given to whelps This is true if we can helpe it But every wicked christian is not a swine or dog nor any alien from the coÌ„mon-wealth of Israel as the Canaanitish woman till her new faith made her a prosilite Not one of ten thousand of theÌ„ whom they so highly judge wil dare to trample the sacrament under their feet and all to rent the giver of it unto them But put case that some such miscreant might bee found because these reputed dogges and swine abuse it to themselves will you abuse it too in separating from it which exhibits so much good But they say perhaps the ministers might keep them away from it but do not By what authority might they Put case they had the authority of a judge which is false heere may a judge hang a thiefe before his trial So nor may hee discommon any from the Lords table till trial and sentence bee past If any wicked christian should say I am not excommunicate I will receive shall they disturbe Christs sonnes for the unmannerlinesse of such a servant Noe God is not the God of confusion but order Let them come at their own perill to our misery not to our sinne when wee have warned But say the Brownists we shall partake in other mens sins and so be polluted with such communions To make this vanish it is the third and last point propounded that remaines in this section to bee considered That their dreamed of pollution is from their owne braines not from the ordinance of Christ They account all then polluted that are in spiritual communion in the worship of God with wicked and ungodly men But the Prophets reproved many abuses and never taught any pollution neither did God appoint any sacrifice to expiate such pollution There was a sacrifice for the whole congregation to satisfy for their sinnes of ignorance but not to take off the guilt of pollution by a mixture in the service of God God tyed them all to the kingdome priesthood and temple and hee doth not tye men necessarily to sinne The godly people in the time of the law were never reprooved for the worship of God though wicked men were present Indeed the priests were blamed highly as violaters of the law because they put no difference betwixt the holy and the profane nor have shewed difference betwixt the uncleane and cleane and that justly too because God had made them teachers of the people and they neglected the sabbaths and because he had made them ordinary Iudges in these other cases according to his word But they never judged the godly polluted for not separating from the wicked in Gods service Againe Christ and his Apostles reproved many corruptions in churches yet never taught or practised separation upon a conceit of pollution Yea Christ commendeth the church of Thyatyra for living wel where corruption was Iezabel was suffered there yet as many as have not this doctrine nor knowne the depthes of satan hold fast till I come and he that overcommeth shal have power over the nations Surely the best were not polluted by the worst nor taught separation but constancy in good and reward at last But not to bee too large consider thoroughly but these three conclusions First God doth acquit the godly from the sinnes of the wicked though they bee mixed in the ordinances of God They that walke in my statutes and ordinances shall bee my people but they whose heart walketh after detestable things I will recompence their way upon their owne head The soule that sinnes shall dye not he that is guiltlesse The wicked shall die in his iniquity but warne him and thou shalt deliver thy soule I am confident saith Paul that you will bee no otherwise minded but hee that troubleth you shall beare his judgmeÌ„t whosoever he be To the pure all things are pure but to the impure nothing is pure All there were in spirituall communion together yet God doth not cast the sinnes of the guilty upon the innocent but doth acquit the one and accuse the other Yea but say the Brownists God doth not acquit them that consent to the wickednesse of others This is most true we must neither sinne nor have fellowship with sinne nor consent to sinners If we doe we make other mens sinnes our owne Now we may be said to consent to sinne both in things lawfull and in things unlawfull In things unlawfull when wee have fellowship with wicked doers and are accessary to their offences and this may bee divers wayes whereof some are proper to superiours and some common to all Superiours may bee guilty of other mens sinnes two wayes by command and by connivence By the first if they injoyne that which is evill all the evill that is done upon their injunction is theirs whether it bee publike or private Nebuchadnezzar by law and edict was guilty of all the Idolatry and cruelty which did insue upon it Therefore woe to them that decree wicked decrees and write grievous things Saul was guilty of that murther done upon the Lords Priests and David of the death of Vriah because they commanded them By the second if they wincke at faults which are in their power to redresse Iehoasâ— tooke not away the high places and so was guilty of his peoples incense Ahab wincked at Bâ—nhadad and let him go when God had given him into his hands for death and was guilty Pilate wincked at the cruelty of the Jewes and notwithstanding all his washing was guilty David displeased not Adonjah from his youth nor said Why dost thou thus and so was guilty of his riot and rebellion All may be guilty of the sinnes of others both before the offence be committed and in and after it Before the offence by provocation counsell approbation and silence when called to speak By provocation either when men rage the heart and fire the passions by thwarting and daring words or actions as Iezabel who provoked her husband Ahab or when they allure and entise with sweet words as that Harlot Come let us fill our selves with love until the morning or with infecting and evill words By Counsel when men advise to any sinne Thus Ionadab was guilty of the incest of Amnon Herodias of the bloud of Iohn Baptist Demetrius of the uprore against Paul and Balaam of Israels Baal-peor By Approbation when men doe not onely doe such things as are worthy of death but favour them that doe them This may be done directly either by word of deed as when Saul consented to the death of Stephen and kept the garments of them that stoned him or by interpretation when a man is bound to withstand another mans sinne and doth not either by word or deed Moses hath given us a precept to speake in our places and told us the danger of silence To speake ill doth draw men into
sinne and to hold our peace ill doth leave a man in sinne By example when we live wickedly in the sight of others For though haply the sinnes that wee practise bee not imitated of all yet because wee have done what in us lies to set others a copy which some will too greedily follow therfore are we guilty we may be guilty againe of the sins of others in and after the sin is committed when men doe excuse or defend the sinnes or flatter men in them Woe to them that speake good of evil and evil of good He that saith to the wicked thou art righteous him shall the people curse as him that is guilty Lastly wee may bee said to consent to sinne in things lawfull by scandall when men use their liberty which God hath given them in things indifferent left in their owne power to doe or not to doe to the wilfull offence and snare of others that are weake Of this Paul speakes doctrinally it is good neither to eate flesh nor drink-wine nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth and in his owne example if meate offend my brother I will eate no flesh while the world lasteth so carefull was hee not to have communion in the sinnes of others Now let us see whether we are polluted by the sinnes of the wicked by consent Because they consent with us in doing of our good doe wee therefore consent with them in doing their evill Their courses are daily reproved both publickely and privately they are judged as such whose examples wee would not follow for a world They are neither commanded to doe as they doe nor winked at when lawfully tried wee doe not provoke counsel or approve their cursed hypocrisies They have no such examples from us and have beene so long instructed both by publicke instruments and preachings and private conferences that their scandals are taken and not given in those things free in themselves but not to us by the command of lawfull authority whereat they will still take offence How are we yet guilty of the sinnes of others to our pollution O say they every congregation hath power in its owne hand to redresse things amisse to repell wicked livers from our communions whereas wee wait upon our king when wee should doe it without him and so are guilty of al the wickednesse of our assemblies The vanity of this I have shewed in part before and shall doe it more in the next section yet in the meane time first wee confesse that wee have power to redresse disorders not in every particular church for then no man under the Gospel could perish in the gainesaying of Corah as Saint Iude saith they may Superiority was the cause of his mutiny because he might not be equal to Aaron but in every diocesse where wee are governed not by the lawes of one man but of Synods of Bishops and Presbyters and if persons that should be as the house of Cloe to informe and that upon oath of things amisse were not more to be blamed then offices we might be as happy as any church under heaven The impetuous carriage of some who despise dominions and speake evill of dignities and that without feare and thinke it as easie to governe multitudes as an handfull makes them think otherwise but if things bee weighed by the rule of the word wisedome and charity it will bee found I am sure that wee have power indeed But secondly whereas they make us guilty of the wickednesse of our assemblies by waiting upon the pleasure of our king and not reforming without him herein wee joy yea and will rejoyce againe wee waite not upon kings and princes to bee Christians and to serve God faithfully by the acts of true Faith Hope and Charity If all the kings and Emperors in the world say against it wee must and by grace will doe it Yea if all the stormes in the world bee raised we must strive unto bloud but with teares prayers patience in suffering not with armes and violence This we doe by private profession but when it comes to a publicke reformation of Christian Churches already planted it is our glory to waite upon Christian kings whose subjects we are that wee will not governe but under him nor build walls for the citizens of the saints but under the defence of their swords especially considering that wee know wee cannot without them mend our hands When wee looke to the daies of Asa Iehoshaphat Hezekiah and Iosiah wee finde that no Israelite ever took upon him to reforme either without before or against them When the Temple of Ierusalem lay waste Zorababel and Ioshuah did nothing without Cyrus nor did Nehemiah any thing without Artashashte Indeed in their times God knowing the time was come when according to prophecie he was to looke upon the desolations of Ierusalem and restore it prepared and whetted the hearts of the people of the Iewes by Haggai and Zechariah but they built nothing but by the leave of their Kings and when countermands came they laid downe their tooles and the worke of the house of God ceased so good subjects they would bee notwithstanding the height of their Religion But say they they should have done otherwise For Haggai reproves them for letting the house of God lye waste and God sends a famine upon them This is true they were too blame when they minded their owne houses more and took not their seasons allowed them for this great worke But that either the Prophet threatned or God punished them for not building when they were under the Interdict that let them prove and they shall have more said How unhappy are they we now see while they make our assemblies polluted for not doing that if we wanted it as we doe not which is unlawfull for us to doe without lawfull authority The Apostles indeed planted Churches without waiting upon Heathen Kings but they had Apostolicall authoritie were to do according to Christs commission to them which was out of date in their death but we cannot reforme without or against Christian Kings if we could yet make a better reformation except they can shew a new Commission under Christs owne hand If therefor wee have faults we cannot help and provided we consent not we are not polluted The second conclusion is this That God declares it to be a sinne for the godly to leave the worship of God for the wickednesse of those that come unto it We know that the sinne of the sonnes of Ely was so great that men abhorred the offerings of the Lord but in so doing it is said that the Lords people did transgresse even unto a cry Surely this truth will not easily bee outfaced yet some of them to avoid it say that no marvell if morall wickednesse did not pollute the Iewish worship because God required onely ceremoniall cleannesse then But how false this
is appeares by Gods Covenant with Abraham where God required sincerity by the morall law which was Gods covenant by Gods requiring then truth in the inward part by his injoyning sacrifices for morall transgressions as well as ceremoniall by his signifying of pollution by morall uncleannesses and by threatning of morall sinnes and abhorring all ceremoniall service when men sinned morally against God Surely their morall pollutions went beyond their typicall and wrought their utter ruine at last notwithstanding The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord and yet Christ himselfe would not separate from such worshippers as were polluted so long as the worship was Gods It was fit for a Pharise it was not fit for Christ who knew that to the pure all things are pure The last conclusion is this That the Scripture admits godly Christians to the holy things of God though open wicked men be there Divers good people goe to the Altar with their gifts Some are in charity and some wickedly uncharitable their brethren have something against them Now Christ doth not bid them all goe away because of that malicious man but bids him that is malicious if he would have Gods blessing goe and be reconciled and come againe Againe when Paul saw fearefull wickednesse in Corinthian Communions hee doth not bid them all abstaine for feare of pollution but according as hee had received of the Lord he bids them examine themselves and so let them eate of this bread and drinke of this Cup whatsoever others be Certainely the Apostle was not acquainted with the doctrine of the Brownists which teacheth that because another doth sinne I may not doe my duty to God because a wicked man will come to the Sacrament I may not because another man offendeth God in serving him I may not serve him then for feare of pollution No king shall have subjects nor master have servant nor shall God have worshippers upon these termes But say they the worship of God is polluted by such uncleane worshippers This is true but to whom to them that serve him aright or to them that serve him amisse The Apostle saith that the unworthy communicant eateth and drinketh judgement to himselfe not to them that are better It is true that hee that touched a dead body and purified not himselfe defiled the tabernacle but it was unto himselfe who therefore was to bee cut off and not others that were innocent It is true too that the judgement of the priests was right that if an uncleane person touch bread pottage wine oyle or meate it shall be uncleane to himselfe that is uncleane but not to him that toucheth it that is cleane and so a prophane christian that comes to the Lords supper pollutes not what the minister performes and good people receive but what himselfe toucheth It is true also that a seditious multitude charged Paul falsely that he polluted the holy place by bringing Greekes into the Temple For though God forbade the Israelites to admit the Moabites and Ammonites for a long time into the common-wealth of Israel what is this to proseâ—ites by profession comming into the temple All this is true I say yet this typical pollution which did not foreshadow the pollution of visible assemblies but the holinesse and impurity and sincere Christians and hypo crites doth not prove the pollution of all worship to the good for the naughtinesse of the bad Christ is not so hard a master neither doth hee blame the worthy guests for being polluted by the unworthy or suffering him to come in but saith to him onely friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment SECT 12. Brownists last exception against our Church about the governement of it for Power FRom the Brownists meaning by a true Church and their entrance into head and members of a true church we are at last come to the governement of a true church and because they finde ours not to bee governed according to their fansies therefore they except against it as Antichristian and therefore not a true Church It is true that governement is an excellent blessing it is as the bridle to the horse the rudder to the ship yea the lawes and judgement seate of a kingdome A right to this cannot be separated from a true church For if it bee a church it hath right to Christs lawes judgements and executions to governe it as his kingdome upon earth Yea the use of this right cannot bee taken away without the great sinne of them that doe it and injury to the church from whom it is taken yea the Church that is robbed of it ought not to rest in this wrong when they are so oppressed but ought of dutie to pray to God for it and humbly to supplicate unto men in authority who are able as Christs prime officers for the welfare of the Church to helpe them at such a lift But no Church ought to call for such a governement as Christ never commanded yea no church ought when they have a governement sutable to the Apostles and primitive times of the Church and not contrary to any law of Christ but sutable to his generall rules in the scriptures for some pretended or true defects in governement to make a schism and separation from publick communion Yes say the Brownists where government is so base that foule corruptions rule from such a Church wee must separate But who laid this must upon you I am sure not Christ who taught us otherwise in his blessed life There were fearefull corruptions in the Church of the Jewes both in the priests in the people and in the worship of God In the priests there was ignorance for they were blinde guides There was ungodlines for they said and did not There was corrupt entrance into their calling for Caiphas was high-priest for that yeare hee was Annuary be like though by Gods law the high-priest should continue during life In the people there was obstinate wickednesse They would have broke Christs necke downe a steepe hill They rejected him and chose Barabbas They were in worse state then Tyrus Sidon and Sodome They drew and wisht the guilt of Christs bloud to bee upon them and their children In the worshippe of God they used many superstitions precisely the temple was made a denne of theeves the Censures were abused for the casting out of innocents the doctrine of God was corrupted by glosses and the blessed sacraments were abused for they observed not the Passeover on the time appointed and therefore Christs was before theirs Notwithstanding all these corruptions by slack governement yet did Christ hold publicke coÌ„munion with them Hee was circumcised the eight day he was presented to the Lord as well as others he heard was baptized he eat the Passeover with them and allowed his disciples to heare the very Pharisees Can they therfore justly say that