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
as does appear in particular by the Ninevites as also by the Sacrifices for the Atonement of the Deity which have been in use in all Nations Not but all the World is under the same Law as Adam was the Law that was for our Nature cannot be altered but we are not under it on the same terms We are under it as a Rule of Life but we are not under it as a Rule of Judgment We are under it so as we are bound to live according to it but we are not under it so that if we do not we shall be justified or condemned by it There is one Religion therefore Law or Rule for all Mankind to obtain Life by which being the Law of our Lapsed Nature or Remedying Law containing God's Grace administred to all the Earth in a threefold State of such as were or are without the Law or before it and under the Law and under the Gospel as this Administration is threefold so hath the Faith which is the Condition thereof been diversified But now is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith The Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of this Law which hath ever been afoot in the World And though a Heathen hath not that Faith as is required of the Christian under the Third Edition of it or that which was required of the Jew under the Second yet hath he such a Faith as belongs to the First such as the Antients before Abraham had and so long as that Faith he hath does work by Love or by Sincere Obedience to God according to his Light it will justifie him as well as that which is now further required of us under the Gospel It follows that this Law being that which is given for Life and so the one only true Measure of Religion to all the World must belong to the Government of God which is Vniversal and that is the Natural Government of God The Government of God which is Conventional is that Government which He hath taken over some certain Persons as they are gather'd or joyned together into Societies unto which they are called out of the World for the Glorifying his Name in that Worship and Service of Him which He hath Instituted by his Positive Law Precepts or Ordinances I mean such as He hath any way revealed to be his Will whether they be such as belong to the Law of Nature also or such as do not in order to the taking owning and acknowledging Him for their God in a peculiar manner that is in opposition to the Worship of any other God or Idols and the serving Him the true God in any other way but what He hath appointed and their becoming thereby a peculiar People to Him and so being under his Favour and Blessing in regard to all the good things of this Life and that which is to come I do observe here the Government of God which is Natural is over all the World this Government which is Conventional is over some Persons only called out of the World into a peculiar Relation to God That the One is over All but consider'd as Single Persons taking in every Individual in the World the Other is over some and so over Singulars also but consider'd as Incorporated for the Publick Service of God That the One Government is by the Law of Nature I mean both of Lapsed and Innocent Nature the Other is by his Positive or Revealed Laws That these Laws and Ordinances of God therefore which He hath revealed as they are more and as they are revealed otherwise or farther than by the Light of Nature or Natural Reason only are a high Priviledge to such as they are vouchsafed to What Advantage thâ—n bath the Jew above the Gentile Much every way chiefly because that unto them was committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.1 2. That this giving to a People his Oracles or Positive Institutions are advantageous upon this Account that they are Means for obtaining his blessing or else there could be no such Advantage in them That this Blessing of God must not be look'd on only to concern Temporal Things but Spiritual and Eternal For seeing Man consists of a Body and a Soul and that Soul is Immortal he cannot be happy but in Both. That the great and principal Advantage therefore that we have by these Ordinances or Government of God which is Conventional must and does lie in being Means for the bringing Men up to the Performance of the Terms of that Law which God by his Government which is Natural and Vniversal hath made to be the Rule of Judgment to all Men for Everlasting Life or Condemnation There are some Learned Men that will not have Adam nor any in the World to have been in Covenant with God before Abraham understanding it of a Covenant of Life But so long as God had a Government in the World before Abraham and that Government must be by a Law and that Law to Adam fallen to Seth Enoch Melchisedeck must be a Law of Grace or else no Man of them could have been saved it is but a Matter of Words whether they call this Law of Grace and Life a Covenant or not This we must have a Care of that we distinguish this Law of Grace or Law for Life and Salvation which is contained in these Words Walk before Me and be Vpright belonging out of question to Adam Seth Enoch as much as to Abraham and the Covenant which God made with Abraham hereupon being such an upright Person in regard to himself and Posterity I will make my Covenant between Me and Thee and I will multiply thee exceedingly I I will establish my Covenant between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations to be a God to Thee and thy Seed after Thee This is my Covenant Every Man-child among you shall be Circumcised There is the Covenant of Life therefore and Covenant of Advantage The Covenant of Life I scruple not to call it Law or Covenant was made with faln Adam and in him with all the World and is all one with the Law of Grace I say that belongs to God's Natural Government which is Vniversal and according to this Law or Covenant must every Man be judged at the last Day The Covenant of Advantage is the Covenant which God made with Abraham and with the Israelites for his sake beginning it with him by Circumcision unto which were added other Rites and Ordinances by Moses together with the Declaration of the Moral Law and in regard hereunto that People are said to be a holy People a peculiar People and preferred before all the Nations in the World Among all the Multitude of People Thou hast gotten Thee one People and unto this People whom Thou lovedst Thou gavest a Law that is approved of all says Esdras 2 Esd 5.27 Ye stand this Day all of you before the Lord to enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God Deut. 29. Thou art
that Righteousness of Innocent Nature from whence we are fallen and it is called also the Righteousness of Faith whereby we are Justified in opposition to the Works of the Law that is both of the Law of Nature because no Man hath those Works and therefore cannot be Justified by them and of the Law of Moses because if a Man had them he could not be Justified thereby as hath been now said So that here being a Righteousness of One Covenant which is Justifying for Jesus Christ by his Merits procured this Covenant that we might be Justified by it but He died not for the Redemption of Israel out of Aegypt or the Procuring Moses's Covenant and the Righteous of Another that is Not Justifying it does appear that these Covenants must be Distinguished and that So as a Faith Short of Saving must be made to suffice for a Man to enter One when a Saving One is necessary to the Other and consequently that the Vnregenerate as well as the Regenerate may be brought in to be Members of the Charch or Subjects of God's and Christ's Kingdom by being capable of Entring this Covenant belonging thereunto a Covenant of Allegiance when none can be Members of Christ's Myspical Body by Entring the Covenant of Life but the Regenerate only If our Church then instead of the Three Questions at Baptism letting the First stand supposing a Dogmatical Faith sufficient for Answer to That should for the other Two ask Do You renounce the Heathenism Idolatry Mahometism or This or That False Religion which you Separate from when you Joyn with us And do you intend to live such a Christian Life in your whole Conversation as not to Leven the Society by your Being of it I must confess the Answer to these Questions supposing we doubt of the Persons when else there is no necessity of any in the Affirmative were a Qualification plainly necessary to a Man's being Admitted and proper to a Covenant of this Nature which is made for Receiving Men into such a Society But when these Covenants are confounded and the Baptismal Covenant advanced into the Covenant of Life so that there are no less Conditions required of a Person unto his Coming into the Church and being Baptized than unto his Entrance into Everlasting Blessedness What shall we say to these things but that for a through Satisfaction to the whole Objection these Interrogatories therefore and Responses of the Church which have been brought into Baptism by Men I will suppose for good Reason at the time but not by Christ's Commandment are to be lookt on by none I hope as Essential or Necessary to the Institution but may be Omitted Altered or Relaxed at her Will at least when better Reason appears for it And they were Omitted we know of late at Home under the Directory and are I suppose in most of the Reformed Churches Abroad Nevertheless if the Church when She can require no more of a Person but what is necessary to the Conventional Government of God and Covenant of Peculiarity I mean can require of him to do no more than Consent to the Terms Thereof so as to Refuse his Admittance Without It shall in regard to the Complex Consideration of God's Government and Covenant require an Engagement further unto the Terms that are necessary even to Life and Salvation also so long as it be not made by a Profession de praesenti which must draw Regeneration along with it but by a Covenant-Engagement understood aright and Authenticated by an Interpretation of the Church I shall humbly give way Thereunto both out of Reverence to what She hath hitherto prescribed as also and rather for the Good Vse which Is especially in our Catechistical Divinity and May still be made of it Only as for the Abrenuncio in the Liturgy I must lodge my Opinion That either the Engagement should be declared to be Conditional or the Question only be imposed and the Baptized left to make his own Answer If after This you be not satisfied as judging that no Person Vnregenerate can say I Engage into which I confess I would have the word chang'd but it is a Lie as much as if he said Abrenuncio Let the Church make her Interpretation with the Change of the Word and I am not of your Mind Nevertheless I will Answer you also otherwise If the Church were willing to turn her Abrenuncio to a Polliceor and That Won't serve then may She turn it into some other Words God grant I may as Will serve And I doubt not but if the Person that is tender of the Form imposed makes his Answer in such Words as he can with a good Conscience and without Doubting it were better than in those Prescribed seeing it is not Words nor Works but a Man's Will as I humbly understand or a Man's Consent a Believing Consent or a Consent upon Believing that is Believing the Gospel Preached and Consent to come in and be Baptized that no Body may mistake my Meaning upon the Account of General Grace is the Gospel's Christ's and his Apostle's Rule of Admission Suffer them to come unto Me and forbid them not In the Going Off I cannot but take notice how the Want of a more Timely or more Through Consideration of what I have Insisted upon to wit this Distinction of the Covenants and Government of God and the Necessity thereof hath led some Eminent Divines into the Particular Opinion That Children are to be held in the Same State with their Parents in regard to Salvation as well as in regard to their Outward Priviledges as they were Jews or Christians But I will humbly offer it to their Consideration whether there be any Places in Scripture that speak of the Parents entring Covenant for their Children or of the Covenant being made With them or To them and their Children after them but it is to be understood of the Covenant of Peculiarity and not of the Covenant for Salvation The Covenant God Establishes between Him and Abraham and his Seed after him is manifestly the Covenant of Circumcision Gen. 17. v. 7. with v. 10. And that Covenant He Enters with the Jews for Posterity Deut. 29.9 15. is but the same Covenant enlarged and expresly Distinguished from the New Covenant which is the Covenant of Grace or Covenant for Life in Heb. 8. v. 9 10. When therefore a Right to the Priviledges of that Covenant is soundly argued for Children from their Parents being in it and the Baptizing our Children as Christians as the Jews Circumcised theirs stands firm on the same Bottom because the Covenant of Peculiarity takes in the Children with the Parent by God's Ordination I will Establish my Covenant between Me and Thee and thy Seed after thee it follows not that we may argue the same thing as to the Covenant for Life In Ezek. 18. All Souls are Mine says God as the Soul of the Father so the Soul of the Son The Son shall not bear the
Soul It is not so easie a thing with every Good Man as with So good a One to assume to himself so much as but amounts to All that is necessary to make a Man a Christian when he speaketh but as he thinks upon faithful Endeavours to avoid Deceit There may be Thousands of the Temper of Holy Mr. Bradford who the more tender they are of their Duty the more sensible they are of their Defects and more fearful of Hypocrisie And God forbid but many of them whose Consciences do condemn them should yet be acquitted by Him who is Greater than their Consciences and who Does and Will do it while they are secretly yet borne up in their Desponding Dependence on his Goodness and Mercy It was more fairly said once to me by a Chief Pastor of the Anabaptists That the Way they went was not Thus but the Person that offers himself to their Church said he was only to declare what Work of God there is on his Heart and the Church are to make Judgment of it So that though the Man himself should profess he did Not believe his own Sincerity and yet the Church Did they could Receive him This I told him I liked well but it was to depart so much from the received Rule of Profession and to verge towards Mine that is towards an Admission of the Willing who are to come as I cannot chuse but think to the Vse of the Means for Grace if they have it Not as well as for farther Edification if they Have In the Last place to come home I have in my fore-going Discourse delivered my Thoughts about the Church and Covenant And though it be true that no Man can Enter or be in Covenant with God in that Sense which signifies the Performing the Condition but he must be Regenerate and a Member of Christ's Mystical Body or Church taking the Covenant whether Abstractly or Complexly for the Covenant of Life Yet as for Admitting Men and Women into the Society of Christians which is the Congregate Church or Christ's Political Body and Entring them into the Covenant of Peculiarity whereby they obtain only the Advantage of the Ordinances as Means for the bringing them up to the Terms of Salvation if they are not Effectually Converted already whereof I have all the way before been speaking I apprehend the Scene is as it were quite changed and I must stand still upon this That if any one Receives the Gospel and Believes it but so far Let not any one then say foolishly That when I let those That Will come into the Church I let in Turks Jews Infidels for by Receiving the Gospel i. e. the Doctrine or Creed of it I do suppose them turn'd Christians as to be Willing to come in and be Baptized whether he makes any other Profession or not This is sufficient hereunto and there is nothing Else I find required of him unless we doubt whether a Man be In Earnest and a Christian in his Heart when he comes and then are we to Put the Question to him and he is to own the Faith Or unless he be a Profligate Scandalous Sinner who then must make his open Confession and declare his Repentance or be kept out I see not but the Owning the True God in opposition to all false Religions and other Gods was the main Intendment of the Jews Covenant and that a Common Faith left the word Dogmatical be too short which is less than Saving did suffice to the Entring it or Taking hold of it and that the Vnregenerate consequently as well as the Regenerate were in the Intention of God to be Members of that Church And I do think that the same Latitude ought to be maintained in regard to the same Kingdom as it is now Enlarged over the Nations and put into Christ's Hands which belonged to it before when a Theocracy of the Jews Indeed it must be confessed lest I seem Deficient in waving That before though once touch't upon which was needless till Now That besides their taking God to Worship Him only there was a Consent in the Generality likewise to all that Political Ceremonial Moral External Obedience which was required in that Covenant according to those Words of theirs All things that the Lord hath commanded we will do Only this must be known withal that these All Things which they were to do as the Matter of that Covenant in Observing all the Commandments thereof was short of the Righteousness of a Regenerate Man or of that Righteousness that justifies a Christian This appears expresly by St. Paul who was a Pharisee of the chiefest Sect of the Jews and Touching the Righteousness of the Law he says blameless but yet in point of Justification he tells us He Counted it but Loss desiring to be Found in Christ not having his own Righteousness but the Righteousness which is of God by Faith The Apostle by his Own Righteousness understands the Righteousness which he had as a Jew the Righteousness of Moses's Covenant described by him thus And it shall be our Righteousness if we observe to do all these Commandments Deut. 6.25 24.13 It shall be Our Righteousness that is so as the Law hath nothing against Such but that they shall live in the Land and be Blessed or that God as Rector shall Reward them with the Temporal Blessings promised in that Covenant But it was never intended by God for such a Righteousness as should Justifie a Man to Life Everlasting for how then should Enoch Job Melchisedeck and those Good Men that lived before the Law have been Justified Were they Justified any other ways than we If Righteousness come by the Law then is Christ dead in vain The Jews indeed generally that were not Saducees thought to obtain Salvation by their Works according to this Covenant which proved so deadly to them For they being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to Establish their own Righteousness did not submit to the Righteousness of God This Righteousness of Theirs and Paul's Own which he calls so I say as a Jew for his Own as a Christian he must have and be Judged according to it is that Righteousness whereof Christ speaks when He tells his Disciples that were Jews Vnless your Righteousness exceeds the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees you cannot be saved There is a Conformity to the Law or Covenant of Moses which is the Righteousness of the Jew and so of the Scribes and Pharisees And there is a Conformity to the Law or Covenant of Grace and This is the Christian Righteousness that exceeds the Other The One consists in External Obedience in the Political Ceremonial Moral External Obedience I say of That Covenant The Other in Sincerity of Heart and Life accepted through Christ which is That which exceeds the Former As Abraham's Walking Vprightly before God exceeded his being Circumcised This Righteousness is called the Righteousness of God as of his Inventing Appointing Accepting instead of