these miraculous Cures on Mens Bodies evidently proved to the Jews who were all of this Opinion that he had power to forgive Sins and consequently was the Messiah Now if the Original of this Opinion of theirs be enquired into we may conclude it came first from God's threatning Diseases to those who transgressed his Law Deuter. xxviii 27 28 35 c. and secondly from the frequent Examples they had seen of the miraculous smiting of evil Men with sudden and sad Distempers in the very act of their Sin Now while this extraordinary way of punishing and disgracing Sinners suitable to the hardness of this Peoples hearts was made use of by God there was not so much need nor occasion for the Priests to excommunicate Men for Immoralities since God took the matter into his own hands and no doubt these apparent Judgments were so terrible that such as had done any grievous Sin durst not come to God's House till he was attoned And it may be noted That in the infancy of the Christian Church the Lord proceeded the same way with the Corinthians who profaned the Holy Communion striking many of them with sickness and weakness and some with death 1 Cor. xi 30. to warn the rest and to provide for the keeping his Sacred Ordinances from prophanation in a Church where as S. Chrysostom notes by reason of the Schism there was no exercise of Discipline at that time Now these Methods sufficiently shewed it was the will of God that notorious Sinners should be excluded they did the work and served to the ends of Excommunication they bound up the Parties so that they wanted if not commerce with men yet however converse with God for they could not go to the Temple till both the Sin was pardoned and the Sickness removed together And that restauration was their Absolution (q) Isa xxxviii ver 22. and also a warning not to offend again (r) John v. 14. These Methods therefore of miraculous smiting Sinners might well occasion the seldom use of any Excommunication for Immoralities which is the first Answer to that Query Why there are so few Instances of that Discipline under the Law of Moses exercised by the Priests upon scandalous Offenders A second Reason may be taken from the Jewish form of Government which was a Theocracy God himself was their Supream Ruler and Law-giver and they had not two Laws one Sacred and the other Civil nor two Tribunals as there are in other Nations The Priests there had the chief Authority in the Sanhedrim and in all other Councils and the power of Temporal Punishments 2 Chron. xix 8. The High-Priest was the first Person in the Sanhedrim ibid. ver 11. And the determining of all Controversies and punishing all Offences was principally in them (s) Deut. xvii 9 12. so that the King himself was to advise with the Priest in all matters (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph in App. lib. 2. Vide Phil. de vita Mosis Joseph Antiq. lib. 4. cap. 8. and it was Capital to any of the People to disobey their order Now while the Priests had this power and the Nation was governed by God's Law and its own Magistrates of Divine appointment all Moral Evils and Impieties were if small expiated by chargeable Sacrifices and so the Offender was reconciled by the Priest to God and the Congregation But if the Crimes were great or done presumptuously Deut. xvii 12. they were to be punished with death as in the case of Murther Exod. xxi 14. abusing their Parents and Men-stealing ver 15 16 17. Witchcraft and unlawful Lust Exod. xxii 18 19. Idolatry ver 20. The sin of Fornication in a Woman before Marriage and of Adultery in both Men and Women and the sin of a Rape committed on a betroathed Woman Deut. xxii 21 22 23 c. These and many other Crimes were in that Law punished with death by the Sentence of the Priest and so there was no need of any solemn Excommunication as Mr. Selden himself confesseth even there where he is magnifying this Objection of the want of Instances in the Old Testament for the exercise of Excommunication (u) Neque necessarium eis visum est ut adhiberetur excommunicatio quamdiu sui erant juris Seld. de Synedriis lib. 1. c. 7. p. 77. This stiff-necked and rebellious People were not to be reformed by so gentle a Method as Separation from the Assemblies or the disgrace of Ecclesiastical Censure Duro nodo durus cuneus Almighty God therefore was forced to use a harder wedge to so knotty a piece and to invest his Priests with a power to cut them off with the material Sword which under the Spiritual Oeconomy and Paternal Regiment of the Gospel is now as S. Augustine observes changed into Reproofs and Excommunication (w) Hoc nunc agit in Ecclesiâ excommunicatio quod agebat tunc interfectio Aug. Quaest in Deut. lib. 5. c. 38. Phinees Sacerdos adulteros simul inventos ferre ultore transfixit quod utique degradationibus excommunicationibus significatum est esse faciendum hoc tempore Idem de Fid. Oper. cap. 6. as more suitable to the Gospel Spirit Luke ix 55. and to the gracious design of making Men virtuous out of love to God and not as under the Law meerly for fear of bodily punishment which was inflicted without mercy on those who by two or three Witnesses were proved to have despised Moses's Law Hebr. x. 28. Yet as the Apostle there notes those who despise this gentle Method shall have a sorer punishment even a dreadful Judgment executed on them by God at last ver 27 29 30 c. Wherefore there being so apparent difference between the state of things under the Law and under the Gospel it is not to be wondred at if those Priests who had so much Secular Authority did not so often exercise this power of Excommunication as the Gospel Priests do who have nothing to do with Corporal Punishments And yet still it is clear there was a Method then to separate the notorious Criminals from the Congregation and that by God's own appointment yea there was somthing like Excommunication in these Legal capital Punishments For it seems the Cherem or Curse of God was supposed to be upon that Man who thus suffered as Moses shews saying He that is hanged is accursed of God Deut. xxi 22. and thus Christ is said to be made a Curse for us Gal. iii. 13. And the impious Canaanites who were destroyed by Joshua were thus accursed yea the very Phrase for killing those who had deserved Death for their Treachery in the Book of Maccabees is Anathematizing or Cursing them (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Maccab v. 5. So Jezabel being executed is called A cursed Woman (y) 2 Kings ix 34. And when Saul had pronounced this Cherem upon all that eat that day Jonathan falling under that Curse must have dyed if the People had not rescued
Synagogue at the hours of Prayer (m) Idem ibid. cap. 6. And again Let every man go Morning and Evening to the Synagogue and if any Man who hath a Synagogue in his City prays not in it with the Congregation he is an evil Neighbour (n) Maim Tephil cap. 8. Et Baeb Berac fol. 8. And about our Saviour's time we are told there were 480 in Jerusalem yea unto this day the Jews have Synagogues for Prayer and Religious Worship in all Cities where they are tolerated for of these Buxtorf saith They have Synagogues or Schools so they call their Churches (o) Synagogas aut Scholas ita nimirum vocant Templa ipsorum habent Buxt Synag c. 5. where they always meet saith he at the appointed hours of Prayer and there they perform their Prayers according to the directions of their Books (p) Idem ibid. Which constant use of the Jews in calling the Places for their Religious Assemblies Synagogues gave occasion to Christians also to call their Churches by the very same name so S. James speaks of one coming into the Christian Synagogue (q) James ii 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theoph. adv Nat. lib. 2. and some of the Ancients say the Holy Churches are called Synagogues All which sufficiently proves that the main end of Synagogues was for Prayer and other Religious Meetings yet we confess that when once the Nation was brought under the Romans so that the Jews had no Prince of their own nor no great Coercive Power Then and not before it appears they had a Session of three eminent Men in every Synagogue to hear and determine such Causes as were left to them and were not sit to be complained of to the Roman Governour and because for more privacy they sometimes executed the Sentence as far as Scourging the Malefactor in their Synagogues Matth. x. 17. Therefore some Learned Men have fancied the Synagogues to be places for administring Civil Justice And hence Mr. Selden would infer the Civil Magistrates Power in Excommunication and that this holy Interdict it self was chiefly yea only a Civil Punishment and a denying to keep them Company in the Affairs of common Life but all unprejudiced Men must grant That Excommunication or Turning out of the Synagogue necessarily implied a Separation from all Acts done in the Synagogue that is First and chiefly from Prayers and Sermons and Secondly from the benefit of these private Tribunals and Lastly from their Civil Conversation also Nor can it be improbable that they must both go together for if a Man be so wicked as to be judged unworthy to talk or eat with his Brethren he is much more unworthy to pray with them and he who might not come into the Synagogue when a Court was kept there ought much more to be excluded when Religious Offices were performing And that Offenders were then excluded from Religious Assemblies may be sufficiently proved from the best Authors Josephus affirms That if any of the Priests did offend he was interdicted from coming to the Altar and from medling with any Holy Office In Ap. lib. 1. pag. 632. and he saith The Essenes did not Sacrifice in the Temple because they had some Rites of their own which they counted more holy for which Cause being excluded from the Publick Temple they sacrificed in private by themselves (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiq. l 18. c. 2. Yea the Custom of these Essenes among those of their own Sect shews that the Excommunication then in use among them was an Exclusion from both Religious and Civil Commerce For if any of them were taken in any great Fault they cast him out of their Society (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jos Bell. Jud. lib. 2. cap. 7. and none of them would ever come near him after this Censure under which he commonly dyed miserably Athanasius also relates how the chief Priests and Elders at Berytus did excommunicate that Jew and cast him out of their Synagogue with whom an Image of our Saviour was found (u) Athanas Tom. 2. p. 628. And not to search for more Examples the usage of the Modern Jews derived from their Fathers doth abundantly prove that Excommunication was a deprivation of Communion in Sacred Offices For when any is disobedient They curse him and declare him openly to be excommunicated and in this Case it is not lawful for any to speak to him or to come within four yards of him neither may he come into the Synagogue or School but he is to sit upon the Ground with his shoes off as if he mourned for some of his dead Kindred and this he must do till he be absolved by the Rabbins and shall have received their Benediction And if it be the solemn and grand Excommunication then do all the People repair to the School lighting black Torches and sounding Horns they Curse him that shall do or hath done such a thing and all the Children and the People answer Amen Leo Moden History of the present Jews Chap. 3. pag. 70. Which last Passage minds me of the second degree of Excommunication called Cherem which was not only a separating the Person from Religious and Civil Commerce but declaring him Accursed yea they did actually Curse him and wish dreadful Evils might befall him Which kind of Anathema the Jews in their Synagogues uttered against Christ and all Christians as Justin Martyr at large relates in divers places (w) Just Mart. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 323 335 363. yea Epiphanius saith that the Jews in their Synagogue twice a Day at Noon and at Evening did Curse and Anathematize the Christians saying O God Curse these Nazarites (x) Epiphan Panar Sect. 29. p. 55. S. Hierom saith they did it thrice a day Com. in Isai v. 18. And the like Anathema's they pronounced against all those who read their Law in the Greek Tongue till Justinian did forbid this by a particular Constitution yet extant in the Books of the Civil Law (y) Justin Auth. Collat. ix Tit. 29. Nov. 146 pag. 202. To this may be added a third sort of Excommunication sometimes used among the Jews called Schammatha which was a solemn delivering a desperate and incurable Criminal to the Divine Vengeance which sometimes did terribly seize on the accursed Person and of this the name it self gives us intimation which some expound Ibi Mors There is Death Others The Name cometh that is God cometh Jehovah whose Name is not to be pronounced especially in a Form of Cursing cometh to take vengeance which S. Paul gives us in the Syriac form Maran-atha 1 Cor. xvi 22. For Maran signifies a Lord in that Language and thence they call our Saviour Marani from which Appellation the Syrian Christians are yet called Maronites And some think S. Paul alludes to this where he speaks of wilful Apostates and saith nothing remains for them but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment Hebr. x. 27. Yea some Learned
they might retain his Sins that is declare him unsit for and unworthy of pardon and consequently of the Churches Communion wherein forgiveness is to be obtained and while the Offender remains impenitent Christ declares his Guilt remains on him and his Sin shall not be pardoned But if the party submit and repent so that the Governours of the Church judge him sincere and take off this Sentence by declaring him penitent then his Sin shall be forgiven in Heaven as well as his Censure is reversed on Earth Which promise no doubt our Saviour makes good as often as these his Stewards do judge by the Rules and Measures he hath given them And since Christ gave his Apostles and their Successors no Temporal Power nor any other way to punish Offenders but this they who would rob them of this Power do what they can to strip them of all Authority and bring the Church by Anarchy into Confusion 'T is true these words are repeated to every Priest in his Ordination and the Power is committed to him so far as may enable him to serve the necessities of single Persons whose faults are made known to him by private complaint or voluntary confession But for orders sake where the Offence is publick and the Scandal evident there the Bishop only exercises this Power of remitting and retaining and it is this latter Power which only concerns Excommunication and which was given originally to the Apostles as Governours of the Church And while there are Offences and Offenders in the Church as there will be to the Worlds end this Power must remain in the Church Governours for the preservation of this holy Society which as Jesus did found so he hath we see taken care to endue those he set over it with such kind of Coercive Power as is necessary for the good ordering thereof CHAP. II. Of the Practice of Excommunication § I. SInce our blessed Saviour had thus in as clear words as could be spoken given his Apostles this Power of Excluding Offenders out of that Christian Church which they were to plant and rule it is plain they had Authority to exercise this Discipline by Divine Right and therefore it must be a gross Error in the Learned Mr. Selden to affirm their Right was derived partly from the Jews and partly from the Roman Emperours Edicts which allowed the Jews liberty to observe their own Rites (n) Selden Syned c. 8. p. 120. For though we grant that the Christians did for some few years after our Lord's Resurrection observe some of the Jewish Ceremonies and were by the Gentile Writers grosly mistaken for a Sect of the same Religion many years after yet they had a distinct Name within Ten years after Christ's Resurrection (o) Baron Annal Eccles An. 43. and were long before that Excommunicated and persecuted by the Jews Acts viii 1. Chap. ix 2. and the Synod at Jerusalem had declared that the Gentile Converts need not observe the Ceremonial Law So that the Christians were a distinct Society and had Officers of their own and Assemblies proper to themselves and these Officers did exercise a Jurisdiction over them and openly declared they derived their Power not from the Jews but from Christ 2 Cor. x. 8. 1 Cor. v. 4. So that it is ridiculous to assert That the right of Apostolical Excommunication was from the Jews there is a vast difference between their imitating some of the Jewish Forms or Customs in the exercise of these Censures and their deriving a right from them even as the Church of England doth imitate some of the Forms of the Roman Church in her Excommunications but it doth not follow therefore that she derives her Right to excommunicate from the Pope or the Church of Rome And for the Edicts of the Emperours which were made in favour of the Jews there is no proof that ever the Christians claimed any benefit by them yet if they did these Edicts gave them no right to Govern a Society set up on purpose to abrogate the whole Worship and Ceremonies peculiar to the Jews and though they might give them a liberty from Secular Compulsion in the exercise of that right which Christ had given them yet they did not convey that right to them So that these are meer Subterfuges contrived to escape the force and strong evidence of a Divine Right which is so clear not only from our Saviour's Institution but the Apostolick practice grounded thereon to which we shall now proceed The Apostles principal work was to bring Converts into the Church and yet when need required they also exercised that other Power of Casting notorious Offenders out of it S. Peter to whom Christ directed his first promise of this Authority was the first who exercised it and the first Sin which he retained was the Sacriledge of Ananias and Saphira which was joyned with a hope to deceive the Holy Ghost which dwelt in the blessed Apostle and that our Lord might make his Officers Rebukes more dreadful an immediate Judgment followed the Censure for Ananias and his Wife were struck with sudden death and the effect of this was That great fear came upon all the Church Acts v. 11. And though Christ had given no Secular Power to his Apostles this great Example did make the Christians reverence the Persons and fear the just Reproofs of those he had set over them The next Instance was that of Simon Magus who had pretended to believe and was baptized Acts viii 13. but it seems he had dissembled with God and Men and only designed to make a gain of the Power of Miracles which he vilely offered Money for as if it had been only an Art which might be bought and sold whereupon S. Peter declares him accursed ver 20. saying His Money and he should perish together By which Phrase he intimates he was as the Jews speak under Cherem and that he might separate him from the Church he declares ver 21. Thou hast neither part nor lot with us in this matter which are the very words of the Tribes beyond Jordan who express their fear of their Posterity's being rejected from Communion with the other Tribes because of their distance by this very Phrase They will say unto them Ye have no part in the Lord (p) Josh xxii 5. Cal. Par. Non estis inter quos est verbi divini Communitas LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the like form of Speech the Bond of Society in Civil Matters was declared void 2 Sam. xix 1. 1 Kings xii 16. Yea our Lord thus threatens to reject S. Peter if he would not admit his washing saying If I wash thee not thou hast no part in me John xiii 8. And further as a Reason of this destruction denounced and this Separation inflicted on Simon Magus the Apostle shews he is still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Bond of his Sin which by this Declaration was retained according to the Power given by Christ yet
years Can. 16. To be absent from Church for three Sundays together was punished with Excommunication Can. 21. A Convert from Heresie was to repent three years before he were received to the Churches Communion Can. 22. To keep Idols in their Houses was punished with Exclusion from the Church Can. 41. And no Bishop must receive any Criminal into the Church but he which cast him out Can. 53. These with many other Rules there prescribed shew that Excommunication was the proper Ecclesiastical Penalty for all Crimes and that it was laid on for longer or shorter time according to the nature of the Offence And since the Bishops who used these Censures were Men of so great Integrity and Piety and many of them Martyrs for the Faith we cannot suspect they would have falsly assumed a Power as of Divine Right which Christ never gave them Nor would the Faithful have submitted to the severities of those Primitive Penances nor have esteemed Excommunication so dreadful or desired Absolution so Earnestly if they had not firmly believed that their Bishops Acted by Authority from Christ and his Holy Apostles And indeed the Evidence for this Opinion in this Age is so clear that Mr. Selden confesses it saying Excommunication was even then believed to rely upon Divine Right and express command of God (p) Jure etiam divino eoque praeceptivo eam niti existimatum jam est Seld. Synedr lib. 1. cap. 9. pag. 139. Which Testimony is the more to be valued because it comes from a Man who with more Learning than Success most industriously labours to prove the Primitive Christians mistaken in this Notion In which dispute I must briefly note there are many Evidences of his partiality For first when he professes to write of the use of Excommunication before Constantine he spends not two Pages on that Copious Subject viz. Lib. 1. Chap. 9. pag. 139 140. and saith this is enough and too much and so indeed it is enough to confute his Novel Fancy and too much to be answered by those slight Evasions there made use of For he spends all the rest of that Chapter to shew the Error of the Primitive Doctors in this point Secondly He would gladly perswade us that Christian Excommunication was a Branch of the Jewish derived from it and standing on the same grounds with it being the very Transcript of it Yet he grants two essential differences First That the Jews did not deny Communion in holy things to such as were Excommunicated but he owns that the Christians did exclude them from Religious assemblies and Offices before the times of Origen Tertullian and Irenaeus also Ibid. pag. 141. That is as early as we have any Records to instruct us and consequently the Christian and Jewish Excommunication if his supposition as to the Jews be true differed in the main point from the beginning Secondly He saith every Private person among the Jews could Excommunicate and hath not given one instance of any such thing among Christians as any private Mans assuming this Power yet he pretends he knows not when this Custom ceased in the Christian Church which doubtless never began there For he confesses That it is plain in Irenaeus Origen and Tertullians time none but the Governors of the Church could rightly Excommunicate Seld. Synedr pag. 143. yea it is plain That Tertullian saith it was only in the Presidents power to Excommunicate in the Apostles days As for that African Custom of the Martyrs Absolving some in Prison S. Cyprian who mentions the practice condemns it as irregular and it proceeded only from a Superstitious conceit of the interest the Martyrs would have in Heaven after their decease to obtain remission for the lapsed And therefore Albaspinaeus observes their Absolution was not thought good till after their Martyrdom But this usage quickly ceased and was nothing like the Jewish Custom We conclude therefore that Christian Censures were not grounded upon the practice of the Synagogue Thirdly We must observe how unseasonably he labours to pervert those places of holy Scripture which the Fathers brought to prove the Divine Right That of Deut. xvii 12. of putting him to death that disobeyed the Priest is alledged by S. Cyprian (q) Cypr. lib. 1. ep 11. by S. Hierom and S. Augustine also only by way of allusion and they argue only by parity of reason That if the Legal Priests had Temporal the Evangelical ought to have Spiritual coercive Power The next place viz. Math. xvi 19. about the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven he would evade by pretending the Key is not an Instrument of Excluding c. whereas all know it is the Instrument of Opening and Shutting and he himself cites Artemidorus to prove it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 148. yea he grants the Key is an Emblem of great Power and Authority among the Eastern Nations and he quotes for this Isai 22.22 pag. 147. whence it follows That our Lord made the Apostles his Vicegerents and Stewards and gave them this Power to lock Men up in the Bonds of their Sins and keep them out of the Church on Earth yea and out of the Kingdom of Heaven too if they did not repent Nor will Mr. Selden easily perswade the World that all those holy Fathers who thus explained this place spoke that which was not good Sense Again That other Text Math. xviii 17. Tell the Church he would have to signifie Tell it to the Jewish Consistory as if our Saviour would send his injured Disciples to complain to their Mortal Foes who would injure them much more And though he use a gross Prolepsis in explaining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gospel by the Talmudical Phrases of later date and by Modern Translations yet he will not allow an easy Prolepsis to the Fathers who think Christ spake with respect to the Christian Church shortly to be instituted and which was to continue to the end of the World Nor a Common Trope by which the name of the Society is put for the Governing part In the same verse He labours to prove that Heathens and Publicans were not interdicted the Jewish Worship now by Heathens is not meant Proselytes but Idolaters the Proselytes being called by a gentler Name And these Idolatrous Heathens were denied access to all parts of the Temple which were accounted Holy as we shewed before and the pious Jews would neither eat nor willingly converse with them nor Publicans often blaming our Saviour for doing this though only in order to their Conversion So that our Lord means that they must have no Conversation with those who would not repent upon the Churches Admonition So for binding and loosing Matth. xviii 18. which the Ancients make one main ground of Excommunication he forgets Christs own Exposition of it by remitting and retaining Sins and runs out into the later Rabinical Notion of Permitting and prohibiting as a Teacher which cannot be applied to this place of S. Matthew where Christ is not