4. 't was commanded That if the Houshold were too little for the Lamb that then he and his Neighbor next unto the house should take it according to the number of the Souls to the end that the whole might be eaten The like seems to have been observed in the matter of Circumcision excepting in this particular that they were not obliged to circumcise at Jerusalem onely as they were to celebrate there the Passover for I do not remember that the presence of the Priest was requisite to Circumcision XIV John the Baptist too who was the forerunner of Christ did constantly do the same for he baptized not onely the Pharisees and Sadduces that came unto him whose behaviour and manners he very well understood when he publickly called them a Generation of Vipers but also the Publicans and all others that resorted to him to be baptized to the intent that they repenting them of their former evil life might set about the amending it and so might flee from the Wrath to come 'T is scarce probable that such a man as John was should admit of men of such profligate lives men that impiously audaciously and publickly denied the Resurrection of the Dead had he not known that the Law forbad not access to such for the Judaical Law as has been already shewn prohibited no circumcised persons but the unclean and leprous XV. Besides this Uncleanness was a Legal Ceremony not any impurity of Life or pravity of Manners for not he who had sinned or committed any wickedness was thereby unclean but the Unclean were those who touched any dead Corpse any Excrements any person that had an Issue of Bloud or the like And 't was for this cause that the Pharisees would not go into the Judgment-hall when they had delivered up Christ to Pilate to be put to death lest they should be debarred thereby from eating the Passover But surely the Mosaical uncleanness did not so typifie and represent our iniquities that as they who were thereby defiled were shut out from the Tabernale and the company of others so should it signifie that these sins were to be corrected and punisht by with-holding the Sacraments and by Exclusion from the Visible Church as appears plainly by what follows For 1. Even whilst Legal Uncleanness was in force and there were then wicked men in abundance yet were not the same punishments appointed for the wicked and for the unclean What probability is there then that these Ceremonies should typifie their punishment or in any sort signifie that Moral Delinquencies should be thus checkt and redress'd when the Ceremonies themselves should be taken away and cancel'd 2. Moses had plainly been inconsistent with himself had he in fact admitted them to the Temple and Rituals whom at the same time he by those Ceremonies signified that they were to be excluded For certain it is that no one was ever thrust out of the Tabernacle or from the Congregation for the pravity of his Manners if as the Law commanded he had neither touched any dead Body nor otherwise in that nature defiled himself At this rate therefore Moses should punish those that were but figuratively unclean and let such as were unclean in reality go unregarded I mean as to this sort of punishment 3. That Legal Impurity affected and tainted the Body alone whereas wickedness consists in the Internal actions and operations of the mind for the cause and root of all Evil is born with us and falls not under mans correction whilst it puts not forth its fruit for otherwise must the whole World be Excommunicate for we shall not get these spots out of our Soul whilst we breathe mortal air But that other Impurity which is but a bodily stain is punish'd by being debarr'd Commerce with others though there be no other fruit no farther evil springing from that uncleanness nor he that is defil'd hath done nothing against the Law but for the actions and transgressions of the unclean they were dealt with at the rate of others transgressions if the parties under that defilement did any thing against the Law and the cleanness or uncleanness of the sinner neither aggravated nor lessened the moral guilt 4. Our very Adversaries confess that not all sorts and sizes of sins are to be redressed by Excommunication whereas the Law commands that every uncleanness be punisht by Exclusion from the Tabernacle and publick Sacrifices so that those could not typifie all sorts of Iniquities 5. No man that sins unwittingly can be excommunicated but 't was usual for men unwittingly to contract uncleanness and not onely without any blame of theirs but to their great grief and trouble What fault was there in him who sleeping unvoluntarily suffered nocturnal Pollutions and where the Wife might unexpectedly fall into that condition which the Law made a Pollution to the Husband if he approach'd her or by the decease of Children Wife or Parents or the like which usually happened And now it needs not to be proved that they are onely voluntary and spontaneous Crimes for which persons may be as some men think debarr'd Access to the Sacraments 6. A far severer punishment was ordained for him that killed a man against and without any will or intention of so doing than a naked seclusion from the Sacraments for some few weeks or days If therefore an unpremeditated and involuntary offence and by consequence a sin of the lesser die underwent a more sharp and bitter chastizement than the foulest Legal Impurities 't is plain that the punishments for them are not intended to represent the punishment for Moral Iniquities 7. It often fell out that men of the greatest Sanctity and Integrity became unclean and were debarr'd both from entering into the Temple and from the use of Sacrifices whilst on the other hand men most notoriously wicked had admission to either without controul whereas if in the Church of God both ought to undergo the same punishment the latter should rather be secluded than the former 8. 'T is manifest that God did at no time or place absolutely prohibit all Legal Impurity for some were to attend the dying persons some those that were infected with an unclean disease some must bury the dead and in fine some must purifie the unclean by which means they themselves became defiled v. Numb 19. so that God would not that all Legal Impurities should be avoided But God prohibited sins of all kinds and to all men and at all times and never indulg'd the perpetrating any wicked action at any time or place whatever 9. God commands that sin should be restrain'd by Fire Sword Halters Stoning Stripes Mulcts Imprisonment and other penalties of the like nature but ordains that the legally unclean should be purified by sprinkling and washing with water and the like Numb 19. v. 17 18 19. 10. He that had contracted uncleanness according to the definitions of legal Pollutions and died in that state as for instance women in their menstruousness or men
having a Gonorrhea or Leprosie on them were not for that inroll'd among the wicked or doom'd to damnation But he that shall so live that honest good men shall deem him worthy of Excommunication cannot be accounted of otherwise than as a sinful and impious person 11. Legal Uncleannesses took place and were regarded but with one single People and there too but for a limited time whereas sins sprang up every where among all Nations without distinction of place or time Since then as well among all other Nations as among the Jews themselves before Legal Impurities were introduced sins were both when punished and in the punishing adjudged sins it certainly signified something more than the punishment of flagitious men which was surely lighter than what was to make satisfaction to the Will of God 12. Every person was purified at set-times and places and by using set and peculiar Ceremonies be the party how he would as to his mind that is whether he become unclean with or against his Will but none stand acquitted from their sins but such as heartily repent and do with as much sincerity as earnestness desire to grow and be better 13. Every one was his own judge of his being cleansed excepting the leprous and some few others and stood not in need of Judges or Elders who should judge for them and pronounce them clean or unclean Our Opposers have otherguess Sentiments of the excommunicated for they put the Decision upon the judgment of their Elders not upon the Assertion of the Parties who say they repent 14. The Leper Lev. 13. v. 12 13. whose Leprosie spread from the crown of the head to the soâ—â— of the feet so that the Leprosie cover all his flesh and that the skin of the whole body be all over of a colour was to be pronounced whole and clean but he who on the contrary had his skin raw and defiled but in some one or more parts was to be accounted unclean Now in the case of sinners 't is quite otherwise for he that wallows over head and ears in sin like a Sow all bemir'd is not an honester man than he who retains some shadow of Religion and shew of Honesty 15. The Lepers are not commanded to do any thing on their part towards their cleansing but barely to shew themselves to the Priest that he may pronounce the Plague clean or not clean But to wicked men the Command is direct that themselves amend their lives and give evidence of a sorrowful and penitent heart by their good and holy works 16. Many were made unclean by touching the very things whereby others were made clean and while themselves did purifie others v. Numb 19. but sure no man deserves to be excommunicated from the means he uses in the healing and purifying others who are defiled with sin and iniquity Whereas if you would have the figure to answer herein you must grant that all that would recal others into the ways of Righteousness by Excommunication are to be excommunicated themselves 17. The unclean were not by the Law interdicted all Sacraments for they were to observe all the private Rites and Ceremonies of their Country they were to keep the Sabbath and celebrate the Feast of Purification whereby the fruits and benefits of Christs meritorious works were chiefly shadowed or expressed and all this at the peril of their lives vid. Lev. 16. and 23. for they were not as I said before taken for men damn'd and of a desperate condition But whether in the opinion of our Adversaries the Excommunicate are to be thought otherwise 't is needless for me to attempt much the proving it 18. The unclean under the Law did propagate an uncleanness to the cloaths houses places and persons that they touched or had otherwise to do with but wicked men did neither defile the Temple nor any thing else nor indeed any other men unless those others joyn'd with them in the sin The Temple was not polluted by bringing in an Adulteress Numb 5. v. 19. John 8. v. 11. no more did the Publican who in the Parable Luke 18. v. 9. went up with the Pharisee into the Temple to pray defile it by his presence that Pharisee who thought him a mighty sinner compar'd with himself yet never thought himself defiled by his company When Judas threw down the Traiterous Pieces the Price of Bloud in the Temple we do not read that the Temple was thereby polluted or that the Pharisees made any complaint as to that who yet would not go into the Judgment-hall lest they should be defiled John 18. v. 28. Whereas were but a woman in her Menstruousness or having an Issue of Bloud or any one who had buried another or had though unawares touched a dead body been seen in the Temple all had been polluted and unclean nor might they have sacrificed or perform'd any other Worship till 't were again purified In like manner Judas polluted not that last Paschal-Supper by his detestable acts which yet would have been the case had but he or any other of the Disciples touch'd any dead body In fine the uncleanness under the Law did figure our perverted and corrupt Nature which could not be admitted into Heaven unless washed and purified in and by the most pure and precious Bloud of Christ for as the Tabernacle typified Heaven and the casting out thence signified Damnation or the Exclusion from the heavenly Jerusalem so the cleansing or washings by ordinary or sanctified Water prefigured that Purification by the death of Christ 'T was not therefore typical or figurative of the quality of the Actions but of the quality or pravity of our Nature Nor did Gods Law prefigure how Vice should be bridled and restrained for Moses taught this in clear and express words but what should be our State in another life to wit in the Kingdom of Heaven which the Land of Canaan did shadow to them All which plainly enough appears in Rev. 21. v. 27. St. Augustin writing against the Donatists was of opinion that it signified the Exclusion of Hereticks But be it how 't will even a blind man may see from the many and great differences between the Legal and Moral Impurities that the former could not be figurative of the latter as our Adversaries contend XVI Though Moses makes none but the forementioned Exception yet shall I answer to an Objection which may be collected out of his words for peradventure some one may thus argue The Jews are by Moses commanded to eat the Passover without Leaven which Paul 1 Cor. 5. v. 8 interprets the filthiness of the flesh that is Moral wickedness It may therefore seem to some a very agreeable and likely matter that the Lords Supper which succeeded to the Passover should be celebrated by shutting out malicious and wicked men XVII I answer first That it carries little of probability with it that God should command a thing in express terras and again at the same time figuratively prohibit the
requires no farther argument than the Confession of the Fault which scarce any man will have occasion to repeat seven times a day who hath not plaid the Hypocrite in some or all of the former six We have I think from all this evidently prov'd that Christ in this 18th Chapter of St. Matthew speaks nothing of Crimes that are to be redressed by Excommunications but of light and private Injuries and the way and means of making them up and reconciling them and therefore belongs not to the business of Excommunication If indeed we do but well weigh the close of that Chapter all doubt from hence must be at an end XLIII He that can and will needs imagine that Christ in this 18th Chapter of St. Matthew set up or instituted Excommunication ought to shew in which of the words 't is contain'd If he cannot shew it any where there comprized 't is to no purpose to say 't is there commanded But if it be there it must either be in these words v. 17. Tell it unto the Church or in these Let him be to thee as an heathen and a publican or lastly in these v. 18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven c. But I doubt not to prove it with most unanswerable Arguments that none of these words comprize any such matter and since it can be found in no other 't is lost labour to enquire here after it XLIV These words of Christ Tell it unto the Church prove no more than this that he who has been injur'd by his Brother and all his endeavours of reconciliation with him have been ineffectual may honestly and lawfully complain of him to the Church or to the Governours and Rulers of the Church And further that this same Church hath a right and authority to reprehend and admonish the Wrong Doer that he cease from being so But no more of power is here given to the Church than v. 17. was before given to the one or two Witnesses excepting onely in this that the Cause is not to be brought before the Church without the Witnesses Is it not therefore a weak way of reasoning to say The Church has power to admonish him that trespasses against his Brother therefore has she power to excommunicate him or to debâ—â— him the Sacrament But now some may perhaps urge that the Church not having a Right or Authority of punishing the guilty with Death and other corporal punishments she is necessitated to have recourse to this way of denying them the Sacrament But I answer Were the Antecedent as true as indeed from both the old Testament from the History of all Ages from what our own Eyes and Senses tell us we are assured 't is quite otherwise no such consequence could be drawn from it nor can it be ever proved that these things have any necessary coherence one with another The Church hath not the power of the Sword she can't kill and slay therefore may she must she drive from the Sacrament those who own and profess the same Religion the same saving Faith she must drive from that Sacrament that was instituted for and ought to be open and common to all that outwardly profess the same Faith XLV If yet our Adversaries think Excommunication to have been instituted in these other words Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican I utterly deny it Nether can it by any Art or Rhetorick Perswasion or Argument whatever be demonstrated whilst the world stands that this form of Speech Let him be to thee as an heathen man and a publican should tantamount to this Let him be excommunicate let him be kept from the Sacrament for even in the days of Christ the circumcised Publicans were they Jews or Gentiles were not prohibited the Temple Sacrifices Rites Ceremonies and Sacraments And truly Christ may seem to have joyn'd the Publican with the Heathen to prevent all thoughts and suspition of his here interdicting them such Rites and Sacraments How could the Publicans by the Jewish Law be shut out from the Temple and from worshipping God there when 't was not so much as a sin to be a Farmer or Collector of Taxes and Tribute-money nor found to be any where prohibited by God Sure 't is that Christ nowhere forbad it When the Publicans askt John what they must do to be saved he doth not bid them quit their Employments but directs them Luke 3. 13. not to exact more than that which was appointed them And Luke 19. 5. Christ doth not order Zacheus the Chief among the Publicans to lay down his Office nor finds any fault with him on account of his Employ and the Publican that Luke 18. 10. went up into the Temple to pray and return'd to his house more Justified in the judgment of Christ than the Pharisee we do not read that he left off being a Publican nor those others who Luke 7. 29. and Luke 15. 7. justified and praised God and were dear and intimate with Christ and his Apostles In short I say that the Holy Writ that is God hath not at any time or place condemn'd or any ways spoke against Publicans for their very being Publicans that is Tax-gatherers which all sober men will voluntarily grant me Upon which Concession I argue thus God in Scripture condemns not a Publican as a Publican Now whom God condemns not he cannot be excommunicated by any Law of God therefore no Publican could by the Law of God be prohibited access to the Temple or to Divine Worship I therefore make this conclusion No Publican could by the Law be condemned or excommunicated but Christ commands that he that neglects to hear that Church which he there speaks of should be to him as a Publican therefore he wills that he should be to him as a man who was not by the Law of God accursed that is not barely for his being a Publican And whereas these Excommunication-men say that the words Let him be to thee as a Publican signifie as much as if he had said Let him be to thee as a Publican is to the Pharisees 't is both absurd false and impossible for 't is in no sort credible that Christ in the same place in which he design'd to institute as our Adversaries will have it a thing of that weight and moment and so beneficial and necessary to the Church should or would make the wicked action of most profligate men the Rule and Measure for all the World to go by afterwards Besides it hath been already prov'd that no man was ever excommunicated by the Jews after the rate that we now talk of Excommunication And lastly all the words of Christ are inconsistent with this their interpretation for Christ here talks neither of nor with the Pharisees but all is betwixt him and the Disciples and the subject of the discourse is of avoiding Scandals and this is the thing that Christ says If the Wrong Doer neglect to hear the