miracles have been means to some of their religion and conversion wee cannot doubt but the eyes may much more splritually instruct us here in the melting objects of Christs passion redemption and tender mercies outwardly represented seeing we hope the working of the Spirit too by virtue of an ordinance As at the word Christ comes into the heart by the sense of hearing so at the supper by the sense of seeing touching and tasting Let the World Answer Pauls argument To shew forth the death of Christ is the means of Conversion The Sacrament is the shewing forth his death 1. Cor. 11.26 Therefore as it does so it is undoubtedly converting Hence I observed in the words of institution there was a Take and an Eat two words a Take for such as have not Christ a word of grace to convert those and an Eat for such as have already received him to nourish and confirm them For put case a morall man taken for a good man yet unregenerate is and cannot be refused to be admitted hither The man does his beast to prepare himself and so comes doe wee think now to such a man the Ordinance is necessarily fruitlesse and can have no work on him then God help us Shall not his examination confession prayers meditation with all the Ministers exhortations be more solemnly conducing now to work grace in his heart and to convert him this being the way of the spirits motions than the bare preaching of a sermon Especially seeing the word doth not only precede but accompany and is a very part too of the Sacrament Accedat verbum ad elementum fit Sacramentum But put case further a poor Soul much humbled in the sight of his sinnes that cannot yet be able to believe and close with Christ comes hither hoping to meet with this favour here well the word of reconciliation is freely opened the free mercies of Christ set forth and all this while it hath not happily this effect upon his heart yet when he comes to see the truth of all this sealed with Gods own seal Christ freely offered and peculiarly received of him in the Sacrament his Soul by all these heavenly wires is catcht taken drawn and even enforced to a saving Faith the Spirit using such most powerfull methods for the work of his grace which he infuseth in us by a sweet attemperation to the will not by compulsion habitus infusi being wrought per modum acquisitorum And this we have lively represented in the two Disciples of Emmaus whose hearts did burne within them at the hearing of Christ but at the breaking of bread their eyes were fully opened to know and to believe him Luke 24.30 31. Rep. Although a Man may be converted At it is not By the Sacrament it is occasionally but not intentionally a converting Ordinance Ans This being undeniably granted of our opposites the matter is upon the point yeelded for consider sincerely this It may be Peradventure a man may be converted by it and no text expresly forbids any comming to it is not this enough An It may be granted lay it wel to heart and no place to the contrary alleged who doubts not but all It may bee's all occasions must be taken for our salvation But that I may wholly root out this subtility which I think the spirit of error has insinnuated in the hearts of many Godly men I have three things more to say which by Gods blessing will fully do it Provided if the thing serves our turn you will not be grating on the expression 1. Let us cleerly know that the Sacraments and all Ordinances are primarily and properly means of grace It is but in a remote sense they are means of conversion or confirmation For this grace we receive in the use of them is that which convert some and strengthens others Now then we come to this Sacrament as the means to receive Gods grace and this grace which he distributes as a most wise God works in every one as his state and need requires in the converted for their strength and establishment and in the unregenerate for their conversion 2. Consider what is Conversion There is an outward conversion from Heathenisme to the profession of Christ wee doe not stand to say the Sacrament is such a converting Ordinance as if Christ should bid us goe forth with this Sacrament and convert the Nations let this be imagined only of the word But there is an inward effectuall conversion of such as outwardly professe Christ to the truth of grace in their hearts Now how is the worke of grace or true conversion wrought through the word it self Not from any active power it has per se upon the Soul but per modum objecti we say and instrumentally the object is proposed or revealed that is all the word does and then it is the Spirit that by illuminating the mind and the touch upon the will brings the heart to embrace the object whereby it is converted Now is it not just thus likewise in the Sacrament This Sacrament shews forth Christ Crucified according to the Covenant who is the true object of Faith and Life upon this the Spirit of God draws the heart by illumination and conviction to embrace him upon those terms he here is offered insomuch that experience can witnesse that some are and have been hereby converted What difference is there imaginable between this conversion and at the Word what a shift is it to say it is only At and not By the Sacrament when it is instrumentall morally we mean not physically per medum objecti as the Word where I may say the same too as truly that it is more properly At than By the Word it self there being no active vertue but of the Spirit in the one or the other 3. As for this scruple of the Sacrament being occasionally not intentionally converting There may be a principall intention and subordinate more primary or secondary ends in an Ordinance Though the word be the principal converting Ordinance we cannot deny but others may be subordinately also converting as Prayer why els doth the Church pray Turn thou us and we shall be turned Convert thou us and we shall be converted Now as Prayer and other means of Grace are converting and that intentionally in being used to this end So I affirm of the Sacrament unlesse you can find in your heart to keep this pitifull shift still and say rather than this shall be you will distinguish between a converting ordinance and means of Conversion other ordinances are means of Conversion but yet the word you persist is the only intentionally that is intended converting ordinance Well goe too what then I pray To the purpose Then you wil say the word shall be held forth to all as intended to convert them but the Sacrament shall not being not so intended in the Institution Be it so It followes then there must be no Ordinance administred to those that are not converted
An humble VINDICATION Of a Free ADMISSION Unto the Lords-Supper PUBLISHED For the ease support and satisfaction of tender Consciences otherwise remediless in our mixt Congregations As it was delivered at two Sermons upon the occasion of this solemnity in the weekly labours of Iohn Humfrey Master of Arts and Minister of Froome in SOMERSETSHIRE The Second Edition A Priest is taken from among men and ordayned for men in things pertaining to God who can reasonably bear with the ignorant and them that are out of the way for that himself also is compassed with infirmity Heb. 5 1 2. London Printed for E. Blackmore at the Angel in Pauls Church-yard 1652. ERRATA Page 9. line 6. for sin read in page 24. line 26. read Let some of our other side page 74. line 20. for most read more To the Reader Courteous Reader HAving by good providence had some gleanings of this ensuing discourse as it was delivered by the worthy Author in own Congregation and conferring my notes with an honoured Christian I found such support and contentment to my own conscience in the sympathy of his approbation that made me very importunate to have them perfected and having at length obtained a compleat copy I could not but humbly think it an engagement much conducing to the glory of God to get this precious light left under a bushell in a private auditory to be set up publikely in a candlestick of the Church that the spirits of many others might be thereby disclouded from the like scruples that most sadly hinder the blessed enjoyment of this Ordinance of Christ. The worke needs not the commendation of another having in it some exquisite notions and self excellency enough to commend it and its compiler and although it must expect severall censures which is the common fate of the best works according to the variety of mens humours in these times yet I am perswaded by experience to an impartiall and disengaged judgment perusing it with a single eye it will afford aboundant comfort and satisfaction it being weighty spirituall and ingenuous and a piece wherein if I may use the word of one more learnedly able to judge of it Mr. Humfrey has comprized the most materiall things that can be said in this business as rationally and concisely as any beside him As it has pleased God therefore pious Reader to make me instrumentall that ever this came to thy sight let me beseech these two reasonable requests of the. First That thou wilt passe no censure upon the Book or Writer before thou hast read all over weighing the whole parts together and examined them seriously by the unerring rule of the word of God Secondly Having so done that thou wilt not suffer thy self to be swayed from judging according to the truth by any earthly respect whatsoever and then I doubt not but the Lord will suitably poure thee out a double blessing in the reading of establishment for thy judgment and of peace for thy conscience which is the end of publishing this worke and hearty prayer of the ocâ—â—sioner of it I. C. An humble VINDICATION Of a Free ADMISSION Unto the Lords-Supper Marke 14.23 And the all Drank of it I Have spoken of the Institution Nature and Ends of the Sacrament I come now to the Receivers And they all drank of it In the 17 verse of the Chapter we find the twelve with Christ They were his whole Congregation in the 18th v. They were all sate at the Table as they did eat in the 22. Jesus took bread and gave it them and so likewise the Cup v. 23 Saying Drink ye all of it Mat. 26.27 And they did so saith the Text They all drank of it all the twelve without exception from whence I gather a free Admission to this Ordinance My Brethren this is a poynt we know troubles many and I do humbly acknowledge my self the weakest of a thousand to satisfie the difficulties of others yet whereas the apprehensions many times of a playn honest meaning Christian in its pure naturalls I mean unconfounded with the judgements of others may suit better with common understandings than a more learned and elaborate disquisition I shall Sincerely propose my very heart and thoughts in this thing being ready to lye down at the feet of any truly Godly Soul that either out of tenderness of Conscience or strength of Reason dare not or will not submit unto my judgement and practice in it For the managing the poynt I shall briefly lay down my meaning or state of the Question give my Proofs Reason and Answer Objections For my meaning it is honest and very plain without reservation The Lord Iesus has a Church in the World wherein there is a visible profession of his name In this Church God has set up his Ordinances of the Word and Sacrament Of these Ordinances some are capable and some uncapable Those that are uncapable are so either by Nature who can discerne no meaning hereof as Children and Distracted persons or by the Churches censure of Excomunication and no others For those that are capable we must rightly consider this capacity in regard of the Church or Minister in Admission of them to the Ordinances or in regard of the Communicants themselves in coming thither Now I dare not yet positively say for the peoples part that all are so capable that they may come as they list though it be a duty none is excused from because there is a solemne preparation required and many cannot seriously find in their hearts to enter or renew their Covenant with Christ whereof this is a pledge if it be not misused Yet I am humbly perswaded for the Minister and Churches part who on Gods behalf is to offer Christ freely and so to tender the Covenant to all that will receive him there is such a universall capacity for all men indefinitely that if any come in as professing themselves ready to enter Covenant with Christ desiring so to serve him in the worship of this Ordinance the former only excepted we are to encourage them saying with the Bride Revel 22.17 Whosoever is a Thirst let him come whosoever will let him come and drink freely of these waters of Life or means of Salvation In a word I do not believe that any unlesse first excommunicated ipso jure or de facto ought to be refused the participation of this Sacrament They all Drank of it For my proofs look into Ex. 12. we read of the Passover which is the same in signification with the Sacrament v. 3. Speak unto Israel let every man take his Lamb a Lamb for a house v. 47. All the Congregations shall observe it And v. 50. The whole people did so as the Lord commanded them Adde to this 2 Chron. 30.5 The Decreed to proclame through all Israel from Dan to Beersheba that they should come and keep the Passeover to the Lord. Here you see free Admission without exception Indeed in Num. 9.7 we find a legall
be secured but there may and will be some Hypocrites and so this true partaking as all one body and one blood in such an unmixt Communion as you pretend vanishes and there can be no such matter But now if men stand here upon a formall purity and will have the outward purest Church they can they go to separating againe and never leave separating and separating as we have dayly Testimony till they are quite separated one from another Even as in the peeling of an Onion where you may peele and peele till you have brought all to nothing unlesse to a few tears perchance with which the eyes of good men must needs runne over in the doing My fith Reason I gather from the uniformity of the Service of God If all other worship lies in common it is an intrenchment upon the common liberty to put an inclosure upon the Sacrament Are all the commands of God universall why not Doe this also If an unregenerate man cannot perform any thing that is acceptable to Christ but is turnes to sin non perse sed per pravam dispositionem Subjecti and so is Damnable Pro. 28.9 and yet he is to doe his endeavour and not to be excluded neverthelesse from any duty why must there needs be an exclusion here upon fear of the like sin and condemnation Let men on one side answer why do you allow a Syntax in the whole service of God besides and bring in a Qua genus of Anomolaes and Heteroclites onely at this Ordinance Let the other side answer how can we admit of Children as Members of the visible Church being born of Christian parents unto Baptisme and yet turn away the parents of those Children from the Sacrament Those that have gone about to answer this had better happly have said nothing for our free course of Baptisme and a deniall of this is such a Seam-rent as will never be handsomly drawn up though stitcht together Nevertheless in yielding the one they have granted the other I will adde whereas on either fide they have their formes which they urge as Necessary there being no admission otherwise to a very joyning in the service of God let both answer whether they offend not a branch of our Christian freedome concerning ordinances of men Col. 2.18.20 which though we might submit thereto as prudentiall only in the outward man we dare not suffer to be set or creepe into the seat of God I mean the conscience that is in bondage if any religion be placed in them It is ill putting Gods Worship upon stilts which to advance it a little higher in the outward port are sure to give it a fall into dangerous scruples divisions My sixt Reason I lay down from my innocency in this doing 1. I doe but my duty 2. I have no power to turn away any 3. I hope the best of all 4. I know God can turn the worst even at this ordinance if he please 5. I endeavour my utmost de jure that all come prepared 6. I humbly confess all our sins as Hezekiah desiring true repentance and a pardon for all our omissions and so lastly I venture the issue all on God knowing that his ordinances are a sweet savour unto him whether we are saved or perish by them I might adde here more considerations very pressing from the command and good of comming from the evill of omitting this ordinance For the good of comming The Sacrament is a means and a pledge a means as well to receive grace as a pledge to assure us thereof Now suppose a poor Soul wants grace whether shall he come but to the means of receiving it The ordinances are as the Baths there are many come to the Bath that are never the better for it yet as they are means of health they are open and free for all to come and make experience of them I conceive as much of the Sacrament and though we may scruple how an unregenerate man can receive it as a pledge yet as it is a means whereby grace is conveyed there is no difficulty For the evill of omission In the Law those that neglected Circumcision and the Passeover were to be cut off in the Gospell Matt. 22. those that came not into the Feast were destroyed the Lord giving a reason ver 8. because they were not worthy Alas we make a scruple only of comming unworthily whereas they are most unworthy of all that come not in to the Supper we doe not find any of the Servants durst refuse to call in all if they had left out any they might have bin worse served This one thing hath long stuck on my thoughts how shall we neglect a certain duty of administring or of comming to the Sacrament for fear of accidentall scandall or of committing an uncertaine sin in the doing It not this a kind of doing evill the evill of omission that good may come of it whose damnation is just Rom. 3.8 But I will say no more thus much shall suffice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not give you my Reasons by the heape but by the weight I humbly commit them to you onely with this caution that no man take occasion from hence to presume for as the Isralites that were destroyed after they passed the Sea and drank of the Rock are set for a warning to the Corinthians so are they both set for a warning to us that wee daily examine our selves and come with reverence least we being freely admitted by Gods goodnesse perish nevertheless with them for our own unworthiness The Second SERMON NOw for answering Objections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two things I must premonish you 1. Whereas common notions are like dishes where the same matter dress'd but in another way or variegated in the expression receives a severall relish and esteem in the palats of ordinary judgements you must pardon me the Liberty if at any time I be forced in the Cookery of the same sense to serve you in more words than enough to any Objection 2. Whereas many Godly in these times have a prejudicate opinion against this free Admission so that whatsoever may be said is not like to remove all scruples which are so much fastened on their Consciences thinking they have holynesse on their side we are to goe unto the Throne of Grace to pray the Lord to give us his Spirit of illumination to direct us in this truth which is able alone to convince and satisfie us And as for me if I deliver what is not consonant to the holy Word I desire the Lord to blot out my Sermon with my sin that none of his Little ones may be offended by it but if it be the mouth of Truth too much kept in silence delivering nothing but the very doctrine and practice of Christ himself and his Apostles as one of his weakest servants does heartily beleeve I hope the Lord will give a blessing on it and send it out as a light into your
with the Broad Seal to those that refuse it and yet it is no less a true Seal and set to a true writing than if they did all come in and embrace it so that if it want its due effect on the Receiver it may be said if you will to be set upon a blank where Seales are set but not to a blank seeing the Lord hath set it to the truth of his Word or grace of his Gospell Rep. But were it not absurd for a man to set his seal when there hath been no agreement and transactions before So do unregenerate men who come to the Sacrament without that solemn giving up the Soule to God as he ought who enters Covenant with him Answ I grant with sorrow there are too many of us come absurdly and but wickedly when we forget to doe that we ought the Lord forgive us but though in the reciprocall action as it is to be a seal as is said of mans part the receiver failes in his solemn mutuall ingagements according to the Covenant whereof he is to repent yet as for the Minister or Church who offer it as seal on Gods part there is a true seal to a true Copy and nothing out of Order The Sacraments therefore may be considered in their nature and in their use In their nature I take them to be Gods seals only as primarily signifying his grace and shewing forth Christ though in the use and effect they are to be mans too as secondarily he is reciprocally to believe and engage himself unto God Sacramenta nostra accipimus ex manu dei nobis sunt signae gratiae primò secundariò obligationis professionis nostrae Paraeus in Loc. praedict In the notion they are mans seals we may conceive the Sacraments Seals of Faith for Faith is the condition of the Covenant and we seal to our Condition so that as they are conceived thus indeed they are seals of Faith because seals of the Covenant which I stand upon But as they are Gods seals for the same reason they cannot be seals of Faith but consecutive as I said before in regard of the effect to the Godly to yeeld what remotely and expressively may be because God seals not imaginably to our part of the Covenant which is Faith but to his owne part which is the Promise and so I call them seals of the Covenant or promise formally and not of Faith Now I say cleerly though an unregenerate man cannot receive the Sacrament as a seal of his Faith yet the Church can give it as a seal of the Covenant and though it wants its due effect on him there is the right nature neverthelesse in the Administration though not a right use of it in the receiver even as at the word where there may be true preaching and the nature of the Gospell though the hearers apply it not as they ought by faith Look back to that only place Ro. 4. where it is said Circumcision is a seal Abraham is said to receive it as a seal which receiving includes Gods giving so that we must look upon the Sacraments in the nature of them as Gods seals from the very institution who else durst appoint such things to signifie such spirituall matters and as they are Gods seals they are set to his own word so can never be to a blank while there is truth in the promise and writing in the Gospell Now then the Sacraments being Gods seals certainly in the institution and nature of them if I should deny them to be mans seals at all there being not for it one tittle of Scripture I should quite remove the scruple from the hearts of men but whereas that I may not remove their care and duty too I grant though in the nature of seals they Gods Seals Gods own Seals seals of the Covenant only yet in the use of seals and effect they are to be mans seals also seals to the Condition of our part seals of Faith and so I cannot I may not acquit the receivers wholy but that they come absurdly set a seal to a blank and take the Sacrament in vain as it is to be their seal if they come without Faith and those solemn engagements as God requires of us though I can fully acquit the Church herein in her delivery of the signs on Gods part as we are his Embassadors because the Covenant by him stands sealed to all whomsoever and there can be no doubt of sealing to a blank I affirm so long as the Promise or the Gospel it self holds in force the tenour whereof this Sacrament seals absolutely to us The tenour of it I say mark me not our interest in it for that it seals not absolutely Assurance being concluded by way of discourse and whatsoever is common to the Hypocrite with the beleever cannot conclude it The Sacrament is the externall seal the internall only of the Spirit as witnessing with our spirits Ro. 8.16 can absolutely give this interest to any this outward seal is set to Gods outward Copy of the Covenant that is the word now look what the word affirms the Sacrament seals and confirms according to the tenour thereof and no otherwise Now the word speaks not particularly of any mans single interest but generally it declares to all a common interest upon condition they beleeve now as this interest is exprest conditionally so the Sacrament cannot seal to it but conditionally according to that tenor is exprest or rather let me say the Sacrament seals generally so I will expresse it the truth of the Covenant freely to all engageing them unto it and the interest or benefits of the Covenant to every single person upon the terms conditions or tenor only of the Gospell I must professe this in the Embrion has layn a long time in my apprehensions and I cannot but be glad to find of late a pierccing godly and excellent man I take him whom the right conceiving of this alone he sayes converted his opinion and satisfied him The Covenant runs thus He that believes shall be saved adde I believe Ergo I shall be saved from which syllogism we gather our assurance Now to which of those propositions sayes he does the Sacrament seal not to the minor as it is surmised for no Scripture sayes of any particular man he beleeves and God seals to his own word not ours Nor to the Conclusion for the same reason But to the major which it absolutely seals as true to us according to the tenour of the Gospell Object 5. The Covenant belongs not to All therefore the Seals neither Answ The Covenant is sometimes taken in Scripture for those absolute promises of Gods putting his Laws in our hearts keeping us by his power to salvation and to the like purpose Heb. 8. which are proper only to his Elect and belonging to his secret will Or the Covenant is taken as it is for the tenour of the Gospell in Gods revealed will and so it runs on