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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	church_n	universal_a	visible_a	4,369	5	9.4736	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85952	The golden mean: being some serious considerations, together with some cases of conscience resolved; for a more full, and frequent administration of, yet not free admission unto, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. / By Stephen Geree, minister of God's word, and pastor of the Church of Abinger in the county of Surrey.	Geree, Stephen, 1594-1656?	1656 (1656)	Wing G607; Thomason E1667_1; ESTC R208393	36,650	111

those formerly mentioned that are so much offended at our present Divilions which we see the very Apostles could not prevent do not consider that our main Differences are not so much about the fundamental points and substantials of Religion which are especially Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which the Apostle makes the summe of all Religion Act. 20.20 21 with ver 27. but onely about the superstructures circumstantials which do not conduce to the Being but only to the Well-being of the Church and therefore are not absolutely necessary though very profitable for the peace and welfare of the same Hence I hold it a work well worthy a Consistorie or College of Divines to finde out some expedient for an happie Union among our selves in these particulars that might further the practice of true Piety in these declining as well as dividing-times And first of all if we could find out the Basis or bottom of our Divisions I think it would be some good degree to the healing of our Breaches Est gradus ad sanitatem novisse morbum vel morbi causam It 's one degree to health to know our disease and especially the cause of it and so in this we may happily see the saying verified Dimidium facti qui bene coepit habet He that hath well begun hath half his businesse done Now amongst many other causes and occasions of our Divisions and Dissentions we clearly find that those very things which were ordained for an holy Union and Communion to knit Christians together in an inviolable bond of Brother-hood have proved by the subtilty of Satan and policie or perversnesse of men the greatest Apples of strise and bones of contention as * M. Calemie in his commendatory Epist before M. Hudson's learned book of the universal visible Church one very justly complains To wit the two Sacraments of Baptisme the Lord's Supper which are the very badges and cognizances of Christians whereby they are differenced and distir guished from Jews and Barbarians Turks and all other Infidels in the world Baptisme is that sacred Ceremony whereby we are admitted members into the Universal Visible Church as being all members of the same mystical bodie whereof Christ is the Head baptized therefore into the Name of the undivided Trinitie or Trinitie in Unitie And who can be ignorant what Differences and Divisions have formerly and of late arisen about this holy Sacrament which of it self is not onely a great blessing of God to us and our children but should be a firm bond of brotherly love and concord among all Christians And as for the other Sacrament of the Lords supper That hath been the occasion of greater Discord and Division how many dear and precious servants of God have suffered bands imprisonment yea and have lost not only their liberty but their lives in fiery flames and otherwayes and onely because they would not acknoledg the carnall presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Alter as the Apostles call their Lords Supper And Divisions about this Sacrament have not onely risen between Papists and Protestants and Lutherans as they are called but even amongst Protestants themselvs as well as amongst the other two and that of late especially to the great prejudice of true piety and the power of godliness and that in the most eminent places of this Land insomuch as some have been ready in this respect to unchurch and undo one another so that a great part of that time which should have been spent in God's service Jud. Epist verse 20. in mortifying sin and building up one another in our most holy Faith hath been mostly wasted on fruitlesse controversies in this kind to the great detriment and dammage of all sides the scandal of weak brethren and the strengthening and stiffening of the hearts and hands of the wicked in their evill ways who otherwise might have been reclaimed but by this means blesse themselvs in their cursed confederacy whereby they are like Simeon and Levi brethren in evill Gen. 49. Wherefore seeing the main difference amongst us hath been and still is concerning the Administration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper For which as for the divisions of Reuben there are great thoughts and swellings of heart After long and serious Deliberation and confideration with my self and others and after much waiting and wrestling with God in praier and supplication I have resolved to cast my two mites into the Common Treasury of the Church if happily they may conduce or confer any thing to a comfortable composure of this great controversie that so much concerns the Churches among us And herein I must confesse I have been much encouraged by the indeavors of some faithfull fellow-laborers as learned M. Jeanes judicious M. Blake and others who have not onely confirmed me in many things but added much to my clearer understanding of other particulars so that standing upon their and other mens shoulders I may happily discover somthing for the common good of these our distracted and distressed Churches which next to Gods glory is the onely aim of these indeavours Now concerning this Sacrament of the Lord's Supper some administer it not at all least for want of power to keep off the unworthy they should prophane this holy Ordinance and give offence to others Some on the other side administer to all that come and are of years and understanding without any Scruple or Scruteny not caring to catechise and instruct them for that holy Supper Others there be that administer These are Anabaptists but exclude all that were baptized onely in their infancy as if they were without the pale of the Church Some again allowing Infant-Baptisme admit only those that renounce Communion with our Churches and Ministery as Antichristian and these are rigid Separatists Others though they do not altogether condemn our Churches and Ministry yet refuse to administer to any save such as enter into an explicit Church-Covenant as they call it and that are able to give such evidences of grace as to satisfie the whole Congregation or at least the Elders These go under the name of Independents There is also another sort that do administer who will allow none to receive this Sacrament but such as will give an account of their knowledg and faith to the Elders and are not proved scandalous who though they give a greater latitude than most of the former and accept of persons upon far easier terms yet in most places few will come under their Test or Tryall so that very few are admitted in many Congregations Hence some have devised a new way whereby they cull out those few of severall Congregations or Parishes and so imbody them together to join in Communion and breaking of bread and many are as much or more offended with this way than the former and so grow to distast and disrelish their Ministers that thus combine because so very many are left out of Communion though I

same God our Common Father in the same congregation with them See M. Balls Tryall of the grounds tending 10 separation page 200. 201. Internall and essensuall communion we have with Christ and the faithfull onely externall with ●he wicked Were not all the Coogregation of Israel members of the same visible Church and called God's people by God himselfe though many among them notoriously wicked Psal 50.7 Heare O my people and I will speake O Israel and I will testifie against thee I am God even thy God and yet see what some of them were v. is 16. c. who then are we that we should utterly disclaim them before they utterly disclaim him and he hath given them a bill of Divorce Hath it not been sufficiently manifested that the Kingdom of Heaven i.e. Christs visible Church is like a Field wherein tares must grow together with the Wheat untill the harvest which is the end of the World Mat. 13.24 23. c. And also that in the visible Church many are called But few chosen Mat. 20.16.22.14 Ob. But doth not the Apostle say that a little leaven leaveneth the whose lump and therefore bids purge out the old leaven that ye may be a new lump speaking of the incestuous person 1 Cor. 5.6.7 Answ True he would have such notorious scandalous persons as the incestuous Corinthian was to be purged out by excommunication that yee may be a new lump and because Christ our Passeover is sacrificed for us but never bids you put out your selves from the Sacrament more than from other Ordinances if such be not put out Ob. But doth he not say expresly v. 11. With such a one Answ no not to eate This must needs be meant of familiar eating because it is spoken by way of diminution and wherein one is more likely to be infected than at the Sacramentall Supper Ob. And whereas it is urged hereupon with much confidence That if we may not eat with them at our own table much lesse at Gods Answ It is a meer inconsequence how strong soever it may seem to weak Disputants for I may and must do many things with wicked men in God's house which I need not do with them in mine own The Adversaries will grant that I may yea and must pray and hear and sing with them in God's house which I am not bound to do with them in mine own I am left at liberty in the one but not in the other Case 7. But will not this gratifie the wicked who are so much for this liberty to come to the Sacrament of the Supper Sol. It will not gratifie them at all in their wicked waies but in a commanded duty which is incumbent upon them as well as any other duty for the sinfulnesse of man doth not dis-oblige him from any duty especially being part of God's worship as this is And by receiving them to the Sacrament we more oblige and ingage them to other duties also as to mortifie sin pressing them to renew their repentance because by receiving this Sacrament a Seal of the Covenant we are to renew our Covenant with God as we desire he should renew it with us by renewing his grace and blessings upon us otherwise we tell them this Sacrament will but aggravate their sins and also their judgments 1 Cor. 11.30 And therefore as those whom John Baptist called generation of vipers Luk. 3.7 he notwitstanding badtized them unto repentance Mat. 3.11 i.e. to ingage them more thereunto for hee told them withall That then the ax was laid to the root of the trees to hew down every tree that brought not forth good fruit and cast it into the fire ver 10. so may wee administer the Lord's Supper to men unto repentance to perswade them to bring forth fruit accordingly Hence I suppose that those Ministers who neglect to administer this Sacrament deprive themselves of a very forcible argument whereby they might perswade men and women to sound repentance least going on in their sin after this Sacrament they should crucifie Christ afresh and put him to an open shame as those Heb. 6.6 In the next place I shall humbly desire my godly reverend Breathren of the Ministry who have a long time desisted from celebrating this holy Supper sadly to consider how unjustifiable their practiseis in this particular especially if they should still persist in such a course Many have hinted much in this particular already especially learned laborious M. Blake whose bookes of the Covenant and also of the Covenant seal'd are of singular use for most Ministers that are at a losse in this regard and the latter book especially being as a word spoken on the wheels to such as judicious M. Vines hath it in his Epistle before that book I wish withall they would consider how unlike they are unto the Primitive practise which celebrated this Supper every week and for some time every day in the week being so in love with the Lord Jesus whom they knew in the flesh and who had lately laid down his life for them and because they conceived that this would be not onely profitable to themselves but pleasing unto God to keep such an holy memoriall of Christ's death and passion certainly they were not so scrupulous as many are in these days about admission And if you consult learned and laborious M. Mede M. Mede vol. 1. pag 495. c. as also p. 500. c. he will assure you that the ancient Churches in their publick meetings did so commemorate the sacrifice of Christ in celebrating this Supper as that they thought it an especiall means to make all other services accepted and to that purpose alledgeth divers testimonies of Tertullian and others and among the rest Origen Hom. 3. on Levit. where treating of the shew-bread which was continually set before the LORD with incense for a memoriall that is to put GOD in mind of them he makes it in this respect to have been a lively figure of the Christians Eucharist for saith he Ista est commemoratio sola quae propitium facit Deum hominibus Thus far and much more to this purpose saith M. Mede Sit fides penes Authorem If this be true as his Authors seem to prove then judge you what we our selves and our Churches have lost for lack of this Ordinance and you may well conceive that it is no marvail if God forget to do us so much good for Christ's sake as otherwise he would do and hath formerly done when we forget or neglect to put him in mind of that propitiatory sacrifice of his dear Son by celebrating his sacred Supper Ordained for this very end to be a speciall memoriall of his meritorious death that he himselfe might be mindfull of us and mercifull unto us Consid 5. Furthermore let it be considered that the main business of the work of the Ministery should be the conversion of souls to bring them from darkness to light from the power