Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	hear_v	heathen_a	publican_n	4,379	5	11.4435	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91293	Suspention suspended. Or, The divines of Syon-Colledge late claim of the power of suspending scandalous persons, from the Lords Supper (without sequestring them from any other publicke ordinance, or the society of Christians) and that by the very will and appointment of Jesus Christ (not by vertue of any ordinance of Parliament) from whom they receive both their office and authority; briefly examined, discussed, refuted by the Word of God, and arguments deduced from it; and the contrary objections cleerly answered. Wherein, a bare suspention of persons from the Lords Supper onely, without a seclusion of them from other ordinances, is proved to be no censure or discipline appointed by Jesus Christ in his Word: ... That the Lords Supper is frequently, not rarely to be administred as well to unregenerate Christians to convert them, as to regenerate to confirme them: ... / By William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne, Esq.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1646 (1646)	Wing P4097; Thomason E510_12; ESTC R203299	51,434	45

children of Israel In respect of which command the Jewes accused Paul Acts 21. 28 29. for bringing Greekes into the Temple and polluting that holy place Which Text if it make any thing for excommunication as some pretend though others upon good reason deeme the contrary it speaking onely of excluding uncircumcised Heathens not any uncleane or scandalous circumcised Israelites out of the Temple at Jerusalem not the Jewish Sinagogues nor of secluding or excommunicating any baptized Christians under the Gospel from the Church though uncircumcised either in the flesh or heart yet certainly it proves nothing for any sole suspention from the Passeover or Lords Supper since such strangers were totally secluded both from the Temple and all Ordinances therein used not suspended from one Ordinance alone but admitted to all others The sixt Text is Matth. 18. 17. If he neglect to heare the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen and a Publican that is as our l Master Rutherfurds Divine right of Church-Government cap. 8. and Due right of Presbyt●ries c. 4. sect 5. p. 187. Opposites expound it a person cut off and secluded from the visible Church and people of God and all communion in holy Ordinances as Ezek. 44. 7 8 9. Acts 21. 28 29. Ephes 2. 11 12. insinuate Which if objected for proofe of suspention from the Lords Supper onely not from other Ordinances then the meaning and sense of the place must be no more but this Let him be to thee as a Heathen and a Publican that is let him be suspended onely from communicating at the Lords Table once a moneth a quarter a yeer but let him constantly resort unto and communicate in all other Ordinances and duties of Gods worship every Lords day and Lecture day without the least suspention or impediment which Heathens never used to doe and very few Publicans A very pretty exposition of this much controverted Text. The seventh Scripture is John 9. 22 34 35. chap. 12. 42. chap. 16. 2. Where we read that those who professed Christ were put or cast out of the Synagogue by the Jewes Ergo they were debarred from preaching reading of the Word prayer and all other publjck Offices of Gods worship used in the Jewish Sinagogues not from the Passeover or Lords Supper onely never administred in any Sinagogue that we read of in Scripture And to intepret putting out of the Sinagogue to be nothing else but a bare suspention from the Lords Supper without any exclusion from other Ordinances is a meer Bull and miserable perverting of these Texts it being an unlawfull act done by the unbeleeving Jewes not against scandalous offenders but faithfull beleevers and professors of Jesus Christ The eighth is the 1 Cor. 5. where the Apostle writes to the Church at Corinth To take away from among them the incestuous person to deliver him to Satan To purge out the old Leven that they might be a new lump not to keep company with a Brother that is a fornicator c. with such a one no not to eat and to put away from among themselves that wicked person From which place our m Master Rutherfurds Divine right of Church-Government c. 4. qu. 1. p. 238. to 240. Opposites instruct us That to deliver to Satan is to cast out of the Church and to declare such an offender to be of the number of the wicked world of which Satan is Prince and to be purged out of the Church least he should infect the Sheep and Christians are not to beare company with him nor to eat with him and he was judged to be cast out as a heathen and Publican and deprived of the comfortable communion of the Saints and of the prayers of the Church and meanes of Grace Ergo by their owne argumentation confession exposition this Text enjoynes a totall excommunication from all publick Ordinances meanes of grace and communion of the faithfull not a naked suspention onely from the Lords Supper with free admission to all other Ordinances But if this Text be meant of a Suspention onely from the Lords Supper then the delivering of that incestuous person to Satan the purging out of the old leaven the not keeping company the not eating with him the taking and putting away of him from among them must be all reduced to this one negative act not to admit him to the Lords Table once a moneth a quarter a yeere yet to communicate with him in all other Ordinances every day and week in the yeer without scruple or scandall an interpretation as point blank against the very words and meaning of the Text as may be The ninth is Rom. 16. 17. Now I beseech you Brethren marke them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the Doctrine ye have received and avoid them To which I shall annex n Master Rutherfurds Divine right of Church-Government p. 249 269 c. 12. qu. 8. Mr. Walkers Modell of the Government of the Church p. 17. 2 Thes 3. 14. And if any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed And 2 John 10. If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed Which if meant of publick communion conversation in Ordinances of Gods worship with Schismaticall Hereticall scandalous Christians as well as in private prohibit communion with them in all other publick Ordinances as well as in the Lords Supper but if appropriated to a single suspention onely from the Lords Table then they must run into this absurdity that to avoid such persons not to keep company with them not to receive them into our houses or bid them God speed is onely not to eat the Lords Supper with them and to suspend them from it alone which neither the words nor meaning of these Texts will beare The tenth is Tit. 3. 10. A man that is an Heretick after the first and second admonition reject That is as our o Mr. Rutherfurd and Mr. Walker ibid. Opposites interpret it excommunicate and cast him out of the Church But if objected to prove a bare suspention from the Eucharist then reject must signifie suspend him from the Lords Table onely not from any other Ordinance he may preach and broach his heresies still to poyson and canker others To which I shall subjoyne Rev. 2. 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezabel to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols Which if it proves ought for excommunication yet certainly makes nothing for a sole suspention from the Sacrament but against it The eleventh is the 3 John 9 10. Neither doth Diotrephes himselfe receive the Brethren and forbiddeth them that would and casteth them out of the Church that is excommunicates them as all accord Which if objected for proof of suspention of scandalous persons from

the Lords Table only then not to receive the Brethren and to cast them out of the Church is meerly to debarre them from the Lords Supper onely which the words will no wayes beare The twelfth is the 1 Cor. 16. 22. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Admit this Text to containe the highest degree of excommunication in the Church as many m Master Rutherfords divine right of Church-government p. 372. with others dogmatize yet to interpret Anathema Maranatha to be no more but let him he suspended from the Lords Table is to contradict all Expositors and to speak little better then pure nonsense These severall Texts of Scripture produced by our Antagonists for proof of Excommunication by divine institution doe utterly subvert the maine thing they now contend for to wit a divine Authority vested in Ministers Presbyteries not to excommunicate scandalous impenitent sinners from all Ordinances and Christian society but barely to suspend those they repute scandalous from the Lordr Supper onely though they desire to receive it without sequestring them from any other publick Ordinances to whom n Doctor Drake in his sixteen Anti-queries in the Preface and p. 6. some of them are likewise so indulgent as to assert in print that a scandalous person yea Heathen may be present at the Lords Supper and all the Sacramentall actions and that with a great deale of profit onely they must not actually receive the outward Elements But when we demand a proofe from Scripture for justificarion of this new Paradox they c●n produce none at all My third reason is because it is directly contrary to the very end of Christs pretended giving excommunication to the Church which in o Divine right of church-government cap 4. sect 4. qu. 5 p. 76. Master Rutherfurds owne words is thus expressed The power of Excommunication is given by Christ to a Congregation not upon a positive ground because it is a visible institute Church or as it is a Congregation but this power is given to it upon this formall ground and reason Because a Congregation is a number of sinfull men who may be scandalized and infected with the company of a scandalous person this is so cleere that if a Congregation were a company of Angels which cannot be infected no such power should be given to them even as there was no need that Christ as a member of the Church either of Jewes or Christians should have a morrall power of avoiding the company of Publicans and sinners because he might possibly convert them but they could no wayes pervert or infect him with their scandals and wicked conversation therefore is this power given to a Congregation as they are men who through frailty of n●●●re mey be levened with the bad conversation of the scandalous who are to be excommunicated as is cleere If a little body of a Congregation in a remote Isle have power from Christ to cut off a rotten member least it infect the whole body shal● we doubt but our wise Law-giver hath given the same power to a greater body of many visible Congregations which is under the danger of the same contagious infection 1 Cor. 5. 6. Your glorying is not good know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump Therefore are we to withdraw our selves from Drunkards Fornicators Exportioners Idolaters and are not to eat and drink with them verse 10. and from those who walk inordinately and are disobedient 2 Thes 3. 12 13 14. And from Hereticks after they be admonished least we be infected with their company just as nature hath given hands to a man to defend himselfe from injuries and violence and hornes to Oxen to hold off violence so hath Christ given the power of Excommunication to his Church as spirituall armour to ward off and defend the contagion of wicked fellowship Now this reduplication of fraile men which may be levened agreeth to all men of many consociated Congregations who are in danger to be infected with the scandalous behaviour of one member of a single Congregation and agreeth not to a Congregation as such therefore this power of Excommunication must be given to many consociated Congregations for the Lord Jesus his Salve must be as large as the Wound and his meane must be proportionable to his end Since then by Mr Rutherfurds owne assertion o Master Walkers Modell c. p. 18. and others concurrent suffrages who write in defence of Excommunication the very ground and end of instituting Excommunication in the Church is to prevent infection contagion by the company bad conversation and wicked fellowship of scandalous persons and to cut off a rotten member least it infect the whole body It must necessarily follow that contagious scandalous Church-members continuing obstinate and impenitent in their sins ought not to be suspended barely from the Lords Supper but likewise from all other publick Ordinances and Christian society as well as it nay rather from any other Ordinance then from the Lords Supper upon these ensuing grounds First because the Lords Supper is now more rare and infrequent then any other publick Ordinance administred in few Churches above once a moneth in many not once a quarter nay scarce once in a yeer or two in these late unhappy times an● then but once in a day whereas we have prayers preaching reading of the Word Baptisme singing of Psalmes exposition of Scriptures Catechizing in many Crurches every day of the week at leastwise morning and evening in all or most of our Churches every Lords day if not on week dayes too besides publick monethly Fasts and frequent Thanksgivings Now there is farre greater danger of infection contagion by scandalous sinners in conversing with them in these common publick Ordinances every week or day almost morning and evening in keeping company w th them in private of which few or none make conscience then there is in eating and drinking with them at the Lords Table once a month a quarter or happily scarce once a yeer as common reason will informe us therefore we should rather exclude them from those publick Ordinances wherein they daily or weekly at least converse with us then from the Lords Supper whereat we more rarely meet or communicate with them it being a strange kind of madnesse or folly to shun the company of a Leper or one infected with the pestilence one half houre onely in a moneth or yeere at a Supper and yet to fit with him at Breakfast and Dinner two or three hours every day or week Secondly because few or no scandalous persons are so desperately wicked or cauterized as experience informes us but when they come to receive the Lords Supper they will promise a great deale of repentance of reformation and behave themselves very piously devoutly in outward shew laying aside all their scandalous courses on the whole day at least whereon they receive it and come with some preparation thereunto

s See Master Rutherfurds divine right of Church government sect 1 2 3 4. cap. 1. qu. 1. c. That the Scripture ought to be the onely rule of all Church Discipline for whatsoever is not of faith is sinne Rom. 14. 13. Secondly that where the Scripture commands a totall Excommunication from the Church and all publick Ordinances in it there Ministers and Presbyters have no more authority to suspend from one alone and give free admtitance to all the rest then t Sam. 15. 2. to 34. Saul had to spare Agage and the best of the Sheep and Cattle or v Josh 7. i. to 16. Achan to save the Babilonish Wedge and Garment x Numb 31. i. to 20. or the Israelites to spare the Moabitish women when God commanded them to be all destroyed for which sinfull partiallity they were severely checked punished Now the Scripture commands a totall excommunication of obstinate scandalous sinners from all publick Ordinances whatsoever if from any as the Texts forecited manifest and our Opposites in their discourses concerning excommunication confesse therefore they cannot without sin and contempt of Gods command exclude them onely from the Lords Supper and yet freely admit them to and communicate with them in all others Thirdly to answer Master Doctors mistaken Law Where a Judge by the Law as in cases of Treason Murder Burglary c. hath power and is prescribed to hang the party offending there he cannot exchange or extenuate the penance at his pleasure by inflicting a mulct or whipping which punishments must be inflicted only when and where the Law inflicts them not for capitall offences as all our common Law-books Lawyers will informe him our Judges being bound by Oath to judge onely according to Law not arbitrarily at their pleasure If then Judges may not alter the penalties prescribed by the Lawes of men much lesse may Ministers or Presbyteries change or mitigate the censures prescribed as they now contend by the Law of God himselfe Fourthly suspention from the Lords Supper onely without sequestration from all other Ordinances together with it is but a meer groundlesse Invention io justle out the censure of excommunication so much contended for and strip it naked of all its terror and Majesty for if excommunicate persons may resort freely to heare the Word and to all other publick Ordinances but the Sacrament yea be present at all the actions of the Sacrament it selfe and be secluded onely from the actuall participation of the Elements it will make Excommunication nothing formidable yea quite subvert the very end use and substance thereof to make scandalous persons ashamed Reply But our y Master Rutherfurds Divine right of Presbyteries p. 227 273 274 280 281 Antagonists reply That an excommunicate person may freely bee admitted to heare the Word and ought not to be excluded from it z Sixteen Antiquaeries p. 6. Where writes the Doctor is it said that an excommunicate person shall not have so much as the priviledge of one that is without 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. Might an Infidell heare the Word for his conversion and shall an excommunicate person be denied the benefit of that Ordinance I grant by excommunication he is as an heathen but why he may not have the priviledge of one that is without I desire Master Prynne to instruct me and I shall thank him for it We deny not but the meditation of Christs death the words of institution and the Sacramentall Elements and actions may doe much towards conversion and let Master Prynne shew me in Scripture why either an excommunicate person or an Infidell may not be present at all these yet neither of them may be admitted to partake of the Ordinance c. Rejoinder To this I rejoyne First that Master Rutherfurd cites many Canonists and others in the same place to prove That excommunicate persons ought not to be present at Prayers Preaching or any other publick Ordinance the generall opinion of Antiquity and the Schooles nay he proves from Ezek. 44. 7 8 9. Acts 21. 28 29. That unconverted Heathens were prohibited to come into Gods Sanctuary or enter into the Temple at Jerusalem and that those who are thus excōmunicated as Heathens are in this sense persons quite excluded the Church and Common-weale of Israel as Heathens were Ephes 2. 11 12. else no excommunication could be evinced from Matth. 18. 17. Let him be to thee as an heathe therefore Heathens whiles such were excluded from the preaching of the word de jure in Christian Churches and Congregations of which they were no members True it is the Apostles were commanded to preach the Gospell to all Nations and Infidels to convert them Matth. 28. 19. Mark 16. 15. But whether Ministers at this day have the like Commission or are to admit meere Infidels ordinarily to heare the Word in their Congregations is not yet resolved neithr will the 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. evince it which speaks of such Ministers onely who were endued with the supernaturall gift of miracles and tongues for the conversion of Infidels which are long since ceased Secondly admit that Heathens and Infidels if they casually come into Christian Churches to heare the Word ought not to be excluded but admitted to heare it yet it followes not that excommunicate persons should therefore be admitted into the Church to heare the Word preached whiles actually excommunicated for their obstinacy and incorrigibility in scandalous sins First because they are judicially by way of publick censure and punishment actually cut off from and excluded out of the visible Church and sequestred from all publick Ordinances all Christian society for scandalous offences till their repentance and readmission as is cleere by the premised Texts and most Canonists Casuists School men who write of Excommunication which meere Heathens who desire to heare the Word that they may be converted are not therefore during this censure and their impenitency they ought not to be admitted entrance into the Church or to be present at any other Ordinances in it till their readmission though Heathens may who are not judicially excluded To illustrate this by an instance of like nature If a native English man be by lawfull sentence banished the Kingdome for any crime or a Free-man of London expelled the lines of Cōmunication for his Delinquency till his conformity it is not lawfull for the one of them to return into the Kingdome or the other to come within the City till their sentences be revoked yet Aliens and Forreigners may freely enter the one and other without restraint because there is no such sentence of banishment or exclusion passed against them So a scandalous impenitent Christian cast out of the Church banished the society of Christians and excluded all publick Ordinances by a legall sentence ought not to be admitted till repentance though a meere Heathen may Secondly because an impenitent obstinate scandalous Christian by Paul's owne resolution is more to be avoyded then

increaseth vertue decreaseth which he condemnes as contrary both the Scripture and Antiquity informing us That among the Greeks even at this day if any man absent himselfe from the Lords Table by the space of fourteen dayes except be can render a reasonable cause of his absence he is excommunicate and put from the company of the faithfull and that in all those mighty large populous Kingdomes under that most puissant King Prceious John the holy communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord hath from the beginning been DAILY ADMINISTRED TO THE PEOPLE and yet is at this present day as Histories make mention All which as it justly refutes and censures the late unwarrantable that I say not impious popish tyrannicall practice of sundry of our Ministers who I know not out of what new whimseys pretended scruples of conscience contrary to Antiquity Scripture Law the constant practice of the Church in all Ages refuse to administer the Sacrament to their Parishoners for whole yeers together or more denying this heavenly Ordinance of Christ as well to the religious among them who desire it as to the ignorant scandalous prophane prostituting this Institution of Christ himselfe to their owne ambitious designes to encroach a jurisdiction over it and their peoples consciences by this irreligious stratagem no wayes justifiable before God or men so it yeelds me an unanswerable argument to prove these two conclusions necessarily slowing from the premises First that the Lords Supper by the judgement of Antiquity and the practice of the Church in all Ages belongs to all visible members of the visible Church able to examine themselves not actually excommunicated though they be not truly regenerated because all of them are thus equally enjoyned frequently to receive it as well as to heare the Word Secondly that the Lords Supper by the resolution of all these Fathers Authors and the Christian Church in all Ages is a converting regenerating as well as a confirming or sealing Ordinance for since every parishoner and member of each Congregation being of yeers of discretion was thus exhorted obliged to receive it at least three times every yeer under paine of excommunication and not being reputed a christian the greatest part of whom as the Scripture and experience informe us were unregenerate persons not inwardly converted and void of saving faith the eating of this heavenly Banquet could not be prescribed unto such as a bare sealing or confirming Ordinance of saving grace already received much lesse as a meanes of their condemnation or aggravation of their sinnes but onely as an instrument of their inward conversion and regeneration to beget saving faith and spirituall life within their soules and unite them unto Christ Hence the c Bochellus de cret● Eccles Gal. l 3. Tit. 1. c 2. p 356. Synod of Lingon An. 1404. defines thus Sacramentum Sanctae E●charistiae est excellentissimum Sacramentum pro eo quod non solum IN EO GRATIA CONFERTUR sanctificat seu sanctitatem causat sicut alia Sacramenta sed etiam quia continet in se actorem totius gratiae sanctificationis Dominuin nostrum Jesum Christum Hence the Synod of d Bochellus de eret Eccles Gal. l 2. Tit. 1. c 34 p 152 153. Sennes An. 1521. refuting such who deny the power of conferring grace to the Sacraments not onely proves Baptismi Sacramentum sua virtute conferre Gratiam stiling it Lavacrum regenerationis quo denuo nastimur but likewise resolves thus of the Lords Supper Quis autem VIVIFIC UM neget Eucharistiae Sacramentum quod tam apertis Scripturae testimoniis comprobatur Calix enim benedictionis cui benedicimus nonne communio sanguinis Christi est panis quem frangimus nonne participatio corporis Domini est c. Quibus luce clarius constet hoc sacrosanctam Eucharistiae Sacramentum non solnm GRATIAM CONFERRE c. Which thus interpreted and seconded by the Synod of e Bochellus ibid. c. 32. p. 148 Paris Anno 1557. may passe for orthodox truth Sacramentum juxta nominis etymologiam id significat QUO QUID SACRATUR Sacramentum itaque ex more Catholicae Ecclesiae dicitur sacrae rei signum externum sensibile efficaci significatione insinuans internam invisibilem gratiam Dei aut effectum gratuitum ex divina institutione ad salutem mortalium destinatum Sacramenta duabus potissimum de causis a Deo esse instituta videntur Vna est ut sint invisibilis sanctificationis insignia externa signa Christiani ini illius quae magnae Congregationis quae est Ecclesia sigilla ne Domini familia aliarum gentium admixtione fiat incerta Altera causa est ut Sacramenta ipsa non tantum significent sed etiam sanctificent conferant invisibilem Dei Gratiam non propria aliqua rerum externorum vi aut merito ministri sed Domini secretius operantis quod instituit Itaque etsi decet bonum esse Sacramentorum ministrum tamen malus etiam potest utiliter dispensare Quum dicimus Sacramentum causam esse justificationis nostrae intellegimus non principalem sed instrumentalem sine qua res fieri non solet quamvis sine ea fieni possit nec enim virtus Domini potentia alligata est Sacramentis Ecclesiae Sacramenta sunt a Christo in morborum animi remedium curationem instituta quorum haec vis est ut sacros sanctosque faciant qui ea digne suscipitunt quando non signa quidem solum sunt gratiae sed ipsus causa his non modo signando sed efficiendo sanctitatem Christus nobis conferre voluit Sacramenta igitur non tantummodo signa sunt quae infusam gratiam contegant occultent sed quae efficiant reipsa prestant cujus notae sunt signa est autem Sacramentum divinae gratiae signum ●igura acinstrumentalis causa efficiens instrumētaliter quod sensibiliter figurat Henc● f Bochellus ibid. c. 5. p. 142. the Councill of Burdeaux Anno 1582. defines the like in these termes Cum Ecclesia nihil habet preciosius nihil ad aeternam salutem cons●quendam magis necessarium quàm â Christo instituta Sacramenta quibus omnis justitia vel INCIPIATUR vel caepta augeatur vel amissa reparatur ac Domini Dei gratia quam ipsa Sacramenta seu vasa quaedam divina continent eamque ritè suscipientibus CONFERUNT nobis abunde communicetur pastores omni studio diligentia commissum sibi Christianum populum exhortare debent ad frequentem Augustissimi Eucharistiae Sacramenti usum And Concilium g Bochellus ibid. c ● p. 14● Bitur Anno 1584. concludes thus Cum per primum parentem violata est originalis justitia in qua creatus fuerat peccato suo omnes p●st●r●s infecit c. Providus Deus singulls morbis singula adhibuit remedia Sacramenta scilicet quibus peccata remittuntur ●ominis vita reg●●vr ●ides