common Faith as it makes a man a Professor it makes him partaker of the Ordinances and his waiting thereupon or meeting at the Word and Sacraments is his very profession signified and his badge that he is one of the visible Church so that you must either say that every unregenerate man must leave off his profession and become no Christian or the scruple is removed for the truth is that Faith he hath in the doctrine of Christ so far as it is undissembled and makes him a Christian in opposition to all other Religions will bear him up in the profession and make it his duty for to come which in the manner ought to be done and the matter not left undone 2 The case is the same in all Ordinances while a Christian comes to the Word that is a signified profession that he will obey the mind of God when it is revealed now unlesse hee heartily resolves to practice what he hears it is a like mocking God and playing the hypocrite if I may use his words Psa 50.16 17. Jer. 43.2 5 20. Likewise in Prayer there is a vertuall engagement of us to endeavor the grace we pray for Nay herein is the most expresse hypocrisie for how can an unregenerate man say Thy Kingdome of grace come when he doth not sincerely desire grace which yet he ought to pray and sincerely desire too if he did truly desire it he were regenerate for a desire of true grace as Mr. D. sayes is true grace Yet doe I think Mr. D. doth not exclude any of his unregenerate Members from the Word and Prayer 3 This argument then is strong to enforce men to the manner when they doe the matter but not to leave off the matter because they faile in the manner It is of force to presse men to bring up their hearts and lives to their engagements but not to forbear those engagements they are bound to as Professors 4 Though a professor be unregenerate he does 0 truly beleeve Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the alone Saviour of the World in opposition to all other Religions and thereof this is a true profession and that suffices to the Sacraments precisely considered though not complexly as to the entire benefits of the Covenant 5 So far as a man is in Christ or a member of his Church Christ is given to him and received of him with a true distinction of priviledge from the world 6 He engages himselfe or is engaged hereby to submit to the termes of Jesus Christ as he is bound to do which if he do not perform it is the issue makes it a lie and him an hypocrite Psa 78.35 with 37. but the obligation it selfe and that sincerely is his duty 7 There is the nature and substance of this Ordinance and the divers uses to be made of it The very nature and substance consists in a Commemoration of Christ An unregenerate man is capable of this substance and so it becomes his duty which cannot bee made voyd by the mal-performance for no consequence can annihilate Gods Precept Neither doth my incapacity of satisfying all the ends and uses of an Ordinance as before exempt me from those I can for then neither could children be capable of Baptisme not Christ of Circumcision 8 As the Minister doth tender and apply Jesus Christ conditionally to all according to the termes of the Covenant so may he receive him to wit as looking for salvation from him upon performance of the condition and condemnation if he continues in unbeliefe without repentance as the case in penal obligations this being the means both to perswade and fright him to it And then 9 The full and safest answer to this will be by a serious practise Let us examine our selves and humbling our soules in the sight of our unworthiness acknowledge our deserts and apply the due sense of our just condemnation according to our present estate together with the offer of mercy upon our amendment and this takes off the hypocrisie for if my actual receiving be a Lye to wit as it is a visible profession it must be so either before God or before men It is not a Lye before men for I hold it a means of conversion and profess not my self converted already but come onely as a Church-member and It is not a Lye before God I mean so far as any unregenerate mans service can bee without it for I condemne my selfe and apply that part of the Covenant which is due to mee as I ought with the offer of grace to bring mee home to him Page 190. I easily grant assurance is not absolutely requisite as a means to receiving Answ Upon this true concession I argue against him in the maine If it be necessarily pre-required that a man be regenerate before he receives then must assurance be absolutely requisite as a means But seeing assurance is not necessary as a means therefore it is not necessarily pre-required that a man be regenerate and this becomes a means of conversion The former I prove That which a man cannot be perswaded in his conscience is lawful to doe it is sin if it bee done Rom. 4.23 But a man that holds it absolutely unlawful for an unregenerate man to eat and is not certaine that he himselfe is regenerate cannot be assured in his conscience that he ought to eat And hee that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not with faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sinne This is the misery is brought upon us while men deny the Sacrament to be a means of conversion Page Ibid. and 191. Whereas I press upon the Receiver to resolve against every knowne sin for the present and to accept of Christ which is his duty as well as to come He excepts at me as not speaking consonantly to my self and the nature of faith For the former I do beleeve we know so little of the nature of spirits our own souls actings thereof and so infinitly less the workings of Gods Spirit that I dare not confine my selfe herein I doe not doubt but there may be many good resolutions and some supernatural motions on the hearts of men which prove abortions when the like desires cherished in the use of the means by Gods grace become effectual It is therefore my Doctrine that a Christian should still endeavour to blow up every spark desire or good motion he finds in him We do not know how the seeds or first impressions of grace differ in any and discover them onely by the rooting and continuance If common grace differ from special only gradually which for ought we know may bee the truth then we have a certain promise that in the use and exercise those degrees shall be increased which will make it saving Habenti dabitur If it dâ—ffers specifically which those terms of the immortall seed the new birth regeneration c. do incline me to beleeve yet have we a Peradventure in the use of
he would fasten upon me I pray look page 191. and he distinguishes for me A good resolution to wit to submit to the government of Christ is either Legal or Evagelical a Legal is antecedent to faith c. I pray note it and if a man may have a good resolution to wit Legal before saith why must this be an absurdity in me to say he may have the same before he is in Covenant why doth the man so forget himselfe The truth is he is too narrow in the speaking of these things A man may be so under the previous operations of the Spirit of grace as not only to resolve but enter Covenant Deut. 29.12 returne remember God and enquire early to wit in good earnest for the time after him Psal 78.34 35. and yet his heart be not right and stedfast in it v. 37. Thus the Scriptures speak often Jer. 42.3.5.20 c. and thus are they interpreted by the Orthodox Reynolds on Psal 110. p. 316. Page 157. He likewise puzzles himself about my meaning how the Covenant belongs to all and yet not the benefits then concludes as even now and as he still uses it must be a contradiction because he does not conceive it Ans The Covenant is taken either for the condition that is the duty Thus it belongs to all or for the benefits the reward by grace through Christ of the duty Thus it belongs to those onely that have the condition or are in Christ or for the tenour consisting or rather resulting out of both from the sanction of such a reward to the duty That which results out of both and is neither the one alone nor the other must be a third And this is no other then the grace of the Gospel which brings salvation unto all men and so belongs to all even the whole world so far that they have potentially as the Church hath actually a conditional outward and inward concernment in it Mr. D. I perceive is forced to take a great deal of pains to make my expressions disagree where there is no quarrel but I need onely now and the bring the severall passages of his book in sight of one another and they fall together by the eares of their owne accord Page 152 153. He hath four things to oppose me in affirming a universal right of obligation I mean it orderly to every Ordinance Isa 66.23 Yet if you look back but in the leaf before he acknowledges As for the duty of the Covenant it is indeed Epidemical The first is Children and the distracted again which is seventeen times The second is a misapplied distinction of a mediate and immediate right which yet is vaine seeing there is none denies but we must prepare as well as come and I say still we must doe both As for his instance of purification to the Passe-over that one text 2 Chron. 30.18 19 20. may convince him The third is spoken to otherwhere Fourthly He sayes Actual receiving is not an act of worship no more then preaching c. He should say they are no duties neither for else it will not adde a cubit to his strength I remember I have read of a man that still beleeved he was as big as his shadow I perceive Mr. D. hath measured himself onely in the morning and evenings whereas others happily that look on him at noon day in the full light how ever goodly and tall he may seem in his conceit will see him shrinke into a stature very sizeable with his fellows Sect. 6 The sixth Objection is The Sacrament is onely for the Regenerate it is no converting Ordinance and this is made to serve upon all occasions For my answer to this Although I judge there is not such strength herein as is supposed for seeing this Ordinance is appointed for the Church and every member of age is bound to frequent it and prepare for it It is not the consideration whether it will convert or not can be brought in competition with the command of Christ If God command an unregenerate man to give almes he is not to question whether it be converting or no but to do his duty though during that estate he is sure to sinne in it so is it in this case and all others It is not the event can be the rule of our obedience It is true Mr. D. stillurges An unregenerate man must hear and pray though he sins in them be cause it will convert him but he must not receive for that will not convert him Now consider this and if there be validity in it here lyes the point with him A man must not do that wherein he shal sin if it will do him no good but he may do that wherein he sins so long as it will be beneficial to him Thus would mortal man who is but dust advance his benefit above divine authority and as if he were his own rule and end make void Gods precept through his tradition Neverthelesse whereas I am perswaded that there is no man but so far as he does his duty it shall tend to his good which as I know may otherwaies accrue to him though it doth not convert him so do I think that ordinarily while men wait upon God in their duties of piety and charity though they are no causes yet are they the way wherein God doth meet them with his effectual grace not through any special promise for there is no such we hold to any works before faith but some general offers and through the goodnesse of his nature the cause and ground of all those promises which is therefore a firm rock to build upon a point I think very fit to be considered I have thought good to deliver my opinion that I deny not through Jesus Christ but a poore sinner who examines himselfe and so comes to him in the sight his condition may finde this Ordinance an effectual means to beget grace in him as well as encrease it I must confesse I am heartily sorry to see what prejudice or it is my weaknesse so to think hath gotten on the spirits of many godly men meerly upon the terms of a sealing Ordinance an Ordinance for nourishment confirmation and the like which terms do indeed respect the visible Church or our incorporation in it and so make for us I shal therefore now return my answer in this manner When Jesus Christ ascended to heaven he left order to procure him a Church To this end he appointed a Ministry of the Apostles and their successors This Ministerial commission contained two things the gathering together of the Saints and edification of the body of Christ This body or Church is either visible or invisible The invisible consists only of the regenerate and the Elect The visible consists of al that are gathered together in profession of his name and unto the Church in this capacity doth the office of the Ministry appertain as I judge undoubtedly Now according to this double work hereof we
be performed A man must come and he must come worthily the case is the same as in all Ordinances there is the substance of a duty and the manner of performance If the manner be evil it must be amended and the matter still must be done He has three Objections page 181 182 183. 1. How assuredly doth Mr. H. make that the principle duty which is the carkasse and forme onely Answ Methinks Mr. D. should not speake so lightly of Christs owne words Do this who dares not know Doe this includes matter and manner to wit in faith love thankfulnesse as wee ought and if this be not the principal duty to which self-examination is subservient let all judge Even as the Feast though it lasts but an hour is the principal the whole week of preparation accessory to it As for his words then that follow they are but a pen full of inke spartled in my face while his peevish spirit like a troubled sea is still casting up mire and dirt 2 True He that is bound to come is bound to come worthily but he that is bound to come worthily is not bound to come absolutely Answ I know not how he may straine the word absolutely but I say a Church-member is as absolutely bound to come hither as so pray and heare as the Apostle sayes Let a man so eat Christ sayes Take heed how you hear so pray and so give almes But are they therefore ever the lesse absolute duties There is no doubt but the manner as well as the matter comes under the same absolute command so that a man is bound I say still to come and come worthily and both absolutely though not Ad semper to either And therefore whereas he askes p. 178. Every man is to examine himselfe and so to eat but where is it said absolutely Let every man eat It may suffice him that Christ sayes expresly and absolutely to all present Let every one drinke Doe this Drinke you all of it But let me aske him again Where doth the Scripture say any where Let a man not eat or not drinke where doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so signifie not As for his instances then about Legal purifications they are answered in their place They may serve to be alluded to if he will for pressing preparation but ought not to be made any ground to omit duty because no legal uncleannesse could have excused a man from Gods service but that it had an expresse law for it which if Mr. D. can produce here we shall yeeld to him 3 Sinful unpreparednesse will not exouse a man from guilt but it will excuse him from receiving Answ I judge this must be taken very warily so far onely as a man may in Christian prudence dispense with affirmative precepts for his soules better advantage Provided his abstinence serves to humble him and put him upon greater eare to prepare for the next Sacrament as hee cautions well over the leaf and if it will not otherwise this may silence himselfe Page 184. He comes to my three Queries The first is Whether the very receiving be a sin incurring damnation in him that is unworthy and here I carefully distinguish between the very receiving which is a mans duty and the unworthinesse which makes the sinne onely This unworthinesse is either in the person which will condemne him nevertholesse for his staying away and therefore I judge hee should rather come and condemne it Or in the Act herein is the matter which is good and the manner which is amisse Now the sayling in the manner of a duty I must still inculcate doth not abrogate the matter If Mr. D. can keep an unregenerate man from the obliquity in the manner and yet let him doe the matter I shall like him but he may not cause him to neglect that which is his duty in the substance to avoid evill in the performance Our disobedience is total in not doing but onely partial in doing it otherwise then we ought Indeed Mr. D. sayes here these cannot bee distinguished There is no sinful act but notionally you may abstract sinfulnesse from it but really you cannot when it comes to bee acted Answ Let him remember if hee cannot distinguish Receiving and unworthy Receiving then can he not distinguish Hearing and unworthy Hearing Praying and unworthy Praying And if he cannot really and not notionally only sever these how can he make them means of grace Can sinne be a means of grace Can that which is a cause of death be a means of life If hee say it may be an accidental occasion it is true but it must be intentionally a means with him seeing he tells us A man may hear and pray unworthily page 186. there is a sinful act which cannot hee sayes be abstracted really in the duty from the sinne yet be converted by it there it is a means of grace and instituted for it I thinke this must be a plaine conviction upon Mr. D. 1 Hearing and Praying are means of conversion 2 To heare and pray unworthily is a sinne 3 Yet must a man heare and pray neverthelesse 4 Sinne cannot be a means of grace 5 A man must not doe evill for any good effect Now if you can abstract really in no sinful act the sinfumesse from it when it comes to be acted 1 Then must sinne be a means of conversion 2 Then must it be our duty to sinne 3 Then must we contradict St. Paul and say a man may doe evill that good may come of it As for what he farther addes A man is not bound to receive till he be Evangelically worthy but is prohibited in statu quo I desire him to shew me that prohibition which is indeed Mr. Drakes eleventh Commandement that makes all his strength being without the support of any Text to become but as a bowing wall and tottering fence My second Query is whether receiving unworthily is other wayes damnable then hearing and praying unworthily and if it be not why should not we receive still as pray and heare He answers It is otherwise damnable 1 Because not a universal duty where he brings in Infants the eighteenth time 2 Not converting Ans 1 This is untrue for as to every intelligent member it is an universal duty and a means of conversion 2 It is vaine and grossely inconsequent for There are some duties belong onely to men in such and such relations Is the neglect hereof ever the lesse damnable because they are not universal Again A natural man cannot convert himselfe by his moral works are his sinnes therefore ever the less sinful As the precept onely is that which makes an action to bee good so it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Transgression alone not any thing else makes it damnable My third Query is Whether an unregenerate man must never come to the Sacrament Mr. D. holds he must never because in will not convert him I hold the case is still the same with the word and
their damnation though their account would be yet greater we must conceive if they should not do these duties at all But for this particular Eating damnation which is the effect of the unworthinesse of this place incurring a more peculiar or deeper guilt upon a person may not be charged I think upon any but upon those that come so irreverently without respect to this holy institution that they sin in the very fact in using it as common thing which ought not to be done An unregenerate man may come Christianly though but in an outward conformity to this Ordinance it is our duty but he may not come presumptuously as to a common Table and prophane it The other distinction I must commend to tender spirits is between Eating damnation and Sealing damnation The one is the effect of irreverent unworthinesse provoking God The other is only a confirming and attestation of the truth of the Covenant to every man according to his condition which is much for the honour and owning of God Methinks my heart is enlarged and I must tell you these two things must be separated as far as Heaven and Hell I wish there were some further distance that the plague of the one might never trouble you under the notiō of the other which has eat unto our very hearts that I am afraid men won't receive this manifest truth It is a most precious sweet mercy of God when he denounces judgment upon an impenitent sinner to awaken his soul and bring him to repentance It is the very like or same gracious act of his in sealing to his word to set home that conviction as it were using all means as Christ did with Judas to work upon him Now it is likewise every mans duty while God shews us the way it must be so that lives impenitently to apply these threatnings to assure and seal them upon himself and so to take that part of the Covenant as I expresse it that belongs to him So that this thing which has appeared so terrible to drive men from the Sacrament that they do but seal or apply damnation to themselves is the only thing of concernment for them to do in this estate as they ever look to be converted and saved O that every sinful Christian would but do this with due reverence and a serious conscience and I would assure him this sealing his damnation is the only way to eat his salvation in the use hereof If you ask here But how then is Christ offer'd to such a man I answer Very well as truly as he is preached in his threatnings Christ is never offer'd to any but as wrapt up under the tenour of the Covenant which contains both wrath and life In the Word and Sacrament there is necessarily shewn forth to the hypocrite what he shall lose unlesse he will become sincere as to the sound believer what he shall have in the partaking of them There is something sealed actually and something potentially to every man Actually the regenerate hath life sealed to him but Potentially damnation if he fall away from his faith which though we beleeve he never shall in respect of Gods grace yet as on his own part he is frail this is a means to make him stand An unregenerate man hath wrath actually sealed to him but potentially all Christs benefits which is as it were a voice behind him that though he be in this present fearful estate yet if he will but repent and believe he may get out of it and be saved Thus do Judgement and Mercy interweave their forces to bring in a sinner unto Christ And here may be removed that dreadfull scruple of some poor Christians who apprehend they have been unworthy and there damnation has then been sealed now the seal being sure how can what is sealed ever be reversed I answer The alteration is made only in us the Seal is the same and what is sealed is the same A man walks in one place and is in the shade he turns into another and is in the shine yet the Sun is the same The Sacrament seals the Covenant Man seals to his condition while he walks not accordingly his damnation is sealed when he repents and does his salvation Actually and potentially both are sealed and according to his walking he hath the influence thereof whether of the light of life or shadow of death There is one Iron only enter'd my soul and it was this If the Sacrament be a Seal it does exhibit and convey something to the Receiver and that to the unregenerate must be dangerous Here then let us know and arm our selves that Sacraments being only Moral Instruments cannot convey any thing that is Real unto the soul by way of Obsignation but only that which is Relative making no change but as to our Estates and relations to God the very end or proper effect being chiefly to assure us thereof I mean make us more believe consider and lay them to heart if good for our comfort if bad for our conviction Now this very assurance as farther degrees of faith and love in the worthy Receiver and hardnesse in the unworthy which are Real things are not externally exhibited I say by this sealing but internally wrought or effected according to the acts and exercises of our Souls on those objects that may be said thereby to have an influence on us Now then let an unregenerate man so come to the seal that he lays close to heart his damnable condition being the more humble and sensible of it it has its very right effect upon him and is a help towards his conversion while it does not Physically conveigh Gods wrath for that it cannot but Morally work only the sense of it on his Spirit which if he le ts wear off again without amendment his sin of hardning will lie therein and not in his coming And now for my part if I have fallen on the truth yet am I nothing for it has been my fears and doubtings have even brought me to it who must sadly confesse my self to be such a truant to the proficiency of grace that I am justly turn'd down unto the lowermost form of such poor sinners that are jealous and do even question the sincerity of it Amongst these I have thought it safest in coming to this Ordinance to condemn my condition and while I do so methinks the Apostle speaks comfortably to me If we judge our selves we shall not be judged Poor souls Is not this sweet to you Let it enter into your hearts when you come in your tears as it were weltring hither the very same place that has made you tremble in speaking so dreadfully of unworthinesse does yet assure you but if you condemn your selves as unworthy you shall not be condemned I would not for any thing that passage were left out The meek Iesus will never spurn at thee when thou liest down before him O my soul whiles others are even embrac'd in Christs arms
enter Covenant With all their heart and all their soul in some places So there is a general profession of Christ that salvation only is in his name which every Christian may professe truly though he be no true professor It is a great weaknesse of some that think for fear of hypocrisie an unregenerate man may not do his duty Hypocrisy is either opposed to truth which is dissembling such an action that is evill propter fieri must be avoyded or to sincerity and such an action that is evill only through accident of the doer while in the substance it be good for all his evill disposition the thing still must be done A Christians profession a pledge wherof is this Sacrament may be hypocrisie in one sense but not in the other My fourth proof was from the Parable of the Feast Lu. 14. Mat. 22. which I judge has more force in it than some think though lesse than others Mr. Drake here is in a streight if he allow it applicable to this Supper it is clear against him The Servants bring in All both good and Bad. If he will not allow it he doth not only go against the stream of Divines and that not solidly but wrests out of their own hands their main argument from the exclusion of him that had not the wedding garment which being the act of the Lord is not well applied neither The truth is the Feast does not signifie particularly the Supper but it is as true it does it in general as other Ordinances The Feast is Jesus Christ set out in his Ordinances and outward privileges unto which there is a free accesse and interesse of the Good and Bad within the Church so that for the main we have our full weight that the Servants whose office it is to be the Dispencers of the mysteries have not any power for discrimination of the guests in their admitting them to the Feast and therefore unlesse they can prove it by some warrant otherwhere are not to judge of the worthinesse and unworthinesse of their Church-members as to the offer of Christ in this Supper It is true If men be scandalous they are lyable to censure but who does not see this upon another account I mean of discipline to satisfie the Church amend them and warn others But if you do it upon this ground of setting up a discriminating Ordinance I must speak my Conscience I think it not according to the mind of the Lord of the Feast Again As for the unintelligent as Infants and the like who does not see that the Feast is still free but they are uncapable they make no excuse but God does excuse them and so they cann't be compelled But if you set up Visible worthinesse for a rule of Admission you assume a power of discriminating the guests You may call it your zeal your care and piety yet is it a power as well as a burden even over Gods Ordinance and differs as much from our Ministerial instruction Catechism and admonition as a separating the vile from the precious by the word of Gods mouth and the doing it without untill you prove it And now for his four particulars p. 30 31. First He distinguishes between the feast which is Christ and the dishes wherein he is served which are the Ordinances This is something ingenuous but whereas he applies this that a man may be invited to a feast and yet not to the dish in the feast it is very fine if we should serve him as the plain man did his Son that pretended he could prove two eggs to be three by his Logick Well says he I will take the one and your Mother the other and now do you prove the third and take it for your self Let us have the dishes and what will become of Mr. Drakes feast Thus hungry and hardly bestead does he passe through it Secondly He urges Then should Heathen be admitted Ans And so they may if they come in in an orderly way 1 Cor. 14.40 they must first have a right by Church-membership and then being once within the Church they are alike admitted to all privileges Thirdly He addes How were the unthankfull guests also excluded Luke 14 and answers himself Because they would not come Fourthly He tels us Wordly businesse somtimes may detain a man from the Sacrament Numb 9.10 Ans Who doubts it and yet the feast not neglected if the businesse be indispensible But as for the strength of his reason here it is as good as the Fathers that would have his Child excused to his Master for not comming to School because he was dead In the way For my quoting that Text Lu. 12.42 with 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Acts 20.28 Mr. Drake need not have given me such ill words I make no interpretation of them but that it is the Ministers duty duly to dispence the Ordinances which if he does do they do not touch him but may convince those that think it their conscience wholly to omit it and this I hope may turn the edge of his rebuke For my part I do not think my self fit to be compared with Mr. Drake or the least of the godly but with the greatest sinners and bow down my practice at the feet of Gods mercy Forgive O Lord my failings for they are even more than the hairs of my head Yet do I think that both those that exclude all and they that exclude any who are neither Vn-intelligent or Excommunicate come short in the importance of these Scriptures My fifth proof was from Iohns Free-baptism even of those he calls Vipers Mat. 13. upon that ground Adultis eadem est ratio utriusque Sacramenti See Mar. 1.5 And they of Iudea went out and were All baptized of him that is All that went out to him for Baptism were admitted and yet Mr. Drake as he is wont answers me thus overly He says but proves not that Iohn baptized all commers p. 32. he should say He does not prove it but only brings Scripture for it This axiome which I think I had of Pemble he denies p. 33. 1. Because Heathen may be admitted to Baptism Ans I had thought when men had been converted to the faith once they had been Christians 2. Because it makes for him seeing there was an outward confession at Baptism Ans Who would think it he should fly for shelter to this Sanctuary even while he pollutes it You must take the meaning thus There is Eadem ratio but not in omnibus It holds in the main that the same faith which will admit one of age to be Baptized will also admit him to this Sacrament and that is an Historical faith only in profession yet as for making that confession though it he needfull at Baptism in admitting them to be Church Members as we are willing to know whom we enter into our society seeing we have Scripture for it yet not at this Supper where we have none for when men are Church-members already their
working the condition and sealing thereof The External Applier is our selves the Ministers who are but his Earthen Vessels while the Excellency of the power we must leave freely unto him For the subject to whom it is applyed It is the Church This is manifest Christ Iesus did lay down his blood for the Church Acts 20.28 Eph. 5.23 25. The Church then likewise is either the invisible which consists of such members that are truly in Christ or the visible of all such as do professe him as outward members thereof Now by the blessing of God our work may be done if we do but rightly sort these things together The Internal effectual seal with the Internal effectual Application and the External seal with the external application The Effectual seal of the precious blood of Christ is in the hand only of the Internal Minister to apply it to the invisible Members in whose hearts he both writes the new Covenant and seals it The Outward seal of the Sacrament is in the hand of the Outward Minister to apply it to the visible Church and the Members thereof Now let but the External Minister take heed of entrenching on the Internal Ministers office as he would look to his life in not medling with Gods Ark and I hope the fear of God may end the controversie between us For his other thing here He grants We have proved that All may or are to be present but that must be all If it be applyed so t is death c. Ans I am very sorry to see what a frivolous thing man is how every little trick and trifle can put us off 1. If there be such a stresse to be laid on Actual receiving which the Lord forbid yet may the Minister be Free in his offer in delivering the Sacrament in general as Christ says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take Eat in the plural number and while he sate at Table There are 4 or 5 reasons given by others for this way but that which moves me most is this our own reason that t is a visible word Let the Minister then deliver it in general to his Congregation as he preaches the word And while he declares to the whole Church This is the body of Christ which was broken for you the Receivers make application to their own parts Now if any Receiver who judges himself unworthy should wave his very Taking onely unto the rest it might seem a kind of tender confession and act of humility And so let but the businesse lie there and the offer of Christ shall be free yet no guilt on the Minister and the administration free and no guilt on the Receiver The Minister doe his office and the people their duty and both pleased 2. This I speak as to mens scrupulous suppositions but I must confesse though I like a delivery in General rather than particular I can no ways endure the rending these sacred actions one from another When Christ has said Doe this this thing or Doe thus as it seems the Syriack reads it that is after the same manner Drink ye All of it and they all drank of it I think it an injury to the holy institution to separate what Christ has joyned as the Papists do in withholding the Wine from the Laity I must confesse this is a device ingenuously framed to serve the turn and I fear it has got it self reverence in the hearts of some godly men yet does it seem to me a thing but of sad consequence to us and indignity to God For either this presence must be held necessary as our general duty or left at our liberty If we hold they may be present onely and bind not any to it as a duty who does not know that there is the confluence of the Word Prayer Singing Meditation in the administration which to lay wast is open impiety and unbidding those things which are questlonlesse yeelded to be means of conversion But if we hold it as certainly it is to be our duty not to neglect such occasions so that we must come to the Sacrament yet if we offer but to take and eat this Actual receiving onely shall be our damnation The sinful adoration that was brought on the Elements by the conceit of Real presence corporally had not so much dread in it though more supenstition Nay let us consider a little shall prophane men while they stay the administration think themselves secure from guilt so long as they do not eat and drink only as if the Covenant and the Seal was not otherwise applied to them What hardnesse on their hearts What sensual apprehensions will this bring on them Nay what unholy and contemptible thoughts of the God of Heaven that looks on us as if he regarded our very eating and drinking more than our spirits Not that I am so moved at Free-presence let the prudent judge of it but that actual receiving is not as free to our intelligent members Indeed if persons be Excommunicate as the Primitive Church did punish such with bare presence or men have their gather'd Companies if they do not communicate with those that are present and hear their reason is open they own them not as their members but as for us that are not yet convinc'd by them either we must maintain or new mold our mixt Congregations This for his crop in general there are some Ears yet standing to be cut down in particular P. 37. If the Sacrament have the same latitude with the Word then a Heathen may receive it as a Christian He has here left out my main caution Within the Church Let us know the Gospel may be considered as the Bare word or a Sealed word As an instrument in the writing to be declared and read over to all or as a sealed instrument delivered to peculiar use Or the Word may be considered as to the publishing the contents and tender of the Covenant or to the appropriation of privilege we have in it To the Jews belonged the sacred Oracles and the Covenants The contents might be preached to bring in proselytes yet are they said truly with distinction of outward privilege to belong only to them If you like not my phrases you may make better but here lies the point The blood of Iesus Christ does peculiarly belong by way of appropiation to the Church Eph. 5.23.25 This blood seals the Covenant the Sacrament represents that blood Now as the Spirit applies the Effectual seal only to the invisible Church so the Minister can apply the outward seal onely to the visible Though the Word then may be declared to Heathens It cannot be sealed to them but when they turn Christians The Covenant is a sealed Covenant only to the Church There is this distinction of privilege as it belongs to us that it is sealed in the outward application thereunto that so every Member without a just forfeiture has a publick right in the use of it P. 38. There are some righteous persons in
punishment which is the greater according to Law therefore he may inflict a punishment which is the lesse not according to Law or set up a new one to inflict by it because the Elders may execute a censure which is allowed in the Scripture therefore they may make a lesse which is not in Scripture The Judge himselfe that instead of death inflicts burning must yet do it according to Law or his act is not good I will not dispute here of the kindes or degrees of Excommunication those three among the Jews and foure among the Greeks are common Nor what are the marks of distinction of such degrees whether exclusion really from the Sacrament and prayer may make a minor and suspension from them and the word also a major Excommunication for I doe thinke when a man is Relatively deprived fellowship in general the Church may use mitigation or severity to a reall permission of him at some Ordinances and so perhaps for civill converse according to prudence for his edification not destruction or whether as Mr. D. holds Acts of Discipline are no bars at all to acts of worship unlesse actual receiving and why that onely but because the Sacrament is the pledge of our Church-fellowship which one being cast out from the other must follow It shall suffice mee that Church-censure is putting out of the Church and that suspension is null without dis-membership Insomuch that if a Jew were under Nidui which was their lowest degree if unabsolved Godwin observes his children might not bee circumcised and why not but that they reckoned him no Church-member Church-membership being an undoubted ground of their circumcision I will conclude seeing then Excommunication by the Scripture is referred stil unto Church-membership and not to the Sacrament it is not visible unworthinesse or unfitnesse thereunto is the formall ground of censure and consequently not ignorance and every sinne lived in This is the point I desire may be marked as the scope of this discourse that I say upon this it is not to be visibly unfit for receiving as some hold but to be visibly unworthy all Church-society that infers an excommunication God forbid but we should put adistinction between sinnes that stand not with sincerity and that stand not with publicke profession I doe not thinke the detection of a man living in any knowne sinne that contradicts the one ought to excommunicate him but the open conviction of such sinnes which are notoriously scandalous and obstinate bringing discredit on the Church and contradicting the other And as for the Antiquerist he quotes here of his side so magnificently and so often Mr. Prin tels us it is himselfe Let another man praise thee and not thine owne mouth a stranger and not thine own lips The second surmise I would remove was this That Church-censures are only to keep the Ordinances pure especially the Sacrament lest it should be defiled otherwise to the receivers There are many precious Christians herein made weake which yet are not to be sleighted with Mr. D. but tenderly to be satisfied It is true The Ordinances may be said to be prophaned or defiled to a mans selfe and therefore when a man is censured for a Swine or Dog Mr. Perkins sayes he must be kept from them But let not any pious soul think the unworthinesse of another can pollute him in doing his duty This it seems was the old errour of the Novatians For M. D. his exception here Page 109. where he yet agrees with me they might have been spared 1 We thinke sayes he the Ordinances are defiled onely to those who use them sinfully 2 That persons are defiled not by presence with unworthy receivers but by partaking in their sinnes 3 They partake in their sinnes that doe not their duty to reforme them or keep them from receiving otherwise Answ The first of these is good and instructive The second likewise if for presence he had put in receiving else it is but superstitious The third is much amisse and equivocal They partake of those sinnes they should have reproved and doe not but not of any sinne in their receiving any more then in their hearing and praying Such words as these are subject to do hurt as if it were a duty simply to keep one another from Gods service and that this were the onely eminent peece of piety when it is certainly our duty to excite call provoke them to as counsel fit and prepare them for the attending all Ordinances His next exceptions are at me for saying that censures concerne not the admitted but to reforme the offenders censured c. For first sayes he It concernes all Church members in their places to looke to it Secondly To keep them in awe c. And who doubts it But then he sayes I contradict my selfe which I must be sure to doe when he pleases in that my owne ends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerne the whole Congregation Answ One may here see how easie it is to carp and be fallacious It is but taking a mans words simpliciter when they are spoke secundum quid and it may be done who cannot say as Mr. Drake Admonition concernes the Admonisher Satisfaction the Satisfied Example the warned But how doe any of these ends concerne them as to the Sacrament as to their owne act of receiving thereof There is none of them I hope intimate any farther guilt or pollution would accrew to them if the party I say in this act of receiving were not excluded Indeed this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he picks out may infer a man guilty of those sinnes in a sense he does not reprove and hinder if he can but as for the Ordinance that is a mans duty if that prove a sinne it is not propter fieri but accidentally so that Church-members are not herein bound to be hinderers but by their best counsels to be furtherers one of another in their comming and if in prudence they sometimes may advise them to forbear it can be lawfull onely but upon that account which may proportionably reach unto all affirmative precepts It is indeed the great fallacy here that mis-leads many when they plead our duty of watching over others not partaking their sins to get the scandalous censured and the like they wind it all in stil in order to the Sacrament as if they were to bee done meerly in reference to it when as they are each of them distinct duties and the neglect or doing one is no ground or hindrance of the other They concerne us as Church-members not quatenus Receivers The third surmise was That there is some neer essential relation between Excommunication and the communion as if it were a part of it so grosse are some conceirs at least such a necessary antecedent that they think they may not come to our Sacraments without it which is all one as if because we have here no Justices or Assize they should think it unlawful to follow their Vocations To remove this
have and comfort of their labours If you will not beleeve surely you shall not bee established Page 157 158. He objects three or foure things against this I But we have neither promise nor president of blessing the command of Taking in the Sacrament as we have of blessing the word preached in order to conversion Answ 1. God hath promised in general to meet with those that wait on him in his wayes and where is there any text that denyes this blessing here If there be none it is but a sad thing to distrust God 2 Doe we not know that Jesus Christ did consecrate this Ordinance with a blessing Now is not Christs own action herein as good as any promise or all presidents and who can limit that blessing to one member above another or tye up the Spirit of God 3 I pray see over leafe and himselfe tels us well This Take is a short exhortation and virtual Sermon Now what a thing is this to demand a promise and president to prove that the Exhortation and Sermon of Christ is converting Is not the Word converting And is thâ—s word lesse converting because it is Christs Alas Sirsl the case is even clear and the grand Objection is unbeleef 2 But the word is both seed and food not the Sacrament Answ 1 Who knows not that the very being and operation of the Sacrament consists through the word and indeed the nourishment we have in it well considered is onely by the implicite vertue thereof By which same kind of working may the first grace as cleerly as any farther degrees be wrought by it 2 The Sacrament is both seed and food too for here is a Take and this is certainly seed as a word of grace from Christ and here is an Eat including food 3 Prayer is no where called the immortal seed yet is it seed I doubt not in this sense to beget grace in us 4 Ex quibus nascimur ex i is nutrimur That which nourishes us can beget us is a principle so true that out the same food that goes to the aliment of our owne bodies doth arise the matter for our childrens generations 3 But suppose a man stouts it out before and after the word Take if actuall receiving can convert him the Apostles rule is not universally true He that eats unworthily eats judgement to himselfe Answ Suppose the Jaylor had stouted it out against that word Beleeve had he like to have been converted if he had not been converted what a question were this The truth is These dis-junctive supposals are but vaine and evil And therefore I shall only fore warn tender consciences to take heed of that Dilemma that lurks here He that receives worthily is converted already He that receives not worthily eats his damnation Let us rather perswade our selves 1 That a man may be in a state of unregeneracy in that sense unworthy yet may hear pray or receive worthily in his kind in suo genere when he is so wrought on by it as to make a saving use thereof for it seems not to me so tollerable to say a man heard unworthily when he was converted by it 2 There is a general eating damnation as the unregenerate in sensu composito during that estate sinnes in hearing praying and in all he doth and so this is cleerly answered with other duties or there is a particular eating damnation or judgement in the Apostles sense and that judgement he speaks of appears to be those temporal judgements which were brought upon the Corinths not for their coming to the Sacrament in an unregenerate estate but for their not putting a difference between this sacred Table and a common that is used it not as a holy institution which is the direct meaning of both those phrases eating unworthily and not discerning the Lords body which expound one another or not for an unworthinesse of unregeneracy but an unworthinesse of prophanation 4 But suppose a man may be converted by that short exhortation and virtual Sermon Take That may be done by bare presence c. Ans If all come to this still you may see what he must have A Sacrament without receiving which yet himselfe decryes When Christ sayes Take it is to this end to eat and who dare separate Christs end from his action Let this suffice we have here both words Take and Eat for our encouragement and we need not doubt but all the Sacramental actions doe as it were in a kinde of communication of proprieties interweave their vertue in working upon each man according to his condition When God commands us to make us new hearts Ezek. 18.31 Eph. 4.23 he tels us otherwhere Ez. 11.19 I will put a new heart in you so Christ bids us Take Yet faith is the gift of God Now then Man is to wait on his duty and to expect a power in Christs precept For my part let others look on this word onely as an empty livelesse word I shall endeavour to let it sinke in my heart And though I am a poor unworthy sinner that am not sure I have faith enough to save my soul the Lord increase it yet methinks I doe so pathetically beleeve the goodnesse and sweernesse of Christ that I dare lay my life on it he would never have so indeterminately commanded Drinks you all of it if so many thousands of unregenerate members that come thither must but necessarily thereby eat their damnation I must confesse I doe ever suspect my owne weaknesse and am tenderly afraid left I should ewe and hurt others and therefore I beseech every Soul to look well to the word and his owne conscience and trust nothing on me yet doe I finde amidst the doubts and fears of my spirit a sweet melting and repose of my thoughts in this answer which I must make unto my Saviour when he calls me to account for what I have writ Lord here is expresly thy command and I durst not nullifie it to any that are capable of it Here is thy tender offer of grace Take and I durst not bring up any such hard thoughts on thy wayes to fright men from thee And now I am assured Lord thou wilt as freely forgive me if I place too much trust or would raise too much confidence on thy bare word as thou wilt forgive others if they place too little in it For though the Flesh profiteth nothing yet the Spirit quickneth and thy words are spirit and life Page 159. He brings in this instance of mine Suppose a moral Christian who cannot be denyed prepares himselfe and so comes shall the Sacrament be necessarily fruitlesse to him He answers not withstanding all his preparatory acts he comes to the feast without the wedding garment Answ This himselfe satisfies for the Feast he sayes is Christ and I hope a man must come to Christ for conversion As for my words Doing his best you must take them in his kinde as of the regenerate in his kinde And
whereas he thinks I attribute too much to a few dead acts of a natural man he mistakes for I attribute all to the power of Christs command and the efficacy of his quickning grace in the use of the means Page 160. Actual receiving is no act of God but of the creature and an outward act too and therefore hath not a converting power in it Answ A very mature and digested Argument Hearing is no act of God but an outward act of the creature and if you will too hath no converting power in it therefore it is not a means of conversion Tertius E coelo cecidit Cato As for his old close that the fruit of the visible and audible word may be attained here by bare presence it will not serve seeing the fruit that is to be here attained is not of the word onely as visible and audible but also as tactible and gustible while the Sacrament holds forth that word of life which we have not onely seen and heard saye John but also handled and of whose flesh and blood we must eat and drinke saith Christ himselfe And as for the custome of the ancient Church Ite missa est it is not to bee vilified because it is directly contary to him but to be weighed with the former grave judgement of our owne Church and the expresse text Drinke you all of it and they All that were present dranke of it Page 161. For what he answers to my second instance of an humbled soule to wit under the preparatory worke of grace yet no fully fashioned for the receiving the habits which are ordinarily infused per modum acquisitorum I shall say nothing but onely aske this great Doctor How was his soule infused in his body after it had its due time of disposition for it It is true as for all preparatory works nostris viribus as the meer issues of Free-will we disprove them but as they are the previous operations of the Spirit which through our fault it is they often prove abortions it is no more derogatory to attribute them to him in our Conversion then it was to God to take six dayes to the Creation I say then Can he tell me this How was his soule produced at first in his natural birth Can he tell me the way of the wind Joh. 3.8 If he cannot how will hee define mee the way of the heavenly Spirit If hee cannot tell mee the things that are with him How shall his vessel comprehend the wayes of the most High As for my instance of Luke 24.30.31 though I onely alluded to it Calvin hath these words upon it Augustinus plerique alii senserunt panem hunc poâ—rectum fuisse â—n sacrum corporis sui symbolum hoc dictu plausibile est Dominum in spirituali demum caenae speculo agnitum fuisse nam discipuli corporalibus eum oculis intuiti non cognoverunt Now what Saint Augustine and most others thinke true and what Calvin judges plausible though hee addes for his owne part simplicius accipio Master Drake answers It is a dictate so absurd that the very naming it is a sufficient confutation Page 162. By presence benefit may be gained but the danger of eating and drinking unworthily cannot be incurred without receiving c. Ans Methinks the man here speaks very carnally His Doctrine is this If you swear by the Altar it is nothing but if you swear by the gift upon it you are guilty If you partake of the Lords Table without Faith you are without danger but if you actually touch the bread upon the Table and ease you become a debtor I pray which is greater the bare Bread and Wine eating and drinking of the Institution it selfe and consecration which sanctifies the Elements For my part I never imagined but the words eating and drinking 1 Cor. 11.27.29 are spoken Synecdochically for the whole duty of the Receiver who can never be guiltlesse when Christ is offered to him and that he sayes is to all present though they onely looke on if he does not receive him by Faith So that if I may speak as I think It is not the bare eating and drinking we are to stand upon in comparison of his serious addresse unto Jesus Christ according to his condition Page 163 to 167. Whereas I say the Sacrament and all the Ordinances are primatily and directly means of grace and remotely means of conversion and confirmation He pretends as if I went about to blind my Reader with a conversion of our selves instead of Gods converting us and so pursues his trace Ans I must confesse to you here he is mistaken for this never came into my thoughts as my words following plainly declare which are This grace which he distributes as a most wise God works in every one as his state and need requires where he does ill p. 166. to substitute others and cry absurd in the regenerate for their strength and establishment in the unregenerate for their conversion Mr. Drakes weaknesse here then is apparent that cannot distinguish between gratia operans and operata I say the Ordinances are meanes whereby God works or the Spirit moves and though gratia operata is Regeneration or confirmation it felse yet gratia operans I hope lies indifferent between the regenerate and unregenerate as men come to seek to God for it in his means and is indeterminate to either effect So that this businesse is so clear I take it to any unprejudiced understanding that I am glad to be put to no more trouble by so many pages Page 168. As for his exceptions against our distinction of an outward and effectuall conversion the right conceiving the terms onely may satisfie and I will explain my selfe thus In the soule there is two faculties the Understanding and the Will There is accordingly a double conversion either unto the things which before we did not know or to the right improvement of the things we do know or there is a conversion to a sincere Religion or to be sincere in our Religion The first of these must necessarily be wrought by teaching onely and perswasive Arguments unlesse by miracle but when we once are informed by the word then do all the other Ordinances conduce to bring that knowledge into the heart and life So that here does likewise arise that other distinction of mine of the principall converting Ordinance and subordinate which work by vertue thereof Now if you will suppose a heathen sufficiently knowing in the mysteries of our Religion I doe not doubt but this solemnity were apta uata to convert him because it shewes or holds forth that which is a means of Conversion But these two things we must know as sure 1 That it cannot beget any assent or reverential apprehensions but upon supposition of the vertue of the principal Ordinance to wit that he is informed before or at present in the meaning hereof For this bare knowledge alone is that which is neither encreased nor
to bleed in an unfained repentance and conversion towards thee Let this Word of the Lord be good unto me which he hath spoken It is no wonder there are so few Christians converted at the Sacrament when we do not use it for conversion when the Ministers have no expectations from Christ nor instruct their people for it And if any of them shall have some good impressions wrought upon their hearts by this blessed Ordinance while they are taught it cannot convert them they shal but distrust the work to be ineffectual and so derogate from the good Spirit be injurious to their poor souls and if possible loose quench and not improve it For my part therefore I will exhort every one to a self-examination and if he does not find himself regenerate but willing to go on in his sins and refuse Jesus Christ I will not gratifie him so far to say he must stay away as if he were now to lay by the thoughts of him This were doctrine after the Fleshes owne heart but I judge rather his duty still lyes upon him for to come He is to be remembred of the death of Christ unto which he contribute by his sinnes he is by his actual receiving both to assure his soule of a just condemnation unlesse he repents and to binde on his conscience his certain duty of Faith and Conversion if ever he be saved And now whereas the Devil usually doth beat off poor sinners from acceptance of Christ by affrighting them with the strictnesse of his termes as if they should but encrease their hypocrisie unlesse they could be immediately perfect I will advise thee if thou canst not sincerely leave all thy sinnes at once yet doe not give up thy soule quite as lost but rather first bewailing and condemning thy selfe wherein thou failest engage against some one corruption or other and so wear them off if thou canst not otherwise by little and little Truly Christians it were some good use of this Sacrament if the blood of Christ may every time wash away one staine It were much better sure then to trample on that blood and reject it I would have thee likewise if thou canst not at once bring up thy heart to that full obedience as thou oughtest humbling thy soule still for thy infirmity resolve at least this time upon one duty and next upon another and bee reforming according to thy strength It will be something if a poore sinner can but every Sacrament get one step forward neerer God for I am perswaded wee may safely say that such a person if he be not yet converted is more in the may of effectual grace he is neerer to the Kingdome of Heaven Mark 12.34 then before and Christ is better pleased with him to make some good use of his Ordinances then wholly to neglect them Mar. 10.21 Jon. 3.9.10.1 King 21.29 c. What if thou shouldest not yet have any saving grace this will not exâ—â—se thee from thy duty Thou hast I hope some kinde of faith love and thanks to give unto Christ and why shouldest not thou offer to him that poore mite that thou hast and say O my Saviour Though I may not yet be permitted with John to lay my vile head in thy bosome yet will I with Mary fall downe and catch hold of the feet of my Lord I will condemne my selfe wait on thy Free-grace and do my duty The Scripture in some places tels us we have no sufficiency of our selves Of him we have the will and the deed yet in others it layes the whole stresse on mans selfe Why will you dye O house of Israel c. The best reconciliation I thinke of such Texts will be by practise A Christian is to labour and set himselfe to his duty as if he could gain life by it and yet is he wholly to depend upon the Free-grace of God in the doing as that alone which can make it effectual And with submission I judge that all those actings and tendencies of mens hearts towards Conversion in the use of means if they end in Conversion shall be reckoned upon a regenerate account as if they prove but abortions they shall be reckoned upon a natural account at the great day There is indeed some distinction the Scripture seems to put between unregenerate men as to Gods worship in such places as Prov. 28.9 Psal 50.16 16 17. with Psal 106 79. and 44. 1 King 21.19 c. I shall not venture hore upon any exact use of it but onely beseech my Readers that as I have been tender you should not bring a guilt on your selves by a neglect of your duty you will not so ill requite my Labours to bring a guilt on me by any carelesse secure presumptuous performance of it I must professe against you I doe not teach you this I doe not teach any to come and come unworthily but to come worthily yet to come I tell you you must examine your selves humble your selves resolve against your sinnes set upon duties Come then and let us reason together If you thinke worthily of your selves you stand on your own justification look well to your condition But if you will judge your selves you shall not be judged We read of Elisha when he had got the Mantle of Elijah he smote with it on the waters saying Where is the Lord God of Elijah Our Saviour Christ hath ascended to his Father and left us this Sacrament as the Mantle or Symbol of his Body Come thou now smite on the waters of thy heart with it and say Where is the Lord God of Jesus Where is the grace life power vertue of his Ordinance which thou O Lord canst make effectual to us when thou pleasest for our conversion as our confirmation I shall therefore now close up this point with one president from a neighbour Minister a man godly judicious and truly worthy whose testimony is without exception and whereas Mr. D. is ready to cite me before the great Tribunal I may appeale thither to those many Saints in Heaven together with this party that will rise up for me and bee my witnesses by their own experience for a converting power in this Ordinance Being desired by Mr. Humfrey to testifie under my hand what he hath heard me relate by word I could not though differing from his opinion about the Sacrament but grant his request and testifie this truth There was one Thomasin Budde who lived from the time of her Conversion to her death an eminent Christian under my charge who hath often affirmed to me that my very delivering to her and her receiving the Sacramental bread and wine was the first thing which she sensibly perceived by the power of the Spirit brought over her will to the acceptance of our Lord Christ Jesus the vertue of which Ordinance remained forcibly with her to her death which was some five yeers after A little before that time she was extreamly ignorant and obstinate and only had some
the Ordinances which we have not otherwise And I conceive as the act of man brings in the wind and water in their Mils and makes use of their naturall motions to doe their work and serve their occasions So does the holy Spirit make use of Gods voluntary actings in his waiting on the means for the effecting of his speciall worke of grace in him which is as it were acquired by infusion yet so as we can do nothing of our selves It is the free gift of God For the latter I doe admire he should say Mr. H. professeth he knowes no other constituting parts of saving faith then an Historicall assent and good purpose when I speak hereof onely as what suffices to the Sacrament not to justification And whereas upon this he wishes Mr. H. would study fundamentalls better before he come to superstructures I shall desire him seeing he acknowledges our dispute to be but about a superstructure that he would not be so hot and froward that another differs from him And as for my studies about this point of the nature of Faith I shall submit my selfe to give him this small account of them Faith is an assent to a testimony and so it differs from Knowledge Experience c. That testimony is either of Man and then it is an humane or of God and then it is a divine Faith Divine Faith then is an assent to divine Revelation or the Word of God and it is either general or special General Faith is this assent without effectual application Special is this assent with it and this assent with application is Saving Faith Now this Special Faith in the habit hath two acts according to its object in the word the one whereby it is carryed out upon the precepts and threats for obedience or the other as it is carryed out upon the promises especially the great Promise of salvation through Christ and this is the act we say justifies whether in sensu proprio or in sensu correlativo in respect of its object the point seems decided by those two Texts Rom. 3.25 with Rom. 5.9 where to bee justified by Faith in Christs blood is to be justified by his blood Yet doe I think that those men that doe as it were compound these two acts into one and call it acceptance of Christ as Lord and Saviour and so say it justifies as the Covenant-condition speak piously solidly and safely as to these times To close up this eighth Objection Though it is certain a Speciall Faith is required to every saving duty yet whereas the duty at least as a task service tribute must still be don I will advise every Receiver to look mainly into this one thing that there be not upon him the unworthinesse of an evill conscience which I account not in reference to his life past though he has been an ignorant obstinate and grievous sinner so long as for his life to come he now resolves to go on no more in any of his known wilfull sins against Conscience but to leave them and if his heart upon examination can truly tell him this though he be unregenerate and this resolution but legall and preparatory yet seeing he can heartily for the present engage himselfe to the terms of Christ as there is nothing in his Conscience can be opposed against his coming So I am intirely perswaded without the least doubt as to such a one that this Ordinance is a most fit means subordinate to the Word to make his good purposes serious for his effectuall conversion And as for those harsh termes and opinions of others that a man if he be unregenerate does but mock God murder Christ drink his poyson and cate necessarily his damnation It would even pitty a man to the heart to see how they make the holy Table of the Lord to become a snare a very rack terror and torture to many consciences while our grand Enemy makes use thereof to defraud our soules of then due sustentation by it The fear of guilt and damnation may be applyed for the pressing men to preparation but not to keep any from his duty A person famous for wit being condemned had his life promised him on condition he could make a fat Lamb become leane within such a time and yet allow him his ordinary meat This he undertakes prepares two grates in the one he puts the Lamb and gives him the food required in the other he puts a Wolfe and gives him no meat As the Wolfe growes hungry hee baites at the Lamb with his head and pawes raving at him the poore Lamb in the sight of so much terror though he cate his meat pines suddenly away and becomes as lean as if he had been quite famished for want of it I am afraid it fares thus with many of the tender Lambes of Jesus Christ who whiles they doubt of their regeneration and men set damnation to rave at and bark them away if unregenerate not being sensible of the grates that protect them they feed at the blessed Table of the Lord with so much fear and doubtfulnesse that their spiritual meat hardly does them good or their poor soules thrive by it It is even as when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soule is empty or as when a thirsty man dreameth and he drinketh but he awaketh and behold hee is faint Sect. 9 THe ninth Objection is The Ordinance is polluted if all be admitted My answer was Unto the unworthy Receivers it may be said defiled as all things are to the unbeleeving Tit. 1.15 but not no others If the heathen Husband bee sanctified to the beleeving Wife which is the nearest communion that can be 1 Cor. 7.14 so that she must not separate from him in the duties of marriage as it is Gods Ordinance I may resolutely say it is not the unworthinesse of another which is external to him should make a beleever separate from the Sacrament To the clean nothing is unclean Mat. 5.11 Rom. 14.14 Unto this p. 192 193. Mr. D. consents and therefore he might have dealt more ingenuously to have joyned with me in strengthening the weak rather then to vilifie the succors I brought them but that like a troublesome briar there is nothing can passe him without catching renting and tearing while he brings his nettles to possesse our pleasant places and thorns our tabernacles Page 194. He accuses me againe for excluding infants which is nineteen times and because I do not exclude others also as he would have me he bids me take heed there be not the Pharisee and Hypocrite in my heart c. Answ His advise may be good blessed is he that feareth alwaies for though if I belye not my own temper I think it is free and open a lover of truth and reality yet when I come to the closer inter-views between God and my soule it makes my heart bleed to see what a deal of infidelity and spiritual unsoundnesse there is in
me besides the guilt of my life which others may not know of me but thou Lord knowest Thou tryest the reins and my sin is ever before thee Cleanse thou mee heale mee make me upright with thee and then shall my answer be alone in thy mercy Neverthelesse I am perswaded though I am nothing there are many good and worthy Christians that are not altogether of Mr. Drakes opinion and yet are no hypocrites Who art thou that judgest thy Brother who art thou that settest at naught thy Brother wee shall all stand before the Judgement seat of Christ The humble dust will flye in the face of him that spurns it The two next pages p. 195 196. he might have spared It he does not teach it to be simply a sin to receive with any visibly unworthy nor is against all mixed Sacraments he knows who does and might have let that alone that does not concern him Neverthelesse I cannot here wholly free Mr. D. for I think there is a deadly wound made upon tender Christians while he involves every soule under the guilt of participation with the Receiver in his sin of unworthy receiving If they doo not their best to hinder him from receiving which yet is not simply a duty where still lyes this sad fallacy but only seoundum quid in reference to the parties amendment as the end and excommunication as the means whereby a man being cast out of Christian Communion in generall is consequently debarred the Sacrament and otherwise to keep him from it is amisse as going upon this false ground that unfitnesse to the Sacrament is the formall cause of Excommunication and I fear sinful because it is simply our duty to exhort and in our places to prepare all our fellow-members both to come and come worthily to it To clear this suppose a regenerate man deserves to be excommunicate and I do not complain of him he comes and receives in faith Now if I must partake of a mans receiving unworthily when I should endeavor his excommunication and do not then must I partake in this mans receiving worthily and so my not endeavouring their excommunication shall be good in the one and sin in the other It is apparent therefore that this sin is to be singled by its self I am never the more or the lesse guilty whether he come or not come receives worthily or not worthily that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this is one only continued guilt on me that I do not my duty in admonishing and telling the Church of him supposing the cale so that it is my duty If it were my duty simply or absolutely to keep away the unworthy from the Sacrament besides that no man then could keep himselfe from guilt it would be my duty also to keep them from the Word and Prayer For 1. There is the same morall pollution in the one as the other Tit. 1.15.2 The sin is as abstractible in the one as the other 3 The one is our duty as well as the other unlesse Mr. D. can give us any text that forbids it And here indeed will come the issue of all When Christ says Baptize all Nations those that except Infants must shew Texts for it When the Scripture says all the Congregation the whole people every man was to eat the Passeover Exod. 12. When Christ sayes do this drinke ye all of it and St. Paul applys the same to the whole Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 11.23 Those that will except the unregenerate which is likely the greater part out of these doe affirm a limitation and must prove it When you come together ver 33. does to mee plainly include both a supposall they would come together and an allowance that they might Their manner of coming is reproved but their coming together and that to eate is what they ought There may be here one case to be satisfied Suppose I have not admonished my Brother and complained of him is not the neglect of my duty a sin and how then shall I come to the Sacrament with this sin on my Conscience but it shall be defiled to me I Answer if thy Conscience tels there it is a sin for there is some prudence to go in to it thou art to repent of it by resolving to take the next opportunity to perform thy duty thou hast omitted and upon this resolution of thine as in the like neglects there is no doubt but thou mayst come safely 2. If thou hast neglected one duty I dare not say that omission can excuse thee from doing another duty the Apostle commands us Jam. 1.21 to lay apart all naughtinesse and so to receive the word and the Psalmist tells us If we regard iniquity in our hearts God will not heare us Psal 66.18 Yet dare I not say If a man doth not sincerely lay aside all his sinnes as he ought that hee may not heare nor pray The case is the same in all duties the person is to be reformed but not the duty left undone Page 198 199. He hath nothing more considerable onely that new argument from Children which wee have now had no lesse then twenty times over and therefore I shall be content seeing he argues so strongly for them that hee should take them with the distracted into his company It is a manifest testimony of the exceeding weaknesse of his owne grounds that hee is forced through his whole Booke so poorely to argue onely from such a Concession which yet the Primitive Church in St. Austins time would not have granted him Sect. 10 THe last Objection is from those several Texts that ano alleadged for separation from wicked persons My Answer was that all these Texts are to be reduced either to their wicked courses Eph. 5.11 1 Cor. 10.20 31. 2 Cor. 6.14 and it may be Jer. 15.19 2 Thess 3.6.11 Rev. 2.6 or their common samiliarity and so I answer 1 Cor. 5.9 10 11. 2 Thess 3.14 Rom. 16.17 2 Tim 3.5 2 Jo. 10.11 Prov. 22.24 25. and it may be 2 Thess 3.6 Tit. 3.10 But I affirme there is no Scripture allows a separation from any one of Gods publicke Ordinances unlesse in case of Excommunication As for what Mr. D. objects here I have satisfied at once already I shall onely leave two notes 1 Whereas Mr. D. accounts my opinion that excommunication referres to Church-communion in geueral to be 1 False 2 Cruel I am perswaded he will be of another minde when hee comes to understand mee better how I take this that is Relatively wherein I thinke I am neer the truth And hereupon it will follow that every slight occasion must not serve for Church-censure but such notorious crimes as will bring a defamation on the Church and our Christian profession if suffered whereas if we allow any censure lesse then casting out of the Church it is no wonder if bare ignorance or any small matter be held enough for it By which means our Church censures are like to become ordinary