Aphorisms of Justification, Answer · Answer 9
To the 9. Objection.
YOur 9. Objection is, That if I make the Covenant to belong to wicked men, I may as well give them the seales.
To which I answer you, 1. You must meane onelyonly the main Covenant of grace, and not inferiour promises and Covenants: For the Sacraments are onelyonly to seale to the maine Covenant. 2. As you must remember I distinguished betwixt the Covenant offered and the Covenant entred by mutuall consent; so must you distinguish accordingly betwixt two sorts of wicked men: 1. Open Infidels, who never accepted and consented to the offered Covenant. 2. Those who have consented and entred the Covenant, and listed their names in the roll of Christ: but yet not sincerely unreservedly, entirely, as is necessary to salvation. To the former of these you may not give the seales: For they are not willing of them as such: And they are not to be forced upon any: Neither are the seales usefull till the accepting and entring of the Covenant.
But to the latter the seales are most properly to be given by the Minister, except they doe againe renounce Christ by word or deed, or by some grosse sin doe constrain us to suspend their enjoyment of such priviledges while they are under tryall, and till they discover their repentance.
Quest. What doe you take for such a renouncing of their Covenant?
Answ. 1. When they shall in plaine terms renounce it, as Christians do that turn Turks.
2. When they renounce or deny any fundamentall Article of the Faith.
3. When they do (not through weaknesse, but) wilfully and obstinately refuse to yeeld obedience to Christ; for this is a renouncing of their subjection to him, which is an essentiall part of their Covenant and Faith; and it is a renouncing of his kingly Office, and so a renouncing of Christ, when they say, Hee shall not reigne over us. And though such may acknowledge him in words, yet in works they doe deny him, being disobedient, and to every good worke, reprobate, Tit. 1. 16. If therefore you shall deny the seales to any man that is thus in Covenant with Christ, before he doe thus disclaime his Covenant, you must doe it at your perill. Therefore you must not undertake to be the Judge of his sincerity in the Covenant, except hee plainly discover that he is not serious. Dare not you to assume Gods Prerogative of searching the heart, nor to dispence Gods seales upon your conjectures of the probability or improbability of mens sincerity. Neither must you deny the seales to them, for any smaller sin then as aforesaid: For as every sin is not a breach of Covenant, so every sin must not deny them the seales.
Object. Then we must not deny it to them for every grosse sin neither; seeing you affirme, that every grosse sinne breaketh not Covenant.
Answ. Yet because hee that liveth in known grosse sinne, cannot consent to the Kingly Office or Government of Christ over him, therefore we have just cause to suspend the giving of the seales, and also of fellowship with him, while we try whether he did it through weaknesse or wilfulnesse.
Ob. But how shall we know that?
Answ. Christ hath lined us out the way: We must reprove him, and see whether he will heare and reforme; if he doe not we must tell the Church, and so admonish and shame him publikely: If hee heare not the Church we are to account him as a man without the Covenant, and so unfit for seales or communion.
Quest. But when shall I take him for one that will not heare the Church?
Answ. When hee will not be perswaded to confesse and bewaile his sinne, nor to give over the practice of it.
So that I doe considerately advise you (after long study of this point, and as cautelous a proceeding as most have used) for you know my former Judgement, and that I never administred the Sacrament, till within this year, and that I was then invited to it by an eminent wonder of providence) I say, I advise you to beware how you deny to men the seales, till you have tried with them this way prescribed by Christ: Christ is free in entertaining, and so must wee; Christ putteth away none, but them that put away themselves; and then doth he call after them as long as there is hope of hearing, as one that is grieved at their destruction, and not delighted in the death of sinners, but had rather they would returne and live: And even thus must we do too. Lazinesse is the common cause of separation: when we should go with words of pitty and love, and with teares beseech sinners to return to theit duty, and shew them their danger; we neglect all this, to save us the labour and the suffering that sometime follows this duty; wee will plead that they are no Church-Members, and so not the Brethren that we are bound to admonish, and so lazily separate from them, and say as Cain, Am I my Brothers keeper? or as the man to Christ, who is my Neighbour? And thus when we have made his sinne our owne by our silence, and not reproving him then we excommunicate him for it out of our society and from the Ordinances, and so judge our selves out of our own mouths. Or we separate from him for the neglect of some duty, when wee our selves have neglected both to him and others, this great and excellent duty of faithfull admonition. It is more comfortable to recover one soule then to cast off many by separation. Though I know that the avoiding communion with wilfull offendours, who by this due admonition will not be reclamed, is a most necessary & usefull duty too. But do not execute a man before he is judged; nor judge him before you have heard him speak, & fully proved that obstinacy is added to his sinne; (except it be to suspend him while he is under this legall triall,) But perhaps you will object, that we have no discipline established, & so no Authority to do thus and the means are vain which cannot attain their end. To which I answer: 1. You have divine authority: 2. And may do as much as I presse without a Presbitery, First, you may admonish privately: Secondly, before witnesse: Thirdly, you may bring your Congregation to this, that the parties offended, may accuse them openly: (The Presbyterians deny not to the Congregation the audience and cognizance of the Fact, but onelyonly the power of judiciall sentencing.) And here you may admonish them before all: Fourthly, if yet they prove obstinate, you may by your Ministeriall Authority; 1. Pronounce against him by name what the Scripture pronounceth against such sinners: particularly, that he is unfit to be a Church-Member, as openly denying obedience to the known Lawes of Christ, 2. You may charge the people from Scripture to avoid familiarity with him. 3. You may also acquaint the Magistrate with his duty, to thrust him out, if he violently intrude into Communion, or disturb the Ordinances. 4. You may forbear to deliver the Sacrament particularly to his hands. 5. You may enter and publish your dissent and dislike, if he intrude, and take it himself. All this I could most easily and beyond doubt prove your duty as you are a Christian and a Minister. And if there be any more that a Classis may do, yet do you do this in the mean time: only be sure you try all means in private (if the fault be not in publick) before you bring a man in publick: And be sure you do it in tendernesse and love▪ and rather with wary then passionate reproaches: And be sure that you do it only in case of undeniable sinnes, and not in doubtfull disputable Cases: And be sure that the matter of Fact be undoubtedly proved: And that no man be suffered to traduce another publickly in a wrong way: Or if he do, that he be brought to acknowledgement. The word Excommunication comprizeth severall Acts: Those before mentioned belong to you as a Minister, and are part of your proper Preaching declarative power, which you may perform by your Nuntiative authority. The power of Classes and Synods (I think) doth differ onelyonly gradually, and not specifically from that of every minister. I am ashamed that I have contrary to my first purpose, said so much of this unpleasing controversy. But when you are next at leisure privately, I shall undertake to prove all this to you from Scripture; and that the Keyes are put by Christ into the hands of every Minister singly: and that with sobriety and wisdome you may thus name the offendours publickly, as all Scripture Ministers have been used to do. And if you question whether our ordinary Congregations are true reall Churches, where such works may be managed. I shall prove that they are, by giving you a better definition of a Church, then that which you gave me, and then trying our Churches by it: In the mean time this is not matter to intermix here.
BUt you cannot, it seems digest Mr. Blakes assertion, that the Sacraments do seal but conditionally. Answer, I have not Mr. Blakes book by me, and therefore how he explaineth himself I cannot tell; But I remember he hath oft said so in conference with me. But let me tell you two or three things. 1. That I question whether you well understand him. 2. Or whether you be able to confute it, as thus to except against it, 3. That Mr. Blake is as truly conscientious whom he admitteth as you.
But for the Controversy, you must consider it a little more distinctly before you are like to understand it rightly. It is in vain to enquire, whether the Sacraments do seal absolutely or conditionally, till you first know well what it is that they seal. Let us first therefore resolve that Question, what they seal? and then enquire how they seal? You know a Christian doth gather the assurance of his Justification and Salvation by way of Argumentation, thus: He that believeth is iustified, and shall be saved: But, I believe; therefore I am justified and shall be saved. Now the Question is which of the parts of this Argument the Sacrament doth seal to? Whether to the Major, the Minor, or the Conclusion? To which I answer: 1. That it sealeth to the Truth of Gods promise (which is the Major proposition,) is unquestionable. But whether to this alone, is all the doubt? 2. That it sealeth not to the truth of the Minor Proposition, (that is, to the truth of our Believing) I take also for to be beyond dispute, For, first it should else seal to that which is now here written: For no Scripture saith, that I do believe. 2. And then it should be used to strengthen my Faith, in that which is no object of Faith: For, [that I do believe] is not matter of Faith, or to be believed, but matter of internall sense, or to be known by the reflex act of the understanding. 3. Also God should else set his seal, to my part or condition of the Covenant, as well as his own, and seal to the truth of my word, as well as to the truth of his own; for a justifying and saving us, is Gods condition, which he undertaketh to perform; so believing or accepting Christ is our condition, which we there professe to perform. So that it is doubtlesse, that a Sacrament as it is Gods engaging sign or seal, doth not seal to the truth of my faith, or sincerity of my heart in Covenanting: It were a most grosse conceit to imagine this.
But withall you must understand, that as there is in the Sacrament reciprocall actions, Gods giving, and our receiving; so is the Sacrament accordingly a mutuall engaging sign or seal. As it is given, it is Gods seal; so that as in this full Covenant there is a mutuall engaging; so there is a mutuall sealing. God saith to us, here is my Sonne who hath bought thee, take him for thy Lord and Saviour, and I will be thy reconciled God, and pardon and glorify thee: And to this he sets his seal. The sinner saith, I am willing Lord, I here take Christ for my King, and Saviour, and Husband; and deliver up my self accordingly to him: And hereto by receiving the offered elements, he setteth his engaging sign or seal; so that the Sacrament is the seal of the whole Covenant.
But yet you must remember, that in the present controversie, we meddle not with it as it is mans seal, but onelyonly as it is Gods.
So then it is clear, that as it is Gods seal, it sealeth the major proposition; and as it is ours, to the minor.
But yet here you must further distinguish betwixt sealing up the promise as true in it self, and sealing it with application as true to me. And it is the latter that the Sacrament doth, the delivery being Gods act of application, & the receiving ours; so that the Proposition which God sealeth to, runs thus, If thou believe, I do pardon thee, and will save thee.
3. But the great Question is, Whether the Sacrament do seal to the conclusion also, That I am justified, and shall be saved? To which I answer, No, directly and properly it doth not; and that is evident from the arguments before laid down, whereby I proved that the Sacraments seal not to the minor.
For 1. this conclusion is now here written in Scripture.
2. And therefore is not properly the object of Faith: whereas the seals are for confirmation of Faith.
3. Otherwise every man rightly receiving the seals, must needs be certainly justified & saved.
4. And no Minister can groundedly administer the Sacraments to any man but himself, because he can be certain of no mans justification and salvation, being not certain of the sincerity of their Faith. And if he should adventure to administer it upon probabilities and charitable conjectures, then should he be guilty of prophaning the ordinance, and every time he mistaketh, he should set the seale of God to a lye: And who then durst ever administer a Sacrament, being never certaine: but that he shall thus abuse it? I confesse ingenuously to you, that it was the ignorance of this one point which chiefly caused mee to abstaine from administring the Lords Supper so many yeeres: I did not understand, that it was neither the minor, nor conclusion, but only the major proposition of the foresaid Argument, which God thus sealeth. And I am sorry to see what advantage many of our most learned Divines have given the Papists here. As one errour drawes on many, and leadeth a man into a labyrinth of absurdities; so our Divines being first mistaken in the nature of justifying faith thinking that it consisteth in A Beliefe of the pardon of my owne sinnes, (which is this conclusion) have therefore thought that this is it which the Sacrament sealeth. And when the Papists alledge, that it is no where written that such or such a man is justified we answer them that it being written That he that beleeveth is justified this is equivalent: A grosse mistake: As if the major proposition alone were equivalent to the conclusion; or as if the conclusion must, or can be meerly Credenda, a proper object of Faith, when but one of the promises is matter of faith, & the other of sence or knowledge, The truth is the major, He that believeth shall be saved is received by Faith: The minor that I do sincerely believe is known by inward sence and self-reflexion: And the conclusion therefore I shall be saved is neither properly to be believed nor felt, but known by reason, deducing it from the two former; so that faith, sense, and reason are all necessary to the producing our assurance,
So you see, what it is that is sealed to.
2. Now let us consider, how it sealeth? Whether absolutely or conditionally? And I answer, It sealeth absolutely. For the promise of God which it sealeth is not conditionally, but absolutely true.
So that the summe of all I have said is this (which answereth the severall questions.)
1. The Sacrament sealeth not the absolute Covenant or Promise, but the conditionall Believe and live.
2. It sealeth not the truth of my Covenant, as it is Gods seal; or it sealeth not to the truth of my faith.
3. It sealeth not to the certainty of my justification and salvation.
4. But it sealeth to Gods part of the conditionall Covenant.
5. And sealeth this conditionall promise, not conditionally, but absolutely, as of undoubted truth.
6. And not only as true in it self, but true with application to me.
So that by this time you may discern what is their meaning, who say, that the Sacraments do seal but conditionally, that is, as it sealeth to the truth of the major (which is the promise) so thereby it may be said to seal conditionally to the conclusion; for the conclusion is, as it were, therein contained, upon condition or supposition of the minor proposition. He that saith. All Believers shall be saved, saith as much as that I shall be saved; it being supposed that I am a Believer: And so you must understand our Divines in this, Yet this speech is lesse proper: For to speak properly, it doth not seal to the conclusion at all; yet it is very usefull to help us in raising that conclusion, and to be perswaded, that we are justified, because it so confirmeth our belief of that promise, which is one of the grounds of the Conclusion.
For your inference in the last words of your objection then let all come that will; If you mean All that will, though they come to mock or abuse the ordinance, then it will no way follow from the doctrine which I have now opened. But if you mean. Let all come that will seriously, really, or apparently, enter or renew their Covenant with Christ. I think that to be no dangerous or absurd consequence. If Christ when he offereth himself, and the thing signified, do say. Let him that is athirst, come; and whoever will, let him take the water of life freely, Rev. 22. 17. Why may not I say so of the sign and seal, to those that seriously professe their thirst. Sure I shall speak but as Christ hath taught me, and that according to the very scope of the Gospel, and the nature of the Covenant of free grace. And I wonder that those men who cry up the nature of free grace so much, should yet so oppose this free offer of it, and the sealing the free Covenant to them that lay claim to it upon Christs invitation.