his breadth height depth and length Christ for being and regeneration Perhaps for the simpler sort it might be enough to use the Apostles words of him are we who is made our wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 or to adde thus much All Christ is given us 1 Cor. 1 30. either for our calling or for our imputation or for our sanctification Howbeit for my owne exercise in part and for the clearer view of Christ sacramentall in the water I would adde a little more desiring the weake reader to pardon my distinctions as more meete for such as better conceive or would at least the gift of Christ in his extent and fulnesse Distinction of it to be marked The grace then of Christ bestowed in baptisme is either first grace or consequent upon it The first grace I call either that which maketh us accepted or that which is freely given to in here and abide in us Concerning the former kind Grace accepting is eyther grace of meanes serving to atteine acceptance or the grace it selfe atteined The former of meanes in one word is the grace of vocation in al the passages thereof preventing assisting and perfitting this acceptation of the soule The grace it selfe of acceptance atteyned may be distinguisht into grace eyther of maine essence or of priviledge Grace of maine essence is double eyther justification of our persons from sinne of guilt and blemish or of curse wherein Gods acquitting us in judgement by remission and pardon properly consists or reconciliation by which being pardoned we returne to grace and favour againe as before our blood being restored and we beloved Then secondly grace of priviledge is double positive or privative Positive priviledg in a word is our adoption which besides favor restores us to the former conditioÌ„ yet much bettered of childreÌ„ sons daughters heires and so to the priviledges of a beleever according to the severall occasions of his life course Privative in a word stands in redeÌ„ption that is freedome froÌ„ all the evills dangers enemies crosses within without bodily ghostly which threaten annoyance to our happy estate in Christ Thus for the 1. sort The second are graces inherent in us in a word Sanctification of the whole man body soule and spirit standing both in Conscience and conversation And this is double eyther mortification and consumption of the old man Gal 5 24. renouncing him with his affection and lusts crucifying theÌ„ all with Christs or else quickning up of the soule in the bent frame intent and streame of it to the life of God and grace Thus of the first grace The consequent upon this is the proper issue fruit of each of these first graces which they leave behind them in the soule The proper issue of vocation is union and bringing to God by the instrument of faith The proper issue of justification is peace and quiet of conscience The fruit of reconciliation is holy Complacence and contentment or joy of the Spirit in God her Saviour as Mary speakes The fruit of adoption is Luk. 1 47. the honour liberty and excellency of beleevers with the Spirit of children confidence and calling God Abba resting upon him for all good things a true right to earth heaven and all therein All things being ours we being Christs as Christ is Gods 1 Cor. â— 22.23 The fruit of redemption is assured â—ecurity of heart from evill conquest and triumph in Christ true deliverance of soule from Sathan to God and for God in all obedience The fruite of sanctification is the blessed guard and furniture of Graces resident both in the minde as light purenesse wisedome discerning in the will all habits and uprightnesse integrity cheerefulnesse faithfulnesse in the affections of love hope feare and zeale in the conscience sensiblenesse tendernesse quietnesse In the whole man serviceablenesse to God in the conversation and whole course of it This short draught I have the rather inserted in this due place to give light and order to such things as I have handled in the three Articles of my second part and the fourth fith sixth Articles of the third part of my practicall Catechisme that the Reader may see how all those good things issue from Christ distinctly I meane the use of meanes the strength against lets and the right to all priviledges both conditionall and actuall But especially to lay downe a view of Christ our union and communion Sacramentall But The expressions of the holy Ghost it shall not bee amisse to touch this point as the Holy Ghost in the word expresses it Sometimes therefore hee expresses it in generall termes and sometimes in particular Generally he calls it the holy Ghost and fire See Matth. 3.11 Matth. 3 11. Matth. 3 16. meaning the Spirit of Christ in the efficacy of his grace which should purge as fire Even as our Saviour Christ is said to have the Spirit descending at his baptisme and lighting upon him meaning that he thereby received the unction of the Spirit and the gift thereof even the oyle of gladnes above his fellowes So also it s called by the name of new birth Ioh. 3.5 Heb. 1 9. Ioh. 3. â— Except a man be borne againe of water and the Spirit he cannot enter c. So the washing of regeneration Tit. 3 5. renewing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 And so also it is sayd to save or deliver from wrath as the Arke from the flood 1 Pet. 3.21 In particular this regeneration is distinguished into the washing or purging of justification by the merit or the washing of sanctification by the efficacy of Christs death 1 Ioh. 1 7. See Acts 22.16 Ephe. 5.26 The former we have in 1 Ioh. 1.7 The blood of Iesus purgeth us from all sinne The latter see Ephe. 5.26 That he might sanctifie and clense it with the washing of water by the word To present it without spot or wrinckle in his glorious presence Gal. 3 26. c. Both these are expressed Galathi 3.26 They who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ as their garment both of covering in the one and of warmth in the other all Christ in both But there are two phrases in the Scripture by which the holy Ghost delights to describe the grace of baptisme The one by remission of sins the other by dying unto sinne and rising up unto righteousnesse Of the first there is frequent mention Luk. 3.3 Iohn baptised to the remission of sinnes Luk. 3 3 Acts 22 16. Rom. 6 3 8. Act. 22.16 Wash away thy sinnes and be baptised Of the latter Paul speaketh much in Rom. 6. from the 3. verse to the 8. So many as are Baptized into Iesus Christ are baptised into his death Therefore we are buried by baptisme with him into his death that like as Christ was raysed up from death by the glory of the Father so might we walke in newnesse of life For if we
have beene planted together with him into the likenesse of his death we shall also be to the likenesse of his resurrection And note this further that as the holy Ghost expresses the meriting causes diversly now by one then by another part of his mediation so sometime he applyes that his merit to one frâ—it sometime to another yet so that by one merit we understand all and by one effect of it all the rest Take a Text 1 Pet. 3.21 1 Pet. 3 21. The like figure whereunto baptisme now saveth us not the washing of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience in the resurrection of Iesus Christ Marke the resurrection of Christ being the compleatnesse of his satisfaction and the declaring of it is made here the meriting cause of the grace of Baptisme But by it all the satisfaction is meant And the effect of this Baptisme is called The answer of a good conscience which is the peace and security of it properly issuing from pardon of sinne and guilt yet in and by this all are meant both justification and sanctification The selfe same phrase is used Heb. 10.22 Heb. 10 22. Having your hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and your bodyes washed with pure water that is with peace For this blood Hebrewes 12. cryeth better things than that of Abel The phrase of sprinkling compares Baptisme to the Israelites sprinkling their doore posts with the blood of the Lambe If they had not done it Exod. 12 22. they had beene in danger of slaying by the Angel But having done it Heb. 10.24 their heart was at quiet and peace through the promise So baptisme is a better sprinkling of a better blood upon a better object to a farre better peace even peace of conscience as being passed from death to life By all these places not unmeet to be conferred together we see that whole Christ crucified Christ in water Christ in our Regeneration Christ in our union and by it all his benefits are the extent of the grace of baptisme And that the Minister standing in Gods stead applying water to the Baptised doth by it apply the power of the Lord Iesus by the Spirit accompanying the same to create a new birth of Grace and life in the soule The which worke of the Spirit I shall more revive in the first use of this point Vse 1 This use is exhortation to all that bring or behold children brought and offred to the Lord in his Sacrament of Baptisme to lay in by faith for the Spirit of Christ in the water whereby the Lord would vouchsafe to thy child and renew to thy selfe if ever truly converted the Lord Iesus for regeneration and the new creature To this end doe two things First 2. Things 1. Behold the truth of the word Behold the truth of this offer of the Lord Iesus in the water by the helpe of the word and not so onely but what the word of Regeneration can worke of it selfe in the soule and therefore much more can further it by the Sacrament Secondly by and through this Word apply the merit and power of the Sacrament to thy soule in particular For the former know although a Sacrament be above a word yet it is so by a word and with it and not else Behold not a Sacrament without a word for then thou seest a meare empty vanishing Element Behold it in word and thou sest no lesse than Christ in the water true regeneration offred thee Take all those Texts I cited before looke up to God by prayer to see the truth of them Ephe. 4 22. as they are in Iesus to rivet every of them in speciall into thy spirit that so thou maist feele a bottome to thy faith out of a word Labour to see what makes this word so powerfull even the truth of a promiser the merit of a satisfyer who died shed his blood was buried and rose againe by the power of God that he might fill a promise with efficacy and perswade thy heart that seeing all that he suffered was for thee to make himselfe thine in remission of sinnes and renewing of the holy Ghost therefore the promise that offers this to thee in the Sacrament is sound and effectuall Reade and ponder that place I named Ephe. 5.26 Ephe. 5.26 Washing of water by the word And so be resolved if the word of a true God tell thee That he will wash thy soule by Christ in the Sacrament it shall be so it cannot be otherwise and if he have said Christ in the water water is spirituall birth regeneration renewing purging burying in the grave with Christ rising up with Christ then so it is This word will give a bottome to thy feete to stand upon while thou reachest out with thine hand to take Christ so that thou shalt not stagger Consider that the same word which hath held Christ and water in so strong an union can also hold thee upon sure ground Alas mens going to worke without a word marres the power of Baptisme and causeth the soule to be present with any object more than with Christ in the water It goes with the Spirit Further bee assured this word of Christ in his promise of the Sacrament never goes alone The truth of it alway is annexed to the Spirit of Christ in the water All the word is full of this tells us the Spirit is that which assists the Sacrament The Spirit quickneth 1 Ioh. 5.6 water profits nothing alone It is the Spirit which must joyne with the word with water and unto Christ to both in the soule or else the things of the Sacrament are as farre off as heaven and earth But the Spirit of Christ crucified water and blood meeting with the Sacrament fetches out all the power of Christ into the soule and makes the promise of blessing effectuall Hence it is that nothing is so common in Scripture as the Spirits concurring with Baptisme Matthew 3. Matth. 3.11 Hee shall baptise with the holy Ghost and fire Tit. 3.5 Water of Regeneration and renewing of the holy Ghost Tit 3 5. As it attended Christs baptisme so it must ours if it bee efficacious else not These two things being forelaid bring forth thy faith in the word Spirit of the Sacrament both for thy child and thy self These two things brin faith for begetting or reviving of Christ to regeneration And as the hand puts on the apparell upon the body yea as thou beholdest the Minister to dip thy child in water so concurre with him by faith and behold God the Father putting the Lord Iesus upon thy soule and the soule of thy childe for pardon peace joy confidence security grace and holinesse and fasten upon the Word and draw thereby the Spirit of Baptisme to helpe and satisfie thy soule with Christ in all these As thou wouldest put on a garment upon thy naked body How this 1 By the stripping
can heale worse diseases the disease of my nature the distempers of pride envie worldlinesse selfelove impatience 2 King 2 14. infidelitie and what not As Elisha having the cloake of his Master with the promise of his Spirit smote the waters and caused them to goe this way and that till he went o-over dry so doe thou cry Where is the Lord God of Baptisme The Lord Iesus in the water the Spirit of regeneration Oh! let the Arke carrie mee safe and free from the gulfe of wrath and destruction 2 Kin. 2 21. First O holy Lord let thy Spirit cast his salt into these waters which my sinne hath made barren and accursed even as all other creatures and sanctifie them by union and put a blessing upon them implanting the root of the Lord Iesus into my soule by dipping me into them that so as verily as I behold my childs face and my owne flesh cleansed from spots by outward water so surely we may find our soules and spots thereof to be washed by the bloud of Christ this true laver of the new Birth unto remission of sinnes and eternall life Thus much of this point I now come to the third and last The 3. general The end of it The third generall in the Description is the end whereto Baptisme serveth And that is the sealing up of all the grace mentioned before to be the soules owne in assured perswasion and possession I say not that this is the end which all baptized ones attaine unto nay not all who yet by the word and faith doe attaine some comfortable fruit of Baptisme But this I say is the end which God intends in the Sacrament To seale up the soule to an assured feeling and reall partaking of those holy things of Christ which are here offered I meane not that this sealing of Baptisme is inherent in it To seale our regeneration so as if the Spirit of regeneration were but an attendant to Baptisme no in no wise but this where the Lord meanes to bestow upon a beleeving soule which though it relies upon his Word and Promise yet finds many doubts and feares this grace of knowing it selfe to beleeve to be regenerated to be elect to be heire to heaven which reflexion is the worke of the holy Ghost there the Lord useth the Sacrament of Baptisme to be the instrument of this assurance and to make up the evidence of the word full and effectuall For even as the seale annexed to an evidence makes it past question as I said before so doth this Seale added to the word perfect the evidence of it and therefore we may truly say carries in it the last best and uttermost evidence which the Lord hath to bestow upon the soule to put her out of question To repeat things spoken already is not my purpose By looking at the Covenant onely apply the generall to particular The seale of Baptisme lookes at the extent of the Covenant Thou knowest what it is to have the Lord to be thy God in Christ I spake even now at large of the grace of Baptisme The selfe same is the extent of the Covenant it reacheth not one inch shorter than that I spake there Now marke as large as that is so large is this Seale of Baptisme and the Lord keeper of the great Seale is the Spirit of Christ he it is who brings it forth to the soule that needs it and hungers after it by the taste of the graciousnesse and sweetnesse of God in the Covenant And he aâ—kes the soule and saith Poore soule have not I oft convinced thee by my promise of my faithfull meaning Have I not said I will never faile or deceive thee Yes Lord but I am sold under carnall sence and infidelity Well but what saist thou if I bring forth the markes the wounds the water and bloud of the Lord Iesus side sprinkle them upon thee when Tamar knew not how to convince Iuda lo she sends him the cloke staffe Gen. 38 25. and signet asking him Whose they were and when he saw them he was convinced This course was better than words it had a reall relation in it So here the Spirit brings out the very instuments of assurance and laies water upon thy flesh to secure thee Christ in his life and death is thine and shall not this be a reall relation above the naked word unto thee Yes surely if together with the outward presenting of the things he also clap the Seale upon thy soule and leave a print upon thy soft heart which may assure thee he hath been there to fetch out thy slavish feare and infidelitie Ephe. 1 13. Reade Ephe. 1 13. where this Spirit is called the sealer of the Promise it s called the earnest of our Inheritance and purchased possession Reade also Ephes 4.30 where it is called the Sealer of our redemption Ephe. 4.30 By which phrases all the whole grace of Christ is meant viz. That the Spirit in Baptisme seales our Vocation our Iustification Adoption Sanctification and the rest one as well as the other Vse 1 Now for use Branch 1 If this be true what cause of mourning is there for us in these times that the grace and sealing power of the Spirit in Baptisme is so unknowne to the body of Congregations in this Church How few behold Baptisme with such an eye Oh! how do the most turne it into a ceremony Some of the richer sort making it a ceremony of Pompe and sensualitie the poorer of common passage and forme which when it s over the Pageant is done The better sort acknowledge but an initiating ordinance serving to make men visible Christians But as for grace especially this exceeding grace of the sealing Spirit of Adoption and assurance what one of an hundred sees it Oh lamentable We reade that when certaine disciples of Iohns baptisme at Ephesus Act. 19 2. were asked by Paul If they had received the holy Ghost since they beleeved They answered They knew not so much as whether there was an holy Ghost or no. So may I say of our people Alas they are so farre from the Seale of Baptisme that they know not whether there be any such thing or not They know not that God hath any Ordinance of so high nature or no as this to convey assurance into a man of his regeneration And how can such chuse but live a sad drooping course Branch 2 Nay to this I may adde that it is the case of thousands of Christians whom we should highly offend if we questioned them who scarse see neede of such a sealing Ordinance They praise God they have beleeved their salvation and since that they have been rid of all feares and doubts and walke on and on without ayle or annoiance Indeede they found some adoe with themselves ere they could attaine faith But when they once got it they got all at once and since feele small doubts or oppositions to
of thy selfe so be stript and empty of all good and grace in thy selfe feele in thy soule an utter absence of life of sence motion and power towards the inner man of grace Lie before the Lords Sacrament as a forlorne wretch Say thus If thy baptisme Lord be for my regeneration what am I without it A dead dogge a very lumpe and masse of sinne and curse utterly void of the least dramme of life savoring nothing but earth vanity lusts world pleasures a very slave to these and a very carcasse of all goodnesse and being of God Oh Lord strip me starke naked plucke off my mufflers shame me drive me out of my selfe as one poore miserable blind and naked This is the first worke of faith to put off the soules ragges and to void all conceit of life hope or grace in it selfe and to set it before the Lord as Adams red earth lay before him when he was to breathe the life of Creation into it Now the Lord is creating thee anew by his Sacrament Remember Creation is of nothing Baptisme never made new creature where it finds any thing of ones own Baptisme should then not create but rather draw somewhat out of our owne principles to make us somewhat to which we bring matter of our owne Oh! people come to the Sacrament full of their owne devotions and looke that God should make them new creatures of their owne stuffe this were to patch and soden our old not to create a new man in us Apply our selves to the Word Secondly being thus nothing in our selves apply wee our selves by the word to the worke of the Spirit of union Sacramentall bare poore empty water which hath in it selfe no Sacramentall substance yet by the vnion of the Spirit of Baptisme incloseth the Lord Iesus to regeneration in it If thou canst say water is not a more beggerly Element in the Sacrament without Christ than thy soule is emptie unsubsisting without regeneration Looke to the Lord by thy faith and pull hard at him for the Spirit of Baptisme to renew a life a spirit and being of pardon and holinesse in thee If while the word lasts and the Spirit of Baptisme endures even to the worlds end Christ and water shall never be sundred from the Sacrament Beleeve thou as firmely that Christ as water shall never be severed from thy poore soule that lies humbly before him destitute of all life in thy selfe and lost for ever except Christ be thy life and succour I say the Lord Iesus shall never be wanting to such a soule in the point of regeneration Plead then thy cause strongly with the Lord behold here is Christ in water What letteth why thou maist not be baptised Actâ— 8 16. as Philip said of the Eunuch Shall water ever lose her cleansing Were it not madnesse to thinke so And shall Iesus Christ then lose his power to cleanse the soule Hath hee not annexed his cleansing to waters cleansing Is it possible that all the divels in hell can dissolve the Sacramentall Vnion of Christ and water Oh Lord why is this Vnion and for what serves it Is it good for any thing save as it is Sacramentall Was it Christ before Is it Christ after No sure but during the Sacrament onely And why so Surely to teach me all this Vnion is for me Christ water serves for my soules washing He delights not to be one with a base Element for it selfe but that in and with a creature of a cleansing quality he might flow into my soule with his renewing Spirit Oh Lord I beleeve thy word Lord let thy Spirit convey thee with water into my soule Be it Oh Lord as thou hast said Separate not thy Spirit from thy Sacrament but give it the power of begetting mee to the life of faith and a new creature 3 Abhorre carnal reason Ioh. 3.9 Thirdly look off from all thy carnall reason and the sillinesse of the creature Say not with Nicodemus How shall this be Consult not with flesh and bloud cavill not 1 Ioh. 5 8. Mat. 3 ult aske no further signe thou hast three in heaven and three in earth bearing witnesse to Gods truth Water is one of these it is the instrument of the Spirit though it be on earth yet that is from heaven call not for a voyce from heaven the second time it s enough that in the Baptisme of Christ it as manifest Hold close to the Word and Promise Go teach and Baptize and lo Mat. 28 ult I am with you till the end Let all conceits of Reason vanish in the truth of God and when corruption hath done all it can yet roll thy selfe upon the promise and by the Perspective glasse thereof thou shalt see that grace in the Sacrament which else is invisible to flesh and covered under the ashes of unbeleefe Let all be quâ—sht with this My soule God hath said it I see nothing but water but there is Christ with water to regeneration Lastly cloze with the Spirit and meete it at the Sacrament 4 Close with the Spirit of the Sacrament If thou meete it not there it s because thou bringest not faith with thee for that is there for ever inseparably Grone in thy spirit unto the Spirit of Christ that thee may susteine thy bottomelesse heart in her desire after the grace of the Sacrament Say thus Oh blessed Spirit of Baptisme remember thou wert given by the Lord Iesus at his ascension for thy Church Ioh. 7.56.57 Now Christ is glorified Ioh 7 56 57 now let thy Spirit be given to bring the life of the Sacrament into mee Once when the world was a Chaos the Spirit of creation fostred and brooded the waters and brought forth order and matter for each part of the world Oh now come downe with thy fire and warme this water make it effectuall for the scattering of my darkenesse errour rebellion corruption Gen. 1 2. and the purging of old Adam the mortifying and consuming of my concupiscence and lusts And then travell againe with mee in this thy ordinance till Christ and the new creature be formed in mee Make mee thy off-spring Gal 4 19 and generation breede the thoughts affections and disposition of the new birth in me Oh make this fountaine â—nd laver blessed and fruitfull to be the seede of Christ in me Once thou didst so worke with Iordan that the washing of a Leper 1 King 5 12 caused his flesh to returne as the flesh of a child Take away my leprosie also Ioh. 5 3.4 and make me as a little child Once thy Angell so stirred the Poole that who so stept in next was healed of what disease soever he was sicke Oh stirre this poole also make it an healing water put into it the vertue of him that with a word spoken could cure all maladies Heale mine Lord by this poole if an Angell could heale a lame legge a blinde eye a deafe eare thy Spirit
it within or without No do What was all grace laid in one houre in your bosome Have ye no steppings in of Sathan flesh infidelity revolt had world to unsettle ye I will not judge you but judge your selves and enquire whether that sudden peace of yours be not rather such a one as savors of presumption or of a desire to be troubled no longer about the matter than solid and profound Feare the worst the best will save it selfe Tremble to thinke God should have an Ordinance in store which you stand in no neede of If it be so then such as neede it shall have it but you may misse it well enough Branch 3 To these I may adde another though better object of mourning whose hearts are afflicted enough for lacke of assurance but what with their selfe-loving rest in their complements and not going to the golden Scepter with Ester and what with their deapth of melancholy Ester 4.16 and 5 2. hardnesse to be perswaded as also their deepe bondage by unbeleefe they will not heare of such a possibilitie of sealing assurance but either thinke it a fable or farre from their reach and therefore set downe their staffe that if unbeleefe and staggering can doe it all their dayes must be miserable The Lord hath removed them farre from prosperitie and put out their light Oh Lam. 3.13 Deut. 32.6 unthankfull ones Doe ye thus requite the Lord for his Sacrament Is this your meditation application of the sealing power of it Is it too good for ye with Ahaz to receive a signe from God! Doe ye not neede it or Esay 7.12.13 are ye so saped in bondage and anguish that ye heed it not Why then yeeld ye purposely to it Why strive ye not to lay in for any grace which God hath for ye What service shall God have from ye without it If ye slight this comfort must ye not needs slight obedience If God should streighten ye in seeking it and hold ye off yet is there any such employment so precious as this Oh! poore soules if lamenting would doe you good what neede have ye of it Oh! consider and come out of your dungeon Tell me when our Adversaries the Papists laugh and scorne the Doctrine of assurance say its impossible doe you favour them Sure I am in your conscience and conversation ye are of another stampe and do ye not tremble that you should dwell next doore to such and fall into the same streame of their error 2 Pet. 3. ult Vse 2 Secondly let all humble ones that would follow the Lord in his Ordinance if by any meanes they might comprehend that for which they are comprehended of Christ admire and adore this bounty of God in his Sacrament Phil. 3 11 who so long since thy Baptisme when thou thoughtst no other but thou hadst beene forgotten yet hath remembred or offers to remember thee with the fruit of thy Baptisme who could have dreamt it Once Ioh. 13 7.8 9. when Peter heard Christ offer to wash him he told him he should never doe so meane an office to him But when our Saviour replied What I now doe thou knowest not but hereafter thou shalt know then hee changed his minde When the Lord gave thee Baptisme in thine infancie which was a pledge of further favor he shewed thee mercy But lo he had a deeper reach and in due time thou shouldst know it and now he offers it thee No Sacrament passeth thee but if thy heart and mind be matches he revives the print of thy Baptisme unto thee Oh! Why is not thy heart broken at it Lord I have lived loosely and basely this twenty thirty fortie yeares since thy baptizing me Shewing that I was not much the better for it And now shouldest thou at last send a showre to fetch up the seed of regeneration Iud. 14 14. from under this drie clod Out of the eater bring sweetnesse and create thy selfe in a wombe so old barren and past all hope of new birth Gen. 18.12 Sarah laughed the text saith when she heard of such newes But truly Lord my heart hath cause to rend in pieces to see such mercy Oh Lord I see with thee a thousand yeares are as one day 2 Pet. 3 8. Rom. 4 17. Thou callest things that are as if they were not Thirtie yeares of ignorance saped in the world carnall civill saples under the doâ—trine of thy Grace and Covenant it may be also a swearing drunken uncleane wretch to be sure a son of old Adam still an hypocrite and unbeleever Oh! shouldst thou now ere I die prevent hell for me and cause that word of Regeneration which never afforded any favor to me now to shew me that thy Sacrament fortie yeares since cast upon me hath not lost her strength and efficacy Oh Lord methinks now I see plainely why thou wert aforehand with me Even that I might be ashamed I should be so behind with thee That being on the surer hand I might ply thy Covenant the more earnestly Oh Lord if thou hadst not prevented me wth the grace of the Spirit I had slept in death and in thy livery lived and died a Traitor But now since thy Covenant hath entred into mee behold I see well thy Sacrament hath added some strength unto my unbeleeving heart and laying all thy dealing together I perceive thou meanest to heape hot coales of fire upon me that I might at leasure ere I goe to the pit and be no more seene know and feele that blessed use of Baptisme which I never saw Oh Lord I know there is a sealing power in it It s an annex to thy Covenant No sooner did that allure me to beleeve but thy Spirit joyned it selfe to me to second it to strengthen my fainting heart and then I saw If thou hadst meant to destroy me thou wouldst never have spent one cord upon me Iud. 13 23. But seeing thou meanest to save me all shall do me good promise Seale and so I have found it Lord and blesse thee in the view of such experience How many hundreds of my age education and fashion have quite given thee over in the covenant they made in Baptisme But now I doe adore and wonder at this unspeakable love of thine towards me Oh let it never be forgotten Vse 3 Thirdly let it teach thee to examine thy selfe about the truth of the sealing grace of the Spirit in thy Baptisme If the Seale be as large as the Patent to all uses and ends of it the way to trie thy selfe herein will bee this to examine thy self about the work of the word of Regeneration in thee If that have brought thee neere to thy birth lo here is the Spirit for thee to give strength for bringing thee forth to the light For Baptisme truly understood seales up all which the word hath bred in thee Deceive not thy selfe in thinking that the water alone will beget the to God No it
than no where what better proofe of the Lord Iesus at his best than this that he is offered to thee in no lesse mysticall union for the end of a more mysticall one I meane as united to poore bread and wine that he might also unite himselfe in the whole grace of his Sacrifice to thy soule and body What better und easier conveiance couldst thou wish than this for so feeble and weake a spirit as thine is When once that people which followed Christ sitting upon an Asse Colt and riding as a King to Ierusalem cryed Hosanna and sayd Blessed be he that commeth in the name of the Lord Thinke we not that they saw Christ at the best Why did they else except they had beheld his spiritual Kingdome cut downe Palmes and strew them in the way stripping themselves of their garments to set him thereon Surely they were not so offended at the meanenesse of his palfrey and basenesse of the outside but they saw in this his riding a cleere representation of his glorious grace and the Maiesty of his person So shouldst thou in this union of Christ with base crummes of bread or drops of wine behold a more spirituall presence of Christ who careth not for such creatures but for thy soule and being farre from stumbling at the basenesse of the Asse or Elements raise up thy soule to a more heavenly sense of the Lord Iesus comming into thy heart and spirit bringing thee to God and uniting thee to the fountaine of thy blessednesse in a farre closer manner than ever Adam was And is not this union the Lord Iesus at his best yes verily From this Sacramentall union proceeds that exhibitive nature of Sacraments carrying the Lord Iesus into the soule of all the elect that communicate For to what end is union Sacramentall save that the Sacraments being thus possessed of the Lord Iesus mystically in them might exhibite to all and effectually carry into the bosomes of the elect the power of this Lord Iesus and convey as Vessells channelles and Pipes that grace which they containe I doe not meane that by vertue of the worke wrought or by the force of Divine institution there is any naturall holinesse put into them or magicall power of inchantment to take hold of the soule No in no wise for how many thousands are there both young and old who after the enjoying of the Sacraments doe put most woefull barres in their owne way that the power of Sacramentall union might never come at them So that when the Covenant comes to bee dispenced unto them they fare as persons utterly disabled to receive it Nay neither dare I thinke that by vertue hereof it s of absolute necessity that all Elect Infants must receive conversion of grace just in the act of their Baptizing for what were this but to ascribe more to the Seale than to the Covenant yea to invert their order and to ascribe greater power to an ordinance under which they walke 20 30 40. yeeres carelesly without discovery of any grace at all rather than to the lively power of the Covenant preached and working from that time forth an apparant change So that although in charity I am bound to thinke no other save that all such as receive Sacraments duely concurre with the grace of the Spirit for future improvement Yet to tye the Lords hands behind him and to make the Lord of Sacraments to become their underling as if hee had put himselfe out of Authority and office wholly to be subject to his Sacrament what indignity were it for the ordainer No not so But so farre so often and where it shall seeme good to himselfe to make use of his Sacrament for the good of his Elect for whose good they serve there doubtlesse these Ordinances doe both present and conferre the grace which is put into them Else to what end should they have it except they might convey it Now summe up all and answere Is not the exhibitive power of the Sacrament the Lord Iesus at his best Is not a reall tender better than a bare signe or a promise onely without performance He that promiseth an hundred pounds to lend or give to his poore friend and presently tenders the money that he might be before hand doth he not lend or give at the best Nay more than this not the Sacraments onely are thus exhibitive of Christ to the soule But by vertue of the union I have spoken of the Lord Iesus himselfe is there present where his institution is duely observed to be the Baptizer of his members and to be the steward and nourisher of his family that is to bestow himselfe upon the soule Touching Baptisme first true it is That our Lord Iesus himselfe never baptised any outwardly howbeit as then so much more now being ascended he it is who in the outward Baptisme of the Minister doth give gifts unto men and doth still baptise all his with the holy Ghost and fire A poore sinfull man doth what he can doe but further he cannot goe He dives the infant into holdes it in and receives it out againe from the water baptising it in the name of the sacred Trinity But this our great Baptist he is all in all for the doing of the worke It is he who casts in the salt of his divine healing power into corrupt and of themselves accursed creatures and Element and element he removes the curse death and barrennes of the waters utterly unable to engender he takes off their base uncomelinesse he darts and plants in them the efficacy of his owne death and resurrection both for merit of pardon and of holines he sanctifies clenses them that they may become hallowed and purging instruments And as a planter takes the sien of the Apple-tree and pitches it into a Crabtree stock so the Lord Iesus takes the pretious sien of his owne Righteousnesse the Power of his owne death and grave the strength of his resurrection and exalting and pitches both into water so that water becomes Christ-water Christs death and life so that the soule is washt with the one as the body with the other The soule by faith in the covenant feele her descent into the water to become a spirit of diving her into the laver and blood and grave of the Lord Iesus her being under the water to become the spirit brooding and fructifying the water to become a seede of life abiding in the wombe of the soule to regenerate it to the life of Christ Her arising up from the water to become a spirit of Resurrection as Peter excellently speakes 1 Epist cap. 3. verse 21. and a baptising of the soule with the activity and raising of her up with Christ from her death grave basenesse and misery unto immortality and glory Yea in all three the soule feeles the power of a new and omnipotent creation of her to God ingrafting her in God never to be pulled from him any more as at first And as the
grace of faith to unite Christ Sacramentall unto thy soule Say thus Are water bread wine inseparable from Christ why so Doth God care for oxen as Paul saith or careth he to be one with bread and wine 1 Cor. 9.9 Are these the subjects of his delight poore base corruptible Elements 1 Cor. 6.19 Heb. 12.23 No no those lively Temples of our soules and spirits of just beleeving ones are the places of his delight Oh! then say so Lord this union serves for a better that thou and my soule be one by the convey of the Sacrament that I might eate drinke Psal 24.7 enjoy thee Oh lift up thy head my dore be thou lifted up in me oh eternall gate of my soule that the King of glory may come in Let faith unbolt set you wide open that Christ may enter and take you up for his habitation be your head as the husband is the wives to procure her all good as a Prince in his governement as a Master in his family nay as the soule is in the body Ioh. 17. Ioh. 17.26 ult to act rule frame purge them to encrease the power of faith in adoption reconciliatiō to enlarge the graces of his spirit love meekenesse patience thankfulnesse to fill the conscience with joy hope peace to cause these to flow out of the belly of the soule as waters of life unto eternall life yea not onely better hearers worshippers of God but more wise to rule more faithfull to obey righteous in buying selling exemplary in our Christian practise harmles upright sober to purge us of our wrath uncharitablenes unmercifulnes unprofitablenes that the Lord Iesus Sacramētall in the spirit of him may become more lively powerfull and fruitfull in us Oh! pray and give the Lord no rest till he have bred faith in thee to these ends Vse 6 And to conclude if the poore creatures thus hold their union with Christ and thou by unbeleefe remainest destitute of him know these dumbe Elements shall one day rise up in judgment against thee condemne thee for they have kept their union which is but subordinate and serving to a better end But thou hast rejected thy union spirituall with Christ in the increase of his graces Oh wretch In naturall things and in vicious things thou art ripe and quicke enough to apprehend yea more than thou oughtest No sooner doth the name of that which thou takest pleasure in as the Taverne or Alehouse in which thou hast often disguised thy selfe come to mind no sooner the name of thy Farme which affords thee such a Rent Revenue offer it selfe to thee no sooner doth the name of the harlot whom thou hast consorted with the glasse in which thou canst reflect thy owne face upon thine eyes stand before thee but instantly thou feelest an union with those lusts which those names and notions present to thee thy spirit savors drunkennesse covetousnesse uncleanenesse and pride Onely the Sacraments are offred to thine eye by the Lord in which Christ is nominated nay actually exhibited and united and here the union is so strange a thing from thee that any other base object will sooner offer it selfe alone without any other occasion than the least apprehension of Sacramentall Christ come into thy thoughts or affections eyther to beleeve in love joy in or much lesse to be knit unto and made one with that all his excellency and grace might be thine that fatnesse and sweetnesse of his might be conveyed by faith into thy soule How shalt thou be able to answer this sensuality estrangement of spirit from the Lord Iesus Iustly may that curse light upon thee 1 Cor. 16.22 The 4. is the end twofold primary or secondary which Paul pronounceth upon al such as love not the Lord Iesus Thus much for the forme of a Sacrament be also spoken I proceede to the last generall in the definition which is the end of a Sacrament And that is double eyther concerning us from God or God from us Both as I noted are the scope of a Sacrament The reason whereof is because the Sacrament intends full as much and neither more not lesse than the covenant doth I meane the covenant of grace But the covenant of grace is reciprocall That God be our God Both essentiall Gen. 17.1 and wee be his people that God be our God al-sufficient and we walke uprightly before him I doe not meane by reciprocalnesse any equality in working as if our obeying or uprightnesse could worke God to be ours as his being ours workes us to be upright But that indifferently the one as well as the other part and condition is interchangably requisite on our parts as well as the Lords As then the seale of the covenant assures the one so must it the other it must secure the Lord of our upright walking as well as us of his beeing our God both must needs goe together Yet I meane not that the Sacraments doe equally seale up both for Gods sealing grace to us is strong our sealing backe to him of duty is weake the Sacrament is the Lords and therefore principally aymes at our good yet I say God lookes for it that the same messenger of his unchangable love to us revived at the Sacrament should carry backe to him our revived covenant of upright walking The Lord so comes to his oath and seale for our security that hee lookes we also come to the oath of Covenant with him hee will not be tyed and wee be loose First then of the former of these two ends Gods end concerning us What God covenanteth Touching which let us conceive what God covenanteth and so we shall see what the Sacraments doe assure Touching this point of the offer and Covenant of God I having elsewhere largely spoken Practic Catech. Part 2. Artic. 3. therefore I doe here referre my reader to that discourse to spare a labour Onely thus much in a word when Adam had lost his integrity by disanulling the covenant of creation the Lord had it in his bosome what he would doe with all his posterity if hee had quite destroyed them all it had beene but just In this demurre grace cast the skole and brought him out of his meere good pleasure to purpose to recover a Remnant out of their ruine And as hee meant this within himselfe so he thought it meete to expresse so much to us not by including some and excluding others but by a free unconditionall offer of grace in respect of any thing in man to covenant with him to be his God and to become propitious and favorable againe unto him as if hee never had beene offended This covenant he establishes with us in the Blood of his Sonnes satisfaction requiring of us to beleeve that thereby his Majesty is reconciled with us and that therefore we be reconciled to him This he urges us to beleeve nakedly upon his bare word and covenant and that we seeke no
the water And the essence of Baptisme in the very symbolicalnesse of it urgeth no lesse For what resemblance of ingrafting putting on of Christ is there in sprinkling what typicalnesse is there of our descending into and ascending out of the water both which are expresly spoken of Christ in his baptisme of Iordan What resemblance of our buriall or resurrection with Christ is there in it So that I doubt not but contrary to our Churches intention this errour having once crept in is maintained still by the carnall ease and tendernesse of such as looking more at themselves than at God stretch the liberty of the Church in this case deeper and further than eyther the Church her selfe would or the solemnenesse of this Sacrament may well and safely admit I doe not speake this as a thing meete to disturbe a Churches peace but as desiring such as it concernes in their places to looke to their liberty and duty in this behalfe The fourth person the infant The fourth and cheefe person yea equall object of Baptisme is the party baptised For not onely the Church may and doth baptise her infants but also adultos growne ones also if any such being bred Pagans and brought within the pale of the Church shall testifie their competent understanding of the new covenant and professe their desire to bee seazed with Baptisme for the strengthning of their soule in the faith thereof professe it I say not basely and slightly but with earnestnesse and entirenesse cutting off their haire and nailes and abhorring their Paganisme A short touch of the baptisme of infants But the truth is the exercise of the Churches baptisme is upon infants Here the Anabaptists rise up pleading the corruption of such baptisme and urging the first baptisme of catechised ones and confessors of sinne and cravers of the seale upon the worke of the Ministry foregoing in knowledge and faith which can be incident onely to Adulti or growne ones They alledge that we seale to a blank to no covenant and therefore it s a nullity Sundry learned men have undertaken to stop their scismaticall mouths to answer their peevish Arguments my scope tends another way in this Treaty so farre as my digression may be veniall I say this for the setling of such as are not willfull that I take the baptisme of infants to be one of the most reverend generall and uncontroled traditions which the Church hath and which I would no lesse doubt of than the Creede to bee Apostolicall And although I confesse my selfe yet unconvinced by demonstration of Scripture for it yet Reasons for it first Sithence Circumcision was applyed to the infant the eighth day in the Old Testament Secondly there is no word in the New Testament to infringe the liberty of the Church in it nor speciall reason why wee should bereave her of it Thirdly sundry Scriptures afford some friendly proofes by consequence of it Fourthly the holinesse of the child externall and visible is from their parents who are or ought to be catechised confessors penitent and Protestants in truth which privelidge onely open revolt disables them from therefore I say The seede being holy and belonging to the Covenant the Lord graciously admits them also to the seale of it in Baptisme 1 Cor. 7 14 Quest Howbeit here a further quaere arises And How it is capable 1 Pet. 3 21. because the Sacrament of Baptisme is here handled by us not as halfe a Sacrament onely including a washing of the flesh but an entire Sacrament holding out and giving an invisible grace by outward meanes By what authority shall we say an infant may be presented to that whereof it is not capable To that I answer Answere First it s not meete that Baptisme being the Sacrament of new birth which can be but once should destroy her owne Analogy by frequent administring therefore if but once the most comprehensive way is to doe it in the infancy when the outward admission of a member is allowed to it Secondly although the child be not capable of the grace of the Sacrament by that way whereby the growne are by hearing conceiving and beleeving yet this followes not that infants are not capable of Sacramentall grace in and by another way Pittifull are the shifts of them that have no other way to stop an Anabaptists mouth save by an errour that an infant may have faith It s easy to distinguish betweene the gift conveyed and the manner of conveying it For if the former be the latter in such case will poore needlesse But if the infant be truly susceptive of the substance of Christ none can deny it the Sacrament Now to understand this marke that infants borne of beleeving parents are of the number of those that shall be saved though dying in their infancy none of our reformed Churches will deny It is enough therefore that such before death doe partake the benefit of Election in Christ together with the benefits of Christ in regeneration adoption redemption and glory Now that the Spirit can apply these unto such infants is not doubted of though the manner thereof to us bee as hidden and mysticall thing yet so it is the Spirit of Christ can as really unite the soule of an infant to God imprint upon it the true title of a sonne and daughter by adoption and the image of God by sanctification without faith as with it Now if the thing of baptisme be thus given it why not baptisme Nay I adde further I see no cause to deny that even in and at and by the act of baptisme as the necessity of the weake infant may admit the Spirit may imprint these upon the soule of the infant Vse Let the use of the point bee to all such as are growne to yeares of discretion to looke backe to their Baptisme Let such blesse the Lord for his bounteous prevention of them with the Sacrament even before they had any strength to conceive it Why should the Lord so doe except to heape hot coales upon thy head oh poore wretch and to teach thee to conclude Esay 65.1 Iam. 4 8. Psal 119.10 that he who was found of thee when thou soughtest him not will much more draw neare to thee when thou art fayne upon him and seekest him with thy whole heart What a mercy is it to know the Lord to be a provoker of the soule to imbrace that covenant the seale whereof hee is content to bestow before hand for the hope of time to come Who should so play the Traytor in coole blood having found the Lord so faithfull in his love and to cavill thus I was baptized and made my covenant when I knew nothing nay I did make none my selfe but others for me Let them looke to their stipulation and promise I made none Can any Trecherous wretch so requite the Lord Rather if any sparke of love be in thee wilt thou not breake thy heart by this early mercy before
s the Word of God 1 Pet. 1. ult which must doe it 1 Pet 1 22 as Iam. 1.16 Of his free will hee begat us by the Word of truth Iam 1 16 Trie thy selfe then by the usuall acts of the word of Regeneration and so thou maist gather that this Spirit belongs to thee This is no place for mee to digresse I will cull out onely two or three things which may serve for this use Deceive not thy selfe and God will not deceive the Didst thou ever then feele in thy selfe that this immortall seed cast into thy eare did so descend into thy heart as to worke any immortall hope in thee 2 Tim. 1 11. The Gospell reveales immortality and glory to the soule Did it ever bring to light any such thing to thee Did it ever conceive in thee a sensible distaste of all hopes below and raise thy affections above Did it ever cause the things of the earth long life health successe welth money pleasure to be despised in comparison of the hope which is set before thee Camest thou ever from the word another man in thy aime appetite savor and love than thou wentst Did thy heart ever burne within thee there And when thou camest with earthly base thoughts did the Lord so dash them by heavenly doctrine and the hope of Christ that thou returnedst to thy house with a distaste of thy selfe for them Wert thou ever so touched and taken with the promise of the word that thou wert loath to forgo it for any delight In particular try thy self thus Instances of the words working 1. Hath the word of the Law cast a destroying seede of death into thee taken a way that life of old Adam jollity in sin Hath it defaced thy old Image discovered thee to thy selfe to be an Alien from the Life of God and common-wealth of Israel the son of an Hittite and Amorite as odious as one of thirtie old would be to thee who never was baptized Secondly hath the Gospell cast a better seed of hope in Christ by the Covenant of reconciliation into thee In thy hearing of this glad tidings hath the Lord bored an eare in thee by which this seede might conceive and kindle in thy heart Hath it wrought the preparation of heart in thee by brokennesse tendernesse humilitie unweariednesse of paines selfe de-deniall c. Hath it setled and digested in thee as a thing of such beauty as in comparison of which all the glory of the earth is drosse Hath it abode in thee and brought an undecaying sweetnesse into thee Hast thou felt in thy wombe the paines of true life and the new birth viz. How corruption of nature selfe and infidelity have rebelled against the work both of the Law and Gospell Gen. 25 22. Hast thou with Rebecca in this combat gone to God with thy complaint of the infinite lets that have held thee from beleâ—ving And hath the Lord by his Promise and perswasions fastened thy anchor of soule upon his bottome of free grace and truth renouncing thy owne hopes feares performances So that now thou hast him close bound to thee in his word from ever forsaking thee Then I say to thee thou art he whom the word hath breed Christ in and formed life in thee by faith What wanteth then Oh! thy heart is fickle and too weake to buy and sell upon the bare word without wavering yea thou hast much adoe to get victory over thy uncertain heart Well no wonder Thou seest nothing and to resist sence is a great worke yet be faithfull with God and give not over his promise and by due cleaving to the bare truth of the Lord begge further light and rest not in thy measure much lesse yeeld to any love of sinne to darken and defile thee And so doing I assure thee that to thee and to none but such the seale of baptisme belongs thou shalt find the Lord will by his Spirit convince thee deeplier the Spirit of Baptisme shall bring forth Gods pledges shew thee them Ioh. 16 9.10 convey into thy faint heart strength confidence and courage of faith and set thee above thy distempers as if they had never annoied thee If I say hee have purposed such a decree of grace unto thee he will effect it in time else know that howsoever yet thy service is blessed and thy faith hath brâ—â—d the life of regeneration in thee Branch 1 Forthly let this be exhortation to urge us to apply our selves to Baptisme for the sealing work of the Spirit therin To young Novices And first I direct my speech to yong novices under the means Slight not off the first incklings of this sealing Spirit The 1. layes heates of the holy Ghost and fire doe usually breake forth in youth Consider it s not a dayes worke nor a thing easie to settle the Spirit of sealing upon thy soule there be many steps to it Oh! looke to it yee young beginners One cause why old Christians walke so heavily is because they never heeded or hatched the first motions of the Spirit in their beginnings If then the Spirit of God doe call and stirre in thee by early affections love zeale enquiry answer Speake Lord for thy servant heares put him not off by ease or bondage 1 Sam. 3 9. If such a thought come as this What a dramme of Grace and Life of Christ is worth or what vow thou madest in Baptisme and how retchlesse thou hast beene to keepe it dally not with such items shake not off either pangs of terrour by lusts of youth or pangs of hope and love with ease and sloth for so the Spirit of sealing is fore-stalled and the faire forwardnesse thereto will hardly be recovered Put in thy foote presently upon the Angells stirring the poole Ioh. 5 4. if thou have an heart none shall prevent thee heere as there If these seeds were not choked and these buds cropt they would proove the assuring sealing Spirit of grace in due time Through contempt of it the Lord leaves youth to that hideousnesse and ripenesse in sinne yea a spirit of desperate debauchednesse in drinking oathes Rev. 22.11 and villany as would not bee beleeved of such youth Branch 2 Secondly I speake to all other apply your selves to the Sacrament of Baptisme for this last evidence and seale of the Spirit To elder oneâ— to let yee know that yee are the Lords Lin not till the Lord hath seal'd yee for his owne set his marke upon you not to be blotted out Looke up at each Sacrament each Baptizing ye see to the Lord that which in the former point I speake as hee hath applied the grace of Baptisme by the promise unto you so now hee would apply is Seale of assurance unto you by his Baptisme Let not such a mercie be there to be had and you not aware of it Thinke it not too good to receive if God will grant it What is
freer than gift to an unworthy one Lord I have long sate waiting for it both by promise and Sacrament At length when I little thinke let thy Chariots come to my doore as Iosephs to Iacob Gen. 45 28. Luke 2 29. that I may say It s enough Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace I would not be to seeke of this againe for the world Say as Peter Wash not feete but all parts throughly drench mee in this laver Ioh. 13 9. urge the Lord Oh! though I am the unworthiest of thousands to enjoy it yet it is as easie for thee to set thy Seale upon mee as for mee to print soft wax to put on Iesus Christ upon mee Rom. 13 ult as for mee to put on my cloathes Let not my soule be sad and doubtfull all my dayes for that which its so easie for thee to give Let mee have that Seale Lord and it shal be above all securities of land and lease clothe me with this Robe and all other shreeds shall be base unto me Remember how long I have waitd for thy salvation Lord Gen. 49 18. as one that longeth for newes from a farre country Oh! they shall be welcome And for my part I confesse except thou helpe in the worke and apply thy Seale all my hearings all thy Ordinances Word Sacrament Promises shaâ—l leave me as they found me not one of the benefits of Christ can relish my heart nor goe into my spirit except thou draw it in to me Oh! how wofull shall it be Ioh. 6.44 to see all my labour as water spilt upon the ground Branch 3 Thirdly I adde this one item and caveat to all relapsed ones who are sunke from their first comfort hope in the promise To relapsed ones Give not the Lord over for all that Be not sullen and discontent with him nor thy selfe Mourne and spare not that thou shouldst no more watch to such a trust as the Lord hath put into thee That either thou shouldest be weary of clinging to the promise That Christ should not be to thee yesterday Heb. 13.8 too day and the same for ever That either by feare of holding out or presumption of thy owne or ease or worldlinesse or especially that body of death thou shouldst give way to new contents the divels painted bables and the fashion of this base declining formall hollow world But be not hereby discouraged and desperate with thy selfe Shall a man fall and not arise Looke backe to this Arke and ship of Baptisme Ier. 8 4. whence thou art fallen No new baptisme shall neede the old if ever thou wert baptised truly shall serve lay then hold of that and be comforted I knew an holy woman who never found her selfe ecclipsed and damped in her comfort but shee found comfort by her Baptisme but she was in indeede a very sweete patterne of humilitie and of acquaintance with God in all his Ordinances If thou consider well Baptisme is thy second boorde after shipwracke doe but lay hold upon one broken peice of this ship and say Lord I have beene thine save mee Psal 119 94. I have felt thee sweet in the Promise and Seale though now it be otherwise through a dead heart doe but crawle in the waters and touch a brim of this ship and lo the Pilot will receive thee in againe not to make a trade and falling sicknesse of often revolting but to make thee more wary and fearefull never to provoke the Lord in like matter through his grace sustaining thee Vse 5 Lastly if God have revived thy spirit by this Seale of Baptisme walke before him in the strength of it Seale backe to him the fruit of it in a most faithfull close and wary course Consider the sealing Spirit hath many blessed properties learne hold nourish them in thy heart and course Give testimony to God and his cause honour and Religion seale him this fruit of thy service who hath not neglected thee in such a favour Disdaine not any weaker ones who have not attained thy strength cannot saile upon the maine but are faine with their poore weake faith to goe by the shore pitty and helpe such with the Spirit of compassion for his sake who sealed thee when he ought thee no such mercy Apply thy selfe to the marks of this seale looke upon each letter of this stampe and let it teach thee thy duty The fruits of the sealing of Baptisme The sealing Spirit is a spirit of singular peace of conscience and joy in the lively hope of salvation liberty with God fulnesse of faith and perswasion confidence in prayer purenesse of heart and life and so of the rest Dost thou walke thus Approove thy selfe in some truth herein Touching the first 1 Pet. 3 21. S. Peter tels thee baptisme is the answer of a good that is an excusing conscience What is that If it be demanded whether it be broken humbled beleeving pardoned It answers yea Lord thou knowest it Hast thou peace therby Dost thou walke with it daily Rom. 5.1 and nourish it If so this peace will be as Armour to thee Ephes 6.15 Paul Eph. 6.15 calles it the shooes of peace for as by them our tender feete walke safely upon the flints and rockes and gravell which else would cut and wound us so by peace we have safety in troubles count them all joy Iam. 1.2 and are not unsetled by them in our course If so then also this peace will rule our hearts and minds Wee will be kept in awe by it that rather than we would lose and forfeit that Phil. 4 7. we would lose any jewell so deare it is and so hard to recover Oh! if so then wee shall not be moved in all the tumults of this hurrying world the malice of Tyrants the declining of Hypocrites the great jollitie of Timeservers the scuffling for honours and great things but this peace shall calme us Againe if this peace of heart by justification be in us it will present us with an holy complacence in our estate a sweet content in God above any other object as one that hath found a Pearle hath a fuller contentment than in the corne cattell and trifles formerly possessed this comprehends all and drownes them And the heart of such a man is at ease he carrieth more about him than they who have large possessions So there is not onely a quietnesse from former warre but an excellent reflexion of welfare such as was in Adam ere he sinned and in this better that he desires not to change it for any other And lastly to this present sweetnesse and joy there is also afforded to such a soule an undecaying taste of the glory to come a lively hope and waiting for it as one who hath an earnest in hand of a full summe waiteth for that summe to be wholly paid at the day appointed So is it here The peace which worketh sweetnesse of spirit
for the present enlarges it selfe further and gives the soule a taste of that eternall joy which it shall possesse hereafter when it shall put off this corruption and earthly tabernacle for one not made with hands Secondly the Spirit of sealing hath fulnesse of faith in it It s therefore compared to full sayles of wind Heb. 10 22 which carrie the ship an end Is it so with thee Art thou free in good measure from a life of sence from judging things of God by the outsides Canst thou rest in this that although thou neither hearest voyce from heaven nor seeest shape yet there is a Sun within the clouds There is a God and all the fidelity truth and love is still in the promises which ever was without shaddow of turning Art thou by this faith carried above those feares doubts distempers Rom. 5 2 3 4. which when the coast was mistie thou wert annoyed with Walkest thou now with cleerer comfort joy and perswasion of Gods love providence promises Is thy heart as the Arke above the rockes Gen. 7.10 Is it farre otherwise with thee in the frequencie the dismalnesse of thy unbeleefe than formerly Are thy buffetings temptations lusts well blowne over Then hold and nourish this fruit in thee knowing it is no common thing But Oh Lord where is the man to whom I speake this Thirdly nourish thy liberty Was it wont to be an usuall thing to thee to be clogged with the weight of sinne Heb. 12.1 Heb. 12.1 vexed with the fiery darts of Satan and his noysome buffetings tossed with strong lusts Was the worke of God irkesome painefull to thee hardly drawn to it soone unsetled How is it now 2 Cor. 3.17 The Spirit of sealing is a free Spirit 2 Cor. 3.17 The Lord is a Spirit where he is there is libertie Dost thou now walke in and out with the Lord as a sonne in the house Luke 1 6. well provided for Rid off thy old chaines enlarged to runne the Commandements of God with chearefulnesse Hast thou freedome from thy old feare Psal 119.32 Hath the Lord both overthrowne the court of sinne and bad conscience and all the officers of it Canst thou meete the Bayliffe securely Canst thou as a free man Gal. 5.1 looke upon Satan hell death without horror Nourish it and be thankefull for it Fourthly Hast thou the boldnesse of the Spirit of adoption Canst thou come to the Lord in prayer with holy confidence Is thy slavish heart gone Rom. 8 15. Verse 26. Zach. 12.10 Darest thou call God Father by good proofe and triall Doth the Spirit of God teach thee to pray Doth it purge out thine owne spirit of selfe of gifts of forme and teach thee to pray wisely with feeling and groaning under thy corruptions seeking more mortification of heart and spirit Art thou so fervent and frequent as one that knowes his welcome Canst thou lay in daily for thy selfe and others Blesse God for thy portion and prise it So fifthly Hast thou the spirit of holines purenes If thou be sealed by the assuring Spirit thou are sealed by the holy Spirit of God How doth it appeare Is there love of purenes and holines a loathing of all falsehood and profanes in thee Hast thou gotten a pure title unto Deut. 33.16 Tit. 1.15 and use of all ordinances blessings and administrations of God towards thee Art thou able to say To the pure all things are pure Dost thou grow more fruitful and plentifull in holines all holy means meditation fasting conference holy duties compassiâ—n mercy love pietie sobernes holy graces 2 Pet. 1.5 8. 2 Pet. 3 ult 1 Cor. 15 ult as faith hope patience Dost thou adde grace to grace so as thou maist not be unprofitable but grow be rooted and setled still then I say nourish these I assure thee this world is not for such matters blesse him that hath called thee out of it in the strength of this seale of Baptisme walke on as Elia did to the mount of God 1 King 19 8. Ephes 4 30. Grieve not this sweet Spirit by any lusts or roote of bitternesse keepe the world under the girdle of this Spirit provoke him not to forsake thee but having felt his sweetnesse let him not depart from thee till hee have conducted thee into the land of righteousnes And know if this Spirit be given thee thou keepest a costly thing which not all they have who yet beleeve in this measure deceave not thy selfe about it and if thou have it nourish it carefully For as the traveller who hath nothing to lose is carelesse of theeves so know thou that hast such a charge hadst need be jealous least Satan the world and thy evill selfe rob thee of thy treasure Ephe. 6.18 And this be said of this 3. generall also of the end of Baptisme and so of the whole doctrine and use of Baptisme the more largely because I shall touch it no more as I purpose to doe the other Oh! how is it to be lamented that the knowledge and use of it is no more understood by our Ministers and people CHAP. VI Of the Supper of the Lord. The description and parts of it And first of the Sacramentall Acts of it I Come now to the Doctrine and discourse of the Supper of the Lord wherein as I foresee that those things which do peculiarly concerne the handling of it will take up much more roome than the former of Baptisme as being the Sacrament of growen ones and therefore having in it more life for present administration and use than the other of Infants So also I see much labour is spared me in this latter because of those generals which unavoydably have been handled in the former I say so far as those things do agree to the Supper subjects only being changed So far then as ought hath beene toucht before of the Order the Constitution the Acts Grace or Sealing of Baptisme which may sute and agree with this of the Supper let none looke for the Repetition of it onely in such grounds I will content my selfe to point to the speciall application in few words and dwell the longer upon things peculiarly proper to the Supper And those are these three The Acts to be performed The distinct grace offred in it The speciall end of it which stands in the sealing power and the object wherabout it s occupied Description of it The Supper of the Lord then to describe it first is the second Sacrament of the Gospell consisting of Iesus Christ exhibited in the Bread and Wine wherein by certeine Acts duly perfourmed about the Elements whole Christ-body and Blood is conveyed to the Soule for the sealing up of her Growth and encrease in the Grace of the Covenant 1 Branch of the order Vse First I point in a word at the order In the first Sacrament I noted the impudency of such as will invert Gods order Now in
the Lord Iesus that so it might never faile nor wanze away any more Then surely it behooves that the Lord Iesus be as well the keeper of this life and the nourishment thereof as hee was the first the breeder thereof Answere 4 Fourthly the Father to this end must really convey into the person of Christ all such power and vertue as may enable him to be the life and nourishment of his members and therefore he must fill him with himselfe bodily and make him the treasury of all graces wisedome righteousnesse 1 Cor. 1.30 sanctification and redemption all good things necessary for the making of such as are not his to become his and such as are his to be more his or his in a more full and assured manner to prosper grow and thrive in him unto perfection Answere 5 Fiftly he must also qualifie the Lord Iesus with the gift of conveying this holy nature of his and this blessed nourishment of his unto his people and this he doth not onely by the union of flesh with God but especially by the death and satisfaction of Christ by which as by a wide dore he opened the treasure of life and nourishment which was in him and merited that the life of grace in forgivenesse and holinesse might be theirs and that himselfe in his flesh and blood broken and powred out might bee a most effectuall seede of life and foode of life to support them Answere 6 Sixtly to this end hee hath the authority to send forth the word of reconciliation and of nourishment unto his people and as by the power of vocation to call them from death to life that all who heare the voyce of God might live so also to create in their soules by that word of his Esay 57.17 the gift of faith to pull them to himselfe to unite them to himselfe and to convey his owne spirituall life by this union of faith unto them causing his blessed Spirit to concurre so with the word as to settle it upon them and having so done to give them this priviledge that they shall as truely bee maintained at his cost Iohn 17.11 be kept in his name be upheld in grace prosper in it be defended against all enemies within or without which might impeach this their welfare growth fruitfulnesse and perseverance as ever he bred life in them at the first Answere 7 Seventhly and lastly they receive by this priviledge as true right to claime plead for and expect the Lord Iesus to be their nourishment as the poore dumbe creature by the instinct of nature being brought forth runnes to the Damme for milke Or as the Infant comming forth of that wombe which gave it life cryes for the brest of the same mother and pleades to be nourished by her By these steps it may be conceived in generall how the Lord Iesus is made of the Father the true foode of his members The second question viz. How Christ is so in the Supper But as yet here is nothing of Christ our Sacramentall nourishmen Vnderstand therefore the Sacrament to stand in relation to the word of promise wherein Christ is made the poore soules owne to feede her As I noted in Baptisme so heere againe observe Christ in promise and Christ in the Supper differ not save in the manner and degree of exhibiting him out nourishment Looke then what the Spirit of the promise workes for the soule that it much more worketh by the Sacrament First persents the promises Take some instances First it presents the soule of every one truely bred with those choise promises of Christ her nourishment searching them out of each corner Tells her Esay 25. Esay 25.7 That the Lord makes her a feast upon the mountaines of fat things of wines refined and pure and the dishes of the feast are Christ in his graces plucking away the veile of darkenesse remooving death and feare bringing joy and peace Esay 55.1 Esay 55.2 he offers him in all kinds of things usefull and nourishing wine honey oyle bids her eate good things and delight her selfe in fatnesse In Pro. 7. Prov. 7.1 he invites her to his feast and provision of all choice dainties not for necessity onely but for fulnesse for delicacy for variety and delight for safety for durablenesse In Psal 23. Psal 23.3 hee leades her as a shepheard into his pastures streames folds guards her against dangers and death annoints her head with balme Cant. 4.13 and fills full her cup. In the Canticles he makes himselfe her husband to marry himselfe to her and bestow all at once upon her his garments smell of mirrhe Cinnamon and Cassia In Psal 84. Psal 84.11 he denies her nothing that is good for her either for light or defence in those Parables he makes her a feast Luk. 15.23 brings out the Calfe In Iohn 6. Iohn 6.55 tells her his flesh is not onely life but meate indeede and his blood drinke indeede And plainely saith They that live in him shall abide in him and out of their belly shall spring up waters of life they that eate him shall not dye but live for ever In Revel 3. Revel 3.18 he offers himselfe to her in all respects Attire for nakednesse Gold for poverty eye-salve for blindnesse himselfe a supply of all necessities How much more then doth hee leade her to this great Sacramentall promise mentioned in the Text This is my body given for you this is the Cup of the New Testament in my blood 2. Brings the fulnesse of Christ into the promise Againe the Spirit of the promise brings the Lord Iesus and all his fulnesse of nourishment into that promise the spirit of nature doth not so prepare the nourishment of the infant and seale it in the brest for more easie fastning than the Spirit doth settle all the fulnesse of Christ in a promise so that it offers it selfe to the hungry soule Besides 3. Puts the truth of the promiser into it it put the faithfulnesse of the promiser into the promise all the tendernesse and compassion of Christ to the wants of the Church and the truth of his meaning not to faile her in any good thing he can helpe her with Furthermore it strips her of all her owne strength 3. Strips the soule of her selfe tells her that although shee be borne of God yet except hee cleave to her as a feeder as a father a nurse a supply she cannot subsist shee will goe to worke else with her owne tooles and compasse her selfe with her owne sparkles Esa 50. ult and deceive her selfe with her owne trash shee cannot doe any duty get out of any temptation beare any trouble of her selfe without Christ shee can doe nothing Moreover hee sheweth her 4. Leads her to the sufficiency of Christ all her sufficiency is from Christ The worke and life of grace requires his daily hourely acting power in her to set it on
of thou takest not because thou consentest to no promise Thou hast a traytors heart within thee None of all these sixe cordes of this Sacramentall Promise will draw thee no though the cord were made of many more linkes thou wouldest still be the same an unwilling unbeleeving wretch and still warpe withdraw from God and dissent from his offer Thou hast no power to cleave to consent and obey I may say of thy unbeleefe as of Sauls hypocrisie 1 Sam. 15. 1 Sam. 15.30 Though Samuell did sundry wayes convince him and ferret him out of his hole yet so tainted an hypocrite hee was that he would not bee convinced He was at last as at first he sayd Honor me yet before the people and so went away an hypocrite Such is unbeleefe it s like the Ethiopians colour Ierem. 13. or the Leopards spots if these may bee changed then may unbeleefe not else Oh! the endlesse and bootlesse urging of promises upon unbeleefe behold her face in a glasse and abhorre her and say Into her counsell let not my soule come And as I say of her treachery so I say of her Rebellion Shee will be awed with no charge no more than won by a promise Alas she thinkes as Eve thought being deluded by Satan Gen. 3 5. That God forbad her the tree of good and evill for hatred and of evill will all that ever God had enricht her with could not sway her rebellious heart to conceive a good thought of him still he did it to crosse her So doth unbeleefe deale with Gods charges when he tells us Hee commands for our good and not his owne that it might goe well with us we answere No I cannot thinke so its harsh to my ease and sloth to yeeld True but if it were possible that thy rebells heart could stoope it would after seeme pleasant and thou wouldst not for the world but have obeyed This by the way may serve to point out the contrary natures of faith and unbeleefe Vse 4 Secondly its use of admonition to all that would take the Lord Iesus Sacramentall aright To resist carnall reason which resists faith and holds the soule under the Bondage of sense and flesh Many when they come to the Sacrament in the sight of the promise wonder that any man should take Christ and his Nourishment who yet when they bee baffled with carnall reason are so farre off the hookes that they wonder any should beleeve it Beware of this lewde counsellor if once he and thou have talked he will corrupt the simplicity of the promiser and the nakednesse of faith and fill thee with so many crotchets that as they in Iohn thou wilt cry out How can this thing be Can hee give us of his flesh Iohn 6 3â— What a riddle is this This is an hard saying who can beleeve it Surely no man that hath not chased away carnall reason and closed with the promise I doe not bid thee put off sound reason for then I might bid thee with a Papist beleeve that bread is turned flesh and wine blood I bid thee not bee mad but not distrustfull Be not faithlesse ascribe not more to the Pilot than Paul as that carnall centurion did because hee saw no other than likelinesse of shipwracke An Angell of God saith Paul stood by me too night and secured me Act. 27 1â— I beleeve God therefore I see as little hope as any of you nay lesse but yet the promise of God and his charge that I feare not prevailes more with me than all outward reason Oh! do so in the Sacrament in the Supper as I urged before in Baptisme Looke at the word and charge Except baptized of water and spirit yee are damned cannot enter hee that beleeves and is baptized shall be saved Looke at this and say not shall a man enter the second time into his mothers wombe and bee borne againe But honour the promise as Noa Iohn 3 4. when hee was in the Arke was saved by faith and the waters which swallowed up the world bare up the Arke and saved him Heb. 11 7. 1 Pet. 3 20. God had sayd it and he beleeved So Christ hath sayd it This is my body This is my body Why saith carnall reason I see no more here than at home what consequence is this heere is bread and wine therefore Christ nourishment I eate and drinke and take the onâ— therefore I may take the other What sense is here None at all It must bee faith and Religion not sence must rule here not as Popery saith against common sence and true reason to produce a thing impossible but to confute unbeleefe against false and carnall reason Oh! either cut the Throate of it or it will cut thine Lift up the Arke of thy faith above the rockes and cragges of reason or else it will Split Begge the spirit of the promise and of the command to set thee upon the rocke that is above reason Christ and the Sacrament or else reason will destroy both 2 King 6 18. There are more with thee as Elisha told his man than against thee if the promise and command of Christ be for thee It s an evidence from God and subsists in his faithfulnesse power and mercy grounded upon the death of the Lord Iesus 2 Cor. 6 1. Receive not this grace in vaine as if thy eares were stopped eyes blinded hands held and cheyned by thy fleshly sence Rather let this promise of Christ loosen this chaine Salomon saith A gift in the hand prospers whither so ever it goe Oh! here is a gift in the hand Take and eate This is my body given for you and now given to you let this prosper against all the mutters of carnall Reason and say Oh! be there never such unlikelihood as Caleb said of the Anakims yet they shall be but meate for us Num. 14 7 8. If the Lord love us he will give it us So say thou If God have spoken standby sense and be still I know thou wilt be ready to put thy selfe forth in and against each promise but I will have no eare to heare thee if God speake The charge of God hath power to enable thee as well to command thee it gives what it commands as when the Lord Iesus bade the Palfie man rise he put life and motion into his limbes and joynts and left not the worke to the criple So I say resist sence and corruption by a promise and a charge of Christ and it shall stoope unto them The Lord hath put an infinite power into one against the other Vse 3 And thirdly bee exhorted to cleave nakedly to the word of the promiser consent and obey Esay 1. The words are both used to signifie faith Esay 1 19. for a matter not unlike and saith he yee shall eate the good things of the land So say I heere come with an open hand and a simple heart and a naked faith and thou
secretly distributing the masse into severall parts according to their variety of substance and need so is it with faith she comes to the masse and full heape of blood and nourishment she finds an hoorde of fulnesse in Christ and there fastens her pipes and veine of conveyance and thence she carryes to the uses of the soule whether for blessings a sober thankfull heart or for crosses an humble meeke beleeving and confident upon the promise of Christs protection heer shee layes in grace to rule her selfe well in marriage then in family in hearing in prayer heer shee catches at grace to resolve her doubts to bane her corruptions to better her conscience to comfort her in forgivenesse none comes amisse as the need and measure of each part requires so she drawes and derives from Christ her wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption And looke how the distribution of nature doth by secret instinct derive meete juice for each part not that to one which is the others due but the tenderest to the most fleshly and the viscous or course to the stiffer as muscles and joints so is it heere the derivation of faith is wiser than of nature And the veines of last concoction Secondly having so done the lesser veines neerest to each member to bee nourished by the heate and concoction of it doth turne this proper nourishment into the substance of the nourished that both may be one and this is the eminent worke of faith also that turnes the Lord IESVS into the beeing of the soule spiritually it doth not only carry meet juice to the part leaving it there unapplyed but makes the meat and the member one The Lord Iesus by faith dwells in the soule inhabites it is one with it bone of her bone and flesh of her flesh and by his owne strength prayes heares meditates in her by his owne strenght patience love humilitie puttes an influence into her for the like so that of his fulnesse the soule hath grace for grace yea Esay 26 He doth all her works for her and in her hee is afflicted and suffers with her rejoyces in her and shee sayeth Now live I yet not I but Christ in mee Lastly faith is like the naturall soule her selfe in her Operation 4. By the Natural soule for as wee see men well fed are fit for worke so is it here Faith exercises the grace of the soule received from CHRIST Sacramentall in the severall passages of life concerning each mans calling Looke how it is with ten men that have bin wel fed at one feast although they have 10. several workes to doe yet they go cheerfully about them the plowman to toile the Merchant to project the Scholler to his study the traveller to his journey the workes are severall but the same feast affords strength and cheere of body and spirit to each of them for the menaging of his taske even so 1 Kings 19.8 in the strength of this cake and water this Lord Iesus his body and blood the refreshed soule goes about every lawfull service which the Lord calls her too One hinders not another But there is enough in Christ to fulfill all and to fit each for his taske So that if he be put on well as the Apparrell lo in the warmth and comfort of it the soule is ready to goe from duty to duty from her rising to her lying downe who of her selfe was good for nothing And thus she boasteth 1 Cor. 1.30 boasts of the Lord and sees that as her selfe cut off from him is as the branch that withers so all her sufficiency is from God and as the sea sends forth al l waters and receives them so doth the Lord receive from faith the honour of his al-sufficiency These few things may serve for a draught of this Truth how faith Sacramentall applyes Christ to be her Nourishment having taken him in the Promise Vses Now I conclude with breefe use partly of admonition and partly of exhortation to all Gods People First be warned against the lets of this Application Admonition in many Caveats Beware least thy vaine heart bee seduced by Satan to forsake the Lord in the plaine way of his ordinance as if because it is seely to fleshly shew therefore thou stumbling at it shouldest be carried from that which should doe thee most good to do thee most hurt Helpe thy hand of faith by the hand of sence assure the one by the other but hurt it not Resolue to get the Lord by his owne way Misse not the gripe and hold of a Promise for a shaddow of thy owne conceit Let not wandrings of thy mind suspicions and jelousies against God and thy selfe the guilt of old receivings the examples of the common sort of Communicants who make a custome of going as they come the temptations by thy owne unworthinesse emptinesse and basenesse carry thee from the steddy beleeving of the promise Tye not God to thy girdle rather fasten thy Boat to his Barge to be carried by the motion of it Nourish not an evill eye against others that they grow by their receivings and prosper but not hou Turne envy into faith and the fulnesse of him who hath blessed him can also satisfie thee Let not an evill heart of unbeleefe possesse thee to thinke the Sacrament will proove no better to thee than it hath bin rather thinke it s the way whereby GOD hath appointed to break through the pikes therefore the Lord will not suffer thee to live so barren as formerly Thinke not basely of CHRIST as if hee oversaw all thy sorrowes wants lets doubts annoyances corruptions temptations as if hee cared not that thou still welter in them and get not out Although they have continued long 2 Pet. 3 8. yet know a thousand yeeres with him are as one day hee hath a day of salvation an accepted time and will one day pick out speciall Sacraments and by them speciall graces for speciall needs cure thee of all the deadnesse world hollownesse pride and selfe which is in thee if thou mourne under thy burden say Corruption shall downe and grace shall outlive it and I shall yet see better dayes and best at last though I feele little seeing GOD hath saied it I beleeve it Doe not appoint GOD his measure nor his time but wait and try thy patience perhaps GOD lookes for it Light is sowne for the righteous let them waite till it come up Such health growth stayednesse and measures as God hath alotted thee shall bee thine that Demensum which thy wise steward sees best is better for thee than a greater Thou hast no promise of such a measure but of grace sufficient If thou hast any dram of it know its pretious thou art not worth the ground thou goest upon the breath thou drawest and wilt thou carve for thy selfe in the degrees of grace Vse 2 Exhortatiō Secondly and lastly come and bring thy faith to Christ thy nourishment and
which I gave a touch before in the point of fruitfulnesse Secondly walking with God daily as being under his eye awfully purely Gen. 5.22 and soberly approving our selves to him in the way of our life making his Word our delight in both the promises commands and threats of it and so holding the Lord in our sight as loth to forgoe him Thirdly Ascending in our thoughts from our owne welfare in private and forcing our awcke hearts to the service of our time as David Act. 13.36 Acts 13 36. as well as looking that it goe well with our selves of which selfe-love our spirit is full stuffed except this grace scoure it out Remember we that the gaine wee get by Christ in his Assemblies should presse upon us the bewailing of the losse thereof Zeph 3.18 Zeph. 3.18 the beseeching God to establish the Lord Iesus and to set up his King upon his Zion in the power of his Ordinances to demolish the Throane of Satan and Antichrist that the Scepter of Christ may prevaile every where against Popery Atheisme Ignorance Blinde devotion profanenesse and forme of godlinesse Lastly in an heavenly heart as Phil. 3 18. Phil. 3.18 knocking us off from below moderating our liberties for us enlarging us to desire his glorious presence to have communion with him as he is concluding that if these treaties with him at distance as in the Supper be so sweete then much more to eate and drinke it in his kingdome Luke 22 16. Luke 22.16 Oh! if our treasure be there let our hearts be so also and send we them before us in token wee looke to remove thither as our abiding place Phil. 2 1 2. 2 Cor. 5.1 Phil 2 1 2. 2 Cor. 5.1 Thus doing wee shall use the Supper for the end which it was given for to supply the absence of the Lord Iesus from us Luke 22 35 16 17. Luke 22.16 till wee may enjoy it Thirdly let that good we have got out of the Sacrament The third imparting our selves to others so plentifully abide in us that wee impart it to others The nature of these graces is such not to feede on them alone When those Leapers 1 King 7 12. 1 King 7 12. had filled themselves in the Aramites tents with store of all things their hearts smote them for staying there so long and they resolved to hasten and tell the King and people of it that were sterven in the citie So shouldst thou The Sacrament is called a communion in this respect as well as the former Poore birds if they light upon scattered corne call their fellowes to the heape When Sampson had found honey Iude 14 9. though hee kept the riddle yet he imparted his honey to his Father and Mother The benefits of Christ are not of a secret and private but diffusive nature Let us bee ashamed to consider that other things in the world are so perfected by communion that neither Trades Artes Customes and fashions nor any other thing have cause to complaine but the matters of Christ are now at the barest and lowest Why save that those that should excell in them conceale their skill and experience The Communion day should be our exceeding day and as in feasts so in this we should send or carrie portions and acquaint others wisely and seasonably with our lot and receive from them like intelligence And thus much for the second generall head viz. The grace of the Supper I conclude with the last And that is the particular end of the Sacrament viz. The sealing unto a beleeving soule The third generall The end of it an assurance of that grace which it exhibiteth I have spoke before of this sealing power I will adde but a little for the applying of the genâ—rall to this particular Desiring the wise Reader to looke backe and make use of what I have spoken of this sealing worke in generall and to apply it here in speciall to the sealing of the growth as already I have spoken in Baptisme of the sealing of our Birth or Regeneration A needfull digression to shew the order of the Spirits working And that my Reader may retaine the ordinary view of the two sealing workes this briefely let mee say first that the Spirit of Grace is given by God to attend each Ordinance both the Word of Promise and the Seale of Promise and that to this end to worke perswasion in the soule and to cause it to beleeve the things that are given her of God Then secondly note The object of this perswasion by the Promise is double and therefore the object of perswasion by the Seale is double First perswasion of the soule that shee is truly the Lords truly called regenerated and borne of God That is to say reconciled to him and renewed in him Secondly perswasion that shee growes in the grace of the new birth and shall grow as a lively member of her head till she receive the fulnesse of that part That God is the Author of both perswasions appeares by the two maine heads of unbeleefe which formerly I noted to reside in the soule First that shee dare not beleeve at all that the promise of mercy reacheth to her Secondly that she dare not beleeve that she shall ever reach to any further degree of sanctification than she presently feeles Both these the Lord in his double perswasion confutes The third thing is the Spirit therefore applies it selfe to both these yet not alway in one and the same measure of perswading but according to the neede or proportion of each part By the Promise of the Word sometimes it workes more sometimes lesse perswasion as seemes best to himselfe and so by the Seale of the Sacrament hee doth likewise worke weaker or stronger assurance For though there be a perswading power in an high degree in both yet the Spirit is no servant to his Ordinances but his Ordinances to him they shall perswade more or lesse according as that power of Christ which the Spirit dispenceth is more or lesse conveied into the soule by his perswasion He is never separated from promise or Seale according to the measure of his working by both But that is as he listeth for he bloweth where and how farre hee pleaseth Fourthly note the chiefe and maine perswasion of the Spirit in the Word is the Spirit of the sealing Promise and the chiefe work of the Spirit of perswasion in the Sacrament is the Spirit of the sealing Sacrament And therefore as the Seale with the Promise is above a promise alone So the Spirit of the Seale with the Sacrament is above the Sacrament alone and consequently the sealing power of the Sacrament is above the Sealing power of a Promise the Sacrament being ordinarily the instrument of working the soule to the highest assurance which it can enjoy in this world whether of the truth of her regeneration which Baptisme or the growth therein which the Supper sealeth and perswadeth Sealing
to thee or walke in the want of with any peace Who knowes what encreases God hath provided for thee But howsoever that be dismay not thy self as if it were the portion of such or such none of thine If God will deny thee it it is to humble thee he can bring thee to heaven through a lesse open doore but let not thy sloth and base heart as Ahaz deprive thee either of the bounty of his promise or signe least others enjoy it and thou be stript even of that thou seemst to have Goe rather and summe up those sweet promises of God for thy growth Behold them Iohn 10.9 Ioh. 10.9 Ioh. 15 4. He that commeth in by me shall be saved and goe in and out and finde pasture Ioh 15 4. Those that abide in me shall bring forth fruit in me My Father will purge them that they bring forth more fruit Such as are planted in the house of my God shall bring forth fruit in the Courts shall in their age bring it forth and be fat and well liking Reade also those texts before Ephe. 3.16.17 and 4.15.16 Col. 1.11 and such like to set thy teeth an edge Spread these promises before the Lord begge his Spirit to seale them Vrge 1 Ioh. 3.24 and 4.13 upon the Lord And as a poore woman would cry to the Lord Keeper for his Seale so thou to this great Keeper of the Seale to bring it out to thee Doe not give him the lie make him not a lier in his chiefe worke wherein his honour most standeth and in due time he will heare him The end of the First Part. An Alphabeticall Table containing the chiefe points handled in the first Part. A ANtiquity of Sacraments Page 3 Agreement of new Sacraments in two things Page 22 23 Author of Sacraments is God reasons of it Page 29 Appropriation of Elements one part of their forme Page 38 What it is ibid Application of Elements by divine ordinance what Page 39 Assurance of Sacraments relateth to the Covenant Page 54 What they do assure Page 55 Acts Sacramentall in celebration why necessary Page 64 Admission of the Infant into visible communion is the generall use of baptisme Page 82 Aptnesse of the Elements in the supper to resemble Page 109 Acts of administring the Supper must follow the institution Page 112 113 Christ is the nourishment of his in point of their Affliction Page 107 Acts of the beleeving Communicant in the Supper two Page 173 B. Baptisme what Page 70 Order of Baptisme Page 71 Matter of Baptisme water Page 72 It is united Sacramentally with Christ ibid. Not to be despised ibid. Persons requisite to Baptisme are foure Page 73 Grace of Baptisme is partly generall and partly speciall Page 81 Baptisme a great stay to fearefull minds Page 83 Against prophaners of Baptisme ibid. Baptisme requires many things to make it our owne in the power of it 87. partly for grounds 88. partly for application Page 89 End of Baptisme what Page 92 How attained Page 93. ib. Ignorance of Baptisme and her use great cause of mourning Page 94 Want of true knowing Baptisme hinders assurance Page 95 Vse of Baptisme how to be tried Page 98. ib. Grace of Baptisme unlimited not restrained to the act of it See preface Bounty of God in cloathing the Elements with honour for us Page 116 Blessing of Supper Elements the second act of the Minister In how many things it stands Page 119 Breaking of Sacrament a third act of the Minister what and whereto Page 129 Broken Christ must provoke compassion and how Page 134 Broken Christ cannot be applied but by faith Page 135. ib. Broken Christ is nourishing Christ Page 136 Christ is not availing to us except Broken Page 130 How Brokennesse comprehends Christ both in merit and power Page 131 Papists love an whole Christ in both Elements unbroken overthrowing him Page 132 C. CIrcumstances of Sacraments six Page 1 Congregation requisite for Sacramentall persons 69. their duty ibid. Duty of Congregation in the act of Baptisme Page 75 Carnall reason abhorred in use of Baptisme Page 90 Closing with the Spirit necessary for the grace of Baptisme Page 91 Popish Consecration confuted by the blessing of Christ Page 123 A true Communicant concurres with Christ in taking the Supper Page 173 Carnall reason to be abhorred in the taking of the Supper Page 177 Maintaining of our Communion with God in Christ is one part of our enjoying him in the Supper 191. and how we may do it Page 192 Communicating the good things of the Supper to our fellow members is a part of our enjoying and eating Christ in the Supper Page 193 Communion with God how it may bee nourished the directions for it foure exercise of Graces walking with God service of our time and knocking off from hence Page 192 193. D. DIfference of old and new Sacraments in three things Page 14 Difference of the two Sacraments of the Gospel in what Page 23 In five things ibid. Dulnesse of most in conceiving the Sacraments whence Page 41 Discerning of the Sealing power of the Sacrament necessary Page 59 Dipping in Baptisme most agreeing to the institution Page 77 Distribution of Supper Elements the last act of the Minister 137. the ground of it Page 138. ib. Drinking Christ in Supper vid. Eating Delighting in God and Christ one part of our enjoying him Page 190 Christs Dainties disgrace the Delicates of all worldings Page 199 E. EXcellency of Sacraments See the whole preface and pag. 27 Dumbe Elements how they shall condemne unbeleevers Page 52 End of Sacraments what Page 53 And how manifold ibid. 55 Ends of Sacraments must bee observed and not separated Page 62 Basenesse of Elements must not blemish the Sacraments See preface Exhibiting power of Sacraments whence it is See pref Eating and drinking Christ the second act of the people in the Supper Page 185 What Eating and drinking of Christ imports viz. injoying him and how Page 186 187 188. Grounds of Enjoying Christ foure viz. his Safety Purenesse Completnesse and Durablenesse Page 187. 188. Enjoying of Christ in foure things Page 190 End of the Supper is the sealing of Christ her Nourishment to the Soule Page 194 F. FOrme and essence of a Sacrament wherein it stands Page 37 Faith mainly required to discover Sacramentall union 50. and to apply it Page 51 Forme of Baptisme viz. Grace of Baptisme Faith required for the getting of the grace of Baptisme Page 89 Fulnesse of the Elements of the Supper Page 112 Fruit of Sacramsnts a great cause of our thankes even for others Page 128 Fulnesse of sayles of Faith a marke of the sealing Spirit Page 103 Fruitfulnesse in grace the fourth step of soule prosperity by the food of the Supper 160. and how Page 161 Recovering out of a Fruitlesse course is one worke of Sacramentall fruitfulnesse Page 163 Faith obeying the offer of Christ in the Supper takes him Page 175 Application of the Supper resembled by foure
naturall acts of applying G. SAcraments are Glasses to resemble Christ in Page 56 Growne ones must looke backe to their Baptisme Page 80. 100 Grace of Baptisme what 83. the handling of it Page 84. 85 The Grace of the Supper is whole Christ for spirituall nourishment of them that live in him Page 146 Spirituall growth is a second degree of soule prosperity or nourishment by the Supper 156. how Christ doth this Page 157 H. HOlinesse and hope of glory fruits of the sealing Spirit Page 103 Spirituall Health of the soule the first part of prospering by the Supper 115. what it is ib. I. INfants the object of Baptisme 78. yet not onely they ib. Baptisme of Infants proved 78. ib. and reasons for it 79. against Anabaptists Infants how capable of the grace of Baptisme 79 ibid. not by faith ibid. Idolatry prevented by the ordaining of Sacraments Page 33 Imparting our selves vid. Communicating L. LIberty from the Spirit of bondage one fruit of the sealing Spirit Page 103 M. MAtter of Sacraments must be sensible and corporall and why Page 32 Sacraments serve to be Memorials Page 56 Matter of Sacraments adulterated by Papists or disanulled Page 33 34 Minister a necessary person for Sacraments 65. His calling and person must be sutable Page 65 66. Ministeriall acts about Sacraments many Page 68 Ministers duty in Baptisme manifold and what Page 76 Matter of the Supper Bread and Wine 10. It is sensible ib. Ministers must bee reverend and holy in Taking Blessing Breaking Dividing the Sacrament vid. Breaking c. The Minister honourable for his undâ—r stewardship dealing out the portion to Gods family Page 143. N. NEcessity of teaching the doctrine of Sacraments threefold Page 5 Number of Sacra small Page 6 New Sacraments clearer fewer and effectualler than old from p. 13. to 19. Young Novices must make use of their Baptisme Page 99 Christs Body and Blood for Nourishment of a Beleever is the grace of the Sacrament 146. and how in six particulars Page 147 Christ in the Supper becomes Nourishment in all respects as Baptismâ— becomes seed Page 152 153 Christ our nourishment stands in foure parts of spirituall prosperity Page 154 Christ the Nourishment of the Beleevers a feareful Terror to al unbeleevers Page 163 Triall of the soule about Christ her Nourishment in five things Page 165 167 O. OLd Sacraments were curses to many through error See prefa Old Sacraments darke wherein and why Page 15. 16 Old Sacraments more in way of resemblances and why Page 17 Old Sacraments weaker than new and wherein Page 18 19 P. PVblikenesse of Sacraments Page 7 Popish colours for abasing the Sacraments of the old Testament 11 12. their colours answered Page 13 Papists see not the distinct use of our two Sacraments but confound them Page 26 Propriety of Elements twofold Page 38 Papists ill judges of Sacramentall union and why Page 46 47 Sacraments are pledges and seales of Gods truth and covenant The point opened 57. 58. Also of our fidelity to him Page 61. ibid. Popery abuses the Sacrament to prophane ends Page 63 Persons occupied about Sacramental acts who Page 65 Person of a scandalous Minister weakens but disanuls not the Sacrament Page 67 Parents duty in Baptisme what Page 74 Popish darknesse in the signes of the Supper and in the doctrine of it Page 110 Popish bravery of Sacraments confuted Page 111 Perpetuity of the Supper Page 118 Prayer the first part of consecration of Supper elements 119. and why 120. ib. what it containes ibid. Personalnesse and Peculiarnesse two causes of distribution of Supper Page 137 Popish denying the cup wicked Page 140 Peace and joy confidence one marke of the sealing Spirit Page 103 Spirit of Prayer another marke ibid. People must cling to the Supper for their owne portion Page 144 R. RElapsers or revolters must make use of their former Baptism Page 101 Receiving of the Supper vid. Taking S. NAme of Sacrament how used Page 1 Season of Sacraments Page 8 Sacraments to be applied according to our necessities Page 26 Substance of a Sacrament what The description of it Page 28 Simplicity and meannesse of Sacraments for two causes 35. first for generality then for safety ibid. it should excite in us spiritualnes Page 36. ib. and 37 Gods security by Sacraments is best of all Page 60 Sealing power of Sacraments vid. Pledges The Spirit of Christ is the inward Baptist what it doth See preface Selfe-deniall or stripping of our selves requisite for applying Baptisme Page 89 Spirit of Christ the true steward to feed the hungry soule See preface Markes of the sealing Spirit of Baptisme Page 102 103 104. What the Supper of the Lord is Page 105 Order of the Supper Page 106. ib. The Sensiblenesse of bread and wine in the Supper vid. Matter of Supper Simplicity of the Supper-elements Page 11 Teaching spirituallnesse ead Separation of the Elements the first part of Taking 114. Setling the Elements to their use the second part of Taking ead Christ our Steward to be magnified in the Supper for his provision Page 141 The Supper is to the promise as the assumption to the proposition Page 142 Christ in the Supper exhibited as nourishment more fully than in the promise onely that in 6. respects Page 149 Stablenesse and setlednesse in grace is a third degree of soule prosperity by the Supper and how Page 258 159 A view of that order which the Spirit useth in Sacramentall sealing of the soule in foure branches Page 194 195 Sealing power of the Sacraments a terror to unbeleevers Page 197 Sealing power of the supper to be mainly sought by the good Receavers Page 198 T. TRansubstantiation confuted Page 48 How it grew Page 49 and Page 108 Taking of the Bread and Wine the first act of the Minister Page 114. 117 Thanksgiving a second part of Christs consecrating supper elements Page 125 Why Page 125. ib. 126 127 Taking the supper aright an act of the Receiver concurring with the offer of the supper in all the properties of it Page 173 174 All lets of Taking Christ by faith in the supper to be abhorred Page 184 V. VNion a maine part of Sacramentall being 42. the sorts of union Page 43 Vnion Sacramentall is not corporall but reall 45 46. and mysticall ibid Vnion Sacramentall inferres no confusion of the signes with the grace Page 47 Vnion is appointed for familiarising Christ with us Page 49 The wofulnesse of Vnbeleefe in not taking Christ in the supper Page 176 W. APplying our selves to the word necessary for the grace of Baptisme Page 90 Wisedome of God in uniting all Christ in each Sacrament Page 133 Weaknesse of our nature the occasion of ordaining Sacraments Page 33 Weake ones must not deny Christ in his supper to be their nourishment Page 168 Little sence of weakenesse in Receivers hinders the worke of the sealing spirit Page 198 FINIS THE SECOND PART OF THE TREATISE OF THE SACRAMENTS Wherein the Doctrine of our
doth at last cast her selfe upon the promise resigning up her selfe to it so farre as to beleeve it to be her owne portion 3. Why Thirdly the Lord calls the soule from misery to mercie to the end that it might enter into a covenant of holinesse and become a Saint by calling Rom 1 7. called to sanctification and the image of him that called it That as the soule lives by grace so grace might live in the soule And this hee doth by the voyce of the Spirit of Regeneration and Baptisme The which by the immortall seede of the word sheddeth the love of God into the soule to the end his seede may beget the image of God in it By which meanes the whole bent and frame of it is changed subdued and turned from sinne to God so that now Gods Spirit is that unto and in it which old Adam before was according to the capacity of the soule This Power the Spirit of Grace workes in the beleever because it is that Spirit of Christ which cannot be divided in her parts of Reconciling and renuing but carries the soule into Christ for both More plainly and breefely this Spirit writeth the purpose of the covenant in the soule to wit Iere. 31.33 that it may have the law engraven in it it may be cleansed as with pure water and may be caused as by an inward new Principle to walke in the Obedience of all Commandements of Law and Gospell as compting them an easie yoake and perfect freedome These three are wrought according to the measure of mercy in every calling one and are not so much the markes as the parts of effectuall calling and who so is thus called is also in covenant with God and by vertue thereof hath true right to the Sacrament of the supper for the growing up in the grace of the covenant Howbeit because it is hard for a Camell to goe through a needles eye 2. Triall of estate by markes of calling and every poore soule can not receive all this whole frame all at once to try it selfe thereby I will helpe it a little by taking it so into peeces that each severall triall may enter in at the narrow dore the more easily Let then the soule that would try it selfe about her calling proceede in this or the like manner First hath God called thee Try it by his Preventing grace canst thou say 1 Make Preventing Grace That when thou thoughst of nothing lesse than grace yet God was found of one that sought him not Did the Lord so mightily over rule and so order thy occasions of education company acquaintance calling ministry placing employments that in all thou sawest God spreading his net for thee that thou mightest not run thy course but bee taken in it and bee brought homewards Did the Lord by this way of Providence make thee of a dead unsavory peece of flesh to beginne to hearken after and savour the things of God It s a good signe Secondly canst thou say That the Lord suffered thee not to content thy selfe with vanishing devotions and groundlesse hopes or wishes of good But by his word wrought thy heart to see into thy corrupt heart and course Did the Lord discover thee to thy selfe either in thy particular lusts or generall bad course or in thy Originall poyson of heart Did he knocke thee off from all thy colours shifts and excuses Convince thee of sinne and curses and cause thee to stinke in thy owne nosethrils It s a good signe especially when the 10. Commandement did it Thirdly did the Lord keepe thee from extremities in this case Either from revolting backe to thy old lusts as one weary of Gods yoake before the time or rushing into desperation or falling into a presumptuous loosenesse and peace of heart in this thy dangerous condition I say did the Lord hold thee downe under his hand of the Spirit of bondage till thy ranke jolly and lusty heart were kill'd and tamed in thee It is a good signe Fourthly when thou wast in thine owne sence as one hanging betweene heaven and earth at an utter losse joylesse in any earthly thing and yet voyd of spirituall did the Lord yet in secret put some poore hope of not utter perishing into thee and whisper thus Yet what if the Lord will turne away his fierce wrath And didst thou feele thy selfe by this meanes stayd till better newes came It is a good signe In the 2 place I aske hath God called thee Try it by his Assisting grace 2. Marke Assisting grace thus Did not the Lord leave thee thus but ply thy heart with the word and nourish thy feeble hope with more and more light in his Promise Canst thou say this light was no Moone light darke and doubtfull but as the light of the morning dawning and encreasing in thy soule It s a good signe Mat. 24.27 Secondly did this light vanish and fleet away into flashy pangs of joy without any abiding or did it draw thee to behold something in God able to bottome thy hope as the Law was to unsettle thy rotten peace Did it cause thy spirit within thee to goe aside and hide this pearle digest it the worth the weight of it Mat. 13 44. To ponder the truth and warrant of the promise thou that mightest see how able it was to beare thee So that thou wouldst not in so weighty a thing as this leave all at sixe or seaven and trust rather than try It s a good signe Thirdly when thy Affections were up in armes to pursue this grace with a broken hungry heart and desire felt'st thou the resistance of thy selfe and selfelove to breed in thy soule even the paines of conception or quickning in thee Did this cause thee to discerne selfe in the worke selfe pride selfe unworthinesse selfe feares selfe hope carnall reason cavills objections Felt'st thou Satan heere to plye faster with buffetings and temptations than presently the word it selfe could stay thee Did this conflict of selfe against the light of the word so affect thee as the strugling of the twinnes in her wombe affected Rebecca when she went to God for counsell Didst thou enquire still for counsell and by degrees labour to see the heavenly rest and ease of a promise the wofull restlesse pudder of selfe within thee Did this still make thy soule more to loath selfe and dive into the freedome and fulnesse of Christ in the promise It s a good signe Fourthly when thou couldst not feele such an overuling power in the word as thou desirest but rather selfe and doubting over ruled the word canst thou say that in this suspence and darkenesse of thine thou yet strovest to hold to the naked truth of God To his faithfull covenant in which he cannot lye Sawest thou enough in that to satisfie thee although thou wantedst a bucket to draw up this water out of the wells of Salvation And did this sustaine thee in the others
the woefull course which hee hath runne Deut. 29.19 Rom 2 3 4. adding drunkennesse to thirst and heaping up wrath against the day of wrath that hee is as one who hath run out above his ability to pay and therefore his booke of accounts is yrkesome to cast over it is death to him to thinke of it Thus it was with Cain each hundred of yeeres that hee lived the debt of his murther was so encreased by other sinnes and the penalties thereof that at last it became inextricable But repentance in the true children of God causes the view of sinne and the chaine thereof to bee presented with some hope of forgivenesse because although perhaps the conscience is amazed yet it s not privie to that trechery which the wicked were carried by in sinning Psal 51 4. Mark 14 72. And therefore their sinne is sayd to bee ever before them they are sayd to come to themselves Peter is sayd to weigh his sinne ere hee went out which argues that the weight of it oppressed him not Thi reviving of the mind from the horrour and oppression of it is a great mercy in the midst of such misery Iona was infolded as in a labyrinth of Sea Ionah 2 6. Whale and conscience yet in this gulfe hee was not swallowed up but conceaved in his mind a possiblenesse for God to bring order out of his confuzion So that the first occasions of revolt the circumstances attending the degrees following and the danger incurred rather serve to magnifie mercy in keeping the soule from utter Apostacy from the living God than to beate off the soule from hope The 4. Branch The fourth and one of the many is the recovering of a sensible and broken heart after long hardnesse by the deceitfulnesse and sweete baites of sinne Heb. 3 12. A most sweete fruit of the spirit of election For it was not possible for the hard heart of Saul or Iudas to relent upon the checke of conscience there was no droppe of the seede of repentance in them It would seeme impossible that Peter and David after so long a lying in so hideous sinnes Mark 14 72. 1 Sam. 12 3 4. should at the first conviction of Nathan relent and breaking through all the barres of his sinne say I have sinned It was not in the words speaking 1 Sam. 15 24. Mat. 27 3 4 for Saul and Iudas spake the same but in the broken heart which uttered them But the cause was That grace and mercy which lay at the roote Oh! that they should after such mercy once felt and vowes so oft renued so basely handle the Lord and hazard as much as in them lay their title to heaven and sell their birthright And yet should the Lord renue a second charter or rather the first a second time Oh! it pierces them to the quicke This chases away the cloudes of dedolence and impenitency and cleeres the coast againe The fifth is The 5. Branch That yet they doe not so easily shake off their feares the Lord so orders it that either by his word or workes they feele his wrath for their revolt so seazing upon their conscience that it doth worke out and purge their corruption through mercy so that they vomit up their sweete morsells And as one under the Phisition his hand lying in an hot bath sweates out the venome of his disease so is it with a penitent soule Gpd mixes gall and wormewood for them to drinke Hee causes them to possesse the sinnes of their youth with sorrow though long since committed Lam. 3 19. Psal 6 5. hee payes them for old and new at once makes their bed a bath of teares till hee have caused all that sinne which they dranke in with such greedinesse to returne backe with as much loathsomnes Then being under this racke hee makes them feele in their owne spirits how their sinne lyes upon his shoulders and by their owne pinching hee makes them confesse Now I see what my pride ill company stollen liberties come to and must cost ere I be rid of them As I like such sawce so let me returne to the meate againe I thought I had but dallied I cast arrowes and darts into the flesh of the Lord Iesus in sport But now they gugg mee Now I see ihe Lord will not beare all I must beare somewhat and if I provoke him it must bee to the confusion of my face As I troubled and greeved the Spirit of God so the Lord troubles mine this day Iosh 7 25 The shame the ill report the sorrow and sting outward and inward which I sustaine sinne is no trifle The 6. Branch Sixtly the Lord now in season proceeds to offer himselfe in a promise to this revolting penitent And that in two kinds First That their revolt hath not extinguisht mercy Esay 57.17 18. Ier. 3 1 2. See Esay 57 17. I will heale their covetuousnesse Ier. 3 1 2. If a mans wife play the harlot wilt thou returne to her Wilt thou not write her a Bill of divorcement Yet returne to me and I will receive thee after all thy whoredomes And againe I will heale all their backeslidings c. So Ier. 3.12 Rev. 2 5. 3.19 Revelations chap. 3 verse 19. Bee zealous and amend Yea the spirit of grace in that fulnesse of Satisfaction by Christ doth fixe and settle such promises upon the soule so that it heares them not as the sound of many waters but dwells upon and digests them as concerning her So that they leave not a wanzing conceit as in presumptuous hypocrites who sinne that grace may abound But they so fasten upon the promise as a reall comfort to cure them of their falling sicknesse Rom 6 1. Secondly the Lord reveales the promise to them as the due order of their recovery For whereas the ungodly doe returne to their trade See Iona 3 21. â—1 upon the suppozall that their doggish vomit shall serve the turne Lo the Lord alway comes betweene the revolting and repenting of his owne with a savory application of the promise Teaching them that if there were no more but their mourning to make up their repentance Alas It would vanish and come to nought Therefore hee will have them lay hold upon the promise of free grace which may quiet and clense their conscience Psal 51.10.12 and restore them to that former influence which they had from grace And although their pipes are still set in the welhead yet because they are stopped the Lord by faith cleeres the passage of grace for them that they may partake that strength and encouragement from their head which may cause their repentance to bee sound and put new hope of holding out into them Lastly by this meanes They keepe themselves well while they are so The 7. branch and dare not by that experience they have gotten of smarty sinne adventure upon it any more They abhorre to tempt
these is wrought in thee as yet no condition of them no knowledge no feare of the worst no degree of desire endeavour If Gods deare ones who have tasted his grace yet finde themselves so unfit to receive when they have fasted prayed worshipped and walked with God all the weeke long where shalt thou appeare who never wert so in covenant at all Renounce all thy false errors and counterfeit signes colour not with God who will not be mocked pretend not thy good meanings civility keeping of Church paying of debt being in charity giving of almes shedding of teares these amount not to the markes of a calling but say rather Oh Lord by all signes I see I want the faith of the covenant of God and have run into a premunire with justice all my life long and each Sacrament hath seal'd up my judgement God hath long suffered me I dare heape up wrath no longer I will a while cut off my selfe from the communion that the whilst I may get the faith of the covenant Do so and prosper Num. 12.14 Remember Miriam and how she was served when she abused Moses and would have yet abode in the Congregation the Lord forbad her saying If her father had spit in her face should shee not separate her selfe seaven dayes So doe thou and make use of thy separation to humble thy soule And yet doe not abuse the Lords cutting thee off for a time to lowre and quarrell with him saying This tryall hath hurt mee I had beene quiet and well if I had beene let alone and gone to the Sacrament but this searching hath snared me and now I am further off No this is nothing but Sathans delusion who would for ever pull thee from the Sacrament whereas the Lord would hold thee off onely for a time and shut thee up as a Leper for seven dayes â—eriâ— 1â— till the Lord Iesus the high Priest have beheld thee and clensed thee by beleeving This sicknesse is not to death but life endure affliction in thy spirit a while pray God to blesse this triall unto thee Repent with Miriam and thou shalt returne with Miriam and blesse God with Onesimus that thou departedst for a time that thou mightst returne for ever So much for the first sort Vse 2 Secondly this is exhortation to Gods owne people that even they also looke to this worke of trying their estate Exhortation to Gods people Perhaps such will say they have tryed it often and hold it by faith daily and therefore its needelesse so to doe But I answer yet honour this ordinance and renue your comfort by reviving the memory and presence of it The oftner you doe it the easier is the worke and the gaine Yee will object Christ Iesus is the same Heb. 13.8 yesterday to day and for ever True but your unbeleefe is great your inconstancy admits infinite feares wastings doubts and distempers Revive therefore the sence of former mercy and apply it each Sacrament a new Bee not weary of getting daily more sweetnesse in the promise and proove your calling and election more sure to your selves as it is sure in God â— Pet. 1 10. Pray for more insight savour and tast of this worke and injoy the comfort thereof at the Sacrament The lesse rust yee have gathered the lesse filing of your soule may serve Take either the three points of calling before said which are the surest or sometime revive the other markes and fruits of conversion Doe not divide them but try thy selfe by them all together if thou can if not then chuse out some few concluding markes and apply them to thy selfe if it be hard seeke to God to teach thee to search them in thy selfe mourne for any decay of them and humble thy heart for it and give not the Lord over till both thou know that thou hadst them and in measure they appeare to thy selfe presently Recover thy losse Heb. 12.7 quicken that hath wanzed strengthen the feeble knees or hands and so doing blesse God that by the occasion of the Sacrament thou hast seene those graces to abide in thee which thou thoughst thou wantedst For the Lords wayes tend not to destroy but to edify and not to turne thee off from the Sacrament with feare but to send thee thither with stronger consolation and hope So that thou shalt have small cause to repent thee for obeying God For loe in this thy strength thou maist goe to the feast of the hills Esay 25. to the Lords fat things and fined wines the which if the Master of the feast bid thee to neyther have any other nor thy selfe authority to forbid thee Object But heere some will object Put case many a poore soule do stagger and alledge if these be markes of a receiver I am none for I cannot proove my calling by any of these markes But rather call into question both my calling and the fruits both faith and holinesse for alas I feele not my selfe to live by the one and I sinne often against both the law and grace I am held under with lusts and corruptions I answer Answ For grosser breaches of duty the Lord taskes thee to serious humbling and repenting but not giving over thy confidence As for ignorance or infirmities unavoydable they shall not hurt thee If thou can say I have beleeved formerly I tell thee the seede of God in thee is immortall As appeares by thy longing after the Sacrament If then thou suspect the worst by thy selfe for thy omissions declining to ease to world to other evills if thou desire to know the worst by thy selfe to vomit up thy morsells and to recover thy hold upon the promise if the fruite of the Sacrament be so precious to thee that so thou mightst finde thy selfe an invited guest thou wouldst not bee kept from the Table of the Lord for the world then I say There is fire under the ashes rake them off that it may appeare and burne out Claspe about these markes though but but in poore measure and when measure failes cleave to thy uprightnesse and let not Sathan or selfe bereave thy heart of courage and hope to get by the Sacrament but know these must not beate thee from it Objection 2 Yea will some say But when all is sayed that can bee If I want faith it selfe the cheef grace that serves to cover all my unworthinesse I cannot come Now I feare I have it not For why faith overpowres and prevailes in a true beleever above doubting and carries the soule above all feares to the assurance and feeling of mercie and fills the heart with comfort and joy these I want therefore I have no faith Answ I answer Try thy selfe by that I have spoken about faith before and let that stay thy spirit Farr bee it from us to affirme fayth so to consist in the full sayles of perswasion and in the flaming out of comforts that where this measure is lacking the soule is to
balke the Sacrament and lye downe in the could Couch of the Law and water it with teares conntinually till this fulnesse bee attayned For to say truth These are the effects rather of faith when judgment breaks forth for her unto victory Mat. 12.20 than the Act of beleeving 1 By concession One thing I must freely confesse That there was never more cause than now in this forlorne Age full of formalitye and dissembling in which the Divell and the error of the wicked wold deceave the very elect if possible to presse upon the soule the necessity of faith with power For weake faith hardly will beare out the strong fiery darts of Sathan which now in this subtill world are on foot to try our effectualnesse of beleeving Men heare preachers say Faith is as true in the least sparkle of it as in the whole fire and faith may as much excell in infirmity to hold the promise upon former experience as in the greatest strength c. Now as I said before what use doth Satan make hereof in hyopcrites save this They need not bee so earnest for faith for the kind of it must save them not the measure and the weakest may bee saved as well as the strongest I could in this respect wish that so oft as Gods Ministers fall upon these Arguments they tooke as good paynes to stave off the dogges as to encourage the faithfull-weak ones For when error hath once defiled a man in the root and truth of faith then he growes presumptuous to thinke that each wanzing motion and Pang after faith is as good as that which is attended with selfedenial and cleaving to the Promise Whereas faith of the true stamp although it come short of some feelings stirrings and much more that overpowring of spirit that quashes unbeleefe yet the Spirit of grace putts forth it selfe in combat against their infidelity setts it in the forefront of Gods battery as Vriah was sett by Ioab maynteins no ease or sloth in them but rather mourning for their standing so at a stay with continuall care to proove themselves to be in the faith and their calling to it to bee effectuall And in this warfare they looke for no discharge till God have answered them in some measure But to answere the objection and so to conclude 2 By Solution I affirme that not only the weak in faith simply but even the decayed in faith yea the fallen into sinne if recover'd by faith are not to be debarred from the Sacrament till they become partakers of overpowring grace of the Spirit It were exceeding absurd for a Physition to say to one tormented with a burning ague want of sleepe or like payne That hee must forbeare Physick and lie under his disease untill he get more strength and recovery What shall Physick availe him after if hee die before Or what needs it if he be recovered the Sacrament I say still is rather the portion of the weake childe than of the strong man so that a loose dallying heart bee abhorred and to such this ordinance serveth And to say truth such poore soules need not bee urged to more sorrow than they feele for what sorrow is like theirs who mourne under unbeleefe and yet even such as experience prooves have found the Sacrament effectuall to send them away much settled and confirmed And so for answer of these doubts and also the triall of our estate in grace ere we come to the Supper thus much bee sayd CHAP. III. Of the Tryall of our wants NExt to the triall of our estate fittly offers it selfe to our view the Triall of our wants Tryall 2. Of our wants The method whereof God willing shal be this First to lay downe the grounds of this Triall Secondly to shew the Nature of a Christians wants and what sorts they are of Lastly in the use to teach us in what duties the Triall of our wants standeth 2 thing 1 The ground of this triall 2. Al have their wants The ground of this triall is manifold First the necessity of Sacramentall trying of our wants appeares in this that as the Lord enjoynes al that receave to proove themselues to have grace so he suppozes al such to have many wants therin So lōg as this body of death and back-byas of Corruption cleaues to the regenerate soule to retarde and weaken it to defile to disable to dismay to quench it a poore soule shall never want matter to cry out even when grosse evills are farr off Miserable man who shall deliver mee Rom 7.24 How shall I doe to get out of this my dead luskish lazy and unsavory course Who shall supply my wants Now then if these wants be unknowne how shall the soule bee thankefull for the releefe of them How then should a Christian search them out and marke them In the duties of both Tables in the use of the ordinances in graces of the Spirit in the order of whole conversation For the Search 1 1. The circumstances of all duty what wants have they In the ground of our Actions how ignorant are wee of GODS particular will how erroneous in discerning the colors of good and evill and easily mistaken how unwise in weighing the fitnesse or inconvenience season or vnseasonablenesse safety or scandale of our Actions Why is it so save for want of wisedome and Iudgement Search 2 2. In the manner of doing how impure unsavory inconstant irresolute why save for want of holines heavenlynesse of minde courage Search 3 3. For the measure how remisse lazy cold backward and content with any thing Why save for want of soundnesse integrity and fulnesse Search 4 4. In the end how corrupt selfeseeking forgetting both Gods honour our owne peace and the good of others Why but through want of love uprightnesse and selfedeniall And so I may say of duties in speciall How hard doe men find it to keep a mediocrity and avoyd extremities In worldly busines to goe betweene loose carelessenes or else extreame carking either wholly improvident or buried in the earth In the duty of Charity and mercy who understands himselfe bound to giue according to his estate but rather under it In our words who keeps a meane betweene silence or jangling In judging of others who shuns partiality credulity prejudice censoriousnes Search 5 The like may bee sayd of vsing the Ordinances In hearing what want of waking attendance reverence mixing the word with faith In the Sacraments what sildomenesse unpreparednesse rashnesse and profanation In prayer what formality commonnesse and distrust It were endlesse to insist in all Search 6 In the exercise of graces what carnality and sensuality is there to weaken the life of faith What one grace of the spirit Patience Love Communion of Saints mercy to the afflicted Thankfulnesse Humblenesse or the like which hath not her langour and infimity Search 7 As for the order of our Conversation what weaknesse appeares not Who observes GODS Administration towards