Whosoever Will be saved May be saved God Wills it and it is Man only Will not And shall we think that if any would come in to these External Means whereby his Grace is Communicated that they are to be Refused It is a strange thing that Divines should be able to see how Christ how the Spirit it self or its Help can be the Fruit of Vniversal Grace and yet their Eyes be holden as not to see the External Ordinances to be so while they make the Church to consist of the Regenerate only I pray let us consider a little of other Societies What is it makes a Man the Member of any other Society which he may be of if he will Is it not his Consent only to be of it his Coming-in it self that which gives him his Right and makes him one of that Company And why is it otherwise with the Church or Society of Christians It is the Will of a Man upon his Hearing the Gospel Preached or his Receiving the Gospel Preached so as to be Willing is the Foundation I should say Condition to speak exactly of his Right to be Received If he will be Baptized upon it he may be Baptized without more terms It is his Consent to it is the Ratio fundandi in This as in other Voluntary Relations It is true that the Nature of Christian Society is such as requires that a Man be one that hath Received the Christian Doctrine that is to be a Believer and that he lives not in any open gross Sin seeing that would Excommunicate from it if he were In But supposing him such a one that believes that Christ is the Son of God I mean it according to the Articles of the Creed for how shall he be Baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost if he Believe not the Trinity and stands not actually Guilty of any such notorious Sin as if the were in the Church he must to be turn'd out for it there is nothing but his Willingness enjoyned of God nor ought to be required of us to the Receiving Him There are some says St. Austin that Put on Christ so far as to come into the Church and be Baptized Vsque ad Sacramentorum receptionem in his Words and some that put Him on ad vitae Sanctificationem unto that Sanctification of Life as brings them to Heaven I add so much because there are Many Saints or Sanctified Men says Mr. Richard Baxter that shall never come thither There are Saints by Separation from Paganism unto Fellowship with the Political Body of Christians which yet are not so by Separation from all Vngodliness into Fellowship with the Mystical Body of Christ The Door of the Church says that Learned and Pious Author is incomparably wider than that of Heaven and the Gospel is a free Offer to All. If any Man will come quite over in Spirit to Christ they shall be welcome if they will come but only to a Visible Profession He will not deny them Admittance there because they intend to go no farther but will let them come as near as they will and that they come no farther shall be their own fault Saints Rest Part 4. Sect. 3. Let me make bold to set this right and as I have put in before Political Body of Christians instead of his terms Visible Church and also left out the word Visible so instead of Visible Profession let me say Participation of Ordinances as St. Austin but now hath it and I take it to be very happily spoken As for the terms Visible and Invisible which our Divines use ordinarily when they distinguish the Congregate and Mystical Church I do avoid them they are a Snare to us The Sense of the term Visible can have no Place with God who Judges always according to Truth and hath no footing therefore neither in Scripture There is indeed the Outward Jew and Inward Jew in Scripture but the Outward Jew was a Real Jew or really a Jew in God's and Man's Account alike who had thereby ex intentione Dei Ordinantis a Right to be Circumcised and consequently to the Priviledge of all the Ordinances of Israel But a Visible Christian a Visible Member according to our common Notion of Visible is one that is not a Christian or Member Indeed but one only that Appears to be a Christian or Member and as None hath no Right therefore to the Ordinances at all in God's Sight A Visible Profession must be consequently an Hypocritical Profession that hath nothing in it but a Lie and Falshood altogether And can Mr. Baxter indeed say That if any will come to Such a Profession he is welcome No no God Almighty indeed is willing that All should come in to Him and They may come as Far as they will if but to be Baptized or Circumcised they are Welcome But I am against that Doctrine and Practice which depends upon this ensnaring Distinction I am for a Believing in Earnest the Gospel Preached and a Man's Coming-in thereupon and being Willing to be Received or to be Baptized and then I say whosoever Will he May. Whosoever would be Circumcised or Take hold of the Covenant Isa 56.4 6. he might Whosoever will be Baptized under the New-Testament he may Whosoever will come in to Christ so far as ever he Will Come this must be held for certain He will in no wise cast him out But no Man must nor be suffered to say He Believes he Repentâ— if he does Not at least in any Sense otherwise than he Does We must have none of this fame Visible Profession whatsoever comes of it We must see our Way clear how we can admit the Vnregenerate as well as the Regenerate into our Mixt Churcher without a Lie or we must allow none but Gathâ—red ones and turn all Independents unless we should Preach One thing and Pâ—actisâ— Another which no honest Man but must hate to do The People of Samaria are all said to believe Philip Preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God and were Baptized and Simon himself believed also Here we have none of this Visible Faith or Visible Profession but a Real Belief of what was Preached and that Belief prevailing upon the Will their Willingness to be Baptized is the Ratâ—o Baptizandi the Ground of their Baptism and Fight to be Admitted Simon Magus believed What is that Is it a Profession that he Did when he did Not No such matter his Faith and That of the City was Real and shewn by the Deed in their being Baptized A Man must Believe Indeed and his Faith be True as True does signifie Vndissembled or else he cannot be Baptized But his Faith may be far from True as Simon 's was as True does signifie Saving and yet so far as he can come in with any Truth he hath his Warrant from the Gospel SECT II. I Proceed now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to my Arguments If the common Opinion be received and a
the Promise of Life annexed to it Seek ye Me and ye shall Live Amos 5.4 5 6.2 Chron. 15.2 Exod. 20.24 Matth. 18.20 That the Ordinances therefore in general and one with another are appointed to be the Means of Grace I think a Man should believe as his Creed And why any good Men that will consider should be moved at our Inviting All and Letting in the Willing having first heard and received the Gospel unto the Participation of these External Appointments so long as we press upon them the Necessity of the same Faith and Repentance that the most strictest Ministers do for the obtaining the Spiritual Benefits thereof I apprehend no such Cause as they For here is Holiness and here is Peace joyned together Neither am I taken off with that worn-out Arguing That because the Sacraments are not Administred as the Word without the Church unto Heathens to convert such to the Faith therefore they cannot tend within the Church to any Vnregen rate Member's Edification Joh. 3.14 15. Joh. 4.22 It is a more Generous Spirit methinks St. Paul shews when the Corinthians seem to value themselves upon their External Christianity without Care of a Holy Life I would not have you ignorant says he that all our Fathers were Baptized in the Cloud and passed through the Sea and eat of the same Spiritual Meat and drank of the same Spiritual Drink But with many of them God was not well pleased The Apostle appears here to make but very little of the admitting Men unto Baptism and the Supper when he makes no more of their Coming to it than the Israelites passing through the Sea and eating of the Mannah and drinking of the Rock which things yet he declares to be Symbolical or Types even of the Blood of Christ as our Sacraments He could hardly have had a Heart to have spoken thus if his Thoughts had been cast in the Mould as many of our good Men's now are I will add Had the Apostles been so strict about admitting Persons to Baptism in their Days as they were after when they kept Men so long upon Tryal as Catechumens upon peculiar Reasons then and had look't on Baptism as so great and chief Work of the Ministry and Exercise of the Keys wherein so singular Care was to be taken I wonder that this Zealous Doctor of the Gentiles should profess himself to be no more concern'd about it when he tells us how few some Three or Four or so were all that he ever Baptized and that God sent him Not to Baptize but to Preach the Gospel Not but I fear God and reverence his Institutions and the Panting and Breathings of the Hearts of good Men after more pure Communion even on Earth hath been to me of deep Consideration But we must not for all that make the same Conditions unto Coming into the Church as unto the Getting into Heaven In actione Coenae Dominicae non debemus says Cyprian attendere quid aliqui ante nos faciendum putaverint sed quid ille qui ante omnes est prior fecerit faciendum mandaverit In these Actions of Baptism and the Lord's Supper we are not to attend what some before us have thought fit to be dome but what He who is before all hath Himself first done and commanded us to do The Author THE Cause of our Mixt Churches AGAINST SEPARATION SECT I. IT is in vain to write Books for the Satisfaction of People concerning the Lawfulness of the Liturgy and Ceremonies and coming to Church To think of Terms for Von and Concord or to endeavour any the like good things which many Considerate Ministers about London have lately done if the Churches unto which We Go and would Bring Others cannot be maintained to be True Churches or Churches agreeable to the Institution of Christ It is This is the First Stone to be Laid It is This is the Cause must be made Good For the doing hereof I shall offer some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Stating or Building it Vp some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Confirming it some things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Refutation of Objections And the Discourse shall contain Three Sections To begin with the First The Building Vp our Cause in This and to fetch the Matter from the Bottom I must lay my Thoughts together in these Theses and Method following As God made all things so is He universal Governour of his Creatures The Government of God over his Creatures that are Reasonable must be a Moral Government requiring Obedience from them upon Motives of Reward and Punishment The Insirument of this Government must be his Law The Law of God is either the Law of Nature or his Revealed and Positive Laws The Government of God is likewise double Natural or Conventional The Natural Government of God over Men and Women which He hath by Right of Creation is over all the World as they are particular Persons giving them the Law of Nature to live by that they may please Him and be saved This Law of Nature is either the Law of Innocent or Lapsed Nature The Law of Innocent Nature is that perfect Rule of Righteousness that was writ in Adam's Heart when created requiring him to preserve his Innocency and Integraty upon Pain of Death and it is called the Law of Works The Law of Lapsed Nature is the same Law with mitigation requiring the same Duty but not as the Condition of Life accepting of the imperfect Service of Man according to his present State so long as it is performed in Sincerity of Heart towards God and this is called the Law of Grace As Man in Innocency had the Notices of the most Holy God and his Duty writ in his Heart or could gather it from the Light of his Reason being to live perfectly in that State So must the World after Man's Fall and the Loss of his Innocency have some the like Notices implanted there or arising naturally from the Exercise of his Faculties That God is Good and Merciful and will not punish him if he Repent but consider him according to his frail Condition and consequently that he must now have no Government at all over him for Life and Salvation or else that he must be under another Law than that of Innocency or under other Conditions in obeying it for else must every Man on the Earth everlastingly perish Upon what Account or upon what Ground or Foundation the Righteousness of God could stand in dealing with Man when faln by another Law than that at first implanted in him in Innocency was a Mystery hidden from the Foundation of the World and not revealed but darkly till the Times of the Gospel But the Belief that God was Good and would pardon the Sinner upon his Repentance though they could not tell how or upon what ground it was the way of Reconciliation through Christ being beyond the Ken of all Human Understanding was general in the World
the Denomination of Saints Sanctified Believers Justified and multitude of things are attributed to It which none but the Regenerate really are capable of And Therefore it must be upon a Profession which amounts to that Importance Wherefore the Vnregenerate are so Reckoned and Received This Objection is multiplied and Scriptures abundantly Vrged and Improved accordingly I will Answer therefore very plainly The whole Church is thus Denominated or such things are attributed to It from the Better Part or from the Regenerate Part only which our Divines do commonly say who are Such where I need not stand I think after them to shew how the Scriptures abound with frequent Passages where Something is attributed to All that belongs properly to a Part only of Those to Whom or of Whom it is spoken but assume streight That forasmuch as it is for the sake of Those to whom the Vnregenerate Christian is Joyned that such Titles or Things are attributed to him it does appear that it is his Coming in to the Church or Willingness to be one of their Society that gives him that Advantage and not his telling a Lie in an Hypocritical Profession Yes sure you will say it must be a Man's Professing himself to be Thus makes the Church Repute him thus But I say No for it is not We only Repute him Thus but the Scripture The Holy Ghost calls all the Members such and the Holy Ghost and Scripture cannot Repute them So but upon a Ground of Truth and not upon the Foundation of a Lie or what is Visible only Now that Truth is this that Some are indeed Such and the Rest are of their Society which in the Whole is so denominated on their Account I will yet say That which does yield my self most Satisfaction The Vnregenerate Christian who comes in to the Church is under the Means and in the Way to attain That himself which yet he is Reputed to Be for the sake of Them with whom he is Joyned As we are said to be Justified by Faith according to Austin when Faith in its self distinct from Repentance and Good Works is the Initium only or Entrance of a Christian towards it there being a particular Interest in the General Grace of God upon Belief of That only which is First and in the Way to a Special Interest as One before hath told us and as the Apostle intimates when he says We have Believed as a first thing that we might be Justified So do I judge that an Vnregenerate Man may be said to be a Disciple Saint Sanctified Justified Saved as this Coming into the Church is his beginning the Course to obtain it The Children of the Koathites are said From a Month old to keep the Charge of the Sanctuary Num. 3.27 28. because they were so designed or devoted thereunto Neither is this unusual in our common Speech For let a Man go out of London but Yesterday towards Cornwal we say He is gone to Cornwal when it will be many Days before he reaches Thither As we say then This Man is Gone to Cornwal so is the Vnregenerate Member Sanctified Justified that is he is In the Way to get to it I will clear this farther The Apostle speaking of the Person whom he would have Excommunicated bids us yet Not to count him as an Enemy but admonish him as a Brother 2 Thess 3.15 It may be demanded How this can be when he is cast out from the Society and so is actually a Brother no longer I Answer That forasmuch as he is Cast out to this End only that he may Return and so be a Brother again he is still to be Had and in this respect to be Dealt with as a Brother If then a Person shall be held a Brother in respect to his Repentance and Return as being under the Means the Churches Censure and Admonition to bring him to it we see how the Vnregenerate may have the like Denominations as This on that Account which is indeed the Same only But what if a Man shall say I Believe the Articles of the Creed but I will not leave my Sins I would have Christ to save me but I Renounce his Government Shall such a Man be Admitted I Answer These are Tragical kinds of Exaggerations of the same Objection which stands on a mistaken Supposition If it be proved that it is Christ's Will that every Man must come with such a Profession as to tell what he Is before he is Baptized it were but Reason he should tell all and say the Worst as well as the Best of himself and I know not what then you would do with him But if it be a Man's Offering Himself only is his Profession there is no footing for any Words of this Nature I say moreover As you will receive the Hypocrite under the Name of a Professor so will I receive the Willing under the Notion of a Comer to get Grace or more Grace in the Use of the Ordinances as the Means thereof by God's Appointment Baptism is for Remission of Sins and so is the Lord's Supper and how shall any Man whose Faith and Repentance is not Sound be Baptized or Communicate seeing his Sins be not Forgiven I Answer Baptism and the Supper are for Remission and they are for something Else too They are For the Owning and Acknowledging God and Christ according to his Institutions Jesus Christ was Baptized and Partook of his own Supper but He had no Sins to be Remitted He did it He tells us for Fulfilling of Righteousness These Acts in the Vnregenerate are Acts of External Righteousness and so far as he can Do it his Duty must be Done When there are More Ends than One of an Ordinance or of an Action and some Other of those Ends may be Attained the Ordinance or Action must not be omitted because That One Cannot Neither indeed is it the Advantage of Man but the Will and Glory of God that is the Ground of our Duty Neque enim quia bonum est idcircò auscultare debemus sed quia Deus praecepit Prior est Authoritas imperantis quà m utilitas servientis Tertul. de Poen Lib. But I have Answered this Objection before also Otherwise and because it may be urged with as much Strength and Importunity as Any else whatsoever I will repeat that Answer and Enlarge it That God hath granted Pardon and Life upon our Faith and Repentance is the Substance of the Gospel That this Grant is ordinarily called The Covenant by Divines is not to be denyed That this Covenant is Conditional and Vniversal appears in the Proposal and consequently that All Persons and Every Person in the World hath a Share in it so that if he Repents and Believes he shall be Pardoned and Saved Every Person that comes into the Church and is Baptized does take Possession I must say of that Share or Interest which he hath in this Vniversal Conditional Remission and Salvation whatsoever else he does farther
Nations as He did Israel to come in to the Christian Church and to enter Covenant with Father Son and Holy Ghost If the Gospel be Preached and they Believe that these Three Persons are the only true God they are to be Baptized into their Name They are to Come and to come So as to be Sincere Converts They are to Engage and to engage So as to resolve upon the Performing the whole Condition on their Parts that they may be Saved If they fail in the Manner and do not Engage so as they ought or do not resolve upon the Performance supposing it a Conditional Engagement or rather resolve not Entirely but in Part or so far as to take God for their God and King in opposition to other Gods which is the main thing of that Covenant as the Israelites for the most of them at this Time we may be sure Did so that there is a Partial but not Total Hypocrisie to make it Evil in it self in their Engagement I Quaere Whether the Matter is not yet still what they are called to And if it be they Must and for ought I see they May engage as Israel did Where they fail then in regard to the Manner they are to be Reformed but what Their Duty is must be done If they Resolve not as they ought they sin I suppose in the Manner of their Engagement But I must ask Whether they shall not sin more if they Engage not at all if they quite turn their Back upon God and the Gospel and leave both the Manner and Matter undone You may object But can we think that the People could say They Would do all God commanded and God approve of it as Well said of them Deut. 5.27 or that they should make a Covenant by Sacrifice passing between the Parts thereof Jer. 34.18 and Enter into a Curse and Oath to walk in God's Law Nehem. 10.29 and yet intend nothing but a Conditional Dis-junctive Obligation to Do it or be subject to the Penalty Answ I say not so They did all take God to be the True God and their God in opposition to all false Gods And as for these Words here which they Said and God Approved I must first premise This That to engage a Man's self under the Curse of God to Do any thing must be laying the greatest Obligation on his Soul that can be to the Performance and if it were God's Will that the whole Body of Israel should engage to their Part of the Covenant so as to say Amen to the Curses which I think is not to be denyed it does appear that this Obligation by Covenant must be their Duty even the Duty of the Whole Body and consequently their Doing it and God's Command of them to do it must be Justified Which being premised I say that when these Words All that God hath said we will do are attributed to the Whole Body they were all under great Commotion that we know for certain at the Terrible Appearance of God as ever was and some of them I doubt not said So with a present Resolution of Sincere Obedience and did Perform it as Zachary and Elizabeth walked in all the Ordinances of the Lord blameless Others of them I believe said So out of that present Fear only and Awe of God upon them as the Seed that fell on the Stony Ground sprung up Presently but for want of Root Withered The Generality it is like had the Idea of a General Implicit Obedience in their Thoughts which they did also endeavour I suppose in their Lives but it was External altogether thinking That sufficient to their Justification before God And such an Obedience the Vnregenerate Man we know can Engage to and Perform all alike with the Regenerate there being no Duty in the Outward Matter or Outward Act but he can do as well as the other he can Hear Read Pray give Alms as well as the other when yet he cannot do it out of that Principle to that End and after that Manner as the other which is the Doing it so as to be acceptable to Salvation Now if I should rest here and say That these Words All that God commandeth we will do are to be understood of such an Engagement and that such an Obedience which is External only and Insincere is yet in the Matter or in Its self good and Man's Duty so that notwithstanding the Failure in the Manner it must be Engaged to and Done I do apprehend the Cause were carried But because my chiefest Cause ought to be Truth I must yet add That a great many of this Multitude I believe did say I for Company that is they consented with others in the General Terror without any formed Consideration of what they promised or Resolution to perform it nay their Hearts bring wicked they could have no mind to do it whatsoever Fear might constrain from them And when we see well how the First sort could say these Words with the Acceptation of God and how the Second might say the Same without any present Lie yea how the Third also might engage so Far and God in Tantum approve it I would fain know in respect to the Fourth sort of them how God and Moses could require of the Whole Body any Engagement to the keeping all God's Precepts but upon the Account I have offer'd that is upon this Account That it was a Covenant-Engagement which being of Validity for obtaining the Blessings to all those that Perform it was not in Vain as to those whom He deals withal still as Men that perform it Not because they were thereby even according to Agreement yet obliged to the Penalty and God was Righteous as their Lord and King to make every one of them Subscribe to it I will add a Simile that will come a little more near the Matter than some One we have had before In an Oath of Allegiance to a Prince a Man cannot swear to the King's Government but it includes Subjection to his Laws which Laws perhaps he knows not or if he do he knows he Breaks many and yet so long as the Substance of that Oath lies in the Owning his Authority against all Foreign Jurisdiction and being True to the Crown which one that is no Popeling does heartily consent to he makes no Scruple to take it notwithstanding those Laws for he makes this Account that if he submit to the Penalty in case of Transgression or can escape without Resistance that is consistent with his Allegiance So in the Covenant of the Jews which was a Covenant of Fealty to God as their King so long as they could freely and absolutely Consent to take God for their Lord and to serve Him alone in his Appointed Worship in opposition to ull other Gods their Submission to the rest of God's Precepts we may conceive to be under such Political Terms as in this Instance is signified See I have set before thee Life and Good Death and Evil therefore