of the testament of the Son of God must needs be a high impiety. "Testamentum, quia individuum est, pro parte agnosci et pro parte repudiari non possit," says the law. If you repudiate a part of the will, you must renounce it all; If you permit not to the people the blood of Christ, you hinder them from having a part in the death of Christ, so far as lies in you. Add to this; that this holy mystery being acknowledged by all to be the most mysterious solemnity of the religion, and, by the church of Rome, affirmed to be a proper sacrifice, and so contended for; it would be remembered that our blessed Saviour did adapt and fit this rite to the usages and customs both of Jews and Gentiles; amongst whom laws, and societies, and contracts, and sacrifices, were made solemn by effusion and drinking of blood; and instead of blood, amongst the more civil nations, they drank wine; and by that were supposed partakers even of the blood of the sacrifice. ̓Απὸ τούτου γε φασὶ μεθύειν ὠνομάσθαι (says Philo), ὅτι μετὰ τὸ θύειν ἔθος ἦν τοῖς προτέροις οἰνοῦσθαι. “To be drunk,” viz. in the Greek, "hath its name from their drinking wine after their sacrifices:" and with this custom among the Gentiles, and with the paschal ceremony of this nature amongst the Jews, our blessed Lord, complying, loses the wisdom and prudence of it, if the priest shall sacrifice, and the people drink none of the blood of the sacrifice, or that which ritually and sacramentally represents it. The covenant of the gospel, the covenant which God made with us, our blessed Saviour established and ratified with blood: wine was made to represent and exhibit it; he therefore that takes this away, away, takes away the very sacramentality of the mystery, and "without blood there is no remission." For as he that gives bread and no water, does not nourish the body but destroy it; so it is in the blessed sacrament: for (that I may use St. Austin's expression which Paschasius and Algerus in this article did much insist upon) "nec caro sine sanguine, nec sanguis sine carne jure communicatur. Totus enim homo ex duabus constans substantiis redimitur, et ideo carne simul et sanguine saginatur:" "neither the flesh without the blood, nor the blood without the flesh, is rightly communicated. For the whole man consisting of two substances, is redeemed, and therefore nourished both with the flesh and b Lib. 7. Jus nostr. Dom. de Reg. Jur. the blood.” Καὶ οὐ καθάπερ ἐπὶ τῆς παλαιᾶς, τὰ μὲν ὁ ἱερεὺς ἤσθιε, τὰ δὲ ὁ ἀρχόμενος, καὶ θέμις οὐκ ἦν τῷ λαῷ μετέχειν μετεῖχεν ὁ ἱερεὺς, ἀλλὰ πᾶσιν ἓν σῶμα πρόκειται καὶ ποτήριον ἕν. "It is not now as it was in the Old Testament, where the priest ate one portion, the prince another, and the people another; here it is alike to all, the same body and the same chalice is to all." I end this inquiry with the saying of St. Cypriand: "Si ne unum quidem ex minimis mandatis legis solvere debemus, multo minus ex his magnis mandatis, pertinentibus ad ipsum Dominicæ passionis et nostræ redemptionis sacramentum, fas est ullum infringere, vel humana traditione mutare:" "If it be not permitted to break one of the least commandments of the law, much less is it to be. endured, to break any one, or by human tradition to change any, belonging to the sacrament,of our Lord's passion and of our redemption:" and therefore if ever any sect or any single person was guilty of the charge, it is highly to be. imputed to the church of Rome, that "they teach for doctrine the commandments of men; and make the commandment of God of none effect by their tradition." RULE X. If the Sense of a Law be dubious, we are sometimes to expound it by Liberty, sometimes by Restraint. ་* 1. ALTHOUGH all the laws of Jesus Christ are so legible: in the sense intended, that all good men, being placed in their proper circumstances, conducted by the Divine Providence, making use of all their prepared and ready instru-. ments, can certainly read the prime intention and design of God; yet because some laws are so combined with matter, and twisted with material cases, so intricated by the accidents of men and the investiture of actions, that they cast a cloud upon the light of God's word, and a veil upon the guide, of our lives; and because the sense of words does change, and very often words cannot be equal with things, it comes to pass, that the laws are capable of differing senses: when, therefore, any thing of this nature happens, the first sense of c Chrysost. Hom. 18. in 2 Cor. VOL. XIII. D d Lib. 2. e. 3. the words is either to be enlarged or restrained according to the following measures. In what Cases the stricter Sense of the Laws of Christ 2. (1.) When the duty enjoined by the law is in delibe ration, and is to be done, we are to use restraint, and take the severer sense of the law. The reason is, because that is the surer way, and hath in it no inconvenience or impos sibility; but being it is the matter of choice, in all deliberation for the future we must give sentence for God, and for the interest of religion. Thus, when it is commanded we should "judge ourselves, that we be not judged of the Lord;" in the inquiry, which every penitent man makes concerning the extension of the duty of judging ourselves, if the question be whether judging ourselves means only to condemn' our selves for having sinned, and to confess ourselves justly liable to the divine judgment; or does it also mean to punish' ourselves, and by putting our own sentence against our sin into a severe execution of that sentence upon ourselves by corporal inflictions? He that can no otherwise be determined in the question, can safely proceed by choosing the severer side; for there is no loss in it, no omission, it contains all that any man can think to be required; and therefore hath in it prudence and charity, caution and regard, to God and to himself. 3. (2.) This is not to be understood only in case there is a doubt no otherwise to be resolved, but by the collateral advantage of the surer side; but this severer sense of the law is of itself most reasonable to be chosen, as being the intended sense and design of the lawgiver, who certainly puts. no positive measures to his own laws of love and duty. For since the great design of the law is such a perfection, which must for ever be growing in this world, and can never here arrive to its state and period, that sense which sets us most forward, is the most intended; and therefore this way is not only to quiet the doubt, but to govern and to rule the conscience: this is not only the surer way, but the only way that is directly intended. It is agreeable to the measures of charity, or the love of God, which is to have no other bounds, but even the best we can, in the measures of God and the infirmities and capacities of man. 4. (3.) In the interpretation of the laws of Christ, the strict sense is to be followed, when the laws relate to God and to religion, and contain in them direct matter of piety and glorifications of God, or charity to our neighbour; because in them the further we go, the nearer we are to God, and we are not at all to be stopped in that progression, till we are at our journey's end, till we are in the state of comprehension. To this purpose are those words of Ben Sirache, "When you glorify the Lord, exalt him as much as you can; for even yet will he far exceed; and when you exalt him, put forth all your strength, and be not weary, for you can never go far enough. Who hath seen him that he might tell us, and who can magnify him as he is? There are hid greater things yet than these be, for we have seen but a few of his works;" meaning, that although we cannot glorify God sufficiently for the works of power and mercy which we see and feel, yet because there are very many works, which we see not, and infinite numbers and seas of glories above the clouds, which we perceive not, and cannot understand,-the only measures of religion and the love of God which we are to take, are to pray continually, to love God always, to serve him without end, to be zealous beyond all measures, excepting those of duty and prudence,-to be religious without a limit, always to desire, always to endeavour, never to rest as long as we can' work, never to give over as long as any thing is unfinished;" and consequent or symbolical to all this, that in all disputes of religion we choose the sense of love, not of weariness; that we do not contend for the lesser measures, but strive in all our faculties and desire beyond their strength, and propound Christ for our precedent, and heaven for our reward, and infinity for our measures, towards which we are to set forth by our active and quick endeavour, and to which we are to reach by our constancy and desires, our love and the. divine acceptance. When the Laws of Christ are to be expounded to a Sense of Ease and Liberty. 5. If to the sense of the duty there be a collateral and indirect burden and evil appendage, the alleviating of that burden is to be an ingredient into the interpretation of the e Ecclus. xliii. 30-32. law, and the direct duty is to be done in such measures, as may do the most good with suffering the least evil. This happens in two cases: i 6. (1.) If the strict and severer sense of the law be too great for the state and strength of the man, that is, if it be apt to make him despair, to make him throw away his burden, to make him tire, to be weary of, and to hate religion,his infirmities are to be pitied, and the severest sense of the law is not to be exacted of him. "Apices juris non sunt jus," say the lawyers: "The little punctilios and minutes of law. are not law;" because if our duty be extended to every little. tittle of duty, it were necessary that our observation and at-. tendance should be as particular and punctual; but because that cannot always be actual and intent, particular and incumbent, those things which insensibly pass by the observation of a diligent watchful person, do also inculpably pass. by the man. But of this I have already given accounts in another place. For the present I further consider, that charity being the great end of the law, and every law being a design of making a man happy, every commandment of God is then best understood, when it is made to do most good, and rescued from being an occasion of evil. The government. of Jesus Christ is most paternal and serene: his rod is not heavy, his commandments are not grievous, his bands are not, snares; but they are holiness, and they are liberty, they are 'glory to God, and good-will towards men.' 7. But this at no hand means, that any material or in-, tegral part of duty can be omitted, and the omission indulged in compliance with any man's infirmity or danger; for the law is to be our measure, our weaknesses cannot be the measure of the integrity of the law; that infirmity by which we omit any part of duty is a state of sin; and God, who knew all our infirmities, and possibilities or impossibilities of obedience, complied sufficiently in the sanction of the law, and imposed no more burden than was even with our powers; and therefore for what remains we must stoop our shoulder and bear the burden which God's wisdom made reasonable and tolerable, and our necessity and interest make unavoidable, and love will make easy and delectable. 8. But the burden which can be lessened, is the burden f Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, c. 3. |