They are not the next ages before us that we look upon as they odiously insinuate but the most antient and yet I wish that the present times may not ingratiate and endear the former age notwithstanding its corruptions and have the fate which some think Augustus aimed at in adopting Tiberius that the memory of his Government might be more sweetned by the succession of a worse In the 13. Section for we will still endeavour to collect and unite together what they have scattered of one concernment they seek to enervate the testimony of the antient Church by telling us out of the Lord Verulam That they which too much reverence old times are a scorn to new That the Fathers agreed in mistakes and were divided in truths That the Opinion of the Chiliasts taken for an errour is by Justin Martyr referred to the Apostles Irenaeus affirms that Jesus Christ lived fifty years on earth Lubbertus is cited to say it is the manner of the Fathers when they would commend a thing not knowing its original to refer it to the Apostles and primitive Times In the three first Centuries the Learned are perplexed with spurious works of the Fathers which makes uncertain the state of the Primitive Church which some extend not beyond the Apostles days or third Century and it is stretched too far to the age of Chrysostome We know and acknowledge that the Fathers like the Moon never borrowed so much light from the Sun of the Scriptures as to be clear of all spots Stapleton himself grants there is none of the Fathers in which something erroneous may not be observed they are like the Birds hatch'd at Cair by the warmth of an Oven which have every one some blemish and I wish their errours were of no other alloy than such as the Apologists have detected Piscator Alsted Mead Hackwel Gallus c. whereof that of the Chiliasts themselves dare not stigmatize for an errour and therfore unaptly alleage it but only say it hath been taken for one perchance they are more indulgent thereunto because it is a Darling fostered much fawned upon by many of their Brethren and indeed hath divers more learned assertors than them who consent in the thing though with some difference in the manner and for the conceit of Irenaeus it is a Chronological no Dogmatical errour and Chronologers are one of those three things that never agree Id calumniâ carere debebit saith Sulpitius Severus But because the Fathers might or did erre therefore to give no credit to their Witnesses would be in effect destructive to all kind of humane testimony From hence onely can be concluded that they are not infallible and therefore our understanding not to be captivated into any obedience to their Dictates in that sense we call no man Father save the Ancient of days and that iis in enucleandis fidei controversiis non necessarium est consentire tanquā ab omni exceptione veris Chamier tom l. 1. c. 6. p. 4. Aquin. 1. q. 1. art 8. ad 2. aut etiam in se possunt proferri ut quibus ex certa Suppositione certis etiam circumstantiis hic discernendi rectum ab obliquo usu convenire queat saith Chamier and authoritatibus Canonicae Scripturae utitur proprie ex necessitate argumentando authoritate autem aliorum Doctorum Ecclesiae quasi arguendo ex propriis sed probabiliter c. as Aquiaas But the errours of a single Father or their mutual differences cannot lay any obstructions in our way who lay no such great waight on their singular Opinions yet set much by their general consent in what the most and most famous in every age have delivered as received of them that went before them and as practised or beleeved by them What Lubbertus is alleaged to say will not make either scale theirs or ours to move much with the waight thereof the notion Apostles is not alway taken properly Dr. Ham. Resol 6. quae q. 5. p. 351. And see Parker of the Cross part 2. p. 126. de Baptis Contr. Don. l. 4. c. 24. alii Epist 118. c. 1. or strictly to be understood one great learned man hath manifested it that in the Primitive Times Bishops were usually called Apostles and another hath told us that the ancient Church extended the Apostolical Times beyond the age of the Apostles even to the Nicene Council The ignorance whereof perplexed Baronius to reconcile it How Scithianus and Terebinthus are said to live Temporibus Apostolorum who lived in Aurelians time 300. years after Christ and howsoever yet I know it was the rule of Saint Augustine often inculcated and approved by our principal Divines in matters of fact and practice That which the universal Church holdeth and which was not appointed by Councils but always observed is most rightly believed to have been delivered by Apostolical Authority If some Bastard Writings are put upon the Fathers which like Eaglets being brought forth to the sun are not very hard to be discerned by their inability to endure the light of critical examination there are others which the Learned are agreed upon to bear the characters of their true Off-spring which set the antient Church within our light and prospect and it is no argument that because some coyn is counterfeit therefore none must be current let them reject it if we offer to pay them with false money But I doubt their practice will need some counterfeit Writings to support it for the genuine Works of the Antients will lend it no authority They should much have favoured our ignorance to have pointed at those had their authority been worth our notice who confine the Primitive Church within the age of the Apostles or extend it not beyond the second centeury that we might have tryed what weight their reasons or authority carry in the counter-scales against the generality of the polemical Divines who though primitive be a relation and spoken always with respect to another so that what is primitive in reference to one is not so toward another yet they dilate the antient Church Doctoribus Ecclesiasticis 6. priorum saeculorum veterum patrum adscriberemus titulum Rivet tract de patr Author Tom. 2. p. 648. According to one of the Epocha's the time for the measured purity of the Inner Court and that is the visible Church remaining in its primitive purity is 454. years Mede's Remains on Rev. p. 20. whereunto more reverence and esteem is rendred unto the first five hundred years and within which Latitude of five hundred did Bishop Jewel impale the testimonies which he challenged his adversaries to produce in confirmation of several pieces of Popery and sure the age of Chrysostome which was the latter end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth Century was like the eighth Sphere which though not next to the first mover according to the old obsolete hypothesis yet had more bright stars than all the Orbs beside What they
dico nisi de eo tantùm qui in se quod dico esse agnoscit si enim extra conscientiam suam sunt quaecunque dico nequicquam ad injuriam ejus spectant cuncta quaedico si autem in se esse novit quae loquor non à mea sibi hoc lingua dici aestimet sed à conscientia sua but I not onely hope but am assured of better things of them however they are faulty so to suspect my meaning I am not culpable to insinuate any such suspicion but perhaps they would in this also be like the Donatists those among them called Circumcellions of whom St. Augustine tells us Cogunt eos quos in viis invenerint laethalia iis vulnera inferre so they will enforce me to would them whether I will or no and though I have as little cause as will to doe it in this particular They acknowledge repentance to be as necessary a disposition and qualification to receiving acknowledge and a part of examination to be that of repentance but when they should have answered our inference That then it carrieth equall reason to urge and practise a tryal of mens repentance antecedently to the Communion and that this must introduce as great a necessity of bringing men under confession as under their examination they keeping close to their familiar ignorantia elenchi which runs thorough all their discourse as the string of poyson doth thorough a Lamprey instead of answering whether it be universally and absolutely necessary doe onely tell us that Confession in a right and rectified manner and we fore-stalled them in these qualifications hath been and is practised in some difficult cases and they dislike it not And truly so much we shall say and grant them of their examination if they would require no more and let it be moderated and regulated as our Divines prescribe for Confession whereof Luther saith it is Utilis non necessaria Instit l. 3. c. 9. S. 12. debet esse libera nemo cogi wherein Calvin is Symphonous saying Si ita privatim angitur as flictatur peccatorum sensu ut se explicare nisi alieno adjutorio nequeat and adding iis tantùm modò commendetur Exam. conc Tri dent part 2. c. 5. qui eâ se opus habere intelligunt because as Chemnicius rationally asserts non est mandatum ut corda scrutentur so let their examination be proposed as profitable not imposed as necessary let it be somewhat of their prudence nothing of our bondage let it be exercised toward such as may justly be suspected of gross ignorance or exitious crimes for such a just suspicion onely is principium inquirendi as Vasquez speakes and others left free that are elevated above such suspicion and we shall be as perfectly reconciled to their examination as they or our Divines seem to be pacified toward confession But in the interim the Argument remains unshaken If repentance be as necessary a qualification to receiving and as essential a part of examination as knowledge then there is in order to communicating no less reason to introduce the discipline of confession than of examination if the one be set up the other must also be imposed if the one may be omitted the other may be laid aside if the one be but profitable to some the other is not necessary to all these two being like the subcelestial Gemini which appear ominously and unluckily the one without the other They assert their Principles in their separation and examination not to be Romish and we suppose by former instances we have demonstrated the contrary They profess to abhor the Church of Rome her ways and friends and to be able to maintain their cause without the Philistines forge however the Apologists may have a file for sharpning some of their Weapons yet in several subjects their main Armature was forged hammered out by the Popâ—sh Philistines for there was no Smith in Israel wont to own it Nevertheless they are no farther off from Popery than we are from any suspicion that they are thereunto affected one either practice or opinion gives not rise to a denomination But secondly we know though Saul had put away those that had familiar Spirits and Wizards out of the Land yet being in a strait and exigence he had recourse to one of them for counsel and I might say did I not doubt it might irritate that two Foxes though looking several ways may be conjoyned in a Fire-brand Thirdly besides that which is opposed directly may be farthered obliquely and by accident and some men may suppose they are in the way to Dothan when they are going to Samaria and suffer like delusion with those in Athenaeus who supposed themselves to be at Sea in a Tempest and casting out the Utensils of the house thought they had eased the ship of her luggage and were plying hard their Oars to attain their Port whereas all was but the effect of their cups and such Impostures may be occasioned by the golden Cup in the hand of the woman full of abominations though insensibly and unawares sip'd off as to make men dream they are doing one thing when they are acting another And as the Rabbins though vainly expounding Exod. 32.24 say that Aaron intended not to make a Calf but cast the golden Earings into the fire to consume them but by the operation of Sathan working by some Aegyptian Magitians in the Camp the form of a Calf came forth so it is neither impossible nor unusual for some proling men by over-witting and under-acting them to make their enemies unwittingly to drive on their designs and unwillingly advance their Interests as it was said of Pompey the Great Miscriâ nostrâ Magnus est so what sage man fears not that our divisions do more occasion and facilitate an union with that Kingdome which is not so much divided within it self and that not onely because the Trumpets must be of one peece that can call to the Assemblies but we see that water which is in an entire body is not so subject to the impressions of Air yet being scattered into drops is easily preyed upon and absorp'd by it and when a besieged City is set on fire the enemy who upon this account helps to blow and foment the flame may more easily enter and surprise it amidst our confusions And verely the unchurching of so many may make them more malleable to temptations to step aside into the Roman Church which is ready to spread her skirt over them in which respect he that put away his Church from this ordinance the Canon of the Nicene Councel saying Matrimonium inter Episcopum Ecclesiam esse contractum saving for the cause of fornication that is some noto rious sin causeth them to commit adultery or lastly in so little freedome to partake of the Ordinance and so great liberty to take up any wild and extravagant opinions truth and godliness may finally fall under such
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
that offence may come to all whereof the penalty hath fallen upon one and as it fares in the Church so it falls out alike in a Christian Common-wealth if the Laws be not duely executed in the punishment of Malefactors good men are scandalized and evil are encouraged by impunity and not onely the Justice of the Nation but the honour of Religion also is left obnoxious to obloquy yet however no man contradicts the moderating of civil punishments by clemency or approves the excess of Justice which is cruelty such as the Poet reproved in Sylla Ille quod exiguum restabat sanguinis urbi Hausit dúmque nimis jam putrida membra rescidit Excessit medicina modum nimiúmque secuta est Quà morbi duxere manus He must be more than a Cherubin that deignes not to looke to the mercy-seat Nec quisquam est cui tam valdè innocentia sua placeat Seneca de Clem. lib. 1. ut non stare in conspectu clementiam paratam humanis erroribus gaudeat It may fall out also in many cases what Livy tells us to have happened in that of Q. Maximus Nec minùs firma est disciplina militaris Q. Fabii periculo quam Titi Manlii miserabili supplicio and it is as consentient to prudence as the practice of States where there is a multitude of Delinquents to chuse out the fattest for Sacrifices to justice and with Tarquin to lop off the heads onely and where by a partial or negligent execution of Laws and administration of Justice offenders suffer condigne punishment it cannot yet warrant or excuse a denying of subjection or a raysing of sedition or an erecting and constituting new Common-wealths in the Commonwealth as if men could not live with a good and undefiled Conscience where were any bluntnes in the Sword or inequality in the Scales of Justice and why those considerations may not have some place and the reasons thereof be in some measure applicable to Ecclesiastical censures I confess I cannot apprehend but am yet to be instructed When the Church had no Civil Magistrate and very many sinnes there were which the Lawes took no cognisance of nor prescribed punishments for the Ecclesiastick Censures recompenced that defect Now when Municipall Lawes under Christian Magistrates are multiplied and extended to the correction of most offences the execution thereof might in some degree supply the neglect of Ecclesiastical censures and comply with the greatest part of the ends thereof as to humble and by shame to reclaime offenders to inhibit the contagious spreading of the example and to remove the scandall which Religion might contract by permitting offences to passe unpunished for as for pollution of others without society in sinne false testimony and sealing of blanks and the like I think the prevention thereof to be no proper end of censures 1 Cor. 5. nor finde any such thing intimated by the Apostle where he argueth and reasoneth for the putting away of that wicked person from among the Corinthians nor suppose them to be any more effectual meanes to that end than anciently in Eclipses the resounding of those aera auxiliaria mentioned in the Poets were to ease the ignorantly fained solis lunaeque labores Or the torches that were then held up were to reflect light on these great Luminaries I say the Laws of the Common-wealth might in some degree supply the neglect of Church censures which are to be exercised in palà m facinorosos maximè si circa hos magistratus officium non faciat saith Paraeus so farre In 1 Cor. 5. p. 14. 67. as to restrain and withhold men from separation or which is the moderne Periphrasis and new notion to blanch and palliate separation from gathering new Churches And this is that which to me seemes cardo negotii and that which I must insist on that though Excommunication be obstructed or laid asleep or culpably exercised and so there be a mixture of good evil in one Communion yet there must be no separation into the new gathered Churches The contrary opinion and practice was the very spirit and extract of the heresy of the Donatists Calvin tells us Instit. l. 4. c. 12. sect 12. that because the Bishops onely reproved some evils which they thought not profitable for the Church to punish with Excommunication therefore they made invectives against the Bishops and raised a schisme against the Churches of Christ Morton grand impost cap. 15. sect 25. Martyr loc com part 4. c. 5. p. 61. Parae in 1 Cor. 5. p. 467. Augustin contra Parmen l. 3. c. 1. 2. p. 12. 13. tom 7. And Dr. Morton shewes us that they separated from the other constituted Churches in Africa especially because of the mixture of Godly and wicked professors in one Communion and Peter Martyr and Paraeus both tell us out of Augustine that the Donatists objected to the Catholiques that they had no Church because they wanted Excommunication but St. Augustine answers them Dicant ergo si possunt meliorem se atque purgatiorem habere nunc ecclesiam quà m erat ipsa unitas beatissimi Cypriani temporibus who yet held communion of Sacraments with men notoriously culpable in una congregatione paria Sacramenta tractantes and though saith he siat hoc scil excommunicatio ubi periculum schismatis nullum est salvâ dilectionis synceritate custoditâ pacis unitate adhibitâ prudentiâ obedientiâ in eo quod praecipit Dominus ne frumenta laedantur yet as he instances in the case of Cyprian Quia non poterant ab iis corporaliter separari ne simul eradicent triticum sufficiebat iis talibus corde sejungi vitâ moribusque distingui propter compensationem custodiendae pacis unitatis propter salutem infirmorum veluti lactentium frumentorum ne membra corporis Christi per sacrilega schismata laniarent and to this truth his whole books are but one continued testimony and for this we have better even infallible and authenticke witness for when the incestuous Corinthian was not censured yet neither did any how much soever they might pretend to purity 1 Cor. 5. separate themselves into a gathered Church nor had any check from the Apostle for not doing so or command to doe it no not if in case as he had judged already that wicked person should not have been put away from among themselves And when the Angel of the Church of Thiatyra suffered that woman Jezabel to teach and to seduce Revel 2.20 and 24. to commit fornication to eat things sacrificed to Idols those which had not that Doctrine nor known the depth of Sathan were onely commanded to hold fast what they had and had no other burden put upon them because they had not separated Jezabel from the Church either of command to separate or of calamities and threatnings for not separating and for being defiled with such communion To conclude this discourse the thred whereof I have spun into some
ideo in hac ipsa causa graviter monebat videndum esse ne à Sathana occupemur cujus machmationes nemo Christianus ignorat It hath been the ill hap of all the Arguments hitherto alleaged to dash upon that rock ab authoritate Scripturae negativè It hath been their ill hap to be guilty of a palpable and gross mistake for the Argument collected from the admission of Judas was not such nay this very Argument in hand is not such for though we say we finde a precept Let a man examine himself none that he should passe the examination of another yet we do not argue that because the Apostle hath onely commanded the one therefore the other falls not under precept but we thus reason the Apostle requires a man to examine himself and permits him having done so to receive the Sacrament which is the natural analysis and genuine paraphrase of the Text and if any other examination were to intervene then having examined himself Answer to chall Josuit p. 8. Senensis biblioth l. 6. p. 527. For denying the necessity of Confession before receiving of the Sacrament Cajetan his Commentary on 3. q. 80 art 4. is left out of the Roman Edition Sylvius in 3. q. 80. art 4 p. 311. yet So nevertheless he could not be permitted to eat and drink and thereupon not onely the glory of this Nation and our Age Bishop Usher doth from hence extract this Porisma That in the Apostles dayes when a man had examined himself he was admitted to the Lords Table but the great Cardinal Cajetan though cross to the interest of his Church and his fellows are angry for it especially his constant evil genius Catharinus was sensible of the force of this consectary and concludes Dicendo Sic c. by saying and so he signifieth that to a worthy receiving of the Eucharist it is sufficient that a man have examined himself and useth this as a medium to conclude against necessity of confession and is therein applauded by one of his party viz. Petrus Soto Secondly had they been all such Negative Arguments I think they had not dashed upon a rock but been built upon it being founded upon the perfection of Scripture as I have formerly asserted Thirdly in the controverting of this question I am for the negative and Ponenti non infâ—cianti incumbit onus probandi per rerum naturam factum negantis probatio nulla sit saith the Law I had complyed with my part if I had shewed their model of Discipline had no foundation in Scripture to shew there was no necessity thereof that was enough for the Scripture denieth what it noteth not saith Hilary and we beleeve it not because we reade it not addes Hierom Fourthly would I use such wanton and licentious Arguments as the Apologists doe setting the Scripture upon a rack and violently forcing it to speak what is not in it not giving but making the sense of Scripture and so ex Evangelio Christi facere Evangelium hominis as Hierom and Scripturarum verbis pro esca uti as Athanasius we could not want superfluity of Arguments from Scripture authority affirmativè perhaps we might bring forth some of theirs as apt for our purpose as applicable to theirs if not more and might make such Idoll Mercuries of most of the Trees in the Paradise of God but God forbid we should so take his Word in vain and abuse both Scripture and our Readers as it is sadly evident to me the Apologists have done which we shall hereafter manifest and whereof if they shall not take shame we shall be ashamed in stead of Cato That nothing can be necessary about the practice of the Sacrament which is not there express'd they see no reason to yeeld but they should have spoken more rationally if they had shewed reason why they should deny but though they fall short of that yet they go too farre another way when they talk of no other thing necessary which they should limit to no other probation They are sure there is elsewhere which is not there that is certain but they should have said of this concernment and all is necessary that is revealed redundancy being a blemish to the word as well as deficiency although I am not willing to fall into Parerga's and to contract Pyrrhus his fault to be diverted by every petty occasion from the main and shall not therefore insist on rectifying this sorry expression yet I must touch upon it All that is revealed in Scripture is not necessary to be known or explicitly beleeved as that Paul left a cloak at Troas yet all that is known and sufficiently declared and particularly offered to consideration is necessary to be beleeved for the necessity of beleeving results not from the matter great or small but the formal reason or object and objectum formale quod est Deus in essendo sub quo Deus revelans say the Schools and this is the same toward all the material objects so as the smallest matters revealed and sufficiently propounded are to be beleeved necessitate praecepti although not medii and though not revealed because necessary yet are necessary because revealed and particularly declared consequently and accidentally necessary as secondary objects of Faith though not of themselves pertinent to the object of Faith Aquin. 22. q. 2. art 3. for Nihil per se pertinet ad objectum fidei nisi per quod homo beatitudinem consequitur but without this particular declaring and propounding all that is revealed is not necessary to be beleeved but in preparation of mind and by Faith implicite tanquam particulare in universali by a general virtual negative Faith not to gainsay it and therefore sure it was not so clearly and accurately delivered that all that is revealed is necessary Besides though the Scripture be more than sufficient as Lirinensis not prescribing more things than are necessary to be beleeved or practised Antonius Perez but in frequent repeatings and deliveries of those things more than had been simply necessary yet I will not say as a Papist doth which is the more strange that the Scripture is superfluous and redundant much lesse that the knowledge of most things in the same are unnecessary quia instractionis varii sunt gradus ut alia sit plena alia uberior amplior disertiùs quaedam explicata as Chamier observes Tom. 1. l. 8. c. 2. S. 3. p. 104. But if they mean onely that some other tryal is elsewhere prescribed besides self-examination though not here mentioned and therefore necessary because by Divine Revelation commanded as they do not bring it forth nor point us where we may finde it so I know they cannot finde it for Scripture being most perfect truth cannot contradict it self and if some other probation were injoyned him that had examined himself he could not so eat which would check with St. Paul's direction and therefore if they have found such a command I doubt they
shine that walk in it like the bright light of the Sunne which gilds all his spots and makes them invisible which some by their Prospectives discern in the body thereof What farther rise it may have or progression make we cannot certainly fore-tell but may solicitously fear since men of these principles are like the Crocodile which never ceaseth growing while he lives so doe they still increase in new singularities and humours and pretended discoveries yet I hope they will also be as sagacious as the Crocodiles of Nilus who never hatch any thing but they lay it without danger of being hurt by the rising flood yet in the interim an ordinary judgment may easily discover that a Fortress founded in the Conscience and raised on the advantage ground to command our reputation may keep all the parts adjacent in subjection and bring them under contribution And seeing Priam at this age was not unhappy and confession it self in so short time had neither so enlarged her phylacteries or out-grown her girdles which was punish'd with death among the Gaules as this probation hath done therefore we fear the Year when the Spring is so nipping and it is more like to be a sharp Thorn that pricks so soon And since we see that not onely by an extraordinary power as in the time of Elias but as Fromundus tells us by natural course a small Cloud may soon over-cast our Heaven and of a small Seed as Mustard a Tree may spring up wherein the losty and high soaring Birds may build their Nests We may be excused if we cannot make light of this cloud with a nubecula est citò transibit as Athanasius of Julian and if with the Ant we bite the seeds that they grow not However they may seriously and plausibly talk to us here of reformation and satisfaction and honour of the Church and elsewhere of the smallness of the thing required yet Timeo Danaos dona ferentes Or perhaps rather petentes We remember what the shepherd in Aesop said who beholding the smoothness and tranquility of the Seas after a former Tempest which enforced him to cast all his Dates over-board which he had sold his Flock to buy and adventure in the way of Merchandize Palmarum fructus concupiscit opinor ac tranquilitatem propterea praese fert and we cannot be so simple as they say the African Dabath is who is so charmed with Musick sweetly sounding in his Ears that he the whiles suffers his feet to be fettered DIATRIBE SECT IV. No pre-examination in the ancient Church save of Catechumeni Sending the Eucharist to Persons absent and Strangers The institution and abolishment of Confession Liberty to approach the Lords Table upon self-examination Whom the ancient Church excluded from the Eucharist The judgment of the Fathers Casuists and Schoolmen concerning those that are to be admitted and to be debarred To partake was anciently commanded as a common Duty The omission reprehended the common right asserted HAving now heard the Nightingale her self to sing perchance all will not be of Agesilaus his humour and refuse to hear any that imitate her voyce having therefore examined the Authorities of Scripture let us survay the judgment of the Fathers and practice of the Primitive Church which cannot but elucidate and confirm our sense and interpretation of Scripture for as Plato said Majores nostri propiores fuere progeniei deorum so the ancient Church stood neerer the light being neerer the Sunne of truth and his twelve signes which signified and shewed forth his Gospel and through which he moved round about the world In these Primitive Times I finde that mutual reconciliations and in the African Churches Vigils or watchings in Prayers and in Chrysostome's time Fastings and sometimes and in some places the publick renouncing of some particular Heresies were antecedent to the Synaxis but I meet with no Records of any command or example of previous probations as necessary save for Catechumen's The Eucharist was then often sent to persons absent Justin M. Euseb ex Iraeneo centur Magdeb. cent 2. p. 85. it was given to strangers coming to Rome as a pledge or Symbol of their Communion and consent in the same Faith where was no probability or surely no evidence of precedent probation When the Church that saw the benefit of publike Confessions for publick Offences redounded as well to the subduing of the stubborness of their hard hearts and the improving of their deeper humiliation as to their raising up again by those sensible comforts which they received by the publick prayers of the Church and use of the keyes some men reflecting hereupon and finding their own Consciences smarting for like offences which being secretly carried were not obnoxious to the censures of the Church to the end they might obtain the like consolation and quiet of minde did voluntarily submit themselves to the Churches discipline herein and underwent the burden of publick confession and penance And to the end this publication of secret offences might be performed in the best way and discreetest manner some prudent Minister was first acquainted therewith by whose direction the Delinquent might understand what sins were fit to be brought to the publike notice of the Church and in what manner the pennance was to be performed by them At first it was left free to the penitent to chuse his Ghostly Father but at length by general consent of the Bishops it was ordained that in every Church one discreet Minister should be appointed to receive Confessions untill at length in the time of Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople who dyed A.D. 401. upon occasion of the infamy drawn upon the Clergy by the confession of a Gentlewoman Socrates hist l. 5. c. 19. p. 349. defiled by a Deacon in that City it was thought fit it should be abolished and liberty should be given to every man upon the private examination of his own conscience to resort to the Holy Communion which doubtless occasioned Chrysostome the Successor of Nectarius to make those deliveries of himself which have been formerly mentioned The result of those premises is this That the ancient Church sometime thought it requisite that confession of sinnes should precede the Communion which at length also was laid aside but without any other examination verbal or real of all Communicants But seeing Faith and Repentance are as necessary as knowledge to worthy receiving and as principal a part of that whereof every one ought to make examination of himself or others are to make of him I wish it might be advisedly perpended whether there be not as great reason to have auricular confession in some rectified and qualified manner and to impose it as necessary in order to the communion as to introduce their particular examination as a duty so necessary especially since the Lutherans assert and practise it upon Homogeneal or like principles as preparatory and antecedent to the Sacrament contra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nonnullorum Calvinianorum Baldwin
the Communion could not be Suspension because it was provided by sundry Canons that such as were deprived of the Communion should be put to doe penance before they could be reconciled and restored and that had been as much in effect as if they should be suspended in order to discharge them of Suspension But then secondly the Lay-Communion being onely Laicorum jus in corpore Christi mystico Ecclesia as it was contradistinguish'd to Ecclesiastical or Sacerdotal Communion the being put into the Lay-Communion was neither the doing of Penance nor any essential consequent thereof though perchance some that were adjudged to be degraded from being Clergy-men might also Concil Eliber can 50. as their offences were in merit be sentenced to penance Ut erat expressum in eorum elogiis judiciis saith Albaspinus and it appears that some when they had finished their penance were put into the Lay-Communion but formally and properly to be set in the Lay-Communion was onely a degrading or deposing of a Clerk and reducing him to the condition of a Lay-man being a censure onely inflicted on the Clergy and but the same which Augustine calls Degradation and the Councels Deposition and removing from Order Concil Elib can 51. Arelat 1. can 26. Chamier Tom. 4. l. 9. c. 3. and all Ecclesiastical Office as appears not onely by that of Gyprian Ut Laicus communicet non quasi locum sacerdotis usurpet but by a multitude of other Testimonies produced by Chamier Albaspinus and others To argue therefore they were admitted to the Laick Communion ergo they were not excommunicate is in effect to conclude they were made Lay-men ergo they were not excommunicated And if Penance were Suspension and the Lay-Communion were any part or appendage of penance it will carry a consequent implication that all Lay-men were suspended or else that to be suspended was to be admitted to the Eucharist as Lay-men were And let the Lay-communion be as Baronius and others would have it to partake the Sacrament without the Railes or could it be as Bellarmine supposeth to receive in one kinde yet in either way there was a communicating at the Lords Table Non diffiteor qui communicabat laicè accepisse eucharistiam more laicorum Albaspin de veter eccles rit l. 1. obser 4. p. 4. saith Albaspinus so as neither could penance formally have any affinity with the Laick Communion nor was any Penitent fully and perfectly in such Communion because during that state he could not partake of the Sacrament but when his penance was ended he intirely communicated as a Lay-man that is had the right and privileges of a Laick onely because he was not restored to Holy Orders whereof indeed he that had done penance was ever afterward â—ncapable And therefore I have laboured under much wonder to what end this Argument was produced I remember Maldonat tells us of a Text Luke 2.34 Facilior fuisset hic locus si nemo eum exposuisset and perchance we might have been more facile to beleeve that there might have been some evidence for Suspension in Antiquity if those that have so confidently assumed to prove it had not fallen so short of their undertakings and our expectation who as Scaliger said of Baronius that he did Annales facere non scribere so they have rather made than found their proofs and have rather imposed upon than informed us so that we may not know unless we shall continue ignorant But having cleared these mists let us look what purer light can be reflected upon us from the Monuments of the ancient Church that we may see to trace their foot-steps and discern what way they walked The notion of Suspension is scarce found in the ancient Fathers Augustine often speaks of Church-censures and sometime specifies the several Acts of Discipline Correption Excommunication Degradation but I have not met with the name much less the thing in all his Disputes against the Donatists where it was most likely to have occurred And had the Church in his time known any such Censure especially inflicted for want of a visible worthiness he could never have said as is pre-alleaged Si peccata tanta non sunt ut excommunicandus quisquam homo judicetur non debet se à quotidiana medicina Dominici corporis separare or had it been denizon'd in Chrysostome's age he would not have said that those which were unworthy to partake of the Eucharist were likewise unworthy to joyn in the Prayers and Hymnes But as Alexander scorned to steal a Victory in the night but would get it in clear day so we shall hide nothing that we can bring to light which may be of advantage to their cause though it seem to have been in the dark to all those which I have met with that have defended it who have said less for themselves than might be said for them and are therefore obnoxious to David's increpation who when they take themselves to be valiant men and who is like them in Israel yet have not kept their Lord so but that any one of the people may come to destroy him But nevertheless though Tellias get these new Pipes no Antinegidas need to be troubled for they will not sound to his Tune nor make any judicious man to dance after him To deal ingenuously as the Canons of the ancient Councels will lend the best Prospect of the Discipline of the Church those being the Mould wherein that was cast so we shall acknowledge that in those Canons we sometimes meet with the notion of Suspension like as we doe with those of Retentus Sequtstratus Remotus Segregatus Exclusus all of them Synonymous and all to be limited and defined by the terminus à quo that from which was the Separation But I doe with some confidence assert that suspended is there taken in the proper not the modern appropriate notion signifying a deferring of or detaining from and that not onely this one Ordinance of the Lords Supper but all Ordinances and is in effect but Excommunication carrying onely besides a connotation of a future restitution to Communion after penance done or satisfaction given The same words have not always the same sense in all Ages nor signifie the same things else we might conclude the Assemblies of the Heathen to be Churches and their Clerks of the Market to be Bishops and to argue that the term Suspension is found in ancient Records therefore there was such a thing as use hath since made the word to import carries as much reason as the Papists have to conclude that because prayer for the dead was used in the ancient Church therefore it related to Purgatory or is with as much sense as Valderama proves the order of Jesuites out of Scripture because it is there said that God hath called us to the society of his Son Jesus But that Suspension in the old Canons implies not a deferring of or detaining from the Eucharist onely and immediately but a
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
in alio while he selects his Church that elects them and who are commonly so awed in their elections as Piso seemed to be by Tiberius in the Senate Quo loco censebis C. sar si primus habebo quod sequar se post omnes vercor ne imprudens dissentiam But it is all the reason in the world that I onely and not another should elect him whom I must intrust to represent me and speak for me and we should rather do it in this concernment because we see some by designe to cause a choice onely of such for Rulers as will be tamely ruled by them and which will serve onely as Organs to sound by that breath which they infuse by drawing them and to such a tune as they shall set and play upon them so that indeed as among the Zaini those Indian hogs which Nicremberge mentions the weakest and poorest are chosen to be chiefe of the Heard so they pick out such Elders as having no eyes of their own must borrow theirs and be gladly led by them and having no substance in themselves hope onely to purchase some esteem by being their conformable shaddowes Which consideration is seconded by another that notwithstanding all former pomp and solemnity of a â—us divinum regiminis ecclesiastici yet some of them have of late publickly asserted That the ruling Elders have no foundation in Scripture but are onely a prudential constitution which however it be truth yet the world hath been born in hand with the contrary that the discipline might enter with a smoother slide and then seeing what seems to some to be prudence and in some circumstances we may be told it may appear to others and in other circumstances not to be so therefore this constitution will in effect be arbitrary and onely accidental quod potest adesse et abesse and like the Pope it will be the Ministers only that have the authoritative power to determine of things whether with or without a Councill This renders much cause of suspition that this conjuncture and consent of Elders however they have pared it to lessen and lighten it is yet such a yoak as they would be eased and exempt of and which the Apologists since they have new modelled themselves have quite laid aside as farre as I can understand that so like Lewis the 11. assuming an arbitrary power they may bring the Crown out of ward they have begun to study that politick Aphorisme in Tacitus Eam imperandiesse rationem ut non aliter ratio constet quà m ut uni reddatur and those ruling Elders are like to run the same fate and upon like motives with those whatsoever they were which are mentioned in the Commentaries upon the Epistles by some attributed to Ambrose by others to Hilary the Deaconâ— Ecclesia seniores habuit quorum fine consilio nihil agebatur in ecclesia quod quâ negligentiâ obsoleverit nescio nisi forte doctorum desidiâ aut magis superbiâ dum soli colunt aliquid videri Next as they are sole so also arbitrary in their proceeding as Bodin relates of the Tartar King that at his Inauguration he tells them Mea vex prosecure et pro gladio crit and Caligula said to the Consuls Quid nifi uno meo nutu jugulari utrumque vestrum statim posse so are they loose and absolved from any certain rule Nos penes arbitrium est et fas et norma regondi Their Will is their Law and their Ipse dixit the Oracle Credant de sonte relarum Ammonis for they have not yet that we know formed any Canons to regulate their judgements nor determined what is the minimum quod sic which may render men capable of communion but they that speak of sealing men though they must be Keepers of the Seals and so let them if they keep them not too fast and make them Privy Seals not the great Seals of the Church nor apply them to wax great and seal the Patents of their preheminence have yet sealed no certain standard whereby to measure men in order to their admission A visible worthiness they require but as Aristotle uncertainly placeth that mediocrity wherein Virtue consists in the judgement of wise men so this worthiness hath no other determinate weight or measure but their judgment and this visibleness is intended to be their eyes for it is all one not to be and not to appear to them so that as the Caxonists say If the Pope should draw innumerable souls unto hell no man must say to him What dost thou and Bellarmine tells us That if the Pope should erre by commanding vices and forbidding virtues the Church were bound to believe vices to be good and virtues to be evill so when they clave errante drive innumerable souls from the Communion and censure those to be vicious that are godiy seriously I do not know what remedy they can find nor where they can fetch their redresse nil fecerit esto Hoc volo sic jubeo stat pro ratione voluntas Which is certainly a condition as requisite to be retrenched as dangerous to be incurred Miscra scrvitus est ubi jus est vagum aut incognitum is a Maxime of Law saith the great Lawyer Stanford and therefore Non sinimus imperare hominem sed rationem saith Aristotle in his Ethicks and no less prudently in his Politicks Qui itaque hominibus unà cum legibus imperium tradunt etiam deo tribuunt imperium qui uero solum hominem sine legibus imperare volunt ji quodam modo belluae tradunt imperium nam cupiditas tale quippiam et ira cos qui praesunt etiam viros optimos detorquet And therefore whereas onely Praecedenti spectatur mantica tergo and though anciently the place stricken with thunder was not afterward troden upon and Pliny tells us That icti à Scorpionibus nunquam postea à crabronibus vespis apibúsque seriuntur yet to exonerate themselves they transferre this Lording as other inordinatnesses in this Section on the Bishops Sequitur fortunam ut semper odit Damnatos Though perchance Idem populus si Nurscia Thusco Favisset hâc ipsá Sejanum diceret horâ Augustum I must say Maevius absentem Nevium cùm carperet heus tuâ— Quidam ait ignoras te an ut ignotum dare nobis Verba putas egomet mî ignosco Maevius inquit Stultus improbus hic amor est dignúsque notari How culpable soever the Bishops were or meriting reproof yet only Juste alios reprehendit qui non habet quod in se alius reprchendat saith Augustine Et ille potest facere qui non meretur audire as Ambrose and therfore cum mali accusanâ— vitia alienas partes agunt themselves have still a Bishop in their belly as Luther used to say every man had a Pope and as the Pope complemented the Duke of Florence that he should be King in Thuscany not of Thuseany so though they are not Bishops of this or
that Church yet they are Bishops in them and act as solely and arbitrarily and suspend more and for lesse than the Bishops used to excommunicate if they assume not the pomp they usurp the power and as Favonius told Pompey or as some Casar it makes no difference whether he weare the Diadem on his legge or his head and while the Cailiph weares the Crown it is no matter though he cover it with a black cloth like the Sybils Bookes when one or two are destroyed yet there lies as heavy a price upon the rest and the weight presseth more because we expected to have found it more easie and light As he that had never lain in Plato's cave did not so much regret it as he that having seen some light and hoped to enjoy it yet was again remanded to darkness and as a new wound where there is a Cicatrix is more dangerous and recidivations are more destructive than the first lapse into a disease so it fares with us in our condition and did not the equanimity and moderation of some that are of other principles redeem from this infamy and like a perfume take away the ill odor we might say that the lopping off the luxuriant stem of Episcopacy was onely to let many suckers and spriggs gtow up as exorbitantly out of the same root And as Lodovieus Suessanus told Adrian the sixth that if he demolished the statue of Pasquil and burning it cast the ashes into the river they would turn to Frogges in the bottome thereof and croak worse then before so the continuous quantity of that enormous power is not abated but the discrete is enlarged and not so much the power as the subject was quarrelled at nor have we changed our bondage but the efficient thereof So true is that which Dio Cassius delivers Longè proclivius est alios reprehendere quà m sibi moderari saciliúsque fit ut quarum rerum causâ poenâ alios dignos judicant has ipsi easdem admittant I hope they will be facile to give pardon to any comparisons much more allusions which need to receive it for their own that are so odious and if they receive any irritation will with Dionysius when he waited long at anothers door in Corinth recognize whether he had not made others formerly do the like Those that conform not to their modell of government they expose under ugly notions to be bitten dente canino as the persecutors lapt the primitive Christians in beasts skins to be devoured by doggs and other beasts They first bundle up their opposers with Anabaptists but I wish they had no more analogy with them in their separation than we in despising government Anabaptisme is the heretical Metaphysicks and the principles of other modern heresies are I cannot say there demonstrated but derived from thence and sure their doctrine of pollution by a communion with persons unsanctified of administring the Sacraments to none but those that give demonstrative signes of holiness and the like are but graines of that golden Calfe some sprinklings of that fountain Cujus de gurgite vasto Combibit arcanos erratica turba furores Secondly we are packt up with the Erastians but as we have shewed that our Elements symbolize not with those of Erastus so we compassion that Godly learned man for that stamp Bullinger and Gualter and others have imprest upon him for being still enrolled in the black band of hereticks and every one that comes by him as the Jewes and Mahumetans do when they pâ—ss by Absaloms pillar in Palestine cast a stone at him He confined and limited indeed all Ecclesiasticall government to doctrinall direction and the force of perswasion and would not have it extensible to censures or coertion and the tender and timid man as he thought Antimony rather a poyson than medicine so he had the like suspition of excommunication in order to purging of the Church and thought neither the power lawfull nor the exercise profitable This was the heresie the good man was guilty of wherein Bullinger and Gualter and the Divines of Zurich came in to be his Hyperaspists against Beza yet for this misprision in every Bulla exnae when hereticks come to be excommunicated he is thrust into the herd and for deniall of excommunication doth as it were suffer it The Apologists are well reconciled to the Independents whom they call Their dear brethren and yet Independency hath been the dung-gate and Port Esquiline not to carry forth but to let in filthy heresie but with the Erastians Nullus amor néque faedera sunto But rather Dum terra coelum medialibratum feret c. Nunquam meus cessabit in poeuas furor As if when many more pretious truths lie in their blood this were more worthy to have its wounds tendered and dressed which shewes how much apter men are to take a tender resentment of things as they clash with their proper interest than formally as they check with Gods truth So that Father gravely told the Emperour who reproved him for observing his son with no more reverence That he had more respect to his sons honor than to the glory of the Son of God whom he suffered to be dishonored by heretickes and so Demetrius lest the other Idols which to him were Gods to shift for themselves but Diana which brought great gain merited the engagements of all their powers in defence thereof So the Pope also in his taxa camerae Apostolicae rates the Absolution of falsifying his Apopostolicall letters at 17 groats but incest with a mans own mother is taxed but at five groats onely Thirdly we are mustered among them that opposed Luthers reformation and professed they had rather live under the dominion of the Turks But Luthers reformation pleaseth not the Apologists they must reform the reformation and gather new Churches as if we had none before and theirs are the only reformed Churches But whereas they speak of living under the dominion of the Turkes let them consider if their dear brethren do not use those of their Congregation that are not of their Church like Turks and they themselves deal but little better with them for though indeed they baptise their children which the other do not who therefore practically repute them as heathen yet they receive them to no other communion then they would do Turks Vectigal quod per occasionem aedificationis templi fuerat impositum etiam obsoluto tempio exigcbatur jam non in res sacras sed profanas expendebatur Menochius annot in 3 Reg. c. 12. v. 4 for those they would admit to heare them preaching for instruction and suffer them to partake of their prayers if they would with reverence be present as the Apologists tell us That the godly have prayed in the presence of the unbelievers as Paul in the ship in the presence of the passengers Fourthly we are resembled to the factious Israelites which regretted at Solomons government and causlesly complained of their burdens