be gone and fly from his father's wrath; and although Jonathan did do his business for him by a continual care and observation, yet that symbol brought it unto David: for so we are conducted to the joys of God by the methods and possibilities of men. In conclusion, the sum is this. The sacraments and symbols, if they be considered in their own nature, are just such as they seem, water, and bread, and wine; they retain the names proper to their own natures; but because they are made to be signs of a secret mystery, and water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin, and bread and wine of Christ's body and blood, therefore the symbols and sacraments receive the names of what themselves do sign; they are the body and they are the blood of Christ"; they are metonymically such. But because yet further; they are instruments of grace in the hand of God, and by these His holy spirit changes our hearts and translates us into a divine nature; therefore the whole work is attributed to them by a synecdoche; that is, they do in their manner the work for which God ordained them, and they are placed there for our sakes, and speak God's language in our accent, and they appear in the outside; we receive the benefit of their ministry, and God receives the glory. SECTION IV. THE BLESSINGS AND GRACES OF THE HOLY SACRAMENT ENUMERATED In the reception of the blessed sacrament, there are many blessings which proceed from our own actions, the conjugations of moral duties, the offices of preparation and reception, the reverence and the devotion; of which I shall give account in the following chapters. Here I am to enumerate those graces which are intended to descend upon us from the Spirit of God in the use of the sacrament itself precisely. But first I consider, that it must be infinitely certain that great spiritual blessings are consequent to the worthy receiving of this divine sacrament, because it is not at all received but by a spiritual hand. For it is either to be understood in a carnal sense that Christ's body is there eaten, or in a spiritual sense. If in a carnal, it profits nothing. If in a spiritual He be eaten, let the meaning of that be considered, and it will convince us that innumerable blessings are in the very reception and communion. Now what the meaning of this S. August. in Levit. [lib. iii.] q. 57. [tom. iii. part. 1. p. 516.] Solet autem res quæ significat, ejus rei nomine quam significat, nuncupari. Theodoret. dial. i. c. 8.-[tom. iv. p. 26.] Τῷ μὲν σώματι τὸ τοῦ συμβόλου τέθεικεν ὄνομα, τῷ δὲ συμβόλῳ τὸ τοῦ σώματος. spiritual eating is, I have already declared in this chapter; and shall yet more fully explicate in the sequel. In the sacrament we do not receive Christ carnally, but we receive Him spiritually; and that of itself is a conjugation of blessings and spiritual graces. The very understanding what we do, tells us also what we receive. But I descend to particulars. 1. And first I reckon that the sacrament is intended to increase our faith for although it is with us in this holy sacrament as it was with Abraham in the sacrament of circumcision; he had the grace of faith before he was circumcised, and received the sacrament after he had the purpose and the grace; and we are to believe before we receive these symbols of Christ's death: yet as by loving we love more, and by the acts of patience we increase in the spirit of mortification; so by believing we believe more; and by publication of our confession we are made confident; and by seeing the signs of what we believe, our very senses are incorporated into the article; and he that hath shall have more;' and when we concorporate the sign with the signification, we conjoin the word and the spirit, and faith passes on from believing to an imaginary seeing, and from thence to a greater earnestness of believing, and we shall believe more abundantly; this increase of faith not being only a natural and proper production of the exercise of its own acts, but a blessing and an effect of the grace of God in that sacrament; it being certain, that since the sacrament being of divine institution it could not be to no purpose, for in spiritalibus sacramentis ubi pracipit virtus, servit effectus, where the commandment comes from Him that hath all power, the action cannot be destitute of an excellent event,' and therefore that the representing of the death of Christ being an act of faith, and commanded by God, must needs in the hands of God be more effectual than it is in its own nature; that faith shall then increase not only by the way of nature, but by God's blessing His own instruments, can never be denied but by them that neither have faith nor experience. For this is the proper scene and the very exaltation of faith the Latin church " for a long time into the very words of consecration of the calice hath put words relating to this purpose, "For this is the cup of My blood of the New and eternal testament, the mystery of faith, which for you and for many shall be shed for the remission of sins." And if by faith we eat the flesh of Christ, as it vescentes confessionem fidei suæ addebant: respondebant, Amen.-Idem etiam sancitum in concil. Agath. [can. 13. tom. ii. col. 999 E.] Euseb. Emiss. [hom. v. de Pasch.p. 560 B.]-Habetur [apud Gratian, decret.] de consecrat. dist. ii. [cap. 35. col. 2098.] [Can. antiq. miss. Ambros. apud Murator. liturg. rom. vet., tom. i. 133.] is confessed by all the schools of Christians, then it is certain, that when so manifestly and solemnly according to the divine appointment we publish this great confession of the death of Christ, we do in all senses of spiritual blessing eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ; and let that be expounded how we list, we are not in this world capable, and we do not need a greater blessing, and God may say in the words of Isaac to his son Esau, With corn and wine have I sustained' (thee) and what is there left that I can do unto thee, my son ?' To eat the flesh and to drink the blood of Christ sacramentally is an act of faith; and every act of faith joined with the sacrament does grow by the nature of grace, and the measures of a blessing; and therefore is eating of Christ spiritually; and this reflection of acts, like circles of a glorious and eternal fire, passes on in the univocal production of its own parts till it pass from grace to glory. 2. Of the same consideration it is, that all the graces which we do exercise by the nature of the sacrament requiring them, or by the necessity of the commandment of preparation, do here receive increase upon the account of the same reason; but I instance only in that of charity, of which this is signally and by an especial remark the sacrament; and therefore these holy conventions are called by S. Judex "feasts of charity;" which were christian festivals in which always they had the sacrament adjoined. But whether that do effect this persuasion or no, yet the thing itself is dogmatically affirmed in S. Paul's explication of this mystery", "We are one body, because we partake of one bread;" that is, plainly, Christ is our head, and we the members of His body, and are united in this mystical union by the holy sacrament; not only because it symbolically does teach our duty and promotes the grace of charity by a real signature and a sensible sermon, nor yet only because it calls upon Christians by the public sermons of the gospel and the duties of preparation, and the usual expectations of conscience and religion, but even by the blessing of God and the operation of the holy Spirit in the sacrament, which (as appears plainly by the words of the apostle) is designed to this very end, to be a reconciler and an atonement in the hand of God; a band of charity, and the instrument of christian communion; that we may be one body, because we partake of one bread; that is, we may be mystically united by the sacramental participation. And therefore it was not without mystery that the congregation of all Christ's servants, His church, and this sacramental bread, * [Jude 12.] • Ἐκ δὲ μιῆς ῥίζης ἄρτου κόρος ἔσσεται ἀνδρῶν, [Οἶκος ὅταν Δαβὶδ φύῃ φυτόν —Sibyll. orac. vi. 15.] 31 A.] Idem advers. hæret. cap. xx. ait sacramentum esse contesserationem mutuæ dilectionis in membris ecclesiæ inter se. [vid. p. 209 A.] Corpus sumus de conscientia religio. nis, et disciplinæ unitate, et spei fœdere; coimus ad Deum quasi manu facta precationibus ambiamus: hæc vis Deo grata est. Tertul. apol. cap. xxxix. [p. are both in scripture called by the same name: this bread is the body of Christ, and the church is Christ's body too; for by the communion of this bread all faithful people are confederated into one body, the body of our Lord. Now it is to be observed that although the expression is tropical and figurative, that we are made one body,' because it is meant in a spiritual sense, yet that spiritual sense means the most real event in the world; we are really joined to one common divine principle, Jesus Christ our Lord, and from Him we do communicate in all the blessings of His grace and the fruits of His passion; and we shall if we abide in this union be all one body of a spiritual church in heaven, there to reign with Christ for ever. Now unless we think nothing good but what goes in at our eyes or mouth; if we think there is any thing good beyond what our senses perceive, we must confess this to be a real and eminent benefit; and yet whatever it be, it is therefore effected upon us by this sacrament, because we eat of one bread.' The very repeating the words of S. Paul is a satisfaction in this enquiry; they are plain and easy; and whatever interpretation can be put upon them, it can only vary the manner of effecting the blessing and the way of the sacramental efficacy, but it cannot evacuate the blessing or confute the thing. Only it is to be observed in this, as in all other instances of the like nature, that the grace of God in the sacrament usually is a blessing upon our endeavours; for spiritual graces and the blessings of sanctification do not grow like grass, but like corn; not whether we do any husbandry or no; but if we cultivate the ground, then by God's blessing the fruits will spring and make the farmer rich; if we be disposed to receive the sacrament worthily, we shall receive this fruit also. Which fruit is thus expressed, saying, 'This sacrament is therefore given unto us, that the body of the church of Christ in the earth may be joined or united with our head which is in the heavens.' 3. The blessed sacrament is of great efficacy for the remission of sins; not that it hath any formal efficacy, or any inherent virtue to procure pardon, but that it is the ministry of the death of Christ and the application of His blood, which blood was shed for the remission of sins, and is the great means of impetration, and as the schools use to speak, is the meritorious cause of it. For there are but two ways of applying the death of Christ: an internal grace and an external * Διὰ τὴν σύγκρασιν καὶ ἀναστοιχείωav.-Isid. Pelusiot. [S. August.] serm. viii. [leg. xxviii.] ad fratres in erem. [tom. vi. append. col. 333 D.] Hoc sacramentum ideo nobis datum est ut corpus ecclesiæ Christi in terris cum capite quod est in cœlis coadunetur. [Paulo aliter ed.] Itaque petendo panem quotidianum perpetuitatem postulamus in Christo, et individuitatem a corpore ejus.-Tertul. de orat. [cap. vi. p. 132 A.] Et ideo panem nostrum, i. e. Christum, dari nobis quotidie petimus, ut qui in Christo manemus [et vivimus] a sanctificatione ejus et corpore non recedamus. -S. Cyprian. de orat. Domin. [p. 147.] ministry. Faith is the inward applicatory, and if there be any outward at all, it must be the sacraments; and both of them are of remarkable virtue in this particular; for by baptism we are baptized into the death of Christ; and the Lord's supper is an appointed enunciation and declaration of Christ's death, and it is a sacramental participation of it. Now to partake of it sacramentally, is by sacrament to receive it; that is, so to apply it to us, as that can be applied it brings it to our spirit, it propounds it to our faith, it represents it as the matter of eucharist, it gives it as meat and drink to our souls, and rejoices in it in that very formality in which it does receive it, viz., as broken for, as shed for the remission of our sins. Now then what can any man suppose a sacrament to be, and what can be meant by sacramental participation? For unless the sacraments do communicate what they relate to, they are no communion or communication at all; for it is true that our mouth eats the material signs; but at the same time, faith eats too; and therefore must eat, that is, must partake of the thing signified. Faith is not maintained by ceremonies: the body receives the body of the mystery; we eat and drink the symbols with our mouths; but faith is not corporeal, but feeds upon the mystery itself; it entertains the grace, and enters into that secret which the Spirit of God conveys under that signature. Now since the mystery is perfectly and openly expressed to be the remission of sins; if the soul does the work of the soul, as the body the work of the body, the soul receives remission of sins, as the body does the symbols of it, and the sacrament. But we must be infinitely careful to remember that even the death of Christ brings no pardon to the impenitent persevering sinner, but to him that repents truly: and so does the sacrament of Christ's death; this can do no more than that: and therefore let no man come with his guilt about him, and in the heat and in the affections of his sin, and hope to find his pardon by this ministry. He that thinks so will but deceive, will but ruin himself. They are excellent. but very severe words which God spake to the Jews, and which are a prophetical reproof of all unworthy communicants in these divine mysteries, "What hath My beloved to do in My house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many? The holy flesh hath passed from thee when thou doest evil;" that is, this holy sacrifice, the flesh and blood of thy Lord, shall slip from thee without doing thee any good, if thou hast not ceased from doing evil. But the vulgar Latine reads these words much more emphatically to our purpose, "Shall the holy flesh b Qui scelerate vivunt in ecclesia, et communicare non desinunt, putantes se tali communione mundari, discant nihil ad emundationem proficere sibi, dicente propheta, 'Quid est quod dilectus meus in domo mea fecit scelera multa? Nun quid carnes sanctæ auferent a te malitias tuas?' Jer. xi. 15.-Isidor. Hispal. de summo bono [al. sententiarum] lib. i. cap. 24. [leg. 22. § 7. tom. vi. p. 177.] [Nunquid carnes sanctæ auferent a te malitias tuas, in quibus glorists es?'] |