that our Lord really put on flesh and blood, and that his human nature was and is distinct from his Divine. To say, that "the Word was made flesh," or that the flesh was converted into the Word, in such a sense as to leave no distinct humanity, was as much as to say, that the Sacraments now make us not "members of his body, of his "flesh, and of his bones z;" and that the Eucharist in particular is an insignificant show, or worse, either not representing the truth of things, or representing a falsehood. Such was the argument made use of in the Eutychian controversya: a plainer or stronger there could not be; nor any wherein the generality of Christians could think themselves more deeply concerned.

XIV. Long after this, in the eighth century, endeavours were employed by many to bring in the worship, or at least the use, of images into churches. In this case also, the Sacrament of the Eucharist was seasonably pleaded, for the giving some check to the growing corruption. The good Fathers of Constantinople, in the year 754; meeting in council to the number of 338, argued against images to this effect: that as our Lord had appointed no visible image of himself, his incarnation, or passion, but the eucharistical one, and probably intended that for a most effectual bar, to preclude all appearances of idolatry; it would be high presumption in men, without warrant, without occasion, and against the very design of our Lord in that Sacrament, to introduce any other kind of images of their own devising b. The opposite party, some time after, (A. D. 787.) in the second Council of Nice, eluded this plain reasoning, by pretending, falsely, that the sacred symbols are not the image of Christ's body and blood, but the very body and blood c: and thus they laid

z Ephes. v. 30.

a The reader may see the ancient testimonies collected and commented upon in Albertinus, p. 802, 835, 836, 867, 868, 874, 886.

Vid. Acta Concil. Nicæn. secundi, tom. iii. vers. finem.

N. B. They might justly have said, that the sacred symbols are more than a mere image, more than mere signs and figures: but they should not

the seeds of that error, which grew up at length by degrees into the monstrous doctrine of transubstantiation. For the true notion of the Eucharist lying cross to their darling schemes, they chose rather to deprave the Sacrament itself, than to stand corrected by it. However, all this tends to confirm the main point, which I have been insisting upon, that the Sacraments, among other very valuable uses, have for many ages upwards been the standing barriers against corruptions: though there are no fences so strong, nor any ramparts so high, but daring and desultorious wits may either break through them or leap over them.

XV. I shall add but one example more; and it shall be of Faustus Socinus, of the sixteenth century: a person of pregnant wit and teeming invention; of moderate learning, but a very large share of sufficiency. His great ambition was, to strike out a new system of religion from his own conceits; though he happened only to revive (and perhaps very ignorantly) the ancient Sabellianism, Photinianism, and Pelagianism, with other exploded heresies. He began with subverting (as far as in him lay) the true and ancient doctrine of the Trinity, rejecting the Deity of the second Person, and even the being of the third. After a thousand subtilties brought to elude plain Scripture, and after infinite pains taken in so unnatural a war against Heaven, he was yet sensible, that he should prevail nothing, unless, together with the doctrine of the Trinity, he could discard the two Sacraments also, or render them contemptible. Baptism was a standing monument of the personality and equal Divinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: and the other Sacrament was an abiding memorial of the merits (though no creature can merit) of our Lord's obedience and sufferings: and both together

have denied their being images at all. And they might justly have said, that the sacred symbols are, in construction and beneficial effect, to worthy receivers, the very body and blood: but they ought not to have asserted what they did, in that absolute manner, or in such crude terms, left without the proper qualifying explanations.

were lasting attestations, all the way down from the very infancy of the Church, of the secret workings, the heavenly graces and influences of the Holy Spirit upon the faithful receivers. Therefore to let the Sacraments stand, as aforetime, was leaving the ancient faith to grow up again in the Christian world, much faster than Socinus, with all his subtile explications of Scripture texts, could bear it down. Being well aware how this matter was, he fell next upon the Sacraments; discarding one of them, in a manner, under pretence that it was needless; and castrating the other, with respect to what was most valuable in it, to render it despicable. It was thought somewhat odd, by some of his own friends d, that he should labour to throw off Baptism, and at the same time retain the Eucharist, which appeared to be comparatively of slighter moment, and less insisted upon in Scripture. But he well knew what he did; for the form of Baptism stood most directly in his way. As to the Eucharist, if he could but reduce it to a bare commemoration of an absent friend, there would be nothing left in it to create him much trouble; but it might look sincere and ingenuous, in that instance at least, to abide by the letter of the text, and to plead for the perpetuity of an ancient and venerable (now by him made a nominal) Sacrament. This appears to be the most natural account of his conduct in the whole affair. For otherwise it is a very plain case, that a lively imagination like his might have invented as fair or fairer pretexts for laying aside the Eucharist d, than for discarding Baptism; and it might have been easier to elude some few places of Scripture than many. But I return.

From the induction of particulars here drawn together, and laid before you, may be understood, by the way, the true and right notion of the Christian Eucharist, such as obtained from the beginning, and continued till the dark

d Vid. Ruari Epistolæ, vol. ii. p. 251.

* Indeed, the same pretences, some of them, equally affect both Sacraments, and tend to the discarding of both, or neither; as Vossius justly remarks, De Baptismo.

ages came on, and longer: but the point which I aimed at was, to illustrate the use of both the Sacraments considered as fences or barriers, ordained by Christ, to secure the true faith, and to preclude false doctrines. Few have ever attempted to corrupt Christianity in any of its considerable branches, but, first or last, they have found themselves embarrassed by one or both Sacraments; and have been thereby obliged either to desist presently, or to expose themselves farther, by quarrelling with those sacred institutions, which all wise and good men have ever most highly revered.

I have taken notice, how the most essential articles of the Christian religion have, in their several turns, (as they happened to be attacked,) been supported and strengthened by these auxiliary means. The doctrine of the visible creation by God most high: the doctrine of our redemption by Christ, both God and man: the doctrine of sanctifying grace by the Holy Spirit of God, a real Person, and also Divine: the doctrines of original sin, and of our Lord's meritorious sacrifice, and of a future resurrection of the body: these, and as many others as are contained in these, have all been eminently preserved and held up by the Christian Sacraments. The Sacraments therefore are full of excellent instruction and admonition: they carry creeds and commandments, as it were, in the bowels of them they speak even to the eyes in silent imagery, and often teach more in dumb show, with less expence of time and much greater efficacy, than any the most eloquent discourses could do. The Romanists have sometimes boasted, that images are the laymen's books, wherein the unlearned may read what it concerns them to know, without knowing letters. And indeed, if images had been aythorized, or had they not been prohibited books, they might have been admitted with a better grace. But our Sacraments are the true books, (or serving as books,) both to learned and unlearned; full of lively imagery and instructive emblem; drawn by Christ himself, and left as his legacies, for the use of all the churches.

Let us then, my Reverend Brethren, be careful to preserve these sacred deposits with all due reverence and watchfulness; inasmuch as they contain treasures of infinite value; and Christianity itself appears to be so entirely wrapped up in them, that, humanly speaking, it must unavoidably stand or fall with them.