grace is o 2 Cor. 5.14,15,19,20,21 c. 7.1 Rom. 5.5.6,7,8,10,21 John 3.16 c. 6.44 c. 10.11.15 c. 15.13 Gal. 2.20 c. 3.1 Eph. 5.2.25,26 c. 1.6,7 c. 2.4 to 20. 1 Pet. 1.3.8.18,19 Rom. 14.7,8,9 1 John 1.1.2,7 c. 2.2 c. 3.16 c. 4.9,10,11 Rev. 1.5 â—… 5.9,10 1 Tim. 1.15 Isay 53.4 to 12. Acts 2.22 to 40. set forth and recorded in sacred Writ as the most powerfull attractive perswasive overcoming constraining Argument motive consideration of all other to work true conversion in mens hearts to turn them from all their sinful courses unto God to allure attract unite espouse marry their souls for ever unto Christ to inflame ravish theÌ„ with his surpassing love Now it must be granted by all that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a part of this Gospel of Christ which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth since instituted recorded commanded by Christ in the Gospel being likewise both an audible visible sensible Gospel as the Fathers with others usually stile it Moreover it most lively powerfully flexanimously graphically represents holds forth yea preacheth to our eyes ears taste and by them unto our minds hearts souls spirits the câ—ucifixion death passion of our Saviour and his transcendent love in dying for our sins the most powerful attractive perswasive overcoming conuraining argument motive considera ion of all others in the Gospel to work true conversion in mens hearts to p Acts 26.17,18 turn them from theÌ„ power of Sin Satan unto God to allure attract q Hos 2.19,20,23 espouse unite receivers souls for ever unto Christ to inflame ravish them with his transcendent love and cause them r 2 Cor. 5.15 from hence forth no longer to live unto themselvs but unto him which died for them and rose again Therefore all must of necessity grant it to be the power of God unto Salvation a most effectual Å¿ Eodem modo justificant verbum Dei et Sacramenta ae que enim tribuitur Justificatio verbo Sacramentis Ames Bellarm Enervat Tom. 3. l. 1. c. 3. p. 36. justifying a Soul-converting Faith-engendring Faih-increasing Ordinance as well as the Gospel preached yea a powerfull means of working that belief and saving faith in the souls of those who in obedience to Christs command constantly resort unto it which is required in worthie Communicants to make both it and the Gospel too the power of God to their Salvation even as the Gospel read heard preached begets that faith or belief which God requires to make it saving und converting Rom. 10.14,15,17 In Brief There is not any means of or motive to faith or conversion in the Gospel preached which is not included in the Lords Supper and pressed with the selfsame yea greater force and advantage upon mens Souls in this Sacrament both by the prayers confessions meditations exhortations that accompanie it by the very breaking of the bread powring out of the wine with other Sacramental actions then they are or can be in any Sermon t Bellarm. Enervat Tom. 3. c. 1. p. 9. Non debent hic inter se comparari verbum et Sacramentum ut realiter à verbo distinctum sed verbum nudum verbum Sacramento vestitum Hoc autem majus et efficacius dici potest quoad nos quia plenius pluribus sensibus test atur et magis accommodatur ad animos nostros efficiendos So Dr. Ames in answer to Bellarmines Objection Nihil fingi potest majus aut efficacius verbo Dei Therefore orr Opposites must either grant the Lords Supper a Soul-converting Faith-begetting Ordinance as well as preaching or disclaim preaching to be such and cast that aside too as unconverting as they have most impiously done this Sacrament for sundry years in too many places 11ly The principal end of instituting the Lords Supper * 1 Cor. 11.25,26 was to shew forth the power efficacie principal ends fruits effects of our Saviours death till he come not only in bare representation but by practical efficacious operations and applieations for the spiritual benefit conversion consolation of the receivers souls Now what are the ends fruits effects of our Saviours death therein held forth is evident by these Gospel Texts Isay 53.5 1 Cor. 15.3 1 Pet. 2.24 He was wounded for our transgressions he was btuised for our iniquities he died for our sins the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed Who his own self bare sins in his own bodie on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered from the hands of our Enemies should serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the daies of our life 1 Thes 5.9,10,11 For God hath not appointed us unto wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another Rom. 4.25 c. 5.8,9,10 Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification But God commendeth his love unto us that whiles we were yet sinners Christ died for us much more then being now justified by his bloud we shall be saved from wrath by him For if when we were Enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 6.1 to 11. Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therfore we are buried with him in baptism that like as Christ was raised up from the dead even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the bodie of sinne might be destroied that henceforth we should not serve-sin Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him c. Likewise reckon ye also your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof c. Rom. 11.7,8,9 For none of us liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords For TO THIS END Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of quick and dead Gal. 2.19.20 I am dead to the Law that I might live unto God I
within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them all in the future tense This Covenant then being all in the future conveying a New heart New Spirit new clensing sanctification and obedience where they were not before The Lords Supper being the Seal of this Covenant by their own concessions must certainly be in Gods original intention and divine institution rather a Grace-conveying Faith-ingendring Soul-converting Ordinance where it found no prae-existent Grace than a bare confirming ordinance to corroborate and increase true Grace only where it was formerly wrought by other Ordinances wherefore they must either renounce this Covenant of future Grace or this Sacrament to be a Seal therof or else abjure this second foundation of their Error objection 3 Their 3. Ground depending on the two precedent is this That those have no right to nor interest in the Covenant of Grace who have no prae-existent saving Grace and faith within them Therefore to administer the Lords Supper to such is but to set a Seal to a blank which cannot work any saving Grace or conversion in them I answer That this Position an Oracle of their own forging not of Gods inditing is as false as God is true For 1. There are two sorts of Promises or Covenants of Grace conteined in the Scriptures 1. Of working begetting in or giving conferring a New heart spirit and all necessary saving Graces to those who never had them 2ly Of confirming encreasing renewing perpetuating Graces when and where they are already began commonly thus distinguished Promises of Grace and Promises to Grace The first of these Promises and Covenants being general universal indefinite were made to men not only before their calling and conversion but before their very births and being in the world witness Gods Covenant Promises made to the seed of Abraham and for the calling conversion salvation of the Gentiles many hundred years before their fulfilling recorded at large Gen. 17.1 to 17. Acts 2.38,39 Hos 1.10 c. 2.23 Rom. 9.25,26 c. 11.26.30,31.15 c. 15.8 to 24. Isa 52.15 Eph. 2.1,2,5,11 to 24. Isa 42.1.6 c. 60.3,4,5 c. 62.2.11,12 c. 66.19,20,21 Psal 72.4 to 18. Yea the promises and new Covenant forementioned of which our Antagonists affirm the Lords Supper to be a Seal were made to such who had no saving Grace no new heart spirit or sanctification at all in them but were desperately sinfull graceless rebellious and dead in sins and trespasses when made unto them as is evident by Jer. 31.31,33,34 c. 32.37 to 44. Ezech. 11.18,19,20 c. 36.25,26,27 Heb. 8.6 to 13. c. 10.16,17 Therefore if these Promises and Covenants of Grace were made to such by God himself the Seals of the Covenant and these Promises must also by necessary consequence belong of right unto them since the accessory alwayes follows the principal and the Seals the Covenants to which they are annexed even as those who have a right to any human Charters Deeds Feofments Covenants Obligations have a right unto the Seals as well as to the parchment and writing 2ly Circumcision n Rom. 4.11 the Seal of the Covenant of the righteousnese of faith and Covenant God made with Abraham and his seed belonged equally to all Abrahams posterity whether regenerate or unregenerate circumcised or uncircumcised in heart to Ishmael as well as to Isaac whereupon EVERY MANCHILD whatsoever of the seed of Abraham or born in their Houses was throughout their generations to be circumcised on the 8. day under pain of being cut off from his people for breaking of Gods Covenant in case of omission or neglect Gen. 17.10 to 15.23.36,37 c. 21.4 c. 34.15.17.22.24 Exod. 12.48 Josh 5.2 to 10. If then Circumcision the Seal of the first Covenant belonged equally to all the Israelites by Gods own institution though most of them were uncircumcised in heart yea Enemies to God by their wicked works Jer. 9.25,26 Rom. 2.28,29 Gal. 5.6 1 Cor. 10.1,2,5,6,7 Rom. 10.21 then why not the Lords Supper being by themselves stiled the Seal of the New Testament and second Covenant to all visible Church-members who externally profess the Gospel though uncircumcised in heart and unregenerate 3ly Most of our Antagonists herein especially o Mr. Rutherford Due right of Presbyteries c. 4. Sect. 5. Mr. Marshals Defence of Infant Baptism Mr. Baxter Mr. Hall of Infant Baptism Presbyterians confess and assert in print that Baptism succeeding Circumcision under the Gospel which they likewise stile a Seal of the Covenant of Grace belongs equally to the infants of all visible baptized Christians be they never so ignorant scandalous impious unregenerate carnal or actually excommunicated from the Church for their wickedness and that upon the account of their parents external right of Church membership and profession of Christianity Yea p Acts 8,12,13.21,22,23,36 to 40. c. 10.47,48 c. 16.15.33 Simon Magus and others of ripe years upon their bare profession and external belief of the Gospel were baptized by the very Apostles though continuing still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity as well as the Eunuch Cornelius the Jaylor and other real Converts the Apostles commission given them by Christ himself being this Mat. 28.19 Mar. 16.15 Go ye into all the world and teach all Nations and preach the Gospel to EVERY CREATURE BAPTIZING THEM in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost c. By vertue whereof they were to baptize all Nations and every creature to whom they preached if they only externally imbraced the Gospel preached If then the Seal of Baptism belongs universally to all infants of Christian parents and all who externally receive the Gospel preached then why not the Seal of the Lords Supper since the Apostles and Primitive Christians admitted all they baptized yea Infants as well as others to the one as well as to the other Acts 2.44,46 Bishop Jewels Reply to Harding p. 103. 4ly All circumcised Persons whatsoever and the whole Congregation of Israel whether believers or unbelievers carnal or spiritual children of God or of Belial were peremptorily enjoined by God duly to eat and celebrate the Passeover under pain of being cut off from their people and did all accordingly celebrate it none being suspended from it for any moral but only for ceremonial uncleanness Exod. 12.3,4.44,47,48,50 Josh 5.6,8,10 2 Chron. 30.5.13 to 17. c. 35.1.17,18 Ezr. 6.19,20,21,22 1 Cor. 10.1,2,3,4 If then all Circumcised persons whatsoever and the whole Congregation of Israel that were presenr received this Sacramental seal of the Passeover under the Law without secluding any of them from it for ignorance scandal or unregeneracie Then by like reason and consequence all baptized Christians ought to receive the Sacramental Seal of the Lords Supper without secluding any but such who are actually excommunicated from all other Ordinances and Church communion for ignorance scandal unregeneracie or want of saving Graces since Christ himself at its very institution admitted all unto it who were admitted to the
That r Hebr. 9.14,15 the bloud of Christ purgeth our consciences from dead works to serve the living God For which cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of Transgressions under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance That ſ Heb. 10.19,29 c. 12.24 we have Liberty to enter into the holiest by the bloud of Jesus it being THE BLOVD OE THE COVENANT WHEREWITH WE ARE SANCTIFIED and the bloud of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the bloud of Abel That t Heb. 13.20 Christ suffered without the gate that he might sanctifie the people with his bloud That u 1 Pet. 1.18,19 through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant God makes us perfect in every good work to do his will That x 1 John 1.7 we were redeemed from our vain conversation with the precious bloud of Jesus Christ as of a Lamb without blemish That y Rev. 1.5,6 c. 5.9,10 the bloud of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin That z he hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own bloud and made us Kings and Priests unto God his Father and hath redeemed us unto God by his bloud Now all this is most lively visibly effectually emphatically held forth represented assured to our eies ears and by them unto our Souls in the Lords Supper the a Mat. 26.27 Lu. 22.19 1 Cor. 10.16 c. 11.24 New Testament in Christs bloud and that more demonstratively energetically then in the preaching of the word alone not coupled with the Sacramental Elements Therefore it must needs be a most prevailing Soul-converting Sin-cleansing Grace effecting Ordinance applying assuring all these Gospel Texts and promises to penitent humbled dejected hungring gasping souls resorting thereunto Hence * Hist Angliae p. 1. Contin Mat. Paris p. 977. Thomas of Walsingham Rishanger and others record of our devout King Henry the 3d That he was wont to hear three Masses everie day with special devotion and desiring to hear more he daily assisted those who celebrated private Masses and when the Priest elevated the Lords bodie he used to hold and kiss the Priests hand Whereupon St. Lewes King of France conferring with him concerning it and saying That he should not alwaies addict himself to Masses but more frequently hear Sermons than Masses King Henry thereunto replied with a facetious urbanitie Se malle amicum suum saepius videre quà m de eo loquentem licet bona dicentem audire That he would rather see his friend often than hear one only speaking of him although well thereby intimating that Christ visibly represented to the eie in the Sacrament everie day doth more effectually affect the Soul and work upon mens hearts than the bare hearing of him by the ear in the word preached 6ly The Holy Ghost assures us 2 Cor. 1.20 That all the promises of God are in Jesus Christ Yea and in him Amen unto the glory of God by us especially as they are b Heb 9.15,16,17 to 24. all confirmed ratified in and by his bloud death represented to us in his Supper c 1 Cor. 11.23,24,25 instituted for its memorial And the Church of England in her ancient Liturgy established by sundrie Acts of Parliament at the celebration of the Eucharist particularly annexeth these comfortable Gospel promises thereunto for the comfort encouragement of all the Communicants resorting to the same Matt. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will refresh you John 3.16 So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 John 2.1,2 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world Therefore all the promises of God in general and these in particular belong unto and are effectually applied by this Sacrament to the souls of all worthie receivers as well as by the word preached And by consequence it must by the cooperation of Gods Spirit and benediction not only confirm but beget true saving faith repentance all spiritual Graces and eternal life within us and assure us of the free remission of all our sinnes by the bloud of Christ as well as the word it self preached 7ly That Commission and promise of Christ himself soon after the institution of his Supper made to his Apostles and their Successors d Mat. 28.19,20 Mar. 16.15,16 Go ye therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Teaching them to observe ALL things that I have commanded you And lo I AM WITH YOU ALWAYES UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned extends as well to the Lords Supper as to Baptism and the preaching of the word because the administration of the Lords Supper is e See my Seasonable Answer of 2. important Questions a part of the Ministers office a visible and audible Word Sermon preaching the Gospel to the eie and ears together and one of the principal things our Saviour f Luke 22.19 1 Cor. 11.23,24,25,26 commanded his Apostles to do and observe in remembrance of him to shew forth his death til he come having an AS OFT AS YE DO IT annexed to DO THIS in remembrance of me Therefore the selfsame promise of Christs effectual presence blessing made to Baptism and the Word preached to work faith and Grace in mens hearts by them that they may be saved is likewise made to the Lords Supper Wherfore it is doubtless a Faith-begetting Soul-saving Converting Ordinance as well as the Word preached or Baptism 8ly All these Gospel passages promises of our Saviour John 6.27.33.48 to 53. Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for that which endureth unto eternal life which the Son of man SHALL GIVE UNTO YOU I am the living bread that came down from Heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud hath everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him He that eateth me even he shall live by me He that eateth this bread shall live for ever c. Which some Father and most Popish Authors appropriate wholly to the Lords Supper and all Protestants equally apply to the Lords Supper as well as to the Word preached or any other