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ART. to the federal rites of religion. Yet if any will dispute about words, we know how much St. Paul condemns all those curious and vain questions, which have in them the subtilties 1 Tim. vi. and oppofitions of science falfely fo called. If any will call every rite used in holy things, a Sacrament, we enter into no fuch contentions.

20.

Matth.

1 Pet. iii.

21.

Mat. xxvi.

26, 27.

The rites therefore that we understand when we speak of Sacraments, are the conftant federal rites of Chriftians, which are accompanied by a divine grace and benediction, being inftituted by Chrift to unite us to him, and to his Church; and of fuch we own that there are two, Baptifm, and the Supper of our Lord. In Baptifm there is matter, water; there is a form, the perfon dipped or washed, with words, I baptize xxviii. 19. thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. There is an inftitution, Go preach and baptize; there is a federal fponfion, The answer of a good confcience; there is a bleffing conveyed with it, Baptifm faves us; there is one Baptifm, as there is one body and one fpirit; we are all baptized into one body. So that here all the conftituent and neceflary parts of a Sacrament are found in Baptifm. In the Lord's Supper, there is bread and wine for the matter. The giving it to be eat and drunk, with the words that our Saviour used in the firft fupper, are the form: Do this in remembrance of me, is the inftitution. Ye fhew forth the Lord's death till he come again, is the declaration of the federal act of our part: it is alfo the communion of the body, and of the blood of Chrift, that is, the conveyance of the bleffings of our partnership in the effects of the death of Chrift. And we being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread; this fhews the union of the Church in this Sacrament. then we have in these two Sacraments, both matter, form, inftitution, federal acts, bleflings conveyed, and the union of the body in them. All the characters which belong to a Sacrament agree fully to them.

1 Cor. xi. 23, to 27.

1 Cor. x.

16, 17.

Lib. iii.

Dift. 2.

Here

In the next place we must, by these characters, examine the other pretended Sacraments. It is no wonder, if the word Sacrament being of a large extent, there fhould be fome paffages in ancient writers, that call other actions fo befides Baptifm and the Lord's Supper; for in a larger fenfe every holy rite may be fo called. But it is no fmall prejudice against the number of Seven Sacraments, that Peter Lombard, a writer in the twelfth century, is the firft that reckons Seven of them: from that myftical expreffion of the Seven Spirits of God, there came a conceit of the fevenfold operation of the Spirit; and it looked like a good illuftration of that to affert Seven Sacraments. This Pope Eugenius put in his inftruction to the

Arme

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Armenians, which is published with the Council of Florence; ART. and all was finally fettled at Trent. Now there might have been fo many fine allufions made on the number Seven, and fome of the ancients were fo much fet on fuch allufions, that fince we hear nothing of that kind from any of them, we may well conclude, that this is more than an ordinary negative ar gument against their having believed, that there were Seven Sa craments. To go on in order with them:

The first that we reject, which is reckoned by them the fecond, is Confirmation. But to explain this, we must confider in what refpect our Church receives Confirmation, and upon what reasons it is that he does not acknowledge it to be a Sacrament. We find that after Philip, the Deacon and Acts viii. Evangelift, had converted and baptized fome in Samaria, 12, 14, 15 Peter and John were fent thither by the Apostles, who laid 16, 17 their hands on fuch as were baptized, and prayed that they might receive the Holy Ghost; upon which it is faid, that they received the Holy Ghoft. Now though ordinary functions, when performed by the Apoftles, fuch as their laying on of hands on thofe whom they ordained or confirmed, had extraordinary effects accompanying them; but when the extraordinary ef fects ceased, the end for which these were at firft given being Heb. vi. 2. accomplished, the Gofpel having been fully attefted to the world, yet the functions were ftill continued of confirmation as well as ordination: and as the laying on of hands, that is reckoned among the principles of the Chriftian doctrine, after Repentance and Faith, and fubfequent to Baptifm, feems very probably to belong to this; fo from these warrants, we find in the earliest writings of Chriftianity, mention of a Confirmation after Baptifm, which for the greater folemnity and awe of the action, and from the precedent of St. Peter and St. John, was referved to the Bishop, to be done only by him.

Upon thefe reafons we think it is in the power of the Church to require all fuch as have been baptized, to come before the Bifhop and renew their baptifmal vow, and pray for God's Holy Spirit to enable them to keep their vow; and upon their doing this, the Bishop may folemnly pray over them, with that ancient and almoft natural ceremony of laying his hands upon them, which is only a defignation of the perfons fo prayed over, and bleffed, that God may feal and defend them with his Holy Spirit, in which, according to the nature of the New Covenant, we are fure that fuch as do thus vow and pray, do alfo receive the Holy Spirit, according to the promise that our Saviour has made us. In this action there is nothing but what is in the power of the Church to do, even without any other warrant or precedent. The doing all things to order, and

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ART. to edifying, will authorize a Church to all this; especially, fince the now univerfal practice of Infant Baptifm, makes this more neceflary than it was in the firft times, when chiefly the Adult were baptized. It is highly reasonable that they who gave no actual confent of their own, fhould come, and by their own exprefs act make the ftipulations of Baptifm. It may give greater impreffions of awe and refpect, when this is reftrained to the highest order in the Church. Upon the fincere vows and earnest prayers of perfons thus confirmed, we have reafon to believe that a proportioned degree of God's grace and fpirit will be poured out upon them. And in all this we are much confirmed, when we fee fuch warrants for it in Scripture. A thing fo good in itself, that has at least a probable authority for it, and was certainly a practice of the first ages, is upon very juft grounds continued in our Church. Would to God it were as feriously gone about, as it is lawfully established.

Theophil.

1. i. ad Au

But after all this, here is no Sacrament, no exprefs inftitution, neither by Chrift nor his Apoftles; no rule given to practife it, and which is the most effential, there is no matter here; for the laying on of hands is only a gefture in prayer; nor are there any federal rites declared to belong to it; it being indeed rather a ratifying and confirming the Baptifm, than any new ftipulation. To fupply all this, the Church of Rome has appointed matter for it. The chrism, which is a mixture of oil-olive and balm, (opobalfamum) the oil fignifying the clearness of a good confcience, and the balm the favour of a good reputation. This must be peculiarly blefled by the BiThop, who is the only minifter of that function. The form of this Sacrament is the applying the chrifm to the forehead,with thefe words, Signo te figno crucis, et confirmo te chrifmate falutis, in nomine Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti: I fign thee with the fign of the crofs, and confirm thee with the chrifm of falvation, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft. They pretend Chrift did inftitute this; but they say the Holy Ghoft which he breathed on his Difciples, being a thing that tranfcended all Sacraments, he fettled no determined matter nor form to it; and that the fucceeding ages appropriated this matter to it.

We do not deny, but that the Chriftians began very early to ufe oil in holy functions; the climates they lived in making it neceffary to use oil much, for ftopping the perfpiration, that might difpofe them the more to use oil in their facred rites. It tolyc. Tert. is not to be denied, but that both Theophilus and Tertullian, in de Bapt.c.7, the end of the second, and the beginning of the third century, 8. de Refur. do mention it. The frequent mention of oil, and of anointing in the Scripture, might incline them to this: it was prophefied of Chrift, that he was to be anointed with the oil of joy and

Car. c. 8.

Cypr. Ep. 70.

glad

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gladnefs above his fellows and the names of Meffias and AR T. Chrift do alfo import this; but yet we hold all that to be mystical, and that it is to be meant of that fulness of the Spirit which he received without meafure. Upon the fame account we do understand those words of St. Paul in the fame myftical fenfe: He that establisheth us with you in Chrift, and hath anointed 2 Cor. i. us, is God; who hath alfo fealed us, and given the earnest of the 21, 22. Spirit in our hearts: as alfo thofe words of St. John: But ye 20, 27. 1 John ii, have an unction from the holy one, and ye know all things. The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach you, but as the fame anointing teacheth you all things. These words do clearly relate to fomewhat that the Chriftians received immediately from God; and so must be understood figuratively: for we do not fee the leaft hint of the Apostles using of oil, except to the fick; of which afterwards. So that if this ufe of oil is confidered only as a ceremony of a natural fignification, that was brought into the rituals of the Church, it is a thing of another nature: but if a Sacrament is made of it, and a divine virtue is joined to that, we can admit of no fuch thing, without an exprefs inftitution and declaration in Scripture.

Can. 6.

Lucifer.

The invention that was afterwards found out, by which the Con. Arauf. Bishop was held to be the only minifter of confirmation, even c. 1, 2. though Prefbyters were fuffered to confirm, was a piece of fu- Cod. Affr. perftition without any colour from Scripture. It was fettled, Con. Tol. that the Bishop only might confecrate the chrifm; and though c. 20. he was the ordinary minifter of confirmation, yet Prefbyters were also suffered to do it, the chrifm being confecrated by the Bishop: Prefbyters thus confirming, was thought like the Deacons giving the Sacrament, though Pricfts only might confecrate the Eucharift. In the Latin Church Jerom tells us, that in his Hieron. ad time the Bishop only confirmed; and though he makes the reafon of this, to be rather for doing an honour to them, than from any neceffity of the law, yet he pofitively fays, the Bifhops went round praying for the Holy Ghoft on those whom they confirmed. It is faid by Hilary, that in Egypt the Prefby- Hilar. in ters did confirm in the Bishops abfence: fo that cuftom joined cap. 4. ad with the diftinction between the confecration, and the applying fupra. of the chrifm, grew to be the univerfal practice of the Greek Church. The greatness of diocefes, with the increafing numbers of the Chriftians, made that both in France, in the Councils of Orange; and in Spain, in the Council of Toledo, the fame rule was laid down that the Greeks had begun. In Spain fome Priests did confecrate the chrifm, but that was feverely forbid in one of the Councils of Toledo: yet at Rome the ancient cuftom was obferved, of appropriating the whole bufinefs of Greg Ep. confirmation to the Bishop, even in Gregory the Great's time: 1. iii Ep. 9' there

Z3

Ephef. ut

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ART. therefore he reproved the Clergy of Sardinia, because among them the Priests did confirm, and he appointed it to be referved to the Bishop. But when he understood that fome of them were offended at this, he writ to the Bishop of Carali, that though his former order was made according to the ancient practice of the Church of Rome, yet he confented that for the future the Priest might confirm in the Bifhop's abfence. But Pope Nicholas in the ninth century preffed this with more rigour: for the Bulgarians being then converted to the Chriftian religion, and their Priests having both baptized and confirmed the new converts, Pope Nicholas fent Bifhops among them, with orders to confirm even those who had already been confirmed by Priefts: : upon which the conteft being then on foot between Rome and Conftantinople, Photius got it to be decreed in a fynod at Conftantinople, that the chrifm being hallowed by a Bishop, it might be adminiftered by Prefbyters: and Photius affirmed, that a Prefbyter might do this, as well as baptize or offer at the altar. But Pope Nicholas, with the confidence that was often affumed by that fee upon as bad grounds, did affirm, that this had never been allowed of. And upon this many of the Latins did, in the progress of their difputes with the Greeks, fay, that they had no confirmation. This has been more enlarged on, than was neceflary by the defigned fhortness of this work, because all thofe of the Roman communion among us, have now no confirmation, unless a Bishop happens to come amongst them. And therefore it is now a common doctrine among them, that though confirmation is a Sacrament, yet it is not neceflary.

In Decr. Cont. Florent.

About this there were fierce difputes among them about fixty years ago, whether it was neceflary for them to have a Bifhop here to confirm, according to the ancient custom, or not? The Jefuits, who had no mind to be under any authority but their own, oppofed it; for the Bifhop being by Pope Eugenius declared to be the ordinary minifter of it, from thence it was inferred, that a Bishop was not fimply neceffary. This was much cenfured by some of the Gallican Church. If confirmation were confidered only as an ecclefiaftical rite, we could not difpute the power of the Church about it; but we cannot allow that a Sacrament should be thus within the power of the Church; or that a new function of confecrating oil, without applying it, diftinct from confirmation, and yet neceflary to the very effence of it, could have been fet up by the power of the Church; for if Sacraments are federal conveyances of grace, they must be continued according to their firft inftitution, the grace of God being only tied to the actions with which it is promifed.

We go next to the second of the Sacraments here rejected, which is Penance, that is reckoned the fourth in order among them. Penance, or Penitence, is formed from the Latin tranf.