a sign of them so there is reason enough to believe from the way the Apostle takes to prove the foremention'd charge that those elements were as really a Sacrament to them in all other respects as they were in the notion of a sign Because he founds that charge of his upon Christ's making those elements the Sacrament of his Body and Blood (y) 1 Cor. 11.27 and which therefore he must suppose them to be as much to them as they are to any person whatsoever That which I conceive hath occasion'd men to be otherwise opinionated was their conceiving of a Sacrament not as a means fitted by Christ to convey or assure the Divine Grace and which accordingly where it is duly receiv'd actually doth so but as a thing which is not only in a disposition to it but where it is really a Sacrament infallibly doth so to all that partake of it Which conceit it may be they were the more easily betray'd into by the Scriptures representing it rather as a thing which actually sanctifies and saves than as a thing which is only fitted for it But as there might be ground enough for such expressions as those whether upon the account of the persons whom it is so said to sanctifie and save or upon the account of there being enough in a Sacrament to do it where the parties that partake of it are duly qualified for it so the Scripture hath sometimes so qualified its own assertions by making the due disposition of the party receiving it to be necessary to procure the other that we cannot but look upon a Sacrament rather as a thing fitted to produce such effects than as actually and infallibly producing them And indeed as there is therefore but reason to conceive so of a Sacrament even as a means fitted by God and Christ to produce those effects which are attributed to it so by thus stating it a way is opened to distinguish between the Efficacy of a Sacrament and of the Receiver's faith and accordingly to assign each its proper interest in the procuring of those Graces which are attributed to it For by this means we shall make a Sacrament with that blessing of God which attends it to be the sole conferrer and assurer of those Graces which is but agreeable to it as an instrument in the hand of God And the faith of the party receiving only the receiver and applier of the other which is as agreeable to that hand of man For as if a Sacrament be a means fitted by God for the forementioned purposes the conferring and assuring of those Graces will belong to it and that blessing of God which doth accompany it so nothing therefore will remain to the faith of the party receiving but to receive and apply what the other doth so conferr and assure I say secondly that as by this means a due distinction will be made between the efficacy of a Sacrament and that of the receiver's faith so a way will be opened in like manner without detracting in the least from the efficacy of a Sacrament to return an answer to what is advanc'd on the one hand for the opus operatum of all Sacraments and on the other for making the elements of the Eucharist to be that very Body and Blood of Christ which it was intended to convey For whereas it is pretended (z) Vid. Chemnit Exam. Conc. Trid. Part. 2. in Can. 7 8. de Sacram. in the behalf of the former and accordingly alledged as a proof of it that the efficacy of a Sacrament depends upon the institution of God and not upon the dignity of him that administers it or the faith of the receiver I answer that that is indeed true and agreeable enough to our stating the nature of a Sacrament but of no force at all to shew that opus operatum whereof they speak For as if a Sacrament be a means fitted by Christ for the conferring of his Graces the conferring of those Graces will belong wholly to it and that blessing of God which goes along with it so if it be a means rather fitted for the conferring of them than that which actually and infallibly doth any otherwise than as it is receiv'd and appli'd as Christianity admonisheth there will be a like necessity of the opus operantis even of that faith and repentance which are requir'd in order to the reception of them And it may not unfitly be illustrated by the natural quality of those elements which are by Christ made use of for the Sacrament of his own Body and Blood For as of what force soever those elements may be either to sustain or refresh us yet they cannot be expected to do either unless they be receiv'd and well digested so how well fitted soever by the Institution of God the same elements may be to conferr to higher purposes yet there is as little reason to expect they should unless they be applied by us as he who so instituted them hath admonish'd In like manner whereas it is pretended * Esth Com. in locum from unworthy receivers of the Eucharist being guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ that therefore those elements which they do so receive are really that Body and Blood and accordingly are actually partook of That also is taken away by what we have before said concerning the Eucharists being a means fitted by Christ for the conveying of them Because if it be only such there will be place for that guilt yea though that Body and Blood of Christ be not in it nor receiv'd by those who are partakers of the other In as much as he offers a sufficient affront to them who receives those elements unworthily which were by God and Christ intended and fitted for the conveying of them I may not omit to add if it were only for that hint which the former observation affords us that we shall by thus stating the nature of a Sacrament imprint also in the minds of men a just apprehension of that guilt which ariseth from an unworthy reception of it For as if it be fitted by Christ to convey or assure the Divine Grace it must make those that partake unworthily thereof guilty of an equal affront to that Grace which it is so fitted to convey or assure so if it be not so fitted
entered into Marriage and still do in the Eastern parts But beside that general and external cognation which is between Sacraments and Sacramentals for so I shall for the future entitle those things which are not strict and proper ones there is also as to some of the latter a more particular and intimate cognation but especially as to those which are before remembred and are by the Papists advanc'd into true and proper Sacraments For setting aside that which they call the Sacrament of Marriage and which hath even among them rather the name than nature of one There is none of the other four which tend not to the conferring of some Divine Grace or Benefit as well as to the signification of it For thus Confirmation tends to procure a farther addition of God's sanctifying Graces and so to strengthen and perfect the person that ofers himself unto it And thus the Oyl of Vnction as us'd of Old toward the procuring of the Grace of health and the removal of the sick persons guilt so far as was necessary for the procuring of the other Thus Absolution tends to the procuring of the forgiveness of the Penitent and Ordination for the person ordain'd of a spiritual and ghostly Authority if not also of such spiritual gifts as are necessary for the exercise thereof By which means as they approach yet nearer to the nature of true and proper Sacraments so it is the less to be wonder'd at that they should obtain the name of Sacraments yea have the reputation of such in a more eminent manner than other Sacramentals had Especially if we consider thirdly that those five supposed Sacraments are upon the matter the only noted Acts that are administred by the Church or at least that are attended with such Rites and Ceremonies For so it is yet less difficult to believe that they might not only come by degrees to be ranked with Baptism and the Lord's Supper but together with them to be accounted if not the only yet at least the primary ones Which Peter Lombard (o) Sentent li. 4. Distinct 2. taking notice of made the Number of Christian Sacraments to be neither more nor less than seven and the Church of Rome sway'd by him did afterwards Authoritatively confirm This I take to have been the true Original of that number to which the Sacraments are now advanc'd and not either any cogent arguments for the being of so many or indeed any firm belief even in that Church it self that they ought all to be look'd upon as true and proper ones And I am yet more confirm'd in that belief by the silence there was (p) Consult Cassandri ad Art 13. before Peter Lombard of any certain and determinate number and by the Authority of two of the greatest Fathers of the Latin Church St. Ambrose in his tract de Sacramentis and in another de iis qui mysteriis initiantur mentioning only Baptism and the Lord's Supper and St. Augustine not only resolving (q) Epist 118. ad Januar. the Sacraments to be numero paucissima and mentioning none but those but affirming elsewhere (r) De Doctr. Christ li. 3. cap. 9. that our Lord and the Apostolical discipline had delivered some few such as is the Sacrament of Baptism and the celebration of Christ's Body and Blood For that is enough to shew that though the Fathers might sometime mention the other Institutions under the notion of Sacraments yet they look'd upon Baptism and the Lord's Supper as the only true and proper ones or at least were not over confident of the being so of the other If the Church of Rome hath since arriv'd at a greater confidence it will concern her rather than us to give an account of it But however not so far concern us as to remove us from an opinion which seems to us to be built upon solid and substantial grounds For either she hath arriv'd at that confidence by the means before declar'd and then her Authority will be very incompetent Or she hath arriv'd at it by some other means which we are not acquainted with and which therefore we cannot be suppos'd to be influenced by till she shall be pleased to declare them I have insisted thus long upon the Number of the Christian Sacraments not because I was obliged to it by my more immediate task for our Catechism contents it self to declare that there are two only as generally necessary to Salvation but because our Church affirms elsewhere (Å¿) Art of Rel. 25. and Homily of Com. Pr. and Sacram. that there are but two strict and proper ones and because the joyning of others with them in the same rank and order of Sacraments may help in time to bring them into less repute It being natural for men where there are several means tending to the same end either to adhere to some of them to the utter rejecting of the other or to use those others with less preparation and respect And whether this be not the case of the Eucharist where that which they call the Sacrament of Penance is so much in vogue may be judg'd of by the little care they take to fit themselves for the one where they have obtain'd as they easily may the absolution of the other And I shall only add that if our Church did not distinguish in the present Catechism between proper and improper Sacraments it was not as I conceive because she had departed from her own Articles and Homilies but because being to instruct those who were no proper Auditors of higher matters she contented her self to let them know what was sufficient for their purpose that there were but two that were generally necessary to Salvation even Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. Now that there are no more than these that are generally necessary to Salvation which is all that remains for me to demonstrate will appear if we reflect upon those which have been added to them by the Papists and ranked in the same order with them For who can think Marriage to be such who believe as the Papists do that it is unlawful to the whole Order of Priesthood yea who know that there are not a few who live not long enough to desire or need it or are otherwise sufficiently fortified by God against any necessity of espousing it Who can believe Orders to be such when there ever was and ever will be a greater number of those who are to be instructed than there was or ever will be of those who are to instruct them In fine who can believe the Vnction of the sick to be such when it appears by the former discourse to have had no other design than the recovery of them from their infirmities For well may that be look'd upon as not generally necessary to Salvation which appears not to have been intended to minister at all unto it If therefore there be any of the five of that necessity it must be Confirmation and Absolution but
the Antients meant no more by that Oblation or Sacrifice than a Commemorative one by that sacred rite of Bread and Wine representing to God and the Father the expiatory Sacrifice of his Son upon the Cross and as it were putting him in mind of it that so he would for the sake of that Son and the valuableness of his sacrifice be propitious to them and to all those whom they recommended to his grace and favour And indeed as it is not difficult to conceive that they who meant no more when they call'd the Eucharist the body of Christ than its being a figure and a memorial and a means of its conveyance meant no more when they entituled it a sacrifice than a Commemoration of that great one which Christ made of himself upon the Cross So it is evident that St. Cyprian with whose authority Baronius begins his proofs meant no more than such a Commemorative Sacrifice For in that very Epistle †Ad Caecil de sacr Dom. Cal. Vt calix qui in commemoratione ejus offertur mixtus vino offeratur Et quia passionis ejus mentionem facimus in sacrificiis omnibus passio est enim Domini sacrificium quod offerimus nihil aliud quam quod ille fecit facere debemus Quotlescunque ergo calicem in commemorationem Domini passionis ejus offerimus id quod constat Dominum fecisse saciamus Epist 63. which he seems so much to stand upon St. Cyprian affirms That the cup of that Sacrament is offer'd in commemoration of our Lord and that because we make mention of his passion in all sacrifices For the passion of the Lord is the sacrifice that we offer we ought to do no other thing than what he himself did And again Therefore as often as we offer the cup for a commemoration of the Lord and his passion let us do that which it is manifest that the Lord did I will conclude this affair with the words of Peter Lombard * Lib. 4. Dist 12. G. because they not only shew the former notion to have been the sense of the Antients in this particular but make it evident also that that of an expiatory Sacrifice is but a novelty in the Church of Rome it self After these things saith he it is enquir'd whether what the Priest doth be properly call'd a Sacrifice or Offering and whether Christ be every day offer'd or only once To this it may be said in short that that which is offer'd and consecrated by the Priest is called a Sacrifice and Oblation Because it is the Memorial and Representation of the true Sacrifice and the Holy Offering that was made upon the Cross And Christ died once upon the Cross and was there offered in himself But he is every day offered in the Sacrament because in the Sacrament a remembrance is made of that which was once done Whereupon St. Augustine We are assur'd that Christ rising from the dead doth not now die any more c. Yet lest we should forget what was once done it is every year done in our memory to wit as often as the Paschal Feast is celebrated Is Christ then so often kill'd But only an anniversary Remembrance represents what was heretofore done and so causeth us to be mov'd as if we saw the Lord upon the Cross This and more doth that Author alledge out of St. Augustine and Ambrose which shews what notion they as well as he had of this Sacrament's being also a Sacrifice And if they who insist so much upon its having been intituled a Sacrifice will content themselves with this and the former sense we will allow that they have the Fathers on their side but otherwise to have no title to them in this affair I shall not need to say much concerning the name Missa or Mass though that hath for a long time been appropriated to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Partly because antiently it was common to other services with it and nothing therefore that is singular to be inferr'd therefrom toward the clearing of the nature of this And partly because it had its Original not as Baronius would have it from the Hebrew or Chaldee word Missah which he saith is us'd (w) Deut. 16.10 for that Free-will Offering which the Israelites offer'd to God in gratitude for the Fruits of the earth but from the dismission of those who pertain'd to the same service after that service was finish'd For thus we read in Antient Authors (x) Vid. Justel in notis ad Cod. Eccl. univ can 123. of the Missa Catechumenorum as well as of the Missa Fidelium of the Mass of those who were not suffer'd to be present at the Lord's Supper as well as of those who were invited and admitted to it If in tract of time the word Missa or Mass came to be restrain'd to the service of the Lord's Supper it was in all probability because as the discipline of the Catechumens wore out (y) Cave's Primit Christ Part 1. cap. 9. so their Mass or Service wore out also and thereby nothing left to give that title to but that which was of old entitled the Mass of the Faithful Or because the Mass of the faithful was the more eminent part of the Christian service and so in time came to appropriate to it self that name And though Baronius out of Reuchlin for I find by Polydore Virgil (z) De invent rerum lib. 3. c. 11. that he was the first Author of that fancy derive the word Missa or Mass from the Hebrew or Chaldee word Missah which as they say signifies a free-will Offering in the place but now quoted yet is there in truth no ground for such a conceit if either the due signification of that word or the text it self be more nearly consider'd Because the word Missah neither in that place nor in any other signifies a free-will Offering but only sufficientia * vid. Grot. in Deut. 16.10 Lexicogr or quantum sufficit and is in that particular place set only to denote that which might suffice according to their respective abilities for such a Nibdath Jadeka or free-will Offering of their hand as the Israelites were then oblig'd to celebrate the Feast of weeks with Whence it is that the same word is in the Chaldee Paraphrase frequently made use of to render the Hebrew Dai or sufficient and the Septuagint express it here by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according as thy hand shall be able But therefore as that account of the word Missa or Mass must be look'd upon as a very idle one and only agreeable to those dawning times wherein it first appear'd So there is still the more reason to believe what Polydore Virgil †ubi supra and after him many others have suggested that it had its original from the dismission that was given to those who pertained to any service after that service was finished Which may the more reasonably be believ'd
what he did by Authority from the Father to this Element of Bread for the Communion of his Body to his Disciples and Followers This as it was by the Institution it self to be a means of the Communion of his Body and so much the more comfortable one too because it was also manifest to their Senses So being a like object of thankfulness to him who had espous'd his Disciples interest as his own and to those Disciples that were to be profited by it and consequently not to be thought to have been forgotten by him These two great Benefits I think and I suppose not without reason to have been the Benefits our Saviour gave Thanks for and possibly also such Benefits as were preparatory to our Saviour's Death and particularly his Conception and Birth But other Benefits than those I know no ground to believe and much less the creation of this and other the Fruits of the Earth and dispensing them to us by his Providence As because there is not the least ground in the Institution for such a Thanksgiving unto God So because this and the other Element of the Lord's Supper were appointed not for corporal but spiritual sustenance and to which therefore our Saviour's Thankssgiving and ours may seem more properly to referr and because too there is appearance enough from what was before said from St. Luke (d) Luke 22.17 concerning our Saviour's taking a Cup of Wine giving Thanks and distributing it among his Disciples immediately before the Institution of this Sacrament that he satisfied the Jewish Eucharist before even that which had for its end the giving Thanks to God for earthly Benefits and particularly for the means of our Repast If the Antients as it appears they did (e) Part 1. represented this Sacrament as an Eucharist for the Fruits of the Earth as well as for the Blessing of our Redemption and accordingly premis'd such kind of Thanksgivings for it I am apt to think it proceeded at first from its being accompanied or rather immediately preceded as that which our Saviour first celebrated was by the Eucharist of the Jews And when that Eucharist was laid aside from a Willingness in the Christians that followed them to conform their own Eucharist so far to that of the Jews so the better to gain them to their Religion or oblige them to keep closely to it Till at length what was done only out of compliance with the Jews came to be look'd upon as a necessary part of the Christian Eucharist and Men thought themselves obliged to give Thanks to God in it for the Fruits of the Earth as well as for the Blessing of our Redemption Which Opinion the Antients were the more easily perswaded into because Christianity †1 Tim. 4.4 as well as Judaism taught them before their several Repasts to give God Thanks for the Matter of them and so sanctifie the Use thereof unto themselves For that might tempt them farther to believe that our Saviour premis'd such a Thanksgiving to his Eucharist and consequently thereto that we ought to do the like If any Man can give a fairer account of the Antients both Opinion and Practice I who profess my self to have a just regard for them will be glad to receive it and which is more will be as willing to acknowledge my own Errour in the former one But till I see such an account I shall rest satisfied in this and so much the more willingly because they who urge such like Testimonies of the Antients to establish the Sacrifice of the Mass insist as little upon this sort of Thanksgivings as any of the Reformed do 2. But to return to that from which I have diverted even to that Eucharist or Thanksgiving which our Saviour us'd over the Bread of it Where the next thing to be enquir'd into is what Use that Thanksgiving may be supposed to be of to procure the blessing of the Bread For if our Saviour blessed the Bread by the Thankssgiving which he made over it or rather address'd himself to God by Thanksgiving for the blessing of it That Thanksgiving must be suppos'd to be of some use to procure the Divine Blessing on it For the clearing of which Difficulty they who alledge as some do that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Thanksgiving is set to denote Prayer as well as that and so far forth may be of sufficient force to procure the Divine Blessing For what is there that can be suppos'd to be deny'd to Prayer and particularly to the Prayer of him in whom God was well pleased such Men I say alledge that which may perhaps be true and which I shall by and by endeavour to confirm But withall they say that which will not reach the Difficulty nor give any good account of two Evangelists and St. Paul's expressing this Address of Christ to his Father by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or giving of thanks For whatever else that word may be thought to include in it manifest it is first that Thanksgiving is the primary notion of it and that therefore in it self consider'd of a peculiar use toward the procuring of the Divine Blessing as which otherwise would not have been employ'd to denote the whole Act. As manifest it is secondly that the Blessings * Grot. in Mat. 26.26 of the Jews before and after their Meals were generally Thanksgivings and particularly that Blessing was wherewith the Jews Eucharist was begun and clos'd It is manifest thirdly that Thanksgivings have always had a great part in the consecrating of our Eucharist and is deny'd by no Man that I know of that will allow Prayer to have any part in it Which suppos'd the Question will still return what use they may be supposed to be of toward the procuring of the Divine Blessing and which we must find out some other way to resolve In order whereunto I will consider these Thanksgivings first as to what is common to them with all others and then as to what is peculiar to them as preparatory to our partaking of what we so give Thanks for That which the Thanksgivings of the Eucharist have common to them with all others is that they contain that in them which I have elsewhere (f) Expl. of the Lord's Prayer Discourse 2. Introd shewn makes Prayer it self to be so acceptable even an acknowledgment of our dependance upon God He who thanks God for the Benefits remembred in it or for this sensible conveyance of them as much acknowledging his dependance upon God as he who sues to him for those Benefits or any other And well may that be thought to be of use toward the procuring of the Divine Blessing which is as much an acknowledgment of our dependance upon him as any Prayer whatsoever Of such use are the Thanksgivings of the Eucharist toward the procuring of the Divine Blessing on it when consider'd as to that which is common to them with all others How much more
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
ought to take both species by vertue of any command of God let him be Anathema For possibly for ought that doth appear from the words of that Council there may have been a Command from Christ for all the faithful's receiving the Cup but which it is in the power of the Church as we are not ignorant of the asserted plenitude thereof to cassate or dispense with it And possibly too there is no command for any either Lay or Clergies receiving either the Cup or the Bread and so if the Church pleaseth we may and ought to bid Farewel to the Sacrament it self as well as to the Cup of it For that I make no unreasonable supposition here is evident from Fisher the Jesuite's (o) See his Answer in White 's Reply on Point 7. pag. 473. questioning whether Christ gave any precept at all in the matter of the Cup and his distinguishing between precept and institution which will avail as well against the Bread as against the Cup. Which things being not first decided it will indeed be to no great purpose to argue with them about the faithful's obligation to receive the Cup or for them to put us upon the proof of it Because the true Question may perhaps be whether there be any Command at all for any sort of Mens receiving the Cup or indeed the Sacrament it self in any part of it Which if it be both Clergy and Laity are under the same Condition and the Question ought to be Whether the whole matter of the Eucharist were not matter of Advice even to the Apostles themselves rather than any thing of a Command But as we cannot but think that Take Eat and Drink ye all of this are express Commands to some Persons or other because they run in the same form with Tell it to the Church and Obey those that have the Rule over you upon which kind of Texts all Ecclesiastical Authority is founded so we shall therefore take it for granted that the matter of the Cup is a Precept and accordingly go on to enquire for whom this Precept was intended and to whom it was directed by our Saviour Now as if this Precept was intended for any to be sure it was intended for our Saviour's Disciples because the Persons to whom it was immediately given So it must consequently be intended for them either in their personal capacity and so that it was to reach no farther than themselves or as they were the Representatives of others also If the Romanists say the former they do not only alter the state of the Question and make the future both Laity and Clergy in the same Condition as to this particular but make it as indifferent too as to any thing of a Command from Christ whether the future Clergy or Laity partake of the Sacrament at all even in the Bread of it Which how unreasonable it is may appear from St. Paul's pressing the Corinthians with the Institution of Christ in the matter of the Eucharist and particularly with the Precept Take Eat and Do this in remembrance of me For by that it should seem that what was enjoin'd upon the Disciples at least as to the Element of Bread was enjoin'd upon them as the Representatives of others also And if the Bread was so why not also the Cup that went along with it and concerning which the words of our Saviour in S. Matthew are as express Drink ye all of this and St. Mark tells us that he alike gave them and they all drank of it And I know of nothing that can look like the shadow of an Objection against this way of reasoning unless it be what some have vainly objected that St. Paul doth not deliver it as a Precept from Christ that the Apostles and after them others should drink of it but that when they did drink of it or as often as they did they should do it in remembrance of him as if there were nothing absolute concerning the Cup. But as the contrary is plain enough from St. Matthew who brings in our Saviour enjoining them to drink all of it and as it happens too without the addition of doing what they did in remembrance of him lest any should satisfie themselves with so vain a subterfuge So there was reason enough for St. Paul after his accurate rehearsal of the whole Institution of the Bread and of our Saviour's Command concerning it to content himself with saying Do this as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me Partly because this form of Speech or Command was enough to confute and discountenance that unworthy partaking of the Lord's Supper which was so rife among the Corinthians and for the discountenancing whereof this account of Christ's Institution was given But especially because that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or in like manner the Cup wherewith St. Paul ushers in that part of the Institution which respected it did sufficiently imply Christ's doing alike to and enjoining alike concerning the Cup as he had before affirm'd him to have done to or concerning the Bread so far as the different nature of the Elements did permit Otherwise we must suppose St. Paul to have thought the blessing of the Cup as indifferent a thing as the Romanists make the use of it to be which yet it is evident from this Epistle that he did not He representing that Blessing as a thing of so great concernment as to give denomination to the Cup (p) 1 Cor. 10.16 and not only so but intimating it to be of like use to make it to become the Communion of Christ's Blood The Cup therefore or rather the Command concerning the use of it being manifestly intended for the Disciples of Christ not in their personal capacity only but as they were also Representatives of others Enquire we in the next place whether it was intended for them as Representatives of all the faithful whatsoever or as Representatives of the Clergy only and particularly of such of them as were to consecrate the Bread and it A Question which one would think might easily be answered by considering that when the Sacrament was first instituted the Disciples had no hand at all in the Consecration of the one or the other Element but he by whom it was instituted For our Saviour making no use of their Assistance in consecrating the Cup or Bread they are to be look'd upon rather as Lay-men than Clergy-men as to any thing they were then enjoin'd Unless the thing enjoin'd could be otherwise made appear to be proper to Clergy-men as such Even as it is apparent that the Romanists themselves look upon such of their own Clergy as do not consecrate the Eucharist and accordingly withhold the Cup from them as well as from the meanest Lay-man Now what is there in the receit of the Cup that we should think it to be proper to the Clergy What in the Command of Christ concerning it to intimate any such thing what in the reason of the
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
Presbyters of those very Churches that differ'd from them about the observation of Easter And the like was done by other Churches as appears by the fourteenth Canon of the Council of Laodicea till it was forbidden by that Council because of the inconveniences thereof The third thing signified on our part by the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of Christ's Body and Blood For the evidencing whereof we are to know that as this Sacrament hath been shewn to be a Sign of the New Covenant (f) Expl. of the Sacraments in Gen. Part 2. which as such implies a Profession of something to be done on the part of God So the taking of this Sacrament must consequently imply our Covenanting to perform whatsoever that New Covenant obligeth us unto Which what it is will need no other Proof than what I have shewn in another place (g) Expl. of the Prelimin Quest and Answ c. to be the importance of that Sacrament whereby we enter into it For if that Sacrament import the Profession of a good Conscience toward God That new Covenant of which it is a Sacrament must consequently have the same good Conscience for the Object of it and therefore also make the like Profession of it to be the Duty of that Man who takes this other Sacrament thereof And though it be true that this part of the signification of the Lord's Supper is not so clearly express'd in the Stories of the Institution of it Yet as they give us to understand that we ought to take the Elements thereof in remembrance of Christs giving his Body and Blood for us so they do consequently imply our taking them also with a Resolution to live and act as becomes those that are partakers of them That Remembrance as it can be no other than a thankful one because the remembrance of such Benefits as do above all others require such a Remembrance of us so connoting as such a readiness to walk well-pleasing unto him by whom those Benefits are bestow'd Agreeable hereto is the both Language and Practice of the Antient Christians as appears by that account which I have before given of them (h) Expl. of the Sacr. in Gen. Part 1. They not only giving this Institution as well as Baptism the Name of a Sacrament in consideration of that Obligation they supposed it to lay upon the Persons that took it but obliging themselves by this Sacrament not as too many have since learn'd to do to the perpetrating of any notorious wickedness but to avoid all Thefts and Robberies and Adulteries the falsifying of their Trusts or the denying of any thing that was committed to their Custody when they were call'd upon by the true Owner to restore it For that those words of Pliny are to be understood of this Sacrament is not only evident from its being represented as a constant Attendant of the Christians publick Assemblies and particularly of their Assemblies before day which the Eucharist is known to have been (i) Tert. de Cor. Mil. c. 3. but from the no mention there is in Ecclesiastical Story of any other Sacrament in them PART VI. What farther relation the Sign of the Lord's Supper hath to the Body and Blood of Christ The Contents The outward Part or Sign of this Sacrament consider'd with a more particular regard to the Body and Blood of Christ and Enquiry accordingly made what farther relation it beareth to it That it is a Means whereby we receive the same as well as a Sign thereof shewn from the Doctrine of our Church and that Doctrine confirm'd by Saint Paul's entitling it the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood and by his affirming Men to be made to drink into one Spirit by partaking of the Cup of it Enquiry next made what kind of Means this Sign of the Lord's Supper is how it conveys to us the Body and Blood of Christ and how we receive them by it To each of which Answer is made from the Doctrine of our Church and that Answer farther confirm'd by the Doctrine of the Scripture The sum of which is that this Sign of the Lord's Supper is so far forth a Mean spiritual and heavenly That it conveys the Body and Blood of Christ to us by prompting us to reflect as the Institution requires upon that body and Blood of his and by prompting God who hath annex'd them to the due use of the Sign to bestow that Body and Blood upon us In fine that we receive them by the Sign thereof when we take occasion from thence to reflect upon that Body and Blood of Christ which it was intended to represent and particularly with Faith in them What Benefits we receive by Christ's Body and Blood in the next place enquir'd and as they are resolv'd by our Catechism to be the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul so Enquiry thereupon made what is meant by the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul what Evidence there is of Christ's Body and Blood being intended for it and how they effect it The Sign of the Lord's Supper a Pledge to assure us of Christ's Body and Blood as well as a Means whereby we receive them III. WHat the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper is and what the inward Part or thing signified by it enough hath been said to shew neither shall I need to resume the Consideration of them That which will more concern me to intend is What farther relation beside that of a Sign that outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper hath to the inward part or thing signified and particularly to the Body and Blood of Christ Where first I will declare and confirm the Doctrine of our own Church concerning it and then enquire into the truth of those Relations which the Church of Rome hath advanced on the one hand and the Lutheran Churches on the other Now as our Church hath defin'd a Sacrament to be such an outward and visible Sign of an inward and Spiritual Grace as is also ordain'd as a means whereby we receive the same and must therefore be suppos'd to have the same opinion of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper So it hath said enough both in its Catechism and elsewhere concerning that Sacrament to shew this to have been its opinion of it For it gives us to understand * Catechism that the Faithful for whom to be sure this Sacrament was principally ordain'd do verily and indeed receive the thing signified even the Body and Blood of Christ as well as the Signs of them and that they do verily and indeed receive that Body and Blood in the Lord's Supper which one would think were a competent Evidence of that 's being a Means whereby we receive them It consequently thereto teacheth us to pray †Pray of Cons in the Commun Service which one would think to be of equal force as to this Particular that we
cannot any other way convey Christ's Body and Blood to us than by prompting us by the representation it makes to us of the offering of that Body and Blood upon the Cross for us to meditate upon it and rely upon it for our Salvation and by prompting God who hath annex'd that Body and Blood to the due use of the Sacrament to confer that Body and Blood upon us In fine it appears from the premisses and from a passage or two (e) For as the benefit is great if with a true penitent heart and lively faith we receive that Holy Sacrament for then we spiritually eat the Flesh of Christ c. And above all things ye must give most humble and hearty thanks to God the Father c. for the Redemption of the World by the death and passion of our Saviour c. in our Church's exhortation to the Communion that we receive the Body and Blood of Christ in the Sacrament when we are thereby prompted to reflect with a penitent and thankful heart upon the offering Christ made of that Body and Blood of his upon the Cross for us and to rely upon it for our Salvation Which several assertions what foundation they have in the Scripture is in the next place to be enquir'd and the Doctrine of our Church therein established by it In order whereunto we are to know that the Body and Blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper as well as out of it are in the opinion of the Scripture not corporal but spiritual food and as such therefore to be look'd upon and owned by us For St. Paul affirming of the Antient Jews that they receiv'd in their Eucharist of Manna and Water of the Rock the same spiritual Meat (f) 1 Cor. 10.3 4. and drink which we also do and which he afterwards (g) 1 Cor. 4. declares to be Christ must consequently suppose what there is of Christ in our Eucharist to be of the same spiritual nature and because the Body and Blood of Christ is that which we receive by it that that also is Spiritual Meat and Drink and as such to be look'd upon and owned by us Now as if the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist are Spiritual Meat and Spiritual Drink they must consequently be communicated rather to the Soul than to the Body as which alone is qualified to taste of them and be nourished by them So they must be communicated to the Soul by such ways and means as are proper to possess the Soul of them and receiv'd by the same Soul by such act or acts thereof as are proper to apprehend them Which things being granted it will not be difficult to make answer what kind of Mean the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is how it conveys to us the Body and Blood of Christ and how we receive them by it For if the things which this Sacrament professeth to convey be Spiritual Meat and Drink such as are proper for the nourishment of the Soul and accordingly communicated to it Then must this Sacrament so far forth be a Spiritual Mean also as which alone can make way for such Spiritual nourishment to enter into the Soul If again the things which this Sacrament conveys must be conveyed to the Soul by such ways as are proper to possess the Soul of them Then must this Sacrament convey them to it either by prompting the Soul to reflect as the Institution requires upon that Body and Blood of Christ which it was intended to represent or by prompting God who hath annex'd that Body and Blood to the due use of it to confer that Body and Blood upon us These being the only ways by which that Spiritual repast can be communicated to that Soul for which it was intended In like manner if the things which this Sacrament conveys are to be receiv'd by such Act or Acts of the Soul as are proper to apprehend them Then if the Soul do receive the Body and Blood of Christ by means of the Sacrament it must do it by taking occasion from that Sacrament to reflect as the Institution requires upon that Body and Blood of Christ which it was designed to represent and particularly with Faith in that Body and Blood as which is of all other things most required to apply them to us And though it be true that the Church of Rome hath found out another sort of food and another sort of receiving it as shall be more fully declar'd when I come to the handling of it Yet as the Tridentine Fathers have been forced to confess that our Saviour requir'd this Sacrament to be taken (h) Sess 13. cap. 2. as the spiritual food of Souls by which they are nourished and strengthened So they have in like manner acknowledg'd that it ought to be spiritually taken (i) ib. cap. 8. as well as Sacramentally in order to our profiting by it But because our Catechism Question What are the benefits whereof we are partakers thereby Answer The strengthening and refreshing of our souls by the Body and Blood of Christ as our Bodies are by the Bread and Wine where it entreats of the faithful's receiving the Body and Blood of Christ proceeds to ask as is but reason what are the benefits we partake of by it and makes answer that they are the strengthening and refreshing of our Souls by the Body and Blood of Christ as our Bodies are by the Bread and Wine Therefore it will be but needful before we pass any farther to reflect upon those Benefits and accordingly enquire 1. What is meant by the strengthening and refreshing of the Soul 2. What Evidence there is of the Body and Blood of Christ being intended for it 3. How the Body and Blood of Christ effect it 1. Now as Strength and Refreshment are things which relate rather to the Body than the Soul and must therefore receive their Explication from thence So the former when applied to the Body signifies an ability for those operations for which it is intended as the latter a freedom from all heaviness and lumpishness And they are brought about especially by the Food which we receive and particularly by that Food which was made choice of for the present Sacrament Bread as the Scripture speaks (k) Psal 104.15 being that which strengthens the Heart and Wine that which chears (l) Judg. 9.13 and refresheth it By Analogy to which as the strength and refreshment of the Soul must signifie in like manner an ability for its proper operations and particularly for such as Christianity obligeth it to and a freedom from all trouble and disquiet So that which is said to strengthen and refresh it must consequently furnish it with such an ability and freedom and both enable it to do those things which God requireth of it and deliver it from those troubles and disquiets which its own guilt or any thing else might be apt to fill it with 2. This therefore being
them It will not be difficult to make answer that that notion can have no place where St. Paul makes it his business as he doth where he recites the Institution to awe Men into a reverential receit of this Holy Sacrament To think that St. Paul would so often call that Bread which was a thing infinitely above it when his Design was to awe Men into a reverential receit of it being to think he either knew not how to suit his Expressions to it or that he basely and invidiously betray'd it I will conclude what I have to say against the substantial change of the Sacramental Elements when I have shewn from the Antients that such a change was unknown to them Which I shall endeavour to evince first from what they say concerning their continuing in the same nature in which they were before and then from what they say concerning their being Types and Symbols and Images of that Body and Blood into which the Romanists affirm them to be transubstantiated That the Antients represented the Sacramental Elements as continuing in the same nature in which they were before will appear first from what I have elsewhere said (n) Part 1. concerning their representing our Eucharist as an Eucharist for the things of this World and particularly for the Fruits of the Earth as well as for the Body and Blood of Christ and professing to eat of the Bread of it even when become the Body of Christ by Prayer as a Testimony of their Thankfulness for the other For how is that an Eucharist for the things of this World and particularly for the Fruits of the Earth which is now all Heavenly neither hath any thing of an earthly sustenance remaining Or how we said to eat of the Bread of it in token of such a Thankfulness if there be nothing at all in it of what we profess to give thanks for All other Offerings beside this having some affinity with that which they pretend to be Offerings of Thanks for Neither will it avail to say which is all that can be said that our Eucharist may become such even for earthly Boons by the remaining species thereof For beside that the Antients make no mention of any such separate species and we therefore not to interpret what they say of Bread and other such substantial things concerning the bare species thereof It is plain from what was before quoted out of Irenaeus that that which was tender'd unto God in this Eucharistical offering was the creatures of Bread and Wine and from Origen that the Eucharistical Offering consisted in eating of what was tendered to him as well as in the tendry it self So that if they were the Creatures of God that were tender'd to him and not only the species thereof they were the same Creatures and not only the species thereof that were in their opinion eaten and drunken by them and consequently by which they gave thanks to God for the Fruits of the Earth as well as for the great Blessing of our Redemption But of all the things that are said by the Antients to shew their belief of the Sacramental Elements continuing in the same nature in which they were before nothing certainly is of more force than the use they make of that relation which is between them and Christ's Body and Blood to shew against the Apollinarians and Eutychians that the divine and humane nature however united in the person of Jesus Christ yet are not so made one as to be confounded and mixed together as the Apollinarians taught his divine nature and flesh to be or the humane nature to be swallowed up into the divine as the Eutychians did For to confute each of these and to shew the distinction there is between the two natures of Christ the Antients alledged the near relation there is between the Sacramental Elements and Christ's Body and Blood but which how near soever doth not confound or destroy the truth of their respective natures but preserves both the one and the other of them entire For thus St. Chrysostome in his Epistle to Caesarius lately published (o) Appendix to the Def. of an Exposit of the Doctrine of the Church of England against de Meaux against the Doctrine of the Apollinarians As before the Bread is sanctified we name it Bread but the divine Grace sanctifying it through the mediation of the Priest it is freed from the title of Bread and thought worthy of the title of the Body of the Lord although the nature of Bread remaineth in it and it is not said to be two Bodies but one Body of the Lord So also here the divine nature being placed in the Body they both together make up one Son and one person but without confusion as well as division not in one nature but in two perfect ones So that as surely as the two natures of Christ continue distinct and unconfounded so the Sacramental Elements and the thing signified by them do because made use of to illustrate the distinction of the other To the same purpose though more clearly and fully doth Theodoret discourse in his Dialogues against the Eutychians For taking notice in one place (p) Dial. 1. c. 8. of our Saviour's calling Bread by the name of his Body and in like manner his Flesh by the name of Meat he proceeds to give this reason of that change of names To wit That he intended thereby to prompt those that partake of the divine Mysteries not to attend to the nature of the things that are seen but by that change of names to give belief to that change which is made by grace For he that called his natural Body Meat and Bread and again nam'd himself a Vine the very same person honour'd the Symbols that are seen with the title of his Body and Blood not changing their nature but adding grace to nature And again (q) Dial. 2. c. 24. after he had acknowledg'd to the Eutychian that the gift that was offer'd was call'd by its proper name before the invocation of the Priest but the Body and Blood of Christ after the sanctification of it and the Eutychians replying thereupon that as the Symbols of the Lord's Body and Blood are one thing before the invocation of the Priest but after that invocation they are chang'd and become other things so the Lord's Body after its assumption is chang'd into the divine essence He hath these very emphatical words You are caught saith he in those nets which you your self have weav'd For neither do the mystical Symbols after their sanctification go out of their own nature For they abide in their former essence and figure and fashion and are visible and palpable as they were before But they are understood to be Blood they have been made to wit Symbols of Christ's Body and what and believ'd and reverenc'd as being what they are believ'd In like manner the natural Body of Christ which is the Archetype thereof hath its former
seems to do that that cannot be thought to derogate from Christ's Sacrifice upon the Cross which is taught by themselves to be a Means whereby the fruits of the other are most plentifully convey'd For either it is such a Means as doth also propitiate God and then it will however derogate from the Propitiation and Redemption of the other or it is not such a Means and then it is not a Propitiatory Sacrifice at all If there be any thing to hinder this pretended Sacrifice from entrenching upon that of the Cross it must be by attributing to it another and a lower sort of Propitiation than they think to be due unto the other But as the Council of Trent seems so far from allowing that that it professeth to believe that God is so far appeas'd with the Oblation of this Sacrifice as to grant Repentance and Pardon of Sin upon it and as one would think too by the Reason annexed with little difference from what is granted upon the Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross For it is saith that Council one and the same Host that is offer'd it is one and the same Person that now offers it by the ministry of his Priests who then offer'd up himself upon the Cross only after a different manner of offering so the great Trust their People are prompted to repose on this Oblation even when they do not communicate at it as that too upon the account of its being offer'd up for all the Faithful and for those in particular that are mention'd by name in it gives cause enough to believe that they think not much otherwise of it than they do of that Oblation which Christ made of himself upon the Cross if yet because of the more particular application of it to themselves they do not entertain a higher opinion of it II. The manner of the Administration of this Sacrament being thus accounted for and consideration therein had of what is most in controversie in it It remains that I enquire To whom it ought to be administred Which in the general are such as have given up their Names to Christ for so our Saviour first administred it and no doubt therefore intended that it should afterwards be More particularly those of them who are qualified by their Understanding and Life to partake worthily of it to do what they do in remembrance of Christ and to the comfort and benefit of their own Souls the salvation whereof was thereby intended Which both general and particular Qualifications Justin Martyr seems not obscurely to insinuate (x) Apol. 2. pag. 97. when immediately after the account he gives us of the Administration of this Sacrament in his time he tells us that the Eucharistical Food thereof was lawful for none to partake of but him that believ'd those things to be true that were taught by them who was moreover wash'd in that Laver which was appointed for remission of Sins and liv'd also as Christ deliver'd to us If there be any considerable difficulty in this Affair it is about the Administration of this Sacrament to Infants and which as some Ages of the Church seem to believe to have been necessary so one (y) Jer. Taylor 's Worthy Communicant cap. 3. sect 2. among our selves hath taken upon him to defend as to the lawfulness thereof As touching the necessity of its Administration to Infants little needs to be said because it is manifestly built upon a Text which considered without prejudice cannot tend in the least to the support of it That I mean where it is said that unless we eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood we can have no Life in us For it appearing from the Text it self and from what I have elsewhere (z) Part 7. said upon it that this Passage relates not to a Sacramental Manducation but rather to a Spiritual one the Communion of Infants is so far from being established by it that the Communion even of elder Persons cannot be concluded from it But because the Question is not so much at present concerning the necessity of administring this Sacrament to Infants as concerning the lawfulness thereof And because he who professeth to deny the one hath taken upon him to defend the other and the Practice of several of the Antients in it I think it not amiss to make that also the subject of my Discourse and both shew why I look upon it as a thing no way lawful and examine the Arguments that are brought in the behalf of it That which makes me look upon it as no way lawful to administer this Sacrament to Infants is their being not in a capacity to answer what is requir'd on the part of Communicants whether before or in the receiving of it For neither can they as St. Paul requires examine themselves before they address themselves to this Sacrament neither can they which is more material and requir'd by Christ himself do what they do in it in remembrance of Christ and of his Death By which means as they must be look'd upon as no way qualified for it so as such therefore excluded from the participation of it by him who was the Instituter thereof Neither will it avail to say as the forequoted Author objects that the former of these Precepts concerns those only that need an examination and have an ability for it and consequently cannot concern Infants in whom no such need or ability is For as I willingly grant that that Precept doth not concern Infants so I think therfore that they have as little concernment in that Sacrament to which such an Examination is pre-requir'd He who cannot do that which is prerequir'd to the receiving of any Sacrament being to be look'd upon as one for whom that Sacrament was never intended and consequently as one who ought not to be admitted to it Otherwise we must suppose Christ to have intended his Sacraments for those who are not in a condition to perform such things as are prerequir'd by himself to the partaking of it I am yet less concern'd at what the same Author seems to answer to what our Saviour enjoins concerning the doing what we do in this Sacrament in remembrance of him and of his Death For as all the Answer he makes to it is that one may shew forth Christ's Death by the very Act of Communicating and consequently that Infants because capable of that Act may shew forth Christ's Death also So that Answer is defective in this that it supposeth the shewing forth of Christ's Death to others to be all that our Saviour requir'd by doing what we do in remembrance of him The contrary whereof is evident because he commands the Communicant but just before to take what is given him as his Body and Blood and his Apostle St. Paul adjudge some Communicants to condemnation for not discerning in themselves the Lord's Body Both which Passages suppose that the Communicant ought to reflect in his own Mind upon the
of Christ's Body and Blood who do even when they avoid the partaking thereof humbly and devoutly adore them For whatever may be said of that adoration of Christ's Body and Blood To adore them is not to eat or drink of the Symbols of them and that Law therefore that enjoins both the one and the other as much despis'd as if they ador'd them a thousand times and together therewith that Body and Blood which it so graciously enjoins us to partake of Agreeable to this Command of our Saviour concerning eating and drinking the Sacramental Elements is his own subjoyning to the mention of each of those Acts (d) 1 Cor. 11.24 25. that they should do them in remembrance of him and of his death which is a farther inculcating of the former Command of Christ and of the Faithful's doing honour to him by the observation of it And to the same purpose is St. Paul's reckoning that eating and drinking in the number of those things whereby we are to shew (e) 1 Cor. 11.26 forth Christ's death For so the connexion of those words with Do this in remembrance of me perswades His cautioning the Corinthians thereupon against an unworthy (f) 1 Cor. 11.27.29 eating and drinking and willing them after they had examin'd themselves so to partake (g) 1 Cor. 11.28 of the Sacramental Elements In fine his supposing the Christians when they came together to the places of their Assemblies to come together to eat (h) 1 Cor. 11.20.33 the Lord's Supper For what are these but so many several Proofs that he look'd upon that eating and drinking not only as things enjoin'd by Christ in this Solemnity but the principal end of their meeting at it and the very top and perfection of it A Man would think that these Arguments were of sufficient force to shew our receit of the Sacramental Elements to be a thing ordinarily enjoin'd upon us and without the doing whereof therefore we cannot expect to reap the benefit of them But the Tridentine Fathers tell us another story and as they have transform'd a Sacrament of Christ into a Sacrifice of their own making so they tell us that that Sacrifice though the Priest alone partake Sacramentally of it is common to those that do not Partly because the people communicate spiritually in it (i) Sess 22. cap. 6. and partly because it is celebrated by the publick Minister of the Church not only for himself but for all the Faithful that pertain to Christ's Body It is very well though I think not very agreeably to their own Principles that they make the commonness of such Masses or Sacrifices to consist partly in the Peoples communicating spiritually in them For so some kind of communicating will appear to be necessary whatever the Sacramental one is which I do not see how the Dead are capable of But certainly Take Eat or as the Roman Missal reads it Take and eat ye all of this and drink ye all of this betoken a Sacramental eating and drinking as well as a Spiritual one Otherwise those words will be ill employ'd to prove that corporal manducation and drinking of Christ's Body and Blood which the Romanists so studiously advance Now if Christ himself require a Sacramental communicating at the celebration of the Lord's Supper or as the Romanists are pleas'd to phrase it at the celebration of the Mass I doubt a bare Spiritual communicating at it will hardly obtain the benefit thereof for those who do so communicate when they may pass to a Sacramental one This I take to be a sufficient Answer to what is alledged in the first place for those Masses at which the Priest only communicates being common to the People with him And I think it will be as easie to answer to what is alledged for it in the second place from those Masses being offer'd up by the publick Minister of the Church not only for himself but for all the Faithful that pertain to the Body of Christ For granting such an Offering as is pretended yet can they not expect the benefit of it who partake not of it as he enjoin'd who was both the Instituter and Exemplar of it The Sacrifice of the Cross of Christ being no farther available to any than it is apprehended and applied as he who offer'd it up appointed But to return to that which is the proper subject of this Enquiry even to shew how this Sacrament ought to be received by us Where again I will enquire 1. How we ought to prepare our selves for it 2. How we ought to demean our selves at the celebration of it 3. In what posture to receive it 1. It is the first of these which our Catechism speaks to even how we ought to prepare our selves for it Which it affirms to be by examining our selves whether we repent us truly of our 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. That we ought to examine our selves about the truth of our Repentance is manifest on the one hand from the necessity thereof toward the procuring of that Pardon which this Sacrament is intended to convey and on the other from our aptness to be deceived in it For generally speaking every little sorrow for sin though it be occasion'd only by what we are likely to suffer by it passeth with us for true Repentance And provided we lament our sins upon what account soever it be we think our selves truly penitent and as such therefore duly qualified for that or any other religious performance But as it appears from what I have elsewhere said (k) Expl. of Bapt. Part 10. that the Repentance which the Gospel requires is a repentance toward God and a sorrow according to God and must therefore proceed from a due sense of the affront we have offer'd whether to his Authority or Kindness So the best and most certain way to know whether our Repentance be such is by the amendment it produceth in us and particularly as to those Errors that prevail most in us and which the Scripture entitles (l) 1 Kings 8.38 the plague of a man 's own heart For he that finds himself to gain upon these needs not suspect the truth of his Repentance because nothing else but a due sorrow for Sin can carry a Man to abandon that to which the bent of his own nature doth forcibly encline him Upon which account I should advise that instead of running over a long catalogue of sins which few Men have leisure for and doth however but divert them from the main they would endeavour to find out their most prevailing sins and examine the truth of their Repentance by their conquest over them In order whereunto I shall lay down three 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or marks whereby those prevailing sins may be known Now the first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or mark
same Justin Martyr (a) Apol. 2. p. 98. receive these things as common Bread and common Drink But as Jesus Christ our Saviour being incarnate by the Word of God took both Flesh and Blood for our Salvation so also we have been taught that that Meat which is made Eucharistical by the Prayers of that Word which came from him and by which our Flesh and Blood are nourished through the conversion thereof into them is the Flesh and Blood of Jesus Christ incarnate And that they had not a less venerable esteem for the same Sacramental Elements in the succeeding times may appear from Tertullian's (b) Despectac cap. 25. giving them the title of Sanctum or the Holy thing and from the Bishop or Priest's delivering them with these words (c) Tert. ib. cum notis Rigalt The Body of Christ or The Blood of Christ and the Peoples receiving them with an Amen or So be it (d) Iterum Euseb Eccles Hist li. 6. cap. 43. cum notis Valesii So praying that what was intended by Christ and accordingly delivered by his Minister as the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood might prove such effectually to them For who can think after all this unless there were some presumption of their receiving the Elements in any other posture but that they receiv'd them in such a one as was suitable to such thoughts and such practices and not in one which hath no affinity at all with them Especially if there appear any express proof near those times of their receiving them in a posture of Adoration and particularly in the posture of standing Which that there is is evident from an Epistle of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria to Xystus Bishop of Rome (e) Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 7. cap. 9. For speaking therein of one who had been long admitted among the Faithful but beginning to doubt of the truth of his Baptism among Hereticks was importunate with him to Baptize him anew he tells Xystus that he for his part did not dare to do it and therefore answer'd the Person That that long Communion which he had in the Church suffic'd him for that Purpose For how could he have the confidence to renew him again who had oftentimes heard the Service of the Eucharist and with the rest of the Congregation answer'd Amen to it who had stood by the Table and stretched out his hands to receive the holy Food in fine who had receiv'd that holy Food and for a long time been partaker of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ But beside that the Antients receiv'd in a posture of Adoration and they therefore who represent sitting as the only allowable one so far forth guilty of singularity It will be hard to find any among the Moderns who do not receive in a posture of Adoration or at least do not believe it to be lawful which is a farther proof of the others singularity For the Bohemian Churches who were the first that reform'd from Popery in those poor remains of them that yet continue receive kneeling (f) Durel View of the Gov. and publ Worsh c. Sect. 1. Par. 57. to this day and which is more when they join'd with those of Polonia Major and Lithuania agreed unanimously to forbid the receiving of the Sacrament sitting as a Custom which was brought in by the Arrians The Reformed Churches (g) Durel Serm. of the Liturg. of France so long as they continu'd received standing and the great Men thereof as a reverend Person of our Nation (h) Hammond View of the New Direct c. informs us made a low Cringe before they took it into their hands Both French and Dutch in fine when they gave their Opinion concerning the Gesture us'd by the Bohemians did also deliver it as such That every Church ought to be left to its own liberty (i) Ham. L'Estrange Alli of Div. Offic. Cap. 7. in Annot. in this particular All which things consider'd it will appear that if they among us who advance sitting at the Sacrament be not therefore guilty of singularity yet they must be for advancing it as the only allowable one as if their Reasons were good they must be thought to do But because how singular soever this Opinion of theirs may be yet it is pretended that it hath Christ and his Disciples example on its side together with the suffrage of Reason Therefore it will be but just to examine those Pretences and see what there is of strength in them And first it is pretended that our Saviour Christ and his Disciples sat at the receiving of this Sacrament or at least us'd such a posture as was answerable to sitting among us even lying along upon Beds as the fashion of those Countries was And it is not to be denied that there is sufficient ground from the Scripture for their using that Posture at the Passover and not unlikely neither that they held it on at the Celebration of the Lord's Supper But will it therefore follow that we ought to look upon no other Posture than that or one of the same nature as allowable For beside that things which are but probable may be false and things improbable true Beside that things probable for that very reason cannot conclude the Conscience of any Man and ought much less to be made use of to conclude the Consciences of others If Christ and his Disciples practice in this particular were as certain as it is supposed to be probable yet could it not be of force to conclude ours unless there were some Command to oblige us to follow it or some cogent Reason in the Practice it self to shew the necessity thereof Because Example consider'd in it self is no Rule of humane Actions in as much as it rather shews what others have done before us than what we our selves are to do in any Affair Which is so true as to that very Example which we have now before us that they who insist upon it in the posture of receiving do yet without any hesitancy depart from it in other Circumstances and such too as are more certain than the posture of receiving is For they no more than we think themselves oblig'd to receive either in the Evening or in an upper Room or in unleavened Bread all which Christ and his Disciples must be acknowledg'd to have done in that Supper which he celebrated with them But therefore as if they will have this Example of Christ and his Disciples to be obligatory they must find out some Command obliging us to follow it or some cogent Reason in the practice of it self to shew the necessity thereof So if we stay till that be done we may stay long enough because there is no just Pretence for the one or the other of them For what shadow is there for instance of any Command to follow Christ or his Disciples Example in this as there is for the taking of the Sacramental Elements and eating
its relating to that Cup which he took into his hands and blessed Which if we should there would be no proof either here or elsewhere of the Fruit of the Vine's being one of the Symbols of this Sacrament PART IV. Of the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper The Contents Bread and Wine ordinarily the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper and the Heresie of the Aquarii upon that account enquir'd into and censur'd The kind of Bread and Wine enjoin'd in the next place examin'd and a more particular Enquiry thereupon Whether the Wine ought to be mix'd with Water and what was the Ground of the Antients Practice in this Affair The same Elements consider'd again with respect to Christ's Body and Blood whether as to the Vsage that Body and Blood of his receiv'd when he was subjected unto Death or as to the Benefit that was intended and accru'd to us by them In the former of which Notions they become a Sign of Christ's Body and Blood by what is done to them before they come to be administred and by the separate administration of them In the latter by the use they are of to nourish and refresh us Of the Obligation the Faithful are under to receive the Sacrament in both kinds and a resolution of those Arguments that are commonly alledg'd to justifie the Romish Churches depriving them of the Cup. THE way being thus plain'd to the Consideration of the present Sacrament and if I mistake not such a Foundation also laid as may support a better Fabrick than I am likely to superstruct upon it I will now pass on to a more particular handling of it in the method before observ'd in the Sacrament of Baptism as well as in the Sacraments in general In order whereunto I will enquire I. What is the outward Part or Sign of the Lord's Supper II. What is the inward Part or thing signified by it III. What farther relation beside that of a Sign the outward part or Sign hath to the inward part or thing signified IV. What is the Foundation of those Relations V. How and to whom this Sacrament ought to be administred VI. How it ought to be receiv'd I. That which comes first to be enquir'd is what is the outward part Question What is the outward part or Sign of the Lord's Supper Answer Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be receiv'd or Sign of the Lord's Supper which our Catechism declares to be Bread and Wine which the Lord hath commanded to be receiv'd For my more advantageous handling of which Answer I will again enquire 1. What Evidence there is of Bread and Wine being the outward part or Sign of the Lord's Supper 2. What kind of Bread and Wine we ought to make use of in it 3. Wherein the Bread and Wine were intended as a Sign 4. What Evidence there is of Christ's commanding us to receive them 1. That Bread and Wine are the outward part or Sign of the Lord's Supper is so evident from the Story of the Institution and the account I have already given of it that it would be but lost labour to go about to prove it It may suffice here to add that as Bread and Wine were the Matter of that Jewish Eucharist which in all probability was the Pattern of the Christian one So the Practice of the Church of God hath been always conformable to it neither have any Persons willingly varied from it I will not say that have not been branded for Hereticks but that have not also been look'd upon as either stupidly ignorant or blotches of the Church rather than any part of it Of which nature were those Aquarii mention'd by St. Augustin * De haeres c. 6. Ed. Dan. and before him written against by St. Cyprian †Ad Caecil Ep. 63. that offer'd Water in the Cup of the Sacrament instead of that which all the Church doth Whether that they condemn'd the Creation of God as several of the ancient Hereticks did and accordingly abstain'd wholly from Wine as well as from some other things Or as I rather think for the most part by way of exercise upon and mortification of themselves of which sort of Abstinences out of the Sacrament there are frequent Instances in the Antient Christians Little considering that Obedience is much better than such Sacrifices though they were otherwise of far greater worth than they will be found upon examination to be For if St. Paul * 1 Tim. 5.23 could admonish Timothy even for his Stomach's sake and his often Infirmities not to drink any longer Water but to use a little Wine I doubt he would not have heard with any patience of his or other Men's abstaining wholly from the Cup of the Sacrament or using Water instead of it out of a Principle of mortification and self-denial I do not say the same as to the outward part or Sign of the Lord's Supper where one of those Elements is not to be had or at least not without much difficulty as to be sure in many places the Wine of the Sacrament is not For as I find by Cassander (a) Liturg. c. 14. that the Armenians in India where Wine is not to be had do beforehand steep dried Grapes in Water and the next day press out the Juice of them for the use of the Sacrament So I do not see but where neither the one nor the other is to be had Men may lawfully make use of other generous Liquors for the same purpose I do not say only upon the account of Necessity to which all positive Laws must yield but because as I shall afterwards shew they are equally fitted to represent to us those things for which the Fruit of the Vine was here ordain'd Only let not Men make a Necessity where there is none nor think themselves excus'd in the use of other Liquors where the Fruit of the Vine though not the Product of their own Countrey yet may well enough be had from abroad For where our Saviour hath annex'd a Blessing to the use of such and such Creatures I do not see how we can expect it without where we have not a just Necessity to excuse it how convenient soever those other Creatures are which we substitute in the room of them 2. But because question may be made what kind of Bread and Wine we ought to make use of in this Sacrament as well as whether Bread and Wine be the ordinary Matter or Sign of it Therefore I shall admonish as to the former of these that I see little reason to doubt but that the Bread of the place we live in may suffice provided it be of the better and more nutritive sort or at least as good as we are in a capacity to provide For our Saviour having not prescrib'd any thing as to the Grane whereof it is to be made and all sorts of Bread being in their Nature sufficiently fitted for those