resemblance with that of vowes things possible lawful and acceptable to God but to put all from communion in Sacraments save the truly holy is neither possible Boni nunquam soli sunt nisi in caelo saith Gregory there will be tares still among the Wheat even Vsq ad messem messores angeli nor lawful because contrary to the command sinite crescere and saith Augustine Vsurpant sibi homines ante messem quod angeli in messe facturi sunt nor acceptable to God because it cannot be fine eradicatione tritici sine labe unitatis sine corruptione vinculi pacis periculo schismatis Many things may seem glorious and comfortable which yet are not possible to be effected nor may sometimes be lawfully attempted It were a glorious and comfortable thing that Philosophers were Kings and Kings Philosophers yet it should be piacular to pull down Kings and set up Philosophers It were glorious and comfortable that every man which had a title to an estate in the exterlour Court had also a right in the interiour and that dominion were founded in grace yet it is not lawful to disseise or out any man of his freehold that holds not over by fealty of the high Lord of all It were a glorious and comfortable thing if there were an harmony of spirits between a man and his wife Nec malè inaequales veniant ad aratra juvenci but if a man be unequally yoaked and shrewdly matched yet I think the Apologists whatsoever their lot be do not suppose it lawful to turn the wife to grasse and plow with a tamer heifer It were I should think a glorious and comfortable thing if every one that assumes to be a wise man in print could justly pretend to much art and that every one that serves in the Tabernacle had not onely bells of pure gold but also jewels of Aegypt wherewith to adorne and furnish it but though the Apologists say they pretend not to much art yet they would have sensed it an injury to have been suspended from the Presse and much more and I confesse more justly resent the wrong to be repelled from their office and Benefice Lastly it were a glorious and comfortable thing if all that were planted and watered in the Church by baptisme were onely the branches in Christ bearing fruit and themselves purged to bring forth more fruit that all that hear did receave the word with faith and all that did pray did pray in faith and lifted up their hearts with their hands to God in the Heavens but yet the Apologists are not advanced to such a latitude of separation as to admit none to these Ordinances but such onely whom they have tryed to be thus conditioned and qualified It is such another argument that is used by Tapper for merit It is saith he glorious for the Saints to demand heaven as victors and triumphers as a palme due to their sweats That diminutive of nothing Man will still rob God of his glory not onely by want of people in the multitude whereof is the Kings honour as Augustine to this purpose applies that of Prov. 14.28 Contra Ep. Par. l. 2. c. 19. but in undertaking to define what is glorious better than the King of glory and as if a Noli altum sapere were not sufficient to restraine and bound their presumption they will be sapientiores Altissimo Is their way so glorious and comfortable as that among them none but holy persons draw neer to the holy table Si verum est non invideo atque utinam id perfectè fiat as Augustine to his Donatists but sure if they say that their society is free from all vice not onely pride as the same Father but untruth will be greater vices Is there no way so likely as theirs to cause more persons with more holiness to approach to that holy table we suppose the contrary and that peragit tranquilla potestas Quod violenta nequit It is as they say is confessed the Ministers misery that he must admit all he is then miser but not miserabilis for he may in a regular way repel the scandalous and obstinate but if he will assume a power to exclude those which are not such he will translate the misery upon the people yet if the tares stand so thick that they cannot be eradicated without hazard of the Wheat without losing of the bands of unity or breaking those of peace Let him take up my Crosse saith Christ it is Crux Christi non sua imposed not contracted in such a case nihil aliud boni◠restat quà m gemitus saith Augustine and Levius fi patientia Quicquid corrigere est nefas As the Prophet Shemaiah told Reboboam ye shall not go up nor fight against your brethren for that thing is of me so the sinite crescere is from God which binds them to peace Non ergo quaerat quis separatos justos Contra Parmen l. 3. c. 5. tom 7. p. 15. sed cum ipsis potiùs in malorum tem orali commixtione concorditer gemat justi gemunt moerent ob iniquitates quae sunt in medio corum And therefore whereas they say it could be no misery but as it is sin they might have reminded that they were remarkable good men which mourned for that which though they could not correct yet it was anothers sin not their own yet had been their sin also if it had not been their sorrow Ubi supra l. 2. c. 3. Quia eos corrigere non potuerunt nec ab unitate dei se ullo modo separare volebant pro merito innocentissimae tolerantiae suae signari meruerunt atque in illorum perditorum vastatione atque interitu liberari T is true every evil of sin in another that becomes not an evil of pain to us converts into a sinful evil but while there is a generation of unregenerate men in the world though they approach not to the holy table yet we must go out of the world or else we shall eat among them the bread of teares and drink teares for the dishonour done by them to God and in the Church why should it be a greater misery to have fellowship in the Sacrament with men not really holy than to hold society with them in the Ordinances of the Word and Prayer I am yet to seek and the Apologists to shew the reason Such as are not really holy are the immediate Objects of the first grace and of the Ordinances of Christ the conveyances of that grace and if God will have them saved voluntate signi and hold forth the fruits of Christs death unto them in the promises of grace and salvation which death is represented and which promises are sealed and which graces promised are exhibited by the Sacraments as moral instruments they as long as they are relatively holy and in external Covenant with God and members of the visible Church how can they be thurst out from the inheritance that
it and so analogically he may receive Gods seal the Sacrament and set his own by taking it that yet believes not and as in the Word preached which is the savour of life unto life and of death unto death and a sweet savour howsoever in both he that believes takes his part of the promise he that doth not receives his portion which is the threat so that to either it may be said tolle quod tuum est vade and the terrour of the threatning may conduce and dispose to the acceptance of the promise as fear introduceth love as the needle doth the thread in the expression of St. Augustine even so it fares in the visible Word the Sacrament Farther when the Sacrament which is Gods external Seal of this promise is applied to an unbeliever it hath all that is essential to Gods actual sealing of the truth thereof the promise being made and published the Sacrament by institution signifying it by similitude representing it by sanctification assuring it and God thereby engaging himself to verifie it in respect of external sealing nothing more is done to a true believer for of internal sealing and making the external to be successful or efficacious is not the question neither may we confound the external sealing with the inward which is made by the spirit onely nothing is done more in relation to sealing to him that performeth the condition than to him that fulfilleth it not As when a Writing is sealed and delivered to the use of two to become a Deed when a condition is complyed with or else to be as an escrol he indeed that observes the Condition onely hath the estate thereby conveyed but the sealing is alike to both And this Conditional proposition is an absolute truth even when made unto a Reprobate though it be false that he believes and that he shall be saved yet it is true that if he believe he shall be saved for if the connexion be true though both parts severally considered or though one or other of the parts resolved into a Categorical proposition be false yet the proposition is true Dr. Kend. ubi supra the verity whereof depends on the connexion between the Predicate in the Antecedent and the Predicate in the Consequent which put together so as the Predicate of the Antecedent become the Subject and the Predicate of the Consequent be made the Predicate in a Categorical proposition it will result onely into this indubitable truth He that believes shall be saved Indeed if this Sacrament should be exhibited to an Infidel not added to the Church who had entred into no Covenant with God nor assented by any Historical Faith to the written Word or should have the Sacraments exhibited without the Word then they might argue that the seal were set to a blank but being exhibited to those who are in Covenant with God as all are that be of the visible Church how else can their children be baptized and have received by a Dogmatical Faith the written Word of promise whereof the Sacraments are seals there can be no blank but in the argument if they shall in this case urge it they will not say that it is an untruth or false testimony when it is delivered in the Word though unto reprobates to whom that promise is offered and the offer chiefly bottomed on the sufficiency of Christs death to save all that shall believe it being true that Christ by his death merited salvation for all upon condition of believing if thereby we imply onely the connexion between Faith and Salvation so that all believers shall be saved though it be not truth if we thereby intend that he merited salvation for all persons his death indeed being sufficient for all in regard of the price and merit thereof though we cannot properly say he dyed sufficiently in respect of Christs purpose in laying down his life and of the efficacy of his death I say the offer of this promise to reprobates is grounded chiefly on the sufficiency of Christs death to save believers and partly on our insufficiency to know who shall believe And if this proposition be no false testimony when it is held forth in the Word wherefore should it cease to be true when it is given in the Sacrament why should the same thing be true when proposed thetically generally and to the ear and false when applyed hypothetically particularly and to the eye as if the essence of truth consisted in the manner and way of representation and not rather in the adaequation of things to the understanding If they shall object that the Sacraments are mutual engaging seals and as Gods seals on his part so ought the receivers to set their seals to the counterpart and when God obligeth himself to be their God conditionally they absolutely promise to be his people and therefore when wicked men partake of the Sacrament in them at least it is a false testimony while they profess to be what they are not and because all that are within the Covenant of Grace de jure should be Saints they ought to exclude all such of whom they are not satisfied and convinced that they are such de facto I answer 1. That I grant there ought to be the answer or restipulation of a good conscience in all for to be saved but not in all that partake of the seals of grace and salvation Yet whosoever receives them doth or ought to set his seal to what is thereby sealed to him which is onely that he that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved 2. Let them assign a cause why the same reason holds not in Baptisme and why upon that account they adjourn not the baptising of Infants till they can render that satisfaction seeing Baptisme is a seal of the Covenant as well as the Eucharist and the seal is set to a blank when the baptised hath no faith aswell as when the Communicant believes not 3. Not to mention that there is a kind of mutual Covenant between God and Man in hearing of the Word God obliging himself by his promises there revealed and in us there is a virtual engagement and profession of our religious reception of Gods will and subjection of our Consciences thereunto with belief of his truth hope of the good there promised and love of God which therein reveals himself all which though wicked men seem to profess yet nothing thereof they perform But to insist on prayer there is the like mutual Covenant God obligeth himself by his promise though indeed as Durand aptly Ames Cas Consc l. 4. c. 16. p. 187. promissio divina in Scripturis sanctis non sonat in aliquam obligationem sed insinuat meram dispositionem liberalitatis Divinae and thereby as Thomas Deus non nobis fit simpliciter debitor sed sibi ipsi in some sense to hear our prayers if made in Faith and in our prayers there is always an implicit and for the most part an
will and that they came no farther shall be their own fault and it is not his readiness to admit such nor the opening of the door of the visible Church that makes men hypocrites but their own wickedness Christ will not keep men out for fear of making them hypocrites but when the Net is drawn unto the shore the Fishes shall be seperated c. And in the precedent page he saith Their being baptized persons if at age or members of the Universal Church into which it is that they are baptized is a sufficient evidence of their interest to the Supper till they do by heresie or scandal blot this evidence and this after much doubting dispute and study of Scripture he saith he speaks as confidently as almost any truth of equal moment The way of pell-mell blinds men in their wretchedness very like blindes them with light and poysons them with the antidote just as the means is destructive to the end Light may indeed some-while a little blind some weak eys yet it is the proper means of seeing and to keep them in the dark will perpetuate their blindness not make them see better Doth it not argue blindness of understanding to think by any argument to evince that it shall either blind men in their wretchedness or impede their conversion by sealing to them an assurance that if they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ they shall be saved by his death which is the sum of the Covenant of Grace whereof the Sacraments are Seals To raise our Structure the higher and make it stand more firmly we should perchance dig the Foundation deeper and because this erroneous principle is the Fountain of those bitter Waters of strife our Marah and Meribath it might seem expedient to cast a little Salt into the Spring of those Waters to heal them A Covenant is a mutual compact or bargain between God and Man consisting of mercies on Gods part granted over to man and of conditions on mans part required by God it results from Gods antecedent and voluntary love that he entred into paction with man and performeth his absolute promise of giving Faith and perseverance to his Elect to which promise no condition is imaginable to be annexed which is not comprehended in the promise it self but to Gods Covenant of conferring other mercies which flows from his consequent love which is a natural property in God whose proper nature inclines to reward good and evil is a restipulation and condition of duty annexed Of this conditional Covenant onely the former being indeed rather a promise then a Covenant being onely Gods act without any mutual act of man the Sacraments are divine external seals and I suppose it is no such just cause as may legitimate a war whether it be more proper to say they are conditional seals of the Covenant to testifie and confirm unto us that we shall surely acquire what God hath promised if we seal back as it were our counterpart unto God and performing the condition render unto him what he requires as a conditional promise is made absolute by performance of the condition which otherwise obligeth not That the Sacraments are not Seals of the absolute Covenant nor set to without respect to the condition carries the stamp or seal of the Corporation of Protestants and those which have set their hands to any Writing against Bellarmine in that controversie of the efficacy of the Sacraments have attested this truth And some others of the Luminaries of our own Sphaere have reflected much light upon the point I therefore whose harvest cannot attain to their Gleanings shall not light my Candle in the Sun nor in the worse sense bring an Owl to Athens Tu sequere à longe et vestigia semper adora It may seem as much delirous to discourse of Military Glory after Hannibal as it was for Phormio to do it before him and a Smith may seem already to have run mad in undertaking as he of old did to have effected the amendment of an instrument of Archimedes Onely I shall say that whatever some rather odiously then ignorantly insinuate this is yet neither the language of Ashdod nor carries any stamp or holds any affinity with Semi-Pelagianisme or if you will call it so Arminianisme which is Synonymous for Arminius and Socinus have had the fortunes to have these bastard and illegitimate Doctrines put upon them which had other elder Fathers as Sextus 5. his Obelisk and Farnezi his Bull and other Monuments though formed and erected by the old Romane Emperours are now denominated from those that of late times have redeemed them from rubbish and restored their beauty but the Doctrine we hold forth hath no Analogy therewith For beside that we assert Faith to be absolutely and infallibly infused by God per modum creationis and nothing to concurre to conversion ex parte voluntatis causativè sed tantum subjectivè and ut credamus to be wrought passively in nobis sine nobis although actively ipsum credere be produced nobiscum simul tempore consentientibus et co-operantibus whereas the Arminians symbolizing with the Jesuits affirm Faith to be purely an elicit act of Free-will through a moral perswasion onely upon an object congruously proposed alliciens consensum non efficiens and Grace whose name they have antiquated as well as destroyed the Nature substituting the word help or motion in stead thereof to be a general and indifferent influxe terminable by mans good or evil free-will Besides this we are now disputing of Gods Covenant and Promise in time not of his Decree before all time If thou believe thou shalt be saved is not of the nature of a practical decree but of a promise and is onely doctrinal and enunciative neither do we as they do make Gods Decree conditional but onely the execution thereof and not the will of God to save but the salvation of man Gods eternal purpose in saving being absolute in respect of any cause or condition impulsive in the object not in regard of the means in the execution and order to the end Gods promises for their form correspond not with his purposes his promises being according to the manner of his executions but his purposes have a different method What he purposes he performs for the matter but not as he purposed for the manner he saves in the same manner that he decreed to save but in executing or saving doth not follow the same order which he did in decreeing this which is last in execution is first in intention Dr. Kend. Vndicat part 2. c. 7. and that which is performed on a condition was absolutely intended the intention was to perform it upon condition but upon no condition was it so intended We do not therefore say God intended upon condition of Faith to give Salvation but that he intended to give Salvation upon condition of Faith intending to give Faith absolutely and Salvation conditionally But the Sacraments therefore being onely Seals of
but doubtingly For whereas it may be answered that it is enough to act with the judgment of Charity and to go as far as that can lead and direct I shall reply That Charity is very incompetent to hold the Beam when things are to be waighed out in the Scales of Justice and with à suum cuique tribuere Charity presumeth all are good that are not manifestly evil interprets all doubtful things concerning persons in the better part and judgeth aliorum bona certa meliora certa mala minora bona dubia certa dubia mala nulla which though it exalt the excellency of the virtue absolutely yet it shews it is not respectively fit to be a just Judge which must be impartial and by what signs soever he may seek to make judgment the possibility of being deceived will render him still pendulous and doubtful whether those signs be certain or his disquisition and deliberation sufficient and besides if any shall say that they admit none that are manifestly wicked but such onely as being closely and secretly such cannot be discerned to be hypocrites I shall answer them as Augustine did Cresconius Contra Cresc l. 2. c. 23 24 26. Tom. 7. p. 47.49 Cur conaberis occultum excipere peccatorem quem Scriptura non excipit non ait oleum manifesti peccatoris sed absolute oleum peccatoris Nec qui Baptizatur à mortuo manifesto sed absolute à mortuo ita nec occultus excipitur quo evertitur omne quod loquer's so in like manner they are unregenerate absolutely such to whom the priviledges of the godly are to be denyed and not occult unregenerate men onely 3. Why is the one Sacrament more the priviledge of the godly As cited by Bede on 1 Cor. 10. and often by Chamier v. g. Tom. 4. S. 11. c. 5. Sect. 27. or more makes those Saints to whom it is exhibited then the other Are they not both alike equally Seals of the Covenant of Grace and is not the Eucharist the renewing of that Covenant which was formerly made by us or others for us in Baptisme Et institutio paria et significatio similia et finis facit aequalia It is no ways to be doubted saith Augustine that every one of the faithful doth partake of the body and blood of Christ when by Baptisme he is made a member of Christ They administer the Sacrament of Baptisme to Infants of whose sanctity they can have no prognosticks and of whose Parents holiness they have no Diagnostick signs to tell me that other qualifications are more requisite to the one Sacrament then the other is nihil ad rhombum that is not now our subject matter but whether if the Sacrament of the Eucharist be imparted to any that give not satisfactory testimony of grace the priviledges of the godly be prostituted and if so why then it should not hold alike in the other Sacrament of Baptisme also truly as all the Rivers run into the Sea from whence chiefly they are derived so let the Learned perpend Whether these conclusions that seem to tend and lead thereunto Advers Anabapt l. 6. c. 9 p. 229. did not first flow from the principles of Anabaptisme that great Abysse of modern Heresies though perchance as Rivers they may seem at first to run a quite contrary course from the Sea and to move so silently that none can discern their motion thitherward Post doctrinam de caena domini scrupulosè quaerunt Anabaptistae saith Bullinger quorum causâ instituta sit et quibus danda est ac multa de separatione dicunt atque hac ratione caeâ—am domini amabilem et gaudio plenam horribilem tristem faciunt ac aditum ad eam adeo coarctant ut pii quoque homines ab ea abhorreant et eam potius fugiant quà m accedant And as a straight Line drawn out in length is weak and cannot be strengthned but by being re-doubled and bowed back again whereby it draws neer to the nature of a circular Line which is more strong by the support which each part yieldeth to another so let it also be considered by the Senate of the Learned for these points need rather Oedipus then Davus whether the Apologists can be true and firm to their principle of admitting none to the one Sacrament as being the proper priviledge of the godly without satisfactory tokens of godliness unless they also suspend Infants from the other until they grow into a capacity of giving such marks and demonstrations and also whether they can exclude the Parents from the one Sacrament without rejecting their Children from the other since the Parents Faith is the ground of claim to the Child and if a Dogmatical Faith and External Profession cannot entitle the Parent to the Eucharist whether can it give the Child a right to Baptisme since quod facit tale debet esse magis tale But for my part were I convinced of the truth of these principles of the Apologists I should have strong tentations to turn Anabaptist and doubt I could not else be true to them or maintain them This may also pertinently serve to blank or founder their Hackney Argument that the seal is to set a blank and false testimony that is given by a promiscuous admission for when the Sacrament the seal of Faith is administred to those that are not true Believers the seal is set to testifie and confirm that truth of sacred Writ If thou believe thou shalt be saved which is the compendium and abstract of the Covenant This promise is made to unbelievers though it be the object of Faith but the thing promised which is the appropriate object of Hope is not to be acquired by any that performs not the condition Besides not onely by the rule of contraries nor alone by an equal accommodation of that rule in interpreting the Laws Praeceptum faciens includit praeceptum non faciens Mark 16.16 and therefore consequently the promise made to doing implies the threat against not doing but even in terms it is exprest that as he that believes shall be saved so he that believeth not shall be damned and therefore the Sacraments being seals of the Covenant as they confirm and ascertain the mercy to the faithful partakers so do they the judgement to the unfaithful receiver and therefore never is the seal set to a blank to whomsoever applied for somewhat of holy writ is still sealed either salvation or damnation according to the performance of the condition or not as the same Deed or Writing sealed and delivered may according to Covenants contain a grant and confirmation of a right and estate upon condition of some services and upon default thereof that right and estate to be forfeited and a mulct or penalty to be then incurred and he to whom the Original is sealed may seal back his counterpart and oblige himself to observe the condition before he have performed it and though perchance afterward he break
supernatural habits as Principium quo into the soul which is principium quod as is the Tenent of most of Orthodox Divines or by superadding a real efficacy to a moral perswasion as some others hold who yet seem farre enough from any symbolizing with Pelagius while they suppose not this efficacy to be common or equal nor to rise from the event nor to be founded in the annexed congruity and due application of this perswasion in respect of any external circumstances or the proper disposition of the Patients but in Gods Decree and the special operation of his Spirit yet which way soever it be the Word though it have a practick Energy by assistance of the Spirit and be a practical instrument of righteousness and salvation yet the operation thereof is not Physical but Moral and Metaphorical not an efficiency but an objective proposition and perswasion movere objective per modum signi and working Faith not formally but consequently not by causal influence but as subservient mean and by mediation of its signification apprehended though the manner of signifying be very actual and efficacious in which respect Faith is an acquisite habit as in regard of the operation of the spirit it is an infused and is produced in the manner of a Creation And the like kinds of propounding the object and signification and perswasion cannot be denyed to the Sacrament even in a more extensive manner striking more senses and affecting them with multifarious impressions and therefore it must also be granted that it hath the like moral and consecutory efficiency in order to the begetting of Faith and purifying of the heart and thereby bringing Christ to dwell therein To say that it is no proper sanctified meanes in an ordinary way for conversion nor may be used in Faith to that end carries as little relish of reason as resentment of piety Extraordinary and accidental causes as they doe rarely produce their effects so they are not ordinate to them in their own nature and the intention Quae destinato consilio fiunt nunquam dicuntur per accidens saith Chamier Quae fiunt à causa per accidens rarò fiunt causa efficiens per se quae natura sua intentione ad effectum ordinata est Alsted Neque illi qui Sacramenta causas dicunt per accidens c. quae fortuitae sunt vel sine quibus non fortuitae quibus alius finis c. Vide Chamier Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 2. S. 13. 14. p. 28. c. 3. sect 33. but as it is no rare thing for conversion to be wrought at receiving of the Sacrament as they speak or by it as we say so the administration hath a natural tendency and influence thereunto and such a coherence as is between causes and effects by commemoration and representing of the death of Christ De doct l. 2. c. 1. and offering and applying the fruits and effects thereof For a Sacrament is a sacred sign as St. Augustine tells us that signum est res praeter speciem quam ingerit sensibus alâ—ud aliquid ex se faciens in cogitationem venire How the Sacraments may be operative to conversion by their signification see Theses Salmur part 3. S. 44. p. 15. 45. p. 16. Ep. 25. so as it is instructive by the nature thereof and a virtual kind of teaching and as intellection is wrought by those either spiritual accidents or intentional things the intelligible Species which are but similitudes and representations of things so those signes impress upon the Understanding the things signified by that similitude which they bear unto them a similitude non per participationem ejusdem qualitatis sed illam quae est proportionatorum ut sicut se habet hoc ad illud ità hoc ad istud as Biel expresseth it and the form and therefore the nature of a Sacrament is the union between the signes and the thing signified being a spiritual relation founded partly in this analogy similitude and proportion between them Si sacramenta quandam similitudinem earum rerum quarum sacramenta sunt non haberent omnino sacramenta non essent saith St. Augustine But to insinuate as they doe That the beholding a deaths head in a Ring hath either equal or the like kinde of influence in conversion with the Sacrament is to avile and degrade Gods Institutions into the same Classis with Humane Inventions and God should then have no more power to ordain Sacraments or significant Ceremonies than man hath if his Institutions are by his blessing no more adopted and sanctified to the grace of Conversion than mans are And this spot of their Pen shall demerit much thanks from the Papists not onely by verifying their Calumny that we attribute no more efficacy or operation to the Sacrament than to a Picture but also by rendring them some advantage to argue in defence of their Bookes for Lay-men though prohibited Bookes by Gods command and to plead that to behold a painted or carved Crucifix may excite as holy affections toward Christ In Gal. 3.1 as to have him before our eyes evidently set forth crucified among us as well by his Sacraments as his Word as Bullinger Piscator Paraeus and others interpret it 2. What grace soever the Sacrament exhibits it is by virtue of their sanctification to that end a Sacrament by the Scholastick definition signifying by institution representing by similitude and by sanctification they say containing we conferring spiritual and invisible graces If they require an express special promise warranting the use thereof for a converting Ordinance let them first produce such to approve it may be used for a confirming As heat cannot be separate from Light in the Sunne so neither can the virtue of converting be dis-joyned from that of confirming in those Texts which hold forth the nature and use of the Sacrament but as Metals have their name from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because their veines runne together so these powers are in the sacred Mines of spiritual Treasure concurrent and complicated that let them shoot any shaft for the one we shall as the Yorkists did in the Battel of Towton against the Lancastrians take it up and return it to fight for the other If they suppose that it verifies the one power in that the Sacrament is called a seal of Faith but it approves not the other they forget that a Seal is set to a gift and grant as well as to a confirmation and serveth as well to convey as to corroborate and besides the Sacrament as a Seal gives and confirmes a relative grace as a signe it doth the reall such as is the new heart the former by obligation the latter by signification It is true our Divines usually call the Sacraments confirming Ordinances but not in that sense which they imposterously fabricate exclusively to converting but because they are primarily Seales of Faith objectivè being added to confirm and ratifie the certainty of the
to a certain determinate weight lest perchance upon tender of a great sum it may be rejected as it once was by the Conquerour for the want of a Groat in their account They can yeild no reason why men not scandalous nor ignorant should be kept off Resp. The more inexcusable are they to act that for which they can alleage no reason for elsewhere they say it is an odious surmise that they think all to be scandalous or ignorant whom they admit not If their minde be to admit all that come not under those qualifications I should think them rather unqualifications why contract they that resemblance with Medea Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor And seek a similitude with the Papists of whom a judicious man observes Sand's Europae specul p. 3. That their Religion is not so corrupt in the Doctrine as in the Schools they deliver it and publish it in their writings where manifold opposition holds them in aw and hath caused them to refine it as it is in the practice and in their usage among themselves so that sundry whom the reading of their Books have allured the view of their Churches hath averted from their party But whereas they would salve or palliate the matter by saying Their minde is to admit all that are not some way scandalous I fear this will onely ampliare odia restringere favores and rather retrench and straighten the way of admission than enlarge it by leaving no access but at their will and pleasure for whosâ—ever shall cross their way in any one step may be perchance accounted some way scandalous for their way is some way and let wiser men consider while me solicitum timor anxius urget if this be not a likely way to turn Bookland into Folkland and our Charters into a Tenancy at will and to say their minde is to admit all that are not some way scandalous will be virtually and in the last result their minde is to admit whom they have a minde to admit for they will easily finde a staff to beat away those whom they shall say are Dogs from the holy things since even he that takes the right way Aug. de civit Dei l. 19. c. 27. yet often stumbles therein and therefore Justitia nostra quamvis vera sit propter veri boni finem ad quem resertur tamen tanta est in hac vitâ ut potiùs peccatorum remissione constet quà m perfect one virtutum and then in every sin there is somewhat of scandal as that signifies a snare to catch or an obstacle to detain or stop or a stone or block at which men may stumble and fall and whereby in general in this life as in the way wherein we walk toward blessedness there may be an occasion to another of spiritual ruine by tempting him to imitate evil as a learned man observes that in stead of scandal the Ethiopick Translator of the New Testament useth a word signifying Temptation Lud. De Dieu Ames Medul Theol. l. 2. c. 16. sect 49. p. 316. or impeding or retarding them in doing good or diverting them from the Gospel In omni opere malo quod aliis innotescit scandali ratio inest saith Ames and however the Schools resolve that Scandalum activum non possit inveniri in viris perfectis yet besides that we have here onely an imperfect perfection consisting most as St. Augustine determines in an acknowledgment of and craving pardon for imperfections the Scholars do interpret this of their Master to be understood Aquin. 2.2 q. 43. art 6. Valent. 2.2 disp 3. q. 18. punct 4. p. 747. Sylv. 2.2 q. 43. art 5. 6. Filiucius tr 28 c. 10. sect 239. p. 174. aliÃque c. Non nisi ordinariè utplurimùm verum est quod asserit D. Thomas Regulariter ex majore parte saith Sylvius out of Bannes and others and so also do the Casuists determine and though perchance as one saith Infirmitates omnium piorum communes quando ipsis non indulgetur non babent aptitudinem in sese ad alios inducendos in peccatum and others ex iis rationabiliter non potest sumi occasio peccandi yet though in themselves or rationally they are not apt to do it yet accidentally in some they may occasion it and men may be censured or suspected to indulge those infirmities which he that knows their hearts which we cannot may know they reluct against and so may still be somewhat scandalous I should therefore rather adventure to say that onely by great scandals not repented and obstinately persisted in after admonition should the right of admission to the Sacrament be forfeited the father of mercies whose imitation is our perfection doth not withdraw for every sin nor separate from the soul for many corruptions as some sins are allowed by Divines not to be mortal not in the Popish sense but because ex genere in respect of the matter not being repugnant to the main Offices prescribed by the Commandments of God Field of the Church l. 3. c. 9. p. 277 278. or ex imperfectione actus not being committed with full consent to the quenching of the gracefull operations of Faith Hope and Charity toward their main object and which are reconcileable with true Repentance and the sincere estate of Regeneration and such are remissible or venial Negativè per non abiationem principii remissionis so correspondently some scandals may be so tolerable as not to exclude from the seal of the Covenant of Grace by not meriting an ablation of the Root and Principle of Admission viz. Church-membership If they could know men to be formal that is dead and hypocritical though they were not scandalous they should be kept off But Disputent non jubeant Disco non pareo I had rather think that unless before they admit they will take an examination of Gods Book of Life aswell as of mens lives and get a certainty as these are not at present real and sincere Professors so they never can be they have no warrant for this for because men are not yet converted to forbid them the Sacrament which may be an adjumental means of their conversion is as if any should have been denied to look upon the Brasen Serpent because they were not cured of the stinging of the fiery Serpent As Beza said of one that upbraided his former faults This man envies me the grace of Jesus Christ which now he had so this were to envy them that grace which by this means they might have De occultis non judicat Ecclesia We had rather walk in the footsteps of our Saviour than in that track which they would score out he knew Judas to be a formal and false Professor and yet did not repell him and themselves confess there was no visible cause for his exclusion because he was not convicted of any notorious crime or scandal and Christ they say therein dealt as man and therefore no
that Worship without concurring in any sinne save that which they suppose is contracted only by a Communion with such men though not in evil but rather in that which in it self is good and formally as it is a Communion onely with those that are evil That to separate on this account was both the root and pith of the Schisme of the Donatists who did not own any separation from the Catholique Church but impropriated that Church to themselves and held Communion with many Churches of their Model but separated from others and therefore might have put in the same Plea with this but seeing those Churches from which the Apologists separate are Members of the Catholique Church as till they be cut off juridicè aut jure they are so and in this consideration § 9 Eadem est ratio partium totius and all Members are conjoyned to the Body See more of this therefore if they separate from any such particular members they divide from the body of the Catholique Church as I have before proved by the authority of Junius § 24 that it is schismatical so to be torn off ab hac illáve Ecclesia i.e. membro particularis corporis ex infirmitate particulari Next that they remove the antient Land-mark of that distinction between the Church of the Called and that of the Elect may be discerned by any that passeth by their way There are many externally called who are onely relative and notional Saints Saints in the judgment of Charity because they have given their names to Christ entred into an outward Covenant with God and doe make profession of their Faith but such as are effectually called and are united to Christ in virtue as well as profession and in whom the Spirit of Christ is operative by influence of grace and salvation such onely are Elect Saints real Saints in verity Now if they will admit none to an entire Church-fellowship which is not as was said without Communion of Sacraments others that communicate not being not owned by themselves to be of the Church save such as give demonstrative signes that they are elected doe they not quantum ad hominem though it be impossible quoad rem contract the Church of the Called and make it no more extensive than that of the Elect and turn those many that are called into a few that are chosen sure I think this cannot but be visible to any unless to one Cui lumen ademptum And by this meanes also there may be multi hirci intus multae oves foras Hom. Deonibus tom 9. p. 224. Since as Augustine meekly scit praedestinatione praescientiâ oves hircos ille solus qui praedestinare potuit qui praescire si autem multas oves foras errare plangimus vae quorum humeris lateribus cornibus factum est non enim haec facerent nisi fortes oves quae sunt fortes de suis viribus praesumentes quae sunt fortes de sua justitia gloriantes humeris audaces ad impellendum quia non portant sacrinam Dei latera mala conspirantes amici societas pertinaciae cornua erecta elata superbia mitte foras quod non emisti certe ipsa tota causa est quia tu justus alii injusti indignum erat ut justus esset cum injustis indignum scilicet ut frumenta essent inter zizania indignum ut oves inter hircos pascerentur donec Pastor veniret qui in separando non errat ita tu angelus eradicans zizania non te agnoscerem angelum zizania eradicantem nec si jam messis venisset ante messem non tu sed quisquis fuerit non est verus qui designavit messem designavit tempus angeli tibi nomen potes impoere tempus messis non potes breviare ita falsum dicis qui sis quia nondum venit quando sis noli velle zizania eradicare quando tempus non est sed tu ipse intrò redi cum tempus est cornua sunt ista ventilantis non mansuetudo pascentis non expectas finem nesciens quando tibi sit finis unde hoc nisi quia ipsos tanquam hircos accusasti falsò accusasti nam si verè accusasses non te separasses tua separatio illorum est purgatio Lastly for the state of the Church Exponere similitudinem istam ne conati quidem sunt illam similitudinem omnino attingere nolucrant Brevic. collat cum Donatist tom 7. p. 117. Cont. Donat. post collat c. 7. p. 122. tom 7. which is a floor where chaff is heap'd with Wheat a Field where Tares grow intermix'd with Wheat a Net where bad Fish is involved with good c. most of those similitudes Quibus Dominus suorum servorum tolerantiam confirmavit as Augustine they like the Donatists of old whose Copy it seems they have chosen to write after will take no notice of as any way concerning them but I doubt it is onely nihil ad nos because supra nos and they doe not answer it because they cannot durum sed levius fit patientiâ quicquid corrigere est nesas for seeing Ecclesiasticall Communion is described by a Society in the Sacraments and therein principally is constituted and if there shall be a commixtion of evil men with good not onely in the Congregation but also in Una Congregatione paria Sacramenta tractantes as was even now alleaged out of Augustine and not onely in the Word but as idem verbum Dei simul audiunt so also simul Dei sacramenta percipiunt then whatever they suggest to the contrary thus much is gained hereby which will be on their part the loss of the question First that none ought to be so offended with the grossness of their Administrations at home where no separation is made as thereupon to remove S. 9 or desert to have a Communion of Sacraments with such Congregations August de verb. Dom. in Evang. Matth. Serm. 18. tom 10. p. 18. and separating from them to gather themselves into another Church which yet they confess to be the case of divers of them the Corn lay fast in the same Floor with the Chaff and that onely was volatile Non vos seducant perversi paleae nimis leves avolant ante adventum ventilatoris ex area and therefore he directeth elsewhere ex eo ubies disce quid es and consequently adviseth nemo ante tempus ventilationis deserat aream In Psal 25. tom 8. p. 26. Brevicul collat cum Donat. 3. die tom 7. p. 117. Cont. Donat. post collat c. 6. tom 7. p. 122. In Psal 149. tom 8. p. 360. quasi dum non vult pati peccatores nè praeter aream inventus priùs ab avibus colligatur quà m ingrediatur in horreum the good Fishes break not the Net to get out from the bad Commixtos bonis malos intra retia suorum sacramentorum And this commixture will continue while we are
Church in the daies of Moses and the Prophets was one and the same with the Church in our daies saith a learned Divine the house of God the body of Christ the elect and redeemed people the holy Nation the peculiar treasure and spouse of the Lamb and from thence he argues what was not a sufficient cause to separate in that time is no sufficient cause of separation in our daies Thirdly In the old Testament prophane people were not distinctly in themselves called Gods people August de doct Christil 3. c. 32. but the Church and society wherein they were permix was so called quando Scriptura cum ad alios loquatur tanquam ad eospsâ—â— ad quos leque batâ—r videtur loqui vel de ipsis cum de aliis jam loquatur tanquam 〈…〉 propter temporalem commixtionem communionem sacramentorum and in the same respect and notion wicked men under the new Testament are also called the people of God as the Church of Corinth is called the Church of God they that were incorporate thereunto are said to be sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints which are attributes equivalent to the people of God and yet that body had many rotten ulcers and odious excrements They with some complacency or confidence in their undertakings conclude who knows what all these lights will do being set up together But we must tell them that their arguments have no other light than such as putrified wood hath which only shines in darkness and being brought into a clear light nothing appears but rottenness but if any take them for lights and will be guided by them they are like to do but what was done by the lights which Nauplius hung out at Euboea for the Greeks in their return from Troy which served onely to draw them among the rocks thereby to suffer Shipwrak SECT XXXIV XXXV XXXVI XXXVII Their repeated Fallacies The complacency of their close which is destructive to their main discourse CRebrescunt optatae aurae portusque patescit Jam proprior I may now strike saile and cast anchor not onely because I may justly fear lest the Reader will no longer fill my sails with a favourable breath being like to have been tired with so tedious a voyage and even bonum longum minus bonum therefore much more longum malum duo mala but also because what occurres of concernment in the remaining Sections are but the same forces which we have proffigated in another field and here they rally them together again either like some politick captains who to set out the multitude of their Armies when they are to march through a City cause them to enter at one gate and go out at another and then to pass round and come in again at the first port or as Francis the first thought that the stile of King of France alone being often repeated would ballance all the numerous titles of Charles the Emperour so they think the same arguments reiterated may be instead of any other or more that might be expected and that if they pierce not by their force yet they may by their continual dropping non vi sed saepe cadendo or that if in one place or time they take not they may in another as Astrologers say some things work not their effects unless they be applied under such a constellation and in such a juncture of time and as the Iesuits tell us that the same moral perswasion that at sometimes is not yet anothers is efficacious in respect of â—â—s annext congrulty and due application but upon what account soever they bring the Arguments they have been elsewhere broken and come here as Gonsalvo said of a Captain shewing himself after the battel That it was St. Elmo that appeared after the storm was past But however the Apologists may suppose the things very fair that therefore by the allowance of Plato they may be twice or thrice repeated or to be as the works of Aristotle were to Alpharabius which he had read forty times and could as often read again without fastidiousness yet we rather suppose with Plutarch Ubique unius tenoris cantilena satietatem affert offendit and are very sensible sunt talis quoque taedia vitae Magna Voluptates commendat rarior usus In the 34. Section are their arguments which they call Convincing but sure if the convincing signes they require of holiness in men need to be no more forcible than their convincing arguments we shall not much complain of their rigor in trying or their strictness in admitting as that this Sacrament belongs onely to godly ones That they which partake it without true grace have the seal set to a blank The inference from Christs first administring onely to his peculiar disciples That an unregenerate person cannot examine himself The similitude of the Legacy bequeathed to the persons of such a condition That because the ignorant and scandalous are to be repelled therefore examination is requisite as a means in order to that end And in the 35. Section their motives drawn from the eating and drinking of their own damnation by the unworthy from the abuse of Christs blood by being too prodigal thereof from obstructing the reformation crossing the desires of the godly and the actings of the State from the degenerating from the primative times and all true antiquity And in the 36. Section what they answer to the objections of Schisme which constitutes and troubles that sollow their way And in the 37. Section among their Quaeries whether Ministers contradict not themselves in giving the seales of Salvation to those in the Sacrament whom hey have damned in the Word Whether ary other way than theirs or like it can be walked in to answer the holy courses of the ancients But if any like it may serve the turn it seems they have no such faith in their way but that another may be as good and therefore their 's not absolutely necessary and another in most things different may in somewhat be like theirs seeing as Synesius In omnibus iis quae in se differunt convenientia est similitudo and what Ministers should do while government is unsetled All this and much more of this sowr and swelling leaven is onely like the trunks which Cardinal Campeius his Mules carried being stufft with old clothes shooes and raggs for all hath been formerly worn out cast off and torn to pieces as we met with it heretofore very frequently in their discourse And if any rational and ingenious man shall prompt me to any thing among this frippery to which I cannot prompt him to find a sufficient answer in what I have delivered I shall soon hoyse those sails I have stricken and weight that anchor I have cast out and set to Sea again seeing it is like to be no difficult voyage nor to be imperilled by any acute solid rocks or very quick-sands most of it I think could be onely in their intention