so but though the Church may be sometimes obscured it never loseth its visibility or ceaseth to be visible So Ames ecclesia nunquam planè desinit esse visibilis Med. p. 166. 39 quamvis enim aliquando viz usquam appareat ecclesia tam pura c. ecclesia tamen aliquo modo visibilis exist it in illa ipsa impuritate cultus professionis which we may take in English in those pertinent words of Master Fox the right His protestation before his Acts and Monuments Church saith he is not so invisible in the world as none can see it The Scripture-Church is most properly the Church of Christ this none can well deny But now the visible Church is the Scripture-Church as appeares from the Doctrine of Scripture about the Church the examples the parts the Ordinances and number of Scripture-Churches First the Doctrine of the Scripture about the Church is generally such as agreeth onely with the Church-visible viz. as made up of tares and wheat good and bad Elect and reprobate c. Yea the very word Church in Scripture as some affirme is not more then once taken for the church-Church-invisible which is Heb. 12. 23. though that very place is by some Reverend Divines understood of the church-Church-visible also for it was already come into by persons then alive ye are come therefore the Church on earth and it was a Church that had Ordinances in it v. 25. therefore the visible But if it should be granted as Master Blake observes that in this place and in two or three more the Scripture meaneth the Church invisible which is as much as can be pretended unto yet doubtlesse that which is the ordinary language of the holy Ghost which he useth most often and almost always is that which is most proper 2. It also appears from the examples of Scripture-Churches De quâ solâ ecclefiâ praesumptivâ c. Dav. Detern p. 218. ex spalatensi for have not even all these a mixture of corrupt and wicked members and is such a mixture compatible with the Church invisible or what Churches can such be but visible therefore saith Davenant all such Scriptures and assertions of the fathers as speak of this mixture of good and bad in the Church are to be understood of the presumptive or visible Church 3. It further appeares by the parts of the Scripture-Church which are generally such as are onely to be found in the visile Church that the Scripture-Church is the visible Church The parts of the Scripture-Church are generally Priest and people Pastors and flock the Rulers and the ruled the Catechisers and the catechized and the like as both the Old and New Testament abundantly testifie Now in the Church invisible there are no such parts no such relations no such officers but all are members but Christ the head therefore the Scripture-Church wherein these parts and officers as such are viz. Priests Prophets Apostles Bishops Pastors Elders Deacons Rulers Cetechizers c. must needs be the visible Church Fourthly that the Scripture-churche is the visible Church appears moreover by the dispensation of Ordinances fixed therein which is proper and peculiar to the visible Church in all the Scripture-Churches we finde a dispensation of the Word Sacraments discipline the dispensation whereof is in the hands of men who are onely capable of dealing with the Church as visible yea the dispensation it self is visible and all will readily grant that these Ordinances are all of them peculiar to the visible Church the attendance of the Church upon them being the most eminent and remarkable meanes of rendring the Church her self to be visible Lastly this yet farther appears from the number of the Scripture-churches they are many the Church at Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus Colosse Philippi Thessalonica Pergamus Thyatira c. Whereas the invisible Church is also indivisible 't is but one and not to be divided into any more therefore the Scripture-church which is thus actually divided must needs be the visible Church Arg. 5. My last Argument is taken from the Name Church and may be this The visible Church in its nature doth not properly answer to the name Church therefore it is most properly the Church for that thing which doth in its nature most properly answer to such a name must needs be the thing most properly which that name doth signifie Now the nature of the visible Church may be observed to answer to the name Church in a most proper signification both in English Latine Greek and Hebrew 1. In English the word Church doth in a true and direct propriety of speech signifie nothing but that which is the Lords and may be conceived to imply the Lords people or the Lords house Die Kyrchen nuxcupant ipsum Dei populum Domum in quo hic congregatur ad cultum Dei Vid. Bul. Dec. p. 135. it seemes to be taken from the German word Kurch which also alludeth haply to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dominica which as Bullinger observes they used to understand both of the people and the house of the Lord where the people of the Lord used to assemble and indeed of both as they have relation one to the other Now if the name Church intend the people of the Lord meeting together in one place to attend on the worship of God we need not much trouble our selves for its proper application to the visible Church 2. In Lattine the Church is called Congregatio the Congregation or the people gathered together answering haply to the Hebrew which may also be here taken notice of Katial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Congregavit Now doth not this name also most properly agree with the nature and reason of the visible Church is it not a local gathering together that most properly constitutes a Congregation and is not this most proper to the particular and consequently to the visisible Church therefore is she also called an Assembly a body a City a Kingdom none of which but most properly resemble the Church as visible 3. Lastly the Church in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most directly imports a people called out of the world as anon more largely Indeed the term from or out of which the Church is called is not expressed in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet all agree that it is as necessarily implied in it Now this sense of the word Church most properly and exactly intendeth the Church-visible this being most apparently and properly called out of the world as easily appeareth For the world here must be understood to be either the world of the ungodly or the world of infidels but it cannot be understood of the world of the ungodly because there is still a mixture of the Church and the world in this sense according to that of our Saviour I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world then if the world out of which the Church is called be
great meanes of the former viz. his glory as Szegedine exactly teacheth the end of the Church is the true Finalis causa ecclesiae est verus Dei cultus ordinata enim est ecclesia ad verum Dei cultum ad glorificandum Deum Szeged p. 2â—6 Theol. Instit p. 215. Quae causa finalis ecclesiae verus Dei cultus Bucan de eccl lo. 441. p. 477. worship of God for the Church is ordained for the true worship of God that he might be glorified which Trelcatius hath handsomely couched together saying that the visible Church is instituted ad cultum gloria Dei for the worship of the glory of God now as that which is suborainate hereunto the visible Church is made the seat and subject of all visible administrations whereby also the wicked in the Church may be left without excuse the Elect converted the converted edified the visible Kingdom of the Devil vanquished Christs visible Kingdom advanced and the Nations of the earth openly gained to a visible subjection thereunto in due season Secondly these are the real uses and proper ends of the visible Church For 1. The visible Church as such hath a neer aptnesse and kindlinesse Medium est aptum utile fini in it and is per se and sua natura useful hereunto viz. for the keeping and upholding the glory and worship of God in the world as none will deny seeing God is herein truely owned visibly professed submitted unto obeyed and worshipped according to his will and that with such a smooth and easie tendency as naturally Quod sua natura utile est ad aliquid efficiendum propter illud esse videtur â—ows from the visible Church as such Now it is a maxime that that which is apt of it selfe and according to its own free nature for the effecting of any thing seemeth to have its being for that very thing and by consequence that thing is truely and properly the end thereof 2. The visible Church as such is necessary for the obtaining of these ends without it what glory would redound to God in the world or what worship where else would visible Ordinances be fixt and dispens'd how would the visible Kingdome of Christ be advanc'd the visible Kingdome of Satan subverted How would hypocrites in the Church be inexcusably judged or the Elect be ordinarily saved if there were no visible Church Quod alio quo piam indiget vt acquiratur hujus finis est Sinâ— quo quicquam existere non potest in naturâ id est illi necessarium atque propter illud factum Now the Rule is that that which wants another thing for its own attaining is the end of that other thing but these particulars want the visible Church for their obtaining therefore they are the ends thereof which is evidently grounded by Scaliger upon that necessity that there is of the means in order to the end which is the thing I am urging for saith he that thing is necessary for another when that other cannot exist in nature without it and therefore this was made for that other and consequently that other thing for which this was made is the end thereof Here is a double necessity of the visible Church for the ends specified Necessitas â— Of the means i. e. without which these ends cannot 1. Medii be attained this hath been now spoken to 2. Of the ends i. e. where this means of the visible Church is there these in some true 2. Finis measure do of necessity follow which might serve us another evidence that the ends before are true and proper ends of the visible Church for quo existente necessario prâ—ducitur aliquod bonum hoc est aut videtur esse illius finis 3. God himself hat ordained the visible Church for the ends specified Praecepti vel institutionis therefore 't is yet further necessary for them viz. with a necessity of divine ordination and institution and then there is no ground of doubting left but that they are true and proper ends thereof Hath not God ordained the visible Church to put his name there to be the ground and pillar of his truth that he might have a praise and a name in the Earth and in one word that those that worship him might glorifie his Name Psalme 89. Finis rei est sua operatio Operatio est usus vel actus ad quâ—m ordinatur now if so are not these the ends for which God hath ordained the visible Church the end of a thing is but its operation and operation in this logical sense is but that use or act for which any thing is ordained by God in nature or by God in Scripture the latter of which we are now upon and therefore I shall rather choose to expresse iâ— in the worâ—ds of a Divine lately cited the Church is ordained by God for his true worship that he might Szâ—gid p. 226 be glâ—rified and therefore the end of the Church is the worship of God Thirdly as these are proper ends of the visible Church so the visible Church is truely a means of them and may be so considered without respect unto saving grace for what necessity of saving grace can we imagine to the attaining of the foresaid endâ— the glory of God in his visible worship before the eyes of men much lesse what possible necessity is theâ—e for our having respect unto saving grace when we truely consider thereof doth mens attending upon publick Ordinances essentially depend upon their saving grace or cannot we truely consider thereof but we must suppose the men savingly gracious do not the common effects of the spirit in illuminating conviacing of sinne and of necessity of attending on the means of grace for peace and salvation work men out of conscience to a constant and solemn dependance thereupon and yet none will say that any particular thus expressed doth necessarily suppose a saving work yea the end which is neerest and most generally allowed to the visible Church viz. the worship of the glory of God may doubtlesse be obtained by a great deal lesse viz. by a visible profession of and submission to that way of worship that the Lord hath ordained which doth not of necessity require such a great degree of common grace as before was specified True grace is indeed necessary to work out our own salvation But we are wont to say that gifts which do not necessarily suppose true grace are onely necessary to work on others especially in the way of the worship of God for the advancing of his name and glory thereby to the world 'T is also true that saving grace is necessary to the acceptance of our worship before God I mean to a plenary acceptance for some we read of that found some measure of true acceptance in their serving of the Lord though without saving grace But yet not necessary for the effecting of Gods glory before men that
Churches in England that have at present I know not for what cause laid aside that practice are therefore not visible true Churches Though I highly approve of such a solemn declaration of the faith if possible in the same sound forme of words to be universally made yet I humbly conceive that this is but a prudential humane Ordinance and therefore not so necessary or so neer the essence or so essential a mark of the Church as sound doctrine and pure Sacraments both which are undoubtedly of immediate divine institution and without which the Church cannot exist Which thing Trelcatius doth thus most accurately and fully open the proper and essential note of the visible Church which flows immediately from the very forme of it is but one viz. the Nota propria essentialis ecclesiae visibilis proximeque fluens ex forma illius unica est veritas scilicet verbi Dei Revelati ac communicati cui veritas Sacramentorum tanquam connexum inseperabile conjuncta est Utriusque enim veritas ita proprium essentiale est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ecclesiae ut veritas haec ecclesia convertantur Instit Theol. p. 224. truth of the Word of God revealed and communicated to which the truth of the Sacraments is inseparably joyned for which he quotes Heb. 4. 12. John 10. 27. Matth. 28. 10. Rom. 4. 11. for as he addes the truth of both is such a proper and essential mark of the Church that this truth of both Word and Sacraments and the Church are convertible But of this I shall have more occasion in the next Chapter therefore I have onely this to do here namely to set this profession of the faith before you to consider whether it doth necessarily suppose saving grace or not in any of these senses 1. May not personal vocal profession be made without saving We are to acknowledge a Church of Christ more or lesse corrupt according to the greater or lesse abuse of Gods Word and worship Bp. Usher p. 39. his sum of Rel. grace and the truth be professed as well as beleeved where saving grace is wanting 2. May not ecclesiastical profession whether more formally by a solemn Creed read and silently consented unto by the people be also done and considered without any respect to saving grace in the declarer or consenters 3. Or that other real profession consisting in attendance upon the Ordinances of God be considered to have truth for its object both in Word and Sacraments and yet without respect to saving graces Againe the accidental notes of the Church are also generally acknowledged to be of two sorts inseparable or proper and separable or common The separable and proper notes of a true Church are said to be the pure preaching of the Word and the lawful administration of the Sacraments which are but the meanes or actions of conveyance and application of the foresaid truth of both unto the Church and so near unto the profession thereof which was said before to be the essential mark of the Church that I have already reduced it thither and need not repeat it here againe The separable notes of the Church whatsoever they be cannot conclude any thing against me because they are such I meane separable and therefore not necessary in our consideration of the being of the Church However that we leave not them onely untoucht they are usually reduced unto two heads 1. Ecclesiastical power 2. And holiness of life Ecclesiastical power hath three branches the power of Ministry the power of Order the power of Discipline all which may easily be considered without the least respect to saving grace 1. Judas may truely exercise his Ministry And 2. Outward Order may be fix'd and observed And 3. Discipline may be erected and dispensed without any necessary supposition of saving grace either in the parties so dispensing or in the objects openly scandalous on which the Discipline is dispensed as hath beene touched before and will be more fully handled hereafter I confesse holiness of life cometh neerest to shew its respect to saving grace but this also shewes as much respect to my cause as easily appeares by this concluding argument If holiness of life be separable from a true Church then saving grace is separable from a true Church for if a holy life doth not alwayes suppose saving yet saving grace doth not always produce a holy life But it is still confessed by those which write most accurately on the Church that holinesse of life is a separable accidental note which is onely necessary to the order and welfare of the Church and not to the being or truth thereof Now if saving grace be separable from a true Church then it may be considered to be truely such without respect thereunto The summe of the general Argument from the causes is this The Summe of the Argument from the causes in general All the causes of the visible Church may really exist without the work of saving grace viz. The efficient as Authour God Head Christ The end of the Glory of God on earth before men Worship The matter whether it be Professors of the faith The outwardly called Outward worshippers The form whether it be Constituting Distinguishing he forme constituting whether it be Faith Calling Society or community The form distinguishing whether it be Essential Profession of the faith or truth of word Sacraments ccidental inseperable Pure preaching of the word and administration of Sacraments Therefore the visible Church may be considered to be truely a Church of Christ without respect to saving grace CHAP. XII The Argument from the definition of the visible Church first from its special quality HAving done with the causes we proceed to the definition whence we thus argue The definition of the visible Church doth not suppose saving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace therefore the definition the visible Church it self may be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace for the definition of a thing is but that whereby the nature of that thing is declared or explicated and is plainly convertible with the thing defined Now whether the definition of the visible Church be inclusive of saving grace or not may appear First from the parts thereof severally considered And Secondly by a view of such definitions of the Church as are already given us by approved Authours 1. The parts are three 1. The special quality of the visible Church 2. Or the special work and employment thereof Or lastly the state and condition wherein the Church so qualified is rendred capable of that employment First let us look upon the special quality of the visible Church which may be conceived to be either the faith calling or profession thereof Whence by some the visible Church is in short defined to be a company or society of Beleevers or a company of men called by external vocation or a company professing the Christian and true Religion where the weight and emphasis rests upon
had or be cut off that was never on or cast out that was never within 2. If it be my Opponents judgement that excommunication doth cut a person wholly off this cannot consist with that which we deny viz. that wickednesse doth so too for that which is already done cannot be done againe I meane according to the same act but if wickednesse which is the fault doth put a man wholly out of the Church then the man is wholly out before the censure of excommunication proceeds to do it for the fault is before the penalty and consequently excommunication is prevented in its work and doth not put a man out of the Church Learned Willet saw a necessity of this consequence wherefore having first concluded that excommunication doth cut off from the Church he addes that therefore wicked men are members of the Will. Synop. second controversie of the Church Church de facto though not de jure till cut off accordingly by excommunication 3. Yea if my Opponent affirme that excommunicate persons are yet not wholly cut off from the Church thereby then my conclusion gaineth advantage and forceth it self with greater strength for if excommunication which supposeth wickednesse procuring it doth not wholly cut off much lesse doth wickednesse do so of it selfe without this censure added to it and if wicked persons excommunicate have not lost all title to membership much lesse have wicked persons not Excommunicate thus lost it Object It may be urged here that wicked persons are de jure cast out before men or in the judgement of the Church though not excommunicate and therefore they are so de facto before God Answ This doth not follow for of the two the judgement of the Church is first viz. in nature and therefore the censure of God cannot be first in time the promise is that God will binde what the Church bindes * Heaven waits and expects the Priests sentence here on earth the Lord follows the servant and what the servant rightly binds and looses here on earth that the Lord confirms in heaven Chrysost Hom. 5. in Isa vid. Greg Hom 26 in evang intimating that in ordinary course of proceeding the Church must censure and binde first and then what she bindes on earth God according to his own Word will binde in heaven God who useth to work by means doth this also of casting out of the Church by the means or mediation of his Churches act clave non errante Besides that God doth account wicked persons not excommunicate to be members of his Church or of the number of his people notwithstanding their wickednesse hath I presume so fully appeared from his own words in my former discourse that nothing more can need to be added either to this answer or this Chapter CHAP. XXXII Excommunication doth not put a man wholly out of the Church YEt it may be questioned whether excommunication doth root up membership or break off all relation to the Church It hath been a long question betwixt the reformed Divines and the Papists whether excommunication wholly cut off from the Catholick Church or the Church of the saved though by Catholick the one side meant the invisible Church and the other the visible Our Divines do unanimously assert and undeniably evince that excommunication doth not cut off from the Church invisible though some few of them seem to intimate that it doth cut off from the visible Church Yet with respect to the visible Church they mince their assertion with a conditionaliter and say that upon condition and hope of repentance as Trelcatius or potentia as Willet an excommunicate person is a member of it However I presume they had as good deny them to be members of the visible Church altogether for what doth conditionaliter or potentia add to the excommunicate more then will fit a Turk or Pagan as well as them may it not be said of a Turk or Pagan that he is upon condition of repentance or in potentia a member of the Church both visible and invisible for indeed a person that is no more a member then upon condition of repentance or in power whether excommunicate or not is no more a member then an Heathen that is not at all till the condition be performed and the power be reduced into act for though there be degrees in power and there is a nearer power in the excommunicate then in Heathen yet if he be onely so in power it can onely be said that he may be so and thereby it is intimated that he is not so at all for the present Divines do generally distinguish of two degrees of excommunication the greater and the lesser if this distinction be allowed our present question concerneth the lesser degree of excommunication for I grant that if there be such a degree as the greater called Anathema Maranatha this doth in the usual understanding of it wholly cut off from the visible Church though I crave leave to adde that there are but few footsteps of it in the New Testament and that in the use and extent thereof as it is explained by Divines it belongs to such onely as have sinned the sinne against the holy Ghost and puts men out of the Church without hope of repentance and as accursed till our Lord shall come whereby it is rendred impossible to be inflicted by men before that day of his coming and therefore such as are by necessity cut off from our practice may be very well exempt from our present discourse of choice Now concerning the common censure called the lesser or the lesser degree of excommunication which yet I yeeld to be more then suspension I renue the question whether this doth wholly dismember or cut one wholly off from the visible Church and for the negative I offer Reas 1. If there be two degrees of excommunication then the first degree doth not put a man wholly out of the Church for the gâ—eatest and last degree of excommunication is a Church-censure as well as the first and lesser now if the first degree of excommunication did wholly put out of the Church where iâ—â—here roome for the second if by the first they be put wholly out how shall the latter judgement of the Church reach them for what hath she to do to judge those that are without therefore she judging those that are within with this last censure also they are concluded to be within in some sonse that are capable of such judgement though under the lesser excommunication before Now that there are two such degrees of censure in the power of the Church is not questioned by most that are likely to oppose me in this controversie so that this may serve at least as an argument to them Reas 2. But to the thing such excommunication as we discourse of doth not sever a man from the community of the Church which is its essence nor yet wholly from its communion or its formal actions so that a person though
thus excommunicate hath yet both habitual and actual communion in part with the Church either of which is far more then a bare conditionall or potential communion with it and therefore participateth of the essence and ceaseth not wholly to be a member thereof 1. An excommunicate person hath habitual communion with the Church which is real and more then potential though he Habitual should have actual communion this hath largely appeared before for his communion is onely suspended upon expectation of satisfaction and he hath it in desire and in the preparation of mind and the seal of the Covenant viz. baptisme is yet in force upon him 2. Yea such an excommunicate person hath actual commmunion with the Church in many though not all her Ordinances Actual 1. As before in the ordinance of Baptisme 2. In the prayers of the Church which are or ought to be made for him as a person in some relation as a brother to them which he may claime at least if he may not heare 3. In the counsel and exhortations of the Church which doubtlesse is an Ordinance Heb. 11. 25. and to be performed to the excommunicate count him not as an enemy but admonish him as a brother 4. In the Ordinance of excommunication also which is acknowledged to be appointed and ought to be executed as a medicine to heal and not alwayes as a sword wholly to cut off a diseased member the Excommunicate are thereby under the meanes of cure 〈◊〉 1. Cor. 5. the meanes of salvation which no one wholly out of the Church is Yea some conceive that the excommunicate have an actual right in all Ordinances but the Supper and the politick acts of the Niddui Church Niddui among the Jews which is thought to answer to our lesser degree of excommunication did not exclude a man from the Temple as the Talmudists say though according to Drusius he might not come into the Synagogue whence haply Vid. Gillesp Aarons rod. that forme of speech casting out of the Synagogue in Scripture Yet Joh. Coch. thinks that an excommunicate person was not altogether cast out of the Synagogue neither but was permitted to heare and in other things was separate which yet hath some colour from that proverb of the Jews that he that was under Cherem or the greater excommunication non docet non docetur and by this he was distinguished by those under Niddui intimating that such though they might not teach yet they might be taught otherwise there appears to be no difference betwixt them herein That which favours this opinion amongst us is that other Ordinances may be dispensed to Heathens and Publicans a Publican may come into the Temple to pray and an Heathen came into the Church at Corinth to heare and a person thus excommunicate is but an Heathen or a Publican but enough of this I presume not to determine any thing in so nice a Controversie I crave onely leave to conclude that if the excommunicate heare onely as a Heathen and pray onely as a Publican then not as a Church-member which serveth to cut this Observation wholly off from the present question and to break short off the thread of my answer hereto CHAP. XXXIII What doth wholly cut a man off from the visible Church first on Gods part HItherto we have answered negatively and laboured to shew that ignorance wickednesse and excommunication viz. the lesser doth not wholly root up visible Church-membership come we now to give our positive answer and to shew what doth The person that is the subject of this sad change may be considered The person cut off is passive or active in it to be passive in it onely and to be cut off or active also and to cut himself off from the Church If we look upon him as passive in it I mean in the punishment not in the sinne the agent can be none in a strict and principal When the man is passive God is the agent properly sense but God for as the Husband is said most properly to give the wife a bill of divorce though others viz. the administers of the Law be subservient also so God alone hath this prerogative to admit into and cast out of his own Church though the discipline of the Church be used by God therein therefore we are taught by Divines that when the key of the Church erreth God doth not binde in heaven and consequently men are not really bound at all 1. But God may be considered to give this bill of utter divorce two wayes first mediately by the hand of the Church in her God doth divorce 1. Mediately by the Church highest act of punishment if such a one there be called Anathema Maranatha which God doth either by ratifying in heaven what is done accordingly on earth when the Church dares arise to so great and dreadful a judgement as it is said she did against Julian and doth not misapply it or else by putting forth such a judicial sentence against a person known to himself to have sinned the unpardonable sinne though not to the Church as a dismal addition and not onely a ratification of the Churches lesser censure Secondly sometimes God doth put in his own hand and sickle and wholly cut off persons and Churches more immedialy i. e. without 2. Immediately two wayes the meanes or mediation of the Church and that two ways 1. By the stroke of natural death whereby a person if wicked is in 1. By death heavy judgement wholly cut from the Church in all respects but if godly in much mercy wholly cut off from the Church in our present respect viz. as militant to be joyned to Jerusalem above in the glory and triumphs thereof for ever 2. By removing his Ordinances 2. By removing the candlesticks the onely means of Church-communion from the place where such a person or people who have not hearts or fruits answerable do inhabite for otherwise though the Gospel be removed yet if a mans heart be to it indeed he hath habitual communion with all other Churches and power to joyne himselfe to any true Church in the world and to claime actual communion with it as none can doubt though his own former Congregation be dissolved Just thus it was with the ancient Church of the Jews God after many warnings and threatnings when she had stoned the servants and killed the heire and yet still refused her own mercies scorning to be wash'd in the blood her selfe had shed or healed by the wounds she had made God at length giveth commission to his servants in the Gospel and lo they turne to the Gentiles and carry away the light and glory of Israel the golden candlestick of the Gospel and the Where God utterly taking away the means of his Word and worship Acts 15. 46 hath apparently given the bill of divorce Isa 50 1 then are we not to acknowledge any Church at all at this day in Jerusalem
savin◠qualifications in themselves how few of Gods truth-humbled and savingly qualified people would dare to come did they suffer themselves to be throughly convinced of such a principle that they that cannot certainly conclude that their graces are saving might not encourage themselves to receive but ought to abstain and who would presse with the greatest confidence and in the greatest numbers to this holy Table but such as deceive themselves as well as others by presumption and self-conceitednesse 3. Because if this were true that none but such as can evidence the truth of their graces to their own satisfaction might come to the Sacrament the Sacrament would seem to agree rather with the Oeconomy of Heaven and the Church-triumphant where there is grace without sin spirit without flesh assurance without doubting then with the frail sinful tempting doubting estate and condition of the troubled and militant Church on earth 4. Yea methinks the text it self with it s context is too evident to the contrary to bear much gain-saying the text is given as a meanes whereby we may prevent the sinne v. 27. of being guilty of the body and blood of the Lord to which it stands knit by the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but in the Text and the judgement ver 29. 30. of sicknesse weaknesse death which many had suffered before for want of this due self-examination now in v. 31. the Apostle gives his reason why self-examination must needs prevent this sinne and punishment because he that judgeth himself shall not be judged of the Lord or in his own words for if we judge our selves we shall not be judged i. e. of the Lord as unworthy receivers were and consequently we shall not be judged of the Lord to be unworthy receivers then 1. Here we may easily note that such examination as issues in self-judging hath the promise of not being judged of the Lord for unworthy receiving 2. Then where men attaine to this effect of self-examination as to judge themselves they shall not be dealt with by God as unworthy receivers of the Sacrament 3. Then it follows that such as do in examining themselves judge themselves may come to the Sacrament without feare of unworthy receiving yea are here invited yea commanded to come so let him eat c. 4. Then it seemes that our sinnes which are the proper cause of self-judging are the object of self-examining rather then our graces so that if we can but finde out our sinnes and humble our selves in the sight of them and judge our selves for them we may warrantably come to partake of this Sacrament though we cannot discover our graces 5. Then unlesse self-judging be self-acquitting or self-condemning be self-approving self-justifying a person may warrantably come to the Sacrament without the discovery of saving grace in his self-examining The summe is would a man escape the sinne and judgement of unworthy receiving let him so farre examine himself as to see his sinne and judge sentence and condemne himselfe for the same for if we judge our selves we shall not be judged Lastly this is excellently noted and judiciously stated as well as confirmed by the Assemblies larger Catechisme with whose words I shall here conclude One say they who doubteth of his being in Christ or of his due preparation to the Sacrament may have interest in Christ though he be not yet assured thereof and in Gods account hath it if he be duely affected with the apprehension of the want of it and unfeignedly desires to be found in Christ and to depart from iniquity in which cases because promises are made and this Sacrament is appointed for the reliefe even of weak and doubting Christians he is to bewaile his unnbelife and labour to have his doubts resolved and so doing he may and ought to come to the Lords Supper that he may be further strengthned p. 141. CHAP. XXXVIII The termes of publick admission to the Lords Supper not the evidences of saving grace SO much for the termes of private accession let us now enquire what my former proposition inferres about publick admission to the Lords Supper which may in general be offered thus If saving grace appearing be not necessary to declare our interest in the visible Church then neither is it necessary to our publick admission by the Church to the Supper of the Lord. The reason of this connexion is because visible right or interest in the Church declares visible right to all the priviledges of the Church as such and consequently to this of the Supper and if a person may be known to the Church to be in Covenant without the evidence of saving grace doubtlesse we may argue from a visible being in Covenant to visible right to the seale for who can be thought to have a right to the seal but such as are in Covenant This consequence is I presume denied by none some do indeed deny the present and actual possession of the Supper to some Church-members as is next to be considered yet they deny not question not the right even of such Church-members thereunto but rather distinguish of right and say that such Church-members as are not to communicate have yet a remote and fundamental right though not such a right as giveth claim to immediate possession Others seem to plead for an actual possession of all Church-members but this most evidently flows from an opinion that all Church-members as such have a right to all visible Ordinances without distinction of right or Ordinances The minor therefore viz. that those that declare no evidences of saving grace may be Church-members is generally denied by such as make such evidences the condition upon which alone the Church may admit to the Sacrament whereby they evidently grant the consequence also But this proposition that evidences of grace are necessary requisites to visible Church-membership doth necessarily depend upon principles of Anabaptisme as is formerly noted and necessarily engageth the Assertor thereof against all the streame of my former discourse as appears in the fore head of the sole objection and argument against us herein which is this Object Those say they that appear not to be in Covenant have no visible right to the seal of the Covenant the Lords Supper this is allowed on all hands Answ But those that give no evidence of saving grace appear not to be in Covenant now this I have still denied and laboured against this is it that involveth the objector in the former labyrinth For 1. Either children appear to be in Covenant or not if not how then have they a visible right to the seal and if where is there evidence of saving grace Again evidence of grace is essential to visible Church-membership or not if it be not then neither to visible right in the Sacrament as this very objection presseth but if evidence of grace be said to be essential to visible-Church-membership how then are Infants to be baptized and my former arguments to the contrary answered