it and so analogically he may receive Gods seal the Sacrament and set his own by taking it that yet believes not and as in the Word preached which is the savour of life unto life and of death unto death and a sweet savour howsoever in both he that believes takes his part of the promise he that doth not receives his portion which is the threat so that to either it may be said tolle quod tuum est vade and the terrour of the threatning may conduce and dispose to the acceptance of the promise as fear introduceth love as the needle doth the thread in the expression of St. Augustine even so it fares in the visible Word the Sacrament Farther when the Sacrament which is Gods external Seal of this promise is applied to an unbeliever it hath all that is essential to Gods actual sealing of the truth thereof the promise being made and published the Sacrament by institution signifying it by similitude representing it by sanctification assuring it and God thereby engaging himself to verifie it in respect of external sealing nothing more is done to a true believer for of internal sealing and making the external to be successful or efficacious is not the question neither may we confound the external sealing with the inward which is made by the spirit onely nothing is done more in relation to sealing to him that performeth the condition than to him that fulfilleth it not As when a Writing is sealed and delivered to the use of two to become a Deed when a condition is complyed with or else to be as an escrol he indeed that observes the Condition onely hath the estate thereby conveyed but the sealing is alike to both And this Conditional proposition is an absolute truth even when made unto a Reprobate though it be false that he believes and that he shall be saved yet it is true that if he believe he shall be saved for if the connexion be true though both parts severally considered or though one or other of the parts resolved into a Categorical proposition be false yet the proposition is true Dr. Kend. ubi supra the verity whereof depends on the connexion between the Predicate in the Antecedent and the Predicate in the Consequent which put together so as the Predicate of the Antecedent become the Subject and the Predicate of the Consequent be made the Predicate in a Categorical proposition it will result onely into this indubitable truth He that believes shall be saved Indeed if this Sacrament should be exhibited to an Infidel not added to the Church who had entred into no Covenant with God nor assented by any Historical Faith to the written Word or should have the Sacraments exhibited without the Word then they might argue that the seal were set to a blank but being exhibited to those who are in Covenant with God as all are that be of the visible Church how else can their children be baptized and have received by a Dogmatical Faith the written Word of promise whereof the Sacraments are seals there can be no blank but in the argument if they shall in this case urge it they will not say that it is an untruth or false testimony when it is delivered in the Word though unto reprobates to whom that promise is offered and the offer chiefly bottomed on the sufficiency of Christs death to save all that shall believe it being true that Christ by his death merited salvation for all upon condition of believing if thereby we imply onely the connexion between Faith and Salvation so that all believers shall be saved though it be not truth if we thereby intend that he merited salvation for all persons his death indeed being sufficient for all in regard of the price and merit thereof though we cannot properly say he dyed sufficiently in respect of Christs purpose in laying down his life and of the efficacy of his death I say the offer of this promise to reprobates is grounded chiefly on the sufficiency of Christs death to save believers and partly on our insufficiency to know who shall believe And if this proposition be no false testimony when it is held forth in the Word wherefore should it cease to be true when it is given in the Sacrament why should the same thing be true when proposed thetically generally and to the ear and false when applyed hypothetically particularly and to the eye as if the essence of truth consisted in the manner and way of representation and not rather in the adaequation of things to the understanding If they shall object that the Sacraments are mutual engaging seals and as Gods seals on his part so ought the receivers to set their seals to the counterpart and when God obligeth himself to be their God conditionally they absolutely promise to be his people and therefore when wicked men partake of the Sacrament in them at least it is a false testimony while they profess to be what they are not and because all that are within the Covenant of Grace de jure should be Saints they ought to exclude all such of whom they are not satisfied and convinced that they are such de facto I answer 1. That I grant there ought to be the answer or restipulation of a good conscience in all for to be saved but not in all that partake of the seals of grace and salvation Yet whosoever receives them doth or ought to set his seal to what is thereby sealed to him which is onely that he that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved 2. Let them assign a cause why the same reason holds not in Baptisme and why upon that account they adjourn not the baptising of Infants till they can render that satisfaction seeing Baptisme is a seal of the Covenant as well as the Eucharist and the seal is set to a blank when the baptised hath no faith aswell as when the Communicant believes not 3. Not to mention that there is a kind of mutual Covenant between God and Man in hearing of the Word God obliging himself by his promises there revealed and in us there is a virtual engagement and profession of our religious reception of Gods will and subjection of our Consciences thereunto with belief of his truth hope of the good there promised and love of God which therein reveals himself all which though wicked men seem to profess yet nothing thereof they perform But to insist on prayer there is the like mutual Covenant God obligeth himself by his promise though indeed as Durand aptly Ames Cas Consc l. 4. c. 16. p. 187. promissio divina in Scripturis sanctis non sonat in aliquam obligationem sed insinuat meram dispositionem liberalitatis Divinae and thereby as Thomas Deus non nobis fit simpliciter debitor sed sibi ipsi in some sense to hear our prayers if made in Faith and in our prayers there is always an implicit and for the most part an
it self is become a reformed Church neglecting all other wayes of teaching in effect save reading of the Legends to make men laugh which Beleth commendeth and asserting that if a man were asked of the greatest Articles of the faith he might sufficiently say he could not tell but believes as the Church doth and that would save him but that their Church is that people which obey the Pope who is Christs Vicar must be explicitly believed But we cannot henceforth with that confidence lay this at their door when they will be apt to retort it back by recrimination and tell us that notwithstanding what ever we judge of them who know them not yet their people are not so ignorant as we confess ours to be whom we have better knowledge of whereof one of an hundred by our own account is not capable to partake of the Sacrament and though Campion said most falsely of our Ministers Eorum ministris nihil vilius yet they will say with colour of truth Eorum plebe nihil vilius if they are so wretched and unworthy Erubui gremiòque pudor dejccit ocellos Whether Episcopal spitits were parcell guilt with this close designe I shall say little in their condemnation or defence but this is manifest that many of them were like the fish called Lucerna whose tongue Pliny saith did shine as a torch so did their tongues cast forth light and they shined by preaching Ut pura nocturno renidet Luna mari Gnidiúsve Gyges And as the same Author saith that those calami or reeds whereof paper was made yeilded flowers whereof crowns were formed so their calami or pens put to paper brought forth such flourishing works as shall crown their names with immortall honor and though they are fain and gone yet the monuments of their learning which help to make others learned shall stand for ever nec Jovis ira nec ignis Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas It is true that some of them when they lighted the Lamps did not burn incense they having no good odor for their indiscrete Ordinations setting up rusn candles and sometime smoaking snuffes and withall blowing out and puffing off some clear lights of the Sanctuary and so might in this consideration seem to favour ignorance as he that gives a blind or drives away a good guide doth causally or antecedently tumble into the ditch but this was paucorum crimen and nevertheless there was not darkness upon the face of the deep before the other lights were created in the firmament of this Heaven but where is Plato's Num-nam ego talis sum rather it is true what Salvian tells us Multi horrent sed paucissimi evitant in aliis quippe borrent quod in se semper admittunt mirum in modum accusatores ecrundem criminum excusatores execrantor publicè quod occultè agunt per hec dum damnare se caeteros putant ipsos se magis propriâ ammadversione condemnant It was said of Isocrates and Quintilian That they pleaded not yet made many Orators but contrariwise though others do teach yet have they not made others become no teachers and left several places without teaching and so consequently furthered and promoved ignorance Let them be lights in the firmament yet they are but topical starrs and their beams and influences are limited and confined to certain places and in many other Horizons the starrs are as thin set as about the Southern pole and I doubt others beside the Bishops may be culpable in an accidental and consecutive diffusing of dark ignorance by casting down many starrs to the ground and stamping upon them so as more than a third part of them in some places is darkened and let them put their hands into their bosome and see if they come not forth leprous by having been hands in this if not per se tamen per alios if not directly and immediately yet whether not by the guilt of consilium consensus palpo recursus Nutans non obstans c. according to the several wayes of partaking sins and so have been some part of the tail that hath drawn this third part of the starrs of Heaven and hath cast them to the earth However those starrs were not pure in their sight and some gave not their light yet neither are all those in Heaven free from spots yet are permitted to shine and some apparently shine not to us yet doubtless have their light and influence and if some men have forgot that Quà m saepe veniam qui negavit petit and that Eutropius was haled by Chrysostom from that Sanctuary which he would have had the Emperour shut up yet they should remember that if the lights burn dimme it is a wildness instead of snuffing to put them out The Indians when they have no candles are glad of an Cucuji where there are Ministers though perchance non Ex meliore luto nor nati faelicibus ovis yet there is a face of publick worship a convening at the places appointed for it men are kept in the recognition of their duty taken off and inhibited from other tentations not onely in losse of time negatively in doing nothing but positively in doing evill but loss of acquaintance with Ordinances and degenerating into a kind of paganisme All cannot resort to places very distant to supply the want in their proper Churches and sometimes the distance is so wide as few or none can be accomodate for recourse In a twilight a man can better see his way than in the dark and if the prodigall had not a while sustained himself with husks he would not have lived to have eaten his fathers bread Let the stinking snuffs be trodden out but my weakness is apt to think that better suffer weak lights in every angle than set up a few in a vast room which must needs have many corners under much darkness better suffer some tares than to root up much wheat and perchance onely to change the weed but not cleanse the field as where the corne stands thin weeds will rise either empty husks who as Hierom speaks loqui nesciunt tacere non possunt docéntque Scripturas quas non intelligunt priùs imperitorum magistri quà m doctorum discipuli or as Bernard saith Priùs effundere quà m infundi velint loqui quà m audire paratiores docere prompti quod nunquam didicerunt or else venemous and contagious plants qui pro alicujus temporalis commodi maximè gloriae principatusque sui causa falsas novas opiniones gignunt vel sequuntur as Augustine We should like it well if as Pacuvius told his Capuans concerning the Senators they could be provided of new before they satisfied their anger upon the old but else we think it better to spare them for the time in hope of amendment hereafter and that as Aristides advised Laconico Perfico more parva multis minora majoribus condonarent A good Master said that Father may be honored in
those Churches wherein is a free admission to the Sacrament of all those that are not duly cast out and they will not admit any of those Churches to have communion with them in the Eucharist untill they be new model'd and entred into their Churches But that Church-fellowship consists especially in communion of Sacraments and is principally defined by it Sect. 9. De unit Eccles c. 13. Schismaticos facit communionis dirupta unitas Aug. quaest ex Matth. tom 4 p 78. Camero oper Field of the Church l. 3. c. 5 p. 80 and that the commixtion of evill and good is intra eandem sacramentorum communionem connexionem and that to desert and to deny such a communion with those that are Churches of God is the dregs and sediment of schisme we have formerly shewed out of Augustine that to detrect to receive the Lords Supper with any is tacitly to renounce their fraternity was instanced out of Altingius and that to separate from this or that particular Church that is a particular member of the body of the Catholick Church is schisme we have instanced out of Junius as it is also to make a separation from that congregation Ubi Deus colligit Ecclesiam as may be added out of Camero Schisme saith a sound Writer is a breach of the unity of the Church which unity of the Church consists in three things First the subjection of the people unto their lawfull Pastors Secondly the connexion and communion which many particular Churches and the Pastors of them have among themselves Thirdly in holding the same rule of faith But they rent and infringe this unity in the first respect by gathering those into their Church that have other lawfull Pastors Qui schismata faciunt saith Cyprian Epist 76. p. 247. relicto Episcopo alium sibi foras Episcopum quaerunt And in the second by denying to have a communion with other Pastors and their Churches in this Sacrament of the Lords Supper and it cannot sow up this rent nor make up this fraction to say they communicate in other ordinances with them for not onely Church communion is chiefly communion of Sacraments but as was cited formerly out of Mr. Ball to use one ordinance and not another is to make a schisme in the Church Frustra sibi blandiuntur qui panem cum sacerdotibus Dei non habentes obrepunt latenter apud quosdam communicare se credunt as was alleaged out of Cyprian It is schisme saith Valentia and truly 22. Disp 3. q. 15. punct 1. p. 690. if he misapplied it not Nolle se gerere ut membrum hujus corporis in aliquo vel aliquibus spiritualibus actionibus ad hoc Ecclesiae corpus pertinentibus atque adeò nolle subesse visibili hujus corporis capiti neque aliis ejus membris communicant ut illi capiti subjecta sunt sed velle agere scorsim ab hoc corpore independenter ab ejus capite And since anciently a Bishop and an Altar were made Correlatives and a schismaticall Bishop was sayd constituere aut collocare aliud Altare Mead ubi supra saith a learned man therefore they that erect other Altars for them to partake of which have lawfull proper Pastors and they that participate at other Altars than those of their own Pastors tread too near upon Schisme Nay also they that separate from a true Church to partake of an Altar in a Church apart do not participate of the Table of the Lord for in una domo saith Rivet In Exod. c. 12 tom 1 p. 916. quae est Ecclesia Dei viventis commedi debet agnus carnes ejus quatenus cibus noster sunt extra illam domum non efferuntur And then as the Act of separation so the Reason thereof denominates schismaticall while they affirm the separation to be occasioned by the grossnesse of administrations elsewhere where no separation is made by exercise of Discipline which very thing viz. that any corruption of manners or want of Discipline which is among corrupt manners to expurge those that were corrupt was a sufficient ground of separation brought forth and gave rise to the schisme of the Donatists and was that which rendred them schismaticks that which S. Augustine impressed himselfe especially to fight against as is liquid through the whole torrent of his writings against them some drops whereof our former discourse hath been sprinkled with Cited by Mr. Baxters Saints everlasting rest part 4. p. 105. marg I shall here only say as learned Davenant professeth speaking of the Divines of Germany Haud dubitem affirmare illos qui falluntur tamen communionem fraternam cum aliis retincre parati sunt esse schismate coram Deo magìs excusatos quà m qui veras opiniones in hisce controversiis tuentur mutuam communionem eum aliis Ecclesiis etiam desiderantibus aspernantur so I think those Churches more excusable which have not the exercise of discipline in casting out offenders yet lack not a desire of a fraternall connexion and mutuall communion with other Churches than those that set up discipline and lay down communion and unity To say That they separate nor from true Churches First as it can no more palliate their guilt than it could cloak that of the Donatists who made the same defence and indeed this is the Catholicon the common place and plea of all Schismaticks that if they forsake one Church they go into another so secondly they do make a separation from true Churches seeing they separate as was said from all Churches that give a free admission to all that are not duly cast out and if those are no true Churches then they are not in the state of salvation for all that shall be saved are added to the Church and all that may grow capable of admission into their Churches out of the other it may seem requisite to baptize before they are admitted baptisme being a note of the true Church and therefore agreeing thereunto as proprium quarto modo They were such Churches wherein many of them received ordination to the Ministery who are not yet reordained and by the Ministery whereof faith was wrought in them wherein I hope they were built up before they laid the foundation of their new Churches and to believe is to be added to the Church which is Synonymous with the houshold of faith and wherein if they had suffered death for the profession of that faith they would have thought themselves intitled unto martyrdome and yet out of the Church are no martyrs neither can they pretend to reform the Church if they acknowledge not those from whom they separate to be true Churches for then they rather form a new Church and it is not an alteration which is Motus à qualitate in contrariam qualitatem but a generation motus à non esse ad esse and is not mutatio statûs sed essentiae But this is that root bearing gall
and Heresies Perswasions to mildness and moderation 307. DEFENCE SECT XVII They misrepresent their Church-way Whether the Queries of the Diatribe were doubts of Friends or Enemies What are properly scruples 318. SECT XVIII Rom. 14.1 10. discussed Whether they judge or despise their Brethren Psal 15.4 vindicated No other Qualifications required in order to communicating in a Church-member having a dogmatical Faith but to be without scandal whether they reject onely the wicked whether their way render them not guilty of temerarious judgment of judging the heart of bearing infirmities of moral men 320 SECT XIX 1 Cor. 13.7 considered whether they suspect not much evil believe or hope little good of their people of examining the knowing to be exemplar to the ignorant or to nanifest their humility whether it be their duty to submit to such a passive examination whether to call them to it be not directly to detract from them or interpretatively to diffame them small matters are often great in the consequence 2 Cor. 11.2 examined the properties of charity in hoping and believing all the ignorance charged is not to know it to be duty to submtt to their commands whether conversion may be sudden whether the Church have loss or gain by these ways of pretended Reformation 332 SECT XX. Whether the Apologists are charitably suspected or can be justly charged with Pharisaism whether their actings proceed out of tenderness of conscience A paralel between the Apologists and Pharisees in some things 369 169 SECT XXI What was Diotrephes what his ambition whether the Apologists exceed not the bounds of Ministerial power by bringing all under triall excluding and not for scandal and that so many and by common continual practice whether this check not with 1 Peter 5.3 whether those they reject are scandalous themselves separated and left the Church behinde them Of Ecclesiastical power what it is and how far extensive The duty of Stewards It is Christ's honour to have an universal Church Their actings 1. Not commanded or warranted by Gods VVord 2. They act solely Of their Elders of ruling Elders in general not by divine right yet a prudent constitution requisite to be continued in some way the interest of the whole Church in censures the Elders Representatives of the Church whether the ancient Church knew any such 3. They act arbitrarily of the former Bishops the Flowers of the Apologists Canina facundia which they cast on the Opposites of their way the aspersions wiped off and some of them reflected of small things and whether their Injunctions are such what may be the consequences thereof viz. their own power and greatness in the intention which yet in effect may be thereby lessened whether their promiscuous examination be to prevent respect of persons of examining persons known to be knowing of the Shekel of the Sanctuary of their aviling of their people and thereby giving advantage to the Papists to upbraid us of the former Bishops the lack of light in some places through want of some to hold it forth whether the Diatribe aspersed Presbytery to be modelled like Popery the Apologists no friends to Presbytery their way hath some analogy with Popery and accidental tendency thereunto 378 178 SECT XXII Of Independents their godliness their Schism the confessed imperfection of the way of the Apologists their desire of an union with the Independents an admonition to the Presbyterians the confounding of Churches and Parishes by the Apologists their gathering of Churches whether they are guilty of disorder against Law whether Magick were laid to their charge whether they are culpable of Schism and Sedition or injury to other Ministers of the hatching others Eggs like the Partridge 414 214 SECT XXIII VVhy they have not the Sacrament in their own Churches why onely at Pyworthy whether it be no great matter to be called or drawn thither Of their return to their own Churches How they stigmatize the People and judge their hearts Of serving the times they confess the Word and Sacraments to be the same thing what thereupon followes 426. 226 SECT XXIV VVhether they are Butchers or Surgeons VVhether guilty of Schisme Of negative and positive Schisme VVhat are just causes of separation VVhether our Saviour separated from the Jewish Church for instance in eating the Passover They condemn what they practise by confounding Churches and by separation They grant Professors to be visible Saints which destroys their Platform Their Reasons why all sorts are to be admitted to the Word and Prayer VVhether there are not better Reasons to warrant a like admission to the Sacrament VVhether the same conclude it not VVhether the Churches of England are all true Churches Sacraments Notes of the Church and therefore communicable to all Church-Members they grant Discipline enters not the definition of a Church yet they separate for want thereof VVhether they may not aswell deny Baptisme to the Children as the Eucharist to the Parents 434. 234. SECT XXV Their great abuse and distortion of Scripture with what a train of Consequences their Arguments are far-fetch'd they are borrowed from the Donatists Papists Brownists Independents none of them conclude the question as themselves have stated it the Argument raised from 1 Cor. 14.40 examined Whether it be a glorious and comfortable practice that none approach the Lords Table save holy persons Whether their way be warranted by the Laws The moderating of Censures Whether their way have like ground with the antient Discipline in receiving in Penitents Whether there be order and decency in mix'd Communions The lesser good to be omitted to acquire the greater the confusion and disorder of their wayes 250. 450. SECT XXVI Jeremy 15.19 Discussed and vindicated 264. 464. SECT XXVII 2 Thes 3.2 6. Opened and redeemed from their misapplications Whether antiently the Commerce with any not excommunicate were avoided VVhat society Excommunication cuts off from How Suspension might be used and is abused 267. 467. SECT XXVIII 1 Cor. 5.11 Ventilated and the Chaff of their Interpretation dispersed Whether we may have communion in sacred things with such as we may not have society with in civil 274. 474. SECT XXIX Matth. 7.6 The sense thereof enucleated and shewed not to be subservient to their purpose but odiously abused VVhether Ministers may act in Censures alone and upon their own knowledge 281. 481. SECT XXX 1 Cor. 11.27 sequent Discussed of eating and drinking unworthily VVhether there be a necessity of examining all because some cannot examine themselves Whether any irregenerate man can examine himself VVhether this tends not to introduce Auricular Confession Jude 3. opened 288. 488. SECT XXXI 1 Tim. 5.22 Interpreted and answered Of Principals and Accessories 1 Tim. 3.10 considered Not like Reasons to examine those that are to communicate and those that are to be ordained 293. 493. SECT XXXII 1 Pet. 3.15 Heb. 13.17 Discussed VVhat obedience is due to Ministers and what power they have 497. 297. SECT XXXIII Levit. 13.5 2 Chron. 23.19
never would have made this instance indefinitly and without limitation For First it follows not because they counterfeited old things we may not alleage that which is truly ancient or because some stones are counterfeit therefore none must be precious Jewels Secondly it may be retorted on themselves the Gibeonites would not have simulated that which had it been true would not have been effectual to the ends for which they fained it and had their bread and bottles and shooes been as old as they dissembled Joshuah might and would have accepted and been at peace and in league with them And will it not then be consequent to suit the Apodosis to the Protasis in this Allegory or Similitude that Antiquity is a likely Plea and lends a good Topick and such things as wear her Livery and bear her Character are more receptible than those that want them But if the antiquity the Paper calls for do signifie but Custome as they guess by some passages viz. what is setled by Custome they will be bold to say of such antiquity It is vetustas erroris I shall say with Augustine Quis dubitat veritati manifestatae debere consuetudinem cedere But I add Veritatem non ostendis de consuetudine confiteris De Baptism cont Donat. l. 3. p. 82. Tom. 7. Ibidem l. 7. p. 99. Ibid. l. 4. p. 85. ad Januar. Ep. 119. de Civitate Dei l. 15. c. 16. but abstracting custom from the consideration of the matter either as it is good for goodness will warrant it self without custome yet honum consuetum duo sunt bona and as St. Augustine gravely Cùm consuetudini veritas suffragatur nihil oportet firmius retineri or as it is evil for then custom cannot authorize it for the Philosopher said Omnia mala habenda pro peregrinis and S. Augustine Aut propter fidem aut propter mores vel emendari oportel quod perperà m fiebat vel institui quod non fiebat But only as custom even as such Ad humanum sensum vel alliciendum vel offendendum mos valet plurimùm and upon that other reflections insinuated in the Paper I might without offence conclude with Ulpian In rebus novis constituendis evidens esse debet utilitas and with St. Augustine Non est à consuetudine recedendum nisi rationi adversetur But beside the customs which I chiefly reverence and engage to defend are the customs of the antient Church Ad Casulan Ep. 86. and if the Apologists will be bold to say of such antiquity it is vetustas erroris I shall modestly re-mind them that they are more bold then wise And if they shall sleight the judgement of St. Augustine in his rebus de quibus nihil certi statuit Scriptura Divina mos Populi Dei vel instituta majorum pro lego tuenda sunt nor shall prize the sense of the great Council of Chalcedon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the ancient custom prevail yet I hope they will grant there was some weight in that Argument of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.16 We have no such Custom nor the Churches of God The gray hairs of Opinions and Practices are then beauty and a Crown when found in the way of truth and righteousness They are then indeed a Crown more glorious and worthy of double honour but yet aetas per se venerabilis saith Calvin and therefore some suppose that in the Greek an old man is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth honour Willet in Lev. 19.32 Arist l. 19. Ethic. 2. Jansenius in locum C. à Lapide in locum and it is the dictate of the same spirit which Aristotle hath also delivered almost verbatim Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man formally as an old man And some Expositors because the relative is not in the Hebrew thus interpret that of Prov. 16.31 The hoary head is a Crown of glory it is found in the way of righteousness as if old men were commonly righteous as the Chaldee in the late famous Bible renders that of Leviticus Rise before him that is learned in the Law implying old men to be so so as therefore we might turn the allusion against them The light of Doctrine hath long filled our Horizon the light of Discipline was not so forward or successful being a long while held by some men in unrighteousness Nimirum liberanda veritas illos expectabat as Tertullian once said of Marcion but utinam talis status esset in illo Ut non tristitiae causa dolenda foret Fair words cannot perswade us that we are not hurt while we feel the smart of our wounds neither have we been bred up in Anaxagoras his School to beleeve the snow to be of other colour than our eyes discern it What Quintilian and Seneca said of the Common-wealth we may apply to the Church the one Quaedam sunt crimina laesae Reipub. ad quorum pronuntiationem soli oculi sufficiunt The other An laesa sit Respub non solet argumentis probari manifesta statim sunt damna Reipub. The Tree is known by his fruit and we have tasted such bitterness in the fruits of this Discipline and the Principles thereof that as Joab stubbornly said to David Thou hast shamed the face of all thy Servants So even those that could not be satisfied with the topping but wished the cutting down of the former Tree as being grown too high to over-top and drop upon the Paradise of God are truly ashamed to see this Plant spring up in the place thereof which not onely like the Boranetz or Tartar Lamb though it seem to creep low toward the ground and bear wool like the Sheeps cloathing yet destroys all verdancy and suffers nothing to grow or prosper neer it but he also that shall contemplate in what a light flame the whole Wood is will be apt to conclude that the Bramble is become the King of Trees from whom onely this fire could come forth So that some may well cry out as the Constantinopolitans at Arsacius his succeeding of Chrysostom Deus bone quis cui and are afraid to have contracted a suitable guilt to what the Romane Senate incurred toward Drusus of whom Paterculus tells us Qui tanto meliore ingenio quà m fortunâ usus est ut malefacta collegarum quà m ejus optimè cogitata Senatus probaret magìs But I remember Herodotus tells us that Phrinicus was amerced 1000. Drachmes for representing in a Tragedy the loss of Miletus and thereby renewing the sorrow thereof and therefore I shall not farther have unguem in Ulcere having else-where rubbed the sore and also because not onely illè dolet verè but also tute qui sine teste dolet onely in answer to the Apologists expressions I shall say That their Light of Discipline hath proved an ignis fatuus to lead us into Precipices and abysses or a Comet to portend and effect mischief and the
prejudiced the Romane Church nor more helped forward the work of our Reformation than their with-holding of the cup from the Laity which hath made them lately somewhat wiser by their harms so as now in this Nation what is done elsewhere I know not the Laicks are permitted the Wine though not the Cup out of which it is powred into a Glass wherein they drink it for reason of State forbids they should have it in the same manner the Priests receive it that being reserved onely for Kings to be so far made equal with Priests and if they should perfectly reform this sacrilegious abuse they should confess a former error and consequently forfeit their Palladium the infallibility of their Church and since res aetas usus semper aliquid apportat novi aliquid moneat ut illa quae te scire credas nescias quae tibi putaris prima in experiundo repudies it is possible that at length piscator ictus sapiat and those Fishers of men too may change those Nets which drive away most Fish for those that may inclose more and not by alienating hearts forfeit their hands which might help to carry on the work they pretend to As Saracenus Moses to Lucius of Alexandria in Ruffinus Nunquam verior potest esse fides quae auribus capitur quà ne quae oculis pervideâ—ur so let them give us some sensible effects and demonstrations à posteriori of the aptness and energy of their way for reformation they cannot dispute us out of our senses and we see where they set up after eight or nine years among several hundreds they gain scarce so many units and their reformation is like the filings and washings of Gold by false Clippers onely to impair and embase it like Dioclesians deserting the Empire to attend a Garden or like Woolseys destroying forty religious houses as they were then accounted out of the ruins thereof to build two Colleges Nay they do not edifie after that proportion nor to that similitude As whom they admit have liberty given to beleeve what they list liberty in things of the minde being the great bait or philter of Independency so those whom they reject are like enough to take liberty to do what they list little or no care being taken of them and they being cast off without any great crimes may be careless what they do since they can speed no worse though their crimes become greater I know nothing can so much excuse the former frame and temper as the succeeding as Augustus adopted Tiberius to reflect more glory upon his own raign by comparison with his Successors comparatione deterrimâ sibi gloriam quaesivisse saith Tacitus nor any thing that can more endear the present frame and temper of the Church but the like fear which the old woman had that prayed for Dionysius of Sicily It is no new thing to transfer upon others our proper faults Me suo nomine exulem vocat as Nero set Rome on fire and charged it on the Christians and yet all the time of the burning too he sang some of Homers doleful verses but ori digitum for the fore-finger that used to stop the mouth had the attribute of salutaris from antiquity But to revert to the question as stated by the Apologists If there were no other Gulph between us but the necessity of Examination of our knowledge in order to our admission to the Sacraments we might sooner come together but yet first why this should be onely necessary in the reformation of a long corrupted Church and not be of a stable permanent necessity seeing knowledge is always needful in every Communicant and they will be satisfied that every one is knowing and that satisfaction cannot be had without examination as they pretend they have not favoured our ignorance so farre as to tell us and I doubt we shall need not onely some Delian diver but Elias himself to come to resolve us 2. In reformation of a long corrupted Church there may be an obviousness of reason to examine those that are corrupt or suspected to be so but all are not so we hope and why all should then passe under examination our dulness needs to be prompted to apprehend the reason 3. It had had more of rational congruity to examine in reforming an ignorant Church rather than a corrupt for there may be knowledg enough where there are corruptions too many 4. We are left in a mist also and need to have it cleared up to us how they understand the Church to be corrupt whether with the Brownists the comparative degree of this separation they suppose the reformed Churches to be corrupt in the first constitution and in Essentials which though directly they affirm not yet implicitely and by consequence they seem to say it why else do they gather new Churches and separate from the former Congregations Among Heathens they might finde a proper spheare for such activity not here if there be Churches already gathered to their hand and they cannot in my sense stand firm and unshaken upon this degree or stair unless they ascend to the superlative degree of separation and require a farther probation in order to the re-acception of the other Sacrament and so as the Papists upbraid us to have had no Church before Luther they will gratifie them farther confessing that till now gathered by them we had none since 5. If they suppose corruptions onely in Accidentals in doctrines not fundamental but that charge they have seemed to wave or in discipline and manners this indeed is the way to keep the power in perpetual exercise qui velit potestatem perpetuam velit for whatsoever the Donatists may talk of a Church in this world without spot or wrinkle yet as Beda tells us who according to his wont took the hint thereof from Augustine while the Apostle saith Retract l. 2. c. 18. That he viz. Christ might present to himself a Church not having spot or wrinkle he first said glorious sufficiently signifying when she should be without spot or wrinkle to wit when she should be glorious here she may be fair but among women onely by comparison and yet is black still habet aliquid Aethiopici decoris as Origen Since then Corruptions will still be and Reformation thereof ought always to be they need not have limited the necessity of examination in these terms in reformation of a long corrupt Church but have determined it always necessary 6. And of necessity we must cast dirt in the faces of the Churches of God that have preceded us as well in dignity as time if in reformation of a long corrupt Church this examination be necessary The godly Judges and Kings of Israel and Judah with the assistance of the Prophets and Priests oftentimes had a zeal like fire to consume the grown corruptions and purge and purifie the Church yet there is no light that there was any such fiery tryal of those that were to come to the
probant illud tamen ut ab ecclesia susceptum non à Deo praeceptum exigunt And howsoever this be vendicated as the Doctrine and practise of the Reformed Churches especially those that are of Presbyterian model yet in the necessity and so also in the Universality thereof it is but a Servant lately taken in for a need that weares the badge or cognizance of the family but it is not of the linage or right off-spring We know that Gentlemen of this Nation that travell into France or Holland upon the offer of themselves are ordinarily admitted to partake the Sacrament without examination and even in the Church at Charenton the most celebrious of the Nation 3. We doe not so much oppose this pretended power of examination as the consequence of it As Qui veterem fert injuriam invitat novam so if we give place to one imposition we make way for more and as in Gods Law he that offends in one point is guilty of all so in mens commandments he that gives up his liberty in subjection to one thing forfeits it in all for even in this concernment Eadem est ratio partium totius and if obedience be due to one command it is also to more that shall come stamped with the same authority 4. Neither doe we at all contest against an expediency of examination relatively to some persons such as lye under a violent or morally probable suspicion of ignorance Quando intercedit sufficiens ratio ad generandum dubium as the Schoole defines it who being convicted to be ignorant we deny not but it is fit their approach be somewhile retarded untill they are better instructed but such whose understanding in the Gospel is well known Reply to Dr. Whitgift p. 164. or which doe examine themselves Mr. Cartwright saith their meaning is not they should be examined and when there shall appeare an expediency of Examination none but will say it may be done aswell in private and that it shall sort better as well with charity as prudence to doe it so But though palpably ignorant persons may be excluded yet it is a fallacy of the consequent to conclude that therefore all must be examined There are some that are elevated above all suspition of ignorance and there are other wayes of discovery of ignorance besides particular examination upon interrogatories Themselves tell us that they examine none that are taken to be Disciples and therefore they may know them to be such without examination by their education discourse actions and imployments Were a Pastor so familiarly conversant with his Flocke as he ought to be and is some thinke implyed not onely by Paul's preaching from house to house but also by those alike-used Scripture idioms the Church in or among you and you in the Church or did not deeme the feeding of the Lambs by catechising to be beneath his magistery and greatness he would need no other marks or signes to know his Sheepe by than such as he might take from common conversation Even themselves say that Christ needed not to examine his Disciples before they did partake of his Supper because they were known to him § 12 but if their Sheep be not also known to them they are no good Shepheards that practically know their duty But to dispute No ignorant person ought to be admitted therefore all ought to be examined whether they are ignorant is as I have elsewhere instanced as if I should argue no Ideot ought to mannage his own estate therefore all ought to be examined whether they are Ideots before they be admitted to the mannagement of their Fortunes and is somewhat analogous to Bellarmine's reasoning that because Ambrose censured Theodosius therefore he was a lawfull Judge of him in an external Court to examine matters in order to his sentence who notwithstanding proceeded onely ex evidentia facti And however we cannot thinke it fit to examine silly Maid-servants what is the Essence of God that is a depth too great to put an Elephant in much more a Lambe The Philosopher could say De Deo hoc tantùm dic Esse and Gregorie better Ne vocabula quidem Dei naturae congruentia reperire homines possunt and therefore de Deo cùm dicitur dici non potest And we should also thinke it very usefull to affie the Standard of the Sanctuary and to determine what measure of knowledge may be a competency for the Sacrament It is evident that the Catechumeni presently upon their baptisme were anciently admitted to the Eucharist Durantus for this cites the authority of many Fathers de ritib. Eccles lib. 1. cap. 19. p. 161. Albas de veter Eccles rit l. 2. obs 22. p. 315. Mr. Ball answ to Can. 2 part p. 58. Sylvius 22. ae qu. 2. art 10. conclus 3. p. 28. Usher serm on Ephes 4.13 and answer to the Jesuite p. 311. 312. Bellarm. de Verbo Dei l. 4. cap. 11. Hieron ad Pammach tom 2. p. 238. hist l. 7. c. 30. and yet Albaspinus tells us that during their catechumenacy they were taught nothing de arcanis Sacramentorum and the profession at first required of all that were received to Baptisme as a learned Divine affirmeth was that they beleeved the Father the Son and the holy Ghost Regulam fidei per baptismum accipimus saith Irenaeus qui baptizandi erant olim solitos reddere seu recitare Symbolum is affirmed by Sylvius out of many antient Authors In the Eastern Church they recited the Nicene in the Westerne who saith Bishop Usher applyed themselves to the capacity of the meaner sort more than the Easterne the Apostolicall and both he and Erasmus shew that the Apostles Creed which the Fathers called regulam fidei was not so large at first as afterward when it was enlarged by accession of sundry Articles occasioned by the emergency of severall Heresies and other occasions Bellarmine is very confident and we take up this arrow to shoot it back against himself that the Apostles never used to preach openly to the people other things than the Apostles Creed the ten Commandements and the Sacraments Hierom tells us in his time there was but fourty dayes allowed for catechizing the Heathen Ut per quadraginta dies publicè tradamus sanctam adorandam Trinitatem saith he which insinuates what was the Doctrine taught them and the same thing Cyrillus Hierosolymitanus omnis testatur antiquitas addes Victorius in his Scholâ—a and Socrates relates the whole Nation of the Burgundians were catechised seven dayes the eighth were baptized and if we may judge of their proficiency by the time of instruction it could be no great stock of knowledge that aliens from the Church and Faith could acquire in that interim in all probability not so much as the Children of the Church may doe after so many yeers teaching as the other had dayes The Apostles themselves at the first institution had a very small cantle of knowledge who had onely an
any other than self-examination is not onely efficacious in general concerning the necessity of things to be done or beleeved but in this place and upon this very account is specially approved by Interpreters and urged as conclusive to the excluding the necessity of any other examination Another tells us that the Corinthians were a Church lately planted a people newly called out of the world and converted to the Faith and therefore it was to be presumed they were sufficiently qualified both for knowledge and sanctity and needed no other but the proper examination of their own hearts But I shall reply First if they were newly converted and so late begotten of the seed of the Word they were then lefs grown in explicite knowledge and less perfectly instructed in the mysteries of the Faith and therefore did more need to be put under probation in the notion of the Catechumeni but in truth the Church of Corinth had been divers years planted and the Apostles baptizing whole Families Yonglings as well as aged as other Texts warrant us to assert against the Anabaptists in all probability besides the first Converts there was now since the first constitution of that Church a second rise and growth sprung up to be adult and capable of the Sacrament Secondly the Rule of the Apostle is written for our instruction catholique and extensive to all times places and persons not limited or restrained to the Corinthians and to confine and appropriate general precepts to special times and particular persons is artificium haereticum to expilate and exhaust the Armory of the Church and imbezill the Weapons of the Faith and tends to defeat the standing Forces of Scripture Thirdly ex concesso this will then consequently exempt from examination verbal or real such as may well be presumed to be sufficiently qualified and so it is not of necessity that the probation should be general Fourthly the whole Epistle sheweth how culpable those Corinthians were and how many were their errors in faith and spots in manners so that for ought I know our Congregations generally abstracting them from these dismal Heresies which have lately spawn'd from and been fostered by men of like principles to those we dispute against and which for ought I see obstruct no mans access to the Sacrament if his Seraphical Elevation can vouchsafe a condescension to Ordinances are not more guilty or obnoxious Even in this very concernment of their qualifications for the Communion it appears by 1 Cor. 11.20 30. that many of them received unworthily and discerned not the Lords body from common meat and had taken too much drink before they came to partake of the mystical Cup Yet neither doth the Apostle command nor encourage the intermission of the Lords Supper nor reprehend those that were better qualified and conditioned for communicating in a mixt Congregation or among the Rout as they phrase it with somewhat too strange a spice of the old Pharisee as if it had been either a stain to their holiness or a pollution to their persons or an obstacle to the fruit and efficacy of the Sacrament neither doth he charge or caution the Elders thenceforth to admit no more without a pre-examination Another thus answers That this self-examining is onely meant of that judging which prevents the judgment of God mentioned ver 31. which no mans examining of another can doe but onely his examining of himself But if this were granted yet then it follows however that no other but such self-examination is required by the Apostle for he prescribes no other but this and that is as much as we contend for But when that learned man tells us in the same place that the Pastors and Elders of Corinth had admitted some to the Lords Table whom they judged fit and worthy Communicants but God judged otherwise of them it was no impudence nor presumption in us to expect that he would have shewed us where there is one syllable at least that mentions the admission onely of such as were by them thought fit or of any probation made of their fitness that were not notorious and scandalous sinners and if self-examination be sufficient to prevent Gods judgement it must be enough to prevent all sinne every sinne being waited on by judgment and consequently to prevent a sinful receiving there needs none but a self-examination Another takes this bone in hand and would crush and break it with this interposition That to the right examination of a mans self such dispositions and graces are requisite as no unconverted man is capable of so as though upon self-examination a man might be admitted yet no man not having manifest signs of being in the state of grace can hereupon ground any title or claim to the Sacrament as being not susceptible of self-examination Whereunto I shall say not to reflect that it carries a spice of Socinus to hold that onely persons converted are capable of the Sacraments that it is a supposition suitable to their principles that they assume a power to judge the secret things of the heart for it was wont to be an indubitable maxime De occultis non judicat Ecclesia and of that nature is the right discharge of the duty of self-examination They can pretend but to make judgment onely of externall actions and such as may give scandal and offence those they can take cognizance of and they lye within a judicial Sphear but the other viz. the secret things of the heart fall within none but a divine Horizon and none can be scandalous onely for such things because no others can take notice of them I shall still retreat to my first Fortress I reade Let a man examine himself not that any should examine his examination Nay positively I finde that upon self-examination he may so eat which liberty cannot consist with a necessity of having self-examination examined by another Men are commanded not onely to examine themselves in order to receiving the Eucharist but also generally to try their ways Lam. 3.4 and their works Gal. 6.4 and if unconverted men cannot doe this they may upon like account bring them under examination for their whole life give a new name to the same thing of auricular confession And if unconverted men cannot examine themselves how shall they know themselves to be unfit and unworthy that they may repent and better dispose themselves and in the interim abstain Who gave them liberty or means to search the heart who are not proper Masters to whom men must stand or fall But they tell us that there is a two-fold knowledge Intuitive which is by an immediate looking on and Arguitive or according to the more usual Scholastick term Discursive which is by comparing one thing with another and reasoning from one thing to another in the first way God onely knows the hearts of men in the second sense we may know the condition of mens hearts by their outward actions as a tree by his fruits Whereunto I shall answer
some men into causeless contempt and carry a suspicion of or a tentation to pride in others When it is said in the Gospel Jesus answered when none spake to him some interpret it that he answered to truth speaking in his conscience Whether the Apologists in the excuse of themselves for pride answer to their own consciences I know not but as I conceive that the paper never taxed their persons with pride so here in this place it did not impute to their way that it did bear appearance or might prove an occasion of pride unless as pride is the root of every sin since none turns away from the chiefest good but out of an inordinate affection in some thing or other of his own excellency which is the effence of pride or as more specially it is the source of judging and despising others or may be a symptomatical disease consequent to this other Pride therefore like it self usurps and takes place of other things here and we shall bid it sit lower and shall trasfer that consideration to the 21 Section when we come to dissect Diotrephes whereof pride is the very form or proper passion In the mean time to tell us First that religious courses have been usually branded with pride and rigor and sullenness which is but commune argumentum since such misprissions are not the proper passions of religion and this being held forth in relation to themselves and their defence doth Secondly imply that they are humble and godly and that we say the contrary which is ignorantia clenchi for we desire not to beat down Plato's pride with pride nor think Satan can cast out Satan and therefore will not commit the fault while we are decrying it that is to judge others while we dispute against judging others we are not tempted to think the Apologists ungodly we define not of their state we onely by way of admonition tell them their way and actions have the appearance of evil And thirdly doth insinuate That their separation is an holy and not an humerous singularity which is but petitio princlpii and Fourthly is but an appeale for the truth of all this to their consciences which is onely testimonium domesticum And besides in propriis caecutimus omnes and as the reflex beam is weaker than the direct so we see our selves more partially than we do others And also Augustine adviseth curemus etiam nihil facere quod veniat in suspicionem and elsewhere renders the reason duae res sunt conscientia fama conscientia necessaria est tibi fama proximo tuo qui confidens conscientiae negligit famam crudelis est yet in all this if they will sit down like Narcissus to contemplate their own image we shall not here trouble the water nor bring up truth from the bottome to represent them another face not of their state but of those actions though elsewhere we suppose we have held them forth a glass that may better shew them their feature which I hope will not find the like fate with that in the fable which the old woman cast away in anger for shewing her more odd and ill favoured than she pleased her self with a conceit of all this is but shooting at Rovers not at Pricks and therefore if the arrows did fly as thick as to darken the sun as they are more like to bring darkness than light yet we may securely not fight as Diaeneces said by occasion of the boast of the multitude of the Persian shafts but sit down in the shaddow SECT XIX 1 Cor. 13.7 considered Whether they suspect not much evil believe or hope little good of their People Of examining the knowing to be exemplar to the ignorant or to manifest their humility Whether it be their duty to submit to such a passive examination Whether to call them to it be not directly to detract from them or interpretatively to defame them Small matters are often great in consequence 2 Cor. 11.2 examined The properties of charity in hoping and believing All the ignorance charged is not to know it to be duty to submit to their commands Whether conversion may be sudden Whether the Church have loss or gain by these Waies of pretended reformation THese Sections of theirs which like the Gemini when one goes out the other appears are twins indeed and very like ovum ovo non similius as the Poets sable the Gemini were produced out of eggs facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen qualem decet esse sororum All these are but lusoria tela non decretoria wherewith they do ventilaze non pugnare as Seneca and flourish rather than fight They scornfully upbraid and despise my writing as being Rhetorick onely I wish I could say that theirs were such the Palm may give a shrewd blow the Emperor Maximinus therewith struck down a Tribune to the ground and if it reach home and fall with force makes greater impression than a loose and half clinched fist of a weaker armo but let an equal Arbiter judge whether they deal not here with me as Tissaephernes did with Xenophon who followed him where ever he marched yet at distance and came not to any close Encounter but onely raised fire and smoak about him The Scripture hinted at by me they say must be 1 Cor. 13.7 but they might have pleased to have took notice also of the 5. verse and to have taken in totum telum those texts fully and plainly demonstrate as is liquid enough by the words without clearing thereof by consent of many Interpreters that it is the property and character of charity Omnia tolerare aut continere est enim saith Menochius metaphora sumpta a tignis pondus aliquid fulcientibus vel a vasis quae nihil exudant liquoris valde proprium charitatis aliorum defectus tolerare silentio premere quae aliis nocitura sunt aut famam denigrando aut alia ratione incommodum aliud afferendo not to suspect the worst of any man not to reckon or impute evil to any man as the Greeks Vatabius and Dr. Hammond thinks the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in melius omnia interpretatur as Aretius non facile mali quicquam suspicatur dubia in partem accipit meliorem as Grotius omnia meliora credit sperat as A Lapide etiamsi in speciem vita mores minus respondeant imodiversum praese ferant etiamsi parum spei conceptae respondeant mores as Marlorat out of Meyr meliora semper defiderat subsequutura sperat as Bulliuger and inverts the verse saith Martyr and saith Qui non est hodie cras magis aptus erit and it inclines a man to believe without prejudice all the good that he hears or can have any ground in charity to believe of him to hope what he believes not Cas Consci l. 5. c. 15. p. 296. Ames Explicat decal oper tom 1. p. 1445. and never so far to despair of his
the battell of Salamis in honor of the victory every man gave the second place to Themistocles though he named himself first so if one be an Antinomian another a Socinian another an Antiscripturist yet every one is an Independent that as Pacianus said Christianus mihi nomen Catholicus cognomen illud me nuncupat istud ostendit so Independent is the praenomen what ever be the agnomen of hereticks Thirdly but I cannot truly deny nor shall unwillingly grant that there are some godly men of that notion yet though I shall not say as Vopiscus relates it was said of good Princes In uno annulo posse praescribi depingi at contrà quae series malorum nor altogether with Eubulus the Comicall Poet that checkt himselfe for declaiming against womâ—n for if this were naught yet that was not good but soon found himself at a stand not being able to find more of the good but multitudes of the evill yet I believe those godly men are Rari nantes in gurgite vasto Like the Israelites as two little flocks of Kids but the contrary kind like the Syririans fill the Countrey And then 4ly it was no great honor to Sodom that one Lot was their Citizen there are some white men among the Negroes yet is that the land of Blackmoores Even Mercury a desperate poyson hath some parts which being separated from the whole are Antidote Fiftly Those purely meer Independents which have no mixture of other heresies or prophaness and are godly men yet their light doth not shine so bright that as in the Sun those lesser starrs that move about him do seem as spots so their holiness should be defiled by a communion with others less holy neither are they like the Sun which by his matchless light perstringeth and eclipseth all other starrs and attracts all eyes upon his pearless beauty Their godliness may onely be an apology for their station and immunity as Photius tells us that those which made Synesius a Bishop before he believed the resurrection made this defence for so doing that they found many excellent graces in him and that they could not but think them useful to the Church of God and hope that God would not let them all perish Lastly as some of them are purged from filthiness of the flesh so I wish they were also as much from that of the spirit and were holy as well in spirit as in body yet as heresie so schisme is ranked also among the works of the flesh Gal. 5.20 where if it stand not under the notion of heresie as indeed Tremelius out of the Syrivck reads Schismes where we do Heresies and betwixt these two there is such an affinity and complicition as betwixt the Midiauites and Ishmaelites that one is taken for another or each intermixt with other and Schisme saith St. Augustine is sometime called Heresie not that it is Heresie but because it disposeth to it yet it falls under this comprehension of variance emulations wrath strife c. and as Schisme springs from pride and an overweening conceit of themselves as the efficient whereof the signum pathognomonicum is a fastidious contempt of others so the impulsive thereof Gerson tells us what it is propter quaestum propter vanam gloriam sutably to that whereby Augustine defines an Heretick qui alicujus commodi temporalis maximè gloriae principaâ—ùsque gratiâ falsas novas opiniones vel gignit vel sequitur and I wish Independents could acquit themselves of these Imputations and should be glad if they would set off themselves clear from those exceptions who in one respect like the clove tree drink up all the moisture of the Land and aswell pretend to ingrosse the very dewes and showers of heaven to themselves as they really intercept the fat streames of earth and in another respect are like the tree in Ferro one of the Canaries from whence must drop all the water and from thence onely to be conveyed to the whole Island And therefore what ever may be said of the godliness of Independents yet since they cannot well traverse or plead not guilty to an indictment of Schisme I think as the Greek proverb saith That a good Goat a good Cat c. are bad beasts so the best Independent is in this respect evill Contra Donat. post Coll. tom 7. p. 122. if in no other for as St. Augustine Quantumlibet laudabiliter se vivere existimet yet being separate from the Church hoc solo scelere quod a Christi unitate disjunctus est non habebit vitam Schisme in his judgement being a sin of deeper grain than idolatry for Qui fecerunt idolum usitata gladii morte perempti sunt Epist 162. ions 2. p. 142. qui vero schisma facore voluerunt hiatu terr principes devorati turba consentiens igne consumpta diversitate paenarum diversitas agnoscitur meritorum But dissentiunt inter se contra unitatem omnes consentiunt as Augustine of his Donatists they see some imperfection in the Independant way and they see very little that discerne not much imperfection therein and they know not their own to be altogether free and how can the stream be clear when the spring is corrupt the one and the other are paralel wayes trodden out by the same line and leading down the same precipice and diffet but as iter actus via in the Law the one is a little larger and more extensive than the other there may be some little dist inction but no materiall difference between them save in this onely that the one Baptize the Infants of those that are not of their Churches which the others deny to do They here acknowledge they agree in the greater and differ but in the lesse things which I think may be restrained and limitted to discipline especially and they confesse both parties to have the self same interest or rather it should be the same self interest and therefore when they accuse the Independent way of Imperfection In tabulam Syllaejam dicunt discipuli tres and as we see it truth which Tully saith ut oculus sic animus Je non videns alia cernit so it is as true that they are dimme and decaying eyes which can better discerne things at some distance than nearer hand and apprehend other mens imperfections more clearly than their own And if they know not their own way to be altogether free from imperfections why can they not patiently abide to hear that which may make them know it to be imperfect how do they so confidently assert that way in malis suis defensionis fomitem quaerunt as Gregory speaks Non semper corrupta est mens male operantis sed emper corrupta male desendentis wherefore so violently enforce it unless as the Pope said he would write Fiatur in despight of Grammer so they will have a Fiat for their imperfect modell in defiance of truth and usupre a like power to that which Stapleton
and they lie unto God with their tongues when they pray Psal 76.36 aswell as others in their judgment seem to lie or give false testimony when they give them the Sacrament And why those reasons then should be of weight to exclude from the Sacrament but not to debarre from prayer A Lapide in Levit. 19.36 I know not where to lay the cause but upon the divers weights and divers measures which the Hebrewes say pollute the Land and prophane the name of God and that more truly than they can prove the free admission can pollute or prophane the Sacrament onely when they are resolved to assume a power to keep whom they please from some Ordinances that they may better keep them in awe and hold them in subjection To exclude from prayer is neither so specious to attempt since as among the Heathens to what Deity soever the sacrifice were intended yet there was an invocation of Janus and Vesta also so among the Christians whatsoever be the Ordinance attended upon it is seconded with that of prayer and invocation of God and this is the Salt that must season all other sacrifices disposing to and attending on them for improving their fruit and effect and therefore this species carries away the name of the genus from the rest and the Hebrew and Greek aswell as the English call this by the name of Service not without warrant sealed by God himself who calls his house an house of proyer denominating it from the chiefest service but also to withold them from prayer is lesse possible to effect for men may pray without concurrence of a Minister but not receive the Sacrament without it be consecrated by him But they have laid an obligation on the Church of England Perpetuúsque animae debitor hujus erit in undertaking to prove that some of the particular Congregations are true Churches Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis Tempus eget we cannot allow them to be auditors of that sum nor to cast it up with their new Counters who it seems suffering none to come to the Sacrament without their Let-passe would rise higher to permit none to passe for true Churches which have not their Communicatory letters Seminibus jactis se sustulit arbos Exiit in coelum ramis soelicibus but which are those that are true Churches and what is that which is constitutiv◠or destructive to either of them As Adrian Turnebus used to hit more right when he set down predictions of the weather clean contrary to the Prognosticators so perchance he may aim nearer to truh that denominates some of those not true Churches which they so call and some of them true whom they name not such but seeing they allow the Word and Sacraments for notes of a visible Church Field of the Church l. 2. c. 2. p. 51. whereunto some of our great Divines have appended another which admitted might also perchance disfranchise some of those that usurp and appropriate the name of Churches viz. an union and connexion of men in this profession and use of the Sacraments under lawfull Pastors and guides appointed authorised and sanctified to direct and lead them Contro 4. de Eccles l. 3. c. 2. in consonancy wherewith Bellarmine himself defines the Church to be Caetus hominum ejusdem Christianae fidei professione corundem Sacramentorum communione ligatorum sub regimine legitimorum pastorum But indeed the other two being as they grant the Inseparable absolutely proper peculiar and essentiall notes for scire est per causas scire and therefore being both the formall cause of a Church giving Being thereunto in constituting and conserving it while it is taught by the Word and by the Word and Sacraments is gathered together to God and being the effect of the Church constituted while it teacheth others they cannot but demonstrate the Church à priori à posteriori and therefore being adequate unto the Church Gerhard loc com tom 5. de Eccles c. 10. p. 306. 309. and inseparable from it it may firmly and immoveably be collected saith Gerhard that where the Word is preached and the Sacraments administred there is a Church and reciprocally where there is a Church there is the Word preached and the Sacraments administred upon this ground therefore as the Church of England was a true Church so were also all the particular congregations being similar parts of that nationall Church as that was of the Catholique and if in respect of that common nature found in them they were not Species of the Church in general yet they were members thereof as it is an integrall body for they had all of them the Word preached and professed purely without any error in the foundation which onely nulls a Church and the Sacraments legitimously administred for matter and form and had there been some corruption in the doctrine and administration yet as totas Ecclesias non esse aestimandas ex solis pastoribus Whitak Cont. 2. de Eccles q. 5. c. 17. p. 541. Iunius Eirenic part 1. tom 1. p. 715. 716. Animad in Contro 4. Bellarm. l. 4. c. 2. p. 1132. Ibid. p. 1131. nec ex qui busdam paucis as Whitaker and Gerhard so these corruptions had onely made a cease to be a pure Church not to be a Church so long as the foundation had stood it had been the house of God though hay and stubble were built thereupon saith Whitaker it had continued to be a Church untill Deus renunciaverat iis testificatione publicâ as Junius in the like case the Word and Sacraments simply and absolutely distinguished a Church from prophane Assemblies and the incorrupt preaching of the Word and legitimate administration of the Sacraments from hereticall congregations though properly as Iunius observes the preaching of the Word being actus hominum est Index illius notae non nota primaria jam enim ante habuit notam Ecclesia Dei veritatem verbum veritatis à Deo quà m praedicatio exstiterit so as sure our Congregations were lately all Churches Fuimus Troes fuit Ilium ingens Gloria Dardanidum But since their brethren in principles sought to undermine our Churches and having made the match and their zeal giving fire to the hidden mine by a new powder-plot have blown up these Churches and thereby not onely rent and dissipated them one from the other but scorched and mortally wounded them with fundamentall errors I think now it is not without due caution and circumspection that they say onely some of our Congregations are true Churches for as Diogenes sought a man with a Lanthorn at noon-day at Athens so amidst all the late new light we have more need then ever of that lamp unto our feet to find a Church and they do therefore ingenuously call themselves of the Congregational way for they are many of them out of the way of a true Church And though all that be of those principles are not vitiated with
truth which are the proper passions of those Dogges and Swine that are here described but from being convicted of any such notorious crimes whereby the Church might be scandalized For secondly though we should surrender what they cannot win by force That the Sacrament not onely falls within the notion of those holy things and pearls but was properly and primarily understood thereby yet it is farther questionable who those Dogges and Swine are and what constitutes and denominates them such The main current of Interpreters runs strongly this way and not to be withstood that hereby are intended such as blaspheme the truth which is set forth by trampling it under feet and those that persecute it signified by renting them that propound it Chamier tom 1 l. 10. c. 8. caetcri in locum p. 187. Bullinger advers Anabapt l. 6. c. 9 p. 229. Let Paraeus be as Plato in hearing whom you hear all the rest he speaketh saith he of the professed obstinate enemies of the Gospel who being convinced of the truth therof yet cease not either to blaspheme or violently persecute the same and the same way run Augustine Chamier Bullinger Perkins Diodate Grotius the English Annotations Jansenius Maldonate Barradius Estius who adds in his Annotations Huic praecepto obtemperavit Paulus Apostolus quando Judaeos videns insua perfidia obstinatos reliquit eos transivit ad genies Art 13. Such obstinate professed and impure enemies of the Gospel and the Ministers thereof persecuting them for their message as the late English Annotations decipher them we cannot but consent Idem omnes simul ardor babet should be kept not onely from the the Sacrament but out of the Church at least if they would yet be willing to enter and we suppose it imports them in duty to have no Doggs or Swine among their Flock as well as it concerns them to have none at the Lords Table and that therefore and if it were possible there could be any such within it which Vixisset cauis immundus vel amica luto sus that they ought to be cast out of the Church which like the aire of Arakia is too sweet to nourish any such swine and which can give no admission to Dogges which were not suffered to enter heathen Temples as Minerva's at Athens and Diana's at Delos nor to be toucht by the Flamen Dialis at Rome But as Junius applies the text to those that voluntariè certáque malitiâ sunt inimici veritatis Eirenic part 1. p. 727. tom 1 so he gives us two cautions Nè tomere judicium feramus de ullo homine quòd certâ maltâ—iâ deliberatâ oppugnet Deum verit tem Ecclesiam ejus alâ—â—era est si judieandum est ne ex frustu uno aut altero putemus arbores illas malas cegnoscere sed potius ex fructibus plurimis gravissimi diseamus cognoscere quod satis est ad cautionem nostram non autem ad istorum condemnationem But then next 1. Are those whom they admit not to the Sacrament to be stigmatized with those odious attributes as being culpable of those desperate affections and actions Do they reproachfully despise and revile the Sacrament or not rather reverently prize it and humbly desire it as pretious and the worst of them hath some devotion toward it qui possunt aliquam devotionem hujus sacramenti habere non est iis denegandum in the judgment of Aquinas Part 3. q. 80. art 9. Is there any danger of their doing mischief to those that should exhibit it would they not rather thank and honour them for it and is it not the rise of the quarrel because they cannot have it and the rent is made for not distributing thereof and they that should give they turn away and rent those that would gladly receave we may therfore assume what Whitaker saith to the Papists who allege this text to justifie their with-drawing the Scriptures from the people Controver 1. q. 2. c. 17. p. 308. as the Apologists do for withholding the Sacrament Certè populus parum illis se debere putet de quo tam abjectè parum honorificè sentiunt ut eos canum porcorum loco habeant Secondly is not this as odious a dishonour to the Churches of God as a disparagement to particular persons that they should be made as kennels or hogsties by having about ninety nine doggs or swine to one holy Christian How great a blasphemie is this saith the great Chamier to the Papists ubi supra upon the same occasion with Whitaker that whom God calls his sons any one should name doggs and swine to what end therefore do we believe the holy Catholick Church if the far greatest part thereof be doggs and swine We confess notwithstanding among Christians not a few there are which lead a life too much depraved but we deny any of them that are to be reckoned of the Church to be in the number of those that are here signified by doggs and swine although they live wickedly So he This will be indeed musick in Gath and a pleasant song in Askelon and if the Apologists and their brethren will not with some animals cover their excrements the Papists will find it out by the strong scent and cast it back in the face of our Church and of the dung that such black birds do drop they will make birdlime to catch and ensnare other birds But they plead that sin and contempt of Gods waies make them deggs the Scripture interpreting this expression to signifie men of a prophane life 2 Pet. 2.18 19 20 22. Prov â—6 â—1 The very inspection into the text may check their assertion for in that of Proverbs it is said that as a dogg returneth to his vomit so a fool returneth to his folly but may a man be denominated from every thing whereunto he may in any respect be assimilated or can a likeness secundum quid warrant an appellation simpliciter If so then as the Chymists fancy that there is nothing in the great world which is not represented in the little and there is really nothing within the clasp of the universe but man doth in some regard resemble it then as Adam once gave names to the creatures so now they might denominate man and man is all things and you may call him what you will That of Peter is but a rehearsal of that Proverb with an enlargement concerning the sow and if I should concede that here wicked men were called Doggs and Swine yet let them recognize what those wicked men were viz. Simon Magus and his Gnosticks the dreggs and fink of mankind Christians onely in name So Estius Justinian Hammond c. and baptized Pagans who had the name of Borborites from dung and durt saith Augustine they were so filthy and contaminate with impurities beyond all that ever the Sun discovered or darkness hid which are like a dead carcass fitter to be
he affirms that communicant Altari Christi non alienis peccatis non facta cum talibus sed Domini sacramenta communicant and confidently gives this Corollary Manifestum non contaminari alienis peccatis quando cum iis sacramenta communicant Epist 48. tom 2. p. 36. And as in answer to this text urged by Cresconius he saith Vt ostenderet quemadmodum quisque non commuâ—icaret alienis peccatis ad hoc addidit Te ipsum castum serva non enim qui se castum servat communicat alienis peccatis quamvis non corum peccata sed illa quae ad judicium sumunt Dei sacramenta communicet cum iis à quibus se castum servando facit alienum alioquin etiam Cyprianus quod â—absit peccatis raptorum soeneratorum collegarum communicabat cum quibus tamen in communione divinorum sacramentorum manebat So elswhere he tells the Dona ists upon this occasion Contra lit Petil l. 2. c. 22. Non dixisse Dominum praesente Juda nondum mundi estis sed jam mundi estis addidit autem non omnes quia ibi erat qui mundus non erat qui tamen si praesentia sua caeteros pollueret non iis diceretur jam mundi estis sed diceretur ut dixi nondum mundi estis certè si putatis apud nos similes esse Judae haec verba nobis dieite mundi estis sed non omnes non autem hoc dicitis sed diciâ—is propter quosdam immundos immundi estis omnes Whereas they say that as in Civill Judicatories there are Principals and Accessories so before God there will be too non-examiners are accessories before the fact But the Law wil supply them with as little aid as the Gospel for in Law he is onely an accessory before the fact that abets precures consents to or commands a felony or any evill act from whence a felony proceeds but first as the lowest offences involve no accessories as trespasses so by proportion where the faults are not exitious or scandalous dalous there should be no accessories by commuunion with such as are onely so faulty And secondly where the action is naturally good that is commanded though in pursuance thereof a Felony may be committed the commander of the act is not accessory to the Felony so the receiving of the Sacrament being in its own nature a good and necessary duty he that consents or should enjoyn them to receive who become unworthy receivers is not accessory to the unworthy reception So thirdly since participation of sin is onely in those acts which are evill in the kind and object thereof not in those acts which are good and the deficiency is onely in the well doing and that defect neither caused or consented to by another they therefore that suffer those to come to the Sacrament that partake unworthily and participate with them but not in unworthinesse neither abet procure consent to or command the unworthinesse nor are accessory to the Ataxy but the act not the formall but the naturall part thereof and the physicall not the moral action as long as he that administers or permits any to come to the administration is not the cause of their unworthy receiving nor the unworthinesse of the person known to him in that way wherein it regularly ought to be viz. 〈…〉 â—nd notorious knowledge though it be evill of the part of the receiver 〈…〉 â—he part of the giver nor is any fault to be imputed to him who cannot be 〈…〉 another partakes with an evill Suarez as before what he distributes with a good intent and affection And with the action of receiving there is not conjoyned necessarily and of it selfe the unworthinesse of receiving for he may partake worthily if he will so as there is no co-operation in evil but a permission which morally cannot be avoyded the co-operation being onely to the receiving not unworthy reception neither doth the administer doe against his conscience in administring for the Dictate thereof is not to be regulated by his private and speculative knowledge that this man is unworthy but by his practical knowledge considering what he ought to do for time and place in concurrence of such circumstances of the mans coming to demand the Sacrament and his occult unworthinesse and the administer doth not dispense it in his own name but according to order established by God forbidding any Church-member to be denied his right to holy things upon the private knowledge or will of the administer who is to distribute it not formally as to one worthy or unworthy but to one undivided from the Church and to exhibit that which is the witnesse of Christian profession to them professe the Christian faith the Sacraments being notes of the true Church and the receiving thereof an act of communion with the true Church And if this can support and justifie the dispensing of the Sacrament to such as by private knowledge onely are known to be unworthy much more will it bear out the dispensation thereof to those that are only suspected or have onely not upon triall given demonstrative signs of heir being worthy And seeing also unconverted men can neither hear nor pray with faith and consequently sin in both as well as when they partake of the Sacrament it must consequently be asmuch a partaking of their sins to admit them and communicate with them in the one as in the other What they tautologize and thereby constrain us like Mercury reasoning with Battus to conform to them because admisso sequimur vestigia pâ—ssu of the telling them that are unworthy and yet are partakers that they are â—aints interessed in Gospel privileges and promises and justified persons by giving them the seales of the now Covenant is neither pertinent to this subject of partaking their sins nor as hath been formerly manifested is consonant to truth or sound reason it makes them relative Saints and so are all Church members not effectively or meritoriously cut off The Sacrament â—eâ—s not men but the promises to them and upon condition of believing and that they may do to those that believe not and in the condiâ—ional promises all of the Church have interest which are the same promises in the word and in the Sacrament though differently applied and the one and the other hold forth justification in the same way of believing and upon such condition and not otherwise They are not assured that all those are justified to whom they impart the seales and why are any made saints interessed in the promises and justified more by this Sacrament if they should have it than by the other which they have That non examiners are accessories before the fact is one of their Dictates but none of their demonstrations That those who are under violent suspicion of grosse ignorance shall come under examination we deny not that those who are vehemently suspected of scandals may be examined and witnesses may be so also concerning them we grant
produced for what they slight in others viz. Rhetorick and for such it may pass by a favourable interpretation Rhetorick in her old clothes and homely dress being in truth words of vanity without any great swelling and al populum but scarce Phaleras But upon an Anclysis and reduction to argument of what is packt up we may find them in conspiracy with almost the whole knot and pack of fallacles Upon ignoratio clenchi dasheth all their discourse concerning the power of casting out of the scandalous for this is not the thing in question because it is not their way or practice who content not themselves onely with removing such nor are any of those whom they exclude consured for scandal As at Delphos usurpatum ut cultro quo diis immolabant de nocentibus supplicium sumerent so it shall be an acceptable service to God when they offer this spiritual sacrifice by censure to exclude such as are scandalous for notorious sins obstinately persisted in truncentur artus Ut liceat reliquis securum vivere membris but yet we cannot patient those qui per calumnias criminum alienorum sacrilegium sui schismatis excusant and therefore we inquire into the justice of the censure and the mode thereof and ask meruit quo nomine scrvus Quis testis adest quis detulit audi Nulla unquam de hac morte hominis cunctatio lovga est and we fear to grant that a visible unworthiness is a sufficient ground for exclusion when their eyes onely however the organ may be distempered must try that visiblenesse and that alone must be unworthinesse which they account such when perchance of the same counters one may stand for one and the other for an hundred according to the place wherein they shall please to set them or when the medium may be onely rumors and reports Cont lit Petil l. 3. c. 59. for not onely Quintilian warns us in rumore cujus probationes cujus argumenta non habes calumniae genus est primâ—m mcredere but Augustine also admonisheth neminem rectè judicari puto nocentem qui hominem non convictâ—m crediderit innecentem and we think he determined likewise with as much piety as prudence concerning such power in omnibus tenendus est modus aptus humanitati congruus charitati ut nec totum quod potestis exeratur mansuetudo monstretur Contr. Crescon l 3. c. 5.1 ubi vero nulla ex divinis humaxisque legibus poâ—estas conâ—editur nihil improbè atque impudenter audeatur And under this head we may incorporate what they suggest of the holinesse and purity that should be in the Church which looks altogether beside their scope who dispute not for the holinesse of the members of the Church therein not coming sully up to their Independent brethren but for the purity of those that communicare of the Sacrament and retain those as Church members whom they exclude from the holy Table and to prove that such holiness ought to be if they argue from the holiness of the Camp where was to be no unclean thing I suppose by proportion of this reason they should conclude to eject out of the town those also whom they repell from the Sacrament And because Discipline is necessary and profitable in the Church therefore to conclude the necessity and utility of theirs and that because there is requisite some separation of the scandalous from them by censure therefore they may separate from such as are not censured to be scandalous and that because we have covenanted to endevour a reformation and establishment of Discipline according to Gods word therefore we must submit unto and co-operate in advancing their Ecclesiastick Oeconomy All these are Paralogismes à genere ad speciem affirmativè and fallacies à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter and also fallaciae consequentis and is as if because both the harlots had children therefore the dead child must be sentenced to be laid in the bosome of her that was mother of the living or the living to be given to her that had over-laid her son To non causa pro causa and petitio principii is reducible what they say of the good effects which the excrecise of their discipline will produce and the evill consequences which the want thereof would introduce and this concelt is not onely like that of the Siennois which Laurentius speaks of who supposed his making water would save the town when it was on fire but would have drowned it if he should have shed it at another time but also hath somewhat in it of Cambyses who would have Praexaspes to commend his skill in Archery when he shot his son at the heart or like the daughter of Appius Caecus who being troubled with the crowd at the Theater for her ease wished that her brother were alive again to have carried them to be slaughtered at Sicily And under petitio principii also falls almost all those Harangues That the Sacrament only belongs to the godly whom they call Real Souls as if the souls of hypocrites were fictitious as wel as their holiness That free admission of such as are not scandalous justly censured for such is to be prodigall of Christs blood and to crosse the desires of the godly and actings of the State and to degenerate from the primitive patern Tha the troubles and contentions attending upon their courses are the effects of mens lusts onely not of their actings with the rest of that bold strain and those brasse stamps And after all their boasting of the clear prooss of their mode of discipline and specious pretences to engage men to submit thereunto yet so frequently to beg the question is to hazard the contracting of such a censure on their way as hath been cast upon Chymistry Principium est jactare medium decipere finis mendicatumire There be some things wherein they answer for us and therefore we must rather second than contradict Vereor ne quisquam in hoc opere nostro scriptorem arbitretur orrasse illic fecisse Petilianus dixit ubi debuit facere Augustinus respondit they say the wicked eat papanem Domini not panem Dominum But I think eâ—eâ—y man wil see that they could not eat the bread of the Lord if they must not be suffered to approach at the Table They tell us that Men upon good grounds to be admitted are supposed godly in the judgement of charity and if upon such judgement of charity they are admissible why do they trouble us with their probations to get a judgement of verity Charity thinketh no evill believeth all things and presumeth every man to be good that is not manifestly wicked But when they have dictated that to say bare profession without evidence of the seriousnesse thereof is enough to make the Church to own men for members is in their conceit not to speak soundly As their bare imagination without reason is not strong and mastering enough to bind and