Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	covenant_n	grace_n	seal_n	4,967	5	9.5543	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85952	The golden mean: being some serious considerations, together with some cases of conscience resolved; for a more full, and frequent administration of, yet not free admission unto, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. / By Stephen Geree, minister of God's word, and pastor of the Church of Abinger in the county of Surrey.	Geree, Stephen, 1594-1656?	1656 (1656)	Wing G607; Thomason E1667_1; ESTC R208393	36,650	111

THE Golden Mean BEING Some serious Considerations together with some Cases of Conscience resolved for a more full and frequent Administration of yet not free Admission unto the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper By Stephen Geree Minister of God's Word and Pastor of the Church of Abinger in the County of Surrey Toleramus quae nolumus ut perveniamus quò volumus August contra Donatistas Cap. 20. Minister Ecclesiae ubi non viget excommunicatio excusatus est modo non volens det coenam abutentibus sed instet monendo c●piat cavere abusus Ursinus ut est apud Magist Bowles in Patore Evang lib. 3. Cap. 5. pag. 193. If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it if he do not turn from his way he shall die in his iniquity but thou hast delivered thy soul Ezek. 33.9 LONDON Printed for Joseph Cranford and are to be sold at the Kings head in St Pauls Church yard 1656. TO THE READER WHen I consider that most pathetical Praier of our dear Saviour for all his Disciples not long before his death Joh. 17.20 21. That they all might be one as the Father was in him he in the Father that they also might be one in them and for this canse that the world might believe that the Father had sent him Intimating that the unity of Christians is an especiall means to convince the world that Jesus was the Messias and consequently to convert them unto Christ It troubles me not a little to see such strange differences and divisions among true Christians whereby the world that should be won by our singular love and unity is utterly distasted and so disaffected to the true Religion of Christ Little do som of the separation consider how dishonourable and disadvantagious it is to Christ and his Spouse the Church to be guilty of such a great sin as schisme is otherways I am perswaded they would with both hands indeavour to make up the breaches that they have made in our Churches and that especially in regard of the Lord's Supper a Sacrament of our Spiritual Union and Communion with Christ our blessed Saviour O! that they would at length sadly consider how little good that reformation is like to work which only reforms such as they suppose already reformed accepting none into visible Church-fellowship in this Ordinance but those whom they judge really gracious contrary to the practise of all other reformed Churches mean while neglecting if not despising all the rest whom they should rather pity and not thus provoke whereby they do either exasperate or discourage them although they judg them to stand in most need of their help Neither is the injury small which in this case some Ministers suffer in that they are robbed of some of their choicest children begotten by their faithfull 1 Cor. 4.15 1 Thes 2.19 20. and painful Ministery who were the crown and comfort of their Spiritual fathers while they remained with them and were as stakes in the hedges of their severall Churches and might still have been lively patterns to their other people had they not been as the Apostle saith bewitched with specious pretences of a more pure and primitive Communion And verily had it been for their own advantage and spirituall gain as is imagined it would not so much aflict us and we would have held our peace although it would not have countervailed our dammage but when we sadly see how by this means many of them get such an itch after novelties and an humour of changing that they are ready to receive any up start opinions or old rotten heresie newly revived so that they gad from Church to Church till no Church is thought good enough for them and till at last some of them utterly lose all that Religion that they seemed to have being elevated not only above Ordinances and Scripture but above God himself horresco referens holding that there is neither Heaven nor Hell neither God nor Devill and so are become two-fold more the children of Hell than those they formerly separated from This must needs be a most sad and soul-breaking spectacle And whence is the root and rise of all this chiefly from that licentious principle that men have liberty to be of what Congregation they will and so after that they have made a rent in their own Church they think when they please or are displeased they may make another and so another as long as they list Mat. 23.15 if their wandring spirit shal but move them which I wonder some of the wiser sort of them do not see and if they see it do not seek to prevent it and cease to gather Churches out of churches Surely there 's far more need to gain men really unto Christ than to gather Churches out of Churches to the great grief of godly Church-membets who are not a little troubled at such inordinate courses Object And whereas some of them questions the truth of our Churches and thereupon may presume they do us no wrong Answ I answer that some of the most sober and learned Independents do ingenuously confess See jus divini Ministerii Aug p. 47.48 that we have true Churches and therefore some that deny it do shamefully defile their own nests by this means making their Mother an whore and themselvs base-begotten being first bred and born Christians in our Congregations And if we have true Churches how can they make such rents among us and not be guilty of that great sin of Schisme which now cries lowder in God's ears than formerly because multiplied beyond measure And as for my brethren that suffer with me in this case and that for fear of offending them and others have abstained from administring the Lord's Supper which is acknowledged to be an Ordinance of excellent use and therefore not only the abuse but also the disuse is no small sin I have with all tenderness avoiding all bitterness indeavoured to incourage them to a more full and frequent celebration of this holy Supper having as I hope clearly demonstrated that there is no such danger in delivering this Sacrament to most of our Church-members that are of age and understanding as many do imagine Always provided that the Ministers instruct and catechize them in the grounds of Religion and particularly about the nature of the Sacraments as seals of the Covenant of grace teaching them how to receive worthily and telling them the danger of unworthy receiving perswading them carefully to renew their Covenant with God which they made in Baptisme by repenting truly of their sins and stirring up their faith to lay faster-hold on Jesus Christ for the remission of sins thankfully acknowledging the love of the Lord Jesus in shedding his blood for the pardon of sin he likewise consecrating the elements with holy reverence and godly simplicity abandoning all suspitious ceremonies and humane inventions And if after all this they will come in their sins and so eat and drink judgment to

rather ex consequenti and though not directly yet indirectly which is sufficient to my purpose The primary intent of this Sacrament is to keep a memoriall of Christ's death and seal or confirme the Covenant of Grace and it doth but secondarily confirme our Faith and strenthen other graces and why it may not have other secondary effects in some who have but common grace and yet are bound in conscience to use this Ordinance having a legall right unto it I see not Seeing it lays an ingagement upon all receivers to renew their Covenant with God and labour for those true graces whereby they may receive the full benefit of this Ordinance Especially considering that this Sacrament teacheth the eye as the Word doth the ear and is confessed also to be an heart-breaking and heart-melting Ordinance when they shall see Christ as it were crucified before their eyes for the remission of sins Besides it 's worthy to be considered that this learned M. Vines not long before his death and since he preached these Sermons now newly published did prefix an Epistle to Reverend M. Blake his Book of the Covenant sealed with high praises both of the Author and the Book commending it to many Ministers as a thred to direct them out of those Labyrinths and perplexities about administration of this Sacrament which have vexed very many Blakes Covenant seal page 189 § 11. propos 9. Now in that Book M. Blake proves holdes that this Sacrament no more than other Ordinances is not limited to those that have received a new life in Christ by the Spirit and that others as they may be admitted without sin so they are in a capacity and possibility to receive benefit from it And again he hath another Assertion That the Lord's Supper with the Word as an appendant to it may be serviceable to bring a man of Covenant-interest up to the termes of the Covenant page 200. Sect. 13. Propos 11. Besides M. Vines himself pag. 252. hath these very words If one be a baptized person a knowing professor of the Gospel against whom there lies no bar of notorious ignorance or scandall though it appear not that he is truly regenerate yet he hath admittance he claims upon such a right as the Church cannot justly disallow no more than an Israelite circumcised and clean could be debarred the Passeover and pag 254. unto admittance to the outward Ordinance Regenerated is not necessary And yet more plainly to this purpose pag. 350. If it was known to me saith he that a man was not regenerate I durst give him the Sacrament yea I must untill he be orderly convict of sin that may debar him for the Rule of Gods Word is best reason and the Rule establishes an order If he hear not the Church let him be to thee a Heathen and a Publican untill then and not upon my private knowledg he is not to be an Heathen to me Thus he Now seeing Christ himself hath not injoined his Church to prehibit all unregenerate persons yea hath injoined her to exhibit to such and such though unregenerate as this most learned and holy man holds hence I gather that this Sacrament must needs be of som special use to som such else God would certainly have prohibited it especially if it had been so dangerous to administer it to such as some suppose it whereas on the other side it is very dangerous for any such to neglect this Sacrament as it was to them that neglected the Passeover See Numbers 9.13 The man that is clean viz. legally which was spoken of before and is not in a journey and forbeareth to keep the Passeover even the same soul shall be cut off from his people and mark the reason because he brought not the offering of the Lord in his appointed season That man shall bear his sin What sin then are they like to bear that care not to bring this offering of Lord in that holy Supper in any season but neglect it for a long season And I leave the Treatise to thy candid consideration and rest Thine in the Lord Stephen Geree SOME Serious Considerations Together with some Cases of Conscience RESOLVED For a more full and frequent Administration of yet not free Admission unto the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper HAving for a long time sadly and seriously considered the almost-insupportable burthen that lies upon the backs of Ministers Onus ipsis Angelis formidandum as one hath long since termed it and weighing withall the dangerous distractions and divisions in our Churches which are the mystical body of Christ and should be like his Garment seamlesse and without rent alwaies indeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace I have esteemed it a most happy and heavenly work though hard and difficult to have an hand in composing these controversies or contributing any thing whereby peace unity may be in some measure procured and true piety restored and advanced which hath been so much hindered and almost utterly exstinguish'd in many places and persons by reason of our scandalous distracting differences and that especially about Discipline For hereupon many not able or not willing to distinguish between Doctrine and Discipline the former to wit Doctrine remaining still the same sound and saving notwithstanding the variety and seeming contrariety of Discipline hereupon I say some are deterred from Religion it self and others so offended and stagger'd that being in a maze they scarce know which way to steer their course so that they becom altogether unsettled irresolute in their Religion to the great dishonor of God the disgrace of their religion their own dammage as also to the hardning of unholy ones in their wicked ways and carnal courses who hence take occasion to sooth themselvs in their supposed constancie though indeed it be no better than contumacie or meer obstinacie against the clear light of the Gospel of Christ For say they to what end should we be so scrupulous and precise in matters of Religion seeing few or none of the most zealous are well agreed amongst themselvs one holding forth one way others another way and a third differing from both of them to name no more and all with a great deal of eagernesse and confidence For these men have forgotten or rather do not regard to know that even in the Apostles daies there were the like factions and differences when one said 1 Cor. 15.12 I am of Paul another said I am of Apollo and a third said I am of Cephas and a fourth renounced all the rest as it seems and pretended to be onely for Christ as some do now amongst us decrying all Ministers and Ministry of men and seem to bee onely for Christ's immediate teaching by his Spirit who though they think they have the fairest pretence yet I am afraid they will fall upon the foulest conclusions in the end as we see by sad experience in some such already Likewise

vox operis quam oris may work that which the Word alone will not effect For though the word preached be of greatest weight for Conversion The Sacrament is a sign and a seal as a sign it visibly teacheth as a seal it confirmeth both which help to beget faith which is saving yet the Sacrament being added as a seal to the Word to confirme the same must needs help to work sound and saving faith and so turre the scale For as the Apostle saith Heb. 6.17 18. God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsell confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong confirmation So I may well say that these two immutable things God's Word and Seale must needs make stronger impression upon our hearts to work faith and consequently conversion Et quae non prosunt singula juncta juvant Argu. 3 In the third place doth not experiance tell us that since the administration of this Sacrament hath been so much neglected fewer by far have been converted than in former times because this holy Sacrament kept men more in awe partly by reason of the solemnesse of this Sacred Ordinance for which men have been pressed to more serious preparation c. partly by reason of the Apostles pressing to examination by expressing the hainousnesse of the sin and greatnesse of the danger of unworthy receiving that it makes them guilty of the body and blood of Christ and to eat and drink their owne damnation 1 Cor. 11.27 28 29. Argu. 4 Lastly another thing which I conceive of no small consequence is this In administring and partaking of this Ordinance there is a more particular application of the Elements by every one that receives whereas the word preached being delivered to all at once is applyed but by a few men being loath if they can choose to take that to themselves which goes against the hair as most duties do especially Repentance or true conversion But now when the Sacrament of the Supper is administred they must needs act that do receive because they must eat and drink whereby a nearer ingagement comes upon them which makes them look better about them Hence many never begin to think seriously of Religion and a religious course untill they are to come to the Sacrament and then they begin to bethink themselues and to turne over a new leafe and so fall close to savour and relish Religion which before they regarded not Cov. se aled p. 216. c. or at most very slightly considered Expertus loquor See more concerning this matter in M. Blakes Covenant sealed Object 1 But here it will be Objected that should we admit those that are unregenerate being dead in trespasses and sinns it would do them no good at all but a great deal of hurt yea prove very poison to them because they will eat and drink damnation to themselves for they cannot but eat and drink unworthily taking God's name in vain I answer Answer by the same reason you must keep them from every Ordinance be-because while unregenerate they take Gods name in vain and hurt themselves as well as in this Besides none eat and drink damnation but those that are in a damnable estate already For he that believs not is condemned already Joh. 3.18 As for poisoning them by this how can a dead man be poisoned And besides Vid. Blake Cov. sealed ch 17. sect 11. pag. 190. I hold it a dangerous errour to think that this Sacrament will prove poison to all that partake of it being unregenerate for had it been so surely the Lord would not have appointed the same meat and drink to have been both Sacramental and necessary food without which the Israelites had been starved in the wildernesse and with which most of them being unregenerate must have been poisoned if that position were true for they all ate the same spiritual meat and all drank the same spiritual drink 1 Cor. 10.3 4. whence I argue thus Seeing the Lord appointed the ordinary food of the Israelites to be sacramental and the very same spiritual meat and drink with ours and seeing they were all bound to eat or else they had been self-murtherers Therefore there can be no such danger of soul-murthering to all unregenerate that eat in obedience to God's Commandement which must of necessity follow if the Sacrament should be poison to all such as were unconverted I deny not but there was something extraordinary in that sacramental meat and drink in regard that the mixt multitude did both eat and drink of the same yet still the argument holds good in regard of the sacramentality of it as I may say and that we may rather conclude thence that those that are no members of the Church may eat at the Sacrament than exclude those from it that are visible members though unregenerate Doubtlesse the unregenerate sin no otherwise in this than they do in other commanded duties which they cannot possibly perform aright in that condition and which notwithstanding they cannot neglect without greater sin Bowles his Past Evang lib. 3. pag. 193. Minorem contrahit reatum saith reverend Bowles qui in officio quod praecipitur deficit in modo praestandi quàm qui prorsus negligit Peccat ille ex accidenti scil ex defectu fuperveniente hic verò in substantiam praecepti que jubemur Domini mortem usque dum advenerit annunciare Peccat ille in unum duntaxat praeceptum hic in duo quae prudens sciensque omittit And after this manner we were wont to comfort wounded consciences who were afraid to performe holy duties because they found such failings and faithlesse distractions in the performance of them that they thought they sinned more in doing them than in leaving them undone For this we told them that there was lesse sin in the willing performance though with much weaknesse than in the wilful neglect of them Object But here some think to evade by distinguishing between duties naturally moral and those of meer positive institution Moral duties as praier thanksgiving c. are confest to belong in general unto all but it is not so in duties of positive institution they are given with limit to some and are not of universal obligation Answ To this Mr. Blake hath sufficiently answered M. Blak Cov. sealed c 7. sect 11. p. 195. 1. By way of Concession Positive precepts bind not at all because they are not given to all the Gentil nations were not tied to the Law of Ceremonies given to the Jews and meer Heathens are not now tied to our Sacraments 2. For a positive answer he saith Positive precepts were never given in charge with any such distinction as to bind the regenerate and to exclude men in unregeneration Men under sin and in nature are bound to the affirmative part of the second Commandement to observe every