XXVII.

other difficulty might be made, whether a perfon defiled ART. by idolatry did not communicate that impurity to the Chriftian, and whether the children born in fuch a marriage were to be reckoned a boly feed, according to the Jewish phrafe, or an unbely, unclean children, that is Heathenith 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 fhould call no man common or unclean; in allufion to all which St. Paul determines the cafe, not by an immediate reve- 1 Cor. vi. 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 fo far from being defiled by the Infidel, that there is a communication of a blefling that paffes from the Chriftian to the Infidel; the one being the better for the prayers of the other, and fharing in the bleffings bettowed 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 Teftament Chriflians, and Saints, or Holy, ftand all promifcuously. The purity of the Chriftian doctrine, and the dedication by which Chriftians offer up themfelves to God, makes them Holy.

In Scripture, Holine's 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 most commonly in the Old Teftament. So times, places, and not only perfons, but even utenfils applied to the fervice of God, are called Hely. In the New Teftament, Chriftian and Saint are the fame thing; fo the faying that children are Holy when one of the parents is a Chriftian, muft import this, that the child has alfo 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 Chriflian.

Upon these reafons we conclude, that though there is no exprefs precept or rule given in the New Teftament for the Baptifm of Infants, yet it is moft agreeable to the inftitution of Chrift, fince he conformed his inftitutions. to thofe 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 juft tendernefs of the human nature does difpofe pa

rents to fecure to their children a title to the mercies and bleflings 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 Moses: fince nothing is faid against 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 boly 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 Gospel, 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 themfelves by the vows that they make in their name. Therefore the office carries on the fuppofition of an internal regeneration; and in that helpless ftate 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 thall find the full effects of Baptifm; and if he dies in that flate 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; be took them in bis 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 these 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 Saczament of our redemption by Chrift's Death: Info. much that to fuch as rightly, worthilp, and with Faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a paztaking of the Body of Christ, and likewife the Cup of Blelling is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. Tranfubftantiation (02 the Change of the Subftance of Bread and Wine) in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by Holy Whit, but ir is repugnant to the plain Words of Scripture, overthroweth the Nature of a Sacrament, and hath given Dccalion to many Superditions. The Body of Chrift is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper only after a Heavenly and Spizitual Pannez; and the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is Faith. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not bp Chrift's Dzdinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, and worthipped.

In the Edition of these Articles in Edward VI's Reign, there was another long Paragraph against Tranfubftantiation added in thefe words: Foraf much as the Truth of Han's Natuze requizeth that the Body of one and the self-fame Han cannot be at one time in divers Places, but muft needs be in one certain Place; therefore the Body of Chzif cannot be present at one time in many and divers Places: and because, as Holp Scriptuze doth reach, Christ was taken up into Heaven, and there thall continue unto the End of the World; a Faithful Man ought not eithez to believe, or openly confels the Real and Bodily Prefence, as thep term it, of Christ's Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

WHEN

ART. XXVIII.

WHE
HEN thefe Articles were at first prepared by the
convocation in Queen Elizabeth's reign, this para-
graph was made a part of them; for the original fub-
fcription by both houses of convocation, yet extant, fhews
this. But the defign 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 parti-
cular 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 Ar-
ticle that was fubfcribed, yet it was not publifhed, but
the paragraph that follows, The Body of Chrift, &c. was
put in its ftead, and was received and published by the
next convocation; which upon the matter was a full ex-
planation of the way of Chrift's prefence in this facra-
ment; 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 fee what
was the fenfe of the first 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 publish 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 copiously: for next to the doctrine of Infallibility, this is the most 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 studied, and for which they pretend they Irave more plaufible colours, both from Scripture and the Fathers and if fenfe and reason 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.

In order to the expounding our doctrine, we must con- 2 Cor. x. 5. fider the occafion and the inftitution ofthis 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 11. and lintels, and whofe flesh they were to eat; at the fight of which blood thus fprinkled, the deftroying Angel, that was to be fent out to kill the firft-born of every family in Egypt, was to pass over all the houses that were fo 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 should 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 pallover. Now though the first 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 pal- 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 Compare to lead captivity captive; to bring us out of the bondage 26 of fin and Satan, into the obedience of his Gofpel.

Matt. xxvi.

Mark xiv.

He therefore chofe the time of the paffover, that he might 22. be then offered up for us; and did inftitute this memorial of it, while he was celebrating the Jewith pafcha with Luke xxi. his Difciples, who were fo much accuftomed to the forms 19. and phrafes of that fupper, in which every mafter of a fa- 1 Cor. xi. mily did officiate among his houfehold, that it was very natural to them to underftand all that our Saviour faid

23.