no otherwise than as they are reputed Members of the Invisible upon this Reason which is therefore to be look't on as the Stating and all the Stating he has of the Point because they become Members by their Voluntary Covenanting by Baptism It is a Contradiction For their Voluntary Covenanting by Baptism is in the common Account Professing themselves Members of the Church Invisible I am very sensible that this Notion of a Visible Member which he opposes as the Independent Notion is the Notion of our Protestants in general and when he hath said so much to Confute it in the Independent he must not go back upon his Knowledge that the Presbyterian and the Church of England as well as the Congregationalist agree in the same Nay so long as he but uses the Term Visible and tells us That the Vnregenerate are Members of the Church only as Visible or only Visible Members the Cause is given up for to be a Visible Member and no more is to be a. Member of Christ in the Account of Men when they are not so in the Sight of God which is That they who oppose us would have according to the received Opinion even of all sorts of Protestant Divines as I said but now As for this Author then and Mr. Blake I see no Foot-steps leading them out of this Difficulty having had no Inckling of any Difference between God's Government over all Mankind for Eternal Life and that Kingdom which He set up over the Jews and committed to the Messiah to be spread over all Nations by the Gospel as subservient to that End and consequently between the Condition necessary to bring Men into a State of Salvation according to the Covenant of Grace and That which serves to make Men Subjects to this Voluntary Government or Kingdom and capable of Entring the Covenant belonging thereunto as Means to the Other and so to distinguish of a Saving Faith and One Short of it accordingly I do much less remember in these Authors any thing of Solidity about the Measure or Stint of that Faith which does Entitle to Baptism and not to Justisication If a Faith less than Saving do suffice to give this Right it must be known to what Degree that Faith must come to have this Virtue and what That is which gives it But I should never have found Light in their Books about the General Grace of God from whence that Virtue springs and whereupon it is certainly founded Or of that Degree which specifies this Faith which is short of Saving and yet gives Right upon the Account thereof to Admission I let thus much be yet but a Riddle till the Book be read over and that all of it for the Notion is not compleat till you come to the very End Whosoever will let him take the Water of Life freely I do not forget that all Men know but in part and I am conscious how little I know in respect of Others and that there is like to be a great deal wanting in my Papers and perhaps something of Inconsistency too as in these Worthy Persons especially in offering some Variety for Men to choose where if I stuck to One thing they could not have it And I do therefore give the like Liberty to Others to open those Defects with all my Heart if it be to the same End of helping Them and compleating the Notion It is but little a Man can do with his single Strength It is but little Light that any sow usually at first which must grow up by the blowing of Others That which I sow I know can but be a Seed so small as the Mustard-seed which yet if it be look't to watered and cultivated by other Hands may spread into a Tree for the Time to come to gather Fruit of it In the mean while I will give warning That no Body make this Discourse a Pretext for Impiety in the neglect either of his Exhortation of Others or of his Care to his own Soul in sitting themselves for Baptism or the Supper if they come to them That a Man repent of all his Sins and dedicate himself unto God in sincere Obedience or entire measured by Grace and particularly the more solemnly when he comes to these Sacraments is his unquestionable Duty And for as much as this is the usual Theme of our Practical Books and Sermons I do declare by these Presents my Approbation of such Labours and that there is nothing in this Discourse to be understood to the contrary but rather to press the same thing upon all Persons as ever they expect to have the Remission of their Sins and obtain Salvation Nevertheless in regard that it is Sathan's Policy to make Holiness and Peace oftentimes to become Stumbling-Blocks one to the Other while some Men by secking the Purity of the Church do themselves take and more often give occasion to others to break the Peace of It it is the Endeavour of these Sheets to let Men understand That though such Lessons are well taught and urged on all that come yet is it their Duty still to come and of the Church to receive those that come And if such be Admitted that come not as they ought when yet they ought to come it is not for any upon that Account to Separate from Vs We are indeed to take heed we be not levened by any one's Sin and to Admonish the Guilty if it be not casting Pearl before Swine and to tell the Church if a Brother be refractory But our Communion with evil Men does not maculate any says St. Austin by partaking of the Sacrament with them unless we joyn in or consent to their Deeds In the Threshing of the Wheat the Corn parts from the Chaff but Both of them keep the same Floor And however the Devil would be setting Holiness and Peace at distance it is our part to keep to both not willingly letting One intrench upon the Other And such Doctrine is to be taught and to be so tempered as most conduces to make them Meet I shall not therefore be concerned much at those Men who will be apt to say That my Larger Way will bring in too many into the Church and confound the World with it For besides that this is a Mistake so long as a Christian and a Pagan are not confounded and it is not the Vngodly but the more tender Godly that would stick at what they are put to profess supposing them once willing to come in I am not sensible of any such great Hurt in this when according to the Prophecies of Scripture it is the Glory of the Church under the Gospel that the Kingdoms of the World do become the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Seek ye Me says God and seek not Bethel That Publick Worship which God hath Instituted for Himself as the only True God in opposition to Idols and False Worship is a Means which we are to use in order that we may Live for This hath
that Distinction I do not I say distribute One Thing into its Two Parts or Adjuncts but I distribute One Word or Homonymous Term into Two Things signified by it To be Vnited to Christ by his Spirit so as to Have Him a Head of Influences to me for Spiritual Life and Salvation is One Thing and to be of the number of Those who are brought under his Positive Institutions and Subject themselves to his Officers for the proper End and so Have Him as a Political Head only for External Government though it be in order to bring them on to Saving Grace and into the Mystical Church also is Another If I speak of the Seed of Abraham To be his Seed by Birth is One Thing and to be his Seed by Faith is Another It is One Thing to be an Outward Jew or a Jew by Nature and Circumcision in the Flesh and it is Another to be an Inward Jew by Circumcision in the Spirit by Grace and Keeping the Commandments of God And what a Distribution then is this Why It is Distributio Homonymi sive Equivocantis in Equivocata And the Distribution of a Genus into its Species of a Whole into its Parts of a Subject into its Adjuncts being as I count Distributiones Vnivoci This can be none of those Three Here is Idem Nomen the same Word or Term CHVRCH but Nominis Ratio Diversa the Reason of the Denomination the Conceptus Objectivus not the Same When there is One Name then there are Two Things The Things are diverse and disparate but not Two Species of One Genus or Two Parts of One Integrum or Two Accidents of One Subject there is no need of That The Political Body is One Society and the Mystical Body is One Society Both are headed by One Christ Both are Catholick and Both are One and One Person may be a Member of Both but Both are not the Same It is not a Distribution of an Integrum into its diverse Sorts of Members as I have been formerly apt to think because the Coetus then must be One when That Coetus which consists of the Regenerate and Vnregenerate and That which consists of the Regenerate Only cannot be One and the Same Coetus but Two Especially when there may be Some who are Members of the Church Mystical as being already in a State of Salvation and not yet Admitted into the Congregate or Political Body either Vniversal or Particular for so I use these Terms Act. 10.4 22 35. Rom. 2.26 27. as well as Many who are Members of a Christian Congregation but Foreigners to the Assembly of Heaven It is not a Distribution of a Subject into its Adjuncts for the same Reason which yet our Divines intend by their Terms Visible and Invisible already noted The Church which is Christ's Church is that One Mystical Body of the Elect and Regenerate only according to them distinguished into a double Respect or Consideration thereof as Invisibly or Visibly such that is as Men be Indeed or in Appearance Members of it A goodly Distribution As if we should divide Man in Specie into its Singulars Plato Socrates Paul John and the Pictures of Men when the Picture of a Man is No Man and a Visible Member No Member that is a dividing a Church-Member or Church into one that is One and into one that is None Besides that this is a Conception as before intimated that makes the Apostle understand by the Outward Jew when he distinguishes them Rom. 2. to be the Inward One according to Appearance one that appears to be an Inward One or a Jew only Putativè secundum apparentiam as they speak when nothing is more contrary to his Mind who means undoubtedly a Jew by Nature as Gal. 2. one of Abraham's Seed according to the Flesh Born a Jew and thereby having a Right to Circumcision and the Consequences of it The Formal Reason giving Being and Relation to One Church is distinct and different quite from That which Constituteth and giveth Relation to the Other I am nevertheless afraid to say likewise That it is a Distribution of a Genus into its Species because the making Two Churches specifically distinct under One Vnivocum Vnivocans will be Absonant I doubt to the General Ear though if any will make the Coetus Vocatorum the Number of the Called in Genere to be divided into the Number of the Called Effectually and of the Externally Called and then divide these as the Species into their Singulars Peter Paul Regenerate Judas Simon Unregenerate I shall be far from falling out with them who must rather declare That if they can make it good they have won our CAVSE For my part I am only pretty sure methinks of This that the term CHVRCH is Homonymous and so long as I go no farther than I do I seem to my self the more safe For thus much appears The Inward Jew hath another Relation to God than the Outward in regard to which the Outward Jew is said to be No Jew that is None as so meant when in regard to that Relation which is common to Both he was a Jew the true proper Jew and the Other but Metaphorically so having the same Priviledges thereof equal with the Other It is One thing to have One of these Relations and to have the Other is Another and the Societies to which they relate therefore are not the Same To be Called is One thing to be Elected Another The Mystical Church is the Number of the Spiritual Seed Inward Jew or Christian or of the Elect The Political Church is the Number of the Called To speak yet more exactly There is the Kingdom of Christ and there are Some Persons among them whom He Chooses to give his Special Grace and Spirit unto and thereby to make them One with Himself in another or stricter manner than the rest These Select or Elect Persons are sometimes called the Church and sometimes this whole Kingdom is called the Church This Kingdom is Vniversal or Catholick because it is over the World These Elect are Catholick because scattered here and there every where in it This Kingdom is One because they are All under One Head and Government and have One Faith and One Baptism Ephes 4.5 These Elect are One because united into a Mystical Body even so as to be said One Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 If Divines had used to distinguish these Two Things by Two Words and called the One Christ's Kingdom and the Other the Church the Matter would have been more easie But when they are Both called the Church I am forced to distinguish the word Church and tell That I understand by it Christ's Kingdom that which is called the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel Matth. 13.44 Mar. 4.26 Act. 20.25 And if it appear that Vnregenerate Men are of This Kingdom Matth. 8.12 it is all one to me as to say They are of the Church Unto Christ's Kingdom certainly
common way hath indeed Answered it to the Satisfaction of any the most Impartial among them As for Profession of Infants what is that for Signification to us whether the Baptized be Regenerate or not And what Profession is there besides at least ordinarily but coming together in the Publick Congregation If the Churches of Christ's Ordination I must say it again be a Number only of such Persons as do profess their Faith Repentance Regeneration so credibly or in some such manner as the Minister and Church do receive them thereupon as Men endowed with the Grace supposed to be professed and our Mixt Churches be not in good earnest a Number of such Professors then is there here inconsistent Matter Our Principle is One thing our Practice is Another If you deny the Assumption and will still affirm Our Members are such Professors you will prevail with the Opponent no more than One whom they count will say any thing which will but root them so much the deeper in their Conviction They will tell you They stand on your Bottom and make their Practice comport with it who admit none into their Society but such as indeed make a Profession that is credibly Significant of the thing professed and upon that or such only receive them to be Members They make our Principle and their Practice accord but we stand on the same Bottom and our Vniversal Practice is otherwise and yet maintain our Mixt Churches And what then must we do to make them Good Why As these Men by keeping to our Principle do forsake our Practice so we to avoid their Practice must try our Principle Whether it may not be enlarged to that Practice which is common and cannot but take place where Kingdoms become Christian the Particular Congregations whereof will be acknowledged for all that by Others if not by thâ—se Men to be Churches of Jesus Chriâ—t I know indeed how mean and unfit a Person I am to become a Master-Builder especially when I am to lay another Foundation than That which is laid by the common Doctrine of our Protestants and much more when I am to lay it in Opposition to One particularly unto whom I do not think My Self worthy to be as a Labourer and carry his Bricks after him From whom nevertheless I shall expect a more sincere and candid Consideration of what is offered than from Others It is now about One or Two and Thirty Years that I have had for Recollection for so long it is since I Printed Three Books about Free Admission to the Sacrament Vpon coming out of the Third Piece I received from Mr. Blake a grave Presbyterian a Letter signifying to me his Approbation of the Second Section of that Book with Exceptions to all the Rest When on the contrary I heard from the Reverend Mr. Baxter who approved the rest but excepted at that Section Mr. Blake having found it necessary in regard to some Dispute wherein he was engaged concerning Baptism to enlarge the received Notion of the Church I had in that Section contributed what present Aid I could toward strengthening his Opinion Mr. Baxter upon his first taking notice of the Notion in Mr. Blake did shew a very good Will to it in his Book of Infant-Baptism using as I remember some such Words That there was more Worth in a Leaf or two of Mr. Blake than in all Mr. Tombs's Works By which Words Mr. Blake being encouraged advanced in his Notion But Mr. Baxter having considered farther of it and finding that it would not go being against the Stream which appeared to him more especially from the Learned Gataker's Book de Infantili Baptismo comes out against him in Answer to his Books and to That little of Mine with such a Torrent of Argument and Authority that Mr. Blake I believe could never recover it For my part I conceived Mr. Baxter too hard for me to Cope with and Mr. Blake being dead there was none to take up his Cause The Truth is Mr. Blake had much to say and a great many Scriptures appeared apt to militate for him But he had not digested his Notion and no Man shall ever be able to Make Good any Point which be cannot first State He maintained That a Dogmatical Faith was sufficient to enter a Man in Covenant with God and so to Entitle him to the Ordinances But being pressed with the Authority of the Assembly and the Fathers That the Profession of a Justifying Faith is required to Baptism he grants it and accounts that Nothing to him who never denyed it This Concession was an irrecoverable Contradiction If a Faith less than Saving serves to give Title to a Man himself to be Baptized then a Profession of one less than Saving must suffice for his Admission The Church or Pastor cannot require that a Man should profess any more to their Receiving him than That which gives himself Title to be Baptized It fared the like with that Learned and most Ingenious Gentleman Sir William Morice who appearing by the Title of his Book in the First Edition to defend the same Point with Mr. Blake was discoursed from One by Letter with all the Difficulties he could bring to the end he should obviate them and extricate Vs out of them But he finding it indeed beyond his Ability did wisely by interpreting the Term Dogmatical Faith and making it to signifie a Profession of a Saving One decline the Task and so glided himself off into the Stream of the Common Opinion There have been of late Two Persons of sober Judgment both Citizens who were of the Congregational way but brought off from it upon this same Conception That the Church is to be laid Wider than they thought before and is used They wrote each of them upon the Subject with Approbation of some Persons of Note in the Church and the latest Book is Entituled Catholicisme which I name particularly because there are many things considerable in it to the Asserting our Cause and Answering some Objections I have not touched Nevertheless it does fall out with this Author as with Those before-named who having not compleated his Thoughts does at the very Beginning when he is about stating the Matter destroy it For making this Query What may That be by which People are made Visible Members and giving the Resolution That it is a Mutual Covenanting between God and Them and understanding by this Covenant the Covenant of Grance or Covenant of Life without any Distinction or Apprehensions about it but as others have It is plain that no Man can Covenant on his Part in the manner he expresses it but he is a Regenerate Man and so shall not the Church consist of the Regenerate and Vnregenerate as we would have it but of the Regenerate only or of Those only who are Visibly such which subverts our Opinion When accordingly in his Eighth Query he endeavours to disprove the Tenent of the Independents That Men are Members of the Church as Visible
that have an External Right to them be Denyed to any one the fuller Definition of General Grace before laid down duly also considered who upon an Assent to the Truth of the Gospel doth desire Admission upon this Account or to this End If there be any Reason for their Refusal otherwise well and good but it must be left to themselves to make further Application as to their Special Interest only by way of Consequence and Deduction according to their Evidence of having or not having performed the Condition required to the Benefits of Remission and Salvation It is Objected in the Cure of Church-Divisions 1. This Doctrine confounds the Catechumens with the Christians Answ It is true that the Primitive Church after the Apostles in the Times of the Ten Persecutions were very strict in their Admitting Members and so had their Catechumeni which continued upon the good Use of that Custom for a long Season And Albaspinaeus as I remember does tell us a good Reason they had for it in regard of the Danger they then were in in case of any False Brother upon which Account we find the Disciples at first so shy of Paul Act. 9.26 who might at that time betray the whole Church and her Sacred Mysteries to the Persecutor Besides the horrid Scandal to those both Within and Without in the Case of the Lapsi This Reason being now ceased God be blessed and the Command of Christ with the First Times of the Gospel and Acts of the Apostles being the Rule and Examples which we are to follow in our Practice this Objection I must say is for the Times before Constantine but is now out of date The Practice of the Apostles we find otherwise the Practice of the Church now we know otherwise There was Reason after the Apostle's Time for this Strictness but the Rule was not so at first What Would you like that the People of our Mixt Churches should be held but as Catechumens and when any are grown to be Sound Christians the Independent should Gather them into Their Congregations Our Times continue no such Custom Infant-Baptism alone confounds this Objection 2. This Doctrine makes the Church consist of such as are no Christians Of such as take Christ for their Teacher and not their King Answ Of Such or most Such as are no Regenerate Christians It was the Belief of their Creeds among the Antients made them Christians and there is none of us believe Christ to be a Teacher but he believes Him also a Priest and a King I understand not this dividing Christ's Offices He that comes in but to the Conventional Government of Christ and submits to the Institutions of it takes Him for his King Nay he that takes Christ for his Teacher takes Him Therein also to be his Ruler that is to be led by Him And I say the Vnregenerate takes Christ to be his Ruler so far as to joyn in his Ordinances and so far as he takes Him the Minister cannot Refuse him If he takes Him so far as to Obey Him farther it is his Duty and his Salvation depends upon it But if no farther so far as any will take Him or come in to Him it is the General Grace of God and Christ that must and that will warrant his Admission against all that gainsay it 3. They therefore that hold this the dividing Christ's Offices introduce a New Christianity Answ And they that savor it not retain but the Old 4. And a New sort of Baptism Answ No good Sir but another Profession than That which by an unavoidable Consequence must else bring us all to Separation It is true that the Tradition of Baptism is Sacred and it is a Benefit not to be lost that it hath delivered down what Christianity is by our Christening But Infant-Baptism is a part of that Tradition if the Fathers be not out And I hope that we may know what Christianity is by engaging our Children to it as well as by our making them de praesenti to Profess it If the Child be made to answer Polliceor and that in the Sense which respects both Parts of the Covenant as hath been intimated it will be all one with an Abrenuncio as for that The Church her self which for the Antient Forms sake retains the Words in her Baptism does recal them in effect by rendring this Interpretation in her Catechism 5. This large Doctrine destroys the Special Love of Christ's Members Answ By no means We are to Receive all that are Willing We know not how Far they are Willing If they be Willing to come in thus Far they may be Such for ought we know as are willing Altogether And as Charity Hopeth all things as well as Believeth all things we are to judge the best of them and behave our selves to them accordingly Besides it is too narrow a thing for Brotherly Love to sit down in the Comforts only of my Brethren's Mutual Faith and not be at the Pains for their Conversion 6. Hence it will follow that the Church must be constituted of Two sorts of Professors and so be Two Churches Answ There is one thing I must remember while I think of it which else may work a great deal of Prejudice to my CAUSE It must be acknowledged that our Divines generally do make Profession to be That which gives Right Coram Ecclesia to the Ordinances and Membership and Truth of Grace say the most Coram Deo Now whil'st I seem to lay another Ground which is Willingness or Consent upon Belief of the Gospel upon the Account of General Grace both Coram Deo and Ecclesia I must declare that This is or shall be accounted by me to be Profession I say That when a Man comes and offers himself to joyn or joyns with the Church in her Service this is Profession If any will not let me call This Profession then I must say It is Not Profession but This Consent or Willingness upon Receiving the Word that is the Rule of Admission If they will then I say It is My Profession is the Rule and not Theirs which is a Profession of no less than Regeneration Not but that a Man who believes the Gospel and comes in may make what Profession of Grace he Can and Will as he hath occasion without Making or Marring the Constitution of the Church The Church is Constituted of the Willing of those that Offer Themselves These are Regenerate and Vnregenerate according to Christ's Intendment in several of his Parables This Church moreover I must say is Catholick One and Entire after Cyprian de Vnitate Ecclesiae and after Augustine The Objection then of Two Churches upon the Diversity of Professions that being not our Rule is built upon the Sand tho' the Church Political and Mystical be not indeed the same There are more Objections with greater Variety in the Book called Right to Sacraments And the Sum of most of them I take it comes to This. The whole Church have
Reason And this must ordinarily needs be for the Good of the Wheat But when there is a Willingness upon the Gospel Preached and there be no such Reason to hinder I am for gain-saying no Bodies Admission Whatsoever Passages there be then in the Fathers or Other Men that run in an higher Strain than This comes to they are to be Reduced I will account to this Model or to be seasoned with the same Interpretation I will Conclude yet with One Authority which seems to me to incline to my Cause with Declination from the common Opinion Our British Divines in the Synod of Dort upon the Fifth Article De Perseverantia Sanctorum have these Theses Quihusdam non Electis conceditur quaedam Illuminatio Supernaturalis cujus virtute intelligunt ea quae in Verbo Dei annunciantur essa vera iisdemque assensum praebent minime simulatum To some Persons not Elect God does afford a certain Supernatural Illumination by vertue whereof they understand those things which are declared in the Word of God to be true and do give an Assent to them not counterfeit In iisdem ex hac Cognitione Fide oritur affectuum quaedam mutatio morum aliqualis emendatio Out of such a Knowledge and Faith as this in the same Persons does there arise some kind of Change in their Affections and Amendment of their Lives Ex his initialibus etiam per externa Obedientiae opera testatis sumuntur Charitatis judicio sumi debent pro Credentibus Justificatis Sanctificatis From these Initials or this beginning Work upon such are they and ought they to be held for Believers Justified Sanctified who never come up to a State of Saving Grace that from the Falling-away of such the Perseverance of the truly Godly should be impugned as they proceed in their next Theses which concern not this Argument From these Positions now I note That when the common Opinion of the Protestants is That no less than a Saving Faith and Repentance or Regeneration is necessary to Membership and Baptism here appears in these Divines something that is Singular who do make a Work of Common Grace upon People that is less than Saving to be the Ground of our Holding them to be Such as Those are who are the most Qualified Members The Common Opinion will have Persons make a Profession of a Saving Faith or Regenerating Grace and it must be of no less than Such and then we are to reckon them in the Judgment of Charity to Be what they Profess unless we have Proof to the contrary This is our ordinary Judgment of Charity and so Men are Visible Members as they speak upon a Lie or upon a Ground that is False But these Judicious Divines will have us reckon Men Believers Saints Justified Sanctified upon an Initial Work of Grace that is Short of Saving and This is a Judgment of Charity upon a Ground that is True The Call of the Gospel is Vniversal Those Persons that will Come in so Far as they Will are to be Received The End why they are Called is That they should all come in Fully as the Elect do The Whole Number for That Part sake as come in So have these Denominations as being in the way to obtain the same End This is that Judgment of Charity these Divines would Establish and it is not upon a Falshood as the Other is There are Two or Three things nevertheless that are lacking in their Judgment One is When an Initial Faith Repentance or Grace short of Saving is made by them a Ground sufficient in Charity to Receive Men Into the Church and To Baptism so long as it suffices to Denominate Men so as qualifies them for Members They should hold the same Grace a Ground Sufficient also for their Own Coming Another is Whereas they make an Initial Work of Faith and Repentance to be Sufficient for their Reception in the Judgment of Charity They should hold it to be So in the Judgment of Verity upon the Vniversal Grace of the Gospel The Third and Chief thing wanting is to tell If a Work of Grace on the Soul short of Saving be able indeed to give a Man Right to Membership and the Sacraments unto what Degree then it must come If it be Initial only and yet not Saving how much Grace is it how much Faith how much Repentance is it that will serve Are we able to set any Stint until we come to Saving I Answer Yes We have Pitcht the Measure we have Fixt the Point Such a Work of Initial Grace or of Faith such an Initial Faith or so much Faith as brings the Man up to be Willing is it This is the Measure this is the Degree It is the Answer to the Question Wilt thou be Baptized in this Faith I say These words of Answer I Will gives a Man Right both to Come and to be Admitted Let me say it over in other words It is a Faith receiving the Doctrine of the Gospel and Advancing to the Degree as makes a Man Willing to come Into the Society of Christians and so own Christ our King for there are some may Believe and yet not be Willing to Own Christianity Joh. 12.42 43. as some may Believe and be Willing to Come in and yet their Faith be Short of Saving Jam. 2.18 26. that is Fides Dogmatica I may say Consensu Formata upon the Account of General Grace as the Fundamentum Juris does give Title to Church Communion Neither do I think but that These so much acknowledg'd Excelling Divines would themselves have also proceeded Thus Far if they had understood This Bottom and that their Matter led them to it I know they that lay Another Rule do honestly intend the Purity of the Church But either This Rule shall be Backt by a Law and then it will be a Strainer in Shew but instead of Keeping the Church pure it will but Strain the Tender and Scrupulous the Careless and Vnconcern'd will Prosess any thing that is Imposed as I have observed before in its Place Or it shall have no Power but that of the Word and Conscience as in the Primitive Times and I must then suggest this That where One went to Heaven when the Church was Pure there are Twenty a Thousand since it was Enlarged and Corrupt England might have been a Pagan Kingdom to this Day if they that Planted in it the Christian Religion had stood in good earnest upon these Terms and pressed them as the Congregationalists do And were the Rule indeed Christ's what a horrible deal of Guilt must there lie on the Ministers since Constantine's Time unto whom Christ committed the Keys of his House to Let In none but Subjects qualified according to That Rule and they Let in whole Parishes Kingdoms Countries into it Alas that none but those of the Novatian Donatist Brownist Sects should have delivered their own Souls You complain that the Bad Come In but I would fain know whether you think any were ever the Better that have Kept Out And now what remains but that The Spirit says Come and the Bride says Come and whosoever will let him Come If Men will come Quite Home to a Saving Faith Sound Repentance and the Love of God above All it is That which they should Do and in so Doing they shall be Partakers of the Saving Benefits of the Gospel Church and Covenant If they will come no Farther than to Submit to the External Administration of the Ordinances they are yet to be Received so Far as they Will come and in the Vse of the Means we are to expect they should be brought Farther even to Effectual Conversion and Salvation Deo Gloria mihi Condonatio J. H. Reader THere happening this Leaf to remain vacant I will fill it up with a Letter which I had but just now from a Private Christian to whom I Communicated several of these Sheets before the Last was wrought off at the Press he being a Man who hath considered these Things and of known Integrity to the Church whose Letter also will have its Use Or else I confess I should have chose rather to have left it for the Bookseller to have fill'd with a Catalogue of Books The Author SIR YOV were not mistaken in thinking as You told me That this Book would agree with my Sentiments touching the Latitude of the Church It seems to me to have much in it not to be found elsewhere and that Matter momentous striking at the Root of our Divisions about Church-Communion You have well observed That God is never behind hand with Men in a Willingness to any thing that tends to their Salvation and therefore the Church must not be so And indeed there is so great Advantage by Coming into the Church given to Men Thereunto that I wonder any should oppose it The Word is nigh them in their Mouth and in their Heart There is no Part of the Christian Church where every Member that comes to the Vse of Reason does not learn the chief Doctrines of Christianity contain'd in the Creed without Book which have a mighty force to bring Men to Repentance and an Holy Life And as this is so great Advantage to Them so it is no Means to corrupt the Church so long as the Discipline of Christ is observed which you take care of I know no other Book that hath given me so clear an Vnderstanding of the Church and Kingdom of God and Christ together with the Covenant of Allegiance proper to it That hath proposed the Rule which you have particularly recited p. 75. and 140. for Admitting his Subjects into the same That hath laid this Rule on its right Foundation which is the General Grace of the Gospel so exactly defined to the End p. 16. to 21. That hath carried the Cause through all its Difficulties at you have done This is the Opinion of Your Engaged Friend Thomas Seymor
Profession of such a Faith and Repentance as is saving in order to his Admittance to the Church or Sacraments though he on his own part be required to examine himself and to see that his Grace be sound when he comes to them The Reason being because if his Faith be but true so far as makes him Willing to Come in and Joyn with us it gives him title to the Ordinances when unless his Faith be so True also as to be Saving he is like to reap no other Fruit by it but the Outward Enjoyment And this is the very Vse we are to make of this Doctrine That no Person be discouraged in his attending on the Means seeing Regenerate and Vnregenerate may have Title and yet none be Secure but Piously sollicitous how they Come as knowing that it is One thing that gives a Man title to the Ordinances and Another to the Effectual Benefits which can be attain'd by the Sincere only It may be askt by the way But what then is That I count Necessary to the Government and Covenant which I press taken Precisely I mean what is the Terms or Conditions thereof If the Covenant for Life and This Covenant be distinguished the Terms of them must be diverse Now the Terms of this Covenant may be discovered by knowing what That was chiefly which God accounted the Breach thereof And this we find very frequent both in regard to the Single Jew and the Whole Body If there be found within thy Gates a Man or Woman that hath wrought Wickedness in the Sight of the Lord in transgressing his Covenant and hath gone and served other Gods then let that Person be stoned Deut. 17.2 7. You see what God calls Transgressing his Covenant He was their King and the serving Another God was Crimen laesae Majestatis and therefore Capital Let us look into 2 King 17. and we shall find there the whole Ten Tribes at once carried away and given up of God for being any longer his People And what is the matter They Rejected it is said his Statutes and his Covenant and followed Vanity What Vanity Why they Went after the Heathen concerning whom they were charged not to do like them and they made them molten Images and worshipped Baal c. and therefore God was angry with them and removed them out of his Sight Vers 10 12 15 16 18. They did many other things which was Against their Covenant and He bare with them but Idolatry and False-Worship was such Breaking of it as Whoredom and caused their Divorce and his writing Loammi upon them And this Event we find Prophesied of even so long before as Moses who tells of the Nations asking why God dealt thus with his People Then Men shall say Because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt Here we have Our Covenant and Government And what was the Forsaking of it Why they Served other Gods and worshipped them Vers 24 25. So again Chap. 31. Vers 20. Jer. 22.19 with other Places Well now if going after other Gods and False-Worship was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Breaking this Covenant then must the Terms of this Covenant be mainly the Owning the True God and his Worship in opposition to all False Gods and False Religion and consequently a Subjection to the Ordinances of that Worship Himself hath appointed unto which they were admitted under the Old-Testament by Circumcision and Now by Baptism Upon what is already said I know the Way I go is not the Road when yet there are Some that go the Road do seem to me to seek Mine but Miss it The Church with them is the Company of the Faithful and the understand by the Faithful such only whose Faith is Saving that engrasis them in Christ makes them his Members or Members of his Mystical Body For Others whom they call Members of the Church Visible if they be Visible Members only are Christians but in Appearance not Members of Christ indeed and so no Church-Members with them but in Shew or the Account of Men. And the Result of this Divinity which goes for the Orthodox comes to This That nothing less than such a Faith that is Saving gives a Man Right as to his Own Part to come and the Profession of no less than of a Faith and Repentance which is Such gives a Man Right of Reception on the Part of the Admitter into the Church and unto Baptism I have several Arguments to add therefore to what I have said already against this Opinion Only I will yet say a little more to the Explaining my Own before I give them The Church according to the common Opinion must be taken for a Corporation of Regenerate Persons that is of such Believers only as are already all Sincere Converts But I would have it rather in my Opinion be lookt on as a School wherein such Persons as are Wrought upon by the Gospel to Believe so far only as to be Willing to Come into it and be Baptized may There by the Use of the Ordinances as the Means of Grace be brought up to that Sincerity of Heart and Life which yet they have not and which God hath made the Condition of their Salvation There is a Conversion from Heathenisme to Christianity that brings Men into the Church must be One thing and a Conversion unto the Life and Power of Grace called Effectual Conversion is Another That the Latter of these Conversions is wrought in the Church ordinarily though not Confined to it is to be doubted of no Body Let the Commission of our Lord which ordinarily I think is overlookt be consulted Go ye and disciple all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you I pray mark it They are here to Call by their Preaching all them that will Come in and make them Disciples by Baptism and then after they are Discipled they are to be Instructed in the Things that Christ hath Commanded that is they are to Learn in his School when they are there their farther Duty which is the walking up Fully to the Precepts of the Gospel And in the first sixt sound Act of Resolution thereof I mean of doing so in Sincerity whensover a Man is wrought up to it does lie the Essence of that Work which we call Effectual Conversion If the School of all Christ's Disciples the Church of all Believers the Kingdom of all God's People were so narrow as to hold the Regenerate only how comes there to be a Proclamation for all the World to come into it even all that Will for it is not a Kingdom of such as are brought in by Force but of a Willing People Psal 110.3 over whom the Word prevails from one end of the Earth to the other If any Man will have Christ this is certain God offers Him Whosoever Will May have Him
he shall deserve to be cast out again 〈◊〉 their Society and will submit to the Cenâ—â—re of the Church if he do This is the â—ll which is contained in that Consent which â—â—ts a Man into External Covenant Relation â—â—d suffices to Church-Communion In the Tenth place There is one thing â—ore will go to the Root of the Matter It â—â—d be granted that He who consents to be 〈◊〉 Christian upon the Term of the Covenant must received into the Church Now there are â—wo Parts the Promissory and Comminatory Part of the Covenant No Man Consents with Understanding to the Covenant but he doâ—s and must Consent to Both Parts of it I assume then that he that Consents but to thâ— Covenant so as to be dealt with by God according to Either Part of it as he shall 〈◊〉 shall not perfâ—â—m the Condition is one thâ— Consents to be a Christian upon the Terms the Covenant I add moreover So long 〈◊〉 it is not a Consenting Absolutely but a Câ—â—senting thus in the Way of Covenant or â—â—on Terms which is I say to be dealt wâ—â— by God according to his Performance thâ—â— needs no more Sweat to be spent in shâ—â—ing how the Vnâ—â—generate as well as the â—â—generate may Enter Covenant though it 〈◊〉 One of them only that Keep Covenant wiâ—â— Him In the Eleventh place I am a little sâ—â—sible how in these Two latter Argumentâ— speak rather after Others than my Own pâ—per Terms and Sentiments When Perâ—â—â— come to Baptism or to the Sacrament 〈◊〉 Divines do still press upon them the Duty Entring or Renewing thâ—ir Covenant with Gâ—â— and though they understand by it the Câ—â—â—nant of Life which belongs to God's Nâ—â—â—ral Government which is Vniversal and thâ— Duty consequently which they press is 〈◊〉 Peculiar therefore to the Church or Saâ—â—â—ments but belongs to all the World to every Man and to all Times whether he ever Enter into any Church-Society or be Baptized or not for upon this Act does depend the Saving or Perishing of every Man's Soul for ever and upon this Account that it is incumbent upon All and at all Times they do well to press it upon the Baptized and on the Communicant they having at such times so apt an Occasion for it Yet if they press it so far as if no Person but such as have actually Performed that Duty or do actually Perform it at present and Testifie it must be held Admittable into the Church or to be Baptized it is time for me to mind them that when a Person comes to Enter into the Church or a Church-State whether that of the Jew formerly and now the Christian he Did he Does not come directly to give up himself to be a Subject unto God's Natural Government under which every Man in the Earth is Born and ought to devote himself to his Governor from the Beginning of his Life to the End of it But to be a Subject of his Conventional Government which he was not till now or a Subject of that Kingdom which Christ hath set up by the Gospel since his Coming over the whole World being till He came Peculiar to the Jews as I have described the same before So that to be consonant to my Premisses I must say If it were the Covenant of Life that Men were immediately Entred into by their Recâ—ption into the Church understand me if it were so ex prima intentione Instituti Reason would that they should bear with the Minister if he required of them a Saving Faith a Sound Repentance and the Testimony of a Holy Life to admit them to the intended Benefits But when it is into the Covenant of Peculiarity that he directly Enters them or Church-State in order to Life when they come in and are Baptized the Matter is othâ—rwise and the Difficulties which others make about the Covenant in Their Sense which I obviate do blow off without other Help I know till Camero wrote de Triplici Foedere our Divines usually speak only of a Twofold Covenant and besides that of Works acknowledge but One of Grace and no more though Diversly Administred to Adam fallen North Abraham the Israelites and Vs under the Gospel And if any shall choose to speak after Them they may and yet not differ with Me in the Matter so long as they distinguish of the Internal and External Oeconomy thereof which I have purposely dropt before for they may say the same things of the External Oeconomy of the Covenant of Grace as I say of the Covenant of Advantage Only they must beware that by External Covenanting they understand not with some a Covenanting by Profession conceiving that a Man making the same Profession as the Regenerate make or professing the same Faith Repentance as the Regenerate have he is from this Profession to be Reputed in Covenant as the Regenerate is which bâ—ing not made from the Heaâ—t but in Toâ—gue they call External Covenantiâ—g by which Sense thâ—y pervert the Diffâ—â—â—â—â—â— and deprive us of the Vse of it Whereas by the External Administration or Oeconomy of the Covenant I mean the Ordinances wherein it is Administred and I do suppose a real Consent to it so far as to come under that Oeconomy or that a Man Really is Willing to come into the Church and joyn Orderly in God's Publick Worship though he be short otherwise in his Obedience to God And this Consent to the Covenant in the External Oeconomy I have before defined and must add This to it That if the Church or Minister should indeed require such a Declaration as That of every Man whom he admitâ— to Church-Society I think it were proper and warrantable provided it be not Imposed but only in the Matter leaving Men Free to their own Expressions Not that when I signifie this for Peace-sake I do any ways Desert the thing I am doing that is the Opening and Distinguishing the Covenant and Government of God which is so necessary to the Clearing our Cause and so evident in Scripture and Reason For how shall that Government of God which is Vniversal and Covenant appertaining to it be the Same with That which was Peculiar only to the Jews It cannot be How shall the Covenant of Grace in reference whereunto it is said All shall know God from the least to the greatest as belonging to all Mankind be made Another Covenant from That which God struck with the Israelites if they were both the Same How shall it be said Not according to that Covenant if they were but One And how shall all the Jews be said now to be Broken off from their Covenant or from their own Olive which is their Church-State or God's Peculiar Kingdom over them if it were meant of that Covenant or Kingdom of God which is Vniversal or out of which Government none can be Nay how shall we say That any Israelite once in the Covenant of Life can be again Broken off This cannot be said I know without Dispute But
do Christ's Institutions Christ's Positive Laws and Officers belong and consequently the Ordinances of Baptism which is appointed to Admit Men into the Same That Door now which admits Hypocrites as well as Sound Believers cannot Admit Men into the Mystical Church for there are no Hypocrites There But Hypocrites as well as Sound Believers are Baptized and it cannot be otherwise The Mystical Body then is One thing and the Political Body which alone concerns our Dispute is Another They are Two Things though called by One Name The Objection consequently being founded on the contrary Supposition does fall There is One Thing yet puts me most to it It is the Form of Baptism in the Liturgy which I suppose very Antient by Tertullian where the Covenant is Entred by every one that is Baptized in the way of Question and Response And when That Question is askt Doest thou Renounce the Devil the World and the Flesh in the Words as there express'd and no less an Answer is required than I Renounce them all it appears that the Church of England receives none for her Members but Such as She supposes Regenerate Persons If none but Such as make that Profession which none but the Regenerate can Make are Admitted to Membership and Baptism it is evident what is the Churches Judgment To this purpose are Thanks given for every Child upon its Baptism That God hath pleased to Regenerate it by his Holy Spirit not only by Water When these Children come of Age they must be Confirmed and All as supposed in a State of Grace are to come to the Communion When any Die they are likewise as being in the Church supposed to go all to Heaven Neither ought the Words in the Burial give Offence to any being spoken according to a Church-Judgment of Charity of every Body upon that Supposition In the First place therefore for Answer I acknowledge my self a Non-Conformist And as All who are Such have some particular Reasons above others why they Assent and Consent not to all and every thing contained in and prescribed by the Book of Liturgy I am content that this be alledged for My Reason though it be not my only Reason I Assent and Consent not that this Abrenuncio be imposed in Baptism And not only because no Child can make that Profession but because I cannot find in my Heart to receive such a Tenent by Consequence from the Liturgy for Conforming to the Church which must lead me if I be true to it to Separate from Her Not but really if any Body can make this Profession it is well but to impose it on every one as necessary to Baptism without Liberty of a Man 's own Words and to suppose it of every one that is Baptized This is the Point We intend our Mixt Churches to be of the Regenerate and Vnregenerate This Profession intends them to be of the Regenerate only These are inconsistent things and This is no little matter therefore for which I Dissent and She may the better bear with me We can never maintain our Parochial our National our Mixed Churches against the Congregational Party in my Judgment if we give them This Ground That the Churches of Christ's Institution do consist ex intentione Instituentis of the Regenerate only In the Next place I must say this Though the Church by requiring such a Profession of the Baptized must indeed by Consequence be interpreted to be of the common Opinion which I oppose for the great Reason mentioned Yet does She by allowing this Profession to be made by Infants vere again from it An Infant can make no Profession de praesenti And as the Abrenuncio therefore is well interpreted by a Polliceor in her Catechism I could wish accordingly if ever there be another Emendation of the Common-Prayer-Book that these Words in the Baptism of the Adult as of the Infant were changed and instead of I Renounce them all some such words were put in I engage to it God being my Helper If they were you may say How would this mend the Matter No Man can say I engage to do a thing Hereafter but he must resolve upon it Now or he lies If the Baptized resolve Now to Repent or to live Holy for the Time to come he must be Regenerate all one as if he professed He did already I Answer There is no doubt but a Man may really Intend or Purpose to Repent Hereafter or sometimes Before his Death as he may Desire Wish and Hope it lest he be Damned who at the Present is for Injoying yet the Pleasures of the World for a Season And whether such an Engagement de futuro will save the Adult Person as well as the Infant from a Lie when it will not save him from Sin and Desert of Wrath if he makes any Delay Heb. 3.7 8. I leave to Others to judge that will I must Offer yet farther The Baptized is supposed to be Entring Covenant in these Responses and there is Difference between an Absolute and a Covenant-Engagement A Man cannot engage Absolutely to do any thing but he must at Present be Resolved or he Lies But a Man may make a Conditional-Engagement without a Lie before he be Resolved upon the Performance A Covenant-Engagement is no more but I Engage to perform my Part of the Covenant as ever I expect God should perform His or as ever I expect the Benefit of it or if I do not that is if I Never do Perform the Condition I consent to go without what is Promised The Lord Jesus will be sure for his Part to perform his Promise wherefore this Infant must also for its Part promise by You to Renounce the Devil to Believe to Obey says the Priest to the God-Fathers in Words more at large And if the whole Form were so moulded as to make the Engagement of this Baptismal Vow to be Conditional that the Vnregenerate as well as the Regenerate might make these Responses and the Thing be Justified there is nothing I judge could be done Better and nothing I think ought to be done Less for maintaining our Mixt Churches Against or saving them Fâ—â—m Separation If This satisfie not I have yet Something more laid in In the Covenant there are the Precepts the Promises and the Threats As the Person Covenanting engages himself to the Precepts as ever he hopes to enjoy the Blessings So he consents to Vndergo the Penalty in case of Non-Performance There is no question now but a Man may Engage to Do a Thing or Bear the Penalty when he is not yet Resolved either To Do or Not to do it No question but he may Engage himself to the Loss and Punishment without the Resolution of Doing that which is the Condition of avoiding of it At Vniversity when we were Matriculated we swear to Keep the Statutes No one that Vnderstands them does think of always Keeping them and yet they tell us We are not to Scruple the Oath because it is a
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