yee separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you This Scripture you say proves the state of the question on your part for you say the Apostles here speake of the Antichristian church of Rome whose filthy unclean doctrines were such that notwithstanding they were Christians in profession yet Gods people could not communicate with them but they must there was no avoyding it by reason of their abominable canons be defiled with them And therefore you say these texts of Scriptures are a sufficient ground to separate from Christian congregations I answer they are a ground to separate from such Antichristian congregations as the Apostles speak of but I require of you to prove the abomination the unclean thing in the authorized congregations in England and then you say something but till that be proved this Scripture is not for your purpose For the Church of England by the Parliaments of reformation in King Edward the sixt and Queen Elizabeths dayes separated from the fals doctrines and unclean practices of the church of Rome and then made acts lawes and ordinances against the abominable tenets and false devised imagined religion their Priests Sacrifices and back't their decrees with the penalty of death yet notwithstanding in processe of time the Prelaticall clergy brought in many corrupt innovations tending to act again the old uncleannesses under new pretences yet this honorable Parliament hath rooted up and extirpated the Prelaticall Hierarchy root and branch and still sit spending their wits spirits and pains for the reforming of Doctrine and Discipline that all congregations may bee regulated in and by the neerest way agreeable to the word of God Now considering all these things we enjoy under this happy authority that is over us your condition being under this authority and so placed of God take heed therefore nay how will you avoid it but that your resisting this authority you doe therein resist the Ordinance of God and herein walk contrary to Gods word Rom. 13. 1 2. Nay do you not fulfil the Prophesie of the Scriptures in presumption and selfe-willednesse to despise such Governors and speak evill of such dignitiâ—s as the Apostle foretold 2 Pet. 2. 10. How can you possibly cleare your way from the gainsaying of Core Jude v. 11. Nay is there not a plain parallell between him and his companies gainsaying and you and your companies gainsayings Num. 16. Did not they which were under authority usurp authority and in striving against Moses Aaron those that God had set over them did they not strive against the Lord Numb 26. 9. I will forbeare the consequence the Lord give you grace to repent of your striving resistance and gainsaying and murmure no longer against them in saying they impose will-worship upon your consciences in requiring many things there is not a plain word sor if it be not against the word but agreeing with the sense and meaning of the word submit your selves to their rules And if you conceive you know better then the Parliament your way is to petition and not to make resistance The next consideration is the Spirituall or voluntary congregation the communion of Saints The Prophet David calls them the Assembly of Saints the Congregation of Saints Psal 89 5. 7. The house of Aaron his Saint the house of Israel his chosen one the house of Levi his Priest Psâ— 136. and the Apostle the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. the houshold of God Eph. 6. 19. the house and Church of the living God 1 Tim. 3. 15. This church is called The Lords body Col. 1. 18. 24. because it is made living by the life that is in him spirituall by his spirit for they are all begotten and born of the Spirit and that which is born of the spirit is spirit John 3. 6. as that which is born of the flesh is flesh This communion and whole congregation by the Spirit of God are all baptized into one body and have been made all to drink into one spirit 1 Corinth 12. 13. These are all the children of wisdome all sonnes of God and heires of the promises these all by regeneration are as Peter was made living stones and are built of God a spirituall house a chosen generation a peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. These are the little flock of sheep lambs of Christ to whom the Father hath given the Kingdome who by faith have both the earnest and the abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ having fellowship with God their Father the Son their Saviour the holy Ghost their comforter and with each other in joying and sorrowing comforting and lamenting beleeving and hoping suffering and expecting with a mutuall affection the morning and day of salvation 1 John 1. 3. 7 chap. 3. 2. These are they that fear the Lord that receive him and his and often speak and confer one with another that are alwayes mindful of his covenant in whose heart is his Law These are the Lords Priests with whom he hath made a covenant of life and peace who have alwayes the Lord in their thoughts Mal. 2. and 3. chapters These onely have received an unction from the holy One that teacheth them all things 1 John 2. 20. These according to the command of their Lord give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and to God the things that are Gods Mark 12. 17. they love the Lord with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves they are all spiritual and so is their communion and fellowship and none but such as are spirituall are of this congregation this communion of Saints But a Minister in the North countrey told me the Independent congregations were this communion of Saints which is the last particular in the first Position To whom I answered His expression was very strange to me for I did not find any such name expressing creatures written in the book of life And I am sure all the Saints names are written there Wherefore said I hee that gives that name to any people and those that take that name unto themselves are both alike to be blamed for there is no one nor very many creatures can be said to be Independent but God alone the great creator I am the first and the last saith the Lord and besides mee there is no God Isaiah 44. 6. And thou even thou art Lord alone Nehem 9. 6. There is not a Saint nor congregation of holy ones can say one to another I have no need of thee for they are all members one of another and every one the members of Christ Ephes 4. 25 chap. 5. 30. 1 Cor. 12. I wonder that so many learned that professe that way and own the name Independent I wonder I say that their learnâ—ng doth not afford them a more proper terme for as â—uch as under this notion they aim at liberty of conscience Were they not better to expresse themselves under the names of
Religious freedome for this is the effect of your practice which affirm in his governed church in which you are placed under authority you ought to have freedome of conscience to exercise your gifts to gather a people to your selves and so to make use of all the ordinances of God both for Doctrine and Discipline And that no power nor authority ought to question you for it because you ought to have freedome of conscience This is another conceit of humane invention Did you ever read of such an expression in the Scriptures so applied as to free a man from all lawfull obedience to authority the consequence of truth is sincerity but the consequence of error is iniquity For think you not that your freedome of conscience as you call it which doth acquit you from all obedience to lawful commands if you your selfe shall so judge of it is not your own wilfulnesse to disobey that authority that is over you a permanent ground for the like freedome for all in particular that are under you to disclâ—ime your authority upon the same terms you doe others See in a word how you by mistaking the word overthrow Gods ordinance of government Rom. 13. even that which himselfe is God of for he is the God of Gods Dan. 2. 47. the God of order 1 Cor. 14. 33. Now to make your absurdity more manifest observe a similitude make the whole Kingdome of England the great nationall church make the Parliament and assembly of Ministers the Ruling and Teaching Elders in this great church your selves neither of them but under this authority And therefore by the law of God and man ought to live obediently to all their lawfull ordinances You pretend by religious freedome you ought not to obey them but rather to follow your own conceivings Is not this your practice of disobeying your Superiours a perpetuall ground for disobedience in your inferiours For that inferiour who ever he be that saith none above him hath power to prescribe rules to him his own practice for ever frees all that are under him from all manner of obedience to him and so for ever to establish by this doctrine such dissenting and contending as that there is no such custom in the churches of God 1 Cor. 11. 16. for the rule of Gods church is the quite contrary as the Apostle testifieth Rom. 13. 7. Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome fear to whom feare honour to whom honour It is true the Saints and children of God are free but that is in a spirituall respect by a spirituall birth The truth shall make you free John 8. 32. If the Sonne make you free you shall bee free indeed verse 36. but with the right knowledge of this freedome I find few professors are acquainted Their second Position When we have truly constituted our church by selecting us a congregation then we shall enjoy the spirituall administration of Christs ordinances in their purity setting up Christ upon his throne to the happy enjoyment and accomplishment of all the prophesies and promises foretold of all by the Prophets and Apostles My defence to your second Position There are three things considerable in this Position also First what you mean by Ordinances Secondly their spirituall administration and purity And lastly what you mean by setting Christ up in his throne to the fulfilling of all the Prophesies and promises in the Scriptures And first for the term Ordinances are they not those that wee have in communion in our publick Assemblies prayer reading and expounding the Scriptures preaching and in communicating in baptisme and the Lords Supper Is not the word of God the same in publick congregations as amongst you the same in a common and the same in a speciall administration Is not prayer the same in both with the spirituall the sacrifice of a broken heart with the rest a presentation of persons and words Is not baptisme the same in the outward as in the inward consideration The Lords Supper the same in the corporall signes as in the spirituall grace that as the earnall Christian through the common faith eats the bread and drinks the wine so the spirituall Christian by justifying faith eats Christs flesh and drinks his bloud You confesse all this to bee true but you say the difference lies in the point of the purity of the ordinances the manner of administration and communion in them which is the second confideration in the Position And you say for want of the spirituall administration the authorized congregations have lost the purity of all Gods ordinances and thereby continue the abominable and unclean thing amongst them And you give three instances to prove this First that our Minister are not truly called secondly say some of you we alter the ordinance of baptisme thirdly you all with one consent condemne us for admitting of mixt congregations To the first I answer Presbyters by the Parliament are ordained to examine approve and allow of mens gifts and for their spirituall gifts received of God to appoint and allow of them therefore to be Ministers according to the Apopostles rule 1 Tim. 3. 10 chap. 4. 14. against which there is no other externall rule to be shewed in the Scriptures And secondly whereas many of you say we alter the ordinance of baptisme it is more then you can prove by Scripture for although it be said Matth. 28. 19. Go yee therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them c. In your own understanding of that place it doth not say therefore as you say ye shall not baptize the infants of beleevers who you therein forbid to be brought to Christ contrary to the command of our Lord Matth. 19. 14. Suffer little children to come or to be brought unto me for so much the Text inferres and forbid them not to come unto me Which inhibition of yours is contrary also to Gods own ordinance and command Exod. 12. Gen. 17. which plainly commands that which you deny that children are to communicate if their parents were beleevers According to which ordinance of God the Apostles testifie to all the world Acts 2. The promise belongs to you and to your children and to all that are afarre off even to so many as the Lord our God shall call as if he should say whosoever God calls to beleeve the covenant belongs to them and to their infants as the covenant belonged to Abraham and to all strangers that should come to beleeve the truth to them and to their children also And this is the reason that we find it written and there are many examples of it in the Apostles times that when a man came to beleeve the truth the doctrine they taught them not onely they themselves but their housholds were baptized 1 Cor. 1. as the houshold of Stephan as and the rest And the Apostle resolves the question to the Church of Corinth saith he to this effect If one of the
Argument the inference and consequence thereof is that the use of the Lords Supper is not for the Saints alone for although the Saints have the blisse and best use of the Sacrament yet not the onely use And as they have a speciall right as spiritual Christians by faith to eat Christs flesh and drink his bloud to their confirmation so the unregenerate elect and common Christians have a true right to the communication of the outward signes to their information and instruction amongst the faithful For as the Paschal Lamb was generally to be eaten by both sorts of beleevers Exod. 12. 43 44. Circumcise him saith the Text and then shall he eat thereof so baptize the Christian and let him examine himselfe touching the knowledge of the Lords Supper and so let him eat 1 Cor. 11. 25 26 27 28. And here take notice by the way that this examining a mans selfe is all one with the preparation to the Passeover for the true use of understanding the Lords Supper and discerning the Lords body in knowing the meaning of the signes is to lead us to repent of our sins and to repent is to eate no leavened bread for this is to put out the leaven out of our houses Exod. 12. 15. And the Apostles admonition to the Church of Corinth is in effect the same that Hezekiah praieth for that the people before they came to the Passeover might prepare their hearts to seek God and that the Lord would pardon them that were not cleansed according to the purification of the Sanctuary 2 Chron. 30. 19. For saith the Text vers 18. a multitude of the people even many of Epbraim and Manasses Issachar and Zebulon had not cleansed themselves yet did they cat the Passeover c. Observe how the Church of Corinth and the Church of the Jewes are paralleld and although many defective in both yet in neither any denied And this promotes the free mercy and goodnesse of God that the unregenerate are not restrained from no outward ordinance that might further their coÌ„version His fourth Argument That the Lords Supper doth commemoâ—ate and confirm is very cleare and evident from the Scriptures but that it should be a means of conversion that is dubious My defence to your fourth Argument That which with the Word doth commemorate Christs death that doth also signifie teach and shew forth or is a means to attain grace even so often as it is communicated with the word Luke 22. 19. 1. Cor. 11. 26. And this is a truth not dubious but perspicuons For as by the eye the cutward sight doth affect the heart within or inwardly Lam. 3. 51. so doth the calling to mind or remembrance as David saith Psal 77. 3. Premembred God saith he and what did it lead him to or teach him He gives us the answer himselfe And I was troubled And what was his trouble but godly sorrow and repentance And upon the sight of the bitter passion of our Lord which was the same death the Lords Supper holds forth to us it is said Luk. 23 48. And all the people which came together to that sight beholding the things that were done smote their breasts and returned Wherefore be satisfied of the converting operation of the Sacrament And the truth is you confesse it in all your Arguments in that you doe acknowledge it doth commemorate and call to mind I pray consider what S. Paul writes to Timothy 1 Tim. 4. 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good Minister of Jesus Christ So then to call to mind or to put men in remembrance of the truth is a part of the ministery of the Gospel and that the participation of the Sacrament doth both our Lord and his servant testifies Luke 22. 1 Cor. 11. The more fuller clearing hereof I refer to my defence against the two Ministers five Quaeres hereafter mentioned The fifth Argument That the Word and Works of God are a means to beget grace the Scriptures plentifully affirm and they need no exposition at all for they speak out the glory of him that made them the wisdome bounty and goodnesse of God which leadeth to repentance but the Sacrament as the Bow in the clouds cannot without the exposition of Scriptures and therefore not teaching My defence to your fifth Argument You say God hath made his works as his word the outward means to beget grace and they need no exposition for they are made of God apparent to all Psal 97. 6. but you say so is not the Sacrament Nor say I the written Scriptures manifested to them that have them not but as the Rain-bow in the clouds ordained by the word of God doth teach to the eye Gods faithfulnesse in his promise and covenant Gen. 9. 13. even so doe the Sacraments which are likewise ordained by the same word inform the heart by the eye through seeing Christs death visibly represented by the elements so often as by the word they are consecrated and by beleevers communicated and doe thereby teach set forth and declare Gods faithfulnesse in his promise and covenant made with mankind in and through the death of Christ And Bread and Wine sacramentally are to none so but to such as beleeve the Scriptures His sixth Argument The Word and Works which are outward means to beget grace are made of God obvious to all men to see and read to the end they may bee won to repentance but the Sacrament may not be used to all the world but onely by such as beleeve Jesus Christ manifested which is a further ground to me that it begets not grace but commemorates and confirms onely My defence to his sixth Argument This Argument is of the same nature with your former and therefore one answer may serve for both for if the bounty and goodnesse of God be made known to Christians by the Lords Supper then by your own Argument they teach Christians to grace as the works of God the whole creation manifesting Gods bounty and goodnesse who thereby win or lead men to repentance even that part of mankinde that have not the Scriptures which shall be more cleared hereafter Now after I had received these Arguments from a friend there were sent me from two Ministers of my acquaintance these five Queres following The first Quere Whether to teach grace and confirme grace be two distinct things or no. My defence to the first Quere In my defence I premise that the visible Sacrament cannot bee without the audible word and so I say that the effect of both are distinct in teaching to attain grace and the confirming and strenthening the grace already wrought The second Quere If they be two distinct things whether then can the Sacrament of the Lords Supper teach so as to work a change in the affections or not My defence to your second Quere Whatsoever God hath made teaching that by his blessing may effect grace to whom it teacheth it for the Word