given a right to all the world, then all infidels and heathens shall be saved, if baptised. If they say it is to all infants in the world, then, whether they have godfathers or no, they may be baptised. And if all that are baptised are saved, it is irrational to think that want of baptism without their fault shall hinder their salvation. But though God offer to all men pardon and life for themselves and their infants, yet no Scripture giveth it to either without acceptance and consent of the adult. We must not make a gospel of our own.

Q. 32. Some say, that so much faith will serve for a title to baptism, as taketh Christ for a teacher, and maketh us disciples, that we may after attain to saving holiness; but that it is not special, saving faith that must needs be then professed.

A. This is to make a new baptism and Christianity to vie with that which alone Christ made. No adult person is a Christian, in Scripture sense, who believeth not in Christ as Christ. Which is as Saviour, as Prophet, Priest, and King. The essentials of Christ's office and gifts, as offered, are essential to that accepting faith which makes us Christians. A disciple and a Christian were words of the same importance. (Acts xi.) Christ made no baptism but for the remission of sin, and giving men a relation right to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: baptism saveth by the answer of a good conscience to God. "Arise and wash away thy sins," was the word to Saul. We are sacramentally buried and risen with Christ, as dead to sin, and made new creatures, when we are baptised. (Rom. vi.) Therefore it is called "The laver of regeneration." (Tit. iii. 5.) All the church of Christ, from the apostles, taught that baptism put away the guilt of sin, to all that were truly qualified for that sacrament. And they required the profession of a saving faith and repentance; and all the form of baptism used in England, and the whole christian world, so happily agreeth in expressing this, that whoever will bring in the opinion, That the profession of a faith short of that which hath the promise of pardon and life, entitleth to baptism, must make a new baptismal form.

Q. 33. But many divines say, that baptism is not administered to infants on the title of a present faith, nor to give present pardon; but on a promise that they shall believe at age, and so have the benefits of baptism at age.

A. None dare say so of the adult. If they say, We repent

2 Mark xvi. 16; Rom. x. 10, 14.

not, nor believe now, but we promise to do it hereafter,' no wise man will baptise them. It is present believing, and not a mere promise to believe, that is their title. An infant's title is the parent's faith and dedication. By this doctrine infants of Christians are not in the same covenant or baptism as their parents, nor are they any more pardoned than heathens."

Q. 34. What use are we to make of our baptism ever after? A. It is of great and manifold use. 1. We must live under the humble sense of that miserable state of sin, from which Christianity doth deliver us..

2. We must live in the thankful sense of that grace of God in Christ which did deliver us, and in the exercise of our belief of that truth and love which was then sealed to us.

3. We must live in the faithful remembrance of that covenant which we sealed, and that obedience which we promised, and in that war against the devil, the world, and the flesh, in which we then engaged ourselves.

4. It is the knowledge of the baptismal covenant which tells us what Christianity is, and who we must take and love as Christians, while sects and dividers, by narrow, false measure, do limit their christian love and communion, and hate or cast off the disciples of Christ.

5. Accordingly it is the baptismal covenant that must tell us what true faith is ; viz., such a belief as causeth us truly to consent to that covenant; and what true conversion is: viz., such a change as containeth a true consent to that covenant. And so it tells us how to judge of our sincerity of grace; viz., when we unfeignedly consent to that covenant; and tells us what sin is mortal, that is, inconsistent with true grace and title to salvation; viz., all sin which is not consistent with an unfeigned consent to the covenant of grace.

6. It tells what the catholic church is; viz., visibly all that profess consent to the baptismal covenant, and forsake it not; and mystically all that sincerely do consent to it.

And, 7. So it tells us how to exercise church discipline, that we cast not out those as none of Christ's members, for their infirmities, who are not proved by sufficient witness to have done that which cannot stand with the sincere keeping of that

covenant.

Acts ii. 39.

Rom. iii., and vi. 1-3; Rev. i. 5, and vii. 14; 1 Cor. vi. 10-12; Heb. x. 22. John xiii. 8; Eph. v. 26 ; Tit. iii. 5; Acts xxii. 16.

And thus baptism, not as a mere outward washing, but as including the grace which it signifieth, and the covenant and vow which it sealeth, is the very kernel of the christian religion, and the symbol, or livery, of the church and members of Christ.

Q. 35. Are all damned that die unbaptised?

A. Baptism is the solemn devoting men in covenant to Christ. All that hear the Gospel are condemned that consent not to this covenant. But the heart consent for ourselves and children is our title condition before God, who damns not men for want of an outward ceremony, which, by ignorance or necessity, is omitted. Believers' children are holy, because they and theirs are devoted to God before baptism. Baptism is to Christianity what public matrimony is to marriage, ordination to the ministry, enlisting to a soldier, and crowning to a king.

CHAP. XLVI.

Of the Sacrament of Christ's sacrificed Body and Blood.

Q. 1. WHAT is the sacrament called the Lord's 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 Christ's 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.b

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 separating and sanctifying the bread and wine, to this holy use; by which it ceaseth to be mere common bread

b Matt. xxvi. 20-28; Luke xxii. 19; 1 Cor. x. 16, 17, and xl. 23-26, 28

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 authorised devoting it to its 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 separation from its holy use; and this 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, Christ's body and blood. Q. 6. Is the bread and wine the true body and blood of Christ?

A. Yes, relatively, significantly, representatively, and 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," and not, "This signifieth it?' A. The name is fitly taken from the form; and a sacramental form is a relative form. If you see a shilling of the king's coin, and the question be, whether this be a shilling, or the king's 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 is 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 Christ's sacrificed 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 an 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." (Luke xxii. 20; 1 Cor. xi. 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 itself.

And it is known that Christ's common teaching was by parables and similitudes, where he saith, (Matt. xxi. 28,) "A

certain man had two sons," &c., (v. 33,) "A certain householder planted a vineyard," &c. And so frequently, (Matt. xiii. 21-23, 37-39.) "He that soweth is the Son of Man; the field is 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, (John xv. 1,) "I am the Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman." (John x. 7, 9, 14.) "I am the Door; I am the good Shepherd." As David, (Psalm xxii. 6,) "I am a worm, and no man." (Matt. xv. 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 Christ's body and blood, under the show of them?

A. The sacrament is exceedingly venerable, being the very eating and drinking Christ's own sacrificed body and blood, in similitude or representation. And it was meet that all Christians should discern the Lord's 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 heresy to hold that there is any bread or wine left after consecration.

Q. 9. Wherein lieth 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 Christ's body and blood, which was in his hand, or on the table when he spake the words, as if he had then two bodies.

2. They feign his body to be broken, and his blood shed before he was crucified.

3. They feign him to have flesh and blood in heaven, which two general councils have condemned; his body being a spiritual body now.