Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A39281
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S. Austin imitated, or, Retractions and repentings in reference unto the late civil and ecclesiastical changes in this nation by John Ellis.
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Ellis, John, 1606?-1681.
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1662
(1662)
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Wing E590; ESTC R24312
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304,032
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419
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Bez. in 1 Cor. 7.6 were it but for this Cùm alioquin ipsum conjugium per se purum sit ac honestum tamen ipsius usus vix aut ne vix quidem careat aliqua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed quae velo matrimonii obtegatur Because that though marriage of it self be pure and holy yet the use of it can hardly if possible be without some irregularity yet such as by the ordinance of Matrimony is vailed over and covered And therefore at the first when there is most danger the stronger obligations from the most solemn and sacred ordinances have a necessary use Next Scurrilously they enquire if they do not receive who shall be punished c. When the Lord appointed that the children of Israel must dwell in Tents once a year Levit. 23.34 in remembrance of their dwelling in the wilderness yet 't is said in Nehemiah Nehem. 8.17 that they had not done it so till then from the time they came out of Aegypt Must we quarrel now with Gods own Law because if the people would not do it it did not design who should be punished Some punishments are appointed the Magistrate but withal there are some left to our own consciences and to Gods secret Judgment It is much upon this account that the Rubrick after the Catechisme scaped the Br. lash which saith that all parents and masters shall cause their ch ldren and servants to come to catechizing which is as much observed as the other They may ask here also who shall punish them Even he who will take account of every idle word and question Matth. 12.36 Where they say they are not bound to receive above thrice in the year and therefore not at marriage Prov. 26.5 So puerile a vanity calls for the like answer Have they never learned that besides Propria quae maribus there is also Quae genus aut flexum variant The eighth and last Rubrick they except against is The eighth Except Rubrick after the Commun of the sick That after the Communion of the sick where it is said that in the plague or other infectious diseases when company cannot be had upon special request of the sick the Minister may alonely communicate with him Where first their supposition is that the Minister is bound to visit every sick person of the plague and to give him the Communion if he desire it Minister visiting the sick of the plague Upon this they build a three-fold battery of unchristianity of opposition to the other Rubricks touching the Communion and particularly that of the sick Lastly of inhumanity Answ But Castles in the air have no foundation The Rubrick doth not say as before he shall or must but he may it thereby being left to his own conscience and discretion Their footing therefore fails them but if it were good Matth. 25. not against Christianity therefore For I was sick he excepteth no disease and ye came unto me what only the people capable of this reward and blessing not any Minister Then was Calvine weak who would have gone to those visited of the plague Beza in Vit. Calv. ad Ann. 1542. if the Senate who were concerned more waies then one in his life would have suffered him Yea and the Senate too who thought that for these visited of the plague there Pastoris constantis ac seduli opera requireretur that the labour of a grave and diligent Minister was very requisite and accordingly Sebast Castellio though chosen by lot refusing Blanchetus another Minister took it upon him And how else shall we fulfill that Engagement 1 Joh. 3 16. viz. that we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren Neither Secondly Is it true which they say Private Communion that the very nature of the Sacrament requires a publick administration The practice of it indeed so far as is recorded we Answ 1 find to be with company but the nature of it is another thing urgy in the Q. of the r. that being an outward and visible sign ordained by Christ himself as a means whereby we may apply the body and blood of Christ and a pledge to assure us thereof Or it is not onely a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves which is represented by the company and number one to another ic of Re◠28. but rather it is a Sacrament of our redemption by Christs death or 10.16 insomuch as to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ and likewise the Cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ This being so it is not of the nature and essence of the Sacrament nor necessarily required to the comfort and benefit of receiving thereof that it be publickly no nor with company celebrated Answ 2 Secondly Their proof is as as weak taken from those Rubricks that speak of the Communion when company may be had or of comforting the sick if by any just impediment the sick be deprived of the Communion The lack of company is mention'd as one which yet is no contradiction although it be allowed that the Minister alonely may receive with him For this may well refer to the sick man's family for 't is said When none of the parish or neighbours can be gotten but is supposed those of his own house may and if that cannot be it may be an impediment to the administration of the Communion Unless it be as the Rubrick saith upon special request of the diseased and that the consolation appointed for him in case the former impediments do hinder the convenient administration do not satisfie his conscience but that still he be importunate for it in such case he may c. where they put in That unless he truly repent of his sins st and stedfastly believe in Christ c. which the Exhortation is to put him in mind of what good will he get by receiving the Sacrament Answ 3 This savours of Famialism as if in case he do these there were no need of the Sacrament Thirdly it is no whit contrary unto humanity as they affirm but the quite contrary But must a Minister pag. 26. who hath charge of many souls venture pag. 26. adventure his health and life to gratifie an infectious person in that which is not necessary to his salvation say the Brethren It hath been shewn above that it is not a must but a may Again he must if called by God through the voice of his Church the sick person and his own conscience In case these concur as it may fall out or else he cannot be Christs Disciple much less a Minister of his as we saw above The charge of the souls belong more to the Church and to God Almighty to take care of than to any particular Minister What is that to thee Joh. 21. follow thou him
alteration by the FRIVOLOUS suggestions of any LIGHT spirit Neither are wee ignorant of the inconveniences that do arise in GOVERNMENT by admitting INNOVATIONS in things once SETTLED by mature deliberation and how necessary it is to use CONSTANCY in the upholding of the publick determinations of states for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some dispositions affecting every year NEW forms of things as if they should bee followed in their unconstancy would make all actions of state RIDICULOUS and contemptible Whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established is the weal of Common-Wealths Thus far of the first point of Independency viz. Separation the second and third Congregation and non Subjection have been spoken to above and of the causes of my recess from the Church thereunto with responsals to them Wherein for the clearing of things I have been much larger than my self intended But yet Absit enim ut multiloquium deputem quando necessaria dicuntur quantalib Sermonum multitudine ac prolixitate dicantur Aug. God forbid dhat I should count that Aug. Prolog in lib. Retract multitude of words when nothing is said but what is necessary although it be uttered with never so great a number of speeches or length of discourse saith S. Austin CHAP. IX The Proof and Tryal of these Retractations SECT I. LEt mee now subjoyn a certain proof and as it were divine tryal or attestation of these Retractations and then I shall conclude and dismiss the Reader It is one of the gracious providences which Almighty God exerciseth towards his Servants to put them to the tryal of their Faith and Profession 1 Cor. 3. 1 Pet. 1. and that by fire So the Apostle That the tryal of your Faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tryed by fire c. Hence hee smites them into the place of Dragons and covers them with the shadow of death that by extremity being put to examine their grounds if they were insufficient they might not dye for Psal 44.20 or in them and if good they might stick the closer to them Hereupon oftentimes sufferings sickness and the approach of death occasions the repenting of those things whereof men have been very confident Vid. The speeches of the Gent. that suffered as communicated by the publick intelligencer Mr. Cook As appeared now of late in the sad Example of those Gentlemen who suffered about the death of our late Soveraign As may bee seen on publication of the speeches of some of them and the wonderful consternation and unpreparedness for death of Mr. Peters And touching Mr. Cook I remember that hee being of the Independent opinion and writing a book for that way wrote also soon after the death of the King a vindication and defence of that his act Wherein hee much glorieth in the office hee performed in that affair Sollicitor as I take it he was and among other things hath these That hee was indifferent whether hee dyed by a stab or a pistol or by a Feaver or Consumption That in his pleading against other malefactors hee used to tremble but that in his actings against the King his blood sprung in his veins Yet wee hear he was of another minde at his death but whether so or no I insist not on it The prophane Schism of the Brownists chap. 7. pag. 41. And there is remarkable story in a Book intitled The prophane Schism of the Brownists written by some that had been in that seduction of a certain Minister one Mr. Gilgate who was misled that way and of Mr. Ainsworths company Who lying on his sick-bed and in peril of death uttered by way of repentance these most savoury and considerable words O Lord rebuke mee not in thine anger Psal 6. neither chastise mee in thy wrath for thine arrows have light upon mee and thine hand lieth upon mee There is nothing sound in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there rest in my bones because of my sin c. Having now long time been afflicted with sharp and grievous sickness whereby it hath pleased God to bring mee into more serious and deep consideration of my estate Note in separating from the Churches of Christ and still finding my separation to bee more unlawful the more I consider the same And while I felt my felt at the weakest and sickest and so pressed with the force of my disease that I even doubted of life I left my conscience most pressed with desire Note to revoke my separation And therefore do now think it my duty before I bee taken away hence and bee found no more or howsoever the Lord shall dispose of mee by life or death to give testimony to the truth whereof I am perswaded in my soul And as mine own disease and the hand of God stretched out upon mee The disease of the separation moveth mee to consider and testifie these things so the disease of the separation and the hand of God which I see to be stretched out a-against it doth also draw mee on the other side unto the same thing The disease of the separation is a hot and burning disease that consumeth and destroyeth many with the poisonous and contagious heat thereof of every company among them is a flame of condemnation to devour another The boyl of their contention swelleth and burneth incessantly and they have yet no poultess to break it nor any oyl to mollifie the same Then speaking of Mr. Ainsworth's and Mr. Johnson excommunicating one anothers members with much bitterness hee addeth It appears they never travelled in pain of them Note they never begot them by their Ministry but having seduced and stolen these children from the sides of other true Churches the right Mothers in whose womb they they were regenerate and born anew they are now become hard-hearted c. Like the false Mother that would have the childe divided And a little after I do now by this writing unfeignedly acknowledge my sin to bee great in renouncing the communion with so many faithful servants of God with whom once I lived Church of England Note In the Church of England I sinned against and dishonoured his name in refusing to hear the word of life preached in those Assemblies The life comfort and salvation that I expect and hope for in the Kingdome of Heaven is by the Faith of the Gospel preached in that Church and preached there with more power fruit and efficacy Note than I ever yet heard in the Churches of the Separation Then speaking of the Lady C. that desired to be in that way hee adds But for my part having now had sufficient experience of their waies I do freely acknowledge and profess in this bed of my sickness from which I know not whether ever I shall arise unto my former health that it should bee my great comfort to dye in the communion of those Churches