make a Volume to recount what advantages the Church did hereby reap most certainly they can't be set out in a small compass for first this Excommunication made men to look for salvation from the Sacrament for thus they fram'd the Argument The Exclusion from the Sacrament draws down Death and Damnation say they therefore the Receiving of it gives Life They scarce could entertain a doubt of the truth of the Antecedent whilst they were taught that this was so dreadful so Soul-destructive a punishment and when they thought themselves by being shut out from the Sacrament to fall straight into the very clutches of the Devil and be wholly at Satan's mercy which has made it thought by some that they could not die without being housled as I said before This Errour grew and got strength from the many great and long Penances the Solemnities of Absolution and the like amongst which none was more prevalent than that they would not administer the holy Eucharist to them till the very point of Death and that then they gave it them 't was of pure compassion that they might not go hence destitute of the Souls necessary food for if any through whatever Accident was so unfortunate he was held for a man damn'd and lost to all Eternity as if God would not forgive them their sins who heartily and sincerely repent and vouchsafe unto them everlasting life unless these Elders should adjudge them qualified for the Lords Supper What errour is there of a more detestable and fatal consequence But another Fruit of this was that all the World now began to believe that 't was in the power of men to shut and open Heaven when and to whom they pleased and therefore the younger Theodosius would not eat his Dinner because having denied an importunate Monk's Request he stood excommunicate by him for his pains and though the Bishop of Constantinople told the Emperour that the Excommunication was invalid yet rest good man he could not nor would not till the same hand absolv'd that had bound him So Ambrose for eight months together kept an Elder from Church from Sermons and all the acts of publick Worship 'T is true offended he had but more pardonably than Ambrose himself as any man that has his eyes in his head may see upon the perusal of Nicephorus his History and the Chronicle of Philip Melancthon By these steps has the Roman See encroached upon the Western World and made Princes Kings and Emperours to lacky to her Lust and arbitrary sway in pretended Spirituals Dyed has been the German Empire in the Gore of hundred thousands that fell a Sacrifice to this Roman Diana to excommunicating Popes and excommunicated Emperours Kings and Princes Religion she has chopt and chang'd mangled and disfigured debased and vitiated at her pleasure none daring to question her Canons dispute her Decretals or look her Bulls in the face the whole World were Caligula's and durst not shew their heads when she sent her Thunder of Excommunication abroad The God of Foxes spoken of by Daniel Dan. 11. 38. if we weigh that passage aright signifies nothing but this Excommunication or the Prohibiting men the use of Sacred things especially the Lords Supper For this Excommunication acts a very God in earnest 't is to this day a God of Forces a God who has put all things all the power of Heaven and Hell under the Popes feet And there are not wanting now-a-days too another sort of men acting upon the same Principles who would make all Humane Authority and the Civil Christian Magistrate truckle to them and dread their Censures as far as the Popes ignorant Votaries do his Bulls But I hope the time will come when this God shall stand expos'd and condemn'd for a false and feigned God and be stript of all its God-like terror and dread and whatsoever may or has so long plagu'd and enslav'd the Church In fine this Idol Excommunication had every where such an Ascendant that 't was the constant Belief of the World that they who by Church-Censures and Interdictions from the Sacrament and publick acts of Worship were denounced unworthy of eternal Life were thereby wholly fallen from divine Grace as on the other hand saved must they needs be whom the Church received and would have so Can we hope better terms or greater moderation from our Modern Church-men than the World has experienced in their Predecessors I fear he that should expect it would find himself deceiv'd and that he has but little weigh'd what either the Scriptures or Experience might inform him of LXXIII I see no cause why Christian Rulers should not now-a-days do what God in the Jewish Common-wealth requir'd of the Civil Magistrate Do we conceit that we can frame a better Model and Form of Discipline in Church or State than God gave to them since we read in Deut. 4. that the Nations for this should praise and admire the People of Israel for their Wisdom and Understanding evinc'd by those Statutes and Judgments which God had given them yet God never taught them Excommunication But the Power of punishing the Debaucheries and restraining the looseness and licentiousness of manners was wholly in the Magistrate whose duty 't was not onely to animadvert on such Crimes by the Rules that God had in their Law prescribed them but the management of all the Externals of Religion the Disciplinary part and Constitution was in them For 't was not Aaron but Moses that did this God still commanding it and we know this Jurisdiction was transferred over to Joshua not to Eleazar 't was Joshua on whom God laid that Injunction of seeing the Israelites circumcis'd the second time and not Eleazar Josh 5. 2. and this was to be universal without exception of one man the Bad were to be circumcis'd as well as the Good and Bad there were without question And the keeping the Passover then was by him too directed nor was any person that we there read of excluded from it for dishonesty of his life The Ark of God was carried from place to place as he gave the word and in all things relating to Religion he interpos'd his Commands as may be observ'd throughout the whole book of Joshua Eli and Samuel who had the charge of Religious as well as Civil affairs they offer'd and administred at the Altar as Priests but as Judges they manag'd both Church and State for 't was lawful for the High Priests under the Old Testament to meddle with the arts of Government and Secular affairs as they were the Types of Christ our King and High Priest but under the Gospel 't is another case IT SHALL NOT BE SO WITH YOV says Christ See 1 Pet. 5. 3. which is pertinent to our purpose LXXIV If we go farther to the Kings the case is no less plain As to David there 's none can doubt it since it appears that he order'd all the Offices and Charges relating to God's Worship he that pleases may read
self-same thing God plainly and expresly and with reiterated Precepts commands that every Male except the unclean and such as were in a Journey should keep the Passover He never therefore intended to frighten away some under the figure of the Leaven There were then plenty enough of bad men present that it must be needless to typifie and shadow them out by Leaven And the wickedness of men was a thing as obvious to mens senses and as much to be taken notice of as the Leaven that should represent it Therefore since no figures are commonly instituted of such things as are at hand and in view and which with equal clearness strike the Senses 't is in vain to seek for any Figure there How much more where the things figured are more notorious and common than the Figures themselves But besides Moses does not command that the Eater of Leaven should be debarr'd eating the Passover but commands him to be slain Therefore sinners should not so much be kept from the Lords Supper as they should be capitally punished Which is a Consequence I should be so far from admitting with difficulty that I rather wish it might so be for I desire nothing more than that the strictest Moral Discipline might be observ'd in the Church but such still as is of Gods appointment not of mans invention Secondly The Jews might eat Leaven all the year round excepting onely those seven days of Unleavened Bread which they did commence from the eating of the Passover Now if you would parallel this with the Lords Supper you must of necessity grant a liberty for licentious living all the year provided you abstained from vice all the time you were celebrating the Lords Supper Thirdly Moses speaks here of the Passover onely not of any other Sacraments by Analogie therefore wicked men should onely be kept from the Lords Supper not from Baptism Fourthly The Apostle makes not the comparison to run betwixt the Feast of the Jews and the Lords Supper but betwixt that and our whole course of life he says we are unleavened as men that are washed in the Bloud of Christ and purged from all Leaven and therefore says he let us keep the Feast that is let us live not with the Leaven of Malice but with the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth There is a vast difference betwixt Leaven simply so called and the Leaven of Malice or Wrath There is none but knows that in the second sence 't is taken figuratively and School-men say that an analogical or figurative sence proves nothing This is certain whatever is meant by Leaven Excommunication can never be maintain'd or justifi'd from it against Gods precept XVIII But some may object that Paul speaks here of the Passover but what I pray makes this to our business as if this word Passover were put for the Lords Supper in the New Testament Christ saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 7. is our Passover sacrificed or slain for us not his Supper The meaning of the words is this As the Jews who onely began their Feast of Unleavened Bread with eating the Lamb did eat Unleavened Bread all that week after so should you who have begun to believe in Christ and are purified and become unleavened through his Bloud you should lead a pure and unspotted life all the rest of the week that is all the days of your life XIX Now that nothing of different nature is to be met with in the other Books of the Old Testament may be known and proved if it were but from this alone that the Jews Posterity were to live according to the Laws and Institutions of Moses contrary to which they might not by any means institute or enjoyn any thing which related to the Worship of God Most certainly the good and pious Judges Priests Prophets and Kings forced away none from their Sacraments and Sacrifices but rather invited all to them with the greater earnestness and zeal The story of good King it should be Hezekiah I suppose See 2 Chron. 35. Josiah 2 Chron. 35. v. 18. is well known who called together all the Children of Israel as well those whom he knew to have sacrificed and burnt Incense to strange Gods or Devils as those who for the shortness of the warning could not be cleansed 2 Chron. 30. v. 19. according to the purification of the Sanctuary From whence 't is observable that Sacraments are Provocations and Allurements to Religion and Piety and that men grow better rather by frequenting than by being robb'd of them provided they are rightly and faithfully instructed XX. Excommunication therefore can never be maintain'd from the first Chapter of Isaiah v. 13. Psal 50. v. 8. and many places of like import where 't is said that God will have nothing to do with the Sacrifices and Oblations of the Wicked for God doth in all those places condemn the abuse of them in that they thought that they fully perform'd the Will of God by the meer external performance at what rate soever their Soul stood affected Besides God neither commands the Prophet nor any one else by him to exclude the Wicked from the Sacrifices and Rites but shews that God will not hear them unless that withal they amend their lives Now the external Policy and Government of the Church stands upon a different foot with the Will of God to us-ward as himself is the Approver or Condemner of our thoughts and actions In fine from the self-same places it may directly and in the same manner be demonstrated that none that is a sinner may call upon the Name of the Almighty nay that 't is unlawful for such an one so much as to praise or give thanks unto God and then 't will be incumbent on the Priests and Elders to forbid the Wicked all these for God hath a like aversion to those when they come from wicked men as is plain as well from the Texts instanc'd in as from places of the like import And if this latter carries absurdity in it no less doth the former XXI Neither doth that of 1 Esdras chap. 9. v. 3. 4. make any whit against us for that was a matter of Policy and no ways relating to the Sacraments for the Magistracy not Esdras the Priest alone though he too was a part of the Magistracy for as Josephus bears witness though they had a Leader yet were they govern'd by the Optimacy or Nobility set forth a Proclamation That whosoever met not at Jerusalem within two or three days their Cattel should be seized to the use of the Temple and they be cast out from them that were of the Captivity not from their Sacraments and Sacrifices But we make it not the enquiry of this place whether the Magistrate hath a right of punishing so or so but whether the Priests had any authority of removing dissolute and bad Livers from the Sacrifices Esdras could not do this contrary to the Command of God Adde to this that Moses never commanded
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
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