entrance into the Church nor are they so called holy because they are legitimate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or born in wedlock for so an heathens child may be as holy as they but holy as heirs to the covenant the vertue whereof is so powerfull that it can rather entitle a wife by an husband or a husband by a wife unto it and therefore much more the child than contrary Mathe. Hath baptisme of Infants been from the Primitive Church or not Phila. I conceive it hath because no man can tell when it began but we find by all ancient writers and Churches Aug. l. 4. â—â— bapt infant and l. 10. de gen ad lit c. 23. that it was practised in their times and things of that nature were alwaies held to be of some decree of a generall Councill or else of Apostolicall tradition Some would bear you in hand that Pope Innocent the third brought it in first who lived about the year 1213. which is about 356 years since whereas we read of childrens baptisme 1000 years before that For Origen that lived about 226 years after Christ alledging Ps 51.5 Orig. in Com. in Ep. ad Rom. cap. 6. In sin my mother conceived me saith that for this cause the Church received a tradition from the Apostles to baptize children Many of the ancient Fathers as Austin and Jerome mention this custome of the Church against those that denied originall sin 1 Cor. 15. as St Paul instanced in the baptizing of the dead to refute those that denied the resurrection So St Cyprian about the year 250. affirmed that children might be baptized before the eighth day And the Milevitane Councill decreed such to be accursed that denied children baptisme especially if sick or in danger of death And Irenaeus before this the Bishop of Lyons Iren. cont Her cap. 39. the Martyr and Disciple to Polycarpus who was scholler to Saint John wrote that children as well as elder people were saved by their new birth in Christ viz. by water and the spirit And from those ancient times look upon all Christian Churches confessions and practice from the beginning you will find it alwaies in use As 1. Among the Greeks who do annually excommunicate the Pope to whom St Paul was preacher 2. The Russian punisheth all with death that refuse or deride it or neglect it and yet call the Pope an Heretick which I think they would not do if they had received baptisme from him To these St Andrew preached So the Abyssins and Aethiopians who received the Gospell by St Mathew So the Armenian Christians to whom St Bartholomew brought the blessed tidings of the Gospell So the captive Christians in Aegypt who received the Gospell by St Mark and yet have no communion with the Pope So the Indians to whom St Thomas preached So did the Brittains who were taught by Simon Zelotes with other sorts of them and it being so generally received one may wonder with Erasmus what devill entred them people that forbad baptizing children which had been evidently done above 1400 years Beside as we find it done long before the Popes corruptions came in so we find it still used by those that are reformed from Popish doctrines even the Protestant reformed Churches as you may see in all their Confessions and Articles of Religion as well in England as France and Germany as the French Galatius de exord Anab. l. 8. Helvetian Bohemian Dutch Saxon and Augustan Confessions all which States and Churches have punished with death those of contrary opinion that either have denied baptisme to children or rebaptized any Cod. Just lib. 1. tit 7. Justinian the Emperour made it a law At Vienna they drowned them England hath burned them Mathe. But they say that they rebaptize because they were not rightly baptized before And they were not rightly baptized because they dipped them not Phila. This is indeed one of their tenets but surely to baptize with though not in water in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost cannot be denied to be true baptisme the washing sprinkling or drenching is but the circumstance only and therefore one may fully and rightly be baptized without dipping as I have already shewed you from the originall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which hath divers significations and signifieth as well to die colours and wash as well as to dip And whereas they urge the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in alwaies to signifie in because it is said John baptized in Jordan yet they may find it in the third of Matthew to signifie with where St John saith of Christ he shall baptize you with the Holy-Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with fire Beside they consider not the place where they were so baptized in the Primitive times which was an hot Country where it was ordinary for people to wash themselves often in a day nor the time of the first age of the Church when they had hardly Churches or Font nor consider they the multitude of converts which could not be well baptized but in places of much water as Aenon was where John baptized If we should use the same way now and in these cold Countries it might be the death of many tender creatures I know they say our children may stay while they be older Christ was not baptized till he was thirty years of age But they consider not that Christ could not be baptized sooner for John was but new sent with commission from God to baptize nor they perceive not that by deferring it that they indanger the childs salvation it wanting the means appointed whereby they should be brought to Christ their Saviour Mathe. Were not these tenets held by some in the Church before Anabaptisme sprung up in Germany Phila. Yes for about the year 250. after Christ some taught that all that were baptized by Hereticks ought to be rebaptized by the Orthodox Ministers of the Church and their reason was because Hereticks themselves had no part in the Church and therefore could give no baptisme Cyprian Of this opinion was St Cyprian a Bishop of Carthage in Africa martyred in the daies of the Emperour Valerian who beheaded him Against him Stephanus Bishop of Rome opposed himselfe by calling a Synod at Rome against it which concluded that according to the tradition and custome of the Church hereticks and those that were baptized by them might be received into the Church upon submission and recantation of their errors without rebaptizing And I beleeve this opinion of Cyprian hath been the ground of the Anabaptists rebaptization who will not recant it 1. Concil Nic. Can. â— 19 though St Cyprian is reported to have recanted his which they might wel do if they would distinguish of hereticks for some hereticks destroied the foundation of faith as the Samosatenians who said that Christ was not of the substance of the Father but called the Son of God only for his vertues
as that no bone of him was broken and that his side was pierced and the like Phila. No doubt but every particular consequent of his death hath some mystery in it Exod. 12.46 As 1. In that a bone of him was not broken to shew that he was the true paschall Lamb sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5.6 answering to the Jewes Passeover which was so to be handled Exod. 12.46 So his side was pierced with a spear by a souldier John 19.34 First to fulfill Scripture Zach. 12.10 they shall look on him whom they have pierced Also to answer to Adam whose side was opened when Eve was formed so was Christ when the Church Christian was to be framed So the water and blood that issued from that wound was both miraculous and mysticall 1. Miraculous that the water contained in the pericardium about the heart was not dried up with the anguish that he endured and by the heat of the heart in that extremity 2. It was mysticall shewing the difference between him and his forerunners Moses shewed a bodily deliverance of Israel by water of the red sea Joshua by Jordan John the Baptist shewed a spirituall deliverance by water in baptisme but Christ was he that came by water and blood 1 Iohn 5.7 8. By water of sanctification to wash us from the stain of sin and by the blood of expiation to make attonement with God for the guilt of sin So the earthquake shewed his divine power by which he made the earth do him homage though man would not whereby the senslesse creature condemned the stupidity of men As also it foreshewed how the doctrin of his death should shake all worldly ordinances So the renting of the rocks shewed how the doctrin of his death should rent the hearts of men the godly hearts by sorrow the wicked by horror yea the confession of the Centurion that he was the Son of God shewed Christs power that though his Disciples forsook him yet he raised up pagans to acknowledge him Mathe. Why was he buried Phila. First that the Scripture might be fulfilled Esa 53.9 and that being buried might be known to be dead and also might overcome death in his own den and might bury our sins with him from the sight of God who are buried with him by baptisme Col. 2.12 and might take away from us the horror of the grave yea no doubt also to teach Christians to bury each other decently as those that have a part in Christs death and in the hope of his resurrection He was buried in a known place that his buriall might not be doubted of and neer to the City Jerusalem which signified the vision of peace that men may know our rest came by him who bore the chastisement of our peace He was laied to rest in a garden because troubles arose from sin committed in a garden And his sepulchre was in a rock to shew that our stony hearts must be digged before Christ can lodge there And it was a new sepulchre to shew that his rest place is only in that heart that is made new And in this no man was ever laid lest some should say it was some other man that rose or that he rose by vertue of some holy man there buried as 2 Kin. 13.21 So he was buried another mans sepulchre to shew that no grave belonged to him because he was no sinner and that therefore he was buried for other men not for himselfe and that graves are propërly made for sinners not for him that was their Saviour Mathe. But why is the Evangelist so diligent to give notice of all the circumstances of his buriall Phila. He makes mention of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus now because they doe now a more worthy work then ever before to shew that God will honor them that honor Christ by which we may be encouraged in well doing Now was that prophecie fulfilled that he made his grave with the wicked and the rich The wicked was Pilate whose leave was craved and those malefactors that lay buried not far off And the rich were these two Senators who shew more Christian courage for Christ now dead and insulted over by his enemies then when he triumphed by his miracles So should we to his members in the depth of their adversity They are the most noble Christians that will shew themselves to the Church friends in her tribulation and to Christ professors in persecution This argued the powerfull working of God in these who hid their profession for fear of the Jewes and now are more bold then the best of his Disciples It is dangerous censuring of men for though some seem good and are not so others seem bad and yet are good even as some are wiser then they seem so others seem wiser then they are But you will object that if they were so zealous they need not have asked Pilates leave to do so charitable a work Now the Evangelists set this down to shew that there might be the lesse doubt made of his death because the Judge gave leave to bury him Also that though they knew God could mollifie the heart of Pilate of himselfe to command his buriall yet Joseph thought fit to shew his respect to authority by asking his leave Zeale without discretion is like sacrifice without salt not accepted with God Having obtained leave they perform it hastily because it was the preparation to the sabbath to teach all men to do their necessary occasions before that yea that our outward solemnitie though it favour of charity yet must not obstruct piety Also they did it openly to take away all suspicion of fraud in his buriall And they did it costly to teach us that we must spare neither labor nor cost to serve Christ living or dead in himselfe or in his members He was wrapped in fine linnen to argue his innocence and with spices to shew the sweet memoriall of the blessed and what a sweet odour should arise from his buriall in the hearts of all beleevers But yet he was not imbalmed not only because the time was too short to do it but because we should know that his body needed nothing to preserve it but Christs own divine power and also to prevent any cavill as that he was thereby preserved from corruption Now it is noted that this was done after the manner of the Jewes buryings to shew us that customes may be observed Mat. 27.59 Heb. Goler being not forbidden in Scripture It is said they rowled a great stone to the mouth of the sepulchre not only to secure his body from any vile usage but that the glory of Christ might the more appear in removing this stone when he rose yea the women being there had a mystery in it namely yâ—â— shew how God can make the weakest strong enough to stand against the enemies of Christ by an open profession of him as the watching and sealing up of the sepulchre did but the more manifest his resurrection
one Ardaeus a Syrian Then followed the Messalians called Euchitae because they thought the whole duty of man consisted in praiers not hearing by which St Paul tels us that faith is begotten by which praier must be offered up They were also called Enthusiasts because when they were transported they thought the spirit was infused into them Theo. l. 4. c. 7. so that they needed neither holy discipline for the body as fasting nor doctrine for the soule Apollinaris followed who denied Christ to have any humane soule but that his divinity supplied the place of it But then Christ was not perfect man Donatus Bishop of Numidia held that the Catholick was bounded among those of his society in Africa and that no baptisme was rightly administred but by them The wildest branch of this heresie was the Circumcilionists who would cast themselves down from clifts and rocks and into fire and water out of assurance that it was martyrdome and fruits of their faith Our Quakers are like them Aug. con Donat. Collyridiani worshipped the Virgin Mary and offered cakes to her Epiph. cont haeres as the Jewes did to the Queen of heaven and as the Papists do adore her as a mediatrix There were some also after these that said Joseph knew Mary after she had borne Christ because of the word in Mat. 1.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till which word signifieth never oftentimes As 1 Sam. 15.25 So Mat. 28.20 Samuel saw Saul no more till the day his death i. never So 1 Sam. 6.23 Michal had no child till the day of her death and all the Fathers generally hold she was a perpetual virgin and so have taken those words of the Apostles Creed born of the Virgin Mary as if of one that ever was a virgin Yea some of them have argued it from Ezek. 44.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of allegory that as the East gate of the Temple was to be shut up that no man might enter in nor go out there but the Prince So was the blessed Virgins body made the Temple of the Holy Ghost and her womb only for the ingresse and egresse of Messiah the Prince And though that some of the disciples were called Christs brethren as James and Joses Simon and Iude we know that those were so called in Scripture that were but Cozen germans and so these might be the sons of Iosephs brother or sisters or of Maries sister as Iames is said to be the son of Mary Cleophas Danaeus de heres fo 224. Epiph. de heres fol. 166. Or some might be the sons of Ioseph by a former wife if he were eighty yeers of age before he was contracted to Mary and so the more unlikely to know her after the flesh These hereticks were of the same mind with Nestorius and Helvidius who succeeded them But these were called from their opinion Antidicomarianitae After them sprang up the Seleucians that said that the Chaos of which God made the world was coeternall with God and that Angels created the souls of men Aug. and that Christ did not carry our nature up to heaven as it is said Acts 2.34 and cap. 3.23 Rom. 8.34 Ephes 1.20 but that he left his body in the body of the Sun These received not baptisme by water They denied the resurrection of the body and said only that was performed by succession of generation which it may be they borrowed partly from Plato and Pythagoras Himeneus and Philetus 2 Tim. 2.18 Pelagius affirmed that men by nature were able to fulfill the law of God contrary to Rom. 8.7 And denied originall sin contrary to Psal 51.5 and that it came not by propagation but imitation of Adams sin and that children need not be baptized for remission of sin Aug. con Pela and that the holy men that confessed sin did it rather for example of humility then for any necessity or guiltinesse Nestorius followed who denied the personall union of the divine and humane nature of which the blessed Virgin was the medium or mean and in that respect only called the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mother of God because she brought forth him that was by union both God and man inseparably and Nestorius would have her called only the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mother of Christ and therefore condemned by the first Councill of Ephesus and banished by Theodosius the Emperour and his tongue rotted in his mouth Eutyches confounded two natures in Christ humane and divine by saying that the divine swallowed up the humane and so Christ had only the divine nature He was condemned by the generall Councill of Chalcedon where sate 630. Fathers and the Emperour Martianus and it was decreed That the natures of Christ though united yet were not confounded Next followed those that worshipped the crosse and divers images which filth the Church of Rome hath licked up together with the worship of reliques One Godescalcus a Dutch man said that by predestination men were forced both to do good and evill About 1100. yeers after Christ a kind of monomachy arose between the Greek and Latine Churches about the bread in the Sacrament whether it should be leavened or unleavened The Greek Church was called Fermentarii the Latine Azymitae the first did leven it the other did not After this one Petrus Abolandus a French man said the Holy Ghost was the soul of the world and not of the substance of God the Father Almericus also of France said that God was the essence of all creatures and that they all should be converted into God again The Paleneni about Tholouze in France affirmed that a man might attain to such perfection in this world that he might be void of all sin and that such were not subject to any Civill or Ecclesiastick power that they had no need of praier and fasting or any exercise whereby grace may be increased These laid some grounds upon which the Anabaptists build now Others under a colour of Religion and charity made all things common and women also These surely began the Family of Love About 1600. years after Christ sprang up the Anabaprists but before I come to speak of them and others following from their time I must tell you according to your question how and when the Protestants came in and how persecuted by Papists and opposed by hereticks and schismaticks Mathe. I thank you for your remembrance and entreat you so to do Phila. You must take notice that the Protestant Religion hath been maintained in her doctrine from the beginning of the Primitive times First by the Bishops of Rome themselves for the first 300. years after Christ and many of them were Confessors and Martyrs though their pride began to appear 100. years before in Zepherinus and other Bishops following him as hath been declared before But after that they were grown rich and potent by the favour of Emperours and got
consent among themselves or by the chiefe Bishop among them So there were two Synods summoned in Asia about reformation of the Church and ordaining Bishops Others at Ancira in Galatia and in France and at Antioch against Montanus Others at Rome about the celebration of Easter But when the Emperour Constantine turned to the Christian faith he called the generall Councill of Nice in Bythinia against Arrius who denied Jesus Christ the Son of God to be of the same substance with the Father which opinion was there condemned and accursed and Easter day setled to be kept upon the Lords day and not on the Jewes fourteenth of Nisan And so Councils were usually called till the Pope usurped the power striving to wrest it from the Emperour and to set himselfe above Councils But had Charls the fift dealt as roundly with him about the Councill of Trent as the Emperour Sigismund did in the Council of Basil it had not been twenty five years in calling nor so long in sitting and so little good done But that they governed the Church by Councils it may appear from the great Councill of Nice Concil Nic. Can. 5. Con. Ant. Ca. 20 which decreed that there should be in every Province a Synod twice a year So concluded the Councill of Antioch so did the first Councill of Constant Can. 2. So the Council of Chalcedon Can. 29. So the third Council of Toledo Can. 18. So the second Councill of Turo Can. 1. And so good and approved was this government that when the Synod of Antioch sixty years before that of Nisen had condemned Paulus Samosatenus for heresie and he would not yeeld up his Church but kept it by violence they complained to the Emperour Aurelianus an heathen and he drove him out to his shame from Antioch Mathe. Why then are Bishops so much cried down in these latter times Phila. 1. By that spirit that lusteth to envy And 2. By selfe love which if it cannot swell us to be as big as others we do strive like Satan to pull down others to be like our selves 3. By covetousnesse which loves to part Christs coat or to cast lots for it many had rather cloath themselves with the Churches means then Christs merits and wrap themselves warm in his coat rather then trust to the purchase of his Crosse These are the motives whatever the pretences are or else why was not the Abby and Bishops lands reserved to pious uses I beleeve the Commonwealth was more rich by the Churches leases then ever she was by the Churches purchases The Farmer then grew from a Yeoman to a Gentleman and most of the purchasers are now fallen from Gentry to beggery But beside all this it is no wonder if that be cried down in these times of Libertinisme Hieron in 1. Epist ad Titum which was set up for the preventing of schism and heresie whose ground is alwaies pretended liberty of conscience which kind of people are alwaies adverse to Christ and his Spouse the Church and therefore ever persecute the overseers of the flock Cypr. Ep. 55. that they may the better adorn themselves with the ruines of the Church and are no doubt the followers of the great Antichrist and forerunners of the last apostacy of this world since the Church hath been governed by them Simler de rep Helvet fol. 148 for 1500 years and upward or by none or else by a disorderly confusion as we see in those Churches who have cast off Episcopacy as in Switzerland where a Lay man is President of their Consistory And at Zurick and Basil their Consistories are wholly Lay and Ministers are only to advise Yea in other places Ministers are not so much as assistants so that they may use their Ministers like minstrels and chuse whether they will hear them or no for they have no power nor hardly a right derivation of their ministry from the order of Christ and his Apostles Mathe. Whether can you derive your own aright having originally received it from Rome by Popish Bishops Phila. You think it seems that our Bishops took their ordination there at first or that there were no Bishops in England to ordain others but they must needs travell to Rome for it or take it from Rome by delegation and if so you take our Bishops and ministry to be meerly antichristian But suppose we had it from thence that will no more prove our ministry antichristian or popish then our very Bible Gospell or Baptisme if we received it from thence For superstition cannot annihilate the ordinances of God given at first from Christ no more then building stubble upon the foundation can destroy it or than a spring water is utterly spoiled by running from a rock through a clay But our Bishops and Presbytery we derive from the Apostles as we do also our Protestant doctrine professed which though held in unrighteousnesse in the Church of Rome like a captive for a time yet at last redeemed it selfe and came to light and shewed it selfe the true child of God begotten at first in Rome by the word of truth from which shee deviating the truth chose another foster-mother to dwell withall that will maintain her with goods and life and not forsake her to the death So our Bishops and Clergy came not at first from Rome though Rome hath made bold to invade the Church of England But for the first three hundred years after Christ the Pope had nothing to do out of his own Diocesse as may be seen by the Councill of Ephesus order Con. Ephes p. 1. act 7. made in the behalfe of the Cyprian Bishops against the Patriarch of Antioch who challenged their ordination That Councill decreed that the Cyprian Bishops should not be violated in their right and also that no Bishop should busie himselfe afterwards in anothers Province or invade others priviledges Ruff. hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 6. which they enjoied from the beginning By which the Bishop of Rome was shut up within his owne City and Suburbs And we find for certain that the Brittish Bishops did not acknowledge any obedience due from them to the Pope Spel. Conc. anno 601. which they must needs have done if they had their ordination from him and they had reason to stand upon it being Brittany was the elder Church planted by Joseph of Arimathea in Tiberius Caesars time Gild. de conq Brit. and Peter came not to Rome till the second year of the Emperor Claudius to settle that Church Mathe. How came the Brittish Bishops to be consecrated Phila. Some think by those that came with Joseph of Arimathea into England having Apostolike authority such as Simon Zelotes who was crucified in Brittany Jerom. in Catal. script Eccles Others think that some were ordained by Fugaâ—ius and Damianus whom Elutherius Bishop of Rome sent to baptize at the request of King Lucius himselfe and people And if it were so there is no reason to
that concerned the Jewes glory or troubles he writeth in close hidden terms calling the Son of God the Prince of Princes Dan. 8.25 and the land of Judea the land of Tzeby Dan. 11.16 and Antiochus a man of an hard face i. impudent and minding hidden things i. secret wickednesse hardly practised by any before him So the Apostles did obscure the Emperours and Popes of Rome under the terms of Beasts and Antichrist lest they should provoke them to persecute the Christians before the time For the Beast was and is not and yet is Rev. 17.8 He was in rising an hundred yeers after Constantine and then was not i. even almost extinct by the invasion of the barbarous Goths and Vandals and yet is i. recovered and gets the place of Rome once governed by Kings Consuls Dictators Decemviri Triumviri which some Writers say are the five heads or Kings spoken of Rev. 17.10 and the sixt was an Emperor which St Iohn saith is and the other was not yet come namely the Pope who when he did come continued not long but he was dispossessed by the Goths But then he recovering againe made up the seventh by assuming the temporall power and yet appeared as an eight because he had a spirituall power divers from the former Of all which matters of Antichrist and his ruine one concludeth well in these verses Antichristus eat Christus comitatus ab alto Coelicolis properat Gog Magog ecce ruit Ecce ruit regnum serpens detrusus ad orcum Bestia tum sequitur cauda propheta dein Cauda propheta dein populus seductus ab ill is Veh miseris ter veh qui fide deficiunt Mathe. Though I find by what you have said that the Pope is not the head of the Church yet may I not think the Papists and many other hereticks and schismaticks to be of the body of the Church militant Phila. You cannot justly so think for the Church militant is that part of the Church Catholick which under the banner of Christ her head fighteth or is ready to do it against his enemies the world flesh and the devill and all their crafts and errors and their afflictions in spiritual armour Eph. 6.13 But they do not so not that I think they are a company of men perfect and void of sin as the Catharists and Anabaptists do nor are they such Aug. lib. de heres cap 88. Cyp. lib. 4. Ep. 2. as having never id in matters of faith refuse to retain any sinners in their congregation as the Novatians and Donatists did But yet not such a company as consist only in outward profession and communion of Sacraments under one Pastor the Pope but have the internall vertues of faith hope and charity whether living under the Law of the Gospell yet we exclude not as the Papists do from this Church all that are not baptized or under the examination of Catechisme or all kind of hereticks apostates excommunicate persons or schismaticks farther then they wilfully continue such nor doe we think that reprobates and hypocrites are members of the Church though they outwardly professe themselves so Mathe. I pray make this appear Phila. First many that are unbaptized and but under the discipline of catechising may be and are members of the Church militant because many such are included in the covenant Act. 2.39 as the Eunuch Acts 8. and Cornelius Acts 10. yea Rahab in the Old Testament mentioned Heb. 11.31 and the theefe crucified with Christ and many were martyrs before they were baptized Beside as many have been baptized who were never true members of the Church 1 Iohn 2.19 for many sheep are out of the fold Aug. in tract 45. in Joh. and many wolves within so by the same reason many unbaptized may be members of the Church militant Bel. lib. 1. de baptismo c. 6. though not visible because they may have the baptisme of fire and blood though not of water So we say that hereticks and apostates stubbornly continuing such are not of this Church because they have made shipwrack of faith and therefore are to be shunned by the faithfull being not of their society 1 Iohn 2.19 Yet we cannot deny them admittance upon their returning and repenting And so we account of schismaticks Concil Nicen. cap. 18 19. who rent themselves off from the Church Christs mysticall body and so is no part of it because they break the union of members with the head and one another and therefore so standing they cannot be members of the Church no more then a branch rent from a tree can be part of the living tree or a member cut from the body to be part of the living body So those that are justly excommunicate in the right sense of the Catholick Church and have no mind to return and to be reconciled cannot be of the Church militant because such want repentance and love and peace But because the whole Catholick Church cannot personally or actually excommunicate one some think therefore that whether excommunication be inflicted justly or unjustly one is but cast out of the Church visible or some particular Church Indeed sometimes it may very well be so but if it be done by the rule of the whole Church surely it is all one as if done by the whole or the representative body of the Church because the same spirit guideth any part if they go by a true rule which guideth the whole as 1 Cor. 5.4 and therefore in ancient time Nic. Conc. Can. 5. if one Church did excommunicate a man another Church might not absolve him It is true that a man unjustly excommunicated is only cast out of the visible Church John 9.34 35. or particular Congregation and therefore he retaining his faith and baptisme is neverthelesse a member of the Church militant yea a man justly excommunicate yet upon his repentance is a member of the Church militant and ought to be admitted into the visible Church and particular Congregation as was the incestuous person 2 Cor. 2.7 8. for the censure of excommunication is to such a man only corrective 1 Cor. 5.5 not destructive for though it be said there for the destruction of the flesh yet I suppose that he was not delivered to Satan to be killed but rather that he finding himselfe cast out of the Church which is the kingdome of God and so deprived of the benefits thereof conveied to men by praier word and Sacrament and so in the devils power it might work in him a mortification of fleshly concupiscence by true repentance Nor do we set open this Church door so wide as to account reprobates of the Church militant nor yet notorious sinners without repentance for the members of the Church militant are living stones built upon the corner stone Christ 1 Pet. 2 5. in whom they are chosen and inrolled as his souldiers and are Saints by efficacious calling because predestinated thereto Rom. 8.30 which reprobates are not So manifest
impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ