in me in the days of my youth if I remember right the love of my espousals when I was going after him in a Land not sowen but since have been straying in a wilderness of sin wherein I were lost without his mercy O Lord if in reading thy servant Drakes Book 〈◊〉 have not feared thy righteous judgement more than mans and been more troubled about the good or hurt of mens precious souls than the regard of my name let my honour lie in the dust and my soul in ashes Let my repentance be conformable to my sin for it is great O Lord even where I see it not and may be greater in being hid from mine eyes till others find it for as for those many passages wherein I am accused of pride and censoriousness Thou knowest my conscience is ready to acquit me yet will I not acquit my conscience which may take part with my sinful nature but desire thy mercy to clense me and it from all my secret as known corruptions For the making my Apology or defence against my Opposer I shall humbly crave the liberty he has taken not to trouble my self too much about it T is true some bid me give him no answer His language deserves no answer but yet he shall have as good a one as I can give him I shall only requite the freenesse of his words by being as fre◠from tying my self to any smoothness of stile or form of language but what comes easiest to my thoughts wherein I will deliver as God assists me my very heart in this controversie being ready even to fall down and beseech a tendernesse of spirit in the undertakers thereof for I am quite over whelmed with the fears that have got within me On one side lest I should hurt the Church of God On the other lest I should not endeavour the healing of the hurt others I judge have made in the daughter of my people It would be sad to me to make others sad though they should not be sad if I did not make some rejoyce that should rejoyce But it is much sadder to lie under fears we should not fear and have the bones broken that should not be broken I have seen the teares of friends I know the difficulties of some spirits and my own scruples and I do fear there is no soul deeply tender and doubtfull of his condition can ever solidly have peace at this Sacrament unlesse it be allowed a means of Grace to examining Christians that find as yet they savingly want it They came to the pits and found no water they return with the vessels empty and were ashamed Before I begin with Mr. Drake it will be requisite to consider in the way how he is pleased to judge and deal with me as if my whole book were only in opposition unto them whom it least thought of in many parts of it Those whom it orderly concerns are 1. All tender Christians in general aggrieved about this Ordinance 2 In particular the more scrupulous that wholly neglect to administer or receive only for want of discipline which I take is doing evil that good may come of it whose disallowance is just 3 Weak Consciences made so by others strictness that judge the Sacrament defiled to them if they eat with any but the Godly I have seen some experience hereof I pity 4 The more heady zealous Christians that cannot be quiet without separation 5 Then in the last place it is against any forms to be set up as necessary to our worship which is but arbitrary and prudential lest it bring a burthen on some Consciences which like the poor willing humble Camel are even stooping on their knees to take upon them Now a right distribution only of my Book in the several passages to these several persons and comportments will turn the body of it so aside to the blows of my opposer that the most part of them may pass by empty and do it no harm For thou Lord art a strength to the poor a strength to the needy in his distress a refuge from the storm a shadow from the heat when the blast of this terrible one is but as a storm against the wall Now to come towards the work In the entrance of Mr. Drake's Book I meet with a censure I am sorry to see it I will not say it is a piece of childishness or incontinency in a man of his title nor that it is a mark of modesty in the forehead of it but I do think that while he is so forward to be known among the Elders in the Gate the more humble of his brethren are so ashamed for him that they may afford him Scarlet in their blushes I could have wisht him first to have spent a few leaves in a due examen that a conviction might appear before his suspension which might have cooled him a little perhaps even as the Romans were wont to bind up their instruments of punishment into bundels which they called their Fasces that the wrath and passion of the Magistrate before whom in honour they were carried might be asswaged something in their giving judgment while the Lictors were unbinding them After the Frontispeece to omit the Preface he begins his four first pages with a quarrel at the Title of my Book An humble Vindication c. and then produces four passages for the World to judge of them whether they savour not of pride c. Answer I am content let the World judge and think upon Christ It is no wonder he cannot find in his heart to afford my Book its due Title that is a going about to crucifie it However if any pious men are offended at me I think it safest to crave their pardon professing in the presence of God that there was not one of these passages that came from me to my utmost memory with the least bitter reflexion upon any but were the meer harmless daughters of invention nevertheless if the Mother be froward the Child must do so no more And now I appeal to every godly heart to take off from me as to their assent this rash Censure seeing there is none can be judge or witness herein but God and my conscience who as to these particulars do clear me yet though I know nothing by my self herein but my own fears am I not justified for there are many others may condemn me without flying to his mercy If my heart had not warmth or zeal enough for some passages nor establishment for others nor worth enough to suffer some things in my Prefacer Forgive O Lord the iniquity of thy servant who is more ashamed of his sinne than to confess his shame which none eyes see but thine And let not these scruples of my weak soul come in derision but let me be contented yet to become more vile while all applause of men and vain-glory fall down at thy feet and give up the ghost unto thy glory Sect. 2 PAge 5. He comes to
desires but not a prevalency of resolution in them while they feel sinne and a love unto their sin and yet a hatred of that love while they have some signs of grace and want others no wonder they so greedily embrace the Sacrament as a means to beget that in them they are in doubt of or else must come upon their certain ruine I must confesse it is a notion has enter'd my heart and runs through this Book Let the poor sinner come as condemning himself and apply Jesus Christ in the sense of his condition Let him come with a rope about his neck for our King is a merciful King If we would judge our selves we should not be judged 1 Cor. 11.31 For the latter the wise and more piercing as they may not be so strict in their apprehension of this solemnity they do mainly enquire into the nature of grace how the Spirit works it by way of moral Swasion only or Infusion and that at once or by gradual preparation they know not whether special grace differs from common any otherwise than the same seed cast in divers grounds in regard of root and continuance and conceive this Ordinance with others to be means and helps for the rooting of it or for the begetting those farther degrees which make that grace that before was not to become saving and so they can allow a proportionable latitude in their admission It was the famous Tyranny of one Procrustes towards strangers to lay them in his own bed and if they were shorter to stretch them out to the length of it if longer to cut them short to his Stature I heartily bewail the extream rigor of too many of those we hold Orthodox that would have all other judgments cut even with the model of their own especially in these first effectual workings of Gods Spirit which are secret to reason various in experience and unsearchable as to the way and means whereof Jo. 3.8 there is none may limit him For the Bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it and the coverings narrower than that a man can wrap himself in them To conclude There are two kind of Readers into whose hands my lines will come my bare Readers or my Iudges For my bare Readers I do heartily fore-warn you not to trust to my judgment but to stay and see what others will write of it counting of me only as one that have proposed your minds that you may be satisfied In the mean while I beseech you Brethren in the Bowels of Christ be submissive to your Pastors and grieve not the more knowing and pious souls of those that so indulgently watch ever you For my Judges I only wish them to be moderate unprejudiced spirits and humble men and I shall submit unto their censures If I have built Wood Hay or Stubble on Christ the foundation let my work be burnt but my self saved I sacrifice it to the flame where it shall dye though Truths malefactor yet a Martyr as to the innocency of my intentions and to testifie my repentance turn to ashes Iohn Humfrey A REJOYNDER TO Mr. DRAKE Sect. 1 THere is a poor Book of mine got into the Press about the Sacrament little in its bulk lesse perhaps in its worth and least in its Author It hath pleased one of a Reverend title to take so much notice of it as to vouchsafe me a confutation I humbly think my self to be engaged to him for his labours though his language is unacceptable and grievous to my spirit I must confesse it is not satisfactory to my judgement yet must I thank him for his good will at least and charitable intentions I perceive some of my friends are ready to look on his work only as a piece of spite and product of passion and have advised me to return him my silence as an answer to fit him But when I seriously look into my own thoughts I find not my self so slightly affected and to speak freely seeing I know him not I rather judge it to be out of zeal though overborn indeed too much with some distemper that makes him so hot and desperate in his Exceptions He is afraid that the temper of my Book which is free and hearty is so suited to the spirits of honest people that it will draw them after my opinion which he judges to be dangerous and may do hurt to them and therefore labours in his discretion to deface in it whatsoever has but the appearance of humility or ingenuity A man may be more froward many times than wise As for the many revilings then wherewith he so often blesses me in the scatterings of his indignation I professe they move not me so much though they grieve me too bad otherwise in regard of the disgrace for I am beneath it as they they do please me in two respects 1. That this zealous man I count is so much the more in my debâ— which I desire him to pay for me at the throne of Grace And2 That if I should be in any error which the more I doubt the lesse I know here is some salve for it to heal it in others and expiate in me For this censure I trust in the kindnesse of my Saviour shall be all the punishment he will lay upon me for my failings and while I receive my evill things here I shall hope for my good things to come where my reproaches shall be turned into a reward and the Book my Adversary has wrote against me be bound to my shoulder and made a crown to me by being sanctified of God for a furtherance to his mercy When I read Mr. Drake at first of all his expressions it was that Text Ez. 13.22 that went to my heart Methinks I could almost wish I had never been rather than do any hurt to the Church of God and it were better a mill-stone were about the neck of my Book than that it should offend any of Christs little ones for though I were thrown into the Sea thy mercies O Lord is even there also This made me look the narrower within my own breast to see what token the Lord would shew me for good Methinks I alwayes see much infidelity swimming over my heart which may give some rise and secret occasion of my over-pity to such perplexities I perceive in many about the Sacrament when others can rejoyce to see their pious tears and lay more strictnesse on it I do ever suspect the worst by my self Now while in my addresses unto the mercies of God and all those billows of my soul that beat me to this shore I found nothing lay so deep at the bottom of my heart which kept me in some weeks suspence as the making my account hereof at the great day I blesse the Lord for some refreshings amidst my sorrows perswading me that there is some true fear of God in my inward parts though evil be present with me Ro. 7.21 which I think once wrought
their damnation though their account would be yet greater we must conceive if they should not do these duties at all But for this particular Eating damnation which is the effect of the unworthinesse of this place incurring a more peculiar or deeper guilt upon a person may not be charged I think upon any but upon those that come so irreverently without respect to this holy institution that they sin in the very fact in using it as common thing which ought not to be done An unregenerate man may come Christianly though but in an outward conformity to this Ordinance it is our duty but he may not come presumptuously as to a common Table and prophane it The other distinction I must commend to tender spirits is between Eating damnation and Sealing damnation The one is the effect of irreverent unworthinesse provoking God The other is only a confirming and attestation of the truth of the Covenant to every man according to his condition which is much for the honour and owning of God Methinks my heart is enlarged and I must tell you these two things must be separated as far as Heaven and Hell I wish there were some further distance that the plague of the one might never trouble you under the notiō of the other which has eat unto our very hearts that I am afraid men won't receive this manifest truth It is a most precious sweet mercy of God when he denounces judgment upon an impenitent sinner to awaken his soul and bring him to repentance It is the very like or same gracious act of his in sealing to his word to set home that conviction as it were using all means as Christ did with Judas to work upon him Now it is likewise every mans duty while God shews us the way it must be so that lives impenitently to apply these threatnings to assure and seal them upon himself and so to take that part of the Covenant as I expresse it that belongs to him So that this thing which has appeared so terrible to drive men from the Sacrament that they do but seal or apply damnation to themselves is the only thing of concernment for them to do in this estate as they ever look to be converted and saved O that every sinful Christian would but do this with due reverence and a serious conscience and I would assure him this sealing his damnation is the only way to eat his salvation in the use hereof If you ask here But how then is Christ offer'd to such a man I answer Very well as truly as he is preached in his threatnings Christ is never offer'd to any but as wrapt up under the tenour of the Covenant which contains both wrath and life In the Word and Sacrament there is necessarily shewn forth to the hypocrite what he shall lose unlesse he will become sincere as to the sound believer what he shall have in the partaking of them There is something sealed actually and something potentially to every man Actually the regenerate hath life sealed to him but Potentially damnation if he fall away from his faith which though we beleeve he never shall in respect of Gods grace yet as on his own part he is frail this is a means to make him stand An unregenerate man hath wrath actually sealed to him but potentially all Christs benefits which is as it were a voice behind him that though he be in this present fearful estate yet if he will but repent and believe he may get out of it and be saved Thus do Judgement and Mercy interweave their forces to bring in a sinner unto Christ And here may be removed that dreadfull scruple of some poor Christians who apprehend they have been unworthy and there damnation has then been sealed now the seal being sure how can what is sealed ever be reversed I answer The alteration is made only in us the Seal is the same and what is sealed is the same A man walks in one place and is in the shade he turns into another and is in the shine yet the Sun is the same The Sacrament seals the Covenant Man seals to his condition while he walks not accordingly his damnation is sealed when he repents and does his salvation Actually and potentially both are sealed and according to his walking he hath the influence thereof whether of the light of life or shadow of death There is one Iron only enter'd my soul and it was this If the Sacrament be a Seal it does exhibit and convey something to the Receiver and that to the unregenerate must be dangerous Here then let us know and arm our selves that Sacraments being only Moral Instruments cannot convey any thing that is Real unto the soul by way of Obsignation but only that which is Relative making no change but as to our Estates and relations to God the very end or proper effect being chiefly to assure us thereof I mean make us more believe consider and lay them to heart if good for our comfort if bad for our conviction Now this very assurance as farther degrees of faith and love in the worthy Receiver and hardnesse in the unworthy which are Real things are not externally exhibited I say by this sealing but internally wrought or effected according to the acts and exercises of our Souls on those objects that may be said thereby to have an influence on us Now then let an unregenerate man so come to the seal that he lays close to heart his damnable condition being the more humble and sensible of it it has its very right effect upon him and is a help towards his conversion while it does not Physically conveigh Gods wrath for that it cannot but Morally work only the sense of it on his Spirit which if he le ts wear off again without amendment his sin of hardning will lie therein and not in his coming And now for my part if I have fallen on the truth yet am I nothing for it has been my fears and doubtings have even brought me to it who must sadly confesse my self to be such a truant to the proficiency of grace that I am justly turn'd down unto the lowermost form of such poor sinners that are jealous and do even question the sincerity of it Amongst these I have thought it safest in coming to this Ordinance to condemn my condition and while I do so methinks the Apostle speaks comfortably to me If we judge our selves we shall not be judged Poor souls Is not this sweet to you Let it enter into your hearts when you come in your tears as it were weltring hither the very same place that has made you tremble in speaking so dreadfully of unworthinesse does yet assure you but if you condemn your selves as unworthy you shall not be condemned I would not for any thing that passage were left out The meek Iesus will never spurn at thee when thou liest down before him O my soul whiles others are even embrac'd in Christs arms
enter Covenant With all their heart and all their soul in some places So there is a general profession of Christ that salvation only is in his name which every Christian may professe truly though he be no true professor It is a great weaknesse of some that think for fear of hypocrisie an unregenerate man may not do his duty Hypocrisy is either opposed to truth which is dissembling such an action that is evill propter fieri must be avoyded or to sincerity and such an action that is evill only through accident of the doer while in the substance it be good for all his evill disposition the thing still must be done A Christians profession a pledge wherof is this Sacrament may be hypocrisie in one sense but not in the other My fourth proof was from the Parable of the Feast Lu. 14. Mat. 22. which I judge has more force in it than some think though lesse than others Mr. Drake here is in a streight if he allow it applicable to this Supper it is clear against him The Servants bring in All both good and Bad. If he will not allow it he doth not only go against the stream of Divines and that not solidly but wrests out of their own hands their main argument from the exclusion of him that had not the wedding garment which being the act of the Lord is not well applied neither The truth is the Feast does not signifie particularly the Supper but it is as true it does it in general as other Ordinances The Feast is Jesus Christ set out in his Ordinances and outward privileges unto which there is a free accesse and interesse of the Good and Bad within the Church so that for the main we have our full weight that the Servants whose office it is to be the Dispencers of the mysteries have not any power for discrimination of the guests in their admitting them to the Feast and therefore unlesse they can prove it by some warrant otherwhere are not to judge of the worthinesse and unworthinesse of their Church-members as to the offer of Christ in this Supper It is true If men be scandalous they are lyable to censure but who does not see this upon another account I mean of discipline to satisfie the Church amend them and warn others But if you do it upon this ground of setting up a discriminating Ordinance I must speak my Conscience I think it not according to the mind of the Lord of the Feast Again As for the unintelligent as Infants and the like who does not see that the Feast is still free but they are uncapable they make no excuse but God does excuse them and so they cann't be compelled But if you set up Visible worthinesse for a rule of Admission you assume a power of discriminating the guests You may call it your zeal your care and piety yet is it a power as well as a burden even over Gods Ordinance and differs as much from our Ministerial instruction Catechism and admonition as a separating the vile from the precious by the word of Gods mouth and the doing it without untill you prove it And now for his four particulars p. 30 31. First He distinguishes between the feast which is Christ and the dishes wherein he is served which are the Ordinances This is something ingenuous but whereas he applies this that a man may be invited to a feast and yet not to the dish in the feast it is very fine if we should serve him as the plain man did his Son that pretended he could prove two eggs to be three by his Logick Well says he I will take the one and your Mother the other and now do you prove the third and take it for your self Let us have the dishes and what will become of Mr. Drakes feast Thus hungry and hardly bestead does he passe through it Secondly He urges Then should Heathen be admitted Ans And so they may if they come in in an orderly way 1 Cor. 14.40 they must first have a right by Church-membership and then being once within the Church they are alike admitted to all privileges Thirdly He addes How were the unthankfull guests also excluded Luke 14 and answers himself Because they would not come Fourthly He tels us Wordly businesse somtimes may detain a man from the Sacrament Numb 9.10 Ans Who doubts it and yet the feast not neglected if the businesse be indispensible But as for the strength of his reason here it is as good as the Fathers that would have his Child excused to his Master for not comming to School because he was dead In the way For my quoting that Text Lu. 12.42 with 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Acts 20.28 Mr. Drake need not have given me such ill words I make no interpretation of them but that it is the Ministers duty duly to dispence the Ordinances which if he does do they do not touch him but may convince those that think it their conscience wholly to omit it and this I hope may turn the edge of his rebuke For my part I do not think my self fit to be compared with Mr. Drake or the least of the godly but with the greatest sinners and bow down my practice at the feet of Gods mercy Forgive O Lord my failings for they are even more than the hairs of my head Yet do I think that both those that exclude all and they that exclude any who are neither Vn-intelligent or Excommunicate come short in the importance of these Scriptures My fifth proof was from Iohns Free-baptism even of those he calls Vipers Mat. 13. upon that ground Adultis eadem est ratio utriusque Sacramenti See Mar. 1.5 And they of Iudea went out and were All baptized of him that is All that went out to him for Baptism were admitted and yet Mr. Drake as he is wont answers me thus overly He says but proves not that Iohn baptized all commers p. 32. he should say He does not prove it but only brings Scripture for it This axiome which I think I had of Pemble he denies p. 33. 1. Because Heathen may be admitted to Baptism Ans I had thought when men had been converted to the faith once they had been Christians 2. Because it makes for him seeing there was an outward confession at Baptism Ans Who would think it he should fly for shelter to this Sanctuary even while he pollutes it You must take the meaning thus There is Eadem ratio but not in omnibus It holds in the main that the same faith which will admit one of age to be Baptized will also admit him to this Sacrament and that is an Historical faith only in profession yet as for making that confession though it he needfull at Baptism in admitting them to be Church Members as we are willing to know whom we enter into our society seeing we have Scripture for it yet not at this Supper where we have none for when men are Church-members already their
businesse of Excommunication is placed by him in actual receiving from which he suspends all that refuse to submit unto his way it follows that this man before he does so much as go to gain some by words at all he presently knocks them on the head and yet would be thought very favourable that he doth no more to them than he can possible As for the commendation of his own way as a means to purity instruction of the ignorant good conversation of the Members c. I answer These are indeed commendable things to be pursued without these terrors and burdens upon the Conscience in reference to this Ordinance Pag. 58. He tells us My support from Christs Parable of the Tares and Wheat Mat. 13. is feeble Ans But is is strong I hope to maintain our mixt Churches against separation when the Net is drawn then shall the fishes be separated and when the Harvest comes then shall be gathered out all things that offend v. 41. And if herein it be invincible it would serve me had Mr. Drake let me alone But seeing he begins with me let us try him the ground on which he stands is visibility if any man be visibly unworthy he must not admit him upon any tearms Now see how directly this is against the words of the Parable v. 26 27. The Servants come and tell the Lord of the Tares they discern them they are apparent they are visible Tares yet the Lord commands to let them alone I think Mr. Drake must shut his eys upon this Text if he will yet persist in making visible unworthinesse the rule of excommunication But now what has he to say unto this 1. He says It s apparent the Tares were sown when men slept v. 25. Ans But what is this question how they were sown to their growing together I remember Erasmus brings in two men as very conceited to have others think they could hear well enough when they were both stark deaf and thereupon discoursing together methinks Mr. Drake while he speaks so notably to the purpose might serve ingenuously to make a third between them 2. He says He forbids them on this Proviso lest it should hurt the Wheat but he can do it he thinks so curiously it shall be much advantage to it Ans I pray mark it The Lord judges the plucking up the Tares will hurt the Wheat shake unroot grieve the tender Mr. Drake says it will do the Wheat much good The Servants take their Lords proviso to forbear Mr. Drakes takes it to do the contrary you must think Mr. Drake a little wiser than these Servants As for his tearms of Negative and positive suspension we may approve if he will under their own notions of admonition and Excommunication but whereas he objects If the Lord will have the Tares let alone untill the day of Iudgment what will become of this Excommunication I answer there is no doubt of Christs reconciling his own Ordinances P. 59. Christs converse with sinners makes for us who publickly professe their repentance but not Pharisees c. Ans 1. Sir Publick Confession will hardly down and Auricular we do not approve 2 Christ sometimes conversed too with the Pharises I hope to do good upon them 3 I had thought Christ had often companyed with sinners to bring them to repentance and not with such only as were penitent already and that I think applyed here makes little for you P. 60 He brings in some expressions of mine with amazement the sense whereof as harmlesse as the words is but this I judge Christs act of admitting Iudas hath been generally prevalent with the Church for Free-admission and that it might yet be sufficient but that men are not now so willing to receive it For my part I do but declare herein according to our former Church with the practice of Mr. Perkins and such godly men that have gone before us And as for such that are now otherwise minded I reverence them I have no evil thoughts of them the Lord knows it Mr. Drake need not so unjustly and so direfully first accuse me then condemn me for what he forges as if I deserved to be more than suspended which in his sense makes me tremble it should enter into his heart Ah Lord Is this the temper of holy men Judge me try me though I am vile otherwise and most unworthy if herein there be any iniquity in me why I should be thus devoted to the pit of Hell even irrecoverably if thy mercy did not exceed this mans infirmity Thou seest these censures are things too sharp to be put into the hands of such Children of thine who have so little discretion for to use them and it may be the effect of thy Fatherly wisdom to keep their knives away from them when they are ready to do such shrewd turns with them It may be the Lord will look on my affliction and require me good for his cursing this day Sect. 8 MY third Reason was from Church-fellowship which ought to be in charity humility without judging every one esteeming others better than themselves c. Now if men will go to set up a discriminating Ordinance they cannot keep themselves from intrenching on these duties and occasioning divisions Our sad experience has made this argument too weighty for Mr. Drakes particulars which are not worth the naming unlesse he could first prove it the Ministers duty to discern between the worthy and unworthy as the rule of admission When Moses saw two Israelites fighting he parted them and made them friends but when he saw an Egyptian striving with an Israelite he saved the Israelite without any regard to the life of the Egyptian If this rule of visibility had any foundation in the Scriptures we should certainly endeavour to reconcile these texts to it but when it has not any at all and yet is striving against our peace and unity humility and charity we must save the Israelite these duties must be preserved whatsoever becomes of this opposite thing that contends with it Not that I hold all judging unlawfull for I doubt not but there may be both a Publick and private judging Publick judgement is either in Civil causes or Church-censures both which are sufficiently warranted in the word upon due conviction Private judgement is either upon ones self or upon others I think sometimes the one may be sinfull as the other without sin and that not only in case of outward actions which are apparent transgression but in some charitable suspitions upon occasion as Iob over his Sons tending to admonition This I do speak that I may not abate from the zeal and piety of any over their relations though we allow a free-communion For his 9 things p. 62 63 64. I return briefly 1. A judging ones self as worthy and unworthy unto the Sacrament is private but sound judgement A judging others as to the truth and sincerity of grace though publick is not I think a warranted
judgement But a judgement of probability as to a visible fitnesse and unfitnesse upon a charitable jealousie may be solid as to advice and counsel but not as to be a rule of admission or suspension 2. The censures of the Church upon Heresie or scandal after due admonition and conviction will stand firm as they have ever done without this judging at the Sacrament 3. Ephesus is commended for her tryal of the false Apostles as to their doctrine not for a trial as to the Sacrament She could not bear those that were evill in the Church it were a wretched interpretation to say she could not bear them only at the Lords Supper 4. The Apostle 1 Cor. 5.7 12 13. speaks of the like Excommunication from the whole lump that the evil report of such a notorious action I take it might not leaven their Churches reputation by his being reckond of their company 5. The trial of the Ministers at our Ordination hath expresse warrant for it but there is no Scripture sets up a tryal of our members unto the Communion 6. The gentlenesse required of an Elder 2 Tim. 2.24 25. will hardly stand with Mr. Drakes spirit which makes him the more unfit for this trial if it were meet in others 7. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not allow us to suffer men in their sinnes for there is a reproof in the spirit of meeknesse but it does allow us to suffer and invite them unlesse excommunicate unto Gods ordinances 8. It is a censure befits only Mr. Drake to judge it out of pride in the most and ignorance in the best that they do not conform themselves in this thing unto him when it may be the lamentation of their souls to see the miserable effects already of it 9. As a man cannot note a fault with more mildnesse than in Scripture-terms and bring himself in it as I have done in these words Preferring our selves Phil. 2.3 so there cannot be expressed more bitternesse to a fellow-Minister ordained as he if he would know it by the Presbytery than to number me in the company of Corah Sanballat and Tobiah And now should I return him his own language p. 61. See you not here how the vizard of piety falls off and his breath and pen savour quickly of pride Should I say If this do not smell strong of sublime Pharisaism I beseech you what doth as he has it p. 93 Or rather should I heartily advise him to take heed there be not a guilt herein upon his own conscience that so galls him to the heart in a hatred of the remedy instead of the disease I should be justified by his words but do not know whether I shall be approved by God in making it a means to shew him his sin and humble him for it For my part while he can even wish the earth might open and swallow me up I desire the Lord to open his eyes that he may see the rents he helps to make to swallow up the Church And though he obtain not his wish as to the Earth yet has he prevailed much as to the waters which have overflowen my soul and even been ready to swallow that up with the sorrows and woundings of my heart under these his bitter accusations The Lord executeth judgement and righteousnesse for the oppressed Alas Sir Is it any advantage unto me to see our Church in her ruines can I repine at that double honour you would get in ruling well as in labouring in the Gospel Do not I rather deplore the burden on your selves and indignation of others in lieu of it Would it not be as much happinesse to me as my fellow brethren to have that Government establisht which is thought most conducing to our own good And can I take any such pleasure in the dis-orders dis-respects and contumelies of an unwieldy people as much as any for want of disciplin that I should be against it No it is the unwarrantablenesse in Scripture the unsuitablenesse with mens Spirits the improbability of the effect it is the desire of peace unity in the Church and the taking away the root of our divisions especially it is the infinite account on the Ministers Soul the many grievous wounds and perplexities of tender Consciences that have engaged my soul◠and interess'd my spirit for a freedom at this Ordinance And now if it shall please the Lord to make me a poor instrument to bring refreshment to any of his people amidst their afflictions concerning themselves or our mixt Communions I shall be contented to be reckoned by this man for a Sanballat or Tobiah if I may be accepted of my God in the words of Nehemiah Remember me heerin O Lord according to thy great mercy and wipe not out the kindnesses I have done to the house of my God and the offices thereof but wipe out all my failings and my offences with thy goodnesse and the precious blood of Iesus Christ Pag. 65. His note is good though words bad We are more apt to take notice of what men do ill than what they do well of their sitting to reject a few than of the many are admitted to their mutual comfort c. Ans I know not which is more comfort to have all visibly worthy or to have charity enough to make all so I am sure the seeing the vilest may have a good use on our hearts if it humble them and makes us look on our selves as them without the difference of Gods mercy It is indeed a comfortable thing to be with our brethren round about our Father with none but His Children receiving our portions of the blood of Christ yet need it not deject but enlarge our devotions to see an attendance of Servants also coming along with his Sons in their due profession of a like outward dependance on him While the Glory of the Lord filleth the Temple his Traine may be suffered to reach unto the Earth Pag. 66. to p. 70. He brings in my 3 passages of our Saviour The first was about the Pharisee Lu. 18. Which I have exprest with that tendernesse and caution in the shewing the fault and not grieving the faulty that I commit it farther to their consideration pitying Mr. Drakes poor excuse That his judgement was private and without tryal as if a thing for being more publick were the lesse evill and when he judges himself worthy and many unworthy he asks the question Yet how do we think our selves better than others The second was in Lu. 5. where Christ entertaining so many Publicans and sinners at Table with him gives us the reason that he came to call them to repentance that is to convert them and yet Mr. Drake says What is this against them Who will admit none unto Christs Table unlesse converted already For his interpretation of I come not to call the righteous he wrongs Christ to say 1. He would not have all admitted 2 Rejects the Righteous for this must be taken in
second is begotten alike as the Ordinances propose the object and then the Spirit of God by enlightning the minde and a touch upon the will brings the heart to imbrace that object which object is shewed forth in the Sacrament as in the word and it is a mistake to thinke that the second grace though it be within the promise which is sealed is exhibited by way of obsignation for there is onely a fight to it this way conveyed but it is wrought I say through the Spirit of God by the way of moral operation onely as the first and second grace both are begotten in reading and hearing c. Ergo. 10 The sad consequence of this Tenent that the Sacrament belongs onely to the effectually converted is sorely against it and that both for the giver and receiver For the Receiver this will cut off every poor doubtful Christian from the Sacrament For 1. If I am bound to receive when I am regenerate and bound to forbear if I am unregenerate then must I be perswaded in my conscience that I am regenerate or else I cannot eate in faith and he that eateth and doubteth is damned if he eat I desire this may be tenderly weighed 2 Upon this account every one that comes professes himselfe converted and if any man be but doubtfull that he is not yet converted he cannot come but he acts a lie and is a publick hypocrite which is a thing so hatefull to him that rather then he would professe of himselfe what he does not know he would confesse his unworthinesse and never come there and thus shall every humble tender Christian only keep away and the selfe-justiciary-harden to death For the giver first The case will be near the same for the Sacrament cannot be administred according to rule nor he act in faith unlesse both the receiver is regenerate and he assured of it which he cannot be if regeneration were a qualification commanded as necessary to receiving Secondly Men will be ready to think themselves converted when they are admitted and the formal Christian rest in his estate when he should come hither to repent of it Thirdly The best Minister must fal infinitely short in the discharge of his tryall were any at all required upon this ground The Lord Bacon observes of Philosophy the first and lighter tastes thereof inclines the mind towards Atheism but a more fixed and deeper contemplation brings it about again unto Religion So doe I judge here the first touches of Conscience in the pious have inclined them to a trial of others fitnes and unfitness to the Sacrament but a more serious and digested consideration of the issues of it wil bring them about to the Apostle Let a man examine himselfe and the Minister onely doe his best for their Instruction 11. The confirming of a Christians Faith in generall or his assent unto the truth of the Covenant in Jesus Christ to him in particular is a means of bringing up his heart to a speciall Faith for I am perswaded here lies often the root of unregeneracy that men doe not firmely beleeve the Gospell and where the holy Spirit works beleeving impressions he ordinarily brings in the soul to him But the Sacrament is a means of confirming Faith and that directly in this act of assent which is common in its degree to the unregenerate with the regenerate that if I will beleeve repent or accept of Christ I shall be saved Ergo. Unto this purpose Mr. Calvin hath a clear passage Primum verbo suo nos docet Deus instituit Dominus deinde Sacramentis confirmat postremo sancti sui spirit us lumine mentibus nostris illucet aditum in sorda nostra verbo Sacramentis aperit So that whereas Calvin with others ordinarily cals the Sacraments confirming Ordinances I shall take their meaning only thus that they are not appointed to convert the Heathen to the Church but to incorporate the members thereof Who being instructed by the word and confirmed by the Sacraments the Spirit of God in the use of both both Words and Sacraments so he speaks opens a passage into their hearts to wit for their effectuall conversion Calv. Inst lib. 4. cap. 14. sect 8. 12. The solemne application of the Covenant to a mans selfe according to his estate to wit of salvation through Christ if he will beleeve and repent and of judgement from Christ if he continues in his sins and does not turn effectually unto him is the very onely way whereby the Spirit usually worketh conviction and sincere conversion but actual receiving of the Sacrament is a solemn means of such an application Ergo. The Apostle Ro. 10.4 tels us Christ is the end of the Law in this Law Gal. 3.10 it is written Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things which are written therein to doe them Unto this curse Deut. 27.26 All the people were to say Amen It is nor possible all the people should be guiltlesse yet this Amen is a particular application so that the malediction it selfe as well as the precept is to be particularly applyed for a Schoolmaster to Christ who is in that respect said to be the end thereof Now then must a Christian that does not as he should unfainedly repent but harbour his sins in his heart apply the Covenant in the right part to wit that judgement which is due for them and is both denounced and sealed to make him turne sincerely from them unto the mercy that is together offered him if he does And while his heart melts and hee humbles himselfe before Christ as worthy thereof he lies under the very strokes of Gods Spirit to drive him in effectually to him When the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. bids us examine our selves least we eate unworthily and drink our damnation he sweetly addes for if we would judge our selves we should not be judged There are Scriptures I find that will support a Christian in his duty yet happily will not hold the disputes of men that go to take the comfort of them from us In this case the pious soule is not to hearken to them but to strengthen it selfe in attendance upon God There is a sweet promise therefore comes often in my mind with this Text I will not say a promise to dispute withal but to rest upon for our encouragement It is in Zach. 10.12 I will poure out the spirit of grace and supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourne Poor soules you have in the Sacrament as in the Word Jesus Christ represented to you as pierced you are to apply it and say Here Lord thou hast promised to pour out the Spirit of grace on those that look on thee for to mourn over the wounds which they have made in thee by their sins Let the sight of thy broken body break my hard heart Let the sight of thy pierced sides pierce mine eyes and of thy bleeding heart make my heart