draws his Arrows out of this sacred Quiver He obtruded Scripture to our Saviour but wrested curtled it It is the Orthodox Maxim of Tertullian Truth is no less obstructed by adulterating depraving the sense than corrupting perverting the Letter It is not the Shell but the Kernel is the delicious word of life Some Expedients are requisite for attaining the Kernel The Expedients are inward and outward The first inward Expedient is Interpretation which is promoted by examining Translations consulting with Originals The second inward Expedient is Comparation by a survey of the Context to pick the sense out of the coherence or else by Analogy of Texts for as one Taper kindles so one portion of Scripture illustrates another There are also external Expedients the outward helps of the Arts especially Logick for apprehending the force and importance of the Proofs in Scripture Rhetorick for discovering the Flourishes the Ornaments of its Tropes and Figures of Witnesses wherein though the Modern are not to be excluded the Primitive are to be preferred The most ancient are of best repute being least tainted and biassed Moses and Bildad Jeremiah and Solomon recommend the Inquiry of Antiquities it is Christ's prescription against Pharisaical Heretical Novelties From the beginning it was not se. Though the Fathers are not to be idolized with the Papal Gloss yet are they not peremptorily to be contemned or condemned in their opinions and expositions Though the Romanists are Veteratores saith Joseph Scaliger corrupters of Antiquity yet the Reformed are no rejecters of it not Novatores nor introducers of Novelties unanimous Ecclesiastical Antiquity cheeques not with Purity It is the Golden Rule of Vincentius Lyrineusis That which is asserted in all Christian Churches in all Ages is truly Catholick and Venerable All these Expedients being united are to be improved by a fervent penitent Devotion Scripture is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of private interpretation that every one hath liberty to impose his own fancy but there ought to be sensus innatus pursued as the Hugonot Champion Chamier distinguisheth not illatus Though the Holy Ghost only can truly expound what himself dictates yet to pretend his Comment on his own Text with a neglect of all subservient helps were not a holy confidence but a haughty arrogance I presume your Modesty and Ingenuity will not permit you to split on this Rock that you will not profess with Abulardus to run counter with all the Fathers of the Church nor with Faustus Infaustus Socinus explode the track of primitive Piety for Guidance I have dilated this Point because it is the Lydius Lapis the Touch-stone of the Controversie Having premised these Cautions I joyn issue with you in S. Bernard's Close To the Gospel you have appealed to the Gospel you shall go I may here review S. Austin's challenge Produce one voice of Scripture in the behalf of Donatus The LETTER For the Searcher of all hearts can bear me witness that it was not inconsiderately or for any by-end that I changed my former thoughts and practice The ANSWER I cannot be so uncharitable as to boggle at that you ratifie with so sacred and solemn a seal Though your changes have been the impressions of your heart yet be pleased to consider there is no such pernicious Sophister as the heart of Man It is deceitful above all things A Supplanter according to the Original deep beyond our fathoming wily beyond our kenning Your spiritual change still suiting with your temporal advantages your own retired thoughts may admit a severe reflection on your integrity so far as to examine it though I shall not blast nor scruple it The Enemy sowed his Tares in the choicest Grain the Wheat like Agrippina that distilled her poison into Claudius's delicacies Satan may insert rivet an advantageous separation into a pious intention whereby the Serpent may insensibly swallow up the Dove like Julian who caused the Images of the Heathen Gods in the engraving to be intermingled with the Images of the Emperour that so the Christians in affording a civil reverence to the one might exhibit an idolatrous to the other though unwittingly Ecclesiastical Histories are ample Records of Gracious Men ungraciously swayed by secular interests to desert the best Tenets The most Orthodox Venerable Fathers under Constantine the Emperour were swayed by the potent violent stream of the Age under Constantius to embrace the Arrian Confession This Torrent bore away the grave devout Osius centenario major saith the Historian being above an hundred years old as if more crazed and decrepit in Soul than Body he renounced the sacred Sanctions of the Nicene Council which himself compiled and established How rigid and dismal a Doom did Ecebolius pronounce against himself who having still moulded his Religion to the season shifted Sail with every propitious Gale at last he cast himself prostrate in the Church with this expression of perplexity and horrour Trample on me as unsavory Salt I relate it not virulently with the least design of Application but affectionately hint it for caution The LETTER As my Creed taught me there is a Communion of Saints so my desire was to find such a company whereby I may comfortably partake of the things of God according to his revealed Will. The ANSWER I am glad you own that renowned Christian Badge of Piety and Antiquity whereto this Age affords not publick recital scarce private repute The Foundation you lay will not support the Fabrick you erect thereon The Communion of Saints will not prove a Division a Fraction of Separatists 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it unsoders the Church untwists the Article This allows not society with good Men in evil Actions it debars not society with evil men in good Actions S. Paul enforceth his Admonition of endeavouring the preservation of the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace by a Paraphrase of this Communion One God one Faith one Baptism This Communion relates to the Head or Members The Communion of the Head with the Members consists in our partaking of Christ's Merits by Adoption by Justification in his partaking of our indignities by Interpretation of our iniquities by Imputation Satisfaction The Communion of the Saints deceased with the living consists in their general prayers for us in our general and particular praises for them The former in the judgment of Reformed Divines consists with the excellency of their Charity The latter suits with the practice of the Primitive Church The Communion of the Saints living consists in affection by sympathy of joy or grief in edification exercising our Graces to the benefit of others in distribution of outward Talents This bottom of Communion of Saints being thus unravelled will not countenance or present the least thread of your separation If you aver a Communion with
the Saints as Fellow Members I desire to be resolved who those Saints are Not the reformed Protestants not the Primitive Christians you exclude both their Church being not separate if they be acknowledged Members of the Catholick Church they are interested in the Communion of Saints expressed in the Creed And then your separation from them amounts to a separation from the Church and the Communion specified in the Creed To ascend higher are the Apostles the Saints you own a Communion with Then prove they made such separations from Christian Congregations as you do But you admit them not the Title of Saints let me inoffensively ask for my own satisfaction if they be real Saints why not Titular If your selves as real assume the Title why may not the Apostles be indulged that privilege in regard you plead to be Saints of the same extraction especially since us to the judgment of others at least there is greater certainty infallibility of their Saintship than of yours As for your desire of company comfortably to partake the things of God those Assemblies you have quitted do afford those sacred Comforts you have deserted them for wherein sacred Ordinances are most comfortably because most charitably celebrated Being private Persons or Pastors of a Parochial Church we are principled to be Converts not Judges to exercise severity in repentance not censure to be inquisitors in our own Breasts to condemn none but our selves Religion is not tainted with Faction among us nor Zeal stained with Schism We bewail the practical prophaneness of any that the same tincture of Grace is not visible in Worship and in Life however our wickedness is not in Gilgal as to this charge God's pure Ordinances are not slurred not vitiated much less vacated rendred ineffectual by mens impure desailances unless to themselves only To the pure all things are pure The LETTER Therefore do humbly offer these ensuing grounds to your serious consideration desiring your judgement on them and thoughts of them The ANSWER I take no felicity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Nazianzens expression to mould Divinity into a Comedy I shall not by the Divine assistance fail of a serious Discussion of your Advertisements weighing them in the ballance of Reason and Religion I am not so improvident an Enemy to a numerous Family as to be peevishly wedded to clouded Tenets could I be rationally and conscienciously divorced from them I should not stick to pen my own Retractations according to the laudable Example of St. Austin The LETTER That there is a Church of God here on Earth all do agree in concerning the Matter and Form in general there is no great difference That it is coetus fidelium a company of people called out and segregated from the World by the Word to walk together in the Gospel of Jesus is granted The ANSWER The quod sit that there is a Church is uncontrolled undiscussed the quid sit what that Church is is the subject of Ancient and Modern Debates Here the Logick Rule is to be observed Ambiguous words are first to be distinguish'd then defined The Church is either Universal or Particular Grand Differences being loudly prosecuted touching the Matter and Form of both The Romanists comprehend Miscreants Reprobates for material parts and Members of the Catholick Church the Reformed allow only Elect Persons to be true and real Members of this Church yet they avouch vitious Christians nay scandalous till excommunicated to be Members of a particular visible Church but the Separatists do quite expunge raze them out The Romanists exact not as a consecutive but a constitutive essential Note as a formal mark of every particular Church Subjection to the Pope The Separatists require a Church Covenant an evidence if not assurance of the grace of every Member The Reformed Protestants dissent from both But not to tread out of your track Your Latin definition of the Church coetus fidelium is accommodated to the inward Church invisible Though an Assembly if particular be an object of Sense Believers properly are not But your English illustration of it is the Character of the outward visible Church that walk in the profession of the Gospel of Jesus If they walk whether in the Notion of Nature or Scripture if they profess they must be visible This is to shuffle together Disparata The LETTER 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints by calling is Scripture Definition Rom. 1. 7. 1 Cor. 14. 33. but how far these terms may be understood how far extended and wherein restrained is the controversie The ANSWER I shall not except at the Etymologie nor the Scripture definition but the Restriction of it That 's the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the main hinge of the Question If you understand Saints by calling of an inward effectual vocation the Testimony is an impertinency as to our debate touching an outward visible Church If you understand it of an outward Vocation remember our Saviours uncontrolled Maxime many are called but few are chosen This suites with a mixt Communion with an outward profession take Aretius his rational descant on St. Pauls Character How are they called Saints since it is certain many Novices in belief yea notorious lewd wretches in life were among them whereto he frames a double answer They were Saints by calling because called to Sanctity and endowed with preparatory Graces Because the better part were Holy the rest were Saints in the judgement of Charity though not of Infallibility It is the Candor the Rhetorick of the Apostle that the Title might be a Lecture the name a charm to Holiness Zanchy under the name of Saints apprehends titular professing Christians but the faithful distinguish'd severed from these by the Apostle to be sincere Believers Thus your first Citation is a Nominal definition of Christians nominal professional not real habitual outwardly interested by Baptism though not inwardly regenerated Saints by destination by designation not in conversation not in the least perfection of parts much less of degrees Your second Citation 1 Cor. 14. 33. is less advantageous to advance your design God is not the Author of confusion not of dissention in the vulgar Latin not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of tumult but of peace as in all the Churches of the Saints That is in all Christian Churches that are called obliged to be Saints If you observe your separation to be the source of dissention of confusion admitting no dependance no subordination it will appear at a great distance from those Apostolical Churches of the Saints especially if you note the coherence in the Claromonte Edition approved by Beza and other Reformed Divines immediately adjoyning to the 33 verse the 36 37 38 39 40 th vers and annexing 34 35 vers to the 40 th What came the Word of God from you or to you only The ophylact thus illustrates it You are neither the prime nor the sole Believers It behooves you to entertain that with affection with submission which hath
the approbation of the Christian World St. Paul conjures the Corinthians by the Examples of all Churches The same Argument unsinews your separation not to run counter with all Christian Churches Produce one Christian undoubted Church of your separate strain not universally branded for Schismatical Phyllida solus habebis The true Church shall be yours You may derive your Pedigree from the Novatians and Donatists who boulted some of your Tenets for Separation and Constitution These will discover some lineaments of your Complexion not the intire proportion However if you are Saints upon their account they were not Hereticks and if they were Hereticks upon your account your selves are not Saints If you acknowledge them not Hereticks you reject the Judgement of all Christian Churches in all Ages since their Heresies were broached Sysinnius counsel to Theodosius was prudent to move Innovators to stand to the Judgement of the Church before Division I tender to you the determination of our Question by the suffrage and practice of the Reformed Churches before your separation was raked out of the Embers it was enwrapped in or else to the Primitive Churches either before the flame of the Novatians and Donatists was kindled or after it was extinguish'd by the vigorous Confutations of the Fathers and the Pious Sanctions of Christian Emperors and Councils If in despight of these you will persist in contention in separation my Refuge is the Apostles Apology We have no such custome nor the Churches of God The LETTER Visible Saints must be but how far Saints must be discovered The Word I suppose carries in it a holy separation to God a people separated for his service for his glory and how wicked men having only a bare outward profession may be such is unknown to me whom the Scripture speaks otherwise of Tit. 1. Prov. 8. 9. The ANSWER There is not an exact necessity of that Visibility so far as to conclude no Sanctity if no Visibility no Church if no lustre There may be Gold in the Ore obscured not yet resplendent refined Bullion Where was the Visibility when the Primitive Christians during the brunt of Pagan persecution betook themselves for security to remote Deserts to obscure Caves when Prisons were the sole Oratories and Temples when the Churches were universally demolished the Sacred Scriptures burnt the Christians disrobed disfranchised stript of their Dignities immunities deprived of their liberties and lives by the fierce Edicts of Dioclesian Where was the Church visible when it was o'erspread with a cloud of Arrianism Athanasius against the whole World and the whole World against Athanasius Eliah discovered not one Saint but himself yet God vindicated seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal We are not visible Saints to you nor you perhaps to us Veniam damus petimusque vicissim I pray God we may be all visible Saints to him I confess that to be a Saint imports a holy separation a people separated for the Divine Service and Glory Those you have abandoned are so servered dedicated by Baptism They who demonstrate only a bare outward profession may be Saints outwardly formally for profession though not inwardly really as touching affection touching sincere Religion Yet in this defect of entire genuine Purity the good are not to be eschewed for the evil but the evil are to be tolerated for the good I shall wave your first Quotation Tit. 1. no verse being specified I shall not contend in a roving conjecture in a dark conflict like the Andabates I presume you intended not the whole Chapter for a Proof this were a fondness of separation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the vehement affection of the Platonists whose intellectuals being prepossest with numbers imagined number an Essential in every constitution Your second Appeal is to Prov. 15. 8 9. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but the prayer of the righteous is acceptable to him The way of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth righteousness If you can dispense with Charity to brand those you separate from to be wicked If you can dispense with Humility to repute your selves righteous yet this is no Argument for separation The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination therefore The Sacrifice of the godly mingled with the wicked is abomination you conclude more than you premise Judas eating the Paschal Lamb as for his own personal action was an abomination but this had no reflection on his associates in that oblation the Apostles Their Piety did not sanctifie and acquit him nor did his iniquity defile and condemn them The LETTER The manner also of their coming into such a condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints called not Saints compelled or Saints making their Saintships their Calling their Profession not enemies to Holiness This by the way The ANSWER It is true Religion ought to be perswaded not constrained Faith and Innocence are not the products of power and violence Piety is not savoury if not voluntary Yet tempers are to be distinguished mens dispositions being as different as their complexions Some are moulded like Wax for the impressions of the Sacred Spirit Others are to be hewen like stones to be squared and polished Materials for the Temples of the holy Ghost Of some take compassion making a difference or commiserate those that are staggering according to a famous Manuscript others save with fear Beza interprets it with terrour pulling them out of the fire Though compulsion is not allowable in the grafting the planting of Religion yet it is in the fencing and pruning of it It cannot be compelled secundum actum imperatum for the inward apprehension it may to outward profession secundum actum elicitum I grant that Saints ought to make Saintship their Calling or rather their Calling makes them Saints When their conversation contradicts their Vocation their Profession the crime is the greater when our works confound our words our lives check with our names The title of a Saint is the impeachment of a Miscreant Your Proof if logically examined is fallacious Wicked men are enemies to holiness therefore not Saints Members of a Church It is ignoratio Elenchi In the same consideration they are not Saints and Enemies to Holiness Their Saintship is in appearance their enmity to Sanctity in substance Holy at least as Professors though unholy as Malefactors This by the way as you express it is indeed a by way out of the Orthodox road of the Jews and Christians It is with new Tenets saith St. Epiphanius as with new ways wherein when men are once engaged they will proceed on with hazard of safety rather than return with any fear of infamy The LETTER I shall briefly speak something concerning a separation from the Church of England in propounding these two Queries First whether ever the Church of England was as a Nation or National Church constituted according to the Word of God and
Strangers that checked with the Principles of Nature and of Grace But his distemper and his incest were monstrous blemishes as if he would transfer Sodom to Zoar a reiterated distemper and incest wherein his drunkenness did not abate but aggravate the guilt and horror of his wantonness the cause being directly voluntary though not the effect In this addition this cumulation of wickedness the offence was the more heinous because Gods deliverance was exceeding gracious The meditation of the burning of Sodom should have kindled his zeal not his lust should have procured his Holiness not his dissoluteness yet notwithstanding these Crimes and Prodigies St Peter recites him with no branded Epithet 'T is just Lot and vexed his righteous soul not his incestuous From these Instances I observe that God judgeth not as man not according to the outward integrity but the inward sincerity A manifest offender may be a secret penitentiary I press this only to moderate your rigor to allay your acrimony in censuring not to animate the security of others in sinning I wish I could write and speak like Pericles Thunder and Lightning to terrifie to blast their prophaneness But you prove your black doom out of 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God Be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolators nor adulterers nor effeminate persons nor abusers of themselves with mankind Nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God Parishes I hope are not Idolaters c. Suppose your application to some parochial Members The Apostle threatned not so much actual as habitual customary sinners as in St. Johns determination He that committeth sin is of the Devil 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that drives wickedness as a trade contrives it as a design pursues it as a delight However you understand your quotation whether of such as are actually or habitually vitious the menace is not fix'd on the Delinquent unless impenitent Our Parochial Churches cannot be pronounced by you to have split on this Rock of impenitency The LETTER Thus far concerning that first institution and so this practice was followed in all the Churches that were constituted none admitted Members but visibles I do not mean real Saints which is only known to God and herein the Apostles themselves who had a far greater spirit of discerning than we have were deceived but as far as we can judge by a well guided not blinded charity The ANSWER If your Rule for admission be rigorously pressed how can men of different judgements and repugnant spirits be admitted into separated Churches Are not Contentions Divisions carnal brands Whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are you not carnal The visibility of Church Members and Saints is no more compatible with the profession of gross Errours and Heresies in Doctrine than the manifestation of foul vices of enormities in practice And yet I presume you will not unchurch at once all the Anabaptists and other erroneous factious assemblies nor among your selves exclude all such who have been admitted notwithstanding some spiritual sins perhaps not undiscerned which if granted are pollutions of visible sanctity no less than justly blamed Carnalities As for the Apostolical practice objected as a pattern not copied out by the Church of England in admission of Members I pray distinguish the times of the infancy of a Church and the proficiency the growth of it A proficiency of age was required in the infancy of the Church an infancy of age allowed to be admitted in the proficiency of the Church by Baptism For I understand no other Church admission or imitation but that Were persons in some measure ripen'd for years and intellectuals only to be admitted Members of the Church of England as in the Apostles time the dispute of a visible qualification were no impertinency I pray add to this consideration the Constitution of the Church of England in point of Confirmation in imitation of the Primitive Purity of Christianity without this debarring any reception to the Eucharist Which to a calm Opponent will vindicate her admitting of Members and embracing them But to return more closely to your own Track The first Constitution you insist on doth not prop your separation no nor yet the following practices you alledge but instance in no particulars Fallacies being fairly shrowded in Generalities What Visibility of Sanctity was in Simon Magus Acts 8. 13. He believed and was baptized that is he professed pretended that he believed There was no other visible Saintship conspicuous in Philip the Eunuch before his admission to the Church but a naked profession I believe that Jesus Christ is that Son of God The Jaylor and his Family were constituted Members of the Church baptized upon no other sanctified account than their attention to the Gospel preached and a single exercise of compassion Washing the stripes of Paul and Silas Those additional Testimonies of rejoycing and believing recorded in the 40 th verse were improvements perfections after their admission not endowments qualifications before it It is indeed expressed of Cornelius and his Domesticks that they were inspired before they were baptized The holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word Acts 10. 44. Besides the extraordinary Season well suiting with an extraordinary inspiration as for the appearing of this inspiring speaking with tongues it was gratia gratis data not gratum faciens as the School-men distinguish a Grace a Gift for the edification of others not for the Salvation of themselves As touching real Saints you acknowledge that the Apostles who had a far greater spirit of discerning than your selves were deceived They had a more discerning but under favour a less condemning Spirit Yours is the Spirit of Eliah not of Paul of Moses not of Christ It savours of Mount Sina not Sion The Apostles were deceived in misapprehending evil men to be good but you in misapprehending good men to be evil They took Wolves for Sheep because in Sheeps cloathing because doctrinally Christians But you take Sheep for Wolves because stragling because practically Pagan Nay they are scarce allowed to be Sheep when themselves stray not out of the Fold because mingled with Wolves This is the less innocent misconstruction But you alledge you are directed by a well guided not blinded Charity That Charity that hath the Divine conduct is not like Lamia in Plutarch putting off the spectacles at home and putting them on abroad but is dim without and quick sighted within Vaunts not it self insults not 1 Cor. 13. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinketh not evil or imputeth not evil to any as Valla and Eras. interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 13. 5. Charity shall cover a multitude of faults 1 Pet. 4. 8. nay an universality many for all as all for many being reciprocal Phrases in the Scripture idiome It hath a present efficacy doth cover
set down what proportion of knowledge is precisely requisite in a Communicant and how far that phrase of discerning of the Lords Body is necessarily to be extended After constant Catechisms and Sermons in Parochial Churches mens ignorance is not so great in not knowing what to practice as their prophaneness in not practising what they know Where Catechisms and Sermons are not frequent where the Expedients of saving knowledge are not tendred your Charity may determine this ignorance of a pure negation not of a depraved disposition an involuntary necessitated not a voluntary affected ignorance However you deem there is a gratious high Priest after the order of Melchisedeck who can have compassion on the ignorant Heb 5. 2. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which according to Theophylact imports commensuration compassion condescention condonation to match to melt to bend to stoop so the Syriack to pardon This compassion is not confined to the ignorant but extended to the Delinquent And on them that are out of the way 'T is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as swerve deviate from the narrow Path of integrity such as are seduced by the wiles the impostures of Satan This notion comprehends your description of the black rabble Swearers Drunkards c. especially if the transgressions be not predominant if the transgressors be not impenitent They may be titled Saints professional though not actual for their Tenets though not for their Lives as to the outward Administration of the General Covenant of Grace though not as to the inward special Participation Yet in the strictest consideration they are to be enrolled Saints till they are convicted to be miscreants Till then though they are not such really in themselves yet they are judicially in the Eye of the Law in the Censure of the Church Not only by the Rule of Charity but Equity every man is presumed supposed to be good till he be legally proved to be evil To twist together your objections of ignorance and prophaneness drunkards c. which you press as inconsistent with Saintship I confess not reconcileable with practical yet reconcileable with federal sanctity to be interested in a visible Church The Israelites were charged for ignorance worse than brutish The ox knows his owner the asse his masters crib But Israel hath not known my people hath not understood So universally signally corrupted for conversation the whole Nation is decypher'd branch'd out to be Princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah and yet titled the Children of God in vers 2. The vineyard of the Lord of hosts in Is. 5. 7. yet the fruits were not delitious Oppression in vers 7. Covetous in vers 8. Drunkenness in vers 11. 12. Security and Impenitency in verse 12. Deliberate obstinate iniquity in vers 18 20. Though Sodom and Samaria were outvied in guilt by Israel yet were they a people relating to God by Covenant though forfeited by their defailance disobedience yet by Gods indulgence not deserted disclaimed by himself I will remember my covenant made with thee in the days of thy youth It is Hoseah's black enditement No truth no mercy no knowledge of God in the land By lying and swearing and killing and stealing and whoring blood toucheth blood and yet it is appropriated My people in the sixth and twelfth verses of that Chapter Not ironically but truly as Zanchy expounds it in regard of an external adoption of outward Symboles expresses of Religion which served as publick badges and cognizances to manifest the Jews Ecclesiastical visible priviledges not to be a people uncovenanted unchurched Suppose this Nation more depraved than Sodom and Samaria yet is it but ballanc'd with Israel and it is no greater Soloecism in Scripture Language to entitle this Nation to be Saints for its Parochial Members for the profession of true Religion than to entitle the Jews to be Gods people on the same account They are like parallel lines proportionable suitable to each other The people of Israel were sanctified by a federal relation were circumcised they owned Gods Oracles but disobeyed his Laws The scene of Circumcision being shifted to Baptism our case holds resemblance as to a visible Church as face answers face in water I shall add by way of surplusage The Apostles themselves were not absolutely acquitted from ignorance of scandal even in a remarkable conjuncture notwithstanding the celebrating of our Saviours last Supper and the approaching of the last scene of our Saviours Tragedy they were contentious and ambitious tainted with pride and variance There a rose a strife among them which should be greatest Ignorant they were of the saving mysteries of Christs Passion his Resurrection notwithstanding the predictions of the Prophets the Sermons of our Saviour yet they understood the Scepter only not the Cross of Christ the apprehension of a Temporal not a Spirituall Messiah fluttered in their brains yet were still listed reputed Disciples Apostles Nay Judas himself when he was declared pointed out a Traitor being not excommunicated was not debarred the name or the seal of a Disciple the Sacrament as it is recorded by three Evangelists A truth written radio Solari in Tertullians Phrase with a Sun-beam manifest to discerning judgement not dimmed with prejudice or cavil Since that Judas his treason being discovered but not doomed was reckoned among Christs Disciples why may not vitious persons uncensured by the Church who profess Christianity as to that profession be named Saints You pretend this is contrary to Gods Word 1 Cor. 6. 9. This Text hath been already sifted As to your present application of it I answer This debars such offenders from being Members of the Mystical Church of that part of it which is triumphant in Heaven not of the Church Militant so far as it is visible here on earth Your next Text is 1 John 1. 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth This excludes practical habitual Malefactors such as walk in darkness from being comprehended in the Catholick invisible Church not in a particular visible Church The next verse points out as an evidence of this innocence Fellowship one with another an united Congregation not a disjoynted Separation Your third Citation is Matth. 3. 7 8. And when he saw many of the Pharisees come to his baptism he said to them O generation of vipers who had warned you to flee from the wrath to come Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance This by way of Analogy betwixt Baptism and the Eucharist proves that every Communicant ought to be a real penitent not that we ought not to communicate with him who is a real impenitent You seem to deal with these Texts to form and fit them to your opinion as Procustes did with his guests to proportion their dimensions to his bed some he hack'd and cut shorter others he rack'd and stretch'd out You annex a Caveat Is. 5. 20. Wo
c. whom you will allow to be Tares it were a fruitless attempt a phrensie of piety There being so populous an increase they must be suffered to grow together till the Harvest This demonstrates That the Church Militant is not exempted acquitted from Tares and that the Wheat grows with them in the same Field I shall not examine for the literal sense whether these Tares are to be understood Thorns as Aretius imagines or spreading Plants as Diodati fancies peculiar to the soyl of Palestine noxious to Corn whether parched Corn on the same stalk with the purest grain or a distinct cockle a kind of darnel or eaver Cynthius aurem vellit It is Isidore Pelosiots caution not to take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not scan syllables and circumstances in Parables wherein only the scope is properly argumentative The three Parables couch'd up in your Objection are like different lines that meet in one and the same Center the same drift or design to discover the mixt condition of the Church Militant of various colours like a Rain-bow The season of separation of condemnation being the day of Judgement which as the Italian speaks of the day of death leva tutte lemaschere takes of all Masks St. Cyprian hence infers because we discern Tares in the Church we must not therefore depart from the Church It is the observation of Junius and Tremelius translated exactly in our English Marginal Annotation The Church shall never be free from offences both in Doctrine and Manners till the day appointed for the restoring of all things do come and therefore the faithful have to arm themselves with patience and constancy This instructs an humble holy toleration not a stern haughty separation In the conflict betwixt the Reformed and the Romish when the Romish Disputants object these three Parables to confirm that Reprobates are Members of the Catholick Church our Reformed Champions do unanimously reply That these Parables are Hieroglyphicks Representatievs of a particular visible Church not to be stretch'd and applied to the Catholick and invisible If you question the truth of my recital of this responsal I will produce for your satisfaction a full particular Catalogue Instance at present only in Whitakers determination touching these three Parables We do not deny in the floor that is in every visible Church there is Chaff mixt with the Wheat but notwithstanding we aver with St. Austin in the 48. Epistle the Church to be preserved in the Lords Grain not in the Chaff but with the Chaff that the Church groweth among the Tares yet is not a Field of Tares In the renowned dispute the Carthage betwixt the Catholick Bishops and the Donatist Bishops assembled by the Edict of the Emperour our Controversie being then in solemn agitation The Parable of the Net collecting the good and bad Fish being pressed by the Catholick Bishops the Donatists were pinch'd so far as to confess good and wicked persons to be in the Church but the wicked only covertly as in a Net in the Sea whilst the good Fish are not distinguish'd from the bad But the Catholick Bishops reinforc'd their Parabolical Argument The Church is not only compared to a Net hut also to a Floor wherein the Chaff is more apparent that the Corn. The Donatists though convinced yet were not silenced but clamor'd This were to constitute two Churches one on Earth mingled with sacred and prophane the other in Heaven severed sanctified refined from dress and mixtures The Catholick Bishops vindicated the Church to be one and the same but not in one and the same state Militant and Triumphant The Church may in some considerations be expressed mortal because consisting of mortal members on Earth but immortal in Heaven As Christ himself was mortal before his Passion but immortal after his Resurrection Hereupon the Donatists reviled rather than argued and triumph'd or rather vapor'd when themselves were conquered as if a strange Paradox had been vented in asserting the Church is mortal The Catholick Bishops candidly reply Times ought to be distinguish'd The Church in its present condition admits corruptible Saints in its future incorruptible when a mortal dress shall be exchanged for a robe of immortality The Judge or Mediator herewith satisfied set a period to the debate in that particular and in the final close of that grand disputation the said day he pronounced that the Donatists were manifestly confuted by the Catholick Bishops But you are still unsatisfied that though Tares be permitted as undiscerned covert Hyppocrites yet that no way be left that pernicious weeds should be ejected I grant they may be rooted out by excommunication but I deny a separation without it The wholesome Herbs and fragrant Flowers in the Garden are not to be neglected abandon'd because some pestilent weeds are not rooted up Beware left your separating be the weeding of our Garden If you wave Humility and Charity your selected Flowers are but perfumed Thistles like the Ibides in Alexandria which exclude one stench but create another Lastly you Syllogise If Christ should allow of wicked men to be taken into his Church and to be continued in he would contradict himself as hath been proved But Christ doth not contradict himself Therefore Not to except against the illogical composure of your Syllogism in an Hypothetical form which being reduced to Categorical the Logical exactest its want of genuine artifice will be evident But not to sift punctilioes of Art of Mood and Figure I answer your major proposition is a false supposition you obtrude a tenet which we own not That God allows the taking and continuing of wicked men into his Church I pray distinguish betwixt permission and approbation and for the admittance and continuance of the wicked betwixt the visible and invisible Church This permitting in the visible Church is not the acquitting of the men but the protracting of the doom If your Major be understood of the approbation of wicked men in the invisible the Catholick Church it is an impertinence we disclaim any such assertion If your Major be meant of the toleration of wicked men in a particular in a visible Church it is an inconsequence Christ doth not herein contradict himself So that the force of your smart proof is but the flourish of Sophistry 'T is fallacia consequentis The LETTER Object Let a man examine himself and look to himself Answ. 'T is true for his own particular benefit he must look to himself especially but I am so far bound to look to him as to keep my self clean if any thing offends me I am bound to go to him and deal with him according to the Rule of Christ if he be wicked I am bound to see him purged from the Congregation 1 Cor. 5. 6 12. I am not to suffer sin to lye on my brother much less on my self Levit. 18. 17. It was the speech of Cain Am I my brothers keeper The ANSWER Though the Argument you slightly propose hath not