or the Communication of his Gifts to the baptized Perfon, in order to raise him to Newness of Life, as always going together with the washing of Baptifm.God our Saviour, fays he, faved us by the washing of Regeneration, or of Baptifm (which in Conformity to our Bleffed Lord's own Language was called our new Birth) and the renewing of the Holy Ghoft; and he tells his Corinthians (1 Cor. vi. 11.) that they were all baptized into one Body, the Church, by one Spirit; that is, by the Holy Ghoft, whofe Gifts and Graces accompany those who duly receive that Sacrament.-And laftly, our bleffed Lord himself plainly gives a Title to Salvation in Baptifm, when he fays, He that believeth, and is BAPTIZED, shall be faved, (Mar. xv. 16.) that is, provided he does not afterwards forfeit that Title by his future Misconduct or Mifbelief.-And so likewife as to the other Sacrament of our bleffed Lord's Body and Blood, his Words are, that the Bread and Wine ARE his Body and Blood; which, till the Rife of the late abfurd Doctrine of Transubstantiation, and the later profane Expofition of Socinus and his Followers, who explain the whole into a bare Ceremony, was understood by the ancient Church, as it is at prefent by our own, to import, that they ARE his Body and Blood to all spiritual Intents and Purposes whatsoever; and are therefore the Means of really and truly conveying to the faithful Receiver all the spiritual Privileges and

Advantages of his meritorious Sacrifice of his natural Body and Blood upon the Crofs.-And that this was St. Paul's Sense of it seems very plain from his declaring, that the Cup of Bleffing which we blefs is A COMMUNION of the Blood of Christ, and that the Bread which we break is a COMMUNION of the Body of Chrift, (1 Cor. x. 16.)-Not a common Memorial or Remembrance only of his Body and Blood (as the Socinians would have it) but also a common Participation of them; for fo the Apostle himself explains it in the next Verse, when he says, for we are all PARTAKERS of that one Bread.-Nor yet barely an eating and drinking of the Elements in common; for then the Apostle would here affert no more, than that they, who eat the Bread and Wine in common, do fo eat them in common; but fuch a Communion not of the Elements only, but also of the Body and Blood, as the Jews who facrificed had, not only of the Sacrifices they offered, but alfo of the Altar; that is, an actual Conveyance to them of that Pardon, and those other Bleffings, which those Sacrifices were offered to procure for them.-And if then the worthy Receiver of one Sacrament has his Sins forgiven, and is baptized with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit; and the worthy Receiver of the other is made Partaker of all the Bleffings purchased for him by the Sacrifice of our great Redeemer; they are not surely to be confidered as bare Signs, or mere Remembrancers

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brancers or Memento's of his Sufferings, or as only outward Marks or Badges to distinguish the Chriftian from other religious Societies; but as Divine Institutions, which our Bleffed Lord has, out of his abundant Mercy, left with his Church, to our great and endless Comfort; and as the Means by which, or with which, he vifibly confirms with the Faithful the Covenant of Grace, and, as with an Inftrument, feals them over to the Day of their Redemption, (Eph. iv. 30.)—And as we are to guard against too mean and unworthy Opinions of these holy Inftitutions, fo are we likewise to be cautious of running into the contrary Extreme of afcribing too much to the visible Signs themfelves, or to the bare Act of receiving them; and should therefore remember,

3dly, That the bleffed Effects conveyed with them, or, in other Words, with which the Holy Spirit is pleafed to accompany the right Use of them, are not wrought abfolutely, mechanically, or unconditionally, by any fuppofed Virtue in the Signs or Acts themselves; but folely by the good Will and Pleasure of our Bleffed Lord, who conveys them only upon this Condition, that the Receiver be worthy of them.-Thefe Effects or Confequences are not mechanical, but fupernatural; not neceffarily granted to all, but conditionally to fome only.-There is no natural Connexion between the facramental Water and Bread

and

and Wine, and the great Effects or Confequences which are afcribed to them, or (which is the fame thing in other Words) which are faid to be received with them; and to impute thefe Effects either to the Elements, or to the Act of receiving them, is not only highly abfurd in itself, but in its Confequences extremely dangerous. To do this to the Elements naturally tends, if not to Adoration, yet at leaft to a fuperftitious Efteem and Use of them; and to do this to the Act of receiving, tends to the fatal Delufion of placing the Whole of Chriftianity in these fingle Acts.But there is neither Abfurdity nor Danger in believing, that our Bleffed Lord is pleased to accompany the right Ufe of them with these faving Effects; on the contrary his own and his Apoftle's Words are our fure Warrants for fuch a Belief; and to him therefore is afcribed the Glory of them in all the Churches of the Saints. And as to the other fatal Extreme of placing the Whole of our Religion in receiving these Sacraments, and refting in this as fufficient to Salvation, it is not only contrary to the Declarations of our Lord and St. Paul, but indeed to the whole New Teftament; and therefore the Benefits of receiving are ever declared to be confined to the worthy Receiver only. Our Blessed Lord gives no Promise of Salvation to him that is baptized only, but to him who believes as well as is baptized; that is, who fo believes Chriftian Truths, as to R 3 build

build a Chriftian Life and Practice upon them. -St. Paul is fo far from afcribing the Benefits of our Lord's Death to all who partake of his Supper, that he gives us Inftances of those who, instead of receiving any Benefit there, committed fo great a Crime against the Divine Author of it, by receiving unworthily, that he calls it the being guilty of his Body and Blood. -And indeed, what is the Language of the whole New Teftament, but that without Holinefs no Man fhall fee the Lord? or, in other Words, that the only general Terms of Salvation are Faith, Repentance, and a good Life? -The holy Sacraments then, if confidered with regard to our Obligations to receive them, are to be deemed only fome Parts of our Duty to our Lord, to every one of whose Commands we owe Refpect and Obedience; if confidered with regard to the Benefits to be received from them, they are no otherwise Titles to present Forgiveness or future Glory, than as a due Preparation for them includes and fuppofes all the other Duties required of us as preparatory to them; and if confidered with regard to God, they are juftly deemed the Seals of the Promifes, Acts of Union to him, as well as to his Church, and the Pledges of our Inheritance; but with this Provifo always implied, that we are worthy Partakers of them.-Such is the Nature of the Sacraments of the Chriftian Church, and fuch ought to be our Apprehenfions of them. -Which being

feriously