in the Church are in some sense in Christ and sanctified by him as I quoted those Texts Jo. 15.2 2 Pet. 2.1 Heb 10.29 c. From whence I argue that those who are in a Church-state in Covenant or visible communion so that thereby they are said to be in Christ redeemed and sanctified are to bee admitted accordingly to the seal and badge thereof unlesse such as the Scripture gives ground to except But all Church-members are in Covenant Deut. 29.1.10 11. visible Saints c. and the Scripture allows no bar to any unlesse unintelligent or excommunicate Ergo. Unto this seeing it concerns the maine Mr. D. gives us two answers 1 Then Infants againe may be admitted this is fourteen times 2 In short He is confident against it A very masterful argument which confidence yet without proofe whosoever trusts to shal finde but as a broken tooth and foot out of joynt And here I desire the Reader to take notice when he still comes to this point which is the foundation whether it be sufficient satisfaction only to vilisie me and slight it off For as for this passage with which he hath filled so many sheets about children it is good for nothing unlesse they had happily been in parchment and then it would have served well to make them Drums and sounded prettily by the emptinesse Page 122. How grosse is that assertion that there is an historical visible faith that gives an out ward Church right unto the Elements Answ Nay rather how cleare and firme a truth doth it appear by the former Argument That faith which serves to enter a man in external Covenant and engage him to the termes thereof wil serve to admit him to the Sacraments but a faith onely accepting the true God in opposition to all other Religions doth serve for that appears by the Covenanting of the whole body of Israel Deut 29.10 12. Ergo All Professors or Church-members that have but a common general historical or visible faith for any of these termes serve me I say are in Covenant but the Covenant is the foundation of the Sacraments Ergo neither will the right understanding hereof doe any hurt to the Church I hope so long as we presse neverthelesse a solid saving faith to interest them in the effectual benefits of them both His Exceptions are 1 Then the Excommunicate have a right for they have stilan historical faith Answ How vaine is this who knowes not the state of the question supposes us within the Church 2 Some excommunicate may also have a true saving faith See how fairly instead of opposing me he checks himselfe I pray marke his strength in both because neither an historical nor saving faith gives a man a right that is excommunicate and thereby made no Church-member therefore they cannot give him a right when hee is not excommunicate and is a Church-member 3 As historical faith gives not a right to Christ but faith of adhesion so a visible faith of adhesion gives right to Christ sacramental Answ 1 I might returne to him Why may not some excommunicate persons have such a visible faith of adhesion as an historical saving one But. 2 An historical faith is suo genere a true faith as the Eunuchs I beleeve that Christ is the Sonne of God Act. 8.37.3 An historical saith which was barely so and not saving gave Simon Magus admission unto Baptisme Act. 8.13 and here Adultis eadem ratio holds firme 4 Faith of adhesion I take to be an assent with application and that is special faith which I question whether it may be termed visible as distinguished from saving 5 It is sufficient to mee that a faith which generally assents to the truth of the Covenant and engages to it and yet falls short of justifying entitles to the Sacraments for otherwise we shal quite confound the worke of the Minister and the Spirit the symbolical and effectual Seal and then no man can be admitted at all without presumption 6 When the Papists prove that historical faith justifies because it sufficed unto Baptisme Act. 8.37 Some of our able Divines answer It is true Profession of faith gives interest to Baptisme yet it is not sufficient to Justification Dr. Slater on Rom. 3.22 There is a manifest difference between a title to the Sacraments and interest in the saving benefits A general faith gives title to one a special to the other Regeneration is like David that enjoyes Michal when Profession like Phaltiel comes along behinde weeping to Bahurim A general faith hath some union with Christ as a special a saving union Profession like Orphah may kisse Naomi when a saving faith like Ruth cleaves unto her Sect. 4 THe fourth Objection is The Seal is set to a Blanke if all be admitted My answer was from consideration of what is sealed It is generally said the Sacrament is the seale of faith wherein lyes the difficulty I say onely it is a Seale of the Covenant The Gospel is the writing the Sacrament as the seale to that writing the Writing is true and the Seal true whosoever is admitted I must confesse there is so much confusion in this businesse especially in Mr. D. who is usually most assertive when least advised that it will be in vaine to dispute Andabatarum more with termes blindfolded These termes then sealing to a blanke sealing to our faith and sealing the Covenant I judge are ambiguous when we differ onely in termes we may reconcile in our meaning but where we differ in our matter one of us must be reformed First then Sealing to a blank may relate to the thing or person when I say there is no sealing to a blank I mean as the thing sealed for it is not the unbelief of man can make the Covenant of God of no effect Now when here he takes a blanke as relating to persons he sayes nothing and is presently answered we hold none are visible blanks within the Church but when he refers it to the thing as I do here arises our difference Secondly Sealing of faith or to faith we either meane as the thing sealed or the condition required to the exhibition thereof When I say the Sacrament is not a seal of faith I mean it still as the thing sealed to wit on Gods part A Seal is an Appendix to writing the Sacrament is not an Appendix to faith but to the Gospel Now againe If he meane here by this expression It is a seale to our faith onely that faith is the condition upon which alone Christ and his benefits are conveyed it is what none doubteth and for words we contend not But when he sayes It is the seale of Faith referring it as I doe to the thing sealed our controversie here must continue and there is but one thing to looke into to wit the sense wherein or grounds whereon he thus holds it which I shall satisfie after I have laid downe these other distinctions likewise about sealing the Covenant as necessary
to it Thirdly then There are 3 things I humbly think are to be distinguished concerning the Covenant 1 The condition thereof on mans part 2 The benefits on Gods part 3 The tenour which consists or results our of both The word Sealing accordingly is used I thinke sometimes for to binde or engage sometimes to confirme or ratifie and sometimes to convey or exhibit which are offices of a Seal with others and do not a little puzzle our conceptions Now when we say the Sacrament seals the Covenant as sealing is taken for confirming assuring or ratifying which is the properest sense thereof it is most genuinely applied to the tenour of it As it is understood for conveying or exhibiting it is proper to the benefits As it is used to engage or oblige it is most large and may be applied to the condition with the distinction if we allow it as mans seal and not otherwise for as it is Gods Seal in none of these senses it seals the condition God engages not hereby to give man Faith if he did every Receiver should have it what he seals to he performes Now then to come to our difference the ground on which the Sacrament is held a Seal of Faith or to our Faith which termes I shall not distinguish for him is usually this because it confirmes our Faith that which confirmes or ratifies say they is metaphorically a Seal so is the Sacrament to our Faith For satisfaction 1 I distinguish A thing may be confirmed or ratisied either Formalitèr properly and formally or Consequutivè by consequence onely and improperly in the event It is not enough to make a thing a Seal that it confirms any way in the event but that it formally confirmes and ratifies Now the Sacrament confirmes and ratifies the Covenant properly and formally as a seal set to a writing ratifies the tenor and purport of it but it confirmes faith improperly and consequently onely to wit it encreases it as other Ordinances doe in the exercise thereof all habits being strengthned by their acts which you see is improper and eventual to sealing Whatsoever God doth properly ratifie by way of Seale he attests the truth thereof but he doth not attest the truth of our faith by the Sacrament Ergo the Sacrament is not the seale of Faith Mr. Drakes answer to this in Marg. p. 128. that he doth it by consequence will not serve for I argue That which is common to the hypocrite with the beleever cannot attest the truth of a mans faith signifie or ascertaine him that he hath grace by any consequence that is good But the Sacrament is common to both Ergo. 2 I humbly judge The Sacraments are not Seals because they confirme our faith which is the errour but they confirme our faith because they are Seales As to use Mr. Drakes instance When a bond sealed unto me confirmes my beliefe that the particulars sealed shall be performed The Seal to the Bond is not a Seal because it confirmes me but I am confirmed by it because it is a seale and this is onely an effect it hath on me for the Seal would be the same and writing too though I were incredulous It is derogatory I thinke to say the Sacrament is onely a metaphorical seal or tropically a seal which they are forced to say that make it a seal of Faith from the consequent effect of confirming faith inherent in the worthy receiver whereas indeed it is a very proper formal seal to the Covenant and thus the text Rom. 4.11 speaks plaine for us circumcision is not said to be a seale of faith or that a man hath faith for righteousnesse but the Seale of the righteousness of faith which in Genesis is phrased The token of the Covenant If confirming or strengthning a mans faith were enough to denominate it a seale 1 Then Acts of grace should be the best seales 2 Then should all other Ordinances be feals too 3 Then Baptisme should be no seal to infants 4 And then shall both the Sacraments cease to be Seals when any are admitted that have not true Faith 3 Let us consider what faith is confirmed Every act supposes its object such as is the object such must be the act the object the Sacrament seals is no other but what is in the word for Mr. D. and I here still agree that these go together The word speaks onely in general whosoever beleeves shall be saved this general necessarily includes its particular so that the faith which is directly and immediately confirmed is my assent to his truth that if I beleeve I shall have Christ or be justified and saved Onely whereas a true historicall assent and particular faith of evidence are not divided though distinguished in the regenerate but are one habit men may not much scruple to say the one is confirmed instead of the other Yet as to this Point where the whole stresse is laid upon it it is to be considered and wee are to know that if a man would come to be assured of his faith that it is saving it must arise from his own examination and experience and it cannot be confirmed to him any otherwise And as for those further degrees of assurance if grounded he attains at the Sacrament they are not conveyed to him by obsignation there is some danger and weaknesse to think so but are acquired through Gods Spirit by exercise of his heart at that time in the sight of his experiences and meditation the great businesse he hath to do here no otherwise then at other Ordinances which do all agere onely virtute suoe significationis or by morall operation I shall end this with a plaine consideration a Seale so confirmes a Bond as it was not confirmed before but there is no Faith of particular evidence that Christ is mine can be confirmed by the Sacrament I say ratione obsignationis but what is confirmed to me already by my experience and therefore it is a mean thing to count it onely tropically a seale to confirme faith when it is a seale formally to confirm the Covenant Another reason Mr. D. hath more peculiar and affected Faith is a part of the Covenant and the Covenant being sealed Faith is sealed For the discussing this we all know there is mans part of the Covenant and Gods mans part is the Condition which God does not seale to if he did my businesse were at an end for then all were to come hither for it Gods part is the Promise wherein he engages to give us the benefits upon this Condition Now as Faith is our Condition it is manifest it cannot be part of the Covenant which God seal whereof onely we speak And Mr. D. is at such a losse p. 134. For how shall faith be promised in the Covenant when men cannot be in Covenant effectually without Faith that is how can Faith be promised upon condition we doe beleeve Let us distinguish then 1 There is the absolute or conditionall
Covenant or there is the Covenant made with us and the Covenant made with Christ Faith is not given by vertue of the Covenant made with man but it flowes from the Promise God hath made to Christ that upon doing his work this shall be his wages To have a seed a people Isa 53.10 Isa 55.4 5. Psal 2.8 that is many shall beleeve in him Now the Sacrament seales not the absolute Covenant or the everlasting engagements between God and Christ but it seales the conditional Covenant or the Covenant made with man and so not Faith 2 To proceed more strictly There is the first Grace and second Grace Faith as the first condition and the further degrees of it If it be pleaded these further degrees comes under the conditional Promise I Answer For my part I judge from whence comes the first Grace from thence flows Perseverance by the former Texts with Joh. 10.29 Jo. 17.9 10. Jer. 32.40.1 Pet. 1.5 c. that is from the absolute Promise and this makes it incorruptible seed in the Doctrine whereof we are loath to loose so good a stay at our backs and if Perseverance belongs to the absolute Promise the confirmation of the first Grace does likewise In Progressive Grace then there is the work it selfe or an accessory consideration of it as a reward to initial though there is not the least degree of Grace but what is wrought by the Holy Spirit yet he does so sweetly attemper his work to our Wils that he proposes it as the reward and fruits of our endeavors in the right use of the first stock he hath given us and so declares or promises To him that hath it shall be given Upon which promise there arises a right of the second Grace to him that hath the first and this Right only as to Reall Grace to wit that God will crown his own effectuall workings with more is all can be sealed in the Sacraments To clear this a little more Whereas wee speake here of the Grace the Covenant promises that is the benefits let us know 1. The word Sealing we are to take for conveighing or exhibiting 2 That the grace of the promise is either Relative that makes a change onely as to our state and relation towards God as Justification Adoption and this is conveyed every Sacrament suo modo to the Beleever or Reall as these further degrees of Faith Love c. and Glory which change the heart and person and this being a physicall thing cannot be conveyed by obsignation A moral Instrument acts not physically To speake freely in this sense of obsignation the Sacrament does no more Sanctifie us then Glorifie us It is then a right to further Sanctification as to glory which is sealed that is exhibited or conveyed to us by the Sacrament and as for the effectuall worke it selfe of the first or second Grace alike it is the free gift of God insinuated in all Ordinances through the proposition of the object by morall action To sum up the whole Mr. D. can have here it comes to this whereas the Sacrament as a seale conveyes and exhibits the benefits of the Covenant to wit Relative Grace and a right to Reall to true Beleevers and not else the seale must be set to a blank he may count where there is no saving Faith and if any are visibly such they ought not to be admitted To this I answer 1. By way of concession as to the antecedent which is true and the sense is only that the Sacrament seales the benefits of the Covenant upon condition or those onely that have the condition have a right to the benefits of it The man could nor be so censorious if he had not some good meaning To expresse this in Austines words there is Sacramentum and Res Sacramenti panis Dominus and Panis Domini It is true though all receive the Sacrament and Panem Domini yet none receive rem Sacramenti and panem Dominum but such as have true saving faith But 2. By way of negation to the consequence It does not follow where the benefits are not exhibited that the seale is set to a blank For 1. The Covenant is sealed either in regard of the tenor of it or the benefits though the benefits in this sense are not sealed that is conveyed yet is the tenor of the Covenant sealed that is confirmed and ratified the cheife sense we contend for to all the receivers and there can bee no seale to a blank so long as there is truth and writing in the Gospel2 As the generall truth of the Covenant is sealed to all so is every mans particular interest sealed according to his condition and he is seriously to make his use thereof 3 By way of further satisfaction if Mr. D. will call it sealing to a blanke when the benefits are not exhibited the man may use what unhandsome terms he will but I will say if that be all there is no absurdity in it For 1. God hath commanded to baptise all Infants of Beleevers and to admit all visible Saints as himselfe sayes p. 123. which yet have not all the benefits exhibited and we must not think the eternall Wisdom puts us upon an absurdity 2 The Lord Jesus submitted to the Sacraments yet could not the benefits of remission of sins or regeneration be sealed to him that never sinned 3 Neverthelesse as he was to doe this to fulfill all righteousnesse so are we bound still to doe our duty 4 As there is Relative Grace as remission of sin and a right to life exhibited to the sound Beleever so there is Relative Judgement if I may so say as retention of sin and debitum supplicii a due or desert of death exhibited to the unsound which he is to apply for his Conviction and Reformation 5 If he does not yet is the Ordinance hereby made a sweet savor of Christ unto God though a savor of death to him 4 By way of inquity I question 1. How Gods establishing his Covenant by way of seal does import this exhibition of the effectual benefits to those he seales There may indeed be outward priviledges of the Church necessarily made over hereby but the inward benefits of the Covenant are engaged for or stipulated on Gods part to bee given only upon condition which man may be bound to before the performance I pray compare thaâ— place from whence alone we derive this notion of seal Ro. 4.11 with Gen. 17.11 One Text cals that a token which the other cals a seale and whaâ— one cals the righteousnesse of Faith the oth cals the Covenant The token of the Coveâ—â—nt and seale of the righteousnesse of faith the same Now see vers 7. I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant This shall be the token or seale thereof But the effectuall benefits were not exhibited to the whole seed in their generations that were circumcised and therefore
vast difference between a physical and moral instrument and likewise between what is Really and Relatively conveyed If real judgement were physically conveyed by the Covenant and Sacrament it were death but once to touch it or but once to heare the word without faith But it is not so God forbid we should have such mercilesse thoughts of him It is final unbeleefe onely that shall be really damned The truth is both the Covenant and Seal do still hold forth life potentially to a sinner if he will repent when it actually sets death before his present condition Hee is now then to despaire of sinne he is never to despiar of mercy upon conversion unto Christ For his next things I speak to other where There is one passage onely here must yet be limited it is this The Sacrament will confirme the unworthy receivers unbeleefe Answ You must take heed of this by your serious application Indeed I thinke the Sacrament seals judgement to every unregenerate man according to the termes of the major Proposition in this syllogisme He that beleeves not shall be damned I beleeve not therefore I shall be damned but not in any hand according to the termes of the conclusion Let every soule assure himselfe thereof But for the confirming his unbeleefe that follows here onely as at the word and prayer A man may be unworthy yet by Gods grace pray hear and receive worthily for while he rightly applies the word or seale according to his condition it will be the very means I hope to remove his unbeleefe and quicken him to repentance which the Lord grant to poor sinners Page 127. The Sacrament doth confirme faith and ratifie the Covenant to faith Ergo it is a seale of faith and to faith Answ 1 The Sacrament confirmes not faith formalitèr as I have said but onely consequutivè as other Ordinances doe and that is not enough to make it a seal 2 The Sacrament ratifies the Covenant to all whether they have saving faith or no but exhibits the benefits onely upon that condition so that to seal to faith is nothing else but that it seals conditionally which answers the whole objection Econtra where there is no faith to confirme it seals to a blanke as sealing a paper without writing c. Answ Here is his constant errour for the writing the Sacrament seales to is not the inward Covenant in the heart but the outwart in the Gospel For his Argument from the institution How can the Minister say this is the blood of Christ for the remission of sinne to the unworthy Every one can resolve as Christ said the same to Judas whereof before Page 128. He hath foure things 1 He confesses God doth not attest our faith I returne But Seals are testimonies and if he does not give testimony to our faith he does not seale to it 2 He saies Some reject the Covenant This he repeats page 131 where I shall answer it 3 There is the old businesse of Infants and the distracted which is fifteen times 4 The Seals may be applied before all not to them c. Answ Ye men of Athens I perceive that in this thing you are too superstitious I pray see the sixth Chapter of John vers 53.56 Verily except you eat my flesh and drinke my blood you have no life in you but whosoever eateth c. hath eternal life These words cannot be meant of the Sacrament 1 Because that was not then instituted And 2. Men may never eat him in the Sacrament yet be saved Now take this sixth of John out of the Supper that which remaines onely must be the seal and what becomes of all this dreadfulnesse then that is laid upon our consciences with a bare Touch not taste not handle not Let a man only look on he shall be sure to be damned neverthelesse if he eats not the flesh and drinkes not the blood of the Sonne of man by a true faith and as sure to be saved if he does according to this text of St. John alike whether he receives or receives not This actual receiving then serves but to affect us the more solemnly with our condition and be a more serious obligation by the outward to that inward eating whereby alone we looke to be saved Page 129. He is notable The Sacrament he counts it not a seale properly but figuratively to the Covenant it selfe I pray marke it So in the former leaf he concludes it tropically a seal Well now read but a few lines further in the very same page and he tels us As it confirmes the Covenant it confirmes Faith and if this be not to seale in a proper formall sense theologically I know not what is Is not this pretty The Sacrament is not a proper formall seale but figurative and metaphoricall and yet if it does not seale in a proper formall sence he knowes not what does Mr. Drake does often tell you of my contradictions when he onely goes about to make them but I need not tell you he has any To his substance I have spoken already Page 130. Nor will his instance of circumcision helpe him which was applyed to none but visible Saints c. Answ That is the whole Jewish Nation I pray see Josh 5.3 6 8. and that instance alone of the whole Body of Israel at once when of age without any examination or profession but virtually onely being circumcised does declare both that all Church-Members are visible Saints and that that alone gives a right to bee admitted For the simile that follows I have spoken and I refer you to Mr. Calvin who pleases himselfe with it in shewing this same point to wit Sacramenta non definere esse testimonia gratiae Dei licet impiis quoque porrigantur Inst l. 4. c. 14. sect 7. Page 131. How dare a Minister by word and seale apply the Covenant of Grace to those that visibly reject it Answ Unto this Mr. D. shall first answer Mr. D. speaking of Infant baptisme he tells us Be their parents never so unworthy p. 81. Yet 1. Though they transgresse they do not renounce the Covenant as Turks do 2 They are Members of the visible Church till ex communicated p. 84. Well now let him come to speake about the Sacrament p. 131. All who are visibly in the state of nature saies he are visibly out of Covenant I pray marke it if naturall men be members of the visible Church how are they visibly out of Covenant If they are visibly in Christ how doe they visibly reject Christ And now then upon this I will answer him 1. There is a difference between disobedience and renouncing between a not resolving and resolving not to accept of Christ 2 How can Mr. D. say any visibly reject the Covenant of Grace when they visibly come to engage themselves unto it 3. So long as the Lord ownes a people in Covenant the Minister may apply the outward seales of it But while men are Church-members the Lord
does own them outwardly as his people even when they will not hearken and will none of him Psal 81.8 11. that is plainly reject the Covenant as to obedience when they are ignorant Isa 1.3 Hos 4.6 and scandalous Psa 106.39 with ver 45. They went a whoring after their owne inventions yet remembred he for them his Covenant 4 So long as men are not excommunicate I see no reason why Christ may not be offered Sacramentally as free as verbally to worke them to repentance for the offering a sealed pardon in general the generall alwaies including the particulars and the particulars applying the same to single persons conditionally whatsoever this mansurmises is but the same If he can say to all whosoever beleeves shall be saved he can say so to me unlesse all does not include mee and absolutely the Sacrament seales no mans interest as alike vainly he imagines 5 If men doe not walke conformable to the Covenant the denouncing the judgement of God and the sealing of it seriously applyed is the means to reforme them 6 When other meanes will not work upon them there remains Excommunication and let that content him Page 132. He does but repeate the same Page 133. He hath three things 1. The Sacraments are Gods seales as relating to Gods Covenant and as instituted to ratifie the Covenant Ans A good confession Then they are not Gods seales as relating to Faith and as instituted formally to ratifie Faith They are not seales of Faith for Righteousnesse but they are seales of the righteousnesse of Faith in opposition to Works 2 Is not Faith and every saving Grace promised in the New Covenant unlesse Mr. H. will turn Pelagian Ans I beleeve here Mr. Drakes other studies has beguiled his Divinity for hee may be pleased to know we neither make Faith the birth of mans Free Will nor yet to be given by vertue of the Covenant made with man which the Sacrament seals but to be Gods most free gift that proceeds from election and discovers the mystery thereof 3 If the Covenant be Gods if the Seale be Gods and Faith promised in it be Gods also is it not apparent that Gods seale must needs be Faiths seale also Answ If hee count this apparent which is a very Chaos you may guesse what light to expect from him The truth is As faith is our condition it is not a branch of the Covenant that God seales which puzzles this man for if it were every man should unquestionably come and engage the Lord by his owne seale to undertake for his condition as I have already intimated and consequently if God perform what he engages every one should bee saved This he sees p. 134 135. and is quite lost in his very first particular for while hee supposes the Covenant promises initiall grace to the Elect and the Sacrament seales that Covenant and the seale secures what is in the writing which are all his own termes he must necessarily take upon him to judge who are reprobates which is sinfull to doe or all must be admitted for though men are visibly yet in the state of nature they may be elect Had not the man so much contemned me he might have found how to distinguish between what comes from Gods undertaking with man or the conditional bosome of the Covenant and what comes from his undertaking with Christ or the free absolute bosome of Election I pray compare his third particular with this first The Sacrament he sayes there is for nourishment and that I hope to the Elect So p 147. It seals not initiall but progressive Graece and yet here the Covenant he counts promises initiall grace to the Elect and the seal secures what is in the Covenant So that ☜ what need I here to dispute with Mr. D. when his own particulars have an opponent and defendant among themselves and do rise up methinks but like the heads and horns still in the Visions to revile and fight with one another I will here therefore pose these two pages of Mr. Drakes with these Questions 1. Whether it be one and the same Covenant he speakes of there 2. How the Covenant being conditional doth promise absolutely 3. How it can promise initial Grace for Faith and Repentance are the condition of the Covenant and how can faith be promised upon condition we have faith or the first grace be given upon condition we have grace 4. What difference is there between the Covenants offer of grace and promise of grace conditionally 5. How can the offer of Grace be said to be sealed as Offer is distinguished from Promise 6. Whether the Minister can seale which he please either the Offer or Promise and why he should not content himselfe to seale the offer which is sure to all present rather then to seal the Promise where he may erre seeing his visible Legatees really may not bee such By these Questions happily it may appeare Mr. D. does not see all things Page 136. Christ may be given to all or held forth in the Sacrament though they doe not receive Answ What an unworthy shift is this to bee made use of so often As Christ is held forth to all Sacramentally he is held forth to this end to be Sacramentally eaten and drunken Take eate this is my body that is thus taken and eaten it is his body not otherwise The Sacrament then gives not out Christ or holds him forth Sacramentally but to those that receive it And they all dranke of the rocke which was Christ In the same page he hath up Infants and the distracted againe which is sixteen times and argues from the word As the Minister may not lose by the Key of doctrine such as are to bee bound no more may be seal comfort c. Answ As the Minister doth not onely loose but binde in the word so does he in the Sacrament and as he neither bindes nor looses but conditionally in the one no more does he seal comforts or judgement and so terrours in the other As for that onely Objection against this conditional sealing he hath over the lease that then heathen and the excommunicate may be admitted I have answered The word is a sealed word onely to the Church It is apparent the seal is delivered onely for her use Gen. 17. and therefore to be applied by expresse Text Exod. 12.28 onely to her members Page 137 138. He contends without cause that the Sacraments are mans seals which in his sense that they are appointed to his use in a propriety of the final cause who doubts but in that sense which regards him that sets the seal as if Mr. D. should make Articles with me the setting his seal is not mine so do I think some wiser then Mr. D. may not judge it any thing ridiculous to make the seal Gods only and our mutual restipulation I mean the performance of it to arise as the good use we are to make thereof If any contend for words
sealed but this it doth not for it no where saies I have these marks and signs Ergo. Again If it were in the Word it were an object of faith but it is no object of faith Probo That which is seen is no object of faith for sense takes away faith 2 Cor. 5.7 and Faith is an evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 But this minor I believe is an object of sense spiritual experience or thing seen Ergo. To illustrate this suppose there are Articles granted and sealed to a Towne upon such and such qualifications If I come to plead my benefit in them as a person so qualified I must bring witnesses that will attest such things I have done that doe so qualifie me and this is to be made out by me no otherwise Now as the Articles and Seale assure me of such advantages upon the qualification but it is my proofe and testimony evidence those qualifications so doth the Covenant and Sacrament assure me of salvation upon faith but it is my own conscience and spiritual experience that must assure my faith and therefore the Sacrament is not a seal of faith to ratifie and assure that but of the Covenant Page 144 145 146. He persists by way of explication to this purpose The marks and signs which the conscience makes use of to evidence the minor is in Scripture therefore the minor is consequently in Scripture Answ 1. That is Because the medius terminus is both in the major and the minor therefore whatsoever proves the major must prove the minor 2 In his owne termes Though the evidence in actu signato be in Scripture this is nothing seeing that goes in the major Proposition But his Evidence in actu exercito is the businesse of the minor and that is no where I hope in Scripture by his owne confession 3 Whereas in that Page 128. before quoted as here he puts this off with not interminis but by consequence Let us see his consequence All are sinners therefore thou Roger art a sinner all must rise againe therefore thou must rise againe This is true because the one includes the other So whosoever beleeves shall be saved includes this de fide If thon Roger beleevest thou shalt be saved but it can never include de fide therefore thou Roger beleevest He sayes yes Because the minor here is the conclusion in the Prosyllogisme to wit He that hath these signs beleeves But I have these signs Ergo I beleeve I answer contrà Seeing the conclusion in the Prosyllogisme is the same with the minor in the principall Syllogisme it cannot be in Scripture or de fide by the same consequence he proves it can for that he hath these and these signes is not in Scripture but to have these and these signes is all one with to beleeve Ergo that he beleeves is not in Scripture or de fide by consequence He that hath these signs I say is all one with he that beleeves and so his Prosyllogisme then comes effectually but to this He that beleeves beleeves But he beleeves ergo he beleeves And whereas to illustrate this he so elaborately demonstrates he is a man partly by sence partly by faith first by a direct nct and then by a reflect act on the signs of his humanity and properties of a man and therefore shall rise again in the resurrection Spectatum admissi When I am a man and I beleeve are propositions of equal evidence Mr. Drakes argument shall carry it He that is a man is a man He that beleeves beleeves He that is in the right is in the right but Mr. D. is in the right Ergo he is in the right Page 146. He raises an objection The Sacrament supposes assurance It supposes I beleeve but does not evidence that I beleeve Ergo it is not a seale of Faith Unto this he can make no solution For my part I doe neither think the Sacrament supposes assurance or effectuall faith that we must needs forbear to come without it There is a generall faith and acknowledgement of the Gospell or Covenant of Jesus Christ as the onely means to be saved I judge pre-requisite to adult Church-Membership and so to the Sacraments which is not to the word that begets it But as for that Saving Faith which consists in the prevailing interest of the heart for Christ which is the condition of the Covenant wrought not alwaies by the Word alone but by other means with it It may be engaged to I suppose before it is performed and those engagements conduce thereunto even as in Bonds a man seales to the payment which is to be made and he is bound before he makes it good There is a manifest difference I conceive between what is pre-requisite to the enjoyment of the benefits of the Covenant and what is pre-requisite to an engagement to the condition the condition is pre-requisite to enjoy the benefits but the condition is not absolutely pre-requisite to engage to the condition for nothing can be absolutely pre-requisite to its selfe A justifying faith then I say is required of every receiver as pre-requisite to enjoy the benefits but not absolutely pre-required to his coming and engaging to the Covenant unlesse the whole Congregation of Israel Deut. 29. man woman and child had a saving Faith I have therefore chose in my former book Ed. 3. to tender this thus with humble submission The condition of the Covenant may be considered in esse as already wrought in us or in fieri as to be done or performed of us The receiver seales not to his condition necessarily in esse for children seale to the same in baptism and the Ordinance is to strengthen the weake that have not assurance and doubt of their Faith But he seales to it in fieri agreeing to the terms of Christ proposed expecting salvation if ever he have grace to perform his engagements which he is presently to goe about and yeeldeth to be damned as looking for no other if he continue finally in an unsound or impenitent condition which whether he seales or no is sure however God forbid but we should endeavour to remove such scruples at the very core if it may be which for ought I see doe but a little serve to reform the bad but doe very much help to deject many tender serious Christians in their more free and enlarged approaches unto Christ As for his discourse that follows p 147 which yet quite waves the strength in hand he is much plunged As the Sacrament saies he is a means of grace so it is a means of assurance now the Sacrament is not a means of initiall Grace but of progressive c. I pray mark it and the conclusion that arises from these two prem ses must needs be this Ergo. the Sacrament is not a means of initial but progressive assurance Yet be pleased to look but a few lines lower and he tels us The Sacrament is sometimes the means of initiall
assurance though ordinarily of progressive This is the logick whereto the man still so highly pretends I will therefore now returne upon him As the Sacrament is a means of assurance so is it a means of grace But the Sacrament is sometimes a means of initiall assurance Ergo the Sacrament is sometimes if not ordinarily a means of initiall Grace or effectuall conversion The major converse is his own the minor also is expressely his own If these be true How will he deny my conclusion And whereas he speaks some things well as to the manner how the Sacrament encreases grace and assurance Let the judicious consider what hurt there can be upon some of his pleas to hold that initiall Faith Love Repentance Assurance may be wrought by it through the Spirit of God as well as progressive If further degrees in the same kind why not the same kind it self Seeing we attribute nothing here operi operato to the worke done but gratiae operanti and neither the one nor the other the first seed or increase is exhibited per modum obsignationis but excited or wrought proponendo objectum morali actione mediante significatione that is no otherwise then reall Grace is both begotten and confirmed by other Ordinances Page 148. He is pious and healing and it cals to my remembrance that suitable and sweet distinction he makes use of p. 99. Want of grace is either sensible or insensible Let me beseech the tender Christian not to forget this and be discouraged utterly in the fight of his wants to come unto Christ but rather know the sense of thy unworthinesse which thou makest a bolt to shut out Christ should be a latch to open to him for both thy need is the greater and his pitty the more Thou maist come to the Sacrament he tels thee here with the Prophets feare I am undone yet mayest go away with this assurance Thy iniquity is taken away and sin purged For this we thank him and if a man may come as loft Luk 19.10 and undone then may he come while he judges and humbles himselfe though he is in doubt of his regeneration To conclude this point of sealing If any are willing to contend about termes I shall not contend with them For 1. If you will say the Sacrament is a seale of faith metaphorically as it does consecutivè in the effect confirm that is increase Faith so as all other graces are sealed and all other Ordinances may bee said seales You may 2 If you will say it is a seale of Faith objectivè because the main object of the Covenant is sealed as we usually hold faith justifies In this sense I should like it and would argue If it be thus a seale of Faith then is it not a seal of Experience nor Reason But the minor and conclusion aforesaid is one of Experience the other of Reason and the major onely of Faith 3 If you say it is a seale to Faith as the condition required to the benefits This is true no mans interest is sealed but conditionally 4 If you call it a seale to Faith as a man is said to seale to his own part that is engages to it In all this you may use your liberty But if you say it is a seale of Faith subjective properly to confirm and ratifie Faith or any way so to assure or evidence Faith that God shall be made to set his seale to a lye if any come without a Saving Faith This must be denyed and rejected and answered that the Sacrament is not thus a seale of Faith to wit formally directly properly but of the Covenant unto which it is set as to an undoubted and immutable truth and as a standing seale for the Church as firme and irrefiagable as if it were in adamant Against which Mr. Drakes arguments become but as earthen ware or the vessels of a potter wherewith while he striks at me they break themselves in peeces so that here is scarce to be found in the bursting of them so much as a shard to take fire from the hearth or to take water withall out of the pit Sect. 5 THE fifth Objection is The Covenant belongs not to all therefore the seals neither To this I answered There is the Absolute Covenant which is secret and belongs onely to the election or the conditionall which is revealed and belongs to all as the tenor of the Gospel Hereof we must distinguish There are those to whom it belongs only in regard to the publication tender and a kind of potentiall interest if they come in and thus it belongs to all even without the Church And there are those to whom it belongs by way of actuall interest and priviledge in it as Covenanters Rom. 9.4 and thus it belongs to all within the Church and them only Now this priviledge is either outward or according to title or inward and according to the effectuall benefits thereof The state of my Answer then lyes plainly that all those to whom the Covenant belongs by way of interest in it though but according to title are in Covenant so far as the externall seale belongs to them without some known bar otherwise As for the prejudice here Mr. D. would raise upon me it will not gaine his cause so much with the many as it will loose it with the wise All hee has to answer is this Page 149. The Sacrament indeed belongs conditionally to all but onely to the worthy Receivers absolutely Answ 1 If there be any sense and validity in this he must argue thus The Sacrament is nor to be delivered to all it belongs conditionally but to those only to whom it belongs absolutely but it belongs only to the worthy Receiver absolutely therefore it must be delivered only to the worthy Receiver Now this you see is apparently false seeing he admits some only visibly worthy to whom he himselfe counts it belongs not absolutely 2 The interest of every man in the benefits of the Covenant and so in the Sacrament as we now speak I have proved already is conditional and not absolute 3 The distinction then that might best serve our turns or accommodate us here as I imagine were of an actual and potential inward interest both conditional for the absolute Covenant is secret and belongs only to God Page 150. Whereas I suppose a man now resolves to ingage with Christ on his own termes yet not effectually in Covenant with him and say the Sacrament belongs to him as the likeliest means I judge to root and establish him he fils his mouth with these terms Come you Drunkards Whore-masters Muderers and all you Rabble of hell here is doctrine for you c. Answ Truly I think here were rather fit language for them It is pity but the Doctor before he had left his profession of Physick had taken a vomit to rid his stomach of this bitter humour and ill language which little becomes a Minister of Christ As for the contradiction herein
begotten by the Sacrament but the Word onely that instructs us about it 2 That God hath not appointed it for this use but contrarily commanded that every man shall be first initiated in the Church by Baptisme before he communicates No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof And here is answered those two Objections page 163. which shew you how low Mr. D. is brought If the Sacrament can convert how dare Mr. H. exclude Infants which is eighteen times and heathens I answer because it converts by a joynt vertue of the word and discernment which children have not and because the unbaptised which is the case of heathen are forbid to eat thereof Exod. 12.48 1 Cor. 14.40 And now at last if you will bring the point even with the same in Baptisme of Infants and doe nothing but urge upon me for an expresse text where this Sacrament is ordained to this end to convert any I will demand of you first an expresse Text where it is instituted for Edification which yet by cleer argument you may shew and when you have produced that I will manifestly shew you 1 That this Edification refers to the visible body Saints by calling or the whole Church 2 That there are many unregenerate members among them and then I demand how it can be appointed to edifie members if it be not a means of begetting grace in some as encreasing it in others As for the terme this word Edification it is cleerly common to the visible Church 1 Cor. 14. Insomuch that when an unbeleever comes in amongst them vers 23. All things are said yet to be done unto edifying vers 27. What Minister doth not pray ordinarily for his whole people that they may be edified Church-censures are for Edification 2 Cor. 13.10 but I hope it is not the regenerate onely are censured We need look no further then Rom. 14.19 and 15.2 the word is so ordinary that what is done for our neighbours good is said to be for his edification Page 169. In that word fancy hee wrongs me For his sense it is answered A vital Ordinance can beget life Page 170. Mr. H. makes confirmation of the Covenant a primary end confirmation of our faith a secondary end of the Lords Supper I wish he did not shew himselfe as little skilled in morality as in Logick c. Answ One would verily thinke here that Mr. H. sure was in some great absurdity by this mans language but will you be pleased to turne to Mr. D. himselfe page 126. The Sacrament sayes he there relates to things and thus as seals first they confirm the Covenant Secondly they confirme faith I pray marke it And is it not worth your notice how much he is skilled in Logick Morality Physick and what not that can finde you out a distinction between my Primary and Secondary and his First and Second It is even pity so samous a man should forget all his learning here and exclaim thus at me for saying the same thing he doth nay the same thing the truth and others doe with us For let me helpe him out here There is the end of the Ordainer and the end of the Ordinance It may be true that the Churches Edification is primarily in the intention of the Ordainer but the primary end of the Ordinance must be that which goes into the Institution and the secondary that which flows from it Now the end that is thus expresse in the Institution is for to be a memorial of Christs death or the Covenant by his death and so outwardly to seale solemnize or confirm the Covenant and then the confirming a mans faith as begetting it in others is plainly a consequent effect result or concomitant thereof By this one passage well considered you may have a guesse at the man As for his following exceptions from page 171. to the end of the Objection where he carps at me for putting in the whole duty of the receiver both before and after as well as In receiving and what practical Divine doth not tell us of awakening the vertue of the Sacrament by after-meditations page 172 173. And for that phrase Baptized into the Church which I take to be a good explanation of being baptized into Christ page 174. And for those termes of a general faith Doing a mans beft c they are not worth any farther notice So likewise where he snarles at my allusion page 175. in that word belongs The harvest belongs not to the Reapers but to Boaz himselfe And that other penitently inclined which yet I purposely picked out instead of penitent c. what pitiful poore things are they as if he envied me barely an expression even as Leah cast a blear eye upon Rachet onely because she was beloved and accepted Waving therefore these letts I shall proceed to gather together my Arguments to prove the Sacrament and actual receiving which is the thing only he opposes a means of the unregenerates edification and consequently his effectual conversion And they amount to twelve besides the chiefe of my last booke as it is verbum visibile with others the Reader may finde out himself 1 It is the duty of every intelligent member to frequent the Sacrament but officium est propter beneficium Ergo Mr. D. here indeed doth most sadly and without ground argue that the Sacrament cannot doe an unregenerate man good but certaine hurt therefore it is not his duty The weaknesse whereof is manifest because 1 It is not mans benefit but Gods precept is the ground of duty 2 A thing is not good and our duty and therefore God wills it but God wills it and therefore it is good and our duty But wee argue I take it firmly against him It is his duty the duty I have proved good in my fifth Reason and eighth Objection and therefore it can doe him good for all the Commands of God are good and it is but an heavy thing to bring up such an evill report upon the good land of the Sacrament This is the case If the Sacrament can do an unregenerate member no good then must such be either bound necessarily to eat and drinke their owne damnation or else the Sacrament is not their duty The former Mr. D. must renounce and for the latter if he can give me but one Text I will yeeld to hâ—m if he cannot let the pious consider whither they must come to deny this point for therefore have I set this Reason formost and that is through mans impotency to make void Gods Authority 2 All Gods Ordinances within the Church are means of grace whether first or second to be get or encrease it as God hath declared that hee wil meet with those that wait on him in his wayes that come to his house that seek his face and thâ— like Ergo You must produce some Text where converting grace is denyed peculiarly to this means or you wrong it If any say this is a negative which ought not to be proved
of man is betrayed they are both true and about the same treachery Shall as to the apprehension and Is betrayed as to his fact past in his agreement which is said therefore while Christ will yield to it to be in effect done What is here wanting now but an opening this and proceeding against him and yet in the very nick he leaves it Is not our cause plain Besides what man will not judge that Iudas treason which Christ tels them of consisted in his contrivance bargain taking money and selling Christ as actually as his comming with the Officers into the garden So that it will be in vain to strive against the truth If Christs example herein be a sufficient rule for our walking we must be content and willingly embrace the humble peaceable way of Free-admission P. 11. He only repeats the question Whether Judas ought to be suspended for as for St. Peter he wrongs him much to joyn him with Iudas ones sinne being by design and already on foot the others un-imagined before and meerly out of present infirmity and he answers No. 1. Because his sinne was not committed Ans I say that is not true unlesse Iudas selling Christ be no sin with him 2 Because Christ could not be both witnesse Iudge and Executioner c. which we had before and again more fully p. 90. Christ as a Minister had no juridical power to turn him or any away c. Nor any it is bravely spoken you may read forwards and the sum is this The Lord Iesus could not turn away Iudas from the Sacrament because the Presbytery was not setled Selah He that at the great day shall be Iudge and Party and tels us Io. Though I bear witnesse of my self my witnesse is true that is is both Witnesse and Party may I hope be both Iudge and Witnesse without absurdity As for the question Whether he acted as a Minister or Mediator it is vain for he acted as both He could not institute an Ordinance for his Church but as he was Head and Mediator nor could he administer it but as a Minister the same numerical actions were both the institution and the administration So that let us but look these passages full in the face and fix wistly on them they are quite out of countenance and I shall need no more to put this man to a mild rebuke than the gracious words of our Saviour Christ The servant is not above his Master nor the disciple above his Lord It is enough that the servant be as his Master and the disciple as his Lord. As for Christs temporal refusing to condemn the Adulteresse it is impertinent as to this his Ecclesiastical command institution and example And for his administring only to Ministers in an upper room it proves we may so administers too if need be as his admitting Iudas proves we may admit of our Chruch-members but if he argues therefore we must do no otherwise here is a clear negative from an affirmative which is no consequence Whereas therfore he tels us in the issue State the case aright when he plainly states it wrong as to Iudas fact Mr. Humphreys has made a wide and wild inference and intreats him to take a more pertinent Text or else he shall scarce prove himself as he is stiled a Master of Arts. I do appeal to mens hearts whether as they are inclinable to Iudas receiving they find them not generally standing or wavering to this Free-admission I shall quote onely our learned Hammond Prac. Cat. mihi p. 334. where asking the question What we gather from this circumstance of Christs admitting Iudas answers That those that are Christian professors may be lawfully admitted though their hearts are full of Villanie They indeed he says are to repent before they come but it shall be no sin to the Minister or Communicants So that for the sufficiency of my ground you have not only pardoning such dulnesse the opinion of a Master of Arts but a Doctor of Divinity and if you look into Mr. Prynne that worthy Gentleman a bunch of Fathers They All drank of it Sect. 3 MY text or ground being cleared we come to the state or meaning of my question P. 12. For the managing his cause Mr. Humphrey premises That in the Church God hath set up his Ordinances of the Word and Sacrament Of these Ordinances some are capable and some uncapable Those that are uncapable are either so by nature as Infants and distracted persons or the Excommunicate and no others c. Before I passe for the fuller opening this I must desire you to consider these particulars 1. I say Within the Church in opposition to Heathen because it is Church-membership limited only with this capacity I hold that give our right to this Ordinance as other outward privileges The Sacraments may be considered Precise precisely in themselves and it is Church-membership I say or an external Covenant relation that suffices to the validity thereof or Complexè complexly with the intire fruits and benefits of the Covenant and so indeed there is no lesse than a justifying faith required for the obtaining of them Our question truly is not concerning what is necessary in order to other ends to the Receiver that he may be saved so final perseverance is necessary but what is necessarily antecedent to the external Sacrament And between these two A Covenant relation visible and truth of Grace which is invisible there is no middle thing in the Scripture enjoyn'd for the rule of our admission A visible member of the Church and a member of the visible Church are but the same 2. I explain those that are uncapable in the first sense in saying by nature and that can discern no meaning hereof as I have added which I do cleerly to distinguish Infants the distracted and natural fools from the barely ignorant of age who are capable to learn and having the present means of knowledge if it be not sufficient herein for their edifying it is meerly their own fault and upon their own account And there are two plain reasons for the distinguishing of these as to this Ordinance wherein the body of the Lord is to be discerned First Because this very discerning cannot be the duty of the former who are naturally uncapable it being an undeniable rule thus far Nemo tenetur ad impossibile And Secondly Because signes cannot work upon the un-intelligent which they wholly are to receive any Real effect by them It is otherwise with the latter for 1. It is their duty both to get knowledge and to come 2. They have an understanding capacity that they may be wronght upon by it and if they be not it is their sin These reasons I may tell Mr. Drake are so ordinary and solid that they will be as two gravel stones in the teeth of his arguments while he champs upon them 3. For the uncapable in the second sense which word is not so proper here but you may
Mr. D. must affirme here that God seales to a blank which he most desperately does or that this objection comes to nothing 2 I question Whether a man that scruples at the Sacrament as having not evidence to receive it as a seale may and must not yet receive it as a sign My reason is all men within the Church are bound to remember the death of Christ and be thankful if it were but onely for that he hath brought them under a possibility probability and the means of salvation But the whole institution is ordained for a thankful remembrance in the shewing forth his death and benefits of it wherein the whole Church is visibly interessed Ergo. If any reply There is more then this to be don I say true let not anythink that is all but I aske is not this yet his duty This one particular cannot be denyed and if it be his duty his failings and impotence otherwise cannot evacuate it they must be amended and this must be done Wemust not do evil that good may come of it therefore we must do our duty though evill comes of it And now I come to his book p. 123. He begins with approbation of the objection All men saies he are naturally Rasae tabulae destitute of the new Covenant in their hearts 2 Cor. 3.3 Heb. 8.10 and so blanks c. Answ Here is Mr. Drakes great error to confound the outward and inward Covenant the externall and internal sealing If the seale be set to a blank untill Gods Law is written in the heart then no mortall can apply the seale to any seeing that cannot bee discerned by any Compare this therefore with p. 72. Let the world know saies he that truth of Grace in the heart is not the rule of our admission Now I pray note it if he applies these Texts Heb. 8.10.2 Cor. 3.3 which speaks onely of this inward writing to confirm the objection that the seale is set to a blank if all be admitted then the world must know that the truth of grace is his rule or else the new Covenant written in the heart is not truth of grace with Mr. Drake Here you see the left legset first forward and the mans rule had need be better then his reason He proceeds This blanke is either visible or invisible to God all blankes are visible and he may use his liberty to set his seale where hee pleases Ans In what a sad case has he here brought himselfe selfe through his former error when he must lay this for his foundation that the God of Israel may set his seale to a visible blanke that stiles himselfe by this title who cannot lye If the Minister who is Gods Embassadour seales to a visible blank it is such an heinous sin he saies as murdering Christ and yet does hee affirme that God sets his seal to a visible blanke without scruple It is no wonder that the man deals so coursely with me that uses such rude and uncivil language towards God He goes on and tels how p. 124 by commanding Baptisme of Infants and to admit to the Lords Supper all visible Saints that are Church-members The question is then whether man may apply the seals to visible blankes c. Ans I pray marke this over againe God may use his liberty to set his seal to a visible blanke he sayes by commanding all visible Saints to be admitted but his question is Whether man may apply it that is the question is Whether man may doe as God hath commanded him Visible Saints are all one with visible members 1 Cor. 1 2. Heb. 10.29 with Deut. 7.6 c. so that it seems by that time the man came to this place he was never converted But he fals off againe It is cleare he may not for then heathen may be admitted and their Infants baptized but there are visible blankes in the Church as in the world c. Answ 1. This is as good as the rest because the heathen are not admitted who are not commanded to be admitted therefore visible Saints may not who are commanded As a jewel in a Swines snout so is a faire face upon a matter without discretion 2 It is Mr. Drakes error to say there are any visible blankes within the Church for how then can wee baptize all children A visible blanke is one visibly out of Covenant but to be in a Church-state is to be externally or visibly in Covenant Deut. 29.1.10.11 26.17 18. visibly holy Deut. 14.2.1 Pet. 29 10.1 Cor. 1 2. And so the Jews owned of God as his Covenant-people even when they know not nor consider him Isa 1.3 Isa 5.13 there is ignorance and when they hearken not to him and will have none of him Psal 81.8.11 Amos 3.2.1 Cor. 10.5 there is scandal As the legs of the lame are not equall so is Church-membership without communion Page 125. Sacramental seals relate either to parties or to things c. Answ For the parties A man may be in Covenant either quoad jus foederis or quoad foederis beneficia Though none but the regenerate ar partakers of the effectual benefits yet are all Church-members in Covenant according to an external right or title But in case any make a forfeiture which he sayes the Church ought to take It is manifest then he must be excommunicate that is put out of Church-state or external Covenant for while he stands De jure entituled as a member it is a manifest wrong to suspend him the symbol thereof And here our distinction of Ipso jure dis-membred and so De presenti dis-tituled must do its service in some scruples which will be even forced to say I have need of thee For the things to which these Seals relate Page 126. he saies 1 They confirme the Covenant which is most true and therefore all may be present to see not eat Answ The bare Elements do not confirme the Covenant but the Elements as instituted to that use but they were instituted to be eaten and drunken and therefore those that are present must receive too to wit if they be intelligent members 2 They confirme the faith of the worthy receiver therefore none but Evangelically worthy may partake Ans He may as well argue thus Baptisme confirmes the faith onely of those that understand it therefore Infants may not partake of it The word and prayer confirme faith therefore none but the regenerate may heare and pray This is no consequence for whatsoever Ordinance can confirme faith may beget it 3 They confirme judgement to the unworthy receiver Answ And I pray now what is become of the blanke By this it appears the whole Covenant is sealed Mar. 16 16. and so there is no sealing to a blanke possible Hee that beleeves not shall be damned is sealed as well as he that beleeves shall be saved so that I humbly judge the right use hereof is but to bee taught the people and our controversie may bee done There is a
give place Pag. 139. Whereas I say the tenour of the Gospel is absolutely sealed but not our interest in it absolutely which distinction I desire to have marked because our interest relates to the benefits and they are sealed that is exhibited only on condition and our assurance can be no otherwise He answers This is true in the first branch but false in the second since not onely the tenour of the Covenant is sealed absolutely to the worthy receiver but also his interest in it Answ A very shrewd Argument It is not why because it is not My reason I give here is because the word speaks not absolutely of any mans single interest He answers It does by signes and if any finde those signes in himselfe it is as good as if he were mentioned by name Answ If a mans particular interest depends upon these signs and marks then is his interest only conditional and must be sealed as it is which is the thing I prove I pray consider this plainly when the word tels me Faith is the condition of the Covenanant it sets forth what faith it is or the true signs marks and description thereof and it is all one to say If thou dost beleeve or if thou hast these signs or marks Now the Sacrament seals my interest in the benefits of the Covenant only upon the condition that I have these signs wherein consists this true faith and not otherwise But the word doth no where tell me I have these marks or signs and therefore the Sacrament cannot seal to me my interest but conditionally which is so clear that all the clouds in Mr. D. head can never obseure it And whereas in the same Page he speaks fortunately that a visible interest is sealed to visible Saints I assume But Church-members are outwardly holy or visible Saints therefore consideratis considerandis must be admitted Page 140 to 149. He brings in the syllogisme I quoted from Mr. Baxter in Aphor. Ap. where by the way let me admonish Mr. D. to take heed of this self-conceit prejudice and bitter spirit he shews in those By-expressions of his upon a man so precious in the hearts of most pious unbyassed Christians and of so eminent a worth where he wishes that godly person if so If so such is his censure upon my naming him under that title by entertainment of this opinion be not like that of the Galatians Such conversion is perversion c. and cals for repentance which I wish to that godly man c. It is most malevolently spoken he should have proceeded to suspension The syllogisme is this whosoever beleeves shall be saved But I beleeve Ergo I shall be saved The minor and conclusion Master Baxter and I say are not sealed but the major Mr. D. opposes And first he saies the conclusion is sealed p. 141 142. His reason is because the Sacrament seals I shal be saved in particular which he proves at large Answ I deny his argument for That I shall be saved in particular is either conditionally or absolutely That I shall be saved conditionally is in the major Proposition by his owne ground The general includes the particulars and his owne instances As omnis homo est animal includes tu es animal So whosoever beleeves shall be saved includes If I beleeve I shall be saved and that I shall be saved only conditionally is all the Sacrament seales his owne texts likewise prove Rom. 10.9 John 3.16 If thou confesse If thou beleeve so strong is he against himselfe But that I shal be saved absolutely comes into the conclusion and that the word sayes not nor can it be sealed The conclusion I say is absolute and thereupon he pleads Now if that be sealed then not onely whosoever once receives with faith must needs be certainly saved which you may say you see no hurt in but likewise he that once receives without faith must needs be certainly damned which God forbid As for his distinction between the offer of grace and the promise of grace he weakly troubles himselfe for if the offer be of no other grace but what is in the promise to wit pardon and salvation as he meanes I say that is promised conditionally to all and me in particular as well as offered And whereas he argues Where the condition is performed there the promise is absolute I deny it what is but upon supposition is not absolute You may say it is as good to me as if it were absolute that is it is certain there lyes the equivocation but how is it certaine not absolutely certain as Election is but conditionally certaine for the promise is still the same and no new promise He proceeds But when I beleeve the condition is performed Ergo the promise that I shall be saved is absolute Answ That which assures me of a benefit only upon condition and does not assure me the condition doth not assure me absolutely of the benefit But the Sacrament assures me of salvation only on condition I beleeve but doth not assure me I beleeve as by and by shall be cleared therefore it does not assure me absolutely of salvation Again That Proposition that contains the Covenant is sealed but the major contains the Covenant not the conclusion therefore the major not the conclusion is sealed Let this suffice Thy particular interest conditionally is contained in the major proposition promise or Covenant which is sealed absolutely So I remember pleads Mr. Baxter If others contend it is sealed conditionally they yet reconcile in a word As the word Sealing signifies ratifying and confirming and relates to the tenour of the Covenant It is sealed absolutely that is as an undoubted verity As sealing signifies exhibiting conveying and relates to the benefits of the Covenant It is sealed conditionally in this sense that the benefits are conferred only upon condition Page 143. He undertakes the minor Although before page 128. he tels us he knows none so simple as to assert that God doth attest our faith Yet here he is growne so wise to assert that God doth seal to this proposition I beleeve And thus he argues What the Covenant ensures the Sacrament seales but the Covenant assures him I beleeve His reason because it gives him evidence in affording the infallible signes of faith Answ You may see here how much prejudice will blinde a man The mistake is manifest in reckoning that to the minor which belongs to the major for when the word saies If I believe I shall be saved it is all one with If I receive Christ for righteousnesse and have these and these marks whereby it describes this faith to me all which go to the major now the minor or assumption is But I have these marks signs or that true faith thus described And this is no where affirmed to me in the word and consequently not sealed I will therefore returne his Argument If the Word or Covenant doth not assure me I believe then this minor cannot be
their damnation though their account would be yet greater we must conceive if they should not do these duties at all But for this particular Eating damnation which is the effect of the unworthinesse of this place incurring a more peculiar or deeper guilt upon a person may not be charged I think upon any but upon those that come so irreverently without respect to this holy institution that they sin in the very fact in using it as common thing which ought not to be done An unregenerate man may come Christianly though but in an outward conformity to this Ordinance it is our duty but he may not come presumptuously as to a common Table and prophane it The other distinction I must commend to tender spirits is between Eating damnation and Sealing damnation The one is the effect of irreverent unworthinesse provoking God The other is only a confirming and attestation of the truth of the Covenant to every man according to his condition which is much for the honour and owning of God Methinks my heart is enlarged and I must tell you these two things must be separated as far as Heaven and Hell I wish there were some further distance that the plague of the one might never trouble you under the notiō of the other which has eat unto our very hearts that I am afraid men won't receive this manifest truth It is a most precious sweet mercy of God when he denounces judgment upon an impenitent sinner to awaken his soul and bring him to repentance It is the very like or same gracious act of his in sealing to his word to set home that conviction as it were using all means as Christ did with Judas to work upon him Now it is likewise every mans duty while God shews us the way it must be so that lives impenitently to apply these threatnings to assure and seal them upon himself and so to take that part of the Covenant as I expresse it that belongs to him So that this thing which has appeared so terrible to drive men from the Sacrament that they do but seal or apply damnation to themselves is the only thing of concernment for them to do in this estate as they ever look to be converted and saved O that every sinful Christian would but do this with due reverence and a serious conscience and I would assure him this sealing his damnation is the only way to eat his salvation in the use hereof If you ask here But how then is Christ offer'd to such a man I answer Very well as truly as he is preached in his threatnings Christ is never offer'd to any but as wrapt up under the tenour of the Covenant which contains both wrath and life In the Word and Sacrament there is necessarily shewn forth to the hypocrite what he shall lose unlesse he will become sincere as to the sound believer what he shall have in the partaking of them There is something sealed actually and something potentially to every man Actually the regenerate hath life sealed to him but Potentially damnation if he fall away from his faith which though we beleeve he never shall in respect of Gods grace yet as on his own part he is frail this is a means to make him stand An unregenerate man hath wrath actually sealed to him but potentially all Christs benefits which is as it were a voice behind him that though he be in this present fearful estate yet if he will but repent and believe he may get out of it and be saved Thus do Judgement and Mercy interweave their forces to bring in a sinner unto Christ And here may be removed that dreadfull scruple of some poor Christians who apprehend they have been unworthy and there damnation has then been sealed now the seal being sure how can what is sealed ever be reversed I answer The alteration is made only in us the Seal is the same and what is sealed is the same A man walks in one place and is in the shade he turns into another and is in the shine yet the Sun is the same The Sacrament seals the Covenant Man seals to his condition while he walks not accordingly his damnation is sealed when he repents and does his salvation Actually and potentially both are sealed and according to his walking he hath the influence thereof whether of the light of life or shadow of death There is one Iron only enter'd my soul and it was this If the Sacrament be a Seal it does exhibit and convey something to the Receiver and that to the unregenerate must be dangerous Here then let us know and arm our selves that Sacraments being only Moral Instruments cannot convey any thing that is Real unto the soul by way of Obsignation but only that which is Relative making no change but as to our Estates and relations to God the very end or proper effect being chiefly to assure us thereof I mean make us more believe consider and lay them to heart if good for our comfort if bad for our conviction Now this very assurance as farther degrees of faith and love in the worthy Receiver and hardnesse in the unworthy which are Real things are not externally exhibited I say by this sealing but internally wrought or effected according to the acts and exercises of our Souls on those objects that may be said thereby to have an influence on us Now then let an unregenerate man so come to the seal that he lays close to heart his damnable condition being the more humble and sensible of it it has its very right effect upon him and is a help towards his conversion while it does not Physically conveigh Gods wrath for that it cannot but Morally work only the sense of it on his Spirit which if he le ts wear off again without amendment his sin of hardning will lie therein and not in his coming And now for my part if I have fallen on the truth yet am I nothing for it has been my fears and doubtings have even brought me to it who must sadly confesse my self to be such a truant to the proficiency of grace that I am justly turn'd down unto the lowermost form of such poor sinners that are jealous and do even question the sincerity of it Amongst these I have thought it safest in coming to this Ordinance to condemn my condition and while I do so methinks the Apostle speaks comfortably to me If we judge our selves we shall not be judged Poor souls Is not this sweet to you Let it enter into your hearts when you come in your tears as it were weltring hither the very same place that has made you tremble in speaking so dreadfully of unworthinesse does yet assure you but if you condemn your selves as unworthy you shall not be condemned I would not for any thing that passage were left out The meek Iesus will never spurn at thee when thou liest down before him O my soul whiles others are even embrac'd in Christs arms
their own conceit many self-Justiciaries c. Ans Of all men I think that such as these had need most of conviction but I find not the Scripture sends out any spiritual Hue and Cry to make search for them if it did I will not for any thing say who are the men but sure some Ministers upon certain marks might begin with their own Elders nay I think upon the main known mark of I thank God I am not like other men if you see Mr. D. p. 90. some Elders might take up their own Minister upon suspition P. 39. All may be present at the administration as at Preaching and Baptism but that All ought Actually to partake will lead thousands into utter darkenesse Ans Not to mention his unhandsom language where the sense is so dreadfull I answer 1. If a man swear by the Temple it is nothing but the gold of the Temple makes him guilty If a man partake of the whole administration besides it is nothing for all his unworthinesse but if he actually receive he becomes a debtor Which is greater the bare eating and drinking or the whole sacred institution and consecration that sanctifies the action 2. It is not his instance of Baptism will wash off this superstition wherein this good man has taken a deadly conceit for there are no actions here to be repeated the weaknesse is clear as its own water But I argue if a man is bound at this Ordinance to make inward application together with the Word of what is represented though the outward sign is forbidden as to be twice used How shall we deny both the inward and outward application also in the Supper where both are commanded The truth is the very sealing the Covenant applies wrath to every impenitent and life to every one that has true faith whether we should see it only or receive it And if it be not eating commends us unto God I do not stand upon this outward receiving as any thing considerable in comparison of the reverential application of the Covenant in a right use of it according to our condition 3. For admission of all intelligent Church-members I am free but as for their own comming I have spoken more tenderly than his speeches Yet will I confesse my present inclination is thus I hold A man must examine himself I place much on this and so receive according to his estate God commands John to destroy Ahab Iohn his disposition is evil in it and does but commit murder which God will punish Hos 1.4 yet neverthelesse must the thing be done and as commanded it is both approved as good and rewarded 2 Kings 10.30 Christ Iesus says to his Church Doe this Mr. Drake says If an unregenerate member does it he shall I must say only he may become guilty of Christs blood in the action Neverthelesse it is not his disposition being not right that can nullifie Gods precept but that he must both examine himself and so eat 4. Whereas then He thinks my opinion will lead many thousands to Hell I am humbly afraid that his will do it I do professedly charge every soul that they look well into their conscience what they embrace and the Lord be their direction For my part I am thinking when Iesus Christ shall call us both to account at the great day he will say to me Why have you brought in all unto my feast I shall say Lord even as thou hast commanded Thou hast said Do this Drink ye all of it and I must not mistrust the goodnesse of thy word and thy gracious efficacy to go along with it I durst not for my life make void thy blessed command And what then if he shall say to Mr. D. And why have you contrary to my expresse words taught your own Commandement for the precept of God that it is an unregenerate mans duty to abstain When I said Doe this you have said Doe it not unlesse you be sure you can also so do it whereby you have strengthned the Carelesse hardned the impenitent and afflicted tender Consciences laying waste this Ordinance of mine in many places whereas one ought still to be done and not leave the other undone Let me seriously forewarn this pious man that while he has laid that text Ez. 13.22 so heavy on my soul that he provide himself to answer unto it P. 40.41 He brings in my Simile but takes hold of it by the left handle We must not think as we are Ministers set over Christs flock we are sent to them as Externally Rebels that they must come in and professe before us to be admitted to those privileges which they have a right to already as well as we No the main point of the Simile lies here that the Instrument of peace committed to us is a sealed Instrument the word of reconciliation is a sealed word to all the Church Every member has an equal right to the Seal as the writing and we cannot pluck off or put on our Lords seal at our pleasure It is a weak conceit that we are sent to our Members as it were with their pardons unsealed to try whether they truly submit and according to our judgement to seal them We must conceive our Seal is set by Christ himself to his own Proclamation and we have no other than what belongs to the whole Church But if we look any further than Church-membership we enter the office of the inward Minister and take a power of medling with the inward sealing which does not belong to us It is the want of discerning between these inward and outward things has mislead Mr. D. who has not yet considered how the Covenant is a sealed Covenant to all that are but Christs external people and that this Seal is a standing seal both Covenant and Seal make up one publick instrument for the use of the Church We may see this in Circumcision from whence we borrow the notion of a seal Gen. 17. I will establish my Covenant between are and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations Every man child among you shall be circumcised Here you see how it is a standing seal set to the Covenant and both established with the whole seed so that by this one act as it were of publick delivery Every Church-member that was then any one of Abrahams seed had a right to the seal without any more plea as other publick privileges for ever after in their generations Now whereas he puts the case that some who come to the Sacrament are but Rebels and how shall we seal unto them I answer we cannot judge of the hearts of any that they are inward Rebels and we may not judge that they are outwardly so when they outwardly come in unlesse we haue something to allege against them to prove their Rebellion and then if it be such as deserves it they may be Excommunicated but while they are Church Members we cannot deny them their common privileges But
for his expressions Of their seeming to submit yet carrying Daggers and Poyson about them to murder their Prince and therefore they must be searched c. Besides the vanity of the words I must tell him 1. There is no Scripture that warrants his pretended tryal of Church Members about their coming to the Sacrament that is flat 2 Much lesse that he may take a power of search as to the truth of grace which is an entring on Gods Throne and the Spirits work 3 This is clean contrary to Christs example who set up no Sacramental tryal for Iudas at least for any thing we can find of it But alas that is nothing to Mr. Drake he has found out a way to turn this off with a wet finger p. 9. 90. Which if you confer with this passage he tels us That they who are the Servants by all means must needs try examine and keep men away for fear of some secret Treason unto Christ in coming hither but Jesus Christ the Lord himself must not have power to make tryal of or suspend Iudas that really intends to murder him because the Presbytery was not setled To p. 44. I answer Godly Parents and Maesters instruction of their Children and Servants unto the Lords Supper may be good as the Ministers Catechizing them without this ill language he heer gives me I would willingly allow a man some Salt in his discourse but his is brinish there are some ingredients to be in ones Inck besides Gall. To that question what Christ sealed to Iudas p. 46 47 48. without regard to the rest which is amisse I judge he speaks well herein The word and the seal both go together and assure particular mercy or judgment to the Receivers as they are worthy and unworthy that is according to the Covenant-tenour and their own condition This is good though his comparison of the bitter water following this and that the Sacrament can never do good to any but such as are good already seems to me such a slander of that precious Ordinance I would not be guilty of for all Mr. Drake is worth But I pray consider this really whatsoever Christ does in his Ministry must be a gracious act and be capable of gracious ends so that this action must be in its own nature a means to have done him good if he had made a good use of it and t is accidental to the thing he did it not Yet did Christ in this actual estate of his Mr. Drake says truly seal to him judgement you must conceive it as to his own part in Receiving for the Minister seals no interest but conditionally Now the truth is as the Word is a sweet savour to God and a means of salvation in his threatnings as well as its promises because it does but still declare the Covenant whereof they are parts of it so is the Sacrament while it seals judgement or while it seals life seeing it does but seal the Covenant equally in both Here then I humbly conceive still submitting my self unto mercy lies the main upon the Receivers to examine their hearts and so to come in their addresses to Christ that they rightly apply the Covenant unto themselves according to their condition Always carrying in mind these two things First That thou put far enough asunder the blessed work of sealing the Covenant though it denounces thy judgement unlesse thou repentest for it does it no otherwise and that cursed sin of thy abuse hereof if thou dost not lay it to heart in eating damnation Secondly That what the Word denounces and Sacrament seals they conveigh not Really but only Relatively for they are not Physical but Moral instruments which Mr. Drake did not think of in his bitter comparison so that while they assure thee of damnation they do thee no hurt if thou make a good use of them for thy conviction but if otherwise as all means else they serve but to encrease it You may happily say this notion is strange but is it not true and as for the ingredients what every one yield who will deny the Sacrament is a visible word Does not the word say he that believes not and repents is damned that is is in a present state of death Must not every one lay this estate of his to heart Does not the seal assure the same thing only with the Word Is not our Receiving the application of what is sealed And is not the application or setting home the right part of the Covenant on a mans soul the very businesse by the grace of God of his conviction and conversion What then remains but that man have the information and God the glory He repeats often Where the word is not applicable neither the Sacrament This is his strength and I cloze with him and urge But if every man is to apply the Word and while he is impenitent he is to lay to heart the threatnings and wrath of God as the only way to mollifie and work him to repentance then it is clear the seal may be applyed so likewise The Seal and the Word he speaks fully must go together If you offer to say it seals not this part of the Covenant but only the promise and grace then you take away all danger as it is sealing to the most unworthy and make our admission more free though if any dare say it seals not the whole Covenant you may as well believe it is no seal at all P. 51. He has Infants up again which is now five times but for his words Shall the Supper be free for Blaspemers Murderers c. which who doubts but may be excommunicated if not put to death and his undertaking to prove his rule of visibility to the Sacrament to be as orderly as Baptism it is like himself to say all day and prove at night For his answers to my 4 Considerations I reply as briefly To the first An historical faith suffices unto Baptism Acts 8.13 To the second Acceptance is either in sincerity which we cannot search or outward only and visible and that for Church-members is their receiving As for any other the Scriptures he pleads as abundant enough are none at all but if ill words will do it he has authority enough To the third where are many things I say 1. Though conviction is not enough to convert without grace what then Is it not a means therefore with it 2. His implicated errors are his own for conviction of the truth of the Covenant does come directly by sealing it and conviction of the general offer by the applying it to every single person I think some nicety between offering and applying which as to the Minister is the same troubles the man But3 Conviction that Christ is mine in particular as to a faith of particular evidence as he expresses it comes not at all by the Sacrament Because 1. The Sacrament seals nothing but the Word which speaks not particularly I believe,2 What is common
it by the Agent that doth it here the Action is not to be omitted but the Agent to be reformed For Mr. D's answers here they are trifles p. 75 76 77. 1 He brings in Infants again which is the ninth time and he is confident to extricate himself by the same gaâ— But he is a little mistaken for I have put him in two such thorns that he shall sooner prick himself to the bone than fairly get out of it 2 He says six parts of time are common yet not the seventh 3 He says on 4 He is very fine The whole Ordinances he distinguishes into parts they are not applicable universally and so the Sacrament Where if the man be serious I answer 1. Mr. D. must not part those actions Christ has joyned 2 Moses makes no doubt of applying the Covenant universally to the people and it is in my mind that that passage may do much 3 The Word it self or covenant is applicable to all in the whole parts of it uppon its own terms that is conditionally 4 If this will not serve Take but the language of the Covenant aright Mar. 16.16 Here is Christ If thou truly acceptst of him thou shalt be saved If thou do not the Word declares and the Sacrament seals to thee unlesse thou repentest thou shalt perish and then all the difficulty is over and our scruples done P. 78. If doe this be universal leaving those two other things like the rest then it were a sin to perswade any to forbear though a Zimri Actually drunk c. Ans 1. His instances are ipso jure Excommunicate 2 As Christ says Doe this Paul says Put away from you such a person We do not deny from Christs universal Pauls exception 3 Though there is no occasion that may make us commit a sinne yet are there many occasions sometimes of forbearing a duty A man may leave his gift at the altar and go and be reconciled but he must not take away his gift from the altar The businesse may be deferred that must not be wholly left undone If I know my brother evil I think I may admonish him to repentance and give him instructions of preparing himself better against next Sacrament so long as I do but bind the obligation more on him but if I advise him upon such reasons as will wholly keep him away my advise is evil Affirmative precepts do bind universally as well as Negative but not ad semper against all occasions I may in prudence I think advise my brother of such an occasion for the advantage of his soul but if I tell him it is not his duty I make my self Lord over Gods command As the Church has alwayes attributed much unto prudence in the ordering this solemnity especially as to her more seldom and frequent administring so may her Members happily take some example as to their receiving Forbearance on necessary Numb 9.10 or pious grounds Matt. 5.23 reaches but to the ad semper and may be lawfull but for to hold it is not a mans duty while unregenerate this reaches the semper and looses the bands of Gods command Let this zealous man take heed it be not laid to his charge I will adde If the man be carelesse and regards not his comming but being conscious of his evil life he thinks he shall eat his damnanation and so layes it by which is the case of thousands I think we are here to set our faces against such and to let them know that it is not mans wickednesse can void or annihilate the authority of Christ so that they are still for to come and the obligation lies on them to apply the Covenant for their repentance O my vile soul why doest thou fly This shews the guilt that is on thy conscience and wouldst thou hide thine own eys from it Come man and see what thou hast done Here is Christs blood which thou dost shed with thy transgressions and will not this melt thee See how the corps doth as it were bleed at the presence of the Murderer and will it not melt thee if it does not it shall rise up against thee Behold here is sealed to thee eternal condemnation unlesse thou repentest and sincerely comest in to Iesus Christ Lay it well to heart man and think on it there is no way besides left thee for to escape it Pag. ibid. He grants though an unregenerate man sins in all his duties yet must he do them But sayes There is not par ratio in order to receiving 1. Because it is not his duty,2 It cannot convert him Ans The former of these I have spoken to all this while and shall thus enforce it If the Sacrament be not the duty of an unregenerate man then must regeneration be a qualification required in the precept as necessary to receiving and so be essentially antecedent to the Sacraments but regeneration is not essentially antecedent to the Sacraments For 1. Then Baptism was not administred validly and according to rule to many by the Apostle Acts 8.13 Iohn 6.66 with Iohn 4.1 Acts 20.30.2 Then such as were baptized before they were regenerate supposing they came to be afterwards regenerate were to be baptized again because their former baptism had not its essentials 3 Then can no man administer either Sacrament to any but himself for he cannot act in faith seeing he is not sure others have the essentials 4 Then can no doubting Christian himself receive for he cannot act in faith so long as he is not fully perswaded of his own regeneration The truth is then though regeneration is a qualification necessary to the receiver in regard of other ends to wit for the obtaining the entire benefits of the Covenant sealed yet not absolutely necessary to receiving Even as saving faith is necessary to the hearers of the Word for the obtaining the effectual benefit of salvation yet not absolutely pre-requisite to hearing for faith may come by it If it be an evil to set up our posts with Gods posts what is it to remove Gods posts to set up our own The Lord Iesus says plainly Drink ye all of it but Mr. D. says No It is not every mans duty The second follows necessarily upon this if it be every Church members duty of age as Mr. Perkins and Divines commonly tell us then it may tend to his good as sure as all Gods Commandements are good and if it does him not good it will be his sin For my part I am very sorry to see how men for the sake of this are forc'd upon it to deny the other When Christ says Believe there goes a power with his precept as when he said Lazarus Come forth Else it were vain for us Ministers to act that are but earthen instruments And shall Christ say Take and we make nothing of it Is this it men so earnestly contend for to make the word of Christ an empty word as if it could not quicken us Alas Sirs this is nothing
but meer distrust A pious soul may even bleed to see his Saviours command laid wast because we have so little faith in it Christ is not a Minister of the letter which kils but of the Spirit which he conveys through his commands The good Lord pardon and help in us this great evil of unbelief And as for all the injuries this man out of his zeal has done unto me Accept thou now O God from a melted heart and wet eyes this poor prayer of mine for him that his own bitter words may not sink so heavy on his soul as they have on mine when he comes to see how much he has done amisse Before I passe methinks we have need here of some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this truth which seems harsh that the unregenerate sins in all he does There is therefore a doing good or evil either Simply in regard of the matter of Gods precept or Relatively in regard of the Sanction of it to its end as it comes under the condition of the Covenant whereby we expect life In the first sense a man though unregenerate may do well and that which is right in Gods eyes and be rewarded for it 2 Kin. 10.30 yet sins in the second There is a faith only that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him and there is a true justifying faith in Jesus Christ The actions of Moral men that have proceeded out of the first only I dare say in the behalf of Gods goodnesse are so far accepted as vertuous that they shall be rewarded according to their trust he will not fail them either Positively with some temporal blessings or Privatively with some degree of mitigation in their eternal punishments so that It shall be well still with those that do well that none may want sufficient encouragement to do good But yet I say whatsoever actions do not proceed from that other faith too which is truly saving they are said to be sin neverthelesse in that they come not up to that perfection or sincerity Gen. 17.1 required in the Covenant as the condition its self Ja. 2.20 or rather testimony thereof unto justification of life or everlasting salvation Page 79. He throws his glove first to the Independents then to the Presbyterians c. Ans In those words of mine Let men on one side answer Let some of our other c. I must confesse they fell from me at first without the least thought of Engagement I know that every one is not fit to take up the Gantlet for truth and I am one as Mr. D. says truly that am not yet scarce out of the shell of learning or Divinity and therefore let not the host of Israel come out to seek a fleae or hunt a partridge upon the Mountains For the one side I think our difference lies only about the Church for as for their own Members they scruple not at a Free-admission no more than I and whether they turn away any before Excommunication I cannot say but guesse so So that if there be scruples among themselves they that are humble may make some use of me they that are not need not be offended seeing Mr. D. tels them they are beholding to me for my too favourable opinion of them For the other side p. 80.81 My question is to some and it may be but few of them How they can baptize the children as Members of the visible Church being born of Christian parents and yet turn away their parents from the Sacraments I will not infringe what Mr. D. has said here p. 82 83 84. at the very largest for Infant-baptism seeing as to my question it falls beside it For if any will say they do not baptize their Children as born of Christian parents but by stipulation of others or upon account of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I say nothing against them I wish it may be maintained but as for those who never took notice or not approved of any other ground of their Baptism but as they are immediatly born Christians of such as visibly professe Christ according to my terms The right which the parents derive upon their children unto Baptism must be acknowledged to be in themselves unto the Sacrament They cannot give but what they have So that unlesse there be a manifest impediment to retrench that right or the present enjoyment of it by Excommunication Distraction or Infection their Church-membership is sufficient and the argument valid from the one to the other Against this p. 81. Mr. D. brings in the old businesse again which is now about ten times with a second thing like it And p. 85 86 87. for that which is between p. 82 83. 84. I wish it may passe he has 4 particulars more the substance of the whole comes unto this That the parents must have a farther right to shew than what they have common with their child unto this Ordinance And here indeed lies the very point of our difference I hold it is Church-membership where there is none of our former yielded impediments that gives an immediate outward right unto the Sacrament He holds A man must be first tryed if he be visibly worthy and it is that alone can give him admission For the one now look over Mr. Drake and you shall find still whensoever he falls upon this thing he has nothing against it but that silly reason from the untelligent so often repeated Had he any thing else would it not be alleged and has he nothing else and will you be captivated For the other look over the Scripture This is the thing lies on him to prove and see if he can produce you any precept of God for it if he has none will his own word goe While he has so little against us and no Text for himself his skirts are discovered and heels made bare Let the prudent judge If our argument from Church-membership is even the chief and most solid ground upon which we do baptize our Children as the Iews by being born Iews had a right to Circumcision although we cannot lightly find in Scripture that any were admitted without a profession of faith unto Baptism what weaknesse shall we bring on our selves if the same thing shall not be held sufficient without a known cause unto the Sacrament whereunto we find no confession any where required but as soon as they were once Church-members Acts 2. 42. this fellowship immediately gave them a privilege to it The Sacraments serve for two things for our faith towards God and profession one with another Though our Church-members doe not all come with that faith whereby they should receive the effectual benefits of the Covenant yet do I not see how they can be so easily debarr'd their profession of Christianity in opposition to all other Religions as the Iews did often freely and universally enter into Covenant with the true God P. 87 88 89. Hee brings in my argument of Christian liberty
it that is by way of moral action per modum objecti as grace is still both begotten and confirmed in other Ordinances It is manifest there is no danger here of advancing this Ordinance above its nature or condition but there is very much danger of being injurious to poore Christians of dis-valuing this means of Grace the sweet Jesus has appointed us of bringing in question how it can beget any degrees of grace at all if it cannot the first and especially of being very presumptuous with the Spirit of God to goe to limit him in the very same way he ordinarily works the same effect in his other Ordinances To come now to Mr. Drakes opposition p. 154. He first tels us Some Divines indeed do hold Baptism to be a means of Regeneration but they should not and he does not Answ I agree with him as for Infants But for the Intelligent Johns Baptism may convince him whom we find admitting all to it and then exhorting them to amendment as the use or end of it and therfore it is not said they repented unto baptisme but they were baptised unto repentance The end cannot precede what is in order to it and the effect in esse be before the cause in operari And as for his instances in the Acts That faith was presupposed It is answered That is an historicall faith onely accepting the doctrine of Christ and profession thereof as is beyond dispute to me in Simon Magus P. Ibid. In regeneration the Word is writ in our hearts and can any man make the seal a cause of the writing Answ He may as well aske can any writing be a cause of it selfe But here is the mans error still The seale of the inward writing in mens hearts is not the Sacraments but the Spirit and that seale I hope is the cause of the writing and that by the means of the outward writing and seale the Word and Sacraments Page 155. He produces my Argument The Sacrament is a visible Gospel the shewing forth the death of Christ is the means of conversion But the Sacrameut is a shewing forth of his death Ergo. His Answer is This proves onely that all may be present which he pleads for not actually receive Answ Methinks the heart of a godly man should at first scare serve him thus to shift and trifle with this holy Ordinanee and the Consciences of people And yet his granting this is enough for so long as he maintains that as the Sacrament holds forth Christ to the eyes there is none may be debarred from the sight no more then they may be debarred from hearing where he is held forth to the eare I argue Then as Christ is held forth Sacramentally to the taste and touch there is none can be debarred to wit if intelligent Church-members from the tasting and feeling of him herein then they can from the seeing of him or hearing Nay our force for this is rather greater because the words of institution expressely respects the touch and taste while Christ saies this is my body not barely to see and hear but to take and eate As the Centurion by looking on Christ upon the crosse beleeved he was the Son of God So did Thomas by feeling his wounds beleeve his Resurrection And I doe not doubt but that all these senses doe afford their grounds of suitable meditation about the melting objects of Christs Passion Redemption and tender mercies so represented they may become means to worke upon us through the Spirit of God which we may piously hope for by vertue of an Ordinance For if Mr. D. say Page 147. What the word applies by one sense the Sacrament doth by all senses and therefore is a more powerful means of assurance I will not doubt to say by the same reason as it applies the same thing with the word it may have the same operation and as faith comes into the heart at first in the one by hearing alone it may in the other by hearing seeing touching and tasting altogether Page 156. He brings in my next Argument In the institution there is a Take and Eat a Take for such as have not Christ a word of grace to quicken those as an Eat to nourish others My substance is Here is a free offer and command in this word Take and we are not to hold it ineffectual He excepts Taking and Eating call for acts of faith and presuppose the habit Ans When Christ and his Disciples preached Beleeve and repent The command did call for faith and repentance but I hope it did not presuppose the habit in those who were to be converted so when Christ sayes here Take that gracious word includes Beleeve or receive me by faith but faith I hope is required where it is not pre-required to wit required that it may be wrought as well as acted And herein indeed I place my strength This Take requires Beleeve but there is a vertue or power from Christ that goes along with his commands The free tenders of himselfe are the conveyances of the grace he requires to the receiving him even as the Apostles words to the Jaylor Act. 16.31 which he well notes Beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ was the instrument to worke that faith and convert him And as while Thomas by feeling Christs wounds beleeved why might it not be the vertue of Christs gracious command bidding him to put his fingers in his sides and beleeve that produced that powerful application My Lord and my God Now we have Christ here likewise presenting his broken body and blood and bidding us feel his wounds touch and taste Take and eat be not faithlesse but beleeving Here we have a joynt offer and command and why then should we distrust the power of our Lord when we have the word of our Lord What if we had but that one word for us were not one word from the mouth of our deare Saviour which is a standing word to his Church enough to rest upon Truly Christians Let me plead with you Are the words of Christ Spirit and life or are they not Is there any power goes along with the tender offers and precepts of the Gospel or is there not If there be not why do poor dead souls wait on them for life If there be then why is there not the like power expected in this precept and offer of grace How dull and flow of heart are we to relye upon Christ and expect vertue from his commands Methinks I could wish that all faithful Ministers would set themselves to beleeve in Christ for this effect and while they should as it were stand round about this little word Take by their acting faith in Christ and expectations from him as the Disciples did about Paul when they supposed him stoned dead Act. 14. though they judge no otherwise of this word though they suppose it but a dead word to the unregenerate they might finde life in it for the quickning of their flocks as some
second is begotten alike as the Ordinances propose the object and then the Spirit of God by enlightning the minde and a touch upon the will brings the heart to imbrace that object which object is shewed forth in the Sacrament as in the word and it is a mistake to thinke that the second grace though it be within the promise which is sealed is exhibited by way of obsignation for there is onely a fight to it this way conveyed but it is wrought I say through the Spirit of God by the way of moral operation onely as the first and second grace both are begotten in reading and hearing c. Ergo. 10 The sad consequence of this Tenent that the Sacrament belongs onely to the effectually converted is sorely against it and that both for the giver and receiver For the Receiver this will cut off every poor doubtful Christian from the Sacrament For 1. If I am bound to receive when I am regenerate and bound to forbear if I am unregenerate then must I be perswaded in my conscience that I am regenerate or else I cannot eate in faith and he that eateth and doubteth is damned if he eat I desire this may be tenderly weighed 2 Upon this account every one that comes professes himselfe converted and if any man be but doubtfull that he is not yet converted he cannot come but he acts a lie and is a publick hypocrite which is a thing so hatefull to him that rather then he would professe of himselfe what he does not know he would confesse his unworthinesse and never come there and thus shall every humble tender Christian only keep away and the selfe-justiciary-harden to death For the giver first The case will be near the same for the Sacrament cannot be administred according to rule nor he act in faith unlesse both the receiver is regenerate and he assured of it which he cannot be if regeneration were a qualification commanded as necessary to receiving Secondly Men will be ready to think themselves converted when they are admitted and the formal Christian rest in his estate when he should come hither to repent of it Thirdly The best Minister must fal infinitely short in the discharge of his tryall were any at all required upon this ground The Lord Bacon observes of Philosophy the first and lighter tastes thereof inclines the mind towards Atheism but a more fixed and deeper contemplation brings it about again unto Religion So doe I judge here the first touches of Conscience in the pious have inclined them to a trial of others fitnes and unfitness to the Sacrament but a more serious and digested consideration of the issues of it wil bring them about to the Apostle Let a man examine himselfe and the Minister onely doe his best for their Instruction 11. The confirming of a Christians Faith in generall or his assent unto the truth of the Covenant in Jesus Christ to him in particular is a means of bringing up his heart to a speciall Faith for I am perswaded here lies often the root of unregeneracy that men doe not firmely beleeve the Gospell and where the holy Spirit works beleeving impressions he ordinarily brings in the soul to him But the Sacrament is a means of confirming Faith and that directly in this act of assent which is common in its degree to the unregenerate with the regenerate that if I will beleeve repent or accept of Christ I shall be saved Ergo. Unto this purpose Mr. Calvin hath a clear passage Primum verbo suo nos docet Deus instituit Dominus deinde Sacramentis confirmat postremo sancti sui spirit us lumine mentibus nostris illucet aditum in sorda nostra verbo Sacramentis aperit So that whereas Calvin with others ordinarily cals the Sacraments confirming Ordinances I shall take their meaning only thus that they are not appointed to convert the Heathen to the Church but to incorporate the members thereof Who being instructed by the word and confirmed by the Sacraments the Spirit of God in the use of both both Words and Sacraments so he speaks opens a passage into their hearts to wit for their effectuall conversion Calv. Inst lib. 4. cap. 14. sect 8. 12. The solemne application of the Covenant to a mans selfe according to his estate to wit of salvation through Christ if he will beleeve and repent and of judgement from Christ if he continues in his sins and does not turn effectually unto him is the very onely way whereby the Spirit usually worketh conviction and sincere conversion but actual receiving of the Sacrament is a solemn means of such an application Ergo. The Apostle Ro. 10.4 tels us Christ is the end of the Law in this Law Gal. 3.10 it is written Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things which are written therein to doe them Unto this curse Deut. 27.26 All the people were to say Amen It is nor possible all the people should be guiltlesse yet this Amen is a particular application so that the malediction it selfe as well as the precept is to be particularly applyed for a Schoolmaster to Christ who is in that respect said to be the end thereof Now then must a Christian that does not as he should unfainedly repent but harbour his sins in his heart apply the Covenant in the right part to wit that judgement which is due for them and is both denounced and sealed to make him turne sincerely from them unto the mercy that is together offered him if he does And while his heart melts and hee humbles himselfe before Christ as worthy thereof he lies under the very strokes of Gods Spirit to drive him in effectually to him When the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. bids us examine our selves least we eate unworthily and drink our damnation he sweetly addes for if we would judge our selves we should not be judged There are Scriptures I find that will support a Christian in his duty yet happily will not hold the disputes of men that go to take the comfort of them from us In this case the pious soule is not to hearken to them but to strengthen it selfe in attendance upon God There is a sweet promise therefore comes often in my mind with this Text I will not say a promise to dispute withal but to rest upon for our encouragement It is in Zach. 10.12 I will poure out the spirit of grace and supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourne Poor soules you have in the Sacrament as in the Word Jesus Christ represented to you as pierced you are to apply it and say Here Lord thou hast promised to pour out the Spirit of grace on those that look on thee for to mourn over the wounds which they have made in thee by their sins Let the sight of thy broken body break my hard heart Let the sight of thy pierced sides pierce mine eyes and of thy bleeding heart make my heart
prayer which though they become the savour of death unto some yet must not the duty bee neglected and the precept plucked up by the roots I shall therefore here joyne issue with him If there be any weight in the ground upon which he goes that an unregerate man must not receive because it will not convert him then an unregenerate man must not doe that which is not converting If this be not good his argument will be ex puris particularibus and cannot be good If it be good then must Mr. D. prove to me that singing of Psalmes Alms-deeds obedience to Parents love to our neighbour and all the duties of the ten Commandements are instituted of God as means of conversion or otherwise an unregenerate man must not doe them If he say they are means of conversion I will distinguish hereof either they proceed from a preparatory worke of grace through Gods Spirit upon the heart and so I think indeed in a due sense they are converting Or they proceed from a bare principle of reason or natural conscience and so they cannot be converting for nature alone the Scripture teaches us can never begot grace Now then I aske him whether such bare moral actions which yet as to the matter are good workes and every mans duty doe cease therefore to be duties and ought not to be done because not converting If they doe not then is M. Drakes foundation but as a banck of sand which the more he stands upon failes him and sinkes away There are two things in Gods Ordinances an homage that is due to him and a benefit accruing to us as they are means of his grace Now let me demand of any mortal how dare he bereave God of his homage though outward onely because he cannot reap his owne benefit What if there were no benefit to man must not the will of God stand Againe Is it not the duty of every one within the Church to remember Christ shew forth his death and be thankful if it were onely that he is brought into a Church-state and relation to God which Paul accounts so high a priviledge to the Jewes And is not the Ordinance appointed to this end how then can any totally neglect it without sin and must he sin to avoid sin must he do evill that he may not doe evil how can this be Indeed it is true there are other ends besides this which an unregenerate man cannot doe but must this end it selfe therefore be abrogate The Lord Jesus was not capable of remission of sins must he therefore not be baptized It is enough that there was an homage herein or duty due unto God from him as man though he could receive no benefit by it So long then as this homage stands good and here are some ends every intelligent member is capable of how can mans eating or not eating his damnation stand in ballance with the will of God The will of God must stand against all consequence Indeed Mr. D. Page 186. still urges He that heares unworthily may be converted not so hee that receives unworthily at that time But I say where did Mr. D. learne a man must hear the word or pray though he hears unworthily upon this ground because it is a means of conversion as he still pleads p. 98. p. 116.185 c. The truth is this ground alone could not stand for hearing unworthily is certainly a sin which he saies further cannot be really severed from the act and the Apostle saies it is a dangerous thing to hold such a tenent that men may sin or do evill as to hear unworthily is that any good as conversion is may come of it But the ground then indeed why a man must pray hear receive though he does it unworthily is because God has commanded it and we must not omit our duty to avoid sin because wee must not do evill which that omission is that good which the avoiding sin is may come of it Page Ib. He distinguishes between Abstainers and Refusers Ans This distinction cannot be applied here because a man cannot alwaies forbear an Ordinance though he may sometimes but his omission makes him a Refuser and Neglecter and my question is Whether an unregenerate man must never receive for fear of earing his damnation Page 187. Whereas I say what is sealed is the same he tels us This is an apparent falsity unlesse salvation and damnation is the same Ans It is an apparent truth for I doe expressely say That which is sealed is the Covenant and that is the same I hope though our estate alters as to the threatnings and promises in it And this passage I hope shall doe much good which therefore I have recited before when Mr. Drakes loose and malicious aspersions shall doe him no good He that beareth false witnesse against his Neighbour is a maule and a Sword and a sharp Arrow Page 188. What releif can the Sacrament bring to a doubtfull soule that hath no grace 1. It cannot convert him 2 It cannot confirm him Answ This is amisse It can confirm him in his common generall grace and the exercise thereof is the way wherein we are to waite for effectuall grace So then it can convert him and confirm him and convert him because confirm him Pag. Ib. The Receiver seales as necessarily to the condition to wit of the Covenant in Esse or de presenti as in fieri or de futuro Ans This cannot be For 1. Children seale to the same in Baptisme 2 The whole body of Israel engaged to the same when they entred Covenant Deut. 29. and did but what they were to do and commanded to do and yet had not all of them a saving Faith for many of them were destroyed Heb 4.1 2 for their unbeleefe Indeed where there is an engagement required there ought to be also a sincere resolution to perform what we engaged There is the matter of the engagement and the manner of the engagement the right manner consists in this serious and sincere resolution If wee faile in the manner it is to be amended and the matter still to be done It is not a Cannot what I will but a Will not what I Can and a Doe not what I will and can shall condemn a man at the last day Page 189. By actuall receiving of the Sacrament a man professes he receives Christ signified and offered to him in particular and therefore if he does not act Faith at the same instant he plaies the Hypocrite and mocks God c. Ans I think this scruple as it is more closely urged by others sinks deepest in this businesse of any and therefore requires the larger consideration 1. First then There is a reall undissembled Faith whether you call it general historical or visible that fals short of Saving Justifying Faith that makes a man truely a Disciple or Professor though not a true Disciple or sincere Professor in Covenant though not effectually in Covenant Now that
common Faith as it makes a man a Professor it makes him partaker of the Ordinances and his waiting thereupon or meeting at the Word and Sacraments is his very profession signified and his badge that he is one of the visible Church so that you must either say that every unregenerate man must leave off his profession and become no Christian or the scruple is removed for the truth is that Faith he hath in the doctrine of Christ so far as it is undissembled and makes him a Christian in opposition to all other Religions will bear him up in the profession and make it his duty for to come which in the manner ought to be done and the matter not left undone 2 The case is the same in all Ordinances while a Christian comes to the Word that is a signified profession that he will obey the mind of God when it is revealed now unlesse hee heartily resolves to practice what he hears it is a like mocking God and playing the hypocrite if I may use his words Psa 50.16 17. Jer. 43.2 5 20. Likewise in Prayer there is a vertuall engagement of us to endeavor the grace we pray for Nay herein is the most expresse hypocrisie for how can an unregenerate man say Thy Kingdome of grace come when he doth not sincerely desire grace which yet he ought to pray and sincerely desire too if he did truly desire it he were regenerate for a desire of true grace as Mr. D. sayes is true grace Yet doe I think Mr. D. doth not exclude any of his unregenerate Members from the Word and Prayer 3 This argument then is strong to enforce men to the manner when they doe the matter but not to leave off the matter because they faile in the manner It is of force to presse men to bring up their hearts and lives to their engagements but not to forbear those engagements they are bound to as Professors 4 Though a professor be unregenerate he does 0 truly beleeve Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the alone Saviour of the World in opposition to all other Religions and thereof this is a true profession and that suffices to the Sacraments precisely considered though not complexly as to the entire benefits of the Covenant 5 So far as a man is in Christ or a member of his Church Christ is given to him and received of him with a true distinction of priviledge from the world 6 He engages himselfe or is engaged hereby to submit to the termes of Jesus Christ as he is bound to do which if he do not perform it is the issue makes it a lie and him an hypocrite Psa 78.35 with 37. but the obligation it selfe and that sincerely is his duty 7 There is the nature and substance of this Ordinance and the divers uses to be made of it The very nature and substance consists in a Commemoration of Christ An unregenerate man is capable of this substance and so it becomes his duty which cannot bee made voyd by the mal-performance for no consequence can annihilate Gods Precept Neither doth my incapacity of satisfying all the ends and uses of an Ordinance as before exempt me from those I can for then neither could children be capable of Baptisme not Christ of Circumcision 8 As the Minister doth tender and apply Jesus Christ conditionally to all according to the termes of the Covenant so may he receive him to wit as looking for salvation from him upon performance of the condition and condemnation if he continues in unbeliefe without repentance as the case in penal obligations this being the means both to perswade and fright him to it And then 9 The full and safest answer to this will be by a serious practise Let us examine our selves and humbling our soules in the sight of our unworthiness acknowledge our deserts and apply the due sense of our just condemnation according to our present estate together with the offer of mercy upon our amendment and this takes off the hypocrisie for if my actual receiving be a Lye to wit as it is a visible profession it must be so either before God or before men It is not a Lye before men for I hold it a means of conversion and profess not my self converted already but come onely as a Church-member and It is not a Lye before God I mean so far as any unregenerate mans service can bee without it for I condemne my selfe and apply that part of the Covenant which is due to mee as I ought with the offer of grace to bring mee home to him Page 190. I easily grant assurance is not absolutely requisite as a means to receiving Answ Upon this true concession I argue against him in the maine If it be necessarily pre-required that a man be regenerate before he receives then must assurance be absolutely requisite as a means But seeing assurance is not necessary as a means therefore it is not necessarily pre-required that a man be regenerate and this becomes a means of conversion The former I prove That which a man cannot be perswaded in his conscience is lawful to doe it is sin if it bee done Rom. 4.23 But a man that holds it absolutely unlawful for an unregenerate man to eat and is not certaine that he himselfe is regenerate cannot be assured in his conscience that he ought to eat And hee that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not with faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sinne This is the misery is brought upon us while men deny the Sacrament to be a means of conversion Page Ibid. and 191. Whereas I press upon the Receiver to resolve against every knowne sin for the present and to accept of Christ which is his duty as well as to come He excepts at me as not speaking consonantly to my self and the nature of faith For the former I do beleeve we know so little of the nature of spirits our own souls actings thereof and so infinitly less the workings of Gods Spirit that I dare not confine my selfe herein I doe not doubt but there may be many good resolutions and some supernatural motions on the hearts of men which prove abortions when the like desires cherished in the use of the means by Gods grace become effectual It is therefore my Doctrine that a Christian should still endeavour to blow up every spark desire or good motion he finds in him We do not know how the seeds or first impressions of grace differ in any and discover them onely by the rooting and continuance If common grace differ from special only gradually which for ought we know may bee the truth then we have a certain promise that in the use and exercise those degrees shall be increased which will make it saving Habenti dabitur If it dâ—ffers specifically which those terms of the immortall seed the new birth regeneration c. do incline me to beleeve yet have we a Peradventure in the use of