Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	church_n	scripture_n	word_n	7,625	5	4.5069	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26895	The Christian religion expressed I, briefly in the ancient creeds, the Ten commandments, and the Lords prayer, and, II, more largely in a profession taken out of the Holy Scriptures, containing 1, the articles of the Christian belief, 2, our consent to the gospel covenant, 3, the sum of Christian duty, according to the primitive simplicity, purity, and practice, fitted to the right instruction of the ignorant, the promoting of holiness, and the charitable concord of all true believers ... / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1221; ESTC R25270	38,730	88

and impious Ordinations that tend to the corrupting or dividing of the Churches And to avoid Division upon a tolerable difference of Opinions where we may agree in Practice we Consent that the Associations that have no stated Presidents or that give not to such a Negative voice shall receive into their Communion those that are of the contrary opinion giving them leave if they desire it to profess or record their opinion in that particular so they will afterward walk among them in Love and Peace And that the Associations that choose a stated President and give him a Negative voice in Ordination shall in like manner and on like terms receive into their Communion such as dissent in that particular and having professed or recorded their dissent will walk submissively in Love and Peace Which liberty also of professing and recording their different principles we desire may be allowed them that joyn in Synods as being only for Communion of Churches and them that joyn in them as having a direct superiour Governing Power over the particular Pastors of the Churches VIII Though it be the surest way to Peace and Concord to take up with these necessary things and we cannot approve of the narrow dividing Principles of those men that will impose things unnecessary to the excluding of the necessary yet if our lawful Rulers shall command it or the peace of the Church through the distempers of the Brethren shall require it we shall obey and consent in things that God hath not forbidden and if we suffer for well-doing and for obeying God rather then men we shall endeavour to imitate our Lord who being reviled reviled not again and when he suffered threatned not but committed all to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2. 23. The Office of Christs Ministers more largely opened 1. THE Lord Jesus Christ having purchased our Salvation by his blood and stablished his Testament or Covenant of Grace and left us his example of perfect holiness ascended to the Father and is there the Glorified Lord of all and Head over all things to his Church all power being given him in Heaven and Earth that interceding for us with the Father he might be the Treasury of our Light and Life and offering salvation to the miserable world might gather and cleanse and save the Church which is his Body Communicating to them that grace that is here necessary to them in their way and warfare and perfecting them in Glory with himself when their warfare is accomplished 2. Christ Being thus invisible to us in Glory with the Father performeth not these works below by himself in person immediately and alone but by his Spirit Ministers and Word The Holy Ghost being his Advocate or Agent to these ends and his Ministers the Instruments used by his Spirit and himself to indite and bear witness to his word and to Preach it to the world as that infallible Truth which must guide them to Salvation 3. The first Prophetical and Apostolical Ministers being sent by himself and qualified by the inspiration conduct and miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost did found the Church and enlarge it unto many nations of the world and left them the holy Scriptures which contain the doctrine which they preached that it might be certainly and fully preserved and propagated till the coming of Christ And they setled by the appointment of Christ and his Spirit an ordinary ministry to succeed them not to deliver a new Law or Gospel but to preserve and preach the doctrine which in the holy Scriptures and conjunctly at first also from the mouths of the Apostles they had received as once delivered to the Saints and to guide the Churches by it to the end 4. Though Christ appointed Ministers that should have so far a charge or care of the whole Church as not to be limited to any one part but to extend their labour and oversight as far as their capacity and opportunities would permit yet did he never make any man his Vicar or Vicegerent as Head of the universal Church nor lay upon any one whether Peter Paul or any other the charge and oversight of the whole nor did ever Peter or any one Apostle exercise such an Office in governing all the Catholike Church especially when it ceased to be confined to Jerusalem and the adjacent parts and was dispersed through the world Never did the Apostles receive their Commissions from Peter or all the Ministers then in the world perform their work by his Commission or by any power received from him nor were accountable to him and judged by him for what they did Much less is this universal Head-ship committed to the Pope of Rome through all or any generations But because a certain Primacy of Order was granted him by Emperours and Councils within the limits of the Roman Empire long after the Apostles days therefore doth he take advantage thence to pretend a Title to the universal Head-ship As if the Roman and the Christian world had been the same or the Emperor and his Clergy had been the Rulers of all the Christian subjects of all other Princes or Pastors upon earth and his limited Primacy had been an universal Soveraignty This claim of the Pope of Rome to be the Vice-Christ or universal Pastor of all the Christian world is a tyrannical impious irrational usurpation contrary to the holy Scripture and the state of the Primitive Church and contrary to nature and common sense which declare his incapacity of the work far more then any Prince is uncapable of being the universal Monarch of the world And therefore all Christians should abhor this proud and impious usurpation and fly from the guilt of that horrible schism and those corruptions in doctrine worship and government which it hath introduced 5. Christ calleth his ordinary ministers to that office by enduing them with his gifts and disposing them thereunto and moving the hearts of the people to consent and by ordination of the senior Pastors and giving them opportunities for the work and sometime the Magistrates command hath a hand in the obligation 6. It belongeth to the Office of the Ministers of Christ to Preach the Gospel to the nations of the world and make them Christs Disciples Baptizing them in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost 7. This Preaching or publishing the Gospel is done by voice or by writing that by voice is done by Reading by publike Sermons or interlocutory conference that by writing is either by translating the holy Scriptures into the languages used by the Nations or by expounding and applying them So that the holy Scriptures in the original languages are the word of God both as to the terms and sense Grammatical and Doctrinal The same Scriptures in a Translation are the word of God as to the sense both Grammatical and Doctrinal but not as to the Terms The holy doctrine of the Scriptures delivered in the writings and Sermons and conferences of the

quick and the dead At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies and shall give account for their own works And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire This is the Catholike faith which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved The ten Commandments Exod. 20. GOD spake all these words saying I am the Lord thy God which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage Thou shalt have no other gods before me Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt not do any work thou nor thy son nor thy daughter thy man-servant nor thy maid-servant nor thy cattel nor the stranger that is within thy gates for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that in them is and rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord blessed the Seventh day and hallowed it Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee Thou shalt not kill Thou shalt not commit adultery Thou shat not steal Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife nor his man-servant nor his maid-servant nor his ox nor his ass nor any thing that is thy neighbours The Lords Prayer Mat. 6. OUR Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name Thy Kingdom come Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven Give us this day our daily bread And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory for ever Amen The PROFESSION of the CHRISTIAN Religion I. The Articles of the Christian Belief It is a Catechism if you prefix to every Article the Question What do you believe 1 THere is one only God a in three persons * the Father Son and Holy Ghost b Who is Infinite in Being Power Wisdom and Goodness c The Creator of all things d Our most absolute Lord most Righteous Governour and most gracious Father e 2 God made man for himself f in his own image g with Reason and freewill h endued with wisdom and holiness i and put under him the inferior creatures for his use k and bound him by the Law of Nature to adhere to God his Maker to Believe him fear him love him honour him and obey him with all his powers l Moreover forbidding him to eat of the tree of Knowledge upon pain of death m 3 Man being tempted by Satan did wilfully sin and so fell from God and Happiness under the wrath of God a the curse of his Law b and the power of the Devil c And hence we are all conceived in sin and prone to evil d and condemnation is passed upon all e and no meer creature is able to deliver us f 4 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son to be their Redeemer a who being God and One with the Father b did take our nature and become man being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the Virgin Mary and born of her and called Jesus Christ c and being free from sin he conquered the tempter fulfilled all righteousness d revealed the Gospel and confirmed it by Miracles e and gave himself a sacrifice for our sins and a ransome for us in suffering death on the cross to reconcile us unto God f and was buried and went among the dead g * and Rose again the third day having conquered death h and afterward ascended into Heaven i where he remaineth God and Man in one person k and is Lord of all in glory with the Father l the chief Priest and Prophet and King of his Church m interceding for us and teaching and ruling us by his Spirit Ministers and Word n 5 The Lord Jesus Christ hath ordained in his Testament that all they that receive him by a true effectual faith and by true Repentance do turn from the flesh the world and the Devil unto God shall freely receive the pardon of their sins a and shall become the Sons of God and heirs of everlasting Life b the Spirit of Christ shall dwell within them c and all that overcome and persevere to the death shall live with Christ in endless glory d But the Unbelievers impenitent and unholy shall be condemned to everlasting fire e And this he hath commanded his Ministers to preach to all the world f And hath told us that All that are given him of the Father shall come to him and that he will in no wise cast them out nor shall any pluck them out of his hands g 6 The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son did inspire and guide the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists that they might truly and fully reveal the doctrine of Christ and deliver it in Scripture to the Church as the rule of our faith and life a and by abundance of Evident uncontrouled Miracles and wonderfull gifts to be the great witness of Christ and of the truth of his holy word b 7 Where the Gospel is made known the Holy Ghost by it doth enlighten the minds of all that shall be saved and opening and softening their hearts doth draw them to believe in Christ a and turneth them from the power of Satan unto God b Whereupon they are joyned to Christ the Head and into one holy Catholick Church which is his Body consisting of all true believers c and are freely Justified and made the Sons of God d and a sanctified peculiar people unto him e and do Love him above all and serve him sincerely in holiness and righteousness f Loving and desiring the Communion of the Saints g Overcoming the Flesh the World and the Devil h and Hoping for Christs second coming and for

these blessed ends we must beg such necessaries of our life as the supportation of our natures for the work of God requireth And the forgiveness of all our sins through Christ which yet we cannot expect to receive if we from our hearts forgive not others And a gratious preservation from temptations or the power of them and from Satan and sin the greatest evils That so the holiness of our hearts and lives may shew that we are the loyal subjects of the Kingdom of our Lord and that we acknowledge and magnifie his Soveraign power and live as a people devoted to his glory And all this we must beg in an humble sense of our great unworthiness misery necessity and insufficiency to help our selves and in the name of Christ in understanding and faith and therefore not in a tongue that we understand not and with fervency and uncessant importunity as directed excited and strengthened by the Spirit of Christ 27. Our thanksgiving unto God must not be like the Pharisees in hypocrisie and pride or to make ostentation of things that we never had but in humility and holy joyfulness of mind we must declare our thankfulness for our Creation Redemption Justification and Reconciliation with God our Sanctification and all the parts thereof and helps thereunto For the Gospel and Ministery and the plantation preservation and propagation of the Church thereby for common and special works of providence for the good of the Church our brethren or our selves for mercies ordinary or extraordinary spiritual or corporal for prevention of evils or removing them for the quality and degree the suitableness and seasonableness of all our mercies with the rest of their aggravations especially for those that most promote our everlasting happiness and the publike good and glory of the Lord 28. The matter of our holy praises of the Lord must be his blessed and infinite Being and Nature and all his Attributes his infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness his Truth and Holiness and Love his absolute Dominion his Soveraignty and Fatherly benignity his Justice and his Mercy even as they are revealed in the works of the Creation and in the glass of the holy Scripture and in the person of Jesus Christ and in the Image of God upon his Saints And all these his works also must be praised in subserviency to his praise And because it is a most high and excellent duty to praise the Lord we must strive to do it with all the faith and reverence and admiration and love and delight and joy and cheerfulness that possibly we can attain and this with constancy as our daily work with our eye on heaven where we shall do it in perfection to all eternity 29. As the holy Scriptures should be read in a tongue that the people understand so should the purest exactest translation of them be used that can be had And though it be not of absolute necessity to the communion or peace of the Churches yet it is to be desired and endeavoured that all neighbour Churches that are of one language do all agree in the use of that one translation 30. Though in cases of necessity the Gospel may be publikely expounded and applied by the reading of the Expositions and Sermons of others yet as it is meet that the Preachers of the Gospel be able to perform this work themselves by the abilities given them from God in the use of just and edifying means so it is meet that by diligent studying meditation and prayer these abilities be improved and that from this holy and spiritual treasure within them the Ministers of Christ do draw forth sound Explication with pertinent lively Application of the truth 31. So also in the publike prayers though it be lawful in it self to read the words of prayer prescribed us by others yet as all Ministers should be able to pray themselves from the knowledge and feeling of their own and the peoples wants so it is meet that their graces and holy abilities be ordinarily exercised in such prayer and that they be not restrained from speaking to God in such sound and meet expressions as shall either presently or by the means of their preparations proceed from the sense of the matter of their prayers excited and drawn forth by the assistance of the Spirit of Christ But whether any particular Pastor should use a stinted form of words imposed by others or invented by himself or whether he shall pray without such stinted forms or both by turns is a point to be determined according to his own abilities and the state of his flock and other accidents but it is not to be made a matter of such necessity in it self as to lay the unity or peace of the Churches or the liberty of the Pastors and Worshippers of Christ upon it 32. The Publike Praises of God must be expressed by the Pastor in such words as are produced by that holy knowledge faith admiration love and delight with which his soul should be possessed that is so nigh to God and also by the recitation of sacred Psalms and Hymns and by the cheerfull singing of such by the Church wherein the melody must be spiritually and not carnally used for the assisting of our souls in the exercise of that holy alacrity and joy that is required in so high a work and not to draw off our minds from the matter nor to stop at the pleasing of our ears Such Psalms also may be recited or sung as contain matter of confession of sin petition thanksgiving and such narratives as tend to praise 33. The form of words to be said and sung must be taken especially out of the holy Scriptures to which use we have the Psalms of David and other Hymns And also we may use such as have been or shall be composed by wise and holy men agreeable to the doctrine of the Scripture and fuited to the Gospel frame of worship and as far as may be even in Scripture phrase And though it be not meet to insist upon a concord in lesser things when it cannot be attained without the violation of concord in greater things yet is it much to be desired and endeavoured that all the Churches of the same language especially that are near and in the same dominions should agree in using the same Psalms and Hymns for matter and meeter and that the version so agreed on be the best that they can have 34. The Eucharist or Supper of the Lord is a holy Sacrament instituted by Christ wherein bread and wine being first by consecration made Sacramentally or representatively the Body and Blood of Christ they are used by breaking and pouring out to represent and commemorate the sacrifice of Christs Body and Blood upon the Cross once offered up to God for sin and are given in the name of Christ unto the Church to signifie and solemnize the renewal of his holy Covenant with them and sealing it unto them and the giving of himself to

Preachers of the Gospel is the word of God as to the Doctrinal sense but not as to the terms or Grammatical sense except when they recite the Scripture words as in the original or translated 8. Baptism is a holy Sacrament instituted by Christ in which a person professing the Christian faith or the Infant of such a Professor is regularly by a minister of Christ baptized in water into the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost in signification and solemnization of the holy Covenant in which as a Penitent Believer or the seed of such he giveth up himself or is by the Parent given up to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost from henceforth or from the time of natural capacity to Believe in Love and serve this blessed Trinity against the Flesh the World and Devil and this especially on the account of Redemption and if he sincerely make this Covenant is solemnly entred a member of Christ and his Church a justified reconciled Child of God and an heir of Heaven all which with the other present benefits of the Covenant he is hereby instated or invested in they being thus solemnly delivered to him by the Promise thus sealed and applyed by an appointed Minister of Christ Or if some of us doubt whether these special benefits of the Covenant are delivered thus to all the Infants that are sincerely dedicated unto God yet we are all agreed that they are assured to them as soon as they believe and in the interim of their incapacity they have a general promise that God will be their God and his mercy shall be to them 9. It is a notable part of the ministerial Office to Baptize and consequently to try and judge of their Profession who are thus solemnly to be admitted into the Church and estated by Baptism in these benefits Therefore hath Christ given the Keys of his Kingdom to their trust both that his holy Church may be preserved from the unjust intrusions of uncapable persons and that the faithful Covenanters may have the fuller consolation by receiving a sealed promise and pardon from the hand of a minister of Christ commanded by him to seal and deliver it in his name 10. We are perswaded that it is the Will of Christ that the Infants of the faithful shall be dedicated to him in Baptism and engaged in his Covenant and made members of his visible Church because we find that under the promise before Christs Incarnation it was their duty to devote and engage their Children to God in the holy Covenant and that God did accept them as visible members of his Church And we never find where Christ had discharged Parents from this duty or turned all Infants out of his Church and reversed this blessing of their Church-membership but contrarily we find him offering to have taken the Jewish Nation to be still his Church if they would have taken him for their Saviour and telling us that it was for Unbelief that they were broken off and that it is but some of the branches that were broken off and we are graffed in amongst them into the same Olive-tree and that all Israel shall be saved when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in And we find Christ rebuking his Disciples for hindering little Children from being offered to him and that he charged them to forbid it no more and that he received and blessed them himself and tels us that of such is the Kingdom of God and we find it the Commission given to his Ministers that they were to Disciple the Nations Baptizing them All which and much more especially having not the least intimation of his Will against that which was even then the Duty and Practice of the Parents and the Infants benefit do deter us from forbidding the dedication of Children unto Christ and receiving them into his Church by Baptism 11. Baptism being so great a work should be deliberately seriously and reverently performed if it may be publikely before the Church where the person or Parent should make their solemn profession and be received with the joy and prayers of the Church whether Infant or Adult 12. The Catholick Church consisteth of all the Christians in the world Those that have the sanctifying Spirit of Christ are the living members Those that openly profess Christianity and enter into Covenant with Christ and are not yet Baptized are visible members initially but the solemnization and investiture is defective If it be where Baptism cannot be had the defect is innocent If where it may be had it is sinful but yet not such as nullifieth the persons visible Christianity And no errours offences or differences do exclude any totally from the Catholick Church while all the essentials of Christianity are kept 13. It is the will of Christ that all Christians that have opportunity be members of some particular Church as well as of the universal that he may have the honour and they the great and necessary benefits that by the Ministry Ordinances and Communion of Saints is there to be expected 14. A particular Christian Church is A competent number of Christians cohabiting who by the appointment of Christ and their own expressed Consent are united or associated under one or more Pastors for the right worshipping of God in publick and the Edification of the members in Knowledge and Holiness and the maintaining of their obedience to Christ for the safety strength and beauty of the society and thereby the Glorifying and pleasing of the Lord It is a Political organized society that is here defined and not a meer Community that is incapable of the Sacraments and other Ordinances and the benefits of them for want of Overseers 15. Those Ministers that are placed in Parishes where are many sorts of people some Ignorant of the essentials of Christianity some Apostates some impious and of wicked lives and some that consent not to be members of their Pastoral charge should teach them all that will submit and learn For we are called to it by the Magistrate and obliged by the publike maintenance which we receive to that end and engaged by the general command of improving our talents and the special opportunity that we have thereunto 16. This teaching of all our Parishioners that will submit must be both personally and publikely as far as we have ability and opportunity The former must be by Catechizing and conference wherein we must teach them first the essential points of Christianity and labour to help them to the clearest understanding of the doctrine of Salvation and press it on their affections and help them to discern their sin and misery and do all that we can to procure their conversion or edification according to their several states manageing the whole work with those holy affections that the weight of it doth require 17. The great necessity of our neighbours and the advantages of this familiar way do tell us that this work of catechizing and conference is so

Church should joyn in prayer for the offender that God would give him repentance unto life 64. If after sufficient waiting in the use of these means the offendor still remain impenitent it is the duty of the Church to reject him out of their communion Wherein the Pastors must compassionately declare his offence and his Impenitency and the Judgements that God hath threatned to such and the Laws of Christ commanding the Church to put such from among them and avoid them and have no company with them that they may be ashamed or to take them as Heathen men or Publicans and must accordingly declare the person offending to be unmeet for Christian Communion and charge the people to avoid him and have no fellowship with him and himself to forbear the Communion of Christians binding him over to answer it at the bar of Christ Which sentence must be accordingly executed by the Pastors in refusing him the Ordinances proper to the Church and by the people in avoiding familiarity and communion with him till he be restored upon his Repentance 65. It must be a credible Profession of Repentance only that must be accepted by the Church either for the preventing of such a rejection or for restoring the rejected And usually when the case is heinous and notorious or the Church hath had the publike cognizance of it they must also have publike notice of the penitence of the offendor who should with remorse of conscience and true contrition confess his sin before the Congregation and heartily lament it and crave the prayers of the Church to God for pardon and reconciliation through Christ and also crave an Absolution by the Minister and a restoration into the communion of the Church But because it much dependeth on circumstances of the case whether the Confession should be publike or private or in what manner made it is therefore to be much left to the Prudence of the Pastors whom the people in such cases are commanded to obey 66. When a credible Profession of Repentance is made whether voluntarily by the Converted or upon the Churches admonition by the scandalous or after excommunication it is the duty of the Pastors to declare such Penitents in the name of Christ to be pardoned and absolved and Ministerially to give them this Mercy from the Lord in case their Repentance be sincere as they profess And if the person were excommunicate it is the duty of the Pastor to declare him again meet for the Communion of the Church and require the Church to receive him with joy as a returning sinner and not to reproach him with his falls but to forgive him as Christ forgiveth him all which they are accordingly to perform and the Penitent with Joy to receive his absolution and to return to the Communion of the Church and to a more holy careful obedient life 67. When any by frequent Covenant-breaking have forfeited the Credit of their words the Church must have testimony of the actual Reformation of such persons before they can receive their professions and promises as credible any more Though yet there is so great difference here in persons and offences that the particular cases must be much left to the prudence of the Pastors that are present and know the persons and the whole case 68. So great is the necessity of the sick and so seasonable and advantagious the opportunity that Ministers should not negligently omit them but in Love and tenderness instruct them according to their several conditions endeavouring the Conversion of the ungodly and the strengthening of the weak and comforting such as need Consolation directing them how to improve their affliction and helping them to be truly sensible of the evil of sin the miscarriages and negligences of their lives the vanity of the world the necessity and sufficiency of Christ and the certainty and excellency of the everlasting Glory Perswading them to a pious just and charitable disposal of their worldly estate and to forgive such as have wronged them and to be reconciled to those with whom they have been at variance and believingly to hope for that life with Christ which he hath promised to all that are sanctified by his Spirit and comfortably to commit their souls to their Redeemer and quietly rest in the Will and Love and Promises of God Resolving if God should recover them to health to Redeem their time and live as a people devoted to his Glory It is meet also that the Pastors pray for the sick both privately and publikely when it is desired and thought fit 69. The Burial of Christians should be decent and honourable and though it be a thing indifferent in it self whether Exhortations Funeral Sermons or Prayers be then used yet because the season is very advantagious for mens reception of holy instructions it is convenient at least when desired that the Minister do take that season as often as he can to mind people of their mortality and the necessity of a speedy preparation for their change so prudently managing all his Exhortations and Prayers that the due end may be attained and the abuse prevented as far as may be 70. The lives of Christs Ministers should be conformable to their holy doctrine and so exemplary in Innocency Love Humility Meekness Patience Contempt of the world crucifying the desires of the flesh and in a zealous heavenly conversation and in all works of Piety Justice and charity within their power that the mouths of the enemies may be stopped and the people may learn and be convinced and directed even by their holy examples and our selves may be saved and the Christian Church and doctrine may be honoured to the glory of the Holy Ghost and of our Redeemer and our heavenly Father 71. As we have all one God one Christ one Spirit one Faith and Hope and Love one Covenant and one Catholike Church so should the Communion of Saints extend as far as their capacity and opportunities will allow And as particular persons must Associate for personal Communion in publike worship so particular Churches should associate for such Brotherly correspondency and communion as they are capable of and their needs require That by communicating the Truths and Mercies which they have received and advising together and by a brotherly collation of their apprehensions and improvement of their several gifts the unity of the Churches may be preserved and discords and uncharitableness may be avoided and the beauty and strength of the Churches maintained And therefore the Pastors of the neighbour Churches not excluding others that are fit should meet as frequently and at such times and places as the ends and works of the Association do require 72. Into these Associations such Pastors and Churches should be received that make a credible Profession of Faith and Holiness and no other And they that are Hereticks or of scandalous ungodly lives must after a first and second admonition if they remain impenitent be rejected and disowned by the Faithful Pastors

them to expiate their sins by his sacrifice and sanctifie them further by his Spirit and confirm their right to everlasting life and they are received eaten and drunk by the Church to profess that they willingly receive Christ himself to the ends aforesaid their Justification Sanctification and Glorification and to signifie and solemnize the renewal of their Covenant with him and their holy Communion with him and with one another 35. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper containeth in it these three parts 1. The Consecration of the Bread and Wine 2. The Representation and Commemoration of the Sacrifice of Christ 3. And the giving to and participation by the Church The Consecration hath chief respect unto God the Father the Representation and Commemoration to the Son as sacrificed and the Giving and Participation to the applying operations of the Holy Ghost As it must first be the Body and Blood of Christ before it be sacrificed and first offered in sacrifice to God before it is offered for nourishment and salvation unto men so is it in the order of Sacramental representation 36. The Consecration is performed by the Churches offering up the Creatures of Bread and Wine to God to be accepted to this holy use and by Gods acceptance of them as dedicated thereunto The Churches dedication is expressed by the present action and Gods acceptance is expressed by his command and promise and the ministerial acception and benediction The Minister in this action is the agent of the people in offering or dedicating these creatures unto God and he is Gods Agent or Minister in receiving and blessing them 37. In this dedication of the Bread and Wine to God to be the consecrated matter of the commemorative representative sacrifice the Church acknowledgeth the three grand relations of God to his people 1. We acknowledge him the Creator and Owner of all the Creatures 2. We acknowledge him our Righteous Soveraign Ruler whose Law we have offended and who hath received the attonement and whose Laws we do herein obey And 3. We acknowledge him our Father or bounteous benefactor by whom we are sustained and whose love we have forfeited and with whom we desire by Christ to be reconciled 38. This consecration maketh not the Bread to be no Bread or the Wine to be no longer Wine nor doth it make any addition to or change upon the glorified real Body of Christ but it maketh the Bread to be Sacramentally Christs Body and the Wine to be Sacramentally his Blood that is representatively as an Actor in a Tragedy is the person whom he representeth or as in Investitures a sword is the honour of Knighthood or a key is the house or a twig or turf is the land 39. Because Christ was to be invisible to us and the heavens must receive him till the restoration of all things therefore as he hath sent his Spirit within to be his Agent in his members so hath he appointed his Ordinances without and especially this visible solemn Representation and Commemoration of his sacrifice that our faith might hereby be helped and our souls might be raised to such apprehensions of his love and the mercy of our Redemption as if we had even seen him crucified before our eyes and this till his glorious return when we shall enjoy him visibly in his glory 40. As Christ in his Intercession as our high Priest in the heavens procureth and conveyeth his benefits of salvation upon the account of his sacrifice once offered on the Cross so doth the Church in this Commemoration present him unto God the Father as the sacrificed Lamb in whom they profess themselves to believe and by whom alone they expect salvation and all the blessings tending thereunto 41. In this Commemoration the Minister is chiefly the Agent of Christ in representing his voluntary offering up himself unto the Father in sacrifice for sin And he is the Agent of the people in that part of the Commemoration in which they profess their Believing in a crucified Christ and thankfulness for him and dependance on him as their hope 42. Jesus Christ having finished the work of Redemption which he was to do on earth in the days of his flesh ascended and is glorified with the Father and being become the perfect head and treasure of the Church hath in his Testament or new Covenant made a free gift of himself and life to all that will receive him as he is offered and he hath appointed his Ministers not only to proclaim this gift unto the world but also in his name to deliver it to the Church And it is a great encouragement and comfort to Believers that it is a Minister or Agent of Christ himself that by his command and in his name doth say to them Take ye eat ye this is my Body which is broken for you And this is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for you drink ye all of it Christ himself with his saving benefits being herewith as truly offered to their faith as the signs and representations are offered to their hands and mouths Though it be still but consecrated bread and wine that doth represent yet is it the very Body and Blood of Christ that is represented and Christ himself as the Head of the Church and fountain of our renewed life and as our spiritual nourishment that is truly given us and received by us 43. It is therefore unmeet for any but a lawful Minister of Christ who is authorized hereunto to administer this holy Sacrament both because no other are called to it in the holy Scripture nor can shew any warrant for such an undertaking and because it is very injurious to the comfort of the Church when they know not that the person hath any authority to deliver them so great a mercy from the Lord nor whether Christ will own his ministration 44. The Ministers must partake of this holy Sacrament with the Church not as they are the Agents of Christ for the delivery of it but as they themselves are his Disciples and members of the Chruch 45. Before the receiving of this holy Sacrament we ought to examine our selves that we may come preparedly with repentance for all known sin and faith in Christ and an humble feeling of our own necessities and a thankful sense of the love of God expressed in our redemption by Christ and a hungring and thirsting after him and his righteousness and with an unfeigned love unto our brethren and a high estimation of the union and communion of the Saints and with a resolution to walk in holy obedience to God in patient hope of the coming of Christ and of the everlasting Kingdom where we shall be perfectly in him united which holy affections are also to be exercised in the time of our Communion in this Sacrament and afterwards upon the review of what we have here received and done 46. The Word and Prayer must be joyned with the Sacrament The nature and use of it