whether in bringing their Children to be Baptized they do not intend thereby to dedicate them to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and to engage them as much as in them lies to be Gods faithful Servants and to believe and live according to the Doctrine and Precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ or somewhat to that effect And whether likewise such Answers from the Parents should not be expected as are most suitable to such demands And further it would be considered Whether Infants can be so well or so directly and properly obliged to God in Covenanting with him in Baptism by what Sponsors which are not their Parents then do to oblige them as they may by what their Parents themselves may do to that end And the reason of this proposal or question is this If the Childrens being obliged to do that when they come to Age which Parents obliged them to in their Baptism does depend upon their Parents properly in them and authority over them as is supposed it does from what has been formerly argued then they cannot be so properly obliged by what other Sponsors do in their behalf at their Baptism which have no such property in them or authority over them It is true indeed Parents are not wholly unconcerned in entering their Children into Covenant with God by Baptism when yet Sponsors act in the Parents stead For it is the Parents that cause their Children to be Baptized and what the Sponsors act is by the Parents procurement and upon these accounts it is interpretatively their act But yet Parents immediately and in their own persons acting the part of entering their Children into Covenant seems more proper and better to answer the nature of the things Sponsors may be more useful in case Parents of Children to be Baptized are dead as possibly it might be the case of some Children whose Parents were Martyr'd in the Primitive times from which perhaps that usage in the Church took its first rise There are other cases in which Sponsors or Pro-parents may be useful and necessary but hardly so as to exclude Parents from their proper work But I speak of these things with submission to those of better judgment and more authority having only offered them to consideration QUERY VII FOr what reason is Church-Membership said to be Invisible as well as Visible in some and yet but only as Visible in others And from whence does this difference arise This difference proceeds from the difference there is between Visible and Invisible Christianity and from the different Union between Christ the Head and his Members which is caused thereby By invisible Christianity I mean those inward acts and affections of soul by which men abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good which are wrought by a serious assent of the mind unto the truth of the doctrine and great motives of the Gospel by which they are convinced of the necessity of repentance and holy living in order to their escaping everlasting misery and becoming eternally happy By visible Christianity I mean external and visible acts of Religion in reference both to God and men such as is the profession of the God that made the World to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to be his Son and the rest of the Articles of the Christian Faith and such other acts as consist in an external performance of the external acts of worship due to this God and Saviour and in acts of Justice and Charity towards men and in sobriety of behaviour in reference to a mans self Now by the internal and invisible Christianity forementioned in conjunction with that which is external the Covenant entred into in Baptism is so performed that by it a man is internally and invisibly united to Christ and consequently to all those who are invisibly one with him But visible Christianity alone is but an external performance of the Covenant entred into in Baptism and this amounts to no more than an external and visible Union with Christ and with his Church as visible By this much then we may understand wherein the difference between visible and invisible Church membership lies and from whence it doth arise Now that the internal Christianity which consists in an internal change in the faculties of the soul to wit in their apprehension inclination motions and operations in reference to their various objects of good and evil does produce or obtain an internal and invisible Union of men with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ will appear if we consider these things 1. This internal Renovation of soul contains in it an Union with God by adhesion for by it a man doth with his heart and soul and out of judgment and choice cleave unto the Lord which in the sence of Scripture is a being joyned to him He that is joyned or he that cleaveth unto the Lord is one spirit for it is rendred by both words 1 Cor. 6.17 And for a man firmly and resolvedly to adhere and stick to the Lord and to the interest of his honour and glory in the world in worshipping loving and obeying him and in placing his affiance in him as his only God and Saviour come what will which is his cleaving to him is such a moral Vnion with God as the nature of man is capable of 2. This internal Renovation worketh an invisible Union with God by a participation of the divine nature as the Apostle phraseth it 2 Pet. 1.4 By which participation men are morally united to God For they are thereby renewed to the Image of God in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and so are made one Spirit or one in spirit with Him according to that of the Apostle in 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit or of one spirit For so far as such an one is partaker of the Divine nature by Renovation he judgeth of good and evil as God judgeth and loves and hates and designs the same things that he doth 3. By this Renovation of the Inner man men come to have the same Spirit of God and of Christ to reside and dwell in them by which their Vnion with the Father and the Son is compleated The holy Spirit first prepares them as living Temples or an Habitation for himself to dwell in by renewing them in a less degree and then comes and takes up his abode and dwells in them by affording them a more constant and more plentiful influence and assistance And the same Spirit dwelling both in Christ and in them the Vnion between them becomes more intimous and more entire Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 As the Union of all the members of a natural body is not made so much by their contiguity or close joyning as by being all animated by one and the same spirit which is in all the parts so it is
the Parts of the Sacrifice should be laid upon the Wood. And besides all this there were Laws directing how the Priests should be Accoutred in their Ministration as of what and after what manner and fashion their Garments should be made and when put on and when put off And I might instance in many like things in other cases But now in the New Testament it is far otherwise There we are directed indeed in the Substance and Spiritual Nature of Divine Worship and what is essential to it But as for the External circumstances of Administration thereof we have very little of particular direction therein but the Church in those things is left for the most part to guide and determin her self and her own actions by general Rules such as Edification Peace and Order and such External signs of Reverence and Devotion as Natural Religion will direct men in And indeed there is so little of particular direction in these things as that there is no sort of Christians however distinguished but do more and are under a necessity of doing more in the External manner of Worship than there is particular direction for in Scripture There is a command for Baptising Disciples in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost but no particular direction what Prayer shall be made or what Instruction shall be given at the Administration of Baptism nor after what manner or form the Party Baptised shall by himself or Parents enter into Covenant with God The like may be said touching the Lords Supper there is no particular direction what Prayers shall be made or Instruction given or Exhortation made at the Administration of it nor after what manner the Elements are to be Consecrated otherwise than by reciting the words of Institution nor how in particular the Cup is to be Blessed nor what Gesture shall be used nor when and how often it shall be Received In these things Churches in several Nations may and do vary more or less and yet all is well done so long as they keep to general Rule which may be observed and kept to in these and other Ordinances of Worship under several different Circumstances and this none can deny And so far publick Prayer tho' we have particular Rules for the matter of it and to whom and in whose Name to be made and likewise for the Internal manner yet as to the External manner and circumstances save that of being made in a known Tongue as whether it shall be made in a set Form or without except the direction given for the use of the Lords Prayer or whether with the use of a Book or without it or whether kneeling or standing or how many shall be made at one Church Assembly these things are not particularly determined one way or other but are left to the prudence of men to use one or another according as the exigence of Circumstances shall require or their Governors order And if our Blessed Saviour had not intended to have allowed such a liberty in the choice of External Circumstances of Worship we cannot in reason but think he would have been as particular in determining them as he has been in the matter and substance of Worship it self which yet we see he has not been For he could not but know it impossible for all Church Guides not immediately inspired tho' otherwise never so wise and good to pitch upon the self-same Circumstances of Administration where they have only general Rules to Guide them in their Choice And accordingly experience shews that among good men some have thought such and such Circumstances of Worship best to agree with general Rules when others as good as they have thought others to do so And tho' in such cases both cannot be best under the same Circumstances of things yet that which is not best in it self may be best to be used as Circumstances may fall out as when that which is not best cannot be refused without a greater inconvenience than the use of that rather than a better does amount to Our Blessed Saviour then having left his People at so much liberty in the choice of External Circumstances of Worship as we see he has it argues sufficiently that the use of different Circumstantial modes of Worship is not at all displeasing unto him so long as they agree with the general Rule especially when the avoiding of a Breach and the preservation of Peace Vnity and good Will in the Church does influence the choice If there be then such a liberty left by Christ unto his Church of using different Circumstantial modes of Worship so long as they answer to the general Rule as none can with any colour of reason deny but there is then it cannot but be a great abuse of this liberty for Christians so to contend for one of these Circumstantial modes of Worship in opposition to the other as to separate and break Communion about it and thereby to involve the Church in unpeaceable strife and contention disaffection and feuds When it is but matter of liberty to use one or another and not matter of indispensable Duty to use one only and not the other it cannot but be an abuse of such a liberty to make use of it to a publick hurt to the Church The making use of that which is but only matter of liberty when to do so causeth a Brother to offend is severely condemned by St. Paul how much more then is the making use of such liberty to be blamed when it tends to a great and publick mischief in the Church St. Paul saith brethren ye have been called unto liberty onely use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another Gal. 5.13 That the using of this liberty we speak of has been an occasion for the flesh to show it self and play its part is sadly visible in that variance strife emulation and envying which has been caused thereby which are works of the flesh and such too that as St. Paul saith they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Gal. 5.19 20 21. I know it will be said that if it be an abuse of liberty to contend so much for the use of one External way and manner of Worship when another is Lawful as well as that and when to do so tends to strife and division and the destruction of Charity then it must be alike abuse of liberty to impose the use of another when such an imposition is attended with the same or like evil or inconvenience as we see the imposition of that prescribed by the Liturgy is To this I shall say but these two things 1. If we should suppose this to be so as they object yet the abuse of a liberty one way by the Authors of such an imposition does not at all priviledge the abuse of a liberty by others in the contrary extream 2. The imposition they speak of is no necessary Cause of division and separation
and his Visible Members In which Covenant God on his part promiseth to be their God in Christ to pardon them and to confer eternal life on them upon condition they take him only for their God and Christ Jesus for their Lord and Saviour by believing in him and obeying him And men on their part Covenant to perform the Condition of Gods Covenant in taking him for their God and Christ for their Lord and Saviour by believing in him and obeying him Those words I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a People contain the substance of the Covenant of Salvation both on Gods part and mans part Heb. 8.10 The mutual Covenant between God and his Israel of old is thus described Thou hast avouched this day the Lord to be thy God and to walk in his ways and to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his judgments and to hearken to his Voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar People as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his Commandments Deut. 26 17 18. This mutual Covenanting is the Copulative or Bond by which the conjunction is made between the Head and his Members Christ and his Body the Church For the nature of it is to Vnite the Parties Covenanting and to convey a mutual interest in each other I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine saith God Ezek. 16.8 And this tying or knitting together by Covenant is called the Bond of the Covenant Ezek. 20.37 I might multiply places to shew that mens being joyned to the Lord in the common notion of Scripture is by Covenanting with him to be his People Thus Jer. 50.5 Come let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant never to be forgotten Also Isa 56.6 The Sons of the Stranger that joyn themselves to the Lord to serve him to love the name of the Lord and to be his Servants every one that taketh hold of my Covenant c. That this Union is thus made by Contract and Covenant between God and men we may the rather believe and the more easily conceive because the Holy Scripture delights to resemble and illustrate the Union between God and his People Christ and his Church by the Union that is between Men and their Wives which is an Union by mutual Contract and Covenanting the one to take the Woman for his Wife the other to take the man for her Husband with promise to deport themselves towards each other according to the nature of the mutual relation between them Ephes 5.28 Isa 54.5 Jer. 31.31 Hos 2.19 And those who were Strangers to the Covenants of promise were said to be without God and without Christ that is not related to him nor he to them as his Church and People Ephes 2.12 And here let it be observed and remembred once for all that the same thing which Unites men to Christ Unites them to those also who are already one with him by Covenant Union with the Head is the Reason of Union with all those Members which make the body of that head like as a man by becoming a Covenant Servant to a Master becomes a Member of that Family and a Fellow-servant to all the rest of the Servants of that Master QUERY IV. HOw and when is the Covenant between God and men entred into by which People are externally Vnited to Christ and visibly made Members of his Church This Covenanting is transacted when People are Baptized For Baptism is a Sacred Rite instituted by Christ by which the Covenant we speak of is solemnly entred into As for Almighty God he has prevented men on his part in Covenanting with them and stands openly declared in his Word to be a God to all those to pardon and save them whoever they be that shall become a People unto him by believing in him and serving him And not only so but he has also Authorized his Ministers to transact with men in his Name according to that declaration by bringing them into Covenant with him by Baptism and thereby to receive them into his Church For to that end are the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven delivered to them viz. to open the door and to let such into the Church and this they do as Stewards of God's House Now whenever men take hold on this Covenant of God and openly and publickly Covenant with him to become a People unto him and to perform the condition of his Covenant with them in order to the obtaining the benefits promised on his part then and by that means is their visible Relation to God to Christ and to his Church constituted and made And all this a being visibly Baptized in his Name doth imply For this I conceive is the meaning of their being Baptized into the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Mat. 28.19 Not only that they are Baptized in their name as that signifies its being done by their Authority but also into their name as that signifies their being brought into a special Relation to them as then God whom they Covenant to worship and serve And therefore from thenceforth they are called by that name into which they are Baptized like as a Wife is called by the name of her Husband from that very moment in which the Marriage-Covenant is compleated Isa 4.1 Hence it is that S. Paul saith That as many as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 For by that they put on his Name and put on their Relation to him For this Visible Membership we speak of is nothing else but a Visible Relation to Christ the Head of Christians and to all those that are visily related to him By Baptism they are planted into Christ Rom. 6. which is another metaphor by which our External Union with Christ by Baptism is signified And by it they are Baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 Those words of St. Peter shew likewise that there was a Covenanting with God in Baptism when he says The like figure whereunto Baptism doth now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 3.21 I find that which is here translated The answer of a good Conscience is rendred by others the promise or stipulation of a good Conscience and by some the question or questioning of a good Conscience Now if the Greek will bear or countenance these several readings Answer Stipulation Questioning yet the matter may be thus well accommodated The Answer of a good Conscience here spoken of was an answer to somewhat proposed or put questionwise to be resolved or answered to by them who were to be Baptized and that the Answer to it was of the nature of a Promise Stipulation or Covenant in reference to God As when it was proposed or put questionwise to the party to be Baptized whether he did believe Jesus
as they owned him only for their God according to their Covenant with him tho otherwise they had great guilt upon them This still confirms what was said before that tho the immoralities of this People for the generality of them were such in other respects as that all that they had done in Covenanting and in a partial performance of Covenant could not give them the reputation of being Members of the Invisible Church yet their Covenant with God and partial performances of it in worshipping him only with a worship of his own appointment did denominate them in an external and visible respect to be his People and so his as the rest of the world were not By the way then if those of this Church under the Old Testament were stiled Saints a holy People and the like upon other accounts and in other respects than their being really and inherently holy as I have shewed they were by inspired men then it cannot be concluded but that the People of the Churches in the New Testament were so likewise when the Apostles in their Epistles to them stiled them Saints the Sanctified in Christ Jesus and the like For the same Epithetes and Appellations signifie but the same thing in the Old Testament as in the New In both they signifie a People separated from the Pagan unbelieving world unto God among whom some were more so and some less some by external Covenant and profession and some by that and much more to wit by the Renovation of the whole inner man I the rather note this as I pass along because those of the Congregational way lay so great a stress as they do upon St. Pauls stiling the Churches to whom he wrote Saints for the proving as they would have it that none but such as are savingly sanctified are Church-matter or to be admitted as Church-Members except when it is done through mistake of them that admit them Having taken a brief survey how things stand related touching Visible Church-Membership under the Old Testament I shall now proceed to enquire how matters stand declared touching the same under the New And our inquiry must be whether persons adult are by no other means Visible Church-Members unless they are reputatively Members of the Church as Invisible Or whether they do not become truly Members of the Visible Church in Scripture account by their voluntary Covenanting by Baptism with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost tho it should be supposed that there is not enough in them to denominate them Members of the Church as Invisible The question is not whether it does not become those who admit men into the Church by Baptism and the Baptismal Covenant to think the best of them who are so admitted and to hope they do it with a sincere mind when they therein give up themselves to God But whether their due admission thereto does depend upon such a judgment in those that admit them Or whether such Persons may be refused and not suffered to Covenant with God in Baptism and thereby to enter into the Church tho they offer themselves thereto and desire it in case those whose office and place it is to admit men thereto should be unsatisfied touching the truth of their saving Conversion or Regeneration Or thus the question is not whether it be not the duty of every man that enters into Covenant with God in Baptism to do it with a sincere mind and with all his heart But whether this be required by way of condition without which it is neither lawful for the person himself to Covenant with God nor for others to suffer him to do it if they suspect he will do it with such a frame of mind as is short of Regeneration Nor is the question whether a man might not be refused admission into the Church in case there were cause to suspect him to have an evil design in desiring it to betray the Christians to their Enemies upon account of which suspicion its probable the Disciples refused Saul's joyning with them after his Conversion tho he desired it until they had received better satisfaction concerning him But the question is whether such as have only some general and in distinct belief that Christ is the Son of God and Saviour of the world by his death and that the way of Christianity is the way of Salvation and do desire admission into the Christian Church to be further instructed in that way and in order thereto are willing to enter into Covenant with God and to be Baptized I say the question is whether such may be suffered to Covenant with God and enter into the Church by Baptism supposing them as yet to have no thorow saving work of Conversion wrought in them but only so much as may be hoped is preparatory and dispository thereto but yet have something tho not all which is necessary to it and whose profession is serious and sincere so far as it goes as that is opposed to dissembling knowingly And to prove that they may and that the lawfulness of such Covenanting by Baptism does not depend upon their being savingly Regenerate and that our Saviour himself owns Unregenerate men received into the Visible Church by such Covenanting in Baptism to be as well Members of it as the Regenerate I shall offer several things 1. And I shall lay down this first as a foundation to build upon in this proof viz. That it is not a thing unlawful in it self for some such as are not of the Church as Invisible by regenerating Grace to enter into Covenant with God to be his People nor is such a qualification enjoyned as a necessary condition of doing so When all the Males at Age in Abrahams House were commanded to enter into Covenant with God by Circumcision And when his Seed after him were required to cause all the Male-strangers bought with their money to do the like And when the Proselytes from among the Gentiles were required to Circumcise themselves and all their Males and thereby to enter into Covenant with God I say in all this there was no such thing as their being Circumcised in heart enjoyned as a condition of their so entring into Covenant by Circumcision The Lord also commanded Joshua to Circumcise all the Hebrew Males that in the space of forty years had been born in the Wilderness which was an entering them into Covenant with God and this without any condition of such qualification as would have made them of the Church as Invisible Nay Almighty God at another time commanded all Israel Men Women and Children and the Strangers in their Camp to enter into Covenant with him and into his Oath Deut. 29.10 11 12. This command was absolute and peremptory also and without condition The Lord did not in this nor in any of the other instances require men to enter into Covenant with him only upon this condition that they did already truly fear him and sincerely love him or otherwise to forbear No
good opinion of them and of the innocency and goodness of their intention in what they desire and seek Whereas the other tends to exasperate and provoke and to beget an ill opinion of them and a jealousie of their designs in the minds of those from whom they expect ease and relief in what is mattet of grievance to them And that which does that is no good way of obtaining from them Solomon's wise advice is If the Spirit of the Ruler rise up against thee leave not thy place for yielding pacifieth great offences Eccles 10.4 QUERY XIII WHerein may Catholick Church Communion consist And how and by what means is it best preserved To clear our way in this Inquiry it will be convenient to take notice of the difference that is between the Vnion of the Catholick Church and the Communion of it The Union of the Catholick Church consists in the same Relation which all the Members of that one Body bear to Christ the Head of it and to one another as fellow-members But the Communion of this spiritual Corporation consists in a mutual performance of those Christian Duties and Offices to which they are engaged by virtue of that relation By that Relation in which their Union consists they come to have a greater interest in one another than they had before their incorporation into that body and by it they come under new duties to one another to which they were not obliged before But their Communion consists much in a mutual discharge of those duties towards one another and in an improvement of that interest for the benefit of one another and the good of the whole by their mutual intercourse in spiritual affairs The Union of the whole which is made by one Baptism or the Baptismal Covenant respects the being of the Church But Catholick Communion respects its well-being by its increase in wisdom goodness and comfort There is indeed a Catholick Church Vnity by Communion as well as there is another which comes by Relation but this Unity of Communion slows from that which is made by a Relation common to the whole Having thus briefly considered how Catholick Communion differs from Catholick Union I shall now proceed to shew a little more particularly wherein or in what Catholick Commumunion doth consist And we may best know what it is and wherein it doth consist by the account we have of it as practised in the Catholick Church when it first became Christian And this account we have in these words Acts 2.42 And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers By which description we see it consisted in their consent and agreement in three things Faith Worship Fellowship 1. In their agreeing in the same Faith they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine that is in the belief of it in attendance to it and practice of it From the same faith being common to all Christians it is called the common faith Tit. 1.4 the one faith Eph. 4.5 and their agreement in it is stiled Vnity in the faith Eph. 4.13 2. In their agreement in the same Worship breaking of bread and prayers This Catholick Church in its beginning is said to have continued with one accord in Prayer and Supplication Acts 1.14 And on the day of Penticost they were all with one accord in one place when the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them And when their number so increased that they could not all perform this Publick Worship together in one place but in several distinct Assemblies called particular Churches yet their agreement in the same Worship made their Communion in it but one Communion tho performed in several Assemblies For altho these Assemblies be never so far distant from one another yet so long as they all agree in the same Worship the distance of place can no more hinder their Communion from being one than their being baptized in several distant places can hinder the Relation to one another contracted thereby from being one when it is common to all the Members We account all those to be of the Communion of the Church of Rome at the same time and in the same acts in which they hold their Local Commumunion in several distant Nations so long as they all agree in the same corrupt Worship And there is the same reason for the Unity of the Communion in Worship of all Orthodox Assemblies in all Nations So that I take this for an unquestionable truth That it is mens agreement in the same Principles of Communion be they good or bad that makes their Communion but one tho the particular acts of it are performed by them in many thousand distant places And now it is by the Union of Relation by the Baptismal Covenant and the Unity of Communion by agreement in the Principles of the Worship wherein they have Communion that all Orthodox Christians make one great House or Temple of God in the world in which he is openly worshipped and publickly acknowledged to be what he is the one only true God Father Son and Holy Ghost in opposition to all false Gods Ephes 2.21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple in the Lord. This is that house which is called Christs own house Heb. 3.6 and that House of God over which Christ is said to be High Priest Heb. 10.21 And particular Churches in reference to this one house are but as several Apartments in it which all together make up one great house of God And in this house of his God dwells and therein manifesteth himself to his People after a more special manner than he does to the world 2 Cor. 6.16 Ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and will be their God and they shall be my people Here Almighty God meets with them and communes with them and receives their addresses and here he entertains them with the fatness of his house the Ordinances of the Gospel and the benign influences and comfortable presence of his Spirit in the use of them In this way the whole Church in their several Assemblies have Communion with their Head Christ Jesus and one with another by partaking in common of the spiritual benefits communicated by the Lord and in assisting in common in the Worship Adoration and Thanksgiving which the Church renders him for the glory and transcendent perfections of his nature and being and returns him for all the blessings and benefits they receive from him And the more all Christians are agreed in their worshipping of God and in their Communion with him the more they honour him and the more they please him and make themselves the more capable of receiving all good things from him in the greater abundance If the agreement but of two of them touching any thing they shall ask hath his promise of granting it Mat. 18.19 what might not be expected from him
but Quakers There are others who frame to themselves other reasons of separation from Parochial Communion in Worship besides its being performed by the Liturgy as namely because those Congregations are not as they pretend constituted of visible Saints nor by a Church Covenant Who these are is well known for whose sakes several of my former Inquiries are made in which there are such things produced from the holy Scriptures as may I suppose be sufficient to satisfie their reason if not their prejudice touching their mistake in these opinions As for their exceptions against the Government of the Church by Bishops as Diocesan how they would make Communion with the particular Congregations under their Jurisdiction unlawful upon that account I understand not unless they think the Ministers of those Congregations by whom the Ordinances are administred to be no true Ministers because Episcopally ordained and not by Presbyters And if this should be their scruple they may easily receive satisfaction by considering that Diocesan Bishops were Presbyters before they were Bishops and therefore must needs remain so after For they were not devested of any Ministerial power or authority by being made Bishops but only invested with a superaddition of authority and power they had not before So that they who are ordained by them are ordained by a Presbyterial authority and more And with this the old Nonconformists satisfied themselves touching the validity of their Ministerial authority received by Ordination from the Bishops that then were Some again dislike Parochial Communion because the Civil Power is so much concerned as it is in Ecclesiastical affairs relating to it one way or other and for that all such things are not left wholly to the ordering of Ecclesiastical Rulers as they were in the Apostles times and long after But there is not the same reason why they should be so left now as there was why they were so then The reason why they were wholly left then to the ordering of an Ecclesiastical Power was because there was no Civil Powers as Christian then in being so that they could not promote Christianity better any other way But it is not so now for it is shewed in our last former Inquiry but one that the affairs of the Gospel and the Salvation of men in a Christian Kingdom or State may better be provided for and promoted by a national Constitution than they can be without it And that therefore things of this nature are not to be ordered as if we were still in a Pagan Kingdom when we are not For where the reason of things is altered it is but reasonable and fit that there should be a sutable alteration in the things themselves Thus the gesture of standing with Loyns girt and a Staff in the hand appointed to be used in eating the Passover at the first Institution of it for that it was then to be eaten in haste was afterwards altered to another gesture by the Church when that Circumstance of eating in haste ceased and our Saviour himself did eat it in that posture to which the Church had changed it which is a consideration of very great weight in reference to this and some other cases And the Obligation of the Ceremonial Law ceased upon the same ground when the substance was come which had been prefigured by Ceremonial Rites And the like might be observed touching the discontinuance and disuse of anointing the sick washing Disciples feet and the kiss of Charity and some other things which were obliging until the reason of the Obligation ceased But altho the Civil Power doth concern it self by a National Constitution to order and direct in things appertaining to the Church for the promoting of Religion and the Salvation of men yet it does not this without the advice and assistance of those that are Officers and bear rule in the Church And when the Civil Powers have gone as far as they think fit in ordering and directing by Ecclesiastical advice and assistance yet they do not act any thing themselves peculiar to the Ministry of the Church but leave all such things wholly to them who are invested with Ministerial authority reserving only to themselves a power os restraining such men from an undue exercise of their Office tending to publick disturbance And thus I have endeavoured to satisfie the Dissenters that there is no sufficient reason or cause for them to separate from the Publick Worship of our Parochial Assembles and that their pretences for their doing so when narrowly looked into are found to have nothing of substance in them sufficient to bear them out in it And if I am not mistaken in my Allegations and reasonings I cannot discern how their separation can possibly be defended from being an unlawful Schism And if it be I am sure they have upon many accounts great reason to desist from engaging farther in it QUERY XV. SVpposing things touching visible Church-Membership and Communion to be as they have been represented in our former Inquiries yet how do they tend to lessen our Church Divisions The answer to which is That if the matters of our Inquiry be as they have been represented then they tend to lessen our Church-divisions by removing and taking away the very foundation on which they and our Church-separations are in great part at least built For I do not know any one of the different Parties among the Protestant Dissenters except those called Presbyterian who do not found their separation from our Parish Churches at least principally upon this supposition that they are not constituted according to the order of the Gospel And why not according to the Order of the Gospel but because as they say they are not constituted ol Gospel matter that is not of visible Saints but of such as for a great part of them at least were never duly reputed to be regenerate or to be of the Invisible Church and their meaning is as I collect both from their Writings and Converse That they were not at first nor since constituted of such particular members only as at the time of such their Constitution had a probable appearance of Regeneration but of all baptized persons however they proved good or bad and without any other probation or discrimination Now if those things be true which have been endeavoured to be proved to be so in the management of the former Enquiries Then this ground on which they build their separation is altogether unsound and such as has no firmness or substance in it but is only imaginary For our Parish Congregations are constituted of persons visibly in Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost by being baptized in their name and thereby engaged to be theirs to worship and serve the Father by the Son through the assistance of the Spirit And of such and no other were the Churches planted by the Apostles constituted And this Covenanting was then and so is now the visible formal difference between those of the Visible
of their being already qualified with the other It is true men by Baptism it self are brought into a new state externally they are brought into a new relation to God to Christ and to the Church his body and to new enjoyments also in the Church And it is to be noted our Saviour calls Baptism a being born of Water as a birth distinct from that of being born of the Spirit Our Saviour in that discourse of his with Nicodemus about Baptism and being born again seems to allude to the Jews custom of receiving Proselytes by Baptism as well as by Circumcision who did reckon they were thereby born again as it were and brought into a new state of life as is well known by the tenour of the writings of the Jewish Doctors And altho by being born of Water men may be said to be born of the Spirit in one sence for they are Baptized into the Name of the Holy Ghost as well as into the Name of the Father and the Son and by one spirit we are all Baptized into one body as the Apostle faith 1 Cor. 12.13 Yet in a higher and more emphatical sence all that are born of the Spirit are not so born when they are Baptized but most of them afterwards as the experience of the Church doth abundantly manifest Again another Scripture is Act. 2.38 Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the Name of the Lord Jesus for the remission of sins Now it may be some will argue hence that since Baptism is enjoyned in order to the obtaining of remission of sins and since Baptism alone without Repentance here required with it will not avail for the obtaining such remission that therefore a being Baptized for the remission of sins always supposes Repentance in him that is Baptized Answer The most that can be inferred hence is that Baptism as well as Repentance and Repentance as well as Baptism are directed to and enjoyned in order to the obtaining Remission of sins but not that such Repentance as is available to this end is enjoyned as the condition of being Baptized and by that to be received into the Church Tho I deny not but that in the adult a profession of sorrow for sin past and a promise of amendment for time to come was always required before Baptism but sorrow for sin alone avails not to the obtaining of remission of sin and what the promise of amendment for the future would prove was uncertain to those who received Persons into the Church by Baptism The Apostles we may well suppose received such raw Disciples to Baptism as those were to whom this counsel was here given upon like terms that John the Baptist received the multitudes that flock'd to him for Baptism and they were Baptized confessing their sins They confessed themselves such sinners as needed amendment and professed sorrow for what was past and by receiving Baptism engaged themselves to amend for time to come and accordingly he is said to Baptize them unto Repentance Mat. 3.11 But very many of them fell short afterwards of performing their engagement John 5.35 Baptism and Repentance as saving are not inseparable in point of time in reference to the obtaining Remission of sin If a man do effectually repent tho it be not till long after he is Baptized yet his Baptism and Repentance will be effectual for the obtaining Remission of sins And if so then such Repentance as is saving is not of necessity before Baptism to the obtaining of Remission of sins But the truth is if we will infer any thing from the Text under consideration in reference to our present enquiry it may be that which is so far from proving mens Visible Church-Membership to depend upon the credibility and reputation of their being of the Church as Invisible as that it will much rather prove the direct contrary viz. That the credibility of mens being of the Church as Invisible depends upon their being of the Church as Visible For it tends to prove that men living under the Gospel and others I meddle not with in this matter cannot approve themselves to be Members of the Invisible Church until they are first made Members of the Visible by Baptism For we see men are as well to be Baptized for the Remission of sin as to repent to obtain it As the promise of being saved is elsewhere made unto a being Baptized as well as it is to believing He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved Mark 16.16 And if so then a man cannot be concluded to be in a pardoned state that through his own default is not Baptized by which he should be made of the Visible Church and if he cannot be concluded to be in a pardoned state without this then he cannot be duly reputed to be in the Invisible Church-state because there are none in that Church-state but what are pardoned If any should alledge the words of St. Paul If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 and infer that none are by Baptism or otherwise in Christ but what are new Creatures the answer to them is this If by any mans being in Christ be understood of such a being in him as is saving then he is indeed a new Creature and truly Regenerate But then that is such a being in Christ as is not visible to men and therefore does not belong to our present inquiry But if you read the words according to the Margent If any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature then this Text does not infer that if men be in Christ they are new Creatures but that they ought to be so according to their Covenant-ingagement when they were planted into him by Baptism Act. 2.37 It is likewise urged to prove that a true saving faith such as makes men Members of the Church as Invisible is requied as necessary to qualifie them for Baptism and Visible Church-Membership For when the Eunuch said to Philip Here is Water what doth hinder me to be Baptized Philip said unto him If thou believest with all thine heart thou maiest And he answered and said I believe that Christ is the Son of God Here Philip seems to make a believing with all the heart to be the condition of admitting the Eunuch to Baptism and what less can a believing with all the heart be than a true saving faith To which I answer thus That the Apostles and Evangelists such as Philip was did indeed suppose and expect a faith in Christ in all adult Persons whom they Baptized into him is not to be doubted Nor is is it to be doubted but that they press'd and persuaded them to be very hearty and serious in their undertaking the Christian profession when they Baptized them into it and so did Philip here But yet we see that for all that Philip Baptized this Eunuch upon his bare professing that he believed Jesus Christ to be the Son of God tho he did not say that
of Peace and Charity and to the hurt of mens souls thereby and to the great dishonour of our Religion and to the hinderance of its good effects upon the minds and lives of men 3. Altho the Publick Worship should be set up in all places of a Christian Nation yet if men should be under no Obligation by Law to attend it it would doubtless be much more neglected by many than when there is But the more men are brought to attend the means by which God works Grace in them tho it be but by virtue of the Law they are brought to it yet the more hope and probability there is of their being savingly wrought upon 4. If whosoever shall pretend himself qualified for it should have liberty to gather a Congregation it would be the leaving open a door of opportunity to Seducers to subvert mens Souls and to fill a Nation with variety of Sects and the mischievous effects of them And yet so it would be if there were no publick Government in the Church to restrain men And to this day we feel the very sad effects of so great a liberty sometime indulged Thus we see for what reason true Religion should be promoted by National Authority And as to matter of fact it is sufficiently known that those who have had the Supream Power in all Nations have been wont always to promote by their Authority that which they have thought to be the true Religion whether it hath been true or false And whence comes this but from the light and Law of Nature which directs men to use the Power and Interest they have to further the Worshipping of the God whom they serve And indeed Christians of all pesuasions are willing enough to have the Civil Power to exert it self in furthering their own way of Worshipping God The People of New England who once were as much for Liberty of Conscience as any yet soon found it convenient to incorporate the Civil Power with the Ecclesiastick for the defence and propagation of their Religion Now as the great usefulness of a National establishment for the purposes aforesaid does sufficiently appear from the reason and nature of the thing it self and has the light and law of Nature on its side so it is not destitute of countenance from supernatural Revelation 1. When Almighty God said to Abraham Thou shalt be a Father of many Nations a Father of many Nations have I made thee Gen. 17. He declared his intention of Reforming the world by degrees from Idolatry and false Worship in a National way if we may judg what he intended to do afterwards by the first instance he gave of his performance herein and if we may judg of the true meaning of this as of other Divine Predictions by the after Events which answer them in point of fact which yet is the best and most approved way of understanding Predictions when such events take place Almighty God made Abraham first a Father of a Nation which issued out of his own Loyns For when his Posterity who by Circumcision Covenanted to take Abrahams God only for their God grew very numerous in Egypt God brought them out thence that they might worship him openly and publickly in a National way And by this means and by his visible owning them for his people by extraordinary favours shew'd them he designed to make himself more known to the rest of the world to be the only true God and to be so acknowledged Now in that Abraham was promised to be the Father of many Nations it was not so much for that God intended that many Nations should descend out of his Loyns by natural generation as that many Nations in time should after his example come to acknowledge and worship him only for their God as the only true God For so St. Paul understood this promise of God to Abraham when he makes Abraham in respect of his believing in the true God to be the Father of all Nations that should be of the same belief as well those of the Vncircumcision as that which was of the Circumcision as it is written saith he I have made thee a Father of many Nations Rom. 4.16 17. And it was in this spiritual or religious respect and sense that St. Paul had before in this Chapter asserted Abraham to be the Father of all that shall believe in the true God as he did in all Nations as well those who were never Circumcised as those that were Ver. 11 12. And thus God made Abraham a blessing to the World as he promised he would and a Father of Nations not only for that the Messias was to be born of one descended from him for so he was born of one that descended from Abrahams Predecessors and Successors as well as from Abraham But he was a blessing to the World and the Father of Nations by being made by God the Head the beginning and great example of reforming the World from Misbelief and Idolatry and other consequent evils so as his Progenitors were not To encourage which work in the world God invested Abraham that led the way herein with the honour of being counted the Father of Nations and a publick blessing to the world both in himself and in his Seed 2. That God did design farther to carry on the reformation of the world from Misbelief and Idolatry in a National way and in that way to bring the world by degrees to the Worship of the true God only appears by other Predictictons of the Prophets such as that Isa 55.5 Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowst not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee Chap. 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouths at him Chap. 49.23 Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their Queens thy nursing mothers Zech. 8.22 Many people and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts Chap. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people The formal nature of mens Visible Church-Membership consists in their being visibly joyned to the Lord as I have shewed and therefore when many Nations are Nationally joyned to the Lord they may well be counted Nationally his people or Churches And Nations are then Nationally joyned to the Lord when Nations do incorporate the Christian Religion with their Civil Government and make it part of the National Government as the Ecclesiastical Polity of the Jews together with the Judicial Law of that Commonwealth was And by this means the Christian Religion becomes commodiously and with more certainty to be transmitted to future Generations in a Nation as well as practised for the time being by that which is existent just as the Jews Religion was For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children That the Generation to come might know them even the Children which should
out of scruple of Conscience and others from a worse Principle will be apt to take occasion to disturb the peace of the Church with disputes and by deserting the Communion of it And then moderation and prudence are necessary to the same end in the exercise of Discipline in the Church by making a difference in correcting open and notorious scandals and lesser disorders For else if both be punished alike when they are not alike criminal or if lesser disorders shall be strictly looked after and severely punished and greater connived at it will tend to lessen the Government in mens reverence and esteem and so weaken the fense of the Churches peace and render Communion with her less desirable by such as will take themselves to be unequally dealt with by her But as good Government in the Church is necessary to its Peace and to Unity in its Communion so is obedience to such Government without which Government loseth its end But when the Government and exercise of it is equal and as easie as will consist with the due ends of it then if yet for all that men will be troublesom and disobedient under it they will be left without excuse in the eyes of sober men if fitting course be taken to restrain them from disturbing the peace of the Church for otherwise if this be not granted Government in the Church would signifie little THus much concerning our Inquiry touching the nature of Catholick Communion and the means of preserving it But before I proceed to an Inquiry into the nature of Schism I think it not amiss to enquire for what reason the Unity of Catholick Communion is necessary and why we should endeavour that as much as may be it should be kept entire and all of a piece and without Fracture And the only reason which I shall insist on is this because its being such and so kept and maintained tends greatly to the growth and increase of the Church both in respect of the number of its Members and bigness of its Body and also in respect of its healthful state and its growing up to a greater stature in all virtue and goodness 1. It tends to the increase of the body of Christians in the number of its Members For next to the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles and Primitive Believers the peaceable and charitable demeanour among Christians and good agreement among themselves if it were generally found in them would attract and draw men to the liking and love of the Religion which they profess for the sake of the lovely effects it produceth in them Men can hardly think otherwise than well of that Religion by which they find men are made more peaceable and loving and more ready to all good offices to one another and to all men than others are or than they themselves were before they engaged heartily and seriously in it And that the concord and good agreement of all Christians in one Catholick Communion has so happy a tendency as I have said to draw others to the belief love of that same Religion appears by the reason why and for which our blessed Saviour so earnestly desired and prayed for the Union and Agreement of all Christians in the things their Religien taught them to wit because the world would thereby be brought to believe that he the Author of it had been sent of God Joh. 17.20 21. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And it s most apparent that the contrary to this has had its contrary effect For where have any such numerous additions to the Catholick Church been found from among the Pagan world since the great divisions which have risen and been kept on foot in the Christian world as those which were made for some hundreds of years together in the Primitive times while Catholick Communion was preserved in the Church without any considerable interruption Nay have not the unreasonable divisions and fierce contentions which have broken out in the Reformed Churches since the Reformation and in our own nation especially been a temptation to many to turn Atheists or Scepticks The holy Scriptures in many places seem to foretel a more general flowing of the Nations of the world into the Church than ever yet has been accomplished But we cannot reasonably expect this should be brought to pass by means of the Christian Churches in being until by humility peaceableness and charity and good agreement among themselves and other virtues they make a better representation of the excellency of the Religion which they profess than they do at this day When God Almighty turns to the people a pure Language then it may be expected they will call upon him and serve him with one consent as the Prophet speaks Zeph. 3.9 Not while they treat one another with impure and corrupt Language which smels of wrath and disdain of envy spight and contempt Not while by words they do all they can to disgrace one another but by speaking the truth in love and with meekness of wisdom 2. The good agreement of Christians in one Catholick Communion tends greatly to the increase of the Church in respect of its spiritual healthful state and its growing up to a greater stature in all virtue and goodness For where peace and good agreement is in the several offices of Christian Brotherhood there love is which is the bond of perfectness which holds them fast together And love is a radical grace out of which other graces grow in so much that love is made the Summary of all Christian duties towards one another Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.8.10 Charity edifieth saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 8.1 It tends to edifie and build up the subject in which it dwels and to make him more like God who is love and it tends to edifie the object on which it is set and on which it exerciseth it self it tends to build up both the one and the other in grace and goodness And there is this further reason why a peaceable agreement in one Catholick Communion tends to increase the Church in her spiritual riches viz. because the holy Spirit of God delights to dwell where peace and love dwell and there to dispence and communicate his treasures by which the souls of men are enriched but without his supplies influences and operations there is no thriving in grace and real goodness He that dwels in love God dwels in him 1 Joh. 4.16 And where God takes up his special residence he will adorn those living Temples with plenty of spiritual ornaments and those shall be sure to be made partakers of his best sort of gifts such as the world cannot receive Be of one mind live in peace and