to a holy life or fit for Glory immediately without an inward Holiness of his own yet by what is said it seemeth plain that meerly on the account of the Condition performed by the Parent and of his Union Relatively with Christ thereupon and his title to Gods promise on these Grounds he may be said to be in a state of salvation that is to have the pardon of his Original sin deliverance from hell in right adoption and a right to the needful operations of the Holy Ghost as given to him in Christ who is the first receiver of the spirit 15. But when and in what sort and degree Christ giveth the actual operations of the spirit to all Covenanted Infants it is wonderful hard for us to know But this much seemeth clear 1. That Christ may when he please work on the soul of an Infant to change its disposition before he come to the use of Reason 2. That Christ and his spirit as in Covenant with Infants are ready to give all necessary assistance to Infants for their inherent sanctification in the use of those means and on those Mr. Whiston p. 60. sheweâ—h That even the promises of a new Heart c. Ezek 36 37 c. Though they may run in the external tenour of them absolutely yet are not absolutely absolute but have a subordinate condition and that is That the parties concerned in them do faithfully use the means appointed of God in a subserviency to his working in or bestowing on them the Good promised further conditions on which we must wait for it and expect it For the Holy Ghost is not so engaged to us in our Covenant or Baptism as to be obliged presently to give us all the grace that we want But only to give it us on certain further conditions and in the use of certain means But because this leadeth me up to another question I will suspend the rest of the answer to this till that be handled Only I must answer this objection Obj. It is contrary to the Holy nature of God complacenically to Love an unsanctified Infant that is yet in his Original Corruption unchanged and he justifieth none relatively from the guilt of sin whom he doth not at once inherently sanctifie Answ. 1. Gods complacencial Love respecteth every one as he is For it is Goodness only that he so Loveth Therefore he so Loveth not those that either Actually or Habitually Love not Him under any false supposition that they do Love him when they do not His Love therefore to the Adult and Infants differeth as the objects differ But there is this Lovely in such Infants 1. That they are the Children of believing sanctified Parents 2. That they are by his Covenant Relatively United to Christ and so are Lovely as his members 3. That they are pardoned all their original sin 4. That they are set in the way to Actual Love and holiness being thus dedicated to God 2. All imperfect Saints are sinners And all sinners are as such abhorred of God whose pure eyes cannot behold iniquity As then it will stand with his purity to accept and love the Adult upon their first believing before their further sanctification and notwithstanding the remnant of their sins so may it do also to accept their Infants through Christ upon their Dedication 3. As the actual sin imputed to Infants was Adams and their Parents only by Act and not their own it is no wonder if upon their Parents faith and repentance Christ wash and justifie them from that guilt which arose only from anothers act 4. And then the inherent pravity was the effect of that Act of their Ancestors which is forgiven them And this pravity or inherent Original sin may two wayes be said to be mortified radically or Virtually or inceptively before any inherent change in them 1. In that it is mortified in their Parents from whom they derived it who have the power of choosing for them and 2. In that they are by Covenant engraffed into Christ and so related to the cause of their future sanctification yea 3. In that also they are by Covenant and their Parents promise engaged to use those means which Gods being a God to any individual person doth râ—quire and presuppose that they do for the present supposing them capable or for the future as soon as capable take God in Christ as their God Ibid. p. 61. Christ hath appointed for sanctification 5. And it must be remembred that as this is but an inceptive preparatory change so the very pardon of the Inherent vitiosity is not perfect as I have elsewhere largely proved however some Papists and Protestants deny it While sin remaineth sin and corruption is still indwelling besides all the unremoved penalties of it the very being of it proveth it to be so far unpardoned in that it is not yet abolished and the continuance of it being not its smallest punishment as permitted and the spirit not given so far as to cure it Imperfect pardon may consist with a present right both to further sanctification by the Spirit and so to Heaven Obj. Christs body hath no unholy members Answ. 1. 1 Cor. 7. 14. Now are your Children holy They are not wholly unholy who have all the fore-described holiness 2. As Infants in Nature want memory and actual reason and yet initially are men so as Christs members they may want actual and habitual faith and Love and yet initially be sanctified by their Union with him and his spirit and their Parents Dedication and be in the way for more as they grow fit And be Christians and Saints in fieri or initially only as they are men Quest. 43. Is the right of the Baptized Infants or adult to the sanctifying operations of the Holy Ghost now Absolute or suspended on further Conditions And are the Parents further duty for their Children such conditions of their Childrens reception of the Actual assistances of the Spirit Or are Childrens own actions such Conditions And may Apostate Parents forfeit the Covenant benefits to their Baptized Infants or not Answ. THE question is great and difficult and few dare meddle with it And almost all Infant-cases are to us obscure I. 1. It is certain that it is the Parents great duty to bring up their Children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. 2. It is certain that God hath appointed this to be the means of their actual knowledge faith Eph. 6 4 5. Col 3. 21. Gen. 18 19. Deut. 6. 6 7 8. 11. 18 19 20. and holiness 3. And God doth not appoint such means unnecessarily or in vain nor may we ordinarily expect his grace but in the use of the means of Grace which he hath appointed us to use 4. It is certain that Gods receiving the Children of the faithful is an act of Gods Love to the Parents as well as the Children and promised as a part of his blessing on themselves 5. It is certain that these Parents
his Wisdom Clemency and Justice 3. And effectively on his Subjects and Servants who are by his Laws reduced to a Conformity to his mind As a man may first cut his Arms or Image on his seal and then by that seal imprint it on the wax and though it be perfectly cut on the seal it may be imperfectly printed on the wax so Gods Image is naturally perfect in his Son and Regularly or expressively perfect on the seal of his holy Doctrine and Laws but imperfectly on his subjects according to their reception of it in their several degrees § 6. Therefore it is easie to discern their error that tell men the Light or Spirit within them is their Rule and a perfect Rule yea and that it is thus in all men in the world when Gods Word and experience flatly contradict it telling us that Infidels and enemies of God and all the ungodly are in Darkness and not in the Light and that all that speak not according to this Word the Law and Testimony have No Light in them and therefore no perfect Light to be their Rule Isa. 8. 20. The Ministry is sent to bring them from darkness to Light Therefore they had not a sufficient Light in them before Acts 26. 17 18. Wo to them that put darkness for light and light for darkness Isa. 5. 20. telling the children of darkness and the haters of the Light that they have a perfect Light and Rule within them when God saith They have no Light in them See 1 John 1. 5. 4 6 7 8. He that saith he is in the Light and hateth his brother is in darkness even till now 1 John 2. 9 10 11. The Light within a wicked man is darkness and blindness and therefore not his Rule Matth. 6. 23. Ephes. 5. 8. Even the Light that is in godly men is the knowledge of the Rule and not the Rule it self at all nor ever called so by God Our Rule is perfect our knowledge is imperfect for Paul himself saith We know in part But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away Now we see through a glass darkly 1 Cor. 13. 9 10 12. The Gospel is bid to them that are lost being blinded by Satan 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. § 7. There is an admirable unsearchable concurrence of the Spirit and his appointed means and the will of man in the procreation of the new creature and in all the exercises of grace as there is of Male and Female in natural generation and of the Earth the Sun the Rain the industry of the Gardiner and the seminal vertue of Life and specification in the production of Plants with their flowers and fruits And as wise as it would be to say It is not the Male but the Female or the Female but the Male that generateth or to say It is not the Earth but the Sun or not the Sun but the Rain or not the Rain but the seminal Vertue that causeth Plants with Flowers and Fruits So wise is it to say It is not the Spirit but the Word and Means or it is not the Word and Means but the Spirit or it is not the Reason and Will and industry of man but the Spirit Or if we have not wisdom enough to assign to each cause its proper interest in the effect that therefore we should separate what God hath conjoyned or deny the truth of the causation because we comprehend not the manner and influence this is but to choose to be befooled by Pride rather than confess that God is wiser than we § 8. 2. You may here discern also how the Spirit assureth and comforteth believers and how palpably they err that think the Spirit comforteth or assureth us of our salvation without the use of its Evidencing grace The ten things mentioned § 4. is all that the Spirit doth herein But to expect his Comforts without any measure of discerning his graces which can only rationally prove our right to the blessings of the Promise this is to expect that he should comfort a Rational Creature not as Rational but darkly cause him to rejoyce he knoweth not why and that he should make no use of faith to our comfort For faith resteth understandingly upon the Promise and expecteth the performance of it to those that it is made to and not to others Indeed there is a common encouragement and comfort which all men even the worst may take from the universal conditional Promise and there is much abatement of our fears and troubles that may be fetcht from probabilties and uncertain hopes of our own sincerity and interest in the Promise But to expect any other assurance or comfort from the Spirit without Evidence is but to expect immediate revelations or inspirations to do the work which the Word of promise and faith should do The souls Consent to the Covenant of ☜ Grace and fiducial Acceptance of an offered Christ is justifying saâ—ing faith Every man hath an object in the Promise and offer of the Gospel for this act and therefore may rationally perform it Though all have not hearts to do it This may well be called Faith of adherence and is it self our evidence from which we must conclude that we are true Believers The discerning of this Evidence called by some the Reflex act of faith is no act of faith at all it being no believing of another but the act of Conscience knowing what is in our selves The discerning and concluding that we are the children of God participateth of faith and conscientious knowledge which gave us the premises of such a conclusion § 9. 3. You may hence perceive also how we are said to be sealed by the Spirit Even as a mans Eph. 1. 13. Rom. 8. 9. Ephes. 4 30. seal doth signifie the thing sealed to be his own So the Spirit of holiness in us is Gods seal upon us signifying that we are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. Every one that hath the Spirit is sealed by having it and that is his Evidence which if he discern he may know that he is thus sealed § 10. 4. Hereby also you may see what the earnest and first fruits of the Spirit is The Spirit is 2 Coâ— 1. 22. given to us by God as the earnest of the Glory which he will give us To whomsoever he giveth the Spirit of Faith and Love and Holiness he giveth the seed of life eternal and an inclination thereto which is his earnest of it § 11. 5. Hereby also you may see how the Spirit witnesseth that we are the children of God The word Witness is put here principally for Evidence If any one question our adoption the Witness or Evidence which we must produce to prove it is the Spirit of Iesus sanctifying us and dwelling in us This is the chief part at least of the sense of the Text Rom. 8. 16. Though it is true that the same Spirit witnesseth by 1. Shewing us the
Unbelief is one of the Causes of them and the sinfullest Cause § 2. And that the Article of Remission of sin is to be Believed with application to our selves is certain The Article of Remission of sin to be believed applyingly But not with the application of Assurance Perswasion or Belief that we are already pardoned but with an applying Acceptance of an offered pardon and Consent to the Covenant which maketh it ours We believe that Christ hath purchased Remission of sin and made a Conditional Grant of it in his Gospel to all viz. if they will Repent and Believe in him or take him for their Saviour or become Penitent Christians And we consent to do so and to accept it on these terms And we believe that all are actually pardoned that thus consent § 3. By all this you may perceive that those troubled Christians which doubt not of the truth of the Word of God but only of their own sincerity and consequently of their Justification and Salvation do ignorantly complain that they have not faith or that they cannot believe For it is no act of unbelief at all for me to doubt whether my own heart be sincere This is my ignorance of my self but it is not any degree of unbelief For Gods Word doth no where say that I am sincere and therefore I may doubt of this without doubting of Gods Word at all And let all troubled Christians know that they have no more unbelief in them than they have doubting or unbelief of the truth of the Word of God Even that despair it self which hath none of this in it hath no unbelief in it iâ— there be any such I thought it needful thus far to tell you what unbelief is before I come to give you Directions against it And though the meer doubting of our own sincerity be no unbelief at all yet real unbelief of the very truth of the Holy Scriptures is so common and dangerous a sin and some degree of it is latent in the best that I think we can no way so much further the work of Grace as by destroying this The weakness of our faith in the truth of Scriptures and the remnant of our unbelief of it is the principal cause of all the languishings of our Love and Obedience and every Grace and to strengthen faith is to strengthen all What I have â—ullier written in my Saints Rest Part 2. and my Treatise against Infidelity I here suppose § 4. Direct 1. Consider well how much of Religion Nature it self teacheth and Reason without Direct 1. supernatural Revelation must needs confess as that there is another life which man was made for and that he is obliged to the fullest Love and Obedience to God and the rest before laid down 〈…〉 in the world are perpetual visible Evidences in my eyes of the truth of the Holy Scriptures 1 That there should be so Universal and implacable a hatred against the godly in the common sort â—f unrenewed men in all Agâ—â— and Nations of the Earâ—h when thâ—se men deserve so well of them and do them no wrong â—s a visible proof of Adams fall and he 〈◊〉 of a Saviour and a Sanctifier 2 That all those who are seriously Christians should be so far renewed and recovered from the common corruption as their heavenly â—inds and lives and their wonderful difference from other men sheweth this is a visible proof that Christianity is of God 3. That God doth â—o â—lainly shew a particular special Providence in the converting and confirming souls by differencing Grace and work on the soul as the sanctified feel doth shew that indeed the work is his 4. That God doth so plainly grant many of his Servants prayers by special Providences doth prove his owning them and his 〈◊〉 5. That God suffereth his Servants in all times and places ordinarily to suffer so much for his Love and Service from the world and flâ—sh dâ—â—h shew that there is a Judgement and Rewards and Punishments hereafter Or else our highest duty would be our greatest losâ— and thâ—n how should his Government of men be just 6. That the Renewed Nature which maketh men better and therefore is of God doth wholly look at the life to come and lead us to â—t and live upon it this sheweth that such a life there is or else this would be delusory and vain and Goodness it self would be a deceit 7. When it is undenyable that de facto esse the world is not Governed without the Hopes and Fears of another life almost all Nations among the Heathens believing iâ— and shewing by their very worshipping their dead Heroes as Gods that they believed that their soulâ— did live and even the wicked generally being restrained by those hopes and fears in themselves And also that de posse it is not pâ—â—â—â—ible the world should be governed agreeably to mans rational nature without the hopes and fears of another life But men would be wâ—â—se than Beasts and all Villanies would be the allowed practice of the world As every man may feel in himself what he were like to be and do if he had no such restraint And there being no Doctrine or Life comparable to Christianity in their tendency to the life to come All these are visible staâ—ding evidences assisted so much by common sense and reason and still apparent to all that they leave Infidelity without excuse and are ever at hand to help our faith and resist temptations to unbelief 8. And if the world had not had a Beginning according to the Scriptures 1. We should have found Monuments of Antiquity above sâ—x thousand years old 2. Arts and Sciences would have come to more perfection and Printing Guns c. not have been of so late invention 3. And so much of America and other parts of the world would not have been yet uninhabited unplanted or undiscovered Of Aâ—heâ—sm I have spoken before in the Introduction and Nature so clearly revealeth a God that I take it as almost needless to say much of it to sober men in the Introduction And then observe how congruously the doctrine of Christ comes in to help where Nature is at a loss and how exactly it suits with Natural Truths and how clearly it explaineth them and fully containeth so much of them as are necessary to salvation and how suitable and proper a means it is to attain their Ends and how great a testimony the Doctrines of Nature and Grace do give unto each other § 5. Direct 2. Consider that mans End being in the life to come and God being the righteous and Direct 2. merciful Governour of man in order to that End it must needs be that God will give him sufficient means to know his will in order to that end And that the clearest fullest means must needs demonstrate most of the Government and Mercy of God § 6. Direct 3. Consider what full and sad experience the world hath of its pravity and great
not be so converted though it be improbable § 23. Quest. 23. May we pray in hope with a proper prayer as a means to attain it that a whole Quest. 23. Kingdom may be all truly converted and saved Answ. Yes For God hath no way told us that it shall not be Though it be a thing improbable it is not impossible And therefore being greatly desirable may be prayed for Though Christ hath told us that his flock is little and few find the way of life yet that may stand with the salvation of a Kingdom § 24. Quest. 24. May we pray for the destruction of the enemies of Christ or of the Gospel or of the Quest 24. King Answ. Not with respect to that which is called Gods antecedent will for so we ought first to pray for their Conversion and restraint till then But with respect to that called his Consequent will we may that is we must first pray that they may be restrained and converted and secondly that if not they may be destroyed § 25. Quest. 25. What is to be thought of that which some call a particular faith in prayer If Quest. 25. I can firmly believe that a lawful prayer shall be granted in kind may I not be sure by a divine faith that it shall be so Answ. Belief hath relation to a Testimony or Revelation Prayer may be warranted as lawful if the thing be desirable and there be any possibility of obtaining it though there be no certainty or flat promise But faith or expectation must be warranted by the Promise If God have promised you the thing prayed for you may believe that you shall receive it Otherwise your particular faith is a fancy or a believing of your selves and not a believing God that never promised you the thing Obj. Matth. 21 22. And all things whatsoever you ask in prayer believing ye shall receive Mar 11. 23 24. Answ. There are two sorts of Faith the one a Belief that is ordinary having respect to ordinary promises and mercies The Text can be understood of this in no other sense than this All things which I have promised you you shall receive if you ask them believingly But this is nothing to that which is not promised The other faith was extraordinary in order to the working of Miracles And this faith was a potent inward confidence which was not in the power of the person when he pleased but was given like an Inspiration by the Spirit of God when a Miracle was to be wrought And this seemeth to be it that is spoken of in the Text. And this was built on this extraordinary promise which was made not to all men in all ages but to those times when the Gospel was to be sealed and delivered by Miracles and specially to the Apostles So that in these times there is neither such a promise of our working Miracles as they had to believe nor yet a power to exercise that sort of extraordinary faith Therefore a strong conceit though it come in a fervent prayer that any thing shall come to pass which we cannot prove by any promise or prophecy is not to be called any act of Divine faith at all nor to be trusted to § 26. Quest. 26. But must we not believe that every lawful prayer is accepted and heard of God Quest. 26. Answ. Yes but not that it shall be granted in the very thing unless so promised But you may believe that your prayer is not lost and that it shall be a means of that which tendeth to your good Rom. 8. 28. Isa. 45. 19. § 27. Quest. 27. With what faith must I pray for the souls or bodies of other men for their conversion Quest. 27. or their lives Answ. A godly man may pray for wicked Relations or others with more hope than they can pray for themselves while they remain ungodly But yet not with any certainty of prevailing for the thing he asketh for it is not peremptorily promised him Otherwise Samuel had prevailed for Saul and Isaac for Esau and David for Absolom and the good people for all the wicked And then no godly Parents would have their children lost no nor any in the world would perish For godly persons pray for them all But those prayers are not lost to him that puts them up § 28. Quest. 28. With what faith may we pray for the continuance of the Church and Gospel to Quest. 28. any Nation Answ. The former answer serveth to this Our hope may be according to the degrees of probability But we cannot believe it as a certainty by Divine faith because it is not promised by God § 29. Quest 29. How may we know when our prayers are heard of God and when not Quest. 29. Answ. Two wayes Sometimes by experience when the thing it self is actually given us and alwayes by the Promise When we ask for that which God commandeth us to ask or promiseth to grant For we are sure Gods promises are all fulfilled If we ask for the objects of sense as food oâ— rayment or health c. sense will tell us whether our prayers be granted in the same kind that we asked for But if the questions be of the objects of Faith it is Faith that must tell you that your prayers are granted But yet Faith and Reason make use of Evidences or Signs As if I pray for pardon of sin and salvation the promise assureth me that this prayer is granted if I be a penitent believing regenerate person Otherwise not Therefore faith only assureth me that such prayers are granted supposing that I discern the Evidence of my regeneration repentance and faith in Christ. So if the question be whether my prayer for others or for temporal mercies be answered in some other kind and conduce to my good some other way faith only must tell you this from the promise by the help of evidences There are millions of prayers that will all be found answered at death and judgement which we knew not to be answered any way but by believing it § 30. Quest. 30. What should a Christian of weak parts do that is dry and barren of matter Quest. 30. and can scarce tell what to say in prayer but is ready to rise off his knees almost as soon as he hath begun Answ. 1. He must not be a stranger to himself but study well his heart and life and then he will How to have constant supply of matter â—ind such a multitude of inward corruptions to lament and such a multitude of wants to be supplyed and weaknesses to be strengthened and disorders to be rectified and actual sins to be forgiven that may find him work enough for confessions complaints and petitions many dayes together if expression be but as ready as matter 2. Let him study God and get the knowledge of his Nature Attributes and Works and then he will find matter enough to aggravate his sin and to furnish him
Kingdom of God and his righteousness as esteeming it above all the Riches of the world Object Thou hast kept thy sins while thou wentest on in a profession of Religion Answ. I had no sin but what in the habitual ordinary temper of my soul I hated more than I loved it and had rather have been delivered from it than have kept it and none but what I unfeignedly repented of Object Thou didst not truly believe the promises of God and the life to come or else thou wouldst never have doubted as thou hast done nor sought such a Kingdom with such weak desires Answ. Though my faith was weak it overcame the world I so far believed the promise of another life as that I preferred it before this life and was resolved rather to forsake all the world than to part with my hopes of that promised blessedness And that faith is sincere how weak soever that can do this Object But thou hast done thy works to be seen of men and been troubled when men have not approved thee nor honoured thee and what was this but meer hypocrisie Answ. Though I had some hypocrisie yet was I not an hypocrite because it was not in a reigning and prevalent degree Though I too much regarded the esteem of men yet I did more regard the esteem of God Thus if a Christian discern his evidences the false reasonings of Satan are to be refuted § 21. 2. But ordinarily it is a readier way to take the second course which is At present to Believe and Repent and so confute Satan that saith you are not penitent believers But then you must truly John 1. 10 11 12. 3. 16. 19 20. Rom. 7. 21 22 23 24 25. Psal. 119 1 4 5. understand what Believing and Repenting is or else you may think that you do not Believe and Repent when you do Believing in Christ is a Believing that he is the Saviour of the world and a consent of will that he be your Saviour to justifie you by his blood and sanctifie you by his Spirit To Repent is to be so sorry that you have sinned that if it were to do again you would not do it as to gross sin and a state of sin and the smallest infirmities your will is so far set against that you desire to be delivered from them Believing to Justification is not the Believing that you are already justified and your sins forgiven you And Repenting consisteth not in such degrees of sorrow as some expect but in the change of the mind and will from a life of sensuality to a life of holiness When you know this then answer the Tempter thus If I should suffer thee to deprive me of the comfort of all my former uprightness yet shalt thou not so deprive me of the comfort of my present sincerity and of my hopes I am now too weak and distempered to try all that is past and gone Past actions are now known but by remembring them And they are seldome judged of as indeed they then were but according to the temper and apprehension of the mind when it revieweth them And I am now so changed and weakned my self that I cannot tell whether I truly remember the just temper and thoughts of my heart in all that 's past or not Nor doth it most concern me now to know what I have been but to know what I am Christ will not judge according to what I was but according to what he findeth me Never did he refuse a penitent believing soul because he repented and believed late I do now unfeignedly repent of all my sins and am heartily willing to be both pardoned and cleansed and sanctified by Christ and here I give up my self to him as my Saviour and to this Covenant I will stand And this is true Repenting and Believing Thus a poor Christian in the time of sickness may oft-times much easier clear it up to himself that he Repenteth now than that he Repented formerly And it is his surest way § 25. Tempt 2. And yet sometimes he cometh with the quite contrary Temptation and must be Tempt 2. resisted by the contrary way When he findeth a Christian so perplexed and weakned and distempered with sickness that his understanding is disabled from any composed thoughts then he asketh him Now where is thy Faith and Repentance If thou hast any or ever hadst any let it now appear In this case a Christian is to take up with the remembrance of his former sincerity and tell the Tempter I am sure that once I gave up my self unfeignedly to my Lord and those that come to him he will in no wise cast out And if now I be disabled from a composed exercise of grace he will not impute my sickness to me as my sin § 26. Tempt 3. Another ordinary Temptation is that Its now too late God will not now accept Tempt 3. repentance the day of grace is past and gone or at least a death-bed Repentance is not sincere To this the Tempted soul must reply 1. That if faith and repentance were not accepted at any time in this life then Gods promise were not true which saith that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life John 3. 16. So Luke 24. 47. Acts 5. 31. 11. 18. 20 21. 2 Tim. 2. 25. 2 Pet. 3. 9. There is a time in this life in which some resisters of the truth are given up to their own lusts to the love of sin and hatred of holiness so that they will not Repent But there was never a time in this life in which God refused to justifie a true repenting sinner upon his belief in Christ. 2. That if a death-bed Repentance do truly turn the heart from the world to God and from sin to holiness so that the penitent person if he should recover would lead a new and holy life then that Repentance hath as sure a promise of pardon and salvation as if it had been sooner And yet delay must be confessed to be dangerous to all and casteth men under very great difficulties and their loss is exceeding great though at last they repent and are forgiven § 27. Tempt 4. Sometime the Tempter saith Thou art not elected to salvation and God saveth Tempt 4. none but his Elect and so puzzleth the ignorant by setting them on doubting of their Election To this we must answer that every soul that is chosen to faith and Repentance and perseverance is certainly chosen to salvation And I know that God hath chosen me to Faith and Repentance because he hath given them me And I have reason enough to trust on him for that upholding grace which will cause me to persevere § 28. Tempt 5. But saith the Tempter Christ did not dye for thee and no one can be saved that Tempt 5. Christ did not dye for To this it must be answered That Christ dyed for all men so far as to be a sufficient
and lastly of our Keeping it § 3. The Christian Covenant is a Contract between God and man through the Mediation of Iesus Christ The Covenant what for the return and reconciliation of sinners unto God and their Iustification Adoption Sanctification and Glorification by him to his Glory § 4. Here we must first consider who are the Parties in the Covenant 2. What is the matter of the Covenant on Gods Part 3. What is the matter on Mans Part 4. What are the terms of it propounded on Gods Part. 5. Where and how he doth express it 6. What are the necessary Qualifications on mans part 7. And what are the Ends and Benefits of it § 5. I. The Parties are GOD and MAN GOD the FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST on the one part and REPENTING BELIEVING SINNERS on the other part Man is the party that needeth it but God is the party that first offereth it Here note 1. That Gods part of the Covenant is made Universally and Conditionally with all mankind as to the tenor enacted and so is in Being before we were born 2. That it is not the Father Son and Holy Ghost considered simply as persons in the Godhead but as Related to Man for the ends of the Covenant 3. That it is only Sinners that this Covenant is made with because the Use of it is for the restoration of those that broke a former Covenant in Adam It is a Covenant of Reconciliation and therefore supposeth an Enmity antecedent 4. When I say that it is Repenting and Believing sinners that are the party I mean 1. That taking the Covenant in its first Act it is Repentance and faith themselves that are that Act and are our very Covenanting But taking the Covenant in its external expression so it is a Repenting Believing sinner that must make it it being but the expression of his Repentance and faith by an explicit contract with God 5. Note that though Gods Covenant be by one Universal Act of which more anon yet mans is to be made by the several acts of the individual persons each one for himself and not by the Acts of Societies only § 6. II. The matter of the Covenant on Gods Part is in General that He will be our God more particularly that God the Father will be our Reconciled God and Father in Jesus Christ that God the Son will be our Saviour and God the Holy Ghost will be our Sanctifier And the Relation of a God to us essentially containeth these three parts 1. That as on the title of Creation and Redemption he is our Owner so he doth take us as his own peculiar people 2. That as he hath title to be our Absolute King or Governour so he doth take us as his Subjects 3. That he will be our Grand Benefactor and Felicity or our most Loving Father which comprizeth all the rest And as he will be thus Related to us so he will do for us all that these Relations do import As 1. He will do all that belongeth to a Creator for his creature in our preservation and supplies 2. He will save us from our sins and from his wrath and Hell 3. And he will sanctifie us to a perfect conformity to our Head Also 1. He will use us and defend us as his own peculiar ones 2. He will govern us by a Law of Grace and righteousness 3. He will make us fully happy in his Love for ever § 7. III. The Matter on mans part of the Covenant is 1. In respect of the Terminus a quo that we will forsake the Flesh the World and the Devil as they are adverse to our Relations and Duties to God 2. In regard of the Terminus ad quem that we will take the Lord for our God and more particularly 1. That we do take God the Father for our Reconciled Father in Iesus Christ and do give up our selves to him as Creatures to their Maker 2. That we do take Iesus Christ for our Redeemer Saviour and Mediator as our High-Priest and Prophet and King and do give up our selves to him as his Redeemed ones to be reconciled to God and saved by him 3. That we do take the Holy Ghost for our Regenerâ—â—er and Sanctifier and do give up our selves to be perfectly renewed and sanctified by him and by his operations carryed on to God in his holy service Also 1. That we do take God for our Absolute Lord or Owner and do give up our selves to him as his Own 2. That we take him for our Universal Soveraign Governour and do give up our selves unto him as his subjects 3. That we do take him for our most bountiful Benefactor and loving Father and felicity and do give up our selves to him as his children to seek him and please him and perfectly to Love him Delight in him and Enjoy him for ever in Heaven as our Ultimate End And in consenting to these Relations we covenant to do the Duties of them in sincerity § 8. IV. The Terms or Conditions which God requireth of man in his Covenant are Consent and Fidelity or Performance He first Consenteth conditionally if we will consent And he consenteth to be actually our God when we consent to be his people so that as bare Consent without any performance doth found the Relation between Husband and Wife Master and Servant Prince and People but the sincere performance of the duties of the Relation which we consent to are needful afterward to continue the Relation and attain the benefits and ends so is it also between God and man We are his Children in Covenant as soon as we consent but we shall not be glorified but on Condition of sincere performance and obedience § 9. V. Gods Covenant with man is nothing else but the Universal Promise in the Gospel and to the solemnization the Declaration and Application and solemn Invâ—stiture or Delivery by his authorized Ministers 1. The Gospel as it relateth the matters of fact in and about the work of our Redemption is a Sacred History 2. As it containeth the Terms on which God will be served and commandeth us to obey them for our salvation it is called The Law of Christ or Grace 3. As it containeth the Promise of life and salvation conditionally offered it is called Gods Promise and Covenant viz. on his part as it is Proposed only 4. When by our Consent the Condition is so far performed or the Covenant Accepted then Gods Conditional Universal Promise or Covenant becometh actual and particular as to the effect and so the Covenant becometh Mutual between God and man As if a King make an Act or Law of Pardon and Oblivion to a Nation of Rebels saying Who ever cometh in by such a day and confesseth his fault and sueth out his pardon and promiseth fidelity for the future shall be pardoned This Act is a Law in one respect and it is an Universal Conditional pardon of all those Rebells or a Promise of pardon and an
by decisive Iudicial â—entence Nor any Universal Civil Monarch of the world 2. The publick Governing Decisive judgement obliging others belongeth to publick persons or Officers Eph. 4. 7 13 14 15 16. of God and not to any private man 1 Cor. 12. 28 29. 17. 3. The publick decision of Doubts or Controversies about Faith it self or the true sense of Gods Word and Laws as obliging the whole Church on Earth to believe that decision or not gainsay it Acts 15. See my Key for Catholicks because of the Infallibility or Governing authority of the Deciders belongeth to none but Jesus Christ Because as is said he hath made no Universal Governour nor Infallible Expositor It belongeth to the Law-giver only to make such an Universally obliging Exposition of his own Laws 4. True Bishops or Pastors in their own particular Churches are Authorized Teachers and Guides in Expounding the Laws and Word of Christ And the people are bound as Learners to reverence their Teaching and not contradict it without true cause yea and to believe them fide humanâ in things pertinent to their Office For oportet discentem credere 5. No such Pastors are to be Absolutely believed nor in any case of notorious Error or Heresie where the Word of God is discerned to be against them 6. For all the people as Reasonable creatures have a judgement of private discerning to judge what they must Receive as Truth and to discern their own duty by the help of the Word of God and of their Teachers 7. The same power of Governing-Iudgement Lawful Synods have over their several flocks as a Pastor over his own but with greater advantage 8. The power of Judging in many Consociate Churches who is to be taken into Communion as Orthodox and who to be refused by those Churches as Hereticks in specie that is what Doctrine they will judge sound or unsound as it is Iudicium discernendi belongeth to every one of the Council â—ingly As it is a Iudgement obliging themselves by Contract and not of Governing each other it is in the Contracters and Consenters And for peace and order usually in the Major Vote But with the Limitations before expressed 9. Every true Christian believeth all the Essentials of Christianity with a Divine faith and not by a meer humane belief of his Teachers though by their Help and Teaching his faith is generated and confirmed and preserved Therefore no essential Article of Christianity is left to any obliging decision of any Church but only to a subservient obliging Teaching As whether there be a God a Christ a Heaven a Hell an Immortality of souls whether God be to be believed loved feared obeyed before man Whether the Scripture be Gods Word and true Whether those that contradict it are to be believed therein Whether Pastors Assemblies publick Worship Baptism Sacrament of the Lords Supper be Divine institutions And the same I may say of any known Word of God No mortals may judge in partem utramliâ—et but the Pastors are only Authorized Teachers and helpers of the peoples faith And so they be partly to one another 10. If the Pope or his Council were the Infallible or the Governing Expositors of all Gods Laws and Scriptures 1. God would have enabled them to do it by an Universal Commentary which all men should be obliged to believe or at least not to contradict For there is no Authority and Obligation given to men yea to so many successively to do that for the needful decision of Controversies which they never have Ability given them to do For that were to oblige them to things impossible 2. And the Pope and his Council would be the most treacherous miscreants on earth that in so many hundred years would never write such an Infallible nor Governing Commentary to end the differences of the Christian world Indeed they have judged with others against Arrius that Christ is true God and one with the Father in substance c. But if they had said the contrary must we have taken it for Gods truth or have believed them 11. To judge who for Heresie or Seandal shall be punished by the Sword belongeth to none but the Magistrate in his own dominions As to judge who shall have Communion or be excommunicated from the Church belongeth as aforesaid to the Pastors And the said Magistrate hath first as a man his own Iudgement of discerning what is Heresie and who of his subjects are guilty of it in order to his publick Governing Judgement 12. The Civil Supream Ruler may Antecedently exercise this Judgement of Discerning by the Teaching of their proper Teachers in order to his consequent sentences on offenders And so in his Laws may tell the subjects what Doctrines and practices he will either Tolerate or punish And thus may the Church Pastors do in their Canons to their several flocks in relation to Communion or non-communion 13. He that will condemn particular persons as Hereticks or offenders must allow them to speak for themselves and hear the proofs and give them that which justice requireth c. And if the Pope can do so at the Antipodes and in all the world either per se or per alium without giveing that other his essential claimed power let him prove it by better experience than we have had 14. As the prime and sole-universal Legislation belongeth to Jesus Christ so the final Judgement universal and particular belongeth to him which only will end all Controversies and from which there is no appeal Quest. 29. Whether a Parents power over his Children or a Pastor or many Pastors or Bishops over the same Children as parts of their flock be greater or more obliging in matters of Religion and publick Worship THis being toucht on somewhere else I only now say 1. That if the case were my own I would 1. Labour to know their different Powers as to the matter commanded and obey each in that which is proper to his place 2. If I were young and ignorant Natural necessity and natural obligation together would give my Parents with whom I lived such an advantage above the Minister whom I seldome see or understand as would determine the case de eventu and much de jure 3. If my Parents commanded me to hear a Teacher who is against Ceremonies or certain Forms and to hear none that are for them natural necessity here also ordinarily would make it my duty first to hear and obey my Parents And in many other cases till I came to understand the greater power of the Pastors in their own place and work 4. But when I come to Church or know that the judgement of all Concordant Godly Pastors condemneth such a thing as damnable Heresie or Sin which any Father commandeth me to receive and profess I would more believe and follow the Judgement of the Pastors and Churches Quest. 30. May an Office Teacher or Pastor be at once in a stated Relation of a Pastor and a
is not For 1. All the punishment is not removed 2. The final absolving sentence is to come 3. The pardon which we have is as to its continuance but conditional And the tenour of the Covenant would cease the pardon even of all sins past if the sinners faith and repentance should cease I speak not de eventu whether ever any do fall away but of the tenour of the Covenant which may prevent falling away Now a pardon which hath much yet to be done as the condition of its continuance is not so perfect as it will be when all those things are performed Quest. 10. May Pardon or Iustification be reversed or lost Quest. 10. Answ. Whether God will eventually permit his true servants to fall so far as to be unjustified is a Controversie which I have written of in a fitter place 2. But quoad robur peccatoris it is alas too easie to fall away and be unjustified 3. And as to the tenour of the Covenant it continueth the promise and threatning conditionally and supposing the sinner defectible doth threaten damnation to them that are now justified if they should not persevere but apostatize Col. 1. 33. Rom. 11. 22. Iohn 15. 9. Quest. 11. Is the pardon of my own sins to be believed fide divina And is it the meaning of that Quest. 11. Article of the Creed I believe the pardon of my sins Answ. I am to believe fide divina that Christ hath purchased and enacted a conditional pardon which is universal and therefore extendeth to my sins as well as to other mens And that he commandeth his Ministers to offer me this and therein to offer me the actual pardon of all my sins to be mine if I truly repent and believe And that if I do so my sins are actually pardoned And I am obliged accordingly to believe in Christ and take him for my Saviour for the pardon of my sins But this is all the meaning of the Creed and Scripture and all that is of Divine belief 2. But that I am actually pardoned is not of Divine faith but only on supposition that I first believe which Scripture telleth not whether I do or not In strict sense I must first believe in Christ for pardon And next in a larger sense I must believe that I am pardoned that is I must so conclude by an act of reason one of the premises being de fide and the other of internal self-knowledge Quest. 12. May a man trust in his own faith or repentance for his pardon and justification in Quest. 12. any kind Answ. Words must be used with respect to the understanding of the hearers And perilous expressions must be avoided lest they deceive men But de re 1. You must not trust to your faith or repentance to do that which is proper to God or to Christ or to the Gospel or for any mâ—re than their own part which Christ hath assigned them 2. You must trust to your faith and repentance for that which is truly their own part And should you not trust them at all you must needs despair or trust presumptuously to you know not what For Christ will not be instead of faith or repentance to you Quest. 13. What are the several causes and conditions of pardon Quest. 13. Answ. 1. God the Father is the principal efficient giving us Christ and pardon with and through him 2 Christs person by his Sacrifice and Merits is the Meritorious Cause 3. The Gospel Covenant or Promise is the Instrumental Cause or Gods pardoning Act or Grant 4. Repentance is the Condition sine qua non necessary directly gratiâ finis in respect to God to whom we must turn 5. Faith in Christ is the Condition sine qua non directly gratiâ medii principalis in respect to the Mediator who is thereby received 6. The Holy Ghost worketh us to these conditions Tit. 2. Directions for obtaining Pardon from God Direct 1. UNderstand well the Office of Iesus Christ as our Redeemer and what it is that he Direct 1. hath done for sinners and what he undertaketh further to do For if you know not Christs Office and undertaking you will either be ignorant of your true remedy or will deceive your selves by a presumptuous trust that he will do that which is contrary to his Office and Will Direct 2. Understand well the tenour of the Covenant of Grace for there it is that you must Direct 2. know what Christ will give and to whom and on what terms Direct 3. Understand well the nature of true faith and repentance or else you can neither tell how Direct 3. to obtain pardon nor to judge of it Direct 4. Absolutely give up your selves to Christ in all the Office of a Mediator Priest Prophet Direct 4. and King And think not to be justified by one act or part of Christianity by alone believing in Christ as a sacrifice for sin To be a true Believer and to be a true Christian is all one and is the faith in Christ which is the condition of justification and salvation Study the Baptismal Covenant For the Believing in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost there meant is the true faith which is the condition of our pardon Direct 5. Be sure that your Repentance contain in it a Desire to be perfectly holy and free from all Direct 5. sin and a Resolution against all known and wilful sinning and particularly that you would not commit the same sins if you had again the same temptations supposing that we speak not of such infirmities as good men live in which yet you must heartily desire to forsake Direct 6. Pray earnestly and believingly for pardon through Christ Even for the continuance of Direct 6. your former pardon and for renewed pardon for renewed sins For prayer is Gods appointed means and included in faith and repentance which are the summary conditions Direct 7. Set all right between you and your neighbours by forgiving others and being reconciled Direct 7. to them and confessing your injuries against them and making them restitution and satisfaction For this also is included in your repentance and expresly made the condition of your pardon Direct 8. Despise not the Sacramental delivery of pardon by the Ministers of Christ For this belongeth Direct 8. to the full investiture and possession of the benefit Nor yet the spiritual consolation of a skilful faithful Pastor nor publick absolution upon publick repentance if you should fall under the need of such a remedy Direct 9. Sin no more I mean Resolvedly break off all that wilful sin of which you do repent Direct 9. For repentings and purposes and promises of a new and holy life which are uneffectual will never prove the pardon of your sins but shew your Repentance to be deceitful Direct 10. Set your selves faithfully to the use of all those holy means which God hath appointed Direct 10. for the overcoming of
our passions are and therefore that it is some Idol of the imagination that is so loved But 1. If they mean that his pure Essence in it self is not the immediate object of a passion they may say the same of the Will it self For man at lâ—ast in flesh can have no other Vâ—litiâ—n of God but as he is apprehended by the Intellect And if by an Idol they mean the Image of God in the mind gathered from the appearances of God in creatures man in flesh hath no other knowledge of him For here we know him but darkly aenigmatically and as in a glass and have no formal proper conception of him in his essence So that the Rational powers themselves do no otherwise knâ—w and will Gods essence but as represented to us in a glass 2. And thus we may also love him passionately it being God in his objective being as apprehended by the Intellect that we both Will and passionately Love The Motion of the soul in flesh may raise passions by the instrumentality of the corporeal Spirits towards an immaterial object which is called the object of those passions not meerly as Passions but as the Passions of a Rational Agent it being more nearly or primarily the object of the Intellect and Will and then of the Passions as first apprehended by these superiour powers A man may Delight in God or else how is he our felicity and yet we know of no Delight which is not Passion A man may love his own soul with a passionate Love and yet it is immaterial when I passionately love my friend it is his immaterial soul and his wisdom and holiness which I chiefly love § 5. 3. It is not only for his Excellencies and Perfections in himself nor only for his Love and benefit to What 〈◊〉 God 〈…〉 Love us that Grace doth cause a sinner to Love God But it is for both conjunctly as he is good and doth good especially to us in the greatest things § 6. 4. Our first special Love to God is orderly and rationally to be raised by the belief of his Goodness What is the 〈◊〉 of our first â—â—â—â—e to God in him self and his common Love and Mercy to sinners manifested in his giving of his Son for the world and giving men the Conditional promise of pardon and salvation and offering them Christ and life eternal and all this to us as well as others and not to be caused by the belief or perswasion of his special peculiar electing redeeming or saving love to us above others that have the same invitations and offers It is the knowledge of Common Love and Mercy and not of special Love and Mercy to us as already possessed that is appointed to be the motive of our first special Love to God Yet there is in it an apprehension that he is our only possible felicity and that he will give us a special interest in his favour if we return by faith in Christ unto him For 1. Every man is bound to Love God with a special Love but every man is not specially beloved by him And no man is bound to Love God as one that specially Loveth him but those that indeed are so beloved by him For else they were bound to believe a falshood and to Love that which is not and grace should be an error and deceit The object is before the act Gods special Love must in it self be before its Revelation and as Revealed it must go before our belief of it and as believed it must go before our Loving it or Loving him as such or for it 2. The first saving faith is inseparably conjunct with special Love For Christ is believed in and willed as the Way or Means to God as the End otherwise it is no true faith And the Volition of the End which is Love is in order of nature before the choice or Vse of the Means as such And if we must Love God as one that specially Loveth us in our first Love then we must Believe in him as such by our first faith And if so it must be to us a Revealed Truth But as it is false to most that are bound to believe so it is not Revealed to the Elect themselves For if it be it is either by ordinary or extraordinary revelation If by ordinary either by Scripture directly or by Evidences in our selves which Scripture maketh the Characters of his Love But neither of these For Scripture promiseth not salvation to named but described persons And evidence of special Love there is none before Faith and Repentance and the first Love to God And extraordinary Revelations from Heaven by inspiration or Angel is not the ordinary begetter of faith For faith is the Belief of God speaking to us now by his written Word So that where there is no Object of Love there can be no Love And where there is no Revelation of it to the understanding there is no object for the will And till a man first believe and Love God he hath no Revelation that God doth specially Love him Search as long as you will you will find no other 3. If the wicked were condemned for not Loving a false or feigned object it would quiet their consciences in Hell when they had detected the deceit and seen the natural impossibility and contradiction 4. The first Love to God is more a Love of Desire than of Possession And therefore it may suffice to raise it that we see a possibility of being for ever happy in God and enjoying him in special Love though yet we know not that we possess any such Love The Nature of the thing proclaimeth it most Rational and due that we Love the Infinite Good that hath done so much by the death of his Son to remove the impediments of our salvation and is so far Reconciled to the world in his death as by a message of Reconciliation to intreat them to accept of Christ and pardon and salvation freely offered them 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. and is himself the offered Happiness of the soul. He that dare say that this much hath not an Objective sufficiency to engage the soul in special Love is a blind under-valuer of wonderful mercy 5. The first special Grace bringeth no new Object for faith or Love but causeth a new act upon the formerly revealed object § 7. 5. But our Love to God is greatly increased and advantaged afterwards by the assurance or perswasion of his peculiar special Love to us And therefore all Christians should greatly value such assurance as the appointed means of advancing them to greater Love to God § 8. 6. As we know God here in the glass of his Son and Word and Creatures so we most sensibly Love him here as his Goodness appeareth in his Works and Graces and his Word and Son § 9. 7. The nearer we come to perfection the more we shall Love God for himself and his infinite Natural Goodness and perfections not casting away
Unhumbledness Impurity Unreformedness and all sin in general as sin In the ninth you are directed against †Of Presumption and false hope enough is said in the Saints Rest and here about Temptation Hope and other Heads afterward Security Unwatchfulness and yielding to temptations and in general against all danger to the soul. In the tenth you are directed against Barrenness Unprofitableness and Sloth and Uncharitableness and against mistakes in matter of duty or good works In the eleventh you are directed against all Aversness Disaffection or cold Indifferency of heart to God In the twelfth you are directed against Distrust and sinful Cares and Fears and Sorrows In the thirteenth you are directed against an over sad or heartless serving of God as meerly from fear or forcedly without delight In the fourteenth you are directed against Unthankfulness In the fifteenth you are directed against all unholy or dishonourable thoughts of God and against all injurious speeches of him or barrenness of the tongue and against all scandal or barrenness of life In the Books referred to in the sixteenth and seventeenth you are directed against selfishness self-esteem self-love self-conceit self-will self-seeking and against all worldliness and fleshliness of mind or life But yet leâ—t any necessary helps should be wanting against such heinous sins I shall add some more particular Directions against such of them as were not fully spoken to before PART I. Directions against UNBELIEF § 1. I Know that most poor troubled Christians when they complain of the sin of Unbelief do mean by it their not Believing that they are sincere believers and personally justified and shall be saved â— Whether not to believe that my sins are pardoned â—e indeed Unbelieâ— And I know that some Divines have affirmed that the sense of that Article of the Creed I believe the Remission of sins is I believe my sins are actually forgiven But the truth is to believe that I am elect or justified or that my sins are forgiven or that I am a sincere Believer is not to Believe any word of God at all For no word of God doth say any of these nor any thing equivalent nor any thing out of which it can be gathered For it is a Rational Conclusion and one of the premises which do infer it must be found in my self by reflexion or internal sense and self-knowledge The Scripture only saith He that truly believeth is justified and shall be saved But it is Conscience and not Belief of Scripture which must say I do sincerely believe Therefore the Conclusion that I am justified and shall be saved is a Rational Collection from what I find in Scripture and in my self set together and resulting from both can be no firmer or surer than is the weaker of the premises Now Certainty is objective or subjective in the Thing or in my Apprehension As to Objective Certainty in the thing it self all truths are equally true But all Truths are not equally discernable there being much more cause of doubting concerning some which are less evident than concerning others which are more evident And so the Truth of Gods promise of Justification to believers is more certain that is hath fuller surer Evidence to be discerned by than the Truth of my sincere believing And that I sincerely believe is the more Debile of the premises and therefore the conclusion followeth this in its Debility And so can be no article of faith And as to the subjective Certainty that varyeth according to mens various apprehensions The premises as in their evidence or aptitude to ascertain us are the cause of the Conclusion as evident or knowable And the premises as apprehended are the Cause of the Conclusion as known Now it is a great doubt with some Whether a man can possibly be more certain that he believeth Whether a man can be more certain that he believeth than he is that the thing believed is true than he is that the thing believed is true because the act can extend no further than the object and to be sure I believe is but to be sure that I take the thing believed to be true But I shall grant the contrary that a man may possibly be surer that he believeth than he is that the thing believed is true because my believing is not alwayes a full subjective certainty that the thing is true but a believing that its true And though you are fully certain that all Gods word is true yet you may believe that this is his word with some mixture of unbelief or doubting And so the question is but this Whether you may not certainly without doubting know that you Believe the Word of God to be true though with some doubting And it seems you may But then it is a further question Whether you can be surer of the saving sincerity of your faith than you are that this Word of God is true And that ordinarily men doubt of the first as much as they doubt of the later I think is an experimented truth But yet grant that with some it may be otherwise Because he believeth sincerely that so far believeth the Word of God as to trust his life and soul upon it and forsake all in obedience to it And that I do so I may know with less doubting than I yet have about the Truth of the Word so believed All that will follow is but this That of those men that doubt of their Iustification and Salvation some of their doubts are caused more by their doubting of Gods Word than by the doubting whether they sincerely though doubtingly believe it and the doubts of others whether they are justified and shall be saved is caused much more by their doubting of their own sincere belief than by their doubting of the truth of Scriptures And the far greatest number of Christians seem to themselves to be of this later sort For no doubt but though a man of clear understanding can scarcely believe and yet not know that he believeth yet he may believe sincerely and not know that he believeth sincerely But still the knowledge of our own justification is but the effect or progeny of our Belief of the Word of God and of our Knowledge that we do sincerely believe it which conjunctly are the Parents and Causes of it And it can be no stronger than the weaker of the Parents which in esse cognoscibili is our faith but in esse cognito is sometime the one and sometime the other And the effect is not the cause The effect of faith and knowledge conjunct is not faith it self It is not a Believing the Word of God to believe that you believe or that you are Iustified But yet because that faith is one of the Parents of it some call it by the name of faith though they should call it but an effect of faith as one of the causes And well may our doubtings of our own salvation be said to be from Unbelief because
act Keep your hearts with all diligence for from thence are the issues of life Prov. 4. 23. Make the tree good and the fruit will be good But the viperous generation that are evil cannot speak good for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Math. 12. 33 34. Till the spirit have regenerated the soul all outward Religion will be but a dead and pittiful thing Though there is something which God hath appointed an unregenerate man to do in order to his own conversion yet no such antecedent act will prove that the person is justified or reconciled to God till he be converted To make up a Religion of doing or saying something that is good while the heart is void of the spirit of Christ and sanctifying grace is the Hypocrites Religion Rom. 8. 9. § 8. Direct 3. Make conscience of the sins of the thoughts and the desire and other affections or passions Direct 3. of the mind as well as of the sins of tongue or hand A lustful thought a malicious thought a proud ambitious or covetous thought especially if it proceed to a wish or contrivance or consâ—nt is a sin the more dangerous by how much the more inward and neer the heart as Christ hath shewed you Mat. 5. 6. The Hypocrite who most respecteth the eye of man doth live as if his Thoughts were free § 9. Direct 4. Make conscience of secret sins which are committed out of the sight of men and may Direct 4. be concealed from them as well as of open and notorious sins If he can do it in the dark and secure his reputation the Hypocrite is bold But a sincere believer doth bear a reverence to his conscience and much more to the all-seeing God § 10. Direct 5. Be faithful in secret duties which have no witness but God and Conscience As meditation Direct 5. and self-examination and secret prayer And be not only Religious in the sight of men § 11. Direct 6. In all publick worship be more laborious with the heart than with the tongue or knee Direct 6. and see that your tongue over-run not your heart and leave it not behind Neglect not the due composure of your words and due behaviour of your bodys But take much more pains for the exercise of holy desires from a believing loving fervent soul. § 12. Direct 7. Place nâ—t more in the externals or modes or circumstances or ceremonies of worship Direct 7. than is due and lay not out more zeal for indifferent or little things than cometh to their share but 〈…〉 ed mâ—â—â—â—ad of hurt fuâ—â—â—â—nes ceremonies be obâ—iteraâ—â—d by ceremoniâ—s Let the Prâ—â—sts perswade the novâ—â—â—â— that holy water Images â—oâ—aâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 and â—oâ—ches and the rest which the Church alloweth and uâ—â—th are very â—it for them and let them exâ—â—l them with many praises in their popular Sermons that instead of the old superstition they may be used to new and religious signs This is to quenth the â—iâ—e with oyl let the great substantials of Religion have the precedencie and be far preferred before them Let the Love of God and man be the sum of your obedience And be sure you learn well what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice And remember that the great thing which God requireth of you is to do Iustice and love mercy and walk humbly with your God Destroy not him with your meat fâ—r whom Christ dyed Call not for fire from Heaven upon dissenters and think not every man intollerable in the Church that is not in every little matter of your mind Remember that the hypocrisie of the Pharisees is described by Christ as consisting in a zeal for their own traditions and the inventions of men and the smallest matters of the Ceremonial Law with a neglect of greatest moral duties and a furious cruelty against the spiritual worshipers of God Math. 15. 2. Why do thy disciples transgress the Tradition of the Elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread v. 7. Ye Hypocrites well did Esaias prophesie of you saying This people draweth niâ—â—â—ntâ— me with their mouth and hâ—â—â—â—ureth me with their lips but their heart is far from me but in vain do they worship me teaching fâ—r doctrines the commandments of men Math. 23. 4 5 6 13 14 c. They bind heavy burdens which they touch not themselves All their works they do to be seen of men They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge the burdens of their garments and love the uppermost rooms at feasts and the chief sâ—ats in the Synagogues and greetings in publick and to be called Rabbi But they shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men and were the greatest enemies of the entertainment of the Gospel by the people They tythed mint and annise and cummin and omitted the great matters of the Law Iudgement and Mercy and Faith They streined at a gnat and swallowed a Camel They had a great veneration for the dead Prophets and Saints and yet were persecuters and murderers of their successors that were living v. 23 c. By this description you may see which way Hypocrisie doth most ordinarily work even to a blind and bloody zeal for opinions and traditions and ceremonies and other little things to the treading down the interest of Christ and his Gospel and a neglect of the life and power of Godliness and a cruel persecuting those servants of Christ whom they are bound to love above their ceremonies I marvel that many Papists tremble not when they read the Character of the Pharisees But that hypocrisie is a hidden sin and is an enemy to the light which would discover it § 13. Direct 8. Make conscience of the duties of obedience to superiors and of justice and mercy Direct 8. towards men as well as of acts of piety to God Say not a long mass in order to devour a widows house or a Christians life or reputation Be equally exact in justice and mercy as you are in prayers And labour as much to exceed common men in the one as in the other Set your selves to do all the good you can to all and do hurt to none And do to all men as you would they should do to you § 14. Direct 9. Be much more busie about your selves than about others and more censorious of Direct 9. your selves than of other men and more strict in the Reforming of your selves than of any others For this is the character of the sincere When the Hypocrite is little at home and much abroad and is a sharp reprehender of others and perniciously tender and indulgent to himself Mark his discourse in all companies and you shall hear how liberal he is in his censures and bitter reproach of others How such men and such men that differ from him or have opposed him or that he hates are thus and thus faulty and bad and hateful Yea he is as great an accuser of his
3. Else there should be seldome any Church in the world for want of a Head yea never any For I have proved there and to Iohnson that there never was a true General Council of the Universal See also in my Reasons of Christian Religion Coâ—s 2. of the Interest of the Church Church But only Imperial Councils of the Churches under one Emperours power and those that having been under it had been used to such Councils And that it is not a thing ever to be attempted or expected as being unlawful and morally impossible Quest. 13. Whether there be such a thing as a Visible Catholick Church And what it is THe Antients differently used the terms A Catholick Church and The Catholick Church By the first they meant any particular Church which was part of the Universal By the second 1 Cor. 12. 12. and throughout they meant the Universal Church it self And this is it that we now mean And I answer Affirmatively There is a Visible Universal Church not only as a Community or as a Kingdom distinct from the King but as a Political Society 2. This Church is the Universality of Baptized Visible Christians Headed by Iesus Christ himself Eph. 4. 1 5 6 7 16. There is this and there is no other upon earth The Papists say that this is no Visible Church because the Head is not Visible I answer 1. It is not necessary that he be seen but visible And is not Christ a Visible person 2. This Church consisteth of two parts the Triumphant part in Glory and the Militant part And Christ is not only Visible but seen by the triumphant part As the King is not seen by the ten thousandth part of his Kingdoms but by his Courtiers and those about him and yet he is King of all 3. Christ was seen on earth for above thirty years and the Kingdom may be called visible in that the King was once visible on earth and is now visible in Heaven As if the King would shew himself to his people but one year together in all his life 4. It ill becometh the Papists of any men to say that Christ is not visible who make him see him taste him handle him eat him drink him digest him in every Church in every Mass throughout the year and throughout the world And this not as divided but as whole Christ. Object But this is not quatenus Regent Answ. If you see him that is Regent and see his Laws and Gospel which are his Governing instruments together with his Ministers who are his Officers it is enough to denominate his Kingdom visible 5. The Church might be fitly denominated Visible secundum quid if Christ himself were invisible Because the Politick Body is visible the dispersed Officers Assemblies and Laws are visible But sure all these together may well serve for the denomination Quest. 14. What is it that maketh a Visible Member of the Universal Church And who are to be accounted such 1. BAptism maketh a Visible member of the Universal Church and the Baptized as to entrance Matth. 28. 19. 〈…〉 1â— 16. unless they go out again are to be accounted such 2. By Baptism we mean open devotion or dedication to God by the Baptismal Covenant in which the adult for themselves and Parents for their Infants do Profess Consent to the Covenant of Grace which includeth a Belief of all the Essential Articles of the faith and a Resolution for sincere obedience and a Consent to the Relations between God and us viz. that he be our Reconciled Father our Saviour and our Sanctifier 3. The Continuance of this Consent is necessary to the continuance of our visible membership 4. He that through ignorance or incapacity for want of water or a Minister is not baptized and yet is solemnly or notoriously dedicated and devoted to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost in the same Covenant though without the outward Sign and professeth openly the same Religion is a visible Christian though not by a compleat and regular visibility As a Souldier not listed nor taking his Colours or a Marriage not regularly solemnized c. 5. He that forsaketh his Covenant by Apostacy or is totally and duly excommunicated ceaseth to be a visible member of the Church Quest. 15. Whether besides the Profession of Christianity either Testimony or Evidence of Conversion or Practical Godliness be necessary to prove a man a Member of the Universal Visible Church 1. AS the Mediator is the way to the Father sent to recover us to God so Christianity includeth John 14. 6. 1 Tim. 3. 16. 6 3 11. Godliness And he professeth not Christianity who professeth not Godliness 2. He that professeth the Baptismal Covenant professeth Christianity and Godliness and true Conversion 2 Pet. 1. 3. And therefore cannot be rejected for want of a Profession of Conversion or Godliness 3. But he that is justly suspected not to understand his own profession but to speak general words without the sense may and ought to be examined by him that is to baptize him And therefore though the Apostles among the Jews who had been bred up among the Oracles of God did justly presume of so much understanding as that they baptized men the same day that they professed to believe in Christ yet when they baptized converted Gentiles we have reason to think that they Acts 2. 38 39. first received a particular account of their Converts that they understood the three essential Articles of the Covenant 1. Because the Creed is fitted to that use and hath been ever used thereunto by the Churches as by tradition from the Apostles practice 2. Because the Church in all ages as far as Church History leadeth us upward hath used catechising before baptizing yea and to keep men as Catechumens some time for preparation 3. Because common experience telleth us that multititudes can say the Creed that understand it not If any yet urge the Apostles example I will grant that it obligeth us when the case is the like And I will not fly to any conceit of their heart-searching or discerning mens sincerity When you bring us to a people that before were the Visible Church of God and were all their life time trained up in the knowledge of God of sin of duty of the promised Messiah according to all the Law and Prophets and want nothing but to know the Son and the Holy Ghost that this Iesus is the Christ who will reconcile us to God and give us the sanctifying Spirit then we will also baptize men the same day that they profess to believe in Iesus Christ and in the Father as reconciled by him and the Holy Ghost as given by him But if we have those to deal with who know not God or sin or misery or Scripture Prophecies no nor natural verities we know no proof that the Apostles so haâ—â—ily baptized such Of this I have largely spoken in my Treatise of Confirmation 4. It is
it unlawful to make so promiscuous an Adoption of children or of choosing another to be a Covenanter for the child instead of the Parent to whom it belongeth or to commit their children to anothers either propriety or education or formal promise of that which belongeth to education when they never mean to perform it nor can do 2. Because they take it for an Adding to the Ordinance of God a thing which Scripture never mentioneth To which I answer 1. I grant it unlawful to suppose another to be the Parent or proprietor that is not Or to suppose him to have that power and interest in your child which he hath not Oâ— to desire him to undertake what he cannot perform and which neither he nor you intend he shall perform I grant that you are not bound to alienate the propriety of your children nor to take in another to be joint-proprietors nor to put out your children to the God-fathers education So that if you will misunderstand the Use of Sponsors then indeed you will make them unlawful to be so used But if you take them but as the antient Churches did for such as do attest the Parents fidelity in their perswasion and do promise first to mind you of your duty and next to take care of the childrens pious education if you dye I know no reason you have to scruple this much Yea more it is in your own power to agree with the God-fathers that they shall represent your own persons and speak and promise what they do as your deputies only in your names And what have you against this Suppose you were sick lame imprisoned or banished would you not have your child baptized And how should that be done but by your deputing another to represent you in entring him into Covenant with God Object But when the Church-men mean another thing this is but to juggle with the world Answ. How can you prove that the authority that made or imposed the Liturgie meant any other thing And other individuals are not the Masters of your sense 2. Yea and if the Imposers had meant ill in a thing that may be done well you may discharge your conscience by doing it well and making a sufficient profession of your better sense 2. And then it will be no sinful addition to Gods Ordinance to determine of a lawful circumstance which he hath left to humane prudence As to choose a meet Deputy Witness or Sponsor who promiseth nothing but what is meet Quest. 40. On whose account or right is it that the Infant hath title to Baptism and its benefits Is it on the Parents Ancestors Sponsors the Churches the Ministers the Magistrates or his own Answ. THe titles are very various that are pretended Let us examine them all I. I cannot think that a Magistrates Command to baptize an Infant giveth him right 1. Because there is no proof of the validity of such a title 2. Because the Magistrate can command no such thing if it be against Gods Word as this is which would level the case of the seed of Heathens and believers And I know but few of that opinion II. I do not think that the Minister as such giveth title to the Infant For 1. He is no proprietor 2. He can shew no such power or grant from God 3. He must baptize none but those that antecedently have right 4. Else he also might levell all and take in Heathens children with believers 5. Nor is this pretended to by many that I know of III. I cannot think that it is a particular Church that must give this Right or perform the condition of it For 1. Baptism as is aforesaid as such doth only make a Christian and a member of the Universal Church and not of any particular Church And 2. The Church is not the proprietor of the child 3. No Scripture Commission can be shewed for such a power Where hath God said All that any particular Church will receive shall have right to baptism 4. By what act must the Church give this right If by baptizing him the question is of his antecedent right If by willing that he be baptized 1. If they will that one be baptized that hath no right to it their will is sinful and therefore unfit to give him right 2. And the baptizing Minister hath more power than a thousand or ten thousand private men to judge who is to be baptized 5. Else a Church might save all Heathens children that they can but baptize and so levell Infidels and Christians seed 6. It is not the Church in general but some one person that must educate the child Therefore the Church cannot so much as promise for its education The Church hath nothing to do with those that are without but only with her own And Heathens children are not her own nor exposed to her occupation IV. I believe not that it is the Universal Church that giveth the Infant title to baptism For 1. He that giveth title to the Covenant and baptism doth it as a performer of the Moral Condition of that title But God hath no where made the Churches faith to be the condition of baptism or salvation either â—o Infidels or their seed 2. Because the Universal Church is a body that cannot be consulted with to give their Vote and Consent Nor have they any Deputies to do it by For there is no Universal Visible Governour And if you will pretend every Priest to be commissioned to act and judge in the name of the Universal Church you will want proof and that 's before confuted 3. If all have right that the Universal Church offereth up to God or any Minister or Bishop be counted its Deputy or Agent to that end it is in the power of that Minister as is said to levell all and to baptize and save all which is contrary to the Word of God V. I believe that God-fathers as such being no Adopters or Proprietors are not the performers of the condition of salvation for the Infant nor give him right to be baptized 1. Because he is not their Own and therefore their will or act cannot go for his Because there is no Word of God for it that all shall be baptized or saved that any Christians will be Sponsors for Gods Church blessings be not tyed â—o such inventions that were not in being when Gods Laws were made Where â—here is no promise or word there is no faith 3. No Sponsors are so much as lawful as is shewed before who are not Owners or their Deputies or meer secondary subservient parties who suppose the principal Covenanting party 4. And as to the Infants salvation the Sponsors may too oft be ignorant Infidels and Hypocrites themselves that have no true faith for themselves and therefore not enough to save another 5. And it were strange if God should make no promise to a wicked Parent for his own child and yet should promise to save by baptism all that some wicked
but a loss of that benefit which they received and hold only by another It is not so properly called a punishment for anothers Sin as a non-deliverance or a non-continuance of their deliverance which they were to receive on the condition of anothers duty Obj. But the Church retaineth them as her members and so their right is not lost by the fault or apostasie of the Parents Answ. 1. Lost it is one way or other with multitudes of true Christians Children who never shew any signes of grace and prove sometimes the worst of men And God breaketh not his Covenant 2. How doth the Church keep the Greeks Children that are made Janizaries 3. No man stayeth in the Church without title If the Church or any Christians take them as their own that 's another matter I will not now stay to discuss the question whether Apostate's Baptized Infants be still Church-members But what I have said of their right before God seemeth plain 4. And mark that on whomsoever you build an Infants Right you may as well say that he may suffer for other mens default For if you build it on the Magistrate the Minister the Church the God-fathers any of them may fail They may deny him Baptism it self They may fail in his education Shall he suffer then for want of baptism or good education when it is their faults Whoever a Child or man is to receive a benefit by the failing of that person may deprive him of that benefit More objections I must pretermit to avoid prolixity Quest. 44. Doth Baptism alwayes oblige us at the present and give Grace at the present And is the Grace which is not given till long after given by Baptism or an effect of Baptism Answ. I Add this Case for two Reasons 1. To open their pernicious error who think that a Covenant or Promise made by us to God only for a future distant duty as to Repent and believe before we dye is all that is essential to our Baptismal Covenanting 2. To open the ordinary saying of many Divines who say that baptism worketh not alwayes at the present but sometimes only long afterward The truth I think may be thus expressed 1. It is not baptism if there be not the profession of a present belief a present consent and a present dedition or resignation or dedication of the person to God by the adult for themselves and by Parents for their Infants He that only saith I promise to believe repent and obey only at twenty or thirty years of age is not morally baptized for it is another Covenant of his own which he would make which God accepteth not 2. It is not only a future but a present Relation to God as his Own his Subjects his Children by Redemption to which the baptized person doth consent 3. It is a present correlation and not a future only to which God consenteth on his paâ—t to be their Father Saviour and Sâ—nctifier their Owner peculiarly their Ruler gratiously and their chief Benefactor and Felicity and End 4. It is not only a future but a present Remission of sin and Adoption and right to temporal and eternal mercies which God giveth to true Consenters by his Covenant and Baptism 5. But those mercies which we are not at that present capable of are not to be given at the present but afterward when we are capable As the particular assistances of the Spirit necessary upon all future particular occasions c. The pardon of future sins Actual Glorification c. Rom. 6. 1 â— 6 7 c. 6. And the Duties which are to be performed only for the future we must promise at present to perform only for the future in their season to our lives end Therefore we cannot promise that Infants shall believe obey or Love God till they are naturally capable of doing it 7. If any hypocrite do not indeed Repent Believe or Consent when he is baptized or baptizeth his child he so far faileth in the Covenant professed And so much of baptism is undone And God Acts 8 37 3â— 13. 20 21 22 23. doth not enter into the present Covenant-Relations to him as being uncapable thereof 8. If this person afterwards Repent and Believe it is a doing of the same thing which was omitted in baptism and a making of the same Covenant But not as a part of his Baptism it self which is long past 9. Nor is he hereupon to be Re-baptized Because the external part was done before and is not to be twice done But the Internal part which was omitted is now to be done not as a part of baptism old or new but as a Part of Penitence for his omission Object If Covenanting be a part of Baptism then this person whose Covenant is never a part of his Baptism doth live and dye unbaptized Answ. As baptism signifieth only the external Ordinance heart-covenanting is no part of it but the Profession of it is And if there was no Profession of faith made by word or sign the person is unbaptized But as baptism signifieth the Internal part with the external so he will be no baptized person while he liveth that is One that in baptism did truly Consent and Receive the spiritual Relations to God But he will have the same thing in another way of Gods appointment 10. When this person is after sanctified it is by Gods performance of the same Covenant in specie which baptism is made to seal that God doth pardon justifie and adopt him But this is not by his past baptism as a Cause but by after grace and Absolution The same Covenant doth it but not baptism Because indeed the Covenant or Promise saith When ever thou believest and repentest I will forgive thee But Baptism saith Because thou now believest I do forgive thee and wash away thy sin and maketh present application 11. So if an Infant or adult person live without grace and at age be ungodly his Baptismal Covenant is violated And his after Conversion or faith and repentance is neither the fulfilling of Gods Covenant nor of his baptism neither The reason is because though Pardon and Adoption be given by that Conditional Covenant of Grace which baptism sealeth yet so is not that first Grace of Faith and Repentance which is the Condition of Pardon and Adoption and the title to baptism it self Else Infidels should have right to baptism and thereby to faith and repentance But these are only the free Gifts of God to the Elect and the fulfilling of some Absolute predictions concerning the Calling of the Elect and the fulfilling of Gods Will or Covenant to Christ the Mediator that He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied and possess those that are given him by the Father 12. But when the Condition of the Covenant is at first performed by the Parent for the Infant and this Covenant never broken on this childs behalf notwithstanding sins of Infirmity in this case the first Actual
honour the memory of Learned Great and Virtuous persons Saints and Ut Bezae Iconâ—â— Viror illustrium Martyrs by keeping their Images and by the beholding of them to be remembred of our duty and excited to imitation of them 11. It is lawful to use Hieroglyphicks or Images expressing Virtues and Vices As men commonly make Images to decipher Prudence Temperance Charity Fortitude Justice c. and Envy Sloth Pride Lust c. As they do of the five senses and the four seasons of the year and the several parts of mans age and the several ranks and qualities of persons c. 12. Thus it is lawful to represent the Devil and Idols when it tendeth but to make them odious For as we must not take their names into our mouths Psal. 16. 4. Exod. 23. 13. Ephes. 5 3. that is when it tendeth to honour them or tempt men to it and yet may name them as Elias did in scorn or as the Prophets did by reproof of sin so is it also in making representations of them Even as a Drunkard may be painted in his filth and folly to bring shame and odium on the sin 13. It is lawful to use Hieroglyphicks instead of Letters in teaching Children or in Letters to friends or to make Images to stand as characters in stead of Words and so to use them even about sacred things 14. As it is lawful to use arbitrary Professing signes even about Holy things which signifie no more than words and have by nature or custome an aptitude to such a use while it is extended no farther than to open our own minds so it may be lawful to use such a characteristical or hieroglyphical image to that end when it hath the same aptitude but not otherwise As a circular figure or ring being a hieroglyphick of perpetuity and so of constancy is used as a significant profession of constancy in Marriage And so the receiving of each others picture might be used And so in Covenanting or taking an Oath the professing sign is left to the custome of the Countrey whether we signifie our consent by gesture words action writing And as it is lawful to make an Image on a seal which hath a sacred signification as a flaming heart on an Altar a Bible a Praying Saint c. as well as to write a Religious Motto on a seal so is it lawful to put this seal to a subscribed Covenant with Neh. 9. 38. Esth. 8. 8. God and his Church or our King and Countrey when we have a Lawful call to seal such a Covenant But if Law or Custome would make such a seal to be the common publick badge or symbol of the Christian Religion I think it would become unlawful As the Crucifix for ought I know might thus have been arbitrarily used as a seal or as a transient arbitrary Professing sign as the Cross was by the ancients at the beginning If any man had scorned me for believing in a Crucified Christ I know not but I might have made a Crucifix by art act or gesture to tell him that I am not ashamed of Christ as well as I may tell him so by word of mouth But if mens institution or custome shall make this a symbol or badge of a Christian and twist it in Baptism or adjoyn it as a Dedicating Sign and as the Common professing Symbol that every baptized person must use to signifie and declare that he is not ashamed of Christ crucified but believeth in him and will manfully fight under his banner against the flesh the world and the Devil to the death Though he call it but a Professing Sign and say He doth but signifie his own mind and not Gods act and grace I should wish him to distinguish between a private or arbitrary act of Profession and a common publick badge and professing Symbol of our Religion And tell him that I think the instituting of the latter belongs to God alone And that he hath made two Sacraments to that end which Sacraments are essentially such symbols and badges of our Profession and are dedicating signs on the receivers part And that Christ crucified is the chief Grace or Mercy given to the Church and his Sacrifice is his own act And therefore objectively the Grace and Act of God also is here signified And therefore on two accounts set together I fear this use of the Câ—ucifix is a sin 1. As it is an Image though it should be transient used as a medium in Gods Worship and so forbidden in the second Commandment For it is not a meer circumstance of Worship but an outward act of Worship 2. Because it is a new humane Sacrament or hath too much of the Essence of a Sacrament and so is an usurpation of his Prerogative that made the Sacraments For as I said It belongeth to the King to make the common badge or symbol of his own subjects or any Order honoured by him And the General giveth out his own Colours And though one may arbitrarily wear another Colour yet if any shall give out common Colours to his Army Regiment or Troop beside his own to be the symbol or badge of his Souldiers I think he would take it for too much boldness Yet if only an inferiour Captain gave but subordinate Colours not to notifie a Souldier of the Army as such but to distinguish his Troop from the rest it were not so much as the other So if a Bishop or Ruler did but make such a symbol by which the Christians of his charge might be discerned from all others and not as a badge of Christianity it self though I know no reason for such distinction and it may be faulty otherwise yet would it not be this usurping of Sacramental Institution which now I speak of All Professing signs are not symbols of Christianity Christ hath done his own work well already His Colours Sacraments or Symbols are sufficient we need not devise more and accuse his institutions of insufficiency nor make more work for our selves in Religion when we leave undone so much that he hath made us 15. All abuse of Images will not warrant us to separate from the Church which abuseth them nor is all such abuse Idolatry If the Church or our Rulers will against our will place Images inconveniently in Churches we may lawfully be there so that they be not Symbols of Idol Worship or of a Religion or Worship so sinful in the substance as that God will not accept it and so be it we make no sinful use of those inconvenient Images our selves Though meer Temptation and Scandal make them sinful in those that so abuse them and set them up yet he that is not the author of that Temptation or Scandal may not forsake Gods Worship because that such things are present nor is not to be interpreted a Consenter to them while he cometh only about lawful Worship and perhaps hath fit opportunity at other times to profess his dissent 16. It
those doctrines against which no Minister shall be allowed to preach and according to which he is to instruct the people 3. To be a testimony to all neighbour or forreign Churches in an heterodox contentious and suspicious age how we understand the Scriptures for the Confuting of scandals and unjust suspicions and the maintaining Communion in Faith and Charity and Doctrine Quest. 144. May not the Subscribing of the whole Scriptures serve turn for all the foresaid ends without Creeds Catechisms or Confessions Answ. BY Subscribing to the Scriptures you mean either Generally and Implicitly that All in them is True and Good though perhaps you know not what is in it Or else particularly and explicitly that every point in it is by you both understood and believed to be true In the first sense it is not sufficient to salvation For this Implicite faith hath really no act in it but a Belief that all that God faith is true which is only the formal object of faith and is no more than to believe that there is a God for a Lyar is not a God And this he may do who never believed in Christ or a word of Scripture as not taking it to be Gods Word yea that will not believe that God forbiddeth his beastly life Infidels ordinarily go thus far In the second sense of an explicite or particular Actual belief the belief of the whole Scriture is enough indeed and more than any man living can attain to No man understandeth all the Scripture Therefore that which no man hath is not to be exacted of all men or any man in order to Ministration or Communion While 1. No man can subscribe to any one Translation of the Bible that it is not faulty being the work of defectible man 2. And few have such acquaintance with the Hâ—brew and Chaldee and Greek as to be able to say that they understand the Original Languages perfectly 2. And no man that understands the words doth perfectly understand the matter It followeth that no man is to be forced or urged to subscribe to all things in the Scriptures as particularly understood by him with an Explicite faith And an Implicite is not half enough 2. The true Mean therefore is the antient way 1. To select the Essentials for all Christians to be believed particularly and explicitely 2. To Collect certain of the most needful Integrals which Teachers shall not preach against 3. And for all men moreover to profess in General that they implicitely believe all which they can discern to be the holy Canonical Scripture and that all is true which is the Word of God Forbearing each other even about the number of Canonical Books and Texts And it is the great wisdom and mercy of God which hath so ordered it that the Scripture shall 1 Cor. 8. 1 2. 13. 1 2 3 4. 1 Cor. 8. 3. Rom. 8. 28. have enough to exercise the strongest and yet that the weakest may be ignorant of the meaning of a thousand sentences without danger of damnation so they do but understand the Marrow or Essentials and labour faithfully to increase in the knowledge of the rest Quest. 145. May not a man be saved that believeth all the Essentials of Religion as Coming to him by Verbal Tradition and not as contained in the holy Scriptures which perhaps he never knew Answ. 1. HE that believeth shall be saved which way ever he cometh by his belief So be it it be sound as to the object and act that is If it contain all the Essentials and they be predominantly Believed Loved and practised 2. The Scriptures being the Records of Christs Doctrine delivered by Himself his Spirit and his Apostles it is the Office of Ministers and the duty of all Instructers to open these Scriptures to those they teach and to deliver particulars upon the authority of these Inspired sealed Records which contain them 3. They that thus receive particular truths from a Teacher explaining the Scripture to them do receive them in a subordination to the Scripture Materially and as to the Teachers part though not formally and as to their own part And though the Scripture authority being not understood by them be not the formal object of their faith but only Gods authority in general 4. They that are ignorant of the being of the Scripture have a great disadvantage to their faith 5. Yet we cannot say but it may be the case of thousands to be saved by the Gospel delivered by Tradition without resolving their faith into the authority of the Scriptures For 1. This was the case of all the Christians as to the New Testament who lived before it was written And there are several Articles of the Creed now necessary which the Old Testament doth not reveal Matth. 16. 16. Rom. 10. 9 10 13 14 15. 2. This may be the case of thousands in Ignorant Countreys where the Bible being rare is to most unknown 3. This may be the case of thousands of Children who are taught their Creed and Catechism before they understand what the Bible is 4. This may be the case of thousands among the Papists where some perverse Priests do keep not only the Reading but the Knowledge of the Scriptures from the people for fear lest they should be taught to resolve their faith into it and do teach them only the Articles of Faith and Catechism as known by the Churches tradition alone Quest. 146. Is the Scripture fit for all Christians to read being so obscure Answ. 1. THe Essentials and points necessary to salvation are plain 2. We are frequently and vehemently commanded to delight in it and meditate John 5. 39. Psalm 1. 2. Deut. 6. 11. Psal. 19. 7 8 9 10 11. 2 Tim. 3. 15. Psal. 119. 98 105. 133. 148. Acts 17. 11. Acts 8. in it day and night to search it to teach it our very children speaking of it at home and abroad lying down and rising up and to write it on the posts of our houses and on our doors c. 3. It is suited to the necessity and understanding of the meanest to give light to the simple and to make the very foolish wise 4. The antient Fathers and Christians were all of this mind 5. All the Christian Churches of the world have been used to Read it openly to all even to the simplest And if they may Hear it they may Read the same words which they hear 6. God blessed the ignorant Ethiopian Eunuch when he found him Reading the Scriptures though he knew not the sense of what he read and sent him Philip to instruct him and convert him 7. Timothy was educated in the knowledge of the Scriptures in his childhood 2 Tim. 3. 15. Rom. 15. 4. Mat. 12. 24. 8. That which is written to and for all men may be read by all that can But the Scripture was written to and for all c. Object But there are many things in it hard to be understood Answ.