to acquit them from any concernment in what is done against them so nothing can be invented that tends more directly to harden men in their sins and impenitency for whilst there is a pretence of Church-censures they will be apt to think that they are sufficiently approved of Christ and the Church seeing their displeasure is no way declared against them so they are not Dissenters they have reason to judg that they are safe here and shall be so to Eternity let them look to themselves who deserve to be excommunicated Is this the Rule of the Gospel Is this the Discipline of Christ Is this the representation of his future Judgment Is this the way and manner of the exercise of his Authority in the Church a declaration of what he owns and what alone he disavows God forbid that such Thoughts should have any countenance given unto them Ecclesiastical Laws have been always looked on as cobwebs that catch the smaller Flies whilst the greater break them at their pleasure but amongst those lesser to spare those that are noxious or poysonous and to cast the net over the innocent and harmless is that which the Spider gives no pattern of nor can imitate I shall not mention the avowed end and design of these present Excommunications only I shall say They are such as many good men tremble to consider the horrible prophanation of things sacred which they manifest to be in them There are also many other things which evidence the nullity of these Proceedings which may be pleaded if there be occasion what hath already been spoken is abundantly suffitcien to satisfy my engagement unto you Namely That the Consciences of men are not at all concerned in the present Excommunications It may be it will be said That all this while we have been doing just nothing or that which is to no purpose at all as not concerning the present case for these of whom we treat pretend no power in Foro interiore or the Court of Conscience or unto nothing that should immediately affect it Their Authority is only in Foro exteriore in the Court of the Church which it seems is at Doctors Commons Wherefore by their sentence of Excommunication they oblige men only unto their outward concernments as unto what concerns conscience they leave that unto the Preachers of the Word It may be it will be so pleaded but before they quit their hands well of this business they will understand that Excommunication it self is nothing but an especial way of the application of the Word unto the consciences of sinners unto their Edification and that which is not so pretend what it will is nothing at all unto the dispensers therefore of the Word it doth alone belong and whereas the Apostle tells us that the weapons of our Christian Warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to bring into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ they seem herein to say that the Weapons of their warfare are carnal and mighty through the aid of some body to cast men into prison or to bring their persons into captivity And indeed this outward Court of theirs is part of that Court without the Temple which is trodden down by the Gentiles and shall not be measured in the Restauration of the Worship of God yea the distinction it self is silly if any thing be intended by this outward Court but only the outward declaration of what is or is supposed to be effected in the inward or the mind and consciences of men But let it be what it will those who have neither Name nor Place nor Office in the Church by Divine Institution who attend not at all in what they do unto any rule of the Scripture nor can nor do pretend any Authority from Christ in and for what they do are no way to be heeded in this matter but only as the instruments of external compulsion which for the sake of the publick peace is to be submitted unto with quietness and patience I find I confess by the books with me sent us weekly into the Country that in this state of things some of the Reverend Clergy do manifest great compassion towards the Dissenters in writing and publishing many discourses containing Persuasives unto and Arguments for Conformity whereby they may be freed from their troublesome circumstances But I must needs commend their Prudence in the choice of the season for this work as much their Charity in the work it self For the Conformity they press needs no other recommendation at this time nor need they use any other arguments for it but only that it is better than being hanged or kept in perpetual durance or stifled in Prisons or beggar'd they and their Families or be starved in Exile And it hath been always observed that arguments which march with Halberts Bills Staves Serjeants Bailiffs Writs Warrants and Capiasses are very forcible and prevalent But I have done and shall leave it unto others to declare what mischiefs do ensue on these Proceedings on civil accounts and what an inroad is made by them on the Government of the Kingdom For a new Tenure is erected by them whereon all men must hold their birthright priviledges especially that which is the root whereon they all do grow namely their Personal Liberty They hold them no longer by the Law of the Land nor can pretend unto security whilst they forfeit them not by that Law they are all put into the power of Chancellors Archdeacons Commissaries and Officials they may deprive them of them all at their pleasure aganst the protection of that Law under which they are born and which hath been looked on as the only rule and measure of the Subjects Liberties Priviledges and Possessions These things tend not only to the disturbance but the ruine of all peace and trust amongst men and of all good Government in the World And if they should Excommunicate all that by the Law of Christ are to be excommunicated on the one hand and all that are to be so by their own Law on the other and then procure Capiasses for them all it is to be feared the King might want Subjects to defend his Realms against his Enemies unless he should do as they did of old at Rome in great distresses open the Goals and arm the Prisoners or it may be the lesser part would at length find it troublesome to keep the greater in prison But these things concern not you nor me I beg your excuse as not knowing whether you will judg this hasty Writing too little for the Cause or too much for a Letter As it is accept it from FINIS
with Laughter Indignation and Confusion and if Dissenters are to be destroyed it is desired that the work were left unto the Penal statutes which as now prosecuted and interpreted are sufficient for it rather than that the name of Religion and a Divine ordinance should meerly for that end be exposed to contempt The last thing that I shall trouble you with at present is the consideration of the persons against whom the present Excommunications are blustered with the pretended causes of them These are they whom they call Dissenters concerning whom we may enquire what they are and the cause of this pretended Ecclesiastical severity towards them And as unto the first part of the enqury They are such as believe and make open profession of all the Articles of the Châ—istian Faith they do so as they are declared in the Scripture nor is the contrary charged on them There is nothing determined by the ancient Councils to belong unto Christian Faith which they disbelieve nor do they own any Doctrine condemned by them They profess an equal interest of Consent in the Harmony of Protestant Confessions with any other Protestants whatever They own the Doctrine of the Church of England as established by Law in nothing receding from it nor have they any novel or Uncatholick Opinion of their own It is therefore utterly impossible to separate them from the Communion of the Catholick Church in Faith or to cast them from that Rock whereon they are built thereby They do also attend unto Divine Worship in their own assemblies and herein they do practise all that is agreed on by all Christians in the world and nothing else for they do not only make the Scripture the sole Rule of their Worship so as to omit nothing prescribed therein to that purpose nor to observe any thing prohibited thereby but their Worship is the very same with that of the Catholick Church in all ages nothing do they omit that was ever used by it nothing do they observe that was ever condemned by it and this must be the principle and measure of Catholick Union in Worship if ever there be any such thing in the Earth to expect it in any other observances is vain and foolish Offering Prayers and Praises to God in the Name of Jesus Christ reading the Holy Scripture and expounding of it singing of Psalms to God preaching of the Word with the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper in a Religious Observation of the Lords Day unto these ends all according as God doth enable them by his Spirit is the Sum and Substance of the Worship of the Catholick Church wherein all Christians are agreed These things the Scripture doth prescribe and these things the Church in all ages hath observed All differences about this Worship which have filled the World with inhumane contentions arose from mens Arbitrary Addition of Forms Rites Modes Ceremonies Languages Cringings Adorations which they would have observed in it whereof the Scripture is silent and Primitive Antiquity utterly ignorant And it may be it will be one day understood that the due observance of this Catholick Worship according as God enableth any thereunto leaving others at liberty to use such helps unto their Devotion as they shall think meet is the only Communion of Worship in the Church which the Scripture requires or which is possible to be attained About the imposition of other things there ever were since they were and ever will be endless contentions Wherefore these Dissenters practising nothing in the Worship of God but what is approved by all Christians particularly by the Church of England omitting nothing that either the Scripture or Catholick tradition directs unto they are notwithstanding this pretended Excommunication secure of Communion with the Catholick Church in Evangelical Worship Moreover they plead that their conversation is unblamable that they are peaceable in the Civil Government and useful among their neighbours if they do evil in these things let them that prosecute them bear witness of the evil but if they do well why are they smitten If they can be charged with any immoralities with any disobedience unto the Rule and Precept of the Gospel those by whom they are thus prosecuted are highly concerned if not in Conscience yet in Honour and Interest to manage the charge against them that some countenance may be given unto their Proceedings For the Law is not made as penal for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane and if it be otherwise with the Laws about these Excommunications they neither belong to nor are derived from the Law of God There are indeed great clamours against them that they are Schismaticks and Separatists and things of the like nature that is that they are Dissenters But in this case the whole force of any inference from hence is built on this supposition That it is the Will of Christ that those who profess Faith in him and Obedience unto him unblameably should be excluded from an interest in and participation of these Odinances of Divine Worship which are of his own Institution who will not comply with and observe such rights and practises in that Worship as are not so but confessedly of humane invention But no colour of proof can be given hereunto for it is directly contrary unto express Scripture-Rule to the Example of the Apostolical Churches and unheard of in the world before the branded Usurpation of Victor Bishop of Rome An Assertion of it is to prostitute the Wisdom Authority and Love of Christ towards his Disciples unto the wills of Men oftentimes pre-possessed with Darkness Ignorance and Superstition and other lusts as shall be more fully manifested if there be occasion Let any colour be given unto this supposition from Scripture or Antiquity and the whole cause shall be given up yet thus is it and no otherwise in the matter of the present Excommunications Persons of all sorts every way found in the Faith unreprovable in the Catholick Worship of the Gospel professing Love and Obedience unto Jesus Christ without blame are excluded what lies in them who manage these Ordinances of Divine Worship which the Lord Christ hath appointed and injoyned without pretence of any other cause or reason but only their not observance in that Worship of what he hath not appointed He that can believe this to be the Will of Christ neither knoweth him nor his Will as it is revealed in his Word and the Consciences of men are sufficiently secure from being concerned in that wherein such an open defiance is bid unto Evangelical Precepts and Rules with Apostolical Examples And further to manifest the iniquity of these Proceedings whilst these Dissenters are thus dealt withal all sorts of Persons ignorant profane haters of Godliness and openly wicked in their lives are allowed in the full communion of the Church without any disciplinary admonition or controul But as this serves
A LETTER Concerning the MATTER of the PRESENT Excommunications LONDON Printed for Benjamin Alsop at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry over-against the Church 1683. ERRATA Page 5. line 17. read these Excommunications p. 10. l. last r. this Work p. 11. l. 17. for by them r. to them p. 13. l. 1. for by r. in p. 20. l. 6. r. demands l. 16. for this r. the. p. 27. l. 5. for these Ordinances r. these Excommunications from those Ordinances p. 32. l. 11. r. as much as A LETTER Concerning the Matter of the Present EXCOMMUNICATIONS SIR YOU judg aright That at my last being in London I did consider the unusual hurry of Excommunications against those called Dissenters and because of the novelty of the proceedings therein I did moreover endeavour my own satisfaction as unto the design causes and ends of them And I found it a thing easily attainable without difficulty or curiosity of enquiry For whereas there is no covering of Religion nor any thing appertaining thereunto save only a Name or Title cast upon them they openly discover themselves of what sort they are and what they belong unto And among many other indecencies wherewith they are accompanied one seemed to me to be very notable and this is the collection of whole droves together by Summons and Citations then dealing with them in such a clamorous manner as makes a representation of a Publick Market or Fair for chaffering about Souls But that I found which did principally affect the minds of men was the event which these proceedings do tend unto and will produce and they generally concluded that they would be highly prejudicial if not ruinous unto all Trust and Trade among the peaceable Subjects of the Kingdom For they said that if the Commissaries would do as in the old Roman Proscriptions in the time of Sylla and of the Triumvirate afterward and set up the Names of all that were to be proceeded against in Publick Tables to be exposed to the view of all those concerned might shift for themselves as well as they could and the residue of mankind might be at liberty to follow their own occasions but whilst they retain an unmeasurable reserve in their own breasts as unto persons to be ruined by them so as that they know not whose names their own or of those with whom they are concerned they shall see the next day affixed on the Church Doors in order unto Excommunication it deprives them of all repose in the Law of the Land or Publick Justice and breaks all their Measures about the disposal of their Affairs How far this is already come to pass you that are in the place know better than I but sure I am that the very Rumor of it gives a general discomposure unto the minds of Men. Hearing no other discourse of these things I was somewhat surprized with your Letter wherein you required my thoughts what influence these Excommunications may have on the Consciences of them who are so excommunicated for I did not think there would have any question been made about it But since you are pleased to make the enquiry I shall for the satisfaction of my respects unto you tho as unto any other end I judg it needless give you a brief Account of my Judgement concerning these proceedings which is the same for the substance of it with that of all sober persons with whom I ever conversed Excommunication is the Name of a Divine Institution of Christ wherein and in whose due and just administration the consciences of Christians are or ought to be highly concerned And this as for other causes so principally because it is the only sure representation of the future Judgment of Christ himself he did appoint it for this end that so it might be Providential dispensations are various and no certain Judgment can be made on them as unto the final and eternal determination of things and causes No man knoweth love or hatred by the things of that nature that are before him But this is ordained by the Law of Christ to be a just Representation of his future Judgment with a Recognition of the causes which he will proceed upon Therefore it is divinely instructive in what he himself will do in the great day it is futuri judicii praejudicium But he will scarcely be thought well advised who shall send men to Doctors-Commons to learn the way and manner of Christs Judgment of his Church with the causes which he will proceed upon He giveth himself another account of it Mat. 25.32 unto the end of the Chapter of what he there declares there is neither name nor thing found among the men of these practices which we treat about The mentioning of them would be looked on as a sedition against their Authority or else make them ashamed as a thief when he is found But for any sort of person to undertake the administration and execution of the sentence of Excommunication against others not making it their design to represent the Judgment of Christ towards impenitent Sinners is to bid defiance to him and his Gospel Wherefore no person whatever wise or unwise good or bad can be concerned in the Excommunication in conscience or on a Religious account I speak not only of them who are forced to suffer by them but of them also by whom they are administred and denounced For it is impossible that men should be so far forsaken of all understanding as to imagine that the proceedings thereins do belong unto the Gospel or Christian Religion any otherwise but as a debasement and corruption of it neither is any man ever the less of the Communion of the Church of England by these Excommunications tho he may by force be debarred from some advantages that belong thereunto Neither is the Communion of any Church to be valued from which a man may be really and effectually expelled by such means For this Excommunication is not only null as to the efficacy of its sentence on the account of its mal-administration but it is not in any sence that which it is called and which it pretends to be Idols are called Gods but we know they are nothing in the World So is this proceeding called Excommunication but is no such thing at all If a man should paint a Rat or an Hedg-hog and write over it that it is a Lion no man would believe it so to be because of its magnificent Title All that it can pretend unto is a political Engine used to apply the displeasure of some upon an accidental advantage unto them whose ruin they design and therein a satisfaction unto Revenge for discountenancing their supposed Interest That there is any acting in it of the Authority of Christ any Representation of his love care and tenderness towards his Church any thing that is instructive in his Mind or Will any praeludium of the future Judgment no man I suppose does pretend nor I am sure can do so without reflecting
the highest dishonour imaginable on Christ himself and the Gospel To make these things yet more evident and to show how remote the present Excommunications are from all possibility of affecting the Consciences of any I shall briefly pass through the consideration of these things which principally belong unto them and whereunto all their efficacy is resolved and that which first offereth it self is the Persons by whom they are administred The truth is there is such a variety of Scenes in this Tragedy and such different Actors in it from Apparitor with whom it begins unto the Jailor with whom it ends that it seems not easie whom to ascribe the animating power and authority that is in it unto But yet on a little consideration the matter is plain enough The Ministers of the Parishes wherein the Excommunicated persons are supposed to dwell by whom the sentence of Excommunication is rehearsed out of a Paper from the Court have no coneernment herein for they know nothing of the causes or reasons of it nor of the process therein nor do pretend unto any Right for the cognizance of them nor do for the most part know the persons at all on whose qualifications alone the validity or invalidity of the sentence doth depend nor can give an account to God or man of what is done as to right and equity and therefore I no way doubt but that these who are learned and pious among them do hardly bear the yoke of being made such properties those acts and duties which appertain unto their Ministerial function but it is known who they are who begin the work and carry on the process of it unto its final execution and I shall say no more concerning them but this alone That how meet soever they may be for the transaction of Civil Affairs or for the skilful managing of that work herein which they suppose committed unto them yet as unto any thing wherein conscience may be affected with the Authority of Jesus Christ they can be of no consideration in it If any man can but pretend to believe that our Lord Jesus by any Act Grant Law or Institution of his by any signification of his Mind or Will hath committed or doth commit the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven the power of binding and loosing of expelling out of and admitting into his Church unto these or such persons he hath assuredly confidence enough to pretend unto a perswasion of whatever he pleases They do not believe it themselves nor among themselves pretend unto any such thing but only a power to execute their own Laws or Canons They do not judg that any personal moral or spiritual qualifications are required unto Ecclesiastical Administrations which yet to deny is to undermine all Religion without which they may be fit for all Church Duties who are no better than that Arch-Deacon of Oxford who being charged with Immoralities in his Conversation justified himself by the soundness of his faith affirming that he believed Three Gods in one Person and besides he believed all that God himself did believe Let a man out of interest or fear or ignorant superstition strive never so much to affect his Conscience with the Excommunications of such men he will never be able to effect it But be the personal qualifications of those intended what they please the Question is How they came by that Power and Authority herein which they pretend unto They are Chancellors Archdeacons Commissaries Officials with their Court Attendants of whom we speak I confess these horrid Names with the reports concerning them and their power are enough to terrifie poor harmless men and make them fear some evil from them But Excommunication is that which no man knows on what grounds to fear from these Names Titles and Offices For that is the Name of a Divine Ordinance instituted by Christ in the Gospel to be admininistred according to the Rule and Law thereof but these Name and those unto whom they do belong are utterly forreign unto the Scriptures and as unto the Work to the practise of the Church for a Thousand Years what therefore is done by them of this kind must of necessity be utterly null seeing that as such they have no place in the Church themselves by the Authority of Christ. But however it be undeniably evident that they have no relation unto the Scripture nor can have any Authority from Christ by vertue of any Law or Institution of his nor countenance given unto them by any practise of the primitive Church yet what they do in this kind being pretended acts of Power and Authority an Authority for them must be pleaded by them But then it may be justly demanded of them What it is of what nature and kind how it is communicated unto them or derived by them from others This is that which those who are Excommunicated by them are principally concerned to enquire into and which themselves in the first place are obliged to declare and evince Unless men are satisfied in conscience that those who act against them have just authority so to do or in what they do it is utterly impossible they should be concerned in conscience in what is done against them or be any ways obliged thereby Here therefore they abide until they are satisfied in this just and necessary demand But here all things are in confusion they can declare neither what Authority is required unto what they do nor how they come to possess that which they pretend unto If it be from Christ how comes it to operate on the outward concerns of men their Liberties and Estates If it be meerly of man whence do they give the Name and pretence of a Divine Ordinance unto what they do If any should follow the clew in this Labyrinth it is to be feared that it would lead them into the Abyss of Papal Omnipotency As they exercise this power in Courts of External Jurisdiction and forms of Law they will not deny I suppose but that it is from the King but why do they not then act that power in the Kings Name For what is not done by his Name is not done by his Authority Ministers do not preach nor administer Sacraments in the Name of the King for they do it not by his Authority or by Vertue of Authority derived from him nor do Parents govern their Children or Families in his Name but their own because Authority for it is their own by the Law of God and Nature but that exercise of Power which externally affects the Civil Rights and Liberties of men must be in the Kings Name or the foundations of the Government of the Nation are shaken But I make it not my concernment what Name or Stile they use in their Courts Let it be granted for their own security that they have all their Power and Authority from the King it must be therewithal granted of what Nature it is namely Civil and not Spiritual but why then doth what they do