a Governour or as a Covenanter If as a Governour then it is necessary that all his inferior Governours be impowered by his Commission to act by his Authority which Commission if they want they cannot be said to act by his Authority and no Illegal Authority can confer a valid Legal Title If as a Covenanter he cannot be thus obliged without his own will and therefore none can celebrate a Covenant in Gods name so as to oblige him to performance of it unless God signify it to be his pleasure to empower him to do so as in Law none can be obliged by anothers act who has not been empowered to act in his name by his Letters of Proxy And he that presumes of himself to make a Covenant wherein God is by him engaged as a Party without being so empowered by God as what he does cannot in any Legal exposition be reputed as Gods Act so neither can it infer any Legal Obligation on him to performance § XI NOR are these Sacraments invalid only as to the Title but also even as to the Possession of the Benefits to be conveyed by them For it is to be considered that the Case is very different betwixt the Power given by God to Ministers for the conveyance of Spiritual Blessings by the Sacraments and that which is given by Worldly Princes to inferior Officers for the conveyance of Secular Favours For because the possessions of Lands are in effect subject to the power of the Sword the inferior Officers who have the power of the Sword and withal have the Lands within the Jurisdiction wherein that power is allowed them as they may decree wrong in giving Lands to Persons who have no Legal Right to them so they may also for a time put them in possession of them But the advantages of the Sacraments are Spiritual and consequently their Possession as well as Right must depend wholly on the Divine pleasure and it cannot be presumed likely to please God to give any validity to the Acts of Vsurpers Nay that a Curse instead of a Blessing is to be feared from Ordinances so administred will appear by the same Principles of Government For there are no Crimes more punishable by these Principles than those which encroach on the Supreme Government and none reputed more Treasonable than pretending a Commission where none is given and counterfeiting the Broad Seal especially when they proceed so far as to raise actual Sedition on these pretences Now of all these Crimes these Vnauthorized Sacraments must be charged by these Principles § XII THE Administrers of them pretend a Commission from God when they have none because they plainly take upon them to intermeddle in that Government which nothing can empower them to intermeddle in without an express Commission at least they cannot expect to be trusted and submitted to by Loyal Subjects without such a pretence They presume to counterfeit the broad Seal for such our dissenting Brethren themselves conceive the Sacraments to be in respect of the New Covenant and accordingly charge the Romanists with counterfeiting the Broad seal of Heaven for adding to the Number of the Sacraments in taking upon them to oblige God as a Party of a Covenant and pretending to set his Seal to it without Power received from him to do so They raise Sedition by setting up Societies within the Jurisdiction of those Churches whereof themselves were Originally Members and yet independent on the Government of those Churches Which if it be not Sedition by the Principles of Government in general not as confined particularly to that which is Civil or Ecclesiastical for my part I must confess I do not understand what Sedition is And certainly the Principles of Government in general as prescinding from both these kinds must be admitted in these Disputes unless we will pretend Ecclesiastical Government not to agree with that which is Secular in as much as one Vnivocal Notion which is indeed to devest it of any thing of Government but a bare Name And then by the same Principles of Government not only they are Traitors who raise the Rebellion but also they who maintein and abet it when it is raised which will involve the Communicants in these Sacraments in this Capital Guilt as well as the Administrers of them § XIII AND that indeed the valid Administration of the Sacraments is thus confined to the Regularly-Ordeined Clergy will appear whether we consider the Sacraments as Confederations into a Body Politick or only as sacred Rites and Ceremonies instituted by God in Order to some great effects to be promoted by them without any design upon a Body Politick If we consider them as confederations into a Body Politick that is as Baptism does admit a Member into the Church and as the Blessed Eucharist does not only signify but perpetuate and effect that Vnion with Christ the Head of this Mystical Body and with their Brethren as fellow-Fellow-Members which may make them capable of receiving those vital influences which are here expected the same way as a Member of the Natural Body by being vitally united to the Living Head and Members is made capable of receiving that Communication of Blood and Spirits by which the Life of the whole Body is mainteined Then they will plainly appear to be the Right of Governours For in all Governments the Right of admitting Members into their Societies at first or continuing them in it in order to the instating them in the Legal Priviledges of such Societies is never conceived to belong to particular Members but only to Governours So that if a particular Vnauthorized Member should presume to admit a Member into the Body Politick whereof he is himself a Member such an Act were not only Irregular but Invalid in it self so that a Member so admitted cannot be reputed a Legal Member of such a Society nor consequently be Legally intitled to the Priviledges of it without a new admission For considering that this admission and continuance of Members in a Society does withal intitle them to all the Priviledges of it if the power of this admission and deprivation be not confined to the Governours they must consequently be deprived of the Rewards and Punishments for indeed the Priviledges Men gain by being of any Society are the only Rewards that are proper and natural to invite Men to it or continue them in it and the deprivation of those Priviledges especially if they be so necessary for their Preservation as that the loss of them must inevitably expose Persons so deprived to the greatest inconveniences are the only natural Punishments to discourage Men from doing any thing contrary to the Will of the Governours of such a Society And how possible it is for any Government to be mainteined in a Society where the Rewards and Punishments are not at the disposal of the Governours I believe our Brethren themselves will never be able to explain And therefore pursuant to these Principles for my part I must confess
the Feet I have no need of you but by so much the more those Members which seem to be weaker are yet necessary and as upon those Members of the Body which seem to be less honourable we yet bestow the more abundant honour and our more uncomely parts have the more abundant comeliness So by the same proportion of reason he plainly implies that the more noble and more perfect gifts and Members must yet not be understood to be so perfect as to stand in no need of the Assistance of the least perfect ones And he after tells us that God has therefore followed our example in the Body Mystical also in bestowing (m) v. 24 25. more abundant honour on those Members which most wanted it for this very reason that there might be no SCHISM in the Body From whence our Brethren may be pleased to observe the original of this term which will be of great consequence for stating the true Notion of it But of this I may possibly discourse more largely in the Second Part. At present I only observe that this independence of one Member on another and the consequent withdrawing of the correspondence of any particular Member from the rest how perfect soever he pretends to be is that which the Apostle stigmatizes here expressly by the name of Schism § XVII BUT that I may bring this whole Discourse yet more close to my present design it is yet further observable that among these gifts of the Spirit which are reckoned as necessary for the whole the (a) Rom. xii 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so frequently given to the Governours of the Church and the (b) Cor. xii 28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are expressly mentioned And in all likelihood this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was then reputed so necessary for Persons to be ordained the (c) 1 Tim. iv 14 2 Tim. I. 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which St. Timothy received by imposition of hands And to know who had this gift there was also in in those Ages given another gift the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the (d) 1 Tim I. 18 IV. 14 Prophesies mentioned concerning St. Timothy in relation to his Ordination the tryal by the Spirit in (e) Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Cor. Clemens Romanus and the (f) Clem. Alexandr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Ews I.III. Eccl. Hist. c. 23. signification of the Spirit in him of Alexandria For if it had been any natural gift which they were then so careful should be in Persons to be ordained by them it had not been necessary that their Ordainers should have been endued with another gift to know it And particularly this gift of the Spirit to fit Men for Government was a thing the Jews had been so well acquainted with in the Old-Testament-instances of (g) Numb xxvii 18 19 20 21 22 23. Joshua and (h) 1 Sam. x. 9 Saul and (i) 1 Sam. xvi 13 David and many others nay was the very Mystical Vnion which the external Vnction did only signifie and convey from which their Governours were called the (k) 1 Sam. xvi 6 XXIV 6 10. XXVI 9 11 16 23. 2 Sam. I. 14 16. XIX 21 XXIII 1 Lam. iv 20 1 Sam. II. 25 1 Chron. vi 42 XVI 22 Ps. CXXXII 10 17. LXXXIV 9 LXXXIX 38 51. Hab. III. 13 Lords Anointed Pursuant whereunto it is that according to the rules of the Philosophy then current which ascribed the Truth of names rather to the Spiritual things which were represented than to the sensible signs and Types which represented them the Spirit it self is called Vnction by (l) 1 John II. 20 27. St. John that upon these considerations it is very unlikely that this gift should have been wanting in those times where every thing was so fitted to the Jewish Notions and wherewithal it was so very necessary for the Christian themselves though they had less regarded the Jews in this particular than we find they did in many others Nay how near a Title even Ecclesiastical Governours as well as others how little Spiritual soever they were as to their Persons were then thought to have even to the Extraordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on account of that gift of the Spirit which they were supposed to receive upon their investiture into their Office appears from this that the Evangelist gives this as the reason why even Caiaphas Prophecyed because he was High Priest (m) S. John XI 51 that time when he did so If therefore this was a gift which obliged all that wanted it to a dependence on them who had it how much less perfect soever they were in other regards then it will plainly follow that no pretence of Perfection whatsoever could exempt from a dependence on their Governours Which will more immediately reach my purpose than if they had depended on the Sacraments themselves or any other Exercises or Solemnities of the Ecclesiastical Assemblies § XVIII AND the same thing seems very probable from hence that among the Members which are instanced in as necessary the Head is mentioned as one Certainly there is no office in the Body Mystical so suitable with that of the Head in the Body natural as that of Governing Nor can it here be understood of Christ who is indeed frequently called the Head of the Church because such a Head is here spoken of as (n) 1 Cor. XII 21 cannot say to the Feet I have no need of you that is such a Head as is capable of receiving necessary offices from the other Members as well as of performing necessary offices for them And though it should he understood of particular Governours yet it cannot be thought more strange that in this Allegory all particular Governours should be represented under the Metaphore of one Head than it is that all their Churches are frequently in the Scripture called one Church and here are represented in a Metaphore exactly answering the other that of one Body And the utmost that can be made of this expression will only amount to the one Episcopacy in St. (o) de Vnit Eccles. Cyprian which he makes common to all particular Bishops And it deed when one Body had been mentioned before it had spoiled the suitableness of the Metaphore to have mentioned any more than one Head Though indeed a shorter way might have been taken for giving an account of this whole matter that it is not distinction of Persons but distinction of (a) Rom. XII 4 Office which is here taken notice of by the Apostle for the constitution of a distinct Member And therefore though the Persons of Governours be different yet so long as their office is undoubtedly the same and it is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that qualifies them for that office that is sufficient to shew how they may be here all accounted for under the Notion of one Head And if we
may have leave to urge the Allegory further as the Apostle shews us a Precedent in other the like Arguments from and applications of the same Allegory that the dependence of other Members on the Governours of the Church must be as great as that of the Members of the natural Body on their Head this will both shew how extremely dangerous it must be for them to be cut off from the Communion of their Governours on any account That it must be in an ordinary way as impossible for such Members to live as it is for Members of the natural Body when they are deprived of those influences which they receive from their Head and how necessary it must be for them rather to submit to any Conditions short of Sin than to suffer themselves to be reduced to so dangerous a Condition § XIX I KNOW there is another notion of the word Head not for a Head of influence and Authority but of eminency and dignity only and I know that this is a Notion used in the Scripture also where the (b) Is. IX 14 15. Head and Tail are taken for the most worthy and unworthy places as here the Head and Feet may be taken for the same with the more noble and baser Members in the next verse and I know that this Notion is suitable enough to the Ebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Syriack Idiome But withal when I consider how much (c) Numb XXV 15 Judg. X. 18 XI 8 9 11. 1 Sam. XV. 17 Ps. XVIII 43 Is. VII 8 9. Hos. I. 11 oftener it is used even in that stile it self for a Head of influence and Authority than of dignity only how much more natural it is in this particular Allegory where all things in this Mystical Body of Christ are so exactly parallelled with the like things in the natural Body nay where they are parallelled in this very instance of the derivation of influences from Member to Member by which mutual communication the whole Body Mystical is supposed to be mainteined the same way as the Body natural is When I consider that this communication of influences is that which is absolutely necessary to the Apostles design in this place to shew the mutual need that the Members have of each other and that a bare Priority and Posteriority of dignity would be utterly impertinent to this purpose and of the two would rather seem to prove the contrary When I consider further that according to the customes of those times it seems very probable that according to the greatness of their Gifts they were usually intitled to their several Offices that as their Gifts were generally given them for the service of the Publick not for themselves so they who were found to have the greatest Gifts were generally preferred to the most eminent Offices Nay when I consider that at first before the settlement of an ordinary Government in the Christian Societies that is while they concorporated themselves with the Jews and met together with them in their Synagogues and as to any external coercion depended also on the Government of the Synagogue and before there was an ordinary course taken for deriving Authority regularly to Posterity which was not so necessary at first till they were put upon it either by the gradual decay of these Gifts or at least of the Evidences of them and the multitude of false pretenders to them or by the disorderliness of the administration of them in their publick Assemblies the very Gifts themselves seem immediately without any further approbation of Man to have intitled them to the several Offices and accordingly the Offices themselves are reckoned as (d) 1 Cor. XII 28 Gifts as indeed the Case now described seems really to have been the Case of the Corinthians when this Epistle was written that they were not as yet under any settled establishment for Government and St. Paul proves his Apostleship among other things from his Gifts on which supposition this latter exposition that the Head and Feet signifying higher and inferior dignity of Gifts must infer the former that the same Persons who were so qualified for their Gifts were accordingly ranked in their Offices in the Church and the interest they had in the Government yet still with this advantage for the former Exposition that that does more immediately comply with the Apostles design in shewing the mutual necessity and usefulness of the Members to each other I say all these things being considered whatever may be thought of this latter Exposition otherwise yet it can hardly be thought so peculiar to the Apostles meaning as to exclude the former on which I have grounded my Argument § XX BUT supposing this were true as we have proved it false that some Men might be so perfect even in this Life as not to need the Society of others in regard of any advantage themselves were capable of receiving by such a Society yet still they might be obliged to it and to submit to all unsinful Conditions of being admitted into it on account of the benefit that others might be capable of receiving from them Even the Principles of that Philosophy which generally inclines Men to these Enthusiastick fancies I mean the Platonical would have taught them that they are (a) Tull. Somn. Scipion. not born for themselves and that all the good which they are able to do they are also bound to do by the great design of Societies and of God himself if he design the maintenance of them whose principal advantage is this that they who of themselves are weak may there expect the benefit of all the gifts of those which are more able But the Christian Religion does further assure us that all our Gifts are (b) S. Matth. xxv 15 Talents which we are bound to improve for the good of others as well as our Selves and that accordingly we must at length be accountable not only for the Principal it self which we have received but also for the (c) v. 27 improvements we might have made if we had used our utmost diligence in improving them and for those Gifts whose nature is rather to be useful for others than for the Possessor they are such wherein Men are principally obliged to use this diligence that all Men have some of these but that they who are perfect must be supposed to enjoy them in a more plentiful measure And indeed none are more capable of doing good to others than they who are perfect themselves They must be supposed to be best experienced their Examples would be more securely imitated and in matters of this nature Examples are more instructive than the most accurate Notions there would be that pretence which the vulgar are too apt to make use of to recommend the very failings of great Persons by the Authority of the Persons who are guilty of them These would approve the Practicableness of Virtue even in our present Age and circumstances and the very reverence which
of being proved In which way of proceeding it is plain that it is supposed that Communion with Christ could not be maintained without Communion with his visible Church and in after Ages without a Communion with that Church which could derive a visible Succession from that which originally was so I say this is supposed Antecedently to the proof that the Seducers were disunited from Christ both because it was from hence proved that their Doctrines were destructive to the true Christ because the Church said they were so and because their Communion is proved not to have been with the true Christ because it was not with his Church But of this I may have more occasion to discourse more largely hereafter I only observe at present that they are not therefore said to have been disunited from Christ because they did in express terms disown him which is the principal thing which is urged to shew how different their case was from the present case of our Brethren § XXX But 3. Whatever the occasion was yet the Argumnets used by those Primitive Writers to convince those Seducers of the dangerousness of their condition do certainly come home to our Brethrens Case My meaning is they do not only prove that the Seducers could have no Communion with Christ because they did either expressly or interpretatiuely deny him but also because they had no visible Communion with the visible Church So I have already shewn that it was a visible Association which St. John meant b 1 Joh. i. 3 when he exhorted them to whom he wrote to communicate with his own Party because he and his communicated with the Father and the Son It seems then there was no communicating with Christ however Orthodox a Profession they made of him without a continuance in the Orthodox Communion So the Author to the Hebrews c Heb. x. 25 26. does not make the denying of Christ to be the true Messias to be the willful sin of which he there speaks so dreadfully but the forsaking of the publick Assemblies And the whole reasoning of St. Paul in comparing the Mystical Body of Christ with the natural Body does plainly suppose that although all Grace be derived from Christ the Mystical Head to the several Members of his Mystical Body as in the natural Body all the vital influences are derived from the Head to the several Members respectively yet there is withall the same mutual necessity of the Members to each other for receiving these influences from the Mystical Head as there is in the Natural Body for receiving influences from the Natural Head And therefore it is impossible in the Natural Body that any particular Member should receive influences from the Head if separated from its fellow-Fellow-Members by which those influences are to be propagated to it so it will also be as impossible by the same Analogy of reasoning for any Member of the Mystical Body of Christ to receive vital influences from Christ the Mystical Head of that Body if separated from its fellow-Fellow-Members of the same Mystical Body And it is observable from the Offices and Gifts there mentioned that it must be an external Organical Body that is there spoken of in which only it is that those Offices and Gifts were capable of being exercised And from the reasoning they must not only be the Gifts but the Graces of the Spirit which are most properly to be considered as vital influences that are thus derived And then Persons divided from the Church must necessarily be in the state of Death as St. John supposes them as necessary as it is in the Body natural that that Member should be dead which receives no vital influences from the Head But these are also things which I may have occasion to discourse more largely in my second Part and therefore say no more concerning them at present CHAP. XII The very Case of abstaining from the Ordinances on pretence to Perfection seems to have been taken up and condemned in the time of the Apostles THE CONTENTS 8. This very pretence of abstaining from the external Ordidinances under the pretence of Perfection seems to have been taken up even in those Primitive Ages Euseb. Dem. Eu. L.iii. c. 4. The Philosophical Notions of those Ages concerning the worship of the supreme Deity § I. How this Hypothesis was received first into the Elective Philosophy thence taken up by the Hellenistical Jews and from them derived to the first Converts to Christianity § II. The several reasonings of the Primitive Christians that might make them in interest favourable to this Hypothesis § III. Particularly their pretending to a Mystical Priesthood might make them less solicitous for their dependence on the literal external Priesthood § IV. Instances of several like mistakes of those times in reasoning from Mystical Titles § V. How the Genius of this Philosophy has inclined men to this way of reasoning where-ever it has prevailed even among our modern Enthusiasts § VI. Inference 1. That what the Apostles did resolve in this particular they did resolve with a particular design upon our Adversaries Case § VII That the Prudential establishments of the Apostles are sufficiently secure § VIII Inf. 2. Hence may appear the insecurity of this way of arguing in general from Mystical Titles to the neglect of external Observances § IX.X. Inf. 3. It plainly appears to have been against the design of the Legislator in the very Case of the Jews from whom the Christians borrowed it § XI Inf. 4. That the whole contrivance of things by the Apostles plainly supposes that they also did not allow of this Plea for excusing any from the Publick Ordinances § XII Inf. 5. The Philosophers themselves never intended this Plea for their exemption from the Mysteries and external Rites of Initiation then used to which the Sacraments are answerable among Christians § XIII XIV Inf. 6. The great design of this way of arguing was to exclude themselves from paying any external worship to the Supreme Being and so destructive to the very foundation of the Christian Religion § XV. And this very rationally on the Hypothesis then received § XVI But the reason of this Argument does not hold against those Exteriors which are observed by the Christian Institution § XVII It is very probable that our Adversaries Case is particularly spoken to in Heb. x. 22 23. § XVIII § I TO proceed therefore with my present design it is further observable 8. That this very pretence of abstaining from the external Ordinances under the pretence of Perfection seems to have been taken up even in those Primitive Ages Those Philosophers who excused their neglect of all exterior worship of the Supreme Being by pretending that the only proper and acceptable worship of him was that of a a Vid. Testimonia Porphyr Apollonii Tyanei Theophrasti apud Eus. Pr. Eu. L.iv. c. 12 13 14 15 19 c. Porph. ipsum L.11 Abstinent Hierocl in Aur. Carm. Cyr. in Julia. L.1 pure
so far from thinking the greater Mysteries absolutely necessary for him who had already been initiated in the lesser as that they usually prescribed a certain time before he who had received the less was capable of the greater Five years is commonly supposed to have been the Period prefixed for that purpose at least to the making an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for which a years space was requisite even after their receiving the greater Mysteries And it was taken for a great irregularity in the Case of Demetrius Poliorcetes that he was permitted to partake of both Mysteries at one time Plutarch Demetr And the Lord's Supper wherein Christ's suffering is so represented to our eyes and which was professedly instituted by Christ for that purpose that it might perform the office of the Heathen Images as the opposers of Images argued against the Patrons of them seems at once to exhibit all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Christian Religion could admit of as well as the greater Mysteries themselves For my purpose it is sufficient that it be necessary for continuing the Salvability of Adults who have lost their Baptismal strength and Purity if they would continue and grow strong and ripe in that new Life which they have received in their Baptism None who survives his Baptism for any considerable while can think himself unconcerned in this Case as thus stated And therefore if this may be proved that it is necessary for the Salvation of such Persons as these are this will as much oblige such Persons to receive the Lords Supper often and consequently to submit to all unsinful Impositions that may be required from them as Conditions on which they may be admitted to receive it as they were at first obliged to get themselves baptized and to submit to all such unsinful conditions required by them who had alone the power of baptizing them § IX THIS will appear if our Brethren will be pleased to consider the importance of that Mystical stile wherein this whole matter is expressed in the Scripture that is if they will be pleased to continue the Allegory of Life and the Analogy between the natural Body and the Mystical Body of Christ so far at least as the sacred Writers themselves are pleased to continue it And sure that cannot be thought presumptuous To this purpose it is observable 1. That this Analogy between the Natural Body and the Mystical Body of Christ is continued in this that no Member in the Mystical Body can continue in that Spiritual Life of which it partakes by being a Member of that Mystical Body without a constant repetition of those vital influences by which it was first enlivened any more than a Member of the Natural Body can continue its Natural Life without a continual new supply of those vital influences from the head by which this Natural Life is maintained And therefore as it is certain that that Member which wants this continuation of vital influences does certainly decay and by degrees lose that Natural Life which is maintained by those influences though it be impossible to determine the certain Period wherein it shall die so it is by the same proportion of reasoning as certain that he who has not new influences from Christ continued to him is in a dying condition notwithstanding the Principle of new Life received by him in his Baptism If therefore the Eucharist be the same way an ordinary means of continuing this new Life as Baptism was of receiving it that is of communicating those new vital supplies from Christ the Head of this Mystical Body as Baptism was of the first infusion of this vital Principle it will be as necessary for those Adults of whom we are speaking who survive their Baptism as Baptism it self was to them when they first received it § X AND 2. The Scripture does further prosecute this likeness between the Natural Body and the Mystical Body of Christ that as it is impossible for any particular Member in the Natural Body to derive any vital influences from the Head unless it continue in conjunction with the whole Body so it is as impossible for any particular Member in the Mystical Body of Christ to derive the influences of Spiritual Life from Christ who is the Head of that Mystical Body any longer than it is united with the whole Mystical Body This appears plainly from that particular of this comparison that as in the Natural Body Members have their distinct situation some of them at a distance from the Head and they who are so receive their vital influences though from the Head yet not immediately but by the vessels through which they are communicated and by the influence of the nearer parts so that these vital influences are maintained and continued in the particular Members as well by their mutual influences on each other as by the common influences which they all receive from the Head so there are also supposed the like conveyances in the Mystical Body and the like distinction of offices in the Members of it by which they become necessary to each other as the Head is necessary to them all And this argument is purposely urged by the Apostle himself to let particular Christians understand their obligation to keep united with one another in order to their receiving vital influences from the Head And by the nature of the comparison here used it is plainly supposed that the advantage which the Members may expect from the mutual intercourse of each others gifts whilest they are united to each other in external Communion is not only extrinsecal by moving and exercising the good Principle within them but necessary intrinsecally for the preservation of that Spiritual Life which they are already supposed to enjoy as the Members in the Natural Body do not only lose the advantage of a sprightful vigorous Life but of Life it self by an interruption of their communication with each other And this is implyed in the similitude of the Vine where our Saviour expressly warns his Apostles Joh. xv 4 that as a branch cannot bear fruit of it self except it continue in the Vine so neither could they except they abided in him Where it is plain that Christ is not understood Personally but Mystically when they are supposed capable of abiding in him And this Mystical way of speaking is so familiar with St. John as well as our Saviour as that it cannot be thought strange that he should thus express himself § XI 3. THEREFORE the Church with which it was supposed so necessary for particular Members to be united in order to their participation of the influences of Spiritual Life is plainly supposed to be the Church in this World and that visible Society of them which joyned in the same publick exercises of Religion in that Age when these things were written This appears plainly from all the Apostle says concerning this Church of which he there speaks They were plainly an organized Body consisting
respectively related And then as it is in the power of the Governours of particular Churches to deprive them at least of the Communion of their own particular Churches and so to cut them off from their being Members of them it must also consequently be in their power to cut them off from their Communion with the Catholick Church to which they have no other title but that Membership This therefore I shall endeavour to prove from the Principles which I intend to make use of for proving this present Particular § XXII IN order hereunto I desire it may be observed 1. That the nature of the inconvenience incurred by this deprivation of Communion in their own particular Churches is such as that it is impossible that the censure can be valid in their own Churches unless it be valid in others The design of the suspending from the Sacraments is for so long to deprive the Person of the benefit of the Sacraments till he yield to the thing required from him by the Authority by which he is suspended Either therefore he has still a title to the benefit of the Sacraments from which he is suspended or he has not If he have still as good a Covenant-title to the benefits of the Sacrament as before and can as well assure himself of his title what loss can it be for him to be deprived of the Sacramental Elements How can it ever oblige him in conscience to submit to that Authority which can inflict no greater punishment than this deprivation If therefore God himself be obliged to ratifie the censures of particular Churches in order to the preservation of their Government then it must follow that the Person so deprived must lose his interest in the New-Covenant of the Gospel and all the priviledges consequent to that interest And he who has lost his interest in the Covenant cannot retrieve it by a bare change of the place and Jurisdiction He that has no interest in the Gospel-Covenant cannot possibly continue a Member of the Catholick Church whose Vnion consists in their confederation in the same Covenant And considering that the Covenant is the same by which they are united to God and to each other nay indeed that their Vnion to each other is grounded on their Vnion with Christ they are therefore Fellow-Members of each other Eph. iv 25 1 Cor. v◠17 because they are all Members of the same Mystical Body of Christ they are made one Spirit by partaking of that one Spirit which is also his therefore it is impossible that they can be separated from this Mystical Vnion with one another unless they be both or one of them at least disunited from Christ which they who are must by necessary consequence be disunited from all the Members of that Mystical Body And however that Vnion with other Members could afford little comfort to a Person concerned in it which were consistent with their separation from Christ their common Head So also they who are deprived of the title the Covenant is capable of giving them to remission of sins in one Church cannot at the same time be judged to be free from their sins in the other even on performance of the Moral Duties and he who is not so cannot be judged to be in a present capacity of being a church-Church-Member This proves at least that the Church which thinks the censure pronounced against any Person to have been pronounced validly and to have cut him off from the Church wherein he was censured cannot at the same time think him united to themselves in the bond of Catholick Vnity if they think the Church from whence he is divided to be Catholick And the case is the same whether the Person so divided have divided himself by separation or have been divided from them by the censures of a Lawful Authority Still so long as he is divided from any one Church that is Catholick he cannot continue his Vnity with them if they continue theirs with the Church from which he is divided § XXIII HENCE it follows 2. That if such a Person be received to the Sacraments in another Church without as good an Authority for uniting him to the Vnity of the Catholick Church as that was by which he was deprived only on supposition of the continuance of his invisible Vnity with the Catholick Church notwithstanding his visible separation from a part of it such Sacraments must as to him be perfect Nullities and cannot convey to him the proper benefits of Sacraments even on the performance of the general Moral conditions of Faith and Repentance For the Sacraments cannot convey the merits and influences of Christ to any but those who are united in his Mystical Body by the same proportion of reasoning as the Vessels by which the vital influences are conveyed in the Natural Body can convey them to none but those who are parts of the Body to which they are supposed to belong The strength of this Mystical reasoning I have elsewhere proved Seeing therefore that the Sacraments can convey no influences but unto them who are united to Christ and on the supposition I am now speaking of the Persons thus received to the Sacrament cannot be supposed thus united to him therefore such a Communicant could not expect any benefit from such Sacraments not only in regard of his want of those moral dispositions but also in regard of his incapacity though he had them This therefore will be the case where the reception to Communion is only granted as a Testimony of the Vnity which the Person so received is supposed to have invisibly even antecedently to such reception But if it be designed further not to testifie that Catholick Vnity which he is supposed to retain but to restore it to him who is supposed to have lost it by his separation from his own Church this is another case And concerning it I say § XXIV 3. THAT no particular Church whatsoever can by its Authority alone restore any to Catholick Vnity who has been separated from it by another without the consent of the Church by which he was at first separated This is plain from what has been said before because this is impossible to be done without disanulling the Authority by which he was at first separated from the Church For if this later Church can restore such a Person to Catholick Vnity then it may also restore him to Vnity with that Church by which he was at first separated And if so then he may have a right to the Communion even of his own Church even whilest he is actually separated from them And then what effect can such an Authority have whereby it may appear to be Authority if it cannot deprive him of so much as the right to that Communion from which he is so separated Seeing therefore both these exercises of Authority cannot be supposed valid at the same time and seeing therefore that God is obliged to disanul the one if he will ratifie the
Covenant And seeing the Church with whom this Covenant is made is still a Body Politick as formerly though not a Civil one And seeing that God has designed to oblige all Persons to enter into this Society to maintein its Peace which could not be significant if Persons might Ordinarily hope for the same advantages out of it as in it They will both of them seem to agree in this that the Promises are in both alike confined to the Covenant at least as to an Ordinary way § XIV BUT besides these Arguments from Testimonies this confinement of the Evangelical Promises to the Evangelical Covenant will appear from the Reason of the things themselves even according to that account of them which our dissenting Brethren themselves conceive to be rational To which purpose it is to be remembred that the reason why God has been pleased to admit Mankind to this favour is not his own essential Goodness alone but the consideration of the Satisfaction of Christ by which it is purchased and by which it is made reconcilable with the Principles of Government to admit of this Impunity of our offences without any fear of inconvenience that must otherwise follow from such an example of Impunity and Favour to Persons so offending Whence it will further follow that seeing they are the purchase of Christs blood they are to be considered as belonging to his Right and therefore as disposable only according to his pleasure Now they themselves acknowledg a Covenant betwixt God the Father and Christ concerning this purchase not only that the Promises were to become his Property but also that their actual distribution and extent should be according to his appointment However whether the distribution of them depended on his pleasure or not yet as to the positive way of arguing we who have an Interest in Christ are sufficiently secure of obteining them St. Joh. xvi 26.27 because by virtue of this satisfaction his Father himself as himself has told us loves us and is as careful for the performance as if himself had been the Person interessed in our behalf And accordingly he has given our Saviour this power for this purpose that he should give eternal Life to us St. Joh. vi 40 and he has received a Commandment from the Father to lay down his Life for us And the very Persons are as truly given him by the Father as the Father himself has confined these favours only to the Persons which he should give him St. Joh. vi 37.39 xvii 6.9.11.12 And if our dissenting Brethren would only be pleased to consider further that the Covenant betwixt Christ and Vs is only pursuant to that betwixt him and his Father and only designed for its application to particulars that as by the Covenant betwixt him and his Father it is resolved that only his should have an Interest in these Promises so by the Covenant betwixt him and Mankind particular Rules were agreed upon for knowing who should be accounted his And that Christ transacted this whole affair as a publick Person the same way as Adam had done in the former Covenant And that accordingly as the benefit of the former Covenant belonged to all who bore the Image of the first Adam so the benefit of the later Covenant cannot be challenged by any but those who bear the Image of the second nay that the name of Christ is more expresly applied to the multitude represented by him than that of Adam is to the multitude represented by Adam That only Adam and his Wife are called Adam but all who have an Interest in the New Covenant are called by the name of Christ that only Eve was said to be flesh of Adams flesh and bone of his bone and one flesh with him in regard of the singular manner of her production out of him but the whole Church is said to be of the flesh and bones of Christ Nay that this Unity betwixt Christ and his Church is expresly urged so far as that whatsoever is done to the Church is in a Legal sense 1 Cor. xii 12 Eph. v. 30 Act. ix 4 2 Cor. 1.5.7 1 Pet. iv 13 Col. 1.24 Gal. vi 17 reputed as if it had been done to Christ himself and what is not conferred on his Members is said to be wanting to himself their Head so he was persecuted by St. Paul in his Members and the remainder of his Sufferings in the flesh was fulfilled by the sufferings of the same St. Paul when now a Christian and he bore in his Body the dyings of the Lord Jesus and from this relation of ours to Christ as of Members to our Head the same Apostle concludes it as impossible for him to have risen if we should not rise also as it is for the Head to be enlivened whilest at the same time its Members lie rotting in the grave where I desire it may be observed that the Apostle is to be considered as a Disputant from Reason not as a Proposer of Revelation whence it will plainly follow that Christians are also included in this Legal person of Christ which is susteined by him in transacting the New Covenant and therefore that as all Christians must necessarily have a Title to these promises which cannot otherwise be said to be performed to Christ in this Latitude so that none but they can have a Legal Title to them because none can have a Legal Title to them but by purchase and none but Christ has purchased them and none but they have a Legal Title to the name and consequently to the purchases of Christ If I say these things had been impartially considered I do not conceive what could have been further necessary for shewing that this Legal Title to these promises is confined not only to the Covenant betwixt God and Christ but also to that betwixt Christ and Mankind § XV NOR indeed can I conceive how the Notion of a Covenant is otherwise explicable in these Evangelical Transactions For considering that that does imply not only a Legal but a mutual Contract it must follow that there must be mutual promises and mutual Obligations and therefore that as God is pleased in this Covenant to oblige Vs in a Legal way to the performance of our Duty so we may expect that he would also be pleased to oblige himself by promising some advantages to us to encourage us in it If he had in another way exacted our Duty on the bare account of his absolute Authority over us without any Promises on his part it might indeed have been called a command but could never have been properly stiled a Covenant And if God obliged himself to any promises in this Covenant with us it is least of all credible that he should leave out those promises which are of all others the most considerable as these are of which we are here discoursing Besides that indeed the very nature of a promise inferring a Legal Obligation it is not likely that
hate the Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. c. 4. And if this had been granted them that the Body it self was such a Principle of pollution to the Spirit how could they be solicitous for preserving it from such pollutions as were only capable of being transacted in the Body How could they think themselves concerned to preserve that pure which was it self supposed to be nothing but a pollution § XIX AND that these were particularly the sentiments of those Persons with whom the Apostles had to deal plainly appears from hence that the Principles on which they depend were generally owned by the Hereticks of that Age. They generally took the God of this world for a distinct coeternal contrary Principle to the God of Heaven They also took this World for his peculiar Province and thought themselves obnoxious to his influences as long as they were in it They thought it also the proper employment of the Angels of this World to tye their Souls to terrestrial Bodies and consequently that the best way of freeing themselves from subjection to them was to free themselves from that tye They thought that their Bodies were the creatures of this contrary wicked Principle and therefore that Marriage which was intended for the purgation of Bodies was an intention of the Devil and accordingly that Adam was damned for introducing the first precedent of the exercise of it though it was with his own wife And accordingly we find these greatest pretenders to the Spirit to be withal charged with the most abominable pollutions of the flesh 2 Pet. ii 10 Jud. 8. and that they accordingly performed the Christian Mysteries as much of them as they were pleased to retain with the same obscenity which had before been practised among the Heathens The particulars cannot be mentioned without immodesty On this account it is that we have so many exhortations to those whom the Apostles would secure from those seducers that they would purifie themselves in the flesh as well as the Spirit 2 Cor. vii 1 Rom. xii 1 and that they would offer up their Bodies as well as their Souls as a living and a reasonable Sacrifice and that their whole Man might be kept unblamable 1 Thes. v. 23 their Bodies as well as their Souls and Spirits § XX BY this it appears how very necessary it was for that great design of intire Purity and Reformation which was intended by the Christian Religion to oblige them particularly to Purity of their Bodies in contradistinction to the purity of the Spirit because whilest these Principles were believed they who were never so desirous of Spiritual Purity must have been at least negligent of this Purity of the Body if they had not utterly given themselves up to carnal Impurities on the account now mentioned And considering that it was a Principle granted among them that they were obliged to purifie that part which belonged to God and their only pretence for neglecting the like Purity of the Body was that they conceived it not to belong to him but to an adverse Being whom they were neither so obliged to please nor if they would please him was it so probable that he would be pleased with Purity what could be a properer means to convince them of their mistake in this particular and to oblige them to Corporal Purity than to perswade them to give up their Bodies as well as their Souls to Christ and to give him an interest in them by a particular and distinct Donation And accordingly this was the way which was observed and this is the Argument professedly made use of by the Apostle for this purpose 1 Cor. vi 15 Know ye not that your Bodies are the Members of Christ shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an harlot Ver. 19 20. God forbid And What Know ye not that your Body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you which ye have of God and are not your own For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirits which are Gods And because it was by the filthiness of the Heathen Mysteries that their Bodies had been defiled therefore it was very proper and agreeable to the honour of the Christian Religion that they should be obliged to this Purity of their Bodies more distinctly and particularly in the Christian Mysteries § XXI BUT there was also another reason which made it necessary that they should be united to Christ bodily as well as spiritually That was that by this means they might be assured of the Resurrection of their Bodies This was the Article of the Christian Religion on which above all others the comfort and encouragement of new Christians principally depended and which was indeed the principal inducement to them to undertake all the other Duties of the Christian Religion and which notwithstanding met with the most difficult reception of all others and wherein God was therefore pleased to give the greatest Assurance for the satisfaction of Persons concerned And particularly the Argument used for this purpose is this that Christ is risen 1 Cor. xv 12 Whence it is inferred as a necessary consequence that we must rise also And this is plainly so inferred as if it were impossible that one could be true unless the other were so too And it is urged both ways Negatively Ver. 14 17. if Christ be not risen all Preaching is in vain our Faith is also vain we are yet in our sins We have only hopes in this Life and Ver. 19. in regard of the little enjoyment we can pretend to here are become of all men most miserable And if he be risen he is risen as the first fruits and as the Head Ver. 20 2◠And as the whole Harvest is consecrated in the first fruits and the whole Body is concerned in what befalls the Head so it is supposed impossible that he can have risen but that we must thereby gain a Title to a Resurrection We as Members are said already to have risen and to have sate down in Heavenly places because he who is our Head has already done both And he as our Head is supposed uncapable of a compleat Resurrection unless we rise also who are his Members Now this benefit being such as only properly belongs to our Body therefore the force of this consequence must be grounded on this supposition that our Bodies are his Members as well as our Spirits And our Bodies must the same way be united to his Body by partaking of his Body as we are made one Spirit with him by deriving from that fullness of the Spirit which properly agrees to him as he is our Head And accordingly this participation of his Body in the Eucharist is urged by the Fathers as the greatest assurance of our hope that we shall also partake with him in his Resurrection To return therefore to my method § XXII THIS being thus
readiness of inventing those expressions or a volubility of the Tongue in pronouncing them if it were only a heat of fancy or a warmth of temper or a natural Enthusiasm peculiar to some tempers if it were any of these things which are usually mistaken for it by our dissenting Brethren I should then indeed not wonder that a perfect Prayer should be separable from the Sacraments because I know such a Prayer as this is separable from a good Life it self But if perfect Prayer be wholly transacted in the Soul of him that prayes if it be a real and hearty sense of his want of the things he prayes for and a sincere desire of them and an intire Resignation unto the Divine Will in things wherein he desires the Divine conduct if it be to think seriously as he speaks and to be affected as he thinks if it be Prayer (a) Eph. VI. 18 and supplication in the Spirit which helps (b) Rom. VIII 26 their infirmities and intercedes with sighs and groans unutterable then it will be as impossible to suppose such a Prayer separable from the Sacraments as it is to suppose it separable from that Grace which according to our Principles is confined to the Sacraments Such a Prayer as this must necessarily suppose a good Man and he who is perfect in it must be perfect in goodness too For this must suppose good inclinations as well as good Actions and therefore must suppose extraordinary degrees of Grace and a fixed inhabitation of the Spirit as an abiding and enlivening Principle which if they be not separable from the Sacraments this kind of Prayer will also be inseparable from them At least these other Popular Principles of Prayer are so like in their signs as to us to the Spirit it self that it will be at least extremely hard if at all possible to distinguish them And therefore it will be a much surer way of arguing to prove a Prayer imperfect if it proceed not from the Spirit than any other Argument can be to prove it perfect distinct from the Spirit And we have just reason to suspect that he wants the Spirit who has neglected the ordinary means of coming by it what preternatural transports soever he may feel otherwise As therefore none can rationally presume that his Prayer is perfect unless he can be rationally assured that he has these Assistances of the Spirit which are requisite to make it so so none can rationally presume that he has these Assistances but by his frequenting the Sacraments themselves wherein according to these Principles these Assistances are only to be expected By which way of proceeding a perfect Prayer must suppose the use of the Sacraments so far it will prove from being an Argument to excuse any from them Nor are these Assistances necessary only to make a Prayer perfect but also to continue it so and the Sacraments as necessary to continue these Assistances to a Prayer that is already perfect as at first to give them whilest it was imperfect Which will oblige all even whilest their Prayer is already perfect to continue the use of the Sacraments if they would continue that Perfection as well as suppose that they must have made use of them at first before they could attein to that Perfection § XVI BUT it is further considerable 6. That the Scripture no where allows such a degree of Perfection attainable in this Life as can in reason excuse I do not only say from the obligation to enter into Ecclesiastical Assemblies but also from the reason of that obligation One great reason which may oblige any one in interest to enter into a Society and consequently to submit to such conditions without which he cannot expect Admission from them who are supposed alone to have the power of admitting him is the advantage he may receive from other Members of the Society who are endued with gifts which he cannot pretend to and which yet he finds very necessary for himself This is the most likely account why a perfect Person should not need these Assemblies because such a dependence on others gifts must necessarily suppose the Person so depending imperfect at least in those gifts for which he depends on others But whether this notion of Perfection may deserve the name of Perfection properly or not it may at least deserve it comparatively in regard of others inferior to it And it is plain that the Perfection spoken of in Scripture is such as is only gradual and still capable of further improvement and that the highest degree of if attainable in this Life does not make any so perfect as not to need the gifts of others This is the Apostles express Doctrine even where he speaks of the gifts of the Spirit That (a) 1 Cor. xii 11 he distributes his gifts to every one as it pleases him That he gives (b) Rom. xii 3 6. a certain measure of this miraculous Faith to every one which I take to be the true meaning of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned afterwards That (c) 1 Cor. vii 7 every one has his own gift from God one after this manner and another after that That to every one of us is given Grace but (d) Eph. iv 7 according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And accordingly the fulness which is that which answers these terms of measure and proportion is still ascribed either to Christ (e) S. Jâ—hn I. 14 16. Col. I. 19 II. 9 himself or the (f) Col. I. 23 Church never to any particular Member And the very design of the Spirit in distributing his Graces so very differently is described to be that he might by this means oblige them to a mutual dependence That as in the natural Body the several Members have different employments and it is by this peculiarity of employments that the Unity of the whole Body is maintained he has taken the same course to oblige them to the same mutual dependence in the Body Mystical Here also the several Members have not the same (g) Rom. xii 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Apostles word Here also the whole (h) 1 Cor. xii 14 20 Body is not one Member but many and the Apostle takes it to be as destructive (i) v. 19 to the Body Mystical as it would be to the Body Natural if it were otherwise And that he means by the difference of Members not a difference of Individuals only but a difference of Office which makes them all necessary to each other he plainly shews by his continuation of the same Allegory That as in the natural Body (k) v. 17 the Eye needs the Ear to hear by and the Nose to smell by as well as both those Organs need the Eye to see by so it is also in the Body Mystical That as (l) v. 21 22 23. the Eye cannot say to the Hand I have no need of you nor again the Head to
the Baptism by Water § XV XVI XVII Our Saviour alluded herein to the Jewish Notions concerning Baptismal Regeneration § XVIII What the Rabbinical Notions are § XIX How agreeable to the Doctrine of the New Testament § XX. The Notions of the Hellenistical Jews and of the Philosophers § XXI XXII XXIII How imitated by our Saviour § XXIV An Objection § XXV Answered § XXVI XXVII 2. Grace of Baptism Forgiveness of sins § XXVIII XXIX XXX That unbaptized Persons cannot be supposed to have received the benefits of the washing of the blood of Christ or of the Mystical Baptism proved from two things 1. That all who would be Christians are obliged to receive the Baptism by Water § XXXI 2. That every one who comes to Baptism is supposed to continue till then under the guilt of his sins § XXXII XXXIII XXXIV XXXV 2. The same dependance of Salvation on Baptism proved from those Texts which speak of the Priviledges of Baptism § XXXVI The same thing proved 2. From those Texts which expresly ascribe our Salvation to our Baptism § XXXVII A sum of the Argument from 1 Pet. iii. 21 § XXXVIII From other Texts § XXXIX The Application § XL. § I I Have hitherto proved Exclusively that the Grace conferred in the Sacraments is not to be had otherwise than by the Sacraments particularly not by those two Popular Means by which Ordinary Persons think to obtain it that is not by Preaching of the Word and Prayer I now proceed 2. To prove directly that the Grace conferred in the Sacraments is such as does suppose the Persons to whom it is not givâ—â— in an Vnsalvable Condition Which will prove that the Grace here given is really necessary to Salvation Both which put together will fully amount to the thing which I design to prove under this Head That Salvation is not ordinarily to be expected without an external participation of the Sacraments § II THIS I shall endeavour to prove distinctly concerning both the Sacraments 1. Concerning Baptism and 2. Concerning the Lords Supper 1. Concerning Baptism And this two ways 1. By those Texts which imply the dependence of our Salvation on our Baptism and 2. By those which expresly ascribe Salvation to it The former I shall again consider in two regards in regard of the Graces and in regard of the Priviledges of Baptism He that wants either of these cannot be supposed to be in a salvable Condition 1. Not he who wants the Graces Those are two the Spirit of God and Forgiveness of sins And without either of these the Gospel assures no man of Salvation § III 1. Then the Spirit of God is said to be given in Baptism and so given as that he who is not Baptised cannot be supposed to have it Tit. iii. 5 This appears in that Baptism is called the laver of Regeneration and of the renewing of the Holy Ghost that our Saviour himself tells Nicodemus Joh. iii. 5 That except a man be born of Water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God that it is made the Property of our Saviours Baptism that whereas St. John baptized with Water only Matt. iii. 11 Mark i. 8 Luk. iii. 16 Joh. i. 33 Act. 1 5.xi.16 Act. ii 38 and then much more reason we have to believe that that was the only effect of the Pharisees Baptism our Saviour was also to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire And therefore St. Peter exhorts his Auditors to Repent but not only so but also to be baptized for the Remission of sins that they might receive the Holy Ghost And when St. Paul would give the Holy Ghost to them Act. xix 5 6. who had before been baptized with St. John's Baptism he does it by first baptizing them in the name of Jesus and then it follows that when he had laid his hands on them the Holy Ghost came upon them And that appeared by this sensible sign which then usually accompanied it that they spake with tongues and prophesied § IV NOW that the Spirit is absolutely necessary to Salvation I suppose our Adversaries themselves will not think it necessary that I bestow much time in proving without this that Grace cannot be had which is absolutely necessary both to prevent sin and perform any thing which may be acceptable to God for our Salvation Without this they cannot make those Prayers which may be grateful to him The supplication of the Spirit the Praying in the Holy Ghost is that alone which can hope for success It is he who helps our infirmities For Jude 20. as the Apostle tells us We know not what to pray for as we ought Rom. viii 26 27. but it is the Spirit who intercedes for us with groanes which cannot be uttered And he who searches the hearts knows the mind of the Spirit who intercedes with God for the Saints And he who has not the Spirit of Christ is none of his and every one has the Spirit who is not a Roprobate whence it plainly follows that whoever wants it is a Reprobate at least so long as he wants it But thus much I suppose our dissenting Brethren themselves will not deny § V I add therefore further that not only these actual influences of the Spirit which are common to wicked men as well as good are necessary to Salvation but also his constant presence in us as a living and abiding Principle This alone is that presence of the Spirit which can only sanctifie us Neither Nebuchadnezzar nor Pharaoh nor Caiaphas were the holier for the good motions they received but rather the unholier for having resisted them Nay these actual motions are communicable to Heathens themselves who are not capable of so much as a Federal Holiness Heb. xii 14 And yet without Holiness no man shall see the Lord. This only is that presence of the Spirit which makes Christ himself present in us as I have elsewhere shewn and they who have not Christ formed and born in them cannot be said to be in Christ and consequently can have no Legal Actual Title to all that Christ has done and suffered for them This is only that presence of the Spirit which communicates to us the influences of the Divine Life that is to the Mystical Body of Christ as the Animal and vital influences are to the Natural Body to derive all those influences from the Head which are necessary for enlivening the particular Members And therefore they who have not the Spirit in this sence cannot have the Son of God who is our Life cannot partake of any vital influences from him And they who do not are certainly in a state of Spiritual Death This also I suppose our Brethren will not deny when they are thus warned of it and shall impartially consider it If therefore this presence of the Spirit be first given in Baptism so that they who have it not given them here must be supposed not to have it at
from the provisional constitutions of the standing Government especially where they confirmed their Mission by signs as these generally did but also from most of the commands of the Law it self I do not know whether any command was excepted save that of Idolatry and the perpetual obligation of their Law and every precept of it Otherwise a Prophet might require the breach of any one precept that of Idolatry excepted so it were but for a time and this seems to have been the sense of the Jews of that Age if we may trust the modern Jews for the sense of their Ancestors Maimonid Fund Leg. c. 9. And I need not warn how much the new Converts to Christianity were then generally possessed with the Notions of the Jews whom they had deserted § XXIII ACCORDINGLY we find those strange disorders intimated in the first Epistle to the Corinthians which the Apostles were at length necessitated to reform by the exercise of Government but it was late before they attempted it not till the disorders grew intolerable and then they proceeded by slow degrees so hard it was to prevail on the contrary pretensions When St. Pauls first Epistle to the Corinthians was written many of the Prophets spoke at the same time as it should seem the Apostles and their companions did on the day of Pentecost the Women also prophesied and that publickly in the Church and they who had the gift of Tongues exercised it in the publick also without Interpeters and behaved themselves so extravagantly as that the Apostle himself tells them that an unbeliever coming among them would think them all mad These notorious and great disorders in their Synaxes make me apt to think that at that time at least they had no visible Government at all among them Which conjecture seems methinks the more likely because the Apostle in the address of this Epistle takes no notice of the Bishops and Deacons as he does elsewhere where there were any and as it was the general custom of those times in writing to Bodies to make their address particularly to the heads of the Bodies where there were such and because he blames the Corinthians for not mourning that the incestuous Person might be taken from among them which they needed not to have done if themselves had power of exercising Discipline upon him and because he expresly empowers them to meet together with his Spirit both for the Excommunication and Absolution of the incestuous Corinthian and ratifies their proceedings in that matter with his own approbation that to whomsoever they forgave any thing he forgave it also § XXIV AND therefore when the celebration of the Eucharist is mentioned among them I am to suspect that it was not performed by ordinary Presbyters but by Persons extraordinarily inspired who undertook that part of the Ecclesiastical Office as they did others also by vertue of this extraordinary Call This I take to be the meaning of the Apostle in the xivth Chapter 1 Cor. xiv 16 Otherwise when thou blessest with the Spirit how shall he that supplieth the place of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks Apol. 2. Matt. xxv◠26 Mark xiv 22 Luk. xxii 19 1 Cor. xi 24 Matt. xxvi 27 Mark xiv 23 1 Cor. x. 16 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was in Justin Martyrs time a term of Art for this Sacrament and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or blessing is used Synonymously with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew and St. Mark is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Luke and St. Paul and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Matthew and St. Mark is expressed by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Paul And in Justins time Amen was answered in that Office by the People just as we here find that it was answered by him that supplied the place of the unlearned And by the expectation of this answer of the People to it and by the other offices with which it was joyned it seems rather to have been a part of the Ecclesiastical office than otherwise If it had not been part of the Ecclesiastical Office how had the unlearned been obliged to say Amen to it How had he been obliged to use an Interpreter in it for the edification of the Church For that the Apostle seems plainly to mean in that whole Chapter by doing any thing in the Spirit the doing the same thing in an unknown tongue which they who were supposed to do it without the Spirit did in a tongue commonly understood Thus it is most accurately opposed to the doing a thing with understanding § XXV NOR did this reason hold only for hindring the exercise of Government where there was no other settlement but these occasional extraordinary Dictates of the Spirit to uncertain Members but even after the settlement of certain known Ecclesiastical Officers It is certain that this same Church of Corinth had such Officers when St. Clement wrote his Epistle to them And yet even then they who were guilty of the Schism which occasioned his writing that Epistle were encouraged to resist their Superiors by their pretensions to these gifts and that notwithstanding the Apostle himself had so long before warned them of the obligation of such Persons themselves to submit to order and the constitution of Officers among them had plainly enough signified his mind that he intended them for Judges of those Rules which were requisite for order At least this reason of condescension lasted so long if not as these gifts lasted yet till the Apostles Authority was generally received without control and till the Apostles had declared their judgments expresly in this matter that even these extraordinary gifts should be under the restraint of the ordinary Governours of the Church and till this their declaration had reached the cognizance of the whole Church universally and till men had withal some respite given them for wearing out gradually their preconceived opinions to the contrary as we find that Rule of Prudence generally observed by the Apostles to allow them respit in such Cases These reasons will at least concern those times of which the Scripture History gives us an account and will therefore concern all the Text by them insisted on in those times § XXVI I HAVE the rather particularized all these reasons of condescension in those times that our Brethren may understand the unreasonableness of the way they have hitherto insisted on for knowing the original extent of Ecclesiastical Authority For if the Apostles were of themselves so careful to condescend to the weaknesses of their new Converts if withal there were then so many reasonble inducements to perswade them to this condescension it must then be reasonable to expect that their actual practice must have fallen short of their just right and therefore that their way of arguing from the non-appearance of a precedent then to deny a right now is in it self extremely weak though we had all the Records