to God and receive according to the things done in their bodyes whether they be good or bad therefore no conscience ought to be forced in the matters of Religion because no man can beare out another in his account to God if in case he should cause him to sinne Ninthly I do beleeve the King is set upon his throne by God who hath given him power and authority to reigne and rule for God over all his subjects as supreame head over all persons in his Dominions in whom is resident all power to punish any that shall offend either against his royall person crowne or dignity and that all his Subjects are to obey him out of conscience to God and all in lawfull authoritie under him and wherein they rule wâ—â—l I am bound in conscience actually to obey and assist them to the utmost of my abiliaie both in my person and state and wherein they goe amisse that I cannot with a good conscience actually obey them as aforesaid I shall passively submit my body to suffer their pleasure according to the Word of God in what they shall inflict upon me without resistance this is my faith and the faith of all that I desire to have fellowship with And lastly I do beleeve that there is an holy and blessed communion of Saints that God of his grace calls suck as belong to life by election unto the fellowship of his Sonne by the Gospel of which matter God by his Word and Spirit joyns them together in his covenant of grace and so constitutes his Church as I have before shewed And as God hath thus built for himselfe an holy habitation of such pure matter and also after ho holy a manner even so hath he provided a way of preservation and safetie for the same as Isa 26.1 We have a strong Citie salvation will God appoint for walls and bulworks which Citie is said to have a wall both great and high and built upon twelve foundations great that none shall break through high that none shall overtop or get over and strong in the foundation that nothing shall shake it 〈…〉 5. 〈…〉 3. and God hath said that he will be a wall of fire round about and the glory in the midst of it and that he will keepe it and watch over it by night and by day that nothing shall hurt it and as God hath built himselfe a house after his own minde and is a guard to the same even so he also is said to beautifie the same with salvation 〈…〉 3. 〈…〉 and to make the place of his feet glorious and that he will lay all her stones with faire colours and her foundations with Saphires and her windows of Agaâ—s and her gates of Carbuncles and all her borders of pleasant stones and all her children taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of her children Which Citie and the streets thereof are said to be of pure gold like unto cleare glasse 〈…〉 11 whose light is like to a stone most precious even as a Jasper stone cleare as Crystall Of which Christ saith Thou art all faire my love and there is no spot in thee 〈…〉 and that the Kings daughter is all glorious within and her clothing is of wrought gold And as Christ doth thus signifie unto us the nature of his Church both in respect of her matter her forme her grace and comely order in him her head even so he holds forth his love to her and delight in her by these and the like sweet expressions of comfort and solace 〈…〉 The Lord hath chosen Zion be hath desired it for his habitation saying this is my rest and here will I dwell for ever And so faith the Apostle In Christ all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord 〈…〉 1 〈…〉 in whom you are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit and therefore God is said to love the gates of Zion more then all the dwellings of Jacob and glorious things are spoken of thee O thou Citie of God Which Citie is said to be Jerusalem which is above bo is the mother of us all And so the mountain of the Lords house is said to be established in the top of the mountains and to be exalted above the hils 〈…〉 6. For whose sake saith the Lord I will not hold my peace nor rest untill I cause the righteousnesse thereof to break forth as brightnesse and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth And so called by Christ and holy people the redeemed of the Lord a City sought out and not forsaken The name of which Citie from that day shall be 〈…〉 12 〈…〉 8. The Lord is there And further called his vine his plant his temple his flocke his pleasant portion his first borne his bride his Queene his Spouse his wife his body his love his dove his onely joy and place of Rest Consider Some were perswaded with the things that were spoken but some beleeved not Act. 28.24 ERRATA Faults escaped Page 8 line 5. Reade as for is p. 12. l. 4. r. therefore though the first c. p. 19. l. 45. 〈…〉
them what will such doe when more light comes they will then yeeld or else appeare to be wilfull opposers of the truth The Lord give them hearts to consider and to put their cause to the tryall of the holy and pure Word of God and to bring all his people into one unitie of faith and uniforme order of truth that God may have glory the Gospel honour the Saints comfort The subject of the former discourse hath been about the right subject of Baptisme and that the word of God hath discovered to be a beleever onely in the proving of which truth there in also disproved two sorts of persons and they are either beleevers Infants or such that received their Baptisme of Antichrist and yet all in their infancy both which are by the Scriptures disapproved the one being uncapable and so without any Rule from God for the same and the other also unlawfull and so directly against the word of God which disclaimes all communion with the man of sinne in any of his divine ordinances who receives nothing of the Lord and therefore all that he can administer unto any is both of himselfe from himselfe and for himselfe and so not to be justified nor retained as the Lords ordinance And this falling out so it followes that we are now to seeke for the Lords true Baptisme and for a case so difficult as some would make it two things in speciall are to be inquired into first how or where to finde it secondly how it may be obtained being found for the first if any ordinance of God should be so deceased in its constitution as that we doe not know where it is afoot in Gods way in the world so as to come by it with a good conscience A people in such a case being convicted of the truth and he necessitie of their obedience to God in the same and yet know not the way or manner how to accomplish their holy desires in the finding obtaining the same They are to goe as of old to Christ and his Apostles as the godly then did that is to the holy Scriptures which are the lively Oracles of God the Spirit speaking in them unto a beleeving heart so they stand in the place of Christ and his Apostles with the same abilitie authoritie to furnish a man of faith with all truth as these Scriptures compared together sufficiently prove 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. 2 Pet. 1.19 20. Rom. 16.25 26. Job 5.39 Mat. 22.29 Luk. 24.25.27.44 45 46. 1 Cor. 15.3 4. By all which we see that all things are contained in the Scriptures unto which the holy Ghost leads men to prove and finde all things concerning faith and obedience to God and man which are the Propheticall mouth of Christ that all must have recourse unto that will have any thing to do with him Act. 3.22 23. And the Rule by which all must be tryed though an Angel from heaven and the Apostles themselves as Gal. 1.8 9. So that the holy Scripture is the onely place where any ordinance of God in the case aforesaid is to be found they being the fountain-head containing all the instituted Rules both of Church and ordinances so that where or wheresoever any of these are wanting in their constitution and cannot be found in their outward orderly forme wee are to go directly unto its institution and recover the same againe from thence as Cant. 1.7 Isa 8.19 20. Rom. 10.6 7 8. And thus having found the place or subject wherein baptisme ever subsists as an ordinance of God we are in the next place to know how such as want it may come orderly by it for though that God hath joyned his word and ordinances together yet he hath also ordained an orderly way for his people to come to enjoy them which orderly way I conceive to be only in the Church of God wherein is the power of Christ to set afoot his ordinances as when God shall please to take a people to himselfe and by the power of his truth unite them to his Son and so into an orderly body among themselves now such a people so constituted have right unto all such priviledges ordained and appointed by God for their mutuall comfort and well-being as Rom. 8.17 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. By vertue of this union they have with their head Christ the body thus joyntly considered hath the power authoritie of Christ within her selfe to chuse and make use of any one or more of her members as occasion offers and authorises his or them to administer baptisme upon the whole body and so upon themselves in the first place as apart of the same Such may be truly said to be sent and authorized by Christ as of old by Christ in his humane body even so now by him in his divine and spirituall body for wheresoever a Church doth rise in her true constitution there are her ordinances and also power to administer the same and where a thing is wanting there must be of necessitie a beginning to reduce that thing againe into beeing And thus briefly I have shewed my judgement in case baptisme should be wanting where we should finde it and that is in the holy Scriptures of God Secondly How from thence to be obtained and that is by Gods calling a people into an holy fellowship with Christ from whom they have power to assume as a Church so the ordinance of Baptisme upon themselves I shall yet further cleare up this truth by shewing the manner of the foresaid constitution in the causes of it But before I can doe this I must give answer to two sorts of persons that oppose the aforesaid truth first such as stand for a personall succession secondly such as will have no Church before Baptisme and so make Baptisme the forme of the Church As for the first that hold Baptisme by personall succession they have received a sufficient answer in proving of that Baptisme administred by Antichrist to be none of Gods ordinance onely a word or two to such as hold a succession in the defection of Antichrist as they call it if they meane by defection the outward forme of worship and government Ecclesiasticall a I thinke they doe then all the power and authoritie that ever hath carried out any administration or constituted ordinance hath taken its beeing thence and depends upon the same and if so then the power and ordainer and the ordinance so ordained must be both of one and the same stamp as I have already proved if the one be Antichrists the other must be also Antichristian and to dreame of any approved Church by the word of God in or under this defection and yet a part of the same is to look for a man in the Moone and to suppose a Church to consist in such matter that is destructive to the forme and therein to hold a succession of truth is against the very light of nature and to keep the Pope upon the throne of
Christ whether he will or no but to lay the chaine of succession of truth this way namely through the Popedome of Rome as all such must doe that hold a personall succession or a Church and ordinances to consist in the same from the Apostles untill now what will such doe and where will their succession of truth lie when the same comes to the woman Pope of whom the Papists themselves are ashamed for when we speake of personall succession of truth as in reference to Church and Church ordinances I looke upon this in the power and authoritie that beares the same and to hold a Church to be true and the ordinances there administred the true ordinances of God and to leave this and set up a way of worship apart from it and deny communion with it is in my darke understanding a meere schisme and the overthrow of all order in Religion so far as I have learned Christ men are to stand in their place and use all means to reforme and reclaime or disclaime by the word of truth and all being done and of necessitie I must by the word of God leave off communion with them I think by the same rule I must disclaime them and so separate away from them if they doe not repent and not to leave a true Church and true ordinances and goe apart and erect another Church ordinances and worship of our selves apart from it in opposition to it this in my judgement is as farre from any Rule in the Gospel of Christ as for a man to baptize himselfe neither of which doe I approve of Yet a word by the way because of such an error that some make and how far off from any rule or example for a man to baptize himselfe or to baptize others and himselfe unbaptized so thinking hereby to shut up the ordinance of God in such a strait that none can come by it but through the authoritie of the Popedome of Rome But for the opening of this cloud that seems so to darken the skie let the Reader consider who baptized John the Baptist before he baptized others and if no man did then whether he did not baptize others he himselfe being unbadtized if he was baptized whether it were not by an unbaptized person and all Scripture being written for our learning and this being one we are taught by this what to doe upon the like occasion And for the continuation of the Church from Christs words The gates of hell shall not prevaile against it c. I confesse the same with this distinction which church is to be considered either with respect to her instituted state as it lies in the Scripture in the Rules of the foundation or in her constitution or constituted forme in her visible order Against the first hell gates shall never prevaile the foundation stands sure but against the last it hath often prevailed for the Church in her outward visible order hath been often scattered through persecution and the like in which sense she is said to be prevailed against as Dan. 7. Rev. 12. Act. 8.1 Otherwise where was their Church before it came from under the defection Againe that which once was in such a way of being and ceaseth for a time and then comes to the same estate againe is and may â—ruely be said to have ever a continuance as Mat. 22.31 32. with Luk. â—0 38 In which sense the Church may truely be said ever to continue for though she be cast downe at one time yet God will raise her up at another so that shee shall never be so prevailed against as to be utterly destroyed And this way I suppose Christ may have injoy ever as good a wife as any can be preserved for him under the defection of Antichrist Though some have so wide mouths open against such as ever wished them well but I leave them to God to whom they shall give account of all their hard words against the Lord those that fear his name out of conscience obey him in that way as some please to call error in a reproachfull manner But men do in these dayes somewhat like to the tyrants in the ten persecutions whose crueltie was such that they exposed the Christians to be devoured of wild beasts and God so overpowred the creatures crueltie that at length they ceased to hurt them and when those bloudy tyrants saw that they put Beares-skins upon them thereby to insence and to stir up the nature of those beasts to fall upon them thus I have heard reported But whether this be true or not sure I am that such men can be little better minded that labour so to cover the godly with such filth as they vomit out of their own-selfe-sicke stomackes but I desire the Lord to passe by all and to give men more love and patience to beare one with another And to conclude I feare men put more in baptisme then is of right due unto it that so preferre it above the Church and all other ordinances besides for they can assume or erect a Church take in and cast out members elect and ordain Officers and administer the Supper and all anew without any looking after succession any further then the Scriptures but as for Baptisme they must have that successively from the Apostles though it comes through the hands of Pope Joane What is the cause of this that men can doe all from the Word but onely baptisme and that must come by man yea and that by the man of sinne But we are to know this that truth depends not upon Churches nor any mortall creature but onely upon the immortall God who by his Word and Spirit reveales the same when and to whom he pleases And for succession of truth it comes now by the promise of God faith of his people whom he as aforesaid hath taken out of the world unto himselfe in the fellowship of the Gospel to whom the ordinances of Christ stand onely by succession of faith and not of persons for the same power and authoritie the Apostles had in their time for direction in godlinesse the Scriptures have now in the hand of Christ as the head of his Church which make up but one body 1 Cor. 12.12.27 Eph. 1.22 23. Eph. 4.15 16. So that what the Church and the Apostles together might doe then the same may the head and body together with the Scriptures doe now the Scriptures having the same authoritie in the Church now as the Apostles had then the same Spirit being present now to reveale them as then to write them 1 Cor. 5.4 5. 2 Tim. 3.15 16. The Scriptures remaining in the place of the Apostles for us to have recourse unto and serve as the mouth of Christ to all beleevers 〈…〉 as the Apostles did before they were written Mat. 28.20 2 Pet. 1.19 20 21. Rom. 10.6 7 8. And as the people of old conferred with the Prophets and Apostles about their great affaires so have
the Lords people now Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles in their writings as Luk. 16.29 30 31. Which are to us with the Spirit of life in them as effectuall as their personall presence if not more as Job 6.62 63. 2 Pet. 1.18 19. Rev. 11.3.5.11 And thus all succession from the beginning came to Christ and from Christ to the Apostles and from them to the Scriptures which are the head-spring of all to us so that all succession now is onely spirituall according to faith and follows not the personall succession of any but onely the word that gives being to all order and ordinances that is of God And so I come to such as will have no Church before Baptisme and so make Baptisme the forme of the Church I shall be briefe in this because the truth of this will appear in the causes constituting the Church This I thinke we all agree in that matter and forme constitutes a Church the matter is a company of Saints or persons professing faith in the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ and living accordingly that is in holines of life The forme is that by which these are united and knit up together in one fellowship and orderly body and that is the covenant of grace that lies between God and his people by which God visibly becomes the God of such persons and they his people above all other That this is the forme of a Church and not Baptisme I prove thus that by which God and a people become each others apart from all other people that is the forme of them but the covenant is that by which God owns a people for his and they him for their God therefore the covenant is the forme Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.10 Act. 2. â—1 Gen. 17.11 Luk. 1.72 Act. 3.25 〈…〉 Secondly That which at the first was the forme of a thing ever remaines the forme of the same thing without alteration but the covenant was the forme of the Church at the first before ever any ordinance was annexed therefore the same still the Church remaining the same without alteration in the nature of it Thirdly That which both gives a beeing to a thing and ever keeps the same that must be the forme of the same thing but the covenant both gave a being to the Church ever keeps the same therefore the covenant is the forme Fourthly That which makes a member to be a member or no member of a Church that makes a Church to be a Church or no church and so that is the forme of it for there is the same reason for the whole that is for every part but the covenant is that which makes a member and so the rest as Esa 56.4.6 therefore the covenant is the forme Fifthly That which persons may have and yet be no church that cannot be the forme of a church but persons may have baptisme yet no church ergo not the forme the church being the greatest ordinance of God and the very center of all ordinances as Psal 87.7 with 1 Tim. 3.15 Cannot be formed by any particular ordinance no nor by any lesse then that which comprehends all the essentiall parts and properties of a church which is Gods gracious covenant that gives being to all true churches both first and last But some will say that the Word speakes of no church before Baptisme For answer to this I must distinguish in Baptisme between the truth in the doctrine of Baptisme and the outward administration of the same In the first sense Baptisme is one branch of the covenant as a truth to be revealed and by faith to be received as an essentiall truth together with other truths for the constituting of the church and no church according to the order of Christs new Testament either without it or before it But for the last namely the outward administration of Baptisme that ever follows the Saints joyning in fellowship by mutuall faith agreement in the doctrine wherein consists the stating of the Church in her conjoyning in covenant which ever goes before the administration of Baptisme and gives power and authoritie for the same So that in the first sense the Church is not before Baptisme but in the last sense the church is before Baptisme This distinction being observed I answer in a word thus we are not to deny a church to be a church untill the Word so calls it for the church in the old testament and most of the churches in the new Testament were churches sometime before they were so called And why may not the same be so here be a church before Baptisme be administred Againe a church is onely so a church before Baptisme as that the end of her union is for communion and so an immediate proceeding to the practise of the same truth shee agreed upon by a free and mutuall consent in her conjunction That which states a person or persons in covenant instates them in church-fellowship but faith and not practise instates a people in covenant for a people must first agree upon truth in judgement before they practise the same therefore faith and not practise instates a people in church-fellowship and so a church in covenant and fellowship before baptisme be administred A people are a church by covenant unto which ordinances are annexed to confirme and establish the same as Gen. 17.11 Ezek 16.8 9. Act. 2.41 as Eph. 4.5 So that here was a church before ordinances or that ever Baptisme was administered either by John the Baptist on the 〈…〉 Some say from Act 2.41 They were added to the Church after they were baptized To which I answer and say If it should bâ— so that they were after Baptisme added to the Church then they should neither put on Christ by Baptisme not yet be baptized into one body not to the true profession of the Father Son and holy Ghost c. directly against these Scriptures Gal. 3.27 1 Cor. 12 13. Mat. 28.19 And for Act. 2.41 the words are these Then they that gladly received his Word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand soules which is nothing else but to shew how many they were that received the truth and so by the same were added to them holding Forth the power and goodnes of God in making his word so fruitfull in bringing in so many by one Sermon to the truth as Act. 2.47 which is onely a repeating over the number of Persons God at that time added to the rest Againe it may be said that Baptisme signifies our regeneration and new birth so that a childe must be first borne and brought forth in Baptisme before it can be mad a living Member in Christs body the Church Baptisme indeed is a signe of the new birth and so holds forth the same as a thing done and not as a thing to be done and therefore Baptisme requites the appearance of the same as faith and repentance to goe before the administration