it and so analogically he may receive Gods seal the Sacrament and set his own by taking it that yet believes not and as in the Word preached which is the savour of life unto life and of death unto death and a sweet savour howsoever in both he that believes takes his part of the promise he that doth not receives his portion which is the threat so that to either it may be said tolle quod tuum est vade and the terrour of the threatning may conduce and dispose to the acceptance of the promise as fear introduceth love as the needle doth the thread in the expression of St. Augustine even so it fares in the visible Word the Sacrament Farther when the Sacrament which is Gods external Seal of this promise is applied to an unbeliever it hath all that is essential to Gods actual sealing of the truth thereof the promise being made and published the Sacrament by institution signifying it by similitude representing it by sanctification assuring it and God thereby engaging himself to verifie it in respect of external sealing nothing more is done to a true believer for of internal sealing and making the external to be successful or efficacious is not the question neither may we confound the external sealing with the inward which is made by the spirit onely nothing is done more in relation to sealing to him that performeth the condition than to him that fulfilleth it not As when a Writing is sealed and delivered to the use of two to become a Deed when a condition is complyed with or else to be as an escrol he indeed that observes the Condition onely hath the estate thereby conveyed but the sealing is alike to both And this Conditional proposition is an absolute truth even when made unto a Reprobate though it be false that he believes and that he shall be saved yet it is true that if he believe he shall be saved for if the connexion be true though both parts severally considered or though one or other of the parts resolved into a Categorical proposition be false yet the proposition is true Dr. Kend. ubi supra the verity whereof depends on the connexion between the Predicate in the Antecedent and the Predicate in the Consequent which put together so as the Predicate of the Antecedent become the Subject and the Predicate of the Consequent be made the Predicate in a Categorical proposition it will result onely into this indubitable truth He that believes shall be saved Indeed if this Sacrament should be exhibited to an Infidel not added to the Church who had entred into no Covenant with God nor assented by any Historical Faith to the written Word or should have the Sacraments exhibited without the Word then they might argue that the seal were set to a blank but being exhibited to those who are in Covenant with God as all are that be of the visible Church how else can their children be baptized and have received by a Dogmatical Faith the written Word of promise whereof the Sacraments are seals there can be no blank but in the argument if they shall in this case urge it they will not say that it is an untruth or false testimony when it is delivered in the Word though unto reprobates to whom that promise is offered and the offer chiefly bottomed on the sufficiency of Christs death to save all that shall believe it being true that Christ by his death merited salvation for all upon condition of believing if thereby we imply onely the connexion between Faith and Salvation so that all believers shall be saved though it be not truth if we thereby intend that he merited salvation for all persons his death indeed being sufficient for all in regard of the price and merit thereof though we cannot properly say he dyed sufficiently in respect of Christs purpose in laying down his life and of the efficacy of his death I say the offer of this promise to reprobates is grounded chiefly on the sufficiency of Christs death to save believers and partly on our insufficiency to know who shall believe And if this proposition be no false testimony when it is held forth in the Word wherefore should it cease to be true when it is given in the Sacrament why should the same thing be true when proposed thetically generally and to the ear and false when applyed hypothetically particularly and to the eye as if the essence of truth consisted in the manner and way of representation and not rather in the adaequation of things to the understanding If they shall object that the Sacraments are mutual engaging seals and as Gods seals on his part so ought the receivers to set their seals to the counterpart and when God obligeth himself to be their God conditionally they absolutely promise to be his people and therefore when wicked men partake of the Sacrament in them at least it is a false testimony while they profess to be what they are not and because all that are within the Covenant of Grace de jure should be Saints they ought to exclude all such of whom they are not satisfied and convinced that they are such de facto I answer 1. That I grant there ought to be the answer or restipulation of a good conscience in all for to be saved but not in all that partake of the seals of grace and salvation Yet whosoever receives them doth or ought to set his seal to what is thereby sealed to him which is onely that he that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved 2. Let them assign a cause why the same reason holds not in Baptisme and why upon that account they adjourn not the baptising of Infants till they can render that satisfaction seeing Baptisme is a seal of the Covenant as well as the Eucharist and the seal is set to a blank when the baptised hath no faith aswell as when the Communicant believes not 3. Not to mention that there is a kind of mutual Covenant between God and Man in hearing of the Word God obliging himself by his promises there revealed and in us there is a virtual engagement and profession of our religious reception of Gods will and subjection of our Consciences thereunto with belief of his truth hope of the good there promised and love of God which therein reveals himself all which though wicked men seem to profess yet nothing thereof they perform But to insist on prayer there is the like mutual Covenant God obligeth himself by his promise though indeed as Durand aptly Ames Cas Consc l. 4. c. 16. p. 187. promissio divina in Scripturis sanctis non sonat in aliquam obligationem sed insinuat meram dispositionem liberalitatis Divinae and thereby as Thomas Deus non nobis fit simpliciter debitor sed sibi ipsi in some sense to hear our prayers if made in Faith and in our prayers there is always an implicit and for the most part an
seeing this was a concluding part and as it were the peroration of that other We would have as much care impended and forwardness manifested in making men worthy partakers as in having them to partake but we do not conceive there lies upon us any obligation to give or on others to take by triall an account of our worthiness nor that their title to the signs and elements the Sacramentum rei Panis Domini is rooted in or resulting from their worthiness but their Church-membership We wish every Heir were a prudent and temperate manager of his Inheritance but he must not be suspended from the enjoyment thereof till he demonstrate his temper and thriftiness his right accrews as Heir not as a good Husband or a sober man and yet while he is in infancy or an Ideot he is not admitted to manage it and by Outlawry he forfeits his personal and cannot sue for his real Estate and by Attainder forfeits the whole They tell us of the comforts they have found in their endeavours to preserve the dignity of Gods Ordinance They are very subtil or cautious to dispute against us so often with those arguments whereof we can take no perfect cognizance and for truth whereof we must take their word their inward experiences But to answer the dignity of good things is their communicableness and it is no indignity to the Sun that the Negro's partake his light though it scorch them but it seems that the Apologists are like the Eastern people that think it conduceth to the Majesty of their Kings to be recluded and shut up from publick intercourse whereas it were more for their honour to be imployed in the administration of the Office whereunto they were designed But if their endeavours have been formally as an Ordinance to preserve the dignity thereof they should have done the same towards all Ordinances by the Canon of per se de omni but their care hath not been like in such way to preserve the dignity of the Word and Prayer which we think and shall endeavour presently to shew to be Ordinances of like dignity and to be in danger of as much indignity as the Sacrament by a free and promiscuous admission so that we doubt that it will start much suspicion that there is an influence of Self and interest into their endeavours and their love to the dignity of this Ordinance is Amor concupiscentiae non amicitiae as that which will better serve their turn and fit their ends To condemn their people for not taking what they will not give them is paralel to the hard measure of some of our Kings that compelled some to fine for not taking the Order of Knighthood at the Coronation when as they came to tender themselves at the day and could not obtain it It seems to them below reason to see no difference between other Ordinances and the Lords Supper as to matter of examination It may perchance be below their reason which is at such an elevation but seeing Nos populus terrae quibus non licet esse tam disertis are not at such an ascendent it had not been below their charity better to inform us of this difference To hear without faith makes the Word become the savour of death In 1 Cor. 14.22 Ad Pop. Antioch Hom. 73. tom 5. p. 141. Confut. of Rhem. Test p. 528. and also to seal mens condemnation as Diodate in terms delivers it as to eat and drink unworthily makes the Sacrament turn to damnation Si nihil ex eo quod huc convenimus admonemur lucrari deberemus haec non modo nihil nobis prodessent verum majoris occasio damnationis fierent nobis saith Chrysostome do you think this a matter of less hainous offence to neglect his Word than his Body saith Fulk so there is no disparity in the danger of the one or other As previously to eating there is a command for a man to examine himself so dispositively to hearing there is a precept to take heed how we hear and several other qualifications are thereunto required 1 Peter 2.1 2. James 1.21 so as there is no inequality in the obligation to bring suitable dispositions The formal part in faithless hearing can no more be separated from the material than in unworthy receiving so as there is no disproportion in the hazard of sinning and with as little difference are the Principles and Reasons supposed to forbid the admitting of unworthy persons to the Sacrament extensive and applicable to the non-admission to the Word In 3. q. 80. art 6. p. 365. Universaliter in omni materia est contra jus naturae admittere indignos ad quaecunque beneficia as Nugnus argueth and either the Word is no Pearl nor holy thing or else though Pearls and holy the Sacraments may as well as the Word ex Hypothesi be cast before Swine and given to Dogs That prohibition primarily and directly respects and is intended as is elsewhere shewed to the not preaching of the Word to those that may fall under that metaphorical notion and is applicable to the Sacrament which was not then instituted onely extensione quadam Scripturae non proprio literali sensu To say that more apply this Text to the Sacrament than to the Word as it is impertinent to tell us how it is usually applied when we require how it is to be rightly understood so it is improper for them Ad similitudnem non rationem vivunt Seneca to make any such aid-prayer who would by a kinde of Petalism exile that Topick of Authority and make it an Utopick save perchance when it may do them service and then as Ockham to the Emperour they will defend with the Pen what shall protect them as with a Sword and if the Argument may be impress'd against an adversary then onely Hostem qui feriet fuerit mihi Carthaginensis But however if as they confess the Text may be extended to Hearers of the Word that comes full enough to our purpose for if as they dispute because the Pearl and holy things of the Sacrament are not to be cast or given to Swine or Dogs that is persons unworthy therefore it is of necessity to make triall who are worthy may not we with as good consequence and as much force of reason argue that because the Pearl and holy things of the Word are not to be dispensed unto such also that therefore they ought to examine who are such or not antecedently to such dispensation But farther also if as we argue and the Context will evince the prohibition be first and chiefly intended of preaching the Word then as the direct light is brighter than the reflected the first draught of any fancy in picture is more perfect than the second so the not casting or giving those Pearls and holy things being principally meant of the Word and applicable to the Sacraments onely in an accommodate sense it seems to follow that those
which by the concordance of Interpreters is interpreting of Scripture is a sign unto or serveth for believers therefore probation ought to be made whether they believe that are to partake of Prophecying or the Word preached As the Lopers said If we enter into the City we shall dy there 2 Kings 7.4 and if we sit still here we dy also so he that hears and believeth not shall be damned and he that eats and drinks without faith can but eat and drink his damnation there is no safer sinning in the one or other And Aristippus would have found no odds in dying by the bite of a Lion or a Weazel nor Heliogabalus been sensible of any difference in the kinde of his Halters and Poniards that should have killed him If the hope of learning and possibility of attaining faith may support and warrant a promiscuous admission to hearing the Word though notwithstanding many that hear have no right to the promises held forth in the Word nor any interest in the salvation offered in Jesus Christ but all those in effect signifie nothing to them yet nevertheless all must hear and those are generally and indifferently to be propounded to all if because the matter of the duty viz. Hearing is commanded by God it ought to be performed by all though many are not qualified to do it in due form or to a right end since our powers or our prosiciencies are not the measure of our duty but Gods precept and our obligation is not rooted in nor results from what we can do but what God will have done and the good commanded must be done though evil not causally but consequently not of it self but accidentally ensue in the doing Why either all these considerations should not in some measure and degree at least be extensive and applicable to an admission of all Church-members to the Sacrament or why considering this their solicitude and sedulity should not be extended and applied to the trying and preparing men in order to worthy hearing aswell as to communicating may seem not so much below reason as they say to ask as perhaps above it to answer But now when we can see no difference in the Grounds and Reasons and yet do behold such disparity in their affections and factions concerning the one or other Ordinance which did they simply and purely rise and flow from zeal to purity of Ordinances or salvation of souls would equally respect all Ordinances and salvation of souls in all like concernments We cannot be so blinde or so connivent as not to discern that which may facilitate us to suspect that the Sacrament is but the accessory some other thing is the principal which is reposited among arcana Imperii ragion di stato and the wheels of their Discipline run Byas and themselves like false Proxinetes under colour of wooing for their friend court for themselves and onely pretend to fit men for the Sacrament but intend better to fit them for their proper ends Canponantes sacramentum so that though Caesar apertly did invade the Soveraignty and Pompey pretends the name and interest of the Common-wealth yet the difference is no more than between a Storm and a Mine That there is not the same reason for a precedaneous examination in these two Ordinances they assay to prove Because Heathens are capable of the Word Go preach the Word to every creature The other is proper to Saints to strengthen and comfort the begotten Has fundit dives facundia gemmas But they forget that we are not disputing ad rem what is or ought to be done but arguing ad hominem what should be done consequently to their Principles viz. that Ordinances are not to be dispensed to persons unworthy who cannot but sin in participating unworthily and that they are partakers of that sin which admit them from which and the like Aphorisms there seems to result a necessity of examining Heathens precedaneously to their admission to the Word preached whether they are humble docil and facil to captivate their understanding to the obedience of faith or not 2. There is not the same reason for examining of Heathens as of those that be members of the Church What hath any to do to examine more than to judg those that are without The Ethicks tell us that some are not idoneous Auditors of moral Philosophy viz. young men not defined by paucity of years but weakness of understanding and inconstancy and levity of manners now though perchance a Reader or Master may sense it as the dictate of prudence to make triall of the ingeny and temper of such as by agreement are his profest Scholars yet it follows not that if a stranger shall accidentally go into or transiently pass through his School or being perswaded by some Declamations made abroad by the Master or Scholars of the excellency and praise of the Art shall purposely come with some propensness to become a Scholar if he shall like the Doctrine which is taught that he must suspend his Lectures and impose silence on himself untill he have tried the capacity and docibleness of his adventitious Auditor 3. Though Pagans may be permitted to be Hearers and yet in the ancient Church they were not admitted to hear all the parts of Scripture indefinitely but onely some special portions thereof yet they hear it not as their Word or that wherein they can yet claim any actual right or interest In 1 Cor. 14.22 Prophesying is a sign for them that believe a sign of favour and benediction whereby God teacheth and blesseth his people as Paraeus Aquinas A Lapide c. primarily and principally intended to the faithfull Plato who is therefore called Moyses Atticus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to have been very conversant in the writings of Moses whereunto some think he refers in that frequent phrase As the old saying goes the fifth Commandment is explicitely found in Homer and divers of Solomon's Proverbs in the moral Philosophers yet nevertheless it was the proper privilege of the Jews that to them were committed the Oracles of God A Writing or Deed belongsonly to him to whom or to whose use it is sealed and delivered though an unteressed stranger may perchance hear it read In the Charter of a City none hath actual interest until he be incorporate and made free yet a forreiner may hear the purport thereof and perchance may consultly be made acquainted therewith to facilitate and inflect him to denizen himself through the alluring hope of participating the benefits and privileges thereby granted yet all that while the Magistrates hear no obligation to make inspection into or take account of his condition that is not yet under their government 4. We are now disputing onely of Christians and such as are of yeers of discretion Defence of the Admon S. 1. p. 118. and of such Mr. Cartwright expresly sayes If they be not meet to receive the Holy Sacrament of the Supper they are not meet
ab hoste but onely to argue he had the better because he had the last word without reply is an Argument taken from the Cart where anciently Scolds used to play their prizes and they might as well conclude that the Rock hath the worst because when the surging billows break upon him ◠2. c. 1. De civitate Dei and fall into froth he moves not forward to beat them lower Quis disceptandi finis erit loquendi modus si respondendum esse respondentibus semper existimemus saith Augustine there would then indeed be no end in writing many books But Quid Cannas Mithridaticumq bellum Et Syllas Mariosque Mutiosque Magnâ voce sonas manuque totâ Jam dic Posthume de tribus capellis We need not trouble our selves to inquire how other have fought or who hath been Victor in this Arena but come to discharge our proper parts But yet we need not fight for the Cause is given up and the Weapons laid down and the finger held up as in dedition at the first encounter for they franckly and ingenuously confess That at the receiving of the Sacrament conversion may be wrought or there may be the first sensible feeling of grace wrought but though they quit the field yet they will not come in and yeeld but retreat to this Fortress That this effect is not produced by or flowing from the Sacrament but from the word annexed to and concomitant with it and that the Sacrament is yet no converting Ordinance in an ordinary way nor was sanctified nor may be used to that end But Quisquis hominum sic respondeat nisi qui veritati adversatur contra quam non habet quod respondeat as Augustine to Petilian for what is this but to say nothing Cont. lit Pet. l. 3. c. 36. rather than seem to be convict by holding their peace and to be like the pulse of the flowing Sea which seemes ever and anon a little to retract those waves which yet it sends up in a still rising flood toward the Shore For to recapitulate a little when we argue that if Infidels and faithless persons are to be permitted to be Hearers of the Word because thereby Faith may be begotten in them that then also all Church-members may be admitted to partake of the Sacrament because by it their historical and dogmatical Faith may be elevated and improved to a sound and saving faith hereunto it is usually answered that it follows not by like consequence of reason because the Sacrament is no converting Ordinance but onely confirmes that Faith wherewith men come thither But now I beseech you perpend whether it be not all one to our purpose and the scope of the argument if conversion be wrought at the Sacrament which they grant though attributing somewhat to their acuteness we concede it be not effected by it as long as Faith is wrought there though not thereby there is the same reason for coming thither But then secondly Is not the Word always an essential constitutive part of the Sacrament or can it be a Sacrament but by accession of the Word as well instructive as consecratory to the Element Institut l. 4. c. 14. S. 4. p. 472. that word quod praedicatum intelligere nos faciat quid visibile signum sibi velit quo tendit ac nos dirigit saith Calvin who illustrates this truth by comparing the Sacrament without the Word to a seal set to a Charter without writing and this indeed properly which Allegory they otherwise misapply were setting a Seal to a Blank and therefore he saith farther Comment in 5. Ephes Sola mysterii explicatio facit ut mortuum elementum incipiat esse sacramentum correspondently to Augustine Detrahe verbum quid est aqua nisi aqua accedat verbum ad elementum fit sacramentum and then also the words of Consecration as likewise the visible word the actions instruct also verbum sacramenti est pars ejus instructionis saith Chamier Tom. 4. l. 1. c. 15. S. 9. p. 16. Bell. Enerv. Tom. 3. c. 2. p. 16. and as he tells us that though omne concionatorium non est consecratorium at omne consecratorium est concionatorium so Ames well directeth instruere circumstantes consecrare elementa non debent inter se opponi quid per instructionem circumstantium de elementi destinatione ad usum sacrum elementum ipsum ex parte consecratur Why then doe they separate those which God hath joyned and sophistically argue à malè divisis ad bene conjuncta and interpretatively and in the last result onely seem to say that the Sacrament when it is no Sacrament doth not convert Thirdly as Luther Calvin and Chemnicius and other Orthodox Divines affirm that those sins lapsed into after Baptisme are remitted by Faith and Repentance renewed by the memory of Baptisme so also the word formerly heard but not then applyed and laid to heart being now re-minded by occasion of the Sacrament which else had not been recognized may entitle the Sacrament to be the present and immediate cause of conversion and as the word afterward beleeved makes the Sacrament effectual to an Infant so the Encharist makes that word afterward more efficacious toward Conversion which when it was first heard was not received with true Faith The word calleth it self a light and in creating the new man illumination by the word hath resemblance and Analogy with light in the creation of the world which had the primogeniture among all the works of God being mentioned to be first made and is that whereby other of his works are discerned and quickned and enabled for their operations and as Light is actus perspicui so nothing can be acted in any perspicuity or clearness without the enlightning word yet notwithstanding in a clear light some eyes cannot read without the help of Spectacles and will any man therefore conclude that those Perspectives are not meanes or Instruments of discerning Characters because they have no subserviency to that end without the adjument of Light The Chymists boast much of their Universa medicina and some of them thereby understand the Calidum innatum spiritum insitum which of it self works out and mastereth many Diseases but when some Maladies are too stubborn and violent to be expulsed and there is indication of some proper medicine to be applyed for cure although no remedy can put forth its virtue or produce any effect without it be quickned and actuated by that Native Balsam yet we deny not therefore the force and operation of the Medicine nor dare to affirm it is no healing Pharmacon Fourthly They will not adventure to say the Sacrament doth confirm Faith without the accession of the Word thereunto even formally as it confirmeth and if the requisiteness of such a connexion of the Word therewith doth not frustrate the Sacrament of the denomination of a confirming Ordinance why should the like necessity of the
promises though with some more particular and appropriate application upon performance of the condition Chamier Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 9. S. 18 Easdem res confirmare quae prius erant solis verbis conceptae est enim ea signorum natura ut quae Diplomata in membranis sunt fiant efficaciora sortianturque effectum suum Sacraments having some analogy with an Oath wherewith God confirms the promise willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs thereof the immutability of his counsel non suam naturam spectans sed nostram infirmitatem and therefore Paraeus calls our Sacraments In Hebr. c. 6. v. 17. p. 888. God's visible Oaths as the very words saith he manifests for Lawyers call a solemn Oath a Sacrament and therefore they are Gods Oaths in confirmation of his Promises Si verbum meum non sufficit ecce signum do addes Chrysostome but then even in confirming Faith objectivè they consequently not onely strengthen but beget Faith subjectively as a Seal in confirming the Writing begets a beleef of the validity of the assurance and so are meanes of Conversion producing a firmer assent to the truth of those Promises which before were not effectually laid hold of Dico sacramenta saith Chamier esse notiora efficaciora fidei faciendae Ubi supra S. 24. p. 42. observe he saith faciendae non tantùm confirmandae ipsa promissione codem modò quo sigilla regia sunt notiora â—fficaciora ipso diplomate nimirum quia solent apud nos esse cognitiora certioraque quae in oculos cadunt quà m quae auribus admoventur As then he that is not satisfied with a bare single promise may credit an oath and then that oath is properly the means whereby he is perswaded into a beleef and as when a naked Writing is not held a good Conveyance until it become a Deed sealed and delivered that sealing and delivery makes good the assurance and is that which invests the right and interest so when the Word preached doth not profit being not mix'd with Faith in them that hear it the Sacrament that superadds to the Dogmatical or Historical Faith a fiducial assent doth not onely confirm but cause that Faith which justifieth and brings peace with God And to say it cannot properly be said to doe this because it doth it not without precognition of the word is as if they should say that because a Deed is a writing sealed and delivered that it doth not therefore become of force from the sealing and delivery but from the writing read or that an incorporal estate did alwayes pass when the grant alone was read and was onely confirmed by the sealing and delivery Though most of their cunning lye in such generalities yet I shall not insist on it that Christ hath promised to be with us in all his Ordinances unto the end of the world And that there are general promises that their hearts shall live that seek God Psal 6.9.32 Prov. 8.17 Matth. 7.7 Lam. 3.25 Psal 75.4 that the Lord will be found of them that seek him and is good to them that wait for him and to the soul that seeketh him and they that dwell in his Courts shall be satisfied with the goodness of his house and that this is extensible and accommodable to seeking and waiting on him in all his wayes and Ordinances and as a general rule extends to and comprehendeth all particulars not specially and expresly excepted so they must shew by direct and explicit proof that the grace of conversion is denyed to this particular ordinance or else it is included in the affirmation of such grace to be annexed to ordinances in general As the generative faculty for propagation of the species is still supported and enlivened by influence of Gods benediction Be fruitful and multiply semel quidem dicta est semper autem fit saith Chrysostome so the converting power in the Sacrament for continuance and dilatation of the Church is maintained and verified by the power of Christ's blessing of the Elements to the remembrance of him which commemoration is efficacious to the engaging of the heart to him The Sacramental Elements are the Body and Blood of Christ and the Blood of the New Testament shed for many for remission of sins as well by signification as by obsignation and the obsignation is but an higher kind of signification they are the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ In locum signifying and sealing them accompanied with their effect and spiritual reality saith Deodate by virtue of the Holy Ghost And why should not the signification be really effectual in production of reall grace as the sealing to the causing of relative or the signification have no such effect in the Sacrament which is so efficacious when made in the Word Beside every promise made to the Word Homil. 3. aâ—â— Ephes c. 1. is extended to the Sacraments which are but visible words And when Chrysostome in his Exhortations to frequent communicating affirms not onely by these things set before us viz. the Sacrament but by Hymnes also doth the Holy Ghost descend he implyes that by the Sacrament the Holy Ghost more evidently came into mens hearts than by the other means and whether that of 1 Cor. 12.13 of drinking into one spirit which the Syriack Ambrose Augustine and others render drinking of one spirit and which Calvin thus expounds Participationem calicis huc spectare ut unam Christi spiritum hauriamus and Piscator Etsi verbi auditionem sacramentor legitimam c. brationem spiritus consolans sanctificans sequitur remunerationis ergo potiores â—amen esse in eo sacramentorum partes neque sane leviter praetereundum est quod Paulus dixit nos spiriâ—â— potari eui nihil unquam simile protulit cum de verbi praedicatione locutus est Thes Salmur part 3. p. 40. Calvin in loc Piscator in loc Gerhard loc com tom 6. c. 20. p. 173. Chrys in homil moral 24. Ut regenerentur ab uno spiritu viz. Sancto and Gerhard Ex uno calice bibimus ut unum spiritum accipiamus refer not to the conferring of real grace as well as relative and so whether those Testimonies of Chrysostome and other Fathers which if I should muster up for my defence I might like that Romane Vestal be oppress'd with the multitude of such Bucklers concerning the Sacrament calling it Fundamentum salus lux vita medicamentum immortalitatis antidotum non moriendi the saying of Ignatius Renovationis regenerationis causa which is Nyssen's vivificatio spiritûs which is Cyril's Saint as mentis which is Cyprians c. relate onely to confirming not begetting of Faith let men more learned judge but truly I cannot beleeve Can they deny that the Sacrament by shewing forth and signifying the Lords death and putting us in remembrance of him and his Body broken and his Blood shed for the remission of sins is a part of the Gospel or good
from the Communion because of the admission of some in their opinion wicked or unworthy doth symbolize with the Anabaptist and hath a raste of their Leaven but whether those principles that it is of necessity to make probation of their fitness and worthiness that are to be admitted to the Holy Supper and that this Sacrament being a Seal of Faith ought not ordinately to be administred to those that have not Faith may not also be extensive and aswell applicable to the Sacrament of Baptism and so do tacitely advance and drive on also the interest of the Anabaptists who will have none to be baptized untill they have given sure evidence of their sound Faith and real Conversation and unawares militate in the Tents of and run Biass toward that faction I shall not make research into much less dare to determine but transferre and resign the consideration thereof to more comprehensive judgments it shall be enough for me with the Pismire in the Apologue To awaken the Lion and make him look about But I shall now bring it to the Scales and more importunately offer it to be weighed by judicious men whether those Reasons wherewith some men make so specious a Muster and whereof they make ostent with so many plausible amplifications if they were mutato nomine fitted and applied to the hearing of the Word and Prayer they might not serve aswell and have asmuch force and efficacy First to stave off and exclude unconverted men from those duties as from the Sacrament And secondly to introduce a necessity of probation antecedently to the ordinary partaking of the Word in those who are born within the Church and bred up in the profession of the Faith and of Prayer as to the participation of the Lords Supper And thirdly render it as piacular to joyn with Congregations wherein persons unconverted and unworthy are mixt in hearing the Word and Prayer as in the Communion of the Body of our Lord though the Reasons might be indifferent and the same or the like in all yet for method and perspicuity sake we will take our instance for the first in Prayer and make our experiment of the second in hearing the Word and take an assay of the third point in both To abridge and sum up the Reasons produced for debarring unconverted men that is such as satisfie them not with demonstrative signs of Godliness from the holy Table they may be reduced to this Compendium that they neither can perform the duties requisite to nor can be capable of the mercies of the Sacrament that by partaking unworthily they doe but multiply their sinne and aggravate their damnation whereto he also is accessary that either doth exhibit it or consents to it or suffers them or by partaking with them countenanceth their receiving according to those branches of this rule Consensus palpo participans nutans non obstans now turn those against an admission and conjunction with them in prayer have unconverted men those dispositions and affections and elevations suitable with and requisite to religious prayer the clean hands 1 Tim. 2.8 Faith without wavering James 1.6 Fervency of Spirit Rom. 12.11 Can they call on the name of the Lord Jesus that depart not from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Are they susceptible of any holy communion with God or of the gracious effects of Prayer or capable of any share of the righteousness and intercession of the Lord Jesus which must be spread upon their persons and their prayers to make them acceptable Will not the multiplyed sins of distrust of Gods promises irreverence towards so glorious a majesty dulness of spirit deadness of affection and extravagances of thoughts increase their guilt and irritate their judgment shall so precious a duty be thus prophaned so high a privilege as this is to powre forth our wants into the bosome of God be prostituted and so great blessings as are held forth to faithful prayers be despised What dishonour results hence to the name of God What a grief is impress'd on the spirits of the godly What a profanation reflected on so sacred an Ordinance Were it not better for them to forbear prayer than onely to pray to the promoving of their condemnation Is there nay promise they shall be heard Are they not expresly told that God will not hear them whose prayers are abominable Psal 66.18 Isa 1.15 1 Joh. 3.22 Prov. 28.9 Are not they that admit them to a communion in prayers where they but flatter God with their mouth and lye unto him with their tongues in all that is said guilty of those sins because they hinder them not and doe onely concur to farther and accelerate their damnation and so deface the purity and defile the beauty of so divine an Exercise You may see what an Harvest he might make of this Stubble that were torrens suadaeque medulla and happy in sermonis divite vena and now consider I beseech you if the same apogogical or abductive reasons may not be as speciously and as plausibly urged and amplified to bring off unconverted men from prayer as to take them off from the Lords Table and have not as much energy and force in order to the one as to the other Secondly concerning hearing of the Word The conclusion that it is necessary to take examination of men previously to the Sacrament and to make tryal whether they are worthy or not to be admitted is deduced and extracted from that principle He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself not discerning the Lords Body But now try and examine I beseech you since the Word is said to be the savour of death unto death and that the Word shall judge them in the last day that hear it and there is a caution Take heed how you hear and qualifications required in hearing 1 Pet. 2.1 2. Jam. 1.21 and men hating instruction are not to declare his Statutes or take his Covenant in their mouth Psal 50.16 and he that discerns not the Word of God from the Word of Man hears his damnation and lets it in at his ear as well as the other eates and drinks it and the Word and Sacraments represent but the same Christ and the same promises under divers notions and to several Senses the one to the Ear and the other to the Eye Hand and Mouth the one being an audible and the other a visible tactible gustable word and both are Divine Ordinances for the salvation of soules whether there should not be as great a necessity incumbent to examine men already incorporated into the Church of their fitness and dispositions and preparation in order to hearing of the Word as to the receiving of the Sacrament and upon the same score why should it be more perilous or hazard more pollution of our selves or the Ordinances to joyn in mixt Congregations in eating of the Sacrament than in hearing of the Word especially since that prohibition not to give that which is holy to Dogs
they list and this text will be a common Repertory to fit them with proofs for it as indeed it is such a Catholicon among them that usurp the name of Catholiques being urged by Bellarmine to prove the Pope may make lawes to bind the conscience by others for blind obedience and by some for the infallibility of Councels But the answer which Whitaker gives Bellarmine may suit well to be returned also to the Apologists Obediendum esse prapositis i Episcopis quis dubitat sed non proptere a sequetur licere illis sanctiunculas nescio quas excogitare Contro 4. q. 7. tom 2. p. 722. easdem nobis obtrudere tanquam divinas ad salutem necessarias iisdémque conscientias nostras obligare nequaquam obediendum ergo est sed cum cautione fi praeeant illi in Domino nihil suum tradant That they may know what obedience to expect we must tell them what power onely they can chalenge They are not Mandatores sed Mandatarii and must first receive before they give the commands Their power is not Imperii nam Domini non servi imperium est sed legationis and must as Ambassadors shew their Letters of Credence and not goe beyond their Commission they have no Dictator-like Praetorian or legislative power Junius ut ante Anton. de Dom. de repub Eccles l. 1. c. 2. but Ministeriall and executive onely jus dicere non dare qualis est doctoris non judicis nec imperii sed consilii and have only a declarative not an effective sentence and a directive not coactive an accessory rather than proper jurisdiction and Ministeriall not authoritative even in excluding from the Sacrament those that are scandalous and therefore may not repell any according to their judgement but according to the sentence of the Lord the righteous Judge they are therefore onely to be obeyed as publishers and interpreters of Gods word and alone in what they speak according to that rule If they shall confesse it and say they pretend to no more than this then they might have spared to alleage this text to prove they are to be obeyed for we deny not that proposition but if they assume that the obedience which they require in this particular is of that kind we cannot by granting it give up our liberties which as Alexander answered Diogenes is a talent too great to be bestowed upon beggars of principles And we shall be bold farther to remind them That though they have now raised an inundation and an unlimited over-flowing of their power yet anciently it was restrained within narrow banks and ran so sparingly that it might be easily stopped or turned and they that now renounce and cast off the Church were of old Cyprian Epist 68. p. 201. subject to be rejected and cast out of the Church à peccatore praeposito separare se debent saith Cyprian nec se ad sacrilegi sacerdotis sacrificia miscere quando ipsa maxime potestatem habeat vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi and they that solely and arbitrarily drive away the multitude from the Church of their chusing it was then thought to have more of righteousness and charity for them to go off from the Church at the command of the multitude De jure pleb 2.24 for so Blundel alleageth Clemens speaking to the Pastors of Corinth Quis inter vos generosus quis misericors quis charitatis plenus diâ—at si propter me seditio contentio schismata oriantur excedo abeo quocunque volueritis quaecunque à multitudine praecepta sunt facio Neither can we concede what they conclude That Ministers must doe all beside preaching and exhortation which may conduce to the peoples salvation unlesse they restrain limit it to that which ought to be done by Ministers and for which they are impowred for Magistrates parents c. have somewhat to do adjumentall to the salvation of others which Ministers may not usurp or intrude into and when we have granted thsi Thesis so limited and restrained yet we shall deny the Hypothesis that the course they thus plead for is conductive to salvation we shal notwithstanding yeeld what they inferre That Ministers must give account of them which cannot be well done without taking knowledg of their estates But we cannot farther concede that this they cannot do by any other way without speciall examination antecedently to the Sacrament or that because they must give an account of them that therefore they must take a particular account from them because they are to be accountable onely for their teaching not our learning of the undertaking not the successe pro cura non curatione otherwise we should not at all wonder at that of Chrysostom Miror si quis Rectorum possit salvari The civill Magistrate must be also an accountant for the people under his government yet though he may call them to reckoning for the manifest breaches of his Lawes yet he neither useth nor needeth to take an account of them how perfectly they keep them And it will not much facilitate the Ministers account nor help to perfect it to take this account of men once alone for so they pretend to do and at their admission to the Sacrament Whitaker contro 2. c. 17. Gerhard de Eceles c. 10. sect 126. and to make triall how they are disposed for one ordinance onely Their Cardinall duty is to preach the word ours to hear and receive it with faith the Sacraments being but visible words and appendices of the word heard and not efficacious without it the word being as the Sunne to all other Stars which though they have proper speciall influences yet all have their light from that or as some Philosophers think of the soule of the world which quickens and actuates all particular forms in their specificall operations Why then should they not take account how we are prepared for or do attend unto or profit by hearing and so by proportion for praying as well as for Sacramentall communicating They shall not give account for us as we are onely at one time viz. at our first admission to the holy Table but for the constant course of our lives and not for our discharge of that one act onely but for the whole series of our actions and therefore by the like consequence of this reason they should examine and take account from us continually of all our doings and reduce us under a necessity of auricular confession for which all their principles are very pregnant with conclusions SECT XXXIII Levit. 3.15 2 Chron. 23 19. Joel 3.17 Nahum 1 15 Zechar. 14.21 brought off from the rack whereon they have set them The difference between Legall and Morall uncleannesse what the former typed AS he at Atheus that hearing the various Disputes of the Philosophers about Summum bonum went to the Market and bought somewhat of all sorts he met there in an expectation to find
will and that they came no farther shall be their own fault and it is not his readiness to admit such nor the opening of the door of the visible Church that makes men hypocrites but their own wickedness Christ will not keep men out for fear of making them hypocrites but when the Net is drawn unto the shore the Fishes shall be seperated c. And in the precedent page he saith Their being baptized persons if at age or members of the Universal Church into which it is that they are baptized is a sufficient evidence of their interest to the Supper till they do by heresie or scandal blot this evidence and this after much doubting dispute and study of Scripture he saith he speaks as confidently as almost any truth of equal moment The way of pell-mell blinds men in their wretchedness very like blindes them with light and poysons them with the antidote just as the means is destructive to the end Light may indeed some-while a little blind some weak eys yet it is the proper means of seeing and to keep them in the dark will perpetuate their blindness not make them see better Doth it not argue blindness of understanding to think by any argument to evince that it shall either blind men in their wretchedness or impede their conversion by sealing to them an assurance that if they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ they shall be saved by his death which is the sum of the Covenant of Grace whereof the Sacraments are Seals To raise our Structure the higher and make it stand more firmly we should perchance dig the Foundation deeper and because this erroneous principle is the Fountain of those bitter Waters of strife our Marah and Meribath it might seem expedient to cast a little Salt into the Spring of those Waters to heal them A Covenant is a mutual compact or bargain between God and Man consisting of mercies on Gods part granted over to man and of conditions on mans part required by God it results from Gods antecedent and voluntary love that he entred into paction with man and performeth his absolute promise of giving Faith and perseverance to his Elect to which promise no condition is imaginable to be annexed which is not comprehended in the promise it self but to Gods Covenant of conferring other mercies which flows from his consequent love which is a natural property in God whose proper nature inclines to reward good and evil is a restipulation and condition of duty annexed Of this conditional Covenant onely the former being indeed rather a promise then a Covenant being onely Gods act without any mutual act of man the Sacraments are divine external seals and I suppose it is no such just cause as may legitimate a war whether it be more proper to say they are conditional seals of the Covenant to testifie and confirm unto us that we shall surely acquire what God hath promised if we seal back as it were our counterpart unto God and performing the condition render unto him what he requires as a conditional promise is made absolute by performance of the condition which otherwise obligeth not That the Sacraments are not Seals of the absolute Covenant nor set to without respect to the condition carries the stamp or seal of the Corporation of Protestants and those which have set their hands to any Writing against Bellarmine in that controversie of the efficacy of the Sacraments have attested this truth And some others of the Luminaries of our own Sphaere have reflected much light upon the point I therefore whose harvest cannot attain to their Gleanings shall not light my Candle in the Sun nor in the worse sense bring an Owl to Athens Tu sequere à longe et vestigia semper adora It may seem as much delirous to discourse of Military Glory after Hannibal as it was for Phormio to do it before him and a Smith may seem already to have run mad in undertaking as he of old did to have effected the amendment of an instrument of Archimedes Onely I shall say that whatever some rather odiously then ignorantly insinuate this is yet neither the language of Ashdod nor carries any stamp or holds any affinity with Semi-Pelagianisme or if you will call it so Arminianisme which is Synonymous for Arminius and Socinus have had the fortunes to have these bastard and illegitimate Doctrines put upon them which had other elder Fathers as Sextus 5. his Obelisk and Farnezi his Bull and other Monuments though formed and erected by the old Romane Emperours are now denominated from those that of late times have redeemed them from rubbish and restored their beauty but the Doctrine we hold forth hath no Analogy therewith For beside that we assert Faith to be absolutely and infallibly infused by God per modum creationis and nothing to concurre to conversion ex parte voluntatis causativè sed tantum subjectivè and ut credamus to be wrought passively in nobis sine nobis although actively ipsum credere be produced nobiscum simul tempore consentientibus et co-operantibus whereas the Arminians symbolizing with the Jesuits affirm Faith to be purely an elicit act of Free-will through a moral perswasion onely upon an object congruously proposed alliciens consensum non efficiens and Grace whose name they have antiquated as well as destroyed the Nature substituting the word help or motion in stead thereof to be a general and indifferent influxe terminable by mans good or evil free-will Besides this we are now disputing of Gods Covenant and Promise in time not of his Decree before all time If thou believe thou shalt be saved is not of the nature of a practical decree but of a promise and is onely doctrinal and enunciative neither do we as they do make Gods Decree conditional but onely the execution thereof and not the will of God to save but the salvation of man Gods eternal purpose in saving being absolute in respect of any cause or condition impulsive in the object not in regard of the means in the execution and order to the end Gods promises for their form correspond not with his purposes his promises being according to the manner of his executions but his purposes have a different method What he purposes he performs for the matter but not as he purposed for the manner he saves in the same manner that he decreed to save but in executing or saving doth not follow the same order which he did in decreeing this which is last in execution is first in intention Dr. Kend. Vndicat part 2. c. 7. and that which is performed on a condition was absolutely intended the intention was to perform it upon condition but upon no condition was it so intended We do not therefore say God intended upon condition of Faith to give Salvation but that he intended to give Salvation upon condition of Faith intending to give Faith absolutely and Salvation conditionally But the Sacraments therefore being onely Seals of
implicit Faith even of the death and resurrection of Christ as appeares John 20.9 and Luk. 9.44 45. and 24.7 8. neither doe we finde they had any other preparatory instruction concerning the Nature and ends of the Sacrament save what was collected from the words of Institution which we propound not as a sufficient extent of our knowledge or that we should content our selves with such a measure but as a restraint upon their rigor and that they should accept a lesse stint than what they exact But notwithstanding if some are weak in knowledge it is no unlikely way to improve it by frequent partaking of the Sacrament where the great mystery of the redemption of the World by the death of Christ is so sensibly shewed forth so as to suspend men because of their meane knowledge is as if they should deny them the meanes because they have not fully attained the end and if profession of Faith may serve in lieu of examination as the Apologists insinuate the very comming to the Sacrament and partaking thereof is a kinde of reall profession of Faith And Aquinas tells us Addit ad 3. q. 5. ar 2. Durand 4. d. 17. q. 14. Loc. com part 4. p. 194. Sacramenta sunt quaedam protestationes fidei or signa protestativa fidei as Durand an owning of Christ externally and engaging to beleeve in him they profess their Faith as touching the body of Christ nailed upon the Cross and his blood shed for their salvation saith Peter Martyr confession being to be made with outward actions not onely with the mouth And if any orall and explicite confession was thought fit to be made it was onely the joyning in the publick repeating of the Apostolique Creed which in the Easterne Churches usually preceded the Sacrament and therefore in the third Councell of Toledo it was decreed Cano. ◠Ante communicationem corporis Christi sanguinis juxta Orientalium partium morem unanimiter clarâ voce sacratissimum fidei recenseant Symbolum ut primùm populi quam credulitatem teneant fateantur Besides the adding Amen to the words of Consecration wherewith saith Ambrose the Elements were delivered quibus singulis vescentes confessionem fidei suae addebant respondentes Amen Chemnitius saith was a profession of the Faith Exam. Trid. Concil part 2. p. 107. Idem p. 111 112. and the same learned Man addes that therefore in Festis solennioribus tota multitudo ad majores Basilicas conveniebat ibi solennis quaedam Communio celebrabatur Ut quisque publicâ professione ostenderet se esse membrum ecclesiae and this he saith was enacted to be done by the Agathense Councell where observe that he speakes of tota multitudo not five of five hundred and so many at these times convened that one Church could not containe them and Leo prescribes that therefore sacrificii oblatio reiteretur and sure every mans proper reason will dictate to him how impossible it was that in such a confluence there could be a triall of every mans knowledge and holiness which could neither be perfectly known to them that in such manner administred De re Sacrament l. 2. p. 52. Hospinian speaking of the solemne communions upon the greater festivals tells us Nec malo consilio haec solennis communio instituta fuit sed ut hac publicâ professione declararent se esse membra verae ecclesiae admonerentur sicut unus est panis ita multos se unum corpus esse atque hoc modo consensus in doctrina fide retinerentur So when Erastus objected that sinners were called to the Sacrifices Beza answers Such sinners as testified their repentance by their sacrificing and if to sacrifice were a profession of repentance then to come to the Communion by the same proportion of reason is a profession of Faith and the Priest might have as rationally examined the truth of the Sacrificers repentance which he did not but charitably judged of the sincerity of his heart by the offerings of his hands as the Minister may now make research into the knowledge of Faith of the receiver § 10 And at the Passover the antitype and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Lords Supper and the same in substance with it as themselves affirm we have not the least Evidence that there was but there are Arguments that there could be no such examination of the partakers Rivet Gerhard for though the owner had brought the Lambe to the Courts of the Temple to be killed by the Priests which the Learned deny yet it was eaten at home by the whole Family to whom the Master taught the end and use thereof but called none to account what understanding they had of that or any other mysteries Let them if they think it expedient and will afford the pains to do it examine men also of their aptness to profit by the word and of their proficiency thereby but as if men decline and will not come under such examination we cannot allow them to shut them out from hearing the Word so neither can we permit them to exclude all from the Sacrament that conform not to be examined in antecedency thereunto Yet if the Apologists would onely bring us all under the necessity of an unlimited examination of our knowledge to have peace with them we might be content interpretatively to put out our right eye and subject our selves to a suspicion of our ignorance But Ad populum phaleras Ego te intus in cute novi A satisfaction concerning mens knowledge and verbal examination in order thereunto is not onely nor principally contended for by them nor alone or chiefly questioned by us They insist on it to be satisfied of their Holiness and without real proof thereof they admit none to fellowship in the Sacraments which they tell us are the privileges onely of the Godly This is that Helena that chiefly sets us all at War and hath kindled those flames they suppose that to be a Church-member with a dogmatical faith gives not a right of being admitted to the Sacrament or is the Directory for them to admit him Neither is a negative holiness sufficient to be free of scandal but he must give positive signs of sound grace nor that it is enough they have nothing against him he must shew some evidence for himself of real holiness it avails not that they know nothing to the contrary they must have farther satisfaction they grant not that every intelligent member of the visible Church hath a right till he have forfeited it but allow no title till he have pleaded and approved it by some evidence that he is a member of the invisible Church They repel not men for notorious Crimes nor in any formal judicial way of Censure but because they are not satisfied concerning them or they have not merited their good opinion Nay I would particularly instance in some that after admission have been laid aside not for want of grace
any other than self-examination is not onely efficacious in general concerning the necessity of things to be done or beleeved but in this place and upon this very account is specially approved by Interpreters and urged as conclusive to the excluding the necessity of any other examination Another tells us that the Corinthians were a Church lately planted a people newly called out of the world and converted to the Faith and therefore it was to be presumed they were sufficiently qualified both for knowledge and sanctity and needed no other but the proper examination of their own hearts But I shall reply First if they were newly converted and so late begotten of the seed of the Word they were then lefs grown in explicite knowledge and less perfectly instructed in the mysteries of the Faith and therefore did more need to be put under probation in the notion of the Catechumeni but in truth the Church of Corinth had been divers years planted and the Apostles baptizing whole Families Yonglings as well as aged as other Texts warrant us to assert against the Anabaptists in all probability besides the first Converts there was now since the first constitution of that Church a second rise and growth sprung up to be adult and capable of the Sacrament Secondly the Rule of the Apostle is written for our instruction catholique and extensive to all times places and persons not limited or restrained to the Corinthians and to confine and appropriate general precepts to special times and particular persons is artificium haereticum to expilate and exhaust the Armory of the Church and imbezill the Weapons of the Faith and tends to defeat the standing Forces of Scripture Thirdly ex concesso this will then consequently exempt from examination verbal or real such as may well be presumed to be sufficiently qualified and so it is not of necessity that the probation should be general Fourthly the whole Epistle sheweth how culpable those Corinthians were and how many were their errors in faith and spots in manners so that for ought I know our Congregations generally abstracting them from these dismal Heresies which have lately spawn'd from and been fostered by men of like principles to those we dispute against and which for ought I see obstruct no mans access to the Sacrament if his Seraphical Elevation can vouchsafe a condescension to Ordinances are not more guilty or obnoxious Even in this very concernment of their qualifications for the Communion it appears by 1 Cor. 11.20 30. that many of them received unworthily and discerned not the Lords body from common meat and had taken too much drink before they came to partake of the mystical Cup Yet neither doth the Apostle command nor encourage the intermission of the Lords Supper nor reprehend those that were better qualified and conditioned for communicating in a mixt Congregation or among the Rout as they phrase it with somewhat too strange a spice of the old Pharisee as if it had been either a stain to their holiness or a pollution to their persons or an obstacle to the fruit and efficacy of the Sacrament neither doth he charge or caution the Elders thenceforth to admit no more without a pre-examination Another thus answers That this self-examining is onely meant of that judging which prevents the judgment of God mentioned ver 31. which no mans examining of another can doe but onely his examining of himself But if this were granted yet then it follows however that no other but such self-examination is required by the Apostle for he prescribes no other but this and that is as much as we contend for But when that learned man tells us in the same place that the Pastors and Elders of Corinth had admitted some to the Lords Table whom they judged fit and worthy Communicants but God judged otherwise of them it was no impudence nor presumption in us to expect that he would have shewed us where there is one syllable at least that mentions the admission onely of such as were by them thought fit or of any probation made of their fitness that were not notorious and scandalous sinners and if self-examination be sufficient to prevent Gods judgement it must be enough to prevent all sinne every sinne being waited on by judgment and consequently to prevent a sinful receiving there needs none but a self-examination Another takes this bone in hand and would crush and break it with this interposition That to the right examination of a mans self such dispositions and graces are requisite as no unconverted man is capable of so as though upon self-examination a man might be admitted yet no man not having manifest signs of being in the state of grace can hereupon ground any title or claim to the Sacrament as being not susceptible of self-examination Whereunto I shall say not to reflect that it carries a spice of Socinus to hold that onely persons converted are capable of the Sacraments that it is a supposition suitable to their principles that they assume a power to judge the secret things of the heart for it was wont to be an indubitable maxime De occultis non judicat Ecclesia and of that nature is the right discharge of the duty of self-examination They can pretend but to make judgment onely of externall actions and such as may give scandal and offence those they can take cognizance of and they lye within a judicial Sphear but the other viz. the secret things of the heart fall within none but a divine Horizon and none can be scandalous onely for such things because no others can take notice of them I shall still retreat to my first Fortress I reade Let a man examine himself not that any should examine his examination Nay positively I finde that upon self-examination he may so eat which liberty cannot consist with a necessity of having self-examination examined by another Men are commanded not onely to examine themselves in order to receiving the Eucharist but also generally to try their ways Lam. 3.4 and their works Gal. 6.4 and if unconverted men cannot doe this they may upon like account bring them under examination for their whole life give a new name to the same thing of auricular confession And if unconverted men cannot examine themselves how shall they know themselves to be unfit and unworthy that they may repent and better dispose themselves and in the interim abstain Who gave them liberty or means to search the heart who are not proper Masters to whom men must stand or fall But they tell us that there is a two-fold knowledge Intuitive which is by an immediate looking on and Arguitive or according to the more usual Scholastick term Discursive which is by comparing one thing with another and reasoning from one thing to another in the first way God onely knows the hearts of men in the second sense we may know the condition of mens hearts by their outward actions as a tree by his fruits Whereunto I shall answer
hurts and usage done to the Image pass and are transferred to the man whose Image it is I might dispense with my self from making any animadversions upon their descriptions of Catechumeni Energumeni and Penitents it is enough that my Argument stands free and that they confess the ancient Church separated none but of such denominations and cannot say that those whom they suspend are onely such but then so confidently to conclude that because the ancient Church removed such sorts of men therefore Antiquity is for them they must pre-suppose us bred up in the Rabbinical Schools where the Disciples are taught to beleeve that white is black if the Rabbi tell them so Non obtusa adeò gestamus pectora Poeni With as much colour of reason doe the Papists conclude because they finde the word Tradition in Scripture and the Fathers and Merit and Satisfaction and the like in ancient Writers that the same names must needs be of the same things and were understood and taught in the same notion which now they conceive and hold could they produce any Records that all passed examination in point of knowledge or any save the Catechumeni strangers to the Church and Faith and Children who were a sort of Catechumeni or any at all underwent a probation of their lives or were separated because they were not convincingly holy and not onely because they were notoriously wicked that in any Church onely one of an hundred was admitted and a separation made from the rest either negatively not to communicate with them or positively to constitute new Churches they should then hit the Bird in the eye whereas now they doe not so much as beat the Bush Tiberius but doe onely like that Romane Emperor Cui proprium erat nuper reperta scelera priscis verbis obtegere Suspension the ancient Church practised and commended not in that notion and manner nor of such persons as the Apologists do use it but because they finde the word of suspeusion in the Monuments thereof to conclude that their discipline is found there is somewhat like him that reading Missa fuit Romae in the subscription of some of St. Paul's Epistles inferred that that Masse was then said at Rome or because some kinde of suspension is laudable that theirs must be as commendable is not unlike to Caracalla who supposed that because one Alexander was a brave man none of that name could be bad but seeing they are not Popes who are to be beleeved absolutely simply and without condition whose Will is in stead of Reason and it is not for us to judge whether they speak consentaneous to Reason but it is Heretical to think they may not determine as they have determined we shall desire them to shew us out of any Records that the ancient Church practised or commended suspension as now it is understood and practised Et vitulâ tu dignus It may yet reflect some light upon our subject to make some observations upon their expresses concerning the Catechumeni Energumeni and Penitents The first they say were such as the Church nurtured in the fundamentals of Religion being unbaptized as they suppose the children of Pagans I shall not instance any case wherein a Catechumen unbaptized might yet have been a child of Christian Parents as particularly if his Parents had died before the times of baptisme which were usually but twice in the year and then his next of kinne being a Pagan had detained him from the bosome of the Church nor shall I insist upon it that Children in years though born of Christian Parents and baptized did also pass in the rank of Catechumeni and went out at the Ite missa est nor shall I rectifie their judgment by shewing that some Catechumeni were the Sons and Daughters of Jews I shall onely observe that had there been in those days any Anabaptists or Independents the Catechumeni might have been the Children of Christians and yet unbaptized for the one would have baptized no Children at all and the other none but those whose Parents had been gathered into their Churches Secondly it is observable that those Catechumens as soon as they were baptized Tract 11. in Johan Chemnicius exam part 2. p. 101. Gerhard loc com vol. 2. p. 1. Durant cited before Casaubon ad annal Baron exer 16. S. 36. pag. 378. Notae in quos canon concil Gal. p. 167. Albaspinus de veter Eccles ritibus l. 1. obser 19. p. 142 143. Patrem vocas Deum fratrem mox vituperas si vero non est frater tuus quomodo dicis pater noster Chrysostome were admitted also to the Eucharist which not onely appears by that of Augustine Transeant per mare rubrum baptizentur manducent Manna but by what Chemnicius cites out of Chrysostome and Gerhard out of Justin Ambrose and Theodoret and Durantus out of others and by what Casaubon tells us Vetus Ecclesia semper adjecit baptismo participationem corporis Christi but where he addes praesertim adultis some learned men think it was tantùm adultis that which was given to Infants being onely the Wine for so Hugo asserts and that scarce formally as the Sacrament but as they used to give them milk and honey and how little time was allotted for instructing the Catechumens and what a small viaticum of knowledge was required to carry them to the Sacraments I have formerly shewed and surely it could not be imagined that they who were strangers to the Christian Faith and bred up in other Rudiments and who when they came over into the pale of the Church in the first times as it seems were neither admitted to the reading of the Gospels nor the Sermons and Expositions thereof which Albaspinus saith may be known by these words in the Sermons of the Fathers Norunt fideles and which said not nor learned the Lords Prayer till they were baptized for they were not called Brethren that were not admitted to the Eucharist and in that respect joyned not in saying Our Father which perchance hath brought us to stumble on the reason why the Lords Prayer is never recited in the Churches of the Apologists because there are so many present who being not admitted to the Eucharist may not be called their Brethren nor have God to their common Father I say that it cannot be imagined that in so short a time with so slender means they could with as great a summe of knowledge obtain this freedome of the Sacraments as the generality of our Congregations have who like Paul are free-born Ecclesiae cives nati The Energumeni they say were men supposed to be possessed by Sathan or men excommunicate because such are delivered unto Sathan and they derive Energumeni ab energia and out of Altenstaig tell us Illi dicuntur Energumeni qui interiùs laborant per vexationem daemonis But observe first for the notatio nominis how they institute a new Grammar deriving Participles from Nouns
upon one side as that of the Papists is on the other who thinke she deserves them now because then she did It is no Argument because Jordan falls into the dead Sea that it never had fresher streams neither is Rome like the Birds of Phineus that whatsoever she hath touch'd must be afterward polluted It was enough for my purpose that I proved the thing de facto and I am no more obliged to prove it de jure than our Divines are to justifie the deferring of Baptisme by some in the ancient Church and particularly by Constantine untill toward their death because from thence they collect an Argument Tertullian Haymo Aquinas Erasmus Glossae aliique that Baptisme was not then beleeved to be of such necessity nor more than those many and great names of Tertullian Haymo Aquinas Erasmus c. that conceive St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.29 did draw an Argument to prove the Resurrection from a practice either of the Cerinthians or the Marcionites could suppose he intended to legitimate that custome But of this usage which we discourse of however these austeri Aristarchi may lash it yet the modest sweetness of famous Chamier as Ut quisque est major magis est placabilis will take with more complacency than their harsh censoriousness Ubi supra S. 18. S. 28. p. 127. who having said that consultissimum ut Sacramenti actio sit continua addes of this practice quia olim factum à piis viris non sumus adeò praefracti in nostra sententia ut damnemus And indeed though Protestant Divines condemn the reposition of the Sacrament in order to circumgestation and adoration c. yet Sacramental actions being defined by their ends and this transmission of the Elements being onely a continuance of their first Ordination to a Sacramental use and so the Sacrament being a Relative and being not extra usum had still rationem Sacramenti and the conservation thereof elsewhere being signified unto and ratified by him that was to receive since the words work not of themselves but by the understanding of him that communicated may seem sufficient Therefore under these Aspects this Custome which partly arose in times of Persecution l. 1. obser 8. p. 60. and partly was grounded on this reason as Albaspinus tells us out of Innocent that they to whom it was sent se à nostra communione non judicent separatos and perchance upon other reasons of which as of other usages though our great distance may render us ignorant yet it seems they were so weighty and considerable that no Christian then living interposed any Objections against them I say this Custome is not therefore condemned though not altogether approved by our gravest Theologues as Morton Chemnicius Gerhard c. But for my part since the Apologists Contra ibunt animis vel magnum praestet Achillem I shall not hazard the Charge nor abide the Shock of such bold Assailants but quit the ground having already served my turn of it They had the confidence in the fromer Section to proclaim the Fathers were for them but now Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo being but a little galled they wince and say that Antichrist hath been long working in the Church and the Fathers it seems were his Chaplains and his Work was carryed on by them and not onely by the Gnosticks and other Hereticks and might be too prodigal of Christs blood I wish they could vindicate themselves from being worse than Prodigals that are so covetous thereof avarus est deterior prodigo But neither could the one lavish nor can the other with-hold from others his blood but only that which properly is but the sign thereof and to become his blood to those alone that beleeve and to be effectual in sealing of Salvation by it upon condition of Faith yet that signe without prodigality to be exhibited to all that profess Faith and can discern what is thereby signified and the Salvation to be offered in signo to whom it was never intended in beneplacito Salvation upon condition of Faith in Christ being but the tenor of the Gospel which is held forth in the Sacraments as well as in the Word onely with a different manner of propounding and therefore anciently the Catechumeni as soon as they were baptized and till then they were not held faithful were at once admitted to publick hearing of the Gospel and participating of the Eucharist Which Custome as it is witnessed de facto by our Divines formerly quoted and by many of the Fathers mentioned by Lorinus so the same Author thinks In Acta c. 2. v. 42. p. 109. it had its ground and rise from Act. 2.41 42. where it being said that four thousand were baptized in one day of whose conversation sure there could be no tryal had neither could they make any special confession of their Faith whereof their coming to be baptized onely was a reall profession which though it was usual in the baptizing of such as came over from Paganisme that they might testifie they were Christians yet there is neither the like Rule nor Exercise nor Reason for a Confession to be made at the Eucharist by those who have been bred in the Profession of the Faith and where their approach and desire to participate is a special profession as I have shewed I say as soon as it is said they were baptized it is added in the next immediate verse They all continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship and breaking of bread that is in breaking of the Eucharist as the Syriack reades and the general sense interprets it and prayers From discrediting the Witnesses they speak to enervate the Testimony viz. That Strangers by place may upon knowledge of some members or Certificate from the Church be admitted but I briefly demand Whether without farther probation upon such Knowledge or Certificate onely they shall finde admission or not If yea they give up the cause Tam Scythae lasso meditantur arcu Cedere campis for this might alwayes supersede all farther tryal and closeth with what we have asserted That the knowledge of men collected by ordinary converse with them might frustrate and prevent all farther examination If not they given us words that signifie nothing and which onely Sunt apina tricaeaue aut si quid vilius istis Indeed it is obvious in Antiquity that strangers were not regularly admitted to the Sacraments without Certificates from their proper Pastor which were called Literae communicatoriae formatae But their way is as dissonant from this Rule as the observing thereof would be destructive to their ends Ne quis sine literis Episcopi sui in aliena Ecclesia communicet 1. Concil Carthag Can. 6. Apud Centur. Magdeburg 7. Apud Caranzam for such Literae formatae would altogether frustrate their new Formatae Ecclesiae gathered and made up of such as have no such Communicatory Letters SECT XV. Of daily communicating
to hear the Word of God they are not meet to be partakers of the prayers of the Church and with what lawfulness they may offer themselves to the Prayers and to the hearing of the Word they may offer themselves to the Lords Supper so he correspondently to what hath been else-where shewed to be the judgment of Chrysostome and upon such account there is as much need of examination in order to fit them for partaking the other Ordinances aswell as this That of Mark 16.15 Preach the Gospel to every Creature is paralel to that of Matth. 28.19 Go teach all Nations and to teach is according to the Original to disciple and then it might seem consonant that they should preach to such as were disciplinable and in a capacity to be made Disciples and then next they may take notice that it follows baptizing them whence it will be consequent that as they ought onely to admit to baptisme such as receive the Word with Faith so to receive as their Hearers such alone as entertain the Word first offered and propounded to them without any malicious blaspheming or despiteful persecuting thereof for those onely fall under the denomination of Swine and Dogs to whom Pearles are prohibited to be cast and holy things to be given and then concordantly to their principles even the Heathen should be examined whether they were such or not previously to admitting them to be constant and profess'd Hearers But to seposite the Argument ad hominem and to reflect upon that which may perchance be hence collected and alleaged ad rem as that if confession of faith be requisite antecedently to baptisme then à pari examination or the like confession is as necessary to the perception of the other Sacrament I shall hereunto reply That the consequence doth not hold because the latter hath neither like example nor equal reason with the former we find precedents for the one and until they like the old Mercuries will with their finger point us the way where we may find the like for the other we shall be like the Mercuries too stand still and let them be like the Passenger to go on their course It carries much of reason that he that renounceth his former principles should declare and let us know what beleef he is now become of and being by baptisme to be initiated into the Church should tell us what Faith he desires to be baptized in there is not the like reason for those who being members of the visible Church doe formally as such make continual profession of faith the former by a great summe as it were obtain their freedome the latter are free-born but as the Children of Christian Parents being born as it were Denizens of the City of God the Church doe forthwith receive baptisme without adjournment thereof till they are susceptible of making profession of faith so by similitude of reason should those that are baptized and intelligent Church-members be admitted to the other Sacrament without any farther explicite professing That examination should seem requisite precedaneously to be aring the word they say hath no conformity with Antiquity for Catechumens and Penitents were admitted to the Word not to the Eucharist But doth it therefore follow that either they were not or ought not to be examined whether they were apt and capable before they had such admission This onely shews that some admitted to the Word were not permitted the Sacrament not that those Hearers were put under no tryal nor needed to be so The Catechumens were onely Embrio's and Christians in fieri but an higher story or the first winnowing of Heathens to them is applicable what we have already discours'd of the Penitents in their steps to restitution who were admitted to hear in the Porch some portions of the Word not the whole but before any excommunicate person could be indulged the favour of penance he rendred some hopeful signes of repentance which could not be collected but upon some tryal which argueth for us that there was some probation of them before they were admitted to be complete Hearers but when they first were cast out they were as well excluded from the Word as from the Sacrament correspondently to the method of discipline among the Jews where he that was under Cherem did neither teach nor was taught which both checks with the practice of the Apologists and confutes their principles To tell us out of Ames that the Word goeth before the Sacraments follow doth no more enforce this consequent that therefore there needs no examination precedent to the Word than it follows that because Baptisme goes before the Eucharist therefore there is no necessity of any examination or profession of faith to be made antecedently to baptizing adult persons or because seed-time goes before harvest therefore no care need to be taken whether the ground be cultivated and carefully manured where we cast our seed But though as applied by them it savour more of Bellarmine arguing that the Sacraments excite not Faith as the Word doth because Verbum Dei praecedit fidem sacramenta autem sequuntur Tom. 2. l. 2. c. 8. p. 204. unde verbum praedicatur infidelibus haereticis quibuscunque ut incipiant credere at sacramenta requirunt fidem saltem in adultis nec possunt rectè conferri nisi iis qui priùs credunt Yet we shall perfectly close with what they alleage out of Peter Martyr in this and grant that the Word may be preached to those that have not yet heard or understood it and that from such viz. Heathens the communion of the Supper ought to be pure if so they would not fouly clash with him in the rest but admit thereunto such who openly profess themselves Christians as I am sure all those doe whom they exclude to whom he saith it is given for a publick thanksgiving And it seemes to me to carry no great disproportion of reason if the Word may be preached to such as have not heard or understood in hope they may understand and beleeve and in order thereunto that then also the Sacrament may be exhibited to them that profess the Faith of Christ without disquisition whether they doe sincerely make that profession or not because it is not onely probable to Charity they may have sound Faith but possible their Historical or Dogmatical Faith if they have no other may by that Ordinance be improved and quickned into a special lively working Faith But here they cast their Shete anchor Cùm fessas non vincula naves Ulla tenent and bring forth their Palladium that must preserve the City and which they also think to be like the shield of Pallas with the Gorgon's head that will blind and astonish all beholders into silence Who knows not that distinction between a converting and confirming Ordinance We know the effects and influences of one and the same Ordinance may be so distinguish'd but acknowledge not there is any such essential difference or
distinction between the several Ordinances of the Word and Sacraments we shall onely grant 1. That the Sacraments are no converting Ordinances in relation to men out of the Church and to turn men from Ethnicisme to Christianity although they be such to men within the Church Prae festi Morat p. 392. and to convert them from an Historical or Dogmatical to a lively-active-saving faith when Mr. Tombes inferres then breaking of bread is a converting Ordinance Mr. Baxter answers If you mean that it may convert who ever denyed it Yea or it may be useful to convert unsound Christians to sincerity 2. That perhaps appropriately rather than properly by a denomination taken from the more frequent and more ordinary effect thereof the Sacraments may be called confirming Ordinances and so contradistinguish'd to the Word 3. Though as seales obsignating and assuring conditionally they are not without some efficacy toward conversion as shall be shewed yet seeing in that way they convert onely by confirming converting to a true special faith by confirming and quickning a common general faith therefore as seals they may be said to be primarily confirming Ordinances and though also as seals actually and absolutely confirming relative grace and exhibiting the benefits and privileges of the Covenant they suppose faith either in fieri or facto esse Faith being the Condition of the Covenant whereupon those benefits and privileges are bestowed Art 45. or though as conjoyned to the Word for more ample confirmation thereof as the Confession of the French Churches hath it they in that respect are also called confirming Ordinances Quomodo enim duo vincula dicuntur uno fortiora duo testes fortiores solitario sic proculdubio longè plùs valeat ad confirmationem fidei Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 9. S. 32. promissionis obligatio Sacramentorum pignoratio quà m alterutra seorsim nimirum quia intellectus per se movetur in verbis per sensus in sacramentis as Chamier discourseth yet as they are signes shewing forth and representing the death of Christ and salvation thereby unto beleevers so they are means and moral instruments to beget that real grace which converts the heart in like manner as the Word doth those two the Word and Sacrament not having different effects and operations in relation to Faith but onely a different manner of efficiency and the one assisting and confirming the other toward the same effect But in their sense though this distinction this their Palladium as the old Heathens fabled of theirs may be pretended to have fallen from Heaven yet as other Images it was the work of mens hands and of a late framing and whosoever shall hotly strive to preserve it shall like Metellus rescuing the Palladium at Rome hazard in such flames the loss of his eyes But if we should by hypothesis allow the distinction in their sense yet it brings nothing pertinent in answer to our Argument for who hath so little of natural Logick if he have no artificial to judge that because the Sacrament is onely a confirming and the Word a converting Ordinance therefore it can possibly be consequent that pre-examination is requisite in order to right partaking of the former not the latter Who would not rather without any Prompter suppose that such examination were rather to be required for disposing men to be partakers of the Word whose effects are more general gracious and profitable as I have elsewhere manifested and where the hazard and danger both of damnum emergens lucrum cessans is more to such unpreparedness and indisposition and either due preparation is necessary to no Ordinances save such as confirm Faith and then men may come to the Word unprepared or else men may come to some Ordinances duly prepared without pre-examination Like Iphilus treading on the tops of Corn without any pressing them they tenderly insist upon this point and doe rather knock at this door than enter but let us survey their discourse Fatale aggressi sacrato avellere templo Palladium Some have contested against this difference but with small success It may probably be so in respect of perswading such as according to what Stapleton adviseth Look who speakes not what is spoken or such who are like Peleus Cedere nescius or like the Canes of China which are but hollow Reeds yet are as hard and impenetrable as Iron and like the Luciferians easier to be overcome than perswaded being perswasion-proof to all that checks with their Interests and therefore adde the many grains of their affection to supply the weight of reason and to turn the ballance their way Quod valdè volumus hoc facilè credimus We know the Spartans out-faced their great Defeat at Mantinaea set up their Trophees and arrogated the Victory besides the good Cause may not always have the best advocate Tully against Oppiaricus prevailed in a bad Cause and Aeschines against Ctesiphon miscarried in a good and some Advocates are like Pericles in the Theater who being vanquished by Thucydides will by their bold eloquence perswade that they are Victors But it shall as much intrench upon discretion as modesty for me to enter upon odious comparisons between the persons they mention or their Writings Vivorum ut magna admiratio ità censura difficilis one of those whom they so magnifie and I shall not strive to open wider the Pupil of their Eye to make either of them seem less is with one or two more of his Nation as the Tower of David builded for an Armory where hang all the Shields of mighty men they are I confess Stars of great Magnitude and perchance my Astralobe takes their Altitude at no lower Elevation than doth that of the Apologists and though I cannot move Concentrick with them in this Circle nor make them my Cynosure or such Stars whereby I guide my course yet the Apologists are more Anomalous to other of their motions and less follow their light For Mr. Prinne although perchance as he said of the Macedonians Quis non in hoc potest esse eloquens Yet I shall not dishonour him by my poor Desence which like Incense will more cloud than perfume his praise Frigida â—aus species est vituperationis although I shal only say that he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 magnus in omnibus it could not be expected that he should be non minor in singulis and being no less eminent for the multitude of his Writings than for the magnitude of his Learning and so much curious workmanship may not be looked for in a great Colosse as in a small Statue and that notwithstanding his Adversary encountred him in that subject which he had chosen as his Sparta to adorn and to make it his Master-peece as Apelles did the Table of Venus wherein to display all his Artifice and Pontice rem solam qui facit ille facit Yet notwithstanding all these advantages I may truly say Nec retulit praedas nec palmam victor
concurrence of the Word with the Sacrament in conversion deprive it of the name of a converting Ordinance Fifthly We pre-suppose and lay it as our Hypothesis that none but Covenanters with God and Church-members are capable of the Sacraments and such have been Hearers of the Word and are pre-endued with a Dogmatical-Historical Faith but all that have the Word of Faith have not the Work of Faith they beleeve speculatively but not practically not laying the promises to heart in an efficacious application they can make out the Proposition but are not perfect in the Assumption and Conclusion have the Synteresis fixed in them but are strangers to the Syneidesis and Crisis Now the question is whether the Sacraments are moral Instruments and effectual outward meanes to set that knowledge home to the heart which before was onely floting in the brain and to set open the passage between them and to turn and bring them that before at distance looked toward him to close up with Christ and to give their heart to him and cast their dependencies upon him Not to fetch in any auxiliar strength from that opinion or bottome any argument thereupon which some learned men embrace that an Historicall or Temporary Faith differs onely in degree not in kinde from that Faith which Tertullian calls Morata and Augustine Radicata confirmata which if it were so then the Sacrament onely by confirming Faith and elevating and improving it to greater degrees might with more facility work conversion But howsoever if they differ in kinde which to me seems to have more warrant from Reason yet the raising and increasing of the degrees may alter the kinds as aire advanced to some more degrees of rarefaction and consequent heat turns to be fire so since the Sacrament by quickning and fomenting the weak degrees of Faith by confirming it and making it take root may adde such strength thereunto as to make it purifie the heart and purge the Conscience from dead works seeing we see Augustine describes true Faith to be onely a confirmed rooted Faith and if it have the essence of true Faith it cannot but have the consequent operation thereof viz. to change the heart and seeing what was hinted before as Seales the Sacraments doe confirm Faith whether objectivè making the matter more credible or subjectivè causing the persons both more facile to credit and more firmly to adhere to it therefore he that had attained by the Word to a superficial floating and ineffectual Faith may by the Sacrament improve it to be lively solid and efficacious as he that thinks a Note under a mans hand to be no security nor will engage or undertake the performance of a duty upon such Assurance will be facilitated to doe it when a Seal is added to the Writing and as two Bonds are held stronger than one and two Witnesses more credible than a single one so without all doubt the Obligation of a Promise and the Pawn or Pledge of the Sacrament avail more to the confirmation of Faith the understanding being by it self more moved by the words and by the senses in the Sacraments In praedicatione verbi administratione Sacramentorum idipsum fere usu evenit quodin usuvini etenim ei qui assueti sunt quotidiano potu vix ejus vim sentiunt quibus verò rariùs aliquanto exhibetur in iis ejus spiritus miram quandam efficacitatem exerunt cùm ad vires corporis recreandas tum ad alacritatem inusitatam animis ingenerandam c. Thes Salmur p. 3. S. 17. p. 35. Idem hîc fere usu evenit quod in visu quia natura duobus oculis objecta visibilia nos perspicere velit nisi aliquid moliatur extra ordinem visu quidem non caremus nec quidquam videmus duobus oculis quod aliquatenus cernere nequeamus uno tantum at id facimus nimis commodè fortasse minus acutum Ibid. S. 49. pag. 47. as was even now alleaged out of Chamier and though the same things have been propounded before in the Word yet they may now take more impression being held forth in the Sacrament even as the same proposition made in the Word doth often acquire better and more happy effect at one time than another and much rather may it doe so when it is tendered as well in divers ways as times Whatsoever effect in the perfecting of Faith and attracting and uniting the love of the heart unto God in Christ can be produced by the lively apprehension and serious meditation of the death of Christ and his love in dying for the salvation of those that beleeve the Sacrament may be productive of which by institution signâ—fies and by similitude represents and shews forth his death and expresly tends and directly and appositely conduceth to the remembrance of him And how frequently and urgently is the consideration of Gods love manifested in sending his Son to dye and Christs in dying for us Joh. 15.12 13. Rom. 5.8 Ephes 5.2 2 Cor. 5.14 15. 1 Joh. 3.16 4.9 11. c. recommended as the most exciting and as the Apostle speaks constraining motive to the interchangable love of God and Christ and also of our brethren as material objects of our love whereof God is the formal and as participable of that blessedness which flows from Gods love in Christ This is plainly confessed by the Provincial Assembly of London who pathetically say That the breaking of the Bread understandingly looked upon Vindicat. p. 104 is a forcible argument to break your hearts and in the right use to effect that which it doth move unto there is power in an applicative and fiducial remembrance of Christ at the Sacrament to heal all the sinful issues of our soules and if you practically remember the Sacrament of his death you will finde virtue coming out thereof to make you dead to the World Can any tell me Baxter praefestinantis morator p. 393. Ex instituto Dei Christi ad eadem illa objecta quae verbo continentur cum repraesentanda tum praesertim obsignanda referuntur nam Christum testantur mortuum esse pro peccatis nostris ac suscitatum à mortuis pro justificatione nostra in eo nobis exhibent quicquid boni specie jucundi honesti utilis animos nostros movere ad studium pietatis verae sanctimoniae excitare potest Thes Salmur part 3. S. 11. pag. 33. Mundatio animae per gratiam infusam accedit ad rationem creationis Altisiodor Objecti illa repraesentatio in sacramentis quà m in verbo pleniùs expressa fuit ideoque movet efficacius Thes Salmur S. 46. part 3. p. 46. vide S. 31. 38. p. 38 40. saith a learned man in what kinde of causality the Word works which the Sacrament doth not also work in though in Conversion the work of the Spirit concurre with the Word either by infusing a principle of new life and inspiring
tidings of great joy for a Saviour which is Christ the Lord and must they not then also grant that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation Bellarmin Evernat tom 3. c. 5. p. 33. from which very Text of Rom. 1.16 Ames concludes that aequè tribuitur justificatio verbo sacramentis cùm ambo justificent ut instrumenta Dei ambo sua natura significent aliquid nobis fide recipiendum ad justitiam salutem consequens est ambo justificare mediante fide Is not the administration of the Sacraments a part of the work of the Ministery applicatio redemptionis in signis and are not those offices and that work also for the perfecting of the same and the edifying of the Body of Christ Lapide in Ephes 4.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Erasmus and Vatablus translate instauration coming saith one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying rem collapsam restaurare reparare 2. perficere absolvere consummare which as they will grant in relation to the Word preached so they cannot deny it in respect of the Sacrament if that be a Ministerial work but Docemus sacramenta esse partem externi Ministerii gratiae quo Deus uti voluit ad promovendam salutem humanam as Chamier witnesseth If they cannot deny the Word to be operative to Conversion they must also grant the like operation to the Sacrament which workes in the same generical way in order to the same effect these being like two Needles touch'd with the same Load-stone which move together and turn alike to the same point If they will not concede such efficacy to the Sacraments they consequently and virtually denegate it to the Word these two Ordinances being such friends as to have things common between them and like two Viols set to the same Tune Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 2. S. 3. p. 27. touch one and the other is touch'd also Bellarmine delivers it as the common tenent of the Protestants Sacramenta mediatè aliquid efficere quatenus videlicet excitant vel alunt fidem quae homines justificat quod tamen ipsum id est excitare fidem non faciunt nisi repraesentando volunt enim eodem modo concurrere ad justificationem sacramenta Tom. 2. l. 2. c. 2. p. 177. Estius in sentent l. 4. dist 1. S. 8. quo praedicatio verbi nisi quod praedicatum adhibetur auribus per auditum fidem sacramenta adhibentur oculis per visum excitant etiam fidem and Estius seconds him Docent Sectarii sacramentorum eundum esse usum quem Evangelicae praedicationis proinde non aliter ascribendam volunt hominis justificationem sacramento quà m verbo Evangelii quia inquiunt sâ—cut sacramentum ita Evangelium virtus Dei est in salutem omni credenti And this is true which they affirm but not the whole truth for beside this virtue of representing the Protestants doe attribute to the Sacraments also another of obsignation Ames Bel. Enervat Tom. 3. c. 3. Operantur ultra repraesentationem per efficacem ordinationem assistentiam Dei saith Ames and they are not onely theoretical signes to signifie but practical to confer the things signified and have omnem efficientiam respectu gratiae quà m signum practicum potest habere per ullam relationem non tamen efficere gratiam immediatè Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 7. S. 45. p. 38. sed mediante spiritu Dei fide yet so as that illa non propriè pendent à fide sed fides ex illis illa ex constitutione Dei and as Chamier speaks of Baptisme justificare excitando fidem non dicimus sed potiùs justificando excitare fidem quando quidem fides non est causa praecedens but that they excite Faith and produce real grace by their signification and representing as the word doth is the common opinion of Protestants the Provincial Assembly at London say Vindication p. 104. Instit l. 4 c. 14. S. 16. 17. As Christ in the Ministery of his Word preacheth to the ear and by the ear conveyeth himself into the heart so in the Sacrament he preacheth to the eye and conveyeth himself into the heart and therefore it is well called a visible Sermon Fixum maneat saith Calvin non esse alias sacramentorum quam verbi Dei partes quae sunt offerre nobis proponere Christum and elsewhere he addes hac ratione Augustinus sacramentum verbum visibile nuncupat Loc. com part 4. p. 194. a. quod Dei promissiones velut in tabula depictas repraesentat sub aspectam graphicè atque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expressas siatuat And so Martyr calls them speaking Signes and Junius matcheth them and the word as Twins Quod autem foras est in Ecclesia testimonium aut in sermone positum est Eiren. part 1 tom 1. p. 710. aut in symbolis sacramentis ejus unum sunt secundùm substantiam etsi in specie materiâque externâ differunt so likewise sacramenta conferentia gratiam significando per visum saith Chamier alio modo significant quà m Evangelium per auditum tamen utraque Cham. tom 4. l. 2. c. 5. S. 7. 15. conferunt significando communis modus significandi atque ita operandi in intellectum quanquam per diversos sensus and what he saith of Prayers is as well meant of and applyable to the Sacraments Si preces habere possunt intelligentiam ergò instructionem nam haec nihil est quà m intelligentia communicata Exam. Concil Trident. 2. part p. 101. Objectum fidei saith Chemnicius est verbum sacramenta imò in verbo sacramentis verum fidei objectum est Christi meritum gratia Dei efficacia spiritûs fides ideo justificat quia illa in verbo sacramentis dicitur justificare and I could amasse an heap of Testimonies to this purpose Vere priùs flores numero comprêndere fas sit and that this is to be understood of real grace not onely of relative and of the first conversion and change of the heart not onely seems plain by that of Chamier who like Plato may be instar omnium inter omnes Tanquam inter viburna cupressus Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 2. S. 8. p. 27. Ibid. l. 2. c. 12. S. 20. 21. p. 13. Docent Catholici in sacramentorum perceptione efficigratiam in fidelibus but farther by this Effici antem concedimus sanctificationem sed hanc geminam externam alià s internam internam sanctificationem esse credimus efficaciam spiritûs sancti in animum accipientis sacramentum à qua efficacia fit etiam arcana mulatio intellectûs voluntatis cujus respectu agnoscimus sacramenta esse instrumenta quaedam and most evidently as nihil incontradicibilius in Tertullians phrase by this passage Quicquid movet intellectum ad assentiendum veritati divinae rat fovétque fidem Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 4. S.
16. p. 31. geneat sacramenta movent intellectum ad assentiendum veritati divinae ergo Major patet quia fidei est assentire veritati divinae Minor etiam facilè probatur movent enim intellectum qua signa sunt itaque significant significationis vis tota pertinet ad intellectum movent autem ad assentiendum quia signa sunt veracia non mendacia veritas autem quam significant est divina non humana so as this may set it in the clearest Sun that those which deny the Sacraments to be converting Ordinances in this point they are also speculative separatists from the communion of Protestants And as certain Princes in some straits of indigence have coyned Leather instead of Silver so this new-minted distinction of a converting and confirming Ordinance was stamp'd in such a distress and necessity for want of better Bullion and is not Sterling onely I have not read of Princes that have fallen into such an exigence at the Inauguration into their Principalities or was false Coyn rather borrowed from the Papists who deny this Sacrament to confer the first grace Suarez 2. in 3. disp 7. q. 62. Vasquez disp 205. c. 4. who cite Hales Durand Bonaventure Biel Paludanus Major and others for this opinion but to suppose him just that receives it I recognize that some interpose to tell us that what use or effect the Sacrament can have by representing may be acquired by seeing the Administration without partaking and then it might be sufficient for some to look on but I shall regest that to what end shall they look on if they can look for no fruit or good effect thereby And wherein can the Aspect be fruitfull or effectuall to men unconverted but as it shall be subservient and adjumentall to their Conversion And if the Sacrament may be thereby capable of any such efficacy by representing to the Eye onely it will be necessarily consequent that the efficacy thereof in order to that end must be farre greater when it workes also by signifying to the other Senses and the applying signes are also added to the representing but though we should not willingly turn out of the way yet farther to remove this block out of the way of freer admission to the Sacrament wee shall answer 1. That the Blessing of our Saviour sanctifies the Bread and the Wine in order to the taking of both and eating of the one and drinking of the other not to the seeing them administred to the doing this in remembrance of Him not beholding it done and he shall unwarrantably presume to expect the fruit of the Promise that performes not the Duty of the Precept the Sacramental Elements put Christ into all our senses as I have formerly cited out of Chamier not onely into our Eyes significatio quò est expressiâ—r hoc magis operatur as Chamier to him that ears not Tom. 4. l. 9. c. 10. S. 36. p. 246. it is no Sacrament for sacramenta ut relata non habent extra usum rationem sacramenti And Chaemier also approves a passage of Valentia to this purpose Scilicet rem sacram in proposito intelligi debere quae sanctificat hominem suscipientem rectè ipsum sacramentum Tom. 4. l. 1. c. 11. quod talis rei sacrae est signum ita ut intelligere dâ—beamus esse signum rei fanctificantis practicum quoniam significat rem quae in ipsa praxi usu talis signt sanctificat Secondly Definitions are the very essence of things and the Apostle defineth this Sacrament by the Communion the Bread which we break is the Communion of the Body of Christ not the Inspection and we are partakers of one Bread not beholders For the better amplification of the benefits of Christs Incarnation in special there was to be a Mystical Incarnation of Christ in us as well as a real for us Mede in 1 Cor. 10.3 4 5. p. 582. as Nazianzen-defines the Eucharist to be a Communion of the Incarnation of God which is not effected but by receiving this Body and Blood of his changing them into ours by way of nourishment St. Augustine tells us that without the similitude of the signe to the thing signified there is no Sacrament but the Analogy of the Eucharistical signes to the Body and Blood of Christ consist in the respect of aliment and nutrition which respect faileth without eating and drinking and a Sacrament being not ens Physicum sed rationis Tom. 4. l. 7. c. 7. S. 18. p. 174. may be a Sacrament to one and not to another as Chamier disputeth it is but common meat and drink until it be consecrated but the Consecration is not perfected nor in facto esse until participation as it is no compleat motion until it have attained its term Even Bellarmine Valentia and other Papists Tom. 4. l. 9. c. 10. S. 15. p. 245. make Consumption to be of the Essence of their fictitious sacrifice Nay Chamier goeth farther and denyes Ullum fructum ex Eucharistia participi videndo ratio facilis quia non sit instituta ut significet ea ratione sed aliâ quare cùm Eucharistia pertineat ad gustum sic Augustinus ridicule sophista Bellarminus dixit aequè significare per oculos id est videndo And when I shall finde their Appetite as well satisfied and their Stomachs as much filled by looking on a good Supper as by eating it I may be facile to assent to their Hypothesis and beleeve the Supper of the Lords may be alimental and refective to the soul by seeing as well as by partaking Thirdly As the benefit is not equal in seeing and eating In Eccl. l. 3. so the danger is alike in either if they be without Faith for since not onely as saith Hierom in this Mystery but in the reading of the Scripture we eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of Christ and the Word preached as I alleaged out of Casaubon is a Spiritual Table and another kinde of spiritual eating of Christ therefore to whomsoever or howsoever salvation by the death of Christ is represented if not laid hold of by Faith it turnes to his condemnation and he hath no life in him because he eates not the flesh of the Son of Man nor drinkes his Blood so that as a man may eat Christ spiritually and not sacramentally and have the rem signi without the signum rei so he that eates not spiritually contracts damnation though he be restrained from Sacramentall eating Fourthly Therefore saith Chrysostome not onely they that sit down at the Table but they that are present at the Feast without their Wedding Garment Mep ad Ephes Hom. 3. Tom. 4 p. 356. are subject to condemnation for the Master of the Feast will not ask How durst thou sit down but how durst thou come in not having a Wedding Garment Fifthly To be a spectator of the Celebration and not a partaker of the Sacrament as it hath no precedent
in the practice of the ancient Church save among those that were in the last degree of penance for those that were not thought worthy to partake were not held fit to look on Albaspin de vet Eccl. rit l. 2. ob 2. p. 206. but were dismissed in the Ite missa cùm ex more Diaconus clamat si quis non communâ—cat det locum as saith Gregory and it was thought all one to behold the Celebration and to be a partaker for if a Catechumen had by fortuitous accident beheld the administration he was forthwith baptized and from Baptisme was an immediate passage to the Eucharist and whom they thought fit to be permitted the inspection they supposed worthy to be admitted to the participation of the Eucharist so to stay as a spectator De consecrat dist 2. was censured to merit the punishment of Excommunication as I have elsewhere manifested peracta consecratione omnes communicent qui noluerint ecclesiaisticis carere liminibus sic enim Apostoli statuerunt c. as Gratian recordeth Lastly as it is Treason to carry Arms and Ammunition to the Enemy so this principle treacherously betrayes the Protestant Cause and brings Aid to the Popish furnishing them with an Argument to justifie or excuse their private Masses and mutilate Communions if they may be profitable and effectual to spectators of the Sacrament when it is administred as well as to participators And sure if they doe not lend they that use it borrow this Argument from the Pontificians Aut Plato Philonizat aut Philo Platonizat Bellarmine telling us in his Disputes against our opinion of the Sacraments efficacy by exciting Faith and operating by their signification correspondently as the Word doth as in truth many of the Arguments usually urged to disprove the Sacraments to be a converting Ordinance are but feasting us in that Idol-Temple and with part of the sacrifices which Bellarmine hath offered to the God of Ekron that what effect the Sacraments have by signification may be acquired by seeing them administred as well as by partaking and from this principle also he argueth in defence of the Communion in one kinde and with the Popish Heifers have they ploughed that have found out this Riddle and in allusion to the antique mode in founding Cities have turned up this Furrow and drawn this Line where to make a Wall to retrench and keep out from the Communion And perhaps also the Papists putting their private Masses upon the score of the peoples indevotion hath prompted the Apologists and their fellows to lay their comparatively private Communions and the excluding of so many on the account of their unwillingness to come and on their irreverence and hereupon to put the blame for the with holding both kindes from so many as among the Papists they doe for withdrawing one species from all except Priests and Kings save that lately the consecrated Wine is given the Laity in some Countreyes poured out into a Glass which by no meanes is to be drank out of the Chalice that the Priest may have still some privilege and elevation above the people equal to Kings Wherein as in a glass we may see somewhat besides Truth and Godliness doth carry on and biass the wheeles of this kinde of motions That Argument seemes in some false glasses to shew a more colourable face of reason which some have thus painted He that receives worthily is converted already he that partakes unworthily ears and drinks to his damnation not conversion But this is meer painting which will neither abide the fire or tryal nor the light of the Sun and will be defaced by every strong breath that blows upon it But first to seposite and adjourn the consideration that there lies no little weight of Reason and Authority in that scale which propends to think that the unworthiness of him which eats and drinks unto damnation is meant onely of a contrary not privative unworthiness and alone of such as come with a presumptuous irreverence and wilful contempt of the Ordinance and not of those that approach with some sense of their duty reverential esteem of the Mysteries and moral conformity I shall first propound it to be considered whether these be not some of the Weapons or formed by their Pattern wherewith fresh Sophisters use to play at foiles such as those Either a man dyes while he is alive or when he is dead either the Light first enters into a room when it is dark or when it is lightsome either the soul had an existence before it was infused into the body or after and with either of the horns of this Argument they think to push down an Antagonist and make it like a Crocodile to vanquish him which way soever he takes But I shall secondly offer it to be recognized that the Argument is another Dialect of the Language of Ashdod for not onely in analogous manner Bellarmine disputes against the Institution of the Legal Sacrifices for the typical expiation of sinne viz. Either he that offered was just and then needed no such expiatory sacrifice Tom. 4. l. 3. c. 4. S. 10. or unjust and then it could not be available to him and Chamier tells him he might have formed the like Argument against the Eucharist as against the antiquated sacrifices but also the Papists with like artifice argue against justification by Faith that before justification nothing in the natural man can justifie him he being at emnity with God and after he is justified faith cannot do that which is done already and again that no man can believe his sins to be remitted and himself to be accepted as just untill remission of sins and such acceptance be obtained and afterward faith cannot impetrate that which is precedently acquired Thirdly I shall hold it forth to be perpended whether this argument do not lye as directly and will not reach home as fully to dismount the Word also from being a converting Ordinance for that profits not but where it is mixt with faith in the heart and therefore he that hears with faith is converted already he that doth not so findes it the savour of death unto death and not of life unto life Fourthly we grant that he that hears faithlesly and he that communicates unworthily In sensu composito persevering in that state and privation cannot be converted but is condemned already but in sensu diviso he that comes without true faith and unworthy to receive may yet be converted in receiving and be a worthy Receiver and having eaten of that Lamb as St. Chrysostome speakes may be transformed from a Woolf that meat not being changed into the substance of the partakers but changing him that partakes into it self and so this Bread which signifieth the Body of Christ may not onely strengthen or confirm mans heart but in that Blood which the Wine representeth there shall be life Beside the Sacraments are meanes of Grace and therefore to suspend men from the partaking thereof
and cast Pearl before Swine which is sometime superciliously enough alleaged to justifie this Oeconomy of repelling from the Communion such as they suppose unworthy is first and principally intended of the Word of Instruction and Reproof as appeares by the Text and the sense of Interpreters Though surely by the way that Text cannot be very pertinent nor well applyable to the point for which they produce it for those Pearls are prohibited to be cast before Swine Jansenius in Mat. 7.6 Idem Estius in 4. sent d. 9. S. 9. p. 123. and those holy things forbidden to be given to Dogs upon this caution lest they trample them under feet and turn to rent those that dispense them but there is no danger saith Jansenius that if the Sacrament be given to sinful men that desire it they should turn and rent those that exhibite it but rather that they will tear those that deny it neither can any be understood under the notion of Dogs or Swine that are not notoriously wicked and scandalous and such onely are here properly and especially meant as are Blasphemers and Persecuters of the truth and malicious resisters thereof but in these we plead for their reverence to the Sacrament and desire to partake thereof supersedes all fear and anticipates all caution lest they approve themselves such Dogs and Swine as to trample the Ordinance under feet or rent the Dispensers thereof But to stigmatize all those for Dogs or Swine whom they admit not to the Sacrament Dignos laude viros labe notare would be either rodere dente canino or else porcino foedare modo and canina facundia according to Lex Remia might render them obnoxious to a literal stigme and real brand being a calumny unworthy not onely a charitable Christian but a moral man But let us examine what they interpose to disprove our paralel of reasons verily much pargetting there is to shew a dispariry between the Word and Prayer and the Sacraments and to set them at difference which agree so well in the common and generical notion of Ordinances and it is remarkable to contemplate how the Sacraments are used like Casting-Counters sometimes standing for one hundred and then again but for ten according to the pleasure and interest of the Disposer to serve one turn they are sometimes advanced into a Sphere higher than the Word and we may somewhere meet with a fardle of what by a charitable construction we may call Reasons pack'd together to this purpose and Rhetorically enough displayed which yet indeed are but parcels of small Wares and which are like the Duke of Britain's Souldiers Briton's in English-mens Cassocks to accommodate another end they are at other times degraded set many Orbs lower and their virtue more disparaged and alleviated as upon this instant occasion we are told by some that Prayer and hearing the Word is a duty commanded but there is no Precept that wicked men should come to the Sacrament that in the one the matter is good and there is onely a failer in the manner but in the other both matter and manner are faulty and that by Prayer and hearing of the Word they may acquire some good temporal at least and mitigation of punishment but not so by communicating and therefore the Reasons are not alike for the admission probation of and conjunction with unconverted irregenerate and unworthy men to and in the former and latter Ordinances But I take leave to answer That it is the unanimous suffrage of the Fathers asserted by our Divines against the Papists in the question whether the Communion in both kindes be necessary that Take Eat Drink ye all of this Do this Shew forth the Lords death as some learned man will have it read are explicite commands words not onely of invitation of power of liberty Piscator but of command and precept as Justin Martyr and Chrysostome in terms expresly A Theologue of no ordinary elevation for learning and piety Perkins cas consc l. 2. c. 10. resolves in his Cases of conscience that by virtue of these commandments every man of years living in the Church and being baptized is bound in conscience to use the Lords Supper and so also doth the School resolve In 3. q. 80. ar 11. though they extend not the obligation to a receiving in both kindes as there is no formal command in terms requiring wicked men to communicate so neither is there such for them to pray the commandment is proposed indifferently and in general terms to all men and the Genus includes the several Species and the Species all the Individuals as our Divines answer the Anabaptists objecting there is no formal command for the baptizing of infants which are comprehended under the general notions of all Nations and Houses and Families neither can the want of those special qualifications or powers enabling to the discharge thereof exempt from or dispense with the obligation of general duties otherwise we might reverse and cassate the whole Moral Law which we are obliged to keep though we are not now able to perform our duty It seems to me a sad and piacular enunciation that the receiving of the Sacrament by an unworthy person is said to be materially evil or ex genere objecto though I deny not it may become so Ad hîc nunc ex fine circumstantiis I suppose the Author that dropp'd those inconsiderate words might justly with the Annular or Physick-finger touch the place behinde the right ear consecrate to Nemesis which among the Ancients was used by them that begg'd pardon of their gods for any inconsiderate and obnoxious speech what influence and effect the participation of the Sacrament may have upon unconverted and faithless persons I have elsewhere spoken and need not here to recapitulate That which is most commonly and most speciously and by the best learned objected to prove that there is not the like reason in this case in relation to the hearing of the Word and receiving of the Sacraments is this that the Sacraments are not converting Ordinances as the Word is there being no institution nor promise nor command to use them to that end but they are onely sealing Ordinances and conferre not but confirm Faith presuppose it and testifie our union with Christ not beget it that the Word is to be preached to those that believe not but the Sacraments to be administred onely to believers and those properly and really believers which not onely assent to the Word of Faith but to the work of Faith believing practically aswell as speculatively else the Seal should be set to a Blank and there should be a false testimony in witnessing that which is not and so be a practical Lye some few perchance attribute more to Baptism as to be a regenerating Ordinance but the Lords Supper they think is nothing like as if it were more to be the Laver of Regeneration than the Body and Bloud of Christ or as
if it were not the same internal grace exhibited under divers external significative Elements As the Lutherans to verifie that opinion that the Sacraments conferre grace ex opere operato are constrained to assert a Total falling from grace so these men to defend and maintain with more facility this Tenent that the Sacraments are no converting Ordinances have also thought it expedient to deny also that they conferre grace and with an admirable confidence obtrude this as the Doctrine of all Reformed Churches I am not willing to start and prosecute more Controversies at once this which I have primarily taken into agitation will engage enough of time and paper I remember Torquatus his fate that though he killed an Enemy yet suffered punishment because he went out of his Rank and Order to do it I shall therefore appositely to the present subject answer That they need not tell us of differences between the Word and Sacraments no several things but have their different properties else they could not be severall things they might deliver us more disparities but what are those they mention to make a difference between the Preparation or Probation needfull to the one and the other and the Communion and Fellowship in the one and not the other Let it be as it is pretended that the one is a converting and the other a confirming Ordinance doth it therefore follow that there must be a preexamining of the fitness of men in order to the one and not the other that we may admit of the society and concurrence of formal Professors in the one and not in the other Let it be so as it is suggested but is not then the Word the more blessed gracious and venerable Ordinance as to give being is more than to supply food and to infuse life more than to increase strength and so calls for more reverence purity and preparation in order thereunto as more honour is due unto our Parents than to our Nurse and Lawyers put more weight upon those words in a Deed Give and Grant than upon that of Confirm Ipsum esse perfectissimum omnium 1. q. 4. ar 1. comparatur enim ad omnia ut actus nihil enim habet actualitatem nisi in quantum est saith Aquinas and the more noble Effects make the Causes more noble and is not the World to all Ordinances as Faith to the Just and to all righteousness the life and soul thereof Others beside Believers say they may be admitted to the hearing of the Word but yet must no care be had nor triall made whether those that hear believe or not or are disposed to believe And is it no matter whether the Word become the savour of death onely course must be taken that the Sacrament become not deadly no matter though the word be so And if none must be admitted to the Sacrament but those that have Faith then none can receive admission for who can be assured that another hath Faith which is rooted in the heart which onely God searcheth the hidden man of the heart is invisible to any forrein eys the hidden Manna cannot be tasted by any other than he that imbosomes it and the new name is not legible by any save a reflected beam of light If it be answered that they intend onely that such are to be admitted who by a discursive knowledge collected by external signes in the conversation and reasoning from one thing to another they conclude to be faithful and regenerate I answer that such knowledge is not infallible they may be deceived and doubtless are in many and therefore in admitting of some they must needs set the seal to a blank and are false Witnesses and practical Lyers in relation to such as notwithstanding this probation doe deceive them neither can their endeavors to the contrary salve the thing being notwithstanding done though it may render the persons more excusable for doing it who also must still be perplex'd and anxious whether the signes be sufficient and the judgment regular There may be also a partial and male-administration of Discipline and an approbation of the unworthy who may perhaps ascendere ad altare per gradus by stairs of favour sundry ways impetrated and in such cases wherein they yet prescribe that there ought to be no intermission of the Synaxis nor separation from the Church all the prejudices and pollutions and profanations which they so much amplifie and declaim against in mix'd Communions doe arise and occurre But what doe the Sacraments seal more than the Word assures save that the one applyes that more particularly which the other holds forth generally and doth it by a representation to the eye and hand and mouth which the other doth unto the Ear Circumcision is indeed called a seal of the righteousness of Faith And as by an analogy and proportionable accommodation may our Sacraments be so named so God openeth the ear and sealeth instruction also Job 33.16 and binds up the testimony and seals the Law among his Disciples Isa 8.16 Methinks when I reflect on this Argument of theirs I re-mind that sophisme of the Arminians who argue That which every man is bound to beleeve is true but that Christ dyed for him is that which every man is bound to beleeve ergo Which Argument seems to me to have some similitude with this That which seales Christ and remission of sins unto Faith pre-supposeth Faith in them to whom the Scal is applyed but the Sacraments seal Christ and remission of sins to Faith ergo and the like answer may serve to the one and other fallacy viz. That as no man is bound to beleeve that Christ dyed for him unless he beleeve and repent but is rather bound not to beleeve it the death of Christ becoming effectuall to him onely upon condition of his Faith and repentance and the assurance thereof viz. That he shall be saved by Christs death being a conolusion that results from a Major proposition he that beleeves and repents shall be saved by the death of Christ and a Minor I beleeve and repent so the Sacraments seal not the donation of Christ and remission of sinnes in and through him but upon the condition of faith and repentance just as the Promises hold forth Christ in the Word preached And therefore the Seal is not put to a blanck but offered to be set if Covenants be performed as a man seals a Writing to become his Deed when Conditions be performed else to be as an Escrol to the faithless the Sacrament is a Seal in actu primo not in actu secundo a Seal still in its own nature not in the effect a Seal objectively viz. of the conditional Covenant and Promises not subjectively viz. of Faith in that person as the Seal doth not ratifie the services of the Tenant but the Grant of the Lord upon condition of performing the homage and fealty Whether the Sacrament be a converting Ordinance or not I shall onely say succinctly That
they which deny it doe but prevaricate for they say that the Sacrament abstracted from the Word and without it converts not which is as much as to say that the Sacrament when it is no Sacrament doth not convert for without the annexion of the Word it is no Sacrament Accedat verbum ad elementum fiet sacramentum which our Divines with excellent reason understand not onely of the Word as consecratory but as concional and as a word of Doctrine teaching the nature end and use thereof for they have no efficacy but by mediation of Faith and that hath alwayes relation to the Word such a Word as is effectual not quia dicitur sed quia creditur saith St. Augustine But whether Conversion be wrought by the Sacrament or at the Sacrament as they would have it observe I beseech you to be all one to our purpose so as Conversion be effected but indeed Faith hath three acts Knowledge and Assent in the Understanding and Affiance in the Will and Affections so that true justifying Faith is a fiduciall Assent pre-supposing Knowledge now the question truly stated is this Where there is an acquist and antecedency of knowledge and assent onely which is but an Historical or Dogmatical Faith whether that affiance which is a casting of a mans self upon Christ and a closing up with him and together wherewith is alwayes a Conversion of the heart and a renewing of the spirit of the minde cannot be wrought in the instant of receiving or be the effect of the Sacrament as a moral cause as well by the holy Spirits infusing of that internal formal principle or gracious habit of justifying faith as also quickning the present actual exercise thereof in embracing of the Lord Jesus whom though they had formerly heard of by the ear yet they never untill then felt in the heart This I think so well explained cannot well be denyed and until our age I am confident was never questioned In this same way miracles afflictions the conversation of the Wives may actually convert much more the Sacrament which effects it not accidentally and extraordinarily as the other but ut medium ordinarium ex natura suae institutionis speciali ordinatione divina The Word begets Faith onely by way of object propounded for Faith as all spiritual graces are is infused into the soul and there produced per modum creationis not by any natural operation but by a supernatural and immediate act and influence of Gods Spirit which begets Faith by illuminating of the minde and inclining the Will to apprehend and imbrace the object and in the same way that the Word worketh are the Sacraments operative Exam. concil Triden part 2. p. 77. for illum scilicet Christum pater proponit fide apprehendendum accipiendum ad remissionem peccatorum in verbo in sacramentis saith Chemnicius and when the same object is held forth in the Sacrament what should there obstruct the same operation of that Spirit which Bellarm. Enervat tom 3. c. 5. bloweth how as well as where it listeth and therefore in the same manner doe the Word and Sacraments justifie saith learned Ames It is true whatsoever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver and so the Sacrament converts to Faith or confirmes in it according to the condition and estate of the receiver but because the confirming of Faith is the more frequent and sensible effect the denomination is taken from that which happeneth utplurimùm for the most part and because they are added to the Word for confirmation of the object of Faith to make it more credible to any subject as Seales to Writings hence the Sacraments are commonly called confirming Ordinances Gerhard loc com tom 5. p. 1. and more especially the Eucharist is called the Sacrament of confirmation in a relative opposition to Baptisme named the Sacrament of initiation But that the Sacraments doe confer grace was for ought I know never denyed by any in the Reformed Churches Zuinglius excepted for as for the Anabaptists Dr White Pref. to the Orthodox Faith c. and Socinians I cannot yeeld them the honour of that notion the altercations we have with the Papists is not de re sed modo rei not about the thing but the manner He was a very learned Divine who upbraiding the Papists how they calumniate us in our Tenents and Doctrine to reflect an odium upon our persons and profession reckons up this among the rest that they impute to us that we deny the Sacraments to conferre grace We indeed deny what the Papists affirm that the Sacraments confer grace as the neerest immediate and proper causes thereof by any force or virtue intrinsecal Neque verò naturam efficaciae sacramentorum ij satis explicant qui aiunt Deum agere ad eorum praesentiam tantùm eum enim in finem instituta sunt non ut nos admoneant Deum agere aliquid sed ut ipsa sint instrumenta efficacia quibus Deus utatur ut in nobis aliquid operetur habent ergo efficaciam insitam aliquam at objectivam quae requirit facultatem cognitivam excitatam illam ut loquuntur in actu Thes Salmur part 3. S. 43. pag. 14. Yet this is not all that other Protestants ascribe to them inherent or seated in them as Physical and real causes whereby grace is effected and brought forth ex obedientiali potentia animae or so as a medicine cures a disease in the body without any previous motion or thought of mans minde but we grant notwithstanding that they are impetratory instrumental moral causes of real grace by their signification of relative at least by exhibition and obsignation in respect of God ordaining them to that end and by a certain assistance of divine power and virtue which the School calls assistiam ex pacto as being practical and not onely theoretick signes but effecting what they signifie for God being called upon by reason of his promise is present with his grace and worketh inwardly to the similitude and proportion of that which the Elements doe outwardly as the Waters of Jordan cured the Leprosie of Naaman by the power of God working with them who had first ordained that they which should doe what he commanded shall receive that which he hath promised just as a Kings Letters Patents sealed with his Seal are said to confer an Office or Lordship upon him to whom they are granted and that saying of Hugo hath a Passport on all fides Fideles ex istis elementis salutem non quaerunt etiamsi in istis quaerunt ista enim non tribuunt quod per ista tribuitur God not resigning his grace to them but by them imparting it unto us by the mediation of our Faith and his Spirit I might be voluminous in amassing testimonies of our Divines to this purpose but viso Solone vidisti omnia doe but peruse the great master of
man ought to repell another for such an incapacity especially when he knows it onely per scientiam privatam non publicam notoriam And this also is the divine Oeconomy of God omniscient to hold forth the means of salvation to those who he knows will not make any saving use of them onely for their inexcusable conviction not infallible conversion so to will the saving of them voluntate signi quamvis non voluntate beneplaciti The Apologists are like raw Chymists who resolve things into smoke and vapours but distill no Spirit nor make any clear or liquid Extraction they tell us often of polluting and defiling the Sacrament but do with no clearness explain the reason or manner thereof to break up those mists we shall hold forth this light that in the sense of Scripture to pollute is to do an injury to contemn or to hold as vile Jer. 34.16 Mal. 1.7 Lev. 18.21 19.12 21.6 Sometimes this pollution is understood to be in the opinion of men Sanctius in Jer. p. 75 34. 6. p. in Malach. 1.7 p. 1711. Willet in Levit. 19.12 p. 457. Lapide in Levit. 19.12 Dicuntur ea mali polluere quantum in ipsis est August contra Parmen l. 2. c. 13. p. 9. Sanctius in Malach. 1.7 sometime in the profane attempts of men who as much as in them lieth defile the name and things of God in this notion we shall grant that the Sacrament may be said to be polluted by an unworthy Receiver But first also no less is every holy Ordinance by an indign Partaker both the Word when it is preached to those that reject it or receive it not with faith and Prayer when it is made without reverence or devotion and so likewise is every duty when it is discharged negligently and inordinately and the Name of God and Religion and the Church of God are polluted in all those vitious and defective performances Si quispiam alteri vile aliquid offert vilem illum esse demonstrat quia haec aut moribus aut meritis accommodata fatetur saith a very good Commentator ungracious persons can no more actually or intentionally sanctifie Gods Name in undertaking any other duties than the Apologists say they can in approaching to the Lords Table and if so many as they are doubtfull or dissatisfied of or have private exceptions against must be suspended from the Sacrament lest that be polluted they ought by a parity of reason to forbid them to profess to be Christians for the Name of God may be also polluted Ezek. 20.39 39.7 Isal 48.11 and thrust them out of the Church for the Sanctuary also is subject to be polluted Ezek. 44.7 Zeph. 3.4 and drive off from all holy things which are obnoxious to pollution Numb 18. and banish them the Land for that also is in danger to be polluted Numb 35.33 and perhaps they ought not to receive their Tithes when they are brought them for Gods holy Name is polluted with their gifts Ezek. 20.39 But it seems there is no fear of contracting nor need to be care of preventing pollution but in the Sacrament Secondly this being a relative not a real pollution for the Sacraments being moral and not physical causes are not capable of real pollution therefore not properly to preserve the purity of the Sacrament but to maintain the dignity of all Ordinances and chiefly the honour of the Christian faith lest the Word of God be blasphemed Dum Christi infamatur Evangelium Hier. in locum Tit. 2.5 and the Churches Discipline lest that contract some scandal by suffring and indulging such nefarious offenders was that wholesome expedient of Excommunication first instituted and as we have always granted is still to be exercised and for this very thing contest with them because they practise not that old way of cure but rather prove practices such as carries some resemblance with that perverse custome of the wilde Irish who rather than they will thresh out the Corn and winnow off the Chaff do burn the Oats in the straw and we have ever suffraged to that of St. Augustine De fide oper c. 5. tom 4. p. 13. Sic vigilet tolerantia ut non dormiat disciplina and we shall concurre with him and say Cùm iis per quos Ecclesia regitur adest salva pace potestas disciplinae adversus improbos aut nefarios exercendae tunc rursus ne socordiâ segnitiéque dormiamus c. But thirdly it is one thing to cast out and separate notorious offenders another to withdraw and separate from those that have not tried notes of true holiness and therefore for such as juridicè aut jure effectivè vel demeritoriè are not excommunicate or salvo pacis vinculo cannot be so for their multitude or other obstacle and such as have not approved their real sanctity upon triall and may be supposed to have no other but a relative holiness as that they are Church-members and Professors of the Faith and perchance walk not so ordinately but to give rise to a suspicion of their unsincerity or if some way faulty yet onely known to be so to some few and not publickly or notoriously defamed by the course of their lives yet by admission of such to the participation thereof the Sacrament is no more polluted in it self nor annulled toward others that communicate therein with them than are the Word and Prayer by their being partakers of them and that is onely no more than the Brasen Serpent was by being looked on by men envenomed by the fiery Serpent or their Christian Religion is by their being admitted or continued Church-members neither is there in order to the conservation of the one than of the other from pollution any greater necessity to put them under triall or to separate from them nor more cogent reason to deny them the Sacrament Homil. 3. in Ep. ad Ephes tom 4. p. 356. than to forbid them to do any materially good work or duty yea or to exclude them from being Church-members Non equidem dixit Rex saith Chrysostome ut quid accubuisti mensae sed jam ante quà m invitareris aut introires te indignum fuisse pronunciavit neque enim ait ut quid discubuisti sed cur intrâsti Fourthly nay farther in that very case of notorious evil men Aug. tells us Cùm sive per negligentiam praepositorum sive per aliquam excusabilem necessitatem Ubi supra sive per occultas obreptiones invenimus in Ecclesia males quos Ecclesiasticâ Disciplinâ corrigere aut coercere non possumus tunc non ascendat in cor nostrum impia ac perniciosa praesumptio quâ existimemus nes ab his esse separandos ut peccatis eorum non inquinemur atque ità post nos trahere conemur veluti mundes sanctósque Discipulos ab unitatis compage quasi à malorum consortio segregatos veniant in mentem illae de Scripturis similitudines divina
the Work of faith and to make an external Profession without any real Conversion of the inward Man they were pricked at the heart but compuncti fuerunt Cain Judas saith Calvin As the denunciation of judgement struck Ahab into a low posture of Humiliation so it is possible many of those Ultorem metuunt regnantem quem occiderunt benedicentem as Erasmus Their continuing stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of Bread and Prayers Calvin saith is the form of the Church but all that are of the visible Church are not of the invisible a man may continue in the Doctrine of the Apostles yet not in the practice of that Doctrine he may be no speculative Heretick nor Apostate yet may be a practical Heretick there may be a pure light without heat or influence as in Glow-worms or Cucuija he may give all his Goods to feed the Poor and not have Charity parting with the Substance to catch a shadow for honor est umbra virtutis he may perform external duties without the hidden Man of the Heart like Architas Dove and Regiomontanus Eagle make a brave flight without a Principle of life carried by other wheels and engines most of this if that fellowship be Communicatio ad mutuam conjunctionem eleemosynas aliáque fraternae communionis officia as Calvin may be verified of many of those whom they suspend save that the Breach they have made keeps them from breaking of Bread and though desirous of the ways of Salvation they find this way obstructed But thirdly do they soberly opine that all those were real and perfect converts I suppose then they are solitary in that opinion not onely these three thousand but the rest about that time coming into the faith found present Baptism a door into the Church among these first converts were Ananias Saphira and Nicholas and yet these first Blades of the seed of the word were blasted and withered without sound fruit But fourthly whatsoever they were it was not the truth and reality of their faith that admited them to Baptism but the external profession of the faith their continuance stedfast in the faith what ever it importeth was a thing subsequent they had not continued when they onely began to believe and then were they Baptized and brake bread and the Apostles suspended not their Baptism till probation had whether they would so continue and their continuance was in breaking bread also When the Eunuch had made a draught of his faith by profession thereof Philip did not suspend the seals when he came to water there was no haeret aqua though there was not time enough to verifie the unfainedness of his profession yet nothing hindred him to be Baptized and when the prisoner of Jesus Christ had brought into captivity the thoughts of his jaylor to the profession of an obedience to Christ although he immediately before resolved to have given himself a wicked kinde of Baptismus sanguinis by killing himself with his own sword yet without suspending him for such a desperate resolution he received the Baptismus flaminis and that straightways which is a word of no more Latitude than their immediately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here being equivalent to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 13.30 Which leaves no proportionable time to take any evidence of the soundness of the work of grace in his conversion and what ever probable signs thereof himself might give yet nothing is recorded of those of his house but that the word of the Lord was spoken to them which doubtless they professed to receive with faith and without more adoe all his were Baptized too being upon that profession taken to be of the houshold of faith Primus haeresiarcharum as the Fathers call him and primogenitus Sathanae as Ignatius stiles him Simon Magus whose fresh sorceries and witchcrafts were such as might have justly put his profession under a suspicion of counterfeit and if ever to have brought any to the tryal now to have done it and to have expected some signs that he that was to be washed were also sanctified and as they say of Lapis Armenius that it must be often washed ere it be approved so on the contrary he should have been often proved ere once washed yet we find notwithstanding that without suspension or probation upon his profession to believe though he were still in the gall of bitterness which poison he suck'd from the old Serpent and therefore there was no hope that the Spirit which appeared at Christs Baptism in the likeness of a Dove which is without gall should descend upon him who onely in Ecclesiam ut Corvus ingressus est quaerens quae sua sunt saith Augustine probatus est ad aquam contradictionis as St. Hierom accommodately quia in hypocrisi accepit baptismum Yet he was admitted to Baptism which there was an active right in the Apostles to give without examining whether he had a passive the receive Quem prodidit orbi Poena sequens nescisse fidem sings Arator It might appear by prolix induction but that longum iter per exempla that the first profession of faith gave a right to Baptism whereof Livery and Scisin was thereupon taken and when any deserteth the tents of Paganism and comes into the quarters of the Christian Church before he be entred into the Muster-Roll take his Sacramentum Militiae and march under their ensigns or be otherwise received than as an enemy he ought to shew wherefore he is come and profess himself to be for that party and therefore that a profession of faith is requisite antecedently to Baptism In Act. c. 9. v. 37. is not contradicted Est regula universalis saith Calvin Non ante recipiendos esse in Ecclesiam qui ab e◠fuerant prius alieni quam ubi testati se fuerint Christo credere for it were saith he an impious and too gross profanation of Baptism to administer it to an infidel to one that assents not to the faith objective and hath not faith subjectivè viz. a Dogmatical and Historical faith wherein is founded a title to the Sacraments and how else shall we know that they are become Christian believers unless they profess to be so and make it known but as that great Divine addeth inscitè perperam fanatici homines Paedobaptismum hoc praetextu impugnant so I may say that irrationally and ilfavoredly shall they seek to conclude an equal necessity of the like profession previously to the Eucharist for the same reasons which Mr. Calvin produceth evince to there is no such necessity that the Baptism of infants should be suspended until they are capable to make profession of their faith are as apt and applicable to prove that it is not necessary that such as are baptized should profess or be examined of their faith before their admission to the Lords Supper those who once were aliens when they were made Denisons of the Church made this profession at their
how incompetent those Elders are ad hic nunc to be set up as Judges being of such parts and education I need not say who as little dare to undertake as they are unable to act any thing without the infusions and conduct of their Pastor and though I will not say as the Italians do of the Cardinals in the conclave in relation to the sense of the Pope That they do assentari non assentire yet others cannot but observe that the Elders of those Churches which be spoken without any odious extension to all of that Notion are but Cyphers serving onely to add the more of number and like Mercury in conjunction with the Sun lost in the light and having no influence but what is derived from him and as in the Consulship of Julius Caesar and Bibulus because the one carried all the sway and honour from the other they dated writings Julius and Caesar being Consuls no mention being made of Bibulus so notwithstanding the conjunction of the Elders the Ministers are virtually and in effect sole in the action and act arbitrarily too for any rule or Canon that ever I could take notice of to regulate their proceeding but in whomsoever the power be vested yet nec unquam satis fida potentia est ubi nimia est and whatsoever the men may be that exercise it yet Vespasianus moderatus sed imperator non libertas Lastly Whether this be not more than half way towards the Independents and symbolize not with the Congregational way for what subâ—â—antial difference is there between their gathering a Church and this collecting together of Communicants some out of one place some out of another What material disparity is there between this admitting none without profession made and satisfaction rendred of their sufficiency both in faith and manners and then entring into fellowship and the Independent Covenant As their way of gathering is the same so their way of governing the Church is very like the Independents admit any to the hearing of the Word not to the Communion of of the Body and Blood of Christ so do these they have further conformity in admitting and countenancing their gifted brethren to pray publickly and though not in their publick places of convention nor in the formality of preaching Bayly diswas c. p. 174. yet to teach in their private Assemblies and Meeting-houses according to the medious way excogitated by some Independents to reconcile the different opinions among themselves upon that matter and it is said that not the Elders onely but the whole Congregation doth occasionally make judgment Are not both they and the Independents equally guilty of an Allotrioepiscopacy of removing the ancient Land-marks and confounding of Churches and limits and taking in such of whose souls they have by no law nor consonancy to good order any proper or special care and of a resemblance with the Partrich Ier 17.11 which gathereth the young which she brought not forth as was the ancient and is still the marginal reading and of that magick which Furius Cresinus among the old was slandered with of charming and bringing other mens fruits into his field contrary to holy Scripture Acts 20.28 1 Pet. 5.2 Heb. 13.17 Can. 17. not in quosdam Canones Concil Gal. p. 160. Can. 20. Can. 6. apud Magdeburg 7. apud Caranz L. 1. Epist 5. Epist 6. contrary to that rule of righteousness what you would that men should do unto you even so do unto them Matt. 7.12 contrary to the ancient Canons of the first Council of Arles Ne quis Episcopus alium Episcopum conculcet hec est involare in vicini sui diaecesim saith Albaspinus and the third Council of Carthage Vtâ—a nullo Episcopo usurpentur plebes alienae and the first Council of Carthage nequis vel clericus vellaicus sine literis Episcopi in aliena Ecclesia communicet and contrary to the judgement of Cyprian singulis pastoribus portio gregis est adscri ta quam regat unusquisque gubernet rationem sui actus Deo reddat oportet eos quibus praesumus non circum-cursitare and again sine spe sunt perditionem maximam indignatione Dei adquirant qui schismata serunt rolicto Episcopo alium sibi foras pseudo-episcopum constituunt So as they must excuse me to think that they onely take magni nominis umbram when they sometimes assume the name of Presbyterial Churches at best they can be but blended and by mixture constituted of some of the principles of the one way and the other Amphibii Zoophytes Epicaenes like the Chymicall naile in the Duke of Florence his cabinet part Iron and part Gold like the Amphisbaena that hath two heads and moves two divers wales that have a Crow for Caesar and another for Anthony or as the Angel in the Revelation that flew between heaven and earth is by a learned man interpreted to be Gregory the Great who was the last of the good Popes and the first of the bad so they may passe for the worst kind of Presbyterians though the best sort of Independents But surely as Aristotle said of the Milesians That they were not fools but yet they did the very same things that fools doe so if these be not Independents yet they have the same actions and wayes There may be and are some differences perchance in opinion and practice between the one and the other but that impedeth not but that they may passe under one notion and denomination The Churches of France and Spain are in many points Antipodes each to other Azorius will tell us that what is the common opinion in the one kingdome is not so in the other as concerning the immaculate conception of the virgin Mary and the worshipping the Cross with Latria c. yet both are Papists and so are all they among whom Bellarmine himself by the account of Pappus reckons up above three hundred different opinions and perhaps we might find far more among those who properly and professedly passe for Independents and so many perchance as are not to be reduced to a fixt certain number except by a second Clavius who hath in one sum set down the number of the sands that would fill up all the concave space between the Earth and the eighth Spheare or peradventure so many as there are Indulgences in that one Church of Lateran which a Papist saith none but God can number and he Indeed at his great day of account will be sure to number both the one and the other And as these mens ARguments are most of them Arrows taken out of Independent Quivers and sharpned on their Anvils so let assay be made by some skilfuller hand more versed in these controversies whether the forces mustred against separation fight not most of them against this new modell which I know nor how to blanch or palliate with any other name than a Separation a separation of themselves as the purer part from the dregges of the
and they lie unto God with their tongues when they pray Psal 76.36 aswell as others in their judgment seem to lie or give false testimony when they give them the Sacrament And why those reasons then should be of weight to exclude from the Sacrament but not to debarre from prayer A Lapide in Levit. 19.36 I know not where to lay the cause but upon the divers weights and divers measures which the Hebrewes say pollute the Land and prophane the name of God and that more truly than they can prove the free admission can pollute or prophane the Sacrament onely when they are resolved to assume a power to keep whom they please from some Ordinances that they may better keep them in awe and hold them in subjection To exclude from prayer is neither so specious to attempt since as among the Heathens to what Deity soever the sacrifice were intended yet there was an invocation of Janus and Vesta also so among the Christians whatsoever be the Ordinance attended upon it is seconded with that of prayer and invocation of God and this is the Salt that must season all other sacrifices disposing to and attending on them for improving their fruit and effect and therefore this species carries away the name of the genus from the rest and the Hebrew and Greek aswell as the English call this by the name of Service not without warrant sealed by God himself who calls his house an house of proyer denominating it from the chiefest service but also to withold them from prayer is lesse possible to effect for men may pray without concurrence of a Minister but not receive the Sacrament without it be consecrated by him But they have laid an obligation on the Church of England Perpetuúsque animae debitor hujus erit in undertaking to prove that some of the particular Congregations are true Churches Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis Tempus eget we cannot allow them to be auditors of that sum nor to cast it up with their new Counters who it seems suffering none to come to the Sacrament without their Let-passe would rise higher to permit none to passe for true Churches which have not their Communicatory letters Seminibus jactis se sustulit arbos Exiit in coelum ramis soelicibus but which are those that are true Churches and what is that which is constitutiv◠or destructive to either of them As Adrian Turnebus used to hit more right when he set down predictions of the weather clean contrary to the Prognosticators so perchance he may aim nearer to truh that denominates some of those not true Churches which they so call and some of them true whom they name not such but seeing they allow the Word and Sacraments for notes of a visible Church Field of the Church l. 2. c. 2. p. 51. whereunto some of our great Divines have appended another which admitted might also perchance disfranchise some of those that usurp and appropriate the name of Churches viz. an union and connexion of men in this profession and use of the Sacraments under lawfull Pastors and guides appointed authorised and sanctified to direct and lead them Contro 4. de Eccles l. 3. c. 2. in consonancy wherewith Bellarmine himself defines the Church to be Caetus hominum ejusdem Christianae fidei professione corundem Sacramentorum communione ligatorum sub regimine legitimorum pastorum But indeed the other two being as they grant the Inseparable absolutely proper peculiar and essentiall notes for scire est per causas scire and therefore being both the formall cause of a Church giving Being thereunto in constituting and conserving it while it is taught by the Word and by the Word and Sacraments is gathered together to God and being the effect of the Church constituted while it teacheth others they cannot but demonstrate the Church à priori à posteriori and therefore being adequate unto the Church Gerhard loc com tom 5. de Eccles c. 10. p. 306. 309. and inseparable from it it may firmly and immoveably be collected saith Gerhard that where the Word is preached and the Sacraments administred there is a Church and reciprocally where there is a Church there is the Word preached and the Sacraments administred upon this ground therefore as the Church of England was a true Church so were also all the particular congregations being similar parts of that nationall Church as that was of the Catholique and if in respect of that common nature found in them they were not Species of the Church in general yet they were members thereof as it is an integrall body for they had all of them the Word preached and professed purely without any error in the foundation which onely nulls a Church and the Sacraments legitimously administred for matter and form and had there been some corruption in the doctrine and administration yet as totas Ecclesias non esse aestimandas ex solis pastoribus Whitak Cont. 2. de Eccles q. 5. c. 17. p. 541. Iunius Eirenic part 1. tom 1. p. 715. 716. Animad in Contro 4. Bellarm. l. 4. c. 2. p. 1132. Ibid. p. 1131. nec ex qui busdam paucis as Whitaker and Gerhard so these corruptions had onely made a cease to be a pure Church not to be a Church so long as the foundation had stood it had been the house of God though hay and stubble were built thereupon saith Whitaker it had continued to be a Church untill Deus renunciaverat iis testificatione publicâ as Junius in the like case the Word and Sacraments simply and absolutely distinguished a Church from prophane Assemblies and the incorrupt preaching of the Word and legitimate administration of the Sacraments from hereticall congregations though properly as Iunius observes the preaching of the Word being actus hominum est Index illius notae non nota primaria jam enim ante habuit notam Ecclesia Dei veritatem verbum veritatis à Deo quà m praedicatio exstiterit so as sure our Congregations were lately all Churches Fuimus Troes fuit Ilium ingens Gloria Dardanidum But since their brethren in principles sought to undermine our Churches and having made the match and their zeal giving fire to the hidden mine by a new powder-plot have blown up these Churches and thereby not onely rent and dissipated them one from the other but scorched and mortally wounded them with fundamentall errors I think now it is not without due caution and circumspection that they say onely some of our Congregations are true Churches for as Diogenes sought a man with a Lanthorn at noon-day at Athens so amidst all the late new light we have more need then ever of that lamp unto our feet to find a Church and they do therefore ingenuously call themselves of the Congregational way for they are many of them out of the way of a true Church And though all that be of those principles are not vitiated with
such heresies yet they are culpable in causa as he that pulls down the Dam is guilty of all the inundations and breachâ—s made by the flood But then seeing the administration of the Sacraments is a note of the Church Oportuit esse signa aliqua sacra quibus distinguerentur cives Jerusalem à civitate Baby Cit. ab Ames Bell. Ener tom 2. c. 3. p. 63. louis saith Alexander Hales sicut videmus in aliis rebus oves enim unius gregis discernuntur ab ovibus alterius gregis proprio signo sacrae aedes à non sacris proprio signo discernuntur civitas nobilis aliquo signo donari consuevit ut civitas Romana penula dignitas militaris accinctione gladii officium traditione virgae vel clavium ex quibus omnibus colligitur quod sacramenta homini sunt necessaria post lapsum ad hoc ut discerneretur esse civis spiritualis Jerusalem deâ—g ege Domini de militia cius Vbi supra And although as Whitaker affirms Sacramentorum usum non esse semper simpliciter necessarium sed possead tempus intermitti sunt enim sigilla tantum eorum bonorum quae nobis in verbo proponuntur sigilli vero appositio ad rem nihil addit sed ad rei duntaxat modum si sigillum deperdatur res non continuo amittitur non enim nobis est negotium cum callido aliquo mercatore ut fraudem motuamus sed cum Deo qui sallere non potest non est ergo quod de salutis premissionibus nobis ab illo factis dubitemus eisi sigilla nâ—n hâ—bemus Yet notwithstanding as this seems onely to comfort those that cannot have them not to excuse those that will not give them and therefore he adds Sinâ—llum necessarium impedimentum fuerit nec esse ullo modo omittenda yet I say if the Sacraments be notes of the Church how can that be a Church to whom these notes are supposed not to belong How can these be Citizens of Ierusalem sheep of the Lords flock Souldiers of his Militia who not onely have not but are affirmed not be in capacity of having the proper signes of such Vbisupra p. 1131. And seeing as Iunius asserts those are notes of the Church Professione Dei nostrâ Deitradentis Scripturâ professione Sacramentis nostrâ profitentium recipere Scripturam professionem Sacramentáque ipsius qua Deus profitetur jam Ecclesia est quà homines jam Deum Ecclesiámque profitentur se Ecclesiae membra tota haec professio notâ— Ecclesiae est sed prima illa Ecclesiam constituit notam essentialem ipsius in se haec notam Ecclesiae in membris ejus particularibus ostendit how can they be yeelded to be membâ—rs that are not allowed this profession And how can these be notes by their profession in receiving whom they professe uncapable to receive and if as the same famous learned man delivereth P. 1133. the word Saltem vocatione communi facit divinae consortes naturae ut ita loquamur omnes quamvis non singulari internáque vocatione singu os how can they that are partakers of the divine nature be unworthy to participate of the signes of his body They fairly confess That discipline enters not into the definition of a Church but onely of a sound and healthy Church and to put all or most on this is unwarrantable In deed it is disliked by Whitaker in Beza and Danaeus that they make Discipline a note of the Church Si per disciplinam certam quandam perpetuam gubernationis Ecclesiae formam per Presbyteros excommunicationem intelligant Vbi supra falli cos existimo but we then assume if it may be a Church without discipline and all or most is not to be put on this Sect. 9. how can they excuse those fellows of theirs in the separation who secede from their proper congregations through offence at the want of Discipline as they confesse and thereupon renounce their brotherhood For as we alleaged out of Altingius to refuse to partake the Supper with them is a tacite renunciation of their fraternity or how can these justifie themselves that permit none to be of their Church that will not submit to their Discipline I doubt whether Divinity will not as little warrant that assertion as accurate That the form of a visible Church is the union of the body with Christ Polanus Syntag l. 7. c. 2. Bucan Instit loc 41. sect 15. Ames Medulla theol c. 31. Altingius l c. com part 1. loc 11. part 181. aliiq Epist ad Bezam which visibly is by living under Gospel Ordinances for this is not properly and immediâ—tly vocation and profession of faith which is generally determined to be the form of the Church and hence it is that the Word and Sacraments which are appendages thereunto being visible words are the essentiall notes of the Church as Philosophy will own that saying That the form of a man is the union of the soul and body for the soul is the form though the union thereof with the body as the matter make the man but that the union of the form with the matter should be the form checks as much with good sense as Philosophy As the Word and Prayer so Baptism also they think to be more communicable and plead for the free admission of Infants onely the Lords Supper which Christ instituted ad congregandam Ecclesiam ad communionem societatémque must be drawn as Bullinger complâ—â—ins ad Ecclesiam dispergendam excommunionem ut sic dicam soparationem but that most of the mediums which they use to entrench the one Sacrament will be subservient to reclude and restrain the other we have endeavoured for merly to lay open They ask Whether they can deny Baptisâ—â— to the child of any member how off ensive soever before the sentenceof cutting off poss upon him Sic tuâ—sic breviter positâ tibi Gorgone Pallas You cannot justly make such deniall but then we shall take leave to ask Whether they can deny the Lords Supper to any member before the sentence of cutting off passe upon him or some notorious crime done by him that may demerit that sentence And if they will cut off all partiall and prejudicious sentencing they must be sensible that the same reason will command them to give like answer as they receive viz. that in justice they cannot deny The children they say are not baptized in their own right but in the Churches but what interest in the Churches rights have those infants which is not rooted in their parents and their relation to them And the soederall holinesse which they speak of is by the virtue of the promise made to the seed of these parents that are in covenant with God I know they take not the Church Metonymically for the Town or Countrey that contains it for upon such an account the children of Infidels born within
less is there any command or warrant that for neglect or refusing to do this the Sacrament should be denyed and this answer is to be given to every man not onely to the Minister and Elders and they are as much obliged to give as to take this answer and by force of this Scripture are no more impowred then any others to examine and are as much liable to be examined by every one and Didymus thought that the Pastors of the Church were those indeed that were principally concerned to give this answer as best qualified to defend the Christian faith and most engaged to do it Whereas they say That if this were to be done before enemies then much more and easier to be made before friends it follows not because there is not the like occasion to do it before the one as the other there God calls us to be Confessors to own and bear witnesse to his truth Aquinas 22. q. 3. art 3. Valentia Sylvius First thereby to glorifie his name from whom some honor would be substracted by the erubescence of him that should be silent 2. To instruct or confirm our brethren who by our tacitnesse might be scandalized and either averted from the faith or retarded therein And 3. to covince the unbelievers and represse their Insultations Here is neither call nor need of such testimony where we and they do all make open and constant profession of the faith without opposition there not to give such answer is Interpretatively at least to deny and disclaim the truth of the Gospel and disown our profession as if we had not faith or the faith were not true and worth the suffering for or defending or an instable and uncertain faith which we might at pleasure professe or deny and so to make our selves obnoxious to be denied by the Lord Christ here we onely deny their usurped authority Cas Cons l. 2. c. 1. Cas 81. p. 13. and disclaim subjection and are out of any the former cases When our faith is otherwise well enough known there needs no iterate confession saith Baldwin which if as he saith it be vain boasting rather than a Christian vertue in us to offer it it can be no lesse than needlesse imperious usurpation in them to call as to it That which followes Of their desires to be helpers of mens faith not upbraiders of their weaknesse of their hope to shew as much meeknesse and gentlenesse as they expect submission is but a Fistula dulce canit and onely a mittit in hamo some musick to make the Camel go on with his burden and a clawing the horse the easier to mount into the Saddle They have well helped their faith when one of an hundred scarce is fit for the Sacrament and they are like to cherish the weak that will not receive the strong and do hold them in the account of Fools and mad-men yea Dogges and swine and when they cast off an hundred for one they admit their meeknesse and gentlenesse is somewhat of kin to the lenity of the Duke of Alva too much whereof had lost the Low-Countries and this profession thereof was learned from Domitian Qui nunquam tristiorem sententiam sine praefatione clementiae pronunciavit Non est fides ubi contrarium vides But let their temper and frame of spirit be such as they would set it off yet those are in a perillous condition that lye under an exorbitant power from which they have no security but the goodnesse of those that exercise it who are men neither immortall nor immutable Concerning that of Hebrews 13.17 they first tell us That they forget themselves very much that construe this of the Magistrate though Chrysostome were one of those that here took a nap and forgot himself bonus hîc dormitat Homerus but that we may not be thought to sleep also we shall grant that those that watch for souls were the Pastors and Governors of the Church and consequently yeeld that we must be ruled and governed by them in all due obedience Yet what we give them will prove like to the purse of Maravidis which the Biscainers present to the King of Spain which he shall be never the richer for For first had the Bishops alleaged as they did this text for support of their Ordinances let them contemplate what answer they would have rendred and we shall beseech them to lend it to us upon good security that it shall be repaid them again with interest Secondly If those which they say are offended with the grosnesse of the administrations at home and deserting a communion in the Sacrament with their own Pastors are gathered into an association with the Apologists contrary to the will of their proper Pastors should be pressed with this text and admonished or increpated that this suits not with the obedience they owe unto them that they being that portion of the Flock assigned to them and which they ought to rule in the words of Cyprian I shall presume the Apologists would appeare to be their Advocates and we shal desire to retain them also to make the same plea for us and if affection can make them cloquent in the one the cause may in the other Thirdly this text doth give no immediate or proper confirmation to their way in it self but onely proves it in alio and by a remote principle but the effect is attributed to the immediate cause which contributes or disposeth to that form which denominates as we say Sol homo generant hominem yet the man is onely said to be the father though he be quickned to generation by the Suns influence so though Governors are animated with power by God to make Lawes that must be obeyed yet those Lawes cannot properly be said to be commanded by God but by men onely secundarily and by accident from God and I may as well say that every statute-law is to be proved by the word of God because it enjoyns obedience to Magistrates as they can confirm their discipline by this text because it commands submission to Pastors Fourthly If by force of this Scripture they are to be obeyed simply absolutely and without any condition as the Papists say of the Pope then truly we may say farther of them as the Canonists do of him That God and he have but one Consistory and we may not appeal from him unto God and with Dr. Stapleton that we ought onely to look not what is spoken but who speakes and we must be enthralled to that servile faith prescribed by he old Rabbins who because the Law commands not to decline from the word which they shall shew thee to the right hand or to the left infer that when they say of the right hand it is the lest of the left that it is the right we must believe them or be modelled to that blind obedience of the Iesuits sicut jumentum obedit Domino siâ—ut baculus in manu senis and they may command what