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 profaning the ordinance, and every time he mistaketh, ⟨p. 259⟩he should set the seal of God to a lye: And who then durst ever administer a Sacrament, being never certain: but that he shall thus abuse it? I confess ingenuously to you, that it was the ignorance of this one point which chiefly caused me to abstain from administering the Lords Supper so many years: 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 error draws 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 Belief of the pardon of my own sins, (which is this conclusion) have therefore thought that this is it which the Sacrament sealeth. And when the Papists allege, that it is no where written that such or such a man is justified we answer them that it being written That he that believeth is justified this is equivalent: A gross mistake: As if the major proposition alone were equivalent to the conclusion; or as if the conclusion must, or can be merely Credenda, a proper object of Faith, when but one of the promises is ⟨p. 260⟩matter of faith, & the other of sense 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 sense and self-reflection: 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,
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, ⟨p. 259⟩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 ⟨p. 260⟩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,
