more than touched upon three things specially the Word preached how they pressed to that place and listned to it when they came thither Secondly the Covenant of Gods free grace by Jesus Christ blessed for ever Thirdly Faith upon that we were the more large all beareing upon that being the hinge of all Now Sir this is our earnest desire That you with your Brethren would looke over this againe and lay your doctrines manner and practise before your people to that Standard for we choose to speake in that number And 1. Doe ye presse upon your people the necessitie of heareing and before you admit them to the Lords Table doe ye take time and place to search them to the bottome what they have profitted by heareing You know hereby they are hewen and made polished Stones and so fitted to be laid in the Lords building we trust you doe not doe as the Master of your Lord doth Polish your people at the Lords Table Surely they are to be made readie as those Stones were before they should have your admittance to 1 Kings 6. 7. Come thither And to proceed doe you aske what is that grace they must have before they can profit In our zeale for the Lords Christ yours and your peoples precious soules we shall question you in these grave points and so returne in all thankfullnesse your godly jealousies touching us and our way by putting it upon your thoughts what your way is with your people and how with them They with you walke therein You know but have you as you can made your people know it That preaching is the Chariot that carrieth Christ all about the Nationall Church we had almost said the world And the onely Appointment of God in the Spirits Hand to plucke them out thence as Lot out of Sodome It is the Ordinance sanctified of God for the begetting of faith in the beginning or Alpha of it so in the encreasings of it to the Omega or perfecting of the same It is that â—hereby that which is begun is perfected and that maintained which is begun It is that whereby the abundant riches of Grace through Jesus Christ are Conveyed unto us by Covenant we have said all 2 Tim 1. by Covenant life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospell preached the Ministery thereof there is not onely an unfolding of the gloriously excellent things of Christ but there is grace given by the Spirit to beleive them Thereby th' understanding that everlasting dore is opned to Jesus Christ Him that is true the true God and eternall life Now th' understanding closes with 1 Joh. 5. 20. Him or rather He by His Spirit with the understanding He is Truth The will and affections are drawn-out to Him also Oh how good is He to the Soule what a lovely object altogether desires By preaching all this is done it is the Chariot of the Cant. 5. Spirit it is the meanes that worketh faith which is the marriage of the Soule to Christ uniteth the soule to Him planteth it in Him maketh it one with Him And now she begins to know the abundant riches and glorious excellencies of Her Husband and the way of Conveyance of all these unto her by Covenant but still the first doore that is opned to all this is the eare and it is opned by heareing by heareing the eare is made able to heare we meane by the word the Spirit boreth it and now faith comes-in and fetcheth all-in the soule stands in need of Christ and all and all as sure as a Covenant of God with His people in Christ can make it Hold you to this still we meane hold your people to it faith comes by heareing it hath the stamp and institution John 10. 17. of God upon it and heareing by the word of God This was the ground of the Apostles faith not all the miracles they had seene John 2. 22. They Beleived the Scriptures and the word which Jesus had said Eph. 1. 13. The ground of the Ephesians faith also In whom ye also trusted after that ye HEARD the word of truth the Gospell of our Salvation The very end of all that is written touching Christ John 20. 31. and is preached of Him that ye might beleive c. Chaâ—ge this point home so your Lord Chargeth you and examine your people about their faith in God They will say they beleâ—ve Numb 22. 18. They will say as Balaam did My God and so will they say our God Hosea 8. 2 we know Thee Tit. 1. 16. Heare them now how they can make out what they say Doe they know Him whom they call theirs here you are like to find your people as grossely ignorant as were their fore-fathers of whome ye say saith our Blessed Lord That He is your God Joh. 8. 54 55. yet ye have not knowne Him We that have accustomed our tongues to lying ever since we were borne must not be credited in what we say till you have heard us making out what we say by giving a reason of the hope that is in us for truely thus it is with us for the most part We understand neither what we say nor what we affirme in God's matters Yea we commonly say we know the Father and the Son when we oppose the meanes appointed by God to convey this knowledge to us Now you shall doe well to tell us rebus sic stantibus That we are as well qualified to have Communion with Christ at His Table as a Wadd of dried stubble is to have Communion with a Consuming fire and doe no more enjoy Him there than midnight enjoyes the Sunne And that we doe indeed and in truth no more desire Communion with Christ the King at His Table or in any other place than darknesse can desire Communion with light or Beliall with Christ We are grossely ignorant of what we doe when we approach by your allowance the Lords Table It is not possible Fruimur Cognitis Ignoâ—i multa Cupido we can enjoy that we have no knowledge off or acquaintance with nor can our desires move towards an unknowne object Good Sir speake these things out to us your people we meane We are somewhat the larger here a point of so high concernment being Confident also of this very thing That you find your people cleane crosse to their Rule as your Brethren doe every where slow to heare and swift to speake for the Lords Supper We conceive the reason thereof to be this In a heareing place they cannot heare one word if it be the true word of God which is pleasing to flesh and blood it speakes death to their lusts if ever it speakes life to their soules Therefore they hate the word a killing word deadly because they love their lusts dearely They will have none of that meate which endureth to everlasting life none of the wine of the Gospell but as much bread and wine as you
they are admitted in their Parents right to Baptisme begotten as is notoriously knowne in Vid Ames de Const cap. 27. l. 7. adultery and the Parents not so much as professing repentance for the sin And so giving some satisfaction to the Congregation thereby Sir The Lord will require this at these Parents hands for so we may call them so also at his hands who so presumptuously baptizeth their Infants Nor shall it helpe him or them That though the Child was begot in Adulterie yet it was borne in wedlocke So have they plaistered over that horrible sin for which the Minister must be as responsible we meane for marrying them as he shall be for Baptizing their Infant before an acknowledgement was made openly before the Congregation for so openly had they sinned But the Lord lookes upon this and tells us with a voyce as loud as thunder that sith man doth not He Himselfe will be the avenger of these things And if the people Levit. 20. 4. of the Land c. for we would leave it upon your thoughts that if you or any brother in office with you have been or are faulty in this matter ye may heare and feare and doe no more presumptuously In the shutting up of this we humbly remind you of your owne Principles every head of a family being by our â—nf Bap. 61. principles an Abraham to his family But how if he be an Ishmaell worse than an Infidell to his family how then in point of admission of his Children to Baptisme or himselfe to the Lords Table must he having blasphemed the one Sacrament be priviledged thereby to blaspheme the other or having denied and renounced his Baptisme as the manner of some is by his workes making full proofe he hath very ill husbanded that pretious Talent must he be priviledged thereby to deale so with the other Yes say you and accordingly you deale-out unto him But did your Lord Christ deale so with His Talents Math. 25. 28. But wee referre it to the sixt Treatise 2. Now as to admission to the Passeover which you are pleased to say was free to all which pleads for the like free admission to the Lords Table That spoken before might serve here But to let that passe we verily beleive there was not such free admission to the Passeover as you would seeme to hold-out or take for granted And this our beleife wee ground on the Scriptures of God as we ought and you expect we should and indeed Commanded us which needed not for God commands us so to doe We humbly conceive there is much in this Scripture we reade When your Children shall say unto you what meane Exod. 12. 26 27. you by this service That ye shall say it is the sacrifice of the Lords Passeover Wee Collect from hence That the persons were to be knowing and understanding persons in the matters of their God the great Concernments of their soules and so knowing and understanding as that they must be able to instruct and Catechise their Children in those High points Now if you finde the Parents such knowing and understanding persons you may finde reason and warrant enough to admit them to the Lords Table But if very ignorant yea Brutishly ignorant for such they are whom you have admitted then seeke your warrant elsewhere for your admission to the Lords Table for wee are verily perswaded you will not finde it from the Passeover The free admission they had to that Sir be well aware what you say and as well aware what you doe Take heed of admitting we advise you in worthy Hildersam's wordâ— such as are knowne to the Congregation to be ignorant malicious uncleane unjust persons drunkards Blasphemers Make not the house of God as a Common Inne that receives Guests of all sorts and entertaines all alike The Gates of Gods house are called the Gates Psal 118. 19 20. of Righteousnesse None should presume to enter into them at least you should suffer none but such as in profession and endeavour are righteous men But to your Alligation from their free admission to the Passeover To our seeming it was not so free as yours is to the Lords Table For first some were to be Cut-off as we read Numb 15. 30 31. The soule that doth ought presumptuously whether he be borne in the Land or a stranger the same reproacheth the Lord and that soule shall be Cut-off from among his people because he hath despised the word of the Lord and hath broken His Commandement that soule shall be Cut-off his iniquity shall be upon him Add to this how deep the Lord Chargeth His Priests Ezek. 44. 7 8. Yee have not kept the Charge of mine holy things In that ye have brought into my Sanctuary Children of a Stanger uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh Then at the 9th verse Thus saith the Lord God No Stranger uncircumcised in heart nor uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my Sanctuary which was a type or figure of the Spirituall Sanctuary the Church of the living God in Gospell times Whence it may be cleared we think That if some were to be Cut-off for their wickednesse and others to be kept off from the Sanctuary as well for legall and rather for morall uncleannesses scandalous sinnes then also were they kept off from the Passeover Yet we thinke the example of Good Rulers as to this mâ—tter cleares this further They had under the Law by Gods appointment at the time of their solemne assemblyes certaine Levites that were porters set by the Gates 2 Chro. â—3 â—5 of the house of the Lord that none that was unclean in any thing should enter-in And it Commands our marke what diligence was enjoyned them in their office The porters waited at every Gate 2 Châ— 5 15. and might not depart from their service And hath the Lord Christ lesse Care of His service under the Gospell than He had under the Law Judge you And take this also along with you if please you that you may make righteous Judgement None that had any legall uncleannesse upon them might eate the Passeover Numb 9. 6. And may they be admitted to eate at the Lords Table who have reall uncleannesse upon them Give your judgement here also but looke up to God and into His Scriptures before you judge And if it please you let the Scriptures be 2 Chron 30. 5. 7. They had not done it a long time in such sort as it was written They had not done it as their first fathers did it who had the pure truth Committed to them and so worshipped the Lord God purely But they had done it as their immediateforefathers who were corrupt in their worship and so in their practise as these had done it so did they Bee you not like your Fathers and like your Brethren which trespassed against the Lord God of their Fathers who therefore Gave them up to desolation as you see vers 7. This was good
that Mr H s is cleare beside the scope when he will have the feast there to be solemnized at the Lords Table belike because Luke calleth it a Supper so wise a man he is and so rationall a schollar in divine matters for he will have the invitation be as generall come ye all to the Lords Table But now he will contradict himselfe and speake against his owne experience He invites all and admits all to the Lords Table and who refuseth to Come But there the bulke of the Jewes mane light of the feast and their invitation to it and went their way they all with one Consent saith Luke made their excuse they had matters of more Concernment as they thought than that feast We read also how despitefully they used the servant sent to Call them in It is certainly the feast of the Gospell that meets with such opposition and as certaine it is That none of us Gentiles will Come-in to This feast neither to receive Christ there till we see need of Him and that He hath no need of us for we are in our owne eyeâ— being Convinced thereof by the Word and Spirit poore maimed halt and blind or if Luke 14. 21. Revel 3. 17. you please wretched miserable and naked being Convinced that such we are In we come then and not till then before thus Convinced Thus we stand out contradicting and Blaspheming and dealing as despitefully with the Lords Messengers now as once they did But you finde it not to be so with the Guests you invite to the Lords Table who refuseth to Come or who deales despitefully with you inviting them to Come we can name hundreds of those we thinke thousands who deale despitefully with the Lords Messengers that will not suffer them to Come to the Lords Table while they Contradict and blaspheme Christ offered them in the Gospell And so having cleared our way the sense and scope of this Parable we argue from it against this free admission to the Lords Table That they who turne their backes upon Christ offered to them in the Ministery of the Gospell must not be admitted to Communion at the Lords Table We take this to be so cleare to every one that hath not put out his owne eyes nor is blinded with light that to argue it further were to hold a Candle before the Sunne Yet this more we will say They that tread His most precious blood underfoote tendered unto them in the Gospell will deale with Him as swine like offered unto them at His Table not possible they should reject Him at one place and receive Him at another They goe from the place of hearing full of themselves they goe as full to the place of receiving Then it must needs follow that they loath the honey-Comb they trample it under-foote Prov. 27. as in the one place so in th' other You will say how doe we know that we are to hope well of all men they come to the place of heareing We answer you to that in anothers words to one that said he kept his Church so may your dogge too Yea but we heare so may your dogge too a sound Truely Sir this is not our English though yet we allow it knowing it to be a truth Alas Sir you know they were in the hearing place and they were hearing while they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulders and stopped their eares that they should not heare Yea they made c. Zach. 7 11. 12 They did not shutt the eare against audience but they did shutt the heart against Obedience hearing in Scripture account is obeying is beleiving if we obey not what we heare we are not said to heare as you know it is clearely made out to us from John 5. 37. 8. 47. by our Lords owne testimony And truely Sir you must if there be a must to doe your duty examine your people at this point whether they have through their eares received Christ into their hearts before you admitt them to the Lords Table But we may Contribute more to this hereafter onely this we have cleared in the 1 place against this your free admission to the Lords Table That they and they are the Greatest number must not have admittance thither that have refused Christ yea rejected Him in the Ministery of the Gospell for why should those tremenda mysteria be so prophaned why should those be be dealt with swine-like by swinish men worse than if trampled under-foote in the face of the Congregation SECT II. WE argue from the Covenant of Grace and mercy by Jesus Christ that He will be a God and a Father unto us very gracious for His Son's sake And that we may argue it more Clearely we should give our minds to Consider That there is an height and depth and length and breadth of grace love and mercy in this Covenant of God with us It is that which the Saints have laid up to use excellent Preston's words whereby he yet speaketh for the foundation of all their Comforts It hath been the Corner Stone upon which the Saints have been built from the beginning of the world to this day There is no ground we have to beleive we shall be saved no ground to beleive any promise of God shall be made good unto us that we shall have the price of the high Calling of God in Jesus Christ and those Glorious riches of the inheritance prepared for us in Him we say there is do ground at all but on this Covenant All that our Ministers teach us from day to day are but Conclusions of this Covenant they are built upon this God hath made a Covenant with us in Christ and we are in Covenant with Him He is our God in Christ and we His people through Him and have accesse to Him by one Spirit Now hence we argue THEY THAT ARE whoâ—y ignorant of all this and will be so turning their backes upon the meanes of Gods appointment whereby to make knowne this Covenant to the Children of Men and say in their heart the language whereof the Scripture speaketh We have made a Covenant with Hell and with death are we at an agreement these manner of persons thus sottish and brutish as we have heard have nothing to doe with the Seales thereof But thus sottish and brutishly ignorant are they for whome no other plea can be made for their admission to the Lords Table but that they were borne in England and Baptized there This therefore is our faith as to this point of admission That it is the duty of every faithfull Minister of Christ well and throughly to examine their people what knowledge they have of this Covenant at least what breathings they have after it and to make out their interest to it in the conscionable use of the meanes appointed by God for that Glorious end before they Give admission to the Lords Table or Bring their Children to Baptisme In our Earthly matters as Conveyances