insert out of the English Plato that to reverence old times is to be a scorn to the new is meant of the arts and civil customes thereof which are lickt into better shape by time and daily improved and refined into more perfections Pervarios casus artem experientia trudit Exemplo monstrante viam but Theology and the Doctrine of Faith being inspired not acquisite was substantially perfect at the first tradition thereof and those which were neerest to those Secretaries of the Holy Ghost had the advantage and opportunity to receive a cleer explication and right understanding thereof and though too much reverence to those antient Times may peccantly verge from mediocrity wherein the matter of virtue consists yet he that shall scorn any for reverencing those old Times which we dispute of may put for to be Doctor of the chair of Scorners and hath been new dip'd in their principles who have learnt to say in effect with that Pope Hoc verum erit si ipse volo non aliter And whatever the Apologists may insinuate or glance at the Protestant Divines did never absolutely disclaim or renounce the tryal by the Fathers neither do they suffer any such Thrasonical vaunts as that of Campian Field of the Church l. 4. c. 5. p. 349. appendix Part. 1. Sect. 2. p. 750. to go unchecked and unshamed Patres admiserit captus est excluserit nullus est in altero fugam adornant in altero suffocantur Luther and the rest at the beginning seem to decline such tryal saith a learned Divine because the corruptions of their writings were so many as could not easily be discovered conformable to the advice of Vincentius Lyrinensis who saith If Heresies be inveterate and so have times and means to corrupt the Monuments of Antiquity we must flee to the Scriptures onely but now having found out by the help of so many learned men both of our adversaries and amongst our selves that have travelled in that kind which are their undoubted Works and which doubtful or undoubtedly forged we willingly admit the tryal by the Fathers and we now onely decry and condemn the Papists for their servile enthralling themselves to the judgment of the Fathers as to a Law as Canus speaks and ad ultimum iota as the gloss on the Canon Law delivers and for fettering themselves with an oath never to expound Scripture contrary to their consent and for advancing them to the disparagement and obsoleting of the Scriptures as among other examples did the Sorbonist Reynolds de Idololat Rom. Eccles l. 1. c. 8. p. 515. p. 301. Whitaker tom 1. p. 13. Marta de Jurisdict citat Dr. J. White 's Defence way true Church c. 20. p. 105. whom Stephanus asking where he read such a thing in the New Testament he answered Se illud apud Hieronymum aut in Decretis legisse quid vero Novum Testamentum esset ignorare but never deserted a tryal by the Fathers as by the Jury though not as by the Law which is the Scripture nor as by a Judge which is the Holy Ghost Ad hanc canitiem tanquam in Areopagum provocamus saith Whitaker to Campian and I could cite many others to the same purpose they are the Papists themselves that with notable hypocrisie depress and avile their authority when it interferes with their Interests speaking out plainly what the Apologists more covertly insinuate That the common opinion of the Doctors is not to be regarded when another contrary opinion favours the Keys or the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction or a pious case Those that wash'd off the water of their former Baptisme by new immersions were the first that sought to bring under water also the authority and reverence of the antient Church and it is very observable that from the same Fountain have sprung the foul and bitter waters of Schisme and Heresie that have defiled and envenomed the modern age as if it were therein legible that had due honour been given unto the Fathers our days of peace and truth had been prolonged in the Land What the Psalmist says of Children I think of the Fathers Happy are they that have their Quiver full of them they shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the Enemies in the Gate The Philosophers that writ of the contempt of glory yet bewrayed their â—â—nbitious itch after it by affixing their names to the books So even those that seem to decry and sleight the witness of the Fathers yet think themselves more gay Birds when deck'd with their Plumes and that they make higher flights if they can impe their Wings with any of their Feathers The Apologists themselves in their 35. and 37. Section and else-where seek to borrow some colours from them to paint the face of their Discipline more seemingly fair And it is still true what Erasmus was wont to say When Hierom is for our purpose his authority weigheth much when against us it is worth nothing Yet as Agesilaus sent Tissaphernes his thanks that by fraction of the sworn League he had set the gods on his side so I thankfully accept this implicite and interpretative yeelding me the Fathers on my part while to my sense no other corollary can be deducted from all their discourse hereof but this Let them say what they list we neither value them nor will beleeve them SECT III. How the Apologists have suited their Discipline to comply with severall Parties and Interests the odious blots of their Pen. PRimus felicitatis gradus est non delinquere Secundus delicta cognoscere saith Cyprian They now condemn not all that differ from them and must acknowledge that some godly men eminent in parts and places close not with them and this I shall gladly take and put among their retractations for heretofore it hath been their course resulting as much out of subtilty as censoriousnesse to brand such as are adverse from them as enemies to godlinesse and so to sentence them I think is to condemn them yea they condemn them while they renounce Communion of Sacraments with them there being no way to communicate with them but to tread that path which they have lined and beaten out and if they grant them to be godly persons how can they without Schisme desert communion with them But indeed if their model of discipline be the onely path to Reformation and be that point alone wherein peace and holinesse meet and close together I think they could not but condemn all that walk not with them therein though in truth rather this renders it evident that it is no such right way because so many godly and eminent men are found in another Road. But as some censure them for going too far so do others for not going far enough in their seperation And it is like enough that this befals them which is the common fate of men that compound and medly themselves to comply with several Interests and bear up with divers parties who modelling themselves like
and they could take such as they catch Dotterels by imitation of postures some I believe in the heat of zeale without a clear light so to set their foot in a clearer path and keep it unpolluted by evil company in their way and like the Garison of Sfetigrade when a Dog was dead in the well they would not drink the same water though the Town were lost by it to the Turkes Others I doubt take this way because they trace many footsteps there moving according to the influence of example more then reason and naturalizing for innocency the imitation of anothers fault and supposing an Error when it is made publick to be adopted by truth others I fear lift up their foot this way that they may better set it on their peoples necks for however the Prophets reject those talents and change of garments yet perchance there will be some that runne after them This hath been the Spring that hath made the waters nought and the land barren and which needed such salt to be cast into it Sal mordacis veritatis as Hierom speakes I am conscious that this is a tender point and perhaps as intangible as Erasmus said some others were which Luther medled withall but as Mauritius said of Phocas if he be a coward he is a Murderer so should I withhold the truth for feare I kill those whom I might have profited Amyclas silentium perdidit This is a Sacrifice to truth and hony was not to be used in any Sacrifice yet like the Dove Si mordeo osculando mordeo for I have endeavoured with the Spartans before the battle to Sacrifice to Love and with Hercules to hang my sword in a bough of myrtle which was Consecrated to Love but Non amo nisi offendero I love their persons all whose opinions and practises I am not in love with nor could I truly love them did I not love them in and for the truth he that is summum bonum is also primum verum and as God the chiefest good is the formal object and reason of all love so those material objects must also be loved in relation to him and as those to whom we would communicate that Soveraigne good and prime Truth whereof they are participable and therefore Nemo me potest uti amico adulatore It was the Motto of that genius of France Richelieu Maneat moralis benevolentia inter discordes sententia and it was a greater Man 's Augustine Rarissima dissensione condiri plurimas consensiones I cannot call a spade otherwise then a spade yet have been sollicitous that we Macedonians might not appear rude nor seeme to be among those bestias calami Psal 78.30 as Hierom Allegorically expounds that which we read the Company of Spear-men but is in Hebrew Beasts of the Reeds Si quod dixi ferventius non illud contumacia sed fiducia dicenda est And if my stile seeme to be keene and peircing I shall say that they have sharpned it by hard grating and even ayr comprest by such grating turnes to fire the Schoolmaster when Carneades demanded Vt sibi vocis modus daretur answered Do tibi modi loco eum quocum disputas and therefore as Agesilaus surprised by the Athenian Embassadors at play with his children asked them if they had children or not for if they had he feared not their Censure if they had not he desired them to suspend it till they had some so I shall hope from those that have been so coursely and undecently dealt with as I have been to be freed from blame and I desire those that have not felt such dealing to supersede their correction till they have been sensible of the like and am further confident that to those that like some animals have not their gall in their eare I shall neither seeme like the Dolphins to have my teeth in my tongue nor as the Polypus to bring up any excrements at my mouth for indeed though Tobit's eyes were opened with gall yet I like the way of Jonathans cure as more sweet to open them with hony but yet we know this makes some eyes to smart notwithstanding If my way of writing seem an attempt to go out of the common rode and yet to misse the way and too long for the ordinary Gests or Stages For the first it is true I should perchance have rather concurred with the Poet Coenae fercula nostrae Mallem convivis quam placuisse coquis and yet I recognize too that Polycletus statue formed according to his own judgement was more approved then that which was carved according to vulgar Opinions It was the advice of Augustin that in places infected with Heresy all men should write that had any faculty that all sorts of people among many books might light upon some and perchance it might be as convenient to have the books written in all kind of wayes that all sorts might meet with these which suited them and some there be that when there is corn in the sack would be glad to find silver also in the mouth and though they cheifly wish the sword should cut yet are better pleased to see the hilt also well hatcht and the edge to be set on by the grownd-stones of the Philistines and I confess though I have endeavoured to head my arrowes aswell as I could yet I know they would have flown the farther and peirced the deeper too if they could have been well feathered and though I have sought to serve up solide meat yet I think it would have better taken the pallat and been received into the stomach if it had had pleasant sauce and though my poverty forbid the banes yet I like the motion made by Euripides to wed the Graces to the Muses and if I could therefore I would with Demosthenes have written not onely Picta sed sculpta and though Nobis non licet esse tam disertis yet notwithstanding In magnis voluisse sat est and the ingenuous acknowledgment of what I ought to have done may excite others that are able to do it and so Fungar vice cotis acutum Reddere quae valeat ferrum exors ipsa secandi that so books may be redeemed from beggery and the distillations of the pen become more sublimed which for the most part carry too much of the dreggs and thereby the blatant herd may be discouraged and shamed to make such use of those which in their hands are Goose-quills with a witness For the length of the Treatise though the thread thereof be not spun out in any aequality to theirs who replied in twelve sheets to one of mine and this Discourse is returned in farre less then a twelvefold proportion yet it is very true that I have been reminded by some judicious Friends that so limber a Discourse as theirs is did merit no large or full grown Answer but as when certain Grecians entertained by Lucullus with a costly supper said they were sorry he should be at such cost
a parcel of Erasmus according to Luthers Diverbe Verba sine re As Augustin told Antony that challenged him to the combat if he were weary of living there were wayes enough to death besides his Sword so such infirme saples and enervous Treatises will soon dye of themselves and need not to have violent hands laid upon them Bene tacuit qui defensione non eget But since Divine Providence hath permitted them to hale and thrust me forth to appeare in publick so perfectly repugnant to what my iudgement dictated to be expedient and my affections sensed complacent and the Lord knows also contrary to those frequent Prayers which I put up to him to hinder and prevent it if he saw it good it shall be neither pride nor presumption to hope that it is possible that God who is Ita artifex magnus in magnis ut non sit minor in minimis hath some service to do for me and some discoveries to make by me as weak eyes fixt attentively on the Starres discern more then better sights observe with a transient aspect and if by his blessing I shall be capable to fasten but one pinne in the shaken frame of the Church or my bucket to bring up but one drop of truth from that well where it hath been lately cast down and covered and my spark which their stirring hath raked up shall cast forth one glimpse to make known the way of Peace or if as Xenophons expedition though with little effect excited great Alexander to a braver and more succesful invasion of Persia so this spark may kindle some greater and higher flame in others or my writings might be dusted with some filings of that precious Stone called Glossopetra which Pliny speakes of which is like the tongue of a man not bred in the Earth but fallen from Heaven in an Eclipse of the Moon which is said to still the winde and so I could Motos componere fluctus I should thinke for this if for nothing else I had lived to some purpose and should dye with more comfort Augustin tels us that double-forheaded Janus was the innocentest of all the Gods Tanto frontosior quant◠innocentior and verily the Conscience I have of the candor and cleareness of my own heart weighing it with those graines allowed to humane frailty in all the Conduct of this Matter who can say with Augustine Ego omnia quod bona fide dixerim sine ullo studio contentionis sine aliqua dubitatione veritatis sine aliquo praejudicio diligentioris tractatus exposui renders me somewhat the more confident that those weak Elucubrations shall finde the more favorable receprion with men and gratious success from God to whose blessing I humbly recommend them and if his presence go not with them let him not carry them hence THe Author though absent yet was not wanting in his care to have the Press better corrected yet neverthelesse through incuriousnesse many Errata's have escaped to his no little perturbation Besides that lines are broken where they should be continued as Ex. gr pag. 218. line 11. and continued when they should have been broken as ibid. p. 12. And that the mispointings sometime vitiate the sense as E.G. p. 88. in the two last lines and often perplex it especially by omitting or misplacing the Half-moons which should make the Parenthesis Also the Margin is taken into the Text which begets an incoherence p. 74. l. 28 29. And by leaving out not where it ought to be and putting it in where it should not be the sense is sometimes rendred contrary And p. 194. after And l. 6. to hands l. 7. is somewhat inserted without the Authors privity and which was not in his Copy For the grosser faults especially in those sheets which he could see here are directions to amend them which though it be not easie to doe because the pages are preposterously numbred also the Revder is desired to correct before he enter upon the work who else will be at greater losse of time to find out the sense smaller faults and misplacing quotations higher or lower are left to his own discretion to rectifie PAge 6. line 14. read breath ib. 32. dele no. p. 7. l. 11. r. dole as p. 12. l. 24. r. sixt p. 13. marg r. videri p. 17. l. 6. d. as p. 18. l. 6. r. a knife p. 20. l. 30. r. where whosoever p. 23. l. 32. r. vour p 24 l. 25 r longum p. 26. l. 10. r. assure 16.18 r. Augustus p. 50. l. 30. r. Mayo Ib. 47. their effect p. 53. l. 7. r. that p. 59. l. 35. r. nos sacit p. 61. l. 16. r. consequent ib. 22. d. and p. 62. l. 7. r. scrutiny ib. marg r. corrept p. 67. l. 38. d. not p. 71. l. 25 r. malleable p. 73. l. 42. r. suspected p. 74. l. 69. r. Church therefore p. 76. l. 22. r. whether I should p. 79. l. 11. r. but not p. 81. l. 5. r. vendicated p. 82. l. 13. r. assier ib. marg l. 28. Socrates History p. 83. ult r. or faith p. 84 l. 28. r. nor is ib. 38. r. I could p. 85. l. 45. r. in the p. 86. l. 20. r. rectè p. 87. l. 36. r bittle p. 88. l. 27. r. they bear p. 89. l. 6. r. etsi p. 91. m. r. pag. 467. p. 93. l. 22. r. Presbytery p. 95. l 10. r. Vibius ib. 24. d. et p. 99. l. 6. r. any ib. m. l. 7. r. in 3. ib. l. 10. r. 3 part p. 110. l. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 8 p. 112. m. r. tract 49. in Johan p. 113. l. 11. r. Titleman ib. m. r. Morton ib. 40. r. what p. 114. l. 22. r. wherein ib. m. r. concionatorium ib. m. l. 24. d. verbi p. 115. l. 30. r. inference ib. m. l. 3. vera esse p. 118. l 5. r. material p. 119. l. 27. r. ignominia p. 120. l. 38. r. little gemmyes ib. 40. r pleased p. 124. l. 3. r. Pius ib. 27. r. theirs p. 126. l. 33. r. his own age p. 128. against l. 11. add 4. d. 9. q. 4. p. 701. q. 5. p. 703. p. 129. m. r. 39. ib. 16. d. not ib. 43. d. to p. 131. l. 31. r. apertè p. 132. l. 14. r. principle p 135. l. 30. d. self p. 137. l. 11. r. no power p. 139. l. 25. r. syllogizari p. 147. l. 36. Meier p. 149. l. 30. r. wherein p. 169. l. 11. d. where p. 182. l. 9. r. delinquents ib. 11. r. left ib. 28. r. receive p. 183. l. 5. r. confession p. 184. l. 30. r. resultively p. 186. l. 2. r. Clytus p. 187. r. examination or that to be a part of repentance p. 188. l. 27. r. puts p. 169. as miscounted l. 11. d. where p. 170. l. 9. r. iutè p. 171. l. 19. d. of p. 173. m. r. Aquin. 3. q. 80. p. 177. l. 13. r. Liturgie p. 178. l. 5. r. either in the causes ib. 26. r. or in the p. 179. l.
fumes and exhalations thereof have eclips'd that Light of Doctrine which they confess formerly filled our Hemisphere it hath been onely forward to undo us and successful as Pompey was great miseriâ nostrâ and as Curio was eloquent malo publico and was brought forth with more unrighteousness then ever it was with-held O utinam arguerem sic ut non vincere possem Me miserum quare tam bona causa mea est Yet is it aes alienum to acknowledge that I neither can justly charge upon the Apologists nor will I leave them under the least suspition of having any personal share of or proper guilt in the Heresies and Profaness speculative and practical Antiscripturisme whose abominations in this Land make all good eyes to water and godly hearts to bleed But I look on Independency the Principles of which Discipline have imposed on the Apologists as the summum genus the common Principle and as it were the Trojaa horse of all those evils for as the jangling Sects of Philosophers pretended to be all Socratical so the differing Sects assume the Livery of Independency which is the Basis as Physitians speak of the Composition and the Bond and Common tye of the Bundle So as I impute not the mischief to Independents distributively but collectively nor think them to flow formally and inseparably from Independency in the Abstract so as to spread through al the denominations but to have spawn'd from Independents in the Concrete and that Discipline hath given the occasion of the rise and growth thereof which how strict soever it pretend to be in admitting to Church-membership or Communion of Sacraments yet is too loose in the liberty afforded to Opinions in a conceit somewhat like Tamberlains That Religion is like a Posie which is most sweet when made up of variety of flowers In an epidemical Contagion some may be yet antidoted by temperament and habitude of body yet the Pestilence is mortally infections and although there are many good Subjects of the notion of Papists yet Popery hath many treasonable and seditious Principles So though under the notion of Independents there are many Orthodox men yet Independency is causally very heterodox as he that lets down the Fence or lays open the Gap is guilty of all the mischief which the wilde Beasts do in the field They ask whether we say the Sun rose not till twelve because it shined not till then or that America was a second or new Creation because sound out of late and thereupon perswade us that their Government is elder than the former Custome of our Predecessours and not younger than the Scriptures and that it is unreasonable and unsafe to look onely on the Customes and Practices of the next Ages before us which they are sure worship'd God impurely Though Clouds may mask the face of the Sun at one place or for one instant yet it shines forth in some other and not onely by discourse of reason but by evidence of sense after the Sun is come into our Horizon we know he is risen for we then always see the light thereof though not in full brightness thereof perhaps for without that light we could not well see Though America was but lately discovered to us it was not unknown to all others the Inhabitants were not ignorant thereof and we know all this while under what Meridians and Parallels it was situate and we are satisfied that it had a real though no notional existence in respect of us but we are still to seek where this new world of their Discipline was in being until it was found out of late And suitably to the products of divine inspiration or results of rational discourse a thing of this kind could have no being till it was found out and therefore not fitly compared with America If they can assign when and where antiently their new light of discipline shined before we saw it unless perhaps some flashes thereof were among those who supposed they had more light of truth The Donatists alleaged in defence of their Separation that of Cantic 1.7 because more of the Sun-beams and thought that onely among themselves the Beloved made his Flock to rest at Noon I shall yeeld there was such a Sun though latter ages saw it not else I shall suspect it to be onely Parelius a counterfeit Sun subsisting onely in the vapours and exhalations of modern heads Antient Customs may be antiquated and again redintegrated some truths in some ages smothered by the predominating Errour and Faction and be afterward revived for Nullum tempus occurrit Regi Coelorum But it is one thing to be new Jewel apol p. 5. c. 1. Divis 1. another to be renewed Quod verum est serum non est saith Saint Ambrose As there can be no change in God himself so ought there to be no change in his Religion saith that Gemma Theologiae If therefore their Discipline were but lately found out it will be found to be without warrant If they will commence per saltum Neb. 7.63 64. and say it is as ancient as Scripture but cannot trace the descent and pedegree thereof through any one age of the antient Church they are onely like those Priests the Children of Habajah who sought their Register among those that were reckoned by Genealogy but it was not found therefore were they as polluted put from the Priesthood Although we shall gladly dormire inter medios cleros that is saith S Augustine in utriusque Testamenti authoritate conquiescere In Psal 67. ut quando aliquid ex i's profertur probatur omnis contentio pacifica quietè finiatur Yet besides that they are likely to have as little foundation in Scripture as they implicitly confess to have support from the practice of the antient Church In the interim also they contract many prejudices not easily to be wrastled with for who will hastily beleeve that in this age which to other works of the flesh hath added swarms of Heresies mali mores excoecant intellectum saith Ockham the Light of Discipline should break out when so many gross Clouds eclipse the greater Luminary of Doctrine that this secret of the Lord should not have been with those that feared him in so many ages whom he promised to teach and to be with and to lead into all necessary truth Non verisimile est ut tot tantae in unam sidem erraverint saith Tertullian Et quod apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed traditum nor reflected on us by those great Stars of the Primitive Sphere between whom and some others is no more comparison than between the pillars of the Temple and their shadows as Nazianzen magnifieth Basil and when the like late discovery cannot be asserted of any other truth And lastly that this Discipline should be so necessary when the Church of God for many ages flourished in godliness knowledge and peace and yet was never acquainted with it
by St. Paul is still allowable but to come to the Sacrament upon the private examination of a mans self was permitted by St. Paul ergo And thus I could as easily have done thorough the whole discourse but out of the Schools I thought it a more flat and tyring way of arguing and I took my precedent chiefly from the greatest Masters of Controversies in whose larger Volumes I meet not with many explicit syllogismes and remembred that Tacitus commendeth Seneca that he had Scribendi genus temporis illius auribus accommodatum and that Mercury speaking to Battus sell into Battology Me mihi perfide prodis Me mihi prodis ait And therefore chose rather to be in fashion than to wear richer cloths and to be wet with the common showre of folly as it is in the Fable than to be wise with singularity But who hath not read in Aristotle of a rhetorical cryptical and implicite Syllogisme which Logicians say is usual Ornatûs aut brevitatis causâ and which by a tacit supply of one proposition is made up perfect Children when they first learn to read spell every syllable but grown more skilful they make up and pronounce every word at its first aspect so I think the like of discourses where any versed in arguing can readily analyse the speech and by a mental supply of what is onely implyed finde the force or fallacy of the argument Though I have censured others for popular Rhetorique the Imposture of our times yet not as rhetorique but as Enervous where affections are onely wrought upon reason not at all and which being resolved appears but like a Calf made out of golden ear-rings Whether mine be of the one or the other kind neither my self nor the Apologists are competent Judges who perchance may both look on it through a Perspective though I at one end they at the other of the Glass and at the one end all things appear greater at the other less than they be But however it be though they as Cresconius did St. Augustines do slight and upbraid my rhetorique such as it is having perchance the like quarrel thereunto which he had to Demosthenes his Candle because it stood in his light and they have some affinity with Cleon who using to hold the worst side in the causes he pleaded was therefore always inveighing against Eloquence yet perchance some may find more implicite Syllogisms in my Rhetorique than Logick in their explicit ones As he among the Romans was held the best Citizen that being a Plebeian favoured the Optimates and being a Patrician countenanced the people so I think him a more accomplish'd Writer that taking the part of a Logician to work on reason takes in ayd of Rhetorique and playing the Rhetorician to move the affections makes Logick auxiliar Things of the same signification may have different impression according as they are dressed and set forth and perchance the same thing nakedly and bluntly delivered had not made so easie and great an impression on the famous Marquess of Vico as it did when set forth under an elegant similitude by Peter Martyr I would be made all things to all men Modus orationis auditor Orpheus in Sylvis inter Delphinas Arion It was Epiphanius his commendation that the Learned liked him for the matter and the unlearned for the style and as Pliny saith they sometime deal with the Elephant it is convenient to deck the Manger with flowers that the Provender may go down the better But the Apologists will prove themselves Builders and not Painters and sure they may be both with commendation for Christ was painted crucified among the Galatians which Interpreters understand of the lively and evident setting forth of his sufferings Let them therefore lay solid Foundations and build up firm Wals we shal not only allow but take complacency in the painting thereof But let them not bring us back again to Babel that when we call for stones they bring us onely Mortar to daub with They are they say Builders not Painters perchance he that can judge of Colours will take this but for painting they may be Builders at some times and in some things and respects and yet perchance be Painters onely in some others as particularly in this subject for it is not necessary that he that builds should never paint It is a debt to Truth to acknowledge that they are capable to build up in our holy Faith and do edifie themselves disparage their skill and pains in building more than I dare to do and confess their power of destruction an hundred to one greater than that of Edification pulling down a goodly Church that with some stones selected out of the ruins they may build an angust Chapel after their model And can they pass for good Builders when after twenty years labour in a Town that hath formerly had two or three expert Architects to prepare the work and one of them shining Tanquam inter ignes Luna minores By whose excellent preaching they were like Capernaum lift up to Heaven succeeding each other and as Machiavel saith of Princes so may I of Ministers The continued succession of two good Ministers cannot but effect great matters that yet their Prolocutor among 5. or 600. stones cannot hitherto hew or square above five or six of them for the Altar or make them lively stones 1 Pet. 2.5 built up a spiritual house as the Apostle speaks It is likely that in some resemblance with that living stone they may be some of them disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious but while they will not own them for such they detract much from their own faculty in building I suppose we do not see any painful and holy labours in Gods field recompensed with so poor an Harvest and God is not wont to give so small an increase where any wise planting and diligent watering hath preceded Had the Apologists been as frequent and earnest and importunate in preparing men for the Communion as they have been in asserting their power of suspending them and been careful rather to prevent than to punish indispositions I beleeve they had superseded those multa supplicia which cannot but be to them tà m turpia quà m medico multa funera as Cassiodor speaketh but suam quisque homo rem meminit and the Proverb which Ammonius in the life of Abbo tells us was used of things too eagerly and impertinently insisted upon venit ad decimas may now be turned into venit ad suspensionem their Pulpits have been too much set to the tune of their models and plat-forms of Discipline which might with more honour and more fruit of their Ministry have onely resounded repentance toward God and Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ but while they have been more careful lest they marre their own Inheritance than to raise up the name of the dead viz. Jesus Christ our elder brother upon his Inheritance no marvell though they spit in their
voce seu ex Scripto verbo divino congruenter quae fuerit Dei voluntas in institutione Sacramentorum concionatorum omnino verbum requiritur ut enim verbi Dei voluntas nullo verbo declarata nequit efficere ut in signi materia quidquam praeter eam materiam intueamur quae ipsa per se materiam signi vel Sacramenti non habet Ibid. S. 35. pag. 11. Instit l. 4. r. 14. S. 4. p. 472. In 5. ad Ephes Tom. 4. l. 1. c. 15. S. 9. p. 16. In Evang. Tom. 4. l. 3. c. 2. p. 75. Piscator in Matth. 26.26 p. 280 282. without accession to the Element of that word which was to be not onely constitutive of the Sacrament but also declaratory of the mysterious Rites and the thing represented and also promissory of the graces thereby exhibited For sine doctrinae copula attoniti undo aspectu sensus nostri redderentur saith Calvin and in another place Sola mysterii explicatio facit ut mortuum elementum incipiat esse Sacramentum for the elements and actions being no natural but instituted signs there must necessarily have been a concurrent Word to manifest the reason and end of the Institution and the things which they were instituted to signifie for Signa indeterminata ex se ad significandum determ nantur per verba quibus instituuntur as Chumier and correspondently Barradius tells us Cùm panem benedixit gratiásque patri egit animos discipulorum verbis praeparasse And to supersede any larger demonstration thereof a most logical and very learned Divine hath collected the definition including the nature use and end of the Sacrament out of the very words of Institution the Genus and the Difference taken from the various Arguments as not onely the adjuncts the matter not onely that of Bread and Wine but the matter of another kinde in breaking and pouring forth of them where consists part of the use the form viz. the relation of the Elements to the things signified and sealed by them in both which is very much of the Nature the Ends being four the representation of Christs death the testification of the fruit thereof the vivifying and consolation of the faithful and an excitement to Thanksgiving and so thus concludes his explication thereof Atque haec est doctrina simplex ac salutaris de coena domini ex ipsis v rbis institutionis deprompta ejusmodi certè ut fideles omnes meritò in ea acquiescere possint omissis quaestionibus aliis non necessariis c. And if we may acquiesce in the Doctrine of the Sacrament extracted from the words of Institution then the nature end and use of the Sacraments must be held forth in and may be collected from these words else we could not rest in the Doctrine contained therein But if the Apologists intend and it is onely charity which formally respecteth their good not justice which relates to our debt that must incline us so to understand them that the nature use and end of the Sacrament was not shewed by the washing of the Disciples feet it is like the Rainbow Thaumantis silia and very wonderful how any that hath common sense could impute that sense to me but it seems if they could not finde they would make somewhat which they could confute but they have therein onely done as if Antipheron should have charged fiercely upon his own phantasme Was there any colour that having said Christ shewed his Disciples the nature end and use of the Sacrament that I did infer or conclude it out of his washing of their seet As there was no causal or illative particle exprest that might insinuate that sense so a conjunctive particle onely was understood and to his shewing them the nature use and end out of the words of Institution I joyned also his teaching them the duty of preparation in order to the right use by the lotion of their feet with an implication likewise that this being specially recorded it was as likely that the particular pre-examination of them would in all probability have been as well recited had it preceded or been so necessary And yet neither did I relate that as my proper sense or that I supposed the washing to be directed as a type or emblem to that signification But 1. I reminded Potest aliquae interpretatio esse secundum quid hoc estjuxta analogiam fidei Scripturae si ei non repugnet quae tamen non sit vera simpliciter hoc est juxta genuinum sensum alicujus loci Paraeus in Gen. c. 1. v. 1. p. 30. Mede in 1 Cor. 10.3 4 5. Diatrib p. 598. that some of the ancient Fathers did so allegorically interpret and apply it and if their Interpretations be true secundùm quid though not simpliciter I am not very willing to check with them 2. Though the Fathers are of little reckoning and stand in the lowest place of account where these men dispose of the Counters yet farther I remembred it to be the sense of divers modern Theologues and among the rest of one higher by the head than the ordinary rank surmounting them Quantum lenta solent inter viburna cupressi The washing saith he of the Disciples feet before Supper what doth it else call for but a cleansing of our hearts before we communicate And though I would not willingly erre with Plato and doe reckon Truth a greater friend yet I would not willingly quarrel with Plato when he crosseth not my way 3. I finding some thus to judge thereof who are of somewhat like judgment with the Apologists in this Controversie I took it up as an interpretation ad hominem non ad rem I alledge it ex hypothesi non thesi for as long as a Dog is not like to bite me what need I hold him by the ear and I thought perchance they would have given a more favourable reception thereunto for their friends sake since it falls out often what Stapleton adviseth to Olim quandoque in Ecclesia receptum fuit pedes lavare ante sacram Comnionem Durantus de Eccl. ritibus l. 2. c. 55. Sect. 10. p. 816. which sprung from this mystical consideration That men look rather who speaks than what is spoken and imitate the Athenians who approved that speech in one mans mouth which they liked not in anothers The truth is I have elsewhere contradicted this reference and shewed it not to be the mystical sense of Scripture but the artifice of the Interpreters and the application or dilatation of the proper sense and an allegory illate not innate and therefore Viderit utilitas Let them of whose interest it is to assert that allegorical sense endeavour to vindicate it if they can for my part I shall not feather Arrows to be shot against me and then be put to ward their stroaks here the Apologists and I shall easily concur and our lines meet in angles however elsewhere they runne parallels but though he washed their
fallacy of the consequent for from Christs admitting Iudas known to him to be wicked it follows not that Ministers may not keep back such as they know wicked but onely that they may admit them There is a disparity between the freedome and the necessity of admission but if they understand by the Ministers knowing them to be wicked a private knowledge then I shall profess it to be my opinion that a Minister may not keep them back and Christ his admitting Iudas whom he knew to be wicked will suppeditate an Argument for proof of this opinion which will not tremble in its arraignment at the barre of reason unless ignorance or passion usurpe the Bench and this opinion is also seconded with the authority of divers Casuists elsewhere cited whereunto I adde the suffrage of a grave and learned Divine that tells us Sinners are secret not of publicke notice Mr. Balls Friendly tryal of the grounds of separation pag. 187. though one or other perhaps the Minister may know them in their course scandalous they are not to be repelled if they offer themselves because though one know them to have sinned thus and thus it is unknown to others and so the sinne is private and not generally known otherwise liberty should be given to wicked Ministers to punish with this punishment whom they please but if they meane a publick knowledge either by evidence of fact Confession or judicial sentence men so known to be wicked may be repelled from the Communion by the Minister and the contrary which is the judgement of the Erastians as it falls not into my opinion so it flows not from the example of Iudas whose crimes were not then so notorious Aeneas Sylvius when he was more Godly in truth and before he was ius in name he used to say It was a subtile artifice of the Popes to set the Lawyers to dispute whether Constantines Donation were valid de jure thereby to introduce an Hypothesis that such a Donation there was de facto The Apologists follow the contrary Method and spend most of the Section to disprove that Iudas communicated and say lesse to the consequence and refult of that example We have elsewhere anticipated and forestalled all or most of their Arguments and applyed Answers and so having cut down and crop'd their harvest we shall have lesse trouble with the Gleanings After an heedful search with others eyes they cannot finde the consonancy spoken of among the Ancients for Judas his participation of the Lords Supper But have all their researches found any Father of the first six Centuries that sings a Note which breaks the symphony Hilary excepted whom though Algerus thinks by a benigne interpretation might be reconciled to this opinion yet Vasquez confesseth the words admit it not and Suarez saith his endevours are frustrate Advers Anabapt l. 6. c. 9. pag. 230. But howsoever Bullinger expressely tells us Sententiam suam nullis firmis argumentis probat propter quaeilli credendum Unity is no number one is next to none as in Musick when many sing to one Tune one antiphonous voyce cannot spoile the Harmony What like point can they instance in wherein so many lines of the Antients are concentred and an opinion of a thing not in termes revealed but collected by discourse and abstractive knowledge which passeth with a nemine contradicente is a rare Phoenix or rather a bird of Paradise if that place admitted that way or manner of knowledge But those Fathers that vote with the paper are ballanced by multitudes of the best modern lights Perhaps there is Romana statera where according to the distance from the Center one ounce may be weighed against a pound and the Earth against a Barley-corn as Archimedes boasted But it shall be as vaine as odious to enter upon those Staticks and to make comparisons whether the Ancients were Gyants the Neotericks but Dwarfes and Dwarfes may see farther advanced on Gyants shoulders according to the trite Allegory or whether the modern lights are great like the Moon because so near us and have greater influence although they borrow their light from the Sun that yet appeares lesse I shall not therefore dispute of this but not quarrelling that hypothesis yet when that constellation which gives light to Iudas his Communicating is beside the ancient made up of as many yea more new Starres than the other that hath an opposite aspect I hope those modern lights alone with Hilary onely among them cannot ballance so many of the Ancient and Neoterick both together The Fathers might receive this from one another without due looking into the Text. The Fathers might it hath indeed no absolute impossibility but they might not also and that hath more verisimilitude it being not like that so many of them had so little of judgment and so much of Credulity to precipitate their Sentence without examination or were so negligent in consulting Scripture in this wherein they were assiduously conversant and whereunto they so pathetically excited others to have recourse but the Fathers are still much in their debt for the honour they doe them Bullinger saith in this case Iis ideo fidem habemus quòd ea quae scribunt Evangelio nitantur I shall yet grant the Fathers might be confirmed in this truth by Tradition which in things historical is a very good Topick and consequently contributes some strength to this opinion and those that were nearer the Fountain had the streams thereof more pure and clear than those at greater distance as in multiplicity of Echo's by reiterated repercussion of the sound the later is more weak and dull than the former and in plurality of Rain-bows that which is by immediate reflection of the Sun is brighter and stronger than those which rise from reflex of each other Bannes jeasts at Pighius in the case of Honorius as if he could better tell whether that Pope were an Heretick or not than all those Councels and Fathers that lived neer his time we may note the like vanity in this point and as our Divines subtilly observe that whether those Councels and Fathers erred or not concerning that individual Pope and in judging Honorius an Heretick yet from that judgement it follows that they thought the Pope might erre so if the Fathers were mistaken in determining Iudas to have participated yet it is consequent that they supposed such as Iudas was one without sound grace or satisfactory signes of conversion and yet not duly censured for scandalous crimes might without any pollution to the Ordinance or others or prostituting the Privileges of the Godly or false Testimony or partaking of sinnes participate the Sacrament They are conceived to erre in this point by taking the Sop to be the Sacrament so doth Augustine Resp In some places he doth indeed seem to suppose so L. 5. de Baptism parvulor c. 8. tr 62. in Ioh. tract 26. Super illud Patres vestri and so doth Beda to whom
which are not such Dogs and Swine but that to them the Word may be preached they are neither such but that to them also the Sacraments are administrable If they knew any did come to hear with a design to mock or purpose to blaspheme the truth they would sense an obligation to exclude him from the Auditory and to frustrate this wickedness Why is there not as great an incumbency for examining of Hearers that they might be known as to prevent unworthy receiving there is for probation of Receivers Nay I presume they would advance farther and come up to Bellarmine De eccl mil. l. 3. c. 10. that saith Si ecclesia possit dignoscere impios incredulos hypocritas nunquam admitteret aut casu admissos excluderet And doth it not hang upon the same hinge of reason that because no wicked faithless person ought of right to be admitted into Church-fellowship therefore they ought to make triall of all before their admission to be members which is the state of that disease of Independency and Meridian of that New Light aswell as because no unworthy person ought de jure to participate the Sacrament Cit. à Gratiano 1. q. 1. c. Interrogo ab Hospiniano Hist Sacram l. 2. p. 97. centur Magdeburg centur 5. c. 4. p. 215. Casaubon exercit 16. sect 36. p. 378. 363. therefore they ought antecedently to make probation of every ones worthiness before he be a partaker St. Augustine affirmeth the Word of God not to be less than the Body of Christ and Casaubon saith that preaching of the Scriptures which is called a spiritual Table is another kinde of spiritual eating of Christ as the Fathers teach us As indeed Origen saith expresly Of the Sacrament p. 10. Hoc unum eatenus inter ea discrimen est quod quae verbum in mentem per aures insinuat ea sucramenta per oculos in eandem ingerunt Theses Salmuri part 3. sect 13. p. 34. Bibere autem sanguinem Christi non solùm sacramentorum ritu sed cùm sermones ejus recipimus in quibus vita consistit And the Word and Sacraments tend to the same end but by somewhat different ways the same promises are conveyed by both but in one demissa per aures in the other oculis subjecta fidelibus Cranmer tells us as the Word preached puts Christ into our ears so likewise those Elements of Water Bread and Wine joyned to Gods Word do after a sacramental manner put Christ into our eyes mouths hands and all our senses so as neither for dignity are they unequal nor different in the effects and ends And this seems to me to be acknowledged by the Apologists themselves when they tell us Sect. 23. That the want of the Sacrament is supplied by the Word whereby God gives Souls to eat and drink the Flesh and Bloud of Christ Jesus by faith As the Eucharist is onely dispensable to such as are capable to shew forth the death of the Lord and to examine themselves so Ezra brought the Law before the congregation both of men and women and all that could hear with understanding Nehem. 8.2 As infants are debarred of communicating till maturity so not onely among the Hebrews as St. Hieron Proem in Ezek. tom 4. p. 727. Casaubon ubi supra p. 399. ad 404. Hierom tells us none under thirty years of age was permitted to reade the begining of Genesis the Canticles nor the Exordium or end of Ezekiel and Casaubon shews us That as in the ancient Church onely the faithfull were admitted to some certain Prayers so the Fathers distinguish'd the Doctrine into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which might be publish'd unto all and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those secrets which were not rashly to be evulged which neither in familiar Colloquies or Catechisms or Sermons they temerariously mentioned before Pagans Catechumens or any other not initiate and in this thing saith he agree all the Greek and Latine Fathers ad unum omnes and some of them do bottom this use upon that very place of Matth. 7.6 And from hence resulted that usual form especially used in mentioning the one or other Sacrament Norunt initiati quod dicitur which is to be found at least fifty times in Chrysostome and not much fewer in Augustine And as Casaubon tells us out of Dionysius that none not initiated were admitted to see the Administration of Baptism so it is evident out of the Monuments of Antiquity Albasp l. 2. obs 22. p. 315. obs 23. p. 327. L. 2. obs 1. p. 190. that to whom they divulged the mystery of the Eucharist to them they exhibited the use thereof and to whom they thought not fit to administer it to them they deemed it not expedient to publish it The Church saith Albaspinus took order during their instructing the Catechumens Ut iis interea nihil de sacramentorum arcanis aperiret And in another place he tells us Catechumenos saluberrimis Christianae religionis praeceptis omissâ omni mysteriorum sacramentorum mentione imbuerent and therefore they went out not onely before the Administration but also before the explication of the Mysteries When it was objected to Athanasius by his Enemies that he had irreverently broken the Mystical Cup he in his Apology heavily accuseth them that they had not blushed to discourse of the Mystery of the Lords Supper before Catechumens and Ethnicks and when Celsus scornfully hereupon called Christian Religion A clandestine Doctrine Origen answers That the most of their Heads of Doctrine were publickly delivered and if some were not generally communicated to all the Christians were therefore no more to be reprehended than the Heathen Philosophers who divided their Learning into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were brought forth to all and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were confined within their own School The learned Grotius also shews out of Clemens Alexandrinus that Chaldaei Hebraei Aegyptii Annot. in Matth. 7.6 vetustissimi sapientiae professores praecepta sua tradebant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and indeed as the Apologists have told us of the Proeul 6 procul ite profani whereby the Heathen excluded flagitious persons from their Sacrifices Rosinus antiq Rom. l. 2. p. 195. so we could return that they onely commmunicated their mysterious Doctrines also to such as were initiate whence Mysterium dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est es claudere So as then all being not held capable of hearing the Word preached aswell as some were not of the Sacrament it were consonant to their Principles to have examined who were or not and consequently there might seem to be a parity of reason for a probation previous to admission unto the one Ordinance aswell as the other The Sacrament is a Seal of Faith therefore say they There must triall be made of their faith 1 Cor. 14.22 that are to receive it and hath it not equal force in the consequence to argue prophecying
Controversies Chamier and reade him direct and express for this point citing both the confession of the French Church Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 1. 2. and Calvin as witnessing to the truth hereof and whereas Calvin affirms that God works by the Sacraments as by Instruments but by a force internal and intrinsick to himself and not passing forth from himself into the Sacraments Chamier tells us That this is the very state of the controversie with what ingenuity then could a great Champion of the opposite opinion among other Divines muster up both Calvin and Chamier to be on his part and in what sense all the other testimonies cited by him were meant judge by this one that where he argueth that the Sacraments being by their definition signes cannot be causes of what they signifie neither are the things signified the effects of the Sacrament he cites Chamier as adstipulating to that assertion quia ut efficientia toto genere suo differt à significatione c. Whereas Chamier urgeth that Argument not to disprove all efficiency of the Sacrament but inhaerentem sibi efficaciam which are his express words in his entry into that Ninth Chapter a very few lines before the words cited so as the Reciter imposeth upon us with a fallacy à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter as if Chamier denying one kinde of efficiency denyed all and the same answer may be given to his other alleaged testimonies which are in the same sense to be understood This puts me in minde of Nugnus the Dominican who disputing against the Jesuits in the Controversies concerning Predestination Grace and Free-will he tels them They will rack men to witness for them though evidently known to be of another judgment which made him say he feared they would deal so with him too when he was dead notwithstanding his express opposition to them of all our Divines that I know C. 8. p. 139. learned Whitaker hath gone farthest concerning the efficacy of the Sacraments who in his Answer to Dury the Jesuit to close with Peace yet not check with Truth doth thus express himself Si Alani sententiam amplecteris eam ego minimè reprehendam sic enim ille de hac causa scribit Gratiam in anima hominis Deus operatur per Sacramenta tanquam per instrumentalem causam non alia ratione nec minùs verè quà m homo dicitur scribere per calamum scriptio verò adds Whitaker non includitur in calamo sed calamo ad eam rem apto instituto scribitur ità Deus per Sacramenta sua tanquam media organa gratiam in nobis efficit tamen Sacramenta gratiam in se nullam includunt So he which is more than the Franciscans would concede to the Dominicans at the Council of Trent Lastly let it be thought upon what advantage is given to the Socinians and Anabaptists by this Thesis that the Sacraments have onely a signifying power and virtue and onely to confirm Faith and not to conferre Grace for frustrate and supervacaneous shall the Administration thereof prove where is neither actual Faith to receive confirmation nor understanding to apprehend what they signifie Thus long have I staid like the Samaritan to put Wine and Oyl into the wounds of this Truth which I found wounded in my way but shall leave it with the two pence which some expound the two Testaments to be better cured by others and go on my journey Last of all let us take one prospect farther and upon view make triall whether the motives used to perswade the Administration of the Lords Supper and the Retentives applied to keep men from deserting the participation thereof when by a male-administration of Discipline either through negligence or corruption wicked men are admitted cannot also be as apt and proper and suitable to the same ends and purposes generally in mix'd Congregations and where Discipline is not at all established or for weighty Reasons cannot be executed They tell us in that former case that we joyn not with wicked men but they with us that for us to joyn with sinfull men in sinful matters would bring guilt upon us but if some bad men will joyn with us in good matters it proves no prejudice to us To celebrate the Lords Supper is in it self exceeding good if others that ought not will come and goe as farre with us as the outward act it is evil to them but none to us having to our power opposed their presence which power we are elsewhere taught to be admonishing reproving and mourning c. We are farther bid to take heed that we neglect not an undoubted duty to escape an uncertain danger a peril merely supposed will not warrant the omitting of a practice cleerly imposed O bracteata verba whereupon I shall make no long reflection but briefly say that great is the truth and will prevail and onely ask whether this breath blow not away all their former similitudes and arguments Whether this be not herbam dare to give up the cause and flight or quit their strongest holds and like Penelope to untwist her own Web and to become like an Eagle struck down with an Arrow feathered from her own Wing as was Julian's Motto Propriis configimur alis for now Nescio quo pacto vox tua facta mea est Onely if they shall interpose that in male-administration of discipline somewhat is yet done and onely some few evil men are admitted but in non-establishment or non-execution thereof nothing is effected and many more doe intrude to the Holy Table I answer that as magìs minùs non variant speciem so the multitude or paucity cannot give form though it may degrees to the quality of the action in the one case or another if it be evil to admit or communicate with many hypocrites or wicked men it is also evill to doe it though but with a few such and the evil is greater because done by them who are always so much the worse by how much more they pretend to be better and by the help of Discipline established have the means to conduct things better but let such Discipline be established so that where and when they please it may be exercised and then it seemes it is nothing so perilous or placular though some be admitted or communicated with as unworthy as those that now are repelled Truly the reflection upon those and the like passages is that which tempts some circumspect men to suspect that the Silver-Smith is still at his Work-house for his Diana quisquis amat ranam ranam putat esse Dianam whose Arguments though hammered at the Forge have more energy and influence than those which are borrowed from the Schools and such Topicks beyond all Apodicticks DEFENCE SECT XVI The removing the scandalous by the power of the Keyes no Ingredient of our question nor any part of the Discipline which they practise What scandals may deprive of the Sacrament
those Tares to be Emblems of wicked and scandalous men Ad zizania reseruntur omnia scandala saith Hierom scandala tum doctrinae tum vitae as Piscator agreeing in sense with Beza the children of the wicked one that is Hereticks Schismaticks Hypocrites wicked and profane men living in the Church as the late Annotations out of Theophylact Euthymius Augustine when beyond all those we have better testimony from the Word and Truth Christ himselfe interpreting this parable who expoundeth the Tares to be the children of the wicked one and them which doe iniquity which is too comprehensive to be restrained onely to hypocrites and seeing that which the Angell-reapers shall gather at the last great harvest is the same that the servants discerned to be tares and would precipitously have pluckt up that being expressly said to be scandals in the originall and the same word is retained by the vulgar and Tremelius and Offendicula whereby others render it is the same in sense though not in sound those Tares must be concluded to be scandals and though they come near Christians bearing the name and owning the profession and therein indeed like believers yet they may be distinguished from sincere Christians otherwise they could not be scandals and though they may be denominated hypocrites in a large and generall notion because their actions give the lye unto their profession In Ecclesia Christi ficte intrantes promittentes non facientes voventes non reddentes renunciantes malo iterum idem facientes as Augustine yet the falsity of that profession and the difference thereof from their actions was as discernable as the Tares from the Wheat But it seemes the Apologists will allow none to be in the Church save such onely who appeare to be godly and will cast out all whom they dscern not to be sincere he that had imbibed the Philosophy of Pythagoras would suspect the souls of the Donatists had made a transmigration into their bodies for had they with Aethalides been dispenc'd with for drinking of Lethe they might have said with Pythageras remembring when he was first Aethalides and after Euphorbus Cognovi clypeum lâ—vae gestamina nostrae and have owned the Shield of this answer for the same with that of the Donatists Contra Donat. post Collat. c. 8 p. 123. tom 7. or very like it who being prest by the Catholicks with arguments drawn from those similitudes chose to answer to that of the net gathering of every kind malos in Ecclesia usque in finem seculi permixtos esse confessi sunt sed occultos cos esse dixerunt quoniam sic à sacerdotibus ignorantur quemadmodum pisces intra retia cum adhuc in mari sunt à piscatoribus non videntur to whom Augustine the then speaker of the Lords house his Church replies C. 10. Propterea ergo arcae comparata ost ut etiam manifesti malicum bonis in ea pronunciarentur futuri neque enim palea quae in area est permixta frumentis etiam ipsa sub fluctibus latet quae sic omnium oculis est conspicua ut potiùs occulta sint in ea frumenta cum sit ipsa manifesta As also in that Conference where were 306 orthodox Bishops Brevical Col. lat 3. die tom 7 p. 118. Quamvis debeat vigilare Ecclesiastica disciplina ad eos non solum verbis sed etiam excommunicationibus degradationibus corripiendos Contr. Donat. post Collat. c. 10. and no fewer than 296 of the Donatists it was asserted that iâ— was not destructive to discipline nor incompatible with the watchfulnesse therof for correption of evill men not onely by words but also by excommunications although mali non solum in ea latentes nesciantur sed plerunque propter pacem unitatis etia neogniti toleremur and therefore this glosse being in the judgment of the ancient Church so corruptive of the text Augustine tells them Quanto melius seipsos corrigant quam Euangelia sancta pervertunt ad vanum suae mentis errorem eloquia dominica detorquere conantur Though the beauty of holiness which like the Sun gilds those that look toward him though with squint eyes may give some specious advantages to those Declamations which are made against mixt communions as spots to that beauty yet this is rather paint or colour laid on than any true beauty and as they say the use of the artificiall fucus despoils the native candor so reall spots are contracted by those assayes to cleanse the imaginary and by those separations to make the Church more pure it becomes nimio candore deformis propter venustatem invenusta and the face of the Church more blemished by being made not onely lean and hollow and withered but also defective in many integrall parts and were they all onely parts superfluous yet is there more peril in their removall than their remaining as Chirurgions tell us that sometimes the cutting off of a Mole as an alloy to beauty hath occasioned the cutting off of life It is a grave censure given by Calvin that Augustinus redivious cum sub studio perfectionis imperfectionem nullâ—m tolerare possumus in corpore aut in membris Ecclesiae tunc diabolum nos tumefacere superbia hypocrisi seducere moneamur What was the judgement of the ancient Church in this case of mixt communion may be seen by the verdict of Augustine who in the Controversies with the Donatists as well as in the contests with the Pelagians was the Foreman to say for them and that judgment as it was never reverst in after Ages by any Writ of Error so it is as direct to our issue as can be conceived for we have heard expressly that evill men are to be permixt with good in the Church till the great day of judgement and in one congregation in una Congregatione and not onely in hearing the same word of God idem verbum Dei simul audiunt but also communione sacramentorum they receive the same sacraments paria sacramenta tractantes simul Dei sacramenta percipiunt not onely participating of the one Sacrament of Baptisme but also of the other of the Supper of the Lord De verb. apost serm 23. tom 7. p. 76. Cont. Donat. post coll c. 20 p. 125. tom 7 quid si communicares cum illo malo mensam Domini and omnes ad unum altare accedebant and they did eat panem Domini and drink calicem Domini and those evil men are not latent or undetected hypocrites but known to be evill etiam cogniti and manifest evil manifesti mali and this is as full and as express as can be wished or imagined so that as the Fathers in a Councill against the Pelagians formed their Canons out of the very words of Augustine so we in this controversie need say no more than he hath said before us for us and as he that to avoyd the shot of an enemy took up his son in his
repentance as to give over the using all probable means that may reclaim him as Hammond paraphraseth therfore Ames upon this sole ground that charity thinketh no evil layeth the foundation of that conclusion that doubtfull things concerning persons are to be interpreted in the better part and Rivet inferres that evil suspitions though they break not out into full judgement are condemned by the Law because charity which is the end of the Law is not suspitious as appears 1 Cor. 13.5 and how then can it suite with this eulogy of charity or be conformable to this character to suppose and believe the worst of so many rather than to hope the best and to have them in suspition when of all doubtless it cannot be a violent suspition and for all of them there cannot be vehement signes to warrant it and when of the most or a considerable multitude their condition can at most be but doubtful yet to interpret that doubt in the worst part and to improve and pursue that suspition so as to suspend them of the Sacrament till the light of further triall have dispeld this cloud of suspition under which they lie for ignorance or sinfulness and in the interim to frustrate them of that means which might make them better and to renounce the hope that they may be imbettered by it even when the conversation of very many if not the most holds forth nothing that might be obstructive to such hope if they be charitable why do they suspect so much believe and hope so little Vt quisque est vir optimus ita alios sui fimiles facile suspicatur onely evil dispositions are of evil suspitions as to eyes vitiated with the yellow jaundice all things appear yellow and in this sense also quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis If they suspect not why do they seek to make such trials and researches of men for who makes any inquisitive examination for discovery of that which he hath not some doubt and suspition of this was that which the paper sought to be satisfied of fari jubet responsa reposcit Ordine cuncto suo Quaerenti talibus Illi The particulars of 1 Cor. 13.7 are in the judgement of the learned to be referred to God not man I wish the Apologists which are so eager to examine others did better know how to express themselves that we needed not so often to examine them of their sense and meaning so ambiguously do they here deliver themselves as to leave it as flexible to a construction that God believeth and hopeth all things as that a charitable man or charity concretively believeth and hopeth all that is to be believed of God and hoped from him But because we are perswaded the Apologists are no way sowred with the leven of Vorstius and because the later sense is that which is delivered by the Interpreter they quote we shall so also understand them and concede that several Expositors especially the Latines of the middle ages do so expound it but they are notwithstanding born down by a stronger current of Interpreters and ciearly outshined by the light of that truth naturally beaming from the context and though the Apologists have a Velleity yet they have no will to contradict it They deny therefore that they are without hope of all or suspect all And that may be a truth if there be but one whom they hope well of and suspect not but do they not suspect the most and the far greatest part of their people else why do they not admit them till probation have cleared up and set them out of suspition And however the general rule may have sâ—me exception and whatever blanch they give to their trial of some particular persons whom they say they examine to be examples to others not to take satisfaction to themselves yet the general reason whereupon that examination is bottomed is a suspition and unsatisfiedness they have of men and those few are brought forth to be tried to give a slide unto and to facilitate the triall of the rest and so in the last resolution and remote and mediate impulsive suspition is the cause of their probation also and is causa causae quia causati And if they suspect not all yet if that suspition of some be not violent or the signes vehement it is as sinfull to suspect their people distributively as well as collectively for eadem estratiopartium torius as sinfull aeque though not aequaliter the same formall and intensive sin though not the same gradually and extensively and though a probable suspition may warrant a triall and a Metaphysicall evidence as Suarez speaks be not alwayes necessary whereupon to give judgment in morall things yet a morall certainty is pre-requisite for censuring any to be debarrred the Sacrament and the crime that shall merit it must be publick and notorious and so consequently be past an ordinary or probable suspition Such as are removed beyond suspition of ignorance are examined say they 1. For example to others but they that professe to be satisfied with nothing but Scripture might have remembred that omnis homo exse aestimat alterum and conceiving us be of the like principle they should have therefore offered us some precept or example out of Scripture for examining such as are elevated above all doubt of ignorance onely to bring in those of a lower Form for so they phrase it If when persons of greater elevation in the world may probably be suspected to be grossly ignorant of the things of God they had called such under examination for example and encouragement of those which are of lower station yet obnoxious to the like suspition this were free from exception and worthy of commendation but when there is transitio à genere in genus that knowing men must be brought under the discipline to endear it and to make it more receptible with the ignorant this is to do an apparent wrong to some that others may appear not to be wronged and calls to my remembrance the history which Seneca relates of Piso who though he were à multis vitiis integer yeâ— being one cui placuit pro constantia rigor and having condemned a Souldier upon suspition to have slain his fellow whom he brought not back and upon the point of execution his fellow returning and the Centurion bringing both back to Piso to manifest the innocency of the condemned person Piso as if the extending and multiplying the injustice could lessen the odium thereof condemnes not onely those two but the Centurion also because his commands ought not to be disputed whether right or wrong Honestior illi pertinacia videtur quam poenitentia which that can warrant a notional examination give it any firm root is a suspition lest men should be ignorant as that which can warrant and support excommunication are crimes notorious obstinately continued in after admonition if therefore they will examine and suspend untill they
hath made good Governours to create the worst presidents and if in this one this were commendable and exemplar why do they not all follow the patterne not onely toward such as have ascended to eminent degrees of knowledge but in some degree to those also who have stept above the flat of this puny and elementary tractation unless like the Athonians in the Theater they know what is just and fit to be done but can be content the Lacedaemonians should do it But what can this select example pretend to Eiâ—her that he was like King Steâ—hen and Richard the third of whom our Cronicles say that they moderately used that power which they usurped or else that he deserved such thanks as Anytus said Alcibiades did merit for taking but a part when he might have catcht all Or else that he did onely receave with a particular complement him whom their general command had laid hold of and brought unto such submission as the Lord we know did yet use to kiss his tenant when he hâ—d constrained him to kneele uncovered with his hands jointly together between the hands of the Lord and so to do him homage Did he disclaime the principle that all must come to be examined Did he plainly profess and constantly practice to call none but such as were under just suspition of ignorance If otherwise all this was but mendax humilitas as Hierom onely a Nolumus Episcopari as is the mockery of the Canon a dissembling to be willing to do that which was his drift and designe to have done a looking one way and rowing another and is but as if that Indian serpent which Niâ—remberg mentions when by his breath he forcibly drâ—wes a goodly Stagg into his mouth should turn his head aside when he takes in his prey to swallow it In expressing That they honor the Graces above the Muses they recite what one said of the present estate of Oxford That there had been more Muses heretofore but never so many Graces I could repay them with the saying of another That the present Graces to the former Muses hold the same proportion that the Graces dee to the Muses which is Three to Nine but when ever that famous University is any way to commence I shall not dare to deny her Grace and if that which they repeat be not historicall I wish it may prove propheticall and that her present Graces were multiplied by her former Muses and her modern Muses by the number of her ancient Graces and however yet for my part I should rather dormire Mâ—coenati and abhor with Nero to dissect my mother lest the womb where I lay might not prove so fair as I expected They found no occasion to discusse and we see no reason to determine Whether the Shekel of the Sanctuary were greater or lesse than the common though we suppose both to be equall which they forget to consider of though they might have been prompted to it by A. Lapide if they had looked no further in the place they quote and that it was called the Shekel of the Sanctuary because kept there as in a safe and sacred place to be the Standard whereby the common Shekels were to be weighed and tryed as at Rome the Amphora of the Capitol was that which was there reserved to the like ends But whether the common Shekel that of the Sanctuary were of equall or different weight and price it matters not since an Allegory may be bottom'd upon a common opinion of things and requires not a precise truth to found it on and to deny this liberty were to make destruction in the Sylva Allegoriarum to root up a great part of Sylva Moralium Sanctius in Isaiam c. 13. v. 5. n. 11. It is the Rule of a learned Commentator that the Scripture it selfe accommodates its speech oftentimes not to the truth of things but opinion of men which he demonstrates by severall instances and more might be added as Psal 5.8.4 and 5. Eccles 10.11 c. But I think it nâ—iâ—her suits with truth nor common opinion what they seem to imply That there were any Shekels of Iron or Brasse or Gold though some pieces of either of those metaâ—s and so also other commodities might weigh a Shekel or be a piâ—ce of so many Shekels as a Shekel had its name from Shakel to weigh or put into the ballance but a Shekel as a gold or brasse coyn there was none so called none but of silver but whether there were any such or not yet sure the Bells of Aaron were neither to be of sounding Brasse nor hard and dul Iron But this is dolor ubi digitus they cannot take it for currant payment that any common Shekel should be greater than that of the Sanctuary this is insufferable and not to be allowed to passe at their beam for if the one scale rise up the other will as much go down Pompey can endure no equall Caesar no superior Ille sapit solus volitant alii velut umbrae As the vulgar Muscovites say The great Duke knowes all and as the Pasquil said That the King of Spain had gelded and devested all others of their honorable titles that he alone might be most high Nil majus generatur ipso Nec viget quicquam simileaut secundum so some men must be as the Phaeâ—ix that hath no other of the same kind For envy is alwayes the proper passion of pride Estius in 2. Sent. c. 6. sect 4. for dum affectus alicujus tendit in aliquid â—ppetendum consequenter renititur opposito id est ciper quod impediatur ab co quod appetit assequendo dum ergo quis a petit excellentiam singularem quod est superbâ—ae staim reniti ur excellentiae alienae taâ—quam suae excellentiae quam singularem esse vult impedimentum objiâ—ienti and therefore there is aliquod malum propter vicinum bonum as the arbor Tristis sheds all his flâ—wers and seems withered at the rise of the Sun Claro invidens tabescit obscurus videns But why should it be odious in us to propound such an Hypothesis when they acknowledge that it is possible that the Pastor may be exceeded in learning and gifts by some of his Congregation and themselves make an ostent of an example of one that confest he had need to be taught of an eminent person under him which I hope was neither lying humility nor complementall hypocrisie onely perchance they may be of like mind with Cardinal Langius that what Luther said was true but it was not to be suffered that such a fellow as he should have to doe with it But the allusion they say every one sees reflects on the particular Ministers rather none can see it not those to whom it is visible that those Ministers fall short of the parts of some of their congregations none but only they to whom my brest is diaphanous and my heart transparent but from my herat I professe that without
a greater number of persons at Pyworthy fit and willing to receave the Sacrament than might have been found at Holsworthie and it will seem strange to us that where there hath been a succession of topicall Starrs of greater magnitude that there should be still less light and less effects of a quickning and fructifying influence neither can it but eclipse the dignity of those Starrs seeing causes are best judged by their effects But perchance they were only not so fit or willing to come to the Sacrament in their way and to leave their liberty behind them surrendring up that right which they had to the Sacrament by the character of Baptisme and being Church members with a Dogmatical faith to take a new grant thereof by the copy of their countenance and a tenancy at their wills and when the Statute Quia emptores terrarum forbids the creating of new civill tenures to suffer them to erect new holdings in Spirituals Their pulpit discourses were directed onely to dispose them for this way of subjection and for their ends not for the right end the Sacrament But secondly If they at Pyworthie were more malleable free stones and easier to be wrought yet seeing the stones whereof this Church was to be built and constituted were drawn forth out of several places and were brought first to be formed and fashioned at Holsworthie and some of them hewed out of that rock why should they be carried thence to be laid in Pyworthie Quod petis hic est Ut U lubris animus si te non deficit aequus As St. Hierom said Heaven was as neer Britain as Jerusalem so they had been as neer to Christ in the Sacrament in the one place as in the other He was the master Architect of the frame at Pyworthie who first prepared for the edifice at Holsworthie Ubi Imperiator ibi Roma Vejas habitante Camillo Illic Roma fuit that was the more signal place why should Pyworthie be the Patriarchal or Metropolitan Church and as I may say the Rome from which Church all must be denominated of what place soever they were and Catholique must be joyned to Roman or else it is not right so they must be named of the Church of Pyworthie of whatsoever Congregation else they be and why should this be so especially seeing the Pontisex maximus that hath the greatest influence upon the members of the Church was the proper Pastor of another place unless also that be here applicable in the resemblance which Bellarmine tell us that the Apostolical seate may be separated from the Bishoprick of Rome and what Cameracensis saith that the Papacy and Bishoprick of Rome are two distinct things and not so necessary conjoyned but that they may be separated There might be some reasons of thrift in the conduct thereof which is a principle that hath more influence upon those of the Independent principles than on the more hospitable Presbyterians or of Policy that their own peculiar Churches might be kept for a reserve and to be modelled according to the mode of the time and exigence of emergencies for whereas they talk of their being a Church formed at Pyworthie in the choice of a Pastor c. as they were the efficients by whom and the matter of which it was formed so though at their first sitting down there was a Pastor duly I think ordained yet when he removed his quarters the phrase is not improper he that next assumed that charge was not for divers years after in Orders and all that while sure they had no Church formed there according to the rules of Gods Word in the choice of an appropriate Pastor c. and therefore then not to have reverted to their proper Congregations and rechurched them is without excuse Thirdly Since there are some of every of their own peculiar Congregations aggregated into their catholick Church at Pyworthie had it not been not onely more orderly and decent but more just and necessary to have modelled them into special and proper Churches at home where their proper work lay and which was the spheare wherein they ought to move and the Sparta which they should adorne and though by a figurative polygamy â—hey have taken another wife and the later is beloved and the former hated yet since the first borne sonne was hers that was hated he should not have been disinherited but have had his double portion and If these Churches would perchance at first have been diminutive yet should they have been augmentatives of their honor and peace which as they complaine doe suffer for neglect hereof I fuge sed poteris tutior esse domi and those little Churches have been likelier to grow by apposition of parts contiguous the corporeal contact facilitating the agents in assimilating and the sticks lying in the same pile easily kindling one the other which they cannot do being separated As opportunity sometime tempts to evill so also often doth it prompt to good and though Bellarmine have falsely thought That the only efficacy of discriminating grace consists in the annexed congruity or as Fonseca the due application thereof yet it is a truth that the external means of grace are more effectual by the congruous and fit application thereof and the circumstances of convenient place and facility of resort have some conducency to that congruity and fitness for wise men have been taught by experience to conclude that what is little in the cause may be great in the effect and consequent and the day of small things is not to be despised They deny that they had a competent number for the work but they leave us to divine what they judge to be a competency Suarez 3 q. 8. art 6. disp 67. sect 5. Item Vasquez Junius Eccles l. 1 c. 4. tom 1. p. 1936. Maimonides saith Where ten men of Israel were there ought to be built a Synanagogue for they determine it not The Schoole tells that ten suffice to make up a Parochial Church and this is also the judgement of the Canonists the Independents contract it to seven and think so few may constitute a Church Ecclesia saith Junius Grammaticis quoque testibus vox est sylleptica quae non unum aliquem spectat sed plùres complectitur divinitus in unum Caetum in privatis quoque domibus Ecclesia ita vocat Apostolus Rom. 16.5 1 Cor 16.19 sed ea constat ex familia justa in qua non minùs tribus animis esse oportere omnes noverunt Oeconomi ac omnes Philosophi Jurisconsulti docuerunt Correspondently Tertullian Vbi tres sunt ibi est Ecclesia neither of them unsuitably to what the Lord Christ hath promised Where two or three are gathered together in his name that he will be in the midst of them There was a Church in Paradise where there were but two persons and they had Sacraments there for such was the Tree of Life and I suppose that to help forward the
saving and supporting but of one soule is a matter of more honor and comfort than to engage and lead a Sect. I know they had some of them at least more than three in their appropriate Congregations that were sealed with their approbation for the Sacrament why then was it not administred to them at home I hope they can give spirituall Alms without sounding a Trumpet and are not like the Nightingall which they say cannot sing well unlesse she be over-heard or as they say of the Tortoyse that she hatcheth her Eggs with her eyes so others eyes I trust are not that onely which must quicken and bring forth their duties First they suppose it No great matter that is required for men to goe out of their Parishes to participate the Sacrament In Epist ad Ephes c. 3. serm 14. Seneca but saith Chrysostom Propter hoc magnum est malum quod nihil esse videtur etenim quae nihil esse videntur facile contemnuntur qâ—ae vero contemnuntur augentur ae multiplicantur etiam quae autem augentur redduntur â—â—iam incurabilia and therefore upon this account the great Moralist adviseth Non negligere minimum ne siâ—tibi inter minima Not to remind them of a frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora when a necessary obedience and submission is exacted in that which they have no power to enjoyn and others have no obligation to observe his dat qui cito dat it creates a president and begets an encouragement to command more and greater things and he that once quits his Free-hold to be a Tenant at will though at first he may fit at an easie rate may at length be enforsed to raise his rent and hold upon such terms as his Landlord please or lose his Tenement Quae nunc virgulta sunt crunt si negligantur robora ista quae modo facili avuâ—sione dirimantur postea vix securibus succumbunt saith Cassiodor Secondly they think it no evill no not in appearance for them to require it An appearance of no little confidence and no great ingenuity however they may struggle to prove it not to be such in realiâ—y yet who can deny and not first send a denyall to Modesty that it hath an appearance First levati Altaris or of a schismaticall separation of themselves from a sacramentall communion with their peculiar Churches And whereas they say they are joyned to the society of a Church formed in one of their congregations that doth not stave off or frustrate the appearance of schismaticall separation for else the Donatists might have cleared themselves thereof by the like defence saying that though they divided themselves from other Churches yet they adjoyned to the Churches formed in their congregations to wit those of Parmenian Petilian Gaudentius Emeritus c. 2. It hath an appearance of Allotrio-episcopacy of being busie in other mens Diocesses and incurious and negligent in their own And which also appears to be a desertion of their old Spouses and seeking after new Loves Thirdly Of Injustice 1. toward their peculiar and appropriate Churches to whom they doe not the office yet from them receive the Benefice 2. Cum Episcopo portionem plebis dividere l. à pastore oves filios à parente separare which Cyprian condemns in Felieissimus epist 38 p. 90. Toward other Ministers whose sheep they allure to stray away to enlarge their fold Fourthly of breach of that Canon whose observation was kept up so religiously in the ancient Church that none should communicate in another Church without the Formed and Communicatory letters of his own Pastor Fifthly Of violation of order established in the defining and limiting appropriate Churches Sixthly of transgression of that Rule of Righteousness Quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris for I know they would regret another to put his sickle into their crop though they make up their harvest of other mens corn and therefore unless that must seem good in them which appears evill in others as Quod in alio audacia suerit in Catone fiducia erat this must needs have an appearance of evill Though they proclaim that they are likely to walk in that society to which they are joyned till they see truth and reason against them yet incoherently they professe that they have still resolved to return to their places as to this Ordinance when a competent number shall appear fit and willing to carry on so great a work And then it seems more light hath arose upon them and some Collyrium hath cleared their eyes to see the truth and reason against them and perchance as Epaminondas told the Spartans after the battell at Leuctra That he was glad they were brought now to make long speeches so some such like occasion may have brought their Prolocu or to return and carry back the Sacrament with him to his proper Church that hath so long stood under Interdict and to say expressly that all is Null which was done at Pyworthy yet I doe not find the number increased of those that are visibly fit and willing more than at the first nor hath he yet to this day taken into participation above one more at home than followed him abroad so as he might have at first found as competent a number as he hath since made if not a greater number since it is possible that some perchance may have found some more irritation and animosities by having all this while been left lying under contempt and neglect As Pyrrhus in the judgment of Cyneas might have been as happy before he left Epyrus as he could expect to be after he had traversed Italy conquered Sicily and Africk so I think they might have found the work as facible and their undertakings as successfull before their going out from them as they are like to do upon their coming back If their return be upon the score of resipiscence far be it from me to be such an one as Beza complains of Hic homo invidet mihi gratiam Jesu Christi but if it be upon any other acccount or if when they are come home to their Congregations they yet come not home to the ancient Ecclesiastick discipline but onely Coelum non animum mutant I shal say as the Turk did to Gentlemen whom he saw walking severall turns up and down a Cloyster Are you out of your way or out of your wits If your businesse lye here why go you thither If it be there why come you here and I shall conclude Levis est malitia sapè mutatur non in melius sed in aliud In what account they set their people and how they are obliged to them for their good thoughts and report is very legible in those blots wherewith their pen hath here asperst them putting their non-compliance with their way upon the score of their worldly fear doubting state-changes want of zeale and boldness in the matters of God and for worse reasons
produced for what they slight in others viz. Rhetorick and for such it may pass by a favourable interpretation Rhetorick in her old clothes and homely dress being in truth words of vanity without any great swelling and al populum but scarce Phaleras But upon an Anclysis and reduction to argument of what is packt up we may find them in conspiracy with almost the whole knot and pack of fallacles Upon ignoratio clenchi dasheth all their discourse concerning the power of casting out of the scandalous for this is not the thing in question because it is not their way or practice who content not themselves onely with removing such nor are any of those whom they exclude consured for scandal As at Delphos usurpatum ut cultro quo diis immolabant de nocentibus supplicium sumerent so it shall be an acceptable service to God when they offer this spiritual sacrifice by censure to exclude such as are scandalous for notorious sins obstinately persisted in truncentur artus Ut liceat reliquis securum vivere membris but yet we cannot patient those qui per calumnias criminum alienorum sacrilegium sui schismatis excusant and therefore we inquire into the justice of the censure and the mode thereof and ask meruit quo nomine scrvus Quis testis adest quis detulit audi Nulla unquam de hac morte hominis cunctatio lovga est and we fear to grant that a visible unworthiness is a sufficient ground for exclusion when their eyes onely however the organ may be distempered must try that visiblenesse and that alone must be unworthinesse which they account such when perchance of the same counters one may stand for one and the other for an hundred according to the place wherein they shall please to set them or when the medium may be onely rumors and reports Cont lit Petil l. 3. c. 59. for not onely Quintilian warns us in rumore cujus probationes cujus argumenta non habes calumniae genus est primâ—m mcredere but Augustine also admonisheth neminem rectè judicari puto nocentem qui hominem non convictâ—m crediderit innecentem and we think he determined likewise with as much piety as prudence concerning such power in omnibus tenendus est modus aptus humanitati congruus charitati ut nec totum quod potestis exeratur mansuetudo monstretur Contr. Crescon l 3. c. 5.1 ubi vero nulla ex divinis humaxisque legibus poâ—estas conâ—editur nihil improbè atque impudenter audeatur And under this head we may incorporate what they suggest of the holinesse and purity that should be in the Church which looks altogether beside their scope who dispute not for the holinesse of the members of the Church therein not coming sully up to their Independent brethren but for the purity of those that communicare of the Sacrament and retain those as Church members whom they exclude from the holy Table and to prove that such holiness ought to be if they argue from the holiness of the Camp where was to be no unclean thing I suppose by proportion of this reason they should conclude to eject out of the town those also whom they repell from the Sacrament And because Discipline is necessary and profitable in the Church therefore to conclude the necessity and utility of theirs and that because there is requisite some separation of the scandalous from them by censure therefore they may separate from such as are not censured to be scandalous and that because we have covenanted to endevour a reformation and establishment of Discipline according to Gods word therefore we must submit unto and co-operate in advancing their Ecclesiastick Oeconomy All these are Paralogismes à genere ad speciem affirmativè and fallacies à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter and also fallaciae consequentis and is as if because both the harlots had children therefore the dead child must be sentenced to be laid in the bosome of her that was mother of the living or the living to be given to her that had over-laid her son To non causa pro causa and petitio principii is reducible what they say of the good effects which the excrecise of their discipline will produce and the evill consequences which the want thereof would introduce and this concelt is not onely like that of the Siennois which Laurentius speaks of who supposed his making water would save the town when it was on fire but would have drowned it if he should have shed it at another time but also hath somewhat in it of Cambyses who would have Praexaspes to commend his skill in Archery when he shot his son at the heart or like the daughter of Appius Caecus who being troubled with the crowd at the Theater for her ease wished that her brother were alive again to have carried them to be slaughtered at Sicily And under petitio principii also falls almost all those Harangues That the Sacrament only belongs to the godly whom they call Real Souls as if the souls of hypocrites were fictitious as wel as their holiness That free admission of such as are not scandalous justly censured for such is to be prodigall of Christs blood and to crosse the desires of the godly and actings of the State and to degenerate from the primitive patern Tha the troubles and contentions attending upon their courses are the effects of mens lusts onely not of their actings with the rest of that bold strain and those brasse stamps And after all their boasting of the clear prooss of their mode of discipline and specious pretences to engage men to submit thereunto yet so frequently to beg the question is to hazard the contracting of such a censure on their way as hath been cast upon Chymistry Principium est jactare medium decipere finis mendicatumire There be some things wherein they answer for us and therefore we must rather second than contradict Vereor ne quisquam in hoc opere nostro scriptorem arbitretur orrasse illic fecisse Petilianus dixit ubi debuit facere Augustinus respondit they say the wicked eat papanem Domini not panem Dominum But I think eâ—eâ—y man wil see that they could not eat the bread of the Lord if they must not be suffered to approach at the Table They tell us that Men upon good grounds to be admitted are supposed godly in the judgement of charity and if upon such judgement of charity they are admissible why do they trouble us with their probations to get a judgement of verity Charity thinketh no evill believeth all things and presumeth every man to be good that is not manifestly wicked But when they have dictated that to say bare profession without evidence of the seriousnesse thereof is enough to make the Church to own men for members is in their conceit not to speak soundly As their bare imagination without reason is not strong and mastering enough to bind and
dico nisi de eo tantùm qui in se quod dico esse agnoscit si enim extra conscientiam suam sunt quaecunque dico nequicquam ad injuriam ejus spectant cuncta quaedico si autem in se esse novit quae loquor non à mea sibi hoc lingua dici aestimet sed à conscientia sua but I not onely hope but am assured of better things of them however they are faulty so to suspect my meaning I am not culpable to insinuate any such suspicion but perhaps they would in this also be like the Donatists those among them called Circumcellions of whom St. Augustine tells us Cogunt eos quos in viis invenerint laethalia iis vulnera inferre so they will enforce me to would them whether I will or no and though I have as little cause as will to doe it in this particular They acknowledge repentance to be as necessary a disposition and qualification to receiving acknowledge and a part of examination to be that of repentance but when they should have answered our inference That then it carrieth equall reason to urge and practise a tryal of mens repentance antecedently to the Communion and that this must introduce as great a necessity of bringing men under confession as under their examination they keeping close to their familiar ignorantia elenchi which runs thorough all their discourse as the string of poyson doth thorough a Lamprey instead of answering whether it be universally and absolutely necessary doe onely tell us that Confession in a right and rectified manner and we fore-stalled them in these qualifications hath been and is practised in some difficult cases and they dislike it not And truly so much we shall say and grant them of their examination if they would require no more and let it be moderated and regulated as our Divines prescribe for Confession whereof Luther saith it is Utilis non necessaria Instit l. 3. c. 9. S. 12. debet esse libera nemo cogi wherein Calvin is Symphonous saying Si ita privatim angitur as flictatur peccatorum sensu ut se explicare nisi alieno adjutorio nequeat and adding iis tantùm modò commendetur Exam. conc Tri dent part 2. c. 5. qui eâ se opus habere intelligunt because as Chemnicius rationally asserts non est mandatum ut corda scrutentur so let their examination be proposed as profitable not imposed as necessary let it be somewhat of their prudence nothing of our bondage let it be exercised toward such as may justly be suspected of gross ignorance or exitious crimes for such a just suspicion onely is principium inquirendi as Vasquez speakes and others left free that are elevated above such suspicion and we shall be as perfectly reconciled to their examination as they or our Divines seem to be pacified toward confession But in the interim the Argument remains unshaken If repentance be as necessary a qualification to receiving and as essential a part of examination as knowledge then there is in order to communicating no less reason to introduce the discipline of confession than of examination if the one be set up the other must also be imposed if the one may be omitted the other may be laid aside if the one be but profitable to some the other is not necessary to all these two being like the subcelestial Gemini which appear ominously and unluckily the one without the other They assert their Principles in their separation and examination not to be Romish and we suppose by former instances we have demonstrated the contrary They profess to abhor the Church of Rome her ways and friends and to be able to maintain their cause without the Philistines forge however the Apologists may have a file for sharpning some of their Weapons yet in several subjects their main Armature was forged hammered out by the Popâ—sh Philistines for there was no Smith in Israel wont to own it Nevertheless they are no farther off from Popery than we are from any suspicion that they are thereunto affected one either practice or opinion gives not rise to a denomination But secondly we know though Saul had put away those that had familiar Spirits and Wizards out of the Land yet being in a strait and exigence he had recourse to one of them for counsel and I might say did I not doubt it might irritate that two Foxes though looking several ways may be conjoyned in a Fire-brand Thirdly besides that which is opposed directly may be farthered obliquely and by accident and some men may suppose they are in the way to Dothan when they are going to Samaria and suffer like delusion with those in Athenaeus who supposed themselves to be at Sea in a Tempest and casting out the Utensils of the house thought they had eased the ship of her luggage and were plying hard their Oars to attain their Port whereas all was but the effect of their cups and such Impostures may be occasioned by the golden Cup in the hand of the woman full of abominations though insensibly and unawares sip'd off as to make men dream they are doing one thing when they are acting another And as the Rabbins though vainly expounding Exod. 32.24 say that Aaron intended not to make a Calf but cast the golden Earings into the fire to consume them but by the operation of Sathan working by some Aegyptian Magitians in the Camp the form of a Calf came forth so it is neither impossible nor unusual for some proling men by over-witting and under-acting them to make their enemies unwittingly to drive on their designs and unwillingly advance their Interests as it was said of Pompey the Great Miscriâ nostrâ Magnus est so what sage man fears not that our divisions do more occasion and facilitate an union with that Kingdome which is not so much divided within it self and that not onely because the Trumpets must be of one peece that can call to the Assemblies but we see that water which is in an entire body is not so subject to the impressions of Air yet being scattered into drops is easily preyed upon and absorp'd by it and when a besieged City is set on fire the enemy who upon this account helps to blow and foment the flame may more easily enter and surprise it amidst our confusions And verely the unchurching of so many may make them more malleable to temptations to step aside into the Roman Church which is ready to spread her skirt over them in which respect he that put away his Church from this ordinance the Canon of the Nicene Councel saying Matrimonium inter Episcopum Ecclesiam esse contractum saving for the cause of fornication that is some noto rious sin causeth them to commit adultery or lastly in so little freedome to partake of the Ordinance and so great liberty to take up any wild and extravagant opinions truth and godliness may finally fall under such
an eclipse as the glimmering of that Popish gloworme may be a comfort in so great darkness and such an ignis fatuus followed as a guide when there is no better and upon this score perchance these cunning juglers like Boris of Muscovy clandestinely cause and help to set our houses on fire that they may get honor and power by rebuilding them Wisemen will finde these no idle feares nor groundless jealousies but as in that famous automaton the spheare of Cornelius Bezael there was an igneous spirit inclosed in the center thereof which caused the motion so time may discover that though some others are the maine spokes yet the fiery spirit of the Jesuits lying hidden in the center have wrought in this sphear these rotations and circumvolutions and it may too late appear that unadvisedly all this while we have plowed with Popish heyfers and after all our turning up and harrowing of the Church they may reape the harvest of all those sowings The paper recording the discipline of the ancient Church asserted That from the Communion as customarily and indeed antonomastically we speake though properly the Communion and the Eucharist were farre differing things it excluded onely the Catechumeni Energumeni persons excommunicate penitents c. and thereupon inferred That seeing they eject very many which fall not under any of those notions their practice is not conformable unto but disagrees from that of the ancient Church Hereunto instead of giving an answer they onely say that A smatterer in antiquity and whether they be of that lower forme or no the reader will by and by have trial may know the ancients rejected and suspended divers sorts of men under sundry considerations and were exceeding cautelous about admission to this ordinance no print whereof is to be seen in the common practice of our assemblies that is as true indeed of their assemblies as of any others where such orders and distinctions of men as are named may be fonud And then next they make us their catechumeni in describing to us what they were but whether themselves may not in some respect be penitents for such descriptions the reader shall judge and the care of the ancients to keep off ignorant and unfit shames the ordinary administrations in our Parishes where no such things are thought upon but All to the Sacrament is the plea and practice and then they take the boldness Nimium ne crede colori to say thus farre antiquity is for us rather than against us There is no good soule but is anhelant for the restitution and erecting of collapsed discipline and when other petitions may be frustrate yet as Philo comforted his countrymen that God would heare them when they could not be heard at Rome so we must take the better way to it by petitions preferred to Heaven Coelo restat iter coelo tentabimus ire But I must tell the Apologists that I doubt they are parcel-guilty of the obstructing of this work and they will finde somewhat thereof upon their proper score who have laid aside the right reynes and caught hold of the false and neglecting that discipline which is rooted in Scripture hath flourished in the purer times and brought forth sweet fruits where ever it was cultivated have bestowed and engaged themselves in the grafting and dressing of an exoticke plant which they have no warrant to set nor hope it should beare much or good fruit since it is too close and contracted not spreading its arms and braunches abroad and like the Clove tree ingrossing all moysture to it self makes all other to wither about it To graspe too much is the way to hold lesse and in this sense perchance the half may be more than the whole and to draw the wires too high is the way to crack the strings not to tune the instrument Est modus in rebus And as Cyneas told Pyrrhus he might have been more happy had he been content with Epirus and not attempted the conquest of Italy and Sicily so had the hedge of ancient Discipline been onely repayred and kept up and not raysed higher and set farther out beyond the old line and landmarks the seeds of peace and Godliness might have been more happily sowne and more prosperously flourished in the field of the Church which now lies lesse manured and more full of tares and noysome weeds Moribus antiquis res stat And a famous man saith Sir F. B. That women are sometimes more fortunate in their cures than learned Doctors because the one keep the old receipts punctually which the others magisterially take liberty to vary from and to alter the simples so the Physick of ancient Discipline in all probability might have cured our Distempers citò tutò jucundè whereas these new recipe's like the Paracelstan prescripts of Mercury sublimated and calcinate and such violent remedies in stead of proving Medicines grow to be maladies and to cure the disease kill the Patient Ut anteà vitiis ità nunc remediis laboramus I shall not press or insist upon that of Bullinger Potest in Ecclesia justa constitui disciplina Epist ad Beza ut interim coena Domini libera maneat omnibus illis qui se juxta Pauli doctrinam probarunt but with hands and feet asserting my self and joyning with and drawing others embracing and also propugning it I shall descend into that opinion that persons notoriously wicked and scandalous should be cast out And whereas in the close of the Section they say They wish they could see this done in the Assemblies about them which would beget better thoughts in them of some mens spirits than now they have but thereof they know the contrary I shall tell them that I wish they would consent that none but such as easily as I shall grant that all such ought to be ejected If some would have done it and want power to do it it is their affliction if any have the power and do not exercise it it is their fault but yet to hold Communion with those Assemblies where it is not done St. Augustine warrants them it shal be much to their praise and nothing to their prejudice and they have almost as much to plead for themselves as he had to justifie the Catholick Church against the Donatists And for my part I profess I had rather All to the Sacrament than any to Schisme and Separation And for their thoughts of others they are no mans Tribunal They that know their Witness is in Heaven with such it will be a small thing to be judged of them neither are they such Cato's as that it should be punishment enough to be condemned by them their teeth are not like the Tygers Claws wherewith whosoever is wounded can never be healed nor doth afterward prosper nor I hope are the Images or Conceptions which they form of others in their Thoughts and Intellects subject to the like fate which they say those Images are which are made by Witches where the