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T. P. 202. fenfible Matter they pleased; (which Commiffion I fhould be glad to fee) and fo alfo Chrift inftituted no particular Form of words, nor whether they Should be Greek or Latin or Syriack, or the like, but left it to the Church to define them; fo that, Inftituit Ecclefia, the Church Inftituted the words, but Christ only in general appointed the Meaning; I would willingly know where. By these general Commiffions pretended to be from Chrift, the Schoolmen fairly would hook in a Power to the Church (that is, to the Governors of it) to fet up what they please and then pretend Christ's general Authority for it; and thus there might be indeed eafily as great a variety of Forms in thefe Ordinations, as I have before fhewn there is in the Copies of their Liturgies. But now if all be thus confeffedly from the Church, that is from Men, (as it is plain thofe Terms of Matter and Form are meer human fubtilties drawn from AriMorin. part 3.totle's Philofophy, and often mistaken by the Schoolmen and their followers) p. 14. §. 9. and not particularly from Chrift; I cannot fee how Morinus himself or any part 2. p. 205. Man elfe can make Ordination a Sacrament or Mystery according to the avowed Definition of it. Therefore Order, or Ordination is only a Confecration or Benediction; a folemn Blessing and Recommendation of a Perfon to God's peculiar fervice, and gracious Affiftance in it. Thus indeed every National Epifcopal Church may well and fafely herein use their own Fashion or Rites, as they do their own publick Prayers, without any Breach of Catholick Union.

§. 151.

Let us now pass on to the next Mystery of the Greeks, or Sacrament, (as the Latins love to call it) which is Matrimony. According to the notion of a true T. 3. p. 497.H Sacrament, avowed even by Bellarmine himself, and the Schoolmen, as well as by the Reformed; there are three things plainly required in it. An external fenfible Sign, a promife of an inward invisible Grace, a Divine Institution of it by God himself. I will here fee firft whether thefe three neceffary Points of a Sacrament are really to be found in Matrimony; next I will fee if the Greek or Eastern Church have now or ever had the very fame apprehenfions of this Matter, which the Latins now have, as is pretended by Doftheus. There would be no end, fhould I go about to recount what the Schoolmen have herein devised, and it would be to as little purpose for me or any one elfe to endeavour to reconcile their various Subtilties and Sentiments about it. Bellarmine, the Latins most renowned Champion, hath garbled the Jargon of the Schools, and therefore I will chiefly confider what he vouches as found ware, or folid Truth.

T. p. 203.

First he proves Marriage to be Inftituted by God. None that I know of denies this, or ever did, except fome wild Hereticks of old, several of which he Ut fupra. hath there, by name, reckon'd up. But how doth he prove that it was Inftituted as a Sacrament, or Covenant between God and Man, and by a Sign of particular Grace promised or annext. God made all living Creatures Male and Female, and commanded them to Increase and Multiply; nay we fee amongst many of them by Nature an Indiffoluble tie between the Male and Female fo long as they live; and all living Creatures thus fet forth his Praife. So AJob. 21. 10. dam by his Appointment was a Gardiner, Abel a Shepherd, Cain a Husbandman; but if God's Inftitution of a thing, alone, makes it a Sacrament, what Calvin faid of Husbandry, we may at least lay of Generation or Propagation (if not of the other Primitive Employments) that they were all Sacraments alike as well as Marriage.

Pfal. 148. 10.

But he goes on and endeavours to prove that Marriage was Inftituted as a Sign of a Holy Thing, and to fanctify (by fome peculiar Grace) the MarEph. 5. 32. ried Couple; and for this he quotes St. Paul, this is a great Mystery (according to the Original Geeek) or a great Sacrament (acccording to the vulgar Latin) but I speak, eis xsigo eis Tv Exxλnoiar, concerning, or in relation to, Chrift and the Church, or, in Chrifto & Ecclefia, in Christ and in the Church. Then he fairly ftates the Queftion, whether this great Mystery or

Sacra

Sacrament here is faid of the Union of Chrift and the Church, or of the T. p. 203. conjunction of Man and Wife, that is, of Matrimony.

First, let us a little confider the meaning of these words here in this place,

2.

go, Sacramentum, Mystery or Sacrament. Bellarmine gives us feveral ac- De Sacram.l.1. ceptations of both thefe words, and owns that amongst the reft they are both c. 8. G. H. A. moft commonly faid of every thing that is hidden or fecret, or of any thing that devotes fuck a fecret thing. And thus they are every where elfe in Scrip- 2 Thef 2. 7. ture taken; fo in the places he quotes out of the old Teftament, the Secret of Mat. 13. 11. a King, and the telling and interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's Dream are in c. 15. 51. the vulgar Latin called Sacraments; fo in the new, where the Candlesticks are interpreted Churches, the Stars Angels, or Governors of them; the Woman and the Beast with ten horns that carried her, having feven Heads, fignify a City, feven Mountains, ten Kings; the Latin word Sacrament, is for the Greek word Mystery, but both there fignify no more then a wonder, τί ἐθάυμασας; lávμaras; why didst thou Wonder, or Marvel, faid the Angel to St. John. c 17.7. And in this Senfe taking both these words here, for a hidden intricate thing,

or a dark faying, they are applicable both to the Union of Man and Wife, Pf. 49. 4. 15. and to the Union of Chrift and his Church. 'Tis a dark faying, that a Man and his Wife shall be one Flef; for litterally it can never be true; and it is as fhocking to common and plain fenfe, that every true believer is a Member of Chriff's Body, and of his Flesh, and of his Bones; Nay, This Eph. 5. 30. muft needs be infinitely more Amazing and Aftonishing; For by frequent Obfervation of the mutual Love and conftant Affection of fome Married People, and of their usual Expreffions of it, Men might ever have had a tolerable Notion or Idea of their being one Flesh, (or as we commonly fay, all one) or that one is as dear to the other as their own very Flefb, their Heart, their Blood, their very Life. But the explication of that other extraordinary Phrafe, by T. p. 204which the ftupendious Union of Christ and his Church is expreft, was above the reach of all human Understanding till it was revealed from above; Men, till they were enlightened from thence, might well fay of it, as the Jews did of Joh. 6. 60. Eating Chrift's Flesh, this is a hard faying, who can bear it? And therefore St. Paul having in the foregoing part of this Epiftle upon feveral occasions mention'd and largely explain'd this hidden Mystery, calls this fame amazing Union of Chrift and the Church by the fame name here alfo; this is a great Myftery (as if he had faid mistake me not,) I speak concerning Chrift and the Church; which words plainly belong, not to the verfe going just before, they shall be one Flesh; but to the verfe before that, we are all members of Chrift's Body, of his Flesh, and of bis Bones; as the like disjointing of some verses and interpofing others is frequently to be obferved in Scripture; 4 Lapid. in and you have an Inftance of this, in this very Epiftle, c. 3. the 13th. verfe (in Pentat. can. 13. Senfe) is plainly to be annext to the first verse; (the first verfe would other- verf. 12, 16. wife be an imperfect fentence) the other intermediate verfes being only a Parenthefis, or farther explication of this fame grand Mystery of Chrift and the Church, (which he had treated on in the foregoing part of the Epiftle,) as himfelf there intimates, καθώς προέγραψα, ἐν ὀλίγῳ, as I have written a verf. 3. little before, or before in brief.

Item Rom. 2.

verf. 16.

The very principal Subject of this whole Epiftle is in a manner, only the Declaration and expofition of this grand Mystery. Hence he tells them, of their Adoption as Children by Jefus Chrift before the foundation of the World; c. 1. 4. 5. and calls it the Mystery of his Will, and infifts upon it, and prays for them as verf. 9, 10. fuch, that they might be enlightened with the Wisdom and Knowledge of ir. And having declared that God defigned in the fulness of time, to gather to- verf. 10. gether in one all things (both Jews and Gentiles) in Chrift, he therefore calls verf. 22, 23. him the Head over all to the Church which is his Body. Again he tells them, c. 2. 12, 13. that the Gentiles who were Aliens and Strangers from the Covenant and 14, 15, 16. Promife, having no hope and without God in the World, were now made nigh by the Blood of Christ, and were made one (with the Jews) the mid

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C. 3. 3, 5, 6.

verf. 9.

15, 16.

T. p. 204. dlewall of Partition between them being broken down; and they being of twain made one new Man (one Flesh) in Chrift; and both reconciled unto God in one Body; this Mystery (as all this must without doubt at first appear to the World a moft profound and unfathomable one) in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of Men, as it is now revealed, that the Gentiles Should be fellow heirs and of the fame Body, and partakers of his Promife in Chrift by the Gofpel; which grand Mystery from the beginning of the c. 4. 4, 5, 13. World hath been hid in God. There is one Body and one Spirit and one Lord; and all true believers coming into the Unity of the Faith, are daily growing up to a perfect Man in Chrift who is the Head, and they are Members fitly join'd and compacted together. This must be wonderful ftrange Doctrine to the Jews, who boasted themfelves to be the only beloved People of God, and counted all the Heathen World an Abominable and Unholy thing, to hear that these should be adopted Children of Abraham, and made coheirs with them of God's Love and Care and Mercies and Blessings; and to the Gentiles the Gofpel at first must seem much more abftrufe and unintelligible; you fee how St. Paul was received at Athens when he Preach'd Jefus and the Refurrection. Tí àv Géro ò oreguoróy, what would this babler fay? What would this prating fellow have; fo great a Mystery was the Gofpel truly thought to the whole World! So unconceivable at first did this Union of Chrift and his Church appear!

Act. 17. 18.

19.

T. p. 205.

I muft Note in the next place, that St. Paul in this Epiftle to the Ephcfians ufeth the Doctrine of this grand Myftery, the Unity of Chrift and the c. 3. 1,13,14, Church, as an Argument to feveral purposes. First, to perfwade them not 15, 16, 17, 18, to faint or be difcouraged at his Tribulations for Preaching this Gospel to them and to the Gentiles, for as much as they were now Children of the Chriftian family, and he tells them, that he pray'd for them as such, that God would strengthen them by his Spirit, and that Chrift might dwell in their Hearts by Faith; and that they apprehending the Immenfe Love of Chrift towards them (in thus uniting them by his whole Oeconomy to himself) they might be filled with all the fullness of God; and infeparably adhere to Him and his Chrift, their Head, and return fuch a firm and everlasting Love for them, as (with him) to fuffer any thing for their fake.

C. 3. 1, 13.

Eph. 4. 2, 3. 4, 5, 6.

1 Cor. 12. 12,

Again, by the the fame Argument be preffeth here (as elsewhere often) mutual Love, Charity, and kind behaviour towards one another; that they should 13, 27, 26. walk with all Lowliness and Meekness, with Longfuffering, Forbearing one another in Love, endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace; they being one Body; or because there is but one Body, one Spirit, even as they were called in one hope of their Calling; one Lord, one Faith, one Baptifm, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all,

I Cor. 6.15, 16.

23, 24.

verf.

C. 5. 2.

and in them all.

So again, as elsewhere, he here preffeth, Purity, Holiness, Spiritual Conc. 4. 17, 22, verfation, Righteousness, Sincerity, Patience, Honefty, and all other ChriftiVer 4. 25. an Virtues, from the fame Topick or Argument, there is but one Body, and ye are Members one of another, as ye are alfo of Chrift. And in this very Chapter he first preffeth mutual Love amongst all Chriftians, as well as afterwards between Man and Wife, from the Love of Chrift to the Church; walk in Love, (all Chriftians, Men and Women, Married and Unmarried, as well as Husbands and Wives,) as Chrift hath loved us, and hath given himself verf. 3, 4, 5. for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God; and he again makes it an Argument to Holiness and Purity of Life, for as much as theirs was the Inheritance of the Kingdom of Chrift and of God; as Members of Chrift's Mystical Body; and it is made an Argument for us to fubmit our felves one to another, as much as for Wives to fubmit themselves to their own Husbands. Nay this very Argument feems plainly to be used in the laft Chapter to urge all thote Duties of particular Perlons in a Family, for as much as we

verf. 21, 22.

c. 6. 1, 4, 5. 7,9.

are

are all of the fame Family of Chrift. Children obey in the Lord; Fa- T. p 205. thers bring up Children in the Fear of the Lord. Servants obey as Servants

of Chrift, as to the Lord; (if a flave, as Chrift's Freeman, if free as Chrift's 1 Cor. 7. 20. Servant.) Masters ufe Servants well, as all having one common Master

in Heaven.

Now fince St. Paul hath fo often in this Epiftle used this grand Mystery of Chrift and the Church, as an Argument to prefs fo many general, fo many other particular Duties; why fhould we wonder at it, when he ufes the fame to Illuftrate and Enforce the Duty of mutual Love between Husband and Wife? As if there was fome greater Secret in the Argument here, then there was in it, in the Other Inftances. If Husband and Wife are with one another one. Flesh by Matrimony, they are much more fo by being in this grand mystical Alliance, by which they, and all true Believers, are not only one Flesh with one another, but one Body and Flesh and Bones with Chrift himself. St. T. p. 206. Paul hath blended the Duty of Man and Wife as they are one by Civil Contract, and as they are one by being Members of Chrift; but he hath done it fo, as this latter infinitly outfhines and far exceeds that other; for a Man by Matrimony is bound indeed to for fake Father and Mother and cleave, or be joined, to his real Wife, and they two shall be one Flesh; But as they are Chriftians, or both of them Members of Chrift, their mutual Duty is infinitely more inhanced by his Law; Nay, every true Believer's Bond to Chrift is fo ftrong, and fo far above the Bond of Matrimony, as every one ought for his fake, to forfake Houfes and Brethren, and Sifters, and Father, and Mo- Mat. 19. 29. ther, and Wife, or Husband, and Children and Lands, nay, to loose his Mat. 16. 25. very Life it felf. Hence wicked Husbands and Wicked Wives, and vile Men 1 Cor. 6. 16. and Harlots are (or by Bargain perhaps or Contracts may be faid to be,) one Body and one Flesh, but not in Chrift; for they that are join'd unto the Lord, are one Spirit. Here therefore I cannot but Note that rash Assertion of Bellarmine, if this whole Mystery be laid only in Chrift and the Church, De Matr. p. and Matrimony nothing concern'd in it, St. Paul's Argumentation in this 499. D. Chapter will come to nothing. Why then doth he ufe it lo often to perfwade other Matters? For from this one grand Mystery of Christ and the Church, in all his other Epiftles, I could as cafily fhew, (as I have done it in this) that he preffeth all other Chriftian Duties, as well as this of Husband and Wife; And this very fame Argument is every where of equal force; fo that Matrimony is no more concern'd here, in this grand Mystery, then any other Duty which is elsewhere made the Inference or Conclusion of the fame Argument.

And now I think it is not any difficult thing to determine which of these two, Matrimony or our Union with Chrift is here called the great Mystery. To with Father and Mother, is not fo hard or Wonderful a Bufinefs; for part violent Paffion of mere Natural Love doth that, and many greater matters then it, every day. But for a Man to leave not only them, but even his dear Wife her felf, who slept in his Bofom; or for a Woman to forfake even her Husband himself, the only Comfort of her Bed, her Head and the Saviour of her Eph. 5. 23. Body, and through Tribulations and Diftreffes, Famine and Nakedness, Rom. 8. 35. Fire and Sword, Undauntedly and Infeparably to adhere to the Love of 39. God in Chrift Jefus our Lord, who fuffer'd all this and infinitely more for us, this is an amazing Mystery indeed, beyond all Comparison and Meafure.

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But Bellarmine tells us, that Matrimony is a fign of a Holy Thing, be- p. 498. G. cause it represents the Marriage of Chrift and the Church. If fo, I can- 499. C. not but be amazed at the Rubrick in the old Pontifical, which faith exprefly Lloyd's MS.Bib. that when any Chriftian comes to a fecond Marriage, by the firft Marriage the Cantab. p. 221; Unity of Christ and the Church are figur'd, but not by the fecond; and therefore a particular Benediction, which is ufed at the firft Marriage, is omitted at the fecond; This plainly feems to make the first Marriage, according to him, a Sacrament, but not the fecond; neither can it then fanctify the

D d

Parties

T. p. 206. Parties as being fuch, for the Myftical Benediction is now to be omitted. But how comes the first Marriage to fignify or reprefent Chrift and the Church, and the fecond not to do the fame; it is as true a Marriage as the first, as to the Vinculum, or Bond, and as to the Matter and Form, as they love to call the Essentials; and therefore it ought to have been own'd by them for as true a fign of the mystical Union as the first. This mystical Union of Chrift and the Church is variously expreft and fet forth in Scripture; as partly appears by the Arguments above mention'd as drawn from it. It is liken'd to a Family, wherein God is our Father, we in Christ are all his Children; Chrift the firstborn we his Brethren. So Chrift is a Mafter we all his Servants. So Chrift is a Lord, a King, and we are all his Subjects; but most frequently this myftical Union is expreft by one Head and one Body. Now may I not as well fay, that a Mafter and his Servants folemnly contracting, the one for fuch and fuch Services, the others for fuch and fuch Wages; or a Master and his Slave whom he hath bought with a Price; or a Lord of a Mannor and his T. p. 207. Sworn Tenents, or Vafals; or a Lord and his Clans; or a King by his Coronation Oath, and his Subjects by their Oath of Allegiance; as fully reprefent Chrift and his Church, as Husband and Wife do? Or more particularly and more appofitely, did not Adam when he was alone in Innocence, Eph. 4. 16. without a Wife, by his one Head and one Body with all his Members fitly joined and compacted together, as fully and truly fignify, or reprefent, that one Myftical Body, whereof Chrift is the Head, and we are all living Members? Yet more remarkably, there was a plain Covenant with Adam whilst alone, between God and Him; and all his Members were enlivened with the Eph. 5. 30. fame Life; and his Head and Body and Spirit, or Life, are, even in this place, made a Symbol of this fame Sacred thing, (Christ and the Church) as well as Matrimony is. Nay the Similitude runs fmoothly, we are Mem. bers of Chrift's Myftical Body, and Members of one another; but it founds very harth, Chrift is the Bridegroom and we are Part or Limbs of his Bride or of his Spouse.

Gen. 2. 7, 15, 16, 17.

Befides, here in this place, Husband and Wife are likened to Chrift and the Church, not these to them. The Husband is Head, as Chrift is the Head. Wives are commanded to be Subject, as the Church is Subject; Husbands to love their Wives, as Chrift loved the Church; Men ought to love their Wives as their own Bodies, as Chrift hath done the Church which is his Body. Thus as Chrift's Union to the Church is made an Argument elsewhere, for Brotherly Love, and for the Performance of all other Duties; fo is his Love to the Church here made a Pattern or grand Examplar of conjugal Love. As Chrift hath loved his own Myftical Body, fo let Husbands love theirs, and fo let every Member of the fame Myftical Body love one another. All Similies or Parables argue only by way of Illuftration, and fetting one thing to our Apprehenfion and Conceit more clearly, by comparing it with the Qualities and Affections of another. Thus Chrift and his Church themselves are Joh. 15. 1. Illustrated by being compared to a Vine and its Branches; And Chriff's Body, and both Jews and Gentiles being made Members of it, are likened to an ORom. 11.17, livetree and its old Branches and new Grafts; but there Chrift and his 22, 23, 24. Body are explain'd by a Vine and an Olive-Tree; here marriage is explain'd by Chrift and his Body.

498. F. 499 B. 501. H. NB.

I must therefore humbly beg leave to say, that Adam and Eve, or Man and Wife, feem to me in Scripture to be no more Symbols of Chrift and his Church, then Adam's entire Body alone was at his firft Creation, or the Body of a Man in General; or Mafter and Servants, Kings and Subjects, and the like. But granting the first only to be fo, I cannot fee how this can any ways make Marriage a Sacrament properly fo called. We are told it is a Sign or Symbol of Chrift and the Church, but that which is the Promifed peculiar Grace of which it is a Sign, and which is neceffarily and particularly required to make it a Sacrament, does by this as yet in no manner appear. Bellarmine again and

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