benefit they compel them unto though it be never so irksome to them and spare not for their much crying just as Chirurgions and Physicians consult the good and not the ease and palate of their patients and forbear not the caustick or the sawe or the bittetest potion though perhaps the Patient must be bound in one case and be even constrained in the other It is just the same case here only so much the greater benefit by how much the spirit and it's Salvation is better than the body and if there be any to complain of eertainly 't is only our own selves 5. And that 's the fifth thing I proposed to consideration for all this is occasioned only by our own default and it is not very easie to say whether men be more condemnable for their wilful falling into such an evil or their complaining that means are used for their recovery It is imprudent to hurt and mischief themselves but it is much more to quarrel with the charity of those that would help them Would men be pleased to live so like Subjects as not to occasion any fear or jealousie to the Government and would they please to keep themselves in the Communion of the Church and a regular observance of the Services and Ministries of Religion they would never hear of any trouble nor need to complain of any force or violence against them But if they will be heaving at Government and will be factious and innovate in Religion the more easily and successfully to accomplish their other evil designs they must thank themselves if the edge of the Law be turned on them and if they be a little stricter held to their duty they must blame only their own wilful neglect and disregard of it In this case they have none to complain against but themselves for Authority if it have any regard to it self or any concern for them cannot do less than it doth without betraying it's own trust and casting off all concern for those that God hath given it the charge and care of 6. But sixthly there is another consideration to render mens complaints and murmurings against this procedure unjust and that is that they themselves have done the same thing or worse in the like or lesser cases Time was when any one that did not swear as fast as they would have them and count their Covenant Religious and Sacred should not only be Excommunicated but Out-law'd and put immediately from under the benefit and protection of Law And we have lately seen how forward these very persons that now complain have been to put Tests upon all others and to injoyn all in any Office or Place of trust to receive the Sacrament upon forfeiture of the Place and a great sum besides And I wish I could not say to the shame of some and their unanswerable reproach how readily they could receive it when their profit and interest invited them though they complain and grumble when it is made their duty and labour to scare others from it under the notion of Superstition and Idolatry Interest we may see will easily answer all Objections and be able to do more than all the best arguments in the world besides and were but the Sacrament now a Band and Cement of Union among themselves a confederating the more closely to carry on their own purposes or any way subservient to their design we should hear of no complaints nor invectives against any but those that refused so holy and saying an Ordinance This is the plain truth of the thing and if men be offended at it we cannot help it nor ought much to be concerned and therefore it is a stark shame for those to complain against the present proceedings of Authority who have gone before them in the same and much worse It is a hard thing for us to be judged by them who do themselves the very same thing 7. And lastly the complaining will be the more unreasonable when it is no injury at all to them upon their own principles nor doing any thing to them which they do not wilfully to themselves It is too evident what little respect these men bear to the Church and how little they value the Communion of it they separate themselves from it and avow a downright Schism against it and therefore what injury I pray can Excommunication be to such men It is they that anticipate Excommunication thrust themselves out of the Church and defie it and persist in plain contempt of it and what Authority doth is little else than barely declaring what they have done before And I am verily perswaded were it not for some consequences of it and some prejudice that might redound from it to their Temporal concern they would as little regard it as they do the Church deride it as brutum fulmen and no more dread it than men do fire painted upon a wall We that can hear men ridiculing the notion of a Church and laughing at all the discourses about Communion with it do very well know how little they value or think themselves hurt by being Excommunicated and turned out of that which they never desire to be of they that can so lowdly confront all Antiquity and in spight of all the Fathers of the Church and Maxims of the Apostles too teach Salvation to be attainable as well out of the Church as in it certainly can never think themselves injured by being cast out of it and all their Tragical complaints of Persecution in this are but artifice and hypocrisie Men may be driven indeed to that which they do not love but they are but compelled by that which they do not much dread or fear 2. The second thing proposed is to inquire into the nature and measures of that compulsion that the Laws and Precedents of the Gospel do warrant in this case and then to try whether the present proceedings of Authority against men may not be justified upon them This is a thing the more needful to be stated with heed and caution because the great Clamour is upon it And two things with great confidence are urged by men upon which they take upon them to censure the present proceedings of Authority as wholly contrary to the Doctrine and spirit of the Gospel 1. That it is not consonant to the Gospel to use any force at all to men in matters of Religion and that nothing but Papal usurpation and cruelty hath introduced the practice of it 2. That however if there be any footsteps of force and rigour then or that the Gospel mention any such thing yet that rigour was purely Spiritual Church-censures were her only Arms and Excommunication the only punishment that she did inflict but the Body and Estate and the external concerns of men were untouched But so say they these are not now did Authority content it self only to go thus far we should bear it and should have nothing to object against it but now mens civil interests are touched
such great need of these extraordinary interpositions of providence to this purpose as was formerly and therefore they ceased Just as the power of Miracles which was a long time continued in the Church yet ceased afterwards when the truth and Divinity of Christian Religion was sufficiently attested and could be maintained without them 2. But then secondly it may be demanded Why there is so very little account and so very few instances of this to be found in the History of the Church sure a thing of this nature must have been much taken notice of had there been any such and it is very strange that there should be so little account of it The truth of what is here objected must be acknowledged unless there be more examples of this thing than I have yet either by reading or conversing with Learned men been able to discover But yet this I think may fairly be accounted for 1. For first it is certain and greatly lamented by Learned men that we have but very little of the History of those early times of Christianity come to us whether it be from the iniquity of time or of men whether from the rage of War or spight of Enemies the artifice of Hereticks or the industry of those men who can as easily suppress ancient Records as falsifie and corrupt them or from what other causes it hath proceeded I know not but the truth of the thing is too plain and we might be assured of it had our selves never made inquiry by consulting the Labours of the best Antiquaries and the most curious and unwearied searchers into Primitive times Here and there some very great thing they have picked up so as to be able to patch up a History of some great mens Lives but alas far enough from the exactness and fulness that they deserved and any competent account of those times would have enabled them to have done And therefore I no more wonder that we have so little account of this than that we have so little too of many others which it would much have advantaged us to have had 2. And yet perhaps a good reason may be given for this even more than for some other things As for example It may well be supposed that this punishment was very rare nor was there much occasion to make use of it those times were famous for Piety and zeal to Religion those good men needed not to be whipped to their duty their own fervours and the rage of their Enemies kept them close to it and they were so exercised with almost daily and continual sufferings for their Religion and their Lord that they had no leisure or temptation to grow wanton against the Laws and constitutions of either And they were so taken up with recording their own sufferings and transmitting accounts of them as they used to other Churches that they forget to record almost any thing else and the truth is the giving account of the brave actions and glorious sufferings of their Martyrs and Confessors together with some few Apologies for themselves and their Religion is almost all that we have left us of those times 3. But thirdly it may yet further be urged that we may point to a space in the Primitive times before the Government became Christian when some Christians became very troublesome and Schismatical when this punishment would have been proper and in all likelihood of most effect to chastise those whom all gentler methods were unsuccessful with And yet we do not read any thing that this remedie and these punishments were made use of Such was the time in which that great man St. Cyprian lived who was much harrassed and vexed with the petulancie and faction of some Priests and others in their carriage towards the lapsed as they called those that fell in times of persecution and in whose time the Novatian Schism broke out which so troubled the Church Now this was a proper time for this great punishment and these effects of it would very likely have done much good This is an Objection which seems to come roundly up to the matter and doth require satisfaction which I shall endeavour to give to it in these following considerations 1. It is certain that this extream and highest punishment was but very rarely used or inflicted upon men and indeed I think I may say scarce ever but when the lesser intermedial censures of the Church were ineffectual and despised such were excluding men from the full Communion of the Church and imposing such Penances upon them as they judged the nature of their offences to require 2. St. Cyprian did use all fair ways to direct and inform these erring Priests yea some of the Confessors themselves nay even the Martyrs who granted Letters of Communion to many to these lapsi before they had satisfied the Church and threatned to use the censures of the Church against them if they did not reform and by that means did happily effect his purpose on many of them and the business of Re-baptizing of them which this controversie after grew into was a matter of question and dispute but not of any ill manners in the Church 3. It is plain when all other means failed with Novatus and he still persisted or rather grew more Factious and Schismatical St. Cyprian had Excommunicated him and inflicted this highest censure upon him had he not fled into another Country which flight of his shewed clearly what a mighty dread he had of that punishment And that being the common practice of notorious and great Offenders of all resolvedly Factious and Schismaticks at that time as is plain in many instances and particularly of Privatus and his followers in St. Cyprians time also is to me a farther clear Indication of this thing what a mighty dread and horror they had of this punishment for otherwise what needed they have fled away for the Church had no power to punish them in their Estates or Bodies any other way and therefore had they not feared this they might have stayed and defied all the Church could do to them 4. And fourthly if there be any instance producible of this not being used and these effects following when the party was desperately fallen into sin and yet might be reached It was perhaps for this only reason because they thought Schism a sin so odious and provoking and of such a monstrous guilt that the committer of it scarce came within the compass of common charity his case was hopeless and his sin scarce to be forgiven or prayed for and therefore that he forfeited the charity of the Church in using means for his recovery and those were never to be admitted to the Communion of the Church again who wilfully cut off themselves from it they had given themselves over to Satan in one sense and it was needless for the Church to do it in another And that this is not only a conjecture may be concluded from the great sense that those good
Fathers and particularly St. Cyprian himself had of the guilt and evil of Schism calling it almost the impardonable sin so extreamly slagitious and its guilt so transcending that nothing no not Martyrdom it self was able to expiate or atone for it They had either no hopes that the guilt of it would be forgiven or that the Schismatick could repent and be reformed and therefore did not use this last remedy but left him off as desperate 4. But yet in the fourth place it may be farther urged Why was it that afterwards this form was left off yea forbid to be used in Excommunication for so learned men have observed that this form of Excommunication grew in some Centuries into disuse yea and tell us that the Synod of Arles in France did forbid this expression of delivering over unto Satan or that of Anathema Maranatha to be used any more in Excommunication But I do not sec any thing in this observation to weaken our former notion of delivering to Satan but rather very much to confirm it for there are two accounts that may be given of this 1. That now there was no need of this nor of those direful effects that were of old to inforce Excommunication and the terror and the effect of it As I said before the powers of the world had submitted to the Scepter of Christ and the Government was become Christian Laws were made for the protection and peace of the Church and backed with sanctions of sharp punishments which would supply the want of these bussetings from Satan and effect that which they were designed for And therefore to do this now and expect such consequences from it would be to tempt God to do a Miracle without cause and to effect that by an immediate interposition of his providence which ordinary means would do without it And in the end to expose their severest censures to contempt and scorn when these effects did not follow which they threatned by them 2. They left off this in pure compassion and charity to the offender and that they might not minister the least occasion of despair and despondencie unto him The Anathema Maranatha was the severest form of their highest censures and never used but against desperate offenders whom they gave up as utterly hopeless and never received to Communion again And to have used this in Christian Excommunication would have been contradicting the very end and design of it which was the Reformation and amendment of the transgressor and shutting the door of the Church and of Heaven too for ever against him who by this means they intended only the better to fit and prepare to enter in at both And to have used the form of giving up to Satan might they were afraid sound of too much severity and perhaps render the man desperate and hopeless of ever getting out of his clutches who had always had too much power over him but now by this penal delivery to him would have much more But the first reason for this is sufficient and whether I be out in assigning this second or no it matters not This is abundantly sufficient I think to the final clearing up of what I undertook to prove That Excommunication in the Apostles times was not only a Spiritual punishment but attended frequently with corporal external punishments as severe nay more terrible than any that the Laws of this Kingdom have been pleased to back it withal I shall only add one thing farther i. e. to give a form of Excommunication used after this expression of delivering to Satan was left off to let you see how sharp and severe it was and into what evil circumstances he that suffered it was brought It is commonly taken notice of by Learned men and was inflicted by Synesius upon Andronicus the Praefect of Ptolemais and these are the words done into English Let no Temple be open to Andronicus and his followers Let every Oratory and Sanctuary be for ever shut against them We warn all private men and all Magistrates that they sit not at the same Table that they come not into the same house with them and that they shun all company or converse with them as they would do infection and the Plague And all Priests especially we charge that they neither speak to them while they live nor allow them rites of Christian Burial when dead This I think was severe and sharp enough and when men consider that over and besides this the Civil Laws took notice of them and punished them perhaps instead of rayling against the severity of the Church and Government of England in this matter they may learn to acknowledge the great clemency and mercy of the same And now I come to put a period to this discourse in some short Reflections and Addresses especially to those that want information in these things 1. That men would seriously consider what a monstrous instance of degeneracy it is to need Laws and correction to force them to such a service of Christianity as the Holy Sacrament is Oh how is the true spirit of Christianity lost and how different is our temper in this from those good men that have gone before us they flocked into this service just as Doves to their windows to use the prophetical Scheme of speaking and needed no more courtship to come to this Feast than hungry men do to still their sharp and croaking appetite Some of them called this their daily bread and in the Primitive times it was almost as frequent as their daily repasts Those good Fathers of old were not put to the trouble of inviting or perswading men to come but to restrain them rather of the two Men came fast enough of their own accord and their business was to endeavour they were duely qualified and fitted to come all their work was to strike an awe and reverence into them and to heighten their sense of what they went about To which purpose there are such high and lofty things said of the mysteriousness and sacredness of this service above any others and such great pains taken to direct men in all the methods of preparation for it and inforcing the observation of those methods by suggestions of that mighty danger and guilt of unduely coming to that Ordinance Which things by the way let me tell you some guides of Souls in these later Ages of the Church I think have something unreasonably insisted upon and thereby driven people into an extream on the other hand and caused them to conclude it safer not to come at all than to incur and hazard so great a danger by coming unworthily This is a sore evil indeed and I dare not say but the imprudence or at least unseasonableness of some mens insisting so much upon these methods of the Ancient Fathers hath been contributive to it The Fathers are excellent guides to us and we may follow them but then ought to consider the reasons upon and the purposes to which they spake many
things and not to make use of their sayings till the same reasons and purposes call upon us Had they lived in our days I am confident they would have spoken at another rate and have been as earnest in perswading and convincing men of their duty as they were in directing of it been as sharp upon those that neglected to come so preparedly as they should I speak not this to remit any mans care in fitting himself for this God forbid but we have a different task now upon us and I tell you plainly I would rather men should come though they be not so exactly fitted than that they should not come at all I am sure it is better to do our duty though it be imperfectly than wholly to neglect and disregard it I would and by Gods assistance will direct men as well as I can how to come like Christians and good men duely prepared for this but I would not beat the aire in doing this until I had convinced men that it is really their duty to come But to return to my purpose what a symptome is it of a faint and almost dying Religion in men to need to be contended with or compelled in this instance Those good Christians of old that I have been speaking of could not be restrained by the sharpest Laws from this service but must daily ante-lucano tempore said the great Pliny rise before day to do it though it was made death by the Law to do so Our good Fathers in the times either of Queen Mary or the late Rebellious Usurpers what would not they have given for half that liberty that we enjoy who ventured their lives and whatever can be dear to men rather than neglect this service Lord what are we to these who need Laws to drive us and yet will not be driven neither what a strange unhappy peevish temper are we of we neglect to go when there are no Laws to compel us and we resuse to go when there are when we are indulged and left to our liberty then we neglect and disregard it and when the Laws are awakened then we complain and say we ought not to be forced but left to our liberty Nothing will please us nothing shall work upon us we refuse our food or convert it into poyson the means that should reform us make us worse and what our Governours use as a method to perswade us we use to a quite contrary purpose and make an argument for our not being perswaded and prevailed with 2. What peevish frowardness is this yea what mighty folly and weakness I would we would consider that in the second place We have been told that this service is our necessary duty and tyed upon us by asexpress and plain precepts as any other service in the Gospel therefore it were folly to need any compulsion to it But we are assured it is as much our interest as it is our duty and greatly conducive to all the interests of our Souls What weak people are we then that need to be beaten to our own good and like Children cry make a stir when we are dressed or called to our meat Consider it in the case of the Parable that I have related unto it was a Feast a Royal Entertainment that they were invited unto nothing but kindness and benefit to them was intended and yet we are much more our own enemies than they were for perhaps they had meat enough of their own at home and perhaps as good too But alas so have not we what have we of our own to feed and support our selves upon either nothing or nothing comparable to what we have here where our Souls may be feasted with the surprizing and ravishing pleasures of God's love and the love of our dear Lord and nourished with the Divine Graces of the Holy Spirit to which any thing that we have at home either in the entertainments of the world or vice are fiction and dream yea Aconite and deadly wine 3. Therefore instead of blaming our Superiours and quarrelling with the Laws that would compel us to come let us see if we ought not rather to blame our selves and reproach our own foolish temper that needs all this adoe and makes force necessary for us Had we that sense of our duty that we should and would we do it as became wise and good men we should never hear of Law or need to fear it But it is the neglecting nay obstinate resolving against this that makes us uneasie or draws any ill circumstances upon us we have none to complain of but our selves nor any thing done to us but what is necessary unless our Governours must draw the guilt of our ruine upon their own heads in neglecting to do what they can what they ought for the avoiding of it 4. Whose care I think in the last place we ought rather to take kindly and thankfully than stand quarrelling and murmuring against it instead of repining and complaining against our Governours fall down upon our knees and bless God that such care is taken of us That we are not left only to our own arbitrary will and conduct but that we have Fathers that consult for us as we do for our own Children who give them not up only to their own wild untutored passions and judgements but consult for them and tye them to those methods which we know good for them though they do not think so themselves We have seen by too sad an experience how unable most men are to govern themselves aright in matters of Religion what the effects of indulging and leaving men only to their own liberty are and we should certainly soon see the same or worse again Lord what extravagancies and follies are there so rank and wild that ungoverned men will not run into when they are indulged and left wholly to themselves What then do we not owe to the Divine Providence that hath set us under Government both in Church and State yea and what acknowledgments are big enough to be made to those that consider our temper and consult for our good do all they can to save us and to restrain us from destroying our selves We pray daily that God would not leave us to our solves but keep us under the influences of his Grace and guide us by his good Spirit and truly I think we have need too to pray that God will keep us in his Church and that those that watch for our Souls may be still careful and sollicitous for us guide us aright when we are unable to direct our selves and tye us to that duty that is so necessary and good for us when we grow wanton and regardless of it That when the great day of the Lord Jesus commenceth they may give up their accounts with joy and bless God for the success of their labor and care and we also may rise up and bless God for them and bless him with them and all of us be eternally happy in the enjoyment of him to whom be praise and honour and glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for Fincham Gardiâ—â—r 1. APerswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which respect church-Church-Communion 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of Englands Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawful to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in answer to his three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about church-Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 8. The Case of mixt Communion Whether it be Lawful to Separate from a Church upon the account of promiscuous Congregations and mixt Communions 9. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other parts of Divine Service prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament stated and resolved c. In two Parts 11. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where men think they can profit most 12. A serious Exhortation with some important Advices relating to the late Cases about Conformity recommended to the present Dissenters from the Church of England 13. An Argument to Union taken from the true Interest of those Dissenters in England who profess and call themselves Protestants 14. Some Considerations about the Case of Scandal or giving Offence to Weak Brethren 15. The Case of Infant-Baptism in Five Questions c. 16. A Discourse concerning Conscience wherein an Account is given of the Nature and Rule and Obligation of it c. 17. The Charge of Scandal and giving Offence by Conformity Refelled and Reflected back upon Separation c. 1. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther 2. A Discourse about Tradition shewing what is meant by it and what Tradition is to be received and what Tradition is to be rejected 3. The difference of the Case between the Separation of Protestants from the Church of Rome and the Separation of Dissenters from the Church of England 4. The Protestant Resolution of Faith c. 5. A Discourse concerning a Guide in matters of Faith c. A Companion to the Temple or a help to Devotion in the use of the Common prayer divided into Four parts 1. Of Morning and Evening Prayer 2. Of the Litany with the Occasional Prayers and Thanksgivings 3. Of the Communion Office with the Offices of Baptism Catechism and Confirmation 4. Of the Occasional Offices viz Matrimony Visitation of the Sick c. The whole being carefully Corrected and how put into one Volume By Thomas Comber D. D. Sold by Abel Swalle at the Vnicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard 1684.
THE CASE OF Compelling Men TO THE Holy Sacrament OF THE LORD'S SUPPER CONSIDERED And AUTHORITY Vindicated in it by the Rules of the Gospel from the common and Popular Objections against it Luke 14.23 Go and compel them to come in that my house may be filled LONDON Printed for Abel Swalle at the Vnicorn at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-yard and Fincham Gardiner at the White-horse in Ludgate-street 1684. TO THE READER I Beseech thee believe that it is not to irritate or incense Authority against any denomination of Men that this Case is so publickly considered I hope the Clergy of this City have given such Instances of their Temper and Candor to those that differ from them that they shall not now be represented as men of Sanguinary Dispositions and Movers of Persecution And if after all their labour and pains to instruct and perswade men and give them satisfaction in all their great doubts upon which they separate from the Communion of the Church they must yet be reproached as Cruel and Persecutors of their Brethren it is but another taste of that Civility that they meet with from this Generation I know of no other design in these Papers and I am sure I have most reason to know but to remove an Exception that some have causelesly taken against coming to the Sacrament because they are forced to do so and to discharge some part of that duty that we owe to our Superiours with which the Author thinks it scarce consistent to hear men belch and rayl against the Government and the present proceedings of it without opening our mouths in their defence especially when what they do is so very fairly capable of it This I think an instance of that duty we owe to those above us out of which could we be frighted with hard words and ill Names we should have deserted it long since for this is not the first time I wish it might be the last that faithfulness and endeavours of service to the Government have been made our Crime and ministred to the ill usage we have met with from Some men I hope all the Exceptions against this great Service in our Religion will in time be singly considered and satisfyed and this is therefore crowded into the number of them and if it seem new or strange those cross and wayward tempers of men are only to be charged which have made this a new and strange Exception THE CASE OF Compelling Men TO the HOLY SACRAMENT I Can scarce ever read our Saviours famous Parable of the Noble-man's making a great Feast sending out servants to invite guests the unsuccesfulness of their invitation and the silly unworthy excuses framed against it till at last the Lord was constrained to arm other Servants with power and to compel them to come in but my mind is still running a Parallel between these things and our own present circumstances with respect to the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as well as some other things God Almighty hath been in this as gracious to us as ever he was to his own people the Jews He hath provided all things necessary to our Salvation and particularly hath furnished a Table with the precious Symbols of his own Son's Body and Blood That bread that came down from Heaven and is meat indeed and that wine that would chear our hearts and fill them with a joy that the world is a stranger to the lushious and sweet Feast in which we antedate Heaven and make seisure of and receive pledges for the happiness of it But alas our folly and madness is equal to theirs also we turn our backs upon these Heavenly provisions and frame Apologies and Excuses against them We let every silly occasion supersede our regard to them and seek for Arguments to furnish us with Reasons of keeping from them God keeps up a race of his servants the Prophets whose standing employment and office it is to strive with us and to perswade us to accept of that mighty Salvation that is provided for us and to partake of this service which is so greatly conducive to all the purposes of it and I think it may modestly be said they are faithful to their charge Yet alas how few will hear their report so as to comply with the end of it what a few can they perswade to become guests to their Lord and how long will it be e're his Table be so full that they may not say as the servant in the Parable did It is done Lord as thou commandedst us and yet there is room What shall we say to this neglect of men shall we stand bewayling and inveighing against the folly and madness of it we have done that long enough even till our throats are dry and yet to very little purpose God knows What have we now left but to get us to our great Master and tell the sad story of mens obstinacy to him how justly might we beg him to take the matter into his own hand to send out other servants more noble than we and arm them with power to compel men to come in just as that Master in the Parable did in the like case command his servant to go out into the high ways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled And so it is the wisdom of Authority hath prevented us and saved us the labour of making this request it hath thought fit to take the matter into it 's own hand in a great measure and to revive the Laws that the Piety and Wisdom of our Fore-fathers have thought fit to make to ingage men to a due care and observance of the Services of Religion and I would men would consider whether this can be thought less than necessary and whether they have not been fairly proceeded with Hitherto all fair means have been used nothing but love and kindness and all possible condescension Men have been indulged in their petulancy and time allowed for their prejudices and prepossessions to wear off in The Rod of the Law hath been only held over them but not suffered to fall on them Authority hath been pleased to wait till the common objection of one great Party among us is taken wholly away The great Plea against Conformity for twenty years past hath been the obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant which some of the Leaders of that great Party had taken and it hath been publickly declared that were not the renouncing of that required they would conform The time that this was required for is now expired and they are at liberty from that which they counted grievous to them but now instead of the promised Conformity there are new Arguments started against it and all the old ones furbished afresh the opposition against the Church more sturdy and obstinate if it be possible than before and all the pretences of Conscience in this matter shewed plainly to be meer trick and artifice This therefore hath
forced Authority to take other measures and to try what the stricter hand of Law will do with them upon whom indulgence and kindness have been so ineffectual and whether they may not tye men to that duty to which they cannot perswade them They have sadly seen how little lenity and kindness can oblige and how far favour is from endearing some men yea that it hath unhappily rendred them worse more bold and more extravagant in their Separation made them only more keen and eager against the Church and given them the fairer opportunity to wreak their malice upon her which they had so diligently improved that they had brought her near to a Crisis indeed and were in a fair way of effecting their purpose when as gross Hereticks as ever were yea when black Atheists were called the only True Protestants and such a Jargon of different and contrary Sects Marshall'd in one Body as well as under one Name to fight against her Yea they have seen and felt something more than this that tender Consciences have too commonly hard hands and that the pulling down the Church hath been but a Prologue and step to dissolving the State Some men have begun with the Supremacy and faults of Aaron only that they might the more successfully cast down the Government of Moses and fright men from the Communion of the Church the more easily to muster them against the King and therefore made it necessary for the Government to provide against the one if they intended to secure and preserve the other They have thought it high time therefore now to change their measures and to exercise Power when Mildness and Clemency would not prevail And this is one thing that hath raised the clamour and enraged men to inveigh against Proceedings so lowdly at present What must men be driven like beasts must they be compelled to that Service which ought to be free and voluntary is this Christian dealing or the way to make Converts can this bring men to Church or engage them to offer a reasonable Service to God there it may possibly make Hypocrites and cause time-servers to come in but sure the Faith of men cannot be forced nor they ever brought in love with Religion and the Service of it by such means These and such as these are the common clamours of men against these Proceedings of Authority and the truth is by the way it lets us see how strangely froward and peevish some men are But a little while ago the common cry and objection was want of Discipline among us but now that we are too strict in it Heretofore we were derided and censured for slackness and remisness for taking too little care of Religion but now we are blamed for taking too much So very contrary pretences can some men make use of against the Church and Government and wrest every thing that they do or do not into an Argument against them I am not willing to reflect farther upon this petulancy my Province at present is to shew the injustice and unreasonableness of it and to vindicate this proceeding of our Governours from those aspersions and reproaches that are cast upon them And I shall lay the foundation of this Apology upon that passage of our Saviour in the Parable I have been alluding to Go and compel them to come in It is probable it will be said that this is only a by-expression and far enough from the purport and design of this Parable and therefore to argue from it is against that common rule that Divines have agreed upon that Parables are not to be argued from but only in the main thing intended by them To this it will be easie to answer that though it be indeed so as is urged yet our collection relies upon a certain reason and that is the Decorum and Propriety of speaking that our Saviour observed in all his Discourses and how far he was from expressing any thing in unjustifiable or unbecoming Phrases though it were a thing purely incidental and were never so much collateral or beside the great matter that he intended to say To be sure he would never have ascribed such a thing as this to God Almighty under the person of this great man though never so much by the by had it been so unbecoming and contrary to his dispensations with men nor ever have mentioned his commanding his servants to compel men to come in to Religion and the Ministries of it had it been unlawful and contrary to the temper of the Gospel as is pretended to use any force at all either to restrain men from evil or tye them to that which is good We may rest assured that no such expression had ever fallen from him had he intended that every man should be purely at his own liberty in Religion to do or not to do what himself pleased So that I think this expression will favour our purpose and be a good foundation to superstruct an Argument upon In the prosecution of which I shall do these two things 1. Propose some general and more abstracted Considerations for the justifying the present proceedings in this case 2. And secondly inquire immediately into the Merits of the Cause and examine it by the rules and measures of the Gospel 1. The general Considerations I intend are these that follow 1. That whatever is done of this nature is done by our lawful Governours 2. It is done by those whose Authority reacheth to these things and who are accountable to God for them 3. It is done in a matter which is in it self lawful and plainly justified by the Laws of the Gospel 4. It is in a matter which is greatly gainful and advantageous to those that are commanded 5. It is occasioned only by our selves and our own unreasonable neglect of our duty 6. It is nothing else but what those very men that complain have done in the like or lesser cases 7. It is no harm or injury to these men upon their own common Principles 1. Whatever is done of this nature is done by our lawful Governours I shall not need I hope to have any controversie with men about this nor will any I believe dare to dispute the truth of it though we possibly may have enough to question the Government of the Church yet certainly that of the Kingdom is unquestionable with any but men of desperate and rebellious Principles and impatient of any Government but that which themselves manage Now this alone is one good step towards vindicating what is now done and one good argument for mens Obedience and Submission unto it For it is scarce becoming men to dispute and question the actions of their lawful Governours in any thing but to revile and reproach them is lawful in none Subjection is tyed immediately upon the Consciences of men and obedience in all things not essentially evil is a duty of Religion By the same right that a Parent commands his Child and a Master his Servant by
such punishments should as well as they had been be the effect and consequences of that sin for if these things were wholly out of his power and cognizance and depended solely upon the will and pleasure of God he could not with any good reason and certainty threaten them with them for the future for we can't draw certain conclusions from Gods former dealings nor conclude Because God hath done thus therefore he will do the same in the like cases These two instances of punishments relate to the body and life of a man plainly I will only adde to them one which extends as well to his Estate and interests among men and that is 1 Cor. 5.11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Rayler or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat Where it is plain by not keeping company and not eating the Apostle means to forbid all familiarity all intercourse and dealing with such a man all buying of or selling to and all manner of trading with him shun him as a plague and have no more to do with him than with an infected person and a devil and how dismal and calamitous the case of such a man must needs be and how destructive this would be of all his interest and concern in the world you will easily see I am very confident that if punishments equal to any of these that I have named were inflicted upon the contemners of the Sacrament now there would be strange outcries of cruelty and tragical complaints of persecution and the Governours of the Church would be rayled against as unchristian and men that did not act according to the rules of the Gospel and yet you see these things were done in the purest times of the Gospel and by those men too that were immediately acted by a Divine Infallible Spirit 2. But secondly to these I shall adde another Observation that will bring the matter home and close to our present case and that is that Excommunication was not purely a Spiritual punishment but attended with external inflictions as great and terrible or much more so than it is now That Excommunication was a common and ordinary punishment inflicted upon those unruly Christians whom Conscience and a sense of duty could not keep in order I have proved already and I suppose shall not have it disputed or questioned by any that I have now a controversie with The only question is Whether this was any more than a spiritual punishment and went any further than to cutting men off from the Communion of the Church and from those hopes of future Salvation that the members of it did expect Whether it were not enough to exclude men from all hopes of Heaven and consign them inevitably to Hell and eternal damnation without the weaker terrors of corporal and external mulcts and punishments Our Adversaries contend vehemently that this was all that was in Excommunication of old and that no thing was suffered after it That this weapon of the Church was according to the language of St. Paul spiritual only and in no sense carnal or affecting the flesh and that therefore any prosecution of Excommunicate persons after that sentence any inforcing the terror of it by external punishments is wholly unscriptural and contrary to the rule of the Gospel This part of the controversie therefore I am now going to undertake and do not at all doubt but to prove that this is a very gross though I hope not wilful mistake and that Excommunication was attended with as great and terrible external sufferings then as it can be now nay much greater And this I shall endeavour to prove 1. From the phrase and language in which this punishment is expressed in Scripture 2. From the testimony of Antiquity and learned men in this instance 1. I begin with the first to consider the phrase under which the matter of Excommunication is expressed in the New Testament and there are but these two places that at present I remember in which this is purposely and fully done and they are 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20 in which the expression is exactly the same In both places Excommunication is expressed by delivering unto Satan only the end of this is a little variously expressed in one it is added For the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus In the other it is That they may learn not to blaspheme I shall consider these apart 1. What Excommunication is here said to be 2. What the end and purpose of it is Both will be pertinent to my purpose and be good proof of what I am contending for 1. I consider the phrase that this censure is expressed in and that is Delivering up unto Satan To deliver such a one unto Satan and Whom I have delivered unto Satan By which expression we are to understand not only the cutting off from the Communion of the Church the body of Christ and the society of Men that he hath Impaled to himself and over which his extraordinary protection and providence watcheth But it means the putting men from under that common providence and protection of God that guards all men and the not only exposing them to the incursions and power of the Devil but consigning them inevitably and infallibly to his malice and fury to be tormented and afflicted by him For if it were only the first of these then it were only the putting men into that estate which all that embrace not the belief of the Gospel are in and that which all Hereticks Schismaticks and Apostates inflict upon themselves over whom yet the common providence of God watcheth and saves from many evils which through the malice of the Devil and their own folly they would certainly fall into It would be abhorrent to Christian charity to say that all such persons and Nations are thus given up to Satan and that Divine providence neglects and takes no care of them It means therefore the execrating and devoting persons immediately to the Devil the putting them from under God's common providence and not only exposing but consigning them to the power and fury of that malicious mischievous spirit And accordingly is interpreted by all learned men from whence we may most certainly conclude what external corporal tortures and buffetings and miseries they must fall into 1. For were it only a pulling down the hedge of common protection and providence that guards all men and exposing them to the incursions of the devil to be dealt with as he pleasesh we might easily presage the misery they would fall into We know what the malice of the Devil against poor Man is and we read enough of the effects of his cruelty and spight upon those he hath been let loose upon Malice and spight is the very nature of the Devil in whom it is
a vitious life would certainly be and if he had not that sense of Religion he would as little believe them or regard them after Excommunication as before it 3. Nor thirdly do I see any thing in Excommunication and delivering to Satan were there nothing but this in it much more likely to awaken these thoughts and reflexions upon such a man than what he enjoyed and was used to him before For he did live under the ministration of the Gospel where the terrors of the Lord were made known to him and where he heard what the fate of obstinate and flagitious sinners was sure to be Nay and farther than this he usually at least did injoy the benefit of both private and publick advice and admonition was often told of his wickedness and warned of the danger of it for in that method it is certain the Primitive Church did proceed with offenders and the Church doth imitate the same to this day And if all those things could not occasion these thoughts I do not see that there is any thing in this punishment supposing it to be only Excommunicating more likely or powerful to do it 4. For fourthly the persons upon which this punishment was usually inflicted were obstinate and notorious offenders such as had fronted and braved all former reproofs and methods used for their amendment Thus it more than probably was in those two first instances of those delivered to Satan but thus it certainly was in all others afterwards The incestuous Corinthian had avowed his sin and persisted in his incestuous cohabitation for had he confessed the guilt and separated from her whom he had incestuously taken he would doubtless have been pardoned before this delivery to Satan as well as he was upon these things absolved afterwards And so it 's very likely it was with Hymeneus and Alexander one persisting in his deriding the Doctrine of the Resurrection and future Judgment and the other in the trouble that he gave to the Apostle in his Ministry notwithstanding milder ways of reforming both of them And it is certain this was the usual method of the Church with such persons first to try all fair means exhortation reproof and admonition first in private and then publickly and when these failed then to fly to this as the last remedy And what a little this was likely to effect upon men of such daring and obstinate tempers were there no more in it may easily be conjectured They that could defie and brave all the exhortations and threatnings of the Church and its power would easily do the same to the execution thereof nor be much moved by being cast out of the Communion of that which they so lightly regarded the power and constitution of 5. Nay I adde fifthly that this was so unlikely to effect this Repentance and Salvation that it was the most probable and certain way to the plain contrary If delivering over unto Satan signified no more but only casting out of the Communion of Christs Church putting from under Gods protection and the influences of his grace and exposing them to the Devil to be dealt with as he pleased Then instead of being saved they should more certainly be damned instead of learning not to blaspheme they should be put upon doing it so much the more And this instead of being medicinal and to their edification would be the more certain consignation of them to eternal damnation For sure no man can think that the Devil when he is left to his own will will be instrumental to any mans Happiness and Salvation or that he will turn a preacher of Righteousness and an instructer in the paths of vertue and amendment whose malice against mankind is implacable and all whose study is to betray men into vice and wickedness and to render them as uncapable of eternal happiness as himself and to plunge them remedilesly into damnation that is prepared for the Devil and his Angels Might the Devil have his purpose upon Man the flesh should always be rampant and captivate the spirit and both should be damned in the day of the Lord Jesus and mens Tongues should be set on fire by Hell and they should blaspheme the God of Heaven with as black and rankerous a malice as his Apostate Legions And delivering up to Satan were this the only meaning of it were the direct way to put him into a power of effecting that with ease which he is at so much trouble and artifice in endeavouring to accomplish instead of being an act of saving it were the surest way of destroying men and so far from being an act of kindness and discipline it were an expression of the greatest rigour and severity in the world it would finally defeat its own purpose and put men into a desperate condition even before the great time of despair commenced which is very rarely or never until death 6. But now in the last place if we interpret the delivery unto Satan in the sense that I have been contending for i. e. that it was a putting men into his power to be buffeted and afflicted with Diseases and corporal punishments as Job was as St. Chrysostome interprets that expression then we both see that this was used to edification and what a great propriety and direct efficacy there is in it to produce the purpose it was designed unto There is nothing so fit for obstinate men as a whip nor any thing so likely to reclaim them as smart and suffering a bridle is for the mouth of the Horse and Mule and a rod for the back of an incorrigible fool reproof is lost upon a scorner and so are all sober and gentler methods to a man of a perverse mind This hath always been the way of Gods Providence and strivings with man those that make themselves beasts must be reclaimed in a way sutable to beasts which is with hardship and stripes And as this seems proper so it is often seen to be accordingly successful As God speaks of the wild Ass in the wilderness that snuffs up the wind and scorns to come under the discipline of any yet in her month we shall find her Jer. 2.24 so it is commonly with the most obstinate men affliction often makes them stoop who scorned all gentler means of reformation and corporal smart and punishment often reduces that man to sober thinking who hated a serious thought and was as far from it as the sole of an Ass We see this experienced every day pains and suffering pull down the proud and haughty tempers of men correct the wild and extravagant gayeties of their spirits intenerate and soften their spirits clear their eyes from the mists that prosperity cast before them let them see the truth of things and like the great Assyrian to bow to the Almighty who a little before were apt to rival both his power and glory too This therefore was the method that God tryed with obstinate offenders in the Primitive times of Christianity