of any further dispute. 2. From its typical and mysterious nature, pointing to Christ and his sufferings, and the fruits thereof, in many observable circumstances, too long to mention in this place. 3. From the case of the other Jewish Sacraments extraordinary, such as the manna, and the rock, &c., which remitted men to Christ, and were a kind of spiritual food to as many as were worthy; importing a federal relation to Almighty God, and a communion with him. 4. From express texts, intimating that the Passover was intended as a sign, and a token, and a memorial, to keep up a constant sense of, and regard for, the law of the Lord,' and for that deliverance, by which God confirmed unto himself that people to be his 'people for ever ".' So that in that service were implied the people's engaging to 'keep the law of God,' and God's engaging to be their God, while they did so; which two things taken together make up the formal notion of a contract, or covenant.

From the Jewish Sacraments we may pass on to the Christian Sacraments, analogous to them, but exceeding them in several respects, as being less burdensome, and of clearer signification and application, and made essential parts of an higher and more excellent institution. Method requires that I should first say something of Baptism, the initiating Sacrament, by which a man ordinarily first enters into covenant with God, becoming a Christian ×. That

Scripture is plain: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.' Mark xvi. 16. And, Except one be born of water, &c., he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' John iii. 5. The stipulation is as necessary as the rest or, not to dispute about words, it is at least part of the terms of acceptance, and of true Christian obedience, and SO of evangelical repentance; which, according to its full notion, is but another name for evangelical obedience. So that it is in vain to speak of Christian

r

T

Baptism is a federal rite, a formal stipulation between God
and the party baptized, might be probably argued many
ways. But for brevity sake, I shall confine myself to the
consideration of one express text; which I render thus:
'The like figure whereunto Baptism doth now save us; not
the putting away the filth of the flesh, but the stipulation
[énepúτnua] of a good conscience to Godward, by the resurrec-
tion of Christ ".' Here we have the very doctrine which
I am pleading for, that Baptism is a federal rite, a stipu-
lation with God. So Beza and Grotius, and other critics of
best note a, interpret the place, and give very substantial
reasons for it, which I need not here recite. I shall only
add, that the ancients constantly taught, that Baptism was
a covenanting rite, a solemn form of stipulating with God b,
the seal of the Lord ; and that it succeeded in the room of
Circumcision, being therefore called the Christian circumci-
sion, 'made without hands d,' or the spiritual circumcisione,
as a figure and instrument of it.

Having thus far cleared the way, we may now proceed to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the last of the four. And since it appears that the three former Sacraments were federal rites, that single consideration affords us a presumptive argument that this is so likewise. But there

De Bapt. capt. vi. Anima non lavatione, sed responsione sancitur.' De Resur. Carn. cap. xlviii. 'Fidei pactio.' De Pudic. cap. ix. Cp. Basil. de Spir. Sancto, cap. xii. p. 24. Gregor. Nazianz. Orat. xl. p. 641. Pseudo-Dionys. Areop. cap. iii. Facund. lib. iv. p. 62. Compare Bingham, xi. 6. 7.

See Bingham, xi. 1. 6.

d Coloss. ii. 11, 12. Basil. Homil. in Baptism. p. 115. tom. ii. Chrysost. in Gen. Hom. xl. Cyrill. Alexandr. in Joan. lib. iv. cap. 7. p. 432.

Vid. Justin. Mart. Dial. p. 222. Cyprian. Epist. lxiv. p. 161.

are several other considerations, that more directly prove it; and these are what I am going to lay down in their order:

1. That the eucharistical service is a federal service, follows directly from what has been before proved, that it imports and implies a real and vital communion between God and every worthy receiver. For what can communion, in this case, import less than covenanting? The least that it implies is a reciprocal intercourse of blessings on one hand, and homage on the other; which, in effect, is the same thing with mutual stipulations f. If it be said, that it is only performing, or executing, on both sides, what was before stipulated in Baptism, it is obvious to reply, that such performances, on both sides, carry in them the strongest assurances of a continuation of the same, and so amount, in just construction, to a repetition, or renewal, of the reciprocal engagements.

2. The federal nature of the Eucharist may be further argued from what learned men have shewn of the customs of divers nations, in drinking either blood, or wine instead. of blood, for the ratifying of covenants 8. Such kind of drinking was a noted federal rite long before the institution of the Eucharist: a consideration which, taken alone, affords a strong presumptive argument of the federal nature of this Sacrament, but if taken together with our Lord's own comment upon it, in the words, 'Drink ye all of this, for this is the new covenant,' &c., can leave but little room for any reasonable dispute about it.

3. But we may argue, still more directly, from our Lord's own words, 'This cup, or wine, is my blood of the new covenant h,' and 'This is the new covenant in my blood i.' I render dann, 'covenant,' rather than ' testament,' because

f See Johnson's Unbloody Sacrifice, part. ii. pp. 27, 103, 104, 105. Grotius in Matt. xxvi. 26, 27. Spencer. de Leg. Hebr. p. 614.

edit. Cant. Zornius, Bibliothec. Antiquaria Exeg. p. 615.

24.

h Matt. xxvi. 28. Mark xiv.

Luke xxii. 19. 1 Cor. xi. 25.

such appears to be the constant sense of it in the Septuagint k, as also in the New Testament, excepting perhaps one place of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Indeed, either the name testament, or the name of covenant, is applicable to the same thing, considered under different views; as the new covenant is of a mixed or middle kind, in some respects federal, and in some testamentary, and, as it were, a compound of both for which reason it has been indifferently and promiscuously called either a federal testament, or a testamentary covenant, to intimate its compound nature m. But I take the federal notion of it to be the primary or principal part of the idea, and to suit best with the then prevailing sense of the word διαθήκη

Our Lord's expressions in the institution are plainly federal expressions; as will appear by comparing them with other the like expressions made use of in the Old Testament in federal solemnities °. When God instituted the federal rite of Circumcision, he said; 'This is my covenant, which ye shall keep P,' &c. Therefore, as sure as Circumcision was a federal rite of the Jewish Church, so sure is it that the Eucharist is a federal solemnity among Christians.

Christus in manu habet id, de quo pactus est cum hominibus Deus, aeternam nimirum haereditatem : quoniam autem hic non nisi moriendo nobis illud jus acquirit, idcirco quod ad Christum ipsum attinet, pactum istud inter Deum et homines initum, speciem quandam testamenti refert, quasi ipse moriens aeterni regni nos fecerit haeredes.' Zornius, Opusc. Sacr. tom. ii. p. 239. See Twells's Examination of New Text and Version, part ii. p. 64.

n Vid. Zornius, Opusc. Sacr. tom. ii. p. 238.

• Exod. xxiv. 8. Gen. xvii. 10. See Nature and Obligation of the Christian Sacraments, vol. v. pp. 91, 102, &c.

• Αὕτη ἡ διαθήκη, ἣν διατηρήσεις. Gen. xvii. 10.

When God struck up a covenant with the people of the Hebrews, by the sprinkling of blood, the form ran, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made 9,' &c. As much as to say, 'Look upon yourselves as obliged by these federal solemnities to observe all the commands which I have here delivered.' Accordingly, it is observable, that the people there instantly promised and engaged 'to do all that the Lord had said, and to be obedient r:' which was expressing their formal consent, and executing, as it were, their counterpart in the stipulation. Now as our blessed Lord, in the institution of the Eucharist, addressed himself to Jews, who had been accustomed to such federal phrases, it is highly reasonable to believe, that he intended the phrases in such a sense as they would be apt to take them in, namely, in a federal sense.

Socinus, to elude this argument, pretends t, that our Lord's words in that case may mean only, that this sacramental cup, or wine, is a memorial or commemoration of the blood once shed, and of the covenant therein founded, or thereby

4 Ἰδοὺ τὸ αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης, ἧς διέθετο Κύριος, &c. Exod. xxίν. 8. Vid. Patrick in loc. et Bucherus, Ant. Evang. ad Matth. xxvi. 28. pp. 386, 389.

r Exod. xxiv. 3, 7. Compare Dent. v. 27.

s Other like instances of express consent on man's part may be seen in Gen. xxviii. 20, &c. Exod. xix. 8. Josh. xxiv. 21, 24, 25. 2 Chron. XV. 14, 15; xxiii. 16; xxix. 10; xxxiv. 31. Ezr. x. 3. Nehem. ix. 38; x. 28, 29, 39.

Hinc apparet, cum ipsum poculum novum testamentum esse in suo sanguine Christus dixisse legitur, aliud nihil intelligendum esse, quam vini ex illo poculo potu, novi testamenti quod nobiscum suo sanguine interveniente pepigit (seu potius sui sanguinis, qui ad novum testamentum confirmandum fusus fuit) commemorationem fieri. .. Ipsi bibentes, novum testa

mentum praedicant et commemorant: idque secum pactum fuisse, aliis testantur ac significant. Sicque sibi persuasum esse indicant.' Socin. de Usu et Fine Coenae Domini, p. 36, alias 759. Opp. tom. i. Cp. Catech. Racov. sect. vi. c. 4. p. 239. Schlichting. in 1 Cor. xi. 25.

Crellius's account is not much different, in making it to be a kind of declaration or testification of our partaking of, or pertaining to the new covenant. ['Testamentum vero, sive foedus novum ideo appellatur, quia sit solennis ritus, quo omnes Christiani in perpetuum profiteri debeant, se ad novum foedus pertinere.' Crellii Ethic. P. 352; cp. 353.] This is just such another evasion, as the interpreting communion' by 'a declaration of communion,' and admits of the like answer. See above, P. 203, &c.