notwithstanding ignorance or wickednesse of heart and life doth proceed into and continue men members of the visible Church even in the adult estate 135 136 c. I Idolatry how consistent with a true Church 202 Jewes Abrahams seed and yet the Devils children 1. How 142 143 144 The Jewe outwardly what 144 145 Individuum and integrum the Church is both 4 5 1 John 2. 19. Examined 148 to 151 The ignorant how to be discovered 364 No one means absolutely necessary 36 Ignorance not inconsistent with Church-membership proved 184 185. Objections answered 185 c. Infants what constitutes their Church-membership 173 Infants borne members not de jure onely but de facto and sealed such by baptisme 175 Infants perfectly members though not perfect members proved p. 175 176 Infants may be known to be members 182 Infants right in the Church seated in themselves and not in their parents explained and proved p. 185 186 187 K Knowledge not necessary to membership 184 185 186 Knowledge dark and generall is sufficient for such consent as is necessary to keep adult persons in Covenant 188 189 L The largest acceptation not alwayes the lesse proper 111 M Matter of the visible Church both in its parts and subject may be considered without respect to saving grace 60 c. Meanes necessary to the attaining the end is allowed by the text which commands the end 277 No one Meanes of discovering the ignorant absolutely necessary 278 The matter of the visible Church as Professors of the faith not properly the grace but the doctrine 61 The Church is denominated visible and invisible from its Members p. 5 6 The Moral Law is to be applied to Gospel worship by two Rules 230 231. N Niddui whether persons under it might come into to the Temple or Synagogue 195 The one onely true Note of the true Church is the truth of the Word to which truth of Sacraments is inseparably annezed 76 O Outward calling hath inward effects the reason why said to be outward 85 The Jew outwardly what 144 The onely considerable Objection artificially framed against my maine conclusion largely answered 105 c. Objections against particular arguments See the Arguments Objections from Scripture are subjoyned to Scripture Arguments So are Objections from humane Testimony P A Particular Church without any savingly beleeving in it is at least ens reale potentia and for ought we know actum 26 27 Excommunicate persons members more then potentia 192 Ecclesiastical power wherein it consists 't is separable from a true Church 77 Power of the Church to deny the Sament to the ignorant not founded on reason prudence mutual confederation or on Matth. 7. 6. or 1 Cor. 5. but in our ministerial authority given us for edification largely proved 272 to 277 The great prohibition of unworthy receivers is 1 Corinth 11. 28. p. 237 to 240. Preaching how farre necessary to the first constitution of true Churches 208 to 212 Ecclesia presumptiva shut out of the Controversie 21 Preparations to duties are either meerly such as preparations to prayer c. or also conditions without which the duty is not to be done such is self-examination before the Sacrament 233 Preparations are necessary to hearing ad bene esse i. e. utiliter esse to the Sacrament ad bene esse i. e. honeste vel legaliter esse largely explained 334 Profession is properly of fides quae not qua proved 61 62 Profession of the true faith the chiefest note of a true Church 74. This is personal and so a note of a true member or ecclesiastical and so a note of the Church 75 What Ames by profession as a note 75 76 Profession of faith as a note of the true Church is not to be distinguish'd from the Word and Sacraments 76 Whether the visible or the invisible Church be most properly a Church largely debated p. 13. to 19. this is not a question properly betwixt us and the Papist but amongst our selves 111 The Protestant judgement is that saving grace is not of essence of the visible Church or visible Church-membership p. 153 to 157. further proved to be so by seven Arguments 158 to 165 Q Argument from the quality of the Church 80 81 82 The Question analised and and stated chap. 1 c. R Whether if none are to receive but the worthy the Sacrament essentially depend upon worthinesse Reasons for the negative 231 232 233 All kinde of right will not infer present possession several distinctions of right 251 252 253. the distinction of right into its first and second act grounded on the Laws of Reason Nations Scripture Churches 254 255 The Church of Rome and the reformed Churches differ rather about the truth of the invisible Church then about the nature of the visible Church 118 119 The reformed Divines true meaning of the onely true Church largely examined 105 to 120 The respect we owe to saving grace in the consideration of the visible Church 30 c. The reformed Divines give definitions specifically differing to the Church as strictly and as largely taken yet held but one Church 117 118 119 140 Schisme from Rome destroyed not our Churches 206 S Saving grace what respect we owe to it in the consideration of the visible Church 33 c. 't is not of the essence but of the excellency of the visible Church 36 Sardis acknowledged to be a Church though said to be dead 146 There are in the Church such as Seeme and are not Are and seem not Are and seem and are not seen Are seem and are seen also 31 The same persons in divers respects seem to be what they are and what they are not 32 Schism cutteth off from the Church and when 200 201 Schism from Rome hath not destroyed our Churches 206 The Supper is immediately forbidden to some Church-members therefore but mediately required of all proved by many arguments 219 c. Objections hereunto answered 225 c. The grounds of denying the Supper to some Church members largely examined 259 to 271 Self-examination is the great condition of a private persons coming to the Supper 237 c. Who may be suspected of ignorance 278 279 None but the suspected may be tried 277 Suspension for scandal 't is excommunication in part 287 288 289 Awicked man not excused from though not permitted to receive the Supper If he receive not he sins twice if he do receive he sins thrice 226 T Temporary faith is that faith whereby we profess the true Religion nor savingly 62. 't is true faith through not saving 84 85 Titles equivalent to Church-member given by God in Scripture to wicked men in number twenty three 126 to 134 Truth as applicable to the Church is genere entis vel genere moris 19. the usual distinction of a true Church and truly a Church questiond 20. the Chur. is true respectu naturali vel entitatis moralis i. e. vel status vel finis 107 vel simpliciter vel secundum
all in this case it is that which giveth life and being to every member united to his body so as whosoever maketh this profession and useth this submission being knit to this body and not cut off by excommunication is in and of the visible Church Dayrel of the Church pag. 36. But if life here be intended to signifie such as is essential to ones being a member of the Church of the saved as it seems to be I answer that either unlesse it be proved that the Church visible and the Church of the saved are of equal latitude which I wholly despair to see there are four terms in the argument the major intending the visible and the minor the invisible Church or else there is the fallacy termed ignoratio elenchi discovered in it the conclusion being onely that life is essential to a member of the Church of the saved which was never questioned when it should as easily appears have been that this life is also necessary to visible Church-membership to which it carrieth no aime at all Object 2. The second great objection against this Argument is taken from those known words of Zanchie de eccles 534. Membra sunt Satanae non Christi Hypocrites and reprobates are members of Satan and therefore they can be no members of Christ Answ In answer hereunto I shall first consider the sense of Zanchy in these words and then his reason 1. I conceive that Zanchy did not intend by these words that they were not members of the visible but of the invisible Church which I have observed to be the general meaning of our reformed Divines when they speak of the members of Christ insomuch that there is almost ground to think for one that is well accustomed to their writing they distinguish betwixt the members of the visible Church and the members of Christ as they also generally attribute two other termes viz. Catholick and Mystical as if they were peculiar to the Church invisible whereas I presume hardly any of those same Divines but would upon a little consideration thereof allow all the three viz. Mystical Catholick and members of Christ unto the visible Church also for if the visible Church be not a natural 't is a Mystical body and if it be unversal which they did not deny it must needs be Catholick and if it be not the body of Christ whose is it yet I say 't is of most easie observation that seldome either of the three are given by them to the visible Church and therefore not likely to be so here and if he meant of the Church invisible 't is nothing to our question Again another reason why Zanchy may be thought here to speak onely of the Church invisible offers it self from the scope of the place for he is evidently striking at the Papists excessive errour touching the members of the Romish Church as if every one that had the honour to be a member thereof was thereby a member of the Church of the saved which Zanchy seemeth to anticipate as other our Divines in the like case asserting that there are reprobates and hypocrites in the visible Church and these are not to be thence concluded to be real members of Christs invisible mystical body or in a state of salvation and thus membra sunt satanae non Christi quoting that place that is seldom if ever interpreted of the members of the visible Church viz. they were not of us 1 John 2. 19. for confirmation thereof and that his secret bent is against the Papist as I have said is more then intimated by his next words quicunque spiritum habent non Christi sed Antichristi Thus much for his sense now for his reason here that one cannot be both a member of Christ and a member of Satan but wicked men are members of Satan I answer 1. By concession for it is most true one cannot be both a member of Christ and a member of Satan at the same time and in the same respect one cannot be a member of Christs Is it then possible that the self same men should belong both to the Synagogue of Satan and to the Church of Jesus Christ Unto the Church which is the body mystical not possible howbeit of the visible body of Jesus Christ c. Hook eccles polit p. 84. visible body and of Satans visible body that is a Christian and an infidel a beleever and an unbeleever at the same time and in the same respect this is a plain contradiction But Secondly by way of exception I answer further that the same person may at the very same instant of time be both a member of Christ and a member of Satan in divers respects he may be a member of Satan internally and a member of Christ externally and yet both really a member of Satan habitually a member of Christ relatively a member of Satan by obedience a member of Christ by profession a member of Christ by Covenant a member of Satan by service Lastly a member of Christ his visible Kingdome and a member of Satans invisible Kingdome and both really and truely so as a man that is openly and really the husband of an honest wife may yet the member of an harlot by a close and reserved course of uncleannesse with her even so one that is really and openly in Covenant with Christ and truely a member of his body may yet by a secret course of unfaithfulnesse to him be also a member of Satan CHAP. VIII The Argument from the End of the visible Church HItherto of the efficient causes of the Church and the Arguments thence arising next proceed we to the end thereof and argue thus As a thing may be considered to have its end so it may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Nihil potest esse causa nisi in quantum est ens Si medium non existit non producitur finis considered to have its being for nothing can be further a cause then it hath a being therefore not negation or privation an possibly be a cause of a real and positive effect but that which is a cause of a real and positive effect must needes be something real and positive in it selfe 2. If the meanes do not exist the end is not produced and therefore if the end be produced the means is thereby certainly discoved to have its existence But now the visible Church may be considered truely and really to have its end without respect to saving grace therefore also its being There are three things which may tend by a briefe dispatch to the clearing of this Assumption 1. To assigne the ends of the visible Church 2. To prove the same to be real and proper ends therefore 3. To shew that the visible Church as it is a means thereof may be considered without respect to saving grace First the ends of the visible Church is ultimately the glory of God in the world and more immediately his worship in the world the
from our first constitution is vanish'd for now the fault it seemeth is found in something that hath happened since which also ought to be made to appear 1. To be truely charged upon our Churches And Secondly sufficient to destroy them otherwise our Churches being thus confessed to be truely and rightly constitute at first and nothing being found to destroy their being or truth since it cannot be denied but that they are true Churches still Let it be therefore briefly examined what they severally alledge against us Obj. 1. The Papists object that our schisme from the Church of Papists Rome hath destroyed our Church Answ But this will never serve their turne without the proof of two things which are never to be proved 1. That the Church of England was guilty of Schisme by renouncing obedience to the Church of Rome For 1. England was never an obliged member of that particular Church of Rome but a Sister Church unto it Secondly as we and Rome were both members of the Catholick Church we never separated from Rome onely in those things wherein Rome first separated from God truth and us 2. That Schisme meerly of it self without heresie is sufficient to destroy a Church which the Scriptures never affirmed and which they know that the Ancient fathers ever denied Object The Anabaptists object that though we were lawfully baptized at first yet our present members are not and where Anabaptists there is no true baptisme there is no true Church Answ But there are three rotten pillars to uphold this argument which cannot support themselves 1. That Infant-baptisme is no lawful baptisme which they themselves now see that they cannot evidence and are therefore now weary of the point and onely labour to prove the lawfulnesse of beleevers baptisme 2. That Infant-Baptisme may not be true and effectual baptisme though they could possibly prove it to be unlawful and that we should not have been baptized till years of discretion fieri non debuit factum valet is sometimes a good Rule an errour in a circumstance doth not null the action persons baptized with water in infancy and with the holy Ghost since who dare say they are not baptized 3. That Baptisme is of the essence of Church-membership Learned Master John Goodwin hath written a Treatise on purpose upon this subject shewing by many arguments that supposing Baptisme not lawfully administred to Infants yet this is no just ground of separation from such Churches as do baptize infants and one hath made an attempt to answer them but with very unhappy successe Whether Infant-Baptisme hath plaine Scripture proof or not 't is both certaine and plaine in Scripture that the children of Lamb. Church-members are born in the Church and Covenant of God But from what Scripture can it be inferr'd that one that is borne in Covenant ceaseth to be so if not Baptised I know not I grant that the admission of persons not borne in the Church ought to be solemnized with Baptisme yet I conceive that Baptisme is the seal and badge of this his admission rather then essential to it and that he is a member indeed and before God by his sincere embracing the Christian Religion in his heart though not baptized though his submission to Baptisme be a necessary expression of his Christian profession for the Churches satisfaction and yet I conceive there is much difference betwixt the cases of such persons and of those that are borne in the Church and that this difference is clearly revealed in the Scriptures of both Testaments Object There is but one thing that hath any colour of bjection in Scripture against it that the person not circumcised should be cut off from the people and that he had broken the Covenant of God Gen. 17. 14. But this is easily removed for both his sin and punishment plainly intimate such a persons interest in the Covenant 1. He hath broken my Covenant that was his sinne of which he had not been capable had he not been in Covenant and therefore a person refusing circumcision was in Covenant 2. His punishment was to be cut off from the people which also intimates that at present he was among Gods people and to be punished with that punishment which was peculiar unto them it matters not what was meant by this cutting off for whether it was by death or excommunication we can thence onely argue desert of the like punishment in the like case and not that such a person is not yet in Covenant before this punishment is inflicted which is onely due unto him for breaking the Covenant in refusing the seale of the Covenant which he could neither have beene guilty of nor had any right unto unlesse he had been in Covenant Certainly therefore faith and not Circumcision or Baptisme is that which enters a man into Covenant with his seed we say Baptisme is the Seal of the Covenant and the badg of Christianity yea the Anabaptists and we are agreed in this that Baptisme is to be administred onely to such as are in Covenant already and consequently that persons are in Covenant before they have right to Baptism and therefore baptisme is not of the essence of the Cevenant or Church Object The Brownist supposing the destruction of our Churches Of Brownists in Queen Maries dayes thus objecteth The true Church is gathered by the preaching of the Word but the Churches of England were called onely by Queen Eliza's command and not by the preaching of the Word therefore they are no true Churches Answ This is the Goliah-objection yet with no great difficulty vanquished for 1. It cannot be proved that we wholly lost the being of a Church by the Marian persecution The Fundamental points touching God Christ Scriptures Ordinances did still shine through that red vaile at least they were never covered much lesse lost in that Popish Rabble which God most graciously and suddenly cleansed by the means of that happy succeeding Queen so that it was rather a reformation then a constitution of a Church which we then received and the Queen did no more in putting for her entrusted power for recovery of our former purer Religion then what other Scripture-Princes had done before her with applause from heaven The people in Josiahs time were farre more Idolatrous then in Queen Maries the like might be observed of Hezekiahs time see how Ahaz and Amon left them 2 Chron. 28. 2 3 4. and 23. and 33. 2 3 4 5 9. yet we find that these Princes compelled all that were found in Israel to serve the Lord their God as it is said of Josiah 2 Chron. 34. 33. who commanded the people to serve the Lord 2 King 23. 21. and Hezekiah with his Parliament made a decree requiring the people from Dan to Beersheba to return againe unto the Lord God of Abraham whom they had forsaken 2 Chron. 30. 56. Now who will say that Israel was not a people of the Lord because thus reduced againe
that though some whose principles seem strictest may suspect that mine may favour wickednesse or not promote the reformation of the people I am most fully perswaded that there is no other lawful or possible way of a sound reformation of shaming sinne and encouraging holinesse but that which leads from these principles which I defend I should humbly beseech some abler pen to make trial if there be any doubt at all of it whether keeping to this maine principle the truth of our Churches he can possibly go in any other course or further in the same course towards their ends then I have done the truth is I rather feare the exceptions of those who judge me too strict then of those that censure me too large Onely one thing more I most earnestly begge not for my own but for Sions sake I earnestly begge though we cannot be in ever thing of one minde yet let us have but one heart and walk together in one way untill we must needs part resting upon the promise Phil. 3. 15. But O my dear brethren wherein so ver we must differ what urging crying reason is there that we should unite as one man to maintain our Churches in England that great dipositum put into our hands by our ancestors our very Birth-right and the greatest inheritance we can possibly leave our posterity after us what heed is requisite to keep out all disputes as well as principles that may but seeme to question them how are they struck at on every side how undermined how doth division and Heresie daily moulder them what a deluge of Popery is ready to overwhelme them The Sects which daily encrease and spread upon us as a Learned man from beyond the Seas complaines Notum est quot Sectae in Europa a reformatione surrexerint in dies surgunt suis commentis pernitiosae sua variotate notabiles immo nec non alicubi suis ausibus formidabiles Hot. tol Christ p. 119. Impossibile est ut vel per seculum serventur c. p. 118 How pernitious are they in their Heresies how notable in their variety and how formidable in their attempts The same Authour observes that after the manner of mans judging It is impossible that the Protestant Churches should be preserved one age longer against so great and so united a force against such depths of device and policy of the Sea of Rome unlesse they grow wiser and at length think more seriously of uniting among themselves and who knows but that this force may fall and the plot take first on England yea what fear should strike us what trembling should take hold upon us to think how we even we in the Ministry to whom the care of the Church is committed stand guilty of provoking our God to give us up to the cruelty of such as have rent themselves from us for our causing affecting indulging or suffering parties for our own undiscerned sehismatical inclinations or else to remove his Candlesticks from us who have had so little care of his Church or to resigne us in wrath to the lust and tyranny of bloody Popery who have almost lost our Protestantisme for a Reformation As my dear Brethren should our neglect of charity unity purity should our vanity oscitancy or any other kinde of folly indeed prevaile with God to let in a deluge of Popery upon England and by England upon all the Reformation should I say which the God of truth for ever avert the ruines of all Protestantism lie on us how sad would the weight yea how dreadful may the thought thereof be Quantum quaeso scandalum vae autem illi per quem evenit per quem stat ut non tollatur The Lord humble us the Lord awaken us shew us our danger strike us together that as one man of one head one heart one hand we may at length think of saving our selves our Gospel our Churches from that immanent danger which though every one speak of yet how few feel or lay to heart anaeternum as the Authour above admires adeousque incauti per manebimus ut videre nec quidem sentire possimus illos prorsus irreconciliabiles adversarios ex aequo partis ruinam per-utriusque schissuram a se invicem Meditari But I fear least some may be apt to censure this my undertaking as likely to make more breaches and divisions amongst us but the Lord knows how I have laboured to avoid any such thing and that had I not thought that the way wherein I stand was a middle way wherin I might easily shake hands with my brethren on both sides and labour to draw them neerer together I had never been so publick upon this subject this censure may haply be cast unjustly upon me by those that do not read me it cannot be justly by such as do Yea my Reverend Brethren let me conclude with this free and bold assertion that one of the greatest motives inducing me at first to study and now to publish this discourse was some good hopes that if this point of the visible Church and its membership was but once laid in its just latitude it might through mercy prove a happy means of bring us to see many of our errours and causelesse differences in the circumference while we are agreed and meet in the center and to draw more direct and closer lines therefrom hereafter the hearty earnest humble desire begging and prayer of Dearest Brethren Your unworthy brother and co-worker in the service of Christ and his Gospel FRANCIS FULWOOD AN ALPHABETICAL Table A TWenty Absurdities following this position that saving grace is of the essence of the visible Caurch p. 165. to p. 171. That which partaketh of the accidental fâ—rme of a thing must needs partake also of the substantial forme of that thing proved 68. and 112 113 114 Beleeving is Virtual or Actual 29 Some do not actually beleeve others renounce the faith 29 30 31 Persons may be passively bound when they do not actively binde themselves 97. The largest acceptation not always the lesse proper 111 The difference betwixt the infant state and the adult 134. to 142 Adult persons become Christians how 177 to 181 Admonition distinguished and pressed pag-285 286. a Church censure ibid. A discourse of the terms Equivocum Univocum Axalogum as applicable to the Church 21 22 23. the eager dispute about it is unworthy Divines 22. Logicians differ about the application of them 22. The desire of the Reverend brethren is that we lay aside these distinctions and solely adhere to the terme in the question viz. truely a Church of Christ 21 Titles equivalent to Church-member given by God himself in Scripture to wicked men 126. to 134 The Church is totum aggregativum discussed the nature of aggregatives 7 8. Rational aggregative bodies differ from inanimate heaps 114. yet the forme of such lieth in aggregation 115 The Anabaptists objection against our Churches Answered p. 207 298 Apostasie unchurcheth men as
it is a genus or a compositum of Heresie and Schisme 203 204 The onely ebjection Artificially framed against my main conclusion answered 105 c. Augustines judgement about the point discovered 151 152 Authour of the Church viz. God may be so considered without the bestowing of saving grace p. 43. Amesius asserts both the Catholick and particular Church to be integral p. 6. his difference 'twixt ecclesia in genere and ecclesia Catholica 5 B Baptisme the right of some gracelesse parents children p. 212 213. as also of the openly profane p. 213 to 217. as also of the excommunicate and such as receive not the Supper 217. Baptisme enters into some kinde of right unto all other Ordinances proved 257 258 259 Beleeving is Virtual Actual p. 29 30 Bound some are passively whom they do not actively binde themselves 97. The Brownists held that saving grace was essential to the visible Church which our Church adjudged an error in them 156 157 The Brownist objection against our Churches answered p. 208 209 210 C What Censures are 284 Censure are two Admonition and Excommunication 285 Before Censures are past we may not account the scandalous to be without 289 290 We are bound to proceed against the scandalous in a way of Censure 291 292 Members are froward to censure 292 The great hindrance of reformation 293 The Called and the Church are of equal latitude The Elect are members of the Church onely as called 36 Some non-Elect yet called in Christs account 36 and 38 Calling is Active direct Passive reflex Partialis this Totalis 65 How the common call is effectual with an Apology for the terme 36 37 38 The common call a true call proved 38 The Causes of the Church have no necessary respect to saving grace 42 c. The summe of the Argument from the causes 97 The Church is an individual integrum p. 4. and totum aggregativum The Churches being consisteth not in consideration onely 20 The onely true Church the reformed sense about it 105 c. The excommunicate are of the Church and have both habitual and actual communion with it 194 Communion in Ordinances fitter to define the Church by then personal qualifications 87 to 92. shewn by seven considerations Community yet more necessary 93 94 95 96. proved by six Reasons Conference why desired with all our people 279. and why before the Sacrament rather then at any other time 280. why not before every administration 280 Consent is given by seeming dissenters that the command to receive is mediate 236 237 Consent how far necessary to ones being in Covenant 187 Consent negative keeps men in Covenant 188 What is constitutive of visible membership Mr. Cottons and Mr. Hudsons answer to this considered The Covenant of the Church considered 96 97 98. little reason to dispute much about it 98 Covenant is implicite or actual an actual Covenant is mental or vâ—cal called expresse 98 Knowledge dark and general consistent with being in Covenant 188 189 Church is taken strictly largely the Church largely taken is so comparative and absolute by the Reformed Divines 109 111 Confirmation not used as a new admission into the Church 138 Ours are true Churches and rightly constitute 204 c. In what Court is self-examination to be held Our Churches are made up of three sorts of people a middle and two extreams 296 D Denying the Supper to some the negative and positive grounds of it 259 to 271 Definitions of the visible Church given us by the reformed Divines take not in saving grace 100 c. One definition may be given to the Church as largely taken and another as strictly taken and yet there may be but one Church 116 117 118 Divorce is given by God to men either mediately or immediately and both two wayes 196 197 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Cor. 11. 28. largely examined 241 to 249 Dogmatical faith meerly is not sufficient to entitle to membership 118 Dogmatical faith is the proper principle of profession of faith yet none ever really professed the Doctrine of faith but he hath something of an Applicative faith common or saving 62 We may not proceed against wicked members but by discipline 283 E Ecclesia aequivoca shut out of this controversie 21 22 The Efficient of the visible Church may be considered without respect to saving grace 42 c. The proper end of the Visible Church is cultus gloriae Dei and is attainably without saving grace 46 47 48 49 Evidence of Church-membership what giveth it to others 181 182 226 Evidence of saving grace not necessary upon the examining our selves to warrant our coming to the Supper proved 245 to 249 The Excommunicate are members more then potentia or conditionaliter 192. they have both habitual and actual coÌ„munion with the Church 194 They may be known to be Church-members 182 183 Self-Examination what it is not p. 240 241. What it is p. 241 In what court it is held p. 242 243 244 245. What is the necessary issue of it p. 246 247 248 Who are to be judged not to examine themselves 268 269 270 Saving grace not of the Essence yet of the excellency of the visible Church 32 33 F Faith is True and saving True and not saving p. 28 Faith true and not saving proved 81 to 86 Faith is Virtual Actual p. 29 Some do not actually beleeve others renounce the faith 29 30 Some do formally and some onely by consequence deny the faith 31 32 Faith is Relative Qualitative p. 83 Relative or foederal faith is seated in the childe and not in the parent 83 84 The visible Church hath a real constitutive form not depending upon saving grace 65 1. This forme is not external vocation 65 66. 2. Nor external profession pag 66 67 3. Nor faith 70 But community respecting communion in Gods worship 70 to 74 That which partakes of the accidental Forme of any thing must needs partake also of the essential forme of that thing 68 69 G God himself is pleased to give many titles to wicked men equivalent to Church-member 126 to 133 God the Authour of the Church may be considered to be so without the bestowing of saving grace 43 44 H Heresie cutteth off from the Church and when 198 199 200 Heresie how it differs from Apostasie 200 201 Hildershams Reasons pretended against the Baptizing of the children of wicked men examined and he found to hold that such children have a right to baptism 214 215 216 The Head of the visible Church viz. Christ may be considered to be such without respect to saving influence proved 45 c. and explained and Objections to it answered 51 52 53 54 Hypocrite what he is 32 We may not say that wicked men are hypocrites further then they are so 33 No Hypocrite as such can be a member of the Church either visible and invisible 33 Holinesse of life is a separable accidental note of a true visible Church 78 Foederal holinesse
so but though the Church may be sometimes obscured it never loseth its visibility or ceaseth to be visible So Ames ecclesia nunquam planè desinit esse visibilis Med. p. 166. 39 quamvis enim aliquando viz usquam appareat ecclesia tam pura c. ecclesia tamen aliquo modo visibilis exist it in illa ipsa impuritate cultus professionis which we may take in English in those pertinent words of Master Fox the right His protestation before his Acts and Monuments Church saith he is not so invisible in the world as none can see it The Scripture-Church is most properly the Church of Christ this none can well deny But now the visible Church is the Scripture-Church as appeares from the Doctrine of Scripture about the Church the examples the parts the Ordinances and number of Scripture-Churches First the Doctrine of the Scripture about the Church is generally such as agreeth onely with the Church-visible viz. as made up of tares and wheat good and bad Elect and reprobate c. Yea the very word Church in Scripture as some affirme is not more then once taken for the Church-invisible which is Heb. 12. 23. though that very place is by some Reverend Divines understood of the Church-visible also for it was already come into by persons then alive ye are come therefore the Church on earth and it was a Church that had Ordinances in it v. 25. therefore the visible But if it should be granted as Master Blake observes that in this place and in two or three more the Scripture meaneth the Church invisible which is as much as can be pretended unto yet doubtlesse that which is the ordinary language of the holy Ghost which he useth most often and almost always is that which is most proper 2. It also appears from the examples of Scripture-Churches De quâ solâ ecclefiâ praesumptivâ c. Dav. Detern p. 218. ex spalatensi for have not even all these a mixture of corrupt and wicked members and is such a mixture compatible with the Church invisible or what Churches can such be but visible therefore saith Davenant all such Scriptures and assertions of the fathers as speak of this mixture of good and bad in the Church are to be understood of the presumptive or visible Church 3. It further appeares by the parts of the Scripture-Church which are generally such as are onely to be found in the visile Church that the Scripture-Church is the visible Church The parts of the Scripture-Church are generally Priest and people Pastors and flock the Rulers and the ruled the Catechisers and the catechized and the like as both the Old and New Testament abundantly testifie Now in the Church invisible there are no such parts no such relations no such officers but all are members but Christ the head therefore the Scripture-Church wherein these parts and officers as such are viz. Priests Prophets Apostles Bishops Pastors Elders Deacons Rulers Cetechizers c. must needs be the visible Church Fourthly that the Scripture-churche is the visible Church appears moreover by the dispensation of Ordinances fixed therein which is proper and peculiar to the visible Church in all the Scripture-Churches we finde a dispensation of the Word Sacraments discipline the dispensation whereof is in the hands of men who are onely capable of dealing with the Church as visible yea the dispensation it self is visible and all will readily grant that these Ordinances are all of them peculiar to the visible Church the attendance of the Church upon them being the most eminent and remarkable meanes of rendring the Church her self to be visible Lastly this yet farther appears from the number of the Scripture-churches they are many the Church at Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus Colosse Philippi Thessalonica Pergamus Thyatira c. Whereas the invisible Church is also indivisible 't is but one and not to be divided into any more therefore the Scripture-church which is thus actually divided must needs be the visible Church Arg. 5. My last Argument is taken from the Name Church and may be this The visible Church in its nature doth not properly answer to the name Church therefore it is most properly the Church for that thing which doth in its nature most properly answer to such a name must needs be the thing most properly which that name doth signifie Now the nature of the visible Church may be observed to answer to the name Church in a most proper signification both in English Latine Greek and Hebrew 1. In English the word Church doth in a true and direct propriety of speech signifie nothing but that which is the Lords and may be conceived to imply the Lords people or the Lords house Die Kyrchen nuxcupant ipsum Dei populum Domum in quo hic congregatur ad cultum Dei Vid. Bul. Dec. p. 135. it seemes to be taken from the German word Kurch which also alludeth haply to the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dominica which as Bullinger observes they used to understand both of the people and the house of the Lord where the people of the Lord used to assemble and indeed of both as they have relation one to the other Now if the name Church intend the people of the Lord meeting together in one place to attend on the worship of God we need not much trouble our selves for its proper application to the visible Church 2. In Lattine the Church is called Congregatio the Congregation or the people gathered together answering haply to the Hebrew which may also be here taken notice of Katial 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Congregavit Now doth not this name also most properly agree with the nature and reason of the visible Church is it not a local gathering together that most properly constitutes a Congregation and is not this most proper to the particular and consequently to the visisible Church therefore is she also called an Assembly a body a City a Kingdom none of which but most properly resemble the Church as visible 3. Lastly the Church in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which most directly imports a people called out of the world as anon more largely Indeed the term from or out of which the Church is called is not expressed in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet all agree that it is as necessarily implied in it Now this sense of the word Church most properly and exactly intendeth the Church-visible this being most apparently and properly called out of the world as easily appeareth For the world here must be understood to be either the world of the ungodly or the world of infidels but it cannot be understood of the world of the ungodly because there is still a mixture of the Church and the world in this sense according to that of our Saviour I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world then if the world out of which the Church is called be
their opinions with those that directly and in very termes renounce it so neither savours it of much charity or indeed justice that wicked men that directly professe the faith both vocally with their mouth and really by attending on the Ordinances of God be equally condemned with Apostates and Hereticks that rase the very foundation of all religion though in works they deny him Therefore such as stand baptized into the faith of Christ and yet remaine in visible Communion with the Church and do not renounce the faith of Christ either with their mouths or in the intent and purpose of their hearts cannot onely by their disobedience or wicked lives as I shall anon labour to prove unchurch themselves or declare themselves as some would rather say to be no true members of the visible Church There are in the Church such as 1. Seem and are not 2. Are and seem not 3. Are and seeme and Distinct 6 are none visi not seen 4. Are and seem and are seene also He that is and seemes not is a David in desertion he that seemes and is not is a Judas betraying with a kisse he that is and seemes and is not seen is a Saint in a cave he that is and seems and is seen also is I presume not onely the man savingly qualified professing the same before men but our ordinary professour and Church-member that usually attends upon visible communion with the Church though wanting saving grace The same persons in divers respects may seem to be what They are Distinct. 7 They are not Or the same persons may be said in one respect to be hypocrites and in another respect true beleevers so that though we are wont to condemn all for hypocrites that professe Religion without real holinesse yet I suppose I shall not erre if I say we ought to do it not without caution and limitation I confesse that if not all that thus professe Religion without saving grace yet most of them are hypocrites in that they pretend if not seem to be what they are not viz. savingly qualified and I humbly offer whether it be not in this sense that Divines generally charge such professours as have no saving grace with the sin of Hypocrisie even because they pretend to have that Mr. Perkins speaking of temporary beleevers on Luk. 8. 13. saith these though they are not sound yet they are void of that grosse kind of hypocrisie Their mindes are enlightned their hearts are endued with such faith as may bring forth these fruits for a time and therefore herein they dissemble not but rather shew that which they have His Ep. to the Reader before his Treatise tending unto a declaration of a mans estate grace and interest in Christ or as they would say in the true mysticall invisible Church which indeed they have not But let us seriously consider can either they or we with any colour of reason or justice adjudge men to be hypocrites farther then they are so or for professing themselves to be what indeed they are though also they should professe themselves to be what they are not may not men be so far illightened as to know and beleeve the Scriptures really and yet not be so far sanctified as to believe effectually to salvation and may he not professe this faith which he truely hath though he also professe and pretend to more and is he not a true beleever and a true professour so far as he hath though false and hypocritical in professing more and to be accounted a true Beleever as to the Church visible though a hypocrite as to the Church invisible A hypocrite is one that pretendeth or seemeth to be what he is not but when men that have no saving grace pretend or seeme to be visible Church-members relatively holy Gods Covenant-people common believers c. they pretend and seeme to be what in truth they are therefore thus farre they are no hypocrites but true beleevers so far as they truely beleeve and true men so far as they professe But what they thus truely believe and what they truely are The devil is an hypocrite while he professeth himself an Angel of light but when he acknowledgeth what he truely believeth that there is a God and that he is a fearful avenger of wicked spirits and that Christ is the Sonne of God c. in this the devil is no hypocrite so what is good in wicked men is still good and what is true in them is still true notwithstanding all the evil and falshood that they are guilty of Their hypocrisie in one respect cannot destroy their reality and truth in any other In a word a hypocrite as such cannot possibly be truely a member of any Church whether it be visible or invisible for that which is false as such can never be true so he that pretends to saving grace and interest in the Church invisible if his pretence to that saving grace be false his interest in this invisible Church cannot be true and likewise he that pretends to the common faith and yet doth really renounce it cannot possibly be a true member of the visible Church yet one that is an hypocrite as to the Church invisible may in another sense be a true beleever and have a real interest in the visible Church accordingly CHAP. IV. Arg. 1. From the Etymology or the Name of the Church HItherto of the Termes of the question and the sense thereof by what I have already intimated I am bound to adhere unto the affirmative part which turneth it selfe into this Thesis The visibly Church may be considered to be truely a Church of Christ without respect to saving grace Thus I shall now proceed as the Lord shall assist me to prove from these five considerable places or heads of Argument viz. the Etymology of the Church visible Causes of the Church visible Definition of the Church visible Testimony on my side Absurdity on the contrary First then as method requires we shall set down the Etymology of the Church and argue from it The name or word signifying Church in the Greek original which is generally allowed to be argued from is known to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which primitively derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and more immediately from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contained in it both Calling and calling out a right improvement of each of these I presume wil help us with its Argument SECT I. My first Argument then ariseth from the calling that we find Arg. 1 included in the name and is indeed inseparable from the nature Primum illud quod actu eccle siam constituit est vocatio unde nomen definitionem suam accepit ecclesia enim est coetus hominum vocatorum Med. 161 162 Inter Orthodoxos qui ecclesiam definium coetum electorum vel per electos intelligunt secundum electionem vocatos vel non ecclesiam quae actu existit Medul 161 of the Church thus Arg. 1. The Church
give assent 3. they give assent to the Covenant of Grace 4. They are perswaded in a general maÌ„ner that God will perform his promises to the members of his Church Ep. to his declar of a man estate And ads Mark here is a true faith wrought by the holy Ghost yet not saving faith either First that the calling whereby men are brought to leave the world to renounce Idols to embrace the true religion Hystorically to believe the Gospel to see a necessity of depending on Christ repentance and obedience to salvation are no real works but this would be against common sense for we see the contrary with our eyes Or secondly that these common works are also saving works but this would be against experience which sadly tells us that men may go so farre and yet no further in the way to heaven or else against the doctrine of perseverance Or Thirdly that these common graces do not really constitute a visible Church but this would be against what we have formerly proved Or Fourthly and lastly that God is not the worker of these common effects by his Word which would indeed be against Religion I shall therefore conclude this Argument with those known and pertinent words of Amesius hence saith he even visible Hinc ecclesiae etiam visibiles particulares ratione fidei quam profiteutur rect è dicun tur esse in Deo paTre in domino Jesu Christo 1 Thes 1. 1. 2 Thes 1. 1. Medul p. 168. and particular Churches by reason of the faith which they professe as also I might adde by reason of the grace which they have received from God are rightly said to be in God he doth not say ratione fidei qua but ratione fidei quam profitentur that being the faith of God which they professe through the work of the common grace of God upon them they are rectè or truely said to be in God without any further consideration of any saving grace by which they believe received from him CHAP. VII The Argument from Christ as the head of the visible Church THe second Argument from the efficient is taken from Christ as the cause efficient of the visible Church according to dispensation or as he is the head thereof Thus Christ may be considered to be truely the head of the visible Church without respect to saving influence therefore the visible Church may be considered to be truely his body without respect to saving grace The reason of the connexion here is most evident but I must needs confesse that the antecedent requires as well a modest inquisition as strong demonstration seeing it is easily noted to crosse many plain expressions of eminent Divines In this antecedent there are two distinct branches First that Christ is the head of the visible Church this passeth Secondly that he may be so considered without necessary respect to saving influence this is my task which I shall humbly undertake after I have gotten a faire understanding with my reader therein For I desire it may be heeded that I do not affirm that Jesus Christ doth performe the office of a head fully without saving influence but as it is expressed truely i. e. in some measure truely 2. It may be also observed that truely here stands not in opposition to mystically but to falsly or to seemingly onely for though our Divines do usually mean by the mystical body the Church invisible yet doubtlesse Master Cotton as is well noted of him by others also doth not speak improperly when he termes a particular visible Church a mysticall body and if that be granted the visible Church though not particular may also challenge the same title and if the visible Church be granted to be the mystical body of Christ then Christ may be said to be its mystical head Besides if Christ be indeed the head of the visible Church as none do doubt and if he be not the head thereof as it is Physically or Mathematically taken which none will affirme who can deny but that he is so Mystically 3. Further may it be noted that it is not said that Christ doth performe the office of an head to the Church truely without saving influence in any other consideration but as it is the visible Church for if any will assert a Church invisible I am not bound at all to follow him and say that this Church invisible also hath true influence from its head Christ which is not saving a thing not to be imagined 4. Lastly neither do I offer to say that Christ is the head of his body visible without saving influence but that he may be so considered without respect thereunto seeing there are influences not saving which yet descend from Christ as the head upon his body the Church and upon many of the members thereof that shall never be saved and this is enough for my present purpose because in whatsoever sense Christ may be said to leave the influence of a head upon his Church the Church may in the same sense be said to be his body and if it shall truely be made to appear that Christ doth really performe the office of the head when he doth not give saving grace it will thence easily follow of it selfe that the Church may be consideâ—ed to be truely his body without respect thereunto Now that Christ may be considered to be thus truely the head of the visible Church without respect to saving grace I think appeareth thus Arg. 1. Christ truely dispenseth gifts and graces not saving to the visible Church and to many particular members thereof Arg. 1 that shall never be saved as he is a head therefore he may be considered to be truely the head of the visible Church without respect to saving influence The Antecedent which is alone to be proved hath three parts 1. That Christ doth truely dispense gifts and graces not saving to the visible Church which none that know what the gifts of prayer preaching healing c. or what the graces of illumination conviction common faith and common love are will offer to deny 2. That Christ bestoweth these both gifts and graces upon some particular members of the visible Church which shall never be saved this also will be easily granted me 1. Concerngifts in Judas and in those that are reserved to cry out another day we have prophecied in thy Name and in thy Name we have Mat. 7. 22 cast out devils and Secondly concerning graces if we but once shall think upon that sad catalogue the Apostle recordeth Heb. 6 4 5 6. 3. That Christ bestoweth these gifts and graces not saving Profession of saith before a visible Church uniteth to Christ as head of the visible Church whether the person be sincere or no cobbet of Inf. Bapt. p. 57. as a head which is also very evident 1. Because they are gifts and graces abound in the Church alone 2. Because they are conveyed to the Church by the dispensation of Ordinances which
God Joh. 1. 34. so Nathael professing said thou art the Son of God v. 49. But most remarkable is that eminent profession of Peter with Id est super hauc firmam confessionem tuam qua confiteris credis me esse Christum filium Dei viventis edificabo ecclesiam meam as Bucer in loc Christ his approbation annex'd to it Matth. 16. 16 18. thou art saith he Christ the Sonne of the living God to which our Saviour answers upon this rock upon this rock as some eminent expositors conceive of profession or upon this profession as upon a rock will I build my Church Christ then it seems will build his Church upon this rock of profession of the doctrine of faith and such as are built thereupon are true stones in his house and the true subject matter of his visible Church and those that require a profession of the grace of justifying faith or of saving grace as necessary to our entring the visible Church seem to lay another foundation thereof then Christ himself hath laid Therefore answerable hereunto is that of the Apostle being built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets i. e. as Bullinger teacheth upon their doctrine not their grace nor yet Eph. 2. ult our own not as if the Apostles and Prophets were the foundation of the Church in their persons yet it seems they were so in their doctrine which was indeed the doctrine of that one foundation other then which none may lay viz. Jesus Christ Therefore accordingly the true visible Church hath ever hitherto been argued and knowne by the truth of the doctrine which it hath professed and not by the truth of its graces 4. Therefore the true and proper principle of this profession is but a dogmatical faith seeing that faith which is the principle of such a profession must needs fix upon the same object with that profession Faith is termed hystorical in the Schooles that goeth no farther then to give assent and credit to the story of that which God speaketh to be true Culverwel of faith p 16. Vid. Rogers of faith p 6. and Ball of faith page 3. Temporary faith hath more then the former adding to knowledge and assent a profession of the Word yet living still in their sinneâ— in a carnal estâ—te Rogers page 7 Temporal faith is to assent to the heavenly doctrine to professe it and to glory therein the devils beleeve historically Ursin Cat. English by Par. page 134 135. we professing what we beleeve and beleeving what we professe viz. the doctrine of faith as the common sense within receiveth the same object which the outward organ of the eye or ear seeth or heareth Yet I further yeeld that there is an act of faith more then meerly dogmatical or historical that doth many times if not ever engage a man to be so beleeving to make a profession to the world of what he beleeveth for it is not the bare beleeving of such a truth that puts a man on to professe it but usually something of an applicative faith added thereto which faith also must needs be yeelded to be very farre short of a justifying faith and is termed by Divines a temporary faith 5. Againe this profession put on as farre as it is possible is but either vocal by word or real by deed I meane be attendance upon the visible administration of the Gospel and worship of Christ whom we professe in the sight of men for that other profession of a holy life is so indirect a profession and so uncertaine a character of the true visible Church as that it was yet never allowed by the Church of Christ in any age to be a necessary requisite to the matter of a true Church 6. But by the two former branches of this profession the matter of the Church receiveth the name both of professours and worshippers which latter terme of worshippers I cannot but expresse my good liking to 1. Because the proper quality use end and businesse of the visible Church in the world is cultus gloriae Dei as before viz. to worship God 2. And Christ himself assureth us that his Father under the Gospel-dispensation sought a people to serue him by this very terme namely to worship him John 4. 3. And the rule for the finding out the material cause of a thing is Cujus rei propria qualitas in aliquo composito reperitur id est hujus materia 7. But to conclude not any one or all of these do necessarily suppose that faith which justifieth or saving grace a man may Eternally those are within the Covenant who expressing their repentance with their profession of the truth though they have not the sound work of faith nor never shall Hook surv p. 36. truely beleeve and outwardly profess the doctrine of Christ and constantly attend upon the Ordinances of worship a man may be a professour of the true faith and a worshipper of Christ with outward worship and thus be truely a part of the matter of the visible Church and all this without saving grace as none can deny 8. Therefore the subject matter of the visible Church may be truely considered to be the matter of the Church of Christ without respect to saving grace 9. Yea if we speak of particular members and not of the whole I conceive that so much as is already yeelded is not absolutely necessary to the matter of the visible Church for one that is born within the Church and never yet did actually renounce his relation thereunto though he do not actually beleeve or vocally professe c. as is the very case of Children Ignorants Ideots and Mad-men I doubt not to affirme to be a real part of the matter thereof For as Reverend Master Cotton from His holinesse of Church members p. 1. New England teacheth such as are borne of Christian parents and baptized in their infancy into the fellowship of the Church are initiated members of the same Church though destitute of spiritual grace until they justly deprive themselves of the priviledge of that fellowship CHAP. X. The Argument from the forme constituent of the visible Church HAving found the viâ—â—ble Church considerable as truely such in all the rest of its causes we now proceed to examine and argue from the form thereof And if we shall be able to prove that this cause also may be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace I presume that nothing can possibly intercept this our conclusiâ—n there-from viz. then the visible Church may be considered Posita forma in materia cengrua necessario fit compositum Arist formam vâ—cat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be truely such in it selfe when it hath beene found to be truely such in all its causes without respect thereunto For Forma tribuit essentiam completam câ—mpâ—sitâ— it presupposeth the matter informed by it yea it is said not onely to perfect but even to give the very being to
sometimes fit and sometimes not fit when the Church is an actual meeting and not fit when she hath adjourned to another time Therefore this definition a society called out of the world to the worship of the true God being fit to expresse the nature both of the universal and the particular visible Church and that at all times and states thereof it may I think be yeelded to be a proper definition thereof Now to draw up this discourse I shall onely further intimate that the definition of the visible Church may be truely considered to be such and truely applicable to the visible Church without any respect to saving grace as appears to the very first glance of our observation from the definition fix'd upon viz. that it is a society of men called â—ut of the world to the worship of God who will be so ventrous as to question either the fitness of this definition or its applicablenesse to the visible Church without respect to saving grace For 1. All the parts that are either essential or necessary or fit for this definition of the Church have appeared before to be thus truely applicable thereunto without respect to saving grace therefore the whole is so likewise 2. All particular definitions now mentioned except one are to be truely considered without respect to saving grace without any colour of question much lesse controversie and that one viz of Ames is nothing against us seeing Ames his judgement is for us and himself alloweth such persons a place in the Church as he will not allow if we understand him any place in the definition of the Church as before is noted 3. Therefore these very Authours take occasion to acquaint us that the Church which they thus define containeth Hypocrites as well as the Elect and that with the joint consent of the reformed Divines which I doubt not abundantly to make to appear when we speak upon the head of humane Testimony CHAP. XVI Objections answered and the true sense of the reformed Divines considered who say the invisible Church is onely the true Church BEfore we passe on to that way of arguing termed inartificial namely from authority we think fit to consider a few objections which may be called artificial and leave the other Objections which arise from Scripture and the judgement of the Church to be handled I think more methodically after my arguments thence The first and indeed the onely considerable objection against me is this Object 'T is confest that there is but one true Church 't is also confest that the invisible Church is one true Church but now the Church invisible cannot be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace therefore neither the Church visible Answ I answer that in general this argument is justly exceptible against because before it reacheth the conclusion of my opponent it evidently concludeth that which I presume himself renounceth viz. that the visible Church is in no respect at all either with or without saving grace to be truely a Church of Christ that this is the first conclusion of the argument is most obvious from the two first propositions 1. 'T is said there is but one true 2. The invisible is one true Church What now doth force it self from hence but therefore the visible is no visible Church somewhat a strange conclusion unknown I think to all the ages of the Church before us and such as imposed upon the providence of God to have entrusted this whole worship and Ordinances in the hands of a false Church 2. Hereby also we have a quick dispatch of the present controversie for what need we reach any further after the thing before us viz. whether the visible Church may be considered to be truely a Church of Christ without this respect to saving grace if it be first concluded that there is no visible Church at all 3. But more directly I answer by denying at least one of these things either 1. That the one true Church is the Church invisible Or 2. That though the one true Church be invisible yea and this invisible Church cannot be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace yet it followeth not that the visible Church may not be considered to be truely a Church of Christ without respect to saving grace 1. I might deny with fairnesse enough that the one true Church is properly the Church invisible until my arguments above for the contrary are answered till when the present objection can challenge no answer 2. But here I shall rather deny the consequence and that though I grant the invisible Church to be the onely true Church and that this cannot be truely considered as such without respect to saving grace yet the visible Church is a true Church and may be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace the reason is because these attributes of visible and invisible though they are given to the same subject the Church yet in diverse respects which appears by this argument if they are to be taken in the same respect and visibility be as none will deny an inseperable adjunct of the Church then there is no invisible Church for to say as Ames saith the Church never ceaseth to be visible and there is an invisible Church if visible and invisible here be to be taken in the same respect is a plaine contradiction now the consideration of the divers respect wherein the same Church is said to be visible and invisible detects the fallacy of the former Argument thus the Church with respect to its saving faith and to those persons that have this saving faith is said to be invisible this faith being not seen and these persons not to be certainly known And againe the same Church with respect to its profession and the persons therein that own the same in the eyes of the world is truely said to be visible So that though there be but one Church there is a Church invisible and a Church visible And again though this Church as invisible cannot be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace seeing it is therefore said to be invisible because of its saving grace and the subjects thereof cannot be seen or certainly known by men yet this Church in its visible consideration or as it is the visible Church may be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace seeing that which renders it thus visible hath no necessary dependance upon saving grace as Reverend Hudson saith well the Church is considered to be visible and invisible à duplici modo communionis externae internae visible with respect to its external way of communion which doth not suppose saving grace and invisible with regard to its internal way of communion which doth suppose saving grace This is doubtlesse the plaine sense of the reformed Protestant Churches as is clearly stated by that eminent patron thereof Med. p. 165 Dr. Ames his words are known The Militant Church
ancient people may not be excommunicated should of it self put the younger out of the Church or that wickednesse which cannot put elder persons out with censure should be thus effectual to exclude youth just at such a crisis or age 4. Why then are not such persons whose ignorance or want of the answer of a good conscience hath made their interest in the Covenant null upon their after-learning c. to be re-baptiz'd 5. Yea if this confirmation be indeed a new admission viz. upon the account of personal or habitual holinesse and the former ground of our Church and Covenant interest viz. foederal holinesse do passe no further then such an age why are not all at this transition rebaptiz'd we are no longer in Covenant then the reason of being in Covenant holds and the seal of the Covenant holds no longer then our being in Covenant continues and it seemes the reason of our former being in Covenant is now lost and we enter Covenant again upon our personal a new account why then must not we have the seale of entrance applied also viz. baptisme But Lastly this is most expressely confuted by the former instance of Ishmael he was borne in the Church he hath sigillum foederis put upon him and therein he continueth though wicked until he is by violence cast out as the Scripture witnesseth Gal. 4. 30. 2. Then there is no refuge left but that such as are found ignorant c. at yeares of discretion are to be cast out of the Church by Excommunication If this be said 1. I answer that it is hereby granted me that the interest of ignorant persons c. is real until they be excommunicated and consequently that such persons may be that is actually though not lawfully real members of the visible Church as have no saving grace which as much as I need desire in general yea or in this particular for then this Church-membership is continued upon the account of foederal holinesse not saving grace untill this violent accident of excommunication dissolve it 2. Howsoever this doth not at all distinguish the crisis or period of the beginning of the Adult estate which we are now upon for no reason can possibly be shewne why ignorance or scandal should deserve this censure more at this time or state of passing then at any other age of our lives 3. But lastly let me be answered did we ever reade either in Scripture or any history of any Church that ignorance or unreadinesse to answer or learne when catechiz'd doth render youth so censurable as to be wholly extirpated and cast out of all relation to the Church therefore and yet let us bethink our selves is not this the very case Let me conclude with plainnesse a childe is borne in the Church and sealed therein in his infancy and therein continues until ripenesse of yeares and all this by vertue of his first Covenant-holinesse I desire to know whether this his Covenant-holinesse and his relation to the Church so long held and continued till now thereby doth now expire what Scripture or reason depriveth him of it the authority of what Church hath declared it void what can cast him out but excommunication whether all excommunication doth utterly root up Covenant interest what can merit so great a penalty but known and proved scandal and lastly whether all or any ignorance at ripenesse of age or unaptnesse in youth to learn the Catechisme be tollerably to be accounted according to Scripture or the judgement or practise of any one Church of Christ a scandal or such a scandal as may be censur'd and punisht with utter extirpation out of the Church CHAP. XX. Objections from Scripture considered BEfore I passe to the humane authority I hold my self bound to answer such objections against my Scripture-arguments as are offered thence Though I humbly professe I can hardly find or think of any that have either weight or colour in them but what have had sufficient though occasional answer already or at least been anticipated However that this head may have some body and that I may not write nihil hic nisi carmina c. Object 1. It is objected from John 8. 37. that those that were Abrahams seed were yet the devils children Answ What then therefore some Church-members are really the children of the devil but this we deny not onely we still assert that notwithstanding they may be really members of the visible Church as well as really Abrahams seed in regard of their holy profession and state they were really Church-members and children of Abraham yea of God but in regard of their unregenerate nature and rebellious lives they were as our Saviour affirmes the children of the Devil Were there any need we might fully explicate the answer hereunto by distinguishing of the Jews First as they are acknowledged to be Abrahams seed And secondly as they are called the Devils children First these Jews may be thought to be Abrahams seed either carnally ecclesiastically or spiritually i. e. savingly as his natural off-spring as Jews or as borne of him the head of the Covenant as holy branches of that old root or members of the Church Or lastly in that strict and saving sense as the children of Isaac or the seed of the promise elect to salvation 1. Now to apply if our Saviour here mean that these Jews were Abrahams seed onely in this first sense viz. borne of his naturaly body but by their heresie denying Christ and their schisme negative keeping themselves off from the Gospel-dispensation and positive raising themselves as a Church in distinction and opposition to the Gospel Church now planting in the world of all which they were highly guilty deservedly divorced and cut off from the Church then I say this text reacheth not our case for though such desperate murderers of the Lord of life and open rebels against the doctrine and meanes of salvation are no real Church-members it followeth not that therefore we cannot consider others that joyn themselves to the Gospel and professe to expect salvation from Jesus Christ c. to be so neither 2. If our Saviour meant that they were the visible Church and people of God and Abrahams seed in that ecclesiastical or Covenant-sense This I take to be the common sense of Expositors for though they call these Jews carnales Abrahae posteras yet they oppose carnales here to spirituales i. e. veros in their known and common sense Vid. Expos in locum then it either resteth to be proved that our Saviour intended here to declare them onely nominally or equivocally so because he chargeth them as children of the Devil for which there is no colour in the world seeing both as before may be really predicated of the same subject viz. that they are really members of Christs visible Kingdome and yet really children of the Devil as those children of the Kingdome were who went accursed from the mouth of Christ in another place Or secondly it
against the errors of the Schismatical Aug. lib. de correp gr cap. 9. de don persev c. 8 Sect. And least it should be thought that the heat of dispute should have transported him he giveth us his judgement most clearly and fully upon other occasions about it as before we noted after Dr. Fulk Augustine teacheth us that such as shall certainly fall away and that finally and consequently such as have no saving grace according to their present state that is while they abide with the Church they are truely members thereof Again in the same place upon those known words of the Apostle they were not of us that is saith he they were not of the number of the sons even when they were of the faith of the sons what he means by sonship here he telleth us in his reason in the next words because they that are the sonnes indeed are foreknown and Ecclesia etiam mali sunt imo bonis multo plures ut in co rum comparatione pauci sunt de unit eccles cap. 12 predestinated these men therefore were of the many that were called but of the few that were chosen they were not yea in another place he assureth us that there are not onely evil men in the Church but indeed so many as that the good being compared with them are but a few CHAP. XXII The judgement of the Protestant Writers searched after THe second eminent point of occasion was sharpened by Bellarmine Stapleton the Rhemists and other Papists by their envy and malice against the Reformation falsely charging the doctrine thereof concerning the visible Church to be that none are truely members of it but such as are elected or such as have saving grace Hereby the Patrons of our Protestant and reformed cause are provoked to answer for us and what is their answer do they Am. Ant. Bel. Tom. 2. l. 2. c. 1 n. 5 acknowledge the charge to be just or do they not with Ames cry falsum est it is false that we require internal vertues or saving grace to render one a member of the visible Church according to the outward state thereof Accordingly Dr. Fulk wipes off the like aspersion cast upon us by the Rhemists the visible Church saith he hath both Fulk upon the Rhemists on Mat. 22. 14 Elect and reprobate in it but the Chatholick Church invisible which is the body of Christ consisteth onely of Gods Elect the true members of his body thus you know speaking to the Rhemists right-well but that you are disposed to slander us wheresoever you can take occasion to blinde the ignorant by ambiguity or generality or double understanding of any word Againe the Jesuite having charged us falsly in these words the onely reason by which hereticks hold the Church to be invisible because they imagine the Church to consist onely of the elect or at Whites way to the true church least of the good White not more generally then boldly answers Here the Jesuite bewraieth either hid ignorance or malice let him if he can for the credit of his Word shew where any of those whom he calleth Hereticks do teach or affirme that the Church militant whereof the question is consisteth of the Elect onely Whereupon also Whitaker saith that Bellarmine ought to Debuit Bellar. probare in ecclesia Catholica c. Whita Contro secund qu. pri cap. 7 prove that there are both good and bad in the Catholick that is the invisible Church which when he goeth about to prove from the Parables of the barn-floor c. he ought to understand by the barn-floore in this place not the Catholick but the particular Church in which we confesse that there are both good and bad To whom Doctor Reynolds in his defence of the Church Reynolds in his second thesis which consists of the Elect alone fully accords the wicked saith he must needs be a part of the Church if the name of the Church did signifie the visible Church and we call it consisting of the good and bad Famous Willet also addeth his testimony hereunto when in answer Willet Synop. of the Church to the Papists he openly and freely acknowledgeth that such as do not truely beleeve whom he calleth close infidels are of the visible Church viz. de jure yea and that open sinners are of the visible Church de facto until they be excommunicated Our industrious Fox is very distinct in the point which visible Church saith he having in it self a difference of two sorts Fox Act c. p. 27. of people so it is divided into two parts of which the one standeth of such as be of outward profession onely the other which by election inwardly are joyned to Christ the first are in the visible Church but not in the invisible We have before occasionally noted the consent of Pareus distinguishing the Church of the called from the Church of the Elect Pareus Polanus Bullâ—nger Ravanellus Wollebius Gomarus Apollonius c Vid. etiam Mel. part sept p. 33 Ociand Enchir p. 126 Polanus reckoning the invisible to be but a part not the whole of the visible Church Bullinger Ravanellus c. who distinguish the Church by a large and a strict acceptation and account the visible to be of larger extent then the Church invisible and with Wallebius Gomarus Apollonius and even all the reformed Divines define the Church largely taken viz. the visible Church to containe within it both good and bad elect and reprobate Master Hooker thus reasoneth all are of necessity either Christians or not Christians if by external profession they are Christians Hook eccles pol. p. 84 they are of the visible Church and Christians by external profession they all are whose mark of recognisance hath in it those things which we have mentioned one Lord one Faith one Baptisme yea although they be impious idolaters wicked Hereticks person excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbilities yet such we deny not to be Imps and limbs of Satan even as long as they continue such Field assureth us not onely of his own but even of the judgemen Field p. 12 13 14 of such as are most liable to exception in the case and confidently telleth us that the meaning of Wickliffe Husse and others who defined the Church to be a multitude of the Elect was not as if they thought them onely to pertaine to the Church and no others but because they onely pertaine unto it principally fully effectually and finally c. Externally those are within the Covenant though they have not for the present that sound work of faith and may be never shall Hook survey p. 36. Mr. Cobbet confesseth or asserteth rather that there is a Mr. Cobbet Concl. 3. in his just vindication Vid his Book of Inf. Bap. p. 57 Bish Usher sum of Relig. p. 396 Vid. Cottons way p 1 Expos in 39. Art p. 87. bare external being in the Covenant of grace
by persons who possibly never shall be saved and therefore who have not any saving grace The visible Church consisteth of good and bad as at the beginning we see it did in Cain and Abel whereupon our Saviour compareth the Church to a net in which are fishes good and bad But I shall conclude the matter out of doubt with the observation made for us by the industrious exposition of the English Articles The members of the visible Church it saith are some of them for God and some against God all of them not withstanding deemed parts of the Church so long as they make no manifest and open rebellion against the Gospel which also addes that the Churches bear witnesse hereunto referring us to confes l. Hel. v. 1. Art 14. and 2. c. 17. Bohem. c. 8. Gal. Art 11. Wittimb Art 32. Survic Art 15. whereunto I also refer my Reader CHAP. XXIII The judgement of the Brownists and of our Church against them herein THe third more special occasion exacting the judgement of the Church herein was given by the Brownists whereupon we shall briefly note two things to serve us in our passage 1. That it was the opinion of the Brownists that the essence of the visible Church consisted in saving grace contrary to what I am labouring to prove 2. That this was judged an errour and a great part of the errour of Brownisme as such by the eminent patrons of our Church and truth in that generation going onely before as in the present designe 1. That this was the opinion of the Brownists indeed viz. that the essence of the visible Church carrieth in it saving grace most plentifully appears by their asserting owning and pleading for the same in all their writings witnesse Smith Barrow Ainsworth Robinson Johnson and Cann c who tell us Defence of the churches p. 17 their Apol. p. 44 counterpoison p. 115. and 200 Barrows true description of the visible church p. 2 Principles and infer p. 8. 10 that the Church is a separated company of righteous men from the open wicked men of the world and that it cannot consist of all sorts good and bad in which no unclean thing or person entreth that keepeth the unity of faith in the bond of peace and love unseigned that is a company of faithful people that truely worship Christ and readily obey him a company of Converts a visible communion of Saints that is such as are separate from all known sinne practising the whole will of God known growing in grace and knowledge and continuing to the end And more fully and accurately let Smith be heard once more in the name of the rest the true forme of a true visible Church saith he is partly inward and partly outward the inward Princ. inf p. 11 part of the forme consisteth in three things 1. The Spirit 2. Faith 3. Love The Spirit is the soul animating the whole body faith uniteth the members of the body to the head Christ Jesus love uniteth the members of the body each to other the outward part thereof is a vow promise oath or Covenant betwixt God and the Saints 2. Now that this was held the errour of the Brownist and a part of their Brownisme and that it was not the allowed opinion of the true Church especially in England appeares abundantly in the disputations of all our Divines against them wherein we find these two propositions irrefragably proved 1. That an Assembly may be a true visible Church though its worship be very corrupt 2. That persons may be members of the visible Church by professing the true Religion though without sincere grace or holy life the latter of which is directly for us and in defence whereof Dayrel so smartly replied to Mr. Ainsworth you speak saith he you know not what for herby you imply a true visible Dayr p. 36 37 Church is a company of people professing and practicing such things as will bring them to salvation Whereupon it follows that there is no hypocrite in the visible Church for whose practice is answerable to his holy profession he is no hypocrite nor reprobate or any that shall be damned and thus you unawares confound the visible and the invisible Church Johnson himself testifieth thus much on our behalf even while he His defence of the churches and Ministry of England p. 71. saieth his accusation against us the forward preachers of England as he pleaseth to call them teach saith he that the true visible Church of Christ is not a separated company of righteous men from the open wicked of the world but may consist of people good and bad Neither may we think that that this was the doctrine of the Episcopal A book by sundry godly and learned Ministers standing out suffering in the cause of non conformity party alone for the very non-conformists have a book extant intended purposely against the separation and therein neere the beginning of that book they openly acquit themselves of and charge Barrow and the old Separatists with this errour that they held the visible Church to be a company of faithful people that truely worship Christ and readily obey him CHAP. XXIV Seven Arguments yet further proving that the judgement of the Church hath alwayes been on our side introduced by two Objections THere is a twofold distinction by some made use of to evade or weaken the authority aforesaid 1. It is urged that some eminent Divines assert that hypocrites are onely equivocè and not verè of the visible Church But hereunto we need only remember what hath formerly been I think truely observed that such Divines understand by Church in the proposition the Church of the saved which they themselves usually called the Church Catholick or the Church inviand none can doubt but such Church-membership is predicable of hypocrite onely nominally or equivocally and not really 2. It is also pleaded that some as eminent affirme and teach that hypocrites are onely in the Church not of the Church But * This tenent may seeme to cross many of our own Dâ—vines in their writings against the Papists but indeed it doth onely seem so for it is manifest that the Church which they intend is not the same with this which I have to deal withal for they speak of the Chuâ—ch catholick consisting only of the Elect. Hudson his Epistle Here we may fairly understand our Divines to meane the visible Church in the former and the invisible Church in the latter branch of this distinction q. d. they are in the visible When Willet had let fall that expression that wicked men are in but not of the Church he presently corrected himself adding yea they wicked men may be members of the visible church for a time Gen. 2. contro of the church p 62 Church but not of the Church invisible as the number of the saved Or as before we received from Doctor Field We are to take them as intending onely when
CHAP. XXVI What is requisite to constitute a member of the visible Church A twofold answer hereunto considered BUt least my notion of the visible Church wherein as my question leads me I have hitherto rather hovered in generals and negatives should be left suspitious or obscure I shall now pitch upon a more fix'd particular and positive discourse in answer to the three plaine cases or queries following which haply may prove a fit medium betwixt the debate already had and some plaine practical and necessary inferences that are yet to be drawn from the whole The Queries are 1. What is requisite to constitute a member of the visible Quid constituit Quid distinguit Quid destruit Church 2. What is requisite to evidence this visible Church-membership to others 3. What is that that doth dismember or cut one wholly off from the visible Church Quest 1. Then what is requisite to constitute a member of the visible Church Answ Mr. Cotton answers in the name of the Churches in New England thus 't is not the seed of faith nor faith it selfe that knitteth a man to this or that particular visible Church but an holy profession of the faith and professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ in their communion his way of those Churches p. 84 85. Supposing what is herein to be supposed viz. that the way of entring the universal visible Church is not here concerned Secondly that the way of Infants becoming Church-members is not here intended I could even signe this answer Onely I must needs except against its fitnesse to be applied to the cases of most Churches seeing it onely intends that which is more extraordinary viz. the entring of Heathens into our Chuâ—ches and leaves untouch'd that which is the ordinary and daily means of increase or continuance of them by our children born therein to God and to this priviledge of visible Church-membership Master Hudson also towards the latter end of his discourse of the Church proposeth and answereth this same Question viz. what is requisite to make one a member of the visible Church his answer hereunto conteineth three things Competent knowledge holinesse of life and subjection to the Gospel By which his answer it appeares that he likewise intended onely that which is requisite to make an adult Heathen a member of the Christian Church not at all noting the common way of entring into the Church and Covenant amongst us viz. by birth-priviledge However let me humbly offer this question whether all such as are not so qualified may be truely said to be no Church-members even amongst the Adult if so then there are no ignorant or unholy persons in the visible Church which cannot well be imagined to be Mr. Hudsons meaning by any that consult his p. 9. where we finde him asserting that the difinition of the Church is true of the godly as well as of the hypocrite and therefore true of the hypocrite but if he did not mean to exclude all such as want a competency of knowledge and holy life then these things specified are not conditions necessarily requisite to visible Church-membership which I presume to be the truth as well as Mr. Hudsons intention Indeed all must grant that Church-members of years ought to be competently knowing and of an holy life c. and this is necessary upon all Church-members as such with a necessity of the precept but it is therefore necessary with such a necessity viz. of the means as without it none can be truely in the Church I cannot but deny many things are necessary to the well-being that are not so to the truth or being of the visible Church-membership and so are these mentioned as I conceive doth already and by and by may further appear CHAP. XXVII A distinct consideration of admission of Infants and adult persons the condition of Infants Church-membership HAving thus prepared my way for an answer let me renue my question and what is it then that constitutes a member of the visible Church But seeing all but Anabaptists must needs acknowledge that the way and termes of the admission of Infants and such as are adult doth plainly differ a necessity is thereby granted us first to distinguish accordingly before I define or fix my answer if I would speak distinctly of things that differ 1. Then the first if the question be concerning Infants I may The way of infants admission briefly answer and boldly say that the condition or ground of infants admission into the Church is easily resolved by all but Anabaptists and yet as lightly considered by most for who else doth offer to question but that those that come into the Church in their infancy do advance thereunto by their Birth priviledge that they were borne to God in Covenant with him and his people and signed and sealed such by Baptisme But that this is as slightly considered and as lightly weighed by most that assert it is too too evident for how few do hence consider that then most of our people in England stand Church-members by verture of their birth-priviledge and are accordingly to be dealt withal as such how few do clearly see themselves hence enforced not to deal with them as Heathens or as persons out of the Church and not to require qualifications in order to their admission they being admitted already unlesse they have thus extinguished this their interest by such a violent course as will afterwards be spoken of How sweetly would the clear consideration of this original Church-membership common to our people lead us to see a great measure of the mystery and ground of most of our confusions and sad distractions to pitch and settle here even in the want of a more serious considering what this principle so generally granted viz. that we are borne Church-members and sealed such even from our infancy might prevent and conclude Yea what can we imagne to have a more direct and kindlier tendency to the ending of our differences thus desperately heightned then a serious sincere and impartial yeelding to the natural ducture and true consequences of this irresistible truth both about the Church and Sacraments But that is our misery which Justinian termeth but an inconvenience we puzle our selves about a way of settlement while Inconveniens est omissis principiis origine repetita illo tis manibus materiam tractare indeed they are off from our ground or rather expect the still waters and silver streams of peace and purity in the waters of strife or divided streams or rather flames of our own contention every one prosecuting the ground of division with pretence of union and beginning at the foot that 's cloven when it were better prudence to begin at the well-head to find and detect the cause of our breaches and the true meanes of our reconcilement which I verily believe chiefly to consist in a right understanding and diligent prosecuting this principle of infant Church-membership in the true and genuine
the very ground of the question is gone Indeed here is practice contrary to profession but not profession contrary to profession and practice contrary to profession may consist with profession for they professe to know God though in works they deny him If it be replied that a scandalous life is contrary to the faith professed and so the profession appears counterfeit I crave leave to ask once more whether faith here be taken objectivè or subjectivè if objectivè for the doctrine professed or the Will of God revealed to be beleeved then it may still be affirmed that the profession of the Scripture or an outward owning of the Will and Word of God is not inconsistent with a conversation contrary thereunto then why may not such whose practice is contrary either to their profession or to the Scripture which they yet professe be received by the Church if no other reason but this be assignable If it be said that a scandalous life is contrary to the faith in sensu formali vel subjectivo and that a wicked conversation declareth that the Professor doth not believe as he professeth and is to be rejected therefore as a counterfeit Once more I demand whether this faith professed be considered as saving or as common if as saving then Mr. Wood his cause is yeelded who is now opposing Reverend Master Baxter with this assertion that wicked men are not to be rejected formally because their wickednesse is a signe of unregeneracy but materially because it is contrary to the profession of the faith if as common or as other historical or dogmatical then though I grant that all those whose wickednesse is such as cannot consist with a real common or historical faith ought not to be admitted yet I deny the hypothesis that all wickednesse is such as is inconsistent with such a real common faith that common faith is in its kinde a true faith and that this true common faith is consistent with a wicked heart and life are two Propositions as little doubted by most Divines as much confirmed by sad experience and largely discoursed in the Treatise following Sunt in eo coetu viz. ecclesiae visibilis multi electi alii non Sancti sed tamen de verâ doctrinâ consentientes Phil. Melanct. part Sept. p. 33. Others may have leave to think that such scandalous persons ought not to be admitted into the Church because of the scandal that would come to Religion thereby and because that in this sense scandal is contrary to the profession of the faith the Church thus drawing a blot and disparagement upon her selfe as if she was ready to open her bosome to any vile unclean unreformed persons and truely I humbly conceive there is very much in this for if the Church ought to have a care that those already within cause not the wayes of God to be evil spoken of why ought she not to have the like care touching those she is about to let in or why should those be admitted into the community that now appear to be such as are presently to be cast out of communion but I presume this is not all For 3. From the premises it seemes at least probable to me that the Church is to have some kinde of respect unto the saving condition of the person she is about to admit into communion though I donbt not to assert with our brethren N. E. and Reverend Master Baxter that a sober and humble profession of faith and repentance with a desire of Baptisme is as much evidence of this saving condition as the Church is bound to expect without any farther positive proofs of conversion 4. Yet I humbly conceive that more then a bare outward profession is requisite to give real interest in the visible Church and the previledges thereof before God though no more is requisite to give visible interest before men and that there is sufficient ground for the trite distinction of right here Coram Deo ecclâ—sia for the Churches judgement of mens right must passe with her administrations upon visible or appearing signes by their outward profession but Gods upon real for the visible Church is really a Church with God as well as the invisible though the Church is bound to believe a profession that is made upon designe as the Jews at New Castle was yet God knows his wickednesse and count him a dogg eating the childrens bread out of the hand of Church deceived by his falsnesse but not erring because profession is her onely rule in the case If it be demanded what is more required besides profession to give real interest in the visible Church I Multi enim sunt non renaâ—i vel hypocritae consentientes tamen de doctrina ritibus extcrnis sen est coetus consentientium de doctrina habens multa membra mortua sen non regeneratos Maâ— 7. 21. Mat. 13. 24. par in Urs cat 343. have at large answered in the Treatise that in Adult persons about to be admitted a real actual and not fained consent but in persons borne in the Church and baptised in their Infancy and now at the adult estate a non-dissent a not dissenting from or a not rejecting of the truth and wayes of the Lord at least for all that are of the visible Church must be one of these ways either negatively or positively consentientes to true doctrine as Melancton before as wel as outward professors of it 4. Yet I must still hold my maine Proposition till I see more reason to let it go that unregenerate persons once received into the Church are notwithstanding their unregeneracy or their want of evidences of saving grace really or truely members of the visible Church till they cut themselves off by Heresie Schisme or the perfection of both Apostasie or at least are cast out by Church-censure what reasons what authorities from the Scriptures and the Church I shew for it and what absurdities I alledge against the contrary opinion must be left to your censure in the reading of the Treatise Onely that it may passe here a little the more freely I cannot but adde the remembrance of one or two late most eminent and full Testimonies Mr. Hooker of New England saith Survey of Church discipline p. 36. that externally those are within the Covenant and consequently the Church who expressing their repentance with their profession of the truth engage themselves to walk in the wayes of God and the truth of his worship though they have not for the present that sound work of faith in their hearts and may be never shall have it wrought by Gods Spirit in them Master Norton also a Minister of N. E. to this very question whether truth Against Apol. p. 3. of grace be required to visible Church-membership answereth one may be admitted into the Church-communion of the external or visible Church that is not endowed with the real inward holinesse of regeneration and justifying faith in Christ or that
upon a strict examination shall not give signes of true faith and inward holinesse which may convince the conscience touching the sincerity of their faith c. Master Cobbet also of N. E. more plainly saith that albeit a mans own personal faith uniteth to Christ in respect Hisbook of Infant baptism p. 57. of saving and invisible union yet the profession of faith before a visible Church uniteth to Christ as Head of the visible Church whether the party be sincere or not and those that are so admitted being unregenerate or destitute of saving grace continue so to be viz. members of the visible Church notwitstanding until they justly deprive Cottons holines of Church-members p. 1. themselves of the priviledge of that fellowship as Mr. Cotton affirmeth I know not why I may not here adde those penitent words of our most Reverend and Learned Master Baxter This saith he is the other cause of the Schismatical Disputations p. 38 39. inclination of some godly people viz. the great mistake of too many in confining all the fruits of Christs dead and the mercies and graces of God to the Elect and so not considering the difference that ever was and will be between the visible Church of Professors and the invisible Church of true beleevers Now if there be indeed a difference the visible Church of Professors is larger then the invisible Church of true beleevers and consequently there are some in the visible that are not in the invisible i. e. the unregenerate to whom those fruits of Christ death and the mercies and grace of God belong that are not to be confined to the Elect. 5. Therefore it follows that to be truely regenerate is onely a necessary duty of Church-members but Though we acknowledge such onâ—ly to be sincere Christians who serve God with upright hearts yet those are not to be denied to be Christians who make so much as a general profession of Christ Mr. Ho. Catech. p. 75. Holinesse of members p. 1. not a condition of their membership I meane visible that is all Church-members ought to be inwardly holy but yet men may be and doubtlesse thousands are truely members of the visible Church that are destitute of such holinesse this is so happily and fully expressed by Mr. Cotton that I shall make bold to give you my full sense of it in his most clear and excellent words Christians saith he truely regenerete are the members of the invisible Church it is the duty of the members of the visible Church to be truely regenerate such are members of the visible that are destitute of spiritual grace plainly intending that to be regenerate is the condition without which men cannot be members of the Church in invisible 2. To be regenerate is the duty of all the members of the visible Church also 3. But to be regenerate is onely the duty and not the condition of visible Church-members for they may be such without it And truely those that do affirme these two Propositions 1. That we ought to expect a profession of saving faith in all we admit 2. That the visible Church hath some hypocrites that are its members must needs allow the distinction viz. that saving grace is the duty because themselves require the profession of it but not the necessary condition of visible membership seeing they also acknowledge that persons may be members thereof without it 6. Further I affirme that no person being once Holiness of the Churches of N. E. p. 89 admitted is to be ejected or cast out for any thing but scandal for we saith Master Cotton proceed not to censure but in case of known offence and such offence as cannot be healed without censure Yea scandal qua tale or as it is offence to others and not as it is a signe of unregeneracy therefore Ametius saith proprium adequatum objectum de consc p. 252 hujus censurae est scandalum viz. fratris from Matth. 18. 15. Si peccaverit in te frater 't is the sinne that offends not unregeneracy 't is the offence that is admonish'd for and not unregeneracy satisfaction is required for the offence and not for unregeneracy the offence indulg'd is the leaven that would spread and sowre the lump of the Church and lastly 't is the offence that is onely to be known and proved and not the want of grace or unregeneracy for as Reverend Master Baxter 'T is a matter of such exceeding difficulty Disp 3. 340 341 to conclude another to be certainly gracelesse that it is not one of the multitudes nay 't is but few of the commonly scandalous grosse sinners that we should be able to prove it by Yet 1. We must censure all the scandalous if scandal be the adequate object of censure 2. We must censure for none but known and proved scandal for the other is not properly or legally scandal Known offence as Master Cotton before 3. Therefore we are not to censure for unregeneracy which we can prove or know by but very few of the scandalous and grossest sinners as Master Baxter notes for how unreasonable is it to punish men with so great and certain a penalty for an uncertain and presumed crime or as the same Reverend man hath it be so heavily Disp p. 34 35 punish'd before they be judg'd and heard I shall put an end to this in those apt and full words of Reverend Master Hooker of N. E. If any saith he Survey p. 42. after they be received shall be found not to be added of God because they be not regenerated yet we are not to cast them out for non-regeneration even known 7. But with your favour I must now needs note that all that hath been said hath not punctually expressed our own case our common concernment in England who generally come into the Church in our Infancy and are not admitted thereinto upon our personal profession at yeares of discretion as Heathens are to be and of which most of our controversies about the way of admission now are For my part I humbly conceive there are but two maine questions about Church-membership that need much trouble us 1. Whether the Infants of Church-members are borne in the Church and to be baptized 2. What is that which unchurcheth them afterterwards It cannot but be heartily wish'd that any heat that is or may be spent about the conditions of admitting Heathens into the Church might be saved till a practical occasion requires it viz. till such a Heathen shall sue for baptisme whose profession or right is truely disputable I must freely professe I cannot like that way of reasoning The parent if he were not baptized should not be baptized himself therefore his childe should not be baptized for in all cases that will keep out that cannot cast out whether Civil Military or Ecclesiastical Positive consent is required upon admission but a negative a non-rejecting the Gospel is sufficient to retaine in the Church distraction of
parts of it as similar and dissimilar as before was hinted for the Church as Junius is but one in number and two in manner because of the disposition of the members thereof For the whole professing is the visible Church and a part of this Paraeus whole also savingly beleeving is called the Church invisible the whole is visible as men called a part of these are invisible as men elect and regenerate Whence that common but most useful distinction ecclesia vocatorum and electorum Therefore saith Pareus between the visible and invisible Church there is even the same difference as is between the whole and the part for inuisible lieth hid in the visible which appeareth from that of Paul whom he hath chosen them he hath also called Exp. Urs cat p. 283 284. Polanus confirms it with his authority and reason too the invisible Polanus Church saith he lieth hid in the visible ut pars in toto as a part in the whole If we consider both as the company of the called by external vocation which is common both to the invisible and visible Church Synt. c. 9. l. 7. Osiander hath the same words also in coetu visibili ecclesia latet Osciander invisibili Encherid contra p. 126. which indeed is no other then that which in other words is asserted by even all our reformed Divines in their most common and known distinction of the Church as strictè and latè strictly and largely considered who intend generally by the Church strictly taken the Church invisible or the elect or elect regenerate and by the Church largely taken the Church visible or of the called comprehending good and bad the elect and reprobate as they do still explain themselves giving very differing definitions of them as will more fully appear anone Yea one greater then all these our Saviour teacheth that the wheat the corne the good fish and the elect are but part of the Church or the Kingdome of God which hath tares chaff bad fish and such as are not elected in it Whence Paraeus hath well collected ecclesia electorum in coetu vocatorum est SECT VI. Exceptions against this distinction of the Church Having shewed the ground of the distinction of the Church into visible and invisible and how I conceive it should be understood I shall now crave leave to shew my exceptions against it 1. My first exception will shrowd it self under those words of Field of the Church p. 14. Doctor Field We say saith he there is a visible and an invisible Church not meaning to make two distinct Churches though the forme of words may serve to insinuate some such thing Certainly that forme of words is not very commendable that may serve to insinuate that which we mean not by them if we change the instance haply this may be more notorious if one should say there is a heap of precious stones and an heap of common stones would not the hearer of these words rather imagine that there are two heaps one of precious stones and another of common stones then that there is but one heap of stones in all of which some are common and some precious and in the present case who would understand Bullinger other if he were not prepossessed with a better meaning then his words should insinuate his words are non sine causa gravi dixerunt alii ecclesiam Dei aliam quidem esse visibilem Bul. Decad. p. 355. aliam vero insibilem who can well make aliam and aliam ecclesiam to be but one Church 2. I am afraid also that the ill uncertain sound of this distinction in the ears of the world hath been a means of troubling us with those many intricacies wherewith the doctrine about the Church is still cumber'd we finde this distinction not of so frequent use either in Scripture or in the Church before the reformation from Rome and then how quiet was the Church about this point all concluding that there is but one Church how natural is it from this distinction of a Church invisible and visible for the Papist to reject the invisible to maintain his visible and for the Brownist to maintain his invisible by rejecting the visible while if we look on the Church as one entire totum or the Church of the called wherein the elect as part are contained without any more distinction we might enjoy with lesse controversie 3. 'T is indeed a difference without distinction 't is no true distribution for whereas as Master Hudson hath well observed all distributions should have their parts distinct and different and the more opposite the members are the better the distribution is it is nothing at all so here for either the one part viz. the visible comprehends the other viz. the invisible and thus the one part becomes the whole as indeed it is or else this one part viz. the visible being distinguished from the invisible as of necessity it must be in this dâ—stribution hath no being at all and so the distribution hath lost a member and consequently it selfe for nothing can be distributed into one part SECT VII Three other lawful senses of this distribution of the Church yeelded to But least I be thought to reflect too much upon this distinction of the Church I cannot let passe three other ancient uses of it which I cheerfully allow 1. By the visible Church hath been sometimes meant the Church united in outward and actual communion together and by the invisible such as though gracious yet were not in actual fellowship with any particular Church Thus the Papists urging that none could be members of the Church but such as were in fellowship with the Church of Rome our Divines answer them that we must distinguish some say they are in actual communion with the Church these are members of the visible and some though not in fellowship outwardly with the Church yet if gracious they are members of the invisible Church among whom they usually ranked the Catechumeni and the Excommunicati if truly gracious accordingly Trelcatius saith Inst theol p. 231. Catechumini sâ—cundum externam ecclesiae formám ad quam quia non pertinent propriè de ecclesia non esse censentur licet ecclesiae in visibilis sunt 2. Again by the visible Church hath been usually meant as before the Church as professing by the invisible as sincerely or Vid. par in Ursin cat p. 475. pet du Moul. Buck. p. 264. Exp. of Eng. Art 39. p. 67. savingly beleeving or regenerate We may know who professe they therefore are visible We cannot know who are regenerate therefore they are invisible as Jewel God hath always a Church invisible i. e. known onely to himself God knew them but Elias knew them not to the judgement of men they were invisible Defen p. 361. Lastly the Church is frequently said to be visible when its profession is prosperous pompous and glorious in the eyes of the world invisible
the world of Infidels viz. of such as live without the pale of the Christian profession I think it will be easily granted first that such as own the said Christian profession are most properly opposed to and called out of the world in this sense and secondly that such are most properly the visible Church But enough if not too much of this 't is time to take up with this item that though haply this discourse may tend to some insensible advantage in the main question yet the stresse of it resteth not upon this point For we may prove that the visible Church is truely a Church of Christ without respect to saving grace whether the visible Church be found in the issue to be most properly a Church or not therefore the sense of this word truely in the question we shall now make bold to enquire into CHAP. II. Of the terme truely or the Church truely so called WE now proceed to the predicate in question or that which is questioned of this subject the visible Church contained in these words of the question truely a Church of Christ without respect to saving grace Wherein we have before observed First that which is more directly questioned in these words truely a Church of Christ Secondly the condition or limitation thereof in the words annex'd without respect to saving grace To begin with the first I humbly conceive that a good and cleare understanding of this terme truely or how the Church may be said to be truely so may have a strong subserviency to a happy decision of the main controversie wherefore I shall take the liberty to enlarge my sense and notion thereof to as much plainesse as I am able 1. Truth as predicable of the visible Church is sometimes expressed by vera and sometimes by verè By vera ecclesia is usually meant the Church not onely endued Ecclesia vera with the truth of being but endowed also with the truth of goodnesse or the goodnesse of well-being and under some excellency of doctrine or manners or both By verè ecclesia is usually intended the being of the Church Verè alone and not the quality unlesse so farre it intend the evil qualities of any Church as to secure its being against them Accordingly Divines use to say that such a Church as is very corrupt and yet retaineth the essence or being of a Church of Christ is verè or truely a Church of Christ but not vera ecclesia or a true Church that is a pure or an holy Church as an honest man is said to be verus homo a true man and a thief who is not properly said to be a true man is doubtlesse verè homo and as truely a man as any other verè serving to expresse truth as natural and vera as moral Yet with leave though this distinction may serve to explain The distinction excepted against our meanings I adde that 't is well-known to all that are schollars that both these termes vera and verè may be lawfully applyed to the Church or any thing while the physical being thereof is not wholly perish'd though the defects in morals be never so notorious if we speak of the subject under that notion and of truth as attributed thereunto in its physical acceptation A thief is doubtlesse a true man as well as truely a man if we speak of a thief quatenus homo as a man and not as a good or bad man morally true or false Thus also the Church may be said to be as well a true as truely a Church of Christ while its essentials remaine in it and it hath not yet lost its natural being be it never so corrupt in moral concernments or never so much to be censured or condemned in any such respects for if the Church hath its Ens it must be allowed its verum also 3. But it appeareth that the question carrieth the weaker terme viz. truely as that which is likeliest to be yeelded unto by such as are likeliest to dissent upon the whole whereby it easily The terme applied to the question appeareth to the Reader what is enquired after in the question namely not whether the visible Church may be considered to be a pure or a perfect Church or a true Church in a moral capacity but whether it may be considered to be truely a Church that is to have all the essentials of a visible Church or its natural being without respect to saving grace or whether the beiing of the visible Church have a necessary dependance upon saving qualifications 4. It may be also heeded that though the question run whether it may be so considered the reason whereof may appeare hereafter yet the question is not whether the truth of the Church consist only in consideration for the weight of our question resteth upon the truth of the Churches being in it self and not in our minds or conception onely this nature and truth of the Church without our mindes cannot be so quoad nos without an act of our minde viz. consideration but the question properly is de veritate ecclesiae visibilis as the Metaphysicks speak in essendo Veritatem in Rebus ipsis quae ab illâ denominantur verae Suar. disp 8. which is defined truth in the things themselves by vertue of which truth the things themselves are said to be true which is such a truth as agrees with the Church without the operation of the mind and therefore such as states the Church a real thing thing seeing competere alicui atra mentis operationem is the known definition of Reale esse Lastly this common expression truely a Church is desired to be kept unto to keep out those troublesome and disputable termes of ecclesia aequivoca and ecclesia presumptiva which are wont to perplex this controversie to both of which this verè ecclesia or the truth of the Churches being in it self stands in as evident as direct opposition for the aequivocal Church in the sense of most of those that dissent from me hath no truth of being at all and the presumed Church dependeth upon the charity of the mind of those that consider it and hath not that being that is to be certainly knowne and considered by us as it is here in question but more plainelie 1. The evasion of ecclesia presumptiva is thus anticipated whether it import the visible or invisible Church 1. If by this presumed Church be meant the visible which in favour and charity we presume to be a Church as Spalatensis and after him Davenant seemeth to some to imply though we know not who are true members thereof because we know not who among them have saving grace then who seeth not that this presumption begs the question it being evidently built upon that supposition which is mainly in controversie viz. that one cannot be a true member of the visible Church without saving grace this acceptation of the Church taketh up that respect to saving grace which
whether the visible Church may be considered to be truely a Church of Christ without saving grace but without respect to saving grace For if the Church neither ever were nor yet is nor ever shall be or exist without this i. e. true saving grace it will not help or profit us much to finde whether it be so in our Consideration or not yet if it shall be proved that saving grace is verily Quarto modo neither of the essence or property of the Church it will thence easily follow that there is no contradiction in considering a Church to be truely such without it yea I suppose it will further follow that this visible Church so considered without saving grace hath not its being onely in reason or consideration but hath some foundation of being in re and is at least ens rationis ratiocinatae and so considered conceptu objectivo as the Metaphysicks speak Yea I know not but that happily it may claim one step further and be termed ens reale if we mean ens real potentiâ non actu but 3. The question lastly is not whether the visible Church may be i. e. actually without saving grace but whether it may be considered to be truely a Church without respect to saving grace that is whether saving grace be either of the essence or property of the Church or so neere unto the nature and being of it as that it cannot be conceived to be but respect must be had to saving grace this is the very sense of the question before us yet concerning this which is denyed to be our question viz. the actual being of the Church without saving grace I shall crave leave to expresse my self in a few particulars which I humbly conceive may have yet some further and direct subserviency to the cheering of my mind touching the question with which I shall conclude that word I readily grant that though saving grace be not of the essence or property of the visible Church yet saving grace is of the excellency bene esse of it but even therefore saving grace is denied to be necessary in our consideration of the nature and being of the visible Church A symmetry of part strength of body lively colour consistency of braine quicknesse of fancy soundnesse of minde retention of memory and good discourse all these are of the excellency and glory of a man yet not one of them require a necessary place in one consideration when we would conceive of his nature and property quatenus homo as he is a man for he may be a man without all these and therefore he may doubtlesse be conceived a man and truely without respect to any of them the application hereof to our present discourse is easily left to my Reader 2. I further grant that as it cannot be but that many individual men among the rest of the kinde will be thus excellently qualified as before so neither can it ever be but that many individual members of the visible Church shall be endued with saving grace according to that of Vrsin in ecclesia semper sunt aliqui Catech. p. 408 non omnes electi sancti 3. Yet I humble offer whether the cause of this impossibility may not be thought to lie rather in the will of God so determining and consequently be a thing extrinsecal to the being of the Church then in the nature of the Church or any thing intrinsecal thereunto and whether the visible Church might not for any thing in the nature thereof to the contrary be truely a Church of Christ though there should not be one member in it for a time savingly qualified though it be still granted that for the glory of grace the Lord hath so ordained that it never shall be actually so Even as to follow my present similitude it is impossible but there should be many wise and judicious men in the world yet this necessity lieth not in the nature of man but rather in the will of God that hath so ordained for the glory of his own name and the good of society in the world And if at last it issue thus I see not but that we may safely conclude the visible Church without saving grace to be in the former sense Ens reale id est potentia if he define ens reale well that saith it is quod habet esse ex parte Rei actu vel potentia seeing such a Church hath its being ex parte rei potentia and the onely reason why it hath not the same actualitèr is not ex parte rei sed ex parte Dei 4. Yet once more I humbly offer that seeing there may be a Corporation of men without one wise or learned man amongst them why may not there be a particular Church in the world without one member savingly qualified at least for some certaine space of time c Indeed Ames concludeth and doubtlesse soundly maximè probabile esse nullam dar◠c. that it is most probable that there is no particular Church where the profession of the true faith Medul de ecclesia flourisheth but that there are some therein that are true believers yet none can construe maximè probabile impossible to be otherwise and if it be most probable 't is not necessary and then the being of the Church dependeth not thereon but it may be without it for he that saith any thing is most likely to be even thereby intimates that that thing is not certaine to be and then it may not be and that is all I querie for Neither can those words of God to Paul for I have much people in this City inforce any such thing though we grant that much people to be the Elect for 1. These words carried extraordinary encouragement against the Vid. Act. 18. 9 10 extraordinary trials which that City had for Paul and therefore will conclude onely that in the like case where a Minister is called to much suffering he shall be an instrument of grace to much people 2. However much people might have been first wrought upon to an outward profession before this much people had been savingly converted and yet have been a true particular visible Church though it 's very unlikely that it was so SECT II. What grace is necessary to visible Church-membership There now seemeth but one intimation more requisite for the due explication of this last terme viz. that it is not question'd whether the visible Church may be so considered without respect to any grace but without respect to saving grace for it rather seemeth to imply some kind of grace is necessary and questioneth onely of that kind which is saving The question then here is how farre any kind of grace may be thought necessare to visible Church-membership or with what cautions we exclude that kind of grace which is saving there-from wherein I shall now betake my self to expliate my minde as plainly as I can in the following distinctions and conclude
and the called are of equal latitude But the called may be considered to be truely so without respect to saving grace therefore the Church c. That the Church and the called are of equal latitude is not only confirmed by the Etymology of the Church but is the evident consent of all Divines wherefore Amesius tells us that the first thing which constitutes the Church actually is calling and that the Church hath not onely its Name but its definition from calling who also desineth the Church to be a company of men called Yea so strict is Amesius in this point that he concludeth the very Elect are not of the Church either visible or invisible but as they are called and by consequence that the Church is made up of the called as distinguished not onely to those that are not called in general but particularly to the Elect. Trelcatius expresly saith that external calling is the very forme Forma ecclesiam visibilem constituens est vocatio illa externa quam mediatè Deus efficit Inst Theol p. 223. that constitutes the visible Church The assumption viz. that the called may be considered to be truely so without respect to saving grace appears 1. In the evidence of our Saviours known words many are called and few chosen 2. Of the very nature of a true call 1. Those whom Christ affirmeth to be called are truely called let Christ be true but Christ affirmeth some to be called that They are called foro Christi not onely foro ecclesiae have no saving grace for he saith that many are called and but few chosen therefore more are called then are chosen then some are called that are not chosen then some are called that neither now have nor yet ever shall have any saving grace unless the reprobates may Therefore some are truely called that have no saving grace and if so doubtlesse none will stick to grant but that they may be considered to be truely so without respect to saving grace 2. This appears from the nature of a true call which doth truely consist without saving grace as is easily manifest by a due distribution thereof Calling is Active or direct Passive or reflex and this Partialis Totalis Common Saving The direct or active calling is such a calling as is not answered by the persons called upon whereby though indeed they are called upon they are not in the Scripture sense called this hardly any can think doth render the persons called upon truely a Church thus Paul called the Athenians but yet left them as he found them not a Church of Christ but of Satan viz. Idolaters this call seeing it obtaineth no part of its end at all I presume to terme vocatio mefficax or as Master Baxter hath well Englished The calling which is common to Pagans is vocation uneffectual The reflex or passive calling is such as terminates effectually in the persons called upon which is when persons both hear and answer the word calling suffering themselves to be called and brought unto God thereby this in general I presume to terme effectual calling as it stands in opposition to the former call which is not at all effectual and also as this sheweth it self most exactly and prâ—fitably effectual for its most direct and prâ—per end a calling and gathering a people to God Indeed this which I terme effectual calling is twofold it being effectual either onely in common or also in saving effects The first to wit that calling which onely reacheth unto common effects is that by which persons are called out of the world to renounce all false Gods and to professe the true God according to the true Religion and thus to become truely members of the visible Church and of the number of the many called in the Text and therefore I humbly desire that two things may be here noted 1. That though some please to terme this kinde of call partialis it must onely be understood with respeact to that other saving work which belongs to the next branch of the distribution and not at all with respect to the work specified or the calling to be truely members of the visible Church which doubtlesse is perfectly and totally done by the true and genuine efficacy of this which we terme a common call Secondly let it be further noted therefore that when we say this common call is effectual to common effects we mean onely such effects as are common to the Elect and Reprobate but not common to the Church and the world but special and peculiar to the Church alone wherein more are called then are elected The second sort of effectual calling to wit that which worketh saving effects is indeed though not more truely effectually yet more gradually and further if not specifically more effectual then the former for it bringeth men not an ecclesiastical but also to a mystical and saving union with Jesus Christ and by that which is opposed to the common faith which is said to be wrought by the former common call and is usually called justifying or saving faith which is called by those which terme the call partialis vocatio totalis and is as I conceive plainly implied in the chosen in the text fore-cited few are chosen i. e. few are called as Amesius expresseth it according to election The distribution being thus laid two things are briefly to be done in order to a fit application thereof and then I have ended this first Argument 1. To Apologize for this which to some may seeme a new sense of the common distinction of calling into effectual and ineffectual 2. To evince this common call to be truely a call For the first of these the distribution forelaid seeming so rational to my self and so adequate to the meaning if not to the very termes of most Divines I hope little need be said yet 1. I must confesse it is somewhat rare for Divines to terme the common calling effectual calling yet I presume it is as seldome termed ineffectual Trelcatius gives the term efficax onely unto the saving call yet he doth not term the common call opposed by himself in the very same place unto the saving and as he stileth it effectual call in efficax 2. Yea though Trelcatius doth not terme this common call efficax he doth evidently imply that it may be lawfully termed so he tells us that externa vocatio is that quam mediatè Deus efficit Now if this common or external call be that which doth efficere it may doubtlesse be properly said to be effectual yea more Instit p. 114. plainly in another place he teacheth that efficacitas vocationis est duplex una salutaris electorum propria Altera non salutaris sed praevia secundum ordinem communem ad vocatos communiter spectans so that there is an efficacy in the common call which is not saving and therefore this common call is efficax 3. However a Learned Authour of our own viz. Reverend Master Baxter hath authorized
it for me it was noted before Apol. p. 88. that he allowed us the former branch of the distinction viz. vocation unâ—ffectual as common to Pagans and again in terminis he affords the latter viz. vocation which is effectual only to bring men to an outward profession which he also saith is larger then Election 4. Lastly I acknowledge 't is the sense of the distinction and not the terms I contest for and if I may be granted that let these be censured as my reader pleaseth 2. Now that this external or more properly common call is truely a call and that those that are called therewith are truely called though not savingly appeareth thus 1. This was the called which our Saviour affirmeth the many were called withal For first these were called not with the calling common to Heathens onely nor with that calling which is proper to the Elect therefore they were called according to that only branch remaining viz. the common effectual call which brought them into the visible Church 1. This Call cannot be meant of the uneffectual call common to Heathens these words of Christ many are called are the close of two Parables Matth. 20. 16. and 22. 14. the one of labourers called to the vine-yard the other of guests called to the feast and in both applyed to them that answered to the call that came and laboured in the vine-yard that came with other bidden ones to the feast and not to those that refus'd 2. Neither yet can it be meant of the saving effectual Call for we see it is applied by Christ unto more then are capable of saving vocation more then are Elected as before was noted therefore it must needs be meant of that which is termed an effectual call opposed to that which is ineffectual and a common call opposed to that which is more then common viz. saving 2. This must needs be truely a call because it is the same call which the Elect partake of I grant rhe Elect partake of an higher call viz. a saving which the reprobate never enjoy yet the Elect have the same call which the reprobate have as seemes clearly to be collected from the words before us for the few chosen are apparently included in the many called they were all called and but few of them chosen 3. This common Call is a true effect therefore also truely a call yea a divine effect a work of God himself and that he is Vocatio communis est actio Dei Instit p. 109 pleased to efficere as Trelcatius speaks who further and more expressely termes it Gods action therefore doubtlesse not counterfeit but true in its kind 4. This common call is also a true cause and therefore it must needs prove it self to have a true being to be truely a call in its kinde for nihil agit quod non est It is a true cause for it worketh true effects persons by this common call are truely brought out of the world of infidels and united to the visible people and Church of God to own and professe Jesus Christ to attend upon the wayes and Ordinances of his worship to see some necessity of faith and repentance and of yeelding obedience to the Gospel of Christ as Trelcatius aptly asserts vocatio communis est Actio Dei gratiosa qua homines ab infidelitate ad fidem evecat Instit p. 109. 5. In this common call are both the necessary parts of a Duo enim haec concurrere necesse est ut vocatio sit efficax vocationem Dei nostram ad illam vocationem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu relationem p. 222. true Call truely and really therefore the totum also Trelcatius teacheth that two things concurre to make a call effectual or true the call on Gods part and the answer on ours so that all those that do answer the call wherewith God calleth them truely and really in aâ—y measure are so far truely and really called of God though not fully and savingly as the Elect regenerate are But now none can doubt but that men by this common call alone may and do answer the call of God truely and really in a great measure as before is noted therefore the common call is truely and really such CHAP. V. Arg. 2. From the Etymology or the name of the Church WE now descend to the second Argument offered us from Ecclesia ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name of the Church as it is more immediately derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and denoteth a calling out But that we may lay the foundation well before we begin to build there are three things to be truely premised before we fix the Argument 1. That this Etymology of the word doth not in the least contradict but most evidently perfect and compleat the former for by the former the Church is concluded to be called in a general and simple sense and by this the Church which was thus before said to be called is in a more strict close and respective sense said to be called out where we have plainly intimated to us that there is some special term place or state out of which or from which it is called 2. That this Etymology is generally allowed by those that we Etymologicè ecclesia est coetus publicaÌ„ autoritate evocatus de eccles p. 214. finde most accurate upon this subject Etymologicè saith Trelcatius the Church is a company called out by publick authority and pasor doth not onely derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evoco but even renders the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine by Caetus Evocatus which is in plaine English a company called out 3. That this calling out which we finde in the name of the Church doth not so properly or exactly note the inward state from which as the outward caetus or society out of which it is called which will be easily granted me to be the world therefore we finde the Church set in opposition to the world out of which and not to sinne darknesse or Satan from which we are called according to that of our Saviour I have chosen you that is by calling as we know he did his Disciples out of the John 15 19 world Whence as the Learned Master Baxter seals with a certainly all Divines in their definitions of the Church are agreed that it is a society of persons separated from the world to God or called Against Tombs out of the world and therefore no society the calling of whose members hath not the world for its terme from which hath persons Nullus coetus cujus membrorum vocatio non habet mundum terminum aquo habet sanctâ— voâ—atos pro proximâ mateâ—iâ Norton in â—eâ—p ad totam quest syllâ—g p. 1â—5 of a holy calling for its next matter or by consequence can be a true Church as another argues who cannot be imagined possibly partial to my cause namely that learned and
ready to charge him with Brownisme for denying hypocrites to be members of the Church he answers them that hypocrites are so according to the outward state of the Church the Brownist was as ready to charge him with Popery in affirming wicked men to be true members of the visible Church and he answers them that they are not so quoad statum internum and essentialem But let us weigh his words a little farther by fixing the question whether any thing may be considered as such from its accidental forme seeing Amesius hath said that such are members of the Church by their participation with this accidental forme of profession But may a man be considered qua homo from the figure or colour of his body or any member of that man be considered such from its partaking of either of these if by the essential form alone a thing is that which it is can any thing partake of the being of that thing without partaking of the essential form do not the Schooles generally with Thomas teach that forma accidentalis non tribuit perfectionem essentialem composito would not the affirmative to this viz. that the accident perfects the essence seeing accidens habet esse in subjecto be a flat contradiction How then can Amesius say that one that onely partakes of the accidental forme of the Church is a member thereof either we must allow that such professours are true members of the visible Church or deny them to be so if they are they must needs partake of the essential form of the body and not onely of the accidental if they are not let us be rigid Brownists and openly say what we think Yea if such professours do truely partake of the accidental form of the Church I conceive they must also truly partaker of the essential interest in the accident of any thing is founded in interest in the essence of that thing for an accident as such hath no being but in its subject and there cannot be an interest in or relation to any thing but as it is how then can a man stand under the accidental forme of the Church unlesse he be pars subjecti vel substantiae and how can that be unlesse he partake of the essential or substantial forme of the Church How can any thing partake of my colour or figure unlesse it be part of my selfe it may partake of whitenesse but not of my whitenesse or of whitenesse as an accident of me unlesse it be part of me so indeed a man may be a professor but he cannot partake of the profession of the Church unless he be a real part of the subject the Church which cannot be without partaking with the essence or essential forme thereof So that here I pitch such professours are members of the visible Church farther then Ames alloweth or not so farre for they partake either of both the essential and accidental forme or of neither and must be consequently granted to be true members of the visible Church both according to the external and the internal state thereof or according to neither Now if in conclusion it be found that such professours as we are now considering do also partake of the essential forme of the visible Church this essential forme must be either the same which Forma essentialis est Relatio spiritualis Med. 163. Neque ulla relatio vim istam habet praeter illam que consistit in primi intima affectione ad Christum p 162 163. vid p. 168 â—8 Amesius assignes or another but it cannot be the same these professours as we are now considering do also partake of the essential forme of the visible Church this essential forme must be either the same which Amesius assignes or another but it cannot be the same these professours are by himself expressed to be uncapable thereof for they are called by him tantum professione fideles i. e. such as do not savingly beleeve and this essential forme of the Church which he meaneth is a little above expressed by himself to be such a relation as carrieth true faith which effectually worketh true holiness with it of which such as onely profess are necessarily supposed to be destitute But if that essential forme of the Church be another then that which Amesius assigneth either that forme which he assigned is not the true essential forme of the Church or there are two distinct Duae formae substantiales non possunt in eadem materia consistere forms thereof Now there cannot be two distinct formes of one and the same Church I meane two distinct essential formes that is little lesse then a contradiction neither shall we be allowed to have two distinct Churches which must needs follow two substantial formes for omnis differentia constitutiva est â—orma distinguit Rem ab omnibus aliis a prioris etiam divisiva divisiva generis constitutiva specii i. e. it doth divide the genus into its species and then doth constitute the species distinct from one another Againe if there be found such an essential forme of the Church Forma substantialis tribuit essentialem perfectionem composito as those which onely profess and are without saving grace do indeed partake of then the visible Church as such or as it stands in distinction to the invisible will be found to be truely and properly a Church for the essential form giveth an essential perfection to any thing Then it will follow in conjunction with what every one grants that there is but one Church truely and properly so called that the invisible Church as distinguished from the visible is not so Therefore it remaineth that we now further enquire after the essential forme of the visible Church Amesius asserts that the essential forme of the Church lieth in Relation which saith he is nothing else but faith and concludeth fides c. faith therefore is the forme of the Church But as if he were aware that some would reply then particular Fidem enim homines fideles qui prout sigillatim distributive considerantur sunt vocati Dei sunt etiam ecclesia Dei prout conjun ctim vel collective considerantur in coetu Med. p. 163. 13. Beleevers were formal Churches he anticipateth thus faith saith he in particular beleevers distributively taken is the forme of the called but collectively taken 't is the forme of the Church the same beleevers taken apart are the called of God and conjoyn'd are the Church of God Thus he But 1. Be it so that faith is the forme of the Church if there may be found a real faith as well as a real calling that is not saving as no doubt there may my case is yet well enough though I confesse Ames clearly meaneth a saving faith 2. But I must be allowed the boldnesse once more to offer my humble exceptions against what is here by him asserted For 1. If that same faith which is the forme of the Church be indeed to be
found in particular beleevers scattered I cannot imagine how this conclusion can be intercepted particular believers have the forme of the Church and consequently are truely a Church though not in coetu or in societie do they want the mattter of the Church no for they are considered apart in his own words the called of God and the called of God are the true matter of the Church none will deny Neither 2. Will it be helped to say that faith in beleevers considered collectively is the form of the Church For 1. The form of a thing is real which hath being extra mentis operationem it receiveth no part of its nature from consideration and therefore if faith be in it self or properly the essential forme of the Church so it still will be whether we consider it distributively or collectively and wheresoever we finde it viz. in materia congrua in fit matter as the called doubtlesse are Besides 2. Then something is apparently added to faith to informe the Church viz. the collection of the persons so beleeving and then I humbly offer whether whatsoever faith be meant here it belong not exactly to the matter and most unproperly to the forme of the Church for that which doth not perfect the essence or give essential perfection to a thing is not the essential forme of that thing but faith doth not give essential perfection to the Church for where faith is there is not this essential perfection of the Church without something else viz. collection or association of the subjects of this faith together added 3. Therefore he saith 1. Fides est forma ecclesiae and then 2. Coetus est forma ecclesiae wherein I am yet to seek his meaning for either these differ and are two things and then there are two formal causes of the Church or else faith and company are all one in his sense and indeed almost in his words fides spectata collectivè est coetus vocatorum id est forma ecclesiae which I cannot comprehend 4. If coetus vocatorum be indeed a definition of the Church as Amesius saith then either vocati are the forme or coetus or both Med. p. 163. 12. if vocati distinct from coetus be then coetus is not if coetus distinct from vocati then the vocati are not and if both together be the forme then where is the matter 5. Again if this be a perfect definition and consequently the whole cannot be the forme one of the parts must and now which is likeliest coetus or fideles not fideles of the faithful because that these prae-exist before the Church is informed and something as was before observed is necessarily to be added to perfect the essence of the Church 2. One of these two must be the matter of the Church but coetus cannot because the matter is presupposed to the forme but coetus or the consosiation of beleevers doth praesuppose beleevers 3. Therefore the cleanest account with me is that beleevers are the matter the coetus and the collection or community of them is the true essential forme of the Church That wherein they have communion is the publick exercise of such duties as we ead Act 2. 47. Hook eccles pol. 89. Here then at length I pitch that the forme of the Church lieth in society or community stâ—ictly and properly that collection taken actively or unitâ—on is the immediate efficient collection taken passively or union is the effect or proper state of the Church that communion is its formal action but corporation society or community is strictly the forme thereof Which learned Ames himself doth seeme more than to intimate if we let passe the foresaid obscurities saying that faithful Med p. 163. 13. men are the Church of God prout conjunctim vel collectivè considerantur in coetu and yet more plainly in the page before p. 162. 9. Coetus dicitur quia in multitudine consociata vel communitate multorum proprie consistit non in aliquo uno vocato So that in short account the remote matter of the Church Ad homines restringitur iste coetus p. 162. 10 is men the lesse remote matter of the Church is men called and the next matter of the Church is a many or a multitude of men called and now that which is to be added to compleat the Church is the society or community as Ames exactly of these many or this multitude of men called and this is properly the forme thereof Which further appeares For 1. The Church is allowed by all to be totum aggregativum or a holy heap now where lieth the forme of an heap but in the society of the parts thereof they being put together 2. 'T is therefore called a body in Scripture corpus coagmentatum and compactum ex variis membris as Ames noteth from Ephes 4. 16. as also a House a Family a City a Kingdome a Flock and where lieth the forme of all these but in society or community 3. This notion suits so well with the principles of many that they are called Congregational men and their way called Emphatically the Congregational way doubtlesse then their Church is a Congregation yea the opinion of many of them is that their Church-Covenant is the forme of their instituted Church which Covenant is onely the bond of the company or society Lastly that which being put in any matter the thing is necessarily Quo posito in materia aliqua necessario constituitur compositum sublato tollitur id est illius forma constituted and being taken away the thing is dissolved is the forme of that thing but society or community being added to many men called which is the matter of the Church the Church is necessarily constituted and society or community being taken away the Church is dissolved therefore society or community is the forme of the Church 5. Szegedine teacheth that true doctrine and the true use of the Sacraments are the formal cause of the Church But these I conceive are rather either the means of communion which is as was said before the formal action more properly then the very forme it selfe of the Church or else the distinguishing forme whereby the Church is known rather then the constitutive form whereby the Church hath its being But to draw up this discourse of the constitutive forme of the Church 1. Whatsoever it appear to be I hope to prove that it may be truely considered without respect to saving grace if it be calling or faith or profession it hath before appeared that these may be considered to be truely when not savingly such and if it be society or community as hath partly appeared already and will more fully appear when we handle the definition of the Church I presume none will question but this also may be considered to be truely such without any respect to saving grace 2. But if Ames should mean as he truely seemeth to do that coetus vocatorum or societas fidelium
in an united and conjunct sense is the forme of the Church that is neither the called nor society but these both together as a company or society of the called or the faithful though then we know not as before was said where to finde the matter of the Church and that the whole definition will be taken up in the form and consequently we may not grant it yet I conceive we may safely give it for the visible Church may be as well considered to be a society of persons called conjunctively as persons called and a society without respect to saving grace 3. And although we should farther give him that which also we have before denyed to grant him viz. that that faith which is the essential forme of the Church is a saving faith yet he is pleased freely to recompense us again with with as much in affirming that persons that are onely externally called and such as onely professe as himself speaks are truely members of the Church of Christ according to the outward state thereof or as it is a visible Church which is freely acknowledged to be all that is necessarily sought in the present controversie 4. Indeed he also adds that such profession and outward calling is but the accidental form of the Church as before which assertion we conceive will hardly bear this his conclusion however this is nothing unto us We thankfully take his concession and leave the consequence to be further considered CHAP. XI The Argument from the distinguishing forme of the visible Church WE now descend to the other branch of the formal cause called distinguens vel discriminans contained in those notes or marks whereby the Church is known to be true and distinguished from a false Church Whence the Argument is this The notes or marks of a true Church may be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace therefore the Church her selfe None will venture upon the consequence for if those very things viz. the notes whereby alone we take to our selves a consideration of the Churches being and truth cannot be affirmed to have any dependance upon saving grace then certainly the Church may be considered to be truely such without respect to saving grace The Antecedent appears by an easie induction of the notes and marks of a true Church They are either essential or accidental it is generally agreed Professio verae fidei est maxime essentialis ecclesiae nota Med. p. 171. that the essential note of the Church is profession of the true faith which as Amesius saith is maximè essentialis in the highest manner essential to the Church Now the nature of an essential mark as the Schooles teach is certo demonstrare infallibly to demonstrate the essence of that thing of which it is a mark therefore profession of the true faith doth thus certainly infallibly demonstrate the essence and nature of the true Church but now profession of the true faith may be truely considered without respect to saving grace for the true faith may be professed by a Cain a Judas a Simon Magus a Demas and those that have no share at all in saving grace and that truely to as none I think will venture to question But this profession of the true faith I humbly conceive if we speak exactly as it is a mark of the true Church must be taken ecclesiastically and not personally for there may be a private personal owning and profession of the faith where there is no formal proper and exact Church and there we cannot affirme profession of the faith an essential note of the true Church personal profession I grant is a certaine mark of a member of the Church i. e. universal and ecclesiastical profession of the Church it self This ecclesiastical profession I conceive consists in attendance upon the Ordinance of divine worship and is rather a real then a vocal profession for the end of the visible Church being properly the worship of God the note thereof is properly that which renders it serviceable to its end which is attendance upon those things which are ordained for that end the Ordinances of divine worship I confesse Amesius intends a profession of faith formally and vocally taken which he distinguisheth from the solemne preaching Professio ista in coetu aliquo potest antecedere solennem verbi praedicationem Sacramentorum administrationem Med. p. 172. 30. of the Word and administration of the Sacraments By which he either meanes a profession made by all those that are admitted into an instituted Church which cannot I conceive be proved from Scripture to be a necessary duty much lesse an essential mark of the true Church and is not very consonant with reason seeing if this be maximè essentialis nota the Church may possibly through want of occasion of admitting be many years without such an essential note the nature of which if I mistake not requires that it be more usual Besides how such a profession can be looked upon as the profession of the whole which is of some necessity for its being a mark of the whole I know not it being not made by a publick Minister but a private member yea hardly a member if the end of his confession be in order to his admission but however 't is clearly the profession of the party and a note onely of his faith and worthinesse of admission and in any sober sense can hardly be look'd on as the profession much lesse the note and least of all the essential the chiefly essential note of the whole Church as indeed we never found affirmed before by any Authentick authour in the Church of Christ and which I humbly conceive is not Ames his sense here onely I took this occasion to free him from it because I fear these words of his are made a patron of such a practise But if this be not the profession of faith which Amesius affirmeth to be the note of the Church it must needs be the set and solemn declaration of the faith by the mouth of the Church to wit the Minister which was wont to be done as he requireth before the Sermon But this I humbly conceive is not to be distinguished from the Word and Sacraments as it is maxime â—ssentialis ecclesiae nota according to Scripture reason or the judgement of most if not all that have anciently written upon this subject is not the same faith professed by the Minister in preaching and the people in hearing and by both in participating in the Sacraments or seales thereof which is read in the Creed and are not these actions as visible and as essential to the Church as the reading and hearing of the Creed or dare any say that where there is a constant and diligent attendance on the preaching of the true doctrine and lawful administration of prayers and Sacraments that there we cannot discerne a true Church without a solemne declaring of the faith in a set Creed and most of our
members of the Church but infidels but neither temporary beleevers nor foederal as before can ever from the Scripture be proved either to be infidels or savingly beleevers 2. Foederal faith is not justifying or in Wallaeus his word doth not justifie the childe yet this entitles the childe to visible Church membership and by this to wit foederal faith all that are borne in the Church are entitled and stand possessed of the said membership and this is the very state and case of most of the people of God in England and that which answereth our own case might give satisfaction without further enquiry 3. Yet if not a dogmatical faith a faith lesse then justifying or a temporary faith or a common faith which so farre draweth the person beleeving and to own and apply himself by desire of and submission unto Baptisme to the true Religion though it work not so deep as was before explained is sufficient to admit an adult heathen as more largely anon into communion with the Church as easily appears in Simon who had no more in the Eunuch who professed no more and in the stony ground which hereby stood in a due possession of this communion till in the time of temptation it fell away CHAP. XIII Touching Communion in the Ordinances of God and the place it hath in the definition of the Church WE now proceeed to the second great specialty observable in the definitions of the visible Church taken from its chief office and employment viz. communion in the Ordinances and worship of God Here though I do not altogether exclude the qualifications spoken to yet I shall humbly offer whether communion in the worship and Ordinances of God be not fitter to define the visible Church by then the former qualifications thereof Cons 1. Such as lay most weight upon the former qualifications of faith calling and profession in their definitions of the visible Church do yet ever adde more then a touch of this holy exercise and communion of it to the perfecting of their said definitions as will appeare expresly anon Amesius himself adds unto his societas fidelium ad communionem sanctorum constanter inter se Med. p. 168. exercendum Cons 2. These qualifications seeme fitter to define the Church as invisible by seeing they also are invisible indeed Ames defineth the Church to be coetus vocatorum but he evidently intends Vid. Med. cap. 31. 7. p. 162 the mystical or invisible Church it is a most usual thing for Divines to define the mystical by which they intend the Church of the saved after this manner viz by some occult invisible quality of faith love calling or the like whereas the defining of the Church from its outward acts and exercises in the worship of God is without some shew of exactnesse to define the Church as visible from something visible Cons 3. If the visible Church should take its definition rather from the said qualifications then from its communion in Ordinances then would the Church be rather known from the evidence of these qualifications then from its communion in Ordinances for that which flows most immediately from the essence of a thing into our apprehension and knowledge cannot but be reckoned the most essential and therfore the best mark of that thing But the Church on the contrary hath been ever better knowne and distinguished by the Ordinances wherein it communicates then from any personal qualities whatsoever 1. Therefore the truth of the Ordinances and the truth of the faith which is professed hath been ever respected and looked upon as an essential mark and indeed the onely essential mark of the true visible Church while personal qualities have beene ever reckoned among the seperable adjuncts thereof 2. Indeed purity of life and evidences of saving grace I humbly conceive are rather the purity of single members but the purity of Ordinances the purity of the Church as such so that the purer the Ordinances the purer the Church c. contra As even all our Divines do argue upon the Marks of the Church against the Papist and as is most punctually and fully asserted by the Irish confession Artic. 58. But particular and visible Churches of those that make a profession of the faith and live under the outward meanes of salvation be many in number wherein the more or lesse sincerely according to Christs institution the Word of God is taught not practiced and the Sacraments are administred not received and the authority of the keys is used not obeyed the more or lesse pure are such Churches to be accounted Cons 4. The Church is rather and better distinguished from O holy Socrates O holy Plato O devilish Christian O wicked Protestant Woods Serm. p. 49 its opposite viz. the world by its fellowship in Ordinances then by the evidence of inward qualities or saving grace any other way therefore its definition should rather be taken from thence 1. Many Christians are not so civil as some Heathens and many Heathens are not so profane as some Christians yet no Heathens do attend the Ordinances of God as Christians do in their solemn assemblies 2. As Heathens taken in a large sense for all infidels do openly oppose the true religion so Christians do more openly own and maintain the same in these their solemne meetings and properly publick assembles particular persons stand in most direct opposition to infidels not by their own private calling faith or profession but by their relation to these bodies and Assembles of Gods people and the communion thereof in the worship of God in publick 3. Therefore therein also the Church is most exposed to the malice of those that seek her life and thirst to destroy her very being in the world not so much in her righteousnesse towards men or in her private enjoying or separate professing the faith of Christ as in her publick and valiant owning and serving her Lord in the wayes and Ordinances of divine worship as it were to the worlds and the God of the worlds defiance for fear of whom they flinched Heb. 10. and forsock the assembling of themselves together with the Church Cons 5. This further appears if we well consider the onely way that God himself hath generally if not ever taken directly and judicially to un-church a people namely by removing his Ordinances and not his graces their faith calling or profession from them Look over all the books and works of God and see whether this can be questioned the very people that murthered Christ yet to them belongs the promise Acts 2. and they are the seed of the Covenant chap. 3. and so continue notwithstanding this height of all impiety untill the Ministry and Ordinances are turned from them to the Gentiles Acts ult 't is granted that such desperate wickednesse doth not onely deserve that God should spew a people out but also it doth violently provoke him to it yea it is threatned with it Rev. 3. 16. Yet observe they are to be
and fellowship among themselves here is society of professors for communion communion ecclesiastical distinguishing this society from all others and profession dâ—stinguishing this society and communion to be of the visible and not of the invisible Church There are some of our own countrey-men that have given very clear definitions of the visible Church in this kinde Reverend Bradshaw saith the Churches of Christ are holy assemblies joyning ordinarily and orderly together in the worship of God here is an Assembly the qualification thereof holy the communion thereof joyning together in the Worship of God though I confesse I suppose that he here called these assemblies holy not with respect to the subjects or the persons that made it up but to the works and employment about which they were conversant the holy service and worship of God Yet I confesse that there is an obscure Authour whose name is Dayrel that wrote many yeares agon in the defence of Dayrel of the Church p. 24 like to Hookers our Churches against the Brownists whose definition is more exact to my notion of the visible particular Church then any of A Church as now we are to understand it â—s a society that â—s a number of persons belonging unto Christian fellowship the place and limits whereof are not certain eccl pol. p. 88 Lictionary p. 85 the former a particular visible Church saith he is that company that in a City Town or place cohabiting professe the Christian or true Religion and do ordinarily meet and joyne together in the exercises of religion A company united by co-habitation and profession and having communion together ordinarily in religious exercises the Ordinances of God Much like to which Wilson hath defined the universal visible Church 't is saith he a company of men selected gathered and called out of the world by the doctrine of the Gospel to know and worship the true God in Christ according to his Word Or if these be too long you may take it thus the visible Church Ecclesia specialiter sumitur pro coetu sacra scu conventu hominum ad cultum Dei convenientium Ravanel de eccl for which he quotes many Texts is a society of persons called out of the world to the worship of the true God In this last I am willing to acquiesce it being short and yet I humbly conceive plaine clear and full evidently conteining the whole sense of all the former and wanting for ought I can see in no necessary propertie of a perfect definition Herein we finde the matter persons called so termed by Christ himself as peculiar to the visible distinguished to the invisible or the Church of the Elect. 2. They are persons called out so it exactly answers to the most natural and allowed Etymology of the Church 3. Here are the termes of this motion a quo out of the world ad quem to the worship of God wherein we have its seperation The end of the Church in the Scripture in the time of the Gospel is to worship God as before from John 4 and its dedication its seperation from the world its dedication to God and his worship Wherein also its distinguishing forme and end and office is con-noted communion in the meanes or Ordinances of this worship of God 4. 'T is also said to be a society a fix'd community that respects this communion wherein as hath been often said the tò formale the very constituting form of the Church consisteth This definition is also convertible with the thing defined it doth not lie broader or narrower but just adequate and even with it for every society thus called out of the world to the worship of God is a Church of God and è contra Object Neither doth it avail to object that in this definition there is no mention at all of the constant or ordinary meeting thereof for this worship of God as some other definitions have it Answ For we are defining a visible Church in general which ought to be such as agrees with every kinde of visible Church if I may so speak both universal and particular now this constant actual meeting together is rather peculiar to the particular Church then common therewith to the Church universal which hath this actual meeting together but either in its representative a general counsel or in its parts particular Churches whereas a society called out of the world to the worship of God is general and common both to the universal and particular Church 2. Yea a particular visible Church it self is such when it hath not this actual meeting together much more when it hath it not constantly from which it haply may accidentally be long suspended and yet not lose its being and therefore not come short of its definition the essence of the Church lieth not in act but in habit not in communion but in community as this community * Foeder ata ista conjunctio catenus tantum constituit ecclesiam quatenus spectat ad communioneÌ„ exercendam to be exercised Am. Med. 169 Sanctae communis exercitium ad ecclesiam constituendam sufficit si constantia illa acâ—edit quoad intentionem tantum quae statum ad sert corporis membrorum in spirituali quadam politia as with small variation of words is gathered From Am. Med. 170 parag 21 looks towards and alwayes intends this communion to which it is therefore said to be called out of the world in the definition As a man doth not lose any part of his essence or cease at all to be a man when he ceaseth the exercise of his reason in his sleep or the like because the essence of his manhood lieth not in the exercise but in the faculty of reason whereby he is fitted and duely furnished to exercise the same when occasion is offered and impediments are removed So the Church ceaseth not to be a Church when she ceaseth her actual communion in the worship of God because the essence of the Church being in society to that end doth not suppose it though indeed it strongly intend it and dispose unto it as it conteineth a habit therof or at least an obligation thereunto upon due seasons Yet though the communion be not actual but onely habitual we may not say the community is onely habitual and not actual it would be strange to say that a man is only an habitual man because his reasoning is now habitual and not actual or a society of such a trade is onely habitually so when it doth not actually meet and assemble together The communion therefore is but habitual but the Church hath its essence and existence when it doth not meet together Therefore to have put ordinary or orderly meeting together into the definition of the Church would have made the definition larger then the definitum sometimes so that sometimes the Church must have been no Church when indeed it is so or the definition thereof must have been no proper definition thereof but variable
is invisible and visible this distinction is a distribution of the adjuncts of the same subject in divers respects the one internal the other external I confesse the reformed Divines I mean many of them do affirme that the invisible Church is onely revera ecclesia the true Church but their meaning I humbly conceive must be taken with a great deal of caution which with all humility I shall labour to unfold in a few distinctions as neere their owne sense and with as much of their spirit as I am able The Distinctions which may help us herein may be either of the Epithete true or the subject the Church 1. Truth as applicable to the Church is taken Respectu Naturali Vel Entitatis Morali Vel Status Vel Finis Now I humbly offer whether the reformed Divines asserting the invisible Church to be the onely true Church can possibly be though to exclude the visible Church from being true in the first branch of this division viz. in that natural sense whereby a thing is said to have the truth of being and existence why then do they still define the visible Church and give it all its Profession and preaching of the true doctrine is the only proper and certain note of the true Church Hildersham on Joh. 4. p. 161 This was the meaning of Wickliff Husse and others who therefore define the Church to be the multitude of the elect not for that they think them onely to pertain to the Church and no others but because they only pertain unto it principally fully effectually and finally Field on the Church p. 13. Distinct 2. real causes why do they tell us of the marks of the true visible Church why do none of them assert that the visible is not truely a Church or that the invisible Church is alone the Church truely so called yea in that they assert it to be visible they conclude it to be real seeing we cannot see that that is not Therefore they may be granted to meane onely that the invisible Church is onely true with respect to her state in the favour of God and to her end salvation that is the members of the invisible Church alone are certainly and infallible instated in the love of God and to be saved their controversie with the Papist engaged them to both these in their defence of the invisible Church and perseverance but no further for though the question was whether all in the visible Church were in a state of grace or whether all that were in a state of grace should persevere therein to the end yet we never read that they ever came to question whether the visible Church might be truely said to be a Church of Christ or not the centrary being indeed acknowledged on both sides The Church invisible then is the onely true Church in this moral sense it onely being truely in the love and favour of God and sure of salvation but the visible Church is also true in a natural sense it being really and truely a Church of God Or 2. Truth as applied to the Church is so Simpliciter Secundum quid Truth as taken in general large or simple acceptation may be easily conceived to be granted by the reformed Divines even to the visible Church 't is true in its kinde with such a truth as is agreeable to the nature of a visible Church I think none will deny this nor affirm the invisible Church to be the onely true Church in this sense Yet there is a restrained sense of truth in order to some particular determination of it which belongs onely to the Church invisible and which our Divines must needes meane whatever it be yet generally they explaine themselves as Bullinger doth himselfe revera ecclesia saith he viz. fideles Electi Dei viva membra connexa Christo non modo vinculis externis notis sed spiritu fide In which words he plainly expresseth that there is a double way of being knit to Christ 1. Fide spiritu 2. Vinculis externis notis The first of which he intends when he speaks of the true Church viz. that the invisible Church is the onely true Church in this respect of being knit unto Christ by faith and the spirit leaving room for any to conclude besides that such as are knit unto Christ by outward bonds alone are yet so farre truely knit as to be truely members of the visible though not of the Church invisible Vnion with Christ is true outwardly externis vinculis by which the visible Church is truely his Church and true savingly whereby the invisible Church is the onely true Church in that respect The subject of this questioned truth may also be distinguished for the better discovery of the minde of these Divines herein The Church is taken Strictly Largely Consisting of the Elect regenerate Distinct 1. Hac autem ecclesia latius accepta quatenus bonos malos continet Zanch. de eccl p. 65. Militans ecclesia rursus consideratur dupliciter vel enim strictius considerata vel latius malos complexa Bul. Dec. 350. Vox ecclesia ambigui stricte latissime minus late in quo electi hypocrite Ravanel c. Objicis sat scio hypocritas me numerasse c. Dec. p. 347 Good and bad This we may the bolder insist upon because it is of so frequent use amongst the reformed Divines themselves upon the same occasion and as they themselves explaine it the Church strictly taken is the Church invisible consisting onely of the Elect as Trelcatius Bullinger c. or of the Elect-regenerate and called as Ames and others and the Church largely taken consisting of the Elect and reprobate Beleevers and hypocrites good and bad as their general language is To apply it when these Divines affirme that the invisible Church is the onely true Church can they be understood in any other sense then this viz. that they onely are the true Church in this close strict and saving sense as the Church is taken strictly and is it not as evident as any thing in the world that they intend only to shut hypocrites out of the Church in this strict and saving sense and as plaine that they allow them a place in the Church as it is largely taken which large acceptation of the Church is by themselves generally expressed to be ecclesia bonos malos amplexa Bullinger frames an objection on purpose that he may have an occasion to declare his minde to this point his objection is How can hypocrites being members of Satan be members of the Church He answers by distinguishing of hypocrites Some saith he confide in their own righteousnesse as the Pharisees did these are not others do not so but neither hating nor flying from nor persecuting the Church do outwardly joyne with it and professe the same faith a while with it c. these are members of the Church till they fall away and much more those that continue in
do onely partake of the accidental forme of the Church is for ought I can see a plaine contradiction to it self For if the reason of an accident be to be in the subject then it no farther is then it is in the subject then also nothing can stand under it as it is the accident of such a subject viz. the Church unlesse it be part of the Church unlesse it also partake of the substantial forme of the Church or that which renders the Church or the subject of this profession or what ever it is which is said to be the accident thereof a Church a dead carkasse though it still retaine the same colour and figure that it had when it was alive yet it cannot be said to stand under the colour and figure of a man and why because the substantial form of a man is not in it 't is not a man therefore not capable of the accidents of a man so a hypocrite may partake of profession which is like the profession of the Church but cannot partake of the profession of the Church nor any part of the accidental forme of the Church unlesse it be part of the subject the Church which it cannot truely be without partaking also of the substantial forme of the Church where there is an essential totum as well as an integral all the essential parts must feel the influence of the essential forme or else they do not partake of an accidental forme of the totum for indeed a member that admits no influence from the forme is no longer an integral part of the body and consequently doth no longer partake of any thing as it is of the body Yet I shall adde one Argument ad hominem to prove that hypocrites partake of the essential forme of the Church a mark is said to be essential because 1. It flows directly and necessarily from the essence And 2. It is a sure indication of the essence of a thing therefore wheresoever we finde an essential mark there the essence of the thing is and there we may know it to be now what is the essential mark of the Church hath not Ames answered the profession of the true faith therefore hypocrites c. who doubtlesse do partake of this profession which himself acknowledgeth to be the essential note of the Church are and may be known to be of the essence of the Church Ames tells us that hypocrites have a share in the the outward profession of the Church which he saith is the accidental forme and which he also saith is the essential note of the true Church therefore they partaking in the accidental state or forme of the Church they also partake in the essential note of the Church and therefore of the essence of the Church and therefore of the essential form of the Church 3. I confesse it is my present opinion that that which Ames assignes to be the essential or internal forme viz. faith is no forme at all either of the Church visible or invisible but onely a necessary qualification of the matter of the Church of the saved or the Church invisible which seemes not much incongruous to Ames himself sometimes for he affirmeth that fides taken distributively is but forma vocatorum the forme of the called and not of the Church and that collective sense that he would put on faith to make it the forme of the Church is it self as distinguished from faith the forme of the Church which is not far from his own meaning yea and words too in another place ecclesia maximè consistit in coetu 4. Yea further I yet judge that the visible Church hath no internal forme at all and that which Ames calleth the accidental forme and others the external is very neere unto all the essential forme constituting of the visible Church the visible Church is a collective or aggregative body and that visible Now whether is the essential form of a visible aggregative body inward or outward indeed the particular parts of such a body separately considered have their internal formes but is not the form of the whole another thing is not union or rather unity or society of the parts the forme of the whole and is not this external for instance every particular sheep hath its forme internal but as these are a flock they have another outward forme which yet is not accidental but essential to it as it is a flock viz. their being in unity or community or society together Indeed 't is necessary that there be sheep if there be a flock of sheep and 't is necessary that these sheep have their essential which is an internal forme yet both these are but conditions of a congruous matter which is essential to every compositum I grant therefore that sheep with their internal forme are essential to the flock viz. as the matter is essential but they are no part of the forme I grant also that in rational aggregative bodies viz. societies of men there lieth some difference from a heap of inanimate creatures as stones c. from a flock of sensitive creatures as sheep c. because the reason of man doth qualifie rational societies with an habitude or aptitude to various ends and employments which are accordingly distinguishing and specifically differencing rational societies and which is not communicable to other collective bodies which are irrational therefore there is something to be understood at least if not expressed which is to signifie the reason or the end of every rational society to distinguish it from societies of men of another kinde Ex. gr among men there are domestick politick scholastick ecclesiastick societies which constitutes a family a Common-wealth a Colledge and a Church Now without some peculiar reason or end of these several societies how shall we distinguish the one from the other they are all collective bodies they are societies of men yea they may be all societies of Christians yea they may be all societies of Christians that are in a state of salvation and yet discovered by a general description onely and nothing intimated to distinguish to us one kinde of society from another Therefore something is to be added besides a bare society of Christians to distinguish the Church from a Christian family a Christian Common-wealth or a Christian Colledge which hath beene often hinted to be the peculiar reason and intention of this ecclesiastick society from all others viz. the joynt and publick communion thereof in the worship and Ordinances of God Neither may it be then replied that the forme of the Church consisteth not in coetu or in society because there is something to be added to distinguish the same for that which is added is but the quality or reason of this society or its being such a society yet a society still even as none may say that the forme of a man is not his soul because a soul in general is not that which distinguisheth a man from a beast a
above all the nations that are upon the earth And to anticipate any that should restraine and limit this Covenant-holinesse consistent with actuai wickednesse to the time of the Law The Apostle Peter hath taken the very same passage and made its application to the times of the Gospel 2 Peter 2. 9. If yet any possible scruple remaine seriously weigh that method of reasoning God is pleased with in Psalm 50. 7. God threatens there to testifie against Israel a sufficient note of Israels wickednesse yet in the same verse God owneth Israel a competent token of Israles holinesse but how dâ—th God own wicked Israel not in Covenant yea doubtlesse in both the maine parts thereof thou art my people and I am thy God hear O my people and I will speak O Israel and I will testifie against thee I am God even thy God here is sufficient doubtlesse infinitely to supersede what can lawfully be argued against the possibility of a wicked Israelite his being in Covenant from v. 16 17. so much insisted on 3. Therefore nothing is more trite in reformed Writers especially against the Anabaptist then the distinction of persons holy vel actu vel orasione professione debita holinesse real and relative habitual and imputed foederal and inherent who generally acknowledge that some persons are holy in a relative foederal and imputed sense and by profession obligation separation and calling that are not holy really as it stands opposed to relatively actually personally or inherently who are yet onely called to be Saints taking the word called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut sint sancti as Paraeus Aretius and divers others do in which sense Master Baxters words are ordinarily quoted That there are His Rest p. 105 many Saints or sanctified men that shall never come to Heaven who are onely Saints by their separation from paganisme into the fellowship of the visible Church Whence also Chamier proportionably reasons quomodo Paulus dicebat Romae i. e. omnes sui temporis Judaeos esse sanctos quod eorum Truncus i. e. Abraham sanctos fuisset 4. We need not trouble our selves to prove particularly that the judgement of the reformed Churches is that foederal holinesse doth proceed into the Adult estate seeing those Churches viz. of New England which alone are capable of suspition in this controversie have expressely declared for it or at least very strongly Mr. Cottons way of the Church of New England pag. 51. intimated in these words those say they that are baptized in any Church may by vertue of this former interest require the Supper in that Church if there be no impediment in regard of their unfitnesse to examine themselves Which yet Master Baxter hath somwhat more clearly for saith he 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 His Rest p. 104 or scandal blot that evidence which assureth us to be the confident issue of much doubting dispute and study of the Scriptures 5. Yea that prudent Ordinance called confirmation though of singular use in the hurch if well managed and that onely thing that seemeth against us in this part of dispute it being looked upon as a mean of passing from the Infant to the Adult estate yet it is most evident this did not intend to exclude those that were found ignorant and wanted a fit and ready answer at their examination presently out of the Church or on the other side to admit the rest upon a new account into Church-membership they being sufficiently so before for they stiled this exercise not an admission but a confirmation or if in any respect it was an admission the term thereof was only into the company of adult Church-members or to some higher priviledge of the visible Church viz. the Supper and not at all to the state or society of Church-members as such Neither did such examinants intend at least a direct search for evidence of grace but competency of knowledge or at utmost a renuing of that covenant or promise personally and actively which before in their infancy they were only passively and in their sureties bound unto Which promise having for the object of it repentance and obedience and being for the nature of it a promise that is respecting the future and being made for something yet to be doth rather suppose that as yet they have not repented nor entred upon a course of new obedience and consequently are not yet supposed to have any saving grace though thought fit upon such a promise to pass by confirmation of their examinants out of their Infant into their Adult estate 6. If those that do not render this answer of a good conscience are no longer within the Church I demand whether they were truely members of the Church in their state of Infancy or onely seemingly so 1. If it be replied that they were onely seemingly so then Infants interest in the Church by foederal holinesse is not a real interest which is plainly Anabaptistical or at least but dependently and upon the supposition of future saving grace which is absurd and plainly against the Scripture For after heaven had reveal'd that Ishmael was none of the seed of the promise of salvation with Isaac and that to Abraham Vid. Gen. 17 himself he is yet by vertue of his relative foederal holinesse from his fathers family and in plaine obedience to Gods command circumcised by Abraham the mark and token of the Covenant of God And the bond woman and her sonne who indeed was Ishmael are clearly intimated to be within Gal. 4. 30. where they are charged to be cast out Where also the Apostle assures us that this history of Ishmael and Isaac was allegâ—rical and served to conclude that even in the dayes of the Gospel to the end of the world there should be Ishmaels as well as Isaac's in the visible Church the Apostle arguing v. 29. from then to now 2. Againe if it be said that such were really visible members before in their infant estate but now they wanting that which their Adult estate requires to continue this their membership they cease to be any longer so I then must demand whether they cease to be so on course and by any thing which flowes from the nature of such a state or whether they cease or rather are made to cease to be so by violent censure or Excommunication 1. If the first be chosen viz. that they cease to be any longer members of themselves without any censure of the Church 1. I humbly conceive here is a new way of loosing Church-membership viz. by ignorance wickednesse c. unknowne to the Scripture or any age of any Church before 2. Then Ideots and distracted persons cease to be members of the visible Church at their Adult estate 3. What shadow of Scripture or reason is there that ignorance for which
quis Christianam fidem se amplecti profiteatur ecclesiae per Baptismum inseri â—oget B. z. other Religions and expressed desire to be united to the Christian Church by baptism is with a professed subjection to the wayes and Ordinances of Jesus Christ the onely necessary requisite to constitute a Heathen a member of the visible Church and to give him title to the badge thereof viz. Baptisme I grant this must be serious otherwise it cannot give a real right yet I meane such a seriousnesse as may consist without saving grace and might otherwise be expressed by truth or earnestnesse as opposed to dissembling deceit designe or hypocrisie as before is explained Now if this embracing Religion and desire of baptisme be thus serious I presume such a one hath a real right in the Church and baptisme and may be lawfully admitted thereunto by the Church without further scrutiny or examination after such or such a measure of knowledge or holinesse or the inward saving condition of the party and this I hold upon the following reasons added to what hath been formerly urged Reas 1. Heathens may be lawfully received by the Church now upon the same moral conditions that the proselytes were in the time of the Law and that both by parity and identity of reason for Heathens embracing the Christian Religion now are as really made proselytes into the Jewish Church I meane the same Church which was then Jewish but now is Christian as the ancient proselytes were then for though the Church be changed in its outward dispensation and Ordinances it is still the same in its subjects and Covenant as appeares undeniably against the Anabaptist from Romans 11. Ephes 3. 6 c. But now the Jewish ancient proselytes were received and accordingly circumcised by the Church upon such a single disowning all false religions and adhering to the true with a desire to adjoyne themselves to the people and worship of the true God Therefore upon the same terms supplying what is necessarily to be supplied touching the Messias now come may Christ an proselytes be lawfully admitted into the Christian flock and number and be baptized Reas 2. That which is sufficient to make a disciple is sufficient to make a visible Church-member and to give claime to baptisme as Master Cotton and others reason well from Matth. 28. 18. Now an expressed desire to be admitted into the Schoole with a proffer to submit to the Rules and Laws thereof and to be taught and ruled accordingly is sufficient the party being thus received to disciple or make one a Schollar or a member of the School without the addition of such qualities or measures of learning or aptnesse thereunto Therefore a single desire to be joyned to the School of Christ and a professed subjection as Mr. Hudson speaks to the government thereof without any further evidence is sufficient to entitle a person to this disciple-ship and to warrant his reception and sealing by the Church Reason 3. Some Scripture admit into the Church upon as low termes as these viz. upon a general desire of baptisme and to submit to the wayes of the Lord in communion with his Church as might be instanced in all the examples of Johns Baptisme with that of the multitude Acts 2. of whom it is said that they gladly received the Word and were baptized Therefore persons may be lawfully admitted upon as low and easie termes still For 1. what was done in such cases in the Word may be lawfully done still for nothing was done unlawfully then and what was done then was written there for our imitation and learning 2. Though some other Scripture should require more then this viz. upon some consideration yet reason will prompt us to look for the minimum quod sic what may lawfully be done in such places as require least seeing every place and instance in Scripture requireth sufficient Reas 4. A profession that Jesus Christ is the Sonne of God with a desire to be united to the Christians communion by Baptisme rendred the Eunuch worthy to be admitted into the Church and baptized therefore so much doth others also What Philip required more in his question matters not if his answer had not been satisfactory doubtlesse he had not been baptized Reas 5. He that embraceth the Catholick faith or doctrine partaketh of the essence of the entitive Church and he that submitteth himself to baptisme and ecclesiastick communion partaketh of the essence of the organical Church therefore he that embraceth the one and submitteth to the other hath all that is essential to a visible Church-member Reas 6. Those lastly that require more viz. seem to require performance of the condition of the Covenant in order to entring Covenant but this is some-what strange The condition of the Covenant is twofold 1. In order to covenanting which is a promise or engaging to performe the termes or conditions of the Covenant now to be entred upon performance of which the reward covenanted for depends 2. The other condition is in order therefore to the obtaining this reward promised upon such condition which is the actual performance of the conditon engaged unto upon entring Covenant Vid. Blakes Seals Hystorical faith may be in reprobates both within the Church and also in such as be without the Church as Turks believe there is a God that Christ was born of a Virgin the resurrection of the dead c. yea the devils have it 1 Joh. 2. 19 Rogers of faith p. 6. The first is necessary to entrance into Covenant the last to the partaking of the benefit thereof As it is with men a servant enters Covenant by undertaking and promising to do his Master his work but obtaineth his reward or wages alone by doing what he hath thus undertaken Yet with leave of that Reverend man this engaging to perform the condition of the Covenant is I conceive more then a bare historical or dogmatical faith for there is something of application in that faith that doth not only beleeve but embrace the truth and the true Religion and make application to the Church for admission and baptisme However I humbly conceive though more then a bare histostorical faith should be requisite yet lesse then a faith that justifieth I do not say lesse then the profession thereof may truely entitle to visible Church-membership and consequently to Baptisme as hath been shewn CHAP. XXIX What is requisite to evidence a persons interest in the visible Church by men Quest THe second question to be answered is What is requisite to evidence a person to be a member of the visible Church to others or how may we know a person to be a member of the visible Church or what doth render Church-membership visible Answ 1. I answer first that that which evidenceth a persons interest in the essence of the visible Church doth even thereby evidence his visible Church-membership for what can better evince a members union with the body then its partaking
with the essence thereof 2. Againe that which evidenceth a persons communion in the essential and formal actions of the Church doth also thereby evidence such a persons interest in the essence of or his essential union with the Church for nothing can have or carry a stronger tincture of the essence of any thing then the formal or essential actions thereof which immediately flow from it 3. Then further the essence of the visible Church hath beene found to consist in community respecting communion in Gods truth and Ordinances and the formal actions of this community have been found to be this communion 4. Now that person that appears to have communion with the Church in Doctrine and worship or in the truth and Ordinances of Jesus appears to partake of the essential actions and consequently of the essence of the visible Church 5. These premises thus laid I found my answer upon them to the question thus that therefore that person that doth not plainly renounce the truth and openly submitteth unto and ordinarily attendeth upon the Ordinances of divine worship whatsoever evil qualities he may otherwise bear doth thus appear to be really a member of the visible Church Indeed were saving grace of the essence of the visible Church a person could not appear to be a member thereof without the evidences of saving grace but seeing we have found that it is not we adde whatsoever evil qualities he may otherwise beare As a man living within such a dominion and was either borne there or else is known to be naturalized and made free according to the Laws thereof though he be a great offender and highly obnoxious to Law and punishment yet if he renounce not his subjection or declare not against the government is notwithstanding known to be a member of that body politick or a lawful subject of that dominion Or as in the natural body a member remaining in union with the body and in communion with it in its essential actions though it be a diseased or wounded or leprous member yet is known and granted to be a real member So a man that stands in relation to the Church and ordinarily attends upon the Ordinances thereof and doth not renounce the doctrine of the Gospel though he be a wicked and rotten member is yet hereby evidenced to be really a member of the mystical visible body the Church for this sufficiently evidenceth that common faith which though it avail not to justication yet is found effectual so far as to constitute or interesse in visible Church-membership Obj. It may be hence urged that then children cannot be known to be Church-members and consequently cannot be members of the visible Church Answ May not a childe be known to be a member of the Common-wealth by its being borne therein and doth not the Scripture intimate as much concerning a childe born in Zion it shall be said that this man was borne there q. d. that this man is known to be a member of Citizen of the City or Church of the living God because he was borne there or by Birth-priviledge or being born free 2. Children have visible communion with the Church in their parents profession as Ames teacheth sunt participes ejusdem profesfessions c. 3. They have some visible communion with the Church in their own persons also in that first Ordinance of Christ of which they are capable and thus being entred they remain in the Churches communion so far thereby until they shall be capable of enjoying more Object 2. However it may be said that the excommunicate are thus excluded Answ Not so for though the excommunicate should have no actual communion with the Church yet they have a fundamental and habitual communion with it as a palsie member is yet a real member and may be truely said to have an habitual communion with the body though at present its actual partaking of the animal influence be denied or suspended or as a man out-lawd may be said to have a remoter right fundamentally in the Law of the Land though he have no present actual benefit thereby which indeed the violence of discipline and not the nature of such a condition hath brought him unto But secondly there is notwithstanding some secret actual communion betwixt the body and a palsey member and the Common-wealth and a person out-law'd and likewise betwixt the excommunicate and the Church which may also be known for that the palsey member hath some influence from the body appears by its warmth that the person out-law'd hath some benefit by the Laws appears in that they secure his life it being murther to kill him and that the excommunicate have some fellowship with the Church appears in that they are within the care thereof and under the Ordinance of God appointed for salvation and not for destruction and is to be dealt withal as a brother 3. The excommunicate lastly I mean such onely as are not heretical have communion with the Church in preparatione animi and in their desires which is onely suspended for their good a while with hopes of repentance and satisfaction and thereupon re-admission as the palsie member in the disposition or preparation of nature is ready as it were to receive the suspended influence from the body again viz. upon the unlocking and opening of obstructions which a member wholly cut off or dead hath not CHAP. XXX What it is that doth wholly put a man out of the Church and first that it is not ignorance WE proceed Lastly having shewn what is requisite to constitute and evidence visible Church-membership to enquire into the meanes and ways of dissolving it and the question is What is that which wholly dismembers or cutteth off from the visible Church Hereunto I answer Negatively and Positively Ans 1. Neg. First I assert that the want of such a competent measure of knowledge as every one ought to have which is commonly termed ignorance doth not simply or of it selfe wholly cut off from the visible Church and the Reasons hereof are Reas 1. Because such a knowledge doth not go into the essence of the visible Church which we have found to consist in society or community Reas 2. Because evidence or appearance of knowledge is not a necessary or essential requisite to discover Church-membership for then none might take another for a member of the Church before he is satisfied of his knowledge which would be a strange thing therefore ignorance or the want of such knowledge doth not signifie one no Church-member the consequence is built upon the common rule eadem est ratio contrariorum Reas 3. Because the Scripture doth not assert it which alone hath authority from God to satisfie us in this point the Scripture doth often charge the members of the Church with ignorance but doth never either say that ignorant persons cannot be Church-members or that ignorance doth cast men out of the Church or indeed so much that ignorant persons ought meerly for their
had his Church because he had thousands which never bowed their knees to Baal but whose knees were bowed unto Baal even they were also of the visible Church Apostasie a genus or an integrum of heresie and schisme And if it be yet urged that apostacy should be reckoned among the meanes of unchurching I reply that Apostacy may be thought to be a genus of heresie and schism or a compositum made up of both and the perfection of heresie and schisme as it is in the first respect totum universale or in the latter respect totum essentiale vel integrale whose species or whose parts are heresie and schism 1. Now if we consider apostasie as a genus of heresie and schism Apostasie as a genus c. is such in grammar and Scripture then we may conceive heresie or a falling from the faith to be one kinde of Apostasie and Schisme or a forsaking the Assemblies to be another kinde of Apostasie by the one men fall from the truth and by the other from the Church and by either or both from God Apostasie thus understood as I humbly conceive both according to grammar or the Etymology of the word which is in general onely a falling from which may equally respect the truth and the Church and also according to Scripture or the use thereof in the Scripture is such in the first and properest sense of the word Now if we take Apostasie in this signification it cannot be reasonably added as a third meanes of unchurching unto Heresie As a compound the usual sense and schisme seeing that a genus is universale and not individuum and existing onely in its species and not as distinct thereunto or in it self 2. If we take Apostasie in the sense of the Church wherein it is usually taken for a compound of perfect or total Heresie and Schisme or a perfect and absolute renouncing the faith and forsaking the communion of the faithful then I answer that it seemeth needlesse to adde this as a third means of unchurching in this sense either seeing it hath no other nature or force thereunto but what it received from its parts to wit heresie and schisme which have been before insisted upon so that all the difference is that heresie and schisme considered in themselves do unchurch apart and considered in Apostasie they do unchurch together or they are considered to do that together in Apostasie which they were considered to do before apart in themselves and this need not be added as a third meanes which hath no energy to do this effect but that which it receiveth from the other two yea even as it consisteth wholly thereof I conclude this discourse with a synopsis of what hath been said herein given us in those pertinent words of Learned Willet Synop. of the second contr of the Church he first tells us who may not be of the visible Church viz. Infidels i. e. such as are not baptized 2. Hereticks 3. Schismaticks to which he addes excommunicate persons he secondly teacheth who are or may be of the visible Church viz. 1. Such as are not predestinate 2. Manifest sinners de facto 3. Close Infidels i. e. hypocrites CHAP. XXXV Our Churches in England are true Churches inferr'd from the former discourse I Had once resolved to have written no more but finis to the former discourse and to have entrusted it as it is to the impartial improvement of my Readers Genius for who seeth not what great things a very little use of reason may inferre therefrom both touching our Churches Sacraments and Censure However though peaceable prudence be ready to advize as things and persons now are to be very sparing in taking the advantages offered us thence yet love to the truth and the zeale of the house of the Lord hath prevailed with to add something upon each of these heads as most direct and easie conclusions from the former premises and first concerning our Churches thus If we seriously consider what hath been said what can possibly hinder us from concluding therefrom that our publick Congregations in England are true Churches Were not all our members borne in the Church baptized in the Church and have they not hitherto remained in communion of the Church hath Apostasie Heresie Schisme hath a removal of the Candlestick or excommunication it self if it have such a power unchurched them Are not all our Congregations called out of the world of Infidels Turks Jews yea and Papists too and do not they stand as holy communities separate therefrom to the true worship and ordinarily exercised in the Ordinances of God Doth the Scripture require any more to the essence of the Church then ours have or doth it note any thing sufficient to unchurch that ours are not free from are not all the causes distinguishing marks of the true visible Church eminently in ours or doth not the whole definition thereof agree to them do not all the Churches salute and own us as true Churches and would not many dangerous absurdities both in judgement and practice immediately follow the denial thereof Are our Churches corrupt in their conversation true but the essence of the Church consisteth not in saving grace nor its visibility in an holy life besides what Scripture-Church is there except one viz. that at Philippi but is even by the Scripture it self both blamed for corruption and also acknowledged to be a Church or people of God But I intend not to enlarge here having elsewhere largely anticipated this discourse onely having often observed one great objection taken from the first constitution of our Churches to be the last and onely hold of the ancient Brownists as also of the subtiler sort of our later Anabaptists to whom we might adde the Papist I shall spend the remains of this chapter in the view and answer thereof 't is this Obj. Our Churches were not rightly constituted at first therefore they are no true Churches Answer This Objection as it lieth thus in general may be easily evaded upon all our adversaries own principles 1. To the Papists we reply that our Church was at first rightly constituted upon Popish principles for do they not say that we were at first converted unto Christianity by the preaching of Augustine the Monk and that he was commissionated thereunto by the Pope himself 2. To the Brownist we say that we were at first converted by the Ordinance of preaching whether of Joseph or not to which we may adde in answer to the Anabaptist that our ancestors were then baptized upon their personal professing the faith at years of discretion which thing cannot be rationally doubted seeing all are agreed that Heathens are not to be baptized but upon such profession of the faith and againe that our Ancestours were Heathens before their conversion to Christianity Object I know that all these adversaries are ready to reply that something hath since intervened that hath destroyed our Churches Answ Yet then the objection taken
unto him by the command of these Kings in like manner our gracious Queen Elizabeth did her duty to God in following these happy Kings in the like case in England and the people did no lesse then their duty to God and the Queene in returning to their God at the Queenes command 2. Neither can it be sufficiently proved that the preaching of the Word is of absolute necessity at the first constitution of a particular Church especially where some Knowledge of God and his wayes is presupposed as our case in England then was 1. I grant that in ordinary cases the preaching of the Gospel is required to the constitution of a Church but that there can be no extraordinary exception to this rule I deny especially when men would thence reason us out of our senses as well as our Churches we see our Churches in all the parts and essentials of true Churches shall we yet argue against what we see and not believe our own eyes because their first constitution was not as we would have had it or as indeed ordinarily Churches are constituted would it not have been judged a madnesse in Caine and Abel to have reasoned their parents out of the number of man-kinde because they were not born of a woman as men ordinarily are Let who will undertake to prove that our Churches in England were not constituted at first by the preaching of the Word and I dare engage to make good the assumption that our Churches in England are true Churches and thus we may haply discover another extraordinary way of constitution of Churches besides the preaching of the Word 2. The preaching of the Word as necessary to a true Church may be thought to be either antecedent or subsequent to the constitution thereof either of which is sufficient provided that the people are brought to a willing embracement of the Christian profession by any other means so that where the Candlestick is pitched and the Ministry of the Word is fixed among any people that freely attend upon it there none may doubt but that God hath chosen a people to be his Church for here are found the infallible marks of a true Church Now none can deny but that our Congregations in England if they were not at first reduced by the Minstry yet they have enjoyed it ever since that their reduction from the Popish yoak in the dayes of that famous Queen and that none may have cause to say that this our attendance on the Ordinances of God is generally forced by a Law as was wont to be laid to our charge we have of late a most clear evidence that it is indeed free and voluntary seeing all compulsory meanes are known to be rebated and taken away in the present liberty 3. Much lesse can it without grosse ignorance or dangerous impudence be denied that the Ministery of the word was instrumental with the Queens command to the reduction of the people in her dayes from Popery to Protestantisme yea 't is well known that divers Ministers were sent into all parts to satisfie the people touching that change in Religion which she then was about and allowed the people that their returne might be free above half a years time to consider of it and what law was made at length to compel in any regard was made by consent of the people themselves in Parliament all which are so evident in history that I shall need say no more thereof However suppose that all these things should be granted them 1. That we lost our Churches in Queen Maries dayes 2. That a true Church can be constituted onely by the preaching of the Word 3. That our Churches in Queen Elizabeths dayes were gathered or rather compelled onely by the Queens Command 4. And consequently that they then were no true Churches but societies of Heathens all which have appeared to be false yet what will this adversary conclude from thence against our present Churches especially if we adde the serious consideration of these four following particulars 1. That our people have had the preaching of the Word ever since 2. That they are now a willing people in Gods publick worship all meanes of compulsion being now taken off 3. That they became thus willing to embrace and abide in the true Religion by the preaching of the Word seeing no other meanes by their owne principles could make them so 4. And therefore consequently we stand true Churches now by their own principles being constituted such at length by the long abiding of the same among us if not so at first by the preaching of the Word CHAP. XXXVI Inferences from the former discourse concerning Baptisme and title to it WE have found the former doctrine helpful to us in the vindication of the truth of our Churches let us follow it a little further and it may haply discover something also touching their title to Sacraments And First of Baptisme Secondly of the Supper Concerning Baptisme it follows that if the former principle stand the children of foure sorts of persons may lawfully communicate Baptisme thereof the children of such as have no saving grace nor evidence of it the children of visibly wicked persons the children of the excommunicate and the children of such as ought not to be admitted to the Lords Table which will fall into so many Positions 1. Then first saving grace in the parent is not absolutely necessary to a real-right nor its evidence to a visible right in baptism for his child or the children of such as have no such grace and make no satisfactory evidence thereof to the Church may yet have a clear and good title to Baptisme and be lawfully baptized 1. The children of such as have no saving grace may have a Children of graceless persons have right in Baptisme real right in baptisme because such parents may notwithstanding their want of saving grace be really members of the visible Church and be themselves really baptized which is all that is requisite to entitle their children to visible Church-membership and consequently to baptisme the children of such parents are within the Covenant and interest in the Covenant carrieth Foederatis competit signum foederis doubtlesse a right in it to some seal of the Covenant and if to any must it not be to the first viz. Baptisme 2. The children of such as give no satisfactory evidence of saving grace may yet have a visible title to baptisme and a just claime for it from the hands of the Church because such parents may without such evidence have evidence enough of their interest in the Covenant and the visible Church sufficiently satisfying the Judges thereof by some other means for that which being real giveth real right to Ordinances in Gods account being visible or seen and known or not to be doubted of by men giveth visible right thereunto in the Court of the Church But something else besides such saving grace being real giveth real right to Ordinances therefore
Ordinances for if so then 1. The Passeover was forbidden also 2. Then other Ordinances were it seems but conditionally obliged unto in the time of the Law upon Church-members and what should hinder the Supper to be so now 2. Offering the gift at the Altar is commanded by Christ conditionally or mediately first go and be reconciled then come and Mat. 5. 23 24 offer and till then lay down thy gift why then should the command to receive the great gift at the Christian Gospel-Altar be more absolute is there any ordinancy greater circumstance greater solemnity is there any part of the Gospel-worship more guarded with threatnings more exacting preparation and seriousnesse towards God and charity to our Brethren in the comers thereunto then this of the Supper 3. If all Church-members are bound to heare the Church then some Church-members are bound to abstaine from the Sacrament for some Church-members are forbidden by the Church and in obedience to God to abstaine from the Sacrament 1. The catechumeni are Church-members before their baptisme otherwise they should never be baptized because none but Church-members are to be baptized none but foederati ought to be signati as before 2. The chatecumeni were forbidden the Sacrament in the missa chatecumenorum who had at most but a remote or mediate right thereunto until they were baptized 2. Children borne and baptized Church-members are truely Church-members yet such children are prohibited by the counsels of the Church to receive this Sacrament until they are arrived to years of discretion which all our adversaries even the highest for the priviledge of membership readily consent unto 3. Excommunicate persons as before I have laboured to prove are yet Church-members yet excommunicate persons are charged by the Church not to receive this Sacrament I know that such as I now oppose do usually acknowledge that such Church-members ought not to receive but then let them bethink themselves how is the command obliging all Church-members to receive the Sacrament an absolute command How then doth single Church-membership give immediate absolute and actual interest in every Ordinance 4. To persons of more moderate principles I might instance in members legally convict of scandal or grossely ignorant and therefore suspended are not these Church-members againe are not these commanded by the Church to absteine from this Sacrament then ought they not to abstaine then doth the command of God oblige them to come while the Church forbids them then is not their suspension a bar to their actual right in the Sacrament and lastly then is not the command to receive conditional upon Church-members upon a supposition of Age Knowledge freedome from sandal suspension excommunication Lastly let us heare the Church doth not both the practice and expresse judgement of the most eminent fathers of the Church in most ages thereof testifie as much namely that actual communion in the Supper is not for all Church-members and consequently the command obliging them is but conditional upon a supposition of their fitnesse 1. That practice of the Church concludes it wherein she The practice of the Church Let no unclean person no adulterer no usurer c. offer himself to the receiving of this Sacrament if any be such a one I require him by the body and blood of Jesus Christ and by the Judge of the quick and dead that he come not to the Lords Table that he betray not the son of God Bp. Jewel of the Sacram p. 279 Chrys in Heb. 10. 9. in Ethic. hath generally dehorted and doctrinally suspended such from the Supper whose own private hearts and consciences knew their own unfitness or unworthinesse of it Such a practice as this could possibly proceed from no other principle but this that Christ did not require this part of his worship from such unworthy hands and that in such a condition persons ought not to receive the Sacrament for if Christ did absolutely loose such persons to this duty of receiving and that to the Churches knowledge how could the Church without sinne against knowledge binde them from it what is this but to contradict Christ in his Word and to rob him of his honour worship and Sovereignty if our common Master do indeed absolutely command us all to come who dare forbid any upon the most glorious pretence in the world Now that this hath been the usual course of the Church if not juridically to with-hold from the Sacrament such as were scandalous which anone also may be examined yet doctrinally thus to diswade and terrifie secret sinners from approaching the Sacrament easily appears Chrysostome witnesseth for the Greek Church long agone The Priest saith he admonisheth all that are coming to the holy Sacrament driving away the unworthy but inviting the prepared and that with a loud voice and hands lifted up standing aloft where he may be seen and heard of all This hath been the constant practice of our own Church according to both the Rubrick in the common prayer and the late Directory The Common prayer enjoyneth the Minister to disswade all such Comon prayer as are blasphemers of God envious or guilty of any notorious crime in their heart to abstaine from this Ordinance where we may note 1. That in the judgement of our Church then some Church-members that were not juridically censured even such as were known to be unworthy by themselves alone in their heart ought to abstaine from the Sacrament 2. Therefore in the judgement of our Church then the command on the people to receive is binding onely conditionally viz. upon a supposition of fitnesse And doth the Directory require otherwise vid. page 34. there we read that the Minister is in the Name of Christ to warn Directory all such as are ignorant scandalous profane or that live in any sin or offence against their knowledge or conscience that they presume not to come to that holy Table where also we may note that the persons to be thus disswaded are not onely the openly scandalous but such wicked persons as are known to be such by their own knowledge and conscience alone 2. These are to be warned away in the Name of Christ which who dare presume to do that doth not beleeve that the will of Christ is that such persons ought not to receive 3. Therefore our Directors judged that the Will or command of Christ our Master is not that such Church-members as are thus unworthy ought to receive but rather the contrary Yea this is generally granted to us even by those that deny the thing as wel as those that deny us the power of juridical suspension Yea this is granted and forceably urged by some that as earnestly plead that the command do this in remembrance of me is inconditional and absolute which I crave leave to say is a contradiction for if the Command do this c. be absolute either upon the Administrator or upon the people how then is the Aministrator to warne any of
the people not to suffer him to do his duty in administring to them or not to attend upon their own duty in communicating to say that a Minister is bound by Christs command to administer to all Church members and againe that he is bound in the Name of Christ to warne some not to receive is to make the will of Christ contrary to it self and to say that a Minister is bound to warne the wicked from the Sacrament and yet to say that the will of Christ is that all are absolutely bound to receive is to contradict our selves by the first we confesse that the will of Christ is that wicked men ought not to receive which is formally denied in the latter Neither is this gathered onely from the practice for it is indeed the expresse judgement of most eminent men in the Church almost 2. Churches judgement in all ages Irenaeus is expresse for it in his time who seemes to speak the unquestioned sense of the whole Church then for whom he maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. 2. this Apology with us saith he this nourishment is called the Eucharist of which it is lawful for none to partake but such as beleeve our doctrine such as are wash'd to remission of sinnes or baptized and such as live so as Christ hath commanded This place of Irenaeus gives cause of doubting to a learned man Ludov. Molinae Paraen p. 315. Whether it ought to be understood of Christians not admitted by confoederal discipline to partake of the Supper or whether they belong to that command of Paul 1 Cor. 11. whereby it is not lawful for an unworthy man or a man wanting faith to receive but tells us he could easily beleeve the latter adding that 't is granted to be spoken of such as are baptized and therefore Church-members who live not according to the doctrine of Christ and that is as much as I contend for that some baptized members of the Church ought not to partake of the Eucharist in the judgement of the Church in Irenaeus his time We have seen before what the judgement of the Church was in Chrysostomes time also and for the opinion of later fathers and Schoolmen 't is sufficiently known to be on our side as also of most of the Reformed Divines and Churches The Church of Bohemia in her confession saith that if any approach Reformed Churches of Bohemia this Table without such a man should greatly profane and reproach this Sacrament yea and the whole institution thereof appointed by Christ In like manner the Church of Scotland confesseth that the Scotland Supper of the Lord appertaines onely to such as be of the household of faith and can try and examine themselves to these accord the Churches of Auspurgh Saxony France Belgia and most eminently our own Church as appeared before from the Auspurgh Saxony France Belgia and England Common prayer and Directory to which our confession of faith lately framed may be seasonably added The Confession of faith saith that all ignorant and ungodly persons cannot without great sin against Christ whiles they remaine such partake of these holy mysteries Many eminent Divines joyn issue hecein Trelcatius Trelcatius teacheth page 185. that Materia seu subjectum participans sunt ij omnes qui per baptismum ecclesiae membra facti jam adulti sanam doctrinam profitentur Sanctae vitae testimonium habent to which he addes that hereby are excluded 1. Mortui 2. Aegroti moriturii 3. Pueri ac Infantes 4. Qui propter Haeresius dissolutam vitam excommunicati sunt legitime Bucanus loc com 48. qu. 8. to this question quibus est Bucanus Instituta coena Domini Answers non omnibus promiscuè Vrsine Cat. quae 8. to the same question answer tantum pii Ursin debent accedere Bishop Vsher is as plaine in answer to the like question viz. who are to be partakers of the Lord Supper saith he such Usher as are of yeares and of sound judgement to discerne the Lords body I might adde Ames Diodate Calvine Zanchy Perkins and infinite more but let me break off the trouble with these few sufficing for all SECT III. Objections hereunto Answered THis point is run upon by two sorts of Adversaries 1. By some too strict 2. By others too large 1. Some have ventured to say that Church-members or rather to use their own terme disciples as such have an immediate right in this Sacrament but none are disciples save persons so and so qualified These I do not purposely deal with here for the present they may be contented with a very short answer that both their Propositions are false or at least fallacious 1. That none are disciples but persons qualified with knowledge holinesse c. which they must needs grant to be false if they will avoid Anabaptisme seeing according to the principalls of Infant-Baptism all that are lawfully baptized are disciples Matth. 28. 19. and again that all that are lawfully baptized are not so and so qualified as in the case of Infants who are baptized and lawfully so 2. That all that are disciples are to receive the Supper this holds not 1. Till what I have urged for wicked mens Church-membership be refuted 2. Till Infants discipleship be denied 3. Or till both Infants and wicked Church-members yea and suspended yea excommunicate Church members are proved to have an immediate and present right to the Lords Supper seeing all such may be Church-members and disciples But let us rather weigh what is urged by the other larger party against this barr upon some Church-members to keep them from receiving the Supper 'T is scornfully urged more then solidly that then Church-members Obj. 1 by their wickednesse have it seems a writ of ease from their duty If wicked Church-members are forbidden the Sacrament Just as excommunicate persons have a writ of Ease from all other Answ 1 Ordinances as well as this 2. This gives a faire occasion to note the ground of that cloudy not to say contradictory way of some mens expressing themselves upon this point sometimes they say all Church-members are obliged to receive the Supper at other times when this pincheth that some Church-members viz. children c. are not obliged and ought not to be admitted Now both these are true and both are false as they may be understood All Church-members as such are under an obligation to receive and yet some Church-members are under an obligation to abstain and yet here is no contradiction in Gods Commands though there may be and I fear is in mens application of them in this case 3. And what is the ground hereof but want of care or skill to distinguish of Gods Commands and the force and obligation thereof Which if a little heeded may serve both to extricate these difficulties and solve the present objection 1. The command obliging to receive the Sacrament is to The Command to receive is mediate to some immediate
if they be within are debarred the Sacrament as they are Juridically such or under censure 5. Lastly neither is it concluded in the power of judging 1 Cor. 5. this is the warrant of denying Communion to such as are wicked and to be judged and cast out qua wicked and consequently belongs to the next head viz. of censure whereas our present debate is touching the communion of such as are ignorant and as they are such 'T is true an ignorant person may be scandalously so and 't is possible that for this scandalous ignorance he may lawfully be censured by the Church yet then 't is plain that such a one is censured qua scandalous or scandalously ignorant and not properly or strictly qua ignorant or for want of ability to examine himself But if this power of denying the Sacrament to the ignorant The power of denying the Sacrament positively fixed be not founded in Reason Prudence mutual consent or on Matth. 7. 6. or 1 Cor. 5. where then may we fix it or whence may we warrant it I answer this power is founded in our stewardly and ministerial In our Ministerial authority given us for edification office wherewith authority is evidently given us for edification and not for destruction 1 Cor. 108. i. e. to dispense our sacred trust in Gods Ordinances for the best advantage of our peoples soules Here we know the great command is Let all things be done to edifying 1 Cor. 14. 26. to this great end we must level all our ministerial actions watching for the souls of our people as those that must give an account Heb. 13. 17. and following after such things as make unto edification Rom. 14. 19. wherefore no further excuse in all kinde of charges against us and our actions seemeth needful but only this of the Apostle We have done all things dearly beloved to your edifying 2 Cor. 13. 19. Whence the Argument riseth thus Upon these and the like Scriptures our Ministerial authority to do all things for the The Argument edification of our people as edification is opposed to destruction is clearly grounded But denying the Sacrament to the grossely ignorant is for the edification of the people as edification is opposed to destruction The first of these Propositions can be limited only 1. To The Confirmation of it all such things as are allowed by the Scriptures and not contrary to the Will of God therein revealed And thus indeed it must needs be limited otherwise it implies an apparent contradiction for God hath forbidden nothing that is for edification 2. To all such things as belong only to the manner and circumstances of applying or dispensing the Ordinances and not to the substance or matter of them for thus also it must escape a contradiction seeing no Orâ—inance brought into the Church in the substance and matter of it by humane Authority can possibly tend to edification but to destruction as superstition doth 3. To all such things as openly plainly and directly tend to edification as opposed to destruction Now if our Minor be found true with all these limitations none I presume will deny the conclusion But the Minor is true with these limitations For 1. The keeping back ignorant persons from the Supper is God hath not forbidden us to keep back the ignorant but allowed one of those things which God hath not forbidden but rather allowed in Scripture as almost all do acknowledge yea are they not forbidden while thus grossely ignorant to receive it Indeed if such as are ignorant had an immediate right in this Communion granted them by God in Scripture I conceive all the caution in the world could not warrant one ignorant persons suspension from it The Rule Give unto all their dues is of indispensable obligation but seeing ignorant persons have no such immediate right in the Supper what injury or wrong is there done them by denying it to them God forbids and we his servants only withhold what he forbids viz. the Sacrament to ignorant persons or such as cannot examine themselves Thus we have occasion to note that all our conclusions about right in accession or admission to and disswasion or All still meet upon 1 Cor. 11 28 suspension from the Sacrament with reference to knowledge or ignorance are still found to rest upon this Basis of 1 Cor. 11. 28. for as hath been urged if this text doth not deny this Communion to such as do not examine themselves I see not how any Church-member though but a childe or fool c. can lawfully be deterred or debarred from it but if it do imply a prohibition of such as cannot examine themselves because they do not I think it fairly follows thar Ministers have power in their very office to deny it to those that they are sure do not because they cannot viz. the ignorant 2. The denying the Sacrament to ignorant persons is one of those actions that are not substantial but only circumstantial to This denial of the Supper is but circumstantial to Gods Ordinances c. Gods Ordinances for we acknowledge the Ordinance of the Supper in Christs own Institution and Command and in its appointed elements and actions accordingly and thus we do administer it in the Church of God Again we have laboured before to prove that such as cannot examine themselves are by prohibition and Ordinance of Christ to abstain and not to receive so that for a Minister to deny the Communion to such is not to create a new Ordinance but only to be helpful to our brethren in putting that Ordinance or Prohibition of Christ into execution excluding those whom Christ excludes and admitting those only whom Christ admits 3. Lastly the denying of the Supper to ignorant persons is also one of those things that do openly plainly and directly tend 3. It directly tends to edification unto edification as edification is opposed to destruction for that tends plainly and directly unto edification as edification is opposed to destruction that doth plainly and directly preserve and keep from sin and judgement but now denial of this Sacrament to the grossely ignorant such as cannot discerne the Lords body or examine themselves doth directly and plainly preserve and keep from sinne viz. the guilt of the body and blood of Christ and judgement viz. eating and drinking damnation to our selves 1 Cor. 11. 26 27 28 29 The receiving of this Sacrament is a direct and proper means Obj. of edification therefore the denying of it is at best but accidently and indirectly so True to such as are worthy i. e. such as God hath commanded to communicate in it the Sacrament is directly and properly a means of their edification yea so it is in it selfe and in its own nature it being ordained of God for edification but yet it is not so to all not to heathens without or those within that have no right in it and whom God forbids to meddle with it The Sacrament
to ratifie what had been promised by the susseptors on their behalf at their infant-baptisme we do not finde that children borne in the Church and baptized in infancy were after baptisme stiled catechumeni or confirmed when they came to yeares of discretion to answer for themselves much lesse in that great and solemne way wherein we are now desirous to do it Onely this we finde that generally such as were baptised were confirmed immediately after their baptisme in which confirmation the party was presumed to receive the holy Ghost by prayer and imposition of the hands of the Bishop all which is most easie to evidence The Bishop onely might lay on hands in this work they thought because none but the Apostles did Igitur hoc erat in Apostolis singulare unde praecipuos non alios videmus hoc facere Chrysost in Art 8. 14. who therefore came down to Samaria on purpose to confirme Philips converts Acts 8 14 15 16. they presumed the receiving the holy Ghost thereupon Impositionis manuum per quam creditur spiritus sanctus acâ—â—pi posse I conceive because so did those upon whom the Apostles laid their hands this they did immediately after baptisme too or as soon as they could conveniently it may be in allusion to the instance of our Saviour upon whom as soon as he came out of the water the text notes the holy Ghost descended Mat. 3. Exindè egressi de lavacro perungimur benedicta unctione c. Teâ—t lib. de baptismo Ita vocat Augustinus Sanctum dicit Chrismatis Sacramentum ut baptismus quia ipsi erat annexum Riveâ—us Ceremoniam confirmandi veteri ecclesiae per plura secula fuisse ceremonialem ritum baptismi non peâ—uliare per se Sacramentum Amesius Tam certum est unum idemquo Sacramentum fuisse reputatum ut effecti Baptismi Chrys matis promiscuè describuntur Chamier panstrat de Sacrament c. 11. s 3. l. 4. as also to those a Apostolical Intergatory's Act. 19. 2 3 4 5 6 to which they soone added the unction in allusion as Tertullian notes to the oile wherewith the Priesthood in the old discipline were wont to be anointed Wherefore methinks Rivet and Ames and Chamier had great reason to judge as they did viz. that the laying on of hands in the ancient Churches was not an Ordinance much lesse a Sacrament distinct from Baptisme but a thing annex'd unto it especially for that nothing of so great a moment as Baptisme is might be done in the Church whether by such as had power to do it or such as had none without the consent and hand of the Bishop for the ratifying of baptisme in case it was dispensed by such as had no power and otherwise for the unity of the Church the honour of its Government and the giving as before the Holy Ghost as History notes Now if I do understand my authour he will hardly allow of any thing in these primitive practices save the ceremony of imposition of hands it self 1. For the laying on of hands now in order to the giving of the Holy Ghost in the first extraordinary way according to the manner of Apostles of Christ in Scripture our Authour hath given his sense of it in these words This expression saith he of giving and receiving the holy Ghost was still continued and made use of because the Apostles by imposition of hands did conferre the Holy Ghost which though none after their time did or could do c. 2. And for the practice of the Churches afterwards confirming even Infants immediately after Baptisme confirming the Adult without exacting any new confessions in order thereunto restraining the work of confirmation onely to the Bishops or making confirmation onely a Ceremonial right of Baptisme as Ames affirmes the Churches of old did for many ages together indeed I know not which part here mentioned either our Authour or any other late Patron of this excellent Ordinance of confirmation would adhere unto or not reject 3. Lastly let us briefly consider confirmation as used or rather desired by the Churches of Christ of later yeares and we may yet more easily perceive both its great unlikenesse to that of old and its great aptnesse and likelinesse to prove if fixed upon its right basis and intended to its just ends a most excellent and profitable right of the Churches of Christ in the later ages Confirmation in this moderne sense pardon the expression Waldenses Calvina Chemnitins Bullinger Pareus Three special ends of confirmation seems to be desired for three most special ends and uses all which may seeme to be carried in the very word it selfe namely that the baptisme the graces and lastly the proxime right of the party in the Eucharist might hereby be confirmed and is principally intended for such as being baptized in their infancy not excluding others and being grown to years of discretion in the Church are competentes or desire to be partakers 1. To confirm baptisme with the Church in the Eucharist or any other high priviledge hitherto denied them 1. First such are therefore now to be called to confirme openly and in their own persons that which their susseptors engaged for them at their first infant-baptisme according to our own Lyturgy noted by our Authour Confirmation saith it ought to be observed because when children come to riper age and shall learne what and how great things their undertakers did in their name promise in baptisme they themselves ipsi proprio ore proprio concensu publice eadem agnoscant Vel rata habeant a Erasmus phraze is confirment they themselves should openly and with their own mouth and consent acknowledge and confirme the same upon this now I conceive confirmation may be rightly said to confirme baptimse this act of confirmation is properly the parties own act 2. Secondly another great end and use of confirmation to 2. To confirm grace such is that by meanes of this solemne profession together with the publick earnest prayers of the Church the graces of the peâ—son may be strengthened and confirmed or that he Fieret publica precatio pro illis pueris ut Deut Confirmare dignaretur may receive the grace of confirmation let there saith Clemnitius be publick prayer made for the children that are confirm'd that God by his holy spirit would vouchsafe to guide preserve and confirme them in this profession therefore the Waldenses appoint confirmation to be done in stabilitatem confirmationem fidei Now this is Gods act properly as the first was the parties own 3. The third and last great use of this Ordinance is to declare To confirm right in the Supper and confirme the parties proxime and immediate right in the Lords Supper c. which the party had before indeed by inward qualifications or at least appeared so to have by a good profession this now is more properly the Churches act and that which me thinks is a great deale more intended by those that strive
this profession till they die which he largely proves as indeed most of the reformed Divines do from all the parables of Ut jam nihil addubitarc possumus Judam non fuisse membrum internae Sanctae dei ecclesiae licet esset membrum exterioris ecclesiae Quam superius appellavi ecclesiam militantem strictius consideratam aliam vero visibilem illam bonos malos comprehendentem latius consideratam Dec. page 355 the Kingdome of Heaven in the Gospel at length concludes that hypocrites are members of the Church visible largely taken containing the good and the bad but not of the Church invisible not true and living members of this interiour Church or the Church so strictly taken Yet this doth not infer two distinct Churches for if we take the Church strictly then hypocrites are no part of the Church and if we take it in the large sense then the strict Church is but a part thereof to instance in the material Church if taken in a strict sense it signifieth the body of the Church exclusive of the chancel if largely for both together and then the Church strictly taken is but part of the Church largely taken This is clear while we distinguish the Church qua Church but when we consider it as visible and invisible it faileth us We say well that the Church taken strictly is part of the Church taken largely and the Church largely taken containeth the Church strictly taken but it would be hard to say the Church invisible taken strictly is part of the Church visible taken largely to say a thing as invisible is part of a thing as visible is contradictio in adjectio 'T is evident then that invisible and visible are opposed here in the accident not in the subject i. e. 't is not meant that as some persons are invisible so others in the same respect are visible as if saving grace was not seen in some and yet seen in others but thus some persons having saving grace not seen are said to be invisible and others having profession visible are said to be visible Moreover this subject of these accidents is rather the faith Bull. Dec. 355 Invisibilis interna dicitur non quod homines sunt invisibiles sed quod hominibus non appareat qui vere ficte credaut then the person they are applied to the person but intend the faith or the truth thereof as 't is saving 't is invisible as 't is professed so 't is visible and not because the men are either visible or invisible Lastly the Church largely taken may be considered Either Asolutely Or Comparatively In it self or in comparison with the Church strictly taken and accordingly the reformed Divines may be thought to meane that the Church largely taken if it be considered absolutely and in it self is a true or at least truely a Church of Christ but when the Church largely taken as it includes the bad the good together is compared with the Church strictly taken for the company of the Elect or savingly called then as they say the latter is the onely true Church and the former in comparison thereunto is not a true Church that is not so truely in the favour of God and union with Christ Object 3. I confesse that Ravanellus and Calvine with others haply affirme that the Church thus largely taken is the Church improperly and the Church strictly for the Church of the Elect onely is the Church properly taken But Answ 1. I humbly conceive that their difference with the Papist did not exact their assertion from them for the Papist denieth the invisible Church altogether and not that it is the Church properly or improperly taken then this remaineth as a lawful controversie among us Protestants whether the visible or invisible Church be most properly the Church of Christ 2. Neither do I think this assertion of theirs doth necessarily flowe from this strict and large acceptation of the Church the larger acceptation of a thing doth not alwayes imply the most proper acceptation thereof nor è contrà God of Abraham not of the dead the man as Abraham taken from the soul onely is not the largest nor yet the preperest acceptation of man The Church taken exclusive to the chancel is not the largest nor I think the properest acceptation thereof a denomination from the better part is not the largest nor I think the properest denomination of a company this is figurative therefore the other viz. the larger acceptation should be the proper as opposed to figurative 3. How ever this toucheth not my conclusion which is that the Church in this large acceptation may be considered to be truely a Church and not properly much lesse more properly so then the Church invisible or strictly taken 4. Yet I humbly crave that my former arguments for the contrary part in my state of the question may have the justice of consideration if not the charity and honour of a confutation Object 4. I confesse once more that Ames hath placed reprobates and hypocrites out of the essential and within the accidental form of the Church But Ans 1. I humbly conceive that this is his peculiar language we find divers of the reformed Divines distributing the form of the Church into internal and external as they also do the state society Vid. Cameron praelect de eccl cap. de natura conditione ecclesiae in prin cipio circa medium caput and communion of the Church 2. I have ventured before to manifest the inconsistency hereof with his own concession that hypocrites and reprobates while they remain in the communion of the Church are membra ecclesiae yea that this very expression that they onely partake of the accidental form hath a contradiction in it self For if there be no essential forme besides this then cannot be an accidental forme seeing this viz. the accidental forme is opposed unto the essential and must needs suppose an essential Accidens hic est accidens non praedicabile sed praedicamen tale quod opponitur substantiae distributio enim est in formam substantialem accidentalem or substantial forme to give being to the subject of this accident all whose being is in the subject of it if there be no substantial forme there is no substance and if there be no substance there can be no accident for the definition of substance requires that it do substare accedentil us and therefore as Schibler saith the reason of an accident requires that it do in haerere in subjecto Or if the Church have another forme viz. essential or substantial besides this accidental as indeed he allows then I cannot yet see but that interest in the accedental forme is necessarily founded in interest in the forme which is called essential and that by granting that hyrocrites and reprobates do partake of the accidental he necessarily implies that they also partake of the substantial forme and therefore to say that such or any persons