saving Faith the spirit using such most powerfull methods for the work of his grace which he infuseth in us by a sweet attemperation to the will not by compulsion habitus infusi being wrought per modum acquisitorum And this we have lively represented in the two Disciples of Emmaus whose hearts did burne within them at the hearing of Christ but at the breaking of bread their eyes were fully opened to know and to believe him Luke 24.30 31. Rep. Although a Man may be converted At it is not By the Sacrament it is occasionally but not intentionally a converting Ordinance Ans This being undeniably granted of our opposites the matter is upon the point yeelded for consider sincerely this It may be Peradventure a man may be converted by it and no text expresly forbids any coming to it is not this enough And it may be granted lay it well to heart no place to the contrary alleadged who doubts not but all It may bee's all occasions must be taken for our salvation But that I may wholly root out this subtility which I think the spirit of error has insinuated in the hearts of many Godly men I have three things more to say which by Gods blessing will fully do it 1. Let us cleerly know that the Sacraments and all Ordinances are primarily and properly means of grace It of conversion or confirmation For this grace we receive in the use of them is that which converts some and strengthens others Now then we come to this Sacrament as the meanes to receive Gods grace and this grace which he distributes as a most wise God works in every one as his state and need requires in the cōverted for their strength and establishment and in the unregenerate for their conversion 2. Consider what is conversion There is an outward conversion from Heathenisme to the profession of Christ we doe not stand to say the the Sacrament is such a converting Ordinance as if Christ should bid us go forth with this Sacrament and convert the Nations let this be imagined only of the word But there is an inward effectuall conversion of such as outwardly professe Christ to the truth of grace in their hearts Now how is the worke of grace or true conversion wrought through the word it selfe Not from any active power it has per se upon the Soule but per modum objecti we say and instrumentally the object is proposed or revealed that is all the word does and then it is the spirit that by illuminating the mind and a touch upon the will brings the heart to embrace the object whereby it is converted Now is it not just thus likewise in the Sacrament This Sacrament shews forth Christ Crucified according to the Covenant who is the true object of Faith and Life upon this the spirit of God draws the heart by illumination and conviction to embrace him upon those terms he here is offered insomuch that experience can witnesse that some are and have been hereby converted What difference is there imaginable betweene this conversion and at the Word What a shift is it to say it is only At and not By the Sacrament when it is instrumentall per modum objecti as the Word where I may say the same too as truly that it is more properly At than By the Word it self there being no active vertue but of the spirit in the one or the other 3. As for this device of the Sacrament being occasionally not intentionally converting There may be a principall intention and subordinate more primary or secondary ends in an Ordinance Though the word be the principall converting Ordinance we cannot deny but others may be subordinately also converting as Prayer why els doth the Church pray Turne thou u◠and we shall be turned Convert thou us and we shall be converted Now as Prayer and other means of Grace are converting and that intentionally in being used to this end So I affirm of the Sacrament unlesse you can finde in your heart to keep this pitifull shift still and say rather than this shall be you will distinguish between a converting ordinance and means of Conversion other ordinances are means of Conversion but yet the word you persist is the only intentionally that is intended converting ordinance Well goe too what then I pray To the purpose Then you will say the word shall be held forth to all as intended to convert them but the Sacrament shall not being not so intended in the Institution Be it so It followes then there must be no Ordinance administred to those that are not converted but only that which is thus an intended converting Ordinance Is this as you would have it This is the very ground on which you stand But harke ye my Friend I pray then what shall become of publick prayer other Ordinances in the Church when the Word is the onely principally intended converting Ordinance out of question By this doctrine at one dash you take away all other dutyes in our mixt congregations In what a case are you here brought what can you invent On necessity you must recant and confesse indeed that Prayer and the like duties though not principally yet in a subordinate way are converting Ordinances or means and helps of conversion and upon that account you admit all to them Now if you will doe so then is the door as full open in this subordinate way too for the Sacrament If you will not I beleeve the Sacrament will be contented to be shut out with such good company and desires to fare no better than her fellow-ordinances Rep. But unregenerate men you will say are dead in their sins and shall wee give bread to the dead men must first be living new born and converted Christians before they can feed at the Sacrament Answ As for the sense of this it is answered already as for the words and Fancy I returne accordingly If wee could conceive any bread to be such as would fetch life in a man wee should give it him when he is dead but now 〈◊〉 see Jo. 6.33 I am the bread of life sayes Christ not only I hope to confirm but give life Now Christ being offered in this Sacrament this bread is the bread of Life this cup the cup of Life able by Gods grace as well to beget Life as encrease it If we give Aqua vitae to dying men we may give Calix vitae to dead Christians to quicken and convert the unregenerate as to comfort and establish others Object 7. Judas received not the Supper for in Mat. 26.23.26 he is said to dip his hand in the dish before the administration and in 10.13.30 as soon as he received the Sop he immediately went out Besides some learned men conceive the Sauce he dipped in was the Sauce of bitter herbs in the Passeover called Cheroseth and that was therfore before the Sacrament Answ Here is a manifest mistake in the ground of the objection It is supposed St.
will submit here to further consideration ☞ The first Whether the very eating and drinking of an unworthy Receiver be damnation that is to free some weake mindes from fearfull thoughts whether it be such a sinne as makes a man guilty without repentance and Gods mercy of Condemnation And I conceive we must distingnish between the very receiving which is good and the unworthinesse which makes the sin onely This unworthinesse is in the Person or in the Act In the Person it consists in his evill conscience which will condemn him whether he comes or abstaines from comming Put case one receives not and is unworthy the guilt of his unworthinesse lyes neverthelesse upon him for that it may be more for in this very refusing his own Conscience condemns him and God is greater than his Conscience whereas if he comes it happily may excuse him something in not neglecting the outward performance not aggravate his condition for though he failes in the inward and that failing is sin yet that Act he does makes him not more sinfull for the doing but he would have sinned more to have failed in that too and not have done it Unworthinesse in the act consists in obliquity deficiency or failing in the right manner of receiving though the outward work it self be not amisse There is the matter of a duty and manner As for the matter every one can doe in a Christian deportment at the Table but in the manner to receive in Faith Love and other graces as we ought this a naturall man cannot doe and so he sinnes in his duty His very Act is not sin so far as he does doe in the matter it is good not only sub genere entis but good in tanto sub genere morum but this failing and swerving in the manner is the evill which as it cleaves unto we may conceive defiles the Act and makes it lyable unto judgment Now then my second Quaere is whether receiving the Sacrament unworthily is otherwise damnable then praying and hearing unworthily whereof Christ says as much Go and preach he that beleeveth not is damned Mar. 16. I ohn 3.18 ipso facto as much as heere And if it be not why upon the same account as men go to prayer to the word and other dutyes though they cannot pray and hear worthily they may not as well goe to the Sacrament my thoughts are thus It is a sad Dilemma unregenerate men are in If they pray hear receive they sinne not in what they doe I conceive but in what they not doe by failing in the manner their persons being not acceptable If they doe not pray hear and receive they sin worse and are impious Now what must be done here If there be a necessity of sinning of two evills the least must be chosen it is a lesse evill to doe what we can though the outward matter only 〈◊〉 be done than to fail in matter and manner too wholly casting off the care of God But if that axiome be true Nomo angustiatur ad peccandum there is no case wherein a man is necessitated to sin and so that saying Of two Evills must be taken alwayes de malo poenae not culpoe Rom. 3.8 then it is more clear Every man must come and do the best he can which if he doth happily he shall not sin at least so far he does not and God may blesse his endeavours Habenti dabitur whereas if he neglects he sinneth without question this being masum per se the other per accidens onely I will be hold therefore to distinguish There may be a profane presumptuous comming to an Ordinance or a Christian comming in conformity to Gods Worship though it is better not to come than to come in a prophane way this being rebellion and sin in the fact yet I say clearly it is better to come in a Christian way though but in an outward conformity to Gods service then altogether to neglect it which being granted and practised of all in other duties I think it but a begging the question to deny it in this Sacrament My third Quaere is Whether an unregenerate man conceiving himselfe not worthy must never come to the Sacrament for fear of eating his damnation And herein my thoughts are apt to run comparatively on the word The word sets forth Christ on the termes of Faith and new obedience that is the Gospell rightly administred whatsoever effect it hath on the hearers Now it is their part indeed to receive and apply it by Faith if they doe not it pronounceth them damned Thus the Sacrament likewise shews forth Christ unto the sight and for the Churches part she is to declare and offer him to all however he is received Now the Receivers 't is true in the like manner again are to receive in Faith as they ought to doe If they receive unworthily as the word denounceth this seal 〈◊〉 their damnation Now a man will say if the word pronounceth my damnation so long as I am an unworthy hearer I will not goe thither I shall but heare my damnation but I say you must goe thither you lye in a damned state already and it is necessary this damnation should be pronounced upon you to awake you out of your security in it that by the terrours of Conscience you may be driven to repent and be converted so the word is good in it self and the savour of life even while it damns a man if he usefully receive it So say I of the Sacrament it is good in its nature it is appointed for our good and so we are to come unto it as a means of grace but if it accidentally seals to any man his damnation it is through his own unworthiness and he is then to make the same use of it as of the damning word that laying to heart the horror of his sinne in being guilty of the bloud of Christ he may be provoked thereby to flie to Iesus Christ for a merit of his bloud to wash away his guilt of it and having received so many seals of his damnation he may be forced to the Lamb who alone is able to open all those seals by pardoning his sins and so to turne the savour of death unto life and to make even damnation it self such is the power of his grace subservient to his conversion and salvation I summe up this If comming unworthily makes a man guilty of Christs blood by powring it out in vaine what shall an open refusing deserve that even tramples upon it in the despising this ordinance Object 9 The Ordinance is polluted if all be admitted Answ Unto the unworthy receivers it may be said defiled in that sence as all things else are to the unbeleevers whose conscience is defiled that is I conceive in sinning in all that he does Tit. 1.15 But unto the admitters unless they be convicted and joyners who as the Schools say well concurre in their Actu physico not morali to their act of
receiving not unworthiness their minds being pure All things even the worst are pure and there is no more reason to be afraid of comming for that unworthinesse of another then for a man to scruple likewise because the cloath is not clean enough upon the Table Indeed in the Law we read of a distinguishing the clean from the unclearn Levit 10.10 11.47 which otherwise would defile their Sacrifices Hag. 2.14 and their very Temple Ezech. 23.38.39 Such an outward holynesse had their legall Rites that it could be touched but the holynesse God now requires is more inward certainly and to be layd up closer in the heart then that the externall holynesse of another should come at or reach it We must conceive under the Gospell all this legall holynesse in places persons things is abrogated so that there is nothing unclean now unto us Rom. 14 14. which thing was shewed Peter in a vision it is pity men had need of another to mind them of it But that all scruple may be removed Christ has left it in plain words Nothing without the man defiles the man Mar. 7.15 and nothing that enters into the mouth as if he would meet with this in particular Mat. 15.11 If the heathen husband be sanctified to the beleeving wife which is the neerest communion that can be 1 Cor. 7.14 so that that she must not seperate from him in the duties of Marriage as it is Gods Ordinance I may resolutely say it is not the unworthinesse of another shall make the true beleever separate from the Sacrament but even the vilest that comes there are sanctified to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is are clean in respect of his communicating with them so that their wickedness being an externall thing to him cannot ☞ defile his duty This is the privilege I take it of the Gospell many think not of that now we are to have Free Ordinances and to account no man unclean in the use of them My Brethren there are some touches of the Law and Superstition on you you know what a sacred thing was made of the Communion Table when the Rayle was about it now I pray think how you refine and spirituallize your old Superstition by putting a spirituall rayle about the Sacrament when you debarre poore sinners from comming hither Let us take heed there will be something of the Pharisee in these spirituall proud hearts of men there will be setting a raile still about the Communion Table Rep. But are we not faulty and partake of other mens Sins if we do not our best to have the Leven purgedout and therefore we may not say Am I my Brothers keeper look they to it I Answer There are severall dutyes of a Christian he is to doe He is to pray receive He is to love his neighbour Among the rest there is a duty much neglected of brotherly Admonition whereby wee are to Rebuke the faulty and to tell the Church of them supposing it in a capacity to hear us if we neglect our duty we are guilty in some measure partakers of their sin and defiled by it well let this be granted what then why me must labour a Church establishment and so to amend this great neglect among us but I hope it will not follow that in the mean while we must not receive the Sacrament pray nor performe those other severall duties we have to doe it is a plaine fallacy a dicto simpliciter ad dictum secundum quid I take it to think our coming to the Sacrament with a wicked man is sin it self or makes it the sin or us more guilty of the sin because we ought to have admonished them and laboured their excommunication no this neglect of ours is the sin by it self and the coming is our duty God forbid that I should think if I do sin in omitting one thing that I must not therefore goe to do my duty in another Because the leaven is not purged out must there be no lumpe this was I may humbly say a too overly surprise of godly Mr. Burroughs Rep. But you will say more obviously Are not all ignorant and scandalous persons Swine and Dogs to be rejected and kept from the Pearls and holy things of the Sacrament I answer I dare not say so though I see what interest lies at stake which may soon fancy a Christian conveniency into a Divine necessity For First This is Petitio principii and if you speak indefinitely my proofs assure the contrary Secondly I place a great distance between an unfitnes to come unto the Sacrament as in other duties Let a Man examine himself and being excluded Thirdly The keeping of any cannot be pretended to without power in our unelderd Congregations it being confessed a power not of order but of jurisdiction Fourthly Men may be Dogs and Swine either in the course of their lives or in the publick esteem of the Church now in our Ministeriall admission we are to look on men as they are in the Churches esteem and may not account or deal with them as Dogs as we cannot execute an arrant thiefe untill they are juridically censured to be such by lawfull authority Fifthly To speak particularly Concerning the ignorant I dare not judge so rigorously The 5 Hev 2. comes neer my heart there are many sorts of ignorance the case whereof may need instruction mostly not censure For the scandalous we know there must be admonition first twice or thrice Mat. 18.15.16 And then if they continue obstinate not else and are notorious an Excommunication is granted verse 17. 1 Cor. 5.13 yet I cannot finde any where unlesse I look without the book that this is merely in reference to the Sacrament but from Christian Communion in generall at least in the primary nature thereof though I will yield much by way of indulgence unto the Churches wisedome according to the ancient practise of the Jews and Greeke Christians the severall species or rather degrees whereof I must leave unto more learned Rabbies And as to this present writ of suspension in hand which men would have a middle thing between Admonition and Excommunication I must make my returne truly Non est inventa in baliva nostra I speak it with reverence to wiser judgements who may allow as prudent in the way of Discipline what they will not enforce upon the Conscience as necessary in our worship 10. The last Objection is from those severall Texts that are alleged for a separation from Wicked persons Vnto all which I answer briefly and I conceive with submission fully Separation from wicked men is either in regard of their sinnes or their persons In regard of their sinnes it consists in departing from their evill courses In regard of their persons it is either in case of common familiarity or in case of Excommunication Now it is certaine we must separate First from all wicked men in their sins and evill courses this is out of question Secondly we grant