sinning or him that had sinned onely but him that abides and continues to walk in the ways of sin and repented not after admonitions and warnings given him Him I say that thus sins he charges Timothy to rebuke and reprove before others he does not give it in charge to him to see him excommunicated LXVI Next say they the Apostle commands so far to avoid the company of the Wicked that he allows not the liberty of making our common Meals with them 1 Cor. 5. 11. With such an one no not to eat much less conclude they would he have us eat the Lords Supper with them But I utterly deny the consequence for surely they are of very different import the prohibition of private familiarities and the non-admission to the Sacrament and the forbidding the one is not a denial or disallowance of the other the former is a Civil or Political Punishment the latter Sacred we have a Command for one none for the other St. Paul explains the end and reason of the former but we find no mention of either for the latter nay the thing it self is nowhere enjoyn'd or so much as the name of Excommunication once heard of in Scripture And that one may be without the other the Pharisees are a pregnant instance who that they might pass with the World for the greater Saints would not approach the Publicans would not eat drink or associate with them in the common concerns of Life I can't at present recollect that I have read of the like Niceness in any others but no man can shew me whilst the World lasts that these Publicans were denied admission to the Sacrifices to the Temple to the Passover or any other Sacraments provided they were but circumcis'd and turn'd not Renegades to their Religion There are at this day some who shut out all notoriously lewd and dissolute persons out of their company they will not live nor entertain a Conversation with them which evinces that this avoiding their Company and maintaining no Correspondencies with them is rather a Civil than an Ecclesiastical Punishment and amounts not near to that of delivering over to Satan which some will needs have to be Excommunication The Apostle directs Good men to shun all Consortship with Ill that Shame may hasten in them a Repentance The Interdiction runs not to the Ill that they shall not live among the Good if any good men would give them admittance In private Conversations men talk of all matters indifferently and if a dissolute Wretch find by the freedom of his access that for all his Debaucheries he is as much made of as ever not onely himself is not amended but his Company by degrees endanger'd But where a man sees himself avoided and that all shrink flie and detest his society he can't but cast a reflecting thought upon the occasion and enter into considerations of a better life that he be no longer the Scorn and Contempt of those that before embrac'd him with all the arms of Friendship And therefore as being debarr'd of private Commerce and Conversation frights us from some sorts of Crimes and Uncleannesses so the indulgence of familiar and fair outward Correspondencies feeds pampers and encourages us in those bad courses But these reasons hold not in the receiving or being denied the Sacrament for frequent Communicating at that Table gives not vigour and nourishment to our Vices at the rate private Communications and Familiarities do for in the Churches or Chappels where that is administred no vain and worldly things nothing of private concern is then transacted but the Word of God onely is there handled There when men shall hear of a Christ that died for them of a Christ that invites to that Commemoration and publick demonstration of our acknowledgments and thankfulness for so great a Benefit and that none can be a worthy Communicant who hath not throughly and sincerely examin'd himself and that those who thrust themselves in unworthily amongst his Guests do but eat and drink damnation to themselves This will put men that intend to approach unto the Lords Table upon a seriousness of thought What is there exhibited what is his concern in it what God requires of him and how he may for the future so regulate his life that it may be acceptable in the sight of God how debauched soever and villanous it were before He that has not these offers these incitements and invitations is depriv'd of these invitations grows still the worse to be sure no whit the better for it which seems to be the reason of Gods instituting and enjoyning such multitudes of Sacrifices Offerings Rites and Ceremonies But for certain the Apostle has nowhere order'd that they with whom he would not have good men to hold a Correspondence should be also put by or denied the Sacrament And when in another place 2 Thess 3. 14. he writes to have them signifie that man by Epistle who walks disorderly for the Marginal translation in our English Bibles seems to be truest in this place he does not there set the Elders upon excommunicating them or suspending them the Sacrament All which are evident proofs of their mistakes who think Excommunication to have been either here approved allowed of or design'd by the Apostle LXVII But to enforce the Objection they tell us 't is no less unfit that the Church the Congregation of the Faithful assembled in the Worship of God should be defil'd with the Company and Communion of the Wicked and that 't is therefore consequently necessary that the Evil should in all accounts be serv'd and kept from the Pious and Good But I would return them this Answer There is no danger that the Wicked should pollute or injure the Good in the use of those Rites and Ceremonies which are of God's own institution whilst they take not after them in their natures nor learn not their immoralities for neither the holy Prophets Kings or Judges nor John the Baptist nor even Christ himself nor yet his Apostles after him were ever defil'd by being present at the same Worship at the same Sacrifices in the same Temple using the same Rites and Sacraments with men of the most debauched and profligate lives Our Saviour was spotless amidst that Generation of Vipers who were baptized with him by John in the same Baptism Judas neither polluted Christ nor the Apostles nor the last Supper of our Lord by his presence at it though he was then a known Thief and had before laid the Plot for betraying his Master and had received the Pay for his pains Again the Apostle Paul does not bid us examine one another in the celebration or receiving of the Lords Supper and to look about us whether any of the by-standers any of our fellow-Communicants be sinful or unworthy be such as may derive any Pollution or Uncleanness to us but thus runs his Commandment 1 Cor. 11. 28. Let a man examine himself himself he says not others LXVIII Hitherto have I effectually
self-same thing God plainly and expresly and with reiterated Precepts commands that every Male except the unclean and such as were in a Journey should keep the Passover He never therefore intended to frighten away some under the figure of the Leaven There were then plenty enough of bad men present that it must be needless to typifie and shadow them out by Leaven And the wickedness of men was a thing as obvious to mens senses and as much to be taken notice of as the Leaven that should represent it Therefore since no figures are commonly instituted of such things as are at hand and in view and which with equal clearness strike the Senses 't is in vain to seek for any Figure there How much more where the things figured are more notorious and common than the Figures themselves But besides Moses does not command that the Eater of Leaven should be debarr'd eating the Passover but commands him to be slain Therefore sinners should not so much be kept from the Lords Supper as they should be capitally punished Which is a Consequence I should be so far from admitting with difficulty that I rather wish it might so be for I desire nothing more than that the strictest Moral Discipline might be observ'd in the Church but such still as is of Gods appointment not of mans invention Secondly The Jews might eat Leaven all the year round excepting onely those seven days of Unleavened Bread which they did commence from the eating of the Passover Now if you would parallel this with the Lords Supper you must of necessity grant a liberty for licentious living all the year provided you abstained from vice all the time you were celebrating the Lords Supper Thirdly Moses speaks here of the Passover onely not of any other Sacraments by Analogie therefore wicked men should onely be kept from the Lords Supper not from Baptism Fourthly The Apostle makes not the comparison to run betwixt the Feast of the Jews and the Lords Supper but betwixt that and our whole course of life he says we are unleavened as men that are washed in the Bloud of Christ and purged from all Leaven and therefore says he let us keep the Feast that is let us live not with the Leaven of Malice but with the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth There is a vast difference betwixt Leaven simply so called and the Leaven of Malice or Wrath There is none but knows that in the second sence 't is taken figuratively and School-men say that an analogical or figurative sence proves nothing This is certain whatever is meant by Leaven Excommunication can never be maintain'd or justifi'd from it against Gods precept XVIII But some may object that Paul speaks here of the Passover but what I pray makes this to our business as if this word Passover were put for the Lords Supper in the New Testament Christ saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 5. 7. is our Passover sacrificed or slain for us not his Supper The meaning of the words is this As the Jews who onely began their Feast of Unleavened Bread with eating the Lamb did eat Unleavened Bread all that week after so should you who have begun to believe in Christ and are purified and become unleavened through his Bloud you should lead a pure and unspotted life all the rest of the week that is all the days of your life XIX Now that nothing of different nature is to be met with in the other Books of the Old Testament may be known and proved if it were but from this alone that the Jews Posterity were to live according to the Laws and Institutions of Moses contrary to which they might not by any means institute or enjoyn any thing which related to the Worship of God Most certainly the good and pious Judges Priests Prophets and Kings forced away none from their Sacraments and Sacrifices but rather invited all to them with the greater earnestness and zeal The story of good King it should be Hezekiah I suppose See 2 Chron. 35. Josiah 2 Chron. 35. v. 18. is well known who called together all the Children of Israel as well those whom he knew to have sacrificed and burnt Incense to strange Gods or Devils as those who for the shortness of the warning could not be cleansed 2 Chron. 30. v. 19. according to the purification of the Sanctuary From whence 't is observable that Sacraments are Provocations and Allurements to Religion and Piety and that men grow better rather by frequenting than by being robb'd of them provided they are rightly and faithfully instructed XX. Excommunication therefore can never be maintain'd from the first Chapter of Isaiah v. 13. Psal 50. v. 8. and many places of like import where 't is said that God will have nothing to do with the Sacrifices and Oblations of the Wicked for God doth in all those places condemn the abuse of them in that they thought that they fully perform'd the Will of God by the meer external performance at what rate soever their Soul stood affected Besides God neither commands the Prophet nor any one else by him to exclude the Wicked from the Sacrifices and Rites but shews that God will not hear them unless that withal they amend their lives Now the external Policy and Government of the Church stands upon a different foot with the Will of God to us-ward as himself is the Approver or Condemner of our thoughts and actions In fine from the self-same places it may directly and in the same manner be demonstrated that none that is a sinner may call upon the Name of the Almighty nay that 't is unlawful for such an one so much as to praise or give thanks unto God and then 't will be incumbent on the Priests and Elders to forbid the Wicked all these for God hath a like aversion to those when they come from wicked men as is plain as well from the Texts instanc'd in as from places of the like import And if this latter carries absurdity in it no less doth the former XXI Neither doth that of 1 Esdras chap. 9. v. 3. 4. make any whit against us for that was a matter of Policy and no ways relating to the Sacraments for the Magistracy not Esdras the Priest alone though he too was a part of the Magistracy for as Josephus bears witness though they had a Leader yet were they govern'd by the Optimacy or Nobility set forth a Proclamation That whosoever met not at Jerusalem within two or three days their Cattel should be seized to the use of the Temple and they be cast out from them that were of the Captivity not from their Sacraments and Sacrifices But we make it not the enquiry of this place whether the Magistrate hath a right of punishing so or so but whether the Priests had any authority of removing dissolute and bad Livers from the Sacrifices Esdras could not do this contrary to the Command of God Adde to this that Moses never commanded
the Pattern for we are to live up to the Laws and not to Presidents and not walk after any one in his deviations from the Laws of God unless we will confound all the Rules and Measures of Right and Wrong Let us indeed have an eye to the good Examples of the good and strive to come after them but not after the bad of the bad I have been so particular though with all the brevity I could on this Argument because some do mightily hug and applaud themselves in it though to the deceiving of themselves as well as others XXIII 'T is therefore a most certain unshaken and indisputable truth that under the old Testament no man was shut out from Sacraments for Immoralities but on the contrary all the holy Priests Prophets Judges Kings and at last John the Baptist that most eminent and most holy Forerunner of Christ rather sent Invitations to all good and bad to come in and keep them according to the Law than shut the doors upon them XXIV But now our Sacraments and those of our Forefathers under the Old Testament are as to the things signified see the spiritual sence of them altogether the same as Paul 1 Cor. 10. plainly intimates And therefore unless it can appear that the Law of Moses either is abolished or changed in this point none has authority to set up a contrary practice XXV For as against the Anabaptists we do well urge as a most effectual Argument that since Baptism came in the place of Circumcision and that Christ did nowhere forbid the baptizing of Infants it cannot be less lawful for us to baptize our Children than 't was for the Jews to circumcise theirs so may we here argue with equal force that the Lords Supper succeeded to the eating the Passover but Vice and Immoralities were not punished by prohibiting them to eat the Passover nor were the Jews on any such account drove from it but the Law did rather invite all of what age or condition soever especially every Male to keep it Which being not found to be either antiquated nor abolished but holding still as to the reason of it Crimes are no more now to be punished by denying us the Lords Supper neither ought any one on this account to be rejected But enough has been said with reference to the Old Testament 't is time we should now come to Christ and his Apostles that is to the New Testament XXVI Now we read not any where that our Lord and Saviour Christ did in any wise interdict any person access unto or use of the Sacraments or that he so much as commanded the Apostles that they should do any thing like it for Christ came not into the world to destroy the Law but to fulfil and perfect it therefore when the Law commanded all but the unclean to celebrate the Passover Christ would not surely forbid any one XXVII For 't is very clear that Christ checkt no body for using Sacraments or frequenting the Temple and Sacrifices but onely caution'd them to use them aright and agreeably to the Will and Law of God He went into the same Temple with Pharisees Sadduces Publicans and who not be they bad be they good he was with them at the same Sacrifices used all Sacraments promiscuously with the rest of the people was baptized of John with the same Baptism as those wicked ones were XXVIII Upon this account was it that Jesus hindred not Judas his Betrayer from eating the last Paschal Lamb with him but he sate down to it with all his twelve Disciples not but that there are some who endeavour to prove that Judas was not present at this new instituted Supper of our Lord which is an hard if not an impossible matter to evince from Sacred Writ but that he withdrew before the Institution yet sure none can have the hardiness to deny that Judas was according to the Law admitted to the eating the Passover on which Concession our Argument holds firm and unanswerable for whether he went or went not out before the Institution of another Supper though the latter carries most of probability in it and always hath been believed by most men this still is plain that he was present and partaker of the first and was not openly or expresly forbidden the latter Neither read we any where that Christ commanded him to go out to the end that he might not be a Communicant in his new instituted Supper if therefore he did go out he did it voluntarily and of his own head neither went he out for any such purpose But â—he Question with us is what Christ not what Judas did 'T is enough for our purpose that Christ never commanded him to withdraw from his Supper XXIX But the common Put-off and Salvo for this matter is very light and frivolous That Judas his Crime was not of a publick nature and that on that consideration he was not to be put out for first he had struck the bargain and agreed the price with the Pharisees before and Christ acquainted his Disciples with it at that Supper-time this was an ample Publication by Christ himself and should therefore have been the rather made a President and Example in this matter But secondly whatever this may be he was at least known to be a Thief before and though such an one he were yet did our Lord commit a Ministry and office to him and bestowed on him the power of casting out Devils of healing the Sick and of doing other such-like Miracles Lastly Christ admitted him as well as the rest of his Disciples to the Celebration of the Passover all the whiles he was with him Is not this proof enough that Christ had no mind no intent or desire that flagitious persons should be punisht by debarring them the Sacraments Sure 't is matter of greater moment to take a wicked man into the Ministry than to admit such an one to the Supper yet we see that Christ did both to Judas XXX 'T is farther observable that at his first Supper the Disciples began to contend about Greatness and Superiority yet was none of them shut out thence on that score nay Christ would and commanded that all should drink of the Cup Mat. 26. v. 27. which Mark 14. v. 23. is said to be actually done And as to this business the reason holds in the Bread as well as Wine Now what can it be believed was the mind and intent of Christ but to ratifie what God had before commanded by Moses to wit â—â—t none who were initiated by Baptism should be debarr'd from that publick and solemn act of Thanksgiving who had a mind to be at it Whence it appears that no person is to be thrust from the Lords Table who embraces the Doctrine of Christ and submits to be instructed by him XXXI Christ doth not desire that his Kingdom I speak of his visible and external one in this world should be of a narrower extent among Christians than were
the boundaries and limits set unto the Jews As therefore God commanded that all that were externally circumcised should participate and communicate in the same Sacraments and Rites but that Criminals and other Transgressors should by the Sword and other civil Punishments be restrained and punished so is it Christ's Will that all who are baptized into him all that profess Christianity and have a right and sound sense of Religion should be admitted to the use of all external Ceremonies and Sacraments whilst the Wicked and Criminal fall under the correction of the Magistrate whether it be by Death Exile Imprisonments or other the like Penalties And the Parables of the Net Marriage and Tares seem to import no less XXXII We find among the Apostles Paul especially no fewer nor less plain and forcible Arguments for our Assertion First there are no Footsteps that the Apostles did either teach or practise such a kind of Excommunication This Argument though it be not so evincing and strong of it self yet will be made unanswerable if we consider that the Apostles all their time kept themselves to a strict observance of such Laws of Moses which Christ had not abrogated as may be gathered out of the 21th and 28th Chapters of the Acts of the Apostles for which cause they never did nor would attempt to put by any one from our Sacraments which differ from the Sacraments of their Forefathers in the signes and time of signifying onely if he be a professed Christian and make a right Confession of that Doctrine for they neither did nor taught any thing contrary to the Precepts of Moses which Christ had not before abrogated but kept themselves to as close and strict observance of the Law after his death as before as the chief of the Apostles bears witness in the before-cited places for that permission to live free from the Law of Moses was to the Gentiles onely not to the Convert Jews which ought carefully to be remark'd here for the sake of what follows And as to the substance of their Doctrine they taught nothing that interfer'd with Moses and the Prophets for had they taught any thing dissonant the Bereans could not have judged it agreeable to those Scriptures that they searched Acts 17. v. 11. XXXIII But to adventure yet one step farther Much may be said for the sense of Moses which jumps altogether with ours but for the contrary Opinion Paul affords us not one Argument for that Apostle in 1 Cor. 8. v. 7. excludes neither those who yet retaining some fear and conscience of the Idols thought them to be something nor those proud boasting Gnosticks who in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the House or Temple of the Idol at least in the Room that was set apart for their solemn and publick Idol-Festivals did promiscuously with the profane and impious Idolaters eat of the things offer'd to Idols A thing expresly forbid by Moses Exod. 34. v. 15. by the Apostles Acts 15. v. 29. by John Rev. 2. v. 14. This was a sin as hainous as 't would be now-a-days for a man to dare to be present and communicate at a Popish Mass as any one may easily gather out of the 10th Chapter of that Epistle for Paul there proves that such as those do not less declare themselves by that action to be Communicants and keep a Fellowship with Devils than they testifie themselves to be Members of the mystical Body of Christ by partaking of the Lords Supper XXXIV Again Paul 1 Cor. 10. 1 2 c. reasons the matter thus As says he God spared not in old time such as lusted after evil things nor Idolaters nor Fornicators nor such as tempted and murmured against Christ though all of them were baptized unto Moses in the same Baptism v. 2. and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink v. 3 and 4. so shall he not spare even you too whoever of you are defiled with like abominations though you also all eat in like manner as did they of the same Bread and drink of the same Cup with the righteous and holy ones By this it is seen first that the Sacraments of the Jews before Christ and ours since are as to the internal and heavenly designe of them the very same else would the Apostles Argument be of no force Secondly 'T is evident that in both cases many vile and wicked Wretches and notoriously known and mark'd for such found admittance Thirdly 'T is also clear that none were commanded to keep away as the Excommunicated now-a-days always are for the Apostle doth not say that such whilst such should be kept from coming but foretels and denounces like punishments on them as befel such sinners of old Some of whom Moses with the Levites slew Exod. 32. v. 28. some God himself destroyed with Fire and Sword Serpents and Earthquakes which was these Corinthians case too for saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. v. 30. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep that is are punished by Disease and Death from God XXXV In the next Chapter though St. Paul take notice of Divisions and Heresies among them and of some drunken at the Lords Supper yet neither are those Schismaticks and Sectaries those Drunkards or others of whatsoever debauched Principles commanded to be kept from eating it there 's no tittle or word of any such Interdiction Yet doth he there redress lesser matters as that every man should eat at home if he be hungry How could he have here pass'd over this in silence had he approved it had he thought it so necessary to the Church But the Apostle well knew that the Law commanded otherwise and that the use of Sacraments in the Church was to other purposes than the punishing of Moral Vices by their deprivation therefore commands he that every man examine himself 1 Cor. 11. 28. the Precept is not that they should try and examine one another Nay the Apostle there cautions them that they eat worthily For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself v. 29. He doth not in the least command that unworthy Communicants should be denied access but threatens them with sad dooms from the hand of God He divides the Eaters into two sorts according to their differing Complexions the worthy and unworthy ones he gives no Precept to either for their not eating but would that all should eat worthily XXXVI Afterwards in 2 Cor. ch 12 and 13. he threatens not those who 2 Cor. 12. v. 21. after a former admonition had not repented of the Uncleanness and Fornication and Lasciviousness which they had committed with exclusion from the Table of the Lord but 2 Cor. 13. 10. according to the power and authority which the Lord had given him to edification and not to destruction he would not spare ch 13. v. 2. and 10. that is he would proceed with rigour and severity according to his extraordinary and