blasphemous of all hereticks even the Gnosticks and the wildest and most desperate even the Circumcellions might have pleaded and pretended to In such a notion conscience is become the greatest malefactor or Sanctuary for malefactors in the world and a tender conscience playes the part of Davus in the Comedy and I wish it acted not in Tragedies too It is the Saviour which inordinate men have set forth in the likeness of their sinfull flesh who must justifie them and beare and answer for all their irregularities But as it was the law of Pittacus That he which offended in his drunkenness should suffer double punishment one for his offence and another for his drunkenness so it seems as rationall that he that perpetrates any fault by an erroneous conscience which is a spirituall drunkenness should incurre a twofold penalty one for his error another for the fault but however if it d ee not aggravate the evill yet error in the conscience cannot make the matter commence good For every vincible error is voluntary and he acts imprudently that follows it and he that is imprudent is not good and that an action be good the cause ought to be integrous but the cause cannot be intire although the object be apprehended as good but it is also necessary that in the understanding there be an integrous reason of the apprehension of it as good that is that it be judged good in the understanding and that in no manner it may be judged or ought to be judged evill which cannot be as long as the error is voluntary because vincible But because Jam tua res agitur paries cum proximus ardet And as in the Taliecotion rules when the man dies whose flesh was cut off to be fitted and fastned on another to supply and repair a mutilated member forthwith the new part corrupts and perisheth and as in Burgravius his pretended Lampe composed and kindled of the blood of a man when he expires the Lampe also goes out so therefore as Moncaeus undertook to purge Aaron from Idolatry because the golden Calf and popish Images of God made to that pattern must stand or fall together so the Apologists seek to reverse the judgement against the Pharisee by a Writ of Error doubting it seems if he be attainted as principal that they may be indited as accessory they tell us therefore that Esay 65.5 Touch me not for I am holier than thou is spoken by the people to the Prophets who had reproved them for their corrupt worship and this the best think but they quote onely Musculus for this interpretation who though a good one is but one Expositor neither Des nominis hujus bonorem that he should be as Scaliger said of Aristotle Unus super omnes singulis qui omnes fuit Yet I shall not deny that there are some others that go in consort with that sense but it hath little verisimilitude that persons so abominably should conceit themselves so much holier than the Prophets as to be in danger of being polluted by their contact and it carries farre more probability that this referred unto and was directed to the Gentiles as Sanctius a Lapide Sa Menechius Tirinus c. whom those Jewes contemned though themselves were more contaminated which interpretation suits aptly with the context the Prophet foretelling the conversion of the Gentiles in the first verse as Sanctius saith is the common judgement of Interpreters and then upbraiding the Jewes in the following verses who notwithstanding their odicus defilements had such proud opinions of their own sanctity and detestable thoughts of those Gentiles But however it were as we should not fail of our end so neither did we miss our direct way for the paper did not quote nor referre unto this place of Isaiah to prove this was the supercitious humor of Pharisee Many indeed both ancient and modern conceive that the Pharisee was the mark against whom that shâ—t was directed but it seems the Pharisee is not of so ancient descent and extraction for the great learned Scaliger affirmes that the Hasidees had their originall but from the times of Ezra and the Pharisees were the issue of those Hasidees Dogmatists who reduced their formerly free and voluntary observations unto Canons and necessary injunctions Ipsi impuri cum essent alios ase ut impuros arcebant sicut Samaritas Geographus Arabs clamasse ait ne attingas Grotius Annot. in locum and thereupon called themselves Peruschim separated both from the other Hasidim and from the vulgar And besides it is observable that those here inveighed against are charged to eat Swines flesh which to the Pharisee was abominable but like enough it is saith Sanctius they were guilty to do the same quod postea feccrunt hypocrita illi qui cum bonamente pudorem deposucre et ingredi praetorium noluerunt ne gentilium consuetudine contaminati c. But though these were not formal and profest Pharisees who thought their holiness would contract a stain by a society with those whom they looked upon as sinners and that which they hold forth were the more genuine sense yet it cannot set us at any loss if we find this doctrine from thence however to result that they are fastuost arrogantâ—sque hypocritae to whom not onely the sincere Prophets but also Germana ecclesiae membra praeipsis fordent as Junius delivers iâ— Late Annotat. so whether they were Pharisees or not yet the Pharisees were like them and Interpreters take notice of it upon the place and though it be not colligible from this text Origen Tertullian Epiphanius Ambrose Scaliger Drusius Pagnin Montanus c. yet it is otherwise evident that the Pharisees thought their sanctity in danger of being defiled by any commerce with or contact of these whom they thought not so holy as themselves and therefore had their name as the learned carrie it by vote from Perushim because of that separation they made from the vulgar tanquam egregii Judaeorum saith Augustine and they were called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Separatists That they held it piacular to eat with sinners appears Matt 9.14 Luke 19.7 It was one of their Canons He that eats a Samaritans bread be as he that eats Swines flesh and it was one of those six approbries to be avoided by the Disciples of the wise viz. eating with the vulgar populus terrae That they held the touch of a sinner pollutive is manifest Luke 7.39 Camero ad Matt. 19.3 p. 175. Hall pharis and Christ Purchas pilgri l. 2 c. 8. Sect. 3. And therefore when they came from the market they washt because having there to do with divers sorts of people they might unawares be polluted they baptized themselves as the word is Mark c. 7.4 which implies washing the whole body upon this account it seems the more zealous did constantly wash themselves before dinner and this occasioned the wonder of the Pharisee toward our Saviour for not
thereunto yet I deny that it could not be so though done two or three days before hand The Jewes had their preparative before the Passeover and the Lamb was tyed as some think to the Bed-posts four days before that they might better remind the reason of the Institution and dispose themselves to the Celebration and our Saviour might also on like grounds some dayes before prepare his Disciples for the receiving of that Supper which he instituted in stead of the Passover Concerning the washing after Supper the learned man which denyed that Iudas did partake of the Passover pressed with this Argument tells us that for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Greek Copies have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nonnius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but indeed Maldonat supposeth that Nonnius used that word onely because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 would not stand in his verse and so the sense were as Augustine and so I know do others expounds it Supper being prepared and ready to be set upon the Table Of this else-where the same Author gives some instances and if this were so the Argument were evaded and the doubt assoiled for if the Washing were not after Supper then it was not peculiar to the Passover But indeed this plaister is too narrow to cover all the wound the Author took no notice of verse 14. where it is said he rose from Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so as this washing could not precede it I therefore answer That this lotion being to an extraordinary end was not made in the usual manner and method and to shew it was not to mundifie and fit them in order to that present Supper according to the National Custome but to another end and for a mystery our Lord inverted the usual order and makes that subsequent which was commonly antecedent to Supper what ever the reason were melius est dubitare de occultis quà m litigare de incertis and here also not altogether unfitly may be applyed that of Gregory Qui in factis Dei rationem non videt infirmitatem suam considerans cur non videat rationem videt it is but a weak Hinge to hang such a consequence upon viz. The Iewes washed not after supper but at the Passover therefore it was at the Passover that Christ after supper washed his Disciples feet As if I should argue thus Because the Jews onely at the Feast of Tabernacles cut down and brought in boughs Tremel Annot in Iohan. 7. S. 2. and cryed Hosannah so as the boughs and days of the whole Feast were called Hosannah from the usual acclamations of the people when they carryed the boughs up and down therefore our Saviours triumphal entry into Hierusalem when they cut down boughs and cryed Hosannah was at the Feast of the Tabernacles which in truth was made but a few dayes before the Pasover which was always kept in Nisan whereas the Feast of Tabernacles was celebrated in Tisri six moneths after If any shall now after this tedious discourse interpose with Cassius Cui bone and tell me that howsoever it may be yeelded that Judas did partake of the Lords Supper yet this cannot conclude an admission of persons scandalous and openly flagitious since Judas his sinnes were then secret and uncensured I shall say that it is not of my concernment to answer the objection which may perhaps be pertinently obtruded to the Erastians but is excentrick to my motion and heterogeneal to the case I plead for who undertake not to be an Advocate for persons notoriously wicked and scandalous not asserting that those which are notorious for sinnes may not be rejected but that without tryed and approved notes of sanctity they may be admitted nor that men whose flagitiousness is publickly known may be repelled but none upon any private notice of their faults may be excluded And thus much will be inevitably concluded from the example of Judas his admission which was Hos quaesitum munus in usus DEFENCE SECT X. How we know Christ examined not the Apostles The force of Arguments from the Authority Negative of Scripture Of the washing of the Apostles feet Whether any did partake of the last Supper save the twelve Apostles The Apologists conceit of the seventy Disciples Of Confession of Faith how and when necessary Examination is a virtual and interpretative defamation Whether it be a small thing they require Whether Examination if it be necessary ought to be made but once THE initiation of this Section of theirs is like an initial Letter which is fairly flourish'd but signifies nothing viz. to the point in hand Our heat of pursuit after the main question will make us separate those Heterogeneals and taking no notice of their shoots at Rovers we shall onely gather up the Arrows which they have aimed at the mark They first ask us How know you that Christ did not examine his Disciples since the Evangelists tell us that all that Christ did was not written How know you that 1. Ad hominem § 12 I pray them to tell me how they know it for they say it and I trust they are men that know what they say Dicitque tibi tua pagina They tell us that St. Paul prescribed no other but self-examination to the Corinthians because he ey'd Christs performances with his Disciples whom he needed not to examine being known to him as therefore he that being roughly asked by one of King Ptolomies Courtiers Who let him into the Palace answered nothing but ran to the wall and with a Coal drew his Portraiture in black lines so we need make no other answer but draw forth their own lines to shew how we might have known this themselves very credible men in their own judgment told us so An ignorabas apud Lucullum coenare Lucullum The Argument of the Paper was built on this ground that the action of Christ in the first Institution of the Sacrament was the Archetypon and exemplar cause of all subsequent Administrations so that herein matter of fact being matter of Law and Rule as well what Christ did as what he did not being in some sort Dogmatical for we are thereby taught that it was not necessary to be done and then in Laws not to appear and not to be being equivolent Lex saith Gabriel Biel in 3. dist 37. q. vinc art 1. Est signum notificati nam quia nulla Lex obligat si notificata non fuerit therefore upon this Foundation this was our Architecture viz. What was not recorded to be done at the first Institution it is not necessary to doe in the following Dispensations this being a conclusion resulting from the former principles so as then to ask how we know that Christ did not examine his Disciples is virtually and in effect to demand how we know that all which Christ ordained as necessary to be done is recorded in Scripture and so to put us to prove the perfection of Divine Writ but they say the Evangelists tell
pertinac tom 2. p. 142. contra lit Petil. tom 9. p. 26. contra Crescon l. 3. c. 36. they suffer that for the good of truth which they hate for the good of equity saith Augustine And again Quaerendum est quis habeat charitatem invenies non esse nisi c. It is to be inquired who have charity and you shall finde none but those that love unity some likewise shall say In thy Name we have eaten and drunk and shall hear I know you not which eat his Body and drink his Bloud in the Sacrament and acknowledg not in the Gospel his members diffused through the whole world with whom therefore they shall not be reckoned in the day of judgment And in another place the Apostle saying Be not partaker of other mens sins Keep thy self chaste to shew saith he in what sort a man might communicate with other mens sins he adds Keep thy self chaste for he that keeps himself chaste communicates not with other mens fins although he communicate not their sins but the Sacraments of Christ which they receive to their judgment with them from whom he hath severed himself by keeping himself chaste There may be a common concourse to the material part of an act without concurrence in the formal neither can a Physical concurrence make partakers in a moral act there can be no such transite from one kinde of action to another both People and Minister concurre to the receiving not the unworthy receiving if thereof they are no causes to the act not to the ataxy or sinfulness thereof they cooperate not in the evil but permit it Contra epist Parmen tom 7. p. 11. as that which morally they cannot remedy Quod non placet non nocet qui seipsum custodit non communicat alienis peccatis saith St. Augustine for if in evil actions any man consents not to them the evil doer bears his own cause and his person saith he prejudiceth not another whom in consenting to an evil deed he had not his partner in the crime What is said of him that is born of God Non facit peccatum quia patitur potiùs is in some sort appliable to this purpose the People and the same may be said of the Pastor are physically active morally passive and neither give nor partake of the Sacrament to and with one unworthy but one that is undivided from the visible Church the notes whereof must agree to it as Proprium quarto modo omni soli semper whence if the Word and Sacraments are those notes as our Divines assert though Non quoad essentiam ejus internam certò necessariò declarandam tamem ad visibilem aliquem coetum designandum qui est Ecclesia particularis ex instituto Christi formata as learned Ames All then that are actually of the visible Church may challenge a right unto a free enjoyment of these Sacraments to the one by being born of Christian Parents to the other by being baptized and having a dogmatical faith which every intelligent person is presumed to have else there may be a part of the visible Church not authoritatively or judicially sequestred from the communion thereof which are not in a capacity of obtaining that which denotes the Church At no time can the Church pretend to or hope for perfection of degrees rarely to that of parts Jacob's Ladder had several degrees in it and all were not of one height or rising perplexed and complicated are those two Cities saith St. Augustine in this world and mix'd one with the other untill they are separated in the last judgment Exhortatio ad conc Eul. ep tom 2. p. 147. the Church being no homogeneous body constituted of singular parts The Floor hath in it Wheat and Chaff the Field Corn and Tares the Net good fish and bad and it is observable that at the Nuptial Banquet was one found without a Wedding-garment With those and other similitudes saith Augustine the Lord confirmeth the forbearance of his servants lest while good men may think themselves blamed for commixture with evil by humane and rash dissensions they destroy the little ones Contra Crescon l. 3. c. 35. or the little ones perish I keep the Church saith the same Father full both of wheat and Chaff I amend whom I can I tolerate whom I cannot I fly the Chaff lest I become the same thing but not the Floor lest I be nothing Let no man therefore saith he desert the Floor before his time Contra ep Parmen tom 1. p. 11. let him tolerate the Chaff in threshing suffer it in the Floor for he shall not have any thing to bear within the Barn he will come that hath his Fan and divide the good from the bad To forsake the assemblies because of the mixture and communion of hypocrites and evil men seems to be a kinde of negative Schism or Separation and a positive to gather and constitute a new Church and I would willingly know if it be not the renewing of the old Heresies and Schisms of Donatus Lucifer Contra Faust Manich. tom 6. p. 60. Novatus and Audim Whether it make not the Church of the called to be of no greater latitude than that of the Elect whereas many are called but few are chosen Cum paucis haereditatem Dei cum multis signacula ejus participanda saith Augustine and whether in time by degrees this singularity may not antiquate the Sacrament and make the use thereof wholly obsolete and bring men to be Seekers and like the Phenix In 1 ad Cor. c. 11. v. 26. p. 430. one alone in the kinde of their devotions and to that humour of the Swenckfeldian in Musculus that would never communicate because he could not in his judgment finde any Church sufficiently adorned to make a fit Spouse for Christ And as the better qualified people may not withdraw themselves from the Communion upon pretence of mixt Congregations and fear of prejudice by them so neither upon the like score may the Minister withhold the Sacrament from them or intermit the Administration thereof for can it be thought rational that the holy desire of a competent number should be unsatisfied because the greater part are not equally prepared and so well disposed to joyn with them Is not this to eradicate the Corn for the Tares sake whereas rather both should be suffered to grow together untill Harvest It was a Principle of wise Cato's It is better many receive Silver than a few Gold and can it be held just that none should have Silver because all cannot receive Gold or because the Leven cannot be throughly purged that therefore the Children must eat no Bread or because the Hedg of Discipline cannot be effecutally planted that the Field of the Church must ly altogether unmanured and must the Wheat receive no nourishment because the Tares stand in the same Field Shall a certain essential duty be neglected for an uncertain accidental evil
to touch it here tanquam canis ad Nilum and go on Lastly not only when a man cries guilty and sayes he will amend yet untill he gives himself the lye by a relapse practically to judge him a wicked man because his conversion cannot be sudden as they declare their judgement in the subsequent Section I fear is a judging of the heart but when men are harmlesse and blamelesse and yet are denied to be the sons of God and being allowed onely the title of Morall men cannot be afforded the attribute of Godly I think this is not onely a judging of the heart but the very dreggs of temerarious judgement for whereas Augustine thinks that the prohibition of judging Matth 7.1 De serm Dom. in monte l. 2. p. 258. tom 4. doth first forbid to reprehend that which it is uncertain with what mind it is done and charity as Bernard saith should excuse the intention when it cannot the action this contrariously is to condemne the intention when the action cannot be reproved And why onely Morall men do they perform the duties onely of the second Table and make no conscience of the first The love of our brethren is the ordinary Diagnostick signe of our love toward God yet because the rule rather holdeth negatively than affirmatively to disprove that love to God to be unfeigned which is not verefied by our love to our neighbour rather than to prove that he truly loves God who performs externall acts of love to his brother with an affection of humanity unlesse it be also understood of true Christian Charity whereof though our neighbour be the Materiall object Estius in 3. Sent. Dist 27 Sect. 5. p. 29. yet God is the formall and so since in all that are so loved there is one reason and respect of loving viz. God as the chiefest good who as such is loved above all and to whom other things loved being considered in that respect and for such reason are referred therefore it is one and the same love according to the habit whereby we love God and our neighbour Vnus amor duplex objectum thence it is evident that since nothing can separate from it self the love of God and our neighbour cannot be separate one from the other but because thus to understand the love of our neighbour were to begge the question this being the thing controverted therefore let them then be arraigned for the wilfull neglect and breach of the Commandements of the first table though the observation of the first is in most of the particulars not to be discerned by intuitive but abstractive knowledge where the conformity of our actions to other the precepts is the medium to prove it if there appeare no evidence to convict them then they must necessarily suppose that their outward actions flow not from a principle of grace as their efficient nor are directed to Gods glory as their finall cause which since none can see but he to whom the heart is transparent pervious do they not by thus judging the root when they cannot blemish the fruit not onely forestall the judgement of God but usurp his peculiar throne and are guilty of laese Majesty to intrench upon his royall prerogative But as it was said by Erasmus of the times about the Nicaene Councell Ingeniosa res est esse Christianum so it seems it is now a fashionable thing to be a Christian as he that weares rich stuff yet if his clothes be not also of the fashion he seems ridiculous so if men trim or suit not their religion according to the mode though the fashion is very changeable yet however like the new Moon they may shine toward heaven yet the earth looks upon them as without light but I doe seriously with that since most men love to be in fashion there be none that took up religion as a complement in conformity rather than conâ—cience looking losser quâ— eundum est quam quò itur and were not like some Boats on the Danew that can onely row with the current and as the full-bellied Oâ—â—er that alone doth swim with the stream like Mercury whose influences are onely borrowed from those greater planets he is in conjunction with and like the inferior Orbs are carried about by force of the superior and onely dance to the tune and keep time according to the musick which the Speares make above For the greatnesse of thy power shall the people lye unto thee so Junius Piscator and the Vulgar read Psal 66.3 and so the Greeke Fathers expound it But though we have sufficiently disputed and evinced it against the Papists that the keyes were not given to Peter alone but in him to the whole Church yet some men will nevertheless seise and appropriate them to themselves as if no other but those they hold in their hand would set open the gates of Heaven where is no going in unless in such and such a party nor admission but under such or such a notion and as the Statute of 11 H 7. appoints that the Standard of weights and measures shalt he kept in some certain Towns onely so also it were constituted that no weights or measures of the Sanctuary or rather Sanctity could be allowed unless sealed and afficred according to the Standard of such a Town or such persons hoc sanctum est si ip e velit non aliter quos volumus sancti sunt and perchance as the Carthusian said to Comines of Galeazo Nos in hac terra solemus omnes appellare sanctos qui bone faciunt nobis if to other gists he add not this to have one of some sort of men that erit sibi magnus Apollo from whose Tripos he shall fetch his Oracles and to whose Altar he bring his offering tam bona cervix simul ac jussero demetur as Caligula was used to say But howsoever some are not forward to purchase credit with them at the price of their consciences by concurring in a separation for nihil charius emitur quam quod conscientia emitur quae dum integra est facile consolatur famae egestatem nevertheless let them judge as they list this is the source of others comfort De Pastor c. 7. that as their hearts are not mens Senate as Chrysostom speaks and therefore they should not judge them so since oportet nos omnes exhiberi ante tribunal Christi non te timeo non enim potes evertere tribunal Christi constituere tribunal Donati as Augustine pathetically and elsewhere homo sum de area Christi palea si malus Cont. lit Petil. l. 3 c. 12. granum si bonus non est hujus areae ventilabrum lingua Petiliani quicquid autem in ipsa frumenta maledictorum calumniarumque jactaverit fides eorum exercetur in terris merces augetur in c lis Augustine they say makes it pride to contemne discipline and we assent to it so it be a discipline that doth not bring
so much for they could not then be galled though Diotrephes were clapt on their backs if he were onely a Presbyter and not proud rigid or imperious for here is no St. Iohn that they can despise or exalt themselves above they must needs be clear of all suspicion of that now But Whitaker expresly saith he exercised tyranny the Centurists impute to him an abuse of the power of the keyes and we need fetch no reflected beams Contro 4. q. 5. tom 2. p. 685. Centur. 1. l. 2. c. 4. p. 116. the text directly yeilds this light that he was inhospitable he receaves not the brethren Imperious forbidding them that would using the keyes to open a way to his own designes and shutting out those that oppose them casting them out of the Church Exemplum excommunicationis injustae saith Aquinas But the glâ—sse explains the manner Ejicit non de consortio fidelium sed de loco in quo conveniunt but Tirinus supposeth tum de loco et coetu Neque suscipit vel in hospitium vel ad Euchâ—ristiâ— distributtonem and such also as would in that way receave them and permit them to receave the Sacrament he did eject also De coetu et congregatione fidelium saith he Diotrephes would not admit such into association all which look with an ugly aspect upon some paralel courses And Aretius hence gravely observes Proprium est primatûs alios aspernari nec aliud quà m sui pectoris judica admirari et magnifacere reliquos facilè damnare et ut ineptos exsibilare meminerint igitur ornamenta quoque ecclesiae qualis est disciplina et ipsa sacramenta etiam ab impiis saepe rapi ad suerâ—m affectuum patrocinium et muniendam tyrannidem This was the dirâ— wherâ—â—ith the Apostle shewes the face of Diotrephes to be defiled whereof if the Apologists can no better clear themselves than they have purged him they will haerere hec luto To lord it over Gods heritage is in their sence to go beyond ministerial power and infringo the liberties and priviledges of the Sairts And if we shall receave this description it will serve as a weapon though as they have pointed it it is somewhat a blunt one wherewith to sight against them and wounds made by a blunt weapon are worse than those which are caused by an acute one Not to controvert here whether there be any such ministerial power to keep off from the Sacrament these who are not cast out of the Church but continue members thereof nevertheless that which falls within ministerial power for the kind may be an excess in respect of the number condition of the objects whereupon and the manner how and the meritorious and finall causes for which it is exercised First they constrain to come under examination not onely such as might justly be suspected to be ignorant but all indiseretely even those which are in every mans and in their own judgement elevated above any such suspition which therefore cannot be intended to prepare them for the Sacrament but rather for subjection and onely to render them as Tiberius said of the Senate Homines ad servitu em paratos and to make a tryall and take an essay and earnest of their obedience and to receave their homage and fealty for the Sacrament which they must hold of this Seigniory or Lordâ—â—ip of theirs and cannot be allowed to sue forth their livery or Oâ—â—stre le mane till they have acknowledged upon examination what they hold in Capite Secâ—ndly they exclude not those onely which have first shut out themselves as Augustine speaks by the scandall of nefarious crimes evident in the fact or confessed or judicially evicted hitherto they should come and no further and here ought their waves to be staid we might then know with what banks to bound their power and where to keep a secure station that the water floods might not overflow us quid potest esse foelicius quà m homines de solis legibus confidere et casus reliquos non timere saith Cassiodore The saying is good if Shimei dwell in Jerusalem and go not forth any whither let him live but if he will be straying to Gath among the Philistines let him surely die If as it well appears and is legible in the draught and copy of Presbytery the Communion be as Chatter Land and Boock Land which we hold as granted for a certain estate under express covenants and conditions we know our term and interest we cannot lose or forfeit our Tenement if wilfully we break not our covenant nor fail of the condition When men are cast out for scandall they are convinced of all they are judged of all every one even the parties themselves being left without excuse sense the cause to be just while the merit is manifest but they reject in a general notion of being unfit and unworthy and that unfitness and unworthiness is determined or limitted by no Canon but their will or opinion and the Lawes as Wat. Tyler said those of England should do come out of their mouth that not onely horned beasts must be driuen from the wood but every one which the Lyon shall say hath an horn and when there is no Law for what they do yet in analogy to what the Persian Magi told Cambyses concerning their Kings they have a Law that they may do what they list and that Themis must sit as near and as constantly by them as Anâ—xarchus told Alexander that it did by Iupiter the pattern of Kings to shew that whatsoever they decree is just so as this can tend onely to make all men Villanos sockâ—nannos as Bracton speaks or as it was of old in Ireland one Freeholder in a Country and the rest his vassalls and to make all fall prostrate before their rods and axes for every one that will not loose the fruit of the Sacrament must comply with the Dragon that watcheth guards the Hesperides and he that will not forfeit his reputation must sell his liberty to purchase their favour whereon his credit dependeth not only espouse all their opinions but by all manner of compliances strive to merit their good opinion which is his title to the Sacrament and therefore he may not dare do any thing but by their conduct lest offending these Censors he be motus tribu and put in Ceritum tabulas ignominiae causâ and he made aerarius pendere aera sit to pay tithes or duties not to partake of the priviledges and therefore must surrender up his will and intellects to adopt theirs and have no affections or actions but such as are borrowed with like superstition to that of Zene his Schollers who as Athenaeus tells us thought that the broth could not be good that was not made after Zeno's direction whose use also was to prescribe to the twelfth part of a Coriander seed Thirdly they shut out not some few onely that may be peccant but in a manner all which cannot
and that carries the worst ignominy for Simpliciter pateat vitium fortasse pusillum Quod tegitur majus creditur esse malum Whether those are endearments and Charientismes likely to charm and winne upon their affections Ignosci aliquatenus iguorantiae potest contemptus veniam nou meretur whether this be not a provoking of their children to wrath graviùs contumeliam ferunt homines quam detrimentum whether this be not obloquious to themselves that they have not meliorated nor lickt them into a better shape all this while since by the law Falcidia the parents were punisht for the continued faults of their children whether this being a judgment not of men by external actions but by the hidden causes thereof and their secret intentions which cannot be evident to them by any violent signes and at most there can be oâ—ely a probable suspition that the actions spring from such a fountaine be not temerarious judgment and a judging of the heart since such a suspition is sufficient onely to spring a doubt not to support an absolute determination which must be founded onely upon manifest grounds and as long as things are but doubtful they are not manifest and the most rational doubts are to be interpreted in the better part as hath been formerly demonstrated and then whether the Apologists have just cause to complaine of or can have hope to be condoled for the hard thoughts and untempered words which thâ—y say they suffer from others since Judicium si quis quae fecit perferat aequum est as Vespasan thought it punishable Senatoribus maledici but not regardable remaledici of all these if the Apologists will not consider others will take notice What they diaper their margin with out of Mr. Baxter of the desperate opposing and villfying and scurrilous railing at desired discipline is but as Urias his letters in the sacred story or Bellerophons in the prophane which are destructive to themselves for their dear brethren and such as are germane to them in principles are most engaged in that guilt which in that place is most reflected on who have endeavoured to make that Oath of union according as they have called it an old Almanack fitted to the interest of State or impiously as Cusanus saith the Scriptures are fitted to the time and practice of the Church so that one time according to the current the they are expounded one way and when that rite of the Church changeth then the sense is changed They conclude the Section with intimation of fear to suffer in their estates aswel as their names and quiet for adhering to those principles and proceeding in this way As they have not hitherto felt any detriment so we cannot see any imminent danger thereof but whether the pluralities of a Church and a Congregation which springs an income aswel of offerings as of tythes have not brought some advantage and improvement or whether a pastoral Church and a gathered Church may not countervaile two Benefices or the Semestrian visitations of some of them may not ballance the Triennial visitations of the Bishops especially since as he said of Grotius Odi sapientem qui sibi non sapit and also In steriles campos nolunt juga ferre juvenci I shall not pretend to know though I am not ignorant quantus tota rumor in urbesonat I shall onely say They accuse their people to be time-servers or observers but can they say soberly as Pope Paul the 3d. did of his son Petrus Aloysius Haec ille vitia non me commonstratore didicit for though they suspect them yet it is manifest of it selfe and very obvious that there is much Quicksilver in the composition of them and that mettal doth never endure the fire and being liquid is conformable to any mould and I hope therefore they will as did the Romans make fortunam fidei comitem and as the King of Navar profest to Beza not advance beyond the possibility of a safe retreate Hectora non nosset si faelix Troja fuisset and it is adversity can onely try what friends they will be to their way and whether they affect Alexander or the King Sure I am their undertakings are not like the Ceraunia a Jewel onely bred in a storm They suppose and publish that authority is for them or not against them but if the superiour bodies should have different aspect and influence whether they would then turn tables again or not and whether they would be like the regina aurarum quae obsistit ventis immobilÃsque contrà nititur adversantibus as Nieremberge or like the hedge Bore that having many hoses to his den doth alwaies stop that which is toward the bleate wind that would be the question and in order to some perhaps no very difficult question Contra Ep. Parmen l. 3. c. 6. Cont. lit Petil l. 2. c. 98. But whatever they would undergoe as St. Augustine to his Donatists let them take heed lest perchance Coecis vendatur reprobus lapis pro gemma pretiosa l. carnalis duritia pro spirituali patientia and that non fortiter sed pertinaciter non timetis Quoniam qui pro pace Christi omnibus terrenis caruerit deum habet qui autem pro parte Donati vel paucos nummos perdiderit cor non habet But I shall for conclusion remark that to excuse the omission of administring the Sacrament in their Churches they say it hath been supplied by holding forth Christ in the word and giving souls to eat and drink his flesh and blood in the word whence it follows that it is the same thing that is exhibited in both but in different manner All to whom Christ is offered in the word receave him not nor are qualified to do so aswell as all embrace him not 〈…〉 he is propounded in the Sacrament nor are conditioned to do it those 〈…〉 we not perfect understanding in the word yet to all them it is preacht that they may understand and believe for it is verbum practicum why then by a parity of reason should not the Sacrament be administred to those who by the word have attained an historical and dogmatical faith are intelligent of the nature use end of the Sacrament without further scrutiny whether they have a true faith seeing that true faith may be wrought by reception of that which is signum practicum why then should the one be the privilege of Saints more than the other why should it be prodigality of Christs blood in holding it forth to all in the Sacrament and not when they tender if to all in the word seeing the same blood is offered in the one and other unless this be even such another crotchet as the Papists grate our eares with who tell us that the blood of Christ represented by the cup is also exhibited with the bread which signifieth his body by a certain concomitancy but yet the Laity that partake of the bread may not for some great mysteries participate of
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