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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35587	The Case and cure of persons excommunicated according to the present law of England in two parts : I. the nature of excommunication, as founded in Holy Writ : the persons intrusted with that power, the objects of that censure and the method prescribed by God for it : the corruptions of it in times of popery, with the acts of the popish clergy, to fortify it with under these corruptions : the several writs of common law, and the statute laws made in those times, and still in force : to restrain the abuse of this censure, and to deliver the subjects from the oppression of it : II. the mischievous consequents of excommunication as the law now stands at present in England : with some friendly advice to persons pursued in inferior ecclesiatical courts by malicious promoters : both in order to their avoiding excommunication, or delivering themselves from prisons, if imprisoned because they have stood excommunicated fourty days.		1682 (1682)	Wing C848; ESTC R4831	39,295	48

THE CASE and CURE OF Persons Excommunicated According to The present Law of England In Two Parts I. The nature of Excommunication as founded in Holy Writ the Persons intrusted with that Power the Objects of that Censure and the Method prescribed by God for it The Corruptions of it in times of Popery with the Acts of the Popish Clergy to fortify it with under these Corruptions The several Writs of Common Law and the Statute Laws made in those times and still in force to restrain the abuse of this Censure and to deliver the Subjects from the Oppression of it II. The Mischievous Consequents of Excommunication as the Law now stands at present in England With some Friendly Advice to Persons pursued in Inferior Ecclesiastical Courts by Malicious Promoters both in order to their avoiding Excommunication or delivering themselves from Prisons if imprisoned because they have stood Excommunicated Fourty days LONDON Printed for J. R. Sold by Richard Janeway 1682. PART I. The Case and Cure of Persons Excommunicated according to the present Law of England CHAP. I. The Foundation of Excommunication both in Reason and from Scripture both of the Old and New Testament EXcommunication being the Separation of a Person from the Communion of the Church at least in some Ordinances seems to be founded in the Law of Reason as well as in Holy Writ for it is very irrational to imagine that any Political Body should be left without a Power to purge it self from such Members of it as are unfit for Communion with it And as the God of Order never left any Kingdom or Commonwealth without a Power to make and execute or at least to execute such Laws as were necessary for its Preservation So it is most of all unreasonable to imagine That that Body whereof Christ is the Head should not be cloathed with Authority sufficient to free it self from disorderly Members God who himself instituted all the Laws of the Jewish Church did not leave that Church without a Power to keep their Communion pure and holy Hence we shall find that Penalty He shall be cut off from his People so often annexed to those Laws which doubtless is not to be understood of Eternal Condemnation for it is unreasonable to imagine that the Child of eight days old should be eternally condemned for the Parents neglect to circumcise it Gen. 17.14 Nor of Corporal Punishments alone for tho God was about to have killed Moses for not circumcising his Child yet we read of no danger the Child was in but the Phrase is certainly to be understood of a penal judicial Separation of the Person from the visible Communion of the Church And that some such thing was in practice amongst the Jews appears in their most corrupt times both by their casting one out of the Synagogue in Christ's time whom he received and by his Prediction to his Disciples that the Jews would for their Confession of him turn them out of the Synagogues Upon the Reformation and the Settlement of the Christian Church Christ is supposed to have clothed his Church with such a Power Mat. 16.19 And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven The same Power he committed to more of his Disciples John 20.23 Whosoever Sins ye remit they are remitted and whosoever Sins ye retain they are retained Our Saviour seemeth more particularly to direct in the Case Mat. 18.15 Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his Fault betwixt thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every Word may be established And if he neglect to hear them tell it the Church if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven More than this we find not in our Saviour's Directions given by himself But he ascending up on high gave Gifts unto Men Apostles Evangelists Prophets Pastors and Teachers Apostles to plant Churches and to put them in order revealing his Will unto them for their Order and Government Pastors and Teachers for the ordinary Government of them by putting the Laws in Execution which Christ personally gave or which the Apostles gave for the ordering and Government of them we find the Apostle Paul more fully instructing us as to this Ordinance of Excommunication we have an eminent Instance 1 Cor. 5. A Person that was a Member of the Church of Corinth had taken his Father's Wife the Apostles Judgment concerning him is declared ver 4. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a ●●e unto Satan for the Destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus That Phrase of delivering unto Satan is again mentioned 1 Tim. 1.20 of whom is Hymeneus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme Most agree that the Apostle in these Texts by delivering to Satan and understands Excommunication why he expresseth it by the notion of delivering up to Satan is not so uniformly agreed Some think that Excommunicated Persons were in these Times corporally vexed by Satan I could never see it well proved at least that it was ordinarily done tho God might make some such remarkable Instances of his Vengeance There is a sense in the Canon Law which pleaseth me much better which is by the Apostle called The God of the World as the Church is God's House so Men out of the Church are in Satan's Territories and under his Government and this certainly is the meaning of that Phrase The Apostle delivered up Hymen●●s and Philetus who had put away Faith and a good Conscience to the World that is Shut them out of the Communion of God's House which is the Church and left them to the World and this comporteth with our Saviour's Institution Let him be to them as an Heathen and as a Publican From which also appeareth that Persons under that Sentence might according to the Will of God be admitted to such Ordinances as Heathens might be admitted to who might be preached to and prayed for Yea the Excommunicated Person was in something a better Condition than a meer Pagan for the Church was under an Obligation to admonish him as one that had been a Brother 1 Thess 3.6 14. he had given command That if any Brother did walk disorderly they should withdraw themselves from him ver 14. they should note him and have no company with

Man out of the Kingdom of God and are equally heinous and scandalous as these such as are reckoned up by the Apostle 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Idolaters Adulterers Effeminate Persons such as abuse themselves with Mankind Theeves Murderers Sorcerers profane Swearers and Cursers these are all scandalous Offenders and so within the Precept Matth. 18. 3. Yet neither are all these the Objects of this Censure unless they be Stubborn Contumacious and Incorrigible An Heretick is not to be avoided till after the first and second Admonition Tit. 3.10 Nor an Offender till after that he hath refused to hear the Church Mat. 18. Conformable to this was the general Judgment of the Churches of God for more than a thousand Years after Christ as might be made appear from infinite Quotations out of the Ancients and out of the Canon Law which steadily determineth That none but Hereticks and such as are guilty of Mortal Sins and Contumacious in them are to be Excommunicated It is a most unreasonable thing to think that it is the Will of God that any should be Excommunicated for what is no Sin Christ never willed the cutting off true Members from his Body And it is altogether as unreasonable to imagine that it is the will of Christ who hath Compassion on the Ignorant and those who are out of the Way and who hath declared his readiness to receive repenting Sinners should have willed the cutting off of those from the Communion of his Church who are not Contumacious But this is granted on all hands that none be they never so great Transgressors unless Contumacious should be the Objects of this Censure at least what they call the greater Excommunication for the Separation of some open notorious Transgressors from Communion in some Ordinances being under the Church's Admonition it cannot indeed properly be called Excommunication But when a Person is to be judged Contumacious is the great Question The Papists making the Laws and Decrees of their Church equal if not superiour to the Laws of God make all Disobedience to their Canons persisted in to be Contumacy And in abuse of that Text Matth. 18. If he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican determine all Persons contumacious who will not hear those whom they call the Church 1. Either commanding them to appear at their Consistories 2. Or tho appearing if they will not within such a time as they set do what in those Courts they think fit to enjoyn them But indeed that Contumacy which renders any according to the Will of God the Objects of this Censure must be a Contumacy against the Commands of Christ If indeed any Person hath done any thing for which according to the Will of God he is censurable by the Church and they send for him and he will not appear to answer and justify himself Or if they command him to do what Christ hath in his Gosppel commanded them to do and he refuseth after several Admonitions to do it he may be judged Contumacious but other Contumacy the Scripture knoweth not nor can any Person by the Law of the Gospel be judged a Person fit to be Excommunicated but one who hath been a scandalous Sinner who being sent for by the Church of which he is a Member refuseth to come at them or coming to them being required to do what is the will of Christ peremptorily refuseth to yield Obedience but will still go on in his sinful Courses CHAP. IV. The Divine Order Method and Manner to be proceeded in with Reference to Excommunication There is yet one thing more to be considered and that is the Order and Manner of the Execution of this Sentence according to the Will of God Whoso considereth it as an Ordinance of God an Action done in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle expresseth it in 1 Corinth 5.4 will easily conclude it ought to be done with all the Seriousness and Gravity imaginable and as is usually said in our Officials Sentences how truly God knoweth Christi nomine prius invocato after a first calling upon the Name of Christ The Name and Power of Christ cannot be trifled with without Profanation and Blasphemy and an high degree of taking the Name of God in vain which is a Crime that whosoever presumeth to incur shall not be held guiltless as we are assured in the third Commandment Again whoso considereth it as an Action by which Mens Sins are retained and by which a Person is cast out of God's special Providence and put into the condition of an Heathen and a Publican and debarred of the greatest Priviledges of the Gospel viz. the Vse of the Sacrament and the Communion of Saints if he be a Person who hath any thing of the Fear of God before his Eyes or any thing of brotherly Love and Compassion toward Souls in his Heart will easily conclude it is a thing ought not to be done passionately rashly or suddenly but upon mature Deliberation after grave Admonitions and patient waiting for the due effect of them And as the very Nature of the thing thus far instructeth any Men of Common Sense and Moralities so that no other manner of performing this can be expected from any but such as in their ordinary Discourse are so used to throw out The Divel take you that they cannot forbear it in their most solemne Actions so God hath sufficiently instructed us in his Will as to this thing The secret Sinner must have a private and Fraternal Correption before the Church hear of his Crime Mat. 18. The Heretick must not be rejected till after a first and second Admonition Tit. 3.10 and certainly he that hath commanded us In meekness to instruct those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them Repentance to the acknowledging of the Truth And that they may recover themselves out of the Snare of the Divel who are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim 2.26 And again If a Man be overtaken with a Fault restore such a one in the Spirit of Meekness considering our selves lest we also be tempted Gal. 6.1 never intended that Men should be delivered up to the Devil cast out of the Communion of the Saints in haste And indeed this is so evident a piece of the Will of God so consonant to Humane Reason that not only all Divines as well Ancient as Modern have agreed it but the very Canon Law it self in several places determines it and maketh it a grievous Sin for any Bishop or Priest to proceed to this Sentence without a leisurable and full hearing of the Cause And I remember the Instance of God himself is brought in resolving to go down and see if the Merits of the Men of Sodom were according to the cry come up and as to the deliberate proceeding of the Judge as in the hearing and proof of the Cause so in the denouncing the

him that he might be ashamed yet ver 15. Count him not as an Enemy but admonish him as a Brother Yet in some respects it appeareth to be the will of God that an Excommunicated Person should be treated worse than an Heathen 1 Cor. 5.9 10. I wrote you an Epistle saith the Apostle not to company with Fornicators Yet not altogether with the Fornicators of this World or with the Covetous or with Extortioners or Idolaters for then must you needs go out of the World Ver. 11. But now I have written to you not to keep Company if any Man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat By which it appeareth that such Persons as are here specified were to be withdrawn from and to that degree that Men should rather have an Intimacy of Communion with Heathens than with them What further Direction we have in this Case is in the Epistles to Titu● and Timothy Tit. 3.10 A Man that is an Heretick after the first and second Admonition reject 2 Tim. 3.2 Men shall be lovers of their own selves Covetous Boasters Proud Blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankful unholy without natural Affection Truce-breakers incontinent fierce Despisers of that which is good Traitors Heady-minded Lovers of Pleasures more that Lovers of God Having a Form of Godliness and denying the Power thereof from such turn away Rom. 16.17 Mark them which make Divisions amongst you contrary to the Doctrine which you have received and avoid them This is the most of what we find in Holy Writ concerning this Institution of Christ both as to the Doctrine concerning it and concerning the Practice of it from whence may be easily gathered that the Description which the Canonists anciently gave of it is not much amiss for Panormitan telleth us That Excommunication is nothing else but a Censure pronounced by the Canon or the Judg Ecclesiastical by which a Person is deprived of the Communion of the Sacraments and sometimes with Men. The former of which he calleth the lesser the latter the greater Excommunication It is a more Theological Description of it to say It is an Institution of Christ for keeping the Purity of his Church by which such as he hath authorized thereunto have Power in such order and manner as he hath appointed to separate from the more intimate Communion of a Church in such Ordinances as may not be administred to Pagans such Persons as Christ hath declared unfit for that Communion untill they have declared their bearty Repentance for such Miscarriages CHAP. II. A further Inquiry concerning the Persons whom God intrusted with the Power of Excommunication being one of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven they are proved to be Apostles and Pastors of Churches with the consent of the Body of the Church WE are for the fuller understanding of the Will of God in this Institution in the first place to inquire to whom our Lord Jesus hath trusted this Power He tells Peter Mat. 16.19 And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven A Text the Papists make great use of But is no more than he tells all his Disciples of John 20.23 Whose soever Sins you remit they are remitted to them and whose sover Sins you retain are retained and in the Rule he gives us Mat. 18. concerning Offences not committed publickly for such Cases there is no need of fraternal Correption as appears 1 Tim. 5.20 Those that sin rebuke before all he commands the third time they should tell the Church and if the Offender would not hear the Church he should be as an Heathen or a Publican The Church can be no single Person nor doth he write to the Bishops or Pastors but to the Church of Corinth about the incestuous Person 1 Cor. 5. and directs them that the Act should be done when they should be gathered together in the Name of Christ There are in Excommunication two things The Judgment of the Cause and the Pronouncing of the Sentence The pronouncing or publishing of the Sentence is a meer Ministerial Work yet we do not find that it was ever done but by a Bishop or Minister But the main business is to inquire whom Christ the Lord of the Church hath betrusted with hearing these Causes and judging concerning them for of his Appointment they must be who hath any thing to do to turn any out of his House but either he himself who is the Lord of the House or such as he hath delegated thereunto St. Paul saith he had delivered up to Satan Hymeneus and Philetus He ordereth Titus the Bishop or Pastor at least of Crete to reject an Heretick after the first and second Admonition He writes to the Church of Corinth where they were gathered together to deliver up the incestuous Person to Satan From whence we may indeed conclude That the Minister is concerned but not that it was ever committed to him alone without the consent of the Congregation and it is a Rule of Reason Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tangi debet the whole Body is concerned in the cutting off of any Member and in vain shall any Officers cast one out of Communion with the Church with whom yet the Church will keep Communion Nothing appears more clear to me than that it belongeth to the Bishop or Pastor with the whole Church to hear such Causes and the Pastor and Officers to judg of them which being granted I cannot see how any Person can be lawfully Excommunicated by any Council or Synod it must proceed from the Church gathered together and that the Officers of many Churches gathered together should make a Church clothed with Authority from Christ to Excommunicate I cannot understand from any thing of Holy-Writ And indeed I take one of the first warpings from the Rule of Christ as to this Ordinance to have been then For had the Cause been of much more weight than the mis-timing of Easter I cannot understand by what Authority unless usurped Victor could Exccommunicate the Churches of Asia But to pass this for more than five hundred Years after Christ the Churches never allowed it within the Power of any but either of the Collective Church or the Bishops and Pastors in their respective Churches to hear the Causes of Persons with reference to the Solemn Sentence of Excommunication and to determin any to it In the third Century the Power rested penes Seniores Ecclesiae in the Elders of the Church as appears from Tertullian's Apologetick and the Denunciation of the Sentence was by a Bishop or Presbyter this Origen hinteth to us again and again Thus it was in Cyprian's Time in the Case of Fortunatus Foelicissimus Maximus and Jevinus and thus if we will believe Ecclesiastical History Fabranus Excommunicated the Emperor Philip tho I give little Credit to Eusebius in that Story believing the course of excommunicating Emperors of