XXVI. answered all that was brought from St. Cyprian, in fuch a man- ART. ner, that by it he has fet us a pattern, how we ought to separate the juft refpect, that we pay the Fathers, from an implicit receiving of all their notions. If this conceit were allowed of, it must go to the fecret thoughts and inward state in which he is who officiates; for if the Sacraments are to be confidered only as prayers offered up by him, then a man can never be fure that he receives them; fince it is impoffible to fee into the hearts, or know the secrets of men. Sacraments therefore are to be confidered only as the publick acts of the Church: and though the effect of them as to him that receives them depends upon his temper, his preparation and application; yet it cannot be imagined that the virtue of those federal acts, to which Chriftians are admitted, in them, the validity of them, or the bleffings that follow them, can depend on the fecret ftate or temper of him that officiates. Even in the cafe of publick scandals, though they may make the holy things to be loathed by the averfion that will naturally follow upon them; yet after all, though that averfion may go too far, we must still distinguish between the things that the Minifters of the Church do as they are publick officers, and what they do as they are private Chriftians. Their prayers and every thing else that they do, as they are private Chriftians, have their effect only according to the ftate and temper that they are in when they offer them up to God: but their publick functions are the appointments of Chrift in which they officiate; they can neither make them the better nor the worse by any thing that they join to them. And if miraculous virtues may be in bad men, fo that in the great day fome of those, to whom Chrift shall fay, I never knew you; depart from me ye that Matth. vii. work iniquity, may yet fay to him, Lord, Lord, have we not pro- 22. phefied in thy name, and in thy name have caft out Devils, and in thy name have done many wonderful works? then certainly this may be concluded much more concerning those standing functions and appointments that are to continue in the Church. Nor can any difference be made in this matter between publick scandals and fecret fins; for if the former make void the Sacraments, the latter muft do so too. The only reason that can be pretended for the one, will alfo fall upon the other: for if the virtue of the Sacraments is thought to be derived upon them as an anfwer of prayer; then fince the prayers of hypocrites are as little effectual as the prayers of those who are openly vicious, the inference is good, that if the Sacraments administered by a fcandalous man are without any effect, the Sacraments administered by a man that is inwardly corrupted, though that can be only known to God, will be alfo of no effect; and therefore this opinion that was taken up, perhaps from an inconfiderate zeal against the fins and fcandals of the Clergy, is without all foun Bb 3 dation, ART. dation, and must needs cast all men into endless scruples, which can never be cured. XXVI. fectu Intent. art. I. The Church of Rome, though they reject this opinion, yet have brought in another very like it, which muft needs fill the minds of men with endlefs diftractions and fears; chiefly confidering of what neceffity and efficacy they make the Sacraments to be. They do teach that the intention of him that gives the Sacrament is neceflary to the effence of it, so that without it no Sacrament can be administered. This was expressly affirmed by Pope Eugenius in his decree, and an anathema paffed at Trent against thofe that deny it. They do indeed define it to be only an intention of doing that which the Church intends to do; and though the fureft way they say is to have an actual intention, yet it is commonly taught among them, that an habitual or virtual intention will ferve. But they do all agree in this, that, if a Prieft has a fecret intention not to make a Sacrament, in that cafe no Sacrament is made; and this is Miff. Rom. carried fo far, that in one of the rubricks of the Miffal it is given Rubr. de de- as a rule, that if a Priest who goes to confecrate twelve Hofties, fhould have a general intention to leave out one of them from being truly confecrated, and fhould not apply that to any one, but let it run loosely through them all, that in fuch cafe he should not confecrate any one of the twelve; that loofe exception falling upon them all, because it is not reftrained to any one particular. And among the Articles that were condemned by Pope Alexander the Eighth, the 7th of December 1690, the 28th runs thus; Valet baptifmus collatus à Miniftro, qui omnem ritum externum formamque baptifandi obfervat, intus vero in corde fuo apud fe refolvit, non intendo quod facit Ecclefia. And thus they make the fecret acts of a Prieft's mind enter fo far into thofe Divine appointments, that by his malice, irreligion, or atheism, he can make thofe Sacraments, which he vifibly bleffes and adminifters, to be only the outward fhews of Sacraments, but no real ones. We do not pretend that the Sacraments are of the nature of charms; so that if a man fhould in a way of open mockery and profanation go about them, that therefore, because matter and form are obferved, they should be true Sacraments. But though we make the serious appearances of a Chriftian action to be neceffary to the making it a Sacrament; yet we carry this no further, to the inward and fecret acts of the Priest, as if they were effential to the being of it. If this is true, no man can have quiet in his mind. It is a profanation for an unbaptized perfon to receive the Eucharift; fo if baptifm is not true when a Prieft fets his intention cross to it, then a man in orders must be in perpetual doubts, whether he is not living in a continual state of facrilege XXVI. in adminiftering the other Sacraments while he is not yet bap- ART. tized; and if baptifm be fo neceffary to falvation, that no man who is not baptized can hope to be saved, here a perpetual scruple must arise, which can never be removed. Nor can a man be fure but that, when he thinks he is worshipping the true body of Jefus Chrift, he is committing idolatry, and worshipping only a piece of bread; for it is no more according to them, if the Prieft had an intention againft confecrating it. No orders are given if an intention lies against them, and then he who pafles for a Prieft is no Prieft; and all his confecrations and abfolutions are so many invalid things, and a continued course of facrilege. Now what reason foever men may have in this cafe to hope for the pardon of those fins, fince it is certain that the ignorance is invincible;. yet here ftrange thoughts must arife concerning Chrift and his Gofpel; if in thofe actions that are made neceflary to falvation, it should be in the power of a false Chriftian, or an atheistical Priest or Bishop, to make them all void; fo that by confequence it fhould be in his power to damn them: for fince they are taught to expect grace and juftification from the Sacraments, if these are no true Sacraments which they take for fuch, but only the fhadows and the phantasms of them, then neither grace nor juftification can follow upon them. This may be carried fo far as even to evacuate the very being of a Church; for a man not truly baptized can never be in orders; fo that the whole ordinations of a Church, and the fucceffion of it, may be broke by the impiety of any one Prieft. This we look on as such a chain of abfurdities, that if this doctrine of intention were true, it alone might serve to destroy the whole credit of the Chriftian religion; in which the Sacraments are taught to be both fo neceflary and fo efficacious, and yet all this is made to depend on that which can neither be known nor prevented. I The laft paragraph of this Article is fo clear, that it needs no explanation, and is fo evident, that it wants no proof. Eli 1 Sam. iii. was feverely threatened for fuffering his fons to go on in their 11. vices, when by their means the facrifice of God was abhorred. God himself ftruck Nadab and Abihu dead, when they offered ftrange fire at his altar; and upon that these words were uttered, I will be fanctified in them that come nigh me, and be- Levit. x. 3. fore all the people will I be glorified. Timothy was required to receive an accufation of an Elder, when regularly tendered to him; and to rebuke before all, thofe that finned; and he was 1 Tim. v. 1, charged to withdraw himself from thofe Teachers who confented 19, 20. vi. not to wholesome words, and that made a gain of godliness. A 3, 4, 5. main part of the difcipline of the primitive Church lay heaviest on the Clergy and fuch of them as either apoftatized, or fell Bb 4 into XXVI. ART. into scandalous fins, even upon their repentance, were indeed received into the peace of the Church, but they were appointed to communicate among the Laity, and were never after that admitted to the body of the Clergy, or to have a share in their privileges. Certainly there is nothing more incumbent on the whole body of the Church, than that all poffible care be taken to difcover the bad practices that may be among the Clergy; which will ever raife ftrong prejudices, not only against their perfons, but even against their profeffion, and against that religon which they feem to advance with their mouths, while in their works, and by their lives, they detract from it, and seem to deny its authority. But after all, our zeal must go along with juftice and difcretion: fame may be a juft ground to enquire upon; but a sentence cannot be founded on it. The Laity must discover what they know, that so these who have Gal. v. 12. authority may be able to cut off thofe that trouble the Church. Difcretion will require that things which cannot be proved, ought rather to be covered than expofed, when nothing but clamour can follow upon it. In fum, this is a part of the go. vernment of the Church, for which God will reckon severely with those, who from partial regards, or other feeble or carnal confiderations, are defective in that, which is fo great a part of their duty, and in which the honour of God, and of religion, and the good of fouls, as well as the order and unity of the Church, are fo highly concerned, ARTICLE 1 ARTICLE XXVII. Baptism is not only a Sign of Profellion and Mark of WH HEN St. John Baptift began firft to baptize, we do ART. plainly fee by the firft chapter of St. John's Gospel, XXVIL that the Jews were not furprised at the novelty of the rite; for they sent to ask who he was? And when he faid he was not the Meffias, nor Elias, nor that Prophet, they afked, Why John i. 25. baptizeft thou then? Which fhews, not only that they had clear notions of Baptifm, but in particular that they thought that if he had been the Meffias, or Elias, or that Prophet, he might then have baptized. St. Paul does alfo fay, that the Jews were 1 Cor. x. 2. all baptized unto Mofes in the cloud, and in the fea; which seems to relate to fome opinion the Jews had, that by that cloud, and their paffing through the fea, they were purified from the Egyptian defilements, and made meet to become Mofes's difciples. Yet in the Old Testament we find no clear warrants for a practice that had then got among the Jews, which is ftill taught by them, that they were to receive a profelyte, if a male, by Baptifm, Circumcifion and Sacrifice; and if a female, only by Baptifm and Sacrifice. Thus they reckoned, that when any came over from heathenifm to their religion, they were to use a washing; to denote their purifying themfelves from the uncleanness of their former idolatry, and their entering into a holy religion. And as they do ftill teach, that when the Meffias comes, they are all bound to set themselves to repent of their former fins; so it seems they then thought, or at least it would have been no ftrange thing to them, if the Meffias had received fuch as came to him by Baptifin. St. John, by baptizing those who came |