of Christ either really hath for the present or else earnestly longs and desires to have for the future both a name and a naile according to what is promised to the beleeving Gentiles and was performed to the beleeving Jews Isa 56.5 Ezra 9.8 such a naile was Eliakim the Type of Christ Isa 2. An hearty motion to you 22.23 Upon this you move me to spend sometimes a few of my morning thoughts maturely to peruse ponder and apply what is by you set before my eyes and propose to my consideration And I assure you I am not now to begin to do it for I could present you if I pleased with many animadversions on this subject many years since collected I am not such a stranger in Israel to be ignorant of these things which are obvious to any one that hath been conversant but meanly in the Scriptures however for your monition I thank you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 SECT III. The Letter NExt you begin to enlarge upon your distinction and move first That some others especially such of yours whom it may more nearly concern to be well seene and skill'd therein may have made known unto their souls by your that is my self how and where you shall see cause and think fit that the firt visible Church c. This motion I embrace and it shall be perform'd But whom you note out by such of yours I know not If you meane those of my own Order I know many of them as well if not better seene and skill'd in these things already than my self so that this were operam oleum perdere however they shall have notice of it But if you meane of the common sort it hath been so often inculcated by me into them that to do it again is actum agere Yet by the way give me leave to intimate that I am not pleased with the phrase Such of yours for it seemes to me to be distinctive and among Protestants I never liked these pronowns Yours and Ours they border too near upon separation which I would not have amongst us who are all one in Christ Jesus Phil. 3.15 We may in some things think otherwise and yet belong to the same fold God in his good time will reveale the Truth away then with these termes of distance Yours and Ours Now I proceed with your words The Letter The first visible Church which was constituted by the wise Builder thereof was a Domestical Church being outwardly guided and governed by the first borne of the family who were types and shadowes of Christ Jesus in the several houses of professing Saints and did continue from Adam and Abels dayes to the time of Moses and Aarons pilgrimage in the wildernesse of Sin as doth plainly appear to all that do deliberately weigh both what is exprest and what is necessarily implyed in Gen. 4.4 compared with Exod. 12.7 Answer IN the substance I agree with you But I pray take it not ill that I cleare up some expressions that may be mistaken 1. You say the first visible Church is Domestical and did so continue from Adam to Moses That at first the discipline and government of the Church began and continued in certaine families cannot be doubted but that it so continued till Moses dayes is not easie to conceive because as families multiplied there must be a multiplication of these Chuâ—ches as there was of houses whence it will follow that every eldest sonne must be King and Priest in his own house and then what will become of the prerogative of the first-borne Gen. 27.29 who during life was to be Lord over his brethren Better therefore I conceive it is to say that this reglement was Paternal and that all the several families were to depend on him durante vitâ both for instruction and discipline For while the first father liv'd he was 1. a Prophet to teach 2. A Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sacrifice intercede to blesse and give thanks 3. A Prince to rule and punish Thus Adam as a common father guided the Church for nine hundred and thirty years Seth the sonne of Adam was his fathers assistant for five hundred years and taught his children who were then the Church to call on the name of the Lord Gen. 4. and continued that charge one hundred and twelve years after his fathers death Enosh did the like to Seth and all the heirs of the promise to the fathers God alwayes stirring up the spirits of some excellent men to preach in his Church while their fathers yet liv'd and guided the number of the faithfull as for example Enoch that prophesied three hundred years Gen. 5.22 2 Pet. 2.5 Gen. 5.27 first under Adam and after under Seth in whose dayes he was translated So Noah a preacher of righteousnesse began under Enoch and held on for six descents till the year the flood came the very year his grandfather Methusalem died I would call these then extraordinary and immediate Prophets raised up by God to instruct his Church during the time of their fathers principality and priesthood Noah after his grandfather Methusalems death govern'd the Church for three hundred and fifty years and left the reglement to Sem who succeeding his father in the Covenant and adopted into the dignity of the first-borne govern'd the Church one hundred fifty and two years after his father even till Abraham was dead Isaac dimme and Jacob fifty two years old and therefore might be the Melchizedech Gen. 14. Heb. 7. the Priest of the most high God The next that succeeded Sem was Jacob by Gods especial choise too Esau having sold his birth-right As for Abraham and Isaac they could not lay claime to theâ—e rights of primogeniture Sem being yet alive Call'd indeed Abraham was and promised to inherit it but possessed of he was not because Sem out-lived him he therefore is called a King and the Priest of the most high God In Jacob this primogeniture was estated among whose sonnes God divided the honours and dignities of Sem 1 Chron. 5.1 appointing the Scepter and seed to Judah the Priesthood to Levi the double portion to Joseph which never were again conjoyned in any but in Christ Jesus the onely Priest that ever succeeded according to the order of Melchizedech By whom the Church was after Jacobs and Josephs decease governed in Egypt is not so certaine but very probable it is that it was done by the fathers and heads of the twelve tribes over which I conceive Judah was the chief Gen. 49.8 according to the tenor of Jacobs blessing Thy fathers children shall bow down before thee The summe of this is that when the people of God increased and multiplyed into a Nation and diverse Nations for ought we know as before the flood they did and when after the flood they did the like it is not so proper to call it a Domestical Church that was so farre extended And if the instruction
and therefore I hope when you write next you will shew more Christian love To conclude the Corporation of which the British King was head was as I have prov'd both Canonical as adhering to the Canon of the Scriptures and Spiritual as endow'd with the Gifts and Graces of the Spirit and so your reason hath no reason at all in it Well if this will not do it a second shall which is 2. Partly because of the said National Corporations inconsistence with the Scripture precepts Mat. 18.17 1 Cor. 14.23 which doth require its ordinary congregating in one place The words of the Letter A Wonderful demonstration ' The Church must be gather'd together in one place to the service of God as that place of the Corinths proves and must be assembled to exercise discipline as in that of Matthew therefore there may be no national Church therefore no head or governour in that Church Baculus in angulo 'T is as if you should argue thus such or such a County must meet together to elect a Burgesse to the Parliament or to see justice done at a Quarter Sessions or at an Assize therefore it is inconsistent that there should be a head over the Nation whereof they are parts Who sees not the absurdity of such an argument But now in particular to these places The first is Matth. 18. vers 17. And if he shall neglect to hear thee tell it to the Church which is so difficult that St. Austin saith of it dicant qui possunt si tamen probare possunt quae dicunt ego me ignorare profiteor And the reason is because the word Ecclesia is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a term of divers acceptions and from terms aequivocal nothing can be concluded till distinction be made But this I must tell you by the way that no man by Ecclesia understood the Combinational Church til you arose and therefore you can never conclude out of this place that a head of a National Church is inconsistent with Christs precept For the Pope Presbyter Praelate all acknowledge a National Church and a head of a National Church and yet never thought that they did transgresse Christs precept Your proof therefore cannot stand secure til you have everted the claim of every one of these no more then til he who pretends a right to a piece of Land which is in other mens possessions hath shew'd his own title to be only good and all the rest of no force Be not so hasty then with your inference for there 's not one of these who will not say you are an intruder It would fill a book to tell you what is written and what I have read upon this place Whether by the Church you are to understand a civil or an Ecclesiastical consistory or whether a mixt because our Saviour alludes out of question to the Jewish Sanedrim Beza Annot. in locum Rutherf cap. 8. Then whether by the Church again you are to understand the whole Congregation or the chief in that Congregation the Elders say the Presbyters only you as by Rutherfords disputes against you I guesse the whole body of believers or as the Prelates contend those to whom Christ gave the Keys meaning the Apostles and their successours Yet farther whether the wrong to be here tryed by the Church be only that which is private because of those words If thy brother trespasse against thee Lastly whether our Saviour speaks here of any Church censure at all because our Saviour saith not let him be excommunicate but sit tibi Let him be unto thee as a Heathen and a Publican Among many interpretations of these words I shall propose one which I preferre above the rest as that which to me carrieth the fairest evidence with it The Jews were at this time conquered by the Romans under their power and judicatory yet they left unto the Jews so much power as to judge betwixt man and man according to the Law of Moses reserving strangers and Publicans to be tryed in the Romane Court. This being the state of the Jews when our Saviour spoke these words in private quarrels and actions Christ proposeth three degrees of proceeding The first by the Rule of charity If thy brother trespasse against thee tell him privately of the wrong offered thee betwixt thee and him alone and if this prevail not in charity go one step further call two or three Witnesses and rebuke him before them manifest the wrong if he hear thee thou hast wonne thy brother there ought to be an end of the debate This is the first direction 2. But say he be yet refractory then thou mayst proceed further even by the order of Moses Law then convent him before the Mosaical Magistrate the Triumvirate the 23. or the great Sanedrim the 71. Dic Ecclesiae 3. But if he will not hear them to which he is bound by Moses Law then take help from the Romane Soveraignty Let him be unto thee as a Heathen or Publican esteeme him for a brother Jew no longer but proceed against him in that Court where Heathens and Publicans were to take their trial This is the natural and genuine Exposition of these words the precept belongs to the state of the Jews at that time and cannot be applyed to the Christian Church except by the way of Accommadation For it is clear that the case Saint Peter put was of private wrong Master how often shall my brother sinne against me and I forgive him and the case is put of a private wrong if thy brother shall trespasse against thee c. Whereas those cases in which the Church ought to proceed must be notorious and scandalous in which it is not necessary that the two admonitions precede either that private or the other under Witnesses neither after sentence past by the Church is the man to be accompted in the state of a Heathen or Publican for Christ and his Church did never refuse to converse with either So that it as not proper to understand these words of the Christian Church which then was not That yet they may be referred thither I gain-say not but then that which will be collected from hence can be no more but this that in the Church of Christ there must be a Court erected And so there alwayes hath been that it be Combinational onely there is not any man who looks upon this place with an unpartial eye can ever say that in this place there is a precept for it He may with more reason conclude the contrary because the Church concerning whom the precept was given Dic Ecclesiae was the Jewish Church which is confessed at that time to have been National not Combinational In this place then you missed your mark As for the other That to 1 Cor. 14.23 I wonder what you can pick out of it for a Combinational Church much lesse a precept for it The words are If therefore the whole Church be gathred together in one place
Baal Joshua 5. c. howbeit they remained the sheep of his flock in the depth of their disobedience and those very children they offered unto Moloch were his sonnes and his daughters born to him Jer. 13.11 Ezek. 16.20 Hic children because born within the Covenant of which they yet retained the seal Let it be shewed that ever the child of any wicked Jew was uncircumcised or therefore not admitted to be circumcised because his father was wicked And certainly there is so much strength in the instance of circumcision Josh 5. for this large right of Ordinances from Covenant relation that it will hold out against all that can be said against it 3. Those who have a right to the Covenant have also a right to the seal But Christian children have a right to the Covenant therefore a right to the seal The Major is manifest in reason for it were a strange thing to say a man had right to Land and yet had no right to the evidences and the seals of the Writings by which that Land was conveyed over unto him Minor probatur But Christian children have a right to the Covenant be the Parents never so ungracious Gen. 17.7 Ishmael circumcised and Esau Acts 2.38 To you and to your seed among whom were Ananias Sapphyra Simon Magus But thus I prove it yet more clearly Those who are holy have a right to the Covenant 1 Cor. 7.14 This is granted But children of Believing Parents are holy Therefore c. You can in this Minor except only at two terms beleeving and holy and I shall justifie both For perhaps you may say Idolatours profane persons are no beleevers but you are mistaken for in the number of beleevers they are to be accompted till they renounce their faith The denomination of a beleever is as well derived from a right object beleeved as from the holinesse of the subject beleeving And I have my ground for this out of the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.14 Where the unbeleeving husband is said to be sanctifyed by the beleeving wife where beleeving and unbeleeving and opposite terms and therefore as by unbeleeving you are to understand a 〈◊〉 by a beleeving wife you are to understand a Christian who might 〈◊〉 guilty for ought you know of some of those sinnes for which Saint Paul 〈◊〉 the Corinthians and yet because she was a Professour of Christianity and within the visible Church therefore he saith your children are holy 2. Holy which is the other terme which being not possibly to be understood of inherent holinesse because the child of the best Saint at his birth is no more holy than another there being an equal guilt of original sinne upon both must be understood of a relative holinesse that is as they who stand in relation to the Covenant into which they are actually admitted by Baptisme And then again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unclean are in Saint Peters sense Acts 10.14 the Gentiles such who might not be received into the Church and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy being such as are opposed to it must necessarily signifie those children who may be admitted Lastly if this were not the importance of that place there were no priviledge imaginable no sanctity which could be attributed to the infants of Christians which could not belong to the infants of Heathens which is affirmed of the one and denyed of the other by the Apostle Lastly They who by their iniquity lost not their right and priviledge in the Covenant cannot be the occasion that their children lose it But profane persons lose not their right as I proved before because notwithstanding their iniquity they remain still Members of the visible Church therefore there is no reason for their sakes their seed and children should lose their right Divers other reasons I could give you for this did I not study brevity Our application then of Baptisme to the children of profane persons is not groundlesse but hath its foundation in that gracious Covenant that God made with Abraham and his seed which was extended to the whole Church of Christ whither invisible or visible which last because it takes in all professours as well as believers their seed also no less then the other as they have a right to the Covenant so also have they a right to the seals of the Covenant may be baptized and admitted to the Lords Supper whatever you think to the contrary To Baptisme you would have no children of profane persons admitted supposing they have lost their priviledge and to the Supper of the Lord none but his faithful friends and followers For thus you say 2. If none but Christs faithful friends and followers were admitted to be fed and physick'd at his Supper Feast The Reply That all who come to be fed and physick'd at the Lords Supper were Christs faithful friends and followers is as much desired by us as can be by you and as much endeavoured by us as can be by you Why is it else that the Church hath prefixed those several exhortations before the Communion in which the negligent are checked and excited to their duty the presumptuous scandalous and obstinate sinners presented with their danger and punishment if they approach unworthily in their sinnes all that come exhorted to judge themselves to repent them truly of their sinnes past and amend their lives To have a lively and stedfast faith in Christ our Saviour to be in perfect charity with all men and above all things to give humble and hearty thanks to God the Father the Sonne and Holy Ghost for the redemption of the world by the death and passion of his Sonne and for the institution and ordination of the holy mysteries What rules can you give beyond these or what cautions can you prescribe that if observed can make men worthy communicants All this you will easily grant but of all this you will have a certain knowledge before you admit of any and that knowledge shall be grounded upon their conjunction with your Combinational Church and the Covenant then entred not with the Covenant God made with Abraham So that uncharitably you exclude all those who have right unto the seal by the tenour of Gods Covenant except he have a new acquired right arising from your Covenant also These I know you mean by Christs faithful friends and followers and none but these your practice shews you would have admitted That then the mists may be dispelled and the mistakes rectifyed that have prevailed too farre about the admission to and exclusion from the Lords Table necessary it is that we distinguish between the right which any man hath to this seale and the use that a man may make of his right and how he may be debarred of it 1. The right that any man hath to this or any other Ordinance of God ariseth out of the Covenant of God made with Abraham and his seed Mr. Humphryes that is with the visible Church so that