other difficulty might be made, whether a perfon defiled ART. by idolatry did not communicate that impurity to the XXVII. Christian, and whether the children born in fuch a marriage were to be reckoned a holy feed, according to the Jewish phrafe, or an unholy, unclean children, that is Heathenish children; who were not to be dedicated to God, nor to be admitted into covenant with him: for unclean in the Old Teftament, and uncircumcifed, fignify fometimes the fame thing; and fo St. Peter faid that in the cafe of Cornelius God had fhewed him, that he should call no man common or unclean; in allufion to all which St. Paul determines the cafe, not by an immediate reve- 1 Cor. vii. lation, but by the inferences that he drew from what had 14 been revealed to him; he does appoint the Christian to live with the Infidel, and fays, that the Chriftian is so far from being defiled by the Infidel, that there is a communication of a bleffing that paffes from the Chriftian to the Infidel; the one being the better for the prayers of the other, and sharing in the bleffings bestowed on the other: the better part was accepted of God, in whom mercy rejoices over judgment. There was a communication of a bleffing that the Chriftian derived to the Infidel; which at leaft went fo far, that their children were not unclean; that is, fhut out from being dedicated to God, but were holy. Now it is to be confidered that in the New Testament Chriftians, and Saints, or Holy, ftand all promifcuously. The purity of the Chriftian doctrine, and the dedication by which Chriftians offer up themselves to God, makes them Holy. In Scripture, Holinefs ftands in a double fenfe; the one is a true and real purity, by which a man's faculties and actions become holy; the other is a dedicated holiness, when any thing is appropriated to God; in which fenfe it ftands moft commonly in the Old Teftament. So times, places, and not only perfons, but even utenfils applied to the fervice of God, are called Holy. In the New Teftament, Chriftian and Saint are the fame thing; fo the saying that children are Holy when one of the parents is a Chriftian, muft import this, that the child has also a right to be made Holy, or to be made a Chriftian; and by confequence, that by the parents dedication that child may be made Holy, or a Chriftian. Upon these reafons we conclude, that though there is no exprefs precept or rule given in the New Testament for the Baptifm of Infants, yet it is moft agreeable to the inftitution of Chrift, fince he conformed his inftitutions to those of the Mofaical Law, as far as could confift with ART. his defign; and therefore in a thing of this kind, in which XXVII. the just tenderness of the human nature does difpofe pa rents to fecure to their children a title to the mercies and bleffings of the Gofpel, there is no reason to think that this being fo fully fet forth and affured to the Jews in the Old Testament, that Chrift fhould not have intended to give parents the fame comforts and affurances by his Gofpel, that they had under the Law of Mofes : fince nothing is faid againft it, we may conclude from the nature of the two difpenfations, and the proportion and gradation that is between them, that children under the New Teftament are a holy feed, as well as they were under the Old; and by confequence that they may be now baptized as well as they were then circumcifed. If this may be done, then it is very reasonable to fay what is faid in the Article concerning it, that it ought in any wife to be retained in the Church: for the fame humanity that obliges parents to feed their children, and to take care of them while they are in fuch a helpless state, muft dictate, that it is much more incumbent on them, and is as much more neceffary, as the foul is more valuable than the body, for them to do all that in them lies for the fouls of their children, for fecuring to them a share in the bleffings and privileges of the Gofpel, and for dedicating them early to the Chriftian religion. The office for baptizing infants is in the fame words with that for perfons of riper age; because infants being then in the power of their parents, who are of age, are confidered as in them, and as binding themselves by the vows that they make in their name. Therefore the office carries on the fuppofition of an internal regeneration; and in that helpless state the infant is offered up and dedicated to God; and provided, that when he comes to age he takes thofe vows on himself, and lives like a perfon fo in covenant with God, then he fhall find the full effects of Baptifm; and if he dies in that state of incapacity, he being dedicated to God, is certainly accepted of by him; and by being put in the fecond Adam, all the bad effects of his having defcended from the first Adam are quite taken away. Chrift, when on earth, encouraged thofe who Matt. xix. brought little children to him; he took them in his arms, and laid his hands on them, and bleffed them, and faid, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of fuch is the kingdom of God. Whatever thefe words may fignify myftically, the literal meaning of them is, that' little children may be admitted into the difpenfation of the Meffias, and by confequence that they may be baptized. 13,14. ARTICLE ARTICLE XXVIII. Of the Lord's Supper. The Supper of the Lord is not only a Sign of the Love that Chriftians ought to have among themfelves one to another; but rather it is a Sacrament of ouz Redemption by Chrift's Death: Infomuch that to fuch as zightly, wozthily, and with Faith, zeceive the fame, the Bread which we break is a paztaking of the Body of Christ, and likewife the Cup of Blelling is a paztaking of the Blood of Chrift. Tranfubftantiation (o the Change of the Substance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Writ, but it is repugnant to the plain Words of Scriptuze, overthroweth the Nature of a Sacrament, and hath given Decalion to many Superftitions. The Vody af Chzilk is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper only after a Heavenly and Spizitual Manner; and the mean whezeby the Body of Chrißt is received and eaten in the Supper, is Faith. The Saczament of the Lord's Supper was not by Chrift's Drdinance refezved, carried about, lifted up, and worshipped. In the Edition of thefe Articles in Edward VI's Reign, there was another long Paragraph against Tranfubftantiation added in these words: Forafmuch as the Truth of Man's Natuze requizeth that the Body of one and the self-same Man cannot be at one time in divers Places, but muft needs be in one ceztain Place; therefore the Body of Chrift cannot be present at one time in many and divezs Placés: and because, as Holy Scriptuze doch teach, Christ was taken up into Heaven, and theze Chall continue unto the End of the World; a Faithful Pan ought not either to believe, oz openly confels the Real and Bodily Prefence, as they term it, of Christ's Flesh and Blood in the Saczament of the Lord's Supper. WHEN ART. W XXVIII. HEN thefe Articles were at first prepared by the convocation in Queen Elizabeth's reign, this paragraph was made a part of them; for the original subfcription by both houses of convocation, yet extant, fhews this. But the design of the government was at that time much turned to the drawing over the body of the nation to the reformation, in whom the old leaven had gone deep; and no part of it deeper than the belief of the corporeal prefence of Chrift in the Sacrament; therefore it was thought not expedient to offend them by fo particular a definition in this matter; in which the very word Real Prefence was rejected. It might, perhaps, be also fuggefted, that here a definition was made that went too much upon the principles of natural philofophy; which how true foever, they might not be the proper fubject of an Article of Religion. Therefore it was thought fit to fupprefs this paragraph; though it was a part of the Article that was fubfcribed, yet it was not published, but the paragraph that follows, The Body of Chrift, &c. was put in its flead, and was received and published by the next convocation; which upon the matter was a full explanation of the way of Chrift's prefence in this facrament; that he is prefent in a heavenly and fpiritual manner, and that faith is the mean by which he is received. This feemed to be more theological; and it does indeed amount to the fame thing. But howfoever we see what was the fenfe of the firft convocation in Queen Elizabeth's reign; it differed in nothing from that in King Edward's time and therefore though this paragraph is now no part of our Articles, yet we are certain that the Clergy at that time did not at all doubt of the truth of it: we are fure it was their opinion; fince they fubfcribed it, though they did not think fit to publifh it at firft; and though it was afterwards changed for another, that was the fame in fenfe. In the treating of this Article, I fhall firft lay down the doctrine of this Church, with the grounds of it; and then I fhall examine the doctrine of the Church of Rome, which must be done copioufly: for next to the doctrine of Infallibility, this is the moft valued of all their other tenets; this is the most important in itself, fince it is the main part of their worship, and the chief fubject of all their devotions. There is not any one thing in which both Clergy and Laity are more concerned; which is more generally ftudied, and for which they pretend they have more plaufible colours, both from Scripture and the Fathers and if fenfe and reafon feem to prefs hard upon it, they reckon, that, as they understand the words of St. ART. Paul, every thought must be captivated into the obedience of XXVIII. faith. 2 Cor. x. 5. 11. In order to the expounding our doctrine, we must confider the occafion and the inftitution of this Sacrament. The Jews were required once a year to meet at Jerufalem, in remembrance of the deliverance of their fathers out of Egypt. Mofes appointed that every family fhould kill a Exod. xii. lamb, whofe blood was to be fprinkled on their door-pofts and lintels, and whose flesh they were to eat; at the fight of which blood thus fprinkled, the deftroying Angel, that was to be sent out to kill the first-born of every family in Egypt, was to pafs over all the houses that were so marked: and from that paffing by or over the Ifraelites, the lamb was called the Lord's paffover, as being then the facrifice, and afterwards the memorial of that paffover. The people of Ifrael were required to keep up the memorial of that tranfaction, by flaying a lamb before the place where God fhould fet his name; and by eating it up that night: they were alfo to eat with it a fallad of bitter herbs and unleavened bread; and when they went to eat of the lamb, they repeated these words of Mofes; that it was the Lord's paffover. Now though the firft lamb that was killed in Egypt was indeed the facrifice upon which God promised to pass over their houses; yet the lambs that were afterwards offered were only the memorials of it; though they ftill carried that name, which was given to the firft, and were called the Lord's paffover. So that the Jews were in the pafchal fupper accustomed to call the memorial of a thing, by the name of that of which it was the memorial: and as the deliverance out of Egypt was a type and reprefentation of that greater deliverance, that we were to have by the Meffias, the first lamb being the facrifice of that, deliverance, and the fucceeding lambs the memorials of it; fo, in order to this new and greater deliverance, Chrift himself was our paff- 1 Cor. v. 7. over, that was facrificed for us: He was the Lamb of God John i. 29. that was both to take away the fins of the world, and was Matt. xxvi. to lead captivity captive; to bring us out of the bondage 26. of fin and Satan, into the cbedience of his Gospel. Compare Mark xiv. He therefore chofe the time of the paffover, that he 22. might be then offered up for us; and did inftitute this memorial of it, while he was celebrating the Jewish paf- Luke xxii. cha with his Difciples, who were fo much accuftomed to 19. the forms and phrafes of that fupper, in which every maf-23. ter of a family did officiate among his household, that it was very natural to them to understand all that our Sa 1 Cor. xi. |