and truly prov'd that no circumcised person was ever before Christ's days prohibited those Ceremonies and Sacraments which God by the hand of Moses had ordain'd amongst them upon any delinquency in Morals or Piety of Life Nay I have withal shewn that 't was not lawful for any one whomsoever to forbid them and I have by pregnant Testimonies from Scripture and Reason made it out that neither Christ nor his Apostles taught or acted contrary Besides I think I have demonstrated that what our Adversaries offer on their own behalfs cannot maintain the Opinion they would build on it So that now I see not any farther rubs nothing that can shock this Conclusion That that Excommunication which shuts out Christians from the Sacrament for pure Immoralities and the Vitiousness of their lives was never ordained by God but is a Figment and Invention of men for so far is it from deriving its original from Scripture that the invention and trick of it is rather declaim'd against and condemn'd there LXIX If any yet reply that at this rate we bespatter we condemn whole shoals of pious Bishops who quickly after the Apostles times began this excommunicating Sinners I must tell them 't is one thing to speak against an Opinion and another against the Assertors or Authors of it Many in our Age of no less Piety than Learning have examin'd have sifted and confuted sundry ancient and as I may say Catholick Errours Errours that crept early into the Church As for instance the Limbus Patrum Purgatory Praying to Saints Exorcisms in Baptism Coelibacy of the Priesthood Unctions in Baptism and at the point of Death Prayers for the Dead and Satisfaction in the Case how in question and yet I know not any man that has it charg'd on him as a Crime barely for that he hereby condemns his Predecessors If men will needs labour to enforce this Excommunication upon the Churches as a Law of Gods promulgation I can never be brought to commend it therefore though at the same time I cannot but highly praise and approve of their Zeal and good Intentions who first gave rise to it for their aim was hereby to curb the restiff and unweildy humours of vitious men since they could not imagine a more commodious and effectual way of doing it And very many as we see even to this day walk on in this beaten and publick Path do it because others before them did it having never so much as taken it into their considerations whether it be a matter that stands with holy Scripture or no. LXX I cannot at present say much of the very time when Excommunication had its first rise onely that towards the latter end of the second Century after Christ I meet with something like it then attempted and set up For above one hundred and fifty years I do not find any one suspended or put by from receiving the Sacrament for unholiness of life They that are fuller vers'd in the History and Writings of the Fathers may perchance speak better and clearer in this point They that shall carefully peruse what Socrates in his fifth book of Eccles History chap. 19. has transmitted to us I verily believe will without much difficulty confess with us that this Custom of Excommunicating had its first Epoch or Commencement in the Church about the time of Novatus Yet Sozomen in his seventh book chap. 16. pretends other causes for its Institution Besides which we read that about the year of the Lord 200. Victor Bishop of Rome admitted not to the Lords Supper them who refused to forgive Injuries but I have observ'd that till that time none were denied the Communion but Hereticks and such as swerv'd from or renounced the Christian Faith But be that how it will this is both certain and evident that Excommunication was first introduced into the Church for the restraint and punishment of Vice and afterwards when the Church had got the Sword into their hand as well as the Keys at their girdle that is when the Magistrates Kings and Princes became Christian and subjected themselves to the Faith yet did the Church-men not let go this power but continued the exercise of it by their Bishops partly for that the Episcopal Order was then believed to be of Divine Right partly for that they could not but be fond and tenacious of that Power which made them formidable to Kings and Emperours and was therefore a morsel too sweet to be parted with without regret And they easily wrought others into a belief of Christs being the Author and Institutor of it since themselves had before so forwardly and so willingly swallowed it Superstition too in a little time had ascribed so much virtue to the Sacrament that it gave strength to the Opinion for 't was believed and publickly owned by their Writings that there were some that could not die till they had been housell'd and received the Sacrament Either therefore this Errour made men dread Excommunication or Excommunication led them into the Errour for how facile a thing was it to impose upon the Credulity of the illiterate and weak Vulgar that Life was annext to the receiving and Death to the deprivation of the holy Sacrament since the denial of this to a sinner was the highest and last Punishment that they saw inflicted on him LXXI But for the Persons that executed and denounced this Excommunication as far as our Conjectures can carry us in this affair they seem to have been at first such Elders as we read of 1 Cor. 6. 4. who supplied the place and defect of Magistracy in the Church together with the Ministry but afterwards all this Authority was devolved upon the Bishops who took cognizance of all Suits made up Differences gave Judgment and did every thing that related to the decisions of Right and distributing Justice betwixt man and man as we perceive by the History of those times and by St. Augustine's complaining of so much then lying on the Bishops hands of this nature Ambrose affirms that those sort of Elders whose assistance was wont to be made use of in the Church on all occasions were in vogue and authority when yet they were destitute of Bishops And it appears by the Apostle that these Elders were to have an Authority as to that Employment of Judging as long as the Church should be under the pressures of an Heathen Magistrate which gives us to understand that as under a Christian Government that Employment would be useless and was therefore to cease so Excommunication upon supposition that they had exercis'd such a thing before yet should it in a Christian Kingdom cease For we must note that these Elders were instead of Civil Magistrates and manag'd Civil affairs and were no Ecclesiastical Judicature which now-a-days is of a different nature from the Civil for 't is plainly said that they were to deal in Suits and Controversies of Law things relating to this Life and the Concerns of it LXXII 'T would
A TREATISE OF Excommunication WHEREIN 'T is Fully Learnedly and Modestly demonstrated THAT There is no Warrant Precept or President either in the Old or New Testament for Excommunicating any Persons or Debarring them the Sacraments whilst they make an outward Profession of the true Christian Faith Written Originally in Latine By the famous and pious THOMAS ERASTVS Doctor in Physick About the Year 1568. Brethren ye have been called unto LIBERTY onely use not Liberty for an occasion to the Flesh but by LOVE SERVE one another Gal. 5. v. 13. LONDON Printed for L. Curtis 1682. To the Pious READER AND Such as is studious of Truth THOMAS ERASTVS a Physician sends greeting LEst any lighting upon this Treatise should wonder what Motives or Provocations made me busie my self in this Controversie about Excommunication I shall as Concisely as Truly acquaint the World with the Rise and Occasion of it 'T is now much about sixteen years since some men have fallen into a kind of Excommunicating Frenzy under the specious Title of Ecclesiastical Discipline and as they contend sacred in it self and enjoyn'd the Church by God and fain would they have the whole Church tainted with the like that the manner of it they propose should be thus That a select number of Elders should sit in the name of the whole Church and judge who were fit and who unfit to be admitted to the Lords Supper I could not but wonder to see them consulting of such matters at such a time when we had neither fit persons to excommunicate or to be excommunicated for scarce a thirteenth part of the people understood and approved of the Doctrine of the Reformation which was then but blooming the residue were our profest Enemies so that no man who had his wits about him but must needs see that such a matter must unavoidably introduee dangerous Divisions among us And therefore I thought it not then so proper an Enquiry how some might be shut out of the Church as how more might be brought in and that the best thing we could apply our selves to would be the propagating saving Truths Besides they who were to be the Supervisors were not so much superior to the others in Age Experience Parts Judgment Virtue or Eminency that they could manage so weighty a matter with that Port and Dignity that was requisite Since therefore I saw that their desires could not have the labour'd Effects without the Churches Ruine and Subversion I was ever and anon cautioning them that they should weigh well what they did and not rashly attempt what they might after too late repent But though as yet I verily thought that Excommunication had been a thing commanded in the Scriptures yet I did not find it commanded after that manner that they proposed So that since Christ seemed to me to have left us at large for the manner of it I set my thoughts on work what might be the best way and course under our circumstances and would be attended with the least Distractions and Inconveniencies which I did with the closer application and diligence upon some Reflections that I had how fatal and turbulent to Christianity this had formerly proved and was still little better as it was managed Whilst I was upon these thoughts and look'd a little back upon what the Antients had writ on this subject I find it weaker in all points than I had before suspected so that I could not but begin to doubt of the very thing My next resort was to the School-men among whom I met with as little satisfaction Then came I to our Modern Writers who no whit mended the matter nay I observ'd that they did most manifestly differ among themselves in some things which quicken'd my diligence in the Enquiry So I laid by these Commentators a while and betook my my self to the Scripture in the perusal of which I mark'd and noted with all the exactness I could what was discrepant from and what agreeable unto the commonly received Opinion And truly it was no ordinary assistance to me in this matter to take a survey with my self of the state of the Jewish Church and Government for thus thought I with my self God in the 4th Chapter of Deut. v. 6 7 8. bears witness to their Laws that there was no Nation that had Statutes and Judgments so righteous and that for their Laws sake it should be said of them Surely this great Nation is a wise and understanding People Therefore it seem'd necessary with me that to have a Church gloriously and wisely modell'd it must make near approaches to the Judaical Form But certain it is that in this Jewish Church things were never so instituted by God as that there should be distinct procedures in the punishing Immoralities one by the Civil and another by the Ecclesiastical power What hinders then but that even now too that that Church which God hath blessed with a Christian Magistracy may sit down contented under one form of Government I then communicated my thoughts to learned good and pious men so far as that I press'd them not to consider the matter slightly and cursorily for I could not but deem it very unnecessary that there should be two Heads of the Visible Church where the Body is but one and that their Mandates Injunctions Decretals and all the Acts of a governing Authority should be distinct as hitherto they have been so that the Government of one should not be subject to the Inspection or Controul of the other but both their Jurisdictions be Chief in their kinds For such a Church-Senate or Convocation of select Elders would they in truth have fram'd that they should have the Supreme Right and Power of punishing Vice even in the Magistrates themselves but not with corporal punishments but by prohibiting them the Sacrament first privately and if on this they reform'd not then in a more solemn and publick manner But my Opinion was as I always told them That one Supreme Magistrate of Gods institution and of the true Faith might and had as good right now to restrain Vice as heretofore under the Law And I took me an instance from Solomon's glorious Reign which was a kind of Type of the Christian Church's reigning upon Earth Now neither under him nor yet under Moses the Judges or any other the Kings or when govern'd by the Optimacy have we any foot-steps of two so distinct Judicatures over mens actions and manners Nature says Musculus allows not two absolute and Independent Governments without any subordinacy of one to the other to Lord it over the same people I must confess I received great Aids and Improvement of these my Thoughts from the persons with whom I conferr'd them for in some things their Observations out-went my own and where they did not they furnisht me many material hints to mend them by But still I kept my self quiet from any publick Contests in this Affair and entered not into any Debates about it where I was
1 Chron. from the 22th to the 27th Chapter Then for Solomon who was a King and no Priest he not onely built the Temple but dedicated it To the same purpose is that famous relation 2 Chron. 19. of Jehosaphat which being well consider'd gives great light to the matter in hand So does that of the good King Hezechia and indeed the whole Old Testament witnesses no less If therefore the State and Church was founded instituted and established upon so much Wisdom that which makes the nearest approaches to the Form and Model thereof as far as the present circumstances and different state of things will allow challenges at least our Praises and Approbation if not our Imitation And therefore in whatever Nation the Civil Magistrate is Christian Pious and Orthodox there 's no need of other persons who under another name or title should set a governing us and call us to account or punish us for our misdeeds as if there were no difference betwixt a Believing and Infidel Prince But says D. Wolfgangus Musculus in his common places de Magistratu from whom I have borrowed and transcribed what I said last 'T is a most pernicious Errour and big with dangerous Consequence that so many think no better of a Christian Magistracy than of an Heathen one whose power is to be allowed of no farther than meer Temporals If then Believing Governours had authority not onely to interpose in the ordering religious matters agreeable to Scripture-rules and to regulate the Offices and other the Ministerial parts about it which is the reason that Moses commands that when they should chuse them a King he should write him a Copy of the Law in a Book and that to be with him and he to read therein all the days of his life but had also power to punish Vice in the same manner 'T is a needless fruitless attempt for men to be now-a-days contriving and setting up new Models of Government which levels Magistrates themselves to the Rank and Condition of their Subjects for this Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in point of Manners hath no place of Holy Writ to vouch for it or set it up not but that Civil Governours will do well to advise in all Doctrinals with those that are learned and have labour'd in the Word LXXV But now in those Churches whose mishap 't is to live under a Profane Government as in the Dominions of Turks and Papists they should make choice of pious sober persons who agreeable to St. Paul's command might arbitrate between contesting Members might take up Quarrels might do every thing of that nature might chide and admonish debauched flagitious men and such of the Ministry themselves who walk disorderly and if this avail not then might they punish them or rather recal them to a better temper by avoiding their company by debarring them of private Commerce by reprehending them publickly or by some such-like marks of their displeasure but to thrust them from that Sacrament which is of God's Institution when they are minded to come is more than any Church or man has a right to do for none can judge of the Heart but God alone It may chance that some sparks of Piety and Remorse may kindle in a sinners Soul whilst he sits in the Assembly which it can be no hurt nay may be greatly good to cherish since Religion forbids it not And how can it be I would fain ask but horrid absurd and impious to boot to turn away any man from publickly and solemnly paying his Thanks to God and commemorating the Death of his Saviour when he finds Impulses from within to do it and would fain celebrate it with his fellow-brethren the Church and declares 't is his hearty desire to be and continue a Member of it and that he would give publick testimony that his past life is irksom to himself APPENDIX IT will not be amiss perhaps by way of Corollary or Supplement to mention the Decrees that were made in the year 1523. at the Diet at Norimberg by all the Layety of the Imperial States and were sent to the Bishop of Rome for 't will appear by that that we are not the first who have started this Question but that the Divines began to think of it nigh 46 years since I am confident no man that is any whit vers'd in the German Affairs can believe or imagine that any such thing should be enacted but requested by them from the Bishop of Rome without the Clergies knowing of it But that the Authority may be the more authentick and the thing clearer I have been content to compare the German Copy which was writ at that Diet with the Latine one sent to the Pope and which Matth. Flac. Illyricus caus'd to be reprinted at Basil 1565. with his Book De Sectis Dissensionibus Papistarum and upon comparing both to publish the entire Decree or Act. Therefore among the 100 Grievances which were fuller express'd at this Session at Norimberg than they had two years before at Worms this following is the 34th Item Many Christians at Rome and in other places besides are by Archbishops Bishops and their Ecclesiastical Judges excommunicated for Civil causes and on a Temporal account whereby many weak Consciences are disturb'd and brought to despair so that upon a moneyscore and for the transitory things of this life and very often for very trivial causes are some brought into danger of perishing Soul and Body too contrary to the Law and Command of God besides the losses they suffer in Estates and Reputation thereby Whereas no person ought to be excommunicated or held for such unless he be convict of Heresie as the Holy Scripture bears witness And therefore the Lay-states of the Empire beseech your Pontificial Holiness that as becomes a godly and religious Father you would take away these Grievances of Excommunication at Rome or in the Roman Court and provide that the same be done every where else by the Archbishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Judges And lastly that your Holiness would command That no person be excommunicated or reputed for such for any cause whatever besides the plain and prov'd Crime of Heresie in matters relating to Religion for that no person ought to be separated or removed from God and his Church for any Temporal cause or otherwise or for any other humane crime except Infidelity or Heresie To the same purpose is that of Joh. Stumpias in his second Book of his Chronicon Helvet cap. 29. where he says That the Swedish Clergy about the year 1245. when Henry Landgrave of Turing and after his death William Earl of Holland were chosen by the instigation of the Pope in opposition to the Emperour Frederick the second and Conrade his Son taught with great constancy among other things That never was there such a Power granted to mortal man under the Sun to prohibit Christians Spiritual Duties and the Worship of God and therefore did they continue to say Mass says he though the Pope had interdicted them and denounced them Excommunicate FINIS Hieronym upon Tit. chap. 1. * See Mat. 11. 28. Luke 5. 5. Joh 4. 6. 1 Cor. 4. 12. Eph. 4. 28. 1 Thess 5. 12. which helps mightily to the explaining this 1 Tim. 5. 17. 1 Tim. 4. 10. 1 Cor. 15. 58. alibi