The Covenant Sealed, Treatise · Chapter 7 · Section 12
SECT. XII. Propoſition 10.
THe Lords Supper (as all other Ordinances of Chriſt) muſt be ſo adminiſtred, The Lords Supper muſt be ſo adminiſtred, that Communicants may be edified.that the Kingdom of Chriſt may be moſt advanced, and the Church in her members moſt edified. Let all be done to edification, is the Apoſtles rule, 1 Cor. 14.26. Not as an Apoſtolical Canon, (as Mr. Hooker in his Eccleſiaſtical Policy hath obſerved; for then, if the Apoſtle had been ſilent, that injunction had not been obliging) but as a neceſſary reſult from all that they had in charge from Jeſus Chriſt; Prophecie exceeds unknown tongues, becauſe it edifies, 1 Cor. 14.4. And unknown tongues are without profit, and of no uſe, without interpretation to edifie, ver. 5. Therefore we have the Apoſtles reſolution for publique prayers, ver. 14, 15, 16, 17. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my ſpirit prayeth, but my underſtanding is unfruitfull: what is it then? I will pray with the Spirit, and with underſtanding alſo; I will ſing with the Spirit, and I will ſing with the underſtanding alſo. Elſe when thou ſhalt bleſſe with the Spirit, how ſhall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned, ſay Amen at thy giving of thanks? ſeeing he underſtandeth not what thou ſayeſt; for thou verily giveſt thankes well, but the other is not edified. And for the preaching of the Word, ver. 18, 19. I thank my God, I ſpeak with tongues more then you all; yet in the Church I had rather ſpeak five words with my underſtanding, that by my voice I might teach others alſo, then ten thouſand words in an unknown tongue. Matters circumſtantiall, and of themſelves indifferent, if they be not reduced to this end, prove inexpedient, and to the doer evil. All things are lawful for me, but all thinges edifie not, 1 Cor. 10.23. The whole of the Miniſterial work, and every appendant to it muſt be reduced hither; what have builders to do but to edifie? And if they edifie not, what do they do? In what other metaphor ſoever their work is ſet out, this is ſtill their buſineſſe, the perfecting of the Saints, the edifying of the body of Chriſt, Epheſ. 4.12. When they have done this, and made it their whole buſineſſe, they may with confidence ſpeak to God in the words of Chriſt, I have glorified thee, I have finiſhed the work that thou gaveſt me to do, Joh. 17.5. This thread, which runs through the whole of the Miniſteriall work, is not to be excluded here. Thoſe of whom there is hopes that they are willing to learn Chriſt, are to be taken into Chriſts School by Baptiſme, and thoſe are to be admitted to the Lords Supper that knowingly will engage for continuance, and comming on in the waies of Chriſt. Baptiſme is the entry door into the Church viſible; no man muſt be refuſed of whom there is reaſon of expectation that they will be profeſſedly Chriſts. And the Lords Supper is the means of the growth of thoſe that are thus viſibly and in the face of the Church received; where this may conduce to their building up, it is not to be denyed, ſo that the diſpenſers great enquiry muſt be, whom the Lords Supper may benefit, where it may edifie? which according to Scripture rules may be diſcerned and determined, otherwiſe the Apoſtle had not given this charge, Let all things be done to edification; and where it may edifie, to give it; and where it ſerves not for edification, to forbear it; not whether regenerate or unregenerate (which is an undiſcernable work), and accordingly to admit or refuſe.