will and that they came no farther shall be their own fault and it is not his readiness to admit such nor the opening of the door of the visible Church that makes men hypocrites but their own wickedness Christ will not keep men out for fear of making them hypocrites but when the Net is drawn unto the shore the Fishes shall be seperated c. And in the precedent page he saith Their being baptized persons if at age or members of the Universal Church into which it is that they are baptized is a sufficient evidence of their interest to the Supper till they do by heresie or scandal blot this evidence and this after much doubting dispute and study of Scripture he saith he speaks as confidently as almost any truth of equal moment The way of pell-mell blinds men in their wretchedness very like blindes them with light and poysons them with the antidote just as the means is destructive to the end Light may indeed some-while a little blind some weak eys yet it is the proper means of seeing and to keep them in the dark will perpetuate their blindness not make them see better Doth it not argue blindness of understanding to think by any argument to evince that it shall either blind men in their wretchedness or impede their conversion by sealing to them an assurance that if they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ they shall be saved by his death which is the sum of the Covenant of Grace whereof the Sacraments are Seals To raise our Structure the higher and make it stand more firmly we should perchance dig the Foundation deeper and because this erroneous principle is the Fountain of those bitter Waters of strife our Marah and Meribath it might seem expedient to cast a little Salt into the Spring of those Waters to heal them A Covenant is a mutual compact or bargain between God and Man consisting of mercies on Gods part granted over to man and of conditions on mans part required by God it results from Gods antecedent and voluntary love that he entred into paction with man and performeth his absolute promise of giving Faith and perseverance to his Elect to which promise no condition is imaginable to be annexed which is not comprehended in the promise it self but to Gods Covenant of conferring other mercies which flows from his consequent love which is a natural property in God whose proper nature inclines to reward good and evil is a restipulation and condition of duty annexed Of this conditional Covenant onely the former being indeed rather a promise then a Covenant being onely Gods act without any mutual act of man the Sacraments are divine external seals and I suppose it is no such just cause as may legitimate a war whether it be more proper to say they are conditional seals of the Covenant to testifie and confirm unto us that we shall surely acquire what God hath promised if we seal back as it were our counterpart unto God and performing the condition render unto him what he requires as a conditional promise is made absolute by performance of the condition which otherwise obligeth not That the Sacraments are not Seals of the absolute Covenant nor set to without respect to the condition carries the stamp or seal of the Corporation of Protestants and those which have set their hands to any Writing against Bellarmine in that controversie of the efficacy of the Sacraments have attested this truth And some others of the Luminaries of our own Sphaere have reflected much light upon the point I therefore whose harvest cannot attain to their Gleanings shall not light my Candle in the Sun nor in the worse sense bring an Owl to Athens Tu sequere à longe et vestigia semper adora It may seem as much delirous to discourse of Military Glory after Hannibal as it was for Phormio to do it before him and a Smith may seem already to have run mad in undertaking as he of old did to have effected the amendment of an instrument of Archimedes Onely I shall say that whatever some rather odiously then ignorantly insinuate this is yet neither the language of Ashdod nor carries any stamp or holds any affinity with Semi-Pelagianisme or if you will call it so Arminianisme which is Synonymous for Arminius and Socinus have had the fortunes to have these bastard and illegitimate Doctrines put upon them which had other elder Fathers as Sextus 5. his Obelisk and Farnezi his Bull and other Monuments though formed and erected by the old Romane Emperours are now denominated from those that of late times have redeemed them from rubbish and restored their beauty but the Doctrine we hold forth hath no Analogy therewith For beside that we assert Faith to be absolutely and infallibly infused by God per modum creationis and nothing to concurre to conversion ex parte voluntatis causativè sed tantum subjectivè and ut credamus to be wrought passively in nobis sine nobis although actively ipsum credere be produced nobiscum simul tempore consentientibus et co-operantibus whereas the Arminians symbolizing with the Jesuits affirm Faith to be purely an elicit act of Free-will through a moral perswasion onely upon an object congruously proposed alliciens consensum non efficiens and Grace whose name they have antiquated as well as destroyed the Nature substituting the word help or motion in stead thereof to be a general and indifferent influxe terminable by mans good or evil free-will Besides this we are now disputing of Gods Covenant and Promise in time not of his Decree before all time If thou believe thou shalt be saved is not of the nature of a practical decree but of a promise and is onely doctrinal and enunciative neither do we as they do make Gods Decree conditional but onely the execution thereof and not the will of God to save but the salvation of man Gods eternal purpose in saving being absolute in respect of any cause or condition impulsive in the object not in regard of the means in the execution and order to the end Gods promises for their form correspond not with his purposes his promises being according to the manner of his executions but his purposes have a different method What he purposes he performs for the matter but not as he purposed for the manner he saves in the same manner that he decreed to save but in executing or saving doth not follow the same order which he did in decreeing this which is last in execution is first in intention Dr. Kend. Vndicat part 2. c. 7. and that which is performed on a condition was absolutely intended the intention was to perform it upon condition but upon no condition was it so intended We do not therefore say God intended upon condition of Faith to give Salvation but that he intended to give Salvation upon condition of Faith intending to give Faith absolutely and Salvation conditionally But the Sacraments therefore being onely Seals of
they say Hunters lay glasses for the Panther that staying to behold himself in them they may the better overtake and destroy him so he that knows that the contemplation of his own excellency with too great complacency was that which cast him down from heaven useth the same snare as most effectuall to intangle others And to despise our brethren in our eyes makes us most desplcable in the sight of God in other things we ought to imitate God but in this he imitates us in this respect is made in the likeness of Men. Facilius parcit his qui in ipsum offendunt quà m qui in proximum saith Chrysostome Lines the neerer they approach the center come the neerer to each other and they are at greatest distance from God who are farthest off from each other in pride and uncharitableness But neither is the beam so upright between tenderness of conscience and love of holiness and an over-weening conceit of purenesse or betwixt humility and wariness in society in Gods ordinance as that a cast of charity may turn the scale to to the better part Conscience saith Aquinas is the order or application of our Science to somewhat or it being to be taken intransitively our science or knowledge applied to particular acts but truly we have yet seen no scientificall demonstrations for this way which may beget such a firm and certain assent to the goodness or truth thereof ex mero motu it may be but not ex certa scientia and what principle soever it be that directs our actions in good or evill if it have not the force of some law justly obligatory whereof it is but the cryer or proclaimer it is not conscience but fancy it may be which is an irrationall animall conscience fancy in bruit creatures being as Aristotle tells us that which supplies the place of reason or humor it may be and then according to the Hebrew proverb behold it is Leah or consonantly to the Greek it is to court the maid in stead of Penelope or passion it may be and that is as in an Aegyptian Temple a beast instead of a Deity We doubt if that be true which they say That in Peru is a plant called Drakena whose root is alexi-pharmacous and the leaves venemous but it is impossible that so sweet a root as conscience and love of holiness should give spring to so bitter and intoxicating a fruit as Separation True morall vertue and the grace of holiness have onely some formall difference and a right Conscience is neer allied to both and vertue to which the Synteresis Quae est notitia principiorum moralium Lessius de justit jure l. 3. c. 1. dub 3. Sect. 20. Malderus in 1 2. q. 55. dub 2. memb 3. p. 182 1. 2 disp 5 q. 1 punct 2 p. 405. Vasquez in 1.2 disp 84 c. 2. Sect. 12. p 579 praescribet fines so as vertue considered according to her essence supposeth no other dictamen of Prudence than that of the Synteresis is that quâ nemo tanquam principio malè utitur and if an act be thought good which indeed is evill vertue concurres not to that act because being materially evil it remains also formally evil in that case neither can prudence dictate it to be done because that is not circumspectly enough judged to be good whose evill may be deprehended by a just indagation for vertue tends to no act but prudently and formally it ought to be good that it may be within the latitude of the object of vertue As in naturall things saith Valentia we animadvert that the cause produceth no effect but such as is indued with the persection thereof so vertue which is sometime defined to be dispositio perfecti ad optimum can be productive of nothing either formally or materially which bears not its image in perfection And Vasquez observes that vertue can never be a principle of an evill operation because it is an habit of doing things promptly and delectably but when a man doth an evill thing ignorantly supposing it to be good since no vincible ignorance can be with ful inconsideration but it must needs be attended with some doubting of the lesse safer part wherein is sin in this respect that such a dubitation emerging yet nevertheless he judgeth that not to be sin which he ought so to judge and so the affection is retarded and prosecutes not its object promptly and defectably De bapt contra Donatist l. 1. c. 13. epist 162. But then Separation is such an evill that Augustine can scarce finde colours black enough to paint it out suitably Separationis immanissimum scelus and again levati altaris horrendo scelere maculati and more prepter ipsam separationis sacrilegam iniquitatem innocentes esse non possunt And he rather assures us Contra ep Parmen l. 1. c. 4. that origo pertinaciae scismatis nulla sit alia nisi odium fraternum And however they may blanch it yet in the very notion of gathering a Church out of another is a separation implied from those whom they gather not De bapt contra Donat l. 1. c. 11. as Divines argue that even in the decree of electing some there is included the negative reprobation of others Besides to say that their rejecting of so many from the communion results from the love of holiness insinuates that to communicate with them will not suit with but pollute or blemish their holiness And this is the very spirits and extract of the Pharisee which they therfore hugg closer to them while they seem to thrust him off and are like Ovid who when he said he would make no more verses made one in saying so It cannot spring from wariness of their society in Gods ordinances for then they would be as cautious of their company in other ordinances since as we have elswere argued Quod dicitur per se dicitur de omni They admit those men to fellowship in other ordinances whom they separate from in this of the Sacrament nay to a communion in the other Sacrament And to say it may flow from humility though they give it forth without the least colour of reason which yet had been very necessary to perswade us that the course and stream of that vertue should be upwards which was not wont to come down to the lower grounds St. Augustine will stop or turn that current as well as the other of holiness by saying Qui si verè justi essent Contra Epist Parmen l. 3. c. 4. tom 7. p. 15 Filiucius Cas Tract 21. c. 4. Sect. 124. Vasques 1.2 tom 1. disp 60. q. 19. c. 3 p. 421. humiles essent si autem humiles essent etiam si verè malos in su evicinitat is congregatione paterentur quos ab unitate Christi expellere non valerent charitate Christi tolerare diligerent From an erroneous conscience probably it may proceed and such a conscience the impurest and most
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
no patterne to us as they say he was for I hope we may exclude none causelessly but then let them also exclude none but such as they have visible cause to repell and not require such a visible cause as plaine Evidence of their conversion before they admit Advers Anabapt lib. 6. c. 9. p. 230. The Apostles thought wel of him without any suspicion Bullinger is peremptory Judae malefacta in mensa commemoravit adeò aptè ut nihil clarius dici potuerit but if they knew not in individuo signato who it was they did in individuo vago and that one was not clean and was a Traytor and Divell and yet they were not startled nor scrupled to communicate all together and therefore sure had no impressions that to participate with such was a pollution to themselves or the Ordinances or any prostituting of the privileges of the Saints or setting of the seale to blancks c. Besides seeing some of these sad effects depend upon the nature of the thing viz. the very sumption of the Sacrament by wicked men more than our knowing them to be wicked and to receive these mischiefs would have resulted though they were ignorant of the rise thereof Balls Tryal grounds of sâ—paration p. 198. and the Ordinance seems to be polluted though they were not but therefore it seems from hence to be a necessary consequent that the simple presence of unworthy or wicked men defiles not for then our Saviour had spoken a contradiction when he said Ye are clean but not all John 13.10 because if one had been unclean all had been defiled No neither our knowledge of their unworthiness and wickedness for then Judas had stained the Ordinance to Christ himself nay the notorious knowledge thereof doth not pollute where there is no power through non-establishment or obstruction of discipline nor opportunity when at the time of communicating there cannot so suddenly be admonition or judicial process had nor conveniency through danger of Schisme to repell nor leave from Christ to separate Judas was knowa to Christ as God and he dealt Ministerially as man First it is not absolutely and universally true that Christ in this Ordinance dealt as man but rather as Mediator God and Man for none but God could institute a Sacrament whose blessing onely can conferre the grace which is signified and sanctifie and virtuate the Signs and Elements into an aptness to those ends whereunto they were instituted and none but Man could have administred them besides if he knew Judas his treason as God yet notwithstanding he made it known to men And 2. it is not pertinent to dispute of the Principles of his knowledge or formally how he knew it it is sufficient that he had knowledge thereof and might have made it known to the Disciples and told them thereof and in all likelyhood would have done it had his partaking with them been so mischeevous and the Apologists confess nay contend for it that he made this discovery before the Institution and whether they understood at the time of celebration of whom he spake particularly or not is very disputable among learned Men So then if none but Saints ought to have been admitted how could our Saviour have given admission to one whom he had publish'd to be a Divel Judas non possit illis annumerari Advers Anabapt l. 6. c. 9. p. 230. saith Bullinger quorum peccata levia occulta sunt praeterea Johannes ante coenam eum manifestum furem fuisse scribit Joh. 12. and he cites Augustine saying Dominum cùm haec sciret nihilominus ipsum in coena tolerasse ut nos doceret exemplum nobis praeberet malos tolerandos esse eósque etiam si coenae intersint bonos tamen non polluere and if herein Christ dealt ministerially then he was a pattern to Ministers how to comport themselves in like cases which is not to repel those who by a notorious knowledge appeare not to be wicked however privately they may be known to him for such 3. The sinne of Ananias and Saphira was in secret and not known to Peter but by Divine revelation yet the first in every kind being the measure of that which follows that we might take notice of the greatness of the sinnes of lying avarice hypocrisy and sacrilege Ut incuteretur metus firmaretur disciplina illo exordâ—o legis Evangelicae say the Fathers Peter made known his sinne and that by a signal judgement and upon the like account of reason if it were so necessary to repell all but real Saints from the Sacrament doubtless as the Greeks call punishments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 examples our Saviour by such a Standard of example as the punishing of Iudas by express casting him out would have measured out and established that discipline in his Church 4. I think they would say or at least it were better said wherein we shall consent with them that Christ rejected not Iudas because he knew his wickedness onely as it were per scientiam privatam he did not know it nor could then give the Disciples knowledge thereof per scientiam publicam notoriam that is neither by evidence of fact Aquin. 3. q. 81. art 2. Similiter Suarez ubi supra confession or judicial conviction and quia nobis debuit esse exemplum justitiae non conveniebat ejus magisterio ut Judam occultum peccatorem sine accusatore evidenti probatione ab aliorum communione separet ne per hoc daretur exemplum Praelatis ecclesiae similia faciendi as the School long since determined If they would suite their practice to this method and regulate it by this principle as it is evident they doe not nor dare they say they doe I had never set forth to charge them and should soon sound a retreat and as they say Christ was a pattern to us who are to admit visible Disciples not being able to descend into their hearts so correspondently would they worke according to this pattern and give admission to all that profess to be Christians for Christians and Disciples are univocal and which by notorious crimes obstinatly continued in doe not blot their profession and not make the Sacrament which Bullinger so much disresents and whereunto he saith it was never instituted by Christ Ut sit ventilabrum aut cribrum Epist Petr. Datheno quo cribrentur aut dispergantur ab invicem homines sed synaxin i. e. coagmentationem societatem communionem con junctionem would they doe this I shall compescere limina Jani The not condemning of the adulterous woman by our Saviour Iesus Iohn 8. is not paralell but hath great disparity with his not repelling Iudas unless we shall thinke it all one not to doe a thing when it is proper to his office and when it is not agreeable thereunto In discharge of the woman he dealt not so much like a man calling for her accusers and when none came dismissing
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
repentance as to give over the using all probable means that may reclaim him as Hammond paraphraseth therfore Ames upon this sole ground that charity thinketh no evil layeth the foundation of that conclusion that doubtfull things concerning persons are to be interpreted in the better part and Rivet inferres that evil suspitions though they break not out into full judgement are condemned by the Law because charity which is the end of the Law is not suspitious as appears 1 Cor. 13.5 and how then can it suite with this eulogy of charity or be conformable to this character to suppose and believe the worst of so many rather than to hope the best and to have them in suspition when of all doubtless it cannot be a violent suspition and for all of them there cannot be vehement signes to warrant it and when of the most or a considerable multitude their condition can at most be but doubtful yet to interpret that doubt in the worst part and to improve and pursue that suspition so as to suspend them of the Sacrament till the light of further triall have dispeld this cloud of suspition under which they lie for ignorance or sinfulness and in the interim to frustrate them of that means which might make them better and to renounce the hope that they may be imbettered by it even when the conversation of very many if not the most holds forth nothing that might be obstructive to such hope if they be charitable why do they suspect so much believe and hope so little Vt quisque est vir optimus ita alios sui fimiles facile suspicatur onely evil dispositions are of evil suspitions as to eyes vitiated with the yellow jaundice all things appear yellow and in this sense also quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis If they suspect not why do they seek to make such trials and researches of men for who makes any inquisitive examination for discovery of that which he hath not some doubt and suspition of this was that which the paper sought to be satisfied of fari jubet responsa reposcit Ordine cuncto suo Quaerenti talibus Illi The particulars of 1 Cor. 13.7 are in the judgement of the learned to be referred to God not man I wish the Apologists which are so eager to examine others did better know how to express themselves that we needed not so often to examine them of their sense and meaning so ambiguously do they here deliver themselves as to leave it as flexible to a construction that God believeth and hopeth all things as that a charitable man or charity concretively believeth and hopeth all that is to be believed of God and hoped from him But because we are perswaded the Apologists are no way sowred with the leven of Vorstius and because the later sense is that which is delivered by the Interpreter they quote we shall so also understand them and concede that several Expositors especially the Latines of the middle ages do so expound it but they are notwithstanding born down by a stronger current of Interpreters and ciearly outshined by the light of that truth naturally beaming from the context and though the Apologists have a Velleity yet they have no will to contradict it They deny therefore that they are without hope of all or suspect all And that may be a truth if there be but one whom they hope well of and suspect not but do they not suspect the most and the far greatest part of their people else why do they not admit them till probation have cleared up and set them out of suspition And however the general rule may have sâ—me exception and whatever blanch they give to their trial of some particular persons whom they say they examine to be examples to others not to take satisfaction to themselves yet the general reason whereupon that examination is bottomed is a suspition and unsatisfiedness they have of men and those few are brought forth to be tried to give a slide unto and to facilitate the triall of the rest and so in the last resolution and remote and mediate impulsive suspition is the cause of their probation also and is causa causae quia causati And if they suspect not all yet if that suspition of some be not violent or the signes vehement it is as sinfull to suspect their people distributively as well as collectively for eadem estratiopartium torius as sinfull aeque though not aequaliter the same formall and intensive sin though not the same gradually and extensively and though a probable suspition may warrant a triall and a Metaphysicall evidence as Suarez speaks be not alwayes necessary whereupon to give judgment in morall things yet a morall certainty is pre-requisite for censuring any to be debarrred the Sacrament and the crime that shall merit it must be publick and notorious and so consequently be past an ordinary or probable suspition Such as are removed beyond suspition of ignorance are examined say they 1. For example to others but they that professe to be satisfied with nothing but Scripture might have remembred that omnis homo exse aestimat alterum and conceiving us be of the like principle they should have therefore offered us some precept or example out of Scripture for examining such as are elevated above all doubt of ignorance onely to bring in those of a lower Form for so they phrase it If when persons of greater elevation in the world may probably be suspected to be grossly ignorant of the things of God they had called such under examination for example and encouragement of those which are of lower station yet obnoxious to the like suspition this were free from exception and worthy of commendation but when there is transitio à genere in genus that knowing men must be brought under the discipline to endear it and to make it more receptible with the ignorant this is to do an apparent wrong to some that others may appear not to be wronged and calls to my remembrance the history which Seneca relates of Piso who though he were à multis vitiis integer yeâ— being one cui placuit pro constantia rigor and having condemned a Souldier upon suspition to have slain his fellow whom he brought not back and upon the point of execution his fellow returning and the Centurion bringing both back to Piso to manifest the innocency of the condemned person Piso as if the extending and multiplying the injustice could lessen the odium thereof condemnes not onely those two but the Centurion also because his commands ought not to be disputed whether right or wrong Honestior illi pertinacia videtur quam poenitentia which that can warrant a notional examination give it any firm root is a suspition lest men should be ignorant as that which can warrant and support excommunication are crimes notorious obstinately continued in after admonition if therefore they will examine and suspend untill they
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
in alio while he selects his Church that elects them and who are commonly so awed in their elections as Piso seemed to be by Tiberius in the Senate Quo loco censebis C. sar si primus habebo quod sequar se post omnes vercor ne imprudens dissentiam But it is all the reason in the world that I onely and not another should elect him whom I must intrust to represent me and speak for me and we should rather do it in this concernment because we see some by designe to cause a choice onely of such for Rulers as will be tamely ruled by them and which will serve onely as Organs to sound by that breath which they infuse by drawing them and to such a tune as they shall set and play upon them so that indeed as among the Zaini those Indian hogs which Nicremberge mentions the weakest and poorest are chosen to be chiefe of the Heard so they pick out such Elders as having no eyes of their own must borrow theirs and be gladly led by them and having no substance in themselves hope onely to purchase some esteem by being their conformable shaddowes Which consideration is seconded by another that notwithstanding all former pomp and solemnity of a â—us divinum regiminis ecclesiastici yet some of them have of late publickly asserted That the ruling Elders have no foundation in Scripture but are onely a prudential constitution which however it be truth yet the world hath been born in hand with the contrary that the discipline might enter with a smoother slide and then seeing what seems to some to be prudence and in some circumstances we may be told it may appear to others and in other circumstances not to be so therefore this constitution will in effect be arbitrary and onely accidental quod potest adesse et abesse and like the Pope it will be the Ministers only that have the authoritative power to determine of things whether with or without a Councill This renders much cause of suspition that this conjuncture and consent of Elders however they have pared it to lessen and lighten it is yet such a yoak as they would be eased and exempt of and which the Apologists since they have new modelled themselves have quite laid aside as farre as I can understand that so like Lewis the 11. assuming an arbitrary power they may bring the Crown out of ward they have begun to study that politick Aphorisme in Tacitus Eam imperandiesse rationem ut non aliter ratio constet quà m ut uni reddatur and those ruling Elders are like to run the same fate and upon like motives with those whatsoever they were which are mentioned in the Commentaries upon the Epistles by some attributed to Ambrose by others to Hilary the Deaconâ— Ecclesia seniores habuit quorum fine consilio nihil agebatur in ecclesia quod quâ negligentiâ obsoleverit nescio nisi forte doctorum desidiâ aut magis superbiâ dum soli colunt aliquid videri Next as they are sole so also arbitrary in their proceeding as Bodin relates of the Tartar King that at his Inauguration he tells them Mea vex prosecure et pro gladio crit and Caligula said to the Consuls Quid nifi uno meo nutu jugulari utrumque vestrum statim posse so are they loose and absolved from any certain rule Nos penes arbitrium est et fas et norma regondi Their Will is their Law and their Ipse dixit the Oracle Credant de sonte relarum Ammonis for they have not yet that we know formed any Canons to regulate their judgements nor determined what is the minimum quod sic which may render men capable of communion but they that speak of sealing men though they must be Keepers of the Seals and so let them if they keep them not too fast and make them Privy Seals not the great Seals of the Church nor apply them to wax great and seal the Patents of their preheminence have yet sealed no certain standard whereby to measure men in order to their admission A visible worthiness they require but as Aristotle uncertainly placeth that mediocrity wherein Virtue consists in the judgement of wise men so this worthiness hath no other determinate weight or measure but their judgment and this visibleness is intended to be their eyes for it is all one not to be and not to appear to them so that as the Caxonists say If the Pope should draw innumerable souls unto hell no man must say to him What dost thou and Bellarmine tells us That if the Pope should erre by commanding vices and forbidding virtues the Church were bound to believe vices to be good and virtues to be evill so when they clave errante drive innumerable souls from the Communion and censure those to be vicious that are godiy seriously I do not know what remedy they can find nor where they can fetch their redresse nil fecerit esto Hoc volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas Which is certainly a condition as requisite to be retrenched as dangerous to be incurred Miscra scrvitus est ubi jus est vagum aut incognitum is a Maxime of Law saith the great Lawyer Stanford and therefore Non sinimus imperare hominem sed rationem saith Aristotle in his Ethicks and no less prudently in his Politicks Qui itaque hominibus unà cum legibus imperium tradunt etiam deo tribuunt imperium qui uero solum hominem sine legibus imperare volunt ji quodam modo belluae tradunt imperium nam cupiditas tale quippiam et ira cos qui praesunt etiam viros optimos detorquet And therefore whereas onely Praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo and though anciently the place stricken with thunder was not afterward troden upon and Pliny tells us That icti à Scorpionibus nunquam postea à crabronibus vespis apibúsque seriuntur yet to exonerate themselves they transferre this Lording as other inordinatnesses in this Section on the Bishops Sequitur fortunam ut semper odit Damnatos Though perchance Idem populus si Nurscia Thusco Favisset hâc ipsá Sejanum diceret horâ Augustum I must say Maevius absentem Nevium cùm carperet heus tuâ— Quidam ait ignoras te an ut ignotum dare nobis Verba putas egomet mî ignosco Maevius inquit Stultus improbus hic amor est dignúsque notari How culpable soever the Bishops were or meriting reproof yet only Juste alios reprehendit qui non habet quod in se alius reprchendat saith Augustine Et ille potest facere qui non meretur audire as Ambrose and therfore cum mali accusanâ— vitia alienas partes agunt themselves have still a Bishop in their belly as Luther used to say every man had a Pope and as the Pope complemented the Duke of Florence that he should be King in Thuscany not of Thuseany so though they are not Bishops of this or
ignorant person A King may seise the lands of an idiot and issue a writ de leproso amovendo but may not hold every man out till he plead and approve his soundness of body or mind and obtain his charter of allowance thereof and though he may remove or keep out a manifest Leper he must not deal so with every one that hath some other lesse sore And though as they say it be not usual that any è grege of the Flock for knowledge be egregious in respect of the Pastor yet it is exceeding frequent that they are more knowing than to be degraded from the Temple to the School by an examination proper for tyroes and novices Ecclesiast l 1. c. 4. tom 1. p. 1939. and so be set to School again Duo instituta sâ—nt conventuum sacrorum publicorumque genera saith Junius Unum totius Congregationis cujus locum docendi causâ Templum nominabimus veteres Ecclesiam dixerunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Alterum puerorum tyronumq 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cujus locus Schola appellatur graeco vecabulo Acts 19. The ancient Church knew but these two ranks or degrees of her members so that he which was not placed among the one had his station with the other the one the Catechumens the other the Congregation of the faithful and to all the later promiscuously the Sacrament appertained as was before alleaged out of the same Author That an humble man may submit the question is not de facto what he may but de jure whether he must to one of meaner abilities to avoid exceptions theirs onely that their commands may be general rules without exceptions but to avoid just exceptions pride should rather not exalt it self than teach that it is humility to condescend and to incourage others rather to incourage them to carry on and go through with their designes when some yeeld to be as decoyes to lead on others into the snare that the able and godly know not their abilities so as to oppose them to their duty the more they know the less they know it to be their duty to follow their triumphall Chariot and to become accessory to their usurped Lordlines and their own bondage it is onely ignorance that can be the Mother of this devotion that being tryed it will adde to their esteem to be found knowing it is sure more estimable never to have been questioned and reduced to tryal as Aeschines justly thought it a greater glory to Cephalus never to have been accused then to Aristophon to have been 75. times acquitted All this which hath often been set before us eadem cantabant versibus jisdem Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros we have elsewhere as frequently we trust made manifest to be onely painted and carved dishes like those of Heliogabalus which cannot satisfie and like those seeming fat hoggs which Del. Rio cut of Dubravius tells us that Zyto the Magician sold the Baker which though forbidden he brought to the water to be washt because they looked filthy and then all proved to be but waddes of Straw Cum scclus admittunt superest constantia They disdaine with Aristippus to die of the biting of a Wezel they provoke the teeth of a Lyon they will not pusillanimously excuse one fault but boldly avow another Pudor veluti vestis quanto obsoletior est tanto incuriosius habetur They think we mistake that their greatest suspition is of ignorance it is mens hearts not their heads which they suspect but they are mistaken of us not we of them we know and through this discourse have taken notice that they not onely suspend such as are palpably ignorant but also all which have not upon examination satisfied them of their knowledge nor those alone that are scandalously wicked but all that have not upon tryall convinced them of their holiness and this later we look upon as their axes on the other but as their rods that as the chastisement with rods and this with Scorpions This we dispute against as the superlative obliquity and inordinateness of their way that they will allow no mans title to the Sacrament till upon inspection they have confirmed his evidences and do disseise every man of his possession till he do suit to their Court and acknowledg to hold of them by homage and fealty So the right is rooted in their favour and approbation as the next and neerest cause But whereas they say that the greatest part that stand off from them do it upon suspition of their practice and their not living as they expect they do but transferre that blame which themselves have contracted and exprobrate to others their proper faults they accusing those to stand off whom they drive or keep off and like men putting off from land to sea they conceit the shore passeth away from them while they go off from it They say we mistake their suspition to be of one thing when it is more of another therefore the suspition harbours in their bosom Those which stand not off but are kept out know not of scandall by themselves yet are not thereby justified with them and therefore if they suspect any thing it is onely that they are suspected by them and are therefore passive not active in the suspition yet when the water is troubled the lambe must be accused though he stand below and can have nothing come down to him but from the wolfe at the head and they deal with their flock as those did with King Richard the 2d who having meat set dayly before him was not permitted to eat a bit and being thereupon starved they gave out that he was felo de se and killed himself by a voluntary abstinence If they knew any susceptible of catechising them which was onely spoken comparatively and by hypothesis they might in policy the great wheele of their motions for bear to call them forth lest like Mercury neer the Sun they might be eclips'd by brighter rayes and receave less veneration and would in ingenuity say as one said to an eminent man in like words with John to Christ I have need to be taught of thee and comest thou to me It seems counting one by one it was but one of a thousand they have found and one swallow cannot secure us that it is a summer there may many storms yet be impendent One Anacharsis cannot redeem and expiate all the barbarisme of Scythia Catilinas Quocunque invenias populo quocunque sub axe Sed nec Brutus erit Bruti nec avunculus usquam If one did not abuse this power others may and our security is to be rooted in the limitation of the power not the goodness of the person that exerciseth it Though we hope the best that he will not hurt us yet we ought to provide against the worst that he may not be able to hurt us if he would And the neglect of this provident principle hath set open the widest door to tyranny and
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