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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	church_n	reason_n	1,519	5	4.9993	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38575	A treatise of excommunication wherein 'tis fully, learnedly, and modestly demonstrated that there is no warrant ... for excommunicating any persons ... whilst they make an outward profession of the true Christian faith / written originally in Latine by ... Thomas Erastus ... about the year 1568.; Explicatio gravissimae quaestionis utrum excommunicatio. English	Erastus, Thomas, 1524-1583.	1682 (1682)	Wing E3218; ESTC R20859	61,430	96

requires no farther argument than the Confession of the Fault which scarce any man will have occasion to repeat seven times a day who hath not plaid the Hypocrite in some or all of the former six We have I think from all this evidently prov'd that Christ in this 18th Chapter of St. Matthew speaks nothing of Crimes that are to be redressed by Excommunications but of light and private Injuries and the way and means of making them up and reconciling them and therefore belongs not to the business of Excommunication If indeed we do but well weigh the close of that Chapter all doubt from hence must be at an end XLIII He that can and will needs imagine that Christ in this 18th Chapter of St. Matthew set up or instituted Excommunication ought to shew in which of the words 't is contain'd If he cannot shew it any where there comprized 't is to no purpose to say 't is there commanded But if it be there it must either be in these words v. 17. Tell it unto the Church or in these Let him be to thee as an heathen and a publican or lastly in these v. 18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. But I doubt not to prove it with most unanswerable Arguments that none of these words comprize any such matter and since it can be found in no other 't is lost labour to enquire here after it XLIV These words of Christ Tell it unto the Church prove no more than this that he who has been injur'd by his Brother and all his endeavours of reconciliation with him have been ineffectual may honestly and lawfully complain of him to the Church or to the Governours and Rulers of the Church And further that this same Church hath a right and authority to reprehend and admonish the Wrong Doer that he cease from being so But no more of power is here given to the Church than v. 17. was before given to the one or two Witnesses excepting onely in this that the Cause is not to be brought before the Church without the Witnesses Is it not therefore a weak way of reasoning to say The Church has power to admonish him that trespasses against his Brother therefore has she power to excommunicate him or to deb●● him the Sacrament But now some may perhaps urge that the Church not having a Right or Authority of punishing the guilty with Death and other corporal punishments she is necessitated to have recourse to this way of denying them the Sacrament But I answer Were the Antecedent as true as indeed from both the old Testament from the History of all Ages from what our own Eyes and Senses tell us we are assured 't is quite otherwise no such consequence could be drawn from it nor can it be ever proved that these things have any necessary coherence one with another The Church hath not the power of the Sword she can't kill and slay therefore may she must she drive from the Sacrament those who own and profess the same Religion the same saving Faith she must drive from that Sacrament that was instituted for and ought to be open and common to all that outwardly profess the same Faith XLV If yet our Adversaries think Excommunication to have been instituted in these other words Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican I utterly deny it Nether can it by any Art or Rhetorick Perswasion or Argument whatever be demonstrated whilst the world stands that this form of Speech Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican should tantamount to this Let him be excommunicate let him be kept from the Sacrament for even in the days of Christ the circumcised Publicans were they Jews or Gentiles were not prohibited the Temple Sacrifices Rites Ceremonies and Sacraments And truly Christ may seem to have joyn'd the Publican with the Heathen to prevent all thoughts and suspition of his here interdicting them such Rites and Sacraments How could the Publicans by the Jewish Law be shut out from the Temple and from worshipping God there when 't was not so much as a sin to be a Farmer or Collector of Taxes and Tribute-money nor found to be any where prohibited by God Sure 't is that Christ nowhere forbad it When the Publicans askt John what they must do to be saved he doth not bid them quit their Employments but directs them Luke 3. 13. not to exact more than that which was appointed them And Luke 19. 5. Christ doth not order Zacheus the Chief among the Publicans to lay down his Office nor finds any fault with him on account of his Employ and the Publican that Luke 18. 10. went up into the Temple to pray and return'd to his house more Justified in the judgment of Christ than the Pharisee we do not read that he left off being a Publican nor those others who Luke 7. 29. and Luke 15. 7. justified and praised God and were dear and intimate with Christ and his Apostles In short I say that the Holy Writ that is God hath not at any time or place condemn'd or any ways spoke against Publicans for their very being Publicans that is Tax-gatherers which all sober men will voluntarily grant me Upon which Concession I argue thus God in Scripture condemns not a Publican as a Publican Now whom God condemns not he cannot be excommunicated by any Law of God therefore no Publican could by the Law of God be prohibited access to the Temple or to Divine Worship I therefore make this conclusion No Publican could by the Law be condemned or excommunicated but Christ commands that he that neglects to hear that Church which he there speaks of should be to him as a Publican therefore he wills that he should be to him as a man who was not by the Law of God accursed that is not barely for his being a Publican And whereas these Excommunication-men say that the words Let him be to thee as a Publican signifie as much as if he had said Let him be to thee as a Publican is to the Pharisees 't is both absurd false and impossible for 't is in no sort credible that Christ in the same place in which he design'd to institute as our Adversaries will have it a thing of that weight and moment and so beneficial and necessary to the Church should or would make the wicked action of most profligate men the Rule and Measure for all the World to go by afterwards Besides it hath been already prov'd that no man was ever excommunicated by the Jews after the rate that we now talk of Excommunication And lastly all the words of Christ are inconsistent with this their interpretation for Christ here talks neither of nor with the Pharisees but all is betwixt him and the Disciples and the subject of the discourse is of avoiding Scandals and this is the thing that Christ says If the Wrong Doer neglect to hear the

agree that Christ spoke of a Church which was then in being I mean the Church in Judea but quickly shall we be divided again in our enquiry what Christ understood by the word Church for sometimes it is put for the whole Congregation or Multitude gathered together sometimes for the Senate Council or Elders which were its Governours Thus find we the Hebrew words to signifie a Church Company or Congregation as Num. 35. 24 25. Josh 20. 6. Psal 82. 1. and elsewhere which the Septuagint renders by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Congregation Now there are Arguments of no little weight to induce us to conclude that Christ in this passage of St. Matthew would not have us understand by the word Church the Multitude or Congregation of People but the Jewish Senate or Council called sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for first 't is evident that Christ did not innovate any thing in the forms of Judicature or Government which were administred agreeable to the Law nor did he himself or permitted his Disciples to do any thing contrary to what Moses had rightly instituted by Gods command Now Moses did ordain that such Suits and Controversies should be decided not by the Multitude but by the Senate or Sanedrim of such and such places which at first was held at the Gates of each City where the Elders sate to judge Had Christ thought of introducing any thing here contrary to the Institution of Moses his Disciples must needs have been highly moved at it who were all their lives strict observers of the Law Let every man think with himself what dust and Triumphs the Pharisees would have rais'd could they have in truth fixt so criminal an Action upon him that he in opposition to the Law of Moses had stir'd up the People against the Magistrate what fairer pretext could they have wish'd to lay Sedition to his charge than by proving upon him this attempt to set up the People against the Magistrate contrary to Gods determination to commit to them the Examination of Witnesses to give them a power to convene whom they would before them to grant them cognizance of Gauses and power of Judicature Secondly Christ commanded to tell it unto that Church which had power to send for and call before them the party accused which might hear the Cause which might examine Witnesses and therefore he commands us in the second place to take two or three that the Fact may be competently prov'd and lastly which might pronounce their Sentence and Judgement in the case But every one must know that these things could not be done by the Croud the Multitude without chusing some set persons who might manage and moderate matters It must be a very small Congregation a very handful of men who could be able of themselves without the Elders to dispatch such Causes for which reason some have rightly judg'd that this Precept of Christ could not hold well could be of little or no use but when the Church consisted of very few Members But now since that they who thus preside in these Affairs are in very truth nothing but the Senate the Sanedrim the Sessions of the Elders it again follows that Christ commanded not to tell it unto the Multitude but to the Council or Sanedrim and truly in Christ's time the People had not the power of chusing their Magistracy and Governours We must needs therefore by the word Church understand the Jewish Senate or Council as 't is plain the Disciples did from what has been already said Therefore if the meaning of the Church there be all the Members of it the People we are then to tell it unto a Church which has right and authority to make choice of such a Senate or Council as was that of the Jewish Church but our Churches have no power to chuse such a Council as the Jewish Sanedrim was nay in Christ's time the Jews themselves had not that liberty as I told you just now We might adde that when the Scripture speaks of the Multitude it generally uses the words People Multitude Children of Israel or the like comprehensive words but when any thing is related to be said or done in the Synagogues or in all the Congregation I need not tell you that this form of speech is usual at this very day for we say we have communicated the matter to such a Kingdom or State when we have acquainted onely the King Senate or Governing part of such State or Kingdom We recount how this or that Nation has rewarded a man when the Representatives onely in such a Dyet or Parliament hath been liberal-handed to them 'T is so common a thing to use phrases of this nature that 't is wonderful so few should have observ'd it But the sum of all is this Christ alter'd not the Customs of his time nor introduced any Novelties or Changes into their Courts of Judicature or Measures and Ways of Judging nor do his Disciples betray any suspition of Innovation or Alteration and therefore his Command is to acquaint the Sanedrim before their denier resort to the Heathen Magistracy XLIX Now 't is evident from Holy Writ as well as other History that the Sanedrim was the legal Magistracy of the Jewish Nation and that in Christ days they both kept and us'd the power of the Sword Many things in the Narratives of the Passion of Christ besides other Testimonials evince as much They send armed men to take Jesus they proceed in examining Witnesses as the Law requir'd at least they pretended so they command him to be set before them in Judgment they delivered him bound to Pilate after they had first publickly condemn'd him they openly condemn Stephen and command him to be stoned they seize the Apostles and put them in the common Prison they cause them to be beaten after a general Consult held about them they give Letters and authority to Paul to bring any that he found of that way bound to Jerusalem for to be punished The Jews themselves with the Elders and High Priest that is the Sanedrim say it in express terms by their Speaker Tertullus who accusing Paul before Foelix Acts 24. v. 2. adds v. 6. That they took him and would have judg'd him according to their Law but that Lysias came upon them and with great violence took him away out of their hands And Acts 23. v. 3. says Paul to the High Priest Sittest thou to judge me after the Law and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the Law And afterwards Acts 26. v. 10. Paul confesses before King Agrippa and Festus that many of the Saints he shut up in prison having received authority from the Chief Priests and when they were put to death he gave his voice against them and punished them often in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and farther persecuted them into strange Cities still acting under the authority derived from the High Priests as when he was going to Damascus