are under the same covenant as was Isaac to whom the promises were made If some of Abrahams children were left out that concerns not us so that we are taken in yet the instance is very weak to prove it As appeares saith he verse 19. concerning Ishmael and Heb. 11. 9. that Ishmael was himself in covenant though not established in covenant as God there and verse 21. promised concerning Isaac not his seed never received appeares not alone by the signe and seale which he received verse 23. which yet is sufficient for God to seale to a blanke is very strange to signe a covenant to a man never in covenant but also from Gal. 4. 30. What saith the Scripture Cast out the bond-woman and her sonne for the sonne of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the sonne of the free-woman A man cast out of covenant was before casting out in covenant Ejection supposes admission unlesse we will give way to our Authors dreame of Ejection by non-admission He was cast out after the time of the solemnity of his admission by circumcision as may be seen Gen 22. For that of Heb. 11. 9. it is a mystery what he will make of it unlesse he will conclude that because Abraham sojourned in the land of Promise that therefore none were in covenant that were not taken into that land so Moses and Aaron will be found out of covenant It is further said As for a visible Church-seed of Abraham that is neither his seed by nature nor by saving faith nor by excellency in whom the Nations of the Earth should be blessed to wit Christ I know none such in Scripture therefore some men have fancied such a kind of Church-seed as it is called I know not how saving faith comes in when a faith of profession will serve the turne The whole of Abrahams seed had circumcision as a seale of the righteousnesse of faith when many of their Parents had no more than a faith of profession Fourthly Were all these things yielded yet the Proposition as is said would not be made good from hence All these we see are made good against his exceptions Let us now see the strength which is reserved for the last push for overthrow of this Proposition The inference is not concerning title or right of infants to the initial seale as if the covenant or promise of it self did give that but the inference is concerning Abrahams duty that therefore he should be the more engaged to circumcise his posterity This should rather have been left to us for the strengthening of our proposition than have made use of it himself for refutation of it It was Abrahams duty to give them according to Gods command the initial Seale in this we are agreed whether it will thence follow that they had right and title to it or were without right let the Reader determine It is further said He was engaged to circumcise onely those that are males and not afore eight dayes and not onely those that were from himself but also all in his house whose children soever they were which apparently shewes that the giving Circumcision was not commensurate to the persons interest in the Covenant but was to be given to persons as well out of the Covenant as in If of Abrahams house and not to all that were in the Covenant to wit Females which doth clearly prove that right to the initiall Seale as it is called of circumcision did not belong to persons by vertue of the covenant but by force of the command If it could be proved that Abraham kept Idolaters in his house professedly worshipping a false god and gave circumcision to them in that faith and way of false worship it would prove that a man might have the seale and not be in covenant but it would not prove that he might be in covenant and be denied the Seale and then infant-Baptisme might be of easier proof Though they were not in covenant though they were not holy yet they might be baptized But I will not yield so much I do not believe that Abraham carried circumcision beyond the line of the covenant and that he had those in his house which were aliens from God seeing I finde that Testimony of the Lord concerning him Gen. 18. 19. For I know him that he will command his children and his houshold after him and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgement that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him And that resolution of Joshua That if others would serve the gods that their fathers served that were on the other side the floud or the gods of the Amorites in whose land they dwell yet he and his house would serve the Lord Josh 24. 14 15. As it is a private mans duty to serve the Lord and not Idols so it is the Master of the Families duty to see that the Lord and not Idols be worshipped in his house As I do beleeve that if any of our adversaries had a profest Heathen in his Family he would not keep him there and not chatechize him and that he would not during his profession of Heathenisme baptize him So I beleeve concerning Abraham He catechized all that he took in as Heathens and did not circumcise them in their Heathenisme This some Paedobaptists as is said are forced to confesse when they grant the formal reason of the Jewes being circumcised was the command and the covenant he makes only a motive I wonder what need there is of an Argument to force such a confession The reason I say why Jewes were circumcised and Christians baptized is the command were there a thousand covenants and no institution of a signe or seale such a signe or seale there could have been no circumcision nor no Baptisme The command is the ground and the covenant is the directory to whom application si to be made We say all in covenant are entituled to the Seale for admission but we pre-suppose an institution They will have all Beleevers and all Disciples baptized which they cannot conclude upon their faith and knowledge barely but upon the command to baptize Beleevers and Disciples So that the command is with reference to the covenant with reference to interest in the covenant From these foregoing exceptions a conclusion is drawne that all this doth fully shew that the proof of the connexion between and the initial Seale without a particular command for it is without any weight in it And I conclude that it fully shewes that the proof of the connexion between the covenant and the initial Seale pre-supposing the institution of such a Seale and a general command is of that weight that all are meere frivolous trifles that are brought for exceptions against it Another Scripture holding out the connexion between the covenant and initial seale is Acts 2. 38 39. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sinnes
in some Old Testament Texts is used as also the Latine word Foedus in prophane Authors All of which shews no more but that the word in the exact denotation and largest sense of it imports no more then an ordination or disposition yet that hinders not but that as Interpreters generally render it so the received and accustomed use of it is to hold out a covenant bargaine or agreement As the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its largest sense comprizes any Assembly even for civil uses Acts 19. 39. yea rude congregated routs verse 41. yet in the generally received sense it is taken for holy Assemblies So it is with Berith the word may admit of a large sense but the received sense is with more restriction The Jews had their covenants man with man Abraham with Abimelech Gen. 21. 72. Isaac with Abimelech Gen. 26. 28. Laban with Jacob Gen. 31. 44. And this was the word whereby they did expresse their covenants And as the word Church is sometimes used improperly for Church Members that make not up a whole Church The Church in Aquila and Priscilla 's house Rom. 16. 5. Sometimes for Church-officers Matth. 18. 17. Tell it to the Church who could not be the whole Church whereof infants are a part or as all must confesse women who yet are no competent judges so there are improper acceptions of the word covenant when the proper sense is that which hath been held out which is a mutual compact or agreement on terms and Propositions The learned observe that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly answers to the word Berith Ravanellus observes out of Hierome that Aquila and Symmachus did so translate it and Rivet on Genes Exercit. 135. saith That which the Septuagint and Theodotio call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Symmachus translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pactum foedus which saith he is the proper signification of the Hebrew word Berith which word is not read in the Old Testament for the ordering of a mans Will or Testament Now it is not denyed but the word foedus and pactum in Latine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek covenant in English do signifie mutual contracts in which there are mutual performances and so the Hebrew word Berith in like manner this being according to the learned the genuine signification of it And if this were not the received signification of it how did the Objection before mentioned ever come into any mans head that the Apostle did bewray ignorance in the Scripture-use of the word in applying it to a mans Will or Testament and what needed so much pains for his defence in it Hierome on those words Gal 3. 17. This I say that the Testament confirmed of God saith If any compare the Hebrew volumes and other Editions with the translation of the Septuagint he shall find that where Testament is written it doth not signifie a Testament but a Covenant which in the Hebrew tongue is called Berith And in case Gods whole dispensations and Gospel-communications as Junius would have it be a Testament onely and no covenant why is the world so abused with the word foedus pactum in Latine covenant in English By which all men understand that which we call a covenant no man understands a Testament why do we say covenant of Works covenant of grace if the former onely were a covenant properly and the other a Testament as though we should cal an Eagle and a Lion both by the common name of a bird perswading that a Lion were a bird as well as an Eagle yet if it were a Testament properly so called it would not overthrow the conditionality as Mr. Grayl out of Swynborn shews Testaments have their conditions How comes it to pass that Scripture holds out so frequently that similitude of a marriage Is 54. 5. Hos 2. 19. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Eph. 5. 32. to set out this transaction A marriage contract is not a mans Testament hath a wife barely a Legacie and doth she enter no covenant with her husband How comes it to passe that turning aside from God after other lovers is called in Scripture by the name of whoredomes adulteries which is the breach of a marriage-covenant and how is sin against God called a dealing falsely with God we cannot deale falsely in the covenant if it be not a covenant but a Testament men may carry themselves unthankfully but falsehood argues an engagement How is it that we finde in Old and New Testament-Scriptures mutuall engagements between God and his people of God to them of them to him in case God hath vouchsafed them a Legacie by Testament in the death of his Son and left them out of covenant And how is that without Covenant without Christ without God without Hope with the Apostle are one and the same when yet all people that have hope in Christ are out of covenant There be that say The holy Writers do illustrate the New covenant rather by the Metaphor of a Testament then a covenant These seeme to make it neither a Covenant nor a Testament Every one knows that a Metaphor is a figure whereby a word is carried out of its proper signification into some other that carries resemblance with it In case there be a metaphor in that expression then it is not proper but borrowed But as I beleeve that Abraham spake not by a Metaphor to God when he said Gen. 18. 25. Shall not the Judge of all the world do right God absolving and and condemning the sons of men giving rewards and inflicting penalties is a Judge properly so called so I do not think that God spake in any Metaphor to Abraham when in the chapter before Gen. 17. 7. he saith I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee God is a Judge of all the earth properly so called and he hath entred a covenant with his people properly so called likewise It is true that we understand that relation of God to his people more clearly by the Analogy that it bears to Judges that are set up among men for absolution of the innocent condemning of the guilty And so we are holpen in our understandings of the covenant of God entred with his people by Analogy with the covenants that are among men but in neither of both of these is the word taken out of its proper sense and applyed to any other that it will not properly bear I finde indeed an eminent Divine affirming That a covenant is not so properly said to be with God and man as between man and man not denying the duty which man owes to God nor the engagement by which he is obliged but freely yeelding both and sticking only at the consent on mans part which among men he sayes is requisite and doth mutually concur to make the covenant valid But neither in the covenant of nature or grace is this consent anteceding the validity of the covenant required in man This I confesse
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
not necessitated Upon these grounds it is that I finde no reason to widen the differences between these promises and priviledges in either covenants The identity of conditions in the covenant of Works and Grace on Gods part we have seen The great diversity in the conditions called for from man comes to be spoken to And in the first place this difference offers it self The conditions of the covenant of Works were in mans power being left to the freedom of his will he had abilities in himself without seeking out for further assistance then a meer general concurrence to perform them This ability in man to answer whatsoever was called for at his hands from God appears First in the integrity of his nature Being made like God his principles must needs carry him to a conformity with God and these principles were connatural to man in his first being and beginning Man being made of God to contemplate his glory and to enjoy communion with himself he made him not defective in any of those noble qualifications that serve for it or have a tendency to it Papists indeed will have this to be a supernaturall gift of grace and above the glory of mans first creation Bellarmine compares it to a bridle given to curb that lust which riseth against reason in us That rebellion of lusts in man they conceit would have been if man had not fallen which as it layes a high charge upon God in such an aspersion of his pure work drawn after such a patterne so it makes way for other opinions that the first motions without consent are no sins and that lust in the regenerate is not sin But as the bottom is rotten so also the building that is raised upon it is ruinous There was an happy agreement in man as well with himself as with his Creatour The fall brought in a necessity of support and supply of Grace Secondly this appears from the equity which must be granted to be in the command of God which requires that the work given in charge be not above his abilities that is charged with it The Arminian argument from a command to abilities to keep the command from a threat to conclude a power to keep off from the thing threatned is of force as long as the person under command keeps himself in the same station and strength as when the command was given But applying this to man in his fallen estate who had sinned away his abilities the strength of it is wholly lost The command of God retains its perfection when we are under the power of corruption The Law is nothing abated though we be weakened 3. It appears in the work it self which was charged upon man upon performance of which he was to expect happinesse There is no more explicitely mentioned then that negative precert Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely die This all may yeeld might easily have been kept if the command had been heeded or the menace observed The Jews at their worst could observe the commands of non-licet meats and this was a command of like nature yet this was not all unto which man was tied Being made in the image of God he had clear light to discern good from evil and as all yet retaine darkly and obseurely so he had the Law written in his heart clearly Adultery Murder though no otherwise condemned then by that light which he had by creation in that estate had been sin The former positive Law was evil because forbidden take away the prohibition and there had been no sin in eating These are forbidden because evil The Law imprinted by creation being presupposed there needed no further Law to make them sinful They that never had the written Law are condemned for these practices by that Law which by nature is written in their hearts But against these there was in nature an Antipathy Mans pure nature had them in abhorrency As now there needs no Law more then nature doth suggest to forbid the eating of poyson feeding on dust or carrion So then there needed no more Law to condemne these practices so that obedience in that state was in mans power must necessarily be yeelded The conditions of the covenant of Grace are not performed but by special grace a power from God must concurre for their work in man Man hath no abilities in himself to answer what God requires and if he rise not up to the terms of this covenant till he raise himselfe he will for ever fall short of it As the covenant was vouchsafed of grace so grace must make us meet to partake of the benefits of it This appears 1. In the state and condition in which God findes man when he first enters covenant with him yea after covenant entred till a change be wrought and abilities conferred to answer that which God in covenant requires This state of man the Apostle expresses Ephes 2. 1. Dead in trespasses and sins alive and in power for nothing at all but sinne This was the condition of Heathens never in covenant and so of the Jews who were a people in actual covenant and owned of God as his inheritance as God willing shall be shewn Their conversation was the same as the Apostle there confesseth Among whom we also had our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the minde and were by nature the children of wrath as well as others This in abundant other expressions in Scripture is discovered holding forth the same thing Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly That infant Ezek. 16. 4 5. had no more possibilities of life then is to be found even in the state of death Reas 2. It appears in that power which is exercised by God in the change of those in covenant with him whom he fits for himself for Eternity This power in Scripture is set out in several expressions First Creation Ephes 2. 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works All ability to good is from the frame into which grace puts us As there is a power out of man which gives him Being So also there is an answerable power for his new Being He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the evil one toucheth him not 1 John 5. 18. Secondly Quickning The dead have not power to raise themselves without a further power for their Resurrection Neither is it in the power of man Who is dead in trespasses and sinnes Eph. 2. 1. Thirdly Taking away the heart of stone and giving an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. To change the nature of things which is here done is the work of an Omnipotence which was Satans argument not denied by Christ If thou be the Son of God command these stones to be made bread Mat. 4. 3. Fourthly Causing
know not their Election it is not as yet made sure by them So that as to us it is without any determinate object None can say my interest is in this Promise These were delivered to the whole body of Israel when not one in many did reap the benefit of them Mr. Baxter therefore makes them Prophecies De eventu Prophecies of what shall happen I suppose they may be fitly called the declaration or indication of Gods work in the conditions to which he engages and of the necessary concurrence of the power of his grace in that which he requires As Austin and others have interpreted that which is affirmed of our Saviour That he is the true light which enlightneth every man that comes into the world John 1. 9. not to be so understood that all in the world are enlightned by him for many are in darknesse but that all that are enlightned have light by his light explaining it with this similitude Such a Schoolmaster teacheth all the children in a Town that is all that are taught he teacheth Some go to no School at all so these Promises I will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed All of their seed that are circumcised in heart he circumcises and so in all the other none of all these are done without his special work This was little heeded by the generality of the people of the Jews if they minded duty it was well they little thought of assistance through grace Tugging it out by their own strength and looking for no more from heaven than that which they had in hand Therefore entring Covenant and walking in their own strength they brake Covenant and were never able to rise to the duties of it as is hinted in that of Jeremy Therefore God promises a new covenant in which there shall be a full discovery and right understanding of the meaning of the Covenant I will write my Law in their hearts I will put it into their inward parts So that as the commandment of love was a new commandment so this covenant was a new covenant both given of old both a new cleared for a right understanding There was nothing wrong saith Mr. Dixon in the former Covenant but it was imperfect and all things in it were not expressed clearly Annot. on Heb. 8. 7. That which was chiefly defective as it seems was this here mentioned and therefore Mr. Baxter sayes well that this place doth comprize but part of the covenant not the whole though he be taken up by another for it in these words God saying expressely this is my Covenant to say it is not is not to interpret the Word but to deny it God sayes to the People of Israel Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickednesse to undo every burden If any one should interpret that Text would he say the whole of a Religious Fast is there exprest and a full definition of a Fast laid down or would he instead of interpreting deny that Scripture So also that of James Jam. 1. 26. Pure religion and undefiled before God the Father is this To visit the fatherlesse and the widow and to keep a man unspotted of the world Will any say that the whole of Religion is set out in that Scripture or will he be put to it to deny the Scripture I suppose he would rather say that that which those Jews to whom Isay speaks did in use to do Religious Fasts with supply of that which Isay calls for in which they were defective makes up a Religious Fast compleat That which the scattered Tribes did in Religion with what James further calls for would render a man entirely Religious So also that of Jeremy 22. 15 16. Shalt thou reigne because thou closest thy self in Cedar Did not thy father eat and drink and do justice and judgment and then it was well with him He judged the cause of the poor and needy and then it was well with him was not this to know me saith the Lord Will any say that that was all the knowledge that Josiah had of God or will he say rather that this was an evident proof of the sincerity of it so I say that which the Jews already understood to be in the covenant together with that which those places of Jeremy and the Hebrews further hold forth set out the entire nature of a covenant and so in all of them Scripture is interpreted not denied And whereas one affirmes that there is no condition on mans part in those texts in question an adversary of all conditions on mans part in the covenant replyes If you mean such conditions that God requireth of us yet worketh in us it is there punctually exprest As Gods work it is there indeed exprest but not as our duty which lame understanding of the covenant hath wrought as much mischief in our age setting up free grace without any eye upon his sovereignty looking at Gods work and not at all on mans duty as their looking at duty in that age without eye had to the power of grace to enable for it Hence are those desperate counsels Sit still do nothing doing undoes you and that not toward Dilemma Art thou out of Christ thou mayst break thy heart in working and profit nothing Art thou in Christ then all is wrought to thy hands And so doing still is vain and Mr. Baxters Questionists like demands How can you make it appear that according to the new Covenant we must act for life and not only from life or that a man may make his attaining of life the end of his work and not rather obey it out of thankfulness and love To which I suppose he hath received a satisfying and if throughly weighed a sadning answer Appendix p. 78. 79 c. Fifthly This appears in that differencing work which is seen among men here in the flesh There is a great difference between those that are of God and those that are in the world that lies in wickednesse This is from the power of grace enabling to answer to that unto which God in covenant calls and not from the different improvement of any power of man or the exercise of that freedome of will which together with the whole species of mankind he hath received The Apostle puts the question Who hath made thee to differ 1 Cor. 4. 7. In which he intends to stop all mouths from boasting as appears in the next words If any therefore shall answer in Grevenchovius his words as I have seen them quoted or in any words that hold out or inferre the same thing I make my self to differ The Apostle will not sit down by it He expressely tells us It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom 9. 16. If grace makes the difference and not man then grace enables man to go higher than his own power and to go higher than any power that can
interpretation The people of the Jewes had the Original it self and spake the language in which Scripture was written yet the Priests lips were then to preserve knowledge and the people were to seek the law at his mouth Mal. 2 6. The cabinet was open to them as it is to us yet there needed a key for farther opening Those two Disciples with whom Christ had to deale with upon the way had the Scriptures either in the translation or Original as is evident from Christs own words reproving them for not beleeving all that the Prophets had written and yet a key of interpretation was needful and useful Christ opened unto them the Scriptures Luke 24. 32. If this Compassionate Samaritane were questioned as the Eunuch was by Philip understandest thou what thou readest he would not have given his answer How shall I understand without an Interpreter But would streight have answered Yes as well as any linguist in the world I have no need of your help for interpretation The cabinet is open spare your key This was one of the Arts that some Prelates made use of to keep up a reading Ministery to perswade that Scripture were so plaine distinctly read in our own tongue that they might be understood without any interpretation But the plainnesse and easinesse of a rule and the use of means for understanding of it stand together We maintaine a plainnesse in Scripture for the simple to understand but not sitting idle and lazy but searching the Scriptures and making use of those gifts of Christ which he shed forth from the right hand of the Father for the edifying of his body till we come into the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Sonne of God unto a perfect man That we might not henceforth be as children tossed to and fro with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse of those that lie in waite to deceive Ephes 4. 12 13. We may soone see their artifice that labour to beare them down Thus they know their cunning sleight may be carried in the dark and their impostures lie undiscovered Our compassionate man pretending to avoid a cheat acts the part of the most notable cheater The Prophet stood for that office of the Priests that their lips should preserve knowledge even when they had corrupted the covenant of Levi Whatsoever their way was yet this was their duty so must we for the Stewards of the mysteries of God It is their work to dispense them and the people are to seek at their mouthes for them But enough I hope hath been spoke for a Ministery for a knowing Ministery and objections against it fully satisfied CHAP. XXVIII An orderly way of admission of men into the Mininisterial function necessary AS men for the Ministery are to be trained up for the work So there must be an orderly way of admittance to it the way which Scripture traces out to us Self-consecration is alone beseeming the Priests of Jeroboam 2 Chron. 13 9 the lowest of the people that have neither inspiration nor education that have been taught of men not any thing that may conduce to the dividing of the Word aright but how to keep cattel Zach. 13. 5. or some answerable employment in its due place commendable but no introduction to the Ministerial honour These run and stay not for sending and going without commission they go without assistance and soon runne themselves into those bogges in which without special grace they are irrecoverably plunged they want home-reproofs the wounds of friends Zach. 13. 6. that they may no longer wear a rough garment to deceive When the Apostle layes down the greatest necessitie of preaching he puts the question How shall they preach unlesse they be sent Men that go upon this work must be able to make good their call The Ministery of the Gospel being of divine institution as well as the Priesthood of the Law there must be a call from God for the one as for the the other Heb. 5. 4. No man taketh this honour unto himselfe but he that is called of God as was Aaron There is none that expect not a call from God in this work but have their brand in the Scripture Jerem. 14. 14. The Lord said unto me The Prophets prophesie lies in my name and I sent them not yet they say sword and famine shall not be in this land by sword and famine shall those Prophets be consumed Jerem. 27. 15. For I have not sent them saith the Lord yet they prophesie a lie in my name that I might drive you out and that ye might perish and the Prophets that prophesie unto you And as they runne on their own heads so they vent their own tenents and prophesie out of the deceit of their owne hearts Jerem. 23. 26. Those shall never finde comfort in the work that are not able to say with the Apostle Christ sent me to preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1. 17. 1. The work is Gods the advancement and setting up of his Kingdome the ruine and demolition of the Kingdome of Satan Acts 26. 18. The whole of all that they do is of high concernment to him Each man will see to his own businesse and finde labourers for his own work God hath no lesse care Jesus Christ is no lesse mindful Harvest-Masters provide harvest-labourers The Master of this harvest provides labourers for his work and gives them commission Mat. 9 38. 2. All necessaries for the work inward outward are to be supplied from him They must have livelihood and provision from heaven they must receive instruction from heaven They must be taught of God that they may teach God must protect he must encourage and embolden he must command successe and give encrease They are agents in his hand and must be appointed by him it is no marvel if they that be not sent of him be left destitue of all 3. He is a God of Order and he will have Order observed and in no way is Order seene so comely as when all know their places and stations When in a great house or a mighty Army each man will do what work he pleases undertake what place of trust and command he pleases each Souldier in an army will be a Commander each servant in a family a Steward there must needs be high and great confusion The manifold absurdities that will unavoidably follow in case each man may thrust himself into this work and so drive on his own interests see in Master Hall his Pulpit guarded Argument 5. This power of putting men into this work equally concernes the whole Trinity Each one of the persons hath his hand in the separation of men for it Jesus Christ in a vision sent Paul upon this errand Acts 26. 18. see further 1 Cor. 1. 17. Eph. 4. 11. He is an Apostle by the will of God Col. 1. 1. which is understood of the Father God set in the Church first Apostles secondarily
Prophets 1 Cor. 12. 28. The Holy Ghost hath here an hand Acts 13. 2. The holy Ghost said Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them Acts 20. 28. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood And this sending or authorizing is as their gifting or fitting either extraordinary and immediate nothing of man intervening or else mediate by mans Ministery and his approbation Paul had both an immediate way both his authority and ability for the work he professes that he is an Apostle not of man nor by man he owes it not to man as the Authour so may any Minister of Christ say he owes it not to man as an instrument so only Prophets and Apostles can say As his Calling was thus immediate so in like sort was his instructions for it Gal. 1. 12. For I neither received if of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ They that divide these are exceedingly to blame assuming authority without man but confessing that for abilities as they must look up to God so they must make use of man must apply themselves to reading and make use of the helps of others The immediate Call is by Vision Revelation or whatsoever otherway God pleases to manifest himself Thus in a vision Paul was called where that is not the mediate Call only remains which is the way of all that attaine to gifts by education study and the blessing of heaven on their endeavours This is called as in Scripture so in Church-writers by the name of Ordination and the whole work containing as well that which is essential to it as the adjuncts of it may be thus described An act of men in a Ministerial function associated in a Presbytery setting some apart upon proof and examination as Presbyters and Elders in the Church by fasting and praying with imposition of hands We find no other but men in Ministerial function in all the holy Scriptures acting in it Paul and Barnabas ordaine Elders in every Church which in their journal they visite Acts 14. 23. Timothy is directed in the way of it 1 Tim. 5. 22. Lay hands suddenly on no man Titus is enjoyned to ordaine Elders in every City in Creet Tit. 1. 5. He is named alone but the naming of one excludes not others and therefore it appears that in Timothies Ordination a Presbytery or a combination of Presbyters did joyne 1 Tim. 4. 14. which way in our Church hath ever been held The Bishop supposed by some to be vested in the whole power of Ordination never had authority to ordaine alone but grave Presbyters according to the Canon were to joyn with him though by reason of greatnesse his vote ordinarily did overmuch sway in it Some would have the people here to have their hand in that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place of the Acts chap. 14. 23. implies a lifting up of the hand But whatsoever the word in its Etymology may imply the use is not such as is plaine by comparing Acts 10. 41. where the immediate Ordination of God by the same word is held forth unto us They know the weight of the Ministerial function and they are best able to judge of requisite abilities One that is willing to give as much to the people as may be yet confesses that in Grammatical construction the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can agree with no other but Paul and Barnabas and that it was only their act and therefore he would finde it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which saith he doth not signifie in every Church as it is translated but according to the Church instancing in the Orators phrase Faciam secundumte I will do it according to thy minde So they viz. Paul and Barnabas ordained them Elders according to the Church that is according to the minde and will of the Church If this were granted it would only conclude an acquiescency in the people and that they had satisfaction in that Ordination carryed on by Paul and Barnabas Yet this phrase here can no where prove that the Church or people made choise of them then we man prove from that injunction of the Apostle Titus 1. 5. to ordaine Elders in every City that the whole City had there their vote in Elections As much stresse may be laid upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every City or according to the minde of the City in this of Paul to Titus as upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Church or according to the minde of the Church in that of Luke in the History of the Acts. What power the people or the faithful may have in Election and how farre it may be convenient that they may be overborne for their good I will not here dispute I only conclude that we finde not the people any where ordaining we read of Ordination in Churches for the Churches use not Ordination by Churches taking it in that sense for the whole community of Beleevers These in a Ministerial function in this act of Ordination set select men apart for Presbyters or Elders so Acts 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. Titus is enjoyned to ordaine Elders in every City in Creet who are the same with Bishops as appeares in Titus 1. verse 5. 7. compared The qualification of Elders is there prescribed and the reason is given for a Bishop must be blamelesse which will hold no congruity if an Elder be not the same with a Bishop Which also may be seen Acts 20. comparing ver 17. and the 28. together The Apostle there speaks to the Elders of Ephesus and he gives them a charge to take heed to all the flâ—ck over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers that is had given them an Episcopal charge as the word signifies Elders must set apart men for Elders and Presbyters are to be set apart by a Presbytery This Ordination of Elders is to be in the Church or for the Church which may be taken either for the universal Church visible or for some particular Church and that either congregational or classical Ministerial functions are appointed of God for the Church universal visible God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secundarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. 1 Cor. 12 28. No one particular Church congregational or classical enjoys all the particular kindes there enumerated yet so as the exercise of this function is to be with limit to one particular only They are Ministers of the Church universal yet so as orderly to exercise their function only there where God by his providence shall designe them There are some functions as I may say Catholick what such a one doth any where in his function is good every where as a publick Notary or Master of the Chancery that which they
Scripture speaks of those covenants which God enters with man There are those that enter covenant and keep covenant Psal 44. 17 18. All this is come upon us yet we have not forgotten thee neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant our heart is not turned back neither have our steps declined from thy way These have mercy promised All to which God enegages himself is theirs Psalme 103. 17 18. The meecy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousnesse unto childrens children to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember his commandments to do them There are those that break covenant Psal 78. 10 37. They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law Their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant And these are threatned with a curse Jer. 34. 18 19 20. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me when they cut the calfe in twaine and passed between the parts thereof The Princes of Judah and the Princes of Jerusalem the Eunuches and the Priests and all the people of the land which passed between the parts of the calf I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them that seek their life and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowles of the heaven and to the beasts of the earth The Lord brings a sword that avenges the quarrel of his covenant Levit. 26. 25. When the heaviest of judgements is mentioned and a large list enumerated as Esay 24. Behold the Lord maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste and turneth it upside down and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof And it shall be as with the People so with the Priest as with the Servant so with his Master as with the Maid so with her Mistresse as with the Buyer so with the Seller as with the Lender so with the Borrower as with the taker of usury so with the giver of usury to him the land shall be utterly empited and utterly spoiled for the Lord hath spoken this word The earth mourneth and fadeth away the haughty people of the earth do languish the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth and they that dwell therein are desolate therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burnt and few men left the new wine mourneth the vine languisheth all the merry-hearted do sigh The myrth of Tabrets ceaseth the noise of them that rejoyce endeth the joy of the Harp ceaseth They shal not drink wine with a song strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it The city of confusion is broken down every house is shut up that no man may come in There is a crying for wine in the streets all joy is darkned the mirth of the land is gone In the City is left desolation and the Gate is smitten with destruction The reason of all this is given in the close of verse 5. Because they have transgressed the Laws changed the Ordinances broken the everlasting Covenant Now according to this opinion Regeneration is our entrance into covenant and Regeneration is our keeping of covenant before regeneration we make no covenant after Regeneration we break no covenant there is no such thing as covenant-breaking All this makes an utter confusion in the covenant 2. Then there is no such thing as an hypocrite in the world as in reference towards God no such thing as an hypocrite in the Church as in reference to Religion and wayes of godlinesse An hypocrite is one that personates the man that he is not with Jeroboams wife feignes himself to be another person 1 Kings 14. 6. He that acts Tarquin or Lucretia in the Tragedy is not Tarquin or Lucretia that acts a King is many times a peasant Now an hypocrite respective to Religion and in Scripture use of the phrase is one that pretends for God and is not Gods pretends to be wholly his and is some others of these God frequently complaines These in the Scriptures are menaced with heavy judgements Now according to this opinion that only Regenerate men are in covenant there is no such thing as an hypocrite No such sinne as hypocrisie Where the Gospel is preached God makes tender of himself in covenant and in case none but Regenerate enter Covenant then only they take upon them the persons of people in relation to him onely they strike hands with him and these as they professe so in sincerity and reality they are as they covenant with him so in the uprightnesse of their hearts they walk before him and so all of Israel are Israel There cannot be found a man in Israel that is not a Nathaniel Men out of covenant are without and aliens to the Common-wealth of Israel Ephes 2. 12. And if they be in covenant then according to this opinion they are men sincere and upright-hearted in it But you will say They pretend to the covenant and are not in covenant and so are hypocrites Object To this I say 1. It is plain against the Scriptures that makes hypocrites false in the covenant men whose hearts were not stedfast in it as Psalme 78. 8 10 a stubborne and rebellious generation a generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk in his Law More fully verse 36 37. They did flatter him with their mouth and they lied unto him with their tongues for their hearts were not right with him neither were they stedfast in his covenant Therefore they pretend not barely to a covenant but the covenant which they enter is their pretence for God and their breach of covenant argues them guilty of hypocrisie before the Lord. 2 According to these such pretend to the stage but are never admitted on it They pretend to act the part of a Servant of God but never act in it so we may say they pretend to hypocrisie but never are in the honour to be in any capacity of it 3. If the covenant be with this limit only to Regenerate persons then no Minister in any Church no Church-Officer nor any other Church-member in case you will make it to be their work may baptize any person That Disciples are to be baptized is out of question with all that acknowledge such a standing Ordinance as Baptisme It being in the Apostles commission to disciple Nations and baptize them These are brought into the bond of the covenant as Ezek. 20. 37. But those only passing for Disciples and men in covenant that are Regenerate they can by no eye of any Minister Church-Officer or member be discerned This is that work that cometh not with observation or outward shew that men should say so here or so there Luke 17. 20
Tribes from Hosea 1. 10. Hos 2. 23. is there applied to the call of the Gentiles into a Church-state and condition Neither is that of force against it that is objected from verse 23. where the Apostle saith That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory God sets up visible Ordinances and calls to a Church-state as is there prophecied that he may there work to himselfe a people of invisible relation that thereby he may make them vessels of mercy having afore prepared them unto glory So likewise Rev. 18. 4. Come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues All Professours of faith and worshippers of the true God are there included in that exhortation to quit Babylon so all Ministers of Christ are to urge and presse it Men therefore of visible Profession have this title in compellation from GOD of my people It is yet objected Jeremiah 31. 31 32 33. Behold the dayes come saith the LORD that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband to them saith the Lord. But this shall be my Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people Here is a third purpose or interest for which this Text is produced to serve The first was to assert an unconditionate Covenant in the dayes of the Gospel which we examined chapter 25. when the Gospel expressely holds out Covenant-conditions more expressely than the Covenant of Works which is confest to be conditional The second to overthrow a publick Ministery and all private mutual exhortation which we spake to chapter 26 when the New Testament doth establish both And to set up this Prophecie in a third particular against all New Testament-light none must be of the called of God into Covenant for fruition of Church-priviledges but those that are regenerate Men in Old Testament-Covenant broke Covenant as is there exprest Men in the New Covenant shall keep covenant and these are only the Elect and Regenerate To this I might have many things to say No such sense must be put upon this one single Text as to restrain the covenant only to those that are stedfast in it and carefully observe it when other New-Testament-Scriptures clearly and unanimously hold it out in that latitude to comprehend those that are transgressours of it no more than it must be brought though there be like colour for both to overthrow Gospel-Ordinances private and publick exhortations when in the New Testament there is a clear and full establishment of them There are those that are in the faith so farre as to enter Covenant that make shipwrack of the faith 1 Tim 1. 19. Disciples of Christ that go back and walk no more with him Joh. 6. Men sanctified by the blood of the Covenant that tread under foot the blood of the Son of God and do despight to the Spirit of grace Heb. 10. 29. There are that escape the pollution of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are again entangled and overcome Those that have known the way of righteousnesse that turne from the holy Commandment To whom it happens according to the true Proverb The dogge is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2 22. It is farre easier to returne answer to this Scripture held out by way of Prophecie what shall be than to give answer to all these Scriptures and far more than these setting out what is in New Testament-times 2. That we may interpret and not commit Scriptures finde out the sense of all and not create differences in any we may observe that though it be granted that those that have the Law written in their hearts and put into their inward parts do enter covenant and not break it yet it is not said none shall enter covenant and transgresse it There may still be an outward covenant according to Interpreters that may be broken as well as an inward covenant that shall be observed If it be said that these are two distinct covenants one succeeding the other one abolished when the other takes place according to that of the Apostle Heb. 8. 13. In that he saith a New Covenant he hath made the first Old now that which decayeth and waxeth Old is ready to vanish away then it will follow this being the characteristical difference that as none in New Testament-times enter covenant but they keep covenant so none in Old Testament-times were in covenant but they did transgresse it at least that the covenant that then was was wholly transgresseable and the covenant that now is is not in any possibility to be transgrest But the contrary is evident there were those that kept covenant in Old Testament-times Psal 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet have we not forgotton thee neither have we dealt falsely in the covenant Psal 103. 17. And also there are those that break covenant in New Testament-times 1 Tim. 5. 12. Having damnation because they have cast off their first faith The Law was written in mens hearts and put into their inward parts in the dayes of the Old Testament and some were as it is called in an inward Covenant Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soule that thou mayest live Psal 37. 31. The Law of his God is in his heart none of his steps shall slide Psal 119. 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sinne against thee Encline your eare and come unto me hear and your soule shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of Dâ—â—id Isa 55. 3. And so by consequence it fairly holds notwithstanding this Text that there is as hath been proved an outward covenant in the dayes of the Gospel The oldnesse to be abolished is only in circumstances wherewith one and the same covenant that now is was then clothed 3. The covenant then spoken to by Jeremy in the place quoted is not a covenant properly so called or at least as Master Baxter observes not the whole of the covenant So there must be two distinct covenants one in being when the Prophet wrote and another to have its being in the time of which he prophesied one covenant made with the Jewes and another covenant distinct from it made
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-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
That Jewes carnally descended from Abraham or the children of Christians may be made partakers of the Covenant entered of God with Abraham Birth according to the flesh does nothing So also Bellarmine speaking of the covenant with Abraham saith It descends to us not by carnal but spiritual generation So that these men have sucked the spiritual meaning from the Jesuites and Master Marshal holds to the carnal imaginations of Protestant Reformers They produce many Texts of Scripture where this Birth-priviledge in their thoughts is evidently set forth Jesuites contradict it and upon this account it is a carnal imagination to conceive it The Apostle knew not saith one that God had so by promise Object or other engagement bound himself but he was free as he said to Moses after the promise made to Abraham to have mercy on whom he would Rom. 9. 15. If this be meant of any engagement of God to confer saving graces or habitual qualifications on the natural seed of Beleevers the words then carry reason with them But neither he nor his great friends will learn to distinguish between Gods conditional covenant contained in priviledges of Ordinances and habitual saving graces otherwise they know from Moses that God exercised this freedome in making choise of Israel above all Nations and that the Apostle knew and in the same Chapter lets us know Rom. 9. 4. that to them pertained the covenants and that this was their prerogative for Birth-priviledge Rom. 3. 1. We say the son of a Free-man is Free the son of a Noble-man is Noble we never said that the son of a Learned-man is Learned we say that the son of a Christian is a Christian as to interest in Ordinances We never said that the son of a Regenerate man is Regenerate It is further urged Object If this were true that the covenant of Grace is a birth-right-priviledge then the children of Beleevers are children of Grace by nature for that which is a birth-right-priviledge is a priviledge by nature And if Christianity is hereditary that as the child of a Nobleman is Noble the child of a Free-man is Free the child of a Turk is a Turk of a Jew a Jew the child of a Christian is a Christian Then Christians are born Christians and not made Christians and how are they then children of wrath by nature which whether it may not advantage the Pelagians and deniers of Original sinne it concernes those that use such speeches to consider To this I answer It concernes those that presse these objections to see how Chamier Paraeus and other Protestant Writers answer them when they are in their very words urged by Jesuites If they can reconcile Galat. 2. 15. with Ephes 2. 3. then they have an answer The Apostle was by birth of the people of God in covenant and yet by nature a childe of wrath It is further said Object To conceive that it is in Gods Churches as in other Kingdomes and after the Lawes of Nations is a seminary of dangerous superstitions and errours It is well that they have learned an Artifice from these superstition-hating Jesuites to keep out the inlet of superstition among us if there were no parallel held betwixt the Church of God and other Kingdomes after the manner of the Law of Nations but such that are Seminaries of superstition they may do well to acquaint us how it comes to passe that the Curch in Scripture hath the name of a City Family Kingdome Similitudes ever carry some resemblance If this were the alone ground on which the Birth-priviledge of Christians were bottomed they had said something but being only an illustration of it and nothing more they are over lavish in their censure Similitudes indeed may be over-stretched beyond their reach and if they had laid down rules to declare where the Similitude holds and where it holds not as I have done in the Birth-priviledge and made it appear that it holds not in that for which I produce it they had said somewhat to the purpose Read Mal. 1. 6 8 14. and tell me whether there be any ground laid for dangerous superstitions Thirdly It is so in all other Religions they keep up their priviledge of interest in the worship of their Ancestors The childe of a Turke is a Turke the childe of a Pagan is a Pagan the child of a Jew is a Jew And it is the Apostles Argument in like case respective to Ecclesiastical communion that because Sacramental communion rendered them one Ecclesiastical body with Christians so communion in worship will make one body with those of other Religions 1 Cor. 10. 17 18 19. See Paraeus on the words and Cudworths True notion of the Lords Supper There are common principles that are the same in all Religions and we must beleeve them to hold unlesse Scripture hold forth a difference Fourthly God ownes children born in the Church as by birth his his servants Levit. 25. 39 40 41 42. If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor and be sold unto thee thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant but as an hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubile And then shall he depart from thee both he and his children with him and shall return unto his own family and unto the possession of his fathers shall he returne For they are my servants Root and Branch Parent and childe are servants of God As they were the servants of their Master when they could do them actually no service by reason of their relation to them so they are the servants of God on the same account And as he owns them as his servants so also he ownes them as by birth his children Ezek. 16. 20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy sonnes and thy daughters whom thou hast borne unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy Whoredomes a small matter That thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to passe through the fire for them If there were no Birth-priviledge how had God this property in Infants and this David pleads Ps 116. 16. O Lord I am thy servant truly I am thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid because he was borne in Gods house and was a childe of a servant of his he pleads his interest Fifthly If the child be not in covenant the parent and childe are heterogeneal and respective to Church-relation in the most opposite condition the Parent in the Kingdom of God by vertue of the faith that he professes the childe in the Kingdome of Satan by reason of his non-interest in the Promise and want of title to Covenant-relation But Scripture makes them still as one Jewes children are Jewes by nature Gentiles children are sinners that is Gentiles by nature The Root being holy the Branches are holy Parents not sanctified children are unclean but Parents
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
shall not enter upon that controversie what there is of the being of a Church under the Papacy The Papacy it self is none of it but onely a botch bred in it and cleaving to it onely this I say That he that shall oppose a Papist under the notion of a Christian shall bear his sinne and that upon the grounds that have been given Though a Papists damnable errors in the faith shut him out from the happinesse of Christians yet such an adversaries persecution renders him guilty of opposing the faith of Christ Jesus And he that follows with injuries a carnal Protestant because of profession of the sincerity of Religion in opposition to Antichristianisme is formally guilty of persecution The hearers resembled to the rocky ground suffer persecution for the Word as doth the good ground that brings forth fruit with patience Mat. 13. 21. But to come home with more cleare satisfaction A people of foully polluted Ordinance standing in opposition to a people of a pure and untainted way are as a people void of Ordinances are as a people without God in comparison The opposition of the purity of his service God accounts as the opposition of his great name though it be by a people that go under that name of his people And therefore though Elijah take so much to heart the pulling down of Altars set up by Jeroboam looking upon them as Gods Altars when it was done by Israel apostatizing and turned to Baal 1 Kings 19. 10. and in opposition to the worship of Baal makes that way of worship at Dan and â—achel a following of God yet we know how the Prophet from the mouth of God did cry out against that Altar which Jeroboam erected and foretold the destruction of it and the slaughter of the Priests that offered upon it 1 Kings 13. 2. and with what honour that act of Josiah is mentioned in accomplishment of this prophecy 2 Kings 23. 15. and the brand that lies upon Jeroboam himself in bringing in that worship of his 2 Kings 15. 9. scarce the like on any man in Scripture the man of sinne onely excepted the high phrases also in which this worship is set out making Priests for the high places and devils 2 Chron. 11. 14 15. with the heighth of guilt to which he rose in casting the Levites out from executing the Priests office Hosea 4. 6. And howsoever God often calls that people of the ten tribes by the name of his people as having Ordinances though miserably polluted yet in opposition to Judah where more pure Ordinances were enjoyed they are said to be without God without a teaching Priest and without the law 2 Chron. 15. 3. And fighting against Judah who could reckon up the particulars of the Ordinances of God in their purity they are charged to fight against the Lord God of their fathers 2 Chron. 13. 12. To come nearer home in an instance If the Turkish power should fall upon a Popish State under the name and notion of Christians they were guilty with Saul of persecuting the Lord Jesus If this Popish State fall upon a reformed Nation they are much more guilty A fouler sinne for a people of God in name and title to persecute his people in truth than for a people strangers to God to persecute a people onely in name and title Scripture prayers against Heathens we may fitly apply in our sufferings under the hands of Papists Pilate might have been guilty of persecution of a Pharisee under the notion of a Jew and yet that Nation was much more guilty in delivering up Christ into the hands of Pilate though Christ had been no greater than the meanest of his Disciples A Papist persecuting a formal carnal Protestant under notion of a man protesting against Idolatrous wayes blasphemes and persecutes that faith which he holds in opposition against those Antichristian tenents This man being thus persecuted persecuting another for the power of godlinesse professing the same truth is equally ye more guilty The very sinne of Cain against his brother Abel 1 John 3. 12. their Religions were both one and the same but Cains was onely in forme and Abels in power The result of the whole is to let us see what it is to oppose a people under any notion of Gods people upon any such account as belonging to Christ A man may have his reward giving to any in the name of a Disciple though he to whom he gives be such as God will never owne for a Disciple and answerably may incurre vengeance in opposition of one under such a name though with those on the rocky ground he be nothing lesse than such in deed and truth Fourthly Abundance of sweet consolations yet flow from this birth-priviledge and covenant-holinesse and that in several streames 1. In regard of Nations 2. In regard of Persons In regard of Nations they have royal transcendency above all others as alone worthy the name of a people Nigh unto God A people of hope Enjoying light when others are darknesse without hope and without God in the world The Psalmist reckons up many and sweet-blessings of a Nation That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth that our daughters may be as corner-stones polished after the similitude of a palace that our garners may be full affording all manner of store that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets that our Oxen may be strong to labour that there be no breaking in nor going out that there be no complaining in our streets Psalme 144. 12 13 14. All these are singular National favours but onely serving to make up a comparative not an absolute blessednesse This one riseth higher and makes it compleat Blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. The glory pertaines to a Nation thus honoured Rom. 9. 4. Of such a people though otherwise mean and despicable as was Israel in the Wildernesse comparative to other Nations it may be said What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for Deut. 4. 7. No people can so bottome their prayers against adversaries as they who are the people of Gods holinesse This mercy is a birth-mercy to al such persons whose parents with Timothy from one to another have been Beleevers 2 Tim. 1. 5. and while national provocations break not forth which alone with God have separating and deafning power his eare is ready to hear and his hand to help while he sees not iniquity in Jacob nor perversenesse in Israel which I understand of National out-breaches from God which by Balaams counsel presently followed to Israels danger so long God is among them as the shout of a King and there is no sorcery nor divination against them Num. 23. 21 23. A Nation fast to God hath God fast to them The Lord is with you while ye are with him 2 Chron. 15. 2. In