those that are not as indeed he is in some sort more a God to such Children than he is to the Children of others God has a Right to all Children and is related to them and they to him as he is their Creator and they his Creatures But he has a more special right to the Children of them that are in Covenant with him tho such Parents have taken Covenant with God And thus the Children of those Jews which were offered in Sacrifice by the Parents unto their Idols were claimed by God as his Children and as Born to him Ezek. 16.20 Thou hast taken thy Sons and thy Daughters whom thou hast born unto me and these thou hast sacrificed to them to be destroy'd vers 21. Thou hast slain my Children to cause them to pass through the fire chap. 23.37 They caused the Sons whom they bare unto me to pass for them through the fire Tho these wicked Parents had forfeited their right to the benefits of the Covenant in Gods part through their defection from him to Idolatry yet they had not thereby made void his right to them and to their Children which he had by their having entred into Covenant with him to be his and therefore he calls them his Children and says they were born unto him And it was in this respect in all likelihood that St. Paul called those Children holy that had one believing Parent tho the other were an unbeliever 1 Cor. 7.14 The Children became related to God in some fort as his for that 's the meaning of their being holy by the Parents having devoted themselves to God by Covenant How else could the Females among the Jews be related to God as his when they were not Circumcised By which yet the Males became Gods by right of Covenant and so his as that their Children became his and to be related to him in an inferiour degree by right of birth And in this sence those words of St. Paul may be understood when he says If the root be holy so are the branches Rom. 11.16 And thus Jews by nature or by birth are opposed to Sinners of the Gentiles as Saints are opposed to Sinners Gal. 2.15 And we shall find that Almighty God did not only claim a right to the natural Seed of Jewish Parents by virtue of their being in Covenant with him but also a right to those Strangers of which they were absolute owners whether they were born in the house or bought with money both Fathers and their Children and accordingly he commanded them to be mark'd for his and to be brought into Covenant with him by Circumcising all the Males both Fathers and Children Gen. 17.12 13 23. And thus again when any other Strangers did voluntarily joyn themselves to the Lord to be his Servants in a way of Proselytism the Lord by virtue of the Fathers doing so laid claim to their Children and required them to be brought into Covenant with him by their Males being Circumcised And thus we see why the whole body of the Jewish Nation might be all called Gods holy People and yet not upon account of inherent sanctification By the way then all these things considered we may observe one reason why as we may well conceive the Apostles in their times Baptized the Housholds of Christian Parents when they Baptized the Parents themselves For the Children of Christian Parents became holy unto God with a Relative holiness by their Parents being his by Covenant as well as the Children by Jewish and Proselyted Parents had been in times before as I shewed before from those words Else were your Children unclean but now are they holy 1 Cor. 7.14 And they being so I cannot apprehend any reason why they should not be as capable of being brought into Covenant with God by Baptism as ever the Children of Jews Proselytes and of the Bond-men of the Jews had been by Circumcision And until there can be a good reason assigned for the contrary it is but reasonable to believe that the Apostles in Baptizing Housholds did Baptize little Children For such Children being born of Parents in Covenant with God were qualified for being entred into Covenant themselves because they were thereby called by God to profess the true Religion supposing they should live to be instructed by their Parents who always teach their Children to be of the same Religion which they profess themselves And this was under the Old Testament and has been under the New Gods ordinary way of calling men to profess the true Religion as I have formerly shew'd 2. Another reason why the whole body of the Jews were called Gods Children his Saints or holy People might be because they were such by Covenant in an external consideration that is they had Covenanted with God to be such and by that they were also separated from other People that were not called by his Name 3. Because of a partial performance of Covenant on their part For they worshipped the true God and him only as yet except in the case of the golden Calf who therefore was called the God of Israel when almost all the world besides worshipped Idols They also worshipped him with a worship of his own appointment the matter of their worship consisted of Gods own instituted Ordinances when the worship of all the rest of the world in a manner consisted of Superstitious and Idolatrous inventions And by these they were a People separated to God and differenced from the rest of the world and thus far they glorified the God of Israel when the rest of the world generally dishonoured him by false worship both in the object and subject of it That which they were chiefly wanting in was Morality a true love to God confidence in him and submission to him and in justice and charity towards men and humility temperance and sobriety in respect of themselves Notwithstanding which God did not put this People of his out of his special protection by delivering them into the hands of Spoilers as in the days of the Judges until they so grosly broke Covenant with him as to serve other Gods And when the Lord did at last put them away from him as it were and cast them out of his sight by sending them into Captivity the ten Tribes into Assyria and the two into Babylon yet this did not befall them until they had forsaken the Covenant they had made with God and that in the highest in worshipping other Gods and in observing the Statutes of the Heathen Tho their immoralities were otherwise very great yet God did not give this People a Bill of Divorce until they had horribly corrupted themselves with spiritual Whoredome in point of worship See how their being cast off by God is charged in special upon this kind of breach of Covenant Deut. 29.25 31 20. 2 King 17.15 16 35 38. Jer. 22.9 Ezek. 16.59 and other places All which does intimate that Almighty God owned them for his People externally so long
is that makes men to be of it and concerning Church-Communion and what it is that qualifies men for it have been the true reason and cause of our Church-Divisions and Separations in great part where such notions have been entertained My present design therefore which I intend to pursue in these Papers is to inquire into the true measure which the holy Scripture gives us of these things that thereby we may the more steadily and with the more certainty make a true Judgment of those separations in Church-Communion which have been made and applauded by some I shall begin with what concerns the being of the Universal Church as Visible and then inquire how and by what means men become Members of it After this I shall inquire further what it is that qualifies men for and which gives them a right to external Communion in this Church as exercised in particular Congregations and likewise into the nature of Catholick-communion and Schism and the usefulness of National-Constitutions for the furtherance of Christian Religion QUERY I. WHat is the true notion of the Vniversal Church as visible The Universal Church as Visible is that Body Company or Society of People throughout the whole World which consists of all such as are Visibly Joyned or Vnited to God in Christ as Head by a Religious Bond. And that which doth distinguish them from all other People in the World is that Relation they bear to God different from that in which all other People stand related to Him And this Relation is a Religious relation by which they are brought nearer to God than all other People are All other People are related as humane Creatures to God as their Creator and Governour but these are related to him by another kind of Bond Obligation such as is Spiritual and of a Religious Nature of which I am to say more afterward And then as this Relation is External and Visible so that by which this Relation is effected and wrought is something Visible also which is the reason why the relation it self is said to be Visible Now the Persons thus Visibly Related to God in Christ are not all Religiously Related to Him alike Some of them are Related and United to him Internally and Invisibly by an Invisible Bond of Union over and besides their Visible Relation to him by that which is visible When as all the rest are Related to him only Externally or if in any respect Internally also yet not so or by such a relation as will entitle them to the internal and best sort of priviledges of Gods People such as Justification Reconciliation Pardon and Eternal life But yet this difference does not make this body of People which are externally one by a Relation to God common to the whole to become two Universal Churches For all which Essentially belongs to the being of the Universal Church is not limited and restrained to that part of it which in respect of its internal and invisible state does differ from and excel the other for the External Relation to God without which the Universal Church does not exist is common to the worser part of it as well as the better by reason whereof they cannot be two Churches and are but one One part of the Visible Church differs from another indeed in respect of Internal and Invisible State before God this is plain from the Scripture But then it is as plain from thence that as touching their External and Visible state they are one and that the same external priviledges belong to the one as to the other of which more afterward We have not indeed the words Visible and Invisible used in Scripture in reference to the two different states of men in one and the same Church but yet we have those different states of them sufficiently revealed in Scripture which we mean by those words I need not instance in Scriptures of this nature because they are sufficiently and commonly known and I shall have further occasion to mention them afterward QUERY II. WHat is it which prepares or qualifies persons for that Relation to God in Christ which makes them Visible Members of his Church There is something previous to that by which the Relation in men to God is wrought which makes them Visible Members of his Church and which does capacitate them for it and that is their being Externally called by God to be of the true Religion Persons lare first to become Disciples before they be received into the Church by Baptism and their becoming Disciples and their being called is the same thing This is the foundation in which that Relation is laid and upon which that which does effect it is built And People are thus called either 1. When they are Converted from a false Religion to own and profess the true And thus the Pagans were called by the Preaching of the Apostles when they were brought to be Disciples Or 2. When Almighty God causes them to be Born and to be Educated in the true Religion as those are who are born of Parents externally in Covenant with God Thus the Jewish People from Abrahams time downward were called to be Gods People and to profess the true Religion And accordingly they were stiled Gods called ones by the Prophet Isa 48.12 Hearken to me O Jacob and Israel my called And how were they called Abraham indeed he was called extraordinarily by God who appeared to him when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charran Act. 7.2 But his Posterity were called by being Born to and educated in the same Religion which he himself was of and so were his Childrens Children from Generation to Generation And thus has it been in calling Persons to be of the Christian Religion At the first erection of the Church as Christian men were extraordinarily called by the Preaching and Miracles of the Apostles and others they were called and converted from the Pagan and Jewish Religion to own the Christian Religion But since the times of first planting the Gospel up and down in the World Gods ordinary and common method of calling men to the profession of the Christian Religion has been by their Christian Parents educating them in it And indeed their being born of Parents in an especial Relation to God is in it self a Providential Call which qualifies them for the priviledge of being so related also For upon that account they are both in the Old Testament and the Now stiled a holy Seed that is a Seed separated from the Infidel World to God And by this the Females of the Jews became Church-Members and by this were their Males qualifi'd to enter into Covenant with God by Circumcision at eight days old But of these things further mention will be made in the process of our Inquiries QUERY III. WHat may that be by which People are made Visible Church-Members That by which People are constituted compleatly Visible Church-Members is a mutual Covenanting between God and them between Christ
his Ordinances and have the form of godliness tho otherwise destitute of the power of it yet as they are thus far a People unto God so God so far owns them as a People unto him separated unto him from the Idolatrous and Infidel world and accordingly allows them an interest and share in the external priviledges of his People of which communion in his Word and Ordinances is the chief Only where God himself hath put a bar to this enjoyment there the Visible Church ought to do so too as in those cases wherein deprivation by Church-censures is enjoyned Right to the priviledges of the Church comes in by mens relation to it as parts or members of it and so long as the relation continues so long a right to the external priviledges continues except in the case before excepted Those that are related to the Church both as Visible and Invisible have a right from God to Church priviledges both external internal and eternal but those who are related to the Church only externally as it is Visible have right only to the external priviledges of it Thus far we have argued from the nature and reason of the subject under consideration Come we now to enquire what the usage of the Church has been as to point of 〈◊〉 in this matter as we have it recorded in Scripture And as for the Old Testament Church the whole Nation of the Jews that entred into Covenant with God to be his People were allowed their part and share in the Ordinances of publick worship and not only so but were commanâ—◠〈…〉 them save in some exâ—◠〈…〉 as while they were unâ—◠〈…〉 legal uncleanness and in thâ—â—e particular cases of guilt for which they were to be deprived of their lives as well as communion and to be cut off from among the People Three times in the year were all their Males to appear before the Lord to keep three solemn Feasts appointed and yet I think no body will imagine them to be all without exception of the Church as Invisible And when any Strangers from among the Gentiles had a mind to turn Proselytes to the Jews Religion all that was required of them to make them capable of communion in the Passover was but to Circumcise all their Males by which they entred into Covenant with God Exod. 12.48 And since it was thus in the old Testament Church it is not to be imagined that the terms of external communion should be more rigorous and severe in the new since our Saviours yoke is casie and his burden light in comparison of that among the Jews which was a yoke as St. Peter speaks which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear All the same adult Persons which were received into the Church by Baptism were admitted to communion of the Church in the Ordinances of worship Thus it was in the first Christian Church which was a pattern to all that followed Act. 2.41 42. When the three thousand were added to the Church by Baptism They continued in the Apostles Doctrine and in breaking of bread and prayer Acts 2.42 And St. Paul saith By one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether Jews or Gentiles bond or free and have been all made to drink into one spirit The same all we see were made to drink into one spirit which were baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 By drinking into one spirit is meant Communion in the Lords Supper according to the sense of all Interpreters that I have met with Again he had said thus Chap. 10.17 We being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of one bread Here again the same all that made one body were partakers of one bread So that the extent of the Communion of the parts equallized the union of the whole Nor indeed is there any one instance in Scripture that I can find of any one person that has been refused Communion with a Christian Church when he has desired it who has been before received into the Church by Baptism except such as have been under Censure of the Church for some Capital Offence And such indeed are to be excluded until brought to repentance by the Ecclesiastical Government under which they live And St. Paul has given direction in what manner of Cases and for what manner of Offences men are to be proceeded against by Church Censure greater or lesser after due admonition otherwise used But now saith he I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such an one no not to eat 1 Cor. 5.11 For these and such like Crimes a Church may and ought in her governing capacity to deny her Communion with persons guilty of them after due admonition And accordingly our Church has ordered publick admonition frequently to be made in these words with many other If any of you be a blasphemer of God a hinderer or slanderer of his Word an Adulterer or be in malice or envy or in any other grievous crime Repent you of your sins or else come not to that holy Table lest after the taking of that holy Sacrament the Devil enter into you as he did into Judas and fill you full of all iniquities and bring you to destruction both of body and soul And further If any that desire to communicate be an open and notorious evil Liver or have done any wrong to his Neighbour by word or deed so that the Congregation be thereby offended the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertise him that in any wise he presume not to come to the Lords Table until he hath openly declared himself to have truly repented and amended his former naughty life that the Congregation may thereby be satisfied which before were offended The same order shall the Curate use with those betwixt whom he perceiveth malice and hatred to reign not suffering them to be partakers of the Lords Table until he know them to be reconciled I know there are several things wont to be alledged against admitting such to the Lords Supper who have not saving Grace as 1. That such will but increase their sin and further their Damnation by partaking of it so long as they are unregenerate To which it may be Answered 1. That such would no less sin by neglecting to Obey Christs Command Do this in remembrance of me and in neglecting to prepare themselves for it than they do when they come to this Supper of our Lord unprepared but rather indeed more For by not coming they make themselves guilty of a double Disobedience the one in not doing what Christ has Commanded to be done in remembrance of him the other in not preparing to do it after a right manner whereas by coming unprepared they make themselves guilty but of one of them 2. For the same reason Men should not
hunger when at the same time they made themselves guilty of intemperance and excess one is hungry another is drunk despise ye the Church of God and shame them which have not These also were such unworthy Acts as Christians by common grace may easily keep themselves from being guilty of the like Now all these outward Acts of unworthiness proceeded from their not rightly discerning the Lords Body as we may well conceive either as not understanding the nature of the Ordinance or as not being duly affected with what was represented and commemorated by it And therefore for remedy for time to come he puts them upon examining themselves concerning the apprehensions the sense and affection which Christians ought to have touching those things when they go to the Table of the Lord. I shall not proceed to shew how each of these external Acts of unworthy communicating proceeded from their not discerning the Lords Body which yet might easily be done Upon the whole matter I think we may conclude that if men by examination find themselves in a capacity and disposition to answer our Lords end in this his institution by eating and drinking at his Table in a grateful remembrance of him that then they are not altogether unfit and unworthy to be Communicants of it For men receive the Sacrament worthily or unworthily according as they do or do not thereby answer the end and design of it in remembring our blessed Saviour QUERY X. WHy and for what reason may it be conceived does Almighty God own and allow others to be of the Church as Visible than only such as are of the Church as Invisible There are several things offer themselves to our consideration which seem to render it fit and reasonable and well-becoming the wisdom and goodness of God that it should be so and such as render it highly useful and beneficial unto men As 1. Because it tends more abundantly to increase the number of Invisible Church Members than it would if none should be admitted into the Visible Church until they were of the Invisible or worthily reputed to be so That it has this tendency needs no better proof than the Experience the Church of God has had of the happy effect of this way and method of converting men above what has been produced in the other way Experience has made it manifest that abundant more thorow and sound conversions in men have been made in the Visible Church than out of it and after they have been baptized than before More in the Church of God have been made good and that by means of their being in it than have been made so before they were admitted into it How rarely have any thorow and sound conversions been wrought in men while out of the Church since Miracles ceased How seldom do we see or hear of any Jews or profest Infidels become really holy and good men tho they live among Christians and where they have the opportunity of hearing the Gospel if they had any mind to it When as thanks be to God we have known or heard of multitudes of Conversions of this nature that have been wrought in men after they have been in the Church If the Apostles in their time did by vertue of their Ministry convert many so as of bad to make them really holy and good before they were received into the Church Yet as their Calling was extraordinary so was their Ministry by which those Conversions were wrought their Mission and Doctrine being attested to come from heaven by multitudes of miraculous operations and marvelous gifts And therefore those Conversions which were wrought by such extraordinary means must be looked upon as extraordinary Conversions And to argue from things extraordinarily done to a necessity of having the like done in ordinary cases and under ordinary means is so absurd and such a piece of unreasonableness as those we call Seekers are guilty of who can find as they think no true Churches extant or visible because not called by men qualified with like extraordinary gifts as those or many of those in the Apostles days were by whom Churches were then gathered And indeed had not the means by which the Apostles converted those whom they did convert been extraordinary it would have been in a manner impossible for them to have succeeded in their undertaking as they did considering that they were to convert them from other Religions in which they had been educated and brought up and which they had received from their Fathers and Fore-fathers unto a new Religion the Christian Religion which was so greatly different from theirs as it was especially from that of Paganism from which most of their Conversions probably were made But when the Apostles had in this extraordinary way gathered our Saviour a Church all over the known World and settled particular Churches it was not necessary as the Event shews that this extraordinary way of converting men should be continued For when by this extraordinary means of converting men way was made for converting them in an ordinary way then that which was extratraordinary ceased Like as the giving the Israelites Manna from heaven ceased when they came into Canaan and had opportunity of being supplied with food in an ordinary way And from that time forward there have been but few Conversions made in those without the Church but most of those that have been made in bringing men to the power of godliness have been made upon those within the Visible Church For tho God is pleased I doubt not to plant true saving grace in some in their early days by the benefit of godly Education yet there are very many others who having been received into the Church by Baptism in their Infancy have little or nothing more than a form of godliness if so much found in them when grown up But among these there are many who in time are brought on or converted to the Power of Godliness by means of their being in the Church and under those Ordinances of God there administred by which he is wont to work saving grace in men This is Gods ordinary way of Conversion since that which was extraordinary ceased And ever since that time almost all the Conversions that have been made in men to a saving Christian faith and to a faithful practice and the Power of Christianity have been made upon persons baptized and within the Church And altho the Conversion of men to Christianity by the Ministry of the Apostles was extraordinary because wrought in an extraordinary way and by extraordinary means as I have shewed yet we have great reason to think that those Conversions or many of them that proved effectual at last were but only beginnings and preparatory to a second and thorow Conversion of them while they were yet without the visible Church and were carried quite through and made effectual after they were brought into the Church by Baptism And the manner of the Apostles writing to the Christians after
of Peace and Charity and to the hurt of mens souls thereby and to the great dishonour of our Religion and to the hinderance of its good effects upon the minds and lives of men 3. Altho the Publick Worship should be set up in all places of a Christian Nation yet if men should be under no Obligation by Law to attend it it would doubtless be much more neglected by many than when there is But the more men are brought to attend the means by which God works Grace in them tho it be but by virtue of the Law they are brought to it yet the more hope and probability there is of their being savingly wrought upon 4. If whosoever shall pretend himself qualified for it should have liberty to gather a Congregation it would be the leaving open a door of opportunity to Seducers to subvert mens Souls and to fill a Nation with variety of Sects and the mischievous effects of them And yet so it would be if there were no publick Government in the Church to restrain men And to this day we feel the very sad effects of so great a liberty sometime indulged Thus we see for what reason true Religion should be promoted by National Authority And as to matter of fact it is sufficiently known that those who have had the Supream Power in all Nations have been wont always to promote by their Authority that which they have thought to be the true Religion whether it hath been true or false And whence comes this but from the light and Law of Nature which directs men to use the Power and Interest they have to further the Worshipping of the God whom they serve And indeed Christians of all pesuasions are willing enough to have the Civil Power to exert it self in furthering their own way of Worshipping God The People of New England who once were as much for Liberty of Conscience as any yet soon found it convenient to incorporate the Civil Power with the Ecclesiastick for the defence and propagation of their Religion Now as the great usefulness of a National establishment for the purposes aforesaid does sufficiently appear from the reason and nature of the thing it self and has the light and law of Nature on its side so it is not destitute of countenance from supernatural Revelation 1. When Almighty God said to Abraham Thou shalt be a Father of many Nations a Father of many Nations have I made thee Gen. 17. He declared his intention of Reforming the world by degrees from Idolatry and false Worship in a National way if we may judg what he intended to do afterwards by the first instance he gave of his performance herein and if we may judg of the true meaning of this as of other Divine Predictions by the after Events which answer them in point of fact which yet is the best and most approved way of understanding Predictions when such events take place Almighty God made Abraham first a Father of a Nation which issued out of his own Loyns For when his Posterity who by Circumcision Covenanted to take Abrahams God only for their God grew very numerous in Egypt God brought them out thence that they might worship him openly and publickly in a National way And by this means and by his visible owning them for his people by extraordinary favours shew'd them he designed to make himself more known to the rest of the world to be the only true God and to be so acknowledged Now in that Abraham was promised to be the Father of many Nations it was not so much for that God intended that many Nations should descend out of his Loyns by natural generation as that many Nations in time should after his example come to acknowledge and worship him only for their God as the only true God For so St. Paul understood this promise of God to Abraham when he makes Abraham in respect of his believing in the true God to be the Father of all Nations that should be of the same belief as well those of the Vncircumcision as that which was of the Circumcision as it is written saith he I have made thee a Father of many Nations Rom. 4.16 17. And it was in this spiritual or religious respect and sense that St. Paul had before in this Chapter asserted Abraham to be the Father of all that shall believe in the true God as he did in all Nations as well those who were never Circumcised as those that were Ver. 11 12. And thus God made Abraham a blessing to the World as he promised he would and a Father of Nations not only for that the Messias was to be born of one descended from him for so he was born of one that descended from Abrahams Predecessors and Successors as well as from Abraham But he was a blessing to the World and the Father of Nations by being made by God the Head the beginning and great example of reforming the World from Misbelief and Idolatry and other consequent evils so as his Progenitors were not To encourage which work in the world God invested Abraham that led the way herein with the honour of being counted the Father of Nations and a publick blessing to the world both in himself and in his Seed 2. That God did design farther to carry on the reformation of the world from Misbelief and Idolatry in a National way and in that way to bring the world by degrees to the Worship of the true God only appears by other Predictictons of the Prophets such as that Isa 55.5 Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowst not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee Chap. 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouths at him Chap. 49.23 Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their Queens thy nursing mothers Zech. 8.22 Many people and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts Chap. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people The formal nature of mens Visible Church-Membership consists in their being visibly joyned to the Lord as I have shewed and therefore when many Nations are Nationally joyned to the Lord they may well be counted Nationally his people or Churches And Nations are then Nationally joyned to the Lord when Nations do incorporate the Christian Religion with their Civil Government and make it part of the National Government as the Ecclesiastical Polity of the Jews together with the Judicial Law of that Commonwealth was And by this means the Christian Religion becomes commodiously and with more certainty to be transmitted to future Generations in a Nation as well as practised for the time being by that which is existent just as the Jews Religion was For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children That the Generation to come might know them even the Children which should