Congregations that are so corrupt and therefore they are neither Donatists nor Schismaticks I answer 1. Might not the Donatists have put in the same Plea Altingius probl Tom. 2. part 2. problem 17. p. 329. Junius in contro 4. Bellar p. 1165. Ames de cas Consc l. 5. c. 12. p. 288. who when they divided themselves from the Catholiques had a Communion with the many Churches of their fraternity Adhuc ista verba communiter dici possunt potest enim alius dicere as Augustine this is the common defence of all Schismaticks that when they leave one Church they go into another but as Altingius will give them one venny Quibuscum coenam sumere detrectamus eorum fraternitati tacitè renunciamus So secondly let them take a blow from the famous Junius to beat down this interposition Schismatici comperiuntur multi qui non à spiritu aut capite aut à corpore discindi volunt sed ab hac illave ecclesia i.e. membro particulari corporis ex infirmitate particulari especially if as Ames addeth the separation be propter causam omnium ecclesiarum communem as we suppose it is being causâ morum corruptorum scandali aut singularium offensionum Tryal grounds Separat c. 10. p. 197. Sacramentorum Communione sociamur Contra Donatist post Collat c. 28. Tom. 7. p. 127. Sacramentorum participandorum communione cohaerere Ibid. c. 21. p. 126. In una congregatione paria Sacramenta tractantes Contra Parmen l. 3. c. 2. p. 13. Malus frater propter communia Sacramenta Collat. cum Donatist prima die Si in communione Sacramentorum mali maculant bonos si propter ipsam tantam Communionem Sacramentorum mali perdunt bonos Contra Crescon l. 2. c. 35 36. p. 5. Tom. 7. Commixtos bonis malos intrà retia suorum Sacramentorum Brevicul collat cum Donatist 3. die p. 118. Bonos malis in communione Sacramentorum misceri Fulgentius l. de fide ad Petrum wherein all Churches may be alike concerned If they shall think to evade by telling us that they hold communion in other Ordinances not onely Mr. Ball gives sentence against them That to use one Ordinance and not another is to make a Schisme in the Church but St. Augustine hath fore-stalled their Plea who as he makes external unity and communion to consist mainly in the participation of Sacraments so he constitutes much of the Schisme of the Donatists in their refusing to have communion in Sacraments with the Catholikes And though I deny not that they renounced and protested against all other communion with the Orthodox as well as in the Sacraments to which heighth and wideness of separation the Independents have not risen or removed yet do they symbolize with them in the kinde though not degrees of their Schisme for there may be several stories of building one higher than another yet all upon the same foundation And these Duties notwithstanding wherein they communicate with others they account no acts of Church-fellowship or Ecclesiastical Communion but such as they can dispense unto Pagans also And themselves also seem to constitute the root of Church-fellowship in the Communion of Sacraments owning none to be of their Churches but such as communicate with them of the Supper of the Lord. As therefore they applaud the fighting Cock which having lost one eye for the battel turns away his blind side lest he be stricken where he can least ward the blow so I cannot blame the Apologists to seek to sequester from the question their gathering into their Church such as separate from and renounce communion of Sacraments with their own Congregations which is the grand heteroclyte and chief anomalon of their way which as Calvin saith of the point of Justification controverted between us and the Papists would they retract it would almost quit the cost to grant them all the rest But the lawfulness of this they undertake to assert hereafter But Aut deme verbis aut adde viribus for the words require more than a City In the interim they abstract the state of the question and deliver it in this form Whether in the reforming of a long corrupted Church it be necessary that all the members thereof do submit to some examination or tryal of their knowledge before they be admitted unto the Lords Table This question they fear not to maintain in the affirmative Et cùm magna malae superest audacia causae Creditur à multis fiducia They suppose corruption in their Churches and he hath no fire of divine love in his heart that hath not Water limbeck'd out of his eyes to see it Men well satisfied with the present frame and temper not looking on them under any such disorder they can expect little of reason or truth from Vox tua facta mea est If we could as easily accord in other things as this Et duo concordes animo moriemur in uno Onely I cannot tell neither should I concur with them in a desire nor much to dispute with such for the more they are sick they the more need the Physician and though Cain be not his brothers keeper yet Jacob holds him by the heel detinet gressus suos as Bernard allegorically interprets it and though they seem never so incurable yet he that lay 38. years diseased might perchance have bin sooner cured had he not wanted one to put him into the healing pool however si non liberabo animam suam liberavi meam for Qui non corrigit resecanda committit facientis culpam in se habet qui quod potest corrigere negligit emendare saith Gregory But yet notwithstanding all this it would be the great question whether they found or made more of this corruption and whether the Cure may not be as mischievous as the Malady as it fared with Cn. Pompeius of whom the Historian tells us Gravior remediis quà m delicta erant and whether since they undertook the Cure the Diseases have not grown more desperate and incurable ut antea flagitiis ità nunc legibus laboratur or perchance among wise and moderate men this would be beyond question Hae manus Trojam erigent Parvas habet spes Troja si tales habet When men of their way and principles declaim against the corruptions of the Church Clodius accusat moechos And when they cry up Reformation Clodius de pudicitia And it will be farther no less questionable why this way of examining and proscribing from the Sacrament should be unto reformation as quick-silver to other metals that without which they could have no constitution and that this Cure could be wrought by no medicine whereof this is not the Basis so as all the Psalms of reformation end in this Gloria whereas I rather think si non falsis â—ludor imaginibus that scarce any thing hath more obstructed the work of reformation than this inclosing of the Sacrament and censorious driving of so many from it as nothing more
oracula vel certissima exempla quibus demonstratum praenunciatum est malos in Ecclesia perm xtos bonis usque in finem saeculi tempúsque judicii futuros nihil bonis in unitate ac participatione Sacramentorum qui eorum factis non consenserint obfuturos A Testimony which like Thunder and Lightning might cast down the very Foundations of those Babels of Gathered Churches which some have built to get them a name such and such a mans Church and lest they be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole Earth among such as they suppose less pure and which the confusion of Languages that is among them may in time make them to desist from farther advancing Fifthly the Sacrament in this notion of pollution is not polluted by the Minister and his admission but by him to whom it is administred by his accession neither to him that communicates worthily but to him that unworthily participates And for him that so partakes to abstain is as dangerous as it is perilous to come as for him that cannot plead his interest in Christ to eat or not to eat common food is a perplexity on either side mischievous for if he eat he is an usurper of the Creature if he eat not a murderer of himself so not onely by the censure of the Canons the abstainer from the Sacrament is among such Qui sibi praescribunt poenam declinant remedium Decret part 2. caus 33. dist 1. c. 56. and is as if he that is dangerously sick forgetting the incumbency to use the means to preserve life and possibility that the Medicine may work effectually should desert that Physick whereof the operation is doubtfull lest if he do not purge or alleviate the humours it irritate them and make them more malignant and the Disease more mortal but also in the judgment of Chrysostome is in the certain way to destruction for Quemadmodum frigida accessio periculosa est ità nulla mysticae illius coenae participatio pestis est interitus and is as if a man did fly from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned upon the wall and a Serpent bit him and as it is reported of one of Antigonus his Souldiers that he became more adventurous and undaunted to think that if he fell not by the Sword to an Enemy he must how ere perish by the mortal Disease he had within him so the polluted conscience which he still bears about him will condemn him though he forbear to pollute the Sacrament and as Bias asmuch check'd with true Philosophy to cast his riches into the Sea as he could have done in taking the fruition of them and Ahaz sinned as much through infidelity in refusing a sign as the adulterous generation did in seeking it so the Sacrament is asmuch polluted that is contemned or vilified by the want of a precious esteem thereof and an holy care to dispose and fit our selves to the participation thereof though we do not partake it as it is by a presumptuous and unworthy receiving thereof and as he that offends being drunk merited a double punishment by Pittacus his Law one for his offence another for drunkenness so he contracts a double guilt that neither comes nor is qualified to come to the Sacrament whereas he that performs the matter doth some part of his duty though he do not the whole by discharging it in due form and manner and an impotency to perform a duty as he ought doth not cancel the Obligation to do it he doth well that comes but he doth evil that comes unworthy thou believest there is one God thou dost well saith the Apostle James 2.19 yet he did no more than the Devils did and sinned in believing no otherwise than they did yet did well in believing so much Secondly he that exhibites profanes not that which he applies to that use whereunto it was ordained and doth the work of his calling in administring and performs an act of justice in rendring to every one his own right But first the Sacraments by their Ordination are to be used by all that profess the faith of Christ being Testes professionis Christiana as Chamier As Pompey said Necesse est ut eam non ut vivam so it is necessary they go to the Sacrament whether they can come worthily or not though the due manner of coming be also of as great necessity as is their going And secondly they have a right to partake of them that are members of the Church of Christ Membra Ecclesiae praesumptiva as the School and Ecclesia conjecturalis as Cusanus speaks the Sacraments being a note of the true Church and receiving an act of Communion with the true Church Unum corpus sumus qui de uno pane participamus and by the Rule of Contraries Qui de uno pane non participamus non sumus unum corpus as Albaspinus argueth the Sacrament being Signum unitatis Vinculum charitatis as Augustine affirmeth and as a visible being in covenant or professing true Religion explicitely or implicitely makes a visible member Baxte◠Inf. Bap. p. 243. and sincerity in the covenant makes a member of the invisible Church so Church-membership is a sufficient evidence to the aged of their interest in the Lords Supper till they blot that Evidence saith a godly learned man Tom. 4. l. 7. c. 19. sect 17. p. 196. and as Augustine affirmeth Simul bibimus quia simul vivimus so they that live together in the Church with us and are not judicially cast our have a right to eat with us of the Sacrament and therefore the famous Chamier disputing against private Masses and answering the Objection That the People are not worthy to partake saith Scelus hominis Cur indignos Sacramento dicis quos indignos negas pace Ecclesiae Itanè tibi videntur qui censeantur in corpore Christi ut indignos pronuncies qui vescantur Christo at Chrysostomus negabat dignos esse qui vel precibus interessent and having then till they be judicially separated a right thereunto in foro exteriori to suspend them from the fruition thereof till they evidence their title in foro interiori is as if because in foro coeli nothing is ours in property but as we feel our claim in Christ nor in use but as it is sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer therefore they should sequester a man from his legal rights untill he verifie his title by faith in Christ Jesus and permit none to be a civil Owner till he approve himself no spiritual Usurper which were to dash on that Heresie which is falsly imputed to Wickliff That all Dominion is founded in grace And thirdly the exhibiting the Sacrament is a part of the work of the Ministery who are to take all to be with Christ that are not notoriously against him and who are the Servants to set forth the Feast before those many that are called the
he affirms that communicant Altari Christi non alienis peccatis non facta cum talibus sed Domini sacramenta communicant and confidently gives this Corollary Manifestum non contaminari alienis peccatis quando cum iis sacramenta communicant Epist 48. tom 2. p. 36. And as in answer to this text urged by Cresconius he saith Vt ostenderet quemadmodum quisque non commuâ—icaret alienis peccatis ad hoc addidit Te ipsum castum serva non enim qui se castum servat communicat alienis peccatis quamvis non corum peccata sed illa quae ad judicium sumunt Dei sacramenta communicet cum iis à quibus se castum servando facit alienum alioquin etiam Cyprianus quod â—absit peccatis raptorum soeneratorum collegarum communicabat cum quibus tamen in communione divinorum sacramentorum manebat So elswhere he tells the Dona ists upon this occasion Contra lit Petil l. 2. c. 22. Non dixisse Dominum praesente Juda nondum mundi estis sed jam mundi estis addidit autem non omnes quia ibi erat qui mundus non erat qui tamen si praesentia sua caeteros pollueret non iis diceretur jam mundi estis sed diceretur ut dixi nondum mundi estis certè si putatis apud nos similes esse Judae haec verba nobis dieite mundi estis sed non omnes non autem hoc dicitis sed diciâ—is propter quosdam immundos immundi estis omnes Whereas they say that as in Civill Judicatories there are Principals and Accessories so before God there will be too non-examiners are accessories before the fact But the Law wil supply them with as little aid as the Gospel for in Law he is onely an accessory before the fact that abets precures consents to or commands a felony or any evill act from whence a felony proceeds but first as the lowest offences involve no accessories as trespasses so by proportion where the faults are not exitious or scandalous dalous there should be no accessories by commuunion with such as are onely so faulty And secondly where the action is naturally good that is commanded though in pursuance thereof a Felony may be committed the commander of the act is not accessory to the Felony so the receiving of the Sacrament being in its own nature a good and necessary duty he that consents or should enjoyn them to receive who become unworthy receivers is not accessory to the unworthy reception So thirdly since participation of sin is onely in those acts which are evill in the kind and object thereof not in those acts which are good and the deficiency is onely in the well doing and that defect neither caused or consented to by another they therefore that suffer those to come to the Sacrament that partake unworthily and participate with them but not in unworthinesse neither abet procure consent to or command the unworthinesse nor are accessory to the Ataxy but the act not the formall but the naturall part thereof and the physicall not the moral action as long as he that administers or permits any to come to the administration is not the cause of their unworthy receiving nor the unworthinesse of the person known to him in that way wherein it regularly ought to be viz. 〈…〉 â—nd notorious knowledge though it be evill of the part of the receiver 〈…〉 â—he part of the giver nor is any fault to be imputed to him who cannot be 〈…〉 another partakes with an evill Suarez as before what he distributes with a good intent and affection And with the action of receiving there is not conjoyned necessarily and of it selfe the unworthinesse of receiving for he may partake worthily if he will so as there is no co-operation in evil but a permission which morally cannot be avoyded the co-operation being onely to the receiving not unworthy reception neither doth the administer doe against his conscience in administring for the Dictate thereof is not to be regulated by his private and speculative knowledge that this man is unworthy but by his practical knowledge considering what he ought to do for time and place in concurrence of such circumstances of the mans coming to demand the Sacrament and his occult unworthinesse and the administer doth not dispense it in his own name but according to order established by God forbidding any Church-member to be denied his right to holy things upon the private knowledge or will of the administer who is to distribute it not formally as to one worthy or unworthy but to one undivided from the Church and to exhibit that which is the witnesse of Christian profession to them professe the Christian faith the Sacraments being notes of the true Church and the receiving thereof an act of communion with the true Church And if this can support and justifie the dispensing of the Sacrament to such as by private knowledge onely are known to be unworthy much more will it bear out the dispensation thereof to those that are only suspected or have onely not upon triall given demonstrative signs of heir being worthy And seeing also unconverted men can neither hear nor pray with faith and consequently sin in both as well as when they partake of the Sacrament it must consequently be asmuch a partaking of their sins to admit them and communicate with them in the one as in the other What they tautologize and thereby constrain us like Mercury reasoning with Battus to conform to them because admisso sequimur vestigia pâ—ssu of the telling them that are unworthy and yet are partakers that they are â—aints interessed in Gospel privileges and promises and justified persons by giving them the seales of the now Covenant is neither pertinent to this subject of partaking their sins nor as hath been formerly manifested is consonant to truth or sound reason it makes them relative Saints and so are all Church members not effectively or meritoriously cut off The Sacrament â—eâ—s not men but the promises to them and upon condition of believing and that they may do to those that believe not and in the condiâ—ional promises all of the Church have interest which are the same promises in the word and in the Sacrament though differently applied and the one and the other hold forth justification in the same way of believing and upon such condition and not otherwise They are not assured that all those are justified to whom they impart the seales and why are any made saints interessed in the promises and justified more by this Sacrament if they should have it than by the other which they have That non examiners are accessories before the fact is one of their Dictates but none of their demonstrations That those who are under violent suspicion of grosse ignorance shall come under examination we deny not that those who are vehemently suspected of scandals may be examined and witnesses may be so also concerning them we grant
and Heresies Perswasions to mildness and moderation 307. DEFENCE SECT XVII They misrepresent their Church-way Whether the Queries of the Diatribe were doubts of Friends or Enemies What are properly scruples 318. SECT XVIII Rom. 14.1 10. discussed Whether they judge or despise their Brethren Psal 15.4 vindicated No other Qualifications required in order to communicating in a Church-member having a dogmatical Faith but to be without scandal whether they reject onely the wicked whether their way render them not guilty of temerarious judgment of judging the heart of bearing infirmities of moral men 320 SECT XIX 1 Cor. 13.7 considered whether they suspect not much evil believe or hope little good of their people of examining the knowing to be exemplar to the ignorant or to nanifest their humility whether it be their duty to submit to such a passive examination whether to call them to it be not directly to detract from them or interpretatively to diffame them small matters are often great in the consequence 2 Cor. 11.2 examined the properties of charity in hoping and believing all the ignorance charged is not to know it to be duty to submtt to their commands whether conversion may be sudden whether the Church have loss or gain by these ways of pretended Reformation 332 SECT XX. Whether the Apologists are charitably suspected or can be justly charged with Pharisaism whether their actings proceed out of tenderness of conscience A paralel between the Apologists and Pharisees in some things 369 169 SECT XXI What was Diotrephes what his ambition whether the Apologists exceed not the bounds of Ministerial power by bringing all under triall excluding and not for scandal and that so many and by common continual practice whether this check not with 1 Peter 5.3 whether those they reject are scandalous themselves separated and left the Church behinde them Of Ecclesiastical power what it is and how far extensive The duty of Stewards It is Christ's honour to have an universal Church Their actings 1. Not commanded or warranted by Gods VVord 2. They act solely Of their Elders of ruling Elders in general not by divine right yet a prudent constitution requisite to be continued in some way the interest of the whole Church in censures the Elders Representatives of the Church whether the ancient Church knew any such 3. They act arbitrarily of the former Bishops the Flowers of the Apologists Canina facundia which they cast on the Opposites of their way the aspersions wiped off and some of them reflected of small things and whether their Injunctions are such what may be the consequences thereof viz. their own power and greatness in the intention which yet in effect may be thereby lessened whether their promiscuous examination be to prevent respect of persons of examining persons known to be knowing of the Shekel of the Sanctuary of their aviling of their people and thereby giving advantage to the Papists to upbraid us of the former Bishops the lack of light in some places through want of some to hold it forth whether the Diatribe aspersed Presbytery to be modelled like Popery the Apologists no friends to Presbytery their way hath some analogy with Popery and accidental tendency thereunto 378 178 SECT XXII Of Independents their godliness their Schism the confessed imperfection of the way of the Apologists their desire of an union with the Independents an admonition to the Presbyterians the confounding of Churches and Parishes by the Apologists their gathering of Churches whether they are guilty of disorder against Law whether Magick were laid to their charge whether they are culpable of Schism and Sedition or injury to other Ministers of the hatching others Eggs like the Partridge 414 214 SECT XXIII VVhy they have not the Sacrament in their own Churches why onely at Pyworthy whether it be no great matter to be called or drawn thither Of their return to their own Churches How they stigmatize the People and judge their hearts Of serving the times they confess the Word and Sacraments to be the same thing what thereupon followes 426. 226 SECT XXIV VVhether they are Butchers or Surgeons VVhether guilty of Schisme Of negative and positive Schisme VVhat are just causes of separation VVhether our Saviour separated from the Jewish Church for instance in eating the Passover They condemn what they practise by confounding Churches and by separation They grant Professors to be visible Saints which destroys their Platform Their Reasons why all sorts are to be admitted to the Word and Prayer VVhether there are not better Reasons to warrant a like admission to the Sacrament VVhether the same conclude it not VVhether the Churches of England are all true Churches Sacraments Notes of the Church and therefore communicable to all Church-Members they grant Discipline enters not the definition of a Church yet they separate for want thereof VVhether they may not aswell deny Baptisme to the Children as the Eucharist to the Parents 434. 234. SECT XXV Their great abuse and distortion of Scripture with what a train of Consequences their Arguments are far-fetch'd they are borrowed from the Donatists Papists Brownists Independents none of them conclude the question as themselves have stated it the Argument raised from 1 Cor. 14.40 examined Whether it be a glorious and comfortable practice that none approach the Lords Table save holy persons Whether their way be warranted by the Laws The moderating of Censures Whether their way have like ground with the antient Discipline in receiving in Penitents Whether there be order and decency in mix'd Communions The lesser good to be omitted to acquire the greater the confusion and disorder of their wayes 250. 450. SECT XXVI Jeremy 15.19 Discussed and vindicated 264. 464. SECT XXVII 2 Thes 3.2 6. Opened and redeemed from their misapplications Whether antiently the Commerce with any not excommunicate were avoided VVhat society Excommunication cuts off from How Suspension might be used and is abused 267. 467. SECT XXVIII 1 Cor. 5.11 Ventilated and the Chaff of their Interpretation dispersed Whether we may have communion in sacred things with such as we may not have society with in civil 274. 474. SECT XXIX Matth. 7.6 The sense thereof enucleated and shewed not to be subservient to their purpose but odiously abused VVhether Ministers may act in Censures alone and upon their own knowledge 281. 481. SECT XXX 1 Cor. 11.27 sequent Discussed of eating and drinking unworthily VVhether there be a necessity of examining all because some cannot examine themselves Whether any irregenerate man can examine himself VVhether this tends not to introduce Auricular Confession Jude 3. opened 288. 488. SECT XXXI 1 Tim. 5.22 Interpreted and answered Of Principals and Accessories 1 Tim. 3.10 considered Not like Reasons to examine those that are to communicate and those that are to be ordained 293. 493. SECT XXXII 1 Pet. 3.15 Heb. 13.17 Discussed VVhat obedience is due to Ministers and what power they have 497. 297. SECT XXXIII Levit. 13.5 2 Chron. 23.19
explicit and express promise and engagement to God to endevour to attain what we pray for to glorifie God with all which we obtain by prayer to observe his will that is pleased to accept the representation of ours and to turn that verbal praise which we give him into real by glorifying him by our religious lives and complying with our vows and verifying our professions of service without all which prayer becomes nothing but a mockery of God But do not wicked men in all this flatter him with their mouth Psal 78.36 and lye unto him with their tongues and if then men must be suspended from the Sacrament until they approve their holiness to the satisfaction of the Church lest otherwise they make an hypocritical engagement and false promise it seems to me to follow that upon the same account they ought not to be admitted to prayers Neither are or ought men to be Saints onely in order to the Sacrament and not to other Ordinances and if they must be rejected from the Sacraments till they give convincing signes of their sanctity because all that are admitted to joyn in this highest act of church-Church-Communion as they stile it ought de jure to be Saints it seems to me that till they render such signs they ought to be excluded altogether from all Church-Communion and to be accounted as Heathens and Publicans and no members at all of the visible Church for the Church and Saints by calling signifie the same thing and all ought to be Saints that are of the Church Lastly I may not deny that through an accidental abuse which may not prejudice things good in themselves wicked men may be facil to flatter and indulge themselves with a good conceit of their condition though sinful or an hope of their impunity in their evils because of their participation of the Sacraments It seems by what St. Paul delivers 1 Cor. 10. the Corinthians are an exemplary instance hereof being guilty of the like presumption and security But what way of cure doth the Apostle use to prevent or remedy the malady Truly not Empyrick-like straightway to take the knife in hand and fall to cutting oft for he doth not tell them that therefore all ought to be suspended beside manifest Saints but he proceeds dogmatically and to expel and correct the errour of the Corinthians which also lets out the vital blood and spirits of this Paradox of the Apologists he better doth instruct and principle them shewing that the Sacraments which were common to good and evil men could give no privilege to sinne nor protection from punishment For quemadmodum tu comedis corpus Christi sic illi Manna quomodo tu bibis sanguinem Homil. 18. in 2 Cor. In locum Calvin Instit l. 2. c. 10. Sect. 5. p. 148. Aquinas Justinian Estius Lapide c. English late Annot. Chamier to 4. l. 3. c. 2. p. 55. stc illi aquam ex petra saith Chrysostome The Fathers did all eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink the same non in symbolis seu signis sed significatione seu re significatâ as Piscator iisdem quoque symbolis illustrem inter eos gratiam suam reddiderit the same cum nobis with us not onely the same among themselves inter se as the Papists would have it for that would take off the energy of the Apostles argument whose scope being ut ostendat quòd sicut illis non profuit quòd tantum donum sunt assecuti ita nec his quòd consequuti sunt baptismum spiritualia perceperint mysteria nisi sint ostensuri vitam dignam gratiâ in the words of Chrysostome wherein not onely all Protestants concurre but even many Pontificians themselvs therefore ut apta esset comparatio oportuit oftendere nihil esse inaequalitatis inter nos ipsos in iis bonis quibus falsè gloriari vetabat Ergo pares in Sacramentis non facit nec ullam praerogativam nobis relinquit saith Calvin and therefore in illa comparatione rem eandem significatam esse fundamentum comparandi nulla consequentia si compararentur inaequalia aut dissimilia nam si res impar Ibid. c. 1. in promptu exceptionem esse futuram Periisse Israelitas non participes beneficiorum quorum nobis Sacramenta sunt addes Chamier and the drift of the Apostle here is to compare those Sacramental Types in the old Law with the two Sacraments in the new and that in two respects First for the same nature or substance of mysteries in both and secondly Mede Diatr p. 556. Chamier Tom. 4. l. 3. c. 1. for the same condition of the receivers if either they abuse them or walk unworthy of them saith a late judicious Writer They were therefore the same spiritual meat and drink in re as Chamier non in modo rei their Sacraments praefigurativè ours rememorativè and ours having ex ampliore revelationis modo gratiam uberiorem as Calvin non in specie visibili sed virtute spirituali in signis diversis eadem fides as Augustine and out of him Anselm there being discrepantia in signis In Joh. Tract 26. 45. Tom. 9. convenientia in re significata as Paraeus their 's being antitypes of ours signs of the same things ut apud Graecos Grammaticos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt elementa quorum idem sonus tempus deversum as Chamier and so this was the same meat and spiritual drink too because spirituale aliquod significans Ut supra as Augustine and Piscator figura spiritualis as Sa quia in symbolum significationem spiritualium as Salmeron quatenus habuerint rationem Sacramenti adds Piscator So then however these were Sacramenta extraordinaria transitoria temporaria yet being the same with ours or else Christ is not ours for that Rock was Christ the same with ours in use end and effect and operating Tom. 4. c. 9. p. 36. saith Ames eodem genere non gradu efficaciae and agreeing with ours omnibus iis capitibus quae sunt de natura Sacramenti as Chamter and therefore the Fathers receiving the Sacramental Communication of the body and blood of Christ indeed Confut. Rhem. Test. in 1 Cor. 10.3 Willet contr 11. q. 2. p. 544. as not onely Fulk and Willet but the whole Protestant Host of the living God do contend yet many of them God was not well pleased with some whereof were Idolaters Fornicators Murmurers did lust did tempt Christ yet the same spiritual meat and drink was received by all Sacramentally though effectually onely by believers the spiritual thing by the good alone the Elements which were spiritual in their signification by evil men also And thereupon likewise I hope it will seem evident to unprejudiced and unbiassed men that the Sacraments are not onely communicable to such as have given positive signs and demonstrations of Holiness There are such answers given to the Argument drawn from
own faces and put upon themselves the reproch of bad builders He is not like to build the house better that hath not entred at the door The influence of the Agent is upon the Patient well prepared and those preparations and previous dispositions are best wrought by familiar and gentle applications humble condescentions meekness of spirit and by being given to Hospitality which are the most proper tools and most effectual Instruments to build with durum durum non faciunt murum and he that shall chuse to make use of the contrary may think to build such a Chamber for himself as Tobias had by the preparation of Eliashib in the Courts of the house of God but he may not hope to build Gods house especially when his Rod takes up almost all the Ark and leaves so little room for the pot of Manna The Halcyon or Kings-Fisher doth onely build his nest in a calm and the Fishers of the King of Heaven are onely like to edifie the Church by calm comportments and gentle applications not by raising such firy and boysterous storms Amphions Musick brought together and laid the stones for building the Walls of Thebes but they are so long and so much knocking and beating of the stones that they break them to pieces and are like the Italian Musicians that were admitted to sound their Airs before Sultan Achmet which were so long a tuning of their Instruments that he thought this their best Musick and sent them away with contempt and indignation and frustrated of their reward SECT VII The Apologists causlesly irritated by an Allegory Quis te tam lene fluentem Moturum tot as violenti gurgitis iras Nile putet WHO would have imagined that the drawing of an Allegory from Nebuchadnezars Image would have been an occasion to bring me into the firy Furnace as St. Augustine calls an Adversaries angry mouth and that quicquid tetigero ulcus erit Bitterly they say but Flagrantior aequo Non debet dolor esse viri nec vulnere major I conclude that I cannot but excuse such as at the sound of such Musick cannot fall down and worship the Image which Nebuchadnezar hath set up I make their holy and Christian way the means antonomasticè of spiritual life though I trust all are not spiritually dead that partake not of these meanes Nebuchadnezars Image and Idolatry and their Exhortations moving soules to their society as tending to Reformation and some rise of order so as it seems they only are of the Reformed Religion whereas they onely reform the Church militant in the Military notion as Troops and Companies are said to be reformed when they are lessened This is Pagan Musick Magnum crimen Caie Caesar ante haec tempora inauditum But are the Apologists in earnest and will they as much blemish their Charity to think I intended this as their discretion to suppose that this can be inferred from my expressions If I seem to conclude bitterly it is because the stomach vitiated the tongue with choler therefore every thing tastes bitter Doth it more imbitter them to hear the same thing drest in a Rhetorical figurative expression than in a rustical and blunt Language Acuto quà m retuso telo vulnerari commodius sit saith the great Physician Celsus A comparison reflects more light and impresseth more complacency than a simple contemplation If I had said I could not but excuse these that could not dance after their pipe would not that have irritated them with the harsh sound thereof And what do I in that other delivery of my self but signifie the same thing in other words Scaliger tells us of a Maid that sounded at the sight of a Rose as Cantharides are killed with smells of sweet flowers and it seems the Apologists are offended with a poor Flower of Rhetorique a Rose that hath no prickles Allegories are but implicit and contracted similitudes which as they must not be wrested beyond their scope and as Heralds say of Bearings the resemblance must be taken from the best of their properties not the worst so he that shall apply all that to the subject of the apodosis which agrees to the subject of the protasis will forfeit as much of discretion as of charity In that Allegory viz. where the dead carcass is there will the Eagles resort the carcass refers unto and shadows out our blessed Saviour but dare any to be so foolishly blasphemous as to apply unto our Saviour other properties of a carcass than that one of conveying his Saints to him as Eagles to a carkass Do not the Apologists in the close of this Section tell us in the phrase of Scripture of Adders stopping their ears to them and of their piping to them that have not danced and shall we have so little wit or ingenuity to say they grant themselves to be Charmers or Fidlers With as much colour of justice do they complain else-where that I lay Magick to their charge in saying their gathering others from their proper Pastors into their Church resembles that Magick which some Romans were slandered with of charming and bringing other mens fruits into their Fields As Socrates said of Heraclitus his Works What I understand is good what I understand not I beleeve is good So when they else-where complain of despiteful Calumnies cast upon them who will not contrariwise be apt to say what I know hath no cause of complaint and therefore I beleeve what I know not is as causless But as it tends nothing to the honour of their patience imbecilla se laedi putant si tanguntur so as little to the repute of their innocence to be so tender Hieron in Is 2. Tom. 4. p. 20. Aug. Tom. 7. p. 69. as to catch fire from every spark for not onely wise Tacitus hath said agnita sunt si irascaris but more reverend Hierom Qui mâ—hi irasci voluerit priùs ipse de se quod talis sit confitebitur and perchance when they suspect I accuse them of Idolatry they re-mind that of Hierom Omne dogma contrarium veritati adorat opera manuum suarum constituit idolum in terra sua SECT VIII In whom the School vesteth the power of Church-censures Whether the Apologists may de jure or doe de facto censure alone How they have restored the Sacrament THE Paper quantum distabat ab illa that otherwhere is too parsimonious is here quanto majora dedisti become very prodigal in granting them more power than they desire and then surely the grant is exceeding large for it impowers the Minister alone to excommunicate which the Learned make an act of jurisdiction belonging to the whole Church the act and exercise of that power none but their late sprung party of Independents do invest the whole Church with though the Church-Representative in general Councils perchance do assume it Or to the Officers of the Church which is not so accurately expressed for the Minister is a Church-Officer too but
Sancti and was but equivalent to the Ite missa est and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and also served to prompt the rest to examine themselves as they might have read in Chemnicius And they might also have learned from Chrysostome if he be one of these few Ancients that they converse with that the Deacon also proclaimed You that cannot pray depart so as they were thought to be as indisposed for prayers as for the Sacrament And those that were not under penance were not thought unholy or unworthy of those holy things as they might have found in St. Augustine Hoc enim est indignè accipere si eo tempore accipiat quo poenitentiam agere debet The very Heathen had one to cry Procul hinc Be gone you that are profane But first this was not extensive to all their Holies ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacra profani admittebantur saith Gyraldus Beside to keep analogy with that custome they should as the Heathen did exclude those whom they judge prophane from the Temple and from all sacred actions not one alone and hence is profanus quasi porrò à fane and therefore in that of Virgil Procul ô procul este profani There is also added in the next Verse Totoque absistite luco And that conclamation too was after the sacrifice ended Adventante dea procul ô c. And farther by profane the great Grammarian Servius understands such onely as were not yet initiated into their Rites Lil. Gyrald ubi supra p. 498. Sueton. in Nerone S. 34. and those were answerable to the Catechumeni and the procul hinc was therefore equivalent to their Ilicet and to the Christians Ite missa est Others think it meant of such as were polluted with homicides and flagitious villanies such as Nero was who durst not saith Suetonius enter the Fanes through conscience of his Crimes such as correspond with men among us cast out for notorious crimes and so learned Casaubon supposeth the Procul ô procul este profani to bear fimilitude with that in the Leturgy pronounced by the Deacon Omnes Catechumeni Exercit. 16. S. 43. p. 399. c. discedite whereof were sundry formes and had the force of an excommunication but there was no examination of mens lives it was enough when it was aloud said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without farther scrutiny And some farther think this was onely an usage proper to their Eleusinia sacra where he was profane that was not wicked and indeed there was little less impurity in most of their Rites for as for sins of the flesh Alexand. ab Alex. dierum Genial l. 6. c. 26. p. 747. Dr. Hammond Tract of Idol and Annot. in 1 Cor. 5.10 Antiq. Lect. l. 12. c. 2. notwithstanding their Pontifician Law in Tully Deos castè adeunto c. omnes ferè mortales in templis coire nefandis libidinibus commisceri nefas non putarent saith Alexander Neapolitanus and therefore a learned man supposeth that in the New Testament as Fornication is commonly joyned with Idolatry so sometimes by Idolatry is meant sinne of uncleanness which always attended upon Idol-worship and as for Drunkenness it was so common in their Sacrifices that Aristotle's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflexum putat saith Rhodoginus quòd ebrii fierent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is post sacrificium and both the one and the other recommended under the opinion of Religion and the prescribed way of worship The Ancients are censured for going too far this way perchance they are so but for going too farre not in theirs but in a different way Their rigour was in excommunicating some for smaller offences for as farre as I can discover Si redeant veteres ingentia nomina Patres they would say Excommunication we know and delivering to Sathan we know but for suspension who are you and in inflicting penance for so many years to make men Flentes three years Audientes so many more Succumbentes as many Stantes for two years and in keeping some for more grievous Crimes from the Communion till death and then sometimes giving them onely absolution and benediction but not the Eucharist and granting no absolution after a second lapse which as it gave an occasional Rise to Novatus his Schisme there being but this difference between him and the Catholiques that he denied the power and they often exercised not the act of remission they did not and he taught they could not absolve so it hath onely that of Innocent to excuse it Apud Albasp ubi supra l. 2. obser 5. p. 248. Coactam compulsámque Ecclesiam severiùs animadvertere in delinquentes quò atrocitate disciplinae austerioris invectâ in officio continerentur fideles contra persecutionum fluctus and lest they to escape and decline persecution should comply with Ethnick Idolators But this was not the general Rule of Discipline in all the first Ages of the Church but acts in the nature of an exception suited onely to times of Persecution no constant method but temporary and occasional not of the substance thereof but accidental pauca admodum vi tractata quo caeteris quies esset as Tacitus in another case and was like Galen's drawing blood in some desperate pestilent Fevers Usque ad animae defectum which is not to be exemplary or regular in ordinary practice the like discipline being not warrantable but in the like times and with the like reasons And as rigid as they for that time were their rigour onely extended judicially to reject some for manifest and scandalous wickedness not all till a manifestation of their real holiness neither doth it follow that if some few known Malefactors were then too severely castigated that now many that are not such have no just cause to complain for suffering though a lesser punishment And whereas they plead their distingue tempora too for their actings different from the Ancients in gathering and ordering Churches in respect they live in a corrupt Church which is not therefore to be stood upon perchance it were not if the Innovation stood upon a bottome of more Reason than the retention of the ancient Discipline could doe but for ought they have yet proved to the contrary the new seems to be as far from having a better Basis than the old as it is now at last by their confession from having any buttress to support it from a similitude with that ancient way from the causes which constituted it and from the effects flowing from it there are clear demonstrations of the excellency of the one above the other and such constitutive causes as the old had the new cannot have and the old may have the same effects influent on our times which it ever formerly had that though we shall not say with Tacitus Scito super omnibus negotiis meliùs atque rectiùs olim provisum quae convertuntur in deterius mutari yet in this
the Communion could not be Suspension because it was provided by sundry Canons that such as were deprived of the Communion should be put to doe penance before they could be reconciled and restored and that had been as much in effect as if they should be suspended in order to discharge them of Suspension But then secondly the Lay-Communion being onely Laicorum jus in corpore Christi mystico Ecclesia as it was contradistinguish'd to Ecclesiastical or Sacerdotal Communion the being put into the Lay-Communion was neither the doing of Penance nor any essential consequent thereof though perchance some that were adjudged to be degraded from being Clergy-men might also Concil Eliber can 50. as their offences were in merit be sentenced to penance Ut erat expressum in eorum elogiis judiciis saith Albaspinus and it appears that some when they had finished their penance were put into the Lay-Communion but formally and properly to be set in the Lay-Communion was onely a degrading or deposing of a Clerk and reducing him to the condition of a Lay-man being a censure onely inflicted on the Clergy and but the same which Augustine calls Degradation and the Councels Deposition and removing from Order Concil Elib can 51. Arelat 1. can 26. Chamier Tom. 4. l. 9. c. 3. and all Ecclesiastical Office as appears not onely by that of Gyprian Ut Laicus communicet non quasi locum sacerdotis usurpet but by a multitude of other Testimonies produced by Chamier Albaspinus and others To argue therefore they were admitted to the Laick Communion ergo they were not excommunicate is in effect to conclude they were made Lay-men ergo they were not excommunicated And if Penance were Suspension and the Lay-Communion were any part or appendage of penance it will carry a consequent implication that all Lay-men were suspended or else that to be suspended was to be admitted to the Eucharist as Lay-men were And let the Lay-communion be as Baronius and others would have it to partake the Sacrament without the Railes or could it be as Bellarmine supposeth to receive in one kinde yet in either way there was a communicating at the Lords Table Non diffiteor qui communicabat laicè accepisse eucharistiam more laicorum Albaspin de veter eccles rit l. 1. obser 4. p. 4. saith Albaspinus so as neither could penance formally have any affinity with the Laick Communion nor was any Penitent fully and perfectly in such Communion because during that state he could not partake of the Sacrament but when his penance was ended he intirely communicated as a Lay-man that is had the right and privileges of a Laick onely because he was not restored to Holy Orders whereof indeed he that had done penance was ever afterward â—ncapable And therefore I have laboured under much wonder to what end this Argument was produced I remember Maldonat tells us of a Text Luke 2.34 Facilior fuisset hic locus si nemo eum exposuisset and perchance we might have been more facile to beleeve that there might have been some evidence for Suspension in Antiquity if those that have so confidently assumed to prove it had not fallen so short of their undertakings and our expectation who as Scaliger said of Baronius that he did Annales facere non scribere so they have rather made than found their proofs and have rather imposed upon than informed us so that we may not know unless we shall continue ignorant But having cleared these mists let us look what purer light can be reflected upon us from the Monuments of the ancient Church that we may see to trace their foot-steps and discern what way they walked The notion of Suspension is scarce found in the ancient Fathers Augustine often speaks of Church-censures and sometime specifies the several Acts of Discipline Correption Excommunication Degradation but I have not met with the name much less the thing in all his Disputes against the Donatists where it was most likely to have occurred And had the Church in his time known any such Censure especially inflicted for want of a visible worthiness he could never have said as is pre-alleaged Si peccata tanta non sunt ut excommunicandus quisquam homo judicetur non debet se à quotidiana medicina Dominici corporis separare or had it been denizon'd in Chrysostome's age he would not have said that those which were unworthy to partake of the Eucharist were likewise unworthy to joyn in the Prayers and Hymnes But as Alexander scorned to steal a Victory in the night but would get it in clear day so we shall hide nothing that we can bring to light which may be of advantage to their cause though it seem to have been in the dark to all those which I have met with that have defended it who have said less for themselves than might be said for them and are therefore obnoxious to David's increpation who when they take themselves to be valiant men and who is like them in Israel yet have not kept their Lord so but that any one of the people may come to destroy him But nevertheless though Tellias get these new Pipes no Antinegidas need to be troubled for they will not sound to his Tune nor make any judicious man to dance after him To deal ingenuously as the Canons of the ancient Councels will lend the best Prospect of the Discipline of the Church those being the Mould wherein that was cast so we shall acknowledge that in those Canons we sometimes meet with the notion of Suspension like as we doe with those of Retentus Sequtstratus Remotus Segregatus Exclusus all of them Synonymous and all to be limited and defined by the terminus à quo that from which was the Separation But I doe with some confidence assert that suspended is there taken in the proper not the modern appropriate notion signifying a deferring of or detaining from and that not onely this one Ordinance of the Lords Supper but all Ordinances and is in effect but Excommunication carrying onely besides a connotation of a future restitution to Communion after penance done or satisfaction given The same words have not always the same sense in all Ages nor signifie the same things else we might conclude the Assemblies of the Heathen to be Churches and their Clerks of the Market to be Bishops and to argue that the term Suspension is found in ancient Records therefore there was such a thing as use hath since made the word to import carries as much reason as the Papists have to conclude that because prayer for the dead was used in the ancient Church therefore it related to Purgatory or is with as much sense as Valderama proves the order of Jesuites out of Scripture because it is there said that God hath called us to the society of his Son Jesus But that Suspension in the old Canons implies not a deferring of or detaining from the Eucharist onely and immediately but a
by taking away the proper object whereupon it worketh viz. lesser and higher offences and when they adde that Suspension be inflicted for such offences for which the ancient Fathers drove the Offenders out of the Church they did not so farre relax the reyns of Discipline as to censure onely with Suspension from the Lords Table those whom the Ancients punish'd by casting out of the Church but their Discipline had made them know no distinction between Suspension and casting out of the Church and therefore they used them univocally or the one as an Exegesis of the other Lastly we shall also fairly confess that in ancient Monuments we meet with those expressions of removing from the Altar and separating from the communion of Sacraments and of being reconciled thereunto but we are convinced to judge that they onely by a Synecdoche complicated with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie a rejection from and restitution to a plenary and absolute communion in general by one and the most excellent part thereof And this may be sufficiently proved by several passages in St. Augustine's Disputes against the Donatists Epist 11â— c. 3. tom 2. p. 108. especially against Parmenian But we need re-search no farther than that place in his Epistles which we have so lately agitated for having said Si tanta est plaga peccati atque impetus morbi ut medicamenta talia differenda sunt authoritate Antistitis debet quisque ab altari removeri eadem authoritate reconciliari hoc est enim indignè accipere si eo tempore accipiat quo debet agere poenitentiam non ut arbitrio suo cum libet vel auferat se communioni vel reddat caeterùm si peccata tanta non sunt ut excommunicandus quisquam homo judicetur non debet se à quotidiana medicina Dom nici corporis separare where we see plainly that ab altari removeri excommunicandum judicari are either consignificant or exegetical as well as that he thought that none were to separate from the Lords Table but for such sins as rendred demeritoriously excommunicate And though this be a pearl of so great price that he which finds it cannot but be willing to sell all the false notions that he hath to the contrary for the buying thereof yet it is no Union though one yet not the onely Orient testimony there being many others like and equal to it The first Council of Toledo decreeing 1. Tolet. â—â—a 2. that publicam poenitentiam gerens sub Concilio divino reconciliatus fuerit altari implies that to be reconciled to the Altar was to be absolved of Excommunication and re-admitted to communion with the Church whereof to partake of the Altar was the most perfect and absolute act for he that was thus reconciled was under penance and all penitents were such as had been excommunicate The Ilerden Council determineth Ilerden can 2. Communione corporis Domini priventur ità ut his duobus annis vigiliis orationibus elcemosynis pro viribus quas Dominus donaverit expientur quod si definito tempore negligentiores c. prorogandi ipsius poenitentiae tempus in potestate maneat sacerdotis whereby it is manifest that by deprivation of the communion of the body of the Lord as the chiefest part of Church-fellowship was the loss of all other Ecclesiastical Society or Excommunication intended for as persons suspended are not sentenced to such continual Watchings Prayers and Alms so whosoever was a Penitent had been excommunicate The second Council of Tours defining Eos ab Ecclesia sanctrepellant Turonen can 3. nec participare sancto altari permittant manifestly declares that they understood a repelling from the Church and non-permitting to partake of the Altar to be identical but such as of latter times are suspended are never repulsed from the Church which is more than to be debarred the Eucharist And lastly Can. 14. the fourth Council of Orleance defining Tam diu habeatur à communione altaris vel omnium fratrum ac filiorum charitate suspensus makes the latter to be exegetical to the former and evidently proves that to be suspended was to be cast out from all fellowship with the Brotherhood and Sonnes of the Church Wherefore seeing the ancient Church knew not their Suspension which is the onely penal and indeed main act of their Discipline yet for them to pretend to affinity with the ancient Discipline is a boldness like to finde as little success as excuse unless as that old Sycophant advised Calumniare audacter aliquid haerebit so they vaunt boldly of things in hope they will stick with some for their confidence or as some Heathens commended the ancient Heroes for fetching their Pedegree from the Gods though falsly because it raised their spirits and advantaged their reputation so they think it will produce like effects for them to derive the descent of their Discipline from the ancient Church though it can claim no kindred therewith They next come to give an account of their regard to the School-men but they might have spared the Irony Few are inimicous to School-learning but they that are ignorant thereof such indeed despise what they have not as Gallienus when Aegypt revolted and Gaul was lost said Quid sine lino Aegyptio esse neâ— possumus Num sine trabeatis sag is tuta Respublica non est and as Iovius speakes of Detractors Fortunam suam eâ vindictae voluptate consolantur The School indeed is a Libanon or Forest over-grown with Thorns and Briers yet much good Timber may there be found to build and make Beames for the Temple and as Otho said to Salvius Cocceamus nec patruum sibi Othonem fuisse aut oblivisceretur unquam nut nimiùm meminisset so shall I say of that Learning it is not too much to be studied nor altogether to be neglected They desire those that have the School-men to consult them on the third part of Aquinas and if they have them they might have given a more special direction and reference this which they give being like Magna civitas magna solitudo who put it into the hands of the Minister to deny the Sacrament to all whom they judge scandalous sinners or unworthy persons Reso They say there is a Fish whereof a part being eaten it proves poyson if the whole an Antidote so the doctrine of the School in this point being partially and mutilously set forth may seem to make for them but fully and plainly represented will speak much against them This dissertation will give us some Prosopography of the Apologists and reflect light to see how forward they are to impose upon others if these passages were oculis subjecta and entred by the horny gate or how facile they are to be imposed upon themselves if they were demissa per aures and had entry thorough the Ivory Port. It must therefore be recognized that the School distinguisheth of sinners whereof some are secret not of
by receiving what was evil but by evil receiving from that wickedness God may reclaim and convert the Receiver in the very act of receiving and the reception is a meanes subservient to such Conversion so as what Augustine saith of love may be applyed to admission to the Communion Aut ama me quia sum Dei aut ut sim Dei he that hath a wound seekes a medicine saith St. Augustine it is a wound that we are under sinne the celestial and venerable Sacrament is the Medicine De verbis Dom. c. Serm. 28. tom 10. p. 24. and of that wickedness or continuance therein the Pastor and Elders can have no morral certainty need not make any curious inquiry nor ought temerariously to judge Gratissimum veniae genus nescire quod quique peccasset plurimum mali credulitas facit in quibusdam rebus satius est decipi quà m diffidere What place saith Angustine shall be left for innocency if it shall be one mans proper fault not to know anothers And the remote probability even possibility of producing good effects thereby is a sufficient Ground and Warrant for the administration for in doubtful things the safest part is to be chosen and it seemes safer to doe our duty whereof good may also ensue than to neglect it upon a doubt lest evil may happen Fourthly it is not the receiving condemns but the receiving with that wicked disposition which remaining unrepented would condemn though they received not the act of receiving in the unworthy is not evil ex genere objecto but onely ex fine circumstantiis as hath been said and the evil effect is alone in the evil manner of doing and as a co-operation by another in such acts or a permission thereof doth not contract a satiety in the evil which is not caused or consented to so neither will the possibility or hazard of an evil accidentally consequent thereunto palliate or excuse a Ministers intermission of Divine Ordinances for else he might be secure from any woe for not preaching the Gospel since the Word being a savour of death unto death when it is not received with Faith which all have not it might be more safe and more charitable not to preach it lest it aggravate some mens condemnation and for ought I know upon such principles he might forbear to hold sorth the Lord Jesus as the true way of Life because he is also set for the fall of many Luke 2.34 and to be a stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence Esa 8.14 I recognize another similitude for in the agitation of this controversie similitudes doe often supply the place of arguments that as if a man bestow a Legacy to be issued and distributed to Scholars of such a capacity and parts in a College the Trustees cannot exhibite it to any others and they must necessarily make probation of the parties to get an assurance of their capacities so c. But for answer First here is Petitio Principii a begging of the question by a presupposing that the Sacraments were entrusted by Christ with the Ministers to be distributed to such select persons onely as in their way of probation they shall judge capable of them But we cannot so inclose that which St. Jude calls the common salvation nor make the Rose of the Field as Christ is called to be a Flower of private Gardens Allow to God saith Oecumenius that his Garden be diffused farre and neer longè latéque in plain terms we say that every actual and not duly separated member of the visible Church having an Historical Faith hath a right unto that which is one of the Notes of the Church the Sacrament and since eadem est ratio partium totius as that cannot be a visible Church to which the Notes agree not so he is no actual external member of the visible Church that is excluded from that which denotes it Secondly by retorsion as in a College all that are as we use to say of the Foundation doe partake of the Donatives of the Founder until upon expulsion or sequestration upon just cause they forfeit them and that miscarriage is discovered not by private scrutiny but by publick observation and judgment nor upon surmises but proof and sentence thereupon given so have all intelligent persons actually within the visible Church the College of the faithful by Title of their common Historical Faith onely a right to the Ordinances and external common privileges bequeathed by our Lord Christ until by obstinacy in notorious sins they merit to be expelled and put from the Communion and are accordingly sentenced judicially not arbitrarily or upon private surmises and suspicions and in very deed there is no one false species hath more imposed upon them than this that if none ought to be admitted but such as are worthy that therefore special probation must be made of the worthiness of every one which hath a palpable fallacy in the consequent and is just as if I should argue the Law allowes no Ideot to be admitted to the managery of his estate therefore every man must come under examination whether he be an Ideot or not as if a generall observation and converse could not suffice to make discovery and give judgment I am conscious also of that Rule that a man is guilty of every sinne he labours not to hinder but notwithstanding it thereupon follows not that the Pastor and Elders engage and enfeoffe themselves in other mens unworthy receiving unless they make probation of them thereby to discover and impede their sinne of receiving unworthily For first no man is guilty in not hindering that sinne which he knowes not nullius crimen maculat nescientem saith Augustine nor hath any command nor any authority to make particular search and enquiry after the Church is onely to judge of open crimes and scandals not of things secret and occult Secondly it must be an imminent an apparent evil and evil in it self and in its own nature for I am not obliged to snatch away a mans meat left he surfeit nor take his purse lest he squander his money in debauches no nor at all times to seize his sword lest he doe mischief with it unless it be evident to me that he intends so to abuse it and into his intention if secret am not bound to make any solicitous scrutiny nor to disarm him upon the warrant of my proper suspicion much less may I hinder him of doing that which is good in it self for fear lest it become evil to him by accident else I must keep him from hearing the Word lest he receive it not with faith and so it condemn him the possibility that he may doe well and receive good with or by the thing especially when that thing is intrinsically good and the hope which Charity should prompt me to that it shall become good to him is sufficient to disoblige me from impeding him in it Lastly if the matter be necessary
their sinne and if the contrary opinion be not the great principle of Donatisme the Apologists or their Friends should doe well to write a Commentary better to explain St. Augustine's bookes against those Hereticks for without some such new Light I cannot possibly see how to understand him otherwise And indeed by a Communion of Sacraments they have as much ground of fear to contract a burden of sinne as Artemon's servant in Plutarch to carry a Canopy over his head whither soever he went lest the Heavens should fall upon him hearken I beseech you to St. Augustine of whom I may say more truly what he did of Miltiades O filium Christianae pacis et patrem Christianae plebis Every one shall bear his own burden let him carry his burden De verbis Apost Serm. 23. tom 10. p. 76. and thou thine because when God hath shaken off one burden from thee he hath imposed another he hath taken off that of Covetousness and laid on that of Charity let not them beguile you that say We are holy we will not bear your burdens and therefore will not communicate with you They carry greater Burdens of Division Schisme Dissention Animosity False Testimonies Calumnious Accusations c. and elsewhere he exhorteth the Donatists Let every one bear his own burden Contra lit Petil. l. 2. c. 67. p. 27. tom 7. both among us and among you but cast away the Burdens of Schisme which you all carry that you may bear your Burdens in Unity and those that carry evil Burdens if you can you may mercifully amend if you cannot you may patiently tolerate As we should not be scandalized Etiamsi multi nobiscum manducant bibunt temporaliter sacramenta qui in fine habebunt aeterna tormenta so we may not hope to anticipate the Angels work to gather out of Christs Kingdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all scandals Matth. 13.41 Non te agnoscerem Angelum eradicantem zizania nec si cùm messis venisset ante messem non tu sed quisquis fuerit non est verus qui designavit messorem designavit tempus Angeli tibi nomen potes imponere tempus non potes breviare itaque falsum dicis qui sis quia nondum venit quando sis It were passionately to be wished not onely that all were of the body of Christ that partake of his body as Augustine August in Joan. tract 27. but that all were Candidata familia as Ambrose speakes and not onely that there may be a parcel of Holy Communicants but that all the Church should be holy and without blemish Aug. de Ovibus tom 9. p. 224. and therefore there may seem to be as great an incumbency to admit none by Baptisme to be Church-members as to give admission to none unto the Eucharist until they had approved their holiness and we must not acquiesce in the bare wishing hereof but in order thereunto I grant what we may doe we must but Illud possumus quod jure possumus it was not enough that the Ark was shaken and that Uzzah might well have staid it and therefore he ought or lawfully might have put to his hand to support it no but because he inconsiderately laid hold of it without a Warrant from God and beyond his Vocation and as the Jews conceive distrusted God as if he could not have upheld his Ark without his unlawful assistance he was struck dead and as the Rabbins say was blasted with Lightning and as Seneca saith one kind of Lightning is called Fulnmen monitorium so that stroke may enlighten and admonish us of this truth that pretences though of Reformation and Holiness will not secure nor good intentions excuse any actings and intermedlings without a Warrant and Commission and therefore in divers cases and emergencies St. Augustine thinks it to have more of prudence and piety too to have Communion of Sacraments with evil men than to separate them and much more then to separate from them and that we may suffer them sine crimine whom we cannot cast out sine discrimine As first if in gathering the Tares Aug. cont lit Petil. l. 3. c. 4. p. 35. tom 7. the Wheat also be in danger of being pluck'd up Absit à servis patrisfamiliâs ut immemores sint praecepti Domini sui sic adversus zizaniorum multitudinem flagrantiâ sanctae indignationis ignescant ut cùm ea volunt ante tempus colligere simul eradicetur triticum And sure this is the very case of the Apologists for in a large Field wherein grow five hundred Blades upon pretence of rooting up the Tares they have left but five or six whom they will own for stalks of Wheat Secondly when there is danger of Schisme any ways to happen and arise Cont. Epist Parm. l. 3. c. 2. p. 13 14. Fiat hoc ubi periculum schismatis nullum est cùm sine periculo violandae pacis fieri potest quia nec ipse Paulus aliter fieri voluit ut à congregatione bonorum separetur malus quando ità cujusque crimen notum est omnibus omnibus execrabile apparet ut vel nullos prorsus vel non tales habeat defensores per quos possit schisma contingere c. and this consideration might have kept up the hedge against that breach which they have made and the recognizance thereof should have bound them to the peace to prevent that Schisme whereof if their undertakings rendred them no prognostick signes their actings have lent us the Diagnostick for if to separate from so regardable a number who were never by any judicial sentence separate from them whose Crimes were not known to all much less execrable to them where the Defenders for number perchance for weight exceed the Accusers all which Checks with St. Augustine's Canon and onely because they had in suspicion their lives as not approved for their real Holiness and submission to their Discipline which was the case of those of the foundation of their Church the cives primitivi and because they were offended with the grossness of their Administrations at home where no separation is made as they express themselves which is the condition of those that were the superstructure of their Church civitate donati and perhaps è civitate Donati if to have as they chuse to have a separate Administration and no Communion of Sacraments Filiucius tr 22. c. 9. S. 298 299. p. 49. Camer praelect de Eccles de Schism p. 324. Polanus syntag l. 7. c. 22. p. 549 be secedere in religionis negotio delectari congregationis dissidio non tanquam pars Ecclesiae sed quasi quoddam per se exercere spirituales actiones if that secession be unjust and temerarious which is neither for grievous and intollerable persecution nor for Heresie nor Idolatry in those from whom they separate but in the best pretence and they lay no better colour thereon is onely for corruption
for scruples are there understood to be leviuscula argumenta fundamenta as Azorius and Filiu ius leves rationes as Balwin but we are not perswaded the reasons and arguments alleaged are of that kind Filiucius tract 21. c. 4. Sect. 175. p 11. Baldwin Cas cons l. 1. c. 10. p. 24. De Instit jure l. 2. c. 29. Dub. 2. Navar. Manual c 27. Sect 280. p. 1037. though by a Meiosis or Charientisme we stiled them so until they have better convinced us therof and scrupulus est tenuis suspicio mali circa rem bonam vel adiapheram saith Lessius and onely makes the conâ—cience assâ—nâ—ing and adhâ—ring to one part of the question lightly to recede and a little to doubt thereof but the judgements which we desired might be satisfied are rather more fully perswaded by other reasons and not a little by those not to assent or adhere to this way which seems evill though they affectionatly wish for some of their sakes that trace it that it were not so evill as upon these reasons it seems or may be suspected to be so as whereas Conscientia scrupulosa contra id quod judicat habet argumenta as Navar these arguments are rather contra id quod non judicat But whereas they say Scruples are mens doubts in their own way where sure they use the word Doubts as improperly and incuâ—iously in respâ—ct of the Theologicall sense as they suppose we do Scruples for a doubt and a scruple are different noâ—ions amongst Casuists we shal grant in Ames his words Scrupul messe formidinem animi circa suam praxim but we cannot yeeld that we used the notion in any other sense for that which by exâ—enuation we called Scruples â—ut we shall not from henceforth use so much indulgence and compliance among those that have not learned inter bonos bene agier are arguments which though opposed to â—he way of the Apologists yet make men more searfull and sollicitous to concurre and co-operate with them in that way and so are concerning their proper wayes and actings likewise But that you may see the Apologists are not unlike some fierce men Ames Cas Consc l. 1.6 p. 15. which they say will sight with their own madow and that they quarrell with an expression which is but the shadow or image of their own cast back your eyes but upon the close of the precedent Section and see if the word Scruple be not used by them in the like sense which they carp at here in us for expressly they say While we are scrupulous of others which necessantly inferres that scruples may be in their conception as well of other mens wayes and actings as of their own Yet for my part let them call them what they please Nihil apud me distat in verbo quod non distat in sensu as Ambrose I shall not strive in words to no purpose which is as Augustine interprets Non curare quomodo error veritate vincatur sed quomodo tua dictio dictioni praeseratur alterius for I have also learned from Plato Nos ditiores ad senectutem perventuros fi nomina neglexerimus and if they think I have been guilty of a misnomer and this Scruple which is but the third part of a grain can adde to their weight I shall readily put it into their Scales yet I doubt it will not much ponderate where any other thing is in the Ballance or discretion holds the Beam DIATRIBE SECT XVIII Rom. 14.1 10. discussed Whether they judg or despise their brethren Psa 15.4 vindicated No other qualifications required in order to communicating in a Church member having a Dogmaticall Faith but to be without scandall Whether they reject onely the wicked Whether their way render them not guilty of temerarious judgement Of judging the heart Of bearing infirmities of morall men THe first Quâ—re which the paper sprung from Rom. 14 1. 10. they think as light as the paper ludibrium venti easiâ—y blown away with the least wind of their breath But though we did not pretend to fetch those arguments from the Peripatum but rather from the Academy and brought them forth not as demonstrative but considerable for their probability and as arguments minorum gentium senatores pedarii yet how weak soever they may seem in the faith or beliefe of any we shall strive they may be received and will seek to fetch them off from doubtfull disputations They say The Apostles scope is far from the business in hand he speaks of eating herbs not the Sacrament and it is onely a not receiving the weak to doubtfull disputations But may not the same arrow that is shot to one scope or mark be aptly aimed and sent forth toward another If they have forgotten that the same principle is pregnant with many conclusions and by the vertue and officacie of the same middle term or probative medium may sundry conclusions be inferred or if they recognize not that natural notion and principle of discourse one of those two feet whereupon all syllogismes stand and move de omni nullo viz. quodcunque affirmatur aut negatur de toto genere affirmatur aut negatur etiam de parte de specie and therefore consequently any truth derived out of another truth must be therein contained or if they remember not that Canon in Divinity quod particulariter dictum est universaliter applicandum yet we must remind them that neither the Sacrament nor any preparation or trial in order thereunto is the scope or subject of those places of Scripture from whence they have laboured to draw and form all the arguments for defence of their Church way that one of 2 Cor. 11.27 onely excepted as without any further light held forth by us will be obvious to any that shall make inspection into the texts which in due place shall be considered We do not pretend that this precept of the Apostle doth directly or expressly command a receiving to the Sacrament yet according to Diodate and Hammond it enjoyning a receiving of the weak in faith to the Communion of the Church we opine that it consequently requires the reception to the Sacrament Church-fellowship chiefly consisting in and being described by a communion of Sacraments as hath been declared and Church-Communion being comprehensive of all other special acts and parts of common and publick Christian duties or privileges if that be prescribed to be afforded in general the other are so commanded as being included under and contained in that and we do propound that by force of this Canon it is clearly enjoyâ—ed that qui robustiores sunt operam impendant insirmis sublevandis qui magis profecerunt safferendis rudibus as Calvin theâ—e is câ—mmanded nolite ahjiâ—ere cujus nondum confirmata est fides as Gagnaeus qui nondum erant in fide satis instructi as Menocbius and Tirinus Fraterne agendum cum rudioribus caveantque ne eos a professione
fifth kind in him Quod tanto studio aliorum vitia suas virtutes enumeraverit non enim est tam ingeniosa subtelis humilitas nec aliorum vitia nec suas virtutes videt 4. Jansenius tells us it was the Pharisees fault to condemn him whose heart he knew not and in whom he might have adverted signes of penitence and amendment because he saw him enter the Temple with him and by externall gestures declaring his repentance and would not the Apologists have contracted the same guilt had they met the Publican in that place and posture And are they not still culpable of the same uncharitableness who in the former Section inveigh against those who having lately beheld a man in his sins yet if he cry guilty and say he will amend can next day believe a change in him and themselves profess to credit no conversion that is sudden Homil. de Davide Saule tom in p. 156. whereas though the Publican ad summam progressus erat malitiam yet notwithstanding simplici verbo omnem deposuit iniquitatem aâ—sqâ—e longa temporis mora saith Chrysostome and Jansenius to the glory of Gods mercy adds Quanta sit Dei benignitas qui tam brevi oratione támque parvâ poenitentiâ sâ—peratus mex pâ—niteniem in gratiam recepit They wish every Pharisee had hypocrisie written with a Sun-beam on his forchead and then many a worldling and polititian would be detected but since now fronti nulla fides there may be yet light enough to read Pharisaisme in the characters of some mens wayes and actions What is legible in mens hearts will not appeare till the Son of righteousnesse with the brightness of his coming manifest it to all the world in the interim they suspect hypocrisie visible in the hearts of most men or else what need their spectacles and perspectives of farther examinations and trials whereby to discover more then is obvious to the eye But as things written with Allom water are to be read onely when the paper is heated by the fire so the fire of trouble would give some light to forestall the beams of the Sun and we might then find some to be Pharisees Sichemites that are such onely for the advantage of the times who like the herba mimosa do send forth their blossoms but in the eye of the Sun shed them when he withdraws his light or like the Heliotrope which expands turns her self always towards the Sun closeth at his setting Perchance some that like the Eastern people worship the rising Sun would then like the Asrican Nations curse him when he scorcheth them and perhaps if by the motions of superior bodies their aspects should be changed hypocrisie would not only in some Polititians be written in Court-hand but in others in text-letters and with a running hand after the world as much as in the most When they sent forth their Sphynx they should have given us an Oedipus also I know not how to unriddle the close of this Section when they say Many like those in Esays time stand off from them as too holy By propriety of construction it should seem to be that they from whom is the standing off should be those that are thought to be too holy for holy should referre to that which went immediatly before and this seems more suitable to what followes that they yet blame them for standing off from these as Publicans but to carry analogy with those in Esay they which are too holy should be those that do stand off for those that thought themselves holier forbad the other to touch them And this I rather divine then judge to be their sense But who those are besides their brethren we have built a story higher upon the same foundations others being driven off from them as not holy enough I cannot divine by inspection into any other intralls indeed they are as much Publicanes to these as others are to them and therein is seriously considerable First the irradiations of justice Lex recta est cum quis patitur quae fecerit ipse as others are not permitted to sit with these Adenibezeks at table but to gather their meat under it so others requite them as they haue done 〈◊〉 and this was the case also of the Pharisee too for as he would not touch with the people of the earth so the Samaritan if he met the Pharisee saith Drusius cryes to him touch me not and if casually he had suffered a contact would dip himself under water for expiation And to the late Dippers the Apologists are also intangible viz. the Anabaptists as well as to perfect Independents their brethren yet they are a strange kind of brethren with whom they have no communion of Sacraments and those though not Anabaptists yet seeing they baptise none but the children of those of their own Church if others did not wash those children whom they leave in their blood when they grow up to a desire and capacity to be of their Churches they must before they admit them become Epibaptists and postbaptise though not rebaptise them Secondly as remarkable is the influence of Separtion which having broken the banks knowes no bounds Nec scit quà sit iter nec si sciat imperet illis Quoque eat aut ubi sit piceâ caligine tectus Nescit et arbitrio voluerum raptatur equorum And when there hath been a distillation by one part yet another thinks that extract to have some impurity and so resolves of a rectification as the Chymists term it and thus one separation growes out of another and such multiplied soparations of the parts are like in time to be the destruction of the whole the proceeding of all things from their principles being resembled to a Pyramis but the destruction of things obumbrated by an inverted Pyramis which by degrees lessening it self determines in a point and that in nothing Of whose making is the distance between them and others we hope we have formerly made it so cleer to every mans understanding that be it said as of him as in the Poet Arbitrium litis trajecit in omnes SECT XXI What was Diotrephes What his ambition Whether the Apologists exceed not the bounds of ministeriall power by bringing all under triall excluding and not for scandall and that so many and by common continaall practice Whether this check not with 1 Pet 5.3 Whether those they reject are scandalous themselves separated and left the Church behind them Of Ecclesiasticall power what it is and how far extensive The duty of Stewards It is Christs honour to have an universall Church 1. Their actings not commanded or warranted by Gods word 2. They act solely Of their Elders Of ruling Elders in generall not by divine right yet a prudent constitution requisite to be continued in some way The interest of the whole Church in Censures The Elders representatives of the Church Whether the ancient Church knew any such 3. They act arbitrarily Of
aut Aquila aut serpens Epidaurius should discern or be convinced thereof Secondly whereas they disclaim to act in a sole jutisdiction we know indeed that they have such as they call Elders also but we have as certain knowledge that they are not held so necessary to the conduct and management of their Church affairs as good works are determined to be to justification wherein they have their presence but no efficiency but these are not alwayes so much as present at their Counsels or of the Qaorum at trials and hereof we can render particular instances And however they may set off those Elders to those at distance Ignote reverentia major And as it is said of the Athenians That by the advantage of the feathers or quils of their countreymen they flew higher in fame than truth and however they being beheld with the advantage of the Basis they are set upon and conjectured to hold out the weight that some others carry of that like notion yet the truth is those Elders being so inconsiderable for number and weight too in respect of parts and influence are but as images which seem to bear up the roose of Churches but are onely for shew and serve not for support or like the Characters which Magicians and Charmers make use of that have no reall influence into effects but serve to amuse delude men and fortifie imagination and as Charles of Burgundy was said to carry all his Councill behind him on horse-back so all the powers sit in the same Chair with the Minister I am not so insensible or inconsiderate to strike at or move against the standing of ruling Elders in the Church rebus sic stantibus which are an excellent composition for the attempering and restraining the power of the Ministers which else might become arbitrary and unlimited and who may perchance serve them in like stead as Gracchus his servant did to his Master Cui orami à tergo adstabat fistuid concinnatâ tonúâ—que Plutarch de ira cohibenda suggerebat quo heri asperitatem iracundiam vocis delinitam auferebat Prudence will prompt us that it is not safe to entrust so great power in the hands of a single person and it not onley lessons us in the words of Plutarch Nimis periculosum est velle quae non decet eum qui quae vult facere potest but it also cautions us by the voyce of Cyprian Nemo diuautus est periculo proximus And divine wisdome hath prescribed in censures Tell the Church and if he hear not the Church Aug. de verbis Dom. serm 16. in locum And I hope the Minister will not assume to be as the Pope the Church virtually Augustine will check such presumption who tells us this correption is to be Coram omnibus and Paschasius Coram omni Ecclesia inspectante or Tota Ecclesia as Eucherius and the Glosse And Dic Ecclesiae being in the sense of Hierom multis dicendum est and Aquinas interpreting Dic Ecclesiae i. totae multudini Cypr. Ep 27 p. 62. and Cyprian stating the Church to be in Episcopo Clero in omnibus astantibus constituta And when the incestuous person at Corinth was to be cast out the Church was to be gathered together and they were to put him away they to whom he wrote which was not the Ministers onely but the Church collectively Chrysostom in 2 Cor. c. 2. hom 4. tom 4. p. 167. Universis in nomine Domini congregatis saith Theodoret and Chrysostome very sully assumpsit illos in ejus sententiae consortium dicens Congregatis vobis tradere illum duas res maximas accurans ut proferretur sententia ne ne id fieret absque illis ne videretur hoc illos facto laedere ac neque solus pronunciat ne videretur Apostolus esse praefractus ipsosque contemuere And certainly it appeares very liquidly that in Ecclefiasticall concernments and agitations the whole Church was consulted and consentient in the deliberations and resolutions for when Judas was gone home to his place whose demrits had made the place of damnation to be his and another to be chosen in his which he had unworthily occupied the election was carried on by common consent of the Church Idem in Act. c. 1. homil 3. p. 138. tom 3. Erat turba nominum saith Chrysostom simul ferè centum viginti Considera quà m Petrus agit omnia ex communi discipulorum sententia nihil authoritate suâ nihil cum imperio And when Deacons were to be châ—sen that serving of tables might not be a snare to the Apostles to tie them up from a better work in the institution and choice of them the Apostles proceede in the same method Acts 6.2 3 5. Non propriâ sententiâ faciunt saith the same Father sed priùs rationem reddunt multitudini sic nunc fieri oportebat whence the interlineary glosse took the hint consensum quaerunt multitudinis quod in exemplum debet â—ssumi so conformably it pleased the Apostses and Elders wiâ—h the whole Church to send chosen men Acts 15 22. who being come to Antioch when they had gathered the multitude together delivered the Epistle v. 30. from whence Calvin concludes Cum tota Ecclesia communicare debent ipsi doctores quod ex verbo Dei statuerint The like course may be traced down the succeeding Ages the footsteps whereof appeare not more conspicuously then in Cyprian who as it was his resolution Nihil sine consilio vestro sine consensu plebis meae privatâ sententiâ gerere Cyprian Epist. 6 p. 17 cp 14. p. 41. Ex editio le Preux secundum Pamel Goulart epist 12. pag. 37 epist 31. p. 70. out of the sense he had that Hoc verecundiae disciplinae vitâ— ipsi omnium nostrae convenit ut Episcopi plures in unum convenientes praesente stantium plebe quibus ipsis pro fide timore suo honor habendus est disponere omnia consilii communis religione possimus so it was his constant practice Examinabuntur singula praesentibus judicantibus vobis And correspondently pariter stantibus laicis lapsorum tractare rationem and he asserts and ratifies the course by this reason quoniam nec firmum decretum potest esse quod non plâ—rimorum videbitur habuisse consensum Yet nevertheless as the consent of the people is requisite to those laws whereby they are to be obliged yet that consent is usually as most expediently given by their Representatives so because the integrall Church now grown to a greater body cannot alwayes be so easily or fitly convened upon such occasions nor so well contained together 〈◊〉 Rondoletius his fish which being little could be comprehended in a small glasse but afterward waxed too great for iâ— and some considerations may perswade that they should not be all congregated and though the head were of goid and the whole primitive
Church was invested with those excellent gifts and graces 1. Cor. 12.9 Rom. 12.6 which rendred them susceptible of a share in the regiment yet the feet are part iron and partly clay Mede Diatribe in locum p. 207. and the community of Christians are now too apt to be embased with the alloy of violent factions and carnall affections and so less capable of such undertakings that therefore Elders should be chosen as Representatives of the Church is a very prudentiall Institution And truly beyond that height I cannot derive their off-spring Chrysostom in 1. cpist ad Cor. c. 1. hom 3. tom 4. p. 59. for as for that Argument extracted from 1 Tim. 5.17 to prove them to be of divine right The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honor especially they that labour in the word and doctrine besides what hath been offered by the most learned Mede to enervate the force thereof it is clearly and fully defeated and profligated by that passage in Chrysostom Siquidem nuncsenioribus quidem qui inutiliores sunt hoc munus baptizandi tradimus verbum autem quod doceant senioribus hic enim labor sudor est quamobrem alibi inquit Qui bene praesunt Presbyteri duplici honore digni habeantur maxime qui laborant verbo doctrina whereby it is evident that in Chrysostomes time the Church supposed that text to imply two parts or duties of Presbyteriall offices but not two sorts of Presbyters neither did the Church know any such duplicity and there is very pregnant reasons in-laid in the context which will evince that this is spoken onely of such Elders as received stipends as an honorable maintenance from the Church which it is evident that Lay Elders now have not nor can it be â—asserted that they ever had For that doubie honor should he given them is confirmed from Scripture saying Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the corn De subsidio victûs interpretantur veteres Pamel annot in Cypr. Epist 66. sect 10. p. 196. and The labourer is worthy of his hire Both which texts are applied in Scripture to prove a maintenance due to the Ministers of the word the one so interpreted 1 Cor. 9.9 the other produced Mat. 10.10 and therefore these Elders here mentioned can be no other than such as were to have maintenance which were onely Ministers of the word Therefore neither dare I to assert that in the way of the ancient Church any plain tracks may be discerned of such Elders formally in such a small definâ—e number and in office specially designed to such undertakings and actings The characters thereof are so obscure as not legible to the best eyes without a supply from imagination That which seems to me to carry the fairest species Blondel de jure tleb c. p. 37. is what Blundel cites out of the Epistle of Purpurius to his se low Bishop Sylvanus and Albaspinus mentions the like in his history of the Donâ—tists Adhibete conclericos seniores plebis Ecclesiasticos viros inquirant diligenter quae sunt istae dissentiones but it is not evident whether these were called Ecclesiasticall persons for their office or affection having animes saccrdotales or for their experience in Church affairs wherein occcasionally they had been interessed The Elders of Israel so often assembled were not all men in office specially seposited for the occasions whereabout they were convened and wherein they engaged Rom. Antiq. l. â— c. 5. Elders denoting the principall men for age wisdome and piety power and honor as Homer useth seniores for optimates and as Romulus called his great Counclll the Senate because saith Rosinus it was composed of such Qui per aetatem maximè superent genere praecellerent and as the old Saxons in this Nation intituled some Eldermen not say the Lawes of King Edward propter aetatem sed propter sapientiam dignitatem cùm quidem adolescentes essent jurispcriti tamen super hec experti And in ancient monuments of the Church when we read of Elders for the most part it is intended of Bishops or Ministers though by misprision some places have been construed otherwise and when we find Elders distinguished from those of the Clergy very often they signifie civill Magistrates as in the Council of Carthage holden Au. Dom. 503. de conveniendis per Magistratus Seniores locorum Donatistis Episcopis c. And in another Councell there Anno 407. Maurentio reo judices dari decrevit universas cunctarum provinciarum curatores magistratus ordinis viros nec non auctores procuratores vel seniores singularinm locorum c. So An. D. 458. A Basilio praefecto principales vel seniores urbium singularium quà m reliquorum corporum compelli jussit Majorianus Augustus And such acception the word hath in many Councels where Lay men assisted and subscribed under the notion of Seniores Verbo Aldermanuas p. 28. Selden titl hâ—nor fol p. 605. which is most abundantly verefied in those Synods held in this nation in the time of the Saxons as it is every where obvious in them as they are fet forth by Sir Henrie Spelman who also tells in his Glossary that Aldermen whose appeilation was derived from Seniores did signifie principes provinciarum comites praefides senatores tribunos generali nomine so that where it is read Matth. 20.25 Principes gen ium dominantur suis the Saxon renders it Aldcrmanni dominantur as Mr. Selden likewise shews that Priâ—cipes Judae Psal 68.27 are translated Aâ—dermanni Juda as the Emperour Charles the Bald and Lewis the second are either of them in ancient monuments called Senior and from that appellation is Grand Seigneur among the Turkes and Shaughscâ—h c among the Persians originally deduced Yet neverthelesse ut jam sunt res humanae the same prudent reason which introduced is of force still to keep up the continuance of those ruling Elders and there wants not sound reason to perswade that they should be more than two to assist and concurre with the Minister that more safely so great a trust may be deposited with them and that there may be more health in the multitude of such Councellors unlesse possibly there should be some design to have them so few that the Minister might more easily have an influence upon them and with more facâ—â—iâ—y govern them or carry the more considerable weight in the counter-scale against them and if he can make one of the two to be one with him they two may be all in all Besides seeing they are Representatives of the People no man that hath not forfeited or enslaved his reason but will judge it most rational that they should be onely and freely chosen by them whom they represent without any interposition or Insinuation of the Minister Cujus nutus pro imperio est who it he do not immediately chuse the Elders yet mediately he useth to do it and
that Church yet they are Bishops in them and act as solely and arbitrarily and suspend more and for lesse than the Bishops used to excommunicate if they assume not the pomp they usurp the power and as Favonius told Pompey or as some Casar it makes no difference whether he weare the Diadem on his legge or his head and while the Cailiph weares the Crown it is no matter though he cover it with a black cloth like the Sybils Bookes when one or two are destroyed yet there lies as heavy a price upon the rest and the weight presseth more because we expected to have found it more easie and light As he that had never lain in Plato's cave did not so much regret it as he that having seen some light and hoped to enjoy it yet was again remanded to darkness and as a new wound where there is a Cicatrix is more dangerous and recidivations are more destructive than the first lapse into a disease so it fares with us in our condition and did not the equanimity and moderation of some that are of other principles redeem from this infamy and like a perfume take away the ill odor we might say that the lopping off the luxuriant stem of Episcopacy was onely to let many suckers and spriggs gtow up as exorbitantly out of the same root And as Lodovieus Suessanus told Adrian the sixth that if he demolished the statue of Pasquil and burning it cast the ashes into the river they would turn to Frogges in the bottome thereof and croak worse then before so the continuous quantity of that enormous power is not abated but the discrete is enlarged and not so much the power as the subject was quarrelled at nor have we changed our bondage but the efficient thereof So true is that which Dio Cassius delivers Longè proclivius est alios reprehendere quà m sibi moderari saciliúsque fit ut quarum rerum causâ poenâ alios dignos judicant has ipsi easdem admittant I hope they will be facile to give pardon to any comparisons much more allusions which need to receive it for their own that are so odious and if they receive any irritation will with Dionysius when he waited long at anothers door in Corinth recognize whether he had not made others formerly do the like Those that conform not to their modell of government they expose under ugly notions to be bitten dente canino as the persecutors lapt the primitive Christians in beasts skins to be devoured by doggs and other beasts They first bundle up their opposers with Anabaptists but I wish they had no more analogy with them in their separation than we in despising government Anabaptisme is the heretical Metaphysicks and the principles of other modern heresies are I cannot say there demonstrated but derived from thence and sure their doctrine of pollution by a communion with persons unsanctified of administring the Sacraments to none but those that give demonstrative signes of holiness and the like are but graines of that golden Calfe some sprinklings of that fountain Cujus de gurgite vasto Combibit arcanos erratica turba furores Secondly we are packt up with the Erastians but as we have shewed that our Elements symbolize not with those of Erastus so we compassion that Godly learned man for that stamp Bullinger and Gualter and others have imprest upon him for being still enrolled in the black band of hereticks and every one that comes by him as the Jewes and Mahumetans do when they pâ—ss by Absaloms pillar in Palestine cast a stone at him He confined and limited indeed all Ecclesiasticall government to doctrinall direction and the force of perswasion and would not have it extensible to censures or coertion and the tender and timid man as he thought Antimony rather a poyson than medicine so he had the like suspition of excommunication in order to purging of the Church and thought neither the power lawfull nor the exercise profitable This was the heresie the good man was guilty of wherein Bullinger and Gualter and the Divines of Zurich came in to be his Hyperaspists against Beza yet for this misprision in every Bulla exnae when hereticks come to be excommunicated he is thrust into the herd and for deniall of excommunication doth as it were suffer it The Apologists are well reconciled to the Independents whom they call Their dear brethren and yet Independency hath been the dung-gate and Port Esquiline not to carry forth but to let in filthy heresie but with the Erastians Nullus amor néque faedera sunto But rather Dum terra coelum medialibratum feret c. Nunquam meus cessabit in poeuas furor As if when many more pretious truths lie in their blood this were more worthy to have its wounds tendered and dressed which shewes how much apter men are to take a tender resentment of things as they clash with their proper interest than formally as they check with Gods truth So that Father gravely told the Emperour who reproved him for observing his son with no more reverence That he had more respect to his sons honor than to the glory of the Son of God whom he suffered to be dishonored by heretickes and so Demetrius lest the other Idols which to him were Gods to shift for themselves but Diana which brought great gain merited the engagements of all their powers in defence thereof So the Pope also in his taxa camerae Apostolicae rates the Absolution of falsifying his Apopostolicall letters at 17 groats but incest with a mans own mother is taxed but at five groats onely Thirdly we are mustered among them that opposed Luthers reformation and professed they had rather live under the dominion of the Turks But Luthers reformation pleaseth not the Apologists they must reform the reformation and gather new Churches as if we had none before and theirs are the only reformed Churches But whereas they speak of living under the dominion of the Turkes let them consider if their dear brethren do not use those of their Congregation that are not of their Church like Turks and they themselves deal but little better with them for though indeed they baptise their children which the other do not who therefore practically repute them as heathen yet they receive them to no other communion then they would do Turks Vectigal quod per occasionem aedificationis templi fuerat impositum etiam obsoluto tempio exigcbatur jam non in res sacras sed profanas expendebatur Menochius annot in 3 Reg. c. 12. v. 4 for those they would admit to heare them preaching for instruction and suffer them to partake of their prayers if they would with reverence be present as the Apologists tell us That the godly have prayed in the presence of the unbelievers as Paul in the ship in the presence of the passengers Fourthly we are resembled to the factious Israelites which regretted at Solomons government and causlesly complained of their burdens
that it is respect of persons and the same reason holds in distributing punishments also so at it here will follow that they rather accept persons who in examining those that may be ignorant except not those that are removed beyond all doubt of their knowledge They think it possible but not so usuall that the Pastor may be exceeded in learning by some of his congregation If it fall not out often yet if it sometime happen that supports the Hypotheâ—is and in such a contingence if Phormio were accounted so delirous to dispute of military discipline before Hannibal it were greater madness for a lesse knowing man to take an overly and suspitious examination of one of more knowledge and some would unhappily think sus fiâ—ly joyned with sacerdos if in such a way sus Minervam But doth learning they ask exempt from obedience No but from a Tyronical or rather a Tyrannical examination and from that obedience which is proper onely for the unlearned Ministers though less learned must be obeyed by more scientious auditors when they speak in his name and upon his embasly in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge but they are not to expect such obedience of any when they speak of themselves and seek their own glory Conscience is the onely forum divinum and in that Court they are not Praetors but publishers and interpreters we call no man Master In Matt. 23.8 Quasi penes quem esset scripturam pro suo arbitrio exponere intelligere as Calvin or ut verum putemus quicquid ille docuerit quia ab illo prosectum est as Estius It is the slavish superstition of the Papists that as Gratian tells us they rather desire to know the ancient institution of Christian Religion from the Popes mouth than from the holy Scripture and they onely inquire what is his pleasure and according to it they order their lives and it is the ambitious tyranny of their Prelates to teach That if the consent of divers Divines affirme such a doctrine to be the sense of the Church the people are bound to believe it though it be a lie as Valentia and they shall commit a meritorious act by believing such a falshood as Biel and Tolet but nobis non licet esse tam indiscrtis they might then justly account and deal with us as ignorants indeed They must be obeyed in what they derive from Gods Word not in what they teach as it were inspiredly and voluntary and in things within the spheare of their power to command and iâ— what is proper and proportioned to the subject whereon the command is imposed but it no less exceeds the limit of our obedience than the extent of our patience to suffer men to bring us into bondage we cannot with these Barbarians in Apâ—ian desire to be rid of liberty and spoile our selves potiore metallis Libertate and to permit them to devour us and take of us even our other patrimony our reputation by an interpretative rendring us simple ignorants and making us per gradum Simconis to commence catechumens when we have long been in the degree of the faithful and to exalt themselves to make us the Basis and to render us as Jacks in Virginals to fall down that their usurped keyes may go up Non bona patientia saith Bernard Cumpossis esse liber servum te permittere fieri nolo dissimules servitutem in quam certe indies dum nescis redigeris hebetatis cordis indicium est propriam non sentire continuam vexationem Vexatio dat intellectum audiâ—ui sed nimia non fuerit nam si sit non intellectum dat sed contemptum The most learned we grant must still be kept under teaching because we know in part but not be put under examination if he knowes in part Every Christian must be a disciple and in Christ Schoole his Ministers are the Ushers and those of the highest form that know most the more do know that they know but little the greatest part as one saith of what we know being the lest part of what we know not and all humane understanding being like the vial of Oyl which Xerxes found in Belus sepulchre which after continual infusions could not be filled up and besides he that is skill'd in the doctrine yet is too often to seek of the application and the use which is to set home by continual exhortation and thereby are the affections to be reconciled to reason and charmed into a compliant subserviency and those sailes for affectus sunt vela arimi to be spread and trim'd and filled with a continual breath to carry on the mind to the port designed but there is no such necessity of our being examined by them the Church must receave edifying and they are given for the edifying of the body of Christ but if they will be wise Master-builders they will not be still laying again the foundation in those that have gone on unto perfection nor level the walls after they have been built to some hight to try how the ground-work was setled for as it is said to be the madness of jealousie to seek that which it is loath to find so it is if not a madness yet a mockery to seek that which is found already A Wife may have more knowledge than her Husband some subjects more policy than their Governours yet this cannnot justifie disobedience nor null authority Neither do we dream that he that hath a richer stock of Knowledge than his Pastor may despicably extrude or renounce him or proudly detract his obedience to Gods Commands in his mouth or presumptuously usurp upon his office and be dealing with his stock and laying it forth in publick teaching but can onely claim his privilege to be exempt of such a derogatory examination and not be apprehended and stopt in his access to the Lords Table as a poor suspected person till he have gotten their Let-pass We do not imagine however it sometimes may be true in some respects Tu major tibi me est aequum parere Menalca and Cyrus was wont to say Neminem debere sâ—scipere principatum nisi melior his in quos susciperet that every superior must be higher by the head than all those subject to him and that it must be among men as it is they say amonst Angels of light that every one of an higher Order is more illuminate than any one of an inferior the title to superiority hath often another root than an absolute deturdigniori but yet an Husband if he will dwell like a man of knowledge must net deport himself toward his Wife as if she were a fool or interpretatively and implicitely make her such if she be a woman of knowledge nor a King that will be just deal with wise men as with idiots and practically make them such for justice partly consists in giving every man his own and to be so despicably examined is not proper to a knowing but an
actually to be baptized but when the parents are clearly â—ut off from all actual outward communion even those qui internam retinent exclusi communionis signo externo Junius in conâ—ro 7. Bell. l. 3. c. 6. actu usu though they have a right the use is provisionally taken away they are cut off materially excommunicatione signi secundum quid ordinata though not formaliter and absolutely by the definite sentence of God secundum ordinem ab hominibus non secundum finem consilio Dei Let him be to thee an Heathen to thee modum externum homini praesâ—ribens etsi internam formam sibi veritati reservans so as though excommunication shut not out from the mystical Church nor clean from the visible yet it doth exclude from fellowship with the visible in holy duties and privileges and therefore when this should be the case of the parents it is very questionable whether the Child should not be in the same condition with them for the right and interest which the Child hath unto the privileges of external communion are rooted in the parents and are traducted from them and that also in the immediate parents Eccles pol. l. 3. p. 87. for else as Mr. Hooker observeth many Children of Turks and Pagans might have right to Baptisme whose mediate parents from whom after some descents they issued were Christians And though not sins yet the punishments aswel as privileges are traductive as in Attainders And seeing they are rules of the Law the one delivered by Ulpian Nemo plus juris ad alium transferre potest quà m ipse haberet and another by Paulus Non debeo melioris conditionis esse quà m auctor meus a quo jus in mo transit wherewith also the rules of Logick and Philosophy are consonant nihil dat quod non habet therefore unlesse one of the parents were a visible Church-member for in that case the matter would have some analogy with that mentioned 1 Cor. 7.14 it may well be disputed that if the parents be actually excluded from the act and use of Ecclesiastical Communion Godwin Moses and Aaron l. 5. c. 2. p. 223. the Child also should be actually suspended from the privileges thereof for if they be as heathens sure the Children of heathens have no right to Baptisme and among the Jewes from whose patterne some would extract more reverence to Church Censures the male Children of those that were but under Niddui were not circumcised Yet I am not ignorant that the ancient Church brought Infants to baptisme August Epist 23. Chamiertom 4. l. 5. c. 15. Sect 2. which had been cruelly exposed by their parents unknown as also à dominis servuli offeruntur which the French Churches have justified by a Canon before remembred but as it was to be presumed that those found within the pale of the Church were begotten of Christians so the susceptors and sponsors undertook and engaged for their education in the faith were their parents as it were by adoption as the master was a father to his family And I shall confesse that in this question concerning the baptizing of the Children of persons excommunicate there is no little reason and much authority in that scale which propends to the affirmative but as the case seldome comes to be discussed seeing it rarely happens that both parents stand under such Censure so for my part who desire to carry more conformity to the Spartan in quibus fidit vix aggrediens than to the Athenian audax supra vires I shall onely give in a special verdict and leave the case to be argued by more learned judges for if I therein go beyond a sceptick yet I advance not further than an Academick and in this Academy I had rather proceed than determine But in all these velitations against their dear brethren surely the Apologists have been pii inimici they have not drawn much blood non metuo ne doleat quòd tu ferias they have onely faced the enemy and given a pop or two and raised a smoak and then retreated without charging through or engaging any close fight and indeed have resembled Caligula who when he should have cut the deep to the conquest of Britain sounded his trumpets and gathered a few cockle shells on the shore and sent them abroad as the spoiles of the Country SECT XXV Their great abuse and distortion of Scripture With what a train of consequences their arguments are farre fetcht They are borrowed from the Donatists Papists Brownists Independents None of them conclude the question as themselves have stated it The argument raised from 1 Cor. 14 40. examined Whether it be a glorious and comfortable practice that none approach the Lords Table save holy persons Whether their way be warranted by the Lawes The moderating of Censures Whether their way have like ground with the ancient discipline in receiving in Penitents Whether there be order and decency in mâ—xt Communions The lesser good to be omitted to acquire the greater The confusion and disorder of their way REs venit ad triarios This is their third head and their capital fortresse viz. their pretended Scripture proofes for pro divisione discessione non solum loquuntur ips sed etiam divinos libros loqui persuadent as Augustine but to this head which speaks Scripturas sine sensu as Hierom hath it we may justly apply the motto which he set under the head whereby he represented the world Capuâ— hellebore dignum for it is stuft with such wanton fancies and erroneous wild notions that Nescio an Antyciram ratio sibi destinet omnem First They declaime much against polluting and prophaning of the Sacrament but I wish they had had a more religious care not to have polluted and prophaned holy Scripture by such a lewd and abusive misapplication thereof so as to make us ashamed and abashed henceforth from upbraiding the Papists with calling the sacred Scripture a nose of wax a leaden rule a delphick sword a shooe fit for every foot c. when those that pretend to be the great reformers among us are so guilty of that vitiosissimum dicendi genus as Hierom calls it De invenâ—or rer l. 4. c. 9. depravare sententias in voluntatem suam Scripturam trahere repugnantem and as Pâ—lidor Virgil speaks by occasion of a misinterpretation of Hostiensis detorquent sacras literas quo volunt ac sutores sordidas solent dentibus extendere pelles for I do sadly profess to think that scarce in that great Martyrologue of Scripture the Popes Decretals shall you find it put to much more torture or set upon a more violent rack then sometimes you may see it here in this new body of Extravagants 〈◊〉 so that an equal and unprejudiced Reader will be facil to imagine that upon some other motive they first pitcht upon the opinion and then set their wits to work to find out arguments the best they could to maintaine it and so
circumstance but the action it self and which properly comes not within the list or rank of things of order decency unless perhaps in a general acception as whatsoever is agreeable to rule is orderly what is contrary thereunto is out of order Ordini contrariatur quicquid inordinatè agitur as Tully long since said Et quicquid peccatur perturbatione ordinis peccatur accordingly Quod decet honestum est et quod honestuÌ„ est decet justa omnja decora sunt injusta contra but taking order and decency in this notion the Church hath no power to make Lawes in things of such concernment but Order in this place of the Apostle comprehendeth the circumstances of season time and place and comliness includes that gravity and modesty in the performance of the works of Gods service which beseems actions of that nature Field Vbi supra and such Rites as may cause respect unto the things performed and thereby excite men to greater devotion or express such spiritual affections and motions as are or should be in them but the pretended order and course of the Apologists is of a far different kind and nature 3. The ancient church held not forth that manner and degrees of pennance as a Divine Institution nor necessarily implicating the conscience but as an act of Discipline of a medious and indifferent nature when abstracted from their positive Constitution and therefore it was transitory in respect of time and ambulatory in regard of place not alwayes nor every where observed But as their Discipline hath no Ecclesiastical Constitution like a great sum to obtain its freedom in the Church so they pretend it was free born and is of divine not humane Establishment and therefore they prevaricate and betray their Cause when they compare it to that Model of Discipline for the Paeniten's and do interpretatively and virtually acknowledge it hath only a like foundation with that which also they confess had no particular warrant from the Scripture save this general rule of doing things in order and decency which was no special or immediate command for the same but only a Praecept That the Church should do what seemed orderly and decent and in this very particular what seemed so in one age and place did not in another 4. There is yet a greater difference between their Discipline and that of the old Paenitents this being only in a thing not specially determined by Scripture and theirs is against what the Scripture hath determined as we conceave we have sufficiently evidenced They have now distilled the Spirits of this Argument into a Syllogisme and we must tast the strength thereof Where is no due order in Sacramental Administrations there Gods Will is not observed but where all are admitted there is no Order Ergo. If we grant the whole we part with nothing nor get they any thing we shall only make them a Magicians Feast which costs noâ—hing to prepare nor will any way strengthen them to take for where are all admitted de facto infants madmen excommunicate c. or who saith all are to be so de jurâ— It is only Church-members who have a Dogmatical Faith which have neither torn the Evidence of their Title by being cut off nor bloted it by any such scandal as merits cutting off whose admission we plead for The Minor and their Arguments are all minors they prove Where there is mixture and confusion of good and bad fit and unfit there is no Order but where all are admitted is this mixture They do not well see what can be denied here and least we should disparage their eye-sight we shall deny nothing thereof but they may put all their gain in their eyes according to the proverb but least as bad eyes infect one the other so some others also be like Tychonius of whom Augustine speaks Statim quippe amore sententiae suae contra veritatem oculum claufit and may seem to see this Argument to be unanswerable also as it looks with an opposite aspect and adverse influence upon our Thesis and that to admit all in that qualified and restrained sense is in consistent also with order and comliness therefore to undeceive them advertant ea quae oculos etiam caecos seriant intueantur â— Let them borrow the same Proposition and advance it to a Major Where there is mixture and confusion of good bad there is no order and then yoak it with a Minor where the subject onely is changed and render it thus Where all are admitted to Church-membership to the Word and Prayer there is such mixture c. And then see what a conclusion it wil draw after it and if they be not now as mute as a Fish but have any piece of answer found in their mouthes let them give it for me and them Let them remind what we have often mentioned out of Augustine Mixtus reis obnoxiis nifi per conscientiae maculatam consensionem nullus recte dici potest and that bonus malis nullo modo misceripotest so as then first here can be no mixture of good and bad Thirdly men may be said to be bad and unfit simply and absolutely or respectively according to their sense and construction if simply and absolutely such as are guilty of grosse palpable ignorance of the very principles of the faith or of notorious crimes scandals obstinately persisted in though we should grant them their conclusion we yeeld nothing of the cause but if they understand all those to be bad and unfit who though Church-members and Dogmaticall believers have not approved by tryall their sound knowledge and sincere holinesse unto them we shall deny what they have not proved and we have now had proof that they cannot prove hat such are bad or unfit or that where all in this accommodate sense are admitted there is no order all such are relatively though not really holy and fit and many of those to whom they give admission are not really worthy If they are worthy to partake of the prayers Quoted before they are not unworthy to communicate of the Sâ—crament in the judgment of Chrysostom And if they are not unworthy saith Chamier of the peace of the Church they are not unworthy of the Sacrament and if worthy to be reckoned to be of the body of Christ â—hat is members of his Church thâ—y are not unworthy to feed on him Besides although simply the casting out or non-admission of persons criminous may be consonant to order yet respâ—ctively to the procuring or conserving a greater good or avoiding a more mischievous evill it may not be orderly Although we may not doe evill that good may ensue yet we may and must passe over or omit a lâ—sser good to acquire a greater And since malus bonum vehementiùs excitat movet impellit voluntatem therefore regularly non potest voluntas inserius bonum eligere quia electio non est nisi ex consultatione rationis consultatio vero non fit
according to the corporeall pasturage to be admitted to one and excluded from another Ordinance not to be cut off from communion because not excommunicate and yet to be denyed to communicate in the Sacrament wherein Church communion mainly consisteth to enter upon their Churches as it were by conquest and seise all mens right to the Sacrament when they have not forfeited it by scandal and to admit none into possession that will not hold of them and at their will and without any orderly proceeding or censuring men for special scandals obstinately continued in after admonition to shut out whole Churches because they have not merited their approbation to admit none but those that shall watch one over another while some of the Society live twenty and perchance more miles asunder to forbid those to do their dutie who they suppose cannot do it so well as they should when the duty is essentially good and necessary and the abuse but accidentall and doubtfull and the hope of good is founded in the certain goodnesse of the thing and the fear of evill raised in an uncertain suspition of the indisposition of the person which is evill may be corrected by the good he is to partake of Saepe mihi ignota est humana conscientia Aug. Contra Lit. Petil. l 1. c. 7. sed certus sum de Christi misericordia to dispense also with themselves in a certain duty for an uncertain hazard and to deny others a good thing for fear it may do evill upon which account all good things in the world may be suppressed those and a multitude of other inordinatenesses in their way we have formerly shewed as things came in order in our course and it will not be decent here to repeat and to make this Section an Index of the whole Treatise SECT XXVI Jeremy 15.19 Discussed and vindicated THe second proofe is from Jeremy 15.19 If thou takest forth the pretious from the vile c. but those res secundae will not be the prosperity of their cause and if they would separate pretious Arguments from the vise they might lessen and decrease the number of their proofs as they have done of their Church We may give them what they conclude out of the premises in this Section and yet it will be but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Greek proverb A giftlesse gift and be worth them nothing For after all their vapours what do they lymbeck out of this Text but this conclusion More is their duty then a doctrinall separation in applying the word And if this would keep them quiet they might have this without more crying either as a duty or as a power We never have denied them all authority to separate men from the Church by excommunication as well as from the world by preaching the word the question is not of the act of Separation but of the manner and the objects who are those vile and how the separation must be made but to inferre a separation is warranted by Gods word therefore their way of Separating is warrantable is an argument A genere ad specicm affirmativè Did they put none into the account of vile but such onely as had given scandall by notorious crimes and not those also which had not by submission to their discipline merited their appobation and become pretious alone at the price of their freedome and to cease to be vile must contract a kind of villenage servilly to hold at the will of another did they separate in a judiciall way such particular persons from the Congregations and not whole Congregations by an arbitrary sentence or rather not separate themselves from the congregation we should not interrupt nor check with them in their way though it be not drawn out by any line in this Text and we should grant it were right Discipline though not rooted naturally in this Scripture as it might be right Ivy that as Nicremberge tells us grew out of a Stagges horn and a right blade of Corn that sprung from a Womans Nose yet neither was naturalll to that place What they write therefore of Excommunication is but as the shedding of inke by the Sepia to escape discovery It argues the deformity of their way that they dare not shew it in its own face but with such paint and under this dilguise for Excommunication is that which we neither oppose nor they contend for and for their part there is an observable testimony thereof in that they produce very few of those Scripture proofs which are usually alleaged for and do pregnantly assert it but because those are not so aptly conducing to their scope and purpose they bring forth others little or nothing pertinent to that matter and from whence it cannot be otherwise deduced then as the Metaphysicks say that by long circuit any truth may be derived from another and perchance they withhold those stronger Arguments least they might disparage theirs by comparison as the Painter that had grossely pourtraied a Cock set a Boy by the Tub to stave off all living Cocks that they might not discredit his rude draught They enumerate sundry kinds or wayes of Separation but it had been as proper to their undertaking as sutable to the expectation of reason to have demonstrated how all of these were founded in this text or supported thereby for when they simply and nakedly affirm them to be so in magna sermenis latitudine uno brevissimo verbo quod dicitur proba in arctissimas coarctaris angustias as Augustine to Petilian Though some streames turn another way as Maldonat expounds the words thus If O people to whom he thinks the Lord to speak thou pick out and make choise of the true Prophets from the salse and others whom A Lapide mentions interpret If thou sever my precious Word from the vile Doctrines of the Jewes Prcciosum à vili seperat qui verum falsum bonum malum non codem loco habet Quistorpius annot in lec Chrys in Gen. c. 1. hom 3 tom 1. p. 4. in Math. c. 25. h. 27. tom 2. p. 169. Gregory l. 3. Moral Willet in Levit p. 363. Cateri in loc A verbis Judaeorum minacibus sed levibus vilibus infirmis quia ipsi invalidi sunt minas suas explere non poterant si fortiter animosè adhaeseris verbo meo contempseris Judaeorum minas as Menochius or Si verbum meum divinum tanquam pretiosum thesaurum amplexus fucris custodicris prae vili acervo rationum humanarum ad pusillanimitatem te excitantium as Tirinus from whom Sanctius much dissents not Si discrimen aliquod agnoscas statuasque inter ca quae vilia sunt quaeque ludus nugae existimari debent inter ludentium nimirum consilia ludrica inter me meaque mandata and this Piscator saith is a fit interpretation and Diodate assents to it yet the main current of Interpreters runs toward a Separation of
pollution to be incurred at the Sacrament we should have been put under a command of examining every man one another but themselves do not think it an incumbency upon every man to try another but only that they or the Elders should make this tryal of all but as when Brasidas was slain his Mother said That though he were a good man yet Sparta had many better so if these texts were taken off from the support of Church censures yet other Scriptures would better bear up and confirm them and also though Hierom Augustine Castalio c. read signifie that man by an Epistle which is the marginal reading of our Bibles yet since that indication to be made to the Apostle was only that he might thereupon inflict the censure and so would finally and in effect be the same thing with note him in their sense therefore let it be yielded that these texts are properly to be understood of these censures And we grant what they alleage that Augustine so interprets them though they mistake the place as if they had not had inspection into the text but as he there approves only coertiones licitae and allowed which we deny theirs to be so he also permits such censures salva unitatis pace in ecclesia Cont. Donatist post coll c. 4. not lib. 4. as they cite in words at length and there assures us that as the Church unto the end of the world is to have good and bad Ita nec mali bonis obesse possunt cùm vel ignorantur vel propace tranquilitate ecclesiae tolerantur si eos prodi aut accusari non oportuerit aut aliis bonis non potuerit demonstrari And so also he elsewhere saith Longè aliter vitiosa curanda sananda est multitudo ne fortè dum plebs separetur per scismatis nefas etiam triticum eradicetur Ibid. c. 20. and in such cases which is clearly and evidently their case we saith he understand the withdrawing to be only spiritual and the Donatists as do the Apologists take it for a corporal the contact forbidden is Cordis non corporis De verbis dom in Evang. Mat. serm 18. tem 10. p. 18. the separation injoyned is factis non locis animo non templo moribus non altaribus and thus men may be in uno permixti separati permixti quippe corporali contactu separati autem voluntatis abscessu Augustine also expresly in the place they alleagè affirms That the text respects Excommunication and such is the judgement of many interpreters the School the Casuists and Modern Divines who have laid this as one stone in the foundation of excommunication even the greater but because this current will not run to their Mill nor this stream make glad their City they work out another channel and turn the sense into another course It cannot they say be a casting out by Excommunication For 1. That is too much at first but what the text commands to be done doth it injoyn to be done at first Or may we not do what we may not first do Or have they forgot that Canon of the Apostle which they so lately produced That things are to be done in order Or do they not know that excommunication may not at all be inflicted until first admonition precede and obstinacy in sin follow after 2. They say the excommunicate is to be accounted as an Heathen not as a Brother but he may be both in sundry respects as an heathen and yet a brother too a brother formally not materially in secret not apparently in right not in possession as an heathen because provisionally excluded from the sign external act and use of communion but a brother because not absolutely precisely simply and finally cut off but only for a time and upon condition and secundum quid in some respect and therefore saith Ames Cas cons l. 4. c. 29. sect 28. Idcirco ex ordine excommunicatio singulari spe resipiscentiae adhibetur aliquam differentiam ponit inter excommunicatos meros ethnicos As an heathen he may be forbidden the Communion of Believers as heathens were among the Jewes the consequent being here put for the antecedent as Paraeus and Camero observe In 1 Cor. 5.10 habeto illum eo loco quod ad exteriorem conversationem pertinct quo Judaeihabent ethnicos publicanos as Estius and yet a brother in respect of that tender care we have of his good and salvation Paraeus in loc and therefore saith Camero Eos velit haberi pro exofis sed non haberi exosos Valemia tells us that Ecclesia erga ej smodi ethuicum ita solet se gerere Camero praelect in loc p. 155. 3 Disput 7 q. 17. punct 1. ut cum illi communicet bona quaedam spiritualia communium suffragiorum neque etiam cam cum illo consuetudinem conversationis externae habeat and Camero affirms Ita subductio est ut non sit simpliciter subductio nam hortatur nos Apostolus ut eum moneamus cum quo non vult nos habere commercium quî autem monere possumus nisi adeamus hominem studeamus eum in viam revccare and therefore out of the proper signification of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he concludes only too much familiarity is forbidden and all commerce save when and where it shall be necessary And therefore saith Chrysostom the Apostle having said In Psal 100. p. 234. tom 8. With-draw your selves have no company veritus ne hocipsum è fraternitate illum excidat he sub-joyns yet hold him not as an enemy c And Augustine Nos quidem fraires propter correptionem aliquam tenemus nos etiam à fratribus nostris nen cum iis convivamur ut corrigantur and then he cites this of 2 Thess 3.14 they are brethren still whom we may not accompany or be familiar with In Psal 54. p. 111. à quo indixit separationem non praecidit dilectionem and to the like effect other interpreters though they expound the text to be meant of excommunication It cannot be meant of leaving his society in civil things that is too little and hardly to be done such may be his relations Those Censures being acts of justice and justice consisting in an equality who can determinately conclude a punishment to be too great or too little but relatively to the special offence for which it is inflicted Yet I shall not be hasty to suffrage with them That Interdiction of all Commerce in civil things is a lesser punishment than Suspension from the Lords Table A very learned man that contents not himself with the Dichotomy of excommunication into the greater and lesser Estius in loc adds a middle kind viz. to be proscribed the company and commerce of the faithfull which was lesse than a delivering over to Satan by precision from the body of the Church their crimes being not so enormous to merit that and
but that they may examine of the sincerity of grace or soundness of conversion such a power God never gave nor can we suffer them to usurp As what have I to judge those that are without so to judge that which is within the Church judgeth onely of scandal not that which is secret in the heart Suspension is a penal act and therefore not to be inflicted but by judicial sentence upon evidence of crime nor for want of evidence of sound grace Every one as is the rule of the Casuists is to be esteemed good untill some manifest evil appear of him He that is a Church member hath a right to holy things to admit him to partake them it is enough not to know the contrary We need not seek positively to know his worthiness they must not set up their thrones of judgement in Gods peculiar Contra Epist Parmen l. 2. â— 6. Contra lit Petil l. c. 23. Coutra Douat post Coll. c. 4. the heart Had the ancient Church sensed or practised such a necessary duty Augustine needed not to have feared the eradication of the wheat with the tares upon a denial of communion of Sacraments with evil men for such a curious examination would have distinguisht one from the other and the one might be puld up and the other left standing and there would scarce have been place for those expresses Bonis malinon oberunt qui ignorantur and also quandoquidem malos in unitate catholica vel non noverant and likewise aut aliis benis non potuerit demonstrari for they and their condiâ—ion might well then have been detected and manifested The Apostle speaks of Ordination of Ministers wherein by not examining the persons to be ordained guilt is contracted and when done without proving as 1 Tim. 3.10 then it is sudden That the words are to be understood of laying on of hands in Ordination I confess hath better authority but they seem to have more reason who take it for imposition of hands in absolving of penitents Abbispin l. 2. obs 31. p. 400 obscr 32. p. 412. See Dr. Hammond Annot. as do Tertullian and Cyprian among the ancients to which sense the context before and after is more sutable and that part of the precept keep thy self pure is by some of this judgment thus paraphrased that by knowing what is committed by other men he be not corrupted or defiled and drawn into the like but remaine pure and undefiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to commit the sins not onely to be blamable for others guilt But let it be meant properly of Ordination If they could give us such another text administer not or admit not to the Lords Supper suddenly they would as Scaliger saith of Mamonides desinere nugari but as there is no such like precept so there is not like reason for the one or other or else the Apostle doubtless when he gave directions concerning the administration would have held it forth First There is no command generally obliging all intelligent Christians to take Orders Addit ad Aquinat 3. q. 36. butt 4. Nugnus ibid. there is to take eat do this Secondly No man hath such a claim to Orders but that it is not sufficient that the Ordainer knows not the contrary but he must positively know his worthiness but a Church member hath such a right to the seales of that faith which he professeth and to the notes of that Church wherein he is incorporated as to receive them unless he be publickly known to be unworthy the one requires special Charismataes the other onely common graces to entitle to the signs though special be requisite to obtain the things signified Thirdly Often the persons to be ordained are not known unto or familiarly acquainted with the Ordainer but the Pastor should be more conversant with his flock then to be ignorant of their condition Fourthly Filvicius Cas tract 9. c. 4. Sect 88. Part 1. dist 25. nullus ordinetur No grace is now usually given by Ordination to meliorate the persons but grace is conferred by the Sacrament adjumental to their amendment Fifthly Notwithstanding all this those that are notoriously worthy the Casuists say are not to be examined before Ordination and the glosse on Gratian tells us Testimonium populi aequivalet examinationi verum sufficit quod clericus ordinandus habeat famam perse per hoc etiam patet quod noti non sunt examinandi sed tantum ignoti but they exempt none though of known worthiness from examination before admission to communicate which shewes it is not their worthiness they seek to be assured of but to make sure of them Beside the prohibition here to partake of other mens sins in the judgment of Calvin and others is onely this Although others break forth into this rashnesse to ordain persons unworthy do not thou follow or have fellowship with them in such acts not those of the ordained but ordainers And whereas they alleage 1 Tim. 3.10 That ordination was not to be made without examining or proving we grant a proving was there required but it was a probation by long experience not by a personal examination as Chrysostom expounds it Multo jam tempore explorati as Bullinger Probatio constantis fidei vitae inculpatae as Estius Praesertim quod Diaconis etiam dispensatio thesaurorum Ec lesiae committeretur and a Lapide to the like effect Quorum virtus diu spectata probata so as this arrow may be shot back against them to demonstrate that knowledge and proof of men may be had without personall examination viz. by observing their coversation and that therefore it is but a paralogisme when they argue The worthy must be admitted and the unworthy excluded therefore all must be examined SECT XXXII 1 Pet. 3.15 Heb. 13.17 discussed What obedience is due to Ministers and what power they have VVE have formerly also defeated the force of their Arguments levied out of those Texts and we shall not actum agere Diatribe sect 3 since even the too frequent use of Cordials makes them lesse efficacious Concerning that of 1 Pet. 3.15 I have elswhere shewed that this is to be understood of a defence of the faith against despisers thereof or disputers against it or a confession thereof under persecution opposite to dissembling or as Grotius Grot. Annoâ— in locum of a preparedness causam reddere cur sitis Christiani Sic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 habemus Phil. 1.17 2 Tim. 4.16 Acts 22.1 not so much to professe what as wherefore we believe as Tirinus also concurreth neither is it an answer subsequent unto or drawn forth by any probatory examination nor confined or contracted to a disposing men for the Sacrament nor any way respecting or appertaining thereunto it is so far from being to be done onely there as they obtrude it as that thereunto there is here no reference at all much