anothers Office and Place and St. John speaks of a great many of Apostates that went out from them 1 Joh. 2.19 And the Apostles frequently warn us of false brethren and Apostates of Seducers and Deceivers and of men of the very worst Characters that should yet have a form of godliness and put on the name and vizor of Christianity And the truth is as long as men are men and continue in this imperfect state we cannot expect it should be otherwise There will be Hypocrites in the Church and men that make Religion a design and receive not the truth in love but have by-ends and purposes of their own to serve and when it serves these will be ready to destroy and cause Factions in the Church and betray Religion as well as at other times to profess great kindness to it and for any thing I can see or learn from the Histories of the Church it hath been as much pester'd and troubled by unruly disorderly members as almost any other Collection or Society of men whatsoever Now to these it is plain such a power as this is absolutely necessary and it is not possible to keep them in order without it Men that act not by Conscience and a sense of duty and whom the arguments of the Gospel and the sense of immortality will not hold nothing but the rod and external correction can take hold of And therefore the Church must either have power to punish them and inflict such severities upon them as they regard and can be restrained by or else it must be left defenceless and unregarded exposed to all their malice and without any remedy against those mischiefs that Faction and unruliness always produce i. e. it may at any time be in the power of her wicked members to work her ruine and disorder and she be wholly destitute of any remedy to help her self against them Which if any man can believe to be according to the mind and constitution of Christ he must at the same time believe that Christ founded his Church in vain or out of the greatest malice to her in exposing her certainly to the assaults and injuries of her wicked and rotten members without any ordinary means of defence against them 2. Or secondly if it would be sufficient to argue from those precepts and charges that are in the Apostolical writings yea in the Gospel it self given to the Governours of the Church in general of feeding the flock of keeping out those ravenous and greedy wolves that would strive to break in upon it of watching over it of silencing gain-sayers of stopping the mouth of those that taught any other Doctrine of convincing gain-sayers of sharply rebuking the disorderly and unruly c. many of which are written in almost all the Epistles I say if we might argue from them we might infer not only the lawfulness but sometimes the expediency and necessity of this power for otherwise the members of the Church were commanded to do that which were impossible to be done and forbid the exercise of that power which was absolutely necessary to the doing of that which they had an express charge to see to the doing of which were something worse and more tyrannical in their Master than Pharaoh's exacting brick of the Israelites of old without allowing them straw to burn them with These Considerations and these Arguments from them might be enough to issue this question and to convince all men that act by Reason and upon the principles of it But to others plain matter of fact will be more affecting and those that call upon us so loudly to produce any example of this under the Gospel will be more satisfied by shewing them plain precedents of that which we are pleading for or express places of Scripture to warrant the same And first for a place of Scripture to warrant this upon I think that of our Saviour Matth. 18.17 sufficient where he directs us as the last remedy against a Brother that injures us to tell the Fact to the Church Which though I confess it may intend only his higher conviction and shame and a more probable way of inducing him fairly to repair the wrong yet I doubt not but it means more and is in effect an appealing to a higher Tribunal whose commands should he so disregard as to cause them to pass censure upon him afterwards he should be reputed a Heathen and a Publican forfeit all that respect and charity that he might otherwise expect and claim from us And this interpretation I am the more confirmed in because I find the same thing injoyned to an Excommunicated person 1 Cor. 5.9 and 2 Thes 3.14 And that this was our Saviours meaning may be strongly concluded from the consonant directions of his Apostles who injoyn the exercise of such a power in cases of Scandal and great Offences as is plain in St. Pauls command to the Corinthians in the case of the Incestuous person 1 Cor. 5.3 4 5. For I verily have judged already concerning him that hath done this thing in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ i. e. that power which he hath given me to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh c. And this power he would have exercised also not only against that single person but equally against any other that is an incorrigible Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Rayler or a Drunkard or an Extortioner 1 Cor. 5.11 And much what the same to this he recommends to the Thessalonians to be done to those that walk disorderly as was just now hinted and did not obey the directions of the Apostle to them 2 Thes 3.6.11.14 And consonant directions he gives to Titus Cap. 1.11 and particularly concerning a Heretick Cap. 3.10 A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject i. e. Excommunicate And that the Apostles did themselves act according to this rule when occasion was you have clear instances in St. Peters censure upon Ananias and Sapphira Acts 5.5.10 which example became of most excellent effect saith St. Luke to restrain all men from any the like sins v. 11. Great fear came upon all the Church and upon as many as heard these things who plainly perceived that the Apostles had a power to correct and punish them if they did amiss The like you read done by St. Paul against the Incestuous Corinthian the case but now mentioned 1 Cor. 5.6 and also against Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.20 whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme And I think few things can be plainlier spoken of than this power is in several places in his Epistles to the Corinthians particularly in these that follow 1 Cor. 4. ult What will ye shall I come unto you with a rod or in love and in the spirit of meekness where by the Rod
Grotius and others understand the power of inflicting death as upon Ananias blindness as upon Elymas the Sorcerer or other diseases making the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie punishment and corporal inflictions for so saith he God then supplied the defect of that which Civil Magistrates ought to do against obstinate offenders and which was not done then because the Government was not become Christian 2 Cor. 10.6 Having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience and 2 Cor. 13.10 Therefore I write these things being absent lest being present I should use sharpness according to the power which the Lord hath given to me i. e. that power of punishing obstinate offenders with diseases and corporal punishments as the same Grotius and others with him expound it So that if either plain directions for the exercise of such a power or instances of the actual execution of it will convince men of the lawfulness of it we shall not hear it any more questioned And it is so well known that the Primitive Church thought these so good and full warrant for their doing the like that it was commonly in all such cases exercised then against notorious and scandalous offenders and continued since in every age of it even unto this day And some Councels have expresly ordered it against the wilful neglect and contempt nay the disuse of the Lords Supper in particular which gives us a plain example and president of it in that very particular case of ours which we are now speaking of This I think is enough upon the first thing proposed and sufficient to convince all that the Gospel doth not allow every man in Christian Religion to act as he list and to be under no rule but his own pleasure but that it requires men to be subject to the Constitutions of the Church and hath vested it with a power to compel men to observe the Institutions of Christianity when the arguments thereof will not perswade them thereunto But this is the lesser part of my undertaking for I believe few when they consider better will deny me this for all sides allow it and all sorts practise accordingly upon their own members There is not the wildest and most confused Sect among them that have come to any head no not the Quakers but will exercise a power over their own members and use rigor and constraint where gentle means will not do And therefore cannot quarrel with the exercise of Excommunication without condemning themselves as well as taxing the plain directions and warrant of the Gospel 2. I have observed therefore as an addition to this Consideration and a full Answer to the Objection that these penalties were not purely Spiritual but did reach to the persons and external interests of men both which did suffer as much or more than they do now and if I can make this good I suppose the Objection can desire no more in order to its full answer and satisfaction To this therefore I shall now address my self and in order thereto I shall do these two things 1. I shall consider some punishments inflicted in the Gospel which were not only Spiritual but did reach the body yea the very life and all other external interests of men 2. I shall consider the nature of Excommunication in the time of the Apostles and endeavour to prove that it was always attended with external corporal punishments in those times 1. To begin with the first there is mention in the New Testament of punishments inflicted by the Apostles upon offenders that were not only Spiritual Of this there is a most remarkable instance Acts 5. the full story and all the circumstances of it are related from v. 1. to 12. The sum of the case was this Ananias and Sapphira his wife sold an Estate and pretended to bring the price of it into the common Fiscus and Bank to be imployed for the use of the whole body of Christians as the manner then was but it seems kept back part for their own private use Some men perhaps in this age would be apt to think that it was no such great crime and certainly it had not had they dealt sincerely in the case and not dissembled and cloaked it with a peremptory lye without which such an act of Charity now would be thought so far from deserving a censure that it would procure men the highest character for Religion and insert their names into the golden Dypticks of the Church Yet notwithstanding this St. Peter not only censures them highly for this but punisheth them with death And that you may be sure this was not Gods own immediate infliction only besides the intention and thought of St. Peter you may see him threatning it immediately to Sapphira v. 9. The feet of them that carried out thy Husband shall carry thee out also upon which straightway she falls down dead This was a startling instance indeed to let men see what a dangerous thing it was to violate the institutions of Christianity and to act contrary to the practices of the Church for this failure bating the hypocrisie and lye was but in such a thing and accordingly it did greatly affect men and cause great fear to come upon all the Church as you are told v. 11. Another instance something like this you meet with 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are work and sickly among you and many sleep i.e. because of your profaning and contemning the Lords Supper many of you suffer punishments and weaknesses in your body and have diseases inflicted upon you and some actually dye This is the more considerable and ought to be the more affecting at present I because it is in the very instance and for that particular fault which our present Question is about and for which men pretend it to be contrary to the Gospel to be punished and that is in the neglect of the holy Sacrament which certainly is every way as unchristian as the profanation of it it being rather worse to neglect and disregard wholly an institution of Christianity than to fail only in the way of performing it I do not understand why it should render this instance the less convictive to reply that we do not read that these punishments were inflicted by the Apostle but immediately by God himself for howsoever that were yet 1. It lets us see that such sailures did deserve all these punishments by whomsoever they were inflicted unless we dare say that God causelesly and unjustly afflicts the Sons of men 2. It lets us understand that thâ—â— Apostle also was privy to the design of this providence acquainted with the reasons of it and so in some kind of sense of counsel with God in it 3. And thirdly it is plain he useth it as an argument to deter them from such things for the future which had been very precarious and at randome unless he could assure them that
Fathers and particularly St. Cyprian himself had of the guilt and evil of Schism calling it almost the impardonable sin so extreamly slagitious and its guilt so transcending that nothing no not Martyrdom it self was able to expiate or atone for it They had either no hopes that the guilt of it would be forgiven or that the Schismatick could repent and be reformed and therefore did not use this last remedy but left him off as desperate 4. But yet in the fourth place it may be farther urged Why was it that afterwards this form was left off yea forbid to be used in Excommunication for so learned men have observed that this form of Excommunication grew in some Centuries into disuse yea and tell us that the Synod of Arles in France did forbid this expression of delivering over unto Satan or that of Anathema Maranatha to be used any more in Excommunication But I do not sec any thing in this observation to weaken our former notion of delivering to Satan but rather very much to confirm it for there are two accounts that may be given of this 1. That now there was no need of this nor of those direful effects that were of old to inforce Excommunication and the terror and the effect of it As I said before the powers of the world had submitted to the Scepter of Christ and the Government was become Christian Laws were made for the protection and peace of the Church and backed with sanctions of sharp punishments which would supply the want of these bussetings from Satan and effect that which they were designed for And therefore to do this now and expect such consequences from it would be to tempt God to do a Miracle without cause and to effect that by an immediate interposition of his providence which ordinary means would do without it And in the end to expose their severest censures to contempt and scorn when these effects did not follow which they threatned by them 2. They left off this in pure compassion and charity to the offender and that they might not minister the least occasion of despair and despondencie unto him The Anathema Maranatha was the severest form of their highest censures and never used but against desperate offenders whom they gave up as utterly hopeless and never received to Communion again And to have used this in Christian Excommunication would have been contradicting the very end and design of it which was the Reformation and amendment of the transgressor and shutting the door of the Church and of Heaven too for ever against him who by this means they intended only the better to fit and prepare to enter in at both And to have used the form of giving up to Satan might they were afraid sound of too much severity and perhaps render the man desperate and hopeless of ever getting out of his clutches who had always had too much power over him but now by this penal delivery to him would have much more But the first reason for this is sufficient and whether I be out in assigning this second or no it matters not This is abundantly sufficient I think to the final clearing up of what I undertook to prove That Excommunication in the Apostles times was not only a Spiritual punishment but attended frequently with corporal external punishments as severe nay more terrible than any that the Laws of this Kingdom have been pleased to back it withal I shall only add one thing farther i. e. to give a form of Excommunication used after this expression of delivering to Satan was left off to let you see how sharp and severe it was and into what evil circumstances he that suffered it was brought It is commonly taken notice of by Learned men and was inflicted by Synesius upon Andronicus the Praefect of Ptolemais and these are the words done into English Let no Temple be open to Andronicus and his followers Let every Oratory and Sanctuary be for ever shut against them We warn all private men and all Magistrates that they sit not at the same Table that they come not into the same house with them and that they shun all company or converse with them as they would do infection and the Plague And all Priests especially we charge that they neither speak to them while they live nor allow them rites of Christian Burial when dead This I think was severe and sharp enough and when men consider that over and besides this the Civil Laws took notice of them and punished them perhaps instead of rayling against the severity of the Church and Government of England in this matter they may learn to acknowledge the great clemency and mercy of the same And now I come to put a period to this discourse in some short Reflections and Addresses especially to those that want information in these things 1. That men would seriously consider what a monstrous instance of degeneracy it is to need Laws and correction to force them to such a service of Christianity as the Holy Sacrament is Oh how is the true spirit of Christianity lost and how different is our temper in this from those good men that have gone before us they flocked into this service just as Doves to their windows to use the prophetical Scheme of speaking and needed no more courtship to come to this Feast than hungry men do to still their sharp and croaking appetite Some of them called this their daily bread and in the Primitive times it was almost as frequent as their daily repasts Those good Fathers of old were not put to the trouble of inviting or perswading men to come but to restrain them rather of the two Men came fast enough of their own accord and their business was to endeavour they were duely qualified and fitted to come all their work was to strike an awe and reverence into them and to heighten their sense of what they went about To which purpose there are such high and lofty things said of the mysteriousness and sacredness of this service above any others and such great pains taken to direct men in all the methods of preparation for it and inforcing the observation of those methods by suggestions of that mighty danger and guilt of unduely coming to that Ordinance Which things by the way let me tell you some guides of Souls in these later Ages of the Church I think have something unreasonably insisted upon and thereby driven people into an extream on the other hand and caused them to conclude it safer not to come at all than to incur and hazard so great a danger by coming unworthily This is a sore evil indeed and I dare not say but the imprudence or at least unseasonableness of some mens insisting so much upon these methods of the Ancient Fathers hath been contributive to it The Fathers are excellent guides to us and we may follow them but then ought to consider the reasons upon and the purposes to which they spake many