A DISCOURSE Concerning EXCOMMUNICATION By THOMAS COMBER DD. Precentor of York LONDON Printed for Robert Clavell at the Peacock at the West end of St. Paul's Church THE INTRODUCTION THE notorious increase of Atheism Faction and Debauchery in this and the last Age is too evident to be denied and too mischievous to be mentioned without sad reflexions But while many express their Piety in bewailing the Matter of Fact few do exercise their Consideration either in searching after the Causes of this deplorable Evil or enquiring into the proper Remedies for it 'T is true there may be many Causes of so complicated and spreading a Contagion and divers Methods contrived for its Cure But there is one great and eminent occasion of this universal Corruption that seems to be peculiar to our Times and the Mother or the Nurse to most of those Vices and Errors which are the Reproach of this Age viz. The contempt of Excommunication For this being the only means that the Church hath to punish these Crimes which the Secular Tribunals seldom or never take Cognizance of If Men by Ignorance or Evil Principles can arrive at Impudence enough to despise this Sacred and Salutary Penalty they have nothing left to restrain them from committing and openly abetting these Offences which by this means are grown so general and so daring that they are the Scandal of our Reformation the Ruin of many thousand poor Souls and cry to Heaven for that Judgment which upon Earth they never meet withal It is manifest that the Schismaticks and the Prophane the Atheistical and those who are of most profligate Conversations do all conspire to make the Churches Discipline contemptible weak and ineffectual and all strive to deprive her of that Power which they know she would use for the Cure of those Vices which they indulge and resolve to continue in But it is a mighty Charity to these our Enemies to undeceive them and let them see that Excommunication is not really less dreadful because some men for vile ends do falsly represent it as Brutum Fulmen And it may be a happy means of reforming the Age to manifest the Divine Original the Sacred Authority and the Fatal Efficacy of these Church Censures which if they were rightly understood reverenced as they deserve and prudently dispensed would contribute extreamly toward the rooting out of evil Principles and wicked Practices and prevent the Damnation of many great Offenders who dye in their Sins because they despise their Remedy and trample on the means of their Reformation If men truly discerned the terrible Consequences of living and dying under a deserved Excommunication they would carefully avoid those Sins which pull it on their guilty Heads or if unwarily they did offend and fall under this Censure they would as of old in the Primitive Church never rest till by Prayers and Fasting Charity and Mortification they had made their Peace with God and by a due Submission to some Salutary Penance obtained the Absolution of their Spiritual Governour and how far this would go toward the preventing or healing these damnable and destructive Offences every man may discern Impunity is the great incentive to Sin and while the Punishments of the next World are invisible and distant and those which Christ Authorized the Church to inflict in this are falsly thought insignificant Faction and Impiety must grow and increase without remedy or redress and the multitude of Offenders and frequency of the Crimes will harden the bad and infect the better sort to the utter ruin of Religion it self If indeed these bold and merry Sinners who are under the Church Censures for their real Crimes were as safe as they are secure it would be less necessary to give them the trouble of Conviction but alas the Sentence is as weighty and more fatal when it is despised as when it is revered and shall finally fall more heavy on these arrogant Wretches because the Contempt of a Divine Institution is added to all their other Iniquities and the slighting of that Remedy which God himself appointed for their Cure comes in as well for a Reason as an Occasion of their Condemnation I am sure all Ages and Places all Religions and Countries have reverenced this Sacred Rite and why we alone should trample on it no Reason can be given but what will import us to be worse than Jews Turks or Pagans Nor can any man in his Wits imagin that there is more liberty left to Sin or that the Penalties inflicted for it are of less weight to Christians than under those exploded and false Religions and therefore if Excommunication be dreaded there and all the Crimes which cause it is it fit that either the Faults or the Punishment should be lightly regarded here Whoever is of this temper hath taken his Measures from false Guides whose Interest it was to disparage this Holy Institution because they had done some Crimes to deserve it and it is their Duty and for their Souls health to rectifie this dangerous Mistake in order whereunto we will clearly plainly and impartially shew First The Divine Original of it Secondly The Universal Practice of it Thirdly The Ends for which it was Instituted which will give all unprejudiced Persons a right Notion of this useful and weighty matter A DISCOURSE Concerning EXCOMMUNICATION CHAP. I. Of the Original of Excommunication § I. ALthough we consider Excommunication as it is now used in the Christian Church yet because it was not first practised there we must dig deeper to discover the Foundation thereof and it will add much to the Veneration of it to shew That it was ever reverenced as well by the Jews as the Gentiles before it was adopted into Christianity by our blessed Saviour Wherefore we will demonstrate that this Sacred Rite hath its Original from these three things First From the Light of Natural Reason and the Practice of the Gentiles who had no other Guide Secondly From the Custom of the Jews before our Lord's Incarnation Thirdly From the express Institution of Christ in the New Testament First The Light of Natural Reason shews us That no Society ever did or can subsist without Governours nor can those Governours do their duty or preserve the Society committed to their Care without a Power to punish such as break the Rules of this Society and commit Offences tending to the Subversion of it for otherwise the Society it self must be precarious and would soon come to ruin as wanting sufficient Means to preserve it self Now since it is certain that Jesus hath instituted a Society which is called the Church and which is really distinct from the Civil State being appointed for other Ends and governed by other Measures ruled by distinct Officers and guided by peculiar Laws a Society which did subsist when the Civil State opposed it and must continue whatever changes Human Governments suffer unto the end of the World Therefore the Rulers of this Society the Church must have
him (z) 1 Sam. xiv 45. Which makes it not unlikely that before the Malefactor was put to death some Curse was solemnly denounced on him by which he was cut off from the Priviledges of God's People If it be objected to this That we Christians have Civil Magistrates who do thus punish Malefactors with Death and so we need not Ecclesiastical Censures now any more than the Jews did I shall reply with the most Judicious and Learned Grotius whose words are This Argument taken from the Jews is of no force For their Law for Penalties was wholly accommodated to a Carnal People and all were equally obliged by it so that the Commonwealth and Church there was all one But the Laws of Christ do require more than either is or can be required of the Subjects of any worldly Empire The most men mind evil things and the Civil Laws do their Office if they restrain great Crimes and such as most hurt the Publick State But things done against the Laws of Charity Meekness and Patience which are not within the Civil Laws are within the Rules of the Gospel by which his Church chosen out of the World ought to judge Wherefore Constantine and the following Emperors did rightly leave the Church its proper Judicatory and confirmed it by their Laws (a) Grot. in Luc. vi 22. Which apposite place I could not but transcribe at large to shew the weakness of those who not considering the different circumstances of the Jews do impose their Methods upon the Christian Church And this may shew how necessary it is that there should always be in the Church some way and means to exclude scandalous Offenders and if there be divers Methods under different Dispensations that doth not take off from the usefulness or from the necessity of the present way of proceeding which is as agreeable to the ends and designs of the Gospel as the other was to those of the Law yea this variety shews it must always be done in some way or other and makes it manifest that the Church cannot subsist without it I have been the larger in these Reasons because the Learned Selden and many of his far loss Learned Followers triumph extreamly in this difference between the proceeding of the Ancient Jews and the Modern Christians and use this variety as an Artifice to perswade the World that our Censures are not of Divine Institution and to wrest all Authority out of the Churches hands that their Schism and some other Crimes which no other Judicatory with us doth take cognizance of may go wholly unpunished But as their evil design makes their Argument suspicious so I hope this fair account will shew it to be Fallacious and that even while the Jewish Polity stood there were Evidences enough to convince any unprejudiced Man that it was always God's will scandalous Offenders should be punished by those who had the ordering of Religion But thirdly After the Jewish Commonwealth was subverted and their Government altered by the Babylonian Captivity and afterwards when they were in subjection to the Romans and had lost the power of the Temporal Sword then they were obliged to make a frequenter use of Excommunication and came nearer to the Form of the Christian Church as we shall now shew There was saith Grotius a greater necessity of this Rite after the People became Captive and with their Liberty lost the Power of Civil Judicatures for Natural Reason compelled them to have recourse unto those Methods of Coercion which they could use without usurping on the Supream Powers (b) Idem in Luc. vi 22. So that though it be not true which Mr. Selden affirms that there were no Instances of this Rite for we have shewed in Miriam Uzziah and Benjamin there were some Examples yet there were indeed far more Instances afterwards For Ezra the Priest on the Return from the Captivity doth denounce an Excommunication against all that should not appear within three days to put away the strange Wives they had taken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Penalty agreed upon between him and the Princes was That he who did not come up to Jerusalem all his Goods should be forfeited which seems to be the Civil Sanction and himself should be separated from the Congregation of the Captivity which was the Ecclesiastical Censure Ezra 10.8 where we see the Commonwealth and the Church agreed in this matter And the Interpreter of Josephus in this Story hath kept the very word he shall be Excommunicated (c) Ut excommunicetur bonaque ejus sacro aerario addicantur Joseph Ant. l. xi c. 5. ex interp Gelen pag. 29. which is the sense of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall be made a Stranger that is cut off from the Communion of the Church and be treated as an Heathen according to our Saviour's description of the Excommunicate under the Gospel whom we are to account as Heathens or Publicans if they fall under the Censures of the Church for their Contumacy Nehemiah also who was the chief Ruler of the returning Jews in a General Assembly wherein there were many of the Priests did make the Congregation enter into a Curse and an Oath to walk in the Law of God that is saith Mr. Selden They denounced an Excommunication against the breakers thereof Nehem. x. 29. Aben Ezra also understands that Curse pronounced against those who had married strange Wives Chap. xiii 25. and the Expulsion of the High-Priests Grand-child ver 28. to have been the two sorts of Excommunication Cherem and Niddui executed by Nehemiah according to the Decree made by Ezra Chap. x. 8. which is also mentioned in the Jerusalem Targum And Rabbi Benjamin Ben Moses affirms That if any fall into great Crimes for which in the time of the Captivity no judgment could be executed on them they ought to repent and undertake to live better but if the fear of God will not ingage them to do this we put them under an Anathema and separate them from our Company according to that of Ezra x. 8. (d) Rab. Benjamin ap Seld. de Synedr lib. 1. c. 7. And Josephus mentions such a kind of Excommunication against the Jews of Delos (e) Joseph Antiq lib. 14. cap. 17. pag. 250. in the time of Julius Caesar But we shall not need collect these Examples since it is more to our purpose to consider how the Matter stood in the time of our Saviour Christ while the Romans had Supream power over them We read that the Rulers had decreed That whosoever should confess Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John ix 22. he should be excommunicated The fear of which punishment kept the Parents of the blind Man from owning their Faith in Jesus And the same fear restrained divers of the Sanhedrin it self from Confessing our Lord lest they should be cast out of the Synagogue John xii 42. where Vatablus hath in the Margin Ne excommunicarentur and our
Jerusalem Secondly That it was after two Admonitions as Christ advised Matth. xviii Thirdly That hereby he was thrust back into that same estate he was in before his Baptism About thirty years after Cerdon the Heretick came to Rome in the time of Hyginus An. 153. and at first confessed his Error in the Church and lived orderly but being found out to have taught it in secret often and often to have recanted it again he was at last admonished and turned out of the Assembly of the Faithful (w) Iren. lib. 3. cap. 4. ex eo Euseb l. 4. c. 11. Soon after came Marcion to Rome also whose Father being Bishop of Sinope in Pontus had Excommunicated this Son of his for the Crime of Fornication and refused to receive him in again Nor would the Presbyters of the Roman Church who had conversed with the Apostles receive him into Communion though he had offered 200 Sesterces to their Church (x) Epiph. Panar l. 3. Tom. I. haeres 42. p. 135. Tertul. de praescript haeret c. 30. p. 212. semel atque iterum ejecti novissime in perpetuum dissidium relegati Tertul. ibid. but rejected him and his Offering also which was in the time when Hyginus their Bishop was dead An. 155. And Tertullian adds That Valentinus and Marcion having been once and again cast out at lest they were for ever Excommunicated by that Church which he saith was in the time of Eleutherius whos 's next Successor Victor about the year 192. excommunicated Theodotus the Heretick then living at Rome for denying the Divinity of our Saviour (y) Euseb Hist l. 5. c. 27. p. 145. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Eusebius relates And had he exercised this Power only upon those of his own Church he had not met with so much opposition but he about the year 198. Excommunicated the Bishops of Asia for not agreeing with him in the time of keeping the Feast of Easter (z) Euseb ibid. l. 5. c. 23. p. 142. which rash act of his displeased many even of the Western Bishops and Irenaeus particularly who sharply rebukes him for it shewing that none of his Predecessors had ever done such a thing to Excommunicate Foreign Churches for a difference only in a Matter of Ceremony yet still this shews the practice of Excommunication was frequent in these early times And the manner of inflicting these Censures is soon after An. 200. described by Tertullian who speaking of the Religious Assemblies of the Christians saith There are Exhortations Rebukes and the Divine Censure for they judge with great Authority as being assured of God's Presence among them so that if any so offend as to be excluded from communicating in Prayers from the Assemblies and from all Sacred Commerce it is a strong presumption of their Condemnation in the last Judgment The Presidents of these Assemblies are divers ancient and approved Persons (a) Tertul. Apol c. 39. p. 31. In which eminent Testimony we see there were Admonitions first and then sharper Rebukes preceding the Censure according to our Saviour's Method And for the Authority of these Censures it is expresly said to be Divine and upon Christ's Promise to be with those who met together on this occasion in his Name Matth. xviii 20. Tertullian affirms they are certain of God's Presence with them in this Act yea since our Lord had said What they bound on Earth should be bound in Heaven he reckons that the last dreadful Judgment will go according to this Ecclesiastical Sentence And as to the Effect of this Excommunication on Earth the Party under it is neither to come into the Church nor to pray or have any commerce with the Faithful Finally The Bishop and his Clergy are the Dispensers of this Discipline and the Governours of Christian Assemblies and if any doubt of this last particular the same Tertullian speaking of what was in the Apostles days and his own too in the Bishops Power expresly saith It was in his power to Excommunicate (b) Ut extra Ecclesiam quis detur erat in Praesidentis officio Tert. de pudicit c. 14. p. 556. which are so clear Confutations of all our Innovators in this Matter that these places alone might silence them Yet there are more passages in this Father to this purpose As where he saith Whoredom and Murder are interdicted and the Gladiators are driven out of the Church (c) Tertul. de Idololat c. 11. p. 91. And where he affirms That Christians marrying with Heathens are counted guilty of Whoredom and are to be excluded from all Communion with the Faithful according to the Orders of the Apostle who saith With such no not to eat (d) Arcendos ab omni communicatione fraternitatis Tert. ad uxor l. 2. c. 3. And for other unlawful Lusts he saith They did not only exclude them from the Church Porch but allowed them not to come near that holy place being not barely Vices but monstrous Crimes (e) Non modò limine verùm omni Ecclesiae tecto submoveâ—nus Tert. de pudicit c. 4. p. 557. And Albáspinaeus hath observed That in the first Ages of the Church Murtherers Adulterers Apostates and such like notorious Offenders were irreversibly Excommunicated and if they were admitted to remain among the Penitents yet they would not Absolve them nor restore them to the Communion of the Church so long as they lived till by degrees the Discipline of the Church slackened (f) Albaspin observ l. 2. c. 8. c. and then certain years of Penance were enjoyned those Offenders and if they gave signs of great Sorrow and hearty Repentance after that time they were by certain steps restored to the Communion of the Church And now we have mentioned that Learned Author it may not be amiss to hear his description of the state of Excommunicate Persons in these times of which we now speak They were not only driven from Religious Assemblies but all despised abhorred and fled from them as putrid Members fit to be cut off It was counted a sin to treat or make bargains with them none would salute them or call them Brethren none would look on them speak to them or invite them to a Meal yea so strict were they that none would joyn with them in Prayers to God (g) Albaspin l. 1. obs 1. p. 2. Which Character is the more to be esteemed because he there proves all this by the Canons of very ancient Councils which Excommunicate those who pray with these Persons (h) Apost Can. 10. Laodic Can. 33. Antioch 1. Can. 2. Carthag 4. Can. 73. and those who have any Conversation with them or be in the same House or Feast with them or speak to them (i) Antioch 1. Can. 2. Arelat 2. Can. 30. Antissiod Can. 39. as may be seen more at large in that Author All which abundantly proves That the Christians of that Time did look upon the Excommunicate to be in a damnable Condition
speaking of his Apostles determining in the Schools or solving Cases of Conscience but of the power they should have to punish contumacious Offenders and injurious Persons And though Mr. Selden objects it is not Whosoever ye shall bind but Whatsoever yet he answers himself saying That it is true Persons may be signified by the Neuter Gender pag. 159. Finally For his Fancy that the force of Excommunication depended on private Pacts among the Christians it is not to be imagined that Murderers and Adulterers perjured Persons and Apostates would have scrupled breaking these parts or have been so terrified and dejected by an Excommunication if it had only relied on their own promise to obey it I grant indeed the Christians did vow in Baptism and the Eucharist to observe Christs Commands and submit to his Injunctions among which doubtless they reckoned this so much reverenced Discipline to which they were subject for that they believed it to be exercised in Christs Name and by vertue of his Authority We conclude therefore That Mr. Selden hath gained nothing by this prolix Excursion but only to convince us that he wished Excommunication were not of Divine Right though he be not able to prove it And no question we are much safer in believing with those Holy Primitive Bishops who might know the mind of Christ and the practice of the Apostles much better than our Modern Criticks and who are more likely to tell us the Truth than those who espouse a Party and serve Ends of Revenge for Censures not undeservedly laid upon them § III. Our next Enquiry as to practice is Whether this Rite of Excommunication was used and believed of Divine Right after the Empire became Christian And this we must do the more largely to confute the Error of Erastus espoused also by Mr. Selden who attempts to prove That in a Christian State there is no need of any such thing as a power of Excommunication in the Church-men because the Magistrate now may punish all Crimes and that it was only for Want of this blessing of Christian Magistrates which forced the Primitive Bishops to use Excommunication To which Mr. Selden adds That after the Empire became Christian the Bishops derived their Power to Excommunicate from the Princes Grant There is no better way to find out the truth herein than to consult the Records of those Ages and to enquire into the Opinion of the most eminent Fathers after Constantines time and into the practice of those Ages which retained the Primitive purity And though we cannot bring in all things of this kind between the years 300. and 500. for that would be to write a Church History not a Discourse upon one single point Yet we will remark that which is sufficient to baffle this modern and ill grounded Conceit And first Whereas it is most certain that the Bishops did Excommunicate in Constantine's time yet no Writer of that Age doth affirm they did it by any Power from the Emperor and Mr. Selden out of his vast stock of reading at this dead lift could not bring one single Memorial of the Emperors giving the Bishops a Power to Excommunicate in all this Period of time 'T is true these first Christian Emperors and Constantine particularly did Ordain That if any Litigants desired to have their causes tried before the Bishops they might leave the Secular Tribunal and that the Bishops Sentences should be firm and of more Authority than those of other Judges yea as valid as if they were delivered by the Emperor himself As also that the Magistrates and their Officers should execute their Sentences and that the Decrees of their Councils should be Valid (r) Sozomen hist Eccles lib. 1. cap. 9. p. 206. Circa An. 314. Vide Cod. Theodos l. 16. Tit. 2. in fine Which Law doth indeed give them a New Power not granted by Christ but never mentions Excommunication Yea it ordains that these Sentences should be executed by another method even by the Civil Magistrate and his Officers Mr. Selden indeed produces another Law as if it were a Repeal of this in the time of Valens Gratian and Valentinian Ann. 376. above 60. years after But that Law seems to except only Criminal Actions from the Bishops Cognizance (s) Vid. Seld. Synedr l. 1. cap. 10. p. 187. And if we consider the complaints of the good Bishops in that Age who were burthened with divers Civil Causes or look upon those Laws of Arcadius and Honorius (t) Cod. Justin lib. 1. Tit. 4. de Epist Aud. L. 7. An. 398. L. 8. An. 408. and of Honorius and Theodosius which allow Men to chuse Bishops for deciding their Civil Causes and declare their Sentence to be firm and Valid We shall easily perceive that Constantines Law was never repealed nor this practice difused But this doth not at all belong to Excommunication which Power the Bishops exercised by the virtue of Christs Commission in cases of Heresy and Scandal and that not by consent of the Parties as they did this Power of decision of Civil Causes So that Mr. Selden ought not to make Excommunication depend on these grants For the Emperors Authority did not precede but follow the Bishops Act in Excommunication so that if the person Censured proved obstinate or troublesome he was Banished or Imprisoned by the Imperial Power As we see in the Case of the Arians who were Excommunicated by the first General Council of Nice and the Emperor Constantine did Ordain That those who submitted not to the Decree of the Council should be banished (u) Sozom Eccles hist lib. 1. cap. 19. p. 221. And that the Bishops did exercise this Power in their own right as derived from Christ is manifest from the whole History of that Age Arius himself and all his Associates were Excommunicated at Alexandria first by Peter and then by Alexander the Bishops of that City (w) Idem ibid. Cap. 14. p. 215. before any application was made to the Emperors and before the Nicene Council was Called And that most famous Council in almost every Canon supposes the Bishop to be the Judge of such as are to be kept out and such as are to be let into the Church And those Holy Fathers do decree concerning Penitents and lapsed Persons according to the ancient usage of Ecclesiastical Discipline under Heathen Emperors without any alteration made upon the account of Constantine's being a Christian Making the Bishop the sole Judge of the time of Excluding these Offenders from Communion in Sacred Offices To this we may add that Accurate Scheme of the admirable Discipline of these Primitive Ages which is described in the Canonical Epistles of Gregory Thaumaturgus S. Basil and others of the Primitive Bishops By which we see that such as were first Excommunicated by the Bishops for Fornication Adultery Murder Perjury Apostasie and other Crimes (x) Vid. Leonem Allatium de Narthece Vet. Eccl. §. 19. p. 94. Et Bevereg Not. ad Can. xi
saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (r) Origen hom 2. in libr. Judic And we may also here remark That all those places which we produced before out of Scripture to prove the Divine Right of Excommunication are so expounded and applied by the Fathers But to proceed with S. Hierom He having declared Vigilantius an Heretick wonders very much Why he was not Excommunicated by his own Bishop (s) Hieron ep 53. advers Vigil Tom. II. pag. 154. And speaking of John Bishop of Hierusalem who had undeservedly censured as he thought some who held the right Faith he there informs us wherein the Censure did consist For he saith that this Bishop had prohibited them to enter into the Church and forbid any to receive them into their Houses while they lived or to bury them when they were dead (t) Hieron adv error Joan. Hi. Tom. II. pag. 258. In another place he reckons this Censure to be from the Lord saying If we be cast out of the Congregation of our Brethren and out of the House of God for any Sin we ought not to resist but to bear the Sentence patiently and to say with the Prophet I will bear the Indignation of the Lord Mich. vii 9. (u) Idem in Ezek. lib. 5. Tom. IV. pag. 844. And in another place he tells us That it was the Custom in his Time for the Bishops to expel out of the Church Fornicators Adulterers Murtherers and other vicious persons (w) Idem Com. in Tit. cap. 3. Tom. VI. p. 466. These with many more places in this Father do still confirm our Opinion of the practice and the Original of Excommunication To him we may add S. Augustine who grew Eminent for his Learning and Piety about the year 410. And he interdicted his friend Bonifacius a Count of the Empire from the Communion for taking a Criminal by force from the Altar before the Bishop had seen him and the Count owns his fault with sorrow and sending the Man to S. Augustine begs his Pardon and intreats he may not be shut out of the Church nor his Oblation rejected which he had made (x) Augustin Epist 187 188. Tom. II. pag. 166. b In another place he saith It was usual for offenders in the Church to be removed from the Sacrament of the Altar by Ecclesiastical Discipline (y) Idem de Genes ad literam lib. 11. cap. 40. Tom. III. pag. 152. b And again to shew the Custom was universal he tells us Men must repent of Sins after Baptism that if they be Excommunicated they may be received again as they which are properly called Penitents do in all the Churches (z) Id. ep 108. Tom. II. pag. 105. a Yea he grounds the right of Excommunication upon the express commands of Christ and of his holy Apostles affirming That as Phineas under the Law slew the Adulterers so now the visible Sword is ceased from the Church we do the same thing by Excommunication (a) Idem de fide oper cap. 2. Tom. IV. pag. 13. which in another place he saith doth the same under the Gospel as putting to death did under the Law (b) Id. quaest in Deut. lib. 5. Tom. IV. pag. 62. Again he reckons up three deadly Sins which are especially to be punished with Excommunication Uncleanness Apostasie and Murder (c) Idem de fide oper cap. 19. And for his Sense of the efficacy of this Divine Sentence he teacheth That When the Church doth Excommunicate the person is bound in Heaven and when he is restored by the Church this reconciliation makes him loosed in Heaven (d) Idem Tract in Johan 50. Tom. IX pag. 80. b Which he proves by Christs promise to S. Peter and in him to the whole Church as S. Augustine there observes And to the same purpose in another place The Church which is founded on Christ did from him in Peter receive the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven that is the power of binding and loosing Sins (e) Idem Tract 124. ibid. p. 123. And it is observable that this Eminent Father always grounds Excommunication upon the power of Binding and Loosing which Christ gave the Church As in that Epistle where he reproves a young Bishop Auxilius for Excommunicating a whole Family for the Masters fault by which means as S. Augustine notes if a Child should be born in that House it could not be baptized no not though it were in danger of Death such was the force of this Sentence which he there calls A Spiritual Penalty binding the Soul according to that of our Saviour Whatsoever ye bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven (f) Aug. Epist 75. Tom. II. pag. 71. a So that we see this was the constant and currant Opinion of the whole Church and thus the most eminent Fathers did expound holy Scripture Here therefore we might conclude but only we must not omit that solemn Instance of Synesius Bishop of Ptolemais his Excommunicating Andronicus the Prefect of Pentapolis in Egypt under Theodosius An. 411. for horrible Impieties and Cruelties which he and his Companions had been guilty of the Form of which is contained in the Tractatorian Epistle which the Bishop sent in the name of the Church of Ptolemais to all her Sister Churches throughout the World in these Words Let no Church of God be open to Andronicus and his Companions to Thoas and his Associates let every holy place Chappel and Church-yard be shut against them The Devil hath no part in Paradise and if he privily creep in he would be cast out again I therefore admonish all private persons and Rulers that they neither dwell in the same House nor eat at the same Table with them And especially I charge all Priests neither to speak to them while they live nor attend them to their Graves when they dye And if any despise this as the Church of a little City and Communicate with these Excommunicate Persons as if he need not obey so poor a Place he makes a Schism in the Church which Christ would have to be but one And if he be a Deacon Priest or Bishop we will account him in the same state with Andronicus and will never shake hands or eat with such a Man much less will we Communicate with them in the holy Mysteries who take part with Thoas and Andronicus (g) Synesij Epist 58. pag. 203. An. 411. Where we see how strictly Excommunicate Persons were to be avoided and how perfectly they were excluded from all Civil and Religious Converse and Communion Yea Synesius saith No man ought to call or count Andronicus for a Christian (h) Idem ibid. pag. 201. for this put him into the state of a Heathen and wholly cut him off from the Body of Christs Church Afterward writing to his Metropolitan Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria he informs him that he had separated Lamponianus a Priest from the Communion of the Church for
well as Priests and made Princes the Supreme never intended to give his Ministers any power to disturb the Publick Peace or oppose the good Government of the World And if Princes had not power to hinder such unjust Sentences they could not govern their Kingdoms nor do their duty And when the Pope and his Clergy strove with Kings for the Supremacy it was high time for them to check these dangerous attempts or else they would not have sitten any longer in their Thrones than the Pope pleased But all this is now out of doors and therefore the objection signifies nothing as to our Protestant Bishops exercising this Authority because they yield the King the Supremacy in all Causes as the Primitive Bishops did And even in Popish times though the Kings did prohibit the abuse of this power yet at the same time they owned the Right to be solely in the Bishops For Edward the third whom Mr. Selden instances in did by his Letters request John Stratford Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the rest of the Bishops of his Kingdom to Excommunicate all notorious Malefactors and Disturbers of the Peace of Church and State which request they granted in a Council at London (p) An. 1342. ap Spelm. Concil Tom. II. p. 581. And whatever other objections Mr. Selden hath raised relating to the times before the Reformation they cannot imply what he intends because it was the General Opinion That the Clergy who he confesses consented to many of these limitations had a Right from God to Excommunicate and absolve Hence in the Charter of William the Conqueror He that is prosecuted for an Offence according to the Bishops Laws shall come and give satisfaction according to the Canons to God and his Bishop (q) An. 1085. ap Spelm. Tom. II. pag. 14. And Matth. Paris affirms Robert de Marmiun who died Excommunicate to be in the State of Damnation (r) An. 1143. Matth. Paris pag. 80. And the forms of Excommunication used about this time were generally prefaced thus We in the Name and by the Authority of Almighty God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and by the Authorty of St. Peter and St. Paul c. do Excommunicate (s) An. 1215. Matth. Paris p. 270 An. 1217. Constit Ric. Sarum Spelm. Tom. II. p. 158. Of which there are very many Forms (t) An. 1222. Concil Oxon. Spelm. Tom. II. p. 181. Item Anno 1276. Constit Dunelm Spelm. ib. p. 319. Et An. 1308. ibid. p. 456. which do manifestly prove that the Bishops did openly claim this as a Divine Right which appears also from their publick Declaration One of which shall suffice here The Prelates of the Church who carry Saint Peters Keys must consider how great the power of Binding and Loosing is which Christ hath committed to them as S. Chrysostom saith Man Binds but the power was given by Christ the Lord gave Men this Honour And since Excommunication is a Condemning to eternal Death it ought not to be inflicted but for Mortal Crimes c. (u) An. 1287. Syn. Exon. cap. 43. Spelm. Tom. II. pag. 383. Which with very many evidences of like kind doth shew That whatever consent the Clergy gave to any limitations of this Power it could only be meant of the abuse of it in unjust causes or manners of proceeding but cannot be expounded of their intending to divest themselves of this Divine Right which they always claimed and openly declared as the ground of their Excommunications And that our Ancient Kings did not pretend to prohibit the Bishops from exercising this power in any just Causes which by the Law of Christ or the practice of the Primitive Church belonged to them may appear from King Edward the Seconds Charter of Prohibitions which were Answers to certain grievances of the Clergy Presented to that King and his Parliament Wherein it is declared That if a Prelate impose Corporal Penances only for Sin committed and the Offender would commute it the Kings Prohibition in that Case hath no place And whereas some had gotten the Kings Letters to require the Ordinary to absolve such as he had Excommunicated by a certain day or else to appear and shew cause why they had Excommunicated such a Person it is declared Such Letters should never be granted hereafter but where the Excommunication was found to hurt the Kings Prerogative And whereas when those who held of the King were cited before the Ordinary out of their Parish and Excommunicated for their Contumacy the Kings Writ to Arrest them after 40 days was sometimes denied The King declares such a Writ never was denied nor never should be denied hereafter (w) An. 1316. ap Spelm. Tom. II. pag. 484. All which are printed in our Statute Books for Law (x) An. 9. Edvard 2. An. 1315. pag. 98. And before that time it was enacted in Parliament That Excommunicate persons imprisoned at the Bishops request should not be repleviseable by the Common Writ nor without Writ (y) An. 3 Edv. primi An. 1275. cap. 15. pag. 27. Soon after was the Statute of Circumspectè Agatis made which charges the Temporal Judges not to punish the Clergy for holding Plea in the Court Christian of such things as be meer Spiritual viz. of Penance enjoyned by Prelates for deadly Sin as Fornication Adultery and such like And in divers cases there related the King declares his Prohibition shall not lye (z) An. 13 Ed. prim An. 1285. pag. 70. These I think are manifest proofs of the Clergies having a Divine Right to Excommunicate for Impieties and Immoralities and all that Mr. Selden hath heaped up to intimate the contrary for these times is sufficiently answered hereby And as to all his Objections relating to the times since our Reformation without going out of my own profession or medling with his Law Cases I can prove that the best reformed Churches abroad and our own at home have held and maintained that the Clergy have power by the Word of God to Excommunicate scandalous Offenders The Helvetian Confession cites the places of Matth. xvi about the Power of the Keys and John xx of the remission of Sins and declares the Ministers Authority to admit or to exclude out of the Church is grounded thereon (a) Confess poster Helv. Art 18. The Bohemian Confession is very large in professing their Belief That Christ hath given his Ministers power to sever Sinners from the fellowship of Christ and from the participation of the Sacraments to cast them out of the Christian Church to shut the Kingdom of Heaven upon them and finally to deliver them to Sathan (b) Confess Bohem cap. 14. The Belgick Confession also doth affirm that they retain Excommunication and other Appendixes of Ecclesiastical Discipline as necessary by the Precept of Gods Word (c) Confess Belg. Art 32. and when they Corrected this Article as Mr. Selden pretends (d) Seld. de Syned lib. 1. cap. 10. pag. 233. they still
some Power to punish all those who do disturb the good Order thereof by a false Faith or corrupt Worship or by dissolute Manners and if our Lord had not intrusted the Church with such a Power Reason and Necessity would have compelled the Rulers of the Church to have assumed it because the Church cannot subsist without it No man can so much as govern one Family in the Capacity of a Father or Master unless he be invested with power to let in and turn out of his Family such as he sees fit and to dispense or withhold the Benefits belonging to his Family as he sees Occasion much less can a larger Society be maintained in Peace and Safety without the exercise of such a Power And as the Father or Master may and doth exercise this Authority within his own Family though it be a part of the Commonwealth without damage to the Prince's Power So in this Society of the Church since the ends of it are different from that of the Civil Government the Ecclesiastical Governours may exercise their Power and Authority without incroachment upon the Prince's Sovereignty The ends of Temporal Princes being to preserve their People in outward Peace and Plenty in the enjoyment of their Temporal Rights and Priviledges while they live upon Earth But the ends of the Spiritual Governours are to make Christians holy here and happy hereafter and their Rules and Punishments are both suted to this end The Rules are Precepts of Piety and Charity and the Penalties are proportionable viz. not Corporal (a) Nullum ibi discrimen sanguinis sub incruentâ disciplinâ timebatur Aug. ad Maced ep 54. but Spiritual that is the depriving them of all the comfort and benefit of Church-communion at present and the declaring them to be worthy of Divine vengeance unless they repent So that the Rulers of the World need have no jealousie for their Authority on the account of this Spiritual Jurisdiction from his Servants who declares His Kingdom is not of this World (b) Joh. xviii 36. Audite Judaei Genteâ— non impediam dominationem vestram in hoc mundo Aug. in loc They are to watch for mens Souls to make them inwardly good to reform their Manners and fit them for a blessed Eternity And they govern as Fathers by Arguments and Perswasion by Spiritual Promises and Threatnings by the Rod of Church Censures not by the Sword as the Civil Magistrate doth Yet as the Prince takes care of the Lives and worldly concerns of his Subjects and punisheth those who injure them in either of these so doth the Spiritual Governour in his proper way punish those who act contrary to the welfare of their own or others Souls whether by teaching false Doctrine or setting a bad Example And as there are three ends of outward and civil Punishments First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instruction to the Offender to repent and amend Secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Warning to others not to follow so bad an Example and Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vindication of the Society from the Scandal which might be cast upon it for suffering evil Acts to be done (c) Vidend Aul. Gellius noct Attie lib. 6. c. 14. Clem. Alexandr Strom. 4. So also the Spiritual Penalties aim at the same ends viz. To reform the Offender To warn others not to follow the ill Example And to clear the Church from that Scandal which the acts of evil Men professing themselves Christians may bring on it if they be not punished All which ends are obtained by this Spiritual Penalty of Excommunication duly inflicted by the Church and humbly submitted to by the Offender which doth clearly shew that it is necessary to the being and the well-being of this Spiritual Society the Church even upon Principles of Natural Reason that its Governours should have this Power And that none may doubt whether Natural Reason doth teach this we will shew that the very Gentiles who had no other Guide but the Light of Natural Reason did frequently use this kind of excluding all those from their Society especially from joyning in their Sacrifices who were unfit and unworthy And though there were no Law to turn such Persons out by violence yet their Order was obeyed by all to the shame of those pretended Christians who despise the Commands and deride the Authority of our Lords Ministers in the like Case § II. Among the Grecians Draco was one of their most ancient Lawgivers and he decreed That Murtherers should be excluded from the Drink-Offerings and Festivals from the Temples and Publick Assemblies (d) Demosth Orat. in Leptin And the Scholiast on Aristophanes speaks of this as of an old Custom That no Manslayer should partake of their Sacrifices (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schol. Aristoph And agreeable to this is that Edict of Oedipus in Sophocles concerning a Parricide That none of his Subjects should receive him into their House nor speak to him nor communicate with him in Prayers or Sacrifices to the Gods nor wash their hands with him (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sophoc in Oedip. Whence it appears That both Civil and Sacred Commerce was forbid to these Criminals and though those who had slain their Mother in Euripides mention only their being excluded at Argis from all Mens houses and conversations (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. Oreste Yet we may infer they were much more uncapable of coming to the Sacrifices Plato also ordains that such as strike their Parents should be expelled from their Cities and their Temples and that whoever had any conversation with them should be excluded from the Assemblies and Sacrifices till they were purged (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato de leg 9. fol. 881. And if it be enquired whose office it was to do this we may learn that from Julius Pollux who tells us there was one at Athens called the King of the Sacrifices whose office was To proclaim that the contumacious or rather the unholy who were of contrary disposition to the holy Rites should abstain from the Mysteries and other established Rites (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poll. Onomastic lib. 8. cap. 9. pag. 397. And Alcibiades for having revealed the Mysteries of Ceres which ought to have been kept secret was devoted to Divine Vengeance by the Priests in all their several ways of Religion (k) Se Dâ—is per omnium Sacerdetum religiones devotum cognovit Justin Hist lib. 5. Where note that this sort of Excommunication was attended with solemn Curses which was a delivering them to the Divine Justice and we may further observe that this penalty was not inflicted only for Murther but for any great offence either against Religion as here or against good manners As in that remark concerning the Cercetae now called the Circassians who used to forbid all that did any injustice to come into their Temples (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stobae Serm. 165. And that Example