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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76812	The covenant sealed. Or, A treatise of the sacraments of both covenants, polemicall and practicall. Especially of the sacraments of the covenant of grace. In which, the nature of them is laid open, the adæquate subject is largely inquired into, respective to right and proper interest. to fitnesse for admission to actual participation. Their necessity is made known. Their whole use and efficacy is set forth. Their number in Old and New Testament-times is determined. With several necessary and useful corollaries. Together with a brief answer to Reverend Mr. Baxter's apology, in defence of the treatise of the covenant. / By Thomas Blake, M.A. pastor of Tamworth, in the counties of Stafford and Warwick.	Blake, Thomas, 1597?-1657.; Cartwright, Christopher, 1602-1658.	1655 (1655)	Wing B3144; Thomason E846_1; ESTC R4425	638,828	706

as general truths are brought home by particular application so they seal mens particular interest in the Covenant He that hath the Son hath life He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life These are Scripture-Propositions and he that is to seek here hath no cure in the Sacraments They can give no direct remedy These signs and seals take this for granted and cannot make proof of it But when this is assented to in the general He that hath the Son hath life and he that feeds upon him shall live for ever Here soules are confirmed in their particular interests that the Son is theirs and that they feed upon him for life eternal Thirdly we must distinguish the outward sign in the Sacrament together with that which is done about them or any of them and the Communicants act in the bare beholding of them from our act of receiving of them In the former sense they are no more then signes The Lords Supper thus considered is no more then a remembrance memorial or representation of Christs death and passion In the latter it is a seal pledge or earnest And therefore to say that Christ ordained it to be a remembrance memorial and representation of his death is a truth But to say that therefore he did not ordain it to be a seal is a manifest error If Christ had taken bread and broken it taken the cup and poured out wine and had said This is my body this is my blood here had been a sign a memorial a representation and no more But when he saies Take eat this is my body This is my blood in the New Testament drink ye all of this it is as Circumcision was both a sign and seal As a sign remembrance or representation the beholding is sufficient as the Israelites did the brazen Serpent and as Papists look on their Images for which if they had an institution as they have a prohibition they might be defended and if we were to do no more it would be no more then a sign memorial and representation But being to receive it It is a seal and pledge of that which it represents and brings to our minds Fourthly They are not absolute seals but conditional They do not make it good to all that Christ is theirs but upon Gods terms which is exprest by St. Peter to be the answer of a good conscience towards God Of this I spake largely Treatise of the Covenant pag. 34 35 c. which by Mr. Baxter in his Apology hath been examined Sect. 60 to Sect. 82. which here must briefly be taken into consideration A digression for vindication of chap. 7. of the Treatise of the Covenant from Mr. Baxters exceptions touching conditional sealing in Sacraments HAving in my Treatise of the Covenant shewed at large that the Covenant of grace is conditional In my seventh Chapter I inferr'd that the seals of the Covenant are as the Covenant it self conditional making it good with six several arguments as I had before asserted it in my answer of Mr. T. chap. 15. p. 100. This reverend Mr. Baxter is pleased to take notice of in his Apology and to put the question in opposition to me in these words Sect. 60. Whether the Sacraments seal the conditional promise absolutely or the conclusion conditionally when onely one of the premises is of Divine revelation and whether this conclusion be de fide I am justified and shall be saved Which terms I leave to the intelligent Reader to consider He is not pleased to take notice of any one of my arguments whether it is because he judges them unworthy of his answer or for any other reason I cannot tell I produce likewise the testimony of many of our Divines speaking the same thing and he takes as little notice of any of their authorities As I then spake what reason inforced me to believe so I have the same reason still to believe what I have spoke and when all is examined which may be found in that apology from p. 115 to p. 144. I think more is spoken for me then against me He is pleased pag. 139. to say The difference is so small that were it not for some scattered by-passages I would scarce have replyed to you I therefore shall return no other rejoynder but onely to observe such passages as may best serve to clear the truth in question He goes about to take away the subject of the question and saies I never heard of nor knew a conditional sealing in the world which to me is very strange Besides what I have spoken of it he hath doubtlesse read Mr. Marshalls answer to Mr. T. and pag. 224. of his Treatise of Infant-Baptisme he makes us know that he hath read it and he expresly calls it a conditional seal of the receivers interest in the Covenant He confesses the possibility but asserts the vanity of such sealing As if a man saith he Sect. 77. pag. 140. should set the wax and material Seal to a deed of gift with this addition I hereby seal to this or own it as my deed if such a man be now living in France or if such a ship be safe arrived or if such a man shall do such a thing otherwise this shall be no seal Here I think an impossibility is found out Is an actual Seal made no Seal upon any condition in the World Hath he never heard of that Maxime Quicquid est quando est necesse est esse or that other Quod factum est infectum reddi nequit And we are wont to say that this is not within an omnipotence to make a thing that is whilest it is not to be unlesse Mr. Baxter means that such wax with impression made is formally no seal before the time that in law it hath its efficacy as he seems to say Sect. 72. where he hath these words To say I conditionally seal is to say It shall be no seal till the performance of the condition So a bond sealed and delivered in presence of witnesses is unsealed till it be forfeited which is a manifest absurdity And I speak not of a conditional seal as opposed to actual I should call such a seal not conditional but potential I speak to conditional sealing as it is in the question that is when a man ties himself by seal to such or such a thing not absolutely but upon condition and such sealings I think are common in the world A Master seals to his Apprentice and binds himself at the end of his term to apparel him to make him free of his mystery c. but all this upon terms and condition of true and faithful service If Philemon in his way had sealed to Onesimus his seal had not tyed him to make good such engagements I have alwaies thought As is the obligation so is the seal and if there be no such conditional obligations we have been long abused with such forms The condition of this obligation is such

sed etiam fidem conversionemque cordis si forte ad celebrandum mysterium baptismi in angustiis temporum sufficere non potest Neque enim latro ille pro nomine Christi crucifixus est sed pro meritis facinorum suorum nec quia credidit passus est sed dum patitur credit quantum it aque valeat etiam sine visibili Sacramento baptismi quod ait Apostolus Rom. 10.10 Corde creditur ad justitiam ore autem fit confessio ad salutem in illo latrone declaratum est sed tunc impletur invisibiliter cum mysterium baptismi non contemptus Religionis sed articulus necessitatis excludit Again and again considering I find that not onely suffering for the Name of Christ may supply what is wanting in Baptisme but also faith and conversion of the heart if peradventure streights of time will not permit the celebration of the Sacrament of Baptisme But to hold the Reader no longer in this controversy in avoiding the Popish necessity of Sacraments for a more distinct understanding of this necessity of Sacraments I shall lay down some rules SECT II. Rules for a right understanding of the necessity of Sacraments Rules for a right understanding of the necessity of Sacraments 1. Sacraments are standing Ordinances FIrst that Sacraments both of the Old and New Testament are standing Ordinances to be observed of the people of God not barely in the generation in which they were set up but in all successive generations so that there is an abiding and lasting necessity in them This is in that punctuall way set down in Scriptures respective to each Sacrament as though the Spirit of God would let us know that he did foresee a generation ready to arise to throw them off and live above them or else to vilifie them as unnecessary indifferent and arbitrary For circumcision see Gen. 17.12 13. He that is eight dayes old shall be circumcised among you every man-child in your generations he that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger which is not of thy seed he that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised and my Covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting Covenant God layes there a necessity upon it a lasting necessity in all succeeding generations of that people to be observed and when Moses several generations afterwards did as we have heard omit it upon what reason we have nothing but conjecture We see Exod. 4.24 how much God was displeased at it And for the Passeover Exod. 12.13 we find a like lasting injunction This day shall be unto you for a memoriall and you shall keep it a feast unto the Lord thorowout your generations you shall keep it a feast by an Ordinance for ever repeated again ver 17. It was an Ordinance that no Jew in any generation might antiquate or put a period unto It must last as long as they remained a distinct generation unto God even till Christ in whose hands are times and seasons in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek should be the end of it As to New Testament-Sacraments the Scripture is as clear when Christ gave commission for discipling Nations and baptizing them for their encouragement in the work he promises his presence unto the end of the world The work is to continue as long as Christs presence in the work continues But Christs presence according to promise is to continue with them in discipling of Nations and baptizing them being discipled unto the end of the world I am not ignorant of the Critical observation that is made of the phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saeculi by reason of the various acceptation of it in Scriptures endeavouring to have it to be understood of the end of that age in which those lived to whom Christ spake But neither the parallel use of the word by Matthew nor the context will bear that evasion For the parallel use of the phrase by Matthew four places may be instanced in three in one Chapter Matth. 13.39 The harvest is the end of the world vers 40. As therefore the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world vers 49. So shall it be at the end of the world the Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just Matth. 24.3 Tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of the coming and of the end of the world In all places the phrase is the same and the words can be understood in none of them with that limitation And that the context will not bear it enough may be gathered from that which I have said Treatise of the Covenant pag. 117. For a more clear discovery of the words we know that there is a double period of ages or generations in Scripture One at Christs first coming when an end was put to Circumcision and the Passeover of this the Apostle speaks Heb. 9.26 But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself at the end of that world Christ dyed The other is at his second coming and this is the end of the world here mentioned and upon this account Dr. Reynolds in this Sermons upon Hos 14. interprets that of Christ concerning the sin against the Holy Ghost that it shall never be forgiven in this life nor in the life to come Matth. 12.32 of the age in which Christ lived and now near to an end and the age that should follow from his death till his second coming neither under the Old nor New Testament or Covenant can that sin find remission Till Christs second return a Ministery and Baptisme must still remain For the Lords Supper Scripture-testimony is as clear 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew forth the Lords death till he come If we can believe a coming of Christ for a temporal Reign before the time of his coming to the general Judgment I shall believe that may be called the consummation end or finishing of this generation and then a period may be put to these and other Ordinances But howsoever that will answer or fail mens expectations certain it is that it is the mind of Christ that they shall stand till the time that he doth come and then his mind will be further known The practice of the Church hath hitherto answered these testimonies All ages of the Church as we know held up Circumcision till Christs time and in Christs time it was in use as Christ testifies Joh. 7.22 and he submits to it in his own person Luk. 2. and so we may say of the Passeover notwithstanding some disuse the godly ever knew it to be in force or else as piety broke forth they had not still reassumed it And Christ dying as we have heard at the end of that world

1. To examine those texts that themselves produce for the interest of such infants of whose Parents their charity thus hopefully determines and see whether those texts will not carry it for all the infants of professing Parents I am sure I know none but carry it as clear for all as they do for any 2. Let them consider whether children of God are not to be baptized These infants of whose Parents they have saddest thoughts are children of God Ezek. 16.21 Whether servants of God ought not to be baptized These children of such Parents are servants of God Levit. 25.42 Whether Saints are not to be baptized Such children are Saints where one Parent is removed from an infidel 1 Cor. 7.14 But the greatest part leave us not out of error but neglect not as being misled in judgement but prophane Let these seriously take to heart these Queries 1. Why did you joyn in any Ordinance in publick as that of praying hearing singing was it not upon that account as of God by his appointment Why then are those attended and this which you allow also to be of God neglected 2. Is this the closing duty doth not a blessing follow upon this Ordinance quitting this you quit both you will joyn with others in the duty but you will give them leave to be alone in receiving a blessing upon it 3. Is not he she or they that now are to be received a fellow-member or members must not thou and they make up one body are not they a part of Christ mystical as thou It is but a little honour that thou givest them when thou hast not patience to abide a few minutes to be a witness of their happy initiation 4. Doth not their case upon this account call for thy prayers the Churches prayers It would scarce please that thy own child should be offered to God in this Ordinance without a word of prayer to God They that consider the great business that lyes upon the hands of a Christian that high engagement to which this Ordinance tyes the manifold temptations that accompany a Christian course cannot but confess that their case calls for all mens prayers 5. Note the scandal and offence that thou givest the censure that thou leavest behind thee upon others that joyn in the duty and on the other hand the censure that thou bearest from them in thus forsaking of them either Minister and people do manifest their trifling folly and so a taking of Gods Name in vain in the open Congregation on the Lords day in his presence to wait upon such an Ordinance that is unworthy of the honour of thy presence or else thou manifest much sinful neglect in thy refusal or with drawing of thy self Thou canst not but think their continuance is vain or else must conclude thy own departure to be wicked 6. Is there nothing of edification in this Ordinance no Word to be heard by which thou maiest profit dost not thou here see Gods engagement to thy soul and thy souls engagement unto God Doth Baptisme save as the Arke of Noah and is there nothing in it whereby thou maiest be benefited But here is objected weakness of body or haste of business that lyes upon them in that they can bear no longer Answer 1. How is it that these reasons do not send thee away from other Ordinances as well as barely from this that thy weakness can bear and thy business stay just to this time that thy patience is bespoke for this work when the Minister intreats to stay this Sacrament a man might think mens ears mistook and they thought he said Turn your backs clap to your pew-doores tumble down the stayrs haste be gone give your Amen to no more prayers stay for no blessing If these were the words many could make no more haste to be gone then they do on request to stay 2. Let that text be well weighed Ezek. 46.9 10. where order is given both for the comming in and going out of the publick assembly The Prince may ordinarily speak of as much business-intanglements to hinder as any other by reason of the burden of his heavy employments and yet he is to go in with the first and stay in with the last and his example is prest that it may be a precedent to others Some are slow to come in and as hasty to be gone come as a Bear to the stake and fly away as an Ape from a whip They are for Ordinances and from Ordinances as a truantly boy is for school and from school These have none of Jacobs thoughts Surely God is in this place Gen. 28.16 or that they have to deal with God in all the Ordinances of the day otherwise they would rise up early as Job to his sacrifices to partake of them and would not make any such forward haste to be quit of them And this respect that it hath God for the Author should move us not barely to vouchsafe our presence in the occasional administration which may be done gazingly carelessely sleepily An improvement is to be made of Baptisme But we should make use of our own Baptisme being instituted of God as a standing Ordinance of his Church we should have other thoughts then that as soon as it is past in the act it is over in the use we should eye it all our dayes as our inlet into the society of Saints which is a greater honour then a Kings Coronation and as a high engagement unto duty to faith in the blood of Christ to a death to sin and a resurrection to righteousness by power of the Spirit of Christ Though it be low in the Ceremony it is high in the obligation tying us fast to him whose name we bear by vertue of our baptisme our whole business should be that our conscience may answer this obligation as a seal put to the promise for pardon of our sin and salvation If Baptisme saves by the resurrection of Christ as the Apostle tells us 1 Pet. 3.21 there should be other improvement of it were it aright considered and duly improved it would neither suffer sin nor doubtings it would not suffer any way of sin nor any prevalency of doubtings concerning our spiritual state and condition Parents should look above civil decency and complement It should quicken Parents to think of more then bare Ceremony civil decency and complement in the work which is almost the whole of all that is regarded If friends in due order be invited and in a way suitable to their place entertained that is the great care any blessing on the Ordinance is but little mattered When they give a child in marriage they do not neglect a wedding-feast and such civil appurtenances that usually attend but their great care is about assurance for their livelihood on this account counsel is retained friends consulted But this being as the day of their espousal for visible communion with Jesus Christ little thought is taken of the weight of

an one sees bread and wine but what they mean he knowes nothing nor any proportion between sign and thing signified or what the Ministers tender or his own receiving speaks to him These may perhaps have some blind devotion towards this Sacrament which Popish Schoolmen judge sufficient if not obstructed with mortal sin by reason of the Churches custome to receive it and some high opinion of some hidden and unknown vertue in it but it is not the least account that they can give of any necessity of it as a reason of their devotion towards it being scarce able to produce any command for it not knowing either the author time or end of the institution of it much lesse are they able to understand any need their soules have of it When the Corinthians came unworthily to the Lords Table all is laid upon this that they discerned not the Lords body I do not think that this is alone the ignorant mans sin All are in their measure guilty that do not considerately observe the glory of that Ordinance and of Christ in it A man of rude behaviour in a great Personages presence is told that he knowes not where he is or to whom he speaks when he well enough knowes and needs no information but doth not consider his distance but I say there is a necessity of that guilt in all that are ignorant All do not consider as they ought that know but none that does not know can consider This is to be done in remembrance of Christ which contains in it a calling into our thoughts all the work of his sacrificing himself for sin which is never done by the man that knowes not sin that knowes not the Law which is transgrest by sin that neither knowes the nature of sin nor the guilt of attending it that hath not any possible experimental sense of the danger of it and that remaines ignorant of Christ that redeems from it being able to give no account why the blood of Christ rather then the blood of any other should take away sin or how this death hath any such satisfying temitting vertue as to answer the Justice of God or merit his Grace neither knowing the Person of Christ in his humanity or Deity nor able to give account which Person in the Trinity took our nature and gave himself a ransom perhaps they will say that Christ was God and Man and as ready to say that the Father the Holy Ghost were God and man in like sort knowing as little or lesse of his offices what he does as a King or what he does as a Priest or what he does as a Prophet for his Church If you look on the Sacrament as a spiritual medicine they never knew their soules sicknesse nor ever understood any healing vertue in it If you look upon it as spiritual food for the strengthning of graces they never knew what hunger was or any strengthning vertue that here can be found look upon it as a spiritual cordial and they never had sense of sin to any swooning fit nor yet knew any restaurative vertue to be found in it look upon it as an heart-breaking soul-melting Ordinance as the Law never discovered to them the danger of sin so they see nothing here held out for the aggravation of sin They see what in course the Minister does and what the Communicants do But any end or reason why he or they do it they know nothing If the Word which is added to the element to make up a Sacrament were a bare Word of consecration to be muttered over the elements for their change so that the bare participation would serve turn as Physick works without any regard of the Patients knowledge or ignorance it were somewhat But the Sacrament as hath been said is a seal appendant to the Covenant of God and there is no improvement of it other wise then as the Covenant and the Promise is improved which must be known before it can be believed and applyed ignorance is a necessary barre to all benefit by it Though I account it the weakest thing in the world to make ignorance of this nature in the parent any just ground of non-admission of the Infant to Baptisme There is no necessity to conclude that the child who is born and to be bred in a vally of visions and interested in Ordinances able to save the soul should unavoidably be ever held with Parents in blindnesse yet I can Judge no otherwise but that it is a just barre to the parents when it is enough for the Infant to be passive in his first admission the parent must act and make use of his light for further growth and confirmation Some I know have said Who can tell but the person deemed to be ignorant and heretofore such indeed yet making addresse to the Lords Table and there hearing that mystery laid open and the use of those elements unfolded and cleared may in that very time receive competent instruction and be put into a capacity for this Ordinance knowingly to partake of it Whether or no there be any absolute possibility in this I will not determine I am sure there is little moral probability or possibility that a man that hath lived under Ordinances 20 30 40 50 perhaps more years and all of this time hath been confessedly ignorant and upon that account in an incapacity of this Sacrament for his profit that now at this time in a few minutes he should grow such a proficient as to fit himself for it And in case any such thing if not by miracle yet to wonder and amazement should happen it will be little losse for such a one to delay his actual participation for once that he may give an account of his profiting and upon a further progresse in knowledge have admittance the next time with greater satisfaction If any do desire to know the minimum quod sic where is the lowest pitch of knowledge that will put a man into a capacity of improvement of this Ordinance to his advantage this of necessity must be lest to ministerial Christian prudence in which there must be much of care and tendernesse not to make blear-eyednesse blindnesse nor a dim-light midnight darknesse where the wretchednesse of sin is known and Christ who is our remedy so understood that account can be given of his person and that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved and the Sacrament so understood as that Christ crucified is there held but under those elements and tendred to believers I durst not passe a vote to have such a one excluded let this be got out of them in language of any kind such that we may discern that they know it though they can scarce expresse it in which also many circumstances should be prudently weighed as the natural ingeny of the party if ripe in other things it is an evidence of affected ignorance to be havy and dull here The means that they have

life in the Sacrament either of thy initiation or confirmation either in Baptisme or the Lords Supper is it in the Sacrament it self or is it in Christ that thou shouldest seek and look after in the Sacrament If thou lookest for it from Sacraments thou Idolizest them and deceivest thy own soul Bread and Wine never were nor ever can be saviours Our Fathers ate Manna in the Wildernesse and are dead Joh. 6. We may eat bread at the Lords Table and eternally dye All Israel in the wildernesse did eat of Manna and drank of the Rock which the Apostle calls Spiritual meat Spiritual drink being Sacramentally such yet with many of them God was not well pleased but they were overthrown in the Wildernesse 1 Cor. 10.5 If thou sayest thou lookest for life in Christ I desire to know where thou findest that men in unbelief have life in Christ The Apostle saith I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and presently adds The life that I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God Gal. 2.20 And the same we may say of repentance Christ with his own mouth denounceth death and destruction to the impenitent I tell you Nay except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luk. 13. Where he gives life he gives repentaace to life Act. 11.18 I have said that the Sacrament may be improved with the help of the Word towards conversion But if there be no such change already wrought in thy soul nor any such thing in thy endeavour then this great Orinance is sadly prophaned thou pretendest to Christ when indeed thou treadest under foot the blood of Christ seemingly wouldst have thy interest in his blood and dost become guilty of his blood Here Christs death is set out his sufferings for sin called to remembrance Art not thou now affected with delight in his death when thou art affected with delight in thy sin when thou seest a man murthered and sportest with the murtherers with those whom thou knowest to have had the alone hand in the murther how then dost not thou be come an accessory This is the case of the man that comes to the Sacrament and will keep his sin He looks not upon Christ Sacramentally broke to the breaking of his heart but he looks upon him to his hearts rejoycing Look upon all that hath been said of the danger of unworthy receiving by all that have written practically upon this subject all is thy danger that art in sin and resolvest not to relinquish thou art admitted into the Church by Baptisme and upon that account art of that number and reckonest thy self among those that are called Christians and here perhaps thou hast hopes highly prizest this priviledge as sometimes the Jews did circumcision in order to the favour of God and assurance of eternal life And doubtlesse rightly understood it is to be prized otherwise God would not have given it it is an honorarium or token of love to his people Nor would the Apostle Peter have said that Baptisme saves 1 Pet. 3.21 But our building of hopes upon Scripture-words without Scripture-Comment doth undo us When the Jewes took themselves to be secure against all the judgements that the Prophets could denounce by reason of sin upon the priviledge of circumcision Jeremy undervalues not circumcision at all but helps them to a right understanding of it will have them to have it full and compleat reckoning up many Nations by name he saith They are uncircumcised they were wholly destitute of it and mentioning the house of Israel saith that they are uncircumcised in heart Jer. 9.26 They want the best and choisest part of it and so are in the same condition with uncircumcised ones and the Apostle after him beating down the vain confidence of the Jewes in their outward title called Jewes and circumcision which was a badge of their relation to God as a people in Covenant tells them that he is not a Jew that is one outwardly that was not enough to give a full and true denomination but he is a Jew that is one inwardly who is for God in soul as well as in name and circumcision is that of the heart Rom. 2.28 and he beats down the carnal opinion of the Jewes in circumcision by a definition given of the circumcised We are of the circumcision that worship God in Spirit and in truth Phil. 3.3 And baptisme of the flesh can neither be nor do more then circumcision in the flesh The Apostle therefore telling us that Baptisme saves is as willing to undeceive us as the Prophet was to undeceive the Jewes and tells us that he doth not mean the outward putting away of the filth of the flesh the application of water is but the outside of Baptisme but the answer of a good conscience towards God when conscience answers to that which this washing signifies and to which it engages then Baptisme saves not of it self but seales Salvation through the Resurrection of Christ when conscience fails in its duty Baptisme fails in its efficacy then it brings not Salvation but is an aggravation of condemnation as after may appear Thou art admitted to the Supper of the Lord upon that account that through knowledge gained and profession made thou art in a capacity for improvement of it for eternity But if thou stay here and thy remembrance of Christ broken for sin do not work thee to brokennesse of heart under sin canst drink of this Cup and gulf in wickednesse here is no pardon sealed but condemnation heightened I know on the other hand to discourage men from endeavour some say that there is no acting for life but from life what can be gained by sin and all actions done in unregeneration are no other but sin I marvel then what that Counsel of our Saviour means Joh. 6.27 To labour for the meat that endures to everlasting life The context acquaints us with the unregeneration of those to whom this Counsel is given As also what that complaint of our Saviour means Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life These works in unregenerate men are acts of obedience and not as is objected sins onely by accidental pollution they are sinful such subtleties are above the Logick that we read in Scriptures which gives duties in charge in reference to their respective ends without consideration of the state of the subject under command whether in nature or grace Actions we know work to habits and in case that rule hold that Habitus infusi infunduntur more acquisitorum which Dr. Wilkin sayes is a golden rule in Divinity Treatise of the gift of prayer pag. 8. this is above controversie I yeeld to that of Austin that as a wheel is not made round by turning but turnes because it is round so a man is not made good by doing good but is good through grace and then does good as the tree is first good and then brings forth good fruit But it is not

worthily be rank'd in the first place amongst those that you thus honour As soon as he enters upon the dispute of justifying faith in answer to Bellarmines first question What that faith is that is required to justification he sayes in the name of Protestants (a) Hoc ipsum vel imperitè vel sophistice in quaestionem vocatur Nam 1. Multa ad justificationem requiruntur quae non justificant 2. Non tam quaeritur quae aut quid fides quae justificat quam quae sit ratio quâ propriè dicitur justificare This is either unskilfully or sophistically put to the question giving in his reasons 1. Saith he There are many things required to justification which do not justifie 2. It is not so much enquir'd into what that faith is which do's justifie as in what notion it is that it is said to justifie And giving answer to farther words of Bellarmine he saith in the same page that (b) Observandum est nos non restringere fidem illam quae justificat sed tantum quà justificat ad promissionem misericordiae Arguments evincing that faith in the blood of Christ only justifies Protestants do not restrain the faith which justifies but faith as it justifies to the promise of mercy Much more may be seen in this Author in his next Chapter Sect. 1. Sect. 8. which I leave to the Reader to consult at pleasure And together with it that which may be seen largely in Chemnitius enquiring into the proper object of justifying faith in his Examen Concil Trident mihi pag. 159. under this head Quid verè propriè sit fides justificans quo sensu scriptura velit intelligi quando pronunciat impium fide justificari I shall here take the boldness to give in my arguments to make good that faith in Christ quà Lord doth not justifie 1. That which the types under the Law appointed for attonement and expiation lead us unto in Christ our faith must eye for attonement expiation and reconciliation This cannot be denied These Levitical types lead us doubtless to a right object being School-masters to lead us unto Christ and shaddows whereof he is the substance As also to that office in him who is the object of faith that serves for this work But these types lead us unto Christ in his Priestly office for the most part as Sacrificing sometimes as interceding John 1.29 2 Cor. 5.21 1 Pet. 1.18 A great part of the Epistle to the Hebrews is a proof of it 2. That which the Sacraments under the Gospel setting forth Christ for pardon of sin lead us unto That our faith must eye for Reconciliation Pardon and Justification This is clear Christ in his own instituted ordinances will not misguide us But these lead us to Christ suffering dying for the pardon of sin Mat. 26.28 This is my blood in the new Testament shed for you and for many for the remission of sins Here is a confirmation of both these arguments in one The types of the Law and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper lead both of them to his blood for this reason of attonement and forgiveness There was an old Testament enjoyn'd of God in which the people in convenant were sprinkled with blood Exod. 24.1 c. commented upon by the Apostle Heb. 9.20 c. That blood and this cup lead to Christs blood for forgiveness and in them the death of Christ is remembred A broken bleeding dying Christ in the Lords Supper is received 3. As the Spirit of God guides faith so it must go to Christ for propitiation and attonement This needs no proof The Holy Ghost is the best leader But the Holy Ghost guides our faith to go to the blood of Christ for attonement whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Ro. 3.25 It is blood is our propitiatory or mercy seat We are justified by his blood Rom. 5.9 And faith is our way of interest and thither the Spirit of God by the Apostle leads our faith as we see in the words mentioned I am checkt indeed by you because I say through faith in his blood not faith in his command quo jure nescio say you My reason or warranty is because I durst not adde to the Apostles directory when he leads us one way I dare look no other If he had intended to have led us to Christ as a propitiation without further direction under what notion our faith should have look'd upon him It had been enough to have said that he is our propitiation but distinctly pointing out his blood and faith in his blood I think I have warrant sufficient to lead souls hither and only hither especially seeing I find him still in the same language Rom. 5.8 9. God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of our sins Ephes 1.7 The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 For as much as ye know that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish You demand Will you exclude his obedience resurrection intercession To which I only say I marvail at the question If I exclude these I shall exclude his blood His shedding of blood was in obedience John 10.18 Phil. 2.8 His resurrection was his freedom from the bonds of death and an evidence of our discharge by blood His intercession is founded on his blood He intercedes not as we by bare petition but merit He presents his blood as our high Priest in the holy of holies You tell me further that the thing I had to prove was not the exclusion of faith in his commands but of faith in Christ as Lord and teacher I can no more distinguish Lord and command then I can blood and sacrifice it being the office of a Lord to rule as of blood to make attonement You yet tell me It was fittest for Paul to say by faith in his blood because he intends to connote both what we are justified by ex parte Christi and what we are justified by ex parte nostri but the former principally To this I say If this were fittest for Paul then it is unfit for any to come in with animadversions and tell us of any other thing either ex parte Christi or ex parte nostri for justification I pray you rest here and we are well agreed Here is Christs Priestly office on his part alone and I am resolved to look no further 4. Our faith must look upon Christ so as to obtain righteousness by him by vertue of which we may appear before God as righteous But it is by his obedience as a Servant that we obtain righteousness and stand before the Lord as righteous Rom. 15.19 By the obedience of