Α

FRUITFUL AND GODLY TREATISE

EXPRESSING

THE RIGHT INSTITUTION AND USAGE

OF

THE SACRAMENTS OF BAPTISM,

AND THE

SACRAMENT OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

A FRUITFUL AND GODLY TREATISE,

EXPRESSING THE

RIGHT INSTITUTION AND USAGE OF THE

SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM,

AND THE

SACRAMENT OF THE BODY AND BLOOD OF OUR
SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.

TO understand the pith of the sacraments, how they came up, and the very meaning of them, we must consider diligently the manners and fashions of the Hebrews, which were a people of great gravity and sadness and earnest in all their doings; if any notable thing chanced among them, so that they not only wrote, but also set up pillars, and marks, and divers signs to testify the same unto their posterity, and named the places where the things were done, with such names as could not but keep the deeds in memory. As Jacob called the place where he saw God face to face, Pheniel, that is, God's face. And the place where the Egyptians mourned for Jacob seven days, the people of the country called Abel Miram, (that is) the lamentation of the Egyptians, to the intent that such names should keep the gests and stories in mind.

And likewise in all their covenants they not only promised one to another and sware thereon, but also set up signs and tokens thereof, and gave the places names to keep the thing in mind. And they used thereto such circumstances, protestations, solemn fashions, and ceremonies, to confirm the covenants, and to testify that they were made with great earnest advise and deliberation, to the intent

Gen. xxi.

The well of
swearing
or the well

of seven.

Gen. xxxi.

A heap of

stones was

a sufficient

that it should be to much shame and to much abomination, both before God and man, to break them ever after.

As Abraham (Gen. xxi.) when he made a covenant of peace with Abimelech king of the Philistines, after they had eaten and drunk together, and sworn, he put seven lambs by themselves, and Abimelech received them of his hand, to testify that he there had digged a certain well, and that the right thereof pertained to him. And he called the well Beersheba; the well of swearing, or the well of seven; because of the oath, and of the seven lambs, and by that title did Abraham his children challenge it many hundred years after. And when Jacob and Laban made a covenant together, (Gen. xxxi.) they cast up an heap of stones in witness, and called it Gilead, the heap of witness, band for all and they bound each other for them and their posterity, that neither part should pass the heap to the other's countryward, to hurt or conquer their land: and Laban bound Jacob also, that he should take no other wives besides his daughters, to vex him. And of all that covenant, they made that heap a witness, calling it the witness-heap, that their children should enquire the cause of the name, and their father should declare unto them the history. And such fashions as they used among themselves, did God also use to themward in all his notable deeds, whether of mercy in delivering them, or of wrath in punishing their disobedience and transgression, in all his promises to them, and covenants made between them and him.

covenants.

Gen. ix.

The rainbow a pledge of

God's pro mise.

Gen. xvii.

As when after the general flood God made a covenant with Noah and all mankind and also with all living creatures, that he would no more drown the world, he gave them the rainbow to be a sign of the promise; and for to make it the better believed, and to keep it in mind for ever, he said: When I bring clouds upon the earth, I will put my bow in the clouds, and will look on it, and remember the everlasting covenant made between God and all living creatures.

And Abram, (which signifieth an excellent father) he

named Abraham, the father of a great multitude of peo-
ple, because he had promised to make him even so, and
that his seed should be as the stars, and as the sand of
the sea
innumerable: and that name gave he him as a seal
of the promise to confirm it, and to strengthen the faith of
Abraham and his posterity; and to keep the promise in
mind, that they might have wherewith to bind God and to
conjure him, as Moses and the holy prophets ever do,
holding him fast to his own promise, and binding him
with his own words, and bringing forth the obligation and
seal thereof, in all times of necessity and temptation.

Circumci

sion, the

seal of

God's covenant with

After that he made a covenant with Abraham to be his Gen. xvii. God, and the God of his posterity, and their shield and defender, and Abraham promised for him and his seed to be his people, and to believe and trust in him, and to keep his commandments, which covenant God caused to be written in the flesh of Abraham, and in the males of all his posterity, commanding the males to be circumcised the eighth day, or to be slain: which circumcision was the seal and obligation of the said covenant, to keep it in mind, and to testify that it was an earnest thing, whereby God challenged them to be his people, and required the us. keeping of his laws of them, and faith to trust in him only, and in no other thing for help and succour, and all that can be needful and necessary for man. And whereby he condemned the disobedient and rebellious, and punished them, and whereby also the godly challenged him to be their God and Father, and to help and succour them at need, and to minister all things unto them according to all his promises.

And though the seal of this covenant were not written in the flesh of the females, yet it served the womankind, bound them to God, to trust in him, and to keep his laws, as well as it did the men children, and the womankind not circumcised in the flesh, yet, through the help of the sign written in the males, loving God's law, and trusting wholly in him, were truly circumcised in the heart and soul be