The Catechizing of Families, Chapter 46
CHAP. XLVI. Of the Sacrament of Christs sacrificed Body and Blood.
Qu. 1. WHat is the Sacrament called the Lords Supper or Eucharist?
A. It is a sacred Action in which by Bread and Wine Consecrated, broken and poured out, given and taken, and eaten and drunk, the Sacrifice of Christs Body and Blood for our Redemption is Commemorated, and the Covenant of Christianity mutually and solemnly renewed, and sealed, in which Christ with the benefits of his Covenant is given to the Faithful, and they give up themselves to Christ, as members of his Church, with which they profess Communion.aMat. 26. 26, 27, 28. Luk. 22. 19. 1 Cor. 10. 16, 17. & 11. 23, 24, 25, 26. 28.
Q. 2. Here are so many things contained, that we must desire you to open them severally: And first what Actions are here performed?
A. 1. Consecration, 2. Commemoration, 3. Covenanting and communication.
Q. 3. What is the Consecration?
A. It is the seperating and Sanctifiing the Bread and Wine, to this holy use; by which it ceaseth to be meer common Bread and Wine, and is made Sacramentally, that is, by signification and representation, the Sacrificed Body and Blood of Christ.
Q. 4. How is this done, and what Action consecrateth them?
A. As other holy things are consecrated, as Ministers, Utensils, Church-maintenance, Oblations, the Water in Baptism, &c. which is by an authorized devoting it to it's proper holy use.
Q. 5. But some say, it is done only by saying these words, This is my Body; or by Blessing it?
A. It is done by all that goeth to a Dedication or Seperation to it's holy use: and that is, 1. By declaring that God commandeth and accepteth it, (which is best done by reading his Institution) and that we then accordingly devote it. 2. By Praying for his Acceptance and Blessing 3. By pronouncing Ministerially that it is now Sacramentally, Christs Body and Blood.
Q. 6. Is the Bread and Wine the true Body and Blood of Christ?
A. Yes, Relatively, Significantly, Representatively, Sacramentally: that is, it is consecrated Bread and Wine on these accounts so called.
Q. 7. But why do you call it that which it is not really, when Christ saith, This is my Body, …d not, this signifieth it?
A. The Name is fitly taken from the Form: And … Sacramental form is a Relative form. If you see … Shilling of the Kings Coin, and the question be Whether this be a Shilling, or the Kings Coin, or Silver? You will answer, It is all three: The matter of it is Silver; The General Relation is Money or Coin; The Special Relative form is, It's a Shilling. And this is the fittest name when the value is demanded. So the question is, Whether this be Bread and Wine, or a Sacrament, or Christs Srcrificed Body and Blood. It is all these: and the Answer must be according to the meaning of the question.
It is usual to say of Pictures, This is the King, and This is such a one, and This is my Father, &c. Certainly the two parts of the Sacrament must be understood alike: And of one Christ saith [This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood which is shed for you, Luk. 22. 20. 1 Cor. 11. 25. Where none can deny that by [Cup] is meant the Wine, and by [Is the New Testament] is meant, [Is the Exhibition and Sealing of the New Testament] and not the very Testament it self.
And its known that Christs common Teaching was by Parables and Similitudes, where he saith, Mat. 21. 28. A Certain man had two Sons, &c. v. 33. A Certain Housholder planted a Vineyard, &c. And so frequently, Mat. 13. 21, 22, 23, 37, 38, 39. He that soweth is the Son of Man: The Field i… the World. The good Seed are the Children of the Kingdom: The tares are the Children of the Wicked one: The Enemy is the Devil: The Reapers are the Angels, that is, They are signified: This is ordinary in the Gospel, Ioh. 15. 1. I am the Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman: Joh. 10. 7, 9, 14. I am the Door, I am the good Shepheard, (as David, Psal. 22. 6. I am a Worm and no man;) Mat. 15. 13, 14. Ye are the salt of the Earth: the Lights of the World: that is, Ye are like these things.
Yea, the Old Testament useth [is] for [Signifieth] most frequently, and hath no other word so fit to express it by.
Q. 8. Why then do the Papists lay so much stress on the Word [is:] Yea, why do they say That, there is no Bread and Wine after the Consecration, but only Christs Body and Blood under the shew of them?
A. The Sacrament is exceeding Venerable, being the very Eating and Drinking, Christs own Sacrificed Body and Blood in similitude or representation. And it was meet that all Christians should discern the Lords Body and Blood in similitude, from common Bread and Wine: And in time the use of the Name when the Church was drowned in Ignorance, was taken (about one thousand years after Christ) for the thing signified without the sign; As if they had said, This is the King; Therefore it is not a picture, nor is it Cloth or Colours. And it being proper to the Priests to consecrate it, they found how it exalted them to be judged able to make their Maker, and to Give or Deny Christ to men by their Authority, and so they set up Transubstantiation, and by a General Council made it Heresie, to hold that there is any Bread or Wine left after Consecration.
Q. 9. Wherein lyeth the evil of that Opinion?
A. The Evils are more and greater than I must here stay to recite. In short, 1. They feign that to be Christs Body and Blood, which was in his Hand or on the Table when he spake the words, as if he had then two Bodyes
2. They feign his Body to be broken and his Blood shed before he was crucifyed.
3. They feign him to have Flesh and Blood in Heaven, which two General Councils have condemned; his Body being a Spiritual Body now.
4. They feign either himself to have eaten his own Flesh and Drunk his own Blood, or at lest his Disciples to have done it while he was alive.
5. They feign him to have been the Breaker of his own Flesh and Shedder of his own Blood, and make him to do that which was done only by the Iews.
6. They contradict the express words of the Scripture, which three times together call it Bread after the Consecration, in 1 Cor. 11. *So 1 Cor. 10. 15. Act. 20. 7, 11. & 2. 42. 46. 1 Cor. 11. 25, 26, 27, 28.When yet they say, It is not Bread.
7. They condemn the belief of the soundest senses of all men in the World, as if it were heresie. All our Eyes, Touch, Tast, &c. tells us that there is Bread and Wine, and they say there is none.
8. Hereby they deny all certainty of Faith, and all other certainty: For if a man may not be certain of what he Seeth, Feeleth and Tasteth, he can be certain of no sensible thing: For we have no Faculties but sence to perceive things sensible as such: Nor any way to transmit them to the Intellect but by sense. And we can no otherwise know that there is a Bible, a Church, a Council, a Pope, a Man, or any thing in the World, and therefore much less can believe any of them. So that all Humane and Divine Faith are thus destroyed, yea man is set below a Beast that hath the Benefit of sense.
9. Hereby they feign God to be the grand deceiver of the World; For, things sensible are his Works, and so is Sense: And he makes us know no supernatural Revelation but by the intromission of some Sence: And if God may deceive all men by the way of sense, we can never be sure but he may do it otherwise.
10. They set up Men who confess their own senses are not to be credited, to be more credible than all our senses, and to be the Lords of the understandings of all Princes and People in despight of sense: And he that is to be believed before our senses, is an absolute Lord.
11. They deny it to be a Sacrament: For if there be no sign there is no Sacrament.
12. They feign every ignorant drunken Priest every time he consecrateth, to work greater Miracles than ever Christ wrought, and so to make Miracles common and at the Wills of thousands of wicked men. I must not here stay to handle all this: But in a small Book call'd Full and Easie Satisfaction which is the true Religin, I have shewed thirty one Miracles with twenty Aggravations which all Priests are feigned to work at every Sacrament.
Q. 10. What is it that is called the Mass, which the Papists say that All the Fathers and Church used in every age, and we renounce?
A. In the first Ages the Churches were gathered among Heathens; and men were long Instructed and Catechized hearers before they were baptized Christians: And the first part of the day was spent in publick, in such Common Teaching and Prayer as belonged to all, and then the Deacon cryed Missa …est; that is, Dismist the unbaptized hearers, and the rest that were Christians spent the rest of the time in such duties as are proper to themselves, especially the Lords Supper and the Praises of God. Hereupon all the Worship following the Dimission of the unchristened and suspended, came to be called barbarously the Mass, or Dismission. And this Worship hath been quite changed from what it was in the beginning, and the Papists by keeping the Name [Mass] or Dismission, make the ignorant believe that the Worship it self is the same as of old.
Q. 11. What be the changes that have been made?
A. More than I may now stay to number. Iustin Martyr and Tertullian describe it in their Time to be just such as the Scripture mentioneth, and we now commonly perform; that is, In Reading the Scripture, opening and applying it; Praying as the Minister was able, Praising God, Baptizing, and administring the Lords Supper. After this Ministers grew less able and trusty, and they decreed that they should pray and Officiate in set forms; yet so that every Bishop might choose his own, and every Presbyter must shew it to the Bishops and have their approbation: The Creed, Lords Prayer, and Commandements, and the Words of Baptism and Delivery of the Lords Supper were alwayes used in forms before. After this they grew to use the same forms called a Liturgie in whole Provinces: some Ceremonies were so Ancient that we cannot find their Original, that is, The Anointing of the baptized, the giving them Milk and Honey to taste, dipping them thrice, cloathing them in a white Garment after, to Worship with their faces toward the East, and not to kneel in Prayer or Adoration any Lords day in the year, nor any Week day between Easter and Whitsuntide, and specially to observe those two yearly Festivals, and Good Frydaies fast.
And quickly after the encouraging of persecuted Christians to suffer, drew them to keep a yearly day at the place where a Martyr was kill'd or buryed, to honour their memories and give God thanks for them. After this they built Altars over them: And they built their Churches where their graves or …ome of their bones were laid, and in honour of their memory called the Churches by their Names. Next they brought their Names daily into the Church Liturgies; And next they added to them the Names of such Bishops of those particular Churches as had left an honourable memorial behind them. And the Lords Supper was celebrated much like as it is in our English Liturgy (save these Names.) And thus far the changes were then accounted laudable, and were not indeed such as should discourage any Christians from Communion: Nor do we read of any that were against them. Besides which they overvalued the use of Crossing.
But quickly (though by degrees) a Flood of Ceremonies came in, and Popes and Prelates added at their Pleasure, till Gods publick Worship was made quite another thing.
I. God who is a Spirit and will be Worshipped in Spirit and Truth, is by Mass-Priests and Papists Worshipped by such a mass of Ceremonies, as makes it like a Stage-play, and representeth God so like the Heathens Idols, delighted in Mummeries and toyish actions, as is greatly to the dishonour of Religion and God.bIoh. 4. 20, 22, 23, 24. Act. 17. 23, 25. Phil. 3. 3. 1 Cor. 14. 2, to 27. Luk. 11. 52. Ioh. 5. 39. … 17. 11. 2 Tim. 3. 15.
II. They have brought in the Worshipping of God in a Language which the People understand not, and praying for they know not what.
III. They have lockt up the very Scriptures from the people, and forbid all to use it in their known Tongue translated, but those that get a special License for it.
IV. They abolish all substantial Signs in the Sacrament, as is aforesaid, and say, There is no Bread or Wine, and so make it no Sacament.
V. They give the Laity the Bread only without the Cup.
VI. They call the Consecrated Bread by the Name of their Lord God, and taking it to be no Bread but Christs Body worship it with Divine Worship, which seemeth to me flat Idolatry.
VII. They reserve it as their God, long after the Sacrament, to adore and to work pretended Miracles by.
VIII. They solemnly celebrate a Sacrament before the Congregation, where none communicate but the Priests, and the People look on.
IX. They say these Masses by number, to deliver Souls out of the Flames of Purgatory.
X. They have many Prayers for the Dead as in Purgatory for their ease and deliverance.
XI. They Pray to the Dead Saints to intercede for them and help them, and to the Virgin Mary for that which is proper to Christ.
XII. They worship God by Images, and adore the Images as the representations of Saints and Angels; Yea and of God, and some profess that the Cross, and the Images of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are to be worshipped with honour participatively Divine.cCol. 2. 18.
These with abundance more, and many false Doctrines on which they depend, are brought into Gods publick Worship, and called The Mass, and are added by degrees to that sounder Worship which was called the Mass at first.
Q. 12. You have spoken much about the Consecration in the Sacrament; What is it which you call the Commemoration?
A. It containeth the signal representation of the Sacrificing of Christ, as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the World. Where the Signs are, 1. The Materials, the Bread and Wine; 2. The Ministers Breaking the Bread and Pouring out the Wine; 3. The Presenting them to God as the Commemoration of that Sacrifice in which we trust: and declaring to the people that this is done to this Commemoration.
The things signified are, 1. Christs Flesh and Blood when he was on Earth: 2. The Crucifying of Christ, the piercing of his Flesh, and shedding his Blood: 3. Christs Offering this to God as a Sacrifice for mans Sin. And this Commemoration is a great part of the Sacrament.
Q. 13 What think you of the name Sacrifice, Altar and Priest, here?
A. The Ancient Churches used them all, without exception from any Christian that ever I read of. I. As the Bread is justly called Christs Body as Signifying it, so the Action described was of old called a Sacrifice, as representing and commemorating it. And it's no more improper than calling our Bodies, and our Alms, and our Prayers Sacrifices. Rom. 12. 1. Eph. 5. 2. Phil. 2. 17. & 4. 18. Heb. 13. 15, 16. 1 Pet. 2. 5.dLuk. 22. 19. 1 Cor. 11. 24, 26, 27.
II. And the naming of the Table an Altar as related to this representative Sacrifice, is no more improper than that other, Heb. 13. 10. We have an Altar whereof they have no right to eat, seems plainly to mean the Sacramental Communion. And the Rev. 6. 9. & 8. 3. 5. & 16. 7. and oft useth that word.
III. And the word Priest being used of all Christians that offer praise to God, 1 Pet. 2. 5. 9. & Rev. 1. 6. & 5. 10. & 20. 6. It may sure as well be used of those whose Office is to be Subintercessors between the People and God, and their mouth to God, in Subordination to Christs Priesthood: Causless scruples harden the Papists. We are not offended that the Lords day is called the Sabbath, though the Scripture doth never so call it; and a Sabbath in Scripture sence was a day of Ceremonial rest: and the ancient Church called it the Christian Sabbath, but by such allusion as it (more commonly) used the word Sacrifice and Altar.
Q. 14. But we shall too much countenance the Papists Sacrifice by using the same Names?
A. We can sufficiently disclaim their turning a Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice into the feigned real Sacrificing of his Flesh and Blood, without renouncing the names. Else we must for mens abuse renounce the name of a Sabbath too, and a Temple, &c. if not also of a Church and Bishop.
Q. 15. You have spoken of the Sacramental Consecration, and Commemoration; What is it which you call the Covenanting part and Communication?
A. It containeth the Signs, and the things signified, as Communicated. The Signs are, 1. The Actual delivering of the consecrated Bread and Wine (first Broken and poured out) to the Communicants, with the Naming what it is that is given them. 2. Bidding them Take, Eat and Drink: 3. Telling them the Benefits and Blessings given thereby; And all this by a Minister of Christ, authorized thus to act in his Name, as Covenanting, promising and giving what is offered.eMat. 26. 26. Ioh. 6. 53, 54, 57, 58.
And on the Receivers part the Signs are, 1. Freely taking what is offered (the Bread and Wine:) 2. Eating and Drinking: 3. Vocal Praise and Thanksgiving to God, and Professed Consent to the Covenant.
Q. 16. What are the things signified and given?
A. I. 1. On Gods part, the renewed giving of a Sacrificed Saviour to the penitent Believer.
2. The Will and Command of Christ, that as Sacrificers feasted on the Sacrifice, so the Soul by Faith should thankfully and joyfully feast on Christ by hearty Acceptance of the free Gift.fZec. 9. 11. Heb. 10. 29. & 13. 20.
3. The actual Applicatory Gift of the Benefits of Christs Sacrifice; which are, 1. Our confirmed Relation to Christ as our Head and Saviour, and to God as our Father reconciled by him, and to the Holy Ghost as our Sanctifier, and to the Church as his Kingdom or Body. 2. The Pardon of our Sins by his Blood. 3. Our right confirmed to Everlasting Life. 4. The strengthening of our Faith, Hope, Love, Joy, Patience and all Grace.g1 Cor. 10. 16. 2 Cor. 13. 14. Luk. 22. 20. Heb. 9. 15, 16, 17, 18.
4. Christs Promise and Covenant for all this Sealed to us.
II. On the Receivers part is signified, 1. That in the sence of his own Sin, Misery, and Need, he humbly and thankfully receiveth his part in Christ as Sacrificed. 2. That he endeavoureth by Faith to feast on him: 3. And that he thankfully receiveth the Blessings purchased, to wit, his Relation to Christ as his Head, to God as his Father, and to the Holy Ghost as his Sanctifier▪ and Comforter, with the Pardon of Sin, the Sealed Promise and Right to Heaven, and all the helps of his Faith and other Graces. 4. That he resolvedly reneweth the Dedication of himself to God the Father, Son and holy Ghost, as thus, related to these ends; Covenanting Fidelity in these relations, and renouncing the contraries. 5. Doing all this as in Communion with all the Church of Christ, as being united to them in the same Head; the same Faith, and Hope and Love. 6. Thankfully praising God and our Redeemer for this Grace.
Q. 17. Should not one prepare for the Lords Supper by Fasting and Humiliation before? or how should we prepare?
A. We must alwayes live in habitual Preparation: and special Fasts are not ordinarily necessary thereto: the Primitive Church did communicate not only every Lords day, but on other dayes when they met to worship God; and therefore used not every Week to spend a day in Fasting for Preparation. But as Christians must use Fasting on just occasions, so must they do before this▪ Sacrament in case that any hainous Sin, or heavy Judgment or danger call for it; and preparing. Considerations and Prayers are necessary.
Q. 18. May one communicate who is uncertain of the sincerity of his Faith?
A. By Faith you mean either Objective, or Active Faith.
1. One that is so far uncertain that the Gospel is true, and that there is a Life to come, as that he dare not say, I have no wavering or doubt of it, may yet be a true Believer and may communicate, if his perswasion be but so prevalent, as to resolve him to consent to the Covenant of Grace, and take God for his God, and Christ for his Saviour, and the Holy Ghost for his Sanctifier; Gods Law for his Rule, his Promise for his Security, and Heaven for his Happiness, and here to place his Hope and Trust, forsaking all that stands against it. A weak and doubting Faith may bring a man to Martyrdom and to Heaven, if it bring him to trust Christ with Soul and Body in the way of Obedience to him.hAct. 8. 37. Mar. 9. 24. Mat. 6. 30. & 8. 26. & 14. 31. & 16. 8. Luk. 17. 5.
2. If by Faith you mean the Act of Believing and Consenting, God hath made the Sincerity of our Faith necessary to our Salvation, but not the Certainty that it is Sincere. Every man must do his best to discern the Trust, Consent and Choice of his own Heart: And he that truly believeth, and yet is not sure of it, if he can say, As far as I am able to know my own Heart by Trial, I seriously think that I resolvedly consent to the Covenant of Grace, and prefer Christ, Holiness and Heaven before all this World, and trust to Christ and his Promises for my Felicity; ought to come to the Table of the Lord, notwithstanding his uncertainty.iIoh. 20. 25. Mat 28. 17. Act. 13. 39.
Q. 19. Whence is it that so many Christians are more terrified than comforted by the Lords Supper?
A. 1. Some of them by an excess of reverence to this above all other Ordinances of God; which by degrees brought in the Papists Transubstantiation and Adoration. And by a dread lest by unworthy Receiving they should eat and drink their own Damnation; And so coming thither with a deeper sence of the danger than of the Benefit: And mistaking their Imperfections for this Unworthy Receiving. 2. And some come with two high expectations, that God must suddenly give them Joy, or all the grace that is signified by the Sacrament, while they have not the Holy skill to fetch in Comfort by the exercise of their Faith. And when they miss of what they expected, they are cast down. 3. And too many by wilful Sin or Negligence deal falsly with God, and break their Covenant, and renew their wounds of Conscience, and deprive themselves of the Comforts of the Love of God, and the Grace of Christ, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit.k1 Cor. 11. 20, 30, 31.
Q. 20. Is not the Lords Supper a Converting Ordinance, which therefore should be used by the unbelievers or ungodly?
A. Many things may accidentally by Gods Grace convert a man, which are not to be chosen and used to that End. Plagues, Sickness, Death-approaching, may convert men: Falling into a hainous Sin hath affrighted some to leave their Sin. But these are not means to be chosen for such Ends. And the Fear and Care of preparing for a Sacrament hath converted some, when it was not the Receiving that did it. It is so evident as not to need long proof, that God never appointed the Lords Supper to be chosen and used by Infidels or Impenitent ungodly persons, as a means to convert them: 1. Because it is presupposed that they be baptized who communicate. And I have proved that Baptism to the adult presupposed the Profession of Faith and Repentance; And that it delivereth Pardon and Title to Salvation.
2. Because Faith and Repentance and Covenantconsent renewed are also to be professed by all before they communicate.
3. Because it was ever an Ordinance proper to the Church, which consisteth of Professors of Faith and Holiness. 4. And the Communicants are said to be One Bread and one Body, and to Eat Christs Flesh and drink his Blood, and Christ to dwell in them by Faith, and to have Eternal Life hereby.
And as for them that say, it is not saving Faith but some Commoner Preparatory sort which is necessarily to be professed in Baptism and the Lords Supper, I have at large confuted them in a Treatise of Right to Sacraments: and the reasons before and now named confute it. I adde, that their Opinion is destructive to true Christian Love; For by them, No one should be taken for a Child of God and in a state of Salvation for being baptized and Communicants, and so not Loved as such. And how Poor a Charity is it to love all Visible Church-members, but as the Children of the Devil must be loved.
Q. 21. Must we Love all as true Christians who are baptized and communicate and profess Christianity?
A. Yes, with these three exceptions: 1. That it is not as a certain Truth that we must judge them sincere, but as Probable. 2. That there be divers degrees of Probability as there be of Profession: Some we are almost sure are sincere; And some we have more Fear than Hope of. And we must measure our Love and Trust accordingly. 3. If men by Word or Life Apostatize, or plainly contradict and destroy their profession of Christianity, thereby they nullisie our Obligation to take them for Christians. But till men render their Profession incredible by Contrary Profession or Practice, we are by the Rules of Christian and Humane Charity, to take all Professed baptized Communicating Christians to be sincere, but only in various degrees of probability.lAct. 11. 26. Mar. 16. 16. 1 Cor. 10. 16, 17. & 12. 8, 11, 13. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Gal. 3. 28. Eph. 4. 3, 5. Ioh. 4. 1. Act. 2. 38, 41. Rom. 6. 3, 5. Mat. 10. 42. Luk. 14. 26. 33. Act. 4. 32, 34. & 2. 41, 42, 44, 45, 46. Ioh. 13▪ 35.
Q. 22. How must the Lords Supper be improved after the receiving?
A. By a serious remembring with Joy and thankfulness, how great Mercies we have received of God? And with chearful Obedience, what a Covenant we have made, and what duty we have most solemnly promised: And in how near a Relation and bond we are tyed to the whole Church of Christ, and to all our fellow Christians: And frequently to plead these great Receivings and Great Obligations, to quicken our Faith, and Hope and Joy, and to overcome all Temptations to the World and Flesh, to Unbelief, Disobedience and Despair.m1 Cor. 10. 16, 20, 21, 22.
Q. 23. Some say that no man should be kept from the Sacrament or Excommunicated, because it is the Food of their▪ Souls, &c.
A. 1. If none be kept from Baptism, Heathens and Infidels, and professed deriders of Christianity might be baptized to make a mock of Baptism: We must make men Christs Disciples before we baptize them. Mat. 28. 19. And then Baptism would be no Baptism, nor the Ministry no Ministry, the specifying End and Use being changed. 2. Then the Church would be no Church, but lie common with the World: 3. And then Christ would be no King and Head and Husband of the Church, that is, no Christ. nMat. 28. 19. Mar. 16. 16. 1 Cor. 11. 27, 28, 29, 30. Eph. 1. 22, 23.4. If all may not be baptized, all may not communicate; for Baptism entereth them into a state of Communion: Else the unbaptized and all Infidels might communicate. 5. Some baptized persons turn Atheists, Sadducees or Infidels after: And these are worse than common Infidels that never were baptized. The Church is no Church if it be common to these. 6. Some that continue a Nominal Christianity, openly hate and persecute the Practice of it, and live in common Adultery, Perjury, Murder: And the Church is Holy, and a peculiar People, a holy Nation, a royal Priesthood: oTit. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 2. 9.And Repentance and Obedience are necessary to the Church as well as Faith. If therefore these notorious, flagitious, impenitent persons, must be Members in Communion with the Church, it will be a Swine-sty and not a Church; a Shame to Christ and not an Honour. If his Church be but like the rest of the World, Christ will not be honoured as the Saviour of it, nor the Spirit as its Sanctifier. It is the Unity of the Spirit that all Christians must keep in the bond of Peace: pEph. 4. 3. 16. Rom. 8. 9.But these have none of his Spirit, and therefore are none of Christs.
The Sacraments are Symbols of the Church as differenced from the World; and Christ will have them be a visibly distinct Society. 7. Communicants come to receive the greatest gift in the world, Pardon, Justification, Adoption, right to Heaven: The Gospel giveth these to none but Penitent Believers: To say that Christ giveth them to flagitious impenitent Rebels, whose Lives say, We will not have him reign over us, is to make a new Gospel, contrary to Christs Gospel, which Paul curseth were it done by an Angel, Gal. 1. 7, 8. They are not yet capable of these precious gifts.
8. The Objectors take no notice of 1 Cor. 5. 2 Thess. 3. Rom. 16. 16, 17. Tit. 3. 10. Rev. 2. & 3. where the Churches are reproved for suffering Defilers; nor Heb. 13. 7. 17. 24. Luk. 12. 42. 42. 1 Thess. 5. 12, 13. which describe the Office of Church-guides, nor 1 Tim. 3. & 4, &c. where the governing of the Church, and avoiding Communion of the Impenitent are described.
9. In a word, Christs Office, Works and Law, the Nature of the Church and Sacrament, the Office of the Ministry, the frequent Precepts of the Apostles, and the constant practice of the Church in its greatest Purity, down from the Apostles dayes, do all speak so plainly for keeping and casting out Infidels and impenitent wicked men, and for keeping the Church as a Society of visible Saints, separated from the World, that I can take him for no better than a Swine or an Infidel, who would have the Church-Keyes cast away, and the Church turned common to Swine and Infidels.
Q. 24. But it will make Ministers Lords and Tyrants, to have such power?
A. 1. Some body must be trusted with the Power, if the work must be done: The Church must be differenced from the World: Therefore some must trye and judge who are fit to be baptized and to have its Communion. And who is fitter than those whom Christ by Office hath thereto appointed? Would you have Magistrates or the People do it? Then they must be prepared for it by long study and skill, and wholly attend it: For it will take up all their time.q1 Cor. 4. 1, 2. Mat. 24. 45, 46, 47. 1 Thes. 5. 12.
Q. 25. Must Ministers examine People before they communicate?
A. They must Catechize and Examine the Adult before they baptize them; and consequently those who were baptized in Infancy before they number them with adult Communicants: or else Atheists and Infidels will make up much of the Church, who will come in for worldly Interest: This Examination should go before Confirmation, or the publick owning of their Baptism. But there is no Necessity of any more Examination before every Sacrament, except in case of Scandal, or when persons need and crave such help.
Q. 26. Who be they that must be Excommunicated, or refused?
A. Those who are proved to be Impenitent in gross scandalous sins after sufficient admonition and patience. And to reject such, is so far from Tyranny, that it is necessary Church-Justice: without which a Pastor is but a Slave or Executioner of the sinfull will of others: Like a Tutor, Philosopher or Schoolmaster, who is not the Master of his own School, but must leave it common to all that will come in, though they scorn him and refuse his conduct. But no man must play the Pastor over other mens Flocks, nor take the Guidance of a greater Flock than he can know and manage: Much less be the only Key-bearer over many Score or Hundred Churches: And least of all take upon him to Govern and judge of Kings and Kingdoms and all the World, as the Roman deceiving Tyrant doth.