So for Ministers of the Gospel we hear of their labour in Word and Doctrine their charge to preach in season and out of season For the forbidding of marriage there is no such thing who hath not known men in that state in the Universities and Resident in Colledges It is true that those Students that have their maintenance from the Founders donation upon marriage lose their place but do not incurre expulsion And the thing is very equal seeing those places are not intended for a setled abode as some abuse them but for Preparation for publick employment whether in Church or State and who blames those ties of Apprentices from marriage for the terme of their service to know their trades If wives and families should be taken in they would soon finde the inconvenience that the sonnes of the Prophets complained of their dwellings would be too strait for them Object Object Have not the Vniversities sacrilegionsly stole this blessed name of Christs Scholars from his People Is not the very Scripture-language it self becâ—me absurd to wit to call Gods People especially women as Dorcas Scholars Answ Bloody tenent ibid. And was it not an equal sacriledge for some peculiar men to take the title of the Sons of the Prophets who as it is plain were not their children but their Scholars and therefore the Prophets under whose tuition they were were called by them as by the name of Father 2 King 2. 12. so also by the name of Master 2 King 6. 5. being those Masters of the Assemblies that the Wise man speaks of Eccles 12. Others heard the doctrine and as sons received the instructions of the Prophets as well as they yet the title is given peculiarly to some who in a peculiar way were separate for that work not common to all men much lesse to women Besides the word Scholler is plainly in relation to Schooles men may learn Christ and be his disciples is confest though they be not Scholars in this way I know no Schooles of the Prophets in the New Testament Object but the particular Congregation of Christ Jesus And I question whether it be any thing but sinne that hath dried up this current of the Spirit in those rare gifts of tongues to Gods sonnes and daughters serving so admirably both for the understanding of the Original Scriptures and also for the propagating of the Name of Christ Who knows but that it may please the Lord again to cloath his People with a Spirit of zeal and courage for the Name of Christ yea and poure forth those fiery streames again of tongues and prophecy in the restauration of Zion Bloody tenent page 174. I am glad to here it confessed that sinne is displeasing to God and that any judgement on the Church is confest to be let in at this gate I am glad farther to hear that tongues serve so admirably to propagate the Name of Christ whence I infer that while this judgement for sin continues there is a necessity of other courses to attaine this that is acknowledged to be of this excellency Since the judgement was laid on the earth for sin men have got their bread with labour and so must as long as the judgement remaines The like paines must be for learning as for a living When God shall please to poure out again these fiery streames we then shall confesse the unusefulnesse of Schools to this purpose in the mean space their use is evident And seeing it is acknowledged that men must digge with daily study and labour to come at the Original fountaines let none be like Pharaoh to urge a tale of brick and deny straw If they must thus digge let them not be necessitated to go to the Papists to sharpen their spades as sometimes Israel to the Philistines with their goads and mattocks which yet necessarily will be if their Schools be kept up and ours cried down Mr. Ainsworth is brought in for an instance who as is said had scarce his peer among a thousand Academians for the Scripture-Originals and yet he scarce set foot within a Colledge walls His abilities in the tongues is evident which was his Master-piece but his education I know not but one Swallow makes not a Spring I have known a man excellent in the most exquisite manual trade who yet never served a Master to learn it yet this never took men off the way of Apprentiships If Mr. Ainsworth scarce set foot in a Colledge walls yet he reaped the fruit of their labours that were studied and thiâ— way excelled Is this the honour that you professe to give to Schools for Tongues and Arts to perswade men not to set their foot within them Another goes yet here farther Object not only to put down Schooles and demolish Academies for learning but to deny any necessity or use of learning at all yea any necessity of a Ministery for interpretation of Scripture as the Compassionate Samaritane page 29 30 31. One interest among others by him named of Ministers is to perswade the people that the Scriptures though we have them in our tongue are not yet to be understood by us without their help and interpretation so that in effect we are in the same condition with those we have so long pitied that are forbid to have the Scriptures in their own tongue for it is alone not to have them in our own tongue and to be made beleeve that we cannot understand them though we have them in our own Is the cabinet open to us and do we yet want a key has so much labour been spent so many translations extant and are we yet to seek Let us argue a little with them either the Scriptures are not rightly translated or else they are if they are not why have we not been told so all this while why have we been cheated into errours if they are rightly translated why should not English men understand them The idiomes and proprieties of the Hebrew and Greek languages which some say cannot word for word be exprest in English might all this while have been translated into as many English words as will carry the sense thereof For the dilemma concerning the Scriptures rightly translated or not rightly I may apply that of Job chap. 6. verse 15. How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove and answer in a word that they are rightly translated according to the reach of a humane work and more rightly than the translation followed so much by the Evangelists and Apostles I suppose all will yeeld that ours is more exact after the Original than was that of the Seventy And yet there was no cheat in those translations if there had those witnesses of Christ had not been silent and yet not such a perfection that will bear no amendment There is still use of examination of them of asserting and defending them But be it granted that the translation is every way exact and full does it follow that there needs no help or
That Jewes carnally descended from Abraham or the children of Christians may be made partakers of the Covenant entered of God with Abraham Birth according to the flesh does nothing So also Bellarmine speaking of the covenant with Abraham saith It descends to us not by carnal but spiritual generation So that these men have sucked the spiritual meaning from the Jesuites and Master Marshal holds to the carnal imaginations of Protestant Reformers They produce many Texts of Scripture where this Birth-priviledge in their thoughts is evidently set forth Jesuites contradict it and upon this account it is a carnal imagination to conceive it The Apostle knew not saith one that God had so by promise Object or other engagement bound himself but he was free as he said to Moses after the promise made to Abraham to have mercy on whom he would Rom. 9. 15. If this be meant of any engagement of God to confer saving graces or habitual qualifications on the natural seed of Beleevers the words then carry reason with them But neither he nor his great friends will learn to distinguish between Gods conditional covenant contained in priviledges of Ordinances and habitual saving graces otherwise they know from Moses that God exercised this freedome in making choise of Israel above all Nations and that the Apostle knew and in the same Chapter lets us know Rom. 9. 4. that to them pertained the covenants and that this was their prerogative for Birth-priviledge Rom. 3. 1. We say the son of a Free-man is Free the son of a Noble-man is Noble we never said that the son of a Learned-man is Learned we say that the son of a Christian is a Christian as to interest in Ordinances We never said that the son of a Regenerate man is Regenerate It is further urged Object If this were true that the covenant of Grace is a birth-right-priviledge then the children of Beleevers are children of Grace by nature for that which is a birth-right-priviledge is a priviledge by nature And if Christianity is hereditary that as the child of a Nobleman is Noble the child of a Free-man is Free the child of a Turk is a Turk of a Jew a Jew the child of a Christian is a Christian Then Christians are born Christians and not made Christians and how are they then children of wrath by nature which whether it may not advantage the Pelagians and deniers of Original sinne it concernes those that use such speeches to consider To this I answer It concernes those that presse these objections to see how Chamier Paraeus and other Protestant Writers answer them when they are in their very words urged by Jesuites If they can reconcile Galat. 2. 15. with Ephes 2. 3. then they have an answer The Apostle was by birth of the people of God in covenant and yet by nature a childe of wrath It is further said Object To conceive that it is in Gods Churches as in other Kingdomes and after the Lawes of Nations is a seminary of dangerous superstitions and errours It is well that they have learned an Artifice from these superstition-hating Jesuites to keep out the inlet of superstition among us if there were no parallel held betwixt the Church of God and other Kingdomes after the manner of the Law of Nations but such that are Seminaries of superstition they may do well to acquaint us how it comes to passe that the Curch in Scripture hath the name of a City Family Kingdome Similitudes ever carry some resemblance If this were the alone ground on which the Birth-priviledge of Christians were bottomed they had said something but being only an illustration of it and nothing more they are over lavish in their censure Similitudes indeed may be over-stretched beyond their reach and if they had laid down rules to declare where the Similitude holds and where it holds not as I have done in the Birth-priviledge and made it appear that it holds not in that for which I produce it they had said somewhat to the purpose Read Mal. 1. 6 8 14. and tell me whether there be any ground laid for dangerous superstitions Thirdly It is so in all other Religions they keep up their priviledge of interest in the worship of their Ancestors The childe of a Turke is a Turke the childe of a Pagan is a Pagan the child of a Jew is a Jew And it is the Apostles Argument in like case respective to Ecclesiastical communion that because Sacramental communion rendered them one Ecclesiastical body with Christians so communion in worship will make one body with those of other Religions 1 Cor. 10. 17 18 19. See Paraeus on the words and Cudworths True notion of the Lords Supper There are common principles that are the same in all Religions and we must beleeve them to hold unlesse Scripture hold forth a difference Fourthly God ownes children born in the Church as by birth his his servants Levit. 25. 39 40 41 42. If thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor and be sold unto thee thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond-servant but as an hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee and shall serve thee unto the year of Jubile And then shall he depart from thee both he and his children with him and shall return unto his own family and unto the possession of his fathers shall he returne For they are my servants Root and Branch Parent and childe are servants of God As they were the servants of their Master when they could do them actually no service by reason of their relation to them so they are the servants of God on the same account And as he owns them as his servants so also he ownes them as by birth his children Ezek. 16. 20 21. Moreover thou hast taken thy sonnes and thy daughters whom thou hast borne unto me and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured Is this of thy Whoredomes a small matter That thou hast slain my children and delivered them to cause them to passe through the fire for them If there were no Birth-priviledge how had God this property in Infants and this David pleads Ps 116. 16. O Lord I am thy servant truly I am thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid because he was borne in Gods house and was a childe of a servant of his he pleads his interest Fifthly If the child be not in covenant the parent and childe are heterogeneal and respective to Church-relation in the most opposite condition the Parent in the Kingdom of God by vertue of the faith that he professes the childe in the Kingdome of Satan by reason of his non-interest in the Promise and want of title to Covenant-relation But Scripture makes them still as one Jewes children are Jewes by nature Gentiles children are sinners that is Gentiles by nature The Root being holy the Branches are holy Parents not sanctified children are unclean but Parents
Jeremies purchase Jer. 32. 10. and the Levites hiring of himselfe to do the office of a Priest Judg. 17. 10. Micah and he mutually agree he is to do the office of a Priest and Micah is to pay his covenant-wages so that he hit right of the nature of a covenant that defined it to be A mutual agreement between parties upon Articles or Propositions on both sides so that each partie is tied and bound to perform his own conditions This holds forth the general nature of a covenant and is common to all covenants publick and private divine or humane differencing it first from a Law or Precept where there is a command out of sovereignty propounded without any obligation or engagement on the Law-giver or Commander Secondly from a single promise where there is a signification of the will of him that makes the promise touching some good to him to whom the promise is made without any restipulation from him And to let passe several Divisions of covenants little pertinent to our purpose which may be seen in Civilians and Politians particularly in Grotius lib. 2. De Jure Belli Pacis cap. 15. and to speak to such which may give some light to the present work Covenans of this nature properly so called are either between equals where either party may indifferently indent with other neither standing engaged to other otherwise then by covenant as in the instances before mentioned The Priest was not engaged to officiate for Micah nor Micah to give money or rayment to the Priest but by vertue of contract one was the others equal in regard of any dependance one upon the other Or else they are between Superiour and Inferiour the Superiour condescending to the Inferiour to deale by way of covenant when yet the whole that is required by him is of debt and might without agreement or stipulation be required and exacted This superiority and inferiority is either mixt and imperfect or else it is absolute and sovereigne Mixt and imperfect superiority and inferiority is between parent and childe master and servant equal in being but Superiour and Inferiour in relation Of this nature was that of Isaac with Esau Gen. 27. 34. Take I pray thee thy weapons thy quiver and thy bowe and go out to the field to take me some venison and make me savoury meat such as I love that my soul may blesse thee before I die Esau was tied as a childe to do what Isaac required though he had hinted or promised no blessing Superiority and Inferiority absolute and sovereigne is only between God and his creature no other is an absolute Superiour and such is the covenant when God enters covenant It is of sovereignty that God makes a Law It is of condescension and goodnesse that he enters covenant in which man may not indent but must accept professedly accepting and in sincerity of heart performing what God in covenant demands yet it is a covenant and properly so called that he enters with his creature especially that which he enters with mankind having all the ingredients and fore-named requisites of a covenant as in the sequel God willing shall be demonstrated God is engaged to retribution and man to fealty and either of both by consent Covenants between any parties whether Superiour and Inferiour or equals among themselves are either simply and nakedly such without any farther solemnity or ceremony or any thing more then is essentially necessary in a Covenant a mutual engagement between each other on such termes and propositions as are mutually agreed Or else they are covenants with addition of ceremonies solemnities wayes of ratification and confirmation as instances might be given in covenants both humane and divine As the committing the words of the Covenant to writing Jer. 32. 10. Calling in witnesses in the same place and Ruth 4. 10 11. giving of the hand making oath Ezek. 17. 18. or any other National custome in use for confirmation as the setting up of a stone Joshuah 24. 26 27. the division of a Calf and passage between the parts of it Jerem. 34. 18. laying upon themselves by way of imprecation such a judgement that then befel that beast in case of falsification so that some making definition of a covenant over and above what is essential make addition of such wayes of ratification so Ravanellus defines a Covenant to be A mutual agreement of two parties in which either ties himself to other upon certain conditions in the use of some outward signes and tokens for attestation and confirmation that the promise may be inviolable The covenant which God pleases to enter with man especially with fallen man under which we are and our fathers in old Testament-administrations were is not a bare naked covenant but in the highest way of solemnity committed to writing John 20. 31. confirmed by witnesses with miracles Heb. 2. 4. by oath Heb. 6. 13. 17. by seals Matth. 28. 19. Matth. 26. 28. compared with Rom. 4. 11. And when he might have dealt with man by way of sovereignty ruling solely by prerogative and command not letting man know any reward for his service or at all to have understood the issue and event yet he is pleased to wave such right and to deal by way of covenant and that in this way here mentioned First That his people might be willing in the day of his power Psalme 110. 3. Obedience extorted contributes not that honour to him whom we obey we confesse a necessity in our selves to yeeld but scarce acknowledge any worth in such a Superiour to command serving no otherwise then Israel did Pharaoh as a bond man serves his master one volunteer that goes out of choice more honours an expedition then ten that are prest by power for service only waiting an opportunity by slealth out of dislike as Davids souldiers out of shame to quit the service I Sam. 19. 3. Secondly to vanquish all temptations and overcome all assaults that may occurre in mans way of obedience Adam in innocency was foiled by a temptation which he had overcome in case he had heeded the terms of the covenant the curse that was threatened and the promise that was contained in it man in his fallen estate undergoes many tryals and is encountered with variety of temptations had he not a word on which he might hope a word of promise in way of covenant from God he could not stand but of necessity must perish Thirdly that love rather then fear might principle man in his obedience as seeing more of goodnesse to induce then of wrath to scare him into it God will have his servants sons The free honour of a childe to his father rather then the compulsory fear of a servant pleases him Fourthly for the aggravation of sinne The more of condescension goodnesse bounty and love appears in Gods way of dealing the more of equity is seen and the more ingratitude and folly appears in mans disobedience Fifthly for mans greater
totally cast off in Judah neither did God cast off Judah Ahaz was of the worst of Kings and yet his posterity was reckoned among the people of the Lord. Had the Jews at that time been as severe disputants against a covenant-state as are risen up now the Church of God had wanted an Hezekiah He had never lived much lesse wrought so happy a Reformation in the Church of God 2. Those that are lookt upon by men as in Covenant with God and so ordinarily judged as the people of Israel were by the Name that they bear their abode in the Church the profession that they make and so accordingly stiled are truely and really in Covenant A man may know a man to appertain to such or such a person because he sees him in his family hears him call him Master sees him sometimes at least in his work and knows him to have the repute of his servant Though to know him to be a faithful servant requires more diligence of enquiry and a stricter scrutiny So a man may be as easily known to appertaine to Jesus Christ The same Characters make him known all that is required to being in covenant is visible open evident but sincerity of heart in covenanting is invisible and secret And therefore the Jew outwardly Rom. 2. 28. is called by the Vulgar Vatablus Tremelius Arias Montanus and Castalio Judaeus in manifesto by Calvin Judaeus in aperto by Beza Judaeus in propatulo The Jew inwardly is called Judaeus in abscondito or occulto Their Church or covenant-station giving them those great advantages after mentioned was open and manifest Those that say Lord Lord as Mat. 7. 21. are of those that avouch God to be their God and God avoucheth them to be his people And therefore when they come with their sacrifices though in their sinnes and God upon that account testifies against them yet he sayes I am God even thy God It is confess'd by an eminent adversary that we must judge those that make profession to be in Covenant with God we must give them the name of Christians and men in covenant with God and we must use them as Christians in works of Charity and Ordinances and Church-communion and so must use their children as Christians children And seeing reason to judge so according to Scripture-character of men in covenant they are so Either in this we judge right or else we proceed upon mistake If we judge aright then all is well If we mistake then all in these proceedings is null Water hath been applyed to the child of such an one but no Sacrament dispens'd and according to a mans hopes thoughts or feares of his fathers regeneration are his hopes thoughts and feares of his own baptisme and consequently of his interest in Church-communion for this stands or falls according to his fathers interest or non-interest in the covenant A grand Rule is laid down by the said Authour That a serious Professour of the faith is to be taken for a true Beleever and this being laid down more are added If this Proposition were a Scripture-Maxime then it would have borne a farther superstruction but being neither found there nor any proof made that it is any way deduced thence mother and daughters may all justly be called into question and seeing he cannot but know that very many as to the thing for which it is produc'd which in order to admission to Ordinances will utterly deny it he might have dome well to have made some essay to have proved it I do yeeld that charity is to hope the best but but that we should put our charity to it or our reason either for probability or certainty when we no where so taught and have a more sure rule for our proceeding I see no reason I can scarce meet with a Minister that sayes and I have put the question to many of the most eminent that I know that he baptizeth any infant upon this ground of hope that the parent is regenerate but still with earnest vehemence professes the contrary I desire the Reader to consider Master Cobbets third and fourth Conclusions in his just Vindication page 46. 52. There is a bare external being in the Covenant of Grace saith he of persons who possibly never shall be saved Concl. 3d. The Church in dispensing â—n enjoyned initiatory seal of the Covenant of Grace loâ—keth unto visibility of interest in the Covenant to guide her in the application thereof Nor is it the saving interest of the persons in view which is her rule by which she is therein to proceed Concl. 4th Visibility of interest and saving interest are there oppos'd See also Master Hudsâ—n pag. 249. John Baptist did not in his conscience think they had all actually really and compleatly repented and reformed themselves whom he baptized but he baptized them unto repentance Matth. 3. 11. and they by receiving the same bound themselves to endeavour the practise thereof It were a sad case for Ministers if they were bound to admit none or administer the Lords Supper to none but such as were truly godly or that they judged in their conscience to be so or were bound to eject all that they judged were not so 3. Mans obligation of himself in covenant unto God upon the termes by him proposed necessarily implies Gods obligation to man Where God makes tender of the Gospel by his Ministers to any one out of covenant there he makes tender of the Covenant and where a person or people professedly accept that is engage themselves as myriads of thousands did through the Acts of the Apostles this person this people each man of them is in covenant As Scripture calls them by the name of Saints Disciples Beleevers Christians so we may call them Covenanters They have all a sanctity of separation which Camero sayes is real and arguments are drawn from thence to a right in Baptisme There is in most of them if not in all some graces that are real either common or saving and a covenant doth not wait till the termes be kept and the conditions made good before it hath the being of a covenant And whether these be every way sincere or any way dissembling yet it is acknowledged that they really oblige themselves And God howsoever dissembles not but is bound by himself upon his own terms which they profedly accept to confer all that the covenant holds forth so that wheresoever man is obliged there a compleat covenant is made up for Gods tender goes before and man is the last party and compleats the Covenant 4. Sinceriâ—y and integrity of heart or fully reality in a mans intentions to stand to the whole of a Covenant is not of the offence and being of it Both parties stand engaged upon their respective termes though one part should have unsincere intentions A wife is a wise and the marriage is compleat when both parties have publickly express'd consent though she hold a resolution to be stubborn refractory
confesse is more disputable then either of the former before spoken to In those we had to deale with Antinomians on the one hand Papists Arminians Socinians on the other hand with some few others that are pleased in those points alone to strike in with Arminians and Socinians and in other things to oppose them But in this Papists agree not among themselves but one is against another neither is there that agreement amongst Protestant Writers that might be desired which must not be concealed some are for the affirmative and some for the negative and some seem to stand in a neutral indifferency Bellarmine among the Papists is for the affirmative lib. 4. de justificatione cap. 6. and takes up Soto for the contrary tenent who affirmes as he quotes him that Christians are not only delivered from the Ceremonial Law and the guilt and terror of the moral Law but from the whole Law as written in the books of Moses with this caution as he reports him that we are to keep the Law of Moses as it is natural and as it is in the Gospel and in the Epistles of the Apostles but not as it was written by Moses for Moses saith he could not binde us but it is Christ that bindes us for we are Christians and not Jews Soto hath Suarez and Medina as Master Burges observes with him and among the Protestants Zanchius de redemptione lib. 1. cap. 12. and Musculus in his common places go the same way affirming that the Moral Lawes which go under the name of the decalogue as they were delivered by Moses to the Israelites do not concerne Christians but as they are agreeable to the Law of nature and confirmed by Christ Paraeus as is observed by Rivet in his Explication of the Decalogue page 11. giving in his judgement of the differing opinions of Bellarmine and Soto affirms that the opinion of Bellarmine is most safe to be followed Rivet himself in the place quoted takes it to be a strife of words and the difference to be inconsiderable and in case the authority be granted there seemes indeed lesse danger though the Minister be waved The Antinomian as others have observed is by both parties opposed Some may think that the Law thus gaines in its authority in as much as Christ is of much more excellency then Moses when the Master of the Vineyard saw his servant neglected he said They will reverence my Sonne Mat. 21. 37. But if the servant be once despised and set so light by as we read from some hands Away with stammering Moses it may be feared that the Sonne will not long remaine in honour when servants fared so ill we finde that the Sonne had little better entertainment And in my thoughts there is scarce a readier way then this to strip us of the whole of the Law of God Keeping up to their own principles they can look on no more of the Law as binding Christians then that which is held out to us in New Testament-Scriptures If this be granted we must have a New Testament Text for every Moral duty yet to gratifie adversaries in this particular we may safely yeeld that the Law concernes not Christians as it was delivered by Moses only to the Israelites and so Zanchy's Position keeping strictly to the termes may happily be defended The Moral Laws as delivered by Moses to the Israelites do not appertain to Christians so neither doth Lukes Gospel or the history of the Acts as from him to Theophilus nor yet any of Pauls Epistles as from him to any particular Church or to Timothy Titus or Philemon But looking on Moses as employed of God with his Church with which he was in the Wildernesse Acts 7. 38. and upon his writings as a depositum left with the Church they are of equal concernment to us as they were to the Jews if we be as the Church of the Jewes was a Church of God This to me is plaine not only by those Texts of Moses quoted in New Testament-Scriptures as we heard before but quoted also as from Moses The Apostle pleading for Ministers maintenance saith For it is written in the Law of Moses 1 Cor. 9. 9. How were this argument of force if Moses his writings were not of use That of Peter is convincing 1 Pet. 1. 15 16. But as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation because it is written be ye holy for I am holy This was written by Moses Lev. 11. 44. Lev. 19. 2. Lev. 20. 7. and why should we be engaged to holinesse eo nomine because Moses writ it and gave it in charge in case Moses his writings do not binde Christians This also to me is plaine in reason Christ was King then as now his Church is the same now as then we and they make up one Kingdome Matth. 8. 11. The Lawes of Christ therefore unlesse they appear to be repealed are now in force as in former times There is not a temporal Obligation saith Master Burges Vindiciae Legis page 162. laid upon a perpetual duty The duties are confessed to be perpetual why should Moses then deliver them to be only of temporal permanency Neither is there any thing brought by Soto or any other hand to evince the contrary In the close of the words already quoted he sayes Mose-could not binde us but Christ for we are not Jews but Christians To this we say He could not binde us authoritatively but ministerially and because Christ bindes therefore Moses bindes seeing Moses was a servant in that house where Christ was a Sonne Christ was King of his Church in Moses his dayes Israel tempted Christ in disobeying Moses 1 Cor. 10. 9. He commanded for Christ when he gave command to the Israelites and these commands are of concernment unto Christians who are their fellow subjects The Arguments produced by Soto are satisfyingly answered by Bellarmine Soto saith that the Preface of the law leads to the Israelites onely I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage But it was the Jews and not Christians that were in Egypt This is false as one of these Jesuites truly answers the other we were in Egypt as well as the Nation of the Jews They were our fathers and we their children 1 Cor. 10. 1. It was once indeed otherwise with us being branches of the wilde Olive But the natural branches being cut off we are grafted into their stead that mercy of deliverance from Egypt being a Church-mercy is our mercy He further objects that of Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets were until John and is answered that that is understood of the Law prophecying by figures and not instructing in manners which is further explained Matth. 11. 13. For all the Prophets and the Law prophecyed until John that is all the prophesies of the Messiah to come whether delivered in words by the Prophets or by signes
most perillous times 2 Tim. 3. 3. How much more then will God and man have in detestation those that have entred covenant in an immediate way with God for faith and obedience and to stand out in opposition to sinne and Satan yet making defection from God by sinne and unbeliefe stand up in rebellion against him Is the dreadful Majesty of the great God of no more regard than to pretend to him engage with him and then stand up in hostility against him Is there any thing so lovely or honourable in sin to allure men to run upon the wrath of God that they may welter in it or any thing so unpleasing in the wayes of God that neither the dread of his name nor the blisse held forth in promise can perswade to embrace them A viler thing cannot be named than a Christian in sinne a Christian in wayes of unbeliefe and wickednesse Were the name of a Christian off and no covenant bonds engaging to the Lord then there were no more than a creature in rebellion and that were bad enough the work of Gods hand to strive with its Maker But standing vested in this covenant-relation honoured with this glorious Name here is an addition of Hypocrisie Apostasie and defection We hate none more than those that are false to us and we may well conclude that God hates none more than those that are false to him and therefore challenges his people whether they have found any iniquity in him Jerem. 2 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone farre from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain A servant doth not use to quit one Master and betake himself to another but he gives some reason of his change One that hath been engaged for the ways of God as all are that are called by the Name of God and dignified with the title of a Christian would be hard put to it to give a reason of his revolt from God When God and vanity are set in competition that God should be refused and vanity chosen when the fountaine of living waters that never can be drawn dry is left and cisternes broken cisternes chosen that are alwayes running dry How does the holy Ghost set out these 2 Pet. 2. 22. The dog is turned to his own vomit againâ—â— and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Can the sow find no other place than filth nor the dogge no other food than his vomit A returne to sinne is more loathsome than these and such are all the wayes of all men in sinne of all of a Christian profession that are seen in ungodly ways Nothing so glorious as a Christian that holds to his principles that answers in conversation to his profession Nothing so inglorious as a Christian in sin A Jew outwardly and a Heathen inwardly a face for God and a heart for iniquity When such as these came out of the holy land for Babylon they there said in way of reproach of their God These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36. 20. Rom. 2. 24. Insomuch that God is put to it for his vindication not to suffer them to carry their sin with impunity Ezek. 39. 23 24. And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me therefore hid I my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies so fell they all by the sword according to their uncleannesse and according to their transgressions have I done unto them and hid my face from them This falsehood in covenant draws present sufferings National plagues I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant Levit. 26. 25. Every Christian Nation under sufferings may sadly reflect upon all that they groan under and say their iniquities have procured these things unto them But this breach of covenant with God hath greater evils even unto eternity following upon it Men of sinne and unbeliefe that lie in distrust and disobedience can claime no interest in the grace and mercy of the covenant God in covenant engages to Faith and Repentance these as we have seen are his termes when men come not up to them they dis-interest themselves and disengage God from any tye of conferring blisse and savation upon them Their own folly and madnesse puts a barre to their own happinesse and glory They cannot be self-saviours yet they will not go out of themselves for salvation by another when they have received the sentence of death in themselves they will not come to Christ that they may have life He may worthily bear his own debt that in pride of spirit refuses anothers bounty Christ offers himself as a Surety in our stead to make payment for us in his own person The unbeleever will stand on his owu bottome and make pay out of his own store or perish Having heaven and hell set before them the tender of the one and the terrour of the other quitting heaven and all the glory of it and happinesse in it they make choice of that fire that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels covenant-breaking having the certaine doome of destruction fastened upon it Assurance of salvation cannot be gained but in a way of covenant-keeping yea the conditions of the covenant are the basis and never failing bottome of our Evidence and Assurance It is gathered thus He that believes and repents shall be saved This is evidently laid down in Scriptures A man void of saving faith and impenitent may give his assent to it Then the sould is to assume to it selfe but I beleeve and repent therefore I shall be saved These two as at large hath been shewn are the conditions of the covenant these we must finde wrought in our souls or else all Evidence is wanting and when these are concluded an undeceiving interest in salvation follows There is a twofold work to be done on the soul that is in sin in order to bring it to salvation There is a third to be done for assurance of salvation The first work is to set the soul free from Hell to deliver it from the sentence of Death to which by the rule of justice man stands condemned A man must be fetched out of prison before he can be for any preferment or place of honour This is done by the blood of Christ Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace This is the price of our ransom Being redeemed not with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1 18. Secondly to make a man meet for heaven A man so vile as sinne makes is a man fit for nothing but hell and must have a change wrought before he be meet for heaven Upon this ground the Apostle is
viz. à duplici modo communionis externo interno Vindication page 4. One and the same Church hath members of a visible and invisible notion a more full explanation may there be seen This being premised I affirm that interest in Church-membership in a visible Church-state is theirs and may be claimed by all those that have interest in the covenant before named an external interest or an interest in the external covenant as usually it hath been called This is a sure rule Where the Covenant is there the Church is and in what latitude soever men are taken into covenant they are received into the Church Lawes tendred by a Prince and received by a people whether they be tendred immediately by himself or by his Heraulds or Embassadours make up the relation of King and people A marriage-covenant tendred by a man as by Abrahams servant in the name of Isaac to Rebecca Gen. 24. and accepted by a Virgin makes up the relation of husband and wife covenant-draughts between man and man for service as an apprentice his indentures make up the relation of Master and servant now the Gospel-covenant is all of these between God and a people where God tenders it and a people receive it there God hath his Spouse his Subjects his Servants These are his people and all of these are Church-members The Word preached and received hath ever been assigned by Orthodox Divines as the characteristical note of a Church of God a Church stands and falls with it where it is professedly received there is a Church-interest Let one man apart receive it as was the case of the Eunuch he forthwith becomes a Church-member and is to have as we see he had his present matriculation and to be admitted by baptism a member not of this or that Congregation but of the Church universal visible and upon this account wheresoever he comes is a Saint a Disciple a Christian a Beleever and so to be received and acknowledged This is abundantly confirmed in those parables of our Saviour Christ of the floore where there is both chaffe and wheat Mat. 3. 12. of the field where there is both wheat and tares of 〈◊〉 draught-net where are fishes good and bad Mat. 13. 24 47. As also in that of the Apostle 2 Tim. 2. 20. In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and some to honour and some to dishonour The Church is this floore this field this draught-net this great house in which there is chaffe tares fish unfit for use and vessels of dishonour to which may be added the parables of the wedding feast in which there is a mixture of some without a wedding garment Mat. 22. of the sheepfold with kids and goats These parables are brought by Bellarmine for proof that the Church doth not consist only of the elect lib 3. de Eccl. Mil. cap. 7 to which Whitaker Controv secundâ quaest primà cap 7. answers by distinction Bellarmine saith he ought to prove that in the Catholick Church which is the body of Christ there are both good and bad reprobate as well as elect and for proof of this saith he he brings the parable of the floore in which there is wheat and chaffe but by the floore in this place is not meant saith he the Catholick Church but each particular Church in which we confesse there are bad as well as good and for the most part more bad than good And though he makes some exceptions against some of the Parables yet he applies the same answer to others Concerning that of the draw-net he saith The sense of the parable is manifest It happens in the Church when the Gospel is preached as in the sea when the draught-net is cast to take fish 1. All the fishes that are in the sea are not enclosed in the net 2. All are not good that are inclosed but some are unfit for use 3. The bad fish are not separate from the good till the net be drawn to land so when the Gospel is preached all men do not come in all are not good that come and the good and bad are not separate till the end of the world And Doctor Reynolds maintaining that position That the holy Catholick Church which we believe is the whole company of Gods elect and chosen saith The wicked must needs be a part of the Church if the name of Church did signifie the visible Church as we call it consisting of the good and bad Amesius who as we heard judges it very probable that there is no visible Church where the Word is truly preached in which there are not some that are godl◠and therefore is farre from concluding the godlinesse of all saith in his Bellar. Enervatus lib. 2. de Eccles cap. 1. It is false that inward graces are required of us to a mans being in the Church as to the visible state of it see Apollonius Syllog pag. 8. Professores Leyden disput 40. pag. 3. If any man judge it to be absurd that Christ should have wicked men who are limbs of Satan to be of his mystical body carnal wicked men to be members of such a gracious and glorious head Christ is the head of his Church say they if such be Church-members then Christ is their head I shall referre them to a full and satisfying answer to Master Hudsons Vindication page 6 7 8. And for those that deny any being of a Church universal visible as Master Blackwood in his Storme page 65. who saith the objector is overtaken in a grosse absurdity to think there is some universal Church visible begun in Abraham into which upon the rejection of the Jewes the believers among the Gentiles and their seed are to be received for besides the invisible Church the body of Christ mystical there are only particular Churches under the Gospel I would learn of them into what particular Church the Eunuch was received and by baptisme actually and solemnly admitted or whether he was still no Church-member but an alien and stranger to the Common-wealth of Israel not added to the Church To what particular Congregation the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists joyned themselves by covenant and to save farther labour leave them to Master Hudsons Vindication of the essence and unity of the Church Catholick visible which will receive a satisfactory answer when the Sun hath no more being in the Heavens CHAP. XLII A man in Covenant with God and received into the universal Church visible needs no more to give him accesse to and interest in particular visible Churches 2ly IT farther followes that a man by vertue of covenant being thus enrighted to membership in the Church universal visible and baptized into this body there needs no farther covenant to give him accesse to and interest in particular visible Churches What the Apostle gives in charge to the Church at Rome concerning those that are weak in the
name of Christ drawn from the benefit which they shall reap Ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost 3. A farther encouragement to the acceptation of Baptism drawn from their Covenant-priviledge which is here set out in its full latitude and extent as Calvin rightly upon the words observeth 1. â—o the Jewes For the promise is unto you 2. To their children and to your children 3. To the Gentiles upon call and to you that are afarre off even as many as the Lord our God shall call Where an effectual call cannot be meant which the Apostle calls a call according to purpose proper only to the elect It is a call unto such a Church-state as the whole Nation of the Jews did then enjoy as the first-borne in the family A call that puts them into a like Church-state and condition with the Jews From whence this argument may be drawn Those to whom the Covenant of promise appertaines have a right to Baptisme But the covenant of promise appertaines to men in a Church-state and condition and to their children The major cannot be denied by any that will not make themselves the Apostles opposites The minor proposition is now to be considered That the covenant of promise to men in a Church-state and condition is in that latitude as to comprize their children For which the words of the Apostle are full and clear To you is the promise made and to your children on which Calvin rightly comments Peter observes saith he a due order when he assigns the first place of honour to the Jewes That it takes in children it depends on the words of the promise Gen. 17. 7. I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Where God joynes children with their parents in the priviledge of adoption in the inheritance of priviledges belonging to all Church-members But this clear text wants not wits that study to cloud it Objections answered Some except against the word children and will have them to be the same as the sons and daughters mentioned v. 17. of that chapter from Joel chap. 2. 28. and consequently the promise to be meant of the Spirit of prophecie and to appertaine to none but those of age and capacity for prophecie To this I answer 1. The extraordinary gifts of the holy Ghost in this visible way cannot be the promise here by Saint Peter mentioned seeing it is enlarged to all that are afarre off even to as many as the Lord shall call But all these have not the holy Ghost in that way extraordinary nor any promise of it Baptisme with the holy Ghost and with fire is a baptisme proper to those primitive Saints wherewith they were told that they should be baptized not many dayes after 2 Howsoever the promise be interpreted so as to belong to all that are beleevers and call on the name of the Lord as there followes yet that promise is on condition of their baptisme The meanes are to be used in reference to the end Baptisme is the meanes receiving of the holy Ghost there specified is the end And the Apostle confirming them in the promise of the end doth likewise encourage them to the use of the meanes in Baptisme to expect the gift of the Spirit and so according to this interpretation that place is an encouragement to baptisme The promise is the fittest encouragement to the Signe and Seale of the promise Baptisme is the Signe and Seale to which they are here encouraged and in that latitude as they had formerly known the command of Circumcision 3. Neither are the children here mentioned the same with sonnes and daughters spoken of by the Prophet nor limitted to such sonnes and daughters as are of growth and capable of the gift of prophesie 1. The Apostle urgeth the promise in the way as in the Scripture it is delivered which is to men and their posterity to them and theirs So God promises to be a God in covenant to his and their seed and this the Apostle holds out to draw them on to the Seale of the covenant to accept Baptisme on the same terms that Abraham did circumcision 2. It is without reason to beleeve that the Apostle should instance in one peece of the distribution of the Prophet there and to leave out the rest to put in alone sons and daughters when we have in the Text young men old men servants and handmaids 3. Children here are mentioned under a promise to the parents to you and your children is the promise made but not so in Joel nor in the quotation of the Apostle That Scripture hath only an enumeration of the several sorts and conditions of people in any Nation on all which the spirit is promised without any reference made to the parents of those sonnes and daughters more then to the masters of those servants and handmaids not the sonnes and daughters of their flesh but the sonnes and daughters of the Nation A Language usual in our ordinary expressions speaking of men of any sort or condition as your Lawyers your Merchants c. so here your sonnes your daughters your old men your young men c Others say That the promise made is the sending of Jesus Christ and blessing by him as is expounded Acts 3. 25 26. Act 13. 32. Ro. 15. 39. I answer it is true that Jesus Christ is the most eminent mercy promised and may be called the promise virtualiter being the ground of all promises and therefore some interpreters have mentioned the gift of Christ on this occasion But it is plaine that Gods Covenant and this gift are to be distinguished Christ is promised in priority to the Jew before the Gentile The Jew then is taken into Covenant before this gift of Christ can be of them expected It is therefore the Covenant it self entered with parent and child root and branch that is here meant as Calvin in the words before observes from which the giving of Christ in the flesh follows And therefore Diodati fully pitches upon the true sense of it Seeing as you are Abrahams children you are within the Covenant you ought to acknowledge Christ to be the head and fountaine of the Covenant The Covenant I will be thy God and the God of thy seed is here meant which from Abraham had been the Jewes priviledge Rom. 9. It is farther said that the limitation as many as the Lord our God shall call shewes that the promise belongs to them not simply as Jewes but as called of God which is more expressely affirmed Acts 3. 26. To you first God having raised up his Sonne Jesus sent him to blesse you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities I wonder how it came into any mans head to call this amplification a limitation it plainly enough speaks their boldnesse in dealing with the Scriptures Had the Apostle said To you is the promise made and to your seed in case God shall give you a call he had spoke to their purpose but
regard of persons for Themselves Posterity For themselves it is much to be able with the Psalmist to say Thou art he that took me out of the wombe Thou didst make me to hope when I was upon my mothers breasts I was cast upon thee from the wombe thou art my God from my mothers belly Psal 22. 9 10. This puts upon confidence in prayer as an argument drawn from long continued acquaintance as there follows Be not farre from me for trouble is neer Ver. 11. Such have timely knowledge of God sucking in somewhat of him while they suck milk from the brests An expression of height setting out this birth-happiness that hath sure more in it then can be applied to sinners of the Gentiles see how the Psalmist yet farther pleads it with God O Lord truely I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy hand-maid Psal 116. 16. an allusion to the law of servants who were the inheritance of the Master in whose house they were Exod. 21. 4. Levit. 25. 16. I am such saith the Psalmist thy servant thy servant with all earnestneâ—â— of affection I am of thine inheritance I am one of those that are thy house-borne-servants my mother was thy hand-maid I have therefore this relation to plead and this he pleads again and again in the same words Psal 86. 16. This great priviledge Isaiah in like manner takes notice of Isa 49. 1. The Lord hath called me from the wombe from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name The Apostle mindes the Ephesians of their former condition and will have them to remember the time past when they were without Christ being aliens from the Common-Wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise having no hope without God in the world But there never was a time in which men of this birth-priviledge were in that condition these are Gods heritage from the wombe and with Timothy some in greater some in lesse measure from children have the knowledge of the Scriptures if not with John Baptist full of the Holy Ghost from the wombe Luke 1. 15. which yet doubtlesse is the happinesse not of few who are eminent in sanctification whose growth in grace is seen and yet the beginnings not known Howsoever it is with them for personal qualifications yet they are nigh when others are afarre off Ephes 2. 13. at the pools brim waiting the Angels moving of the water John 5. 3. Salvation is of the Jewes saith our Saviour John 4. 22. Saving Ordinances are their inheritance They are happily seated under that joyful sound which is able to save the soul Jam. 1. 21. Salvation is of his house who is the sonne of Abraham Luke 19. 9. As it is full of consolation to Beleevers in respect of themselves so also in reference to their posterity their children are Gods children they being the Lords inheritance their children are his heritage in like manner they bring â—orth children to God and he ownes and challenges their seed as his Ezek 16. 20. An infinite love in God an unspeakable comfort to a perent when the Infant who by corruption of nature is in Satans jawes and in no lesse danger of hell than Moses sometimes was of the water and not so much as sensible of his condition God pleases in this sad state to look upon him and to make it the time of love finding out wayes for his freedome What the Apostle speaks from the Prophet Rom. 10. 10. of Gods care of the Gentiles is certainly true being applied to infants I was found of them that sought me not and made manifest to them that enquired not after me Had we that hopelesse opinion of our children as Papists have of theirs that die without Baptisme what a wretched case were it with David to part with an infant out of the world How could such mourne in any other way than as those that are without hope parting with an infant without any part in Christ and in no better posture towards God than the seed of the sinners of the Gentiles doomed both by the Psalmist and the Prophet Jeremy Psalm 79. 6. Jerem. 10. 25. Pour out thy wrath on the heathen that have not known thee and upon the families that call not upon thy name they might with Rachel weep for their children and refuse to be comforted because for eternity they are not But we finde God more rich in mercy entring covenant with his and their seed Christ himselfe imbracing them in their infancy and taking them into his special love as those that bear his name and though death should prevent their Baptisme whereby they have an actual interest in visible Church-priviledges yet he that hath appointed Ordinances is not tied to them but where he hath entered covenant can save without them Bellarmine confesseth that the desire of Baptisme in one that is in the number of the Catechumoni instructed in the principles of Christ and not baptized doth save though the text John 3. 5. so much urged by that party against the salvation of infants understood with their Comment be in the letter against it why then should not that grace which would shew it selfe in like desires when the person is of capacity qualifie for salvation in like manner Finding this love in God these bowels in Christ we may safely conclude that children have blisse parents have comfort parents and children have their interest in Church-Ordinances and Administrations And let God have the glory FINIS AN ALPHABETICAL Table Relating to the chief Heads handled in this Treatise A Abraham CIrcumcision was not a Seale of Faith peculiar to him pag. 239. Arguments evincing it ibid. All his seed were not in Covenant but his seed by Promise only pag. 298 He was not taken into Covenant as a natural Father but as a natural Father accepting Gods tender pag. 299 His seed is entitled to saving mercies on Gods termes ibid. His houshold-members out of Covenant not circumcised page 425 See Circumcision Root Actions Immanent and transient pag. 132 See Justification Adam Was in Covenant with God pag. 9 His integrity was connatural pag. 103 Stood not in need of a Mediatour p. 91 In what sense imperfect ibid. In case he had stood whether he had been translated out of Paradise into Heaven p. 100 He might have gone quick to Hell if Christ had not been promised p. 102 See Covenant Adoption Adoptive-right to Baptisme questioned p. 454 Angels In Covenant with God p. 7 Needed not a Mediatour p. 91 In what sense their obedience was imperfect ibid. Antiquity For Infant-Baptisme cleared p. 416 Apostasie Total and partial p. 453 Assembly Of Divines vindicated p. 406 Assurance Is to be gathered from the conditions of the Covenant p. 195 See Spirit B. Baptisme SIgnifies not barely dipping but every way of washing It is the door for admission into the Church visible p. 275 Pharisees not denied it seeking but being tendered rejected