encouragement of men to live in scandalous sins without feare of suspension from the Lords table and to intrude boldly thereunto which is a power of grand tyranny and oppression of the Consciences of Ministers may in any but an evil sense be called a matter of grand importance Thirdly I wish with all my heart though now too late that these questions as in the title is pretended had first been propounded to the venerable Assembly For I doubt not but they then should have received such a solid and satisfactory Answer as would have staid the publishing of them in print and prevented the infection of the mindes of the vulgar people of weak judgement and saved us the labour of composing Antidotes against them Fourthly I pity the Author in that he hath so erred from his intended scope of these questions for his handling and carriage of them is so farre from preventing Schismes and setling unity among us in those divided times that on the contrary we finde by experience to our griefe that they worke strongly in corrupt and perverse mindes to the breeding and increasing of Schismes to the disturbance of the desired reformation in a point of greatest concernment and to the raising up of divisions and dissensions not onely among others but also betwen the Parliament and Assembly which is a strange practice in a lover of peace and truth The Preface The businesse of Excommunication and Sequestration from the Sacrament c. The Answer to the Preface before the questions 1. The businesse appeares plainely to be of no difficulty unlesse men will be difficult and through their owne averseness hardly perswaded to grant and establish that which Gods Word expressely holdeth forth and commendeth and which we hope and humbly pray that the Honourable Houses of Parliament will be willing to doe without difficulty You your selfe doe quote divers texts of Scripture which establish Excommunication and you presuppose it in this your paper severall times where you say none is to be suspended from the Sacrament but such as are excommunicated and in your Excommunication for which you cite Tertullian Schoolemen and Canonists you are more rigorous then any Presbyterians whom you closely intimate to be indiscreet passionate oversevere and revengefull which is a point of unchristian jealousy and uncharitable surmise For they dare not by excommunication exclude obstinate offenders from all ordinances but suffer them to heare the Word though not in communion as members of the Church but as infidels may doe or else what hope can we have of an illiterate person excommunicated that he will ever repent and be restored As for suspension from the Sacrament it is a thing more easy in it selfe and may be done orderly with lesse labour then excommunication and with great ease and facility and more frequently and with good successe is practised in all the best reformed Churches which also our late abolished liturgy did allow largely to all Pastors and Church-wardens and it had been more easy to them that were godly and also more usuall in our Congregations if the proud Prelates fathers of prophanenesse had not taken that power wholly to themselves Which intolerable usurpation of theirs we hope is with themselves quite taken away but not the power from the Church nor the lawfull exercise of it according to the rules of Christ Secondly Whereas you make no medium between prophanation and scandall on the one side and Arbitrary tyrannicall papall domineering over the Consciences and spirituall Priviledges of Christians on the other herein passion and partiality seem to blinde you For there is a plain open way between the two extremes that is the lawfull power which Christ hath given to Ecclesiasticall rulers Pastors and Elders in his Church which all godly Ministers and all orthodox members of the Assembly stand plead and petition for that it may be backed and confirmed to them by civill sanction even power to prove and try who are fit and who are unworthy to come to the Lords Table and by admitting the one and puting back the other after strict triall and due proofe and examination prophanation and scandall may easily be prevented and Arbitrary tyranicall papall domineering over the consciences of Pastors and godly Christian people shall have no place in Gods Church Scandalous proud impenitent sinners shall not come desperately to out-face Christ and his Ministers at his own table nor have an action against Ministers who out of tender conscience and fear of God refuse to reach to them judgement and damnation and so to partake with them in the guilt of Christs body and blood The Congregation of the godly shall not be scandalized nor tyrannically forced either to countenance and harden the impenitent in their open wickednes by communicating with them or to separate from our Congregations and abhor the ordinance of the Lord as men did in old Eli's daies when his wicked sons made them to abhor the offering of the Lord 1 Sam. 2. 17. But on the contrary let scandalous obstinate sinners have liberty to intrude and come boldly to the Lords table and the Pastors and Elders have no power to keep back from them the holy signes and scals which belong not to them this is more then arbitrary tyrannicall papall domineering over the consciences of Pastors Elders and godly people 3. But here me thinks you speak very untowardly to the great offence of all godly people against all Christs Ministers and ecclesiasticall rulers for in these words If it fall into indiscreet over-severe ambitious passionate or revengefull hands you either suppose that generally the hands of Ministers and Elders of Christs Church are such and therefore they ought not to be trusted with power of Suspension and Excommunication which if you do your heart is not fâ—ee from malignity against their holy calling and the Lord Christ who hath trusted them will finde you out Or else your meaning is that as in the daies of the Papacy and Prelacy so now it may again under Presbyteriall Church-government happen that some of the rulers Ecclesiasticall may act with such hands What then Do you infer thence that all of that high calling are to be abridged of that power A desperate inference striking at the prerogative and power of Parliaments and all civil Judges and Courts of Justice For upon the same grounds viz. because under the Papacy Parliaments made Laws for suppressing true religion and establishing Idolatry and superstition you may go about to abridge them And under the late domineering Prelacy and tyranny Judges wrested laws to take away the Subjects birth-right and liberty and to maintain oppression and they made you know whose will and lust law And Lawyers soothed them and you know when not one in all the bunch could be found nor hired to plead in the just cause of an innocent And even then many Presbyters and Ecclesiasticall persons stood out couragiously and feared no persecutions bonds or losses in the cause both of religion and
A Brotherly and Friendly CENSURE OF THE ERROVR Of a dear Friend and Brother in Christian affection IN An ANSWER to his four Questions lately sent abroad in print to the view of the world PROV. 27. 5 6. Open rebuke is better then secret love Faithfull are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy are deceitfull Published according to Order LONDON Printed for Nathanael Webb 1645. To the Reader CHristian reader I will take it as a great favour from thee if in reading this my Answer thou wilt judge me to be as indeed and in truth I am an adversary of the cause and not of the person He who is commonly reported to be the Author of the foure questions in hand is one whose person I have from my first knowledge of him dearly loved honoured and admired for his excellent parts profitable paines for the publike good and his unwearied labours and patient sufferings in the cause of Christ If he hath but once in all his life stumbled upon a bad cause and pleaded for it which is a common and in some sort a necessary evil hardly to be avoided by men of his vocation let not this blemish his great learning nor his judgement sound in all other points and least of all his approved piety and zeale for true religion His name which was happily concealed and not annexed to these foure questions shall ever be precious with me and I hope with all Gods people also who truly feare the Lord long for the peace of Zion and unfeignedly seek the reformation of Christs Church in all these three Kingdomes It is no small griefe to me that I am compelled to move my pen in writing against any paper published by an hand so deare to me But in the cause of Christ and in a point so prejudiciall to the peace and pure reformation of the Church Who can be silent The nearest relations of love which one Christian can have to another in this world must not hinder us nor stay our hands tongues or pens from performance of any duty in which we all stand obliged to the Lord Christ our Redeemer and to his Church our deare mother And wherein can we be more necessitated to shew our duty to both then in resisting with all our power whatsoever tends to the common and continuall prophanation of the holy Sacrament of Christs body and blood which cannot possibly be avoided if the power of the keys which Christ hath given to his Apostles and their successors with a promise to be with them to the end of the world be taken under any pretence out of the hands of the Pastors and Presbyters of the Church and no power left unto them to put by any sinners openly scandalous and impenitent from the holy Communion nor to exclude such spirituall lepers most loathsome and infections from the sacred meeting at the Lords holy Table Who doth not see that the maine cause of the Schismes and separations of divers godly and zealous Christians from our Communion is the mixture of the prophane among the pious and godly and the admission of persons openly scandalous to the holy Sacrament This is that which hath moved many out of their blinde zeale to proclaime our Church a whore a strumpet a Synagogue of Antichrist and our faithfull Ministers Baals Priests and limmes of the beast All true Christians and most of all the Ministers of the Word are bound to put to their hands and shoulders for the removing of this stumbling-block and rock of offence out of the way And I especially more then others by reason of that singular love I bear to this deare brother erring in this point and least I should offend against that commandement Lev. 19. 17. Thou shalt not have thy brother in thine heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sin upon him or bear sin for him His paper is gone forth in publike private rebuke will not hinder the hurt which it may doe It hath given such publike wounds as cannot be cured but by a publike remedy The Lord the great healer of soules give a speedy cure to the maladies of his Church and all our soule-sicknesses to him be praise for ever and ever A brotherly and friendly Censure of the errour of a dear friend and brother in Christian affection In an Answer to his foure Questions lately sent abroad in print to the view of the world The Inscription Four serious Questions of grand Importance concerning Excommunication and Suspension from the Sacrament propounded to the Reverend Assembly and all Moderate Christians to prevent Schismes and settle Vnity among us in these divided times by a lover both of Peace and Truth The Answer to the Inscription WHen I did first meet with this paper of foure serious questions fleeing abroad in print into every Book-sellers shop in London and ready upon the wing to take flight into all parts of the land That flying toll which appeared to the Prophet Zecharie presently upon my viewing of the matter and scope thereof came to my minde which is said to be a curse going forth over the face of the whole land Zech. 5. 3. For as that was a curse to punish cut off and consume even to the timber and stones of the houses into which it entered So I feared this would be a corrupting curse in the heart house and family of every one that entertained it with approbation and did welcome it with applause seeing it proclaims liberty for all sinners though openly scandalous and impenitent to come boldly to the Lords supper and to eat and drinke their own damnation without controll of the Pastors and Presbyters of the Church whom Christ hath ordained to have the rule over them and to watch for their soules Heb. 13. 17. And whereas the questions are by the Author professed to be serious and of grand importance propounded to the Reverend Assembly for the setling of unity among us in these divided times First I must professe that I am much grieved that any learned Christian brother should seriously urge such arguments so weak so fallacious and of so little strength to maintaine so bad a cause as this even the opening of a wide gap to Libertinisme and prophanation of the holy Sacrament of Christs body and blood and giving this liberty to carnall and prophane men of dissolute and scandalous life that they without repulse may intrude themselves among godly Communicants to the just offence and scandall of the whole Congregation which they may have opportunity to doe at severall times before the sentence of Excommunication can in a way of orderly proceeding especially when there are appeales made to higher Consistories one after another by obstinate and contentious offenders come forth against them and be put in execution Secondly I hope it will be made to appeare by this and other Answers of more able brethren that here is no matter of grand importance in these questions except
justice Why then will you not take away all power also of judging from Judges and of pleading and expounding the Law from Lawyers and leave all civil government in the hands of the common people Take heed Sir you be not partiall and unequall to one side more then another Aretius hath given you a very good caveat not to strive so earnestly against this point of Christian discipline in those words of his by you cited impossibile praesentibus moribus colla submittere ejusmodi disciplinae which words tell us That the corrupt manners and profane lives of men desperately bent in these evil times to continue in their lewd and scandalous courses make it impossible to bring them to submit their stiff necks to this discipline of Excommunication and Suspension from the holy Communion which is Christs light yoke to tractable Christians If you proceed to take part with such refractory opposers which I hope your religious heart will not permit you to do and spend your strength in so unworthy a cause in hope by justifying these Questions to prevail against the votes of your best friends and most faithfull lover which you have in this world who truly honour you and wish all good to you I trust in God you shall fail of your hopes as Aretius did in his judgement where speaking of this discipline set up by some in the Churches of Germany he seems to deride it in those words by you rehearsed Cecidit in spongiam ridiculus mus For now this despised mouse is become an high mountain in all the best reformed Churches of Germany 4. As for your addresse to the Assembly whom you charge unjustly with falling into extreams and indeed calumniate them as if they seemed to affect a great lording power over the consciences and priviledges of their Christian brethren which of right belongs not unto them usurping that to themselves which they vehemently declaimed against and caused to be taken quite away from the Pope and Prelates To this I answer that you utterly mistake the matter For they abhorre all affectation and usurpation of lording power over the consciences of any Christians but have condemned it in the Pope and Prelates and their humble Petition to the Houses of Parliament is That none may usurp lordly power as the proud Prelates did over them and the people of their flock compelling them either against their consciences and with great offence and scandall to the godly to admit scandalous sinners to the Lords table and to profane the Sacrament of Christs body and blood by giving the seals thereof to them or else to decline the administration of that holy ordinance and their Ministerie chusing affliction rather then iniquity In plain truth this is the lordly tyrannicall power over their consciences and the iron yoke which you in your Question seek to lay on them After the Preface answered I proceed to your Questions The first of which is Quest 1. Whether those places of Scripture Matth. 18. 16 17. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 11. 1 Tim. 1. 20. Joh. 9. 22. 32. 12. 42. 16. 2. â—Thess 3. 14. 2 Joh. 10. 11. Joh. 3. 10. Numb. 12. 14. Deut. 23. 1. be properly meant of Excommunication which you take upon you to prove from Fathers School-men and others to be an exclusion from all ordinances or of Suspension from the Lords Supper onely The first you hold and we will grant it to you The latter you deny and I affirm that it is here also meant inclusively but not only The first place you seem to weaken and enervate by intimating that our Saviour speaks of private personall trespasse between man and man and not of publike scandalous sins against the Congregation and that the censure is private not publike because it is said Let him be not to the whole Church and all others but to Thee as an Heathen man and a Publican and you quote Luk. 17. 3 4. to prove that such private trespasses must be forgiven if seventy times seven which no man will deny if the trespasser repent as often as he offends But now suppose be stand out and persist in his sin and scorn private admonition yea when he is convented before the Church he will not hear nor obey publike admonition doe you not think that this is publike scandall against the Congâ—egation and deserves Excommunication Surely if it were not so our Saviour would not have passed against it that dreadfull censure of Excommunication saying Let him be to Thee as an Heathen man and a Publican And if to the private person for his private wrong much more to all others in the Congregation for publike contumacy and scandalous obstinacy in his sin against the Church It is a dangerous doctrine to teach any private person to censure and judge a brother to be in the state of an Ethnike and as a Publican for a private trespasse if for his contumacie against the whole Church and obstinacie in that sin the sentence of Excommunication be not by the Church publikely given against him Whereas you make it a branch of your Question What warrant there is in Scripture for Ministers to suspend men from the Lords Supper only and not from the Congregation and all other publike ordinances with it I answer this very easily That because Suspension from the Sacrament is a step yea the next degree to Excommunication as reason and the practice of all the best Churches of Christ doe teach us the Scriptures which warrant Excommunication do also warrant it as a profitable and necessary means either to prevent that dreadfull sentence by bringing the sinner to repent and be ashamed or to make his impenitency more evident and notorious and to justifie the more the Excommunication of him But I marvell that you should thinke it so strange and unwarrantable a thing to suspend a man from a Sacrament who hath communion in all other ordinances of the Church seeing it was the practice of all the ancient Churches to exclude the Catechumeni from Baptisme till by catechising and hearing the Word publikely preached they were better instructed And how dare you dispute against that which is resolved in this present Parliament To wit That ignorant and some scandalous persons shall not be admitted to the Lords table Qâ— Your second Question is the same which you propounded last before as a branch of the first belike you are well pleased and affected with it and have some thing more to say in urging it I omit what I have answered before and here I doe first adde That Christian compassion and moderation in dealing with perverse men is commended and commanded in the Scripture 2 Tim. 2. 24 25 26. Jude 22 23. And this is a maine point of compassion and moderation in Ecclesiasticall rulers to try all inferiour meanes whereof suspension from the Lords Table is one before they proceed to the last and greatest censure of excommunication Though the Popes