Certain disputations of right to sacraments, and the true nature of visible Christianity defending…

Object. 6. But then we shall apply the Seal to a Blank.

Answ. By a Blank, if you mean, One that you ought not to apply it to, and that hath no right in foro Ecclesiae, I deny it: ⟨p. 33⟩but, if you mean, one that is not actually the subject of Gods promise, and to whom God is not actually obliged, (but conditionally, as he is to Heathens,) and one that hath no proper right coram Deo, or Deo judice, as shall justify his claim and receiving before God, so I grant that we set the seal to a Blank. But that's not our sin, but his.

Answ. By a Blank, if you mean, One that you ought not to apply it to, and that hath no right in foro Ecclesiae, I deny it: ⟨p. 33⟩but, if you mean, one that is not actually the subject of Gods promise, and to whom God is not actually obliged, (but conditionally, as he is to Heathens,) and one that hath no proper right coram Deo, or Deo judice, as shall justifie his claim and receiving before God, so I grant that we set the seal to a Blank. But thats not our sin, but his.

And here I desire the Objectors carefully to note, that it is Gods design in the Gospel, so to order things, that the actual Application shall first be the act of the sinner himself. God by his Ministers indeed will be the first offerer; and the Spirit in the Elect shall be the first Exciter: But the first actual apprehender must be the sinner, and then the Ministers application, by the seals, is in order to come after mens own application. For man is to be the chooser or refuser of his own salvation, (which Clemens Alexandrinus giveth as a reason, why in those times of the Church, [When some, as the custom is, have divided the Eucharist, they permit every one of the people to take his own part: For every mans own conscience is best fitted to the act of choosing or refusing.] Stromat. lib, 1. pag. 2.) so that we are but to follow them with the seal; and therefore the applying or refusing act must be first theirs: and theirs as professed, is the Director of ours. And therefore as it is their sin, and not ours, if they reject Christ; and their faith, and not ours, by which he is chosen to be theirs; so it is their sin, and not ours, if a misapplication be made of the External Ordinance by them; and so we take not an invalid profession, we are bound to follow their profession; for God never appointed heart searchers to administer his seals.