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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91293	Suspention suspended. Or, The divines of Syon-Colledge late claim of the power of suspending scandalous persons, from the Lords Supper (without sequestring them from any other publicke ordinance, or the society of Christians) and that by the very will and appointment of Jesus Christ (not by vertue of any ordinance of Parliament) from whom they receive both their office and authority; briefly examined, discussed, refuted by the Word of God, and arguments deduced from it; and the contrary objections cleerly answered. Wherein, a bare suspention of persons from the Lords Supper onely, without a seclusion of them from other ordinances, is proved to be no censure or discipline appointed by Jesus Christ in his Word: ... That the Lords Supper is frequently, not rarely to be administred as well to unregenerate Christians to convert them, as to regenerate to confirme them: ... / By William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esq.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1646 (1646)	Wing P4097; Thomason E510_12; ESTC R203299	51,434	45

world therefore not to be administred to any but such who actually embrace and professe the faith of Christ and are admitted members of his visible Church whereas the bare externall hearing of the Word preached wherein the hearers are only passive but no wayes active or stipulative unlesse they embrace it is no such badge or emblem of Christianity nor such an externall Oath of Alleagiance to tye us to the obedience of Christ as Baptisme and the Lords Supper are which belong to none but such who professe themselves Christians and are members of the visible Church of Christ Thirdly It is generally agreed by all orthodox Divines that Baptisme and the Lords Supper are by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ given not simply and solely to the elect and invisible Church of Christ certainly knowne to God alone not to any Ministers or Presbyteries upon earth but to all the visible members of the visible Church not cut off from it by a legall Excommunication or hindred by some naturall disabilities who have a true right to and interest in them though not actually regenerated and endued with saving faith Upon which grounds Master d Due right of Presbyteries cap. 4. sect 6. throughout Rutherfurd and Master e A defence of Infants Baptism● part 3. p. 106. to 130. Marshall expresly maintain the lawfulnesse of baptizing the children of excommunicate persons Hereticks Schismaticks and Christians unregenerate even for the externall profession of the Christian faith by their ancesters though their immediate Parents be Hereticks or persons excommunicated from the visible Church Which being granted resolved as an undoubted truth in the Sacrament of Baptisme must likewise thus farre hold in case of the Lords Supper That a visible member of the visible Church endued with competent knowledge and not actually excommunicated ought not to be suspended from it for any pretended scandalous crime in case he desire to receive it since his very membership in the visible Church intitles him thereunto as well as himselfe or his children to Baptisme and gives him a right to receive it Objection 3. yea makes him guilty of sinne in case he neglect to participate thereof when publickly invited to receive it as our ow●e Homilies concerning the receiving the Lords Supper resolve which fully answers this fallacious Objection Thirdly it is objected f Master Rutherfurds div●ne r●ght of Church-Government c. 5. Due right of Presby ●ries c. 4. sect 5 That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a Seale of Grace and of the Covenant of Grace as it is a Sacrament which the preaching of the Word is not therefore scandalous persons ought to be suspended from it though they be admitted to the preaching of the Word and other publick Ordinances else we should put a sezle unto a blank I answer Answer First that the Lords Supper is by no Text in Scripture stiled a Seale or Seale of Grace or of the Covenant of Grace though many Divines without any Scripture authority stile it so Secondly it is true that Circumcision is once onely in the Now Testament to wit Rom. 4. 11. stiled The SIGNE of Circum●ision A SEALE of the righteousnesse of faith which Abraham had yet being uncircumc●sed Whence g Calvin Peter Martyr Paraeus and Doctor Willet on Rom 4. Aretii Problem Locus 77. Amesii Bellarminus Enerva us Tom. 4. qu 4. and others Divines inferre That Baptisme and the Lords Supper are both Sacraments and Seales of Grace and of the Covenant of Grace But that it should hence necessarily follow that Baptisme and the Lords Supper are Sacraments are Seales of Grace and of the Covenant of Grace though never so called in Scripture nor yet the Passeover because Circumcision is called a Signe and a Seale of the righteousnesse of faith which Abraham had yet being uncircum●ised is expresly denied by h Stapletoni Antld. p. 225. Pererius Disput 4. num 〈◊〉 Bellarminus l. 2. c. 10. De Sacram. Remonstr in Apol. c. 23. Episcopius Disp 29. Thes 8. Smalci cont Franzium Disp 9. p. 199. Socin de offic Hom. Christ c. 4 and others some doubted by others and cannot infallibly be inferred thence for ought appeares to me Thirdly admit the Lords Supper be a Seale of Grace as Circumcsiion was of faith yet in what sense or in what respects it is or may be i See Willets six-fold Comentary on Rom. 4. qu. 7. stiled a Seale and what kind of Seale it is is questioned by many and very difficult to determine Origen thinks Circumcision was called a Seale of the righteousnesse of faith because in Circumcision was sealed and lay bid the righteousnesse of faith which should afterward be revealed and unfolded in Christ and a Seale to the unbeleeving Jewes shutting them up in unbeliefe untill they should be called in the end of the world Chrysostome Theodoret and others expound it to be a Seale that is a testimony onely of faith received Aquinas thinks it was called a Seale because it was an expresse Signe having a similitude of the thing received Others affirme it was tearmed a Seale because it distinguished the Israelites from other people as Seales distinguish one Merchants Goods and Letters from another But Calvin Paraeus Fayus Aretius Peter Martyr Marlorat Willet and the streame of moderne Divines tearme it a Seale because it is a visible confirmation of Gods promises to his people as Kings and other m●ns Seales confirme their Patents and Deeds being added to them for better assurance And in this last sense our Divines generally tearme Baptisme and the Lords Supper SEALES that is externall visible confirmations of Gods promises Indeed though I find not the Lords Supper or Baptisme called Seales in Scripture yet I read therein of a six-fold use of Seales The first is to conceale and close up things from publick view as Cant. 4. 12. Isa 29. 11. Job 41. 15. Dan. 9. 24. chap. 12. 9. Revel 10. 4. chap. 22. 10. chap. 5. 1. to 10. chap. 6. 1. In which sense the Greekes tearme Sacraments Mysteries or hidden things the phrase used by Paul Eph. 3. 9. chap. 5. 32. and k Decana Dom. Baptismo Se●m Bernard with others stiles a Sacrament Satrun secretum a sacred●secret The second to preserve shut up and keep things safe Deut. 32. 43. Dan. 6. 17. Job 34. 16. chap. 37. 7. Matth. 27. 66. Job 14. 17. The third to distinguish one thing from another 1 Tim. 2. 19. Revel 7. 3. to 9. chap. 9. 10. The fourth to appropriate things and mark them for our owne 2 Cor. 1 22. 2 Tim. 2. 19. chap. 7. 2. to 8. Ephes 1. 13. The fift to authorize and give commission John 6. 26. The sixt to confirme ratifie assure charters Dee● Promises Covenants Nehem. 9. 38. Ester 8. 8 10. chap. 3. 12. Cant. 8. 6. Jer. 32. 10 15 44. Dan. 6. 17. 2 Cor. 1. 22. Ephes 4. 3. 2 Tim. 2. 19. 1 Cor. 9. 2. In some of these senses the

notorious that the Sacraments both of Baptisme and the Lords Supper are so necessary that none could be saved without them and therefore ●e and the Church of Carthage maintained That not only Baptisme but the l Epist 23. contra Pelagianos Hypognost l. 5. cont duas Epist Pelagii ad Bonefacium lib. 1. c. 22. l. 4 c. 4. contr Julianum Pelag. l. 1. 2. Tit. 3. 1 Pet. 3. Lords Supper also ought to be given unto Infants else they could not be saved I shall quote but one place of his instead of many De peccatorum Meritis Remissione de Baptismo parvulorum l. 1. c. 24. Optimè Punici Christiani Baptismum ipsum nihil aliud QUAM SALUTEM Sacramentum corporis Christi nihil aliud QUAM VITAM VOCANT Vnde nisi ex anti qua ut existimo Apostolica traditione qua Ecclesiae Christi insitum tenent praeter Baptismum participationem Dominicae mensae non solum ad regnum Dei sed nec AD SALUTEM ET VITAM AETERNAM posse quenquam hominum per●enire Hoc enim Scriptura testatur secundum ea quae supra diximus Nam quid aliud tenent qui Baptismum nomine salutis appellant nisi quod dictum est Salvos nos fecit per lavachrum regenerationis Et quod Petrus ait sic vos simili forma Baptismus salvos fecit ●oan 6. Q●id aliud etiam qui Sacramentum mensae Dominicae VITAM vocant nisi quod dictum est Ego sum panis vitae qui de Coelo descendi panis quem ego dedero caro mea est pro seculi vita Et Si non manducaveritis carnem filii hominis sanguinem biberitis non habebitis vitam in vobis si ergo ut tot tanta divina testimonia continunt NEC SALUS NEC VITA AETERNA sine Baptismo cortore sanguine Domini cuiquam ●peranda est frustra sine his promittitur parvulis After which he concludes Proindè parvuli si PER SACRAMENTUM QUOD AD HOC DIVINITUS INSTITUTUM TUM EST IN CREDENTIUM NUMERUM NON TRANSEANT profectò in his tenetris peccatorum rema●●bant Therefore by his and the Church of ●arthage resolution yea the l See Capit. Karol Ludovici l. 1. c. 161. Churches judgment from the Apostles dayes it being an Apostolicall tradition embraced by the Church as he avers these Sacraments are the originall primary meanes both of conversion spirituall life and salvation and so converting as well as confirming Ordinances Cypriam de Coena Domini writes That the Lords Supper Ad totius hominis vitam salutem qu● profic●● simul medica●mentum holocau●ium ad sanandas infirmitates purgandas miquitates existens Therefore a converting Ordinance as well as a confirming Cyrill of Alexandria De Justificatione in Christo lib. 3. affirmes That Death fed upon men on earth untill the institution of the Lords Supper wherein we eat the living Bread from Heaven from which time death hath ceased and the inhabitants of the holy City the Church are perfected unto sanctification by that living bread Therefore in his opinion it is a means of our spirituall life and sanctification and so a converting Ordinance The sayings of the Fathers to this purpose are almost infinite I shall therefore pretermit them challenging my Opposites to produce any solid Antiquity to the contrary to prove them not converting as well as corroborating institutions Neither is this Doctrine a stranger in our owne Church for Bishop Jewell in his Defence of the Apology of the Church of England part 3. ch 15. Divis 2. p. 349. determines thus But TO BREED AND ENCREASE FAITH IN US there are more wayes then can be reckoned Some men are moved onely by the hearing of Gods Word some others by the beholding and weighing of Gods Miracles Justinus the Martyr was first allured to the faith by the cruelty of the Tyrants and by the constancy and patience of the Saints c. Among OTHER CAUSES THE SACRAMENTS SERVE SPECIALLY TO DIRECT AND TO AYD OUR FAITH For they are as Saint Augustine calleth them Verba visibilia visible words and Seales and testimonies of the Gospell c. Our learned Thomas Beacon in his Catechisme f. 425 426. thus defines a Sacrament A Sacrament is an holy Action and exercise of Christs Church IN which the redemption and partaking of our Lord Jesus Christ IS GIVEN TO US through the Word and the Signes INSTITUTED FOR THIS PURPOSE OF GOD. After which he propounds this pertinent Question What need have we of Sacraments seeing we have the holy Ghost and the sacred Scriptures of God to lead us unto all necessary truth which can abundantly informe us of the grace favour mercy and good will of God towards us Which he answers thus Christ the wisdome of the Father knowing our grossenesse and dulnesse in understanding matters that belong unto our salvation wishing our health and commodity and minding to remedy and help this our great infirmity and to bring us unto some knowledge of Gods mysteries that we may be saved hath not onely given us his holy spirit to informe instruct and teach our inward man but to make us perfect both in body and soule he hath also given his Word to instruct our eares and his Sacraments to serve our eyes For whatsoever the holy Ghost saith inwardly unto us the very same doth the Word of God unto our eares and the Sacraments to serve our eyes preach declare and set forth outwardly Note that we may be taught both corporally and spiritually Againe who knoweth not that things seen with eyes are more surely fixed in the minds of men then those things which are onely heard And therefore a Sacrament may right well be called a visible word For whatsoever the word is to the eare the very same thing is the Sacrament to the eye The Word of God saith to mine care the Body of Christ was broken for thee the very same thing doth the Sacrament preach to mine eye while in the holy action of the Lords Supper I see the bread broken and the wine shed Therefore Christ the Lord to informe and instruct our outward senses ordained these outward signes and Sacraments that by the consideration and beholding of them the thing might the more easily slide into our minds which hath been inculked and beaten into our ears through the voice of the Preaher If we had been without bodies Christ would have given unto us those spirituall gifts nakedly and simply which are given to the faithfull in the deliverance of the Sacraments but forasmuch as we have bodies joyned to our soules therefore in sensible things he doth communicate unto us the gifts of grace and this hath been the property of God not onely in the New but also in the old Testament If then the Sacraments be but visible words which preach the self-same things yet in a more lively and sensible manner to our

eyes as the Word preached doth unto our eares as this Author with all m Calvin Melanchton Peter Martyr Zerchius Aretius and others Orthodox Divines and n Due right of Presbyteries c. 4. sect 5. p. 121. Master Rutherfurd himselfe unanimously accord it must needs follow that the Sacraments especially the Lords Supper most lively representing Christs passion to us must be a converting Ordinance as well as the Word read or preached Upon which grou●d the Ancient Catholick Fathers as our owne o Concerning the Sacrament part 1. p. 189 190. Homilies resolve stiled the Lords Supper A comfortable medicine of the soule the salve of immortality and soveraigne preservation against death the Pledge of eternall Health the defence of faith the food of immortality the be●lthfull grace and the conservatory to everlasting life therefore they deemed it a converting as well as con●irming Ordinance Master Richard Ward in his Commentary upon Matthew pag. 399. in the written Copy writes Sacraments doe not conferre Grace upon all nor by a physicall power give grace unto any but sometimes GOD IN AND BY THE SACRAMENTS CONVEYES GRACE INTO HIS ELECT CHILDREN and sometimes by the Sacraments confirmes grace which he hath formerly conferred Not to multiply Authorities in so cleer a case the very Directory it selfe composed by the Assembly and ratified by both Houses of Parliament pag. 25. enumerates the Word and Sacraments among the speciall meanes of Grace and salvation in these words To give thanks to God for all his benefits and especially for ALL MEANES OF GRACE THE WORD AND SACRAMENTS And for this Sacrament in particular by which Christ and all his benefits are applied and sealed up unto us making them both equally in the selfe same manner meanes of grace and coupling them both together in the selfe same predication therefore if the Word be a meanes of begetting grace where it was wanting and of obtaining salvation the Sacraments must be so too In fine p Due right of Presbyteries c. 4. sect 5. p. 217. Master Rutherfurd himselfe writes thus You say Sacraments doe not make a thing that was not but confirme a thing that was before while you would seem to refute Papists who vainly ●each that Sacraments ex opere operato doe conferre grace yet doe you make the Sacrament but a naked signe and take part with Arminians and So●●nians whose very Arguments in expresse words you use for if a Sacrament make not a thing which was before and if God give not and really produce conferre exhibit grace and a stronger measure of faith and assurance of remission of sinnes at the due and right use of the Sacrament the Sacrament is a naked signe and not an exhibitive Seale but if Christ give and in the present exhibit as surely remission of sinnes as the Infant is washed with water as our Divines and the Palatinate Catechisme teacheth and the Confession thereof and the Synod of Dort teacheth then by the Sacrament of Baptisme and so by consequent of the Lords Supper a thing ●s made that which it was not before therefore by consequence it is a regenerating and converting Ordinance This he more plainly expresseth in q Master Rutherfurds divine right of Church-Government p. 523 524. another discourse in those tearmes Master Prynne might have spared his paines That the Lords Supper is a converting Ordinance because it applies Christ to us WE GRANT IT TO BE A CONVERTING QUICKNING AND LIVELY APPLICATORY ORDINANCE But how He may know that whatever Ordinance addeth a new degree of Faith OF CONVERSION of living Application of Christ and the Promises MUST BE A CONVERTING ORDINANCE but it is so converting that it is a confirming Ordinance and necessarily it presupposeth faith and conversion already wrought by the Word it is not a first converting Ordinance so as is the Word c. I say not this as if the Church could give the Supper of the Lord to none but such as are inwardly and really regenerated but to shew that the Church taketh such as are externally called to be internally called whence they dispence the Supper to them In which words we have a most cleer confession That the Lords Supper is both a converting and quickning Ordinance But yet this must be controlled with a distinction not found Scripture or Antiquity It is so a converting Ordinance that it is a confirming Ordinance I grant it So is the reading and preaching of the Word it converts yet so as it confirmes and edifieth us too in our most holy faith yet it is a converting Ordinance Yea but it is not the first ●●●●erting Ordinance it is not the meanes of our first ●●nversion from formall profession to inward embracing the Gospell For the Word must goe before and not simply the externall Letter of the Word but the Word first beleeved and received by the efficatio●s working of the holy Ghost c. This is onely affirmed but not substantially proved by this learned Divine who takes upon 〈◊〉 to limit God and his Spirit so as to deprive them of their absolute 〈◊〉 to work and beget grace by the Sacraments when and where they please as well as by the Word and confines the Spirits first inward conversion of men onely to the Word r John 3. 7 〈◊〉 Who breatheth where and in what Ordinance ●e listeth the breath of spirituall life into our soules True it is the Word preached i● the first ordinary and most usuall meanes both of externall and internall conversion but yet the Sacraments as well as the Word are very frequently made the instruments though not of externall conversion of m●n from Paganisme to Chrstianity not here in question yet of carnall Christians s See Ta●●●●● in Thomam Tom. 4. Disp 3. qu. 3. Du. 50 first inward and reall conversion from sin satan unto Christ and a m●st effectuall means both of begetting encreasing grace and spirituall life in their soules as I have elswhere largely evidenced Hence a Loci Communes printed 153● Lo●● de Sacramentis Phillip Melanchton in a Book Dedicated to our King Henry the VIII though he deny that the Sacraments ex opere operato conferre grace and justification yet he expresly resolves that they were principally instituted to be signes of Gods good will towards us incurring into our eyes that they may admonish us TO BELEEVE the promise proposed in the Gospell Thus we conjoyne the Sacrament and promise now as the promise is to be received by faith so also in the use of the Sacraments faith ought to be added which may assure us that those true things shall happen which are propounded in the promise Augustine aptly compares the Word with the Sacrament when be saith The Sacrament is a visible Word that is As the Word is a certaine note which is received with the eares so the Sacrament is a spectacle or Picture which runs into the eyes As therefore the Word is a note signifying something of the will

s See Master Rutherfurds divine right of Church government sect 1 2 3 4. cap. 1. qu. 1. c. That the Scripture ought to be the onely rule of all Church Discipline for whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14. 13. Secondly that where the Scripture commands a totall Excommunication from the Church and all publick Ordinances in it there Ministers and Presbyters have no more authority to suspend from one alone and give free admtitance to all the rest then t Sam. 15. 2. to 34. Saul had to spare Agage and the best of the Sheep and Cattle or v Josh 7. i. to 16. Achan to save the Babilonish Wedge and Garment x Numb 31. i. to 20. or the Israelites to spare the Moabitish women when God commanded them to be all destroyed for which sinfull partiallity they were severely checked punished Now the Scripture commands a totall excommunication of obstinate scandalous sinners from all publick Ordinances whatsoever if from any as the Texts forecited manifest and our Opposites in their discourses concerning excommunication confesse therefore they cannot without sin and contempt of Gods command exclude them onely from the Lords Supper and yet freely admit them to and communicate with them in all others Thirdly to answer Master Doctors mistaken Law Where a Judge by the Law as in cases of Treason Murder Burglary c. hath power and is prescribed to hang the party offending there he cannot exchange or extenuate the penance at his pleasure by inflicting a mulct or whipping which punishments must be inflicted only when and where the Law inflicts them not for capitall offences as all our common Law-books Lawyers will informe him our Judges being bound by Oath to judge onely according to Law not arbitrarily at their pleasure If then Judges may not alter the penalties prescribed by the Lawes of men much lesse may Ministers or Presbyteries change or mitigate the censures prescribed as they now contend by the Law of God himselfe Fourthly suspention from the Lords Supper onely without sequestration from all other Ordinances together with it is but a meer groundlesse Invention io justle out the censure of excommunication so much contended for and strip it naked of all its terror and Majesty for if excommunicate persons may resort freely to heare the Word and to all other publick Ordinances but the Sacrament yea be present at all the actions of the Sacrament it selfe and be secluded onely from the actuall participation of the Elements it will make Excommunication nothing formidable yea quite subvert the very end use and substance thereof to make scandalous persons ashamed Reply But our y Master Rutherfurds Divine right of Presbyteries p. 227 273 274 280 281 Antagonists reply That an excommunicate person may freely bee admitted to heare the Word and ought not to be excluded from it z Sixteen Antiquaeries p. 6. Where writes the Doctor is it said that an excommunicate person shall not have so much as the priviledge of one that is without 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. Might an Infidell heare the Word for his conversion and shall an excommunicate person be denied the benefit of that Ordinance I grant by excommunication he is as an heathen but why he may not have the priviledge of one that is without I desire Master Prynne to instruct me and I shall thank him for it We deny not but the meditation of Christs death the words of institution and the Sacramentall Elements and actions may doe much towards conversion and let Master Prynne shew me in Scripture why either an excommunicate person or an Infidell may not be present at all these yet neither of them may be admitted to partake of the Ordinance c. Rejoinder To this I rejoyne First that Master Rutherfurd cites many Canonists and others in the same place to prove That excommunicate persons ought not to be present at Prayers Preaching or any other publick Ordinance the generall opinion of Antiquity and the Schooles nay he proves from Ezek. 44. 7 8 9. Acts 21. 28 29. That unconverted Heathens were prohibited to come into Gods Sanctuary or enter into the Temple at Jerusalem and that those who are thus excōmunicated as Heathens are in this sense persons quite excluded the Church and Common-weale of Israel as Heathens were Ephes 2. 11 12. else no excommunication could be evinced from Matth. 18. 17. Let him be to thee as an heathe therefore Heathens whiles such were excluded from the preaching of the word de jure in Christian Churches and Congregations of which they were no members True it is the Apostles were commanded to preach the Gospell to all Nations and Infidels to convert them Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 15. But whether Ministers at this day have the like Commission or are to admit meere Infidels ordinarily to heare the Word in their Congregations is not yet resolved neithr will the 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. evince it which speaks of such Ministers onely who were endued with the supernaturall gift of miracles and tongues for the conversion of Infidels which are long since ceased Secondly admit that Heathens and Infidels if they casually come into Christian Churches to heare the Word ought not to be excluded but admitted to heare it yet it followes not that excommunicate persons should therefore be admitted into the Church to heare the Word preached whiles actually excommunicated for their obstinacy and incorrigibility in scandalous sins First because they are judicially by way of publick censure and punishment actually cut off from and excluded out of the visible Church and sequestred from all publick Ordinances all Christian society for scandalous offences till their repentance and readmission as is cleere by the premised Texts and most Canonists Casuists School men who write of Excommunication which meere Heathens who desire to heare the Word that they may be converted are not therefore during this censure and their impenitency they ought not to be admitted entrance into the Church or to be present at any other Ordinances in it till their readmission though Heathens may who are not judicially excluded To illustrate this by an instance of like nature If a native English man be by lawfull sentence banished the Kingdome for any crime or a Free-man of London expelled the lines of Cōmunication for his Delinquency till his conformity it is not lawfull for the one of them to return into the Kingdome or the other to come within the City till their sentences be revoked yet Aliens and Forreigners may freely enter the one and other without restraint because there is no such sentence of banishment or exclusion passed against them So a scandalous impenitent Christian cast out of the Church banished the society of Christians and excluded all publick Ordinances by a legall sentence ought not to be admitted till repentance though a meere Heathen may Secondly because an impenitent obstinate scandalous Christian by Paul's owne resolution is more to be avoyded then

y So the Lutherans generally hold Hinkelman de Anabaptismo Disp 9. c. 1. Er. 6. beget and work repentance sense of sinne spirituall life health true grace within us when we want them as well as to encrease confirme them when we have them whence it is generally tearmed by Divines A MEANES OF GRACE therefore we must frequently resort unto it in obedience to Gods command as well to obtaine faith repentance and spirituall graces by and in it when wanting as to corroborate and augment them when wrought in us Secondly this Argument necessarily implies that the Sacraments must be administred to none but the Elect and truly regenerate For since none are endued with saving grace faith repentance but onely the Elect and none ought to be admitted to the Sacraments but such who are endued with saving grace faith repentance as the Objection concludes It inevitably followes that none but the elect and persons truly regenerate must be admitted to the Sacrament But this the Objectors themselves deny and refute both in the case of Baptisme and the Lords Supper too Hence Master Rutherfurd determines in his Due Right of Presbyteries ch 4. sect 5. pag. 185. The Church may orderly and lawfully give the Seales of the Conant to those to whom the Covenant and promises of grace doe not belong in Gods Decree of Gods Election refuting the contrary opinion as Anabaptisticall x Defence of Infant Baptisme part 3. Master Marshall doth the like and that upon these grounds First because Christ and his Apostles admitted divers to Baptisme and the Lords Supper who were never elect or truly regenerate as Judas Simon Magus and others Secondly because no Ministers without speciall revelation but y 2 Chron. 6. 33. 2 Tim. 6. 19. God alone infallibly know who are Elect and truly regenerate z Jer. 17 9. the hearts of men bring deceitfull aboue all things and a Mat. 22. 14. many called but few chosen and so they cannot tell certainly who to admit or who to seclude from the Sacrament Upon which ground Master b Defence of Infant Baptisme p 111. 140. Marshall himselfe concludes thus against Master Tombes And truly Sir whosoever will grant that a Minister in applying the Seale must doe it de fide in faith being sure he applies it according to rule must either grant such a right as I plead for that many have right to be visible members and be partakers of the externall administration of Ordinances though they be not inwardly sanctified or else he must by revelation be able to ●ee and know the inward conversion of every one he applies the Seales unto for certainly 〈◊〉 hath no written word to build his Faith upon for the state of this or that man And for my owne part when once you have disproved this that there is such a visible membership and right to externall Administrations as I have here insisted upon I shall not onely forbeare baptizing Infants Note but the Administration of the outward seale to any what profession soever they make untill I may be de ●ide assured that they are inwardly regenerate Thirdly because Christ hath ordained the Sacraments to be means of distinguishing Christians from Pagan● yea to be an accidentall means of b ● Cor. 11. 27 28 29. 2 Cor. 2. 25 26. Articles of the Church of England Art 29. aggravating mens sin ingratitude damnation and to leave those without excuse who unworthily receive them which end should be wholly frustrated if unregenerate Christians should be secluded from them therefore this argument which subverts our Opposites owne Tenet and with the Anabaptists appopriates the administration of the Sacraments to the Elect alone must wholly be exploded as false and dangerous Wherefore the Objectors must be driven of necessity to renounce this Objection together with that of c In cap. 4. 2d Rom. p 39. 2. Explic. Catech qu. 81. Art 1. Paraeus which seduced them Sacramenta non sunt instituta justificandis sed justificatis hoc est non infidelibus sed conversis which if meant onely of persons inwardly converted is an errour if of Pagans not converted as he perchance meanes it is quite mistaken by the Opposites Finally Objection 6. d See Master Rutherfurds d●vine right of Church-government c. 5 qu. 1. p. 242 243. c. 15. they object That the Priests were to put difference between holy and unholy between uncleane and cleane Levit. 10. 10. Hag. 2. 11 14 and that they are checked by God himselfe Ezek. 22. 26. for putting no difference between the holy and prophane the uncleane and cleane Ergo Church-officers and the Ministers of the Gospell have power by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ not onely to excommunicate but likewise to suspend scandalous and ignorant persons from the Lords Supper I answer Answer that the Argument is a meere Nonsequitur For first these Texts belong only to the Aaronicall Priests under the Law e Heb. 7. 11. to the end c. 8 9. 10. Abolished by Christ not to the Ministers of the Gospell Secondly they speak onely of c●remoniall Holin●ss● and prophannesse cleannesse and uncleannesse f Acts 10. 10. to 17. Col. 2. 14. to 23. 1 Tim. 4. 5. abrogated by Christ not of morall Thirdly not of persons morally holy or unholy cleane or uncleane but rather of me●ts or creatures ceremonially holy and unholy clean and uncleane or at leastwise of persons meats and creatures promiscuously only as ceremonially clean uncleane Fourthly the putting of difference here mentioned was not any actuall secluding unclean● persons from the Passeover or Lords Supper or suspending them from all publick Ordinances by any judiciall power vested in the Priests but onely the Priests instructing of the people what was holy and unholy clean and uncleane as is evident by Levit. 10. 10. That ye may put difference between holy and unholy things uncleane and cleane things But how was this to be done Onely by instruction as the next words manifest And that ye may teach the children of Israel all the Statutes which the Lord hath commanded them by the hand of Moses viz. concerning the holy and unholy uncleane and cleane creatures mentioned in Levit. 10. Deut. 14. compared with Ezek. 22. 26. Her Priests have broken my Law and have defiled my holy things they have put no difference between the holy and prophane neither have they shewed the difference between the uncleane and the cleane and Ezek. 44. 23. And THEY SHALL TEACH MY PEOPLE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE HOLY AND PROPHAN● AND CAUSE THEM TO DISCERNE BETWEEN THE UNCLEANE AND THE CLEANE So that the Priests putting difference between holy and unholy cleane and uncleane in Lev. 10. 10. is both by the t●nth verse and these Texts of Ezekiel expresly interpreted to be nothing else but a teaching or shewing the children of Israel to put a difference and to discerne between the holy and prophane unclean and