comely not foolish and ridiculous as are the apish gesticulations in the Masse and many other Ceremonies used in that Church as their manifold crossings kissings kneelings whisperings washings anointings spittings blowings breathings and a number of the like Unto these three conditions I will adde two more I. Ceremonies must not be injoyned as things in themselves absolutely necessary and wherein Gods worship doth consist II. We must not ascribe unto them spirituall effects as the Papists doe who say that their crossing and sprinkling of holy water are effectuall to purge away veniall sinnes drive away divells and sanctifie the parties Now the Ceremonies injoyned by our Church have all these conditions For number they are few as ever was in any Church for observation easie for signification worthy for quality grave decent and comely for antiquity reverend The worship of God is not placed in them neither are they pressed upon the consciences of people as things in themselves necessary like the Commaundements of God we ascribe no merit remission of sinnes nor other spirituall effects unto them Finally they are purged from the drosse of all Popish superstition And therefore you are bound in conscience to observe them they being injoyned by lawfull authority And now I am come to the last thing wherein the power of the Church is to bee considered Sect. 38. and that is for correction The Church hath authority to censure her disobedient children whether they be Heretickes or Schismatickes or inordinate livers And on the other part upon their repentance to restore release and absolve them Like a good Mother she hath both Vbera and Verbera a dâ—g to feed and a rod to whip her unruly children This power was alwayes in the Church I finde that there was amongst the Iewes three degrees of censures Ioh. IX 22. XII 42. XVI â— The first was called Niddus a separation or casting out of the Synagogue The second they called Herem which is Anathema when an offender was cut off from his people by the sentence of death Deut. XVII 12. And that man that will doe presumptuously not harkening unto the Priest or unto the Iudge that man shall die The third was Shammatha or Maranatha which was a peremptorie denunciation of Iudgement delivering the obstinate malefactor as it were unto everlasting death for the word signifies as much as Dominus venit The Lord commeth This last is not mentioned in the Law but as it seemes was brought in by the Priests and Scribes after that the Romans had taken from them the power of life and death neither can the Church now use that censure unlesse we knew certainely that a man had sinned against the Holy Ghost The second which is the sentence of death belongeth onely unto the civill Magistrate who to that purpose hath the sword committed unto him So that the censure which properly belongs unto the Church now is onely separation by excommunication And there ever was and alwayes must bee a power in the Church to impose that censure upon contumacious offenders We have the first example of it from God himselfe hee cast Adam out of Paradise which was a type of the Church and banished him from the tree of life which was the Sacrament of immortality he cast forth Cain from his presence that is from the place appointed for his worship wherein Adam and his family used to meete for the service of God Afterwards when the Church of the Iewes was established their Councell of Elders called the Synedrium had power to cast men out of the Synagogue Yea under the Law those who had contracted any bodily uncleannesse must not eate of the Passeover till they were purified after the manner of the Law How much more ought they who are defiled with sinne bee barred from the Communion of our Sacraments seeing the pollution of the soule is more odious in the sight of God then bodily uncleannesse When our Saviour did institute the Church of the new Testament he gave such an authority unto his Apostles and their successors in the words following my text Whatsoever ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven And whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Which he expounds after this manner Io XX. 23. Whosoevers sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them And whosoevers sinnes ye retaine I. Cor. 5. they are retayned The Apostle did exercise this power upon the incestuous Corinthian I. Tim. I. â—0 and upon Hymenaus and Alexander The same power hee committed unto his two sonnes Timothie and Titus The governors of the Church are reproved for neglecting this censure Revel II. 20. as the Angell of the Church of Thyatira for suffering the woman Iezabel to teach and deceive Gods servants And the Angel of the Church of Ephesus is commended for his zeale in censuring offenders Thou canst not beare them which are evill and thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles are not Revel II. 2. Finally the censure of excommunication was of frequent use in the Primitive Church especially against heretickes and disturbers of the publicke peace Tert. in Apol. Cypr. epist lib. I. ep 3. as both Tertullian and St Cyprian doe testifie And I find that this censure had two degrees the first was Suspension called Abstentio whereby men were barred some from the Communion of the Sacrament onely others from the Communion of certaine prayers also and some from entering into the Church which they built upon the Commandement of our Saviour Matth. VII 6. Give not holy things to dogges neither cast your pearles before swine The other was Excommunication wherby a man was cut off from the body of Christ as a rotten member cast out of the Church and delivered into Satan who raignes without the Church wherein the Churches sentence is rather interloquutory then definitive And yet the same no wayes to be contemned because when it is done Clave non errante Apologet. cap. XXXIX the same is ratified in Heaven Therefore Tertullian truely cals this censure summum futuri Iudicij praejudicium The former of these censures may be called the Apostles rod shall I come unto you with a rod I. Cor. IV. 21. The other is the sword Apostolicall Gal. V. 12. Abscindantur Let them bee cut off that trouble you This latter is that which is mentioned in my Text Let him bee unto thee as a Heathen man and a Publican and in the words following it is called a binding or retayning of sinne for as the Church hath power to loose such as are penitent so to commit others unto the Lords prison binding their sinnes upon their backe untill their amendement or binding them over unto the Iudgement of the great Day if they shall persist in their pertinacie The same by S. Paul is called a delivering up to Satan The end of Excommunication is threefold I. The glory of God for when men are suffered in the Church to doe what seemeth good in their
as the former against titles of honour in the Church But bee not yee called Rabbi Our Saviour speakes to all Christians as is evident vers 1. Then spake Iesus to the multitude and to his disciples So doth hee also in the other place which is alleaged against ruling IV. It cannot be denyed but that the Apostles did during their life exercise Iurisdiction over all other Ecclesiasticall persons So did their successors who are stiled Rulers Therefore ruling is not forbidden the Apostles yea our Saviour in the same place intimates that among them some should bee greater than others saying Let the greatest among you bee as the least and the chiefest as hee that serveth Finally the opposition between Gentiles and you doth evidently prove that that precept is given to all Christians The Kings of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them but it shall not be so amongst you If his intent had been to forbid ruling in Ministers onely he would not have opposed them to the Gentiles but to temporall men in Christian Common-wealthes or rather to the Priests under the Law saying Amongst the Priests of Israel some rule over other but it shall not bee so among you But to say it is thus with the Gentiles it shall not be so with you Ministers is no good opposition And it is thus with the Gentiles it shall not bee so with you Christians is a full and a fit antithesis often used in Scripture Matth. VI. 7. But when yee pray use not vaine repetitions as the Gentiles doe Matth. VI. 31. Take no thought for after all those things seeke the Gentiles I. Thess IV. 5. Not in the lust of concupiscence as doe the Gentiles Still Gentiles opposed to Christians no-where to Ministers And therfore in that place nothing is forbidden to Ministers but what is unlawfull to all Christians Not superioritie authoritie dominion Lordship but the ambitious affectation of the same and the tyrannicall usage thereof So that my masters If you will make use of that Text against our authoritie you must turne plaine Anabaptists and condemne not only Ecclesiasticall authoritie but Civill also for Christ speakes there to his Disciples not as Apostles but as Christians and so hee doth in my Text If thy brother trespasse against thee for the dutie here required is not proper to Ministers but such as concernes all Christians to beare offences patiently to desire the salvation of our brother and to that end to admonish him privately or if need be to deferre the matter to the Church And therefore it is to bee observed how in the next words speaking of a power proper to the Apostles and their successors he changeth the number to shew the change of the person though hee bee still speaking to his Disciples For while he speaketh of those duties which concerne all Christians he useth the singular number if hee trespasse against thee and if he will not heare thee even thee whosoever thou bee that art my disciple But when hee comes to speake of the power of the Keyes which was given onely to the Apostles and their successors he useth the plurall number Whatsoever you shall bind even you who are the Pastors and Rulers of my Church in earth In the next place sect 4 wee are to see of whom hee speakes of a brother If thy brother trespasse one that professeth Christ for this course which our Saviour prescribeth to admonish our brother if need bee to convent him before the Church is not to bee taken with those who are altogether without the pale of the Church as the Apostle sheweth 1. Cor. V. 9. I wrote unto you not to companie with fornicators yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world for then must yee needs goe out of the world If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator with such an one cate not For what have I to doe to judge them also that are without In the third place sect 5 wee are to enquire of what sinnes he speakes Certainely he meanes principally and properly private injuries whereby thy brother hath wounded thee either in thy body or estate or reputation If hee sinne against thee And so Peter understood it vers 22. where he saith Master how often shall my brother sinne against me and I forgive him Yet by Analogie wee are to understand it of all sinnes and the same course which is here prescribed is to bee observed with a brother that sinnes against God onely that is wee are to admonish him and if need bee Convent him before the Church For Christ heere exhorts us to charity that which he will have us principally to seeke is not satisfaction for the wrong done unto us but as it is called in the Text the gayning of our brother that is his Salvation If our Saviour had respected onely the wrong done to us he would never commaund us to complaine for hee compelles no man to sue for satisfaction when he is wronged albeit he permits us to use lawful meanes to right our selves Yet hee would bee well pleased if wee would sit downe by the wrong I am sure the Apostle who was inspired by the spirit of Christ adviseth this as the best of all Why doe ye not rather take wrong c. I. Cor. VI. 7. But here hee commaunds us to convent our brother offending before the Church if he will not heare us and therefore that which hee would have us ayme at principally is his salvation which is in danger if he be not recovered by repentance not only when he hath wronged us but also when he hath offended God in any sort Againe wee ought to bee so zealous of God's glory that wee should account sinnes against God to bee against our selves God is so sensible of the injuries done unto us as if done to himselfe In all their troubles he was troubled sayth the Prophet Isay LXIII 9. And God himselfe Zach. II. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye When Saul did persecute the members upon earth the Head cryed from Heaven Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me In like manner should wee bee sensible of the injuries done to God accounting them as done to our selves as was David who sayth The rebukes of them who rebuke the Lord have fallen upon mee In a word as an offence done to thy neighbour is a sin against God in regard of the breach of his Commaundement So an offence against God is a sin against thy neighbour in regard he is scandalized by thy bad example Finally in other places the like course is prescribed in other offences besides private injuries Levit. XIX 17. Thou shalt not hate thy brother but plainely rebuke him Tit. III. ver 10. A man that is an hereticke after the first and second admonition reject So that not onely private wrongs are to bee brought before the Church but other offences also for it is not likely that Christ would have the Church to censure offences against
is a speciall meanes to direct us in applying this rule Every man doth challenge some trust in the Art he professeth And is there any that hath studyed the Scripture so well as the Bishops Pastors Doctors of the Church in all ages Besides they have a calling to expound the Scripture are therfore called Guides Rulers Lights Spirituall Fathers Teachers Ambassadors of Christ and disposers of the secrets of God Finally they have not onely a calling but a promise of the assistance of the spirit Matth. XXVIII 20. Loe I am with you unto the end of the world By vertue of which promise it is certaine that all the Pastors of the Catholick Church in all ages did never erre dangerously and therefore their Iudgment to be preferred before the opinion of any private man for God hath commaunded us to heare and obey them II. Sect. 17. The Church is to judge of the abilities of men and who are fit for the Ministery to conferre Orders appoint them their Stations and direct them in the exercise of their Function This power was committed unto Timothie and Titus and must continue in the Church untill the end of the world For as now we are not to expect new revelations so neither extraordinary missions And therefore hee that will take upon him the Office of a Minister not being called by the Church Ioh. X. is an Intruder a Thief that commeth not in by the doore but climbeth up another way What will you say then to some Dominees heere amongst you who having no Ordination to our calling have taken upon them to preach and preach I know not what even the foolish visions of their owne heart As they runne when none hath sent them 11 Sam. XVIII 23.29 and runne very swiftly because like Ahimaaz they runne by the way of the plaine So like Ahimaaz when they are come they have no tydings to tell but dolefull newes They think by their puff of preaching to blowe downe the goodly Orders of our Church as the walls of Iericho were beaten downe with sheepes hornes Good God! is not this the sinne of Vzziah who intruded himselfe into the Office of the Priest-hood And was there ever the like heard amongst Christians except the Anabaptists whom some amongst you have matcht in all manner of disorder and confusion III. sect 18 It belongs unto the Church to decide controversies in religion The Apostle sayth Oportet haereses esse There must bee heresies So there must be a meanes to discover reprove condemne those herisies and pronounce out of the word of God for truth against heresie Deut. XVII 8.9.10 Under the Law the Priests assembled together had authority to give sentence in matters of Controversie The same authority did our Saviour give unto the governors of his Church when he gave them the power of the Keyes and commaunded others to heare them for that their sentence is the sentence of God Titus is commanded to reject an hereticke and so hee had power to Iudge him Doe we therfore make the Church an absolute Infallible Iudge of fayth No Onely God is the supreme Iudge of absolute Authority because he is the Law-giver And in all Common-wealths the supreme power of Iudgement belongs to the Law-giver Inferiour magistrates are but Interpreters of the Law Therefore in Scripture these two are joyned together Esay XXXIII 22. The Lord is our Iudge the Lord is our Law-giver And Iames IV. 10. There is one Law-giver able to save and destroy His throne is established in heaven but in earth we may heare his voice in the holy Scripture revealing his will to the sonnes of men whereby he speaketh to us for God now speaketh to us and teacheth his Church not by any extraordinary voyce from heauen not by Anabaptisticall Enthusiasmes but by the mouth of his holy Prophets and Apostles whose sentence is contayned in the holy Scripture Lib. V. that wee may say with Optatus Milevitanus De coelo quaerendus Iudex Sed ut quid pulsamus ad coelum cùm habeamus hic in euangelio testamentum The Iudge is in heaven But we need not goe so farre to know his sentence when we have his will expressed in the Gospell So Moses Deut. XXX v. 11.12.13.14 This commaundement which I commaund thee this day is not hidden from thee neyther is it farre off It is not in heaven neyther is it beyond the sea But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest doe it This word being lively and accompanied with the power of the Spirit doth illuminate the minds of men with the knowledge of the truth reprove convince and condemne error and therefore is said to accuse judge condemne Ioh. v. 45. VII 5. XII 4.8 by our Saviour himselfe And so though properlie the Scripture be not the Iudge but rule of faith yet we call it the Iudge by a Metonymie because God who is the Iudge speaketh in it and by it Poli◠lib. III. c. 16. So the Philosopher sayth The Law is the Vniversall Iudge that magistrates are but Ministers and Interpreters of the Law to apply it to particular causes and persons That which the Magistrates doe in Civill matters the chiefe Pastors of the Church are to doe in matter of Religion If a controversie arise they are to heare the reasons on both sides compare them try by the Touchstone of the word weigh them in the ballance of the Sanctuary And so that which the word hath defined in generall they are according to the rule of this word to apply unto the particular cause and controversie pronouncing for truth against error Yet so as they swarve not from the Rule whereunto God hath tyed them Esay VIII 20. To the Law to the Testimony if they speake not according to this word there is no light in them So that the Church doth Iudge and determine controversies not as an absolute infallible Iudge but as a publicke Minister and Interpreter by a subordinate power which yet is more to be esteemed then the Iudgement of any yea of a thousand private men Shee is not the Iudge but interpreter of Scripture Shee doth not Iudge of the verity of Gods Law but of the truth of private mens Iudgements And that especially if the matter in controversie bee of weight when the Bishops are assembled in Councell When there was a Controversie touching Circumcision the Apostles and Elders assembled at Ierusalem for composing the matter Act. XV. The godly Bishops in the primitive Church following their example did at all occasions assemble in Councells for determining Controversies condemning of hereticks and clearing the Truth by their joynt suffrages even in time of persecution under Pagan Emperours they did celebrate diverse Provinciall Synods as at Antioch at Casarea at Carthage And in that famous generall Councell of Nice wherein Arrius was condemned the Fathers saw such a necessitie of this Synodicall Iudgment
When a King of a heathen becomes a Christian he loses not that temporall right which hee had but acquires a new right in the spirituall goods of the Church so if afterwards of Christian he become Heathen he loseth the new right which he had acquired in the benefites and priviledges of the Church but not the old temporall right which hee had unto his Crowne So Bernard told the Pope In criminibus non possessionibus potestas vestra The Church hath power to censure offences namely with the sentence of excommunication not to take away possessions But I might have spared this labour Sect. 41. for you are not the men who ascribe too much to the censures of the Church but indeed too little and set them all at naught If a man for his faction disobedience be cast out of the Church you thinke him so much the neerer heaven as one who hath witnessed a good confession and is very zealous for the truth then you account him most worthy of your company as if our Saviour had said If hee refuse to heare the Church Let him be unto thee as a faithfull brother So little doe you regard the sentence of the Church which our Saviour hath commaunded you to obey saying sit tibi Let him bee unto thee as a Heathen man and a Publicane for which he gives a reason in the words following saying Verily I say unto you What soever yee bind on earth shall be bound in heaven that is the sentence pronounced by the Church is ratified by God himselfe Here I cannot dissemble the injury that is done unto the Church by you in those parts for her Instructions are not received her Ordinations are neglected her determinations despised her orders contemned her lawes trodden under foote her censures derided In nothing shee is heard And these who refuse to heare her yee are so farre from accounting them As Heathens and Publicanes that you esteeme them as Saints and Martyrs and account us no better then Heathens Publicanes and persecuters you open heaven only to those that are of your faction damne all that approve not your fantasies and so condemne all Churches that are or have beene except your owne Conventicles That it is a wonder to me how you can professe to beleeve The holy Catholicke Church for never any ancient Church observed these orders which you seeke to obtrude upon the world as the discipline of Christ and the seepter of his kingdome And never any Church since the Apostles dayes wanted our orders which you reject as unlawfull and Antichristian So that that which you account the true Church is not Catholicke and that Church which is Catholick is not holy Thus have you lost one article of your Creed It was so with the Donatists in ancient times and almost in every thing their courses were so like unto yours that as oft as I consider your opinions and practise I doe remember them and thinke it is Vetus fabula pernovos histriones as though by a Pythagorean transmigration their soules had taken up their mansion in your bodies Which I will instance in some particulars The Donatists did not only separate from the Catholicke Church but most arrogantly esteemed their owne faction to bee the only true Christians in whose assemblies salvation was to be found a Beelesia una est eam tu frater Parmeniane apud â—os solos esse dixisti Optat lib. 2. post Nitimini suadere hominibus apud vos sotos esse Ecclesiam So have you appropriated unto your selves the styles of Brethren Good men Professors As if all others who favour not your faction had no brotherhood in Christ no interest in goodnesse made no true profession of the Gospell The Catholickes acknowledged the Donatists to be their brethren loved pittyed and prayed for them b Velint nolint fratres nostri sunt Aug in Psal 32. Concordate nobiscum flatres diligimus vos hoc vobis volumus quod nobis Id. Ep. 68. But the peevish schismatickes requited their love with hatred esteemed them no better then Pagans and disdayned to salute them c Isti qui dicunt non esâ—is fratres nostri Paganos nos dicunt Aug in Ps 32. Vos odio noâ— habetis fratres utique vestros auditorum animis infunditis odia docentes ne Ave dicant cuiquam nostrum Optat. lib. 4. So albeit we have reached foorth unto you the right hand of fellowship yet have you answered us with disdaine terming us formalists time-servers worldlings Papists Arminians limmes of Antichrist and no better then reprobates But for my owne part I passe very little to be judged of you for all your malice you shall have my pitty and my prayers The Donatists thought all things polluted by the touch of Catholickes and so washed their Church walls and their vestiments broke their chalices scraped their Altars d d Rasistis Altaria fregistis calices lavastis pallas parieâ—es inclusa spatia salsa aqua spargi praecepistis Optat. lib. 6. So these men thinke that our service-booke our Ceremonies our Churches and all are polluted with the Papists though they descended unto them from the ancient Church and we have better right unto them then they had And therefore where they had power they did not wash the Churches but in a sacrilegious furie pull them downe to the ground burnt the vestiments broke the chalices or converted them to private uses and razed the Altars esteeming a beggerly cottage fitter for Gods service then a magnificent Temple much like the officers of Iulian who when they saw the holy vessells of the Church cryed out En qualibus vasis ministratur Mariae filio What stately plate is this for the Carpenters sonne The Donatists taught that the efficacie of Sacraments depends on the dignity of the Minister and so would not receive the Sacrament from any but such as they esteemed just men that is to say men of their owne faction e De Baptismo dicere solent tune esse verum baptismum Christi com ab homine Iusto datur Aug. Ep 167. And are not some of you of the same minde who refuse the Sacrament though they might have it after their owne fashion onely because the minister hath conformed himselfe unto the orders of the Church The Donatists taught that the Church ought not to tollerate evill persons in her Communion that Communion with such persons polluteth and profaneth the Church And that therefore all the Churches of the world were perished because they communicated with Caecilianus f Donatistae pertinaci dissensione in heresin schisma verterunt tanquam Ecclesia Christi propter crimina Caeciliani de toto terrarum â—â— be perierit Aug. cont â—pist Parmen l. 3. Id. de haeres ad quod vult cap. 69. And was it not upon the very same ground that your brethren the Brounists did run both out of the Church and out of their witts they built their conclusions upon your premisses