Selected quad for the lemma: water_n
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A52616
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The Trinitarian scheme of religion, concerning almighty God and mankind considered both before and after the (pretended) fall : with notes thereoupon, which notes contain also the unitarian scheme.
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Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing N1509A; ESTC R41717
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32,447
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30
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are as bad as the Devil you shall presently be inclined to as much Good as will save you from Hell and qualify you for Heaven And this no less certainly if you are one of the Elect for else the Churches Incantation produces only a Momentary Effect and a false Appearance of Good no less certainly I say than by tying the Norman Knot you may gain the Love of the Person you desire or by other Devices recorded in the learned Books so Fools esteem them of Magick you may cause Hatred raise Winds and do a thousand other Feats which have no more natural or real Agreement with those Causes that are said to produce them than Faith and Obedience have with a bit of Bread or with a sprinkling of Water Therefore when St. Austin defined a Sacrament to be the outward visible Sign of an inward invisible Grace or Energy the good Father should have considered that this is the Definition of a Charm not of a Gospel-Sacrament For a Charm is a bare outward visible Sign that has no natural or real Agreement with the Effect and if the Effect prove for the good of the Person concerned it may be called the inward invisible Grace of such Sign or Charm as when the Effect is to beget Love or such like But if the Effect of the Charm be hurtful as to kill or such like then it must be called the Energy not the Grace of the Charm as that damning Quality or Power which our Opposers impute to the Sacrament of the Supper when not received aright cannot be called the Grace of that Sacrament but only the Energy So that let them turn themselves which way soever they can they have turned the Gospel-Sacraments as I said before into Charms and Spells Now on the contrary Unitarians think of the Sacraments reverently not extravagantly or superstitiously They like not indeed the word Sacraments because 't is no Scripture-word and because the Criticks have noted that 't is a very improper Term or Name to denote the Ceremonies of Baptism and of commemorating the Passion and Death of our Saviour But they will not quarrel about words if the Things signified be agreeable to Reason or Holy Scripture We think that Baptism was a Ceremony or Rite appointed by our Saviour for divers most weighty Reasons whereof this was the chief to initiate or enter Jews and Heathens into the Christian Church It was a very proper and significant Rite and Ceremony for the washing and cleansing the Body in Water doth very aptly signify that Repentance and those Purposes of Holiness and Purity which such as enter themselves into the Christian Church or are born in that Church should profess and practise He that comes to be baptized that is to be washed in Water doth thereby profess he will in like manner purge his Mind and Conscience and his whole Conversation from Impurity and Wickednesses of all sorts by delivering himself up to the Institution and Guidance of that Gospel which was given by the Father or God as its Author was brought by the Son our Lord Christ as the Messenger and confirmed by the Holy Spirit or the Power and Inspiration of God by abundance of Signs Miracles and Wonders Therefore according to the Vnitarians 't is not this Sacrament that worketh ought in us much less renews regenerates and changes our Natures but the Person who receives this Sacrament is to resolve and purpose Renovation Regeneration or Newness of Life This Doctrine we learn form St. Peter 1 Pet. 3.21 The like Figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the Filth of the Flesh i. e. not the meer Ceremony of Baptism that is of dipping and washing in Water but the Answer of a good Conscience towards God That is if as our Bodies are baptized or wash'd in Water so also we purify our Consciences of all Disobedience towards God From this Explication of Baptism some have drawn these two Corollaries or Consequences 1. That Baptism should be administred by dipping in Water for by that cleansing of the Body is effected at least is intended and signified but sprinkling doth neither cleanse nor signify cleansing the Body and so is very improper to signify the Answer of a good Conscience that is the cleansing the Heart and Conscience from Evil. 2. That no Person is capable of this Rite but such as can profess and intend the thing signified by Baptism even a clean Conscience and a new Life As to the Lord's-Supper every one knows the mighty Wonders ascribed by our Opposers to this Sacrament Papists say the Substances of Bread and Wine are changed into the Substance of Christ's Body Lutherans say they are consubstantiated with his Body The Church of England goes beyond the Papists for she saith in the Catechism that the Body and Blood of Christ are VERILY and INDEED taken and received by the Faithful not by others in the Lord's-Supper This implieth such a Real and Universal Presence of our Lord's Body in the Sacrament as far exceeds the Popish Transubstantiation for that limits the Presence to only the Substance of Christ's Body and excludes the Accidents but this takes in both The Vnitarian Doctrine concerning this Sacrament is plain and simple We say our Saviour has told us the meaning of this Sacrament in those words Luke 22.19 This do in remembrance of me And St. Paul 1 Cor. 11.26 As oft as ye eat this Bread and drink this Cup ye do shew the Lord's Death That is you commemorate and represent the shedding the Lord's Blood and the breaking his Body for Mankind But for the miraculous Effects and Consequences ascribed to the right partaking of this Sacrament Unitarians can find them nowhere but in the Books and Sermons of the superstitious Admirers I might have said Idolaters of External Things 'T is true the Apostle blameth the Corinthians for receiving unworthily But the Vnworthiness was their Drunkenness in the very Act of communicating that is of commemorating the Death of our Saviour and 't is of this and the like Disorders in the Act of communicating that he there bids them to examine themselves before they presume to take the Memorials of their Lord's Death As for those words of our Saviour at John 6.53 Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you and divers such-like Expressions in that Chapter especially toward the latter end of it 't is certain and agreed by the most Learned Interpreters Papists and Protestants as well as Socinians that our Saviour is not there speaking of the Sacrament of the Supper which when he made those Discourses was not yet instituted but of believing in him and imitating his Example H. Grotius hath very judiciously and learnedly and very amply also proved this to be the meaning of that Context and I believe hath satisfied as many as have carefully read and considered that part of his Annotations Wherefore I refer to
Thought as that of David was it came solely from David not from God for in that very Context 2 Sam. Ch. 7. God disallowed and forbad it declaring withal that He had reserved that Work for Solomon the Son of David No one will be so unchristian as to deny that 't was a good Thought and Action in St. Paul and his Company that they attempted to preach the Gospel in Bithynia but it came from themselves not from God for the Text says God suffer'd them not so to do Acts 16.7 7. If our Case were such with respect to Good and Evil as our Opposers pretend that is if all the Good we do and all the Evil we forbear is only by a daily hourly and momentary Grace for so they affect to speak inspired infused or blown into us The Words of the Divine Law should be directed to God's Grace in us not to us But now this is not only not so but the Phrase and Expression used in the Law or Commandment plainly supposes that we can obey by our own proper Powers Such in particular is that remarkable Text at Ezek. 18.31 32. Make you a new Heart and a new Spirit for why will ye die O House of Israel I have no pleasure in the Death of him that dieth wherefore turn your selves and live ye 8. Our Ability to Good as well as Evil is evinced also by this that God declares he will punish the neglect of Duty and every evil Doer after a most terrible and condign manner This would be too apparently unjust and tyrannical if himself hath so made us that we cannot do that Duty or forbear that Evil without a particular and extraordinary Grace and Aid which is in the Gift and Power of God only and which he refuseth or omitteth to bestow on us Our Opposers deny that we can so much as pray for that Grace or Aid of God by which to do Good and forbear Evil for they say the very Affectus orandi the Inclination or Intent to pray is purely the Gift of God As for the Word and Sacraments another means for obtaining God's Grace we shall see hereafter that our Opposers make the outward Word of no Efficacy ascribing all to the inward Word which is not at all in our Power and in order to any Benefit by the Sacraments so called they require a great many previous Graces which are only in the Hand of God So that after all their Subterfuges Evasions and Shifts their Doctrine concerning Grace amounts to this God will punish Men eternally in Hell-Fire for not doing and for not forbearing what 't was not in them to do or forbear without such an extraordinary Grace of God as was wholly in him to give and not at all in them to attain or get As to the Texts by them alledged to prove that all is done by the Grace of God and that we are impotent and averse also to all Good They have been often told by the Socinians and Remonstrants and in the Annotations of the excellent Grotius how those Texts are to be understood To them therefore I refer without ingaging in so long and tedious a Digression Of the Word and Sacraments NOW that the Elect may obtain the before mentioned Grace of God by which to believe aright and to do that which Good is the Trinity have appointed the Word and Sacraments A Sacrament consists of two Parts an outward visible Sign and an inward invisible Grace or Energy The visible Sign of the Sacrament of Baptism is Water the inward Grace is New Birth unto Faith and Righteousness By this Sacrament even Infants are regenerated or born again by the Spirit co-operating that is to say Faith Obedience and other saving Graces are conferred in this Sacrament on Elect Infants In the Sacrament of the Supper the outward Sign is Bread and Wine the inward Energy or Grace accompanying it is first Remission of Sins next the refreshing and strengthening our Souls in Faith and other Graces These things are amply and often taught us by the English Church both in the publick Catechism and in the Offices or Forms of administring Baptism and the Lord's-Supper The Word is another appointed means of Grace but no one is to think that 't is by Arguments used by a Preacher or by the Rewards or Punishments held forth in the Word whether written or preach'd or such-like external and human means that our Minds are savingly convinced or our Wills and Affections rightly disposed No no the inward and ineffable Word which God himself speaks to the Heart and which towards the Elect accompanies the Word preach'd or read when and as oft as God pleases this is that only Word which begets Faith worketh Obedience and in one word that whole Renovation or Change which denominateth a Man or Woman the Child or Servant of God And thus much is plainly and undeniably intimated in the Collects and other Prayers and Offices of our English Service-Book and is the known Doctrine of all the Orthodox of all indeed but Socinians and such as are more or less Socinianiz'd The English Service-Book and the Articles are so clearly for these Doctrines that it hath occasioned this Declaration of what may be meant when Men subscribe to the Articles Homilies and Service-Book to be favourably received even this that Men subscribe not to the Truth but to the use of the Service-Book and again they subscribe to the Articles as to Articles of Peace and Communion which they will not publickly impugn in the station of Preachers not as to Articles of Faith or of absolute and undoubted Verity This is the sense in which perhaps most Men now subscribe to the Homilies Articles and Service-Book and which upon occasion they declare to be the meaning of their Subscription But all such are reformed according to the Model not of our first Reformers but of Socinus Arminius and Episcopius whatsoever the Station may be that they hold in the Church The Notes The Sum of this Doctrine is tho we are so made by God as to be by Nature impotent to all Good and disposed to all Evil yet to cure the Elect tho not wholly yet in part of this corrupt and depraved Condition of our Minds and Souls God has appointed the Word and Sacraments Which are a sort of means that work not by any natural Energy of their own nor by any Harmony Sutableness or Agreeableness to our Powers Faculties or Natures but by a Theurgical Telestick and Mystical Operation Which is to say they work on our Minds as Spells Charms and Incantations and such like obtain their pretended Effects namely by a Praeternatural Power extraordinarily given to them by God or by those Spirits that preside over such Affairs Let a Man in black sprinkle you with some of the Church's Water or give you a bit of Bread or a sup of Wine over which he has pronounced the Wonder-working Words prescribed in Mother Church's Ritual tho by Nature you