as proselytes or Disciples by preaching of the Word Where do we finde that any were received to Baptisme and yet denied the Supper or what essentiall difference is there between Baptisme and the holy Supper that the same profession that fits for the one will not serve for the other being persons of years The Bloud of Christ crucified is represented in both for remission of sins Act. 2.37 And by consent of all both seal to the same Covenant in which the unregenerate as well as the regenerate are included and concerned and that as well when grown to years as in their minority they adhering to the ordinary means of grace as wel as others that they may obtain the blessings of the Covenant promised and sealed by the Sacrament And I think the wofull consequences and runnings out into such exorbitances amongst the godly in these times may make intelligent and sober men sensible of their own inconsistences and interfeering in things concerning the Sacraments Suppose the unregenerate in the Church not baptized till grown to years could that discovenant or dismember them it not being their own fault but the fault of their parents might not such challenge their priviledge of that Church in which they were born members by vertue of that membership meerly their membership not being an effect or consequent of Baptism but Baptism a consequent priviledge of membership though I confesse it 's true of aliens they are formally installed into membership in the Church by Baptisme upon their profession of faith Fourthly did not all godly Ministers in the Bishops time that were for conformity administer the Sacrament to all without excluding any and shall we judge that they practised against their judgement and conscience Mistake me not good Reader whosoever thou art as if I did indulge or labour to foster any in their grosse ignorance by the following discourse or any thing therein or the sloth and not profiting under the means or that I plead for a dispensation for the profane and scandalous in the Church poor creatures they shall know it one day to their cost if they repent not what it is to abuse the grace of holy administrations and to neglect the means of their salvation God will be sanctified by or in all he admits to come neer him and all his holy ordinances are a sweet savour to him in them that perish as well as in them that are saved in the use thereof Most terrible things are written of them that have the light and walk in darknesse that have the means to know and do and yet will not but remain both ignorant and disobedient to the Gospell of Jesus Christ Dreadfull will be the doom of all those that have had their residence at the feast of fat things of the Gospell and shall be found without the wedding garment at the last Therefore I shall desire and intreat all to take heed of this and to submit themselves to those that are over them in the Lord as to them that are appointed by Jesus Christ to watch over their souls as they that must give account thereof I say let me perswade you to be willing to be instructed catechized and tried refuse no means that tends to your edification instruction and salvation I beseech you I know your ignorance and unanswerable walking to the rules of the Gospell is such that most are unwilling to go to their Minister to be examined and admonished in private in order to the Sacrament I but remember you must be brought to a stricter search and account before you can be saved And if you be unwilling to give an account of your faith and hope that is in you to your Minister that would incourage you in your Christian profession and take such advantages to instruct you and confirm you in the grounds and practise of Christianity what would you do if a persecuting enemy to the Protestant Religion should put you upon the renouncing of the true Religion and turning Turk or Papist or else be put to death as hath been a common lot of the professors of the Christian Religion in most ages since the coming of Christ Oh be not such strangers to your Pastours that labour among you what shall they be appointed to bring your souls to heaven and will you not acquaint them with your ignorance and other wants and doubts which are impediments in your way Would you be more frequent friendly and familiar with your Pastours you would not be afraid to have conference with them in things concerning Gods Kingdome and the good of your own souls Let not good Reader shame of thy ignorance hinder thee from presenting thy self to be proved and taught in order to the Sacrament For ignorance continued in under the means of knowledge is damnable Barren branches of the true vine shall be cut off and burned Remember the barren fig-tree Though as yet thy profiting hath not been answerable to the cost and charge God hath been at or his grace mercy goodnesse and patience toward thee do require yet now let the patience and goodnesse of God so long abused lead thee to repentance and inquiring after him Let not sense of thine own ignorance make thee rather forbear the Sacrament then go to thy Minister to be better informed but rather implead thy right and come and do thy homage and service as well as thou canst though not so well as thou shouldst Put case thou be judged unfit to come to the Sacrament yet follow on doubling thy desires and endevours to receive as farre as thou canst If thou be desired to forbear untill the next Sacrament let it humble thee but not discourage thee that being better prepared thou mayest expect a greater blessing But if thou art beat off with delaies wait and be aspectator of thy bleeding Saviour set forth crucified before thine eyes by instituted signes of Bread and Wine and if thou maist not take and eat in remembrance that Christs bloud was shed for many for remission of sins and to save sinners by giving them grace and glory yet let me perswade thee to give thy presence to hear and see in that remembrance thou knowest not but that the sight of such an object the effect of love and bleeding bowels may melt thy heart and draw thy soul after him thy mercifull Redeemer it not being thy fault thou doest not actually receive Be it so that thou art still repulsed as like to eat and drink judgement to thy self yet let not that affright thee from the ordinance of Christ so long as thou art art a visible subject in his Kingdome Plead thy duty and homage how thou art obliged to Christ in this observance and say thou art so well perswaded of the goodnesse of Christ in all that he commands his subjects that thou wilt humbly venture upon his mercy in doing thy duty as thou art able But I shall commend thee to the ensuing discourse for further knowledge of thy duty and
are so are out of Christs family nor the unbaptized as being against divine order nor any that renounce the Christian Religion casting off the yoke of Christ in defiance of him or the like In the next place I shall take notice how the Gentlemen do most notoriously abuse Mr. Humfreys sense in a passage of his Book telling their reader That Mr. Humfrey saith those dreadfull expressions of the Apostle of being guilty of the body and bloud of Christ and eating and drinking judgement to themselves were not to affright any from coming to the Sacrament pag 39. But whosoever shall but look into Mr. Humfreys Book pag. 71. may easily see what design these men have upon Mr. H. The truth is be it right or wrong they are resolved if possible to render him odious to the inconsiderate who are apt to beleeve every thing they hear from men that can but speak smooth words without further search And who would think that men of such language pretending so much to holinesse and power of religion should dare to pervert and tear in pieces sentences that they might have something to say against the Author to render him odious to the worst of men Mr. H. words are these It is certain those dreadfull expressions of being guilty of the bloud of Christ and eating and drinking damnation are to make men take heed that they prepare themselves and come worthily but saith he I cannot think they are to affright any from the Sacrament This is the result of what went before where he urges both the principall duty and the accessory we are bound to come and to come worthily If a man fail in the one and be not sufficiently prepared I dare not say saith he that must keep him from the Sacrament I am sure it will not excuse him from the other that is the principall duty Besides they should have remembred what Mr. H. laid down in stating his Free Admission before they had made such an outcry against him What not one say they what not an idolater an incestuous person a hater of the godly a witch c. Why doth not Mr. H. after his urging the necessity of coming and that with such strength of argument as I beleeve will never be taken off by any distinguish between a profane and presumptuous coming to an ordinance and a Christian coming in conformity to Gods worship and he saith Though it be better not to come then to come in a profane way that being rebellion and sin in the fact yet it is better to come in a Christian way though but in an outward conformity to Gods service then altogether to neglect it the which being granted and practised of all in all other duties he thinks it but a begging of the question to deny it in the Sacrament pag. 73 74. I professe the Gentlemen in their answer to what Mr. H. hath written in three or four pages together have done nothing but trifle as if they were glad they could but shift their hands of what is urged against them miserably begging the question in every thing they assert But pag. 147. they aske if those do not come in a profane way that come but in an outward conformity and whether the most profane wretches do not so come and think they have done enough and they urge many places of Scripture against this as Isa 1.11 66.5 Jer. 6. 7. chap. from whence they inferre that the distinction is abhorred of the Lord and that whosoever comes in an outward conformity only comes in a presumptuous and profane way I answer that notwithstanding these Scriptures Mr. Humsreys position is still a truth namely that it is better to come in a Christian way though but in outward conformity to Gods service then altogether to neglect it For as he saith it is confessed by all in all other duties therefore it is but a begging of the question to deny it in this And besides these Scriptures do no more respect the Passeover then all other parts of Gods worship and service And I beleeve these Gentlemen will not deny but in other duties of Gods service as prayer hearing the Word and singing of Psalmes c. externall conformity is better and not so abhorred of the Lord who commands these duties as wholly to neglect them But they say Object whosoever comes in a meer outward conformity comes in a presumptuous and profane way Gods commands free such comers from presumption and profanenesse in that particular Solut. as to the matter of obedience and I know nothing in all the holy Scripture against this but doubtlesse the want of outward conformity unto the Lawes of God is accounted rebellion and that which the Lord alwaies complained of in Israel of old and punished them for too And they had many promises and incouragements unto externall obedience and it never went ill with them so long as they outwardly conformed to Gods own appointments nay we know wicked men have been rewarded for outward obedience to the word of the Lord. For that first of Isaiah the scope of the chapter is to demonstrate and shew what a most horrible apostasie there was of the whole people of Judah at that time but especially of the rulers and judges over them vers 21 22 23. in so much that vers 10. they are called rulers of Sodom and princes of Gomorrah because they were so degenerate from what they should be according to divine appointment and therefore no wonder if the Lord do upbraid them with their sacrifices new moons sabbaths and solemn meetings and that the Lord regarded them not why their hands were full of oppression and bloud there was no answerablenesse in other things to the duties of worship they did perform and yet they thought because they had the worship of God amongst them they might do all manner of abominations and that was the use they made of former deliverances And yet it is hard to say that they had been lesse sinfull if they had altogether omitted the duties of worship or that they were condemned because they did perform them The Lord tels them that if they would put away the evill of their doings and cease to do evill and learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressed judge the fatherlesse plead the cause of the widow the which things they might do then the Lord promises grace and favour pardon of sin and acceptance in his worship but the want of obedience in those particulars made them not accepted in the things of Gods commanded worship yet they might not leave off the worship of God neither is here any thing to affright them from it but motives and argument used to make them more obedient in all other observances answerable to that worship of God as they expected good from him Now what is all this to them that yeeld an outward conformity at least in all or most things which God requires to prove that it is no better for
Spirit may be in such comes not within the Churches cognisance to inquire but what is agreeable to the revealed will of God and then if any of years being baptized professing the true religion be in the same incapacity as Infants or distracted it 's true there is the same exception against them otherwise not For mine own part I never knew any of years but could take and eat and drink of the consecrated signes reverently and orderly according to the institution as to the externals of that service which the state of Infants is uncapable of And mad men would indanger the abuse of the holy signes by their undecent and unreverent demeanour in those necessary acts of communion and worship And it must be granted that persons at years are not under that naturall incapacity that infants are in order to the outward form of worship Neither are Infants as such under the obligation of precepts of worship as grown persons in the Church are Nor can it be reasonably imagined that such a state of persons in the Church should be admitted actually to receive that in the discretion of the Church are no proper objects of Church censures in point of offending which grown persons in the Church are though never so ignorant And what though the Doctor say he can teach a childe of three or four years old as much or more then some of our people at years have learned all their life time A Parrat may be taught to speak words but can he make such children rationally understand what they are taught and exercise devotion from a principle of conscience in reference to religious worship as in charity we may hope of grown ones according to that little they know which may be conceived by their desires after it and their demeanour in the Sacramentall actions Moreover I doubt not but the Doctor or any other Minister of the Gospell may in a short time inform the ignorant among their people so as to make them capable of discerning the Lords body and to eat and drink lawfully in the Apostles sense though not in the sense I shall give account of hereafter All which being laid together I conceive that Church members of years most ignorant are not so uncapable of the Sacrament as Infants or mad men are and therefore the same or like ground of excepting against the one will not equally reach the other And then the Doctors often retorting Mr. H. exception doth rather discover weaknesse then adde any strength to the cause This to the first inquiry As for the other namely whether the scandalous members under Church indulgence may be equally debarred this Church priviledge with the regularly excommunicated I do not finde the Doctors judgement so expresly delivered but he seems to debar such from the Sacrament But sure to debar Church members scandalous their externall priviledge during Church indulgence and toleration they being under triall or otherwise is contrary to the judgement and practise of the independent Churches and seems irrationall and unjust to execute before a judiciall triall and sentence I confesse I am unsatisfied with their proceedings as Presbytered toward Church members of years admitted 1. They set up an Eldership whose office is very doubtfull too doubtfull to assume and exercise the keyes of Christs Kingdome especially where there is no association of Churches so that upon the matter the power of sentence is in the Pastour alone or in those whom Jesus Christ never impowered with the keys at all to binde and loose authoratively 2. They set up such a way of triall and Church examination of native Church members in order to the Sacrament the observance whereof is both their duty and their priviledge as no word doth warrant discouraging the most from indevouring after their duty and priviledge so that upon the matter they are left out without any regular casting out 3. They cause a carelesse forbearance of the Sacrament and make their suspension and excommunication upon the matter all one and the Doctor allowes all presence at every ordinance denying only the act of receiving to the worst 4. They positively suspend Church members for ignorance and such like wants and comings short of what they should be to God for which there is not the least warrant either of rule or president in divine writ 5. They make excommunication lesse then it is indeed in allowing the excommunicate presence in the congregation at every ordinance and make it more then indeed it is in dismembring Church members by it it being appointed as the last remedy to heal diseased members not to destroy them They are not thereby dismembred but to be lookt upon saith Mr. Cawdry as diseased members under cure 6. No more priviledge is allowed to Church members not approved of by the eldership though not yet under any positive sentence then is allowed to Heathens and to the excommunicate as much of priviledge in the ordinances of the Church is allowed as to Heathens All which upon triall will be found to be beside the rule I think and yet such are the consequences that flow from the Doctors own principles and premises in his Bar to free admission to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper In the next place the Doctor declares his judgement concerning a scandalous member of a congregation impresbytered presuming to receive what is to be done in such a case As first the Minister is to tell him of the sinne and desire him to forbear if that will not do then to shew him the present danger of murdering Christ and eating and drinking judgement to himself and he hath done his duty But then it may be inquired whether he mean only in case of common fame the scandall having been publick otherwise I suppose it will not be a time to nominate any members sinne or person in publique first Then secondly I question whether a scandalous member doth necessarily murder Christ and eat and drink judgement to himself in the Scripture sense whether the person be regenerate or unregenerate For he may be Scandalous and yet knowing and able to put a difference between common bread and the instituted signs in order to their end He might be drunk the week before and yet sober scrious and reverent in the act of receiving and not guilty of the body and bloud of Christ nor eat and drink judgement to himself in the Doctors sense He often distinguishes of worthy Church members and unworthy according to the judgement of visibility accounting the regenerate in the Church only worthy of admittance but not the other they not having a personall worthinesse must necessarily eat and drink unworthily and so judgement to themselves in the Apostles sense c. Now because all his conclusions seem to be deducted from meer mistakes and misapplyings of the Apostles sense 1 Cor. 11.20 to the 34. to the great perill and danger of the visible Church of Christ as causing rents and divisions therein I shall therefore make
duties are common and universall to all of the same relations and sex And what though it be not the duty of all Church members to preach and administer Sacraments yet it is the duty of all Ministers what ever so to do But Mr. H. argument is If all other service lie in common it is an intrenchment upon the common liberty to put an inclosure upon the Sacraments And if the Sacrament come under the obligation of the first Table as a part of Gods worship it is equally binding to all and so in common with the rest of worship notwithstanding any thing yet made out to the contrary It is true affirmative precepts do not binde to every moment of time but that will not justifie a carelesse and wilfull neglect at any time And whereas it is said that Church members are not bid absolutely to come but so to come it seems strange to me I had thought that all precepts of worship had been absolute to persons of years in the Church of Christ And do this in remembrance of me is absolute and the principall duty however the Doctor is pleased to call it carnall Divinity and a setting up the form above the power of worship For in every duty there is a forme which is heedfully to be observed and it 's impossible there should be the power of godlinesse without the form To obey the voyce of God in regard of the matter injoyned seems to be the main as respecting reasonable man and when there is an externall conformity to the commands of the Lord such are said to walk in the waies of the Lord failings in the manner there will still be both good and bad are under a necessity of failings and miscarriages in every thing which is to be imputed to the common frailty of man fallen But not 〈◊〉 what God commands at all is voluntary rebellion and that which the Scriptures most usually threaten severe judgements unto But I hope the Doctor doth not mean that the celebration of the Lords Supper is the form and self-examination the power which yet he seems to do by his exceptions against making receiving to be the principal the other but an accessary To which exceptions I say First that this duty of examination of our selves is a private duty and the private is subordinate to the publick Secondly This duty was prescribed occasionally as a remedy to that particular case of making a breach upon the materials of divine institution and order and therefore a means to further them in the right observance of the Supper and we may most safely say the end is most principall the means lesse Besides where the duty ceaseth in some respects it is not to be urged in those respects but it 's clear there is not the same reason for point of offending in the Church of England as there was at Corinth about the Administration of the Sacrament the work of our congregations demeaning themselves more reverently and orderly in a way sutable to the carrying on of that service in regard of the externall part according to the rule of institution And therefore that duty is not to be urged upon ours with the same necessity of danger of eating and drinking unworthily as to the Church of Corinth It is true their ignorance and not discerning of the Lords body represented by the instituted signs was the cause of all their other miscarriages But some may say Object Doth it not therefore follow that the ignorant amongst us do necessarily run upon the same danger of miscarriage I answer Solut. we know they do not for ours many of them rather erre on the other hand by putting too much holinesse in the consecrated elements then by using them as common things such hath been the education of the most every where that they conceive this Sacrament to be a most holy ordinance of God appointed for the good of their souls And therefore out of fear and reverence they do demean themselves orderly and regularly conform to the externals of the institution Had the Corinthians come up to that conformity of Sacramentall actions and order that ours generally do we should not have read of their punishment for unworthy receiving as I humbly conceive nor of their being urged so to come for that principall duty is not to be neglected though through carelesnesse the other be But then saith the Doctor It is a sen to disswade men from doing their duty Object be they never so vile To which I say Solut. the Doctor knowes there be other waies to reform such enormities He instances in perswading to forbear duties of homage and worship but not only Mr. H. but many other sober Christians Ministers and others judge that all the visible subjects of Christs Kingdome are under the obligation of his commands And do this in remembrance of me is one not to be restrained to sex sunction or any particular relations but to be observed in common by all the baptized of years under Church indulgence And if the Doctor hath any thing further to say that may give satisfaction in that point my self and others will be very thankfull 9. And so I come to the last Querie propounded namely whether there be any thing in the nature language actions or end of the Sacrament in that place of the Corinths or elsewhere incongruous to the actuall receiving of the unregenerate in the Church Before I come to answer directly to the Querie I shall lay down these six propositions 1. I conceive that Sacraments in generall and this in particular were instituted for the spirituall good of the visible Church of Christ comprehensively taken in which every particular member is included 2. That the visible Church of Christ consists of persons regenerate and unregenerate professing the true religion and their seed 3. That the unregenerate in the Church are the only proper and immediate objects of the most sundamentall promises in the Gospell Covenant of the giving the first grace 4. That the whole administration of the Covenant belongs to those in the Church that are the immediate objects of the absolute promises in the Covenant they being of years of discretion to use the same in order to the Lords putting the promises into execution and performance 5. That whom the promises of grace do respect to them the use of the Sacraments do belong Sacraments being visible representations of the death and bloud of Christ on which those promises of grace are founded and by which they are confirmed 6. That those in the Church and of years whom we cannot exclude from covenant relation we may not exclude from the Sacraments they being visible seales and pledges of Covenant love to that people that are in possession of Covenant administrations of divine Ordinances of worship as ours are These being truths as I conceive they all are I think it will follow that there is nothing in the Word against the receiving of the unregenerate in the Church being of years
of discretion and professing the true Religion The Doctor hath written very understandingly and informingly concerning the Covenant and the manner how it is sealed and yet he fals off in his conclusions and applications excluding the unregenerate in the Church from the Sacramentall seals whom yet he allowes to be objects of Covenant grace saying that only the elect and persons effectually called are the objects and yet he intimates that the elect unregenerate are the object of initiall grace and that grace and faith be a part of the Covenant sealed by the Sacrament and yet he would not have those receive that have not this faith and grace though promised in the Covenant and sealed in the Sacrament But if the elect before conversion be in the writing and in the Church then Sacraments seal to them but doubtlesse God hath his elect to call in the Church else we cannot tell where they are if not under the ordinary means of their calling And therefore there can be no danger in sealing that part of the Covenant to such And doth not the Doctor himself and others act accordingly in administring the seal in Baptisme Are they within the Covenant then by vertue of a visible profession in their parents and upon that account sealed with the Sacrament of Baptisme and yet grown to years denyed the same seal of the Supper If they had right then how comes it to passe they have none now The Doctor saith Because of their antifederall wickednesse they prejudice themselves and deprive themselves of covenant right and that those that are in the state of nature are out of the Covenant and the grosly ignorant are such c. And therefore to be denied the sacramentall Seal To which I answer It 's hard to such that any born in the Church of Christian Parents they continuing to uphold an externall profession of the true Religion are out of the Covenant how ignorant or wicked so ever they be For if there be a more immediate object of those promises of giving the first grace in the Church where the ordinary means of working that grace are then persons in the state of nature and unregenerate in the Church are the immediate object of those promises before others out of the Church But there is a present and immediate object of those promises in the Church that are under covenant ordinances except the day of Gods giving the first grace be past in the Church Therefore those in the State of nature and unregenerate in the Church are the present and most immediate object of those promises in the Covenant of Gods giving the first grace As for those in the Church that have the first grace already they cannot be the proper objects of it in the promise and those that are out of the Church not having the ordinary means of putting those promises into performance cannot be the present and most immediate or most likely objects For as touching the state of Paganisme the Apostle intimates plainly That they are strangers from the Covenants of promise without hope and without God in the world Ephes 2.12 Therefore the unregenerate in the Church are the present and most proper objects of those promises and consequently of Sacraments that seal to the truth of those promises And for those that will not allow men in the state of nature and unregenerate to be of the Church they will allow the Covenant a full object in the Church And for particular sins and personall miscarriages in the Church we are to make no difference in the regenerate and unregenerate there being the same rule to guide us in dealing with both But let none mistake me when I say the unregenerate in the Church are the immediate and proper objects of the promises of the first grace I do not mean that all such in the Church must necessarily have that grace given them but such there are in the visible Church which by nature are as bad as any others and in no consideration differ from the worst of men considered in themselves but are simple sinners wholly lost with the rest of fallen mankinde That which makes the difference is out of themselves it 's the meer good will and pleasure of him that worketh all things after the counsell of his own will giving grace to whom he will of those that in all respects are equall in sin and misery So that when we shall come to judge of persons in the Church under the most evident characters of unregeneracy yet we may not exclude them from being objects of covenant grace and mercy nor from the seals and pledges of that grace and mercy during their abode in the Church and the Churches indulgence toward them In a word nothing excludes from covenant relation but the sin against the Holy Ghost which I fear many of our blasphemous Sectaries are guilty of and positive unbelief such as was in the hardned and obstinate Jewes who denyed the holy One and true Messiah sent among them obstinacy and Apostasie in the justly excommunicated renouncing the Christian Religion hating to be reformed by the Churches censures these things exclude and nothing else And this might suffice for answer to the Querie but I shall adde two or three arguments more 1. The very nature of the Sacrament of the Supper is a visible Gospell representing Christ crucified to sight and all the other senses by instituted signs which more ordinarily is carryed to the ear by the word but in this all the senses are made the inlets to the soul carrying the knowledge of Christ crucified to the understanding heart and conscience And I think the unregenerate in the Church have as much need of being taught Christ crucified by the visible signs as any others and they have as much need of the benefit and advantage of their outward senses as the regenerate and more they being more dull and slow of spirit to understand or to be affected with the meaning and end of this service then they are 2. The main end of this service is to keep a continuall fresh remembrance of the death of Christ and that satisfaction made by him by which all the same blessings of the Covenant are procured to fallen man Christs bloud was shed for many for remission of sins that he might gather into one the children of God scattered abroad in all the world and in all ages of the world is the end of his death Joh. 11.52 And the Sacrament is to be observed in remembrance of that by all those that professe hope of being saved through the merits of his death which the unregenerate in the Church do and cannot be excluded from the number of those many Christ shed his bloud for and therefore it is proper for such to remember the death of Christ in order to their spiritual good whom we cannot exclude from being the sheep he died for 3. The actions of taking eating and drinking are naturall actions of the body in reference to