shall contain nothing appearing either to shock Reason, or wound Religion, in the most scrupulous eyes. The more the vulgar can be taken off from knotty points, so much the better: nor do I believe they ever think of them unless urged thereto by the wrongheaded or such who have none other way of making themselves popular and important. The material points to be generally inculcated seem to be the belief of the Scriptures being the Word of God, and a reliance solely upon Christ, and his Religion for attaining the righteousness needful for their future interests. These points I have taken my best pains to secure in the last Chapter, and labored to remove what might endanger the security in the present.

CHAP. XXIII.

SACRAMENTS.

THERE has lately been some difference among doctors concerning the nature and efficacy of these sacred rites, wherein I am so far from intending to take part on either side, that I have not so much as made myself well acquainted with the state of the controversy: therefore if what is here offered shall prove favorable or displeasing to the litigants, it will be purely accidental, nor will any of them have cause either to thank or be wrathful with me for intermeddling. For I shall still, as heretofore, proceed quietly my own way, without the spirit of opposition or partiality, collecting whatever occurring to my thoughts may appear pertinent to the subject upon the best exercise of my judgment. The province I have professed to undertake is that of human reason, by which must be meant my own reason for so every man who talks of reason ought to be understood if he speaks sincerely, because he cannot have jurisdiction in any province further than the scanty limits of his own understanding.

Being apprized of this, I shall not presume to dictate, nor demonstrate, nor venture to say, which last is the modern phrase for the most confident assertion, nor even wish anybody to adopt a sentiment of mine until he finds it agreeable to his own judgment: for were the thing I suggest ever so right, yet if he does not see the justness of it with his own eyes, he will not apprehend it rightly, and it will do him no good. And if I chance to fall into mis

takes introductive of mischiefs I do not foresee, for others I shall be very careful to guard against, there not wanting able champions enow to prevent their taking effect by giving warning to the unwary. But reason being my province, it is obvious I have nothing to do with the evidences proving those rites to be of divine institution, which cannot be fetched from the storehouse of human reason: therefore taking such institution for granted, I shall make it my business to consider what rational idea can be entertained of them, their design and effects, presuming that if such can be found, it is the genuine and true one.

Now in order to know how our Church expresses herself on them, we need only have recourse to the Catechism, which we have all learned, perhaps most of us forgotten again, yet we may presently borrow a book to refresh our memory: wherein we shall find a sacrament defined to be an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given to us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to assure us thereof. Now a sign we know is ordinarily an indication only of something happening: when the weather-glass falls we think it a sign it will rain; when on looking through the window, we see the women pulling their handkerchiefs over their heads, we take this for a sign that is beginning to rain: but neither the mercury nor the handkerchiefs, can have any influence upon the clouds to bring down their contents, being declarative only, not productive, of an event befallen or to befall. But there are other signs, which are not discoveries of something unknown, but admonitions of something slipt out of mind: as when you make signs with your finger to a person who through mere inconsiderateness is going to blurt out a secret he knows well enough to be

one.

The sacramental signs I apprehend are of the latter sort: as signs they are not efficient causes of any external event that may concern us, and as monitory signs they are not declarations of any operation performed upon us: but being ordained by Christ himself, the sight of them solemnly administered serves naturally to impress a strong remembrance of him, and remind us of the inestimable benefits received by his procurement. Hence follows that there is nothing conjured down into the elements on consecration, nor have they any quality, power, or property different from other elements employed in common uses; and the priest, agreeable to his title of minister, acts ministerially, not authoritatively herein, declaring or expressing a former act of Christ, not performing an act of his own: neither can we expect to receive any other bene

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fit from them, than what effect the sight and the ceremony may work upon the heart and imagination.

And the term pledge may lead us into the like train, for though we often use the word for an earnest given to bind a bargain, or a deposit left in pawn for performance of an engagement, yet, it is likewise employed by persons, who, intending considerable favors to another, but being apprehensive he may doubt of their sincerity or remembrance, give him some little thing in hand as a pledge of their kindness, and to satisfy him they will keep their word: to which latter sense the expression of our Church directs us by calling it a pledge, not to secure, but to assure us thereof. In like manner when God is said to bind himself by an Oath, it is in reality no security, for if he were disposed to break it, we could not help ourselves as a man might who receives an earnest or deposit, but a certain assurance leaving no room for doubt.

Now assurance is a state of the mind, which it may be cast into by sensible objects, working a lively and vigorous persuasion of what we know in our judgment well enough before, but had a very faint sense of in the imagination: therefore the Sacraments are not evidences to convince, nor conveyances to put us into possession of anything promised, but methods for turning conviction into persuasion, which in the Chapter on Faith has been shown necessary to make it a virtue. For being ordained by Christ himself, and administered according to his institution, they are visible transactions between him and us, as direct and immediate as can be since his departure from earth; therefore proper pledges of his kindness to assure us of all these inestimable benefits we hope to gather therefrom.

2. But our Catechism has the words, as a means whereby we receive the same is not this contrary to the nature of signs as just now described? Not at all to my thinking: nor do I apprehend that signs and means denote two distinct qualities in the Sacraments, but they become means by being signs: and this may appear when we consider what it is we receive thereby, namely, Grace. It has been shown in the Chapter upon that article, that Grace, considered as an effect, is an extraordinary disposition and vigor of mind to apprehend religious truths, which a sign and a pledge, described as above, leave a natural efficacy to produce: and in this sense it must be understood here, being spoken of as something given to us, not as something operating upon us; for we cannot be said to possess the Holy Spirit as a gift, otherwise than figuratively by a common metonyme of the cause for the effect.

Therefore we are not to imagine a spiritual influence infused into the elements, nor accompanying the ceremony, nor the Holy Ghost more peculiarly present than at other times, unless in the manner God and Christ are said to be peculiarly present where two or three are gathered together in their name, that is, solely by the greater clearness of our optics to discern them. I cannot, consistently with the doctrines of our Church, deny, that the Grace comes by the power of God co-operating in his third Persona with our endeavors in the application of the means; for since no good thing can be done without such assistance, the devout celebration of the Sacraments and Grace consequent thereupon being good things, such assistance must have been afforded. But the Sacraments I apprehend obtain the divine aid in the same manner as other means of Grace, though being the most sacred of our devotions, they do it in a larger measure, and may be said to bring down the Holy Spirit as prayer is said to bring down a supply of our wants from heaven: not that it can move God, but because it moves ourselves within the stream of his blessings, so they do not draw the heavenly power to shed his influence more copiously upon the heart, but draw the heart further into the current of his influence.

I am not so rigorous as to expect that persons of all sized apprehensions should enter clearly into these refinements: let them believe the rites to be principal means of Grace, without troubling their heads about the manner of operation: if they should happen. to mingle a spice of the marvellous, because they cannot satisfy themselves any other way, there will be no great harm done: but for such as have ears to hear the voice of sober reason, or eyes to discern the distinction, it seems very material they should observe it. For when once a man begins to persuade himself that he feels the very finger of God, or hears his whisper, because he feels a sensible impression upon his mind, and unusual vigor in his powers of action, he is in imminent danger of sliding insensibly into the wilds of superstition and enthusiasm.

But though whenever we find a favorable alteration within us we must ascribe it to divine assistance, upon the authority of Scripture interpreted by our doctors; yet as argued in the Chapter last cited, the touch occasioning such change may have been given hours, or days, or months before, at a time when we could not perceive it. For we are warranted upon the same authority to compare the divine effusion to the wind, which bloweth where it listeth; thou hearest the sound thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth: we feel and hear the draught of air, and see the commotions it raises among the trees, but know

nothing of the powers setting it in motion, where or how far off they lie, nor the time when they gave their impulse.

3. To the question, How many Sacraments hath Christ ordained in his Church, we are taught to answer, Two only as generally necessary to Salvation. One cannot presently discern the force of the adverb Generally. It seems at first sight to imply, that there are other Sacraments necessary for particular persons, though these alone be generally so; but this we know our Church disavows. Perhaps if necessary had been used alone, the world might have joined with it in their thoughts the adverb universally or absolutely; which might have given them the idea of an efficient virtue in the rites, putting us in possession of certain privileges without which no man can be saved, as no man can live without eating, nor purchase lands in a foreign country without being naturalized there but whatever may be thought of Baptism, I hope it will be allowed that a child dying under seven years old may be saved without ever having communicated of the Lord's Supper. Therefore by Generally I apprehend we are to understand no more than necessary for all ranks and conditions of people, laics as well as clergy, the poor, the low, and the ignorant, as well as the rich, the noble, and the enlightened.

Let us next proceed to consider in what sense they are necessary, and I conceive them not directly but remotely so, that is, not immediately productive of salvation in themselves, but necessary preliminaries conducting to something else whereby we may attain it. Were future happiness a gift conferred by an immediate act of God, as vulgarly conceived, there would need no preparatives to fit us for the reception: for he who was able to raise up Children to Abraham of the veriest stones, is likewise able to invest any creature, however qualified in any state or condition of Being whatever, to make a Saint of a damned Soul, an Angel of a Devil, by an exertion of his Omnipotence. But Religion and Philosophy unanimously agree, that we are placed here in a state of probation, this life being preparatory to the next which it could not be, at least to our comprehension, unless there were certain stated laws of universal Nature, rendering every man's condition hereafter dependent upon that wherein he quitted this earthly stage.

From whence, together with what has been argued in former places, it appears, that that nearest approach to perfection of the spiritual body wherein we are to rise again, which any man is capable of making in his present situation, is the thing directly productive of salvation. Which state the spiritual body is cast into by habitual just sentiments of God, and a tenor of conduct con