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the Church, as most agreeable with the institution of Christ.

his Son Jesus Christ towards this infant, let us faithfully and devoutly give thanks unto him. Bapt. Serv.

It is certain by God's word, that children which are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are undoubtedly saved. Rubric to Bapt. Serv.

Sith the Lord calleth infants unto him, and commandeth that no man forbid them to come, embraceth them when they come to him, and testifieth that to them the kingdom of heaven belongeth, whom God vouchsafeth to be in the heavenly palace, it seemeth a great wrong that men should forbid them the first entry and door thereof, and after a certain manner to shut them out of the Christian commonweal. Nowell, P. 106.

Infants being baptized and dying in their infancy, are by this sacrifice (of Christ) washed from their sins, brought to God's favour, and made his children, and inheritors of his kingdom of heaven. Hom. iii. 1.

That faith and repentance go before baptism is required only in persons so grown in years, that by age they are capable of both. But to infants the promise made to the Church by Christ, in whose faith they are baptized, shall for the present time be sufficient; and then afterward, when they are grown to years, they must need themselves acknowledge the truth of their baptism, and have the force thereof to be lively in their souls, and to be represented in their life and behaviour. Q. How shall we know that infants ought not to be kept from baptism? A. Seeing God, which never swerveth from truth, nor in any thing strayeth from the right way, did not exclude infants in the Jewish church from circumcision, neither ought our infants to be put back from baptism. Q. Thinkest thou these so like, and that they both have one cause and order? A. Altogether. For as Moses and all the prophets do testify that circumcision was a sign of repentance, so doth St. Paul teach us that it was a sacrament of faith. Yet the Jews' children being not yet by age capable of faith and repentance, were nevertheless circumcised; by which visible sign God shewed himself in the Old Testament to be the Father of young children and of the seed of his people. Now sith it is certain that the grace of God is more plentifully poured, and more clearly declared in the Gospel by Christ, than at any time it was in the Old Testament by Moses, it were a great indignity if the same grace should now be thought to be either obscurer, or in any part abated. Sith it is certain that our infants have the force, and as it were the substance of baptism common with us, they should have wrong done them, if the sign which is inferior to the truth itself should be denied them;

and the same, which greatly availeth to testifying of the mercy of God and confirming his promises, being taken away, Christians should be defrauded of a singular comfort, which they who were in old enjoyed, and so should our infants be more hardly dealt with in the New Testament under Christ, than was dealt with the Jews' infants in the Old Testament under Moses. Therefore most great reason it is that by baptism, as by the print of a seal, it be assured to our infants that they be heirs of God's grace, and of the salvation promised to the seed of the faithful. Nowell, p. 106.

XXVIII. Of the Lord's Supper.

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THE Supper of the Lord is not only a a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among

We say that Eucharistia, that is to say, the supper of the Lord, is a sacrament, that is, an evident representation of the body and blood of Christ, wherein is set, as it were, before our eyes, the death of Christ, and his resurrection, and whatsoever he did, whilst he was in his mortal body to the end we may give him thanks for his death, and for our deliverance. And that, by the often receiving of this sacrament, we may daily renew the remembrance thereof, to the intent we being fed with the body and blood of Christ, may be brought into the hope of the resurrection, and of everlasting life, and may most assuredly believe, that as our bodies are fed with bread and wine, so our souls be fed with the body and blood of Christ. Jewell.

To this banquet we think the people of God ought to be earnestly bidden, that they may all communicate among themselves, and openly declare and testify, both the godly society there is among them, and also the hope they have in Christ Jesus. Jewell.

There is here the mystery of peace, and the sacrament of Christian society, whereby we understand what sincere love ought to be betwixt the true communicants; wherefore, O man, tender thine own salvation; examine and try thy good-will and love towards the children of God, the members of Christ, the heirs of the heavenly heritage; yea, towards the image of God, the excellent creature thine own soul. If thou have offended, now be reconciled: if thou have caused any to stumble in the way of God, now set them up again: if thou have disquieted thy brother, now pacify him: if thou have wronged him, now relieve him: if thou have defrauded him, now restore to him: if thou have nourished spite, now embrace friendship. If thou have fostered hatred and malice, now openly shew thy love and charity. Hom. xxvii. 2.

Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John iv. 10, 11. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. John xiii. 35. For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. 1 Cor. x. 17. Ye

are the body of Christ, and members in particular. 1 Cor. xii. 17. We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Rom. xii. 5. From Christ the whole body fitly joined together maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Eph. iv. 16. Above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Col. iii, 14.

themselves one to another; but rather is 'a Sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death: insomuch that to such as rightly, dworthily, and

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And to the end that we should alway remember the exceeding great love of our Master, and only Saviour, Jesus Christ, thus dying for us, and the innumerable benefits which by his precious blood-shedding he hath obtained to us; he hath instituted and ordained holy mysteries, as pledges of his love, and for a continual remembrance of his death, to our great and endless comfort. Com, Service.

To celebrate and retain continually a thankful remembrance. of the Lord's death, and of that most singular benefit which we have received thereby; and that as in baptism we were once born again, so with the Lord's supper we be always fed and sustained to spiritual and everlasting life. Nowell, p. 108.

The holy supper sendeth us to the death of Christ, and to his sacrifice once done upon the cross, by which alone God is appeased toward us. For by bread and wine, the signs, is assured unto us, that as the body of Christ was once offered a sacrifice for us to reconcile us to favour with God, and his blood once shed, to wash away the spots of our sins, so now also in his holy supper both are given to the faithful, that we surely know, that the reconciliation of favour pertaineth to us, and may take and receive the fruit of the redemption purchased by his death. Nowell, p. 111.

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We must certainly know, that three things be requisite in him which would seemly, as becometh such high mysteries, resort to the Lord's table. That is, first, a right and worthy estimation and understanding of this mystery. Secondly, to come in a sure faith. And thirdly, to have newness or pureness of life to succeed the receiving of the same. But, before all other things, this we must be sure of especially, that this supper be in such wise done and ministered, as our Lord and Saviour did, and commanded to be done; as his holy Apostles used it; and the good fathers in the primitive church frequented it. For, as that worthy man St. Ambrose saith, he is unworthy of the Lord, that otherwise doth celebrate that mystery, than it was delivered by him. Neither can he be devout, that otherwise doth presume than it was given by the author. We must then

b'As often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come. 1 Cor. xi. 26. He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup

is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you. Luke xxii. 19, 20. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Eph. i. 7. Ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.

é with faith receive the same, the bread which we

take heed, lest, of the memory, it be made a sacrifice; lest, of a communion, it be made a private eating; lest, of two parts, we have but one; lest, applying it for the dead, we lose the fruit that be alive.- -Thus much we must be sure to hold, that in the Supper of the Lord there is no vain ceremony, no bare sign, no untrue figure of a thing absent: (Matt. xxvi. 17-30.) but, as the Scripture saith, the table of the Lord; the bread and cup of the Lord; the memory of Christ; the annunciation of his death; yea, the communion of the body and blood of the Lord, in a marvellous incorporation, which by the operation of the Holy Ghost, the very bond of our conjunction with Christ, is through faith wrought in the souls of the faithful, whereby not only their souls live to eternal life, but they surely trust to win to their bodies a resurrection to immortality. Cor. xi. 24-26. 1 Cor. x. 16.) Hom. xxvii. 1.

Judge therefore yourselves, brethren, that ye be not judged of the Lord; repent you truly for your sins past; have a lively and stedfast faith in Christ our Saviour; amend your lives, and be in perfect charity with all men; so shall ye be meet partakers of those holy mysteries. Com. Serv.

Furthermore, for newness of life, it is to be noted that St. Paul writeth, "That we being many, are one bread and one body; for all be partakers of one bread:" declaring thereby not only our communion with Christ, but that unity also, wherein they that eat at this table should be knit together. As there is here the mystery of peace, and the sacrament of Christian society, whereby we understand what sincere love ought to be betwixt the true communicants; so here be the tokens of pureness and innocency of life, whereby we may perceive that we ought to purge our own soul from all uncleanness, iniquity, and wickedness; lest, when we receive the mystical bread, as Origin saith, we eat it in an unclean place; that is, in a soul defiled and polluted with sin. In Moses's law, "the man that did eat of the sacrifice of thanksgiving, with his uncleanness upon him, should be destroyed from his people." (Levit. xxiii.) And shall we think that the wicked and sinful person shall be excusable at the table of the Lord? We both read in St. Paul, that the church of Corinth was scourged of the Lord, for misusing the Lord's Supper; (1 Cor. xi.) and we may plainly see Christ's church these many years miserably vexed and oppressed, for the horrible profanation of the same. We Christians should take heed we resort unto our sacraments with holiness of life, not trusting in the outward receiving of them, and infected with corrupt and uncharitable manners. For this sentence of God must always be justified, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Wherefore, saith Basil, it behoveth him that cometh to the body and blood of Christ, in commemoration of him that died and rose again,

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