the Ends of Adult Communion therefore it is not sufficient to make them capable of a proper plenary Right to such Communion For the Right and Relation are for these Ends if a natural incapacity may consist with a Plenary Title so cannot a Moral No man can really possess and exercise the Communion of the Adult intrinsically without Faith or extrinsecall without Profession of Faith therefore no man without Faith or Profession of Faith can have a plenary Right to that Communion For a man to have a plenary Right to praise God and celeberate with the Church the memorial of our Redemption and participate of the Redeemer and his Benefits that believeth not in him is a palpable absurdity 3. If the meer Title-Condition of Infants will serve in foro Ecclesiae for the Adult then it will serve also in foro Dei For the Church looks but to the outward appearance or visibility of that whose Reality and sincerity God expecteth And it is Gods Covenant that giveth us our Right and therefore if the Churh finâ— us to have true Right it must find us receiving it from Gods Covenant and therefore find us the heires of takes promâ—se The Reason why the Church takes our Birth Priviledges for a sufficient Title-Condition is because God is supposed so to take it But that this will not serve the Adult in foro Dei is manifest because God will not own such Infidels as neither have Faith nor a Profession of it 4. If the litle-Condition of Infidels may serve them when Adult then is there no personal difference in acts or qualities no not so much as in Profession required on our part to distinguish Christians from Infidels and Athâ—ists required I mean as necessary Conditions But the Consequent is absurd therefore so is the Antecedent If no diâ—ferencing character between Actual Believers and Infidels or Atheists be made thus necessary then the Church and the Infidel world are laid together and the Body of Christ and consequently Christ himself is dishonoured and blaspheamed as common and uncleane But if any personal difference be necessâ—ry it must be the personal Profession of Christianity or nothing lesse then this can be it For our Birth-Priviledge cannot be it Atheists and Infidels are borne of Christian Parents Much of the Turkish Army of Janiâ—aries have their Birth-Priviledges to shew as well as we It is a probable Argument Such an Infant is horne of Christian Parents therefore he will be an Actual Believer But it is not a probable Argument Such a man at age that professeth not Christianity had Christian Parents therefore he is a believer much less therefore he had Right to the Benefits of the Covenant whether he be an Actual Believer or not If Christians have no visible note by which they must be known from Infidels then either the Church is not Visible or Infidels may be the Visible Church without so much as disowning their Infidelity 5. If the Title-Condition of Infants may suffice the Adult for Church-Right and Communion then Hereticks and Apostates have such Right But the Consequent is denyed by them that I now dispute with They confess that Heresie and some Schism and Apostacie do cut off from the Church and so from this Right But it 's plaine that such Hereticks and Apostates have that which was their Infant-Condition as they were the seed of Believers in Infancy so they are since Apostacy They cease not to be the seed of Believers by their renouncing Christ If this therefore would prove a Right in silent Infidels it will prove a Right in profest Apostates Object The Apostates cast away their Right and therefore have it not Answ 1. Either it dependeth on their own wiâ—â— when they come to age or not If it do â—â—t then they cannot cast it away They may refuse to use their Right but they cannot cast it away or nullifie it For they cannot make themselves not to be the Children of Christian Parents The foundation stands whether they will or no and therefore so must the Relation But if the Relation or Right do now depend upon their own wills then our cause is granted for from their wills then must the Condition or Evidence be feâ—cht 2. Yea such persons ordinarily as we have now in question are actual Apostates and are so to be taken by the Church and therefore not to be taken as Church-members having Right to Sacraments He that being engaged to God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost in his Infancy doth make no Profession of actual Faith at full age is ordinarily to be taken for an Apostate But such are the persons in question I say Ordinarily because I except them that have been cast upon natural impossibilities or impotency or wanted a call and opportunity that is all persons that prove Ideoâ—s or deafe and dumbe or otherwise destitute of natural capacity such come not to the use of Reason and free-will and therefore are noâ— bound to Actual beleif Such also as have their tongues cut out are separated from Humane society or otherwise disabled from Profession But for the common case of mankind 1. It is plaine that they have their tongues given them by nature of express their minds and 2. That Christ commandeth Confession with the tongue and professing him before men 3. That much of his Worship lieth in holy Profession and all of it containeth answerable Profession 4. That we have constant calls from God even to profess our Christianity the godly and the wicked that live among us call us to it we have daily invitations to profess out Christianity one way or other And among all these occasions of Profession he that Professeth not is to be taken for an Infidel and Apostate For the business is so exceeding great and weighty and the Object so glorious and the duty so incumbent and the very Life of Christianity so inconsistent with a non-profession that we have just reason to conclude that he that Professeth not himself a Christian ordinarily is to be taken for none by the Church Object But though at the first admitting of a forraIner into a Common-wealth you require an Oath of fidelity or Profession of subjâ—ction yet when we are borne Subjects we must be supposed to continue such till we Rebel and so declare the contrary and our fidelity is not to be quâ—stioned Answ 1. The case doth exceedingly differ from ours in hand Princes vary their Commands as their affaires require If you are borne in the midst of a peaceable Republike you may perhaps have no Oath of fidelity imposed because the Peace of the Commom-wealth requireth it not For while there is no enemy neer you to solicite you to rebellion or treason or with whom you may conjoyn it is supposed that you have either no mind or no power to it And it is only the common peace that is concerned in the cause But our case is otherwise For we live among Devils and wicked men and are known to have
whether some of them have but lower Priviledges is not here to be determined but in a fitter place And therefore I determine not what Priviledges they are that will cease if our Infant Title cease But that according to the tenour of the Promise the Continuance of them with the Addition of the Priviledges proper to the Adult are all laid upon a New Condition 4. Note also that when I call it another or different Condition I mean not that it is different in the Nature of the Act but in the Agent or Subject It is the same kind of Faith which at first is required in the Parent for the Childs behoof and that afterward is required in our selves But the Condition of the Infants Title is but this that he be the Child of a Believer Dedicated to God But the Condition of the Title of persons at Age is that they be themselves Believers that have Dedicated themselves to God The Faith of the Parent is the Condition of Infant Title and the Faith of the person himself is the Condition of the Title of one at Age. That their own Faith is not the Condition of an Infants Title I think I need not prove For 1. They are uncapable of Believing without a Miracle 2. If they were not as some Lutherans fondly think yet it 's certain that we are uncapable of discerning by such a sign I think no Minister that I know will judge what Infants do themselves believe that he may baptise them 3. And I think no man that looks on the Command or Promise and the Person of an Infant will judge that he is either Commanded then to believe or that his Believing is made the Condition of his Infant Title But that a Personal Believing is the Condition of the Title of them at Age is as farre past doubt and it 's proved thus Arg. 1. The Promise it self doth expresly require a Faith of our own of all the Adult that will have part in the Priviledges therefore it is a Faith of our Own that is the Condition of our Title Mark 16 16. He that Believeth and is Baptized shall be saved and he that Believeth not shall be damned Act. 8. 36 37. And the Eunuch said See here is water what doth hinder me to be baptized And Philip said If thou believest with all thy heart thou maist Act. 2. 38 41. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the Remission of sinnes c. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized Act. 10. 44 47 48. Act. 16. 14 15. 30. 32 33. Rom. 10. 12 13 14. With many other Texts do put this out of doubt Argument 2. We were engaged in our Infant baptismal Covenant to Believe and Repent when we came to Age as a means to our reception of the Benefits of the Covenant proper to the Adult therefore we must perform our Covenant and use this means if we will have the benefits Arg. 3. If another Condition were not of Necessity to the Aged beside the Condition that was necessary to them in Infancy then Turks Jews and Heathens should have right to Church-membership and Priviledges of the Adult But the Consequent is notoriously false therefore so is the Antecedent The Reason of the Consequent is evident Because a man that hath believing Parents may turn Turk as is known in thousands of Janizaries or Jew or Pagan and therefore if it were enough that he was the Child of a Believer his Title to Church Priviledges would still continue And so among professed Christians the Child of a Believer may turn Heretick or notoriously prophane and scandalous and yet have Title to Church Priviledges if his first Title still hold and a personal Faith be not a necessary Condition of his Right Adde to these the many Arguments tending to confirm the point in hand which I have laid down on another occasion in my Dâ—sputations of Right to Sacraments But I think I need not spend more words to perswade any Christians that our Parents Faith will not serve to give us Title to the Church Priviledges of the Adult but we lose our Right even to Church-membership it self if when we come to Age we adde not a personal Faith or profession at least of our own I only adde that this is a truth so farre past doubt that even the Papists and the Greekshave put it into their Canons For the former you may find it in the Decrees Part. 3. dist 3. pag. mihi 1241 cited out of Augustinin these words Parvulus qui baptizatur fiâ—ad anneâ—s rationales veniens non crediderit nec ab illicitis abstinuerit nihil ei prodest quod parvulus accepit That is An Infant that is baptized if comming to years of discretion he do not believe nor abstain from things unlawfull that which he received in Infancy doth profit him nothing And for the Greeks that this is according to their mind you may see in Zonaras in Comment in Epist Canon Can. 45. cited ex Basilii Mag. Epist 2. ad Amphiloch thus Siquis accâ—pto nomine Christianismi Christum contumeliâ afficit nulla est illi appellationis utilitas that is If any one having received the Name of Christianity shall repreach Christ he hath no profit by the Name On which Zonaras addeth Qui Christo credidit Christianus appellatus est cum ex Divinis praecept is vitam instituere oportet ut hac ratione Deus per ipsum glorificetur quemadmodum illis verbis praecipitur sic luceat Lux vestra coram hominibus c. Siquis autem nominatur quidem Christianus Deâ— vero praecepta transgreditur contumeliam irregat Christo cujus de nomine appellatur nec quicquam ex eâ appellatione utilitatis trahit That is Seeing he believed in Christ and is called a Christian ought to order his life by the Commandements of God that so God may be glorified by him according to that Let your light so shine before men c. If any one that is called a Christian shall transgress Gods Commands he brings a reproach on Christ by whose name he is called and he shall not receive the least profit by that Title or Name This is somewhat higher then the point needs that I bring it for And indeed it were a strange thing if all other Infidels should be shut out of the Priviledges of the Church except only the treacherous Covenant-breaking Infidel for such are all that being baptized in Infancy prove no Christians when they come to Age. As if persidiousness would give him right Prop. 5. As a Personal Faith is the Condition before God of Title to the Priviledges of the Adult so the Profession of this Faith is the Condition of his Right before the Church and without this Profession he is not to be taken as an Adult member nor admitted to the Priviledges of such THis Proposition also as the Sunne revealeth its self by its own light and therefore commandeth
the Souls of our poor people are deluded and they are made believe that they are Christians when they are not and in a state of Salvation when it 's no such thing As Mr Thorndicke saith as aforecited No man is to be admitted to the Assemblies or visible societies of Christians till there be just presumption that he is of the Heavenly Jerusalem that is above And admitting to and excluding from the Church is or ought to be a just and Lawfull presumption of admitting to or excluding from Heaven It is morally and legally the same act that entitleth to Heaven and to the Church that maketh an heir of life Everlasting and a Christian And if so then what greater mischief can we do the Soul of an ungodly man then so to delude him by our admitting him into the Church and make him believe he is in a state of Salvation when it 's no such thing False faith and false hopes are the things that fill Hell and are the common undoing of the world And all that ever we can do is too little to cure it When I bend all my studies and labours but to make a wicked man know that he is wicked I cannot procure it I can make him believe that he is a sinner but not that he is an unconverted ungodly sinner and in a state of Condemnation O the power of blinding self-love that will not suffer them to see themselves miserable when they see themselves sinfull and all because they would not have it so when yet it 's most visible to others And shall we all joyne to strengthen this potent Enemy and lay this share and thrust men headlong into Hell that are running down-hill so fast already and all under pretence of Charity and Compassion 7. We shall put them by this means into a way not only of losing the fruit of Ordinances but of misapplying all to the increasing of their deceit When we preach Peace to the true believer the wicked will misapply it and say it belongs to them When we speak against the unbelievers and ungodly they 'l think that this is not their part but bless themselves because they are Christians In our praises they are tempted with the Pharisee to thank God and perhaps for mercies which they never had as Justification Adoption Sanctification c. The Sacraments by misapplication will confirm them in Presumption And thus as they enter by deceit among Adult-believers so will they turn all the Ordinances of God and the Priviledges of the Church to feed that deceit more effectuall then among the expectants it would have been 8. But the greatest mischief that troubleth me to think of is this that by this hastening and admitting all the unprepared into the Number of Adult-Christians and members of the Church we do either put a necessity upon our selves to throw away Church-discipline or else to be most probably the damnation of our peoples Souls and make them desperate and almost past all hope or remedy I must confess that what I am saying now I was not sensible of till lately that experience made me sensible While I medled not with Publike reproofs or censures I disputed of these things without that experience which I now find is one of the greatest helps to resolve such doubts which makes me bold to tell the Church that the Practice of so much Discipline as we are agreed in is a likelyer way to bring us all to agreement in the rest then all our Disputings will do without it And that I resolve hereafter to take that man for an incompetent Judge and unmeet Disputer about Church-discipline that never exercised it or lived where it was exercised And I shall hereafter suspect their judgments and be almost as loath to follow such as to follow a swimmer that never was before in the water or a Pilote that was never before at sea or a Souldiour that never saw warres before but have only learned their skill by the Book Our case stands thus If we take all our Parishes according to the old Church-constitution to be particular Churches and all the Parishiones to be members then either we must exercise the Discipline which Christ hath commanded or not If not then we disobey our Lord and Master and own such a Church as is utterly uncapable of Church-ends and consequently of the essence seeing that it is a Relative being For it 's supposed that it is not for any unusual accident that we cannot exercise this Discipline but from the very Church constitution or incapacity of the matter And then 1. We shall be Traitours to Christ under the name of Pastours if we will wilfully cast out his Ministerial Kingly Government 2. We shall betray the Church to licentiousness And 3. We shall set up a new Church-way which is contrary to that which hath been practised in all ages from the Apostles daies till Impiety had overspread the Christian world He that dare take on him to be an Overseer and Ruler of the Church and not to oversee and rule it and dare settle on such a Church-state as is uncapable of Discipline is so perfidious to Christ and ventureth so boldly to make the Church another thing that I am resolved not to be his follower But if we shall exercise the Discipline of Christ upon all in our ordinary Parishes what work shall we make I will tell you what work from so much experience as that no reasonings can any more perswade me to believe the contrary then that wormwood is not bitter or snow not cold 1. We shall have such a multitude to excommunicate or reject that it will make the sentence grow almost contemptible by the commonness 2. We shall so extreamly enrage the spirits of the people that we shall go in continual danger of our lives Among so many that are publikly reproved and cast out it 's two to one but some desperate villains will be studying revenge But all this is nothing but that which sticks upon my heart is this 3. We shall be the cruellest enemies to the Souls of our poor people in the world and put them the very next step to Hell For as soon as ever we have rejected them and cast them under publique shame they hate us to the heart and either will never heare us more or heare us with so much harted and malice or bitterness of spirit that they are never like to profit by us If you say that doubtless Discipline will have better fruits if it be an Ordinance of God I Answer 1. It 's no time now in the end of the world to question whether that be an Ordinance of God which Scripture speaks for so fully and so plainly and which the Catholike Church hath so long practised and that with such severity as it hath done 2. I know the Discipline is of excellent use and is likely to have excellent effects But upon whom Upon such as are fit to come under Discipline and with
man is out of it and you may next question whether the Devill be not a Member that believeth much more then he But when I say that Infidelity Impiety Heresie do cut off or cast out I meane it but Meritoriously Either these crimes are private and unknown or provable If not provable then they merit this and more Coram Deo but not Ecclesiâ judice that is though there be guilt or demerits yet we are no capable judges of it But if the crime be provable then it is either such as needs a judgment or not If it need a judgement the person is only de jurâ— cast out before the sentence which is terminus diminuens and is noâ— actuall casting out and he is actually cast out by the sentence and the execution so that his sin cast him out Meritoriously the Law Obligatorily the Paflors of the Church Sententially and the whole Church Pastors and People Executively in avoiding him But if there need no judgement then he is excommunicate actually ipso jure by the Law alone without a Judge which may be in many a casâ—â— Aâ— if he be a notorious Infidell Atheist Blaspheamer or notoriously beyond all doubt and controversie one of those that the Law commands us to avoid we must execute this Law though there be no sentence pronounced The want of a mans sentence will not excuse us from obeying Gods Laws And where there is no controversie through the notoriousness of the case there needs no Judge 6. If Birth-priviledge will serve alone for the Adult to prove their Title to the Church-state and priviledges of the Adult then no man that is born of Christian Parenâ—s can be obnoxious to excommunication or justly excommunicate For he is still a Child of Believing Parents and no sin will make them otherwise And therefore if that were enough he hath a good Title still Nay it would follow that he cannot Apostatize for he cannot fall away from this But the consequence is absurd therefore so is the Antecedent 7. If Infant Title only be sufficient to the Adult then no Parent is necessarily oblieged to professe himself a Christâ—aâ— or actuall believer in order to prove the interest of his Child to Baptism nor any that offer him in the Parents stead For it is sufficient if the Parents or susceptors say We were Infant-members and Baptized and therefore our Child must be so but whether we are actuall Believers now it is not necessary that we tell you But the Consequent is so absurd that whoever should have offered a Child to Baptism on these terms in the Aâ—cient Church or any Church that I know of till very lately would have been rejected The acceptance and Baptism of our Infants is one of the priviledges of Believers But no one hath right to this priviledg that his children be thus accepted into the Church upon a bare Infant-Title without the profession of a personall actuall â—aith Therefore c. 8. If the opposed Doctrine should hold good then all the world hath right to Church-Communion or Mâ—llions of Infidels at least But the consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The reason of the Consequence is plain because Noah was a Church-member and all the world came out of his Loynes And the men of Thracia Bithynia and most of Asia where Mahomet is worshipped may say Our Ancestors were Christians Therefore the Birth-priviledges still going down from generation to generation even to the Thousandth generation it must follow that the present generation of Mahometans and other Infidels are Church-memberâ— still For they lost not their naturall Relation to their Parents 9. It will not prove a Society of Adult persons to be a Christian Church if they have no more but their Infant-Condition therefore it will not prove a single person to be a Member of the Church That which is necessary to make a society a Christian society is necessary to make a person a Christian person But I hope none will deny but that some kind of Profession is necessary to make or prove a company of men to be a Christian Church therefore some profession is necessary to make or prove a man to be a Church-member 10. If Infant-conditions will suffice to the Adult for Church-membership and common priviledges then will they serve for Justification and Salvation that are speciall priviledges But the Consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The reason of the consequence is because though the benefits be various yet the Covenant and Conditions are the same by which we have right to one and to the other It is the Appearance of the same Faith by profession before men that give Title Coram ecclesiâ whose inward sincerity giveth right Coram Deo as was aforesaid And God giveth Title to all the blessings of the Covenant Coram Deo on the same conditions And there is also a parity of reason For if it be enough to prove our right to Adult Communion to praise God and have all his Ordinances and helps in the Church c. that we had Christian Parents then must it be enough to prove our Title in all the rest of our benefits The ancient Fathers and Churches thought that Baptism did as certainly give the Infant rightly Baptized a right to pardon of Originall sin and eternall life aâ— to outward Church-priviledges And if the same Covenant give both on the same condition then he that hath the condition of one hath of both I have proved in another Disputation that God hath not two Covenants of grace on his part one of spirituall or inward mercies and another of outward Ordinances and that he giveth not these inward benefits and the outward signes of them upon various conditions but on the same 11. Faith or the profession of it in the Adult is either necessary to Church-communion or unnecessary if unnecessary then Christians have no more to do in the Church then Heathens if necessary then either as a meer duty or as a condition or other means Not as a meer dutyâ— for then still the Infidels should be equally received though not applauded It must be therefore necessary as a meanes And the very words of the promise tells us what sort of meanes it is that makes Faith to be its condition 12. I would know of my adversary what he would do with the Son of a Believer that were unbaptized at 40. or 50. years of age would be Baptize him without a profession of actuall Faith of his own or not if he would then he would make new fashioned Christians and Churches and might Baptize all the posterity of the Apostates or the ancient Christians in the world that would consent Yea he could not indeed Baptize them for Baptism essentially containeth a profession of consent unto the Covenant which therefore others make for Infants that have the dispose of them But if he would not Baptize such without profession then it seems he takes not their Birth-priviledges to be a
and proved them to be Christ's Disciples No man knew the hearts of others and therefore knew not whom to Love as Christians infallibly discerned But the Profession of Saving Faith and Holiness being then and ever the test of Adult-members they took all the members of the Visible Church as credibly of the invisible though with different degrees of Credibility And accordingly they loved them all with a Christian special Love of the same species though with different degrees of that Love Whereas this Popish new found trick of making a new common sort of Faith and Visible membership that hath no respect to saving Faith doth teach all Christians to Love the members of the Visible Church but with a common love and relieve and help them but with a common Charity And so the device is to confine our special Brotherly Love and Charity to a corner of the Visible Church to a few whom we will please to think to be godly I have oft marvelled in observing some Learned Divines that bend that way that they think compassion and Christian Charity is on their side What Charity can their Doctrine glory of They will be so mercifull to Infidels that are uncapable of a Church-state as to plead them into the Church and when they are there they leave them under the curse and in a state of damnation in their own judgments teaching us to judge uncharitably of the Visible Church in general for their sakes and to look on them as without respect to any saving grace and so without any special Love A cold comfort I to bring them into no more capacity of Gods Mercy nor of our Charity but into much more capacity of aggravated damnation which they might better have prevented by being kept in their proper station till they were capable of more I confess though my belief of mens Profession have different degrees as I see in them different degrees of Credibility yet I have Charitabler thoughts of the members of the Visible Church then these that make so low and miserable a description of them And though I know that there are abundance among them that are Hypocrites and unsanctified yet know I none but Saints and Hypocrites that are tolerable in the Church nor will I accuse particular persons of Hypocrisie till I have cause Neither in my secret or open censures will I pluck up the tares upon any such terms as will not stand with the safety of the wheate but rather let them grow together in my esteeme in the Church till the time of harvest And that I may think charitably of the Church and walk charitably in and towards it therefore I would not have it consist of such notorious ungodly or heretical men as are uncapable objects of Christian Brotherly Love For Heresie the foresaid learned Brother tells us that it cuts men off from the Church I say so to meritoriously at least if by Heresie be meant the exclusion of any essential Article of the Christian Faith But pag. 199 where he saith the Controversie may be easily ended by parting stakes viz. that some Heresie which absolutely denyeth some particular fundamental truth and taketh up some one or few stones thereof is consistent with Church interest and other Heresie which raiseth up the very foundation of Religion denying most or the most chief if not all of the Articles of our Christian Faith is inconsistent therewith I must humbly but very confidently say that this answer will not serve the turne If by Fundamentals be meant as commonly the Essential Articles of Christian Faith then the absolute denying of any one Article doth prove that person to be no Christian nor capable of a Church state For the form is wanting where any Essential part is wanting But if any thing else be meant by Fundamentals no man can decide the Controvesie by it till it be known what it is And it will be hard to fasten it on any thing where the absolute denyal of many points shall unchurch and the absolute denial of one or two points of the same rank and kind not do it Saith he p. 198. The Jews held that an heretical Isralite had no communion with the Church of Israel and why but because Communion supposeth union and union with Israel or the true Church is lost with Faith They also held as Selden noteth that an Israelite turning an Heretike i. e. denying any of the thirteene fundamental Articles to be as an Heathen man And a few lines before he saith that historical Faith which hath the Doctrine of Faith for its Object none do doubt to be an Essential requisite to a true Church-member Yet that with me is a Visible member that hath not this much which is said to be Essential no man doubting of it If they Profess true Faith though they are stark Atheists at the heart and have not so much as historical Faith I shall believe them till they nullifie their own Profession But if they profess not also to consent to have Christ to be their Saviour I shall not take it for a Profession of Christianity Certain I am that the ancient Doctours with one consent did look on the baptized generally as pardoned justified and adopted and therefore thought that Visible Church-membership did imply a credibility at least of a state of saving grace Saith Cyprian Epist 76. Magn. In Baptismo unicuique peccata sua remittuntur And upon this supposition run the Arguments of the councell of Carthage and Firmilian Epist ibid. Saith Augustine De Catechizandis rudibus cap. 26. His dictis interrogandus est an haec credat atque observare desideret Quod cum responderit solemniter utique signandus est ecclesiae more tractandus Obedience it self was promised and a consent to it professed before Baptism then and ever since Christian Baptism was known Idem Epistol 119. Ad Januar. cap. 2. Secundum hanc fidem spem dilectionem quâ caepimus esse sub gratia jam commortui sumus cum Christo consepulti per baptismum in morte c. Baptism then supposeth credibly Faith Hope and Love Idem Epist 23. Having shewed why Parents Faith profiteth Infants and yet their after-sins hurt them not saith Cum autem homo sapere caeperit non illud Sacramentum repetit sed intelligit ejusque veritati consonâ etiam voluntate coaptabitur Hoc quamdiu non potest N. B. valebit Sacramentum ad ejus tutelam adversus contrarias potestates tantum valebit utsi ante rationis usum ex hac vita emigraverit per ipsum Sacramentum Ecclesiae charitate ab illa condemnatione quae per unum hominem intravit in mundum Christiano adjutorio liberetur Hoc qui non credit fieri non posse arbitratur profecto infidelis est etsi habeat fidei Sacramentum longeque melior est ille parvulus qui etiamsi fidem nondum habeat in cogitatione non ei tamen obicem contrariae cogitationis opponit undè Sacramentum
me to say but little for the Confirmation of it Arg. 1. The Church cannot judge of things unknown Non entium non apparentium eadem est ratio Not to appear and not to be is all one as to the judgment of the Church We are not searchers of the heart and therefore we must judge by the discoveries of the heart by outward signes Arg. 2. If Profession of Faith were not necessary Coram Ecclesiâ to mens Church-membership and Priviledges then Infidels and Heathens would have Right as was said in the former case and also the Church and the world would be confounded and the Church would be no Church But these are consequents that I hope no Christians will have a favourable thought of and therefore they should reject the Antecedent Arg. 3. It is a granted case among all Christians that Profession is thus necessary the Apostles and Ancient Churches admitted none without it nor no more must we Though all require not the same manner of Profession yet that Profession it self is the least that can be required of any man that layeth claim to Church Priviledges and Ordinances proper to Adult members this we are all agreed in and therefore I need not adde more proof where I find no Controversie But yet as commonly as we are agreed on this yet because it is the very point which most of the stress of our present Disputation lieth on it may not be amiss to foresee what may possibly be Objected by any new comers hereafter Object Perhaps some may say 1. That we find no mention of Professions required in Scripture 2. It is not probable that Peter received a Profession from those thousands whom he so suddenly Baptized 3 Our Churches have been true Churches without such a Profession personally and distinctly made therefore it may be so still To these briefly yet satisfactorily 1. The Scripture gives us abundant proof that a plain Profession was made in those times by such as were baptized at Age and so admitted by reason of their ripeness and capacity into the Church and to the speciall Communion and Priviledges of the Adult at once To say much of the times of the old Testament or before Christ would be but to interrupt you with less pertinent things Yet there it is apparent that all the people were solemnly engaged in Covenant with God by Moses more then once and that this was renewed by Joshua and other godly Princes and that Asa made the people not only enter into a Covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their hearts and with all their Soul But that whosoever would not seek him should be put to death whether smal or great man or woman And they sware to the Lord with a loud voice and with shoutings and with trumpets and with cornets 2 Chron. 15. 12 13 14. So following Princes called the people to this open Covenanting But this is not all To take the Lord only to be their God with the rest of the Law was the very essence of an Isarelites Religion which they did not only openly Profess but excessively sometimes glory in As Circumcision sealed the Covenant and therefore supposed the Covenant to Infants and aged whoever were circumcised so had they many sorts of Sacrifice and other worship in which they all were openly to profess the same Religion and Covenant Many Purifications also and Sanctifyings of the people they had and many figures of the Covenant I am the Lord thy God c. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me c. was the tenour of the Covenant which every Israelite expressly and by frequent acts professed to consent to The Law is called a Covenant which all were to own and avouch the Lord to be their God and themselves his people See Deut. 26. 17 18. chap. 29. 10 11 14 c. 2 King 23. 3. 2 Chron. 23. 3 16. chap. 29. 10. Ezr. 10. 3. Neh. 9. 38. Psal 50. 5. Ezek. 20. 37. Jer. 50. 5. Isa 56. 4 5. Exod. 34. 27. Psal 103. 18. 25. 10. 18. 10 c. And yet I hope no Chhistian would wish that we should deal no more openly and clearly with God the Church and our selves in daies of Gospel Light and worship then the Jews were to do in their darker state under obscure Types and shadows We find that when John Baptist set up his Ministry he caused the people to Cenfess their sinnes Matth. 3. 6. And if we confess our sinnes God is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes 1 Joh. 1. 19. And whereas some say that John Baptized them that he calleth a Generation of Vipers I Answer 1. We will believe that when they prove it It seems rather that he put them back 2. If he did Baptize them it was not till they Confessed their sinnes before that all did and it seems by his charge till they promised to bring forth fruits meet for Repentance Matth. 3. 8. Christ would not have so instructed Nicodemus in the Nature and necessity of Regeneration before he was a Disciple if a Professed or Apparent preparation had not been necessary Nor would he ordinarily have taught men the Necessity of denying themselves and forsaking all for a treasure in Heaven with such like if they would be his Disciples if the Profession of so doing had not been Necessary to their visible Discipleship I grant that so full a Profession was not made before Christs Resurrection as after For many Articles of our Belief were afterward made Necessary And the Apostles themselves were unacquainted with what the weakest Christian did afterwards believe But still the Essentials of Faith then Necessary in existence to mens Justification were Necessary in Profession â—â— mens visible Christianity or Church-membership As to those Acts. 2. 37. c. It is plain that they made an open Profession if you Consider 1. That they were openly told the Doctrine which they must be baptized into if they did consent 2. It is said They that gladly received that word were baptized 3. It is certain therefore that they first testified their glad reception of the Word 4. We may not imagine that Peter was God or knew the hearts of all those thousands and therefore he must know it by their Profession that they gladly received the Word 5. Their own mouths cry out for advice in order to their Salvation 6. It had been absurd for the Apostles to attempt to baptize men that had not first professed their Consent 7. The Scripture gives us not the full historical Narration of all that was said and done in such Cases but of so much as was Necessary 8. The Institution and Nature of the Ordinance tells us that Baptism could not be administred without a Profession to the Adult For they were to be Baptzed into the Name of Father Sonne and Holy Ghost and therefore were to profess that they believed in Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Yea the very receiving of
prentice after this If the University give a man the Degree of Doctor of Divinity or Master of Arts that never took Degree of Batchelour of Divinity or of Arts they cannot afterwards call him back to take his Batchelours Degree If you have irregularly admitted the untryed unapproved unconfirmed to the Lord Supper you have Eminenter though not Formaliter Confirmed and Approved him though irregularly Of this more anon Prop. 19. So exceeding great and many are the mischiefs that have befallen us by the neglect of a solemn meet Transition from an Infant into the Adult Church state and which undoubtedly will continue till this be remedyed that all Magistrates Ministers and People that dissemble not in professing themselves to be Christians should with speed and diligence attempt the Cure LEt us here take a view of the case of our Nation and Congregations and then consider of the effects and consequents All the people of our Parishes except Anabaptists do bring their Children to be Baptized which if it were faithfully done were a happy means of an early engagement unto Christ and a happy enterance upon further mercy Multitudes of those know not what Baptism is nor to what use and end it is appointed nor what benefit their Children may receive by it I speak upon too sure and large experience nor do they know what Christianity is nor who Jesus Christ is nor what it is that they are to do in Baptism But there they make a promise customarily as they are bid in words not understood that they will acquaint their children at age with the Covenant there made which they never understood themselves and that they will educate them in Godliness when they hate Godliness at the heart And when they come home they performe their promise accordingly They teach them nothing of the Doctrine of Christianity and the life to come but they give them up to the flesh and the world which there in words they did renounce and they teach them by their daily examples to curse and swear and raile and to be proud and covetuous and voluptuous serving their bellies in stead of God and hateful reproaching a godly life instead of teaching it their Children These Children are customarily brought to the Assemblies where they heare the plainest teaching without understanding or regarding it and grow hardened under daily reproofs and exhortations living as their Parents taught them some in gross ignorance and worldlyness without any signes of Godlyness further then to come to Church some in Drunkenness some in Whoredom abundance in a malignant hatred of a holy life making them that use it the common scorne and taking them for the hatefullest persons in the Parish or Country where they live For custome sake and to quiet their Conscience in their sinne they will come to the Lords Table if they be admitted by the Pastour and may have it in their mode and way And if a Minister shall desire them to come to him first that he may understand their knowledg and Profession they scorn it and ask him by what Authority he would examine them and what proof he hath that men must be examined before they be admitted to the Lords Supper And some self-conceited half-witted Writers have taught them this lesson and made Ministerial tryal and Approbationâ—odious to them But because they were once Baptized and have since come to hear and joyne with us in the Assembly therefore they think that they have right to all Ordinances and are true Christians and Adult members of the Church and also exempt from the Government of the Pastours that require them to submit to the means of their own good In the Bishops daies some few of them were Confirmed in the Country where I lived about one of ten or twenty and what that was and how it was done I can tell you but what I once made tryall of When I was a Schoole-boy about 15 years of age the Bishop coming into the Country many went in to him to be Confirmed we that were boies runne out to see the Bishop among the rest not knowing any thing of the meaning of the business when we came thither we met about thirty or fourty in all of our own stature and temper that had come for to be Bishopt as then it was called The Bishop examined us not at all in one Article of the Faith but in a Church-yard in hast we were set in a rank and he past hastily over us laying his hands on our head and saying a few words which neither I nor any that I spoke with understood so hastily were they uttered and a very short prayer recited and there was an end But whethey we were Christians or Infidels or knew so much as that there was a God the Bishop little knew nor enquired And yet he was one of the best Bishops esteemed in England And though the Canons require that the Curate or Minister send a Certificate that children have learnt the Catechism yet there was no such thing done but we runne of our own accord to see the Bishop only and almost all the rest of the County had not this much This was the old careless practice of this Excellent Duty of Confirmation Some few perhaps halfe a Parish in the best places will send their children to Church to be catechized yet but even those few that learn the words for the most part understand not what they say and are as ignorant of the matters as if they never learnt the words This is the common way by which our Parishes come to be Churches and our people to be Christians supposing some to be mixt among them that are more Faithfully devoted to God in Baptism and better educated in the feare of God 2. Now let us see what are the real visible undenyable fruits of this defective sinful course Because men build upon this Fundamental falshood that infant Baptism upon the Parents Profession doth give them right to the Church-state and Priviledges of the Adult without any personal Profession and Covenanting with God when they come to the use of reason which the Church must have cognisance of and so they that entred somewhat more Regularly into an Infant Church state do become Adult-members secretly unobservedly and no body well knows how Hereupon it followeth 1. That our Churches are lamentably corrupted and diseased though they are true Churches and have Life in them while they are made so like the unbelieving and ungodly world and the Garden of Christ is made too like the common wilderness For Heathens and Impious persons and all sorts of the unclean almost are the members of them where Parishes or Parish-meetings are made convertible with Churches I would make the case neither worse nor better then it is Till within these few years I knew but very imperfectly how it is and I thought the case had been better with some and worse with others then I have found it upon tryall And had I not set
Christians but to give them Infant Priviledges upon the Parents Profession but to require of them a sober serious Profession and Covenanting by themselves in owning their Baptismal Covenant before we number them with Adult-Christians And that God hath suffered the Anabaptists to make such a stirre among us will prove a mercy to us in the End if we have the wit and grace to learn this upon this troublesome occasion and then the Reformation will do us more good then ever the Anabaptists did us harm But if we will not learne nor obey Gods call we must yet looke to be molested by them more or else to do and suffer worse Object 9. But if you will not take a non-renouncing of Christ and Infant Baptism as sufficient without a Personal Covenant and Profession you may on the same grounds call men every week to such a Profession because that the former Profession shews not what they afterwards are but what then they are Answ 1. The case is quite another In your instance it is but the continuance of the same Profession and Condition that is requisite And I am bound to take it as continued while I have no Evidence to question it and see the performance of it as far as belongeth to my cognisance But in my case the Conditions and the Professions are not the same A new Condition of Right is necessary to the Adult which they had not at all in their Infant Baptism Then they entered upon their Parents Faith or Profession but at age they must necessarily have a Faith or Profession of their own or else they actually cease to be Christians 2. And yet let me adde that frequent Professions of Faith and renewing Covenant with God have ever been used in the Church both before Christs Incarnation and since and indeed the Lords Supper doth import it And for my part I thinke it a very convenient edifying course to have the Articles of our Faith every day repeated as the Belief of that Church and the people to stand up at it to signifie their consent so be it you will not take up with this silent Profession alone and exclude a more explicite one when it is requisite But this fitly signifieth our standing to the first Object 10. But this will cast you upon the same difficulties which you Object to the Anabaptists you will not know at what Age to take men for Adult-Christians Answ 1. We shall not accept them for their Age but for their Profession And we can easily tell when they offer themselves to tryal and Profession and desire the Communion of the Church As the Ancient Churches could tell when their Catechumens were to be baptized 2. And for the time when we must judge their Infant Church-state to cease if they own not the Covenant personally we cannot set a certaine yeare nor is it necessary but when their Infancy ceaseth then their Infant-state ceaseth That is when they come to the full or competent use of Reason But then observe 1. That if they be called at such a time to profess their Faith and own their Covenant and refuse it then we must judge them refusers of Christianity unless the Reasons of the Refusal allows another judgment 2. Or if they will fully neglect for a considerable space to own their Baptismal Covenant and to seeke a standing among the Adult-Christians it 's a strong presumption that they are Backsliders 3. If they only suspend their personal Profession at age we must only suspend our Judgment till we have some light to discern the cause and cannot be sure that there are Deserters or Apostates 4. But we are sure that they are nor to be numbred by the Church among Adult Christians till they have produced the Evidence of their Title which is no other then A Credible Personal Profession So that it 's easy to know when any such person is to be admitted and publikely owned as an Actual Believer though it be not so easy to discern of all before that time whether they are to be reckoned as Desertours or not He that wilfully neglecteth to come among the Adult Christians long after he hath the full use of Reason which is not with all at the same age is to be much suspected at least And commonly about 16 or 17 or 18 years of age is the time when we have reason to expect that they should seek the Communion and Privilidges of the Adult For about that age they have a competent use of Reason Object 11. But if you admit them into the Church in Infancy say the Anabaptists you will be obliged to excommunicate them all that prove ungodly when they come to age and not to let them silently pass out of the Church again Answ Excommunication is either an excluding them from all Relation of members to the Catholike Church or from the actual Communion of the Church or from both The former we can do but Declaratively In the latter we also adjoyne the charge of God for the execution of the sentence But those that were never personal Professours of Faith nor admitted into the Communion of Adult-Christians are not fit to be cast out of it And this is the common use of Excommunication to remove those as unfit from the Communion of the Adult that once were in it and forfeit that Communion which cannot belong to them that never were in it And for our Declaring them Desertours or Apostates we may do it upon just occasion but we are not bound to do it publikely by all that are guilty this being not the Excommunication that is so enjoyned in the Scriptures Where do you find that the Church in Scripture-times or after was wont to Excommunicate Apostates And yet Apostates were formerly of the Church It is those that hang on and pretend still to be of the Church and intrude into the Actual Communion of it that we must cast out when they deserve it Object 12. But if they cease to be Christians you must Baptize them againe if you will receive them Answ No such matter The Anabaptists themselves will not Rebaptize an Apostate when he returneth to the Church He is to be received by Confession and Absolution and not by Baptism If a Christian turn Turk and afterward Return he is not to be Rebaptized Object 13. But by this means you will unchristen the people and then they will be exasperated and turn Heathens or hearken to any seducers that will mislead them Answ 1. No we will unchristen no man but do that honour to Christianity and that right to the Church and the Soules of men as to make a difference between Christians and Infidels and that somewhat wider then the bare Names He that is a Christian shall be more encouraged by this course and he that is not cannot be unchristened by us If men will not unchristen themselves they need not fear lest the just trying and approving of their Christianity should unchristen them 2. How little
a little while and I shall set more by their Judgments then now I do I red many a Physicians writings before I was fit to attempt a Cure It 's a raw deceitful kind of knowledg in these practical affaires that is not furthered by experience 2. And as for the duty of the ignorant ungodly people I shall say little of it because I suppose they are not like to read or regard what I say Only in general it is their first duty to become truly godly persons and so to live in communion with the Church But upon supposition that they will not yet be such their next choice should be to live in quiet submission to their Teachers and patiently stay among the Catechumens and Expectants till they are fit for a higher place and Priviledges And with the reasonableness of this motion and how it conduceth to their good we should labour to acquaint them and make them sensible of it that they may be patient in their station 3. OUr last work is to tell you what is the Magistrates part for the promoting of this work And I shall urge them here to no great matters because they shall not say that we would either drive them in the darke upon questionable things or put them upon that which any reason can call persecution or make them think that we can do nothing but by their sword And therefore whether they should force people to be Church-members or Christians or to come under Discipline are Questions that at this time I shall not meddle with But Direct 1. It is a great part of the Magistrates Duty to cause the people that are yet unfit for Church-communion to keep in their visible station and to behave themselves as Expectants and submit to that Instruction of their Teachers which is necessary to prepare them for the Priviledges of the Church and to this End the Magistrate should by Laws and Proclamations own this Ministerial Reformation Alas how little knew they what they did that have so long been jealous of us lest we would do too much and under pretence of Discipline enflame or abuse them by severity When as it is a work that casteth us on so much rage and hatred of rich and poor and calls for such abundance of Faith and Zeale and diligence and self-denial when we have so little and are commonly like other men addicted too much to man-pleasing and to save our selves that if we had all the help that Magistrates can give us it 's ten to one but we should leve the most of this work undone Preaching is a very cheap and easy work in comparison of Church-Government They have taken great pains to stop poor lazy short-winded men from runing up the steepest hill and carrying the heaviest burden and passing through the greatest sufferings that in those prosperous times we can expect And indeed I know it to be true that for all the countenance of Authority he that will faithfully execute the Pastoral Oversight and Discipline shall live a persecuted life which by meer Preaching he might avoid Therefore the chief Governours of the Nation ought to make Laws and cause them to be executed for the constraining of the grosly Ignorant and ungodly to heare the Word preached publikly and to submit to be privately Catechised and Instructed by the Ministers and to command them patiently to waite as learners in this Condition till they are fit to be Approved members of the Church These carnal people look more at the sword and will of the Magistrate in matters of Religion then others do because they understand no other argument and can favour nothing but the things of the flesh Did but the Rulers of the Nation heare how they daily enquire what Religion shall be owned and setled by them they would sure think it their duty to lend them a little more of their help We desire you not to drive them to Christianity nor to Sacraments or Church-Communion only drive them to heare and learne and be instructed that the Light of Truth may do the rest Surely none can reasonably suspect that this is against the Liberty of their Consciences unless the slavery of Satan be their Liberty and it be their Liberty to be free from Christ and Righteousness and Heaven It 's hard to believe that Governour to be a Christian that will not do this much to help his Subjects to be Christians Direct 2. And as the Magistrate should constraine such People to submit to be Instructed so should he constraine the Ministers to Instruct them both by publike preaching and by private conference and Catechizing if they be able and if through the greatness of the place one Minister is not able to perform it there should be so many maintained proportionably to the number and necessities of Souls as may be able The Reason why Ministers themselves should be compelled by Penalties are 1. First because some are so dull that they need the spur 2. Because our performances will be the less resisted by the people when they know we are forced by the Magistrate 3. Because the Magistrates Judgment puts much authority and honour on the work in the peoples eies compel us therefore as well as them Direct 3. The Magistrate should also impose a penalty upon all that undertake to be Pastours of a Church and administer the Lords Supper and yet will not make any necessary Tryal of the Knowledg Faith and Lives of those to whom they do administer it nor exercise any Church Discipline on the scandalous but utterly neglect that Oversight and Church-Government which is as much a part of the Pastoral work as publike preaching is They that will undertake to be Pastours and meddle with Sacraments must be compelled to do the work of Pastours and to dispence the Sacraments in a tollerable order Though yet we are not for compulsion in any doubtfull points of lesser moment where a difference among the Godly may be tollerated But that Pastours should act as no Pastours and Rectors of the Churches be as no Rectors and should cherish all ignorance infidelity and impiety and profane Gods Ordinances and subvert the Communion of Saints and lay the Garden of Christ open to the common wilderness and thereby make all seeme singular to the people that will not do as wickedly as these this is not to be tolerated but the Commissioners for ejecting scandalous Ministers with the advice of the Assistants should have power to correct them and in case of obstinate unreformedness to eject them Not to silence them from preaching to the Catechumens or any but to prohibite them from the actions proper to Church Rulers or Pastours till they will performe them more agreeably to the Scripture Rule And this compulsion also of the Ministers we desire especially for the peoples sake who we are content should be excused themselves from any such penal Laws to restraine them from Sacraments but when they know that Ministers are under such
hearts our selves that are naturally treacherous and at enmity to God So that we are still among enemies that would seduce us and with whom we are enclined to take part And besides that our Profession is not only necessary to the common safety but to our personal performances and daily Communion with the Saints and worship of God 2. If it be in a Garison that 's neer the enemy or in a Country that is inclined to Rebellion or where Rebellion is on foot and the enemy hat a party there Princes use to cause all their Subjects to take an Oath of fidelity and ordinarily also in peaceable Kingdoms this is practised At such an age all persons are to take an Oath of Allegiance or fidelity or to make Profession of their subjection in many places and in other places they do it before they enter upon any Office And if you will come neerer the case and suppose that men were borne in a Schoole or an Army as well as a Republike I think you would yield that when they come to age it is necessary that they have more then their Birth-Priviledg to shew to prove them Schollars or Soldiers We are Christs Disciples and Soldiers as well as his Subjects and one is as essential to our Christianity as the other We may be initiated into his School and Army in our Infancy and so stand Related to him But sure we are Apostates if when we come to age we have nothing to shew but our meer Infant-Condition and to more we must be called 3. The case also differeth in this Princes do make known to all in their Laws that no man that is an enemy yea or that is not pro tempore a Subject shall dwell on their Soile among their Subjects They suffer not Subjects and Enemies to live promiscuously together in their dominions and therefore it is supposed that a mans very abode and residence in their land is a profession of Subjâ—ction much more when they live in obedience to the Laws and hold their estates by them But Christ dealeth not thus He suffereth Believers and Infidels to live together and his flock to be but little in the world so that it cannot be the least presumption that a man is a Christian because he liveth among Christians 4. At least let us not teach Christ what he should have done when we find he hath done otherwise we find that he requireth personall Faith and profession of all at age that are naturally capable and therefore we must perform it and not give reasons why we should not do it No good Subject that 's called to profess his fidelity will refâ—se and say you have no reason to question me and put such a Tryall or obligation upon me So that I may conclude that an Adult person not professing Christianity is not a visible Christian notwithstanding his birth priviledges and therefore not a visible Church-member and therefore an Apostate seeing he was once engaged in Covenant to Christ though not an Apostate from actuall Faith and therefore such as hath no proper right to Church-communion and priviledges Object If his Infant Title be cut off it is either by Ignorance Wickednesse Heresie or Schism or Apostacie but ignorance and wickedness do not cut him off and Heresie Schism or Apostacie he is not guilty of therefoâ—e c. Answ 1. His Infant Title will cease of it self without any other cutting off if it be not continued by his personall actuall believing when he comes to capable age His birth-priviledges alone or his Parents dedicating him to God in Baptism will serve no longer of it self It is therefore for want of Personal Faith Coram Deo and of the profession of Faith Coram ecclesiâ that his right doth cease 2. Ignorance where it proveth Infidelity must needs prove a Cessation of the Infant Title when they come to a capable age and ignorance is privative He that knoweth not that there is a God a Christ or what he hath done for us or what a Christian is can have no Faith in God or Christ and therefore is an Atheist and an Infidell privatively if at a capable age among meanes at least It is not only he that denyeth Christ that is an Infidell but he that never heard of him Negatively at least and he that having heard of him understood not what he heard and therefore believeth not in him because he knoweth not And it is not only he that denyeth God that is an Atheist but he that knoweth not that there is a God And therefore if ingorance cut not off then Infidelity and Atheism cut not off And if neither of these cut off then no particular Heresie can nor any such Apostasie as men are capable of that had but an Infant Church-state gross ignorance at a capable age proveth gross ungodlinesse and Apostasie For if mens hearts had been towards God they would have sought to know him and if they know him not their hearts are Atheisticall and without him 3. Wickedness is either such as may consist with habituall adhering to God in Christ or such as shews a separation or renunciation the one being ungodliness partiall and quoad actum particularem as Peter's deniall and the other being ungodlinesse quoad statum He that saith the former cutteth not off from the Church will scarcely say that it doth not meritoriously suspend the Offender from the Communion of the Church till he appear penitent And he that saith the latter cuts not off from the Church meritoriously must say that nothing doth it For this is Apostacie and comprehendeth the greatest Heresie Such Hereticks hold that the pleasure of sin for a season is to be chosen before a life of Holiness with the Hopes of Everlasting life and the flesh to be pleased before the Lord And I think this is Heresie But whether these be cut off from the Church or not either they bring the person under the guilt of excommunication or else there is no excommunication to be used And if they be excommunicated we shall not much contend with you about their rights As long as you grant that they have no such right as that they may have the use of Church communion we are satisfied And yet I must say that it is a blind conclusion that the excommunicate are Church-members without distinguishing of excommunication If a man shall openly declare that he believeth not in Jesus Christ that dyed at Jerusalem nor that there is any life to come but yet he believeth in a Christ within him and a Heaven and Hell within men as the Ranters Familists c. did and yet this man that he may pervert the souls of others will hold communion with the Church and declare that he takes the Scripture in his sense I doubt not but this man though a professed Infidell and Apostate is yet to be excommunicated while he pretendeth to Communion and if this excommunicate man be not out of the Catholike Church then no
but in lighter matters may waite upon the Lord in this good service for the greâ—t blessing of Vnanimity promised also Object But he addeth the proviso that Coâ—firmation be not thought to have any ingrediency into the nature or being of our membership and that the temper of the people be found such as will admit of such a change Answ We shall easily grant that Confirmation as it is a solemn Reception of the person by Imposition of hands or without Imposition in a purposed solemnity commonly known by that name is not of necessity to the Being of our membership and that all those that are received upon profession of Faith may be Church-members and that the ordinary use of Christian Assemblies and exercises of worship is a Profession though obscure and that a baptized person that never was called to a Verball Profession may be taken for a Christian or Church-member upon such a Practical sort of Profession joyned with a not denying of Christ in word or life But yet we are far from thinking that the Infant-Title-condition of such a one serveth to prove his present Church-state and Title now he is at capable age The Infant-Title ceaseth if he continue it not by a Personal Profession at age And as there is no middle betweene Believers and unbelievers so there is no such thing in a capable subject as non-dissenting in a moral sense but true Consenting It is not possible for the Soul to be neuter when the thing is offered to our consent but we must either will or nill consent or dissent though if it were yet not willing or not consenting is Infidelity and Rebellion in such a Subject And accordingly we maintaine and must maintaine that Profession of some sort or other is a necessary Condition of the Title and Church-state of the capable Adult and of Right to the Priviledges And as an obscure kind of Profession may serve when a man is called to no more to prove his Right so a clearer sort of Profession is necessary to the clearer proof and ad bene esse Ecclesiae And I have shewed what great and weighty Reasons we have to require an open cleare intelligible Profession And he that is justly called to for such giveth cause to the Church to question him of Apostacy if he refuse without cause So that of the three Conditions in question the first which is our Infant-condition is utterly insufficient to the capable Adult and the second which is an obscure signification of our mind by our Christian practises may serve ad esse at least when no more is required and the third which is an open approved Profession by word or subscription is necessary ordinarily ad bene esse Thus farre we are agred But what if we were not Must we therefore refuse to agree in the practice of the aforesaid Confirmation Will any good and peaceable man refuse to joyne with those that think it necessary to Adult Church-membership If this opinion of the said Non-necessity had been an Article of Faith and among the necessâ—ry Credenda of the Church we should have had it in some Creed or heard more of the necessity of it then we have done from the Ancient Churches If we meet about the agenda in our practice let men take head how they divide from such as differ in the Reasons of their Practice till they can prove that they deny some Article of the Faith which is of necessity to be believed And as for the peoples unfitness or any disturbance that will follow thereupon 1. If there be such a thing it will be much long of the Ministers Let them unanimously agree and they may do well enough with the people or much the better But when Ministers themselves are the bellows of faction and think they can never sufficiently vilifie dissenters and so have themselves taught the people to take such a Practice for a Prelaticall foppery or formality or for an Independent rigidity and extreamity no wonder if when they come to practice their duty they meet with such reproaches from the people as they have taught them 2. But suppose that people would disturb us that may in some cases excuse us as to the mode of Confirmation or Profession but no unfitness of the people can excuse us as to the substance of the duty the requiring and approving their Profession We are false to our trust and the Church of God if to avoid disturbance we will confound Believers and Infidels and destroy the nature of the Church and Ordinances under pretence of the peoples good Object But it would be your only sure and happy course to exercise Discipline upon all that are baptized in their Infancy whether at age they consent or no And finding them in the Church you must do so Answ I have said enough to this before Have they that talk thus tried this course or have they not If they have not we will beare with them as well meaning men that talk of what they never tryed as we would do with a confident man that would condemn the actions of Souldiours and Seamen that himself was never in at warres nor at Sea But if they have tryed it what kind of Discipline do they exercise Would they make us believe that they are able in a Parish of 4000 or 5000 or 6000 Souls to exercise the Discipline mentioned in Scripture and the Canons of the Ancient Churches and that upon such persons as our Parishes commonly consist of I know they cannot do it I have had tryall to tell me what a man can do With the help of divers Ministers and many hundred godly people to watch over others and promote this work I am not able to do it on all this Parish if I might There is so many offendours weekely to be dealt with and so much time required to heare witnesses and admonish them that it 's more then I could pâ—ssibly do How Bishops deale with Diocesses let them see themselves And if we could do it yet the people will not consent If you send for them they will not come neer you If you admonish them in the Congregation by name they will have an Action at Law against you if they can However you will have such a multitude enraged by the exercise of Discipline if it be faithfully though never so tenderly done that the Church will be in a flame and your Mâ—nistry hated and the people undone as I have before declared So that it is but a name of Discipline to the destruction of discipline that this Objection pleadeth for or else it dishonoureâ—h it self and the Authors And as they do by Discipline so they do by Christian Charity which is a greater thing Of old the Visible members of the Church were the Objects of brotherly Christian Love And so as they seemed to them to be Believers and penitent persons the living members did love all the body with that special Love that was the matter of the new Commandment