Divine Worship See his Book intitled the Breach Repaired in Gods Worship Page 183 184. that if the Spirit of the Lord does not lift up a spiritual standard against it we may fear the increase of Artificial Worship in our Churches for he saith There is I must ' tell you an Art in speaking and no Man but has need to learn and be instructed to speak as he ought especially when he speaks about Divine Things Also there is an Art in preaching and all young Men when they begin to take upon them that work need Instruction how to handle a Doctrine And saith he so I may say in Praying too So that we see how naturally the Art of singing which he is there pleading for does draw Men in to plead for an Art in Praying too And as I have said in my Reply to him See my Book Page 18. is not this a forward step for him or others that may if the Lord of his Mercy does not prevent hereafter build upon this Foundation to bring into use a prestinted Form of Prayer for Gospel-Worship for if Nature and Grace may and ought to be improved by Art to express the Matter of our Prayers to God what Art can he mean or can any others think is best for Prayer than to use an Artificial Form of Words I mention these things to shew the danger that we are in of loosing the true spiritual Worship of God by the apostatizing of some in our Profession to the Errour of prestinted Forms of Singing And if we do not incourage such gracious Brethren as may be found among us better principled whether with or without the Knowldge of other Tongues to improve their Gifts which through the Blessing of God may be fit for the publick Service of our Churches many of them are like to crumble away for want of Ministers suitable to their Principles and those others which have been advanced to the Ministry by the publick Fund will have the greater opportunity through the necessities of our Churches to infect our Profession with their Error of common set form Singing and I fear with mixed Communion too which seem like twins to go hand in hand together As for their Mode of of Singing I have largely shewed that which was never answered by any of them and plainly proved in my Reply to Mr. Benjamin Keaches Book of Singing Intitled the Breach Repaired c. That we have no Command nor Example neither under the Law nor under the Gospel for the Ministers and all the People to sing with united Voices together in the settled worship of God in his Church And that his common way of Singing is not that Mode of spiritual singing which was used in the Apostles time nor is it the natural but an Artificial Mode of Worship And also that we have not the least ground to conclude that Christ and his Disciples at or after the Lords Supper did sing the Hymn or Praise which they gave to God for those Texts Math. 26.30 Mark 14.26 and Acts 16.25 are not rightly translated in our last Bibles which are witnessed against by many of our old English Bibles and many learned Authours as I have abundantly shewed in my aforesaid Reply to Mr. Keach But to return It is therefore high time for all that have any Love for the Truth and Purity of Gospel-worship to awake out of sleep for the necessities of many Churches call upon us earnestly to seek the Lord by Humiliations Fastings and Prayers that he would graciously raise up Ministers not only sound in the Faith but in all their Principles of Divine Worship in the Spirit of Love and Meekness And tho' we may find some of our Ministers and other Brethren that are for the new Modelling of our Churches with their formal Worship and mixed Communion to decline this Work with us by Reason their different Principles cannot join with our particular Requests relating thereunto yet this should in no wise hinder our People from flocking together and crying fervently to the Lord for the pourings forth of the Holy Spirit according to his promise to bear a lively Testimony against all unrighteousness and false worship Isa 44.3 to 6. Ch. 59.21 Eph. 4.11 12 13. Isa 59.19 20 21. Jer. 3.15 and to give us Pastours according to his heart which shall feed his People with Knowledg and Understanding even such as shall worship him in Spirit and Truth without any mixture of humane Forms and meer Inventions of men For if instead of sound Elders we should have only those for the publick service of God that are for a piece of false worship and mixed communion what else can be expected from new Converts and those who joyn themselves to our Churches but that through Love and Affections to their Ministers they will suck in their Erroneous Principles as sad Experience hath shewed and so in time will overturn the former order and settlement of our Churches and put back that blessed Reformation which God has wrought among us and which many precious Saints have suffered for that the Purity of the Gospel which some are now betraying might be handed down to future ages Fourthly I shall leave a few things to the serious consideration of those who have received the manifestation of the special Grace of God in Christ to their souls through faith which worketh by love and yet are walking at large in neglect of his holy Ordinances as if they were left to Christians liberty to obey or reject them at their pleasures Let me ask a few Questions for thee to answer in thine own Conscience Rom. 2.15 16. which shall either accuse or else excuse thee in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel Why art thou partial in Gods laws or in Christs institutions Mal. 2.9 so as to pick and choose which of them thou wilt obey Remember Psal 119.6 David saith Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Wilt thou partake of the Benefit of the publick Prayers of the Saints and of the Ministration of the Gospel of Christ in his Church and not put to thy helping hand to support it in the World and to convey it down to future ages what had become of thy precious soul and many thousands more if our late Reformers had bin of thy Mind how should the true worship of God have bin maintained and how little preaching should we have in our present day if Christians did not imbody themselves into Societies to encourage the Gospel Ministers for where can their light best appear if not on a Gospel Candlestick No marvel Soul if thou hast not peace of Conscience and strength of Grace against the power of Sins and Temptations if thy feet are not found in the ways of Christ whose ways are ways of pleasantness Prov. 3.17 Ch. 10.29 Isa 64.5 and all his paths are peace and strength to
The same causes as will justifie a single Persons removing his Communion to another Church will also justisie a Parties Separation to sit down by themselves in a Church-state otherwise there is no erecting of Reformed Churches to be allowed where there was none before Which if it be there lawful to reform as surely it cannot be denied there is neither Scripture nor Reason as I can find to debar a reforming party from settling themselves in the Order of a Regular gospel-Gospel-Church where there is one already if they find it expedient for them But 2. To prevent such misapprehensions of giving Church-members too great a Liberty I shall here remind the Reader that if he duely considers what I have said in this small Discourse he will not find the least allowance for Persons to remove their Communion out of Novelty or meerly for their Pleasures-sake or for Trivial Matters and Pretences for herein the Church is bound in faithfulness to Christ and the Souls that are under her special care to use the means directed to in the Scripture for preserving her mutual Peace and Welfare But for real Conscience-sake Separation should be allowed to keep themselves pure from corrupt and sinful Manners Erroneous Doctrines in essentials to Salvation and from false Worship and irregular Ordinances and unless there be a Moral Necessity or a real Expediency for it no Separation else is lawful for every Member is or should be in Covenant with the Church to walk in the ways of the Lord together with them But yet when a Church of Christ shall alter in any part of their Faith or Practice essential to a regular Church the Members thereof are free from their former Covenant Not simply because the Church has broken the Conditions of it for that were to acknowledge her Members to be under an absolute tye while she makes no Alteration of her Faith and Practice For as none of our Churches in Covenanting with their Members by giving them the right hand of fellowship does intend thereby absolutely to bind themselves from any future Alteration of their Faith or Practice if in Conscience they should be otherwise informed so the like Liberty is but equitable for the Members to have and therefore as there is the same Reason for it so it ought to be equally taken for granted in their Covenanting with the Church that each Member in Covenant hath an equal Reservation of Liberty of Conscience to the Church and neither side ought to impose on each other for that is a making themselves the perfect standard of Religion like the Church of Rome 3. 2 Pet. 5.1 2 3. The Apostle Peter exhorteth the Elders to take the oversight of the Flock Not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready Mind Neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being ensamples to the Flock And Paul saith That to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth 2 Cor. 1.23 24. 1 Tim. 6.2 5. 2 Tim. 2.22 Chap. 3.5 Not for that we have Dominion over your Faith but are helpers of your Joy And Timothy was commanded as a single Person to withdraw himself from those Professors of Religion that were corrupt in Doctrine Now if the Apostles who were the infallible Pen-men of sacred Scripture disclaimed Lordship over the Saints and Dominion over their Faith Why should any hold such Principles as will naturally assume such a regal Power over the Consciences of their Brethren as tendeth to enthral them in divers troubles when they go about to remove their Communion from them for Conscience-sake considering also they themselves are but lately delivered from the Yoak of Persecution And for such who make it their frequent Practice to receive Members that remove for Conscience-sake from other Congregations that are true Churches of Christ as to their visible Matter and part of their Form to hold such Principles as will deny their own Members Liberty of Conscience without their Censures Snares or Inthralments to frighten their weak Brethren to continue in their Communion against the Light which they have received is consequently assuming such an Arbitrary Dominion over their Faith and Consciences which neither God nor Nature hath given to them and is not Consonant to the Law for doing to others as they would have others do to them in the like Case And to speak the plain Truth of such a Principle and Practice it is no better then claiming a right of Imposition on the Consciences of their Brethren and a holding fast all they have and all they can so get right or wrong And therefore seeing the Light of Scripture and Reason with common Equity is repugnant to such an Arbitrary Dominion over the Faith and Consciences of the Saints and that this Principle of denying a single Member his Liberty of Communion according to his Light is also a bar to Religious Reformation I conceive none should go about to hinder a single Persons removing from them for Conscience-sake any other ways than by Arguments from the Scriptures for the Regularity of their Communion and if herein they cannot satisfie his Mind I believe the Church should do no more then if they please to enter him in their Book departed from them for the cause for which he leaveth them for as much as his Principles are not opposite to any of their Essentials of Communion And in Case they were yet if he holdeth no Error in fundamentals to Salvation it better suits with the Grace of Love and universal Charity to one another to let him peaceably remove his Communion than by a harsh and sower Spirit to widen the Differences that are between Saints and Saints and to fright a weak and tender Conscience with the Censure of a Church which if it be not according to Christs Institutions it is neither bound in Heaven nor should it be binding on our Consciences But if a single Member should alter in his Faith or Practice from any of his Church Essentials of Communion and yet seek to continue in the same Church then to prevent the spreading of his Leaven to the Pollution of the Body or their being defiled with his Errour by Participation in full Communion with him they have ground on Non-repentance to withdraw from him and if he persisteth in such an Errour to purge him out from their Communion But to conclude the aforesaid Objection What spiritual Comfort can any have in Church-Communion where there is not an agreement in the Essentials thereof doth not the sweetest Communion depend on the greatest Union in Faith and Practice why then should any Christians be kept in Bondage and be deprived of the chiefest ends of Church-Communion which are to glorifie God in the purest worship they can attain to the Knowledge and Practice of and to enjoy the comfortable Communion of Saints in the Unity of Faith and of the Spirit which is the bond of Peace Secondly I shall present you with a particular instance of the confused
them To whom I have this to say 1. That I think we may fairly gather from what they have published with their Confession of Faith of the Institution and Order of Churches that they do not admit any unbaptized Christians to their Communion at the Lord's Table for in Article the seventh speaking of a particular Church gathered and compleated according to the Mind of Christ In Article the eighth they say The Members of those Churches are Saints by Calling visibly manifesting and evidencing their Obedience unto that call of Christ who being further known to each other by their Confession of the Faith wrought in them by the Power of God do willingly Consent to walk together according to the appointment of Christ giving up themselves to the Lord and to one another by the Will of God in professed Subjection to the Ordinances of the Gospel So then if the Members of a compleat Church do willingly consent to walk together in professed Subjection to the Ordinances of the Gospel none that do not subject themselves to the Ordinance of Baptism in their Sence can be orderly admitted by them as compleatly quallified to their full Communion and so if they will not hold Communion with such unbaptized Persons they do not hold it as some of them pretend with Christians meerly as such but only with such Christians which are qualified with Water-Baptism to receive the Lords Supper But 2. If they own that our baptizing Persons on Confession of Faith by way of dipping is also right Baptism according to Gospel-Rule and so for this Reason they can freely hold their Communion with us Yet this is no Corrector that their Charity is more universal then ours because then they receive us not meerly on the account of their Charity but as Christians sitly qualified with Water-Baptism But the Case is different respecting us for seeing we deny their Infant-sprinkling to be true Baptism or to be of God and so they being to us as unbaptized Persons our having sull Communion with them would be not only contrary to the Light of our own Consciences but witnessed against by their practice of sprinkling for Baptism as a qualification to full Communion And therefore we have equal Reason to say that our refusing Church-Communion with them is not for want of Charity towards them as Christians any more then it is for want of it in themselves to other Christians that are not sprinkled or any ways baptized if they refuse Communion with them as some have done in their private Conference according to what is gathered as their Mind in Print before So that I see no Reason why our Brethren should in the least be offended at us for keeping our selves from their Communion when otherwise so far as I can perceive their Practice as well as our own Consciences would condemn us for so doing 3. Our aforesaid Brethren of the Independant Churches however some of their Members have in their private Converse reflected on us have fairly granted See their 28 Article of the Institution of Churches at the end of the Congregational Confession of Faith that a Person where he cannot continue in any Church without his Sin may depart from the Communion of one Church to another For they say Persons that are joined in Church-fellowship ought not lightly or without just cause to withdraw themselves from the Communion of the Church whereunto they are so joined Nevertheless where any Person cannot continue in any Church without his Sin either for want of the Administration of any Ordinances instituted by Christ or by his being deprived of his due Priviledges or compelled to any thing in Practice not warranted by the Word or in case of Persecution or upon the account of Conveniency of Habitation he consulting with the Church or the Officer or Officers thereof may peaceably depart from the Communion of the Church wherewith he hath so walked to join himself with some other Church where he may enjoy the Ordinances in the Purity of the same for his Edification and Consolation Now seeing they grant that we may leave our Communion with a Church to join our selves with some other Church where we may enjoy the Ordinances in the Purity of the same then none of them ought to blame us for not holding our full Communion with them as if they were the standard of Truth who we believe are not in the compleat Order and true Administration of all Gospel Ordinances Seeing we walk by their Rule of Communion according to our Consciences tho' we have not the same Light to walk with them 2. For any of our Baptized Brethren to plead for mixed Communion from the Obligation of universal Charity for Christians as they are such does rather betray their want of real Love Gal. 5.22 1 Joh. 4.19 for that is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit flowing first from the Faith we have in the Love of God to us which is the cause of Love in us to him 1 Joh. 5.1 and so to our Brethren which are begotten of him and then our universal Love to Christians depending on our Love to God it must consist with sincere Obedience to his Will so far as we are inlightned For this is the Love of God Joh. 14.21 23. 1 Joh. 5.2 3. that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous And by this we know that we Love the Children of God when we Love God and keep his Commandments And therefore whatsoever Love is pretended which is inconsistent with sincere Obedience to Christ 't is rather to be suspected than counted real But in Charity I must conclude it is not for want of Love to the Institutions of Christ but for want of Light that you plead for Communion at the Lords Table with unbaptized Christians However you do thereby virtually deny your own Baptism to be essentially necessary to a regular Gospel-Church and make void that Holy Ordinance of Christ which in Obedience to him you have subjected to Besides why may you not then also say that you ought in Charity to Christians meerly as such altho' they be not yet baptized to call any gifted Christian to administer the Ordinances of Preaching Prayer and breaking Bread in the Church and in Charity to those Members that walk disorderly and break the Commandments of Christ forbear the Execution of his Ordinance of withdrawing your Church-Communion from them because you believe them still to be real Christians as if we could not Love Mens Persons unless we favour their Sins and thereby perhaps through the neglect of our Duty to them harden their Hearts therein And so under the Notion of Christian Charity the true Order of a gospel-Gospel-Church may be quite destroyed VII Object But some may think I open the door of the Church too wide and give too great incouragement for Persons to wander from Church to Church or to leave their present Communion to imbody themselves into a distinct Church-state Answer 1.
Matter which is already Printed among us in Mr. Keaches Book intitled the Breach Repaired and of several Queries made upon it in my Reply to him with some Additions to them To proceed therefore I shall premise some particular things in Mr. Keaches Gold Refined or Treatise of Baptism Page 181 182. where he saith thus Let me conclude all with one Use of Caution to my Brethren that are Baptized as Believers and yet take Liberty to walk in Communion with such Churches as dissent from them in respect of this Ordinance and sprinkle Babes I am more concerned about you than any other People because you seem to pull down with one Hand that which you build with the other ought you not to follow the best and highest Reformation and clearest discovery of God and to be in the most perfect and compleat Order of the Gospel you are able to arrive to the Knowledge of is not Truth and Righteousness to be joined with Peace and Love Nay and doth not my Love run out to our Brethren in a cleaner Channel than yours And in his Treatise of Laying on of Hands Page 99. he hath these Words Can we comfortably have Communion with such that oppose a Holy Oracle or Command of God Ought not Communion to flow from Christian Union especially in all fundamental Principles of Church-Constitution Ought we not in these things to be agreed before we can in an orderly way sit down together But notwithstanding Mr. Benjamin Keach thus refuseth Communion with those that are not under Believers-Baptism See my Ep. to my Reply to Mr. Keach's Breach Repaired p. 10 c. and laying on of Hands yet in his general Epistle to his pretended Answer to my Appendix Page 9. he saith We do not say our dissatisfied Brethren shall sing with us or we will have no fellowship with them No God forbid we should impose on their Consciences We do not look upon Singing c. an Essential of Communion it is not for the being but for the Comfort and well being of the Church To which I there Reply to Mr. Keach Let me ask you in your own Words See his darkness c. Vanquished or Truth in its Primitive Purity p. 96. Why should you have a greater esteem for one than for another Institution If it be as you say that your way of Singing is a Gospel-Ordinance for the Practice of the Church Is there any Church Ordinance of Divine Worship that is not essential to her orderly being as well as for her Comfort and well Being Who gave you Power to dispence with any one Ordinance more than others And in Page 13. of my Epistle I farther tell Mr. Keach that there are divers things that I and others cannot reconcile to the Word of God and his confused Principles of Communion some of which I offer to his Consideration by way of Query 1. Whether it be lawful for a Christian to withdraw or remove his Communion at the Lords Table from a Church that practiseth any one Ordinance of Divine Worship or of Church-Constitution in a false Manner to join with a Church that is more pure And whether it is his Duty if enlightned therein so to do 2. Whether there is any Liberty given in the Word of God for a Christian to have Communion with a Church that practiseth any one Ordinance of Gospel-Worship or of Church-Constitution in a false Manner more than of any other such Ordinances so performed and if there be which it is or which they are and where the allowance is given 3. Whether thanking and praising of God be as much an Ordinance and of as high a Nature as Prayer to him 4. Whether the Mode of Singing the Praises of God be also as much an Ordinance and of as high a Nature as Prayer 5. Why it is not as unlawful to have Communion with a Church that practiseth Singing the Praises of God in a false Manner as with a Church that performeth Prayer in a false Manner 6. Seeing you have made a Common Praise-Book so I call it wherein you say is contained some hundred of Sacred Hymns out of which as I hear is sometimes read and sang an Hymn in your Congregation for publick Worship So if another Ministring Brother of your own or of another Congregation in full Communion with you at the Lords Table should also make prestinted set Forms of Prayer and read them or say them in the Church for publick Worship I Query Whether you would nevertheless hold and continue your full Communion with such a Person or Church as so useth such humane prestinted Forms of Prayer 7. Whether it be not a worshipping of God in a false Manner and so unlawful and a Sin for any of our Brethren alone by themselves to pray in their own or anothers set humane prestinted form of Words and if it can be proved against him that he useth such private Prayers Whether the Church should still hold their full Communion with him without Repentance for it 8. Whether it be not unlawful for any of our Churches to hold full Communion with a Brother at the Lords Table who sometimes useth to pray with another different People in a false Manner in a set humane prestinted form of Words and if this be unlawful whether it is not equally unlawful for a Church to hold such Communion with a Brother who tho' he cannot practice Singing the Praises of God in as false a Manner in his own Church yet he sometimes as falsely singeth in other Congregations 9. Whether the Mode of Singing an Hymn is a piece of Worship Essential to the Regular and Compleat Administration of the Lords Supper If our Singers deny this why do so many of them make such a stir about it and commend that practice of Singing See the Reply to Mr. Steed's Epist pag. 8.40 41 45 47 49. as they boldly say from the Example of Christ and his Disciples as a perfect Pattern and Rule for us to follow And if they believe in their Consciences that the Mode of Singing an Hymn is so Essential to that Ordinance How can any of those Gospel-Ministers as I have heard say administer the Lords Supper without it and contrary to the Light of their own Consciences dispense with that which belongs as they believe to Christs Ordinance as if they choose to please Men rather than God in his Worship I have added the more Queries because such stating of the matter divers ways will lay a greater Necessity on any who may pretend to answer them either to discover the Discord and Confusion of their Principles of Communion and the natural tendency of them or to unmasque the farther designs of those that are apostatizing from the true Worship of God Thirdly I shall here humbly present my Advice to some of our Baptized Churches And 1. To those whose sixed Pastours and Ministers differ from their Churches in some Principles Essential either to the true Manner of
3. he also saith We shall therefore direct this Discourse to our dissenting Brethren of the baptized way only And in page 13 14. he argueth saying If unbaptized Persons may be admitted to all Church Priviledges does not such a Practice plainly suppose that it is unnecessary The Baptists if once such a Belief prevails would be easily tempted to lay aside that reproachful Practice And challenge their Church Communion by Vertue of their Faith only and such as baptize Infants would be satisfied to discontinue the Practice when once they are perswaded that their Children may be regular Church-members without it and by consequence be in a likely condition to loose one of the Sacraments which would easily make way for the loss of the other both having an equal sanction in Scripture and the Arguments that disanul the one will destroy the other and consequently all Ordinances and Modes of Worship and lastly Religion it self And in page 118. In answer to an Objection he saith This Objection supposes things very dangerous As that holiness without Baptism invests a right to other Ghurch-Ordinances which is not to be supposed for Christ the Lamb of God was holy in the highest degree and in him was found no sin yet he was baptized before he entred upon his publick Ministry which is a most illustrious Example and the Pattern which the Saints followed for in a word the great Apostle Paul and all those primitive Saints recorded by the Spirit to be Believers and therefore holy were nevertheless Baptized which might have been forborn but that it was an indispensable Duty And Secondly It seemeth strange to me that any professing Obedience to Gospel-Ordinances should so far countenance others in the neglect of a positive Institution of Christ as to plead for Church-Communion with Christians without Baptism when our Lord hath plainly commanded his Apostles and Ministers to the end of the World saying Go ye therefore and teach all Nations Math. 28.19 20. Baptizing them teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And 〈◊〉 I am with you alway even unto the end of the World For seeing the Disciples of Christ were commanded to Baptize as well as to Preach and to teach others successively to do the same It is undeniably clear if Scripture and Reason may take Place that the Gospel Ministers ought to Baptize those that obey their Doctrine Acts a. 38 41. as Peter said Repent and be baptized every one of you then they that gladly received his Word were Baptized and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand Souls And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayer Here we find those new Converts were commanded every of one them to be Baptized and this way they were added to the Primitive Church of Christ at Jerusalem which was the Pattern for all Gospel-Churches to follow in after Ages For there were the twelve Apostles who were endowed with the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit to shew us the perfect pattern of Gods House And this was the Church that said It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost Acts 15.22 28. and to us to lay upon you no greater Burthen then these necessary things and from this Pattern given as it were in the Mount of God we find Baptism was commanded as the entring Ordinance into Church Communion or upon Confession of Faith before it for baptized Believers tho' the true visible matter of a Gospel-Church were not always immediately formed into a Gospel-Church Order for this was sometimes a work of time as we have an Instance how Paul baptized the twelve Disciples at Ephesus and went into the Synagogue Acts 19.1 to 10. and spake boldly for the space of three Months before he separated the Disciples from the Multitude Moreover we have several other Precepts and Examples that do confirm the Ordinance of Baptism immediately to follow Conversion and Faith in Christ Acts 8.35 to 39. As when Philip Preached unto the Eunuch and he believed he was immediately Baptized And when Cornelius and his Friends were Converted Act. 10.44 48. Act. 16.14 15 32 33. Ch. 18.8 Peter commanded them to be Baptized And so we find Lydia and her Houshold and the Jaylor and his Houshold were Baptized immediately after their Conversion And all these instances plainly shew that Water-Baptism was administred to Converted Believers before they were in Church-Order to receive the Ordinance of the Lords Supper and 't is called a putting on Christ viz. by a visible Profession and signifieth our dying unto Sin Gal. 3.27 Col. 2.12 Rom. 6.3 to 7. Joh. 3 3.5 Mark 16.15 16. and living in newness of Life unto God As also our being born of the Spirit and all these denote Baptism to be the first visible Sign of a Believer in Christ and it is appointed to accompany the Preaching of the Gospel as a Christian Badge on all that shall believe And it was called a Foundation-Principle viz. of a visible Church-state Act. 2.38 41. Ch. 8.12 Ch. 18.8 the matter whereof was and still should be baptized Believers And there being not the least instance in the New Testament of any one Person that was ever added to a Gospel-Church without Water-Baptism nor that any Gospel-Church was ever gathered but of baptized Believers to exclude it as no entring Ordinance into Church-Communion against so many clear Commands and Examples on Sacred Record which shews it is immediately to follow believing in Christ will lay a Foundation to deny all Gospel-Ordinances and the Holy Scriptures themselves to be of use to us to discover the Truth of Gospel-Worship and Obedience I. Object Is from Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the Faith receive you Answer To this Scripture Mr. Will. Kiffin in his aforesaid Sober Discourse saith The weakness spoken of in the Text hath Relation only to those Mistakes that did attend some of them touching a Liberty of eating or not eating of Meats or the keeping or not keeping of Days which were things in themselves of an indifferent Nature the doing or not doing of which was not Sin as the Apostle in that Chapter plainly shews and hath no Relation to the Order of Worship prescribed by Christ much less to the Practice or not Practice of Ordinances for then the meaning of the Apostle should be if they did Practice or not Practice it was all one there was no Sin in the Matter But to bring this Text to prove a lawfulness of receiving any that are Christians altho' never so ignorant of the Ordinances and instituted Worship of Christ and the Order prescribed by him is to wring Blood out of it and not that precious Truth that is manifested by it II. Object Is from 1 Cor. 12.13 For by one Spirit are we all Baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be Bond or Free and have been all made to drink