who deny this ought not to have Communion together and if we look upon professed Christians of all Persuasions we shall find they do so The Idolatry of the Church of Rome for which the Protestants separate from them is not so gross as this for this is directly and formally giving Divine Adoration to a Creature only especially in those that deny his Deity and yet give him Divine Worship The Reasons for which the Presbyterians and Independants separate from the Church of England are very Trifles in Comparison of this Most baptized Churches maintain a Separation from those that are unbaptized and many will allow Communion with none that are not in the Profession and Practice of those six Principles Heb. 6.1 2. But what is Baptism or Laying on of Hands to this Principle can any urge that they are of that Consequence that they who assert or they who deny them must be either Blasphemers or Idolaters That they deny the true Christ and bring in another in his stead that they deny the Lord that bought them that Christianity it self stands or falls with it If then a Separation between the Baptists and Pedo-baptists is warrantable that they which are rightly Baptized and those which are not ought not to have Communion together much more ought not they that assert and deny that Believe and Disbelieve this great Principle Objection Obj. There are but few who are capable to understand this great Mystery and therefore it cannot be a Principle of such Consequence Answer The meanest Christian is capable to believe what is required of them in this Case the Holy Scriptures reveal as we have shewn that Jesus Christ is God Eternal Almighty c. That be is Man of the Seed of the Woman of the Seed of David according to the Flesh and did partake of our Flesh and Blood So that he was both God and Man this is plain But how these two Natures did unite or after what manner this Union was made as it is past our Capacity to reach it so this is our Comfort we are not obliged to understand it True Faith believes the Thing notwithstanding Reason cannot Fathom the manner of them and this Answers all the clamours made in this Case for generally those Christians that are not concerned in these Controversies believe this Truth with the greatest stedfastness they read in Scripture that Jesus Christ is the true God and Eternal Life that he is God over all Blessed for ever that he made the World and all Things in it And they read that he was Man like unto us in all Things Sin only excepted and they believe these Things firmly and truely because God hath said them and ask not with a carping mind how can these Things be they adore it as a Mystery but humbly believe it as an undoubted Truth Objection There are many whose Lives and Conversations for many Years past declare them to be good Christians that are Holy and Pious Men Men of great Study Labour Sufferings and Self-denial that are desirous to know what is the Mind and Will of God and yet believe not this Principle but the Contrary ought we not therefore in Charity to esteem them good Christians and have Communion with them notwithstanding Answer I Answer 1. In the Words of the Apostle Gal. 1.8 9. Though we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed 2. We are to distinguish between the Seducers that cunningly lye in wait to deceive and those who thro' Ignorance Simplicity or flexibleness of Spirit are seduced by them to the first we are not to give Place no not for an hour Gal. 2.5 Mat. 7.15 beware of false Prophets the Elders of Churches are peculiarly charged to keep these out of the Flock Acts 20.28 29 30 31. The Apostle Treats these with the greatest Severity Beware of Dogs beware of evil workers beware of the Concision Phil. 3.2 Whose Mouths must be stopped Tit. 1.11 Because their Words will eat as doth a Canker 2 Tim. 2.17 2. To those that are seduced by them we are to carry it with the greatest Love and Tenderness in Order to regain them so the Apostle Treats the seduced Galatians Gal. 4.19 My little Children of whom I Travel in Birth again He mixeth Intreaties with his sharp Rebukes 2 Tim. 2.25 26. Thus we should in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves that they may be recovered out of the Snare of the Devil 2. If after all means used they persist in their Heresies they are to be rejected for a little Leaven leaveneth the whole Lump Tit. 2.10 11. after the first and second Admonition reject and this fully answereth the Objection for let their Lives and Conversations be never so exact let them be Men of never so great Study Labour Sufferings and Self-denial yet they are to be rejected by the Church which shews that notwithstanding this they are not good Christians and therefore their Piety but seeming and not real because good Christians are not to be rejected from the Communion of the Church as Hereticks And as for their being willing to know the Truth we find by Experience that after they have once espoused and broached their Heresies they set themselves with all cunning subtlety and obstinacy to oppose the Truth and maintain their Errors shutting their Eyes against all the Evidence that the Truth carries with it and using all ways whatsoever to evade the force thereof whereby whatsoever they may say it is plain to every Observer that they are not willing to know any Thing to be Truth that is contrary to their professed Principles hence then it is so far from Christian Charity that it is against the express Rule and Law of Christ Jesus the Head and Lord of Christians to have Communion with them FINIS
A Brief Enquiry Whether they who ASSERT And they who DENY THE Divinity OF OUR LORD Iesus Christ May have Communion together at the Lords Table By JOSEPH TAYLOR Therefore thus saith the Lord if thou return then will I bring thee again and thou shalt stand before me And if thou take forth the precious from the vile thou shalt be as my Mouth let them return unto thee but return not thou to them Jer. 15.19 London Printed in the Year 1698. To the Churches of our Lord Jesus Christ Beloved Brethren HOW displeasing is it to him who walketh in the midst of the golden Candlesticks Rev. 2.1 to see his Churches either corrupted or divided to find his Body either defiled or torn Christ is the Head and we are the Members of his Body and as the Purity of the Head calls for the greatest Purity in the Body so the Oneness of the Body requires the strictest Vnion among the Members 1 Cor. 10.17 For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all Partakers of that one Bread Such cannot be Members of the Body who do not hold the Head Col. 2.19 From which all the Body by Joynts and Bands having Nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God And such cease to be Members who make a Schism in the Body it behoveth the Churches of Christ therefore to take great heed to avoid both these Evils The desire of Vnity with all that call upon the Name of the Lord in Truth put me on the serious Consideration among other Things whether Persons who believe or disbelieve the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ ought to have Communion together as Members of the same Body and here you have the result of my Thoughts with the Reasons wherefore I believe they ought not I have no personal Prejudice against any it is only the Glory of God the Honour of Jesus Christ and the Purity of the Churches that hath engaged me in this Work and I cannot conceive how any who believeth Jesus Christ to be God of the same Essence with his Father can account the denial of his Deity a small Thing Is it a small Thing to take Christ from his Throne his Crown from his Head and his Royal Sceptre out of his Hand To deny him that Nature without which you believe he could not be a Saviour nor the Object of Faith and Trust which gave all the value to his Sufferings that made the Offering up of his Humane Nature Eph. 5.2 An Offering and a Sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling Savour Whereby his Justice was satisfied and his Law answered if he thought it no robbery to be equal with God what robbery will he account it in such who make him no more than a Man And is it a sign of Love to Christ to hold the most intimate Communion with such who having stript Him of His Royal Ornaments put a Crown of Thorns on his Head a gorgeous Robe on his Body a Reed in his Hand and then Salute him with Hail King of the Jews For what is it less to give him all the Titles and Characters of God and yet deny Him his Nature It is no Argument to say they do it ignorantly for so did the Jews when they crucified Christ 1 Cor. 2.8 For if they had known they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory And therefore though we are to Pity and Pray for them yet we are not to embrance and receive them into our Communion On the other Hand there is nothing more desirable in the Churches of Christ than Peace and Vnity it is a Blessing to be prayed for and laboured after Night and Day Psalm 133.1 How good and how pleasant is it for Brethren to dwell together in Unity For sweetness v. 2. It is like the precious Oyntment upon the Head that ran down upon the Beard even Aarons Beard that went down to the Skirts of his Garments For Profit v 3. It is as the Dew of Hermon and as the Dew that descended on the Mountains of Zion and there the Lord commands his Blessing even Life for evermore There he will be graciously present there he will dwell and there he will dispense the choisest of his Favours But this Unity that is so good and so pleasant is among Brethren among such who believe in exalt and glorifie the same God the Father the same Lord Jesus Christ and the same Holy Spirit Peace and Truth must be joyned together For that is not the Peace of God which is purchased with the loss of Truth we are obliged to take as much Care that we have Vnion only with the faithful As to preserve among them the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Eph. 4.3 I hope I can truly say I write only for Truth and shall be so far from being displeased at the disproof of my Arguments as thankfully to acknowledge my mistake and be one of the first as shall give them I now write against the right Hand of Fellowship But in the mean Time for the Reasons herein mentioned I must intreat they who believe their Saviour is God by Nature to be concerned for his Glory to be consistent with their own Principles and not have Communion with such that profess the contrary and use all due means to recover such who are seduced by the sleight of Men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4.4 5 6. Let the Exhortation of our Lord be diligently hearkned to Have Salt in your selves and Peace one with another Mark 9.50 And of the Apostle Endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace for you are one Body and have one Spirit and are called in one Hope of your Calling you have one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. The great design of Satan is to divide you which he endeavours to effect by sowing Seeds of Discord about lesser Matters and stirring up such who cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine of Christ Rom. 16.17 who are to be mark't there is nothing can weaken our Hands more than Discord nor strengthen them more than Vnity hereby is the Father gloryfied the Son honoured the Gospel spread and the Churches Edified There are many Things about which the dear Children of God do differ in their Judgments and will do whilst they are on this side the Grave for we know but in part they have not the same degrees of Light and therefore are not of the same mind in all Things but their differences are only about such Things which they may believe or disbelieve and yet hold the Head they agree in the great and necessary Doctrines of Salvation in the Foundation Principles of the Christian Religion and Things of lesser moment I humbly conceive should make no difference among the Churches of Christ
Truth and the Life and no Man comes unto the Father but by him Would not such an one be justly esteemed among Christians as an Impious and Blasphemous Person In like manner for Jesus Christ to attribute to Himself the Names the Nature the Works and Worship of the most High God and at the same time was not so he could not be esteemed amongst the Jews then nor can with any just Reason be esteemed by any since to be otherwise than a notorious Blasphemer and from hence it would follow his Disciples were deceivers that the Jewish Sanhedrim did well in sentencing Christ to Death that the Jews do well in maintaining that Sentence and in rejecting the Preaching of his Disciples that Christian Religion is Superstition and Idolatry and the Messiah is not yet come For what is Idolatry but to give the essential Glory of God to a Creature only if Herod was guilty of Idolatry for permitting the People to say it is the Voice of God and not of a Man if though those that offered one Grain of Incense to an Idol were guilty of this Crime and they who swore by the Head of the Emperour were not Innocent though at the same Time they did not imagine the Emperour to be God what a piece of Idolatry and Superstition must that Systeme be that gives the incommunicable Glory of God to a Man only and requires Divine Adoration to be rendered to him yea if Christ is not God of the same Essence of his Father it represents him as an Actour on a Stage that takes the Name the Apparel and Acts the Part of a Prince when at the same time he is one of the meanest Subjects for it represents Christ as God God over all blessed for ever the Almighty All-seeing Eternal Immutable The True God and Eternal Life as he that laid the Foundations of the Earth c. When in Deed and in Truth he was but a meer Creature and in reality had none of these Excellencies in him there is a necessity therefore to give up the Truth of the Christian Religion and turn either Mahometans or Jews if this Principle is not true That Jesus Christ is true God of the same Essence with the Father From whence it is evident that this is a Principle of such a Nature that the Christian Religion stands or falls with it and therefore they who assert and they who deny it cannot have Christian Communion together 8. They which assert and they which deny this Principle ought not to have Communion together at the Lords Table because one or the other must be ignorant of what it represents and signifies they would have different Ideas represented by the same Elements To the one it would represent Jesus Christ giving himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling Savour the Humane Nature offered up and by Reason of its Union with the Divine making Satisfaction to Divine Justice answering the demands of the Law and obtaining Salvation for us Whilst it represents to the Secinians nothing else but a meer Man Suffering as an Example of Patience and Submission to the Will of God It sets forth to the one the Infinite and amazing Love of God in giving his Son his only begotten Son that lay in his Bosom and was his delight from Eternity to become a Sacrifice for Sinners to bear their Griefs Isa 53.4 5. and carry their Sorrows to be wounded for their Transgressions and bruised for their Iniquities to give him up to Death even that shameful painful and accursed Death of the Cross And it sets forth the amazing Love of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 8.9 or as the Apostle speaks the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was Rich for their sakes he became Poor that through his Poverty they might be made Rich. Phil. 2.6 That he that was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with him made himself of no Reputation c. But it represents no such thing to the other no more Love than to make a glorious Man and set him to be an Example of Holiness Patience and Humility both in his Life and Death and ought they to have Communion together at the Lords Table that are not agreed what the Ordinance represents and signifies can they be said to discern the Lords Body that discern it not to be a Sacrifice offered up to God for our Sins Heb. 13.10 This is an Altar of which they have no right to Eat 9. They ought not to have Communion together because they must esteem each other either Vnbelievers or Hereticks and neither are communicable I have already shewn that if Christ be God c. then those that never believed it cannot be said to be Believers in Christ inasmuch as they cannot be said to Believe that Thing who deny what is Essential to it and they denying what is essential to the Person of Christ cannot be said to believe in that Person and as for those that have believed it and departed from this Faith they cannot but be looked upon to be Hereticks for there is nothing Heresie if this be not Heresie which Roots up the very Foundations and denies the Lord that bought them which overthrows the Christian Faith and turns it out of the World Objection An Heretick is one that is condemned of himself and unless they are condemned in their own Consciences Tit. 2.10 11. that what they hold is Heresie they are not Hereticks Answer 1. Then it will follow that it can never be known who is a Heretick inasmuch as we cannot know the Consciences of Men and then the Apostle might have kept that Rule to himself Ver. 10. A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject for it were absurd for him to give an Injunction as a Rule of Discipline in the Church that was impossible to followed 2. Therefore a Man is condemned of himself that renounceth the great Truths he hath owned he that once professed Jesus Christ to be the Messiah the Son and sent of God was devoted to him by Baptism and acknowledged the Doctrines revealed by him and since hath apostatized there-from is condemned of himself his own Actions shew him to be self-condemned for there is no better rule than to judge of the Tree by its Fruit and Actions speak more than Words The Foundation Principles of Christianity carry very great Evidence with them they recommend themselves to every Mans Conscience in the sight of God we have the greatest Reason therefore to judge those self-condemned condemned in their own Consciences who have departed from the Faith Ver. 11. Knowing he that is such is subverted and sinneth being condemned of himself it follows hence they are not communicable because an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject 10. They who maintain a Separation because of Principles of far lesser Moment must acknowledge that they who assert and they