and in case it were wholly yielded him whether thence he could draw his conclusion that Ministers in England should not baptize the infants of all that professe the Faith in Christ Jesus He confesseth in this question he hath disadvantage For if a man be looked upon saith he as a visible Saint and reputed a Member of a true Church if that Member be very scandalous and the Church let him alone and not deale with him that person may challenge any Ordinance in the Church both Baptisme and Lords Supper But I conceive such a person is not sufficiently qualified to make a Member of a Church nor ought to be continued a Member of the Church but the Church ought to seek to reforme him or if not to cast him out so that if the Church will let such a person alone and give him these Ordinances there will be guilt charged upon that Church Here is his acknowledgement that they are continued Church-Members though they should not be continued and see what he hath further It is true the wicked Jewes being members of that National Church so long as their Membership held they might challenge circumcision so for wicked persons so long as they continue members and the Church lets them alone they may challenge Baptism and so upon his own grounds they may of right challenge it and Ministers then must needes do wrong in case they deny it and so in all mens judgements the question is concluded in the Affirmative yea should the Church passe to the highest of her censures through all that is allowed to the highest top yet still the person under censure continues in a fundamental right of Membership though debarred of present fruition and so their infants entituled as we have seen to Baptisme His Arguments are worthy of examination in which he concludes such a one is not fit to be a Member First Members of Churches according to the Gospel are Saints visible But such a person as the question mentions is not a visible Saint Ergo. The Minor he proves Such as will say that such a person as the Question mentions is a visible Saint I thinke his eyes are not good He that tells me the Saints which Paul mentions in those places were no other than such a person as is in the Question he must pardon me though I beleeve him not Answ Visible Saint is taken either in regard of Separation for and dedication to God or for real qualifications according to the power of godlinesse in the first sense such are real Saints that he mentions and rejects in which sense we have shewn Saint to be frequently taken and such were most of the Members of the Church of Sardis there being few that had not defiled their garments and many such in the Church of Corinth In the second sense and I know not a third his eyes are better than mine that can determine concerning them Inward graces onely make a real Saint and these to me are invisible if he meanes so far as mens judgements can upon any fair ground conclude that they are such then the Apostles will be involved in our guilt who hand over head admitted members the same day they were converted being in foul sins and never staying time to make judgement of the hopeful truth of their graces Paul calls all those that he persecuted Saints Acts 26. 10. So doth Ananias Acts 9. 13. all those for whom after conversion he ordered and made Collections 1 Cor. 16. 1. And these were some of them as bad as any that in his Epistles he reproves Secondly If a bare profession in Christ be sufficient to make a member of a Church then no person can justly be excommunicated out of a Church for the vilest sins or heresies provided he doth but hold this profession of his faith the consequence is cleare the person is the same which he was when you took him into the Church The consequence is clearely erroneous for he made a profession of his faith and not of sin as we see in Simon Magus Thirdly He that manifestly opposeth Christ in his visible Kingdome is not fit to be a member of a Church But such a person as the question mentions doth manifestly oppose Christ in his visible kingdome Ergo Not fit to passe without censure should have been added but whiles he acts rebellion he professeth subjection and in the Apostles language is a professor Tit. 1. 2. Having thus made way he propounds several Arguments that Ministers by the Gospel are not to baptize the children of such Parents We come now to our Authours arguments First Such persons as de jure ought and de facto are excluded by godly Ministers from the Lords Supper ought also to be excluded from their childrens Baptisme But such persons as the Question mentions de jure ought and de facto are excluded from the Lords Supper Ergo. The Major is proved If Baptisme doth seale to the same covenant which the Lords Supper doth and doth signifie and seale as great blessings and priviledges as the Lords Supper doth then those who are excluded from the Lords Supper ought also to be excluded from theâ—r childrens Baptisme But the Antecedent is true Ergo. The Consequent This is Master Blackwoods argument to keep infants from Baptisme because they are kept from the Supper And if it be of any validity to serve our Authors turn it is of as great force for Master Blackwood Give me leave in Master Blackwoods behalfe to urge it in this manner with the least change of words that is possible If Baptisme doth seal to the same covenant which the Lords Supper doth and doth signifie and seale as great blessings and priviledges as the Lords Supper doth then those that are excluded from the Lords Supper ought also to be excluded from Baptisme But all infants are excluded from the Lords Supper eo nomine because they are infants and therefore they are to be excluded from Baptisme When Master Firmin hath given a faire and full answer to this Syllogisme he may easily fit it to his own to give like satisfaction An infant in covenant may be admitted by that signe and scale in the use of which he is meerely passive and yet be kept back on the account of his infancy from that sign and seale which the Participants must actually improve for their spiritual benefit and consequently a Parent may put a present bar to his actual admission by reason of present guilt to the one when his innocent infant can put no barre to his admission to the other The Parent stands de jure entituled when for the present he may be for his spiritual benefit de facto suspended Another reverend Authour hath made use of this argument from the uniformity of the service of God in general and in particular from the uniformity in the Sacraments to another purpose not to exclude any infants at all who descend from Christian Parents from Baptisme but for admission of
the Sonne of God and do despite unto the Spirit of grace but unto Christ himself Christ was sanctified they say with this blood This indeed clearly takes this Text out of their hands that would from thence inferre the Apostasie of sanctified that is regenerate persons And if this hold it as little serves our purpose Here is Christ in covenant but no reprobate or wicked person in covenant But this reference of the words and the interpretation which is grounded on it hath I suppose come into the thoughts of few Interpreters and it seemes to be very much strained the scope of the place being for aggravation of their sinne that set themselves against the Sonne of God and the holy Spirit The common interpretation which is obvious and clearly held out in the Text fully vindicates it from any favour shew'd to the doctrine of Apostasie of the Saints and fully confirmes the point in hand There is a sanctification by separation for God and dedication to him as there is by inhesion and infusion Master Dixon on the words having so fully spoke my thoughts I had rather expresse my selfe in his words than my own putting the Question How the reprobate can be said to be sanctified by the blood of the covenant answers There is a sanctification to the purifying of the flesh and a sanctification to the purifying of the conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb 9. 13 14. The sanctification external to the purifying of the flesh consisteth in the mans separation from the world and dedication unto Gods service by calling and Covenant common to all the members of the visible Church and it is forcible thus farre as to bring a man into credit and estimation as a Saint before men and unto the common priviledges of the Church whereupon as men so God also speaketh unto him and of him as one of his people and dealeth with him in his external dispensation as with one of his own people In this sense all the Congregation of Israel and every one of them is called holy yea Core also and his followers Num. 16. 3. The sanctification internall by renovation consisteth in a mans separation from the state of nature to the state of grace from his old conditions to be a new creature indeed by this latter sort a reprobate cannot be called sanctified but by the former he may be called sanctified and that by vertue of the blood of the covenant albeit he should not get any farther good thereby for as the blood of Christ hath vertue to cleanse the conscience and â—â—nue the soul which cometh unto it truely and spiritually so it must have force to do that which is lesse that is purifie the flesh and external condition of the man who cometh unto it outwardly only as the types did under the Law whereupon an hypocrite in the Christian Church must be accounted one of the congregation of the Saints as well as an hypocrite under the Law was so called because Christs blood cannot be inferiour to the Types which were of this force to sanctifie men to the purifying of the flesh Or we may say more shortly There is a sanctification by consecration when any thing is devoted or dedicated unto God and a sanctification by inhabitation of the holy Spirit 2 Cor. 6. 17. 18. Of the former sort the Censeres of Corah Dathan and Abiram are called holy and the reason is given Because they offered them before the Lord therefore they are hallowed Num. 16. 38. And in this sedse all the members of the visible Church even such as afterwards do prove Apostates are sanctified because they offered and offer themselves unto the Lord. But the inhabitation of the holy Spirit is proper onely to the elect and Gods children To the same purpose Paraeus on the words The sanctification of Apostates was not internal saith he but external consisting in the profession of Faith and participation of the Sacraments They were sanctified that is separate from the Jews and Pagans in profession and accounted for true Christians In the same sense as men are ordinarily called Saints as after we shall hear so those that are turned Apostates were sanctified by the blood of the covenant and therefore were men in covenant Neither can all the noise that hath been made about that Text 1 Pet. 2. 9. adversaries take it off but that it speaks fully to hold up a covenant in this latitude and from thence I thus argue If those phrases a chosen generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar people be applied to Christians as to Jewes in an equal latitude to one as to other then it must needs follow that there is a covenant in Gospel-times in like latitude as in the time of the Law including all that accept the termes of the covenant and visibly appeare as the people of God and is not restrained onely to the Elect regenerate The consequence is evident seeing the termes plainly imply a covenant Here is a covnant-people or no where But these termes a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People are applied to Christians as well as to Jewes to one in as great a latitude as to the other That which God speaks to Israel in the wildernesse that Peter speaks to the Church to which he writes All Israelites in Moses dayes all Christians professing in Peters time had those titles when only those that kept covenant were at any time worthy of them and had the comforts of them Here 't is objected that this Text is meant of the Church as it is invisible and so it follows not that it is spoken by the Apostle in that latitude as it was by Moses to the Israelites but in as great a difference as the Church visible stands from the Church as it is invisible but I would wish that it might be taken into more serious consideration First whether the first Verse of this second Chapter be meant only of invisible members Whether the Apostle perswades Regenerate men and only Regenerate men to lay aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and evil speakings Secondly whether the third verse be to be thus limited whether the Apostle makes doubt in that manner whether invisible members had tasted that the Lord is gracious and yet the words in both those verses must needs be understood of the same men and under the same notion as these ver 9. The Apostle brings his speech to no full period till ver 11. Those that must lay aside all malice guile c. and those of whom he makes question whether they had tasted that the Lord were gracious are this chosen Generation this royal Priest-hood Thirdly let us more seriously consider the Apostles farther enlargement of this honour of these Christians Which in times past were not a people of God words borrowed from Hos 1. 10. Hos 2. 23 and spoken of the call of the ten revolted Tribes and in
24. of exhortation one of another Heb. 3. 13. of comforting of themselves together edifying one another 1 Thes 5. 11. of warning them that are unruly and comforting th feeble-minded supporting the weak 1 Thes 5. 14. of converting sinners from the errour of their wayes Jam 5. 20. which argues a well-ordered zeal for God and hatred of sin bowels of compassion towards a brother we finde their praise that have followed this councel 1 Thes 5. 11. we reade of separation from ways of sin and fleshly defilements 2 Cor. 6. 17. James 1. 27. but we reade not of any separation from Church-communion and fellowship in Ordinances thus given in charge nor in this way approved nor any presidents to go before us in it but we reade of an heavy brand laid upon it Jude 19. These be they who separated themselves sensual not having the Spirit yet seeing things may be so carried in societies that be aâ— the Name of Christ and Christian Professors brought to those straits that there is no abiding for such as would keep their garments unspotted it will be of use here to deliver certain rules for our help and guidance 1. A Church in covenant with God as before and keeping up communion in Ordinances is to be accounted pure where the pollutions or taints are not great nor many it is to be accounted a right beleeving Church notwithstanding some few lesser Errors We account a corne-field clean where some few tares and weeds are found a body healthful that is not without grudgings Christ from heaven gives commendations to those Churches which yet he taxes Rev. 2. 3. for failings There is that light in which Errors may be seen and shunned and rules for discerning things that differ If custom education conceit of Teachers or the like so dazle the judgement that the errour is swallowed howsoever that be a detriment a blemish as the Apostle shews of the wood hay and stubble built upon the foundation 1 Cor. 3. 12. yet it prejudices not salvation There is power of truth remaining to forme and frame Christ in the heart to direct the soul in a sanctified way to salvation 2. Where the Word is received and profest though polluted and defaced with additions and false glosses there is a Church though polluted and erroneous Where the essential parts of a man are in being there is a man though sick and diseased where corne is sowen and comes up there is a corn-field though over-run with tares and weeds The Churches of Galatia have the name of Churches though miserably defiled we deny not the Church of Rome the being of a Church having the Scriptures and several fundamental truths from thence as the Church in Christs time from the hand of the Scribes and Pharisees though the worst deserving the name of a Church of any people with whom the Word is continued No Church some have avouched But do her the most right and the being of a Church granted she is a hurch certainly miserably defaced monstrously polluted I will not rake in her sores it were easie to name many and loathsome ones I will only point at the causes Where food is scarce and that polluted and unclean there must needs be bodies diseased and distempered but so it fares with the Church of Rome when the Word should dwell in us in all plenteousnesse Col. 3. 16. they will have theirs dieted the Word kept in an unknown language as under lock and key that the children cannot come near it That on which they feed is not the sincere milk which only nourishes to growth 1 Pet. 2. 2. But they have their unwritten word to stand in equipage with the Scriptures mens Traditions made doctrines how many doctrines do we there finde by necessary consequence undermining those fundamental truths that are there profest where food is in no more plenty and no better it is no wonder to see diseases follow 3. That which especially denominates a Church pure or impure sound or tainted is the doctrine which they drink in the principles by which they are carried Where these are right this is an high praise where these are tainted this is the greatest blemish That which advances a Nation above all other Nations so that no Nation is so great as they that brings them nigh unto God is that which is their greatest honour and the pollution the greatest blemish where all is right in doctrine it can hardly be conceived but that there are at least a few names that defile not their garments though the more the greater glory This was the case of Sardis and therefore hath the honour to be one of the golden Candlesticks where Christ kept residence 4. Doctrines which are as the covenant-draughts between God and a people have their taints or crazes in the foundation or in the superstruction A breach in the foundation is the buildings speedy ruine while that stands somewhat of a building remains when that falls all falls and therefore Jerusalems enemies that thirsted after her total ruine say Raze it raze it even to the foundation thereof Psal 137. 7. These foundation-breaches in buildings may be either crazes threatning danger but repairable taken betimes may be holpen though a failing there is soonest helplesse or else it is a ruine or rottennesse that is irremediable irrepairable Truths doubted disputed questioned I call a craze in the foundation wonderfully dangerous not alwayes damnable the case of the Galatians of whom the Apostle stood in feare and was jealous over them through a godly jealousie even of their revolt from Christianity to Judaism from Christ to Moses from the Gospel to the Law These he calls Churches the members brethren though in a way to be no Churches entertaining those doctrines that cut off from Christ Gal. 5. 2. Here all those that are builders in Christs work that are pillars or any part of his house must be zealous as we see Saint Paul was in this Epistle quoted who will see the foundation of the house where he lives so undermined as every day to threaten ruine much lesse may we suffer the foundation in Christs house to be thus used This faith once delivered to the Saints is the common salvation for this we must earnestly contend Jude 3. for this we must strive together Phil. 1. 27. Truths denied abjured and resolved against as it was with Hymeneus and Philetus and the Apostle saw the Churches in Galatia in danger is a ruine and rottennesse that is irremediable and irreparable Besides breaches in fundamentals there are breaches in superstructions and these either more neer to the foundation or at a greater distance The nearer the foundation the more danger a breach is more sufferable near the top than at the bottome of a tower or castle There are errours of more affinity with those that overthrow bottom-truths and there are those that are not so nigh and therefore not so dangerous Such crept into the Latine Church
before Antichrist was raised to his height and strength in his delusions and Antichrist still holds them of all sorts and sizes Either of both of these mayâ—e Negative or Positive Negative are such where the doctrine of faith is not laid Positive where it is mis-laid where edifying doctrines are not preached and where they are mis-preacht both tend to the Churches danger a house never compleat or built up entire but defective in several parts little differs from that which is ruinous The Apostle who is worthily stiled a wise Master-builder 1 Cor. 3. 10. makes known the whole counsel of God Acts 20. 27. and builds not up defective Churches 5. All errors being against Christ who is the foundation to bear up and carrie on the whole work accordingly as they dash upon Christ and obscure his glory whether more or lesse the estimate of the danger is to be taken These are either such that render Christ in an uncapacity to be our Mediatour and Saviour or such that are inconsistent in whole or in part with his Mediatourship of the former kinde are those that are against his person 1. Those that impugne the Godhead of Christ such that though they give him the glory to be above Angels yet will make him no more than a creature a God in title and place as are Magistrates not in nature or power An opinion that involves the Apostolick Church and all Churches in succession in idolatry giving the honour of God the worship due to God unto him who by nature is no God A doctrine that will make Christ an impotent and not an omnipotent head too weak for his work to govern the world and bring under his enemies 2. Those that deny his manhood as having not taken our flesh and so no suitable head but a phantastick or seeming body Those that are against his Mediatourship are either such that obscure or some way eclipse it as every errour doth that is any way considerable or such that raze if not utterly overthrow it in some of the necessary parts of it his Kingdome Priesthood or Prophetical Office These are overthrown either directly in termes of full opposition or else by consequence and this such that is either immediate and evident the truth being confest these cannot be denied or else the consequence more remote and not so easily discerned These things being premised we must bring it home to our purpose 1. Where fundamental truths are not only questioned doubted and disputed but abjured and denyed errours directly or by immedate clear consequence introduced so that the truth cannot be known but the errour must be seen and this declared by publick confession and generally held Christians are to be gone here are not sufficient edifying truths nor yet antidotes to preserve from danger when they would have healed Babylon and she would not be healed then it is time to forsake If any man come unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed 2 John 10. saith John much lesse then may we hold such communion with them It is said of Mice that when the house through ruines is falling they will be gone shall nature teach them to provide for their safety and shall nothing teach Christians to see to their own salvation When Jerusalem was to be destroyed according to Christs prediction and not one stone to be left upon another a voice is said to be heard crying Get out to Pella Foundation-breaches seen and suffered are as this voice to be gone such a Jerusalems walls are falling There is a flight too soon when care might keep up the buildings when with the poore man we may save and deliver the City Eccles 9. 15. They that preached Christ in those Churches of Galatia and preached down Circumcision and other points of Judaisme pleased the Apostle better then they that without such endeavour should desert it so those that had preached the resurrection in Corinth had better pleased then those that had left the place for their sakes that denyed it A Church may not onely degenerate but apostatize may not onely languish but lose her vital spirits may not onely displease her Bridegroom but suffer a divorce perhaps keep the title of a wife and indeed be a strumpet and want all evidence of relation to the Bridegroome 2. In the case of pollutions of a more inferior alloy a Christian may be necessitated to leave 1. When the food of life knowledge in the word or means to compasse it cannot be had In such a case it must be sought They must resolve with the Lepers 2 King 7. 3. not to sit still and die When the Priests and Levites left their suburbs and pessessions under Jeroboams government being cast out of their employment and the lowest of the people men of self-consecration set up in their stead after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers 2. Châ—â—n 11. 16. Being without a teaching Priest they were as the Prophet tells Asa 2 Chron. 15. 3. without the Law and without God and there was no staying there 2. When a man by compulsion is necessitated to give approbation to such pollutions in any such way that speaks his compliance whether it be by the civil power through unsufferable fines â—ulcts imprisonments unavoidable or peril of life Or by the Ecclesiastical power in excommunications when men are driven out or necessitated for soul-subsistence to go out there is full liberty and warranty to leave But when Ordinances in a saving way may be enjoyed with liberty and safety no Laws being enacted for their so heavy persecution or through indulgence or connivence not put into execution there the Churches good calls for good mens stay not their secession or separation There was not a little leaven in the Churches doctrine in Christs time errour was advanced into Moses chaire yet Christ himself with many other that waited for redemption in Jerusalem held communion as Church-members All was not right in every Church of the Saints to whom Christ wrote Revel 2. 3. and to whom Paul sent Epistles yet as they retained still the honour of Churches and the happinesse of Christs presence so we hear nothing of separation enjâ—â—ned or practised The condition of Beleevers in the Synagogue of Rome was otherwise The key of knowledge is there taken away the people not allowed to read it in private or to heare it in publick but kept reserved in an unknown language neither could they without capital danger keep themselves from compliances in their sinne so that reformed Churches did not in any unwarrantable way of Schisme leave but rather were left They forsook not the Church but the botches and corruptions in it though we were never forbidden to partake of their truths yet we are forbidden to partake of their sins lest we partake
in publick Ordinances of Christ when Church-Officers receive in for members of the Church those that are most scandalous and wicked and not such Saints as Paul writeth to at Rome Corinth Ephesus Colosse and defending them against Mr. Rutherford he saith But if private members be perswaded in conscience from the word of God that themselves have due right and interest as well in the admission of members as in excommunication of offenders or in election of officers how shall they keep themselves from partaking in the sinnes of their Officers if they suffer them to go on in such a manifest breach of rule without due proceeding against them for their reformation and after some caution given he concludes It is essential to Community to have power to admit unto communion and to withdraw from communion To which I say 1. We have not a full account of the Saints in those Churches respective to scandals it seems by divers passages that many in Colosse were none of the soundest in faith as appears by the Apostles reproof chap. 2 20. I am sure that if any Church have such as were to be found in Corinth for ignorance Idolatry faction oppression adultery lasciviousness prophanation of the Lords Table they will be judged sufficiently scandalous 2. If such a perswasion in conscience would warrant a separation it would be worth enquiry to know what separation is not warrantable The error that Mr. Brightman brands as wicked and blasphemous is here abundantly justified Church-guides at least in some places were then so far at least guilty in their admissions 3. What warranty is there for any mans withdrawing himself from publick Communion in the Ordinances of Jesus Christ when he may with freedome enjoy that glorious priviledge upon that account that he cannot enjoy the whole of those priviledges or actual exercise of them in which he takes himself to have any interest Sure I am Ministers of Christ in many reformed Churches in the world have judged themselves to be overmuch coopt up in several particulars when yet they judged the very thought of separation in this case to be the greatest pâ—aculum 4 This right or interest in every particular member to vote in this way for admission or ejection may well be questioned If there had been this freedome in primitive times claimed and exercise there had not been so much in so short a space dispatched as was done in Jerusalem and Samaria Acts 2. Acts 8. If all must vote in businesse of so high concernment as in proceeding against officers and to give definitive sentence concerning their proceedings either many a meet member will be kept without or else many an incompetent judge must be taken in many a poor soul weak in the faith is fit for the Lords Table who is not yet fit to judge of the abilities of his Pastour All that I know that is produced with any colour is that direction of Paul to the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. When ye are gathered together with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus But if it be considered that Corinth had more then one Congregation as several Dissenting brethren have yeelded and as to other Churches may easily be proved then it must follow that this meeting was only of officers and not of all Members And how this power is essential to a community I cannot conceive The English Nation have judged themselves a community and yet there is many a free-borne Subject that never had a thought of interessing himself by way of vote to naturalize strangers or to make them free Denizons nor yet to expulse them in case of intrusion The â—orporations of England are communities yet every Member hath not his interest for vote to receive into their body When the chief Captaine bought his Freedome in Rome Acts 22 28 I scarce think every Freeman of that society was consulted in it neither did Paul when he heard of it enter his exception because his interest was infringed The several companies in London are so many several communities yet every one of the members of those Companies doth not claime an interest in receiving in men as free of their respective mysteries an opinion of such a Liberty will soon bring Church Members under an heavy yoke taking themselves to be so farre interessed in every publick act of their Officers that they may not without open opposition which is seldome borne or actual separation keep themselves from guilt in their aberrations Fifthly to gather Churches out of Churches to make up one congregation of Members appertaining to and locally seated in many is most anti-Scriptural It were easie to bring abundant arguments against this practice The disorderly confusion which of necessity it doth occasion The weakening of the work of God in the place where providence hath seated them and conferred many mercies upon them The robbing of Pastours of their flock spiritual Parents of their children who they confesse are of use to fit men for such a new congregated way that is to beget them by the Gospel to Christ Jesus but unfit to instruct or build them The animosity of Spirit that is wrought in these separating ones judging them whom they leave as no Ministers of Christ nor their congregations any Churches of Christ withdrawing from thence where Christ is pleased to keep residence But letting these passe I shall onely urge this that it is without all Scripture-president or example to gather up one Church as these pretend out of the cream and quintescence of many Churches There was much amisse in several of the Churches of Asia Philadelphia it appears was the soundest yet Saints they left not but held communion with the several Churches where by providence they were placed and did not pick up one out of all as a Church in eminence of purity and glory neither there or elsewhere hath there been found any such practice Object I know but one instance of this kinde that is pretended that is John Baptist who while the Church of the Jews stood a Church of God gathered a Church out of them as is objected and did embody them To this I might have much to answer 1. John Baptist set up no new Church distinct from the Church of the Jewes Christ and his Apostles submitting to that which John did introduce yet still held communion with the Church of the Jews They were not Members at once of two distinct Churches of the new because more refined and of the old tainted and corrupted 2. If John Baptist according to duty set up a new gathered Church in a Church of Christ then all the Prophets from Samuel to John the Baptist fell short of duty If they follow John in what he did we follow all the Prophets and Apostles in what they did All the Prophets till John did prophesie
totally cast off in Judah neither did God cast off Judah Ahaz was of the worst of Kings and yet his posterity was reckoned among the people of the Lord. Had the Jews at that time been as severe disputants against a covenant-state as are risen up now the Church of God had wanted an Hezekiah He had never lived much lesse wrought so happy a Reformation in the Church of God 2. Those that are lookt upon by men as in Covenant with God and so ordinarily judged as the people of Israel were by the Name that they bear their abode in the Church the profession that they make and so accordingly stiled are truely and really in Covenant A man may know a man to appertain to such or such a person because he sees him in his family hears him call him Master sees him sometimes at least in his work and knows him to have the repute of his servant Though to know him to be a faithful servant requires more diligence of enquiry and a stricter scrutiny So a man may be as easily known to appertaine to Jesus Christ The same Characters make him known all that is required to being in covenant is visible open evident but sincerity of heart in covenanting is invisible and secret And therefore the Jew outwardly Rom. 2. 28. is called by the Vulgar Vatablus Tremelius Arias Montanus and Castalio Judaeus in manifesto by Calvin Judaeus in aperto by Beza Judaeus in propatulo The Jew inwardly is called Judaeus in abscondito or occulto Their Church or covenant-station giving them those great advantages after mentioned was open and manifest Those that say Lord Lord as Mat. 7. 21. are of those that avouch God to be their God and God avoucheth them to be his people And therefore when they come with their sacrifices though in their sinnes and God upon that account testifies against them yet he sayes I am God even thy God It is confess'd by an eminent adversary that we must judge those that make profession to be in Covenant with God we must give them the name of Christians and men in covenant with God and we must use them as Christians in works of Charity and Ordinances and Church-communion and so must use their children as Christians children And seeing reason to judge so according to Scripture-character of men in covenant they are so Either in this we judge right or else we proceed upon mistake If we judge aright then all is well If we mistake then all in these proceedings is null Water hath been applyed to the child of such an one but no Sacrament dispens'd and according to a mans hopes thoughts or feares of his fathers regeneration are his hopes thoughts and feares of his own baptisme and consequently of his interest in Church-communion for this stands or falls according to his fathers interest or non-interest in the covenant A grand Rule is laid down by the said Authour That a serious Professour of the faith is to be taken for a true Beleever and this being laid down more are added If this Proposition were a Scripture-Maxime then it would have borne a farther superstruction but being neither found there nor any proof made that it is any way deduced thence mother and daughters may all justly be called into question and seeing he cannot but know that very many as to the thing for which it is produc'd which in order to admission to Ordinances will utterly deny it he might have dome well to have made some essay to have proved it I do yeeld that charity is to hope the best but but that we should put our charity to it or our reason either for probability or certainty when we no where so taught and have a more sure rule for our proceeding I see no reason I can scarce meet with a Minister that sayes and I have put the question to many of the most eminent that I know that he baptizeth any infant upon this ground of hope that the parent is regenerate but still with earnest vehemence professes the contrary I desire the Reader to consider Master Cobbets third and fourth Conclusions in his just Vindication page 46. 52. There is a bare external being in the Covenant of Grace saith he of persons who possibly never shall be saved Concl. 3d. The Church in dispensing â—n enjoyned initiatory seal of the Covenant of Grace loâ—keth unto visibility of interest in the Covenant to guide her in the application thereof Nor is it the saving interest of the persons in view which is her rule by which she is therein to proceed Concl. 4th Visibility of interest and saving interest are there oppos'd See also Master Hudsâ—n pag. 249. John Baptist did not in his conscience think they had all actually really and compleatly repented and reformed themselves whom he baptized but he baptized them unto repentance Matth. 3. 11. and they by receiving the same bound themselves to endeavour the practise thereof It were a sad case for Ministers if they were bound to admit none or administer the Lords Supper to none but such as were truly godly or that they judged in their conscience to be so or were bound to eject all that they judged were not so 3. Mans obligation of himself in covenant unto God upon the termes by him proposed necessarily implies Gods obligation to man Where God makes tender of the Gospel by his Ministers to any one out of covenant there he makes tender of the Covenant and where a person or people professedly accept that is engage themselves as myriads of thousands did through the Acts of the Apostles this person this people each man of them is in covenant As Scripture calls them by the name of Saints Disciples Beleevers Christians so we may call them Covenanters They have all a sanctity of separation which Camero sayes is real and arguments are drawn from thence to a right in Baptisme There is in most of them if not in all some graces that are real either common or saving and a covenant doth not wait till the termes be kept and the conditions made good before it hath the being of a covenant And whether these be every way sincere or any way dissembling yet it is acknowledged that they really oblige themselves And God howsoever dissembles not but is bound by himself upon his own terms which they profedly accept to confer all that the covenant holds forth so that wheresoever man is obliged there a compleat covenant is made up for Gods tender goes before and man is the last party and compleats the Covenant 4. Sinceriâ—y and integrity of heart or fully reality in a mans intentions to stand to the whole of a Covenant is not of the offence and being of it Both parties stand engaged upon their respective termes though one part should have unsincere intentions A wife is a wise and the marriage is compleat when both parties have publickly express'd consent though she hold a resolution to be stubborn refractory
duty which is either expresly or Synecdochically either directly or else interpretatively virtually and reductively I very well know that the Law is not in all particulars so explicitely and expresly delivered but that 1. The use and best improvement of reason is required to know what pro hic nunc is called for at our hands for duty The Law layes down rules in affirmative precepts in an indefinite way which we must bring home by particular application discerning by general Scripture Rules with the help of reason which sometimes is not so easie to be done when it speaks to us in a way of concernment as to present practical observation 2. That hints of providence are to be observed to know what in present is duty as to the affirmative part of the commandment of God If that man that fell among theeves between Jerusalem and Jericho had sate by the way on the green grasse without any appearance of harme or present need of help the Samaritane that passed that way had not offended in case he had taken no more notice then the Priest and Levite did But discerning him that case as he then was the sixth commandment called for that which he then did as a present office of love to his neighbour according to the interpretation of this commandment given by our Saviour Mark 3. 4. When the Pharisees watched him whether he would heale the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day He demands of them Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day or to do evil To save life or to destroy It was not their minde that Christ should kill the man onely they would not have had him then to have cur'd him But not to cure when it is in our power according to Christs interpretation is to kill If diligent observation be not made the commandment may be soone transgress'd 3. Skill in Sciences and professions is to be improved by men of skill that the commandment may be kept The Samaritane poured wine and oyle into the travellers wounds knowing that to be of use to supple and refresh them Had he known any other thing more sovereigne which might have been had at hand he was to have used it As skill in medicines is to be used for preservation of mens lives so also skill in the Laws by those that are vers'd in them for the help of their neighbour in exigents concerning his estate and livelihood 4. We must listen to Gods mouth to learne when he shall be pleased at any time further to manifest his minde for the clearing of our way in any of his precepts There was a command concerning the place of publick and solemn worship Deut. 12. 5. Vnto the place which the Lord your God shall choose out of all your Tribes to put his Name there even to his habitation shall ye seek and thither shalt thou come Now thou must depend on the mouth of God to observe what place in any of the Tribes he would choose for his habitation When God commands that all instituted worship shall be according to his prescript This is a perfect Rule implicite and virtual tying us to heed the Lord at any time more particularly discovering his will and clearing this duty to us Was not the Law of worship perfect to Abraham unlesse it explicitely told him that he must sacrifice his Sonne And if any take themselves to be so acute as to set up a new Rule as some are pleased to stile it then they antiquate and abolish the old Rule and singularly gratifie the Antinomian party Two Rules will no more stand together then two covenants calling it a new Rule men make the first old Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away Heb. 8. 17. It is added moreover doth not the Scripture call Christ our Lawgiver and say the Law shall go out of Zion c. Isa 2. 3. And was not the old Law his Saint Paul I am sure quotes that which belongs to the preceptive part of the Moral Law and calls it the Law of Christ Gal. 6. 2. His Laws were delivered in the wildernesse whom the people of Israel there tempted and provoked This is plain for they sinn'd against the Law-giver and from his hands they suffered And who they tempted in the wildernesse see from the Apostles hand 1 Cor. 10. 9. And as to the Scripture quoted the words are exegetically set down in those that follow them The Law shall go out of Zion and the Word of the Lord out of Jerusalem Which is no more but that the Name of the Lord which was then known in Judah shall be great from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof It is further demanded And is he not the anointed King of the Church and therfore hath legislative power For answer I desire to know what King the Church had when the old Law was before Christ came in the flesh The Kingdom was one and the same and the King one and the same then and now as I take it Many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven The Gentiles coming in at the Gospel-call are under the same King and in the same Kingdom And if all this were granted which is here pleaded for it is no more then a change in some positive circumstantial Rites and what is this to the question handled by our Authour That our righteousnesse which is imperfect according to the old Rule is perfect according to the new when old and new in that which is naturally Moral is one and the same When the Law required heart-service and love with the whole heart upon spiritual ends and motives upon which account all fell short in their obedience and performance shall we say that Christ did dispense with any of this that so the Rule being lower our obedience now may answer Others that make Moses and Christ two distinct Law-givers and agents for God in holding out distinct precepts give the pre-eminence to Christ and account his Law to be of more eminent perfection This Authour on the contrary seems to make the Laws of Christ to stoop far beneath those of Moses 2. For Justification of this accusation of the Moral Law of imperfection it is added the Moral taken either for the Law given to Adam or written in Tables of stone is not a sufficient rule for us now for beleeving in Jesus Christ no nor the same Law of nature as still in force under Christ For a general command of beleeving all that God revealeth is not the only rule of our faith but the particular revelation and precept are part c. To this I say 1. As before I think I may answer out of his own mouth where he says Neglect of Sacraments is a breach of the second commandment and unbelief is a breach of the first If we break the commandment in unbelief then the Commandment
it is not a prophecie but a Gospel 2. In the Old covenant all was held out to the people under types figures shadows All about the Tabernacle and Temple Persons Uâ—ensils Sacrifices did lead to Christ all of these darkly holding him forth They had a shadow of good things to come and not the image of the things themselves Heb. 10. 1. a little of reality in a great bulk of ceremony In the New Testament the truth of it is clearly and manifestly without figure or type held forth unto us 3. In the Old Testament knowledge was dim and obscure It could be no other when it was wrapt up in prophecies and types A prophecie is a riddle till it be unfolden and little is known of a man by his shadow comparative to that which is seen in the man himselfe Therefore though the state of the Jewes in Old Testament times was a state of light comparative to the darknesse that was with other people and their land was called a valley of visions Isa. 22. 1. yet it was little more than darknesse comparative to that light which in Gospel times is revealed Christ was a Minister of circumcision and when he began his Ministery in the land of Zebulon and Nepthali the Text says The people that sate in darknesse saw a great light Mat. 4. 16. Circumcision therfore in different respects was both a Priviledge and a Bondage A Priviledge Rom. 3. 1. It was a great mercy to have light let in at any crevice promises any way sealed and ratified to us A Bondage Acts 15. 10. To live in so dim a light and to be laden in so burdensome a way was a heavy yoke So that as the Apostle putting the question What advantage the Jew had and what priviledge there was of circumcision above and before the Gentile Rom. 3. 1. answers Much every way and gives in his reason of the preheminence So in case the question should be put What advantage hath the Christian and what priviledge there is of Baptisme above and before the Jew Answer may be made Much every way and the reason given of the preheminence in Gospel-times in the particulars above mentioned So that the New covenant is a better covenant established upon better promises Heb. 8. 6. Promises are more full and clear Though it must be confest that a Christians preheminence above the Iewes doth not equal a Iewes preheminence above the Gentile The Iew was in covenant with God and was heire of the Promise The Gentiles were aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world Ephes 2. 12. The Iew was in the same covenant in his time as Christians are in Gospel-times There is not a promise in the New covenant whether it be for priviledges conferred upon us or graces wrought in us but by the help of that light we may finde in the Old covenant the same held out as after will be more clearly manifested The betternesse is in the greater ease being freed from that bondage of the ceremonial yoke and in their more distinct clearnesse The glory of all that the covenant doth tender being in so clear and full a way held out in Gospel-times that he that is least in the Kingdom of God under the glory of the New Testament-revelation is greater in the way of Gospel-Mysteries then John Baptist who was the greatest of Prophets greater than a Prophet Those Prophets that did foresee and foreshew the Birth Life Death Resurrection Ascension of Christ the triumphant conquest of his enemies his glory at the right hand of his Father the spreading of the Gospel the call of the Gentiles did not themselves see it as now the meanest that are in Christ do understand it no more than they who now preach through Christ the Resurrection of the dead the everlasting blisse of glorified Saints in their eternal fruition of Gods presence are able to understand it in that measure as the meanest that then shall have the happinesse to enjoy it 6. They differ in the Seales annext for either of their ratification and confirmation for howsoever they are of the same use leading to one and the same thing signified the Jewes had Christ in their Sacraments 1 Cor. 10. 4 1 Cor. 5. 7. and we have no more in ours yet they differ in the outward stamp or effigies as I may so speak as well that of initiation as that of corroboration The initiating Sacrament of the Jewes which gave them the denomination of the people of God was that painful circumcision in the flesh signum vile incivile yet those that would be the Lords did and must submit unto it All of Abrahams seed with him received that signe And all of those that with him would joyne unto the Lord. This was to be the leading Sacrament He that was not circumcised in the flesh might not eat of the Passeover Exod 12. 48. And when a stranger shall sojourne with thee and will keep the Passeover unto the Lord let all his males be circumcised and then let him come neer and keep it and he shall be as one that is borne in the land for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof A full Text against all that plead for unbaptized persons admission to the Lords Table God will not suffer that disorder that the leading Sacrament should come after The initiating Sacrament with Christians is that of Baptisme no sooner was a man brought into covenant but he was streight baptized assoon as he made profession he had this sealing engaging signe the application of water which is of an abstersive cleansing nature implying our staine and guilt and leading us thither where purification and freedome is found the Spirit and blood of Jesus Christ The following Sacrament in the Old covenant was that of the Passeover a Lamp without blemish to be eaten in the place and way that God prescribed That in the New Testament is the Supper of the Lord in ordinary common useful and necessary elements Bread and Wine which are of a strengthning cheering nature Ps 104. 15. Implying our fainting feeble estate our disconsolate and sad condition and leading us where we may find both strength and consolation CHAP. XXXIII Positions tending to clear the first covenant under Old Testament-dispensations BEfore I proceed to the examination of those supposed differences which some have brought in to the prejudice of both covenants I shall lay down certain positions to give some light for the more clear understanding especially of the Old covenant and to help us if it may be in our judgements of them both as well in their agreement as their severall differences First Position God delivered unto Adam in Paradise not only a Law or Rule of life but also a Covenant as was before shewed So Moses in Mount Sinai delivered unto the people of the Jews not a Law or rule only but a covenant likewise This might be
themselves to the true God and given their name to Christ and do professe him and his Religion whether it be done before God truely and sincerely or only before men so the people of Israel although they were not all truely holy yet they are all called holy so Paul calls all those Saints who had given their names to Christ so Peter 1 Pet. 2 calls all those Christians to whom he writes a holy Nation and a royal Priesthood And Laurentius 1 Pet. 1. 1. page 6. distinguishing of a threefold election 1. To any function civil or ecclesiastical 2. To the external communion of divine worship or the outward Church or people of God 3. To salvation and eternal life brings for proof of the second acceptation Deut. 7. 6. 1 Pet. 2. 9. both which Texts with him there are parallel and taken in the same sense that I understand them Ravanellus in verbum election quotes divers Texts of Scripture in which election is taken for the adoption of any Nation and puts this of 1 Pet. 2. 9. in the last place adding these words And this election is general as hath been said nor are all that are made partakers of it necessarily saved Rom. 9. 6. but respective to this general election he is said to be chosen of God who is called to the participation of his free covenant or a people whom God adopts to himself for a people So also in verbum Sanctus which he sayes is taken three wayes 1. By separation or segregation 2. By imputation 3. By inchoation of holinesse in this life He there gives many instances of the first acception of holinesse by separation distinct from the two other and 1 Pet 2. 9. for one So Salmero as I finde him quoted to my hand understands it of election distinct from that which is to eternal life and calls it an election to faith and all know that they mean no more than their Catholick faith which according to them doth not necessarily entitle to eternal life A Lapide with whom my adversaries in these controversies frequently joyn is also wholly on my part in his Comment on these words so that it needed not to have been said that no approved authour joynes with me Let the Reader judge as the strength of reasons given will perswade CHAP. XXXVIII Arguments evincing the Covenant of Grace in Gospel-times in that latitude as before is asserted THe first Argument shall be borrowed from those titles which undoubtedly and undisputably imply a covenant and yet in Scripture are still attributed to all that professedly accept the termes of the covenant and professedly appear as the people of God Those titles before mentioned by Peter from Moses are confessed to be such that argue a people in covenant and therefore adversaries are so shie to confesse them to belong to visible Professours But titles as high as these and as undeniably implying a covenant are given to visible Professours those then even according to them are on this account in covenant with God And these are all of those titles wherwith the people of God are honoured In New Testament-Scriptures which are especially foure Beleevers Saints Disciples Christians He that is a Beleever a Saint a Disciple a Christian he is a man in covenant with God But all visible Professors that accept the termes of the covenant are Beleevers Saints Disciples Christians so they are still stiled in New Testament-Scriptures Beleevers from the Faith that they professe Saints from the Holinesse to which they stand engaged or from the holy God to whose service they are separated Disciples from the Doctrine which they professe to learne and Christians from him whose they are whom they serve and from whom they expect salvation I know some have inured themselves to that language that those that are thus dignified are necessarily concluded by them to be Elect Regenerate persons It is grown I know the Dialect of the times but not of the Scriptures To begin with Beleevers He is in Scripture a Beleever that is a visible Professour that puts himself into the number of those that expect salvation by Christ Jesus So it is through the History of the Acts where account is given of the Converts made by the Apostles Ministry Acts 4. 4. Many of them which heard the Word believed and the number of the men was about five thousand They that are thus numbred by the poll are visible Professours that outwardly embraced the Doctrine of Faith This might be seene and the names of such taken They are not all Elect regenerate Christians such could not be visibly known The generality of men and women in Samaria beleeved Acts 8. 12. But that they were Elect Regenerate in that universality cannot be conceived Simon Magus is an example to the contrary of whom the Text sayes that he did beleeve vers 13. and yet his heart not right in the sight of God vers 21. He was with those Israelites Psalme 78. 34. in covenant yet his heart was not stedfast in Covenant A great number of the Grecians beleeved upon the preaching of those that were scattered upon the persecution raised about Stephen Acts 11. 21. yet Barnabas whom the Church of Jerusalem sent to them well enough knew that there was no certainty little hopes that all of these were Regenerate persons therefore he exhorts them that with purpose of heart they would cleave to the Lord. He was afraid that the work might be overly and superficial of which the Church in every age hath sad experience he desires and endeavour that they may be rooted and established Only those hearers which are compared to the good ground are Regenerate persons But those compared to bad ground beleeve Luke 8. 13. Regenerate men who alone are invisible Church-Members have their hearts more right with God than to love the praise of men more than the praise of God but many beleevers are thus censured as we see John 12. 42 43. Regenerate persons make no shipwrack of Faith They are borne of incorruptible seed the seed of God abideth in them Yet there are beleevers that thus suffer shipwrack 1 Tim. 1. 19. Myriads of thousand of Jews beleeve Acts 21. 20. yet not all Regenerate The Apostle 1 Cor. 7. satisfies a case of conscience put to him by the Corinthians that if any brother hath a wife that beleeveth not if she be pleased to dwell with him let him not put her away If the beleeving brother here be only a Regenerate man then the unbeleeving wife is an unregenerate woman So the question will be whether a Regenerate sanctified man joyned in marriage to a Professour of the true faith not of those hopes for the truth of sanctification may dwell with her A case that never yet was disputed or doubted The unbeleever is a worshipper of idols one that sacrifices to devils and not to God The Beleever is a Professor of the Faith one in name a Christian and not a Heathen Saint is taken
faith that they must receive them giving this reason for God hath received them Rom. 14. 1 3. we may apply to those that make profession of the faith being able to make application of his reason God takes them into communion unto visible fellowship we are not then to reject them Is the necessary qualification of a member of the visible Church universal one thing and the necessary of a member of this or that particular congregation another and may one be fit to be a member of the universal visible Church and yet not qualified to be a member of a particular congregation saith Master Wood Append. p. 169 170. If I should enlarge this to heathens brought to a profession of the faith and argue their right to baptisme upon profession and by baptisme their right to Church-fellowship in any visible Church-society I should finde the Scriptures abundantly to favour it Of so many thousands myriads of thousands of converts Acts 21. 20. which were added to the Church and received by baptisme baptized the same day for a great part sometimes as appears the very houre of their conversion there is not one that we reade refused but all received yea not a scruple raised save of one only as I remember which was Saul when he offered himself into Church-fellowship and that not upon this account that we are now upon but good Ananias fearing that he came not to joyne with them but to seise upon them knowing that at that time he had authority from the chief Priests to binde all that call on Christs name Acts 9. 14. If the competentes as they were stiled in the primitive times viz. men that offered themselves for Church-fellowship had then entred at so strait a door as now in some places they are put to passe where a glib tongue is in a farre fairer way to take than an upright heart we should have heard of no small bustle about it When we finde murmurings of Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration Acts 6. 1. we should sure have heard of it had they been neglected in Church-fellowship and communion But when no such thing can be found in the practice of the Church after the Holy Ghost was given which is called by way of eminence the Kingdom of Christ or the Kingdom of Heaven yet they think they finde exceptions taken and some refused by the forerunner of Christ John Baptist One laying down this Proposition That men seeking admission into the Church are not to be received without farther satisfaction gives instance in no other but John Baptist and saith The Baptist did not admit all that sought it unto baptism and proves it from no Text either of Matthew or Luke which give us the narrative but by the authority of Pareus The Pharisees saith he did seek baptisme but John did not admit them being unworthy to whom he adds Aretius who sayes They sought baptisme but he seems to think saith our Authour that they were not by any means baptized But how eminent soever their authorities are their reasons are very weak The Baptist reproved them called them to repentance and therefore did not baptize them when the text seems to speak the contrary For as soon as his reproof with his exhortation is ended there follows I indeed baptize you with water verse 11. And it seems by Saint Luke that those Pharisees and Lawyers that were not baptized of John were not refused but did refuse Luke 7. 30. But the Lawyers and Pharisees rejected the Councel of God against themselves being not baptized of him When the same learned Authour cannot instance any precedent or produce any Scripture-Ordinance for it he endeavours by arguments drawn from the forme of a particular Church the way of reformation of Churches the relation of inferiority and superiority among those that are free and such like reasons to evince it To which but that I will not here make it my businesse an easie answer might be given it is more than strange that when the Apostles had by Commission from Christ planted Churches and were to leave them to be propagated in future Ages and knowing a covenant to be essential to the constitution as now by some is asserted would yet wholly be silent in it especially when no such thing was known in Old Testament-Scriptures that we might gather it by analogy and through all Ages till this last Age had lien hid and never discovered and leave us by our reason to discover it In which we are in danger to set our threshold by Gods threshold of which he so sadly complains Ezek. 43. 8. or rather justle out his threshold with ours denying baptisme to be any door for admission at which the primitive Saints entred and setting up a covenant of which Scripture speaks nothing and Master John Goodwin was sometimes as confident as confidence could make him that it had no ground in the holy Scriptures But to leave heathens haply called by Gospel Ordinances to speak a word or two to our own case who are a discipled Nation a Kingdom subjugated to the yoke of Christ Jesus enjoying saving Ordinances and therefore have a Church of Christ fixt among us Here we might lay down divers positions for the regulating of our judgements First where nothing is wanting to the being of a Church God having a people owning him in covenant yet much more may be required for the well ordering and regulating of it where a people accept of a King and receive his Lawes there he hath a Kingdom and is a Monarch yet much more is required for the ordering of such a Monarchy for the publick weale and safety so it is where there is a Church of God accepting the Lawes of heaven there the Lord Christ reigns as a Monarch yet farther care must be used for the right regulating of it according to his Will and the Lawes tendred by him and received by them Secondly a people in a vicinity or neighbourhood dwelling together ought to associate themselves and joyne with those of that neighbourhood according to their best convenience for the participation of Ordinances As it is against all dictates of reason that a people scattered at a great distance should combine themselves in a Church-way for Ordinances in which God rules so it is as clear against the Scriptures You read of a Church of God at Ephesus at Corinth at Philippi at Thessalonica at Laodicea But you reade not of any one Church made up of members residing at all those places or in any places at like distance That cohabitation or dwelling together makes not up a Church congregational will be easily granted Infidels Turks Pagans may cohabit they may make an idol-church but not a Church of God but co-habitation or dwelling together is one ingredient Saints cohabiting that is in New Testament-language men separate for God not Jewes nor Infidels but Christians and joyning in Ordinances as in
name of Christ drawn from the benefit which they shall reap Ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost 3. A farther encouragement to the acceptation of Baptism drawn from their Covenant-priviledge which is here set out in its full latitude and extent as Calvin rightly upon the words observeth 1. â—o the Jewes For the promise is unto you 2. To their children and to your children 3. To the Gentiles upon call and to you that are afarre off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Where an effectual call cannot be meant which the Apostle calls a call according to purpose proper only to the elect It is a call unto such a Church-state as the whole Nation of the Jews did then enjoy as the first-borne in the family A call that puts them into a like Church-state and condition with the Jews From whence this argument may be drawn Those to whom the Covenant of promise appertaines have a right to Baptisme But the covenant of promise appertaines to men in a Church-state and condition and to their children The major cannot be denied by any that will not make themselves the Apostles opposites The minor proposition is now to be considered That the covenant of promise to men in a Church-state and condition is in that latitude as to comprize their children For which the words of the Apostle are full and clear To you is the promise made and to your children on which Calvin rightly comments Peter observes saith he a due order when he assigns the first place of honour to the Jewes That it takes in children it depends on the words of the promise Gen. 17. 7. I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Where God joynes children with their parents in the priviledge of adoption in the inheritance of priviledges belonging to all Church-members But this clear text wants not wits that study to cloud it Objections answered Some except against the word children and will have them to be the same as the sons and daughters mentioned v. 17. of that chapter from Joel chap. 2. 28. and consequently the promise to be meant of the Spirit of prophecie and to appertaine to none but those of age and capacity for prophecie To this I answer 1. The extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost in this visible way cannot be the promise here by Saint Peter mentioned seeing it is enlarged to all that are afarre off even to as many as the Lord shall call But all these have not the holy Ghost in that way extraordinary nor any promise of it Baptisme with the holy Ghost and with fire is a baptisme proper to those primitive Saints wherewith they were told that they should be baptized not many dayes after 2 Howsoever the promise be interpreted so as to belong to all that are beleevers and call on the name of the Lord as there followes yet that promise is on condition of their baptisme The meanes are to be used in reference to the end Baptisme is the meanes receiving of the holy Ghost there specified is the end And the Apostle confirming them in the promise of the end doth likewise encourage them to the use of the meanes in Baptisme to expect the gift of the Spirit and so according to this interpretation that place is an encouragement to baptisme The promise is the fittest encouragement to the Signe and Seale of the promise Baptisme is the Signe and Seale to which they are here encouraged and in that latitude as they had formerly known the command of Circumcision 3. Neither are the children here mentioned the same with sonnes and daughters spoken of by the Prophet nor limitted to such sonnes and daughters as are of growth and capable of the gift of prophesie 1. The Apostle urgeth the promise in the way as in the Scripture it is delivered which is to men and their posterity to them and theirs So God promises to be a God in covenant to his and their seed and this the Apostle holds out to draw them on to the Seale of the covenant to accept Baptisme on the same terms that Abraham did circumcision 2. It is without reason to beleeve that the Apostle should instance in one peece of the distribution of the Prophet there and to leave out the rest to put in alone sons and daughters when we have in the Text young men old men servants and handmaids 3. Children here are mentioned under a promise to the parents to you and your children is the promise made but not so in Joel nor in the quotation of the Apostle That Scripture hath only an enumeration of the several sorts and conditions of people in any Nation on all which the spirit is promised without any reference made to the parents of those sonnes and daughters more then to the masters of those servants and handmaids not the sonnes and daughters of their flesh but the sonnes and daughters of the Nation A Language usual in our ordinary expressions speaking of men of any sort or condition as your Lawyers your Merchants c. so here your sonnes your daughters your old men your young men c Others say That the promise made is the sending of Jesus Christ and blessing by him as is expounded Acts 3. 25 26. Act 13. 32. Ro. 15. 39. I answer it is true that Jesus Christ is the most eminent mercy promised and may be called the promise virtualiter being the ground of all promises and therefore some interpreters have mentioned the gift of Christ on this occasion But it is plaine that Gods Covenant and this gift are to be distinguished Christ is promised in priority to the Jew before the Gentile The Jew then is taken into Covenant before this gift of Christ can be of them expected It is therefore the Covenant it self entered with parent and child root and branch that is here meant as Calvin in the words before observes from which the giving of Christ in the flesh follows And therefore Diodati fully pitches upon the true sense of it Seeing as you are Abrahams children you are within the Covenant you ought to acknowledge Christ to be the head and fountaine of the Covenant The Covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed is here meant which from Abraham had been the Jewes priviledge Rom. 9. It is farther said that the limitation as many as the Lord our God shall call shewes that the promise belongs to them not simply as Jewes but as called of God which is more expressely affirmed Acts 3. 26. To you first God having raised up his Sonne Jesus sent him to blesse you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities I wonder how it came into any mans head to call this amplification a limitation it plainly enough speaks their boldnesse in dealing with the Scriptures Had the Apostle said To you is the promise made and to your seed in case God shall give you a call he had spoke to their purpose but
Scripture to deliver unto us the grounds of it If they will subscribe to that part That the grounds reasons and causes of the necessity of infant-Baptisme are contained in Scriptures then I will subscribe to the other that those words infants ought to be baptized are not the Scripture Then Doctor Prideaux is brought in who sayes Paedobaptisme rests on no other divine right then Episcopacy but we are not told whether Doctor Prideaux goes about to bring down infant-Baptism to unwritten Tradition or to bring up Episcopacy to divine right according to Scripture And out of these Premisses this conclusion is inferred that the Ancients and learned afore Zuinglius did account infant-Baptisme to have been an unwritten tradition having reason from Scripture not evident of it self but to be received from the determination of the Church Which for ought that I can discerne is thus gathered some Papists to set up unwritten traditions have in contradiction to themselves fastened infant-Baptisme upon it of which onely one lived before Zuinglius Some Protestant Writers every one of them living after Zuinglius speak not one word to the purpose Ergo the learned before Zuinglius did account infant-Baptisme to be an unwritten tradition Me thinks the Scripture-Arguments which may be found in Authors far above Zuinglius his standing as in Aquinas 3. part quaest 68. art 9. August de Baptis contra Donat. lib. 4. cap. 24. with others might with more strength conclude that they rested on a written foundation and were not satisfied with unwritten tradition CHAP. LVI The reality of connexion between the Covenant and initial seale asserted THe several minor propositions in the syllogismes before laid down being proved at large in the foregoing discourse So that nothing more needs to be added yet if there be no necessary connexion between the covenant and the seale the major propositions will yet be called into question Though it be granted that infants be Church-members are in covenant have the promises are Saints are in the bosome of the Church by birth-priviledge are children of the Kingdome c. Yet it will be said though most unreasonably that they are not yet to be baptized I shall therefore 1. Bring Scripture proofes for the real connexion between the covenant and the seale clearing those Scriptures from exceptions taken against them 2. I shall make it good with arguments or reasons 3. I shall returne answer to objections brought against that which is here asserted That all in covenant are to enjoy the initial seal of the covenant let the words of God himself in the institution of circumcision be considered Gen. 17. 7 9 10 11 14. I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore thou and thy seed after thee in their generations This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee Every man-child among you shall be circumcised and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskinne and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you And the uncircumcised man-child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his people Here we see 1. A covenant entered 2. A seal appointed as the Apostle Rom. 4. 11. calls it 3. The necessary connexion between the seal and covenant declared They are to be circumcised because they are in covenant Having interest in the covenant They have together with it interest in the initial seal against this is objected First All the force of this proof hangs on the particle therefore verse 9. and may be rendared And thou or but thou as well as thou therefore and is by others rendered Tu autem and Tu vero which are neither of them illative termes 1. We have no reason but that it may be an illative as well as a copulative and being an illative particle he hath no exception against the strength of it 2. I deny that all the force of the proof hangs on that particle look farther on into verse 10. This is my covenant which ye shall keep between me and you and thy seed after thee every man-childe among you shall be circumcised and take in with it Acts 7. 8. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision And so Abraham begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day c. and let them at more leisure finde an answer to this argument That which God himself calls by the name of a covenant ought not to be separated from it But God calls circumcision by the name of a covenant Ergo they ought not to be separated 2. Let them consider the relation in which the Apostle puts this Sacrament of circumcision to the covenant Rom. 4. 11. An instituted appointed signe and seale is not to be divided from that which it signifies and seales circumcision was an instituted appointed signe and seale of the covenant therefore it is not to be divided from it Secondly it is said If it were granted that therefore is the best reading yet that the inference verse 9. should be made from the Promise only verse 7. I will be a God to thee and thy seed after thee and not as well if not rather from the Promise verse 8. of giving to him and his seed the land of Canaan I finde no sufficient reason given This reference engages the adversary 1. In a contradiction to himself who sayes elsewhere the promise of the Gospel was confirmed to Abraham by the signe of circumcision He also contends that it was a mixt covenant made up of spiritual and temporal mercies and then it must take in the spiritual as well as the temporal Promise All that know the nature of covenants and use of Seales know that the Seale ratifies all that the covenant containes But the covenant according to him contained not barely the promise of the land of Canaan and therefore the reference must carry it farther than the land of Canaan 2. It engages him in a contradiction to the Apostle who makes circumcision a signe and seale not alone of the land of Canaan but of the righteousnesse of faith Thirdly It is said But if it were yielded that the inference were made peculiarly from the Promise verse 7. to be a God to Abraham and his seed it must be proved that every Believers Infant childe is Abrahams seed afore it be proved that the Promise belongs to them It must either be proved that they are Abrahams children or have the priviledge of the Children of Abraham which from Genesis 9. 27. Rom. 11. 17. is sufficiently proved especially being confirmed by those Texts that carry the covenant in Gospel-times to the issue And for his exception that the covenant was not made to every childe of Abraham though it were true yet it would not serve his purpose provided that we in Gospel-times
separation for this publick work so there is also a separation more general from Idols to God upon which account Christians are called Saints Men holy by dedication to the Lord as the Temple of God which is holy 1 Cor. 3. 17. Our adversaries some of them at least baptize and by Baptisme consecrate men to God upon no other account than such a separation by a profession of Faith and holinesse as some of the most eminent of them expresse themselves To deny Baptisme to these in their own account can be no other than Sacriledge This profession gives them interest in God by way of visible communion and therefore they must be given to God Children are separated for God and stiled as we have heard holy if they yield them this interest they cannot deny them Baptisme and avoid this charge of Sacriledg They are servants of God and of his holy Family and they are to have admittance into the Family In case they deny it they must leave them without God and so without Hope so that of necessity one will follow that either they robbe God of them as belonging to him or denying their interest in him they doome them to destruction If they have no interest in God then they perish If they have their interest then they are Sacrilegiously with-held from him Many have observed how God hath followed the sinne of Sacriledge above other sinnes with his judgements but instances can be given of no piece of Sacriledge so sadly followed by the hand of heaven as this of deteining Infants from Baptisme They have heard not a few and it may well move pity in all Readers to take notice of their answers No consent of History nor authority of men of most eminent piety can work their belief of such a hand of God giving up so many of their party to such abominations I shall to that which they have heard from Master Marshal and Master Baxter adde only one testimony of Martine Bucer in his Dedicatory Epistle before his Comment on the Evangelists relating to the Doctrine of Antipaedo baptisme he saith Which opinion hath brought such an heap of Errors and Schismes that there is nothing so abhorrent from reason can be read of any of the Hereticks of former times which hath not been in foure yeares space revived and sonud followers that this alone may render that root suspected to all that follow after godlinesse from whence such unhappy branches have sprouted and out of which they have budded CHAP. LVIII The Children of all that are Christians in profession are by vertue of Covenant-Interest to be received into the Church by Baptisme THen it farther followes by way of necessary Corollary that according to the Parents Interest in the Covenant the childe hath Interest in the Sacrament of Baptism But all professing Parents separate from Idols and professing the worship of the true God though nothing more of a Christian be in them in the latitude as hath been shewn are in covenant the infants of all these then have interest in Baptisme The Major cannot be questioned by any that acknowledge a right in infants derived from their Parents for Baptism for it is interest in the covenant that gives the title to parent and infant The Minor I have abundantly proved The covenant must either be made to appeare to run in a more narrow channel which I suppose will hardly be done that a man in Ignorance or in Impenitency as he does not keep covenant so he never entred covenant or else this must necessarily follow To assert this by Arguments First Their children whom God owns as his peculiar people above others have right to Baptisme This cannot be denied either these have a just claim or else no children at all But God owns all in visible profession as his people Isa 1. 2. Isa 5. 13. Hos 4. 6. Jer. 2. 11 13 31 32. Jer. 4. 22. Jer. 5. 51. therefore the children of visible professors have right to Baptism Secondly Their children that are brought forth to God by their parents have right to Baptism This is as plain But visible professors bring forth children to God Ezek. 16. 20. therefore their children have right to Baptism Thirdly Those children whose Parents are children of the Kingdome of God have their title to Baptisme But those that are in sin and in a way to be cast out for sin are children of the Kingdome Mat. 8. 12. Mat. 21. 43. Ergo the children of Parents in sin have right to Baptism Fourthly The children of those who are themselves Disciples of Christ ought to be baptized But men in sin are Disciples of Christ Joh. 6. 66. whole Nations among whom are many wicked ones are Disciples Matth. 28. 19. The children then of those that are in sinne ought to be baptized Fifthly The children of those that are of the number of brethren in the faith of the Gospel have right to Baptism But men in sinne are brethren in the faith of the Gospel 1 Cor. 5. 11. If any that is called a brother be a fornicatour or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner c. This our dissenting brethren will not deny to be meant of Christians therefore their children are to be baptized Sixthly Those children that are holy by reason of birth from one or both beleeving parents are to be baptized But the children of those that are in sin may be holy by reason of birth of one or both beleeving parents 1 Cor. 7. 14. To clear this place which some weakly enough have urged for the contrary Let us enquire who the Apostle means by a Beleever and who he means by an unbeliever and this will soone be decided if we look to the case propounded by letter from the Corinthians which he there resolves and answers their scruples That is confest to be marriage between a Christian and a Heathen a professed Believer and an Infidel a man removed from an Infidel to take upon him the name of Christ is there a Beleever and many of these even in Corinth were men in sinne They that will have the Beleever there to set out only a justified and sanctified person they must by unbeleever mean all unsanctified persons and so the case propounded and satisfied is whether a regenerate person sanctified by the Spirit married to one that gives not full or at least hopeful evidences of sanctification may continue a marriage-society whether a man of Jobs integrity might have lived with such a wise to whom Job was joyned a thing that was never yet brought into question either by Jew or Christian and altogether unworthy of an Apostles determination The thing is plaine that as infants have right to Baptisme so all the infants of those parents that nomine tenus are Christians have right to Baptism See more Treatise of the Sacraments page 161. To amplifie this in some particulars and if it may be to make it more clear