of man is betrayed they are both true and about the same treachery Shall as to the apprehension and Is betrayed as to his fact past in his agreement which is said therefore while Christ will yield to it to be in effect done What is here wanting now but an opening this and proceeding against him and yet in the very nick he leaves it Is not our cause plain Besides what man will not judge that Iudas treason which Christ tels them of consisted in his contrivance bargain taking money and selling Christ as actually as his comming with the Officers into the garden So that it will be in vain to strive against the truth If Christs example herein be a sufficient rule for our walking we must be content and willingly embrace the humble peaceable way of Free-admission P. 11. He only repeats the question Whether Judas ought to be suspended for as for St. Peter he wrongs him much to joyn him with Iudas ones sinne being by design and already on foot the others un-imagined before and meerly out of present infirmity and he answers No. 1. Because his sinne was not committed Ans I say that is not true unlesse Iudas selling Christ be no sin with him 2 Because Christ could not be both witnesse Iudge and Executioner c. which we had before and again more fully p. 90. Christ as a Minister had no juridical power to turn him or any away c. Nor any it is bravely spoken you may read forwards and the sum is this The Lord Iesus could not turn away Iudas from the Sacrament because the Presbytery was not setled Selah He that at the great day shall be Iudge and Party and tels us Io. Though I bear witnesse of my self my witnesse is true that is is both Witnesse and Party may I hope be both Iudge and Witnesse without absurdity As for the question Whether he acted as a Minister or Mediator it is vain for he acted as both He could not institute an Ordinance for his Church but as he was Head and Mediator nor could he administer it but as a Minister the same numerical actions were both the institution and the administration So that let us but look these passages full in the face and fix wistly on them they are quite out of countenance and I shall need no more to put this man to a mild rebuke than the gracious words of our Saviour Christ The servant is not above his Master nor the disciple above his Lord It is enough that the servant be as his Master and the disciple as his Lord. As for Christs temporal refusing to condemn the Adulteresse it is impertinent as to this his Ecclesiastical command institution and example And for his administring only to Ministers in an upper room it proves we may so administers too if need be as his admitting Iudas proves we may admit of our Chruch-members but if he argues therefore we must do no otherwise here is a clear negative from an affirmative which is no consequence Whereas therfore he tels us in the issue State the case aright when he plainly states it wrong as to Iudas fact Mr. Humphreys has made a wide and wild inference and intreats him to take a more pertinent Text or else he shall scarce prove himself as he is stiled a Master of Arts. I do appeal to mens hearts whether as they are inclinable to Iudas receiving they find them not generally standing or wavering to this Free-admission I shall quote onely our learned Hammond Prac. Cat. mihi p. 334. where asking the question What we gather from this circumstance of Christs admitting Iudas answers That those that are Christian professors may be lawfully admitted though their hearts are full of Villanie They indeed he says are to repent before they come but it shall be no sin to the Minister or Communicants So that for the sufficiency of my ground you have not only pardoning such dulnesse the opinion of a Master of Arts but a Doctor of Divinity and if you look into Mr. Prynne that worthy Gentleman a bunch of Fathers They All drank of it Sect. 3 MY text or ground being cleared we come to the state or meaning of my question P. 12. For the managing his cause Mr. Humphrey premises That in the Church God hath set up his Ordinances of the Word and Sacrament Of these Ordinances some are capable and some uncapable Those that are uncapable are either so by nature as Infants and distracted persons or the Excommunicate and no others c. Before I passe for the fuller opening this I must desire you to consider these particulars 1. I say Within the Church in opposition to Heathen because it is Church-membership limited only with this capacity I hold that give our right to this Ordinance as other outward privileges The Sacraments may be considered Precise precisely in themselves and it is Church-membership I say or an external Covenant relation that suffices to the validity thereof or Complexè complexly with the intire fruits and benefits of the Covenant and so indeed there is no lesse than a justifying faith required for the obtaining of them Our question truly is not concerning what is necessary in order to other ends to the Receiver that he may be saved so final perseverance is necessary but what is necessarily antecedent to the external Sacrament And between these two A Covenant relation visible and truth of Grace which is invisible there is no middle thing in the Scripture enjoyn'd for the rule of our admission A visible member of the Church and a member of the visible Church are but the same 2. I explain those that are uncapable in the first sense in saying by nature and that can discern no meaning hereof as I have added which I do cleerly to distinguish Infants the distracted and natural fools from the barely ignorant of age who are capable to learn and having the present means of knowledge if it be not sufficient herein for their edifying it is meerly their own fault and upon their own account And there are two plain reasons for the distinguishing of these as to this Ordinance wherein the body of the Lord is to be discerned First Because this very discerning cannot be the duty of the former who are naturally uncapable it being an undeniable rule thus far Nemo tenetur ad impossibile And Secondly Because signes cannot work upon the un-intelligent which they wholly are to receive any Real effect by them It is otherwise with the latter for 1. It is their duty both to get knowledge and to come 2. They have an understanding capacity that they may be wronght upon by it and if they be not it is their sin These reasons I may tell Mr. Drake are so ordinary and solid that they will be as two gravel stones in the teeth of his arguments while he champs upon them 3. For the uncapable in the second sense which word is not so proper here but you may
in the Church are in some sense in Christ and sanctified by him as I quoted those Texts Jo. 15.2 2 Pet. 2.1 Heb 10.29 c. From whence I argue that those who are in a Church-state in Covenant or visible communion so that thereby they are said to be in Christ redeemed and sanctified are to bee admitted accordingly to the seal and badge thereof unlesse such as the Scripture gives ground to except But all church-Church-members are in Covenant Deut. 29.1.10 11. visible Saints c. and the Scripture allows no bar to any unlesse unintelligent or excommunicate Ergo. Unto this seeing it concerns the maine Mr. D. gives us two answers 1 Then Infants againe may be admitted this is fourteen times 2 In short He is confident against it A very masterful argument which confidence yet without proofe whosoever trusts to shal finde but as a broken tooth and foot out of joynt And here I desire the Reader to take notice when he still comes to this point which is the foundation whether it be sufficient satisfaction only to vilisie me and slight it off For as for this passage with which he hath filled so many sheets about children it is good for nothing unlesse they had happily been in parchment and then it would have served well to make them Drums and sounded prettily by the emptinesse Page 122. How grosse is that assertion that there is an historical visible faith that gives an out ward Church right unto the Elements Answ Nay rather how cleare and firme a truth doth it appear by the former Argument That faith which serves to enter a man in external Covenant and engage him to the termes thereof wil serve to admit him to the Sacraments but a faith onely accepting the true God in opposition to all other Religions doth serve for that appears by the Covenanting of the whole body of Israel Deut 29.10 12. Ergo All Professors or Church-members that have but a common general historical or visible faith for any of these termes serve me I say are in Covenant but the Covenant is the foundation of the Sacraments Ergo neither will the right understanding hereof doe any hurt to the Church I hope so long as we presse neverthelesse a solid saving faith to interest them in the effectual benefits of them both His Exceptions are 1 Then the Excommunicate have a right for they have stilan historical faith Answ How vaine is this who knowes not the state of the question supposes us within the Church 2 Some excommunicate may also have a true saving faith See how fairly instead of opposing me he checks himselfe I pray marke his strength in both because neither an historical nor saving faith gives a man a right that is excommunicate and thereby made no Church-member therefore they cannot give him a right when hee is not excommunicate and is a Church-member 3 As historical faith gives not a right to Christ but faith of adhesion so a visible faith of adhesion gives right to Christ sacramental Answ 1 I might returne to him Why may not some excommunicate persons have such a visible faith of adhesion as an historical saving one But. 2 An historical faith is suo genere a true faith as the Eunuchs I beleeve that Christ is the Sonne of God Act. 8.37.3 An historical saith which was barely so and not saving gave Simon Magus admission unto Baptisme Act. 8.13 and here Adultis eadem ratio holds firme 4 Faith of adhesion I take to be an assent with application and that is special faith which I question whether it may be termed visible as distinguished from saving 5 It is sufficient to mee that a faith which generally assents to the truth of the Covenant and engages to it and yet falls short of justifying entitles to the Sacraments for otherwise we shal quite confound the worke of the Minister and the Spirit the symbolical and effectual Seal and then no man can be admitted at all without presumption 6 When the Papists prove that historical faith justifies because it sufficed unto Baptisme Act. 8.37 Some of our able Divines answer It is true Profession of faith gives interest to Baptisme yet it is not sufficient to Justification Dr. Slater on Rom. 3.22 There is a manifest difference between a title to the Sacraments and interest in the saving benefits A general faith gives title to one a special to the other Regeneration is like David that enjoyes Michal when Profession like Phaltiel comes along behinde weeping to Bahurim A general faith hath some union with Christ as a special a saving union Profession like Orphah may kisse Naomi when a saving faith like Ruth cleaves unto her Sect. 4 THe fourth Objection is The Seal is set to a Blanke if all be admitted My answer was from consideration of what is sealed It is generally said the Sacrament is the seale of faith wherein lyes the difficulty I say onely it is a Seale of the Covenant The Gospel is the writing the Sacrament as the seale to that writing the Writing is true and the Seal true whosoever is admitted I must confesse there is so much confusion in this businesse especially in Mr. D. who is usually most assertive when least advised that it will be in vaine to dispute Andabatarum more with termes blindfolded These termes then sealing to a blanke sealing to our faith and sealing the Covenant I judge are ambiguous when we differ onely in termes we may reconcile in our meaning but where we differ in our matter one of us must be reformed First then Sealing to a blank may relate to the thing or person when I say there is no sealing to a blank I mean as the thing sealed for it is not the unbelief of man can make the Covenant of God of no effect Now when here he takes a blanke as relating to persons he sayes nothing and is presently answered we hold none are visible blanks within the Church but when he refers it to the thing as I do here arises our difference Secondly Sealing of faith or to faith we either meane as the thing sealed or the condition required to the exhibition thereof When I say the Sacrament is not a seal of faith I mean it still as the thing sealed to wit on Gods part A Seal is an Appendix to writing the Sacrament is not an Appendix to faith but to the Gospel Now againe If he meane here by this expression It is a seale to our faith onely that faith is the condition upon which alone Christ and his benefits are conveyed it is what none doubteth and for words we contend not But when he sayes It is the seale of Faith referring it as I doe to the thing sealed our controversie here must continue and there is but one thing to looke into to wit the sense wherein or grounds whereon he thus holds it which I shall satisfie after I have laid downe these other distinctions likewise about sealing the Covenant as necessary
very coming is their profession My sixt proof was Act. 2.41 42 46. Which Text he leaves out you may conceive it has silenced him For while we find thousands admitted thus freely and equally not omitting his phrase of Pell-mel in their breaking bread I say even wholy alike as in doctrin and prayer we dare not fall down to that Sacramental Rule upon tryal he would set up if it be once held as necessary and divine though we acknowledge the prudence and piety of others seeing it has not one word to speak or the least argument left it concerning this Scripture that it should open the mouth or move the wing or peep against it My seventh text was Act. 10.28 which I say I apply only as to the expression Yet does he pursue it with four pitifull exceptions p. 34 35. For the first whereof it is untrue St. Paul says not Tit. 1.15 the unbeliever is unclean to us but all things are unclean to him For the second I shall satisfie after I have proposed this question in answer to his two other Whether do you think him more pierceing in the third to find only the unintelligent left out or ingenuous in the fourth to speak so eloquently when he has done I have heard of one that would undertake ye to confute all Bellarmine in two words Mentiris Bellarmine by Mr. Drakes language and confidence he may be the man And now for the force of these words I told you in the beginning we must distinguish of passages unto their right parties there is a sort of weak Christians that think they shall be defiled if they Communicate in our mixt Churches this text may be full and solid for them though it reaches not others Mr. Drake should be more tender than to debilitate their supports Dear souls I have seen some of your tears and let this dry them up for you you are not to account them common and unclean that receive with you If your selves be clean all are clean to you The soul many times that is not taken with a reason may by an expression A man may be common and unclean three ways 1. Levitically and this is abrogate 2. Morally and this defiles a mans self and not another 3. Faederally as appears in 1 Cor. 7.14 Now while persons are Faederally clean as all Church members are being separated by external Covenant to Christ from the World we need not doubt but they may be communicated withall without any pollution Indeed Mr. Drake says heer such and such are Morally unclean but what then It is not Moral cleannesse but Faederal cleannesse is the ground of our admission and a man is not Faederally unclean till excommunicated He objects wicked Christians reject Christ p. 35. and answers himself with me p. 84. Though they transgresse they do not renounce the Covenant as Turks do and are Church Members till excommunicated And these were my Scriptures to establish us in this sweet truth that leads us unto peace and though he has done his endeavour to hinder you of the benefit of them yet for all his opposition there is not so much as the girdle of their loyns loosed or latchet of their shooes broken For the cloze herof I gatherd up some Texts Io. 6.37 Rev. 22.17 c. that do set forth the most free offers of Jesus Christ which though Mr. Drake makes but light of p. 36. do pathetically enter the spirits of others that have but a little embraced this sweet notion that the Lord Jesus is proportionably gracious in his external privileges to a Christian profession as he is in his internal saving benefits to the sincerity of Christianity Heer he says three things the one is With what Conscence can I keep off Infants This is now four times The other two are the same which in their naked sense comes to this Though Christ be offered freely yet it must be to such only as we judge truly receive him The truth is the word and the Sacraments are but the same publick instrument delivered as a sealed writing for the use of the Church and are equal privileges if I may call the same equal to all the Members of it I do even pity mortality to see what a few words a few enfoldings can hide Truth from us what sense is in this Jesus Christ is to be freely shewed forth to bring men home effectually to him and yet must the Receivers make out their right unto the Minister before we dare offer or conditionally apply him to them I do humbly conceive heer is the false notion that perplexes the many We that are Ministers they think are sent by our Prince Jesus to our Flocks as Rebels to offer grace and salvation if they come in and truly accept him we are to seal their pardons if they do not make this visibly appear we may not apply the seal without being guilty of the blood of Christ Now this is a very ill apprehension which we shall rectifie as we go forwards for we must not make the notion of sealing so dreadfull and bring so much blood upon our souls I think this is true indeed in reference to the heathen whom we need not fear to judge visible Rebels and they must come in and professe Jesus Christ in opposition to all other Religions before we can seal the Word to them The Word is no sealed Word even outwardly but to the Church and when they are made Members once it is then sealed we seal them an equal right to all Ordinances and Privileges and whatsoever is exernal we confer to them But being received into the Church and professors already we cannot compel any tryal of them more unlesse by way of Catechism and instruction wherein yet there is no man too old to learn Lu. 14. but it must be as to the truth of their profession or effectual sincerity which for to do where no scandal calls them in question it is to go about to judge mens hearts and to enter into the seat of God and make our selves dispensers not of the mysteries only but of the grace while we take a power to judge of mens worthinesse and according to visibility seal them their pardons This is a businesse of sad consequence to give occasion and some hold-fast to those Anti-christian Scandals are cast on our Ministry by them that would undo us I must confesse I belive it was only the zeal and piety of good men that made them thus to rise up against ignorance and sin without intending to enter upon Gods Throne but if we have erred and must be laid down it may be in the dust I hope we shall acknowledge his hand and if he shall return our Captivity from the Rivers of Confusion where we have sate down and wept we will remember again our Ierusalem and when thou hast restored us our Harps now hanging on the Willows we will sing of thy goodnesse in the wonted songs of thy Syon Sect. 6 HAving
does own them outwardly as his people even when they will not hearken and will none of him Psal 81.8 11. that is plainly reject the Covenant as to obedience when they are ignorant Isa 1.3 Hos 4.6 and scandalous Psa 106.39 with ver 45. They went a whoring after their owne inventions yet remembred he for them his Covenant 4 So long as men are not excommunicate I see no reason why Christ may not be offered Sacramentally as free as verbally to worke them to repentance for the offering a sealed pardon in general the generall alwaies including the particulars and the particulars applying the same to single persons conditionally whatsoever this mansurmises is but the same If he can say to all whosoever beleeves shall be saved he can say so to me unlesse all does not include mee and absolutely the Sacrament seales no mans interest as alike vainly he imagines 5 If men doe not walke conformable to the Covenant the denouncing the judgement of God and the sealing of it seriously applyed is the means to reforme them 6 When other meanes will not work upon them there remains Excommunication and let that content him Page 132. He does but repeate the same Page 133. He hath three things 1. The Sacraments are Gods seales as relating to Gods Covenant and as instituted to ratifie the Covenant Ans A good confession Then they are not Gods seales as relating to Faith and as instituted formally to ratifie Faith They are not seales of Faith for Righteousnesse but they are seales of the righteousnesse of Faith in opposition to Works 2 Is not Faith and every saving Grace promised in the New Covenant unlesse Mr. H. will turn Pelagian Ans I beleeve here Mr. Drakes other studies has beguiled his Divinity for hee may be pleased to know we neither make Faith the birth of mans Free Will nor yet to be given by vertue of the Covenant made with man which the Sacrament seals but to be Gods most free gift that proceeds from election and discovers the mystery thereof 3 If the Covenant be Gods if the Seale be Gods and Faith promised in it be Gods also is it not apparent that Gods seale must needs be Faiths seale also Answ If hee count this apparent which is a very Chaos you may guesse what light to expect from him The truth is As faith is our condition it is not a branch of the Covenant that God seales which puzzles this man for if it were every man should unquestionably come and engage the Lord by his owne seale to undertake for his condition as I have already intimated and consequently if God perform what he engages every one should bee saved This he sees p. 134 135. and is quite lost in his very first particular for while hee supposes the Covenant promises initiall grace to the Elect and the Sacrament seales that Covenant and the seale secures what is in the writing which are all his own termes he must necessarily take upon him to judge who are reprobates which is sinfull to doe or all must be admitted for though men are visibly yet in the state of nature they may be elect Had not the man so much contemned me he might have found how to distinguish between what comes from Gods undertaking with man or the conditional bosome of the Covenant and what comes from his undertaking with Christ or the free absolute bosome of Election I pray compare his third particular with this first The Sacrament he sayes there is for nourishment and that I hope to the Elect So p 147. It seals not initiall but progressive Graece and yet here the Covenant he counts promises initiall grace to the Elect and the seal secures what is in the Covenant So that ☜ what need I here to dispute with Mr. D. when his own particulars have an opponent and defendant among themselves and do rise up methinks but like the heads and horns still in the Visions to revile and fight with one another I will here therefore pose these two pages of Mr. Drakes with these Questions 1. Whether it be one and the same Covenant he speakes of there 2. How the Covenant being conditional doth promise absolutely 3. How it can promise initial Grace for Faith and Repentance are the condition of the Covenant and how can faith be promised upon condition we have faith or the first grace be given upon condition we have grace 4. What difference is there between the Covenants offer of grace and promise of grace conditionally 5. How can the offer of Grace be said to be sealed as Offer is distinguished from Promise 6. Whether the Minister can seale which he please either the Offer or Promise and why he should not content himselfe to seale the offer which is sure to all present rather then to seal the Promise where he may erre seeing his visible Legatees really may not bee such By these Questions happily it may appeare Mr. D. does not see all things Page 136. Christ may be given to all or held forth in the Sacrament though they doe not receive Answ What an unworthy shift is this to bee made use of so often As Christ is held forth to all Sacramentally he is held forth to this end to be Sacramentally eaten and drunken Take eate this is my body that is thus taken and eaten it is his body not otherwise The Sacrament then gives not out Christ or holds him forth Sacramentally but to those that receive it And they all dranke of the rocke which was Christ In the same page he hath up Infants and the distracted againe which is sixteen times and argues from the word As the Minister may not lose by the Key of doctrine such as are to bee bound no more may be seal comfort c. Answ As the Minister doth not onely loose but binde in the word so does he in the Sacrament and as he neither bindes nor looses but conditionally in the one no more does he seal comforts or judgement and so terrours in the other As for that onely Objection against this conditional sealing he hath over the lease that then heathen and the excommunicate may be admitted I have answered The word is a sealed word onely to the Church It is apparent the seal is delivered onely for her use Gen. 17. and therefore to be applied by expresse Text Exod. 12.28 onely to her members Page 137 138. He contends without cause that the Sacraments are mans seals which in his sense that they are appointed to his use in a propriety of the final cause who doubts but in that sense which regards him that sets the seal as if Mr. D. should make Articles with me the setting his seal is not mine so do I think some wiser then Mr. D. may not judge it any thing ridiculous to make the seal Gods only and our mutual restipulation I mean the performance of it to arise as the good use we are to make thereof If any contend for words
can legally eat worthily and if I construe it onely a man may be legally unworthy yet Evangelically receive worthily it is not ad idem and the comfort is lost but if it stand thus that a man may bee Evangelically unworthy yet receive worthily in his kinde to wit as opposed to receiving unworthily in the Apostles sense so that it may please God to worke upon him by it It is as full of sweetnesse as ever it can hold that will have you examine your estates and be sensible of them and so come as condemning your selves both legally unworthy Evangelically unworthy yet waiting on Christ to make you worthy as knowing you can never bee saved on other termes and being ready to say with the Lepers 2 King 7. Why sit we here untill wee dye If we enter into the City the famine is in the City and we shall dye there and if we sit still here we dye also If we forsake Gods Ordinances or remaine in our condition we are sure of death Now therefore let us fall into the hands of Jesus Christ Convert thou us and we shall bee converted if he saves us alive we shall live and if he kils us we shall but dye If any approve not the distinction which yet I hope no man will grudge me Docendi gratia it will bee all one to hold without it that a man is to bee accounted to receive worthily that makes an effectual use thereof according to his condition whether regenerate or not and consequently that all within the Church may bee reckoned visibly worthy as well as visibly in Covenant or visible Saints although as hee leads mee the termes in reference to trial and evidence I am forced to follow him and oppose his sense thereof Page 117 How many are there outwardly pious who upon trial might easily be uncased to live in some knowne sinne Each of these fearing to be uncased before the Eldership no wonder they are averse to trial lest their sheeps-cloathing should bee pulled off and themselves discovered to be ignorant prophane or hypocritical So page before 49. The denial hereof must needs vex hypocrites who by this meanes are pryed into and uncased Consider this with such places where he intimates that the Church is to require evidence and try every professor as to his sincerity page 17. and that otherwise they shall be partakers of their sinnes if they doe not study the discovery of persons unworthy page 120. and the people likewise if they doe not endeavour to keep them from receiving page 109. Answ I pray read ponder and lay such expressions to heart if it be not a sad thing to have such grievous fears taught us by the precepts of men Alas Sirs Is not the Ministers calling heavy enough Are not his contests and hatred more then he can undergoe already Is not that serious duty of the receivers to examine themselves worke enough to take them up And is there any Scripture that enjoynes men to pry into others fitnesse and unsitnesse or prevent sinne in order to this Sacrament more then other duties What a burden will men bring on tender spirits which if wee should doe cursorily and negligently and yet make conscience of it as necessary it will but bring a curse on us Jer. 48.10 and if wee should goe to doe it seriously what everlasting difficulties and troubles will it create for us This is such a terror cannot bee borne while as the Israelites sprinkled their door posts with bloud in the Passeover that they might escape death here is the bloud of the Sacrament as it were sprinkled upon every soule that none may escape the guilt of it but must be made fellow-murderers of Christ as hee sadly termes it if any visibly unworthy bee admitted For my part if others will needs lay such strictness here on I can but reverence them the very shadow of holiness is to be feared but I can never thinke that the doore of the Sacrament even to the Receivers owne part is to be held quite as narrow as the doore to heaven so long as the same men will maintaine that necessary distinction of the Church visible and invisible Page 118. If Mr. H. object such persons ought to be excommunicated then it seems wee offend rather in being too favourable then too rigid that onely suspend them c. Answ This favour of his which he so often speaks of in suspension when yet he holds a man cannot be debarred any Ordinance but actual receiving in the greatest censure is methinks just like the good woman when the man fell off the house with an hatched by his side and broke his necke what a great mercy is it sayes shee he had no more harme Sect. 3 THE the third objection is Holy things to holy men My answer was by distinction of outward and inward holy things and persons Mr. Drake excepts page 119. 1 Infants and the distracted are outwardly holy this is thirteen times 2 Some outwardly holy things to wit the word Mat. 28 29. may be administred to those that are not outwardly holy Answ What then therefore may it not bee administred to those that are outwardly holy 3 Bare profession if contradicted by prophanenesse cannot secure a man from Excommunication much lesse from suspension Answ But what is this to profession not contradicted by prophanenesse I meane such as is not sufficient to excommunicate him It is that I say gives him admission 4 The Excommunicate doe still professe and are outwardly holy therefore Mr. H. contradicts himselfe c. Answ I pray Sir excuse me I say when a man is excommunicate he is as a heathen and not to be reckoned outwardly holy or as a Professor Whereas therefore he concludes over-leafe page 120. that Mr. H. his answer may vye with the objection in weaknesse Bee pleased to turne to page 139. In both Sacraments sayes he there Real interest is sealed to reall Saints as visible interest to visible Saints Now I pray compare Mr. H. outward holy things to outward holy men and inward holy things to inward holy men A visible Ordinance to the visible Church and the invisible grace to the invisible members that have a saving interest in them by faith This was my answer and is it not mis-fortune thinke yee that the same thing must be strength in M. Drake and yet weaknesse in M. H. and that M. H. must bee thought to contradict himselfe when hee poore creature is apt to thinke M. Drake doth Besides it is M. Drake sayes here not Mr. H. that a man is still a Professor when hee contradicts his Profession and is excommunicate from it So that by my consent he may set up the trade of a Contradiction-maker for seeing the Last of his own invention will so well serve any body if hee cannot put off his Ware to others it is but taking it to himselfe and he may never need to be any loser by it Page 121. He cannot deny that All
common Faith as it makes a man a Professor it makes him partaker of the Ordinances and his waiting thereupon or meeting at the Word and Sacraments is his very profession signified and his badge that he is one of the visible Church so that you must either say that every unregenerate man must leave off his profession and become no Christian or the scruple is removed for the truth is that Faith he hath in the doctrine of Christ so far as it is undissembled and makes him a Christian in opposition to all other Religions will bear him up in the profession and make it his duty for to come which in the manner ought to be done and the matter not left undone 2 The case is the same in all Ordinances while a Christian comes to the Word that is a signified profession that he will obey the mind of God when it is revealed now unlesse hee heartily resolves to practice what he hears it is a like mocking God and playing the hypocrite if I may use his words Psa 50.16 17. Jer. 43.2 5 20. Likewise in Prayer there is a vertuall engagement of us to endeavor the grace we pray for Nay herein is the most expresse hypocrisie for how can an unregenerate man say Thy Kingdome of grace come when he doth not sincerely desire grace which yet he ought to pray and sincerely desire too if he did truly desire it he were regenerate for a desire of true grace as Mr. D. sayes is true grace Yet doe I think Mr. D. doth not exclude any of his unregenerate Members from the Word and Prayer 3 This argument then is strong to enforce men to the manner when they doe the matter but not to leave off the matter because they faile in the manner It is of force to presse men to bring up their hearts and lives to their engagements but not to forbear those engagements they are bound to as Professors 4 Though a professor be unregenerate he does 0 truly beleeve Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and the alone Saviour of the World in opposition to all other Religions and thereof this is a true profession and that suffices to the Sacraments precisely considered though not complexly as to the entire benefits of the Covenant 5 So far as a man is in Christ or a member of his Church Christ is given to him and received of him with a true distinction of priviledge from the world 6 He engages himselfe or is engaged hereby to submit to the termes of Jesus Christ as he is bound to do which if he do not perform it is the issue makes it a lie and him an hypocrite Psa 78.35 with 37. but the obligation it selfe and that sincerely is his duty 7 There is the nature and substance of this Ordinance and the divers uses to be made of it The very nature and substance consists in a Commemoration of Christ An unregenerate man is capable of this substance and so it becomes his duty which cannot bee made voyd by the mal-performance for no consequence can annihilate Gods Precept Neither doth my incapacity of satisfying all the ends and uses of an Ordinance as before exempt me from those I can for then neither could children be capable of Baptisme not Christ of Circumcision 8 As the Minister doth tender and apply Jesus Christ conditionally to all according to the termes of the Covenant so may he receive him to wit as looking for salvation from him upon performance of the condition and condemnation if he continues in unbeliefe without repentance as the case in penal obligations this being the means both to perswade and fright him to it And then 9 The full and safest answer to this will be by a serious practise Let us examine our selves and humbling our soules in the sight of our unworthiness acknowledge our deserts and apply the due sense of our just condemnation according to our present estate together with the offer of mercy upon our amendment and this takes off the hypocrisie for if my actual receiving be a Lye to wit as it is a visible profession it must be so either before God or before men It is not a Lye before men for I hold it a means of conversion and profess not my self converted already but come onely as a Church-member and It is not a Lye before God I mean so far as any unregenerate mans service can bee without it for I condemne my selfe and apply that part of the Covenant which is due to mee as I ought with the offer of grace to bring mee home to him Page 190. I easily grant assurance is not absolutely requisite as a means to receiving Answ Upon this true concession I argue against him in the maine If it be necessarily pre-required that a man be regenerate before he receives then must assurance be absolutely requisite as a means But seeing assurance is not necessary as a means therefore it is not necessarily pre-required that a man be regenerate and this becomes a means of conversion The former I prove That which a man cannot be perswaded in his conscience is lawful to doe it is sin if it bee done Rom. 4.23 But a man that holds it absolutely unlawful for an unregenerate man to eat and is not certaine that he himselfe is regenerate cannot be assured in his conscience that he ought to eat And hee that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not with faith for whatsoever is not of faith is sinne This is the misery is brought upon us while men deny the Sacrament to be a means of conversion Page Ibid. and 191. Whereas I press upon the Receiver to resolve against every knowne sin for the present and to accept of Christ which is his duty as well as to come He excepts at me as not speaking consonantly to my self and the nature of faith For the former I do beleeve we know so little of the nature of spirits our own souls actings thereof and so infinitly less the workings of Gods Spirit that I dare not confine my selfe herein I doe not doubt but there may be many good resolutions and some supernatural motions on the hearts of men which prove abortions when the like desires cherished in the use of the means by Gods grace become effectual It is therefore my Doctrine that a Christian should still endeavour to blow up every spark desire or good motion he finds in him We do not know how the seeds or first impressions of grace differ in any and discover them onely by the rooting and continuance If common grace differ from special only gradually which for ought we know may bee the truth then we have a certain promise that in the use and exercise those degrees shall be increased which will make it saving Habenti dabitur If it dâ—ffers specifically which those terms of the immortall seed the new birth regeneration c. do incline me to beleeve yet have we a Peradventure in the use of