divine Grace and Life Can a finite Creature be a kind of universal Soul to the whole Christian Church and to every sincere member of it Can a Creature make such close Applications to our minds know our thoughts set bounds to our Passions inspire us with new affections and desires and be more intimate to us than we are to our selves If a Creature be the only instrument and principle of Grace we shall soon be tempted either to deny the grace of God or to make it only an external thing and entertain very mean conceits of it All those miraculous gifts which were bestowed on the Apostles and primitive Christians for the edification of the Church were the gifts of the Spirit all the graces of the Christian Life are the fruits of the Spirit The divine Spirit is the principle of Immortality in us which first gives life to our Souls and will at the last day raise our dead bodies out of the dust works which sufficiently proclaim him to be God and which we cannot heartily believe in the Gospel-notion of them if he be not Thus we see how fundamental the doctrine of the ever blessed Trinity is in the Christian Religion because we cannot rightly understand the Doctrine of Salvation nor the Covenant of Grace without this belief which seems to be the true reason why the more perfect discovery of this was reserved for Gospel-times and only obscurely hinted under the Law because the peculiar use of it is under the Gospel each sacred Person having a peculiar interest and concernment in the work of our Redemption And therefore all those who expresly deny the Divinity of the Son and of the holy Spirit as many ancient Hereticks did of old and as the Socinians do at this day do err fundamentally however God may be merciful to their ignorance or prejudice which it does not concern us to meddle with But though it is necessary and essential to the Christian Faith to acknowledg Father Son and holy Ghost to be one eternal God yet there are a great many little subtilties started by over-curious and busie heads which are not fundamental Doctrines and ought not to be thought so God forbid that all the nice distinctions and definitions of the Schools about Essence Subsistence Personalty about eternal Generation and Procession the difference between Filiation and Spiration c. should be reckon'd among Fundamentals of our Faith For though we understood nothing of these matters as indeed we don't and it had been happy the Church had never heard of them yet if we believe the Divinity of each Person we believe enough to understand the Doctrine of Salvation And though that fatal Dispute between the Greek and Latine Church about the Filioque be of more importance than such Scholastick subtilties yet I cannot see that it concerns the foundation of our Faith For the Grâ—ek Church did firmly believe the holy Spirit to be true God though they would not own that he proceeded from the Father and the Son but from the Father only And though we must acknowledg this to be a mistake yet it is not a fundamental mistake for the Doctrine of Salvation is secured by believing the holy Spirit to be true God without defining the manner of his Procession 2. Upon the same account that the Doctrine of the sacred Trinity is a fundamental Article of our Faith the Doctrine of Christ's Incarnation also and what he did and suffered in order to our Salvation the meritorious Sacrifice of his death his Resurrection from the dead Assenscion into Heaven Intercession for us at God's right hand and that he shall come again to judge the World to reward his faithful Disciples with a glorious Resurrection and eternal Life and to punish the wicked with eternal Death must be reckoned also among the Fundamentals of Christianity because we cannot rightly understand nor rightly believe the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ without a belief of these Matters This is so obvious at the first proposal that I need not insist on the Proof of it And therefore those who deny Christ to be true and perfect man as well as those who deny him to be God err fundamentally for he could not die for us nor expiate our sins by his blood if he were not man As for the Modus of this Hypostatical union how the divine and humane nature are united in Christ it must be acknowledged to be very unconceivable by us and it is no great wonder it should be so when we do not perfectly understand any one sort of natural union not so much as how the parts of matter hang together much less how the Soul and Body is united to make one man But yet it is fundamental to the Christian Faith to believe that the divine and humane nature are united in Christ that the same Christ is both perfect God and perfect man or we must err fundamentally in the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ for neither God nor man distinctly and separately considered can be our Saviour according to the Gospel-notion of Salvation God cannot suffer and die and the death of a man cannot expiate sin nor his Power save us and therefore we must acknowledg that God and man is so united in Christ that the Actions and operations of each nature do as properly belong to one Christ as the distinct Operations of Body and Soul are the actions of the same man Upon this account the Catholick Church condemned the Heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches For Nestorius divided not only the Natures but the Persons in Christ only united them in Authority and Dignity And thus Christ was not an Incarnate God in one Person but the Man Christ was taken into a nearer relation to the second Person of the Trinity than any other Man or Creature is but not so as to become one with him which destroyes the Mystery of our Redemption by the Blood of God For whatever Dignity and Honour were conferr'd upon the man Christ by his relation to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or divine Word yet his Blood was not the Blood of God because notwithstanding this Relation to God the Son he remained as much a distinct Person and Subsistence as any other man is The Heresie of Eutyches is certainly equally dangerous for he ran so far from the Nestorian Heresie of two Persons that he denyed two natures in Christ He did not deny but that there was a humane and divine nature before their union but he asserted such an union of natures in Christ as made a mixture and confusion of natures That Christ did not remain perfect God and perfect man after this union but the humane and divine natures were so blended together as to become one nature as well as one Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Niceph. Calist l. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 15. cap. 6. And therefore he denyed the very Body of Christ to be of the same nature with our Bodies or subject
St. Paul expresly tells us Being justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 25. through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood For though Faith in Christ is very often used in a very large sence for the whole Gospel of our Saviour and to comprehend all Acts of Obedience and a holy Life as the Principle from whence they flow and no other is true justifying Faith but that which includes Obedience and a holy Life Yet sometimes Faith is distinguisht from Repentance and a holy Life and so has Christ and in a peculiar manner his Blood for its Object Thus the sum of St. Paul's preaching was Repentance towards God Act. 20.21 and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ And the Commission Christ gave to his Apostles was Luke 24.47 to preach Repentance and Remission of sins in his Name that is through Faith in his Name So that Faith in Christ is distinguisht from Repentance in the work of Justification and so denotes a particular respect to the expiation of Christ's death as the meritorious Cause of Pardon Under the Law a Sacrifice was available only for those for whom it was offer'd but under the Gospel instead of offering a Sacrifice to God we must believe in that Sacrifice which is already offered which does particularly apply the merit and vertue of it to our selves as the Oblation of the Sacrifice did under the Law for if we would have Christ for our Saviour or have any interest in the expiation of his death we must choose him for our Saviour by Faith in his Blood For I cannot see but why Repentance may be as well accepted from us without a Sacrifice as without respect and relation to a Sacrifice and yet the only thing that can entitle our Repentance in particular to the vertue of Christ's Sacrifice is Faith in his Blood which I think is a plain argument that the atonement of Christ's death is a fundamental Doctrine of Christianity because it is essential to a justifying Faith But then there are a great many other opinions relating to the atonement and satisfaction of Christ's death which are true or false but not fundamental For as St. Paul observes the Foundation is Christ but yet men may build upon this Foundation either Gold and Silver or Hay and Stubble that is true or false Doctrines which are of great use in the Christian Life or of very dangerous consequence but yet while they retain the Foundation though their works perish i. e. the superstructure of their private Opinions be condemned and rejected yet they themselves may escape though with great difficulty so as by fire Thus while men heartily believe that Christ dyed for our sins and has made expiation for them by his Blood and expect the Pardon of their sins only in Christ's Name that is in vertue of his Sacrifice and Intercession they may fall into great mistakes about the Nature Extent and Application of this Sacrifice and yet not err Fundamentally though their Errors may be dangerous and always are so when they betray them to sin Of this Nature I reckon some of those unhappy Disputes which have torn and divided the Church in these late days of Liberty and Confusion Whether Christ bore our sins or only the punishment of sin whether he were the greatest sinner or only the greatest Sacrifice for sin Whether he suffered the same Punishments which all sinners should have suffered had they been damned for their sins or suffered that which was equivalent to it and which God accepted for a complete and perfect satisfaction Whether the expiation of Christ's death was so absolutely necessary to the Pardon of our sins that God could not forgive sin without it or whether God choose this way as most agreeable to the wise methods of Government and the most glorious Illustration of all his Attributes Whether the death of Christ made satisfaction to a natural vindictive Justice and was paid to God as the offended Party or as the Governor of the World Whether Christ made a general atonement for sin or satisfied only for the sins of the Elect whether all the sins of the Elect were actually laid upon Christ from Eternity and actually pardoned before they were committed or whether they are pardoned in time when we repent and believe Whether what Christ suffered for us is so imputed to us as if we our selves had done it which makes the greatest sinners perfectly Innocent and looked upon by God as never to have sinned or whether it be imputed to us only for our Pardon and Justification Whether the active as well as passive Obedience of Christ be imputed to us for Justification These and such like Doctrines some of which are of a very dangerous nature and a great state of temptation yet are not fundamental Errors because they do not destroy the Foundation the atonement and satisfaction of Christ's death is acknowledged on all hands though some of these Doctrines do greatly obscure the grace of God and his stupendious wisdom in the redemption of the World by Jesus Christ and therefore must be reckon'd as Hay and Stubble built upon the Foundation which will prove a great loss and dammage to such Builders when every man's work comes to be tryed But to proceed among the fundamental Doctrines of Salvation by Christ we must reckon not only the atonement and expiation of his death but the gift of his holy Spirit to renew and sanctifie us For this makes him a complete Saviour to deliver us from the punishment of our sins and from the power and dominion of them Now that it is fundamental to the Christian Religion and to the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ to believe the divine influences and assistances of the holy Spirit to work Faith and all other Christian graces in us appears from these considerations 1. The gift of the holy Spirit is the most glorious effect of Christ's Power and Intercession and therefore one of the principal fruits and benefits of his Sacrifice by which we may understand the value and necessity of it to deny the intercession of Christ whereby he daily dispenses and applyes the merits of his Sacrifice does as much alter the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ as to deny the atonement of his death and to deny the assistances of the divine Spirit is in effect to deny his Intercession of which the Communications of divine Life and Power is the principal part 2. To deny the assistances of the holy Spirit turns the Gospel into a meer external Ministration which makes as fundamental a difference in the Christian Religion as there is between the Ministration of the Letter and of the Spirit 3. This in a great measure takes away the Office of the holy Spirit in the Oeconomy of man's Salvation and consequently destroyes his Worship which is peculiar to the Christian Religion The light of nature directs us only to
the Worship of one God the Christian Religion consecrates us at our baptism to the Worship of three divine Persons and one God For since each sacred Person is peculiarly concerned in the Salvation of sinners each of them ought to be acknowledged and adored by us But whoever denies the efficacy of the holy Spirit in the work of Salvation destroys the foundation of his Worship too considered as a distinct Person in the Trinity 4. To deny the assistances of the holy Spirit makes the Sacraments of the Christian Religion meer external Ceremonies which were instituted as the Ministries and Conveyances of Grace and so makes a fundamental change in the Institutions of Christianity 5. Nay it makes a fundamental change in the Worship of God and of our Saviour The Christian Worship principally consists in praising God and our Saviour for spiritual mercies in ascribing the glory of all the good we do to his free Grace and continual succors in begging his holy Spirit and the constant supplies of Grace that we may increase and persevere in all goodness this we have frequent examples of in the Writings of the Apostles but whoever denies the assistances of supernatural Grace both defrauds God of his Glory and himself of the benefit and comfort of it He cannot praise God for nor beg that of God which he believes God does not give which makes our Worship very defective and deprives us of the assistances of Grace which we shall never have if we never ask But then all that I can judge fundamental in this point is that the beginnings progress and perfection of all Christian graces and vertues are owing to the influences and operations of the holy Spirit But those other nice disputes about the manner of the Spirits working in us whether it be a natural or moral efficacy whether it be a sufficient or efficacious Grace resistable or irresistable how the operation of the Spirit is reconcileable with the freedom of humane action whether the habits of grace be immediately infused or acquired by frequent Acts these I say and such like Disputes are not fundamental for though it is of great moment for the government of our lives which of these we believe yet the Foundation which is the assistance of the divine Spirit is secured either way and all that men are to look to is that they do not entertain such ill notions of God's Grace as shall make them secure and careless of a holy Life All that I can think necessary to add more concerning the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ is what I have already sufficiently hinted the necessity of Repentance and a holy Life There are I confess a great many dangerous Disputes about this matter what place Repentance and a holy Life have in the justification of a sinner And though it is of very great moment to understand this matter rightly and as particularly as we can for fear of that ill influence which such mistakes may have upon our lives and too apparently have upon the lives of many professed Christians yet I cannot think that man errs fundamentally who believes that God will justifie and pardon none but true penitent and reformed sinners and that not for the sake and merit of Repentance and good Works but for the sake of Christ and through Faith in his Blood though he may differ about the necessity of Repentance and Obedience and what place it has in the justification of a sinner Whether it be a necessary Condition or a necessary requisite and Qualification or a necessary concomitant and effect of Justification or whether it be necessary only to our Salvation but not to our Justification Whether Faith justifie as an Instrument or as a Condition c. For while Faith in Christ and Obedience to his Laws are both secured without either derogating from the Grace of God or the Purity of the Christian Religion other mistakes though dangerous when persued to their just Consequences and when men own and live by such Consequences yet I hope are very harmless and Innocent when they do not corrupt mens lives nor hinder the efficacy of the divine Grace Thus I have given an Essay and I hope it may pass for an Essay towards the Discovery what are fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion I have strictly confined my self to the Fundamentals of Christianity though there are some principles of natural Religion which are antecedently necessary to be believed but they are more generally known and agreed in I have had a tender regard to the weaknesses and mistakes of mankind and to the enlargement of Catholick Communion and therefore have as far as was consistent with preserving the essentials of Christianity cast most of our modern controversies out of the number of Fundamentals which if carefully considered would asswage that intemperate heat with which they are managed and more easily reconcile our differences and yet I have not rejected any Doctrine out of the number of Fundamentals which was ever defined to be such by any received general Council of the Christian Church which gives me some hope that I am come pretty near the mark But to give some new light to this matter and to prevent such objections as I can foresee there are some few things which I shall further observe before I proceed 1. The first concerns the judgment of that truly great and learned Person Mr. Joseph Mede Mede's works Epist 84 to Mr. Hartlib He seems indeed to reject this way of stating the Ratio of Fundamentals in relation to some one great Fundamental Doctrine as I have now done For in his censure of Mr. Streso's Book of Fundamentals which I have never yet seen he observes that he makes three sorts of Fundamentals The first is the Fundamentum ipsum or the Foundation it self though what that is he does not tell us and therefore how far I agree with Mr. Streso in that I know not The other two he measures by their relation to it either à parte ante and such he terms sub Fundamentales which by Mr. Mede's censure I perceive did not strictly belong to Christianity but either to the principles of natural Religion or the Jewish State or à parte post which may be called super Fundamentales which he makes such as are by immediate and necessary consequence deducible from the Fundamentum salutis where he observes that he had inserted some Doctrines of pure speculation among Fundamentals which I confess to be a great fault But from this imperfect account of Mr. Streso's notion I cannot guess how far my way might fall under the same censure As for those two faults he has observed in Mr. Streso's way viz. reckoning such Doctrines among the Fundamentals of Christianity as are not strictly Christian Doctrines or are matters of meer speculation I have carefully avoided them both and as for judging what particular Doctrines are fundamental to Christianity from some general comprehensive Fundamental which contains the
of Separation from any Church that there are such things imposed as are not indeed expresly commanded but yet are agreeable to the Word of God and to true Religion if this be a just Cause of Separation it is impossible that any Schismatick should ever want Reasons for their Separation for there is no Church in the World but does something or other which they have no Command to do If this be no sufficient reason of Separation then it is sufficient for us to prove that the Church imposes nothing but what is agreeable to true Religion to prove them guilty of a causeless Schism Can any thing be sinful which is agreeable to true Religion Or can the Church sin in commanding things which are not sinful If not it is sufficient to prove that the Church imposes nothing but what is agreeable to true Religion For whatever justifies the Church condemns the Schismaticks It may be it is a harder matter than Mr. Lob is aware of to determine what is in its own nature absolutely necessary to Catholick Communion but I can tell him de facto what is viz. a Complyance with the Order Government Discipline and Worship as well as the Doctrine of the Catholick Church he who will not do this must separate from the Catholick Church and try it at the last day who was in the right I am content that Mr. Lob and his beloved Separatists should talk on of unscriptural Terms of Communion so they will but grant that the Church of Englan is no more guilty of imposing unscriptural Terms than the Catholick Church it self has always been and that they separate from the Church of England for such Reasons as equally condemn the Catholick Church and when they have the confidence to deny this I will prove it and shall desire no better Vindication of the Church of England than the Practise of the Catholick Church But Mr. Lob observes that this is the Rule Costerus the Jesuit gives his young Scholar If any object Ibid. where are these points viz. of Invocation of Saints the worshipping of Images the abstaining from Flesh and the like found in Scripture and because not found in Scripture therefore to be rejected To which saith the Jesuit answer thus Ask where it is forbidden in Scripture If not forbidden in Scripture it is no sin to observe them for where there is no Law there is no Transgression But what of all this The Rule is a very good Rule though used in a bravado by the Jesuit Does Mr. Lob think that Popery is established by this Rule as well as indifferent and uncommanded Ceremonies Do we separate from the Church of Rome only for the sake of some things which are neither forbid nor commanded in Scripture Our Dissenters I see have better thoughts of Popery than the Church of England has and are in a nearer capacity of reconciliation with the Church of Rome But there is one admirable Paragraph which I cannot let pass without some short remarks and it is this To make that a part of our Religion Ib. p. 79. which is not to be found in Scripture is to take that for a part of our Religion which God hath not made a part thereof which is sinful How much more so is the making it a Term of Communion Wherein there are as many absurd Propositions included as can well be in so few words 1. He takes it for granted that for the Church to require the observation of any thing which is not commanded in Scripture is to make a part of Religion of it and yet the Church may and does enjoyn such things not as parts of Religion but as Rules of Order and Discipline Who then makes it a part of Religion If it be made a part of Religion it must be made so by God or the Church he acknowledges God does not make it a part of Religion and the Church declares she does not how then does it come to be a part of Religion Or does the Church make a part of Religion against her own Mind Intention and Declaration In some cases indeed men may do what they never intended to do and contract a Guilt which they utterly disclaim and disown but then it is in such cases where a positive Law or the nature of the thing determines the nature of the Action whatever he who does it intends by it Thus the Papists abhor the thoughts of Idolatry in the Worship of Saints and Angels and Images and the consecrated Host but are nevertheless guilty of Idolatry for that because the Law of God and the Nature of the Worship makes it so But now how can that come to be a part of Worship which is not so neither by a positive Law nor by the Nature of the thing nor by the Institution of men For is there any Law of God to make every thing a part of Religion which is commanded by the Church If there be the Dispute is at an end we will then own these unscriptural Ceremonies as parts of Religion and justifie our selves by the Command of God and the Authority of the Church Or can the Nature of things make that a part of Religion which is not so in its own Nature That is can the Nature of things make an Action to be that which in its own Nature it is not Or can the Institution of the Church make that a part of Religion which the Church never instituted as a part of Religion I would desire Mr. Lob and his Friends to take a little time to answer these Questions before they talk again of the Churches making parts of Religion and humane Sacraments against her own express Declarations to the contrary 2. Mr. Lob here supposes that nothing must be a Term of Church Communion but what is a necessary part of true Religion for that is the subject of the Dispute and to make any thing a condition of Communion he thinks makes it a necessary part of true Religion And now I begin to wonder what he means by Religion or a part of Religion Is Government and Discipline Religion or a part of Religion If they be I would gladly know Mr. Lob's definition of Religion if they be not are they any Terms of Communion Or may Catholick Communion and Church-Societies be preserved without any Government and Discipline Mr. Lob is mightily out to think that nothing is necessary to Catholick Communion but the profession of the true Religion Government and Discipline is necessary to preserve any Society and therefore obedience to Ecclesiastical Governors is a necessary Duty and a necessary Term of Church Communion and let a man be never so sound and orthodox in Faith and Worship if he be of a restless turbulent Spirit and disobedient to his Governors and their Orders and Constitutions he deserves to be flung out of Church-Communion if he does not separate himself and will be damned for it too without Repentance Though a very little thing may make a
the Saviour of the Body and that he has redeemed his Church with his own Blood which confines the Effects and Application of his Grace and Merit and Satisfaction to his own Body which is the Church But besides this we may consider That the Jewish Church was Typical of the Christian Church nay indeed that it is the same Church still only enlarged and Chrystianized for the Christian Church is built upon the foundations not only of the Apostles but Prophets and Jews and Gentiles are united into one Church by breaking down the middle wall of partition and engrafting the Gentiles upon the same Root and Stock with them as I discoursed at large in the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet Now we know the Mosaick Covenant was made with the Children of Israel as a Nation whom God had chosen for himself of the Seed and Posterity of Abraham Natural Jews had no Title to this Covenant till they were circumcised and incorporated into the Body of Israel considered as in Covenant with God of which Circumcision was the Sign and Seal and no strangers were admitted to these priviledges of the Covenant till they were engrafted into the Body of Israel by Circumcision and became one People with them So that the Mosaick Covenant which was but the Christian Covenant in Types and Figures was confined to a particular Nation or Body of men and to all those who were incorporated into the same Body with them now it is plain that the Christian Church is incorporated into the Body of Israel and therefore the Apostles call the Christians the true Israel of God and all the Names of Israel are given to the Christian Church A chosen Generation a royal Priesthood 1 Pet. 2.9 an holy Nation a peculiar People So that the Christian Church is a Nation and People peculiar to God and chosen by him out of the rest of the World as the Jews formerly were that is united to God and to each other in the same Covenant and therefore as the Mosaical Covenant was confined to the Body of Israel that no Strangers or Aliens had any right to it so is the Gospel Covenant confined to the Communion of the Christian Church And therefore Christ is said to give himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tit. 14. as it is in St. Peter which is one of the Names of Israel as they were a Nation a peculiar Body and Society of men separated from the rest of the World 3. To confirm this we may consider that it is not enough that Christ has died for us and purchased the Pardon of our sins and the Gift of the holy Spirit unless this Pardon and Grace be applyed to us in such ways as he has appointed For it will not suffice that we make Christ our own by a fanciful Application of his Merits to our selves which would quickly overturn the Church and make the Institutions of our Saviour very useless things as we see this conceit has in a great measure done already but we must receive Christ and all his Blessings as he is pleased to bestow them Now that the holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are by the Institution of our Saviour the ordinary Conveyances and Ministries of Grace has been the universal Belief of the Christian Church in all Ages in Baptism we receive the Remission of our sins and the Gift of the holy Spirit and therefore we are said to be baptized for the Remission of sins and to be born of Water and of the Spirit and we are said to be saved by the washing of Regeneration 3 Titus 5. and the renewal of the holy Ghost In the Lord's Supper Christ gives himself to us as the Bread of Life See Dr. Sherlock's practical Discourse of religious Assemblies part 2. which is the daily Food and Nourishment of our Souls of which the Manna in the Wilderness was but a Type The Cup of Blessing which we bless is the Communion of the Blood of Christ that Blood which was shed for the remission of Sins and the Bread which we break is the Communion of the Body of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 That is in this holy Sacrament all the Merits of Christ's Death and Sufferings are made over to worthy Communicants Here we receive the fresh Supplies of the holy Spirit Ch. 12 13. and therefore are said to drink into one Spirit but I need not insist on the proof of that which no body denies who has any Reverence for our Saviours Institutions and does not think them meer empty Shadows and insignificant Ceremonies If then our Saviour has appointed these holy Sacraments as the Means and Conveyances of Grace and these Sacraments are ineffectual to those who do not live in the Unity and Communion of the Christian Church then we cannot ordinarily expect the Application of Christ's Merits to us or the Vertue of his Death and Passion out of Catholick Communion And yet this was as generally acknowledged by the ancient Fathers as the other as I have already shown St. Cyprian would not acknowledg that Schismaticks had any Sacraments no more than that they had any Church St. Austin acknowledged that they had Sacraments but inutiliter their Schism made the Sacraments ineffectual to attain the end for which they were instituted and indeed the very Nature of the Sacraments will easily satisfie us that it must be so Baptism is the Sacrament of Pardon and Forgiveness of our Regeneration and new Birth by the holy Spirit but it is the Sacrament also of our initiation and incorporation into the Christian Church And upon this very account our sins are forgiven in Baptism and the holy Spirit is bestowed on us because it makes us the Members of Christ's Body that is of his Church to whom the Forgiveness of sins and the Gift of the holy Spirit is promised and therefore those who are baptized in a Schism and are no sooner made the Members of Christ's Church but do immediately divide and separate themselves from its Communion if they do receive remission of their Sins and the Gift of the Spirit in the instant wherein they are baptized as St. Austin supposes they may yet do immediately forfeit it again by their Schism For the same Sacrament must have its entire effect or none at all Incorporation into the Christian Church and forgiveness of sins are inseparably united in Baptism as God's and man's part is in the same Covenant Incorporation into the Christian Church which is signified represented and compleated in Baptism is our part of the Covenant our choice and resolution and actual undertaking of Christianity which is done by a Profession of our Faith in Christ and subjection to him and by uniting our selves to the Society and Fellowship of his Church by such a sacred Right as he has appointed for
that purpose Forgiveness of sin and the Gift of the holy Spirit is God's part of the Covenant who has promised to forgive the Sins and renew and sanctifie those with his Spirit who thus solemnly devote themselves to the Faith and Obedience of a crucified Jesus and therefore these two can never be separated unless God will perform his Part of the Covenant whether we perform ours or not Thus the holy Supper of our Lord does as plainly represent the Unity of the Christian Church and the Communion of all Christians with each other as it does their Union to Christ and participation of the Merits of his Death and Sufferings For the Apostle tells us there is but one Bread as there is but one Body For we being many 1 Cor. 10.17 are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread And upon this account it is called the Communion of the Body of Christ and therefore the Body of Christ cannot be received in a Schism for where there is a Schism it is no longer one Bread and Body nor the Communion of Christ's Body when it is divided into different and opposite Communions That which is the common Bread of all Christians must be received in Unity and one Communion for it loses its Nature Vertue and Efficacy in a Schism Thus the Paschal Lamb which was a Type of Christ's Death and Passion and of the Christian Feast of the Lord's Supper as it was to be eaten by the whole Body of Israel so every particular Lamb was to be eaten in one House and nothing to be carried out of it The like may be said of all the other Means of Grace which cannot avail any man who does not live in the Peace and Communion of the Church Our Prayers are effectual only in the Merits of Christ's Sacrifice and Intercession and if such men have no interest in the Sacrifice of Christ as they cannot have if they have no Title to the Supper of our Lord which is the Christian Feast upon the Sacrifice of the Cross and applies the Merits and Vertue of it to us then their Prayers cannot be prevalent neither and if our Saviour would not allow any man to offer any Sacrifice to God who had a private quarrel with his Brother till he had reconciled himself to him how unlikely is it that God will hear the Prayers of those men who are at variance with the Church of God and divide the Communion of it As for hearing and reading Paul may Plant and Apollos may Water but it is God that gives the Increase and if God deny his Grace and Spirit to such external Ministries they can avail nothing and yet we have already heard how little reason such men have to expect it St. Paul tells us that Christ gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministry 4 Ephes 11 12. but the end of all is For the edifying of the body of Christ So that all Ministerial Gifts are for the edification of Christ's Body which supposes that their efficacy and influence is confined to the Communion of the Church and does not reach the Conventicles of Schismaticks And he adds But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is Christ the Head from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth v. 15 16. according to the effectual working in the Measure of every Part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it self in Love So that the Increase and Edification of Christians is in the Unity of the Church and consists in the encrease of brotherly Love and Christian Charity Vertues which cannot be learn't in a Schism nor preserved in it a bitter zeal and envenomed Passions and uncharitable Censures and Surmises and evil speaking and an insolent contempt of all who are not of their Party and Faction being the most usual fruits of a Schismatical Reformation All the Metaphors whereby the conveyance of Grace from Christ to his Church is represented in Scripture do plainly signifie that this is done in Unity such as the influences which the Body receives from the Head or the Branches from the Vine which do not reach those Members which are separated from the Body nor those Branches which are broken off from the Vine The result of what I have said is this If Holiness be not the meritorious Cause but only the condition of our Salvation and therefore cannot save us separated from rhe Merits of Christ if Catholick Unity that is Christian Charity be one main essential part of Evangelical Holiness without which nothing else will be accepted by God if the Work of our Redemption from first to last be an Act of free Grace which we cannot challenge from God as due to our Natures nor as a necessary Effect of his own Goodness considered as our Maker and therefore is as entirely at God's choice in what way and upon what conditions he will dispence it as it was whether he would do any such thing at all if we must expect to receive the Blessings of the Gospel only in such ways as God hath appointed and if Christ hath confined all the Grace of the Gospel to a Church-state this is sufficient to satisfie any unprejudiced man how necessary Catholick-unity and Communion is without which we cannot upon any good grounds hope for the pardon of our Sins the influences of God's Grace or eternal Life 4. But there are some men who will never be satisfied by the most clear and demonstrative Proofs that a thing is so unless they can see the Reason why it should be so a way which of late has mightily prevailed and has in a great measure thrust all revealed and instituted Religion out of the World We cannot always give the natural Reasons of things not because there are none but because they lie too deep for us to discover them and if we cannot fathom Nature which is more exposed to our view and observation how unreasonable is it to think to fathom the unsearchable Counsels of God in such Matters as wholly depend upon his Soveraign Will and have no apparent Cause but his own good pleasure Matters of Revelation can be discovered only by Revelation and in such Acts of soveraign Grace it is abundantly sufficient if God tell us what he will do for us and in what way he will do it without assigning the Reason why he does so But yet to satisfie these men as much as may be let them but assign a Reason why Christ would have a Church and why he would have but one Church and I will give them a manifest and necessary Reason why Salvation should be confined to the Communion of this Church and that is because it is impossible to preserve the Unity Discipline or Government of the Church without it The